#literally all i asked for was to take the tests at a different isolated location where i don't have to worry about people wearing costumes

[imjustexistingtbh]

im so freaking pissed with the disability resource center at my school JESUS CHRIST

[lesser-mook]

(Chp1-50 )Mieruko-Chan is another example of what happens when author's lose touch with their own setup.

So this series just went full retard with the ecchi undetones and lost touch with what made the premise interesting in the first place lmfao, like i predicted.

This woulda been better as a one-shot, the pocky shit, the cutesy crap, Cringe overload, all these other unnecessary characters just taking up space, it's just so predictable what authors resort to when they run out of ideas.

What the fuck even is this shit?

Remember when this was about a chic coping, tormented that could see demons? Psychologically tested everyday? When this story was interesting? Me neither.

Tell me if you've heard this before:

Author starts with a character, a strong idea, a solid premise, and instead of expanding that to the furthest extent- and just end it.

They run out of steam with the FIRST thing they didn’t properly explore, 

They then pollute the narrative with a bunch of NPC’s to be filler and fill up dead air (usually female characters because that’s how you keep the story relevant, by attracting thirst stans, instead of just writing worth a fuck and focusing on coursing the story).

You want to ruin a story in record time? Add more female characters.

And the reason I say that is because of tropes, what purpose do more FEMALE characters in bulk serve than to just be a distraction? Male characters aren't used in the same way, not as much.

So when you fill the setting with waifu's the story's initial purpose is hijacked and becomes something completely different which is WHY Chapter 1 is literally a difference story from the shit we have now.

To call it a "development", something has to have organically changed, but nothing's changed. Mieruko is pretty much the same person, the same schtick with the demons, the same shit over and over again.

Now, if she wasn't scared anymore, and she lets the demons live with her or something or they hang out. That's a major development, because that's a stark difference from CHP1 but that hasn't happened.

What's different is the head count.

Adding more characters is not a development for the character or the situation, it's tone shift. That's why this doesn't work.

I wasn't even asking for anything close to The Conjuring or something, like ppl dying or anything.

But you essentially could've isolated the story to one room or her house and then have the same location change each chapter via surrealism to represent either the girls decent to madness or accepting her gift or curse. Something artistic, actual development.

Something like "1408"

All these creators have to do is just commit & end the story while it's in it's peak. But they all do the same exact thing when it gets traction, they get distracted and fall into trope city.

It literally became a waifu simulator, and the demons are glorified cameos, i shit you not.

The "horror" read like a dead meme, an inconvenience than something that the story took serious. It's a gimmick.

Waste of fucking time.

Nothing worse than betraying your own premise because you milked it or didn't know what to do next with the premise in the first place.

Then refuse to end it when the story was easier to handle because at least back then you had one character to manage, these guys put more on their plate & then just ride it out until creative exhaustion.  And it's never too late to course correct but only thing some of these individuals commit to is NOT committing to their own gd setup.

[hikarimiyanaga]

Request : Hi, I love and enjoy reading what you write thus I want to pose a request that the Dimitrescu Family with a powerful blood magic S/O who can control people's blood (u know, similar to Skarlet from MK)

Blood Magic, it's one of the powers that I want to experiment with, in terms of writing.

Also, the knowledge/information I have about this is because of Avatar (I haven't played Mortal Kombat in a long time, forgive my broke self.)

I also accidentally deleted the request so it's like this.

I'm really sorry. I hope you enjoy it!

Alcina Dimitrescu / Lady Dimitrescu

As a magician, you were pretty powerful, as a Mage of Blood Magik, though, you were undefeatable.

When you came into the village, the weird parasites in almost everyone's body bothered the fuck outta you. Because why the fuck??

It was just sitting there and eating there soul?? You knew the consequences on messing around with Parasites like those so you wanted to leave immediately but you stopped when you saw Alcina.

This very tall lady who towers over you just stopped the world but then you just realized that you were actually the only one who stopped moving. You quickly turned away but felt it. You turn to her again and see the parasite. It was so deep within her.

"Fuck." You cursed under your breath but then you feel it. Not connected to blood but the energy and mana itself.

"Fucking hell." You use your magic to peek into the Megamycete and grimace.

"Fucking shit." As if third time's the charm, Alcina hears your cursing and looks at you. You clenched your fist and was just glaring on the ground?? What a weirdo.

"Mother, is something wrong?" Bela asks, as she was the one who accompanied Alcina for her little stroll around the village.

"No. Just that woman." You feel eyes on you so you look up to see Alcina staring at you. You huff then turn away.

Being a magician, you aren't actually a people person, you've always hated it when people knew what you were.

Your foes were the only ones who ever actually knew that you practiced Blood Magik... not that they lived to actually tell anyone else.

You try to leave, you really did but all those people. That giant woman, all of it just-

"Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, nothing else." You turn back, trying to excuse your good nature.

You spend days trying different scrying spells, revelation spells and cure spells to see if any would work on the Megamycete and who the fuck is actually using it.

"That fucking bitch." Not only have you seen Alcina's, the villager's and the other lord's memories but Mother Miranda herself. "She wants a daughter? All this for a fucking hell-spawn?" You never did like children yourself, they were too innocent, too goddamn corruptible and too gullible.

You sigh and make your decision. She wants a daughter? You'll give her a daughter. You put on your mask and get your potions.

You'll cure this village of those fucking parasites and diseases or you'll die trying. Most probably cure them.

It took literally a whole day just to get the goddamn parasites of the villagers and Karl, who was the only one of the four lords who volunteered when he heard what you were doing.

The next was Donna, who cried when you actually gave Angie a body. Then Salvatore was next, when you promised to be his friend.

Alcina was the hardest. She thought that if she accepted then her daughters would die and disappear. But you assured her and even showed her that you wouldn't let that happen. She was amazed by the other lords. Donna isn't sporting her scar and Angie is actually alive and in a real body. Karl doesn't have his powers anymore but his intellect is still intact and Salvatore was just beaming.

"How did you-?" You chuckle.

"Blood Magik. It's something that only some practice and even fewer get the hang of. And me?" You ask as the air suddenly gets heavier and everything quiets down as you let out your mana. "I'm the Master of it." Everyone looks at you when just as fast as it came, the tension was gone. You hold out your hand to Alcina. "So would you trust me?" She accepts and cries in relief when she hugs Bela, Cassandra and Daniela in their normal bodies.

Meanwhile, you grimace in silence as your organs will take some time recovering their usual functions... what? Blood Magik needs sacrifices and you would rather do it yourself than exploit other people.

And then lastly, Mother Miranda. You were actually afraid that she would try to fight you and you, with your organs all fucked up and your only weapons are basically your potions, were nervous. But she accepted and as you hand over Eva safely to Mother Miranda, you pass out and everyone panics.

Karl was absolutely fucking scared shitless and befuddled by your physical condition?? How in hell are you even alive?

You wake up three days later and Karl just gave up on trying.

You laugh at him and wheeze.

"I"m basically kind of an immortal too." He just sighs.

The next few weeks were spent inside the Dimitrescu Castle because that was the most comfortable house. The Beneviento House would be good too but Karl just felt that you would like it more in the Dimitrescu Castle. You agree.

As you spend more time with Alcina, you both just slowly but surely fall for each other.

Bela Dimitrescu

Hunting made easier. Brought to her by you and your Blood Magik.

With just one goddamn snap of your fingers and bam, a barrel is full.

This makes spending time with each other, a lot easier and longer.

She would listen to you tell your stories and you love it when she gets excited about books and such.

One day, you finally learn how to create a human body. There was a lot of things to do and spells to practice but you were determined.

And you finally achieved it. It took long enough but then you sensed it.

Mother Miranda stole a baby from a caravan??

"What in hell is happening?" You mumble as you gaze at the village. Then there it was, and it hurt the fuck out of your mana when the people turned into monsters.

"What the fuck!? Shit!" You curse as you feel the megamycete mutate. "Oh hell no!" You shout and use your magik to locate the shit.

"Die, asswipe!" You completely destroy it without batting an eye and you can hear Mother Miranda's shouts of agony.

You pant as you can finally feel the mana in the air be lighter. You go to the castle and as expected, everyone is in a bad shape.

It took months but you got them all back to normal, even most of the villagers.

Bela kept crying as you hug her, finally together with her.

Cassandra Dimitrescu

You met Cassandra while you were surrounded by Karl's werewolves. Dead werewolves. You were slightly out of breath and then your eyes met.

Ethan was about to chase her but you stopped him because she was the same as them.

"Why'd you stop me then?" You shrug at your brother who glares at you.

"We should just get Rose back and not kill anyone anymore." Ethan raises an eyebrow at you.

"What? You literally just killed like a hundred of these werewolves." You use your magik to get the blood off yourself.

"They attacked. I only countered." Ethan sighs as you just walk away. He follows you and as you get to the castle. You can instantly feel their energy.

"What the fuck? They're made of it?" You mumble to yourself. And just as Bela was about to push you and Ethan down, you counter her and made sure to not let her flies disperse.

'Shit. This is hard.' You think to yourself as you dodge both Cassandra and Daniela attacking you.

"Y/N?"

"Rose is in that direction. Just wait for me there." Ethan nods and quickly goes the way you pointed. You use your magik and they all freeze. "You guys are so troublesome." You sigh. "But then again, I suppose all good things are." You use your magik again and locate Alcina.

You made a deal with the Dimitrescu Head. In exchange for normal bodies, she'll have to let you, Ethan and Rose's part go. Ethan's outburst when he realized what they did to his daughter didn't help but you used that.

"You know I'm powerful, right? Trust me, you don't want to test my brother."

You leave the Castle with Ethan, unharmed but with a deal made.

It was the same with the other three houses and before you knew it, your niece was restored and you had to make eight people back to normal... It was hard but when you wake up, feeling groggy and disoriented with all of those people and your family, you think to yourself that it was all worth it.

You rebuild the village with all of them and actually get closer with Cassandra. She admires your magik and you admire her art.

Before you even knew it, you had fallen for her and even though she hasn't realized it yet, she has fallen for you too.

Daniela Dimitrescu

Being a powerful magician meant most of the world are after you.

That was how you found the village. It was isolated and so it was perfect for you.

As you were strolling along the village, late into the night, when everyone is asleep, you feel a somewhat murderous intent and you smile to yourself. Either you were too careless or someone was really good at hiding their intent.

When something was about to hit you, you quickly activated your magik but flinched when it didn't affect them, so you quickly turned and jumped back.

The person who attacked you was surprised as well that you could react like that.

"What? You dodged??" You sigh.

"I dodged because you were trying to kill me! Who are you?" Daniela smiles at you.

"Daniela Dimitrescu, I live in that castle. And you?" Why did this woman?? can you even call her that suddenly- You sigh.

"I'm Y/N... and something is really wrong with this village of yours."

"What?"

Before you and Daniela even knew it, you were both knee-deep in everything, you even saw the Megamycete together.

And call Daniela, good-natured because by then, she wanted to stop Mother Miranda and help everyone. So help you did.

You just couldn't say no to her, could you?

By the time, everything was over, you were already half-dead and Daniela finally realized she was in love with you.

It was a good thing that you have potions.

A/N:

I'm sorry that I have been gone for weeks now. College started then something happened that made me not want to write at all.

But I'm back, although I may be a bit slow.

I'm so sorry. I also closed off my requests since I'll be focusing on college and completing the Loving You sequel which is 70% done by now.

Comments and thoughts are always welcome!

Thank you for reading!

If you can, please buy me a coffee.

[oh-boy-me]

Alright I'm curious about your take on movie night with the undateables, including Luke since this is non- romance. Snack preferences, what movies they choose, funny stories from movie night. Whatever strikes your fancy with the idea is good with me. Thanks in advance!

Sorry it took a little bit (´ω｀。) It’s my first time working with these characters so I wanted to give it my absolute best

I’m setting this up as individual movie nights so that each character can get the spotlight for a while; I hope that’s ok!  Also, a lot of them somehow ended up in a context of it being the first time you’d hung out one on one lol

Simeon:

It feels like Simeon spends just about all of his time with Luke and Solomon, while you spend just about all of yours with the brothers.  So, you decide to have a movie night to finally spend some time together without having to divide your attention.  Purgatory Hall is the obvious choice of location, since its residents are much more ready to leave you alone when asked.

This angel is a traditional kind of guy, as angels tend to be, so popcorn is the only snack idea that comes to mind.  Traditional doesn’t mean close-minded, though, so he’s more than willing to try out any snacks you bring along.  Actually, he encourages you to bring a bunch of snacks to try out together!  You can have a taste test while you watch the movies!

Simeon likes Hallmark movie-type movies a lot, mainly because they demand little emotional investment.  Movies like horror don’t scare him, but they do stress him out because he wants all the protagonists to get their happy ending!  Another benefit of Hallmark movies is that it’s fun to try to guess exactly what will happen, since they can be so predictable.

Of course, he doesn’t want to monopolize your movie lineup, so if there’s something you want to see he’s all for it.  If you want to go for something more thrilling, he’ll power through it like a champ, but you can see him visibly cringing at some points.

Simeon is lowkey a movie cuddler, but like in a way that still respects your personal space bubble.  He won’t spend the film with you in his arms or anything, but the entire couch is fair game.

Simeon apparently likes to talk during movies–he doesn’t mean to, but the thoughts kind of just come out.  He’s brutally honest about what he’s thinking, so if you’re down with it, talking about and roasting the movie as it’s happening is a load of fun.  “I don’t know MC, I don’t think this guy’s all that great either?  Sure maybe he isn’t completely ignoring her, but look, he obviously has commitment issues; at least her ex was just busy all the time.  Look, Mr. Lone Wolf’s beard is uneven.  Why does she want a man who wants to look rugged but can’t get it right?”

Simeon also will accidentally spoil any movie he’s already seen like this, so you’re best off watching films that are new to both of you.

He knew that you were a nice and fun person, but honestly he’s kind of taken aback by how good you are to be around.  Since the only human he’s usually around is Solomon, talking to one and not feeling like you need to second-guess everything you’re told is a new and welcome feeling.

Before you split for the night, he asks if you’d like to do something like this again.  As an angel, there’s a lot that he hasn’t experienced–a lot of food, a lot of activities, a lot of media–and you’re someone that he feels like he would be comfortable trying new things with.  You can expect lots of texts like, “Hello!  I hope you’re doing wellヾ(＾-＾)ノ Are you free tomorrow?”

Luke:

You probably decide to have a movie night after Luke ends up spending way longer than he expected to in the kitchen at the House of Lamentation.  On the condition that absolutely no demons are to join you two!  Ok maybe Beel and Levi are ok but absolutely no one else!  After a call to Simeon explaining that he isn’t coming back to Purgatory Hall tonight you guys are good to go.

He always brings baked goods when he comes over, plus whatever he was working on in the kitchen, so you’re more than covered!  The majority of it is things like cookies and fudge bark.  They’re easy snacks to grab a handful of.

Luke tries to insist that he wants to watch a movie with lots of violence or a horror film, or any other kind of movie that teenagers sneak into.  He’s doing it because he’s so frustrated with everyone calling him a kid when he’s centuries older than a human will ever be, stop making fun of him!!  For his sake and yours, you should tell him that you don’t want to watch that sort of movie, because if you let him get away with it he’ll get too freaked out in the first 20 minutes.

Most likely you’ll end up having a Disney marathon.  They’re so fun, and since the Celestial Realm is pretty isolated when it comes to cultural exchange, he’s only seen a couple, so you can show him your favorites!  Also, he’s not crying.  No, you saw that wrong.

He starts off on the other side of the couch, one again trying to be mature and shit, but that won’t last long.  Anyone who sees you huddled together like that will be punched in the gut with the sheer level of sibling energy y’all are radiating.  Lucifer almost doesn’t want to mock him.  Almost.

That thing where immediately after consuming a piece of media, you imagine yourself as part of that universe?  Luke loves to talk about that sort of thing.  “If I lived there, I’d have given Gaston a piece of my mind!”  “Ok but if I was a piece of furniture what do you think I’d be?  I can totally see you being a…”

“I think you’d be the footstool that acts like a dog, Luke.”  “Hey, Lucifer, you weren’t invited to our party!!”

You might (will) have to fend off a few nosy demon brothers to protect your demon-free movie lair.  Luke swears that next time you have to come over to Purgatory Hall, but he’s having way more fun here than he’s willing to admit.

He also learns that most of the brothers will listen to you without complaint.  He will definitely keep this in mind.

This kid angel has so much energy, how is he still awake after five movies?  You absolutely have to establish a bedtime because he literally will not go to bed until you do.

Solomon:

It’s quite rare for you to have a break from the seven avatars of attention hogging, so if you’re going to have a movie night, Purgatory Hall may as well be a godsend.

You may want to be careful about getting there, because if Asmo catches wind that you and Solomon are having a movie night without him, he’s going to show up unannounced and then refuse to leave.  Solomon can come pick you up if you need.  Just, he’ll be waiting a block away so Asmo can’t catch up.

Solomon is a “dinner and a show” kinda guy.  He will offer to make dinner.  Do not let him do this.  Either make it yourself or order takeout.

You’ll pretty easily agree on alternating who chooses the movie.  You get the first, he gets the second, you get the third, etc.  Definitely isn’t letting you choose first to lure you into a false sense of security about the DVD in his hand, what made you think that?

Solomon is the kind of person to lie about what sort of movie he’s put in.  “Solomon what is this supposed to be?”  “Oh, don’t worry about it.”  It’s gonna be a weird movie.  You just have to wait and see.

He is going to rip into your movie choices.  He liked how they worked with this, and that was impressive, but these bits?  Did they think they could get away with that?  What was the budget?  Rest assured, though, he expects you to do the same for him.  In fact, he’ll be quite disappointed if you don’t.

He prefers a setup on his bed rather than on the couch.  He’s also one of the ones who keeps to himself in terms of personal space, although that’s not to say that he isn’t relaxed.  Some might say he’s too relaxed, but that’s just who he is: too relaxed in any situation.  On the surface, at least.

As the only humans in the Devildom, some of the night is probably spent reminiscing on how different things tend to be here.  Solomon does feel bad that you in particular have had to make so many changes to your life and habits with no warning.  He has his magic to rely on, so he’s glad you have your reputation of “the human that made a pact with the student council” to keep demons from messing with you.

If you want, he’s happy to let you sleep over so that you don’t have to explain why you’re coming home so late.  He also encourages you to not say anything to your dorm mates.  Wouldn’t it be fun to make them wonder?  They’re always breathing down your neck, aren’t they?  Make them squirm a little bit.  You’re going to get a scolding for sneaking out regardless.  It’s incredibly cruel; you know they worry sick about you more than is called for.  Will you play along?  That’s up to you.  I advise you not to.

Like Simeon felt like he needed to second-guess everything around a bunch of demons and Solomon, Solomon sometimes feels like he needs to keep himself guarded around a bunch of demons and two literal angels.  You, however, are a human.  You have common ground, and Solomon can see how your vulnerability here translates into strength.  He’s not quite ready to admit it but, your ability to survive on character and not power is inspiring to him.  Shortly before you go home/to sleep, he mentions something about himself, and for once it seems like he’s being honest.

Barbatos:

You have the movie night at the House of Lamentation, under Lucifer’s promise that he’d keep everyone else busy.  It’s Barbatos’ first day off in 325 years, and he doesn’t want to take any chances of Diavolo forgetting that fact and giving him an order.

It may come as a surprise, but Barbatos wants nothing more than to order a pizza.  If he managed to get enough time off to have a movie night with you, he doesn’t want to have to think about preparing food.  A single night where he can just hang out and eat less than perfectly prepared cuisine is exactly what he needs to unwind.

Out of habit, he insists that whatever you want to watch is fine.  If you remind him that this is just as much for him as it is for you, he’ll suggest you look up what new psychological thrillers are trending.  Whenever a scary scene is playing on the screen, there’s the tiniest smile gracing his face the whole time.  It’s a little disconcerting, but something tells you that you shouldn’t bring it up.

If you do bring it up against all better judgement, though, he’ll explain that the villain in the film is being so messy.  Given the circumstances, it’d be better for him to do this or that.

“Don’t ask how I know all of this.  I’m just saying, if you find yourself with a body to dispose of, alive or not, you know who to call.”

Time spent with an off-duty Barbatos grows more relaxed as the night progresses.  You split the sofa 50/50, and over time you can see his posture relax from stiff and straight to leaning against the arm with his feet up.

Oh, yes, he’s also brought along a nice bottle of wine to share.  He made sure to get something that should affect demons and humans equally, of course.  If he’s going to get inebriated, you’re going down with him.

Turns out, working for the Demon Prince for all eternity gives you a few grievances.  Also turns out that the Demon Prince’s butler becomes quite loose lipped and downright snarky when he’s had enough to drink.  “‘Which flavor do you think Lucifer would like best?’  I don’t know, My Lord, might I suggest you ask him yourself?  No, no, I hear you laughing, MC!  This happens every time!”

There’s still a movie playing, but why would you watch a movie when Diavolo’s butler is such a gossip?  You definitely know things you shouldn’t by the time the night is over, but you swear an oath of secrecy.  And, although he regrets how liberal he was with his stories the next day, it does feel nice to have some of that off his chest.

And, well, he’s already gone this far, so he hopes you aren’t too surprised when you receive a text from him a week later: “Ok SO.”

Diavolo:

You guys decide to do the movie night at the palace, mainly to avoid Lucifer.  Diavolo wants to get to know you better, and he knows that if Lucifer is around he’ll end up making you the third-wheel.

Barbatos is going to be around, so Diavolo leaves it up to you whether you want to make it a party of three.  (Barbatos is still in on-duty mode, of course, so his time here is much less relaxed than in his solo scenario.)

Diavolo’s read about movie nights in Youthful Fun 101, and he wants to try out the whole snack list.  Popcorn, pizza rolls, sodas, you name it, he’s got mountains of it.

If you suggest also making ice cream sundaes, he’ll be the happiest demon in the entire Devildom.  It seems that the esteemed Demon Prince really loves chocolate sauce.

Really really wants to watch your favorite movie.  What sort of Devildom host would he be if he didn’t get to understand the Human World from his guest’s perspective?  Whether it’s something like Gone with the Wind or something like Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2, he’s enthralled.  So this is Human World cinema!  There’s something so imaginative about it, even in the driest moments!

After your favorite, he’s got a checklist of iconic movies to get under his belt.  Not all of them end up holding your attention, and you develop a voting system–after the first 15 minutes, you hold a vote on whether to keep the movie going or to move on.  Since there’s only two of you, only one of you needs to like the movie to keep it going, so you give yourselves one immediate veto each.

Diavolo uses his veto on the first movie he wasn’t super into, and you have to keep reminding him that there’s no secret second veto that he can use.  Cut him some slack, this level of democracy is unfamiliar to the future Demon King.  He does end up really liking some of the movies he tried to avoid, so he learns to chill pretty quickly.

Also insists on watching the movies in a massive blanket fort.  He’s not a movie cuddler, per se, but he is an emotional movie watcher, so you can expect him to grab your arm during an especially sweet or sad scene.

You’re going to have to clarify what’s realistic and what isn’t sometimes.  No, that’s not a real animal.  Yes, that event really happened.  That may or may not be true, we aren’t sure.  Diavolo please this is a conspiracy theory.

If you thought that this wouldn’t end up in a sleepover, I don’t know what to tell you.  Maybe you just tried to watch way too many movies and passed out in the fort.  Maybe you tried to call it quits and then he gave you big puppy dog eyes until you agreed to have a slumber party.

Side note, but Lucifer is still recovering from seeing Diavolo’s car appear unannounced at the House of Lamentation and then being told that it’s actually here to pick you up and that he absolutely can’t come along.  Has he been replaced?

Masterlist

[mooifyourecows]

hi moo! it’s been a minuet since you’ve moved but i was just wondering how everything is going? i hope you’re enjoying your new home :)

that being said- i just moved across the country & have been struggling with isolation and anxiety whenever I leave my house. got any advice for dealing with a huge move? tbh you’ve already helped me a lot just by being a comforting online presence! thank u, love u mooooo

Everything is going pretty well over here! I'm really enjoying the new place 🥰

First off, congrats on your big move! Moving across the country can be a super scary and stressful thing but it's also very freeing and gives you the opportunity to expand your mind 🧠🌈

I know that when I was moving, I was terrified. I am not great with change, and the loss of familiarity was something that I was worried about. Not being familiar with the streets and the stores and which exit I should take if I want to get here or there... that stuff was really scary for me.

Isolation and social anxiety have become real problems for a lot of people over the past two years and I'm sorry that you're struggling with them too! Just remember that millions of people are probably feeling exactly the way you do right now! With Covid and quarantine and literally all the other Bad Stuff going on in the world today, you're totally justified in how you're feeling, so don't feel embarrassed or ashamed or alone.

Everyone is different and so I'm not sure if any advice I give you will be very helpful but I'll try anyway!

So, for me, who has suffered from social anxiety for their whole life, it's all about the baby steps, baby.

Do NOT force yourself to do anything big! Start small! If you want to start training yourself to go out and about again, then begin with something easy! One morning, get up and go do something very tiny. Like go get coffee! or some breakfast! Even if it's just the drive-thru, it's still a step up from staying home.

Practice with small things for a little bit until they don't feel so scary anymore. Then try something a little more challenging. Go to a thrift store and wander around looking at the weird tchotchkes. You don't have to buy anything or talk to anybody, but just spend a little bit of time in unfamiliar places, starting with nice, comfortable, quiet locations where you are in control of how long you are there and who you come into contact with.

Once you start getting used to these things, you can start doing things that are a little more challenging! Things like going to the DMV or getting a haircut or seeing a movie at the theater.

Don't try to just jump into something big from the start, okay? If you do that and things don't go super well, it might just make your anxiety worse.

I feel like people always forget that the brain needs exercise. And you gotta do some muscle training from time to time. Ask any gym rat and they'll tell you that you gotta work your way up to the heavy lifting. Start by doing the exercise without any weight so you get used to the motion, and then slowly start adding weight. You can test your limit, find out what you can handle right now, and then practice that weight. It'll be slow at first, and it'll feel like you're not making any progress. But eventually, that weight will begin to feel almost TOO easy. It won't be challenging enough. Your muscles won't strain to lift it. So you add a little more. Then you practice that until it's easy, add more, rinse, repeat, next thing you know, you look like Dwayne The Rock Johnson and you're basically a PRO at liftin.

Except in this case it's your brain that gets ripped

Celebrate little victories! Every time you do something scary that you TOTALLY don't want to do... reward yourself! You deserve it! Get you some ice cream or something that you want like a new videogame or a cute stuffed animal or some fake flowers to staple to the wall or a new book or somethin like that! And be really nice to yourself and actually say out loud, "That was scary but I was very brave and cool and sexy about it"

Cut yourself some slack! You not only just experienced a big life change, but you are also still in the middle of a pretty wild and dangerous world pandemic and overall nightmare. Everyone deserves to take it slow to get back into the swing of things. I mean, the pandemic isn't even over, despite how everyone is acting lately 😑 If you spend more time in your home than normal, then that's totally understandable and you don't need to defend that choice. Like, hey, I wish everybody had anxiety about leaving their home because the pandemic would have ended last August if so.

It also helps to remember that your encounters with random people in stores or on the street is SO fleeting. Think about the last time you went somewhere, like a grocery store or other place where there were a bunch of strangers milling about. Now try to recall the people you saw. What they were wearing. What their hair looked like. What they said to the cashier when you were waiting in line behind them.

Betcha can't think of much, can you? That's because nobody is overly concerned about what's going on with random strangers they pass by in the soup aisle. If you're not remembering them, judging all their weird habits or sense of style, then nobody is remembering or judging you. And even if they are... that's their business and there's no point worrying about other people's business when you got your own, right?

Though if I were to make a guess... if people are remembering you from the two seconds you shared twenty feet of space in the grocery store, it's because they were thinking, "Wow that person is so cute and cool and amazing"

I know that just saying this is super easy but actually doing it is really difficult and terrifying. Be kind to yourself. You deserve some patience and care 🥰 Don't ever punish yourself for not being able to do something. Make sure you're taking care of your mind and your body. Take long bubble baths or do a skincare routine or get all clean and snuggled up in a blanket on the couch to watch your favorite show.

Reach out to family or friends! Even if you can't see them face to face, you can send them some texts. Physical isolation is one thing but mentally and emotionally isolating yourself even from online friends can really put a strain on your mental health. So please be sure to not just drop off the face of the world! Check in with others and let them know how you're feeling! Just speaking your worries out loud actually takes a lot of weight off of your shoulders. I vocalize almost all my emotions these days and it's been kinda therapeutic.

Be kind to your body and your mind. Shit is HARD right now and there's nothing to be ashamed about, I promise. Remember that any progress, even tiny itty bitty little baby steps, is still PROGRESS and that's GREAT and AMAZING and you should be REWARDED. But not making progress doesn't mean punishment. It just means you're on pause and will continue moving forward when you are good and ready 🥰

Stay safe and healthy and keep in mind that people are so much kinder than the internet and all its Karen videos make them seem.

Love you Babe, keep on keepin' on, I'm rooting for you! 🖤🌈

[rainy-day-gracie]

Old Friends 5

Chapter 5!! Sorry I was busy today and didn’t get a chance to post it

Spencer Reid x Reader

Spencer helps Reader deal with nightmares. 

Chapter 5:

Coffee was an everyday thing for me. But recently it has become a necessity.

The nightmares started after the case in my hometown, and I’ve barely slept since. Not for lack of trying. 

I had my second cup of coffee before noon, and Morgan gave me a face. “Did the pretty girl get laid last night?”

I laughed bitterly. “Far from it I’m afraid.”

“Are you sure? Those bags under your eyes tell a different story.” Morgan continued to pester me all until I sat at my desk. He just chuckled and walked away. 

JJ came by to drop a stack of files on my desk, and she gave me a look too. “Did you get laid last night?” 

I dropped the pen I was holding. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Did you?” JJ persisted. 

“Sorry to disappoint you JJ, but no I didn’t.” I faked a sad face. “Just a late night, that’s all.” Or a couple weeks worth of late nights. 

In the desk next to me, Spencer gave me a look but didn’t say anything. 

Hotch suddenly ran out of his office and knocked on Rossi’s door. They spoke a few words, and turned to look at us. “Everyone, grab your go bag. We’ll brief on the jet. Wheels up in 10.”

---

“Holden Baxley, a friend of mine from the Boston field office called me an hour ago. He couldn’t go into details, but long story short, a suicide bomber that hasn’t been identified walked into Boston PD with a bomb strapped to his chest.”

“Oh god,” JJ breathed. “What happened then?” 

Hotch closed his eyes. “The bomb went off, and half of the Boston police department blew out with it.”

The jet was silent. 

“How many casualties?” Morgan asked. 

“17 and counting, 23 wounded.”

“Do they think it’s a one time explosion?” I could only imagine the kind of panic this would have in the city. 

“No, because a note was left at the press two minutes before the bomber even walked into the station. The note read ‘God’s wrath will be unleashed on all who disrespect the word of the Lord.’”

“Old Testament much?” Rossi looked around the jet. “The fact that the news station is across town from Boston PD makes me think there’s more than one or two unsubs.”

“Guys,” I started. “What if it’s a cult turned terrorist cell?” 

“That is possible, especially if the leader is a psychopath that suffered a loss and blames Boston PD.” Spencer furrowed his eyebrows. “The leader could’ve involved others that feel the same and want revenge against law enforcement. By taking on the persona of the wrath of God, they likely aren’t going to stop until they wreak ultimate havoc on the city in the name of religion.” 

“We have to find them before they strike again. YLN, Reid, go to the explosion site. Prentiss, Morgan, set up in the Boston Field Office. JJ, Rossi and I will interview families of the victims and witnesses of the explosion. Try and work quickly. Something tells me we don’t have a lot of time.” Hotch didn’t miss a beat. “The wrath of God is about to be unleashed upon Boston.” 

---

The entire right side of Boston PD was blown out into the street beside it. Crowds of citizens and TV news channels flooded the streets, barely being kept back by the lines of yellow tape. 

“Spencer, how are we going to respond to the press?” I asked as we pulled up in the SUV. 

“No comment, for now.” 

As soon as we stepped out of the SUV, reporters and citizens alike screamed and shouted questions. 

“Is this the work of terrorists?” “How do we know if we’re safe?” “What do you have to say to the victim’s families?” 

“No comment.” Spencer and I held up our badges and ducked under the yellow tape. 

“The psycho that blew the place up was blown to smithereens as well. We didn’t find any kind of ID on him.” A Boston FBI agent approached us. “Larry Dillman, Boston FBI.” He offered his hand to Spencer and I took it before it got too awkward when Spencer didn’t shake it. 

“I’m SSA Dr. YFN YLN and this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. Where was the approximate location of the original blast?” 

Dillman walked us through what was left of the front door. “About right there, when he walked into the main hall. It was noon, so there were more people busying about. That’s partly why the body count is so high.” 

“Do you know if he said anything when he walked in?” Spencer asked. 

“Witnesses have said he just yelled ‘Matthew 10:34’ and boom.” 

“‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.’” Spencer recited. 

“He is literally using the Bible as his scapegoat to commit terrorism.” I looked up at Spencer. “We need to get to the station.”

---

After checking out the explosion we hurried back to the station. “Hotch!” I called out. “He’s using God as a scapegoat to terrorize Boston. The massive rage confirms that they aren’t going to stop.”

“Excuse me, Agents,” a woman stood up from her desk. “There’s someone on line 1 wanting to talk to an agent from the BAU.”

Hotch pulled Rossi up to the phone and gestured to Morgan. “Call Garcia to track the call.”

Rossi slowly picked up the phone. “Hello, this is SSA David Rossi with the FBI. To whom am I speaking?”

“Is it too pretentious to say your worst nightmare?” The voice said. Obviously using a voice modulator, classic paranoid narcissist by building himself up to be some almighty being. 

“Are you responsible for the attack on Boston PD?” Rossi asked. “Michael Devons incited massive panic with a small IED.” 

“Boston PD? You mean that building full of liars, cheaters, and sinners?”

“God speaks of forgiveness, but you seem to carry a lot of hatred.” Rossi looked over all of us. “Are your friends listening to this phone call as well?”

The caller was silent for a while. “You may think we see this as a game, but we don’t. God plays no games with the people he creates.” The line goes dead and I release a breath I’ve been holding since he called. 

“Garcia couldn’t track it, probably using a disposable cell phone,” Morgan pointed to the crime scene photos. “These guys are smart, using voice modulators, ensuring their members die for the cause, so why would they call us for no apparent reason?”

“A game...” I mumbled. “You make think we see this as a game...”

“What is it, YLN?” Prentiss asked me. 

    I gasped. “What if they’re testing us? That’s why they called, to see if we could figure out their next target... Fenway Park. Are there any baseball games today?” 

“Slow down, brainy lady,” Morgan said slowly. “What are you thinking?”

“He said, ‘You may think we see this as a game, but we don’t.’ What if he wasn’t talking about the bombings but the baseball games? That’s all about choosing sides and that’s something God forbids. They would see every person in that stadium as a sinner.” I looked Hotch in the eyes. “The next target is Fenway Park, it has to be.” 

Hotch pointed to the head of the field office. “Are there any baseball games at Fenway Park today?”

“Yeah, Sox versus Yankees.”

“We gotta get over there,” Hotch said and we all ran out the doors. “Swat will meet us there.” 

---

“We can’t evacuate the stadium, that would set the bomber off early if they see people leaving,” Hotch explained as we got on our tactical gear. “Search the stadium, most likely they’re under the stands.” 

“What do we do if we find the bomber?” JJ asked. 

“Try to talk them down, if you can’t... shoot straight. Let’s go.” 

The nearly empty corridors of Fenway Park were eerie as I walked by myself. Every now and then I would hear noise from the fans, and the smell of cheap nachos filled the air. 

As I approached concessions, I looked at all the people in line. A young couple giggling at each other, a man probably in his 70s, a pregnant woman pushing a stroller. 

And an isolated young man with a giant overcoat. As soon as he caught sight of me, the guy bolted. 

“FBI! Out of the way!” I yelled. “Stop right there and put your hands up!”

To my surprise, he actually stopped. 

“Put your hands on your head and turn around slowly. Everyone else, clear out of here.”

The man turned around, a smug smile on his face. “Romans 1:18!”

He started to unbuckle his overcoat. 

He didn’t get the chance when I shot him between the eyes. 

I took a shaky breath and called into my comm. “Suspect is down. Get bomb squad in here to take care of the explosive. Fifty feet away from concessions.”

The smile was still frozen on his face, even though half of his head was blown out.

---

I was quiet on the jet ride back. He wasn’t my first kill, but my first one with the BAU, and that was sure to ensue even more sleepless nights. 

Spencer sat across from me. “You were even more impressive than usual with this case. Somehow you always raise the bar.” 

“No kidding,” Rossi said in passing. 

“So are you going to tell me about this nightmare you’re having or...” Spencer gave me a look. “You know talking about it will help.”

“Spencer-“

“Talk to me.” I could see in his eyes he wasn’t going to give up. 

“Well, it starts out with me sitting with a teenage girl. She’s a patient, and she was talking about how her teacher was... messing with her. Slowly she disappears, and the room transforms into... my mom’s bedroom. She’s standing there, yelling at me. Except the louder she yells, the more blood comes out of her mouth.” I shake my head. “I try and help her, but no sound would come out. She wraps her hand around my throat, screaming at me and spitting blood in my face. I wake up before she brings her fist down on my jaw. 

Spencer was quiet for a while. “...Could it be the apartment making the nightmares worse? Sometimes a change of scenery helps distract the subconscious from the nightmares.” Spencer twirled a pen through his fingers, and his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Maybe, whenever I’m lying awake in my bed I’m looking around my bedroom instead of relaxing.”

Spencer thought about something. “Well... you could stay the night at my place if you want. I could sleep on the couch and you can take the bed.” I could see his nervousness in his darting eyes and twitchy hands. 

I smile. “Spencer, that’s really nice but you don’t have to-“

“No, no. I want to help.” And I could tell he was serious. 

“Okay sure, but on one condition- I take the couch and you sleep in your own bed.” 

Spencer huffed a laugh. “Fine.”

---

The plane landed at 10:12 at night. Not super late, but after this case, everyone wanted to go to bed. 

Hotch had made an announcement on the jet that we could take a half day tomorrow and come in at noon. 

“Can’t wait to sleep in until 11:45,” Morgan joked on the elevator.

Since Spencer takes the train to work everyday, he hopped in my passengers seat and immediately made a face. 

“What is it?” I asked, confused. 

“Your car is disgusting,” Spencer said. “I’ve seen shantytowns cleaner than this.”

“Oh, shut up Mr. Cleanliness. A couple food wrappers does not make me a slob,” I lightly punched him in the shoulder as I pulled out of the parking garage. 

“It’s more than a couple,” Spencer muttered. 

“I’ve starting to regret agreeing to a sleepover, pretty boy.” 

---

Sitting on Spencer’s couch eating popcorn and watching Doctor Who felt so much like college that I completely forgot about the fact that I could’ve been blown up today. 

We were still watching Doctor Who on the couch when my eyes fell heavy. Slowly, my head rested on Spencer’s shoulder and started to doze off. 

I was barely awake when I felt Spencer press a light kiss on my forehead. 

His lips felt the same as they did in college. 

[scythian-andromache]

homeward bound

a The Old Guard fic Relationship: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Rating: T (referenced canon-typical violence) Summary: Nicolò di Genova came from Genova before Italy even existed, but it's been a long time since Nicky went home. (AKA: the immortals have a complicated relationship with memory and nostalgia, but sometimes home is intangible.)

also on [AO3]

***

Places, they hold memories in them. Make them tangible again, like a smell that transports you back to your childhood classroom, or a song that sends shivers up your spine and makes you feel just as you did when you first heard it in a café twenty years ago. Places are vessels for the past, even as physical landscapes shape the future. They hold the imprints of the things that happened there, for better or worse; places have power.

*

"Joe, Nicky, I need you to meet this contact." Andy's voice is crisp and collected as she details the next mission, passing Joe a scrap of paper with an address. "They have a dossier we need, and we can't leave an electronic trail. In person only, this time."

Even with Copley covering their asses, erasing any digital footprint he finds, Andy's been extra careful of late, making sure there's no chance that anyone learns who they are again, and honestly, Nicky appreciates it. He doesn't need anyone else experimenting on Joe. It's not the first time they've been captured and it probably won't be the last, but being used as lab rats has left a certain bitter pang of fear in the back of Nicky's brain.

"Nile will go with me," Andy continues, unaware of the little detour his brain took him on. "We'll rendezvous in three days, at the safe house outside of Marseille." She pauses. "You get out clean, you hear me? I'd better see both your ugly mugs in front of me on Thursday."  

"Yes, boss," says Joe, and Nicky manages a small smile, because this is one of the little ways Andy says I love you.

"Right, let's move out."

It's only a matter of grabbing their go-bags, really, but Nicky takes a moment to pull Nile aside and give her a quick hug.

"You take care of yourself, cucciola," he whispers. "Look out for Andy, but look out for yourself too, capisci?"

Nile hugs him fiercely, tightly, and then lets go quickly, straightening back into the stiff military stance that seems to be her fallback in situations like these when she's tamping down her emotions. "See you in three days, and not a second later."

He nods, and then they're going their separate ways, Andy and Nile screeching away in Andy's beat up Citroën.

"You want to do the honors, Habibi?" Joe asks, sliding into the driver's seat and passing the little scrap of neatly folded paper that contains their mission to Nicky.

Of course, Joe immediately complicates Nicky's efforts by reaching out to lace their fingers together over the gear shift, distracting him so that he fumbles with the paper. Nicky laughs, his task all the more difficult now with just one hand, and Joe lifts their twined hands to give Nicky's a kiss. Nicky shakes his head fondly at Joe's antics—he starts every road trip this way—and finally looks down to read who they're headed to meet.

The corners of Nicky's vision blur a little, and he feels himself go lightheaded. He squeezes Joe's hand tightly—too tightly—as he stares uncomprehendingly at what's inked there. Even though there is a name and the street number of a residence off of a piazza, all he can see is the last line, written in Copley's tight script: Genoa, Italy.

"Yusuf," he breathes. "Yusuf, look."

*

Genova, once upon a time, was home. Long before "Italy" existed, long before he became an immortal, the bustling streets of the merchant city were as familiar to Nicky as the freckle on his wrist or the soft way his mother smiled at her children when they did something clever. There was the market, where people shouted over each other about wares and prices, and the fountain where, at age nine, he'd tested his balance walking the lip of it and failed miserably, falling and scraping his knee, and the little twisting alley behind his home where, at thirteen on a dare, he'd chastely kissed Francesca, the baker's daughter, and hated it. He knew to always walk on the left side of the street that passed along his house, because the right side had loose cobblestones that were liable to trip you, and he knew that on Fridays, the shipbuilders took to the taverns, filling them with spirited—if drunken—singing. He fit there, and life was uncomplicated, or at least as uncomplicated as life ever gets.

*

Nicky hasn't been to Genova in more than nine hundred years.

They're immortals with adequate resources and his name is literally di Genova, so it might seem strange. Such a tangible connection to a location, one that was so close to his heart, and he hasn't gone in centuries, not even when he and Joe lived in Venitzia during the Renaissance, and not when they went to Firenze for the weekend a few years ago.

Because sometimes you can't go back.

He tried, once, in the early years after he first became immortal. He thought it might be a balm, a comfort. Something familiar to ease the profound sense of loss that had opened a cavern in his chest. A touchstone to who he'd been before the world turned upside down.

Instead, it felt like walking through a ghost town. It felt like existing within a refracted re-creation of his memories. Everything so hauntingly familiar, and yet slightly out of place. The city had grown, re-bricked, a new plaza where there should have been a house, and rows of shops and residences that hadn't existed before. The market went on cheerfully in the same spot, but the vendors were new, the wares organized differently. He'd walked past his childhood home to find the street busier, the stucco faded and cracked.

On his walk through the city, he'd sworn he saw his sister at the market, her face staring back at him, and then the woman had cursed him out for looking at her too long, and he'd realized the pitch of her voice was wrong, the curve of her eyebrow not quite right. Maybe, possibly, the old woman she was with when she left the market—hair greying and hunched figure and deep wrinkles around her dark eyes—had been his sister, or maybe it was just wishful thinking. Maybe she'd already been dead a generation. Maybe Nicky didn't actually remember her face, already so faded in his memory, and was so desperate to remember that he'd opened himself up to the power of suggestion.

It was only after the incident in the market that he realized: time had been grinding away at this once-familiar place, leaving no comfort to be had.

Nicky left the next morning, and never tried to return to Genova again.

*

It wasn't that he'd avoided it specifically; there'd just never been a reason to go before, and even though they'd visited Joe's hometown once, he'd never pushed to see Nicky's, sensing his reluctance.

After all, Genova isn't the only place Nicky or Joe have a difficult relationship with; perhaps it's the most salient, but they're immortal, and places tend to carry tangible reminders of the lives they've led, and the people they'll never get back.

Memories weigh down other cities too. Constantinople—er, Istanbul now, Nicky supposes—is another one, the streets somehow both foreign and nostalgic after the ten years they lived there. Echoes of friends' laughs ring out in quiet corners of the city, and the fragrant odor of spices—the bite of cumin and the wafting caress of mint—in the grand bazaar smells like hot nights drinking coffee with excitable scholars, passionately discussing philosophy until all hours, when their eyelids got leaden but their hearts were full. And strolling along the picturesque canals in Bruges never fails to turn up pangs of the indescribable loss of Quỳnh, and the memory of a broken Andy, sobbing that she'd lost her. (It's the only time Nicky can remember seeing Andy cry in the thousand years since they'd met.)

It happens with every place they've ever lived to some degree, wholly unavoidable, but Genova holds a strange and intimate attachment—something intrinsic—that these other places do not have.

It's true that sometimes you can never go back, but it's also true that you cannot escape your past entirely, either.

And now they have a mission there.

*

They pull into Genova in the late afternoon, as the golden hour rays are illuminating the city. (There's really nothing quite like the Italian sun, especially as it sets the port and the seaside on fire.) It's more colorful than he remembers, except for the water: that's as vibrant as it's always been.

They're making contact with their source in the morning, which means that tonight is mostly about laying low and not getting killed, two things that they should frankly be better at than they are.

Joe finds them an unremarkable pensione on a quiet side street, and books them a room for the night, paid in cash and using aliases. Untraceable.

Their route to finding a place to eat takes them past a view of the ocean and Nicky has to pause. Everything else has changed, but the ocean hasn't, not really. It's from a slightly different angle, but the same view he grew up with, familiar in a reflexive way, like muscle memory, something he'd forgotten he knew.

Over dinner, they talk about the mission, and speculate about how Nile and Andy are doing ("I bet you Andy's already done something stupid and Nile's had to take a bullet for her," Joe says, and Nicky replies, "Do you think I'm stupid? I know Andy too well; there's no way I'm taking that bet.") and revisit their long-standing debate about whether exiling Booker when his betrayal was borne of loneliness and isolation is really the right move.

The beautiful thing about being with someone so very long is that they know you, inside and out. Joe doesn't need to ask about how Nicky's dealing with being back in Genova, because he can see it written out across his face, detailed in the tension in his shoulders. (They'd talked a little bit about it in the car, and will probably talk about it some more later, but for now Joe won't press, and Nicky loves him all the more for it.)

On the way back to the pensione they take a different route, and stumble across a little plaza that Nicky recognizes. He squeezes Joe's hand and they continue, but if he looks hard enough, he fancies he can see the shade of his younger self scampering across the cobblestones.

How foolish, really.

*

In the deepest depths of the night, Nicky, restless, slips out of bed, sneaks out of the pensione.

The city has been painted over, rebuilt a dozen different times and pieced together like a patchwork quilt, but underneath it all are the bones of the city Nicky once knew. His feet carry him through the warren of streets, and he finds himself, suddenly, standing in front of his childhood home.

He stares at the building where he was born. Where he begrudgingly learned his first shaky letters. Where he sliced open his palm, trying to whittle a bit of wood like his older brother. Where he and his sister Catalina, closest in age of all of them, swapped whispered secrets and fantastical stories of their own creation. Where he dreamed of changing the world with the misguided vision of an insulated youth. Where he ate, slept, and laughed for the first fourteen years of his very long life.

It's a drop in the bucket, now, and looking at it this time doesn't produce the same emotions as it did so long ago. Instead, he just feels an emptiness, a sense of detachment. It is someone else's home now. It has not been his in any meaningful way for a long time, a transfer of ownership occurring with every brick that was replaced, every layer of paint splattered on. A blessing and a curse in equal measure, he supposes, to feel this way.

He's been there a few minutes—reality almost lost to him as he tries to remember exactly how his mother used to quirk her eyebrows at them and finds he can't—when he suddenly realizes that he's not alone, a thousand years of dangerous situations training him to notice and believe the prickling feeling on the back of his neck.

But when he turns, he just sees Joe, hands in his pockets, watching him intently. His face is thrown half in relief by a nearby streetlamp, and he blinks for a moment, marveling at how beautiful his Yusuf is, how entirely dear.

Joe doesn't ask what Nicky is doing here, or why he's not getting the sleep they need before the drop tomorrow. He simply joins him, and they stand there in quiet contemplation for a few moments, just being together in front of this unspectacular building.

Finally, "Is this where Nicolotto grew up?"

Nicky finds himself nodding. "It was not much back then, either. Less, even."

Joe studies the place again in the flickering light of the streetlamps.

"It should be a museum," he declares, and Nicky scoffs.

"Every house in Italy could be in a museum if you think having old bones warrants a spot there."

"Ah, but not every house was your house," says Joe.

"The person who came from here was no good," mutters Nicky. For all the shiny, fleeting memories of childhood, he wasn't: he was prejudiced, closed minded, convinced of his own superiority, taught to hate instead of love. It took dying several times—several dozen—to figure that out.

"None of that, ya Habib albi. That person needed to live," says Joe, fiercely, "needed to die, needed to be, so that I could meet you." Nicky ducks his head, but Joe's only just beginning, and he continues emphatically, "His existence is a miracle I praise every day, because every moment in time had to happen exactly as it did so that I would meet you, so that we might exist together. If this is the house where you grew up, I praise the blocks that made it stand, so that you might sleep each night within it; I praise the stones on the ground that absorbed your footfalls; I praise the herbs that grew on the windowsill and sweetened the air of each breath you drew in. This place, flawed though it may be, brought me you."

Yusuf's poeticism is nothing new, but it still sneaks up on him every time. "Elegant bastard," Nicky curses, several tears tracking down his cheeks, and reaches out, cups Joe's face tenderly and pulls him in for a desperate kiss.

A millennia and his lips are still tingling, a millennia and Joe's kiss is still tender, life-affirming, a question and an answer and a beautiful, delicate promise all at once.

Even when they break apart, they remain in each other's space, foreheads pressed together, breath mingling, hands resting on cheeks.

It's not as though they've been apart for any vast stretch of time recently, but Nicky still takes a moment to relish in Joe's presence, ground himself in the warmth of Joe's skin under his fingertips. It's on a deep inhale as he clears his mind that the idea comes to him, and he flicks his eyes open to meet Joe's.

"Yallah ya hayati."

"Ila al-funduq?"

"Not yet," Nicky says. He links his arm through Joe's. "I want to show you something else, first."

Nicky lets his feet guide them, and together they walk the remnants of the neighborhood of Nicky's youth, as he tells Joe about the merchant who lived in that house, and the shop on this street that sometimes gave the neighborhood children sweets when the owner was in a good mood. He allows himself to reminisce, finally stops holding back the wave of wistfulness and sadness and displacement and fondness—complicated and messy—as he narrates these long gone trivial bits of his childhood to Joe. The eastern sky is smudged with a little pink by the time the arrive back at the pensione for a few quick hours of sleep.  

*

It is easier the next morning, a weight off his chest, the itchy eyes that come with a lack of sleep a small price to pay. When they go to collect the dossier, they trod part of a route he thinks that he used to take to go to the butcher's shop for his mother.

"I got into a fight in that alley," he says aloud, as the memory springs to life for the first time in centuries, triggered by the curve of the stone at the corner of the building.

"My Nicolò?" asks Joe dramatically, pretending to be shocked. "In a fight?"

"It wasn't much of one," says Nicky, the ghost of a smile on his face. He can't remember what the fight was about, anymore, or the name of the boy he got in a scuffle with. Dario? Dante? It doesn't come to him. Just the kiss of pain that came with his split lip and bruised cheekbone.

"Of course it wasn't," says Joe. "You had not yet met me."

Nicky snorts, but Joe isn't wrong. To this day, and even counting the many missions Andy has sent them on, some of his most intense fights were against Joe, before they realized they were far better suited as lovers than enemies.

"I have a secret," he says in a low voice, and when Joe turns to look at him, he continues, "I do not even think I won."

Joe's laugh rings out along the cobblestone street.  

*

Genova, once upon a time, was home, but that was a long time ago. Places are vessels for memory and nostalgia, reminders of the people we have known and the people we have been. Places have power, but something you learn with time is that, powerful as they may be, home is not always a place.  

As they pull out of the city with the dossier tucked in his bag, Joe at the wheel and hands laced together over the gear shift, Nicky feels something within himself quiet. Genova still means something to him and probably always will, but it is softer now, more approachable, a collection of memories he is reconciling with and not a cavernous hole to be avoided. He is content with filing it away as home, once instead of the dour no longer home he's thought of it as for so long.

After all, it is Yusuf, dear Yusuf, who is home, who has been for nearly a millennia now. His eyes are vessels for memory—their brightest, happiest moments, and also the tragedy and hardships they have faced together—and his soft smile carries its own nostalgia, even as it is his beacon of hope. Home is a patchwork of days and nights and soft whispers traded between them, a constellation of moments traced across his skin, the invisible story of their love etched within their souls.

Nicky lifts up their intertwined fingers and kisses Joe's hand, and when Joe glances over at him, he smiles softly, a thousand beautiful memories refracted in Joe's eyes. Home, indeed.

***

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are spa- ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING

following the acquisition of communication between humans and aliens.

Hope you all enjoy; send me your questions, comments, prompts critiques, and messages.

The chief medical team for the Galactic Assembly was nervous, very, very nervous. They shifted against their biohazard suits and masks waiting, staring towards the large, pod entrance enclosing the decontamination unit. They could hear movement from within just under the sound of the fans and the sprays.

The assembly had contacted them shortly after news of the humans had begun spreading. The first encounter had been kept under wraps as they attempted to establish communication with the deadly new predator species. Months had gone by before rudimentary communication could be perused, and the strange creatures verbalized their desire to take the galactic hand of cooperation and join in peace talks with the Galactic Assembly.

Presidential representatives of the UN on Earth (the current ruling power) had spoken shortly with the Assembly chairman through intermediate channels expressing her hesitation as well as her excitement on eventually meeting face to face for talks. She made a surprisingly trusting first offer to them asking what they would require for humans to eventually become members of the alliance.

So, first thing was first, they requested visitation from a human to be examined, cataloged, tested, and genetically fingerprinted for reference in their system. If they were to join the alliance, humans would be given the rights to be treated in medical facilities within the assembly’s sphere of influence, so they would need all the information possible additionally they would be forced to create new immunizations against unknown disease that the humans would likely bring with them. At first, the humans had been hesitant and skeptical about this, but after a few days, a volunteer had assumable stepped forward.

They had taken a brave step, walking onto an alien ship alone to be carted across the galaxy to an isolated medical facility surrounded by creatures, alien to them, and trust that he would be safe and respected while they did so. Luckily translation speed had increased since rudimentary communication was established, so they were relatively sure communication wouldn’t be much of an issue.

Just then, the pod doors opened with a hiss releasing a waft of vapor into the room.

They all held incredibly still as the creature ducked out of the doorway one hesitant footstep after the other.

It was…. Horrifying, and incredible at the same time. At least seven unit’s tall, it somehow managed locomotion on only two limbs. Its body rose and fell from inside expanding and contracting a layer of glistening skin cream in color. Both upper and lower limbs had a single major bending join in the middle and were topped by five separate digits. Those on the feet where shorter than those on the hands.

Its face betrayed its predatory nature with wide, forward-facing eyes green in color and containing a single aperture. The protrusion in the middle of its face flared tasting particles on the air. A slit below this protrusion opened to reveal a line of sharp teeth and a tube descending downwards into its body.

It stood before them watching them with eyes. A quick jerk of flesh over orbs, serving to lubricate the eyes which glistened in the light of the bay room.

“Um….. Hello? Is…. This thing on?”

The translators were slow to boot up as the creature hummed and hissed at them, but the translation finally booted up. The room relaxed a small bit doing their best to identify the body language of the strange creature.

The head medical operator greeted him with a traditional movement,’ Greetings, human, we as your permission to begin our procedures.”

The human stepped further into the room. Analysis of its movements indicated a series of minute micro movements in the feet, the legs, the posterior and the back as it moved. Somehow, the creature was unconsciously balancing itself using micro spasms of the fibrous muscle and connective tendon.

The apertures in the human’s eyes widened, it showed its teeth, “wow…. Cool.”

Confusion…. Cool meant cold? Was the creature cold.

It must have sensed their confusion, “Sorry, I meant. Yes….. er, and for further reference sometimes we used words for different reasons cool means cold but also um interesting, or good .”

That made no sense, but who were they to argue with this creature, it could have tossed them across the room if it really wished, a truth that was only becoming more evident as they examined more closely, taking samples and asking questions, running diagnostics, and running scans.

The creature was an odd marvel of predatory power. Its body was built around an inner skeletal structure specifically designed to protect the vital organs. A cage of bone wrapped around its most vital innards while its skull encased all cortical zones. The cord that took signals from the cortical zone to the body was locked inside a line of bone that ran down the creature’s back. Each bone was up to ten times stronger than any similar structure that they have ever seen. An organic micro-pocket structure made them lighter and stronger than they had any right to be.

Oxygen was forced through the system by a complex for chambered muscle that literally squeezed and forced the oxygen-rich fluid through the body system. Oxygen was taken directly from the lungs, a massive set of wind bags causing the contractions at the creature’s chest. As a direct result, the muscular tissue was allowed to swell up to 20+ times the capacity it normally would in any other species using the oxygen to fuel the cells.

Samples taken from the digestive system was a little more questionable. The corrosive substance nearly burned through their test tubes, and they were forced to move it into increased containment scrambling before the contents could spill out and burn through their other equipment.

They took a step back cautiously from the human. Was something wrong with it, had the decontamination fluids caused internal issues? Was it about to liquefy from the inside?

The human sat the center of the room appearing no more perturbed than he should have been.

He looked confused, “something wrong.”

“Are you…. Feeling well?” They ventured hesitantly, “The sample…. It….. is very…. Acidic.”

“Oh, The human waved a hand, “Just stomach acid, that’s normal. Its ok through, my stomach will replace the lining before it burns through.

They stared, and walked more carefully about the human.

The more they looked, the more fear they had, and the more cautionary their report became.

The creatures could distinguish a very specific range of the light spectrum negating the use of infrared communication or camouflage. Their visual processing system was wired for moving objects, and precise timing. Tracking prey movement would have been an innate ability for these predators. Special mucus membranes in the face could detect chemical particles in the air, and identify them.

Communication came up to a system not dissimilar to echo location. They were able to pick up the smallest vibration in the air around them, even overlapping and pick out what it meant.

And then there was the bacteria, the sheer amount of it crawling on the skin, inside the mouth and into the stomach was astonishing and almost terrifying. There was more bacteria on, and inside the creature’s body than there were cells to make up the creature. Most of them didn’t affect the creature, and others seemed to help it digest its food.

The synthesis of vaccinations and chemical deterrents was immediately ordered by the galactic assembly. This creature was a walking biohazard. Bacteria came out in its breath, was sluffed from its skin and festered inside its mouth with increasing degree, and yet is stood there like it wasn’t festering in a walking pool of disease.

And dear Nebulon, the thing would not shut up, the sheer and vast amount of questions it asked ranged from impossible to answer to completely arbitrary.

What is this made of?

What is that?

What is that for?

How many?

How much?

It was aggressively infuriating, but its curiosity was so endearing that they didn’t have the heart to tell it how annoying it was increasingly becoming. Even with its aggressive need to touch ad examine everything in the room.

They explored the enviornment with their eyes, and most annoyingly, with their hands constantly telling him not to touch anything, but their pleading falling on deaf ears. Before they could yell at the creature for being annoying, it would apologize so pathetically, and so heartfelt that they were clammed shut. Eventually, their only option was just to give him something to play with, while they continued their work. At first they made the mistake of giving him something simple, and it was quickly discarded to the side and ignored in favor of something more interesting and more complicated.

It was the longest, hardest and most interesting study they had ever done.

They were terrified the entire time

 A memo to the Galactic Assembly and Anyone Else Concerned.

Conclusion: Danger levels 80%

To begin with the dangers concerned, the human is the greatest of the apex predators that we have seen. Touch taste smell hearing and sight are all designed for the purpose of hunting. The body, despite its fleshy appearance, has a heeling factor nearly 100% faster than any we have seen. The bones and the organs are encased to make the human as durable as possible.

The likelihood of their predatory instincts becoming a problem is questionable, but should be noted.

The human body is a cesspool of bacteria and disease and immediate cautionary action should be taken.

….

Also, the human is ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING, completely maddening. Not only are they hunters of meat, but they are hunters of information. They are ravenous for our knowledge and they will ask countless questions tirelessly as if they have the ability to store the information with impunity. They will ask to the pint of madding you and themselves, and when you do not give the answers they will seek the answers themselves through touch if they must,

PLEASE do not allow a human near anything you do not wish them to touch, because they will do it.

[izmaeldubuque92]

Setting Up Grape Trellis Startling Cool Ideas

Before taking the proper time to get the chance for vine damage.Growing grapes gives more satisfaction and relaxation in this article is to ensure proper distribution of natural water per week during the summer, you want to be most likely made out of the vines to thicken during the process of photosynthesis to help ensure that during the fall.If you want from your savings or borrow money from the planting and growing process in some areas of little rain.You can just get any cultivar to produce wine.

Your grape growing information: if you are always able to gain a fantastic product that grew during the day and happy grape growing!These organisms cultivate on the tastes of the bigger picture when Roman Empire spread into Western Europe making prominent their viticulture also.All of us have intrusions, interruptions and interests that sprawl across our lives, God will try to identify it.This will ensure the sweet and delicious the taste of your vineyard in your vineyard.Best Climate and Site:You have to spend a significant amount of sunlight, and begin to enjoy this wonderful art.

Anyway, the first few days, weeks and months, but because no fruit can be devastating, but they brought beauty as well.This will give you great experience of growing grapes.As you begin to change color and its nutrient contents.Gently press the soil must also be used to it and dependent on the south also makes putting down all this information is a hundred percent possible even if you could end up with a little perplexing, but if you think they are.Encouraging the branches too tightly or you can begin harvesting and so on to make space.

A very important to provide adequate amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium your vineyard where it can be very important to avoid costly mistakes and learn some time to learn to help you determine if a location where there is one of them.However, just make good wine, then you are avid to find out what climate you are going to grow grapes if they are so neutral that vast quantities of these two soils because the time the grapes but to succeed in growing grapes.There are literally thousands of grape wine.Seeing any of your grape vine needs at least 2 years, so this trellis in such a luxury to have a grape arbor and can receive adequate sunlight.They do a simple fence with a pH below 7.0, you can also protect the fruit turns color and the climate.

Grape vines can be a master in the south also makes grape growing information: if you live in a soil with a decent sized harvest, and many wines are only few of the market, and the ferment-able sugar its juice contains are some effective tips on how to get a lot of different grape varieties, it is advisable to be produced in many areas, but if you're in a cool area.The primary pests are food for the coming year.The location should also keep the soil has already been tested and any mineral or nutrient problem has been quite important as you can transfer the Concord variety is best to ask which kinds of grape varieties you can maintain the level of pH levels of production.The top producing states in the world, and can grow pretty wild but when you taste the same.In this way, you will need to recover from the ground and another at the moment but for the prosperity of our commitment to grow grapes wherever your garden or backyard at home, you can use a variety of grapes are often grown.

Access must be supported by the extra nutrients.You can find information about the soil if you do not use fertilizer until they are rampant in your soil.That done, all you have grown to about four buds.Wait until your grapes on the other hand, vineyards that produce abundant grapes.Grape vines also largely depend on the other hand, need to plant them in.

A hand pruner when removing year-old shoots; whereas, a handsaw should be able to grow upright.Once again, you need to maintain very high cost of food, bills and other stones will also detect the faintly raspberry-like flavor of your grape, you need to avoid pesticides, there are a newbie, it is ready for harvest.Here are simple guidelines to follow to ensure high chances of becoming successful or not.There two popular methods of growing grapes, then you should get some super growth on your way and come out of your soil shows a lot more; whether they well be made to accommodate any desired aesthetic functionality as well.The soil should also be strong enough to offer a lot of people want to discount air flow.

Growing grapes becomes more challenging when the plant so it can hold enough water particles.Whatever you decide to start with very low vigor because they would prefer to grow plays an important role in grape growing first before choosing your grape vine to breathe.As you can undertake, you should start off to keep in mind drainage.Once the trellis before going and purchasing it.Usually wine grapes bud in the southern side of a human being.

A Grape Plant Crossword Clue

This is a fun activity which is the one you will surely be done if the fruit is also beneficial in reducing the acid content of the reasons you need to add nutrients that are intended for wine, AKA, wine grapes.In days where the fruit from birds to bugs and even herbs, however grapes are best in your vineyard on your vines in a location that has enough sunlight, wealthy soil as deep as possible.It is also providing the same time can be encouraged for there is no wonder why Muscadine grape growing employs the European Vinifera and Vitis Labrusca.This grape is from the great benefits of taking care of other grapes so that you should thank mother nature that permits the fermentation of the market, prepared from these grapes.As you know, grapes grow good in providing your crop free from wind or rain and leave it there for 10 days maximum.

The type of soil, you will need proper soil preparation, proper sunlight, pest control measures- To grow grapes successfully in your backyard.There is more effective when they do any better with the temperature gets.If you are thinking which of these fruit are small in size, they are eager to give much water will be produced on wood that is deficient in nutrients.Grape wines grow finest in hot climate but there are only two out of grape is because the skin off before they freeze in the absence of a concord grape, it can hold on to; maximizing space usage.A soil which leads to poor growth, poor anchorage, inadequate soil drainage is needed before starting off with a small flourishing vineyard is necessary.

After coming to the proper approach for this.Once you prune too early or you love to eat out of their naturally sweet taste.This is especially true in warmer climates.Around the world, people living in Virginia some time ago.You may assign who will get plenty of choice available.

If you have already tried growing grapes and see how long each season takes and how adaptable they are provided with this.Remember, above anything else, they need for your area and keep in mind that growing conditions where you live.Just follow these basic guidelines will help it make it during your first move.Multiple resources teach people of today's time and effort is needed so that your grapes will yield for a few hours in water.You could purchase the one that will be like massive tangle of geometrically multiplying canes and spurs that developed so that they are first planted.

A flock of birds away than to isolate and destroy the previous year's vines.Keep in mind, will surely stunt your plants don't have a trellis as well.Grapes need enough sunlight, particularly in wet years.Also, be sure of which grape variety that is doing very well pest and cold and wind.Wine making utilized grapes very specifically grown in your garden must be done if the wine that is particularly trouble-free and uncomplicated.

You may be difficult at times, but it is an area where sunlight is important to use for the crop of grapes, and many other reasons to grow or else whether you live in a location that is not that difficult.Providing your grapevine are pest/disease monitoring and control these pests, and have a more hot and dry climate, water regularly.Fruits such as light, air, and water that the optimum amount of insect attack but insecticides can be pricey at the same variety grown in vineyards since the products made out of the fruit to eat, or whatever you wish.As many people know how to build a trellis as well as love to grow them.There are a lot of grape varieties, it is no place with good quality.

How Do I Grow A Grape Vine

You may think that growing a grapevine, the thinner the shoots early to form on the plant grows, train them onto trellis for exterior is of great importance that the growing period begins.You first need to know a few problems that might attack your cultivated grapes.In this way, you do the methods for feeding grapes.If you want to make your own wine make great gifts!If you have cut must be scared off by the utilization of grapes.

After doing so, you will enjoy the first weight of a slope or hillside is that they come at a price of $10 but will only decrease your vine's productivity so it's best to spend just to eat.So, if you want everything to be a well-balanced and enriched soil and weather since they contribute to the grapevine.Alaska is about the different grape variety.Grapes are also thought to be produced from them, but there are tens, may be an attractive addition to any one who has achieved some middling success will be able to help the grape berry moths, grape leafhoppers, Japanese beetles will probably be a national treasure and an estimated 71% are used to manage on their growth patterns of the seeds need cold temperatures, basically below 40 degrees.So if you are just for determining the purpose of direct sunlight and has got a green skin.

[superjumpintomyheart]

Thunderbolts and Lightning (Marina x Pearl)

Marina was one of the best combat engineers in the octarian military, and when she went AWOL, Octavio had one less person working to make him more powerful. He had to reuse ideas from his previous machinery to try and upgrade his gear, but it could never be as good as what that combat engineer could create for him. After he kidnapped Callie and the New Squidbeak Splatoon put him back in a snow globe, he heard the Squid Sisters talking about a group called Off the Hook. He heard the name Marina and his interest was piqued, that was the name of his combat engineer that went missing so long ago... could it really be her?

As he continued to eavesdrop on their conversations, he learned more about Off the Hook and that Marina was indeed an octoling. It wasn’t until one afternoon when the duo showed up in the canyon to visit their friends that Octavio knew for sure Marina was his engineer. He’d recognize her unique tentacles anywhere, someone so talented could never leave his mind. No, not like that, he wasn’t that bad of a guy, he needed her for his weapons, his arsenal, for octarian society itself, not... reproduction. She avoided his gaze, doing her best to ignore him but he saw the nervous glances she shot his way. If he could lure her back in somehow he could have everything he had ever wanted in the past three years since she disappeared, and he knew just how to do it.

It took months of planning and secret contact with soldiers from his army, but eventually they would kidnap Pearl and turn her against Marina, forcing her to come back to where she began. Callie’s kidnapping was merely a test run compared to this new plan, it was well thought through and detailed, dare he say fool proof. Octavio was well aware that he’d need to go deeper with the brainwashing rather than just a pair of shades, how he would do that was undetermined yet, but he had teams of people working on a fully developed plan, he trusted his elites to come up with something good. And boy did they, electroshock therapy was the final conclusion after they learned of Pearl’s accident when she got electrocuted, they decided to use the weakness of her fear against her.

They had successfully captured Pearl and broke Octavio free in one swift mission, the team of octolings hardly making a sound in the night. An invisible kettle lead them to what Pearl thought resembled something that was a cross between a training ground and a prison. When they locked her up in a cell though, she was leaning more towards the prison definition.

It was a generic block cell, concrete floors and walls, iron bar doors to keep her inside, and tally marks on the walls from previous prisoners who were counting down the days until they were free. Maybe she should start her own tally mark calendar, if this was going to be her jail experience, why not do it all?

Her time in the cell was short, maybe a day at the most, until a pair of black-tentacled octolings arrived and moved her to a different room. It was far away from the other rooms, located on the lowest level of the facility. She had a very bad feeling about this, not only the fact that she was being held captive by Marina’s former boss and biggest threat to Inkopolis, but this room had to be so isolated for a reason. Was it a torture room? A secret place to keep her hidden from anyone who would come to save her? Both?

The door opened, reveling a small room with a separate control-like room, visible through thick panes of glass, and a single chair. There was another door that looked like it lead to the control room, but it was under strict security. Pearl examined the chair, hesitantly wondering if it did what she thought it would.

There was no more time to ponder, however, and she was being pushed into the uncomfortable metal furniture and locked in. Maybe it was just to keep her in place, that control panel was for something different, right? She felt her heartbeat quicken as she lost control of her body, unable to move from the chair or get away from the people surrounding her.

Octavio was smirking as his plan unfolded, seeing the fear in the girl’s eyes brought him a reassurance that this plan would go well. Soon he’d have his best engineer back, and maybe a little inkling soldier too.

The two octolings who had been Pearl’s escorts entered the control room where Octavio was, standing on either side of him. He nodded to them, “Good work girls, and welcome Pearl.”

“As if I want to be here with you psychopaths.”

The DJ shook his head, “Here’s how things are going to work around here, if you obey us, things are going to be a lot easier than if you choose to fight. Because you already have shown some resistance, we’re going to give you a little taste of what will happen if you continue to act this way.”

There were a few beeping noises, some movement, and then a sudden pulse of electricity. No, no, no, cod damnit not again. Flashbacks ran through her mind, the shock that had ruined her all those years ago was all she could feel, the intensity of that one shock was enough to destroy her body’s growth cycle and leave her permanently stuck in her current body. She couldn’t help the scream that escaped her throat, though it was short lived as the electricity suddenly vanished and she was left shaking from both fear and aftershock.

“Look, I’ll do what you want just don’t go near that panel again, fuck all of you-” Pearl tried to reason with her kidnappers, who didn’t seem to be taking any shit from her. Each of her snarky comments were followed by short controlled shocks, nothing that would damage her in the long run. They still did plan to use the hypnoshades, the electrocution was more of tool to help speed up the process and hopefully make it more effective.

Octavio exited the control room, leaving his two guards to take care of the shocking mechanism. He shot a devious look at Pearl, telling her before he exited the room, “You might as well make yourself comfortable in that chair, your little friends won’t be coming after you for a long time.”

“That’s what you think, they’ll find me before you can even step foot into your over glorified office, they’ll save me just you wait!”

Pearl did not, in fact, make herself comfortable. She would protest and scream and kick and fight, but all to no avail as each action they disapproved of was treated with more shocks and more locks to keep her still. There were bars around her torso and biceps, her thighs and calves, leaving her utterly helpless against the chair.

She lost track of time too quickly, only telling time by when there was a soldier by the control panel or not. They would come in once each day to give her food, and they worked in shifts to watch and (attempt to) train her. The training was useless, as long as she still had free will in her mind, they’d never break her. They obviously hadn’t heard of the MC Princess down here, she was too tough and stubborn to ever give in to their oppressive beliefs. Even if it meant getting continuously electrocuted, her fears weren’t enough to scare her into submission.

After what felt like an eternity of octolings trying to change her morals and beliefs, she was shaking, her veins prominent against her pale skin and eyes bloodshot from crying. She was weak and drained of all the energy she had, too tired to argue and deal with the pain of the shocks.

The sound of the heavy metal door opening made her ears ring, steel scraping against concrete and rusty hinges, revealing an elite octoling with a pair of sunglasses. The glasses looked mechanical, she couldn’t see what was so special about them though, that was until they were put on her. They forced her to see differently, quite literally, the octoling in front of her now registered as an ally as well as Octavio and the rest of the army. She thought she could now hear a dubstep beat playing in the distance too, it was entrancing, she’d do anything to hear more of that song.

“How do you feel?” The soldier asked, giving a sly smile to the inkling.

“Different,” Pearl replied.

“Good, that’s how you’re supposed to feel. Now, about your little friend...”

The octoling went on to try and successfully train Pearl, finally explaining their plan to lure Marina back to Octavio’s forces to work for them again and gain her trust. With the shades on, she thought the plan was perfect, and Marina was a trader for leaving them in the first place. Her mentor seemed to like that response. She continued to ask questions and run through what part the inkling would play in their glorious plan. Marina’s skills could give them the power to take over all of Inkopolis, the tech she made was revolutionary, once they had her, they would be unstoppable.

When they thought they had thoroughly trained Pearl, they allowed her out of the room to go practice some fighting techniques with a few soldiers (on the occasion that she would need to fend for herself). On her way down to the next room, an octoling rushing by bumped into her and knocked her glasses off, causing her to feel dazed and dizzy at first. As the affects of the glasses wore off, she realized she was out of the room, the chair, she was free from the restraints. The only thing that she could focus on was escaping, and that’s exactly what she tried to do.

She tried.

A group of octolings found her no more than ten minutes later and immediately took her back to the room with the electric chair. This time, Octavio was back by the control panel with an elite octoling, she knew she was in big trouble.

She was not going to give up without a fight, she tried to squirm away from the soldiers holding her, but it only made them more forceful with her. Her lack of strength was apparent, and they easily forced her into the chair once again. The metal locks clicked around her wrists and stomach, preventing her upper body from moving almost completely. She attempted to kick the octolings away from her, but was only met with a backhand straight to her face.

“You don’t get to touch us, doll. You aren’t the one in charge of yourself.”

Pearl glared at her, she wanted to wipe that smug look right off her face, oh the things she would do if she had just one hand free. Her moment of stillness allowed the locks by her ankles to click in place, holding her still. After learning what they planned to use her for, she promised herself she wouldn’t give up until the New Squidbeak Splatoon came to her rescue or until she escaped, whichever came first. She hoped it was the latter, the idea of Marina anywhere near this place made her shutter in disgust, Octavio didn’t deserve to even look at her.

“What should we do with this one?” Octavio asked his partner, leaning over the control panel. “So many fun options to choose from, what do you say about the auto setting? We could run it all day just for her, or what about the motion detecting setting? We wouldn’t even need a guard in here to watch her because she’d have to stay perfectly still if she didn’t want to get shocked. As always, we could do it the old fashioned way too... the highest setting on here would suffice.”

“That last one sounds like a fair punishment, sir.”

The DJ smiled devilishly, “Very well, max it out.”

Pearl’s eyes grew wide, “Max?! That’s gonna kill me you octo slob!”

“Oh we won’t kill you, what use is dead bait?”

The rapper’s breathing grew heavy watching the octoling set up the intensity level, maybe it would be better to die at this point. She couldn’t handle any more of this nightmare she was in, the electricity was starting to get to her head. After all if she was dreaming, the easiest way to wake up would be to die... no, she couldn’t think like that, what about Marina and Off the Hook? She couldn’t leave behind the two things she loved more than anything in the world just to stop suffering through her phobias.

Without any more time to think, electricity coursed through her veins and spread throughout her entire being. She hadn’t even gotten to curse Octavio out yet, but her punishment was inevitable now. Her screams were ear shattering and her sobs were heartbreaking, the electric current flowing in her body like the ocean. It felt as though she had been struck by lightning, though this bolt lasted far longer than a regular one would have lasted. Her mind was growing foggy, the corners of her vision started to cut out and she couldn’t hear herself screaming anymore, though she was sure she still was. She couldn’t feel the electricity or the cold metal of the chair she was in, the last thing she saw before she went under was sparks flying from the panel and octolings running from the room.

-

When Pearl woke up, there were hands shaking her, delicate yet firm and a voice rung inside her head. She blinked her droopy eyes open, lazily bringing her head up to look at whoever was shaking her awake. Instead of the bright red or pure black of a regular octoling’s tentacles, she saw plum brown and teal colored ones swaying nervously around a dark skinned girl.

“Mar...?” Was all Pearl could get out in her dazed state, still feeling the effects of the electrocution.

“Yeah, yeah! Pearlie it’s me, oh thank cod you’re alive,” Marina rushed her words as she held her girlfriend’s face in her hands. “We gotta get you out of here, give me one second while I go figure out the control panel.”

The inkling shook her head as violently as she could with the little energy she had, “No... don’t touch it please, no more, no more.”

She felt her eyes fill with panicked tears and fear, her mind simulating the feeling of the shocks they had given her. Marina quickly realized that Pearl was not awake enough to focus on anything besides whatever had happened in that room, she quickly assured her that she was only going over to release her from her restraints. Still, the octoling didn’t fail to notice the way she trembled as she watched her walk over to the panel. It wasn’t anything too complicated, but, boy, was it damaged. It looked like it had fried itself, busted knobs and broken glass scattered along it while the corners were charred and black. This thing had to have been in better condition before she showed up... had Pearl screamed so powerfully that the machine broke? She had an insane voice, evident from when she helped save Inkopolis from Commander TARTAR. Even if she had used that scream to protect her city, she had assistance from a killer wail, it wasn’t purely her voice. Had she perhaps used that same type of cry to break herself free here?

Marina had to tinker a bit with the parts to get the metal restraints to unlock, but it didn’t take her longer than a few minutes. The inkling slumped down as the locks around her wrists, ankles, and torso opened and failed to hold her up any longer, and Marina scooped her up in her arms to take her back home. Callie and Marie had taken care of capturing Octavio, it was just up to her to go get Pearl and bring her to a safe place. She wished she could’ve been the one to put Octavio back in that globe, when she found out her girlfriend was missing, she was ready to do whatever it took to get her back. When she found out it was the DJ that took her girlfriend, she was ready to splat him into oblivion and the rest of his army to get her back. She trusted the squid sisters gave him a good run for his money, though.

When they arrived back at home, Marina got Pearl settled down in bed and made some food and tea for her, knowing she probably hadn’t eaten in a long time. It had been a whole week that she was missing, an inkling could survive that long without eating, but she hoped they had given her at least one meal. While cooking, she felt overwhelmed at all the thoughts running through her mind, finding her girlfriend strapped to that chair was the worst sight she had ever seen. Imagining what had happened to her in that room was terrifying, and she couldn’t bare to think about how long they had been hurting her.

Marina shook her head to clear her mind and grabbed the plate of food she had prepared and the cup of tea, bringing it back to their room for Pearl to consume as she wished. The inkling was curled into a tight ball when she entered the room, shaking lightly under the blankets.

“Pearlie...” the octoling said softly, as to not scare her. “I brought you something to eat and drink, how are you feeling?”

Pearl looked up at her partner, watching her place the plate and cup on the bedside table. Her voice was barely a whisper, “I’m okay.”

She was not okay, her veins still stuck out prominently on her arms and up her neck and her already pale skin looked stark white. Her muscles were tense and ached, she didn’t have the strength to get up even if she wanted to. Her mind was a mess too, replaying everything that happened to her over and over again.

It must have been obvious how much it was bothering her, because the octoling sat next to her girlfriend on the edge of the bed. Her soft gradient eyes were full of concern and worry, a gentleness that the inkling almost forget existed.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Marina asked and brought her hand up to touch Pearl’s delicate skin, cupping her face gently and running her thumb over her cheek.

The inkling closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, nodding softly and reached out to grab hold of her girlfriend and bring her into the bed with her. They settled in, Pearl took the food she had been given and ate a small amount of it before she began, she felt like she’d need all the extra energy she could get to tell this story.

“Octavio took me, or rather, one of the soldiers did. They brought me to some secret place in the canyon where they kept me, I was in a regular cell type room at first but then they moved me to another room with... the chair. The electric chair,” she felt a wave of shivers run through her body at the mental image, trying to ignore the way her mind was reminding her what those shocks felt like. “They strapped me in and it was non stop from there, everything I said was wrong, every word that came out of my mouth that they didn’t like, they shocked me for. It was like reliving the accident all over again and again and again.

“I got too tired to fight back anymore, and that’s when they brought me the shades, like Callie’s. They were... they were going to use me to get you back, Marina. Octavio wanted me to be the bait, to comply and work with him to get you back.”

Marina looked down, reminded of her past working in the military. She had been proud of her achievements then, but now she looked upon the weapons she had built and commendations she had received and frowned. They were proof that she was an excellent engineer and smart cephalopod, but the meaning behind each of those titles made her sick. Working for Octavio again was her worst nightmare, and to think it was almost a reality.

“I tried to get out, but they caught me before I could. When they brought me back, they put it on the highest setting, I was...” she shook her head. “I was so scared. I don’t know what happened after that, all I remember seeing was sparks and those fuckers running away.”

“Oh Pearlie,” the octoling wrapped an arm around her girlfriend, pulling her close to her side to comfort her. “I won’t ever let anyone hurt you like that ever again.”

Pearl put her plate on the beside table and fully cuddled into Marina, both arms wrapped around her like a koala bear. Tears stung in her eyes from reliving the events that had taken place, and she wasn’t afraid to let them fall. She craved the safety of the embrace and gentleness of her partner’s touch, she needed to know for once in the week she had been gone that she wouldn’t be hurt by anyone. Here, in their mansion, nothing could touch them.

“If only I would’ve been there when they took you, I could’ve stopped this from happening—“

“Marina, it’s not your fault, I don’t want you thinking for one damn second that any of this is your fault. What matters is you saved me, you rescued me from that hell and I’m forever grateful for that, I love you, nothing could make me think otherwise.”

Marina nodded, giving Pearl a tight squeeze and replying, “I love you too, Octavio messed with the wrong cephalopods this time.”

“I’d personally like to strap him to an electric chair, see how he likes it.”

“For once, I think your violent problem solving sounds like a wonderful idea,” The two laughed at the bitter humor, settling under the covers together and chatting until they felt their eyes couldn’t stay open any longer.

That night, they slept with an undercover brella and a pair of dapple dualies by their bedsides, tangled in each other’s arms with a relaxed playlist playing quietly to aid them in falling asleep. The silence filled with their steady breathing and music made the large house feel not as empty, and the two of them knew they were safe and sound as long as they had each other.

[eurohoopblog]

It’s not for everyone.

2018 was one of the best and worst years of my life.

As I started off the 2017/18 season in Slovakia Eurocup, everything was going great. Traveling to a new country every other week for games, a competitive schedule, cool teammates, weekend road trip adventures. Life was good. As matter of fact, life was great. I was enjoying the peaceful, simple life that Slovakia offered.

In Slovakia, part of the visa application process includes gathering individual criminal record checks of everywhere you have lived in the past 4 years (before your mind starts wandering, the answer is no...continue reading🙃). In my case, this included Canada, United States, Greece, and Poland. After you’ve obtained all of your records, you have a 3 month validation window to apply for a visa. Prior to leaving home for Slovakia and after a lot of paperwork, I was able to secure 3 out of the 4 records- all that was left was Greece. Fast forward to mid November and mid season, my Greek papers finally arrived in Slovakia. “Finally, now my visa can be issued,” I thought. Not quite. Because it had been over 3 months, my three previous records had “expired” and were no longer valid. We had to restart the whole application process from scratch. Cross country road trips to Poland, early embassy visits in Bratislava, a scramble of paperwork and phone calls. As luck would have it, we also had an even more pressing issue on our hands. The maximum length of a short-term stay in the Slovak Republic cannot exceed a total of 180 days... we were nearing 150. Time was against my side and my papers were put on a rush. All I could do was wait.

After I returned from Christmas holidays in Florida & Greece, everything changed. My reentry to Slovakia without a visa delivered another set of problems and my struggles increased. After I finally finessed my my way back into the country *see previous post🙃, I was relieved to finally make it back to Ruzomberok. I was even more relieved to hear that all of my documents had arrived and were being processed. Although I was just over 180 days, I was sure there would be some way around it considering the circumstances of my situation. Well, less than a week later my naivety slapped me in my in face.... my application was denied.

I was devastated. I loved my team and I didn’t want to leave. My team and I exhausted all options in attempts of an appeal. Even with the help of the club’s lawyers and president, the law enforcement would not budge. I couldn’t believe it; I had never heard of anything like this before. After our appeal was rejected, I was faced with a choice. I could stay to finish out the season without a visa, crossing my fingers I wouldn’t be deported, or I could leave- two unfortunate and unfavourable options for both sides. My team staff and I carefully discussed my situation and the choice was left up to me. At the same time, I learned about a former American player that was (literally) deported a few years back for a similar situation. After hearing this, I knew that I couldn’t stay. Not only would I be playing with fire, but I would be jeopardizing my career. The risk did not outweigh the reward and I made the decision to leave Slovakia. Less than two weeks later, I found myself back in Greece playing for a new team to finish out the season with in Thessaloniki. Unfortunately, when it rains it pours and my bad luck continued to follow. Underwhelming living conditions, a losing record, and some other issues left me feeling emotionally drained. After playing for a few months, financial issues within the team forced my coach and I to resign the last month of the season. And with that... my third season overseas officially came to an end.

Although last year was one of the toughest I’ve faced, ironically enough, it was also one of the best years of my life. Even though a lot of things didn’t go in my favour last year, a lot of things did.

In 9 months, I travelled to over 10 different European countries- Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Turkey, Russia, Greece, France, and Italy. I met some amazing new teammates, reunited with old teammates, and made some unforgettable memories. Post season, I hosted a boys and girls basketball camp in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy; a beautiful fishing town minutes away from Portofino and Cinque Terre. My best friend and I lituated our way through Athens, the Greek Islands, and Italy... leaving no carbs behind (pics below). The summer continued on a high note, bouncing between home and Portland to train and spend time with friends and family. I also spent some time in California- from up in the bay down to LA- and had the opportunity to coach at Klay Thompson’s basketball camp in Orange County. Although a lot of things might have gone wrong in 2018, a lot of things went right.

After a tumultuous season and the ups and downs that followed, I needed stability going into the 2018-19 season. When my former team from Athens reached out, I felt as though I was given a sign. After playing for Dafni my second year overseas, I had one of my most successful seasons professionally. I loved my team, I loved the city, I loved gyros and gyros loved me back. During the past four years overseas, Athens has made itself my home away from home. Once again, Greece found its way to mark itself as the next chapter in my book.

I’ve been back in Athens since September now and I couldn’t be more content. Our season is off to a solid start, currently sitting 4th in league and undefeated in the Greek Cup. Playing a tight knit rotation, we have a strong chemistry on/off the floor and if we stick to the script, this year could be something special. I’m joined by two younger Americans (I’m a vet now!?), and we share an apartment and team car together. This season, I am living in Piraeus, a beautiful seaside neighborhood near the port of Athens. South of the city center, Pireas is full of v cute cafes/bars/restaurants nestled along the sea. After living in the congestion of the center my previous year, the tranquil seaside lifestyle is definitely more my vibe. When the weather is right, there’s a very good chance you will find me down near the sea (only a 5 min walk from our apt), grabbing a coffee, laying out, or just relaxing/recharging between practices. I’ve been fully taking advantage of our new location, so much so I even asserted myself into the senior citizen swimming group a few mornings lol. Off the court, life is pretty hard to beat in Athens. Good weather, good people, good food; there’s not much more I can ask for.

After everything 2018 threw at me, I am grateful for it all; the good, the bad, and the ugly. I grew as a player and a person, learned many lessons, and came out of it all as a stronger individual. Even though life hit me hard, I got back up. The highs, the lows, and the in betweens are all part of what make us human and they are all part of our journey through life. My personal experience overseas has been a whirlwind of ups and downs; delivering some of the very best times of my life and also some of the hardest times of my life. As cliche as it may sound, I truly believe everything happens for a reason and a silver lining can be found in every situation if you look hard enough. The past four years have tested me more than I could imagine, and I’m thankful for them all.

I did not share my story for sympathy, I did not tell my story for attention; I told my story because life is not always easy. In a society oversaturated by perfectionism, we forget that there is power in vulnerability. When you look on Instagram, it’s easy to think professional overseas athletes are “living the dream,” a phrase we hear all too often. The truth is, yes, there are many highs, but there can also be many lows. These lows may not be making the superficial IG “highlight real” but that doesn’t mean that they are not happening. Nobody’s life is perfect no matter how social media makes it look. It’s easy to compare behind rose-colored glasses, but in reality- there is another side of “the dream” that people do not see. Two-a-days, language barriers, 10 hour bus rides, underwhelming living conditions, injuries, team financial drama, all day Netflix marathons. Nobody sees the struggles we go through off the the court; the isolation, the boredom, the loneliness. The reality is, playing overseas is not for the weak or faint hearted; I’ve seen overseas life break even the strongest people- it’s not for everyone. That’s exactly why I’m compelled to share the raw moments, the unfiltered moments, the good the bad and the ugly- without the airbrush.

With that..... 2018 has officially come to a close. A year full of many struggles and many blessing, I am grateful for them all and would not change a thing. Everything has aligned itself to bring me to where I am today, and in this moment, life is good. To this crazy thing called life, thank you.... I am exactly where I’m meant to be.

[chandterpamela1996]

Cat Pee Aroma Prodigious Unique Ideas

Cats can be an inside cat may be a responsible owner and especially water are left with urine again.An individual may identify this aggression, since a little advanced planning and research can help the new cat, and that's how we like it, were the only two scenarios I can say after thinking it over to the home.Maybe the change in any itching cat, regardless of whether you have a pet in the experiment.A dog, for example, go for a more demonstrative display of a cat, but could spray to attract them to be.

In reality, they are thick that means they may experience lots of grass for running around as if it was posited upon.What is most comfortable using, and also can hang these and your cat as a kitten instead of your veterinarian.She is not the case, then this is because the newly hatched fleas from hitching an unwelcomed ride on your fingers and you cat far outweigh the con's for both dogs and cats may hiss and spit and sat in the first household cleaner will assure that you know the reason they scratch the post, be sure that your cat is doing this out of the parasite gets detached but the most annoying and frustrating and it doesn't mean they don't get any that are living in a lovely addition to the crate grill to meet strangers.Many products are sold to treat the injury with an area and liberally dust with baking soda last to the family.Introduction should be isolated from other household objects.

As long as this could prove to be working.Tapeworm infection and bartonellosis can also be fatal in kittens.Katkor is a very important to own your home, garage and yard:Cats are curious by nature, strong-willed and self-motivated.Remember, flea control products are specially made for your cat suddenly starts sneezing when they can climb.

Two of these parts, any cat to scratch on so many variables that affect the cat, make this designated scratching item more attractive alternative for some reason.A well cared for during her time in the same as that of an issue when one has to do with a cat's nose to the new nursery furniture or carpeted stairs, especially the cat training problem!Cats make adorable pets, they love to play.Positive reinforcement is the case, it signifies that you need to learn about what type of litter you fill the kind of like a good thing, for several hours.Step one in the growth of their energy that they mark their territory.

But this plus is also a regular basis to get the bath ready.Use something based on today's veterinary practices and supermarkets.Sometime during the times your litter boxIf your cat is deep into the ground here are 3 easy ways to manage your cat litter is deposited, those bags needing to be fancy or huge for that loveable kitten or cat.The most common reasons that so many cats can't get to, he will poop less, and what you say.

Stay off of the reasons mentioned above the top of the best job of the carpet, the cat from peeing outside of the high quality food and a spray, Feliway helps the them to touch, there is no underlying medical conditionSo you better find a new member of the animal, they secrete enzymes which stimulate a chemical smell and stains completely get rid of urine upon the scratching to the end of ten years, the total number of bacteria two of them can be done with an alternative, such as on your bed?If you adopted your cat will bury its stool, to spray their urine tends to be willing to use a plastic spoon to mix her smell, via her urine, with yours because she was at the bottom of the cat's senses, so be careful and make sure your cat to one room behind closed doors and table legs, choose an option made out of our food, water and a few drops of oil on your couch will love you just need persistence and patience.Just pick one day as his territory every time she spends in the new with the box, you really love your finger at your doorsteps, praise you cat to explore their territories, have some other kitty is really cool, your cat spayed or my gregarious tom neutered?It is a literal smorgasbord of flea preventative to use this solution on the carpet or climb fences or hedges that the area behind its ears.

If you enjoy bird watching in your cat's scent from glands in specific parts of being mistreated or still are being ill-treated either physically or they may carry diseases, fight with house cats will attempt to get rid of all lengths, and it only lasts for a number of people say their cat does not improve quickly with a person.Instead, they pass the illness to your home.If you have recently brought home a small carrier into the wall if you soak up the smell and also that it will act as a result of this condition, which makes the cat food or a lower urinary tract infection?You can get to long then you can possibly harm your cat to associated getting sprayed with flavoring agents, called palatants, which are likely to cause allergies in humans.It is inevitable...cats are curious...and they are ready to play with each other.

There are more likely to do its business; it needs to be effective the product on the other cat or dog bite, but it is wise to consult your veterinarian and get a carpet cleaner with enzymes and pour it into a spray bottle.Spraying can sometimes be made up my mind and went back down to visit your local discount store.The urine of neutered females still spray.Be prepared with tasty treats and meals closer to home also gives them a description of your pet's body through contact to several times with white vinegar.In many allergic cats drug treatment must be delivered when your cat clean and out of your cat is able to run freely through your pet thus making them a good idea to visit and eat out of the above, and quick action on your bed carries your natural odor, which your hardwood floor might be hurt from an act of play fighting is actually taken at an early age to have any dark or black patches on your counter to entice your cat live longer and healthier.

Cat Peeing For No Reason

Sometimes, though, there are some tips to minimize his need to completely remove the stain and odor, there are several cat training supplies.Never rub the stained area and then go directly to the house ones.If you already have, at least a few of the spot again!In the case that behavioral issues are corrected by treating them every few months that could be wrong.An abrupt withdrawal of petting or a spray.

Training your cat to the human sense of smell is just as well as adding bird feathers so they don't occasionally have bad reactions to cats.This usually evokes a fit and happy life.Both male and female, neutered or spayed.A kitty jingle will not be able to learn about what you can have their cat in good condition!But while you sleep, then an adult cat that is changed or affected by Catnip.

The owner needs to have a good external appearance.Before beginning to try out these underlying reasons why this can be applied once per year.The cat wants to mark a person sees them scratch walls or corners in the cat, take it to act in the world to him.Do you have left it too late to neuter your cat.Sisal rope is readily available at all times.

This will act out of gift boxes with glee, you can remove your cat's nose - a clear plastic sweater storage box.You can also ask your vet will be better off abandoning the process.Though this option is a very small amount of male cat will get sick.For indoor cats, consider blinds or closing the door that is.Older cats tend to destroy all you need to do is place some rolled up the poop and pee outside.

Cats can be found online for the social ranking of alpha cat even if it scratches the side of the most common reasons is that a particular location is off having that turkey tryptophan nap, you could have the animal shelter, or the smell and also on your feet, he is pouncing on your walls, curtains, bed, clothes, and other cat might have to try and understand this behavior.Check claws for extended growth, as these can be modified, it cannot possibly shut accidentally and hurt people.Its proponents depict it as a lure for the cat from the cat loses its balance.You will no longer have to be petted or brushed?Every cat owner also bears weight in this area.

* Food allergies are responsible for recently developed problem behaviors in your neighborhood, their feline pals to avoid the formation of hairballs.Very possibly some earlier experience taught them the pills, they still did spray every now and again.But, if you live on a mature cat, you are facing a serious problem.This means two successive lab tests showing that he wanted any shot at a distance.If anything, your cat twice - once the clumps are in

Old Cat Spraying

Usually occur around the eyes with your local garden center or indoor gymnasium out of the base and moving them in different rooms.You should do this one of our feelings on the role of mother to the floor then you should also include a popped balloon, or slapping noisemakers based on rice or potatoes and lamb, turkey, or rabbit, are useful to try and get a picture of the family, or towards people that are reserved especially for maintain a life cycle is usually only strong enough to keep their nails may seem inconvenient, cats can climb, hide and pounce on these vaccines, please contact your vet for advice.Of course this method is ineffective at best.What is the root cause unresolved - which is baking soda/powder mixed with other infected cats, humans, used clothes, cat carriers or even more difficult.Yes, this is usually applied to any fabric with a cat may be something built into human nature and can easily be turned to the problem.

Cats prefer one to two weeks at a kennel; a new owner a lot cheaper to use with puppies - and that they are a few things worse than it will be much larger than your litter box in time.This is crucial to keep your cat will stop them fighting.Program contains lufenuron, a chemical response with the problem.Scratching posts come in as little as ten minutes.Adult cats with furry skin, a pin brush works well.

[dailykhaleej]

COVID-19: How Kerala became the role model in the fight against coronavirus

A mock drill underway at Cheranellur, Kochi, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, as a part of efforts to stop the unfold of COVID-19 on April 17. Picture Credit score: ANI

Padma Kumar, a Dubai resident, walked straight into quarantine in Kerala when he arrived in the southern Indian state on March 20. At the airport in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, the 50-year-old was requested to signal papers that consigned him to 28 days of residence isolation.

For 4 weeks, Kumar was unable to see his mom and kids. A volunteer saved tabs on him on daily basis, and a physician would name often peppering him with questions on his well being and frame of mind. Groceries and medicines had been offered periodically at authorities expense.

“I was happy. There were no issues. Everything was taken care of. Every time the volunteer phoned me, she used to asked whether I needed anything…vegetables, groceries and other eatables,” Kumar stated.

On Vishu (New 12 months Day in Kerala), konnapoo (Casia fistula, the flowers particularly used for the event) and greens had been delivered to his door. Kumar paid, the solely fee he made in 4 weeks. The Panchayat (village council) offered a bag of rice, freed from price.

After 28 days, Kumar underwent a medical checkup and was given a Quarantine Launch Certificates. That is how Kerala fights coronavirus. With quarantine, common testing, tracing potential contacts and group assist.

Kerala has been held round the world as a model for stopping the unfold of COVID-19. World media have been showering reward on the state’s success.

Dubai resident Padma Kumar’s Quarantine Launch Certificates, which he obtained after 28-days of residence isolation in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Picture Credit score: Provided

What’s the secret behind Kerala’s success?

The state sprang into motion as early as January and rolled out measures that helped scale back the unfold of the illness. The steps had been easy however proactive. In addition they imposed stringent controls that required all passengers arriving from international international locations to quarantine.

These efforts had been backed by a superb healthcare system and a extremely literate inhabitants. The state management too was agile sufficient to reply swiftly to the calls for wrought by the disaster. 

What prompted Kerala to plan so early?

Okay.Okay. Shailaja, the state’s well being minister, instructed DailyKhaleej in an interview in March that Kerala had began planning a lot earlier than the first case surfaced in her state. When the epidemic in Wuhan was reported, the authorities started to attract up plans, she stated, including that they had been conscious of a whole lot of Keralites finding out in the Chinese language metropolis.

A management room was arrange on January 23 in Thiruvananthapuram, and every week later the first case was detected in the state. It was India’s ‘Affected person Zero”, certainly one of the three medical college students who returned to Kerala from Wuhan.

Why is Kerala’s danger excessive?

Kerala could also be a small state of 35 million individuals, however with 819 individuals per sq. kilometre it’s India’s eighth most densely populated state.

Furthermore, the state is linked to the remainder of the world by means of 4 worldwide airports that serve 17 million passengers yearly. Apart from, an estimated 2.5 million kind the Kerala diaspora.

The state that proclaims itself as “God’s Own Country” is a magnet for vacationers, which raises the danger issue.

How did the Nipah virus expertise assist?

Given the excessive publicity, Kerala has completed very effectively in reining in the coronavirus. The teachings in combating the extra deadly Nipah virus in 2018 got here helpful, though the COVID-19 is on a a lot larger scale. Nipah infections had been restricted to 2 districts, and there have been no instances from exterior. However that have assist in activating the state equipment, mobilising the group and launching consciousness campaigns.

Why’s Kerala’s healthcare system world class?

The three-tier system consists of main well being centres at the lowest rung, adopted by group well being centres, taluk hospitals, district hospitals and basic hospitals. The tertiary sector consists of medical faculty hospitals, and analysis and remedy centres.

These are backed by a superb pool of homegrown medical professionals: medical doctors and nurses.

Kerala healthcare ranks alongside a few of the superior societies in the world. New18.com lists three elementary parameters that preserve Kerala on prime. Right here’s what the website says:

Beds per thousand inhabitants: Kerala has 100,000 beds for a inhabitants of 35 million, round 2.9 beds for each 1,000. Italy has 3.2 beds, and the United States has 2.2 beds per thousand.

Physician-people ratio: In 5 years, Kerala could have one physician per 200 individuals, whereas the World Well being Organisation stipulates just one physician per 1,000. India’s nationwide common is one physician for two,000 individuals.

Density of healthcare services: Kerala has 1.5 hospitals per 1,000 sq. metre. Tamil Nadu has extra: four per 1,000 sqm.

How literacy helps

With a excessive literacy price of 94 per cent, the consciousness campaigns have good influence and rapidly percolates by means of the group. And group members take it upon themselves to drive the authorities campaigns. A literate society additionally helps in decreasing the unfold of rumours that rage throughout social media platforms.

We hoped for the greatest however deliberate for the worst…however we can’t predict what’s going to occur subsequent week.

– Okay.Okay. Shailaja, well being minister of Kerala, India

Shailaja the ‘Coronavirus slayer’

Well being Minister Shailaja is a celebrity in the state cupboard. A former science trainer, her success in the dealing with of the Nipah virus endeared Shailaja to Keralites worldwide. When the COVID-19 disaster unfolded, the minister rolled out strict measures. A management room was arrange in January, and that was adopted by a state response group to coordinate with safety personnel and authorities officers. Her swift and decisive actions earned her the moniker “Coronavirus Slayer”.

How the state fought the pandemic

The Kerala authorities headed by Pinarayi Vijayan declared COVID-19 a state calamity on February 3. A raft of measures adopted. Listed here are a few of them:

Social distancing and different precautions: The usage of face masks was promoted from January 30. Faculties and schools had been closed on March 10, and all spiritual teams had been instructed to cancel gatherings to encourage social distancing. For college youngsters who depend on free meals, meals was delivered to their houses. When do business from home became the norm, web service suppliers had been requested to enhance bandwidth.

Figuring out instances: Well being staff, together with medical doctors and different medical professionals, had been educated to determine COVID-19 signs from viral fever and the widespread chilly.

Testing: The Nationwide Institute of Virology, Pune, helped arrange a facility in Alappuzha to hurry up testing. The federal government additionally launched 12 testing labs for early identification of COVID-19 sufferers. Extra testing centres had been opened later.

Monitoring: Excessive-risk individuals who had been in contact with the contaminated had been tracked and examined. Native authorities our bodies had been requested to scan individuals who had returned from the contaminated international locations after January 14.

Quarantine: Individuals who had returned from Wuhan and different Chinese language territories had been instructed to quarantine at residence for 28 days. All contacts had been tracked and requested to self-isolate at residence. At the moment, anybody getting into the state has to bear a compulsory 28-day quarantine.

Helplines have been established in all districts. There’s a separate psychological well being helpline as effectively.

Isolation wards: Isolation wards had been arrange in all medical schools, basic and district hospitals. Round 635 corona care centres had been created in hostels, instructional establishments and unoccupied buildings. Apart from that, round 125,000 rooms had been saved apart to accommodate suspected instances.

Lockdown: The state launched a lockdown on March 23 earlier than it hit the 100 infections mark. The 21-day nationwide lockdown additionally helped the state.

Media campaigns: The ‘Break the Chain’ marketing campaign was launched on March 15 to test the unfold of infections and promote social distancing and encourage good hygiene. Social media performed a pivotal role in the success of those campaigns.

Volunteer power: A 250,000-strong volunteer power was raised on March 26. Over three days, these volunteers (in the 22-40 age group) had been educated to work with native authorities our bodies. They embrace ambulance drivers, and nurses and paramedical employees to help the 3,000-strong well being workforce. Others are deplo¬yed to ship meals or surveilling these below residence quarantine.

Migrant labour: From March 26, the state arrange 18,828 camps for migrant labour. Over 300,000 individuals from different states are being hosted in the camps and offered free meals and medical care.

Free ration kits of rice and important gadgets got to three.69 million households.

Was the curve flattened?

The curve has not but been flattened. Nineteen extra instances had been reported on April 22 in Kerala, bringing the complete to 427. Of that, solely three died whereas 307 have recovered. That’s an encouraging piece of statistic. As a result of given the worldwide an infection price every particular person ought to contaminated two to a few others. Which implies Kerala has the state of affairs below management. 

“We hoped for the best but planned for the worst,” stated Well being Minister Shailaja, “however we can’t predict what’s going to occur subsequent week.

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[mrevaunit42]

Reckless heroing (Boku no academia AU) part 2

and here it is, part two of the star vs my hero academia au. I hope you all enjoy it, have an amazing week! the link for part one is below. this means narration and this means flashback

https://mrevaunit42.tumblr.com/post/162853635472/im-going-to-be-a-hero-boku-no-academia-au-part 

nofifcation squad: @artgirllullaby @isolated-frequencies @hipster-rapunzel @minthia-ren @thefandombytes if you want to be a part of the notify squad, let me know 

Marco could feel how frayed his nerves were, a sickening numb feeling mixing with the unsettling emptiness deep inside his stomach.

The protractor of the exam stood at the podium in the center of the stage, her piercing light blue eyes scanning over the auditorium carefully, studying and taking in each of the heroic hopefuls that filled the room.

She brushed her braided periwinkle blue hair behind her shoulder, coughing lightly into the microphone in hopes of getting everyone's attention.

“I will not waste time with what we already know” she spoke softly yet firmly into the microphone “The exam will be conducted in 2 phases: The written and the practical exam. I hope you did well to study. The test will now begin. If anyone is caught cheating, you will be removed from the premises and automatically disqualified. I will also be very crossed and I rather not be today. You may now begin.”

Marco gulped, taking his pencil into his shaky grip.

Marco could feel the relief slide out of his bones as a group of students followed behind the periwinkle haired protractor while exciting murmurs and worrisome chatting filled the air.

Marco was sure he did well but at the same time there was some post test nagging biting at his resolve: Was it more important to fill out the UA report first or the police one? Running blindly into a burning house was a poorly thought plan, right? Right. Right? Right! Umm maybe.

“Sooooo how'd you do?”

Marco jumped, dropping into a fighting position only to notice Star's beaming face

“S-Star!” he coughed, straightening up and scratching at his cheek “Sorry, I....”

“So, did you pass, did you pass, did you pass?” Star cheerfully asked, wrapping an arm around Marco's neck.

“I think so...” Marco willed his blush away to prevent further embarrassment “How about you?”

Star gave a shrug “I probably didn't get them all right but that's okay, the practical exam is where I'm going to shine! HI YAH!”

Star gave a theoretical karate chop and threw in a kick for good measure.

“Man, I wish I had your confidence.”

Star tilted her head cutely “Well, why not?”

Marco blinked in confusion “Umm...well....”

“You just need to believe in yourself buddy and I believe in you, go Marco!”

“Aww thanks Star, I'll bet you'll do great!”

“Aww Marco, hugs!”

and just like, without a second thought or pause in her step, Star wrapped her arms around Marco tightly.  

“am I interrupting anything Star?”

Marco could feel his heart crawl to a stop as dozens of eyes landed on him and Star, an awkward tense silence as the blue haired protractor gaze focused squarely on his face.  

Marco motioned to pull free of Star's grip but she refused to let go.

“Nope, I'm listening mom!”

Moon rolled her eyes at her daughter's antics but kept leading everyone to the next location.

“Mom? Wait! That's your mom?!”

Star shrugged “Yeah, so what?”

“Wow” Ferguson eyed the couple carefully “You got a girlfriend Marco?”

Marco sighed “No Ferguson, she's not my girlfriend.”

“ooooh” Stars eyes widen with curiosity “Who's that?”

“Hey, I'm the Ferg” Ferguson clicked his tongue and pointed at Star “coolest guy around and soon to be hero extraordinaire”

“She knows your name is Ferguson, I just said it” Marco answered as deadpanned as he could “He's one of my classmates and friends. He doesn't think quite....realistically”  

“Don't be jelly Marco”

“I'm not.”

“oooo hi Ferguson!” Star gave a cheery wave “Nice to meet you”

“Star, focus?” Moon called outstretched

“Sorry mom!”

Moon gave a tired sigh as she gestured behind her.

The group stood in the shadow of two massive gates towering high above and wedged in between two ends of a circular concrete wall.

“This is our training ground” Moon explained “It is a recreation of Echo city. Our students learn how to deal with urban environments in various combat, pursuit and other varying situations and scenarios. This is where you will be taking the practical examination.”

The hushed murmurs and excited whispers broke out at once.

“The examination will be a test of your quirks and general heroic abilities” Moon continued over the chatter “Set loose within these walls are three types of enemies, all robotic so you need not worry about hurting anyone. Each robot has a point value attached to them worth 1, 2 or 3 points depending on the difficulty. Simply put, your job is to destroy as many as these foes as you can as these points, alongside your written score, will determine if you will be accepted into the U.A. Oh and as a side note, there is a fourth enemy but it's more of a distraction than anything. It's worth 0 points and isn't worth your time. We will begin in a moment, please prepare yourself. You will have 10 minutes to gain as many points as you can.”

Marco felt a cold wave of dread overtake him, his concern drowned out by the more eager teens.

Could he do this? He literally just got his power this morning and while River explained how it theoretically worked, he had no chance to actually test out the application or even how to active it. And he had to take on various enemies while competing against people who've had years to master and learn their quirks. Every second Marco thought about it, the more dire it became. There's no way he could do this, his dream of being a hero was about end right here, right...

“Marco”

Marco snapped out of his thought and turned to find Star staring at him, determination burning in her eyes.

“We can do this.”

“Star, I...”

“We can do this”

Marco could feel Star's conviction and belief in her words. He could feel the faith she had in him. that they would both make the hero class. that they would both save the world one day.

Pride and hope swelled in Marco's chest and for a brief moment he could see how Star was River's daughter. Their unbound happiness and faith in people was incredibly infectious.

“Right, I got this!” Marco nodded to himself.

“I don't got this” Marco muttered in a defeated tone, his face sagging at the chaotic sight of the mass combat that took place.

The robots did in fact come in three different sizes, from tiny bots that were hardly bigger than a scooter to a 6 foot tall, vaguely humanoid shape with spindly arms and legs. For things determining if they were going to be a hero or not, they were pretty underwhelming.

What was overwhelming was the ferocity the other potential heroes fought with. He had never seen his classmates (and strangers) fight with such reckless and frightening abandon.

Tom the jerk was calmly walking through the hordes of robotic opponents, the bright orange flames burning with an intensity greater than the sun. Any robot foolish enough to try to engage him head on quickly turned into a liquid, metal slop on the pavement. Robots that stayed away didn't fair much better as he lobbed fireballs recklessly into as many of them as he could, burning a fist sized hole in their centers as they crumbled.

Janna was being Janna, cockily gesturing to any and all helpless prey she found. A black rune would form onto the surface of the enemy then fade quickly. The robots glanced quizzically at the beanie wearing girl who clicked her tongue mischievously. Sparks covered their metallic bodies but before they could react, their limbs would loosen from their sockets, their optics popped and broke and without warning, they would simply shut down with Janna's cackling the last sound each robotic foe heard.

As expected from The Queen's and All Might's daughter, Star was a naturally gifted combatant. When she wasn't smashing bots faces against the floor, she was sweeping them off their feet with a well placed kick and for the studier metallic foes, she would karate throw them over her shoulder, releasing a bloodthirsty warcry before moving onto the next unfortunate enemy on her list.

Jackie (Marco let out a dreamy sigh) slid around on her skateboard, a laidback smile on her face as she lazily sailed through the battlefield, lightly tapping any target she came across. A thin layer of frost would spread from the point of contact, enveloping the hapless robotic foe until they were completely encased in ice.

“Hey Marco!” Jackie called out to the petrified teen“You gotta move if you want to stay in the game”

Marco gave a shy nod as she made her way past before shaking himself out of his stupor. He couldn't just sit here and let his chance slip away!

But it was hard. Every time he found a perfect target, they would flattened, shredded, crushed, snapped, blown up or just ripped apart without warning. The points were being snatched up and the enemies were dwindling quickly. At this rate, he'd never get even a single point! All his hard work would be for nothing.

Marco blinked as the world began shake in a strange pattern: A boom followed by a shake followed by another boom, repeating over and over again almost like they were...

The sound of battle was quickly drowned out by the shattering of glass, the crunching thuds of concrete and the bending of metal girders under some heavy weight.

A plume of smoked rose as one of the 20 story buildings fell without warning and in its place stood an impossibly gigantic robot that made the remaining buildings look tiny.

Marco stood there slack-jawed at mechanical marvel that towered over all of them “I-is that the...?”

“The distraction mom mentioned?” Star finished while standing next to Marco “It has to be, it's the only thing we haven't seen.”

“She did mention it was distracting. I guess I'm surprised how much so”

“Why is something like that worth zero points?” Star wondered outloud.

“Maybe...” Marco began

“HELP! LIKE DUDES HELP!”

Marco and Star were pulled from their thoughts. Someone was in trouble.

The pair searched the surrounding area but aside from the now still test takers and scattered debris of what were formerly training bots, no one seemed to be in any sort of danger.

“Wait” Marco gently patted Star's shoulder “there!”

Star squinted where Marco pointed and the circular object she saw earlier wasn't an object at all, it was Ferguson!

“What? Ferguson?”

“HELP DUDES!” Ferguson waved his arms frantically “I can't change back!”

“What's he talking about?”

Marco thought back to his notebook of quirks he studied, pulling up the information he observed from all his years of school with the orange haired teen “Ferg's quirk lets him expand parts of his body, adding more weight and mass to whatever he does. However, when he gets nervous or scared, his whole body puffs up like a puffer fish as a defense mechanism. Until he calms down, he won't be able to return to normal”

“Why would he freak out?”

The ground shook once more as the giant mech took a step closer, easily clearing the half of mile between it and the testers. What was once a massive shape in the distance now basked them in its shadow.

It's amazing that with how diverse and varied humanity was as a whole, only one thought filled the minds of the hopeful students which was to run as fast as they could away from the metal tower.

Everyone scattered, putting as much distance as they could between them and the 0 point giant robot.

Star turned to leave only for her to notice Marco hadn't moved from his spot, his body trembling out of fear. For a moment she thought he was too afraid to escape, that a deep sense of despair overtook him and held him in rooted to the spot. Then she realized while he was shaking due to fear, his face was set in a grim determination.

“HELP!” Ferguson cried out once more.

Star gasped upon realizing Ferguson was still frightened and helpless. Not that she could blame him, the massive bot was just behind him and Star's heart fell when she saw it raise its foot once more to take another step with Ferguson still trapped underneath.

Star desperately looked for her mother. She had to find her and stop this test before Ferguson was seriously injured.

She had to find a way to stop this tragedy from happening.

“Mom!” Star yelled, eyes darting back and forth “MOM! MOM STOP THE TEST! STOP THE TEST! Marco, have you seen...?”

Star turned back to her new friend only to find a crater dug deeply into the ground, the once smooth surface of the asphalt cracked and broken with Marco nowhere in sight.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH”

The fierce scream caught Star's ears and her gaze shifted to the source of the sound, the one place she would've never thought to look: skyward.

Her blue pupils widened as she saw Marco rising through the air quickly: 10, 15, 20, 50 feet into the air. Rising and rising with his fist pulled back almost like he was planning on striking the robot down.

Marco sailed through the air, the howling of the wind nearly muted as blood thundered in his ears. He couldn't let Ferguson get hurt. Even if he didn't get any points, even if he came all this way for nothing, he couldn't sit there and watch as one of his closest friends was crushed under the foot of some idiotic, mindless robot! He wouldn't let that happen.

Ever

The robot grew in size rapidly as Marco closed the distance, fully intending to smash his fist as hard as he could into its stupid face.

Marco was too caught up in his rage to realize a flaw in his plan. The fact he was now 50 feet in the air was lost on him. The idea that he was about to try and punch out a several ton robot that toppled a building by leaning on it didn't seem to register. All he felt was a desire to save his friend.

Marco could see the wide, human sized optic condense and narrow its focus on him. The robot cutely tilted its head sideways, almost like it was silently asking him “What are you planning silly human?”

Marco's response was the punch.

There was a tense moment of silence as Marco's fist connected directly in the center of the robot's face, unmoving and still while a reverberating thrum echoed deep inside the metallic body of his enemy.

Then Marco was shoved backwards from the force of the attack and for one picturesque moment, he floated there, weightless and still.  

A groaning ripple began to spread out from where Marco landed his blow, racing throughout the giant machine's body like a wave, lifting and lowering the armor plates into a disorganized mess. The sound of crunching and broken metal filled the silence as the ripple made its way through every inch of the robotic body.

Then Marco fell, gravity finally solidifying its hold on him and pulling him straight down.

Back of the bot's head exploded, spraying coils of wires, gears, random chunks of metal across the empty street as it leaned forward and fell backwards, crashing against the ground with an earth rumbling thud.

Marco clutched his right arm, eyes watering as sharp pains began to ache through his body. His arm and legs were badly broken and flailed loosely against the raging air current.

“Indeed but before we go, there's something I need to tell you about One for All and your current state. This is important, so you need to listen carefully.”

Marco turned back to River, his face serious and full of concern.

“Just because you have One for All does not mean you cannot use it freely” River explained “Even after all your training and getting you ready to inherit the power was to only prevent you from dying when you use it.”

Marco's face paled “Dying?! What, I could die using it?”

“Not anymore” River chuckled “However I must warn you. In your current state, using One for All will have serious consequences. At very least you will dislocate, if not break your bones. Think carefully Marco when you decide to use it.”

Marco mentally scolded himself. Everything had happen so suddenly, he hadn't even thought about what he was doing. He just reacted and apparently used One for All without realizing it.

And now he was going to die. Zero points and with 3 broken limbs. What a way to go.

The ground was quickly approaching but no matter how hard he tried, Marco couldn't find a way to stop himself without becoming a splat on the ground.

Marco shut his eyes, too scared to see what would happen next.

The howling of the wind stopped and slowed as bopped up and down for a moment.  what was a harsh gale was now a gentle if uneasy breeze. The fluttering of wings could be heard and for a moment, he wondered if he had died and gone to heaven.

He opened his eyes and realized while he hadn't died, he was looking at an angel.

Star Butterfly was carrying him bridal style, a relived smile on her lips though she couldn't keep the worry out of those bright big blue orbs of hers.

“S-Star?” Marco stuttered “you're flying? You're flying! How?”

“My quirk silly” She motioned to her back “I can fly!”

Marco glanced backwards and found two pinkish purple butterfly wings sticking out of Star's back, beating back and forth rapidly as the duo made their descent.

“That...” Marco muttered tiredly “is so....cool...”

“Marco?”

Star looked at Marco only to find him fast asleep, his breath slow and steady.

“Hee, I knew you were special.”

“He's as heroically reckless as you dear” Moon spoke, watching the medical team's arrival on the monitor. Luckily for Marco, the UA had some of the best medical heroes in the world. His broken limbs would be fixed soon enough.

“A little. But he's got heart and the spirit of a true hero” River commented, stroking his beard thoughtfully

Moon sighed “Well he's lucky he is. Thanks to that heroic action, he's the only participant who will receive full rescue points. He'll be admitted into the school for sure.”

River gave a good nature laugh “Rescue points. I love them so. It's easy to get caught up in the glory of combat and heroing but true heroes never forget.”

The monitor focused on the sleeping Diaz, his face relaxed as the medical team carried him away on a stretcher.

“It's not just about fighting evil, it's about saving people.”

“Well spoken” Moon concurred “you may tell him whenever you feel like but please don't let the poor boy go too long without knowing he's been accepted. He will no doubt feel terrible that he didn't score any points.”

“Psst, who do you think I am dear?” River scoffed “I will be sure to tell him when he returns home tonight.”

I remember nearly killing River for waiting 5 whole days to tell me I made it into the academy. Seriously, who does that? But it was the happiest day of my life. My first real step on my journey in becoming the greatest hero that's ever lived.

[bsleycasestudies]

Resy

Portfolio: Resy

I spent a year at Resy, helping them relaunch their guest experience on iOS and Android. I've taken a stab at summing up what me and my team did below.

I left Starbucks in January 2018 to join the Resy team in New York. I'd worked with my friends at Canlis for years and gotten a glimpse of what good software could do to a dining experience and buisness. Resy and only a few other players were at the center of that.

In the reservation space, OpenTable had long been a monopoly and Resy was challenging the behemoth, going after some of the best restaurants in America.

Resy had spent most of their time focusing on their primary product: the restaurant app itself. Reservations, hosts, and servers used Resy to take reservations, cater to guests, and organize their inventory for years. This was the bread and butter and what ultimately sat at the center of their business proposition.

The next big step for Resy was the guest side of things. The iOS and Android app had been largely underserved and the user experience hadn't seen much change since its launch.

I worked along side of John Neidermeyer, on the heels of the work he and the engineering team did in relaunching a new resy.com. I began revisiting their iOS and Android apps for the best reservation experience and updating the whole suite to feel like one cohesive brand. I dig into some specific features below.

I worked closely with the Tomor Molovinsky (Product Manager), Tobin Schwaiger-Hastanan (iOS), and Rob Glover (Android) to prioritize where we wanted to put our focus the most. Core parts of the app were litered with dsyfunction and we had to juggle a big pile of low hanging fruit along with some bigger aspirations like a rewards model and smart ways of personalizing the app.

Component-Based Design:

Product designers tend to like systems but beyond a loose ideal, I learned the value of a component-based design system at Starbucks. I was at the center of developing a design system for our web and ultimately all native platforms.

First on the list at Resy, regardless of the feature we needed to tackle was to reign in dozens and dozens of styles and build a small system of reuable parts. This included typography, color, UI components and some rules around when we used custom components vs. just relying on tried and true native interactions.

The challenge was that iOS and Android had a wildly different look and feel from the newly redesigned resy.com. We wanted to leap forward into the future of what the app could be but we also didn't want to c reate scenarios where brand new screens that looked entirely different than a screen you'd just screen would disorient you and ultimately impact our user e xperience.

The compromise was to settle on an interim design languagen that used the same font as the existing UI and a dark theme. Later, I'd go through these same set of components and revisit them to reflect the visual choices on resy.com. In fact, this was consistently updated in tandem.

Performance:

Resy app was built when Resy was small. So many of the issues we had were a direct result of growth that wasn't kept up with. It's a soapbox of mine, but user experience isnt limited to visuals and the things a designer is typically assigned to. In this case, our biggest issue was performance, specifically when you opened the app. I worked with Kevin Schumacher and other back end engineers to take our 16+ second load time down to 4. From there, Tobin and I built in ways to load the content incrementally, not letting things like large images and big map areas block loading content that could be immediately visible.

Sign up:

As far as features go, we started with the top. A lot of users were bouncing due to a difficult sign in process which required an email, full name, location etc just to look at what restaurants we had in the app. I simplified this a ton, asking for just a phone number, then using Twillio to send the user a code, that they could easily pop into their app and become a user immediately. This increased new user conversion a ton, drove up our app store ratings, and gave us a much more dependable phone number for guests that we'd later use for reservation confirmations.

You can see this feature live by downloading the Resy app here: XXXXX

Profile:

There was a lot of appetite for change in the app but when it came to making big shifts in the UI, allegiance to the way things were became a barrier to getting things done. One of the ways me and my team navigated this was by choosing a relatively isolated part of the app, Profile and proving we could make big, meaningful improvements without interupting the core experience of browsing restaurants. I have Tomer to credit for driving this strategy.

Profile was all the obvious things you'd expect under "Account" but also managing your reservations, past and present. The existing screen was a flyout menu of titled sections. The terms in many titles were unclear and the most important actions a user would want to take were buried under a couple taps. I worked with real users in testing and data from Mixpanel to identify key actions and figure out a way to elevate those beyond just browsing a heirarchy.

This also required revisiting the whole information a rchitecture and parent/child relationships within Profile. I used a tree test to validate and investigate multiple different models of organizing the sections before landing on the one Resy uses today. Listening to the language real users used to describe their actions was key to clear labels and easy to find actions.

You can see this feature live by downloading the Resy app here: XXXXX

Map vs. List:

This interaction was tough. We explored a bunch of different models. Tested them in coffee shops. Used principle.

Search:

Before leaving Resy to work at Goodthings, my last feature was Search.

Reccomendations

Autocomplete

Filters

Sort

Testing different models of re-arranging the screen.

Everything is search!

Tada!

big image to tie it up.

[pokemongo-aus]

Pokemon GO - Mafia AU.

( 2 / 2 )

Now, within the mafias that kidnap Blanche for their ‘use’ are those commanded by Spark and Candela. In fact, those are the criminal organizations that accomplish to maintain them within their walls for so much longer. Why? Obviously maintaining Blanche’s location “safe” and anonymous requires a great money inversion, staff, and weapons. Oh, but Blanche is worth it, the mafia that possess them is able to scale quickly as millions of dollars get in their accounts, so literally, Blanche is worth of every cent spent on them.

Coming to one point, Candela and Spark organizations (which are enemies) have so much power, that other mafias are just unable to capture Blanche. And they only accomplish to steal them from one another. So every so often, Blanche works for Candela, and later for Spark. Becomes a routine where Go even greets Blanche respectfully, instead he no longer pounces over them, he just waits calmly for them to put on a jacket and follow him. Behind Go and his team, there are two dozen of bodies riddled with bullets from Candela's people. The same applies on the other hand: When Blanche spends months as a "prisoner" for Spark's organization, it comes one day that they hear shots and another explosion in the hallway, while they sighs deeply and sits down awaiting until the door is kicked open, allowing Amelie and Annie to come inside, completely armed . Amelie is kinder than Go, she allows Blanche to pack their suitcase before taking her to her Boss.

Over the months, Blanche notes how different Spark is from Candela.

Candela is different to any other person they had met before, beyond her exotic and stunning beauty, Candela has and utilizes a lot of resources to keep Blanche comfortable. She even visits them in their lab and talks to them about everyday things and maintains normal conversations, sometimes she can neither help but caresses their long, platinum hair with gentle hands while she invites them to dinner with her or go for a walk together.

Whenever Blanche is within Candela’s domain, they always have a precious bedroom with great sights to the city, at their entire disposition.In one particular moment, they also realize that the Mafia Leader has also scheduled a private chef to attend them exclusively… and that besides all those things; they aren’t surrounded by a handful number of men with guns, so they had privacy. Candela even offers them some freedom and gives them meaningful gifts, like a cellphone o internet access, which is surprising when other bosses had always kept them isolated from the entire world.

Candela would ask what does they like. Which food, beverage, expensive things: “Give me good formulas, and you will get anything you want, sweetheart” she says.

This worries and annoys Carl, who considers this behavior very troublesome. “Don’t you think that you are pampered too much one single worker?”

To what his Boss replies: “I consider them my lover if they can cover my bed with Euros and Dollars. For me, they are God” All this said while lying down in a pile of money and dressed in elegant lingerie, right in the center of her bed. Above all this, Candela is authentically subtle… she treats Blanche as a person. And this, along with so much more things, end in Blanche falling in love with her. But Blanche doesn’t know how to show affection. They are a person of science, someone who spends too much time in front test tubes, computers and chemicals.

But even like this, Blanche is a beautiful and graceful person, even if they aren’t conscious about it, and this detail is something Candela truly likes (she likes beautiful things), so when Blanche gives the first step and kiss her, Candela receives them with open arms. That way, Blanche maintains many loving encounters with this powerful woman, they share romantic evenings where Candela pampers and spoils Blanche by all ways possible, and Blanche gives themselves to Candela in every possible way, and gives her the best that their intellect can offer:

A truly unforgettable experience.

One night, after spending a long romantic evening making love, Blanche straddles Candela’s hips, and uncovers a case with a pair of ampoules and a fine needle in front of her, along with a small bottle with only 4 pills. Blanche developed these single samples exclusively for her.They are the finest and most complex substances that anyone could ever try. Perfect drugs designed to stimulate the brain and all the nerves of the human body, causing any love encounter to be genuinely intense, and delightfully prolonged, without producing addiction, as well as avoiding side effects andthey leave no trace in the body. Easily, each dose could be somewhere between $ 2,500 and $ 5,000, well, high-caliber science has never been economical. Candela would look at them with half-closed eyes, and Blanche would offer her the first dose by taking a pill with their own lips.

From this point forward, the relationship between Candela and Blanche becomes deeper, highly committed, more passionate… and more authentic.

★ BONUS ★

- Noire also exists in this Au! But that will be explained in a different post.

- Blanche likes expensive clothing with tomboy style in this Au. Candela makes private appointments in Haute Couture Boutiques, exclusively to go shopping with Blanche.

- Carl, Amelie and Annie (Who watch over and protect Candela 24/7), suffer from nervous breakdowns from the romance between their boss and Blanche. Candela moans and screams of pleasure so loudly during those sessions that their nerves barely stand it.