#we toured it. its real and not a scam. i think the owners that are renting out their apartment dont speak much english

[wishgirls-archive]

so i think we uh. got an apartment?

[safarigirlsp]

Witchcraft on Your Lips

Witchcraft on Your Lips

Modern Jacques Le Gris x Lawyer Reader

Word Count: 20.4k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Graphic Violence. Old Timey Sexism. Humor. Romance. Enemies to Lovers. Fake Marriage.

AO3 Link

Author’s Note: Here’s the second of three oneshots that I pieced together by popular vote for my combined Birthday Bash and 1500 Followers Celebration. A Romantic, Time Travel Adventure, Enemies to Lovers, Fake Marriage, and Only One Bed!

A broad, heavy fist slammed down onto the surface of a walnut desk, hard enough to crack the wood, leaving an angry ragged wound across its glossy top.

“This is horseshit, Pierre!” Jacques Le Gris snarled at his long-time friend, his whiskey-toned eyes burning ominously and his deep voice booming inside the office. “I won’t have any fucking part of it.”

“You already are part of it,” Pierre D’Alencon responded calmly from his seat behind his desk, unconcerned by the other man’s anger.

“You brought me on here to consult on historical accuracy. To train your professionals how to blend in when they took a trip,” Jacques continued in a lower, more dangerous tone. “Then, I even agreed to lead your teams back myself. But I never agreed to take a fucking civilian on a trip.”

“This isn’t what I want either.” Pierre shook his blonde head, holding his hands up defensively. “But I’m backed into a corner by that woman. I have no choice.”

“It’s been protocol from day-one. No civilians take trips.” Jacques planted both his fists on the desk, leaning over it toward its owner aggressively. “It takes months of training and preparation to get a person in condition. Not to mention the amount of coaching it takes just to blend in well enough to survive.”

“It’s a good thing for all of us that you have more training, academic knowledge, and also more first-hand experience than anyone else,” Pierre continued smoothly, pausing to take a drink of scotch from a crystal tumbler. “Which is why you’re just the man for the job.”

“I’m not taking a civilian on a trip,” Jacques growled with finality. “And I’m not letting you send her back with anyone else either. I’ll shut this entire fucking operation down first if I have to.”

“Oh, that wouldn’t raise suspicion at all,” Pierre replied sarcastically. “That would be just the ammunition this woman needs to fuck up everything. We already have this fucking woman sniffing around. This lawyer. Trying to claim wrongful death for Carroughes and fraud on top of it. What do you think will happen if we just shut down? You think that’d look suspicious?”

“Not my company. Not my problem,” Jacques said icily, anger radiating off his imposingly large body.

“I disagree, my friend,” Pierre replied with a mirthless smile. “Carroughes’ last trip went bad on your watch. It will be your name that will be dragged through the mud in lawsuits for years to come. Your head will be on the chopping block right next to mine.”

“So, your solution is to pile up even more bodies, is it?” Jacques huffed, pushing himself back from the desk and running a large hand through his shoulder-length black hair.

“My solution is simple. Take the woman on a trip for a day or two. Let her see that it’s real and that I’m not running a scam,” Pierre replied, shrugging casually. “But make sure she sees enough to know it’s not only real. Let her see how dangerous it is, too. That should quell any wrongful death and fraud claims.”

“And what happens when the lawyer gets herself killed back there?” Jacques gritted, putting his hands on his hips in exasperation. “Or when something even worse happens to her?”

“Don’t let that happen. You’re the best, Jacques.” Pierre offered a confident smile. “Time to prove it.”

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

Your first day spent touring the nondescript labs and sprawling nameless facility owned by Pierre D’Alencon had been remarkably uneventful. Your appointed tour guide, an impressively large and outgoing man named Jacques Le Gris, seemed more interested in selling you on sightseeing in the Norman countryside than in doing his job of giving you an overview of the facility’s operations.

Before even dropping your bags off at the dormitories on the laboratory property, he had insisted on taking you on an hours’ long tour of Mont Saint-Michel. Flaunting his PhD in Medieval History, he ensured you left the picturesque landmark with enough trivia to last a lifetime. The man then proceeded to take you to lunch at an indulgent French café that seemed to pride itself on its lackadaisical service. After that was an afternoon spent driving through the French countryside while he gave you an ongoing history lesson, although he offered no information at all concerning the nature of the company he worked for.

However enjoyable spending your first day in Normandy as a tourist with a dashingly handsome tour guide may be, you were here on business. Your client, Marguerite Carroughes, had hired you to investigate the strange disappearance and presumed death of her husband, Jean, after years of employment at the facility. A day spent touring medieval cities and enjoying French cuisine had brought you no closer to uncovering the truth.

You were getting the run around and you knew it.

Darkness had descended when Jacques finally drove you through the gates to the facility. It was an expansive complex comprised of plain grey buildings. Convenient, that it was too dark for you to get a decent view of the property.

Arriving at the only building possessing of windows and more than one above-ground story, Jacques parked at its entrance. The building housed the companies few trusted employees and scientists, a series of offices and dormitories. Taking your bags, Jacques led you down a series of sterile hallways to a suite.

“I’m sure you’ll want to sleep late tomorrow,” Jacques said over his shoulder as he carried your bags inside the room. “You’ve had a long day, and I’m sure the jetlag will take its toll.”

“On the contrary, I want to meet you bright and early tomorrow.” You assured him with a sarcastic smile, watching as he deposited your bags and turned to leave. “I can’t wait to finally hear all about this time travel business.”

“Perhaps, I’ve simply not yet exhausted you adequately,” he said with a handsome grin, turning to lean casually against your doorframe. His hulking body took up the better part of the doorway, both in height and breadth. “Allow me to take you back out for dinner tonight. Dancing even.”

“I thought you were the company’s top scientist, Jacques,” you said with a lilt as you took a step toward him, before continuing with a smirk, “Not its most preeminent honeypot.”

“Clever.” He grinned at your ridicule. “But you don’t think well enough of yourself if you think I’d have to be ordered to ask you out for dinner and a dance.”

“I think that more than dancing, you want me to forget why I came here,” you replied, closing the remaining distance between your bodies. “I assure you, I will not.”

Reaching a hand to him, you trailed your fingers from his thick neck down onto the expanse of his chest. You let your touch linger, teasing him for a moment, before pushing him back out of your doorway.

“I expect you here, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at eight tomorrow,” you told him as you closed your door in his face.

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

The following day, Jacques’s pleasant demeanor lasted only until you argued him under threat of a lawsuit into finally showing you what you came to see.

Laboratory X was the facility’s primary research area, contained several stories underground. Jacques led you through the laboratory, giving you a rundown of the science D’Alencon had pioneered to allegedly travel back in time. You were informed of more details about quantum physics and multiverses than could take root in your memory.

Jacques also detailed his own role within the company. How he was hired initially as nothing more than to train operatives on how to act and speak when they went back in time so they would not appear out of place. ‘Trips,’ as they were called within the company. Later, Jacques’s military background and also his overall physicality became useful when he was promoted to leading the trips back himself.

It all sounded absolutely ridiculous.

“You can talk all day, Jacques,” you said while walking down one of the many long sterile hallways, finally growing exasperated in the afternoon after seeing largely nothing and only hearing various practiced spiels. “But I want a tour. I was promised one.”

“I’m giving you a tour,” he responded gruffly, equally frustrated by your persistence.

“You know what I mean, so stop playing coy.”  You turned to meet his eyes defiantly as you spoke. “If your company can really send people back in time and you really lead teams on such adventures, I want the real tour I was promised by your boss.”

Clenching his jaw, Jacques seemed intent on deterring you by the sheer force of his glare.

“And I want to know what exactly happened to Carroughes,” you continued, unruffled.

“You’re right, as you know. I’ve been ordered to take you back on a trip,” Jacques said through gritted teeth, sidestepping your inquiry about the other man. “But I’m telling you now, it’s a bad idea. You’d do well to take my advice. I know what I’m talking about.”

“On the contrary, you’d do well to take my advice when I tell you that if I don’t see some firsthand evidence of this ‘science’ and a plausible reason for the disappearance of my client’s husband, I’ll sue this company, D’Alencon and yourself personally six ways from Sunday,” you said with equal aggression.

“And do you have your own beneficiaries lined up to sue when you die back there?” he asked, puffing his chest out and towering over you. “This isn’t going to a fucking renaissance festival. It’s not a bunch of fun and games.”

“I’m shaking in my boots, Jacques,” you said as you mocked a shiver. “When you’re done deflecting, maybe you can tell me when exactly we’ll be leaving.”

Turning with an indignant snort, Jacques strode away down the hallway. Sparing a quick glance over his shoulder was the only cue he offered for you to follow.

At the end of the hallway was a thick metal door and a keypad. Jacques lowered his head to accommodate a retinal scanner before entering a code on the keypad. The hiss of escaping air greeted you when he pulled the door open for you to enter, glaring at you as you walked past him.

Inside were a series of labs, most containing elite-looking computers, more populated and bustling than anything else you had seen so far. Scientists in white lab coats busied themselves with various tasks, many of whom sat behind computer monitors. Several tendered Jacques a greeting of some kind as he walked down the halls.

After walking for what seemed like blocks, Jacques opened another locked door for you. Stepping into the chamber beyond, you felt like Dorothy stepping into Oz.

A monstrous circular structure composed of titanium and crystal sat in the center of a cavernous room. A bank of five computer stations sat off to one side of the room. Currently vacant, it was no doubt used to monitor trips through time.

“This is where the magic happens,” Jacques deadpanned.

Leaning over a computer, he quickly typed a few commands. The machine whirred to life before you. Its metal and crystal panels began spinning as the machine itself turned on a base. It looked like a gigantic blender. Inside was a platform the size of two king-sized beds laid together. The platform remained still as the machine picked up speed in its revolutions until the moving parts of it were blurred with their speed.

“People usually train for weeks, sometimes months, before they’re approved to take a trip,” Jacques said, moving to stand beside you and watch the spinning of the machine. “It puts a lot of stress on your system. I wouldn’t recommend you stepping into that thing before you’ve been properly conditioned.”

“Oh, I see.” You turned to fix him with a pejorative glare. “You turned this thing on to scare me, huh? Honestly, I’d be in the wrong profession if I rattled that easily.”

“It’s common for people, even after they’ve been conditioned, to feel sick when they go back. We call it ‘tripping sickness,’” Jacques continued, meeting your narrowed eyes. “It’s like a bad case of altitude sickness, and it can take a few days to abate.”

“I can handle some altitude sickness,” you said, rolling your eyes.

“Some people have worse side effects. Some people get symptoms like the bends. Or even worse.” Jacques spoke in a grave tone, trying to convince you to change your mind. “The machine is calibrated to take you back to 1386. Believe me, you don’t want to have the bends and be stuck in 1386.”

“Isn’t the point of this thing so you don’t get stuck?” you asked, gesturing at the colossal spinning machine.

“Turn around is a minimum of twenty-four hours. After every person is sent back or pulled forward, the machine must be serviced and gone over to prevent any glitches,” Jacques explained, returning to the computer to shut the machine down once again. “You don’t want to risk glitches with this. Believe me.”

“Spending the night in medieval France sounds like a dream come true to me,” you said confidently.

“I assure you, it won’t be,” Jacques said with an irritated shake of his head. “I’ve done this a lot and I’m telling you, it’s a bad idea without the proper training. But I assume you still want to fucking go, don’t you?”

“Shall we leave tomorrow?” you asked by way of an answer.

Scowling deeply, Jacques walked back toward the door, begrudgingly opening it for you.

Back inside the area with the scientists and technicians, Jacques began unbuttoning the cuff of his right sleeve, rolling it up his forearm as he walked. Ducking inside a white laboratory, he addressed a nerdy looking man in a lab coat.

“We each need blood drawn for labs and beacons crafted for a trip in the morning,” Jacques told the man curtly before turning to you. “I’ll pick you up at five-am. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, just the way you like.”

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

Precisely at five-am a persistent knocking resounded through your room. Opening your door, you were met by the sight of a dangerously handsome knight.  

Wearing mostly dark-colored leather, Jacques stood before you dressed as a knight in his traveling gear. He carried a blue bundle under one arm. A long broadsword was belted over his tunic around his hips, the tip of its blade hanging down below Jacques’s knees.

“Nice sword,” you commented, allowing your eyes to traverse his costume. “I want one.”

“Unfortunately, you’re a woman,” Jacques replied with a smirk. “The best I can do is a dagger.”

“You’re kidding, right?” You raised a condescending eyebrow at him.

“Kidding? You’re going back to around six-hundred years before any inklings of feminism,” he said, his eyes gleaming with amusement. His smirk widened when he continued, “Don’t worry. I’ll help you learn your place.”

Before you could respond, he tossed the bundle toward you. Catching it, you unraveled the material to discover it was a medieval-styled cornflower blue dress and white undergarments. Jacques still held a belt with an attached sheath that contained a long dagger.

“I’ll give you this once you understand the ground rules and the urge to stab me has passed,” he said with a smug grin.

Rolling your eyes, you stepped into your bathroom to change.

“Don’t leave anything modern on at all,” Jacques called from your room.

You almost hated to admit how well the dress fit you, wondering how much time Jacques had to put into surreptitiously admiring your figure in order to pick the perfect size. You also loved the way the dress showcased your bust. It had long sleeves and its hem reached to the floor, the cut flattering to your figure.

“Not bad,” Jacques said, sucking his teeth as he appraised you when you stepped back into your bedroom. “You’ll pass. As long as you don’t open your mouth too much.”

“Excuse me?” Your arms flew to cross over your chest indignantly.

“Do you speak medieval French?” Jacques asked with sarcastically raised eyebrows. “I didn’t think so. I do. So, leave the talking to me, unless you want people to think you’re speaking in tongues or just addled.”

You begrudgingly nodded your understanding, taking the dagger from him and belting it around your waist.

“Also, remember that you’re a woman,” he continued, dropping the sarcasm.

“Do you think I’m at risk of forgetting?” you laughed at his ridiculousness.

“Remember that you’re a woman in 1386. You don’t have any rights other than what men wish to allow you. Men hold the power, you do not,” he told you, watching your reaction closely, before grinning. “And trust me, mademoiselle, you’re better seen than heard.”

“I could say the same about you,” you grumbled, giving your appearance a final once-over.

“I’m sure you could,” Jacques smirked before continuing with more gravity. “But I’m serious. You have to behave appropriately by medieval woman standards, or you could get us both killed. Do you understand?”

“Of course, I understand,” you said, fixing him with an icy stare.

Closing the distance between you, Jacques raised his arms to place a braided leather necklace over your head. Two pendants were affixed to the leather. Letting his hand trail down the leather to where it ended over your bust, he held the two coin-shaped pendants between his thumb and forefinger.

“This is the most important thing you must remember,” he told you sternly. “These are our beacons. These are what we use to get home. One for you and one for me. I have one for each of us, too. I like contingencies.”

Looking at the pendants more closely, they appeared to be made of copper and styled like medieval coins. One had your initials engraved on it, the other had Jacques’s.

“You activate it like this,” he said as he pushed his thumbnail into the thin edge of the coin. After holding it for a few seconds, a faint blue led light activated inside the coin. “Three seconds turns it on. Ten seconds recalls you back home.”

“Easy,” you said confidently. Taking the beacons from him, you turned them over in your hands to study them.

“Be sure you only use your own beacon,” Jacques continued seriously, reaching his huge hand to your shoulder to emphasize his point. “Each beacon is coded to our respective DNA. Believe me, it’s better to get stuck back there than try to use someone else’s beacon.”

“Got it,” you confirmed with a smile.

Jacques took a deep breath, opening the door to your room and gesturing you through. “Shall we?”

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

“Last chance to think better of this and call it off,” Jacques said, looking down at you as you xboth stood face to face on the metal platform inside the machine. “We’re set to arrive during the Hundred Years War. The Black Plague is still around too. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have me take you on a tour of the French countryside for a few days?”

“That doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as the Hundred Years War and the Black Plague,” you said sarcastically.

“Don’t go licking any rats back there,” he joked, doing a final once over of his gear and checking both of your beacons as the machine whirred to life, beginning to spin around you.

“Do you mean of the animal or the human variety?” you teased back as the air around you began to grow heavy with static electricity, burning your lungs like an acrid fume.

“Take a deep breath. It helps.” Following his own instruction, Jacques closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, expanding his large chest. His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth in discomfort.

You felt it, too. A pressure building around you like a submarine being slowly squeezed as it descended into the ocean depths, making your breaths painful and sending an ache down to your bones.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of light exploded inside the chamber, accompanied by a thunderous crack, like being inside of a storming thunderhead. You squeezed your eyes shut tight against the dazzling light. Just as fast as they had come upon you, all the noises and lights evaporated.

When you opened your eyes, you were no longer encircled by metal and crystal. You stood in what appeared to be a green forest, surrounded by trees and brush. You felt disoriented, almost a drunken feeling of being confused and off-balance, and your stomach churned with something like seasickness. Thundering still echoed in your ears, although fainter and different somehow.

Jacques stood before you as he had in the machine. As your vision came back into focus, you sought the warmth of his amber eyes. He did not return your gaze.

The look on Jacques’s handsome features was one of horror, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes wide, as he looked over your head at something behind you.

The thundering in your ears grew louder.

In the span of a heartbeat, Jacques’s features hardened, turning to resolve, his jaw set and eyes narrowed.

Moving quickly, he reached his left hand out to grab your upper arm, yanking you roughly toward him, as he drew his sword with his right. Dragging you bodily with him, Jacques ducked toward the nearest tree, slamming your back against it and pressing his huge body against yours.

The opposite side of the tree exploded just behind your neck, its trunk taking the blow from the sword that was meant to behead you, sending a shower of splinters and bark raining over you.

Pushing away from you with a growl, Jacques swung his sword at the mounted man who had just tried to kill you both while the man struggled to wrench his sword free from where he had embedded it in the tree. Jacques sliced his blade through the man’s belly. Wearing no armor, the man was instantly gutted, spilling blood and entrails down over the neck of his horse. As the animal reared in fright, Jacques pulled you to his body once again, shielding you from harm as the man’s body fell from his horse. Jacques shot his free hand out to grab the horse’s reins, trying to subdue the animal.

You could still hear thundering, seemingly coming from all around you.

Still disoriented, you clumsily turned in Jacques’s arms. A contingent of mounted men charged through the forest directly at you.

Suddenly, the world around you spun more violently, the ground falling away from your feet. It took you a moment to realize that Jacques had lifted you off the ground as though you were nothing more than a ragdoll, as he swung you up onto the horse and into its saddle.

Your hands automatically reached to grab the pommel of the saddle in front of you as your legs tightened around the animal. With a grunt, Jacques lifted himself onto the horse behind you. Locking his arms tight around you, he kicked the horse roughly, sending it lunging instantly into a gallop.

The torque of the horse running ahead, sent your body tipping backward against Jacques’s chest. He sat firm and strong behind you, supporting you and holding you close, as he guided the horse in between trees.

Behind you, two men had given chase, the rest of the contingent having veered off to pursue whatever their business had been when you had the misfortune of stumbling into their path.

Jacques kicked the horse you both rode furiously, trying to spur it faster. It was obvious that your horse could not outrun the other men while he carried two riders. The other riders quickly closed the distance between you.

The forest grew denser around you as you galloped deeper into it. Jacques turned the horse into the thickest patch of trees in sight. The horse barreled through the tangled, low-hanging branches of the closest tree. Releasing his hold around you for a moment, Jacques raised his right hand to block the branches as the horse charged through them. Blocking them more effectively from your face than his own, Jacques took a rough smack from an especially thick branch across his cheek.

In a stroke of dumb luck, the same branch slung back toward the man immediately behind you, whipping it backward with redoubled force right into the man’s face. What was only a stinging blow for Jacques, struck the other man square in his eyes, knocking him backward off his horse as the animal ran ahead, free of its rider.

“Hold on tight,” Jacques huffed in your ear.

Slowing the horse, Jacques reined the animal around in a tight circle, raising his sword. The other rider was prepared, leveling a strike at Jacque’s head as he tried to run past Jacques and cut him in the process.

Blocking the strike with a reverberating clang of metal on metal, Jacques continued the spin of his horse. Slamming his horse’s body into the body of the other animal, the enemy horse was knocked off-balance mid-stride, stumbling in its gait. The other rider canted sideways as his horse slipped beneath him, giving Jacques an opening to slash his blade across the man’s throat, slinging a waterfall of blood through the air as the horse scrambled.

With its rider hanging half out of the saddle, his body flopping limp and askew, the horse bucked away through the trees.

A few yards away, the rider who had been knocked off by the branch struggled to his feet, raising his sword and ambling drunkenly forward toward you. Jacques kicked his horse ahead toward the man, swinging his sword like a golf club up under the man’s chin, splitting his face open from chin to crown, sending his body flying backward onto the ground.

Pulling your horse to a stop, you felt Jacques’s huge chest heaving behind you. Your own heart hammered against your ribs from the shock of it all. Looking back over your shoulder, you saw Jacques scanning the forest around you, looking and listening for any signs of other attackers. Several light scratches marred Jacques’s right cheek from the attack by the tree branch, a line of blood dripping from the deepest wound.

“Welcome to 1386,” he told you, looking down at you with a grin, as a drop of blood rolled down his cheek.

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

Riding through the forest on your newly acquired horse, you found yourself enjoying the feeling of Jacques’s enormous body pressing against yours and the way you felt safe inside his powerful arms, where they held you steady in the saddle in front of him.

“We have another twenty-three hours or so before we can make the trip home,” Jacques spoke from his seat behind you. “I could have shown you a nicer time back in Normandy.”

“So, how do you suggest we pass the time?” You asked, feeling your cheeks burn when you felt Jacques’s chest rumble with laughter.

“You might take offense at my first suggestion.” He leaned closer to speak next to your ear, his lips nearly brushing your skin. “Otherwise, the most important thing we must do is blend in. We’ve already drawn far too much attention to ourselves. That can’t continue.”

“Is this what happened to Carroughes?” you asked over your shoulder, feeling Jacques’s body tense against you at your question.

“No. It was much worse,” Jacques answered gruffly, offering nothing further.

“Have you killed men back here before today?” You turned your head to look at him with your question.

“Lives are cheap here.” Was the only answer he gave.

After a few minutes of riding in silence, he changed the subject to a more pleasurable one.

“We’ll head into the village. Get a meal and a room, and try to stay out of sight until we can get out of here tomorrow,” he said, making a point of lightening his tone. “You’ll have to try to keep a low profile. Can you do that?”

“I’ve had enough attention for one day, myself. I’m not looking for more,” you agreed, feeling him nod in approval behind you.

An hour’s ride brought you to a village, seated below an escarpment that ascended to a great walled castle, giving the grand structure the image of watching over the village below it. Riding down the streets of the shire, you passed by blacksmiths, bakers, and other businesses, watching the populace bustle about their day.

A large inn and tavern sat in the village center. Riding to a nearby stable, Jacques dismounted the horse first before reaching to help you down, returning you gently to the ground. After turning the horse over to a stableboy, Jacques took your hand, leading you toward the inn. His touch wasn’t affectionate, but he was staking a visible claim on you to ensure other men in the vicinity didn’t attempt to hassle you.

“This isn’t a good century to be a pretty woman,” Jacques told you as he flashed a particularly fearsome scowl at a man who indulged in glancing too long at your figure. “Stay close to me at all times.”

“Did you just call me pretty?” you asked teasingly, smirking up at him.

“You’re beautiful, cherie,” Jacques replied easily. “Right up until the moment you open that mouth of yours.”

You shot him a searing glare as he led you into the tavern. Inside, it was filled with raucous men drinking and laughing amongst themselves. You were the only woman who was not working in the tavern as a barmaid or some other profession.

Locating the owner, Jacques inquired about a room for you both only to be informed that you would have to wait until some other guests evacuated. Probably within the hour, given that they were merely enjoying some other services provided by the barmaids. You could only hope that some sort of maid service existed or that clean sheets would be provided at minimum.

Jacques placed his hand possessively on the small of your back, directing you to a table in the furthest corner of the room. Seating you at the table, he leaned over its surface to speak close to you.

“I’ll get us some ale. It’s best not to drink the water,” he told you before his tone grew firmer. “Stay here and don’t make eye contact with anyone.”

You nodded your understanding, meeting Jacques’s eyes as he regarded you sternly.

Watching as Jacques’s broad body walked back through the tavern, you could feel the lecherous eyes of many lonely men turn upon you in his absence. Jacques had barely stepped out of sight when a large, terminally ugly man with a rancid smile moved toward your table.

“How much?” The man asked, accompanied by some other pleasantries that were unintelligible to you in his medieval dialect. Standing beside your table, he reached down pointedly to adjust the crotch of his pants.

“How dare you!” you exclaimed too loudly, fixing the man with a vehement glare. “I am not a whore.”

“Douce petite putain,” the man continued in other words you didn’t understand, but you understood that phrase. Sweet little whore.

Standing from the table, you leveled a brutal slap across the man’s cheek, knocking away his smile and sending his head jerking to the side from the force of your blow.

“I’m sure a man who has a dick as tiny and useless as yours has to hire a whore because you can’t please a woman,” you spat at the vile man as all eyes in the tavern turned to you.

Recovering from your slap, the man looked confused for a moment by your reaction. A din of laughter erupted from the other customers at the sight of the man getting so thoroughly rebuffed by a whore. Being made a spectacle instantly turned the man’s confusion into anger.

The man hissed a string of curses at you, knocking the table that sat between you aside, sending it flipping across the room, his foul breath now reaching your nose. Drawing back his hand, he swung a violent smack toward your face.

An enormous hand caught the ugly man’s wrist, stopping the swing in mid-air, inches from your skin.

With a vicious growl, Jacques yanked the man roughly toward him. Looming murderously over the other man, Jacques tightened his grip on the man’s wrist until you were sure his bones would snap.

“She’s mine,” Jacques snarled between clenched teeth, glaring ferociously at the man.

Jacques waited another heartbeat before roughly shoving the man’s hand away, knocking the man off-balance as he did.

The man was joined by several others. No doubt his friends. All preparing for a brawl.

“I was gone for two fucking minutes,” Jacques growled at you. “Two.”

You could only offer an apologetic shrug, feeling the air in the room grow heavy with the anticipation of a fight. Or worse.

“What language does the woman speak?” One man asked, concern weighing heavily in his tone.

“How did she know his dick is little and works seldom?” Another man questioned, deadly serious. “Only a witch could know such things.”

“She spoke in tongues. The devil spoke through her mouth,” a different, younger pimpled man intoned.

“Goddammit,” Jacques gritted, stepping in front of you to shield you with his massive body.

“Yes!” The original bastard rejoined the conversation. “She’s a witch! She tried to cast a spell on my dick! You all heard her!”

“A witch, say you?” A different voice asked from the entrance to the tavern. The voice commanded the attention of the other men, all of whom seemed to defer to the man who had just arrived.

The man’s question was greeted with a round of affirmation.

“I, too, am hunting a witch,” the man continued, walking through the crowd toward you and Jacques. Several other knights joined him, following him in from outside. “A witch who arrived today in the forest. Sent from the depths of hell amid a flash of blinding light.”

Peering around Jacques’s body, you watched the man approach. Dressed as a knight, he looked to be around fifty, stocky and homely, with a truly unfortunate mullet and cropped bangs. But what drew your attention foremost was a raised pink scar that ran vertically down the exact center of his face. It seemed to spit his features. His face was slightly off where his features joined on either side of the scar, one side of his face being set a millimeter or two lower than the other.

“Yes, that is indeed the witch I hunt,” the man said threateningly, grinding his teeth. His attention was not fixed on you, however, but on Jacques, whom he regarded with the foulest of glares.

“Carroughes, I thought you were dead,” Jacques greeted the other man with a sarcastic grin. “Wishful thinking, I guess.”

Carroughes drew his sword, raising it to Jacques’s throat. Jacques was woefully outnumbered, unable to take any action that wouldn’t result in your almost immediate deaths.

“I caused the problem,” you said, stepping out from behind Jacques. “He had nothing to do with it.”

“You have no idea what kind of a man you’re defending, do you?” Carroughes addressed you in perfect modern English, keeping his voice low enough to not be heard by anyone else in the tavern.

Reaching his free hand to you, Carroughes ripped your necklace off. Holding it high in front of Jacques’s face, he crushed the two beacons in his fist, watching Jacques grit his teeth while fire burned in his eyes.

“Let’s see what Lord Francois makes of the witch and her escort,” Carroughes said to you both in English, smiling evilly at the thought, before commanding his knights to capture you both and take you to the castle for an audience with his Lord.

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

Hands bound, you and Jacques were marched by an armed escort to the castle. Walking first inside a towering outer wall, you passed through a beautiful outside courtyard before entering the monstrous wooden doors to the castle itself. Inside, the walls were adorned with color tapestries, more vibrantly decorated than you would have assumed.

You were fortunate enough to have your hands tied in front of you, unlike Jacques, whose hands were secured behind his back. You could see his hands turning a dangerous shade of purple by the time you reached the great hall, where you would be brought before the Lord.

While Jacques’s hands were still bound, Carroughes took the opportunity to step in front of Jacques, pugnaciously squaring face to face with the much larger man.

“I bet you never thought you’d see my face again,” Carroughes spat in Jacques’s face as he unbuckled Jacques’s sword from around his hips. “When you left me for dead with my face cut in half. On a fucking battlefield.”

“I thought you were dead,” Jacques growled, voice low to keep his strange language hidden from any locals. “You knew the risks of tripping. We landed in the middle of a battle and you panicked. You punched the wrong beacon and it split you in half. Fucked up your DNA. You can’t go back now. You’re too scrambled. You’d come back as hamburger.”

“And that’s just what you wanted, isn’t it?” Carroughes stepped forward aggressively until he stood inches from Jacques. “You wanted me out of the picture so you could go home and fuck my wife.”

“You’re fucking insane, Jean,” Jacques responded, doing his best to keep from raising his voice. “Look at your face. What the fuck do you think that split caused internally? You’re damaged. Your brain is shot to hell.”

“We’ll see who leaves this place more damaged.” Carroughes smiled in that crazed way, possessed only by the deeply deranged, revealing teeth that were misaligned from the center of his gums, askew like the rest of his face.

Reaching to Jacques’s tunic, Carroughes ripped the front laces open and fished out Jacques’s necklace with the last two remaining beacons. Carroughes lifted the leather over Jacques’s head and placed the necklace over his own, securing the beacons inside his tunic and patting a hand over them for effect.

“Now, you’ll see what it’s like to be stuck here in this medieval hell,” Carroughes said with a nasty smile. “Just like you left me. Maybe I’ll also let you see how it feels to watch me fuck your woman. Just like you did to me.”

With a vicious jerk forward, Jacques headbutted Carroughes, almost knocking him to the ground from the force of his forehead slamming into Carroughes’s nose.

“I never touched your fucking wife, you stupid bastard,” Jacques gritted, as Carroughes stumbled backward, hands flying up to grasp his bleeding nose. “And I would have taken you back if you could have survived the trip.”

“I’ll trade you, Jacques,” Carroughes said, sniffing some blood back into his nose, again tapping his chest above the necklace, eyes brimming with hatred. “The woman for the beacons. You let her burn and you watch, and I’ll give these back so that you can go home and report yet another failure.”

“The only trade I’ll make is this,” Jacques replied in the most ominous tone you had heard from him, straightening to his full height and puffing his chest out. “If you give me the beacons now, I won’t cut your fucking head off when I take them back myself.”

“This is hardly conduct befitting knights, good sirs,” a friendly voice echoed through the great hall.

Both Jacques and Carroughes jerked their heads to see a fat, jolly looking man enter the hall, accompanied by four knights serving as his personal guard.

“Lord Francois,” Carroughes fumbled, trying to regain his composure while still wiping at his bleeding nose. “This is the witch from the forest and tavern, and the man who saw fit to escort her through your lands.”

“Let us not be hasty in casting such dangerous labels, Sir Jean,” the Lord cautioned Carroughes. “And unbind this knight. He stands unaccused, and this is not how I host guests in my castle.”

With an almost pained grimace, Carroughes cut the binds on Jacques’s wrists as petulantly and roughly as possible.

“Your accent is foreign, sir…?” the Lord’s voice trailed off in a question.

“Jacques Le Gris,” Jacques replied pleasantly, rubbing some blood flow back into his wrists, conveniently ignoring the question of his origin.

“Sir Jacques,” Lord Francois continued in a tenor loud enough for everyone to hear. “Were you present during the events in question that have given rise to an allegation of witchcraft?”

“I was, my Lord,” Jacques said cautiously.

“Do you believe this woman is guilty of witchcraft?” the Lord asked. “On your honor as a knight?”

Thank God, the Lord seems to disbelieve this horseshit, Jacques thought to himself at this stroke of good luck.

“Certainly not, my Lord,” Jacques said with conviction. “I would not keep her company if I did.”

“Very good,” the Lord said, clapping his hands. “I have bigger concerns at present than petty witchcraft. Battling the English dogs foremost among them. And it has been too long since I have received new company of interest to me.”

Shaking his head angrily, Carroughes stepped forward toward the Lord.

“I saw her witchcraft myself,” Carroughes snapped. “Give her to me, my Lord. I shall get a confession from her by nightfall.”

“I, for one, have never seen a witch possessing of great beauty,” the Lord said in another attempt at dissuading the mob. “This woman does not appear a witch to me. They are haggard, wretched creatures.”

“Her actions cannot be overlooked,” Carroughes asserted with finality.

“Hold me accountable for her actions, my Lord,” Jacques said firmly, setting his jaw. “She is my wife.”

Your jaw dropped at Jacques’s statement. Luckily the Lord’s attention was fixed upon Jacques long enough for you to recover and simply fix Jacques with a side-eyed glare.

“Your wife?!” Carroughes scoffed. “The foreign knight deigns to lie to you, my Lord.”

“I shall not assume a man is lying who claims to be married to a woman accused of witchcraft,” the Lord laughed at the absurdity of it. “Even a woman as beautiful as this one.”

Grinning broadly, Jacques pulled you close to his side in an affectionate gesture, while you still tried to compose yourself into acting in the role of his wife.

“What of her speaking in tongues?” Carroughes pressed, clearly flustered.

“My wife is beautiful, indeed,” Jacques spoke confidently with a smirk. “But she is not known for the strength of her wit. You must know, my Lord, how rarely beauty accompanies intellect.”

The Lord chuckled merrily, no doubt in agreement with Jacques. You fixed Jacques with your most withering glare. And Carroughes looked as though he was unravelling at the seams.

“And her crazed outbursts?!” Carroughes asked shrilly, his fists shaking.

“Again, my Lord, I fear I am responsible for this behavior,” Jacques said, flashing a cocky grin and playing to the Lord’s good humor. “I have no doubt my Lord knows how irritable a lady becomes when a man has been absent from her bed for too long.”

“Ah, yes, the ways we husbands must toil to keep our women in good spirits,” the Lord laughed again more heartily.

“Rest assured, my Lord, I shall see to correcting her temperament myself this evening,” Jacques told the man lasciviously with a wink, immune to the murderous looks you served him.

“I demand a trial!” Carroughes exclaimed, his demeanor growing more crazed by the second as his literal witch hunt crumbled before him.

“Come now, Sir Jean,” the Lord implored, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Allow Sir Jacques to reprimand his wife this evening as he sees fit. I’m sure he shall give her a good spanking of some variety.”

“As her accuser, it is my right to demand a trial,” Carroughes persisted.

“Yes,” the Lord conceded with a frustrated sigh. “It is your right.”

“If you suggest weighing me against a duck, I’ll stab you,” you whispered to Jacques, receiving a rough pinch to your side in response.

“Since she is my wife, I choose a trial by combat. As is my right,” Jacques said with a resolve that brokered no argument. “I prefer my wife’s fate rest in my hands rather than put my faith in the opinions of clergymen.”

Considering Jacques’s assertion for only a moment, the rotund Lord clapped his hands together excitedly at the prospect.

“This is fortuitous, Sir Jacques!” he exclaimed jovially. “We are to begin a festival tomorrow that shall carry on to the day after. What better finale to end my festival than a duel between two great knights!”

Jacques smiled mirthlessly out of formality. Carroughes grinned triumphantly, thinking he had won a great victory, no doubt convinced that Jacques would be cut down by whatever knight Carroughes would choose to fight in his stead.

“Until that time,” the Lord continued, walking forward to take Jacques’s forearm in a friendly greeting. “You and your wife shall be my guests here.”

Taking Jacques’s sword from Carroughes, the Lord returned it to Jacques in a gesture that sent a message to all that you and Jacques were not to be harmed while guests at the Lord’s castle.

Watching the Lord for permission, Jacques took both your hands in his left, raising them before him. He used his sword to cut the ties on your wrists before returning his blade to its sheath. Turning his gaze then to you, Jacques lifted your hands to his lips, both still held in his single enormous left hand. No man watching could doubt that Sir Jacques was anything other than your loving husband when he placed a series of hot, lingering kisses to your knuckles, closing his eyes in relief at having saved you.

A least for now.

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

Lord Francois insisted that Sir Jacques join him at the feast the Lord had planned to kick off his festival the following morning. He even insisted that the formidable knight bring his witch bride along to the evening’s festivities.

Evening found you seated at Jacques’s side at the Lord’s large banquet table reserved for his knights and honored guests, watching a mass of visitors and spectacles parade before you through the great hall. A cacophony of cheery music played throughout the hall, torchlight dancing to its tune from countless wall-mounted sconces.

Carroughes was notably absent, as though he had heard it himself when Jacques had told you of his plan to retrieve your beacons, using all possible force, and then to immediately whisk you both home.

Several glasses of wine made you less rigid in your role as Jacques’s wife. Unfortunately, the wine also made you more inclined to conversation. An activity that Jacques had specifically denied you.

Whenever you started to become too gregarious, seeking to engage in conversation, you felt the harsh squeeze of Jacques’s huge hand on your thigh, warning you to keep quiet.

“All you have to do, wife,” Jacques whispered, leaning close to your ear and stroking your thigh with his hand. “Is smile and look pretty.”

You opened your mouth to reply, but were cut off by Jacques’s thick thumb and forefinger reaching to grip your chin, pulling you into a quick, rough kiss to effectively silence your words.

“I don’t want to acquire yet another duel on your behalf, belle fille.” Jacques spoke softly when he pulled back, eyes darting down to your lips. “These lovely lips of yours part only for me until we get home. Understand?”

“And if I kill you myself before we get back?” you asked equally quiet with a feigned smile at your faux husband.

“Then do it tonight, so that I will have died in bed with a beautiful woman.” Jacques grinned at you wolfishly for a long moment before releasing his hold on your chin.

“Bold of you to assume you’ll be sharing a bed with me tonight,” you huffed, irritated by the half-smile he raised on your lips against your will.

“Eat up,” he told you by way of changing the topic and retuning to his conversation with the Lord, before adding once he knew the Lord was listening, “You’ll need your strength for later, amour.”

Lord Francois gave Jacques a nod of approval accompanied by a knowing expression as he raised his glass to cheer his new comrade. The Lord himself had a gorgeous wife seated beside him, her demeanor as demure as his was verbose.

Despite the smug bastard who was masquerading as your husband making every possible lewd joke and insinuation at your expense, you couldn’t deny that you were having the evening of your life. Enjoying excellent food and charming, albeit mildly irritating, company from a dashingly handsome man while attending a genuine medieval banquet. You found yourself wishing that you had taken him up on his offer of dinner and dancing before you had disembarked.

Jacques bid the Lord good evening early under the guise of seeing to your atonement, but not before accepting the Lord’s request of attending the first day of the tournament with the Lord himself in the morning.

One of the Lord’s pages escorted you both back to your chambers. Playing his role to perfection, Jacques held your hand affectionately as you both followed the boy through the long hallways of the castle.

At your door, Jacques held it open for you, going so far as to smack your ass playfully when you passed beside him into the room. It better have been for show, you thought with a surprising lack of malice.

Inside, flickering golden light emanating from a dozen candles illuminated your shared bedchamber. The dancing beams of firelight blended with the rays of the moon that streamed in through spacious windows, their heavy brocade drapes tied open. The room was so lavish as to make its stone walls feel warm and inviting. A blooming fire filled the room with its glow along with the soothing sounds of its crackles and sparks. Above you, a peaked cathedral ceiling rose high and elegantly. And you had never seen a bed so inviting or a canopy lifted so high by its intricately carved walnut pillars. Matching the drapes in form, the canopy, too, was tied open, draping elegantly around the pillars.

Closing the door behind him, Jacques leaned his back against it, letting out a heavy breath as he regarded you. His irises were dark as he admired you, holding your eyes with an unspoken question in his lusting gaze. You knew the way he looked at you was no act, all need for pretense now gone.

Failing to see the invitation he desired, Jacques dropped his eyes from yours. Pushing himself away from the door, he walked past you to the bed.

Without inquiring, Jacques grabbed the thinnest blanket and a single pillow from the array on the bed. You felt a pang of sympathy as you watched him walk to the fireplace where he knelt to spread his blanket across the stone floor. Lowering himself to the floor with a grunt, he laid on his back with one large arm propped behind his head. He even looked enormous while prostrate.

A feeling of guilt crept into your heart when you slipped your shoes off and settled on the large, lush bed by yourself. The emotion deepened once you were surrounded by soft down and furs that hugged your body while Jacques lay on the harsh, unforgiving stone.

“I know you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands to yourself if I tried to sleep in bed next to you,” Jacques teased, poking at you from his place on the floor. “I don’t blame you.”

Rolling your eyes, you didn’t dignify his comment with a response beyond an incredulous snort. Although, you were thankful that he was enough of an indefatigable ass to dispel your guilt so thoroughly.

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

The following morning you were both escorted from your room by pages and handmaidens respectively whose duties were to help you each bathe and dress for the day. The amount of attention given to hygiene and cleanliness was a pleasant surprise that you had not anticipated, although it was apparent that this luxury was only available to the higher echelons of society.

Your handmaidens styled your hair more intricately and beautifully than you would have thought possible without a fumigation of hair products. You were fitted with a more luxurious dress in gold brocade while your blue dress was washed. When you again met your temporary husband, he too was wearing a more formal outfit. Dressed in a tunic of green and gold, complete with an emerald cloak with fur trim, he looked as regal as the most decorated knight who had ever lived.

“Your beauty is radiant this morning, cherie,” Jacques greeted you with a handsome smile, leaning down to place a chaste kiss to your cheek in full display of the pages and handmaidens.

His hand remained fixed to the small of your back as you were led through the castle and outside to the Lord’s private box in the stands overlooking the tournament grounds. You were seated in the company of the Lord himself, his wife, and a small contingent of his friends and honored guests.

Directly below your seats, a large grassy pasture served as the jousting arena. Around you and across from you, the stands were filled with cheering patrons. All around the festival grounds for as far as you could see, crowds milled and mingled. Surely, this event had to be the highlight of the year for many of these peasants who rarely received a reprieve from the daily grind of their existence.

Beside you, Jacques rested his hand on your thigh, warm and comforting, dutifully performing his role. You found it all too easy to play along, placing your hand on top of his, stroking his skin with your thumb, settling closer against his side, and returning his genuine smile with one of your own.

Jacques’s good humor was short lived.

Trumpets sounding from seemingly all around you signaled the commencement of the tournament, met with a deafening cheer from the spectators. The trumpets also marked the arrival of Carroughes, who skulked to Lord Francois’s opposite side, leering at you and Jacques with beady eyes as he took his seat.

Jacques forced a half-smile at his nemesis, but his eyes remained murderous.

By way of a reply, Carroughes returned the sarcastic smile. He again patted his chest where the beacons were hidden beneath his tunic, reminding Jacques of his offer to return the beacons in exchange for Jacques watching you burn.

Just to twist the knife for Carroughes, you leaned close to Jacques, pressing your breasts against his arm as you kissed his cheek. Like any good wife would dote on her handsome husband.

“I can’t wait to watch you rip his fucking head off, Jacques,” you whispered. Teasing your lips over the shell of his ear, you felt his hand grip your thigh more tightly in response, sliding slightly higher toward the apex of your thighs.

“You’ll get to see the man whom you shall fight tomorrow, Le Gris,” Carroughes sneered with a smarmy smile. “The knight I have named as my champion.”

“I pity any man who must name another man as his champion. A man who lacks the courage and virility to fight for himself,” Jacques replied coolly. “I wonder how satisfied your own wife is, Carroughes.”

Carroughes flushed beat red at Jacques’s words, accentuating a thick vein that pulsed angrily in his forehead.

“Ah, here he rides now,” Lord Francois interjected cheerily, pointing down the field where a mounted knight had just entered. “Sir Gregor.”

Dressed in a blue tunic and armor, the knight rode a prancing white horse, sitting large and tall in the saddle. Very tall. The man had to be at least six-foot-six, if not larger. The knight held his helmet under his arm as he waved to the crowd, welcomed by cheers and whistles, clearly a favorite. He appeared to be in his twenties and undoubtedly in peak physical condition.

An uneasy knot began twisting in the pit of your stomach at the sight of the man who would be Jacques’s opponent. Younger, taller, and undeniably more highly trained and practiced than Jacques. You found yourself squeezing Jacques’s hand more tightly, so much so that Jacques released his hold on your thigh in favor of taking your hand in his, comforting you with his touch.

Carroughes looked at Jacques with a shit-eating grin as the knight donned his helmet.

Ignoring Carroughes’s puerile attempts at unsettling him, Jacques watched the blue knight closely, studying his opponent.

Sir Gregor appeared daunting indeed, and very aware of his own skill and size. The blue knight was cocky and overconfident, traits Jacques knew well himself. He, too, was used to being the biggest and baddest man around. Fortunately, Jacques was now seasoned enough, as he closed in on forty, to know that exuberant confidence was also a weakness that could be exploited. Sir Gregor would surely underestimate Jacques, which Jacques hoped to hell would give him enough of an edge to win.

Throughout the day, you watched as Sir Gregor won every event almost effortlessly, removing his helmet and smiling brightly after every victorious melee and joust. Jacques watched the man with the focus of a hunting dog on point, learning everything he could about the knight’s movement, fighting style, and potential weaknesses, of which there were dismally few.

Jacques also watched closely for any opportunity he could use to get the beacons back from Carroughes, by any means necessary. Carroughes did not allow such an opening to present itself. Jacques had known Carroughes for years and had worked closely with him at the facility. Carroughes was a military man, himself; a formidable opponent. Even before he became insane and paranoid from the damage he sustained trying use the wrong beacon. Now, he was unpredictable and all the more dangerous.

As the shadows grew long, the blue knight remained undefeated at the end of the tournament.

Lord Francois again hosted you both with his party at another great banquet in his hall for the evening. Sir Gregor was in attendance, giving you and Jacques the opportunity to literally size the man up. He moved with the bearing and confidence of a star athlete. The blue knight was somehow even larger in person, standing several inches taller than Jacques. However, Jacques’s shoulders were markedly wider, his chest broader, his hands more enormous, and his build more powerful. Compared to the two great men, all others looked lilliputian and wholly insignificant by comparison.

Carroughes stayed close to the knight, ingratiating himself and smarming up to him like a mongrel dog. He was also shrewd enough not to offer Jacques an opportunity to retrieve the beacons.

Jacques used you as an excuse to leave the banquet early, in his lascivious manner that made you wish your hands were large enough to wrap around his thick neck and strangle him on the spot.

“I fear my wife is nervous this evening, my Lord,” Jacques announced from his seat at the table, projecting his booming voice throughout the hall. Standing from the table, Jacques pulled you up with him and into his arms flush against his body, and continued speaking over the top of your head. “I’ll do my best to exhaust her tonight so as to prevent any hysterics from her tomorrow.”

“Very wise, Sir Jacques,” the Lord replied with a boisterous laugh. “I hope she serves you well this evening, that you may have good fortune tomorrow.”

Allowing Jacques to lead you through the hall held tight to his side, you smiled up at him, camouflaging the annoyance in your voice.

“Is your plan to get me to kill you tonight so you don’t have to go through with the duel tomorrow?” you asked through your fake smile.

“Are you not going to give me a proper send off for what might be my last night on earth?” Jacques asked, skimming his hand down to your ass as you walked through the crowd, then letting it fall away from your body when you exited the great room into the hallway.

“You’re not going to die tomorrow. Don’t be ridiculous,” you said as you walked toward your shared room. Despite the way Jacques made you fantasize about punching him in the throat on occasion, you found yourself wishing he had kept his large, warm hand on your body.

“What if I requested one last meal, cherie?” Jacques flashed you his most debauched grin. “My favorite delicacy?”

“Honestly, you just ate more than any three men I’ve ever seen. How could you still be hungry?” you asked before his words sunk in. When you took his true meaning, you responded with a backhanded smack to his stomach.

Jacques’s grin only widened when regarded you. Reaching the door to your bedchamber, he opened it for you and followed you inside.

“So, you would deny me a last meal,” he said huskily, reaching to unlace the ties at the throat of his tunic. Taking a step toward you, he held out his hand to you. “But perhaps, you would do me the honor of a dance.”

Rolling your eyes only slightly, you ineffectively tried to hold back your smile as you placed your hand in his.

Jacques pulled you into his arms, looking down at you affectionately, as he began to dance with you.

Firelight from the fireplace danced across the angular planes of Jacques’s face. He looked unbearably handsome in the dim glow with oranges and yellows reflecting in the amber depths of his eyes.

“When we return, will you then allow me to take you out for a proper evening?” he asked you, taking your breath away with a powerful spin.

“Do you think you can do better than playing grab-ass with me at a medieval banquet?” you teased in return, knowing you would never decline his offer.  

“Maybe I’ll surprise you and try my hand at being a gentleman instead.” His voice rumbled in his chest as he held you tighter, swaying with you in his arms to a silent melody.

“Maybe I’d like that.” Smiling up at him, you allowed your hand to trail from where it rested on his shoulder to the back of his neck, beneath his thick hair.

Jacques danced with you until the moon had risen high outside your window. You could have happily stayed in his arms until the sun rose in its place.

Using his body pressing against yours, Jacques backed you to the bed. Your breath caught in your throat when the backs of your legs collided with the mattress. Jacques leaned over your body, forcing your back down onto the mattress as he dipped low. Your eyes fell shut in anticipation until you felt him grab a pillow from behind you and remove his body from over yours.

Jacques flashed you a mischievous smirk as he pushed himself back to his feet, pillow in hand, before turning to walk back to the fireplace. Groaning dramatically for effect, he resumed his place on the floor to sleep for the night.

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

Morning came all too early. You had barely slept, racked with nerves. You hoped that Jacques had fared better sleeping on the stone floor than you had in the feathery bed, tossing and turning, fighting nightmares, throughout the night.

You woke to the sound of the handmaids entering to bathe and dress you.  Instantly, you were stressed and angry, and no amount of preening and pampering could put you at ease.

Once the pages and handmaidens had their way with you and Jacques, you were both escorted to a hearty breakfast in the great hall. Lord Francois was there with his wife, seated in the company of Carroughes, Sir Gregor, and a number of other knights.

You could not imagine how Jacques could eat before such an event, watching in dismay as the large man cleaned several plates.

Once breakfast was finished by all, Carroughes made a point of speaking to Sir Gregor. He made a loud open offer to pay the blue knight handsomely if he were to kill Jacques in the tournament, instead of merely winning. Such was within the rules of combat and the knight was all too happy to accept.

Jacques rose aggressively from his seat, ready to lunge across the table at the mullet-bearing man.

The Lord stood as well, waving his arms in an effort to quell the tempers of the other men.

“Come now, good sirs, let us save this for the tournament grounds,” he said pleasantly.

Jacques seethed, his jaw and fists clenching as he tried to contain his rage. You saw Carroughes smile. He was hoping to provoke Jacques right now, allowing for the other men to join in the fray, ganging up on him to cut him down.

Pushing to your feet, you grabbed Jacques’s arm, bringing his attention to you.

“I wish to have some more time alone with my husband before this stupidity commences,” you commanded, before casting a venomous glare to Carroughes. “A luxury I’m sure no woman would willingly offer a man as repulsive as yourself.”

Taking Jacques’s hand, you pulled him with you away from the Lord’s table as the other men watched with lewd smiles.

You felt your own temper rising, stressed and worried about the outcome of the duel. You were no calmer by the time you had returned to your bedchamber.

“This isn’t fair, Jacques,” you almost shouted as you slammed the door. “You shouldn’t have to do this.”

“Since when did fairness enter into it?” He asked heatedly, his own anger still flared from breakfast.

“Let’s just leave now. We know the castle well enough to sneak out and get away.” You knew you were panicking, the reality that Jacques might get seriously injured or killed finally seeping in.

“If we leave the castle, we’ll never get back in. Which means, I’ll never get the chance to get our makers back from Carroughes,” Jacques said, shaking his head. “We’d be stuck here.”

“You can’t be serious,” you huffed incredulously, placing your hands on your hips. “You’re not actually going to go through with this are you?”

“Care to tell me what fucking choice I have?” He replied in a clipped tone, allowing the stress he felt himself to boil to the surface of his demeanor.

“Let me talk to the Lord. I’ll clear it up,” you said confidently, trying to keep your own voice from rising and getting embroiled in an argument with the infuriating man.

“Please, wife, for the love of fucking god, keep your mouth shut.” He shook his head in exasperation. “You’ll have us both beheaded by the end of the day.”

“This is completely insane!” You punctuated your exclamation with an angry stomp.

Watching your display, Jacques took a deep breath to calm himself. The last thing he needed was to lose his temper now with you when he needed to mentally fortify himself for the duel.

“Even if you are a witch, which I’m pretty damn sure you are, if you burn at the stake on my watch, I’ll get written up,” he told you with a smirk, trying to lighten both your moods. “Lots of paperwork.”

“Do tell, Jacques? How many medieval duels have you won? Is jousting part of PhD programs these days?” You took a confrontational step toward him, raising your chin defiantly. “You’re a glorified academic who happens to look the part of a knight.”

“We both know how much you like the way I look,” he replied, baring his teeth wolfishly, choosing to find your derision amusing instead of letting it frustrate him further. “You know I was in the military, right? Before I was just a glorified academic. French Special Forces. Commandement des Opérations Spéciales.”

“How long ago? Twenty years?” you said sourly, entirely un-comforted by the thought. “I feel so much better.”

“All I have to do is knock the other guy off his horse with a stick.” That smug grin of his returned with his words. “How hard can it be?”

“Oh, this is just wonderful,” you said bitterly, immune to his attempts to make you smile. “My life is in the hands of a grinning jackass.”

“Better give me a kiss for good luck, then,” he said, dropping his voice an octave and taking a step closer to you until only inches separated your bodies.

Your only response was to tilt your chin up higher, fixing him squarely with a wilting glare.

“No?” His smirk returned. Chewing his lip as he looked down at you, his eyes shone with amusement and something darker. “Perhaps you’ll reward your brave, dashing husband properly when I return from battling in your honor. Milady.”

“Perhaps I’ll kill you myself if the other knight fails and choose burning at the stake over enduring more of your reckless idiocy,” you said icily, narrowing your eyes at him.

Laughing heartily at your encouragement, Jacques backed away from you. Meeting your eyes, he bowed gallantly in a sarcastic display before moving to the door. Pulling it open, he paused before walking through it, his eyes flitting back to you for a moment as if to see if your gaze would soften, before stepping through and slamming the door behind him.

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

An ebullient page of around fifteen escorted Jacques through the tournament grounds, weaving between the bustling crowd. Gesturing animatedly, he chattered too fast for Jacques to follow about the happenings of the tournament. On two sides of the grassy field of the jousting paddock, the stands were filled with noisy, boisterous onlookers.

Passing the field, the page led him into an area littered with tents. They were each small and colored with bold hues and striped designs, each tipped with a matching pennant. Other squires and pages busied themselves rushing from place to place, armor and weapons in hand, readying their knights for the tournament.

Arriving at a tent of crimson and gold, the page held the flap aside for Jacques to pass through. Inside, a set of armor lay in pieces on a cloth tarp on the ground.

Without a word, the page began pulling at the fastening on Jacques’s trousers, moving to undress him, as was his duty.

“I can handle this part myself,” Jacques grumbled, shooing the boy away.

Stripping away his clothing, Jacques motioned the boy forward when he stood in only his linen undershirt and leggings.

The boy began to dress him, slapping at Jacques’s large hands when he moved to assist or dress himself. The boy was as irritated at Jacques’s continued attempts as though he was standing in a swarm of mosquitoes, and he persisted to smack Jacques’s hands out of the way accordingly.

First, was a pair of thick felt leggings and matching undershirt. Jacques raised and swung his arms, bending his elbows, to test his range of motion. The stiff material made it difficult, rendering his movements slow and cumbersome. He could already feel a sheen of sweat rising on his body from the heavy fabric.

Christ, they haven’t even gotten to the armor, he thought bitterly.

Next, came a heavy chain mail tunic, unceremoniously draped over Jacques’s head. The page seemed unconcerned when the ends of Jacques’s hair caught in the links of metal that covered his shoulders.

Cursing under his breath, Jacques set about freeing his hair while the page began fastening plates of metal to his calves, knees, and thighs.

When the page lifted the breastplate to buckle it in place over Jacques’s chest, he frowned, moving it back and forth as he tried to position it.

“The plate is not wide enough for you, Sir,” the page said, pursing his lips. “Be mindful of the sides where you will be bare of armor.”

“Beautiful,” Jacques laughed mirthlessly.

Pausing in his task, the page looked at Jacques quizzically at his choice of words, before shaking his head and dismissing Jacques as being clearly simple-minded and confused.

Jacques felt increasingly burdened and clumsy as each additional piece of metal was added and fixed into place. And hot. Fuck, he was hot. The metal acted like hot plates over the thick felt undergarments. Sweat was already dripping into his eyes and plastering his hair to his scalp.

Poking Jacques in the stomach to regain his attention, the page held out a pair of armored gloves for Jacques to pull on.

Finally, the piece that Jacques was most eager for. His broadsword was belted tightly into place around his hips. The page drew his sword and re-sheathed it twice to check for any hitches before it met with his approval.

After a few more minutes of fussing over him, the page finished and stood back to admire his work. Not bothering to ask his incompetent knight to approve of his ensemble, the page merely nodded to himself in validation.

The page then retrieved a chainmail cowl of sorts. Reaching to the front of Jacques’s collar, he tugged, gesturing for Jacques to bend forward as though he was dealing with a recalcitrant horse.

When Jacques bent forward, the page pulled the chainmail cowl over his head and made his best effort at tucking Jacques’s hair inside of it. It fit like a ski mask with an open face, covering the top of Jacques’s head and his throat.

The final piece was the helmet. Placing the helmet on Jacques’s head, the page slammed the visor down into place, plunging Jacques into darkness.

Jacques could see nothing other than what was straight ahead of him, the small horizontal eye slit impeding his vision to a shocking degree. His breath was hot on his own face, steaming his skin inside the helmet.

Approving that the helmet was correctly positioned, the page lifted the visor, giving Jacques a few more minutes of unobscured vision.

Now that he was completely armored, Jacques tested his movements again, finding them cloddish and labored. How the fuck was he supposed to fight wearing this horseshit?

With a dramatically belabored sigh, the page commanded Jacques’s attention, gesturing for him to exit the tent.

Outside, a horse stood waiting impatiently for its rider. Another boy held the reins of the enormous armored beast. The black animal was the size of a draft horse, as tall at the shoulders as Jacques and with hooves larger than his head. It danced in place and pawed the ground in anticipation of going to battle, snorting and huffing with excitement. The horse eyed Jacques as skeptically as the pages when he lumbered forward.

Jacques had ridden before, of course. But he had never ridden a horse as enormous as this one. And he had no fucking idea how to climb onto it in his immobilizing suit of armor. He hoped the page would bring him a step to mount the horse. Instead, the page only shoved him lightly forward toward the animal.

Walking ponderously to the horse, Jacques reached his hand up to the pommel of the saddle and raised his foot into the stirrup. With a grunt, he hoisted himself up into the saddle, grateful that it was cinched tight around the horse. In an attempt to be helpful, the page pushed Jacques up into the saddle, shoving him roughly upward with his hands on Jacques’s ass.

Jacques landed heavily in the saddle with a metal clang as his helmet visor snapped shut over his face from his ungainly motion. Several pieces of his hair caught trapped in the hinge of the visor, making him grimace. He figured he might as well leave the fucking helmet closed at this point anyway.

A trumpet sounded in the distance, signaling the call to arms for Jacques and his opponent.

With an excited smile, the page led Jacques’s horse toward the tournament field as a stinging drop of salty sweat rolled down into Jacques’s eye.

Through the narrow slit in his helmet, Jacques scanned the crowd seated in the stands above him. He assumed you had been brought out to watch his duel and he tried valiantly to spot you, wanting to know you watched him as he rode out to fight in your honor. You might be a stubborn pain in his ass, but for reasons he didn’t have long enough to ponder, he felt himself compelled not only to win but to impress you while doing so.

He had no way of knowing that you were indeed watching from the stands, seated at the Lord’s side. Your breath caught in your throat when you saw Jacques being led onto the field riding the largest blackest horse you had ever seen. A huge unruly animal befitting the huge unruly man himself. You tried not to be nervous, telling yourself over and over and over that everything would be fine, as if repeating that mantra would make it true. Still, your nails dug into your palms and your teeth bit into your cheek when the trumpets rang again.

Jacques’s horse spun in place and bucked excitedly at the sound, knocking him forward in the saddle. Yanking the reins harshly, Jacques tried to bring the horse under control, as the page attempted to hand him his lance. Jacques fumbled several times to take the obnoxiously long striped weapon, trying to position it properly across his body, aiming out, ahead, and to his left.

Across the field, his giant blue-clad opponent sat calmly and balanced on his own white horse, no doubt having a nice laugh at Jacques.

More fucking trumpets.

“Go, Sir!” The page yelled, from seemingly far away on the ground.

The enemy knight spurred his horse forward toward Jacques, as Jacques still tried to rein his own mount down the center of the field.

“Go!” The page shouted again. Eminently helpful, the boy landed a hard smack to the horse’s ass, sending the animal charging ahead while Jacques struggled to keep his seat.

The slotted view of Jacques’s world bounced wildly in front of him. It was almost impossible to focus on his oncoming target, let alone aim his lance. His own panting breaths and the cadence of thundering hooves marked every galloped stride closer toward his opponent.

At the moment of impact, Jacques saw the helmet of his enemy, one of those with the pointy snouts. His lance recoiled violently in his grip, slamming painfully into the crook of his right arm. A simultaneous blow to his left shoulder knocked him back in his saddle, accompanied by the crack of splintering wood. Somehow, Jacques kept his seat and his hold on the grip of the broken lance.

From your spot in the stands, you sat on the literal edge of your seat. Every muscle in your body tensed when the men collided, each breaking a lance on the other’s body. The dull sound of the impact and the snapping of the wooden lances carried to your ears across the field. You didn’t know how anyone could sustain such a blow and keep going.

Jacques had a few moments to catch his breath as his horse trotted back down to his end of the field for the second round. Just long enough for the stabbing pain in his shoulder to set in. He didn’t think anything was broken, but fuck he took a hard blow, the pain from it searing from his shoulder into his chest and down his arm. And he still felt as though he was roasting in his armor, while his eyes burned and blurred from the sweat that ran unchecked into them. He cursed himself for being one of those idiots who, prior to today, had romanticized this fucking sport and the chivalry of it all.

Arriving back at his starting point, Jacques tossed the hilt of his broken lance aside. His page was ready with a second lance, shoving it into Jacques’s hand. It was easier to position this time since his horse was better behaved after having a good run.

Jacques dropped his new lance into the same position across his left arm when his page squealed with alarm, pointing urgently down the field.

Looking ahead, Jacques saw the blue knight already charging full speed toward him. Humiliated and enraged, the bastard hadn’t waited for the signal to charge, hoping to catch Jacques off guard.

Growling inside his oven of a helmet, Jacques spurred his horse ahead. The animal lunged forward into a gallop, knowing to hug the centerline of the field as he barreled toward his opponent.

It was harder for Jacques to keep his lance leveled this time, having to fight the urge to flinch or veer away from the immense pain he now knew was forthcoming.

Glaring through his visor, he leaned into his attack, wishing he could just run the bastard through.

An explosion of wooden splinters and the clang of metal rang in Jacques’s ears, deafening inside his helmet. The accompanying blow that hit him square in his massive chest sent pain shooting through his body. Thrown backwards violently, his prominent nose hit the front of his helmet as his breath was knocked from his lungs. Ominous black spots inked the edges of his vision, threatening to pull him under their black veil, as he toppled sideways off his horse.

The ground rushed up at him as if from miles below, knocking any remaining wind from him with his forceful impact. In a stroke of macabre luck, the collision also sobered him from his impending blackout.

Laying flat on his back, Jacques struggled for breath that was slow to return to his aching lungs. His chest burned with harrowing pain and he vaguely wondered if he had broken ribs or even a punctured lung. Blood drained from his nose down his cheeks and into his mouth as he gasped for air.

The sound of screams, or were they cheers, from the stands and the drum of galloping hoofbeats roused him from his stupor.

Jacques’s enemy charged at him again, kicking his horse vehemently. He didn’t hold a lance now, seeking to trample Jacques where he lay on the ground.

Adrenaline rushed through Jacques’s veins, invigorating him into action. He tried to sit up, to rise from the ground, but his fucking armor prevented it, weighing him down and pinning him to the ground. Rolling to his hands and knees, he shoved himself roughly to his feet with a pained grunt.

The knight was only yards away now, bearing down upon Jacques with deadly speed.

Through the agonizing haze of pain, Jacques realized that he still held the grip of his lance in his right hand. A foot or so of the pole extended out from the hilt until it ended in splinters where he had broken it against his opponent.

Jacques took the only chance he had.

Rearing his right arm back, Jacques threw what remained of his lance with all his strength at the head of the other man. Watching the lance spin through the air toward its target, Jacques thanked all those nights he’d spent in bars trying to pick up girls and instead settling for throwing darts.

The lance brutally struck the knight right in the slot of his helmet. His head jerked backward from the impact, a dull thud resounding from the metal of his helmet being knocked roughly into his face.

Jacques dodged to the side of the charging horse, rolling across the grass, as the other man fell backwards off his mount.

Pushing again to his feet with a snarl, Jacques drew his sword. He’d extend the bastard the same courtesy he’d allowed Jacques. None.

Watching from the stands, you jumped from your seat when Jacques rose to his feet a second time and you saw the sunlight glint off the steel of his drawn sword. You yelled his name and cheered like a fan at the Super Bowl in a manner decidedly unfit for a medieval Lady. You hoped he’d kill the other man. You wanted to see his blood stain the grass red.

Jacques lunged at his enemy, like a ravening beast unleashed from his cage.

The blue knight moved fast. Rolling to his feet and pulling his sword in a fluid, practiced motion. He was much more agile in his armor than Jacques.

Both blades met with an angry metal clang when the knight blocked Jacques’s sideways swing.

The blow reverberated through Jacques’s hand from the force of it. He grinned with malicious satisfaction when he saw his enemy knocked off balance from the violence of Jacques’s strike.

Recovering quickly, the other man easily parried Jacques’s next stabbing attack, circling around Jacques like a boxer in a ring.

Jacques didn’t slow his onslaught. Raging against the blue knight with all of his formidable strength and anger, Jacques leveled strike after strike. Jacques was stronger and more powerful than Sir Gregor, but outmatched by the opposing knight in size, and he was very clearly not as skilled in sword play, lacking years of daily training and battle. Jacques was unused to facing men larger than himself whose superior reach easily deflected his crushing blows.

His right arm was tiring after delivering two solid blows with lances and now doing the lion’s share of swinging his heavy sword. Every breath was excruciating inside his battered chest. He knew he couldn’t keep this up much longer and when his fatigued muscles gave his enemy an opening, the fight would be over.

Jacques had never fought a duel over a woman before, but he had fought and won his fair share of fist fights over the fairer sex. His lips curled into a grin at the thought, allowing more blood from his nose to seep into his mouth.

Raising his sword high, Jacques swung it downward toward his opponent’s head in a strike that he knew the man would block but would bring their bodies close together.

As the two blades connected, Jacques released his left hand from the hilt of his sword, drawing it back to land a devastating punch to the blue knight’s helmet over his temple.

The enemy knight’s body jolted from the impact, swaying dazed on his feet.

Jacques grabbed the collar of the knight’s breastplate as he staggered, yanking him toward Jacques to meet a vicious headbutt, slamming the metal of the man’s own helmet into his forehead. Jacques had never been more thankful for being such a hardheaded sonofabitch when he knocked his enemy out cold on his feet with the force of his blow.

Releasing his hold on the man’s collar, Jacques watched in satisfaction as the tall man’s body tipped backward onto the ground with a thud.

A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd amid a sea of clapping hands. People stood up from their seats in the stands to cheer Jacques’s victory.

You were loudest among them.

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

Jacques was the man of the hour at the feast that evening. Lord Francois commenced the celebration by announcing that God had judged you innocent of witchcraft through your husband’s victory and that the mighty knight and his lovely wife were to be honored and celebrated.

It was quite an impressive feat that Jacques didn’t tip over from downing glass after glass of wine as men cheered in his honor. He was effusive and affable, laughing easily and keeping you close to his side. He was also more affectionate to you as he played his role, a hand always on you. You knew he was proud, as he should be. He also had to be relieved to have fared so well against an undefeated opponent and, of course, to have saved you from your fate as a witch.

The combination of the wine and his relief lowered his guard for the evening, and you wondered if his hearty laugh and easy affection were what a genuine wife would receive from the man on a daily basis. The thought warmed you to the core.

One almost wouldn’t know that Jacques had taken such a beating today in the tournament. He never uttered a whine or a complaint. However, his pain was revealed by his stiff, slowed movements and in the occasional wince and grimace that crossed his handsome face.

Even Sir Gregor was in good spirits, raising his glass to the only man who had ever bested him. It was only a tournament to him after all, blissfully unaware of the higher stakes at play.

The only man in the room wearing a bitter scowl was Carroughes, who still maintained his proximity to the blue knight and the Lord. You couldn’t resist doing your small part to make his night even worse.

“My husband doesn’t disappoint, does he Carroughes?” you asked him from across the table. “I doubt your wife could say the same about you.”

Seeing Carroughes squint at you, unable to retort, Jacques took your hand, bringing it to his lips.

“I’m starting to like that mouth of yours after all, belle fille,” he murmured against your skin before placing a hot kiss to the back of your hand.

Turning your hand in his hold, you stroked his cheek tenderly, enjoying the way his eyes closed in response to your touch. 

A final round of cheers echoed off the stone walls of the cavernous hall when Jacques rose with you to retreat to your room.

Walking back to your shared room, Jacques slung his heavy arm across your shoulders. It was not a romantic gesture, but one of jovial camaraderie. Despite his confident swagger, you could feel how stiff and pained his movements were when his body was pressed close to your side. You marveled at how the man was able to keep such good humor, despite being in significant pain.

“Aren’t you going to tell me how good I looked out there today?” He asked, his voice still as booming and proud as it had been in the dining hall.

“Do you mean how good you looked when you were falling head over ass off your horse?” You teased back, bumping him with your shoulder.

“You’re hard to please,” he said, turning to grin down at you. “Tell me, how many other men have fought and won duels in your honor? How many other men have defeated another man in hand-to-hand combat, all for you?”

Arriving at the door to your bedchamber, Jacques opened it for you, grinning at the way you rolled your eyes playfully at him as you walked inside.

A large wooden tub had been placed in your room. Water steamed in its basin, heated by a pan of coals beneath it. Linen sheets lined the tub, protecting its occupant from splinters.

Groaning deeply in pleasure at the sight and the thought of a hot bath on his aching muscles, Jacques stepped past you toward the tub.

“I’ll be a gentleman and ask if you want to go first,” he said to you over his shoulder, as he admired the tub.

“I bathed before the feast,” you said, declining his offer.

Unconcerned by your presence, he began unlacing the throat of his tunic and stepping out of his boots, before turning to face you.

“Care to join me?” He asked, winking at you suggestively.

“Are you really just going to strip with me standing right here?” You ignored his question, raising a condescending eyebrow at him.

“You can pretend you don’t like it,” he said with a grin as he peeled his tunic and undershirt off together over his head.

You were prepared to make a witty comeback, but the sight of his bare torso took your breath away. It wasn’t the impressive breath of his chest nor his dense, heavily sculpted muscles. His gorgeous body was brutalized with a heartbreaking battery of lacerations and contusions he sustained in the duel.

An angry shade of purple stained the majority of the pale skin on his chest. The bruise spread like watercolor across a canvas from a nearly black starburst center point where the second lance had struck him squarely, and red tinged its edges. His left shoulder was painted with his injuries as well, darkly bruised with a patch of torn skin on the point of his shoulder where the first lance had taken some flesh with its impact.

“My god, Jacques. That looks horrible,” you told him apologetically, taking an unconscious step toward him.

“Don’t worry. It feels worse than it looks,” he assured you, barely joking.

Reaching to his trousers, he began undoing them. His eyes crinkled around the edges in delight when your gaze followed his hands and the lines forming a vee down from his hips.

“Turn around if you don’t want to see what you’re missing out on,” he said cockily, hooking his thumbs in his waistband, preparing to shove his pants down. “Or feel free to feast your eyes. Suit yourself.”

Placing your hands on your hips with a sigh, you turned your back to him. You waited until you heard him undress completely and lower himself into the water with a painful grunt.

“Finally, something that feels good,” he sighed heavily, relaxing back in the tub. “I don’t suppose you’d give your chivalrous husband a shoulder rub?”

“The temptation to drown you might be too great for me to resist,” you replied with a laugh at his antics.

Leaning his head back against the rim of the tub, he grinned at you warmly, his eyes softer than usual and devoid of their teasing edge. His knees protruded from the tub, his long legs bent to allow him to recline.

Walking to the window, you perched yourself on its stone windowsill, looking out over the moonlit landscape.

“Do you think we’ll get out of here, Jacques?” You tried to keep your tone light, not wanting to damper the evening.

“Of course we will, cherie,” Jacques assured you confidently. “I promised to take you out to a nice dinner when we get back, didn’t I?”

Looking over at him, you smiled at his good humor, despite having to feel awful himself. As you watched, he slid further down in the tub, dipping his head beneath the water to wet his hair. When he rose again, he reached his hands up to lather soap into his hair, wincing in pain and grunting with his sore movements.

Pushing yourself away from the windowsill, you walked to the back of the tub behind him. He craned his head to look up at you, inquiring as to your purpose with raised eyebrows.

With a sigh, you lowered yourself to your knees behind him, reaching to take the soap from his hand.

“Just let me wash your damn hair before all your grunting and whining makes people think you’re getting lucky in here,” you said as you pushed his hands away and began scrubbing soap into his dense forest of hair.

“Fuck, as good as that feels, I might groan even more,” he sighed contentedly at your touch and the feeling of your nails raking along his scalp as you massaged the soap in deeply.

It took two washes to cleanse his long hair of the sweat, dirt, and blood from the day. You found you didn’t mind the task, enjoying the sensation of running and twisting your fingers through his mane. You took the time to work out a few tangles and scratch your nails along his neck when you finished washing his hair.

Letting your hands linger on his thick neck, you rubbed his knotted muscles soothingly. He let out a rumbling groan, so rich that it was closer to a purr, leaning into your touch like a giant cat wanting more.

You were happy to give it to him, relishing the feel of his rigid muscles under your hands. Kneading your way down his neck to his shoulders, you applied more force, doing your best to massage the soreness from his body.

“You were worried about me today, weren’t you?” He was grinning smugly again, looking down toward the water while you rubbed his shoulders. “Afraid you might become a widow?”

At his words, you let your left hand slip down to the point of his left shoulder, digging your fingers roughly into his painful bruise. His pained winced and grunted response brought a mischievous smile to your own lips.

“I’m not entirely displeased that you didn’t die, if that’s what you’re asking,” you conceded, returning your hands to their soothing task.

Laughing softly at the small bone you threw him, Jacques reached his right hand up to take yours, pulling it forward to his lips. His breath was hot on your skin and his goatee scratched you lightly as he placed a kiss to your palm. Tracing his lips higher, he bestowed another hot, lingering kiss to the inside of your wrist. The simple chaste gesture sent a rash of goosebumps streaking up your arm and spurred your heart to race in your chest.

Jacques let his lips rest against your skin, nuzzling into you for several long moments before releasing your hand. When he relaxed more fully afterwards, you thought he might fall asleep in the bath as you resumed massaging his broad shoulders.

A disgruntled sigh admonished you when you removed your hands from him and rose to your feet. You again turned your back while he stood from the tub and dried himself.

Dressed only in his linen leggings that acted like long-johns, he informed you when it was safe for you to turn around.

Undressing down to your shift yourself, you took a seat on the bed. You watched as Jacques unrolled his blanket on the stone floor, preparing again to lay down to sleep in front of the fireplace away from you.

“You’ll be even more sore tomorrow if you sleep on the floor,” you said, pretending that was the reason you offered, “You can sleep in the bed tonight. If you want.”

Jacques paused in his task of laying his blanket down, looking at you for a moment, frozen by your words. Straightening slowly, he stalked to the bed, watching you to make sure you wouldn’t change your mind even as you scooted to the far side to make room for him.

A pained grimace twisted his features when he lowered himself to the bed, collapsing down heavily onto his back with a sigh. Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly to calm the pain.

You lay on your side next to him, propped up on an elbow to appraise his painful body.

“It’s nothing,” he assured you, seeing your concern as you appraised his bruises more closely.

“It’s not nothing,” you replied, shaking your head. You laid a hand on his purple chest, feeling it hot with inflammation under your palm. “These are severe enough to be actual injuries. You’re more than just banged up.”

“It’s only a flesh wound,” he joked at first before giving you a genuine smile as he placed his huge hand over yours, pinning it against his chest. “You’re worth it.”

Moving closer to him, Jacques raised his arm, letting you press your body against his side. Wrapping his arm around you, he rubbed his hand softly along your skin, skimming his fingertips across your curves.

You tentatively lowered your lips to his bruised chest, placing gentle kisses on his heated skin. Raising your head to look at him, you met his warm smile with your own. His plush, slightly parted lips were too inviting to resist.

Bringing your lips to his, you kissed him with all the passion you had kept restrained for so many days in his presence. Jacques’s hand smoothed up your back, coming to rest at the nape of your neck, while his lips caressed yours and his tongue made you shiver.

The feeling of his lips was pleasant enough alone for a whimper to escape from your throat, feeling your body melt against him. It was your turn to don a smug grin when you pulled back to look down at him.

“Earlier, you said that you wanted me to reward you properly after your victory.” As you spoke, you edged your leg up across his hips, feeling his cock already beginning to harden.

“I don’t want you as a reward, cherie,” he told you, pulling you back down to meet his lips by his hand at your neck.

“You know very well that’s not the real reason I’m kissing you,” you whispered against his lips.

“Then tell me what is,” he persisted, teasing your lower lip between his teeth. “I want to hear you say it.”

“I want you.” You emphasized your statement with another kiss. “I want you, you pompous bastard.”

Growling in pleasure at your sentiment, he pulled you closer against him. His hand at your neck traveled down your body, over your hips. Bunching the fabric of your shift in his grip, he began pushing it up.

Without waiting for him to push it higher, you raised yourself up enough to pull it off over your head and throw it aside, revealing your bare body to him.

“Fuck, you’re even more beautiful than I imagined,” he said hoarsely, taking in the sight of you before you draped your body back over his, laying across his expansive chest.

Kissing him now with more fervor, you ran your hand down his body. Tracing the lines that framed his hips, you followed them down to the waistband of his pants.

Shoving your hand inside his linen trousers, you gasped into his mouth at the feeling of his enormous erection. Your reaction brought a smirk to his lips.

Jacques was huge everywhere and his cock matched his tremendous body. Imposingly thick and long, with a delicious upward curve. You traced a finger along one of the thick veins that snaked his length, up along the underside of his velvety tip.

“Think you can handle me?” He teased, grinding his hips up in response to your touch.

“There’s nothing about you that I can’t handle,” you assured him, gripping as far around his cock as you could and giving him a good pump with your fist.

Jacques’s body tensed excitedly at the feel of you, which turned immediately to a pained wince from flexing his abused muscles.

“Of course, you wait until I feel like I’ve been hit by a fucking truck to put the moves on me,” he said as he huffed a painful laugh.

“If you’re not interested, just say so, handsome,” you challenged, continuing to stroke his cock.

Grinning wolfishly up at you, Jacques rolled with you, bringing your body beneath his, caged inside his arms.

“I didn’t say anything like that, ma belle fille,” he said, looking ravenously down at you. “I feel better already. There must indeed be witchcraft on your lips.”

Lowering himself over you, Jacques brought his lips to your neck, kissing you softly at first. Snaking his hand down between your bodies, he teased his fingers through the slick that already moistened the outside of your lips.

“I guess you do want me after all.” He smiled at your wetness, smearing his words into your skin.

Your back arched in a wave of euphoria when he pushed two thick fingers into you, curling them against the sensitive front wall of your pussy. Pumping his fingers into you, he had you dripping and writhing beneath him in minutes, swallowing your moans with his lips as he kissed and kissed you.

Digging your nails into his back, you asked him for more with the bucking of your hips against his fingers.

Jacques pulled back from your kiss to look down at you, admiring the sight of you beneath him. Propping himself above you with one forearm resting outside your shoulder, he gripped his cock with his free hand, running its thick tip through your folds.

Your sigh blended with his groan as he pushed his huge cock into you, spreading you open as he plunged in inch by delicious inch. He smiled in pleasure when he bottomed out inside you, rolling his hips gently against yours as you adjusted to being so full of him.

“You feel so fucking good, amour,” Jacques thrummed, lowering himself over you and returning his lips to yours.

“God, so do you, Jacques,” you whined. “Your cock’s fucking incredible.”

“Let me show you what incredible really is,” Jacques told you with a grin, as his hips started to move against you, thrusting shallowly at first.

Your hands moved to wrap around his massive body, digging your nails into the meat of his back, as he began thrusting fully into you. You could feel the wonderful drag of his giant cock as he plunged it in and out of you, every inch of him rubbing along your walls.

Lifting your legs higher to wrap around his waist, you felt him sink even deeper into you with the new angle. Your hips rose to meet his, matching his pace as he fucked into you harder. Jacques brought his lips to your neck, biting as much as kissing along your skin.

“I’ve never felt anything as good as your little pussy,” Jacques growled. “You’re fucking exquisite.”

Each thrust hit the perfect places inside of you. Each thrust pushing you closer to the edge, sending pleasure radiating through you with every motion.

Your heels dug into his waist, your nails scratched along his back, and your arms pulled him as close to you as you possibly could. He was fucking into you at the perfect angle, but you wanted more. You could feel the heat of your pleasure ready to rush through you.

“Right there, Jacques,” you moaned. “Fuck me harder.”

“We, mademoiselle.” His voice rumbled through his chest as he increased his force and speed, slamming his cock into you roughly, just how you wanted. “I want to feel you cum on my cock. Cum for me, amour.”

Jacques carried you over the edge, plunging you into ecstasy with every slam of his cock. Your pussy seized, throbbing and tightening around him as you came in waves of pleasure.

Jacques let out a strained groan as he fucked you through the aftershocks of your orgasm, his rhythm growing unsteady.

After a few more rough thrusts, he plunged his cock into you as deeply as he could. His hips were pressed flush against you as he pumped you full of the thick ropes of his cum.

Another shudder of pleasure washed over you at the feeling of his heat spreading through you. Holding you tight beneath his heavy body, he kissed you for several long minutes, not wanting to separate your bodies.

As Jacques’s muscles relaxed under your hands, a wide toothy smile bloomed on his lips. Looking down at you, you could see his adoration for you reflected in his eyes. He was yours.

“Was I really worth getting your ask kicked for?” You asked him teasingly.

“You’re worth everything, cherie.” He punctuated his statement with a kiss to your lips.

Jacques rolled off of you, laying on his back, his chest still heaving from exertion. Turning into him, you braced yourself on his chest, appreciating his handsome features and wild hair.

“What about me?” He asked as his arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer against his chest. “Was I worth almost getting burned at the stake?”

“I’m feeling pretty good about it right now, Jacques,” you said softly as you kissed his chest.

“And when we return?” He raised his eyebrows hopefully with his question.

“Is this your way of asking me for a second date?” you teased, smiling down at him.

“A second,” he affirmed, placing a kiss to your throat. “A third,” he continued with another kiss to your cheek. “A hundredth,” he growled against your lips when he reached them before kissing you deeply. “A thousandth.”

“Then I’d say you better get your rest tonight, handsome,” you agreed, speaking into his mouth. “Because from the sound of it, I’m going to be wearing you out every night for a long time.”

Leaning his head back onto his pillow, Jacques smiled up at you warmly, a wide grin that showed his charmingly crooked teeth. He wrapped his arms around you and hugged you tight to his chest, sighing contentedly at the feeling of holding you in his powerful embrace.

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

A shrill whistle, piercing through the night air awakened you with a jolt. Trying to push yourself up, you found that you were still trapped against Jacques’s chest by his strong, heavy arms as he slept beneath you.

You didn’t have long to savor the feeing.

The side of the castle right outside your window exploded in fiery sparks, a shower of pebbles raining down onto the canopy of your bed as the very castle itself shuddered around you.

Jacques started awake below you with a shout, immediately rolling his body over yours to shield you from harm. Shaking his head to clear the bleariness from his eyes, his hair jostled wildly with his motion.

Another whistle, like a firework leaving the ground, sounded from outside, met immediately by another explosion and shuddering within the castle walls. Jacques hunched his huge body over yours.

When he raised his head again, his eyes were wide.

“Merde,” Jacques gritted, pushing himself off you and pulling you up from the bed with him, speaking to you urgently. “I lost track of the days. This castle falls tonight, cherie.”

“What!?” You nearly screamed as another explosion racked the castle, sending more stone fragments crashing down upon you both from the ceiling. “You’re a fucking historian and you just forgot the date the castle we’re stuck in gets attacked?”

“I was a bit distracted,” he said as he grabbed your dress, tossing it to you. “You can yell at me later. Get dressed. Now!”

You both hastily dressed as the explosions and whistles increased. Outside, a new sound met your ears. Screams and cries from hundreds of men and women, and the clang of steel on steel as the battle drew closer. Jacques was in more pain now after his injuries had stiffened over hours, his movements sore and slower than usual.

“What about our beacons?” You asked frantically as Jacques belted his sword around his hips.

“We die if we stay within these walls,” he said with finality, shaking his head. “We have no choice.”

Jacques located your dagger and belt, shoving it into your hands. You had just enough time to secure it around your waist before another explosion hit the wall of your bedchamber, blowing away part of the stone wall. Looking out through the gaping wall, you could see fire rising below you and a mass of bodies entangled in a murderous fray far beneath you in the courtyard.

Drawing his sword with his right hand, Jacques grabbed your wrist with his left, pulling you with him as he rushed through the door. He was practically dragging you along beside him as he sprinted down the halls, far too fast for your own legs to keep pace.

Rounding a corner toward the great hall, you found it engulphed in battle. Swords clanged against swords and men screamed in agony from their wounds in front of you in the hall that had been so festive only hours before. You had to pass through the hall to exit the castle quickly, or risk being trapped inside it as it fell.

Jacques pushed you against a wall, taking your chin in his hand and raising your face to his.

“If I die, make your way to the dungeons. They are the only part of the castle that survives the night. You’ll be safe there.” Jacques searched your eyes, making sure his words took root. “Do not go after Carroughes yourself. He’s a dangerous man. He won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“You’re not going to die,” you said firmly, pulling him down roughly into a quick kiss. “That’s an order.”

“Stay right behind me,” Jacques commanded, kissing you again. “And if I fall, run like hell.”

Raising his sword, Jacques charged into the great hall with you following at his back. Your dagger felt feeble against battle-hardened men with broadswords, but even so you held it tightly, ready to plunge it into the throat of any man who dared to attack you or Jacques.

Jacques raged through the fighting men, cutting down anyone who stood in his path. He was more ferocious now than you had seen him fight in the duel; a small part of your mind wondered if it was now because he was protecting you directly.

All around you, on all sides, men cut and hacked at each other, the cries of the dying and the sounds of flesh being cleaved by metal filled your ears. The floor was so slick with blood that it was difficult for you to keep from slipping with every rushed step.

Two men ran at Jacques head-on, swords raised. With a powerful lunge, Jacques stabbed his sword straight through the closest man’s throat. Wrenching his blade free directly into a sideways swing, Jacques slashed his blade through the second man’s chest as he closed the final distance between himself and Jacques. Jacques growled like a wild beast when he cut the man’s chest in two, dropping him to his knees to bleed out onto the floor.

Jacques’s teeth were bared in a snarl as he quickly surveyed the room. The other combatants paid the two of you no mind. Casting a brief glance to you to assure himself that you were still safe, he surged ahead.

Only one final man stood between Jacques and the outer doors of the great hall. Fortunately, he was distracted by another man as they each tried to kill one another. Leaning forward like a charging bull, Jacques roughly shouldered into the man, knocking him forcibly out of his way and yours.

Just past the door of the great hall in the long foyer that led to the castle’s entrance and the courtyard beyond, Jacques almost charged headlong into Sir Gregor near the outer exit. Both huge men looked particularly monstrous with their swords drawn, hair wild, and blood splattered across the fearsome expressions on their faces. Cowering behind the blue knight were the Lord and his wife, who was crying hysterically.

Jacques reached to the Lord’s collar, grabbing him with his free hand and shaking him roughly to snap him out of his fear.

“Take your wife and your knight and go to the dungeon now if you wish to survive. Wait out the battle there,” Jacques shouted at the Lord so he could be heard above the battle. “Trust me and do as I say.”

“How can you know-“ Lord Francois started but Jacques immediately cut him off.

“A little witch told me,” Jacques assured him with a grin.

Overhearing Jacques’s statement, Sir Gregor did not wait for his Lord’s command before shoving the fat man and his wife toward the safety of the dungeon. As he passed Jacques, Sir Gregor grabbed Jacques by the shoulder turning him to face out into the courtyard and pointing ahead with his long arm.

Jacques followed the line of sight of the knight’s outstretched arm, squinting his eyes, willing them to see better in the darkness. It took only a moment for him to locate the gift Sir Gregor offered him.

Carroughes stood on top of the outer courtyard wall, commanding men to dump buckets of pitch over its side.

Jacques’s eyes gleamed with murderous excitement at the sight of his betrayer, now wholly unprotected by the Lord or his knights.

“Go with them, cherie.” Jacques turned to meet your eyes, his voice booming above the cacophony around you. “You’ll be safe, and I’ll find you as soon as I get our beacons.”

“You’re wasting your breath,” you said resolutely, stepping close to him. “I’m not leaving your side.”

Nodding at you with a grin, Jacques took your hand, squeezing tight. He jogged out into the courtyard with you sprinting your fastest to keep pace. Outside, the battle was more spread apart than it had been inside the great hall, but it was much deadlier. Arrows flew by over your heads and around your bodies, horses stampeded errantly, spooked by their lifeless riders and by the sounds of the battle around them, and men ran in every direction, cutting down everything in sight in their panic.

Jacques rushed to the courtyard wall, dodging men and debris as he moved with a predatory agility. He hugged the wall, moving quickly towards a set of stairs that ascended to the top of the wall, leading you both toward Carroughes.

Pausing at the base of the stairs, Jacques turned to you, meeting your eyes with his piercing amber stare.

“Our bodies can’t be touching when we activate our beacons,” he told you, tightening his grip on your hand. “But when we get home, I’m never letting you out of my arms.”

Just as Jacques moved to climb the stairs, the world shook with a concussion all around you, all sight and sound blurring at the edges, as you were both thrown away from the wall along with many of its stones. You both hit the ground yards apart from each other, rolling to a stop in a painful heap.

The wall where you had both stood now had a hole large enough to drive a truck through. Had Jacques not paused to speak to you before you both ascended the steps, you both would have been blown apart.

As you watched from the ground, the remainder of the wall trembled and swayed. It looked almost as though it was collapsing in slow motion as the wall buckled, sending stones and men flying from it as it fell in a pile of churning dust and rock.

Jacques was quicker to push painfully to his feet than you, still dazed from the blast. He staggered to you through a cloud of dust that now consumed the courtyard like a malignant fog.

“Are you hurt?” His voice was heavy with concern when he reached you, coughing from the heavy dust.

Reaching a hand down to you, Jacques pulled you to your feet, seeking to pull you into his arms and hold you tight.

As Jacques pulled you up from the ground, you saw Carroughes attack him from behind. You watched Carroughes’s hideous, crooked face as he swung his sword downward at Jacques’s exposed back.

You ducked under Jacques’s arm as he pulled you to your feet. Using the momentum he gave you, you lunged forward behind him, plunging your dagger with all your force up under Carroughes’s chin while his arms were raised above his head as he prepared to cut Jacques down.

Turning with an enraged growl, Jacques swung his sword viciously to the side, beheading Carroughes with one powerful strike. Carroughes’s freed head hit the ground several feet away, bouncing through the dirt and other debris. His body fell first to its knees, lingering for a moment as if in contrition, before falling chest first onto the ground.

Your dagger skidded through the dirt toward you, as if dutifully returning to its owner. Tangled around its hilt was a necklace of braided leather.

Laughing with relief as the world crumbled and exploded around you, you bent to seize your dagger and the beacons just as Jacques’s strong hand wrapped around your upper arm, pulling you back up to your feet.

He opened his mouth to speak, to make sure you were alright, but you silenced his concern with a triumphant smile, holding the leather necklace high.

With a relieved laugh, Jacques crashed his dusty bloody lips against yours, dirt shaking down from his hair as he kissed you, holding you so tightly you couldn’t take a breath.  Rubbing his large nose against yours as he pulled back from your lips, he took the beacons from you, checking them once and then checking them again before handing one to you.

Taking a step back from you so your bodies were separated, he held his beacon aloft as you did the same.

“Let’s begin our future together, cherie,” he told you as you each pressed your beacons, his words echoing through the annals of time.

The thunderous boom that burst into your ears amid a blinding light was a welcome assault on your senses, as you and Jacques were transported back to the present.

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

When you again opened your eyes, you saw only Jacques’s handsome face as the world came slowly back into focus around you. Your head still spun with dizziness when Jacques took you in his arms, lifting you high off the ground in his embrace, holding you tight to his body as if he never wanted to let you go.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to the two of you?” Pierre asked anxiously, standing from behind a computer monitor. “I was getting worried that you had been gone for too long. What happened back there?”

“You sent me back to the Middle Ages with a witch,” Jacques said with a relieved breath, setting you gently back down onto the floor.

Jacques brought his hand to your cheek, holding you softly and stroking his thumb over your skin, swaying his body slightly while he held you.

“Are you fucking serious?” Pierre asked as he called for paramedics. His eyes were wide, taking in the extent of Jacques’s bruised and bloody countenance and also the way he held you with a smile despite his injures.

“He’s just being dramatic,” you answered while keeping your eyes on Jacques. “He wanted an excuse to pretend to be a knight, have a duel, and enter a joust. And everything just went downhill from there.”

“I think you still have a little witchcraft on your lips, cherie.” Jacques slowly lowered his head, holding your cheek gently in his enormous hand as you tilted your face up to meet him. “Let me have another taste.”

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

© safarigirlsp 2021

Tagging some witchy women:

[gdmli]

When life hands you an existential crisis...buy a plane ticket?

By Laura Miller

18 months ago, I had one of those "What am I doing with my life?!?" moments. 

Not one of the little moments that comes at the end of a really long week, or after a particularly stressful meeting, or even the kind that comes after I've made an extensive Pro/Con list about my job/life/priorities (Obviously, I am not in any way Type A. And I am NEVER sarcastic).

This was the kind of "What am I doing with my life?" moment that felt like it was happening on a much deeper level than the typical millennial-style crises I had previously survived. Despite having a Plan, following that Plan, correctly readjusting that Plan when one of life's many speed bumps came my way… and having the Plan eventually go the exact Way Things Are Supposed To Happen? I was feeling woefully unfulfilled.

I had the job I was good at but didn't enjoy (who likes to work?). I lived in a city with an endless supply of fun things to do but could no longer bring myself to do any of them (who has the time?). I was involved in organizations that felt important and I cared deeply about, but didn't feel as if I was doing enough (who can ever do enough?). I felt detached. I needed a change. I needed to wake the heck up and figure out what my purpose in life was while I still felt like I could change things! So I did the completely rational, totally normal thing that all 30 year-olds looking at their lives do…I put my notice in at my job, sold half of my belongings, and bought a one-way ticket to Sydney, Australia. Like I said, totally rational. Totally normal. 

And totally…the best choice I have ever made.

18 months later, I find myself sitting in a room with 30 people who are just like me. We're a group of people who want to do more, see more, feel more, and most importantly? Make a difference. We all want to figure out our why. I love this! Because if I've learned anything on this weird, awesome journey of self-discovery I've been on for the past couple of years, it's that a sense of community is essential to the discovery of my why. Introspection is always difficult, but I find it really quite easy to lie to myself when I'm journaling or making my lists or rewriting my Plan. The lies I tell myself always end up falling into the same buckets as they always have. Who likes to work? Who has the time? Who can ever do enough?

But lying to my classmates? That's just not going to fly here. We're all here to find our purpose, and if I don't lay it all out and speak openly and honestly about my passions and values, I'm letting down more than myself. I'm letting down my group. And my class. And, oh god, oh no…my community. I can't do that. I won't. We're a team, and I love that about us. I mean…we're already the #bestclassever, right?

When I hopped on the plane a year and a half ago with just a backpack on my back and a huge smile on my face, I felt invincible. Finally, I was going to figure out my purpose. I was going to experience all sorts of new things and meet new people and suddenly in a flash of genius I just knew I was going to see what I was supposed to do and then do it. Which is why it was particularly surprising when 15 hours later, I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder on a bus in Beijing, a head taller than everyone around me, sobbing uncontrollably asking myself "Oh my god, NOW what am I doing with my life?". See, I wanted to find my purpose the easy way. I wanted it to come to me. I wanted to be swiping through the dating app of life experiences, swipe right on a particularly interesting idea, and voila! I had matched with my purpose. It's not quite that easy. But I was starting a sometimes hilarious, sometimes terrifying, sometimes exhausting path toward finding that purpose, and in the months that followed, I realized 3 very important things about myself:

I love an adventure. And it doesn't have to be the big "fly to the other side of the world and live out of a backpack for 3 months" type of adventure. It just has to feel like I'm doing something new, just for me.

I love people. People of all kinds. I love the angry bus drivers in a small beach town in Australia who weren't afraid to tell me exactly what I should and shouldn't do. I love the vineyard owner in New Zealand who let me work and live at the vineyard and write and share life stories with him for a month. I love the man I bumped into on a corner in Bangkok who ended up giving me the most amazing tour of the city and its temples. I even love the guy who scammed me out of $10 in Chiang Mai because the level of my stupidity was hilarious and I absolutely deserved to learn that lesson. I need people. I need that sense of community everywhere I go.

I just plain need a community. I need a place where I'm invested in its success and it's invested in mine. I need a place that I can help grow and improve and it does the same thing for me. This can come in the form of people, or a job, or a city, but it's best if it's all 3.

And suddenly…aha! The light bulb turned on! 

I understood that the community piece is what I'd been missing. That level of mutual investment is irreplaceable for me. So when I truly thought about it, there was only one real solution. I had to throw my worn, dusty clothes in my backpack, call my parents back in Des Moines, and say "I'm coming home". And then I had to say to their faces when I got there, "I'm not going back to Denver. I'm staying here. Staying, staying. For good." And it was then that I saw that I had only begun to discover my purpose.

So now, a year later, sitting in this classroom with these fascinating people, digging deep into these lessons I've learned about myself and listening to the lessons they've learned in kind, is another beautiful part of this journey. We talk about our strengths, our values, our passions, our beliefs…and I'm so excited that these conversations are happening right when and where they are. I'm hearing things from new perspectives, I'm seeing new approaches, and I'm feeling really really good. Really. And then…

"So now I'd like you all to take the next 10 minutes to begin crafting your purpose statements. These don't have to be perfect, it's just a first draft, but try to work through what we've discussed today and put it on paper."

Our fantastic facilitator, Dr. Christi Hegstad throws out a completely reasonable challenge after a day of working on ourselves and Oh. My. God. I am not ready for this. I am in NO WAY ready for this. I was feeling so awesome. Very…purposeful, if you will. But committing it to paper is a totally different ballgame, and I'm not sure I know myself well enough yet to do this. Truthfully…I completely panic. I scratch down a bunch of half-statements, I cross things out, I move things around, and I hate it all. But then I see other people doing the same thing and I realize…these are the people I want to find my purpose with. These are the people who take this seriously and want to get it right. These are the people who I get to work with to improve our community. And not just now, not just during this program or this year…these are the people who I will see and know and work with for as long as I'm a part of this community. And suddenly committing to my purpose isn't so scary.

So my purpose statement? It's not perfect. It's definitely not fit for public consumption yet. Maybe I'll be brave in a couple of weeks and share it with you then. But I can't stop thinking about it. I'm constantly reworking, rewording, and re-imagining it all day long. And this is exactly what I hoped it would be for all of us, because suddenly I'm not that woman feeling stagnant asking "what am I doing with my life?", and I'm not that woman crying on a bus saying "Oh god, NOW what am I doing with my life?". I find myself saying "what do I WANT to do with my life?". Just 4 hours spent in a room filled with dedication and inspiration, and I'm asking "what do I GET to do with my life?" Purpose is a powerful thing. And hopefully this means I won't be buying any one-way tickets again. Round-trip is where it's at, because that's how I get back to my community. Des Moines, stay beautiful. I'm going to help you do it, I promise.

[makalations-blog]

Translation: Ouhi no Yakata/Château de la Reine

Hello. Thank you for reading my translation for Ouhi no Yakata/ Château de la Reine.

As this is (somehow miraculously?) before Tokyo run, hopefully this can help people who want to see it in Tokyo understand a bit more. Or help those waiting for the DVD to prepare to watch it when it releases.

This work comes with a few necessary notes beforehand. Please read them.

1. This is a fan-created translation. Please be aware that my understanding of Japanese is not extremely high-level, and there may be some errors. I did my best. If you find something you believe is incorrect, please feel free to message me and I will make an effort to correct it. (The only reason it even got this far was thanks to my savior and editor Carol.)

2. That being said, as this is a play with conversation, etc. I attempted to make this translation flow with natural and colloquial English/conversation tendencies rather than a word-by-word exact representation- while still keeping as much of the intended meaning(s) as possible.

3. If you wish to use this translation to make subtitles for your private/personal use, please let me know via a message/ask. I ask that you do not share subtitle files created from my translations without my consent at all.

4. Please do not take, repost, or recreate this translation on Tumblr or other websites without contacting me first.

5. This is a really specific translation note. There is a character in this play (Crayon) whos self-identification is not made clear. (To my knowledge, it is not made clear in the original novels either.) The only thing really clear is that… Crayon is somewhere on the queer scale.

Crayon is referred to many times in Japanese with the word “okama”. Strictly speaking, “okama” is a slur for gay people (generally targeting gay men or crossdressers, but has [incorrectly] been used recently for trans-people as well). It is often used in Japanese humor because ?? (enter reasons I neither know nor truly understand). (However, it is also sometimes used as a “reclaimed” term. It all depends on situation and intention and interpretation.)

There are jokes in particular in this show that revolve around referring to this character as an ‘okama’. As a translator, it really isn’t my job to write a whole thing about what I think about this or why. I’m really only responsible for providing the material in a language that people can understand.

Therefore, because I didn’t want to end up editing the material to my personal ideas/tastes, and because I didn’t feel comfortable directly translating the word ‘okama’ into any English slang, I left those lines translated into English but still using the Japanese word ‘okama’ in them.

6. There is a lot of French in this show. I do not speak French. But a coworker who does speak French decided to inform me that the French they were seeing was incorrect. I have no comment on this, as I (again) do not speak French.

7. A specific note on the theme of ‘smile’ and ‘laugh’ in this show. The script simply uses the word “warau” which can be a bit interchangeable for those words. There were times where “smile” made more sense, and times where “laugh” made more sense. In the end, I decided to use both words, and at some points even used them together to get the meaning/point across.

Without further ado. Here is the actual translation:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Château de la Reine

Main Cast:

Asaka Manato                   Kitashirakawa Ukyo              A romance novelist writing a new novel starring Louis XIV

Misaki Rion                        Sakurai Reiko                     Female president of a small-time travel agency. Tour conductor responsible for the “Light” tour.

Makaze Suzuho                Louis XIV                              King of France during the 17th Century. Former owner of the Château de la Reine.

Aizuki Hikaru                     Kanezawa Shichi               Real estate king.

Itsuki Chihiro                     Iwanami                               Former teacher at an ‘evening’ high school. (TN: There are some special schools with classes in the evening for people who work during the day.)

Kotobuki Tsukasa            Shimoda Koji                      Manager of an electrical parts factory.

Mikaze Maira                    Shimoda Fusako               Shimoda’s wife.

Sumiki Sayato                    Kondo Makoto                  Policeman.

Sorahane Riku                   Crayon                                  [Kuroiwa Gentaro] Scorned by a previous lover, on a ‘heartbreak trip’

Sakuragi Minato               Togawa Mitsuo                 A tour conductor at a small time travel agency, subordinate of Sakurai. Responsible for the “Shadow” tour.

Reimi Urara                        Diana                                     She once lived in the Château de la Reine. The woman Louis XIV loved.

Hoshikaze Madoka         Michiru                                 Former hostess, and Kanezawa’s lover.

ETC Cast:

Iwanami Masae                                Kanon Mai

Mr. Tanno                                           Rinjou Kira

Mrs. Tanno                                         Ayaka Mari

Munon                                                 Matsukaze

Hayami Ritsuko (Editor)                Junya Chitose

Pierre                                                   Kazuki Sora

Monsieur Duran                               Mitsuki Haruka

Can-Can Singer                                 Fuuma Kakeru

Accordion Singer                             Hoshibuki

Anne d’Autriche                               Seoto Risa

Marie Thérèse                                  Aishiro Moa

 Preface: Charles de Gaulle Airport (Arrival Lobby)

[Airport Background]

As announcements flow through the arrival lobby of the Charles de Gaulle Airport, the tour conductor Mr. Togawa, working for a down-on-its-luck travel agency known as “Pan World Tour Enterprise”, is eating at a bar with the irritated tour customers. Togawa is on the phone with his boss, Sakurai Reiko.

Togawa: (On the phone) Ms. Reiko, is this really going to work?? This plan…

Sakurai: (A voice over the speakers) Are you asking if it’s a ‘good’ thing? In this world, there is both ‘light’ and ‘shadow’…  so isn’t it fair to say there’s a ‘front’ and ‘back’ side to business, too?

Togawa: You just keep saying that over and over!

Sakurai: (voice) Anyway, you have to keep the customers at the airport for another 30 minutes. You got it?

Mr. Tanno: Mr. Togawa, exactly when are we going to be able to leave the airport?

Togawa hides his cellphone.

Togawa: M… Mr. Tanno… I am terribly sorry, our car… seems to be stuck in a terrible traffic jam…

Mr. Iwanami: Even so, we’ve already been waiting here an hour.

Togawa: I am truly sorry Mr. Iwanami!!

Ms. Iwanami: Dear, can’t you see Mr. Togawa is very troubled by the situation?

As the Iwanamis talk, Togawa returns to his phone.

Togawa: (on the phone) Ms. Reiko, did you hear that? How am I supposed to make more excuses to the customers!?

Sakurai: (voice) Why don’t you think about that on your own? Well then, I’ll contact you again when I arrive at the hotel.

Ms. Sakurai hangs up the phone.

Togawa: Wait-! Ms. Reiko? Ms. Reiko?!

The tour customer Kondo Makoto approaches Togawa.

Kondo: Hey, you! What’s the meaning of this? Is this some sort of scam?!

Togawa: (shocked and panicking) Mr. Kondo! What ‘scam’ could you possibly be talking about?!

Kondo: I was told I was going to be in a men’s shared room. (Points at the flashily dressed Crayon.) So what the hell is this?

Togawa: Ah, that should be Mr. Kuroiwa Gentaro…

Crayon: Don’t use that name! I go by Crayon, like at my shop~!

Kondo: What’s a ‘crayon’? Whatever shop you work at, once I get home I’ll find it and shut it down!

Crayon: My shop isn’t some shabby establishment like what you’re thinking. What a hard-headed policeman~

Mr. Tanno: A police officer?

Togawa: Mr. Tanno, is something the matter?

Mr. Tanno: No, of course not…

The Tanno couple exchange a meaningful gaze. Meanwhile, Crayon is bothering Kondo.

Kondo: Stop it! Don’t blow in my ear!

Crayon: Omg~ so shy~! How cute! Tonight is going to be so~ much~ fun~! Teehee~

Crayon exits while giggling.

Kondo: Hey!... What do you mean ‘fun’?!

Kondo chases after Crayon.

Togawa: Wait… Where are you two going?!

Togawa chases the two offstage.

Mrs. Iwanami: Well well, we seem to be grouped with some interesting folk!

Mr. Iwanami: My goodness…

The Iwanamis also exit the stage, and the bridge leads to the next scene.

 Scene 1A: The City of Paris

Visiting Paris on a research trip, the Japanese author Kitashirakawa appears, singing.

[C’est Paris! C’est la vie!]

Kitashirakawa: Oh Paris!

What illuminates this city?

I saw it in the night-  the color of dreams.

Oh, Paris!

Only Paris can capture the hearts of writers

Like no other city!

I want you to show me

Like Ernest Hemmingway

Like Scott Fitzgerald

What they sought- the color of dreams!

C’est Paris!

Selfishly, in this city,

C’est Paris!

People can see unbelievable dreams.

I want you to show me

Like the philosophers of Montmartre

Like the lovers who speak of romance

Something I have never seen-  the color of dreams!

C’est la vie!

In the city of nostalgic meetings

C’est la vie!

People can find the dreams they’ve lost!

The editor Hayami accompanying Kitashirakawa on his trip appears.

Hayami: Mr. Kitashirakawa! There you are. I thought you’d suddenly disappeared…

Kitashirakawa: Hayami! I told you I hate group activities, not to mention when I’m forced to be around such vulgar people my creative motivation is exponentially reduced!

Hayami: You’re the one who selfishly broke away from the tour. Ms. Reiko’s been looking for you, too!

Kitashirakawa: That nasty tour guide… it’s fine to leave her behind.

Hayami: Really? I found her quite likeable. She’s the president of the tour agency but still leads tours with such vitality… It’s like watching a younger version of myself.

Kitashirakawa: If that’s true, then she’s bound to become a spinster too.

Hayami: Oh ho ho, what a jokester! I’ve definitely not given up yet.

Following Kitashirakawa, the guide Sakurai and the members of the Light Tour appear breathing heavily.

Sakurai: Mr. Kitashirakawa!

Kitashirakawa: Here comes the shabby tour guide.

Sakurai: How many times do I have to explain to you that your selfish behavior is a problem for the other tour members?

Kanezawa: Bro, I was looking for you.

Kitashirakawa: Hayami, do something! If I’m around this loud, annoying riffraff much longer, my creative research will be ruined!

Hayami: I’m sorry, Ms. Reiko. He’s that kind of artist…

Sakurai: Listen, this is a tour trip, you know? Even if Mr. Kitashirakawa is a famous novelist, in order to properly take part in the tour, he needs to listen to my instructions.

Kitashirakawa: Hayami…

Mrs. Shimoda: Kitashirakawa? Do you mean the Kitashirakawa Ukyo?

Kanezawa: Huh? This guy really a famous novelist?

Hayami: Yes! Mr. Kitashirakawa’s “Beauty and Sadness of the Blue Danube” (Utsukushisa to Kanashimi no Aoki Donau) was his brilliant debut novel! It was followed by his work “The Country of Light Snow” (Sasameyuki Kuni) that won the Tanibata Award. He’s truly a rare genius!

(TN: These are jokes regarding real life famous novels “Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to” by Yasunari Kawabata and “Sasameyuki” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Therefore, the (not real) Tanibata Award would be a reference to Tani(zaki) (Kawa)bata. Hahaha, good job zuka.)

Kanezawa: Sounds like a bunch of rip-off titles.

Michiru: Papa!

(TN: Michiru is referring to Kanezawa as ‘Papa’ as a lover’s pet name, rather than a father-figure. Probably due to the fact that it’s implied he is older than her. It doesn’t really hold the same connotation in English, but it’s a bit too obvious of a word to try to change to something else.)

Mr. Shimoda: Well then, have you come to Paris to write a new novel?

Kitashirakawa: I suppose.

Hayami: Mr. Kitashirakawa is working on a romance set in the court of King Louis XIV!

Michiru: Wow! What’s the title?

Kitashirakawa: Are you ready to hear its brilliance? The title is… (emphatically) “The Lily of Versailles!” (Versailles no Yuri)

Kanezawa: As I thought, just another rip-off.

Kitashirakawa: What did you say!?

Kanezawa: Geez, so grumpy! But you know, I feel like we’d get along bro. We’ve both got good taste in clothes and nice hairstyles…

Kitashirakawa: Don’t lump me in with the likes of you! (Messes up Kanezawa’s hair) My hair’s the real deal!

Kanezawa: Aaah!

Michiru: Papa!

Holding onto his wig, Kanezawa looks around in panic at everyone staring at him.

Sakurai: (amazed) Let’s end our friendly chats there. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late to arrive at the hotel.

 Scene 1B: Places des Vosges

The stage changes to the Places des Vosges.

Kitashirakawa: Hayami! This is exactly why I said I hate group tours!

Hayami: Well, sensei, I don’t think you ever actually said that…

Sakurai: Now everyone, once we go through the corridor from the Places des Vosges, the Château de la Reine is waiting for us.

All members go onto the ginkyo.

[Château de la Reine]

Hayami: This is it, sensei! The place that Balzac (Honoré de Balzac) and Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) loved! We’re almost at the Château de la Reine!

Kitashirakawa: Aah, the legendary hotel that turned away even the great Ernest Hemingway!

Michiru: (To Kanezawa) We get to stay at such a fancy hotel…. It’s like a dream!

Sakurai: But it’s not a dream! At first glance, you can see it looks like the kind of hotel normal customers wouldn’t be able to stay at… For us to stay here on a tour like this, rather than calling it a dream… it’s more like a miracle!

Château de la Reine

And the Plaza Athénée

And the Crillon and the Ritz, It’s not your imagination

A place that tourists from all over the world desire to stay!

Kanezawa: What’s that mumbo jumbo even mean? Chartoo …. (he can’t pronounce it)

Kitashirakawa interrupts Sakurai before she can explain.

Kitashirakawa: The “Château de la Reine”! In Japanese it means “The Queen’s Château”. It was owned by the ruler of 17th century France, Louis XIV, but the true meaning behind the Château’s name is still a mystery…

Château de la Reine!                                                     Others: Château

King Louis XIV himself                                                                   de

Designed the interior decoration                                              la

And still untouched-                                                                      Reine

The Royal Suite!                                                                               Château

That made VIPs worldwide                                                         de

Revere the Sun King’s                                                                    la

Legendary Hotel!                                                                            Reine!

All: The Queen’s Château… Château de la Reine!

 Scene 1C: Château de la Reine (Courtyard Entrance)

The set changes during the interlude, the corridor hangings rise to reveal the courtyard entrance of the Château de la Reine. The hotel employees appear one after another.

Employees: Bienvenue!

Welcome to the Château de la Reine!

Employees: Château de la Reine!

Mrs. Shimoda: A once in a lifetime luxury

Mr. Shimoda: One last souvenir from the world

Employees: Château de la Reine

Michiru: How gorgeous!

Kanezawa: It’s perfect for us!

Employees: Château de la Reine

Hayami: Being able to stay here…

Kitashirakawa: … is the miracle of a lifetime!

Employees: Château de la Reine

All: Château de la Reine

The tour members all move to enter the Hotel. In the courtyard, the ghosts of Louis XIV and his servant Munon appear.

Louis: Munon, what is this? Who are those noisy people?!

Munon: I believe some Japanese tourists who have come to experience Paris?

Louis: And so, they also come to my Château de la Reine?

Munon: I fear that the hotel management has worsened, and they do not bother to take such care in screening visitors as they used to…

Louis: They just run in and out of the building like monkeys!

The place where my soul resides-

The Château de la Reine

For over three hundred years

Continuing to search      for my lost love       Munon: Continuing to search

Those that dare to interrupt                                                                                                                                                                for the king’s lost love…

My quest to find my beloved

Will not be forgiven!

The stage turns to reveal the hotel lobby.

Employees: Upon our list of past accommodations

Are the names of many great people!

Employees (women): Mozart!

Employees (men): Einstein!

Employees: Grace Kelly and Chaplain

Like everyone throughout the world

Who desires to see the color of dreams

The legendary hotel

The Queen’s Château- Château de la Reine

Mr. Shimoda: Our lives can finally end here

Mrs. Shimoda: It suits our final days

Employees: Château de la Reine

Kanezawa: I’ll tell her my secret and then propose?

Michiru: I want to know everything about Papa!

Employees: Château de la Reine

Château de la Reine

Hayami: To create a new masterpiece!

Sakurai: To get our company out of this pinch!

Kitashirakawa: I can already feel something great will happen!

Employees: Bienvenue! Welcome to

Château de la Reine!

Moving along with the number, the stage has changed to the lobby of the hotel.

 Scene 2: Château de la Reine (Lobby)

Continuing from the front of the Château de la Reine lobby…

Kitashirakawa: Très bien!! Its sense of style is even better than what I’d heard!

The hotel manager, Monsieur Duran, appears.

Duran: Bonsoir mesdames et messieurs! (To Kanezawa) Ça va?

(*TN: The script has the French as ‘madames’ and ‘monsieurs’ which I have been told are not the plural spelling. Take it as you prefer.)

Kanezawa: Who you callin’ a saba, huh?! (TN: Saba = mackerel fish)

Michiru: Papa! How embarrassing…

Sakurai: Everyone, this is the general manager of the hotel, Monsieur Duran.

Duran: We welcome you to the Château de la Reine! For those of you just arriving from the airport, we will have your baggage delivered to your rooms right away!

Kitashirakawa: It’s here!

Hayami: Sensei?

Kitashirakawa: It’s here, it’s here, it’s here---- IT’S HERE!

Hayami: Aaah- the angels of inspiration have already appeared!?

Sakurai: What on earth…

Hayami: This happens whenever he gets an idea! It’s as if something possesses him! He’s known as the exorcist of literature!

Kitashirakawa: Hayami! Quickly- I need a pen and paper!!

Hayami: Yes, here! (To Duran) Uhm… Je voudrais la clé… We are Kitashirakawa and Hayami. Quick, our room key!

Duran: Oui! (Offers the keys.) Here you are.

Hayami: (Takes the keys) Merci! (To the boy) Now, guide us to our room!

Boy: Oh! Par ici, s’il vous plaît …

Following the boy, Kitashirakawa and Hayami exit through the hotel corridor.

Sakurai: Wait, both of you- I haven’t explained yet-

Kanezawa: Hey missy, hurry up and give us our room too.

Sakurai: I understand… (To Duran) Well then, please assign Mr. Kanezawa and Mr. Shimoda their room keys as well.

Duran: Oui, madame.

Sakurai: Everyone, we will be departing for our dinner cruise in exactly thirty minutes. I respectfully request your punctuality in meeting here in the lobby.

The steward boys lead the visitors to their rooms through the corridor.

Sakurai: Well then, please enjoy your stay.

The guests pass Sakurai and Duran on their way out, and once they are out of sight Sakurai and the manager begin speaking.

Sakurai: Monsieur Duran, being able to complete this special tour is all thanks to you…

Duran: Pas de problème. I should be the one saying that. In this recession, we in management can only do so much in the face of such abrupt cancellations. I wonder what will happen now…

Sakurai: We’ll have to keep working earnestly, but before that there’s another matter to discuss…

Duran: Oui, Madame. If it’s about the double-booking…

Sakurai: Shhhhhh!!! (looking around) Anyway, about the baggage replacements… you’ll have to pay meticulous attention.

Duran: Leave it to us, Madame Reiko.

Duran exits the stage. Now alone, Sakurai takes out her cellphone. In a different area of the stage is Togawa, still waiting at the airport.

Sakurai: Hello?

Togawa: Ms. Reiko! Aren’t you running a little late!? I don’t know how much longer I can fend off the customers’ complaints!

Sakurai: Well, that just can’t be helped. My “Light Tour” is a 7-night-8-day package at 1,500,000 yen… while your “Shadow Tour” can visit the Château de la Reine for only 198,000 yen. On a cheap course, you just have to endure some inconveniences along the way.

Togawa: Even if you say it like that…

Sakurai: Anyway, the “Light Tour” members have just checked into the hotel. We’ll be leaving the hotel soon, so go ahead and please leave the airport now.

Togawa: I’m saved!

Sakurai: Are you going to be ok? You have to do the room assignments exactly as I told you. First is room 201, where the Shimoda couple is staying. (In the corridor of the hotel, the figures of the Shimoda couple can be seen.) They seem to be in charge of management for a large electrical company, but the economy hasn’t been very good to that kind of business lately.

Then, room 202 has the real estate kingpin, Mr. Kanezawa. (Similarly, Kanezawa and Michiru can be seen in the background.) He says the reason he joined this tour is to make plans for a Paris-themed casino in Las Vegas- which is more the type of business the economy has been kind to lately. The girl with him, Miss Michiru, is a former hostess… I thought she was his fiancée, but I’m not actually sure…

Togawa: And for the “Shadow Tour”, room 201 is the Iwanamis. And room 202 is the Tannos, right?

Sakurai: Right. But then the trouble comes in room 203, with the writer Kitashirakawa and his editor Ms. Hayami.

As the stage turns, the set of room 203 appears and Kitashirakawa working at the desk comes into view, working on his novel.

Togawa: Trouble?

Sakurai: Mr. Kitashirakawa! If I take my eyes off of him for even a second I don’t know what he’ll do. He walks around with the air of a celebrity- he thinks he’s so special…

Kitashirakawa: ACHOO

Kitashirakawa sneezes.

(TN: In Japan, it’s a common superstition that when you sneeze, it means someone is talking behind your back.)

Togawa: So, after we arrive at the hotel, what should we do?...

Sakurai: After about two hours, take everyone sightseeing.

Togawa: Got it. But… after that…?

Sakurai: You’ve already got a plan, don’t you?

Togawa: The only thing the plan says is ‘don’t come back to the hotel until morning’?!

Sakurai: Oui, monsieur. Bon voyage. Have a good trip.

Sakurai hangs up the phone.

Togawa: Wait… Ms. Reiko? Ms. Reiko!?

On opposite sides of the bridge, Sakurai and Togawa exit the stage.

 Scene 3: Château de la Reine (Room 203)

As the setting of Room 203 turns to the front, Kitashirakawa is sitting as his desk with his manuscript in front of him. His writing progress is not going as well as he thought…

Kitashirakawa: Aaah, it’s no good! I can’t write anything!... I was sure the Angel of Inspiration had visited me before… As I thought from the beginning, this is impossible… writing a romance novel about Louis XIV…

Kitashirakawa sighs, walking up to look at the portrait of Louis XIV in the room.

Kitashirakawa: (impatiently) Look at this ‘perfect’ guy. Politics… Love… Everything the perfect Sun King wanted, he got! When it comes to writing novels, that kind of life is just boring.

Suddenly the light disappears, and a man’s voice echoes through the room.

Louis: (Voice) Boring?! What would someone like you know about my life?!...

Kitashirakawa: What was that voice?...

Behind Kitashirakawa, the ghostly figure of King Louis XIV appears from the painting.

Louis: Barre-toi! Remove yourself from my presence immediately!

Kitashirakawa: (happily) It’s here! It’s here, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here!

Louis: This home is not a place for lowly monkeys like you to visit!

Kitashirakawa: And look! It’s even appeared in the form of Louis XIV himself… Amazing! It’s as if the archangel Michael himself has come before me!

Louis: What nonsense are you spouting? Were you not listening to what I said?

Kitashirakawa: With such kingly flourish! As if 300 years had not past, Louis XIV has been revived before me! Now, Angel of Stories, bestow upon me thine inspiration!

Louis: I am not an angel! I am the owner of the Château de la Reine, Louis XIV.

Kitashirakawa: Louis XIV? … You mean, the actual ghost of the Sun King?

Louis: Do you finally understand? So… are you properly terrified?

Kitashirakawa: Terrified? My pure talent is what’s terrifying! That my overflowing imagination could summon forth even this level of paranormal experience!...

Louis: What is wrong with this guy?

Kitashirakawa: Hey, tell me… If you really are Louis XIV like you say, then you’ve got to know something- right? Something you’ve never told anyone… For example, a tragic love story…

Louis: Why would I speak to you about such things?

Kitashirakawa: So that I can finish my romance novel- with you as the main character!

Louis: How rude! As if I would let you write my secrets into a novel!

Kitashirakawa: Meaning… there is something!

Louis: It has absolutely nothing to do with you.

Kitashirakawa: What kind of secret could it be! Some sort of affair with a noble woman? Or perhaps- a man….?

Louis: I do not have that kind of interest.

Kitashirakawa: Then perhaps you fell prey to the machinations of a woman who only wanted you for your status and power…?

Louis: How dare you! Diana is not that kind of woman!

Kitashirakawa: ~Diana~?

Louis: Ack!

Kitashirakawa: So, that is the name of the woman you loved?

Louis: Silence!

Kitashirakawa: Diana… Diana… The name Diana wasn’t listed in anything to do with Louis that I can remember. But Diana is the name of the Moon Goddess… A forbidden love story between the Sun King and the Moon Goddess… This could work! This could definitely work!

Shocked and appalled at the monkey Kitashirakawa, Louis returns to his place in the painting. The light returns to the room, and the sound of knocking can be heard at the door.

Sakurai: (voice) Mr. Kitashirakawa? Ms. Hayami?

Kitashirakawa: What? I’m finally at a good place…

Sakurai: (voice) Mr. Kitashirakawa? You’re there, aren’t you?

Kitashirakawa: It’s that woman again? Hayami! Hayami!

Hayami comes out of a nearby door to the next room.

Hayami: Yes, yes, Hayami is here!

Kitashirakawa: (Pointing at the door) Do something about her! A wonderful Angel of Inspiration has finally appeared to me! (Realizes that Louis has disappeared) Huh? Where’d he go?

Kitashirakawa goes to inspect the portrait, but the knocking sound returns.

Sakurai: Mr. Kitashirakawa! Ms. Hayami!

When Hayami opens the door, Sakurai jumps into the room.

Sakurai: What on earth are you doing? It’s time for us to depart for the dinner cruise!

Hayami: Oh, is that so?

Sakurai: All of the other customers are already gathered and waiting!

Kitashirakawa: Really? Well, on the contrary, I will not be attending.

Sakurai: That… I cannot allow that! Such selfish behavior will cause trouble for the other customers!

Kitashirakawa: What kind of trouble could it cause? This is my room, after all.

The local guide Pierre enters the room.

Pierre: Madame Reiko, if we do not hurry, we will be late for the dinner cruise!

Hayami: What… an attractive man…

Pierre: Enchanté! I am your local guide- Pierre!

Sakurai: Monsieur Pierre, please gather the other customers and leave the hotel first. I will bring Mr. Kitashirakawa to the cruise myself.

Pierre: J’ai compris.

Sakurai: Sensei… would you mind…?

Kitashirakawa: Yeah, go and enjoy it for me, too.

Pierre escorts Hayami from the room.

Sakurai: Mr. Kitashirakawa, please come with me!

Kitashirakawa: I’d rather write my novel!

Sakurai: You can write it later, can’t you? For example, after the dinner cruise…

Kitashirakawa: You are so persistent!

Sakurai’s mobile phone begins to ring.

Sakurai: (answering the phone) Hello?

Kitashirakawa: If you’re going to chat on the phone, leave the room!

Togawa: (voice) Ms. Reiko! We finally arrived at the Château de la Reine! I just delivered everyone their room keys.

Sakurai: No! No! You have to take the customers out sightseeing immediately!

Togawa: (voice) Ms. Reiko!?

Sakurai hurriedly hangs up the phone.

Sakurai: What should I do…

Sakurai begins to clean up Kitashirakawa’s things.

Kitashirakawa: HEY! What are you doing?!

Sakurai: What does it look like- cleaning!

Kitashirakawa: But WHY?

Sakurai: Because if I don’t clean, we’ll be in a lot of trouble!

Kitashirakawa: Hey!

Crayon: (voice) Here it is! Room 203! Mako-chan, hurry and open it~

Kitashirakawa: Whose voice is that?

Kondo: (voice) Who are you callin’ Mako-chan!!

Crayon: (voice) Since your name’s Kondo Makoto, you’re now Mako-chan!

As Crayon and Kondo approach from the hall, the sound of keys opening the door can be heard. Sakurai drags Kitashirakawa behind the sofa and pushes him down.

Kitashirakawa: GYA!

Sakurai: This is bad! This is bad!

Crayon and Kondo enter the room.

Crayon: Wow! What a wonderful room! It’s kind of like being on a honeymoon~ (Crayons skips over to Kondo)

Kondo: How is it a honeymoon with two men!?

Togawa appears in the doorway.

Togawa: Mr. Kondo, Ms. (?) Crayon. It’s a bit earlier than planned, but I’d like to take you on your first sightseeing tour now…

Kondo: You saved me! Well then, quickly- to sightseeing! Sightseeing, sightseeing…

Kondo quickly runs from the room as if to escape.

Crayon: Hey, Mako-chan! Wait for me!

Crayon leaves the room, following Kondo. Kitashirakawa and Sakurai appear from behind the sofa.

Kitashirakawa: I can’t!... I can’t breathe!

Togawa: Ms. Reiko!?

Sakurai: Togawa! What are you doing? Hurry up and follow the customers!

Togawa: What are YOU doing, Ms. Reiko!? Behind a sofa… alone with a man!

Sakurai: This isn’t the time for weird misunderstandings!

Togawa: But…

Sakurai: Just hurry up and go after the customers!!

Togawa: Y-Yes!

Togawa runs out of the room in a hurry.

Kitashirakawa: HEY! What the hell just happened!? And what was with that okama couple!?

Sakurai: Ah, it must be, a slight error with the hotel…

Kitashirakawa: SLIGHT error?!

Sakurai: Anyway, it seems like there isn’t anything to worry about with the room, so please continue writing your novel at your leisure. Well then, I’ll take my leave…

Sakurai rushes from the room.

Kitashirakawa: HEY! Wait a minute!

Kitashirakawa runs from the room chasing after Sakurai. Once they’re both gone, the ghost of Louis XIV returns, accompanied by strange music.

Louis: Munon. Do something about these monkeys!

Munon: Even if you ask milord, what could I do…

Louis: With people like that around, I’ll never be able to communicate with Diana’s soul.

Munon: I’ve been searching with your majesty for Diana for over 300 years now… Could Madame Diana possibly still be in this Château?

Louis: Are you doubting me?!

Munon: I held no such intent, sire…

Louis: I am certain that I heard Diana’s voice in this Château. She must still be wandering through that deep darkness…

 Scene 4: Château de la Reine (Courtyard Entrance)

Lonely music plays. The stage changes to the Château in the 17th century, covered in moonlight. (This is a mental image by Louis.) While Louis sings on the ginkyo, Diana can be seen standing in the gardens, covered in moonlight.

[The Sun and the Moon]

Louis: Diana… even if you never forgive me, my soul will eternally search for you, my love…

No one knows

How the Sun King of France

Hid darkness within his heart

And how that darkness

Was illuminated by the light of the gentle moon.

In the interlude of the song, Petit Louis appears from inside the house.

Petit Louis: Maman!

Diana: Petit Louis…

As Petit Louis approaches Diana, one leg drags behind him as if hurt.

Petit Louis: Maman! Tell me about father! He was a soldier, right? A soldier who courageously fought against Spain and was a hero of France?

Diana: No. Your father was but a weakling. He gave into the Spanish blood running in his veins and abandoned us.

Petit Louis: Papa… abandoned…?

Diana: Forgive me, Petit Louis. If mama hadn’t believed in your father so much, then your leg wouldn’t…

Petit Louis: Don’t cry, Maman! I’m fine as long as I have Maman! I won’t ever ask about Papa again. So please… don’t cry, Maman.

Diana: Petit Louis…

Diana and Petit Louis share a strong embrace.

Louis: Forgive me! … Diana! Petit Louis!...

Diana                                                                                                    

Goddess of the moon, who illuminated my heart

I search only for you

Diana

The only proof I ever lived                                                                                                                                              Diana: The only proof I ever lived

I will keep searching for you                                                                                                                                                           I wish to forget it…

If only to be able to express to you                                                                                                                                              The cruel Sun King’s

My sincere love…                                                                                                                                                                                ‘Sincere’ love…

Diana!

As the light fades around them, the stage turns to the next scene.

 Scene 5: The City of Paris

Sakurai appears on a dark street outside of the hotel, quickly followed by Kitashirakawa chasing after her.

Kitashirakawa: HEY! Wait a minute! Stop trying to escape!?

Sakurai: Escape?... No, I’m only trying to join everyone on the dinner cruise…

Kitashirakawa: You can’t hide this sham from me anymore! I figured it out the moment I saw those other guys that came in earlier. This double-booking situation was planned from the beginning!

Sakurai: … I’m truly truly sorry!

Having been found out, Sakurai begins apologizing and bowing vigorously in defeat.

Kitashirakawa: You can’t fool the keen eyes of a novelist!

Sakurai: I truly had no choice! Although we planned this expensive tour with the Château de la Reine, we couldn’t attract as many customers as we thought! So… we had to plan a second, cheaper tour attraction…

Kitashirakawa: As I thought! … Well, in planning this second fraudulent trip, were you able to satisfy your greed for money?

Sakurai: If we didn’t manage to collect enough for our settlement by this month’s deadline, my company would go bankrupt!...

Kitashirakawa: Your circumstances really don’t mean anything to me…

Sakurai: Yes, you are right… No matter what the circumstances are, I did something terrible to everyone here… At the very least, I plan to take full responsibility for my actions. I apologize, it is all my fault that this tour will end prematurely…

Kitashirakawa: End?...

Sakurai: Of course, we will offer full reimbursement of your money…

Kitashirakawa: Wait a minute, who said anything about stopping the tour?

Sakurai: I’m truly sorry, but there’s no way for me to reserve the necessary amount of rooms… So, there’s no other way.

Kitashirakawa: Then, you should just continue as is, right?

Sakurai: …What?

Kitashirakawa: The double-booking tour.

Sakurai: What are you saying?

Kitashirakawa: As of now, the only one who’s noticed your little plan is this brilliant author here. None of the other customers have noticed anything at all.

Sakurai: To continue the tour… Are you saying you’ll help me?

Kitashirakawa: Well, I guess something like that…

Sakurai: You would do that for me…

Kitashirakawa: Don’t misunderstand! It’s really not for you.

Sakurai: Then, instead… you don’t mean, for me to spend the night with you…!?

Kitashirakawa: It’s nothing like that!? If the tour were to stop now, it would be a huge problem for me!

Sakurai: What do you mean?

Kitashirakawa: While on this tour, I HAVE to write a new novel by any means necessary! A brilliant masterpiece to resurrect the name of Kitashirakawa Ukyo! Recently I’ve been squeaking by with small serializations here and there- my career as a novelist hangs on the success of this tour!

Sakurai: But, to continue tricking the other customers with the double booking for such a reason…

Kitashirakawa: Anyway, in order to keep up with your sham, I’ll go along with your plan starting tomorrow morning and follow your boring sightseeing or whatever…

Sakurai: Thank you so much! … Well, I don’t know if I should really be thanking you or…

Kitashirakawa: Well, then! I’m going back to my room to write my novel, so don’t interrupt me again! (He goes to leave, then stops.) And make sure none of the others catch on to your plan- do your job properly! Huh!

Turning his back on Sakurai, Kitashirakawa exits the stage. The music slowly changes to Sakurai’s song.

[Another étranger] (TN: étranger means ‘stranger’? This could potentially be very wrong.)

Sakurai: To suddenly chase after someone

I feel something pass through my heart

With kindness                   And with coldness-                         The feelings I avoided

Seem to be reaching out.

The bustle and laughter of the city

All belong to someone other than me.

Just another étranger

Like I see reflected in the shop windows

I desired a time long past.

A temperamental traveler

Just another étranger.

But I can see it reflected              In someone’s eyes…

The destination I’ve been searching for

Another me

Like a lost child.

And staring at myself when I cannot move…

Is just another étranger.

Finishing the song, Sakurai exits the stage.

 Scene 6: Parfum de la Lune

A cabaret in Montmartre, a can-can singer appears during a drum roll. He begins to introduce the start of the show.

[Parfum de la Lune]

Cancan singer: Bonsoir mesdames et messieurs. C’est parti CAN CAN! (TN: Again, was told the French was incorrect idk)

At the singer’s signal, the music picks up pace, and the back of the stage starts a brilliant and shocking Cancan dance. In the audience sit the members of Togawa’s tourist group. Half way through the show, the dancers move to dance among the audience, urging them to dance along. Crayon happily dances along, while Kondo seems embarrassed. The Tannos watch everyone suspiciously.

Cancan singer: Parfum de la Lune

The sweet scent invites you

Parfum de la Lune

Gaze up at the moon in the night sky

Like a fragrant aphrodisiac

Parfum de la Lune

Cancan girls: Even if you’re bored

Or been sightseeing all day

Anyone is welcome here!

Garçon: Do you want to forget that lonely feeling?

Well, let’s get started!

It’s time for our dazzling show!

Cancan singer: Parfum de la Lune

Those are magical words

Parfum de la Lune

The song here is always one of love

Until the moon finally sets!

With the customers: Parfum de la Lune

Parfum de la Lune

Parfum de la Lune Ah!

All: Let’s play through the night!

Ah          Ah          Ah          Ah!

Once the song is over, everyone makes their way back to their seats.

Crayon: To be able to dance the cancan at a real cabaret! It’s like a dream! Right, Mako-chan~?

Kondo: I keep telling you, don’t involve me!

Mr. Tanno: Mr. Togawa, shouldn’t we be getting back to the hotel?

Togawa: That… Mr. Tanno, our sightseeing has only just begun?

Mr. Tanno: We didn’t come here just to play around!

Kondo: Oh, so did you come here for work?

Mrs. Tanno: (Scrutinizing) We… work in import sales. So, we’re looking to buy rare brand items.

Crayon: Amazing! When we get back, can I visit your shop sometime?

Mrs. Tanno: Yes, of course! (Trying to change the course of the conversation) So, Crayon, why did you come to Paris?

Crayon: I guess you could call it a ‘heartbreak trip’. I’m trying to heal my broken heart…

Kondo: I guess okama are miserable on their own.

Crayon: How rude! Aren’t you on your own, too, Mako-chan?

Kondo: I… The person I invited… rejected me…

Crayon: Your lover?

Kondo: No, just someone I liked…

Crayon: So, you invited someone you weren’t even dating to travel to Paris with you?

Kondo: So what if I did?!

Crayon: That… for a first date, that’s a bit too much~

Mr. Tanno: Mr. Togawa, can’t we just do as we like from here? We really want to go back to the hotel.

Togawa: Mr. Tanno!

Mrs. Iwanami: Well then, we will also go back with you…

Togawa: The Iwanamis too?... Please, I can’t allow you to go off on your own!

Mr. Tanno: Why?

Togawa: The streets of Paris at night can be dangerous! If anything happened to you…

Crayon: (Grabs onto Kondo’s arm) Well then, why don’t we all go back together?

Togawa: Ms. Crayon!?

Crayon: I sure would like to be alone with Mako-chan here~ (Shimmies up to Kondo)

Kondo: STOP IT!

Togawa: That, I can’t allow it! No matter what, I will make sure that you all enjoy sightseeing in Paris ALL NIGHT!

Everyone is amazed at Togawa’s raised voice.

Crayon: Well that was sudden… I’m kind of surprised.

Togawa: (returning to his senses) I… I am so terribly sorry!

Kondo: But what do you mean by “all night”?

Togawa: That is… to say… returning to the hotel right now… would be bad…

Mr. Tanno: “Bad”?

Togawa: Actually, about our situation at the Château de la Reine… there is something that I haven’t told you all…

Mr. Iwanami: Well, how ominous! Come now, tell us…

Togawa: Then, I will tell you truthfully… The truth is, all of your guestrooms… are limited to use only during the daytime…

Mrs. Tanno: What!?

Mr. Tanno: Then what are we supposed to do during the night?

Togawa: That is why… I want you to enjoy sightseeing through the evening…

Kondo: Are you saying we’re just supposed to stroll around the city all night?

Togawa: Please don’t worry about that, there are many shops open until the early morning hours!

Kondo: That’s not actually the problem here, is it!?

Mrs. Iwanami: Mr. Togawa, what is the reason behind all this?

Togawa: That is…

Kondo: You… if you don’t tell us the full truth right now, I’m gonna arrest you!

Togawa: A-arrest!? Please, have mercy…

Mrs. Iwanami: Now, now, Mr. Kondo… Stop acting all tough, won’t you? Let’s first listen to what Mr. Togawa has to say. After all, there has to be some sort of extenuating circumstance for all this?

Prepared to divulge all, Togawa vigorously bows to them.  (dogeza)

Togawa: I am so truly sorry! I… have betrayed everyone’s trust with my outrageous actions!... (crying)

Kondo: Now what’s wrong?

Crayon: Seems like he’s just crying…

Mr. Iwanami: Mr. Togawa, raise your head now. At the least, we’ve all agreed to listen to what you have to say, ok?

The stage fades into darkness.

 Scene 7: The City of Paris

On the ginkyo, the members of the “Light Tour” return from their dinner cruise with Pierre. Hayami and Pierre are especially drunk…

Pierre: Everybody~! Did you enjoy the dinner cruise~?

Hayami: Yes, amazing!

Pierre: Non, the amazing one… is you~!

Hayami: Oh, Pierre… In truth, I… am a ~terrible~ woman…

Michiru: Gross! Lady, you’ve really got it bad…

Hayami: What? Are you jealous?

Michiru: That’s impossible…

Kanezawa: Is that true?! Michiru…

Michiru: Papa?

Kanezawa: Really, compared to an old man like me… (he suddenly grabs Pierre’s shoulder) you prefer young guys like this!

Michiru: What are you saying!? The only one Michiru loves is Papa!

Kanezawa: Ya swear it?

Pierre: Well, anyway… there are many places that I wish to take you as your guide!

Mrs. Shimoda: Well then, Mr. Pierre, would it be alright if I asked you something then?

Pierre: Oui, madame.

Mrs. Shimoda: I’d like for you to tell me… What is the quietest and most beautiful place in all of Paris?

Pierre: The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur!

Mr. Shimoda: Where was that?

Pierre: The Sacred Heart temple in Montmartre! It was painted by Utrillo (Maurice Utrillo) as the white temple~!

Mrs. Shimoda: Really… The Sacred Heart temple? Thank you very much.

The Shimoda couple share a meaningful gaze.

Pierre: Well then, let us return! I shall guide you all back to the hotel~!

Hayami: Eh!? We’re going home already?

Michiru: You’ve already had enough to drink, haven’t you?

Kanezawa: (Seeing Hayami tripping over her own feet) Hey, hey, lady, are you ok?

Everyone begins to exit the stage. Mr. Shimoda does not move, and Mrs. Shimoda calls back to him.

Mrs. Shimoda: Dear?

Mr. Shimoda: We… are going to end up causing some trouble for those people, aren’t we?

Mrs. Shimoda: Isn’t ok to do as we like, at least at the end? Just at the end…

Mr. Shimoda smiles at his wife, who looks at him with a sweet smile.

Mr. Shimoda: You always show me such a loving smile, even at times like this. It makes me wish I could have spared you all this…

Mrs. Shimoda tries to keep smiling.

Mr. Shimoda: Fusako… you don’t have to keep smiling. Don’t force yourself to smile.

Mrs. Shimoda tries to hide her tears. As the ending falls, the two exit the stage.

 Scene 8: Château de la Reine (Room 203, Mr. Kitashirakawa’s room)

Room 203 in the Château de la Reine. After returning to the room, Kitashirakawa approaches the portrait of Louis XIV.

Kitashirakawa: Now then! No more interruptions! Come, let me once again gaze upon your true form!

After Kitashirakawa’s voice fades, there is nothing but silence.

Kitashirakawa: Please, I need to know! The truth between you and Diana- Who exactly was Diana? What is the true identity of the Moon Goddess…!?

As the lights disappear, Louis’s voice echoes through the room.

Louis: I will not forgive you…. You dare to speak Diana’s name so lightly!?

Kitashirakawa: It’s here! It’s here, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here!

Louis appears from the portrait.

Louis: Remove yourself from my presence immediately! My soul will never speak to the likes of you…

Kitashirakawa: Even with that kind of threat, do you think I would miss an opportunity like this? Now, come… tell me the story of you and Diana…!

Louis: Silence! You dare to speak her name a second time?!

Kitashirakawa: Why are you trying to hide it? What on earth happened between the two of you?

Louis: There’s no reason I should speak to the likes of you.

Kitashirakawa: Please listen. All I want is to write about your one and only true love.

Louis: True love?

Kitashirakawa: Yes! In the memoirs written about you, you’re almost like a myth- a man with only brilliant achievements and no human faults to be found. But what I want to write is about you as a man and your one true love!

Louis: How foolish… You think the King of France could ever live as a simple person?

Kitashirakawa: Well then, what was Diana to you?

Louis: …

Kitashirakawa: I’ll bet that love was your only proof you ever lived! That is the story of the Sun King that should be passed down through history!

Louis: To live as a king… there is no such thing as true love!... In order to become the Sun King of France, I expelled Dianna from Versailles and sent her here to live in this Château. No matter how much you ask, there is no ‘love story’ for you to find. I still only ask for her forgiveness, and for that reason continue to search for her soul…

Kitashirakawa: Très bien! Beautiful! The anguish of the King who had to throw his own love away… And now continues his eternal search for Diana, as just a simple man. This is the theme I’ve been looking for in my next work!

Louis: After all this, you’re still talking about such things…

Kitashirakawa: Kitashirakawa Ukyo’s second name is the Genius Romance Novelist! Within my creation, the love between two people not bound by time… Well, in my story, you would definitely be able to meet Diana again!

Louis: Foolish! For your scenario to work, Diana would have to appear before us.

Kitashirakawa: You’ll see… What’s needed to bring your reunion about… is Versailles!

Louis: Versailles!? But, she’s still here, in this Château…

Kitashirakawa: Rather, we should summon her in the place of your beautiful, shared memories! To Versailles!

The rhythm begins to change with the Background music.

[To Versailles]

Kitashirakawa: Beyond the boundaries of time

Your two souls are tied together

Louis: A man like you appeared unexpectedly

Bringing hope with you

Kitashirakawa: A fantastic story!

Louis: An absurd idea…

Kitashirakawa: Let’s draw her out!

Louis: Let’s give it a chance.

Kitashirakawa: Like                                                                                                                                                                                       Louis: Like

A feeling of a déjà vu-                                                                                                                                                             The feeling of falling in love

A chance to meet again!                                                                                                                                                              A chance to create anew,

The story of the Sun King and Moon Goddess!                                                                                                                       My story with Diana.

Kitashirakawa: Well then, to Versailles!

Louis: To Versailles!

Kitashirakawa and Louis: Let’s go find the next part of the story!

During the interlude, Munon suddenly appears without warning and interrupts the two.

Munon: But the problem is, exactly how is his Majesty to get to Versailles?

Kitashirakawa: (Shocked) Who are you?!

Louis: Munon. What’s the problem?

Munon: In that kind of dress, you would stand out to people in this modern era…

Kitashirakawa: Aah, If that’s the case, you don’t need to worry. You can just accompany me as a local guide who dresses the part for the tour.

Reassuring Louis with his bright idea, Kitashirakawa begins to lead them in song again. The three of them begin to sing together.

Kitashirakawa: When past and present intersect

An unpredictable story!

Come, to Versailles!

Louis and Munon: Quickly, to Versailles!

All three: Let’s go find the next part of the story!

Kitashirakawa: To Versailles!

Louis and Munon: Quickly, to Versailles!

Kitashirakawa: Now-

All three: Let’s begin… the next part of the story!

As the music ends, the curtain falls.

 Scene 9: The City of Paris

Togawa appears on the ginkyo, followed by the members of the “Shadow Tour”. Mr. Iwanami is singing the military song “Song of the Young Eagle” while supporting the crying Togawa by the shoulder.

Mr. Iwanami: (Singing) The seven buttons of the young-blooded trainee pilots are…

(TN: This was a song used when drafting potential aviators?)

Crayon: (To Togawa) How long are you going to keep crying? Didn’t we already agree to cooperate with you so the people in the “Light Tour” don’t figure out your plan?

Togawa: But, why are you all being so nice!? After I betrayed your trust like that… you should never forgive me! (cries again)

Kondo: Stop blaming yourself so much. It was something you had to do to save your company, right?

Crayon: Mako-chan, you’re so nice!~ And after you kept going on about arresting him earlier…

Kondo: I’m making an exception. If we don’t return to the hotel, then I don’t have to worry about being attacked by an okama in the middle of the night…

Crayon: What did you just say!??

Kondo: No-Nothing in particular…

Mr. Iwanami: Mr. Togawa.

Everyone freezes at the severe tone of Mr. Iwanami’s voice.

Togawa: Y-Yes!?

Mr. Iwanami: Just smile.

Togawa: What?

Mr. Iwanami: When I was young, I left junior high school and applied to military training, where I became a zero-fighter pilot (TN: Mitsubishi A6M planes in the war). The cockpits in those planes were very small, and whenever we intercepted a B29 (TN: American Boeing B29 super fortress) … there was no guarantee whether we would live to the next day or not.

Kondo: Are we about to have to listen to this old man’s war stories?

Crayon: Mako-chan!

Mr. Iwanami: However, even when we were prepared for death, we continued to smile and laugh.

Togawa: Mr. Iwanami!

Mr. Iwanami: After my time there, I became a teacher at a special night high school because I wanted to pass that message along to the children. Do you understand? Especially when things are difficult, you just smile and laugh. Smile for someone that you care about.

Togawa: Mr. Iwanami…! (crying again)

Crayon: Aaah… He’s crying again.

Mr. Tanno: Mr. Togawa… How about this? If you just leave the “Light Tour” customers’ baggage in the rooms, we’ll make sure not to touch or disturb them. Then you can save the time needed for having to move things around, right?

Mrs. Iwanami: Oh, I think that’s a very nice idea! With that plan, we can all work together to help Mr. Togawa!

Togawa: Everyone! I, Togawa Mitsuo, will never ever forget this blessing!

Crayon: Well then, why don’t we head to the next shop? (Takes Kondo’s arm) Somewhere we can have some fun~

Mr. Iwanami: Well then, Mr. Togawa. You must continue to guide us!

Togawa: Yes!!... Well then, please follow me!

With Togawa in the lead, everyone follows along. Only the Tanno couple remain on stage.

Mrs. Tanno: How stone cold. Pretending to be honorable- like you won’t touch a thing.

Mr. Tanno: Sharing a room with a bunch of rich people from the “Light Tour” when only we’ll be there during the day. We won’t get another chance like this.

Mrs. Tanno: You… really are a bad person.

Mr. Tanno: Do you dislike it?

Mrs. Tanno: It makes me love you even more.

The couple also leaves, the stage turning to the next scene.

 Scene 10: The Palace of Versailles (The Hall of Mirrors)

The Palace of Versailles is bustling with plenty of sightseeing tourists. The guide Pierre appears, leading the members of the “Light Tour”.

Pierre: Here we are! Everyone, this is the famous Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors!

Michiru: How flashy!? This is so my style.

Kanezawa: Wow! This is something! I’ve gotta have a hall like this in my hotel in Vegas, bro.

Hayami: Excuse me, everyone… would you terribly mind not speaking in such loud voices? My head feels like it’s going to break…

Mr. Shimoda: Fusako. What in the world is this place? I can’t believe that one person could have such a place built in only one generation.

Mrs. Shimoda: Well, Louis the XIV was known for his excessive spending. It was the reason the country went into bankruptcy before the French Revolution, I think…

Kitashirakawa, Louis, and Munon appear.

Louis: The one who caused bankruptcy was not I, but Louis XVI! I’m utterly embarrassed to call that man my descendant.

Mr. Shimoda: Fusako, look. There are paintings that reach up to the ceiling.

Louis: Ah, so you noticed! After I was crowned, I had these impressive paintings completed in a mere eighteen years- each one painted by Le Blanc himself. This one here is the War of Flanders, while this one is the War with the Netherlands…

Michiru: (To Kanezawa) Don’t you think that guide is amazing?!

Sakurai: (To Kitashirakawa) So you’re saying he’s… really the ghost of Louis XIV?

Kitashirakawa: Yes! The savior of my novel!

Sakurai: But, to go so far as to make him a tour guide…

Kitashirakawa: It’s a great idea, right!? The idea to make him a tour guide of Versailles suddenly struck me!

Everyone begins praising Louis’ explanations.

Kitashirakawa: Thankfully, everyone really believes he’s just a really devoted guide impersonating Louis XIV.

Mrs. Shimoda: Even so, I wonder why… For such a beautiful palace, this place seems to have a feeling of sadness to it.

Mr. Shimoda: Yes, I thought so too.

Sakurai: Mr. Shimoda, are you feeling alright?

Mr. Shimoda: Oh, yes of course! I was just… thinking about something a former teacher used to tell me all the time.

Sakurai: What was it?

Mrs. Shimoda: When times are difficult or painful… or even sad. You must laugh and survive for someone you care about.

Sakurai: Even in difficult times, for someone you care about…

Mrs. Shimoda: For us, those words are irreplaceable.

Mr. Shimoda: I think our teacher definitely wanted to pass on that hope to live to those of us with no money and no hope.

Sakurai: It’s a lovely story.

Kanezawa: Could you not tell depressing stories when we managed to come all the way to Versailles?

Mr. Shimoda: I’m sorry!... What was I thinking, ruining the mood like that…

Kitashirakawa: I disagree! It is a very interesting life view. Even if you think like that in regards to the Sun King… A king carrying darkness deep within his heart. As he thirsts for the light that can eradicate the darkness, it leads him to build this masterpiece…

Hayami: That’s Kitashirakawa-sensei for you!... What a beautiful interpretation… (suddenly feels sick)

Kitashirakawa: Hayami?

Hayami: I… need to go… to the restroom…

Pierre: Oh, Madame! I will show you the way!

Pierre accompanies Hayami off stage.

Mr. Shimoda: Well then, please excuse us as well. Come, Fusako…

Mrs. Shimoda: Ms. Reiko, are you coming?

Sakurai: Yes!

The Shimodas also exit the stage. Suddenly looking at Kanezawa, Kitashirakawa notices an incident.

Kitashirakawa: Shouldn’t you go as well?

Kanezawa: Me? … Why?

Kitashirakawa: (in a whisper) You’re crooked… (indicating Kanezawa’s wig)

Kanezawa: Crooked!?... CROOKED!?

Michiru: Papa! Where are you going!?

Kanezawa runs off stage while holding down his wig with his hands. Michiru follows him off stage.

Sakurai: That isn’t the restroom, Mr. Kanezawa! Miss Michiru!

Ms. Sakurai chases after them.

Louis: And why did I have to pretend to be your silly guide?

Kitashirakawa: Contrary to your words, you seem to be enjoying yourself quite a bit.

Munon: Yes, it did seem as if you were coming to enjoy it.

Louis: Do not make fun! Forget all that, what about Diana? When will she reveal herself to me?

Kitashirakawa: Don’t panic. We’ve set up the perfect situation for a reunion scenario!

[Reminiscence]

The background music begins.

Kitashirakawa: Our story begins with the Sun King giving a monologue. While alone in this corridor, gather all your nostalgia for Diana, and speak of the beautiful memories you shared here together! Led by your voice, other ghosts may appear and disappear… And among them, you alone can locate her true form! Now, call out to the Moon Goddess, to Diana’s soul…!

As the lights change with the music, aristocratic looking men and women begin to fill the corridor with dancing. Among a group of a dancers, the nervous Diana appears. Kitashirakawa and Munon move to the front of the stage to ‘watch’.

Louis: The first time I met Diana… was at the ball to celebrate the victory of my first battle as king. Although she was only brought into the palace to serve as a maid to the queen, she was luminous… as bright and beautiful as the moon goddess herself…

Aristocrats: Dance!          Dance!

Together with the unsetting sun

Dance!  Dance!

Even as the night begins to fall

Louis dances his way through the people, arriving in front of Diana and offering her his hand.

Diana: Forgive me, I cannot dance.

Louis: Do I displease you?

Diana: No, but I must present myself to the king…

Louis: In that case, you need not worry. I can assure you the king will not be at his station this evening.

Offering his hand again, Diana slowly accepts. The two begin to dance.

Munon: When His Majesty was young, he narrowly escaped death due to the actions of some unreasonable nobility- causing His Majesty a lifetime of pain and mistrust in people. No one could truly understand the depths of suspicion and loneliness in his heart.

(TN: Possible reference to the Fronde Rebellion?)

Kitashirakawa: So, the one who lifted that loneliness was the Moon Goddess Diana…

Aristocrats: Dance!          Dance!

Together with the unsetting sun

Dance!                  Dance!

Diana disappears in the crowd of noblemen, and Queen Maria Theresa and Louis’s mother Anne appear.

Maria Theresa: Your Majesty, answer me. Is it true that vile woman you’ve taken in is now with child?

Louis: Watch your tongue, Queen. If the child is born a boy, then Diana will be the mother to my heir.

Maria Theresa: So… you even intend to hand over the throne to that child!?

Anne: My Queen, His Majesty has been fooled by that woman. His sanity may be lost for now, but soon he will come to realize his own mistake!

Louis: No, mother. My only mistake was ever accepting a princess of the enemy Spain as my Queen! My child with Diana will be my true legacy!

Maria Theresa: What are you saying!?

Anne: Apparently, his Majesty seems to have forgotten. That the child born to him of that woman will also have the blood of Spain running in their veins.

Anne makes a face to indicate that she has a plan and urges Maria Theresa to follow her, and they disappear into the dancing. Louis, angry and with no place to go, dances among the middle.

Aristocrats: Praise! Praise!

The birth of a long desired son

Cutting through the darkness of night    the child of the Sun of France!

A baby’s first cries echo through the halls, and Louis breaks away from the dancers.

Louis: Petit Louis!... The child of the Sun of France!

As Louis moves to try to go to Diana, Anne stands in his way.

Anne: Your Majesty, where do you think you are going?

Louis: To see Diana!

Anne: You cannot. Your Majesty must, for the sake of France, always continue to dance!

In an eerie formation, the noblemen gather around Louis and dance, tossing him about.

Aristocrats: Dance!          Dance!

Even if the sun sets

Dance   Dance

Within the great darkness,          The King continues to dance.

In a cross formation, the nobles move around Louis and swallow him. The back of the hall of mirrors changes to a balcony in the palace. On the balcony, Diana is holding her newborn baby close. Maria Theresa approaches her.

Maria Theresa: Madame Diana… Allow me to hold the child.

Diana: My Queen, it would be too high of an honor…

Maria Theresa: Well, show him to me quickly!

Maria Theresa takes Petit Louis from Diana by force.

Diana: My Queen!

Maria Theresa: Well, how adorable… he looks just like His Majesty…

Diana: My Queen?

Standing over the handrail, Maria Theresa lifts Petit Louis high. A disturbing twilight begins to spread in the background.

Maria Theresa: Louis de Soleil de France… The child of the Sun of France!!

Louis: Stop!!...

As the music hits a shocking accent, Maria Theresa drops Petit Louis off the edge of the balcony. At the same time, Louis manages to shake off the smothering nobles. Along with the accented music, the scene changes. While the nobles continue their disturbing song, they slowly move off stage.

Aristocrats: Dance           Dance

Together with the unsetting sun

Dance   Dance

The glory of the King shines…

Kitashirakawa: But… Petit Louis… What happened to Petit Louis…!?

Munon: Fortunately, his life was spared. But one leg was severely injured, and never properly healed… And so that no more danger would ever befall those two, his Majesty sent Diana away to that Château under the pretext of exiling her…

Kitashirakawa: So, the reason Louis continued to live as the Sun King of France was to protect the ones he loved… but, that love became nothing but despair for Diana…

Finally released from the memories, Louis approaches Kitashirakawa.

Louis: Diana… Where is Diana? (To Kitashirakawa) Why hasn’t she revealed herself?

Kitashirakawa: …

Louis: Answer me! When will Diana be revealed to me?

Kitashirakawa: … I don’t know.

Louis: You don’t know? Didn’t you say if we followed your scenario, then I could find her?!

Kitashirakawa: I don’t know! If you say that the thing that drove Diana’s heart deeper into the darkness was your love, then what would be the light that summons her back to you… How would I write that?

Louis: You have deceived me! Because you just wanted to write your little novel, you tricked me into telling you about Diana!

Kitashirakawa: No, that’s not it!

Louis: You said you wanted to write about true love? For someone that plays with others’ hearts and only thinks about himself… you’ll never be able to write about something like love! No, not of love, and not of anything that could ever touch a person’s heart! Leave my Château immediately… That is my final warning to you.

Louis spares Kitashirakawa one last glare as he leaves.

Munon: Your Highness! Please wait… Your Highness!

Munon chases after Louis. As Kitashirakawa is left on stage by himself, the setting falls into darkness.

[The Story I Wanted to Write]

Kitashirakawa: An empty heart-

And writing to fill it

With the memories of someone other than myself.

And never allowing anyone to read…

The tightly closed            and blank pages               deep in my heart

What I wanted to write

Were the words of the magic I believed in as a child

Adults always spun                         Such kind stories of lies.

What I wanted to write                was the continuation of an unseen dream

But I don’t even know                   the truth of a ‘story’.

And the resulting scratches of pain hidden in my heart…

I never noticed them.

 Scene 11: Château de la Reine (Room 201 and Room 202)

In room 202 of the Château de la Reine, The Tanno couple is going through Kanezawa and Michiru’s baggage.

Mrs. Tanno: Darling, look!

Mr. Tanno: This is amazing! These are all top brand goods!

Mrs. Tanno: What’s this? (She pulls a hair bundle out of the suitcase.)

Mr. Tanno: Isn’t that a wig?

Mrs. Tanno: Gross!! (She tosses it away.)

On the other side of the stage, the Iwanamis are relaxing with some tea from room service.

Mr. Iwanami: No matter how you think about it, this is quite a strange tour. Even if it’s only during the day, being able to stay in such a nice hotel sure is fun. We should really be thankful, don’t you think?

Mrs.  Iwanami: Yes, even though we’re sharing with the Light Tour.

Back to room 202.

Mr. Tanno: Even so, this is exactly the kind of thing that will build up our reputation! *

Mrs. Tanno: Right! With high-end goods to resell, it’s much more efficient than something like card fraud.

Mr. Tanno: Let’s go and sell some of these things in the Jewish shops, then we’ll quickly slip away with no one the wiser.

Mrs. Tanno: Right!

The Tannos begin packing up all the brand goods they’ve found in the room into one suitcase. Meanwhile, in room 201, Mr. Iwanami walks over to the side table and picks some stationary he finds.

Mr. Iwanami: Oh, what’s this? A letter?

Mrs. Iwanami: You know reading other people’s letters without their permission is bad taste.

Mr. Iwanami: You read it too!

Mrs. Iwanami runs her eyes over the stationary her husband hands to her.

Mrs. Iwanami: (as she’s reading) On our journey to Paris… we will also depart on another journey… Dear, is this… is this a suicide note?!

Mr. Iwanami: Yes, it looks like their factory went bankrupt, and they’ve written that they’re hundreds of millions of yen in debt.

Mrs. Iwanami: This is terrible… We have to tell Mr. Togawa right away!

As the stage turns, we see the corridor of the hotel. The Iwanamis exit the door of their room in a hurry.

Mr. Iwanami: Mr. Togawa! Mr. Togawa! It’s terrible!

At the same time, the Tannos are trying to leave their room, causing the two men to run into each other.

Mr. Tanno and Mr. Iwanami: Wah! Gya!

In the collision, the bag that Mr. Tanno was carrying suddenly opens and the goods fall onto the floor. Having heard Mr. Iwanami’s yells, Mr. Togawa approaches.

Togawa: Mr. Iwanami, Mr. Tanno, are you alright?

Mr. Iwanami: Don’t worry about us! Quickly, come here!

The Tannos quickly begin picking up their stolen goods.

Togawa: These brand goods… aren’t these Mr. Kanezawa’s things he left in the room!?

Mr. Iwanami: What!? Then that means?

Togawa: You don’t mean, you two are stealing!?

Mr. Tanno: Damn it!

Mr. Iwanami: (To Togawa) The police! Call the police now!

Togawa: If you need the police, then Mr. Kondo is in room 203…

Mr. Iwanami: Right! (He puts Mr. Tanno into an iron grip)

Mr. Tanno: Ouch! For an old man, how are you this stupidly strong!?

Mr. Iwanami: Whaddya think? Don’t mistake this former navy seal as a sweet old man!

Mrs. Iwanami: Dear! Worry about that later! Hurry, look at this…

Mrs. Iwanami hands the stationary to Togawa.

Togawa: (reading quickly) Is this… a suicide note!? Who wrote this!?

Mrs. Iwanami: It was left in our room. So it definitely belongs to whoever else is staying there!

Togawa: The guest staying in room 203 from the ‘Light Tour’… That’s the Shimodas! What should we do?! Right now, they might be…

Mrs. Iwanami: We have to tell the police now!

Togawa: Then we should go to room 203!

Everyone leaves the stage in a hurry as the ending music plays.

 Scene 12: Palace of Versailles (Gardens)

At a garden in the palace, Kitashirakawa stands alone. Sakurai appears on stage, finding him.

Sakurai: Mr. Kitashirakawa! Just when I thought everyone else had come back, I realized you were gone again. Didn’t you say you were going to cooperate with me?

Kitashirakawa: Is it ok for you to not be watching over the others?

Sakurai: The others are all following Pierre and looking for you. Alright, let’s get back to the group and continue our sightseeing for the day.

Kitashirakawa: Sorry, but… I’m going to go home. Alone.

Sakurai: Are we back at this again? Right now, the ‘Shadow Tour’ members are at the hotel…

Kitashirakawa: I don’t mean go back to my room. If I could just have my baggage collected, I’d like to leave the hotel as soon as possible.

Sakurai: What do you mean?

Kitashirakawa: It’s earlier than planned, but I’m leaving Paris. I know it’s last minute, but could I ask you to help me book a flight?

Sakurai: What…?

Kitashirakawa: You don’t have to worry. I won’t tell anyone about the double booking arrangement. Ah, you can tell the other tour members that I had to leave for some sudden work or something…

Sakurai: But, what about your novel?

Kitashirakawa: My novels… they’re really not important, are they?

Sakurai: Not important!? You said that your career as a writer was hanging in the balance, didn’t you? You said you had to write a masterpiece, right?

Kitashirakawa: Yes, you’re right… But as I am now, I cannot hope to write the masterpiece I wished for…

Sakurai: But… I mean, if you work with that ghost of Louis XIV from earlier…

Kitashirakawa: No, Louis won’t appear to me again. And even if he were here, it doesn’t change the fact that my talent is what’s truly missing.

Sakurai: Saying such self-deprecating things is really not like you. You’re usually walking around with that celeb-aura and brimming with overconfidence?!

Kitashirakawa: Are you… trying to make me feel better?

Sakurai: I’m sorry, I just…

Kitashirakawa: No, it is as you say. I always had confidence in my own talent and believed that I could create any kind of story. But as I have always lived thinking only about myself, how can I even begin to write a story about someone else?

Sakurai: Then, what is your story? Shouldn’t you just write a story about yourself? Actually, I thought about it earlier while listening to the Shimodas’ story. Every person holds within them the words to give another person hope. So, you just have to find them! Those irreplaceable words… your story definitely has them, too.

Kitashirakawa: My story… Could it be that I, as the protagonist, lost sight of my own story?

[A Novel Without a Protagonist]

Kitashirakawa: I wonder when it began?

That I was writing

Such selfish scenarios.

Decorating my words

With only self-recognition-

Of a Celebrity Novelist!                                To distract from

And erase my anxiety…

Sakurai: At some point, I chose without realizing

A journey full of trouble.

On a road without a map

I continued with strength!

When all I really wanted

Was for someone to walk with me.

Kitashirakawa and Sakurai: What vanity-

To walk alone on this road

Like a novel without a protagonist.

Seeking for…     And performing as…

An idealized version of myself.

And even, perhaps,        without realizing            

Hurting                                 someone else

And continuing to search

Kitashirakawa: What I lost sight of…

Sakurai: What I forgot…

Together: The true protagonist

Of my life.

Kitashirakawa: Can I write it someday? My own story that gives someone else hope?

Sakurai: Yes! For someone like me, who’s lost their own way in life…

Suddenly, Sakurai’s phone begins to ring.

Sakurai: (Checking the phone) It’s Togawa. (answers) Hello?

Togawa: (voice) This is terrible! P-Please, calm down and listen!...

Sakurai: I think you should probably calm down first…

Following Pierre, the other members of the ‘Light Tour’ notice Kitashirakawa and Sakurai. Sakurai moves to a separate area to talk.

Kanezawa: Hey! We found ‘em!

Pierre: Oh! We finally found you! We searched everywhere!

Hayami: Sensei! (notices Sakurai) and… Ms. Reiko!? What are the two of you doing!?

Kitashirakawa: What? Nothing in particular?

Michiru: All alone, just the two of you? Suspicious~

Kitashirakawa: There’s nothing suspicious about it!

Sakurai: What did you say!? That can’t be true. They’re right here with everyone else in the ‘Light Tour’ now… (Notices that the Shimodas are missing) Where are the Shimodas?

Pierre: Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen them for a while…

Kitashirakawa: Is something wrong?

Sakurai: (in shock) It seems… a suicide note was found in their room…

All: A suicide note?!

Sakurai: What should I do?... (She begins to put together the signs so far.) Those two, from the beginning… they must have been planning this all along…

Michiru: They’ve gotta be somewhere in the palace?

Kitashirakawa: Why would anyone plan something like that here?

Kanezawa: If it were me, I’d wanna go in the most magnificent place possible!

Kitashirakawa: (amazed) The only one who thinks that way is you. Anyway, we have to find them as quickly as possible! (To Sakurai) The other group of tourists, can we ask them for their help too?

Sakurai: (preparing herself) Yes! Of course we can! I’ll relay the plan to Togawa by phone…

Hayami: What do you mean by the other group of tourists?

Kitashirakawa: Right now, finding the Shimodas comes first! We have to find them before it’s too late!

The intro to the next number begins.

 Scene 13A: The City of Paris

The ‘Light Tour’ members line up in front of the curtain.

[An Extraordinary Search!]

Kitashirakawa: There is no time

For us to waste!

                               All: It’s an emergency!

Kitashirakawa: We’ll succeed with our

Imaginations!

                               All: Where could they be?

Kitashirakawa: Like opening a guide map

Believe in your intuition!

Kanezawa: The Arc du Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower?

Michiru: How about a gorgeous and luxurious opera house?

Kitashirakawa: Those weren’t on the sightseeing course!

Sakurai: If it’s a forest then the Boulogne             or Vincennes

Hayami: How about the Montparnasse Cemetery?

Pierre: Notre Dame could be suspect, too!

Kitashirakawa: We’ll have to find them ourselves!

All: Let’s go through the city of Paris

On an Extraordinary search!

Let’s go through the city of Paris

On an Extraordinary search!

Kitashirakawa: Hurry!

The Light Tour members break off into pairs to search and exit the stage in different directions: Kitashirakawa and Sakurai, Kanezawa and Michiru, and Hayami and Pierre.

 Scene 13B: Château de la Reine (Room 203)

The curtain rises to reveal room 203 of the Château de la Reine. The Tannos have been handcuffed. The music fades into BGM.

Kondo: It was lucky we were on the same tour. I’ll be taking these two back to Japan to face responsibility for their actions.

Mr. Tanno: Are you stupid?

Kondo: What’d you say!?

Mr. Tanno: Don’t you know that a Japanese policeman has no right to arrest people in another country?

Kondo: I dunno anything like that! All I know is when I see a criminal in front of me, I arrest ‘em!

Crayon: Kya~! Mako-chan, you’re so cool! … Even if what you’re saying is a bit unreasonable…

Togawa: Forget all that, we should hurry to help in the search for the Shimodas!

Mr. Iwanami: That’s right! What about the ‘Light Tour’?

Togawa: They’ve split up and are visiting famous places!

Mr. Iwanami: Then, we should also split up and search…

Mrs. Iwanami: But, I have no idea where in Paris someone might want to commit a lovers’ suicide!

Suddenly, the light in the room disappears as Louis’s voice sounds.

Louis: Lovers’ suicide?!

Crayon: (clinging to Kondo) What… what was that voice? Scary!!!

Kondo: Quite clinging to me so suddenly!

Stepping out from the painting, Louis and Munon appear.

Louis: First daring to deceive me, and then finding thieves amongst your allies… Does your shame know no end?! And now you dare to bring about death upon my territory!? I will not allow it!

Togawa: Um, excuse me but, what… are you?

Kondo: (To Crayon) Friend of yours?

Crayon: I dunno this guy!

Louis: Silence, now! Before it is too late, hurry and find those poor souls!

Togawa: But… where should we start looking?

Louis: Must I do everything!? Munon! You will be the leader.

Munon: Yes!

Louis: Come people, follow!

Everyone hurriedly follows Louis from the room. The hotel employees enter the stage from all sides.

Duran: The customer is in trouble!

Workers: The Hotel is in trouble, too!

Duran: What an unprecedented incident!

Workers: Brought to light by the double booking…

All: We need to find a solution!

To protect the Château de la Reine’s

Pride!

Louis and the Shadow Tour members appear on the bridge.

Louis: Now, continue to follow                                                                                                                      Shadow Tour: Being led by the Sun King

You selfish monkeys!                                                                                                                                              On a search!

These Japanese tourists-                                                                                                                         Let’s go through the city of Paris

In my country!                                                                                                                                            On an extraordinary search!

These kinds of actions                                                                                                                             An interesting collaboration

I will never                                                                                                                                                   Let’s go through the city of Paris

Allow them!                                                                                                                                                 On an Extraordinary search!

 Scene 13C: The City of Paris (2)

As people come and go in the city, the Light Tour members run into them, causing a racket.

Kitashirakawa: Well, how’d it go?!

Hayami: We didn’t find them!

Kanezawa: We got nothin’ too. I give up.

Kitashirakawa: Aren’t there any clues? You were all with them all last night, weren’t you?

Michiru: Now that you mention it…

Sakurai: Do you have an idea?

Michiru: Hey, Pierre… Didn’t the wife ask you something? Like ‘what’s the most beautiful and quiet place’ or something?

Kitashirakawa: Why didn’t anyone say that earlier!? Hayami, you were there too, weren’t you!?

Hayami: I’m afraid I drank too must last night, my memory is…

Kitashirakawa: Miserable! Well then, what did you tell her?

Pierre: Oh! I remember! The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur!

Sakurai: The Sacred Heart Temple in Montmartre!

Kitashirakawa: Alright, let’s hurry!

All the members run off stage, forcing their way through the people, ending the scene.

 Scene 14: Montmartre- The Sacred Heart Temple

Montmartre at nighttime. The stage changes to the gardens in front of the Sacred Heart Temple. A chanson singer carrying an accordion appears on stage, singing.

[Chanson]

Accordion player: As your silhouette continues to dance

My memories disappear into a dream

Those happy days are naught but nostalgia

In a phantom-like dream.

The Shimodas appear amongst other random couples, seeming confused.

Mrs. Shimoda: Darling, aren’t you cold?

Mr. Shimoda: I’m not cold, but… I’m scared. You?

Mrs. Shimoda: No, not at all.

Mr. Shimoda: But… we’re going to die?

Mrs. Shimoda: But I’m together with you.

Mr. Shimoda: Did you bring it? The hydrocyanic acid?

Mrs. Shimoda pulls a small bottle from her bag.

Mrs. Shimoda: Even the specialists don’t have this, do this?

Mr. Shimoda: It’s an old product from our factory… but it finally has some use.

Mrs. Shimoda: Look, darling, how beautiful this place is…

Mr. Shimoda: Being able to spend the last moments of our life in a place like this… is a blessing.

Mrs. Shimoda: Yes, dear.

The couple moves to sit down on the bench. Trying to hide her tears, Mrs. Shimoda turns away to hide her face.

Mr. Shimoda: Fusako?

Mrs. Shimoda forces herself to smile before turning back to him.

Mr. Shimoda: I told you, didn’t I? You don’t have to force yourself to smile. Whether you laugh or cry… these are our last moments together…

Suddenly, following Kitashirakawa, the members of the Light Tour appear.

Sakurai: You’re here! Mr. Shimoda!

Mr. Shimoda: You all…!

Kitashirakawa: Thank goodness, we made it! Now, let’s go back to the hotel…

Kitashirakawa begins to approach the couple.

Mr. Shimoda: Please don’t come any closer!

Kitashirakawa: Mr. Shimoda. I heard about the note you two left. That managing your factory took a turn for the worse, and you’ve been left in a great amount of debt…

Mr. Shimoda: Then, you understand! So please, allow us to die in peace, together…

Louis and the Shadow Tour members arrive on stage.

Louis: I will not allow any death here! Do you have no pride in your own lives? In this peaceful world, while being allowed to live freely- you would dare to not only throw away your own life, but the life of your beloved as well?

Mr. Iwanami looks at the Shimodas in surprise.

Mr. Iwanami: Y-You two…!

Mr. Shimoda: Mr. Iwanami!

Mrs. Shimoda: Sensei…

Sakurai: Do you know each other?

Mr. Iwanami: In a way… They were my students. You mean to say… you were the ones who left that note?

Mr. Iwanami begins to approach the Shimodas.

Mrs. Shimoda: Please stop! Please just… look away for a bit. Please…

Sakurai: Ms. Fusako… What was it you said before? In painful times, or in sad times, you have to smile and live for someone? Isn’t that what you told us? You said that those words gave you hope. Even so… are you saying you would choose to die like this?

Hearing Sakurai’s words, Mr. Iwanami’s facial expression looks shocked and pained.

Mr. Iwanami: Koji… Fusako… Forgive me!

Mr. Iwanami bows deeply to the couple.

Mrs. Shimoda: Sensei!

Mr. Shimoda: Please stop! Why are you apologizing…

Mr. Iwanami: I… just wanted to offer poor children a chance at equal education! I wanted you to survive- to live despite the circumstances of the environment you were born in… But in the end, it seems like I was unable to teach you anything at all…

Mrs. Shimoda: Sensei, please… raise your head. It was because your words encouraged us that we were even able to get this far!

Mr. Shimoda: Fusako…

Kitashirakawa: Mr. Shimoda. You are not the only ones dealing with misfortune. Surely everyone is doing their best to live while holding their difficulties in their heart…

Sakurai: I was also unable to properly manage my company. But… in order to protect myself, I did something much more terrible than you!

Kanezawa: For me, well money ain’t really a problem, but… I’ve got worries I can’t tell people about… (He touches a hand to his wig)

Kondo: For me, I haven’t had a girlfriend in thirty years!

Hayami: Forty-two years single!

Crayon: And I’m an okama!

Kitashirakawa: And I… hurt someone. I realized that I had lost something important as a person. But it’s something that the two of you have never forgotten! And that is how to care for someone. Even if you think that your lives have no value… to me, it’s something I can never capture in words alone… an irreplaceable story!

Mr. Iwanami: Koji Shimoda! Fusako!

The Shimodas: Yes!

Mr. Iwanami: Smile. No matter what, smile! This is the only life you get, so if you smile and laugh together… you can go on living!

The Shimodas: Ha… hahaha… (they begin to cry while laughing)

The other members of the group all begin laughing as well. As dusk falls in the sky, the Japanese tourists’ strange crying-laughter fills the air. Louis’s expression changes, as if he’s realized something, and he and Munon exit the stage. As the scene ends, the light fades.

 Scene 15: The City of Paris  - Places des Vosges

On the way back to the hotel, Kitashirakawa begins to sing.

[Kitashirakawa’s Song ~ Sakurai’s Song]

Kitashirakawa: I couldn’t even manage the easy things,

And every time I lost my way-

I hid my face and watched you from far away.

If I could laugh for someone

If I could laugh for myself

Then surely, I can follow my heart forward

To the person who’s smiling face I most wish to see.

During the musical interlude, the background setting changes.

1. Crayon and Kondo

Crayon runs on stage crying, followed by a confused/angry looking Kondo.

Crayon: U-Uwaaaa!!!...

Kondo: You were laughing a moment ago- why are you suddenly crying so much!?

Crayon: I just remembered when I was dumped… It feels like… I’ll never meet anyone who could possibly love me!... Uuuhuu…

Kondo: Don’t cry! Kuroiwa Gentarou.

Crayon: But… the more I try to laugh… the more miserable I feel…

Kondo: If that’s the case, then smile for me instead.

Crayon: …What?

Kondo: When you’re sad like this, I start feeling sad too…

Crayon: Mako-chan!!

Crayon runs over and tries to give Kondo an intense kiss. Kondo struggles and tries to push Crayon away, but then they face each other and Kondo kisses Crayon instead.

2. Kanezawa, Michiru, and the Tannos

Kanezawa: So ya’ll are the thieves who’ve run card scams around the world, huh?

The Tannos: …

Kanezawa: How ‘bout it? Ya’ll leave that rotten lifestyle behind and come work for me?

Mr. Tanno: What do you mean?

Kanezawa: Ya’ll’s language proficiencies and fearlessness are just a bonus! I’m saying come to Vegas and be the general managers of my casino!

Michiru: Papa!

Mrs. Tanno: In Las Vegas??

Mr. Tanno: General managers?

Kanezawa: A’ight, let’s go talk it over.

Kanezawa and Michiru get the Tannos to follow them offstage. The background music changes for Sakurai’s song.

Sakurai: The important things I forgot

When I became an adult…

Every time I lost sight of myself                I kept running

With no place to go.

If I could laugh for someone

If I could laugh for myself

Then I should be able to live

Following the truth of my heart

To the person who I most want to show a smile to…

As the music fades to background, Sakurai exit the stage.

 Scene 16: Château de la Reine (Courtyard Entrance)

Under the moonlight in the courtyard of the hotel, Kitashirakawa happens upon the still, thinking form of Louis.

Kitashirakawa: Louis…

Louis: It seems like you dared to return to this Château anyway.

Kitashirakawa: Once I gather my things, I’ll leave immediately. But- there’s something I want you to hear. I had no intention of deceiving you! I truly, honestly thought that I could bring you and Diana together again. But now I understand, because I didn’t take your sadness and pain seriously, there’s no way I could ever write about something like ‘true love’. But now… I feel like I understand the pain you’ve felt…

Kitashirakawa turns to enter the hotel.

Louis: Wait. Well, I can be patient for a few more days. Patience is a virtue after all… Really, when it comes to you… You really pile up trivial matters and create quite a big fuss of it all. There are many things you do that are foolish. But… what was even more foolish was that I did not truly understand what I had learned from you.

Kitashirakawa: Louis?

Louis: I realized I had forgotten how to laugh. For Diana and our son…

Petit Louis: (voice) Maman! Tell me about Papa!

Diana: (voice) Your father… is a true hero.

Petit Louis: (voice) But… why isn’t he here with us?

Diana: (voice) Your father is the Sun King who illuminates all of France. Even when he cannot be by our side, he still loves us very much.

Louis: I finally realized… that their voices were always full of laughter…

Diana and Petit Louis: (laughing)

Looking up at the moon, Louis smiles softly as the sound of Diana and Petit Louis’s laughter lift his spirits.

Louis: I finally feel as though I can truly meet Diana again. And… I’m looking forward to reading it- the novel about me.

Kitashirakawa: Is… it ok for me to write about you?

Louis: As long as you portray me as an exceptionally ‘good handsome man’, of course.

Kitashirakawa: Ha, I wonder how it’ll turn out?

Kitashirakawa, Sakurai, and Louis come together.

All three: If I could laugh for someone

If I could laugh for myself

Then surely I can meet the one I love from the bottom of my heart.

The person who’s smiling face I most wish to see…

The person who I most want to show a smile to…

 Scene 17: Château de la Reine (Courtyard Entrance)

The next morning, in the opening of the hotel people begin to appear: Kanezawa and Michiru, Kondo and Crayon, and Duran. Some hotel staff follow, carrying everyone’s bags.

Duran: Oh! Monsieur Kanezawa! Is there nothing we can do to thank you for investing in the future management of the Château de la Reine?

Kanezawa: I don’t need no thank yous. Vegas may be my base, but it’s always been my dream to have hotels all over the world.

Crayon: A hotel in Vegas sounds amazing! (To Kondo) It’d be perfect for our wedding~

Kondo: W-Wedding!?

The Tanno and Shimoda couples appear.

Mr. Shimoda: Mr. Kanezawa, what is the meaning of this? I was just told that you’ve taken over our entire debt?!

Mr. Tanno: Seems like everyone here’s been hired by Kanezawa.

Mrs. Tanno: Mrs. Shimoda! Let’s go to Las Vegas together!

Kanezawa: If ya’ll were managin’ a factory all on your own, then you’re like- really good with mechanics, right? To build up my casino in Vegas, I need an advisor who understands all that state-of-the-art stuff.

Mrs. Shimoda: But…

Togawa and the Iwanamis appear.

Mr. Iwanami: Shouldn’t you just gratefully accept?

Mrs. Shimoda: Iwanami-sensei!

Mr. Iwanami: Mr. Kanezawa, I can personally vouch for these two’s personalities. (To the Shimodas) Now then, give him a proper reply.

Upon Iwanami’s words, the Shimodas gather their determination.

Mr. Shimoda: Although we are not worthy of your kindness, we humbly accept!

Kanezawa: Hey hey hey…

Mrs. Iwanami: Doesn’t it sound like you’re replying to a marriage proposal?

Togawa: Everyone! It’s about time to go! The car has arrived in the plaza!

While everyone exits the stage, Kanezawa is left with a relaxed looking Michiru.

Kanezawa: Hey, what’s wrong Michiru?

Michiru: Do you have no intention of saying anything to me?

Kanezawa: Say… something to you?

Michiru: Maybe a ‘proposal’ like what you said to those people just now…

Kanezawa: Michiru… I… I ain’t good enough to marry you. There’s something I been hiding from you…

Michiru: It really doesn’t matter to me. If you’re talking about the lie you’ve told about your looks…

Kanezawa: Michiru!? You… knew?

Michiru: For a while now.

Kanezawa: But is it really alright? Marryin’ someone like me?

Michiru: Did you really think I’d hate you for something like that?

Kanezawa: Michiru!!

Michiru: Papa!

Kanezawa holds Michiru close, kissing her passionately. As the door opens behind them, Kitashirakawa appears.

Kitashirakawa: Ugh! Why did have to see that first thing in the morning??

Kanezawa: Hey bro! Listen! Michiru and I are gonna get married!

Kanezawa: Well, congratulations on that. But, shouldn’t you look in the mirror before you do such a thing?

Kanezawa: Why?

Kitashirakawa: You’re crooked. (Indicating his wig)

Kanezawa: C-Crooked!?.... Crooked!?!

Kanezawa, looking horrified, runs off stage.

Michiru: Papa! Wait!

Michiru runs after Kanezawa off stage. Hayami appears.

Hayami: (Finishing reading the novel) Amazing… To write an entire novel of this caliber in less than a week… Sensei truly is a genius… No, a master…

Kitashirakawa: I changed the title as well. The new title is “The Queen’s Château”.

Hayami: Amazing! To create such a hypothesis that King Louis XIV’s true love lived here- and that she was the true Queen of his heart!

Kitashirakawa: Well, even so…

Hayami: Weaving the intricacies of the non-fiction tale of our real-life double booking and a fiction retelling of the ghost of Louis XIV… A story of love that transcends the boundaries of time! Make no mistake, this will become an instant best seller!

Kitashirakawa: Even though everything was actually non-fiction…

Hayami: Did you say something?

Kitashirakawa: No, just thinking out loud…

Hayami: You don’t need to worry. I’ll be editing this on the plane ride home!

As Hayami goes to leave, Pierre appears in front of her.

Hayami: Pierre!...

Pierre: Madame! Are you really… returning to Japon?

Hayami: Pierre, forgive me… I am truly… a terrible woman who can only live for her work!

Hayami runs away from Pierre.

Pierre: Ma chérie! At least let me embrace you one last time!...

Pierre chases after Hayami.

Kitashirakawa: (Speaking to himself) So even Hayami experienced such a miracle…?

Gradually, Sakurai also appears in front of Kitashirakawa, gazing up at the sky.

Sakurai: Ah, Mr. Kitashirakawa, you were still here?

Kitashirakawa: Yes, I just wanted to enjoy the scenery here one last time.

Kitashirakawa looks up to the sky, and Sakurai follows his line of sight.

Sakurai: You can see the sun and the moon together in the dawn sky…

Kitashirakawa: They were finally able to meet, the sun and the moon…  I heard from Togawa. You’re closing your travel agency?

Sakurai: Yes. I need to start over from the beginning. The double booking was just too much.

Kitashirakawa: So you’re graduating from being a shabby tour guide, too?

Sakurai: Rude.

Kitashirakawa: I’m joking. So, what are you planning to do?

Sakurai: I haven’t decided yet. I think I need to take some time to really figure myself out first. You?

Kitashirakawa: Same as usual- I’ll be writing novels and chased by the pressure of deadlines.

Sakurai: I’ll be looking forward to it. The novel about your own story, like you said.

Kitashirakawa: Right.

Sakurai: Well then, I should be getting to the customers…

Sakurai begins to leave in the direction of the others.

Kitashirakawa: Actually! I have… a favor to ask of you…

Sakurai: (Stops, turning back)…

Kitashirakawa: When we get back to Japan… I’d like to interview you.

Sakurai: Me? … But, why?

Kitashirakawa: I can’t write a story with just the protagonist alone, right? So, I want to interview you… the one who reminded me of what’s important.

[Duet]

Kitashirakawa: Filled with undecorated words

Like monthly novels

Full of overflowing feelings

And interspersed with silence

Everything felt like an incomplete story.

Naturally, I was overwhelmed by this miracle.

Although I’m clumsy,

I want to move forward as myself

And grow with the passing of the seasons.

Sakurai: Even if I unexpectedly remember sadness

I don’t want to forget how to smile.

Towards an unknown world,

I will not hesitate            when it’s time for that new journey.

Together: The story you write

I want to watch over it with kindness.

Using the words we believed in

Together, we can pass on

Our new story that starts now.

 Scene 18: Versailles (Gardens)

After the song, the hotel area of the stage rises to reveal the fantasy-like gardens of Versailles. Meeting again at long last, Louis and Diana embrace each other. Nearby, Petit Louis and Munon watch them happily.

Kitashirakawa, embarrassed, offers his hand to Sakurai. The two leave hand in hand, with Louis, Diana, Petit Louis, and Munon watching after them. The curtain falls.

The end.

[thisdaynews]

A DIY Border Wall Rises in the Desert

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/a-diy-border-wall-rises-in-the-desert/

A DIY Border Wall Rises in the Desert

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — Down a bumpy dirt road, past a dozen “No Trespassing” signs, two amateur sentries in neon safety vests guarded the way to a giant symbol of Trump-era politics rising up from the Chihuahuan Desert.

After one of the guards Armando asked our business and radioed someone called Viper, telling him to “stand down,” we were waved through a makeshift checkpoint and onto the site where supporters of President Donald Trump have built hundreds of yards of border wall on private land overlooking the Rio Grande.

Story Continued Below

What began in December as a quixotic online crowdfunding effort to get Trump’s promised “big, beautiful wall” built has turned into a physical barrier constructed under the direction of influential right-wing immigration opponents. On Wednesday, its backers demonstrated the wall to a handful of reporters, showing off the structure in all its steel-and-concrete glory ahead of an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.

Its organizers insist their version of the wall is a feasible model for securing hundreds of miles of southern border. Its critics call it a xenophobic scam. The fact that the effort has gotten to this point at all suggests a different and broader truth: That in the Trump era, the line between a surreal stunt and an important political development can be extremely blurry.

On Wednesday, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach offered a tour of the wall — at one point scrambling over crumbling hillside to demonstrate the difficulty of passing the terrain — while negotiating with local officials over a permitting issue that threatened to derail construction.

At the same time, Kobach has been overseeing legal aspects of the project, now housed under a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, he has been negotiating with the White House over a possible appointment as the nation’s actual “immigration czar,” a potential newpost that could give him vast influence over the federal bureaucracy.

Last week, The New York Times reported a list of Kobach’s conditions for accepting the job, which included 24/7 access to a government plane and were reportedly viewed as presumptuous by some inside the administration. On Wednesday, Kobach defended those conditions. “If you’re serious about solving this problem you’ve got to have a position that has the authority and the tools to solve the problem,” he told me.

He also said he is “99 percent” certain he knows who leaked the list, though he did not offer any names.

Kobach said he last spoke to Trump about the wall project in the Oval Office three weeks ago, and that the president drilled him on the technical specifications, expressing special interest in their model’s anti-climbing features, a set of horizontal steel plates covering the tops of the wall’s vertical slats. “Are you going to paint it?” Kobach recalled the president asking him.

The wall stands on the same stretch of border where an armed militia group, the United Constitutional Patriots, was recently detaining migrants as they enter the United States. Kobach and other leaders of the wall project said they are not associated with the militias and do not condone armed vigilante action. They argue that putting up walls will put such groups “out of business.”

But his disavowals have not been entirely embraced by the movement. “I don’t support that sort of activity—yet,” said conservative pundit David Clarke, a former sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, who works on public outreach for the project. “I’m real close,” said Clarke, who said that if there is not a more significant migration crackdown by the end of Trump’s first term, he would endorse vigilante action.

There also appears to be some intermingling of the militia group and the wall efforts. We Build the Wall has shared footage shot by the group online, and people associated with the group continue to make appearances at the site of the private wall project, despite intense scrutiny of the militia’s activities.

On Wednesday evening, Jim Benvie, previously the spokesman for the United Constitutional Patriots, and now with a splinter group called the Guardian Patriots, showed up at the construction site. Benvie took issue with the group being described as “militia” or “vigilante.” He said the groups operated legally and complained that media coverage of the groups had been misleading. “There is a big difference between carrying a gun and pointing a gun,” he said.

Further blurring the lines between government and private efforts, Border Patrol vehicles constantly whizzed around the property.

The contractor building the private wall section, Fisher Industries, is using it as a show project in the hope of winning government contracts. We Build the Wall organizers said they designed the wall with input from Border Patrol agents, whose charge includes patrolling private land on the border.

A spokesman for Customs and Border Patrol said that Fisher Industries had notified the agency of the project. “It is not uncommon for vendors to undertake demonstrations of their capabilities utilizing their own resources,” said the CBP spokesman. “ We encourage all interested vendors to compete for border barrier contracts through established mechanisms to ensure any construction is carried out under relevant federal authorities and meets USBP operational requirements for border barrier.”

Along with Benvie and various We Build the Wall organizers, members of the media, laborers, and assorted activists milled about amid heavy construction equipment as large SUVs and pickup trucks came and went around the sprawling site. The property abuts Monument One, a white obelisk that marks the point where Mexico, New Mexico and Texas all meet.

Jeff Allen, co-owner of the brick company that owns the land, patrolled the property but declined to be interviewed, saying his words had been “twisted every time” he spoke to the media.

Susan Moore, 56, a retired EMS worker, strode around the site with a .45 revolver strapped to her hip, collecting signatures for two petitions, one advocating a border wall and another opposing a New Mexico state measure to impose stricter background checks on gun purchases. Asked how she connected with the wall-builders, Moore, a member of a Tea Party-type group called New Mexico Patriots, offered just a one-word response. “Networking,” she said, and left it at that.

Members of “Angel Families,” a group made up of relatives of those killed by undocumented immigrants that Trump regularly invokes, also toured the site.

The project began in December as a GoFundMe campaign started by Florida man Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who had operated conspiratorially minded right-wing websites that were banned from Facebook. Kolfage initially intended the money for the Treasury Department, to be earmarked for wall construction, but after discovering this was not legally feasible, he established a nonprofit to build the border wall on private land with a roster of anti-immigration figures that included Blackwater founder Erik Prince, former Colorado GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo and retired major league pitcher Curt Schilling, now a right-wing radio personality.

On Memorial Day, the group revealed on “Fox and Friends” that it had begun construction on this parcel of land. That news prompted the mayor here to issue a cease-and-desist order on Tuesday, which by Wednesday evening had been resolved with an agreement to obtain permits and resume construction. The hubbub renewed national media interest in the project.

In an interview on CNN on Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke — a former Texas congressman whose El Paso district sits right over the Texas side of the border from the private wall, and who often praises the benefits of exchange with Mexico — was asked about the project. “I think what you do on your private property, including building a wall, is your business, so good for them,” O’Rourke said, while reiterating his opposition to a federally constructed wall.

On Thursday, POLITICO reported that Trump was considering new asylum rules that would block Central American migrants from entering the U.S., and Trump, on Twitter, threatened to slap tariffs on Mexico until it halted the flow of Central American migrants through its territory.

At the wall site, the contingent of guards at the site’s entrance doubled to four on Thursday, and one was armed. Construction had resumed and dozens of laborers worked at the top of the wall, while at its base, organizers covered the concrete in front of the wall in red carpet and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Trump’s estranged former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who serves as chairman of We Build the Wall’s advisory board, had been scheduled to attend Thursday’s ribbon-cutting, but by email he said he was still in London. On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that Bannon was quoted in Michael Wolff’s new book as saying Trump will be brought down by financial investigations that reveal “He is just another scumbag.”

“This wall exemplifies the ‘can-do’ spirit of the American people,” wrote Bannon in an email. He did not address a request for comment on the Wolff quotes.

Mary Newman contributed to this report.

Read More

[itstheworldasiseeit]

How do you make a dead business make you up to $5000 per month overnight? You do what Dunamis Global Tech did and unlock the Crypto Code!  Hi there fellow Cryptos! I have discovered an amazing opportunity that could completely change your financial freedom, family and the rest of your life forever.  Crypto Mining is a thing of dreams for so many of my fellow crypto hunters and until now it has been little more than a word on my bucket list to have my own rig. The costs of the supplies and electricity alone would far exceed anything I could accomplish myself, but fortunately, I happened to stumble on a new project put together by an extremely brilliant crew of Entrepreneurs who were able to unlock the CRYPTO CODE and are now PROFITING SUBSTANTIALLY from mining Cryptocurrencies.  You may be thinking... What's the point in mining Bitcoin when it isn't as profitable as it was, especially taking into consideration thing like electricity costs. So what makes this such a great opportunity?  THIS IS WHY!  REASON 1: Dunamis Global Tech has been able to secure Electricity At a VERY LOW 5 Cents Per Kilowatt! In the Mountains of Pinetop - Lakeside Arizona there was an abandoned Apache Helicopter facility located high in the mountains, close to the power grid and needing a new owner. Dunamis Global Tech was able to acquire this property and saw all the potential its amazing location had to offer. Most mining facilities require air conditioning to operate which has a heavy outlay just on its own, but the temperatures are so cold it isn't needed! As an added bonus adjacent to the current property there is additional land that can be acquired so the company can expand as it grows. Which will also be at the low rate of only 5cents per kilowatt.

“Listen to this EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with the CEO of Dunamis Global Tech” 

https://youtu.be/00IjTFBTgxw

What impressed me the most about this business, is that CEO funded the launch of Dunamis Global Tech himself. Now that’s commitment!

This Presentation Facility located in Tempe, Arizona is simply amazing, It’s first class!

So many companies claim to be mining Cryptocurrency,  but when you dig deeper it all turns out to be a huge scam and full of lies!

Not with Dunamis Global Tech

They actively encourage people to come down to their presentation center in Tempe, ArizonaThey are open  Monday to Friday every week so you can go along and join in on a tour of their entire operations.

Real Assets.

Real Mining (You own the mining rigs)

Real Tech Support.

They provide the space and the electricity at rock bottom prices at just 5 cents per kilowatt.

REASON 2: Dunamis Global Tech Has On Site Support 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days A Week. Dunamis Global Tech leases you the space to park your mining rig (which is similar in a way to a parking garage leasing you parking space to park your car).

You have the option of leasing your space for one year, three years, or five years. 

They provide the perfect conditions for you to be mining Crypto 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with affordable electricity rates of 5 cents per kilowatt and ongoing tech support 24 hours a day. 

Let me ask you a question… 

Where can the “little guy” get into Crypto Mining and have the ability to run a single mining rig, or multiple mining rigs at such low rates? 

The answer is nowhere… until now!

“They ensure your mining rigs are running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for maximum profitability”

https://youtu.be/RJRFZXrUqco

REASON 3: Dunamis Global Tech’s Compensation Plan Is Designed To Help The Average Person EARN BIG. As you can probably guess… 

When I saw this facility and the vision of the company…

The first thing I asked myself was how can we (YOU and I) profit from this incredible business model? 

Mr. Charles Rudibaugh, the Executive Vice President of Dunamis Global Tech shared this fantastic business presentation on how an average person can start generating life changing income with this business model. 

REASON 4: Each Month When You Visit Their Facility You Get Entered To Win A Tesla Model 3. It would be hard pressed to read a car magazine these days and not hear about Tesla, they are absolutely amazing.

They are completely changing the way we think about driving. Not only do they run on an electrical battery and require no gas…

But the car actually drives by itself. How cool is that! Tesla’s are by far the technology of the future. Just by visiting the facility in Tempe, Arizona, you could get a chance to WIN A TESLA MODEL 3! Book me my ticket!!!

The company hosts three presentations per month at their facility. So technically, you could have 3 entries per month to potentially WIN A TESLA!

By this time you are probably asking yourself… What Makes This Crypto Mining So Profitable? Currently, the most profitable coin to mine is called ETHEREUM. * But you can mine whatever you want at the Dunamis Global Tech Facility.

That brings me to Mining Rigs

A lot of the current rigs mining cryptocurrencies such as Siacoin are making about $500 a month. Pretty sweet right? But you can make even more with their new D1 Hash Destroyer which is making roughly $1700-$1800 per month mining Ethereum!

Wait….what? 

Yes, that is correct. The cost to get started is ZERO. You can market and sell space in the Dunamis Global Tech facility and earn commissions to eventually be mining yourself. 

Participation in the binary compensation plan starts with a minimum $1400 purchase of a one year plan and 2 one year plan sales; one on each side of your binary tree. 

There are various Mining Rigs that can be purchased directly from the manufacturer starting from  $3000 each and you can purchase as many mining rigs as you want, but keep in mind, the more powerful the rig the more you get back (as stated before you can bring your own rigs or source them elsewhere if you like)

The company is currently offering 10 years of space in their facility for the cost of a 5 year plan of $4200. 

To get started now and secure your position with Dunamis Global Tech by clicking the link below!

Once you’ve registered, login and update your profile page. Please keep in mind Dunamis Global Tech is in prelaunch and the current website is temporary until the new and amazing website is complete.

Dunamis Global Tech is WorldWide so when you are registering right now you will only see the United States listed under country, so for your address simply enter dummy information and you can update it later!

“Once You Have Completed Your Registration, Make Sure To Become Part Of The Dunamis Legends and Leaders Facebook Group!

We are the fastest growing group in the entire company and expanding worldwide.

Get A Position Now In The Dunamis Global Tech FOR FREE

===> CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW FOR FREE! <===

P.S. If you’re just window shopping so you could see what the offer was… you can register for free and earn commissions with Dunamis Global Tech on your personal referrals for life!

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2GGgYjA via IFTTT

[gtfovacations-blog]

Awesome Destinations for Women Traveling Alone

Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse writes tips and advice for solo female travelers. Like this awesome list of destinations for female travelers! Traveling solo is a unique opportunity to find out exactly who you are in completely new surroundings and without anyone around from your past to influence you. That can be a scary prospect, but the good news is there are plenty of places out there that can make you feel safe and welcome. And when in the right place, a solo trip — regardless of how long it is — has the power to benefit you for years or even a lifetime thereafter. Before I traveled alone, I was pretty terrified, mostly because I didn’t think I’d like my own company enough to be solo 24/7. I was delighted to find that I met new people constantly (something that’s true for solo travelers in general). When on the road, people are social. While it was possible to feel inspired and delighted everywhere, a few places in particular stand out as great options for women traveling alone. Below are 10 solo travel destinations that you probably didn’t expect to be awesome for solo female travelers in particular, whether for their women-oriented businesses or for their safety, solitude, spirituality, or sociability: 1. Moab, Utah

Moab is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts. For those all about the camper van life, bouldering, hiking, and kayaking, Moab has it all going on. It’s where you’ll find Canyonlands and Arches National Parks as well as Dead Horse State Park. Basically, it’s one of the most gorgeous areas on Earth with a high concentration of incredible rock formations and free campsites. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: I easily met people just by hanging around the free campsites, the coffee shops, and while watching the sunset over Dead Horse point during my solo American Southwest road trip. I tend to find that when a place attracts people because of a common shared interest, especially something outdoorsy, it tends to be social. Moab is a perfect example of that. 2. Yubeng, China

Yubeng is a remote village in the Chinese Himalayas that can only be reached by foot or mule. During the hike in, I saw Tibetan prayer flags strung from tree to tree, snow softly falling, and animals roaming freely all throughout the town. There are stupas (mound-like structures containing relics and used for meditation) everywhere. Yubeng is peaceful in a way that much of the rest of China isn’t. The feeling is hard to explain, but it’s felt by all who pass through. If you’re overwhelmed with the rest of China, seek refuge in Yubeng. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: In the big cities, scams often target young female tourists, but in the Himalayas, you’re more of an esteemed guest. The friendly people of Yubeng are so relaxed, patient, and welcoming, as are the younger tourists who flock there, often with some English-language ability and curiosity about foreign visitors. As a solo traveler, I was worried that I would be completely going this one alone, but I was surprised and delighted to find that young and friendly Chinese people take this route too, seeking the same sacred place. 3. Maui, Hawaii

Maui isn’t typically what comes to mind when most people think of a solo trip, but with all its activities — from surfing and hiking to driving the road to Hana and taking boating and snorkeling tours — it’s actually a great place for those flying solo. With its constantly changing microclimates, the beautiful island has pockets of sandy sunset beaches, sprawling resorts, quaint little camping spots, and hikes through the valley. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The cool thing about Maui is that it feels like a different country than the States, what with the tropical weather and Hawaiian culture, but you don’t need a passport, an RTW flight, or to learn a different language to enjoy it. Plus, there are female-focused activities — like the Maui Surfer Girls camp, designed specifically for solo female travelers who are looking for a supportive group of women to take up a new sport with. It’s an experience that is both empowering and fun! 4. El Chaltén, Argentina

If you love nature, there’s almost no better spot in the world to enjoy it fully than in Patagonia. Much of the region can be quite remote, but El Chaltén is Argentina’s trekking capital, and as such there are plenty of hostels there, and the whole town is totally chilled out. It also draws plenty of solo travelers who are open and happy to meet others to share the trails with, some of whom I met and hiked with when I was there (albeit not solo myself), and we left as new friends. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: With its constant catcalls, South America can sometimes feel stressful for solo female travelers, but this trekking town is different. It’s full of nature-loving artists and hippies who are welcoming, as well as hikes that are full enough of people that even if you show up solo, you can easily meet others on the trails. So, you could spend time in town just chilling and relaxing, or you could join glacier hikes, learn how to rock climb, or go on camping excursions, all of which accommodate solo travelers. 5. Iceland

It hit me as I was staring up at the Northern Lights in Iceland, watching them swirl and snake across the sky in flashes of green, that this has got to be, hands-down, one of the most unique and drop-dead gorgeous places on this planet, with its black sand beaches, icy fjords, and those huggable, iconic ponies. Where else can you see the northern lights, geysers, and incredible land formations all in one spot? I saw so many waterfalls, during my Ring Road adventure I stopped counting and even paying attention. That’s how abundant the natural beauty is! Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Iceland is the safest country in the world. Seriously, people leave their cars running, with the keys inside, when they go grocery shopping. That’s how high the level of trust between people is! Plus, the capital draws so many solo travelers on layovers from the US that it won’t be hard to meet someone cool at your hostel to split a car rental with for a day trip like the Golden Circle or even a longer journey like the Ring Road. 6. Ylläs, Finland

When thinking about an escape, heading to the Arctic during the winter was not exactly at the top of my list, but after experiencing how amazing the Arctic could be in Iceland, I went for it: Lapland, Finland, in January. I found that when the weather is so cold that it drops to 30° below freezing, the air becomes incredibly crisp. Also, that far north, the sun barely sits on the horizon during the short time that it’s out, creating an an unusual combination sunrise/sunset. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The locals are so darn amiable that you’re sure to make a few friends, especially if you head to the female-owned-and-run Aurora Estate, where the owners can help you plan some awesome excursions snowmobiling and snowshoeing. The region is also home to the only ski slopes in the country, which tend to draw solo travelers. Head to an after-ski bar, join a husky safari, or talk to the locals in Snowman World (ice bar and restaurant). Who knows? You might catch the Northern Lights, too! 7. Big Sur, California

I call California home, but for some reason it took me until I was 29 to finally visit Big Sur — and I couldn’t believe what I had been missing: the rocky coastline, whales breaching in the distance, dolphins just about every time I looked at the horizon, and waterfalls in the state parks. It’s no wonder that the Central Coast has long enchanted actors, poets, and writers (just crack open any book by Jack Kerouac and you’re bound to read at least a little bit about coastal California, particularly Big Sur). Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Camping in Big Sur is the perfect opportunity to meet others because campers are friendly. Chances are good you can make a pal at the very next camping spot, especially if you offer them a locally-brewed beer. The hustle and bustle of Los Angeles turns some visitors off, so if what you’re seeking is some incredible nature, just head five hours north and you’ll be in paradise. How can you stare up at a redwood tree (some of the largest and oldest trees in the world) and not feel moved? 8. The Nusa Islands, Indonesia

The Nusa islands off the coast of Bali in Indonesia are exactly what you’re looking for if you want the beauty of Balinese culture but wish it came without the crowds. Made up of three islands, namely Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida, and Nusa Ceningan, They are what people say Bali was like 30 years ago. Think gorgeous beaches with half the crowd of Bali’s, opportunities to swim with manta rays and staying in a real treehouse, viewpoints that require some footwork but absolutely worthy, and the bluest water you can imagine. It’s a lovely place to spend a few nights on and have a nice taste of how Bali used to be. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Most couples traveling in this area opt for Bali, so chances of you sitting awkwardly next to a loving couple on a stunning beach is much lesser on the Nusa Islands. While some roads are in better condition than the other, they are all great for a full day of solo excursion on a bike. You are likely to end up in the same spots with other solo travelers, so meeting others is also very easy. 9. Sossusvlei, Namibia

It might seem like a barren desert isn’t the place to enjoy by yourself, but I have found it to be quite the opposite. That kind of space to think and feel can really be incredible for personal development. Plus, in Namibia, it’s warm and dry, so the sky is absolutely incredible for stargazing. Climbing up and around Dune 45 at sunrise was a beautiful experience for me. After everyone else descended, I stayed up top to explore a bit more — and I had the whole view to myself. Can you imagine sitting in one of nature’s biggest sandboxes and having it feel like it’s all yours? My inner six-year-old rejoiced. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Namibia is adventurous and social without feeling dangerous. All of the backpackers and camping accommodations have pools and other common areas, which makes it easy to meet others if you’re solo. It’s also a gorgeous destination in Africa that isn’t crowded and chaotic and is more about the peace and space than anything else. In a country of only two million people, your biggest worry is the scorpions (for real, though — watch out for those!). You can also join a tour or safari and meet plenty of other solo travelers. It’s what I did, and I loved it! 10. Berlin, Germany

How did a big city make this list? Well, Berlin is not just any city; it’s full of artists and has been for the past 30 or so years. It’s hard not to feel inspired in a place where so many people make their living by creating and honoring their passions. This is why I’ve also made it my home base and became a resident of Germany. I just couldn’t be without this funky place for too long! Though it’s the capital, Berlin doesn’t feel crowded because it is so spread out. And with so many big parks in just about every neighborhood, peace and quiet is easy to come by. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Berlin draws many solo travelers, and it’s easy to meet others. It’s also a socially progressive city with a low violent crime rate that’s simple to navigate and easy to love. Take a street art tour and combine everything at once! There are also tons of expats, so check out a Meetup.com group or a Couchsurfing event to get a mix of visitors and those who are more familiar with the city. Read the full article

[joshuamshea84]

10 Awesome Destinations for Solo Female Travelers

Updated: 8/19/2018 | August 19th, 2018

Every month (most of the time), Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse writes a guest column featuring tips and advice for solo female travelers as I obviously can’t talk expertly on the subject! She’s back this month with an awesome list of destinations for female travelers!

Traveling solo is a unique opportunity to find out exactly who you are in completely new surroundings and without anyone around from your past to influence you. That can be a scary prospect, but the good news is there are plenty of places out there that can make you feel safe and welcome. And when in the right place, a solo trip — regardless of how long it is — has the power to benefit you for years or even a lifetime thereafter.

Before I traveled alone, I was pretty terrified, mostly because I didn’t think I’d like my own company enough to be solo 24/7. I was delighted to find that I met new people constantly (something that’s true for solo travelers in general). When on the road, people are social.

While it was possible to feel inspired and delighted everywhere, a few places in particular stand out as great options for women traveling alone. Below are 10 solo travel destinations that you probably didn’t expect to be awesome for solo female travelers in particular, whether for their women-oriented businesses or for their safety, solitude, spirituality, or sociability:

1. Moab, Utah

Moab is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts. For those all about the camper van life, bouldering, hiking, and kayaking, Moab has it all going on. It’s where you’ll find Canyonlands and Arches National Parks as well as Dead Horse State Park. Basically, it’s one of the most gorgeous areas on Earth with a high concentration of incredible rock formations and free campsites.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: I easily met people just by hanging around the free campsites, the coffee shops, and while watching the sunset over Dead Horse point during my solo American Southwest road trip. I tend to find that when a place attracts people because of a common shared interest, especially something outdoorsy, it tends to be social. Moab is a perfect example of that.

2. Yubeng, China

Yubeng is a remote village in the Chinese Himalayas that can only be reached by foot or mule. During the hike in, I saw Tibetan prayer flags strung from tree to tree, snow softly falling, and animals roaming freely all throughout the town. There are stupas (mound-like structures containing relics and used for meditation) everywhere.

Yubeng is peaceful in a way that much of the rest of China isn’t. The feeling is hard to explain, but it’s felt by all who pass through. If you’re overwhelmed with the rest of China, seek refuge in Yubeng.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: In the big cities, scams often target young female tourists, but in the Himalayas, you’re more of an esteemed guest. The friendly people of Yubeng are so relaxed, patient, and welcoming, as are the younger tourists who flock there, often with some English-language ability and curiosity about foreign visitors.

As a solo traveler, I was worried that I would be completely going this one alone, but I was surprised and delighted to find that young and friendly Chinese people take this route too, seeking the same sacred place.

3. Maui, Hawaii

Maui isn’t typically what comes to mind when most people think of a solo trip, but with all its activities — from surfing and hiking to driving the road to Hana and taking boating and snorkeling tours — it’s actually a great place for those flying solo.

With its constantly changing microclimates, the beautiful island has pockets of sandy sunset beaches, sprawling resorts, quaint little camping spots, and hikes through the valley.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The cool thing about Maui is that it feels like a different country than the States, what with the tropical weather and Hawaiian culture, but you don’t need a passport, an RTW flight, or to learn a different language to enjoy it. Plus, there are female-focused activities — like the Maui Surfer Girls camp, designed specifically for solo female travelers who are looking for a supportive group of women to take up a new sport with. It’s an experience that is both empowering and fun!

4. El Chaltén, Argentina

If you love nature, there’s almost no better spot in the world to enjoy it fully than in Patagonia. Much of the region can be quite remote, but El Chaltén is Argentina’s trekking capital, and as such there are plenty of hostels there, and the whole town is totally chilled out. It also draws plenty of solo travelers who are open and happy to meet others to share the trails with, some of whom I met and hiked with when I was there (albeit not solo myself), and we left as new friends.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: With its constant catcalls, South America can sometimes feel stressful for solo female travelers, but this trekking town is different. It’s full of nature-loving artists and hippies who are welcoming, as well as hikes that are full enough of people that even if you show up solo, you can easily meet others on the trails. So, you could spend time in town just chilling and relaxing, or you could join glacier hikes, learn how to rock climb, or go on camping excursions, all of which accommodate solo travelers.

5. Iceland

It hit me as I was staring up at the Northern Lights in Iceland, watching them swirl and snake across the sky in flashes of green, that this has got to be, hands-down, one of the most unique and drop-dead gorgeous places on this planet, with its black sand beaches, icy fjords, and those huggable, iconic ponies. Where else can you see the northern lights, geysers, and incredible land formations all in one spot? I saw so many waterfalls, during my Ring Road adventure I stopped counting and even paying attention. That’s how abundant the natural beauty is!

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Iceland is the safest country in the world. Seriously, people leave their cars running, with the keys inside, when they go grocery shopping. That’s how high the level of trust between people is! Plus, the capital draws so many solo travelers on layovers from the US that it won’t be hard to meet someone cool at your hostel to split a car rental with for a day trip like the Golden Circle or even a longer journey like the Ring Road.

6. Ylläs, Finland

When thinking about an escape, heading to the Arctic during the winter was not exactly at the top of my list, but after experiencing how amazing the Arctic could be in Iceland, I went for it: Lapland, Finland, in January.

I found that when the weather is so cold that it drops to 30° below freezing, the air becomes incredibly crisp. Also, that far north, the sun barely sits on the horizon during the short time that it’s out, creating an an unusual combination sunrise/sunset.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The locals are so darn amiable that you’re sure to make a few friends, especially if you head to the female-owned-and-run Aurora Estate, where the owners can help you plan some awesome excursions snowmobiling and snowshoeing. The region is also home to the only ski slopes in the country, which tend to draw solo travelers. Head to an after-ski bar, join a husky safari, or talk to the locals in Snowman World (ice bar and restaurant). Who knows? You might catch the Northern Lights, too!

7. Big Sur, California

I call California home, but for some reason it took me until I was 29 to finally visit Big Sur — and I couldn’t believe what I had been missing: the rocky coastline, whales breaching in the distance, dolphins just about every time I looked at the horizon, and waterfalls in the state parks. It’s no wonder that the Central Coast has long enchanted actors, poets, and writers (just crack open any book by Jack Kerouac and you’re bound to read at least a little bit about coastal California, particularly Big Sur).

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Camping in Big Sur is the perfect opportunity to meet others because campers are friendly. Chances are good you can make a pal at the very next camping spot, especially if you offer them a locally-brewed beer. The hustle and bustle of Los Angeles turns some visitors off, so if what you’re seeking is some incredible nature, just head five hours north and you’ll be in paradise. How can you stare up at a redwood tree (some of the largest and oldest trees in the world) and not feel moved?

8. The Nusa Islands, Indonesia

The Nusa islands off the coast of Bali in Indonesia are exactly what you’re looking for if you want the beauty of Balinese culture but wish it came without the crowds. Made up of three islands, namely Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida, and Nusa Ceningan, They are what people say Bali was like 30 years ago. Think gorgeous beaches with half the crowd of Bali’s, opportunities to swim with manta rays and staying in a real treehouse, viewpoints that require some footwork but absolutely worthy, and the bluest water you can imagine. It’s a lovely place to spend a few nights on and have a nice taste of how Bali used to be. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Most couples traveling in this area opt for Bali, so chances of you sitting awkwardly next to a loving couple on a stunning beach is much lesser on the Nusa Islands. While some roads are in better condition than the other, they are all great for a full day of solo excursion on a bike. You are likely to end up in the same spots with other solo travelers, so meeting others is also very easy.

9. Sossusvlei, Namibia

It might seem like a barren desert isn’t the place to enjoy by yourself, but I have found it to be quite the opposite. That kind of space to think and feel can really be incredible for personal development. Plus, in Namibia, it’s warm and dry, so the sky is absolutely incredible for stargazing.

Climbing up and around Dune 45 at sunrise was a beautiful experience for me. After everyone else descended, I stayed up top to explore a bit more — and I had the whole view to myself. Can you imagine sitting in one of nature’s biggest sandboxes and having it feel like it’s all yours? My inner six-year-old rejoiced.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Namibia is adventurous and social without feeling dangerous. All of the backpackers and camping accommodations have pools and other common areas, which makes it easy to meet others if you’re solo. It’s also a gorgeous destination in Africa that isn’t crowded and chaotic and is more about the peace and space than anything else. In a country of only two million people, your biggest worry is the scorpions (for real, though — watch out for those!).

You can also join a tour or safari and meet plenty of other solo travelers. It’s what I did, and I loved it!

10. Berlin, Germany

How did a big city make this list? Well, Berlin is not just any city; it’s full of artists and has been for the past 30 or so years. It’s hard not to feel inspired in a place where so many people make their living by creating and honoring their passions. This is why I’ve also made it my home base and became a resident of Germany. I just couldn’t be without this funky place for too long!

Though it’s the capital, Berlin doesn’t feel crowded because it is so spread out. And with so many big parks in just about every neighborhood, peace and quiet is easy to come by.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Berlin draws many solo travelers, and it’s easy to meet others. It’s also a socially progressive city with a low violent crime rate that’s simple to navigate and easy to love. Take a street art tour and combine everything at once! There are also tons of expats, so check out a Meetup.com group or a Couchsurfing event to get a mix of visitors and those who are more familiar with the city.

**** While solo traveling and soul-searching don’t lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all approach, generally the places that draw solo travelers are the ones that are the most interesting and unique, provide opportunities to enjoy nature and connect with others (and with yourself). Regardless of which place you’re targeting in the world, with these options covering just about every continent and style of travel, you can find a place that suits you.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book and start reading it today!  

For more articles by Kristin and solo female travel tips, click here.

The post 10 Awesome Destinations for Solo Female Travelers appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/ten-solo-female-travel-spots/

[melissagarcia8]

10 Awesome Destinations for Solo Female Travelers

Updated: 8/19/2018 | August 19th, 2018

Every month (most of the time), Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse writes a guest column featuring tips and advice for solo female travelers as I obviously can’t talk expertly on the subject! She’s back this month with an awesome list of destinations for female travelers!

Traveling solo is a unique opportunity to find out exactly who you are in completely new surroundings and without anyone around from your past to influence you. That can be a scary prospect, but the good news is there are plenty of places out there that can make you feel safe and welcome. And when in the right place, a solo trip — regardless of how long it is — has the power to benefit you for years or even a lifetime thereafter.

Before I traveled alone, I was pretty terrified, mostly because I didn’t think I’d like my own company enough to be solo 24/7. I was delighted to find that I met new people constantly (something that’s true for solo travelers in general). When on the road, people are social.

While it was possible to feel inspired and delighted everywhere, a few places in particular stand out as great options for women traveling alone. Below are 10 solo travel destinations that you probably didn’t expect to be awesome for solo female travelers in particular, whether for their women-oriented businesses or for their safety, solitude, spirituality, or sociability:

1. Moab, Utah

Moab is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts. For those all about the camper van life, bouldering, hiking, and kayaking, Moab has it all going on. It’s where you’ll find Canyonlands and Arches National Parks as well as Dead Horse State Park. Basically, it’s one of the most gorgeous areas on Earth with a high concentration of incredible rock formations and free campsites.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: I easily met people just by hanging around the free campsites, the coffee shops, and while watching the sunset over Dead Horse point during my solo American Southwest road trip. I tend to find that when a place attracts people because of a common shared interest, especially something outdoorsy, it tends to be social. Moab is a perfect example of that.

2. Yubeng, China

Yubeng is a remote village in the Chinese Himalayas that can only be reached by foot or mule. During the hike in, I saw Tibetan prayer flags strung from tree to tree, snow softly falling, and animals roaming freely all throughout the town. There are stupas (mound-like structures containing relics and used for meditation) everywhere.

Yubeng is peaceful in a way that much of the rest of China isn’t. The feeling is hard to explain, but it’s felt by all who pass through. If you’re overwhelmed with the rest of China, seek refuge in Yubeng.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: In the big cities, scams often target young female tourists, but in the Himalayas, you’re more of an esteemed guest. The friendly people of Yubeng are so relaxed, patient, and welcoming, as are the younger tourists who flock there, often with some English-language ability and curiosity about foreign visitors.

As a solo traveler, I was worried that I would be completely going this one alone, but I was surprised and delighted to find that young and friendly Chinese people take this route too, seeking the same sacred place.

3. Maui, Hawaii

Maui isn’t typically what comes to mind when most people think of a solo trip, but with all its activities — from surfing and hiking to driving the road to Hana and taking boating and snorkeling tours — it’s actually a great place for those flying solo.

With its constantly changing microclimates, the beautiful island has pockets of sandy sunset beaches, sprawling resorts, quaint little camping spots, and hikes through the valley.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The cool thing about Maui is that it feels like a different country than the States, what with the tropical weather and Hawaiian culture, but you don’t need a passport, an RTW flight, or to learn a different language to enjoy it. Plus, there are female-focused activities — like the Maui Surfer Girls camp, designed specifically for solo female travelers who are looking for a supportive group of women to take up a new sport with. It’s an experience that is both empowering and fun!

4. El Chaltén, Argentina

If you love nature, there’s almost no better spot in the world to enjoy it fully than in Patagonia. Much of the region can be quite remote, but El Chaltén is Argentina’s trekking capital, and as such there are plenty of hostels there, and the whole town is totally chilled out. It also draws plenty of solo travelers who are open and happy to meet others to share the trails with, some of whom I met and hiked with when I was there (albeit not solo myself), and we left as new friends.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: With its constant catcalls, South America can sometimes feel stressful for solo female travelers, but this trekking town is different. It’s full of nature-loving artists and hippies who are welcoming, as well as hikes that are full enough of people that even if you show up solo, you can easily meet others on the trails. So, you could spend time in town just chilling and relaxing, or you could join glacier hikes, learn how to rock climb, or go on camping excursions, all of which accommodate solo travelers.

5. Iceland

It hit me as I was staring up at the Northern Lights in Iceland, watching them swirl and snake across the sky in flashes of green, that this has got to be, hands-down, one of the most unique and drop-dead gorgeous places on this planet, with its black sand beaches, icy fjords, and those huggable, iconic ponies. Where else can you see the northern lights, geysers, and incredible land formations all in one spot? I saw so many waterfalls, during my Ring Road adventure I stopped counting and even paying attention. That’s how abundant the natural beauty is!

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Iceland is the safest country in the world. Seriously, people leave their cars running, with the keys inside, when they go grocery shopping. That’s how high the level of trust between people is! Plus, the capital draws so many solo travelers on layovers from the US that it won’t be hard to meet someone cool at your hostel to split a car rental with for a day trip like the Golden Circle or even a longer journey like the Ring Road.

6. Ylläs, Finland

When thinking about an escape, heading to the Arctic during the winter was not exactly at the top of my list, but after experiencing how amazing the Arctic could be in Iceland, I went for it: Lapland, Finland, in January.

I found that when the weather is so cold that it drops to 30° below freezing, the air becomes incredibly crisp. Also, that far north, the sun barely sits on the horizon during the short time that it’s out, creating an an unusual combination sunrise/sunset.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: The locals are so darn amiable that you’re sure to make a few friends, especially if you head to the female-owned-and-run Aurora Estate, where the owners can help you plan some awesome excursions snowmobiling and snowshoeing. The region is also home to the only ski slopes in the country, which tend to draw solo travelers. Head to an after-ski bar, join a husky safari, or talk to the locals in Snowman World (ice bar and restaurant). Who knows? You might catch the Northern Lights, too!

7. Big Sur, California

I call California home, but for some reason it took me until I was 29 to finally visit Big Sur — and I couldn’t believe what I had been missing: the rocky coastline, whales breaching in the distance, dolphins just about every time I looked at the horizon, and waterfalls in the state parks. It’s no wonder that the Central Coast has long enchanted actors, poets, and writers (just crack open any book by Jack Kerouac and you’re bound to read at least a little bit about coastal California, particularly Big Sur).

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Camping in Big Sur is the perfect opportunity to meet others because campers are friendly. Chances are good you can make a pal at the very next camping spot, especially if you offer them a locally-brewed beer. The hustle and bustle of Los Angeles turns some visitors off, so if what you’re seeking is some incredible nature, just head five hours north and you’ll be in paradise. How can you stare up at a redwood tree (some of the largest and oldest trees in the world) and not feel moved?

8. The Nusa Islands, Indonesia

The Nusa islands off the coast of Bali in Indonesia are exactly what you’re looking for if you want the beauty of Balinese culture but wish it came without the crowds. Made up of three islands, namely Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida, and Nusa Ceningan, They are what people say Bali was like 30 years ago. Think gorgeous beaches with half the crowd of Bali’s, opportunities to swim with manta rays and staying in a real treehouse, viewpoints that require some footwork but absolutely worthy, and the bluest water you can imagine. It’s a lovely place to spend a few nights on and have a nice taste of how Bali used to be. Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Most couples traveling in this area opt for Bali, so chances of you sitting awkwardly next to a loving couple on a stunning beach is much lesser on the Nusa Islands. While some roads are in better condition than the other, they are all great for a full day of solo excursion on a bike. You are likely to end up in the same spots with other solo travelers, so meeting others is also very easy.

9. Sossusvlei, Namibia

It might seem like a barren desert isn’t the place to enjoy by yourself, but I have found it to be quite the opposite. That kind of space to think and feel can really be incredible for personal development. Plus, in Namibia, it’s warm and dry, so the sky is absolutely incredible for stargazing.

Climbing up and around Dune 45 at sunrise was a beautiful experience for me. After everyone else descended, I stayed up top to explore a bit more — and I had the whole view to myself. Can you imagine sitting in one of nature’s biggest sandboxes and having it feel like it’s all yours? My inner six-year-old rejoiced.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Namibia is adventurous and social without feeling dangerous. All of the backpackers and camping accommodations have pools and other common areas, which makes it easy to meet others if you’re solo. It’s also a gorgeous destination in Africa that isn’t crowded and chaotic and is more about the peace and space than anything else. In a country of only two million people, your biggest worry is the scorpions (for real, though — watch out for those!).

You can also join a tour or safari and meet plenty of other solo travelers. It’s what I did, and I loved it!

10. Berlin, Germany

How did a big city make this list? Well, Berlin is not just any city; it’s full of artists and has been for the past 30 or so years. It’s hard not to feel inspired in a place where so many people make their living by creating and honoring their passions. This is why I’ve also made it my home base and became a resident of Germany. I just couldn’t be without this funky place for too long!

Though it’s the capital, Berlin doesn’t feel crowded because it is so spread out. And with so many big parks in just about every neighborhood, peace and quiet is easy to come by.

Why it’s great for solo female travelers: Berlin draws many solo travelers, and it’s easy to meet others. It’s also a socially progressive city with a low violent crime rate that’s simple to navigate and easy to love. Take a street art tour and combine everything at once! There are also tons of expats, so check out a Meetup.com group or a Couchsurfing event to get a mix of visitors and those who are more familiar with the city.

**** While solo traveling and soul-searching don’t lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all approach, generally the places that draw solo travelers are the ones that are the most interesting and unique, provide opportunities to enjoy nature and connect with others (and with yourself). Regardless of which place you’re targeting in the world, with these options covering just about every continent and style of travel, you can find a place that suits you.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book and start reading it today!  

For more articles by Kristin and solo female travel tips, click here.

The post 10 Awesome Destinations for Solo Female Travelers appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/ten-solo-female-travel-spots/

[blog-optimisticcoffeestuden-blog]

insurance quotes northern ireland

"insurance quotes northern ireland

insurance quotes northern ireland

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://freeautoinsurance.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

RELATED QUESTIONS: 

Does wreckless driving increase your insurance cost?

my friend was donutting

Can I finance or lease a car without auto insurance?

( I know I need the insurance to drive the car) I am getting ready to purchase my first vehicle, I can afford a hefty down payment, but would like to lease or finance so I can build up my credit. The problem is that I currently do not have any auto insurance whatsoever. How would I go about financing or leasing a car. Am I able to get non-owners insurance and transfer that to the new car, or show it as proof of insurance, or maybe sign the papers, get the insurance on the car.. and then show them the proof of insurance???""

I need a good a affordable health insurance plan for a family of four?

In Massachusetts, I need it ASAP""

How do Americans live in a country where you have no health system?

If you get sick enough you could lose everything, if you don't have insurance. I think that you can lose everything even if you have insurance.""

I got a speeding ticket yesterday does my insurance go up?

Im a first time driver and have only been driving 9 months and i was caught speeding, yeah i know its silly but it was down a steep hill i was doing 40 in a 30 and there was a police man in his car catching everyone. I was just wondering if by me having 3 points now will my insurance go up and how much by roughly. Im paying 1200 third party f+t on a fiesta at the moment Thanks""

Insurance companies messed up!?!?

Over three years ago, a pick-up truck crushed the entire back-side of my van. Of course, it wasn't my fault and I took care of the situation by calling the truck driver's insurance company. However, when I was going through my auto insurance profile, I saw something weird, a driving history stating that I was at-fault for that accident three years ago. It's very weird because I claimed an accident not on my insurance company, but the truck driver's. What can I do to fix this? Was I paying more premium because of this mistake? Thank you""

How much would car insurance be for me?

I'm an 18 year old I'm male. I recently dropped out of high school and I have a 2005 Toyota matrix I live in colorado How much would full coverage be for me on average a month?

Buy a car? No License or insurance?

Is it possible for me to buy a car with no license or insurance and have my dad drive it back to the house and keep it there? I dont intend on driving it untill i get it all sorted, i just want the satisfaction on knowing its there and its mine. Im from the UK""

Am I still eligible for car insurance?

My car insurance dropped me today because I had four traffic tickets over two years ago. It was when I was just starting out driving and since then I have learned to be a responsible driver. Since the premiums were up for renewal next month, they pulled my file (audit) and found the tickets, and dropped me. I was told Progressive and Safe Auto would be good ones to check out. My first two tickets will be at the 3 year mark in a few months, the next about a month after.""

Are there any ways to make car insurance chaper when your 17?

In october im going to be 16 and neither me or my dad want to pay the massive charges for insuring a teenager that has just passed there test at 17. What i would like to know is if there is anything i could do when im 16 that would make the insurance cheaper, for example getting a scooter and riding that so i have one years no claims or getting driving lessons in a private area where it is legal. Or am i going to have to pay the massive insurance charges no matter what? Thanks for your help Daniel""

Why does another persons driving record affect my insurance?

sharing a residence with other people doesn't mean sharing vehicles or the responsibilities, so why should their driving record affect my insurance rates?""

What type of businesses that are good to call for all kind of insurances?

Like Health Care Insurances, Life Insurances, Employee Benefits""

What Insurance is the cheapest for teenagers in texas?

What Insurance is the cheapest for teenagers in texas?

How long do I have to pay this expensive premium?

I don't know much about car insurance, but I have a six month premium and it is pretty expensive. I have had the insurance for 5 of the 6 months. My real question is after six months will I pay a least expensive amount or how does it work?""

Do I really need to buy the insurance?

Renting a car from Enterprise, I don't have a car or insurance but I do have a Drivers Lic.....Is the insurance a scam? Or should I get it? I am in California.""

Does my insurance background disappear when i cancel my insurance premium?

What i mean is you know how some insurance companies give you a little discount if you havent gotten into an accident or received any tickets or any sort for a year? Well say After one year you cancel your insurance for about 7 months, and then you want to get re-insured, would that discount still be available? Or canceling the insurance would mean your background is gone? I plan on leaving for basic training for the Army and ill be gone for 7 months. Ive been driving since i was 17 and almost have a year in clean record and wouldnt mind the good drivers discount?""

Why do people say car insurance will be more expensive if you get a new car?

i have a ford taurus 1996 and i just ran a quote with the same insurance company am with now which is Geico for a 2011 Ford Taurus SHO and surprisingly the Ford Taurus SHO 2011 was cheaper by $200

""I am 18 years old and have 6 points on my driving license, will my insurance cost go down after a year?

I currently aren't on any insurance policy!

Anyone know of an car insurance company that doesn't require the vehicle to be in your name?

Geico cancelled our policy because our car is in our grandmothers name.Also if she gets a policy, the addys have to all match.Are all insurance companys this strict?the car is about to die soon, so we dont wanna spend more money on transferring the title, but I guess we will if we have to.We are getting another car fixed soon that we will be driving.""

""Car accident, no insurance?""

I just got into an accident 5 days ago. I still don't believe it was my fault if anything maybe both of ours. Regardless she had minor damage. She was on the phone obviously not paying attention as I was pulling out of the driveway when she was attempting to pull into a drive way across from the one I was pulling out of. So as you can imagine it's hard telling. We both have scratches on our left hand side bumpers but she has a dent that can be fixed. She had her friend with her so it was hard to really even defend myself because it was her word against mine. She called the police, thank God they passed because no one was hurt. They just told her to take down my information and deal with it. She took down my license plate, took pictures, such a drama queen, it honestly wasn't that bad. She has my license number too but when I when I went to call my insurance provider, they said it wasn't renewed. No police report, and she hasn't called me with a quote. How much trouble can I get in??""

Any insurance people out there?

Ok. I know I should have car insurance. But right now I can't afford it. I don't own a house. So what is the worse case scenario for me if I'm in an accident?

Cheap auto insurance for a new driver?

Are there any auto insurance companies which offer rates to their younger customers at anywhere between $100-$250 a month? I've been looking around and every insurance company I check with wants to charge me $500-$900 a month, which is ridiculously out of my budget. It would end up costing more in a year than I plan on spending on my car in total and more a month than my family is paying off on our few year old Kia Soul. I'm aware that having a newer car like a Soul raises my insurance prices, but I don't want to buy another, hopefully crappier, car until I'm sure that I can pay insurance to drive it. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?""

22y/o tourists getting car insurance in the US?

My mate and I are hoping to tour across the U.S. to celebrate graduation. Starting in one place and driving to another, so we'll have to buy the car (he's staying over there), and we want to get insured on it. However, we're 22 y/o Brits and I've heard that can be difficult. Google just feeds me lots of car rental insurance stuff; how would it work in the US if we wanted to buy the car there? Do you guys have any advice?""

Car insurance questions please help?

my husband's car has been in the shop for a week i have been driving him back and forth to work when i can and he has been asking friends for rides when i am working yesterday i was in a car accident, someone u-turned into me, i can no longer take him to work obviously because my car is now getting repaired, his friends are tired of making the drive (it is about 20 miles one way) they keep offering him their cars saying because he is an insured driver and their cars are insured that it is fine for him to drive it I don't buy this because when we were shopping for car insurance the people made it clear to me the only person aloud to drive his vehicle was him even though I was insured with a different company under my mother's name what is the truth concerning insured drivers on separate policies driving other insured vehicles that their name is not on the policy""

Is it possible to negotiate the weekly premium deduction of company offered health care insurance?

I was told I could not enroll in the Affordable Health Care plan because my employer offered a health care plan that meets the requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act. However ...show more

insurance quotes northern ireland

insurance quotes northern ireland

How many year does it take for auto insurance to lower young driver rate?

if i start at 16

What is the estimated insurance for this car?

2-Door Coupe 1989 BMW 6 Series Coupe 2D 635CS, costing $6,000 new 16 yr. old driver.15-20000 in coverage.""

How much does car insurance cost?

I'm looking at a car that costs about 2,400 dollars. It's a 1997 Toyata Camry. It has about 147,000 miles on it. How much insurance would I have to pay. I live in PA and I'm a 20 year old dude so I assume it's expensive. Also is 147, 000 miles a lot for this car...or is the camry super reliable?""

Car insurance deposit + cancellation?

hi guys, i have just bought some car insurance today with the co-op, although I plan on cancelling it straight away because i've decided I can get a much better deal elsewhere, today i paid them a 252 deposit, I plan on ringing them up tommorow to cancel, because i dunno how these things work are they going to keep the 252 or give me it back? obviously i expect some kind of admin fee ontop for the paperwork but they wont keep my deposit right? :(""

Best auto insurance for grown up drivers. Cheapest and best claim service. Thanks!!?

Best auto insurance for grown up drivers. Cheapest and best claim service. Thanks!!?

How much is car insurance.......suspended license?

I am interested in purchasing a car in the near future and am worried about high insurance rates. My driver license was suspsended for one month last January (driving with only a learners license....I know, stupid) Anyways, I did a quote online without stating the fact that my license was suspened, and the rate it game me back was $238 a month. How much more do u think it would be if I added that driving infraction? The website won't give that information. I used to live in Ontario and now am in Alberta.""

""Best insurance company? People with actual experience, having made a claim please.?""

Hi, I am wondering what you consider to be the best insurance company -- mainly for auto, but also maybe for combination auto and home. Please, I need people who have had more experience with the company than just buying their insurance there. I need people who have actually had to make a claim and to tell me how good the company was about it and if they were quick to respond and take care of the situation. Also, did your rates go up as a result? Also, good prices are very important to me. Where did you get reasonable rates with great service? These could be traditional or online insurance providers. I am looking into all options, so I appreciate any input, although like I said before, I need to know from people who have made a claim -- or done more than just pay for insurance. Thank you for all your help.""

Why are car insurance quotes on comparison sites so high?

I'm almost 17 and I'm hoping to learn to drive and buy a car, I was looking on some comparison sites to see what the insurance might be on some possible cars (ford KA, fiat sciento, nothing too fancy) but the quotes were ridiculously high? I know being 17 will mean expensive insurance but this was really expensive, they said the cheapest was around 6000 for third party. This is really high because I know loads of people who drive at 17 and their insurance ranges from 1800-3000. So, why is it so high and will it actually be this price when I come to pay the insurance?""

How much is car insurance.......suspended license?

I am interested in purchasing a car in the near future and am worried about high insurance rates. My driver license was suspsended for one month last January (driving with only a learners license....I know, stupid) Anyways, I did a quote online without stating the fact that my license was suspened, and the rate it game me back was $238 a month. How much more do u think it would be if I added that driving infraction? The website won't give that information. I used to live in Ontario and now am in Alberta.""

The cheapest auto insurance in southern california?

The cheapest auto insurance in southern california?

Car insurance question?

My step dad bought me a car in june '08.He was going through a divorce with my mom and he told me that he would pay my car insurance for the first 6 months. after i got the car he didnt really talk to me much anymore and i didnt see him at all. after 6 months passed in around december i didnt get anything in the mail to my house (he lived at another hosue not wth me anymore) about ym insurance so i assumed he was still paying for it. i had never gotten pulled over or in an accident since i got the car. in february of this yr someone smashed into my cars front hood and the bumper is smashed as well as the girll and headlights, they hit me and then ran so i got no information. when i got into the accident i called the insurance place witch i had no idea which i had i got the info from the papers in my glove compartment and they told me since i got the car in june no insurance had been ever paid. my car was not registered. no basically for 8 months i was driving around an uninsured car. i still havent done nething about it bc im scared idk what is gonna happen. i havent fixed my crash car or drove it . how much money am i gonna ghave to pay to get insurance again. he basically lied to me and he refuses to talk to me about it.""

Homeowners insurance in Valrico FL?

I am interested in buying a home in Valrico FL. Particularly Diamond Hill, a golf course community. Great price, but we are new at buying and have no idea what insurance might be on this place.Just to factor it in for our monthly cost. It is a 3/2/2 1800 sq ft @ $110k. no pool. I mean were talking just a rough estimate, close figure something. Again we have not the slightest clue as to what it could be. Any advice is really appreciated.""

New driver - cheapest insurance?

Like thousands of other parents I'm looking for a cheap first car for my 17 year old daughter for when she passes her driving test. We're not in a position to buy her a brand new car, and she's happy to have an older one anyway (she has roughly 2k to spend), but the concern is the insurance! There are plenty of websites with new car insurance groupings, but can anyone please advise me of older small cars which are in the lowest insurance groups.""

What is the best insurance policy for a child age 6.5 year?

What is the best insurance policy for a child age 6.5 year?

How much will my car insurance be? Where should I go?

Hello! I got into a car accident that left my car totaled and my parents kicking me off their insurance plan. I bought myself a car and now I want to get insurance but I want to see a guess of what I'll be paying a month. The accident is listed as my fault with the insurance records. Please don't judge or be mean to me I just honestly need help with this question before I go shop around I want to get a guess of what people will tell me. I'm a 17 year old female, Caucasian. I have one major accident on my record. I live in El Paso, TX I am driving a 91 BMW E30 318i that is in good condition. How much would you guess I'd pay a month for the CHEAPEST insurance? I have a friend with no major wrecks paying on her own with good student discount $50 a month. What's the lowest I may be able to pay and what's the highest I may be able to pay? Thank you so much for your help! Have a nice day :)""

Motorcycle or Scooter Insurance in London?

How much would the insurance be for a motorcycle or scooter worth less than 4,000GBP in London? I'm hoping that it would be a lot less than a 50cc scooter in Dublin worth about 400GBP costing 200GBP for insurance per year.""

Whats the cheapest car insurance company in ireland for young drivers ?

whats the cheapest car insurance company in ireland for young drivers ?

How much would car insurance be for a 16 year old with full coverage?

ok well im going to get 24000 for my car and 3 years of insurance so in just wondering how much monthly car insurance would be because im thinking about 250 but i think that is a bit much please help i need to know how much the insurance would be so i can know how much i can spend on my car???????????????????????????????????????

Why are the big insurance companies so much cheaper?

I am getting off my parents auto insurance and getting my own. The Quote from the agent my parents use who is local to the area was nearly two hundred dollars more per year than the quote i got from progressive. Is there a reason to use a local company? he tried to sell me on customer service but i only deal with my insurance company maybe once or twice a year so i'm not sure that its worth $200 to me. Is there a reason to use a local company?

Florida Home insurance help?

I was recently dropped from my insurance company.My credit is bad so no one will cover me what should I do? I will also need flood insurance.

What health insurance is best and affordable for my wife?

We had a baby 3 months ago, but I am looking for health insurance that is good and affordable for my wife. Any suggestions?""

Can't pay my insurance?

I paid my tickets and was going to renew my license but was told I was suspended from paying insurance till next year, is there really anything I can do?""

How much will my car insurance be?

I'm a 17 year old male and have recently passed my driving test, how much will my car insurance most likely be if I buy a second hand car for about 2000. Thanks.""

How can I get insurance for my kids?

Does anyone know of any affordable insurances out there? We are a family of 4 and my two kids dont qulifiy for Chips, or medicaid. Is there any advice anyone can give? My kids are little. 1 and 7. It really sucks because my husband and i work full time and arent bums and cant even get any insurance for our kids.But i wont even get started on all that!.""

Why is it a requirement to have a car insurance in the UK?

i have just passed my driving test last week. i already have ford fiesta (its so loud). why would i want to insure my car against what. what is car insurance about? what/where is the cheapest company to go and why? what are the benefits of car insurance?

insurance quotes northern ireland

insurance quotes northern ireland

Will my drivers insurance rate go up after this accident?

Im 17, live in California and am insured under Geico. I was driving in a parking lot going the speed limit and this girl back out super fast (presumably without looking) and slams into me. Her car was fine but she left a small dent and paint chip near the door and rear tire opposite the drivers side. Will my rates go up even if I wasn't at fault? Should i even go to insurance on this? Please help!""

Car insurance!?

im looking to get a car and insurance on my own is outragous. the question is my mum has her own car with her policy with NIS. on direct line i want my mum to be the main policy holder with me as an additional driver. is this possible for my mum to have 2 policies on 2 different cars?

Cheap car insurance for an 18 year old?

I'm hearing so many different things. Some people say you can use part of your parents' no claims to bring down the price, but I can't find any sites online who say that. Does anyone know of any cheap places or best companies to try by phone to get a realistic car insurance quote for an 18 year old? Thanks in advance.""

No insurance..?

Okay I have went to 2 doctors appointments with no insurance.. but now I have insurance.. How much do you think its gonna cost for them two visits

Can I still collect money from a life insurance policy even if my husband divorces me?

I have spousal life insurance through my company on my husband which I am automatically the beneficiary. We are currently going through a divorce and he is currently dying of cancer. If the divorce finalizes before he dies, can I still collect on the life insurance?""

How Much Would Insurance Cost For A Renault Clio 182?

How Much Would Insurance Cost For A Renault Clio 182?

Car insurance uk only pt 2 ?

i just posted a question which i have varied answers.. another question of mine is that ok they took the whole years insurance.. now my mums left with 154.77 with not enough money to pay for another car.. she is fully comp, they did not give her a courtesy car which they are suppose to have done for 3days the car had been gone and one top of it the policy claims to give replacement cars until another car has been bought! any opinions?""

""What is good individual, insurance dental plan?""

What is good individual, insurance dental plan?""

CAR ACCIDENT WHOS AT FAULT AND DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH INSURANCE?

I was in a car accident yesterday a very minor one, the damage to my mother in laws BMW was just a cracked head light, and damage to theres was hardly apparent although the man said there was a tiny bump in door and a scratch. what happened was i was leaving a duel carriageway and on the side lane one lane was closed and a cone was in the road i swerved to miss going into work access (plenty of room as cones missing ETC cos of bad weather) then i pulled straight back out into correct lane having dragged the cone and seeming to leave it in work access... although all this happened in matter of seconds when i pulled back out i have hit the car that was originally behind me in the side door he obviously didn't break in time to stop when i swerved... i have a feeling because it was me that hit him that i am at fault? problem is i don't want to really go through insurance as it means both me and my mother in law will lose our no claims and because it was me driving not my mother in law excess is 600 as i am only a named driver.... I would rather just pay for damages if i am at fault than give my mother in law all the hassle...how much do you think it will cost? only thing is when i said this to the man he said he needs to notify insurance anyway and mine which i have been told will lose our no claims anyway... any ideas info please as im quite confused?""

Car insurance Q??????????

Im 16 years old and Ill be geting my car In June that I paid $3,000 dlrs for Can I get the car title in my own name or do my parents half to also be on my title and when i get my car insurance will my parents be on that? im paying for every thing with my own money... And I live in the state of WI.""

What is voluntary access on car insurance?

i saw it on the go compare web site but i dont know what it is as im a 1st time driver

Car insurance for a 16 year old!?

I get my license next month and I finally saved up enough money to get a 1998 BMW Roadster, how much would the monthly insurance cost on average? & if i own the car will that help?""

Do I really need travelers insurance?

We are taking a trip from Oregon to Cancun Mexico soon and am wondering if I should purchase travelers insurance. We are going to purchase airline tickets directly from Delta Airlines and also from our chosen hotel. I'm thinking that if there are any problems, the airline and hotel would take care of it. What are your thoughts?""

How much will my car insurance go up?

Two weeks ago I rear ended a Ford F150. There was very little damage done to their truck, but my mazda protoge was declared totaled. No ambulance was called and the people in the truck acted just fine. The driver was a lady who I thought was just obese but it turns out from the police report that she was 9 months pregnant. I was not arrested or anything at this scene but I did get a ticket for careless driving by failing to yield. I am a 25 year old male btw and I was on my mom's insurance driving her car. We called the insurance and found out that she was monitored and the baby was ok. She was due next week, but the insurance hasn't heard about the delivery or anything. The lady, however is claiming neck and back injuries. Will my insurance go up more because of the accident AND her claims or just the accident itself? I have to go to court in June just for the accident (it is mandatory here for every traffic violation). I need to know how much my insurance will go up to get a newcar""

Should you Always have health insurance whenever going under the knife ?

I would like to get a breast augumentation, and I was wondering if most people has health insurance whenever going under the knife? My credit is not good,but I've heard of something called Credit Care, is the health insurance included? If not,which health insurance is the most affordable and covers cosmetic surgery?""

Is there insurance for Antique Cars?

Hi, I have a 1971 chevrolet camaro. Wanted to ask if there was insurance for antique cars? I know i could just get liability for this car but i was wondering if i could get better coverage for my vehicle? Thanks.""

Does having a coupe or a sedan affect your insurance rates?

I'm going to get a new car, and realy want a coupe, but I heard that insurance cost more because is more sporty. Can anyone help.""

How much is insurance for a 2004 Nissan Maxima?

I'm 16 and this is my first car. I'm going to get liability and was wondering how much it's going to cost every month ? Thanks

Help on car insurance.?

I am 17 yrs old. I am about to get a 2008 Honda accord but right now I drive a 2002 Cadillac escalade. my insurance is $130 a month right now and I was wondering if it would raise it? the escalade is an SUV, & it has a v8. the accord is ofcourse a car and its a 4 cylinder! ( if that makes a difference) thank you to all that answer! :)""

What would the insurance be like on a Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart?

I'm nineteen and looking to buy a lancer. From what I've been told the Evo's insurance would destroy me. I've had people tell me that the Ralliart would be cheaper but I was hoping for clarification. I have a clean record and a good student discount. Driving a Mustang at the moment and it's pretty much a killer lol

Can i change a court order insurance?

My kids have been on medi-cal since i separated with their father and it has been great. I have a child with special needs and we were able to go to the best clinics in town like UCSF and Stanford. i felt that my child gets the best medical care. The court ordered the father to provide a new insurance and we came to Kaiser last year. In almost a year dealing with Kaiser doctors i don't feel the same professionalism and quality of care as we used to get being at different other clinics. I started to think of changing the coverage to what we had prior to this. But i am not sure how i could change the court order and what evidence i need to provide asking for the change. Kids are still on Medi-cal, but its their secondery now.""

Mazda RX-8 insurance cost?

I'm 16 about to turn 17 in a mere few months. After getting a job I looked into cars for myself and set my eyes on a Mazda RX-8. Since I'm only 16 does anyone know a basic price per month on a 2004 model? Currently I am co-insured under my mother on a 2009 Honda Civic for about $80 per month. I'm just curious as to how much I'd be charged if I were to get a RX-8. Thank you for your time.

I desperately need auto insurance. i got my license like 6 months ago and i need cheap insurance?

as u guys probably kno, insurance for teens is ridiculously high!!.. the cheapest i got it was liek 215 a month.. but thats like.. no coverage. do any of u kno a good company or a good alternative way to legally have insurance which is not necessarily a monthly payment? (my friend told me about insuring mye license but im not too clear on how that works)""

Is there a car insurance company that only ask if you have any convictions within the last 3 yrs instead of 5?

Is there a car insurance company that only ask if you have any convictions within the last 3 yrs instead of 5?

I have insurance for a car I had for 6 days. The insurance co. says it's a total loss. They gave me a value?

Audatex is not kelly blue book they look at craigslist & not the dealer. Craigslist sometimes has cars where a mechanic might not catch it but is damaged. The price I paid is higher due to getting sick & credit went down so I had to go to a local dealer with higher interest. They want the insurance check plus $1700.00 & interest. So I will pay for this thing for over 1 1/2 years. I had it 6 days when some crazy driver almost hit me I turned & hit a wall. The insurance company says I loose my good driver discount. Since I will have to wait to pay off this car I can cancel my insurance once the dealer gets the check. Is there any California law that would say if this happens I would be able to pay off the car. It's worth more as a loss then to try to fix it. Please help. Thank You.

insurance quotes northern ireland

insurance quotes northern ireland

Do i still have to pay excess on my car insurance?

can someone please tell me if I still have to pay my excess after a claim on my car insurance, it was my fault and alot of damage was done to the 3rd party car, i never got mine fixed...the thing thats confusing me if is my insurance is up for renewal next month but my current insurance is quoted over 1000 I have found it a lot less elsewhere so if course im leaving my insurance, but will I receive a letter stating i owe them the excess, as I paid nothing at the time of the claim?""

When is it the cheapest car insurance rate based on age?

I forgot when I got my license, freshmen in college though in NY. I was told that the older you are the cheaper your rate, like if you start at 25 you pay less. Is that right? I was told the opposite??????? I think I was 18.""

Do i have to have insurance on my cycle or car.?

So i know it is best to have insurance but i was wondering is it an absolute must, like can i have a car and drive it legally with out insurance?""

Ow much does it cost to deliver a baby without health insurance in washington hospital california ??

Ow much does it cost to deliver a baby without health insurance in washington hospital california ??

Cost of Car Insurance for an Escalade EXT?

Cost of Car Insurance for an Escalade EXT?

How much would it cost to insure a pontiac firebird?

Im turning 16 soon and will be getting a car I was wondering how much money it would cost to insure a 1997 Pontiac Firebird.

""How much is insurance for two adults, two small kids under 10, and two cars?""

I know for each company, it's different and varies, but how much do you guys pay personally for your company? Also, do you have to notify insurance after getting married. what happens if you forget? Do they call you personally or do you get fined?""

Will filing a claim for broken car window raise my insurance payments?

I woke up to a broken driver side window this morning and the first thing i do is call my insurance to ask if its covered. My insurance said it would cost 350 bucks to fix it and i have a 500 deductable so i gta pay out of pocket anyway. He scheduled an appointment for me to get it fixed at a local shop. Is this claim going to affect my rates?

Affordable health insurance in texas?

I am self employ'd make enough to pay my bills cannot afford the average health insurance can anybody recommend me to affordable insurance that does not have a high deductable?

How much would car insurance cost on average?

How much would car insurance cost on average for a 19-year old male, living on his own, drives about 40 miles a day and has had no traffic violations. what would the cost per month be?""

Does your insurance cost increase if you get a ticket but no points on your license?

Does your insurance cost increase if you get a ticket but no points on your license?

Best New York Health Insurance?

i got married 2 months ago, I m waiting to start the process for green card! at this time I wanted to get a good health insurance, my husband doesn t know aythin about it so please help me!!!""

What is a good car insurance company - value and a known company - not high risk?

I would like to switch car insurance companies - one because when I buy a third car and add it to my policy they charge me $5.00 for installment billing even though I pay in full - this leads to the second more serious complication which is that my husband works in the car business and on occasion decides to buy a new car b/c it is a good value and he like the car, then we sell the second car. We typically have the second car for 11-22 months. I mentioned to the insurance company that in the future I want to avoid this $5.00 fee since I always pay in full and I waving it this time wouldn't solve future issues b/c my husband is in the car business and we buy a third car to sell the second when he finds one he likes. THEN the cust svc guy goes on a rant - ARE YOU RESELLERS... blah blah blah and WE HAVE STRICT UNDERWRITING GUIDELINES blah blah blah etc. I tell him that holding onto a car for the time periods that we have would certainly indicate that we are not... and titling it""

Where can I find cheap roofing insurance?

I am looking to start a roofing repair company (residential only at this time) . What I am going to do is secure the jobs, draw the contracts, purchase material and collect payment. I have 3 crews that will do the labor and they each provide liability as well as worker comp on their crews. What I looking for is a company that will insure me with liability (1 million) for my protection. What I am running into is that every company that I talk to says that you have to be in business for 2 years or greater or they are quoting me 7 to 9k a year. I have over 10 years experience in quoting, selling and installing, can anyone help out in finding affordable liability insurance? Thanks""

About a car and insurance?

ok so im 17 goin to turn 18 this decmber and i want to get a this nice car a 1987 Pontiac Fiero and i want to know what would the insurance on it would be

Does insurance pay total or worth?

My car is considered a 'total loss' with about 8,000 in damages. My payoff quote is 12,000. will my insurance pay the amount I owe, or the amount my car is worth, minus my deductible?""

Where can I get cheap auto insurance?

I am looking for good and low cost auto insurance.

How much will 1 point affect my car insurance???!?

I got a right turn violation about 8 months ago and i took traffic school so im assuming that my insurance won't penalize me. Now i got another ticket(stop sign violation), how much would you estimate the percentage of my insurance? I live in California btw and im 20 years old.""

Question about car insurance?

1. How long does it take to get insurance? Can we go in and apply for it tommorrow and have it when we walk out? Or is there a waiting period? How long until you are legally covered? 2. If you get insurance on a car you are going to sell/trade in - can you switch over your insurance to cover the new car? Or how does that work? Problem is, our truck isn't insured right now but we're planning on buying a new car in the next month or 2.. will that make things more difficult for us? - first time insurance buyer""

How much home insurance & tax for a cheap studio?

I know 0 about this: are home insurance rates annual or monthly? Could someone give me just a very rough idea about how much a cheap studio's home insurance & tax would cost? (in ...mostrar ms

Cheap car insurance companies?

i've just passed my test and own a renault clio sport 1.4 w reg all insurance quotes have been over 3000 pound does any one know where to go for cheap car insurance

Whats the average cost a month for car insurance in california for an 18 year old?

Whats the average cost a month for car insurance in california for an 18 year old?

Proof of Insurance for Driver's Test?

My Dad bought me a car about three days ago and the dealership said they will insure the car for 14 days while my dad gets insurance through his company. I might take my driver's test tomorrow and I want to use this car for it. If I show the dmv the insurance papers the dealership gave me, will that count as proof of insurance for my road test? Thank you.""

Will my insurance be raised because someone else got a ticket in my car?

My boyfriend was driving my car and got a texting ticket. Will my insurance rate increase?

So is there any health insurance for those with serious medical conditons?

My younger brother who's only 20 years old has a host of serious illnesses: crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and a few more conditions that has constantly kept him sick for a good portion of his childhood. He's missed at least half a school year on a number of occasions, and despite his maturation he's still heavily affected by his conditions. Obviously, it's practically impossible for him to hold a steady job, he'll work for a while and then he'll have to take off a month or two just to deal with his illness, with that said he surely won't have employee health insurance. Currently, he's using our state's medicaid, however once he turns 21 he's no longer eligible for medicaid. With the health care system being the way that it is, is there any possibility that he could continue receiving health care despite his ineligibility? He takes a ton of drugs daily, and even takes some of the same medications that our grandparents take lol. I know some of you heartless conservatives believe he should provide his own health coverage, but how? His drugs cost thousands, and he's in the ER constantly, thus making his health-care only affordable to extremely rich individuals. When healthy, he does contribute as much as he possibly can, however for someone in his condition it would be downright shameful if he can't continue to receive any healthcare.""

insurance quotes northern ireland

insurance quotes northern ireland

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/most-affordable-life-insurance-over-50-jason-wilkinson/"

[lisandyworldadventure]

Indonesia- Lombok- Sengiggi

Our last few days in Indonesia were spent on the Lombok mainland around the beach areas of Sengiggi on the west coast and Kuta beach on the south coast, the latter area having nothing to do with Bali’s Kuta beach. We had wanted to do a trek to Mount Rinjani, one of the islands’ highlights but again the rainy season prevented going all the way to the top and for us it’s all or nothing. Relaxing seemed the best option after that so here is how we went about it:

SENGIGGI

Sengiggi beach area was a nice base for a few days with a huge bay style white sandy beach just over the road. Sengiggi was the original spot where tourists settled when Lombok began to attract those seeking something other than Bali’s madness. It’s main problem is however that the main ‘strip’ is on a main road which goes on for about 10km and most of the resorts, hotels and guesthouses are scattered all along this. This can of course play to its advantage as the owner of the guesthouse told us most of these were at full occupancy, yet we hardly saw any tourists, hence creating a nice local feel. Our guesthouse was just 50m off the main road but arriving there with our heavy backpacks we found the main path blocked due to some construction work nearby. This required a walk which seemed to go on forever until we finally reached the guesthouse. A real good choice this one aside from the room locking in all the heat, Andy getting almost bitten alive and the garish Louis Vouitton bed covers. This is yet another characteristic of Asian guesthouses or homestays, the more tacky the better. Arrival days are always killed with looking around town and assessing what there is to be done in the surrounding areas. We had heard of an area north of the Rinjani volcano which had two amazing waterfalls, Sendang Gile and Tiu Kelep, and being suckers for huge falling streams of water we booked ourselves on for the day after. The evening was filled with the usual ritual of Bintang beer watching yet another fiery sunset and cheap dinner at a local restaurant, perhaps our cheapest in Asia so far with both mains and drinks coming in around £3 for both of us. Lisa even ventured out of the Nasi and Mee Goreng routine that we had gotten ourselves into and ordered Gado Gado, a vegetarian even bordering vegan curry complete with tofu, tempe, green beans and all sorts of other goodness.

The next day we set off to visit the the waterfalls via a couple of stops including some rice fields and a road through a forest, densely populated by monkeys. Prior to stopping to feed them we visited the local market to get some food for the hyperactive little creatures. Haggling at local markets is an art we have started to master, though it gets frustrating as you don’t want to rip the hard working locals off but still you don’t want to end up being ripped off yourself. Paying 30p for a whole bunch of around 20 small bananas we felt was about right. Quite frankly, we would have paid the £1 quoted by another lady a couple of spots up but that’s one of the golden rules of haggling, never accept the first price! Back to the monkeys though and trying to get out of the car in the midst of them with a whole bunch of bananas. No chance in hell so we had to keep going in and out of the car to grab one or two bananas at a time. Weaving in and out of traffic after feeding the monkeys there was to be one stop more before the waterfalls, this time at a picturesque rice field with a mountainous backdrop. We then realised that these were ten a penny on the road we were driving.

Eventually we did reach the main highlight of our tour and we were in for a bit of a nasty surprise. Walking into the national park’s 'office’ we were told that we had to hire a guide to go to the falls, something which the guy we booked it with had categorically said we did not need. Amounting to around £15 and after some toing and frowing between the office person and the guy we booked it with, the latter agreed to pay this fee as he said to Andy on the phone that he didn’t want to cause any 'bad problems’ on our trip. Guilt card played, of course this made us feel bad but we stuck to our guns and headed up to the waterfalls with the guide paid by the local office. To this day we still think it was perhaps the driver stopping at some place he shouldn’t have so that we got scammed, I guess we will never know. After a 45 minutes walk or so through the jungle we hit our first waterfall, Tiu Kelep, a thudding wall of water 30 metres tall. Being rainy season we felt the inmense power as we swam closer to it in the pool created by the erosion of the rock just under the waterfall. Of course we didn’t get right under it, both of us valuing our livelihoods but a few feet away. On our walk back we stopped at a second waterfall, Sendang Gile, a longer and more elegant body of water. Compulsory photoshoot, a few banana fritter snacks and we were on our way, stopping one more time to admire views around some of the bays in Sengiggi. A full complete day which we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone visiting Lombok.

The last day in Sengiggi area had been planned as a beach day but downpours for most of the morning and afternoon prevented this so we only got a walk on the sand and a swim in the ocean in the early evening. Walking along the beach we saw a boy heading out to surf, perhaps around 10 years old, surf board in one hand and cigarette in the other. We did find Indonesia particularly bad for smoking as pretty much everyone, yes even young boys were at it. Swimming in the sea we found Sengiggi beach had some powerful waves which shook us around, even slammed us on to the slanted ocean floor several times after trying to get out of the water. And even when we did manage to get out ot the sand we found sand in every possible place you can imagine, and even in those yoy cannot.