#this was probably taken for Eid or something | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

neoculturetravesty · 4 years ago

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We met in online class - Part 9

Image adapted from here.

Pairing: Renjun x Reader Genre: College AU, romance, angst, fluff Warnings: Strong language, fist fight, a character has Covid-19 Word Count: 5.2k

A/N: So proud of the boys for breaking records with Hot Sauce 🥺💛 Also, Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate!

Renjun is ashamed to be surprised, but his friends remain true to their word.

That night, Renjun slept for what he’s sure was a good fourteen hours. Because by the time he woke, it was way in the afternoon. Jaemin was already back from his shift and Jeno was almost halfway through his. Jisung had insisted that Renjun get some more rest before he had to take over. It was a tiny bit disconcerting to have Jisung hovering over him the entire day to make sure he was eating and feeling okay, but Renjun had to admit--this was exactly what he needed. He didn’t like who he was when he was alone.

The boys had apparently even created a dedicated group chat where they would post updates and a list of things that were required at the hospital. Not that there was much required, anyway. But the boys would make sure that at the very least, Renjun’s mom had fresh clothes and home cooked food everyday while she couldn’t get out herself. Jaemin had even taken Renjun’s phone and gotten it fixed so he at least had a proper screen instead of a cracked one.

Even when Renjun was sure that he could take over on his own, the boys wouldn’t allow it. On many occasions, he had just stayed by them during their turns, thankful for their company and their friendship. Because who else in this world would spend their semester break in this fashion? He’s pretty sure they had plans; but they had forsaken them all to be there for him.

Renjun has no idea how it happens, but slowly and surely, things start to get better. He’s pretty certain it has to be some sort of a miracle. Like a little break of sunshine had finally decided to shine on him through the dark clouds. Like somehow, his guardian angel had decided that it had slacked off for long enough and now it should give Renjun a break. Because one day, the doctors tell them that Renjun’s grandmother will be a lot weaker for the next few days to come… but with a lot of care and attention, she should be ready to go home. They echo Renjun’s thoughts and tell them that it is nothing short of a miracle, but also that he should be thankful that his grandmother is still young and has a fighting spirit.

The day she is taken off of life support and brought into another room with a window through which he can see her, Renjun can’t hold himself back. He hugs onto Jaemin so tight and cries happy tears, and Jaemin holds him back just as strong, though he’s sure that he’s so overwhelmed by relief that he’s putting all of his weight onto the boy. But Jaemin doesn’t relent and holds onto him and lets him cry tears of joy into his shoulder.

The boys head home that night and laugh till they cry and celebrate Renjun’s grandma’s life and health. They eat like they had been hungry for days and slump their shoulders in ease like they had been keeping them tense for too long. They laugh and they sit together and keep letting out long sighs of relief, as if each breath was undoing a knot in their chest. It’s a sweet, victorious sort of a happy moment, and it is Jeno who has to remind them they need to focus now more than ever so that Renjun’s grandma can get her strength back and finally test negative. And it is an important reminder because the new semester is about to begin soon and given classes, they will have to redo their hospital visit schedules.

At the very least, they learn that the new semester would begin online, because the sudden surge in Covid cases had led them to another lockdown. Renjun’s not sure whether he should be happy or upset about it. On the one hand, he thinks this lockdown should’ve happened earlier so his grandma would’ve never gotten sick in the first place. On the other hand, he is happy that his grandma would now be safe and recover comfortably.

When classes begin and Renjun finds all his housemates at home, his heart drops a little and he wonders if he should just skip today. But an amused Jeno mutes himself during his online class and stops him.

“You have other friends, too, you know?” Jeno cocks an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, but I’m sure they have classes, too. Plus, the four of us have been doing this from the beginning, so… I don’t know…” Renjun says, rubbing the back of his neck, feeling a bit nervous about leaving his mother and grandma on their own without help. But Jeno looks at him like he’s talking gibberish.

“Dude. Not the four of us. All seven of us have been doing this from the very beginning.” Jeno says, eyebrow still cocked, looking at Renjun like he’s sure he’s lost his mind.

Renjun looks up and for a moment, he is sure his face looks dumb. Because if the buffering wheel was a human expression, Renjun’s certain he’s wearing it now. “All… seven?”

“Do you even check the group chat? Chenle and Mark and Donghyuck. They’ve all been doing their duty from Day 1, you idiot. How else would the rest of us come home so early?” Jeno scoffs and laughs a bit, knotting his eyebrows at his clueless friend.

For a moment, Renjun is silenced. Because he doesn’t know how to process this information. He feels a swell in his chest. A sort of happiness that only true friendship brings. But at the same time, he feels an incredible pang of guilt, because for one, he is an asshole that keeps underestimating the said friendship. And for the other, he had done absolutely nothing to be deserving of such love.

“Dong… Donghyuck, too?” Renjun asks and he feels his heart breaking, though even in this surreal moment of realization, he recognizes how strange it is to feel heartbreak over something like this.

“Of course, you idiot. Donghyuck was the one that stayed at the hospital the entire first night when you were asleep.” Jeno tells him and smacks him lightly on the head.

And for the first time in his life, Renjun actually feels what it is like to have his head physically hang in shame. “I don’t deserve it.” he sighs.

“I really don’t understand you sometimes, Huang Renjun.” Jeno says and turns his attention back to his class.

“What do you mean?” Renjun retorts.

“Just because friends have a dumb fight, doesn’t mean they abandon each other in times of need.” Jeno states like it is the most obvious thing in the world.

It should be simple and obvious, everything Jeno has said. But to Renjun, it is groundbreaking. Because Renjun wasn’t used to being loved and cared for without condition. In his dark and convoluted view of the world, everything was give and take. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. But here they were--his friends that were shattering all of those dumbass beliefs. Telling him that although he had been a grade A asshole and punched them in the face, they understood that he was going through some shit, and that taking care of his sick grandmother trumped all other childish grudges. Renjun realizes that perhaps, he was the most childish out of all his friends. Somewhere in his turbulent childhood, he might have skipped a lot of emotional development. Because why else would the kindness and love of his friends shock him so?

Jeno peeks over the top of his laptop and watches Renjun deep in thought, paying no attention to his own class. “He’s at the hospital right now.” Jeno says knowingly.

And that’s all Renjun needs to hear before he slams his laptop shut and makes his way out.

The fact that Renjun is probably a few steps behind in his emotional development is solidified when he sits next to Donghyuck on a park bench and suddenly finds himself at a loss for what to say.

The rush of blood and adrenaline he had felt in his veins leaving his house for his apology tour seemed to have faded when he saw his friend’s face. Donghyuck had been sitting next to Renjun’s father, but that hadn’t been the bothersome part. It was the fact that his friend was sitting there for him, but with a black eye that Renjun had given him.

In the grand scheme of healing black eyes, Donghyuck definitely looked less hurt than the last time Renjun had seen him. The purples were mostly gone, leaving behind hues of yellow and a speck of blue here and there. Though he may have been healing, there were more colors on him than before and that’s what made him look worse. That’s also the part that makes Renjun feel most ashamed. His friend was here for him even though he looked like shit thanks to him.

Renjun is sure that on the list of top ten assholes of the world, he would find his own name on top.

But sitting next to Donghyuck outside in the fresh air, he has no idea what to say. He thinks real hard and decides to start in the safe zone.

“Did the guys tell you? About my grandma?” he asks.

“Um, no. It was Jimin.” Donghyuck replies awkwardly.

Renjun nods. “I, uh… I told the guys like a day later, though. Did you tell them before I did?”

“No, um… I was at a party with the 127s… I didn’t see her text till like the next day either, so…” Donghyuck trails off.

Renjun nods again, then swallows. It’s so strange, how awkward this all is. It is unsettling because Donghyuck is the least awkward person he knows, and he hates that this weird zone is where their relationship seems to be heading.

Not if he can help it.

In another rush of dumbass adrenaline, Renjun gets up abruptly and stands before Donghyuck.

“Go on. Do it.” Renjun says and takes a deep breath.

“Huh?” Donghyuck looks at his friend quizzically.

“Do it. Just make it quick.” Renjun nods with determination and points at his face.

“You’re crazy.” Donghyuck states and slides further away on the bench, eyebrows raised, and a grimace on his mouth.

“Just do it, man. Do it so we can move on.” Renjun says, placing both hands on his waist and squeezing his eyes shut.

“I’m not going to punch you so you can move on, you psycho.” Donghyuck’s face is contorted, like he’s scandalized and perhaps even slightly scared of his friend.

“Come on, Donghyuckie. Just punch me and get it over with.” Renjun waves his hand impatiently, not relenting.

“Are you not hearing me, you crazy? I’m not punching you just to make you feel better!” Donghyuck almost yells.

And because Renjun is pretty sure this would work, he grabs at Donghyuck’s collar just to provoke him.

“What the fuck?!” Donghyuck tries to push Renjun off of him.

“Hit me!” Renjun shouts.

“No, are you fucking crazy! Get off me!” Donghyuck grabs at the sleeves of Renjun’s jacket and tries to pry him off.

“Not till you hit me!” Renjun insists, clinging onto the boy, grabbing and pulling at him to annoy him best he can to get a reaction.

“I’m not going to hit you!” Donghyuck yells. The two boys spin in inelegant, rough circles on the grass, trying to push and pull at one another.

“Punch me or you got no balls!” Renjun yowls and then finally feels the blow to his face that sends him flying to the ground.

He pauses for a bit because his head spins for a solid ten seconds. He shakes it vigorously to get it to focus and it helps because then he looks up to find a very startled and distressed Donghyuck looking down at him, fist still raised in the air.

“That had more throw than power.” Renjun comments, massaging his jaw.

“Yeah, that’s what I was going for.” Donghyuck agrees.

For a moment both boys nod and look at each other, acknowledging the technique and form of the punch. And then, they burst into laughter because fuck, all of this was so stupid. Renjun rolls on the grass and Donghyuck doubles over as he stands. Then he offers Renjun his hand to help him get up, which he takes eagerly, using it to lift up and fling himself into his friend’s arms. They hold each other strongly, thumping one another on the back. And just like that, the awkwardness is gone. All that was meant to be said has been said and now Renjun is no longer struggling to find his words. They come easily, because all of this is so natural. He was with his best friend, after all.

“You are a crazy motherfucker, you know that, right?” Donghyuck comments, shaking his head as they sit back down on the bench.

Renjun chuckles, then looks at the grass, because his head hangs in shame again. “I’m a sorry motherfucker.”

Donghyuck puts an arm around Renjun and thumps his back again. “You should be sorry, you dumb fuck. But also, you’ve got a pretty toxic coping mechanism, you know that, right?”

Renjun sighs long “I know. The longer I think about it, the dumber I feel.”

He expects his friend to make a joke in return but he feels his hesitation. So he looks up and finds Donghyuck trying to think of what to say. “Have you ever thought about… like sorting that out, maybe?” he finally asks.

“Sorting it out?” Renjun asks, confused.

“Like... you know this isn’t normal, right?” Donghyuck asks, and he doesn’t sound like he’s mocking. His tone doesn’t have the slightest hint of a joke and that’s what makes Renjun realize what he’s talking about.

“No… no, I haven’t…” Renjun admits. He doesn’t know why he’s never thought about ‘sorting it out’. Perhaps because he’s always thought he was smarter than anyone who could offer him help.

“You could give it a try. Talking to someone really helps sometimes, you know? Getting help can help.” Donghyuck says carefully.

Renjun bites his lip. He knows his friend is right, but he’s never really, truly given it a thought. Donghyuck senses his discomfort and changes the subject.

“Your grandma is finally getting tested again tomorrow.” he says as he stretches.

Renjun smiles “Yeah. I honestly can’t believe it…” he looks at his best friend “... but I also don’t know if I’ll ever be able to thank you…”

Donghyuck frowns and shakes Renjun by the shoulder “Stop it before I throw up.”

“I mean it.”

“I’ll throw up even if you mean it.”

“Donghyuck…”

“Okay, really, stop. Also, I’m not even the one you should be thanking. Or apologizing to.” Donghyuck sits back after he’s had his fill of shaking Renjun.

“Of course, you’re the one I should be thanking and apologizing to, you stupid. You did all of this for me even when I was an absolute asshole to you.” Renjun presses.

“You are an asshole, but you’re also a dumb asshole.” Donghyuck declares.

“Hey, I’m trying to apologize nicely, here.” Renjun pouts and his friend lets out a long, exasperated sigh.

“I thought you were just being obtuse but you seriously don’t know…” Donghyuck shakes his head.

“Know what?” Renjun asks and Donghyuck shrugs and acts like a little shit which annoys Renjun, but at the same time fills him with relief. Because Donghyuck being a little shit to him means their friendship has been restored to its original state. But he asks again “Know what?!”

“Dude, no offense or anything, but did you really think your parents can put your grandma in a private room all on their own?” Donghyuck asks.

Renjun stops a bit. He’d been so worried about the fact that his grandma’s life was hanging by a thread that he hadn’t even thought about the expenses part. He knows his grandma had a little bit in savings, but his parents for sure didn’t earn that much. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even realized that this was one of the nicer hospitals around.

“Fuck it, I’m really going to have to spell it out for you. Since your brain doesn’t seem to be working.” Donghyuck sighs dramatically.

“What?”

“Dude. This is Y/N’s parents’ hospital. Your mother couldn’t possibly keep taking care of your grandma all on her own, now could she? When Y/N found out, she went crazy. She made her parents direct all their best resources into taking care of your grandma.”

For a while, the information hangs in the air.

Renjun had thought that he would never get to feel things that were new and unexplainable ever again. He thought he had experienced every single feeling his body had to offer. The past month alone had put him through more emotions than he had experienced in his whole life. He had seen it all, felt it all.

But what he’s experiencing right now doesn’t feel like gratitude or shame or longing or anything one should expect to feel in a situation like this. It just feels like a soft light has filled his chest and is lifting him in the air. He feels like he’s floating, like he’s having an out of body experience.

“Oh,” is the only thing he can manage to say.

And then he remembers your face. He hadn’t realized it then, but he sees now how badly he had wanted to see you that night. He had wanted no one but you to hold him and kiss him and tell him that he wasn’t alone. And he remembers how he couldn’t tell you any of that. He remembers how you had walked away with another man.

And that makes him come back to earth. He feels a resigned sort of sadness.

“Y/N is… she would do that for anybody, wouldn’t she?” Renjun smiles sadly.

“She probably would. But you should’ve seen how worried she was. Even now, she is on the phone everyday with her parents, making sure they’re doing everything they can. She didn’t want what happened to her grandmother to happen to yours.” Donghyuck tells him.

Renjun looks up “What happened to her grandmother?”

Donghyuck raises his eyebrows. “She passed away from Covid last year?” His eyebrows go higher still “She says she’s told you about this?”

Renjun thinks, and then it’s as if a veil on his memory is slowly but poorly being lifted. He remembers laying his head on your shoulder. He remembers feeling your shirt dampen from his tears. He remembers your fingers drawing relaxing patterns in his hair. He remembers your soothing voice, speaking to him with such tenderness that Renjun had barely heard your words and had focused instead on it’s sweet tones. But now, when Renjun is forcing himself to think, he very foggily recalls what you had been saying. You had been telling him about your own grandmother. Why hadn’t Renjun listened? Why did Renjun never listen when you spoke? He was such a selfish, arrogant fool. He wishes he could go back and change it all.

Donghyuck shakes his head. “Are you really….” he sighs again, “Nevermind. But yeah, she basically went nuts because she couldn’t be here with you.”

Renjun’s heart is aching and he’s pretty sure his face reflects it. “I wish I could take it all back. Everything I did to her.”

“You can take it back.” Donghyuck says.

“How?”

“Apologize to her, you dummy.” Donghyuck smacks the back of his head.

“How? I tried calling her once but she didn’t pick up.” Renjun admits.

“Then you should call her again and again and again till it sticks.” Donghyuck says plainly and it makes so much fucking sense that Renjun is embarrassed that he hadn’t thought it.

“Yeah, but…” Renjun swallows, “... it doesn’t really matter now, does it?”

“What do you mean?” Donghyuck asks.

“She’s with Wong Hendery now. So…” Renjun can’t even complete the thought.

“What do you mean she’s with Wong Hendery?” Donghyuck scrunches his brows deep in his forehead in confusion.

“She left with him for the semester break. I went to see her… but she left with him…” Renjun presses his lips together.

“Wait…” Donghyuck says and Renjun looks up and nods at him as if to confirm the fact. But he sees something entirely different on his friend’s face. It’s an expression of deep dumbfoundedness. “... are you some sort of an idiot?” He asks like Renjun is the dimmest person he has ever come across.

And Renjun doesn’t help his cause because he only blinks in return.

“Dude! She’s not ‘with Wong Hendery,’” Donghyuck gets up and smacks Renjun across the head once again. “They’re partners on the SMK Trainee Drive. She’s literally been preparing for this for months? Shouldn’t you know this?”

Renjun blinks some more. SMK Trainee Drive? Renjun had heard and personally seen you preparing for interviews and these drives. But somehow a lot of it hadn’t registered in his brain. Once again, probably because he never listened to you well. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he was an idiot. He was the biggest idiot on the planet.

Yet right now, he was a smiling idiot whose heart was suddenly filling with hope. “She’s not… with… she’s not with Hendery?” Renjun is embarrassed. He feels so fucking stupid asking this, but he absolutely can’t help the smile spreading across his face.

“She’s literally at the tower right now. She’s been stuck because we went into lockdown whilst she was there. It’s why she couldn’t come and see you. But the highway doesn’t open for another week, so she’ll be stuck till then.” Donghyuck explains, and Renjun feels his heart exploding with joy at every word. He’s pretty sure he’s grinning shamelessly.

“Why do I know more about your girlfriend than you do? Oh wait. It's because 'she's not your girlfriend.’” Donghyuck does a perfectly exaggerated mimicry of Renjun that reminds him of that one SpongeBob meme. On a normal day, he would’ve wanted to smack his friend for doing this. But in this moment, he is all too happy to be the one being smacked and mocked.

Renjun laughs with relief, then finds his laugh fading a bit. “Do you think she’ll forgive me? For everything I did?”

“I don’t know, man. But you wouldn’t know unless you try.” Donghyuck once again states something that should be obvious.

“How do I try if she’s not picking up my calls? And when she won’t even be here for another week?” Renjun sulks a bit but gets smacked in the head again.

“Dude! She literally did everything in the world to help your grandma, and she was in a wholeass different city! She did that all for you! I’m sure you can figure out a simple apology.” Donghyuck has his arms crossed and is now seriously looking agitated with him and it makes Renjun smile.

“She really did that for me?” Renjun asks and he doesn’t even care if he sounds like a cheesy motherfucker. He doesn’t even care he’s being this way in front of Lee Donghyuck who probably won’t let him live it down for the rest of his life.

“Of course she did that for you, you idiot.” Renjun earns another smack at the end of that.

“Does she like me?” Renjun asks like a stupid, hopeful teenage boy.

Donghyuck pretends to gag and moves away in disgust. But then he sees Renjun’s expression and lets out a long, irritated exhale. “Of course she likes you, you dumb fuck.” Renjun gets hit in the head, “Why would she do all of this if she didn’t like you?” Renjun gets another smack, “Oh Lord, please give me the strength to not commit murder. I am not your strongest soldier…” Donghyuck looks up at the sky and Renjun laughs openly, freely and lightly. He feels as if all the knots in his chest are slowly being undone one by one. So he jumps up and tries to tackle and cuddle Donghyuck but he keeps moving away. The two boys run around in the ground, Renjun chasing Donghyuck, trying to attack him with his love while he complains that his hair smells.

And Renjun accepts all his insults with a newly healed heart. You liked him. Despite everything that he’d done to you, you liked him. You had worried about him and done everything in your power to help his grandma. You had kept tabs on her and made sure she was healing even though you were miles away. You liked him, and you weren’t with a new guy and you liked him.

As he walks back towards the hospital with his arm around his best friend’s shoulders, he decides that if it came to it that he had to beg and grovel for your forgiveness, he would happily spend the rest of his life on his knees. Because you liked him and Renjun was never going to let you go ever again.

True to his word (for maybe the first time in your relationship), Renjun spends the rest of the week trying to reach you. Because his apology tour wouldn’t be complete without his most important stop--you.

He calls you so many times; but each time, he only gets to hear the dial tone and the mechanical voice telling him that the user is unreachable at the moment. You never pick up.

But his mind and his spirit is fueled by Donghyuck’s advice, and this time, the advice is a lot more sound and a lot less exploitative. So, Renjun doesn’t give up because he has to make it stick. You had never given up on him. He wasn’t going to give up on you. When he’s sure you won’t pick up his calls, he leaves you a string of messages.

‘Hey, Y/N. I’m trying to call you. Please pick up?’

‘I know you have every right to be mad at me, but I just need a chance to apologize.’

‘I’m seriously the biggest idiot in the world, but I need to tell you that in person.’

‘Okay, I’m coming to you.’

‘Turns out I can’t just negotiate with the police to let me cross the city lines to get to the girl I like.’

‘Y/N, please…’

‘I’m the world’s sorriest and the most embarrassed motherfucker and I need to hear your voice to tell you that.’

‘I am Berry-Berry sorry, and I’m just asking for one chance to get to talk to you.

‘I’m not going to stop, you know?’

He has to admit that his patience is wearing thin. Because he’s trying every method and none of it is working; and also because his pride had never allowed him to beg and grovel to anyone before. It’s a humbling experience, but at the same time, he doesn’t feel burdened by it. This was for you. The girl who had done everything in her power to make him fall. The girl who had given him more love and kindness than anyone else in the world had. The girl who had taken his troubles and worries as her own. So, of course, he had to do everything in his power to earn your forgiveness.

But as he’s sitting in his room, trying to call you for what he’s sure is the twentieth time that day, he hears that your phone has been powered off. For a moment, Renjun feels immensely dispirited. Maybe he had lost you for good. Maybe you never wanted to hear from him ever again. Maybe this is what he deserved.

But in the next moment, Renjun stops himself. No. He wasn’t going to let his mind spiral that way again. He had to think with a good, clear mind. He couldn’t sit around and sulk without knowing he had explored all possible options. He needed to get creative and for that, he needed to think.

He could certainly wait it out till the week was over and when you’d be back. But he wanted to spend each passing minute letting you know that he was trying. So, that wasn’t an option.

Maybe he could look at the map and find some loopholes and secret passageways across the city. Surely, some of them had to be unmanned so he could break the lockdown law and get to you? That would certainly be impactful, being locked up in jail as a grand gesture of an apology. But Renjun was no action hero.

Renjun sits and thinks and thinks and thinks till a light bulb finally goes off. Of course. A grand gesture. He yells into his pillow out of excitement and frustration that he hadn’t thought of this before. If one thing had been established during this time, it was the fact that Renjun was a dumb fuck with a penchant for being blind to the obvious.

He gets up bright and early the next morning and rushes to see your friend at her apartment. He sits beside her as her online class starts, away from the camera view and finds his heart filling with the utmost warmth as he sees your window finally appear on the screen. Even in the tiny box, you looked so freaking beautiful that for a minute, Renjun stops and stares as butterflies take over his belly. But he taps his cheek to get himself to focus. He was here on a mission.

He waits for the class to begin before he slides himself into view next to your friend and types out a message on the chat that had taken him all night to prepare. He hits ‘Send to Everyone’ and waits.

And thankfully, the professor--miraculously the same professor who had done this the very first time all that time ago--stops to read it out,

“This might be a long shot, but Y/N L/N, do you think you can find it in your heart to give me another chance?” he begins, squinting his eyes slightly in confusion as he reads on, then smiling as realization hits. “Well, that’s certainly not a question from Ms. Kim Minjeong, I can tell you that.” he jokes and waits because as it had before, this has piqued the students’ interest.

Renjun watches as your pretty eyes widen. He watches them skirt across your screen, seemingly looking for the cause of the commotion. He watches the moment of realization hitting your pretty face. And he waits.

“Well, Ms. Y/N L/N, are you going to put the young man out of his misery?” the professor jokes kindly and Renjun thinks he might die from the anticipation.

And then, he watches as you move to unmute yourself.

“Yeah, I guess I could give him another chance,” you say nonchalantly which earns you a round of applause and hoots from all other windows. Because college students will always love dramatic antics.

The professor calls the class back to attention and Renjun sits back in his chair, grinning like an idiot because the girl he had fallen for had given him another chance.

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writingwithcolor · 4 years ago

Note

Hey! I’m currently writing a Jewish character and was wondering if this would be offensive: my character has a family where her mother is Jewish but her father celebrates Christmas, so they fuse their holiday celebrations to bring their two families together for any holidays that fall in line with eachother. Would this be a problem? I’m basing her off of irl friends who’s family does this, but I want to make sure it doesn’t seem like I’m erasing her Jewish heritage and pride. Thanks so much!

Celebrating Hanukkah & Christmas in interfaith family

No problems from me other than to note that I hope you meant to say that they're both celebrated, not that they're literally "combined." Because putting Christian ritual into a Jewish holiday would bug me, as a reader, but someone watching Mom light the menorah before going out caroling with Dad would not--for example. Does that make sense? There are plenty of interfaith families out there that do both, but keeping the actual practices separate is the best way to keep the Jewish ones Jewish. (And in my example I was picturing both parents there for each activity, so it's not like I'm calling for that much separation -- just, not bringing up "the meaning of Christmas" while you're literally telling the Chanukah story.

You may also want to decide if the character themselves is drawn in one direction or the other, or neither yet. (You said "Jewish heritage and pride" so from this I gather that's how she believes? In that case, is Christmas totally just a fun secular thing for her or is it something she regards as an outsider, religiously speaking?)

--Shira

I'm going to start by saying that interfaith families exist, and have a variety of ways of expressing their combination of cultures. I'm absolutely not here to argue with that, be negative about that very real way of life, or invalidate those experiences in the slightest.

With that being said... people outside our community really, really love to show us celebrating Christmas, and Easter, and eating bacon, or doing anything else that might code us as assimilated (regardless of our internal identities). These are things that some Jewish people do, and I think it's absolutely good to show the breadth of the community, and the varied ways we express ourselves, but I do not, at all, trust someone outside the community to do that mindfully.

In wider media, whether books, television, movies etc. Jewish characters are so often shown to be either assimilated, or from an interfaith family. Interfaith does not necessarily mean assimilated of course! But the fact of their interfaith relationship is often used as a convenient way to get the Jewish character into situations that are intended to show how "not really" Jewish they are. There is an obsession with showing us as assimilated, a delight that is taken in trying to prove that we either are exactly the same as the broader culture, or that our differences can be erased and eroded until we are.

A Jewish person remains Jewish, whether they go to a Christmas party or not, whether they have shrimp at dinner or not, whether they marry a non-Jewish person or not, but the intent behind constantly showing Jewish characters doing this is suspect to me. This asker may not have this ill-intent, but frankly, it's hard to come by a character, written by a non-Jewish person, that says "I'm Jewish" in the beginning of a work, and then "oh, no thank you, I don't celebrate Christmas" in the middle, let alone even continuing to say "I'm Jewish" by the end.

When I read a work about interfaith families, and their specific traditions by a person inside the community, or coming from an interfaith background themselves, I'm interested, happy to learn about the characters, and their lives. When I read a work like that by someone outside the community it leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and the feeling that even fictional versions of us are being gleefully, voyeuristically, intentionally assimilated.

-- Dierdra

1) If your character is invested in their Jewish heritage, celebrating Chanukah is not enough to show this. Please please please research our other holidays and traditions, talk to Jewish people who feel the same level of connection to their Jewish roots, consume #OwnVoices materials.

2) Agree with Dierdra that interfaith families exist and deserve representation, but that writing an assimilated character requires a lot of research and sensitivity; any blatant disregard of halacha should probably be avoided in case it is consumed in that voyeuristic way by the reader.

3) And with Christmas in particular, you can be close to touching a nerve because not all Jewish people have fond memories of Christmas, to say the least. To people of minority faiths, it can be the time when our othering is the most blatant and impactful (we’ve included some personal stories below).

It would be best to listen to many Jewish experiences of December shenanigans, from people who celebrate Christmas partially or fully, to those who are indifferent, to those who have mainly negative associations and memories.

-- Shoshi

Our personal experiences with Christmas (Jewish Mods)

Also, as a note from all of us, discussing this question brought up so many stories about our own experiences with Christmas, and the culture surrounding it. A selection of them are below, just to give an idea of what it can be like:

- Just not having lights up was enough to get our neighbor asking our then roommate if we were "you know... sorta..." When our roommate confirmed that we are indeed Jewish, he reassured him that it was "fine." It didn't feel fine to be told that though. I also had a neighbor ask what we were doing for Christmas once, and I said "oh, we do Chanukah in this house" just to keep it casual. She excitedly yelled back "JEWS!!" Even without Covid I was getting to the point where December was just a month where I tried to stay in, and avoid getting grumpy at people who are just enjoying their holiday (they just happen to be enjoying it everywhere, all the time. And sometimes kind of aggressively). God forbid you correct someone when they wish you a Merry Christmas.

- Me too, it's the marketing, it's so aggressive. Last year I got so fed up with Christmas music being on in the office that I decided to bring a dreidel and spin it casually on my desk throughout the day, just so that my own space could feel like it was somewhat reserved for my own identity, you know? On day two of this, a colleague I didn't know that well came up to me and said, "Please could you stop doing that? It's really loud." I wanted to yell "NOT AS LOUD AS YOUR MUSIC!", but I didn't, I just stopped spinning it because I'm a darn pushover at times. I had to sit through my first hand-wringing 'how will we do Christmas with Covid?' conversation in about September, even though Pesach and Eid were both during the height of lockdown in this country and no one said a thing until after the fact.

- I've had people scoff, and sniff, and make snide comments to my face in my old workplace when I politely reminded them that I don't celebrate Christmas. It can get so uncomfortable, just existing in the world, and Christmas can end up a really miserable time.

#minemelody #Chanukah #Hanukkah #Christmas #interfaith #Christianity #Jewish #Judaism #holidays #assimilation #asks

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hotchley · 4 years ago

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pallbearer

Not completely sure what this is, but it was sparked by the posts about Kevin being a pallbearer at Haley’s funeral. Saw it in my drafts and decided to finish it because yeah, why not?

It’s Eid somewhere (India and Australia for sure) so take this as a little gift from me to all of you because you’re lovely but I suck at writing fluff, so it’s pretty much just angst and a bit of Reid being a good friend to Hotch because I live in the nice world where they have a good relationship :)

As always, absolutely no proofreading, and it low-key sucks, but nothing else is working so...

Trigger Warnings: references to death, funerals, grief, just general sad things

read on ao3!

After they get back from the case that took them from the funeral, Reid, who is still using a cane, leaves without telling anyone.

Derek panics because he’s meant to be taking Reid back to his apartment- there’s a lift that functions and it means Reid isn’t being stupid- then Garcia tracks his phone and realises he’s going to see Hotch. They can’t interrupt that, so they don’t.

Why is Reid going there? All alone?

To apologise.

He goes there himself, takes the lift up because he knows his limits and rings the doorbell. Hotch doesn’t answer and he panics, so he rings it again.

When Hotch does open the door, it’s clear he wasn’t expecting any sort of company- least of all his colleagues/family. He still lets Reid in, and he asks him if he’d like anything to eat or drink. Reid declines, because Hotch shouldn’t have to be running around after him. Not now.

They’re sat in silence for a few minutes- they both try and justify it by saying Jack is asleep- but then Reid speaks.

“I’m sorry.”

Hotch seems exhausted by all the apologies- after all, people are only giving them because there’s nothing else they can say- but Reid doesn’t say things lightly. It always means something. And he knows how Reid’s intelligence is always used against him. The team asked him to recite the phone call because they wanted the information, but Spencer would always associate it with a way in which he failed.

So although he hates the way everyone is apologising to him, he won’t tell Spencer to not. Spencer needs to say the words so he feels like the forgiveness Hotch has already given him- the forgiveness he received the moment Hotch saw him come into the office where Jack had been hiding- is deserved. And Hotch needs to hear the words from somebody that is saying them despite knowing everything about the situation.

It takes him a moment to collect his thoughts enough to speak, and even then, the words do not feel adequate.

“You did everything you could Spencer,” is his soft response.

“Not about Haley’s death. Of course I’m sorry, but what I meant was- I’m sorry I couldn’t carry the coffin. You know I would’ve if I could’ve.”

Hotch meets his eyes, and sees his own tears reflected in Spencer’s face. There’s a certain innocence to Spencer’s expression. One that Hotch thought his own failures would have permanently taken away. He should have known better. Spencer is nothing if not resilient. But then he thinks of the situations that forced him to become like that, and he wants to scream into the void because of how unfair the world can be.

He doesn’t though. That would only make the situation worse.

Instead, he sighs. “I know Spencer. I know. But I- even if you could, I wouldn’t have wanted you to.”

Spencer frowns. “Why not? Will, Derek and Anderson were all pallbearers, and I probably knew Haley about as well as them. It would’ve made sense for me to carry Haley’s coffin. You know that. I can see it in your face.”

It would have made sense. It would’ve made much more sense than Kevin Lynch. But Hotch’s words are the honest truth. It wouldn’t have mattered- not to him anyways- whether or not Spencer was able to carry that weight. He wouldn’t have asked. Would have rejected the offer if it was given. Found anyone else to be the final person.

“I know that.”

“So why would you not have asked?”

His reason- the true reason- is one that steers the majority of his decisions regarding Spencer. It is one that clouds his judgment and forces him to confront how human he is, and how the team were the only people (aside from Haley- who had always been perfect) to teach him that love didn’t need to hurt.

That people came back when they were angry.

The words that would explain his actions have been on the tip of his tongue since Gideon left. They almost slipped out after Chester Hardwick. And then Owen Savage. He wanted to say them when Reid almost died at the hands of Benjamin Cyrus, but he had pulled away at the last moment, too afraid of the consequences. He got stupidly close after the anthrax case.

Something had always held him back. But Haley’s death reminded him of how fleeting life was. Haley died protecting her son, knowing Aaron would make the right decision and raise him to be a good man, but she should never have doubted the love Aaron had for her, and that was his fault. He wasn’t going to repeat that mistake.

“Because parents want to protect their children from all the evil in the world, no matter how unreasonable that may seem,” he blurts out.

Spencer’s brow furrows, and the resemblance to Jack terrifies him so much he almost laughs. He repeats the words to himself, clearly searching for some other meaning behind them. But in that way, Hotch and Reid are similar. They will only rarely say things they don’t mean.

“Oh,” is all Spencer is able to say.

“I’m sorry. It’s not fair of me to tell you that I look at you and see-”

“Can I hug you?” Spencer asks, cutting him off.

Hotch nods, unsure how else to respond. Spencer doesn’t use the cane as he moves onto the other sofa, opting to use the cushions as his support instead. When he’s close enough to reach out and touch Aaron’s hands, he takes them. Hotch cannot look at them, even though Morgan had washed and bandaged them almost immediately, so he stares at the ceiling instead.

Spencer’s touch is gentle and almost not there, but it feels like the safety of a childhood home that he had only ever read about in the books that served as his one escape in that little town that had no mercy for any boy that dared to speak out against their father.

“You’re a good father. To all of your children,” Spencer says.

“I know I’ve failed you. All of you. More times than I could possibly count, even though I remember every single one of them. But I always told myself that the one thing you would never do is carry a coffin that contains the body of someone you loved because of this job. Or because of my failures. It’s the only promise I’ve been able to keep.”

Spencer realises that Hotch is right. Although both him and Morgan had been on the time when Adrian Bale attacked, Hotch had organised the funerals without any input from the two of them, with all the pallbearers being family instead. No agents had died after JJ had joined, but the option of carrying Haley’s coffin hadn’t even existed for Emily.

It saddens Spencer to know that the only way Hotch is able to show how much he loves the team is by shielding them from certain horrors, and to protect them from the aspects of their jobs that cause them to wonder how much longer their hands will go cold when they see crime scenes. It makes him want to rage at the world for taking this man- this good and loving and kind man- and destroying him.

But his anger will terrify Aaron. Everyone’s anger terrifies him, because he always feels responsible. Always feels like it’s his influence, or his actions, or his failures. So he doesn’t say a word, knowing Hotch will appreciate the silence. He also knows that Hotch will understand and accept the silence for what it is: all of the words and emotions he would never be able to put into words, but so desperately needs him to believe.

It’s a haunting image. There is one one man so young he may still be a boy, and he is trying to hold the fragile and broken pieces of a man he had always believed was invincible and able to come back from anything together.

It is also a beautiful image. It proves that every child will eventually learn that their parent is not invincible, and that they get hurt and fail and mess up in the same way every single person does, but that the knowledge will not destroy them. If anything, it will comfort them because they will learn that no human is perfect, but they can still be good.

It will also be a moment ingrained in both their memories forever. Even if Spencer’s wasn’t eidetic, he would remember it. Because Aaron would not be able to keep this promise. The team would carry Emily Prentiss’ empty coffin only nine months later. And Spencer would carry Maeve Donovan’s, despite Aaron’s pleas to let somebody else handle the pain for him. When Spencer turns to him, and says he has to do it because he’s not a child that can be protected from any evil in the world- not when it emerges from the same cracks that should only contain love, they will both flinch.

Because he is right.

Because Aaron failed.

Again.

It’s funny, in a twisted sort of way, that his failures will always be associated with the bitter tang of death.

#criminal minds #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfic #aaron hotchner #spencer reid #sad aaron hotchner #hotch whump #hotch angst #tw grief #tw funerals #tw death references #sumayyah writes cm

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raamitsu · 3 years ago

Note

hi! i’m the anon and i’m sorry if my ask was confusing. i’m not a native english speaker either and i did type all that very fast, so the fault here is mine. regarding mikey, what i was trying to say is that he is very unwell mentally at the moment and if hanma does take the lives of all the people that were dead in the original timeline (mitsuya, chifuyu, hakkai, akkun and takemichi) as that twitter post suggests, i don’t see how him being defeated and understand that he is not invincible would help him. if that theory is correct the last arc would go down like this (i think): hanma kills four important characters, mikey confronts takemichi, takemichi obviously defeats mikey, takemichi then dies by the hands of hanma. the only dream mikey has, that we’re shown, is to have a family, made by all the people he loves. while life is cruel like that and it takes away your dreams and sometimes even the people you love, his dream was not something like going into one specific college or taking that career, that even if it does not happen, your life can readjust and you can do something else and be happy. having a family or friends or community or even-just-one-person is a basic human need. losing someone leaves you with a permanent and invisible bleeding wound and if we count all the people mikey has lost and stands to lose with that theory, we can say the boy would be flayed to the bone by the end. so i guess what i’m trying to say is that i’m not sure how a speech, that granted would change his self image, would prevent him to say to himself “fuck it, why should i pull through this hell to be alone; all the people who wanted me happy are dead, i can be happy with them in the afterlife”. having a support group is important when rehabilitating and healing, but maybe i’m just projecting myself and what i would do and think and yeah i’m not taking into consideration that there would still be left kakucho, which so far has been shown to care about mikey(i’m not considering benkei, waka and takeomi because they, to our knowledge, did not reach out after shin’s death and that was shitty of them -but maybe they had reasons idk). so i’m probably just wrong about it and don’t see the bigger picture and if wakui does take this route i’m pretty sure he will give us something that makes sense (so far i’ve always liked wakui’s choices for his story so i don’t doubt that he will deliver a satisfying ending) and it’s also been months since i last reread TR so i’m probably forgetting things and details about the story as a whole. i hope this makes sense lol and your reply was amazing, thank you.

OH HERE WE GO -

First of all, to you my dear Anon: I am deeply apologized for not responding to you sooner as I received this. Days have been busier with Eid celebration and more, but never once I forgot your ask, and of course I wanted to properly reply you with the best answers like anyone else but unfortunately these are the only "best" way I could've figured. Once again I am deeply sorry if my respond still left you with another unsatisfactory. I tried my best to understand the main point of your messages.

Alright, I'll just get to the point and make it short here: I think what you were trying to imply here was “I cannot see a point in "saving Mikey" only by the methods of kicking his ass and having people who he loves dearly remain by his side.”

Truthfully speaking, there is NONE; as in 'no decent ways to save Mikey'. I convinced majority of TR manga readers, especially the intellectual Mikey stans have always been concious enough to realize that none of those could have made Mikey changed into his old self ever again. I guess I could understand why you were wondering about this because if there IS another way to save Mikey, it won't change every damages that has been done, but as long as he can be stopped, every possible methods has to be taken as a consideration.

In the beginning of final arc where Takemichi accidentally time leaped to ten years in the past, he already had a mission beforehand, which was to to 'save Mikey' and along that period of time while he was still figuring a way to do so, he determined about 'dealing with Mikey alone' and by that, it could be a possibility that it was an early measurement he has chosen at the time, until he decided to join Brahman and had Draken to help him. The same thing was repeated when he got into hospital after being kicked out to death by Mikey in the Three Deities War. Indeed, Takemichi has chosen to fight and face Mikey again and that's when you realized he spent times considering some alternatives (If not mistaken, few days before and during the hospital rooftop watching fireworks with Hina) and finalized his choice on what he should do to achieve his goal. Can we blame him for that? A bit, perhaps. But can any decent or even more professional methods will instantly solve the current issue that Mikey is experiencing? Nah. Proffesional methods, as we know better, would've applied after stopping him from continuing his crimes. You gotta realized that if Mikey himself decided to return to the world of delinquency and chose to be critically vicious, engaged in a fight that involved illegal businesses + deaths compiled, then there is NO OTHER WAY to stop or save him.

In conclusion, you may learned that most of us wanted to believe with simple methods like 'kicking his ass' , 'let him know people love him' or even 'make him realized that he is and not going to be invicible forever' could've been the only ways to pull Mikey out of his dark path that he claimed he chose for himself. Just like how Takemichi chose to bring everyone together and fight Mikey though it was impossible to begin with, the same way we all wanted something to believe in even though we knew the chances are so small and pointless. That's all from me.

Before I leave, I'm taking this opportunity to thank @odifarts for summarizing this ask for me :)

I don't know who you are Anon but I wish you a very good day, always. Please feel free to share your thoughts and I'll try my best to respond them. Also apologies for any grammar mistakes! too lazy to double check 😅

#ur ask has been answered <333 #anon ask : done!#tokyo revengers #tr #tokyorev #tokrev #tokyo manji kai #tokyo manji gang #tr spoilers

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thesecretattic · 3 years ago

Text

Festive Edit ✨ 🌙

This is more of a personal post than a “blog” article, I haven’t received any deliverables to advertise all the products that I have listed here, hence this is not a paid promotion.

“I believe in Evil Eye 🧿 and jinx, there was a time when we would go to Aza & Ensemble and I had a Sabyasachi Patiala set in my fav Coral shade, it was entirely embroidered in net/mesh fabric…”

*I have shared a few shocking things over here*

I still remember we were having a really hard time in 2017, we had literally gone bankrupt and as a family we were surviving on change, we were collecting change from old purses to pay for food, I still remember a friend who was constantly nagging me to join some digital marketing course inspite of being aware of my situation by saying it’s barely for 10k (you should’ve seen the condition of that “class”) after refusing several times she started taking revenge and all, this is exactly why I don’t have friends :/ she was anyway very cheap… and this is probably why girls like me are alone for the longest time while such girls are constantly surrounded by people. Anyway, coming to the main topic by the end of 2017 when we finally got some money, my brother decided to spend it all (cuz he was tired of living on scraps) and I started collecting it, that was my trauma-response… I have been collecting since then ie. December 2017, as guessed we didn’t even have any clothes for Eid that year and my mom got a Kurti from some stall (they’d hosted one mini exhibition at Infinity, Malad) and although they had extremely beautiful clothes over there we had to compromise on the lowest priced kurti, like I said I take a lot of care of everything that I own so I had 2 salwar and dupattas which I’d taken when I was 15 (one was cotton silk and the other was in silk organza) I never had the chance to wear them so after 7 years I finally matched them with that Kurti and no one could make out how inexpensive it was, the salwar and dupatta were also not pricey, in fact to be honest I was okay with everything, it actually doesn’t matter… all people want is acceptance, care & some love for who they are instead of these superficial things, you know how much I love fashion and style but certain things are far more important in comparison. After that whenever I was given money for Eid or New Year’s or even my Birthday I would save them in my “saving’s box” this year, I saved the Birthday money and Ramadan was only a month away so I bought something for Eid… I believe in Evil Eye 🧿 curses and jinx, there was a time when we would shop at Aza & Ensemble and I had a Sabyasachi Patiala set in my fav Coral colour, it was entirely embroidered in net/mesh fabric and it had a full sized net Odhni (I’d rather call it that than dupatta) in the same shade… I had taken it for just 27k, I was probably 19, there was only one piece left in my size at Aza, Altamount, I loved going to Sabyasachi’s flagship Boutique in Fort, I would even go to the old one… when we went there we realised that it was all sold out, they only had the grey-beige colour left and I was glad I got my fav colour, I wanted to try it (the coral one when we had gone to Aza) but a lot of customers were asking for it so we headed straight for billing…I had matching Kundan earrings with that (they were those “inexpensive” budget buys) when I shared my pic on Facebook, a lot of people were eyeing it, they were leaving snide, flippant remarks in a sly shrewd “sugarcoated manner” which made me realise I had to get rid of them, they would constantly stalk me and they were too materialistic, so they were coveting all my stuff and I found that very intimidating, that’s usually the case especially in India, people equate sophistication with luxury & a “rich lifestyle”, they don’t see that some people just want quality stuff or they like a certain style/look/design whatever, they only see things ostensibly for their label and brand names. I still remember when the geyser bursted right before my eyes… back then I was 17, I saw the flames reflecting on the tiled wall as I lurched out of there, we immediately pulled the main tripper and used the faucet to douse it, that same morning my ex “best friend” (who would bully me a lot I’ve shared about her in my tweets/twitter @TheBigBadBook) had stalked me & accidentally hearted one of my photos, she was always jealous of me even though she was from Dubai, people can have money but no one can buy your style 🤷🏻‍♀

You might think I’m connecting her with this incident but guess what? The same thing happened again, she again stalked me using another friend’s ID who was also very envious of me, they left me several scathing remarks by saying I’m a “loner” with imaginary friends… I’m this-that, the same day… one of the pipes/water spray bursted into my face with flaming hot water (I was again in my teens) I instinctively covered it but my hand was burnt (that too luckily not much, God saved me) the plumber said it was “impossible” for that to happen cuz the pipe wasn’t even connected to the heater but my mother told him that the water was boiling hot and there was steam everywhere… like I said I do believe in getting jinxed, we probably even had a financially tough time because of that, you might think something was wrong in the bathroom lines but trust me, even though it was our common bathroom both the times, no one else but me, I was present in the bathroom and she had stalked me (on the both the days) that too not with any good “intention”, moreover, the geyser wasn’t even connected to that faucet and they don’t go off on their own… it turned on remotely (and then immediately bursted) how?

Some people are very materialistic and gluttonous and they covet everything you have, I have shared more on twitter in my “BigBadBook” you’ll have to wade through a lot of sad posts though… coming back to my Eid shopping, usually designer dresses start from 25k; you won’t get Sabyasachi anymore in that range because he has grown extremely successful now and he’s my fav when it comes to traditional wear, I love his colour palette - he uses a lot of jewel tones for his classic “heritage style” trousseau. I was given a budget by my dad so umm my mom told me to find a dress within that amount and there were outfits ranging from 25-35k but one of them had a flouncy A-line cut and I don’t like that shape at all, I picked a Chanderi Dress, the Kurti which was for 5900/- & Palazzos - which were more like slim trousers + dupatta were all sold separately, it was great but their sizes run large, even the XS was sounding huge almost like Biba… I also liked the other striped dress (for casual wear not for Eid) it reminds me of novelty wrapping papers, the metallic stripes and floral embroidery is so cute, I’m referring to the second photo. The first pic has the pink trousers I was talking about, they had matched it with a Kashmiri style Kurta, it was quite plain and simple and the whole beauty was in their (Chanderi) odhni but realistically speaking, I feel all this should look equally appealing in real life, the images have been significantly enhanced, the embroidery was great but it didn’t have any zari work or sequins, nothing of that sort so they were quite simple, the other one had a beautifully buttoned lapel collar with metallic thread embroidery but it was again more minimalistic… I wanted something fancier like Doris around the sleeve and 3/4 sleeves, pretty frills or borders, etc. much like Karachi style, these were quite masculine, maximum designer wear that you get in India is like that, they have big cuffs and straight lapel collars, nothing delicate or feminine… I like the second one though, it’s quite unique. I love the scalloped hem and multicoloured flowers and even the metallic stripes are looking gorgeous, they’ve matched it with a tissue dupatta. The last peach coloured Kurti is a clear reminiscent of the 90s, they had such kurtas back then, some of them used to come with jackets if you remember… I was a toddler but I have a very good memory. I don’t like the palazzos though :/

I’ll tell you what I had in mind… so I was looking for something more Middle Eastern than ethnic since it’s for Ramazan Eid, I was looking for something similar to what you get in most Islamic countries, had it been Diwali I would’ve opted for Jewel tones or Royal Rich shades, this was supposed to be more of Karachi or Kashmiri-Pathan style… the reason why I included this “inspiration” over here is because in India (although I never wanted to believe or even acknowledge this) but over here, Muslims are still treated as minorities, I don’t want to get communal but even though most brands are aware that even Hindus look for Karachi style outfits on many occasions, it’s like a craze… they are not ready to budge from their Tribal Aztec prints, according to them it has to be strictly ethnic, even their colour palette corresponds to that and this prejudice or whatever is so deeply etched in their minds that every year during Eid they’ll add big banners (online/real life) to appear inclusive and secular but never have anything dressy or festive, everything will be dreary and dull… the fabric that they use for most ghararas is always cotton, the product code will have “Gharara” for namesake but it would be a typical Kurta-Choli, they will always add that tiered “cotton skirt” which they wear in villages and regional areas… just because they don’t want anything which would reflect Islamic culture. I’m not objecting because I’m a “Muslim”, I like celebrating all kinds of festivals, I love Diwali cuz it’s a Festival of Lights and my name also means Light so that’s obvious, I love the decorations… all those dazzling lights and diyas, our househelp used to get Diwali treats for me and my brother when we were very small, she would prepare it for her children and their friends/family so she would get some for us too cuz I was always curious about their pakwan and it was such a sweet gesture, you don’t get such people anymore… I always used to wonder why we never had anything for Christmas in India and I was very happy when they started with gingerbread cookies & pound cakes everywhere, now you even get nativity sets and Christmas decor… *finally* earlier, I used to get all that from high-end supermarkets, had to emphasise on “high-end”, I’m not being cynical but like I said, some people find all these things very swanky and luxurious, they see sophistication as something “opulent” or posh… this article is getting very candid but since its a journal entry, I guess I’m entitled to that much freedom. As a kid when I was once going through Tanishq’s eclectic catalogue I saw different kinds of brides, there was a Bengali bride, a Muslim bride sitting for her Nikah, a Marathi Kokani bride with Nathani & green bangles and a Modern bride with a Diamond necklace… I thought the customs would depend on my future husband and we’ll probably have to hold two weddings cuz I never wanted marry someone from the same religion, I always thought it would be boring, like I’ve said I wanted to have another culture in my house… when I saw those looks I was like, I want to be each one of them haha they are so beautiful. This is nothing, one of my grandfathers had married a Japanese woman and shifted to Japan… when I was 7 I had done a Japanese dance in a Kimono on the song Saayonara and everyone in my family said I reminded them of him.

That’s Anushka from Sultan, I have always admired this look, it incorporates a blend of both Karachi & Konkan… I am born & brought up in Mumbai and my grandparents were also born here, in fact my great grandfather had a two storey spice shop in South Mumbai where they would sell expensive spices and condiments like saffron but he lost them cuz he would bet on horses lol it has become a family joke now, we would’ve been very rich today… like I said although we hail from South Mumbai, my genealogical roots trace back to Konkan.

I love the sharara trim & chanderi lehenga, the length of the kurta is also sharara style and the signature green bangles and ghungru on her sleeves reminded me of Kokani brides

I was not keeping well so it was hard for me pick something, I had a panic attack and my pressure has been down since the past two days, my bp kept falling I don’t know why… anyway I tried my level best to put something together, I was looking for something specific so I had to narrow down my options; I had taken a lightly embellished (faux) silk kurti from some online store long ago for 2019 Eid, it was very cheap, hardly for 1000/- bucks but the fit is great and it looks really pretty, I had matched it with a beautiful net dupatta in the same shade and some palazzos. Speaking of traditional wear, I still have my Sabyasachi dress, I also have an Emerald Green Pathani dress, it has lots of beautiful embroidery on top, it’s a Cotton Silk Kurti with satin palazzos and a georgette dupatta… but other than these, I don’t have much in Indian wear. When I went online, I remembered my teenage years, everything resurfaced right from all those designer shops in Colaba & South Bombay to my favourite hidden gems, I recalled Ogaan, Curio Cottage, Amrapali, Aza & Creo to name a few. I remembered Lion’s Gate and the Sabyasachi boutique at Fort, I had tried his Sari Lehenga when I was just 16 and I had told my mom I’ll wear something like when I’ll get married, it was a net Mermaid cut sari-lehenga (something unusually modern for Sabyasachi) it was fully embellished but not heavy at all, it was easy to carry and what I loved the most was the dual toned ombré colour palette, it had this beautiful Champagne nude gold colour on top which would bleed into a beautiful mauve purple towards the hem and it was around 90k this was almost 10 years ago so the prices were not that high.

Lol This was clicked when I was 3 years old, look at the Sharara fringe, I was at my grandmother’s old house in Wadala, since I always loved Street food my nani used to buy me Dabelis & Wada pavs from Dadar and Prabhadevi which were famous for it and when I was in my teens, whenever we would go to South Mumbai, we would always stop at Babulnath

Hmm… I was looking for something particular and I also wanted to break the norms of islamophobia, so I tried my level best.

I was too tired to buy jhuttis but that’s the only thing which is left now, umm I got a necklace + earrings (I still have to finalise the latter) a Gharara set & batua bag + another choker necklace (I love them and I’m glad they are back in style, I would see my mom and aunties wearing beaded chokers at weddings and all, it’s sooo 90s) I was particularly looking for a choker necklace and Gharara or palazzos… I came up with these two looks, I like the embroidery and overall look of the Aubergine one, especially that fringed “sharara border” on their dupatta, it’s from my fav brand. I got the beautiful Kundan choker for 2655/- thanks to sale/offers and an additional 10% discount… it can easily amplify any outfit

I anyway didn’t have anything for weddings because I never had any friends so I’ve never attended any wedding as an adult, it’s been extremely sad, you know how my friends were, I’ve shared that in the beginning of my post… so here’s my final look, I got this batua - there was only one piece left + another necklace this one’s designer and earrings (I haven’t ordered the earrings yet) The whole look is very simple yet elegant, I’ve added this necklace to bring out the soft gold colour of my Gharara. I love such muted tones and sophisticated colours, they can make your entire traditional outfit a lot more contemporary… The Gharara set has a beautiful dori at the back & it is made in pure Silk Organza, it’s for 5252/- after discount, I was looking for something exactly like this, light and beautiful at the same time.

So I got those two Kurti Sets, 2 Necklaces, one Batua, one Gharara set & One more Kurti Set, I’ll be adding one pair of earrings either these or the Maroon ones and matching this choker with some other earrings (or anything minimalistic) I’ll have to get the jhuttis next time…

Xx Zara Sauleh

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movie-magic · 4 years ago

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Chicago P.D. Ended Season 8 On Some Intense Cliffhangers, So What's The Plan For Season 9?

Warning: GIANT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD for the Season 8 finale of Chicago P.D., called "The Other Side."

The eighth season of Chicago P.D. was intense from start to finish, and "The Other Side" proves that P.D. still knows how to end a season with a bang. In fact, the Season 8 finale ended on several bangs, with gunshots guaranteeing some cliffhangers that will leave fans wondering about the aftermath all summer. With Burgess' life still in the balance, Voight breaking bad all over again, Atwater and Ruzek coming to blows, and Upton proposing to Halstead for all the wrong reasons, there are a lot of questions that need answers, and showrunner Rick Eid has dropped a tease about where Season 9 currently stands.

First things first: the #1 thing that fans probably should worry about at this point is Burgess' fate. In case viewers somehow had any doubts that Burgess doesn't break no matter what she goes through, she was brutally attacked multiple times before being shot twice in the abdomen, only to pull the keys off the corpse of one of her former captors, drag herself to a car, and hold onto life long enough for Halstead and Atwater to find her and rush her to Med. The episode didn't confirm her fate one way or the other, but the odds seem pretty good that she'll survive. Even if she does, however, there's no guarantee that she won't be changed by her latest of multiple traumas.

The rest of Intelligence pulled out all the stops to try and save her, although pulling out all the stops meant something different to different members of the team. Atwater and Halstead wanted to keep doing things by the book even though it was one of their own who had been taken, while Ruzek and Upton were more on board with Voight on bending the rules to try and find her ASAP. The conflict resulted in a pretty ugly fistfight between Atwater and Ruzek that Upton and Halstead had to break up.

Upton ultimately talked Ruzek out of continuing his crazed search by sending him to care for Makayla, as he'd promised Burgess he would, and Upton tracked down Voight, who had tried to throw her and Ruzek off by feeding them dummy info so he could do what he considered needed to be done. To Upton's credit, she made an impassioned plea to Voight to take the perp in rather than kill him and hide the body, and it even would have worked if the bad guy hadn't gotten his hands on Voight's gun, prompting Upton to shoot and kill him.

Voight sent her home so that he could take care of the body, and poor Upton was a mess by the time she got back to her apartment to find Halstead. Shaken up by her encounter with Voight and the fact that she killed a man, Upton was nearly in tears as she told Halstead that maybe they should get married.

And honestly, even the most diehard of Upstead shippers might find it hard to rejoice at the twist, considering how much of an emotional wreck Upton was when she kinda sorta popped the question, and I for one am actually hoping that Halstead proves yet again how well he knows her and doesn't immediately agree to what she proposed. She's clearly not in the right emotional place.

So, will Burgess survive? If so, how different will she be or not be? Will there be a time jump? Can Atwater find some more balance in Season 9? Will Upton and Halstead get married, or engaged to be married? Would marriage stop Halstead from theoretically having to testify against her? Why couldn't Upton and Voight call in the body, since her shoot was good? Is Voight plummeting down a slippery slope now that he has disposed of a body, when he seemed to be getting used to taking the higher road with Miller in the mix?

Chicago P.D. raised a lot of questions that haven't gotten answers and will need to be addressed in the ninth season. When CinemaBlend spoke with showrunner Rick Eid just a couple of days before the finale aired on May 26, he revealed how far ahead he's planning Season 9:

“Not very far. We just finished writing the finale like two weeks ago, so we're trying to let our brains rest for a little while. And we will start up very soon and figure out hopefully, what happens next season. But a lot of things happened at the end of this finale that give us a good place to start, puts us in a good position to create some storylines. The finale is definitely intense and eventful.”

"Intense and eventful" are definitely accurate descriptors when it comes to the Season 8 finale of Chicago P.D., and even the showrunner and writers aren't very far into planning what will happen for Intelligence in the aftermath, so answers may be a ways off for fans already eager to find out what happens next. Unfortunately, Chicago P.D. is now officially out of episodes in the 2020-2021 TV season, but the show will be back in the fall with Season 9.

Like Chicago Med and Chicago Fire, P.D. has already been renewed for another two seasons, so no matter what showrunner Rick Eid will have in store to kick off Season 9, the stories of the Intelligence Unit aren't ending any time soon.

- Cinema Blend

#chicago pd #one chicago #chicago med #chicago fire #jay halstead #hank voight #intelligence unit #hailey upton #kim burgess #adam ruzek #kevin atwater #trudy platt #season finale #season 8 #season 9 #intense #movie magic

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perennialphilosophy · 5 years ago

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Religion & Its Sphere of Influence

‘How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world’s main religions?’

- Polly Toynbee

Religion is not just about religion. It is not just about the individual. Without understanding religion, you cannot understand culture, a huge amount of history, art, the workings and rulings of a country, international relations, or even whole paradigms of thought. To begin to understand any one of these things, it must be acknowledged first that religion, faith, culture (and even languages to a degree) though are separate entities, are intertwined to create the beliefs and societies we have today.

If you look at the diagram above (it took me a while to choose the colours, because colours are important, right?), I will go through the different parts and explain how they work, probably with reference to my own culture/life.

To follow a religion is not just to follow and worship a divine being, it should be understood as the system by which you have faith and worship. What I mean by system is the way in which you show/present your faith and worship, whether this be Sunday prayers, or prayers five times a day, or not eating dairy and meat in the same dish. I draw a distinction between this and faith; faith for me in not the manner in which you show or practice your belief like you do when you follow a religion, but a faith runs much deeper. It is the personal conviction that you have and the trust you put into a way of life, whether this is a God, or many Gods, or whatever you have faith in. When faith and religion come together, you have a person who puts their faith in X (say, Jesus) and lives their life according to the rules of Y (Christianity). But the difference between a religion and faith is something quite distinct.

And then we have culture. Culture is probably (in some ways) a little more complex to understand than the former two. It is comprised of not just customs, traditions, behaviours, arts etc. but also the actual ideas of a society and group of people. These cultures alter and develop over time as things move forward, as people travel and societies of people merge. The overlap between culture and religion comes where practices are adopted either from a religion into a different culture, or from a culture into a different religion. For example, Bangladeshis have taken on the Hindu practice of touching the feet of their elders as a sign of respect because Bangladesh (a predominantly Muslim country) was once a part of India (a predominantly Hindu country), and somewhere, over time, the Bangladeshi community adopted the tradition of touching feet. There is also a merging of religious practices that have been adopted by cultures of their own. For instance, in Islam, eating pork is haram (prohibited) because when the ruling was first decreed, pigs were the dirtiest animal and carried the largest number of diseases. Eating them would mean getting exceptionally unwell if not death, so the ruling was passed. Following this through to the modern day, Muslims still do not eat pork but more so because it has become a cultural norm that because God has commanded it. You do not need to be a God fearing Muslim who prays five times a day to not eat pork. It is part of culture now.

And finally we have culture and faith as a combination, this is the category that I would fall into, I believe. When asked how I identify myself in terms of religion, I normally answer that I’m a cultural Muslim. What this means for me is that I partake in all the customs of religion that have now become part of the culture such as Eid and Ramadan and I also have faith (according to the definition I provided above), but I don’t wake up at dawn to pray Fajr like the religion says one ought to. (I’m not one to say that any one way a person practices their religion or faith is superior to another and refrain from passion judgment, as I hope you will too.) Most Muslims that I know fall into this category between culture and faith.

Hopefully I have demonstrated somewhat how the three work together to create societies and traditions.

The reason I write this is because I have heard too many Atheists over the last year who argue the classic “I don’t believe in religion because science” – which doesn’t have anything wrong with it other than the obvious flaw. But too many have given no credit to religion, do not want to partake in any conversation around religion or understand the role it plays in the world. Religion is not just about the ‘afterlife’, or God first creating light.

It is easy to understand the world as being divided into groups like Muslims, Jews, Christians etc. but religion is not a cult. It is easy to understand conflict as being “they killed the Jews”, or “the Muslims attacked the US” etc. but what about scenarios where, say, the Muslims attack the Muslims? What then? If we look at the 1979 hostage taking at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia, we find that this was Muslims against Muslims. But why? Because of fundamental differences in beliefs about the Mahdi and the different strands of Islam.

The world is a complex place and we cannot make sense of it clearly without understanding something as ingrained as religion. It is not liberal to think religion is beneath you because you believe it is an oppressive system, it is specifically illiberal to think yourself above it and pay it no heed. Atheism too, arguably, is a religion (by their definition, and faith by mine).

N.B. These opinions are not a generalisation about all Atheists, they are based specifically on vocal ones I have met over the last several months and in relation to things they have said to me. If this causes any offence to anyone, I apologise, this was not the intention.

#religion #culture #philosophy #writing #phd research

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scope-dogg · 3 years ago

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Long post about vaccines and the current air of hysteria around them below

I’m not an anti-vaxxer generally but there’s definitely a concerning growing trend of countries and adopting measures clearly intended to coerce people into taking them. Like here in Bahrain, the idea was that if the testing rate and case load was under a certain threshold then restrictions would be set to level green, which means that everything except cinemas and indoor sports events are open to everyone. On Sunday they moved the goalposts though and said that until 80% of the population is vaxxed then level green is taken off the table and the minimum alert level will be yellow, meaning that you can’t go into shopping malls, barber shops or any restaurants without a vaccine, a set of categories which conveniently includes basically everywhere that’s worthwhile to go to in Manama, there’s jack shit outside of the shopping malls. I half expected them to impose harsher restrictions because I was expecting the case load to go up following the Eid al Adha celebrations a couple of weeks ago, but that hasn’t materialised, the daily average case count is lower than it has been in over a year and as such this shift in policy is just totally arbitrary - we were in level green for just over a week and then they pulled the rug on everyone for what seems like no reason. It’s frustrating because right now I don’t have a government-issued ID, so I couldn’t get the damn vaccine even if I wanted it - which as of right now I don’t because everything suggests the fucking things don’t work, at least not well enough to accept the possibility of currently-unknown long-term risks. In fact, that’s most likely the reason for this change - the fact that being vaccinated, while it might stop you from getting seriously ill or dying, doesn’t appear to actually prevent you from getting infected or from infecting others. In that case, any vaccination rate that’s less that 100% is just as arbitrary as 60% or 80% or whatever, because herd immunity in this situation is impossible and 100% is the only rate that comes close enough to a guarantee that there’ll be no severe illness or death from the disease.

Bahrain is one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world, but the rate of vaccinations has slowed and now it seems like they’re trying to force the issue in order to speed it up again. Even so, they’re probably not going to reach their goal before November. What they’re doing here in Bahrain is relatively extreme and the government here is going all in on vaccines - I think this is one of the few places where if you’re eligible you can get literally any kind you want including the Sputnik and Sinopharm vaccines so I guess from their point of view it must make some kind of sense for them to double down and strongarm the issue. They’re definitely starting to do it by degrees in Western countries too however, you see employers mandating vaccines for their employees on pain of termination (no idea how this doesn’t constitute a form of wrongful dismissal but they seem to be getting away with it) and the likes of Boris Johnson imposing measures banning non-vaccinated people from nightclubs, something which will almost certainly be gradually expanded to other non-essential outlets until it’s the same deal as it is here. In the US there’s a definite increase in rhetoric from the Biden administration that seems to be ramping up to the announcement for the requirement of vaccine mandates, and there’s a clear escalation of the usual American political bipartisan neurosis on social media where the reimposition of restrictions for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people is being blamed squarely on those wicked and loathsome unvaccinateds, who are stereotyped as rednecks and trump voters etc.

Anyway, I’m rambling and I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. Blah blah george soros bill gates satan mark of the beast new world order whatever. But no seriously, this whole business with vaccines is descending into farce. It seems clear to me that Covid Delta has made a mockery of the protections afforded by this current tranche of vaccines and that the benefits of taking them are now dubious at best. Coercing people to take them in spite of that, regardless of their motivations for not getting vaccinated, isn’t just immoral, it’s stupid. The whole meme of “trust the science” is a joke because science has been inconsistent and incompetent in regards to Covid with relatively few exceptions ever since the pandemic began.

What the actual solution to Covid is now, I don’t fucking know. The time to act was in Q1 of 2020 but the governments of the world were too weak and stupid to act when it still mattered. I’m holding out some hope that the Novavax vaccine, which is a traditional vaccine instead of an MRNA one so in theory should be less risky, and is supposedly 90% effective against the delta variant, might set things straight, but the realist in me recognises that there’s no way in hell that the pace of vaccine development, even accelerated by emergency approvals and such, is never going to be able to keep pace with the mutation rate of an extremely prolific and infectious RNA virus like this.

Not really sure how to round this off, so let me just say that in a just world, the scientists who developed this thing in the lab in Wuhan, the sleazy American officials who helped fund the gain-of-function, the Chinese officials who lied about the disease and the WHO officials who repeated them and failed to do their duty would all have been executed by firing squad

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chimswae · 4 years ago

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BTS Caretaker CH41

Summary: She may think she has Bangtan Sonyeondan wrapped around her fingers. She may think it is easy to love the members equally without hurting any soul. She may think the boys wont fall head over heels for her. She assumes it is okay to show a little love and affection towards the boys, what if she gets it all wrong? What if it only brings more complication to her already complicated life? Can she survive their charms? Will she be able to resist them? What if they just wont let her go?

- Pairing: BTS x Oc ( Yoongi x OC, Jungkook x OC)

- Genre: Fluff, Slight Angst, Romance, Idol!au

- Word Count: 4,174

- Author Note: Happy Eid to those who celebrate, and yes this chapter is pure fluff <3 we lovee seulliee and yoongii and bangtannies!

Previous | Next

Chapter 41

“Are you two like together now?” Namjoon eyed the two lovebirds with so much interest followed by whistles in the background by the rest of the members. The tease went on when Seul moved away and hid her pink face in Yoongi’s arm practically clinging onto her dear life.

“Obviously. For some reason, Seul is being extremely clingy around hyung” said Jungkook with his eyes fixed on his phone playing the usual online games.

Offended by the remarks, Seul finally let go Yoongi’s arm and glared at his way “I am not being clingy. The thought of dating Yoongi is too much for me to comprehend” she murmured lowly.

“Wait until you live under the same roof as him then you know, it is not easy to handle Yoongi” Jin stated in the matter of fact tone receiving a dissatisfied look from the pale man. “Are you done exposing me to my girlfriend?” Yoongi snickered.

“Girlfriend” they responded in unison as though it was not enough to tease the two with mere look and the members were practically ganging up on them. With a proud smile spread across his face, Namjoon nodded in satisfaction “I am glad both of you are together and there is no bad blood between us. Not really all of us but the rest of you whom actually see Seul more than a friend” he stressed that part and glanced at Jungkook and Jin.

Jungkook and Jin exchanged a meaningful look as they heard their leader continued “We have known each other for as long as I can remember, this issue should have not jeopardized our friendship. And, I am proud of everyone for taking this matter maturely. Especially, you Gukk” Seul sent a grateful smile to his way, and he winked in response.

“I.. want what is best for Yoongi hyung, for Bangtan and for Seul-ie. I can handle this” “I am sorry” Seul mumbled before Jungkook could finish off his words.

“I don’t want the guilt consume my heart, but it can’t be helped sometimes. I am sorry, because of me you almost ruin everything that you build together” Jin and Jungkook shook their head, heaving a soft sigh.

Yoongi’s arm was automatically wrapped around her shoulder as a comfort “Baby, you don’t need to be sorry. It is not your fault” he gave the top of her head a soft peck. “We care for you and we love you dearly” Seul blinked his tears, allowing Yoongi to pull her small body into his embrace.

“Seul-ah, your existence in our life is the best gift that we ever had. Thank you for being our friend and to treat us not as a celebrity but just us” Jin professed earnestly. “It is a wonderful feeling, to be able to love you. We will cherish that deep in our heart” Jimin murmured watching the girl turned fifty shades of pink in Yoongi’s arms.

“Me too nuna. You will always be my first love” the maknae muttered shyly as Jimin nudged him with a teasing smile.

“I bet Jungkook has learned a lot from it” Jimin retorted.

Sitting quietly at the corner was Taehyung with a worried frown evident on his forehead “I am sorry for losing my shit that time and hurt your feelings. I can’t forget the foolish mistake that I commit, ugh stupid me” he puckered his lower lips in protest of his own demeanour.

“Taetae, I thought we have settled that stop blaming yourself. I understand why you did that so, let’s forget about those horrible fight okay?” her smile radiates the room.

“So, when can we meet ahjumma? I am dying to meet her!” Hoseok eyes glimmered with hope as others nodded in agreement. It is about time to meet their caretaker ahjumma considering the issues of her contract has been resolved. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a big problem for them to meet Seul’s mother.

She grinned widely “Oh, mother talked to me about that. She wishes to meet all of you soon probably after undergoing her kidney transplant” their face lit up in pure excitement upon hearing the news.

“Mrs Hwang finally get a donor, that’s cool! when is the date of her operation?”

“Next week and I will be taking few days off from work”

“But..we will be in Osaka next week” pressing his lips together, Yoongi hummed lowly. He really wanted to be by her side when the day come but knowing how it clashed with their Wings Tour in Osaka, Yoongi face harden at the thought.

Realizing his sour face, Seul slipped her arm around his waist admiring her boyfriend’s soft feature “I will be alright, focus on the tour okay?” at this point the rest of the soul inside the room were immune to the couple’s romantic gesture. As though watching them being touchy towards each other wasn’t enough to send chills down their spine.

“Maybe you can take the first flight after the concert end?” Jungkook suggested.

“No way, you guys need rest. Don’t think of flying anywhere after the concert” she frowned deeply despising the idea of leaving Macao without proper rest.

Yoongi seemed to be reconsidering the idea while glancing at the younger man with a grateful smile “That is not our first time. I like that idea Jungkook” Jungkook responded with a small salute.

“Baby you are not flying anywhere after the concert?!” Seul look bewildered as her eyes found its way to Jungkook, throwing daggers at his way.

“Baby~~” the guys chortled in unison once again causing the girl to squirm shyly. The eldest cringed not be able to handle more sweetness from them “As much as I like both of you I am so not used to see Yoongi and Seul together without fighting even for one minute” Yoongi swung his arm around Seul bringing the girl close to his body.

“She is using that mouth of hers for good things from now on” that remark earned a dissatisfied grunt from every member as they totally got what he meant by the good things. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Seul chose to remain silent not going to get herself involved in the boys’ childish conversation.

---------------------

Breaking: Underground rapper Stephanie took down her Instagram post with an open apology to BTS’s Suga and Army.

This week, the industry was shaken by Suga’s dating scandal that involved Stephanie, a Korean-Canadian underground rapper. The Instagram’s post by Stephanie which claimed that she’s one of BTS Suga many girlfriends earlier this week was already taken down by the rapper.

Stephanie then in her recent Instagram’s post posted an open apology acknowledging her mistake for causing the unnecessary misunderstanding and worries. She denied the rumours of knowing BTS Suga personally as they had never met in the past. The scandalous Instagram’s post was said to be directed to someone else which had nothing to do with Suga.

Bighit seemed to be taken the matter pertaining to their artiste seriously as Stephanie’s management is willing to give their full cooperation to solve the issues without problems. Netizens on the other hand are not convinced with the news and demanded an explanation from Suga in the near future. Fans are enraged of the netizens who send malicious comment towards BTS and claim that Suga has nothing to explain as he’s not at fault.

Bighit has finally put BTS’s Suga and Stephanie dating rumours to rest with an official statement by the label today. The label states “ The dating rumours about Suga and Stephanie are not true. They’ve never met each other in the past. None of BTS members own a personal social media account apart from the official one. We are looking into this matter seriously and a legal action will be taken to those who spread false rumour about BTS. Please continue to love and support BTS in the future. Thank you”

Sprawling on the couch was Yoongi looking solemn and stress though the official statement by his label had cleared his name from the malicious rumours, he was worried of how it would affect the group as whole in the future. Guess, he must see it with his own eyes this Saturday during their concert.

Namjoon took a seat across him noticing Yoongi low energy ever since the article was out to public “Are you okay hyung? I think Bang Pd’s team had outdone themselves this time” he exclaimed softly fixing the glasses at the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t know. I am worried of how it will affect the group. The scandal was dirty and unacceptable Joon. If it only involve a dating scandal then it should be fine however.. this one.. people will be doubting BTS’s integrity and attitude. I am sorry..that it comes to this” he said in his deep voice.

The leader disagreed “You didn’t ask for this. It is never your fault, you are not the cause of this rumour to spread wildly like this. We know everything was a lie and we are in this together. Nothing can change that. There is no just BTS Suga, it is Bangtan Sonyeondan as whole. So, hyung don’t blame yourself for something you didn’t do” Yoongi sat up, rubbing his back head out of anger.

“What if it makes Seul doubt me?” it comes out nowhere, but his insecurity is severe since start, which is complicated for him to handle.

Unamused, Namjoon raised his brows with a perplexed look “Hyung, do you even hear yourself? Seul loves you with all her heart, what makes you think she will question your sincerity?” the latter shook his head in dismay.

“Both of you really need to spend a day together as if like a legit date. Have you even been to one?” the younger man pried answers from the already distressed man. Yoongi shook his head while recollecting the memories of him and Seul “One time, the bungee jumping” with that statement it brought laughter inside the room.

“Ew, who brings a woman to a bungee jumping for a date. Seriously hyung, you could do better. I am not amused” Namjoon retorted sarcastically.

Yoongi rolled his eyes offended by the leader response “It is romantic, and you should really try it out before laugh to my face” regaining his posture was Namjoon as he had a good time making fun of his hyung choice of date.

“Did Seul enjoy the date?”

“Of course!” he answered without any hesitation.

“I doubt that, knowing Seul, I bet you got cussed so hard that day” he chuckled at the thought of Seul’s fierce side.

Grunting lowly, Yoongi shot the fellow rapper a hard look shutting the guy’s mouth completely “Bring her to stargaze. Just both of you, a simple picnic-“ “Who does picnic at night?” suspicious with the ideas, he fired back earning a displease protest from the latter.

“I never heard picnic being associated with any period of time. I think this date fits both of you. You don’t like being in crowded place and prefer a quiet area. Seul doesn’t fancy an extravaganza date, so that will be perfect” he continued to fish Yoongi’s intrest.

“Picnic also means I have to cook something for us to eat” Yoongi expressed his concern.

Namjoon scrunched his nose in disbelief, if that’s what on his mind all this time then this man really need to get a dating class from a professional. “Prepare a simple one like sandwich. I thought we had enough practice from the Run BTS show, can’t you apply one of the recipes that we learned from that show for the sake of your date with Seul” he facepalmed as soon as Yoongi tilted his head in confusion.

“You do realize you can’t bring your proud ramen to a date right? Gosh, go and ask for Jin hyung’s help then” Yoongi loathed the idea of getting a help from Jin.

“He used to like Seul, I don’t trust him. What if he is planning to ruin my date by sabotaging the food?”

Overdramatic Yoongi was difficult to handle indeed. “Ramen is so unromantic hyung. I am against that choice of food. And, no alcohol. Seul doesn’t drink. Get help from Jin hyung to prepare a simple Kimbap at least. Who needs fancy food when all you do is making out?” his sarcasm has soared to a higher level challenging Yoongi’s ego.

“Yah! That is not true. Don’t turn me into a pervert”

“Aren’t you one?” a faint voice interrupted their serious conversation. Sweaty Jin sank beside the leader with a playful smile “So are you planning to take Seul out for a romantic date?” he inquired the obvious. “I can help you with the food. I know Seul’s favourite food” Yoongi glared in process while his mind insisted on accepting the older guy’s offer, but the jealousy stopped him from doing the right thing.

“Who is dating Seul here? You or Jin Hyung…” he teased the grumpy man.

“Shut it. What can you cook for Seul?” a wide grin spread across Jin’s face upon hearing the request from Yoongi’s mouth.

Jin chuckled “Grocery shopping in an hour” he threw the used towel at Yoongi as he arose from his seat to get changed. Unwilling to spend the day at the grocery some more with Kim Seokjin, Yoongi pushed his body up considering this thing involved Seul like he could bail on Jin.

--------------------------

Third attempt.

Fourth attempt.

Fifth attempt but came to no avail. There was no answer from Seul, now he wondered the girl’s whereabout. To begin with, this was Namjoon’s idea to not notify the busy girl beforehand about this date. He insisted that the surprise should start before the actual date took place.

“Kim Namjoon, I am so done with you” he grunted under his breath. Yoongi took this matter into his hand and decided to pick Seul up by his own. He should have done it sooner instead of listening to Namjoon’s fairy-tale.

The journey to Seul’s neighbourhood took approximately twenty minutes by public transportation. It has been a long time since he last used public transportation to anywhere. Even though he sneaked out once in awhile when he needed a fresh air, he avoided crowded place at all cost. Therefore, public transportation was not an option since he preferred to walk appreciating his surroundings.

He climbed up the stairs praying hard in his head that Seul would be home. On top of that, this would be his first time to meet Seul’s family. The thought of meeting their caretaker lady after years numbed his mind.

“Breath Min Yoongi.. Breath” he smoothed his sweaty palm against his dark wash jeans. Pressing the red button, he could hear heavy footsteps beyond the door hollering “Give me a second” not long after the door was opened wide.

Yoongi was welcomed by Hoon confused face “Yoongi hyung? What are you doing here?” he blinked rapidly making sure he’s seeing the right thing.

Swallowing the heavy lumps in his throat, he emitted a soft cough “Hi, Hoon. Ah, I am looking for Seul, is she home? She didn’t pick up my calls” Hoon shot him an unknowing smile and nodded in response to his early question.

“Nuna is home but she’s sleeping though. Do you want me to wake her up?”

“No, it is okay. Can I wake her up instead? I mean not to sound weird but yeah… I can do it, if you allow me” he mumbled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck in process.

Hoon chuckled lightly watching how a renowned rapper like Min Yoongi turned into an adorable puppy at his doorstep “You are nuna’s boyfriend, why should I mind if you want to wake her up. Come in hyung” he provided a space for Yoongi to walk.

“You know?” he entered the apartment.

“It is obvious. Plus, nuna is a bad liar. How can we not know? I am happy for you and nuna, please love my nuna and don’t hurt her” he closed the door behind him and led Yoongi to Seul’s bedroom.

Yoongi softened as a warm smile found its way on his handsome face “I promise to love her and to cherish her. She is an amazing woman, I won’t hurt her” Hoon opened the door to Seul’s room and signalled him to get inside.

“I trust you hyung. Mom would be happy to meet you, I will go get her. For now, go and wake nuna. She is a light sleeper, but it is hard to get her out from bed, so good luck” chuckling softly, he left Yoongi with one last ‘Hwaiting’.

He scanned the room admiring its ambience, simple and minimalistic just matched his personal preference. Now he had seen another side of Seul, it was another way in deepening their relationship.

Smiling bashfully to himself, he tore his gaze to the sleeping figure on the bed. Seul looked ten times cuter than she already did when she was asleep. His heart melted at the sight. Yoongi sat carefully not to wake her lover up.

You look effortlessly beautiful even in your sleep. He mentally complimented the girl before him. Unconsciously, his hand reached out to stroke the strand of her hair from covering her eyes. She stirred a little in her sleep, squinting her eyes in process as Yoongi returned to admire her sleeping face.

“Mmm..Hoon..What time is it” Seul croaked.

“Time for you to get up baby” he whispered playfully.

“Baby what?” reluctantly, she rubbed her eyes in protest. Even in this state, she never failed to amuse Yoongi with her grumpy side. What a thing to witness. Her eyes rounded in sheer horror realizing Yoongi’s presence in her room. Sitting up almost immediately, her hoarse voice boomed across the cold room “What in the world? Why are you here?!” she hissed.

“To take you out for a date, so get up” he grabbed her hands, pulling the lazy to girl to her feet.

“Yah, Min Suga! Don’t invade my personal space, you are unbelievable. And what date? That is so sudden!” ignoring the words that flew like a freaking bullet, he dragged the girl to the bathroom. “What are you doing get out!!!” she squirmed under his strong grasp.

Yoongi rolled his eyes, collecting her hair and tied it neatly into a bun. Dazed by his weird action, Seul didn’t know what to expect next. She watched him grabbing her purple toothbrush, pressing the toothpaste on it. Giving her no time to digest, he shoved the toothbrush inside her mouth softly.

“Open your mouth, wide” Yoongi motioned the girl to follow his action. She stared at their reflection through the mirror in disbelief. Did Min Yoongi just brush her teeth as if she’s 2 years old girl? Goodness, what the hell was he trying to do?

“Stay still, I am trying to brush your teeth woman!”

“I can do it by my own” Seul slapped his hand softly, allowing her to hold the brush instead. To her distaste, the stubborn man turned her body to face him and swept her up, placing her carefully at the edge of the marble top.

His brow flinched, unamused by Seul’s persistence “I will do it so can you just listen to me?” he swatted her hand, finally in charged of brushing Ji Seul’s teeth again. Unromantic and weird. Tired of fighting, Seul rolled her eyes only to earn a light smack on her forehead.

“Don’t be a brat” he snickered.

She puckered her lips, upset with the childish treatment. Seul shot her boyfriend a ‘I hate you forever’ look. Of course, that didn’t stop Yoongi to pamper her like a little girl. Yoongi stood in between her legs, and leaned forward to take a glass of water for Seul to rinse her mouth.

As much as she hated being treated like an incapable person, she enjoyed this soft moment with Yoongi. Something that never happened to before, so it was rather amusing to experience it with a guy like Yoongi. He dabbed her mouth with clean cloth and hung it loosely around her neck afterwards.

“Go shower and change. I will wait for you outside. Or do you want me to shower you? I am up for that” he smirked playfully.

“Ew, no. Unless you stink”

“I am not!” Seul giggled cutely, throwing her arms around his neck. “You smell just like my Min Yoongi” she nuzzled his face allowing the man to pull her body close.

“Stop seducing me, I don’t have self-control” he whispered against her lips, moving it painfully slow just to tease her patience. Murmuring softly, she softened her lips over his warmth one “Then, get out before I change my mind” he let out a low groan.

“I will make you pay soon” pulling the playful girl into a breathless kiss, he set her down giving her space to breathe. The more he stayed in the same room as hers, the dangerous it would be.

----------------

“Heol, nuna you don’t expect to go out for a date in that outfit, right?” his jaw hung low as his eyes scanned her sister from head to toes. Seul cringed in displeased upon hearing Hoon’s remarks “What is wrong with my outfit? It is my favourite hoodie and jeans” she puffed her cheeks.

“You look perfect” Yoongi chuckled softly exchanging look with Mrs Hwang whilst Hoon crossed his arm in disagreement.

“You look ugly” he corrected.

“Yah Ji Hoon! It is just a date with Min Yoongi. It is not a big deal! Mom, please tell me I look good in this?” she shoved her hands inside the pocket and pouted in hope to receive a morale support from her dear mother.

Mrs Hwang chided “ To me your outfit matched Yoongi-ah. So, I think you look pretty. Hoon stop making fun of your sister” she warned. “Next time I will dress you up prettily, now go and enjoy your date” she gave Yoongi’s hand a soft pat.

“Take care of my daughter and don’t forget to be careful. You don’t want to get caught by fans” he pulled his usual gummy smile. “I will make sure to protect Seul, ahjumma. Urm, we’ll get going now then. It is nice meeting you. The rest of the members are excited to see you soon”

“I know. Come and meet me once I get better, I will let you know. Seul, be nice to Yoongi. Do not be a kid” Seul pursed her lips and walked up to her mother for a brief hug. “Yoongi is the kid here anyway. See you later”

The lovebirds exited the house hand in hand finally to their very first date which was not a typical date inside Suga’s Genius Lab. Something new and exciting.

------------------

Laying casually on the grass covered by a clean cloth beneath, they enjoyed the cold breeze and the shimmering stars above them. For once Namjoon’s idea worked today and Yoongi couldn’t be happier than this knowing he spend a quality time with the love of his life.

Yoongi had his hand encircled tightly around Seul’s waist, caressing it slowly enjoying the warmth that he gained from this proximity. Scooting closer to Yoongi, she grazed her fingers on his chest while continue stargazing.

“I wish to say like this forever” he broke the silence, followed by a satisfied sigh.

Seul propped her chin on his chest, gazing at Yoongi face lovingly. His lips curled into a charming smile as he pushed her up to match his level “Stop weakening my heart. You are hard to resist even now” his eyes bore into hers.

“I am not used to romantic Suga. Guess, I am going to live with that thought in my mind” she blushed, rubbing their nose together.

“Every moment that we spend together from now on, I will make sure it is something unforgettable. So you will love me even more” his sweet and alluring voice hummed, driving her heart to the edge of the cliff.

She stroked his jaws, trailing a kiss along his nose to the corner of his lips “I think I am falling for you deeper without trying. I am going to miss you, being this close to you” his lips broke into another charming smile.

“When you miss me, just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go” Yoongi slid his hand to her neck, caressing it softly. Melted into his deep gaze, she felt his face inched to hers and his breath fanned against her skin.

“I will find my way home because you are my home” nibbling on her lips, he hovered her lips, kissing her sweetly.

You are my home. She repeated in her head multiple time devouring herself into this sweet moment. Even the short kisses that they shared could render them breathless. Live in the moment and paint it with beautiful memories, because it is worth it.

#btscaretaker #bts series #bts fanfiction #bts fic #bts idolau #jungkook x oc #bts x oc #yoongi x oc #yoongi fic #jungkook fic #suga fic #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction

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kaaramel · 5 years ago

Text

Glitch Plot Hooks... 2!

i’m really glad people enjoyed the first set of these! @windienine and i still have writing juice in our brains, so i’m here to double down. these plot hooks are gifted for your use, wholesale or as inspiration, in games of Glitch, and they’re often suitable for Nobilis as well with minor tweaks.

Mystery

The PCs find an unattended Abhorrent Weapon; maybe delivered in a neatly wrapped parcel, embedded all handle-out and inviting in a chunk of stone, or, alarmingly, left in the corpse of its former bearer. What the hell happened here? Are you going to claim it?

One of the more inscrutable Warmains has started riding through the streets. They’re probably sizing up a potential victim, but their Test is broad enough that it’s hard to say who exactly they’ve got their eye on. How likely is it to be one of the PCs, or someone they know? Is it possible to chase the Warmain off before the test starts?

Out of the blue, some unknown factor is accelerating and exacerbating the PCs’ Infection; when you investigate, the culprit is a highly specific but otherwise mundane substance, like a particular brand of instant maple and ginger oatmeal. There are Nobles who would love to do a lot of damage to the loyal Excrucian cause with this knowledge.

The Deceiver Phasael Mery-Harumaph has invited all of the PCs on a vacation to New Revel, one of the cities devoted to perpetually celebrating his existence. All expenses paid, there will be special measures taken to accommodate your personal Banes, and you believe you heard mention of a luxury spa? He’s definitely up to something, right?

An Angel has been spotted making intense study of Ninuan and carving it into new shapes with their holy perception. Are they planning a new front of the Valde Bellum, or trying to adapt their Lore to the inhospitable environment? Can a ragtag gaggle of Strategists meaningfully investigate such a being without getting chopped to ribbons?

Monster of the Week

A PC's computer appears to have caught a virus with some suspicious qualities, and the tech support person who shows up to fix it seems a bit off, too. Both the virus and the tech support turn out to be manifestations of the same lonely, geeky Actual. Can the PCs give them a sense of identity and belonging, or at least get that computer back unharmed?

Some irresponsible twit of a Deceiver has been raising a wild λ-parrot, hoping to take advantage of its ability to mimic not merely a person's voice but the actual words they aren't saying. The Deceiver's attempts to train it were pitiful and forcing it to live in Creation in the first place was downright cruel. Heist the poor λ-bird away from its shitty owner and then figure out what to do with it before it gleefully confesses all your secrets.

A nearby baseball stadium is closed for renovations, and the giant crocodile that lives in its mythic-reality analogue, incubating nests of baseball-eggs, is venturing out to beg random people for treats. It accepts hot dogs, peanuts, signed memorabilia (signer’s level of fame irrelevant), and the noise of vuvuzelas.

A λ-creature of no particular appearance has stumbled out of a waylet and into the world. Bemused by the whole concept of “looking like something” and “being perceived,” it’s taken to imitating random inanimate objects it finds, which is causing a few kerfluffles and some minor chaos. Find it, catch it, and release it safely back into Ninuan.

A data-based organism which travels long distances in the form of a numbers station-like radio signal has lost one of its major predators and started multiplying out of control, with its migratory broadcasts starting to replace the radio’s ordinary news and music frequencies with monotone recitations of random numbers. If their population explosion continues, it’s likely they’ll make the leap to new mediums like cell phones and podcasts.

Comedy & Slice-of-Life

The PCs have befriended a human child who wants your assistance with a school assignment. Play out a series of flashbacks/colorful retellings of the historical period your young friend is asking about. Given the, ah, unique priorities of Strategists and presence of mythic reality, these anecdotes needn't be constrained by resemblance to "real events." Embellish and contradict each other freely.

An old rival of one of the PCs - probably a Power, maybe an Imperator - has contacted you again, and your interactions feel kind of different now. Is this… are they flirting? Wait, were they always flirting?

The local RAS chapter has pledged to start volunteering in the surrounding human community, as an attempt to form and nurture ties to Creation. Tending community gardens, taking tickets at amateur improv performances, shelving books at the library, or picking up litter (and/or wiping it from existence) are a few suggested activities, but you're free to go where your heart leads. Do you succeed, and maybe even find a person or place to anchor, or does it all go comically/horribly wrong?

One of the PCs gets in a strenuous disagreement with a Power over which one of you gets to claim a mutual friend as a Treasure.

The PCs have fallen into something illegal, but like, mundanely illegal. Roughly on the level of tax fraud. Do you have the chill to pull it off without escalating and leveling the city?

Serious Drama

Someone in the PCs’ circle of acquaintances has died: a Chancery member's Treasure, or a family member of one such; or someone from a PC's/NPC's mortal descendant line; maybe even a Power you were on neutral-to-friendly terms with, or a Chancery member who burnt themself out. What does it look like to confront death when you'd thought yourself an immortal and ever-reborn void-god? How do you mourn and grieve?

The PCs are there for an innocent bystander’s first time witnessing the Glitch; it’s entirely possible that their actions caused it, or at least paved the way. Will they take responsibility? What are they going to do?

The PCs are there for a Deceiver’s breakthrough. The kid is riding high on their new philosophy and deeply obnoxious about it, but has also just sort of assumed that y’all are their new mentors. What are you going to do with that trust? Should you/can you steer them onto a less destructive path?

A non-Chancery Strategist who has started wavering in their convictions has approached the PCs to ask bitter questions about why each of you stopped the fight and what you’re hoping to accomplish.

The PCs meet, learn of, and/or are roped into retrieving an ordinary human who has been lost and wandering in Ninuan for far too long. The initial rescue is only the first step; they’ve become acclimated to nonexistence, and the process of readjustment to time, physicality, and cause-and-effect is looking to be difficult and painful.

bonus CMWGE color theory trivia: the notion behind dividing these prompts into Mystery, Monster of the Week, Comedy/Slice of Life, and Serious Drama (beyond ‘providing a balanced diet’ and ‘sorting into categories fun’) is that i’m loosely trying to fit the stories to Eide-flavored silver, Lore-flavored blue, Flore-flavored purple, and Wyrd-flavored silver. disclaimer, i’m not being rigorous enough to tell you if every story necessarily fits well into quests or arcs of that color; i just think it’s interesting

#glitch #glitch rpg #glitch resources #nobilis

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yoimeta · 5 years ago

Note

Hi everyone! I noticed recently that the "KAZAKHSTAN 101 OR HOW TO OTABEK" post seems to have been taken off of tumblr? The author's whole blog seems to have been wiped. Do you know if this is archived anywhere? Is there a mirror, say, on Ao3?

Hello!

Thankfully, I managed to find what I believe is the original post. Here it is! The post is archived in plain text under the cut.

Hope this helps!

- Ji

Source: @sawyer-aik

KAZAKHSTAN 101 OR HOW TO OTABEK

THERE YOU GO YURI ON ICE FANDOM.

Disclaimer: this is in no way a fully comprehensive guide. This is just me trying to put together basics for people who are unfamiliar with Kazakhstan/Kazakhs to start their writing/research.

I am an ethnic Kazakh female, citizen of Kazakhstan, Almaty, bisexual, upper middle class, currently in college in the US. My experience is in no way representative of all kazakhs and Kazakhstan citizens. However, I think it’s pretty close to Otabek’s.

This is really, really long and kinda convoluted, but if you can bear it –– welcome!

Name: Many people have talked about Otabek’s name. This is how you shorten it –– “Bek”, “Beka”, or “Beks” if you wanna be really familiar and laid back.

Kazakhs don’t have middle names, we have patronymics. They are formed like this: the father’s name + ‘uly’ if the child is a boy or ‘kyzy’ is the child is a girl. For example, Otabek’s childrens’ patronymics would be Otabekuly and Otabekkyzy.

About Almaty and almatinians: Ok I’m so happy Otabek is from Almaty, I really don’t know much about life in other cities or rural areas. Almatinians rarely do. Comparing Almaty lifestyle to the rest of Kazakhstan is the same as comparing NYC to the rest of America –– it’s not representative of the quality of life in the country, like, at all.

Almaty has 2.5+ million population, and it grows every year. It’s a cultural and economic centre of the country. Apples originate from Almaty (!!!), hence the name from “Alma” –– apple. Almatinians are usually stereotyped as fast, brash and snobby –– kinda like New Yorkers, right? Almaty is much more tolerant and progressive, and also more ‘Western’ than the rest of the country in terms of mindset. Almatinians kinda look down on non-Almatinians, and really dislike the capital Astana because of all the funding and attention it gets.

Almaty has a great ethnic diversity –– main groups are Kazakhs, Russians, Uygur, Koreans, Germans, Jews, Uzbek, and many more. Though stereotypical jokes are generally acceptable, outright hate and discrimination against an ethnic group is not tolerated. Many foreigners visit here for business –– mostly Americans, Western Europeans and Chinese.

Almatinians love: coffeeshops, mall sales, cool cars (Hello Otabek’s motorcycle), smoking hukkah and vaping. They are usually concerned with status and try to show off their wealth. You can see people of all kind of different style and background in Almaty, fashion shows are held there, contemporary art and indie-music congregates there, along with all kinds of fancy ass crowd. It is a really interesting and kinda exhausting scene, especially if you are young and wanna have fun.

Language, culture, food, etc.

As an Almatinian Kazakh, Otabek is definitely fluent in both Russian and Kazakh, and probably has a very good grasp on English. He is a master of shala kazakh. Shala kazakh is a magic language that only city Kazakhs are privy to. It’s basically a wild mix of kazakh, russian and some fashionable english slang thrown in there. It’s usual for me to start a conversation with “OMG bro” and then kinda pull my speech together, substituting kazakh and russian words with each other and pepper it with “cool”, “ok” and other english exclamations. It’s not grammatically correct and is kinda lowbrow, but we all do it. Yes, even our parents. This is how Otabek sounds when he is talking to someone from home. Terrifying.

Nuclear family: City Kazakhs usually have two or three kids. That’s less than people have in rural areas. Children are important in Kazakh culture because they carry the family’s bloodline and history, especially boys. If you headcanon Otabek as having brothers and sisters, you are probably right! His family should be at least sort of wealthy to afford all the expenses of having a professional athlete for a child. Otabek has an expensive bike and his clothes look high-end –– he is definitely not poor.

Family in general. Kazakhs are close, VERY CLOSE to their family. Mind you, family is not just parents and siblings but also your grandparents, aunts and uncles and like all 173 cousins and nieces and nephews. Everyone is ridiculously involved in your life, always there with advice and complaints. You stay connected to your parents when you move out, when you get married, when you have kids, when you DIE. When Otabek misses the weekly skype dates or check-in phone calls, HE IS SHAMED SO HARD. Do you know grandma is worried about you, think about how old she is! Otabek’s relatives brag about his achievements like they moved him up the career ladder personally, with their own two hands. There’s nothing Otabek can really do about it tho he gets annoyed

Food: city Kazakhs have a very diverse cuisine. Traditional kazakh food is like 50% batter and 50% meat and takes long ass time to prepare so we reserve it for the holidays. My family loves fish, russian dishes such as borsht and blini, Uzbek lagman, Korean kimchi tho we try to avoid pork. And it’s not like we choose one day as a “Russian cuisine day”, we just kinda??? Deside to have some borsht today?? Almaty has lots of different restaurants, almatinians love sushi, pizza and pasta, shashlyk, all kinds of experimental foods and trying new things. Kumys –– mare’s milk –– is one of the things you should try in Kazakhstan as a turist, but I know many kazakhs who have never had it or don’t like it. They say it’s really good for you tho.

Holidays: ethnic Kazakhs in Kazakhstan celebrate: birthdays, New Years, Eid al-Adha which we call Kurban Bairam, Independence Day on December 16th and Nauryz on March 22nd. Young people kinda have get togethers on Halloween because it’s fun and a reason to hang out. Nauryz is one of my faves, it’s a pagan holiday of coming of spring and new life. On Nauryz, Almaty is adorned with flowers, yurts and giant swings are set on the city square, people wear traditional clothing and dance and play and eat a lot. My family also ended up celebrating Eastern Orthdox Christmas and Easter because each year our Russian friends invite us to hang out and celebrate with them, lol.

LGBTQIA+

Main principle is “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. General conflict avoidance protocols are in place. I personally know like 3 LGBT friendly hubs/clubs in Almaty. Nobody explicitly says “gay clubs” but people just kinda know what and where those are. There are get togethers and meetings you can attend to meet people, you can hang out with your significant other in public, hug, hold hands and no one would probably say anything. Colleges and universities are generally safe places, many of my friends are out in their college and don’t face any trouble. PDA will be frowned upon, but all PDA is generally frowned upon in Kazakhstan, even hetero. Feminist and sex-positive initiatives try to educate the populace and break the status quo, and are doing really well but the government’s disposition is homophobic. If your family is religious or traditional, they probably wouldn’t go as far as disowning you, but will probably pressure and guilt-trip you. LGBT+ youth generally plan to move somewhere else or just not settle. All of this is Almaty situation tho. Being LGBT in rural area is much more dangerous.

THE BEST PART: VOCABULARY

Ok this is what I find to be the easiest way to explain Kazakh to English speakers: think Turkish but written in cyrillic, with words borrowed from Arabic and Russian.

Endearments:

zhanym, жаным: my soul. Zhanym is everything to a Kazakh. You can use it for your family, friends, SO, I called my laptop zhanym today. It can be flirty, it can be serious. If you need Otabek to be affectionate with someone, use zhanym.

ainalaiyn, айналайын: really hard to translate but something like my precious?? Usually used towards small kids, but also if a Kazakh finds something really cute.

altynym, my golden baby. I love this one for obvious reasons, lol, hi, Otabek.

Mahabbatym, махаббатым, my love +

Suiktim, сүйіктім. my love, my dear. Kinda old fashioned but really romantic. I can see Otabek using this, but he will be teased and called an old sap if he does.

Kazakh have a lot more endearments, but most of them are for children.

Basic interaction and exclamations:

Iya. Ия. Yes.

Zhok. Жоқ. No

Rakhmet. Рахмет. Thank you.

Keshir. Кешір. Sorry.

Salem, Сәл��м. Hello. A familiar greeting.

Sau bol, Сау бол. Literally “Be well” but actually means goodbye. Pretty familiar too.

O Kudai, О Құдай/O Allah, О Алла! Oh my god, obviously. Used in all kinds of different situations.

Oibai, Ойбай! How does one explain oibai. When a friend jump scares you, when you receive bad news, when you check your bank account –– oibai!

Abai bol, Абай бол. Be careful, is what your mom tells you when you go out.

Expletives and Swear Words. Yeeaaah the juicy stuff.

Zhyndy, Жынды. Crazy. If someone is being stupid or inappropriate, you call them zhyndy. When you tell a dumb joke at the familty table, mom smacks you upside the head and hisses “Ooooi, zhyndy!” When Jean-Jaques is acting a fool and makes out with his reflection, Otabek rolls his eyes and mutters “Zhyndy”.

Akymak. Ақымақ. Idiot. When someone is just dumb and not worth your time.

Ittin balasy. Иттің баласы. Child of a dog. It can be as harmless as “you pup” and as offensive as “son of a bitch” depending on the situation.

Kotindy kys. Көтіңді қыс. Squeeze you ass. God I love this one. When someone being an obnoxious wannabe, tell them they should squeeze their ass and check themselves.

Jean-Jaques: I am gonna be the King of the Grand Prix!

Otabek: Kotindy kys.

Shygasyn ba?! Шығасың ба?! You wanna go bro?! Ohh, someone is gonna catch these Kazakh fists.

Sigil. Сігіл. Basically go fuck yourself.

Sheshen ahmy/Sheshen sigem. Шешең амы/Шешең сігем. Your mother’s c*nt/Imma fuck your mother. REALLY FUCKING OFFENSIVE. Say this to a Kazakh if you have a death wish.

——————————————————————————————-

AND THEEEEEEERE YOU GO.

Again, this is just the basics. Do more research and talk to as many Kazakhs and Kazakhstani people as you can. We are a different but usually an interesting bunch. Thanks for your attention, Sawyer out!

#yoimeta #solosvejs #answered #Otabek Altin #yoi meta

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