#so im pretty confident the elderly part is too

[spectralsails]

doing a reread of paranatural. who is the elderly person who scared pj

[space-city-traffic]

yet again im back on my bullshit so... (gazes with mixed feelings at the TV show Firefly) i could fix him.

my extremely long thoughts about my Own Personal Good Version of Firefly (with plenty of spoilers for the show and the movie) under the cut:

things that are getting axed first thing no question:

out with the whole “let’s add in a thin veneer of Chinese cultural aesthetics out of context for ~flavor~” deal. just no.

instead, let’s hire some actors from a bunch of different cultures and work with them to figure out how their characters would bring those cultures into space with them!! and also hopefully bring some experiences with immigration/alienation/travel into it, since the Whole Core of Firefly is about how humanity always brings our doomed and silly and stubborn and unique warmth with us even into the cold void where nothing is familiar or homey in the slightest.

let’s respect our sex worker character shall we?

i do appreciate that Inara’s work as a companion is described as legitimate and well respected in the show. however please stop having your captain and hero call her a wh*re every five seconds against her clearly expressed wishes and portraying this as just a totally acceptable thing

let’s be more respectful of our characters of color and also have some more diversity, shall we?

others have put it better than me but yeah, the way Zoe and Book are treated is very uncomfy, and the rest of the show is depressingly monochromatic. come on let’s do better.

stop the weird confederacy hat tips

again others have pointed these out with much more thoroughness than I could, but the names of some characters and locations, as well as some of the language used to describe the browncoats, has uncomfortably confederate vibes. instead i propose we very Clearly tip our hats to the Alliance equaling space capitalism instead! you can’t go wrong with space capitalism as a villain.

don’t! make! the! psychotic! character! violent!

listen i love River Tam with my whole heart. but you should absolutely not portray your only character with psychosis as violent because of that psychosis!!!!!!! and yeah, a huge part of her character is that her brain got fucked up by the alliance and so she hallucinates and is also a super ninja. but like. she doesn’t need to be a super ninja for her character to work, okay? the crew does not need to be scared of her for her character to work, okay??? more on this later bc it would take a lot of care and nuance to make her character work but i really think it can be done

things we are absolutely keeping:

found family tropes my fucking beloved

this should be self evident. this is why the show is as appealing as it is despite its flaws, at least in my eyes.

malcolm reynolds, the knight in dusty armor

there’s something so appealing to me about what Mal stands for. because at his core is this ridiculous, silly, stubborn, doomed devotion to what he thinks is important and right, a romantic idealism thinly covered by cynical cowboy platitudes that he thinks make his bleeding heart totally invisible. and he is so obvious and entirely incorrect. bless. this is a man who will do anything for his family, who charges into swordfights to defend his friend from a man who wants to turn her into an object despite having no clue how to hold a sword. at his worst, he starts brawls in bars just for the martyr’s thrill of being persecuted for supporting the right; at his best, he inspires downright religious belief from his crew because he represents a romantic and chivalrous and doomed dedication to the right thing over any practical concerns. and then he throws a “selfish” quip over it with 100% confidence that everyone fell for his clever distraction and believes him to be a dirtbag. he’s oblivious and ridiculous and god he makes me want to be a better person because he’s just so goddamned sincere. stupid, but sincere. 10/10 himbo. <3

Mal and Inara ultraslowburn friends to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to friends to...

there’s nothing i love more than a ship that’s just two people who know each other way too well, and they’re each the only one who knows the other well enough to call them out on their bullshit. the way Mal and Inara interact in the show sometimes makes me uncomfy but like. the core of their relationship has to stay.

space western aesthetic

i need the cows on a spaceship scene to stay like i need air okay

that sweet sweet religious shit

mal, who lost his faith in gd and a whole lot else during the war. who lost his faith in himself, and now feels he has to hide the part of him that still wants to be good, because he knows he can’t be anymore, and he feels like it’s embarrassing for a guy like him to want something so unattainable. who takes a preacher on board, and the preacher has lost something, too. the preacher has his own past, and his own questions. but not questions like the observant neurodivergent girl, the one who wants to interact with and understand this thing that’s so important to him, but it just doesn’t click with how her brain works and she feels like something needs to be fixed, either the Bible or herself. and Mal takes care of them all, and slowly, he begins to find gd again, not in a prayer but in humanity. humanity doesn’t need to be fixed, like the alliance thinks. the shining imperfect strawberry sweetness of it in his family’s smiles is something to be worshiped and served and devoted to. and he finds he has something to believe in again. (and his crew find that he’s given them someone to believe in, too. and maybe suddenly he’s a saint.)

and finally, my brilliant ideas as to what i would like to add:

TRANS WOMAN KAYLEE RIGHTS

listen her femininity is so important to me okay? it’s so thrilled about everything that’s pretty, from dresses to the spaceship’s electric innards, and it’s so non-traditional and grease stained until it’s not and it’s pink and ruffly and twirly, and she never sees any of it as a contradiction, because none of it contradicts, it’s all just her! her gender is warmth and love and prettiness, feeling pretty and appreciating the pretty and making her friends’ days pretty too.

i want us to find out she’s trans in that episode with the ball, and i want us to find out alongside Mal who just never asked or never realized. Kaylee gasps and squeals at the dress in the shop window and Mal makes an off handed, ill considered comment, and then... someone yanks him aside and hisses a few very significant words in his ear. and suddenly he remembers what the blue white and pink she painted all over the engine room means, and he knows he has something to make right. so he buys her that dress himself and lets her know just how pretty she looks, and when he walks into that ball with her displayed on his arm like something precious, he looks the proudest out of any man there. and she notices. for a few seconds, of course, until there’s chocolate, and ‘nara, and a chandelier—and some horrible girls, but she’s used to that, until—suddenly, she finds her people. a group of old men who light up when she jokes about compression coils and whack presumptuous boys who ask her to dance. they adopt her as a treasured granddaughter, and Mal is beaming at her like a proud dad, and she finds that one of her new elderly friends gazes a little too long at her bracelet, and so she gives it to xem and teaches xem a few new words, and... it’s a good day, huh? it’s a really good day. (of course, then the captain has to go and punch somebody in the face, but it was a real nice party up until then.)

also she and Simon are both transhet t4t im correct and you know it

time for a better River Tam

the first thing we’ve established is that this version of her is not unpredictably violent and the crew is not scared of her!!!! it makes no sense to take a kid who’s primarily brilliant, experiment on her brain, give her telepathic powers....... and tack on the fact that she also has super strength and speed and dexterity and what not, AND say that they programmed her to be super violent. no! no. not only is that extremely harmful rep, that’s also just stupid.

instead!! my version of River is in fact not terrifying to the crew, but is actually the one they feel safest around. River has always been totally blunt, she was one of those kids you could tell realllllly early was autistic, and she doesn’t like being disengenous at all. so you can always trust her to tell the truth and not play weird passive aggressive games or have any hidden agenda, which makes her just a really chill person to be around. also, one of her longtime special interests is music and dance, so whether or not she’s nonverbal on a given day, there will always be some sort of beautiful sound when she’s around. she does have the singing voice of a dying crow unfortunately but that’s ok bc Simon’s is even worse and they’re both incredibly competitive so you’ll at least get free entertainment out of the affair.

my version of River does have psychosis and hallucinations because of the trauma of the experiments, and they are really troubling to her. she and Simon work together to find ways to cope and meds that help, and it’s a process, but there are some things that help.

the only thing she gained from the academy was the ability to hear people’s thoughts and sense the future a little bit. and yeah, that led to her picking up a few spooky secrets at the beginning, which, yikes. and for a while, it was hard to figure out which voices were real and which were hallucinations. but around her friends, she always feels safe to ask “did you just think about triple cheese burritos or was that just a me thing?”, and they’ll always tell her the truth no matter how embarrassing their thoughts are, bc it’s important to all of them to respect her and help her sort accurately through what’s reality and what’s not. and bit by bit, she gets better and better at figuring out what kinds of things tend to be telepathy and what kinds of things tend to be psychosis, and that each one feels a little different. and because of the trust and respect and support of her found family she’s able to do that in a safe environment!!!

trans man Simon rights

listen i wanted to keep him as just a side note on Kaylee’s list but he is my son and he’s important to my heart so here goes

out on the outer rim where Kaylee’s from, gender ain’t much of a big deal, there’s an individualistic quality to life out there, and so if the trail you blaze is the trail of a woman or a man or neither or both, that’s respected even in the rare cases where it’s not outright encouraged. but in the inner planets, where competition and connections and public faces and family names are everything, you have to be what’s expected of you to survive. you can’t change your brand, you can’t be anything other than what your family planned for you since before you were born, it’s incredibly hard to survive in such a hyper competitive environment, and so your very identity becomes just a tool in how to market yourself for better success.

needless to say Simon (just as autistic as his little sister and also very trans) fuckin hated it there. but he was very good at it. correction: he was very good at his very specific field of STEM, good enough to where people stopped talking about how cute he looked in bows and started talking about how impressive his work was from a very young age. and his work had no gender. he could be whatever he wanted to in equations. so that was where he could express himself, and gd, he got so much praise for it, he never wanted to stop.

not until he discovered that his sister needed him, and ran away, and needed a disguise, and realized... suddenly, every stifling rule and prying eye was a million miles away. he was freefloating, freefalling, with none of the charted paths he’d been following all his life... so you know what? fuck it. he’s always enjoyed the name Simon. and since it’s not on any legal records, it’ll make him just that much more untraceable.

and on Serenity, starting over with new people who never knew him before his transition feels like an unbelievable blessing that just dropped right into his lap. he has to keep up the secrecy, he has to make sure they never find out who he used to be, because gd, it’s so nice when they look at him and say his name right, and he doesn’t know if he can handle losing that, not when it’s so new and so important to the person he’s finally becoming. but then one day, the unthinkable happens, the wanted posters for his arrest have an old name on them, they’re looking for the Tam sisters, and... nothing changes. the crew of Serenity could not give even a tenth of a percent of a fuck, and it doesn’t seem like they even know they’re supposed to. huh. that’s new. Simon could get used to that, he thinks.

i’m sure there’s more i could add, but it’s 4:30 in the morning now, so if more occurs to me, ill simply add it in a reblog tomorrow. if you’ve read down this far, i am in love with you. please let me know your Better Firefly ideas, too, bc im always down to yell about this show!!!

[marvelsmalfoy]

prove them right w/ron weasley

summary: granger!reader with the help of Ron, goes to a muggle shelter to do some charity work

a/n: so it’s my first fic, and im sorry if it’s not that good. regardless, thsi is for day 27 of a very harry potter christmas ( from @jamilelucato and @whack-ed), girls i know im little late, sorry. oh, and thanks @jamilelucato​ for the tips on how to write a fic.

it was Hermione’s idea to reunite the friends for somewhat of a muggle charity work. it was the first Christmas season after the war, and she said that you needed to be around people that were happy and hadn’t gone through a war like the rest of you.

you loved your big sister, but sometimes she had some crazy ideas that not even you were able to understand. nonetheless, there you were, three days before Christmas, waiting for everyone to show up at the entrance of a muggle elderly shelter, almost freezing.

“oh, hi, y/n,” said the (not officially) main reason for you being there.

Ron Weasley was standing next to you, wearing a jeans jacket with a jumper, with a cap that covered almost all of his ginger hair, except for the front part that was growing more than his usual hairstyle would allow.

“hi-i,” you had no idea if you stuttered because of the cold or because of the boy, but it was something in between.

“where’s Hermione?” he asked, placing his hands inside the pockets of the jean jacket.

“she wanted to get more food,” you told him, slowly tilting your head towards him, not even noticing you were doing so. “I don’t know why she didn’t already have more — it was all her idea after all.”

“maybe she changed her mind,” said the ginger, “she does that quite a lot.”

there was something about this habit of Harry and Ron that they’d talk to you about your sister like they knew her better. you supposed they knew her in ways you didn’t, but that could not possibly make them comprehend her better.

“where’s everybody?” he asked again, this time, though, the question hurt you a bit.

you had a crush on Ron since Hermione introduced him to you. well, actually, you fancied him before you even had a face to go with the name. when Hermione send you letters about her adventures with the ginger, your heart just melted a little. and you were only ten.

your feelings for him only grew greater with time, and it didn’t help that he was always around you and your family. you were also always around his family — becoming best friends with Ginny Weasley can do that to a person.

but it was just a platonic thing. Ron didn’t know about it — at least you hoped to have been discreet enough.

so, of course, it probably was uncomfortable for Ron to be alone in a cold street alone with you and a bunch of presents that you held in the bag your sister prepared.

“dunno,” you shrugged, “Harry and Ginny were coming together — it was what Ginny told me anyway.”

Ron turned to face you, and you felt your cheeks turn redder than the cold was painting them already.

“uh, I asked if she wanted to come with me,” you didn’t know why you added that information to the conversation, but something about Ron’s eyes always made you speak more than needed.

“they don’t appear to be comin’ any time soon, so maybe we should just get in?” he suggested, raising his shoulders even though his hands didn’t move out of the pockets. “it’s getting real cold out here.”

“guess we should get in,” you agreed, biting, slightly, your lower lip, “I’ve got the presents anyway.”

he laughed at your terrible attempt of sarcasm, and suddenly all the cold in London wasn’t able to take the warm in your heart away.

he walked in first, but not before asking if you wanted help with the bag of presents.

“it’s enchanted,” you said.

“of course it is,” he sighed with a resemblance of a smile.

it felt like the whole thing was an internal joke you didn’t understand, and there were you getting (again) jealous of your sister for being best friends with this gorgeous ginger.

the elderly in the shelter were like angels on Earth. not that you had much experience with angelic mythology, but you suspected angels were kind and smiling beings, just like the elderly you and Ron presented with gifts that night.

must add that you did all the charity on your own, because your sister, Harry and Ginny did not show up. in the first few minutes, you were worried about your friends, but it soon became clear to you and Ron that they probably didn’t want to come up.

to you, something else was pretty clear — they knew. the whole Christmasly situation, with charity work and hot cocoa, along with Ron felt like the type of situation your sister would scheme for you.

not that you had asked — before this night, you thought Hermione had no idea about your feelings. and now, even Harry knew.

oh, Godric, even Ginny knew, and she was, like, Ron’s little sister!

“it’s so nice of you two to give us presents,” said one of the old ladies, sitting by the fire. she had the most beautiful black eyes you had ever seen, so dark but also very tender. “it’s rare to spend a night with the visit of such a young couple.”

your eyes widened immediately, and you didn’t know where to look. instinctively, you glanced at Ron, who gazed at you with the same expression you presumed was on your face.

you raced to explain, “we’re-we- Ron and I are not a couple.”

the granny smiled, her black eyes going from you to Ron.

“such a pity then,” she sighed, “you two would have adorable babies.”

you gulped so hard and so fast, it felt like you swallowed your tongue.

“I suppose Ron’s still gonna have cute babies without me,” you commented, trying to sound superior and evolved, but just covering up the fact that the idea of making babies with Ron crossed your mind now and then ever since you learned how to do it.

the old lady watched as you and Ron interacted with curiosity.

“why do you say that? the very reason our babies would be cute is you,” Ron protested, getting closer to you and sitting by the fire over the rug.

you turned your neck towards the ginger, completely surprised with what he said. you didn’t know if he understood what he was claiming — that you were cute — but you were gonna take it as a compliment anyway.

“me?” you echoed, resisting the urge to place a hand over your heart, “come on, Ron, your babies will be ginger. can you imagine how cutesy?”

“yours will have your pretty big eyes,” he replied, leaning his head.

the conversation dragged on, you two so invested on it, that you didn’t even notice when the old lady responsible for the topic disappeared. later you supposed the woman had intended to be discreet.

within laughs, Ron confided something on you.

“sorry we had to do all the work by ourselves,” he said.

“it was no worry at all,” you replied, swallowing the rest of your laugh, “I didn’t think I’d like it here, but somehow I do? these people are nice.”

Ron noticed how slightly you tried to change the subject, but something was telling him if he wanted to let it out, it was now or never.

“but we shouldn’t have to do it all alone, especially because that was not what we agreed on.”

“hey, Ron, it’s not your fault they didn’t show up,” you stared deep into his eyes, trying to sound as sincere as you could.

if anything, it was your fault. you were the one with a crush.

“well, it actually kind is?” it sounded like a question, but that wasn’t the boy’s intentions. he breathed in and out before continuing. “Harry sat it up. I didn’t ask for it, but he probably thought he was doing me a favour.”

you stared around, taking in the place where you sit. not many old people were around anymore since it was a bit late already.

“a favour? you needed to be in touch with the elderly or something...?”

Ron giggled at your innocence, inclining his head away just a little before completely leaning in.

“I needed some time alone with you,” he explained in a seductive tone.

“oh,” was all your shocked face let out, completely intertwined in Ron’s gaze.

this new information was definitely a three-day-earlier Christmas gift. you never thought Santa Claus was actually gone give it to you, but here you both were, only centimetres away from each other's mouths.

“Harry must’ve asked everyone to not show up,” Ron continued, unsure if your response was positive or not.

“I thought it was my sister the one with the plan,” you said.

“Hermione?” he seemed surprised, “can’t see her helping me get with her little sis.”

you giggled at his mockery.

“she wouldn’t be doing it for you,” you elaborated.

“oh,” he gasped, his mouth forming a pout.

you smiled, “yeah,” and you turned your gaze away from his.

there was an awkward single minute of silence before Ron leaned in again, this time seemingly more confident.

“you know, this only leaves us with two choices,” he said.

“which are?” you opted to not look at him yet. something inside you told you that he wouldn’t be able to finish his sentence if you stared at his eyes.

“prove them wrong,” he said this part with somewhat of disgust, “or prove them right.”

you smiled, finally turning to face him.

“as much as I’d hate to prove Hermione wrong,” you leaned on your knees instead of simply sitting with your legs closed, “this will only be our fault really.”

“yeah? why?”

you placed your hands over his shoulder, suddenly brave enough to do what you always dreamed. but, before, you had to gaze away from him and stare at something above the two of you.

“is it really because of them we kissed if sitting under a mistletoe was our fault?” you teased, smirking pleasurably.

he smirked two, finally moving to place his hands on your waist, and lifting your weight from your knees to his chest.

“our fault entirely,” he played, teasing you before the kiss, “I like the sound of that.”

“me too,” you fluttered your eyelashes at him.

“so...”

“kiss me already, Weasley,” you demanded, and it was all that echoed in the room as the last old lady left to bed, smiling at the young couple.

[marktuansvevo]

warning(s); slight cursing, 90s au, lapslock

word count; 1299

another’s note; hi loves and happy halloween! i hope everybody is having fun and staying safe! here’s part two of the autumn dates collection! i hope you all enjoy <3

“I haven’t ridden a bike in so long,” you said to jaebeom as you snuggled the phone between your cheek and shoulder. you played with the cord as you let the man on the other side talk you into a fifth date with him (not that it took much convincing).

“cmon, y/n, no one forgets how to ride a bike,” you could hear him laughing at your statement. “its almost winter, we should enjoy the pretty fall weather. please?” he paused, waiting for an answer. “I’ll even buy you ice cream, darling.”

you couldn’t help but giggle at the onslaught of butterflies that just erupted in your lower tummy at the petname he just called you.

“okay...fine. but I want to rent a pink bike.”

“done and done. pick you up on saturday at 2?”

“sounds perfect.”

“okay, see you soon, darling,” you know he purposefully drew out the word. he knew exactly how to make your cheeks red and you loved that about him.

today was the first date you hadn’t been at least sorta dressed up to see jaebeom. you were nervous that he wouldn’t like you in some adidas shorts and a ponytail, but as if on cue, jaeboem knocked on the door, pulling you out of your insecure thoughts. you smiled before throwing your arms around him. you didn’t care if it was too early. you weren’t even official yet....but he made you feel things you never knew you could feel.

“missed you, beom,” you whispered, letting him hold you.

“missed you too,” you saw his cheeks were dusted a light pink at your actions. “now cmon, we’re burning daylight!!”

you let him take your hand and lead you to his beat up pickup truck, where he opened the door for you. you blushed. you felt like a teenager. no person had ever made you feel this special, and you didn’t want this feeling to end anytime soon.

“now, I picked a trail that isn’t too hilly, since you haven’t been biking in a minute. and it’s only four miles from that ice cream place I was telling you about.”

“you really think of everything, huh?” you marveled out loud, looking out the window as you hummed along to only wanna be with you which was playing on the radio. jaeboem looked over at you before taking your hand and kissing it as he sang along, “been looking for a girl like you.”

the rest of the ride to the park was spent like that, jaebeom’s thumb tracing patterns on the back of your hand while the two of you shyly sang top 40 songs.

you both walked into the cute little bike shop. “hi, how can we help you?” the salesmen asks.

“we just wanted to rent some bikes for the afternoon. oh, do you have any pink bikes in my girl’s size? that’s what she’s demanding.”

“hey!!”

“she literally won’t go on this date if you don’t have one man, you gotta help me out,” your boyfriend said to the salesman who hooted. “I happen to have one in your size, maam, if you wanna follow me.”

“it’s perfect! thank you so much, now I can confidently go on this date,” you played along as boem paid the man and walked out of the shop.

“pink really is your color, darling.”

“you’re just saying that to make me blush,” you said as you blushed. he sniggered.

“I can’t help that you’re cute. now cmon, let’s hit the trail.”

the trail was beautiful and really let you clear your head of any thoughts that didn’t involve the man in front of you. you looked out at the river, at the trees with pretty orange, red and yellow leaves hanging on them, at the elderly couple walking their dog. it was one of those days where nothing could bring down your mood....it was serendipitous...

...until the frog.

jaebeom had told you that you were close to the ice cream stand about five minutes ago. you were thinking about mint chocolate chip when all of a sudden, a bull frog hops in front of your path. you let out a scream and swerved out of the frogs way,  crashing your bike in the process.

“y/n!” jaebeom exclaimed. “oh my god are you okay.”

do not cry do not cry do not cry, you willed yourself as you looked down at the blood pouring out of both your knees. you would not be dramatic on your fifth date with this wonderful person.

“I...I’m okay...”

“oh, honey that looks like it hurts....” he said softly. “hey, there’s a general store right next to the ice cream parlor. I’ll be back with some antiseptic and bandaids, okay?”

“don’t take too long,” you whispered.

you watched as he jogged over the the store. it was a good twenty minutes before he came jogging back.

“okay, I got a washcloth and antiseptic, and a water bottle. will you let me clean it, y/n?”

you just nodded your head. “it hasn’t stopped bleeding since you left.”

“this might sting, darling. tell me if it hurts.” jaebeom pours some water onto the washcloth, cleaning your wound. as soon as the blood stopped flowing out of the scrapes, jaeboem squeezes a generous amount of the medicine onto his pointer and middle fingers before applying it to your open wound. you winced are the sting, begging yourself not to cry once more. you don’t even know why you were so worked up.

jaebeom didn’t even look up as he continued to apply the medicine, which you were grateful for as tears freely flowed down your face. “alright, how’s that feel- oh, y/n are you crying?? did that hurt too bad?”

“I..I’m sorry i don’t know why im so worked up. I just...” you sighed as he pulled you into his lap, wrapping your arms around his neck to hide. “I feel like a fucked this whole  date up. and now you have a crying girl in your lap,” he shushed you gently, placing a kiss to your temple.

“darling, you didn’t fuck anything up. im still having fun, just sitting here admiring the pretty trees with the prettiest girl in the world, you know?” he wiped your tears away, smiling a bit. “now stop crying. you know what else I bought at the store?”

“hm?”

“one of those cheap, disposable cameras. I wanted to commemorate this day,” he smiled wide. “because I wanted to have a picture of us the day I asked you to officially be my girlfriend.”

“wait, really?” your smile widened. “are you being serious, beom?”

“of course I am!! should I not have?” he asked with a pout.

“oh, jaebeom of course I will be!” you giggled before pulling him into you and kissing him fully on the lips. he tasted like cinnamon. you just realized it was your first kiss with him. he smiled against your lips.

“mmm, you taste sweet, baby,” he teased, pecking your lips once more. “now, lean in to me so I can take our picture.” you leaned in close to him, smiling at the camera as he placed a kiss to your cheek. your eyes were probably closed from happy embarrassment.

“when you develop those, will you make me a copy?”

“sure, baby. now cmon, let me buy you some mint chocolate ice cream.”

“uhhh..mint choco? no thanks baby, I’ll stick with pumpkin.”

your boyfriend (that had a nice ring to it, you thought to yourself) looked at you with a look of distaste. “ohhh...I retract my offer to be your boyfriend.”

“hey!!”

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

Hi! I want help on typing too :) i hope i followed the guidelines right.

Im a hardworker but Im not responsible. An example is I would rather do chores for my parents all my adult life than find a real job. I did get a degree in a prestigious university but I prefer to just serve my parents full time. And so i taught myself to cook, sew, clean, do laundry, and make my own utensils out of wood and scrap. I even took online courses on how to take care of the elderly. I didnt care if I didnt have any income. As long as I do it for the people I love, I do it for free. 《Tho in a way, my brothers provide the finances so money wasnt a problem anyway》

Im very much a recluse. Though many of our guests think I have the most welcoming looking home in town, I prefer not to be visited. Even by friends. While Im proud of my choice of not becoming a professional, Im still sensitive when people imply that they feel like I wasted my potential in university. I prefer to talk to friends online everyday and refrain from seeing them personally because of my insecurity.

Im very bad with my emotions. Mostly because I would prefer to die than show people how I really feel. I would especially never show my loved ones whenever I feel sad because I want them to be always happy. Example was when I broke up with a guy and I never told anyone, but my family guessed it because they sensed that the food I made tasted different than usual. And when they told me its okay to cry, i couldnt and just smiled the whole time because I just smile when Im very stressed. And when my mood gets pretty dark, I result to alcohol to numb my feelings. I used to drink a lot when I felt depressed when I backed out of my first and last job after uni. I could never get myself to talk about my feelings with anyone, not even a therapist.

I have a fairy academia aesthetic and way of living. I love fairytales. I love reading books about them. I daydream a lot. I pretty much incorporate fairytale and folklore characters in my personality. I imagine Im Rapunzel when Im doing chores. I imagine Im Peter Pan when Im talking to friends. I used Midsummer Nights Dream as an inspiration when I revamped the house and now our place looks like a fairy cottage :)

I am a very peace loving person. I dont like taking sides. Im very neutral. I dont like to categorize anyone as good or evil. When my family fights, I dont pick sides and i refuse to take part. When I get into a fight, I immediately back down and do nothing even when Im right.

I am very bad at planning. I pretty much rely on the feeling of the moment, which usually takes people by surprise. I never thought I would quit the job industry, but i did. I never thought I would result to alcohol being the typical good girl I am, but I did. I never thought I would break up with a relationship of 10 years, but I did... all because i dont feel like it anymore.

Im not a rational person. I dont like questioning people's choices and situations and I dont want it to be done to me as well. Whenever I see my brothers upset, I dont ask or argue. I just give them some comfort food and give words of encouragement. The last time I was sad, I dont answer anyone when they ask. But Im very much willing to be hugged instead than anything else.

Im sorry if its too long. I hope i got this right :(

This definitely sounds like enneagram 2; it’s very much about giving everything for others, putting them before yourself, and caring about their opinions of you over your opinions over most things. I am also sure there is 9 fix in there somewhere, and it’s even possible you are instead a 9 core with a 2 fix instead.

With that said I’m not sure on your MBTI type - you’re definitely a feeler, but I can’t entirely decide on Fi vs. Fe, and I suspect this comes down to my own biases/range of experience. I don’t think anything you’re doing is wrong, but it is legitimately so unlike anything I would do that I struggle to connect it with Fi (even my low Fi) but it also doesn’t feel fully like Fe.

I would tentatively look at dom Fi, because despite what you say it sounds like while you value the opinions of others you do make a lot of choices for yourself and against certain expectations (choosing to be a caretaker rather than the expectation of pursuing a career from your degree, breaking up) and because you mention not liking to plan and making decisions in the moment.

I think there are cases to be made for either Ne or Se; the general sense I get here doesn’t tie to either and what might be perceived as one or the other just seems like a certain sense of escapism into fantasy, which anyone can do (and which fits with 9). So either INFP or ISFP are possible.

I would, lastly, out of a sense of what this blog is, recommend trying a therapist again, not because your life choices are in any way wrong (and I do suspect it may be hard to find a therapist who respects this which is frustrating) but because of what you say regarding showing emotion; it is pretty crucial to have some kind of emotional outlet or confidant even if you don’t like to be particularly emotional in public/around other people.

[bluepenguinstories]

Intention Headaches Chapter Ten

Silence in the barroom.

Everyone, a cold hush. The chill of saltwater. Nobody ordered the taffy bourbon, it was due to go out of style.

Continued silence.

Few minutes earlier, there was an incident, but just one:

Groaning and moaning, a little in mourning. Befuddled man spoke with confidence words almost too slurred to deliver.

“That last one was an overkill, eh? I mean, the whole thing. It left a bit of a bitter taste. Li’l funny, admittedly, but sheesh!”

Everyone lifted their heads just a few centimeters high, then faces low. No one spoke, only signaling agreement.

“Anyway, bartender, how about another?”

Bartender, man about duty as he was, shook head like the blenders in the tattoo parlor.

“No, I agree. Was overkill. Think you’ve had quite enough.”

“Oh, come on! You’re the bartender! All drinks are given to all gang members regardless of affiliation!”

“No more drinks for you, Mr. Waits. Lest we have to clean up the mess on our new minted floors.”

The establishment, home for the disordered and chaotic, was in full order once again. That metallic appearance a thing of the past, unpleasant; though the sign outside may be neon, inside were wooden floor boards, with the new addition of a chrome static finish, so the environment would feel both like a tavern, saloon, or, of course, the bar. But the environment served as well as a source of energy; deploying domesticated termite machines to build the infrastructure of an automated simulation.

Afterward from an explanation and the departure of the binge of waiting, the sight of a solitary squatter on a table made for two caught the attention of two at the counter.

One of the two to the lady with the hair spikes and little else but an image: “Hey Elaine, what you doin’ alone?”

Looked up, not to ceiling or sky. Previous sights on table.

“Just felt like it.” Entrenched words from the very same Elaine, who held the two time record of having a six-letter name.

One of the other gang members, of a gang that made little difference. Woolf? Sexton? Let’s stay on topic, call it gucci. Gucci gang member, the one who didn’t speak prior, now spoke: “Don’t you usually hang around someone, though? What was his name again? Rodney? Rooney?”

“Riley,” a one word line delivery.

“Ah, yeah! That’s the one! Why you ain’t with ‘im?”

“The guy died. Stepped on a landmine during a gang war and got electrocuted. Think it was last week?”

“Oh! So sorry!”

Cracked laughter tore through the egg of Elaine. Egg was a yolk called a mouth which rested gently below the nose, but on many an occasion, opened up to reveal a cavernous system.

“Kinda funny, really! We in the Plaths always called him ‘Turtle’ because he always carried that big ol’ backpack full of surprises! So it’s like a turtle stepped on a landmine!”

Fist slammed on the table, an uproar of humor crafted from the aforementioned cavern.

No one else laughed. All else bore the gift of silence.

“Well, I thought it was funny,” Elaine looked away, possibly toward a more crowded gang of various gangs. Amore!

“But Elaine, weren’t you two friends? How could you laugh?”

“You’d have to have been there! His whole body got burnt to a crisp and I could see electricity crackling! You could stick a fork next to him, or a marshmallow!”

Again, and for the effect of repetition, no one else laughed.

“We all know the risks, it was bound to happen. Part of the Plath pact is that we rush headfirst into the heat of battle. Bud just held up the pact, and so it happened.”

“But aren’t you sad?”

“Are any of us sad? We just lost an entire gang the other day. Cranes. No one want to talk about them? Is it ‘cause they were poets? Well, anyway, if you insist on such a meandering topic, I’ll give a call for celebration.” Whistle signal to bartender flared. “DRINKS FOR EVERYONE! HERE’S TO RILEY!”

Soon the crowded silence crowded around the table of Elaine, upheld silence.

One and one, the two, congregated to the crowd in the room. The two guys who had been speaking. Yes, they had names, but it went without saying (not that their names were obvious or that there were any indication, rather the names were so incidental and forgettable that it went without saying what their names were). One upended the conversation:

“You two were best friends, right?”

Elaine drank. After a courageous belch, gave commemoration.

“Sure, but I’ve been in this game long enough. Lost plenty of friends, and some day, someone will lose me. That’s just the life we have here.”

“Say, wasn’t Riley not originally from here?”

“Indeed. Asked him about it one time back at the base, just him and I. I was like ‘Hey Riley, what was the outside world like? How did you manage to make your way here?’ You know what he told me?”

Silent faces turned side-by-side.

“He told me, he said, ‘Elaine, why does the chicken cross the road?’ I didn’t know how to answer, so I said ‘I don’t know, man, why does the chicken cross the road?’ You know what he told me? He said, ‘don’t look at me! I ain’t no chicken. Listen. I do what I do ‘cause I do it. That’s how it’s always been with me. I’ll live because I live and I’ll die because I’ll die. There ain’t much more to me.”

Ooh’s and Aah’s, round of applause, Elaine again with the drinking.

“Pretty much the same with me, I suppose. Same with all of us. Sure, who’d want to live like a place like this where someone constantly dies? But that’s our life. If I could choose another life, I could’ve been a ballerina, learned shorthand, or been a burlesque dancer. I don’t know what any of those are, but I’ve heard of such things from random parsing through neural manuscripts.”

“True enough! I often forget the names of all the people I chat with cause they usually die the next day!” Hearty laugh from one of the two guys. Were they the same two guys as last time?

Question never minded, the with the bat steps to the heels and the thundering cackles cracked, an electrifying entrance.

“How dare you disrespect the dead?!” Mother of Sexton pointed her crone finger every which way. Elaine, who knew the way, could address the one with the entrance.

“How could you know whether or not I’m disrespecting him? He’s dead, I can’t ask his opinion. Maybe he wants us to celebrate in this way.”

“You still show disrespect! Cracking jokes and trampling over the very concept! Those were people’s lives, who could very well not have wanted their fates to be that way! And you, you find levity?”

“Bah,” bitter, sour tongue. Elaine took a swig, a gulp and a set, mouth open once again. “I choose not to dwell on the dead. It doesn’t do any of us any good.”

“Wrong again! You can learn a great deal from the dead!”

“Oh yeah? Wanna know what happens when you talk to a skeleton? You know what the skeleton says? Nothing. Because the dead cannot speak. All you have to learn is that they have ceased to be.”

“Ah, but they do speak. Listen to their bones and what came before. The ashes and their power. It fills me. After all, death itself is life.”

“Again, I choose not to dwell on the dead. Does none of us any good. All it does is make you obsess. You wanna know what led someone to such an end? What it means for them? ‘Surely, there must be a reason. Imagine if they could’ve been saved’, you must ask yourself. ‘what can we learn from this?’. I’ll tell you: nothing. You can speculate all you wish, but leave me out of it. I’ll learn what I can from what exists and live while I’m alive. That’s what I’ve chosen.”

“Such disrespect!”

“You wanna tell me about disrespect? The one who respects the very concept of women?”

No answer given. Only a storm that passed, damage restoration.

At the usual counter comes the kid elderly, Ernie. Sipping wine or champagne, relinquished lamentation.

“Crane gone. I also partake in men. I was craven. My shotgun could have salvaged some. Had I the knowledge.”

“Mm. Just as Elaine said: it happens to us all. Your truths and your falsehoods, they become trivial in the face of it all. Faction and fiction, death knows no discrimination.”

Hemingway drank a heavy shot. Down the chin, it went.

“Well known knowledge. Knowledge of the war remains. Absence of the Crane as an entire entity, signifies return.”

“Return of what, dear friend?” Spoke tender, the wiper of the glass.

“War.”

“As a bartender, I can neither confirm nor deny that. My duties lie in preserving the one place of neutrality.”

Neutrality may seem in the center of it all, but the true point is zero. Move two spaces to the X-axis, two spaces down, into the negatives, lies Plath leader, hands on head. Beside her, down west, Virginia.

“What’s wrong, my fellow woman?”

Plath with the aching head, but only from within.

“It’s the hospital...they did something to me...but I can’t remember…”

“Why now do you think of this?”

“Because I want to know! I feel myself slipping, but I can’t recall what happened last time! What did they take from me to make me like this?”

“Take or give? I have gone there rather often each time I reach peak madness. They give me something.”

“Yes! You were there with me! Tell me! What do you remember?”

“I was cured. I don’t remember of what. I know they treated me. Yes. Oh dear. I may have to go back.”

“No. None of us goes and finds it; when they sense our illness, they take us back. But if I could just remember what happened. It hurts so much. It was like a pain I’ll never know of! That’s why…”

Passed by. Sexton once again. Laughed. Her own form of respect.

“Oh my, my, my. You have forgotten your hospital visit?”

“Yes! Do you remember yours?”

“Of course. I recorded it. They taught me a great many things.”

“What did they teach you?”

“Death and all that surrounds it.” Her grin was a shadow when compared to the bright spot above her forehead. “I’ll even let you listen.”

Chip was thrown, just as it would have had it been an explosive die (the singular form of dice). After Sibylline Sylvie stressed the sweaty palm, the index finger went to work and clicked. It all played to her ears, her ears alone. Her own.

Within the mind, recording went as follows, an interview:

Doctor: What brings you in today?

Sexton: I am afraid of reaching an end.

Doctor: Administer the shock.

[Electricity Crackles]

Doctor: What brings you in today?

Sexton: The hospital itself.

Doctor: Correct. Do you know the process?

Sexton: Yes.

Doctor: Do you fear death?

Sexton: Yes.

Doctor: Do you wish for immortality?

Sexton: No.

Doctor: Do you fear an end?

Sexton: Yes.

Doctor: Do you believe that children are the future?

[No answer]

Doctor: Do you believe that children are the future?

[Shock administered]

Doctor: Do you believe children are the future?

Sexton: I despise children.

Doctor: Think of them as an extension. If you wish not to see an end, repeat the process. Create them like any other invention. Like a weapon. Do you remember who came before you?

Sexton: Yes.

Doctor: She was you, once. Make a child that can become you and you will never reach an end. Understand?

Sexton: Yes.

Doctor: Do you believe that children are the future?

Sexton: Yes.

– Recording ended –

Such was the mother Sexton’s treatment. Silvery scent sent the chip away. Such a cross toss. As for the parent herself, she laughed. Her voice carried over the merriment.

Slipped past the crowd, Sylvie stroked over the silence, right where Elaine sat.

“What I heard confirms it,” she told Elaine, lower in her voice than her own posture. “Karen gave us our next mission. Was a simple one. I will accept.”

“What is it?” Elaine, humble in her ignorance.

“To find the artifact known as The Bell Jar. With it, our gang shall surely flourish.”

“You should refuse.”

“What? How could you?”

“I don’t think you’re in the right condition.”

“Even with us separated, you still act like you have a say in it!”

“If you don’t want me around, kick me out. I’ll respect it.”

“No!” Her own throat a tinny sore. “I cannot keep you with me, but I cannot let you go too far!”

“Ladies, ladies,” a man in the Plaths. “You’re both pretty.”

Elaine snapped. Five fingers, in a twist. “That’s true, but not the matter at hand!”

Already angered, Sylvie stormed away, stood tall and took off. Before through the door, declared: “I will accept! I am the leader! I am! I am! I am!”

Some Plaths looked toward Elaine, whose name was six letters long. “What will you do about this?”

Six letter word shrugged.

“She said she’ll accept.”

“Yeah, but you seemed against it.”

“Indeed. Let me finish my drink. It’s last call.”

“Then, after bartender sacks us?”

“I’ll have a smoke.”

No further on the subject. One last drink for good ol’ times before the neon sign sparked ‘Closed’ on the door outside. Bartender needn’t say a word.

[talk-shit-get-fit]

Hei! Your blog is fun and you seem pretty cool, so I was wondering whether you'd have any advice for a gym newbie? Just finished weeks of physical therapy & got the advice to start working out more so my back doesn't get bad again (esp when uni starts again & i'll be back to sitting around for like 8h/day). I don't know much about gym atmosphere (i just know *those* people, who go to the gym) but being a short chubby (mostly? passing) trans guy doesn't exactly make me v/ confident. All the best!

Finally getting to this. Again sorry for lateness, was sick all last week. Anyway, fun? pretty cool? Debatable but I’ll accept it. Thanks. Ooh, newbie advice. I’ll try to reblog all the for beginners stuff i have on blog after i post this. 

Hooray for completing PT. I had to go through a couple months of it after a long hospital stay when i was younger. Hope back stays all good. May reblog posture posts too.

So, similarly I knew nothing about gym atmosphere when I started, like 3 or so years back. Most fitness I ever did was the occasional run every month or so. For the most part, i relied on being naturally slim and young metabolism to offset all the junk food i ate.

I’ll offer as much advice as I can but don’t take my word as gospel. Ultimately, find what works best for you and what you enjoy. Its the best way to ensure you stick to it.

ADVICE-ish: 

So one, a gym is not required. Fitness can be done near anywhere and easily without equipment as long you have a comfortable space around you. 

however, if you do go to a gym or similar place(I go to the YMCA) feel free to call them up and request a tour. Staff should gladly show you what is available at their facilities and in the case of the Y will give you a 7 day free trial pass. Not sure if other places offer it, but never hurts to ask.

Also ask if they happen to know the gym off-peak hours, these are the times when it tends to be less crowded and i’ve found the times i find the most variety of people working out. Ages, body shapes, and workout intensities of all types. Off-peak hours can also allow you enough time to be able to try out many machines /get used to the space without the pressure of worrying your getting in people’s way. 

Even if you do come across “those” kinds of gym people they rarely are paying attention to anyone. Some body builders workout near me when im there and they are way more invested in their workout than what i or the elderly or less experienced members are doing. 

Sometimes, you may catch them staring or they’ll unsolicited advice. Feel free to ignore it and instead ask the staff for insight. That is literally their job, along with assisting or spotting whenever it is needed. Whether you intend to lift weights or not, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK THE STAFF FOR HELP.

Going to use Terry Crews words since he put it so well: “It has to feel good. I tell people this a lot - go to the gym, and just sit there, and read a magazine, and then go home. And do this every day. Go to the gym, don’t even work out. Just GO. Because the habit of going to the gym is more important than the work out. Because it doesn’t matter what you do. You can have fun — but as long as you’re having fun, you continue to do it.“  

Another thing to etch into your mind is comparison is a killer. One of my yoga teachers had a mantra she always recited before starting class. “No competition, no comparison. Our practice takes place on our own individual mats.”

Although she spoke about yoga, it applies to whatever exercise you partake in. Just because person next to you can run longer, it does not diminish what effort you put in. To use my own example, because of how my body is naturally slim my arms, no matter how hard i train them will never look like some of the other gym people. Their body is not mine, mine is not theirs. Where we started from was not the same, our goals may not be the same, but we each put in effort and that is what matters most. 

Sidenote, despite some members having more showy muscles than me, it is not uncommon for me to be able to outlift them either in terms of weight or endurance. but again people get built different.

Whatever type of exercise you do land on make sure its ones you enjoy. Like i hate burpees. They have many benefits, are great exercise, and i hate them. When i did put them into my routine, i had to drag myself to do each one, like most people. but i wasn’t enjoying it overall. Hence they were banished to the land of wind and ghost for me. To be replaced with something i liked doing and was a good exercise. 

Hell, I didn’t start lifting until like a good year into joining a gym. At first i just stood in the corner of the gym and did bodyweight exercises while listening to TED Talks. Figured those exercises are simple enough, require no equipment typically, and bonus i got them from Darebee. 

You may have seen me post them around here, if not just search my blog or tumblr for the tag and you’ll see them. They are super cool, free as hell, nerdy as fuck. The website also includes some long term programs, up to 90 days and even nutrition advice all still free. Plus their apps have no ads and again FREE. the whole thing is just donation based and i have to plug them whenever i get the chance. Were it not for their Hero’s Journey program i wouldn’t have gotten in the habit of regular exercise, i missed about 6 days in total but meh. I’m sure whatever media you are fan of they’ll have some exercise routine to go along with it.

Don’t be afraid to experiment or change up routine until you find something you love and fits in with your schedule and goals. Although there is great value in having a set routine that you can easily follow, don’t be beholden to it strictly. Whether that means not doing something when a part of your body isn’t feeling it, reorganizing whole routine(something i do on occasion), or adjusting an exercise to better fit you.

To use burpees example again, they typically call for jumping up high during the exercise. However, i’ve seen plenty modify it so to be easier on their knees and instead reach up high without jumping so as to be better on their knees. 

For sure listen to your body, know that you should never feel pain when exercising(if you do, stop and reassess what you’re doing or skip exercise if needed). Form is way more important than you think, feel free to look up tutorials about any exercise on youtube to correct your form but keep in mind their body is not yours so adjust if you must. 

Look honestly I could go on for a while about possible advice, so feel free to message or send ask again with any specific and i’ll do my best to answer. Just know that I’m not a professional and just giving whatever advice i can.

[probably-writing-x]

The unknown one. Vol. 2

~A Noah Centineo AU Series~

Inspiration: The boy next door cliché always seemed to happen in movies. But when this boy moved in to the house beside yours, he seemed willing to discover more than you wanted him to know.

Warnings: Hints at bullying with slight depictions of it, nothing too severe though lovelies xo

And school had finally arrived once more. Your last year and Leo's first year of middle school and summer was drawing to an unwelcome close.

"Come on, you're going to be late," You shout up the stairs.

Bolt was circling your feet as always but it always pained you to have to leave him. Luckily, the elderly couple that lived a few doors down took care of him as part of a little business they ran. So, when you were gone during the day so you didn't have to worry too much. They had an old Labrador so it was a bit of a contrast to have this lively one with them but they loved him and always welcomed you with open arms.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Leo shouts, almost tumbling down the stairs with the big bag slung over his back.

You handed him his toast before unlocking the door, leading Bolt into the car and watching him bound into the trunk.

The sun was still unforgiving as summer was coming to an end so you were thankful for the chance to wear your own clothes to school more than ever. Not that you usually put too much thought into your clothing- you cared more for Leo's, making sure he always had clothes to fit his growing form, even when yours were overly worn and looked as tired as your fatigued eyes.

Taking your pit stop down the road to drop off Bolt, you continued your drive to school and were soon met with the school gates you had quickly grown to loathe. Though, you were lucky that Leo's middle school was right next to your high school so you didn't have to worry about him too much; you'd be there to protect him from the devastating clutches that school seemed to hold every student with.

He runs off without a second thought and you grab your bag before locking your old car behind you. It stuck out like a sore thumb against the shiny, rich kid cars that circled you.

"(Y/N)," A growingly familiar voice calls out to you and soon Noah is at your side, "Hey,"

"Hi," You smile lightly, already feeling that sickening worry build in your stomach that school always brought, "So, first day?"

"Yeah, I don't feel too nervous though. I have a lot of first days," He shrugs and you can see the confidence in the nonchalance that radiates from his walk. You wished it would disperse into you.

"Well, if I were to give you one piece of advice..." You stop and look up at the crowd you despised that was near to you, "I'd recommend you don't get seen around me,"

And with that, you grip your bag strap a little tighter and walk a little faster- hoping to escape before anyone says a word to you.

"(Y/N)!" The loud, cruel bellow sounded inyour ears and already made you feel even more sick, "How was summer? Oh, no wait, were you working? Or looking after your brother? Or working? Or looking after your brother?"

You turn on your heel to stare Mikey, the resident bully, in the eyes, "Oh and same to you Mikey. Oh, no wait, were you trailing after Mummy and Daddy? Or crying over over the fact that the only company you had all holiday was your own right hand?"

Your own confidence overwhelms you so you're quick to leave after that remark, turning away and only hearing the faint laughter from his friends that surrounded him- though, this time, it is at him rather than with him. Noah was stood amongst them, pushing through to try to look at you once more- for this was completely different from the girl he met yesterday. How much could this place really change someone?

~~~

The day dragged on until you could finally be free for your last period, you had no lessom timetabled so opted to stay at school until Leo would finish.

Stood at your locker, your fingers grazed the photos that littered the inside of the door and they managed to provoke some sort of forged comfort in these echoey and cold hallways.

"(Y/N)?" Noah's voice sounded, growing closer to you, "I'm sorry, I don't have a class on my timetable so I don't know where to go,"

"Oh, it's just a free," You explain, "You can go home or just take it as a study period,"

He nods, understanding a bit more, "Is it okay if I stay with you then? I don't really want to go home and I don't know much of this place," Noah's hand scratches at the back of his neck and, if you knew him a bit better, you'd take that as a gesture full of nerves.

You close your locker door and sigh, "Didn't you hear what I said earlier?"

"Yes," He smirks, leaning against the locker block, confidence warming his eyes once more, "But I also saw the rest of those guys, and what you said to that Mikey kid, so I'm kind of willing to take the risk and stay with you,"

You don't really know how to respond, choosing to let him take the fall later, "Okay. Come with me,"

Silently, you lead Noah through the halls of the school and through the back exit onto the sports field. All the way to the back, you find the place you always went to. It was the building of the old storage facility where you could climb up and sit on the roof. Like an empty shell of a building, it was completely skeletal and only had the bold feature of winding plants crawling across it's surface. It was away from everything and gave you the space you needed when things became overwhelming. Noah was the first person you'd ever brought up here.

"So, you come up here a lot?" He asks, looking absently around at the landscape encircling you, "What do you do here?"

"It's a good place to get away from it all," You answer, cautious to not burn your legs on the scorching tiles below you.

"Why were those people so horrible to you?" Noah questions, turning to look at you with intent in his now focused eyes.

"Because they don't like me," You state simply, perhaps regretting your decision to bring him with you, you didn't like people being inquisitive about you, "Why do you care?"

"Because you seem like a good person. And I don't like bullies,"

"Well yeah, they're never anyone's favourite person until you're in their group," You shrug, "That's kind of how it works,"

There is a silence that settles in the thick, heat soaked air that fills the space between you. And it is oddly comforting- the silence and his presence. You feel guilty for not being welcoming to his friendliness.

"My parents already like you," He chuckles to himself, "Im sorry that they made us have a whole meet and greet with you yesterday,"

"No it's fine, they seem lovely, and it was nice of your sister to give us some food,"

"What about your parents? What are they like?" Noah shuffles closer to you but his movements are slight because he doesn't want to seem too forward.

"Oh yeah," You nod, looking down and picking at a piece of grass that was growing between the tiles, "They're great. Like I said, they're away at work right now,"

"Yeah, and it seems like you're close with your brother,"

"Definitely," You smile lightly, "Speaking of, I think he should be finishing school now. Do you need a lift home?"

You stand up and brush the dust from the back of your shorts, not noticing how Noah followed your every move and every curve of your body.

"Yeah, um, if that's okay," He smiles, hopping down onto the ground after you, "I think I'd get a bit lost on my way home,"

You don't need to respond, knowing your lack of opposition was enough for him to know your offer was accepted so the two of you are in silence once again. In this tranquility, you watch his eyes drift to the soccer field where the team are just starting their practice.

"Are you going to join the team?"

"Maybe, they seem like they're pretty great,"

And a little bit of your hope dies. Without being stereotypical, the teams here had a way of luring people in and tying them under their grasps of friendship and trust - meaning it would be likely that Noah would soon fall victim to the popularity curse. And you certainly weren't a part of that, they wouldn't let you into their circle. Noah would learn that soon.

(Does anyone actually like this?????)

[catchcr]

hello gorls & gays its me, ria! i’m ria, 19, i DID learn to read . okay. i’m in the pst timezone! and i am very excited for this rp !! and i’m very excited to start plotting and writing with everyone !! my discord is uwu legend#4835 - i respond much faster there than ims. my twt is @biesschuu if ur into that. onto my messy muses!

☾*✧･ﾟ:*「 KANG MINA. CISFEMALE. SHE/HER. 」DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE’S A WITCHIN HANEUL KNOWN AS YANG HARA? THEY HAVE BEEN LIVING HERE FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIFE AND IS A MATCHMAKER IN TRAINING. THEY ARE CURRENTLY NINETEEN AND IS A STUDENT AT CROCUS INSTITUTE OF HIGHER MAGIC IN THE HOUSE ANEMONE. I HEARD THAT THEY ARE KNOWN TO BE PUSHY, BUT WORRY NOT ! I HEARD THEY ARE ALSO VERY LOYAL TOO. REMEMBER TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, THE JU JAK ARE LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER !

the youngest of three! hara was born from a loveless marriage though she never witnessed very much of the ugly side as her eldest brother (jaehyuk!) shielded her from the worst of it

she never had a very close relationship with her parents as they were both very career oriented and absorbed with raising her second brother as a successor. therefore, jaehyuk was left mostly taking charge of parenting despite only being five years older. hara’s closest with her elder brother and has a general feeling of contempt towards her middle brother as he prioritized meeting their parent’s ridiculous expectations over genuine familial bonds. 

despite being the byproduct of a marriage of convenience hara grew up obsessed with the notion of true love. she loved everything love, lived and breathed rom-coms, swooned over lavish celebrity romances and poured over countless shoujo mangas. 

coming from a powerful magic family she never had much issue throughout schooling, adequate knowledge regarding spells and a firm grasp of control it wasn’t hard for her to skate by with minimal effort as her head stayed in the clouds dreaming of boys... girls sometimes - huh??... boys 

some might say she has wasted potential, though she thinks her skills are better used for matchmaking 

she very much prioritizes others happiness over her own working very hard to find them suitable matches (in part to see them happy and in part to boost her career, but hey, nothing wrong in helping yourself out every once and a while)

always falls into unrequited love with older, unattainable guys - ignores obvious signs of guys her age being interested, though that doesn’t happen often as they’re usually intimidated by her friends or brother

aggressively cares for a large network of friends, spreads herself too thin a lot but always remains most loyal to her childhood friends

she can be pretty ditzy at times, mostly from putting way too much on her plate - her over-confidence and pushiness sort of prevents anyone from ever saying anything to her

thinks humans are really cute, kind of fascinated by them

plots can be found here but i’m also very open to brainstorming and filling your wanted connections! ps can someone PLEASE bring in a matchmaker mentor for her thanks

☾*✧･ﾟ:*「 KIM DOYOUNG. CISMALE. HE/HIM. 」DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE’S A WIZARDIN HANEUL KNOWN AS NAM HAEJIN THEY HAVE BEEN LIVING HERE FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIFEE AND IS A TEACHING ASSISTANT. THEY ARE CURRENTLY TWENTY-TWO AND WAS A STUDENT AT CROCUS INSTITUTE OF HIGHER MAGIC IN THE HOUSE NIGHTSHADE. I HEARD THAT THEY ARE KNOWN TO BE COLD, BUT WORRY NOT ! I HEARD THEY ARE ALSO VERY PATIENT TOO. REMEMBER TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, THE JU JAK ARE LURKING AROUND EVERY CORNER !

born with a silver spoon, raised like a prince - haejin was raised given every luxury and advantage money could buy

his privilege didn’t come for free, it came with great expectation. his parents had met in late and life, and after many unsuccessful tries at pregnancy at last succeeded with haejin

his parents maturity allowed for great wealth and knowledge to be passed along as well as great responsibility and expectation as the sole heir to their (impressive) estate and potions empire 

he’s always been burdened with heavy responsibility though he has no qualms with his situation, raised fairly though at times strict he’s grown up with upright morals and standards 

wasn’t given much choice in choice of career as he pursued potions studies in order to prepare taking over his parent’s business, though he doesn’t fair well with social interaction he enjoys letting himself get consumed by academia. he thirsts for knowledge and is constantly studying and experimenting, has continued on to pursue an academic career post-grad in order to better his knowledge for when the time comes that he must take full duty over his family’s business 

his parents are very old, despite not looking the part, he senses their increasing weakness and draining power. though he does not openly seemed afflicted by it, he’s scared of their passing. 

one of the few youth with such elderly parents, as a result was not raised in the same social circles as most of his peers. more well acquainted with the social elite. 

definitely hates humans.

some more info! + i don’t have any plots fleshed out for him yet but i’m ready to brainstorm and fill out your wcs!! so hmu 

[tinyliltina]

Writing prompt 2 Explosion

Tina rubbed at her face. This day had gone too fast. But she was free. For now, she was finally off that damned ship. She shuffled through the small, quiet town. Over her dress was a burlap shawl she’d found upon entering the marketplace. Creatures, human and beast alike, meandered and pushed past her. She scanned faces, searching for any familiar features. The longer she found none, the more confident she became. Not calmer, but confident.

She slid into an alleyway, never more grateful for the musty smell of garbage. It surpassed the wooden, stale scents of the pirate ship she’d been trapped on for...how long had it been now, months? Time had become a nuisance for some time now. Tina ran a hand through her hair, feeling the greased, brown locks fall down her shoulders. She was in desperate need of a bath...the swim to shore had been unkind to her. But first, she needed a change. A queen’s attire was nothing to wear in the open.

Her shoes caught a fine price by a elder vendor, who gave Tina just enough pay to purchase a loose blouse and pants. She managed to weasel a small ration of lather for her skin and hair as well. With a stroke of dumb luck, she managed to convince a younger vendor to direct her to the public baths. Unsanitary as they were, Tina needed to scrub off some of the sea salt and sand. Hopefully, with cleaner hair and clothes, she’d be unrecognizable. Thanking the young man with what she had left, she headed to the outskirts of town.

True to the younger vendor’s word, a public bath was nestled between two large buildings. She was thankful there was no charge to bathe. Tina removed her new outfit from her person and bathed, mortified at the mount of filth that came out of her hair and skin. Had the walk to town been that far? It had only been a day at best, hadn’t it? Tina shook her head and sighed. She let the steam and quiet sounds of splashing overtake her. For now, she just needed to get clean and out of town. If she was lucky, the captain hadn’t noticed her absence.

When Tina was cleaned and dried, she returned to town. Her feet hardly felt the hot stones and sand. Walking barefoot on wood for as long as she had calloused her feet, she supposed. Tina stepped through the crowd, donning her burlap headscarf once more. As she moved through the hustle and bustle, she caught word of the town gossip. It was almost unavoidable, she supposed, in a town as small as this marketing stop.

An elderly woman commented on the horrendous attack on an unfamiliar ship that appeared in the harbor. A group of young women tittered about the state of the crew. From what Tina could tell, the crew was safe. Part of her felt relieved, and part of her terrified. While she was glad everyone was alright...that meant she had to be twice as careful to avoid getting captured. Tina stopped to let a group of people pass. As they walked, she listened to them chatter.

“Heard those pirates caught a queen and held her captive…” a burly, bearded man muttered. The man’s voice alone was enough to keep Tina’s attention.

“Mmh,” his skinnier, more nasally friend agreed. “Didn’t they lose her in the fight the other day?”

“As I’ve heard,” the burly man nodded. “Evidently, they’ve got her pet on board…”

Tina hissed. Razzy. He’d thrown her off the ship after the blast. She’d left him behind! Turning, she looked towards the entrance of town. It was then she caught a pair of familiar faces. The queen swore beneath her breath and turned, now moving further into town. The Captain had sent out their search party. She pressed past crowds of people and vendors, her head ducked low.

A quick glance over her shoulder gave her some hope. Kellian and Pine were looking around them. Better still, they were in human guize, most likely to prevent panic. That meant they’d be slower, at least to some degree. She had time to get away. Hopefully they wouldn’t pick up her trail. Though, with Pine being a naga, and Kellian part dragon...her chances of staying hidden for long were slim.

She moved fluidly through the crowd until the sight of a hat caught her gaze. Tina scowled. Of course, the damned Captain came to help search. Her eyes darted to an alleyway. Tina crept towards it, then broke into a sprint. If she could stay undetected until dark, her chances of finding Razzy and escaping with him would spike. Just stay hidden until dark in a strange place without any means of defending herself. Easy.

~~~

Ollie scowled as they caught sight of their first mate approaching them. The lanky man crossed his arms as they approached, eyeing Kiwi at their side.

“We ‘aven’t found ‘er yet.” He said flatly, blue eyes still scanning the crowd of market partrons. Pine ran a hand through his teal hair.

“Boss, I’m thinkin’ she left town,” Pine added. He rubbed at his legs, his distaste for them over his tail clear. “She’s smart-”

“Wouldn’ be searchin’ fer her if ya kept yer eyes on her properly,” Kellian growled. Pine glared at the taller man, but cast his gaze to the ground. He knew better than to challenge Kellian. Turning his attention to the captain, Kellian flicked his ears. “I caught ‘er scent at tha community bathin’ place, but after that things get tricky.”

The captain sighed and rubbed their face, then glanced to Kiwi. The snoodle growled at their side, but offered no input on the queenie’s location. With the queen’s snoodle out of commission from the blast, they were running out of means to find her. Their only chance now was the queen returning for Razzy… Knowing how attached she was to the critter, she would at nightfall, if not sooner.

“We’ll head back ta’ tha ship,” Ollie instructed. “Help patch tha ship up, an’ put Razzy outside under some trees. Let queenie see ‘im, and keep ‘im close enough so ya can grab Queenie when she comes fer ‘im.” Kellian and Pine nodded, and turned back towards the town’s entrance. The Captain spared one last glance into town and followed after them.

In hindsight, Oliver couldn’t blame the queen for running from the ship. They could hardly blame her for anything she’d said or done thus far. She made it a point to constantly remind captain and crew of what they’d done to her, what they’d taken from her, and how their abuse of her kindness hurt her. Oliver dragged a hand over their face. Why they’d done it was still beyond them. Taking the queen hostage had done nothing but cause their crew pain and frustration.

Every chance she got, Tina attempted to flee. Ollie hadn’t planned on keeping the queen on board as long as they had. Wherever they were in a position to take the queen home, something like the explosion threw them off track. Even the crew began questioning just when their captain would release their queenly captor and end whatever plan they’d had in mind. But for now, it was an explosive, terrible mess they had to fix. Soon.

~AN

Ooooh boy, part two of the fifty prompt long list I’ve been working on ajsjsj

I wanted to make this story longer so I might go back and add new parts later but this was getting too long for what I had in mind >~> this was supposed to be easyyyyy

Anyways this story is set in the pirate!verse owned by @oliverthesaltyedgelord and I. It’s by far one of, if not our edgiest and angstiest verses. If you’re not sure what’s going on, the Captain (Ollie) kidnapped the queen (Tina) from her home after raiding her kingdom, who trusted the band of pirates. And...hell pretty much ensues for Captain ;9;

So yeah!

Pine, Kellian and Captain!Ollie belong to @oliverthesaltyedgelord

Tina, Razzy and the writing belongs to me, @tinyliltina!

IF YOU ENJOYED READING, PLEASE REBLOG

[pwjins]

just neighbor things

summary: your new apartment life starts out rather bad, but luckily, your odd friendship with your new neighbor helps keep both yours and his life just a little bit more manageable. member: seongwoo genre: fluff?? neighbor!au???  a/n: i literally have no idea what im doing i’m so sorry  insp. by these au prompts!!

congrats

You just got kicked out of your parents’ house

And now you’re trying to haul 50 pounds of stuff into your new and kind of shitty apartment

But as a 3rd year college student with a questionable major 

Who has no idea what the fuck they’re doing

This was a pretty good start for you

The rent for the apartment was pretty cheap considering it was small

But anything you could afford with your half assed part time job at the local supermarket was good enough for you

You finally lugged the last of your boxes into your apartment, letting out a heavy breath

Instead of throwing yourself on the floor and rewarding yourself with a nap

You figured you should be a good new neigbor in the apartment complex

So you showered and freshened up, making yourself look less sleep-deprived and somewhat presentable

You rushed out your door and knocked on the door of the apartment to the left of yours

You were hopeful to make some new friends in the complex and get along with your neighbors

Since you’d be living here for a while

However, your hopes went down the drain when you heard the sound multiple cats screeching behind the door

And angry footsteps moving forward and swinging the door open

Which probably would’ve hit you in the face if you didn’t step back

You were faced with an elderly woman, holding a chubby cat in her arms that looked as pissed as she was

Still, you decided to be confident and move on, greeting her with, “hi! my name’s Y/N! i just moved–”

Before you could even finish your introduction she glared at you with her angry old woman eyes and cut you off

“new neighbor? ANOTHER kid?”

You were unable to even respond to her as she kept annoyedly complaning about something like “noisy kids” and “don’t know what they’re doing” and “no decency”

The second she finished her thoughts, she shut the door 

Without even greeting you, leaving you alone in the hallway

“nice to meet you too i guess” you mumbled

Okay, so not a great start

But hey you still had your other neighbor to greet who hopefully wasn’t an ass

With new high hopes, you knocked on the door a couple times, waited for a minute or two

But there was no response

You decided to knock a few more times aaaaaand still no response

Giving up, you figured that your neighbor was either dead, asleep, or out of the house

You really hoped it wasn’t the first one

As you were about to turn and head back to your apartment

A voice a couple feet down the hall called out to you

“hey, what’re you in front of my apartment for?” they said, sounding slightly annoyed

You stiffly turned around, not wanting to make yet another bad first impression

You were expecting another angry person to be yelling at you

Boy oh boy you were SO wrong

The second you turned around and faced the person, you swear your heart probably stopped

Oh my god he’s hot

You were faced with a tall guy, subtle dark circles underneath his eyes and a family size bag of hot cheetos in his arms like it was his firstborn son

But oh man did he rock that sleep deprived look 

He was probably around the same age as you, college student you assumed

You struggled to get your words out, only managing to sputter, “uhh i’m y/n! i’m your new neighbor?”

He raised an eyebrow, looking at you up and down and completely iGNORED YOU

Before unlocking his apartment door and disappearing inside without saying another word to you

Good job, y/n, first day in and you’ve pissed off both neighbors

He might’ve been cute 

But that didn’t mean anything if he was as much of an asshole as the elderly cat woman next door

You sighed and decided to wave the white flag for the day, retreating back into your apartment to rest

Your place wasn’t exactly super well furnished

So at most right now, you had a crappy mattress, some blankets, and your best friend, the coffee maker

But you just had to deal with it until you unpacked everything else so you crashed on your mattress

And scrolled through your social media until you knocked out

As if your first day/night in your new place couldn’t get worse

You heard some loud and rapid knocking at your door, waking you up from your sleep

It was dark inside your apartment and outside the window too

So you pulled out your phone to see what time it was, squinting at your bright screen in the dark

3:17AM

Literally who the fuck was bothering you at 3am

You groaned and threw your blankets off the mattress and got up to head towards the incessant knocking

When you finally got to the door, you threw it open to see the dumbass trying to bother you

“i’m tired what do you wan–” you grumbled, unable to finish your sentence when you saw once again

Your undeniably good looking neighbor from earlier who didn’t look too sober at the moment

He looked pretty disheveled at the moment, but still damn

His brown hair looked slightly messy and he wore a plain t shirt over black jeans, and the three cute little moles on his cheek caught your attention

Before you could even ask if he was okay because he clearly did not look like it

He immediately fell against the doorframe, leaning and holding onto it as to not fall over

And he began rambling endlessly without even giving you a second to comprehend what he was trying to say

“hi i know it’s like 3am i’m so soryr but i’m just really tired and really drunk right now and i dont’ know WHERE my keys are and the old lady next door scares me with her gardening shears so please hav mercy on me and let me crash for the night plus you’re pretty and i know we just met but i think i like you so hi hey how’s it going”

And with that, he fell asleep against the doorframe

what the fuck

One part of you just wanted to leave him there and go back to sleep

But then another part of you didn’t want to be sued for abandoning a helplessly sleep deprived guy

So you tugged him forward so that his body fell over your shoulders and you dragged his RIDICULOUSLY HEAVY BODY into your apartment

jesus christ i just wanted to sleep

You didn’t have any couch or chair to lie him down in

Nor did you have the strength or patience to lug him all the way to your mattress

So you decided just to leave him on the floor by the kitchen and threw a blanket over him

You mentally pat yourself on the back for being a good citizen of the world and crawled back into bed

Right as you were about to fall asleep again, loud snoring began to echo through the apartment

You sighed in regret, contemplating if bringing him in was even a good idea

But you just ignored it and pulled your pillow over your ears and finally got to sleep

The next morning, you tiptoed into the kitchen pouring out some cereal into two bowls and making yourself a mug of black coffee

As you waited for the water to boil, you walked over to the sleeping body in your living room

You squatted down in front of him and nudged his shoulders lightly

He didn’t budge at all so you started nudging him harder, basically almost shaking his shoulders till he started moving

His eyes finally cracked open and he began stretching his arms a bit before sitting up and rubbing his eyes

He looked around your apartment which was stilled filled with boxes and tons of junk lying around

Poor guy looked so confused until he saw you sitting in front of him

“well this doesn’t look like my apartment”

“no shit it isn’t” you replied

“i think you’ve got things backwards, first you wake me up at 3am drunk as hell, crash in my living room, eat my cereal, and i don’t even know your name yet” you said

He struggled to stifle a laugh as you got up to hand him a good ol bowl of Fruit loops and a fork

He accepted the bowl but held up the fork with an eyebrow raised at you

“look i just moved in and i can’t find my spoons so you’re just gonna have to eat with a fork” you shrugged, shoving fruit loops down your throat

“funny because my apartment has all spoons but i can’t find my forks,” he laughed, “the name’s seongwoo, ong seongwoo, but you can just call me ong”

You smiled at his humorous personality– he was definitely growing on you

“y/n, but maybe you would’ve know that already if you didn’t oh so gracefull ignore me yesterday,” you chuckled

“Yeah, sorry about that, running on 2 hours of sleep and hot cheetos can make a guy moody sometimes” he responded

And so began your long morning of eating cereal and talking with your new neighbor, seongwoo

You learned that he was a year older than you and went to college about 15 minutes away from yours

He used to live on the on-campus dorms but got evicted by his roommates after his 2nd year for being too noisy

And apparently the person that used to live your apartment before you came was some middle-aged man that would steal his coupons from the mailbox

So he was relieved that that DEMON was finally gone

His other neighbor was yet another old lady who was overly obsessed with her plants and would try to cut him with her shears if he got too close

The two of you bonded over complaining about old cat lady and old plant lady, laughing over your encounters with them

After demolishing your box of fruit loops and talking all morning, you asked, “hey since i basically housed and fed you for the last 8 hours, can you like please help me unpack”

He happily agreed and you both spent the rest of that afternoon unpacking the boxes and uncluttering the apartment

While you would unload the rest of the plates and bowls into your lower cabinets

seongwoo would be putting away the cups and mugs onto the higher shelves that you couldn’t reach

Finally you had some chairs and other furniture to fill the space so that you weren’t eating on the floor or with forks all the time

You finished unpacking nearly all of the boxes, leaving some in the closet for another day to handle

After you guys finished, you exchanged numbers in case you guys needed something in the future

“if you need anything or need to drunk crash at my place whenever you lose your keys, just knock really loudly,” he laughed, heading out the door and back into his own apartment

Turned out his keys were under the mat the entire time

After that incident, you guys just started depending on each other for a lot of things

Because you guys were basically each other’s only friend in a building of angry elderly women

If you ever needed something from a tall shelf and couldn’t get it, you’d just knock violently on the wall for seongwoo to hear on the other side

If the landlord was inspecting rooms to make sure they weren’t being trashed

You’d help seongwoo hide all of his junk in the closet to make his apartment at least look clean

So that he wouldn’t get evicted from ANOTHER place

Whenever you’d forget to bring one of your textbooks to class, seongwoo had your spare key and was only one text away

Would drive all the way to your school just to drop it off so you didn’t fail chemistry

And of course there were nights where you’d both go out to drink together just for fun and it didn’t matter whose apartment you both crashed in

As long as you could at least get in to one of them

Yeah both of you tend to forget your keys a lot LOL

Studying for your midterms and having a mental breakdown?

No prob, seongwoo’s got you

He’d come over with a bag of hot cheetos, a 6-pack of dr. pepper, and popsicle he bought from some ghetto vendor down the street

“i heard you slamming your head against your textbook from across the wall so i thought i’d come help”

Whenever he was sick of his job at his college’s campus cafe and wanted to go home, you’d call his phone and act like you were his dying relative

So his boss would let him go home early

And MOVIE NIGHTS

Every friday you guys have a ritual where you alternate between crashing at each other’s place and watching a movie until you both fall asleep

To cool off from the stress of being poor, tired students

But sometimes you guys argue over what movies you want to watch

Or what you guys eat as a snack

“bitch you picked the movie last week now give me the remote before i feed your house keys to the neighbor’s cat”

BUT IN THE END YOU GUYS ALWAYS HELP EACH OTHER OUT

Like you could knock on his door at 2AM just to rant

And he would let you in and feed you stale poptarts until you calmed down

Or you guys will do face masks together and do some EXTREME pore cleansing while watching reality tv shows

The only thing you guys can’t depend on each other for though is food

One time you barged into seongwoo’s place and begged, “i’m out of food please help i really can’t adult today”

And he’d laugh at you and say, “you know the funny thing about this is that you ACTUALLY think i can cook,” as he pulls out ramen cups out of his cupboard

and oh boy y’all are just really cute n friendly neighbors that help each other out 

[stanmxm]

im youngmin as a prince

this is my first time doing this bear with me please-- it’s also hellaaa long so i put it under the cut to save those who dont want to scroll past the whole thing lol

is highly highly highly respected and loved by everyone in his kingdom

hes so sweet to all his people like he’ll go out of his way to check on them and make sure they’re all doing well bc he loves his kingdom so much

even sent christmas cards and extra food to all the households in the town during the holidays like WHAT A SWEETHEART

anyways

he loves his kingdom so deeply you can imagine how on edge he becomes when his dad is suddenly ill and about to pass

bc now it’s time for youngmin to step in as king and like?? he’s nOT READY

but he can’t let his kingdom NOT have a king like his people need a leader-- and his mother bless her but she doesn’t really have leadership skills rip so youngmin is their only hope

BUT he’s not married.. he can barely talk to girls lmao but it’s against royal law (?) to become a king without a queen so

that’s where you come in

your family is more into the whole “TAKE ALL THE POWER” part of royalty so they really really want to take some control of as many kingdoms as possible

but brand new kingdom (SHOOT ME) (that’s youngmin’s kingdom btw) is way too big and powerful to overtake so what better way to gain some power than to give away their daughter aka you amirite

word gets around pretty fast that youngmin is looking for a wife so they ship you off HELLA QUICK LIKE YOU’RE OFF ON A HORSE BEFORE U CAN BLINK THEY’RE WAVING AND SHIT LIKE “GO GET U THAT MAN BRING US BACK A RICH POWERFUL HEIR”

ur mad the whole way there like tf what if you don’t like youngmin he could be an asshole

needless to say that when you get there he is in fact an asshole lol

there are a bunch of girls there tryna marry him i dont blame them like bitch sign me up and he just lines them up and is scanning them up and down

and ur like??? until he stops and says “mary’s dad has four children, three of them are named monday, tuesday, and wednesday; what’s the fourth child’s name?”

and now ur like ??????? wtf is he doing

until some girl on the opposite end of u yells all confidently with a really loud voice “thursday!!” and you just

you try to keep ur mouth shut and be nice but you just

“dumbass the fourth child is mary”

you realize that you swore and it was hella disrespectful so you open your mouth to apologize until

“find her a dress. i’m marrying that one.” youngmin points straight to you and says before walking out and you’re like wHAT

within a few days all your stuff is unpacked (into your own room bc youngmin wont let you near his) and you’ve had a wedding and get settled in as the new queen of brand new kingdom

all the while youngmin hasn’t said word to you? the only thing that you’ve heard leave his mouth since you were chosen was “i do” and das it

a few weeks pass and still, nothing from youngmin. the most he gives you is glares as you pass each other and requests for you to sign documents regarding the kingdom and stuff

but in the meantime you have gotten to know his mother who LOVES you and catches you up on the kingdom, how things work, what the people are like, and she even gave you a tour of the town once so you could meet everyone

you want to ask her some things about youngmin but figure it’s not your place.. so you go to the people instead LMAO

you visit a few families and shops and they all say the same thing: that youngmin is extremely sweet and warmhearted and that they’re all so blessed to have him as their king

you’re just like?? we’re talking abt the same youngmin right lol

one day you visit this little old lady’s florist shop in the corner of town and speak with her a little bit

she tells you that since spring season just started, you should prob look out a bit for youngmin bc his allergies start acting up then hands you a bouquet of periwinkle flowers and says

“these are his favorite and they don’t make him sick, can you give them to him for me and tell him to take care of himself? he must be awfully tired”

YOUR HEART IS CRYING OF COURSE YOU GOTTA GO GIVE HIM THE FLOWERS FOR THE CUTE ELDERLY LADY

that night you reluctantly go to youngmin’s office

you creek the door open just a bit to see him tugging at his hair as he looks over paperwork, obviously stressed over something

you clear your throat and knock on the door, causing youngmin to look up at you but he seems to just get more upset lol

“can i help you?” he has this really cold tone and ur like shit who put ur panties in a twist

“i visited mrs.kim this afternoon-”

“at the florist shop?”

“uh yeah, her, and she asked me to give these to you” you pull the flowers from behind the door and youngmin’s mood went 0 to 100 REAL QUICK

it’s like all the angry washed away from his face and his eyes just light up and he’s all smiley HE’S SO PRECIOUS

“periwinkles! those are my favorite- i can’t believe she remembered!” he happily stands and takes the flowers from you as you step into the middle of the room

“she asked me to tell you that you should take care of yourself” youre trying not to look him in the eye cause even tho he was being cute af you know he can be scary

youngmin’s smile starts to frown and now he’s pouting WHAT A CUTE BABY and he’s like “i haven’t visited her at all since i’ve become king. i haven’t visited ANY of my people”

he grabs one of the chairs closest to him and sits down, putting his head in his hands after setting the flowers on the table

youre kind of just standing there not knowing what to do until you hear sniffs and soft gasps and youre like omfg he’s crying

so you just awkwardly pat him on the back.. and say “do you.. wanna talk about it..”

turns out youngmin did wanna talk about it lmao he tells you how scared he is, says that he doesn’t want to fail his people and feels so stressed about everything

you tell him everything that he needed to hear: that all his people loved him and even if it meant that he couldn’t see them as often as he’d like he’s doing what’s best for everyone and according to the people you’ve talked to, he’s being a pretty amazing king

you end up being his listening ear after that-- he trusts in you more and talks to you when making decisions and at first you’re like? you really trust me with this

and he LAUGHS wow that was the first time you heard his laugh it was magical and he was like “i chose you because you weren’t stupid, remember?”

and you’re like OHHHH NOW IT MAKES SENSE

time passes and you and youngmin become closer.. it turns out that youngmin was being an asshole to you bc he truly believed that you should be in love before getting married, and felt that he was being cheated out of that bc of the whole situation

he was also kind of uncomfortable with u being apart of things because he didn’t know you that well so he didnt know if he trusted you BUT now you two are close and he needs you for every decision!!

one day after a long day of work and going over papers, you just so happen to fall asleep in youngmin’s office on the couch

and youngmin was trying to be considerate and everything right bc your bedroom was pretty far (it was really just a few halls down) but his was right there so why not

like

just take you to his room and cuddle you all night KJLFJKDFJKFD

needless to say you were surprised when you woke up in youngmin’s arms the next morning

happily surprised ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

after that you started “accidentally” falling asleep in his office more often

and youngmin would always “be considerate” and let you sleep in his bed

it came to a point where your maids got so sick of it that they packed up all ur shit for you and moved it into his room without you two knowing

at first yall were like “what?1!??1! no we totally aren’t living together!1!!1″

yall never tried to move your stuff out

it didn’t take long after that for youngmin to confess to you or for you to happily accept

sometime during your relationship you and youngmin get to spend a rare sunday afternoon in bed cuddling and just listening to each other’s heartbeats

until youngmin says “babe.. let’s get married”

and you snort and hold up your hand with your wedding ring

“youngmin, we ARE married”

your husband sits up and shakes his head, pulling you into his chest and leaning his head on yours

“i mean a real wedding where we can actually express how much we love each other without all the pressure and stuff for press. i just want to show everyone how much i truly love you”

GOODBYE I’M DYING HE’S THE CUTEST

before you know it there are wedding bells and you’re walking down the aisle wearing a dress you chose yourself this time and there’s your husband actually smiling at you with as much love as he can muster

the wedding goes amazing, your loved ones are all there to congratulate you two on being truly in love as well as the town to celebrate the greatest king and queen duo brand new kingdom has ever had

and there are lots, and lots, of periwinkles

[bakachipcookie]

Ok so I got promoted at work recently from just regular old Associate to supervisor. Which I mean awesome but that also makes me the COMPANY NARK APPARENTLY. We have a total of 3 managers, who only ever work 1 at a time in various shifts and they're usually doing maths and promotional marketing stuff for the store so they don't have time to make sure the employees are doing their jobs right. No, that is MY JOB NOW. My job, at this book store, consists of making the books look pretty, setting things up for being pretty looking, making sure the employees do their jobs and act as manager when needed (it's in the job description, there's a lot of stuff needs doing and it's also a keyholder position). Now, being that I got promoted, I was like "well this is a nice group of people who usually always do what they're supposed to do so I'm not gonna worry about it too much" but to THEM it was, "Hey this person who we've known as kinda cool for several months got promoted so we can do whatever the hell we want and she will let it slide because she is 'our friend' and 'totally not a nark, you guys'". So they decided to fuck around. When I confronted them about it, like "whoa dude you know you're not supposed to do that right? I mean you never did it before, can you please not?" So in response like 4 people got really upset and said I was being "bossy". BOSSY. THEY COMPLAINED. TO THE MANAGERS. THAT I WAS BEING BOSSY. YOU GUYS. IM KIND OF IN CHARGE OF WHAT YOU DO IN THE STORE. I AM SUPERVISOR. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS??? So of course I had to plead my case to the managers eeeeverytime it happened. And it's been almost two months. It happened again TODAY. Like WHAT!? LITERALLY WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF CHANGING THE STORE AROUND FOR SUMMER AND MY JOB IS TO MAKE SURE YOU DO YOURS WHILE ALSO DOING MINE, OF COURSE I AM GOING TO ASK YOU TO PLEASE DO THE THING SO WE CAN GO THE FUCK HOME ON TIME. GODDAMN. The WORST part is that I'm 23 and in charge of people who are at least 25 and over. Most of my coworkers are either married, married with kids who are in their teens, married and ELDERLY, or just general jackasses. And they HATE that I'm younger and got the job. There're another two guys who are supervisors but one is very well-respected and older with children and is super confident, so everyone kinda just does what he says no questions asked. The other supervisor that was hired recently to help me out is 19. And he doesn't really enforce rules and stuff because "well everyone is older than me so they won't listen to me anyway." To which I said, "how the hell did you get the supervisor job, then, and what did you think supervisor MEANT?!" But I digress. Point is that people are mad because I am #young and got the job to be in charge (sort of) and actually DO MY JOB. So. That's neat. Anyone else have this problem?

[toussainttomove]

“No Matter how Displaced One feels in one self and where one fits in the world. One should keep giving thanks and praises to life” ATB-WOD

Greetings People of this glorious earth!!!!!

It was a while ago I did my entry last month after my sharing at Pure Heart Centre and other amaizng work.

A lot has happend since we last connected. 

I shared Windows of Displacement @SOAS University and not blowing my own trumpet but it was so much fun. It was the first I felt so confident performing the piece. Personally I think it was because I prepared much better than I did before. I also stopped caring and went with how I have been feeling I need to be in this piece. You wouldn’t think a dancer who is alright looking may I add, has body issues but I do. I have insecurities, despite knowing that I am a cute looking dude. I am still much aware of some things I am unhappy in myself with these things come so much more to the fore front when you’re about to go on stage by yourself topless to dance and sing your story to a room filled with strangers. However they are strangers and may never see you again. So the conundrum continues. 

Soas University was amazing, I was put to ease by the audiences’ response to the piece. So much of what they were saying affirmed that the piece is relevant to now and needs to be made. The mission is not causeless and the rebel does have a purpose thus forth the rebel continues to make the work. The work is not only this piece though, the piece is only the tip of the iceberg poking above the water. The rest of the work is deep and unseen, it is the converstations I dear to have and the truth and power I express and reclaim. More projects are in the pipeline along the frequency of WOD. Some gentler and intimate some grander and more collaborative. 

Two members of the audience-not the whole audience I forgot to take pictures. 

I met some cool people at Soas and Paru the lecturer who got me in to perform even said; “If we were to ask someone to make a piece of theatre based on our migration and the diaspora masters degree it would be this show.” She said something along the lines of this and that just blew me away to be doing a piece of dance theatre and be recognised by an academic. This is what I wanted, performing there was for that achievement and I did it. (Pat self on back proudly) 

Here is a link to that fun performance. Watch share...

I came back to Leeds Feb 1st and was in the studio by Feb 2nd. (give me a break please... Barcelona)

This marked the beginning of working at RJC Dance. The special thing with working there is it’s so close to home. I literaly strole down the hill and im there. I have been working with Akeelah Betram, who is an amazing visual artist and such a sweet being. Seriously she destroys my worries with her quiet work method yet super positive and reasuring way of being. RJC’s space is so big I felt like I was going to get lost in it but from the days with sometimes no break, working like a crazy person I now feel like it is my space. Kathy who runs RJC is so excited so much so that she won’t even come in the studio to watch anything she awaits Friday 17th @7:30pm when I perform the entirety of the piece. Such discipline, it is understandable why she is so respected. 

Such a love filled photo. 

Today Akeelah and Omari took many pictures and videos of me in my costume. It made me feel used ad abused but its all part in parcel with the work. They make an amazing team, we couldn’t have planned it any better. I have been really enjoying learning about how I work. I am learning that there is actually no one way. Each day that arises something new comes to be donw, it is up to the artist to fall or rise when the occasion calls. For example today Akeelah and Omari became the directors, I have been the bossy boots and in charge of things recently and for the filmm to be honest I have had no ideas for it, luckily Akeelah has that vision. So in that instance for the work to get what the work deserves I had to fall to trusting my collaborators as they were in their element and I was just in a weird place of but I made the material like this and that. However movement needed to change for screen and so one had to adapt to bring the best out of what we were creating together. 

True smooth style.

I went to see the elders last Tuesday. I was covering their chair dance session which is usually with Deonapolis Clarke aka Naps. He is awesome such big shoes to fill but I gave them my heart and soul. That is all it’s about really absolute devotion and surrendering selffless. Afterwards I had words with a few Elders asking about Blues Nights which took place in Leeds a lot. Apparantly Leeds was one of the cities where people would come have a bender going to many different Blues in Chhapeltown then forget to go home haha. My self and Sai Murray are curating a project which looks like its going to be an epic one where we are going to bring some elderly togetehr with some young people. There will be a series of workshops which will introduce the groups and hold a space for them to learn things togetehr and transfer very important information. When and elder dies the world looses a library. True tings thus forth the artist work is to find new ways to engage the elderly and the youth so we don’t loose too much vital information. Humanity is a walking forgetful archive, we gots to sort it out mate. 

That transitions perfectly into talking about the Think Tank I was in on the weekend of Feb 4/5. Theama is the name and it is a think tank being orchestrated by a team working with Akram Khan. I was invited as an observer but you know me I don’t just observe haha. Im a sponge, soaking up as  much informnation and experience as I need in order to filter it into other places I may need it. I learned a lot in these conversations spanning the themes of mythology, technology, artificial intelligence, hip hop, school curriculum, anthropology, music, activism, art and family.  I was super grateful to be there. I met some amazing people who I never thought i’d be in a room with because I just didn’t. But any and everything is possible, I never thought I would have a one man show, but I do. I fully do haha. Check the thoughts which were illustrated throughout the day.....

It is pretty epic. The day felt like something of change was in the air. Paths were crossing. I remeber my first A level lectures in dance hearing my teacher talk about Akram Khan and then seeing his piece Rush. I fell in love with the movement, the dynamic, the rhythms. Fast forward 9 years and im in a room listening to Akram tell a story about his Dad, he’s sat next to Es who makes sets for the likes of Beyonce and Kanye West. If you told me i would of been there a year ago, I would of said how???

I am learning the how doesn’t matter. What matters is the intention. How comes in the now. 

Now I leave you as I am tired and I think ive told you everything. Oh waitI am filming the second part of the Random Acts (channel 4) project tomorrow so I need to be in super on it mode. Early night. 

I leave you with this awesome capture from today by Omari Swanston Jeffers aka Supa Black.

[leahimnotoriginal-blog]

Time Capsule Evaluation

After weeks of preperations and hard work, our production company concocted a perfromance following the Time Capsule Event breif. Feeling ready and prepared everyone gave it their all on the 2nd of December. It was an Amazng experience to work with all different talented people. This peice of written work will help me identify what was specifically good with in how I performed and what I should keep in mind for any future performances to improve on.

After watching back the performance that was recorded I found it interesting to look back and being able to pick out bits that i thought was good and things the I would need to improve on:

Skills

Projection/ pitch/ tempo - A very important part of performing is that to make sure your voice is matching up with the emotions and point of the scene you want to put across. I feel i did this particularly well in the ‘Charleston’ party scene when I play a character who is loving the 1920′s now woman have more freedom, The way i mainly show this is through physicality and voice; on my queue I scream loudly in an urge of excitement. I belive this to show exactly what i wanted it to and filled the entire space.

But There were a few times where I noticed I could have been louder. One of the time that stood out most was with in my monologue. The monologue consisted of a heart warming story, based on one of the Dacers Auntie and her life as a professional dancer. During this i know I should have projected a lot more as shown on the recording im not loud, So if i were to do it again i would practice projecting the monologue with all the actons and the tone of voice.

Facial Expressions - this skill also demonstrates to the audence whats is hapening in that scene and the emotions a character would be feeling. I feel as though i was quite consistant with most of my facial expressions and made the not too exagerated but not to subtle. Points i found my self acting through facial expressions a lot was when I was sat at one on the tables as though I was wtching the show not in it (Like in Cabaret).I found mysef sat next to Clover a lot and I feel we reacted appropriatly and relivantly to the show and the era.

There were some times where i was lacking in facial expressions; White Cliffs Of Dover. This was a song I was performing with in a duet, what i think went wrong here was, im not all that confident with my singing so I was focussing more on that rather than what I was physically doing. Some thng to improve on if i were to do the entire thing again. I would try not to stress as much while singing or at least make it less obvious by keeping in character and just carrying on like nothing went wrong if something doesnt go to plan.      

Body laguage - Again like ive said before voice and facial expressions show the audience the emotions on what hapening in the scene, body laguage and gestures are also a contributing factor. I think the main time I make my gestures deliberate and not naturalistic was while performing ‘Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher’. The entire sone is a mick take of how Margret Thatcher messed up a lot of people lives when she closed down the mines. This would obviously have effected a lot of the audience becuase they lived through it. Everyone else took part in an ensemble dance where they we just showing anger toward Maggie Thatcher and I come out as a mick take of Margret Thatcher with a cardboard cut out mask. Theres one point where i get tripped up at the front and fall over, seeing as i have a mask on i had to make a big gesture to show im falling over. If i had more time on this prject i would try and rehearse this scene more with the mask on because it was quite difficult to stick to the original blocking with the mask on.

Singing/ Vocals - In the time capsule performance I sang ‘White Cliffs Of Dover’  as a duet. I liked the idea of what would happen along side singing that me and my duet partner came up with. The idea was to Have people slow dancing behind us on stage (to use as kind of an example) and then have some of the the other members of our theatre company get up and ask the audience to dance alongside, this would then check of one of our brief key points; audience participation. The reason we decided to do this was because we both didn’t want the main focus to be on us, mainly me as I have not got the most confidence singing and I felt a lot more comfortable knowing that there was something else happening in the meantime the event I had messed up. I had made a mistake during the song by singing the wrong lyric at the wrong time. In the song its pretty much the same lyrics repeated apart from the last line of the chorus (which is where I went wrong) the first chorus the lyric is ‘tomorrow just you wat and see’ and on the second chorus its ‘tomorrow when the world is free’, I sang the first one on both, which isn’t correct.  If I were to perform this again I would listen to the song more to make sure I knew the lyrics inside out. Also, I made it somewhat obvious that I had made this mistake because my facial expression had totally changed so for future reference I need to make sure that even if something goes wrong I need to stay in character and carry on like nothing happened.

As far as me actual vocal side goes I feel like I have done myself proud because (like I have said before) my confident level is quite low, I think at times I could have projected more and try not to let confidence come effect projection. Also, the harmonies were there but they were not as strong as I would have liked them to be I feel like me and the duet partner wasted some time trying to come up with them on our own and we should have gone to someone who knows a bit more about harmonies and asked them for, which is what after trying them ourselves)  

Dancing – I didn’t take part in much of anything dance wise during this performance, I feel like if the company had more time on this performance I would have tried to get involved with a dance at some point in the performance. As someone studying Musical Theatre I feel it would benefit me a lot if I had some experience with dance so in future performances this is definitely something to look into.

The Rehearsal Process

As a Theatre company, I feel as though we used the majority of our rehearsal time effectively. We didn’t have all that long to come up with ideas and devise a performance consisting of all three; Acting, Singing and Dancing. We all contributed a bit of something in each rehearsal, whether that may be an idea, peer feedback, sourcing props ETC. But obviously, there were things that everyone could do to make our time spent more effective.

For me personally I feel as though I occasionally took advantage of time especially when all the people I was in scenes with were busy. I could have been going over my monologue or the harmonies in ‘White Cliffs of Dover’. Within the next performance, I need to make sure that anytime I feel as though I have nothing to do, find something because there is always something. Also, I think it would have been beneficial to come in on my days off and rehearse more with peers just to get those scenes that I felt unsure about in the performance, secure and fully confident with. Not a scene as such but I feel like an example of needing extra time (Extra rehearsals) this would have been the transitions between the scenes and knowing the entrances and exits inside out.

Improvements

I have already referenced what improvements I would have made regarding my skills and techniques but there’s also improvements that I would make more toward the brief and the target audience’s needs. One of the main parts I feel I lacked was audience participation, at points there we opportunities given for me to get up and dance with the audience in ‘Shout’ what held me back from this was if I had asked someone who was not fully capable to get up and dance to a fast pace song that would then mean I wasn’t considering the needs of the target audience (elderly people who tend to have reduced mobility)  

Also, I believe throughout the performance many of my peers went around the tables in character of staff serving tea and socialising with the audience. Due to my confidence level and how consistent my scenes where it didn’t have the chance to do this. So, if I were to do the performance again I would push myself to take part in this and contribute more to the cabaret experience for the audience.  

Conclusion

Throughout the weeks our theatre company has had to do this I feel not only have we devised a community arts show and performed it but we have bonded as a group while doing so. The meaning of community art is;

Giving out a moral into society using the creative arts in the community via singing, dancing and acting. Coming together as a group to pass on an impressionable message and give back to those around us.

For our group, it was our aim to help the Dementia and Alzheimer patients with in our community reminisce about their entire lives using songs, skits, familiar scenes, dance and performance styles and costume from different era’s (1920’s to 1980’s). I believe by doing a lot of research into all the era’s we made a somewhat accurate performance that I truly hope they enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed taking part.

[noseydewdrop]

Training week in Hamamatsu Japan

I stepped off the shinkansen in the twilight of the city lights and into the Hamamatsu station exit terminal. It was like an airport. Clean white marble walkways and walls with shops embedded in them. There was a pianist playing on what was a beautiful stage disguised as a hole in the wall. “Kawai” was plaqued next to his podium and I guessed the brand of the piano and at the time I thought nothing of it besides how beautiful the music sounded. People stopped and we shared feelings and some even recorded him. I rounded the corner in a rush to find the nearest restroom and I noticed a really elderly Japanese woman with a cane, and a woman which appeared to be her daughter. She was walking very slowly but had a very healthy and happy expression. If I had to guess she was 100 or really close, It made me think of my grandmothers and how they are both 94 this year and how healthy they are for their age. It warmed my heart to witness their interaction.

As i left the station the feeling of clean air in the deep purple sky came over me, the last minutes of light before darkness. The nighttime was noticeably different coming from the biggest city in the world, to the biggest city in a more rural prefecture. I pressed on to find my hotel with my heavy backpacks. For the first time since leaving America, I noticed a group of foreigners in the lobby of my hotel, and immediately fell into my introverted shell. “Maybe they wont think im here for training too” since I was wearing a mask and have been mistaken for being native countless times. My bags were under a net off to the side, which had bells as a security measure if anyone tried to get to them. In my struggles of checking in using Japanese, and attempting to grab my bags without permission, I don’t think I came off anything less than Gaijin to them. It was extremely embarrassing.

The rest of training felt less stressful everyday. I met people naturally from all over the world. I’ve never been in a group of people so culturally mixed. I felt the strange feeling that I am actually representing America for once, and that was so weird. I’ve come to learn the perception of Americans is so different than who I actually am. Most people only know Trump or famous actors and musicians so generally I feel so welcome to people thinking I would be as boisterous as the president. But I have met a few people like that here.

The morning of, I had no idea what to expect besides the serious covid measures set in place. It was the first time everyone had to wear masks, and I think that really helped me feel more comfortable. There were about 40-50 new teachers. We were put into groups of 4-5 trainees based on region and were assigned a facilitator that would coordinate group demos, luckily we didn’t have to do anything in front of the entire group if we didn't want to. The day was broken up with multiple lectures on how to instruct, practicing what we learned and feedback. The first 2 days was ES and the last 3 were JHS and living in Japan preparation. I took so many notes it felt like I was back in biology class in college, it felt weird since some people didn’t take any. I just like being as prepared as possible I suppose.

I was SO unprepared the first day of training. Naturally I was very shy and soft spoken. I am not someone who can improvise and feel comfortable in any situation but honestly its the best way I learn, being thrown in with the sharks. The improvement I made throughout the week was drastic and my facilitator told me I really reminded him of when he first started teaching in Japan 10 years ago, and that the kids would love me. That really gave me the confidence I needed to feel at the time. I still had no idea what to expect.

In between training days consisted of resting in the hotel room, studying Japanese and exploring the city. I learned Hamamatsu is the city of music in Japan and its where Yamaha music, Suzuki and Honda motorcycle companies were founded. It’s also famous for unagi which was way to expensive for me to try. At night on the main street there were many guys standing outside the restaurants they worked trying to get us in but when they realized we can’t speak well we were left alone for the most part but they were a bit more pushy. I really like the city vibes in Hamamatsu but its no where near as massive as Tokyo. A much less crowded city felt so different than what I was use to, yet everyone emanated a very friendly vibe much different than in Tokyo.

Friday came and gone and we were left to enjoy the weekend with very lenient corona precautions. Most teachers went out drinking but I decided to stay in for the night as I was so mentally exhausted from the week. I ended up flipping through the channels around 8pm in my hotel bed and Kiki’s delivery service was playing. I watched it in Japanese for the first time without subs and my childhood self was so happy. My week couldn't have ended any better.

The next day we had a health check and we were told to meet at the station at specific times. I didn’t see the time sheet they posted the day before but luckily my friend snapped a picture of it. Apparently during his checkup an hour before mine, his group was approached by a man with a clipboard and he was trying to get them to sign up for a group and get their personal info, one of them said it was very sketchy sounding. I felt fortunate to not have anyone with that description approach my group. Since it’s a pretty big station, I’ve heard many people wait around to approach a touristy/foreign person and try to sell you something or what not. All the people I’ve talked to were really friendly and nice to me. I can’t help but feel I avoided most of those weird interactions due to my appearance. Phew.

The next day was the last day before all the trainees disburse throughout the Kansai/Chubu region. I dreaded the thought of catching an early train to meet the person to help me with my apartment setup at 10am. Luckily it was only an hour by shinkansen (and it was paid for by the company), so I went down to the lobby, shipped my bags with Yamato (their luggage delivery service is amazing), and met one of my closest friends so far in Japan. He’s from the UK and I’ve never talked to him during training but somehow he ended up in the group in front of me, even though he is living in the same town as everyone but 1 person in my 4 person group. We bonded over cultural differences and experiences the entire train ride. I kept thinking before moving here I only had 1 friend from the UK before, and how there is so much to learn from everyone I am closest to here.

We were rushed off the train in east Shizuoka and parted as we were meeting at opposite sections of the station. I arrived 20 minutes early to drop off my pocket WiFi rental at the nearest post office.

It was rainy with a fresh scent away from the city, it felt like home but without the petrichor of the forest.