#I forgot to add I am in the American servers
Text
Mona & Alexander, 23
You, Mona (Warioware), are connected to Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP)
Your partner selected the 18+ server.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Hey!)
Mona (Warioware): (Hey.)
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Mona, huh? Not bad! How are you? Looking for anything in particular?)
Mona (Warioware): (Looking for anything that involves Mona working a job.)
Mona (Warioware): (And I am fine. How are you?)
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Doing fine myself, thanks! And a job, that's fitting. Anything in particular you were thinking for that?)
Mona (Warioware): (I was going to adapt it to whatever character stopped for Mona but with Alexander...maybe as a Pizza Girl?)
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Mona's Pizza, one delivery, coming right up~!)
Mona (Warioware): (Yup!)
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Anything else you wanna add, in terms of what kinda direction you wanna steer it, any ideas or so?)
Mona (Warioware): (No, I prefer to be surprised in my RPs.)
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): (Got'cha! Want to start us off then, perhaps?)
Mona (Warioware): (Sure.)
Mona (Warioware): Mona drove her scooter down the street, a warm pepperoni pizza on the back of her seat. Eventually, she pulled to the outside of a row house and took the box, walking over to knock on the door. "Hello? Mona's Pizza! I got your order?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): The door opened up, and Alexander rubbed his eyes. "Ah, hey, great", he said, his face lighting up already as he looked around. "Ah, where's my wallet, one sec..." Almost looks like he just woke up. Or had one mess of a sleeping schedule.
Mona (Warioware): Mona smiled as she waited patiently at the doorstep. Being a delivery girl, this is far from the first time that she worked as an accidental alarm clock for her customers. She was perfectly willing to wait as long as it took to get her pay.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): A minute or two later, he showed up with a wallet in hand. "How much was it again?", he asked, clearly trying to pool together the bare cash. He was dressed in sweatpants and a shirt, regular lounging stuff. It was sunday, after all.
Mona (Warioware): "$12.32, sir!" She nodded. She was dressed in a tight uniform that showed off her curves along with a nice pair of shorts for the seasonably warm weather.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "$12.32? Odd prince..." His face scrunched up a little, as he checked his money. "I got like... 7.. or 8 dollars in here? Shit, do you take paypal? Or credit?", he asked, as a faint grumbling nose was audible from... was that his stomach?
Mona (Warioware): "We...do take credit!" She blinked. That was actually under the usual price for a large which can get as high as $20 at some places. Maybe he forgot the tax...? "We take Discover, Mastercard, American Express and even Wario Credit!"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Wario credit? That's new, huh...", he muttered under his breath, his gaze moving up - briefly oogling her figure. "I got a Mastercard, so I guess we'll... uh, go with that? It was on time and all, I guess..."
Mona (Warioware): "Great!" She took out a card scanner. "Would you like to leave a tip?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Er, sure. I mean..." He stopped for a moment, eyeing her up. "... how much, I wonder...", he thought out loud. She really had a form fitting uniform, huh?
Mona (Warioware): "Maybe 10%? 15%?" She leaned forward with a smile, giving him a better view of her cleavage. "20%...?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Hmm..." His gaze went rather pointedly down to her cleavage at the mention of 20%. "I mean, depending on how you convince me, I could put that higher, y'know. If it's really good pizza AND service..."
Mona (Warioware): "Our pizza is great but if you're looking for better service...why don't you let me inside?" She said while wriggling her eyebrows.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Come on in, then~." He smiled, as he opened the door wider. The place was... alright. Just a bit messy, the type you'd expect from a guy living by himself, without being too extreme.
Mona (Warioware): "Your place is nice!" She complimented, setting the pizza down on a random table before sitting on the couch. "Why don't you come over here?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Thanks!" Seeing it left on the coffee table, he moved over to sit beside her. "So, what was your name again, Miss Pizza Delivery Girl?", he asked with a grin for sure, leaving the wallet beside the pizza.
Mona (Warioware): "Mona!" She answered with a smile. "And yours?" She gingerly took his hand...and slid it beneath herself so that he could feel her butt.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Alexander, call me Alex though", he returned with a grin, giving that 'dough' a few squeezes. "So, what kinda menu list do you offer for 'delivery services' like this?", he asked with a wink.
Mona (Warioware): "We have blowjobs, thigh jobs, butt jobs, full on penetration and even rimming for the more adventurous customers..." She said with a wink.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Heh, not even gonna play along with it being a 'menu'?" He laughed a little, and smirked. "Mhm, how about a blowjob? While I eat that pizza, of course, I don't wanna let it get cold~." Another squeeze of her rear, as he smirked.
Mona (Warioware): "Double service! I wouldn't mind." She then went to pull down his sweatpants as she trailed kisses along his shaft.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): He leaned over in the meantime, opening up the pizza box, and sighing. "Mmh, I'm hungry. By the way... feel free to talk plenty about me and my cock. Y'know, 'advertising', or whatever. That alone gives you another 10% on top, y'hear~?" He said, grabbing a slice and biting into it. "Mmmhh~."
Mona (Warioware): "If you say so. Not to sound cheesy or anything, but you got quite the "Sausage" right here!" Mona teased as she began to suck on his tip, taking in more of his shaft over time.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Heh, honestly? Make it extra cheesy, like this pepperoni pizza~", he jokes with a grin, and sighs softly as he continues eating, one hand busy with pizza, the other busy with groping her ass.
Mona (Warioware): "I don't remember ordering an "extra large"!" She joked before taking in the entire cock easily, deepthroating him as he ate his meal.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Nnnf... you can still finish all that though, right?" He smirked, groaning softly between bites, loving this 'side-dish'!
Mona (Warioware): She just kept going, even kneading his balls to enhance the effect.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Haah, that's good... nnnf, you're hungry for the sauce, huh?" His hand moved from her butt to her head, keeping her pushed down. "Keep going, almost there~..."
Mona (Warioware): She kept bobbing her head, sucking him all the way with no trouble while gently squeezing his balls.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Nnnf, fuck...!" He groaned - and came, pumping his first load straight down her throat, keeping him there as he just kept cumming...!
Mona (Warioware): She swallowed it all, not moving from her spot until she got her full meal.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Haah~..." Satisfied from the orgasm, he let go of her head, continuing to eat - but he didn't grow softer at all. "You're really good, Mona~."
Mona (Warioware): She pulled away and swallowed the rest. "Thanks! I'm guessing you want further service?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Damn right! How long can you stay for?", he asked, as his hand went back to groping away at that doughy rear.
Mona (Warioware): "Well, we do time our deliveries so we'll have to speed this up." She got up and slowly pulled down her shorts and in front of him, showing off her bare ass. "So I'll give you the premium treatment, just this once."
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): Loving the show, he leaned back and continued eating, having finished half his pizza already. "Premium treatment? Oho, what's that? C'mon, sell me on it, Mona, I might become a repeat customer~."
Mona (Warioware): "How about I show you..." She backed up and grabbed his cock, slowly sitting down to take it up her ass...
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Oho, anal?" He smirked. Finishing the last bite of the pizza piece, he reached out, his greasy hand groping her ass and spreading those cheeks apart. "Nnnf, damn~."
Mona (Warioware): She then began to bounce on his cock. "Now you're the kind of guy who knows how to stuff a crust!"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Hah, thanks~. But gosh, this is juicy~..." he pants. Leaving his half-eaten pizza be, both of his hands grope away at her rear, clearly loving this. "And tight~!"
Mona (Warioware): "It still needs some filling..." She started pumping herself harder on his cock, practically slamming herself down. "Can you help me out with that?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Hah, gladly~!" His hips began to thrust upwards, meeting her pace as he tried to take over the action himself. "I'll gladly pound this dough, then fill you up like a juicy hot calzone~!"
Mona (Warioware): "Go ahead, sausage boy!" She stuck out her tongue teasily as she let him take the reins, putting his hands on her hips.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Don't have to tell me twice!" With that, he began to take the pace, pounding into her as he pushed her up and down. Eventually, he moved to stand up - forcing her to bend over where she was, right over the pepperoni pizza. "Fuck, this is hot and spicy~. Just how I like it!"
Mona (Warioware): "That's the secret recipe, Alex!" She laughed before taking a bite of a slice herself.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Heh, wanting to get double-stuffed, huh? I don't mind...!" He grins, pounding into her ass from behind as he watched her snack on his pizza. "Nnff, god, you're gonna get such a big fucking tip after this. How much do you want, hmm~?"
Mona (Warioware): "Hmmm...35%?" She asked with puppy-dogged eyes.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "That's it?" He smirkd, looking at her face. "I would've given you fucking 50% for this! Nnff, fuck~. I'm absolutely ordering daily now!"
Mona (Warioware): "Then I can put you on our Mona's Favorites list? Along with Jimmy T., Dribble & Spitz and Sal Out?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Fuck yeah! Whoever they are! Any benefits on being on there" He kept pounding away, grunting. "Wait, Sal Out? Isn't she that popstar?"
Mona (Warioware): "That's right! She's been a regular customer for years!" Mona grinned. "The benefits include a free sex act with every pizza, your choice of delivery girls and you can get 10% off of any large pizza!"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Fuck yeah, sign me up!" He panted, as he kept thrusting away, kneading her rear. "Haah... so what other delivery girls are there, huh? You've sold me on this, so I just wonder what's 'on the menu'..." He chuckles a little, grunting as his thrusts got a bit more wild... seems like he wasn't gonna last much longer!
Mona (Warioware): "There's Marcie with glasses, freckles and long tongue, Mindy with the nice chest and sweet personality, Molly, tall, built and very goofy (Girls love her) and Murphy, tomboy with a big rear!"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Nnnf, fuck. I think I'll try all of them~...!" Panting, his thrusts fell out of rhyhtm. "Haah... I'm close to giving your ass a real nice stuffing... ngh, ready~?"
Mona (Warioware): "Ready~! Mind if I put you down for Premium?" She smirked.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Haah... what's premium...?" Completely getting sold on whatever she'd sell, he speeds up - pushing her harder and harder as he kept getting rougher, the echoing audible throughout the entire living room. "Nnf, almost there...!"
Mona (Warioware): "More of this treatment, Sausage Boy." She slapped her own ass to punctuate her point. "Get it?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Fuck it, hell yeah...!" And with that, he pushed himself all the way inside - perhaps throwing her off-balance, as he held her hips in place, and cum, filling up her ass!
Mona (Warioware): "Oop!" The last sudden thrust nearly threw her off balance but the hot sauce filling her brought a smile to her face. "You were really backed up, huh?"
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): "Haaahh...! Y-yeah... f-fuck...!" He grunted, filling her up and holding her close. "Haah... no girlfriend for three months does that to you. Nnf...." Slowly, he pulled himself out - watching the anal creampie he caused. "Fuck, that was hot~."
Mona (Warioware): "You're telling me!" She sat up and pulled her shorts over her cum-filled ass. "I can expect to see you tomorrow?" She winked at him.
Alexander, 23 (5'11, darkbrown hair, green eyes, athletic,lightly tanned. (Adaptable, lit. SRP): Holy fuck, watching her tug her pants up after she started to leak. "Sure thing. You again, then maybe one of your coworkers the day after that...", he smirked - then fell back, exhausted on the couch, and grabbed his wallet. "Y'know what? Fuck it, I'll give you a 100% tip, just for showing me this great service~."
Mona (Warioware): She squealed with delight. "You're gonna become my favorite customer..."
You left the chat
0 notes
Text
Hello so this is a short and small thing explaining my absence in more terms other than “seeya!”.
I’ve had finals week and work pulling me from doing things I enjoy, along with that Tumblr’s formatting without xkit is Horrid and more times then not I was on my phone (which doesn’t have xkit). This meant that I was unable to format any of my posts and for this blog in particular it made me not comfortable with it.
Along with that I have gotten into a new thing! I have been hyperfocusing on Genshin Impact and so my attention hasn’t been on ONS often, as ONS is a comfort interest that has helped me through many bad times it will always have a soft spot in my heart. And I don’t plan on abandoning this blog any time soon! I don’t plan on abandoning this muse either! My activity will just be way less then it used to be.
I have put in my two weeks at my job to focus on my schooling, as it had been weighing on my mental health (one of the reasons I wasn’t active).
But yeah! I’ll still be on from time to time.
Also if I forgot to respond to a thread you can go ahead and message me? And if you wish to drop any just let me know! I’m far more active on discord as I’ve said and I’m willing to hand that over as well.
#The stars and moon collide||ooc#on another note might be setting up a genshin rp blog just because Albedo beloved?#And if anyone wants to play genshin together I am ar 42 as an albedo main :eyes:#I also have a few other muses from genshin that I enjoy though so I'd need to test them out before actually doing anything#For the possibiloty of playing#I forgot to add I am in the American servers
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
the mystery of love ; kuroo tetsurou
pairing: kuroo tetsurou x f!reader
synopsis: kuroo tetsurou does not believe in soulmates. he believes in science, himself, and sometimes other people. but that doesn’t mean he can’t believe in love.
tag(s): sweet summer lovin’, friends to lovers, inspired by call my by your name, university student!kuroo tetsurou, lab intern!kuroo tetsurou, so much pining lol, fluff, angst, slow burn ; warning(s): profanity, mentions of alcohol ingestion (it’s legal bc they’re in italy!), suggestive themes ; wc: 4.8k
a/n: happy birthday tetsu!! i hope you guys like this. i really enjoyed writing it ♡
Kuroo Tetsurou does not believe in soulmates. He believes in science, himself, and sometimes other people. At least, that’s what he tells you. Sometimes you treat this information as a source of hope; other times, you’re not sure what to make of it.
This, you realise with his shoulder pressed against yours and both your bodies sprawled across his wrinkled bed sheets, is one of those other times. You turn your face to look at his.
“What?” he asks, one side of his mouth curling up in a smile.
For a moment, you wonder what would happen if you just said it. You could blame the alcohol. Get away with it scot-free. While you mull the option over in the dead silence of his room, your brain suddenly registers the music still playing from the living room. The low bass reverberating through the walls. How close your lips are. The sound of his breaths.
“Earth to Y/N?”
And like that, the little what-if that rose in your mind falls back with its tail between its legs. You bite your lip, look around his room like the walls have a script printed on them. Unfortunately, they do not.
“I was just thinking about my shirt.” It’s not great, but it’s the best you can do while still feeling the vodka and orange juice burn in your stomach. And smelling it on yourself.
Kuroo’s laugh booms through the room and you can’t help but giggle along with him. “I said I was sorry!” he says, hazel eyes twinkling with mirth. He pauses and glances at his closet, then nods his head in its direction. “Take a hoodie. Your pick.”
A smile–– one you try to downplay but fail miserably to–– creeps up your face. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Kuroo replies. “You can also shower here if you want. It's the least I can do after spilling my drink all over you.”
When you emerge from Kuroo’s bathroom in one of his thinner hoodies, a lot soberer and drying your hair, he’s not on the bed anymore. Quietly, you step out of his room and look for him through the house. People are crashed everywhere–– on the sofa, over the kitchen counter, even propped up against walls. The floor is covered with plastic cups and mysterious pools of liquid. Wrinkling your nose, you try your best to step around the messes, looking in every corner in the house for the raven-haired boy.
You find him back in his room, actually. He’s back on his bed scrolling through his phone, the light illuminating his sharp features. When he hears you close the door behind you, he looks up, eyes immediately zeroing in on the black hoodie over your torso. The corner of his mouth twitches up.
“Where’d you go?” you both ask at the same time. He chuckles; you grin. Crawling back onto the bed, you tell him to go first.
“I went around to make sure nothing’s broken,” he explains. “Perks of being the only sober intern in the house, I guess.”
A beat passes.
This house is rented. You forgot about that. All his expenses are paid for by your mother’s lab. You forgot about that. He fits in your world so well, like maybe he’s always had a spot there, that you forgot that Kuroo Tetsurou is only here for the summer.
“Right.”
Kuroo raises a brow. “And you?”
“I went to look for you.”
He smiles and holds his hands out like a magician at the end of a trick. “Well, you found me.”
“Yeah,” you muse. “I guess I did.” Aren’t you lucky.
With that, something shifts in the air. A contemplative expression crosses Kuroo’s face. Maybe he’s realised how his words come out sometimes. Kuroo often says things that sound like they have more than one meaning and it used to throw you off, but now you just go with it. You’ve even picked up that habit yourself. “Do you ever wish that you’d met someone earlier? Maybe under different circumstances?” he asks.
Sighing, you fall back against his mattress and stare up at the ceiling. Telling the truth feels easier when you can’t see him. “Yeah. All the time.” A few seconds pass. “Do you think we would’ve been friends if we went to the same college?”
He also lies down. You’re both back in the same positions you were in an hour ago, but something’s changed. “No,” he admits. You’re not surprised–– that’s what you’d expected. “I’d be a junior and you’d be a freshman. We probably would’ve never met. And even if we had, I wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with a… freshie.” He chuckles softly at the end. “And look at me now,” he adds softly, more to himself than you. You look over at his face. A contemplative smile rests on his lips.
That urge to just say it returns.
“Kuroo, I think––”
“You’re my favourite p–– oh, my bad. You first.”
And it goes away again.
“Um, uh,” you stutter, “how long do you have left here?”
Kuroo raises his brows. “On this planet? Hopefully a while, Y/N.” He sees your unamused expression and drops the front. “Three more weeks.”
Your eyes widen. Eight weeks have already passed. Blood rushes to your ears. Eight entire weeks have already passed, meaning that in three weeks, Kuroo Tetsurou will leave forever. And in four, you will, too. Except you’ll come back. You’ve done so every summer since you were born, probably will do until you die.
But this place will never be the same as it used to. Not after him.
“Y/N?” Once everything comes back into focus, you see the concern riddling his features. “Everything okay?”
“Hmm? Yeah.”
Say it.
“You didn’t have too much to drink, right?”
Say it.
“I just got buzzed. What about you?”
“The only drink I was planning on having all went to your shirt.”
Say it.
“Kuroo.”
“Yeah?”
Not yet.
“Let’s go on an adventure.”
At two AM, everything is different. The streets feel different, the villas look different, and you–– you can’t put your finger on it but Kuroo Tetsurou has changed, too. He sits behind the wheel of your father’s white 1953 Cadillac with the convertible roof down, unruly hair blown back by the breeze, a euphoric grin stretched over his face. In the passenger’s seat, you sit with an equally large beam and your hands raised into the dark sky.
“Where to, Miss?” he shouts over the wind.
“The stars,” you shout back with a laugh. Kuroo’s cat-like eyes briefly flit over to your side profile, lips curving to form a smaller, more tender smile. But you miss that–– your gaze falls on him just a second after his return to the road.
“I heard you say Jack’s,” he says, smirking.
The 24/7 diner sticks out like a sore thumb in the row of sun-baked stucco and stone buildings with its bold neon lights and shiny exterior. During the day, it seems gaudy, way too American for a small town in northern Italy. But at night, this place feels like home. You’ve been stumbling into Jack’s completely shit-faced since you were sixteen. Of course, all those other times had been with the kids of your mother’s coworkers. All those other times, you could hardly remember what you even ordered when you woke up hours later.
But this time, you walk in with Kuroo Tetsurou at half-past-two in the morning, the chemicals running through your bloodstream epinephrine and dopamine, not ethanol; if you’re drunk then it’s on a feeling and your only poison is the boy next to you. You study his face and consider that thought. No, he’s not poison. He’s the antidote.
“Y/N!” the server exclaims, rushing over with two menus. “And Kuroo! My two favourite customers, but together this time!” Giovanni ushers you two to a booth by the window and takes your orders, purely for show, of course. He knows your orders by heart: the Lorenzo for Kuroo and the Quentin for you.
“With fries on both, please,” Kuroo adds, throwing you a wink. “Aren’t I a gentleman?”
“You only did that to have more for yourself,” you reply drily. Having him over at your house for dinner every night made picking up his idiosyncrasies so unbelievably easy. You know them like they’re your own. You know him like he’s your own.
Kuroo clutches his chest and pretends to be offended, then changes the conversation to what happened at the lab today, or rather, yesterday. That your mother and the other researchers are so close to finding a cure for the strain of virus that’s recently hit crickets in southern Italy.
“You should drop by again sometime,” he says. “Last time you came around was, what, two weeks ago?”
Your face breaks in a grin. “Are you saying you’ve missed me? Chemistry getting boring?” you tease, drawing a loud laugh from him.
“Sodium hydrogen, you little shit.” Your mother’s used this one on you before, but hearing it from him makes you giggle anyway.
Giovanni comes back with two plates, each loaded with fries. You both say your thanks and he retreats to the kitchen again, but not before wiggling his eyebrows at your reddening faces. Wordlessly, you grab your fork and knife and transfer at least half of your fries onto Kuroo’s plate. Kuroo stares at you with the slightest smile. That look sends your stomach into flips.
“What?” you question nonchalantly, cutting into your burger.
“Nothing,” he says, mirroring your actions. “Nothing at all.”
It’s hard to imagine that after spending almost every day together for eight weeks straight that there’s still more to learn about each other, but there is. You tell him more about your real home. Your best friend who called you at 3 AM last night because of timezones. Stories from every summer before this one, when you were a different person in the same place you are now.
He tells you more about Kenma, his best friend from high school. How they played on one of the best volleyball teams in Japan. Stories from training camp, literature class, the metro ride home after school–– you listen to every single one in rapt attention. There’s not enough time in the world for all the things you want to know about Kuroo Tetsurou, so you take what you can get. If only you’d known him before you’d known him.
“If we’d met earlier here, do you think we would’ve been friends?” you ask after paging Giovanni for the check.
“No,” he replies, picking up a few remaining fries with his fork instead of his fingers. The corners of your mouth turn up. That’s your thing. He considers the scenario seriously. “I think we met right when we should have.”
“What about the future?” you press, leaning into the conversation. “Let’s say we meet in two years here, instead of now. Would we be friends?”
Kuroo sets his fork down, eyes you steadily. “What’s this about?”
You blink. “What?”
“What’s with all these hypotheticals today?” Perhaps worried that he came off too harshly, Kuroo adds, “I thought I was the scientist.”
“I just… it feels like I’ve known you since forever.” This feels like it was meant to be, you don’t say. And I want to know you forever.
A sigh–– fond, but still a sigh–– blows through his lips. “Don’t tell me you believe in soulmates,” he says with a wicked grin.
“Are you calling me your soulmate?” The question, shamelessly genuine, painfully hopeful, leaves your mouth without you intending it to and you regret it instantly. Because Kuroo Tetsurou has told you many times that he does not believe in soulmates.
Is it so bad to dream, though?
You watch him carefully but he doesn’t say anything, just continues smiling wryly like you’d intended to tease him. Like he knows that you know better. But you don’t.
“Are you?” he suddenly replies. Sharp eyes hold yours, daring you to respond. Do you dare?
At that moment, Giovanni returns with the check. “Who’s paying?” he asks, unaware of the tense exchange that just occurred across the table. Inaudibly, you sigh in relief. Kuroo is about to say that it’s on him when he catches himself in the middle of his sentence, looks your way, then back to Giovanni. He says you’ll go Dutch. You nod in approval.
“So,” Kuroo drawls once you’ve both paid for your meals. “Where do we go from here?”
Good question.
Kuroo Tetsurou has never been to an outdoor club period. And though he’s been clubbing, he has never once gone dancing in his lifetime. You tell him that’s about to change as he parks the car in a lot near the venue. Before him, all your summer nights were spent here.
“You’ve been here for two months and you haven’t been to an outdoor club yet?” you ask while unbuckling your seatbelt. That can’t be possible. If you’d been in his shoes… an attractive college student in a foreign country for the summer, you would have gone wild.
“Nope. I’ve been a little busy, y’know, spending my days in a lab, handling chemicals, studying viruses, washing lab equipment, writing up reports for your mother and her colleagues, working on my own research on the side… the usual.” He flashes you a bright, sarcastic smile.
“Poor baby,” you coo, ruffling his hair. Kuroo laughs while you continue messing with the dark locks. “Was your first full day here the only tourist-day you’ve had so far?” His weekends, you already know, are spent either lounging around cafés, pools, or the great outdoors with you or the interns. But you’d assumed he’d had time to do some exploring on his own.
Kuroo nods. “And my guide wasn’t even that great,” he mutters, shooting you a dark look. “She sped through every attraction and hardly spoke a word outside of the tour to me. I think she hated me.”
You giggle and open the door, letting the music from the outdoor speakers infiltrate the bubble inside your car. “Maybe she was just nervous!” you say as you get out. That’s a lie.
“About what?” Kuroo follows suit, the gravel crunching beneath his feet. “I was so friendly to you and you just brushed me off each time.” He pouts.
But you don’t reply. Instead, you just grab his hands and pull him towards the venue. As you step into the boundaries marked by fairy lights and rustic wooden fences, Kuroo stops in his tracks and tugs on your intertwined hands. You glance down before up, trying to memorise how his hand looks around yours in the few seconds you can steal.
“Y/N,” Kuroo says. The strobe lights paint his skin pink, blue, purple like it’s a canvas. “Tell me why you were nervous.” Grammatically, it’s a command. And yet it sounds like he’s begging.
“What’s it mean to you?” you ask, feeling your heartbeat speed up in your chest. So what if you just… said it? What would happen?
“Everything?” he replies with a cheeky smile. The odds that he seriously means that are slim. But… they’re there. You shake that possibility out of your mind. That’s just the hope talking.
“Depends how convincingly you say it.” You tug on his arm. “C’mon. Let’s dance.” But he doesn’t budge–– he just continues to stand by the entrance of the club with an expectant look on his face. People are starting to stare.
“Fine,” you say with an eye roll. “I’ll tell you." Kuroo smirks, something self-congratulatory ready to leave his mouth, but then you let go of his hand and dance backwards into the throng of moving bodies. “But first, you’re gonna have to dance with me!”
You allow yourself to be swallowed by the lively music, the people, the moment. Seconds later you’re deep enough into the crowd that you lose sight of Kuroo. Something in you says that he’ll show up soon, though. For now, you let yourself breathe. Forget about the heaviness of what-if’s, the itch to confess, the dread of the aftermath. Feelings are a lot like gravity. Sometimes they keep you grounded, other times, they weigh you down. This is one of those other times.
You dance up to a friendly-looking group of teens your age. Three guys and two girls. You shout your name and follow up with how it’s nice to meet them, hoping one of them finds you nice enough to keep around. Dancing alone in a club is one of the worst things that can ever happen to someone. Luckily, one of the girls–– the one wearing a purple wig–– pulls you in for a hug, drunkenly shouting back, “Bianca!” Bianca pushes you into their circle next to one of the guys and, just like that, you two start moving to the beat, feeling it in your feet, shoulders, hips. At one point, you turn around and take a good look at his face. The guy’s cute enough, but he’s not Kuroo. Still, you say nothing as he moves closer to you and grabs your hand, lifting it up and motioning for you to twirl.
Suddenly, a pair of hands grip firmly onto your waist and pull you out of the circle. “Hey!” You look down, suddenly realising they’re Kuroo’s. A shiver runs down your spine. He spins you around to face him. His lips are set in a firm line, eyes completely devoid of humour, nostrils slightly flared.
“Hi,” you say quietly, testing the waters.
“Hi,” he replies curtly. His hands are still on your waist. Selfishly, you choose not to point that out. Instead, you try to defuse the situation with a light question. Playful tone.
“Where were you this whole time?”
“Looking for you.”
“Well… you found me.” You flash him a sheepish grin. A peace offering of some sort.
“I did.” He doesn’t take it.
“Lucky you.”
Irritation finally seeps through his features. “You just left me on the dance floor!” he snaps. “And then when I find you after searching the entire venue, you’re dancing up on some random guy!”
“It was in good fun!” you retort, wriggling out of his grip. “And I wasn’t dancing up on him.” You want to ask if he’s jealous so badly, but you take a good look at his face and decide against that.
“Fun?” he asks incredulously. “Worrying about losing you, worrying about myself getting lost, then having to worry about that guy after finding you isn’t very fucking fun to me, Y/N!” The words fly out of his mouth like daggers without pause. Once finished, he looks at you with a disappointed gaze, shaking his head lightly, chest rising and falling with each heavy breath.
“I’m sorry,” you say, looking down at your shoes. It doesn’t matter if you disagree with him–– a sort of shame drills itself so deeply into your conscience that all you can think about is making things right again. “I didn’t think my actions through.”
A second passes. You wonder what he’s thinking.
“Hey, look at me.” Kuroo lifts your chin up with an index finger. Your wide eyes meet his narrow ones. Just as a pink beam glides over his face, his gaze softens, falls down to your lips. And then you feel his thumb on your chin, barely grazing the skin of your bottom lip. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down. The revelry in the background fades to dull beats against your eardrums. Suddenly, you register that he smells of, as usual, blackcurrant and amber.
But now you also smell of blackcurrant and amber.
You’re wearing his clothes. You smell of him.
Kuroo’s eyes crawl back up to yours, wide like he’s just been caught in the middle of a crime. You blink expectantly, ignoring the furious way your heart pounds in your chest. Shallow breaths puff through your slightly parted mouth.
“I am.” It comes out barely a whisper. C’mon. Kiss me. Kiss me. Kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me––
You gently touch the hand he has on your chin. Kuroo jolts back like he’s been burned. “I’ll, uhm, I’ll be in the car,” he stutters, looking away from your face. He pushes through the sea of people, leaving you all alone on the dance floor, body doused in blue light, fingers touching the area his thumb had been as if preserving its print.
Kuroo hardly notices you slip into the passenger’s seat minutes later. He’s got his forearms hanging over the steering wheel and gaze fixed ahead into the darkness, mind probably running off to a place he wishes his body was, too.
As soon as you’ve buckled yourself in, Kuroo starts the car.
The entire drive home is silent.
Once Kuroo pulls into your courtyard and parks, he turns off the engine, unbuckles his seatbelt, and steps out of the car. Wordlessly, you follow his actions and meet him by the stairs to your door.
“Hi,” you say quietly. He doesn’t look at you.
“Hey.”
The two of you stand outside your front door in silence as you both consider what to say next. This can’t be the way it ends.
“I shouldn’t have… done that,” Kuroo says first.
“Done what?” You choose to play dumb. Call it selfish, but you want to hear him say it. Maybe then it’ll feel as real as it had been. Kuroo sighs and leans his shoulder against the stone wall, crossing his arms over his chest. There’s no way he can dance around what happened. Perhaps the past two months can be summed up as the development of a strong friendship with skilled doublespeak and metaphors and just enough artistic licence, but this can’t. And Kuroo knows that. He can’t feed you an alternative truth like he’s done so many times before. What’s more, he can’t lie to himself anymore. So maybe it’s better just to not speak at all.
Your eyes burn holes into the side of his face. Fine. You’ll concede first. “I was never nervous.”
Kuroo blinks, turns his head around to look at you. “What?”
“I was never nervous. I was playing it cool because I didn’t want to risk befriending you and getting attached.” I’m still playing it cool, you don’t say. And I’m already attached. “Guess I just came off as a bitch instead.” You laugh. “But can you blame me? You were this cute, older guy. Smart, too, since you were interning with my mom. You were my dream guy.”
An amused breath blows out of his nose. “Were?” he questions, grinning, only remembering the fragility of your platonic relationship a second later. “Um––”
“Are.” It slips out of your mouth without you realising. Fuck. Kuroo stills. It’s too late to take back your words now, so you might as well just keep going. “You still are my dream guy.”
Seconds pass and neither of you says anything. Sweat gathers in the palms of your hands. You start to feel your heartbeat through your neck. The buzz of the cicadas grows louder. Oppressive. Behind Kuroo, the sky is starting to turn pale blue and pink in the horizon. That means it’s almost sunrise. The night is almost over, and, hopefully, so is this awful conversation.
“And… you don’t feel the same.” Funnily, you feel like you’re lying. You’re telling Kuroo how he feels and you think you’re lying. Does that make sense? None of this night even feels real. God, you hope this has all just been a dream. Mustering a soft smile, you say, “That’s okay. Thank you for the party. And the adventure.” It was fun while it lasted. You feel the house key in your pocket and turn to unlock the door. “I hope this doesn’t change anything between us, Kuroo. Can we still be friends?” The words leave your mouth feeling like barbed wire. You know damn well you can’t still be friends.
And suddenly, you feel his calloused hands around your cheeks. Suddenly, his hot breath fans over your face.
“Can I kiss you?” he murmurs.
Your eyes close instantly. “Yes, please.”
And suddenly, his soft lips are on yours.
Kuroo breaks the kiss seconds later. “Fuck,” he whispers, resting his forehead against yours, touching the tips of your noses together. “Y/N, I don’t want to be friends. Fuck.” A dry chuckle leaves his mouth. He pauses to collect his thoughts but decides that that can wait. Instead, he presses another kiss to your lips so fervently that he backs you up against the wall with no space between your bodies. You wonder if he can feel your heartbeat like this, chest to chest. Kuroo’s hands travel down your waist and rest on your hips. His tongue runs across your tongue, your teeth, the insides of your mouth. You gently suck on it, drawing a satisfied moan from him. When the kiss ends, you see that his lips are red and cheeks are swollen. A warm feeling spreads through your chest. “I thought I could be happy just being friends with you but I can’t. I want you so bad it hurts. Not to mention, when I saw you in my hoodie?” His fingers pinch the material. “I thought God was testing me or some shit.”
“Sure didn’t feel like you wanted me that way,” you retort, still breathless.
“In my defence,” Kuroo says, thumbs tracing your cheekbones, “I was very scared.”
“Of what?”
It looks like he’s about to tell you, but he changes his mind and doesn’t answer. He grabs your hand and pulls you back to the car with a cheeky grin. “I’ll tell you only if you tell me where we can watch the sunrise.”
Kuroo holds your hand, stroking your thumb the entire drive there.
After a short hike, you plop down on the grassy hillside, supporting your body with outstretched arms in the back. Kuroo sits down beside you with one of his hands covering yours, fingers intertwined like a honeysuckle vine around a hazel tree. You tell him that you grew up running along this hill with your parents. It used to be your playground. Maybe, you think, it’s time to make new memories here.
“Beautiful,” Kuroo breathes, a wonderstruck look in his eyes. The sun’s just risen halfway above the pink and blue horizon, the saturated orange casting the entire city below gold. It’s not just the city, though. He’s also gold. He’s just as beautiful. You watch him with a soft smile on your lips, noting how his wide eyes and slack jaw return to normal as he stares off into the distance. After resting your head on his shoulder, you fix your eyes on the sunrise ahead. You wonder what he’s thinking so quietly about.
“Penny for your thoughts?” you finally ask once the sun has finished revealing itself.
Kuroo blinks, returning to reality, but continues to stare straight ahead. “I was just thinking about… soulmates.”
You lift your head off his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you believe in soulmates now,” you tease.
“Hmm.” He turns to look at you, the sun turning his hazel eyes the colour of honey. That same wry smirk from Jack’s returns to his face.
“You wanna know why I was so scared?”
“Pray tell.”
“Because I’ve never felt this way towards anyone.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“No,” Kuroo laughs, laying his head down in your lap, looking up into your eyes. “I’m serious. I used to purposely stay away from girls in high school. Same in college. Same all the way until you somehow wormed your way into my life. That’s why we wouldn’t have been friends.” You cock your head to the side.
“Why?” you ask, running your fingers through his hair.
Kuroo’s eyelids flutter shut. He inhales deeply before talking. “My parents are divorced. The years before the divorce were… very ugly.”
(He spares you the details of the midnight arguments, the smashed plates, the holes in the walls. He spares you the details of how he only ever knew how to fall asleep with his head sandwiched between two pillows, how he hasn’t seen his sister in a decade, how he’ll curse and snap but never yell because he always feels like a child again around the noise. That’s for another time, if you’ll have any.)
“I still remember all the fighting and yelling. For the longest time, that’s all I knew about marriage and relationships.”
“Did you think all relationships were like that? Fighting and yelling?” you ask.
“For a while, yeah. I’m still a little scared of that, to be honest. Ending up in a relationship where all you do is fight.” Kuroo sighs. “But that’s not the only thing. I thought I wouldn’t know how to love someone, growing up like that.” At that, your fingers pause in his hair.
“Wait,” you say, furrowing your brows. A wave of immense sadness (not for yourself, for him) washes over you. “You think you wouldn’t know how to love someone else?”
“Thought.” Kuroo cracks open his eyes and smiles up at you. “I’m in the process of changing my mind.”
691 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Waitress and the Werewolf
Genre: wlw, urban fantasy, original story
Words: 10k
Summary: A waitress and a werewolf share early morning conversations as the wolf comes in starving from her past transformation and the waitress tries to figure out what this muddy, shoe-less stranger is doing there every month.
Website⭐Ko-Fi ⭐Patreon ⭐ WordPress⭐Twitter
May
Mia walked soberly across scraggly yellow grass, scraping the bottom of her feet and making a sharp crunching sound with each step- like someone chewing on granola cereal.
The early morning smelled of dry earth and a colorless warm breeze. The faint wind itself granted no relief for Mia’s prickling skin, a touch like lukewarm milk being poured over sunburns. Everything always burned the morning after, itching like she was swallowing Pop Rocks in her entire body.
Her vision was boneless and strange, senses coming back to Mia in a fuddled mix of colors and sounds. The reds and greens returned in a slow bloody dawn, her nerves lit up one by one from the depths of numbness, and the scents of the world slowly dried up and left her. The sharpest feeling of all though, was the hunger.
The hunger was inevitable. Perfectly ruthless and all-consuming, distracting her from any thoughts of exhaustion or a shower with soap. Ache gnawed at her insides and rumbled with the force of thunder and stampedes.
Mia pushed forward.
The sun was just a suggestion on the horizon, the faintest brushes of light across the treetops. The trees were thin and closely knit together; their eyes seem to watch her warily, perhaps they had tolerated the wolf, but her human feet were not welcome.
She staggered away from them through a dried field, dark, bleak, and wrung out, her eyes trained on the only light in the whole unfriendly area: a yellow neon sign. It blared in the distance, the color of American cheese that was 50% chemicals and the teeth of evil witches in fairy tales.
The eerie neon reminded her of some desolate cyberpunk world that existed exclusively around a single diner in the middle of nowhere. Mia followed the sign like a beacon to wise men looking for saviors or very drunk men seeking toilets.
An empty road sat next to it, a strip of quiet grey with a faded line in the center and a promise of miles of the same.
When a young woman comes lumbering out of the forest with twigs in her hair, bare skin, and moonlight to her back, poets might write romantic lyrics about the glory of innocent womanhood and nature. Or something. The dried blood and mud coating her skin probably ruined the effect.
Mia had tried to clean herself up as best she could. She scrubbed her face, secured her ragged pants and scraps of shirt, located her wallet still tucked deep in her pockets, and wiped her hands down. She became as person passing as she was going to get that night.
The light of the sign drew closer and closer, Mia steadied herself, her system flooded with thoughts of "hungry" and "aaaaaagh." She was used to both feelings.
Mia faltered into the lit parking lot, crossing the boundary between the world of poets and broken brittle grass and into the glow of a squat, long building. It had giant glass windows peering in at a spotless long counter with fixed stools and overstuffed napkin holders. Red shiny booths sat along the walls, their material sparkly and no doubt squeaky when you sat. Black and white photos cluttered the walls, depicting smiling pictures of famous people in the genre of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.
The whole place was a clear imitation of classic diners that the 1950’s would have spit out by the dozen.
It was empty at this time except for a single man with a knit cap, slumped back, and wearing a pair of sagging pants that could only be described as “doing their best.” Mia assumed he was a late-night trucker drinking coffee and forgetting the world. The restaurant was bright, alien, and a little cheap looking.
Mia didn’t care how it looked. It was roughly five in the morning and this was the only thing open, the only option really. She tucked her head down and steeled her nerves, hyper aware of her dirty bare feet and the fact she looked like she wrestled the sludge-monster from a Ghibli film to get here.
Her stomach complained again, noisy as a garbage disposal, the transformation took more calories than she liked to count. Bodies demanded payment for their fancy parlor tricks.
Mia took a deep breath, looked down at herself, cringed, and then pushed the door open. A bell dinged gently, and she blinked into the blaring white fluorescent lights. She shuffled inside, feeling the cool tiles against her toes and whole body shrinking down. The room smelled of grease and black coffee, faint bleach and the slightest hint of perfume. The perfume reminded her of sunscreen and sugar.
There was a simple kiosk by the door that Mia approached cautiously, a woman stood there with her back turned. She wore a blue collared shirt, fitted jeans, and a red company apron tied around her waist.
“Booth for one,” Mia said automatically, quick and as pleasant as she could.
The waitress turned.
The young woman had exceptionally wide eyes, owl-like and appearing prone to looks such as shock or confusion. Her cheeks were delicate, chin softly rounded, and fine mouth smeared with splotchy lip-gloss. Long copper hair piled high on her head and freckles speckled across every piece of vacant skin.
She caught sight of Mia and made a face at her that could be summarized as “an atheist meeting God and being deeply unimpressed.”
Mia sighed internally; it might be a long few months in Nolan, West Virginia.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
Lionel was counting down the minutes until the end of her shift, which was unfortunate for her since it began at five am and ended in eight hours and twenty-eight minutes. She usually tried to avoid counting the time until at least five hours in, but sometimes she indulged herself.
The counting did not in fact improve the work experience, but it did manage to amplify her sheer awareness of time itself and the idea she might be stuck in endless loops. Loop after loop of similar faces, usual complaints, and aching feet.
Lionel was waiting for one minute to pass, and then the next, and the next, but they never really seemed to.
The first two hours of a morning shift were the worst, slow, boring, and the chef was often taking a nap in the back. The late-night truckers didn’t even compliment her eye makeup or try to find out her phone number, home address, social security number, and whether she had a boyfriend or not- and if he was big. Though the last part was a perk.
It was the hour for nobodies, people questioning their own place in time and losing their identity to “five am.” Five am wasn’t a time, it was a place, and they were all one person there, similarly weary, adrift, and waiting for the second hand on the clock to tick forward.
Lionel was listening for the chef turning up his podcast from the back, she hoped to God it wasn’t the one she thought it was. But there was a lot of weird noises going on.
She had 8 hours twenty-four minutes left.
The door chimed, bell echoing dimly. “Booth for one.”
Lionel whipped around, preparing herself for at least a little activity and something to keep her busy. And then she stopped, paused, and held herself very still.
She couldn’t stop herself from wrinkling her nose, the monthly weirdos were appearing. The scent of fresh dirt filled the entrance, mud and something distinctly visceral, heady.
A girl looked back at her through short scattered bangs, she had a small mouth and dark olive eyes, meeting Lionel’s gaze with a certain firmness there. Lionel fumbled for her first words.
“Booth for one.” The girl might have said that before, but she repeated it now.
Lionel had a decision to make, and she had to make it quick. She was technically the manager on duty since it was just her and the chef right then, but this felt like something for more of a manager-manager, an adultier-adult.
Lionel cleared her throat and the girl’s eyes darkened, worry lies permeating her sharp face. She pointed down at her tattered clothes, they were streaked in fresh earth and had long tears along the pants cuffs and shirt sleeves. It looked like a war movie where they forgot to add the rest of the set around the actress.
“Construction.” The girl said weakly, pointing down at her neo-grunge appearance. “Hope you all don’t mind.”
Lionel pondered on that for a second longer, it was hard to believe. But who hasn’t walked into an establishment completely wrecked and looking for a little bacon? Lionel didn’t have time to judge strangers, she still had twenty minutes left in that hour. She made a snap decision.
“This way,” she turned, spreading a practiced smile across her face like buttering a piece of toast. “Tough morning?”
The girl shrugged, “just a bit of a mishap.” Her eyes darted around, “boss gave me the day off after.”
Lionel opened her mouth to ask why she didn’t just go home, but it felt a little cruel to poke at her lie.
“Well,” she seated the girl at one of the middle booths, one someone couldn’t see from the front door. “I’ll be your server today.” Lionel placed a menu in front of her and nodded down pleasantly. “Welcome to Millie’s Diner.”
“Thanks,” the girl squinted at Lionel’s name tag, “Xena?” Lionel forgot she was wearing one of the other waitress’s name tags, a pastime of sorts. “Like the warrior princess?”
Lionel chuckled, touching her hair absently, “Yeah. Exactly like the warrior princess.”
The girl’s face lit up for the first time, breaking into something bright and open. “Cool.”
“This job is just my side hustle of course,” she said blithely, “warrior princess gigs don’t pay the bills.”
“Naturally,” the girl straightened up in place, a little more life returning to her movements.
“Speaking of which,” Lionel flicked her notepad open, “can I get you started with some coffee? Juice?”
She shook her head, “just some water.” She went back to mumbling, “and some fried eggs and toast to start with.”
“Sounds good,” Lionel started writing.
“Stack of pancakes, do you have those flavored syrup?”
“Yeah, blueberry, strawberry, peach,” she kept writing.
“Strawberry then. A plate of bacon, two sausage links, and a, uh, hmm, okay, also a rocky mountain omelet and breakfast burrito. Extra sour cream.”
Lionel blinked a couple times, “should I expect anyone else to be joining you?” She asked without missing a beat.
The girl shook her head sheepishly, “nope. Just me.”
Lionel looked down at her notes, a silence stretched out a little longer than necessary. “No problem. Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” Lionel stuffed her pencil back into her apron, “let me put that in for you.” She turned toward the back to prompt Mike to heat up the grill, they were apparently feeding at least three people in one.
“Thanks!”
Lionel slipped away, putting the order in and then watching the strange girl from afar. She was barefoot. She was as muddy as a dust bowl.
When Lionel brought her food over she descended on her breakfast with the fury of a small tractor flattening a field. Lionel surveyed the scene mildly, picking up the empty plates one by one- discarded corpses on a battlefield.
“Are you from around here?” Lionel asked casually as she picked up the third empty plate.
The girl’s eyes rose carefully, she shook her head, “just passing through.”
Lionel smiled, “where are you headed?”
She shrugged, “I’ll be here for a few months.” She said instead, “and then, um, new construction site after.”
She cocked her head to the side, “sounds like an interesting life.”
“It’s a life.” The girl smiled slowly, “I don’t suppose you’re from around here, warrior princess?”
Lionel’s expression tightened, “trying not to be.”
She wasn’t sure why she said something so telling, but it was five am. The sun was barely bleaching the land and everything tasting of faded colors and forgotten things, maybe they were all the same person at that hour- all trying to be from somewhere else right then.
The dirty stranger ate enough for a small army, paid, and disappeared without another word. She tipped 26% on her card and wrote a small note on the receipt: fight some monsters for me, yeah?
There was a sword drawn next to it, and the doodle of a freckly girl with a crown.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
June
Lionel was snapping her mint gum, popping it and then blowing it out as far as she could again. She popped her gum in the same way people shot paint balls after their parent’s divorce, fast, and with a grudge. Something grated just under the surface of her thoughts, digging it's nails in and beckoning with the sweetest fingertips. Just one last one, it said, that’s always the best one.
She popped her gum again.
Lionel had told her mom she could quit anytime she wanted to, but it turned out that addictive smoke filled with chemicals was very much addictive. She tried not to think about taking a cigarette break.
She leaned against the counter and eavesdropped on the cook’s latest podcast; thank the lord he had switched to true crime dramas. Even if they kept making her glance at the windows and think about bolting them shut.
“Alright, this is an interesting case Alice.” Lionel listened with half an ear, “it’s about a woman who swears a mountain lion-man broke into her condo and stole fifty thousand dollars. Can you believe?”
The other podcaster made appropriate sounds of alarm.
“She wasn’t even supposed to be home that night, but she walked into her living room only find what she calls a monster. She saw some yellow eyes in the dark, just eyes, and then teeth wi-"
Lionel jumped violently when the diner door chimed, startling her out of her contemplation of smoke and eyes in the dark. She looked up jerkily. A hunched, very muddy person stood in the doorway. Her short dusty brown hair was flattened in all directions and eyes downcast.
Lionel’s eyebrows shot into the air, “the dirty girl.”
Her eyes snapped up and Lionel covered her mouth quickly. The girl’s shoulders slumped wearily, “I usually prefer Mia.” She rasped dryly, “But I suppose I’m flexible.”
Lionel hurried over to the kiosk with the menu’s; the stranger, Mia, was the first customer of Lionel’s shift that day. She stopped in place, opened her mouth, and then closed it again
Lionel straightened up, “Sorry.” She presented her best service-smile, “How are you doing today?” It seemed like a non-question, empty even, but Mia didn't seem bothered.
She gave a slim smile, “hungry.”
“I can help with that,” Lionel turned on her heels, “Same booth?”
Mia lifted her head, “You remember,” she squinted at Lionel’s nametag, “Hannah?” Her head tilted to the side, “Hannah today?”
Lionel shrugged, “Hannah today.” Mia followed her to the booth.
“I’ll be your server this morning,” she said slowly, “did you want to start off with anything to drink?”
Mia smiled slowly, “water.” She said hoarsely, “more than one glass if possible.”
Lionel nodded briefly and then looked closely at the stranger, “Are…” She frowned slightly, “are you alright?”
Mia looked up at her, something bruised and strange under her expression, “nothing some pancakes can’t fix.” She said easily, “and maybe a name change I suppose, but you seem to have that covered.”
Lionel shrugged, “a girl needs a little variety.”
“I see,” Mia threaded a hand through her stray hairs, “Hannah and Xena though, claiming all the good ones. What does that leave me with?”
Lionel straightened up, “a girl who could use some eggs.”
“Yes,” she grinned, “very good. Though a bit of a mouthful, what about Gabrielle? Or Lucy. Short for Lucifer," she chuckled to herself, "now there’s some variety.”
What a strange person, Lionel noted, but she worked at a 24-hour diner close to a highway, she was well aware the world was filled with strange people.
“Even Lucifer needs water.” She said and turned, “I’ll be right back.”
Lionel filled up two glasses of water in the kitchen. The cook was still in the middle of his podcast, but he looked up to examine Mia through his kitchen window. “Wait,” Mike squinted, “is that the one that ordered all that food a month ago?” He frowned, “she smelled bad then too.”
Lionel rolled her eyes, “this one doesn't smell that bad. Maybe you’re thinking of that egg lady from two months ago, remember? That woman with all those rotten eggs in her purse.”
The cook snorted and responded pointedly, “Nanc kicked her out.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she turned, “just start up the grill. I have feeling it will be a big order.”
“She doesn't even have shoes on!” He grumbled, “do you have a softer heart than I thought or is this some sort of side-effect of you quitting? I told ya, it’ll do stuff to your head.”
She used her hip to open the kitchen door, “let’s both quit. I’ll start with smoking, and you start with bitching.”
“I swear Li…” He continued grumbling and Lionel walked back over to her table, the girl was stacking sugar pockets on top of each other. She had already eaten three it looked like.
“Here you are,” Lionel placed the water down and took her notepad out of her apron. “Now,” she clicked her pen, “what’ll it be today?”
The girl looked up from under her tousled bangs, “I’ll start with the French toast breakfast and a grand slam steak, and then two eggs, and some hash browns. Then add a side of biscuits and gravy and a fruit bowl with yogurt.”
Lionel gave a wry grin, “is that all?”
Mia rose to meet the challenge and shook her head, “No.” She looked up, “I’m thinking a banana crepe too or maybe those honey cakes. What do you recommend?” She asked the last part slowly.
“Huh,” Lionel stuck her bottom lip out, “well, I’ve never had either,” she said honestly, “but my dog’s name is Honey Cakes. So, you know.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows lifted, “Honey Cakes. What kind of dog is she?” Mia examined her and Lionel shifted in place uncertainly.
“Border collie mix,” she gave a faint smile, “a pain in my ass, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Best damn dog this side of the Appalachians.” She looked back to Mia, “do you… like dogs?”
Mia looked off up at the ceiling and high fluorescent lights, “not really.” She said evenly, “but Honey Cakes is a very good name. I’ll have those.”
Lionel clicked her pen again, “I’ll get them right out for you.” She felt like she had something more to say, but it didn’t come to her. She retreated into the kitchen.
She handed the order over to the cook, “here.”
He looked down at it with a scowl, “oh. Is that all? Three entrees and three sides.”
She shrugged, “she implied she might be the devil.”
He turned over to the give her a firm look, “then don’t associate with that type, Jesus girl!”
Lionel looked away, “I’ll associate with who I like. She tips well.”
That was the end of that conversation, just as Mike went back to complaining and a new trucker walked in the front door. Lionel finished the hour.
Mia maintained her tradition, she ate quickly, paid, and slipped out the door without another word. There was a second doodle on the receipt this time, it was simple, a freckled girl holding the leash of dog dripping with something labeled "honey."
“You” it said, “possibly committing identity theft,” and then “Honey Cakes, very likely a good girl.”
Lionel had no other choice but to wander about what drove people to show up at strange hours, call themselves the devil, and draw cute dogs on papers. She guessed it was probably just how the world was and that she shouldn’t linger on it.
She did end up lingering on it though. It danced in between her thoughts of “one last cigarette” and true crime podcasts about break-ins, she wandered about it for a long time.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
July
Heat like hot syrup dripped down Mia’s skin, the sun was barely risen but the oppressive warmth of West Virginia summer was already layering the land with a fanged vengeance. Her reborn body was simmering with its own heat, but Mia’s mind was elsewhere. Something was wrong with her arm.
Sticky fluid ran down her right wrist and she couldn’t help but swallow waves of nausea cutting through her gut as she walked. Mia couldn’t feel the cut yet, not enough of her body was back, but she could tell it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
The trail of hot blood dripped in between her fingertips, the wound wasn’t deep, but it was long- curving elegantly from the soft of her inner elbow to her shoulder. At first, she worried she had been found, that it had been an Arcadian hunters trap, or worse, a pack. She had been so careful, moved around just enough, kept to herself just enough, didn’t linger anywhere.
Mia’s heart thudded painfully in her chest as her mind flew to images of being scented or tracked, gutted or recruited.
Luckily, she retraced the wolf’s steps and found a broken tree branch with some blood and a bit of clothing stuck to it, she exhaled in relief when it all smelled like her own. The dumb dog part of her seemed to have run into a tree; Mia opted to ignore the cut for now.
She turned toward the familiar highway.
Why does the wolf drag me all the way back to this road? All the way back to the neon sign in the dark? She didn’t have an answer for that.
Mia wandered thoughtlessly back toward the 24-hour diner in the middle of nowhere, she was almost relieved to see the same waitress on duty that night. Does she ever take the day off?
She entered the establishment quietly, feet padding soft on the cold tiles and shoulders hunched as she approached sheepishly from behind. Hannah/Xena/mystery-waitress was attending two other customers.
Mia found herself sprouting a tiny smile to the other woman’s back, “booth for one.”
The waitress was filling up a coffee cup, two older men in jean jackets and frowns sat at the counter, pointedly ignoring Mia. Xena/Hannah turned slowly.
“Oh my God,” the waitresses mouth fell open, her expression blanking quickly. “You’re bleeding.”
Mia hadn’t felt it yet, but she looked down anyway, blood spread down her entire forearm the way tree roots seep into dirt. It was much more than she remembered. “Oops.” She said lamely, realizing that she was surely pushing her luck with this latest antic. “Uh,” she scratched the back of her neck with her good hand.
The waitress put her coffee pot down, “are you-”
Mia cut her off before she could finish the thought, “let me just go tidy this up.” She put her finger up, “One sec. Promise not to bleed on your nice floors, just,” She hesitated, “save me a booth.” It somehow made her stomach sink to think of being formally kicked out of this place, though she was no stranger to such things.
“That’s gotta hurt,” the waitress frowned, “don’t tell me there was another accident on your construction site.”
Mia took a step backward and didn’t meet her eye, “one second. Right.”
She tried to slip out the door, but to her dismay someone else was just behind her, the odds were against her that morning in more than one way. She slid into the corner as the door dinged open and a couple walked through, looking exhausted and irritated.
“I told you to take 167.” The woman swore at the man.
“Look Julie, I need coffee and then we can discuss your mother’s original directions.”
“I told you not to listen to my mother!”
The waitress gave Mia one last forlorn look and then seated the young couple, Mia slipped out the door and into the dark of the parking lot. She hurried over to the side, past two large trucks and one minivan. Mia planted herself on the hard concrete, neon sign to her back and body hunched over, she tried to tear off a section of her already ragged shirt.
Mia heard not all wolves went completely wild during the moon, that they didn’t roll in dirt, run into trees, and do God knows what every time. She heard they had packs though, and den mothers that kept them all in line.
Mia had no interest in staying in line, however much she resented waking up starving with leaves in her hair.
She inhaled sharply through her teeth when she moved her right arm and a stab of pain shot right up into her shoulder. Her body was becoming fully hers again, she whimpered, “come on,” she tried to move so she could bandage herself, “just this one thing.”
She fiddled with her strip of shirt, trying to stop-up the wound while cursing at herself for several long minutes. She tensed every muscle in her body when she heard footsteps approach from behind, Mia sat up perfectly straight and tried not to panic.
“Hey there,” a voice called, “you might try not getting gangrene out here.”
Mia looked over her shoulder, the waitress was holding out a wet rag and what appeared to be Neosporin. Mia looked blankly back at her.
The waitress joined her at the edge of the parking lot, “I won’t pry.” She said simply, “but you’re gonna want to actually clean that up.”
Mia just kept looking, her mouth pinched shut. “It’s not what you think.” She said lowly, and then turned her face away.
“You don’t know what I think,” the waitress sounded wary, “mostly I think credit card insurance is a scam, NSYNC was the best band of the last two decades, full stop, and spam gets a worse rep than it deserves.”
Mia couldn’t help but grow a small laugh, “is that all?”
The waitress knelt to the ground, crouching in her fitted jeans and looking off into the dry yellow fields. “No, I’ve got more.”
Mia shifted in place, “spam is disgusting.”
The waitress snorted, “have you had it in rice with eggs and cheese? No, and I don’t accept unsourced opinions.”
Mia’s shoulders untensed, she watched her closely, the light of the newborn sun and ancient sign bathed her freckles in a mix of oranges and yellows. The shadows were long and shifting around them and she seemed like the strangest thing of the night.
“Well alright,” Mia reached out, “you sound like you cite your sources, I’ll take your magic germ-killer.” She shifted toward her, “though I don’t usually trust witchcraft or such.”
The waitress handed over the rag first, carefully passing it to Mia’s good hand. “You’re the one that called herself Lucifer.”
Mia shook her head, “Mia is fine too.” She said firmly, “and I was only trying to keep up with...?” Mia leaned over and squinted into the light, “Carol today?”
The waitress gave a small smile, “Carol today.”
Mia leaned her head back, exposing her neck to the warm air. “Can I choose your next one?”
“Absolutely not.”
Mia chuckled and lifted the warm rag to her cut, trying to wipe out the grime and clear away the trail of thick dried blood. She flinched and gritted her teeth when she got to her upper forearm, a burn eating its way into her muscle, she wrinkled her nose and exhaled slowly.
“Oh, give it here,” the waitress snapped, “I only have a fifteen minute break and I’m not being accused of stealing company property if I leave this out here with you.”
Mia scowled, “I would give it back.”
The waitress, Carol today, took the rag and scooted over to start dabbing and clearing it out, she mumbled to herself as she did. “Really.” Mia curled into herself slightly but let her work, the feel of the warm water and soft touch making her squirm slightly. The waitress paused, “this will sting.”
That was all the warning the waitress gave before Mia was yelping, a fresh sting bursting over her whole arm as she slathered disinfectant on the area. Mia shifted in place, looking up at the sky and only twitching a little, the waitress had a big grin on her face.
“And here I thought you’d be all brooding and tough.” She whispered to herself.
Mia stuck her bottom lip out, “I’m not immune to Neosporin, thanks.”
The waitress laughed and then got something out of her back pocket, “where are you from again?”
“North.” Mia said shortly, “north-north.”
“First time in the states then?”
She hummed, “not at all.”
The waitress lifted three band aids in the air, “we’re out of big ones.” She explained, “think about home or something while I put them on.”
“I’m not that hurt,” Mia and looked away, “and,” she paused, and something subdued, soft, entered her tone, “thank you for this.” She swallowed thickly, “I didn’t even know I tipped this well.”
She snorted gently, “don’t mention it. Now… Hold still.” She delicately applied the three band aids, plastering them up the long cut that ran from her elbow to her shoulder. Mia flinched but held herself still as the waitress worked, it was a quick process done by nimble hands.
“Watch that now.” The waitress said with a gentle pat to the band aids. “You’ll want to change them later.”
Mia met her gaze briefly- the waitress’s eyes were large, glimmering, hazel. “I will.”
They sat in silence for a long moment after she finished, looking off into the grasses now glowing golden in the light and waiting for something. The waitress scratched her chin, Mia watched her closely. She spoke in a hush, it felt like the moment for such things, “did you need to go in?”
She inhaled, long and noisy. “No.” She looked down at her feet, “give me a moment.” They waited once more, hovering over something. The waitress blinked, “I wanna smoke.”
Mia wrinkled her nose, “okay?”
She glanced over to her, “I’m trying to quit.” She reached into her pocket and seemed to dig up a slim, nearly broken cigarette. “Do you mind? Last one.”
Mia reached out hesitantly, “you just said you’re trying to quit.”
“I want to quit,” she looked down at the end of the white stick. “Yeah. I really do.”
She brought the cigarette to her lips and looked visibly upset, Mia plucked it back out of her mouth. “Then do it.”
Mia took the cigarette from the waitress and put it into her tattered pocket, the waitress exhaled and nodded, they both stood up together to go back into the restaurant.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
Lionel found an extra forty dollars added to her tip that day, her pride smarted from the display, but her wallet was more than hungry enough for it. There was another picture drawn on the receipt this time.
Thanks for the save :)
Buy yourself some new disinfectant or spam I guess. I’ll see you around, warrior princess Carol-Hannah.
-Mia.
Lionel shouldn’t, but she did. She stuffed the receipt into her apron until she could take pictures of it on her phone and hide that away too.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
August
Mia brought flowers. It was stupid, she knew it was stupid, but flowers were how you thanked people, right? Whenever her mom got mad her dad always brought flowers, got down on one knee and said "thanks for being the honey to my milk" or something just as foolish.
Mia was not going to say that. She was however going to thank the waitress very politely, hand over some flowers, and do it all much more presentably than usual. She’d be ready this time.
She had resigned herself to the fact that the wolf wanted to end up around this highway, dropping Mia off in the middle of the woods somehow always close to the diner. She didn’t question the animal. She was long past that.
Mia set up a box, placed where she could find it with extra clothes, baby wipes, and a pair of good shoes. She made sure she was prepared this time.
It was hid in a part of the woods where wildflower’s grew in bundles, vicious in their pursuit of the sun and unhindered by any walls or roads. Mia looked at them for a long moment, transfixed by their scraggly long stems and purple blossoms. She had grown up in the city and things like them almost made her glad she left.
She gathered up the purple flowers one by one, feeling the grainy stems and watching the sun rise over their silky delicate heads. Fastened together they were unkempt and crooked, but Mia had an odd feeling the waitress might even like that.
After gathering more than a dozen she headed toward the empty dry field and the glow of a silent building. Mia had taken her time gathering the plants and actual cars were driving up the road by then, either having just pulled off the highway or found themselves terribly lost.
Mia didn’t pay them much mind, she couldn’t feel the brittle grass against the soles of her feet for once and she was on high on her own purpose. That purpose certainly involved toast and hash browns first, but something a little more as well.
She strode into the diner, spine upright and chest puffed out, planning the first words she would say to the waitress. She hoped the first words back would be "you clean up nice," but there were only so many moments in life that could be like the movies.
Mia deflated like a popped balloon when a different woman turned around as the door dinged, a different woman with bright blue eye shadow and rose-bud lips. A different woman who wore the apron.
“Oh,” Mia’s flowers fell to her side and her smile fell with it.
The new waitress, Tilda the tag said, didn’t even bat an eye, Mia was wearing shoes this time- she wasn’t the strangest person in the joint anymore.
“Table for one?” Tilda asked as she reached for the menus.
Mia could only look around, somehow hopeful in a small way. “No,” she found herself saying, and then her stomach grumbled. “Yes.”
“Alright, this way,” the waitress seemed nonplussed, “gonna be a hot one today.”
“Yeah,” Mia could feel her chest concaving, this wasn’t how the scene went in her head. “It’s going to be terrible.”
“I hear ya’,” Tilda sat her down and placed the menu gingerly in front of Mia, “my name is Tilda, I’ll be server today. What can I get you started with?”
Mia looked down at her flowers, and then back to the woman. “Um.”
Tilda glanced at the present now too, “or are you waiting for someone?”
Mia just shook her head, “I had… a question.” She said stiltedly, her tongue running away with her.
Tilda raised one very fine eyebrow up into the air, “shoot.”
Mia took a deep breath, “I had a waitress here a month ago, and uh, sometime before that. She went by Xena or Hannah or Carol…” Mia realized she really didn’t have a chance. She didn’t even have her real name. “She’s freckly?”
Tilda just nodded shortly, “Name changer? I know her, she’s worked here forever. She’s out today though.”
“Oh,” Mia lifted her chin, “Is she… alright?” Mia wasn’t sure if she was crossing a line or not, “a friend told me to give her these.” She indicated the flowers.
Both of Tilda’s eyebrows rose like questions marks now, perfectly in tune with each other. “I wouldn’t worry.” Tilda played with her pen, flipping it back and forth in her fingers, “she’s a piece of hardwood that one. Heard she was a bit of a mess on the phone, but she’ll be back soon.” Tilda’s eyes darted to the flowers, “though maybe Li will like those, she’s out in Nolan I think.”
Mia sat with that for a long moment, words echoing in her head, was a bit of the mess on the phone.
Mia was reminded she didn’t know anything about this girl, mostly that the woman had bad opinions on things and helped strangers out on their worst nights.
“Should I leave you with the menu?”
Mia shook herself out of her thoughts, “No, I’ll start with a bowl of oatmeal, hash browns, and a plate of pancakes with…”
The flowers wilted next to her.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
This is a bad idea. It is definitely, very much, a terrible, bad idea.
Mia Kotsiopoulos moved to the outskirts of Nolan, West Virginia in order to disappear, places like this tended suck the memory out of anything. But this was definitely going to be memorable.
She stood outside a beige building wearing oxford shoes, brown slacks that went to her shins, and a short-sleeve blue button-up. It was much better than her usual "tatters and questionable hygiene" approach.
She had even showered before she showed up.
But nonetheless, she had shown up to a service-workers house in the middle of the day, holding flowers. She never thought the movie she played out in her head would be the "creepy stalker" variety.
Mia was standing outside a mini condo with a beige outside and beige door and a scraggly bush in the front. A house cat peered at her from one of the windows across the street and the sun beat hot against her neck from up above.
She stared at a door with cheap silver numbers on the front and flap for mail, it looked unassuming and quiet. It was in a small neighborhood that was made smaller by the size of the town itself; Mia had followed the scent of sunscreen perfume and grease all the way here.
She tried to deny in her head that she memorized the waitress’s scent, but that would be a bold-faced lie at this point. She kept staring at the door.
The cat hissed at her from across the way and Mia hung her head, “what am I doing?” She turned to leave, she wasn’t this, she promised she wouldn’t be.
She crept back toward her Mitsubishi and slammed her wildflowers in the passenger's seat, trying to suppress any nascent feelings bubbling up. All she did was bandage your arm, Mia reminded herself, it was nothing.
Then she heard a voice calling, “Honey Cakes!” The voice carried, “Honey-Honey!”
Mia lifted her chin up and peered down the long sun baked street, a figure stood cupping her hands around her mouth and wearing a fluffy lilac robe. The figure looked left and right, walking frantically in Mia’s direction without looking at her. “Here girl! Honey Cakes.”
“Oh,” Mia straightened up, her mouth making a small perfect circle. The waitress looked visibly distraught, her eyes red-rimmed and long hair undone and tumbling lankly down her back. Her robe had a yellow stain on the sleeve and a thin nightshirt peaked out from underneath, crumpled and forgotten.
Mia took a couple uncertain steps forward; the waitress looked every which direction on the ground before she noticed Mia. Her eyes went wide, “you.”
Mia suddenly didn’t know what to do with her hands, or face, or any part of her body. “Are you missing your dog?” She asked quickly.
The waitress seemed to take a long second to respond, frowning slightly and probably weighing this all in her head. Maybe she was thinking of calling the police on one of her customers randomly showing up near her house.
Then she nodded hesitantly, “yeah…”
“I was just on a walk,” Mia tried to justify her presence, “and I heard you calling out.”
The waitress touched her messy hair and looked down at her feet, they were bare. “Cool. Alright. Enjoy your walk.”
Mia straightened up, “also,” she struggled, her face flushing slightly. “I wanted to thank you. Really thank you.”
The waitress seemed to look at her for the first moment, eyes focusing out the depths of their worry. “Don’t mention it,” she said with a familiar breezy note to her voice, “only a dick would leave you out there to bleed out.”
“I don’t know about that,” Mia rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously, “most people probably wouldn’t even let me eat there in my state the first time.”
The waitress shrugged loosely, “most people suck.”
Mia gave a newfound smile, “can I help you look for your dog?”
She paused again, lips puckering and noticeably bare of makeup that day. She gave a tight nod, “you have good eyes?”
“No,” Mia said simply, “but I can, uh, I can help.”
The waitress gave her a perplexed look, “alright, yeah, this way.” They walked down the sidewalk together and the waitress pointed around. “I lost her a night ago…” She said weakly, “it’s been almost 72 hours.” Her voice sounded strained and fragile.
Mia looked both directions, “I can definitely help. Does she respond to a whistle?”
The waitress nodded, “I trained her with my brother, he’s big on dogs. Before she became just mine, he used to do this big wolf whistle to get her to come," she smirked in a private way, "he was such a show-off.”
Mia broke into a fond expression, “K.” She wet her lips, put two fingers in her mouth, and let out a truly impressive sound, a ringing golden whistle that echoed down the street like a shot arrow.
The waitress let out a whistle of her own in response, “woah.”
“Honey Cakes!” Mia called next, “Honey.”
They walked down the cracked sidewalk and toward the center of town, Mia tried not to stare at the other girl, and tried even harder not to bump into her. It was a long walk.
The waitress started slowing down once they passed the post office, ten minutes had passed by then and she had started flagging, her chin drooping down toward her chest and expression cracking like porcelain.
Mia tried to move quick, “we’ll find her.” She reassured softly, “I’m sure she’s looking for you too.”
The waitress shook her head, she closed her eyes and took a jerky turn down a narrow alley, walking purposefully ahead, but making no noise or move to call for her dog. Her shoulders sloped into two perfect arched hills, trembling slightly.
“Wait,” Mia chased after her, “it’s only been a night, dogs come back from much longer trips than this.”
The waitress put her face in her hands, “it’s my fault.” She said, voice wobbling, “it’s all my fucking fault. I left the door open.”
Mia reached out toward her, suddenly unsure of what to do. “Anyone could do that. We can fix it.”
The waitress sniffed and shook her head violently, “I was yelling on the phone. She hates when I yell, and her dinner was late. I should have known this would happen! She deserves better, I can’t even keep one fucking thing right.” Her voice was wet now and heavy.
Mia risked putting her hand on the other woman’s shoulder, “hey, hey now,” she spoke softly, as if to not to spook a frightened deer. “I’m sure she knows you love her, and it was just a bad night. I’m sure she wants to come home.”
The waitress made a tiny, hiccuping sound and turned her large hazel eyes on her, watery and full. “I promised her I’d buy a place with a big yard by now. I promised, and,” she wiped at her face, “I lied. And kept lying and forgetting. And now she’s gone.”
Mia took a deep breath, “are carrying her leash? Or any of her things?”
The question seemed to surprise the waitress out of her self-pity, “any of her things?” Mia just nodded, the waitress reached into her pocket and produced a yellow collar. “I take her collar off when we’re at home since she hates wearing it.”
Misery was apparent in the waitress's tone.
“Okay,” Mia centered herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in through her nose. “Alright.”
She also shouldn’t do this; it wasn’t something she allowed herself to do. Mia tolerated the wolf when it forced itself out once a month but tolerating and tapping into were two different things. This was fraternizing with hostile forces.
Mia’s sense of smell was already acute, but this was going take something fantastical.
She couldn’t "turn" in broad daylight like this, but the full moon was simmering just above, barely contained by the blanket of silky blue sky. Mia could feel the cool, surging power latent in her veins. Just a little, she promised herself, just enough for this.
Her sense of smell piqued all at once, sensations rushing in like a floodgate being opened and storming the fort. Everything came into focus, the coffee shop next door brewing bitter smells, the lady down the street lathering her hands with coconut lotion, old meats, rotten fruits, sneakers.
She reeled back, taking a step toward the walls and clutching her chest. Mia quickly collected herself, took the collar in hand, and lifted it to her nose, taking a deep breath.
“This way.” She started walking decisively back toward the street, not sparing a look toward the waitress.
“Wait,” the other woman stumbled after her, “where are you going?”
“Follow me,” she said, “we’re going to find your dog.” She glanced over her shoulder and wet her lips, “trust me.”
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
Lionel had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea what she was doing last night when she yelled at her credit card company for an hour and no idea what she was doing when she called into work that morning for a "personal day." She never took work off.
She couldn’t lose Honey Cakes though, she just couldn’t.
The "five am woman" was back, Mia, and Lionel was watching her wide shoulders as she strode fixedly down the street. Her short hair was styled now, sides cropped short and bangs smoothed back, she was wearing pressed, clean clothes that flattered her sturdy figure.
Her skin was moon-bright under all the mud Lionel had seen coating her before. She had a mole on her chin and clear blue eyes in the daytime.
She cleaned up nicely.
Lionel, however, did not. She was fully aware that she was in her “lazy day robe” and her nose was no doubt still leaking, it couldn’t have been a worse day.
“No, I’m serious,” she spoke to the other woman’s back as they strode out of town, “where are we going?”
Mia didn’t look back, “we’re getting close.”
They left the main street and passed the last few houses in the town of Nolan, population 1,022. The rest of the houses clustered farther back and further out.
They were on bare road soon, where the sidewalk disappeared, and the world stretched out into trees, old tires, and white shacks in the distance that hosted scavengers and drug deals. Lionel followed mutely behind, she didn’t like crying, she liked it less when it was in front of other people.
“So,” Mia spoke up gently, “when did you get Honey Cakes?”
Lionel ducked her head down. “When my grandma died.” She said without inflection, “My brother thought it would cheer the family up… and then she just became my dog.”
Mia looked over her shoulder and nodded, “what’s she like?”
“Terrible,” Lionel rubbed her face, “but she’s so sweet I forgive her for chewing up all my good shoes anyway.”
Mia chuckled and looked down at Lionel’s bare feet, her face flushed slightly. “Would you believe me if I said a dog got rid of all my shoes too?” She smoothed her hair back, “twinsies.”
Lionel couldn’t help but grow a small smile, “why do you think I let you in? Kindred spirits.”
Mia laughed, a round and full sound. “I’m not sure about that.” She paused, “but I would like to help.”
Lionel became somehow even more perplexed, where are we going?
“I’m trusting you,” she said slowly, “I don’t follow just anyone out into uninhabited areas without my phone on me.”
Mia’s back muscles bunched together, “it’s not uninhabited,” she pointed ahead, “there, that’s what I thought.”
A stray mechanics shop appeared just around the corner, white with two garages and a tiny office attached to the side. It probably serviced the locals and whoever was unlucky enough to break down out here.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Lionel sped up, “and you think she’s…?”
Mia just nodded, “see? Trustworthy.”
Lionel lit up, heart suddenly lifting for the first time that day. “If she is really here…” She said slowly, “will you trust me too?”
Mia frowned, “what do you mean?”
Lionel lifted her head, “my name is Lionel by the way. Lionel Campbell.”
“Oh,” Mia smiled, her entire face stretching into an enchanting excitable thing. “Oh, that’s a great name.”
Lionel shifted in place, “Xena is better.”
Mia shook her head, “completely not. I love lions.”
“And not dogs?”
Mia looked ahead, “Maybe some dogs.”
Lionel looked ahead too as the mechanics shop approached like a mirage, she was about to prompt Mia again, but a stray bark coursed through the air. A familiar high-pitched sound that was equally fussy and warm.
“Honey Cakes?” She called carefully, and then she heard another bark, “Honey-Honey!”
She started running as she saw the face of a floppy-eared brown and yellow dog stick her head up in the office window. “Girl!” Lionel was sprinting toward the door, hands outstretched, another bark followed.
They had found her dog.
— ❈ —
The mechanic had found Honey Cakes wandering by the side of the road the night before, seemingly turned around and confused. He brought her to his shop and gave her some food and water, he had planned to bring her to the nearest shelter the next day. Lionel had gotten there just in time.
Honey Cakes jumped up on her the second the door opened, and she wrapped her arms around the dog, “I missed you too!” She could have cried again.
She thanked the mechanic and put the collar back on her happy, dumb dog. Honey Cakes ran around in circles and barked at her, tongue out. It was a muggy warm day, but it somehow felt lighter than ever.
Afterward, Lionel, Mia, and the dog retreated toward the wild green grass near the shop, sitting down in a field to rub the dog’s belly.
“Thank you,” Lionel gushed again, “I would have never found her if that mechanic had drove her all the way to the shelter in Edward’s Town.”
Mia wasn’t looking at her, staring off into the distance instead, “no problem.” She grinned, “Lionel.”
Lionel stretched out across the thick grass, still petting her shaggy friend. “Well you’ve got my name now.” She steadied her gaze, “what’s your magic trick?”
Mia turned in profile, angling her head slightly toward her, expression blank, “what do you mean?”
Lionel leaned forward like it was a secret, “how’d you find my dog?” Her eyes went wide, “are you psychic?”
Mia chuckled, but it wasn’t exactly a happy sound. “You got me,” she lay back down in the grass, stretching out spread eagle and bathing in the sheets of sunshine. “I’m psychic.”
Lionel turned over on her side to face her, “A psychic who sniffs things and follows their tracks?” She said quietly, “and always shows up during the full moon covered in dirt?”
Mia glanced back at her, eyes filling with panic and brow denting inward. “Lionel…”
Lionel just shook her head, crawling up closer to her. “I never listened much to rumors and newscasters.” She spoke ever so softly, “it’s not my business.” She gave her a smile, a real one, “all I know is that you found my dog.”
Mia shifted away from her, she didn’t seem to be breathing. “It isn’t...I.”
Lionel reached out, clamping down around the other woman’s arm, “where are you from, really?”
“Ottawa.”
Lionel just nodded, “Good. How do you like Nolan so far?”
Mia relaxed, just ever so slightly. “Well.” She said simply, words slow and pointed. “Best service I’ve gotten anywhere so far.”
Lionel rolled her eyes spectacularly, “Careful,” she said dangerously, “Honey Cakes could get the wrong idea. She bites people who she thinks are even close to flirting with me. A real puritan like that.”
“It’s okay,” Mia scratched the sprawling Honey Cakes behind the ears, “I have a way with dogs.”
Lionel ducked her head down, a flush creeping up her neck. This isn’t good, she swallowed. “So, what do you do, Mia? Dog whispering?”
“God no,” Mia sniffed, “Freelance coding, but I’m hoping to switch jobs when I, you know, grow up. Past thirty I’m thinking. Maybe forty.”
Lionel laughed, spirits lifting, “and what would you like to be when you grow up?"
Mia's eyes gleamed impishly, “I’m thinking tiny foods food blogger or custom shoelace knitter, that sort of thing.”
“Something practical,” she nodded solemnly.
Mia grinned so wide it looked like it might eat her face, “butterfly-dust expert maybe, professional harmonica tuner, wild hamster tamer.”
Lionel giggled, actually giggled, "that's what I was gonna guess! You took mine."
They snickered together, and something was so light in the air it felt like it might burst. Honey Cakes didn’t even try and bite the new girl, not that she ever would.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
September
Lionel still didn’t know what she was doing, but something about this had become increasingly right. Increasingly like something she couldn’t escape and didn’t want to. The minute hand had ticked forward.
It was the end of her shift on a Friday, she kept glancing out the windows and checking the streets. Tilda was examining her, “why are you so jittery, Li?” She poked her as they passed each other, “this from the quitting? I’m with you there, Brad won’t even look at me if I sneak one nowadays.”
“No,” Lionel kept her eyes on the window, “it’s nothing."
“Nothing,” Tilda just grinned with her bright red knowing smile.
Lionel wrinkled her nose, “this is normal.” She looked out the door again, “I’m acting normal.” Her expression softened, the sun was far in the sky and it would only be twenty more minutes, she's coming.
Tilda laughed like aluminum foil being crinkled, “damn. I knew Mikey said you were smiling more, but I’ll have whatever stuff you’re on now.”
Lionel rolled her eyes, picking up a stack of dirty plates. “It’s called a good work attitude.” She turned on her heels, “try it.”
Tilda laughed again, huge and exuberant, Lionel had a weird notion she would miss that if she ever did manage to leave.
Another fifteen minutes passed, Lionel’s heart had moved into her throat and the world was turning in slow motion. Somehow, she didn’t mind.
She felt like she was giving herself whiplash turning each time the door dinged, she was only finally right the fiftieth time. A woman came through the door wearing a pair of slacks, oxfords, and a clean purple shirt buttoned to her throat, she smiled with all her teeth.
Mia was holding an array of flowers and a small box. “Hey.” She said gently and Lionel hurried over.
“I’ve got five minutes left,” she whispered, “but I don’t think they’ll notice.” Mia tilted her head to the side.
“Take your time,” there was something reserved in Mia's tone, her voice deep and sending a shiver down Lionel’s spine.
“Take a table, anywhere.” She ran to the back room to sign out, proper hours be damned. This was close enough.
“Is that what this was about?” Tilda commented, she still had five hours left in her shift and was a little grumpy for it. She squinted at the young woman seated in a middle booth.
Lionel just shook her head, “no judging. It’s not about anything.” She grinned so widely it felt like it might hurt, she winked. “Yet.”
“I ain’t one to judge," Tilda said loosely, "the lord made girl’s like that to tempt nun’s themselves.” She waved a hand in the air and snorted, “it’s a step-up from Rickey, I’ll give you that. This one actually know their way around a downstairs department store?”
“Oh my God,” Lionel threw her apron into her purse, “I’ll see you later Tilda.” She waved, “Tell Mikey absolutely nothing is happening.”
“He thinks that girl is a demon or something.”
“I know!” She ran through the door, “not even close.” Tilda was just laughing again.
Lionel darted up to Mia's table with wings on her heels, “Come on.” She came grabbed for Mia’s left hand, “Let’s get out of here. There’s a farmer’s market in Edward’s today, Edwards! I’ll pay for the gas.”
“Wait,” Mia said stiltedly, the reserved tone was back. “Wait. Just a moment. I wanted to… well, I have this for you.”
Lionel blinked a couple times, “Ah, Mia,” she grinned, “you know I love flowers, but I’m running out of vases. I’ll be filling the bathtub with them soon.”
Mia shook her head, and suddenly Lionel recognized the diving sadness behind her gaze. “Want to sit for a moment?”
Lionel frowned and folded into the booth across from her, heart sinking. This was supposed to be the day. After a few dinner’s out at other restaurants and a trip to the fair Lionel had decided it had been long enough, she was ready to kiss a wolf.
But maybe Mia knew that.
“What is it?” She held herself perfectly still.
Mia looked at her hands, tapping her short nails on the table. “Open this.” She passed a present to Lionel, it was elaborately wrapped in shiny blue wrapping paper and the bow on top might as well have been a work of art onto itself. Uh-oh.
Lionel hesitantly took the box, she picked at the ribbon on the top tepidly, then she put it down again. “No,” she lifted her chin up, “I won’t.”
Mia’s eyes went wide, a half-hearted smile followed, “I promise it’s not a dead bird or something.” She said delicately, “I’m not actually that much like Honey Cakes.”
Lionel shook her head, “I know what this is.” She huffed, “and I’m not having it.”
“What is it?” Mia blinked rapidly and then sighed.
Lionel made a face, “it’s only been a few months,” she whispered, “passing through should take longer than that I say. A little longer. I have an uncle who’s been passing through here since ‘75.”
Mia’s head fell, broken down on the spot, she looked away. “You’re too smart for your own good.”
“I know a going-away present when I see one.” Lionel made a face at her, “I suppose you were hoping I was an idiot.”
“No!” Mia squirmed in place, “it’s one of those things I really like about you... it just makes this so much harder.”
“Then don’t do it,” Lionel swiftly looked toward the road outside.
Mia sighed, reaching for Lionel’s hand and taking it. She stroked the top of Lionel's hand with her thumb, “don’t worry.” She whispered, “your life will be better for it. Wolves… are carnivores. They eat everything good whole."
“They’re pack animals too,” Lionel took her hand back and looked down at her lap, “are you just going to keep being alone after this? Is that really better than being with…” She hummed for a long moment, “you know.”
She looked up just in time to see Mia bow her head, “nothing would be better than that.” She reached for her again, “but we can’t.”
Lionel’s pulse spiked, I can't do this, it was too much, she couldn’t. She sprang to her feet, hopping up and slipping out of the booth and dashing for the door. She ran out into the parking lot and took deep gasping breaths. “Goddammit.”
Mia ran after her, “Lionel.” She called desperately. “Lionel, you know what I am. You already guessed a long time ago; I have a target on my back.”
“So?” Lionel looked up at the puffy white clouds and gritted her teeth.
“Wolves are bad news. Lone one’s are even worse…” Mia struggled with her words. “I have to keep moving. There are hunters, and other packs. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Lionel turned, slowly, carefully, around. “But it happened.” She whispered, “you really want to go back?”
Mia shook, barely moving at all. “I can’t do it to you. I can’t, it’s not a stable life.”
Lionel’s hair tickled her shoulder tops as she moved, “fuck stable.” She took a bold step toward her, “I let you into my restaurant, all grubby and sad-looking. Let me in now.”
Mia didn’t move back, “God, this is hard.” She murmured, “I won’t be able to replace any of it you know.” Her brow dented, “you, arguing with telemarketers, cooking everything with that weird cheese, yelling at the TV. I won’t be able to replace it.”
Lionel put her hands out, “then don’t.”
Lionel crept closer and Mia didn’t pull away, her expression softened. Lionel slowly rested her arms around Mia’s neck, inhaling her earthy scent and drinking in her clear eyes, Mia let her. It was bright out, bright and heart-pounding, but Lionel found a way forward, moving their faces so close together it stung.
Mia put a hand through Lionel’s hair and her breath tickled her cheek. “You might regret this.”
Lionel shrugged, “try me.”
And then they came together, golden and impossible. She kissed her, a sugar rush of lips and firm touches, they had been waiting for this. Mia’s fingers pressed into her waist and drew her close, kissing like an undertow with no ground to catch yourself on.
Lionel kissed back, hungry and soft for it, soft with the warm breathy sighs and movements and all the things she hadn’t hoped for. She got lost in the heady world of a girl and something she didn’t know was possible.
She was new again.
≿————- ❈ ————-≾
Mia drew one last thing on a receipt for the diner: thanks for everything. I’ll return her in one piece.
Lionel added something as well: I won’t.
--------------------
if you enjoyed the story please consider donating to my ko-fi or subscribing to my website
#wlw#werewolves#urban fantasy#f/f#original story#sapphic#lesbian romance#femslash#original writing#the waitress and the werewolf#my work#i thought I should finally post this here
1K notes
·
View notes
Note
I'm glad you enjoyed your vacation!!
Omg the switch version of Genshin is taking so long. It's as I'd expect though considering Nintendo doesn't always cooperate the best when it comes to releasing non Nintendo games on their platform >.>
I'm also on the American server! Omg kaeya is my favorite of the starter 4*s. I love him sm and he is so useful. My favorite 4* characters to use are Thoma and Bennett and my favorite 5*s I currently have are Childe and Kazuha. I'm going for Itto today asdffgbsg pls come home dummy
I've been thinking about getting into Tokyo revengers a lot of moots that have similar taste as me are very into that series 👀
Hmm anyway I should ask a question shouldn't I? What's your favorite season?
-animanga secret santa
ugh my angel sugar plum. sorry i’ve taken years to reply. i had actually seen this when you sent it and i had answered but my computer lost connection and i left the page for a second and it refreshed on me when i came back to it. i was so upset i was like i’ll reply later and then i forgot and got busy. with going back to work etc.
i am sorry!!
but here goes my reply attempt number two! ✌🏼
thank you! i really needed that vacation im not gonna lie lmao i hate my job but i need the money 😭
god damn nintendo lmao that’s why i sometimes regret not having bought like an xbox or play station lmfao maybe i’ll get one in the future. i mean i barely play games as it is so *shrug emoji* but still i do hope they release it soon if it is still in the works cause as much as i don’t mind playing on my tablet i would enjoy it more if i could play on an actual console type thing heh.
(the way im at work rn typing this up on like the notes app of my phone lmao)
Y A Y american server buds!! well, as soon as you reveal yourself to me we can add each other on there. fair warning i’ve only just started playing and my characters aren’t too leveled up and i suck as well lmao. i’ve never actually played with anyone?? idk how that works i am: shy. lmao.
my only other friend is on the europe server so we can’t play together 😭
i fucking love kaeya pls he hasn’tleft my party SINCE i got him. the other day i did get my newest fave, keqing!! i am absolutely obsessed with her pls.
how do i get him like how can i get him? i want him so bad (itto) omg i hope by now you’ve gotten him or are close to it?
TOKYO REVENGERS! yes i think you should definitely get into it if it’s something you think you might enjoy especially since a lot of your moots are already into it and you say y’all have similar tastes!!! it’s definitely a good watch. keeps you on your toes. i definitely cried for the last seven episodes lmao
as for my favorite season, i love winter. fall comes second but down here in texas with the global warming and shit it’s always like humid and gross and shit we only have like a few nice fall-ish days. so definitely winter lol.
wby?!!
what are your xmas and nys plans???
0 notes
Text
An Essay on “Practical Catholicism”
So a few weeks ago, two of my coworkers were talking about different religions and how people practice their respective faiths. I didn’t really take part in the conversation, but simply listened in as it was near my desk, and I couldn’t help but hear. One of them made a remark to this effect: “I don’t see why people need to go to a special building to worship God. I can worship him in my house, or out in nature, or anywhere. I don’t need a special building for that.”
And, to a certain degree, she’s right. We can worship God anywhere. In fact, Jesus tells us that we should go to our inner rooms and pray to our Father in secret, and our Father who sees what is secret will repay us.
There is certainly merit to private prayer, do not get me wrong. We should all be comfortable with private meditation whether at home or on the go, and we don’t need a “worship space” – a church, a chapel, a grotto, or whatever – to pray.
All that being said, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we DO need to be comfortable with communal worship as well. As one of my favorite Christian musical artists Ron Kenoly says, “Learn how to worship with the person standing next to you / Because when we get to Heaven, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
We need to have and do both.
But, let’s not overlook why so many people do go to church, and have gone to a central place of worship for hundreds of generations: the practical one – it’s a community center.
Think back to the 1800s, and those rural communities out in Farmland, USA (or any country, really). Your neighbors were sometimes several miles away, and, without cars, that was easily a half-day’s journey just to go to your friend’s house for a chat, grab a thing of sugar and then head back home. It was much easier for everyone to gather at the church, a central location, on Sunday and hear the latest news — that couple just had their first baby; so-and-so is on their deathbed; Mr. Smith fell and broke his leg and is on bedrest for several weeks. But, because these were also people of Faith, that meant that they could take action on anything that they felt needed to be done. Bring the new parents some food; help Mr. Smith’s family with their chores and other tasks; offer so-and-so’s family words of consolation, etc.
Even today, politicians realize that if you want to get the African-American communities involved, you go to their churches. You talk to the pastor, or the youth minister or whomever, because if they can get their congregation involved, your collective goals will be accomplished very quickly. This can be said for other communities, too, don’t get me wrong; but the African-American community is well-known for seeing the church as a gathering place for everyone to come together and plan how to get things done. (See: the Civil Rights movement.)
And as I thought of all these things later, after my coworkers’ conversation was long over, I began to realize how many aspects of our Faith hold not only a spiritual reason, but a practical one as well.
For instance: stained glass windows. Yes, they’re pretty. Yes, they should raise our thoughts to God and His work throughout salvation history. But, really, the reason they were first used in churches was when the majority of church-goers were illiterate, and the church leaders (priests, religious, etc.) needed a way to instruct both children and adults about the stories of the Faith. Thus, stained glass windows as a visual aid for whatever important Biblical figure or story you needed to teach people about.
Candles seem so archaic and ritualistic now, but up until electricity was invented, that was the only way to see. Yes, they also serve a liturgical and spiritual purpose; but, honestly, they were there to help the priest read the Missal and everyone else to see what was going on. If your church had a lot of windows and natural light, great! But, on those days when it was dark, or cloudy, or the church couldn’t afford windows… candles were the only way to see things.
(EDIT: When first writing this essay, I forgot to add the very important example below, on confession. I will also mark where the new content ends and the old content begins, just for clarification.)
I’ve been thinking about this subject for a while, and I remember mulling it over again after I saw this reblog on my “When you have to confess a really embarrassing sin to your favorite priest” post
This is one thing I envy Catholics for. I know I can lay my sins directly before God in private confession and prayer, but I feel like I would get more closure from confessing my transgressions in person to someone like a priest. It might feel more real, more permanent, than whispering a prayer by myself, and wondering if I was sincere enough. I mean, it is so much scarier to go to a real person and confess my shame out loud! But I would be able to trust them, and they would remind me of God’s forgiveness, and I would feel that my extra effort proved my repentance to be sincere.
And I know God’s forgiveness depends fully on Jesus’s sacrifice and not on the sincerity of my plea for it, but the mental shame game is still a toughie.
This is something I’ve always appreciated about confession. Several times I’ve wanted to just confess my sins to God and just hope in His Mercy and not have to bring them to confession, because I just felt so embarrassed about them. Why can’t I just tell God I’m sorry? Why do I have to go to a priest? Can’t I just ~assume~ that He’s forgiven me and move on?
But, I cannot tell you the relief I feel every time I do take those sins to confession and hear the words, “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go in peace.” I know, with 100 percent certainty, that I am forgiven.
And, even more practically speaking, in hindsight, it’s so helpful to bring those sins to the priest who can give you counsel and advice on how to avoid giving into those temptations in the future. If you’re Catholic, I’m sure you understand how many little tidbits from confession you end up remembering. Whether you carry them out or not is another matter, but they stick with you. If you’re not Catholic, I sincerely ask you to investigate what I mean – ask Catholics you know about confession and how it helps them; talk to a priest; etc. Granted, the priest doesn’t always give you advice or counsel, but when he does, it’s almost always something you needed to hear, whether you knew it already or not. He can tell you not to beat yourself up over your weaknesses, more practical steps on avoiding certain sins, or ways you can beef up your prayer life. It’s like spiritual direction with a bit of therapy thrown in there.
(EDIT: Old content begins here.)
One of my favorite parts of the liturgy that falls into this category is when the priest washes his hands after receiving the gifts (bread, wine, monetary donations) from the congregation. He says a prayer, “Lord, wash me of my iniquities and cleanse me of my sin,” and has the server pour a bit of water on his hands. The gesture is more for a spiritual purpose now than a practical one… But it didn’t start out that way. In the days of the Early Church, the priest did this to wash off all the gunk he got from touching the livestock, produce and other things that people donated during the Offertory. Now, of course, its practical purpose is gone, but that history is still there.
Many of the things that we do, if traced back enough, can also be seen from a practical perspective, and not just a spiritual one. For instance, the relics of the saints that every church has in its altar is a reminder that many in the Early Church celebrated Mass in the crypts beneath Rome, because that was — practically speaking — the safest place to do it. It was secret, out of the public way, and you could only really find it if you knew about it. Similarly, the ichthus, or the “Jesus fish symbol” as we always called it when we were kids, was a way for Christians to identify each other when their religion was forbidden. One person would trace the symbol with their foot or their stick in the sand or the dirt, to see if the other person would recognize it. If so, they were a fellow Christian. If not, you could just smudge it out or claim you had restless leg syndrome or something and it wasn’t anything.
Practically speaking, we have a Pope, because we need a “lead guy” whenever something goes wrong or we need to make a decision. Yes, he makes those decisions in union with a council of bishops, so it’s not just him acting by himself. But, at the end of the day, the Pope can always be regarded as The Official Spokesman® for the Catholic Church. If some Catholics do something that’s bad, the Pope can be the one to say, “Yeah, no, that’s seriously not what we believe. Don’t listen to them if they tell you that we do.”
Our society is starting to see this a lot right now among the Muslim community. We have some Muslims in the Middle East who are killing Christians and other non-Muslims, and claiming jihad, and doing all sorts of violent things — all in the name of Islam; all claiming that their beliefs are justified in the Qu'ran. Yet, there are Muslims in America who believe Islam is a peaceful religion, that attacking people of other faiths is never justified, and that the other Muslims have taken the Qu'ran out of context. Who are we non-Muslims to believe? Is Islam peaceful or not?
Granted, even if there were The Official Spokesman® for the Islamic Faith, I doubt those conflicts and quarrels would go away. However, it would give us non-Muslims someone to look to and say, “S/he speaks for all the true Muslims and those who disagree are a splinter group.”
Even within the Catholic Church, there are plenty of “Catholic” politicians who are pro-choice, even though the Church has spoken out against abortion several times, and asked people not to approve of it in any way, especially politicians. Yet, there are groups within the Church who don’t listen to or follow these teachings, and do their own thing, yet still claim to be Catholic. Who are we to believe? Is Catholicism pro- or anti-abortion?
I don’t want to get too bogged down in the political dealings. The ultimate point was that we Catholics have someone to look to as a sort of final authority (on earth), a spokesman, and a guy who gets the deciding vote (if there were ever some kind of disagreement within the church about something) before proclaiming doctrine on Faith and Morals.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that we do in the liturgy that are wholly spiritual in nature. Kneeling, for instance — there’s really no practical reason to kneel. We do it to show reverence for the King of Kings, who is present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I simply mean to say that so much of our faith, our prayers, our rituals, our liturgy, our structure of the Church involves what I would like to call “Practical Catholicism.”
We are hylomorphic beings after all. That means that we are both body and soul. Some Christian denominations say that humans are merely souls temporarily trapped inside meat bags. That our bodies are unimportant. Merely prisons from which we must free ourselves. And while our souls are certainly more important, that doesn’t mean that are our bodies are nothing. Our souls affect our bodies, and our bodies affect our souls.
There’s a reason that my spiritual director always encouraged people to drink coffee before trying to pray in the morning. There’s a reason why you’ll start feeling depressed if you’re inactive for too long. There’s a reason why if there are certain hormones in your system, you’ll probably have to fight harder against lustful thoughts and actions. We are both. Yes, our souls will go to Heaven (or Hell) when our bodies die, but at the End of Days, we are going to get our bodies back — New and Improved® bodies.
So, the next time you wonder why Catholics’ rosaries have five sets of 10 beads (it’s because we used to count on our fingers); or why the choir loft is usually above the congregation and at the back of the church (it’s so our voices and instruments can carry better); or why Hispanic Catholics only ever seem to use guitar / mariachi-type music at church (because guitars and trumpets are hand-held, portable instruments, making them perfect for processions, or minstreling through the town, and are generally cheaper than a piano or organ); or why we use only precious metals to contain the Eucharist (not only is it spiritually respectful, but precious metals typically last longer); or anything else about the Catholic Faith, I merely ask that you try to see not only the spiritually relevant reasons, but the practical ones as well.
Because, ultimately, whether you believe in God, whether you practice a faith, whether your Catholic or another Christian denomination… learning to cooperate and work with others to achieve a common goal is central to not only our society, but society in general.
Thus, if ever anyone asks you or complains about not needing a special building to worship God in… just say, “You know, we don’t just go to church for only spiritual reasons.”
113 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Another GW2 Guild/Community drama heads up. I have been going over the conversations, and thinking if there is anything I want to add.
Perhaps two things, that actually *hurt* me the most was that a) my aid (giving away stocks of all kinds of mats from common to rare or what little saved gold I had, purchasing and crafting things for people, keeping them company or being part of the group so they could complete something they seek quicker, etc.) was erased so very easily, and b) that the misinterpretation of my help and intentions for a sick friend to be taken as "taking over her project"
Also we have been doing the "help others" thing way before any of us jumped to this server. Before there wans any idea of making a guild. Keeping track of it just made it official. I am also bit puzzled on why this is one person's project but not the community's...
For what it is worth, I will keep helping others.
Zeb’s DMs 4/4
Zeb---- Today at 2:54 PM
I never have
del - Today at 2:54 PM
I am really tired to reason with anyone.
Zeb---- Today at 2:54 PM
now you're putting words into my mouth
del - Today at 2:55 PM
No, I'm not. That is WHAT they did.
Zeb---- Today at 2:55 PM
I am not THEY
del - Today at 2:55 PM
You will be part of it soon, eventually. So I am just telling it bluntly.
Zeb---- Today at 2:55 PM
Everyone is their own person
del - Today at 2:55 PM
I dont udnerstand this intense fear of order.
Zeb---- Today at 2:56 PM
thats not what this is.
we never talked over what the rules should have been
and we never settled on a time to talk it over
del - Today at 2:56 PM
ZEB WOULD YOU PLEASE READ WHAT I AM WRITING
Zeb---- Today at 2:56 PM
I did
del - Today at 2:56 PM
THE *GUIDELINES WERE MADE OUT OF NECESIRTY AND HASTILY
I NEVER SAID THEY WERE FINAL
AND WE ALWAYS TALKED ABOUT CONTIBRUTION
Zeb---- Today at 2:57 PM
BUT YOU ACTED ON THEM AS IF THEY WERE
del - Today at 2:57 PM
NONE OF YOU STEPPED FORWARD AND SHARED WHAT YOU THINK
YOU SUMPLY DID NOT
Zeb---- Today at 2:57 PM
WE TRIED
del - Today at 2:57 PM
YOU DO NOT GET TO BLAME ME FOR THAT
Zeb---- Today at 2:57 PM
I TRIED
del - Today at 2:57 PM
NO
NONE OF YOU DID
Zeb---- Today at 2:57 PM
and you cant just go ahead with rules if no one collaborates
del - Today at 2:57 PM
THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE CONVERSITATON ABOUT IT
Zeb---- Today at 2:57 PM
I know
del - Today at 2:57 PM
EVEN AFTER I ASKED PEOPLE IF THEY LIKED IT OR NOT
Zeb---- Today at 2:58 PM
exactly. it never should have been decided, then passed to us
del - Today at 2:58 PM
I didnt establish rules out of my ass.
Zeb---- Today at 2:58 PM
you kind of did. hastily.
del - Today at 2:58 PM
People needed chat rooms, I made chat rooms. I wrote a text to explain what they are for to avoid confusion and chaos.
Zeb---- Today at 2:58 PM
there was never confusion and chaos
del - Today at 2:58 PM
People misused them many times, I let them slip, then warned and nudged, and they just kept doing it.
Zeb...
Zeb---- Today at 2:59 PM
ok... listen to this.
del - Today at 2:59 PM
the point isnt "it wasnt yet"(edited)
the purpose fo those were to avoid it before it happened
Zeb---- Today at 2:59 PM
thats not how rules are made. There was never a speed limit rule before cars were invented.
Zeb---- Today at 3:00 PM
and despite us using chat channels for things other than your intended purpose, there was never chaos
del - Today at 3:00 PM
Hello, I have common sense and a little bit of knowldge on community space works.
Zeb---- Today at 3:00 PM
so do I
del - Today at 3:01 PM
You dont wait to make note on "was your hands after you pee" on the toilet, you put it there before anyone pokes food with their peed hands.
Zeb---- Today at 3:01 PM
actually, thats exactly how that came about. now as a society, its a non-issue
rules arent made before problems exist
del - Today at 3:02 PM
Zeb, we are poeple who are makign ruels and guidelines because of the experince they had.
You cant just wait for things to get thesmelves on fire before making sure that doesnt happen. Why is this so ahrd to grasp?
Is that an American thing?
Zeb---- Today at 3:02 PM
you dont have to
and that was uncalled for
del - Today at 3:02 PM
Is that a culture thing?
Because that is not how I was educated nor experinced.
That is an honest question.
Zeb---- Today at 3:03 PM
no, it was a low blow.
del - Today at 3:03 PM
You know me well enough that I dont make jokes about those stuff.
Zeb---- Today at 3:03 PM
didn't sound like a joke. sounded like a prod, which you've been known to do.
even so
del - Today at 3:04 PM
Prod?
Zeb---- Today at 3:04 PM
a jab
del - Today at 3:04 PM
What's a prod?
Uhh... what's a jab?
Zeb---- Today at 3:04 PM
a mean poke.
del - Today at 3:04 PM
...what?
I didnt do that out of meaness. I asked it honeslty.
Why would I be mean?
Zeb---- Today at 3:06 PM
Good question. you have been in the past, but its irrelevant right now.
You dont have to wait for things to come crashing down to make rules. Thats not what im suggesting.
But rules as strict as yours about things as minor as yours were made pre-emptively.
If unrest had come about, then a more direct degree of order might be warranted
del - Today at 3:07 PM
I will give you two simple examples.
Sassy requested a music bot. I created a connected voice and text channel for it. Why?
I have my own hearing problems. I cannot hear people well all the time. Especially when there is many of them.
Considering there might be other people like me who would prefer to have a channel for conversitation other than music bc everyone can have their music in bg, I madema spesific voice channel for it.
It was not only to help people like me but also the music bot into a shared secondary activty within the server. Encouraging people to share their loved songs and sing a long if they wished.
Idy didnt really enjoy others singing, so she avoided to music channel.
Zeb---- Today at 3:10 PM
no one has had an issue with the music bot or its affiliated channel, and they are completely beside the issue.
The issues were entirely within the confines of the overabundance of voice channels
del - Today at 3:10 PM
If she didnt have alternate options she would be stuck there or would be avoiding having calls with us.
The text channel was for bot to avoid clutter in general chat.
Bc when you write in general it pins everyone up.
Why would we harass people with it?
It got his own channels so people could use them without disturbing others.
This was a prediction and served us well.
Oh, I forgot the second one...
Zeb---- Today at 3:12 PM
again, the music bot and its channels has nothing to do with this.
Next?
del - Today at 3:13 PM
Again you are missing my point.
Zeb---- Today at 3:13 PM
im not.
del - Today at 3:13 PM
I am trying to show you why I made guidelines with what predictions.
You are ignoring it then.
Zeb---- Today at 3:14 PM
not all of the rules or regulation are applicable to the current situation, so you cant lump them all together as either "complete oversaturation of rules" or "complete anarchy". There is an in-between.
and Im not ignoring it
del - Today at 3:15 PM
What I am trying to say is, I made all those channels with predictions and all those served well. There wasnt anarchy because I did my best to avoid it, despite everyone refusal to follow the guidelines.
Zeb---- Today at 3:15 PM
no, there wasn't anarchy because there wouldn't have been anyway.
There's no anarchy in and discord chat im in, of the 25 or 30 im in.
del - Today at 3:16 PM
If you are not missing the point and if you are not ignoring it, then what are you doing Zeb? Because I dont think you are stupid.
Zeb---- Today at 3:16 PM
you are failing to see that i am not missing your point, you are ignoring mine.
which you interprit as me missing it.
and this is where the disconnect is
del - Today at 3:18 PM
No, your point doesnt make sense. You are cheering for no rules no guidelines.
Zeb---- Today at 3:18 PM
no im not. Im cheering for fewer, but important, rules.
because overabundance of rules stresses members out, and makes more work for the owners
there is no benefit
del - Today at 3:19 PM
Okay. Do me favour. Shut up about how I did everything wrong, and tell me how you would do.
Zeb---- Today at 3:19 PM
sure
del - Today at 3:20 PM
Make a server, design it the way you want and invite me.
Zeb---- Today at 3:28 PM
I am making a server for a group of 6 to 10 people, which was the original scope of our group. If it grew bigger, it would change.
I am consoling a friend on voice chat, so I wont be accompanying you there.
If you have questions, ask them here. [link]
**IN THE SERVER**
del - Today at 3:30 PM
okay... want me to point of your msitakes?
out*
Zeb---- Today at 3:31 PM
point out your opinion of flaws, and I will tell you why I made the decisions.
how about that, instead of you calling them mistakes already.
del - Today at 3:31 PM
General chat pings everyone when a message sent in.
Zeb---- Today at 3:31 PM
ok
users can mute that if they choose
so its no issue
del - Today at 3:31 PM
you cant mute general as well as i know but that is not the point
now be quiet and read
Zeb---- Today at 3:32 PM
one at a time
to avoid confusion
http://puu.sh/xjX8w/db32ef6491.png
del - Today at 3:33 PM
People who are going to use any of those VCs will not always have a mike, will not always be able to talk, or they might be mute. To avoid confusion between the general chat and what those people would like to say when they are lsitening to your friends, you need a channel for them.
If you make them write in general chat, it will confuse the people who are not in VC
Zeb---- Today at 3:34 PM
they dont need mics. they should chat in game with their party.
del - Today at 3:34 PM
Which did, in our other server, something I know from experince, and that is WHY I created the text for speech channel in our server.
Zeb---- Today at 3:34 PM
I dont have 2 monitors, even when Idy types in her chat, I miss it. and im not tabbing out to read it.
I read party chat,
del - Today at 3:34 PM
Not everyone is in the same part or squad or guild.
Zeb---- Today at 3:35 PM
then whisper, or read the guild chat,
del - Today at 3:35 PM
So you are simply ignoring her because she doesnt have a mike?
Zeb---- Today at 3:35 PM
no...
del - Today at 3:35 PM
What if she is talking towards multiple people?
Who are all in different guilds?
Zeb---- Today at 3:35 PM
if she has no mic and wont use general, party, guild, or whisper, then why is she here?
you can chat and see chat across multiple guilds in game
del - Today at 3:36 PM
Wow.
Zeb---- Today at 3:36 PM
thats what I do
and its much easier.
del - Today at 3:36 PM
Okay.
Zeb---- Today at 3:36 PM
if they are part of the guild, its presumed they want to be,
del - Today at 3:36 PM
So you are saying I can talk to Idy on voice and she can asnwer me in guild chat. That wouldnt make peopel confusing at all? Who are not in the VC or in this server at all.
Zeb---- Today at 3:37 PM
Im saying if its a private conversation, use whisper
if its between multiple people, use party
del - Today at 3:37 PM
You just kicked out a friend from this server for not having mic, instead of making interactions with her and people like her more easy.
Contrgulations on your first ban.
Zeb---- Today at 3:37 PM
i did not at all.
del - Today at 3:37 PM
Next
Zeb---- Today at 3:37 PM
I didnt do that. but sure, next.
del - Today at 3:38 PM
What are those voice chats stands for? They have no presentation?
Where the music bot gonna be?
Zeb---- Today at 3:38 PM
there is no music bot unless many people want one. if they do, I can make one.
and the VCs are generally
del - Today at 3:38 PM
Many people wanted the bot.
What now?
Zeb---- Today at 3:38 PM
I heard sassy suggest it, but not more than that.
and even so, sure. make a channel. Thats besides the point.
del - Today at 3:39 PM
All of them have ben using it.
Zeb---- Today at 3:39 PM
this is for guild communication
del - Today at 3:39 PM
Asnwer my questions
Zeb---- Today at 3:39 PM
I did.
del - Today at 3:39 PM
Many people wanted the bot. What now?
Zeb---- Today at 3:39 PM
so make a bot. sure. I didn't because no one is here.
again, its besides the point
del - Today at 3:40 PM
you dont have to make a bot.
We are playing pretend.
Many people wanted the bot. You get the bot. What now?(edited)
Zeb---- Today at 3:40 PM
they play music in the channel for it. thats it.
del - Today at 3:41 PM
and where they going to que and request songs for it?
Zeb---- Today at 3:41 PM
thats all they need. and if they cant have a music bot and its a deal breaker, then bye.
this is a guild for people to be with eachother and play, talk, and socialize
del - Today at 3:41 PM
They need a text channel to be able to use the bot. So they can request songs.
Zeb---- Today at 3:41 PM
messing with a music bot is not required.
when the bot is added, then so will a text channel.
but its not a requirement.
del - Today at 3:42 PM
So, no fun is allowed everyone has to play GW2 and they cannot even talk anything other than GW2 even music? Got it.
Zeb---- Today at 3:42 PM
didnt say that.
stop putting words in my mouth.
del - Today at 3:42 PM
This server you build is way too stricting than anything I did in the CAKE! server.
Zeb---- Today at 3:42 PM
people can play other things.
not at all.
del - Today at 3:42 PM
Yes it is.
Zeb---- Today at 3:42 PM
people can play whatever they want
and be in whatever chat they want
the VCs are there for people to use when necessary
so they can form groups
del - Today at 3:43 PM
There is no presentation and there is no rules, there is no way of telling how to use what. As far as I know people can use those one of those VCs for voice ERP, Zeb.(edited)
Zeb---- Today at 3:44 PM
If people want to use things for ERP, then I can make an nsfw channel for them, sure.
Boom, there it is.
del - Today at 3:44 PM
EW
Zeb---- Today at 3:44 PM
well, you asked.
del - Today at 3:44 PM
No, I didnt asked for it.
Zeb---- Today at 3:44 PM
next.
del - Today at 3:45 PM
I pointed out none of those VCs has a decided purpose, they are just there. It is not presetanble.
Zeb---- Today at 3:45 PM
they dont need to be
del - Today at 3:45 PM
I persoally wouldnt spend too much time here to figure out what I am suppsoed to do without something to read to figure out what is it for what.
Zeb---- Today at 3:46 PM
There can be 6 people in general chat to start with
del - Today at 3:46 PM
There is also no space for community/guild projects.
Zeb---- Today at 3:46 PM
doesn't need to be with 6 to 10 people, like the original scope we had.
del - Today at 3:46 PM
You are forcing peopel to use general chat and clutter it with all kidns of information.
Zeb---- Today at 3:46 PM
and you can use announcements for that
del - Today at 3:47 PM
While you could have seperated rooms to spesific needs.
This is chaotic and stressing.
Zeb---- Today at 3:47 PM
I've covered the major bases. Most guilds ive been in dont have much more than this.
del - Today at 3:47 PM
Well, we are not a guild.
Zeb---- Today at 3:47 PM
and all the discord servers ive seen with all that clutter remain empty for a good chunk of time
del - Today at 3:47 PM
We were a community that was suppsoed to house guildies and non-guildies all together.
More people, more needs, more necessery space.
Zeb---- Today at 3:48 PM
to be added as needed.
no need, no add.
here's an example:
http://puu.sh/xjXvU/cae296564e.png
del - Today at 3:48 PM
I added the thigns that was needed. I saw the ned and I added them.
I didnt suddenly tried to make random channels just bc i feel like it.
Zeb---- Today at 3:48 PM
they werent needs.
they were 1 or 2 people asking for something
del - Today at 3:49 PM
No not just 1 or 2 people
I observed people Zeb
Zeb---- Today at 3:49 PM
here's another example of a cluttered guild with no attendies
http://puu.sh/xjXwJ/342fc3c4d4.png
del - Today at 3:49 PM
I created those for people's needs, I didnt just made those because 1 person wanted.
Zeb---- Today at 3:49 PM
http://puu.sh/xjXyo/66e8b8522e.png
del - Today at 3:49 PM
Plus music bot is a fun thing, and I also wanted to have fun.
Zeb---- Today at 3:49 PM
there were no needs there were desires.
next?
del - Today at 3:50 PM
That's a good scuruter, ours are almost the same. We just have prettier names.
Zeb---- Today at 3:50 PM
notice how they are empty.
and for the most part only 3 or 4 channels are used regularly
del - Today at 3:51 PM
Next is, this server doesn't serve well to the needs of people. It is not presentable, it lacks any kind of rule and guidelines. It is home for anarchy.
Zeb---- Today at 3:51 PM
it's got a generall rule that goes without saying, play nice.
other stuff can be made as you go.
and you are misusing the term anarchy.
del - Today at 3:52 PM
chaos then, whatever.
disorder.
not everyone is capable of udnerstanding "general rules that goes without saying"
Zeb---- Today at 3:52 PM
and clearly, very few are capable of understanding an ever growing mountain of rules.
del - Today at 3:52 PM
i mean, look at the current poltical situtation? Do you think those people are "playing nice"?
do you reallt think people here going to "play nice"?
extreme example but, it is there
Zeb---- Today at 3:53 PM
they were, and in every other server im in, they do.
they arent now because they feel attacked in your server.
del - Today at 3:53 PM
Zeb, your ahhm... how to say
Zeb---- Today at 3:53 PM
whether or not you agree is irrelevant
del - Today at 3:53 PM
You have too much tolerance for bullshit
I dont.
Zeb---- Today at 3:54 PM
and you have no tolerance for pretty much anything.
I have seen it.
del - Today at 3:54 PM
Not correct
Zeb---- Today at 3:54 PM
like, you wont tolerate people running ahead in dungeons?
or saying the B-word?
or any other normal thing?
del - Today at 3:54 PM
If I didnt have tolerance I would be swinging ban-hammer, isntead of letting thigns slip or simply trying to warn and inform people.
Zeb---- Today at 3:54 PM
not necessarily.
you dont have to get extreme to have no tolerance
del - Today at 3:55 PM
People have been using that word with me in chat so many times. I let it slip numerous times, even after I waited patiently after I warned them.
I didnt cut people's tongue for using it.
I laughed and thanked for their udnerstanding.
Zeb---- Today at 3:55 PM
you get on their case every time, so they say sorry.
how agressive you are changes, but generally its the same.
del - Today at 3:56 PM
I get irritated when peopel dont follow each other, because many people have connection and loading issues.
They run froward, and then they kick me from groups before I can laod in.
So it makes me annoyed and makes me stressed. Thats why I have been playing with friends only.
They wait
and they know
and isntead of being stressed
and i can laugh at it
Zeb---- Today at 3:57 PM
people dont generally kick you if you are loading in.
del - Today at 3:57 PM
they did Zeb
Zeb---- Today at 3:57 PM
usually, they run ahead and kill everything, then you get there,
del - Today at 3:57 PM
im not lying or making something up
Zeb---- Today at 3:57 PM
in raids it might be different.
im not saying you are
del - Today at 3:57 PM
its not a raid
Zeb---- Today at 3:57 PM
like when we first ran AC
del - Today at 3:57 PM
its dungeons and fractals
look
Zeb---- Today at 3:57 PM
you remember?
del - Today at 3:58 PM
We are incaplbe of reaching to a point here.
Zeb---- Today at 3:58 PM
we are on a tangent.
and are in disagreement.
our opinions are different.
del - Today at 3:58 PM
You keep blaming me on things, on not being tolerant or being agressive, even thought the it has been clear that I always had enoguh tolerance for all of it.
Zeb---- Today at 3:58 PM
you dont show it in your writing.
at all
del - Today at 3:59 PM
And even if I didnt, I tried to make up for it.
I get dissapointed over things, when they dont go the way they should.
Zeb---- Today at 3:59 PM
everyone does.
and we all handle it differently
del - Today at 3:59 PM
I handled the best way, but I cannot fix thigns if people are unresponsive and choose to ignore.
Zeb---- Today at 4:00 PM
no, a better way would have been to look at the whole picture.
del - Today at 4:00 PM
I am not always on people's neck, yelling or whatever you think I am doing.
If you find that my voice that raised, and my attitude was agressive, then it had a reason.
Zeb---- Today at 4:01 PM
the whole picture was that no one in our chat was confused or lost, we were all having a good time and enjoying ourselves.
del - Today at 4:01 PM
Becuase I waited patiently, because I warned, because I ignored, but I saw no change.
So I chaged my attitude to make people notice it.
Zeb---- Today at 4:01 PM
then you came in, overreacted on our location, and left.
del - Today at 4:01 PM
Does it work? Yes, it does.
Zeb---- Today at 4:02 PM
it made people leave. people who used to love you,
del - Today at 4:02 PM
I didnt overreacted, you guys were the oens overreacted my message to fix this issue.
I dont care.
Zeb---- Today at 4:02 PM
I disagree.
del - Today at 4:02 PM
If people going to love me by stepping on me, then that is not love.
That is not mutually healthy relationship.
Zeb---- Today at 4:02 PM
they didn't step on you, they were in the wrong channel.
del - Today at 4:02 PM
And I am glad they are gone.
Zeb---- Today at 4:03 PM
and little errors here and there shouldn't be stepping on.
del - Today at 4:03 PM
I would prefer to have very few friends who has common sense and logic then a bunch of so called adults who thrives in no-rules no-guidelines no-working-together mindsets.(edited)
Zeb---- Today at 4:04 PM
your logic seems flawed. We all were working together on stuff we were interested in.
we were cooperating without needing gratuitous rules
and everyone was having fun
del - Today at 4:04 PM
we all know that doesnt work, at some point it breaks and everyone cries(edited)
Zeb---- Today at 4:05 PM
and that point was when you tore into the group.
not from something we did.
and it can work
it does work
del - Today at 4:06 PM
Okay. You guys didnt follow the guidelines, you get warned numerous times. Didnt listen. I rised my voice to show my dissapointment. And then made a post to offer all of us a chance to fix this together. Everyone refused and everyone didnt want to be responsbily of their msitakes. And everyone thought I was an easy target. I wasnt. End of story.
Im really tired, of repeating myself.
Zeb---- Today at 4:06 PM
there were too many guidelines
there ye go
del - Today at 4:06 PM
I really feel like a robot now. ---- [I quit the server after this.]
Zeb---- Today at 4:09 PM
I suppose thats it then. Good luck in your endeavors, you will be missed. ---- [I got blocked after this so I didn’t get to reply and there is no point anyways.]
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Discover Broad Street Market Restaurant: Fresh, Friendly and Satisfying
An unassuming storefront at 4 Broad Street in Brooksville had been catching my eye for a few months when I decided to finally stop in to check it out.
Broad Street Market is a “new” restaurant that moved into the historic Jennings building in June of 2017.
The menu, and the sign on the door read “Casual Urban Dining.” I simply wanted a burger, although their menu offered several fresh fish options, as well as salads, pasta and a steak.
“Market Angus Burger 8 – Fire grilled ½ pound certified angus beef on a split top bun with your choice of lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. Served with rosemary fries. Add bacon for $2 • american, cheddar, swiss, blue cheese - $1 •”
Sounded good. Certified angus beef with rosemary fries for $8? Sounded almost too good to be true. And the rosemary fries intrigued me. Unusual, but they sounded good. I like rosemary. And, of course, my customary water with lemon.
So I ordered.
Ann, my server that day, smiled a wide, warm smile and went behind the bar to retrieve a quart-sized bottle of chilled water with a swing top. She put several slices of lemon in a tall glass and graciously poured my first round.
Caribbean mahi tacos were my second lunch at Broad Street. So delicious with fresh mahi, fresh salsa, lots of cheese and the requisite rosemary fries. I love how my chilled water is served in a quart sized bottle with a stopper.
I like it.
The burger was delivered in the right amount of time. It was hot, juicy and the bun was toasted. I bit into it and was rewarded with a resounding “delicious!” The rosemary fries smelled divine and they tasted great!
At this point, I was feeling pretty good about the Broad Street Market Restaurant and I went home to convince my husband to try it for dinner.
About the Broad Street Market’s Owners
Eric Gallery is the restaurant’s owner and chef. Although not classically trained, Eric is a gourmand who spent years in customer service management and after some life-changing experiences, he came to Brooksville in 2014.
He began cooking at age 7 and has a natural gift for pairing spices and foods.
Todd behind the bar, discussing Broad Street Market with Eric, co-owner. Isn't the bar spectacular?
“I love the small town vibe, and the people that come into the restaurant. I love to hear Brooksville stories and feel like I’m living in a movie,” Eric shared with me when I came to interview him. “Fresh ingredients are really important to me. I like to know where the food is coming from, so I try to tour the facilities that provide our ingredients.”
Todd Smith is co-owner of Broad Street Market. He is a quiet, unassuming person who has several years of experience managing McDonald’s restaurants. Todd is very hands on and is often bussing and cleaning tables, backing up everyone because he knows all the positions so well.
Commitment to the Staff
Eric and Todd are strong believers in employee commitment. It is their goal to provide a fine dining experience with a casual environment at fair prices. To do this, they believe, they must hire and grow the best employees.
“We have really good people on our team,” Eric boasts, “Ann Bloxsom was a server at the Fireside Inn and Susie’s. She began with us in June of 2017 and now runs the day shift as our front of the house manager.”
The spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta is a great choice for landlubbers in your group.
John Lew started as a dishwasher. Within an hour, Eric saw him as a server. He is gracious and charming, with a smile that welcomes each guest.
Mark Fahnestock is the Kitchen Manager. Mark also began as a dishwasher and worked really hard. “His work ethic caught my eye,” Eric said, “and so we began working together to teach him how I want this kitchen run. He does a great job.”
On the day I came to meet Eric for the interview, Amanda Raymond was waiting to turn in an application. She came back to clean, bus and train, and is now in the kitchen as a prep cook.
Caribbean Mahi Mahi filet with mango salsa, fresh vegetables and jasmine rice. Yummmmmm.
“Cleanliness is imperative. We want each guest greeted immediately so they feel welcome in ‘our home’. I love being in the kitchen and interacting with the employees and the restaurant’s guests. This is what I have always wanted to do,” Eric shares with me.
Casual Urban Dining in Brooksville
When friends told Eric and Todd how wonderful Brooksville is, they visited several times. They wanted to find a small town to call home. In 2014, they moved up here and began laying out the plan.
Originally they planned to have a steak house in the current location, but the owner of the building chose Kaz’s Sports Bar instead. After Kaz’s left, that gentleman contacted the Broad Street Boys and suggested they take the place over.
Fish Tacos started on the Specials menu, but have become part of the daily lunch offerings.
By this time, construction had begun on Chop Block Steak House, just south of town on Broad Street in a small shopping center. But the construction was slow, so Eric and Todd agreed to start their business at the location at 4 S. Broad Street and specialize in seafood.
June of 2018, Broad Street Market celebrated its one-year anniversary at the current location.
The Menu is Varied and the Food is Fresh
With seafood as the focus, I have tried the Lobster Roll, the shrimp feast, the rainbow trout, the Caribbean Mahi Mahi with this amazing pina colada rice, the fried shrimp and the fish tacos and Mahi tacos so far. My husband has also tried the Cajun chicken pasta. They are all excellent.
Now I am hooked on the lunchtime all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks (sound familiar?).
Clam chowder, made fresh daily, fresh house salad with balsamic vinaigrette and my requisite water with lemon.
The salad at this restaurant is so fresh. The lettuce is crunchy and the croutons are not too hard. There is the house salad, with medium thick cucumber slices, a couple of fresh cherry tomatoes, a few rings of red onion and fresh croutons – with shaved parmesan on top. This added touch defines the goals of Broad Street Market to me. The Caesar salad is just as fresh, with lettuce, croutons and shaved parmesan – but the dressing is already mixed on the salad, although all the dressings are made in-house.
Now to the soup. I am simply hooked on the clam chowder here. Creamy, smooth, full of clams and very buttery. It is simply delicious. Eric admits this soup is a lot of work. “It can’t get to a boil or the consistency is lost.” It can be ordered with bacon bits on top or not. Just tell your server which you would prefer.
The vegetable beef soup is also delicious. Big, but not too big, hunks of tender beef with nicely sized carrots, potatoes and veggies to warm anyone on a cold day, as well as satisfy the appetite.
Did I mention Beer & Wine Selections?
Broad Street Market's Bar is a focal point of the restaurant's warm interior. Beer and wine selections are plentiful, including craft beers on tap, by the bottle, and LOTS of wine choices. Standards such as Heineken and Yeungling are available too.
With several choices on tap, including standards like Bud Light and Stella Artois and craft brews like Elysian Space Dust from Seattle Washington and Red Right Return from Marker 48 in Brooksville, Broad Street Market's beautiful wooden bar and high back chairs make a great place to stop for a cold one and an appetizer or sandwich.
Bottled beers from Corona to Heineken to Yeungling are available.
Wine selections are also wonderful and varied, with complimentary suggestions from the skilled wait staff.
Why I keep coming back for more
I have been eating at Broad Street Market regularly for months now. They have become a partner with NatureCoaster and I couldn’t be more pleased.
I have brought friends, family, and business associates to Broad Street Market to enjoy the fresh and varied food, the gracious service and the inviting atmosphere.
Argentinian shrimp are always large, fresh and cooked properly, whether on salad, fried or in the Shrimp Feast, which I ate so fast I forgot to take a picture of it.
Eric comes out of the kitchen to check on nearly every table, and I have had him pick up my check if things weren’t to my satisfaction. This is due to his and Todd’s 100% commitment to customer satisfaction that is throughout this wonderful organization, and it shows.
The business is growing and I expect that when they open their Chop Block restaurant the same thing will happen.
Broad Street Market’s Location and Hours
The Broad Street Market Restaurant is located at 4 Broad Street in downtown Brooksville, right across the street from the Confederate statue in front of the historic courthouse. It is one door off of the corner of Main and Broad and parking is available on the street or within two city parking lots less than a block away.
Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. They do take reservations. You can call 352-678-6767. Their website is https://broad-street-market.com Then post your favorites in the comments!
Read the full article
0 notes
Link
All in one guide to take any Unity games into multiplayer. This is the easiest way to understand and use multiplayer
What you’ll learn
Turn any Unity games into multiplayer games
know how to synchronize players
create a network
host clients
create server clients
launch magic firebolts with different colors
free for all matches
Requirements
basic programming knowledge is recommended but not needed
Description
Do you want to create online worlds like MineCraft or Clash of Clans? Do you feel like you cannot do it because multiplayer is hard to program?
Well, you were right until today. I have looked through dozens of ways to make a multiplayer game, and i came up with the easiest way to make it happen.
This course contains all you need to easily turn any Unity games into online multiplayer platforms. This course will drive you step by step on taking a shooter robots game and turn it into an online multiplayer Free For All game.
The process is fun and it feels great to accomplish such a difficult task.
Join the community now
MULTIPLAYER MADE EASY
Unity Multiplayer is the easiest way to create real time, networked games for Unity. It’s fast to implement and highly customizable. Unity-provided servers ensure that your players can find and play with each other.
EASY TO IMPLEMENT
Unity Multiplayer uses the component workflow you already know so you can implement and prototype networked features quickly.
FLEXIBLE
Low level APIs grant you access to the core of the Unity Multiplayer’s framework, so you can optimize your game for a networked environment, however you want to.
BACKED BY UNITY
Unity Matchmaker Servers makes it easy to connect your players. Unity Relay Servers brokers network traffic to ensure quality sessions between your players no matter where they are.
GET STARTED NOW
Unity Multiplayer is available to all Unity customers for development purposes at no additional charge.It is totally free to create professional multiplayer games
HANDS ON PROJECT
This course drives you step by step on how to turn a 3D shooter game into a multiplayer game where 2 to 16 players can play simultaneously controlling robots shooting fireballs at eachother, in a fun environment like MineCraft style.
MEGA BONUS
By joining this course, you automatically get for FREE all the project files, the source codes, the graphic files, 3d animations, models, and you also get the published iPhone app and Android it. Life is good!
Important: This course is part of a the world’s one and one series on Unity professional multiplayer games.
The content is so big, it couldn’t fit in one course. Here is the courses are split in key areas:
There are so many tutorials, guides and courses out there, that it’s hard to know how to start learning how to code, game development, and even harder to know in which order you should take the courses.
We’ve decided to focus on Unity rather than other platforms because the team behind Unity has a great vision. They are always on top of things. Each time a new device comes out, they add support for it and also create special libraries for it. We believe you should focus on Unity as well. We want to make sure you do by providing you the best learning material at the best prices
For example, Oculus Rift and Samsung VR are fully operational on Unity 5.
Unity also entered the live cinematic world (animated movies, think Toy Story). The future is bright for Unity developers. (more about the future of Unity )
There’s also been a change in the mobile app app store category ranking system which makes it harder to get app exposure for new apps. It means developers need to focus on a few apps instead of bombarding the app store with reskins. Nowadays, an app is a continuous work of art where developers need to listen to the users and keep updating the app to give them exactly what they want.
Having said that, you will maximize your learning experience if you takes the courses in the following order:
– Understand the process of making games:
Before even getting started into developing, you need to understand the whole process of making games, from A to Z. Take the “Captain Rocket” course where you get to see how a Unity project gets reused and turned into another game and gets published to iTunes app store.
course: Publish Captain Rocket* iPhone game under 2 hours, Unity 5
– Learn the basics:
The course “Begin Unity Programming” is short (about 45 minutes) and entertaining where you will learn keys Unity concepts and code using Star Wars figurines.
Another important course is “Fundamentals of Programming“. Beware! This course goes over the hard stuff of programming. It’s explaining the mechanics used in programming, just like you would get in a computer science class in the American Ivy league Universities. It’s not for everyone, but it should be taken by EVERYONE. You need to understand what are for / while loops, what’s the difference between an int, a float or a double, and what are the principles of object oriented programming (to name a few key concept). The course comes with plenty of mind-stimulating exercises made with the new elegant language named Swift.
– Get comfortable with using Unity’s user interface: course “Introduction to Game Development with Unity”
Unity Editor can be overwhelming at first with all its windows, sub windows and tabs. Luckily, this course guides you through it. Oh, i forgot to mention, it’s free!
– Learn how to create graphics to use in your game: “3D Pixel Art for non artist. Crossy Road Modeling. Unity 3D”
Graphic assets can be 2D illustrations, 3D graphics, sprites, voxel art (MineCraft like) or also sound effects and Unity bundles.
I recommend to start making graphic assets following the course “3D Pixel Art for non artist. Crossy Road Modeling. Unity 3D“. Why? Because it’s a course that allows anyone to make decent game graphics without having to be an artist! With the correct tools and the right guidance, you will end up making 3d pixel graphics (voxel) art just like Crossy road or MineCraft by the end of the day.
Once you know how to create 3D assets, it’s time you learn how to make 3D characters, animate them, and import them into Unity to use them!
You will learn all of the above in the course named “3D Pixel Characters Modeling & Animations for all. Unity 3D“.
By the way, the tools used in the course are all free to use, that’s the cherry on the cake!
By the end of the course, you will be able to create and animate characters like Spiderman, Ironman and wonder woman. Make Ironman dance hip-hop is hilarious and gratifying!
– Learn core Unity development:
At this point, you must be antsy to create a game. Contrary to most online courses, the following course allow you to create and also PUBLISH the game you’re making to the Google Play store and the iTune app store.
Take the “Unity 3D 2016 – Build, program & publish Crossy Road game” course. Learn about key concepts, must-have scripts to get a professional game like Crossy Road and get it out the door into the wilderness of the app stores! I can’t stress enough the joy of having your game out in the app store where all your friends and family are amazed by you owning a piece of the app stores! (scoring social points!)
Now that you’ve got your first game in the app store, you should learn how to make more complex games, that are using 3D animations, physics, vehicles, shooting, and character Artificial Intelligence. The perfect course for these topics is “Unity 2016 – Build , program and publish a 3D shooter game“.
– Enhance your game development skills:
It’s time to learn specific game mechanics that will improve the player’s game experience and ultimately get more user engagement.
You need to know how to add multiplayer to your game. A game that’s using the multiplayer mechanics is a more demanded type of game because players prefer to play against / with other players rather than computer simulated AI (Artificial Intelligence).
The course “Unity Multiplayer 2016 – Build Online Shooter – code included” is the perfect way to turn the game you’ve learned how to make (the 3D shooter game) into a multiplayer game.
Contrary to most courses, you’re not wasting time on creating code to make the game, but you will be focusing on jumping straight into the multiplayer functionality. This is a must-have course and one that I am the most proud of because “multiplayer” is a hard concept and I finally got to find the simplest way so that anyone can add multiplayer to any Unity games.
– Equipping characters with weapons, gears and trinkets
The majority of multiplayer games allow players to pickup items, find treasures and get loot from bosses. Now the hard part for the game developer is to know how to pickup these items, equip these items, remove them, swap them.
And all of this needs to be done in multiplayer,… meaning, when a player equip a new item such as a sword or a helmet, all other players need to see that new state. Not so easy at all… That’s why this course is a must: “Unity 2016 – Character gear and weapon use”
– Inventory system for single player and multiplayer games:
unity-inventory-system-for-games-multiplayer-online
Now that you understand how to pickup items and equip them, you need an inventory system to keep track of which item the player owns. Many games call this a stash or a backpack.
It sounds simple to implement, but it’s tough, especially in multiplayer games. Oh, almost forgot to mention, the user interface needs to work on all screen sizes, small screens like Android phones and iPhones, as well as big TV screens for PCs. This course will teach you every single details. And yes, the code is included!
“Unity 5 – Inventory System for Professional Games”
– Item attributes and statistics
Before you can get into player fighting, dueling and combat, you need to setup stats and attributes on each items and players.
For example, swords have a specific strength, intelligence, dexterity, mana cost and other skills.
This course teaches you how to set these attributes up and how to use them during combat to compute what’s the damage taken or mitigated. It’s also great to create character leveling and experience gaining.
“Unity 2016 – RPG Character Stats and Item Attributes System”
– Mastering Melee and Ranged weapon mechanics
A good game needs melee weapons such as swords, knives, or axes, and also needs ranged weapons such as guns, bows with arrows and such.
Learn the mechanics and get to apply them hands-on with the source code that comes with the course.
range-and-melee-weapons-course-unity
“Unity 5 pro multiplayer combat using melee & ranged weapons”
– Turn your game dev into a game business:
It’s fun to make games but it’s even more fun when games bring in money. No seriously, if you plan on just making games for fun, that’s fine, but many of you would love to turn this hobby into a business so that you can keep doing what you love without having to go find another job to pay the bills.
So how can you monetize your game?
Add advertising banners and full screen ads.
The course “Unity 3D 2016 – Build, program & publish Crossy Road game” has an advanced section on how to integrate Unity ads to your game. This is a good start but it’s not enough, you need to add a video reward system where players have to watch a 30 second video advertisement to get virtual coins in return. Each time a player watches a video, you get a few cents to a couple dollars, especially if the player downloads and opens the app from the advertisement! Now, that’s what we call potentially good income! The developer from Crossy Road used this exact same system and made a couple million dollars in a week or so. Now I’m not saying this is going to happen to you, but do you really need this much money to keep you going?
Unity Game Boost: Build a Video Reward System (bring in $$$)
Another way to monetize a game is to use virtual coin systems where players can earn, buy and use coins to get virtual items and goods. The player will buy virtual coins with real money using the in-app purchase in-game store. There is a course just for that: “Unity Game Boost: Coin Management System“. The course drive you through every single step to create the virtual coin system and store/ retrieve the player’s coin amount. Then you get to create an in-game store so that player can buy virtual good with real money. The beauty of this course is that you learn how to bundle the coin system so that you can reuse it in every game you make in no time. A must-have course!
Listen to this scenario, it’s the most common one for game developers: You’ve made a decent game, you published it, you get a couple hundred downloads and then “dead silence”. You can keep praying the Gods for help or you can help yourself and add Unity Analytics to your game. Thanks to analytics, you get a report on key metrics in a nice online dashboard. You get answers to key questions. such as
Is my game to hard or too easy? Which level has the most players quit? Which character gets selected the most? How many times a level gets played?
Take the course “Unity Game Analytics”
Once you have all these questions answered, you modify your game to fit the player’s feedback, it’s time to understand how to add fun stuff using physics mechanics. The perfect course for this is “Unity Game Physics”
Remember, it takes time and experience to get to understand how to read your audience and know what they want. It’s great to get real data from your players and analyze them. Data scientists are in high demand. Some game companies are really good at this and came up with a p behavioral system that forces players to have the desire to spend money in the game. Critics like Nick Saint of Business Insider have said that Zynga’s games have essentially the same mechanics even though they have different premises and settings.
You also need to create an audience so that each time you create a new game or add a new level or feature to an existing game, you need to be able to tell people about it. That’s why you need to build an email list. The email list is platform agnostic, meaning, no matter what happens tomorrow, even if the iPhone industry dies, you still have an email list of people who love to play your game genres, and they will gladly follow you to any platforms, whether you decided to create Virtual Reality games, ebooks or movies!
The course “Unity 2016 – Email List Building – Why and How” will help you integrate the email capture system into your game and help you build your email list.
Email list building with Unity
– The marketing side of things.
Disclaimer: Would you rather take the time to market your game or start making another game?
We all rather keep making games than marketing the games we’ve already made and that’s totally understandable. Making games is fun and gratifying. Marketing games is not sexy, nobody wants to have to bother people and tell them about your game. After all, shouldn’t your game be good enough that it speaks for itself? not in today’s world. Publishing a game is just the beginning, creating the buzz around it, baking viral mechanics into it, getting featured in magazines and media is a must. The course “Become a Mobile App Growth Hacker . Total Theory & Training” teaches you fundamentals concepts on how to use marketing even before you’ve created your game. Making a game is great, making a game that brings in revenue is great, and making a game that the whole world enjoys is even better!
– Chat system:
Players want to interact with eachother. Online games need chat systems to allow players to send messages to eachother.
The messages need to be stored in your own private server (online or local). This course will teach you just that. Beware! This course uses advanced topics like MySQL, PHP, and Apache. The good news is that all the source codes are included so you just have to use them and customize them to make it original to your taste.
Take this course “Unity 5 Build a chat system for online multiplayer games”
– in-game mail message system
This course goes hand in hand with the course above(chat system). If somehow one of the player is not online at the moment, other players can send in-game emails. A must-have for online multiplayers. “Unity 5 Multiplayer InGame Mail Messaging”
– Maths for Game Developers:
okay, let’s be honest, making games is sexy, learning the maths not so much. But don’t you want to understand the math behind the game mechanics?
Take this somewhat boring but necessary course: “Maths for Video Games”
– You don’t have time or don’t want to spend too much money on graphics?
Me either.. That’s why the following course automatically generate environments, dungeons, castles, houses, weapons and entire worlds for you! Neat? very powerful stuff…
“Building 3D Voxel Art Environment Worlds with Unity 5″
“Unity 5 techniques to generate unique worlds quickly”
“Unity 5 Build a System that Generates Houses & Castles Auto”
“Build Weapons Automatically Unity . Fantasy Edition”
Once you have taken all the above courses. You are ready to make a 6-figure job as a game developer or run your own game business. You’re not alone, I’m here to help you in your journey.
Contact me anytime. Yohann of AppsFresh com
Who is the target audience?
game lovers
hobbyist
entrepreneurs, side entrepreuneurs
computer students
cool kids
graphic designers
Created by Yohann Taieb
Last updated 12/2016
English
English [Auto-generated]
Size: 1.14 GB
Download Now
https://ift.tt/2hP1das.
The post Unity Multiplayer 2017 -Build Online Shooter – code included appeared first on Free Course Lab.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
girodivita
una finestra sull'anima
suelos-de-madera-shop
Suelos de Madera Shop
ririls-blog
Untitled
starryingenue
modern day persephone
ustcmsc-blog-blog-blog
Conservatory of Music Student Council