#the other sim is standing btw it's not like he's sitting to join in a convo

[vivalasthedas]

nothing will make you realize how broken, and how bad, the sims 4 gameplay is quicker than trying to play the sims 4 without mods.

[realcube]

randomly falling asleep with hq!! characters 💤

navi | masterlist | taglist 

thank you anon for this cute request!

characters: ushijima, tsukishima & yachi 

content warning: swearing, mentions of sexual assault 

thank you to anon for this cute request

wakatoshi ushijima

♡ he shows affection in his own...special way 😊

♡ by that, i mean that if you fall asleep while sitting next to him and he thinks you look cute, he’ll just stare (●__●)

♡ like deadass if he was anyone else, it’d be creepy as hell but he’s your bf so-

♡ he stares bc not only do you look precious, but he doesn’t want to touch you as he’s afraid that he might wake you up

♡ though, if you’re in public (like sitting next to him on the train) he might gently put his arm around your shoulders to make sure that onlookers know that you’re safe with him

♡ also, it only takes one time for him to catch on to your habit of disappearing and falling asleep in the most unconventional places and istg he is the BEST at guessing where you are - it’s a gift

♡ like he’ll arrive home and if you’re not there to immediately greet him with kisses, he’ll take a moment - let him boyfriend senses take over and walk him over to whatever room is giving him ✨(y/n) vibes✨, open the door and there is a 99% chance you are in that room sleeping 

♡ and he probably got it right first guess (which is a pretty big deal considering y’alls house resembles a sims fkn mansion made with motherload money)

♡ he’ll open the door to the storage cupboard to find you sleeping with the mr muscle spray and it’s such a shame bc he was going to be a clown and make a ‘why are you cheating on me?’ joke but you were in REM sleep 🙄

♡ or he’ll walk in to the conservatory and see you laying in the fetal position on the floor and that is the ONLY time he interferes with your sleep bc he doesn’t want you to fuck up your back 🥺

♡ like he has an obsession with your posture - like if you are slouched he will tell you to stand up straight or if you are sitting hunched in a chair, he’ll creep up behind you to start massaging your shoulders while fixing your posture 

♡ not to be rude though- just bc he cares

♡ also, he never questions how you end up falling asleep in the most random of places, he just goes with it 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

ushijima sighed as he hung up his jacket, realising that this was one of those days were you won’t come scurrying to the front door to greet him with kisses and instead he had to hunt through in search of you. although, it wasn’t much of a hunt considering his gut instinct said you’d be in the study room and there you were, cuddled up by the bookshelf. 

however, your back was hunched over in way that didn’t look to comfortable so ushijima thought it was his duty to transport you to somewhere that there was a lot more appropriate and fit for sleeping.

so he gently slipped one hand behind your back and the other under your knees to slowly pick you up and carry you to your shared bedroom. is efforts may have been in vain though as he noticed one of your lids flutter open out of the corner of his eye, “good afternoon, sweetheart.” he hummed, steadily shifting his hand from your back to the back of your head to tenderly caress your cheek with his thumb as you cuddled into his chest. “are you awake?”

“No.” you groaned.

“Shame, I was going to suggest going out for walk on the beach--”

“I’m awake! Let’s go!” 

kei tsukishima 

♡ he probably calls you lazy but he’s really just jealous of how well you can sleep

♡ coz he just lays in bed till 4AM staring at the ceiling 

♡ i imagine that if you were to fall asleep next to him in a crowded, bustling place - like on a train - he’d take off his headphones and clasp them over your ears so the loud announcements don’t wake you up  

♡ he doesn’t fall asleep on transport btw (not even planes) so don’t worry about missing your stop 

♡ though he’s not usually a fan of PDA, he’ll hold your hand without a second thought to lead you out the train when you’re still recovery from the post-sleep haze because of course he doesn’t want to lose you in the crowds of people or anything

♡ and if you have a cute lil sleepy face then he might take a picture but he’d probably edit the picture with snapchat or something and draw like a moustache on you, put a sarcastic caption or something then send it to you 

♡ (but he’d save an unedited version of the pic bc you’re adorable-)

♡ like tsukki leaves you on delivered most of the time on snapchat bc he believes if you have something important to say, you’ll just message him normally but the rare occasion you do get a snap from him, don’t get your hopes up bc there is a 99% it’s just something like a picture of you with a drawn on crown and the caption ‘sleeping beauty 🙄’ 

♡ ‘so you think i’m a beauty 🥺’

♡ then he leaves you on read

♡ he will not carry you under any circumstances in public btw

♡ and at home, if you were to fall asleep on the couch next to him while y’all were watching a movie, there’s a 50/50 that’d he carry you to bed 

♡ but if he doesn’t take you to bed, he’ll set down a pillow for you on the couch and shift you around so you were laying in a more comfortable position, then drape a blanket over you 

♡ in regards to when he comes back from work, you’re usually already asleep in bed - but there is one time that you were not in the bedroom, and he still teases you for it until this day 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

most of the time, you’re sound asleep in bed by the time gets home but tonight you weren’t - in fact, you were no where to be seen. he had searched everywhere, called your phone multiple time and he looked at your schedule, but it appeared as though you were supposed to home right now - so hours, he was sitting fretfully on the couch, contemplating calling the police.

however, all his distressed pacing really worked up an appetite so he poked his head into the pantry to grab a snack but his soul almost left his body when he noticed you laying on the floor, fast asleep, with the cat curled up in your arms. who he didn’t even noticed was missing lol

usually, he wouldn’t even think of waking you up but the rage and shock that shot through his body resulted in him barking out, “what the fuck?! what are you doing here?! i’ve been looking all over this damn house for you and--”

he was cut off by the cat springing out of your arms from the surprising sharpness of his voice and scurrying off, leaving you confused on the floor on the pantry, half asleep, wondering how you got here and why tsukishima was yelling at you? “hm? what’s wrong, sweetie?” you hummed, rubbing your eyes while tilting your head up to look at his tall, slender figure looming over you in the doorway.

as much as tsukishima wanted to stay mad at you, upon noticing how cute your bedhead was along with how soft your voice was, he quickly realised that there was no way he could continue yelling you. so instead, he scoffed and slowly kneeled down to sit next to you on the floor, looking at you with kind yet concerned eyes as he inquired, “why were you sleeping in the pantry?”

it took you a moment to try and remember but once you did, you blurted out, “oh, berry was having trouble sleeping.” yes your cat is called berry. don’t question it. her full name is strawberry tsukishima shortcake. “so i cuddled with her in her favourite sleeping spot and she slept like a baby. but i guess i did too.” yo chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of your neck. 

tsukishima mentally cursed you out as he was expecting a silly explanation but shit that’s cute. why does he lowkey want to join y’all next time?

hitoka yachi

♡ gsrbtrhryh she gets so flustered and nervous when you fall asleep with her

♡ and she always does tbh bc she has no idea what to do 

♡ like she thinks you look so precious and angelic so she really wants to take a picture and - if she thinks you’d be okay with it - she clicks a photo and probably sets it as her background or posts it on her private story

♡ she is just so head over heels for you tbh that everything you do just astounds her 

♡ she just stares at you like ◉_◉ for half an hour bc you are so beautiful then something inside her just prompts her to lean in and just *mwah* and at first she is quite satisfied bc she has expressed her affection 

♡ but then a few seconds later her soul just leaves her body and guilt just washes over her 

♡  ‘OMG I JUST ASSULTED MY OWN S/O’

♡ she feels horrible 

♡ this close 👌 to calling the police on herself

♡ when you wake up, prepare to be bombarded with her apologies 

♡ once you reassure that it’d fine bc it was just a lil peck on the cheek and she is your girlfriend after all, it brings her the slightest peace of mind

♡ so you peck her cheek while she is asleep to call it evens and that basically fixes it 

♡ but anyway, she is so careful around you when you sleep - like she will literally do the most just to ensure that she doesn’t interrupt your REM sleep

♡ however, that can lead to extremely sticky situations - like the first time you ever fell asleep around her 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

You were on the 5th movie of your barbie movie marathon when she looked over and noticed you had fallen asleep half way through, so she immediately paused it so the noise wouldn’t wake you up. This was the first time she had ever seen you sleep and she felt somewhat flattered that you felt safe enough around her to be vulnerable - even though, yachi never really considered herself to be a rather daunting or intimidating person.

she couldn’t help but just sit and admire you for a few minutes before realising that she should probably transport you to somewhere more comfortable as you were currently sitting next to her on the pink beanbag in her room. and although  it was kinda comfy, the preferable alternative - her bed - was only a few feet away.

so she knew what she had to do.

she hopped to her feet and before she did anything too hasty, she stretched to ensure that she wouldn’t pull a muscle while doing what she was about to try. she inhaled deeply before crouching down - instead of bending over as she remembered what coach ukai had told her, ‘lift with your legs!’ - then snaking her arms under your torso and knees.

then, she sprung back up and immediately rushed over to the bed as even though you weren’t too heavy, she was afraid that if she held you for too long, you’d wake up. so once she reach the foot of her bed, she tossed you on so your neck was being supported by her soft pillow and yanked her duvet over you. 

she gazed lovingly down at your cozy figure laying on her bed and she couldn’t help but smile.

[ragingstillness]

A pure Ted Lasso AU to offset my criminal AU:

(Very very very loosely based off of the manhwa stack overflow)

For fun and partially for PR Jamie agrees to test out this new VR game. It’s kind of just this open world exploration thing. During the test the building is struck by lightning and while everyone is alright, Jamie gains this weird sort of HUD filter over his daily life.

He freaks out at first and goes straight to the company who made the game. They freak out too and immediately agree to try and fix it but it’ll take a while so for a bit Jamie’s just kind of gonna have to live with it.

He wakes up in the morning and skips breakfast. He’s doing drills all throughout lunch and when everyone else goes for a break he keeps working on his right cross and misses that too. He’s in the locker room later when suddenly his vision lights up red around the edges and words appear in front of his face: “HP dangerously low.”

Now Jamie’s played a lot of video games in his life so it doesn’t take him long to realize that he should try to replenish his health. He tries to stand up and go to the trainer but something invisible forces him to sit back down. The warning appears again. Jamie drinks some water. The red edged vision goes away but the warning remains. Eying it warily, Jamie eats a sandwich. A little bar appears that slowly grows as he eats until the warning is gone. Jamie mutters to himself “what am I a fucking Sim?”

After practice he goes over to Dani’s and they watch a movie together. Jamie shakes Dani’s hand to leave. Then his vision goes gold-edged and the message: Friendship advance to Level 2! appears. Jamie flushes and rushes out.

The next day Jamie talks to Will the kitman for the first time. He gets gold again but this time: New Friend! “Will the kitman” added to your list.

Roy shows up to talk to Jamie. Everything blurs until Jamie can only see Roy. The message appears over Roy’s head like a little halo: Encounter with Rival initiated.

Jamie’s getting the hang of all of this and thus far all it’s doing is embarrassing him.

Whenever he gets within a certain distance of Ted, the word “Dad” begins to float over Ted’s head. Jamie nearly starts sobbing the first time he sees it.

He narrowly misses bumping into his biological father after a game but his team backs him up and scares his dad off. Jamie is grateful but he’s even more focused on how his father’s label was “Low Level Boss: Abuser”

Jamie’s sessions with Dr. Sharon are now accompanied by her label: Healer and periodic messages like Achievement Unlocked: Breakthrough! or Mental Health +1

Training produces: Dodge, Run, Pass, Kick, Goal!

When Jamie invites Sam to join him and Dani for drinks: Sam added to the Party

Rupert tries to manipulate Jamie again: Error, you cannot add an NPC to your Party Jamie laughs his ass off.

Rebecca is Queen btw and Keeley is Beauty

Some other fun notifications Jamie gets:

Beauty is no longer a romancable character. Beauty added to the Friends list. (After the funeral and after Jaime apologizes to Roy)

Achievement Unlocked: Enemy of my Enemy - Rival has been added to the Friends list. (Post 2x08)

Dad has taken damage. Heal Dad? (Beginning of 2x12 when the team is ready to kill whoever leaked Ted’s panic attack)

[schokokokatze]

Kuneris, husband to the chieftess, and chiefly annoyed by all the requests of “could you tell your wife” he seemed to be getting these days, was taken aback when Fri approached him. He had barely seen her around, just some little girl, doing girl things. It wasn’t that Kuneris didn’t like children - quite the opposite in fact - but girls seemed weirdly sensitive to him. Everybody ended up quite angry if he encouraged them to join in the boys’ games of playfighting and tag was only alright if there was no tackling and nobody got hurt. In Kuneris’ head, children had to get hurt a tiny bit every now and then, it taught them that getting hurt wasn’t the end of the world. He certainly hadn’t died from a bruised knee, or falling into mud and dirtying his clothes, although his mother had made sure he ended up uncertain if dying wasn’t preferable to her wrath in the latter case.

And now, there was this tiny wisp of a girl strutting up to him, some of the best weapons around in her hands, and looked at him with an odd smile. It was enough to make the hairs on his back stand up. Her hair was very fair, almost unnaturally so, and her skin looked as if mere contact with something as rude and garish as the sun could inflame it, but her eyes ... her eyes were dark as tar. Dark and deep like wells. In the depth ... there was an animal. A beast. Suddenly, he felt naked. He wasn’t armed, she was. He may have been able to grab her wrist and bend the sword away from himself, tackle her and overwhelm her with his weight.

“You’re ... the late chief’s girl, yeah?”, he said, in need of some sort of human noise. She nodded, the beast in her eyes couching, watching, wanting. “I’m the one who killed his murderer”, she said quietly. So far, it had been implied that the assassin had fallen to Veo Vine, her aunt, but Kuneris believed her in an instant. People had liked to joke that a restless hound lived in his head, and came howling when there was a fight. This girl didn’t have a hound. She had ... something more sinister. A sudden movement, and the cool bronze of her sword rested next to his neck. The moment froze. His hands were half-raised but whatever he did, she might end up being faster. She had to have trained doing that.

“Kuneris the Hound, who was abandoned by his chief, his ... kuningaz, for being too loud, too drunk, too eager to fight.” Her eyes caressed her blade, then she looked straight into his face, darker and even angrier than before. Beast. Little, white beast. Wolfbeast with a winter coat. “What a cruel and stupid reason for that. I would welcome someone like you, especially with what I’ve planned, shower you with honors, treat you as the warrior you are, not some ... nuisance to be tamed. It’s unfair, and it’s dumb, how you’ve been treated.” With what she had planned, huh. He cleared his throat and ignored the sword next to his face as best he could. She still made his skin crawl, but he was Kuneris, and wouldn’t be intimidated by a little girl. Not even one as dangerous as this. “You want revenge, eh?”, he guessed. Her face lit up slightly and she nodded. “I do, and I’ll have it. Once I find out where to direct it, Hound ... will you join me? I’ll give you a proper fight. Not a dumb, annoying argument with your wife. We have an enemy, and the enemy has already drawn blood. Aunt Wysha will not conquer them, but I will. You can either be there when I do, or you can be ... you know. Home. Sitting by the hearth. Listening to auntie nag.”

“I’ll think about it, you little beast. But if you ever put a sword near my neck again, you’ll have way bigger problems than your enemies having a good time in their village while your family’s weeping.” She looked into his eyes, smiled, and with a little movement of her wrist, the sword was lowered in a fluid motion. “So, you understand me. And I understand you. Isn’t that nice”, she said and took a step back. “Think about it. A bloody raid to make our enemies tremble, and tell the rest we aren’t to be trifled with. Getting drunk on their beer while watching their damn houses burn. Being ... Kuneris again. No more leash. ‘Til then.” He nodded and watched her leave for a moment, before slowly continuing his walk towards his new house. He doubted very much that he’d be able to think about a lot of other things for a while.

(Oh god, this is a wall of text. It was absolutely crucial for me to get into this moment in detail, I just really, really didn’t take enough pictures :D I had tons of fun writing this, though. His sim looking pretty worried and her sim looking inexplicably happy was something that happened ingame during their whole conversation, btw)

[safasaf2018]

Day 15 - 6/16/18

10:39 AM of the next day (writing this in the bus)

Yesterday was my favorite day of this trip so far.  Except maybe for the night we spent in the desert. Hard to tell. But either way amazing. I woke up leisurely around 9 and went to go downstairs for breakfast, but when I got to the top of the stairs I realized that the sound was coming from above me. That’s right, the breakfast was on the friggin roof. So being on the top floor payed off! I went up the stairs and the beAUTIFUL owner said good morning to me. I turned the corner and saw everyone sitting at THE most beautiful table in the sun I’d ever seen that was covered with homemade crepes, eggs, bread, different cheeses and jams, coffee, tea, and pear juice. There was a woman coming back and forth between us and the small bar / kitchen on the roof, replenishing whatever we needed as we ate it. The view from the rooftop was the tops of a hundred cramped flat-roofed colorful houses, with the mountains behind them on one side and the ocean on the other. We had the cutest breakfast ever, and then agreed to leave at noon for downtown, which gave us just over an hour. We all got dressed, some of us talked to Vicky again, and we left. The sun was out, it was 82 degrees, and Essaouira was drawling with people. We started out together but only stayed together long enough to decide who wanted to go where. I stayed in a group with Shâdy, Kimberly, Islander, Linette, and Brandon, and we walked towards where we thought the boardwalk would be. We were wrong, but as Bob Ross would say, it was definitely a happy mistake. We did walk along the sea, but it was not at all the touristy spot. We walked first past fish stands selling fish directly from the boat, throwing salt over fish sitting on beds of ice, and throwing scraps to stray cats. After them were groups of men detangling giant fishing nets and more cats looking for scraps of food. Past these men were all of the boats cramped together, some with men on them painting or repairing them, some unloading fish, some preparing to leave. Past this bit was the very edge of the land, where there were rocks followed by the ocean. All along this walk was the smell of fish that was at first shocking and unpleasant but honestly is now a smell I don’t mind having in my hair and in my sweatshirt. Everything I just explained was on our left, and on our right was a tall wall that had people walking along it - all locals. Teenage boys walking along yelling at their friends below, mothers walking with their children to get to their fathers, just along a thin wall that was about 8 feet high maybe. When we got to the end of the walk we took some pictures on the rocks, and then turned around to go to where we had originally intended. As we got closer to the touristier side of the water, we slowly came into more and more people, more restaurants calling for us to come in, more people selling things, but it was all still very open. I fell completely in love with Essaouira there. We stopped at a convenience store to buy data for our SIM cards, and when we came back, Kimberly and Iskandar were sitting with a man who we didn’t know. When we got there we saw that it was someone selling temporary tattoos, and Kimberly wanted one. I agreed to get one with her, which the others were judgmental of, but it was fun! The others went ahead of us to find everyone else, and we stayed there to get our tattoos. Despite the beautiful photos he used as advertisement, these tattoos were just questionably hand drawn henna, but it’s okay. The man was a migrant from Senegal, and he did real tattoos as well, and eyelash extensions which seemed random. So I got a small rose on my wrist and Kimberly got a snake on her forearm. He only spoke a little English, so he and I spoke in French about Trump and immigration policy and Morocco and the Eid festival, we were there for a while. When that was done we said goodbye to him and left to find the rest of the group. On the way we saw a stand with a man making homemade ice cream for 20 cents per cone, so we each got a strawberry ice cream, and then we saw another stand making homemade potato chips for a dollar so we got that too. We finally found the others sitting on cushioned lounge chairs in their bathing suits sun bathing. We sat down with them, but they told us that to sit there we had to pay, so we moved to a table in the shade that was free, and ate bread and a salad. After Kimberly got her salad she, Iskandar, and I left. We didn’t really want to sit somewhere you had to pay for, especially with so much else to see. We went back to where we’d been earlier with all the fish stands, and went to one we had seen earlier because we told the man working there that we would come back. We payed $8 each to have freshly caught and cooked squid, calamari, sea bass, prawns, and some other fish I didn’t catch the name of. As well as bread and salad. Incredible. The fish was whole, eyeball and everything, and had bones in it. We initially picked up our forks but then remembered that in Morocco they eat with their hands, which made a lot more sense in this situation. Iskandar is from Singapore where they eat fish like this too, so he led the way in terms of removing all the bones and scraping the meat from the skin. It was the most delicious fish I’ve ever eaten, it was so good! While we were eating the afternoon prayer call was sounding from the mosque nearby, and we saw some people praying in the street, and others walking towards the mosque to pray. Also during our meal I could see workers at the fish stand sneaking small prawns or fish parts to begging cats, some even playing with the cats, and when we were done with our food, they came to gather our plates and then suddenly hurled the leftover bones and meat into the street in front of us. We were confused at first but suddenly 2,000 seagulls swooped down and completely cleared the remains within seconds, which was pretty cool. We washed our hands in their kitchen and then walked across the way where there was a man selling his artwork. He had small paintings painted onto stretched zebra skin, and traditional African wooden statues and masks. The masks reminded me a lot of these masks that we used to have in our house when we were much younger but don’t have anymore, so I bought a small one. The man was named Mohamed and he was also from Senegal. We talked about the Moroccan World Cup game yesterday (which was absolutely tragic btw - we all watched it on professor’s laptop on the bus) and the amount of Senegalese in Morocco. Kimberly and Iskandar wanted a painting, and they were bargaining with him - they’re both absolute Gods when it comes to bargaining. They got him to bring the price of a painting from 150 dirham (about $15) to 70, and then went to another man selling the same paintings who was selling for 100, but Kim told him she got the one she was holding for 50 and he sold her one for 50. I don’t understand how they do that. I’m so bad at bargaining, my strategy is just passively being indecisive until they get impatient and hopefully lower the price. I feel like I’m insulting their work when I try to lower the price, and I feel bad because this is their livelihood! And I know that when they tell me "I’m broke today, so normally I sell it for 300 but today I’ll take 200" they’re probably lying, but I just can’t do it. And I also know that they’re used to bargaining, and they intentionally set higher prices knowing people will lower them, and whenever I would see Kimberly bargain it was like a game with the sellers, they were naturals, but I think that they sense that I can’t do it, because as soon as I suggest a slightly lower price they get this sad look in their eyes and I just can’t do it. They definitely know I can’t do it. The man who sold Kimberly the second painting for 50 had seen us at Taros the night before. He also spoke only French, and he asked for my number, but we left for the hotel. At the hotel we changed into warmer clothes since it was getting late, and drank tea in the lobby while Iskandar went upstairs to pray. We were joined by other students as they came in, and we talked to Vicky again who told us she took her half brother out of her will because he voted for Trump. Most of our group went upstairs but Danielle, Kim, Iskandar, and I wanted to go shopping more before dinner. We went to what was clearly the heart of Essaouira, away from the openness of the seaside merchants and into the crammed alleyways with side to side shops selling everything imaginable. This is where I fell in love with Essaouira a second time. Our first stop was a store selling handmade argan oil products (they were literally crushing argan nuts in an old fashioned hand cranked thing right in front of us. This time I sat aside and let Kim do the bargaining since we were both getting the same thing, and that became my strategy for the rest of the night. That was the very first store on the street, so we went deeper into the heart and kept shopping. At times they would be buying something in a store that I wasn’t interested in, so I would walk ahead to other shops, and I actually loved walking alone. I would never had done this in the beginning of the trip, but the past 2 weeks had prepared me well. I could say "No", "No thank you", "I don’t have any money", "I’m not interested", etc in Arabic, which helped, and I was also just more confident and comfortable navigating a busy place alone. I know that it’s exactly what the travel blogs I read told me not to do in Morocco, but it was always only for maybe 5 minutes at a time before I would go back and check on the others and it was extremely liberating. I was looking for a very specific necklace that no one seemed to have - even a man who brought me to his store where he makes custom necklaces for you right in front of you - so I bought some other things I wanted, a small camel, a belt, and gifts for people back home. Every time I went back to find Kimberly she was expertly bargaining with a merchant because there was some sign of wear on what she wanted to buy, or because she and Iskandar were both buying something, or because she was student, it was so entertaining to watch. We spent about two hours there all together, it was the best. At some point the world cup game between Nigeria and Croatia started, and in every store you could see the owners and their family sitting on stools in the front watching it on their tv above the door. I went into a jersey shop with Iskandar and talked to the kid working there, he was probably younger than me, about the games and what his favorite team was, he was adorably shy. Finally we decided at 8:00 to head back and get ready for dinner, but Danielle and I broke away and went down another smaller street with some shops on it, still looking for the necklace I wanted. We were pulled into one shop where I bought a souvenir for a friend, and Danielle was whisked into the back by the funniest man either of us have ever met in our entire lives. He was shorter than us and skinny with a turban bigger than him, and crazy eyes. He made us sit down and pulled out fabric bags of jewelry, handing us each one saying, "Ooooh sooo nice!! So beautiful. You love it." We didn’t want to buy anything so we tried leaving, but he insisted, "No! Just because I want to show you beautiful things, doesn’t mean you need to buy! Sit." so we kept looking. At one point he put a bracelet on Danielle and felt how cold she was, and exclaimed, "Ooh! So cold. Give me. Give me your hand. Your other one too! I warm you. With energy. Yes." and held both of her wrists in his hands and leaned back with the biggest grin, warming her up with energy. He asked us what kind of jewelry we like and produced everything we asked for, in every color. He actually ended up bringing out a bracelet I liked, and Danielle wanted the same one, but he couldn’t find one. He told us "You are nice. If you both buy something, loooook!" and leaned in super close, taking both of our hands, "I lower the price a liiiiittle bit. Just for you. Very very nice, yes." He couldn’t find another bracelet like the one I had, so I gave it to Danielle, but he wouldn’t lower the price since I wasn’t getting anything, and she didn’t want to pay full price. "You don’t need to match really! Look. Really, beautiful bracelets. It’s like matching in your hearts, yes?" I ended up buying the bracelet myself because Danielle didn’t want to pay full price, and when we got up to leave he shouted for us to come back. We went back in, he made us hug him, and, still sitting down, grabbed each of our hands and got very very serious. Looking at us smiling, he said very deliberately and slowly, "See you later…. alligator. In a while…. crocodile!!!!!!!" and she and I finally left, cracking up. We found our way back to the hotel with the help of some locals, dropped our stuff off, met up with everyone else, and left for dinner. We went to a restaurant that brought us up to the top floor to a room all for us. They pulled all the tables together and we got dinner. While eating, a discussion broke out about education in America, and I mostly stayed out of it, but I was enjoying how wherever Yale students are there’s always amazing conversation. Okay my laptop is about to die so I need to speed this up. After eating we tried finding another club to go to but Taros was the only one open so we went back there, got drinks, and asked each other interesting questions, going around the table and having everyone answer - What do you love about yourself? What would you change about yourself? Who are you eternally grateful for? What’s something you with people knew about you when they met you? and then switched to "say something nice about the person to your left" and then to the right, which was the most wholesome and rewarding game ever. At that point we were ready to start dancing so we went to the stage and cared even less about what people thought than last night. Unfortunately the man who sold Kimberly the painting who asked for my number got creepy with me and we had to leave, which I felt bad about, but I swear there was not even a nanosecond of annoyance or hesitation for any of them when Carson came to rescue me in the bathroom and I asked them, "can we leave? this guy is creeping me out." We immediately left, and in that moment I had never felt more supported it was so nice. Jack went back to the hotel, but Carson and Shâdy and I wanted to walk around more to sober up, so we walked to these big rocks that go into the water, walked to the edge somehow without tripping, and sat right on the water. We talked about religion and how it’s represented in different countries, and how it affects moral code, we talked about Islam’s reputation, it was a really good conversation that I was happy to be a part of because it was so relevant to what we were experiencing. After that we went back to the hotel and crashed. Essaouira is definitely joining my very elite list of my favorite cities. Although it’s no doubt a huge tourist town, there are enough locals there to make it feel more small towny. And even though it’s so extremely busy, the size of it (at least where we were) is small enough that you recognize people when you’re there longer than one day, merchants and restaurant workers remember you, everyone is friendly. We talked about how everyone seemed to be on the same team in terms of shopkeepers. Like when we couldn’t find something in one store, instead of offering us alternatives that they sell, they would point us in the direction of another store where we could find it. And when a merchant had to leave to get something for us, the shopkeepers around him were automatically trusted to watch his store for him. It was the greatest atmosphere day and night, with open spaces but also smaller alleys and streets, I most definitely want to return there.

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday #51 - DHL - Drama Help Line?

Hey, Before we start: This Austrian human rights organisation “SOS Mitmensch” has called for people to participate in their “Populistenpause”, so ignoring any populistic, anti-islamic, anti-foreigners messages spoken out by people from the right-winged parties. The goal is to not mention anything the political right say - and just ignore them for the entire month of March. I’m going to participate in this campaign, even if I’m from Germany. So, if AfD or CSU or whoever else talk shit from tomorrow on, you won’t hear anything from me on that. It will be hard, but it will be a message. Obviously, the more people participate, the more the impact will be noticable. Feel free to join! Also: Last week I told you that this post would be about dubbing, aka. the synchronised German (or whichever language's) version of the original dialogues of films. I also debated whether I should share my two cents about carnival. But things changed - and so did this week's topic.

Btw, next week's post will be a special one (which is happening upcoming weekend), so the post on dubbing will be up in two weeks. God! So much planning ahead going on. But okay, enough of this rambling. Let's get the drama started! Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #51 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and on what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week was not only the 50th post of #TMIishTuesday. I also talked about my water-proof trousers. Oh, and self-confidence. That's the most important topic. Have a read, if you haven't yet. // Right. Where to start this rant? Probably with the reason that I got into all this shit: My phone. The on/off/unlock key of my beloved Wiko Stairway had had some issues for the last two weeks or so. It wasn't working first touch all the time. On Wednesday afternoon it stopped working completely. Naïve Damian thought, maybe taking out the battery and putting it back in would solve the problem. Erm… But how to turn this thing back on? Mind you: The on/off-key wasn't working. So the only thing that taking out the battery did, was turn off the phone. GG! After a good 30 minutes of trying to loosen the screws to check the inside of the phone, I gave up and accepted that I needed to take the phone to the repair shop the next day - or get a new one. After all I'd had this phone for 4 years. Btw, shout-out to Wiko: I was really satisfied with it! Anyway, given the age of the phone - and remembering that I had thought about replacing it early this year anyway - I decided to look for a new phone. So I spent about 5 hours researching phones on the internet - aka. reading up on test reports. In the end I had enough of it and decided for the Sony Xperia X (which ultimately sent the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the OnePlus 3 to second and third place). And I tried to get it online - with speedy delivery. It turned out that all three electronic shops in Osnabrück didn't have it in stock. It was in stock in ALL stores in the surroundings, though. Typical. I ended up placing an order at Saturn and paying 360 Euros. They told me it would be at my place within 1 or 2 working days. Fair enough. Amazon needed 3-5 days. Would have saved me 40 Euros, but I already couldn't stand the phoneliness after those 6 hours. And I didn't want to spent the entire weekend without one. As usual I put in my Packstation address. If you don't know what Packstation is: German delivery company DHL put up some lockers at basically every other supermarket in German cities. You can register online and then use any of these lockers as delivery address. Advantage over the usual home delivery: They can put it there - no matter whether you're home or not. And you can collect it 24/7. So far - so good of a concept. But I used the locker as delivery address a fair few times so far. And it didn't quite work: Two times the lockers were full - so I had to collect it from the post office. Another time they returned it to sender cause the address options on Amazon didn't indicate my "post no." - the number needed to tell the locker I can retrieve it with my pass. One time I ordered it to my home address cause I was already fed up by this - and they took it to a Packstation further away after I wasn't home. Great job! Oh, and I have to give you that: Last month it actually worked for once! Anyway, I knew I had school all morning and half of the afternoon on both Thursday and Friday, but wanted to make sure I could actually collect the phone the day it arrived. So I thought sending it to the Packstation was a great idea. And it looked like that. I mean… DHL decided to let the parcel sit at the distribution center for an entire day before putting it in the van to Osnabrück. But it's not like I had expect speedy delivery anyway :P And you might be thinking that this is coming to a quick and happy end now. And so did I. But... Things took a turn! At 3.08 pm I got an email telling me: "Hey! Your parcel is ready to be collected at Packstation No. B." I mean… I told them to send it to Packstation No. A, but hey! At least it was there. And given that the post office was closing at 4 pm, I was glad they put it into the other Packstation (assuming that the one I designated was full again). And I got really excited to retrieve my phone! But: Drama gets really drama-ry right now. Get some popcorn! In the email it said: "Hey! When you retrieve your parcel, remember to bring your pass and your one-time pin that's been sent to your phone." When I read this sentence my face turned into utter shock and terror! What the hell!? You need a pin to retrieve parcels from the lockers? I had only done this once before, so I just had forgotten. I was getting really, really mad. So I googled basically anything I could imagine to come up with a solution. Result: It seems you indeed cannot retrieve parcels, if you don't have that stupid pin! I tried, if my phone provider offered an option to look into your messages online. Cause that would make sense, right? But the customer support chat told me "no." (shoutout to the simplytel customer support, btw! Really easy to access the chat and really quick reply!). I then rang all my neighbours' doors to see, if I could borrow their phone for a minute, put my sim card in, get the code - and I would be done. But: Since lots of my neighbours are students and it was carnival, it so happened that none of them was home. So I called the DHL customer service (thank God, they don't make you pay for that!) asking, if there was any way around this? Or if they could send it to my email instead? Nope. No chance. Only by phone. Great! Mine was broken - and I told the kind lady on the other end of the line exactly that. She just said: We can't do anything about that. But you could change the number of your account online and press the “send new pin” button. That's exactly what I did: Called my father to figure out, if he was available. He was in the middle of drinking a coffee at a café with friends, but technically, he was available. Btw, I was REALLY lucky that I have a landline telephone! Don't want to think about how the following conversations would have been, if email had been the only option. So I changed the number of my Packstation account to my father's phone (his secondary phone cause the system didn't accept his first number - it's already saved for his account - great feature, too, DHL! Really handy!) and pressed the "send new pin" button. A moment later, he called telling me the code. I thanked him for his help and made my way to the Packstation my parcel was waiting for me (10 minutes one way). I got really excited when I entered my pass and  the four-character pin. But it said: Incorrect pin. I retried. Incorrect pin. Double-checked on the paper that I had taken with me on which I had put it down during the call: That's the one! Why don't you work then!? Entered the same code a third time. "Entered incorrect code three times. Your parcel is now locked. Call customer service to unlock." - Great! I was out of my mind at this point! WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING!? I stormed home - with no parcel. On the way back I already thought about just hitting the road and driving to the next electronics store that had the phone in stock. That would have meant at least 30 minutes one-way on the road. But at least I would get my phone! At home I saw an email from my dad: "Hey, I just got sent a second code. Hope, you see this in time." - Clearly I did not... And he had sent it only five minutes earlier. That was when I was on my way back from the Packstation already. Shout-out to DHL! So I did the only thing I was left with: Call the customer service again. Thank God, it was a Saturday! Both times my call was answered within one minute, after I had denied the robot service. Anyway, I decided to not tell the customer service about all my anger, but rather just ask them to reset the pin. A minute later my dad rang again: "Hey, so… I just got a third code. Did you ask for that?" - Yes, I did. I thanked him again and both of us hoped the code would not be reset again. Luckily, it wasn't this time. I entered the code and - FINALLY - collected my parcel. A full two hours after the time I would have, if they just had sent the code to my email. -.- Anyway, that's probably the last time I used their Packstation "service". You know, it's a nice concept and everything. But your just screwed when you don't have a phone! Well… A working phone. (Update: I wrote this Monday night. But I already collected another parcel from the locker. This time it worked fine. Cause my phone worked...) Oh, by now I figured out that the first pin DHL sent my dad, after I changed the number on the DHL website, was actually the pin they had sent me earlier (which I couldn't see because of acute deadphonitis). Apparently the website couldn't cope with SO MUCH information - changing the number and "ordering" a new pin - that it took 30 minutes to send the new pin. GG! -.- To end this on a positive note: Shout-out to my dad for supporting me all the way! And: My new phone works perfectly fine! As far as I can see, it's definitely worth the money! Downside: I lost all my contacts (cause I had saved them on my old phone - and you can only access the storage when the phone is turned on. Which it won't anymore. Screw this!). Slowly but steadily collecting all the contacts again now. Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant. And if I may give you one piece of advice: Only use the Packstation “service” when you have a back-up plan! Get a back-up phone first. Instead I might send everything to the post office directly from now on. Extra work for them. Revenge is sweet! Before I go let me know your thought on DHL and the Packstation thingy. Have you used it? Were you more lucky than me or was it quite the disaster I experienced? Place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do anything else you can think of to get to me. Queer Shoutout you say? First off: Massive congrats to everyone involved in the Moonlight film for winning the Best Picture Oscar! So cool to see an LGBTQ+ film rocking the Oscars! And congrats to Mahershala Ali, who played the drug dealer Juan at his younger age. And finally congrats to Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney who won the Writing Oscar for the story! Queer Shoutout of the week: An article in German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung - a story about an Israeli family. In short: A gay guy is looking for a lesbian to make a baby. They move in together, take care of their child - and each of them still has a(nother) partner. Sounds strange? It is! But very much worth the read. As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :)

Until then: Stay mighty!

Linkage: - Populistenpause: http://www.sosmitmensch.at/populistenpause - Queer shoutout: http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/45579

 Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/157536488943/tmiishtuesday-50-being-me-or-self-confidence - All #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - More #TMIishTuesdays on random topics: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/me - More very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com