#put a map in your car and get some perspective. i promise it does not make you look like a prepper

[folfar]

cannot handle that mournful self serious post going around claiming that by 1920 nobody born after 1890 would know why you needed to know how to make a candle or look after a horse like… truly I understand it’s very appealing hyperbole but it is also very stupid and wrong. sorry.

of course i sympathise with the desire to feel special and sad about technological shifts but this is not it. buy an external cd drive and get over it. they are like a tenner.

“I memorise phone numbers just in case… in case what?” wow so true and nostalgic bestie. maybe in case your phone gets lost or stolen or runs out of battery? all the obvious reasons? the children of today are also memorising phone numbers? you are not a throwback in a time of technological change. you are the same as the rest of us.

The fact that op said there was now no situation in which they would need a paper map demonstrates how wild this perspective is. girl you are going to die on a mountain sorry.

[tails89]

No Place I'd Rather Be

Pairing: Evan Buckley x Eddie Diaz

1.5k words

Summary:

“Bucky's my favourite,” Chris declares, then pauses, a cheeky grin spreading across his face. “After you, dad.”

“He’s my favourite too.” Eddie says, gathering Chris up in a hug. “But you’re my most favourite.”

“I’m happy he gets to live with us. I hope he stays with us forever.”

Eddie stands up, stretching out his back as he rises. “Yeah, me too kiddo.”

Read on AO3 (or below)

Eddie silences the alarm that blares, sighing softly as a quiet hush settles back over the room. He’d set it with the intention of getting up early and making the most of his morning, but now that the it has actually arrived, all he wants is to curl back into the warmth at his side and go back to sleep.

He may as well enjoy it. He’s probably got ten minutes, if that, before Chris is up and crashing through the house in search of breakfast. Eddie has no idea how one kid makes so much noise and can’t wait for the teenage years everyone keeps warning him about; sometimes he thinks he wouldn’t mind a kid who sleeps in past eight AM.

Curling his arms around the warm body beside him, Eddie presses a kiss to the top of Buck’s curly head.

“You need to get up.”

“You need to get up.” Buck rolls over, pulling the quilt up over his head. “I don’t need to do anything, it’s my day off.”

Propping himself up on an elbow, Eddie drags the covers back down.

“You were the one who promised Chris a trip to the zoo,” he reminds his boyfriend. “And pancakes beforehand.”

“It’s the asscrack of dawn, Eddie,” Buck whines, squinting up at him. “The zoo doesn’t open for hours. This is inhumane. Moving in with you was a terrible mistake.”

Eddie laughs. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Right on cue he can hear the click of Chris’ crutches down the hallway. If they’re lucky, Chris will turn on the TV and they’ll get another twenty minutes before he comes begging for breakfast. A few minutes later, the sound of Chris's favourite morning cartoons echo up from the living room.

“Nope, no more sleeping,” Eddie teases, noticing Buck’s eyes have drifted shut again.

“’m not sleeping.”

“Really?” Eddie leans over pressing a soft kiss to the corner of Buck’s mouth. “Are you sure?” He trails his lips down along Buck’s jaw, smirking when Buck turns his head towards him, ducking to capture Eddie’s mouth and draw him into a long lazy kiss.

Kissing Buck was always a rush; it leaves Eddie dizzy and breathless and desperate for more. He doesn’t pull away until it feels like his lungs will burst and even then, Buck follows, pressing soft kisses into the hollow of Eddie’s throat.

“You better not be starting something you can’t finish, Diaz,” Buck whispers, his breath hot against Eddie’s skin.

“Oh, you’ll finish alright, Buckley.”

~~

They pile into Eddie’s car after breakfast, Buck and Chris chatting a mile a minute about what they want to see first and ranking their favourite zoo animals.

“—but you don’t have to see everything in order,” Buck points out. “We can go and see your favourites first.”

“But they’re all my favourites,” Chris says. “And if we start at the start we know we won’t miss anything. I want to see all the animals.”

They keep up their friendly, teasing bickering the whole way too the zoo and Buck is still trying to convince Chris to start at the otters when Eddie pulls into a parking space and cuts the engine.

Chris ultimately wins. He always does, he’s got Buck completely wrapped around his finger. Eddie’s waiting for the day Buck will have to tell his son no and stand by it—there will probably be tears, most likely from Buck. Fortunately today is not that day.

They buy their tickets and head on in, studying the map.

“Australian animals are first,” Eddie says, pointing off to the left. “It says here you can buy feed for the kangaroos.”

“Did you know koala’s can get chlamydia?” Buck says conversationally as they follow the path down towards the enclosures.

“What? No, I did not know that,” Eddie says, glancing towards Chris who has got ahead of them. “How do you know that?”

Buck shrugs. “Chris had that assignment on animals native to other countries, remember? I think I read about it then.”

“Sure, because that comes up in a fifth grade assignment,” Eddie says and Buck flushes. He’d probably fallen down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. Again. “So what else do you know about koala bears?”

“They’re not bears, dad.” Chris has stopped to wait for them at the entrance to the themed enclosure.

“Yeah, Eddie.” Buck mirrors Chris’s tone exactly. “They’re marsupials. Right, Chris?”

Chris nods enthusiastically.

“Look,” he shouts, pointing to the sign in the exhibit. “You can get photos with them. Can we? Please.”

“Yeah, buddy. Let’s do it.” Buck digs into his pocket for his wallet.

“You want to get a photo with one?” Eddie asks, incredulously. “After you just told me they all had STIs?”

“Just the wild ones,” Buck promises. He gestures for Chris to lead them onward. “Actually, it’s a massive problem, there’s just like, one place left where they’re not infected.”

“Oh.”

~~

They get a photo of the three of them crowded around the koala. The small grey animal- marsupial?- sleeps through the whole thing but Chris is ecstatic, excitedly telling Buck that they were this close to a real live Australian animal.  

He loses his mind when they feed the kangaroos and laughs at Buck who cowers behind Eddie when they come across the emus. The giant birds are behind a fence, but one of them manages to snatch the map out of Buck’s hands.

“It’s not funny,” Buck grumbles. “Those things are terrifying. Look at their eyes, they remember being dinosaurs.”

 Eddie laughs and wraps an arm around Buck's waist. “They’re flightless birds, how bad can they be?”

Buck looks Eddie, his face serious. “Look up the emu war some time Eds, and tell me if it doesn’t change your perspective a little.”

“Wait, there was an emu war?” Chris asks. “Who won?”

Buck’s lips twitch. “The emus.”

~~

By the time they’ve seen the primate exhibits Chris is getting tired, so Eddie decides it’s time to stop for lunch.

He puts Buck in charge of finding them a picnic table while he takes Chris up to order food.

“Are you having a good day, mijo?”

“Yep, it’s the best,” Chris tells him beaming. “We should come back next weekend.”

“I’m working next weekend,” Eddie reminds him as they make their way to the front of the queue. “Maybe another time?”

“Or, maybe Buck could bring me?” Chris looks up at his dad with an expression of such hope, it’s clear why Buck can never say no to him. It’s a look that makes Eddie’s heart swell with love and joy.

“You’ll have to ask him.”

There had been a small part of him that had worried that Buck moving in, becoming a more permanent fixture in their lives and taking on some of the responsibilities of living with a child, would cause some tension. The dynamic shift from fun best friend to potential step-parent was a tricky one, but Buck and Chris seemed to have both taken it in stride.

“Hey, Chris.” Eddie crouches so that he’s level with his son. “I’m really glad you like spending time with him.”

“Bucky's my favourite,” Chris declares, then pauses, a cheeky grin spreading across his face. “After you, dad.”

“He’s my favourite too,” Eddie says, gathering Chris up in a hug. “But you’re my most favourite.”

“I’m happy he gets to live with us,” Chris says. “I hope he stays with us forever.”

Eddie stands up, stretching out his back as he rises. “Yeah, me too kiddo.”

~~

They return to Buck with a tray loaded up with burgers and fries and drinks. He’s found a table for them in a shady spot overlooking the giraffes, and he waves them over when he spots them.

After lunch they carry on, taking the park train around to the big cats, arriving just in time to watch the talk about tigers.

Chris gets chosen as a volunteer to hold a chicken wing with a pair of tongs through the fence. The zoo keeper helps him hold it steady while Buck and Eddie take a hundred photos of his beaming smile.

It’s getting late by the time they make their way back to the entrance of the zoo. Chris is exhausted so Buck gives him a piggyback ride towards the gift shop, while Eddie follows carrying Chris’s crutches.

“Don’t forget the photo, Dad,” Chris shouts as they’re about to head out the exit.  He nudges Buck to turn around but Eddie waves at them to keep going.

“You guys wait outside; I’ll go grab it.”

He turns back towards the counter and waits while the attendant searches the computer for the photo.

“Here it is.” She brings it up on the screen so Eddie can see. “You’ve already paid for one copy, you want any more?”

Eddie ends up purchasing a second copy, thinking it might be something his abuela would like.

“Here.” The girl hands over the packet with their photos. “You have an adorable family.”

Eddie glances down at the photo then across towards the exit. He can see Buck and Chris sitting just outside. Chris is telling a story, his hands gesturing wildly as he talks and Buck is laughing along loudly.

“Yeah, I do.”

[tirednerd2012]

How about this idea: Ian is walking home from school one day and he gets kidnapped by one of barley's rivals wanting to take revenge on him or something and barley goes on a quest to save his little brother.

Bonus scene: while barley is struggling with the rivals, Ian manages to reach his staff and casts a spell at them and it saves barley, but Ian blacks out and he later wakes up in the hospital with barley and his mom beside him and Barley starts comforting him and have a brotherly moment.

Get ready for some angst with this one! Here you go! This will be the last one for the night. More to come tomorrow!

Barley was a lot of things. His mother and brother would call him loyal, annoying, exciting and overly protective. His friends would call him chill and a great dungeons master. His enemies, however, would call him a jackass or something of the sort. Just depends on the perspective.

The person who probably hated him most was his ex, Drew. He managed to avoid him. While Barley knew damn well he would never forget everything that man put him through, but he tried to move past it.

Especially after he crashed into the van, knocking Ian and Barley out and kidnapping them. He was going to kill Barley, but Ian insisted on taking his place. There was no changing Drew’s mind. He knew how much Ian meant to Barley and he knew that Barley would want nothing more than to protect Ian from him.

Barley still couldn’t sleep at night without hearing Ian’s screams and Drew’s laugh. He stabbed him, but apparently he survived. The wound wasn’t fatal and he was able to get to the hospital in time. Meaning someone was helping him, but Barley had no idea who.

Ian Lightfoot was walking home from school. Barley was working on his online classes and it was a nice day, so he decided against the bus. He texted his brother that he was on his way home and continued to make his way. He was about halfway there, on an older street that not many people lived in, when a car came speeding by.

Drew stepped out of the car. With a gun. Ian reached for his staff, but remembered he didn’t have it. He never took it to school.

“Well, well, if it isn’t little Ian. It’s been awhile, man,” he said. Ian went to run, but it seemed that Drew was reading his mind. “I wouldn’t do that. No one really lives in this neighborhood. I can shoot you.”

“Why can’t you just leave us alone?” Ian snapped. Drew walked over to him and yanked his bag and jacket off, revealing the scars from Ian’s last encounter with him.

“I’ll admit, that was pretty brave, what you did for your brother back there,” he said. Ian froze as Drew smiled at him. He hated this guy. He wanted him dead. Ian cursed his name more times than he could remember for what he did to Barley. He remembered checking in on them after Barley didn’t come home to see him choking the life out of his best friend.

“What do you want?” Ian asked, but his throat felt tight. Drew paused, looked at him with cold eyes before quickly grabbing a fistful of his hair and then slamming his head hard against the car. He collapsed and Ian felt the gravel on his cheek and his head spin. He couldn’t process a single thought, except his wrists being tied behind his back, a gag in his mouth and then his ankles tied.

Drew lifted him up without much effort and tossed him in the trunk of his card like he was nothing.

Barley looked at the clock. Ian texted him three hours ago saying he was on his way home, now he wasn’t answering his phone at all. He drove around everywhere looking, but there was no sign of him.

Worry and anger were building up in the oldest Lightfoot brother when Ian’s picture popped open on his phone. He grabbed it and answered within the first ring.

“Ian, where are you?”

“Sorry, babe, Ian can’t really come to the phone right now,” Barley fell over and landed on the chair when he heard that voice. His heart skipped a beat and he grabbed at his chest.

“Drew.”

“Who else?”

“Where’s Ian?” he demanded. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let him see you afraid. The video turned on and Barley saw Ian in a large dragon cage with a dead bolt lock on it. He tried to look at the background for clues, but couldn’t find any. He had no idea where Ian was. He felt his hands shake and he had trouble keeping the phone steady.

“Alive, but that’s about all I can give him,” Drew responded, indifferently. The camera focuses on Ian, desperately trying to get out of the cage. His forehead was bleeding and several of his scars had been reopened. “Say hi to Barley, Ian.”

“Barley, I’m okay. Whatever he wants, don’t give him!” Ian said, but Drew laughed and kicked the cage, causing Ian to fall in it. He grabbed a key, unlocked it and then dragged Ian out of the cage. Barley could tell from the position of the phone that Drew climbed on top of Ian.

“Hey, babe, does this look familiar?” he asked as he brought his hands around Ian’s neck. He began choking him.

“Stop! Stop. Drew you got me, where are you? I give up! You win!” Barley cried. He didn’t stop. He choked Ian out until his brother fell unconscious. Then he checked.

“He’s still breathing,” Drew informed him. “You have about, I dunno, it took us 3 hours to get here, you have 4 to get him before I kill him.”

“He has nothing to do with this, Drew. Please, if you’re going to kill anyone, kill me,” Barley offered. This was his mess, not Ian’s. His brother got involved because he loved him and wanted to protect Barley from this bastard.

“I could, but we both know this is much more painful to you. If you fail, his blood, your little brother’s blood, will be on your hands, Barley. If you get anyone else involved, I’ll kill him on the spot. I have nothing to lose, but you sure as hell do.”

With that, the phone call ended. Barley stood there for a second, stunned. Three hours to get wherever they were. That meant he had an hour to figure out exactly where that was, or he would be too late. There would be no room for error.

“I’m coming, Ian, I promise. Just hang in there.”

Barley, not proud of this part of the rescue mission, first threw up. He darted to the bathroom and felt all the stress turn to nausea. Then he panicked. One wrong move and Ian could be killed. His brother's life was in his hands.

He thought about Ian, alone, knocked out somewhere with someone who wanted to hurt him, and Barley is at least 3 hours away from him. He couldn't protect Ian and it hurt every fiber in his being.

Wait. Ian's laptop. He had it connected to his phone. Maybe he could find the phone's location on it. He ran up the stairs and went to Ian's desk. He looked up at the picture Ian took of the two of them at the park on day, hanging up on his wall. Then he shook his head. Focus, Barley.

He opened the computer, no password, and looked up the Find My Phone App. Sure enough, he found a location. Three hours away, north. He would have to pass the Manticore's Tavern (Maybe Corey would blow some shit up after he got Ian out?)

No, Drew said not to get anyone else involved. He had to listen, otherwise Ian would pay for his mistakes more.

He looked over and saw Ian's staff. It would be nice for Ian to have something to protect himself with. He grabbed it and his keys, left a note for his mom saying he'd be home soon, and then left. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he opened up a message.

Drew sent him a picture of Ian's back now covered in fresh cuts. Barley had to wipe his tears away to prevent from going off the road. He was going to kill Drew. Nothing would stop him this time. He would make sure the bastard was dead.

Was Ian awake? He must be scared out of his mind. He was just walking home from school and suddenly snatched away with the underline promise of death?

Barley drove as fast as he could. He gave it all he had in his van. According to Maps, Ian was in the middle of the woods. Barley could park the van a little bit away and take the rest on foot. That would give him the advantage of surprise. The only thing that truly mattered was getting Ian out of there as fast as possible.

He would need a hospital. If Barley parked far away, he would have to carry him, but that shouldn't be too hard. Ian was light and Barley had been able to carry him since the day he was born.

Barley had memories of Ian since the day he had been born. Who else could he say that about?

No, no, keep it together, Barley told himself. He made the three hour drive in two hours and thirty minutes. He pulled into the woods, grabbed his sword and Ian's staff and took off. He found a cabin and he crept close to it, listening through the backdoor.

"Barley's going to make you sorry!" he heard Ian's voice. While it was clearly pained, he managed to sound strong and determined. Barley tried to pinpoint the location.

"Your brother isn't here to save you, Ian. You're going to die for his mistakes."

"This isn't his fault! It's yours. My brother is the most amazing guy and you're the one who doesn't deserve him. I'm glad you two broke up. He is worth more than you ever could be."

Even when facing certain death, Ian defended his brother.

"You little shit."

Barley tried the backdoor and opened it quietly. He peaked in and saw in the living room, Ian was in the cage glaring at Drew. His back was pouring out with blood and his eyes showed how much pain he was in. He tried to stand strong, but his legs shook and he had to hold on to the bars to keep from collapsing. Drew was too busy enjoying Ian's suffering to see Barley coming out from behind.

He grabbed the guy and threw him away from Ian. He laid the staff down by the cage and went to look for the key when he felt something slice his back.

"Barley!" Ian cried out. Barley spun around and ducked just in time to avoid Drew's aim to his head. The two began fighting. Barley was terrified, yes, but his adrenaline and anger took over.

No one hurt his brother and got away with it.

Ian watched with horror as Barley and Drew fought. Drew was planning for this. He knew Barley would find them within no time. He knew everything to do to piss Barley off enough to get his mind so blinded by anger, Drew could kill him.

Drew managed to kick Barley in the stomach and his sword fell out of his hand. Ian saw his staff and reached for it. He didn't have much energy, and honestly, he had never felt so exhausted before in his life, let alone tried to use magic when it was like this. He didn't know what would happen.

But as he got the staff in his hands, Drew went in for the kill. Barley glanced over just in time to watch Ian's eyes fill with horror and his brother screamed bloody murder.

"No!" Ian remembered an explosion throwing him back, then nothing.

He woke up in a hospital. Most of his body was covered in bandages and he heard soft crying beside him. His mom was there, sobbing, her hands covering her face.

"Mom?" he asked. His throat burned and tightened and for a moment he wondered if she even heard him, but she looked up at him and cried with relief.

"Ian! Oh my God, my baby," she said and hugged him. It hurt, but he would never tell her that.

"What happened?"

His mom recounted the whole story of his kidnapping, Barley rescuing him, only for Drew to try and kill him, but Ian used magic that Barley had never seen before, It took everything he had, but he caused a throwback spell that was powerful enough to break the cage and get Drew away from Barley.

That's when he lost consciousness. Barley stopped the bleeding for all of his wounds before getting his brother to the hospital. He called his mom crying.

"Where is he?" Ian asked. His mom smiled sadly.

"He went outside to get some air. You've been out for hours now and it's- it's been a scary time. You had us so worried," she said, her voice thick with new tears. Ian managed to squeeze her hand just as Barley walked back in. Their eyes locked immediately.

"Ian," he said and ran over to him and hugged him tightly. Ian managed through the pain and found comfort leaning on his brother's shoulder.

"Barley, you're okay," he said, trying not to cry himself. Their mom stood up.

"I'm going to give you boys some time to talk. I need to check in with the doctors."

With that, it was just them. Barley sat down beside Ian and put his hand on top of the one without the IV. He didn't look Ian in the eyes anymore.

"Thank God you're okay," he said. "I'm so sorry, Ian. I didn't think Drew would go after you like that, but I promise I took care of it."

"What did you do?" Ian asked, but then the moment he asked it, he realized. Barley killed him.

"I made sure I took care of it this time," he answered. Then he shook his head. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is the fact you're here, you're going to be okay and you're safe."

Now that he was out of harm's way, Ian allowed himself to go through everything that happened. He was kidnapped and tortured. He was at the mercy of someone who hated his brother more than anything else in the world and the fact he was alive was a miracle.

But Barley saved him. He faced the man Ian knew he was secretly afraid of to save him. And he killed him. Barley, his sweet, lovable, teddy bear of a big brother, ended his life. Of course, he probably would have done the same thing in his position.

"I missed you," Ian said.

"I missed you, too. I'm glad you're okay," Barley said. Ian allowed his head to fall on to Barley's shoulder and in return, felt his brother's arms wrap around him carefully this time. They both cried. "I love you so much, Ian."

"I love you, too, Barley. I knew you were coming, even if I didn't want you to."

"Well, I can't let someone take you from us, now can I?" Barley responded, with a humorless chuckle. For the first time since this happened, Ian truly felt safe. Barley was here. Everything was going to be fine. "I'll never let anyone take you from me like that. Never."

[asinnersalibi]

You know what my deepest fear is? The thought that my child won't hear "I'm proud of you" or "I love you" enough and subsequently feel like I don't love them. I recently learned that my love language is acts of service, so I will show you that I love you before I tell you, and I fear that, at some point, my child will feel like I don't love them, and you know what that's terrifying. A little backstory, I like writing, so my brain is constantly going, and I started thinking of a story idea in the dark of my room at the restless 5 am hour, and it went a little like this:

"What is your deepest fear?"

"Heights."

"Incorrect." and it just took me aback, like what the fuck do you mean incorrect? You're a figment of my imagination. Fuck off. But it made me think, what is my deepest fear? And it occurred to me that sometimes, I don't think my caregiver thinks I love them, and it reflected on current, then future relationships. Saying "I love you" on its own is a privilege because it's something people have to earn from me, but I can say I love you and it feel like a lie. I want to mean it, so I'll show it. Whether it is indulging in your favorite show because I know how much you love to talk about it and come up with your own headcanons but never having anyone to come up with headcanons with because talking to new people is hard and social anxiety is a bitch to making the ever-standing promise to buy you a car; I mean these things wholeheartedly. This probably developed from an environment of hypocrisy and emotional manipulation, and that's a post for another day. It took me this long to be able to trust people again and the last thing I ever want is for the few people I have let into my life and do hold very dear to my heart to think I don't love them.

Now that I've left my heart out in the godless lands of Tumblr, we're going over some ways to show you love someone.

Long-Distance Relationships

Indulge in their interests. Show them you're interested in what makes them happy, find your own joy in it. Don't force yourself to like something just because your partner does, find common interests, let them find you.

Respect boundaries, some people are camera shy, hate their voice, don't like talking. Telling them their beautiful, their voice is lovely, and soothing doesn't change the personal boundaries that have been set, it pushes them. You may not like texting 24/7, calling after 19:00 (7 pm), or turning your camera on, and it is the responsibility of your loved one to respect those boundaries as well.

Compromise. Instead of your 19:00, especially for different time zones, try their 19:00, which perhaps is an hour after yours. If you live 13 hours apart, set overlapping times where you can talk and you're both comfortable, even if it's not the times you specifically set for yourself.

Buy them food. Technology has advanced so far that you can order your loved one's favorite meal and have it delivered even if you're all the way across the world.

Make exceptions (that are to be reciprocated!!). Sometimes, your loved one is having a really shitty day and they just want to talk to you at midnight, it doesn't happen often and it's not an obligation but making exceptions is not the end of the world (when they are reciprocated!!) Reciprocated does not mean making your loved one uncomfortable by forcing them out of their comfort zone because you made an exception for them. You can say no, you can compromise. Love is a learning process and you must learn to love each other or learn to make peace on your own.

Family Dynamics

Paternal Figures

Now some of these may be some of your chores, but just for consideration.

Make dinner. As breadwinners, they work to (hopefully) put food on the table. Coming home stressed out and hungry because they got caught up in work because Justin decided to clock out at noon leaving them to cover and not having the time to properly eat lunch results in an often unhappy environment. You'd be surprised how relaxing it is to come home and dinner is already on the table. (Or ready to be consumed because if you're anything like my family, we don't eat at the table.)

Clean after yourself. Parents are a pain in the ass sometimes and they will bitch about anything dirty, misplaced, or miskept, so try to, at the very least keep yourself and your spaces clean. Then, if you can, fold the laundry, clean the fridge, make them lunch.

Compromise! Look, sometimes parents were raised in environments where the adults were adults and could do whatever they wanted while children had to just deal with it. Screaming at them for outdated parenting is unnecessary stress on the entirety of the situation. Talk to them. Tell them this is overwhelming, or you're having a hard time doing this and this, and maybe you could do this and that? Don't tell them they're wrong, you don't want to be told your wrong, don't yell at them. They're trying too. Compromise.

Remind them of things. Remind them of things they were supposed to remember, remember this sibling has orchersta practice on Thursday, buy lightbulbs, the check engine light came on a couple of days ago, don't forget to check that. You know your parents best and know what they have a hard time remembering, it is helpful.

Give them breaks, too. That doesn't always have to be doing anything but just leaving them alone. Keeping your siblings (if you have any) occupied while they take a nap, get some work done, or just relax. Parenting is hard and they might not be the best parents, but they are still your parents.

Siblings aren't much different, tell them you love them, do little things for them whether it be folding their laundry, completing a chore they forgot to do or helping them with homework. Most are appreciative, others will think you've mapped out their murder. Both are good.

Cordials (Neighbors, coworkers, workers)

Watching their house, child, or pet while they run to the store. This isn't for every neighbor but for the ones who you run into every day and you've built that trust.

"Can I borrow a cup of sugar", if you are in a well enough position to provide for yourself, try to provide for others.

Cover your coworkers, within reason. If that one coworker just always takes the busiest week off, don't feel obligated to torture yourself because someone asked. If a coworker's kid just threw up and they need to pick them up from school, that's different. It's all in perspective, to me, family takes priority, to you, it may be different. Know your boundaries, know when you push them, don't let people step all over them.

Let things slide. People make mistakes, waiters mess up orders, all yelling does is make people feel worthless. Reassure them that it's okay, mistakes happen, and they can be fixed.

Children are going to play in streets, oblivious to their surroundings, if you know they're there try to be cautious. That's love to a community.

Call your family members, tell them you love them. Remind them that you know they are there. Especially as you get older.

Tip your waiters, babysitters, and nurses.

Be honest.

Know how to love people. Learn.

Show kindness, don't wonder why your life is so shitty when you treat everyone like shit. Karma's a bitch.

Learn how to smile. You don't have to love yourself, but know when it's best to love yourself by loving others.

Love. Don't hate. There's enough hate.

Remember, people love in different ways, if you, like myself, love with acts of services and your partner is a verbal lover, coexist. Your words mean the world to them and acting upon them means the world for you. That's okay, love comes in many shapes, sizes, colors, and concepts, it's finding your love, and growing with it.

That is not to say love is one-sided, loving someone is a two-way street, and you, as a lover must understand when someone is figuring out how to love you, and when they don't love you at all. The rose-tinted glasses become so comfortable to wear you forget to see the red flags and that is a distinction that takes time, patience, and experience. Don't be taken advantage of, don't let people walk all over you or cross boundaries under the concept of love, that's not love, it's manipulation. Stay safe, people, stay humble and love each other.

[bltngames]

Review: Hotshot Racing

(For this review, Hotshot Racing was played on the Nintendo Switch and the Personal Computer)

If you were to ask me what the most important features of a racing game are, somewhere near the top of the list would be artificial intelligence. Racing games are one of those genres, like fighting games or shooters, where simulating how real human people play the game is vital to the experience. They are inherently multiplayer concepts, even if you’re playing by yourself.

Focus on multiplayer artificial intelligence has waned over the last 15 years. With the rise of the premium multiplayer subscription, it’s more important than ever before to drive players to play matches with flesh-and-blood human beings online. Thus, advancements in “bot” (simulated human player) development hasn’t just slowed down, but in some cases actively regressed. Epic Games, once home to some of the smartest, most robust first person shooter bots in Unreal Tournament, now features bots in their popular Fortnite Battle Royale that fumble around the map with low attention spans and aim like they're blindfolded.

Humans are hard to simulate. The basic functions of a player are easy to emulate -- navigation, aiming, and so on, but it’s the organic logic underneath that proves to be the primary challenge. Humans have lapses in judgement. Humans make mistakes. Mistakes compound on other mistakes. A person wins or loses a given game because of a constantly cascading sequence of decisions, all feeding in to and out of themselves. Whether they realize it or not, every individual person is their own infinite web of chaos. For a computer, which operates in a binary of either perfect success or total failure, no amount of processing power can make for an accurate duplication.

As such, artificial intelligence has to “cheat.” Flaws are introduced into the simulation in order to throw the player a bone. Intelligence almost doesn’t even enter the equation; instead, it’s more about developing a bot that the player simply believes is human, like some kind of a magic trick. It’s a tight balancing act -- if the bot is too good, it looks like an unfeeling terminator. On the opposite, well… compare my Fortnite example up above. There’s a sweet spot that must be hit: smart, but not too smart. Dumb, but not too dumb. It’s easier said than done.

Racing games are a special category here. On top of simulating a human, they must also simulate an automobile, with all of its physical interactions. Tire friction, suspension bounce, weight distribution, and horsepower efficiency just to start. I’d argue that this lends to a much greater tendency for natural mistakes to occur, as the two different simulations (vehicle and player) interact and bounce off of each other. This has led to racing games relying on a handicap known as “rubberbanding.” Essentially, if the player is doing a little too well, the game will start giving tiny advantages to the computer-controlled racer. A boost to top speed, a reduction in weight to improve handling, whatever it takes to ensure the player does not remain unchallenged for very long.

Which finally, at long last, brings us to Hotshot Racing. Developed by Lucky Mountain Games, with assistance by Sumo Digital, it attempts to capitalize on the growing faux-retro-3D trend. It promises visuals to remind you of Sega’s Virtua Racing or Namco’s Ridge Racer, but with decidedly modern vehicle physics and a bit more content than any of those old games could muster.

It honestly makes for a weird first impression. This is a retro-looking game that does not feel like any retro racing game I’ve ever played. Some would undoubtedly argue that’s for the better; like with most sports games, there’s this sense that more simulation is always better. Even modern “arcade” racers like Need for Speed or Wreckfest run pretty robust physics simulations under their hoods, even if they do not necessarily adhere to the rules of reality. But I’ve honestly never seen a problem with this -- I will readily go back to something like Daytona USA or even Stunt Race FX on the Super Nintendo, and never feel especially bothered by their primitive simulations. To me, racing is often more about the sense of speed, how well the controls respond, and the track design than any notion of feeling “realistic.”

That’s not to say it’s really a negative that cars in Hotshot Racing have some vague facsimile of modern weight and “realism” applied to their driving physics, I guess. It’s just something that takes a little bit of getting used to, because seeing these cars drift and sway like the racing games of today is a little anachronistic to the era being called back to. If you still burn a candle for the eventual release of the long-lost Kickstarter darling “90’s Arcade Racer,” know that this isn’t that game. I think it’s fair to say it’s trying to scratch a similar itch, but it’s doing so in a very different way.

One of the more important things Hotshot Racing brings to the table is a roster of personalities to race as and against. When you think of characters in a racing game, your mind probably more naturally gravitates towards something like Mario Kart or some other similarly kid-friendly cartoon racing franchise. For most "serious" racing games, your opponents are unknowable, faceless competitors, but Hotshot gives them voices and identities. Every character in the game has a garage of four cars unique to them, in addition to having their own story to tell. It’s nothing especially deep; most plot manifests in a single cutscene played at the end of a given grand prix, sort of like what you'd get for finishing arcade mode in a game like Street Fighter 2. It’s just a snippet, a taste of what motivated these people and what they’re going to do after winning, but it’s enough.

It goes back to what I said earlier, and how it’s important for the player to believe the artificial intelligence is more than just a computer. Making the racers into characters, with identifiable personalities, faces, and dialog goes a long way to fleshing things out and makes you connect with what’s going on just a little bit better. Or at least, that’s how things would work in theory.

The problem is… well, none of that matters. Put simply, the actual artificial intelligence you race against kind of sucks. In fact, it’s hard to even call them competitors, because your opponents seem to be running a different race where you straight up don’t exist. During any given event, your rival computer drivers seem to be totally blind to your presence, as they will spend the entire race trying to drive straight through you. I don’t know how else to explain it. This isn’t a simple case where the computer drivers are a little aggressive, because they usually aren’t racing to be destructive. They never seem to specifically go out of their way to attack, they just don’t seem to be able to see where you are, and make no effort to react to your presence. You happen to be in their way, so they plow through from behind, ram from the side, and generally just knock you around as if you were invisible.

A side effect to this is something I’ve started noticing in games that bear the Sumo Digital name: computer drivers can hit you way harder than you can hit them back. Whether rubbing against a rival car or engaging in a full-on collision, computer drivers always seem to be able to overpower player vehicles no matter what. In Hotshot Racing, I’ve encountered multiple scenarios where a computer driver shoves me around with little effort, but any attempts to return the favor and my car may as well be made out of styrofoam for how little impact there is. I know Sumo Digital only assisted Lucky Mountain Games on the back half of developing Hotshot Racing, but this has been a consistent element I’ve noticed in Sumo’s Sonic Racing games, too. The computer can be as aggressive (or as blind) as they want, but human players are never allowed to retaliate in a way that feels meaningful.

The worst, by far, is what I mentioned earlier: rubberbanding. “First place” in Hotshot Racing is an often endless war of attrition, where no matter how fast you drive, there are always cars nipping at your heels. Hotshot Racing has a boost system, wherein by drifting or drafting you charge up a segmented meter. Once a segment is full, you can burn it for a burst of speed. I’ve spent 2, 3, even 4 consecutive boosts in a row and the same three opponents were still right behind me, aiming to blindly smash my car out of the way. Hard, medium, or easy mode, it doesn’t matter. They are always there, just a few feet from your rear bumper, magically closing the distance to constantly steal your lead.

From a game design perspective, I understand why rubberbanding exists. It’s to keep the player feeling challenged and engaged. Spending too long in first place going unopposed can start to feel boring. Some game designers view that as a turn off. Races are meant to be battles. At the same time, being able to totally shut out my opponents and gain huge leads makes me feel good. Hotshot Racing robs you of that sense of total domination because of some artificial rule of competitiveness. It’s not that the computer-controlled racers are better than you; they don’t seem to race with any sort of great care or skill. Instead, they catch up and pass you strictly because the Hand of God bends the rules to accommodate them. That doesn’t feel very challenging and it certainly doesn’t feel fair.

That being said, the pseudo-realistic physics mentioned earlier do have their own downside: I found it a little too easy to lose control of my vehicle and spin out. If you brush against a wall wrong or get bumped by a rival during a drift, you often find yourself in a tailspin and unable to recover. Combined with the blind artificial intelligence and the rubberbanding, you have a recipe for getting frustrated. I want to feel confident in my losses, not because I couldn’t predict what Mr. Magoo was going to do next. To add insult to injury, the rubberbanding only gets more prominent as you move up in difficulty, so expect to get spun out more and more as you progress through the game.

There also isn’t a lot to do with your vehicles, either. For many, tuning is an important aspect of racing games, going all the way back to 1989’s “Super Off Road” in the arcades. No upgrade path is available for any of the vehicles in Hotshot Racing, with a basic unlock system geared towards limited cosmetic tweaks. There's tons of tracks to race on, and you constantly earn currency for winning races, but I never cared about spending any of it, because there wasn't much worth buying. Arguably the specific mid-90′s era that Hotshot Racing is aiming at wasn’t really heavy on upgrading or modifying around vehicle stats, but neither were they focused on visual customization either, so it does feel a little arbitrary what they chose to modernize about this experience and what is intended to be a retro tribute.

Beyond standard racing, Hotshot does offer a few alternative modes, but none of them are spotlight features. “Barrel Barrage” has you earning an explosive barrel to drop behind you at every checkpoint until the track becomes a minefield. “Drive or Explode” takes the concept of 1994’s “Speed” and straps a bomb to your car that will explode if you slow down for too long. Finally, “Cops & Robbers” is a confusing push-and-pull where you must steal money as a robber and alternatively wreck other racers as a police officer. Of the three modes, “Drive or Explode” is the clear winner, as it most easily fits into the standard three-lap structure the game centers around. “Barrel Barrage” is merely okay, and benefits more from an increased number of laps, as things slowly get more and more dangerous as you progress. These modes would also benefit if I didn’t get thrown back to the menu after every race; they really needed some kind of Grand-Prix-style playlist.

“Cops & Robbers” deserves its own entire paragraph for what a weird idea it is. It’s less about stealing and arresting and has more in common with the “zombie” modes seen in other games, where everyone gets converted to a specific team until there are no more players left. The idea is that you start with a pot of money that slowly depletes, and you have to race to the next checkpoint to cash out. The faster you get there and the higher amounts you cash out with, the more the cops specifically will target you. Once they wreck your car, you become one of the cops, and it’s your job to wreck the remaining robbers until they all become part of the cop team. Once all the robbers become cops, winners are tallied based on who stole the most money. On paper, this works, because it plays into the game’s slap-happy nature, but in practice I would find myself miles ahead of my fellow robbers and once I finally switched over to a cop, I had to slam on my brakes and wait for everyone else to catch up. By then, the computer-controlled cops had usually done most of my work for me and I lost for... being a better robber than a cop, somehow? It left a lot to be desired.

All of these modes can be played online, where presumably human players would make them more balanced and fun, but finding random pick-up games proved difficult in the time I spent with Hotshot Racing. Now, to be fair, I didn’t try especially hard -- racing games have always been a single player experience for me, as should be obvious by my spiel on artificial intelligence. But I did spend a couple nights trying to match into an online “Quick Race” on the Switch, where I universally came up empty handed. On the PC version of Hotshot Racing (which I received as part of a Humble Bundle), the application completely froze upon trying to start a “Quick Race” lobby, forcing me to ALT+F4 to close the game. For what it’s worth, the Switch version does also include a “local multiplayer” option for playing wirelessly with friends in the same room, and all versions support traditional split-screen.

Despite all of these shortcomings, I just can’t bring myself to hate Hotshot Racing, and it’s hard to pinpoint why. I’m definitely in love with this aesthetic -- the retro visuals, the upbeat music, the blue, blue skies (that I see), it all appeals to a certain part of my brain that likes razor-sharp, ultra-clean polygons. The introduction of named racers with backstories and character-specific “endings” is a really smart, fun idea. I just wish it was more fun to actually, like… run a race in this game. I understand the necessity behind concepts like rubberbanding, but it feels like the artificial intelligence cheats just a little too much, and as a player I don’t feel like I can do a lot to fight back. Running a good race isn’t always good enough.

Some games deliberately incite a feeling of disempowerment in their players, and that can be a totally valid design decision. But should that really be the goal of this kind of racing game? I guess I don’t have an answer for that, but I do know that I probably won’t be going back to Hotshot Racing very often.

[storybookhall]

The Journey Pt.7- Come Back To Me.

a/n- I’m so sorry this part came out so late. I’ve been really down recently. I wanted to get something out to you though. It’s short but the next part is INTENSE! So keep watch for that. ALSO The first part of “B’s Survival Guide To The End Of The World” Is coming out on the 5th as well as part 8.

summary- As a sickness sweeps the prison you make a quick decision that could cost you your life.

Trigger Warning- Major Character Death, Mature Topics, Child Death, Violence

“You know Daryl’s gon’ kill me right?” Maggie says looking at you as you struggle to keep your head up.

“No he won’t, if this doesn’t kill me he’ll kill me for coming in here.” You try to joke but as you laugh you cough up blood.

Daryl should have been back yesterday… You don’t have much longer. You came down with symptoms the day before, you hoped it wouldn’t get this bad this quick. Now you and Sasha can barely stay alive. Hershel goes to the sound of commotion as you fall into a coughing fit, gasping for breath. All you can think of is Lizzie, Mika, and Daryl as you collapse completely. Hearing the door open you try to see what is happening but before you can see you fall to the floor and begin to seize. Maggie hovers over you and Hershel slides a tube down your throat. That’s the last thing you remember before blacking out.

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Daryl’s Perspective (set start the Same time as events from above)

y/n is alright, you have to keep thinking that she’ll be perfectly fine when I get home. She needs to be.

“ Can ya drive any fuckin’ slower?” you snap.

No one says a thing to you, knowing that the days’ events put you on edge. Knowing that y/n is there makes your heart race. She’s strong, but if anything ever happened to her… You can’t think like that. Y/n is strong, anything thrown her way she’ll handle. The ride to the prison felt like it took days. 

“Y/n is okay… You don’t have to worry about her.” Bob says to you putting his hand on your shoulder. 

You ignore him and sit forwards, she’ll be okay. No thanks to him.

Pulling up you see Carl running to open the gate for you, almost hopping out of the car before it even stops. You hear banging coming from the death row and you break into a sprint going towards the noise. As you arrive you you see Maggie trying to open the door. Looking in you see why, chaos… One of the patients must’ve turned before Hershel could get to them. Finally making it in you begin clearing the room. Maggie sprints up the stairs and fear hits you like a freight train, just moments after you begin to clear the room you hear Maggie.

“ Daddy!!! Daryl! Rick! I need help!” She screams fear coating each word. 

You run over to her and see y/n on the ground slightly seizing and not taking in any breath. Almost frozen in place at the top of the stairs you watch as Hershel shoves a tube down her throat. Her eyes roll back and she goes limp laying on her side on the cold concrete. Your breath gets caught in your chest as you wait to see hers rise and fall. Finally, as if by magic, you see her chest move. Seeing that lit a fire under your ass and you briskly walk over to her. You kneel next to her and take her hand in yours, watching the color come back to her face. 

“ I can watch her for a bit.” You say to Hershel and Maggie secretly wanting some time alone with this gorgeous being.

“ Okay! Could you maybe bring her to the perch? I want her somewhere that she is in view of someone at all times. I know that’s your spot but..” She asks you looking back to y/n 

“ Of course I can, she can sleep there ill bring some extra blankets and make a spot for me on the floor.” You say cutting Maggie off

“ You and I both know she’d rather you be in that bed with her. Don’t worry, y’alls secret is safe with me.” She nudges you and smiles as she turns away.

As soon as she can’t see you anymore you run over to y/n and scoop her up. Her body lay limp in your arms, the feeling almost made you cry. For the next few hours, you wouldn’t go more than a few minutes without checking her pulse. 

“ Please… Come back to me” You whisper as you lay down next to her and kiss her forehead.

As morning came Maggie took over for you so you could get some food. Just as you are walking back to the cell block you hear maggie.

“ Daryl! Rick!” Maggie yells with no urgency to her voice.

“ What happened!? Is y/n alright???” You yell back as you sprint into the room with Rick at your heels.

“ I’m just fine” y/n’s voice rings out through the air, soft, and weak, but there.

You and Rick immediately go to her as she continues waking up more. She grabs your hand and starts to speak.

“ Hey… If this walker bullshit ever stops I need y’all to promise me something.” She says looking between you and Rick

Gripping her hand tighter you nod your head, gazing to her with a serious expression.

“ Never let me gamble. I’m about as lucky as a broken mirror.” She says smiling slightly and letting out a chuckle before coughing a bit.

“ Welcome back kiddo, and don’t worry we’ll make sure you never gamble.” Rick says laughing and placing a quick kiss on her forehead before walking away.

Looking into y/n’s eyes all you can think is one thing, “you came back to me”.

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y/n’s perspective.

Not much more than a day passes and you feel awful, but you need to get up and continue training with Daryl. You start to get up as you hear Daryl walking up to the perch.

“ Hey… I needa talk to you ‘bout somethin’.” Daryl walks up to you looking a bit nervous.

“ What is it?” You ask him, looking worried

“ y/n, I…” He gets cut off by the sound of large vehicles driving up to the fence.

Limping out you meet Maggie and Beth at the fence. Maggie hands you a gun and your arms ache just from holding it up. You watch as Rick and the governor talk. You begin to feel dizzy and you see Daryl’s eyes are still locked onto you. Turning back towards Rick you see the governor raise his sword and bring it down into Hershel’s neck. You are holding down the trigger before you even realize what you’re doing. Looking back over you see Daryl is gone. You let your anger and sadness fly out through the bullets. You feel all the loss come flooding back to you and let out a blood-curdling scream. The weight of 20 worlds were on you at that moment. As you run out of bullets you slowly make your way away from the fence along with everyone else. 

“ Daryl!” You scream out in tears. You can’t lose him again. 

“ Loverboy ain’t comin.” A man says as he and multiple others unload full ammo clips at you.

You jump and hide behind pallets near you, curling in a ball and just accepting the end. You hear a few quiet shots and then all gunfire ceases. Relief washes over you like a wave. Slowly poking your head up you see Lizzie, Mika, Judith, and Tyrese. You jump up and shuffle to them. 

“ It’s time to go.” Tyrese says taking your hand and helping you along.

“ Did you see Daryl?!” You question as you attempt to keep up with his pace. Your lungs burning, legs wanting to give out, and your mind swimming.

Tyrese doesn’t respond, he just keeps dragging you along by your hand.

Walking through the woods you begin to feel light-headed, you collapse and scoot up against a tree. You know that the girls need to go and Tyreese needs to make sure they are safe.

“ Just leave..” You are cut off by screaming coming from a little ways away. Tyreese hands you a gun and tells the girls to stay with you.

He hands you Judith and runs off. Sitting there defenseless you see Lizzie and Mika stand back to back until the rustling started. Dread crept up your back like a cold chill. Moving as much as you could you got up and started to shoot at them. Too many. Then, like an angel, Carol comes out of nowhere and kills the walkers. Helping you up she puts one arm under you, handing Judith to Lizzie. You walk to go find Tyrese. Your body is weak, frail, barely recovered from nearly dying. Twice now...

After walking for what felt like forever you see a house in the distance, you sit with the girls as Carol and Tyrese go in to clear it. Feeling useless you can’t help but get into your thoughts. You took on the responsibility of a mother, now how can you protect them if you can barely protect yourself. You walk in and go upstairs, finding the first bed you can see and throwing yourself onto it. Dust flies around you and you cough a bit. After getting most of the dust off you lay back down and cover yourself in the blankets. The sleep you got that night was restless, it didn’t feel natural. Not after sleeping next to Daryl the night before. Daryl… You feel a lump form in your throat as you think about him. Did he make it out? Did he stay and look for you? You hope and pray he is safe, and with the group. Waking up the next day you hear laughing from outside. Wiping the sleep from your eyes you look out the window and see Lizzie being chased by a walker. Bolting out of bed you run downstairs to see Carol already outside. Mika walks up and hugs you while looking to her sister with slight fear. You ache for her, needing to be her big sisters’ protector. 

“We should live here!” Mika says excitedly showing you her new doll she found.

We should… You know that and so does Carol and Tyrese, but knowing the rest of the group, they’d head to the sanctuary that you saw maps for. Daryl would head there. 

The next day you go with the other adults to get water. As you walk back up to the house you see Lizzie and start smiling. That’s your little girl now. You’ll raise her right. 

That’s what you would’ve thought if when you approached she hadn’t turned to reveal a knife and blood-soaked hands. Looking past her you see Mika, before you could get over to her Carol brings Lizzie inside. You get to Mika as quickly as possible and sob as you lift her to your chest. Without thinking you slip the hunting knife Daryl gave you out of your pocket and into her skull. Then you just drop it and sit with her to your chest getting covered with blood. After some deliberation, Carol decides it’s best to kill Lizzie. She is a threat. So almost as fast as motherhood came, it went. You head to terminus the next morning, still struggling to walk. All you can think about is getting to see the group again, they’ll be there. Daryl…. Please come back to me…

@aquariusfangirl​ @mysterious-398​ @onlydarylnormanfic​

[bookishreviewsblog]

Karen McManus: Two Can Keep a Secret | Lara

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself.

I’ve been in a real thriller mood lately (I think I still am tho) and I think that is one of the two reasons I liked Two Can Keep a Secret this much. The second reason is that I’ve actually expected to dislike this book pretty much, due to many disappointed readers and people saying it isn’t on a level One of Us Is Lying was. Despite those, I decided to give this book a shot since I really loved McManus’s writing, and I can tell you it was a damn good decision. I’ve always liked and been fascinated by intrigue and gossip of a small town, where literally everyone is connected in some way, and it kind of creates perfect circumstances for a crime on a level that is solvable by an amateur detective. McManus writes YA mystery thrillers and she certainly knows her audience, as well as how to write the genre. She starts with a set of seemingly unrelated clues that are personally tied to the main characters, and from that point builds up the tension both in characters’ lives and relationships between them. Her mysteries tend to feel easygoing and simple, all the way until the unexpected plot twists and mindfucking revelations work their way through MC’s minds. Her thrilling endings and characters’ fights against the accusations of society make it clear why is she one of the most talented YA mystery writers. Ellery and Ezra are twin siblings moving to a small town called Echo Ridge after their mother got sent into rehab after causing a car accident. Echo Ridge is a place with a lot of bad memories for Ellery’s mother, especially after the disappearance of her twin sister Sarah. Ellery is in the town for the first time, surrounded by the ghosts of the past haunting her family, just in the time of a suspicious hit-and-run and another disappearance. Malcolm is another seventeen-year-old in Echo Ridge with murky family past. His brother, Declan, was dating Lacey (the girl who disappeared five years ago and found dead under the wheel in a theme park) and is largely suspected of being the one who killed her. Malcolm is fighting day and night to escape small-town prejudice about his family, but that becomes almost impossible when Brooke disappears and he is the last one who saw her that night. I was really pulled into this little small-town intrigue McManus created and this book was really interesting to read. From the beginning to the end, I was like a little mystery sponge, soaking every detail and making theories of my own, but I didn’t get anywhere near what actually happened. The combination of gossip, actual clues, and an amateur detective perspective are a good way to an I-swallowed-it-in-two-days read. McManus’s books aren’t character centered, but I almost always fall in love with her ships. They just always seem kind of sided until I find myself rushing through the last chapter, waiting for my otp to happen.

[dazstormretro]

Secret of Mana - Feb 1994

With the exception of a couple of Blockbuster game rentals the first two months of 1994 were all about Street Fighter 2 Turbo which I had received for the Christmas just gone. Not having the money to purchase the game on its release back in the August of 93 I had to wait nearly four whole months to finally play the latest version on my Super Nintendo. It might have been a longtime coming but it was well worth it. Already a massive Street Fighter fan I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into this updated version with its new characters, special moves and gameplay mechanics.

By February I was still throwing Hadoken‘s and Sonic Boom’s on a daily basis but with my birthday just around the corner I had set my sights on a brand new game, that game was Secret of Mana. Since first seeing an early preview of this game I had been waiting with anticipation for its release. Even though my last JRPG experience had ended in tears (following that dreaded deleted save file fiasco) it hadn’t dampened my spirts and I was keen to jump back into another adventure created by Square. Secret of Mana promised this adventure complete with astonishing graphics, amazing music and even a three player simultaneous gaming experience.

After scoring 94% in issue 15 of Super Play I knew this was the game for me. With no UK release date scheduled I opted for the expensive US version. By combining most of my birthday money I preordered a copy of Secret of Mana and a Super Multitap from my local video games store. Released around this time the Super Multitap for the SNES added multiplayer support for up to five players and would come in very handy over the course of 1994.

During this period I remember working on my final Drama GCSE project, designing and making a costume for A Christmas Carol stage play. The deadline for the project was just after my 16th birthday so I managed to convince my parents to allow me skip school that day so I could finish the project but more importantly play Secret of Mana.

The morning of my birthday came and whilst all my mates were herded onto the cold school bus I was sat at home munching toast and reading the chunky instruction manual for my new game, this was going to be a great day.

Though my parents had kindly allowed me to skive school on that cold February morning they had set one golden rule -

“NO VIDEO GAMES UNTIL YOUR GCSE PROJECT IS COMPLETE”

Of course I obeyed this rule, well at least until my parents had left the house. The moment my mums car left the driveway I shot up to my bedroom faster than you could say Seiken Densetsu 2. Taking the game out of it’s box which was adorned with its now iconic artwork by Hiro Ison, I popped the cartridge into my Universal Adaptor and powered up the SNES.

After being greeted by the Squaresoft logo and what could only be described as a whale sound, the haunting yet beautiful opening theme music kicked in complete with flying flamingos and the enchanted forrest scene taken from the box art. Once I had named my character I was treated to the games opening sequence setting the scene and preparing me for my 50+ hour adventure. Turns out our hero (obviously named Daz) was banished from his village for accidentally unleashing tonnes of monsters into the world. So armed with a mystical weapon named the Mana Sword I set about my quest to track down the eight Mana seeds hidden within the world in order to restore the Mana Fortress.

The game was fantastic. Secret of Mana felt similar to A Link to the Past with its top-down perspective and real-time battles unlike Final Fantasy 2 and it’s turn-based style. Now you had power bars to control the strength of you attack’s and the innovative ring command system which would allow the quick change out of weapons and spells without pausing the game.

I must have put in a good few hours that morning, slowly levelling up my character and progressing the storyline. Around lunchtime I heard the distinctive noise of my mums car arriving back from the supermarket. I quickly turned off my tv and legged it back downstairs to where my school project was laid out on the living room floor. In a panic I hurriedly started to cut some of the white clothe which would become the costume of the character Jacob Marley as my mum opened the front door. Not paying attention and trying to look like I’d been hard at work all morning l accidentally managed to slice off the very tip of my finger with the giant scissors sending blood everywhere including all over my GCSE project. After a few tears I made a full recovery but I still to this day I have my Secret of Mana scar as a reminder.

That evening after the obligatory birthday tea Ben came over to my house to check out this awesome three player RPG. By this point the second character (simply named Sprite) had joined my party so after changing its name to Ben we continued our quest. At a later date my mate Phil would also join the campaign and take on the role of the female character who we aptly renamed Phyllis. To this day I still use these same names whenever I have the option to rename my in-game party members.

Over the coming weeks Ben and I would delve deeper into the Secret of Mana, unlocking new more powerful weapons, levelling up our spells and gaining access to Flammie the dragon which allowed faster map travel. Eventually to our utter delight we managed to complete the game.

Don’t get me wrong, Secret of Mana does have its flaws. The control system can be fiddly at times, its not as technically accomplished compared to some later SNES RPG’s and the story does become convoluted due to the English translation but Secret of Mana still holds a very special place in my heart.

I have so many wonderful memories playing this game as a teenager especially in multiplayer with friends, so much so that exactly twenty years later I would buy this game for a second time on the SNES for my 36th birthday as homage to those amazing memories. Since then I have also had a custom Super Nintendo console created celebrating Secret of Mana and back in 2018 I had to buy the new remastered version for the PS4 which included revamped visuals, music and voice acting though it doesn’t come close to replicating that original experience from back in the February of 94.

[porcelainschizopanic]

I believe, Cheating can happen within love.

But also without.

It's up to you and your relationship to make the distinction.

It's human nature, to be attracted to people. Whether that be the person you're with - or a stranger walking down the street.

We notice people that fit our definition of attractive.

harmless, if you keep it at simply just. Noticing that person is attractive and leaving it there.

Temptation is everywhere, It's hard to ignore. And most of us at one point or another fail to ignore it.

So what exactly does that mean?

That we don't love the person we are with?

That we dont love ourselves?

Or maybe its just right place, wrong time, bad judgement.

Or possibly we are gaining something from the person we are cheating with...

First; We should define cheating.

"act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or examination"

By that definition Cheating is more than the act of sex with another person. If you have messages to another you know would be inappropriate if your partner saw. You're already there.

There's a thin line between friendly, and flirty.

When you're deleting things so your lover never finds them is it out of deception ? or is it out of protection. You don't want to hurt your lover. So ask yourself, Why are you doing these things that WOULD. Why must you cover your tracks to protect them?

The reality is Cheating isnt always a malicious act, However more times then not. it is a hurtful act.

People cheat for a number of reasons. For some people it could even be something such as the way they were raised.

It took me awhile growing up to realize for myself cheating is unacceptable, But I was always around it during my upbringing so to me the lines were blurred for a long time between the right and wrong.

After some therapy and some lessons learned the hard way though I figured it out..

People do things for so many reasons that the next person may not understand, in alot of peoples mind sets all that matters and all they see is what makes sense to them.

Unfortunately statistically . If you cheat once, You're very likely to cheat again in your life time. However some people do it once, learn the damage and never do again. I think cheating is a very complex thing. And again remember cheating is more then psychical touch. It's also an emotional thing!!!

Sometimes cheating has NOTHING to do with the persons partner, or the relationship at all. I'll go more in depth later.

Lets go back to the beginning. Cheating WITHOUT love. Some people get into relationships for the sake of the label. The sake of having someone to fall back on no matter what but don't care that they are cheating.

To me, That is cheating without love.

The person does it repeatedly with not much remorse. It's lust, and boredom. Those are the ones you NEED to watch out for. They do it because they know they can. and don't care what happens. Because there is always someone else.

It's pretty simple, Even if its a bitter pill to swallow. If someone is repeating the same "mistakes"

with promise of change but no real changes. They don't care about you. They care about what they are getting from you.

Now, We go on to probably the more painful and complex side of cheating.

Cheating within love.

As I said It can happen.

For some people Cheating, or even the thought of . Is a total deal breaker and end of the rope for the relationship. For others, It's a bump in their road map.

People often think those who stay with cheaters are insane. Maybe sometimes they are. Other times they may stay because theyve been so mentally abused by the individual they dont have the strength to leave. And sometimes , The person just sees the bigger picture with their partner.

Whatever the case, it's solely up to the person unique situation to decide whats best.

Life is; Hard. It's full of stresses, inconveniences . set backs, anger, and loss. We all cope with things differently.. Thats why alcoholics exist, and drug addicts. They were people faced with hard times and thats what got them through. For others fitness, and distraction are what work best. EVERYONE is different.

Remember when I said cheating can sometimes have nothing to do with their partner or relationship? Here's where this applies.

Your partner can love you more then anything in the world and STILL may cheat !

WHY!?!?!?!?!. Because . We cope with stress differently. Say your partner and you are going through a rough patch, and their stressed out with work, and they are having car troubles and everything is just really heavy right now, they come home from a long day and you get into an argument when all they wanted was to confide in you so now they are more heated then before, So.

They take to the internet, or maybe a co worker. They find a quick fix. That isn't so close to home.

Maybe they flirt, or maybe they actually sleep with someone, Or maybe it's just a fantasy they create in their mind to distract themselves from the current problems swirling around the,

What I mean by "not so close to home" is. This person may not know their personal life, their current struggles, and offers no problems to them at this present time. It's a clean simple escape from reality. A comfort.

They don't mean it to cause you harm, and are just coping in maybe the only way that seems helpful at that current time.

It's why alot of married men cheat, They still love their wives but commitment and love can become hard. You need to just breathe somewhere that doesn't feel like a dragon breathing fire down your neck. So what better then a stranger, A girl with no interest in your baggage. Just a fun flirt for the moment

Does that make it hurt less? No. Does that cause less damage? No. But maybe it puts into perspective some form of reasoning .

I've always used my parents as an example for cheating within love.

I know, no matter what they do and have always loved eachother more then life. However going through hell and back with a person you reach times that are sometimes overwhelming. You need to take yourself out of the stress for one second and maybe you pour the part of yourself that youre removing from the situation into someone else.

I'm not defending cheating, I don't think it's healthy. And if you're choosing to shy from managomy its something you should discuss with your partner. I'm just trying to put into perspective. Cheating isn't always without love.

The whole 'The grass is always greener on the otherside" Saying is obviously not true, But we always see it that way. Something we don't have or arent apart of always seems better then our current hardships, and sometimes its hard to remember and see that and we do things we may potentially regret .

There is always consequences to our actions.

The after math of cheating, or being cheated on is the hardest. It's broken trust and insecurities .

You're left with a big huge empty pit of . Did this person ever love me? You see them through different eyes now, and someone you can barely recognize. How could the person i love, hurt me so bad. Lay down and betray me and all that we had .

Humans are not perfect, we are all flawed and learning. And sometimes we forget how to love, we act selfishly without consideration to the those around us.

It takes a long time to heal from the wound of being cheated on within a relationship. But if you love each other its entirely possible to get through it. COMMUNICATION is your biggest asset to help you get back on track. The love you had and feel is not lost, it's not your fault, and you can still thrive

Don't tell yourself you're not good enough. Or that it's your fault.

love is taking those chances on another person. it's up to you to deem whats worth it. Know your limits.

A message to cheaters ;

Someone who wants whats best for you, is whats best for you. And if you've cheated on the one you love you can not be ruthless in the healing process because it seems "annoying" they can't just get over it.

It hits them late at night, right when they can't sleep.

Or eating breakfast and suddenly lose their appetite.

Understand your actions and the damages It's a long road but it's worth it.

Know that there will be doubts and more curiosity on your actions because now there is misplaced trust.

But there is nothing stronger then someone who sticks by you even when there was wrong done.

It's important to know, your lover is capable of comforting you, and will love you and support you more then some stranger ever will. you're replacing frustration with an empty space.

Don't throw away love, for a bad week or a bad day.

[dunnystuff]

Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2021 12:04 PM

Subject: Rich's Blog

Now We know How Churchill Felt Watching Neville Chamberlain

Hi to all -

The Aftermath

I had heard that during his term, Obama would sometimes ban Biden from attending strategy meetings because his 'thinking was dangerous'. Guess even Obama knew that Biden was not a diplomat, leader or thinker. Just a political hack, easily manipulated.

Well, everyone can now watch this. Yes, Biden did meet the plane returning the bodies of our fallen. He dutifully stood there, trying to look somber, but he was clearly not there in spirit. As each of the 13 bodies was carried off the plane, Biden stopped and looked at his watch. He had someplace more important to be than honoring our soldiers. Perhaps if those coffins had been filled with cash from China, he could have spared some time. Some of the families noticed this, and said very unkind things about Biden.

Remember Hurricane Sandy? That storm devastated the coastal areas of New Jersey. Obama paid a visit to see the destruction, and in one very revealing moment, he stood amidst the ruins of a home, holding up a weeping woman, and promised her with all the sincerity a politician can muster that he would not desert them, but would be there to take care of their tragedy. Then, he looked at his watch, and literally dropped this woman, saying he had a fundraiser to go to. Later, these people were told, by mail, that they did not qualify for federal aid, just because their houses had literally been wiped off the map. One homeowner sent the bureaucrats a letter, with a photo of himself standing in the ruins of his home, and inviting them to come over for dinner, since they were not experiencing any loss, or deserving of any aid from the government.

Now that the battle is over, and there is nothing to be done, the GOP members of congress held a long presser today. Lots of hand wringing, and the usual lamenting that someone must be held accountable, etc. Easy to do, after weeks of silence. But several members got up and told angry stories - these were often vets of that war - of people they knew being executed by the Taliban. One congressman told of his interpreter having been captured by the Taliban, and having to watch them behead his wife and children, before they beheaded him.

Nancy Pelosi was asked to attend. But, Nancy, like all piss ant tyrants, is a coward, and refused to attend to hear the stories, or answer the questions, etc. Nancy can only function in the dark, or in an environment she totally controls. Daylight is as dangerous to her as it is to any vampire. She sent some poor underling who was powerless to say or do anything.

For weeks now, Nancy has forbidden any discussion in congress about the situation, and blocked every effort by others to mitigate the problems or prevent the losses. Treason? Conspiracy? Efforts to destroy America? You decide. And, there was a lot of angry emotion in the room. A group of 90 generals and admirals demanded the resignation of General Milley and General Austin (Head of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense) for their total failure in this bungled effort. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was revealed to have had detailed knowledge of the attacks on our troops in advance. He even notified medical personnel to be prepared for a 'mass casualty event' more than 1.5 hours before it happened! Dereliction of duty, anyone? In fact, our intelligence people had been presenting detailed descriptions of what was happening, and what was about to happen, when and where, to our forces on the ground. The word 'impeachment' was not mentioned. How odd.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby blithely dismissed leaving so many stranded people as 'We have people stranded all the time.' He refused to answer any questions about the botched pullout . he refused to answer why, knowing what was about to happen, he failed to warn or protect our soldiers. But what really got a lot of folks riled up was the reveal, and photos, of our service dogs being abandoned, in their kennels, on the airfield. These dogs are soldiers, too, who work and give their lives for our soldiers. There is a move to rescue them, as they are in the custody of friendly people still there.

But, if we stall questions for a short time, they will be unnecessary. The Taliban is going house to house slaughtering 'enemies of their new state'. When I said this was going to happen, Big Brother censored my story.

Biden, meanwhile, is claiming that this was a 'great victory', and dancing his victory dance. He did what no one else could do. Well, that part is correct. We have never had a traitor like this before. And, all those $82 billion worth of weapons will be on the world arms markets in days, if they are not there already. This is more weapons that many of our allied nations possess - and they will go to the highest bidder, and will soon be used against us right here - coming across our southern border. Did you see the videos? Pallets of pistols, rifles, binoculars , night vision gear, body armor, and tons of ammo. Thousands of vehicles, even aircraft.

By the way, Biden is trying to get the CDC to ban ammo sales and distribution as a health and safety issue, since he cannot do it by Executive Order. An old Obama back door approach. He also wants private companies to do what he cannot do - discriminate against manufacturers and buyers of weapons - even as our own weapons are coming to attack us.

Do you remember what Ike did as he was about to launch D-Day? Chances were not so great that it would succeed. So, Ike prepared two statements. One, to give if the landings were successful, and another if they were not. In the second case, Ike said that the failure was his, and his alone. There are no Ike's in the Biden White House. Only whining finger pointers.

Teachers Union

President Cecily Myart-Cruz noted that kids are not doing well, and says that lockdowns that have kept so many out of class for nearly a year and a half is no problem at all. Just because they do not know their multiplication tables, or how to read, or spell, or write their own names, that does not mean they are not educated. Not at all. After all, she said, they have learned resilience. And, they know all about riots, protests, and insurrection. That is more important than basic functional skills, right?

General Flynn

He is still hated and feared by the left. He just posted a letter he received from Chase Bank - which caused quite a stir. The letter said "We decided to close your credit cards on September 18, 2021, because continuing the relationship creates possible reputational risk to our company." Well, such blatant discrimination got a lot of folks up in arms, and Chase had to issue a retraction, claiming 'it was an error'. No, it was not. It was an attempt to punish a man because of his political beliefs.

To put this in perspective, Chase just agreed to a $920 million settlement with the DOJ for conspiring to defraud the markets for precious metals and Treasury Bonds . If the settlement is nearly a billion dollars, just how big was this fraud?

New Orleans

Well, they are getting into action for the aftermath of storm Ida. The looting is already in progress, so the head of law enforcement made the announcement that this would not be tolerated, and that looting was a felony, and anyone arrested would be treated as a felon. Some have already been arrested. Compare to Katrina.

Years back, I lived in a small town with a very corrupt local government. It had been a family fiefdom for years. The Judge was family with the sheriff, and all other officials were on the take. Cops would raid one drug gang, and then sell the drugs from their police cars while on patrol. There were organized theft gangs, hitting up to 100 homes per week. No one ever saw their goods again. Except for one. When the gang hit the home of the judge, he complained to the sheriff that his wife's silver and furs had been taken, and by the most amazing coincidence, the sheriff found those items the very next day, and returned them to the judge.

Finally, the feds had enough, and swooped in and arrested everyone above the rank of meter maid. The mayor ran for reelection from his jail cell! Well, a new crop of folks took over, and one of the first things they did was institute a new law for the holidays. See, business robberies were an everyday occurrence during the holiday season (your Christmas shoplifting), as I knew first hand from being on the receiving end of an armed robbery, with daytime raids and nighttime break ins. So, there was an announcement that in any case of questionable behavior, police would shoot first, ask questions later. It was not long before two incidents brought this policy to light. A young man tried to rob a convenience store, and was shot dead as he exited the building. Another young man was discovered climbing out of a basement window of a business, with what looked like a weapon, but turned out to be the screwdriver he used to break in with, and he was also shot dead. When these two stories were reported on the news, robberies and other crime dropped by 90%, and never returned to former levels. Even crooks have a risk limit.

War of 1912

During this war, the British sent a force up the river to seize control of an important American post. A man on the riverbank yelled at the British "If Washington were still president, he would not let you do this !" The British officer responded "If Washington were still president, we would not even try." Teddy Roosevelt expressed this well, when he said "Speak softly, and carry a big stick". When people know you mean it - they will leave you alone.

China

They are concerned over how much time young people spend on video games. So, now all video games must be registered with the state, using real names and personal ID card numbers. All games will be monitored by the state, and youth will be allowed no more than three hours weekly to play games. One hour daily on weekends, and one hour on holidays. Kids and game makers are not happy, but this is China, and you have no say in your own life in China. Look for similar things to come here.

Rich

[brightlightsfanfiction-blog]

Secret Identity | Jared Leto + Reader | Part 2

Prompt: Flirting between Y/N and “Jay” starts to get more serious, and he starts to get more secretive. He prefers to talk about her, instead of himself, and it makes her wary.  Notes: May dabble some with Jareds POV in this. I really enjoy writing this, amd it’s fun to be a bit of a mystery. I haven’t decided when to have them meet, or how, so if you guys have any ideas, let me know!  Warnings: PG-13 for swearing in some chapters.

Part 1

Letoislove sent you a picture.

The notif came in a good few hours after you’d sent your last message to Jay. Your heart skipped a beat, and you hoped he wasn’t being cruel about sending you a different picture after how your conversation ended.

But as it loaded, you saw he wasn’t. It was Jared and a cute boy outside somewhere. You weren’t sure which part to focus on first - that he had met Jared (you only wished you had) or the fact he was a pretty cute kid. Okay, he didn’t actually look like a “kid”, he looked like he was probably in his 20s, but the emo-ish vibe a lot of their fans had given him that cute kid kinda look. You didn’t mind that he’d been the one flirting with you.

Withtheecehlon: You’re sooo cute! <3 Also lowkey jealous you got to meet Jared. Closest I’ve gotten is being really close to the stage.  Letoislove: It was taken at Camp Mars. Super great experience overall.  Withtheechelon: Ugh. Lucky! I want to go, so bad.  Letoislove: You should sometime =) It’s a bunch of fun. I know it’s expensive but so worth it.  Withtheechelon: I’m working on trying to save up, but stuff keeps coming up. It sucks cause I don’t live terribly far from there either, so it’s not like I’d have to fly. I could drive up, leave my car at a friends house and Uber over to avoid the parking pass.  Letoislove: I hope you can go sometime. You’d love it.

Jared’s POV

Jared hadn’t intended for this to happen. He’d made the fan account on a whim so he could talk to other fans without the massive amounts of messages or backlash that would come from him only talking to certain people. He tried to at least keep up with liking people’s comments on his own Instagram, but even that was a lot. Here, he could talk to people in small numbers, with anonymity. He found a lot of pages and picked some of the best and most active (and passionate) to follow. He was following about a hundred and tried to keep up with his own posts, just sharing stuff he had on his phone.  

He’d messaged a few different accounts, complimenting them, hoping to gain a few followers and start a few conversations. One stuck out to him. The feed was beautiful and looked like there was an artist behind it. It also posted daily. They started talking and he learned her name was y/n. He could be a bit of a flirt at times, and that was only amped up when he saw just how gorgeous she was, and the more they talked. She was passionate about how she spoke and her story behind getting into Mars and the things it got her through was beautiful. 

During the “Munday”, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do. He’d had the account for a week, and wasn’t really thinking about coming out about who he was - if he ever did. But when y/n asked, it was hard to say no. And it would really be fishy if he wouldn’t talk about himself, and wouldn’t send messages. He tried to avoid lying to her (and anyone he talked to), but just avoided certain truths or bent them. 

Shannon had called him back to the studio before he could decide, and he told her he’d think about it. 

Another act of bending the truth came to mind while he was in the studio; he looked through an album they had from Camp Mars and found one of him with a young male fan. He seemed attractive enough, and he was sending her a picture of himself. Just wasn’t specifying which person in the photo he was. His response was vague as well, as she called the kid she assumed next to him cute and expressed jealousy at “meeting Jared.” Oh, if she only knew... It was at Camp Mars. That wasn’t a lie either. He was able to change the subject, shifting it to her desire to go to Camp Mars. If the tickets weren’t as high of a price as they were (an unfortunate necessity for everything they offered), he would have considered offering to get her one; obviously, it wasn’t an issue on his edge, he could get her a ticket easily, but from her end it would look like he was dropping a lot on a girl he hadn’t met. Instead, he just sent her words of encouragement and told her not to give up on dreaming.

A notif dinged on his phone. “Would it be weird if I asked you about switching to text?” It was a message from Y/N. 

He considered that. She didn’t know who she was talking to, and it’s not like his number would give him away, just that he was in LA. She said she was near Mars, but it was far enough from the campsite of Camp Mars that she’d have to leave her car at a friend’s and uber over. Yeah, that meant she had a friend in the area. Fuck, he needed to stop overthinking things.

“Sure. What’s your number?” He responded real quick. It would be nice not to have to worry about her notifs getting buried under all the notifs from his other two Instagram pages; he usually had to have the fan accounts DMs open, or her specific message open. 

She sent back a number, and he copied it, putting it in his phone and send her a text. “Hi, beautiful.” Unless she’d just given her number to fifty different people, she’d know who it was. 

Shannon came into the living room, “hey, we’ve got a meeting to get to,” he told him. Jared nodded and got up, checking his phone when he felt it buzz. 

“Hey =) LA, Huh? So guess that cut some expenses for you for Camp Mars too.” Well... it wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Yep. City of Angels ;P” He was well aware his jokes could be terribly cheesy at times, usually reserved for special people close to him, but he felt he could be open with her.

Buzz. “Well I know that I’m talking to an angel right now <3″ Yeah, she could be a flirt at times too. 

He chuckled softly, alerting Shannon he was involved with his phone for more than business. “Who’s got you all smiley?” he asked as he drove them to their meeting. 

Jared shook his head as he sent a text back, “I promise you, princess, I’m no angel.” He glanced up at Shannon. “Just reading comments.” 

“Mmmhmmm. Then why’s your text open?” he remarked. Damn Shannon and his sunglasses. He could never tell where his brother’s eyes were. And he knew Shannon liked it that way.

“You’ll think I’m insane,” he answered, looking over at him. 

Shannon scoffed. 

Buzz. “Angels are boring anyway :P” He bit back another laugh. 

“Uh, you’re like 40 years too late if you’re trying to prevent me from thinking that, my brother,” he said, turning his attention over as they stopped at a light.

He let out a small sigh, sending you a text first. “If they look like you, they’re *far* from boring.” They were close to the meeting point, so he sent a second as well. “Work calls. Text you later <3″ He set his phone aside, giving Shannon more of his attention. 

“I was looking through comments one day and I came up with the idea to create a “fan account” for the band. It’s all hidden identity, so no one knows who’s behind it. It’s a way to be able to talk to the Echelon, be there, and learn about them without being bombarded with shit on the band account or mine.” He saw Shannon’s eyebrows perk up from under his glasses. “I started talking to one girl, and she’s kinda amazing. Really well spoken, looks at life in a really interesting perspective, we can have little superficial cheesy conversations or really deep ones. She’s super artistic and passionate too, and gorgeous.” 

Shannon had turned back to the road as the light turned green. “Does she know it’s you?” he asked. 

“Nope. I avoid certain truths to be able to dodge her figuring it out.” 

His head turned in a way that told him that he was glancing over. “You don’t think that’ll get weird after a while? Not being able to send pictures or video chat? Maybe not even being able to talk on the phone, depending on how confident you are in your voice acting --”

“I think my different voices are pretty good,” Jared interrupted. 

“Okay, so you can do phone calls. But still puts you at kinda a standing point. One day she’s gonna wanna meet, or video chat. If you’re texting, I assume she’s somewhere in the US, so that only makes it more likely. It’s only a matter of time, man,” he pulled up to park. 

“She’s somewhere in California,” Jared admitted, grabbing his phone and anything else he needed before jumping out. “I dunno, maybe sometime it’d be nice to meet her. I mean, it’s not like dating other fans where it’s a concern if they have ulterior motives or preconceived notions of who I am. She can get to know me as a person before she actually knows who I am.” 

“Just be careful. Don’t want this blowing up in your face. The idea of the Instagram is a nice one, so long as you’re cautious,” Shannon said as they went inside.

“I know.” It was the end of the conversation for now. He checked his phone once more to see if you’d replied and you had “I’ll be thinking of you” with a few kissy face emojis.

Your POV 

Texting felt easier. It was also a surefire way to know if it was him or not, hearing the ringtone you’d set for him everytime he texted. Things were flirtier, and you were a little more into the idea that he was close. It was only about an hour away from LA, though you weren’t sure where exactly in LA. The map that had come up when you looked up the 310 area code covered a large area, and you just knew it was West LA, mostly in Los Angeles County and some of Orange County. 

You were doing some work when your phone chimed an hour later. “I may be free for the night. Now time for exploring one of LA’s many vegan restaurants.” He’d confessed to being vegan like Jared but said it was prior to getting into the band. You thought it was really cool and respectable since he wasn’t one of those “you’re going to hell for eating meat” vegans. 

“I’d love to check some out next time I’m in LA if you have any recommendations. Or maybe you can show me some...” you hinted.

There was a pause, but it was entirely possible he was driving. “Maybe” was all he said. Okay, was he being short cause he didn’t want to meet, or because he was driving like you thought?

“Though I might be sated by a video chat or phone call :p” you teased. He was so secretive about details of his life, and you tried to nudge him out of that. He acted plenty interested unless he was just a flirt. That made you feel a pang in your heart. No, it hadn’t been long, but you had really nice conversations. He had no problem talking about life with you, so long as it wasn’t his life. You’d text for hours about politics, or wildlife, or various other deep topics, but he was shy about talking about his job, or his home life. 

“Maybe one day :P” he teased back. 

That made you frown a little. “You know, I can’t figure out if you’re just super shy, or if you’re really like some 60-year-old dude who likes Mars and younger girls.” It was half teasing, and half serious. 

“I’m not a sixty-year-old guy, I promise,” well that text came quicker than the others.

“You’re under 50, right?” you confirmed. He’d sent a photo, but there were so many online, that didn’t mean anything.

“For a few more years,” he replied again, with a variety of laughing/tongue out emojis to show he was still goofing off.

You thought, trying to figure out other reasons he couldn’t talk on the phone (since he hadn’t confirmed the shy thing.) Another idea came to your head. “You are over 18? I think that’s a requirement for Camp Mars, anyway. And that’d be a lot of money for a teenager to spend too.” 

He sent a laughing emoji at the start of his text. “Yes. I’m not a teenager, over 18, and I’ll even say I’m over 21 if that makes you feel better. Don’t want you getting the wrong idea thinking you’re talking to a pre-teen.”

You rolled your eyes and sent an emoji to show as much. “You’d be a really mature pre-teen. Well. Sometimes.” 

““Sometimes”” he quoted the end of your text. “Yeah, probably accurate...”  He confessed.

You pondered it more as you did some work (him being used to replies getting slow at times.) After a few minutes, you picked up your phone again. “If you’re a girl, that’s okay too. I know some people are shy about their sexuality. Especially if they’re not out. I’m bisexual so it wouldn’t change anything.” You sent a follow-up text. “Or trans.” You really liked him and wanted him (or her?) to be comfortable with you. No matter what, he was someone who made you smile, feel cared about, and you had really nice conversations with. 

Your phone chimed with his ringtone and you looked at it. “Born a guy, and have identified as one for all 21+ years of my life, and don’t think that’s gonna change,” he confirmed. The breath of relief that followed wasn’t one that came from being genuinely worried Jay was a girl or trans, it was more about being worried that you were being lied to.

“Well, that makes me stumped on why you wouldn’t do a phone call then since you didn’t agree with the shy thing, Doesn’t have to be a video call.” 

There was another pause between the texts. “How about one tomorrow?” he responded.

You smiled, feeling satisfied with that. “Sounds perfect.” 

He responded a few minutes later. “I can call you after work? Normally about 8 or so?” 

“I’m off tomorrow, so any time is fine =)”

The rest of the night was spent talking about various other things. Things you wanted to see in LA, places he liked to go, Camp Mars had come back up and you discussed that he told you stories. When it started to get late, he said his goodnights and said he’d be dreaming of you.

Meanwhile he was also thinking he was in way over his head. 

[starwrite-er]

This Random Girl [Chapter 3] - Steve Harrington x Reader

A/N: lmao this fic was supposed to be 3 parts and an epilogue but it looks like it’s gonna be like 4 or 5 parts and an epilogue

Tag List: @nvmmendes @moonlightbae14 @13reasonswhyimcrying @riverdalemami @tapetayloe @theon-greyjoystark @that-karen-dork

 How chaotic could a phone ringing be?

 Apparently, very.

 Everyone’s huddled in the living room, and the distant screams of the demodogs was unnerving to say the least, even with a number of people armed and ready.

 “Where are they?” Max breaks the silence. Lucas is stood protectively in front of her, but I still reach out and take her hand as an act of comfort.

 They’ve approached fast. Just outside the window we all face come the low growls. Something thuds, as though it had been thrown.

 “What are they doing?” Nancy questions, aiming her gun towards the sound along with everyone else. I try to push down my nerves. Even the rustle of bushes barely in view adds to the tension.

 There’s a snarl, and once again everyone whirls to face the noise. Moments later it’s followed by the monster screeching and whimpering, unlike anything we’ve heard before.

 The sound dies.

 The following seconds pass painstakingly slowly, the only thing I can hear in the silence being the beating of my heart.

 That silence is replaced by panicked yells as something crashes through the window. I pull Max back as Steve pushes Dustin and I behind him, everyone’s eyes on the limp body of a demodog.

 Hopper takes the first slow steps forward.

 “Holy shit.” Dustin murmurs.

 “Is it dead?” Max asks. To answer the question, Hopper nudges the lifeless corpse, receiving no reaction from the beast.

 The door creaks, and our attention is snatched away from the demodog when the lock clicks open. Groaning, the door swings open.

 In walks a young girl, hair slicked back and nose bleeding.

 Our weapons are lowered, and the girl starts to cry.

 It takes only a moment to realise that this girl must be the one Dustin and Lucas mentioned in their side of the story earlier. I watch their reunion, an amused smile spreading on my face as this ‘Eleven’ pokes at Dustin’s mouth, talking about his teeth. I feel a pang of pity as she brushes Max aside.

 Eleven’s gaze lands on Steve and I, her steps faltering, and I notice her slight frown when she realises she doesn’t know who we are.

 “I’m Y/N. This is Steve,” I introduce, offering a smile. “Thanks for helping us there.”

 A faint smile plays on her face as she nods in acknowledgment before heading for Joyce.

 As Eleven is lead away by Joyce, I turn my attention to Max. “Hey, c’mere for a moment,” I leave my place next to Steve to take the red headed girl to one side for a moment. “You look kinda bummed out. You okay?”

 Max doesn’t say anything, but looks in the direction Eleven went and sighs. That’s all I need to know.

 “Hey, don’t overthink her actions right now, okay? As far as I can tell, the kid’s been through some shit. She’s gonna need to take some time to get to trust a new face. Try not to take it personally.” I tell Max. The girl crosses her arms.

 “That easy for you to say, she actually noticed you.” Max says, frowning, disappointed.

 “Max, think of it from her perspective,” I decide to try. “You’ve vanished for a year, knowing the few close friends you made think you’re gone, and when you get back, there’s suddenly this new girl in the group. She doesn’t know who you are; she’s probably insecure and scared that you’ve taken her place.”

 “But I haven’t.” Max protests.

 “She just met you, she doesn’t know that yet,” I smile reassuringly at the kid, and ruffle her hair. “Give it some time, I’m sure she’ll come around.”

 She nods, taking my advice on board, and I let her go.

 “You’re good with her.” Steve offhandedly mentions, appearing at my side.

 “I could say the same for you and Dustin.” I say, nudging him gently. He chuckles, cracking a smile at me.

 From the kitchen emits an interesting conversation. I exchange a look with Steve, and we follow the sound of Joyce’s questioning voice.

 “Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?” Joyce asks Eleven, referencing the morse code message reading ‘CLOSEGATE’, the one we got from Will before the phone rang.

 The group gathers around the table, discussing the demodogs, the tunnels, and the Mind-Flayer once again.

 “I can do it.” Despite Hopper’s pessimism, Eleven speaks up.

 “You’re not hearing me.” Hopper immediately tries to reason, paternal instincts kicking in.

 “I’m hearing you. I can do it.” Eleven repeats, reassuring.

 “Even if El can, there’s still another problem,” Mike interjects. “If the brain dies, the body dies.”

 “I thought that was the whole point?” Max says, confused. I frown, realising what Mike is talking about.

 “It is, but if we’re really right about this, I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind-Flayer’s army...” The boy trails off.

 “Will’s a part of that army.” Lucas speaks up, reinforcing my thoughts.

 “Closing the gate will kill him.” Mike says.

 Within minutes, Will is being carried out of the house and laid in Jonathan’s car with a plan to be rid of the ‘virus’ connecting the youngest Byers boy to the Mind-Flayer.

 As Jonathan, Joyce, Hopper, and Eleven prepare to leave, Steve and Nancy go to find anything to warm Will up, leaving me pacing as I watch the kids. I pause momentarily, sympathetic as Mike worries over Eleven’s departure.

 Those of us that remain look on, a feeling of anxiousness hanging over us as we watch out friends drive away.

 I don’t question why Nancy goes with them.

 It’s unpleasant, being left behind to sweep up shattered glass with no way to help those that are going out and risking their lives. In the kitchen, Steve and Dustin are preoccupied shoving the demodog carcass into the fridge, while Lucas, Max and I clear up the mess it left behind.

 “Mike, would you just stop already?” Lucas addresses Mike, reaching the breaking point with his pacing.

 “You weren’t in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs.” Mike snaps back.

 “The chief will take care of her!” Lucas reasons.

 “Like she needs protection.” Max mumbles sarcastically.

 “Look, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it, alright?” Steve steps in, trying to diffuse the situation as he cleans his hands with an old dishcloth.

 “Okay, first of all, this isn’t some stupid sports game,” Mike instantly retorts. “And second, we’re not even in the game, we’re on the bench.”

 “Right- So- My point is...” Steve stumbles over his words, and I have to bite my cheek to stop myself from laughing at his attempts to bring himself back while the kids watch him expectantly. “Right, yeah, we’re on the bench, so, uh, there’s nothing we can do.” He drapes the cloth over his shoulder in defeat.

 “That’s not entirely true,” Dustin negates Steve’s point. Steve turns to Dustin, and I can practically hear the sirens going off in his pretty-boy head. “I mean, these demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away.”

 “So if we get their attention-“ Lucas starts.

 “Maybe we can draw them away from the lab.” Max finishes.

 “Clear a path to the gate.” Mike finalises.

 “Yeah, and then we all die!” Steve raises his voice a little.

 “Well, that’s one point of view.” Dustin says.

 “No, that’s not a point of view, man, that’s a fact.” Steve shakes his head.

 “How would we even do something big enough to get their attention entirely?” I question, a little part of me wanting to take action.

 “I got it!” Mike announces, pushing past us to the map plastered on the walls. Looks like the kid came through again. “This is where the chief dug his hole; this is our way into the tunnel.” Mike moves to another section. “This, right here, this is like a hub. You got all the tunnels feeding in here, so maybe if we set this on fire-“

 “Oh, yeah? That’s a no.” Steve declares, cutting Mike off.

 “The Mind-Flayer would call away his army.” Dustin continues, ignoring Steve.

 “They’d all come to stop us.”

 “Then we circle back to the exit. By the time they realise we’re gone-“

 “El would be at the gate.”

 “Hey, hey, hey!” Steve shouts, clapping to get their attention. “This is not happening.”

 “But-“

 “No, no, no, no! No buts. I promised I’d keep you shitheads safe, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing,” Steve shuts them down, hands on hips. “We’re staying here, on the bench, and waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?”

 “This isn’t a stupid sports game.” Mike begins to argue.

 “This isn’t a game of Dungeons and Dragons, either,” I cut in. “We don’t even have the equipment to go through with it. The risk is too high.”

 “So, does everybody understand that?” Steve demands an answer, dishcloth in hand. “I need a yes.”

 The kids mope in silence, but before anyone can continue the debate, a car revving outside grabs everyone’s attention. Max and Lucas run to the window to see who it is.

 “It’s my brother,” Max says, paling at the sight of him coming down the road. “He can’t know I’m here. He’ll kill me - he’ll kill us.”

 Steve and I share a look, coming to the same unspoken conclusion.

 “Go, hide.” I tell the kids, pulling them away from the window as Steve goes on ahead.

 I step outside as Billy Hargrove gets out of his car, and I’m suddenly enraged. This is what Max has to put up with at home?

 “Am I dreaming, or is that you, Harrington?” The jackass grins.

 “Yeah, it’s me, don’t cream your pants.” Steve replies, stood at the bottom of the porch steps.

 “What are you doing here, amigo?” The new guy questions, taking off his jacket and tossing it in his car before slamming the door.

 “Stay there,” Steve murmurs over his shoulder so only I can hear. He then turns to face Billy and takes steps forward. “I could ask you the same thing, amigo.”

 “Looking for my stepsister. A little birdie told me she was here.” He says, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

 “Huh, that’s weird, I don’t know her.” Steve lies.

 “Small? Redhead? Bit of a bitch?” Billy prompts, and I glare at his condescending description.

 “Doesn’t ring a bell. Sorry, buddy.” Steve responds. Billy sighs, agitated.

 “You know, I don’t know, this, this whole situation, Harrington, I don’t know,” Even from a distance I can see Billy getting pissed off. “It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies.”

 “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?” Steve questions. Billy takes a drag of his cigarette.

 “My thirteen year old sister goes missing all day, and then I find her with you, and your new whore, in a stranger’s house,” The asshole says, blowing out smoke. “And you lie to me about it.”

 “Man, were you dropped too much as a child, or what?” Steve’s voice is suddenly far more hostile. “I don’t know what you don’t understand about what I just said. She’s not here.”

 Billy leans close to Steve and said something too low for me to here, but he points at the house and Steve turns around. Lo and behold, all the kids are watching from the windows.

 Goddamn it.

 I turn back to see Billy shove Steve to the ground and kick him whilst he’s down. Naturally, I make a move towards my friend, but Billy harshly grabs my wrist as he strides past.

 “Steve!” I call out, worried more about him and the kids than I am for myself at that moment.

 “Well, well, well. Lucas Sinclair, what a surprise.” Billy’s grip on me tightens as he stares down the young boy and I try to pull away. He turns to his sister. “I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max.”

 “Billy, go away.” Max tries, but to no avail.

 “Get the fuck off of me and away from them, Hargrove.” I threaten, nails digging into his arm as I try to pry myself free.

 “You disobeyed me, and you know what happens when you disobey me,” Billy growls. “I break things.”

 In a split second, the aggressor has Lucas pinned to the wall, his voice low but his threats clear. Dustin, Max, and Mike scream at Billy to stop. I still stand in the entrance hall, taken aback from the sudden change, my wrist throbbing where he grasped me.

 I start to move towards the mullet-haired asshole, desperate to help Lucas, but a familiar hand on my shoulder stops me.

 “I said get off of me!” Lucas yells, kneeing Billy where it hurts the most. Billy grunts, and releases him.

 “You are so dead, Sinclair!” Billy shouts, enraged. “You’re dead.”

 “No, you are.”

 The relief I feel when Steve spins Billy around and decks him is immeasurable.

 I seize the opportunity to get Lucas and the other kids behind me, biting my lip as I watch Steve shake out his hand.

 “Looks like you’ve got some fire in you after all, huh?” Billy laughs, blood dripping from his nose. “I’ve been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody’s been telling me so much about!”

 “Get out.” Steve warns, voice low and dangerous as he pushes Billy just slightly.

 Billy looks at him for a moment, incredulous, and takes the chance to take a swing at him. Steve sees this coming, ducking and landing another punch on the Hargrove prick, sending him stumbling back.

 “Yes! Kick his ass, Steve!” Dustin hollers.

 “Get him!” Mike calls out, the rest of the kids cheering alongside him.

 Steve continues to push back Billy with each hit, knocking him into the sink.

 This takes a turn for the worse, and I watch as Billy’s hand finds a plate left out on the counter.

 “Steve, watch out!” I yell. The plate comes crashing down on Steve’s head, sending ceramic shards flying.

 I pull the kids out of the way, fearful as Billy knocks Steve back into the bookshelf, now having the advantage. Steve takes steps back into the living room as Billy approaches, grabbing him by his jacket.

 “No one tells me what to do!” Billy headbutts Steve, sending him down to the floor.

 My stomach drops and my heart races as Billy pummels Steve.

 I push the kids back, adrenaline rushing, and take action. With all his attention focused on beating Steve, I come up behind Billy, thread my hand through his hair, and pull. He stops throwing punches, and gets off of Steve entirely as I tug harder, dragging him away.

 “Let go, you crazy bitch!” Billy snarls, standing up. He’s taller than me for sure, but I out of the corner of my eye I notice Max grab a syringe and I know I just need to distract her shitty stepbrother for a couple more moments.

 And so I yank once more. Furious, Billy twists around, elbowing me in the jaw, but my bruise comes at the cost of a small clump of his hair. This is something I realise when a tendril of his hair is still in my hand, no longer attached to his head.

 There’s murder in his eyes as he glares down at me. If looks could kill, I’d be dead by now.

 I take a step back as he approaches me, and find myself backed against the wall. I can feel bruises forming on my wrist and jaw, and I can see how bad a state Steve is in from here. I clench my jaw and swallow thickly, preparing for the worst.

 But Billy stops.

 He seems a bit preoccupied by the syringe his sister has jabbed into his neck.

 He falls to the ground, and I practically slide across the floor the where Steve lies unconscious, barely paying attention to Max screaming her brother. I let her. God knows he’s terrorised her and her friends enough.

 And so I sit on the ground, Steve’s head in my lap as I come to a choice as to what to do next.

 “Any of you think you can clean him up while I drive us to the tunnels?” I ask the kids in defeat. It’s just best to get away from Billy right now.

 “You stitched up your own leg, you should help him.” Dustin points out, and I sigh, knowing he’s right.

 “I can drive.” Max speaks up, Billy’s car keys held in her hand. I frown, thinking of all the ways that could go wrong, and sigh again.

 “God, Steve’s gonna hate me for letting this plan happen.”

[teachingoutsidethebinary]

Let’s Get Out of Here  Part 7: Epcot by Night

Summary: Bucky and Y/N finish their day at Epcot.

Characters: Bucky Barnes, reader

Warnings: slight angst

Word count: 1878

A/N: So I learned the Mary Poppins books were first published in the 1930s. So of course, I had to weave that in somehow.

Read previous parts here

“Ohmygosh, Bucky, there she is!” you squealed. You jumped up and down, yanking on Bucky’s arm. You had been waiting in line for almost forty minutes to see Mulan, and the anticipation of being so close was getting to you. Bucky looked ahead and saw a woman in a simple, pretty outfit with black hair stacked neatly in a bun on the top of her head.

“Why is she your favorite?” he asked, as the line moved forward. Your eyes glistened with excitement. “She’s true to herself, and fights for what she believes in. Kind of like we do,” you replied. “Plus, she totally rocks at fighting.”

Bucky softened at your explanation. Clearly, this character meant a lot to you. He thought it was weird at first to get pictures with the different characters. He really couldn’t understand your excitement when you first saw Goofy at Chef Mickey’s. But when he saw Buzz and could relate to the character even a little bit, it changed his perspective. These were people’s real heroes come to life. Even if they were technically just actors in costume, it still meant a lot.

It was finally your turn to get a picture with Mulan. The confident demeanor you held this entire trip slipped away as your shyly approached the princess.

“Hi,” you said, softly. “I’m Y/N. It’s so nice to meet you. You’re my favorite!” Mulan laughed and clasped your hands together. “It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Y/N!” Mulan responded. Bucky was certain your face was going to split apart at the seams as you smiled. Bucky took your picture with Mulan, and the red and orange from the sunset cast the perfect golden glow in the background. It was probably one of Bucky’s favorite pictures from this trip.

Mulan bowed and you returned it. You waved and walked away from the pavilion with Bucky. “Is there another character you want to meet?” you asked him. Bucky paused and pulled out his map. One character’s name popped out as someone he actually recognized.

“Yeah, actually,” he said, a wave of nostalgia hitting him. He looped his arm through yours and he led you over to the United Kingdom section. You approached a small brick house that looked exactly like the house from...

“Mary Poppins?” you inquired. “I never struck you as a spoonful of sugar kind of guy.” You walked through the door and went inside. This line was much shorter than Mulan’s, and you could already see the British nanny posing with children in front of you. Bucky choked up a little as he saw one of his favorite childhood characters standing in front of him.

“I never knew the movie,” Bucky said. “But my ma used to read the books to me and my sister when we were little.” It was finally his turn, and he slowly walked up to Mary Poppins.

“Well hello there!” Mary chirped in her British accent. It reminded him of the impressions his ma used to do when she read the stories aloud. Bucky just stood staring until you gave him a small shove.

“Um, hello,” he said awkwardly. “I, um, I love your stories.” He paused and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “They really helped me during hard times when I was younger.” He looked at Mary Poppins, nervous about how she would react. He knew he sounded strange, but he couldn’t help it. Thankfully, Mary smiled and gave a melodic laugh. “That is so wonderful to hear!” she exclaimed. “It looks like you’ve turned into quite a lovely young man.”

Bucky beamed at her praise as if it was his mother talking to him, and he turned to face you so you could take a picture. Mary wrapped her arm around Bucky and pulled him into a side hug. Once you finished, she cupped her hands around her face. “Remember, anything can happen if you let it. Alright?” Bucky nodded and blinked back tears. Seeing Mary Poppins brought back happy memories of his mom and sister, ones that he had completely forgotten existed.

You both left the building and sat outside near the garden. Bucky took some time to collect himself.

“I miss them,” he whispered, finally breaking the silence. “I miss the life I could have had with them.” He wiped at his eyes and continued. “I know there’s nothing that can change what happened to me, and I’m lucky to be where I am now. But it still hurts, you know?” You nodded sympathetically and squeezed his hand. You didn’t have anything to say, but your silent support was more than enough. Bucky stood up and pulled you into a hug. You held each other for a few minutes until he was ready to let go.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go eat.”

When Bucky imagined you going to dinner at Epcot, he was expecting something quiet and tame like all of the other meals. Instead, you took him to the Biergarten Restaurant in Germany. The inside was decorated with fancy woodwork and old-fashioned cuckoo clocks. A polka band stood at the stage on the lower level playing peppy, upbeat songs as people danced in front of them. Waiters dressed in lederhosen walked through the boisterous crowds carrying large steins full of German beer. Even though Bucky couldn’t actually get drunk, you insisted he needed to try one. He had to admit, it was going really well with his bratwurst and German potato salad.

“This does not strike me as your kind of place!” he shouted over the ruckus. You took a gulp of your beer and grinned. “Why cause it’s exciting?” Bucky laughed, “No because it’s loud!” He speared another piece of bratwurst. “That’s the best part!” you exclaimed. He laughed again, and you soon joined in. It was nice seeing his playful demeanor return after visiting Mary Poppins.

The polka band slowly ended their song. “Now,” the lead singer began in a thick German accent, “let us raise our glasses and Prost!” You held up your glass and Bucky did the same. “All together!” he shouted. The entire restaurant erupted in a cheer:

“Zicka zocka, zicka zocka, hoi, hoi, hoi!”

You yelled extra loudly on the last “hoi” and chugged the rest of your beer. Bucky gave you an odd look at your sudden enthusiasm for German cheering traditions, but he finished his beer as well. The band started up again in full swing, and everyone resumed eating, dancing, and most importantly, drinking.

“This has to be one of the weirdest things I’ve ever done,” Bucky chuckled. “Really?” you questioned. “Is this truly the weirdest thing?” Bucky considered it and then shook his head. “You’re right, not by a long shot.” He shot you a goofy grin and went back up to the buffet for dessert.

After stuffing yourselves with chocolate cake and apple strudel, you decided to head back outside. You walked around Germany for a little while, admiring the different knick knacks and shops. You both got engraved beer steins with your initials. Bucky added an etching of Micky while you chose Goofy. There was a slight nip in the air now that the sun had officially set, so you quickly stopped inside a more modern souvenir shop for a sweatshirt. Of course, you picked one with Goofy’s face on it.

You wandered around the different countries admiring the scenery. The bright colors of Morocco’s buildings popped under the spotlights. You went back to China to gaze into the reflecting pool and stuck around to watch the Chinese acrobats perform. Bucky never knew the human body could twist and bend in so many ways.

You stopped in France for some hot crepes while Bucky went to Italy to get a cup of gelato. You took your respective desserts over to the Lagoon to get a good seat for the show.

“Now, I want to warn you, this show has fireworks,” you said with a mouthful of crepe. “We don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.” You knew Bucky was still feeling a bit sensitive from earlier, and you didn’t want a repeat of Magic Kingdom.

“I’m good,” he responded. You stared at him. “I promise, Y/N! I feel a lot better.” He held out his spoon and gave you a bite of his gelato. You traded him some of your crepe in return.

Torches suddenly appeared in the middle of the lake and Winnie the Pooh’s voice boomed across Epcot telling everyone to watch the show. You both quickly stood up and watched the torches extinguish themselves as quickly as they had appeared. It was starting.

Next to the fireworks at Cinderella’s castle, Illuminations was your favorite show. Intense drum beats pounded in the air and a huge burst of light flew across the sky. Fireworks and dramatic music began to tell the story of the Earth in a captivating display. Strobe lights flickered and danced across the water as a huge globe appeared on the surface. Bucky could see every continent spinning slowly as the Earth moved on its axis across the lagoon. Colorful fountains of water shot into the air as the music slowed its tempo.

You are Bucky stared at the scene in awe. The music began to reach a crescendo and the buildings from the surrounding countries lit up spectacularly. Firework after firework launched into the air and filled the night sky with wondrous colors. Just when he thought the show was over, Bucky was surprised to see a huge torch set ablaze and the globe opening. A choir of voices began to sing and one final burst of fireworks shot into the sky.

You and Bucky cheered along with the rest of the crowd as the surrounding area went completely black. The whole show was absolutely perfect.You clapped excitedly and gave Bucky a hug. “That was amazing!” he shouted in your ear as he lifted you up. He put you down and you both stared at the lagoon one last time. Satisfied with how the night ended, you made your way back to the monorail

The ride back to the hotel was fairly quiet despite the crowd of people inside. Children were sleeping on the seats or in the laps of their parents. You and Bucky stood near the end of a car holding onto the rails above you. You could still see the lights from the different parks shining in the night. Even though it had been a long day, you both felt reinvigorated after the show.

You hopped off the monorail once it stopped at the Contemporary. Once you got back to your room, you both quickly changed into your pajamas and brushed your teeth.

“I’m not entirely ready for bed yet,” you said, jumping onto your bed. “Me neither,” Bucky agreed. You grabbed the remote and turned on the TV with an idea in mind. Searching through the movies section, you stopped at one. Bucky looked and saw Mary Poppins on the screen.

“Wanna watch it?” you asked, carefully. Bucky didn’t say anything right away. “We can pick something else,” you added quickly, mistaking his silence for anger. Bucky shook his head and smiled.

“I think it’s perfect.”

[damonbation]

Let the Roaring 2020s Begin

—

First some great news: because of your support in reading and sharing this blog, it has been able to earn quite a lot of income and give away over $300,000 so far. The latest $100k of that happens at the end of this article. Please check it out if you want to feel good, learn more, and even join me in helping out the world a bit.

—

As I type this, there are only a few days left in the 2010s, and holy shit what a decade it has been.

Ten years ago, a 35 year old MMM and the former Mrs. MM were four years into retirement, but not feeling very retired yet. We stumbled out of 2009 with a precious but very high strung three-year-old, a house building business that was way more stressful than it should have been, and a much more rudimentary set of life skills. It was a time of great promise, but a lot of this promise was yet to be claimed.

Ten years later, despite the fact that I have one less marriage, one less surviving parent, and ten years less remaining youth, I am in an even better place in life right now, and would never want to trade places with the 2009 version of me. And on that measure alone, I can tell it has been a successful decade.

This is a great sign and it bodes well for early retirees everywhere. Compared to the start of the decade, I am healthier and stronger physically, wealthier financially, and (hopefully) at least a bit wiser emotionally. I’ve been through so much, learned so much in so many new interesting fields, and packed so much living into these 3653 days. A big part of that just flowed from the act of retiring from my career in 2005, which freed me up to do so many other things, including starting this blog.

It has not always been easy, in fact the hard times of this decade have been some of the hardest of my life. But by coming through it all I have learned that super difficult experiences only serve to enrich your life even more, by widening your range of feelings and allowing you to savor the normal moments and the great ones even more.

Ten Years of Learning in Three Points

I think the real meaning of “Wisdom” is just “I’ve seen a lot of shit go down in my lifetime and over time you start to notice everything just boils down to a few principles.”

The books all say it, and the wise older people in real life all say it too. And for me, it’s probably the following few things that stand out the most:

1) This Too Shall Pass: nothing is as big a deal as you think it is at the time. Angry or sad emotions from life traumas will fade remarkably quickly, but so will the positive surprises from one-time life upgrades through the sometimes-bummer magic of Hedonic Adaptation. What’s left is just you – no matter where you go, there you are.

2) But You Are Really Just a Bundle of Habits: most of your day (and therefore your life) is comprised of repeating the same set of behaviors over and over. The way you get up, the things you focus your mind on. Your job. The way you interact with other people. The way you eat and exercise. Unless you give all of this a lot of mindful attention and work to tweak it, it stays the same, which means your life barely changes, which means your level of happiness barely changes.

3) Change Your Habits, Change your Life: Because of all this, the easiest and best way to have a happier and more satisfying life is to figure out what ingredients go into a good day, and start adding those things while subtracting the things that create bad days. For me (and quite possibly you, whether you realize it or not), the good things include positive social interactions, helping people, outdoor physical activity, creative expression and problem solving, and just good old-fashioned hard work. The bad things mostly revolve around stress due to over-scheduling one’s life, emotional negativity and interpersonal conflict – all things I am especially sensitive to.

So while I can’t control everything, I have found that the more I work to design those happiness creators into my life and step away from things that consistently cause bad days, the happier and richer life can become.

Speaking of Richer:

I recently read two very different books, which still ended up pointing me in the same direction:

This Could Be Our Future, by former Kickstarter cofounder and CEO Yancey Strickler, is a concise manifesto that makes a great case for running our lives, businesses, and even giant corporations, according to a much more generous and person-centric set of rules.

Instead of the narrow minded perspective of “Profit Maximization” that drives so many of the world’s shittier companies and gives capitalism a bad reputation, he points out that even small changes in the attitude of company (and world) leaders, can lead to huge changes in the way our economy runs.

The end result is more total wealth and happier lives for all of us – like Mustachianism itself, it really is a win/win proposition rather than any form of compromise or tradeoff. In fact, Strickler specifically mentions you and me in this book, using the FIRE movement as an example of a group of people who have adopted different values in order to lead better lives.

Die with Zero*, by former hedge fund manager and thrill seeking poker champion Bill Perkins sounds like a completely different book on the surface: Perkins’ point is that many people work too long and defer too much gratification for far too long in their lives.

Instead, he encourages you to map out your life decade by decade and make sure that you maximize your experiences in each stage, while you are still young enough to enjoy each phase. For example, do your time in the skate park and the black diamond ski slopes in your 20s and 30s, rather than saving every dollar in the hopes that you can do more snowboarding after you retire in your 60s.

Obviously, as Mr. Money Mustache I disagree on a few of the finer points: Life is not an experiences contest, you can get just as much joy from simpler local experiences as from exotic ones in foreign lands, and spending more money on yourself does not create more happiness, so if you die with millions in the bank you have not necessarily left anything on the table. But it does take skill to put these truths into practice, and for an untrained consumer with no imagination, buying experiences can still be an upgrade over sitting at home watching TV.

However, he does make one great point: one thing you can spend money on is helping other people – whether they are your own children, family, friends, or people with much more serious needs like famine and preventable disease.

And if you are going to give away this money, it’s better to do it now, while you are alive, rather than just leaving it behind in your estate, when your beneficiaries may be too old to benefit from your gift anyway.

So with this in mind, I made a point of making another round of donations to effective causes this year – a further $100,000 which was made possible by some unexpected successes with this blog this year, combined with finding that my own lifestyle continues to cost less than $20k to sustain, even in “luxury bachelor” mode.

And here’s where it all went!

$80,000 to GiveWell, who will automatically deliver it to their top recommended charities. This is always my top donation, because it is the most serious and research-backed choice. This means you are very likely doing the most good with each dollar, if your goal is the wellbeing of fellow human beings. GiveWell does constant research on effective charities and keeps an updated list on their results – which makes it a great shortcut for me. Further info in my The Life You Can Save post.

Strategic Note: I made this donation from my Betterment account where I keep a pretty big portion of my investments. This is because of tax advantages which multiply my giving/saving power – details here at Betterment and in my own article about the first time I used this trick.

$5000 to the Choose FI Foundation – this was an unexpected donation for me, based on my respect for the major work the ChooseFI gang are doing with their blog and podcast and meetups, and their hard-charging ally Edmund Tee who I met on a recent trip. They are creating a curriculum and teaching kids and young adults how to manage their money with valuable but free courses.

$2000 to the True Potential Scholarship Fund, set up by my inspiring and badass Omaha lawyer friend Ross Pesek. Ross first inspired me years ago by going through law school using an extremely frugal combination of community and state colleges, then rising to the top of the pack and starting his own firm anyway. Then he immediately turned around and started using some of the profits to help often-exploited immigrant workers in his own community with both legal needs and education.

$1000 to plant one thousand trees, via the #teamtrees effort via the National Arbor Day Foundation. I credit some prominent YouTubers and Elon Musk for promoting this effort – so far it has resulted in over 20 million trees being funded, which is a lot (roughly equal to creating a dense forest as big as New York City)

$5000 to Bicycle Colorado – a force for change (and sometimes leading the entire United States) in encouraging Colorado leaders and lawmakers to shift our spending and our laws just slightly away from “all cars all the time” and towards the vastly more effective direction of accommodating bikes and feet as transportation options. Partly because of their work, I have seen incredible changes in Denver, which is rapidly becoming a bike utopia. Boulder is not far behind, and while Longmont is still partially stuck in the 1980s as we widen car roads and build even more empty parking lots, these changes slowly trickle down from leaders to followers, so I want to fund the leaders.

$5000 (tripled to $15,000 due to a matching program that runs until Dec. 31) to Planned Parenthood. Although US-centric, this is an incredibly useful medical resource for our people in the greatest need. Due to emotional manipulation by politicians who use religion as a wedge to divide public opinion, this general healthcare organization is under constant attack because they also support women’s reproductive rights. But if you have a loved one or family member who has ever been helped during a difficult time by Planned Parenthood, you know exactly why they are such an incredible force for good – affecting millions of lives for the better.

And finally, just for reasons of personal and local appreciation, $1000 to the orchestra program of little MM’s public middle school. I have been amazed at the transformation in my own son and the hundreds of other kids who have benefited from this program. They operate a world-class program on a shoestring (violin-string?) budget which they try to boost by painstakingly fundraising with poinsettia plants and chocolate bars. So I could see that even a little boost like this could make a difference. (He plays the upright bass.)

You could definitely argue that there are places that need money more than a successful school in a wealthy and peaceful area like Colorado, and I would agree with you. Because of this, I always encourage people not to do the bulk of their giving to local organizations. Sure, it may feel more gratifying and you may see the results personally, but you can make a much bigger difference by sending your dollars to where they are needed the most. So as a compromise, I try to split things up and send the lion’s share of my donations to GiveWell where they will make the biggest difference, and do a few smaller local things here as a reward mostly for myself.

So those are the donations that are complete – $99,000 of my own cash plus an additional $10,000 in matching funds for Planned Parenthood. But because environment and energy are such big things to me, I wanted to do one more fun thing:

$5000 to build or expand a local solar farm.

This one is more of an investment than a donation, but it still does a lot of good. Because if you recall, last year I built a solar array for the MMM Headquarters coworking space, which has been pumping out free energy ever since. My initial setup only cost me $3800 and it has already delivered about $1000 in free energy, more than the total amount used to run the HQ and charge a bunch of electric cars on the side.

So, I plan to invest another $5000, to expand the array at HQ if possible, or to build a similar one on the roof of my own house, possibly with the help of Tesla Energy, which is surprisingly one of the most cost-effective ways to get solar panels installed these days. These will generate decades of clean energy, displacing fossil fuels in my local area while paying me dividends the whole time, which I can reinvest into even more philanthropy in the future.

What a great way to begin the decade. Let’s get on it!

—

* Die With Zero is not yet released, but I read a pre-release copy that his publisher sent me. The real book comes out on May 5th

** Also, if you find the scientific pursuit of helping the world as fascinating as I do, you should definitely watch the new Bill Gates documentary called Inside Bill’s Brain, which is available on Netflix.

from Money 101 https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2019/12/28/let-the-roaring-2020s-begin/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewdburton]

Let the Roaring 2020s Begin

—

First some great news: because of your support in reading and sharing this blog, it has been able to earn quite a lot of income and give away over $300,000 so far. The latest $100k of that happens at the end of this article. Please check it out if you want to feel good, learn more, and even join me in helping out the world a bit.

—

As I type this, there are only a few days left in the 2010s, and holy shit what a decade it has been.

Ten years ago, a 35 year old MMM and the former Mrs. MM were four years into retirement, but not feeling very retired yet. We stumbled out of 2009 with a precious but very high strung three-year-old, a house building business that was way more stressful than it should have been, and a much more rudimentary set of life skills. It was a time of great promise, but a lot of this promise was yet to be claimed.

Ten years later, despite the fact that I have one less marriage, one less surviving parent, and ten years less remaining youth, I am in an even better place in life right now, and would never want to trade places with the 2009 version of me. And on that measure alone, I can tell it has been a successful decade.

This is a great sign and it bodes well for early retirees everywhere. Compared to the start of the decade, I am healthier and stronger physically, wealthier financially, and (hopefully) at least a bit wiser emotionally. I’ve been through so much, learned so much in so many new interesting fields, and packed so much living into these 3653 days. A big part of that just flowed from the act of retiring from my career in 2005, which freed me up to do so many other things, including starting this blog.

It has not always been easy, in fact the hard times of this decade have been some of the hardest of my life. But by coming through it all I have learned that super difficult experiences only serve to enrich your life even more, by widening your range of feelings and allowing you to savor the normal moments and the great ones even more.

Ten Years of Learning in Three Points

I think the real meaning of “Wisdom” is just “I’ve seen a lot of shit go down in my lifetime and over time you start to notice everything just boils down to a few principles.”

The books all say it, and the wise older people in real life all say it too. And for me, it’s probably the following few things that stand out the most:

1) This Too Shall Pass: nothing is as big a deal as you think it is at the time. Angry or sad emotions from life traumas will fade remarkably quickly, but so will the positive surprises from one-time life upgrades through the sometimes-bummer magic of Hedonic Adaptation. What’s left is just you – no matter where you go, there you are.

2) But You Are Really Just a Bundle of Habits: most of your day (and therefore your life) is comprised of repeating the same set of behaviors over and over. The way you get up, the things you focus your mind on. Your job. The way you interact with other people. The way you eat and exercise. Unless you give all of this a lot of mindful attention and work to tweak it, it stays the same, which means your life barely changes, which means your level of happiness barely changes.

3) Change Your Habits, Change your Life: Because of all this, the easiest and best way to have a happier and more satisfying life is to figure out what ingredients go into a good day, and start adding those things while subtracting the things that create bad days. For me (and quite possibly you, whether you realize it or not), the good things include positive social interactions, helping people, outdoor physical activity, creative expression and problem solving, and just good old-fashioned hard work. The bad things mostly revolve around stress due to over-scheduling one’s life, emotional negativity and interpersonal conflict – all things I am especially sensitive to.

So while I can’t control everything, I have found that the more I work to design those happiness creators into my life and step away from things that consistently cause bad days, the happier and richer life can become.

Speaking of Richer:

I recently read two very different books, which still ended up pointing me in the same direction:

This Could Be Our Future, by former Kickstarter cofounder and CEO Yancey Strickler, is a concise manifesto that makes a great case for running our lives, businesses, and even giant corporations, according to a much more generous and person-centric set of rules.

Instead of the narrow minded perspective of “Profit Maximization” that drives so many of the world’s shittier companies and gives capitalism a bad reputation, he points out that even small changes in the attitude of company (and world) leaders, can lead to huge changes in the way our economy runs.

The end result is more total wealth and happier lives for all of us – like Mustachianism itself, it really is a win/win proposition rather than any form of compromise or tradeoff. In fact, Strickler specifically mentions you and me in this book, using the FIRE movement as an example of a group of people who have adopted different values in order to lead better lives.

Die with Zero*, by former hedge fund manager and thrill seeking poker champion Bill Perkins sounds like a completely different book on the surface: Perkins’ point is that many people work too long and defer too much gratification for far too long in their lives.

Instead, he encourages you to map out your life decade by decade and make sure that you maximize your experiences in each stage, while you are still young enough to enjoy each phase. For example, do your time in the skate park and the black diamond ski slopes in your 20s and 30s, rather than saving every dollar in the hopes that you can do more snowboarding after you retire in your 60s.

Obviously, as Mr. Money Mustache I disagree on a few of the finer points: Life is not an experiences contest, you can get just as much joy from simpler local experiences as from exotic ones in foreign lands, and spending more money on yourself does not create more happiness, so if you die with millions in the bank you have not necessarily left anything on the table. But it does take skill to put these truths into practice, and for an untrained consumer with no imagination, buying experiences can still be an upgrade over sitting at home watching TV.

However, he does make one great point: one thing you can spend money on is helping other people – whether they are your own children, family, friends, or people with much more serious needs like famine and preventable disease.

And if you are going to give away this money, it’s better to do it now, while you are alive, rather than just leaving it behind in your estate, when your beneficiaries may be too old to benefit from your gift anyway.

So with this in mind, I made a point of making another round of donations to effective causes this year – a further $100,000 which was made possible by some unexpected successes with this blog this year, combined with finding that my own lifestyle continues to cost less than $20k to sustain, even in “luxury bachelor” mode.

And here’s where it all went!

$80,000 to GiveWell, who will automatically deliver it to their top recommended charities. This is always my top donation, because it is the most serious and research-backed choice. This means you are very likely doing the most good with each dollar, if your goal is the wellbeing of fellow human beings. GiveWell does constant research on effective charities and keeps an updated list on their results – which makes it a great shortcut for me. Further info in my The Life You Can Save post.

Strategic Note: I made this donation from my Betterment account where I keep a pretty big portion of my investments. This is because of tax advantages which multiply my giving/saving power – details here at Betterment and in my own article about the first time I used this trick.

$5000 to the Choose FI Foundation – this was an unexpected donation for me, based on my respect for the major work the ChooseFI gang are doing with their blog and podcast and meetups, and their hard-charging ally Edmund Tee who I met on a recent trip. They are creating a curriculum and teaching kids and young adults how to manage their money with valuable but free courses.

$2000 to the True Potential Scholarship Fund, set up by my inspiring and badass Omaha lawyer friend Ross Pesek. Ross first inspired me years ago by going through law school using an extremely frugal combination of community and state colleges, then rising to the top of the pack and starting his own firm anyway. Then he immediately turned around and started using some of the profits to help often-exploited immigrant workers in his own community with both legal needs and education.

$1000 to plant one thousand trees, via the #teamtrees effort via the National Arbor Day Foundation. I credit some prominent YouTubers and Elon Musk for promoting this effort – so far it has resulted in over 20 million trees being funded, which is a lot (roughly equal to creating a dense forest as big as New York City)

$5000 to Bicycle Colorado – a force for change (and sometimes leading the entire United States) in encouraging Colorado leaders and lawmakers to shift our spending and our laws just slightly away from “all cars all the time” and towards the vastly more effective direction of accommodating bikes and feet as transportation options. Partly because of their work, I have seen incredible changes in Denver, which is rapidly becoming a bike utopia. Boulder is not far behind, and while Longmont is still partially stuck in the 1980s as we widen car roads and build even more empty parking lots, these changes slowly trickle down from leaders to followers, so I want to fund the leaders.

$5000 (tripled to $15,000 due to a matching program that runs until Dec. 31) to Planned Parenthood. Although US-centric, this is an incredibly useful medical resource for our people in the greatest need. Due to emotional manipulation by politicians who use religion as a wedge to divide public opinion, this general healthcare organization is under constant attack because they also support women’s reproductive rights. But if you have a loved one or family member who has ever been helped during a difficult time by Planned Parenthood, you know exactly why they are such an incredible force for good – affecting millions of lives for the better.

And finally, just for reasons of personal and local appreciation, $1000 to the orchestra program of little MM’s public middle school. I have been amazed at the transformation in my own son and the hundreds of other kids who have benefited from this program. They operate a world-class program on a shoestring (violin-string?) budget which they try to boost by painstakingly fundraising with poinsettia plants and chocolate bars. So I could see that even a little boost like this could make a difference. (He plays the upright bass.)

You could definitely argue that there are places that need money more than a successful school in a wealthy and peaceful area like Colorado, and I would agree with you. Because of this, I always encourage people not to do the bulk of their giving to local organizations. Sure, it may feel more gratifying and you may see the results personally, but you can make a much bigger difference by sending your dollars to where they are needed the most. So as a compromise, I try to split things up and send the lion’s share of my donations to GiveWell where they will make the biggest difference, and do a few smaller local things here as a reward mostly for myself.

So those are the donations that are complete – $99,000 of my own cash plus an additional $10,000 in matching funds for Planned Parenthood. But because environment and energy are such big things to me, I wanted to do one more fun thing:

$5000 to build or expand a local solar farm.

This one is more of an investment than a donation, but it still does a lot of good. Because if you recall, last year I built a solar array for the MMM Headquarters coworking space, which has been pumping out free energy ever since. My initial setup only cost me $3800 and it has already delivered about $1000 in free energy, more than the total amount used to run the HQ and charge a bunch of electric cars on the side.

So, I plan to invest another $5000, to expand the array at HQ if possible, or to build a similar one on the roof of my own house, possibly with the help of Tesla Energy, which is surprisingly one of the most cost-effective ways to get solar panels installed these days. These will generate decades of clean energy, displacing fossil fuels in my local area while paying me dividends the whole time, which I can reinvest into even more philanthropy in the future.

What a great way to begin the decade. Let’s get on it!

—

* Die With Zero is not yet released, but I read a pre-release copy that his publisher sent me. The real book comes out on May 5th

** Also, if you find the scientific pursuit of helping the world as fascinating as I do, you should definitely watch the new Bill Gates documentary called Inside Bill’s Brain, which is available on Netflix.

from Finance https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2019/12/28/let-the-roaring-2020s-begin/ via http://www.rssmix.com/