#one of my old retail managers once went in when it was snowing and was the only person in the store bc no one else could get there

[28dayslater]

the library i work at can be under 6 feet of snow and they'd still expect us to tunnel our way in so that we can answer calls from customers because god forbid someone stand in the way of them getting the latest self help book

^^^ bad employee who wants people to not be able to read Who Moved My Cheese?

[fuck-customers]

💀This is a FUCK CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!!!! Today (11/29), everyone in the big red circle department store was busy doing online pick up orders cause either not enough people were scheduled or someone called out (not super important to the story), but it means I was up behind the service desk stowing an order with my older co-worker, chatting while we stow. In comes our cart attendant, let's say his name is B. Now B is definitely very neurodivergent (as am i), and sometimes it's very obvious to the customers and to our coworkers but mostly the cart attendants keep to themselves besides having a few work buddies, I am friends with both of the C.A.s.

B comes behind the service desk trying to hang up his drive-up jacket on the hook, i quickly pick up that he is acting differently than he usually does, and so I ask him if he's feeling okay/if he's alright etc. He tells me that some guy just picked up the eco-labs chemical cleaner bottle the store keeps up by the carts to wipe down the handles and stuff and sprayed him in the eyes/face. Luckily B wears glasses so it protected him a little bit but it definitely got in his eye and he was trying to use the eye wash station.

I told him to go wash his eyes out quickly and that I got his jacket. I hung it up and I asked him what happened while he's washing up and he explains what I just typed out, I of course was livid! When he was done our old coworker told him to call the manager/ETL and tell them what happened and so he did and a bit later i see B with one of our ETL's and she made him wash his eyes again and took him into her office to talk about what happened, etc. we carried on with our day, I kept checking in on him throughout though, (it turns out the chemical bottle is a cocktail that has peroxide in it). Before I went home for the day I asked him one final time if he was okay and he said that his eye still hurt and that he could hardly keep it open or something along those lines. I told him to go to the ER if at all possible and to stay safe (as it was also starting to snow).

Needless to say I'm still so fucking MAD!!!!!!! I swear retail workers should get a "once a day smack the shit out of the customers in self defense" card because I would've beaten their ass on behalf of B. The absolute audacity!!!!!! Do people think we just spray down those carts with water????????? Do they not think spraying someone in the face with a chemical bottle with have horrible consequences????????? This isn't your fucking mom's house where she reuses spray bottles for water for plants or vinegar for cleaning!!! That's a living fucking person that's going to have to get checked out by a doctor because you sprayed them with multi purple peroxide cleaner you fucking shit excuse of a creature!!!!!!!!!

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Green Christmas (Luffa Annual 1)

Normal Brain: Write a Coffee Shop AU

Big Brain: With my own OC’s

Galaxy Brain: Set it in Japan to make it harder.

Cosmic Brain: Also, it’s a Christmas story.

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.   This story is set on a Monday.

[December 23, 2019.   Kiyosu, Japan.]

There was a very light drizzle outside.   It didn't snow often in Kiyosu, and when it did, it usually happened in February, not December.  

"It's a shame, y'know?   This is a romantic time of year.    Just once, it'd be nice to have a White Christmas without having to head out to Shirakawago or someplace up north."

Yamcha was a regular at the Emerald Eye Cafe.   He liked to chat while he paid for his order.   Every year around Christmas, he would wax poetic about the lack of snowfall in the Aichi Prefecture, and speak idly about someday taking a trip to a ski resort in Hokkaido.   Zatte didn't know if he would ever make the trip.    She only knew that he visited her store nearly every day, and she suspected that he enjoyed talking about snow and travel than the actual experience.      He had a large iced milk coffee and a potato salad sandwich, which came to 1260 yen.  

Zatte never minded the lack of snow.   It meant one less obstacle to the day-to-day routine.   She didn't know how people got along in snowy parts of the world, and she wasn't terribly interested in finding out.    Christmas was Christmas whether it snowed or not.    The sound system in the cafe was playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for the fourth time that day, and she had been selling Christmas cakes for the better part of the month.   Half of her customers spoke excitedly of their plans for the holiday, and the absence of snow didn't seem to discourage any of them.   And then there was her "favorite" tradition of the season.    

"... might call her up tonight and see if she wants to check out the lights downtown.   You know, keep it casual.    How about you?   You got any big plans for Christmas?"  

Zatte shook her head.    "Maybe," she said.   She had learned a long time ago that this was the best way to keep conversations short.    Yamcha might have had unlimited time to talk, but she needed to head back to the kitchen at some point.     Answering "no" only invited a polite argument.   "Come on... I'm sure a young lady like yourself must have something to do on Christmas!" and so on.    Answering "yes" was a lie, and it only invited the other person to press for details that didn't exist.    

"Maybe, huh?"   Yamcha replied.    He finally fished the money out of his wallet and laid it on the counter.    "Well, that's better than nothing, after all.    Hang in there."    

"Out of 1500 yen, 240 yen and your receipt," Zatte said, handing him a few coins and a slip of paper.    

"Radical.    Well, I'll get out of your hair," Yamcha said.   "Thanks!"

She relaxed a bit when he left the store.    Truthfully, he was one of the best customers--courteous, patient, and easy to please.   Outside of work, he was probably an okay person to hang out with, if you liked hanging out with middle-aged civil servants.       But in a customer service setting, life was all about getting the clients' orders filled and getting them on their way with as little fuss as possible.    Zatte didn't think of herself as an introvert, but working retail seemed to have a funny way of making her feel like one for a few hours.

She supposed that it would be kind of fun to be chummy with the regulars, but the fact was that she had too many responsibilities behind the counter.    She had to count the money later.   The tables would need to be wiped down.     Fresh muffins had to go on the display.    The cook would probably need help, sooner or later.    The customers saw this place as her home, and she was a hostess providing companionship in addition to food and a place to relax.    That was the business model, of course, but it was still a business.  

She chided herself for feeling grumpy, but decided that she had at least kept an even keel through the morning.  The key was to accept the bad moods when they came, so long as she put on a pleasant face for the customers.   They had their own lives and their own problems, after all.    It wasn't fair to them--or profitable for her-- to burden them with her own troubles.    

*******

Two hours later, she was reminded of one of those troubles.    

"You haven't seen Roshi at all today, have you?"  

A shiver ran down Zatte's spine at the name.   "Not today, why?"    

Krillin took his latte from her and shrugged slightly.    "Well, let's just say I need to talk to him about something," he said evenly.   Krillin was a police officer, which tended to inform statements like these, but he still felt a need to be as discreet as possible.    

"Did something happen?" Zatte asked.    

"Hey, you've gotten really good at making pictures with the foam," Krillin said.   He pointed at the surface of his drink.   "It looks just like that guy from One Piece."

"Thanks," Zatte said.   "I'm still trying to get the hang of it, but luckily he's not too tough to draw.   He's good practice."    

"I oughta watch that show sometime," Krillin said.    "Everyone at the station keeps saying I sound like the guy, but I don't even know anything about it.    What's his name?   'Luffa' or something.    No, hold on, that was the girl who used to be your cook, wasn't it?"  

"Uh, yeah," Zatte said.    She was sorely tempted to use "maybe", but that seemed kind of pointless here.    Luffa was something of a legend at the Emerald Eye.    Even if Krillin hadn't remembered her name, he would still know her reputation, so there was no point pretending she didn't exist.    

"Whatever happened to her, anyway?" Krillin asked.    He took a sip of his latte and added: "Nothing against the new guy, but she made the best danishes.   And that egg salad!    Boy, I could go for some of that right about now."  

"Would you like me to get you--?" Zatte started to ask, but Krillin shook his head.    

"Nah, it just wouldn't be the same," he said.    "Something about the spices.   Paprika, I think.    Better to live with the memories."    

"Understood," Zatte said, though she really didn't understand at all.  

"Anyway, I'll be around for a little while, but if you see Roshi later, let me know, all right?   And... don't tell him I said anything."  

"Of course," Zatte said.   As Krillin turned and went to his usual seat, Zatte wondered what sort of trouble that man had gotten into this time.    It was always something with him.   She wanted to believe that this time would be different, but somehow he always managed to get away with his bad behavior.    

Later, as luck would have it, Roshi did stumble into the cafe.   "Well hell-oooooooo, nurse!" he crooned as he staggered to the counter.    The stench of alcohol on his breath was unmistakable.    Public drinking was legal in Japan, though Roshi seemed to consider this license to make an ass of himself whenever he pleased.  

"Can I help you?" Zatte said, struggling to maintain her composure.  

"Well, you see," Roshi said with a mischievous grin, "It's my nose.    It's awfully cold this time of year, and I was hoping I could... heh-heh-heh... warm it up."

Zatte looked toward Krillin's seat, ready and eager to call out to him.    But it was empty.    Had he already left?  

"Now I know this is a coffee shop and all, but I don't think hot beverages will do the trick here.    No, sir.   I was thinking more along the lines of..." He held up his hands to pantomime the act of shoving his face into a pair of large breasts.   Then he started smiling, like he had just suggested the most brilliant idea, ever.

Zatte wasn't sure that what she felt for this man qualified as hate, or pity, or revulsion.    She only knew that he was a pathetic old man, who seemed to think his crudeness was quaint, or charming in some way.   He was sorely mistaken, and she wanted him out of the store, permanently.    Did that mean she wanted him dead?    The thought of this worried Zatte, more for her own sake than for his.    

"Sir, if you want something, you'll need to place an order," she said through clenched teeth.   Below the countertop, her right hand clenched into a fist.

"Oh, well in that case," Roshi said, "I'd like to buy a pair of... heh-heh-heh... panties please!   Used ones, of course!"    

Zatte wanted him dead.   If that reflected negatively on her character, then so be it.    If Roshi had a heart attack and died right in front of her, she was sure she would feel relieved instead of sad.   It wasn't even the harassment so much as the fact that he used the same five or six lines every time he came into the store.   He wants to "puff-puff", he wants someone's panties, he wants to have coffee in the ladies' restroom, he wants to take showers with any woman in the store, and so on.   Roshi embodied the absolute worst qualities of customers.   He seemed to thrive on the power of going into shops and forcing cashiers and waitstaff to listen to his crude and pointless jabber, precisely because they had little choice but to put up with it.  

And then, just as Roshi was telling the one about putting his grimy hands on someone's buttocks, Krillin stepped out of the men's room.    "Oh, there you are," he said as he noticed Roshi at the counter.    

"Eh?   Krillin?    What are you doing here?" Roshi asked.    His jovial tone was suddenly gone.  He almost sounded sober.    Almost.

"We got another complaint about you," Krillin said with a sigh.   "That maid cafe you keep messing around with."

"Th-that was just a joke!" Roshi protested.    "Can't an old man have a bit of harmless fun anymore?"

"That girl you were picking on didn't think it was so harmless," Krillin grumbled.   "Look, I have to take you down to the station."

"What?   You can't do that!"   He tried to run out the door, but Krillin caught up to him before he could get there.  

"Just settle down," Krillin said.     "Don't make this any more difficult than it already is."

This only made Roshi even more difficult than he already was.    Eventually, Krillin managed to get the handcuffs on him, and he frog-marched Roshi out the door.   By the time they left, everyone in the shop was staring.     With Krillin and Roshi now gone, that left them no one to look at but Zatte.    

"Uh, sorry for the disturbance," she said awkwardly.    She wasn't sure how to feel about what had just happened, but she hoped that this meant Roshi wouldn't be back for a long time.   That should have made her feel more at ease, but somehow she felt more tense than before.

*******

More than anything, Zatte just wanted some normal customers.    She was starting to miss Yamcha, but then Tien entered the store, and she felt a sense of relief.    Of all of her regulars, he was one of the easiest to deal with.    

"Hello," he said evenly.  

"How can I help you, sir?"  she asked pleasantly.    

He gestured to the smaller man who had followed him into the store.   Zatte had never seen a little person before, but she was pretty sure this man was small enough to qualify as one.    

"This is my brother, Chiaotzu," he explained.   "I've been showing him around while he's in town."  

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," she said with a slight bow.  

Chiaotzu did not move.    

"I get my coffee here after work," Tien said to him.    "Black, please.    No sugar."

"Of course," Zatte said.    "And for your brother?"

"Ice cream cafe au lait," Chiaotzu said after a pregnant pause.   He never blinked.   He just stared at Zatte as though gazing into her soul.    

"Certainly.   Your total is 1140 yen."

They paid and she brought the drinks to their table a few minutes later.    Zatte forgot about them after that, until she happened to look up while counting the money in the register.   Chiaotzu was still staring at her.   His expression was completely neutral.    

What made it even stranger was how normally Tien behaved by contrast.    He was facing away from Zatte, but he was moving his head and arms like anyone having a normal conversation.    If he even noticed Chiaotzu staring past him, he didn't seem to care.  

She tried to ignore him, but this proved more difficult than she imagined.    Every time she happened to glance in his direction, there he was, still staring, never moving.    The cup in front of him was already empty.    At some point he must have drank his au lait, but Zatte had no idea when that could have happened.    

What was it about his eyes?   Those bottomless, pitiless eyes?   Looking at them just made her realize how pale his complexion was, like one of those stories about a vampire secretly living among humans.   She was grateful for the next few customers who came in, as they gave her something else to think about, if only for a few minutes at a time.    

She turned away from the counter to tidy up her workspace, and when she looked around again, he was suddenly standing there, glaring at her through the display glass.  

"Orange cranberry muffins," Chiaotzu said.  

"Huh?" Zatte said, trying to hide how much he had startled her.  

He pressed his face up to the glass.   By this time of day, the display case was nearly empty, as the demand for baked goods was too low to justify making more.  "Do you still sell them?   Or did you just run out?"  Chiaotzu asked.    

"Um, we stopped selling them," Zatte said.    "We, uh, changed cooks a while ago.    So we changed the menu.   I'm sorry."

Chiaotzu never took his eyes off her, and after a long pause, he finally uttered: "Oh.   That's too bad."

"There you are," Tien said as he walked up to the counter.    "Come on, Chiaotzu, we need to get going."

Chiaotzu turned and followed him out the door, and Zatte was never so grateful to see the back of someone's head.    He was bald, so she half expected a second pair of eyes to be there waiting for her.   Instead, he turned back toward her, just as he stepped through the door.  

"Thanks for the coffee," he said, though his expression looked more like he should be accusing Zatte of desecrating his own empty grave.

When he was finally gone, she glanced down at the display case.    Luffa used to restock it herself, multiple times a day.    It was a welcome distraction from the rigors of the day, even though she only popped out of the kitchen for a minute or two.   She would have whispered something like "Get a load of that guy," to her, and they would have shared a quiet chuckle over it.  

But Luffa was gone, and the new cook was fine, even if he wasn't quite as good, or fast, or popular with the customers.    It made the workday slower, but Zatte was determined not to let that get in her way.    She considered herself a survivor, someone who could adapt and endure anything life threw at her.    All that mattered was getting through the day and closing up the shop, and then getting through tomorrow, and the day after, and so on.    She didn't need Luffa, or anyone else to do that.  

At least, that was what she told herself.  

*******

Keda usually got home from school by 3:45 P.M.   Today, she returned an hour early.    Zatte wanted to know why, but there were too many customers for her to ask, and Keda walked straight through the swinging gate at the counter, and into the door that led to the upstairs apartment where they lived.  

Ten minutes later, she came back down, having swapped her school uniform for a blue "Emerald Eye" apron.   Under that, she wore one of her collection of T-shirts commemorating various professional wrestlers.   This one said "NIGHTMARE ANGELS" in English, with the words "KNEE THE ELITE" in smaller text.    Zatte was grateful that the apron kept the customers from seeing the entire shirt, and she hoped most of them didn't know enough English to be able to read it and wonder what it meant.    She was pretty sure Keda would try to explain it if someone asked, but no one did, and Zatte was grateful for this as well.    

"Need some help?" Keda asked.  

"Why are you out of school so early?" Zatte asked as she finished handing someone their change.    

"They let us out early," Keda said.   "It's the Emperor's Birthday."  

"Not anymore," Zatte said.   "The Emperor abdicated, remember?   The new Emperor's birthday won't be until February."

"Well, we convinced the school that it wasn't fair," Keda said with a shrug.   "I mean, December 23rd is a good place for a holiday, isn't it?    Right before Christmas.    The new Emperor can't help being born in February, but it's not right that we don't have an Emperor's Birthday holiday in 2019.   It just seems disrespectful, doesn't it?   So the student council talked it over with the faculty, and we agreed to let out two hours early as a compromise."

"Why can't you just say you cut classes like all the other kids?" Zatte grumbled.  

"Because that's not what happened," Keda said.   "Can I help it if the President of the Student Council likes my ideas?    Can I help it if the faculty is really open to suggestions?"  

She picked up a small cup and put less than fifty milliliters of hazelnut coffee in it from the dispenser behind the cash register.   Keda smelled it, but decided it was too hot to drink.    This was part of her after-school ritual.  

"I wish you'd stop doing that," Zatte said.    

"Everyone says it's an acquired taste," Keda said.    "I'm almost twelve, Zatte.   In a few years, boys are gonna want to take me to coffee shops.    I mean, not this one, that'd be kind of awkward.   Getting waited on by your own sister.    But a coffee shop, and I need to be ready to drink coffee by then."  

"Now if only I could get you to put that kind of dedication into your schoolwork," Zatte said.    

"Oh, I've got that under control," Keda said.    "You see my grades, right?   I've got a high school picked out and everything.    But none of that matters if a boy buys me a coffee and I start gagging at the first sip."

As she said this, Keda decided her drink was cool enough, and she carefully raised it to her lips.    She winced, but managed to swallow it, though the face she made indicated that it was an unpleasant achievement.    "Ugh.   Okay... okay... I'm getting there."

"Why would you want to go on a coffee date anyway?" Zatte asked.   "Just tell a boy that you work at a cafe and you'd rather see a movie instead."  

"That's the beauty of it!" Keda explained.   "If he takes me to a coffee shop, it's like I'm on my own turf.    It gives me the advantage.   I can say all sorts of things during the date, like how they get the caffeine out of decaf, or how the cappuccino machine works.    They'll think I'm super-sophisticated that way.   If I'm at a movie I'm totally out of my element.   You really need to read more  Sun Tzu, Zatte."  

"Sun Tzu?"   Zatte asked, bewildered.   "Are you trying to date a boy or kill him?"

"Never mind me," Keda said.    "I'll bet you're excited today."  

"About what?" Zatte asked.  

"About Luffa, dummy," Keda said.  

"Luffa who?" Zatte grumbled.   "You mean our ex-cook who walked out on us and barely ever stops by?"

"Oh, come on," Keda said.    "You know how busy she is, and she's on the road constantly."    

"And now that she just happens to be in the area, I'm supposed to be giddy about it?"    Zatte asked.    "It's not like she's coming to see me, Keda.   You're her biggest fan."  

"Come on, you miss her too," Keda said.   "She's your best friend."

"No, she's not," Zatte said.   "I mean, of course she's my friend, but not like... Don't you have homework to do?"

"Nope," Keda said.    

"Then shouldn't you be watching your show?"   Zatte asked.    

"It doesn't start until five," Keda said.  

"All right then, go bus some tables," Zatte said, and then tossed a washcloth at her.   Keda nodded with a shrug and then headed off to begin her assignment.

*******

Exactly two hours and fifteen minutes later, Keda had vanished from the shop.    Zatte was never sure if she was doing a good job raising her little sister.   It often felt like Keda was raising herself, and acting out just enough to make Zatte feel like she was involved in the process.    The girl was extremely smart for her age, and she helped out with the cafe, so it seemed unfair to criticize her for being nosy or presumptuous.   It was hard to tell whether she was being too strict on Keda or not strict enough.  

No, Keda wasn't what had her on edge.    It was Luffa.  Zatte did miss her, but not in a way she particularly cared to admit to anyone else.   And with Luffa away from the cafe, essentially out of their lives, it seemed pointless to admit anything now.   Better to go on like it hadn't mattered.   Better to be strong and independent, and hope that everyone accepted the image of Zatte as an independent, responsible shopkeeper.   It wasn't always a satisfying life, but at least it was her own, and it couldn't be taken away by someone when they moved on to other things.  

As much as she appreciated the new cook, she had to suppress a certain resentment towards him.   It wasn't his fault that he didn't have the same level of culinary talent.    Or that he didn't have that same wild look in his eye.    Or that the apron didn't frame the small of his back the right way.   Or (let's face it) that he was a 'he.'   So Zatte was never sure if she was too hard on the guy, or if she was too easy on him because she was trying not to be too hard on him.   Now that she thought about it, she had the same trouble with Luffa back in the day, for completely opposite reasons.  

It was distracting and depressing, and she wasn't sure how she would feel about it, and she just wanted some work to do so she could think about something else.  

*******

Gradually, more customers came into the store as offices started to close for the evening.   It always struck Zatte as odd that people would want coffee so late in the day, but she supposed that they were all trying to fight off the tiredness from the workday, even if it cost them a few hours of sleep later in the night.  

By 8:00 P.M., Zatte had convinced herself that she had nearly forgotten about whats-her-name, and she had settled into a steady routine of taking orders, making change, and handing out drinks.    Then a middle-aged couple threw off the entire rhythm.  The wife had been very concise with her order, but her husband was holding up the line while he tried to decide what he wanted.  

"Now, lemme see here," he said as he looked at the menu and thoughtfully rubbed his chin with his thumb.   "Oh, you've got pork fillet cutlets?   I'll take two of them, and.... the egg sandwich... and... hmmm.   Wow, you've got chili dogs?   That's awesome!   Three chili dogs, please!"

"Um... will there be anything else?"   Zatte asked, unsure if she really wanted to know.   His wife seemed to feel the same way.  

"Goku, you'll never be able to eat all of that," she groaned.  

"Sure I will!" he insisted.   "I had a light lunch today, so..."

The look on his wife's face suggested that this was not even remotely true.     Zatte decided it was better to just ring them up and get their money before she could talk him out of it.  

"It will take some time to prepare all of this, you understand," Zatte said to Goku.  

"Aw, don't worry about that," Goku said.    "Take as long as you need.   Me 'n' Chi-Chi will be so busy playing with the rabbits that we probably won't even notice!"

"Rabbits?" Zatte asked.    

"Where do ya keep those guys, anyway?" Goku asked.    He began looking around in every direction, which made all of the cowlicks in his hair that much harder to ignore.   "Oh, crap, we forgot to order lettuce so we'd have somethin' to feed 'em!"

Chi-Chi's face began to turn red, and Zatte finally began to understand what he was talking about.

"Sir," Zatte said, "This isn't a rabbit cafe."

"It's not?" Goku asked.   "Well, you've at least got a cat or something, right?"

"No, we just serve coffee and food."

"Goku, we talked about this on the way here..." Chi-Chi grumbled.

Goku crossed his arms and lowered his head, and it was hard to tell if he was pouting or contemplating his predicament.   "Darn.   Well, you still got chili dogs.   I guess that'll just have to do."

"I... apologize for the inconvenience," Zatte said.   She had never meant that sentence less than she did in this moment.  

*******

Ten minutes later, Keda was downstairs in the shop again, sitting at one of the booths and scribbling notes while she read from a textbook.    When asked, she would insist that this wasn't homework that had been assigned, and she was simply working ahead in anticipation of future assignments.   Zatte was too exasperated with this explanation to dispute it.   By now, business had slowed down considerably, with only a few stragglers coming in for quick to-go orders.    At one of the tables, Goku was still finishing the feast he had ordered while his wife played a game on her phone and tried not to look too embarrassed.  Finally, the couple got up to leave, and as they did, the doors swung open, and someone else entered the shop.

"Luffa!" Keda shouted.    She practically jumped out of the booth and ran up to meet her.  

"Hey, kid!" Luffa replied.   She had been holding a gym bag, but dropped it so she could return Keda's embrace.    

Zatte had been unloading the dishwasher when Luffa entered, and she looked over to see her.   Luffa was wearing a pair of zubaz--baggy gym pants with a zebra-striped pattern--and a satin jacket with a steakhouse logo printed on the front.    There was a smear of green around her lips, and even her teeth had a green stain on them.    Once, Luffa had worn her hair long, but now it was cut very short and seemed to stand on end.    And she had colored it an unnatural shade of yellow, far more vivid than blonde.  

"You beat Ribrianne!"  Keda said excitedly.    "That puts your score up to 10 points!"

"Hey, don't sound so surprised," Luffa said.  

"I thought she had you near the end," Keda said.   "You looked like you were nearly out of it, and then you reversed that suplex into a head-scissors... how did you do that?"

Luffa puffed out her chest and jabbed her sternum with her thumb.    "What do you mean how?    I'm the Golden Ace, aren't I?"

"Well yeah," Keda said, "but you lost to Hop last week."

Luffa grimaced like she had accidentally swallowed a bug.   "She cheated.    That doesn't count."

"Well, the tournament rules say it does count, but now that you've got ten points, you've got a strong chance of winning.   There's still some tiebreaker scenarios to consider, but personally I like your chances."

"Ugh," Luffa said.   "I'm glad you can make sense of the scores.   You know, these round-robin tournaments are great, right until you have to figure out whether you're winning or losing.   Is Kale still in the running, or did she get eliminated?"

Keda pointed to a group of armchairs at one corner of the cafe.    "Come on," she said, "I'll walk you through the scenarios."  

Luffa followed her, waving to Zatte as she passed by.   As she did this, she nearly bumped into Goku as he and his wife were on their way to the door.   They exchanged a look, and for a split second, Zatte was worried that it might become awkward.   Luffa almost looked like she was sizing him up for a fight.    She couldn't read Goku at all, but she assumed he was mostly intrigued by her loud costume.    

For some reason, the sound system in the store was playing a metal cover of "Carol of the Bells".    Zatte didn't know how that had gotten added to the holiday playlist.  

"Cool hair!" Goku finally said.  

"Hey, thanks," Luffa said.    

And then they went their separate ways.    

The music system abruptly switched to "Here Comes Santa Claus," perhaps the most tension-free Christmas song of all.

"Now then," Luffa said to Keda as she collapsed into one of the armchairs.    "Let's get down to business."

Keda was tapping a notepad with a pen, looking more like Luffa's accountant than a young fan.    "Right, well, obviously, if you can win all of your next matches, you'll be a shoo-in to win the tournament.   But even if you lose two more, there's still a chance of squeaking by.    The only thing I'm worried about is you tying with Hop."

"She cheated," Luffa grumbled.    

"It doesn't matter," Keda said.  "If you both tie on points, she wins the tiebreaker, since she has a win over you.   But if Ribrianne beats her, that'll set up a possible four-way tie with Videl.   Then you'd win, because you'd have the best record among the four of you."

"Sounds like I should just win the rest of my matches," Luffa said after digesting what Keda had said.  

"Just promise me you'll stay in the ring when you face Sorrel," Keda pleaded.   "She always tricks her opponents into getting counted out, and I know how much you like to fight in the crowd."

"What I like," Luffa said with a sadistic grin, "is having the referee out of my way.    If Sorrel thinks a twenty-count will save her from me, then she's already lost."

"But if you get counted out, you could lose the tournament!" Keda protested.    "Then you won't get a shot at the All-Pacific Championship!"

"Hah!   If someone like Sorrel can beat me," Luffa said, "then I don't deserve the title.    It's that simple.   Besides, she's not the only one with a trick up her sleeve."   She pointed at her mouth, which had smears of green dye around it.    

"When are you gonna teach me how to do the poison mist?" Keda asked.  

"I keep telling you, kid," Luffa said, "it's a sacred technique.    I can't just teach it to anybody."

Zatte approached them and cleared her throat to get their attention.    "Sorry to interrupt this strategy conference, but I thought the 'Golden Ace' might be hungry."     She held up a chicken salad sandwich and a to-go cup of coffee, which Luffa accepted with relish.  

"You're a lifesaver," Luffa said with a smile.  "I haven't eaten since before the show started."

"You'd think SPARKING! could afford catering for their events," Zatte said.    

"They do," Luffa said as she unwrapped the sandwich.   "I just don't like to eat so close to bell time.     Makes me nervous.   Too many stories out there about guys pooping their pants during matches."  

"Ewwww!" Keda said.  "Really?"  

"I've never run into it myself," Luffa said, "but you hear about it.    I almost threw up during a match, so I believe it."

"Was it because you swallowed posion mist?" Keda asked.  

"Huh?  Oh, no way," Luffa said with her mouth full.    "I... well, I built up an immunity to that a long time ago."

Keda began scratching her chin thoughtfully.   "Immunity... so that's it."

"What do I owe you?" Luffa asked Zatte.    

"It's on the house," Zatte replied.    

"Oh, come on," Luffa said, "I'm making halfway decent money these days."  

Zatte pointed at Luffa's yellow-and-black striped pants.     "Then why are you dressed like you're doing your laundry?"  

"Hey, these are high fashion in my line of work," Luffa said with a smile.    She propped her black boots on the ottoman in front of the armchair.    There was an image of a playing card printed on the sides of each boot.     "Check it out," she said.    "They liked my match in Osaka so much that they paid me a little extra, and I used it to get these babies.    I can afford to live it up at the Emerald Eye Cafe."

"Don't worry about it.   Half my regulars keep asking if you'll ever come back to the kitchen," Zatte said.    "You did such a good job while you were here that I'm still making money off of it now."    

"How's the new guy working out?" Luffa asked, glancing toward the general direction of the kitchen.

"He's fine," Zatte said.   "He's not as good as you, but who could be?"

"You know, that's what I think about you," Luffa said as she took a swig of her coffee.    "I mean, there's a cafe near the dojo.   It's just not the same."

"Right."  

"Yeah."  

There was a long silence, and then Keda nudged Luffa in the arm.    "Hey, do you really think you can beat Kale next Saturday?" she asked.    

"Are you saying I can't?"   Luffa asked in a haughty tone.    

"I'm just saying you can't take her lightly," Keda said.    "That running knee she does is nothing to sneeze at."  

"Running knee," Luffa scoffed.   "Let me tell you what I'll do about that running knee..."

"I need to get back to the register," Zatte said, though she doubted anyone was listening.    

*******

Closing time at the Emerald Eye wasn't for another hour, but the kitchen shut down at nine.   The cook was saying his goodbyes to Zatte before leaving, when he happened to notice Luffa and Keda chatting.    

"Is she some kind of celebrity?" he asked.  

"Huh?  No, that's Luffa," Zatte said.    

"Oh.  What's with the hair?" he asked.    "She looks like a pop idol."

"She's a professional wrestler," Zatte explained.   "She quit working here to go work for the SPARKING! promotion.   They did a show tonight in Okazaki, so she came by to visit."

"Huh.   I thought she became a famous chef or something like that."

"No, as good a cook as she is, she only worked her to make ends meet until she could break into the business," Zatte said.   "And she's done pretty well.   I read on the internet that they're planning to make her the next All-Pacific Champion."

"I thought you have to win the championship in a match," he said.  

Zatte turned and gave him a dirty look.   "It's fake," she said.   "They decide who wins and loses ahead of time."

"Oh!   Right," he said.   "I guess it's like getting a promotion at an office job, then.   You must be happy for her."

"I don't know that it matters," Zatte said.    "This is the first time she's come back since she left.    If Keda wasn't such a big fan of this stuff, she probably wouldn't even bother.   She's moved on.   I heard she's dating some referee there.    She's got a whole new life on the road now."

"Well, I'd go over and pay my respects, but my parents are pretty upset that I haven't called home in a while, so..."  

Zatte nodded and waved.  "Yeah, sure.   See you tomorrow, Trunks."

Less than five seconds after he had walked out the door, a man walked in and asked for Christmas cake.    Zatte stifled a groan and explained that the kitchen was closed for the night.    This was spelled out on the cafe's front door, but no one ever really read that as they walked in.    

*******

At 10 P.M. Zatte switched the sign in the window to "CLOSED", and began turning off several of the lights in the store, until only the section above the armchairs was illuminated.    The Christmas lights on the trees outside were easier to see this way, and they lent a pinkish, purplish tint to the inside of the cafe.    Finally, Zatte walked over to Luffa's chair and took a bottle of soda out of her apron.    She slung the apron over the chair opposite Luffa's, then collapsed into it with a heavy sigh.    

"Long day?" Luffa asked.   It wasn't until she saw her up close that Zatte noticed how tired Luffa looked.   Keda had gone to bed a half-hour earlier, leaving Luffa by herself.   She looked like she wanted to fall asleep in the chair, but was too excited from the day's events.

"I've had worse," Zatte said, "but that was back when I had you on the staff."    

"Well, I'm off for a few days," Luffa said.    "I could give you guys a hand."

"Tempting," Zatte said.   "Keda would be thrilled, but I couldn't impose on you like that.     You've probably got plans for Christmas Eve."

"Not really," Luffa said.   "That's why I came here.    I've been touring for so long that I'm not really sure what to do with this much free time."

There was a hiss as Zatte opened the bottle on her soda, and she raised an eyebrow at Luffa's words.    "I thought you and that referee..."

Luffa looked confused for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed.    "No, no, no," she finally said.    "That was an angle.   Part of a storyline to make people think I had an unfair advantage.    It was kind of dumb, but sometimes you gotta do what the office wants to show 'em you're a team player."

"Oh," Zatte said, somewhat embarrassed.   "Well, it looked so convincing..."

"Well that's the idea," Luffa said.   "Wait, have you been watching my matches?   I thought you didn't go for that stuff."

"Well, Keda watches them all the time anyway," Zatte explained.    "And she's got that subscription to the on-demand service on the internet.    It's about the only time we get to see you anymore, you know?   Even if it's while you're spitting green stuff all over people."

"Keda asked me to teach her how to do the poison mist," Luffa said.   "I told her I couldn't, because the recipe for the poison is too dangerous.  Merry Christmas."

"Thanks," Zatte said.   She glanced around at the walls, imagining what they would look like with green food coloring on every surface.  "When are you gonna tell her the truth about all that stuff, anyway?"

"What, that it's fake?" Luffa asked with a smile.   "I dunno, she's still pretty young.   I'll tell her next year."

"That's what you said last year," Zatte said.   "I'd do it myself, but she wouldn't believe me.    She's a smart kid, you know.   Sooner or later, she'll figure it out on her own, and that might be kind of awkward for you."

Luffa settled back in her chair and looked down at the empty cup in her hands.    "I don't know, it's cool to have someone I know who believes it's all real," she said.   "I'll have to give that up eventually, but it's tough to let go.    You saw how excited she was when I came in."

"Yeah..." Zatte said.   She took a swig from her soda and propped her feet up on the ottoman that lay between their chairs, so that their ankles alternated in an orderly row across the cushion.

"So are you really winning the title?"  Zatte asked after a long pause.   In spite of Luffa's exhaustion, her eyes lit up at the question.

"Keep it under your hat," Luffa said, lowering her voice as though worried someone might overhear, "but maybe.    That show's six weeks out, and a lot could change before then.    If someone gets injured or something, they might have to call an audible and change the card around.    But they definitely want to put the title on me at some point."   She held up both hands and crossed her fingers for emphasis.

"That's great," Zatte said.   "I mean, it is, right?   If the matches are predetermined, does the championship even matter?"

"Oh, it's a big honor," Luffa said, visibly excited at the chance to explain it.  "I mean, it's a secondary belt, and SPARKING! isn't that big a promotion, but still.   It's kind of like an actor winning an award.    The people in charge are saying they think I'm good enough to deserve that spot on the show.    I mean, two years ago I was still helping the crew put the ring together.    I still can't believe it."

"I can," Zatte said.   "You always put everything you have into whatever you do.   I always saw it when you worked here, so it doesn't shock me that other people can see it in you now."

"I've missed this place,"  Luffa said wistfully.    "That's the only trouble with being on tour so much.    I don't get to cook as often.     I saw a place selling Christmas cakes on the way here and you've probably been selling them all month without me..."

"Well, if you really want to," Zatte said, "you could give us a hand in the kitchen tomorrow.   I mean, if you really didn't have any other plans for Christmas Eve..."

"Nope, I got nothing," Luffa said.    "What about you?   Keda and I could keep an eye on the place so you can leave early."  

"We're closing early anyway," Zatte said.   "Business usually drops off pretty sharply on Christmas Eve night, so we might as well.   Besides, I can't have you waiting tables with that crazy hair.    You'd scare the customers."

"Huh?   Oh, right," Luffa said.   "You know, I've been wearing it like this for so long I'd gotten used to it.    You don't like my look?"

"It's just... very bright," Zatte said.    "It's not so bad up close, when I can see your face better, but it almost doesn't look like real hair.    It looks rough, like hay."

"It's really not," Luffa said.   She tugged on some of it to demonstrate.   "I don't even put much stuff in it to make it stick up like it does.     Here, feel this."  

Zatte shrugged and moved to the seat beside Luffa's, where she reached for the same part of her hair that Luffa was holding.   Their fingers brushed against each other, and neither of them seemed entirely sure how to react to the sensation.  

"Huh..." Zatte said as she gently touched Luffa's head.    "That's not at all what I expected."  

"Yeah," Luffa said, somewhat awkwardly.   "It's not so different from that red streak you've got in your hair, I bet."

She reached out for the side of Zatte's bob, and rubbed a strand of it between her fingers.   "Why are you blushing?" Luffa asked.    

"Oh... uh, I probably stood up too quickly," Zatte said.    

"Oh..."

They heard someone outside walking past the storefront, and suddenly became very self-conscious of holding onto each other's hair, so they quickly let go, and looked away from each other.    

"So uh..." Luffa said.    "If you're not doing anything tomorrow night..."

"I mean, I've got a reservation at Kentucky Fried Chicken, but that's it, really," Zatte said.    "Keda talked me into it.    Said I ought to do something, even if I was alone.   But if you wanted to come along..."

"Sure," Luffa said.    "I haven't had KFC in ages.    And you know, it'd give me a chance to see the lights around town."    

"They've got a new thing at the mall," Zatte said.    "Well, not new new.   It was there last year, but you wouldn't have seen it then."

"That sounds fine," Luffa said.   "Yeah."

*******

Behind the front counter, Keda observed her sister and Luffa through the glass of the display case.    It wasn't an ideal vantage, and she could barely hear what they were saying, but it was enough for her to get the gist of things, and so far things looked promising.  

There were still a lot of things that could go wrong.   Long distance relationships were always a challenge, and the professional wrestling business wasn't exactly known for fidelity, but these were factors Keda couldn't control,  and at some point it would be up to the two of them to make things work as best they could.    It was enough that Keda had gotten them to this point-- studying Luffa's tour schedule, playing the eager fan, and providing Luffa a useful excuse to visit right before a romantic holiday.    Really, the only thing she had been worried about was that the two women would have seen through Keda's "wrestling-is-real" act, but they were grown-ups, and they didn't know an eleven-year-old from an seven-year-old, not when you really got down to it.

Keda noticed Zatte reaching for Luffa's hair a second time, and decided that was her cue to withdraw.   She was playing matchmaker, not spying on them, after all.     Besides, Keda would have to rest up for tomorrow so she could help out in the store tomorrow, in order to make sure neither of them were too tired for their date.    

Quietly, Keda made her way back to the door that led to their second-story apartment.     As she  ascended the stair, she imagined how great things would be next Christmas, with a SPARKING! All-Pacific Champion in the family.    Maybe then, finally, Luffa would teach her how to spit Poison Mist.

[THE END]  

[mollyraesly]

Time with Wolves--Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry for the long wait!!

Once her midterms were finished, all Sansa wanted to do was leave campus as soon as she could. She boarded her train with such eagerness that the ticket collector seemed a bit concerned. “Are you alright, miss?” the old man had asked, not unkindly. “Yes,” she said with a polite smile. “Just eager to get home.”

“Where’s that?” “Winterfell,” she replied. “Ah, a Northern girl. What’s a lass like you doing so far South?” Sansa let out a sigh, but was saved from having to give an answer by a question from the next customer. She waved goodbye to the man and hurried to find a decent window seat. Throughout the train ride, she tried but failed to distract herself by answering neglected emails on her phone and flipping through the fashion magazines she’d bought; the latest couture couldn’t ease her antsy fidgeting and neither could boring administrative emails. So instead she turned to the window to watch the landscape pass by, her heart beating just a bit faster the further north the train went. When she finally stepped onto the station at Wintertown, the chill in the November air made her shiver. But she was grinning as she watched her breath form small clouds of white and gray wisps. The air felt crisp, like air ought to.  She rolled her suitcase through the crowd, searching for the exit. When she spotted her father waiting for her by one of the brick columns, tears welled in her eyes. Beaming, she hurried toward him. “Father!” Ned swooped Sansa into a strong hug, and in his arms she felt like a young girl again. “I’ve missed you,” Sansa told him, her voice cracking. “I’ve missed you too, little one. It’s not been the same without the whole pack together. But now you’re home, everything is just as it should be.” He kissed the top of her head and took her bags for her, and Sansa was reminded that the world still had true knights. She filled him in on how the travel had gone and on what she thought about her performance on her exams.

Ned did not seem overly concerned about Sansa’s academic performance, for no one put more pressure on her than Sansa did herself to do well in school. “You’ve always been so motivated, Sansa,” Ned said with pride. “I wish that would have passed on to Rickon.”

“Still having trouble?”

“Your mother and I are at Winterfell Middle School every other week,” Ned told her. “To be honest, I think they should give us a parking spot, considering how many kids we’ve sent through.”

By the time they got into his truck, the conversation had turned to the situation back at home. Sansa peppered him with questions so she’d be ready for what awaited her. Arya had already slept off her jet-lag, so she wouldn’t be a complete ghoul. Bran was still tinkering with his wheels to make them work better on snow—so she needed to watch out for puddles everywhere. Rickon was still grounded for setting Mr. Luwin’s pumpkins on fire on Halloween, and Robb had been dodging everyone’s questions phone calls of late so was expected to have some bad news he did not want to share. “And how’s Mom dealing with Thanksgiving prep so far?” Ned gave her a secretive smile. “That bad?” “You are as much needed as you are wanted, daughter mine.” When they arrived home, she heard her siblings before she saw them. The house smelled like dinner—beef stew with peas and onions—and the warmth of the heat engulfed her after the brisk walk from the driveway. “Look who’s here!” Ned called. “Sansa!” “Sansa!” “Sansa!” She was nearly tackled to the ground by Rickon. “You’re home!” Rickon screeched. “I’m home!” Sansa replied with equal enthusiasm. She planted kisses on his face, which made him scowl and her laugh. She then reached out to Bran and all but knocked his wheelchair over. “My genius brother!” she sang. “Oi! What does that make me?” Sansa turned around to find Robb. “My older brother!”  He, too, groaned as she kissed his cheek. “Where’s Arya?” But as she asked, her little sister appeared down the stairs, stomping in bulky combat boots. “Arya!” Sansa sang and threw her arms around her. “Look at you! You cut your hair!” Arya had cut her hair into a short choppy bob that fell just beneath her eyes. “Do you like it?” “I love it,” Sansa replied. She spotted some ink behind Arya’s ear. “Gods, did you get a new tattoo?” “Do you like it?” “I love it!” They all began to speak at once, until Cat called them into the kitchen. Sansa found her mother behind the counter with a somewhat frantic look.  “Sansa!” she exclaimed. “Thank the Gods you’re here.” She forced a meat thermometer into Sansa’s hand. “Here, I need you to check to the roast for me.”

A minute later, Sansa had washed her hands and was wearing one of the aprons she’d soon herself back in high school that had pumpkins and apples patterned all over it. As she was throwing a loaf of bread into the oven to get it nice and warm before serving, Cat scooped her into a hug.

“You grow more beautiful every day,” her mother said.

“You’re just saying that because I’m the only one who helps.” Most of her siblings subscribed to the philosophy of don’t be good at something you don’t want to do.

Cat sighed. “At least the only one who I can trust to help and do the job well. Do you remember when Bran volunteered to bake a cake two years ago?”

Remembering that catastrophe, and Bran’s disbelief that he could understand high-level physics but not how to crack an egg properly, they both broke into giggles that only faded when the fire alarm went off from all the rising steam coming off the oven. Dinner that night was loud and happy, as was Thanksgiving. Sansa peeled potatoes and diced onions till she thought her hands might go numb, but they managed to feed over 25 people—even more than usual, as Gendry and his mother had come, as well as Theon and his sister Yara. And Robb had unexpectedly brought his new and apparently serious girlfriend Jeyne Westerling, about whom none of them had heard anything. “Do you think she’s pregnant?” Arya had asked Sansa when they were sent into the linen closet to grab more napkins. “Arya!” “Her shirt looks a bit roomy. Did you see that puffy part at the belly?” “People dress casual for Thanksgiving,” said Sansa, trying to be nice and set a good example. “It is a holiday about eating.” She looked pointedly at Arya’s too-big leggings ensemble. “But c’mon, didn’t you see that bulge?” Arya goaded. “Old Nan saw that bulge, and she’s past her eighties!” Sansa hissed and then clasped her hand over her mouth in horror at what she’d just said. Arya cackled. “Why would Robb be so stupid to introduce her to everyone on Thanksgiving?” “Maybe he thought it’d be a good buffer? I mean, we can’t exactly ask him, in front of the turkey, can we?” “He’s a moron,” said Arya, looking very much like her birthday had come early. “This will be so fun.” “Oh, Arya, please don’t do anything to Jeyne.” “What about Robb?” “After Jeyne leaves, he’s fair game,” Sansa proclaimed. “But if that girl is knocked up with Robb’s baby, she’s suffered enough.” Arya feigned gagging. “What a Thanksgiving,” she observed with glee. “What a Thanksgiving,” Sansa agreed with a sigh. They didn’t tease Robb too much with Jeyne around, but the teasing was merciless as soon as she left—only stopping when Ned asked to have a private chat with his eldest. “Is Robb gonna get grounded?” Rickon asked. “Worse,” Bran said sagely. “I suspect he’s about to be forced to finally become an adult.” “That sucks,” Rickon observed. “Indeed.” Sansa did the dishes with her mother, who seemed to be taking out her frustrations on the good china. “Watch it, Mom. You’ll break the plate.” Catelyn turned to her oldest daughter. “Sansa, promise me you’ll be smarter than Robb.” Sansa grinned. “Aren’t I always?” She decided to let things cool down at the Stark household and went out the next morning for some Black Friday shopping. Retail therapy had always been Sansa’s preferred method of cheering herself up, pampering herself, or really just spending a Tuesday. She bought a pair of classy drop earrings, a beautiful suit and skirt combination at an upscale designer shop for a fraction of the cost, a gorgeous chess set for Bran, a new pair of mile-high combat boots for Arya that were electric blue and absolutely ridiculous, and some sweet infant onesies with ducks and baby elephants on them—just in case she’d be attending a baby shower in the near future.  Armed with lemonade and a cinnamon sugar pretzel, she left the mall and went to the wolf preservation. Combing her fingers through Ghost’s fur and feeling the warm heavy weight of him against her was exactly what she needed. “You are such a good boy,” she cooed while rubbing behind Ghost’s ears. “You’ll spoil him if you continue on like that,” Mr. Mormont warned. “He could use some spoiling. I don’t see him enough.” “You almost done with the South? When you coming home for good?” Sansa paused a moment before answering. “I’ve applied to law programs all around Westeros. I’m not sure where I’ll be next year.” “You know, Winterfell U has a good law program. No reason to travel the country when you can get a good education in your own backyard.” “Yeah,” she replied, thinking it over. She smiled at Mr. Mormont. “But just think how spoiled Ghost would be then.”

Mr. Mormont rolled his eyes. “You’d think he was a dog they way you treat that beast.” Her time with Ghost lasted for another hour before she needed to head home to help with dinner. She kissed his face, and Ghost silently purred.  “I hate leaving you,” she told him. “You think after a few years I’d be better at it. But no. I still cry every time.” Ghost gave her such a sympathetic look that Sansa felt like he’d really understood her. “Winterfell U does have a good law program,” she murmured under her breath. After dinner, Sansa was losing spectacularly to Rickon and Bran in a game of Mario Party — she always played Princess Peach, Rickon Wario, Bran Yoshi— when Arya barged in. “Wow, Sansa, you still massively suck at this game.” “Oh, quiet!” she hissed. “I’m doing my best.” “And your best is losing to the computer Waluigi.” Sansa pressed pause. “What is it?” “Do you want to go to The Bear and the Maiden Fair with me and Gendry in a bit?” Sansa sighed.  “What?” “Well, I just woke up so early today—��� “Your choice.” “And I’m still tired from last night.” “Your fault for being so helpful.” “And I don’t know if I can stay up that late.” “We’ll get you some caffeine.” “But—“ “Oh, c’mon, Sans. You’re leaving soon, and I won’t see you for months. Come out with us. Just a few drinks.” Sansa bit her lip. “Don’t they card at The Bear and the Maiden Fair?” “Yeah, so?” “Well, last I checked, you were still only 19.” Arya rolled her eyes. “Gendry knows a guy. C’mon, it’ll be fun. There’s going to be dancing.” “I do like dancing,” Sansa mused.

“And you can have an excuse to get dressed up.”

“I do like doing that.”

“And wear your new earrings,” Arya pressed.

“Oh, those are so cute,” Sansa sighed. “And I already told Gendry to pick us up in twenty.” “Minutes?” “No, decades.” Sansa gave her younger sister a frosty look she’d learned from her mother. “Gods, yes, minutes.” Sansa inspected her ensemble of warm gray sweatpants and Robb’s old sweater from high school. “I need to change.” Arya grinned impishly and gestured her head toward the paused screen. “I’ll fill in for you. Maybe you’ll finally win a mini game.” Sansa hurled her controller at Arya, who had the audacity to catch it easily.  As she made her way to the stairs, she heard her sister muttering complaints about her character choice. “Princess Peach is a feminist icon, and I will not hear any differently!” Sansa called as she climbed the stairs. “You can still wear dresses and be powerful!” “I know! I know!” Arya shouted back.  “This is the hill I’m prepared to die on!” Sansa sang. She put on a pair of navy tights, a green plaid skirt, and a matching sweater. The light makeup she’d put on earlier had held up, but Sansa swiped on just a bit more mascara and coated her lips with just a hint of lip stain. Old habits died hard, and she snuck into her parents’ room to spritz on her mother’s perfume. She found her father on the stairs. “Going out?” he asked. She nodded. “Arya wants to go to The Bear and the Maiden Fair.” “Don’t they—“ Ned began, but then he sighed. “I’m sure your sister has a way in all worked out.” He kissed Sansa on the top of her head. “Call if you need a ride home.” “We might be our late. I don’t want to drag you out of bed.” “It won’t be me.” Ned’s eyes glimmered. “Robb will be more than happy to come pick up his sisters and learn the importance of staying sober and being a responsible parent.” She and her father shared a look that was interrupted by Arya hollering her name. “Gendry’s here!” she screeched. “Let’s go!” “I’m being summoned.” Ned smiled. “Have fun, Sansa.” “Thanks, I’ll try.” Sansa should not have been surprised that Arya, who looked even younger than she was, was nevertheless right that she’d have no trouble getting into the bar, but she was still impressed when Arya handed her a lemon drop and a ginger ale. “How?” “I told you. Gendry knows a guy.” “But it’s illegal.” Arya shrugged. “Lommy doesn’t care.” “What’s a Lommy?” Arya motioned for Sansa to grab her drink. “Cheers!” She downed nearly half her beer while Sansa sipped daintily from her drink. “Oh, you can do better than that.” Arya observed. Sansa took a larger sip. “There. Happy?” “Not nearly.” Arya looked to the bar. “Lommy! We are going to need some shots.” “How many?” “Eight.” An hour later, Sansa had very much forgotten how tired she was as she, Arya, and Gendry danced to loud pop music. She couldn’t quite remember how many drinks she’d had, but she knew that Arya and Gendry had had more. Gendry was actually a good dancer, which she had not expected, as he was normally a bit stiff and tough. Maybe it was the fact that Arya was so much shorter than him, and so they had to find inventive ways to dance together.

Sansa was quite happy to stand beside them and dance along. She had gotten quite hoarse from shouting along to the lyrics, but she was grinning like a loon anyway. To her welcome surprise, she’d run into Loras, Margaery’s brother, and his new boyfriend Renly. After another round of shots, they’d all gone back to dancing, and Sansa laughed as the couple cooed over how attractive Gendry was. “He’s called the Bull!” Arya informed them. “For a reason!” “You did good, little Stark,” Loras said. “Very good!” “He did better!” Sansa shouted. “Look how beautiful my sister is! And so talented! And just the best. I’m so proud. Arya, you know I love you, right?” “I love you too!” “Let’s move back to Winterfell,” Sansa said. “I’m so tired of being so far away. Let’s come back—and—and we can be roommates!” “YES!” exclaimed Arya, punching the air.  But no further discussion was had, as a new song started playing—“The Dornishman’s Wife (Remix Version)”— and they all started screeching and stamping to the beat. An hour later, the effects of the alcohol, despite its copious amount, had begun to wear off, and Sansa was starting to feel tired. Loras and Renly had gone to the bathroom over twenty minutes ago and had never returned. Sansa, knowing Margaery, suspected they would not come back. “My feet hurt,” she whined to Arya. “Mine too.” Gendry leaned over to let Arya climb into his back. Sansa frowned. “We shouldn’t have drinked—drank—drunk—hah! grammar! Suck it, English! I know my past participles. I’m a fucking Queen!” “Sansa!” “We should get water.” Gendry nodded and started toward the bar. “We should call Robb,” Sansa announced suddenly. “Robb?” Arya asked. “To take us home. Gendry is too drunk to drive.” “S’ too loud. Won’t hear anything.” Sansa tried to respond, but her brain couldn’t think of any response. “I’ll text him,” Arya said as Gendry returned with water and struggled to make his way onto a barstool. She pulled out her phone, and her whole face scrunched in concentration as she typed. “He’s coming!” She declared after a minute. Sansa cheered.  They sipped their water and discussed the food they wanted to eat to sober up. “Pancakes,” Arya said. “Mmm,” Sansa agreed. “And bacon.” “Yes! And eggs.” “Fries,” Gendry volunteered. “And a cheeseburger.”

“Oh my god, yes, but with bacon.”

“Yes, and pancakes too. On the side.” Both Stark girls agreed that was the best option. “We should go to the Ice Shack,” Arya said. “Rob will take us.” “They have the best milkshakes,” Sansa sighed dreamily. “I’ve never been there,” Gendry said. The next ten minutes were spent by the two sisters trying to remember and describe everything on the menu to him. At last, Arya’s phone vibrated on the bar counter. “He’s here!” “Fries!” Gendry cheered. Sansa pulled on her coat and did her best to walk evenly out of the bar, Gendry and Arya ambling slowly and laughing behind her. They opened the back seat of Robb’s red Mustang and collapsed inside. Sansa fumbled with the handle, and with some muttering was able to fall with some grace into the front passenger seat. The dazed grin on her lips died when she turned to her left and saw that it was not Robb sitting behind the wheel. “Jon?”

[ccntactus]

a dumb list of little dumb ship moments for @thatisnotmynature​‘s thor and this fuckin goober ezra

the first time he tries to make dinner by himself he messes it up. he works himself up over it and by the time thor comes in ezra’s sitting on the floor hugging bear and crying, why does he say he’s crying? “even bear didn’t want to eat it.”

ez being an idiot and literally planning a movie night to see what in movies trigger his panic attacks and thor having to explain to his adorable idiot boyfriend why this is a bad idea

ez deciding to teach himself first aid related things, so he can help when thor comes home banged up

ez having to comfort thor at night because for once thor is the one having the worse nightmares

ez keeping one specific notebook very private, when thor finally sees inside it’s full of drawings of thor being soft with bear or with other avengers

the realization that ez himself never appears in any of his drawings, when asked why he just shrugs

walking together in the snow, ezra being the pet-dad that gets bear little boots and a sweater and takes a million pictures because he thinks bear is the cutest thing ever

ezra getting a retail job and his coworkers absolutely losing their shit the first time thor shows up when they leave the store after 10 pm when ez works a closing shift

the confidence boost when ez realizes how big a deal thor is to people (seeing as he’s probably the most easily approachable one?) and realizes that thor sees him as important

super awkward “i want you to meet my parents” dinner where ezra just pokes at his food and tries to join in conversation but can’t follow things too well when they turn to more asgardian affairs

the conversation of “Stark called your brother a twink, so I looked it up and what do you mean I’m smaller than him? Am I a twink too?” upon hearing someone mention that if they want properly fitted clothes for ez quickly then they probably have to “take in some of Loki’s old things”

the super awkward first time meeting frigga and ezra full on flinches when she touches him because all he’s thinking about is his own mother and how scummy a person she is and that’s tainted his mental image of what mothers are like

the moment later once he’s explained this to thor and he ends up hugging frigga himself by the time they’re going to go back to earth

thor being a good dominant partner and taking the time to explain things to ez and promising him that he’s not weird for liking the things he likes in the bedroom

ez feeling like he can trust thor enough to explain why he doesn’t think he could ever be the dominant one in their relationship, even if it’s just for a night

the inevitable “i’m broken, aren’t i?” “yes, but i love you anyway” conversation

（✿ ͡◕ ᴗ◕)つ ✫・* ✫・*  their super soft and loving aftercare routine

the first time they see each other in formal dress (earth)

the first time they see each other in formal dress (asgard)

the fact that they’re on a walk with bear when thor proposes

the faCT THOR PROPOSES IN THE FIRST PLACE

first time ez is able to have a normal routine check up in medical

the fact that until he gets to that point, thor tries to be there for him during as many medical things as possible after sam gets them to do exams and any needed treatments in a neutral room that doesn’t give him the memories of hydra

ezra deciding to go through therapy and maybe even take medications to help with his issues, being pleasantly surprised when thor doesn’t seem to hate the idea

those little moments during kink that are so soft and intimate and just purely loving even with the kinks involved

whenever ezra has a hard time putting what he went through into words during therapy, he draws the scene instead. but the first time thor sees those drawings

ezra voluntarily going through medical and science things to be able to control the psychometry, despite the fact it’d bring back traumatic memories, just so he can hold thor’s hand without having to wear his gloves

ezra stroking thor’s hair or beard once he’s able to turn the psychometry off

（✿ ͡◕ ᴗ◕)つ ✫・* ✫・* hand holding when they can tell each other is nervous

while preparing for their wedding, ezra trying so hard to take care of as much as he can that he starts to grab a throw pillow and kneel on it at thor’s side regardless of whether or not they’re in the bedroom cause he just needs to take some weight off his brain

the conversation about previous experience and the overwhelming relief that with no privacy in hydra nobody was able to prey on ezra in a sexual manner

ezra embarrassed by the fact he’s 20 and has never even been kissed

first time having sub-drop and thor being so damn good at handling his soft broken boyfriend

them deciding to date in the first place? no idea how that initially goes down but i love it

ez learning about affection through thor

ez’s soft side coming out more as he learns to trust thor

ez managing to make breakfast in bed for thor at least once

stay-in-bed-all-day-comfort-cuddles when ezra has one of his headache days

（✿ ͡◕ ᴗ◕)つ ✫・* ✫・* thor having to lean down to give ezra forehead kisses

[iartlife]

Chapter Seven

Pt. II

THE HEIR

Liam had a special hate for his dad at the moment but he'd get over it once everything calmed down and felt less like he slept on rocks.

Addie and him just walked passed the little post office from where they met outside of the village. The place was getting overcrowded.

They followed the main road, passing the 'deluxe' cabins that had been booked like regular ones because of the burst in business. They came into the center of the village. It still had the old main building with the resort's restaurant and the rental shop next door by the ski lift that had no one to manage it. The gift shop was on the other side next to Kay's little grocery/convenience store. Across the road was the medical center, two small restaurants, the movie theater, and the coffee shop. The residents mostly lived in the upper level of the resort building but there were a few cabins scattered down the way that were owned.

They needed more places to hold all of these people. There were not only guests but people trying to get reservations as well. Not to mention those who gave up and were trying to find something to do until his dad came back. Everyone wanted to meet Hans.

"Thanks for coming, Unc."

"Anything to help out, Lad. I just hope your father doesn't disown you for having me here."

"He already tried that, I just moved away." Liam was pretty sure his father missed him. He'd been trying to get him to come visit the past few years; would have a missed call and usually a voicemail from him at least once a month asking how he was. "I think he wants me to be a part of his life again. Maybe he remembered I am his only kid. It's just hard for me because of all the shit that happened."

"That's understandable. Speaking of kids, have you set up another date with your little one?"

"Yeah, actually. I invited him and Cindy out here for the weekend. She isn't able to stay, but she's dropping off Eric later."

"I always liked her, too bad she can't stay. You can handle watching a kid and containing this mess?" Addie gestured to the resort.

"I didn't think about that...I invited them yesterday when nobody was here."

Addie chuckled. "You'll do fine. Worry about getting this place under control first."

"Yeah...oh God, this is going to go badly. What if he shows up early? What if I screw up?"

"You won't."

"You sound so sure."

"I won't let you screw up."

"Ha, I might do it anyway."

Addie smiled. "Oh, I forgot to ask: did someone get shot before you called me?"

"N- I don't think so."

"Strange, I could have sworn I heard a weapon fire."

"Maybe you're losing your mind."

"That implies I had one to lose."

Liam couldn't help but chuckle.

They entered the main building. The information/check-in desk was swarmed with people. They dodged them and went into the office.

"Do you know where my dad keeps the 'help wanted' sign?"

He was standing by the closed door, hands in his pockets. "Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps one of your cousins would know."

Liam began rummaging through piles. "Is the girl still at your house?"

"She should be here by now."

"I told you you could hang out with her here yesterday, why didn't you come with her?"

"She wanted to go alone."

Liam paused his search. "What did you do?"

Addie's face dropped. "I scared her."

"You took her into your basement?"

"I don't take anyone down there."

"What did you do then?"

No response.

Liam resumed his search. "Right, well I have Katya and Jane on the way to get the ski lift up and running. When will we have a good layer of powder?"

"When the snow stops."

"Timeframe, Sass-wizard."

"An hour or so."

"Awesome. Kurt didn't answer. He's probably asleep, so hopefully he'll get my message. Send him to the kitchen if he shows up?"

"Anything else, boss?"

"If you could wander around and see where we need help the most? Try not to get stuck in one place for too long."

"Sure."

He found the sign between two filing cabinets. He waved it at Addie. "I'm going to try and hire some of these wandering bodies. Hopefully someone will be interested."

"I'll send anyone that looks lost your way."

"Cool, thanks again."

He nodded and left the office.

Liam tidied the desk and chairs up from most of their clutter. Leaving the office to put the sign in the window, he told Liz to direct anyone looking for a temp-job to him. He said he would be in the restaraunt.

Denise was running around the kitchen like it was on fire. He managed to stop her long enough to ask where he could help.

Before he had a chance to even turn the stove on someone poked their head in the room. "Are you Liam?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"The lady at the desk said you're hiring?"

Back to the office he went with the woman on his heels.

Liam closed the door behind them and settled into his father's chair. She sat across the desk from him.

He gave her his best smile. "Right, what's your name?"

"Sherry. Sherry Jenkins."

"And what have you done before, Sherry?"

"I uh, I've worked a lot of retail."

"Great, you're hired." He began to scrawl a note. "Can you start right now?"

"W- Yeah. Just like that?"

"Just like that." He handed her the note. "Give that to Kevin, he's next door at the rental shop."

"Y-great. Yeah. Okay."

They stood and he opened the door for her. He was surprised to find a young man waiting for him on the other side.

He let him in the office and they sat.

"Your name?"

"Um, Jeff...Ritchie."

"We already have a Jeff, can I call you Ritchie?"

"S-ure"

"What work have you done?"

"I-I've never had a real job before, I'm still in school."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"How do you feel about washing dishes?"

"Well, I'd be getting paid for it, right?"

"That's kinda what a job is, yeah."

"Sure, I'd wash dishes."

"Great."

He wrote another note and handed it to the boy. "You're hired. Can you start right now?"

He stared at him blankly for a moment. "I guess so. Yeah."

"The restaraunt is past the lobby and that way." He pointed. "Give that note to Denise."

He read the note in his hands. "Cool."

Liam let Ritchie out of the office and there was now a line of three people waiting outside the door.

There weren't going to be any issues getting help after all.

PREVIOUS | NEXT

MASTER

[malfoydormiensnunquamtitillandus]

You’re so good at writing!!! Could you do a Draco one shot about him dating a muggle and she takes him Black Friday shopping. He doesn’t really get it but loves how excited she gets. Thank you so much lovely.

Thank you so much, your feedback is much appreciated! I will give it a try! I cannot overlook my first request. I am not a huge fan of Black Friday - since I am broke most of the time hahaha, but here it goes. I hope you enjoy!

“Sotell me, what is so special about today?” A pair of wonderful, icy eyes gazedat you, scanning the windows of every shop on the crowded street.

“It’sBlack Friday!” You exclaimed excitedly, pulling him faster, further along thestreet.

“Love…if you are not planning on further explaining it to me, I will suppose that theMuggles have an international day to celebrate the Black family on a certainFriday.” He laughed, holding your hand tightly, his fingers intertwined withyours. “Should I send an owl to my aunt?”

“SometimesI forget how clueless you are, Draco Malfoy.” You laughed, making a sudden turnand kissing your boyfriend. “Black Friday, my love, is the day after the USholiday of Thanksgiving, regarded as the first day of the Christmas shoppingseason, on which retailers make many special offers.” You defined seriously,pointing towards all the stores with big, sales posters covering their windows.“I want to take advantage of all of this and try to buy as many things that Ineed as possible: a laptop – is crucial, because I plan to go to a muggleuniversity, some new clothes… You should really consider getting yourself aphone.” You suggested and by the face that Draco had pulled, he was ponderingthe idea.

“However,you do realize that if you need something, all you have to do is ask.” Yourboyfriend answered looking you straight in the eyes and making your heart melt.Sometimes you wished that everybody got to see how loving and selfless Dracowas – the other times, seeing him that way made you feel even more special thanhe already cared to make you feel.

“Draco,I don’t need you to buy me anything, I can manage. Alright, the shop will opensoon!” You exclaimed as you pulled him towards the big crowd in front of anelectronics shop.

“Youcannot possibly be serious…” He mumbled when his eyes fell upon the sea ofpeople pushing each other into the doors. “Y/N…” He whispered as an old ladyshoved her elbow into his ribcage, trying to make it closer to the front.

“Don’tget lost, alright? This is what I need to get.” You looked more determined thanwhen you walked his way to invite him to the Yule ball – which hurt his pride alittle. He looked at the brochure in your hand, showing a gray and black laptop.

“I willbuy it for you tomorrow, this is suicidal!” He pulled the brochure out of yourhand just as the doors opened and the sea of people shoved everyone – willinglyor not – inside of the shop.

The colorfaded from his already snow white face when he felt your fingers slip out ofhis hand and he found himself alone and being shoved from every direction. Hisevery instinct told him to take out his wand and jinx every single person thatdared touch him, but your sweet voice echoing in his head – that he had soonbegan to recognize as his conscience – told him not to. As he followed thecrowd, absent minded and drowned in thoughts about how miserable his life hadbeen and how if he had not met you, he would have died as miserable as one canget, his eyes fell on a black and gray laptop.

Helooked down at his hand and made sure that his eyes were not playing tricks onhim – because hallucinating was not hard in said circumstances – and before heknew it, the Black Friday spirit must have gotten into him, because he waswrestling the old lady that had elbowed him in the ribs for the last one left.

“Let golady, I am warning you!” He yelled as the lady went for his eyes.

“Youwould not hurt an old lady!” She said confidently, holding the laptop with herother hand.

“Ohyeah? You have no idea what I would do for her.”

           About an hour later, you were stillsitting outside on a bench, looking hopefully towards the door. It seemed likeforever since Draco had been pulled into the store by the crowd. You rememberedlosing him among the people and despite your ardent wish and desperate need to buy that laptop, youstayed behind, convinced that he would do the same. He hadn't... Luckily, he had not been amongthe people who were taken out on kernels by the paramedics, either so you still hadhope that he was alive and well and looking for you.

           Your anxiety was growing with everypassing minute and you shot up and ran to the doors, ready to go in and lookfor him when you thought you caught a glimpse of his blond hair in the crowd. You shifted and pushed, trying to make your way towards him andstared wide eyed when indeed, Draco marched out triumphantly.

“Oh,thanks Merlin!” You exclaimed running to him and hugging him tightly. It wasonly afterwards that you noticed that he had scratches on his face and that hewas holding about 10 bags in his hands.

“I gotpulled in… I didn’t know what to do…”

“I waswaiting for you here… I went out as soon as I slipped out of your hand.” Youexplained, kissing him lovingly, your fingers caressing his face. “I’m gladthat you are fine.” Your eyes fell upon the bags in his hands once more and hesmiled proudly.

“Ithink that I did quite well.” He said proudly, sticking out his arms to showyou everything he’d gotten. “I bought a phone!” He added excitedly. “And then Ithought ‘hey, I should buy one for everyone in my family!’ so I did!”

           You were looking at him, feeling lovefilling your heart with every beat. He looked like a child on Christmas – hispale face was glowing and his eyes had a sparkle he got only when he looked atyou(which did make you a tad jealous).

“Andlast but not least, I bought you this.” He announced proudly, handing a big bagto you. You looked at him, your eyes darting from his eyes to the bag and backup again a couple of times before he started to wiggle the bag. You peekedinside and when your eyes fell upon the laptop, you could not hold back asqueal. You looked back into his eyes in disbelief – he smiled proudly.

“DracoMalfoy…” You mumbled, overwhelmed by the feeling that you had hit the jackpotwith the man in front of you.

“Iknow, I know.” He replied cockily, nudging you. “What did I do to deserve him?” He added in a silly voice, meant toimitate yours.

“I loveyou.” You whispered against his lips before kissing him again.

“Did…did you just say what I think that you did?” He asked, his eyes opened widelyin surprise as he pulled back.

“I loveyou, Draco.” He remained staring at you dumbfounded for some minutes, before hedropped his bags and hugged you tightly.

“Thisis the best day of my life!” Draco whispered, holding you just as tightly,seemingly with no intention of letting go anytime soon. “I love you too.”

           As people began to leave the storesand the mall got crowded again, he let go and held your hand instead, walkingslowly towards the exit.

“Youknow, I do not understand much about muggles, but I love Black Friday!”

“…and you, of course!”

[lilragekitten]

I’m having a crappy night guys.

TLDR: My cat is acting super weird, my makeup still isnt here a month after ordering and I hate DHL. 

Tohru was behaving weird earlier, like he started shivering violently, shaking so hard you could see his ears flop. I thought maybe he was cold so pulled a wool blanket over him where he was curled up on my chest and after fifteen mins he was still shaking. So after a quick google, I gave him wet food and it seemed to work, so maybe his sugars were down? idk...He has lost some weight recently. and he is getting old (14) This was around 7pm

At 150am I received an email that Upset me, so I went outside to take pictures of my yard, (more on that in a bit) and when I came back I noticed he was limping. He shuffled away and wouldn’t come back when I called, which is weird bc he’s my baby (familiar really) and I got worried. I sat back down on couch and he limped in and up and laid beside me. But if I went near his back or legs or would start HOWLING at me, like full on I’m going to murder you back tf off. You could tell he was in pain laying on his side and trying to flip over. I finally managed to scruff him and prod gently at his leg but there were no outward signs of injury so I just don’t know. He’s gone off somewhere now and I’d like to let him sleep and heal so I’m trying really hard not to go snooping for him.

Now on to the email that upset me. 

Is anyone familiar with Juvia’s Place? They’re an american black woman owned make up brand that makes some CRAZY awesome shadows. Seriously go check them out. Intense. But I’ve been putting off from ordering from them bc:

I don’t know anyone in RL with the brand

then I DID and they swore by them BUT

as they’re US based, shipping into canada means duties for crossing the border

which is BS but what can you do

so by time conversion, shipping, and duties come into play I’m looking at like 80$ for a palette? 

and for 80$ I’d rather get one I know I’ll use daily/more than once a week (no bold colours at work) 

(like ABH which comes to like 65 with taxes and gives more/or close to colour options but less product but I’m familiar with the brand & at least plus sephora points)

But then they had a 40% off sale first weekend in Feb, so even if I got duties (which is a 10$ processing fee by customs officers plus what the orders tax value is (in my case 13% as per provinical law)) It would still work out in my favor. 

LOL.

I ordered Feb 2.  No shipping info until the 8th, & the tracking number didn't work. Said to give it 24-48 hours, so I gave 3 days to be on safe side... still nothing. On the 16th I email Juvia's saying the tracking still isn't registering, and as it was a Friday evening, I didn't get a response until Monday, where they said they'd "launch an investigation" into it. 

Literally two hours later my tracking is working and showing that my package was picked up from JP... on the 16th. So I'm.... suspicious? at this point. Nothing for a while, made its way to NY from New Jersey on the 20th, left for Canada the 21 and on 26 arrived at my country... where it was stuck since. 

I have been Religiously checking for updates. This morning Fury (evil cat) woke me up at 845, so by 9am I was sitting on the couch... right by my front door, and beside the window they'd have to walk past to get to my side door. It snowed today too (IMPORTANT). I checked at least 6x today with no updates. At 1;55am I check and it says they attempted delivery this morning at 945! 

LIES. So I email juvia back saying that, plus pictures of my yard where there are no footprints in the fresh snow, there's no delivery card (obv.) We don't get DHL up here bc too far North, so a third party carrier delivers sometimes and last time I had this happen, buddy said no one was home (but my mom was) they just tacked on a note on the door and then SHIPPED IT to north bay(2 hrs away) to return to sender (IN CHINA)after that first attempt. I was livid.And then trying to contact the courier involved me getting hung up on, told I’d be called back and then when I called the fifth time back the next day told it was already shipped back and nothing to be done. So I emailed DHL and they were not impressed and I had my pkg back in two days. I also ended up paying the duties online, and the dude argued with me and demanded money even when I showed him the receipt and the update saying Paid. 

I’ve only had 2/7 pkgs from DHL get dropped off at the post office instead of door delivered, so I’m really hoping (but not betting) that they left it at PO and there’s a delivery card in my box. 

OH!! and turns out when there’s a sale, JP won’t declare the amount that you PAID for the products on the box (so customs knows what to tax you) they will put on the full retail price. So I’m likely going to pay over 20$ on top of the 60 I’ve already done. But I guess for two palettes, that’s okay.

Anyways, sorry for the big old rant, thx for sticking around. 

I love you guys, even if we haven’t interacted yet, or not often, or we need to start or take it back up. 

Have a lovely day and send Tohru some good vibes please??

[ibulletin12]

Sneak Peak

Sneak peek in everyone’s life. How did they feel about the unprecedented pandemic and what have they been up to during the lockdown. Some emotions and feelings we would like to share

Bharathy Sivan

Our husbands’ being soldiers, they do not have the option of Work from Home. When they come back home, they are quarantined in a room. But then this is how we, ladies supported each other and quarantined our families as a community with our own volunteered group efforts.

The families of Raksha Nagar decided NOT to step out for at least 45 days. But luckily, we got used to the system and its been continued successfully for the past 3 months.

Even before the lockdown 1.0 was announced our volunteers for main and sub teams were ready. We divided the families into groups (approximately 30-40 members each) according to the location and one member administrate each group through WhatsApp.

We tied up with an agricultural farm and two vegetable vendors.

We convinced and trained the two grocery shops outside the camp and liaisoned with a FMCG dealer & a medical shop owner.

We have ties with Godrej chicken company of Pune who can deliver our order at Nashik.

We started supporting a cold press oil business started recently.

To simplify the process, we ladies discussed the approximate grocery requirement to be stocked up for 45 days for a 4-member family. And created template lists with 4 options.  And the grocery shop packed them for all after their rush hours. We appointed 4 guys as delivery boys. After They door delivered them through the small electric vehicle available in the camp.

The choices for vegetables, non veg and other perishables are forwarded by the individuals to the WhatsApp administrator, 2 days in advance and she compiles and forwards to the chief coordinator (me). And I Forward it to the farms and shops. We staggered distribution by groups in different days to avoid cluttering and confusions.

The bill copies are sent on WhatsApp and the amount is compiled as an excel sheet and posted in groups. The families are paying it through digital means and send the screen shot on WhatsApp. End of the day the payment from the families are verified and order closed.

It appeared like a chaotic task in first week. There were raised eyebrows that is it going to work? But once the templates are ready and the system of payment got regularised it became a simple and smoother operation.

In fact with group communication, digital  transaction  and door delivery administration in place, we could actually do wonders. We adapted an orphanage which was in struggle without support. The migrant walkers had food collected from our homes group wise. Women turned entrepreneurs by baking cakes and crafting gifts for birthdays as shops were closed. Few prepare food material for long storage with traditional methods and supply everyone on payment.

We share, care and remain happy and safe as a community with just little more efforts on our day today life. It’s is not tough. It just requires an attitude.

Household chaos, cooking for kids, and I have some social responsibilities here as a military wife. I’m in charge of arranging essentials for 300 families, plus my business.

Literally tongues out…!

Saravanan Subramanian

As it all happened so suddenly, we happened to work from home. I chose to stay in my village, away from the city chaos in pursuit of peace and calm. I moved away from Chennai, went to my small remote village, where I was born. Here no shops, no cars, no bikes, even no small shops available. Entirely agriculture-based village.

After moving away from Chennai, settling in a small village, and continuing to WFH was a massive challenge for me for one month due to inferior internet quality... Later I managed to get a fiber net connection, which was very surprising for me even to find it here.

Due to COVID 19, My Company, Ford India,  planned a massive purchase pipeline, so I am managing my team sitting from this village...

Significant reasons why I moved away from city life-

1)  No worry about social distancing in my village. A very remote place with limited population

2)  In Chennai, after a few days, we need to depend on supermarkets for groceries and vegetables. Here everything is available in the house for the next year or forever.

3)  I am happy that I am spending more days with my parents after my schooling in my village. I was reminiscing all my childhood memories like sleeping on the terrace under the sky, cooking dinner with fresh homegrown vegetables, taking a walk with my kids in the village roads breathing clean air.

Fortunately, I got an opportunity to relive the life I always missed, and that is so close to my heart.

Divya Kulkarni

MY INSPIRATION ABYSS

There she stood - with a beaming and powerful smile on her face - honoring our country with that prestigious tiara!

As I watched a recording of this historical moment, my jaw dropped!

The first-ever Indian woman to be crowned Miss Universe (1994); that’s right, the gorgeous Sushmita Sen for you :)

Soon after, Sen adopted not one, but two daughters eventually, and won my (& million others’) respect once again!

And she wouldn’t stop -- a few years later, I joined social media only to learn she is a Yogini. Inspired by her dedication and progress, I took to Yoga in 2018 and became an Internationally Accredited Yoga Instructor and also recognized by the Ayush Ministry, the Government of India.

P.S. I had lost touch with Yoga for a long time, but 2020 and this lady have given me a chance to bounce back and upgrade myself through such beautiful balance poses🙏🏽

You may find more of me and #everydaystories on a yoga-full life at @​divyoham_om​ on Instagram. Because Yoga is for everyone! XOXO

Dipan Kumar Rout

*During the Lockdown*

Well, the lockdown started with numerous things and my effort to inculcate things that I saw on social media. While some people started the so-called 30 Day challenges and posting their workout routines, I was struggling with the basic push-ups. The good part of this is, once you start doing it and do it regularly, you will begin to realize the amount of strength you had in you.

Oh, that new coding language, I was yearning to learn but could never find the time. I finally started and completed the entire learning too. Crazy how a unified and focused effort can bring change in two months. I got into this habit of jotting down things I learned and made sure that I learned at least five new things a day. You will be amazed by the end of the year how to have 2000 new things in your head that you never knew. Good that I started.

This lockdown made me way nearer to myself than I ever was. The path to self-discovery might be different to different people. For me, it was more of accepting myself for who I’m—that feeling of being comfortable in your skin. Sometimes acceptance got me over these body complexes I had, being the skinny guy I’m.

I began to develop habits, specifically, the ones that can be life-changing or something as simple as taking a daily walk in the evening or washing the dishes as soon as you’re done with eating. I began to develop new tastes. Suddenly Jazz felt like never before. I started listening to a lot of Indie music. I came across this band, “That Boy Roby.” The track name was “Lost in Shimla,” and damn, you just can’t help yourself feeling lost in the melody of the guitar. As the name suggests, the track takes you on those untrodden, meandering, mountain tracks of snow-laden Shimla.

Self-discovery took me through a path I had never considered before—the path of getting connected to people you love and care about. I started talking to dad about things we never discussed. I asked him about his memoirs of his old man and how he felt about him, how he felt when mom passed away and what he went through when I was a rebellious teen and started getting into bad habits. He spoke about his youth days and gave me advice about things that I should do in life. Damn, I realized how less I knew about him and how much he loved me.

I went through all my love letters and began pondering about the ups and downs, my wife and I have gone through the last ten years of our relationship. Let me tell you something that I realized, and most men wouldn’t admit. No, not the fact that we are all trash ;) but we put so much effort into winning over someone and return to our own(lazy) selves after we have them in life. Sometimes this awareness is necessary, and it makes you realize that relationships are not a one-time thing, rather a continuous effort to keep things kindled. I learned that sometimes saying “I Love You” in person means much more than writing essays about your never-ending love on social media (funny how we live life and behave everything as if it were a recording to be put in social media and forget about actually living the moment). I began to have more and more of those 2 am conversations. I understood the fact that our lives need not be a long narrative, and it’s best when it’s filled with small random bursts of happiness. To summarize, I started living life again.

Ravi Kollipara

I planned to visit my hometown before the lockdown started as I could never have gotten this opportunity to spend so much time with my family and wfh parallelly. I coincidently happened to meet my childhood friends. We were sitting and chatting, and it was appeasing to know how they were contributing to help the small business in Machilipatnam during a difficult time. I immediately joined them in this cause. Five of us found that it was logistically impossible for a  retail business to keep running due to zero movement during the lockdown. It was difficult to generate demand and move stock from one place to another. We created a Facebook business group for a targeted set of audience, mostly local retail businesses. The critical aspect is to have genuine people joining the group for which we allowed only those who had proof of running a retail shop. We added 300 people in the last 15 days. It covered mostly all retail businesses like cement, hotel (food), groceries, professional services, etc. Our place was constantly fluctuating from the RedZone to the orange zone and back to RedZone. The administration was changing rules dynamically. Our Facebook group happened to be one information source for these retailers to know the regulations and amendments announced by the government now and then.  

Help is two-folded. it served as a  

Channel to provide latest updates on rules and traffic adjustments to the retailers

It is attracting even the customers to the group that would help us to generate demand for the businesses. What was required from the businesses is to publish product rates that have demand.

Once the order is confirmed, we were also helping them to get appropriate permission from the government for the transportations for the goods.

We instantly had 300 businesses registered to this group and saw decent demands coming in too. It is still a small initiative but makes a lot of difference to those small businesses who would die if they do not get some direction during this time. It gives us immense pleasure to become a helping hand to the local businesses that are the strength of our country at this time. Cheers!

[newstfionline]

Why it costs so much to be poor in America

By Karen Weese, Washington Post, January 25, 2018

Sirrea Monroe never expected her electricity to get shut off--she was only $70 behind, and she planned to pay it off after her next paycheck. What happened next shocked her: “I called to get it turned back on, paid the $70 with what was supposed to be my rent money, and then the lady says, ‘Great, thank you for your payment! Now I need $250 for the ‘new customer’ deposit.’” Monroe, a convenience-store manager who has a child with special health needs, was in disbelief. “I’m like, ‘Look, I couldn’t afford $70. Where am I going to get $250?’ Now I’ll be more in the hole than I was before.”

Monroe had been a customer of the electric company for more than a decade, and the power had been off for less than an hour. It did not matter: She had to pay it. It took more than six months to pay off.

It has never been easy to be poor in America, but decisions made in company boardrooms about seemingly modest financial matters--about fees, fines, interest rates, minimum balances--make life far harder than it has to be for low-income families. This week, Bank of America announced its free, no-minimum-balance checking account, popular with many low-income customers, will require a $1,500 minimum daily balance or $250 in direct monthly deposit (totaling $3,000 per year). If customers fall below that threshold, they will be forced to pay a monthly fee.

The optics are breathtaking, considering Bank of America made more than $21 billion in profits last year and will receive a multibillion-dollar present from Congress every year from now on, courtesy of the newly slashed corporate tax rate. To celebrate their profits and congressional largesse by putting the squeeze on their poorest customers puts even more icing on their already well-iced cake.

Perhaps to the executives who make these kinds of decisions, the fines and fees seem negligible, especially if you, like Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan, received $20.2 million in personal compensation last year. More than 40 percent of Americans say they struggle even to make ends meet each month and would be unable to cover an unexpected $400 expense without real hardship. No amount is small if you cannot afford it.

For low-income families, these kinds of costs are everywhere.

Let’s say you clean houses or offices or hotel rooms for a living, or wait tables, or work in a child-care center or nursing home. Your income fluctuates depending on the hours your employer gives you week to week (or tips you get day-to-day), and your wages barely cover your expenses each month. Since your bank balance is not exactly flush (according to one analysis, the median checking account balance for Americans making less than $25,000 a year is $500), it only takes one glitch in your income or bills to throw everything off. Anything from a delayed paycheck, reduced hours, an unexpectedly prompt deposit of your rent check, or a school snow day where you have to stay home with your kid and do not get paid can push your account into the red.

Once you are overdrawn, you are hit with overdraft fees, typically $35 apiece. You will be charged a separate fee for each individual transaction, and if you are like most people, you will not even learn you are overdrawn for two to three days. Incredibly, more than a third of U.S. banks will reorder your transactions and post them not in chronological order, but from largest to smallest by dollar amount, which shoves you faster than necessary into the red and boosts the number of overdraft fees you owe. In only a few days, you could owe hundreds of dollars, creating a debt that, on your waitressing or child-care wages, will take months or years to pay back.

If you throw up your hands and close your bank account (or you live in one of the many small rural towns or low-income urban communities where banks have shuttered branches with an eye to their bottom line), you will have to cash your check at a check-cashing establishment, where you will pay a fee for the service (usually a percentage of the check’s value). Once you’ve got the cash in hand, you will need to turn it into money orders to pay your bills--and you will pay yet another fee for each one.

Need to buy a car? You may only be able to get financing from a “buy here, pay here” car dealership that charges exorbitant interest rates (think 25 percent and up). If you save to buy from the dealership in cash, you may not be able to. “They wanted $1,900 for that car … and wouldn’t take cash for any of their vehicles,” said one low-income customer in Howard Karger’s book “Shortchanged: Life and Debt in the Fringe Economy.” “They wanted us to put $1,000 down and pay $89 a week for two years”--which amounted to more than $10,000 for a $1,900 car.

If you do buy a car, you had better drive carefully, because if you get a ticket and cannot pay, you could wind up in prison. Nineteen-year-old Kevin Thompson of DeKalb County, Ga., made an illegal left turn and spent five days in county jail because he could not quickly pay $838 in fees and fines related to the traffic stop. The ACLU intervened, and the case was eventually settled, but the practice is widespread, as states and municipalities fund their budgets through the collection of fines and fees.

What about a place to live? If you are barely covering your expenses, a $500 security deposit is a significant sum. If you do not have it, the alternative is a low-end hotel where you can pay by the week, which lacks the upfront cost but costs much more over time--for the room itself but also increased food costs and life complexity. (I once met a woman who was fleeing a domestic violence situation and staying in a low-end hotel. She went to a food bank and received some boxes of dry pasta--which she could not cook because she did not have a stove.

Food costs themselves are higher for low-income families, creating another sort of surcharge. When you are making ends meet on a low income, you cannot go to Costco to buy in bulk because you cannot afford the membership fee--and if you could, it is hard to carry home a 40-pack of toilet paper and a huge box of Cheerios on your lap on the bus. Milk and bread at the corner store or small rural grocery will cost more, but it may be the only choice you’ve got.

The scheduling of many low-wage occupations can create significant costs, too. In retail, warehouse work and other occupations, you might show up ready for work only to be told your services are not needed that day--even though you already paid the day-care center to watch your child for eight hours. If your employer limits your work hours to keep you at “part-time status,” your earnings will be limited even if you were eager to work more. You lose pay every time you or your child get sick, because there is no “working from home” in almost any line of low-wage work.

Even the agencies tasked with helping financially strapped families can make things harder than they need to be. It is not unusual for cash-strapped families to have to line up before dawn in the cold in front of a government office just to secure an appointment to apply for limited heating assistance at a later date. (Imagine if your dentist worked this way). Many people who need, and are eligible for, government assistance with various necessities simply do not receive it, either because it requires complicated paperwork they do not have the discretionary time to manage, requires travel to an office they cannot get to, or involves an appointment during the hours they work.

American low-income families face many challenges, and some of them require big, complicated solutions. Some are pretty easy to resolve: a modest legal protection; a little policy tweak; or a chief executive deciding the people who clean his office, tidy his hotel room and serve his lunch do not need to be penalized for the amount of money in their bank accounts.

[builtbysnowman]

Celebrating 5 Years of Alto

Alto’s Adventure is officially 5 years old! It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed. When we look back at all that has happened between then and now, we are so grateful for the journey we’ve been on with all of our players, collaborators and team members.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary, we have a few announcements that we are very excited to share with you...

Alto’s Odyssey is now available for Mac!

Now you can journey through the desert on your Mac.

Alto’s Odyssey for Mac supports iCloud sync, so you can sync your progress between iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and now Mac.

Download Alto’s Odyssey on the Mac App Store here.

Celebrate with a sale!

For a limited time only, Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey will be available for 80% off. This even includes Alto’s Adventure on the Mac App Store.

For players with multiple devices, both Alto games are universal apps. Purchase once, and download the game on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Your progress will sync through iCloud each time you start.

New Alto Anniversary Collection

We just launched The Alto Five Year Anniversary Collection on the Snowman Store with some brand new items! For the past five years, millions of fellow adventurers have discovered the ivory snows of Alto's Adventure and the endless deserts of Alto's Odyssey. To everyone who has been along for the ride, this collection is for you. We hope you find something you'll love.

Finally, we want to reflect on some of our most cherished memories of making and releasing Alto’s Adventure. We asked Snowman Founder, Ryan Cash, to share a bit of his own take on some of the experiences that stand out among the many highlights from this journey.

What was your favourite moment working on Alto?

Funnily enough, I think this might be after the launch. When we were working on the first game originally, things were a little more closed-off from a social perspective. Jordan and I were here in Toronto, working remotely with Harry over in the UK. I don’t believe we’d even spoken on the phone until just before the launch, and we didn’t meet in person until we all went to GDC a few weeks after the game shipped.

I’d say the best memories I have are from working on the game with such a great team and getting to all hang out and meet in person. After meeting at GDC back in 2015, we’ve all managed to meet up several times each year–sometimes at conferences, other times in our home cities. One of my fondest memories was spending a week in Harry’s hometown of Totnes in England, in the fall of 2015. It was really cool to see where he lived (and how different it was from Toronto), offering me a better idea of where his perspective as an artist might have come from.

What’s an Alto secret that no one knows about?

Some interesting things happen if you pay attention to the night’s sky long enough...

How has Alto grown in ways you didn’t expect?

For me, I think the fan art was something I truly never expected. People don’t make fan art for productivity apps–which is the world I was used to–so it was incredibly flattering to see fans reimagining and interpreting the Alto universe in their own ways. My absolute all-time favourite fan art has to be one by a young player named Tanner: https://www.instagram.com/p/BGqCDk-F4gu/

What was a monumental moment that made you realize Alto was gaining traction?

I think this actually came during the morning of our launch. We had announced that the game was coming out on February 19th about a week prior, and when I woke up that morning (around 4am) things were already pretty crazy! We had launched 5 apps prior to Alto’s Adventure, and usually on the day of our launch things took a few hours to pick up after we made the formal announcement. With Alto, people were already talking about the game around the world before we had even announced it that day! We got so busy following along that we almost forgot to announce the game ourselves.

How did the release of Alto’s Adventure cement Snowman’s goal to “create meaningful experiences that you may sit with for a short time, but that sit with you for a long while.”?

I actually feel like this became more realized after the game had launched. After some time had passed and we really got to soak in everything that had happened, we started feeling like Alto had become a bit more than just a mobile game; it was a place people visited to escape their reality, for many different reasons. One of these reasons was to seek out a moment of calm–a bit of relaxation after the end of a busy day. The more we thought about it, the more it felt like what we wanted to focus on moving forward.

What is an unexpected opportunity that came up thanks to Alto?

There have been many unexpected opportunities that have come up thanks to Alto, so it’d be next to impossible to pick just one favourite…I think seeing each game installed on Apple’s demo devices in their retail stores has been very surreal.

I managed to see the game installed on iPhones and iPads in England, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, and Australia. It was wild to think that something we’d spent so much time working on, that was at one point just an idea and a few scribbles on a white piece of paper, was now on display in such a meaningful way. If you want to keep reminiscing with us, we’ll be sharing more throughout the coming days! You can follow along on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

[copperbora]

The Berg Lake Trail: There and Back (Plus Some)

Snowbound high elevations, from Roger’s Pass.

Winter seemed to last too long here in British Columbia this year; in fact, up high in the alpine, winter is still present in most places as I write this, on July 3rd, just over a week after my trip. Mount Revelstoke’s summit is still snowbound and across the Rockies, most high places remain enrobed in a blanket of white, so that one almost begins to wonder whether winter will ever end at altitude this year. Despite this, the world famous Berg Lake Trail (the ‘spiral road’ as it was known to its land’s first human inhabitants,) which graces the toes of the majestic monarch Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies, is somehow snow free. With three days off in this past late June and with my hopes of alpine hiking dying, I heard from a client that Robson might be lacking the white stuff. Rushing home after work that day, I managed to procure a reservation for a camp - but just for one night, and at the camp furthest from the trailhead, Robson Pass. It would be a flash trip - 23 kilometres in and 23 kilometres out within a period of 48 hours, for a total of 46 kilometres, more than a standard marathon, kilometres which I would hike completely by myself.

Me, in front of Emperor Falls. Note the mud on my right shin from slipping.

This sound tough? It actually pales in comparison to what some thruhikers do, hiking as far as 48.3 kilometres in a single day (that’s 30 miles!) That being done (reputedly) on a fairly gentle grade compared to the Berg Lake Trail’s almost constant vertical gain, I still felt like this would be a pretty good test of my future thruhiker mettle. While I still have no idea what it feels like to hike for days on end, I do feel that my endurance was proven and I learned a great deal from this trek about my gear. I gained confidence in hiking, surmounting obstacles which once spooked my younger self, half my life ago. I learned that I like hiking alone, that I love solitude, and that I dislike having other non-kin hikers near me, even in camp. (Of course, I also work a highly social retail job; put me in the wilderness by myself long enough so that I can fully decompress from that and perhaps I might be a much more social hiker.)

Going in, I felt concern that other hikers, and, indeed, parks staff, would take offense at my hiking alone because of my gender. Thankfully, I only experienced one moment of sexism, and it was incredibly minor; a concerned guy with quite bad English tried to convince me to let him hike with me at the trailhead. After pointing out exactly how far I was hiking, I gleefully ditched him and bounded onto the trail, whooping in excitement because my long awaited adventure had finally began. I’d been gearing up for this trip for years and while I hadn’t known that Robson would be my first test, I was ready for it and I had been dreaming about returning to the big mountain’s beautiful shadow.

The bounding didn’t last long; it had been a very long time since I had last backpacked and while I had been reading religiously about thruhiking as well as updating my gear for years, while I usually hike with quite a bit of weight for a day hiker (my inner Scout demands that I Be Prepared,) the heft of my new pack was still quite a new thing. I felt like a horse wearing a saddle for the first time and as such, it took me quite a long time to settle into my stride, something which I usually do when day hiking within a few hundred metres. (I have day hiked up to 26 kilometres easily before and I am absolutely capable of 30, although I haven’t tested this.) By the time that I reached Kinney Lake, the first camp, in good time, I had relaxed into my pack, although I was still fighting a battle between the chafing around my shoulders and the chafing around my hips.

Kinney Lake.

Here, I would make a crucial error, although I wouldn’t figure that out until the next day; to spare the pain of my hips, I adjusted my pack wrong and unknowingly threw most of my pack’s weight onto my shoulders. Human shoulders are not load bearing like human hips are; the next day, I corrected the problem and hiked easier, but for this first day, I frantically ate the contents of my hip belt pockets, thinking that that would help instead. (I also drank a lot, thinking that that would be a good idea to shave weight, until I realized that the three litres in my pack had to last me at least fifteen kilometres, so I began drinking more as I felt was needed.)

The first big climb to Whitehorn, a camp set in a small, beautiful river valley, feels grueling, but I rewarded myself with a nice long break beside the water. Here, I filtered water with my beloved Sawyer Mini for the first time, mixing up a bottle of electrolytes in the hopes of augmenting the water supply in my pack on the way up the long climb to Emperor Falls high above me. I also munched on more trail rations, and contemplated how my electrolytes should be stored somewhere more convenient, but somehow I never did do this; next hike!

The suspension bridge at Whitehorn. There used to be another suspension bridge on the other side of the camp by White Falls, but it got washed out too frequently, so the Park replaced it with something more sturdy.

Up, up and away! The climb to Emperor Falls, past first White Falls then Falls of the Pool, was long and draining, especially on a hot day with bluebird weather. (Weather which I was deeply thankful for!) Many switchbacks above White Falls, I found the bench where I had sat with my mom and dad as a fourteen year old kid, the last time that I had visited Mount Robson and teared up. Carrying on, at Falls of the Pool, a super nice but rather confused German tourist snapped my photo for me, succeeding after several attempts. (I suspect that he had never used a phone for photography before.) Climbing up onto a ridge, I caught my first glimpse of Emperor Falls and crossed over a ravine, then after about an hour, I finally found myself at the trail junction for visiting the falls. Here, I contemplated dropping my pack and slack packing to the falls, but I couldn’t bear to be seperated from my stuff, so I clambered down the trail.

Emperor falls, with Mount Robson behind it.

What a relief! The trail became mud as refreshingly freezing mist blasted my body. A friendly trio of girls came giggling down from the falls-side cornice and burst out laughing as my hat was blown off of my head. In rescuing it, I lost my balance and scrambled back onto my feet, a streak of mud freshly adorning my right shin. Adamantly proclaiming myself fine, I retreated from the falls and attempted to take a selfie from a distance and one of the girls took pity on me, taking my picture for me. With my entire front soaked with spray, I went back up the trail and continued my ascent to Emperor Falls’ Camp, which is undoubtedly the prettiest camp on the trail (although my camp, Robson Pass, definitely has the best view!) Finding the trail more level, I cruised on, crossing a scree slope before descending down onto an alluvial fan, from which I watched a couple of helicopters buzz around from their landing spot beside the lateral moraine which hides Mist Lake from the view of the trail. Finally reaching Berg Lake, I was delighted to see that there were indeed icebergs at large and I happily began the final stretch of my hike. Fortune was with me, and I spied a snowshoe hare in its summer coat as it hopped fearlessly out onto the trail for my admiration.

Berg Lake, complete with a berg. Mount Robson stands proud in the background!

Having run out of water, I paused to filter more, refilling my electrolyte bottle in the hopes of getting myself through to camp. Four rare harlequin ducks and two icebergs delighted me close to shore while I rested my sore body for the final push to Robson Pass. Regaining the trail, I finally trod through Berg Lake Camp and passed over Hargreaves Creek, soon finding myself at Rearguard Camp. The trail was flat and gentle, so I had no problem anymore with making distance, but I was still exhausted and very sore by the time I glided into Robson Pass camp. Discovering the site of the outhouse and finding it occupied, I dragged my painful body around the camp to find a tent pad to claim. My attempts to find one away from every other hiker proved in vain but I found one with an incredible vista of Mount Resplendant, Robson, and Snowbird Pass instead. A room with a view! People pay thousands for a place like that, elsewhere.

My view; Mount Resplendant in the foreground, with Robson behind. Snowbird Pass is offscreen to the left.

After pitching my tent and readying my bed, dropping most of my weight in my little shelter, I put my pack back on to hike 1.6 kilometres further, to Adolphus Lake, which I could not stand to miss after seeing it just a teensy bit past Robson Pass on the map. Also not feeling particularly enthused about having dinner in the camp shelter with all the other hikers, I brought my food bag and thus after crossing the border with Jasper National Park, I had dinner right on the tranquil shore of the pristine subalpine lake. This felt like a great reward after hiking for nine hours and my Mountain House Macaroni and Cheese Product dinner tasted sublime, even though I added way too much water (so it was more like cheesy soup.) I half filled my hydration reservoir, gobbled the last of my macaroni and watched the alpenglow light up the mountains, dreaming of hiking further, past what I could see. At the British Columbia-Alberta border, the Berg Lake Trail had become the North Boundary Trail, a 192 kilometre jaunt through Jasper’s backcountry which I yearn to conquer someday, when my gear is better figured.

Adolphus Lake, reflecting nearby peaks graced in alpenglow.

Returning back to camp, I sat by the stream and drew, watching the alpenglow continue its show until it finally faded. Slowly realizing that it had become hiker midnight, that all of my neighbours had gone to sleep, I sought out my own cozy den to seek my brief rest.

In typical fashion, I woke up obnoxiously early, at 6 AM (I seem to be entirely incapable of sleeping in while camping.) Striking camp, I grabbed my food bag, rationing chow fuel into my hip belt pockets for the hike out and gulped electrolytes again to revitalize my tired body. Practically inhaling my chocolate poptarts, I began my trek and quickly felt heartened by the time that I was making. Very quickly I was back at Emperor Falls and descending further, reaching Whitehorn speedily, then hiking back down to Kinney. At Kinney Lake, I took the flats route instead of the main trail to avoid some elevation gain/loss which I had experienced on the way up. Here, I also felt a flicker from my heart, so I drank more electrolytes and rested for a while beside the Robson River.

Those last few kilometres, although flat and downhill, were torturous. I wanted so badly to be done and back at my car, but I was so tired. My left knee had begun to hurt and my poor feet were feeling stone bruised, but I knew that the end of the trail was near. Here, with so many kilometres behind me and so little in front of me, I became incredibly intolerant of day hikers. The day before, on the way up, I had tolerated them passing me - with my heavy pack and the grade, there had been no way for me to outpace them, but now, with the trail going downhill, suddenly gravity was with me despite my flagging stamina.

A pair of shirtless male hikers came up behind me; catching sight of them in my peripheral vision, I saw red and bolted up the trail, stalwartly refusing to let them catch me. For a long time more, I had no sense of them again, having successfully left them in my dust, but soon the kilometres began to tell again and my speed faded. Suddenly, a mountain biker burst past me from behind, loudly and jubilantly praising me, “All the way from Robson Pass - atta girl!”

It was another hiker from Robson Pass, who had stayed with me there! (Mountain bikes are allowed up to Kinney Lake, where they must be chained up and stowed.) Energy filled me again; my smile came back and my toes bit back into the good trail dirt. Speed was again part of my name and I ate another kilometre until once again my energy began to flag. The trail curved, mocking me as it pretended to be almost done, then, low and behold, those same two damned shirtless day hikers abruptly almost passed me.

Ah, HELL NO. I bolted again - this time by running rather than going full steam ahead into my hiking gait - and suddenly it was there - the trailhead, no more than two hundred metres distant. I didn’t have the energy to keep running, but I managed a shambling hiking pace, desperate to stay ahead of my appointed enemies, the shirtless duo. In the last fifty metres, I found the strength to run and I loped raggedly across the finish line, the two posts which flanked the start of the trail to kiss the trailhead sign. DONE!

Limping the final few metres to my car, I drank yet more electrolytes and gratefully dropped my pack, exchanging my boots for my merciful sandals. After giving a trail report to a group of girls heading out on their own hike, I drove the single kilometre back to the Mount Robson Provincial Park visitor’s information centre where I reported my harlequin duck sightings. The guy manning the desk took one look at me and wryly said, “I’d offer you a chair but I don’t think you’d get back up.” He then referred me to the nearby cafe and I bought a victory shirt before following his advice, rewarding myself with a big cold waffle cone of icecream.

Then I drove to Jasper, and recuperated at Honeymoon Lake, which was gorgeous. The next day, I drove the entire Icefields Parkway, hiking the Valley of the Five Lakes, then Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park before driving back home. It was an exhausting but fabulous three days which I will remember proudly for a very long time!

Mount Robson Visitor’s Centre.

______________________________________________

Final Distance Hiked (in Robson): 49.2 km

Day Hike Distance: 9.9 km

Total Distance Hiked (with Valley of the Five Lakes & Emerald Lake): 59.1 km

Approximate Pack Weight: 36 lbs

Trek Location: Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada.

Approximate Distance Driven: 1,266 km

Weather: Absolutely perfect bluebird weather with excellent trail conditions. Robson was never once hidden by cloud, which is saying something for a mountain which is tall enough to create its own weather patterns. (In 2004 when I went I only saw its peak once in four days. This time I saw its peak nearly constantly the whole trip. It was amazing and I was truly grateful for it!)

Favourite Piece of Gear: Mountain Hardwear Dynama Skirt (y’can’t imagine the ventilation and ease of living - pants and shorts are stupid now - plus the thing has wicked awesome pockets.)

Second Favourite Piece of Gear: Nuun Active Electrolytes (helped my exhausted body deal!)

Gear I Might Not Bring Next Time: pants, fleece (my Arc’teryx Atom LT makes bringing a fleece redundant,) and underwear (unless you are on your period or you have a big chest, underwear is not worth the extra chafing when backpacking. Go commando!)

Gear Which I Was Meh About: my Mountain Hardwear Ghost UL2 tent (loved the minute 2 pound weight, but the front entry was a bit annoying) and my Boreas Lost Coast 60 pack (but we’re still getting to know each other and my weight wasn’t dialed in.) My Oboz Bridger Mid Dry boots were about half a size too small by the end. Also decided that I’m not as fond as I thought I was of Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai, although it made an excellent breakfast on Day 1 for fueling me up all those switchbacks! (880 calories will do that.) In the future, I might just eat backpacker dinner chow for breakfast again; it seemed to work!

Gear That I Wished That I Had Had: Leukotape (I would have put it around my ankles to protect them from my boots and on my hips to protect those from my pack although they never actually blistered or anything,) and my right trekking pole. (I had to leave it at home because my physiotherapist told me the repetative movement would be bad for my injured but healing right wrist.)

Least Favourite Piece of Gear: Powerpond (never worked! Anybody want a powerpond? Might work with your phone.)

Stuff Which Surprised Me: My injured right arm handled the trail way better than my uninjured left arm. My right arm really wanted to handle the trekking pole, while my poor left arm got extremely sore and wanted nothing to do with it. On the hike out, I ended up shipping it in my pack and hiking without it; I prefer hiking downhill without brakes anyway. (Running is less painful than walking, y’know.) I was careful with my right arm, but in the end, it barely twinged the entire time, while my left arm was basically a crybaby. I believe there might be something funky going on with my collarbone on my left side, since my left arm didn’t like driving either and it kind of has a history of disliking pack straps. My mom has told me that I should visit a chiropractor for it; maybe this winter. (Still some big hikes left to go this summer!)

Stuff I Wish I’d Done Differently: Had I been able to, I would have booked a night at Emperor Falls on the way up. 23 kilometres up all that up felt like a bit much. I would have handled 16 kilometres that first day a lot better; 23 on the way down though was fine! (Once again, gravity was on my side!) I was actually offered a camp at Emperor on the way down at the visitor’s centre when I picked up my permit, but that sounded lame, and I was right. I also would have enjoyed another night at Robson Pass and going later in the season so that I could have day hiked to Snowbird Pass.

(And of course, Skydog came! He got a lot of really funny comments like “did he whine a lot last night?” “did he bark much?” and he really kept me company. When you’re hiking alone, you need something to hug, or at least, I do.)

All in all, a fabulous hike, and I am very proud of myself! Good job, Rosy!

[ambitiousfeegirl-blog]

Interview with ME!

- What is your Full name? Include any maiden names, aliases, or nicknames. Serafina Lynn James. Sera, usually. Fee, evidently, as well. Thanks, UK. - When is your birthday? Do you know where you were born and at what time? May 10th. Born in Panama City, FL... I think at 10:20AM?  - What is your star sign? Do you know your Chinese Zodiac too? Taurus!! And Horse. :)

- What is your earliest memory that you can remember? Eating Shrimp Chow Mein with my dad. I think I was three, maybe? - Where was your childhood home? Was it more urban or rural? Not on the beach, but close. Definitely not urban, though. That’s not really how Panama City works. - How was your childhood in general? Did your parents treat you well? Did you have a lot of friends? I had a decent childhood, I guess. Parents divorced when I was young, but they were both good to me as a kid. I was sort of a loner, though, if I’m being honest. I had friends, but I was perfectly content just playing outside by myself.  - How was/is school? What is your favorite and least favorite subjects? What were your grades on average? School was miserable and I absolutely abhor the entire experience, with the exception of the internship it landed me and... eventually the job it landed me. The less said about it the better. I majored in business administration, minored in sociology. - Did you have a best friend growing up? What was their name? Are you still in touch? Amy Lynn. We bonded over a shared middle name and the fact that I accidentally made her puke on a merry-go-round. We are not in touch as much as I would like. She’s got a husband and a kid with another on the way and I’m... you know... working. We talk when we can.  - Were you in any cliques? I hung out with anime fans and comic book fans and tae kwon do kids? I don’t know, are those cliques? Probably not. - Best childhood memory you can recall? The first time I ever saw a live wrestling show. My dad took me to Fall Brawl 97, and at seven years old, it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. The first match set me up for the rest of my life. Jericho vs. Guerrero. I never looked back after that. - Worst childhood memory you can recall? The day my dad moved out.  - Name an event in your childhood that has shaped you into the person you are today Uh... yeah, Fall Brawl 97. True story. - What is the dumbest thing you have ever done to impress someone? Were they impressed or was it all for naught? Probably taking this job all on my own. This is definitely a task for more than one person, but... I can do it. I know I can and I’m going to show Regal that he was wrong to waste me for so long.  - Did you ever have any sweethearts or lovers? Do you have a boy/girlfriend? Sweethearts, lol. Who even says that? I had boyfriends in high school, but nothing serious. And only one long term relationship that started in college. Four years down the fucking drain. Ugh. - Are you a virgin? Lord no. LOL - Do you ever plan on getting married in your life? Do you want kids? See above statement. I’m too busy for that ish. - Would you rather have your own kids or adopt? How many kids would you want? You know... if I DID decide to have kids... I don’t know. Adoption is a wonderful thing, because lord knows there are already so many unwanted babies in this world. Sad, but true. I think adoption is a wonderful option, really. - Do you think you'd be a protective parent or a relaxed parent? Uhhh, given how I am with the boys? Protective. Like... ultra protective. - How would you prefer to pass away? Surrounded by loved ones and at peace, or while doing something heroic? Having mindblowing sex with my mortal enemy. ‘Cause not only do I get to go out hatefucking someone (!), but it’s bound to ruin the experience for them and that’s not something they will forget EVER.  - Generally, how healthy are you? Do you get sick or injured easily or are you fit? Thanks to WWE medical, I’m healthy and chugging down vitamins like it’s my job. - Have you ever been badly injured before? Broke my wrist as a kid and I have a nagging ankle issue, but nothing SERIOUS, no. - What is the worst injury you have ever gotten? What was it and how did it happen? Were you ever close to death? Honestly, I’ve been really lucky. The broken wrist was probably the worst, but honestly, it wasn’t even that big of a deal. - How many times have you been to the hospital/doctor's? I avoid them at all costs. Let’s not even talk about it. - Have you ever had a concussion or brain injury? Have you ever had amnesia? Nope, though that’s surprising as hell since Coach Brookside decided I needed to learn how to bump once I actually started working for the company.  - What was the worst illness you ever contacted? Do you know what it was? How long were you sick? I just really don’t get sick. I think maybe I had strep a few years back, but I literally did nothing about it, so I don’t even know if it was actually strep or not. - Ever had any extended hospital stays? What for? Nope! - Have you ever had to give yourself or someone else emergency first aid? What happened? Yes. I have stitched up my dad when we went camping (not fun), I definitely had to put a hole in my toenail to drain the blood when I smashed it (extra not fun), and I have changed about a hundred bandages for various injuries to myself, my mom, my dad and a few of the boys. - Are you employed? Where do you work and who do you work for? What do you do?  I am currently a member of the WWE Talent Relations office, based in the UK just recently. Like literally three days ago. It’s still sort of surreal. Previously, I was a personal assistant to Mr. William Regal. I sometimes feel like I was sent here as a rib, because that’s one hell of a freakin’ leap, but... here I am, so. Make the most of it, right? - Are you happy with your current job? I literally couldn’t be happier. - Did you have any previous jobs? What were they and what did you do? Mostly small stuff, office management, retail BS, bartender... - Most dangerous thing you have ever done? I’m sure my mom would say something about texting and driving (which I don’t do, mom, and neither should any one else!) but honestly... probably insisting on WWE giving me something more to do, because we see how that turned out. - Do you consider yourself a more active person or a more relaxed person? Active? I mean, I’m not going out running every day... not that kind of active. I stay in shape, but I am literally always doing things. I am constantly working, so... active in that sense, I guess. - What is your dream come true? How about your worst nightmare? To be in charge of NXT. <3 Worst nightmare? Failure.  - What is the biggest and most important goal you have set for yourself? To be in charge of NXT. You’re only as good as the person you help to get a promotion, Mr. Regal... :) - How persistent would you say you are? How much does it take to get you to give up on a task? I’ve been told I’m obnoxiously persistent and it must be true, because here I am. And I don’t ever quit on any goal. I’ve always accomplished anything I’ve set my mind to. - Would you surrender yourself to your enemies or fight to the very end? Surrender is a tool of war that is either a signal of defeat or treachery.  - When do you usually do your shopping? What is currently on your shopping list? Literally, everything is on my shopping list. I am moving into my new flat on Wednesday, so like... ALL of the groceries. Mostly organics. - Top three things on your wishlist? To be in charge of NXT... though I can’t really buy that at the store and I’m pretty sure that’s what they were going for here...  1.) Body Shop Banana Shampoo & Conditioner 2.) Another Key Lime Pie smoothie from the place down the street 3.) And maybe it makes me a mark, but I want a Kenny Omega bear, damnit. (sorry boss!) - Currently, what is something you want but do not need? That damn bear, for sure. - Do you like shopping? What is your favorite thing to shop for? I mean, I guess? I don’t really get to just go shopping all that often. Just like... typical clothes shopping? Maybe?? Is that really a priority in people’s lives? - What is the most expensive thing you have purchased? Was it worth it? My old TV. 4K. It was nice. SIGH. I miss it. - What would you do if you were suddenly given one billion dollars out of the blue? Uhhhhh... wow. I’d do the typical stuff. By my mom a house, get a new car, by MYSELF a house, too, pay off my student debt, donate a shit ton of money to charity... start a wildlife rescue and refuge! - What would you describe your style of clothing as? It depends. I’m definitely business casual at work, but like.. more towards the business end. Outside of work, if I’m WEARING clothes, it’s gonna be a baggy tank and jeans, sandals, sunglasses. - Do you have any hobbies? Name all of them if you can. I used to sing a lot, but honestly work has consumed my life and I am a-ok with that.  - Do you like and appreciate art? What is your favorite piece of artwork? I DO! And I can’t put that on here, because his head will get exponentially bigger than it already is. - Do you like music? What is your favorite style of music? Oh gosh, I like everything. I’m currently wavering between Kenny Chesney and Kaleo right now. But I like a lot of different things. Bluegrass, EDM, Classical, Hip hop... if it’s good, I like it. - Have you ever seen any musicals? What is your favorite? PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.  - What are your top three favorite animals? What would you say your "Patronus" or "Spirit Animal" is? Hm. Top three favorite animals... Florida panther, giraffe, panda My spirit animal is 137% a bear.  - What are your top three favorite colors? Deep dark purple, Emerald Green and Maroon - What is your favorite season? Do you prefer hotter or colder weather? Do you like snow at all? Summer. Always summer. Fuck the cold. - What kind of flavors do you prefer: Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Spicy, Dry, or Umami (savory meat taste)? I like them all, but... I’m going with Sweet and Sour, baby. (12 LARGE). Damn, I just made myself sad. - Can you cook at all? Yes, though the quality of that cooking is always up in the air. - What is your favorite dish? Can you prepare it? Do you have the recipe handy? Shrimp Chow Mein. I’ve never even attempted to make it nor do I have a recipe. You know, I probably SHOULD try to make it, though. - What is your favorite fruit and vegetable? Fruit: Peaches Vegetable: Asparagus - What is your favorite dessert? What is your favorite type of candy/treat? Key Lime Pie. <3 Candy is always always gummi worms. - What is the best thing you have ever had the opportunity to eat? What is the worst? Frog legs, freshly caught and sauteed in garlic butter. Only really good if you catch them yourself, though.  Worst thing ever? Any frozen green tea things. Popsicles were the WORST. - Do you like to drink tea or coffee? Any favorite flavors? I love hot tea, Earl Grey or English Breakfast. And yes, I am a coffee addict. - Describe your sense of humor. Sarcastic. - What is one thing you are justly proud of? My persistence paying off and landing me the job of a lifetime. - Do you have any religious beliefs? If not, have you ever been to a church service? Not my bag, no. I have been to church and actually grew up attending a baptist church every Sunday for years. It was enough to kill any interest in religion. - What would you say is the worst thing someone has done to you? What is the meanest thing someone has ever said to you? The ex did some messed up shit.  - What is the worst thing you have done to someone? What is the meanest thing you have said to anyone? I also did some messed up shit, based on the ex’s messed up shit. - Share the latest entry in your diary/journal. Basically me whining about having slept 20 hours. Thanks, jet lag!  - What is the most precious thing you own? Is it valuable at all? My sense of self and my drive. It’s invaluable. - Talk about someone you know. It can be someone you either like or dislike. Hm. I think I’m going to save this question for it’s own little post someday this week. - FREE QUESTION NO! IMPRISONED QUESTION IS BEING HELD FOR JUSTIFIABLE REASONS AND WILL NOT BE FREED! 

[scottmapess]

Why Is BITCOIN Following the Stock Market!? The Truth Is..

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hello Folk. What is going on with the viewers of the two? My name is Tyler and I think you should know me by now because we just surpassed 100 case ups on this, too. I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support. Even if it sometimes feels like we are isolated on our own little island. Joe puts on the brakes, but the result of October’s hit. We know why they keep up the. The U.S. does not get the slier the shit. Well, you know, our Hucknall Snow very thin. It’s time for Chieko crypto. While, my friends, the correlation between songs and crypto is beginning to move in such a sweet tandem when the two are trading together, as in the stock market and the crypto markets are open at the same time. The stock market leads crypto on where it will go up, down or sideways. But when the stock markets close at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and for the weekend, the crypto market is a leading indicator of where things are going. If there is a fat down during the night or even over the weekend, usually the stock market opens with a dump. So if you don’t know what is going on, we have traders, large whales who are playing both sides of the markets, which is obvious when you look at a well-known whale and what he is saying in the space. Two days ago, Mike Novogratz of Galaxie Digital was on Bloomberg business and he said he was short on stocks and credit and long on Bitcoin. Let’s listen in. How is your macro book positioned right now? You know, I got short Friday for the first time in a while, both stocks and credit kind of selling into the Fed’s last big, big bazooka of buying high yield. But, you know, it’s not a structural position. It’s a tactical position on trade. Trade short for a while. But it was the first time I’ve really net been big, big, big shorts, you know, since the lows. I also you know, I still am long gold on one bitcoin. We are seeing a monetization of debt as we have never seen in our lifetimes. And it’s not just here in the US, right, with the Fed buying everything. It’s a global monetization. And to me, in the long run, that has to make hard assets look better. Gold is certainly without performing. You know, Bitcoin’s an interesting story. This is the time for Bitcoin. It got wiped out. And hang on a second. I’ve heard that before. I’ve heard I’ve heard. This is the time for bitcoin before. Why is this the time why if we if central banks around the world are embarking on a monetary debasement that dwarfs quantitative easing, why is Bitcoin at 60 700 and not at twenty-five thousand? You know what laws? Did you get to still remember? It’s an 11-year-old experiment and it’s only in the last year where it really has become a macro weapon, an investment choice. And I’m seeing liberty in the last month, hedge funds and high net worth individuals who had never bought it before who are buying it. So it’s no longer a question of explaining to me how does it work? What do you what does this mean? It’s like, okay, I’m going to take a risk. Listen, the risk on any store of value, if it’s gold. Is that enough? People believe in it. And so it’s still a question of adoption. I’m just seeing more adoption here in the U.S. and in Europe than I have Laoghaire since I started this. Why is it down with Asian retail is still a big part of this. The Chinese economy is getting hit. There’s a lot of leverage in the system in the Asian retail side of crypto. And so there are still sellers coming out of Asia. You know, the China U.S. relation and the China European relationships are going to be relooked at in lots of ways as the dust settles on this thing. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight. Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming to Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. But the positive side is I literally see new players coming in every day. And, you know, we have the having coming up. Bitcoin is an instrument with no inflation or with very little inflation. And the inflation rate is getting cut in half. Right. As the Fed is, they will print as many dollars as you can one. So, Mikey, boy, you say it’s 100%. Yes. He’s playing both sides of the market, although he is short on finance, one point zero and long and hard assets like golden bitcoin. Because this is Bitcoin’s time to shine, the Bloomberg host asks. And why is the price going down? And my answer is Asia. And China is the reason. Leverage is the reason. And let’s replay this clip at the end. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight rate Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming at Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. He says Bitcoin’s downward pressure is coming mostly out of Asia. And there is something we’re looking into. Who the Frick is Frick and where is it his Galaxie digital or does this go deeper? Well, you know, Chieko, we think it goes a bit deeper than that. And figuring this out might just tell us where the markets will be headed in the future. So we know Mike Novogratz is the head of Galaxie Digital who consider themselves as sort of a crypto merchant bank providing institutional services like crypto asset management, principal investments, crypto asset trading. And advisory services. That is Mike’s Krypto Company, but he doesn’t come from the BTC world just like most of the prominent whales to this day. They come from finance one point zero worlds. Mike Novo is originally a part of the Fortress Investment Group who was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. There is Mikey during their IPO 13 years ago in 2007, when they were the first hedge fund and private equity company go public within the United States and one of the most disappointing IPO ever opened high back in 0 7. At 37 buckaroos over double the IPO price, which was 16, but it crashed harder than a buying ance IPO. And in twenty seventeen, the Japanese conglomerate Softbank purchased fortunes for $3.3 billion and took it private again. Literally one of the worst IPO is ever. As public investors got absolutely wrecked. While the founders got massive paydays when an IPO launch one at a time for sale. But what happened with Mike and Fortune is, well, according to this fall of Fortress. Article Fortress as was exploded in public view in 2015 when Michael Novogratz, one of the firm’s principals and an industry luminary who had joined from Goldman Sachs, retired after shutting down his drawbridge macro fund following wrongheaded bets on everything from Brazil to China. And this Wall Street Journal article tells us more. Michael Novogratz, one of Wall Street’s most famous investors, recently decided to leave Fortress Investment Group LP and Close’s macro hedge fund after it lost about a hundred million over the past two months from investments in Brazil. According to people familiar with the matter and to top that, earlier in the year, the fund lost one hundred and fifty million in a single day from wagers placed by a different Fortius trader against the Swiss franc who was under Michael’s control. And the latest losses left the fund down seventeen point five percent for the year through September, according to a regulatory filing. So, Mike, he messed up big time and lost that fund. A ton of money which hit public investors the hardest. But Mike made out like a bandit. According to this article, Fortress would buy back a stake in the firm for about two hundred fifty-five point six million. What did Mike do with that money? He went on to form Galaxy Digital and I wonder how that performed. Well, Mike’s firm got absolutely wrecked in twenty eighteen, posting over a two hundred and seventy-two million dollar loss for twenty eighteen. And in twenty nineteen when we experience another bull run to 14K, Mike still lost money. A net loss of thirty-three million for twenty nineteen. And what has recently hit the firm. Well with the poor performance due to the terrible bets and trades Mike and Galaxie announced in February, they would be laying off fifteen percent of their workforce even before the madness swept this world. But more pain just eleven days ago. Joshua Lim, their head of trading strategy, announced he would be leaving the firm to explore new opportunities. Losing streak after losing streak after losing streak. Don’t you want to win, Mike? So when we see Mike is getting mad about Bitcoin going down, when it should be going up and they will look into it, I know exactly what he means. What is the fuel of the crypto markets right now? Well, if you go to coin geko and look at coins ranked by volume, Teather is the number one most traded crypto asset based on volume alone, averaging nearly twenty-five percent more daily volume than bitcoin, even though its market cap is ninety-five percent smaller. Does that make sense? No. So unless you’re wearing a blindfold while looking at crypto data on. You know, Teather controls the market, but my key plays coy. Just a year ago in April twenty nineteen, he tweeted Galaxie has zero exposure to bitfinex or Teather. My own sense is that they are less integral to the crypto community than they once were. That said, it’s not a positive thing that has happened. The herd won’t come until we operate with transparency and professionalism. Bull crap, Mike. You know how integral they are to the crypto community as you were a customer of theirs. As the New York A.G. has documentation that says you’re Galaxie Digital was or was in the process of becoming a customer. So what about operating with transparency and professionalism, lying about your exposure and getting caught with your pants down by the New York A.G. isn’t what you preach. So you preach that the traditional markets are going down. Yet you’re along on Bitcoin. Are you telling the truth about that? Well, who is Mike involved with besides the dark side of U.S.D.A.? None other than the institutional scumbags of the space that Galaxy did. It All was a series, an investor in the one hundred and eighty-two million dollar plus round, which includes the likes of Microsoft. Then, just a year after that investment galaxy becomes a customer of back making the first block trade on the platform. A block trade? What is that? It’s massive. Off the books, private trade made can not move the market. That trade was announced six months ago October 4th. Twenty nineteen while BTC was at an AK. Well, just 20 days later Mike was on CNBC talking about BTC and this totally tells us he put in longs as bitcoin started to drop in through the 7 K range. Let’s listen in. So you look at charts at this point, you figure bitcoin could go back to four. Could I think? I think for Thals, I’m hoping it holds here, but I think it could hold up for six sixty-five hundred would be the next downside to the high. I think you’ve got to get back through like eighty-two hundred first and if it gets back to eighty-two hundred where then back in the kind of eight thousand ten thousand range, it’s going to need new energy to really make the big move. Now some positive things are happening. Right. The New York Stock Exchange is backed, just got set up. There’s a futures exchange. It’s starting to gain some volume. But more importantly, they’ve got a custody solution which is just coming online. That’s going to get approved. Like world-class custody, which allows more and more people to feel comfortable with it. He hopes it doesn’t go down any further, at least to six point five K. And then he shows that disgusting company back, which he needed to as he’s invested in them and most likely had a massive long. He then makes some price predictions. Wow. He was spot on. Does it sound like he has connections to someone in the market? U.S. DP I mean, that is exactly what happened to the price. So in my opinion, with his connections U.S.D.A., he was told about another massive pump. He was told about the dumped. All these insiders share info. But in my opinion, Asia, especially the Chinese exchanges, they are playing their own game. It’s a battle of the manipulators right now. East-West American, European, Chinese, Korean. It doesn’t matter. Who do I want to win? None of them. They all suck. USD tea backed. Western centralized exchanges. Eastern centralized exchanges. Shu any centralized option? I’m putting my bets on the one on the sideline. The Dexia’s which puts the power of crypto where it belongs. Back in your hands. Cheers. I’ll see you next time.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/is-bitcoin-following-the-stock-market/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-is-bitcoin-following-stock-market.html

[heatherrdavis1]

Why Is BITCOIN Following the Stock Market!? The Truth Is..

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hello Folk. What is going on with the viewers of the two? My name is Tyler and I think you should know me by now because we just surpassed 100 case ups on this, too. I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support. Even if it sometimes feels like we are isolated on our own little island. Joe puts on the brakes, but the result of October’s hit. We know why they keep up the. The U.S. does not get the slier the shit. Well, you know, our Hucknall Snow very thin. It’s time for Chieko crypto. While, my friends, the correlation between songs and crypto is beginning to move in such a sweet tandem when the two are trading together, as in the stock market and the crypto markets are open at the same time. The stock market leads crypto on where it will go up, down or sideways. But when the stock markets close at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and for the weekend, the crypto market is a leading indicator of where things are going. If there is a fat down during the night or even over the weekend, usually the stock market opens with a dump. So if you don’t know what is going on, we have traders, large whales who are playing both sides of the markets, which is obvious when you look at a well-known whale and what he is saying in the space. Two days ago, Mike Novogratz of Galaxie Digital was on Bloomberg business and he said he was short on stocks and credit and long on Bitcoin. Let’s listen in. How is your macro book positioned right now? You know, I got short Friday for the first time in a while, both stocks and credit kind of selling into the Fed’s last big, big bazooka of buying high yield. But, you know, it’s not a structural position. It’s a tactical position on trade. Trade short for a while. But it was the first time I’ve really net been big, big, big shorts, you know, since the lows. I also you know, I still am long gold on one bitcoin. We are seeing a monetization of debt as we have never seen in our lifetimes. And it’s not just here in the US, right, with the Fed buying everything. It’s a global monetization. And to me, in the long run, that has to make hard assets look better. Gold is certainly without performing. You know, Bitcoin’s an interesting story. This is the time for Bitcoin. It got wiped out. And hang on a second. I’ve heard that before. I’ve heard I’ve heard. This is the time for bitcoin before. Why is this the time why if we if central banks around the world are embarking on a monetary debasement that dwarfs quantitative easing, why is Bitcoin at 60 700 and not at twenty-five thousand? You know what laws? Did you get to still remember? It’s an 11-year-old experiment and it’s only in the last year where it really has become a macro weapon, an investment choice. And I’m seeing liberty in the last month, hedge funds and high net worth individuals who had never bought it before who are buying it. So it’s no longer a question of explaining to me how does it work? What do you what does this mean? It’s like, okay, I’m going to take a risk. Listen, the risk on any store of value, if it’s gold. Is that enough? People believe in it. And so it’s still a question of adoption. I’m just seeing more adoption here in the U.S. and in Europe than I have Laoghaire since I started this. Why is it down with Asian retail is still a big part of this. The Chinese economy is getting hit. There’s a lot of leverage in the system in the Asian retail side of crypto. And so there are still sellers coming out of Asia. You know, the China U.S. relation and the China European relationships are going to be relooked at in lots of ways as the dust settles on this thing. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight. Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming to Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. But the positive side is I literally see new players coming in every day. And, you know, we have the having coming up. Bitcoin is an instrument with no inflation or with very little inflation. And the inflation rate is getting cut in half. Right. As the Fed is, they will print as many dollars as you can one. So, Mikey, boy, you say it’s 100%. Yes. He’s playing both sides of the market, although he is short on finance, one point zero and long and hard assets like golden bitcoin. Because this is Bitcoin’s time to shine, the Bloomberg host asks. And why is the price going down? And my answer is Asia. And China is the reason. Leverage is the reason. And let’s replay this clip at the end. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight rate Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming at Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. He says Bitcoin’s downward pressure is coming mostly out of Asia. And there is something we’re looking into. Who the Frick is Frick and where is it his Galaxie digital or does this go deeper? Well, you know, Chieko, we think it goes a bit deeper than that. And figuring this out might just tell us where the markets will be headed in the future. So we know Mike Novogratz is the head of Galaxie Digital who consider themselves as sort of a crypto merchant bank providing institutional services like crypto asset management, principal investments, crypto asset trading. And advisory services. That is Mike’s Krypto Company, but he doesn’t come from the BTC world just like most of the prominent whales to this day. They come from finance one point zero worlds. Mike Novo is originally a part of the Fortress Investment Group who was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. There is Mikey during their IPO 13 years ago in 2007, when they were the first hedge fund and private equity company go public within the United States and one of the most disappointing IPO ever opened high back in 0 7. At 37 buckaroos over double the IPO price, which was 16, but it crashed harder than a buying ance IPO. And in twenty seventeen, the Japanese conglomerate Softbank purchased fortunes for $3.3 billion and took it private again. Literally one of the worst IPO is ever. As public investors got absolutely wrecked. While the founders got massive paydays when an IPO launch one at a time for sale. But what happened with Mike and Fortune is, well, according to this fall of Fortress. Article Fortress as was exploded in public view in 2015 when Michael Novogratz, one of the firm’s principals and an industry luminary who had joined from Goldman Sachs, retired after shutting down his drawbridge macro fund following wrongheaded bets on everything from Brazil to China. And this Wall Street Journal article tells us more. Michael Novogratz, one of Wall Street’s most famous investors, recently decided to leave Fortress Investment Group LP and Close’s macro hedge fund after it lost about a hundred million over the past two months from investments in Brazil. According to people familiar with the matter and to top that, earlier in the year, the fund lost one hundred and fifty million in a single day from wagers placed by a different Fortius trader against the Swiss franc who was under Michael’s control. And the latest losses left the fund down seventeen point five percent for the year through September, according to a regulatory filing. So, Mike, he messed up big time and lost that fund. A ton of money which hit public investors the hardest. But Mike made out like a bandit. According to this article, Fortress would buy back a stake in the firm for about two hundred fifty-five point six million. What did Mike do with that money? He went on to form Galaxy Digital and I wonder how that performed. Well, Mike’s firm got absolutely wrecked in twenty eighteen, posting over a two hundred and seventy-two million dollar loss for twenty eighteen. And in twenty nineteen when we experience another bull run to 14K, Mike still lost money. A net loss of thirty-three million for twenty nineteen. And what has recently hit the firm. Well with the poor performance due to the terrible bets and trades Mike and Galaxie announced in February, they would be laying off fifteen percent of their workforce even before the madness swept this world. But more pain just eleven days ago. Joshua Lim, their head of trading strategy, announced he would be leaving the firm to explore new opportunities. Losing streak after losing streak after losing streak. Don’t you want to win, Mike? So when we see Mike is getting mad about Bitcoin going down, when it should be going up and they will look into it, I know exactly what he means. What is the fuel of the crypto markets right now? Well, if you go to coin geko and look at coins ranked by volume, Teather is the number one most traded crypto asset based on volume alone, averaging nearly twenty-five percent more daily volume than bitcoin, even though its market cap is ninety-five percent smaller. Does that make sense? No. So unless you’re wearing a blindfold while looking at crypto data on. You know, Teather controls the market, but my key plays coy. Just a year ago in April twenty nineteen, he tweeted Galaxie has zero exposure to bitfinex or Teather. My own sense is that they are less integral to the crypto community than they once were. That said, it’s not a positive thing that has happened. The herd won’t come until we operate with transparency and professionalism. Bull crap, Mike. You know how integral they are to the crypto community as you were a customer of theirs. As the New York A.G. has documentation that says you’re Galaxie Digital was or was in the process of becoming a customer. So what about operating with transparency and professionalism, lying about your exposure and getting caught with your pants down by the New York A.G. isn’t what you preach. So you preach that the traditional markets are going down. Yet you’re along on Bitcoin. Are you telling the truth about that? Well, who is Mike involved with besides the dark side of U.S.D.A.? None other than the institutional scumbags of the space that Galaxy did. It All was a series, an investor in the one hundred and eighty-two million dollar plus round, which includes the likes of Microsoft. Then, just a year after that investment galaxy becomes a customer of back making the first block trade on the platform. A block trade? What is that? It’s massive. Off the books, private trade made can not move the market. That trade was announced six months ago October 4th. Twenty nineteen while BTC was at an AK. Well, just 20 days later Mike was on CNBC talking about BTC and this totally tells us he put in longs as bitcoin started to drop in through the 7 K range. Let’s listen in. So you look at charts at this point, you figure bitcoin could go back to four. Could I think? I think for Thals, I’m hoping it holds here, but I think it could hold up for six sixty-five hundred would be the next downside to the high. I think you’ve got to get back through like eighty-two hundred first and if it gets back to eighty-two hundred where then back in the kind of eight thousand ten thousand range, it’s going to need new energy to really make the big move. Now some positive things are happening. Right. The New York Stock Exchange is backed, just got set up. There’s a futures exchange. It’s starting to gain some volume. But more importantly, they’ve got a custody solution which is just coming online. That’s going to get approved. Like world-class custody, which allows more and more people to feel comfortable with it. He hopes it doesn’t go down any further, at least to six point five K. And then he shows that disgusting company back, which he needed to as he’s invested in them and most likely had a massive long. He then makes some price predictions. Wow. He was spot on. Does it sound like he has connections to someone in the market? U.S. DP I mean, that is exactly what happened to the price. So in my opinion, with his connections U.S.D.A., he was told about another massive pump. He was told about the dumped. All these insiders share info. But in my opinion, Asia, especially the Chinese exchanges, they are playing their own game. It’s a battle of the manipulators right now. East-West American, European, Chinese, Korean. It doesn’t matter. Who do I want to win? None of them. They all suck. USD tea backed. Western centralized exchanges. Eastern centralized exchanges. Shu any centralized option? I’m putting my bets on the one on the sideline. The Dexia’s which puts the power of crypto where it belongs. Back in your hands. Cheers. I’ll see you next time.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/is-bitcoin-following-the-stock-market/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/why-is-bitcoin-following-the-stock-market-the-truth-is

[jeffrmayhugh]

Why Is BITCOIN Following the Stock Market!? The Truth Is..

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hello Folk. What is going on with the viewers of the two? My name is Tyler and I think you should know me by now because we just surpassed 100 case ups on this, too. I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support. Even if it sometimes feels like we are isolated on our own little island. Joe puts on the brakes, but the result of October’s hit. We know why they keep up the. The U.S. does not get the slier the shit. Well, you know, our Hucknall Snow very thin. It’s time for Chieko crypto. While, my friends, the correlation between songs and crypto is beginning to move in such a sweet tandem when the two are trading together, as in the stock market and the crypto markets are open at the same time. The stock market leads crypto on where it will go up, down or sideways. But when the stock markets close at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and for the weekend, the crypto market is a leading indicator of where things are going. If there is a fat down during the night or even over the weekend, usually the stock market opens with a dump. So if you don’t know what is going on, we have traders, large whales who are playing both sides of the markets, which is obvious when you look at a well-known whale and what he is saying in the space. Two days ago, Mike Novogratz of Galaxie Digital was on Bloomberg business and he said he was short on stocks and credit and long on Bitcoin. Let’s listen in. How is your macro book positioned right now? You know, I got short Friday for the first time in a while, both stocks and credit kind of selling into the Fed’s last big, big bazooka of buying high yield. But, you know, it’s not a structural position. It’s a tactical position on trade. Trade short for a while. But it was the first time I’ve really net been big, big, big shorts, you know, since the lows. I also you know, I still am long gold on one bitcoin. We are seeing a monetization of debt as we have never seen in our lifetimes. And it’s not just here in the US, right, with the Fed buying everything. It’s a global monetization. And to me, in the long run, that has to make hard assets look better. Gold is certainly without performing. You know, Bitcoin’s an interesting story. This is the time for Bitcoin. It got wiped out. And hang on a second. I’ve heard that before. I’ve heard I’ve heard. This is the time for bitcoin before. Why is this the time why if we if central banks around the world are embarking on a monetary debasement that dwarfs quantitative easing, why is Bitcoin at 60 700 and not at twenty-five thousand? You know what laws? Did you get to still remember? It’s an 11-year-old experiment and it’s only in the last year where it really has become a macro weapon, an investment choice. And I’m seeing liberty in the last month, hedge funds and high net worth individuals who had never bought it before who are buying it. So it’s no longer a question of explaining to me how does it work? What do you what does this mean? It’s like, okay, I’m going to take a risk. Listen, the risk on any store of value, if it’s gold. Is that enough? People believe in it. And so it’s still a question of adoption. I’m just seeing more adoption here in the U.S. and in Europe than I have Laoghaire since I started this. Why is it down with Asian retail is still a big part of this. The Chinese economy is getting hit. There’s a lot of leverage in the system in the Asian retail side of crypto. And so there are still sellers coming out of Asia. You know, the China U.S. relation and the China European relationships are going to be relooked at in lots of ways as the dust settles on this thing. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight. Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming to Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. But the positive side is I literally see new players coming in every day. And, you know, we have the having coming up. Bitcoin is an instrument with no inflation or with very little inflation. And the inflation rate is getting cut in half. Right. As the Fed is, they will print as many dollars as you can one. So, Mikey, boy, you say it’s 100%. Yes. He’s playing both sides of the market, although he is short on finance, one point zero and long and hard assets like golden bitcoin. Because this is Bitcoin’s time to shine, the Bloomberg host asks. And why is the price going down? And my answer is Asia. And China is the reason. Leverage is the reason. And let’s replay this clip at the end. And so I think the heaviness that we see even overnight rate Bitcoin is down 500 points, is mostly coming at Asia. And so it’s something we’re looking into. He says Bitcoin’s downward pressure is coming mostly out of Asia. And there is something we’re looking into. Who the Frick is Frick and where is it his Galaxie digital or does this go deeper? Well, you know, Chieko, we think it goes a bit deeper than that. And figuring this out might just tell us where the markets will be headed in the future. So we know Mike Novogratz is the head of Galaxie Digital who consider themselves as sort of a crypto merchant bank providing institutional services like crypto asset management, principal investments, crypto asset trading. And advisory services. That is Mike’s Krypto Company, but he doesn’t come from the BTC world just like most of the prominent whales to this day. They come from finance one point zero worlds. Mike Novo is originally a part of the Fortress Investment Group who was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. There is Mikey during their IPO 13 years ago in 2007, when they were the first hedge fund and private equity company go public within the United States and one of the most disappointing IPO ever opened high back in 0 7. At 37 buckaroos over double the IPO price, which was 16, but it crashed harder than a buying ance IPO. And in twenty seventeen, the Japanese conglomerate Softbank purchased fortunes for $3.3 billion and took it private again. Literally one of the worst IPO is ever. As public investors got absolutely wrecked. While the founders got massive paydays when an IPO launch one at a time for sale. But what happened with Mike and Fortune is, well, according to this fall of Fortress. Article Fortress as was exploded in public view in 2015 when Michael Novogratz, one of the firm’s principals and an industry luminary who had joined from Goldman Sachs, retired after shutting down his drawbridge macro fund following wrongheaded bets on everything from Brazil to China. And this Wall Street Journal article tells us more. Michael Novogratz, one of Wall Street’s most famous investors, recently decided to leave Fortress Investment Group LP and Close’s macro hedge fund after it lost about a hundred million over the past two months from investments in Brazil. According to people familiar with the matter and to top that, earlier in the year, the fund lost one hundred and fifty million in a single day from wagers placed by a different Fortius trader against the Swiss franc who was under Michael’s control. And the latest losses left the fund down seventeen point five percent for the year through September, according to a regulatory filing. So, Mike, he messed up big time and lost that fund. A ton of money which hit public investors the hardest. But Mike made out like a bandit. According to this article, Fortress would buy back a stake in the firm for about two hundred fifty-five point six million. What did Mike do with that money? He went on to form Galaxy Digital and I wonder how that performed. Well, Mike’s firm got absolutely wrecked in twenty eighteen, posting over a two hundred and seventy-two million dollar loss for twenty eighteen. And in twenty nineteen when we experience another bull run to 14K, Mike still lost money. A net loss of thirty-three million for twenty nineteen. And what has recently hit the firm. Well with the poor performance due to the terrible bets and trades Mike and Galaxie announced in February, they would be laying off fifteen percent of their workforce even before the madness swept this world. But more pain just eleven days ago. Joshua Lim, their head of trading strategy, announced he would be leaving the firm to explore new opportunities. Losing streak after losing streak after losing streak. Don’t you want to win, Mike? So when we see Mike is getting mad about Bitcoin going down, when it should be going up and they will look into it, I know exactly what he means. What is the fuel of the crypto markets right now? Well, if you go to coin geko and look at coins ranked by volume, Teather is the number one most traded crypto asset based on volume alone, averaging nearly twenty-five percent more daily volume than bitcoin, even though its market cap is ninety-five percent smaller. Does that make sense? No. So unless you’re wearing a blindfold while looking at crypto data on. You know, Teather controls the market, but my key plays coy. Just a year ago in April twenty nineteen, he tweeted Galaxie has zero exposure to bitfinex or Teather. My own sense is that they are less integral to the crypto community than they once were. That said, it’s not a positive thing that has happened. The herd won’t come until we operate with transparency and professionalism. Bull crap, Mike. You know how integral they are to the crypto community as you were a customer of theirs. As the New York A.G. has documentation that says you’re Galaxie Digital was or was in the process of becoming a customer. So what about operating with transparency and professionalism, lying about your exposure and getting caught with your pants down by the New York A.G. isn’t what you preach. So you preach that the traditional markets are going down. Yet you’re along on Bitcoin. Are you telling the truth about that? Well, who is Mike involved with besides the dark side of U.S.D.A.? None other than the institutional scumbags of the space that Galaxy did. It All was a series, an investor in the one hundred and eighty-two million dollar plus round, which includes the likes of Microsoft. Then, just a year after that investment galaxy becomes a customer of back making the first block trade on the platform. A block trade? What is that? It’s massive. Off the books, private trade made can not move the market. That trade was announced six months ago October 4th. Twenty nineteen while BTC was at an AK. Well, just 20 days later Mike was on CNBC talking about BTC and this totally tells us he put in longs as bitcoin started to drop in through the 7 K range. Let’s listen in. So you look at charts at this point, you figure bitcoin could go back to four. Could I think? I think for Thals, I’m hoping it holds here, but I think it could hold up for six sixty-five hundred would be the next downside to the high. I think you’ve got to get back through like eighty-two hundred first and if it gets back to eighty-two hundred where then back in the kind of eight thousand ten thousand range, it’s going to need new energy to really make the big move. Now some positive things are happening. Right. The New York Stock Exchange is backed, just got set up. There’s a futures exchange. It’s starting to gain some volume. But more importantly, they’ve got a custody solution which is just coming online. That’s going to get approved. Like world-class custody, which allows more and more people to feel comfortable with it. He hopes it doesn’t go down any further, at least to six point five K. And then he shows that disgusting company back, which he needed to as he’s invested in them and most likely had a massive long. He then makes some price predictions. Wow. He was spot on. Does it sound like he has connections to someone in the market? U.S. DP I mean, that is exactly what happened to the price. So in my opinion, with his connections U.S.D.A., he was told about another massive pump. He was told about the dumped. All these insiders share info. But in my opinion, Asia, especially the Chinese exchanges, they are playing their own game. It’s a battle of the manipulators right now. East-West American, European, Chinese, Korean. It doesn’t matter. Who do I want to win? None of them. They all suck. USD tea backed. Western centralized exchanges. Eastern centralized exchanges. Shu any centralized option? I’m putting my bets on the one on the sideline. The Dexia’s which puts the power of crypto where it belongs. Back in your hands. Cheers. I’ll see you next time.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/is-bitcoin-following-the-stock-market/ source https://cryptosharks1.tumblr.com/post/615709303519707136