#suuuuper super late but i finally got around to this and!!

[strayslost]

Elise knows this child well. Not personally, as a friend or even a casual acquaintance - no, it's more accurate to say she knows of them, because the name Yumeno Kyusaku is infamous throughout all of the Port Mafia.

Rintarou had spoken of her to them before, in that cold, clinical way that he spoke of everyone. Chuuya had only mentioned them to her a few times, but though he was blunt and seemingly dismissive, she knew well- that he regretted that way they'd been handled. Not just by the Port Mafia as a whole, but... how Chuuya himself had treated them, too.

So it's no surprise that it makes her wonder what she should do. Chuuya hadn't given her any specific instructions, but she knows that he wants them to be freed - yet is still afraid, on some level, about what might happen afterwards. He doesn't know how to go about freeing them, either, in such a way that won't lead to a disaster. Elise thinks it's a little mean of him, but... anyway, now that they're in the past, they're both currently stuck pretending to be under Rintarou's rule, so they can't really do anything regardless.

...But Elise couldn't help but visit Kyusaku anyway. While Rintarou is sleeping, she snuck out on her own, visiting the prison that keeps them away from the world, smiling as she walked. She wonders what it's like to live in a prison... ah. Actually, maybe she doesn't need to wonder about it at all.

"Hehe... Hey, Kyusaku? You're there, aren't you?"

@theircurse ( starter! )

[arach-tinilith]

fashionably late but for as many of your ocs as you want: 1, 5, 10, 11, 17, 19, 20, 26, 30, 40, 42, 43, 56, 61, 69, 72, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 104, 105

1.What is their backstory and why did you choose it?

Noble! She's First Priestess of house Duskryn so it made sense. I really liked the idea of playing a disgraced noble and especially from the drow perspective 

5. Does your Tav have any family members and are they close?

She has her mother Prae'anelle Duskryn, (pleaseee don't ask me her birth father i am NOT SURE) she has an older brother, Arzeni and like a lot of cousins lol. Her family framed her for the death of her consort and want her DEAD they're uhm not close

10. What was your Tav like as a child?

Naadja was the model drow citizen as a child. So she was a conniving little shit. She'd spread rumours, steal from nobles who were visiting her home, she'd purposely hurt herself then blame it on her brother so he'd get punished. Mummy's little princess.

11. What goes through your Tavs head when they wake up on the Nautiloid? Are they scared?

She's honestly in so much shock she can't really do anything but move forward. Oh, a Gith? Alrighty then guess that's fine. Pod that turns people into tentacle monsters instantly? Neat. 

17. Does your Tavs starting armour reflect them? If not, what would they wear instead

NO she's coming from the Aevendrow so she'd have a wool cloak probably lined with fur and I wanna think it has arm sleeves so she's free to cast or draw her sword LIKE THIS

19. What's your Tavs personality like at the start of the game? Does it change towards the end?

She's suuuuper paranoid, also conflicted. She hides her nobility from the group because she's honestly ashamed of it. But she feels an injustice has been done to her so she wants vindication in the form of blood and she isn't really sure if these people will understand 

20. Finally, what does your Tav feel as the Nautiloid crashes? Are they scared? Are they trying to survive?

A bit of acceptance honestly. Like she almost thinks she deserves death…. And then she lives 😈

26. What does your Tav think of Raphael?

Cannot trust a WORD outta this guy's mouth. (She has a fetish for infernal beings btw noooo comment)

30. Who does your Tav think of when they go to sleep at the Tiefling party? Or do they get lucky and get to spend the night with the person they want?

She's spent like, a good couple decades punishing herself for her past. She's just trying to have a fun time. Astarion promises her FUN … it was super awkward 

40. Did your Tav agree to kill the guardian or did they go talk to them instead?

They talk! She doesn't do shit for goddesses 

42. How does your Tav react to the shadow curse? Are they scared of the dark?

It's super uncomfortable for her. She's not scared of the dark it just makes her feel ill in the cursed lands

43. What does your tav think of Jaheira and the Harpers?

She was unimpressed at first but after talking to Jaheira she lovedddd her

56. What did your Tav think of the mindflayer colony?

Yeah that was the turning point for her really. Up until then it was just about removing the tadpole but this is when she started realizing she had serious responsibilities. (Also when she saw what was done to Minthara…)

61. How does your Tav feel about Baldur's Gate? Is it their home? Is it their first time in the city?

She hates it to be honest. The people are so loud and obnoxious, the weather is horrible. Its her first time there she does NOT get the hype

69. Does your Tav run into Orin? If so, what's their first opinion?

She fell for the love test trick. She was pretty intimidated ngl immediately got paranoid and started asking around camp

72. How does your Tav enter the city?

She uhhh killed all the deep gnomes. So she had to sneak around the side hehe

87. Did your Tav side with Gortash or did they agree to kill him for Orin?

She did the alliance up until letting Karlach rip him to shreds. She was not sharing the city with that guy lol

88. Did your Tav successfully resist the netherbrain?

NOPE i got tired of savescumming

89. Did your Tav side with the Emperor or do they free Orpheus? Do they become Illithid or does one of their companions do it? Do they give the nether stones to the Emperor/Orpheus?

ALL MY HOMIES HATE THE EMPEROR she freed Orpheus (mainly because there's no WAY we got that hammer for nuthin) and Orpheus used the netherstones teehee

90. Do they betray the Emperor/Orpheus/their companion to become the Absolute?

Nope! She's got bigger plans😏

91. Does your Tav get a happily ever after?

Kinda! She's doing what she wanted. It's maybe not the “nice” ended but its my favourite ending

92. Where does your Tav end up after defeating/siding with the Netherbrain?

In the Underdark! And I have lore about this of course😭

93. What do you think happens to the party afterwards? Do they go for drinks? Part ways

I HOPE a bath tbh but drinks is nice too

94. Years after the game, what do you think your Tav is up to?

Probably waging war against the noble houses of the Underdark with Minthara, Zafyna, and Astarion (and the spawn army) :3

95. What do you think of your Tavs development throughout the game? If you compared them to the start, what would be different?

A LOT more confident, less deceptive as a defense mechanism. I think she realizes how capable she actually is, and stops needing reassurance 

104. Who did your Tav romance? How did this romance develop throughout the game? What happened at the end?

She romanced Astarion lol she really did not trust him at ALL but the more he enabled her to be like, herself the more comfortable she was. Also in my awesome mind palace (bc i didn't have poly mod) she romanced Minthara later game. Which, the Minthaadja romance goes insane to me but i could go on about that😭

105. Anything you want to say about your Tav! Give a random headcanon, answer a random question, say whatever you want!

Okay my girl suuuuucks at basic life skills 😭 she's used to being doted on ngl she can burn water and has like poor hygiene because she always had handmaidens. No fault of her own! But like eventually the team catches on bc she's….stinky…. and offers to teach her and she's like “ugh fine😒😒😒 i guess I'll do it the surface way” LIKE NICE SAVE 👍

[snuff-loves-men]

ALP Character HCs

⋆GN!Reader + NSFW HCs

⋆list includes: Connor Temple & Johnny Harker

*note: I jus wanna get this shit outta my drafts

Connor Temple ✮

Pre-relationship

• Met you when he attended college and immediately latched onto you

• You humored his ridiculous conspiracies, enjoyed his passion for prehistoric things and theories and had similar interest in movies

• Was thrilled to have more friends

• When he pulled out of college, you sought him out, it worried you that such a bright peer dropped college for seemingly no good reason

• He sort of accidentally maybe told you a bit about the anomalies and what he was doing with Professor Cutter

• You obviously thought he was batshit insane but lo and behold, he was telling the truth

• You figured that out the hard way when you encountered an entelodont fresh out of a rip in time

• Needless to say that changed your view a bit

• So you became a sort of witness to the whole ARC operation until you were recruited to be “the help”, basically just doing whatever the main team didn’t do [like paperwork…]

• After a few months of working there you, Connor and Abby started to get close, forming a little group

• Occasionally when you weren’t held up at work or they weren’t risking their lives, you’d all hang out.

• It was a cute dynamic for a while

• Until you and Connor started to hang out seperately

• Bringing him over to your flat a handful of times w/out Abby

• When Abby caught wind of this, she had a bit of a feeling where it was heading

• You and Connor ended up becoming best friends, spending pretty much any spare moment you could with each other, Abby sometimes tagging along for the adventure

• Then another noticeable dynamic started, where you would start messing with Connor and he’d be blissfully unaware of the fact you were joking

• Has no idea what’s going on when you flirt w/him

• Thinks it’s just a “fun friend dynamic” at first

• Uh-huh, cuddling up with your homies during movie night is suuuuper normal, Con.

• You don’t hold your friend’s hand from time to time? Psshh, weird.

• You gotta cry into your bros arms every now and then, y’know, for your health

• Abby points out the fact that you’re actually being very forward w/him

• He doesn’t believe her at first and just excuses it but she quotes some of the most unhinged things you’ve said to him and it finally clicks

• Slowly he starts to flirt back and you jump on that shit immediately

• He pulls a “make me” and you almost explode

• Struggles to get acclimated to using the humor he used w/ Abby on a guy

• He gets it but it takes a minute

• Eventually you two get into a sorta will-they-won’t-they because it’s Connor and he’s perpetually confused about relationships

• You close the deal and give him a kiss plus an extensive talk on relationships bcs he needs deets

• Everyone in the ARC catches on pretty quick

• Of course they clown on you two for it bcs duh

• Once Stephen saw you two have a tender moment and just ragged on you for like 5 minutes and Connor got super embarrassed until he realized he was joking

• Abby was super supportive but also your biggest bully

• She mostly picked on Connor but every now and again she’d change targets

• Overall lots of figuring each other out and starting some cute little dynamics

Established Relationship

• Lots of time spent in each other’s work spaces not getting work done bcs you two were fucking around doing random stuff

• He also stayed around your place and eventually moved in cause when has he ever held down a flat that was his?

• You had to fully mold him into a better roommate there was absolutely no way you were gonna put up w/ that

• Steals ur shirts and over-layer clothes [borderline klepto when it comes to clothes]

• Has made you late to work so many times

• Can’t cook for shit so you have to do it for him

• A very good helper in the kitchen but otherwise culinarily inept

• Loves helping you with chores and other various excuses to share some cute domestic moments

• Had to be retaught how to do laundry cause what the fuck was he doing before??

• Asked you to help decorate his room when he moved to your flat and you made fun of all his nerd stuff [he claimed you were jealous of his collection]

• Harasses you to come to movie nights w/ Tom and Duncan

• Movies nights just turn into all four of you talking over the movie and ranting abt your opinions on it

• Lots of debates abt in universe realism and plot holes

• Con infodumps relentlessly about Star Wars or other such sci-fi type movies/shows whenever he’s given the chance

• You two go back and forth about your fixations and listen to each other equally because ur gross and in love

• Enables your fixations like you enable his

• Otherwise has a bit of trouble listening the first time and has to be reminded of things

• Very grateful for your patience with him

• Lots and lots of affection and compensation for “dealing” with him [it’s really not that bad but he feels guilty so you let him]

• Insanely loving and affectionate in private but dials it back in public

• Has a weird thing with PDA, very on and off with it depending on the situation [usually PDA positive]

NSFW

• Gets turned on so fast

• If you touch him a certain way or talk to him in a way he likes there’s like a 9/10 chance he’s tomato red and tugging his shirt down

• Make a comment on his body and he’s beet red

• If you put your hands on his waist he’s fully leaning back and melting into your touch

• Mindlessly run your hands on his sides and he’s shivering at the feel

• He loooooves when you make him feel weightless, tossing him around or picking him up has him giggling like a schoolgirl

• Fully sits on your lap whatever chance he gets

• God forbid things actually get hot and heavy

• If you make out with him he’s whining and open-mouthed

• Touch his thighs and his hips twitch until he remembers himself

• Will crawl into your lap and grind on you if you let him

• Goes crazy for neck kisses

• Insanely easy to wind up

• Takes him a while to get over his virgin demeanor but he gets there

• Used to be a very selfish lover until he learned how much he loves making you feel good

• Either a service top or the bottomiest bottom

• Won’t turn down doing nothing but generally tries not to

• Sometimes he completely forgets in the heat of the moment and just lets you do whatever

• Eager to please at all times, will try pretty much anything if he thinks you’ll like it

• Once you find stuff you both like he wants it any time you guys do the dirty

• He figured out he liked being manhandled and you were on it

• If you push him up against a wall it’s over

• Not like he weighs very much but it still makes him feel special

• You also made a habit of overstimulating him because he cries but still tries so hard to keep from pulling away because he still wants it

• On certain days he’ll specifically seek out that treatment

• Likes to feel powerless against you [really he just likes the attention and how it feels but that’s his “reasoning”]

• Vibrators.

• That’s it.

• Simultaneously his favorite and least favorite addition to the bedroom

• Loves when it’s used on him but also gets easily overwhelmed by it

• It’s so-so

• Face down ass up type of guy

• Takes that position pretty much every time you two fool around

• Likes when you grab his waist and get rough

• Also likes when you slap his ass but that’s only sometimes

• Emotional during sex, 100%

• Not the cry during sex type but gets very sappy

• Lots of “I love you”s in his horny ramblings

• Begs.

• Doesn’t even have to be prompted he just does it when he’s close

• So very vocal

• Not loud vocal rather he makes some semblance of noise the whole time, very whiney

• Likes being marked up with hickies only you two can see, he likes seeing the reminders of what you two did

• Lots of kisses and tenderness, loves feeling close to you during it

• Needy once he’s in the moment but usually doesn’t initiate

• If he initiates he is incredibly horny

• Those are usually the times he has to be touching you no matter what

• He’ll be all over you, constantly demanding your attention and touch

• Though it’s rare he ever gets like that

• Usually only if you tease him a bunch but never give him any release

• Not an overtly sexual person but obviously won’t turn it down

Johnny Harker ✮

pre-relationship

• Asshole.

• There’s no polite way of going about it he’s just sort of an asshole

• Has a bad habit of taking his anger out on you

• Fist fought you more than once

• Not a great start but any sort of relationship w/Johnny is hard earned

• He makes it difficult on purpose

• If you partner up w/ him on the job he will shit on you for any missteps or slip ups

• Has pointed a loaded gun at you at least once during a really bad fight

• You’ve kicked his ass [if you bring it up he’ll start shit all over again]

• Very bitter if you outdo him at something

• Once you earn his respect, he eases up a bit and cuts you some slack

• Takes a while but starts biting his tongue if you do something he disagrees with

• Starts to actually joke with you and let you see his less serious side

• He starts to act like a somewhat normal person once he knows you’re in it for the long haul and aren’t a coward

• Fights get less common but still happen bcs he’s perpetually pissed off

• One time you got hurt really bad and he damn near had a stroke, lots of conflicting emotions

• It’s hard for him to comfort people, he has a hard time not just logic-ing his way through other people’s problems

• Will always patch up your wounds and poke fun at you for getting them

• Same goes the other way around, you once stitched up a bad gash on his stomach and he couldn’t stop staring at you

• Would never in a million years admit to having feelings for anyone first

• You made the mistake of joke flirting with him once and he had a moment of “proving” how straight he was and it actually contradicted his whole point

• Gets butt hurt whenever someone jokes about you guys’ odd relationship

• Slowly starts to get defensive over you but will always deny it if you bring it up

• Finds any excuse to spend time with you

• He teaches you how to disassemble all of the guns in the armory and how to clean and work each one

• Tells you about any and all tech he has in the hideout

• Literally just wants to teach you stuff because it makes him feel good and brings you two closer

• Still, never gonna admit it

• After a really bad mission where you fully almost died he was livid pissed, simultaneously at you but also in general

• He took some of his frustration and worry out on you

• You obviously didn’t respond great to that after almost getting murked

• It turned to pushes and shoves until uh oh, you were against a wall

• It went how you’d expect, after a moment of high tension and debating wether or not you should throw a punch, he kissed you

• Hard and rough, almost hard enough to bruise

• Till eventually he dialed it back a bit to a somewhat normal make out sesh

• Still hot and heavy tho bcs duh it’s Johnny Harker

• Needless to say there was no prancing around it after that

• He started warming up to the idea of being a little more openly caring

• It was a hard lesson for him to learn

• Until this time he got badly hurt and realized he never wanted to feel like he didn’t get a chance to say what he truly felt for you

• So he sucked it up and started properly communicating and occasionally showing affection aside from the seldom shoulder pat

• You off handedly brought up your relationship and how you noticed a change in him

• That got him talking about how he really felt

• Thus, the relationship bloomed

established relationship

• it takes him a comedically long time to realize being in a relationship usually means showing it

• god forbid you try to show him affection when someone else is around

• does some dramatic shit like rip his hand away and look at you like you kicked his dog or some shit

• whenever you’re in private tho? he won’t leave you alone. he’ll be sitting right next to you, shoulders touching at minimum at all times. holding your hand or having you lean on him

• he’ll probably kill you and then himself if someone catches you, but it’s worth it.. probably

• so, so touch starved. it’s sad

• anytime you two have a cute domestic moment, he gets really existential and weird

• to him, any sort of relationship is hard to find and even harder to keep due to how he lives, so you were a total enigma to him

• it all comes back to him being grateful you’re there

• if you tell a soul he said those words he’ll punch you in the throat

• anyways

• going on missions together is always a massive hit or miss

• you’re either the perfect duo, killing vamps like it’s nothing, or constantly arguing and unable to find a good method

• most times you’re a good duo, tho, hold onto that

• insanely protective and possessive of you. like, concerningly so sometimes

• if any of his teammates act a certain way around you? he’s staring. if they joke flirt w you? he’s there. if they try some shit? his hand is on your waist and he’s starting shit

• not to mention if shit goes sideways on a mission, he’s like an animal, it’s scary

• will either fully deny he’s like that or be like “duh, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t murder someone for you?? tf??”

• no in between

• loves food

• the way to his heart is thru food and a good drink

• whisky drinker probably

• make this man some home cooked food, give him a glass of cheap whisky, plant a kiss on him and he’s head over heels

• if he wasn’t favoring you before, he was now

• if you two ever fight, bringing him a plate of food will almost always make him more receptive to conversation

• listens a loooot better after a while of you two dating

• he becomes way less insufferable tbh

• overall, a very broody, protective partner who adores your presence in his life

NSFW

• low sex drive

• he just doesn’t really seek it out

• but catch him at the right moment, and he’s on you like a dog

• fresh off a mission, during a spar session or in the middle of an argument? he’s hard as a rock

• he’s an adrenaline junkie, so anything that gets his cortisol levels concerningly high turns him on

• he’s odd

• loves being kind of mean during it

• big into degradation, he thinks it’s so hot

• both ways, if you call him desperate or useless he’ll explode

• biting.

• he loves biting you and leaving a shit ton of marks

• he wants everyone to see that shit

• almost always plants a big bite right on your neck, it’s like his signature

• very proud

• always strives to make you as noisy as possible, abusing all of your weaknesses at once to achieve it

• orgasm denial is big on his list of yeses

• hearing you beg to cum gives him an insane power trip, and he’ll never get sick of it

• also makes an attempt to cum inside you every time, another ‘marking’ thing, but you think he just doesn’t wanna pull out

• you don’t blame him

• loves when you ride him, being able to look up at you and guide you through while not having to do as much work is heaven

• definitely holds you really tight no matter the position, he either holds your hips or wraps you up in a sort of hug

• even if he’s rough he still wants to be close to you

• very very selfless lover

• if you want it, he’ll go as long as you want him to

• still asks for some reciprocation from time to time and who would deny that face?

• he’s such a sucker for blowjobs oh my god

• fastest way to make him nut is probably giving him a bj

• he’s normally the grunting type, but he’ll get vocal during a blowie

• full blown whines and praise if you catch him in a really horny moment, he’d also have little to no restraint and try to fuck your face tbh

• he has a hard time roping in any of his physical impulses like holding too tight, pulling and pushing or whatever else, but he gets a handle on it eventually

• overall 10/10 good lay, definitely would be an even better hate-fuck

[divineblood-cb]

ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: Bad Memories Of The Past, Degradation, Blood Drinking/Large Amount Of Blood Loss & Resulting Sickness Mentions, Death Mention(Kind Of).

𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 — 𝙹𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚐.

ᴊᴀɴᴜᴀʀʏ 𝟿, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹. 𝟾:𝟻𝟾ᴘᴍ.

So… We been here a while now, I kinda really like it out here… The forest is real nice! Suuuuper big! So, the others jus’ let me run around ‘n’ do whatever I wanna! Haven’t been this free since before meetin’ Mr. Bang, but, I ain’t too sure I was free back then either… I told ya pleeeeenty of times ‘bout how it was back then ‘n’ I ain’t in the mood to say it again. Even though, it’s been brought up a lot lately… Both Hwa ‘n’ Mr. Bang basically callin’ me a whore… NEVERMIND, I AIN’T GETTIN’ INTO IT.

I do wanna get into somethin’ though!! Ya neeever gonna believe it! BUT! I finally got my fancy automatic firework igniter thing to work! Figured out aaall the kinks~ ‘M super proud of myself~ Hope ya are too! Especially ‘cause Mr. Bang ain’t… He also ain’t too proud with how I ran off after they went off… Got in quite a lot of trouble for that, he drank loooots of my blood as punishment. Thought he might’ve been killin’ me actually- Of course he didn’t though, ‘cause I couldn’t be writin’ this if he did, duhh~ Jus’ woke up, suuuuuper sick. Bleh.

It was worth it though. He made it all worth it… Ah, ya don’t want me to get aaaall sappy here, I could talk ‘bout him ‘n’ all we did for…a looong time. Soooo, instead, I give ya a song I been listenin’ to a whole lot~ Actually! Have two since ‘m feelin’ generous~

Dynasties and Dystopia - Denzel Curry

Misfit Toys - Pusha T

ᴀᴅᴍɪɴ ɴᴏᴛᴇ: Diary entries are personal submissions from muses and insight into their thoughts. None of my other muses have knowledge of anything written here, even if you/your muse tries to tell them. Due to the fact that these are heavily personal, reblogs may or may not be responded to by said muse. If by chance your reblog is not answered, please do not take it personal, the muse just does not wish to respond to the comment/question. However, I, as admin, will always read each interaction made on these posts.

[ppprimary]

Having friendships and maintaining the same dynamic can be hard at times. Just last year I had to end a one and a half year friendship (it’s not long, but it’s enough time to make plenty of memories together) because of a boy? Legit I had the fattest crush on this dude from uni and my friend knew about EVERYTHING, yet she went ahead and started flirting with the guy? Laughing way too hard at his jokes, trying to up me when we were both talking to him? It was horrible, I felt so horrible each time she did it and I stayed silent for sooo long because my mom taught me not to let a MAN destroy any of my friendships and I was hanging on just because of that but then…she went ahead and became friends with a colleague of ours that she knew I hated? And they became like suuuuper good friends and kept excluding me from everything? And even when I was hanging out with them they like would ignore me? Talk about things that I had no interests in therefore I couldn’t add anything to the conversation…it was truly heartbreaking seeing everything unfold in front of my eyes and the knowledge that I had to let go was even worse. I am in no way telling you to do that, I just wanted to share this with you. Perhaps you need to step back and analyse things with the eyes of an outsider. Is your friend putting in the same effort you are? Are they reaching out just like you are? Do they make effort when it comes to you? Once you find answers in yourself you should talk to her, it helps. Before breaking off my friendship with my so called friend, I bottled up my thoughts and feelings until I couldn’t anymore and blew up on her. We did talk it through, but personally, for me it was too late and there was nothing to be done to save our friendship (and quite frankly I didn’t want to because I realised how toxic she was to me and always wanted the attention and appreciation I got from others; which wasn’t even much ffs)…

Sorry, ik it’s long, but I have one more thing to say. My best friend recently started dating, her boyfriend is lovely and despite his idiotic friends he’s super chill and down to Earth. But I was used to having her undivided attention, always hanging out and meeting up spontaneously but now…she spends almost all of her time with him and tbh until I got used to it and accepted the fact that I wasn’t her nr1 priority anymore it hurt like hell and I was jealous lol. I felt like I was losing her even though I wasn’t, she just wanted to spend her time with the guy she loves, logically lol. But she also had to learn how to divide her attention and time between the two of us, so her struggle was real too. However, despite time going by and me finally getting used to the changes…there’s still one thing that bothers me and I haven’t talked to her about it because I feel silly and I don’t want to cause an argument, though I think I should do it soon. Whenever she hangs out with her boyfriend and his friends, she never invites me out with them. And like I’m not talking about 3 to 4 friends (sometimes even that), it’s like a huge ass group with all sorts of people and I feel like she always finds excuses as to why she didn’t invite me. And it makes me feel like shit because I feel like she’s embarrassed with me or something. Like she doesn’t want the friends to know me and it sucks because tbh I don’t have a shit ton of friends (maybe around 5) and I always make efforts to bring all of us together even though they’re basically MY friends and not all friends between each other (just through me). And I include her in these things because I don’t want her to feel left out but she doesn’t do the same for me.

I get the matching tattoo situation, this best friend of mine and I have been also talking about getting one and ik she’s not ready yet so I’m not pressuring her, but my heart would absolutely break if she went ahead and did it with someone else and didn’t tell me about it.

I’ve met some genuine people on here so I think it’s alright for you to reach out to those who you feel pulled towards, let’s say who seem genuine to you. I’m sending this on anon for various reasons, but just so you know, you’re not alone and you can talk to us on here. Nobody is perfect and there are issues which can be fixed and some which can’t be anymore. I hope this is not all over the place and makes sense, and that the essence of what I wanted to say did come off. Talk to them, I think it’s important and I KNOW it’s hard to get there, but you can do it! I believe in you and I hope you feel better soon (and just so you know, crying for me is the best thing ever even if I feel slightly pathetic while doing it lol, because I know I’m releasing all of my frustrations). -B.

hi bestie <3 there's literally 3 ppl who interact back w me here but I'll pretend that I don't know that 🤧

I relate a lot w the friend being friendly w the enemy, this girl and I have been through a lot right, it's literally 16 years, I don't remember a time where we weren't friends. imagine that, 8th grade ish this dude comes into our school, I hate his guts. idk why there's something abt him that just doesn't feel right. but he was friends w all of the class, funny dark humor edge lord type of kid, fighting w teachers, thinking he was the best of the best 💀 bc he was friends w her, I inevitably was talking w him too and he was a snake, forcing a friendship w me until I gave up and let him in. fine, 9th year comes by and we're a trio, I had a lot of mental health issues back then so I was very distant from everyone, save for these two. they start dating, which w/e I didn't have a problem w him anymore. the thing is they used to fight every now and then and I had to keep choosing sides and the other side would be mad at me and I'd feel so bad bc usually I was at his side and he would portray me best friend as the crazy and wrong one and I would believe bc why would he lie? I'm skipping a lot of the story but tl,dr: he was just using me to get closer to my bff bc he knew I wouldn't let her date him and I was right all along he was a bad person wow surprise 💀 I'm just glad that at the end of all of this, me and her managed to stay strong as friends.

and I'm no saint either, I've always had personality disorders, I know I was wrong a lot of the times but she still managed to stick w me and she never gave up, even when I went radio silence when my depression was at the worst. I don't have many friends either all of my long lasting friends I met bc they were her friends 😭 my other friend, who's boyfriend has a freaking ranch, he's a bit aloof so I'm sure he didn't invite me not bc he doesn't care but bc he just didn't think it would hurt me so it's fine? kinda?

sorry for ranting again 💀 and thank you for reading all of that first post. I didn't read it back so I'm sure it's a bit funny to understand I was typing on my laptop, meaning no keyboard corrections 😭 it's a bit embarrassing

I'm not sure if you'll see this but thank you B <3

[not-poignant]

Hi pia! Did you read/watch anything new this year? I’ve been trying to get into new fandoms but it’s so exhausting

Tbh, reading/watching new stuff is not the same as getting into fandoms!

I've actually read and watched a lot of stuff this year, and I've gotten into zero fandoms because of it. So I can't recommend the fandom experience of any of those media things, because...I didn't look and wasn't that interested.

But of the things I've liked so far, I did finally get around to watching Shadow & Bone, Arcane, Mrs Maisel, Ranking of Kings, Blue Period, Buzzfeed Unsolved, Derry Girls, Our Flag Means Death, Heartstopper, Sex Education, Sasaki & Miyano and probably a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten because I have the memory of a goldfish (I've watched a lot more stuff than normal this year, but none of it like, 'oh I want to get into the fandom for this.') The closest I got was shipping Viktor/Silco in Arcane, looking for that content, finding almost nothing, thinking about writing it only to realise that I came to the fandom super late and everything was dying off already, and vanishing.

Honestly, consuming good media =/= finding fandoms? My favourite fandoms are still older fandoms, like Chuuya/Dazai in Bungou Stray Dogs, and Thorki in Marvel/MCU, Ciel/Sebastian in Kuroshitsuji / Black Butler, and stuff like that. This year, I did very briefly ship Barba/Carisi in Law & Order SVU which is basically a vintage ship that I just came to suuuuper late, lmao.

I hear you though, getting into new fandoms can be tiring! Sometimes it's good to just kind of read fics for a while and see what works, but I haven't had shipping feels for a lot of characters these days for a variety of reasons, or if I do, it's for a rarepair where it's like 'I don't know if I have the energy to swim around on this tiny boat on my own.' I hope you find something that works for you and that you enjoy! I'm sure some of the stuff I've listed above has amazing and active fandoms, I'm just for varying reasons not super active in them. Like even Our Flag Means Death, I've reblogged a ton of fanart over at my fandom blog @capillata but I just haven't felt inspired to like...read any fic. I don't have those sorts of shippy feelings, and the show is giving me everything I need. Idk, it's hard to explain!!!

[dinosaurtsukki]

haikyuu!! team christmas parties

a/n: this is a suuuuper late christmas-themed post because it was kinda crazy here but i hope you guys enjoy these headcanons of how christmas parties are like with the teams

karasuno: 

a very chaotic yet very festive christmas party

nishinoya and hinata especially are very excited for it you could tell by the way they hum christmas songs in the locker room

naturally sugawara suggests holding a christmas party in his house but the only one he sends invitations to is tsukishima because he's the likeliest one to back out

in fact, sugawara probably sends an invitation to tsukishima's house every single day and at this point both akiteru and his mom are anticipating 'kei's first christmas party with friends'

hinata was too excited that he was there at sugawara's house two hours early but they spent a lot of time decorating the entire place

yamaguchi was there just as early because he thought it would be polite and he even brought a box of chocolates for sugawara's family

all of them also decided to do a secret santa gift exchange to make things fun and so they wouldn't have to give everyone gifts

the only ones who gave everyone gifts though were asahi (HE MADE UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE) and yachi who gave everyone some cookies that she baked

everyone mentally thanked kiyoko for getting yachi as assistant manager

ennoshita's secret santa was tanaka and because he knew that ennoshita has been wanting a starbuck's planner, he enlisted noya's help in getting one

did this mean they both chugged 12 starbucks drinks all by themselves in one day? yeah pretty much

when ennoshita got his gift everyone understood why tanaka and noya were extra hyper that day

kageyama also got tsukishima as his secret santa

tsukki actually tried to exchange with yamaguchi but daichi caught him and said that there were no exchanges

he was also planning to get kageyama a plastic tiara as a gift but daichi also caught him (is2g he's everywhere)

eventually tsukishima settled on giving kageyama a volleyball cause he couldn't go wrong with that

kageyama was actually really happy with the gift but kinda pissed that it came from tsukishima of all people so he was just kinda squinting at tsukishima wondering what to say

anyway they didn't fight that's a christmas miracle

yamaguchi got daichi's name for the secret santa and gifted him a coupon for a free spa visit

daichi has a new favorite child

jk yamaguchi has always been his favorite child

hinata actually got KIYOKO to give a gift too and he was anxious for an entire week worrying about what to give her

he ended up asking natsu for advice and then gifting kiyoko a cute little phone charm

she thought it was sweet and still keeps it to this day

seijoh:

oikawa already had a group chat for a christmas party when december started hanamaki and matsukawa spammed it with memes and santa emojis for the first two weeks

finally when they got around to planning, iwaizumi offered to hold the party at his house 

surprisingly, the earliest one there was kyoutani because ofc he's helping his senpai set up

imagine the both of them trimming the christmas tree i'm jlgkjalg 

kyoutani even brought his own christmas decorations (they're little dogs with santa hats on them) 

kindaichi and kunimi were next to come in and they brought a little gingerbread house that they made themselves

y'all oikawa came in last because of 'traffic' but iwaizumi's like 'bullshit, you live next door'

he was late because he was watching the doctor who christmas special 

matsukawa and hanamaki are of course in charge of all the party games that last throughout the night

they have a newspaper dance game and they intentionally paired up oikawa and kyoutani 

they were the first ones to lose the game because kyoutani wouldn't come a foot near oikawa and that's about how wide their newspaper was

iwaizumi and kindaichi easily won but kindaichi was flustered that iwaizumi carried him bridal-style

you can bet they also brought karaoke and yahaba surprised everyone with his rendition of 'all i want for christmas is you'

also matsukawa and hanamaki did a really good duet of 'baby it's cold outside'

oikawa wanted to make a speech about his friends being his family and them being his best christmas gift ever but hanamaki stopped him

oikawa ended up giving one anyway when the party ended up going on until much later and everyone cried

everyone except kyoutani who was wondering why everyone was crying until he realized that iwaizumi was going abroad for uni

shiratorizawa:

these guys are so close that they just had to have a christmas party together 

goshiki ofc volunteered his own house and was deadset on making it the best christmas ever for his senpais

except tendou may have told him that ushijima's favorite decorations were mistletoe so ofc goshiki hung mistletoe ever

the funny thing is ushijima DOES like mistletoe. he thinks its classy and simple but he doesn't know about the kissing thing

meanwhile shirabu and tendou are on the side wondering if they should tell either of them

semi lost some kind of bet (probs with shirabu and kawanishi) and now he has to dress up as santa claus for some reason

lmao angry santa semi i love it already

tendou made some handmade chocolate truffles and half of them are delicious but the other half have a piece of onion in the middle

but the delicious ones are like REALLY delicious so everyone plays this sort of russian roulette game with tendou's chocolate truffles

semi kept on getting the onion truffles until reon felt bad for him and gave him his chocolate truffle

it ended up becoming a christmas tradition

ushijima actually gave everyone a gift and it's matching knee pads

shirabu actually loves them except he doesn't want to wear them out so he never wears them

also he gets cold really easily so even though the christmas party is indoors, he's wearing a sweater and a coat and a quilt on top of that

he honestly looks so cozy that by the end of the night everyone is cuddled up next to shirabu

EXCEPT USHIJIMA ALSO INVITED COACH WASHIJO TO COME IN

ushijima: he's our coach and therefore a part of our team so of course i invited him

no one can argue with him there

coach washijo was surprisingly a nice guest but everyone was extra courteous around him

semi served him some hot tea and shirabu even gave his quilt

goshiki was hiding in his bathroom because he might get lectured on his serves

they didn't know what activities to do with coach washijo around so tendou suggested watching their volleyball games (yes, goshiki has them all on tape) and coach washijo was all like 'i watch you play all the time why would i want to do that now?'

eventually they settled on watching Polar Express and it was nice

nekoma:

their christmas party is also a costume party because kuroo said so all of them came in christmas-themed costumes

AND THEY WERE ALL GROUP COSTUMES

the third years roped in shibayama and they all dressed up as the characters from 'A Christmas Carol'

shibayama was christmas past, kai was christmas present, kuroo was christmas future, and yaku was scrooge

kuroo: it's perfect because you're short and mean

it's funny because they all end up capitalists

okay but tbh the second years plus lev also went all out for their costumes because they come in as HOME ALONE

i'm clearly biased when it comes to my favorite christmas movies

fukunaga and taketora are the two robbers, kenma's kevin, and lev comes in as the house

it's basically a cardboard cut-out of a house that he and alisa made

the first twenty minutes of their christmas party is basically just them arguing about which group had the better costume

eventually they decide to actually enjoy the party

they end up playing a lot of parlor games and even though kenma hates how loud everyone is, he's still determined to win all of them

i swear, he ended up pushing lev out of the way during musical chairs, also grabbing the chair before sitting on it

but then after that kenma decides to play games for the rest of the night except kuroo confiscated his game console (again)

you can bet yaku and fukunaga cooked the christmas dinner for everyone

kai takes a million pictures for the memories but he's really a perfectionist about it and go crazy whenever lev moves two millimeteres too far to the left

when the pictures are developed kuroo has them developed on matching t-shirts and forces everyone to wear them during practice matches

tsukishima: nice shirt

kuroo: why THANK you

kenma: thanks, i fucking hate it

inarizaki: 

ngl they're not SUPER into christmas but they're just mildly curious about the celebration

it's mostly the miya twins who initiate it as a way for all of them to have a get-together during the winter break

kita thinks it's a good idea and invites them all to his house

he's actually quite curious about christmas as a religious celebration so he reads up on it a lot and even starts to up his own nativity scene as decoration

he ends up asking his teammates if they want to bring anything to add to the nativity scene

suna brings his gundam figurines and atsumu has an acrylic standee of momo from twice

and now those are joseph and mary

aran and kita take one look at the nativity scene and go 'this doesn't look right' but atsumu looks so happy to have momo there that they just leave it be

osamu is in charge of food ofc but he can't make up his mind on what to cook so he ends up cooking a little bit of everything

ofc atsumu has to be the one to help him but he ends up tasting and eating a good portion while osamu's cooking

*insert fighting in the kitchen*

suna's just walking around taking pictures of everything and uploading them to his snapchat (which has a lot of followers)

"our chaotic team christmas party part 1 of ???"

aran and kita just want some chill time and drink hot chocolate while watching christmas specials

kita also hung up stockings for everyone and suna was expecting it to have candy but its full of fruit and healthy snacks

they still taste good though

suna’s also the first one to fall asleep right smack on kita’s couch 

atsumu’s just about to draw on his face with permanent marker but kita has a disappointed look so he stops instantly

in fact, ALL of them end up falling asleep in the middle of kita’s living room 

they look so cute aran is in the middle with each of the miya twins on his side. suna is sprawled all over the couch with his face buried in the cushions. kita is sleeping right next to the coffee table with his arms crossed over his chest

kita’s grandmother walks in on them in the living room and knows FOR SURE that she doesn’t have four grandchildren but she’s making them breakfast anyway 

***********************************************

taglist (still open to anyone who wants in!): @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart @akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan​ @therainroguefanfiction​ @atetiffdoesart @stephdaninja @oikaw-ugh​ @charliefredb​ @dramaqueenweeb1469 @tremblinghearts @applepienation @doodleniella @haikyuu-my-love @waitforitillwritemywayout @kattykurr @tpwkatsumu

[trashcanfangirl]

Hey! So, first of all, I really love your Elu stories. They are the cutest things ever! (well except Elu, sorry XD) And then I wanted to ask if you could write a story about how Chloé said that she is so mature because she has is dating an older guy, and one of Le Gang, maybe Basile, says the same about Lucas? And Chloé's reaction? Sorry, I know it's really long...

First of all,, THANK YOU SO MUCH (and yes I agree nothing beats Elu in cuteness UwU).

Secondly, I'm sorry sorry sorry I'm so sorry I'm suuuuper late with this one!

I hope you enjoy this one~

________________

Lucas watches in amazement as Arthur and Basile contest over who can drink a can of beer before the other. Arthur chugs his can down at a rate Lucas had never thought was possible, but Basile was somehow drinking his beer even faster.

Basile then slams his empty can down on the counter, followed by Arthur a second later. He then proceeds to choke and cough while Arthur slaps his back. Yann and Chloé laugh at the whole scenario.

"You guys are idiots," Lucas comments. "This is how people die at parties."

He shakes his head at their stupidity and continues drinking his own beer, at a slow, human rate.

"But you only live once, right?" Basile — who has now stopped choking, thanks to Arthur's efforts — replies.

"No. Not really. Haven you heard of the multiverse theory? There actually exist hundreds of other Lucases and Yanns and Basiles and Arthurs in different universes. Each of them are making a difference decision, each of them living their lives in a different way. So, in totality, you've actually lived as many paths as you wanted to take, when you had to make a choice in the end," Lucas concluded with a tight lipped smile.

The boys and Chloé stand perplexed, having heard such words from Lucas for the first time.

"Lucas I swear you act like such a sixty year old sometimes," Yann finally speaks.

"Yeah maybe because he's dating an older guy," Basile jokes.

"That would definitely explain the sudden maturity our Lulu has gained in the past few months," Yann says in agreement.

"Or it could also be due to the fact that he has been doing more adult stuff than usual-" Arthur chimes in but is cut short by a blushing Lucas

"Alright guys I think that's enough."

Lucas looks over at Chloé, who is wearing a knowing expression. A moment passes between them and she looks away. Another girl who looked about her age tapped her shoulder and Choé busies herself in conversation with her.

"Salut Lucas!"

Lucas turns around and stands face to face with Lucille, whose eyes are plastered with glitter and pastels.

Lucas manages a polite smile. Why did everything have to be deja vu today?

"Salut Lucille."

"I wasn't really expecting to see you here. I mean, don't get me wrong, but you don't seem a very party kind of guy to me," Lucille laughs, mockingly or in amusement, Lucas cannot tell.

In reality it was her whom Lucas wasn't expecting at that place. But maybe at some point she had befriended Daphy and managed to get herself invited to a party she barely knew anyone at.

Her eyes shift towards someone behind Lucas and she leaves with another smile in his direction. Lucas turns his head in curiosity and spots her chatting with some third year girl.

Maybe she did have more friends here than Lucas originally thought.

"Wasn't that Eliott's ex?" Basile says, placing his head on Lucas' shoulder.

"I see, you have stolen my spot Basile."

That raspy, angelic voice drifts down into Lucas' ears and he immediately shrugs Basile off.

Turning his head, he looks over at his boyfriend.

Wearing a handsome black shirt and white denims, Eliott was managing to look both casual and a supermodel all at once.

Like he always does, thinks Lucas.

"You really think I would find such a puny replacement for you Eliott?" Lucas says in a feigned offended voice.

Eliott opens his mouth, first to laugh, and then to lock his lips with Lucas and taste the aftermath of the party he'd been at for the past few hours.

The boys, as usual, cheer aloud as if this was their first kiss and not the thousandth.

Lucas breaks the kiss and sticks his tongue out towards the boys mockingly.

He then turns back to Eliott and continues kissing his boyfriend.

"Put that tongue to better use Lucas," Yann teases and tows the other two boys away with him, to give some space to Eliott and Lucas.

Lucas blushes at Yann's stupid comment and buries his face into Eliott's shoulder.

"He's right, you know. You should listen to your best friend's advice Lucas," Eliott speaks into Lucas' ear, with a teasing tone to his whisper.

Lucas looks up into Eliott's eyes and smiles wickedly.

"Follow me then," he says, grabbing Eliott's hand and leads him into the bathroom.

____________

well, well, well, maybe my smut habit would be hard to get rid of ;)

haha, anyways, I'm sorry i haven't been able to write much lately. I've got exams coming up and it's keeping me super busy.

Still, feel free to drop in prompts (related to Skam France, or any other remake). It will take me time to write, but I promise to complete all of them.

xo

[hookedontaronfics]

A (Not So) Secret Crush - Prompt fic

Title: A (Not So) Secret Crush Pairing: Taron x Reader Rating: T Warnings: None (Just some cursing but we’re all adults here, right?) A/N: I just had so much fun writing this imagine; it really flowed from my fingertips with ease and I hope you enjoy reading this super sweet fluff as much as I enjoyed writing it! x Prompt: Could you possibly do an imagine where the reader is drunk and leaves a voicemail for taron saying that she’s falling for him? then he confronts her? SUUUUPER FLUFFY

Here was the scene: Another Friday night at a loud bar, drinking with your friends, some who had been your mates since your RADA days, others who had been brought into the fold because they knew someone who knew someone. Either way, your group had been hosting these Friday night get-togethers for as long as you could remember, and whoever could make it showed up. The mix of friends changed time to time but the fun never stopped. 

You truly loved these people and you were grateful you had made friends for life. You’d been through every heartbreak and every victory together - new jobs, losing parents, getting engaged, getting married, getting cancer, having babies, getting promotions, losing jobs, shitty breakups, you’d seen it all together, and you’d been there for each other through thick and thin, plenty of tears and plenty of laughter.

One of your closest friends had drifted away from the group slightly, not because he didn’t care but because he was just so exceptionally busy. Taron had made quite a name for himself lately, and was constantly running the awards circuit as of late. You couldn’t help but admit you slightly envied him. Out of your entire RADA group, he’d been the most successful. Some of you still did civic theater or indie film projects, but nearly everyone had gone on to normal plebian jobs. But Taron had been incredibly talented from Day One; how he hadn’t made it into the school on his first audition was beyond you. You knew he’d go far and you were pleased to see your predictions had been right. Of course he’d always brushed you off when you’d tried to tell him that all those years ago; he was almost annoyingly humble.

Look at him now, you thought, racking up awards buzz for his latest project as Elton John, sitting there downing his pilsner and laughing like he hadn’t a care in the world. He’d decided to join your lot finally after months of half-promises or apologies, and you couldn’t help staring at his fine-cut suit… or that jawline. He’d just come from some banquet or another, you’d lost track at that point, but boy did he look fine.

You weren’t sure when the crush had started really. Maybe you’d always found him attractive, but he had been your friend so you never really dwelled on it. Plus, as gangly young adults, you all had had some growing up to do. But Taron had aged like a fine wine, and only gotten more handsome as the years passed, and so your crush had slowly become more than just a spark. But you’d never tell him that, you couldn’t. You felt like it would ruin your friendship, a friendship you both had come to rely on over the years. He’d called you in tears when he and Emily had broken up, and you’d brought over frozen pizzas and let him cry on your shoulder while they baked in the oven. That kind of friendship wasn’t worth ruining over your silly crush.

But at this moment, as the alcohol you were drinking was working its way through your system, you couldn’t help but wonder what could come of it all if you just told him the truth. You were both single at the moment now, and every time he smiled at you you felt your heart leap into your throat. It was getting kind of annoying, to be honest. Taron with those intense green eyes and that boyish grin and that hair you wanted to run your fingers through. But you never would, because you loved him too much to trip over the line and cause an irreparable rip in the fabric of your friendship.

The night wore on, and so did the drinks, shots and cocktails and a beer to chase it all down. As you were nursing your Firestone ale, Taron finally slid over on the booth next to you. The conversations had died down mostly into private talks between couples, and you’d been sitting by yourself, aware of how that branded you in your singleness.

“You shouldn’t be sitting by yourself, love,” he grinned at you, tossing an arm casually on the back of the booth behind you, but not touching you. Still, you were all too aware of his presence now. He smelled of alcohol but also vanilla and sandalwood; it was a bit heady to you, and you had to take a steadying breath before you answered him.

“Everyone decided to couple up,” you laughed, the sound too loud and bright to your own ears. “And I am definitely… uh.. Single,” you added for good measure.

“Suppose that makes two of us, eh?” he smiled gently at you. You could only nod at that.

“So, I feel completely rude in not asking what you’ve been up to these days,” he said, taking a sip of his own beer, your eyes trained on the way his mouth worked the rim of the glass and giving you a thought you instantly banished from your mind. You suddenly felt quite warm and adjusted the collar of your blouse.

“Just work, you know, the usual boring adult shit. My life is not nearly as exciting as yours, Mister I’m Winning All The Awards,” you said, giggling slightly at your own dumb joke.

“Oh please, that’s not even remotely true,” he chuckled, but you could see a bit of blush creeping up his neck. You had to admit, it didn’t look bad on him at all.

“But really, I just go to work and come home and veg in front of the telly and do hot yoga and drink with this lot and that’s about it. I guess I’m waiting for something more exciting to come along,” you shrugged slightly.

“Or someone?” he asked, turning his full gaze on you. You couldn’t decipher the meaning behind his words, though, so you just took another drink of your ale.

“I guess you could say that but who knows if that will ever happen, T. You’ve seen me go through it so many times before. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s such a thing as true love, or if life is just really about settling for someone you at least can tolerate,” you sighed heavily.

“Hey now, no reason to give up just yet,” he said, tilting your chin up to look at him. You’d hugged him many times over the years, even tackled him full-on during a friendly rugby match, but for some reason his touch on you now sent shivers down your spine.

“I’ll believe you when you find me a match,” you teased him lightly, and he chuckled.

“Alright, well, let’s start with this here bar, right now,” he smirked sideways at you as you slid down in the booth to try and hide. “Ohhh that one over there, in the chummy corduroy jacket, he’s got nice eyes. Or the biker jacket by the window, he could take you for a wild ride,” Taron snickered and you slapped him playfully on the arm.

“Taron, stop,” you said, hissing in your attempt to not laugh.

“Hey, what about Mr. Silver Suits over there, 9 o’clock?” he said, sweeping his arm over to point and accidentally knocking you in the back of the head in the process. “Oh my god, I’m so so sorry!” he said, pulling you to him and holding you tightly against his chest. You couldn’t breathe in this close proximity to him, and he must have interpreted your silence as pain. “Please tell me you’re okay,” he pleaded slightly, his alcohol breath on your cheek not unpleasant.

“I’m fine Taron, but you’re squeezing me a bit,” you laughed, as he quickly loosened his arms around you and you sat back up.

“I’ve totally gone and messed up your hair,” he said, trying to help you rearrange it, his fingers whispering slightly over your cheeks and shoulders and making you suck in your breath slightly. You were far too drunk to think about this rationally. He was drunk too, though, you realized, and couldn’t possibly be meaning anything about this.

“It’s fine, T, you’ve done enough,” you said with a smile, as he withdrew his hands and looked slightly embarrassed at himself.

“Sorry, I’m a bit drunk?” he offered, and you just laughed at him.

“Not the first time I’ve seen you pissed,” you giggled, and he grinned at you.

“This is not untrue,” he smirked. “But we should maybe call it a night?” he said, loosening his tie slightly and drawing your eyes straight to his neck, where you wanted to kiss him. Fuck, you really needed to stop thinking those things. You were going to go home to your quiet, lonely apartment, by yourself, and probably crash and sleep off your hangover. Taron was no part of that reality and the thought sobered you up a bit.

You both ordered Ubers and finished your drinks while you waited, chatting about nothing of consequence. He walked you out the door, his hand at your lower back, and made sure you got in the Uber safely.

“Text me when you get home, yeah?” he said, slurring his words only slightly.

“Of course,” you said sweetly at him as he closed the door behind you. The Uber driver was rather chatty but thankfully didn’t seem to mind that most of your replies were “uh-huh” and “yeah” and you were grateful when you got home, a small headache beginning to work its way into your brain, and also a slightly painful longing in your heart.

You had once again walked away from Taron without telling him how you felt, and tonight he’d even slightly made you feel like maybe he felt something too, the way his gaze had landed on you often when he didn’t think you were looking, the way his fingers had always found your knee under the table, the way he leaned into your shoulder when he laughed. Boy, you had it bad, and you didn’t know how to stop. Maybe you didn’t want to stop feeling this way about him, but you could never have him either.

You hopped in the shower, hoping that would calm you down, before realizing you’d completely forgotten to text Taron that you’d made it home safely. You quickly grabbed your towel and wrapped it around your dripping body, hair still full of shampoo, before pawing through the contents of your purse for your phone, where you found several <are you home yet?!> texts from Taron.

Rather than text him back this late, you just decided to call since that might be quicker in reassuring him that you were safe. He didn’t pick up the call though, and you half-imagined him crashed out on his couch, still in that suit coat, now rumpled, mouth hanging slightly open and the couch blanket tossed haphazardly over himself. The image made you smile as his voicemail beeped at you.

“Hey, Taron, it’s me. You would have known that if you’d been looking at your phone, of course. But you’re probably asleep already so… I’m just letting you know I-” you said before the phone service cut you off. You sighed and dialed again, waiting for the beep before trying again. “I made it home! Thought you should know that. Because you left me like 18 texts asking me if I was home yet. I had fun tonight with you, really. It was great to catch up. I hope we-” you rambled into the voice message before getting cut off again.

You hoped what? That you could fall in love and get married and have his babies? The thought was absolutely absurd, and you laughed out loud at how ridiculous you were being. You dialed his number one more time, hoping to leave something semi-coherent. “Hey, sorry I’m really drunk but if I don’t tell you how I feel now I never will. I think I’m falling for you and I know if this ruins our friendship I’ll forever regret it. But I just needed to tell you that, because I’ve known it for a long time. I think I love you, and I-” You were cut off again, and suddenly lost your courage too. You threw your phone on the bedside table and wished you could take that message back.

“SHIT!” you yelled out loud, standing in the puddle of water you’d left on your hardwood floor. What have I done, you thought, feeling like you might cry. Well, it was all in Taron’s hands now, really. You felt sick to your stomach as you went to finish your shower, and afterward stood staring at yourself in the mirror for a long moment. There was no way he could possibly feel the same about you. He probably only thought of you as a sister, nothing more. You brushed the tears away from your face and sighed before collapsing in your bed, not even bothering to dry your hair, the water soaking into your pillow as you passed out.

When your alarm went off the next morning you batted half the crap off your bedside table before finding your phone and silencing the alarm, groaning slightly at it before sitting bolt upright and opening your phone. There were no return texts, no return voicemails. Nothing at all. Maybe he was still asleep, you told yourself, though it was already nearly 11 a.m. Maybe he just didn’t know how to respond, because you sure as hell wouldn’t if he had left you messages like that. Maybe he’d just chalk it up to drunkenness and let the whole thing pass like a bad dream. Or a kidney stone. Painful, but forgettable. Because that’s exactly how you felt about yourself in that moment.

There was no way you were getting back to sleep, so you got up and went about your Saturday, tidying up your apartment, going to the grocery, chatting with your mum, watching some telly, and jumping every time your phone chimed with a text. But they were never texts from the one person you needed to hear from, and when the sun began to sink toward the horizon with still no response, your heart sank to your toes right along with it.

You slept fitfully that night, before spending Sunday as a nervous wreck, pacing your apartment and debating whether to ring him. You settled on a text message, typing it and deleting it and retyping it again. <I think we need to talk. But I just want to know you’re okay. Please text me back.> You paced some more before you finally received a text back.

<Everything’s alright, just been busy. We can talk at some point but I’ll be in the States for a while coming up so don’t hold your breath.>

“Don’t hold my breath?” you asked out loud, a wee bit shocked as it sounded rather rude, coming from someone you’d known the better part of 10 years. Someone who had cried on your damn shoulders just a few months ago. You huffed slightly and tossed your phone on the couch, staring at it and sighing. You figured the conversation would probably end up with you conceding just being drunk and an arsehole and both of you agreeing to forget it ever happened. 

But could you live with your unrequited feelings for the rest of your life? Could you stand by Taron’s side when he married another girl, knowing how you felt about him? Or would this truly be something neither of you could get over? Could you live with never talking to him again? The thought made you feel sick to your stomach; you’d rather deny your feelings for the rest of your life than lose him completely, you decided. You spent the rest of the night on the couch with a tub of ice cream, eating your feelings and trying to not so subtly ask your friend group if they’d heard anything from Taron, but no one had. At least he had kept your secret admission to himself.

Weeks passed and you didn’t hear anything from Taron. You attended the next several Friday outings with the group and even though you enjoyed your time with everyone else, the lack of Taron’s presence was a glaring hole in your mind. Don’t hold your breath, he’d said, the phrase stuck on an endless loop in your mind. It distracted you in your daily life, and even your best friend at work called you out for it. You came up with some lame excuse she saw right through, figuring it was “boy trouble” and wondering when you’d ever manage to find a decent man. 

The problem, though, was that a decent man had been right in front of you, so close to you but so far out of reach. Maybe Taron had ruined you for everyone else, you thought to yourself, laughing at that but half-wondering if it was true. No one ever measured up to the man you knew he was, the man you’d spent countless hours beating at Mario Kart, he was so laughably bad, the man who’d helped you memorize your monologues, who sent you funny gifs when he knew you were down, who always took you to lunch after a bad breakup. He knew more about your life than most anyone else.

And you’d gone and thrown it all away.

On a particularly stormy day, six weeks later, you were sitting on your living room floor, surrounded by half cut-up magazines, the scattered images of people’s faces and flowers and animals and the words you’d cut out. You were dressed in a pair of floral leggings and a white sweater, your hair up in a messy bun with a cute headband holding your bangs out of your face. You were tapping your scissors against your lips, deciding how to arrange your collage, when a loud crack of thunder made you jump, your lights flickering slightly. “Jesus,” you breathed out, your heart racing slightly before a knock sounded on your apartment door.

You almost thought you’d imagined it, not expecting anyone, when it sounded again. You quickly put the cap on the open glue bottle before unwinding your legs and standing up, stepping carefully around the scattered art. The insistent knocking came again, and you sighed. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” you said even though they couldn’t hear you. It was probably just a neighbor wondering if your lights had flickered too.

You popped the door open and gasped slightly, an entirely-soaked-to-the-bone Taron standing at your door, rainwater dripping off the tip of his nose and chin, his wet hair plastered to his forehead.

“Taron!” you said in surprise, your hand still on the doorknob.

“Did you mean what you said?” he asked, his voice a bit hoarse.

“What do you mean?” you asked softly, knowing full well what he meant.

“Your voicemail that you left me. When you said you were falling for me,” he said, still dripping onto the floor outside of your apartment.

“I- … was drunk,” you started but he shook his head.

“Did you mean what you said?” he asked again, his gaze looking vulnerable and a bit tortured too.

It really was now or never, you thought to yourself. “Yes. Yes I did,” you replied, a bit faintly.

“How long have you known?” he asked, his own voice failing him slightly, cracking a bit.

“Years, Taron. But don’t stand out there, you’ll catch your death,” you said, gesturing for him to come inside. He stepped across the threshold gingerly, awkwardly, as if he hadn’t been in your apartment before. You quickly went to get him some towels and took his sopping wet coat and did your best to wring it out in the bathtub before hanging it up to dry. You couldn’t help but hide a laugh behind your hand at his appearance; he looked like a drowned rat, but it was somehow adorable.

You sat a stack of towels on the couch so he could sit and not worry about getting it all wet but you could tell he wasn’t comfortable in the least. “Why did you never say anything to me?” he asked after a moment, as you paused in the middle of your attempt to sweep up your collage work into a tidy pile.

“I knew it would ruin our friendship. I knew it would make things awful and awkward between us, and it has,” you admitted, peering over at him. He seemed lost in thought, wrestling with something, his face an open book.

“I’ve only been awkward and distant because I … I’ve had trouble coming to terms with how I felt about you. I don’t think I’ve had nearly the same courage, drunk or not. But I’ve done some thinking, and I started to realize that, y/n, it’s really always been you. You were always there, for my smallest victories to my biggest heartbreaks. You were the one tipping back a beer with me every time I landed a role. You were the one encouraging me when I felt like I wasn’t good enough. You went shopping for my first real suit for my first real awards show back in the day,” he grinned, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory with him.

“You were so nervous, it was darling,” you giggled.

“The hem! The hem!” he chuckled, shaking his head.

“All the pants were too long on you,” you giggled lightly as he gazed at you, biting his lip slightly.

“I don’t think we have to lose this at all,” he said softly. “I think we can make it even better. I at least want to try, because I fell for a girl a long time ago who’s been right in front of me all along. And I know that sounds super cliche, like one of those cheesy romcoms you love so much, but it’s true,” he said sweetly.

“They are brilliant pieces of cinema and you will never change my mind, Taron David Egerton!” you laughed, but your heart was also falling open at that moment as you heard the words you’d been wishing to hear for so long. You almost wanted to pinch yourself to see if this was just a dream; that’d you’d wake up tomorrow and all of this would have evaporated like mist on the wind. Before either of you could say another word, your lights went out accompanied by another loud clap of thunder, and you groaned loudly.

“Well shit,” you said, going to check the breaker box but the lights were truly out. You rummaged around under your sink and found a flashlight, flicking it on and setting it on its end so the beam of light hit the ceiling and scattered around the room, drawing weird shadows on the walls. You noticed, suddenly, that Taron was shivering quite a bit, but you weren’t sure how to solve that until you remembered you had borrowed one of his sweatshirts eons ago.

“You should get out of those wet clothes,” you said, as you went to go dig the sweatshirt out of your closet. You kept your eyes trained on the ground as you handed him a blanket and the sweatshirt, and it was enough to hear his clothes rustle as he presumably wriggled out of them, considering his jeans looked tighter than your leggings.

“I’m decent,” he chuckled once he was settled on the couch again, the blanket tucked over his lap and the sweatshirt on. He looked almost boyish now, a crooked smile on his face and his hair, which had gone fluffy as it dried, a total bedhead mess. You hung his wet clothes up on the shower rod, since the dryer wouldn’t work without power, and then sat primly on the couch next to him. He was presumably still in whatever he wore beneath his jeans, but the thought still made you blush and you were grateful for the semi-darkness now.

“So now what?” you asked quietly, feeling awkward and like you were twelve again and trying to discuss your first crush with your “bff.” Only your bff was the man you had fallen in love with.

“Oh I know how this next bit goes. You see, usually in these cheesy romcoms there’s some sort of cutesy music in the background and then the couple with all of their newly discovered attraction kisses,” Taron smirked at you, and your breath sort of caught in your throat.

“Taron, that isn’t even remotely practical!” you said, trying to laugh it off. “It’s storming like crazy outside, you’re half-naked-”

“Only half,” he interjected in a teasing manner.

“- on my couch and we don’t even know exactly how we feel about each other!” you protested, barreling through his comment.

“You so sure about that?” he asked, pulling you to him suddenly. You squeaked in surprise but didn’t pull away as his eyes searched yours for a long moment. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this,” he said, cupping your face in his hands before leaning in and pressing his lips to yours, kissing you in a way that very much could have been described as “romantic.” It opened a whole new world of feelings to you, feelings you didn’t have to pretend away anymore. You were completely head over heels for this man, and as he ran his fingers through your hair, and gazed at you in that loving way he had, you felt so totally undone but somehow put back together in all the right ways too.

You dared to kiss him back, and it was just as good the second time around, like a nice bowl of chili that warmed you all over, from the inside out. You pulled away for a moment, almost feeling shy, and settled your head against his chest instead. He instinctively wrapped his arms around you, and you could hear his heart hammering away. Just knowing you were the reason for that made you smile to yourself.

Neither of you said much as you cuddled in a way you had never done. Sure, you’d laid in each others’ arms before, half-drunk or sick or sad, but this was a new level, a mutual and deep caring for each other that went further than your friendship ever had. Or maybe it really had been leading up to this all along; you both had just never seen it until now. One thing you were certain, though, was that you could never go back now. One little taste and you wanted so much more, in its time and place, of course. You had adored him from afar for so long, and now you had the chance to show him just how much.

Just then your lights clicked back on, and both of you blinked in the sudden onslaught of light at each other.

“So what happens in the dark… stays in the dark, right?” you joked lightly, sitting up again and noticing that the blanket on his lap had shifted rather low. Your face went completely red then, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh, my dear, there’s no keeping us in the dark any longer,” he said, kissing you again but with gusto this time. You melted into him again, letting the rush of feelings wash through you, but neither of you let it go too far. There would be time enough for that in the future, a future that stretched out long ahead of you.

“I thought I would forever regret that voicemail but now it’s the single best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” you smiled at him as he sweetly brushed his thumb over your lips.

“I’ve listened to it every day since, just to make sure it was real and I hadn’t imagined it,” he said cutely. “I mean yes, I was confused and maybe even a little angry at first but mostly at myself for not seeing it sooner, for not admitting it sooner. For wasting so much time,” he said, his eyes so soft and light despite the harsh glare of your lamps.

“Time spent with you, even as just your friend, was never a waste to me,” you said quickly, squeezing his hand. “I’m just lucky, and grateful, for this now.”

“As am I,” he said, lifting your hand to his lips and placing a sweet kiss there.

“And Taron, I’ll be sure to leave you more voicemails in the future,” you said cheekily, your heart feeling so full of promise.

“I shall count on it,” he grinned back, and you would forever be able to lose yourself in that gaze. “But the best voicemail of all, was the one that brought us together.”

You nodded in agreement and sighed softly. “The one we’ll never forget.”

[jinjeriffic]

Finally got around to watching Titans Season 2 so here’s a dump of my thoughts/nitpicks.

SPOILER WARNING FOR TITANS SEASON 2

First off, THANK FUCK they got rid of the Hooker Starfire outfit. Jfc she looks like the princess we deserve now <3

Eh, I’m generally not a fan of the practice of ending a season on a cliffhanger then defeating the big bad in the first ep of the next season. ESPECIALLY if you don’t even know if you’re gonna GET another season.

Trigon’s defeat felt kinda anticlimactic? I mean Raven is the only one who got to actually have a go at him. This is an ensemble cast, dammit!

What is with the bystanders in this series? So a girl crashes through the boardroom window and they just... sit there? No screaming, diving for cover, calling security or checking if she’s still alive? Just sitting at the desk with a mildly startled look on their faces? Whatever.

One thing that really bugs me is that the heroes almost never put on their actual costumes. Yeah, it’s hard to emote in a mask, but other superhero shows manage it! Hell, even if we go with No Secret Identities (the show seems super inconsistent on this??) you’d think that when the heroes go out to face down ARMED AND DANGEROUS SUPERVILLAINS they would at least put on some bodyarmor ffs. The Titans set out to chase down Doctor Light in jeans and T-shirts and Hawk gets a fried leg for his trouble. How are they this stupid?

The Donna/Garth relationship is just... eeeehmmmmm. I mean we see that Garth is flirting with her and Donna is just suuuuper uncomfortable in his presence. Hell, she asks to be transferred back to Themyscira just to get away from him. At first I thought “Okay, it’s the classic dilemma of a woman being stuck with a coworker who keeps hitting on her, but she can’t tell him to FUCK OFF because she doesn’t want to be seen as the overdramatic, difficult to work with hysterical woman. Gotcha.” I thought they were gonna make a good point about “nice guys”. But nope. She sleeps with him, then fucks off into the sunset. Then they confess their feelings for each other but they can’t be together because Destiny Says So. Then he dies. Fucking what? This is just encouraging guys to keep hitting on women when they are visibly uncomfortable because it’s tru lurve, yo~! Bite me.

Garfield is a precious baby and Kori is a badass queen. I swear they are the only characters with a modicum of sense and compassion on this show.

So Rose gets thrown across the room and everyone immediately goes “oops she dead”, sending Raven into a panic. Dawn is the only one to think to actually check for a pulse. You’re superheroes, you should be better at triage and crisis management!

I’ll admit, Dick’s hallucination of Bruce is a fucking RIOT. Best jokes on the show go to Batman, who’d have thunk? But is it just me, or is Bruce’s accent all over the place?

Why does everyone blame Jason for trying to screw with their heads? Okay, the crucifixes could have been a tasteless prank by him, but the orange soda?? There is no reasonable way for JASON to know about a Titans in-joke from five years ago. The only people who knew about that were the OG Titans! And no one thought of this??

Conner is definitely the stand-out episode of the season. I fucking love Doctor Eve <3

I gotta wonder though - why on earth would they send out a team of goons to capture a Kryptonian hybrid that they KNOW is bullet proof and give them neither proper instructions on how to handle the situation OR kryptonite weapons just in case it goes pear-shaped? It feels like Saturday morning cartoon villainy.

Am I meant to believe that Bruce Control Freak Wayne wouldn’t immediately know when his adopted kid gets kidnapped? The other arrested? Or when the superhero HQ he built gets invaded by hostiles? I get that they didn’t want this to be the Batman and Titans show, but come ON.

Also, what is the timeline here? Does Dick get arrested, tried, and sent to prison within just a few days? You’d think this would take longer ESPECIALLY since Dick Grayson is the adopted son of a billionaire and you’d expect a MAJOR media circus to surround the whole affair.

Speaking of cartoon villainy - so Cadmus brainwashes Garfield and sets him loose in public, then they sic Conner on him in an attempt to sell the idea of supersoldiers to various governments. That is some Grade A stupid. This is a world where heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman etc. are running around. If you cause a major ruckus with rampaging metahumans IN PUBLIC, it’s a surefire way to lure in every cape within a 500 mile radius to foil your evil scheme! They could have just staged a demonstration within a secure compound and they could have gotten away with it! Also it seems like Conner is the first successful clone, so shouldn’t they hold off on selling their only working prototype until they have all the kinks worked out and the production line is reliable? Lex Luthor is supposed to be the smartest guy on the planet, why would he sign off on this??

Donna gets electrocuted and all Dick can think of is to cradle her body like a pieta. Someone should have started CPR immediately! Get Rachel to run over there and try to heal her! Even if they were gonna kill her off in the end, have the heroes do SOMETHING to try and help! Did noone receive basic first aid training in this universe??

What the hell are they going to do about the legal side of things? Conner is wanted for beating up cops. So is Kori. Ditto for Rose plus grand theft auto. Garfield (under mindcontrol) mauled a bunch of people. Dick was sentenced to prison for 7 years, aided in the escape of other felons, then escaped himself. That shit isn’t just gonna go away! Plus they are in the public eye as superheroes, someone is bound to recognize them.

I think one of the main pacing problems is that there are just SO MANY characters in the ensemble cast that there just isn’t enough runtime to properly flesh them out. It would be better if they didn’t try adding so many major characters to the series at once and instead space them out a bit. I mean in this series we find out the OG Titans were Robin I, Wondergirl, Hawk, Dove and Aqualad with Jericho as a late addition. Then the new Titans lineup added Robin II, Raven, Starfire, Garfield, Rose, Conner and Krypto, That is a LOT of people to juggle and it feels too thinly spread tbh.

For all my nitpicks I actually really like the series, but I feel like it could do BETTER. Hence the enthusiastic nitpicking :P

[brynandchristopher]

The 3 Musketeers

Hello again! It is a bittersweet thing to say this will be our last post from New Zealand. We have had an absolutely wonderful time here and in part don’t want it to be over, but we are also ready to move on to our next adventure in Australia. We are looking forward to a little bit of routine and stability, as well as a new landscape to explore in a new van!!

The last time we checked in we had just finished the Kepler Track and were waiting to meet up with some friends of mine. We left Lake Dunstan and headed through a deep river/reservoir gorge between Cromwell and Alexandra to go see my college best friend, Camille, and her boyfriend, Aaron. They had been picking cherries and training young trees for about 7 weeks and when we arrived they had just finished their stint on the orchard. A lot of people here get a working holiday visa which allows them to stay for up to a year, and up to 2 years if 3 months of farm work is completed. Camille and Aaron were pretty sick of Alexandra so we headed out into the hills of Otago to camp for a few nights at a cool secluded freedom camp they knew of called St. Bathan’s place.

We spent 3 nights in St. Bathan’s and had a blast. It was situated around a bunch of cattle grazing pastures nearby to an old abandoned gold mine. The gold mining operation had left a large pit in the ground which over the decades filled up with rainwater and is now a lovely lake! We spent our first night there hanging out with Camille and Aaron and catching up on all of their adventures. We stayed up late into the night, having a few drinks, and freezing our toes off. It got really cold but we persisted in staying up and enjoying the amazing array of stars. We got full views of the milky way and it was definitely the best stargazing we’ve done during the trip. The next day we walked over to the lake and spent the day basking in the sun, listening to music, and climbing the fragile cliffs and jumping back down into the lake! We made dinner together and had another night of hanging out and listening to hilarious stories about Ireland, where Aaron is from. 

The next day was very gloomy and we spent most of the day watching The Mandalorian in our van, great show, highly recommend. It cleared up in the evening and Camille and I were treated to a few impromptu duets from Bryn and Aaron once he had enough whisky to bust out his guitar. 

The next day we left St. Bathan’s and went back to Alexandra to hang out at a lake nearby to the orchard Camille and Aaron worked on. It was an awesome lake with cool waterbirds and big cliffs all around. We hung out on the beach for a while and attempted our highest cliff jumping of the trip (~40 feet). It was a beautiful day and after taking care of some final logistical things in town, we all set out to a freedom camp in that river/reservoir gorge we came into town through called Champagne Gully. We enjoyed a last dinner together before going our separate ways the next morning. It was so much fun to see an old friend and spend a few days socializing, Bryn and I aren’t sick of each other but having other people around is nice sometimes :). 

The next morning was my birthday! Woohoo. We spent the beginning of the day at a cafe so I could watch my favorite soccer team, Manchester United, play my least favorite soccer team, Chelsea. Since it was my birthday they made sure to win for me :). We had some lovely drinks and treats at the cafe to celebrate and then headed to Queenstown to shower at the free service station. Bryn had planned a special dinner/activity for my birthday but wouldn’t tell me what it was, just that we had to be in Queenstown that evening. After hanging at the service station and talking to my fam, we drove into downtown. We parked the car and walked along the docks until we reached a famous old steamship, the TSS Earnslaw and Bryn finally let me in on the secret - we were taking a steamboat cruise across Lake Wakatipu to a traditional farm for a gourmet all-you-can-eat bbq dinner. The cruise was beautiful and we stood out on the front deck while we braved the wind and enjoyed the view. The farm was immaculate and definitely used for private functions and weddings from time to time. There were tons of flower gardens and a cool old Victorian style house where dinner was served. We got a lovely table overlooking the water and treated ourselves to a little bit of everything they had to offer. I think I went back to the buffet 4 or 5 times and was very, very full by the end of it. After dinner they did a demonstration in this cool outdoor amphitheater of how they shear sheep as well as a live demonstration of their herding dogs herding a flock of sheep down a hill. The control of the dogs was incredible, using different pitched whistles to signal them to stalk, bark, run, stop etc. There were two dogs were highly adept in working together and it was an awesome learning experience. After that we got back on the boat and headed back across the lake. There was a piano singalong of old folk songs in the back of the boat and Bryn and I sat right up by the piano in the heart of the diehard geriatric singers and sang our voices hoarse - there were some people that were suuuuper into it and it was really fun and hilarious to be a part of. Bryn even requested happy birthday at the end and I got a nice birthday serenade from a bunch of strangers :). 

The next day I got a wonderful belated birthday present :). My sister Madeline flew across the world to come visit us for 9 days. She arrived in the late afternoon and our first day we shopped for a few things, made a nice dinner in our Airbnb, and rested up so she could get over the jet lag quickly. The next morning we got up early and headed into town to kick off the festivities. We found a really good deal on a 3 person parasailing over Lake Wakatipu. It was such an amazing view as we were towed up behind a boat over the lake and a really fun way to kick things off. After our morning parasailing ride we walked around Queenstown and did a little bit of shopping before heading into the public flower gardens along the lake. After a lot of walking and minorly sore feet we decided to stop for lunch at a famous local restaurant called Fergberger. We got ourselves a meat pie, a burger, and the NZ version of a Boston creme donut. All of them were fantastic and a special treat, as we normally don’t eat meat or dairy. 

We had planned to do a cruise on Milford sound the next day but the landslides had destroyed the roads and still were not open to personal vehicles. We didn’t want to spend ~250 dollars for a commercial coach and cruise upgrade option so we made a change of plans and headed back to Wanaka where Bryn and I spent a few days a couple of weeks back. We went back to some cool cliff jumping and lazy river spots we found and stayed at a huge open campground in the woods and made friends with a bike packer named Karl. He serenaded a family of ducks with his flute and he and Madeline were fast friends! 

The next day we headed north up to Mt. Cook. We planned to go all the way up into Mt. Cook National Park but when we arrived the weather was very clouded and drizzly so we decided to wait until the next morning for better weather and camped at a lake. We made an amazing dinner of portabella mushroom burgers and red kumara (like a sweet potato) fries and snuggled up in the van to play a rousing game of monopoly. As monopoly always does, the game dragged on quite a bit, and I won by forfeiture - me and my sisters play monopoly back home so it was a really fun throwback game night. The next morning we got up early and drove an hour or so into the national park. We made a first stop and did a 3 km hike up to an overlook of the Tasman glacier. It was the first time Madeline had seen a glacier so that was really cool, and the views of the mountains were absolutely gorgeous. We continued up the road to its end where there were hundreds of cars/vans parked at the staging camp for a plethora of hikes. We opted not to join in on the difficult and crowded trails but just hung out, had some snacks, and enjoyed the view of NZ’s tallest mountain. After we left we had a hefty driving day and made it a long way south to yet another lakeside campground. 

The next day we drove even further south to the town of Bluff. We had spent the last 3 nights staying at freedom camps in our van - we had to pitch a tent as well because the van really only has space for 2 people - and were a bit weary of the cold and loneliness accompanying being alone out in the tent so we booked some more cheap Airbnb’s. The Airbnb in Bluff was really nice and after driving to the end of the peninsula at the end of NZ we utilized the real kitchen space to make an Italian feast of salad, gnocchi and vegetarian bolognese sauce, and garlic bread (and a little bit of wine). 

The next day we drove through the Catlins, a large forested area of southern New Zealand stopping along the way at some really cool natural features. We went to two different waterfall areas which each boasted multiple waterfalls and took in the beauty and got some great pictures. We stopped for a couple hours in a small town called Owaka so Madeline could take an online test back home which she took at the local library - after that we did a little souvenir shopping before heading to Jack’s Blowhole. After a sizable walk we made it to the blowhole, which was over 600 feet inland and nearly 400 feet deep! It was really crazy to see the tides flow in and out and spray up, we got there at high tide so it was in ideal form. After that we headed to Kaka Point, a small beautiful seaside town where we got another Airbnb up on the cliffs. Our host, Mary Jo, was super nice and gave us some good advice of what to do around there and let us play with her Red Heeler, Matty. I don’t have enough dogs in my life… :( The next morning we woke up very early to go to a lighthouse ~15 min away for sunrise. Madeline was in a sleepy stupor and was unable to rouse herself so Bryn and I made the journey on our own. It was really nice to be out in the early morning hours and we got some absolutely amazing views at Nugget Point. There were large rock outcropping all around the peninsula that looked like nugget of gold (or chicken). It was a lovely morning, despite a cloudy and slightly underwhelming sunrise. After going back to the Airbnb and making breakfast, we headed back through the Catlins to stop at some of the spots we didn’t have time to see on the first pass. We went to the famous Purakaunui falls as well as Curio bay. Curio bay had a petrified forest outcropping along the sea that is now home to the rarest species of penguin in the world. We were graced with a lucky sighting of the 2019 bird of the year, the Hoiho (noisy in Maori) or Yellow-eyed penguin. We were able to get reasonably close and watch it hang out along in petrified forest rocks. We went to a cafe afterwards and had some really nice snacks before heading to Weir Beach. We camped in a big open field along the ocean at the farthest south point in all of NZ this night and luckily, it wasn’t all that cold. 

The next morning we got up early and drove to Dunedin for our final day together. We got to our Airbnb and after taking showers we went into town. We walked around town a bit, stopping in some art galleries and cool shops to get a few souvenirs. We got a gelato in the main square downtown and played ping pong in the park for a while. Afterwards we went to the Black Dog, a chic restaurant bar for a final meal together. We shared cream of tomato soup as a starter and a chocolate mousse for dessert, along with our individual entrees of course - it was a really nice last supper together. We headed back to the Airbnb and hung out and snuggled before going to bed. We got up and drove to the airport the next morning for Madeline’s very early flight - I was very sad to say goodbye to her but am so thankful she came. I miss her and my family a lot so it meant a lot to me that she came all this way to see me. <3 

After we said goodbye to Madeline we packed up and did a long haul drive up to Christchurch where we are now. We will be in Christchurch for another ~2 weeks trying to sell our van and then we will head to Australia!!! Wish us luck selling the van, we might need it! :) 

Expect our best,

Christopher and Bryn

[clara-the-djinn]

Memories By the Menorah- Part 8, Final

Nathan narrowed his eyes, “The... the magical beings you work for, right?”

Clara nodded, “Yeah. I went back to the apartment and said I wanted to explore the world for a bit. I promised to check in about a week but... during that week they found me.”

“A trap was set and they got me. The next thing I knew I felt seals magically burned into my back.” Clara’s despondency suddenly left her. She perked up and blinked, “oh!”

“That’s right! I have something super important to tell you!” The genie turned around to show her seals, one of the marks, of course, missing. Naomi squinted her eyes to look at her back. Nathan and Daniel simply looked in confusion. By this point, Abigail had climbed down the stairs.

“It’s kinda weird how it happened, but I broke one of the seals! I have a little bit more of my powers again!” The genie exclaimed in joy. Naomi and Abigail both gasped. Naomi’s eyes filled with tears. She choked out, “That’s wonderful...” Abigail approached the group, “How... how did you do it?”

“Oh, I didn’t do it myself. One of the askers did it!” The group of humans stared at her in confusion. Nathan raised a brow, “Askers? Like... askblog... askers?”

“Yeah! Exactly!” Clara chuckled, “I knew if anyone would get that, it’d be you!” Naomi shook her head, “While... I don’t understand how... I’m so glad you’re on your way to breaking free once again.” Abigail smiled as well, “We’re proud of you, Clara. Truly.” Clara flew up to Abigail and gave her a big hug, “Awww! Thanks Abby!”

Abigail pulled away from the hug for a moment, “Well, we still have much to catch up on with you! Enough of old stories, let us talk about these passed couple of months.”

Clara nodded happily, “Yeah!” She turned towards your viewpoint and winked.

“We’ll always remember and make more memories by the menorah!” Clara giggled to herself. The rest of the family chuckled but didn’t mind her little joke. The family spent hours catching up with Clara until she fell asleep, head on the coffee table with a smile on her face.

(End of Part 8, End)

.....

(And now, a message from Clara)

“Happy Hanukkah, everyone! I hope it or whatever holiday you celebrate was a reaaally good one this year!”

“I heard from my creator that things have been getting kinda bad in her world. Constant fires. Tensions rising. Nazism, Bigotry and general oppression have been making a strong comeback in a lot of major countries.”

“It’s tough. And I know sometimes it can be really hard to see the good when so much bad is around.”

“Even my creator is struggling mentally sometimes. She’s desperate to see her therapist again, but she can’t find affordable health insurance with the slave wage wage she’s getting paid.”

“But, and I am talking to you too ***, there’s a lot of good things going on, too! I know there’s a lot of good or fun things each and every one of you have done this year!”

“So, for whatever holiday you celebrate this season, I want you all to do me a favor.”

“You too, ***!!”

“I want you to list out five good things you did this year! it can be anything! Got a new job? Cleaned up that messy room? Tried that super yummy new treat that you heard about? It can be anything! As long as it gets you that reaally good warm feeling!”

“Write them down and whenever you feel sad this holiday season, take a look at that list again! Remember the good of this year and think of the good you’ll do next year, too!”

“Hope that helps! Sooo, unfortunately, my creator and I wanted to start something tonight, but it’s suuuuper late so we’ll just have to start it tomorrow, on my creator’s birthday!! See you all tomorrow!”

[theolivechickken]

Come to Salzburg they said. It will be easy they said.

Brace yourself: here’s week 1.

Jan 15

Scarfed down an egg, cheese, and spinach cake-looking omlette before running upstairs for German. Katharina printed out little character cards and we had to translate them out loud to each other.

Hallo, mein name ist Brigitte (also had to spell my name out in German). Ich bin dreiundsiebzig Jahre alt. Ich komme aus Klagenfurt, Kärnten.

Oof why are numbers so difficult? Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it. It’s pretty easy if you know 1-10 but you have to know 1-10 and I don’t yet.

I like our Austria in Europe class. Normally, I think history is boring and it’s hard for me to stay engaged, but I thought it was really interesting how we opened the class. Wolfgang asked us, “What does history mean to you?” For me it’s a recollection of individual stories and how they play into the greater picture/shape society, as well as how society shapes individual’s stories. We also had a debate and discussion on how is identity formed. I’m glad we’re in a small lecture class. I almost never speak aloud in discussions/class, but I feel pretty comfortable speaking up in our group.

Remind me not to drink 2+ cups of black tea in one sitting. I was wayyyy to hyped on caffeine. Kinda felt like I shaking like that squirrel from Over the Hedge.

Oh my, our Sights and Sounds of Salzburg class was a looooooong one. Our professor has a thick accent so it’s hard to keep up and understand what she’s talking about. Sometimes she would ask a question and we wouldn’t know that she did until she just kept staring at us. We flipped through a thousand slides of historical art pieces.

Since we ended class at 15:30, there wasn’t much time to go out into the city before dinner. We ended up hanging out in the house to do homework or take a break before going out to Paul Stub’n. I had chicken, a baked potato, and a light salad.

Let me start by saying I have never seen any full length mirrors since we arrived here. So in the bathroom, you can understand that I was confused by the mirror and thought it was a weird hallway to another part of the bathroom. Only till I actually walked up to it and TOUCHED IT did I see my reflection and realized OH it’s a mirror and I’m dumb. Glad Aubree was there to witness it. We were dyiiing.

After dinner, we navigated through the city and found the lift on the other side of the mountain. We rode the elevator up since Aubree’s knee hasn’t been the happiest lately. Up on the Mönchsberg, we walked the scenic backway and found a museum as well as a stunning view of the city at night (photos will never do this place justice).

Jan 16

Had another egg, cheese, potato cake-looking omelette for breakfast and hiked up the stairs to German. For our Austria in Europe class this morning, we took a walk on the Mönchsberg and stopped at sites that had historical backgrounds and were essential to Austria/Salzburg’s development. He also pointed out the Eagle’s Nest and the church that was used in the Sound of Music (but the inside of a different church was used for interior scenes).

We trekked back to our building and had a potatoey crispy mac and cheese-esque dumpling casserole thing for lunch. I wished I knew the names of the foods Marcus cooked for us.

After this lunch break, we continued our Austria in Europe class and had a history lesson on the Habsburg family. My background on European history is rough/ basically non-existent since the last time I studied it was early-on in high school and I never retained any information because it was a butt-load of history to remember. So I’m happy to be getting another crash course. Turns out the Hapsburgs were a family who happened to be at the right place at the right time They managed to come into power and dominate the Holy Roman Empire for 600 years.

Nadia, Raine, Aubree, Patrick, and I went out to hang and do homework at a coffee house but ended up walking around town and stopping at Spar to buy chips and snacks. I need to learn how to ask, “Can I pet your dog?” in German. I keep seeing too many good bois, big woofers, and smol puppers that are all SO well trained and absolutely adorable. When we walked out of the grocery store, we found a little long-haired dog tied to a bench. Patrick went up to pet it while the rest of us stared and admired from a distance. We walked through the Hospital parking lot (and realized just how small this town is and how all these separate pieces of the city are finally connecting to a solid map) and then hung out at a little pastry shop before crossing the street to meet the rest of the group at the Aug (Augustiner braü).

Inside, there was a whole wall lined with small and large ceramic beer mugs (Steins?). You picked up a mug, washed it out in this grand sink station, paid 3-5 euros at the stand, and then walked over to the bar where the guy would fill your glass up from the tap. Honestly it was pretty good. 10/10 recommend and would come back- and the food wasn’t too bad either. I got a Riesen Käsekrainer mit senf (basically a giant sausage with cheese and mustard). Patrick and I also went to a stand to get some fries. I was confident in my German and ready to order and then I panicked mid-sentence but the lady still understood what I meant.

Jan 17

COME TO SALZBURG THEY SAID. IT WILL BE EASY THEY SAID. Our sounds of Austria professor just dropped a homework bomb on us. And the binders she passed out for our class are so unorganized (my OCD is killing meeeee). Why am I already overwhelmed with classes? I’m hoping this week is just chaotic from trying to adjust and process everything as well as from trying to establish somewhat of a routine. On the bright side, we had more comfort carbs for lunch (pasta with red sauce, bacon bits, and broccoli).

We ~finally~ ventured out to get our sim cards. Managed to buy a ticket and hop onto the bus (but am I supposed to scan my ticket or something?). Wasn’t sure what our stop was for the train station, but I was happily along for the ride (no need to stress yet folks). Salzburg is an interesting city. It’s always suuuuper quiet. People walking around town are silent. Individuals and families sitting on busses don’t talk. In restaurants, volume is kept to a minimum. I’m sure we all look crazy just existing out in the streets as Americans especially since we like to talk and travel in groups. It was quiet on the bus, but the ride was calming and it was nice to see parts of the city that we hadn’t seen before. Also, we saw some cute babies all bundled up and smiley. They look like miniature Michelin Tyre men.

We missed our stop for the train station?? So we just got off at the last stop which was the Europark (the large indoor mall). We stopped at the A1 store to get sim cards, but it was a hassle with such a large group and so many of us not really knowing what we need or what we’re getting. It sounds like we were trying to get one plan but ended up with a different one since the guy misinterpreted us? I’m still confused, and I feel like I spent a lot of Euros, but my phone works abroad now and it’s only a month plan so if it doesn’t work out or I don’t use/need all it’s perks I can just change it when the plan is up.

The mood drastically changed from when we went in, to when we came out. A lot of stress for both us, and the poor two workers who were trying their best to help us out. We hopped on a bus to head back to Old Town. Got off and scrambled to find a quick restaurant to eat at before attending a concert. Some split off to McDonalds, and some of us went to a fish food store. I ended up getting a fried fish sandwich thing, but it was either served cold, or cold from sitting too long. It was aight and definitely cheap. I’ve been missing fruit and veggies in my diet. I think Marcus does his best to include them in our meals, but I could really go for a smoothie.

How to save money by going out :)

don’t go out

get kids meals

fast food

street food

Also, here’s the rundown on the types of places to eat:

super fancy restaurants

sit down restaurants

sit down coffee houses

take out coffee houses

fast food

street food

We met up with the rest of the group in front of Haus für Mozart (Kleines Festspielhaus) for the concert: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s quite an experience sitting at a concert. I think so many of us are used to having a lot of visual stimulation, but this was mainly a listening experience. Of course, you can watch the musicians playing their instruments or the conductor throwing his body into the music, but it’s a different kind of visual that we are not used to. The music was lovely, but it was also long. We were supposed to take notes throughout the concert, but I kept getting lost in thought or lost in the story of the music. Or maybe just lost. At some points it really was just music and I didn’t really know how it made me feel or think.

[bearygentle]

Quick year in perspective:

Holy shit. This year sucked ass and WAY too much happened in a concentrated time but most of that stuff will never happen again, so at least there's something:

Last semester of highschool. Dual enrollment was the worst mistake of my life holy shit those classes were picked bc nobody wanted to pay for em [we had no choice] and it SHOWS

No coincidence that I split a new alter around this time [hi rusty]

Turned 18

Scheduled a surgery for that summer, apparently it's my bad for assuming anyone at college would communicate. At all. [Announced a last minute policy change: my program can't enroll in classes until after we did in-person orientation/tour... which I COULDN'T DO BECAUSE OF THE SURGERY RECOVERY]

Graduated highschool. Won't get my diploma until I complete this early college bullshit tho. Can't drop out. GED for one credit is too stupid, but it tempts me regardless

Close online friend cut all contact the day after graduation in the second-douchiest way possible [first place goes to my ex]

Semi-major foot surgery, exactly a week after that. Tough break!

Couldn't go outside/walk/even drive for most of the summer because of this [suuuuper isolated, fucking hated it]

Our cat, who we've had since I was 9, had to be put down july 24th. We think it was cancer.

Got a kitten the same fucking afternoon, literally 4 hours after, because the barn across from the vet's office had kittens and apparently this was instruction for mom from god. This has been a reoccuring theme for the past few years. [Kitten's a total sweetheart, I do love him but. If you're freaked, imagine living here (￢_￢;) ]

Quit all my meds end of july. Probably the cat was my breaking point. Switched to a mild version of adderall

Quit therapy early august, usual therapist was on maternity leave + the replacement gave me an 'off the books' bpd diagnosis after a 10 question quiz a week after the 'friend' situation. Completely switched gears & got super clinical/aloof, so I ghosted 1 appointment post-cat loss. Fuck you. Shoulda done it earlier.

August's 'late' orientation wasted a whole day for 30 minutes of information. First time alone in public since march 2020. Super nerve-wracking. [Registering took over a week total bc of multiple holds + the hideous website]

Somehow also had the time for an extended derealization episode for basically all of late august/september/october, don't remember much. Might've fucked up my disassociative barriers with that one

Possibly started or finished a split partway thru this semester too, idk nothing noticable came of it but it felt like something cracked in my brain

Endured my first 'real' college semester, super burnt out, too many classes, but guess what!! I have to take the same number this semester OR I WON'T GRADUATE & I LOOSE MY HIGHSCHOOL DIPLOMA. Parents won't let me drop out. But I want too. So. So bad.

Oh also got goldfish + mystery snails! The only positive besides the kitten. A snail passed away a few weeks later, but the other two [+ all fish] are doing fine. [on finals week too, because of course it had to kick it then.] Planning on getting their full-size tank this spring.

Didn't draw, like, at all. My art year in review is half blank because of all this but I somehow did improve significantly so that's a plus???

Conclusion: summer of hell!! Semester of hell!!! Also Reigen the kitten was there. I can't think of anything else that could realistically go wrong, so maybe I'm in the clear.

Hopefully in 2022, I'll go back to therapy [already scheduled appointment with the normal therapist], graduate college with an associates (one semester left + already registered), and keep up the 'getting back into drawing' [especially fanart]. Everything else is up in the air. Also odd taxi movie + spiderverse 2 + maaaaybe mob psycho s3...?

I'm desperately hoping to have my comic starting sometime and do art shit to save up for moving out [no way in hell I'll have the energy for a real job]. Since all my plans fell through, I just need to keep pushing forward and figure out something. I'm still too fucking drained to hold regular conversations, so obviously that needs to be high priority because I feel really bad about ignoring my friends, and I really wanna branch out again. One step at a time, I guess.

At least it's over. I can handle aftermaths.

[frankenfossil]

I haven't been posting about my garden lately because it is just a hard time but I've rejigged it all so hopefully some stuff could ACTUALLY GROW FOR ONCE........ I have a fairly nice backyard but it is almost entirely shaded constantly, which limits the amount of easy flowers I can grow from seed. But that is less of a problem than the POSSUMS So here we have: my cool self-watering planter that my dad and my sister made me for my birthday. The seeds that are coming up might be violas, parsley, alyssum, and/or forget-me-nots, I think. Also a rhubarb that has been struggling valiantly for some time that I just moved in. The net is very successful so far, in that it looks neat and also has no holes! Then: the much messier garden bed that I built out of bamboo and which has a compost bin in the middle of it (so that as the compost breaks down it can percolate directly out into the soil, it's a thing I read about that seemed cool). This is growing maybe rocket or spinach or both. It has various issues: a way harder shape to net (esp since I have to make it donut shaped so the compost is accessible), plus deeper shade (all the bamboo is right by), and most stressful, the possums are super keen on the compost feast and thus have already chewed through the net once to get to it. I don't actually care about them eating the compost but like, don't trample my plants, also, don't eat through my nets. Just. Go over?! So I patched the holes and added like a bridge to get to the compost. I'm hoping they don't notice the seedlings growing into some tasty plants bc I do not know how to do anything more. Looks just so messy though, Le sigh. Then my poor succulent tub, well the biggest - all very possum nibbled, but not COMPLETELY so I've got hope that they're not desperate to eat all of those, and kind of stretchy from the lack of light but after moving it around a bunch of times I've finally found a spot that might be light enough long enough for them. Goodness gracious. Aaaaand I had a bunch of plant pots on my balcony but then the possums found them and ate them ALLLL so I had to move all my plants to Lauren's balcony which is somewhat less accessible to varmints (mine has a big tree Right There and also the bamboo sometimes blows over so it's just a big bridge to my babs) which she wasn't suuuuper keen about due to my tendency to go Too Hard with the plant hoarding, but she doesn't go out there and keeps one blind down for privacy reasons anyway so I've got most of the stash out of sight and just a nice arrangement of pots in view. So far that is working well!!! One day I will do right by that poor long suffering fuschia, and in the meantime, I'm SO excited about the daffodils, and the geraniums are the only surviving ones now since possums skeletonised all the ones I put in the garden beds but they were my faves anyway and they're looking So Great, and those pots and baskets that look empty have forget-me-nots and alyssum coming up too so come spring we will have AT LEAST ONE FLOWER ZONE and it will be Great. The ivy is chugging along fine too haha.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: Hi guys, Brian here

I’m writing this post because we found out yesterday that Emily is allergic to pollen. Like, suuuuper allergic. Like, looking at her you’d think she’d watched “The Notebook” and the opening sequence from “Up” back to back. Her poor little lash-less eyes are so red and watery that she can barely see. Also she’s been so congested at night that she can’t sleep. So last night she took something to knock herself out, and she’s still out as I write this, which is 7:39 am on Friday. That’s crazy for Emily, she’s usually up at 5:30 writing posts for the blog. So now I’m up early writing for the blog. I’ll keep you posted on when she wakes up… Hopefully, she goes for a while, she needs it. Let’s start with a video so you can get the full scale and get Emily right before the pollen fully attacked (just wait for the ad to play). OK. I’m back. The garage. This has a special significance for me because there’s something innate in men to have a squared away garage. I think it’s because the garage is the one room in the house (or out of the house I guess) where function matters more than form. It’s kind of the only place where I can win some design battles. In a garage, you’re not trying to figure out which pouf would offset the muted tones of a chaise lounge, you’re trying to figure out how many rakes can we fit on that wall. And that’s my kind of design. The problem is, I’m lacking motivation to do things right now, which I think is a symptom of the whole quarantine thing. After home-schooling the kids in the morning, I find myself acting like an old British man, mumbling incoherently and stumbling around the house in a daze until cocktail hour. But Emily, pre-allergies, is ever-motivated and kept threatened to do the garage herself until I acquiesced. So off to the garage we went! Our garage here at the Mountain House is pretty small and has not been organized in about a year. Plus it was the storage site for the reader event we threw and photoshoots we did last year, so there’s a lot that needs to be sorted and donated or driven back to LA. Here’s Emily showing off the space before her face got attacked by pollen. As you can see, we never spent a lot of time thinking about the organization of this space. Emily and I are both kind of “I’ll just put this here and deal with it later” people, which isn’t a good combination when it comes to garages. We’ve got a shelving unit up, but it’s not being used very well. And we’ve got lots of random stuff near the shelves, but we just didn’t make it to the final step of putting them on the shelves, which is hilarious. Plus we have a bunch of stuff we need to find new homes for (not in our home) like the rugs, and some chairs, and some lampshades. We have a LOT of random lampshades. Anyone else have that problem? BTW, it’s 8:01 am, and still no Emily. It’s getting to that point where I might go check to see if she’s still breathing. So after Emily got the old British drunk to focus on the garage, we figured out some specific things that we needed: storage for our tools and yard stuff, space for our bikes, an area that we can rotate for seasonal things like beach stuff in summer and sled stuff in winter, a redesign of the shelving, and of course space enough to park my 6 seat “Ferrari” golf cart, which I will still defend as one of the best craigslist finds any human has ever made. I mean the best, right?? Ok moving along… It should be noted that there originally wasn’t access to the garage from inside the house so we put in that little stairway (it has to be that big for code, but we could certainly reduce its footprint). We love the access and we use it all the time but it does mean that we will never be able to put an actual car in here. But honestly, it’s so small that we don’t know if we would have been able to fit our big cars anyway. So yes, we need to be able to put the Ferrari in there, but that’s about it. Here are more pics of the whole original mess: We have a lot of Christmas stuff in those bins, which takes up a lot of space. We need to find a new spot for it though because it’s silly that something we only use for two months is dictating so much space for the whole year. First Round of Organization After everything was removed and cleaned it was much easier to see what might be possible in there. We gave some stuff to some neighbors up here, we drove some stuff back to LA, we relocated some stuff, and we learned that we had a lot of broken things that had to go in the trash. Emily just came out of the bedroom, it’s 8:11 am. I don’t think she’s slept in that late since college. She says she’s feeling better today. So here are some decisions we still need to make: We need shelving, but could certainly make it nicer than that. And while we love that staircase do we want to make it nicer than that? Paint the janky railing? Like I said, we could have made it just three steps down without the railing but not legally, so we put in this big guy. We aren’t terribly motivated to demo it out and likely will just work with it for now. The big black fridge came out of the kitchen during the remodel, and we were using it for secondary food storage, until someone accidentally unplugged it before we left for a few months. When we came back and made the mistake of cracking the door open, we were slapped with the most gag-inducing putrid smell and discovered a moldy sludge that had covered all the surfaces. We closed it back up and there it sits like the arc of the covenant, waiting to melt someone else’s face off. We tried disinfecting it, but it may be a lost cause. We need to make a call on this one. Like how much do we REALLY need a garage fridge?? Emily doesn’t think we need a garage fridge, because apparently she’s ok with pulling out 12 pounds of food to access the thing she wants in the back of our kitchen fridge. She says we’re doing fine without it now, but I’m less optimistic. Maybe things will change in a bit, but right now we are doing huge grocery shops to lessen the frequency of shopping, which means that every time we open the fridge it’s like that cliché scene in every comedy movie where the guy opens the closet full of stuff and everything falls on top of him, capped by a late bowling ball to the head. That’s our fridge, but it’s a jar of bread and butter pickles that rolls out last. I also think a garage fridge is a perfect pace for beverages, which take up a bunch of room. And our kids aren’t old enough yet to try to steal adult beverages out of the garage fridge, so we’re good right? I mean, once they turn 13, I’ll put a lock on it, like my friend Alan’s dad should have. But for now, we’re good. What do you guys think? Fridge or no fridge? I got a big-brimmed hat at the hardware store and I’m now super into yard work. I bagged 17 contractor bags of oak leaves last week and still have more to do, so I obviously need some space for my tools. We have this little nook that is a covered space for storage if need be (and another entrance into the garage), we may put the bikes in here if we can figure out how to get them in there and still have space to get into the garage from the side yard. It took hours for us to clean and it wasn’t pretty. It was full of so much extra tile, leaves, random paint cans, our friend’s kayaks we just inherited, and empty gross Pepsi bottles left over from the construction crew (from two years ago). We feel very accomplished that it looks like this now: We actually found some unused space up in the attic that we stuffed all the Christmas and winter stuff in, which was super helpful. The attic entrance is across from the kids’ play area, and the other storage space we have is behind a hidden door that goes to the guts of the house. What’s Now? We still have to figure out things like the shelving and the fridge. We also are going to find a way to hang the bikes because they take up an abnormal amount of space. Also, the ceilings are nice and high, so we’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to hang some stuff up there for storage. The Solutions We need some tool storage but I don’t know if we really need anything fancy. It seems like at least considering something like this (below) would be nice and may make me feel more manly. Like whenever I have to replace a battery in a kid’s toy I can make a big deal out of folding out my workbench and feel like a handy guy. image source I’m also worried that I would leave all my tools on the table instead of hanging them up in their right place. I think I may need a big box to throw them in. I know, I’m lazy, but it’s folly to think that I’m going to change. This person’s garage is dreamy. design and photo by simply organized I feel like this is good inspo for storage. The only problem for us is that the space between the wall and that big staircase is pretty narrow so I don’t think we could hang bikes and pull the golf cart in…. a sentence I never imagined that I would ever write. Sorry, I know these are all champagne “problems” but hey, we’re writing what we’re actually going through up here. But I really like how there’s two rows of storage happening, the shelf for bins and underneath for hanging things that get used often. These are some good broom and rake storage options that could work: 1. LETMY Broom Holder Wall Mounted | 2. Corner Double Tool Rack | 3. Koova Wall Mount Garden and Garage Tool Organizer | 4. Deluxe Tool Tower | 5. Goowin Broom Holder | 6. Stalwart Rolling Garden We thought about getting a small outdoor shed to house things like rakes and such, but I think it makes more sense to keep everything contained to the garage. Plus it’s been impossible to find a shed that has gotten Emily’s approval. image source We got into mountain biking up here, and Charlie is finally up and running on a peddle bike, so we definitely will be using them a lot. Right now, I think mine is laying in a pile of leaves on one side of the house while Emily’s and Charlie’s are sprawled out around a tree on the other side. That can’t keep happening, our neighbors must think that we’ve been raptured mid-bike-ride. So we will try one of these. Have you guys used any that you recommend? 1. TORACK Bike Rack Garage | 2. 6-Bike Storage Rack 2.0 | 3. Elfa Utility Vertical Bike Hook | 4. Copenhagen Wall Mount Bike Rack | 5. Delta Cycle Leonardo Da Vinci Single Bike Storage| 6. Bike Wall Mount And while we’ve found a way to clear out most of our bins, I’m sure we’ll accumulate more, so we’ll need a good vertical storage system. I’d love to say I could build one, but I’d also love to say that I can do a standing jump over a car or that I can run faster than a gazelle. I’m just not that handy y’all. design and photo by simply organized | design and photo by modern builds Here are some solutions we are considering… 1. Platinum Elfa Utility Basement Storage | 2. Bror | 3. Matias the Heavy Duty Storage System Ceiling Mounted Rack | 4. Shelf Steel Freestanding Storage Cabinet | 5. Chrome-Finished Tower Shelving | 6. LEXIMOUNTS WR24B Storage Rack Lord knows we go through a lot of storage here in Emily Hendersonland, and we’ve used lots of types of bins. Here are my tips – they can’t be hard plastic because they break, they have to have a good seal, preferably not the clip handle because those break, they should have good grips for when you move them a hundred times, and they should be stackable. 1. Tough Storage Bin | 2. Brute Tote Storage Container | 3. Heavy Duty 54 Gal. Storage Bin So that’s where we are with the garage so far. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s looking much better in there, plus we’ve kept it pretty clean since the organizing day. We’ll see how long that lasts. But at least for now, the garage is no longer a place to just dump stuff and go, it’s clean and organized and we can see the potential. Or at least I can see the potential, Emily may not be able to see much until spring is over. Stupid pollen. The post We Tackled Our Non-Functional Garage and These Are Our Ideas To Maximize It appeared first on Emily Henderson. #Design101 #MountainHouse #Design101

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/hi-guys-brian-here