#my friend was collecting those expensive trading cards | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

starseedfxofficial · 3 days ago

Text

Japan's Trade Balance Miss: Hidden Forex Insights Revealed Japan's Trade Balance: When the Reality Hits Harder Than Expectations Alright traders, let’s dive into what just went down in the Land of the Rising Sun—and no, we're not talking about the latest sushi craze. Japan's trade balance for October just posted a jaw-dropping -461.2 billion yen. That's a bit like ordering a deluxe meal and finding out your card got declined. The experts only expected -360.4 billion yen, so we're definitely not on the winning side of expectations here. But here’s where the story gets a little juicier—and maybe less bleak. The export scene in Japan actually showed some muscle. We saw a Year-on-Year (YY) growth of 3.1% for October, beating market expectations of just 2.2%. Imagine realizing that box of old collectibles you have is suddenly worth more than you thought—that’s pretty much how it felt to see this spike in exports after months of shaky performance. The import numbers, on the other hand, increased by only 0.4%, which is a bit more like finding out that your subscription costs are finally under control (thanks, Netflix). But let’s not get lost in the numbers; instead, let’s uncover the hidden meaning here. There’s a delicate story playing out in the background—and if you’re a trader who’s wise enough to read between the lines, these figures are telling you more than just "Japan sold and bought stuff." Exports Are Up: What's the Story? Japan’s export recovery isn’t just a nice surprise—it's a signal, a bellwether for the opportunities that are lurking in the currency markets. The beat on exports suggests demand is heating up, possibly due to global economic activity picking up more than analysts had estimated. For the Forex folks out there, this means the yen is flexing its competitive edge—Japan is shipping out more, so naturally, demand for Japanese goods (and thus the yen) could be on the rise. But here’s where the real magic happens—consider Japan’s role as an export-driven economy and its reliance on a weaker yen to keep those products attractive to buyers around the globe. This balance between a thriving export market and the pressures to keep the yen competitive opens the door for some intriguing trades. You might want to think about how these trends impact JPY crosses, especially against other currencies that aren’t benefiting from similar export momentum. Imports Are Flat: A Hidden Gem in the Data Meanwhile, imports were pretty flat, coming in at just 0.4% YOY. Why should you care? Because, my friends, in a world of wild inflation and supply chain bottlenecks, Japan’s ability to keep its import costs under control speaks volumes. It tells us about shifts in Japan’s consumer spending, efficiency in manufacturing, and perhaps a little tug-of-war in managing raw material pricing. Think of imports as the unsung hero of an economic report. Everyone wants to focus on exports because they’re the obvious player, but a consistent handle on imports, especially in the face of weakening global demand, suggests a solid backbone—and opportunities for stability trades in yen pairs. Advanced Insights: The Contrarian Edge for Traders Here’s where we pivot to some next-level analysis. The typical trader’s take might be, “Oh, exports are up; time to go long on the yen.” But hold up! Remember that Japan has a love-hate relationship with a strong currency—it keeps their exports expensive. So while the knee-jerk reaction might be to buy into the yen, a savvy move might be to consider the pullback opportunities as the Bank of Japan considers intervening to manage the yen's strength. This leads us to a lesser-known trick of the trade: watch for BOJ’s rhetoric. They have a history of not wanting to rock the boat too much when exports get feisty. A strong yen could put that 3.1% growth under pressure in the next few months. Consider JPY crosses, like USD/JPY, and look for opportunities where you might capitalize on BoJ’s reluctance to let the yen get too strong. These are hidden gems that don't make headlines but provide real chances for profit. Emerging Trends and What It Means for Your Trading Plan Now, let’s zoom out just a bit. October’s numbers reflect a broader shift in global trade dynamics. Japan’s resilience on the export front—especially given the challenges seen in other major economies—highlights opportunities not just in currency trading, but in macro plays around industries tied to Japanese exports, like tech and automotive sectors. This is where Forex gets really fun, folks—when you start to think beyond the currency pairs and see the ripples in broader markets. For those of you looking to build a robust trading plan, consider incorporating these insights into your strategy. Is the automotive sector rallying? How might that shift demand for Japanese yen, or affect key import/export balances? Mapping out these relationships can give you a leg up on the market. Strategic Actions You Can Take Today Let’s wrap this up with some actionable tactics. Here are a few strategies you can think about: - Look for BoJ Rhetoric: Keep a close eye on any official commentary from the Bank of Japan. If the yen starts looking too strong, you might get some hints on upcoming intervention—an excellent signal for a quick trade. - Monitor Trade Corridors: Japan's trade data suggests growing strength, so consider exploring long trades on JPY against currencies whose economies are underperforming in export growth—they could give you a favorable setup. - Consider Sector Correlations: Watch for how Japan’s trade impacts its key sectors. For example, as exports rise, you may see increased strength in related industries like automotive or consumer electronics. This, in turn, affects JPY sentiment. - Community Insights & More: Join our StarseedFX community to get daily updates on moves just like this, receive live trading alerts, and interact with a network of seasoned experts ready to share inside tips. Learn more at StarseedFX Community. Read the Signs, Trade the Trends Japan’s October trade figures give us a lot to chew on, especially when you consider the underlying trends that aren’t being plastered on every mainstream financial site. Savvy traders know that the difference between a decent setup and an amazing opportunity often lies in those overlooked details—and there’s no better time to start digging in than now. So ask yourself: Are you reading the signals behind the headlines? Or are you just getting swept up in the market hype? Because trust me, the hidden gems are right there—you just need to look beneath the surface. And don’t forget to track your trades and refine your strategies—get our free trading journal and trading plan, available at Free Trading Journal and Free Trading Plan. Happy trading, everyone! —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

0 notes

vulpine111 · 2 years ago

Text

I am just trying to think about and plan my weekend. I wanted to pay rent/utilities as soon as SSI hit, but I have to wait until the 1st because the post card statement that tells me how much to pay is lagging.

This is annoying because I have more peace of mind spending any amount of money after bills are out of the way. The sooner I pay, the sooner I can call my new case worker and let them know that is accomplished. (My original one retired.) I was supposed to reach out anyway. It's been a long time. Oh well.

I might call my grandpa in a little bit and ask if I can do laundry at his house. I have to see if they're still doing work on the parking lot where I live, though. I don't want to haul my laundry all the way to the entrance. Furthermore, if the cones are still blocking where he'd park, it would be harder to bring my laundry back upstairs, plus anything else.

I wanted him to take me to the dollar store and Sprouts for some light shopping too. Those places aren't far from his house.

I still feel guilty asking him for anything even though he's doing well for someone in his situation. (He doesn't seem to be suffering over his toe he had amputated, at least.)

I don't know what else to do, though. I don't think any friends feel like dropping everything to help me with these tasks.

There is a lilac bush out front in between his yard and his neighbors' yard. While I'm there, I want to harvest a few heads of flowers and use them in lemonade. I hope the dollar store has a pitcher and new ice cube trays. The ice cube trays I bought when I first moved in here have already fallen apart.

Aside from the items I need for lemonade, I was hoping to find socks, a new tooth brush, sponges, composition notebooks, and some more disinfectant spray at the dollar store. There's probably more I'm forgetting.

I am not sure what all I should get from Sprouts besides the lemons. Maybe some more lion's mane mushrooms and tulsi tea. I have a big list of ingredients for meals I'd like to make, however, I am struggling with meal planning/executive function and Sprouts is expensive.

That being said, I would be willing to buy some blue corn flour anywhere I can find it. I'd rather not order it. They didn't have any last time I went to Trader Joe's.

I want this particular flour in order to make tortillas, pizza crust, and anything else I can think of from scratch. I imagine my favorite tacos would taste better with home made tortillas and guacamole instead of the pre made kind I find in stores.

Speaking of food, I need to take a few minutes to call and recertify food stamps. Otherwise any and all spare money is going to food for a while. I don't know how long it's going to take for them to re-approve me if I don't manage to do this before some cutoff date.

My copy of "Anything That Moves" by Jamie Stewart from Rough Trade never came. I need to email them and explain soon is a good time to process my payment. Maybe they tried while my account was empty. :(

Speaking of ordering stuff online, Helix will get a reward if I buy from Gamersupps. I have been eyeing their energy powder for drinks for months now and it seems finally worth trying. It might save me some money that would normally go to energy drinks, kombucha, yerba mate, and coffee. I need some way of indulging my caffeine addiction that is cost effective.

As for how I will mix the powder, I *sort of* want the latest cup from them but I saw reports from customers of these cups cracking frequently. I can't justify spending that much on something that might break almost immediately. I like the art on the latest one a lot because it's the nurse from Poke'mon, though.

I am gonna have to look around Walgreen's for some sort of plain shaker cup or water bottle. That's gonna fuel me to collect a bunch of water proof stickers, though. I should be more careful about how I spend my time.

Anyways, if Gamersupps steps up and improves their cups, I will order more than just the mixings someday. Especially if they happen to feature more characters I like by then.

My only other concern is I don't know how every single ingredient will interact with my meds. It seems safe at first glance, but I plan to bring the container to my next pain management appointment and talk to him about it. It's part of their rules I have to show them all my pill bottles and any supplements I take.

#journal #budget talk #tw food #food #plans #caffeine dependency #personal #autism #apartment life #to do

0 notes

love-takes-work · 4 years ago

Photo

Y’all don’t even know how incredible it feels to see Animaniacs on my dashboard in 2020 and what it’s like to watch the reboot after 22 years. Lordy. Check out my adorable 17-year-old self in the 1990s obsessing over this show. (I thought I had a lot of merch. But yeah I could only get what I could afford saving from the job where I made $4.25 an hour and could only buy merch if my parents were willing to drive me to the Brandon Mall.)

I thought I was a big deal because I was such a raving fan and I owned 20 t-shirts and had made my own handwritten Animaniacs guide (which was really mostly just to help me remember which episodes had been recorded off TV on which of my VHS tapes).

Look at this dang thing

OMG I forgot I left stuff in the pockets

When the internet began to exist I got on message boards to brag about being a really big fan of the show and I quickly encountered, well, people who knew a lot more than me--peeps who had met the voice actors and knew episode numbers. And I remember feeling annoyed that one of my friends who was in college had encountered Animaniacs content on the developing interwebs and had not “printed it out” for me. (She later gave me a huge printout of lyrics. I almost died.)

I still have the VHS tapes, all the Happy Meal toys, the comics, the pogs, the trading cards, the books and toys and plushies. I collected Life Cereal box tops and sent away to receive the Animaniacs stopwatch, which a child almost stole from me when I was tutoring in college. I drew so much fan art and memorized every song (to this day I can sing the original “Yakko’s World” song without a problem). I carried an Animaniacs lunchbox to school. (Yes, as a senior in high school.) I had the calendars. I got stickers out of raisin boxes. I listened to a radio program that started at 6 AM because they sometimes had references to the show. I dressed up as Dot for Halloween. I became a chat room host for the Kids’ WB! area on America Online when I was old enough and spent years supervising the room and talking about cartoons with kids.

More than 20 years ago Animaniacs was my first explosion of fan nerdiness, and even though what I’ve done with Steven Universe has been longer-lasting, more intense, and way way more expensive, I gotta say it’s really something to see a resurgence like this with the reboot and to touch those times again across decades.

Yakko was and is my fave. I guess I have a thing for falling in love with the leader. :)

#animaniacs #personal tag #myblog

371 notes · View notes

thebudgetgarden · 3 years ago

Text

The Budget Garden 2: Tachikaze “Goodstuff” (V-Premium)

Hello Cardfighters, So, I haven’t even completed a total of 3 posts before I got my very first request ! A person from my Vanguard playgroup overheard me mention this blog in passing to one of my friends, and so asked me if he could see my approach to a very cheap and strong Tachikaze deck. This, for those who are not in the know, is already a challenge, as Tachikaze is based on certain interactions with it’s own units, and on much more rare occassions, very strong, individual cards. So, I thought I would discuss one of the very first decks I build by myself, Tachikaze Goodstuff, an Accel deck that aims to hit hard and hit fast.

Let’s begin with the grade 3 units, as understanding our win conditions is the key to success with learning and handling Tachikaze properly.

We shall begin first with a list of our main grade 3 units, which in this case are varying rations of 4 different units, these being:

Light Battle Dragon, Gigannoblazer

Sundering Dragon, Terror Therizeeno

Fiery Light Dragon, Opticalcerato

Savage Mercenary

[CONT](VC):During your turn, if three or more new equip gauges were put for your units this turn, all of your front row units get [Power]+5000. [ACT](VC)1/Turn:COST [Counter Blast (1) & Soul Blast (1)], draw two cards, and call two cards from your hand to (RC). Put up to one card from the top of your deck face down as an equip gauge for each of those units. (Put without looking at the front of those cards）

[AUTO](VC/RC):When it attacks a vanguard, COST [retire another rear-guard], draw a card, if a unit with equip gauge was retired for this cost, choose one of your opponent's rear-guards, and retire it.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, or when it attacks a vanguard, you may put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for one of your rear-guards.

[CONT]:You cannot normal ride this card. [CONT](RC):If you have no units with equip gauge in the same column as this unit, this unit cannot attack. So, wow, right off the bat, there is a lot to unpack, so let us take it step by step, first by explaining the notion of what “goodstuff” means. “Goodstuff”, used in the context of card games, is a strategy or type of playstyle that doesn’t adhere to the usual norms of having a normal win condition and trying to fullfill that condition every game. It practically means that we are a Jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. Taking a look at our grade 3 line-up, this notion becomes all the more noticeable, as we dont really follow a coherent gameplan, rather we decide to play as many tools as possible in order to have the best chance of winning. Reading through these cards, we can already gleam at least three characteristics that set Tachikaze apart from all of the other clans in the game, with those key-words being: Equip gauge, which means placing the top card of your deck under one of your units as a “marker” or “indicator” that can be used in conjunction with various effects Retire, meaning getting rid of one of ours or one of our opponent’s rear-guard units. Excuse me for making such a long-winded introduction to what someone would innitially think is a fairly simple and easy to play deck, but understanding these concepts, as easy as they are for some, is an integral part of understanding the clan as a whole. That is very obvious with our main boss unit, Gigannoblazer. Gigannoblazer encapsulates the essence of Tachikaze perfectly. Not only does he possess a very strong advantage skill that helps facilitate very aggressive plays, but he also allows the Cardfighter that is using him to give a healthy 5k boost in the front row, allowing for magic numbers and choke-points to be hit in a much easier fashion. This is highlighted further by Terror Therizeeno, a strong back-up ride target, as well as a potent rear-guard unit. His skill might seem odd initially, but there is a lot of synergistic potential with his retiring skill, as he allows for dead columns that have already performed their attack to provide some value for you, both in forms of a draw and retiring a pesky unit your opponent may have. Opticerato is also fairly basic and simple. He’s a good call target that also functions well with the rest of the deck while attacking. A very simple and strong card, running a few copies wouldn’t hurt any Tachikaze deck. Savage Mercenary is an odd one. With a whopping 27k power, higher than any grade 3 in the game, you would think that his restrictive skill would stop him from being a gread addition, however, that is simply not the case. With a stupidly easy condition to fulfill, Mercenary becomes a very strong unit that cannot be blocked easily. Having a few copies in your deck as a simple and strong finisher is a must, as this card can easily steal wins from our opponents. All of these cards, while very strong, are also incredibly cost effective. If you were to buy a play-set of each card, meaning 4 copies of each individual grade 3, it would hardly set you back about 6 euros, which is a laughably low cost for such high impact units.

Moving on to the Grade 2 Units, we find ourselves in a very odd and unique predicament.

The grade 2 line-up for Tachikaze is, for a lack of a better term, completely pre-determined. This is not, however, a bad thing. It just means that the choices that we do have are both so powerful and inexpensive that they would usually find their home in the full competitive versions of these decks. The downside, though, is that the creative aspect gets a tiny bit stiffled, which is a small price to pay for such power-houses.

The grade 2 line-up is split amongst 4 very high impact units, those being:

Clearout Dragon, Sweeperacrocanto

Ravenous Dragon, Megarex

Turbo Smilodon

Regiment Dragon, Regiodon

[AUTO](RC)1/Turn:When it attacks a vanguard, put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for this unit. [CONT](RC):This unit gets [Power]+5000 for each of this unit's equip gauges, and if it has three or more equip gauges, it cannot be chosen by your opponent's card's abilities.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When it attacks a vanguard, COST [retire another rear-guard], and draw a card. If this unit is on (RC), COST [Counter Blast (1)], put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for this unit, and it gets [Power]+5000 until end of that battle for each gauge equipped to this unit.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, or when it attacks a vanguard, you may put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for one of your rear-guards.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When it attacks, you may put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for one of your rear-guards. [AUTO]:When retired from (RC) by your card's ability, call up to one card from this unit's equip gauge to (RC). You may put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for that unit. This ability may only be used by a card with the same card name once a turn. There is a lot to unpack here. Simply put, both Sweeper and Megarex are insane cards, maybe unfair in the general landscape of budget deck-building. Sweeper gives himself an equip gauge on attack, and he gets 5k power and a removal dodge ability… on BOTH players’ turns. Meaning that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, on the first turn that sweeper is played, he is going to be a 19k-24k attacker that keeps his high numbers and is resistant to pretty much all forms of removal, apart from some unique cases. There was a point that this card was so good people were considering it as a possible candidate for a BAN. Couple that with its laughably low price point, at 50 cents each, and it’s no wonder why people still use this card in every possible build of Tachikaze, no exceptions. Megarex is a completely different beast entirely. His power-up skill is a bit more restrictive, but it follows the exact same path as sweeper, simply less efficient, while also being more susceptible to removal. He more than makes up for it, however, with his retire and draw skill, which is completely free and works perfectly with the rest of the clan. Another thing to note is that he is insanely cheap, an entire playset of him going for about 1 euro and 20 cents. There is not a lot to be said about Turbo Smilodon, he’s a grade 2 version of Opticalcerato, a card we briefly discussed in the grade 3 section. Smilodon is, also, quite an expensive card. In the time of me writing this, we still dont know what the reprint price for him is from the new Revival Collection set, so for now he is sitting at a comfortable 1 euro and 50 cents per copy. If he’s not readily available, then running the grade 3 Optic is suggested as a replacement. Regiodon is also quite simple. A lot of skills in Tachikaze require the retiring of a rear-guard to be activated, and Regiodon is an excellent card, working as not only fodder for the rest of the team, but also as a multi-attack engine, if placed on an Accel marker. A lot of utility as well as a little bit of extra oomph for your combo turn.

The grade 2 line-up was a million times better than anticipated, but with that, it is now time to move along to the grade 1 line-up. The grade 1 line-up, to a certain extend, has also been solved, however a bit more of a creative spin can be put in it if any Cardfighter feels like experimenting.

There are several key budget units to consider right off the bat, those units being:

Fierce Claw Dragon, Laceraterex

Full Speed Dragon, Bluesprint

Angry Roar Dragon, Roarbaryo

Sonic Noa

[AUTO](RC):When placed from hand, put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for this unit. [AUTO]:When it is retired from (RC), COST [Soul Blast (1)], and return up to one gauge equipped to this unit to your hand.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When it attacks, you may put one card from the top of your deck face down as an equip gauge for one of your rear-guards. [AUTO]:When retired from (RC) by your card's ability, call up to one of this unit's equip gauges to (RC). You may put one card from the top of your deck face down as an equip gauge for that unit. This ability may only be used by a card with the same card name once a turn.

[AUTO](RC):When placed, COST [Soul Blast (1)], put the top card of your deck face down as an equip gauge for one of your other rear-guards, and that unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn for each of its equip gauges.

[AUTO](RC):When it boosts a rear-guard, put the top card of your deck face down as an

equip gauge

for the boosted unit.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack or the attack that it boosted hits a vanguard, COST [retire one other rear-guard], and draw a card.

The grade 1 line-up, just like the grade 2 line-up, is also quite excellent. We have more and more cards that fulfill our win-condition and allow us to have options no matter what the current board-state is.

An overwhelming amount of utility and value comes from both Bluesprint and Laceraterex, 2 cards that don’t only gauge themselves but also allow us to get even more value from our retires, both from a card-advantage, in the case of Laceraterex, and a potent multi-attack engine, in the case of Bluesprint.

Roarbaryo, however, is just pure damage output. With the cost of just one soul he can make a unit not only get an equip gauge for future usage, but also gives a boost that can range from just 5k, to 25k in the case of Sweeper. Overall a very simple and strong card. The 3 cards discussed above will not set you back more than 2 euros for a playset of all of them.

Sonic noa is a special case. He is a bit pricier and harder to come by compared to the previous cards that we discussed, but his effect more than makes up for it. Sonic Noa is our decks’ WHOLE game-plan, condenced into one card. Equip gauges, self-retire, card draw, he does it all and he does it very well. A playset of him will set you back about 2 euros but he’s getting reprinted in the next revival collection, so picking him up won’t be a difficult task in the coming weeks.

Example decklist

This particular list is not only very cheap and strong, but it’s also an excellent investment for future Tachikaze builds, if you wish to stick with this particular clan.

GRADE 3

4x Gigannoblazer

2x Terror Therizeeno

2x Opticalcerato

1x Savage Mercenary

GRADE 2

4x Sweeper

3x Megarex

3x Turbo Smilodon

2x Regiodon

GRADE 1

4x Roarbaryo

4x Sonic Noa

2x Bluesprint

2x Laceraterex

GRADE 0

x1 Starting Vanguard

x4 Draw Perfect Guards

x4 Heals

x8 Front Triggers

(Please keep in mind that these lists are made with the Budget Constraints first, as well as what is the most optimal ratio of cards depeding on their availability in Greece. All of these prices and lists are subject to change, but keeping the price low is the number 1 priority.)

Final Price: ~19 Euros

Closing thoughts and Special thanks

While this particular Budget profile wasn’t as long as the Previous one, I feel like I did a good enough job at showcasing one of the least appreciated clans out there, and I hope I assisted you in finding a new and interesting deck or playstyle. As a massive tachikaze fan (one of my top 5 favorite clans), this deck was a joy to playtest and write about.Special thanks to my friend Dimitri, who without him this Budget Profile wouldn’t have existed, as well as a special thanks to my close friends for reading through the previous post, even though they don’t know a single thing about Vanguard.That’s all for now, Cardfighters ! If you have read this far, thank you so much for your time and attention. Have a wonderful rest of your day ! Bloom aka thebudgetgarden (if you have any questions, feel free to contact my discord account: Bloom#8890)

#cardfight!! vanguard #vanguard #budgetdecks #tachikaze #cardgame #tabletop #cards

3 notes · View notes

foolgobi65 · 5 years ago

Text

yeh rishtaa kya kehlataa hain

@allegoriesinmediasres asked for: Rama/Sita, travel!AU, friends to lovers, “you confuse me”

as usual, this is completely unedited and thus is probably chock full of grammar errors, bad characterization, and terrible pacing. but! it was fun to write on my end so as always if u want me to rewrite it I’d be glad to lmaoo. it’s super super super cheesy at the end...like the whole third bit is just super cliche but w/e i love cliche romance its all good lol. anyways, i hope you like it at least a little!! thank you so much for the prompt <3 <3 <3

if you’d like to send me an au prompt from this list, please do!!

(title is from a lovely ar rahman song from the movie meenaxi, and also apparently a hindi soap, meaning “what is this relationship called?” )

---

It’s been two weeks since the Raghuvanshi Group put out a notice that nearly brought the Indian manufacturing industry to its knees: Ramachandra, eldest son of Dasaratha Raghuvanshi and anointed heir since his very first breath, has been stripped of his VP positions within the company, his stock options, even his entrance card. The gossip blogs report that Ramachandra has lost access to the family accounts and family property, have posted pictures of the young man once posed to be the next titan of Indian Industry at a local branch of the Bank of India, handing over what is rumoured to be his great-grandfather’s watch as a starting sum so that he can get his own personal account.

Bharata, three years Rama’s junior, is still in the United States working on his MBA: he has not yet been told of his brother’s effective exile from the family, nor of his own subsequent ascension to the position of CEO-in-waiting. Twins Lakshmana and Shatrugana, five years younger, are in London having just begun their undergraduate degrees. It was interesting, people used to say, that of the brothers it was only Rama who stayed in India. Rama who attended every company party and toured factories, solemnly noting down worker complaints on the weekends he could spare from his studies, in all respects the near exact opposite of his father whose four children are the sons of three women.

Four days after the company announced its decision, Ramachandra disappeared from the public eye. It takes ten days, but Janaki eventually tracks down enough public and private conjecture to find him in a housing colony nearly an hour long ride from Ayodhya, the Raghuvanshi family home in the center of the city. The door opens, and Janaki greets the man who can only be Sumantra, Dasaratha’s long-loyal driver who had apparently left the same day as it’s once shining son.

“Hello!” she says, palms folded and motorcycle helmets dangling by their straps from her wrists, “I’m a friend of Ram. Is he at home?”

The door closes almost entirely. “Why would sir be found here,” Janaki hears from the gap, as Sumantra hooks the metal chain that would prevent her from barging in even if she was strong enough to shove aside a man nearly 50 pounds heavier than herself. “He is a very rich man’s son, and I am only a driver.”

Janaki frowns. “No one is ever ‘only’ anything Sumantra-ji, we all do some type of work in order to live, and not one of these jobs is better or worse than another.”

From behind the door, she hears the sharp exhalation that could almost be a snort from someone more given to expressing his own feelings. Janaki was right, then, Ramachandra Raghuvanshi who grew up on one of the most expensive properties in India has sought refuge in a home he could have bought on a moment’s whim only two weeks before. The chain rattles, and the door opens wide.

“Janaki Videha,” Rama says, and suddenly it is four years ago and Janaki is again a student politician stuck in a hospital bed after a bad encounter with the police, flipping through notes meticulously taken by a classmate who insists on anonymity but could only possibly be the lanky, nearly silent boy that everyone knows will one day be one of the richest men in India.

Normally, a person seeing an old acquaintance after a few years would speak their name, then utter some platitude about how long it has been since they last met and invite them inside to catch up. Rama, who is only capable of erudition in front of men his father wants him to impress, conveys the implication that all of these social niceties have been uttered without saying anything but her name. Janaki smiles, takes off her shoes, and walks in.

---

“What are you even doing here?”

Janaki raises an eyebrow, pouring a little more soap into the bucket they were offered to use for clothes washing. It has been a month since Janaki found Rama and told him that she was going on a trip, and that she needed male company to keep her safe. A month since she handed him one of her motorcycle helmets, helped him pack his single spare change of clothes and toothbrush, and directed him to sit behind her and hold on tight so that they might make it to another friend’s village by evening and have a place to spend the night. Together, they have followed the western coastline, trading off who drives when Janaki realizes that not only does Rama have a deft hand at the wheel, but in the proper circumstances can coax thrills out of her old bike that she hadn’t even thought possible.

“What do you mean,” she asks, grabbing his kurta top from the pile of clothes he has slowly gathered from the families he has inadvertently charmed over their travels. He’s standing off to the side, hanging their host family’s saris to dry in order of color, taking the pains to smooth each piece of fabric and making sure none of them touch. In exchange for doing the family’s laundry today, Janaki and Rama are allowed to do their own, an exchange of goods and services that has served them well so far.

“We both know what I mean,” she hears in response. “You’ve just been elected President of the University Student Union, your father is up for election this year, and even if neither of those things were important enough you must have research you should be doing instead of traveling the coastline with the penniless, disgraced son of an industrialist.” His voice is as matter of fact as it always seems to be with him, but Janaki feels an undercurrent of self-hatred at the core of his little speech. Still, she thinks with a faint flush, it’s nice to know that he has kept up with her just as closely as she had him -- though of course it was much easier to find information about Ramachandra Raghuvanshi, always in the papers at exact, two week intervals so as to prevent the creation of scandals to amuse the public with during a news drought.

“I’d call your father a capitalist if I was really embarrassed to be seen with you,” she says back, “and there is more to be ashamed of in becoming rich through exploitation than in being poor through no fault of your own.”

Janaki hands over his kurta, and watches him wring it out one more time with hands stronger than her own. He smiles slightly. “The revolution never stops, does it?”

“No,” she smiles in return. “Not with me, and not, I think, with you either.”

Rama looks away, walking back to the rope to hang up his shirt. “What do you know about me that makes you so confident?” He pursues his lips briefly. “We weren’t even friends, and still you’re here with me.”

Why are you here, Janaki hears go unspoken, why haven’t you abandoned me as well?

When Janaki arrived on campus all starry eyed at 17, she had taken the student body by storm. Blessed with a vibrant personality and the natural pull of a gravity well, she brought people into her orbit effortlessly, rising up the university party ranks within months rather than years of her peers. Academically, she was registered as an economics student, a category the papers said she shared with the Raghuvanshi heir who had created quite the stir when he took his place at an Indian University instead of going abroad. She had been doing quite well, she thought, until the exhaustion after her first collection drive in support of a local workers’ strike fund had caught up to her and she had slept through a full day’s worth of classes. Just when Janaki had been about to call up an acquaintance in their batch she thought might lend her notes, a folder had been slipped underneath her dorm door. Inside, a set of meticulous notes, and a 2 lakh check.

“Isn’t the factory a subsidiary of the Raghuvanshi group?” Janaki’s roommate asked, turning over the check as Janaki flipped through the notes. Thank you for your work, they said at the top. Please let me know if the workers need more.

“Yes,” she had said, “but we can’t tell anyone about this.” For four years she had kept his secret, waiting for his packages whenever she was detained, or ill, or beaten up and could not attend the day’s lectures. More than just a copy of the class outline, Rama’s notes were full of asides, connections, slips of paper clipped with outside citations when he saw something that could be countered, or expanded on. When the party canvassed for funds, her notes would arrive with another check, no demands made in exchange except a humble request to let him know if they ever needed more.

Janaki looks at Rama now, hair growing long to match his new beard. Ramachandra Raghuvanshi had always been clean shaven, hair short and neat and slightly parted to the side in a way every girl instinctively knew must have been how his mother told him would suit. Her eyes soften.

“You used to take notes for me,” she says, “Why?”

His lips turn down just slightly. “It helped me study, to transcribe them again.”

Janaki raises an eyebrow. She remembers that the notes had always focused especially on areas she was known to be weak in, but she lets his half-truth slide. She has a better arrow in her quiver.

“And the money?”

His eyes are trained to the ground. “It wasn’t my money.” Well, certainly the last six weeks have made that much clear. But Janaki did not remember Rama spending exorbitantly in school: his largest expenses seemed to be the checks he sent her.

“We weren’t friends,” Janaki agrees, “But I knew that you were a good man,” Janaki says, “even if you’ve had to hide it from your family your whole life.” She snorts. “And if we weren’t friends then, we certainly are now -- look, I’m washing your underwear right now, and if that isn’t friendship I don’t know what is!”

The joke isn’t really that funny, but suddenly Rama bursts into laughter, loud and deep in a way Janaki doesn’t think she’d ever heard from him in class, on campus, even in the videos posted by the gossip rags online.

“I’ve never had a friend before,” he finally says, and Janaki tries not to show her surprise or the way that makes her hurt on his behalf. “But I would be grateful to be yours.”

Another two months pass, Janaki and Rama journeying up and down and around the west coast. Slowly, Rama starts to gravitate towards the work that he seems suited to do in trade for the day’s food and shelter, and Janaki watches as he seems to blossom in front of her eyes. Every place they drive into, Janaki begins to ask around and invariably there is a person who, more than needing wood split or clothes washed, is in need of a good scribe to write, in English, the details of their grievance against someone with more power than them. Rama listens, and writes, and accompanies men and women to go see a lawyer, or their landlords, and stands behind them speaking in that perfect colonial era British Indian accent he says he picked up at boarding school, making even Janaki squirm when she hears it.

Janaki’s ideology does not allow for her to venerate colonial markers of class, so that squirm must be one of discomfort, rather than, well, --

It has been three months since Janaki and Rama set out on their travels, and time is running out for Janaki who really does have things she has to get back to: a student union to run, a doctorate to work towards, a father’s election campaign to help out with. But everytime Janaki thinks about waking up one morning without seeing him when she turns her head, the pit in her stomach grows larger and more snarled. She doesn’t know how it happened but somehow Rama has gone from acquaintance, to friend, to....to something Janaki can’t even describe beyond simply laying claim to the person at her side. He has become “her” Rama, even though she knows you can’t own a person -- yet Janaki is greedy, and when she watches the small smiles that their trip has coaxed out of his mouth, watches him bargain with their host so that she can eat her favorite vegetable at dinner, watches him finally fall asleep after talking to her for hours into the night and finally look like the youth he is, Janaki knows that she can’t bear to leave.

“Are you angry,” she asks one day, passing him the newspaper cone of roasted peanuts they’ve been trading between themselves while they sit on the sand of an empty beach. There is no need to clarify what he possibly could be angry about.

“No,” he says, taking the cone. “I obey my father’s will.”

From anyone else, Janaki would laugh, but she knows that he speaks the truth as he sees it. The Raghuvanshis raised the perfect scion, a boy right out of those terrible 90s Hindi films who saw their parents as God and venerated at the altar of increased profits. Yet, they chose to throw him like yesterday’s trash -- but no matter, because their loss is Janaki’s gain, and she knows him, knows what makes him happy and sad, and glad and mad.

She knows, for one, that he is angry and that he needs to acknowledge it before she can ask him to come back with her and start over.

“Yes,” she says, “you obeyed quite beautifully. That doesn’t mean you aren’t upset.”

“Don’t -- I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work.”

She turns to look at him, jaw already clenched where usually it would take five times as long to get him to this state. He’s furious. Janaki’s heart aches in sympathy, longing to gather him up in her arms and tell him that it’s alright to be upset, that it would even be right to feel so, to kiss away the furrow in his beautiful brow and brush his curls behind his ear. But that would only make him close up, so instead --

“Don’t what?” she asks.

His entire body tightens, like a screw wound one turn too much. “I’m not upset,” he hisses, eyes flashing. “I’m fine!” Janaki brushes her hand over the one of his currently crushing the newspaper cone. As if burned, he lets go.

Sita sighs. “We don’t have to talk about it, but you’re clearly angry and it really isn’t healthy to keep it all in. There’s no one here at the beach, so I think you should just scream it out and try to move on with your life.” She’s not being entirely truthful, since she really does think he should talk about his family’s sudden and entire abandonment after years of encouraging near insane amounts of familial loyalty and emotional repression, but even this journey started out with a single step.

“You think I should... scream,” Rama says, eyebrow raised in perfect, aristocratic, condescension. Janaki nods.

“Just go out into the surf, scream at the top of your lungs for 20 seconds, and then we can leave no questions asked. I promise.”

“You won’t bring this up again,” he asks as if to confirm the terms of a business deal. Perhaps that’s what this is to him, finally back on familiar territory. Janaki shrugs, ignoring how her heart sinks to think of him seeing her care as nothing more than something to trade in order to keep away.

“For now.” At his frown, she shrugs again, allowing herself to smile a little. “If it looks like you’re struggling in the future, I’m definitely going to ask again.”

For a moment, Rama’s eyes widen in ...shock? Surprise? Was he not expecting for them to remain in each other’s lives? Janaki can’t allow herself to think too hard or long on the subject, especially since Rama has, without a word, risen and walked over to the surf.

He glances once over his shoulder, and Janaki waves in encouragement. He begins to scream.

20 seconds pass, and Janaki really does think he will stop and walk back, brushing off any questions and wandering back into the village they’ve decided to stay in this week. But then 30 pass, then a minute, and suddenly Rama is just screaming, knees falling into the waves and hands coming up to clutch and pull at his hair and Janaki is running as fast as she ever has to crash next to him in the wet sand. She shifts sideways, putting her body perpendicular to his so that her back is not to the waves but she can still look at his face -- he’s still screaming, doesn’t seem to have noticed her body next to his, tears streaming down his face. Janaki’s hands flail, but finally she realizes that she can only rely on the instincts that have led her the past few months to find him, to drag him on the back of her bike, to tell him to scream.

Janaki pulls Rama into her chest, her arms around him as she begins to weep along with him. Every time she tries to grasp the scale of the injustice done to him, she finds that her mind is too small. He was raised with every luxury, but with a conditional love that demanded a machine instead of a man. He’s stopped screaming, but has replaced it with gut wrenching sobs, hoarse from when his throat seems to have finally given out -- Janaki wonders when he last wept.

She loves him, she realizes, pressing an absent kiss into his hair. That’s what this feeling must be.

“You what?”

Oh, Janaki thinks, did I say that aloud?

“Ah,” she hears, “yes you did.” Rama raises his head, both of them still kneeling in the surf, tear tracks glistening down the cheeks he had just shaved at the request of an older lady who offered to house them if only he would look respectable. “Do you mean it?”

Janaki swallows, the pit in her stomach as large as it ever has been. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be -- she was supposed to convince him to come back with her, and then later talk about how she wants to kiss him silly.

“You want me to come back with you?” Oh for--

“Yes,” she says, confident that nothing she thinks now will remain within the privacy of her mind. “I want you to come back with me, and study to become a lawyer, and live with me as we try to make the world a better place.”

Rama’s eyes are wide, and Janaki wonders if she’s ever seen him look so fragile. He sputters.

“Fragile? I don’t look frag--”

Janaki laughs, bringing her hand up to cradle his cheek, right thumb brushing gently against his cheekbone. “Alright?”

Rama swallows, blinking his assent as if he suddenly can’t speak. A minute passes where the only sound is of the ocean waves crashing gently in front of them, water periodically flooding them up to their hips.

Rama clears his throat. “Do...” he takes a breath, “do you really think I could?”

“What,” Janaki asks, “become a lawyer?”

He nods. “Everything. I...” he looks away, and Janaki feels the beginning of euphoria. In his eyes there is fear, but not dread -- he wants what she wants, wants it bad. “My entire life I was trained to bring honor to our family name, to do that by making money and keeping my family members happy. I don’t--” Janaki’s thumb moves from his cheekbone to his lips, before he can say something idiotic like ‘I don’t know how to keep you happy.’ Rama laughs, eyes glistening with hopefully something other than tears.

“But I don’t know! Your needs are so different from the people I grew up with!”

Janaki leans forward until her forehead rests against his and their lips nearly touch. “I love you as you are,” she says, “the things I want, you’ve already given me.”

She can feel his brow crinkle, pressed as it is against hers. “I don’t own anything to give you!”

Janaki laughs: only the hideously rich could think so.

“I’m greedy,” she says, eyes closed as wave after wave of happiness floods her exponentially like the way the water of the high tide touches further and further parts of the land. “I want things that you’ve given no one else -- your grief, and joy, and triumph, and failure. I want to wake up with you, and go to sleep with you, and make breakfast with you, and dinner too. I want--”

Rama bridges the gap, and Janaki says no more. He gasps when they break apart, and a vicious part of her wants to ask if he’d kissed any of the high society women he’d been photographed with like that.

“No,” he laughs, and Janaki feels another thrill to see it. “It wouldn’t have been polite.” He leans back, bringing up his own hands to cup her entire head in his palms, lips curved in a wistful smile. “Everyday you confuse me.”

Janaki bites her lip when he doesn’t continue. “Do you like that?”

He shakes his head, and suddenly the pit comes roaring back. “I think I love it,” he says instead, smiling still. “I think I love you, Janaki.”

His smile widens, almost a full grin now. “My Jaan.”

#ramayana #maya writes #obviously this is just wish fulfillment #but he goes back with her becomes a lawyer #leaves behind the company #eventually probably reconciles with his family #definitely with his poor brothers stuck abroad who don't know wtf is happening #but he never goes back to running hte company esp when hes in love with communist sita #who gleefully talks about her 'class traitor' husband #he takes her last name when they marry eventually #oh i keep calling her sita on instinct instead of janaki #which is a change i made entirely based on how much nicer janaki videha rolled off the tongue than sita videha #its just a slight different but w/e #i still think sita is the prettier and better name tho #also...had to be janaki so that the nickname could be jaan #had to sneak that shit in ok its gold #but yeah he becomes a lawyer specializing in land rights cases vs the state #its all very sexy

37 notes · View notes

notnctu · 4 years ago

Note

(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ short story that just happened, but here's a little background on my personality irl first to understand a little; originally people don't approach me first because I have a really strong resting bitch face (lol), so I don't seem really friendly until I'm spoken to (all hell will break loose once I talk, I'm so loud irl actually).

So I was talking back and forth to this seller from one of my nct sell/buy/trade groupchats about a Shotaro/Yuta pc (also I've been thinking about collecting Shotaro pcs lololol), anyway, I asked her how much these and those were, etc. all the normal stuff you'd ask when u wanna buy something. Then I asked her how much Jungwoo photocards were from ksellers if u included the 2nd payment + local postage all around. Now, y'see, I have this mindset that my local sellers sell Jaehyun at a ridiculous price for album pcs alone, especially kihno ones, so when she said that Jungwoo's album pcs were more expensive than Jaehyun's, I immediately did a back flip, because I shit you not, I spoke to, not one, but two sellers today, about Jungwoo's price and both of them said about RM100-200+ 🤡 so when she said "local sellers sell Jungwoo better, but ksellers are out of the line," and also "locals are ridiculous to sell Jaehyun that high, I could just ask ksellers for cheap". With that in mind, she asked me for my twt and now we're friends cus we're both equally salty with locals AND ksellers for overpricing a piece of cardboard JESUS 😂

in conclusion, it shocked me to see that I managed to make friends with people online really easily compared to irl because of my rbf, that is all, thank u for attending my ted talk.

hahaha i love this interaction, a bond over the pricing of photo cards :) i wonder if i would approach you irl then if thats the case---

#asks #woobear anon #i probably would tho hahahaha

2 notes · View notes

youarejesting · 5 years ago

Text

NCT127 Incarceration: 1

[MASTERLIST]

Pairing: Unknown (this is a NCT127 fic though it mentions all the members they will not be the focus unfortunately as I cannot keep up trying to write such a big group.)

Genre: Friendship, Comedy, Mystery, Drama, Romance, Action, Adventure, Brains, Sex and more. HONESTLY ALL THE GOOD STUFF.

Summary: The worlds craftiest criminals held in the most expensive and elaborate prison. Landing yourself among the best of the best, you find that personally prison life isn’t for you. In a room full of criminals who can you trust?

Announcement: My first ever NCT fic please show it some love, just double tap the screen if you find you like it while reading.

It was a prison for the best of the best, the most dangerous and the craftiest. And you had a one-way ticket, you were proud of what you did and you wouldn’t change a thing.

Blindfolded and driven to the facility you would stay, you noted every turn and counted for estimated travel time and direction.

You could hear the radio playing, talking about a new development in the town. “So apparently they are building a new estate on the south-east of the prison that would mean that we have surrounded the entire prison making it the safest prison in the world as all the workers of the prison live in each one of those little houses”

“There was some debate when they started building so close that the worker’s families were in danger but now the economy is booming people have a good stable home and the amount of security makes this the safest place in the world”

“Next year they are planning to make a school so children don’t have to travel outside the town for their education. Set on the patch of land off directly south of the prison,” They took you from the vehicle and wheeled inside.

“Look at your new home” they whipped your blindfold, and you looked around finding out potential escapes and security level. You smiled at the surrounding area. This would be easy for you were good at what you do.

Your father had taught you well, how to hide in plain sight and it was a harmless trick as a child but had landed you in the most expensive prison in the world. Which by the entranceway was a sign-in desk for the guards, handing over your paperwork as required. They signed you in with the prison name at the top of the page.

‘The South Korean penitentiary for dangerous and ingenious criminals’

“Why is her blindfold off?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t see much” you said with an innocent smile. They took you to your cell, the man telling you everything. “So who is the warden?”

“What makes you think it’s not me?” He said you shrugged knowing full well that they had people from many backgrounds believing they were in their own country but you had read the paperwork. Standing still as they detached you from the carrier they had strapped you to. Your hand dipped into his pocket taking his pen slipping it down your long sleeve. They left shutting the door to the cell behind them, leaving you alone for a short while. Inspecting the place you noticed there were no camera’s in the room but you had noticed some outside in the halls.

They buzzed the doors, each swinging open, and you walked to the door as directed over the PA system and you all walked single file out to dinner. The whole prison was unisex even your cell block was mixed. You followed seeing a few groups chatting taking a bunch of napkins while you were waiting and began writing some things you didn’t want to forget like what you had seen so far of the floor layout.

“Hey you plotting your big break,” a young man asked he was all smiles, I am Mark, you speak English right they said the new inmate was English, that’s you right?”

“I wouldn’t bother trying, you can’t escape here. Just ask Yuta he has been here the longest out of all of us. He almost escaped once, but he never speaks about what he saw?” Another spoke, “My name is Johnny, and this guy is Mark, over there you got; Kun, Winwin, Ten, Lucas, Hendery, Xiaojun, Yangyang, Renjun and Chenle. They all hang out and keep things pretty hush. They speak Chinese mostly.”

“The table beside them has Taeyong Taeil, Doyoung, Jaehyung, Jungwoo, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin and the youngest of all of us here Jisung,” Said boy lifted his head and waved mark grinned waving back happily

“Yuta sits alone at that table there and refuses to speak to anyone in any other language than Japanese because of… he… well, I don’t know why,” Mark shrugged sliding down the bench until he was across from you. “That’s everyone in NCT. That is our unit, it stands for Non-Conventional Threat. It means we are not your typical criminals we are the masterminds the best of the best. Next door is the H.O.T unit High-risk Offender Threat. There are only a few in that group and I am sure they have killed people before they have been here for a long time and they have chaperones. There is the After School unit, they are in the south wing they are boys and girls who are going through their schooling from grades one to master degrees. I am Mark as you already know, what is your name?”

“Y/n” you said standing with your tray and walking over to the end table where Yuta sat alone,

“You always talk too much” Johnny laugh at his friend’s embarrassment.

Sitting across from Yuta he murmured in Japanese “Please leave me alone.”

“No, I think we should trade, I will tell you what I know if you tell me what you know”

“What could you know?”

“We are in the South Korean penitentiary for dangerous and ingenious criminals. The town that surrounds the prison is filled entirely for people who work at this prison so if you escape they can easily find you, except they are building new estate south-east of the prison which means empty homes that someone could hide in. Directly South of the prison behind the town there is a small area they plan to bulldoze next year to make room for their new school”

“How do you know all this?” He eyed you

“I am a genius just like you, and I got a plan, the problem is, it's kind of big and I will need some help you in?”

“Look I don’t want to be part of your scheme there is no escape so just deal with it you are stuck here, just like the rest of us”

You walked away and sat alone at a table observing the room getting the layout, there was a kitchen and by the sound of it there were no doors that lead in or out of the kitchen other than the one connected to the dining hall which meant the kitchen was a dead end. Good to know. Yet there was no visible door’s in the dining hall and the dining hall lead straight to their cells and other than the cells there was no doorway.

Each cell had a shower sink and toilet unit that came out of the wall and hid back away. So the doors must be the same invisible to the naked eye. With as much skill as you could without making it obvious, you walked over to the Chinese group you spoke a little mandarin. You smiled at them.

“Hello, my name is y/n.” They seemed surprised, and you moved around the table as they all greeted you and you saw the disguised card reader that you could only tell was different to the rest of the wall by the slightly aged and dirty patch on the wall. Just like how light switches collect marks over time from use, this was the same “ah the door is here”

“What?”

“The door into the dining room is here, how else do the workers get inside. You can tell because of the dirty mark from use they rubbed their key cards on the wall” You said in English more to yourself. You didn’t expect Hendery to figure out what you meant let alone recite it to the others. “Don’t make it obvious” you scolded, their heads all snapped to Hendery as he reigned them in.

You wanted to investigate more but your nose started bleeding your head feeling tight from overthinking. Staggering forward you sat down beside Mark who shrieked at the sight and went to get you some napkins.

56 notes · View notes

euphoriacrossing · 5 years ago

Text

Why couldn't more focus could have been placed on the cherry blossom festival?

I am so sick of eggs. Really I never liked them but I tried to tolerate them and just... no. I finished making all the DIYs and I have no use for any more eggs yet it goes until the 12th.

The cherry blossom stuff is so difficult to collect I've spent HOURS attempting to and I still only have part of the recipes. I am missing at least two I really want, the clock and the wand, oh and the pile of petals I want too. And then I'm missing few others as well not even sure what they are. I did get the umbrella which I wanted and the little purse which I didn't even know was one you could get but I love it. And the thing is, despite it being difficult I am still having more fun with it than I did with the "Bunny Day" event and that goes on two days longer and has such a big focus compared to the cherry blossom stuff. I don't know why, really.

But anyway, yeah, I am pretty much doing the same thing as last night now. Wasting time and then checking the right beach on minutes that end in 0 or 5 for the regular balloons. It's been working pretty well I suppose, but it still takes a bit so I have to find some way to pass the time in between minutes.

Euphoria is getting better everyday. Today I was able to give Marina's house a fenced in yard and I prepared to move Biff's so I can do the same for him. I built the cherry blossom lanterns and put them at the entrance to my outdoor bath and they look pretty nice in the moonlight I think.

Wart Jr. is moving out! In exchange for Coco who I am excited to have join the Euphorian Club. I hate to be one of those people who kicks out ugly villagers just for being ugly, but I mean, the thought of warts makes my skin crawl. And these games are supposed to be enjoyable and if this is how I enjoy the game then this is how I'll play it.

I still have to pick who I want to invite next, because I have 3 I definitely want to move out and as much as I love some of the others, the only ones completely safe are Marina and Beau. And if Beau asked to move on his own i might let him, so really the only one i know i would beg to stay is Marina. But yeah, I think I have a deck of amiibo cards something like 16 packs thick with less than 6 doubles, so I have quite the decision to make. I don't know if I want to go for a certain type of villager... I think maybe I could go smug for smug and move Curlos out and another smug villager in, but I don't know, I'll have to see who I have in my deck.

Oh! And I have to share the letter Biff sent me this morning completely unprompted.

It's little things like this which make me love this game soooooo much. It's nice to be appreciated even by a fictional character.

I paid off my 758,000 bell loan today (or it was somewhere around there) and now the loan is over a mil? I feel like I won't ever be able to pay that back, but I need more STORAGE for clothes! And other things, but mostly clothes. Ugh, it got so expensive so fast. Was it like this in other games?

And I have gotten my paths done for the main middle part of the map where stores and things are. Now i need to figure out what kind of paths I am going to make elsewhere and honestly what I am going to do everywhere else. I think I want an outdoor library, but I need book shelves and such first. And I know I want to make my orchard more organized looking, but I don't know how to even start that. I want to do more decoration with cute pastel and dark spooky things (yes both) in the middle part of the map but I need to find more things like that that I can use as decor.

I guess I need to start seeing if I can get into the trading world. Or something like that where I can find more of the items I need and at least catalog them so I can buy them myself. I am kind of nervous about trying all that though because i am pretty socially anxious, and i get panicky even playing games with people i don't know. But then i have done so well playing with my new friends who weren't as familiar to me when we started playing, but I still didn't panic when we first played, so I am thinking I could do this. But I dunno. We'll see. First I guess I need to find a good place to go about such things anyway.

Anyway, I guess that is mostly it. There isn't gonna be a ton of new stuff to talk about since I beat story mode, but I am still enjoying the game and feel there is much left to do, so you know, I'll be around, wasting time in between balloons or shooting stars, or looking for helpful tips on different things.

I may be having oral surgery Wednesday, so I have high Hope's that when I can't sleep, AC will take away the pain. We'll see though.

Oh, like turnips. I found a good guide so I'm gonna read up on 'em for next week. The were selling pretty high here this morning like they seem to be every week so I put it off. But maybe next week.

So yeah, like I said I'll be around but I don't know how many more text posts I could squeeze out of doing a lot of the same things over and over.

I leave you with the weird stuff Puddles says when Wisp is around...

I would totally watch a show called "Ghosts 'n Stuff".

#Euphoria #ACNH #Animal Crossing #New Horizons #personal #text post #AC Biff #AC Puddles

18 notes · View notes

lurafita · 5 years ago

Text

Peter/Avengers, dub/con, captivity, Part 4

TAGGING PEOPLE STILL ISN’T WORKING!

Support couldn’t give me an answer to my problem. Though they said they would send me a link with a tool kinda thing, that I would have to install, and maybe that might help, then. Havn’t gotten it yet, but they said it might take a few days to get the file packed, or something. I have no clue about these things. Wish I had a Tony Stark in real life I could go bother with this.

Anyway, I would like to ask everyone to reblog this post, if you don’t mind, so that hopefully everyone who asked to be tagged for future parts will be able to find this. Thanks!

Read previous parts here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Once again, heed the tags below the cut.

kidnapping, dub/con, captivity, chains, bondage, obsessive Avengers, Peter/Everyone, darkly soft Avengers (in the sense that they hold Peter captive, but only want to love and protect him), non-powered Peter, dark-ish Avengers, 18+ Peter, Clint is not married and has no kids, Tony is not in a relationship with Pepper.

Part 4

Setting things up was almost too easy.

The Avengers floors in the tower were spread over four stories.

One floor made up an intricate and wide indoor training gym, with special equipment. The one above that was dedicated to lab work, and had all the instruments any scientists heart could ever desire.

Then came the common floor, which was by far, the biggest.

In the beginning, Tony had set it up so that every Avenger would have their own, private floor.

But everyone had quickly migrated to the completely functional guest rooms (that all came with en-suite bathrooms) on the common floor. There was more than enough room for everyone, and the team mates liked being close to each other, while still having some privacy in their own rooms.

Peter's room, of course, had also always been on the common floor.

The parameters for Friday's new protocol were easy to code into her mainframe. As was the math to calculate the length of the chain, and the best place to anchor it to, so that Peter would still be able to roam the whole of the common floor freely, but unable to reach the elevator.

Tony and Bruce would, of course, take Peter to their labs with them, if he wished for it. A fitting chain would be placed there as well. Things were a bit different for the gym. They suspected that Peter would want to keep up his ballet practices with Natasha (once he got used to his new circumstances a bit, they had no delusions that the first few days would be difficult for everyone). However, he clearly couldn't be chained down for those. So there would be no chains there.

And really, the chains weren't actually necessary. With Friday's updated protocols, which disallowed Peter the use of the elevators (which were the only way to access the Avenger floors), unless one of the Avengers was with him, or in case of an immediate emergency; as well as the fact that each and every one of them would be able to easily restrain Peter if it came to it, there was honestly no need to put a shackle on the younger man.

Thinking back, Tony didn't even know who had suggested it in the first place, but once the image was there...

They wanted it.

They wanted the visible, physical, undeniable proof, that Peter wouldn't leave them.

Couldn't leave them.

They wanted to be able to touch the chain, run their hands over the links, hear the sound it would make every time the brunette moved.

Tony took great pleasure in making it. He was not going to allow some crude, mass manufactured, heavy dark chain to touch his Sweetheart's soft skin. No. The chain he was making was a gold aluminum alloy, just like his armor. Strong, but light, and a glittering gold and red color. The cuff that would rest around Peter's ankle was padded with the softest material Tony could find, ensuring that neither the delicate skin, nor bones would get damaged from wearing it over a long period of time.

Feeling inspired, the billionaire also made some handcuffs out of the same metal and soft padding, as well as some other things that almost had him come in his pants, from simply imagining using them on Peter. Not right away, of course, he didn't want to spook his Sweetheart. But once things had progressed a little, when Peter had learned to accept (and maybe reciprocate) their love, these things would be there, and Tony and the others would use them to make his Sweetheart feel more pleasure than he ever had before.

When Peter graduated from University, Tony had finished making all the restraints they would need (and want). To celebrate Peter's graduation, Tony invited everyone (the team, Peter's aunt, and his two friends) to the most expensive restaurant in the city. Between the lighthearted teasing and sincere praise of everyone, Peter was blushing the whole evening.

Such a pretty little thing.

During the next days, as his departure to Australia drew ever nearer, Peter was a bundle of nervous energy. Fretting about preparations for his trip, getting everything in order, trying to spend time with Ned and MJ, his aunt and the Avengers, before he wouldn't see them for quite a while.

The day before his plane would depart, just as they had planned, the Avengers again invited everyone out, this time to a fancy, discreet place that served brunch. The food was good and everyone had a great time. At the end, Ned, Michelle and May Parker thanked the Avengers for the invitation, and then all hugged Peter tightly (May with tears in her eyes) and wished him all the luck in the world on his trip.

Peter likewise had to wipe some moisture out of his eyes after the heartfelt goodbyes.

Back at the tower, Bruce started the final stage of their plan.

“Peter? Professor Stoddard gave you a list of all the recommended shots for Australia, right?”

The younger man grinned. “Yep. Got them all covered. On a side note, I really hate needles.”

The admission got a small chuckle out of everyone, as well as a little smile from Bruce.

“Well, if you can grit your teeth through one more, I have mixed up something in the lab that will help your body to better adapt to the Australian climate.”

Peter gave him a look between surprised and moved.

“Aw, thank you, Bruce. You really didn't have to.”

But the doctor shook his head, and placed an arm around the slightly smaller man, guiding him to the elevator, the dark, knowing eyes of the other Avengers on their backs.

“Nonsense. I think we all would feel a lot better, knowing that you are less likely to collapse from heatstroke the minute you get off the plane. Come. It's in my lab.”

Ten minutes later, the elevator doors opened back up, showing Bruce carrying an unconscious Peter in his arms.

Steve stepped forward immediately, offering to take Peter from him.

“You made sure the sedative isn't harmful?”

Bruce would take offense, but he knew that the super soldier was simply worried and anxious for their precious one.

“I've tested it multiple times. He will sleep soundly for approximately the next nine hours.”

With Peter carefully cradled in his arms, Steve led the small procession to the younger man's room, where he laid him gently into his bed.

Natasha came forward and lovingly carded her fingers through the always messy, brown curls, swiping away a stray lock from his eyes. Clint was already in the process of removing the sleeping man's shoes, and Bucky, with sure but soft hands, opened Peter's jeans and tenderly stripped them off.

Sam was collecting the younger man's tablet, phone and laptop. They would be kept secure and out of Peter's reach, until they could be sure that their love wouldn't try to contact anyone about his captivity.

Tony and Thor entered the room then, carrying the long, gold and red chain between them.

Clint huffed at the sight. “I'm still not happy that my Darling will be wearing your color scheme all the time.”

Tony just smirked at him. “What did you want me to paint the chain with? Purple? No chance.”

Then he took the cuff that was linked to the chain, and approached the bed. He sat down at Peter's naked feet (Bucky had quickly traded the jeans for a soft pair of pajama bottoms, not wanting his Doll to get cold during the night, in only his boxers)

Tony took a moment to just admire the sleeping form of the man that held all their hearts in his hands. He looked so peaceful. He moved his hand to the ankle that laid against his thigh. Such soft skin. He stroked over it lightly. So delicate. He could wrap his whole hand around the appendage without problem.

“We were right. Peter isn't made for the jungle. It would be too rough on him. We can't let him go. He needs us.”

He didn't need to look up to see the agreement in the others eyes, and without further delay, he closed the cuff around the pale flesh.

“The chain will have to come off for changing clothes and taking baths, so there is a fingerprint scanner here” He pointed it out for the others “programmed to recognize our thumb prints. You need to press your thumb to it for five seconds, before it comes off, so there should be no accidental release. We will all need to watch our steps from now on, so that we don't trip over the chain.”

Everyone nodded.

Steve spoke next.

“Remember that Peter won't be too happy with us during the next few days. Maybe longer. He won't understand this, and he will like it even less. The first week will likely be the most frustrating for all of us, but I won't tolerate anyone taking it out on him.”

He was met with scowls.

“No one here would ever hurt him.” Sam had crossed his arms over his chest.

“It will take time, but Lastashka will come around.” Natasha continued to stroke his hair.

“Patience and love. Just like we talked about. He will accept it, one day.” Bucky's voice was confident and steady.

“It is rare that all of us are needed for a mission, so there is always going to be at least one of us here with him. This should help him to get used to it.” Bruce added.

“I will have to attend matters at Asgard occasionally, but I doubt it will take more than a day at a time. It is important that we show him that we will always be there for him, and take care of his needs.”

Tony stroked over the padded shackle once more, before standing up and covering the still unconscious Peter with the warm blanket.

“Friday, initiate Protocol: Caged Bird.”

The first few days were difficult, but it was nothing they hadn’t expected.

Peter was mostly confused. He didn’t understand why his friends were doing what they were doing. He didn’t understand that their feelings for him exceeded friendship by a mile. He didn’t understand that keeping him locked up, was for his own good.

He tried reasoning with them, tried convincing them that nothing would happen to him in Australia, or any other expedition he might take part in in the future. (He was very upset about having missed his flight. At the sight of tears gathering in his eyes, Steve had climbed into bed with him and cuddled the unwilling college graduate for about an hour)

After that Peter had got it in his head that the team had been hypnotized or otherwise manipulated by some kind of villain. (”This isn’t right. You know it isn’t. Someone is making you act this way. You have to fight this.”) But, of course, it was to no avail.

They had expected him to be angry at them, to scream and curse and wish them to hell (though he never did). And while he was clearly very unhappy about the situation, it wasn’t his anger that cut into the Avengers. It was his sadness.

The team did their best to help Peter through the ordeal, help him get used to things. Affectionate touches were freely given and numerous, no matter how reluctantly they were received.

They were vigilant about not giving him time or opportunity to get lost in negative emotions. Took care that he always ate and drank enough, would change the shackle from one ankle to the other every day, and then spent a few minutes to massage the joint, to ward off any discomfort.

Due to the shackle and chain needing to be taken off, in order for Peter to change his bottoms, or shower, someone was always in the room with him during that time. The lack of privacy and his own shyness about the others seeing him naked like this, was possibly the most challenging hurdle for Peter to overcome.

It took two weeks, for Peter to stop flinching away from their touches, and then another four days until he didn’t automatically stiffen any more, when one of them hugged him. His pleas to be let go tapered off after roughly the first month into his captivity.

When Clint actually managed to make Peter laugh one day, things changed again.

With the younger man’s slowly growing acceptance of his non-negotiable presence in the tower, the team grew bolder in their displays of affection.

Lips soon found their way onto the soft skin, hands alone no longer enough. Necklines were pulled lower, exposing more of the delicate neck and shoulder bones, then covering the light skin in love bites and hickeys.

Shirts were rolled up to gain access to stomach and chest. to stroke and caress, to lick and kiss. Soft tickles to the sides of the sensitive belly, light pinches and bites to the pink nipples.

Hands found their ways under the soft pants and boxers Peter wore, squeezing his buttocks, fingers ghosting over the rim, stroking up and down the length of his penis.

The younger man would tell them to stop, tried to shove them away, or wriggle out of their grasps, at first, but he was never successful. It was like a switch had been pulled in the Avengers heads. Knowing that Peter couldn’t get away from them, couldn’t run, couldn’t leave, allowed them more and more freedom to express their love.

They wanted to kiss him. Caress him. Feel him. Taste him. They wanted to make him feel good. Make him experience all the pleasure they could. Wanted to hear him moan, and gasp, and writher. They wanted to hear their name on his lips when he came. And then they wanted to do it all over again.

Peter discovered that, despite the chain that already shackled him to their home, the Avengers liked to restrain him even further, whenever things got more intimate.

Bucky and Steve both liked to use their superhuman strength. Steve would gather the thin wrists in one of his big hands, and hold them to whatever surface Peter happened to be on, before descending on the slighter body.

Bucky was the same, just that he exclusively used his metal arm to trap Peter’s hands with, so that his flesh one would be able to feel the others skin beneath him.

Sam and Clint almost always used the padded handcuffs that Tony had made, to bind Peter’s arms behind his back. Sam liked for Peter to straddle him like this, while he played with his body. Clint preferred to lay the younger man down on the closest soft surface, be that the couch in the living room, or whoever’s bed was nearest, and have his wicked way with him.

Natasha usually took Peter to her bedroom, where she used silk shawls and other soft ties to secure him to her bed. (”Tying someone down can have two implications, Lastashka. The most obvious one is that it makes you unable to resist and gives me complete control. The other reason is that it’s not about reciprocation. Being bound forces you to accept the pleasure that I give you, to let me take care of you, let me make you feel good and worship your body like it should be worshiped. If you wonder which one of those implications comes into play here, it’s actually both. I like being in control, Peter, but I also like making you feel good. Just let me love you.”)

Most surprising was probably Bruce’s fondness for Japanese bondage. The older scientist loved to put Peter in elaborate and complicated bindings (with special ropes that wouldn’t burn or shave at the delicate skin, of course). He would patiently and carefully wrestle the younger man into compliance, and then skillfully tie him up. The only reason the bondage never included a gag, Peter came to realize, was that Bruce would stop his work every few minutes, to kiss him tenderly on the lips, the cheeks, and his forehead. Sometimes they didn’t even have sex when Bruce tied him up, though the man always made Peter come.

Thor was probably the odd one out, as he didn’t have a specific method he used to restrain his lover. Sometimes he would use a soft rope, other times he closed the padded handcuffs around Peter’s wrists, and other times still the god of thunder would simply clamp his own, big hands around the slim body and manhandle him however he wanted to. One day Thor had stripped his love, pinned him down on his bed with one hand, and with the other, carefully, hesitantly, but full of anticipation, laid his hammer onto the youngers chest. Mjölnir wasn’t heavy in the sense that it crushed Peter, but it was completely impossible for the younger man to move out from under it. All he could do was claw at the bedding and move his legs to the almost overwhelming pleasure, as the Asgardian took him again and again.

Tony, even though he had been the one to design and make the handcuffs and various other restrains the team used on Peter, would usually direct one or more of the empty Iron Man armors to hold his Sweetheart in position. He loved watching as Peter ineffectually writhed against the unyielding hold of something he had created, while he kneeled before his captive, using the skill learned from years of being New York’s number one playboy, to suck him off. He always made Peter orgasm once, before he entered him. It was such a heady feeling, such a turn on, to see Peter experience a second release, while the billionaire himself was buried deep inside his warmth.

They made sure not to overwhelm Peter too much. He couldn’t be taken by everyone, everyday. And really, no one had a problem with this. After all, it wasn’t purely about sex. They loved Peter, and they loved making love to Peter, but fucking for hours on end was not the only way that physical attraction and devotion could be expressed.

Cuddling during movie nights, or taking a bath together, having him sit between their legs and leaning back into their chest while he was reading a book, were all things that were high on everyone’s list for making Peter feel special and loved.

Whenever it wasn’t Steve himself to share this kind of intimacy with his Honey, he liked to draw the scene before him. His sketchbook was full of pages upon pages of Peter being cherished by one of his team mates. (He always drew the chain, and sometimes the handcuffs, as well. The different restraints had become as much of a symbol for their love, as everything else had)

Three and a half months into Peter’s captivity, everyone was gathered in the living room, watching a movie. Peter was lying with his head in Natasha’s lap, the former Assassin lovingly stroking her hand through his hair. His legs were laid over Sam’s lap, with the man softly kneading his calves. The rest of the Avengers had spread out over the other couches and chairs in the room, basking in the peaceful atmosphere that knowing Peter was close by, always brought to them.

“Do you hate us?”

Natasha’s quiet question cut through the room like a knife, and Peter could see every one of the Avengers stiffen, as they waited for him to answer. He inhaled deeply.

“...No. I don’t hate you. I don’t like being locked up, I’m not always too happy about all the restraints, I miss being able to run around outside, jump from building to building, or just take a walk. I still don’t understand why you are doing all this,... But I don’t hate you.”

They all slumped a little in relief, Sam affectionately squeezed the ankle without the shackle, and Natasha continued to stroke through Peter’s hair.

“No more parkour for you, Doll. It’s too dangerous.” Came Bucky’s rumble to the brunettes right, and he could see the others nod their heads in agreement to this. He sighed.

“But we can talk about a few outings in the future.”

Natasha and Sam kept him from sitting up, but Peter still looked at Tony with wide, excited eyes.

“Really?”

The billionaire nodded. “If you agree to wearing a tracker, maybe an anklet. And at least one of us has to be with you. Possibly a few more rules that we will decide on then. But yes, really.”

Seeing the reluctant agreement to that in everyone’s eyes, Peter smiled widely. It wouldn’t happen in the next few days, he knew. Maybe not even for another month or more. But he would get to go outside again.

One day.

______________________________________________________________

That’s it folks.

As you can probably tell, I’m not very good with writing smut. (In fact, I didn’t really, explicitely, write any... sorry)

Which is why, if anyone is interested / wants to do it, I would not at all be opposed if someone wrote additional parts to this story.

The only thing I ask, is that you keep things nice. No degradation, humiliation or pain play, please. (Pain play would include things like spanking and orgasm denial. Orgasm delay is fine, but outright denial can not only be considerably painful, but might also have real, physical consequences.)

I don’t mean any offense if those are some of your personal kinks or likes, but I myself don’t enjoy those very much (or at all), and I don’t think they would fit into the mind frame of the story, or the Avengers.

299 notes · View notes

brokemultidotexe · 5 years ago

Photo

If you’re an photocard collector or a newbie at collecting then you know that it can get expensive really quickly, especially for groups with a lot of members. Most albums come with different versions so once you do the math on that the price starts climbing.

Let’s use BTS and their latest release (Map of the Soul: Persona) as an example for today’s math lesson:

# of members: 7

# of versions: 4

average cost of album: $20 USD

So now we take the # of members x # of versions = 28 photocards (this is if you get a new photocard you don’t have with each purchase)

Now we take 28 photocards x $20 USD = $560 USD

note: this happening for someone is very slim so odds are you would buy multiple copies to try and complete the entire collection.

Some other options you have instead of buying the albums out right is to buy and/or trade photocards outright. Some of the most common places you will find this is:

Facebook Groups

Facebook Marketplace

Instagram

Ebay

Mercari

I’ve added stars to the best and most reliable options, so let’s go through each one:

Facebook Groups⭐

Most Facebook groups of selling and trading photocards will be private but most are easy to be approved for. This is normally where I personally go and will look through the posts to see if anyone has a certain photocard I am missing so I’m not buying multiple albums trying to get it. Some things to know before you start buying:

Expect to pay $5-$12 on average for a photocard (this depends on the seller and most will be willing to haggle with you, just don’t low ball them)

Ask for proof that they have the card on hand by having them send you a picture of the card with their Facebook account name and the date.

Always ask for proof of trade or sales in the past. Most sellers will gladly send you proof, now one thing to keep in mind is that there are some sellers that may be selling for the first time and don’t have proof. If this is a trade, then ask them to send their photocard first. If it’s their first time selling use the Goods and Services option instead of Family and Friends option.

Ask for a picture or video of them dropping it off at the post office

Most sellers use PayPal. When going through PayPal most will probably ask you to pay the Goods and Services (G&S) fees. The G&S fees are basically the tiny bit of money that PayPal takes is to allow you to use their services if you get scammed. If the seller never sends their item then you can get your money back. I use this G&S calculator to let me know what i need to add to the total (ex: photocards is $5 + $.46 G&S fee then i would pay the seller $5.46 which would have the payment they receive be $5)

Some sellers ship worldwide but the shipping prices get very expensive so that is something to keep in mind.

Ask them to show you your address on the envelope so you can double check that they have written your address down correctly.

If you are spending more than $10 on a photocard then my advice is to ask for tracked shipping.

Ask them to put the card in a top loader (or between two pieces of cardboard if they don’t have one) and a plastic bag in case of rain.

Common acronyms used and their meanings: WTS (willing to sell), WTT (willing to trade), LFB (looking for buyer), LFS (looking for seller).

Facebook Marketplace⭐

Facebook Marketplace is like the Facebook Groups but you won’t have as much of a selection but they usually live closer to you and and that can sometimes save you on tracked shipping depending on what you buy (CD, DVD, Photocard, etc...). Facebook Marketplace is almost exactly like the Facebook Groups so a lot of the same advice is the same, but some things you should know before using the marketplace:

Expect to pay $5-$12 on average for a photocard (this depends on the seller and most will be willing to haggle with you, just don’t low ball them)

Ask for proof that they have the card on hand by having them send you a picture of the card with their Facebook account name and the date.

Ask for a picture or video of them dropping it off at the post office

Ask them to show you your address on the envelope so you can double check that they have written your address down correctly.

If you are spending more than $10 on a photocard then my advice is to ask for tracked shipping.

Ask them to put the card in a top loader (or between two pieces of cardboard if they don’t have one) and a plastic bag in case of rain.

Instagram⭐

I personally haven’t bought from Instagram but i know a lot of people who do. A lot of sellers in the Facebook Groups have Instagram which is where they keep a lot of their proof of sales and trades. It depends on the account you go to but some do actual auctions for a certain amount of time and some you just comment or DM them that you want to buy that item. A few of the same rules apply to this but here are some things you should know before buying from Instagram sellers:

Ask for proof that they have the card on hand by having them send you a picture of the card with their Instagram account name and the date.

Most will direct you to their stories or other posts with proof of trades and sales

Ask for a picture or video of them dropping it off at the post office

Some sellers ship worldwide but the shipping prices get very expensive so that is something to keep in mind.

Ask them to show you your address on the envelope so you can double check that they have written your address down correctly.

If you are spending more than $10 on a photocard then my advice is to ask for tracked shipping.

Ask them to put the card in a top loader (or between two pieces of cardboard if they don’t have one) and a plastic bag in case of rain.

Common acronyms used and their meanings: WTS (willing to sell), WTT (willing to trade).

Ebay

To be honest Ebay is one of those options that’s a hit or miss type deal. If you find some reputable sellers my advice would be to stick with that seller. A lot of people who get scammed with fake photocards that are unofficial happen on Ebay. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great sellers on Ebay and not everyone is out to scam you but it is definitely something you want to keep an eye out for, especially on Ebay. Here are some things you should know before buying on Ebay:

Do your research before buying! A good option would be going on Reddit to r/kpopcollections or r/kpophelp subreddits and ask if anyone has some reputable sellers they would suggest buying from.

Make sure you look at the sellers reviews, good and bad.

I Suggest checking out this post from Army Amino that talks about how to spot fake photocards (here is a good post on Army Amino that explains how to spot fake photocards).

Message the seller and ask if they will send you a picture of the photocard, their ebay username, and the date.

Look at shipping options (or ask them) and see if tracked shipping is available, if so, spend the extra money for tracked shipping.

Try not to go with the first seller you see, shop around and see if you can find the same card for a better price (don’t sacrifice great seller ratings for a lower price).

Try and find an estimate on shipping time, sometimes if you buy goods with photocards (CDs, DVDs, etc...) it can take longer to get to you.

Mercari

I’ve never bought from Mercari myself but it’s a lot like Ebay and Instagram had a baby. I’ve known people that have bought from it and had great experiences and some that haven’t. You still have the same type of risks that you do on Ebay but i would consider the risk to be much lower. Here are some things you should know before you buy on Mercari:

I Suggest checking out this post from Army Amino that talks about how to spot fake photocards (here is a good post on Army Amino that explains how to spot fake photocards).

Message the seller and ask if they will send you a picture of the photocard, their Mercari username, and the date.

Look at shipping options (or ask them) and see if tracked shipping is available, if so, spend the extra money for tracked shipping.

Try not to go with the first seller you see, shop around and see if you can find the same card for a better price.

Ask for a picture or video of them dropping it off at the post office.

Some sellers ship worldwide but the shipping prices get very expensive so that is something to keep in mind.

Ask them to show you your address on the envelope so you can double check that they have written your address down correctly.

If you are spending more than $10 on a photocard then my advice is to ask for tracked shipping.

Ask them to put the card in a top loader (or between two pieces of cardboard if they don’t have one) and a plastic bag in case of rain.

All of the options listed above are only a few of the options you can find to buy and sell photocards. Those options are basically buying and trading from person to person, but what about buying from a company?

If you’re someone who enjoys getting everything else that comes with the albums and not just the photocards? Then i’m here to share my proven method that most people probably don’t know about...

think of Amazon Warehouse as an outlet store of sorts. When you go on Amazon to buy something a lot of times you will see the option to buy it used. Now most people think that this is probably people who are selling it that have already used it, especially when it comes to kpop albums, BUT i can attest to the fact that most likely isn’t the case.

A lot of Amazon Warehouse deals are the same products that may have cosmetic damage on it that doesn’t do any harm to the actual contents inside. I have yet to receive and album that didn’t have the photocard in it and I've bought many albums from there.

Here are the steps to find Amazon Warehouse deals:

You’ll want to go to the search bar and choose Amazon Warehouse from the drop down options and then type in kpop albums or whatever it is you’re looking for.

Next you will choose the album you’re wanting to buy and you will be taken to the screen below (Always read the conditions!). *note: if you have prime it makes these deals even sweeter

add it to your cart and check out and viola your album with everything is on your doorstep within days. I have yet to get any albums with extreme noticeable damage and some that look brand new.

Here are the steps to find Amazon Seller deals:

You’ll want to go to the search bar and then type in kpop albums or whatever it is you’re looking for and make sure to choose CDs & Vinyl from the drop down menu.

Go to the filters on the left side and choose Used

You’ll choose the album you want and it will take you to the sellers that are selling the album you’re looking for.

Make sure to note the shipping and estimated tax that will be added to the price that is listed (ex: $6.39)

Make sure to pay attention to the conditions of the items and read the entire description.

Also don’t ignore the seller information and make sure to look at their ratings and reviews.

Take note of the delivery time, majority of the sellers won’t be using prime so you will want to make sure that you’re aware of the shipping window. It’s rare for it to actually take that long but if it’s being shipped internationally it will take longer than normal.

I hope this post helps someone or at least gives you a little bit of information you may not have known. This post took over and hour to write because I wanted to try and cover as much as I could but still make it easy for anyone reading. I’ve thought about making a post on the best websites to get kpop albums from and the pros and cons of each, if that is something you would be interested in then let me know. Good look collecting!

Links/Apps:

G&S Calculator

Spotting fake photocards

Mercari (Android & iOS)

Ebay (Android & iOS)

Facebook (Android & iOS)

Facebook Messenger (Android & iOS)

Instagram (Android & iOS)

PayPal (Android & iOS)

Army Amino (Android & iOS) *includes separate apps for other languages

15 notes · View notes

diamond-song42 · 5 years ago

Photo

Card Shark 101: Starlight Glimmer, Time of Her Life

... nope, no April Fool’s Day prank this year. Just another new, usual Card Shark! Celebrating Starlight Glimmer Day (again, a little late) with a new Ultra Rare Shark that stars her Mane Character! I hope you’re not bored of Purple yet - let’s take a look at Marks in Time’s “Starlight Glimmer, Time of Her Life!”

She never thought she could find a place for herself - funny how life works! As expected, GlimGlam Mane is Purple. She is also one of the easiest Manes to flip, simply requiring a Problem confrontation. Though you might not want to flip her so soon. You see, the first time Starlight’s Boosted Side is turned face-up in a game, her owner is granted an additional Ready Step before their next End Phase. What does this mean? Well, your Ready Phase allows you to ready any exhausted characters, gain however many action tokens available to players, and draw a card (typically associated with the first draw of the turn). That, my friends, is a versatile Mane. There’s a lot of Friends and Resources that would like to be readied with this card (namely Immediate exhausters). And potentially a useful boost in AT (every AT matters!). And maybe even another useful draw. Glimmy’s doing her best! I like to think that Purple Manes are some of the most versatile color-wise - that is, they lend themselves to strategies encompassing a lot of colors more so than other colored Manes. (Orange and White are colors that fall into that boat for me.) This Purple Mane is no exception. I’m just gonna name a few cards I’d like to see get repeatedly readied with a card like this: Limestone Pie, All Work and No Play; Salina Blue, Sink or Swim; Sea Poppy, Guessing Game (though I’m not sure pulling off a combo like that is even possible); Cloudchaser & Flitter, Filly Racers; Starlight Glimmer, Magic Instructor; and Twilight Sparkle & Spike, Ultimate Organizers. I think you get the gist: this is a stellar Mane.

So where does this go wrong? I greatly enjoy this Mane. It allows a lot of tricky strategies. Unfortunately, it can only be used once per game. That means if something like Fluttershy, Backup Vocals or Tempest Shadow, Easy as Pie turns this card over to its Start Side after being boosted, you can’t repeat its ability. Frankly, this restriction is needed - if one could repeatedly turn this card over at the same speed as a Seaquestria and Beyond Mane, that could turn out to be overkill. That’s potentially a lot of AT you could be gaining and cards you could ready and subsequently exhaust again (not sure if the extra card draw would be that dangerous considering how much Pink likes it). And we don’t want to put dear GlimGlam on the banlist unless it’s completely necessary, right? It’s sad that this thing can only pack a mean punch once. This is the only Mane I can think of that can truly only activate once, even when paired with a Mane-flipping card like Fluttershy, Backup Vocals. That’s not to say this Mane isn’t good. It just needs to be timed perfectly. I can’t think of another card that emphasizes its own timing more. And I can’t stress that enough myself. Time it! Time it right! Overall, this Mane is still very useful, but if you want a Mane with a more hard-hitting time travel theme when they flip, I’d recommend Dr. Hooves, Time Walker.

Let’s go back through time and look at some other cards that pair nicely with GlimGlam:

*Similo Duplexis. If we’re talking duplication, this is one spell that never gets old! Similo Duplexis may be a bit expensive, costing 4 AT and 4 Purple req, but the payout is also a hefty one, guaranteeing you an extra Confront Step for each Problem the turn you play it. It may not exactly line up with GlimGlam’s timing (there’s a lot of confusing Phase switching in there) but in my opinion, some extra points alongside extra readying, extra AT, and an extra draw doesn’t hurt, right? If anything, it’ll confuse your opponent, and that might be just as good if not better.

*Lead Pony Badge. Want to get the most out of the Friends you’re exhausting and subsequently re-readying? There’s a nice handful of cards that allow you to ready characters (including some that... enjoy lots of salt), but this is my favorite of those cards. Lead Pony Badge can trade what cards are exhausted and readied simply by exhausting a ready card and, in essence, giving an exhausted card its readiness. (That makes sense, right?) You could also hypothetically play three of these to your home at once. With just one of these alongside GlimGlam, you could ready a card three times in one turn! Now that might warrant a card being placed on the banlist... though probably not GlimGlam ;P

*The Staff of Sacanas. This... might actually be one of the best Manes to use the Staff with. The Staff grants your Mane +3 power and allows you to use it in mini-Faceoffs to frighten opposing Friends. If you wait to flip GlimGlam, a Staff can still boost her Start Side to 4 power, which itself can do a lot. Essentially, as long as you have a Staff with GlimGlam, you’ll be in a pretty good place.

*Entrance Exam. Hang on... am I actually suggesting a Problem?! Why, yes I am! GlimGlam is a great Mane candidate for the very few Problems that require you to exhaust your Mane Character to do something. Why not put your Mane to good use if they’re just sitting at home collecting dust while your Friends do all the work to keep them from getting flipped? I list Entrance Exam here since it does require Purple, but if you use Pink alongside Purple, Awkward Cuteceanera may be equally as feasible.

Thanks for reading another (not-so-tricksy) Card Shark! Tomorrow is my birthday, and though I originally planned for my special Shark to be #103, I’m just too excited to share it so I am bumping it up to the next Shark instead! Have you figured out what the subject is yet? You’ll find out tomorrow! Diamond out!

#my little pony #mlp:fim #my little pony friendship is magic #mlp #starlight glimmer #mlpccg #mlp:ccg #ccg #mane character #marks in time #time of her life #ultra rare #starlight

2 notes · View notes

janelledarling · 6 years ago

Text

Coming together.

This is my contribution to @hoopshoney and @purple-apricots Valentine’s Day Fic Fest, With Love, From Wakanda. I had a lot of fun writing this! I hope you enjoy it, and sorry in advance for any spelling/grammatical errors. Let me know what you think! My character is BLACK.

My prompt: “I told you not to get me anything”“And I’m smart enough to know that meant get you something.”

Pairing: Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens x Black! OC

Warnings: None, just a lot of fluff!

Word Count: 4,500+

___________________________________________________

“Hello, is Ms. Graham available?” an unfamiliar voice spoke politely into the phone.

“Yes, this is she. May I ask who’s calling?” Absedi Graham said pleasantly. Normally she didn’t answer calls from numbers she didn’t know, especially at work. Absedi worked at a large jewelry store where she specialized in Men’s Luxury Watches. Her work day was winding down and she happened to be locking up early as the customers were slow today which was odd since it was Valentine’s Day. Absedi was more than ready for her upcoming week off, whoever was calling just happened to catch her at a good time.

“This is Veronica, with Ross Horology Worldwide. I hope you are doing well.” the woman continued.

Absedi immediately paused her progress of locking the display cases in the watch section of the jewelry store, eyes going wide and mouth falling open at the sound of the company Veronica said she was with.

“I am, thank you. I hope you are as well. To what do I owe the pleasure Ms. Veronica?” Absedi said confidently even though she was so nervous her palms were starting to sweat.

“Well Ms. Graham, upon review of your Resume, background check, and the few phone and in-office interviews you have done in the last few months. We would like to extend an offer to you. That is, of course, if you are still interested.” Veronica explained.

“Wow! That is amazing! I am most definitely still interested!” Absedi exclaimed.

“Wonderful! Your orientation will start on Monday, 2 weeks from now, at the headquarters where the in-office interviews were located. Please arrive at 9am, and check in with the receptionist upon your arrival, she will provide you with your itinerary and tour. Did you have any questions for me?” Veronica asked.

“Nothing is coming to mind.” Absedi remarked.

“Ok perfect! I will send you an email with all the details. Welcome to the team and Happy Valentine’s Day, Ms. Graham!” Veronica advised.

“Thank you so much! See you in 2 weeks!” Absedi replied as she ended the call.

“HOLY SHIT!” Absedi yelled excitedly as she jumped up and down and danced around the display cases.

She grabbed her purse and keys from under the counter and finished locking up all the display cases in her section of the Jewelry store.

As she made her way out the the building her rude ass co-worker called out behind her “Bye Abby! You have a good weekend, Sis!”

“That’s not my name, and I’m not your Sis, we’ve went over this! Bye Brock. Have a Happy Valentine’s Day.” she responded putting on the fakest smile she could muster.

“It’s Blaine, girlfriend!” he said as she made her way out of the store.

“I’m well aware.” she mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes.

She grabbed her phone to call her friend with her good news with one hand, as she walked out of the large double doors of the building and into the busy city with an extra pep in her step.

Just as she thought the call was going to be routed to voicemail, a deep voice answered, “Wassup Princess?”

“ERIK! GUESS WHAT!?” Absedi screamed with excitement. “THEY CALLED ME! I DID IT! IT’S IN TWO WEEKS! HOLY SHIT ERIK! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS, I’M SHAKING RIGHT NOW! MY HANDS ARE TREMBLING!” Absedi shouted into the receiver, startling the people walking down the sidewalk as they turned and gave her passing stares.

__________________________________________________

Absedi and Erik had been friends for well over a year. When she met Erik, he had come into the jewelry store looking for a new piece to add to his collection of watches. After showing him the new collection of Cartier watches that came in earlier that week and answering his questions on which models were self-winding, quartz, or manual winding, Absedi left him to view the collection while making her way over to another customer who had recently came in. Just like most of the other middle aged men that made their way to her section of the store, this particular customer was worried less about the watches and more about whether or not Absedi had a man and when her shift ended. When the older gentleman grew tired of Absedi denying all of his advances, he left the store without making a purchase and she made her way back to Erik.

When she walked over to see if he had any questions or if he needed any additional assistance. He took her for surprise when he spoke up and said. “Yeah, actually, I do have some questions. First one is does shit like that happen often? I didn’t think ole dude was gonna take no for an answer. I didn’t wanna have to cause a scene, but I would have with his ole nasty ass.”

“Yeah, more often than not unfortunately.” Absedi said as she stifled her laugh. “But I’ve gotten used to working around them and deflecting. Tricks of the trade I guess.” she shrugged.

“Hm.” Erik nodded. “Second question, do you work on commission?” Erik continued.

“Yes…? Why?” Absedi answered hesitantly.

“Just making sure if I drop a grip in here the commission would go to you and not that grimy ass colonizer over there.” Erik explained motioning to Blaine.

Absedi couldn’t hold in her laugh when Erik motioned to her co-worker on the other side of the store.

“Yeah, Chadthaniel never comes over here, so you good.” Absedi giggled.

Erik laughed loudly, shoulders bouncing. “Chadthaniel. That’s a good one! I’ma have to use that shit. Ok in that case, I’ll take the Clé De Cartier Mysterious Hour. The Manual 18K Pink gold. Clé De Cartier Automatic Skeleton Gem-Set. The Automatic in Palladium.”

It took everything in Absedi’s power for her to keep her composure. Those watches were some of the most expensive she had in her cases. Everyone would look at those two in particular, but she would rarely make a sale. She nodded and walked away to make sure the watch bands she had in stock would be the right size and fit him properly. He handed her his black card and she went to the register to process his payment. Finally seeing his name. Erik Stevens. Absedi started getting them packaged up for him. These watches were expensive as all hell. Her commission alone was about to be at least $10,500.

After processing his card successfully for over $210,000 and packaging up the watches. She called out to him to let him know she was finished.

“Mr. Stevens?” Absedi called out behind the counter.

“Wassup?” he said turning around from another display he was looking at and walking toward the counter.

“I’m all finished up. Here is your card and your bag. Did you want your receipt with you or in the bag?”

“In the bag is cool. Thanks. Now, before I leave I have one last question.” Erik smirked.

Trying not to get too caught up no the effect his dimples and pretty ass smile were having on her, she cleared her throat before she answered. “Sure, what is it?”

“What’s your name? I might have to come back for some more pieces and I wanna make sure I ask for the right person. If that’s cool with you...” Erik said.

“Sure, that’s fine.” she said quickly.

Like she was about to miss out on another big commission sale like this. Tuh! Momma didn’t raise no fool.

“Here’s my card, it’s got my name, our store hours as well as the store phone number on here, should you happen to need anything.” she added handing him over her business card.

As she watched his eyebrows furrow, she added before he could ask. “It’s pronounced AB-S-IH-Dee. Absedi Graham.”

“Absedi Graham” He repeated for clarification as she nodded. “Alright Ms. Absedi, it was nice doing business with you.” he nodded as he turned to walk away.

“You too Mr. Stevens. Have a good rest of your day.” Absedi added as he walked away.

“Call me Erik.” He yelled back over his shoulder throwing her a million dollar smile as he left the store.

Ever since that day, Erik would come in at least once a week. They would make light conversation about the new collections coming out with different brands and get to know each other a little bit more.

After 3 and a half years of being in a dead-end job at the Jewelry store, realizing her position was getting her nowhere. Absedi decided it was time to move onto bigger and better things with her career. She applied to a few of her favorite watch companies but had yet to hear back from any of them. Erik came in while she was checking her email for the 12th time that morning for a response from any of the applications she sent over. When Erik asked what she was doing, Absedi told Erik she was looking for another place to further her career and if everything worked out the way she hoped it would, she would probably be leaving the jewelry store in the next few months but maybe sooner. Erik asked her hypothetically if he had questions on some upcoming collections and she isn’t here anymore who was he supposed to ask, because he sure as hell wasn’t asking Chadthaniel shit. Letting Erik know she could still answer any of his questions whenever he had any, she wrote her cell phone number on the back of her business card and handed it to him. Erik ended up texting her right after he left the store. From then on, it seemed like they were constantly in contact with each other. Whether it was sending each other meme’s, talking about politics, or just how their day was, there wasn’t anything the pair didn’t feel comfortable talking about with each other. Absedi found herself reaching out to Erik more often than not. He was very easy to talk to. So it made sense to her that he was the first person she would call when she found out she got the job or her dreams.

__________________________________________________

“Babygirl, slow down. Who called you? What’s happening in two weeks?” Erik said confused as hell, trying to wrap his mind around the bits and pieces he was able to understand as she was speaking a mile a minute.

“Ross! They called me! They want me to start in two weeks!” Absedi squealed.

“That’s dope as fuck Princess!”

“I’m so excited Erik! Like things are really starting to come together for me, you know?” Absedi reflected as she made her way home.

“It seems that way, huh. So how you wanna celebrate?” Erik asked.

“Erik, it’s Valentine’s Day every place from Oakland to Long Beach is about to be packed and busy as hell.” Absedi assumed.

“I ain’t ask you all that, did I? What’s the move girl? Pick sum. Whatever you wanna do, I got you.” Erik commanded.

“Hmm… OH! I know! You always talking about how you throw down in the kitchen, lemme see sum.” She said imitating one of Erik’s frequently used sayings. “You know what I like, surprise me!” Absedi exclaimed as she listened to Erik chuckle on the other end of the line. Absedi had never been to Erik’s home, they always hung out in public places. He lived about 45 minutes away from her so it was easier to just kick it somewhere between both of their places.

“Bet. Come through around 7pm. We celebratin’! My girl landed her dream job! Whatever you wanna do or anywhere you tryna go, I got you. I’m proud of you Sed!”

“Thank you! I’m proud of me too. Don’t do anything extravagant though Erik.” Absedi warned.

“Huh? I can’t hear you. You cutting out.” Erik lied.

“Nah, you can hear me just fine. Nothing extravagant and no gifts.” Absedi continued as she rolled her eyes. Erik was always trying to get her something she didn’t need. He had already gotten them matching J’s earlier in the week.

“Huh? Babygirl, you there? Sed?” Erik said trying and failing to hide his laugh as he hung up the phone.

He is so damn petty! Absedi laughed to herself as she waved down a cab.

Looking out the window on the ride to her studio apartment, she couldn’t stop smiling. Time with Erik was just what she needed to kick off her upcoming week off and to celebrate her new job.

It was obvious to everyone including the two of them that they had chemistry. They both really liked each other and were open to the idea of being more than friends, but never spoke on it directly. Just hinted around the subject. Erik would always call her pet names, and refer to her as ‘his girl’ but Absedi just assumed it was how he acted with his other friends too. Although he hadn’t mentioned any other friends, Erik was fine as fuck and Absedi wasn’t dumb. She wasn’t about to assume she was the only person he was showing interest in. Erik would tell her how beautiful she was and kiss her on her forehead whenever they went out for dinner or to the movies, and he might’ve left a few messy voicemails after one too many drinks with his boys. Absedi had also sent her fair share of drunk texts after clubbing with her girls, and may or may not have sent a few thirst traps she didn’t remember until scrolling through their text thread the following morning. Needless to say she swore off drinking for a good month after that.

Just as she was getting out of the cab she got a text from Erik.

Mr. Stevens: 2232 Westridge Road, LA. Don’t be late.

Scrunching up her face at his commanding tone, Absedi sent out a quick reply.

Babygirl: Don’t tell me what to do. We celebrating ME remember.

Erik smirked and shook his head at her response when he read it. This girl and her smart ass mouth, he thought to himself as got ready to run his errands and head to the grocery store to get all the ingredients to make dinner for the two of them.

While Erik went to the store Absedi got in the shower, exfoliated and moisturized. Debating between a few different outfit choices and reminding herself it is Valentine’s Day after all, she decided to go all out. Ready to get dolled up and leave the house looking like a snack. Absedi settled on a strappy crushed velvet dress in wine just because she wanted a reason to use her new Body Lava. Pairing it with strappy nude heels to show off her baby pink pedicure and her trench coat. Absedi than began working on her make-up, going with a nude look. Putting her hair up into a high pony with her edges laid to perfection, she began gathering her things to head to Erik's house. Turning off the lights and locking the front door she made her way to her car. After putting his address into her navigation and sending him a quick text letting him know she was on her way, Absedi pulled out into evening traffic.

Turning on her Masego playlist and hitting the highway, Absedi couldn’t help thinking about how everything was finally going her way. She was just offered the job of her dreams and would be able to start making a career out of her passion in just two weeks. She finally had someone in her corner, encouraging her. Erik was her best friend in every aspect of the word. She could not wipe the smile off of her face if she tried.

Not realizing she zoned out the entire drive reflecting on the days events until she heard her navigation say “You have arrived at your destination.” Absedi parked in the driveway grabbing her purse and surveying the area.

Of course, he lives in this nice ass house. I mean it makes sense, he was dropping like $200K on accessories. Absedi thought to herself as she made her way to the front door. After knocking twice, the door swung open.

“You’re late.” Erik said as he raised an eyebrow in challenge.

“No, I’m not. It’s 7:02pm. I’m on time. You were early.” Absedi responded as she flipped her hair behind her shoulder.

“How am I early to my own damn house Sed?” Erik chuckled as he held the door open for her to come in, taking a moment to look her up and down. “Damn, you really came in here looking like a whole ass meal. Good gawddd!”

“Shut up Erik. You always got somethin’ smart to say.” Absedi giggled as she walked into the open concept area. The smell of dinner invading her nostrils immediately. Taking off her trenchcoat and hanging it on the coat rack near the door.

“You always gotta have the last damn word!” he retorted from behind her, watching the sway of her hips as she made her way into his home.

“You damn right!” she snapped back over her shoulder as they both started laughing.

After closing and locking the door. Erik walked up and gave her the biggest hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I’m so proud of you babygirl. I knew you could fucking do it.” leaning down placing a light kiss on her forehead. Absedi wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, finally feeling at peace.

“You ready to eat? I made steaks, loaded baked potatoes, and salad. Sounds basic as fuck but you ain’t had my shit before. You know ion do anything basic.” Erik shrugged.

“That's a fact.” Absedi laughed as she nodded.

“Princess, you gotta let go of me if we gonna eat.” Erik chuckled rubbing circles on her lower back and shoulder blade with the tips of his fingers. .

“Just give me a minute.” Absedi quickly added holding him even tighter and snuggling her face into his chest, feeling the soft scars of his skin press against her cheek.

“Ight.” Erik responded, not hiding the smile in his voice.

After another moment, Absedi pulled away and looked up into Erik’s eyes taking in his features. Plump lips, deep brown eyes, smooth brown skin, dreads braided back from his face, noticing his dimples appear and his white teeth with a little bit of shine come into view.

“You for real checking me out right in my face, you bold as hell.” Erik chuckled.

“And what about it?” Absedi said as she raised her eyebrow, turning and making her way to the kitchen following the smell.

Erik had made filet mignon pan-seared in butter thyme and rosemary, smothered in A1, and sauteed mushrooms and onions. Alongside salad and loaded twice-baked potatoes that were filled with broccoli, mascarpone, pancetta, bocconcini, cheddar cheese and topped with scallions.

“It smells so fucking good, Erik.” Absedi swooned as she damn near drooled looking at all the delicious food he made.

“C’mere.” he said from behind her.

Turning around she noticed Erik was standing by a small table set for two as he poured two glasses of champagne.

“We can’t celebrate without a toast. Here.” Erk said handing Absedi a champagne flute.

Raising his flute Erik began “To my girl, landing the job of her dreams and molding her destiny to whatever she sees fit. I’m happy you are in my life Sed and I’m so fucking proud of you Princess. You out here doing the damn thing! Salut.”

Absedi couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face after Erik finished his toast, nor did she have a smart ass remark to add when he was done. She did, however have butterflies and could not get them to go away.

“Here.” Erik said as he pulled out her seat for her. “I’ma go grab the food.”

Erik placed both of their plates at the table in front of their respective seats. As soon as Absedi took a bite she couldn’t help the happy dance or the moan that escaped her.

“Erik this is sooooo fucking good! Oh my gawddd!” Absedi moaned in between bites.

“I told you, I don’t do basic.” Erik stated smugly.

“Shut up and just say thank you, damn. Is it really that hard for you?” she shook her head playfully.

Erik smirked at her before adding “Thank you Absedi. I appreciate that.”

“See! That wasn’t so hard was it.” She retorted shooting him a wink.

“It’s probably as hard as you not getting the last word.” Erik snapped back raising a challenging eyebrow and tilting his head to the side.

Watching Absedi just roll her eyes and just keep eating shocked Erik to no end.

“That’s it? You really don’t have something to say?” Erik said eyebrows reaching his hairline due to his surprise. Slightly shrugging her shoulders and smirking at Erik as she chewed a bit of steak. Erik nodded to himself in fake astonishment, causing both to start laughing.

After finishing her third glass of champagne and liquid courage kicking in, Absedi asked the question that had been lingering in her head for a while.

“Do you call all your friends little cute names?” Absedi asked quietly.

“Nah.” Erik responded slowly, setting his plate to the side. “Why? Wassup?”

“I was just curious. I figured you probably called all of your other friends ‘Princess’ and ‘Babygirl’ and stuff like that.” she said looking at anything but him as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Nah, just you.” he stated smoothly.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

“Why you think?” Erik retorted.

“I wanna hear you say it.” Absedi said tilting her chin up to look Erik in the eye.

“What you want me to say?” Erik asked leaning forward on the table and resting his chin on his fists looking her in her eyes. “You want me to tell you how I think about you from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep? How I intentionally irritate you so I can see that cute ass face you make when you get mad as hell? Or you wanna know about how many stacks I spent at that jewelry store just to spend more time with you? How about how I was ready to kill that grimy ass motherfucker that kept trying to touch on you the day we met? I mean I can go on and on. You tell me what you wanna hear.”

Absedi was speechless. “Why didn’t you say something! You know how many wack ass niggas I entertained? And you over here just keeping all these damn emotions to yourself. Stingy ass. You won’t let us be great.” Absedi pouted as she crossed her arms.

“I know your ass, Sed. If I’da said something, you would have started that ‘I don’t wanna ruin our friendship’ bullshit.” Erik replied with a shrug.

“Ruin it.” Absedi said with a straight face.

Erik’s jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Champagne got you all the way bold huh?” Erik smirked.

“I mean, we being all the way real right now, right? So I’m just gonna put it all out on the table. I like you, Erik. I don’t know if a relationship is something you would be open to, but if you are I think I would be viable candidate.” Absedi finished as she nibbled on her bottom lip.

“I’m open to a relationship. There ain’t no other candidates, just you.” Erik stated.

“Just me?” she inquired while side eyeing him.

“Mhm. Nobody else. Since we putting it all out there, I haven’t entertained anybody in a good minute. I just want you.” Erik confessed looking Absedi in her eyes.

“Hmm… Good to know.” Absedi nodded.

Erik stood from the table and started gathering the plates to take them into the kitchen. Leaving Absedi to sit and collect her thoughts. She was oddly enough no longer nervous, she was content with finally letting him know how she felt about him.

Erik made his way back to the table with his arms behind his back. Knowing he was up to something she furrowed her eyebrows while she looked at him. “What are you up to Mr. Stevens?”

Sitting the large navy square leather box with golden script that read Chopard in front of her with a golden ribbon tied around it, Erik pulled his chair from his side of the table just to sit it right beside her. Erik grabbed her hand an intertwined their fingers.

“Baby…” Absedi breathed her eyes wide in astonishment staring at the box bringing her other hand up to trace the golden boarder around the sides of the box.

“So I’m your baby now?” Erik asked lightly tilting her chin towards him to grab her attention. He was wearing the biggest smile she had ever seen.

Nodding and climbing into his lap not taking her eyes off of the box of one of all time favorite jewelers, Absedi leaned back into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

“Yeah, you my baby too.” Erik added quietly.

“I told you not to get me anything.” Absedi whispered as she went back to staring at the box in awe.

“And I’m smart enough to know that meant get you something.” Erik chuckled as he rested his head on the side of hers.

“I know how much you love Chopard watches but something else caught my eye. You gonna open it or what?” Erik asked

Slowly taking off the ribbon, and opening the leather box, Absedi saw the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. A large amethyst in a rose gold setting with diamond accents hung on a 18K rose gold chain.

“Oh my god, Erik...” she whispered gently touching the dainty necklace. “Thank you! It’s so beautiful.”

“Lean up real quick.” Erik said gently taking the necklace from the packaging and gently putting it on for her and sccurring the clasp at the back of her neck. “Beautiful necklace for a beautiful girl.”

“Damn you really feelin’ me, huh?” Absedi teased as she tugged on his arm playfully.

“And what about it?” Erik imitated her from earlier on in the evening light-heartedly, causing them both to bust out laughing hysterically.

“How you feelin’ about all these changes? New job, Me, alla dat.” Erik questioned.

Turning around and pulling her dress up so she was able to straddle Erik’s lap and wrap her arms around his neck and rub smoothing circles into the back of his neck with her fingertips, as he lightly ran his hands down her sides. Absedi thought back from all the changes that had taken place in her life in the last 24 hours. New job, new man, new necklace, and new outlook on her future.

“Honestly truly, I’ve never been better.” Absedi beamed.

Absedi leaned up slightly and pressed a few soft kisses against his lips. As he murmured “Happy Valentine’s Day Princess.” in between them he felt her body melt against his. Erik’s hands tightened around her waist, pulling her closer, he kissed her back deeply until they both pulled away to catch their breath. Neither one of them could wipe away the huge smile that had taken over their faces.

This Valentine’s Day was definitely one for the books.

Taglist: @chaneajoyyy @marvelpotterlove @faatassbitch

#with love from wakanda #erik killmonger #erik stevens #erik stevens x oc #erik stevens fic #black oc #softboi!erik #fluff #erik stevens imagine #my shit #i be writing and shit #black panther imagine #wlfw #fic fest

104 notes · View notes