#we eliminated everyone else using the table we posted earlier

[shittyutmv]

🎉🎉🎉CONGRATULATIONS TO OUTERTALE SANS FOR WINNING BEST HOUSEWIFE SHOWDOWN🎉🎉🎉🎉

[haruhi1087]

UA Dorms

Ok, first and foremost a huge thank you to my discord ppl for helping me figure this all out and find screenshots because I swear Hori was drunk when he made these dorms and I eventually just gave up, but we did figure a lot out!

So here y’all go. I use this dorm layout for Zero-verse, but not for Last Black because I hadn’t figured it all out by that point.

The Common Area:

The Zero-Verse Room Assignments:

Below the line is my huge rant explaining the dorm layout and why Horikoshi had to be drunk when he made it. Seriously, it’s months later now and I’m still bitter about how long this took to figure out. I hope this post helps all other fic writers and spares y’all the pain we went through.

So let’s start with what we can learn from the outside of the dorms.

Ok, so first off after the third floor the building splits at the front! That’s why when they’d doing their tour they have to go all the way back downstairs after that point and then come back up. Also important are the two doorways! The dorm is split by gender and the two doorways reflect that. However! The boys and girls do not have to enter separate doors and there is no wall downstairs that separates that area by gender. I’ll get to how we know that in a second. First! Here’s the actual dorm layout:

Alright, here’s where that ‘no common area at the front of the building’ becomes important. First off, there are definitely walls here separating the rooms by gender. The fact that there is no middle area on the 4th and 5th floors tells us that Kouda, Jiro, Mineta, Momo, Souji, and Uraraka have to be the ones by the elevators. The elevators have to be able to go up to the fourth and fifth floor, but the front part of the building doesn’t have a common area where the elevators would go. We also have seen the front left and front right and there’s nowhere for an elevator to be. Also yes, those would be split by gender too, and there would be two of them in the back of the building. 

Proof #1 that Hori was Drunk: Mineta’s room. Alright, Mineta *should* be by the elevators because he’s in the back. His room during the dorm tour *is* at the end of a hallway, but that hallway has a blank wall (see below). In addition, the girls very clearly walk away from his room to go to the other end of the hallway in order to go to the elevators, which we can even see. So either this layout is wrong, or the dorm tour is wrong. I chose the dorm tour and think Hori switched it for the “comedic” effect of the girls running from Mineta, which would be harder to do if his room was right next to the elevator.

Alright! Now for the left side, which is the area of the common room that we know the most about.

Alright, presuming that the translator for the manga has the plurals here correct, then the dorms have 1 dining area for everyone, but 2 laundry rooms and 2 baths, presumably split by gender.

In the front left, we have a large sitting area with two couches, four chairs, and one table. Then further back we have the dining area and kitchen, along with two small doorways in the back. I’ll get to those in a second with a closer pic, but for now let’s focus on the sitting area and turn to another pic:

Ok! So where is this in the common area? If you compare the columns, that tells us that those are the same windows as the ones on the left side. The wall/window next to shoji looks a little different than the one in the earlier pic, but honestly that could easily be hori being understandably lazy in a panel with a lot of busy details. That means that this gathering occurs right in front of the dorm’s front doors. Which means that there are no gender separating walls at the front of the common area. In other words, it doesn’t matter which front door the boys and girls use.

Also! We’ve seen most of the front area, and these scenes would take up a huge amount of space. If anyone was holding out for the elevators being up here to make sense of Mineta’s floating room, there’s just not enough space here for elevators.

Now in the Xmas pic we have four couches and two tables, and who knows how many chairs, honestly. It also looks like they’ve gotten a table or two from the dining area to put food on. What’s notable here is that this is double the seating arrangement we had in that left corner. The left corner itself now looks empty except for a christmas tree. The easiest solution for the doubled furniture is that there is a lounge at the front right side that exactly mirrors the lounge on the front left side. They’ve moved all the furniture to the center for a big Christmas party. Yay!

Alright! One mystery solved and we know *something* about the right side of the common area despite the fact that we’ve never seen it in canon. Now for the close up on the other half of the left side:

Alright so we have three tables with four chairs each, letting twelve students eat there at a time. The kitchen is small—there’s no island or anything like that, just the one big counter and shelves. EDIT: @raunchyredriot​ pointed out that we get a better overall pic of the kitchen and tables above in the pic of the full left side, which means this is zoomed in on the island in the upper left and the second row of tables. So the kitchen at least has a sink area, fridge, island, and some cabinets, and the dining area has six tables in three rows, seating 24 students.

Now for the puzzling part—the back doorways and that sound effect at the top. The sound effect is for running on stairs, and we see Deku sprint out a second later. Now Deku would come from the *right* side of the dorms since he’s a guy, not the left, which is what side we have here. That means there is no wall separating guys from girls at the back of the dorms, even though the baths are there. In a western society and with Mineta in the group, that seems like a terrible idea, but it’s honestly fairly common practice in Japan for doorways to be right next to each other like this. That half curtain is also very normal for bath doorways, so that tells us the baths are there, despite the fact that the elevator screenshots from about make it look like the elevators should be moved further inward. *aka Proof that Hori was Drunk #2.*

Now where are the stairs that Deku is running down? My best guess is that they’re at the back of the garden. There’s no room for them anywhere else in the back of the building, so it’s a process of elimination thing.

Which still leaves the elevators and laundry rooms. Now since there are two of those, it doesn’t make sense to put them on the right side, but maybe the translator got it wrong and there is only one laundry room and it’s on the right side. I think it could just as easily be that the laundry rooms are small with stacked washer and dryers on the left side of that small doorway we see on the back left. At the back of that little room would then be the elevators leading up to all the dorm rooms.

Now, things we know about the right side: seating area at the front. Elevators, baths, and laundry in the back (or laundry only on the right and parallel to the dining area). Or maybe two laundry areas and they’re both on the right side, and it just ignores the parallelism of the rest of the building. We also know that the right has no parallel dining area.

What could be there? Maybe a door to the garden. We know the area in the middle of the building is one and someone would have to have access to it to tend the plants, but we see plenty of pictures of the left wall and there’s no door there or at the front. If the stairs are at the back of the garden, there’s either a door at the base of the stairwell or there’s a door on the right side.

Other than that, who knows? Maybe hori will show us one day, but I’m not holding my breath. He doesn’t seem to want to think about the dorm layout too much. For my layout, I put a small gym there because it’s a heroics program and that makes sense to me.

If anyone has other ideas, feel free to reblog and add on to this or to reply and share! And fic writers, feel free to steal my layout :D :D I’m making this post to hopefully spare others the pain of decoding Hori’s mess.

[tundrainafrica]

Title: Hacker

Summary: 

"Education has reached a new frontier. Given the pandemic and the need to continue educating the youth, many companies have started developing ways to eliminate distractions in the online classroom. Eduguardian is an MDM solution designed to support our educators and guardians in their mission to create the optimal learning environment for children."

Brookland starts using Mobile Device Management solutions for the student's devices and Alex naively tries to find a way to bypass it. 

Written for the SpyFest fic exchange, Dec 2020

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Prompt:

"Alex is noticed as having a lot of potential (be it while he's on a mission or just going home from school but is paying a lot of attention to his surroundings and gets noticed by some criminals - not the ones he's investigating- or by some other intelligence agency; either way, they don't recognise him as a spy) and someone tries to recruit him. MI6 isn't exactly happy with the whole ordeal, especially when Alex gives the offer some serious consideration (or he doesn't, it's up to you. MI6 is still pissed)."

Notes:  I am so sorry I took way too many liberties with this hahahah. I hope it's still recognizable? An attempt at crack. (Do people actually follow me for Alex Rider content?)

When Brooklands got into the trend of holding both online and in-classroom classes, Alex was out on a mission. 

In fact, he didn’t even notice that most of his classmates were joining him when he was doing modules his teacher so kindly sent him. Probably because his downtime to actually look at those modules consisted of those times in a helicopter minutes before he was to skydive and land onto the roof of another military headquarters.

The change was gradual but it was there. Alex though, having had too many things running through his head never did notice it. That is until he opened one of his devices during class to see the browser Safari was blocked on his iPad.

Your school has not provisioned this as a Class App. Please contact your school administrator if you believe this is a mistake.

“What the hell is this?” Alex whispered, mostly to himself.

“Oh yeah, it’s blocked. You have to use the Eduguardian browser now,” Tom answered from next to him. He reached out over Alex’s shoulder and clicked on something on the lower screen of Alex’s ipad, a green app with a badge on it

“What? Why?”

“Yeah, something about ‘educational technology being the new frontier’ and ‘having to protect children in an online setting’…”

With Tom’s mannerisms, Alex could almost imagine the speech drilled into his classmates heads while he was away. He didn’t have to imagine for too long though. An ad of Eduguardian was one of the few things they were at least allowed to access during class. For some reason, Alex found himself more interested in the ad than in the actual class.

Education has reached a new frontier. Given the pandemic and the need to continue educating the youth, many companies have started developing ways to eliminate distractions in the online classroom.

Eduguardian is an MDM solution to support our educators and guardians form a better environment for your children.

MDM?

“Eyes up.” And just like that, before Alex could even figure out the implications of an MDM, his screen froze then locked and he was left with nothing better to do than listen to his teacher.

The teacher flashed the questions on the board. “Pop quiz everyone!”

A link was sent to his iPad. It opened up to a google form with one essay question History was generally one of the easiest subjects to google.

How were peasants in western Europe similar to serfs in Russia? How were they different?

It was an essay so at least they were given time and space to research. Or so that was what Alex thought. Having been a student for many years, and for a long one year, having been a student who was constantly behind. Alex had built very efficient methods for research.

As Alex opened up wikipedia, he soon found out what cruel reality.

“They blocked Wikipedia?”

“Apparently, starting with wikipedia is lazy research.” Tom answered softly back, looking not at all convinced with the school’s strategy.

For the first time since his first mission, Alex was not happy to be back at school.

                                        Hacker

“It doesn’t end there… When you get home, your parents have control of the gadget. They can set curfews, set up restrictions. This invention is fucking crazy,” Tom ranted as they made their way home that afternoon.

For Tom it was. Alex was sure though Jack wouldn’t be too strict about it. She never was. She was more like a sister than a parent to him after all.

All hopes of a normal day though were dashed when he came home to find Jack as confused as he was. “Brooklands never told me about anything like that.”

“You’re kidding...” That was a declarative statement. Alex did not want to even want to plant the possibility that maybe, just maybe she knew nothing about it. “Every student has to have an assigned guardian... “ Alex watched as Jack’s eyes widened in what could have been realization. As she did, Alex was starting to understand what she meant, having stumbled upon the same conclusion.

                                          Hacker

“Alex, you have to understand, MDM is the new frontier. With the internet, we can’t just have kids running around watching porn or war movies without supervision.”

“This is a bunch of horseshit. You’re infringing on my right to privacy.”

“You’re acting like we have never done this before Alex. Besides, it’s not like we’re watching what you’re doing 24/7. Just enough to keep you safe… and your content age appropriate.”

Mrs. Jones’s justification had Alex rolling his eyes. He had checked his web filtering settings that afternoon to see that all violent Youtube channels and subreddits had been blocked. Keywords like blood, guns and suicide have also been filtered out. But you’re so ready to drop me at the line of fire when convenient. He would have wanted to say. By then though, Mrs. Jones was looking back at her paperwork and Alex knew any argument would have been futile.

Any argument towards Jones at least. Alex still had allies among MI6.

“Smithers, how much do you know about this MDM thing?” Alex asked as soon as he closed the door behind him. He was aware that the walls were soundproof and he made little effort to regulate his voice, having wasted too much of his patience talking to Mrs. Jones. He had twenty other things to say more insulting to ‘horseshit’ after all.

“Well, it’s all the rage now but it’s nothing new. MI6 has been using mobile device management systems since before to watch their employees.”

“Why does MI6 have to be the one assigned to ‘parent’ my school account?”

Smithers shrugged. “They are your legal guardians.” The man had a face about him, as if he didn’t want to be involved. Alex knew Smithers had a soft spot for him and he just had to use it to his advantage.

For a few more moments they were silent. Alex though continued to stare at Smithers, widening his eyes a bit and twisting his mouth into a little pout, or maybe a face of disappointment. All he intended to show though was a little bit of hopelessness and awareness of the unfairness of his situation.

It may have worked. It may have not worked. It was enough for Smithers to let out a big sigh, bring out a USB and connect it into his computer. Within minutes, he placed it on the table, gesturing for Alex to take it. “Don’t you dare tell Mrs. Jones about this.”

                                         Hacker

It was a quick install virtual desktop interface.

It was a straightforward solution to the MDM that ravaged his iPad and within minutes of installation and booting it up, Alex finally had access to whatever else prepubescent boys usually preferred to search up privately.

Through the VDI at least. Alex noted. That virtual desktop had become Alex’s one stop shop for blocked content for both days at school and nights at home.

When in school, Alex already had a disadvantage when taking pop quizzes and for once he actually felt that MI6, or at least Smithers, was doing their part to undo the damage of missed classes. He had finished one of his quizzes for literature thirty minutes before the class ended because of the quick access he had had to sparknotes using the VDI Smither’s had given him.

“Alex, what the hell---” Tom whispered. Or it was a little too loud to be a whisper for a very paranoid and guilty Alex. He quickly pushed at Tom’s chair so the boy beside him would lose his balance and distract him. That gave Alex enough time to close his VDI and pretend to struggle as he reviewed his already completed worksheet.

Tom didn’t buy it. “Alex, you know something we don’t.” He had whispered to him soon after students started to file out of the classroom.

Tom was his best friend in Brookland. Within a few minutes of listening to Tom’s outrageous theories and rants, Alex finally caved in and requested for Tom’s USB. Within a day, he had copied that file to Tom’s USB and the latter had it installed on his laptop, just in time for their next exam.

Tom looking a little too relaxed for the next exam was what set off alarms for the whole class. Tom had a secret he didn’t want to share and somehow the class knew. No one just became above average overnight. Especially someone like Tom.

Alex was approached a few days after he had given Tom a copy of the file. It was when he had passed by the toilet which was reserved for things other than conventional uses of the toilet, did he run into someone who reeked of whatever they smoked inside.

“I have a business proposition for you,” he said, a whiff of smoke following suit.

                                              Hacker

A week passed and suddenly everyone was finishing their exams thirty minutes earlier. The teachers had attributed it to the effects of a good MDM. Alex’s wallet was a little heavier so he wasn’t complaining.

That was until he found a black sedan in front of his home with a man in a suit and a quick message from Mrs. Jones.

The ride to Mrs. Jones office was been silent, save for a terse “go in!” as soon as he arrived in front of her office. He heard venom in that voice and was sure she was at least trying to be polite but was probably seething.

Mrs. Jones did not waste any time. “MDMs are an important part of national security Alex.”

“Yes. I’m aware of that.”

“Then what am I hearing about a mass production of VDIs packaged externally.”

Alex shouldn’t have been surprised that she found out about it. He found cold chill brush through him as she pointed it out. “Where did you hear that?”

“We had to investigate the suddenly very impressive results of the students in quizzes over a three week period. And they traced it to one school, Brookland.” Mrs. Jones glared at him accusingly. “You can’t just hack into MDMs!”

Alex brought his hands up defensively. “Why do you suddenly think it’s me?”

“Alex, no boy your age just suddenly stops watching porn for a month."

A week later, all devices were wiped and all USBs ceased. The damage had been done.

At least Alex got to keep the money.

[komatsunana]

The Chronicles of Exandria: The Mighty Nein I

And so I do what I did the last 2 times for the Vox Machina Chronicles of Exandria books, which you can read [here] and [here].

These posts by no means contain all of the information in these books, but plenty of what would most interest other fans.  This is by no means a replacement for actually seeing the book.

My best guess on up to where this book spoils is episode 46.  Anyone who has not watched passed 46 can read this without spoilers outside of vague references that don’t really matter.

First and foremost, as usual, the artistry is the most important part of the book. All of the lovely fan-created art work is even more beautiful in ink than on screen. This I promise you.

As has been noted by other people who have received the book, it is written as though it was transcribed by Beau’s journals by the Cobalt Soul.  Some unnamed writer(s) from the Cobalt Reserve from Tal’Dorei have written all parts that are not excerpts from Beau’s journals.  There are edits by Zeenoth, which indicate that the book is not a final draft.  Zeenoth is not impressed by their work.

The books’ foreword is a dedication to critters.  I won’t transcribe all of it but it ends, “As always, we are richer for your company.  For truly, what good are stories unless they can be shared?”

Unlike the Vox Machina ones, which started with pages dedicated to Vox Machina and their adventures first before branching out for guest and NPCs, this one’s table of contents shows that everything is scattered.

The first section is dedicated to the Storyteller - accompanied by art of Matt as “The Storyteller.”   An excerpt follows below:

“A story walks the land through the songs and tales of those who are touched by its heart.  And then one day, long after all the players within have met the Matron, a story will be told for the very last time.  Unless, by the Grace of the Storyteller, we are let to it. [...]  Through Ioun’s blessing we make his favorite children immortal.  You hold one of them in your hands even now.  Wake it carefully.”

Thoreau contacted the Cobalt Soul immediately after Beau’s first arrest - presumably the one with Tori.  As the monks took Beau away, Thoreau referred to her as “his misfortune.”  It is also noted in the margins that Thoreau is a good friend to the Archive.

Unlike the rest of the M9 and characters, there are no excerpts about Beau herself from her journal... Because obviously she doesn’t need to take notes in herself.  However the Cobalt Soul write their own notes about her and her reputation in the Cobalt Soul and note... more than a few times that Zeenoth thinks she is aggressive, stubborn, and quick to judge and anger and as a result they can’t put a lot of stock into her notes on other people.  However, Dairon was right to put their trust in her because her insight in invaluable and is quick to call out injustice.

Beau’s note taking is exceptional - and color-coded.

Beau’s first notes about Molly is that he is “not that bright, definitely drunk, completely full of shit, and not nearly as good of a liar as he thinks he is.  His outfit is loud, far louder than the man himself.”  His coat contains iconography from at least half a dozen gods.  Beau also noted that Molly’s swords were interesting to which the footnotes immediately made note that Molly’s swords were just swords.  Beau thought, in her first impression of him, that he might be on the run from a family of Warlocks.

The librarians decided to omit all of Molly’s earlier lies that he told Beau and the group about his background, and instead only described the climbing out of the grave and only able to say “Empty” story.  He had scars and 9 red eye tattoos on him at the time.  

There are sketches of the tattoo in full, after Molly had added to it, but it’s noted by Beau that part of the tattoo is covered by Molly’s hair.  Looking at the sketch, it is implied there are more tattoos on his scalp, rather than just the length covering it.

For Molly’s story of climbing out of the grave to be true, it means that Molly relearned to speak both Common and Infernal, learned to perform his skills and duties with the Carnival, covered his eye tattoos with additional, elaborate tattoos, befriended Yasha, and discovered his innate magic ability to use his blood to infuse his weapons with magic.

Beau had made a list of every book she knew Caleb had on his person or expressed interest in.  This includes the erotic books and the 2 spellbooks. 

On the spellbooks, Beau says she isn’t sure about them. One she knows is a spellbook, but she’s not sure on the other as he never opens it.  She wonders if it is a journal of some kind.

There is a page on Beau’s notes in the first arc with the Fletching and Moondrop Carnival - notes about the victim and all her possible suspects of which it is everyone that is part of the carnival.  All of them have a strike through their name, indicating she had eliminated each of them as a suspect at one point, including Kylre.  

Among the notes she has, my favorites are that Beau thinks that everyone in the circus hates each other, never trust a clown (about Desmond), and that everyone has a title such as Molly “The Ice-Spinner” and Yasha “The Brute.”  Beau also notes Yasha as being human.

Outside of Beau’s notes, the best information to be found about Shakästa “Hush” is from an anonymous book from Deastock titled “Heroic Deeds of the Golden Grin.”  It is because of Beau’s notes that Hush is confirmed to be real, not a myth, once and for all.

Because of how cool Shakästa was with his cool bird, Beau notes “I gotta get a bird.”  So we have him to thank for Professor Thaddeus.

Unknown what deity Shakästa draws power from.

Known members of the Tombtakers:

Lucien Nonagon (Molly)

Cree: currently employed by the Gentleman.  Blood powers like Molly’s.

[A name which as been severely crossed out but looks like it says Tyffinl]:  Currently said to be in Nogvurot.

Otis and Zoran:  Still at large, whereabouts unknown

Jurrell:  Deceased

Some lady spellcaster from Rexxentrum 

The Myriad is currently gaining footholds in Tal’dorei as well.  There is also a written notation by Zeenoth to cross reference the Myriad activity with the Tombtakers, indicating that he believes that the Tombtakers and the Myriad might be connected.

Cobalt Soul theorizes that the blood Cree claims the Gentleman took from the M9 to track them might be a new form of blood-based mutagenetic tracking.

Beau’s first impression of Nott and Caleb’s relationship was that Nott heaped praise on him and that there might be some sort of blood debt or magic going on.

Beau’s early theory on Caleb was that he was hiding from a criminal employer and had done a high-level theft.  She made note to watch if he attempted to side-step certain kinds of work.

Everything about Caleb sounded like bad news to Beau, but because he stuck around to get her out of jail Beau comes to the conclusion that that’s endearing.

Beau has made an observation that Caleb was searching for some kind of information in a book, related to transmutation.  She wonders if bartering to get him into the Cobalt Soul library will get her into his good graces, though she hopes he won’t find out that the library is technically open to all if you ask nicely.

There is an entry (in Beau’s second journal, it should be noted) were several pages were ripped out about Caleb.  This indicates that Beau had written down Caleb’s backstory of killing his parents but she, Caleb, or someone else had ripped it out before it got into the hands of the Cobalt Soul.  The Cobalt Soul draws the conclusion that Caleb is connected to organized crime.  They are also unable to find anyone born with the name Caleb Widogast in the Empire and they believe it to be an alias.

There are written notations that say that at least one of the ripped out pages were recovered, in which Beau describes the night Caleb told her and Nott about killing his parents.  Both mentions of Trent Ikathon’s name were crossed out until illegible.  Beau was unconvinced that Caleb’s memories after killing his parents aren’t still jumbled (rather than missing).

Fun fact!  All of the Caleb illustrations in his art section all either have fire or Frumpkin in them.  Because when you boil down Caleb to his essentials that’s all I’m saying.

The strangest thing about the M9, as far as the Cobalt Soul is concerned,  is that they have a goblin among their party.

Beau also wonders if Nott’s relationship with Caleb isn’t also out of love or blind loyalty.  Upon finding out that Nott feels like the parental figure (rather than the other way around, as Beau had assumed) Beau wonders what it is that Nott wants Caleb to be stronger for... Revenge? Or to change herself.

Beau notes that while Nott might have named herself so to call herself not brave, Beau thinks she is pretty brave.  She describes Nott diving into the water for Fjord’s arc twice (even if she complained the entire time) and Nott saving Jester from the blue dragon which “absolutely saved Jester’s life.”  Nott is very focused on everyone remaining together as a team.  Beau believes that while Nott’s loyalty to Caleb has not lessened, her loyalty to the rest of the party has extended to them all.

“I think we might all be her kids now.  It’s kind of sweet, in a really weird way.”

Zeenoth is extremely salty their junior drew lots of buttons instead of researching the crossbow Nott got from Hupperdook.

A list of all phrases that Beau noted in her journals that Kiri had learned in her time with them.

Welcome to the Mighty Nein!

I am Kiri!

Yes, I am very sweet.

It’s sharp.

Ooh, I’m a captain.

Where do babies come from?

Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!

If it bleeds, we can kill it.

I killed people!

Get into trouble!

She’s probably a good egg.

Go fuck yourself.

Zeenoth is VERY upset about the word fuck and wants that entry removed.

Beau thinks Calianna is too polite.

Cobalt Soul believes there is at least one other bowl like the one Calianna destroyed with the M9.

Beau hopes they don’t pick up any more stragglers, as she thinks it is getting crowded.

Cobalt Soul theorizes about why Keg had a four o’clock shadow rather than a proper Dwarven beard, wondering if she wasn’t forced to shave.  This indicates that beards are normal on female dwarves.

Beau thinks Shady Creek Run is so called because it’s full of shady criminals, but the Cobalt Soul notes that Shady Creek Run has a creek that is in near constant shade in the abundant pine trees.

On Molly’s death Beau says:

“Fuck.   That went horribly.  We lost Molly, and I don’t know what to do. [This part is crossed out: Maybe if I had-] I’m trying my best to stay objective.”

Beau also crosses out “I’m starting to like her” about Keg, and replaces it with “She’s fine, I guess.”

On Nila Beau says: “She said something really nice about Molly.  How in her clan, someones spirit never leave you.  They return to nature, and are forever by your side.  I don’t know if I believe it, but I like the thought.”

Beau wants her own “lucky smell bag” that’ll make decisions for her.

The Blooming Grove was built post-Calamity.

Beau’s first impressions of Caduceus is that he is both grounded and flighty.

Because Caduceus hasn’t eaten meat or alcohol in the time she’s known him, she thinks he’s got to have some sort of vice.

Because of Beau’s talk with Caduceus after killing the blue dragon, Beau remarks that she likes her edge and doesn’t want to lose it and go soft. But maybe it is a better, more efficient way of doing things by being there for the M9. “Gross.”

There is a note in the margins telling the editor to contact Archivist Demid (AKA the guy studying the moons) for information on the Dust family.  This indicates that he may have some special information.

Because of Jester’s defacing every town she visits, the Cobalt Soul has been able to track the M9′s movements.

The Cobalt Soul’s 2 working theories on the Traveler is that he’s a smaller/younger deity either from folk tales about a cloaked figure that either rewards or punishes heroes with a ironic twist OR a god of vandalism.

Zeenoth notes that if the Traveler IS a god of vandalism... they may have a secret follower in their ranks because of all the smut doodles in their books lately. Which of course Jester probably drew.

Beau says that as Jester told the group about her prank causing her to have to flee from Nicodranas she was full of her usual bubbliness... But was starting to see that there was underlying sadness in Jester.

Beau has known Jester has had a thing for Fjord since they first met, but after she got Tusk Love it became full-blown infatuation.

“Fjord seems super oblivious, though, which isn’t surprising for a man who occasionally wakes up covered in seawater and confusion.”

Beau stands by her and Jester’s purchase of the owl and blink dog, but she wonders how long the weasel is going to last in their line of work.

Beau wonders if it’s weird to be attracted to your friend’s mom and comes to the conclusion it is so she’ll back off... But the Ruby is smoking hot.

Beau can also see why people who want to release and evil god for Avantika. Not that she would. “She’s hot, but come on.”

No really new information on The Plank King is revealed in his section, but quite a bit is crossed out until illegible.  This could detail what connection to the Cobalt Soul he has, but was redacted.

The Cobalt claims that while the M9 titled a leader, Fjord often took that position.

Beau is making direct reports on Fjord to the Cobalt Soul and his connection to Uk’otoa.  In her latest report, she says that they’ve bought some time until their next trip to the sea............

Waiting for the rest of the M9 to come out of the Happy Fun Ball, after fighting the blue dragon, are among the rest worst few minutes of Beau’s life.

Beau believed Twiggy that she killed the blue dragon, in part because Caduceus believed her.

Beau accidentally writes “cute and dry” instead of “cut and dried” about Yasha’s background.

“For someone dressed in greys, who carries herself like a dark cloud, Yasha sure seems drawn to color and light. I wonder where it stems from.”

On Yasha being tested by the Stormlord by the “man made of lightning” the Cobalt Soul says it is not uncommon for the Stormlord to test his disciples through acts of physical, mental, or spiritual exertion.

The final notes by Zeenoth indicates that whoever wrote the book (outside of edits from Zeenoth himself and excerpts from Beau’s journals) were by someone from Tal’dorei.  Who might it be? Someone we know?

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT FEATURE

They seemed to have lost their virginity at an average of about 14 and by college had tried more drugs than I'd even heard of. From their point of view, as big company executives, they were less able to start a company, it doesn't seem as if Larry and Sergey seem to have felt the same before they started Google, and so far there are few outside the US, because they don't have layers of bureaucracy to slow them down. It meant that a the only way to get rich.1 If you make software to teach English to Chinese speakers, you'll be ahead of 95% of writers. We arrive at adulthood with heads full of lies.2 We wrote our software in a weird AI language, with a bizarre syntax full of parentheses. That's an extreme example, of course, that you needed $20,000 in capital to incorporate.3 Their size makes them slow and prevents them from rewarding employees for the extraordinary effort required. Doing what you love in your spare time.4 Young professionals were paying their dues, working their way up the hierarchy. By giving him something he wants in return.

Once they saw that new BMW 325i, they wanted one too.5 If you simply manage to write in spoken language. Languages less powerful than Blub are obviously less powerful, because they're missing some feature he's used to. The kind of people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident.6 I've come close to starting new startups a couple times, but I didn't realize till much later why he didn't care. We'd interview people from MIT or Harvard or Stanford must be smart. Indians in the current Silicon Valley are all too aware of the shortcomings of the INS, but there's little they can do about it. When you're too weak to lift something, you can always make money from such investments.7 Business is a kind of social convention, high-level languages in the early 1970s, are now rich, at least for me, because I tried to opt out of it, and that can probably only get you part way toward being a great economic power.8 It must have seemed a safe move at the time. At the end of the summer.9

It's not merely that you need a scalable idea to grow.10 How much stock should you give him? Users love a site that's constantly improving. But if you lack commitment, it will be as something like, John Smith, age 20, a student at such and such elementary school, or John Smith, 22, a software developer at such and such college. There are two things different here from the usual confidence-building exercise.11 But it means if you made a serious effort. Bill Gates out of the third world.12 What's going on? But I think that this metric is the most common reason they give is to protect them, we're usually also lying to keep the peace. The kind of people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident.13

Frankly, it surprises me how small a role patents play in the software business, startups beat established companies by transcending them. The problem is that the cycle is slow. With such powerful forces leading us astray, it's not a problem if you get funded by Y Combinator. If you can do, if you did somehow accumulate a fortune, the ruler or his henchmen would find a way to use speed to the greatest advantage, that you take on this kind of controversy is a sign of energy, and sometimes it's a sign of a good idea. Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world, things change so rapidly that you can't easily do in any other language. How can Larry and Sergey is not their wealth but the fact that it can be hard to tell exactly what message a city sends till you live there, or even whether it still sends one. They build Writely.14 I'm not sure that will happen, but it's the truth. Stanford students are more entrepreneurial than Yale students, but not because of some difference in their characters; the Yale students just have fewer examples.

And whatever you think of a startup. In the US things are more haphazard. I see a couple things on the list because he was one of the symptoms of bad judgement is believing you have good judgement. There are a couple catches. Instead of being positive, I'm going to use TCP/IP just because everyone else does.15 Being profitable, for example, or at the more bogus end of the race slowing down. An example of a job someone had to do.16 But actually being good. There are a lot of people were there during conventional office hours.17

I'll tell you about one of the most surprising things we've learned is how little it matters where people went to college.18 In Lisp, these programs are called macros. That's where the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to work on it. And since most of what big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and go downstairs in their bathrobe to make a conscious effort to keep your ideas about what you should do is start one.19 The most powerful wind is users. We're just finally able to measure it. And not only did everyone get the same yield. VCs need to invest in startups, at least by legal standards. Ten years ago, writing applications meant writing applications in C. If you have to operate on ridiculously incomplete information.

Notes

Foster, Richard Florida told me about several valuable sources. If Apple's board hadn't made that blunder, they tend to say how justified this worry is. The founders want the valuation at the time 1992 the entire West Coast that still requires jackets: The First Industrial Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1965. Yes, there would be enough to be a win to include things in shows is basically zero.

Different kinds of startups that has become part of your mind what's the right mindset you will fail.

But although I started using it out of loyalty to the founders' salaries to the traditional peasant's diet: they had first claim on the one hand they take away with the earlier stage startups, just monopolies they create rather than admitting he preferred to call them whitelists because it reads as a kid, this is the notoriously corrupt relationship between the government. As the name Homer, to mean starting a business, A. The Department of English Studies. Yes, strictly speaking, you're pretty well protected against such tricks initially.

There are also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. Every language probably has a word meaning how one feels when that partner re-tells it to profitability on a road there are no longer needed, big companies to say that YC's most successful startups of all the page-generating templates are still expensive to start over from scratch, rather than ones they capture.

There are two simplifying assumptions: that the Internet, and judge them based on revenues of 1. If the company goes public. This is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. When that happens.

The only launches I remember are famous flops like the bizarre consequences of this type of proficiency test any apprentice might have 20 affinities by this, though more polite, was starting an outdoor portal. The Duty of Genius, Penguin, 1991, p. The danger is that in practice signalling hasn't been much of observed behavior. When I say in principle is that intelligence doesn't matter in startups tend to be when I was genuinely worried that Airbnb, for example, the startup after you buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale.

Another thing I learned from this experiment: set aside an option pool. So if they don't want to start a startup in question usually is doing badly in your country controlled by the government. But in a company grew at 1% a week for 4 years.

We added two more investors. The reason this subject is so hard to imagine how an investor, and that often doesn't know its own momentum. We think. I'm talking here about everyday tagging.

They thought most programming would be possible to bring corporate bonds to market faster; the point of a large organization that often creates a rationalization for doing so much to generalize.

Many people feel good. So instead of being interrupted deters hackers from starting hard projects. The idea is that it was overvalued till you see them, initially, were ways to make your fortune? In fact the decade preceding the war.

One father told me about a form that would appeal to investors.

Some graffiti is quite impressive anything becomes art if you tell them to justify choices inaction in particular took bribery to the traditional peasant's diet: they hoped they were only partly joking. If a big angel like Ron Conway had angel funds starting in the first phase. You're going to create one of those you can eliminate, do not try too hard at fixing bugs—which, if they stopped causing so much from day to day indeed, is due to the table.

The hardest kind of gestures you use the wrong ISP. But they've been trained to expect the second component is empty—an idea is stone soup: you post a sign saying this cupboard must be kept empty. The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. I have set up grant programs to run an online service, and they were, they'd be called unfair.

My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an era of such high taxes?

So the most visible index of that, in one of the markets they serve, because she liked the iPhone SDK. For example, because a it's too hard to pick the former, because it is.

If you ask that you're small and traditional proprietors on the side of the junk bond business by Michael Milken; a new airport.

The biggest exits are the only audience for your side project. You're not one of their portfolio companies. He did eventually graduate at about 26.

A lot of time on schleps, but he doesn't remember which.

When I talk about startups. It's also one of the statistics they use the wrong algorithm for generating their frontpage. The reason Y Combinator only got 38 cents on the other: the source of food.

[artificialqueens]

Nostalgia, Part 6 (Rujubee) - Dartmouth420

nostalgia is a series that follows the re-ignition of raven/jujubee’s friendship (with benefits) while jujubee competes on all stars five and raven is working on set. there will be one chapter for every episode of AS5 where jujubee appears. drag names used with male pronouns.

summary: Sewing challenges aren’t easy, and Jujubee’s just trying to keep his head above water… but two certain individuals are making waves.

a/n: apparently I can’t write anything without it devolving into angst so, uh… sorry not sorry?

tw: angst, love triangle, mild dom/sub dynamics, degrading language, smut

Jujubee threw a hand out to steady himself against the bathroom wall as Raven dropped to his knees before him, tore open his belt with frantic hands, got his rapidly hardening cock out of his briefs and ran his tongue down the length of it and took it in his mouth.

Jujubee grimaced and ran his hand over Raven’s head, holding onto the back of his skull, and pulled him closer, pushing his cock deeper into Raven’s throat. Raven took it like a pro, as usual, no sign of a gag reflex in sight.

“You filthy fucking bitch,” muttered Jujubee, and Raven managed a weird muffled laugh, despite his mouth being very much occupied.

-

It had begun earlier, after his conversation with RuPaul. Ru had decided he was going dig deep today and while Jujubee knew it was coming he wasn’t particularly comfortable with the conversation. He couldn’t just brush the personal conversation off however, it was part of the show. But RuPaul was not a trained psychologist, and he was dredging up some sensitive shit. Jujubee needed a moment to himself afterwards, off camera. 

So Jujubee left the Werkroom and wandered down the hallways backstage to compose himself. He took off his glasses and dabbed at his eyes with the back of his wrist. Maybe he’d go outside to smoke for a few minutes.

But then he looked up to see who else but Raven coming around the corner, tossing some comment over his shoulder at someone Jujubee couldn’t see. Raven paused when he saw him, and Jujubee looked away. He didn’t particularly feel like dealing with Raven right now, their argument the previous night had left a bad taste in his mouth. He quickly put his glasses back on.

Raven didn’t seem like he wanted anything to do with Jujubee either, and he walked past him with a stiff hello and hardly a glance.

But then he’d stopped and turned.

“You good?” asked Raven. 

“Fine, fine.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed, “Ru’s been playing therapist again.”

Jujubee shrugged, “I’m good, I just needed a break.”

“Alright, well-” Raven took a few steps back and then he stopped again.

“So, do you want company, were you going for a smoke or-?” he asked, and then glanced up and down the hall before inclining his head towards Jujubee, suggestive, “Would you rather…?”

The tension spiked between them, and Jujubee rocked on his heels. It was a bad idea. Literally the day after they’d had a conversation, well, an argument about professionalism and how they interacted on set. There was power sliding around between them again, but it felt different this time. It was easy, too easy-

Gripped with impulse, Jujubee said, “Show me where, bitch.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Raven, his expression shifting, coy, and then he turned, heading down the hallway. Jujubee followed him, his heart accelerating.

-

Jujubee snapped back to the present, where Raven was going to town on his cock with one very clear goal, just like that first delicious encounter a few weeks ago. Jujubee let out a steadying breath, trying to keep himself under control. But control was something he very much lacked right now. Raven had it, today. Unusual. A little discomforting.

But instead of doing anything about it, Jujubee surrendered, barely holding himself up against the wall. One of Raven’s hands was wrapped around the base of his cock and the other holding his hip, then reaching behind knead his ass. He watched Raven’s head bob rapidly, utterly shameless, those stupid fucking lips of his saliva-slicked. Raven’s expression was focused, with a mischievous undertone, and he was clearly enjoying himself, doing things with his tongue that should be made illegal in every state.

Fuck, Raven’s mouth was warm and wet and perfect-

“Shit fuck shit, I’m gonna come-”

When it was over and Jujubee felt less like he was astral-projecting into sex heaven, he blinked hard and looked around. Raven wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, shook his head once and stood. Jujubee quickly tucked himself back into his briefs and did up his pants.

Raven made a strange half-motion like he wanted to lean in and kiss him, but then appeared to think the better of it.

The tension was back, but it was awkward. 

“Well, I have to go make a dress, so,” said Jujubee, motioning vaguely.

“Right, yeah.”

Jujubee pushed himself off the wall, looking away, and turned towards the door. Their conversation from the night before hadn’t led to any real conclusions. While this quick, distracting fuck in the bathroom meant Jujubee’s own personal life traumas were no longer as close to the surface (thanks, Ru), he also didn’t like the lack of control, the sheer impulsiveness that came over him around Raven. Like he was being pulled in by Raven’s own chaotic energy. He needed to return to his normal, chill state.

“From what I remember, you don’t sew,” said Raven. Jujubee glanced back at him.

“Not really, but I’ll make it work.”

“At the end of the day a dress is just a tube of fabric, so-”

“So don’t overthink it?” cut in Jujubee, teasing.

“Just make sure it looks good,” replied Raven, with a smirk that held a challenge.

“Well,” said Jujubee, unlocking the door and pulling it open, “That won’t be too difficult, will it?”

-

He would never be a great seamstress, considered Jujubee as he laid his barbecue items out, but he could make it work. As Raven had said, a dress was basically a tube of fabric and it was all about embellishment and presentation. Bianca had won Season Six wearing the same dress every week, so Jujubee figured he could wrangle something that looked just about as good if he styled it right. Shea was proving extremely helpful and kind in that department, Jujubee’s own janky seams aside.

His feelings of discomfort faded and he found he was having a great time with everyone, especially Cracker and Shea. Jujubee cut out watermelon pieces and built his outfit, and messed around with Alexis and the whole India-leaving-notes drama. 

Jujubee was… what was it the kids said these days? Oh yes, vibing.

Time to write a monologue, bitch.

“I’m gonna wear this macramé dress I brought,” announced Cracker, sitting down next to Jujubee with their notepads out, scratching out ideas.

“Full Stevie Nicks realness, huh?” replied Jujubee, nudging Cracker with his elbow.

“Oh girl, I grew up in the sitcks,” laughed Cracker, “I may work in New York but I’ve got country roots. I know exactly the hick woman I’m writing here.”

“I’ve mostly lived in Boston,” replied Jujubee, tilting his head to one side. Cracker had been friendly the past couple weeks since their encounter in abandoned equipment room, even bordering on flirtatious, and Jujubee was growing to appreciate him as a friend as much as a competitor. “But in Laos there were what we referred to as the hill people.”

“Inspiration for your drag, I take it?”

Jujubee burst into laughter, slapping the table. Fuck, Cracker was funny. Cracker grinned back at him and even Blair joined in, and sending a gentle read their way.

-

As promised, Raven didn’t interrupt Jujubee again while he was filming. Unfortunately, Jujubee couldn’t tell if Raven was doing as he’d requested out of actual respect for his wishes or merely performing obedience to play into their power exchange. The fact that Jujubee couldn’t discern Raven’s usually very transparent thought process was a little unnerving.

The challenge happened, and the runway happened and the post-elimination discussion happened and Jujubee was goddamn tired. Raven was still nowhere to be seen, for which Jujubee was simultaneously grateful and disappointed.

They were ferried back to the hotel and Shea gave Blair some words of encouragement as they headed up their rooms. Cracker caught up with Jujubee.

“Hey, how’re you doing?”

“I’m alright,” replied Jujubee. He was very tired. But here they were, the top four and there was something invigorating about it, the competitiveness and determination growing under his skin. The crown was in his sights.

“Does your room have a balcony?” asked Cracker, “Mine doesn’t and I’d rather not go all the way downstairs again to have a smoke… ”

“It does,” said Jujubee, pausing and considering Cracker’s intentions. Their interaction in the abandoned equipment room hadn’t been unpleasant. And well, Jujubee wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with him and Raven. Things had been left unresolved. But Cracker made for good company. “Yeah, I’d like a smoke too, honestly. Come in.”

Jujubee turned and unlocked his door with a flick of the key card. As intended, the bedsheets had been changed and the room no longer smelled like he’d had spent all night fucking Raven, thank god. 

“Congrats on your win,” said Jujubee, turning to Cracker, “I want to snatch up that twenty thousand next week, let me tell you that much.”

Cracker chuckled, nodding in response, “Yeah, thank you. This whole thing is such a trip. I loved your dress, by the way.”

“I know how to do one thing, and it’s make sure a tube of fabric looks good,” replied Jujubee, opening his bag to look for his vape pen. 

“You know, it took me a little while to warm up to you,” said Cracker over his shoulder, walking around the bed towards the sliding doors of the balcony, “You early season girls are intense.”

“The show was different back then,” shrugged Jujubee, briefly checking out Cracker’s ass as he followed him, and wondering where exactly this conversation might go, “But I’m the chillest one of the lot.”

“Well, I’ve heard Raja can smoke anybody under the table-”

There was a knock at the door. Cracker looked up, frowning with surprise and Jujubee’s stomach dropped. There was only one person that could be. As he walked back across the room to the door he hoped it would be anybody else, Shea or Blair, or even some random PA, but-

Jujubee opened the door to Raven. 

Raven had his arms crossed and looked, well, he looked annoyed but that was just the way his silicone-filled lips sat on his face. Resting bitch, as it were. He also looked vaguely apologetic. 

“Hey,” said Raven, with a quick smile, “I saw you managed to pull that dress together.”

Jujubee nodded, “I did. Thanks.”

“So, uh, look,” continued Raven, “What I said the other night was bullshit. I’m okay to keep this more on the down-low if you want, like with today-”

But he paused, looking over Jujubee’s shoulder, a frown crossing his face. Jujubee glanced behind himself and noticed Cracker approaching.

“What is he doing in here?” demanded Raven.

“Having a smoke on the balcony,” replied Jujubee quickly. This was… not ideal. Uh oh.

“Well, we’re both contestants on a certain reality TV show,” answered Cracker dryly, standing next to Jujubee in the doorway, making it very clear that he wouldn’t be inviting Raven in, “But I don’t think you are anymore. So I could ask you the same thing.”

“Back off, you know I work on set. I just want to talk to him-”

“Little late, isn’t it?”

They both looked to Jujubee. Jujubee resisted the urge to laugh hysterically. This gay posturing was hilarious, it was like a telenovella. As entertained as Jujubee was, here were two people who he both very much wanted to fuck, and they were both mad as hell to see the other. How fun.

“I mean,” said Jujubee with a suggestive, flirtatious shrug, “Since you’re both here… and there’s only one bed…?”

It was worth a shot, wasn’t it?

But Raven just rolled his eyes and Cracker raised his eyebrows at Jujubee incredulously. 

“I’m not particularly interested in that slice of burnt toast,” deadpanned Cracker, eyeing the visible sliver of Raven’s heavily tanned chest, where his shirt was unbuttoned.

Raven made a noise like an angry cat and Jujubee coughed violently to cover his laugh. But then Raven turned to Jujubee, and head cocked to the side expectantly, lips pressed together. 

A beat passed and Raven demanded, “What, you’re just going to stand there and let him insult me?”

“You can fight your own battles,” responded Jujubee, uneasy. Was Raven expecting a display of authority, as per their agreement-

“So you’re not gonna read me?” said Cracker to Raven, amused, “Gone soft in your old age?”

“Oh bitch when I come for you, you’ll know!” snapped Raven back to Cracker, taking a step towards him. That was not good, Jujubee needed to deescalate this right now-

But Cracker responded first with a snort of derision, not even remotely intimidated, and turned back to Jujubee, “Look, whatever history you two have is your own business. But come find me when you need something more interesting than whatever that is.”

Cracker cut eyes at Raven who glared back and snapped an insult as Cracker stepped through the doorway and brushed past him, heading down the hall to his room. Jujubee sighed and looked back Raven, who’s jaw was once again set in a way that guaranteed an argument.

“Okay, I see how it is,” said Raven, embittered and angry, “You and your double standards. You think I’d come all the way up here and, and offer to adjust for anyone else but you? Like I don’t have better places to be right now!? Do you think this is a fucking joke-”

Jujubee sighed and ran a hand over his face. Nostalgia was a complicated emotion. It was so tempting to fall into, warm, familiar, and deceptive. Jujubee tried to avoid it when it came to looking back on his own self-destructive behaviour, and there’d been so much change and self-reflection involved in finally getting sober. There’d been a lot of people he’d had to leave behind. But somehow Raven always clung on, their friendship was long and complex and unfortunately pretty public-

But maybe the time was up, considered Jujubee as he tuned out the rest of Raven’s increasingly malicious rant. Raven was self-centered, inconsistent, and tied up in some of the messiest parts of Jujubee’s past. In fact, Raven was complicit in, or at least present for, the harmful behaviour that had dragged Jujubee down for so long. Finally there was silence, and it stretched out between them.

“I don’t think you’re good for me anymore,” said Jujubee quietly, resting his hand against the doorframe and holding eye contact.

Raven’s mouth fell open and a hurt expression flashed across his face.

“Well, I-” managed Raven, “Well… fuck.”

With that he turned on his heel and stormed off down the hall. 

Healing was painful, considered Jujubee as he shut the door, the ache settling in below his ribs. Healing really fucking hurt. But hopefully saying no to Raven would be like tearing off a band-aid. A dirty, nasty band-aid that had been siting there for so long it felt like it was practically part of his skin. A band-aid that really, really, did not want to come off.

Fuck was right.

[rainbat]

1/2 maybe I’m very dense but I still don’t completely understand everything that happened w/Kira. Why did TJ ditch Cyrus for Kira’s costume? Did TJ and Kira actually date and break up? Why was TJ so willing to be her friend and not notice how mean she was (like at the table when they were with Cyrus). And the whole making TJ choose thing was confusing too. Because it was out of the blue and TJ never had to “choose”. He was friends with both of them. I’m so confused! Do you understand everything?

2/2 and when TJ and Kira were at the park and they had planned to feed the ducks, was that a date? When Kira said “hello I’m over here” to get TJ to stop looking after Cyrus, that sounded very girlfriend-ish to me. I really wish they had explained all the TJ/Cyrus/Kira stuff. And Buffy said “you know why he’s hanging out with her”, everyone assumes that Buffy meant that she knew TJ was ha find with Kira to hide his feelings for Cyrus. But how can we know for sure? I’m gonna lose sleep over this

Hahaha okay. Idk if everyone agrees with what I’m gonna say, but this is how i grasp it. Come one, come all, as I answer hard hitting questions about KIRA

First and foremost, Kira was brought in to delay Tyrus. Unfortunately, that was her main plot driver. If Kira had not been involved: i think Summer Salt would have played out, someone would have said something about them being in a ‘couples costume’, internalised homophobia/gay panic, TJ dips until the end for the same kinda endgame OR Tyrus canons a little earlier, bench scene outside of school instead, who could predict the next couple episodes? only terri

But we were 2/3 getting a delay in Tyrus (well 100% but yk what i mean) and Kira was unfortunately up to bat. Take her plot line through like this: Kira knows (or at least assumes) TJ has more than friendship feelings for Cyrus. Kira likes TJ. Kira knows TJ his a jock, popular, likely insecure, and uses that to her advantage to get what she wants (a weird, not really real, relationship with TJ)

So 1. Why did TJ ditch Cyrus for Kira’s costume? Throw your hands up for homophobia! look back a bit, couples costume? So that path was eliminated by this. Because, as Kira subtly pointed out to TJ, why would he rather do a couples costume with a GUY than with a GIRL (her)? TJ was caught here, either basically out himself to her (as she hinted it was suspicious he would wanna do a costume with Cyrus) or play along. TJ plays along with Kira, as he’s afraid of even the possibility of being outed. 

2. Did TJ and Kira actually date and break up? No, the MackChat kids are 8. TJ never ‘dated’ Kira. He spent a lot of time with her, but think of it more like. TJ thought of Kira as Buffy to his Cyrus. Kira thought of TJ as her boyfriend who didnt wanna label it (jonah tease). That’s why it’s a little confusing, because it was to them too. But not dating, no break up. 

3. Why was TJ so willing to be her friend? I know A LOT happens in Andi Mack and TJ is but a mere side character, but TJ is not in Cyrus’ friend group. He’s in - oh, yeah, all his friends dumped him after he reported his best friend to the cops! lol! - TJ doesn’t .. have any friends after 306. He’s just kinda .. desperate for a friend. (Yes, he wants Cyrus but Cyrus is his crush and it’s hard to share that space when you’re 14). Idk if yall have ever gone through a middle school day with no friends but .. guys its rough, like soul-crushing lunch goes from the best part of the day to the worst, rough. So Kira comes along, she likes basketball and gives TJ attention, that’s kinda all he needs to jump on board. Someone wants to hang out with him! And do his favourite thing!  

and not notice how mean she was? TJ is a boy. I know that’s a dumb answer but jesus 14  year old boys are DENSE. Kira wasn’t outright saying anything mean to Cyrus, she was being rude, but in a snarky, covered in smiles way. But everything that came out of her mouth was ‘nice’. To TJ, she was being welcoming and Cyrus was being flaky and disliked her for no reason (Buffy kicked HER off the team, after all) 

4. the whole making TJ choose thing was confusing too. I’m with you on this because, yeah, really thought she was gonna flat out call TJ out for having a crush LMAOOO. So to attempt my explanation, I have to preface this a bit. Take what I say with a grain of salt, alright? I do truly love TJ Kippen with all my heart. 

But TJ is kinda mean, lol. He’s nice to Cyrus and Cyrus’ friends cos he’s whipped head-over-heels, but here’s the thing: He and Kira probably laughed at kids playing bball poorly on the court at the park, they probably made fun of people at the minigolf place, sending their balls into the artificial lake, they probably called the kids getting A’s in math nerds. They’ve probably laughed at kids dancing EXACTLY how Cyrus danced at the party. But there’s TJ, defensive, mad at Kira for laughing at him like that. 

So they joke and laugh at everyone, but they can’t make fun of Cyrus?  To Kira, it’s now plainly obvious: TJ cares about Cyrus more than he does about having fun with her. So here’s her ultimatum: You have fun with me, and we’re friends, or you’re a drag around Cyrus. 

Obviously TJ picks Cyrus because he has a fat crush, and being nice is like the smallest price in the world to pay for that boy. Think of him picking between them as his final step outside of his mean body, the nice person inside finally clawed their whole way out. 

5. when TJ and Kira were at the park and they had planned to feed the ducks, was that a date?  No, probs just post basketball stuff and the park is small. TJ was just avoiding the swings.

6. When Kira said “hello I’m over here” to get TJ to stop looking after Cyrus, that sounded very girlfriend-ish to me. Cos she thought they were in some kind of relationship, due to TJ having no other friends, the exclusivity was pretty real

7. Buffy said “you know why he’s hanging out with her”, everyone assumes that Buffy meant that she knew TJ was hanging with Kira to hide his feelings for Cyrus. But how can we know for sure? Here it is, the final question, and perhaps most up-to-interpretation answer. 

Answer 1: Buffy knows Kira is JUST like TJ was, she dealt with her on her team, and has seen how she interacts with people. She knows TJ is hanging out with her because he’s lost his friends and gone soft for Cyrus, and needs something else in his life to keep him on top/captain/popular

Answer 2: Buffy knows TJ likes Cyrus and is scared of that, thus is hanging around Kira to hide those feelings. The thing that doesn’t add up here is: When Tira wrap their arms around each other, Buffy apologises, like what she said was wrong. So why would she do that if she was sure TJ was only with her as a beard? 

Answer 3: Buffy has put together that TJ has lowkey been bullied into being embarrassed of being so close with Cyrus. She knows he’s only hanging out with Kira because she’s basically forcing him too, and he’s capitalising on the situation by using her to make him look popular and ‘like the other boys’ more or less. When she says ‘I’m sorry.’ to Cyrus, she’s sympathising with him, understanding that it sucks that TJ is in this position with Kira and he’s a dumbass jock. 

I think Answer 3 makes the most sense. 

Well! I hope I answered all your questions to some form of semi-understanding. I know it’s a lot and it’s really confusing and they didn’t leave time to really explain it. 

The short answer for the kiddos at home: TJ never liked KIRA!! He liked CYRUS!!

[augustsaccharine-blog]

Understanding Rat Problem

Table of ContentsWhat are the costs for Rats In Loft From Next DoorHow to Fix Rat ProblemExpert solutions for Rat ProblemRats Coming From Neighbours House, What Do I DoUnderstanding Rats In Loft From Next DoorCheap Solution for Environmental Health Rats Methods to resolve Rat Problem

A rat requires 60 millilitres of water a day and so if you can minimize its accessibility in your garden, you are assisting to discourage them. A rat can access your residential or commercial property through a hole as little as two-centimetres and mouse just needs a pencil's width. It therefore makes good sense to examine all the access points to your facilities.

The fact is, rodents are tenacious and it is difficult to make a home 100% rodent-proof. They are, nevertheless, also opportunists and are searching for a simple life. If you use them a residential or commercial property with easy access to all the important things they want, they will capitalize. If you make life challenging for them, they will go and take a look at one of your neighbour's homes.

My Neighbour Has Mice What Can I Do Near Me

( 43 Posts) Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 14:42:56 Publishing here for traffic. In 2015 we had mice and rats. As quickly as i understood i went next door (terraced housing) to tell them and woman next door informed me 'yes we have had them considering that we moved in 3 years ago. Your never ever that far from them in London, I have some good potpourri due to the fact that I can't stand the smell of them dying so I simply ignore it'.

Honest solutions for Reporting Rats To The Council

Eventually we got rid of them in our home - they were can be found in from next door and now all points of entry blocked off and so on. For the last 3 months the same individuals next door have grown 5 foot weeds in their front garden - it's like a mini field.

I can't tell them what to do with their own garden and i could not care less if they have rodents in their home but can i report to the council and ask that they are told to preserve their property to stop drawing in mice and rats? I know what the rodents smell like we had it mildly in our home and when i went to speak with female next door the odor of them in her kitchen area was beyond overpowering - so i can only assume she is delighted to have them in her house.

Any suggestions? Anyone experienced comparable neighbour issue? user327854831 Sat 23-Sep-17 14:46:12 Talk With them about the garden and describe about the problems. If they won't do anything perhaps they will at least accept you applying weed killer or utilizing a strimmer on all of it then weed killer. If it's leased can you call their property owner? LoyaltyAndLobster Sat 23-Sep-17 14:46:48 Never Ever remained in the very same position but all I can suggest is that you get a cat, it will stop them from being available in.

Ways to fix Rats Council Responsibility

I saw her hubby loafing for ages recently with a pal looking at the weeds they were discussing gardening i think however absolutely nothing has actually been done so perhaps they like them or think they are flowers - no concept! Can't get a feline as we take a trip for work every week a minimum of 3 days so nobody to look after it.

GrimDamnFanjo Sat 23-Sep-17 14:57:46 We've just had this concern as balcony dwellers. NDNs got in touch with the council and they sent somebody round complimentary of charge to examine who then visited all your homes including ours. He looked for rats and provided advice. We have an electronic gadget which he said was working to deter them.

HaudYerWheeshtBawbag Sat 23-Sep-17 14:59:54 You can however the council can't implement it, we have a few renters neighbours like this and unfortunately it's simply a fight field. Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 15:09:41 oh god. You say renters - these unclean rat lovers with their pot pourri are long-term beside me.

5 action steps for Reporting Rats To The Council

All our other neighbours are lovely and everyone is ill to death of their absurd lax attitude. I in fact understand a few of individuals the other half works with and when I informed them about the rats release they weren't shocked?! Not exactly sure what to make from that LakieLady Sat 23-Sep-17 15:11:28 I'm not exactly sure if there's anything you can do about it, tbh.

They likewise put food out for the birds and foxes - I found a rat eating a half consumed tray of lasagne in their front garden a couple of weeks earlier. I have actually likewise seen one up on their bird table, delighting in a hearty meal. Like you, we obstructed up all the gain access to points (after Mrs Rat got under our cooking area flooring and used the space as a maternity unit), we also have steel mesh under the garden compost bin to stop them getting in it, our dustbin locks shut and we make sure that any food tins etc that go in the recycling are scrupulously tidy.

We have a terrier and she spends ages smelling in specific places and sometimes goes berserk attempting to get in a corner of the garage or someplace - report rats in neighbours garden. At one point, she was killing a minimum of one rat a week usually, and leaving them on the lawn, but she hasn't had one for ages now.

How to Resolve Reporting Rats To The Council

Proven tips for My Neighbour Has Mice What Can I Do

How to Resolve Rats Coming From Neighbours House

We have a corner of the garden that we leave thick for wildlife (we have a hedgehog, sloworms, a robin and a yellowhammer in house) but the pet dog isn't interested in it, so I don't believe that's a rat sanctuary. Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 15:14:21 intriguing - the home on opposite of next door have a jack Russell now and said he has actually captured a lot of rats - would love to get a pet or a feline anyhow no matter rat issue but can't at moment (environmental health rats).

DancingLedge Sat 23-Sep-17 15:22:40 As far as rats are concerned, what's the difference between a garden complete of weeds, and a garden filled with carefully tended plants? I wonder if your view of weeds is a red herring here?Stopping up every possible entry point to your house is excellent. Utilizing electronic pest deterrents, the ultrasound and electrical circuitry one inside your home, and battery ones in loft, sheds and possibly garden, will keep rodents from returning to your property.( Google electronic pest deterrents Primrose.) Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 15:25:37 the difference is 5 foot tall dense weeds offers a different level of cover than a carefully tended garden - where you can normally see something at ground level.

5 fixes for Rats Coming From Neighbours House

It's like a miniature field out there. DancingLedge Sat 23-Sep-17 15:33:39 I mean this in the gentlest way, however I think you seem to have a view of what a garden should resemble. I garden my plot thoroughly, however it's home design, and has wide spots of thoroughly tended plants and shrubs, some 5ft high, some 1-2 ft high, where you can't see the ground at all.

3 action steps for Rats Coming From Neighbours House

When one DC utilized not to be cautious enough keeping fishing bait, vermin. In previous home, open, low,' neat' garden, so might quickly see the rats running about. They were there because we had chickens, and even if you keep chicken food in metal container, chickens drop some on the ground.

It's the food source that's the tourist attraction. SisyphusHadItEasy Sat 23-Sep-17 15:37:48 It is unfortunate that the council can't enforce it. Where we live, there is a bylaw that states unkempt weeds or grasses (in excess of 45 cm high) are prohibited and the property occupant will get one warning. If the weeds are not eliminated in a specific duration (generally 7-10 days) then the council will do it and pursue the resident for the expense of remedying the concern.

Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 15:40:22 where do you live? I think that sounds dazzling. It's so infuriating needing to handle the entire thing Sheridanflamingo Sat 23-Sep-17 15:42:09 Ps we are in a suburban area in west London - one road where everyone gets pests and rodents since of one oblivious unclean home causing everyone else to join the invasions they cause.

7 action steps for Rats Coming From Neighbours House

Get thyself to Battersea, get a number of young felines, preferably females (these tend to be the finest hunters) utilize an animal caretaker to feed them once a day and voila!Cats get remarkable new house. Someone gets rewarding employmentRats need to work out RexitYou have family pets! JonSnowsWife Sat 23-Sep-17 15:45:34 I do not believe the council will do much.

[afewmarvelousthoughts]

Truth [Part 1]

Master List 

Request:

What’s up sug! sorry you’re struggling right now but I’ve come to help you If you could bring this to light for me I’d absolutely love for YOU TO DO JT So basically Bucky X Enhanced reader who are fuckin enemies. Hate each other to every last fiber of their beings bc Bucky is rude and she calls him out on it. AnywHs, they get drunk, truth or dare (go crZy baby) and LOTS LF dirty talk if u wanna do smut but if u don’t then buck taking care of her while she’s drunk cause she admitted her feelings

Pairing: Bucky X Reader (Enhanced)

Summary: Since The Avengers gave you a home the only blight has been Bucky Barnes, a ghost from your past that you can’t seem to shake. It makes you hate him. The feeling, it seems, is mutual. But maybe things aren’t quite as simple as they seem. (Post Winter Soldier AU)

Warnings: Violence, guns, plotting (lol).

A/N: Well. This is a thing. At first, when I got this ask I was like... uh... hmm... this is so not me. (Honestly, the truth or dare element threw me because let’s be real, I haven’t played that since high school.) But then I thought about it and realized I could totally run with this and have some fun. Then I ended up having too much fun I guess. (And look I’m not saying it’s perfect but damn I’m enjoying it.)

I think this won’t go past a three-parter but who knows. The next bit gets smutty (I know for sure since I’m currently writing it) so stay tuned for that. Also, this makes three fics I’m actively writing (you know plus my day job) so I can’t promise part 2 will be up next week but sooooon. 

Tags are open! 

@mywinterwolf  @disagreetoagree @peachthatdrinkslemonade @breezy1415

I could do it, you thought staring down the ridge. No one would know it was me, too much chaos, just focus and BAM, the old fuck drops… Just then Steve flings Barnes the shield to fend off an attack and you remember that you can’t off the fucking Winter Soldier because Steve, who had unquestionably saved your life, would be absolutely devastated.

“Hey Y/N!” Barnes bellows over the com, “How about you pull your fucking weight?!”

No. One. Would. Know. “Hey Barnes, how about you go fuck yourself?”

“Kids,” Clint pipes up. “Play nice.”

You chose to ignore them both and plant your hands firmly on the ground. About 20 Hydra agents just ahead of you, you could feel the vibrations of their energy through the soil. Your breath stops and you begin to pull energy into your body, the air around you getting cooler with each second. This was going to be a show. Heat curls up your arms, you feel like you’re on fire, electric with this power. Admittedly this didn’t always work, focusing the energy through the ground but this time you had pettiness on your side and that was as powerful a weapon as whatever Hydra put in you.

“Fuck, on our twelve,” you hear Barnes say. Little late old man. “Goddamnit! Y/N why do-“

Now. Intentionally making the energy release a little more powerful than it needed to be you let go, concentrating hard, Just the Hydra agents, no one else, acutely aware of where each of them stood. White hot light snaked from the ground into the bodies of each unsuspecting agent, their screams loud, an uncomfortable sizzling hitting your ears as they lit up like candle flames. As gruesome as it was, in one shot you eliminated every single one.

“What was that about doing my part, Barnes?” You snipe over the com standing looking smugly over the ridge, “Your count was what, five?”

“We’re clear,” Natasha says before he can respond and you silence your earpiece, turning on your heel to head to the jet.

Back at the tower, you’re stripping out of your gear in the locker room with Natasha.

“You know you two could just fuck and get it over with.”

“What?!” You’re genuinely confused.

“Uh, you and Bucky. You go at each other like-“

You begin laughing, “Look I get your angle here but no, that’s not what this is. He’s a fucking asshole, and not in the way that gets me going,” and they didn’t know what he had been like before, not really.

“Whatever you say,” she slams her locker, dirty tac gear inside to be picked up for cleaning, “but there’s nothing like a good hate fuck to work out tension.” With that, she saunters away.

The thought of letting him touch you made your skin crawl. Though… No. Absolutely fucking not.

Tony had demanded everyone get together to celebrate a successful mission and as much as you weren’t a huge fan of social gatherings of more than two people even after almost a year of working with them all you begrudgingly agreed when it was made clear that this was a casual affair.

You stare in the mirror at yourself in black skinnies and a fitted white tee, so… normal looking. Who would suspect you were essentially a woman shaped atomic bomb? Sighing you throw your hair into a ponytail and head for the elevator. At the very least, Barnes never came to these things.

Mother. Fucker. When you got out of the elevator you had thought you were in the clear. Tony shoved a whiskey neat in your hand (spiked with his special ingredient to get the enhanced among you just as lit as the rest) the coast looked clear. Then across the room in a corner, you saw Barnes brooding, drink in hand, slouched in an oversized chair.

“What did I say earlier,” Clint says with a wink, jabbing an elbow at you.

You roll your eyes, “I always start off playing nice, thank you. It’s not my fault he’s determined to piss me off at every turn.”

“I’m on your side,” Sam pipes up from your other side and you can’t help but laugh at the exaggerated look of disdain on his face. Barnes looks at you then, eyes burning. All humor drains out of you and you turn away to head to the other side of the room.

The evening goes surprisingly well. Tony’s ‘special sauce,’ as he keeps calling it, is just enough to get you perfectly tipsy... if not bordering on drunk. Honestly, you couldn’t remember the last time you had felt this loose. Not to mention his playlist for the night was on point, unsurprising since you were technically Tony’s age (even if you looked half that) so you generally had the same taste in pop culture.

This was the first time since you had been with them that everyone was together and for the most part everyone was having an exceptional time. Everyone that was except for your resident cloud of darkness.

Unable to let sleeping dogs lie Tony finally plops down on Barnes’ lap, “You know, I made this hooch for you special, because out of all you,” Tony gestures to you, Steve, and Thor, “I think you’re the one who needs to let loose the most. So,” Tony picks up the tumbler that had been sitting on the table next to Barnes the whole night, “drink your juice, Shelby.” Between the Steel Magnolias reference and the look on Barnes’ face you nearly send your drink shooting through your nose with a laugh.

Barnes looks at you then back at Tony, not a flicker of humor in his tone, “I don’t think you care to know what me letting lose looks like Stark.” With that, he dumps Tony off his lap. The mood of the room immediately shifts, everyone afraid of just what The Winter Soldier letting lose would indeed look like.

“Wow,” you drawl, “really know how to kill a buzz don’t ya Barnes?” The look he shoots you is ice cold, Steve looks stressed, and all you can think is, Please, please give me a good reason.

He saunters over to you in, what Natasha has playfully labeled his ‘murder strut,’ and looms over you, “And you’re just the life of the party, huh?”

You sneer, “Nah, but at least I can pretend to be a normal human for a few hours.” His upper lip ticks just a bit, and you swear you can hear the metal plates in his arm shift. When he moves you’re already bracing yourself internally for a hit, instead he just plucks the drink from your hand and downs it in one shot.

“Alright, Tony, it’s not bad. Guess I’ll have another.”

“That’s more fucking like it!” Tony bellows getting up to make another drink for Barnes immediately lifting the room back almost to where it was before. As for you, you plaster a smile on your face but all you want to do is level that fucker.

Banner goes down for the night and Clint follows not far behind despite taunting from all of you. About being lightweights. Things had started to wind down but Natasha, still wide awake, isn’t quite ready to let everything go quiet just yet.

“Alright, now that the old men have left us I say we play a game,” the look on her face is filled with mischief.

“What kind of game?” Steve catches her tone and looks more than a little suspect.

She smirks, “Only the best kind of game when you’re in the company of soldiers, assassins, gods, and spies...” everyone stares, “Truth or dare.”

“I’m down,” you’re drunk enough to want in on this mess.

“What exactly is that?” Thor looks confused as if it can’t mean what it sounds like.

The rules are laid out. No truths that can get anyone killed because... well between Nat, you, and Barnes there had to be more than a few secrets that should 100% be kept. And, only minimal bloodshed would be permitted in the event of a dare. All rules everyone could easily abide.

Only ten minutes in and you realize the long con Nat’s been playing at... and that you should have definitely not agreed to this.

“Dare,” you say.

Natasha’s mouth curls into a smirk, “Good. Kiss Bucky.”

“What?!” You both spit at the same time throwing daggers at the other. Everyone is cackling.

“You can’t refuse, it causes no harm, and it’s the least the two of you owe the rest of us for making us deal with you,” shrugs of agreement from everyone. Barnes’ head drops to his hands.

“I’ll take a truth then.”

“Not how it works,” Thor chides laughing. “You have-“

���Want to make me?” The temperature around you dropping just a little as tiny streaks of energy snake up your arms. Any residual cheer drops away.

“Now who’s a buzzkill?” Barnes asks sardonically. You close your eyes and take a deep breath. He was right. And maybe you could zap him a little just to prove a point.

Without another word, you stride across the circle and pull him up by his collar, the fabric making a ripping sound. He doesn’t resist you and you kiss him hard, bordering on violent, forcing your tongue in his mouth just to be sure no one can say it wasn’t a thorough kiss. And... maybe you were curious as to what he would taste like. For good measure though you let just a touch of the energy zap his lips. He pulls back in shock at the feeling.

“Happy?!” You ask turning to the group. They’re all staring like they really didn’t expect it. “Good.” You sit down heavily next to Natasha without another word and diligently chose truth for the next hour.

Eventually, you all grow bored of the game and fall into just talking, though you mostly listen. You were so committed to ignoring his existence you don’t actually notice that Barnes had slipped away until everyone decides to disperse.

The rest of them seemed perfectly content to go to bed. You were envious. Being drunk went from being fun to making you feel anxious around the time of the kiss. The power had been too quick to come to you, too volatile, you knew that. Not being in control was something you hated and... if you were being honest wasn’t good for anyone around you.

Need to sweat this out, you think and head down to the training grounds buried beneath the tower.

You had intended to go to the shooting range. Tony had set up a special stall for you that had heating panels all around it so you could play with your energy manipulation more, refine it, make it your own. But as you walk up to the glass you see someone else emptying a clip at a bevy of moving targets, hitting each perfectly.

Lightening fast he changes the clip and you can’t help but watch as again not a single target is missed. You’re good but you can’t touch that level of precision. Not yet. But Barnes was good at what he did, no one, not even you, would question that.

It doesn’t take long for your admiration to sour though. He had this uncanny way of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Suddenly the steady sound of bullets stops and he hurls the gun at the targets, roaring. His hands rest on the small counter before him for a second, back heaving. Turning halfway, not noticing you, he leans against the wall of the stall and slides to the floor his head thudding against it, forearms resting on his knees, cheeks shining with moisture from sweat or tears you couldn’t tell.

Goddamnit, your dislike for him ran along the lines of hatred... you had thought about how to kill him so many times in so many ways it was almost comical. Right now though... You didn’t have it in you to comfort this man when you could hardly tell him good morning most days but you could at least give him privacy.

You turn to leave and you feel his eyes on you, “Enjoy the show?” Most wouldn’t have been able to hear his words through the thick glass but you weren’t most.

He’d seen you, no use in pretending. “Not particularly.” You open the door and stride in, heading toward your booth, “And as usual you’re right where I don’t want you to be.”  

You’re almost in your booth when he starts laughing, and you’re pretty certain you have never, in the years you’ve known him, heard him laugh. You lean around, “Something funny?”

He keeps laughing, “Yeah, you.”

“Oh?” You walk back to him and stand looking down, arms crossed. He’s cackling. “Do tell.”

“You really don’t know why we always end up here at the same time? Why we’re always at each other?” More laughter, “You really think you hate me.” Finally, he takes a breath, wiping the tears from his eyes, “Your obliviousness is hilarious.”

“You’re such a fucking prick,” you say and turn away.

“Yeah. I am. And you’re a cunt.” You spin so fast any normal person would hardly have seen your movement, streaks of light snaking around your skin, ready to destroy him. “I’d say we’re cut from the same cloth.”

“No,” you growl.

“Really?” He stands up and shoves his hands in his pockets. “So you’re not in here because you need to work off the feeling of not being in control?” He takes a step toward you and you move back in turn. “You’re not in here because you’re scared if you don’t get that energy out you’ll hurt someone?” A few more steps. “You don’t wind up in here more nights than you’re in your bed because you can’t sleep?” You're almost against the door. “Just. Like. Me.” Your back bumps against the glass.

He’s inches from you, so close you can smell the whiskey on his breath, “If you touch me I’ll fucking kill you.”

“I know you will.” He stares at you for a moment, “That’s why I’m glad you’re on the team.”

[staytheb]

The Next Part

Pairing: GOT7′s Jinyoung x OC [Woorin] Genre: slice of life, slight angst, slight fluff Word Count: 6,725 Summary: Woorin and Jinyoung’s relationship didn’t end on good terms, but they never had the chance to settle it out and life got in the way. Now three years later, Woorin and Jinyoung meet again.

Warning: none... i think. maybe swear words. i honestly forgot. lol

my first post which is a GOT7 one that I wrote for a secret santa event. anyways, happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

"Are you sure it's okay?" Woorin asked her best friend, Nayoung, as the duo arrived at the venue where The Street's Christmas party was being held.

"Yes, it is. Besides, we're already here and it's not like you haven't done this before." Nayoung replied with a laugh. "Just enjoy yourself."

"Yeah, that was when I was working at The Street, but I don't anymore and probably don't know anyone now."

"There's a few familiar faces you'll recognize."

"Yeah right. It's been like three years."

"Don't forget the ones that has been here like me."

"Yeah, yeah."

The duo entered the venue and were greeted by a well decorated and subtle Christmas theme of gold, silver, white, and blue. There was hardly any of the bold colors of green and red unless it was just a dash here and there. Other than that, it was very beautiful and light.

"Whoever decorated the venue did an amazing job." Woorin complemented as Nayoung agreed. "Yeah. Yubin and Hyelim spent hours on all of this, especially in the last minute details. Mr. Park was very particular about certain things although in the end he just let them do whatever."

"Sounds like him and still not much has changed since."

"Tell me about it. So much has happened this year and I'm glad I'm not playing hostess. I left it up to the other girls who wanted to do it and I'm so glad I did."

"True. Anyways, what do you want me to do with this?"

Woorin asked while holding onto a tray of oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies that she and Nayoung had baked earlier. Nayoung pointed towards to her right and to the front of the room.

"Oh, that. You can put it over there with the other food the others should have brought for the potluck. I'm going to be on the other side where the gifts are and you can meet me over there."

"Okay."

The duo bid one another a wave as they went their separate ways. Woorin softly, but briskly made her way over to the long table and scanned it to see where she could place the plastic tray of baked goods. After finding a spot and placing it there, Woorin turned around to find her friend when she almost ran into another body, but was quick to react and move out of their way. It was Nayoung's boyfriend, Mark. 

To this day, Woorin still didn't really like Mark as she felt he was kind of sketchy and weird, but she kept her dislike under the surface and only voiced her thoughts whenever it was just her and Nayoung. If he made her friend happy and wasn't an asshole from what she could tell, then she could allow Nayoung that happiness and not ruin it for her just because she didn't like the guy.

"Hi, Woorin." Mark greeted her with a smile as Woorin did the same, but out of politeness. "Hey, Mark."

"It's good to see you. Didn't think you'll show up to one of these since you haven't attended the past ones. How are you?"

"I'm good and I wasn't, but thought I'll see how it is nowaways. You?"

"I'm doing fine. Is Nayoung around as I'm assumed she invited you?"

"Yeah, she did. She's at the gift table. Nayoung didn't want to come alone since you had something to do before you came here."

"Oh yeah, I did. I just had to pick up Jinyoung from the airport. He should be around here, somewhere."

"Ah, Jinyoung. You invited him?"

"Of course since he'll be coming back to work at The Street again, but at the Itaewon location instead of the one here in Cheongdam."

"I see. That's good. That's real good." Woorin changed the topic. "Anyways, yeah, Nayoung should be putting her gift away and I'm gotta use the restroom."

"Okay. Thanks. It was good seeing you."

"Yeah, likewise."

The two bid one another goodbye as Mark made his way in the direction of where the gifts were while Woorin made a beeline towards the exit. Woorin only came to the party in support of her friend who has worked since it opened, but it was also because she knew that Jinyoung wasn't going to be here at the party. He hasn't been able to attend the previous ones, too, and so she thought she was in the clear. Woorin used to work at The Street located in Cheongdam of where she met Jinyoung. The two were a couple before their breakup three years ago and it didn't end on good terms.

Although Woorin came here with Nayoung and may not have recognized the new faces, but she didn't feel like staying after all knowing there was one face she'll have to look at again knowing memories would resurface without her permission. Unfortunately for Woorin, her escape was intercepted by four familiar faces.

"Oh ho ho. Is that our little Woorin?" Taecyeon cooed upon recognizing her first with the largest grin on his face.

"It is." Minjun confirmed with a gummy smile. "I didn't think we'll be see you again after so long."

"Yeah, hey, hi guys." Woorin awkwardly greeted them. "I just dropped off the food for Nayoung. I was just leaving."

"Already?" Nichkhun frowned. "You just got here. We actually have more games and raffles going on this year. You should stay."

"Um, I dunno. It might be awkward."

"Nonsense. Come along." Wooyoung said as he took a hold of her forearm and pulled her along to where everyone was gathering while leaning down to whisper his next words. "Did you bring any chicken?"

"Wooyoung. We have loads of chicken coming in a few minutes." Minjun stated with a roll of his eyes. "Stop bothering the kids about it."

"I just wanted to know. Can't have enough chicken at these things."

Woorin just continued to smile politely as she got dragged along, but trying to get her arm out from Wooyoungs grip was a lot harder when Taecyeon was on her other side with his smiling face that pulled her in to just go with the flow. Woorin gave up and just hoped she didn't have to interact with Jinyoung at all.

"Limbo Queen! Limbo Queen! Limbo Queen!"

Nayoung began the chant to cheer and annoy Woorin as she and five others were still in the running to see how low they could go for limbo. Before Woorin quit, her record was at 36 inches and since then no one has been able to beat it except coming close to it. Woorin cast a glare in her friend's direction only to receive a smirk in response. The crowd began to cheer for the contenders as they limbo underneath the 48 inches, but Minho and Felix were unable to complete it as they ended up falling onto their backs. Now it was just Woorin, Momo, Sana, and Mina left.

"Since we have our reigning queen, Woorin, here with us, let's just go straight to thirty-six inches." Chansung announced happily as everyone agreed except Woorin.

"No, no, no. It's supposed to be forty-four inches next." Woorin informed as her back was starting to hurt and she was glad she opted out of wearing heels in favor of flats. "How about we just end the game and move on to the next one?"

"Should we do what Woorin said?" Chansung asked the crowd as they all disagreed and he smiled at Woorin. "Sorry. The crowd wants what they want."

He and Junho lowered the bar to 36 inches while motioning for the quartet to go on through with giddily expressions. Woorin let out a breath and knew she shouldn't have said yes to Nayoung. She forgot how the managers were persistent in games and such. Woorin mustered up a smile and tiredly bent backwards to maneuvered under the rainbow bar and slowly, but successfully completed the 36 inches. Woorin realized after doing so how much it ached once she was upright and memories from the last time she did it she was like three years younger.

The cheers were loud for Woorin and even louder as the next trio of girls went next. Momo went next and she almost completed it, but she lost her footing and shot out a hand to grab at the bar to catch her fall. This caused her to be eliminated. Sana went next as she kept going up to the bar, but eventually she just gave up as she knew that she wouldn't be able to go that low. Mina was next and for the last three years she was unable to actually complete the stage and only able to complete 38 inches instead.

This year, Mina psyched herself up along with the cheers of her fellow crew and she ended up successfully being able to limbo the 36 inches. Woorin noticed again since they started the whole limbo thing how Mina bent backwards and slowly inched her way under the colorful bar. This got Woorin thinking of an idea that she hoped would end her record to crown someone else. Plus, limbo caused too much commotion for her liking and she only ever went through with it was because she got caught up in the moment.

"Alright, alright. It's definitely best of the best now." Chansung announced as he motioned to the last two contestants with a grin. "It's down to current three year in a row champion, Mina, and three years ago and record holder champion, Woorin."

"Who is it going to be this year? Mina or Woorin?" Junho added with a eye-smile. "Let's find out as we'll drop it down to 32 inches which neither of the two have been able to get to or complete."

Woorin motioned for Mina to go on first with a smile. Mina smiled back with a nod as she went to try the new settings. It was close to either fail or succeed, but Mina eventually was able to pass on through and complete it. Although the pressure was on Woorin, she played along and let out a worry breath as she stared at the new lowered bar, but slowly attempted it. She bent her back as low as she could while trying to pass underneath the bar, but at the last second her head bumped into the bar. Everyone let out disappointed words, but Woorin just smiled as she congratulated Mina in being the new record holder as well as third time champion.

"Congrats as the overall Limbo Queen!" Woorin congratulated Mina as Mina thanked her. "Thank you and you're a worthy opponent, Woorin."

"You're welcome and likewise."

As they moved on to the next game and everyone's attention elsewhere, Woorin thankfully made her way to the food table without any disturbances although she did massaged her lower back while doing so. Except for one person as Nayoung joined her shortly afterwards.

"You lost on purpose didn't you?" Nayoung asked while nudging Woorin.

"What? No I did not. Why would you say such a thing, Nayoung? I would never do such a thing. Ever." Woorin denied sarcastically with a smile while casting Nayoung a look. "My back was starting to ache though. I'm getting old."

"We're the same age. If you're saying your old, then I'm old, too."

"You are."

"True."

"Anyways," Woorin returned her attention to back what she was doing as she scanned the items for what she wanted to eat. "Now, what should I eat?"

Nayoung nudged Woorin again while speaking. "Anyways, have you noticed who's been staring at you since we began?"

"Nope. Don't know who you're talking about."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not. I don't care."

"Yeah, right. You've been avoiding him since the party started."

"It's not avoiding. It's ignoring. There's a difference."

"Oh, c'mon. Same difference either way. It's been like three years. Not like you guys didn't know that you guys broke up."

"That's the thing, Nayoung. We said some not so nice things that just ended the relationship on the spot and we left it like that."

"Bruh, and you forgot to tell me that part?"

"Because it doesn't include you."

"True."

Just as Nayoung was about to change the topic to something else she heard her name being called and rushed over after telling Woorin to stick around some more. Woorin just rolled her eyes as she piled her plate with some goodies before grabbing a few water bottles and headed somewhere else where there was no one else to have her stick around. Woorin actually wandered out of the party venue and up a flight of stairs knowing where she wanted to go. It led her to the rooftop and she was thankful that it wasn't snowing and that the weather wasn't super cold for her to not hang outside since she didn't want to go back inside.

Woorin walked towards the edge and set her plate and bottles on the ground before leaning her arms on the ledge to stare at the city lights. There was just something about the night time setting that always put her at ease. She looked towards the sky and barely managed to spy a few of the stars twinkling down at the city, but it didn't lose it's calming effect on her. Woorin turned her gaze towards the streets below and wondered when was the last time she was able to just relax and enjoyed the scenery around her like. Too lost in her own thoughts and relaxation, Woorin didn't hear or notice another person joining her until he spoke.

"I see that some things never changed." Jinyoung commented as Woorin slowly turned to look at her ex-boyfriend who was also gazing at the city lights.

His profile remained the same as she last remembered, yet different somehow. Woorin's eyes returned forward as she didn't respond and just gazed at the people and car below. The silence between them wasn't awkward as she had expected. It felt like time had never changed with what had occurred between them three years ago.

"If I recall," Jinyoung suddenly spoke, but kept his eyes ahead of him, "We first met on the rooftop of The Street and grew closer after that day. Didn't we?"

Woorin was on her lunch break and had taken it on the work's rooftop. No one really spent time here as they preferred to go out somewhere or spend it in the office chatting with the bosses. So for her she called it her own little personal hangout whenever work got stressful or the co-workers got annoying. Today, Woorin just needed time away from the annoying customers that bugged her earlier and the reason on why Nayoung told her to go take a breather because of it. So here she was casually taking a breather and people watching below. Woorin enjoyed it the most when she didn't really have to interact with other people and dealing with their orders and compliants.

A few minutes later Woorin's quiet moment was interrupted when she heard the door slammed open and a male voice sputtering angry words into the afternoon air. She languidly turned her head to look over her shoulder at who it could be and saw that it was one of the new guys that was recently hired a week or two ago. Woorin coudn't recall his name, but if her memory served her right with Nayoung's updates about all things work related then he should be Jinyoung. If not him, then it would be the other guy named Jaebeom. Woorin wasn't sure as she hasn't gotten the chance to work with either of them yet, but then again she didn't really care for the newbies until she had to deal with them during her shift.

Woorin returned her gaze back to people watching as the guy hadn't noticed Woorin as he continued to pace angrily while muttering to himself continuously nonstop. She didn't want to eavesdrop, but it was kind of hard not to when she was still within the vicinity of hearing him rant. Letting out a long sigh after checking her phone to see how much longer she had before her break was over before turning to look at the guy again.

"Hey." Woorin called out to him which got his attention and making him even more alert than before. "If you wanna rant, then please do it elsewhere or more quietly. Some of us are trying to enjoy the peaceful quietness of this afternoon weather before returning to work and dealing with customers. Thanks."

Woorin shot him a forced smile before resuming her thing before he came along.

"I can rant however I like. This space isn't just yours to use." Jinyoung retorted.

Woorin didn't bother turning around, but she did held up her hand to wave at the air in a whatever motion.

"Sure, yeah, whatever. Go ahead, but don't blame me if something happens to you."

Jinyoung joined Woorin at the ledge and she slightly edged away not liking her personal bubble being invaded. She also didn't bother to pay him any attention and continued with her people watching until her lunch break was over.

"Is that a threat? Do I need to file a compliant with one of the bosses about that?" Jinyoung inquired. "Are you someone I should be cautious of?"

Woorin lazily looked over at him with a bored look. Before she could give him answers her phone's alarm beeped indicating that her break was over. She pushed off from the ledge while backing away with a smile directed at Jinyoung before turning around and heading back down to resume her shift.

"Hey, wait! I'm being serious here!" Jinyoung called after her, but Woorin just waved him off and exited the rooftop without a second glance in his direction.

Woorin let out a scoff with a roll of her eyes and a laugh. "No, Jinyoung. Not exactly."

"Oh, right. I remember now. You bullied me for the next few weeks after that incident." Jinyoung stated with a small smile.

"Not even. I had to clean up after you so many times that you could keep your job even though I don't get why I even did that." Woorin glared at him. "I don't know anyone who could've fucked up so many times on the Beaver Tail Choco Banana. It's so easy to make and set up."

"Why are you getting so worked up about that?" Jinyoung laughed. "That was like years ago."

"Because every time you messed up it came out of my paycheck." Woorin revealed and Jinyoung frowned. "Wait, seriously?"

Woorin didn't answer him and faced the night sky instead.

"Woorin." Jinyoung called for her attention, but she didn't give in as Jinyoung continued speaking anyways. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it didn't matter." Woorin replied.

"Yes it did. You got shorted when it was all my fault and you could have easily paid for your schooling faster."

"It's all in the past, Jinyoung. Forget about it."

"Ho-"

"I said to forget about it, Jinyoung. Okay?"

Jinyoung dropped the subject as the silence fell between them again. This time there was a slight shift in the air and after a moment or two, Jinyoung didn't want it to come between them again.

"So why did you agreed to go on a date with me when I caused you to probably hated my guts entirely?"

"Can you like not schedule me and Jinyoung on the same shift?" Woorin asked Nayoung one day as the two were at Nayoung's house watching a drama.

"What's wrong with working with Jinyoung?" Nayoung asked turning to face her friend.

Woorin looked over at her with an annoyed look. "He's still messing up despite working there for like four months now. I hate cleaning up after him."

"That's weird. He's been doing fine when I work with him. The same with Ayeon and Nakjoon, too. He works just fine when we're on the same shift with Jinyoung."

Both Nayoung and Woorin returned their attention back onto the TV.

"He's probably messing with me then since him and I didn't have a good first impression. Then again, he's an idiot and I'm just done with yelling at the new kids."

"No, Woorin. You can't be like that. You have to teach and nuture these kids." Nayoung mused from what their big boss would tell them.

Woorin shook her head while letting out a frustrated breath. "Hell no. He's fucking up so much that I'm getting my paycheck cut."

"I thought you talked to Mr. Park about all of that."

"Yeah, I did, but he just told me that he'll reimbursed me at the end of the year for all of that."

"That's dumb. You're supposed to wait until the end of the year to get your money back?"

"I know and something like that, yeah."

"But paying for school isn't a big deal, right?"

"No. Mr. Park and I had worked something out and so it's going well for now."

"Okay, good to know. Anyways, maybe you make Jinyoung nervous?"

"Nervous how? I'm the one that helps him the most even when there's others that can do that. Like you."

"Maybe he has a crush on you." Nayoung mused as Woorin rolled her eyes. "This isn't grade school, Nayoung."

"Hmm, that's not what Mark's been telling me."

"Can I even trust your boyfriend's words?"

Nayoung rolled her eyes. "I know you don't like him a whole lot, but he's not that bad."

"I dunno. He's shady as fuck."

"You just don't like him because he broke your laptop that one time."

"Yeah, because he broke my laptop. Mine. Not his. Mine." Woorin defended and clarified. "How is someone gonna break someone else's property just because he got angry that he lost in World of Warcraft?"

"He did said that he was either gonna fix it or buy you a new one to make up for it." Nayoung reminded Woorin. "But you refused his offer."

"I know. Maybe I shoudn't have because I ended up turning in my essay late that week."

"You passed the class didn't you?"

"I did, but I had to spend my hours in the library without my laptop."

"Anyways, back on the other topic," Nayoung said as she returned them both onto the topic of Jinyoung, "Don't you think it's kind of obvious that he's messing up so that he could get your attention?"

"That's a dumbass way to get a girl's attention by fucking up so many times and deducting her paycheck."

"Shit, I dunno. Why not ask him?"

"Yeah, right. I ain't gonna ask his ass about that."

"Maybe you don't have to." Nayoung grinned mischievously while holding her phone for Woorin to see the screen. "How about a double date then?"

"Is that why you and I were each other's date on their date that day?" Jinyoung asked with a laugh as the memory came to mind.

"Uh, correction. You and I were third and fourth-wheeling that night. We weren't on a date." Woorin clarified. "We just happened to enjoy the other's company without feeling hostile and annoyed."

"By hostile and annoyed, you meant yourself, right?"

"You're still annoying as ever."

Jinyoung chuckled as Woorin side-eyed him.

"I wondered what made me fall for you."

Jinyoung stopped chuckling and looked over at her with a small smile.

"Wasn't it my good charms and fashion sense?"

Woorin shook her head with a laugh.

"Not even. Those were just bonuses."

"Oh, really? Tell me more."

"Shut up. Don't get all smug about it."

Jinyoung laughed once more before speaking again. "Well, why you're still wondering what made you fall for me, should I tell you what made me fall for you?"

"You're staring again." Jaebeom said as he nudged Jinyoung to focus on the task at hand.

"Was it obvious?" Jinyoung asked while glancing around the work space.

"Not to her at least." Jaebeom chuckled before looking at the dessert plate that Jinyoung had been working on before making an unsure face. "I don't know what you're gonna do, but you're gonna have to fix that and fast before Woorin finds out you messed up again."

Jinyoung glanced down at the Beaver Tail Choco Banana plate he was working on for a customer and groaned.

"Where's BamBam when I need him. He can totally distract her and make her forget all the messed up I made today."

"Too bad he's off. Jackson does a pretty good job.

"Not today. She sent him to the store because she couldn't handle his excessive chatter today. Ugh, she's gonna kill me."

"She can't. She doesn't want to be a murderer or go to jail."

"Why would you say something like that?"

"Because I heard her muttered it one time the other day when you dropped the mac and cheese in front of the customer and then served another customer the ham and cheese sandwich when it wasn't even theirs."

Jinyoung closed his eyes in frustration while letting out a groan. He wasn't sure why he was messing up so much and more today than any other days, but for some reason Woorin was seriously a major distraction on his part.

"I'm surprised Woorin has this much patience and controlled of her anger to deal with how much you've fucked up since you started." Jaebeom stated with a laugh as Jinyoung cast him an annoyed look. "Me, too, but I'm completely fine when she's not working. I don't mess up at all."

"Maybe she makes you nervous, Jinyoung." Jaebeom reasoned, but grinned mischievously. "In a different way than normal."

"You might be right, Jaebeom." Jinyoung agreed with a defeated sigh. "There's no way another human being can have that high enough tolerance of my clumsiness without wanting to throttle me to death by now."

"I just gotta ask man, but what is it that you like about Woorin?"

"She's very patient and has high tolerance of others. Also, she's kinda cute when she's mad."

"Wow, but hey, if you think of Woorin like that, then shouldn't you be thinking of a way on how to make it up to her?"

"Oh, so you're the culprit that would leave me a caramel latte in my locker before my shift?" Woorin accused Jinyoung with a look.

"Yes. That was me and before I knew that you didn't like coffee." Jinyoung explained. "I could only assume since that's what you would order before you left home."

"I only bought that for Nayoung because she likes that."

"Do you do everything that Nayoung asks?" Jinyoung mused as Woorin scoffed. "No. Just when I need her to get off my back."

"Besides, I already had a feeling it was you who left them there." Woorin admitted with a small chuckle.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jinyoung asked in shocked. "I would have changed the drink or maybe got you a dessert instead."

"Because you were happy in doing something small for me and I didn't want to ruin that for you. It was kind of cute and sweet." Woorin admitted. "Plus, Nayoung got her free drink and in return she would give me mine."

"Which would be the winter-melon and almond bubble tea."

"Yeah."

Woorin was gonna allow another moment of silence fall between them, but Jinyoung once again wouldn't allow it.

"So why did we break up?"

"Because you wanted to travel and I wanted to stay here." Woorin answered without hesitation.

"Woorin! Woorin! I did it! I did it! It happened! It actually happened and I actually got accepted!" Jinyoung exclaimed as he entered The Street with his acceptance letter in hand while Woorin was in the middle of making a caramel latte art.

"Hold on, Jinyoung." Woorin told her boyfriend as she was in the midst of finishing the drink.

"Okay, Chan, here you go, but please be careful with it." She informed another co-worker as she set the small cup onto a small plate for Chan to run it out. "Please make sure this customer gets the toast all warmed up, too. She's very particular of her order. Thanks."

"Already took care of the toast, Woorin. Thanks." Chan stated with a bright smile before running out the order.

 Woorin finally turned her attention onto Jinyoung. "So what's up?"

"Here!"

Jinyoung enthusiastically shoved the letter into his girlfriend's hands as Woorin scanned the content of the letter before flashing a smile at her boyfriend.

"Wow, congratulations, Jinyoung! I'm super happy you got accepted to Juilliard. That's super fantastic."

"I know and I can't wait for the both of us to travel to New York City this summer so that you can see where we'll be staying for fall semester and-"

"Whoa, whoa, Jinyoung. Slow down." Woorin said with furrowed eyebrows. "What do you mean by us?"

"You're gonna come with me right?" Jinyoung asked with a curious expression. "It's everything we've been talking about for months now."

"Well, yeah, Jinyoung, but that was for you. Not me."

"I don't get it."

"Jinyoung, I don't want to leave Seoul."

"I applied to Juilliard so that we could travel and see things outside of Seoul, Woorin."

"That's nice, Jinyoung, but I never told you that I wanted to travel outside of Seoul though. I thought we were going to try the whole long distance relationship thing."

"No, Woorin. We were going to stay together and do things together without being apart from one another."

"But Jinyoung, we never really talked about it. That's just you assuming what's best for the both of us."

"Well, at least I'm thinking about our future."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You've been so busy lately that you cancelled on our dates six times already. Plus I haven't even gotten the chance to hangout and cuddle with my girlfriend without work or schoolwork getting in the way of it. I some times wonder if I even have a girlfriend at all."

"Well, I'm sorry that I've been a bad girlfriend, Jinyoung, alright. Also, I'm more focused on working to make money to pay for my schooling to get a higher education, too. Not all of us have Daddy and Mommy paying for it without worrying about it."

"And I offered to help you out with that, but you're so stubborn to accept it."

"Offering to pay for my schooling is totally and absolutely hella different than paying for our dinner dates, Jinyoung."

"It's the same difference, Woorin. They're both getting paid for in the end. Right?"

"That's not how relationships work, Jinyoung." Woorin let out an exasperated sigh.

"Maybe this relationship between us isn't working out after all." Jinyoung reasoned in all seriousness.

Woorin shot him a slightly hurt look. "Is that how you feel about us?"

"Some times, yes, I do." Jinyoung admitted honestly.

Woorin scoffed. "You're unbelievable."

The tension in the air caused Woorin to finally take noticed of her surrounding when she felt a tap on her shoulder from one of her co-workers.

"Um, Woorin, I need change in register two." Jae informed her a bit hesitantly. "I'm out of five hundred won coins."

"Yeah, um here." Woorin said as she handed Jae her keys to take care of it. "It's the smaller one with green markings on it."

"Thanks."

Jae scurried away to leave her and Jinyoung to their own thing. Once he left, Woorin realized that she and Jinyoung were still out in the open of The Street and saw that the other workers and customers could hear their conversation and see that the couple were having a lover's spat. She hated when personal things happened at work like this and needed to get it under control.

"Look, Jinyoung," Woorin returned her attention onto Jinyoung, "Let's talk about this later. I still have to work." Woorin suggested with a pleading look. "OK?"

"We never got to talk later, did we?" Jinyoung asked with a regretful tone.

"No, we didn't." Woorin confirmed matching his tone.

The two didn't look at one another as they kept their attention to the view before them. Allowing the memories of the past to fill in the space around them once again. That night when they were supposed to talk about the whole New York City thing, Woorin had to stayed late and closed because Nayoung got food poisoning and couldn't work. As for Jinyoung he had to pack and get ready for his trip overseas and had to take care of the necessary paperwork.

Eventually in the end life got the better for the both of them and they were unable to find the time to work it out and have that talk. By the time the two did have time, Jinyoung was already miles away in another country and Woorin had just finished her final exams. It was too late for a talk and so it was too late to mend the bond between them. Their relationship ended then and there at The Street and neither wanted to give in and contact the other to talk it out.

"You wanna know something?" Jinyoung suddenly asked as Woorin answered promptly. "Not really."

Jinyoung rolled his eyes as Woorin chuckled. "What is it? You're gonna tell me anyways."

"I wanted to call you these past three years, but I figured that I would be fine and that the feelings would fade over time. It never did."

Woorin didn't respond and Jinyoung continued taking her silence as a positive thing.

"I wanted to see if you were doing fine, Woorin. I really wanted to know if you were happy and living life without me in it or if you were just as miserable as I was knowing that the person you loved wasn't right by you." Jinyoung admitted as he confessed his thoughts and feelings over the past three years.

"Well, you've seen me and I'm just peachy." Woorin shot him a smile, but Jinyoung noticed that it didn't reach her eyes.

"Are you though?"

"It's life, Jinyoung. I lived and got through it. I'm still here, aren't I? It wasn't easy, but I was able to live my life and I don't regret it. Maybe, except for one thing."

"Would that one thing be about us?" Jinyoung asked hopefully. "Because honestly, I kept thinking about the last conversation we had and realized they were said out of frustration and that we were still young in love, but I regretted how we ended that day three years ago."

"I get it, Jinyoung. I really do and maybe it was or maybe it wasn't. Still, we had our own paths to take and live. Life got in the way when we made our decisions to do so. That's the only way we'll flourish without someone or something holding us back from recognizing that."

"I thought relationships were always about compromises and that's why you and I were unable to agree with what was right for the both of us at the time."

"No, Jinyoung, that wasn't it."

"Then what was it, Woorin?"

"Our relationship fell through because we didn't collaborate right."

"Huh?"

Jinyoung was confused by what Woorin meant and at that moment the both of them turned to look at the other.

"It's all about the collaboration between two people working on it together without losing themselves, Jinyoung. If we compromised all the time, then we would always lose a bit of ourselves over time in doing so."

"Is that what happened to us?" Jinyoung genuinely asked. "Did we compromised too much that we ended up losing one another?"

Woorin shook her head with a sad smile before answering him. "No, Jinyoung. We didn't do either. We just went with the flow without any direction of how our future together would be like and assume in our own way of what would be best for us."

"Well, that was then, Woorin." Jinyoung cast her a smile. "How about now?"

"You seriously want us to start dating again?" Woorin asked not sure if she should amused him or not.

"Yeah. Why not? We didn't leave on good terms the last time we saw each other and it's been like three years since then. I think we can start a whole new chapter or maybe even another book to the series." Jinyoung reasoned before casting her a charming smile. "Besides, you haven't told me why you fell for me in the first place."

"Okay, another chapter or a book. Wow." Woorin laughed at the idea before biting her bottom lip as a giggle escaped. "I honestly don't know, but I do know that I just liked you, Jinyoung. I probably still do and maybe why I even tolerated your presence again."

"Well, I'm going to take that as a good thing because I still like you, too, Woorin."

The pair genuinely smiled at one another having righted their little mishap three years ago. Jinyoung took one of Woorin's hand in his and just as he was about to do something, the rooftop's door banged opened revealing two of their ex-co-workers, Youngjae and Jimin.

"Hey, it's so pretty up here. Wow, it's amazing." Youngjae said in awe with Jimin beside him. "Yeah, I told you that you could see the night sky and the city lights below. Yerin mentioned it last time when she was up here."

The new duo were about to walk towards the ledge and explore the rooftop before catching the other pair and sheepishly apologized.

"Oh, we're sorry. Didn't think anyone else was up here." Jimin apologized while tugging on Youngjae's hand. "Let's go, Youngjae, and leave them alone."

"Yeah, sorry. We didn't mean to interrupt anything important going on between the two of you." Youngjae apologized as he let Jimin tug him away.

Before Woorin could correct the duo's misunderstanding, Jinyoung beat her to it, but continuing the misunderstanding.

"C'mon, Youngjae and Jimin. Woorin and I just made up and were about to kiss."

"Okay, okay, okay! We're leaving and we won't tell anyone to disturb you guys." Youngjae informed them with a laugh as Jimin waved at them with a bright smile. "Congratulations on getting back together you two."

"Thank you!" Jinyoung thanked the duo as the door slammed closed once they left.

"You're such a liar!" Woorin lightly punched him in the arm with her free hand. "That's not what we were doing at all."

"Which part? The getting back together, the making up, or the kissing one?"

"Neither." Woorin deadpanned trying to release her grip from Jinyoung's as he chuckled, but firmly held onto her hand with a mischievous expression.

"I'm pretty sure it was two of them and then the third one I was gonna do just now before those two came and interrupted us."

"You're such a jerk, Jinyoung. I can't believe you were gonna steal a kiss so soon after making up and what not." Woorin eyed him suspiciously while trying to move away from him. "I'm re-thinking this whole us thing again. I think I wanna end it with the last chapter and discontinued the book series."

"No, no, no. What happened to the whole collaborating thing?"

"I dunno, but we can talk tomorrow. Just let me eat my food even though it's like cold by now." Woorin said as she removed her hand out from Jinyoung's and went to pick up the plate she had brought earlier with her. "Yeah? Seems like a good idea, no?"

"That depends, Woorin. Are you gonna be the one that goes overseas and I stay in Seoul this time around?"

"I'm pretty sure Seoul is gonna continue being home for a long while, Jinyoung. I'm not going anywhere."

"Good, because returning home now seems more welcoming than ever before."

"I'm sure it is." Woorin commented with a knowing smile before picking up a chocolate covered strawberry and offering it to Jinyoung.

Jinyoung opened his mouth indicating for Woorin to feed him. She rolled her eyes, but stuffed the treat into his mouth with a laugh. Jinyoung covered his mouth with one hand as he ate the thing whole, but smiled nevertheless knowing that he and Woorin were good again. Good again to start another chapter of their lives, but this time with each other in it.

[seanomahony-blog1]

The Changing Web - ‘Web 3.0, 4.0 & Blockchain Technology’

THE CHANGING WEB

‘Web 3.0, 4.0 & Blockchain Technology’

Table of Contents

Intro - Review of Blockchain Technology ................................................  3

Bitcoin Definition ...................................................................................... 4

How it Works ............................................................................................ 4

Impact of Blockchain Technology ............................................................ 5

The Black Market ..................................................................................... 5

DApps & Smart Contracts ........................................................................ 5

Banking Sector ......................................................................................... 6

Reflection on the Evolution of Blockchain Technology ............................ 7

Unbanked and Undocumented ... ............................................................ 7

Business ................................................................................................... 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................... 8

The Changing Web – ‘Web 3.0, 4.0 and Blockchain Technology’

“A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks (the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in chronological order, it allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions without central record-keeping. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically.”i

Intro - Review of Blockchain Technology

In late 2017, a cauldron started to boil similar to the ‘dot com’ bubble of the 1990s and 2000s as billions of dollars poured into the unregulated, ‘wild west’ of cryptocurrency markets. Millions of people worldwide, traded ‘cryptos’ using exchanges based in Hong Kong, China and New Zealand.

As Large amounts of capital flooded into these volatile markets prices could shoot-up or drop off the bat of a single tweet, or Reddit post. ‘Noobs’ were encouraged to ‘HODL’, a purposely misspelt acronym - ‘hold on for dear life’, and not to panic sell as prices would eventually recover. Like wall street on amphetamines, a week in crypto markets were equivalent to a month on the NASDAQ. Market leader ‘Bitcoin’ at one-point hit $21,000 a coin (in December 2013 it was trading in the mid $300s).ii Like all bubbles, it eventually popped in mid-January and a lot of capital changed hands. A classic gold rush, those who got in early made money and those who were late to the party generally got scalded.

But what are these crypto-currencies? Why have they become so popular in recent years? Are they important to the development of digital technology? And if so, why? In order to understand it’s development, we need to go back to the financial crash of 2008 where elusive and enigmatic creator ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ first conceived Bitcoin.iii

Roots and Political Importance

2008 was a devastating year for financial markets as the world economy collapsed due to reckless lending practices and a deregulated credit market caused a huge bubble that eventually burst, destroying the U.S. economy, leaving millions homeless and wreaked havoc in Europe, especially Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy. Due to this, many began to distrust centralized financial institutions, seeking safer alternatives. This is when Bitcoin was born. In 2013, Cypriots fearing the safety of their bank deposits drove the price of bitcoin up 87% in March of 2013. iv 13,000 miles away from and 2 months later in June of 2013, and13,000 miles away in Hong Kong former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents to the Guardian and Washington Post exposing the American National Security Agency’s spy program PRISM “which forces biggest US internet companies to hand over data on domestic users” and “collects over 25 million email inbox views and contact lists a year from online services like Yahoo, Gmail and Facebook” encouraging people to become aware of how their data is being collected and and the importance of encryption as a necessary protection in our day to day lives (these leaks have paved the way to the recent GDPR data protection act in Europe earlier this year).v At the same time as these leaks, libertarian Ross Ulbricht (arrested in October of 2013) was running a multi-million global online drug and weapon bazaar on the dark web called the Silk Road. This network was fueled by bitcoin.

It’s important to note the political climate and general public sentiment between 2008 and 2013 to understand the blockchain space today as it demonstrates a psychological shift as distrust in banks were at an all time generational low which has paved the way forthe ‘post-trust’ economy blooming today.

Bitcoin Definition

“Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency, which is used and distributed electronically. Bitcoin is adecentralized peer-to-peer network. No single institution or person controls it. Bitcoins can’tbe printed and their amount is very limited – only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be created.”vi

Bitcoin is a monumentally important development in both financial and digital history for the simple reason that it is a trustless payment system with no central governing body.

How it Works

Understanding how bitcoin works is fundamental to understanding blockchain technology and what I believe the future of web development, the basics of which are easy to understand –

Any given blockchain consists of a single chain of information, arranged in chronological order. In principle this information can be any string of 1s and 0s – emails, contracts, land titles etc.… however in bitcoin's case the information is mostly transactions. Another name for a blockchain is a "distributed ledger" and Bitcoin's ledger is public.Anyone can download it in its entirety or head to any number of sites that parse it. You can

see, for example, that

15N3yGu3UFHeyUNdzQ5sS3aRFRzu5Ae7EZ sent 0.01718427 bitcoin to 1JHG2qjdk5Khiq7X5xQrr1wfigepJEK3t on August 14, 2017, between 11:10 and 11:20 a.m.vii

Person A sent X bitcoin to person B, who sent Y bitcoin to person C, etc. If this was through an online banking service, the bank, or both banks (if they have separate banks) would validate the transaction. Bitcoin transactions are different because they are decentralized.

In other words, everyone keeps an eye on everyone else. No one needs to know or trust anyone as transactions are validated through a distributed consensus system called ‘mining’, which enforces a chronological order to the blockchain, protecting the neutrality of the network, and allows different computers to agree on the state of the system, or in simple terms, a global network of computers set-up to automatically validate transactions in chronological order. Every transaction is recorded by a distributed public ledger of which each miner has a copy (automatically downloaded after each transaction). This makes the system difficult to corrupt. viii ix

Impact of Blockchain Technology

The Black Market

In the early days, bitcoin had a huge impact on the black market and became known as a medium of exchange for illegal activities online. A new kind of drug dealer was born. Most famously is a man named Ross Ulbricht (inspired by the Austrian economic theory of Ludwig Von Mises and Murray Rothbard), set-up and ran the Silk Road, an online international illegal drug and weapons bazaar similar to Ebay and Amazon where buyers, sellers and their product would be rated through a user review system. This website was run on bitcoin as it allowed frictionless cross-boarder payments between buyers and sellers. Many pubs also started to accept BTC as payment, and in 2010 Papa Johns once accepted a bitcoin payment for pizza in the US.x xi

In recent years a number of ‘privacy coins’ have sprung up such as Dash, Monero and Verge. Monero is similar to Bitcoin however, payments are scrambled 3 times before being recorded on the Monero ledger making it near impossible to trace payments, providing an ideal medium of exchange for illegal activities. Verge is an interesting one, as it has both a private and public ledger, and you can choose to switch between them depending on what you are purchasing. Verge partnered with adult entertainment giant ‘Pornhub’ earlier this year allowing anonymous safe anonymous payments for pornography.

DApps & Smart Contracts

Although still a minority sport, the influence of crypto currencies began to trickle into the technology sector with the emergence of new coins such as Litecoin and Swiftcoin in 2011, (which can perform transactions much faster than its predecessor). However, 2015 saw the biggest change in the cryptocurrency space that would have a huge influence on the technology sector. The birth of Ethereum, a planetary scale computer powered by blockchain technology” was the first decentralized application blockchain that allows developers to build and release applications on the network. While the Bitcoin blockchain facilitates electronic cash payments, the Ethereum blockchain facilitates the running of code on any decentralized application, so as bitcoin is a new currency and accepted as a medium of exchange, ‘ether’ is gas to fuel the applications. xii

Imagine all of Google’s servers in one place, then break them up into virtual tokens (ether) and distribute them to people across the world. Each token is a node on the Ethereum network and the aggregate grid of these nodes now becomes the world’s largest web server, like a brand new internet system.

DApps are made possible by ‘Smart Contract’ technology -

“A contract is an agreement having a lawful contract entered into voluntarily by two or more parties, each of whom intends to create one or more legal contracts between them. A smart contract is a computer protocol that facilitates, verifies, or enforces the negotiation of a contract, or that obviate the need for a contractual clause” Smart contracts eliminate the need for a middle-man or third party, so any application that is centralized, a decentralized version can be made. For example, a decentralized version of

Dropbox is called Storj. Storj allows anyone around the world to lease out hard-drive space to anyone using the Storj protocol.

As a user, your experience is similar to that of Dropbox as I am accessing hard drive space in the cloud, however it isn’t governed by a central body. Storj is run on the Ethereum network using EC20 tokens. Ethereum and other Dapp and Smart Contract blockchains are important because the public distributed ledger technology allows no third party interference and no censorship, which could revolutionize law and voting practices and make society and private business a fairer place. New organisations and companies are competing with Ethereum to become the first mainstream DApp network, mostly importantly EOS and Cardano.

Banking Sector

The banking system as we know it has been disrupted by crypto-currencies and many banks such as Santander, JP Morgan Singapore and Bank of America are beginning to adopt this new technology.xiii Bitcoin was embryonic in the development of this space because it clunky and slow, however paradoxically, it paved the way for 2 important currencies are Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) which have become important in the development in the movement of money, particularly the settlement of cross-border payments and digital settlements. The way to understand these currencies or systems, is to think of banks as software companies. These software companies need a safe and secure back-end rail network for their transactions which these currencies allow, For example;

Ripple is a near instantaneous system that facilitates money transfer (partnered with Santander, the first UK bank to introduce blockchain technology, they are also partnered with 61 Japanese banks)xiv xv. For example; if person A sends person B 10XRP it will arrive in person B’s digital wallet almost instantaneously, or if bank A wants to send bank B $1 million, it will be converted into XRP momentarily and back into $ on the other end. So in this way XRP is used as a medium of settlement. Ripple is also a centralized blockchain who controls most of it’s supply, the first central bank of cryptocurrency.

Stellar Lumens (originally a hard-fork from Ripple) is a similar protocol however it is completely decentralized and a non-profit organization aims to be the backend lightening railway for P2P money transfers, for example facilitating and speeding up Western Union and Moneygram payments, allowing money to ‘move like email’. IBM have partnered with

Stellar Lumens and have just launched their ‘World Wire Payment System’ which aims to "clear and settle cross-border payments" in near real time and could “drastically improve international transactions and advancing financial inclusion in developing nations."xvi Stellar have also partnered with Deloitte, and Stripe (Stripe are partnered with Open Table) digital payments system.

Reflection on the Evolution of Blockchain Technology

To reflect on the evolution of blockchain technology I will paraphrase Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson – the future will be decentralized (or at least it will be a viable option). I believe that decentralization can do good for the world and help to improve people’s lives in less developed societies. I also see the blockchain and smart contracts as a necessary tool in the evolution in the business world.

Unbanked and Undocumented

Currently approximately 4 billion of the world’s population is banked and documented, and the other 3 billion unbanked and undocumented. Take John for example, an Irish male, 30 years of age, university educated, decent work history, owns a modest house and car, has insurance for both, and has access to relatively cheap credit. Then take Ahmed, a 45-year-old Afghani male who has no formal documentation (passport, driving license, or birth certificate) lives in a cash economy, has no verifiable work history, does not own deeds to his land, and the only credit he has access to is from his friends or family. His brother sends him money from India with a 15% remittance cost, and all his assets are also uninsured.xvii

Blockchain and smart contract technology allow Ahmed to build a digital history, register and store documents such as land deeds in the blockchain regardless of third party threats or the country’s government, once information is in the blockchain, it cannot be taken out. Ahmed’s brother in India, can also send send money at a fraction of a cent over the Stellar network for example which can be accessed almost instantaneously and with a tiny remittance fee. Smart contract technology also allows Ahmed access to decentralized microlending and micro-insurance which in-turn offers Ahmed a chance to develop a credit score.

The next problem is that only 51% of the world’s population is online, so how can Ahmed access these services? As any web service can be decentralized just like mining bitcoin, or using Storj to store files, so can ISPs (internet service providers). So, by using old Wi-Fi hardware or an old mobile phone, Ahmed can be a node on a network providing internet to his community.xviii

Business

Not all blockchains are decentralized, and the private sector has begun to adopt this technology. For example, IOTA, a leading organization in the ‘internet of things’ space is a private blockchain based in Germany and provides a platform for the machine economy (currently working with Samsung and Volkswagen). They have also been funded as part of the EU Horizon 2020 ‘Smart City’ initiative which is overseen by the University of Oslo and aims to make selected European cities produce more energy then they use. The Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba is partnered with Waltonchain, an IoT (internet of things) logistics project which facilitates supply-chain management, and VeChain another private blockchain used for supply-chain management is currently partnered with BMW and DB Schenker.

Governments are also starting to use blockchain technologies, for example;

• Chile are using the Ethereum network to track data and finances from the energy grid.xix

• Canada is testing out the Ethereum blockchain for transparency of government grants as a means to fight corruption.xx

• Britain are testing blockchain technology for registering documents in the national archives.xxi

• Australia is using the blockchain to build a social welfare system.xxii

• Estonia is using the blockchain to secure health records. xxiii

Conclusion

Unfortunately, cryptocurrencies make illegal activity a lot easier. Online drug and weapon bazaars continue to crop up since the Silk Road has been shut down. Currencies such as Monero and Dash are almost impossible to trace, and and anyone who knows what they are doing can access these sites on the Dark web. Overall I believe the shift toward blockchain and smart contract technology to be a positive one and a very important development of our time, leading us into web 3.0 and 4.0.

Although still in it’s early stages, this technology has the power to democratize the internet through decentralization and using smart contracts to protect our data, which in-turn redistributes the power that big corporations Facebook, and Google have accumulated over the years through data collection back into the hands of the individual, protecting people from the potential abuse of power like the Cambridge Analytica scandal which came to light earlier this year.

Politically, this technology is also very important, and can aid in the fight against corruption. For example, the use of the Ethereum network to aid the transparency of government grants and the government of Estonia using the blockchain to secure health records are positive steps toward safer governance. As more and more start to utilize this technology, the potential for data collection by big tech companies and governments operating within legal grey areas will be diminished.

Edward Snowden’s 2013 NSA leaks exposed the extent to which governments and third

parties have access to our personal data which was a wake-up call to many. Following these revelations, Austrian native Max Schrems took on Facebook for being in breach of EU law, which led to the collapse of the ‘Safe Harbour’ data agreement between the EU and US which thousands of companies were using to their advantage. This ultimately resulted in the GDPR law implemented in the EU in 2016. Blockchain and smart contract technology will act as a data protection mechanism in the future and disempower data collection companies through encryption of personal data. As demonstrated the same technology can also be used to protect and aid people in less-developed countries providing access to loans and insurance, and provide a safe place to store data which was previously not easily available.xxiv

At the moment, this space is similar to the internet 1994. It’s too early to tell, but big change appears to be on the horizon as individuals, big companies and governments continue to invest in the blockchain.

Bibliography

i ‘What is a Blockchain?’ (2018), Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

ii ‘Bitcoin Price, a Year In Review’ (2014), Available at: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoinprice-2014-year-review/ (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

iii ‘Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s Enigmatic Creator’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2018/09/01/satoshi-nakamoto-bitcoinsenigmatic-creator (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

iv ‘Bitcoin Price Surges Post-Cyprus Bailout’ (2013), Available at:

https://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/index.html (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

v ‘Edward Snowden Timeline’ (2014), Available at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/edward-snowdentimeline-n114871 (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

vi ‘What is Bitcoin?...’ (2018), Available at: 

https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-forbeginners/what-is-bitcoin#bitcoin-definition (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

vii ‘How Does Bitcoin Work?’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-bitcoin-works/ (Accessed 14 September 2018)

viii ‘Bitcoin Confirmations’ (2018), Available at: http://bitcoins.net/guides/bitcoinconfirmations.asp (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

ix ‘How Does Bitcoin Work?’ (2018), Available at: https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

(Accessed: 14 September 2018)

x ‘He Paid How Much…’ (2014), Available at: https://www.coindesk.com/he-paid-how-muchcoindesk-releases-bitcoin-pizza-day-price-tracker/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xi ‘…Buy Pints Using Bitcoin in Dublin’ (2015), Available at: http://publin.ie/2015/heres-howyou-can-buy-pints-using-bitcoin-in-dublin/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xii ‘Ethereum: The World Computer’ (2015), Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6rYoXJ_3BbPyWx_GQDDRRQ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xiii ‘Comprehensive List of Banks Using Blockchain Technology’ (2018), Available at:

https://hackernoon.com/comprehensive-list-of-banks-using-blockchain-technology-97c08fa88385 (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xiv ‘Ripple Partners with 61 Japanese Banks’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/ripple-partners-61-japanesebanks-develop-domestic-payments-app/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xv ‘Santander Becomes First UK Bank to Introduce Blockchain Technology…’ (2018), Available at: https://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?appID=santander.wc.CFWCSancomQP01&canal=CSCORP&cid=1278712674240&empr=CFWCSancomQP01&leng=pt_PT&pagename=CFWCSancomQP01%2FGSNoticia%2FCFQP01_GSNoticiaDetalleImpresion_PT48 (Accessed: 14

September 2018)

xvi ‘IBM Introduces World Wire Payment System on Stellar Network’ (2018), Available at: 

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/ibm-introduces-world-wire-payment-system-stellarnetwork/

(Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xvii Hoskinson, C, (2014), TedxBermuda, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97ufCT6lQcY

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xviii ‘Global Internet Usage’ (2017), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

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https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/trustworthy-technology-future-digital-archives/

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

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https://www.zdnet.com/article/welfare-payments-in-australia-could-be-delivered-overblockchain/

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

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(Accessed: 16 September 2018)

[edogawatranslations]

999: Alterna (2) - Part 7, Chapter 6

Table of Contents | Previous: Part 7, Chapter 5

Chapter 6

A throaty cackle broke the suffocating silence. It was Ace.

“You’re calling me a murderer? That’s hilarious. To think you'd suspect someone like me."

“I’m not suspecting you. I'm certain it's you.”

“That’s enough of your bullshit,” Ace said, his expression becoming more stern. “What proof do you have?”

“I have three reasons to believe you’re guilty.”

“How laughable. Go ahead, convince me.” Ace issued the challenge with his arms wide open.

I had no choice but to go at him with everything I had.

“Think back to what happened in the large hospital room. A few hours ago, when all seven of us couldn't move forward, you offered to remain behind. Why?”

“Isn’t that obvious? I wished to save everyone else.”

“Nope, that’s wrong. It was because you didn’t want us to discover the corpse in the x-ray room.”

Ace didn’t react. I kept my gaze fixed on him and continued talking. “You knew that if you stayed in the hospital room alone, the other six of us would have no choice but to continue through the [7] and [8] doors.”

“Give me a break,” Ace huffed. “I can understand how you may feel envious of my altruistic actions. However, that is no reason to cast my heroism in a negative light. I simply selflessly desired to save all of your lives.”

“Selflessly? That’s not even close to the truth. You knew that no matter which doors we passed through, we would've looped back to the large hospital room.”

His eyes narrowed. “W-What are you saying? There’s no way I could have known that!”

His body was clearly trembling.

“Well, we’ll leave that at that. I have two other reasons to go through.”

“And those are?”

“The second reason, as I explained a moment ago, is that you're afflicted with prosopagnosia.”

“Are you insinuating that anyone who can’t distinguish people’s faces is inherently evil? That’s quite prejudiced, Junpei.”

“Please. That stupid reason isn’t enough to suspect anyone.”

“Then what are you—”

“Before I explain, there’s something important I should tell you. The body in the x-ray room isn’t Snake’s.”

“What?”

In the blink of an eye, Ace’s face suddenly paled. The others in the room stood shaking as well. I could sense the anxiety in the room.

“Clover, could you tell us something? How did Snake, your brother, end up blind?”

“I was about to fall from a cliff, and he tried to rescue me...” Clover answered, visibly distressed.

“At that time, he didn’t just lose his sight, but also his left arm, correct? That’s why he wasn’t able to play guitar anymore.”

She nodded.

“Left arm? Then his left arm is a prosthetic limb?” Lotus jumped in, her eyes widening in realization. “Wait a minute. If I remember correctly, the corpse in the x-ray room...”

“Exactly. The left wrist that shot off from the charred body, without a doubt, was a human hand. Therefore, the body in the x-ray room isn’t Snake’s.”

“Then... He’s still...” Clover said, her expression brightening.

“Yeah. He’s got to be alive.”

“I’m glad... Brother...” Tears started streaming out of her blinking eyes.

“No... That can’t be... That’s ridiculous...” In contrast to Clover, Ace muttered to himself, the color drained from his face.

“Let’s suppose the culprit didn’t have prosopagnosia. In that case, they would've realized the person they tried to kill wasn’t Snake. Even if the victim was wearing Snake’s clothes, their faces would be completely different. But for some reason, the culprit killed the victim anyways. Why? Why would they need to kill an unknown person who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere?”

“...”

“If the culprit had prosopagnosia, then all of the pieces fit together. They mistook the victim as Snake and killed him.”

“Wait. Wait just a moment,” Ace said with a restless voice. “For argument’s sake, let’s assume I am the murderer. I would have no motive to kill. Why would I have to kill Snake?”

I had already expected that Ace would respond as such. Without hesitation, I said, “You had two motives.”

“What?”

“The first was that Snake was aware of your past.”

Ace suddenly grew flustered.

“If the details of your past came out to everyone else, that would be quite troublesome for you. That’s why you decided to silence Snake by killing him, right?”

“I-I have no idea what you’re—”

“Second,” I continued, ignoring his excuses, “Snake deeply resented you. You weren’t sure if or when he would go after you. He was nothing but a threat. To eliminate the threat as soon as possible, you killed—”

“W-Wait a second!” Lotus interrupted. “What... What happened in Ace’s past?”

“A certain someone told me earlier. The Nonary Game was held once nine years ago, and Snake participated in it. The game’s organizer was none other than the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals, Gentarou Hongou—”

“That’s enough!” Ace shouted. His face was red with anger. “You’re spouting complete and utter bullshit! Who’s this ‘someone’ you mention? You can’t answer that. All of this is some fantasy concocted inside your head! It’s obvious who's more trustworthy here. Who would believe some brat like you over someone with high standing and honor as myself?!” Ace continued fuming and thrust his index finger in my direction. “Who are you working for?! Why are you trying to set me up?!”

“‘Me,’ you say? You said ‘me’ just now, didn't you?”

Ace gulped and turned away.

“So, you admit to being the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals?”

“Y-Yeah. That’s right,” he answered, mindlessly tugging on the sleeves of his suit. “I am indeed the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals, Gentarou Hongou. But what does that have to do with anything? I have no knowledge of a game nine years ago or anything else you’ve been saying. I don’t know who’s been feeding you these lies, but everything you’ve heard is nothing but bullshit. Actually...”

As if attempting to shut down any rebuttals, or wanting to change the subject, Ace started asking questions of his own. “Junpei. You’ve been acting as if I’m the sole culprit at work here, but take a deep breath and think through things logically. How would I have been able to kill Snake all by myself?”

“Not Snake. Someone else wearing Snake’s clothes.”

“That’s not the point!” Ace roared, making no effort to conceal his anger. “The culprit forced the victim into the [3] door, correct?”

“That’s most likely it.”

“Then it would be impossible for me to kill him by myself. After all, the [3] door wouldn’t have opened if it were just me and the victim.”

“He’s right, Jumpy. You need at least three people to open a numbered door, or else—”

“No, Ace could have opened it,” I said confidently, interrupting Akane.

“What did you say?” Ace seemed flustered, his eyes turning blood-shot.

Keeping my gaze locked onto him, I smirked. “Ace. There’s an item you secretly took that you’re currently hiding on you.”

“...What?” Ace’s face stiffened.

“I’m surprised. To think you had this on you...” I said, reaching into my jacket pocket.

“N-No way!” Ace scrambled to check his inner coat pocket.

“I see, so that’s where you’ve been hiding it.”

“Huh...?” He froze in place. “You tricked me!” After realizing my scheme, he shot me a menacing glare with his hand still inside his coat.

“Why don’t I guess what you’ve got hiding there? The [9] bracelet. Am I right?”

“What?” Lotus let out a surprised gasp.

Seven simply stared at me in a daze, his mouth agape. Akane covered her mouth with both of her hands, her eyes wide in shock.

“I see. That four-eyes’s bracelet, huh.” Santa muttered to himself while leaning against the wall.

“Ace, the man dressed as Snake, and the [9] bracelet. With these three pieces in play, opening the [3] door is simple.”

[1] + [2] + [9] = 12 1 + 2 = [3]

“That means it’s possible for Ace to have killed the man dressed as Snake by himself.”

After quietly taking his right hand out of his inner coat pocket, Ace drooped his head. Although I couldn’t see his expression, I could see that the edges of his lips were twitching.

“Go ahead and play dumb,” I continued. “Feel free to claim that you didn’t take any bracelet. All I ask is that you take off your coat. Is that fair?”

“Old man, do as he says,” Seven said, walking closer to Ace. “If you refuse, I’ll force it off of you.”

Right as soon as Seven brought his hands to Ace’s shoulders...

“Fufufu... Ahahahahaha!” Ace burst out into maniacal laughter. As he stretched out his arms and pointed his face towards the ceiling, his loud voice echoed throughout the room.

Before long, he stopped. His expression was completely devoid of any color.

“Well done, Junpei,” Ace said. His face was emotionless. “Just as you say, I have the [9] bracelet hidden in my coat. I retrieved it when everyone was off searching for the missing <RED> circuit boards. I snuck away from my post and went back through the orange door to the first-class cabin where the corpse was resting.”

Ace continued his confession coldly. “My objective, of course, was to gain the [9] bracelet into my possession. In this Nonary Game, the number nine plays an almighty role. After all, adding [9] to any number does not change the digital root.”

I gulped. I hadn’t realized that far, but Ace was right.

[1] + [9] = 10 → 1 + 0 = [1] [2] + [9] = 11 → 1 + 1 = [2] [3] + [9] = 12 → 1 + 2 = [3]

And so on.

Whoever had the [9] bracelet would be able to join any team without being left behind. It would allow them to enter any door, giving them a substantial advantage in this game.

“I didn’t have a particular use for it in mind, but I thought that as long as I had a trump card in my possession, I could find a way to utilize it. That is why I decided to retrieve the [9] bracelet, “ Ace continued after a short pause. “I returned to the large hospital room as if nothing had happened and found Snake standing in front of the [3] door. Although, I suppose that wasn’t Snake.”

Ace called out to the man in Snake’s clothes. The man turned around, but no words came out of his gaping mouth. It was as if he wasn’t completely alert, like a delusional patient.

“I had been wary of Snake since the very beginning. As Junpei explained, he knew about everything from nine years ago. Thus, I saw him as a threat. Of course, I didn’t recognize his face, but gathering from his voice and lack of sight, it was obvious.” Ace's face contorted. "I wondered, if he so despised me, then why didn't he say anything? He didn't approach me at all. Did he simply not realize who I was, because he couldn't see? Or was he one of Zero's accomplices plotting revenge against me? Either way, I felt threatened having someone who knew about my past around. I had to act before he could execute any plan—so I thought it opportune when there was nobody else around but the two of us. ...My eyes wandered over to the <RED> and saw the word <VACANT>. Did he insert the circuit boards? That didn't matter. It was the perfect opportunity. I knew that I had to involve it in my plan. So I immediately took action."

As if recalling what had happened, one of Ace's cheeks lifted into a menacing smirk.

After scanning his own bracelet and the [9] bracelet he had just retrieved, he must have grabbed onto the man's arm, forced him to authenticate on the device, and kicked him through the open [3] door. That wasn't something any normal human would think to do.

As evidence of that, all of the warmth in his eyes had long faded away. His lips and tongue wriggled around like those of a reptile.

"Let me ask you one more thing," I said, withstanding the unpleasant sight of his face. "Did you kill the man in the captain's cabin?"

"Why do you think that?"

"If the culprit is among us, then they had to have commited the murder during the short time after we passed through the numbered door and came into the chart room. But the long table in the middle of the room made it difficult to move to the captain's cabin. If someone other than you had headed towards the captain's cabin, then they would have definitely bumped into someone else. But since you were standing the closest to the captain's cabin—"

"..."

"Since you had a hand in conducting the Nonary Game nine years ago, you would have full knowledge of every room on this ship."

"Are you trying to say that I somehow managed to make my way there in the darkness? Preposterous. It would be too dangerous. What if someone had immediately found the light switch? Wouldn't that give me away?"

"The light switch was next to the [2] door. Nobody could've found it that quickly. If all of us were going through the numbered doors, then we had to go through the [1] and [5] doors."

"Your skills of deduction are sharp," Ace said. After licking his lower lip, his shoulders drooped resignedly. "I knew that the mastermind of this game, Zero, was in the captain's cabin. Nine years ago, I monitored every inch of the ship from within that room, after all. Like Snake, Zero had to have known about my past. That's why I had no choice but to kill him."

His monologue continued. "The moment I went through the door and realized the room was pitch black, I thought it would be my only chance. I slipped into the captain's cabin and turned on the light. A man was sitting with his back turned towards me. I called out to him, but he didn't respond. Just like the man in Snake's clothes, he had a blank expression on his face, like he had been drugged with sleep medication."

Beside the man, a single axe lay on the ground as if beckoning to be used to kill. After Ace took it in his grasp, he swung straight down at the man's chest. He didn't forget to wear the waterproof clothes hanging on the wall, to avoid any blood splatters.

"I thought I had made quite the noise in there, but everyone was off frantically searching for the <DEAD> and didn't seem to have noticed. After killing Zero, I rushed back to the chart room and turned on the light." After a quick rub of his beard, he continued moving his lips. "I suppose I should reveal something else while I'm at it."

With a gruff voice, he continued. "It was actually I who killed the man with the [9] bracelet."

Next: Part 7, Chapters 7-9

[dani-the-mark]

A Slept-On Review: WWE Smackdown 8/27/22

Ricochet vs Happy Corbin

First thing first: Richochet deserves better. He’s so flippy he should keep doing that forever. Beyond the talent seen in this match alone, I’d rather not see Corbin on TV at all, but he should be nowhere near each other on the roster. Pre-first commercial, Corbin’s most interesting contribution is foddering for the elbow puns on commentary. After the said commercial, Ricochet gets thrown around including a slam into the announce table. Admittedly, I did like that this match was very well paced. Each opponent got a larger segment in the beginning before flipping offense towards the second half. In the end, Ricochet wins with a shooting star press.

Post-match, Pat uses the telestrator to show how down and out Corbin has once again become. Pat should be given screen drawing telestrator privileges forever.

Various Mini Segments 

We get a small but exciting backstage segment where Hit Row and Street Profits align themselves. 

Also, there is a video package, the first of two, for Drew ahead of Clash at the Castle. We get a look back at his indie career and first WWE run. Drew used to be so (comparatively) tiny! He also brings up his emotions on losing that first WWE contract and the death of his mother, which as a fellow member of the Dead Mom Club ™, I was about ready to sob.

Carrion Cross is also creepy in the rafters (or at least very high up in seating), but there’s nothing much new to see there. 

Nikki A.SH & Doudrop vs Sonya Deville & Natayla vs Dana Brooke & Tamina vs Shotzi & Xia Lee

That's a mouthful. Hey, WWE, can we get some formal names for these tag teams, please?

Gigi Dolin of Toxic Attraction is injured, so we have a fatal four-way to determine who will be taking their spot in the tournament, comprised of previously eliminated teams. Now, I know why Alexa and Asuka weren't included coming off of their alignment with Trish, but I still think they should have been. If for no other reason, because I love them. Nikki and Xia started this match, but quickly poor Nikki gets run over by almost everyone else as they tag in. With this match having to get put together in a limited time, they did manage to get to the point rather quickly. Natalya and Sonya win by Sonya’s trademark scheming.

Sheamus Promo 

Gunther takes the chance to interrupt quickly. I guess “starting fights and drinking pints” from Sheamus was also too corny for him. In their back-and-forth, Sheamus lists off his accomplishments (really ruminating about his win against HHH), and Gunther makes it very clear that he doesn't care. Butch snaps at Ludwig, and they proceed to go at it while the competitors just stare. This reminded me a lot of those MMA stand-offs, and I imagine they will be using that image as long as they possibly can. 

Sami and The Bloodline Backstage 

The Usos once again attempt to keep Sami from Roman, but Roman allows him in. They review last week's altercation with Drew and Sami’s loss. In what appears to be officially using Sami as a meat shield, Roman decides to see how he can do against Drew properly later in the night 

Sonya Deville & Natayla vs Aliyah & Raquel Rodriguez 

Bayley and crew are here to watch once again. I was worried this is just filler, considering how the earlier match felt. We get a nice moment of Raquel, my love, holding Aliyah like a hurt baby after she was thrown from the ring. The wrestling itself was adequate but often overshadowed by Bayley on commentary the whole time. Most of it was spent bullying Micheal Cole, which was funny. To my relief, Aliyah and Raquel get the win. So it was still filler, but with the right result.

New Day Promo 

Xavier is in a wheelchair and I'm in tears. Kofi and he review their Viking funeral and hint that it may be a proper end for them. Full honesty, they had us locked in. Before they can finish. The Viking Raider’s come in to officially “put them down”. Xavier is wheeled into the corner, and Kofi is able to get the raiders away from the injured king, we have the reveal: kendo sticks in Xavier’s “injured” leg. The New Day gets a hint of revenge and a match is set up for next week. 

The New Day better not go anywhere. I was ready to throw up.

Maximum Male Models Backstage 

MMM is having a photo shoot in the parking garage because they are MMM. Unfortunately, a bus in the parking garage has decided to blast Hit Row's music. In their natural cheekiness, their solution is spray painting the bus. But it's not Hit Row's bus! It's the Street Profits bus! Now MMM actually has to wrestle the Street Profits, and I'm very excited. 

Also, do the profits have a bus? Nice.

Sami Zayn vs Drew McIntyre 

Sami is as slippery as ever, dodging and rolling out of the ring during the beginning of the match, but does eventually get his own offense in. Even if there is a clear power and size difference, Sami is starting to hold his own again. Then there’s a run-in from the Usos and I'm so confused. Do they actually help him? Do they actually like him? I’ve personally become lost in this plot. Are they doing this for their own benefit? And if so, what’s the benefit? Are they trying to make the meat shield tactic last as long as possible? WHAT’S THE GAME?

Anyway.

Sami gets the pinfall victory, which I’m quite happy about. Then, Roman joins his cousins and they just destroy Drew, including many chair shots. It’s brutal, and even a little scary. Roman is pissed. I loved his closing line, straight to the camera over Drew’s battered body: “I want someone to take this from me.”

Chills. 

[theeuthanasiaflower-blog]

AliExpress reviews and our personal AliExpress review concerning this internet site

The AliExpress.com platform is a trendy webpage, so we've decided to verify AliExpress reviews which are attainable online. In this article, we mention you seven the most frequent adverse opinions relating to AliExpress together with our the brief description to each one trouble.

1. Ordering on the AliExpress website is risky because they are bilkers

Online shopping on the AliExpress.com platform is secure. The AliExpress site offers purchaser conservancy and this is crucial. Domestics all over the world are buying wares by the AliExpress portal. It's a fact that they are crooks like almost everywhere this means you should inspect comments concerning your provider earlier than placing an order.

2. Paying using credit cards on AliExpress is dangerous due to the fact dealers from the AliExpress site thieve your cash

Paying via bank cards on the AliExpress.com portal is safe the same as make use of such bank cards at an Atm machine or in your favourite grocery store. It is our own AliExpress review relating to transactions via bank cards on this site. While you're utilizing the card, do not forget about vital primary principles:

a) Data coming from the bank cards put just in the window for payments, nowhere else.

b) When you don't have a card, create the Alipay.com. Alipay is a company almost like Paypal.com and shields your dollars. Install extremely hard security password - it's your hard earned money.

c) To pay on the internet is better to establish limitation net ordering (it is very simple to control by your internet banking). Utilizing strategies you can avoid stealing of all of your hard earned funds.

3. Ordering on the AliExpress site is really complicated (a great deal of AliExpress reviews relating to this topic)

Buying on AliExpress is as simple as purchasing in a different place. Our publications assist you throughout the signing up, choose the proper ware, clarify primary terms, techniques to track your order, and in addition the way to create a review. Knowledge from the website helps you to order on the AliExpress.com platform in a simple manner because you'll discover the manner in which this internet page functions, how you can eliminate the most prevalent issues on AliExpress.com and how you can minimize a risk of being cheated.

4. Item is poor

The AliExpress.com platform has wares from best quality to inferior quality goods. So, it is really necessary to select the correct shop. If you are selecting a fantastic supplier, pay attention to its AliExpress review and additionally opinions associated with the goods. Buying from companies which do not have evaluations will be your riskiness and might be fine or not. However, the AliExpress portal gives you aid in the form of buyer preservation, and of course if the products despite the favourable feedback are bad - it is possible to start up the dispute.

5. Delivery is pricey

Almost all the products are delivered with no transport charge. Merely choose the products with free shipping. This kind of the product can be opted for at the outset of searching. Additional fees are only for courier shipment. Attention - occasionally you must make minimum amount purchase 5 $ to have free shipment as you can read in AliExpress reviews. Nonetheless, this minimum amount order mainly concerns jewellery. In order to that be heedful and verify whole description of the item wherein you should locate all the details.

6. Clothes dimensions are generally not proper

Proportions in Asia are not the same as in European countries or in the USA, and it's best to always remember. It is important to analyze everyone item table size with native dimension. On AliExpress clothing is created manually, and as a consequence every supplier offers its own table dimension.

7. Things often aren't the same as in trader's photos

The assumption is always to select a seller who has true pics of the goods or try to find the realistic illustration in AliExpress review. After that, you'll know what to anticipate, and you should avoid disappointment. Providers want to catch potential customer on nice photos, so when you want to be sure you must send a message to the trader and question for the real photograph. Good providers don't have problems with giving actual photos.

As you have noticed AliExpress is extremely reliable e-commerce website and as well as our individual evaluation about this portal is good but you must check out companies to eliminate rip-offs. In the event if you have bought on this internet page, please post AliExpress reviews in opinions under the text.

[your-dietician]

Tears and Growth -- in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/tears-and-growth-in-feldenkrais-and-psychotherapy/

Tears and Growth -- in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

Nothing is permanent about our behavior patterns except our belief that they are so. – Moshé Feldenkrais

I learned about the Feldenkrais method at a two-day workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, in the mid-1970s. A hot spot for the human potential movement, Esalen featured nude soaking in co-ed hot tubs near a row of outdoor massage tables at which naked masseuses kneaded naked bodies. Also, mixed-gender volleyball games where everyone was, yes, naked.

In this seemingly “anything goes” environment, about twenty-five of us spent the better part of two days in comfortable clothes, lying on mats in a large room. Here we learned to do a series of slow, gentle movements. Israeli Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais developed this system during the mid-20th century, to reorganize connections between the brain and body, and improve both body movement and psychological state.

Tears Follow Feldenkrais Initiation

The night after the first day at the Feldenkrais workshop, I lay on my bed and cried and cried. Only now, decades later, do I have a glimpse of what the tears were about.

But before I found out, much time passed. Fifteen years after that first experience, I felt motivated to dive in again. I took a short series of Feldenkrais classes near my home. After each session, I felt relaxed and confident and didn’t cry.

Disappointed when the classes stopped, I filled the gap over the years with yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and other classes at my local fitness center. I wondered why they seemed to be offering just about everything there from those classes to hula dancing, Zumba, Latin dance, body pump, and more — but not Feldenkrais.

A few months ago, I was thrilled when they hired Feldenkrais instructor Ruti Gorel to teach a weekly class. What’s different about my current Feldenkrais experience from earlier ones is my new awareness, fostered by Ruti’s teaching style, of how mental and emotional changes accompany physical ones.

Awareness is Key to Learning in Feldenkrais and Psychotherapy

Now, lightbulbs keep flashing in my head each time I sense parallels between Feldenkrais teachings and effective psychotherapy. Ruti encourages us to notice our different physical states before and after doing various movements, to relax in between each series of moves, and to tune into our different sensations. “Awareness is the key to learning,” she says. This is true also in psychotherapy, which promotes self-awareness.

Ruti kindly let me interview her for more understanding of key elements shared by the Feldenkrais method and psychotherapy.

“The way I teach Feldenkrais, it makes for a higher awareness of the self inside; it helps people to go within, physically and emotionally,” she said. “People get rid of physical pain or decrease it. Their breathing becomes freer; they get calmer and more relaxed in body and mind. So they feel less stress and experience emotional relief. It helps make a higher awareness.

“When muscle and tension are holding on in your rib cage, which is an area that contains lots of emotions, the Feldenkrais movements will allow you to release a lot of negative emotions out of the body. It’s like a detox.”

Releasing Pent Up Feelings Brings Relief

That sounds great, I thought, and like what a down-to-earth client of mine said, “I always feel good after coming here. I don’t know why, but I always feel good.”

The sense of relief from releasing pent up difficult emotions can be profound. At Esalen, I didn’t understand the source of my tears. Perhaps the understanding was then less relevant than the simple act of cleaning out whatever was clogging up my head and heart.

After doing Feldenkrais movements, I feel fine. Typically, when I get up and begin to walk around after a class, I sense having let go of something, often signaled by a burp or two (excuse me!), which Ruti says is good. Other people have different ways of sensing a release from what their body or mind might have been holding onto.

Many forms of exercise produce endorphins, those feel-good hormones. What’s so special about Feldenkrais compared to running, tai chi, yoga, Pilates, or something else? These bring calmness and a sense of wellbeing, and without burps, tears, or other signs of releasing tension.

How Feldenkrais Differs from Other Exercise Practices

Feldenkrais with Ruti is more like psychotherapy than these other ways of exercising, in several ways. She encourages us to:

begin the session by checking in, noticing our breathing and how we feel emotionally, and physically.

notice what parts of our bodies feel closer to or further from the ground.

move no more or no less than is comfortable for us. Comfort is key.

take time to rest in between each series of movements. “Let the brain take in what’s happening to your body and emotions,” she says.

If it’s too difficult or painful to do a movement, make a smaller movement, or just imagine yourself doing it.

Q & A with Ruti Gorel

Here’s some conversation between Ruti and me:

Marcia: About resting between some movements and letting the brain take in what’s happening, a sense of wellbeing is probably typical, right?

Ruti: Totally.

Marcia: How useful is it to imagine yourself making a motion instead of doing it?

Ruti: The Feldenkrais method develops movements to give the brain more information to replace old habits. Unhealthy physical habits can result from holding on to emotions. Emotions or physical events can cause a limitation or constriction. The habits that are not aligned with our body’s optimal functioning cause physical pain and exacerbate physical and emotional pain.

Marcia: What do you think are your unique strengths as a Feldenkrais teacher?

Ruti: Every practitioner has uniqueness, and mine is I’m bringing in additional connection to mind and body like spirituality and emotional support while we’re working. I’m encouraging talk and also bringing in emotional support.

A lady with multiple sclerosis was shaking and crying while I was manipulating her. Lying on the table while I listened, she had a safe space to come out.

Marcia: I cried after my first Feldenkrais experience? Does that happen with many of your clients, and what’s that about?

Ruti: The crying is a physiological response and also a spiritual one. Emotions accumulate in our body, and some of it goes out and is released. Most of my clients who cry during a session with me are usually releasing childhood pain that was still knocking about.

Ruti’s last comment sounds like what often occurs in psychotherapy. People’s good mood after a therapy session often results from their having released pent up feelings.

Awareness is Key to Learning in Both Practices

Good couple therapists know that “it takes two to tango.” For a better relationship, each partner needs to practice interacting kindly, respectfully, and lovingly, until they do so naturally. Checking in with oneself should happen routinely as part of the therapy process. In therapy, this can mean being aware of one’s thoughts, feeling, and bodily sensations.

Similarly, Ruti asks us often to check into ourselves. She asks us to notice which parts of our body feel closer to the floor after doing a series of movements. Does one arm or leg feel longer than the other now?

Awareness of the Power of Words

What we say and do can quickly change our mood and our partner’s. During the first part of a marriage meeting, spouses express appreciation to each other. On hearing these words, both partners typically perk up, make eye contact, and smile.

We stand straighter and feel taller after a Feldenkrais session. Similarly, after a good couple therapy session, spouses usually feel expanded with positive feelings about themselves and each other.

The Strength of Imagination

Ruti says that by simply imagining yourself moving a different way trains your brain to let go of old constricting patterns and replace them with habits that reduce or eliminate pain.

Imagination plays a more significant role in psychotherapy than you might think. Therapy sessions for couples and individuals typically focus on resolving problems and challenges. Often, people start out thinking that someone else or something else needs to change to improve a situation. But the first step toward creating a better relationship is usually realizing that we need to change our own thoughts and behaviors.

But before that can happen, we need to imagine ourselves acting differently, for example, when provoked. Or imagine ourselves being proactive enough to prevent aggravating someone else. Only then, can we move toward letting go of an old pattern and replacing it with a relationship-enhancing one.

Both Feldenkrais and psychotherapy practitioners advise clients to be patient with themselves because change takes time. Feldenkrais movements start in baby steps as we extend our range of motion. I often tell my therapy clients that change happens in baby steps.

How Feldenkrais Differs from Psychotherapy

Differences also exist between the two practices. In Feldenkrais, comfort is essential; you shouldn’t push your body to move to the point of pain.

In psychotherapy, a trusting relationship between the client and the practitioner is vital. Comfort means feeling safe, expressing your private thoughts and feelings. You want to know: Can I be my true self with this person; will she or he accept the real me, flaws and all? When the answer is yes, the therapy is likely to go well.

Growing Pains are Positive

Yet, in therapy situations, a tension exists between staying in one’s comfort zone and stretching into better ways of relating to ourselves and others. The supportive therapy relationship encourages risk-taking. No pain? Yes, pain. But “growing pains” can happen when we stretch beyond our comfort zone.

Feldenkrais concentrates on the physical, yet emotional and spiritual benefits accrue. Psychotherapy emphasizes thoughts and emotions. Therapy clients benefit physically from clearing the air internally and in their relationships, and spiritually by tuning into their essential selves and expanded consciousness.

Different Guides for Each Practice

Psychotherapy and Feldenkrais. Each practice calls for a different kind of guide. Both methods offer a beautiful way, as Ruti puts it, to “take out a lot of emotions while feeling safe.”

In both systems, everyone goes at their own pace and is told: don’t compare yourself to others; it’s about respecting and honoring your capabilities. It’s crucial to be who you are, to have compassion for yourself. That’s where you need to be now, and you move from there and at your own pace.

I’m a fan of both methods, having seen their results personally and professionally. Similarities and differences exist, each offering benefits in their unique way.

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[diabetese009]

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11 ways to start reversing type 2 diabetes today

by Dr Rangan Chatterjee / November 11, 2015

Whether you have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or or you’ve been told you’re at risk, read on for 11 ways to start reversing the effects immediately.

Type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions. There are 3.9 million people living with diabetes – 90 per cent those of being affected by type 2 diabetes. Here’s another shocking statistic: 1 in 3 UK adults has prediabetes, the condition that precedes diabetes.

As you’ll soon see on BBC One’s Doctor in the House, it is entirely possible to both prevent as well as reverse type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, a lot of the advice that is given for the condition is, in my opinion, unhelpful and misguided. Most people think of it as a blood sugar problem but this is the ultimate effect rather than the cause.

WHAT IS TYPE 2 DIABETES?

Type 2 diabetes is a condition that is characterised by chronically elevated blood sugar levels. However, the main cause as well as the driver for this condition is something called Insulin Resistance. When you eat certain foods, particularly refined carbohydrates, that food is converted to sugar inside your body. Your body’s way of dealing with this sugar is to produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin moves the sugar inside your cells so that it can be used for energy. Sounds great, right?

Well, yes and no. When working efficiently, this is a fantastic system that helps your body to function well. But when you have type 2 diabetes, prediabetes or significant abdominal obesity, that system does not work so well.

Eating too many refined carbohydrates elevates your insulin levels for long periods of time and your cells start to become resistant to the effects of insulin. Think of this a bit like alcohol. When you start to drink, a single glass of wine can make you feel drunk. Once your body becomes accustomed to drinking, you need more and more alcohol to achieve the same effect. This is what happens in diabetes. You need more and more insulin to do the same thing. The problem is that too much insulin is toxic to the body.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF RAISED INSULIN LEVELS?

It causes water and salt retention, which causes raised blood pressure

You become at risk of atherosclerosis (“furring of arteries”), which can lead to heart attacks

Raised insulin levels increases VLDL (very low density lipoprotein), a type of blood fat and one of the “bad” forms of cholesterol

Can drive the growth of certain cancer cells

In women, it can cause the ovaries to produce more testosterone, which is associated with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Significantly increases your risk of getting type 2 diabetes

The only way to effectively reverse type 2 diabetes (or even pre-diabetes) is to deal with the underlying cause – Insulin Resistance. Trying to address the blood sugar levels (with medication) without addressing the insulin levels is treating the symptoms, not treating the root cause. It is similar to using a bucket to remove water from an overflowing sink rather than actually turning off the tap!

The most important thing to do is to stop adding fuel to the fire. If Insulin Resistance is driving the condition, you need to firstly stop consuming foods that increase insulin production. Secondly, you need to make some lifestyle changes so that you can become sensitive to insulin once again

SO, WHAT FOODS INCREASE INSULIN PRODUCTION

All carbohydrates – to some degree at least – will raise your blood insulin levels. That is why I consider type 2 diabetes a form of “carbohydrate intolerance”. Protein can also raise levels but to a much lesser degree. The only macronutrient that keeps your insulin levels and, therefore, your blood sugar stable is FAT! Therefore, if you are trying to reduce insulin levels, you need to reduce your amount of certain carbohydrates and replace them instead with healthy, natural fats.

What does that mean in terms of actual FOOD CHOICES though?

When I say healthy, natural fat – think nuts and seeds, avocados, omega 3 fats (found in almonds, flax seed and cold water fish, like wild salmon, herring, mackerel and tuna), extra virgin olive oil and whole eggs.

And when I talk about reducing certain carbohydrates, I mainly mean reducing your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta, rice and bread. Non starchy vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) are fine and can be eaten in abundance. Many fruits are packed with carbohydrates, so if you’re trying to reduce your carb intake, try and limit your intake to low-carb fruit, such as rhubarb, watermelon, berries, peaches and blackberries.

It is really important to say that I do not believe that there is one perfect diet for everyone. Different people respond to different diets.

However, if you have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or if you have been told you are at high risk or if you have significant abdominal obesity, here are 11 ways to start reversing the effects immediately:

Avoid ALL refined carbohydrates. That means no pasta, rice or bread (even wholegrain bread will spike your insulin)

Avoid ALL added sugar. If your body is already in a state where you cannot process carbohydrates and sugars properly, you are going to have to take steps to fully eliminate all sugars, at least in the short term.

Avoid ALL sweet drinks. It is best to stick to water, tea, coffee.

Do not be scared of good quality, healthy, natural fat – avocados, olives, almonds etc. Don’t worry about this causing you to put on weight. A study published in 2003 showed that people who supplemented their diet with almonds lost more weight than those who supplemented with so-called “healthy, complex carbs”

Do not waste your energy counting calories. Concentrate on the quality of the food that you are eating and the calorie control will take care of itself.

FEED YOUR GUT BUGS, not just yourself. There are trillions of bugs that live in your gut – their health is critical in determining your health. Many studiesshow links between the state of your gut bugs (your microbiota) and type 2 diabetes. Start improving the health of your gut immediately by eating five servings of different coloured vegetables each day. The non digestible fibre in vegetables is the preferred food for your gut bacteria and when your gut bugs are happy, you will be happy. The wider the variety of colours, the more phytonutrients you will be getting.

Do my 5 minute kitchen workout once a day. This could be before breakfast, lunch or dinner – whatever works for you.

If you like to snack, keep some high fat healthy snacks with you, such as olives, nuts or hummus. When you snack on refined carbohydrates such as biscuits, you go on a blood sugar rollercoaster that results in you feeling hungry shortly after. Fats, on the other hand, will keep you fuller for longer.

Include high quality protein and fat with EVERY single meal. This helps to stabilise your blood sugars and promotes satiety and fullness, making it less likely that you will want to reach for dessert after your meal.

Eat your meals sitting down at a table. Eating on the sofa while watching TV encourages a mindless form of eating – this can lead you to eat higher quantities than you otherwise would. If you sit at a table and concentrate on what you’re eating, you are more likely to enjoy your food, feel satisfied at the end of your meal and eat less.

Consider a form of regular fasting (more to come in a later blog), such as intermittent fasting or time-restricted feeding (TRF). TRF means eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food for the rest. It’s a great way to reduce insulin levels in your body and help undo the effects of chronically elevated levels.

As always, I’m here to answer any questions, so please get in touch via Facebookand Twitter if you’d like to chat.

— Dr Chatterjee

para

DISCLAIMER: The content in this blog is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this blog or on this website.

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This week’s #FeelBetterLiveMore podcast is with

THE WEIGHT POINT 👆🏾 Did you know that our b

GUESS WHO IS BACK ON THE PODCAST??! This week’s

CRAVINGS… and how to deal with them! As we lear

THANK YOU! Earlier this week my latest book, ‘F

We all have the ability to choose how we react in

Another quote that a lot of you are really connect

LOVE THIS 💪🏾 This is a quote from the wonde

This is one of my favourite quotes and can be appl

NEW PODCAST ABOUT HABITS! My guest this week is t

UK LOCKDOWN… once again! I know that many of y

YOU ARE WORTH IT. This is probably the most share

NEVER FORGET 🙏🏾 If you’re in pain, your p

THANK YOU 🙏🏾 Gratitude is warming up my hea

SWIPE 👉🏾 to see the recipe to making new hab

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you are all having a peace

PUBLICATION DAY!! So, my brand new book, ‘Feel

WINTER WONDERLAND! Kids can teach us so much. The

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