#for 1 sticker is huge i will order a sticker specifically for it
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my dad said i could put one (1) sticker in the car what should it be
#he Hates cat stickers like actually dispises them my mom started stickering her jeep as and he was so :( about it him giving his blessing#for 1 sticker is huge i will order a sticker specifically for it#my mom wants it to be a sticker of our dogs which i am not against#but the possibilities are endless
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A Comic About the Business of Art (and Comics) That I Wish I Had Ages Ago
I drew this as a warmup because it is the beginning of a long cycle of drawing and comics, my friends! This understanding took about 4 years to cram into my brain and structure and compile into a super simple graphic.
Sharing is caring.
When you have an art business, you have 3 basic structures you can pick, and the third has two paths.
OPTION 01: MAKE LOT OF ART
You can do a LOT of art on a FEW things. I am focusing on greeting cards as the main project, printable downloads as the secondary, and comics/zines as a tertiary.
Medium difficulty, small difficulty, large difficult, in order that order.
When I want to tackle a project, I'll work on a greeting card. When I want to sink my teeth into something for a long time and get deep into the details, I'll do a comic/zine. When I JUST WANNA MAKE SOMETHING NOW, I'll make a printable.
You find success because your customers and audience are interested in the latest pieces of art.
OPTION 02: MAKE A LOT OF STUFF
You can do a LOT of things, with a few pieces of art each. This is a very common approach because it lets an artist/art shop/etc. bounce from project to project, eventually having a large platform of stuff to sell. Often a slow build up over years.
It is particularly great if you especially enjoy production wrangling, finding vendors, and doing The Business part in the Business of Art Stuff.
By nature, your focus is split.
You're going to get so focused on wrangling shipping times and building in overlaps of Vendor A and Vendor B to ensure you can fulfill orders quickly and efficiently.
Your success is found in efficiency -- better vendor relationships, easier packing orders, increasing volume of production to decrease costs.
You have less time to focus on specific pieces of art. The above focus never goes away, because even if you say "Okay well I'll just order 10,000 of ART THING and then use the rest of the year to make more art" you still have to handle the business of storing 10,000 things, building up sales to cover the costs of initial production AND storage, etc.
You find success when your customers say "Hey, I like this art print. I also want it on a shirt, and a tote bag, and a key chain, and a sticker." (etc.)
OPTION 03-A: Focus on collaboration
Similar to Option 02, you can focus on having collaborators make the art and you manage the project, manage the production, putting stuff into boxes, putting boxes into the mail.
Extremely popular in the zine space, the independent graphic novel space.
You can be one of the collaborators to the project! That helps keep your art bones happy!
But the bulk of your job and time and energy is going to be corralling Incoming Art into Product(s) into Production into Customer's Order into Mail Boxes.
OPTION 03-B: Focus on an internal team
Same as Option 03-A, but instead of spending time finding external collaborators, you have an internal crew. Either as employees (more direction, less negotiation) or partners (less direction, more negotiation).
Your team(s) will focus on either Options 01 or 02.
Or you scale your company HUGE and they focus on both. I want to stress, though, by "huge" I mean each portion of your company is going to have a team. Instead of 1 team, you have teams of specialists.
QUICK OVERVIEW
Focus on Variety in Art (Option 1), Variety in Stuff (Option 2), or a Team (Options 3).
One is not better than the other. All can be great.
You can start down one path and reverse course then head down another.
But you DO have to pick.
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Hi. I'm going to send this ask to more than one blog because I want to check if I get different types of answers. (Please make sure this ask is anonymous) Do you have any advices for plurals how to clean / tidy your room/house and manage to not make it messy again? Important: nay tips for how to not regret getting rid of items you think aren't important now but still be able to get rid of many items to finally make your house clean?
🥔🥔🥔
Hello, this is an excellent question. Maintaining a clean living space can genuinely help improve and maintain positive mental health, but it can be challenging keeping up with these things as a system. We certainly do not keep our own home totally spotless, but here’s how we go about keeping our living space clean.
1) Chore Chart
We’ve made a list of all the chores we’d ideally like to get done, and assigned one or two chores to each day of the week. We’ll put a big chore list at the bottom of this post under a cut, so you can get some sort of idea about the amount of chores your system might need to do in order to keep your space tidy. Our own chore chart is written on a whiteboard left in our kitchen so we can see it every day.
2) Checklists
Many parts of our system are incredibly motivated by checklists. It feels amazing and productive to be able to check things off as you accomplish tasks. Individual chores can even be broken down into multiple steps so you can have more items to check off, if you’d like. Our chore chart mentioned above is in a checklist format, so parts can cross things off the list as they do them. If your system feels like a checklist might be useful, we cannot stress enough how incorporating a checklist into your routine might be beneficial.
3) Putting things away
This one is tough, particularly for the littles in our system, but putting things away when you’re done using them can have a huge impact on keeping your space clean. Things like:
- Hanging up coats and putting away shoes when you take them off
- Keeping dirty clothes in a bin or hamper
- Returning toys/art supplies/electronics/etc. to where they belong after using them
- Taking dishes, cups, and silverware to the sink/kitchen after eating or drinking
- Throwing away empty wrappers, broken things, and other trash items as you encounter them
And so on. This may be a difficult habit to get into, but if a few of your members who front in your home can commit to keeping this up, your whole system will start to feel the differences.
4) Divvying tasks
In all honesty, our system has a chores part who handles most of our housework. Soft likes it and it works for fluff. However, not every system has a specific headmate who handles or wants to complete domestic tasks. So dividing responsibilities among the willing members of your system can lighten everyone’s workload a bit. You can try making different charts or checklists for different headmates, or include those who want/are able to help out on any sort of chore chart or list you create.
Now, when it comes to getting rid of items… our system is POSIC, and can establish connections and relationships with all sorts of items which can make getting rid of them challenging. Still, this is a necessary part of life. Some things that have more or less worked for us are:
We’re not big minimalists, but we like Marie Kondo’s advice when it comes to getting rid of things to ask yourself: what sparks joy? If an item doesn’t spark joy for yourself or your headmates, consider getting rid of it. We like the idea of thanking the item for its service before letting it go.
We also have one alter who likes to take pictures of things before we get rid of them. Pup then makes little edits of them, pasting little digital stickers, and for us it works as a good way to keep items in our memory without keeping them around physically. This may be weird, but it works for us, so we thought might as well include it.
Also, donating items to thrift stores or charity causes may be easier and more fulfilling than flat-out throwing them away. In this way, you’re parting with items that can still find a good home with someone who could get more use out of it, and not sending a once treasured object off to a landfill.
Goodness, this post got quite long. We’ll go ahead and call it here so it doesn’t get even more carried away. We do hope that something here will be useful for your system. Good luck with keeping your home tidy in the future!
And here is a list of chores that might help you get a feel for how to create your own chore chart:
Kitchen
- Doing dishes
- Wiping countertops
- Scrubbing the sink
- Cleaning out the fridge and/or pantry
- Doing meal prep
Bedroom
- Making the bed
- Doing laundry (step one: gather clothes, step two: wash them, step three: dry them, step four: fold them, step five: put them away)
- Washing and changing out bedsheets
Bathroom
- Scrubbing the toilet
- Scrubbing the sink
- Scrubbing the shower or bathtub
- Washing the mirror
Misc/Any Room
- Sweeping
- Vacuuming
- Dusting
- Mopping
- Washing windows
- Putting away anything that isn’t where it belongs
We hope you and your system can brainstorm to figure out what chores will benefit your home life best. Again, good luck with your endeavors to maintain a clean space going forward!
#long post#tidiness#cleanliness#chores#housework#sorry for any typos - it can be difficult for us to proofread long posts
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UPDATE: 2024
Usually I make these kinds of post around New Years, but this year I didn't really have anything to say. But now we're a month in and I definitely do.
I feel…different, this year. In a good way, I think. I feel like I'm tired of being complacent and riding coattails. This month has been a whirlwind of getting my shit in line. So far I:
handled two serious family crises smoothly and picked myself back up quickly from both
called my health insurance (phone calls have historically been an hours-long meltdown-inducing debacle for me) twice to switch my PCP because the previous one was consistently booked 3-6 months out and she just forgot to mention the inhaler I pulled out of my bag to show her at my first appointment so I couldn't get a refill on it or my nebulizer when I had COVID; that's been getting put off since August of last year
made an appointment with said new PCP for Feb 1, and I'm hoping they'll be able to refer me to a dentist and optometrist because I desperately need both
got back into therapy with an autism/ADHD specialist who can help me manage those specifically after my previous therapist didn't understand why I couldn't just Do It™; also have assessments lined up for both to get diagnoses
pay more attention to my health in general, including diet and exercise. I'm already down about 10 lb
restructured my planner to include a mood tracker and sleep tracker, and have been better about staying on top of it
got Trello up and running and so far it's working really well for me
have been doing my house chores more consistently, namely cleaning litter boxes and taking care of my snakes and tarantulas (roommates have been picking up my slack but they shouldn't have to, they're my animals)
am able to work more consistently on my designated work days; before it was a lot of chipping away and putting things off rather than sitting down and making actually decent progress
am finally starting a tattoo sleeve I've wanted for a very, very long time as a belated birthday gift to myself
am consistently filling stream sketch slots, which means I can actually make money and pay my bills on-time (and a huge, huge thank you to everyone who signs up, I'm pretty sure this is the primary reason I've been able to pull myself out of the hole. Financial stability is a hell of a drug)
This year I wanna try really hard to keep the train moving along this track. If things keep going the way they are, I could potentially make some pretty big changes in the not so distant future. Some things I'm brainstorming:
UnholyFans
merch other than stickers (seriously I have so many designs in mind, I just haven't had the drive to work on them or the upfront capital to order inventory)
more monster/demon adoptables
I would really like to collab with some other artists, it's been too fuckin long
website restructure
picking up my side business (I did literally zero pieces for it last year oof), ideally with a rebrand
get back into conventions and try some new crowds: reptile/exotic expos, tattoo conventions, oddities expos, sex conventions, BDSM groups…
push the stream setup to be more professional
rekindling the spark for my personal stories and headworld projects
more I have written down somewhere but can't think of off the top of my head
And to be clear, I'm optimistic, but also a realist. I know from experience that shit changes and I could hit a massive depressive slump in a month or two and be back to where I was for most of last year. I'm still not going to promise anything I'm not confident I can deliver. However, that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.
I already got sidetracked with this post, so I'm gonna make a second to get to my original point and I'll come back and add a link to this one when I do. But suffice to say I want to try - again - to breathe some kind of life back into my SubscribeStar. I have some ideas in mind, but I want to hear yall's opinions on it too.
Watch this space ♥
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Part 13 Reading erha 二哈和他的白猫师尊 + learning Chinese
🍚🥟 Hello hello! 🥟🍚
I was cleaning my drawer and found two really cool washi tapes!! One has TGCF main leads and the other has MDZS side character but I totally forgot I had it?? You can see one of them in the picture below, while the other one I'll show tomorrow^^
Let's get back to translating!!
(I did a little Chu Wanning eating wantons doodle)
BOOK TAGS: Xianxia, Rebirth, Action, Conspiracy, Angst, 1?v1 HE
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Instead of continuing the text, I would like to analyse the title of the book.
海棠微雨 共归途 (not the erha- title that is more seen now)
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
For some reason, I got the version called 海棠微雨 共归途 Lovestory of the Prodigal (its title on Amazon) instead of 二哈和他的白猫老师 Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun (I think mine is an earlier version before all the huge publication and editing).
Translating the title directly gives something like "Begonia light rain and return home" lol.
A more accurate literal translation correlates to the characters: Haitang and Weiyu On The Way Home Together.
微雨 is Mo Ran’s, that’s the main character’s, courtesy name (Mo Weiyu)
海棠 refers to MC’s master, or shizun, who’s strongly affiliated with this flower. Haitang Blossom (海棠花, Hǎitáng Huā) is a spell, intended for silent communication specifically used by Chu Wanning, named thusly as the message is sent in the form of a Haitang Blossom (Chinese Flowering Crabapple).
Vocabulary:
海棠 - Crabapple - Hǎi Táng
Crabapple (or "Chinese flowering apple" tree) has a different leaf shape to Begonia 🌳. In poetry, it often carries connotations of elegance, beauty, and fleetingness.
In Chinese culture, flowers are considered to have rich cultural and literary connotations. In literary contexts, 海棠 symbolizes homesickness, parting sorrows, and a variety of emotions such as tenderness, beauty, and fleeting happiness.
2. 微雨 - Light Rain - Wēi Yǔ
Rain can symbolize various emotions or situations, such as melancholy, renewal, or transformation.
3. 共 - Together - Gòng
4. 归 - Return - guī
5. 途 - Path/Journey - tú
归途 - Path of Return - Guī Tú
"海棠微雨" has set a poetic scene that could be associated with romantic or emotional moments. 共归途 creates a snapshot of the moment in time when the couple is on their return journey together.
Practice:
Ok so not really practice but AHH exciting news! I finally ordered a Town Zi Ge notebook! It's coming tomorrow so I can finally practice in the squares~
I went for this one in the picture because it had high reviews and alot of pages to last me a while :3 plus the light cover might mean I can doodle or put some stickers on top!!
#chinese#erha#erha he ta de bai mao shizun#grammar#language#linguistics#mo ran#二哈#二哈和他的白猫师尊#fanart#chu wanning
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hi! i remember you once talked about being into gunpla and as a new gundam appreciator i have been thinking of buying a couple of kits but it all seems so intimidating? i dont really get the “grades” and idk if i should have some tools at home already or if i can just order the kit without needing extra tools? also im in europe too and i thought they would be super expensive but i found them for like €10 so im worried i am on a scammy website and idk how to tell 😭 (the website i found is called hlj.com btw idk). anyway sorry this is a lot i just feel very lost and intimidated maybe you have some advice on how to get started?
Uhhh.. as of right now I do not own a single gunpla yet. I ordered a couple but unfortunately I'm still waiting. In any case, I'll gladly answer your questions as far as I can:
Hobby Link Japan is legit, the reason the gunpla are cheap is that the company isn't based in Europe meaning you'll be the one to pay the import tax, so an HG model is around 10 euros; as opposed to e.g. if you buy from riseofgunpla.com, which is a french site, then you pay ~10 bucks extra but you will not have to worry about the shipping company charging you taxes plus a fee because they paid the taxes for you. I still think hlj comes out cheaper in total, but I'm not sure.
As for the grades, you probably want to start out with HG, which stands for High Grade, which is basically the standard tier: 1/144 scale (so ~13 cm tall, though of course the exact size depends on the exact model), and they cost around 1500 Yen (plus minus some depending on the exact model), which comes out at ~10 euros, plus whatever cut your international/european store wants to make their little profit on top.
Then there's:
SD (Super Deformed) which is for like chibi style ones with huge heads, they're also relatively cheap iirc.
RG (Real Grade) also 1/144, but more realistic and more expensive
MG (Master Grade) 1/100, which are bigger ~19cm, and cost ~double I think?
FM (Full Mechanics) also 1/100 but maybe slightly cheaper? and only for specific Gundam shows? I'm not sure tbh, they're not on the same list as I get my info from
PG (Perfect Grade) 1/60, ~30cm sized ones where you get to pay money in the triple digits
As for tools I heard you want a side cutter (ideally one made for modeling), some kind of box cutter or otherwise sharp knife (ideally one for modelling), and a pair of tweezers (for stickers). And maybe some fine sand paper, or files made for modeling. You can probably get that kind of stuff from any local shop that sells model kits (whether they sell gunpla or not). Or I think there's complete tool sets for that kind of stuff on amazon. I'm probably just gonna see if I can raid my dad's model train toolbox.
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Hi pandora! I'm having a difficult time with setting up my new etsy shop. What company do you go to for producing your prints, pins, stationery, etc? (It's alright if you don't want to disclose that though). And do you have any advice from experience with etsy?, thank you for your sweet art!
Hi Berry!! I'm always happy to help, no worries. After trying out a million print services and not being satisfied with the quality, I finally just bought my own printer and print on demand. It's an Epson EcoTank ET-2720 and I feed it with some high quality Hahnemühle paper. I'm pretty satisfied with the quality, and printing on demand means I don't have to have a huge stock of prints that may or may not sell well.
Pins I actually also make myself (I'm just realizing that all this might not be very helpful to you since I diy most my products. Oops sorry). My friend has a Badgematic machine and we meet over tea in her studio to make pins every once in a while.
My stationary is one of the few things I don't make myself, I usually order it from some local companies that make promotional merchandise for businesses and choose the smallest quantity. Since I don't believe you need the highest quality paper for a little notepad that's meant to be used to write your grocery list on :-) I've been trying out different companies for those, there's always gonna be a bit of trial and error.
Oh and I order my vinyl stickers from Sticker App! Very good quality, though I have yet to sell out of a design haha.
My Etsy advice in general is to try and streamline the process of making new listings as much as possible, cause for me that was always the most annoying part. When I started out I built myself a lightbox to take product photos in and tried to make every product description unique. Nowadays I use mock ups for prints and mostly copy and paste a description with like 1 unique sentence for every product. Makes it all so much easier and less time intensive haha
Another thing that I've found to help is to have a large range of products in different price categories. Big fancy prints are great, every greater when someone can buy a cute little pin for only a few dollars to go with their new print :-) also just a large range of products is very good too, I would try to aim for at least 15 products for a start? If that's possible for you, no worries if not.
Lastly, just remember that these are only my experiences. If you find that the copy shop down the street make great quality prints, go for it and order from them! Different things may just work better for you than for me. Also, you are only one person and it's alright to take it slow before committing to buy a huge fancy printer, etc. Start where you can, there's already so much pressure on artists to sell everything they make and do marketing and branding and whatnot. Don't aim to be perfect, it's alright to just sell some art to nice people :-)
Hope this helped a little bit! I'm always happy to talk some more or answer specific questions you may have <3
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💥 Fandom battle jacket tour 💥
👇🏻Explanations and details👇🏻 please forgive spelling mistakes, it's midnight n I'm tired n need to be up at 6 tomorrow
The back is a custom t shirt I ordered of official Pokémon card art of my top favourite Pokémon. Doduo, Sandile, Aipom, Sandshrew, Heracross and Pichu but specifically THE brothers. My Doduo are always called Finn-lee and my Sandile is Harrison Wells.
The blue numbers side is full of things that I can talk about for days on end / talk about a lot on here, more of a super fan side. 1: Official button of Yuu Kamda from D.gray man. 2: Thousand sunny from One piece pin brought at an irl shop. 3: Pride pin brought at my first pride years ago. 4: Official Tumblr pin I brought when looking at the store while getting my free One piece stickers. 5: A light house pin I brought at a museum, this one represents my favourite game To the moon although I am a huge fan of the museum I got it from. 6: The love of my life A bootleg Sanji from One piece pin I brought from AliExpress because I wanted to see how bad they are to talk about the differences honestly. 7: Franky from One piece pin, also from the AliExpress test. 8: Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist doing the rosie riveter pose?, idk why maybe it's like 'disabled ppl can do it too'?, I got him in a give away from The Fullmetal. I misplaced my Bakugo pin but he'll be on that side alongside my huge funko pop Kirishima, I may update this as it goes along.
The red side is more of a chill vibes side, I love the content, they did change my life a lot but like, I couldn't tell you much about the actual fandom and the inside jokes or whatever. 1: This is the exception to the rule, Lenalee Lee from D.gray man badge. She's on this side because I am new to the fandom but also I have made edits for Kanda and she's only partly on one edit not about her. 2: This is not a fandom, this is an anti diet culture pin that says 'Donuts forever, Diets never', I got it from Candy Doll Club along with the same pin but in brown for my Katakuri jacket. I am very anti diet culture, even more so now that I have been on one and GAINED ON IT?? anyway. 3: Stranger things Hawkins High badge I bought in 2017 at an irl shop & 4: Stranger things Eleven Eggo pin brought for me as a gift from a family member I no longer speak to. 5: Official Tom Nook from Animal crossing pin! It came with my siblings pre order of New Horizons & I love and care for him still to this day like he is a medal. 6: Anxious the Elephant from the Haven Holidays mascot team. Like I said yall, I was a Holiday park kid and I stan my girl. 7: A Slush puppy pin from Candy Doll Club, on this jacket to represent Heathers the musical. I do like the movie but the musical was my everything as a young teen. 8: The danger days spider from My Chemical Romance. Bro is my favourite album, has been since a young child but I cannot tell you the law around it.
Lastly we have a Fairy tail necklace charm on a keyring loop, specifically Gray's guild mark, this pocket is on the 'blue' side. A clown a friend got me for Christmas because I love silly little guys, on the red side because he isn't anyone, he's just fun. Ace from One piece, blue side obviously and lastly this hidden Big foot, temporarily representing The Adventure zone: amnesty because I do own the patch and that will be going under the gap, i think I'll probably move Big foot over to the red side when that happens cos i know jack shit about actual cryptids.
#pokemon#Doduo#sandile#aipom#sandshrew#heracross#Pichu#Yuu kanda#d gray man#Thousand sunny#One piece#Tumblr#To the moon#Sanji#cyborg franky#Edward Elric#Fullmetal Alchemist#lenalee lee#stranger things#Tom nook#animal crossing new horizons#animal crossing#heathers the musical#jason dean#fairy tail#gray fullbuster#portgas d ace#clown#taz amnesty
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My Loki Collection (Currently)
I've been putting off making this post for awhile, because 1., it's going to be long as hell, and 2., my collection is constantly growing because I have zero self-control.
Let's get this out of the way before I forget.
Not pictured:
McDonald's Loki Sweet n Sour Sauce. Reason: I have not eaten it and will not be eating it because I don't like Sweet n Sour sauce, so it won't just be the (cleaned) empty label/container on display, and I cannot convince myself to put food on this shelf.
Loki Loungefly backpack. Reason: I use it frequently, so I keep it by my door instead.
3. Loki and Sylvie t-shirts. Reason: Same as the backpack. I wear them often, so I keep them in my dresser.
4. Alligator Loki plush. Reason: I ordered him on Wednesday, so he hasn't gotten to me yet.
5. Loki 2023 calendar. Reason: My calendar hook is in my hallway, so that's where it's hanging. I might do something with some of the pictures at the end of the year, we'll see.
Okay. I'm going to detail what is on the shelf. Where possible, I'll cite where I got the item, but in some cases I don't remember because it's been too long. I also just transferred my collection to this shelf (it used to live on the top of one of my other bookshelves and quickly outgrew it), so I made several display changes I also want to highlight.
Top (Left to Right)
Framed Loki watercolor print: Once I have the motivation and equipment, I'm going to hang this on the wall above the shelf. The goal is to hang it alongside a framed print of the cover of Journey Into Mystery #85, Loki's comic debut (but the only print I've found so far is a poster, and I don't have room for a print that size there, and the watercolor is 8x10in so it will be very asymmetrical). I got this print at a convention three and a half years ago, so unfortunately I don't remember who created it. And I can't read their signature but I'll post it here in case you're motivated to try to figure out who it is. Kenrick, I think?
2. Various Loki pins: I found most of these (the buttons) at a comic book store, but you could probably find them on Amazon. The lapel pin came in a set of three from the Disney Store (online; I don't think there are anymore physical stores, unfortunately, outside of like Orlando and probably Anaheim). It was a Pride collection with America Chavez, captioned STRONG, and Valkyrie, captioned BOLD, and I found it equally funny, sweet, and definitely something that would've pissed him off that Loki's caption was LOVE. (And then I realized that's essentially his niece's name now and I immediately wrote several pieces of fic that will never see the light of day before I cried.) The corkboard I got from Amazon, and was the best green I could find that wasn't also huge. I discovered much later that it's actually adhesive, and am considering sticking it to the wall or part of the shelf to free up space at the top. The ribbons are separate from the board and I already had them (I don't remember where specifically they came from, but they were just tied to something else I got, and I thought Loki colors and saved them).
3. Stickers: Like many millennials with anxiety, I am terrified of committing stickers to a spot. So before creating the Loki shelf, I precariously balanced my stickers (with the paper back intact) wherever they could be seen (and often the A/C or just walking by blew them down). So I positive self-talked my way into bravely committing, bought a frame and a page of scrapbook paper in a shade of green Loki would be proud of, and stuck my stickers on. They're all on one side, because the intention is to get more stickers and build my collection on the same paper (I already have an Etsy wishlist with more stickers).
That square sticker in the corner and the comic book-looking design are from an Avengers sticker set I got at Target. I bought the set exclusively for these two stickers of Loki, and these are the only two with Loki in the set. "Comics are for everyone" in the genderfluid flag colors is from Panda Redd's Redbubble shop (he has a link on his instagram). I got this awhile ago, so no promises it's still available, but at the time he had this design in many pride flag options. Loki waving the genderfluid flag is from the Etsy shop DeanDraws. The remaining Loki stickers are from the Etsy shop ClarkStickerCo. Maybe at some point I'll make a post of my Etsy-specific Loki wishlist (my comic and official merch wishlists are a little bit out of control, so I'll hold off on those for now).
4. The Mighty Thor issue 359: This comic in particular is on display on top only because it is the oldest issue I own (originally published September 1985; I don't know if this is a reprint, and honestly, I don't actually care if it's legitimately almost forty years old or not). I'm still deciding if it's going to stay on top or if it's only there until I get the print of Journey into Mystery 85.
5. (Left, second row) Agent of Asgard Loki action figure, with Gram: I got him from the online Disney store. He is sitting because it's currently the only way he stays upright. Eventually I want to get stands for all my action figures so they can all stand up straight.
6. Agent of Asgard Loki Funko Pop: There are so many Loki Funko Pops. I got this one (my baby, my fave) from Amazon, because I think they've stopped producing the AoA Funko. I also have a Loki Amazon list, but it's specific to the shelf, so some of it is display supplies rather than merch or comics. Some of these Funko Pops are so low in supply right now that they cost $70-90. I want them anyway. (This one did not.)
7. Avengers-era (I think) Loki action figure: also got him from the online Disney store. He is not standing upright either; the corkboard and sticker page are working together to hold him up.
8. (Little bit hard to see) Loki ring: This is a gift from my brother. It's hard to tell in this picture, but there are also some green gems inlaid into the gold (paste, I'm pretty sure; I don't think he spent an obscene amount of money on real gold and emeralds lol).
9. Sylvie action figure: I got my girl from a local comic book store, but I know that she's available on the online Disney store, because I've had her on my merch wishlist almost since season one ended (I think she was in the second merch drop, which was a couple weeks after the finale). It's hard to tell, but she's got her lovely blade in hand as well.
10. TVA Loki Funko Pop: Also got him from Amazon. I got a bunch of Amazon gift cards for Christmas last year, and spent most of them on Loki Funko Pops and my Loki calendar.
11. Mobius Funko Pop: I don't remember if I got Mobius from Amazon in the same order as TVA Loki or if I got him at my comic book store, but I know he's on Amazon.
First Shelf (L to R)
12. Loki-centric or -featured graphic novels: I won't specify each individual graphic novel I have, but obviously the complete collection of AoA is in there, as are both volumes of Journey into Mystery. Loki: Mistress of Mischief is also there, but please do not assume that means I am supportive of this storyline. I was curious, and the most convenient way to read it was to get the book. I agree it's pretty yike in general and transphobic specifically.
13. Yes, that is a Lady Loki Funko Pop: She's in other comics besides Mistress of Mischief, as just Loki rather than Loki impersonating someone or a completely different person. Her debut is problematic, but so was Cloud's, so are many queer character's. But I do agree it's time to retire the 'Lady' title/distinction. She's a goddamn Princess, for gods' sake! (Well, or Queen, depending on the story and which realm you're talking about.) Give her her due! So let me put my money where my mouth is.
This is my Princess Loki Funko Pop. She's from Amazon. She is also serving as my bookend for my Loki graphic novel section. I superglued her feet to a clear bookend to make even these thematic.
(Yes, that coaster says "Sheep are Friends." I'm allowed to have more than one hyperfixation.)
14. Sylvie Black Light Collection Funko Pop: I found her by chance at Target. I really like this collection, and it's one of the few times I've been tempted to get non-Loki Funko Pops because I like the aesthetic. She's having trouble standing up, though, so she's using a stand I got with one of the Funko Pops that's being used as a bookend (I don't remember which). They don't all come with stands anymore (maybe they never did; I've never owned very many), but I need to buy more stands, because a bunch of them are losing the ability to stand up.
15. Sylvie Funko Pop: Also either from Amazon or the comic book store, and she's also not standing very well lately.
16 and 17. Sylvie and Loki plushes: These are some of my favorite things in my collection. I got Loki from the same convention I got the watercolor print, so I don't know for sure who made him unfortunately. But I loved him so much that after the Loki series came out, I wanted a Sylvie plush a lot. I scoured the internet, Etsy in particular, for a long time. I finally found a store that looked promising and eventually came out with a Sylvie plush. I can't guarantee that this store made the Loki plush, because at the time I was looking for Sylvie, they had a different design for Loki, so I don't know if they used to have this design or if it was a different shop entirely. But the Sylvie creator at least (who also creates lots of other plushes from other media) is flightydolls on Etsy.
18. Classic Loki action figure: I got him from the online Disney store as well. Of all my action figures, he probably looks the most like his actor. He also came with
19. Kid Loki action figure: By contrast, he looks nothing like his actor. He's much more like the comic book likeness, but even that isn't as good as it probably could be. He also has the scepter? for some reason? Did I miss him having that in the show or the comic? It's significantly taller than he is, and at the angle he's fallen to in this photo you can barely see his face behind it.
20. Loki lanyard: This is from Box Lunch. I've been looking for a Loki lanyard for years. At the convention in 2020 (it was legit like a month before COVID hit the US), I ended up getting a Thor lanyard because it was the closest I could find.
Second Shelf (L to R)
21. Loki novels (most unaffiliated with Marvel): Since there's only four so far, I'll list them. Loki by Melvin Burgess (not read yet); Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (read many times and highly recommend); The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (read about half); Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee (read twice, also highly recommend, and the only novel in this section that is affiliated with Marvel).
22. Second TVA Loki Funko Pop: I got this at my comic book store because I forgot I already got it from Amazon. I saved it instead of returning it, and ended up using it as a bookend.
23. Jotun Loki Funko Pop: I'm really annoyed about this one. I got him from Amazon with the intention of making him into a bookend, and I really love how great he looks. But he couldn't stand from the get-go, and he's the worst damaged. That's why he's at an angle in this photo; it's the only way he can stay standing. I still tried supergluing him to the bookend, but he couldn't stay upright long enough to dry. I think a spring in his head is bent, and isn't that just poetic. (And mean.)
24. Loki waffle iron: This is a gift from my sister. I'm hoping to eventually actually use it, but I'm not very good at motivating myself to cook beyond throwing something in the microwave or making a sandwich, and I've never actually made waffles before.
25. (Not visible but on the shelf) Loki magnets: These are going to take the place of the print on the top once I hang it up. I'm displaying them on a baking sheet, and may eventually need to buy a bigger one than the one I'm currently using.
Halloween Loki is from the Marvel store in Downtown Disney in Orlando. I don't remember where I got the helmet magnet, but probably Five Below. The chibi Loki was from a store at a local mall, but you can probably find him online.
25. Loki travel mug: This is a gift from my cousin. I don't use reusable mugs or bottles because, regardless of the actual material, everything always tastes plasticky to me, so this will probably just stay on display, but I love the color of it.
26. Kid Loki Funko Pop: Pretty sure I got him from Amazon as well. He's also having trouble standing. Is this a normal issue to happen over time? And by over time I mean after like six months? Jotun Loki was broken upon receipt, but both Sylvies and Kid Loki stood fine for awhile before they started toppling.
27. Avengers-era Loki Funko Pop: Also from Amazon (most of my Loki shelf wishlist is either equipment to make my figures and Funkos stand better or Loki Funko Pops from different eras or collections).
28. Loki-centric or -featured single issue comics: Again, I won't post all that I have in this section, but notable highlights include four separate copies of Loki issue 1 (variant covers), 2 copies of each issue following (also variant covers), 3 copies of Original Sin: Thor and Loki in the Tenth Realm issue 2 (not variant covers; I just kept forgetting I already owned it, apparently), and numerous single issues of comics I own in more complete collections as graphic novels. For some of my favorite covers, see my post of my top ten single issue covers.
Bottom Shelf (L to R)
29. Miscellaneous comics not featuring Loki: Most of these are single issues, often from Free Comic Book Day, but also included are Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing and The Defenders by Al Ewing.
30. Jotun Loki Soda Pop Funko: He was not supposed to be a bookend. He was supposed to be where regular Jotun Loki is standing. Instead he's a bookend, because like hell was I about to buy another regular Funko and wait another several days to make my last bookend. Anyway, I got him at Target, also by chance.
31. Agent of Asgard Loki Funko box: The actual Funko Pop is pre-ego death AoA Loki. He's the same Loki, but after ego-death his look and actions and the things he says just make me so giddy. The back of the Funko box had a picture from the comic of Loki post-ego death, so I had to cut him out and put him on display because I love him.
32. Loki puzzle: It's still in the box. I had this grand plan when I started conceiving of transferring the collection to its own shelf that I would put it together and frame it, but it's going to be the size of a poster (not to mention take me ages), and the location the shelf is in my room just is not feasible for a framed poster to look good near it. And I think the box looks good on display, too, honestly.
Okay, now that you know what I already have (if you were patient enough to read to the end), I can make update posts periodically of what I get to expand my collection in the future.
#oh my god that took me like two hours to type up#loki#loki collection#loki comics#loki funko pop#loki action figures#loki merch#collection
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Walls Need Love: Peel off and Stick Wall picture Review (The Great & Bad)
We? lso are in the method of remodeling the kitchen and dining area and one involving the projects we decided to deal with was wallpaper. Given that we once put in an entire saturday and sunday scraping wallpaper away the in a6105 wardrobe in our home, we knew all of us didn? t need to go the standard wallpaper route, just in case we ever planned to take it lower. Thankfully, peel plus stick wallpaper has come far.
Exactly what is Peel and even Stick Wallpaper?
This kind of wallpaper comes together with adhesive on the particular back of the particular paper. Think regarding it as a large, removable sticker. A few brands can be difficult to work alongside (I? m taking a look at an individual, Target) however the more expensive brands help it become pretty easy in order to apply, adjust and even re-apply. We made the decision to use Wall surfaces Need Love since I really loved their patterns and i also? d heard good stuff about the good quality from the wallpaper. (This post is certainly not sponsored at all)
Benefits of Peel and Stick Wallpapers
If you? re by using a high-quality peel from the lime and stick picture, you? ll have the advantage of becoming able to stay, remove, and re-stick your wallpaper until you get it only right. I was actually shocked with how often times we were able in order to peel it returning and try once again, without the wallpapers losing any associated with its stickiness. This makes it much simpler for a picture newbie to have good results!
Wall surfaces Need Love Positives and negatives
I wanted to be able to talk specifically concerning Walls Need Adore because I do believe that they? re probably the most popular brands around the market place, but I had formed difficulties finding an assessment online that wasn? nature and floral wallpaper sponsored. Not really that a sponsored review won? to be honest, but I wanted detailed issues so I recognized what to steer clear of! Because of this, I? michael going to be as critical as you can, to attempt to help an individual evaluate if this wallpapers meets your requirements.
Walls Want Love Pros
Typically the wallpaper is really high quality.
The particular adhesive backing is extremely forgiving, so a person can place it, get rid of it, and reposition it as several times as necessary.
The seams mixture really smoothly so it? s an easy task to connect the document without an evident line.
The styles are gorgeous and they have a wide selection online.
The proceeds are custom purchased to the dimensions of your place to minimize the amount of panels and seams.
Walls Need Like Cons
The wall picture can be extremely expensive, specifically if you? Removable Peel and Stick Wallpaper doing a huge room. I did locate a coupon on-line for 30% away from which helped! But it? ll probably cost around $250 for a smaller room and it might be over $1, 000 for larger rooms.
The dimensions and quantity of proceeds do not are the cause of corners, doorways, and windows, which can make things tricky.
They don? capital t have a solitary tutorial video explaining how to picture around corners, which is necessary if you? re performing a full room. Not merely one. (This was quite frustrating)
It? h a time-consuming method. It took all of us 10 hours to be able to hang wallpaper within our dining space, although we would get faster as we went alongside.
Texture Wallpaper ordered a new sample, but the particular actual wallpaper wasn? t the same color as being the sample.
It took us all 10 hours to perform the project. All of us spent about 2 hours just planning where to begin the wallpaper, tips on how to go around entry doors and windows, wherever we? d need the seams to become, and mapping your whole room.
floral wallpaper took people about 2 hours to hang. The second panel took concerning an hour. Plus then we have slightly faster there after. Many of us had 10 energy total, so We? d estimate about one hour per -panel if you have a challenging room. However, you could go faster in case you were simply performing a wall with out windows and doors.
My Stress Using the Installation Method
We watched just about every single tutorial online video online before many of us started. The videos explained when a person were doing some sort of whole room, pick the? main? wall, start in the center, and work out there after that. stone wallpaper might make sense if you were just doing one wall without windows and doors, but for us all, it ended right up being bad guidance. Geometric Wallpaper required us to wallpaper around a corner, then add a sliver of paper before working around a home window. It would make more sense for all of us to start in a different spot in order to be able to minimize cuts.
While I mentioned, they will don? t incorporate any instructions for wallpapering in regards to spot. Since our edges (like most corners) are not completely square, we have been worried the routine can have crooked. The good news is we have a significant doorway and a large window that helped us? reset? right after the corner. However it? s strange that they can don? t consist of instructions for corners since we found the corners to be the hardest part regarding hanging the wallpapers.
Would I Recommend Walls Need Love?
I would! It? s not affordable but the quality associated with the wallpaper makes it easier to install as well as the document is quite forgiving of imperfections in your walls. We didn? t have any kind of issues with bubbles or wrinkles and even the adhesive had been great. When you have a relatively simple room with minimal windows and doors, it could end up being a fast and easy project. If you have a great deal to trim around, just anticipate the project in order to take a tad longer.
#Removable Peel and Stick Wallpaper#Wall Covering#Mural#Removable Wallpaper#Peel and Stick Wallpaper#wall sticker
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JUMPSTREET - Mark Lee x Johnny Suh
Pairing: Mark Lee x Fem!Reader, Johnny is Mark’s bestfriend, Mentions of Jaehyun and Yuta
Genre: university!au, police!au, a dash of fluff, smut,crack, fraternity!au
warnings: mild violence, mentions of guns, drugs, sexual themes, language
Summary: Mark and Johnny were partners in crime, but when feelings get in the way, will Mark stick to the law or go against it?
Wc: 15.4k
also posted in Ao3
a/n: I hope you enjoy this story heavily inspired by the 21 & 22 Jumpstreet movie franchise, and hopefully I was able to deliver it with my own ideas. Enjoy!
Mark and Johnny start their first official day as policemen after being together in most of their high school years and studying criminology in college. They could not be more excited to see people make trouble until today.
"Let's see who's going to be able to make his first arrest." Johnny bets, scanning around the area with a cup of coffee in his hand, the other on his waist.
"Dude it's a park, what the fuck could possibly happen here?" Mark retorts, unamused.
"Oh you know, it's a crazy world we live in these days." Johnny defends, his gaze fixed on his surroundings.
"Sure it is." Mark continues to read his newspaper as he stands side by side with Johnny.
The two try to at least roam around and patrol over the area, looking for at least an ounce of any violation, it didn't matter if it was serious or not.
Mark spots a kid of about 9 years old near the pond, about to drop a piece of bread into the water.
"Excuse me kid," Mark bluffs, as if it were his first catch of the day. Technically this is his first catch of his career, hopefully.
"What?" the child frowns and looks at him obnoxiously.
"Read the sign," Mark points to it and the kid's eyes follow, but disobeys him anyway.
"It says don't feed the ducks!" Mark argues, but the kid is unbothered.
"Let it go Mark, it's not like bread will kill them. Plus, you can't arrest a child." Johnny scoffs and tries to drag Mark to another area.
Mark lets out a sigh as the kid sticks his tongue out and he does the same before turning his back.
The two had nothing better to do, they were rookies who just got newly assigned to an area that didn't even have any trouble. Almost like they were just there for the sake of. Of course the department treated them as rookies.
Johnny takes out his pistol out of boredom and tosses it for fun. "Woah you know those are loaded right?" Mark warns him while involuntarily taking a step back.
"Yeah and?" Johnny continues to toss and play with it.
"Unload it first!" Mark panics like the goody two shoes that he was.
"Then that would be no fun." Johnny shrugs.
Mark spots a group of middle aged men from afar, but not quite. He squints and tries to take a closer look with his binoculars.
"Yo check it out, aren't those the Outlaws?" He nudges Johnny's shoulder as he takes a look himself.
The Outlaws are a known motorcycle gang in the county, they aren't always bothersome but the both of them are determined to find a loophole.
The two approach the group of men and tell them off because they have parked their motorcycles illegally. But that's not the only thing they notice, these men were stoned. One lights up a joint of Marijuana shamelessly, and Johnny loses his temper. "Excuse me Sir, you do know that the use of Marijuana is illegal right?"
"Oh look," the hideous man spits on the ground. "They must be new. He has the guts to talk to us like that. Nice to see some fresh kids here. You sure you aren't dressing up for... halloween?" The man specifically has his eyes on Mark when he said the last sentence.
Feeling offended, Mark straightens up his stance and acts more like a grown man. "That's a nice joke sir, now hand it over." He says in a stern voice.
"What a scary fella, keep up the good work! Sorry I don't have candy with me." They tease and the two have had enough.
"I'm going to have to search your motorcycle now sir." Johnny insists and doesn't wait for a response, and opens the seat and finds packets of a fine white substance. "These are.." he halts.
"DRUGS!" Mark shouts and immediately gets pushed by one of the gang members.
Johnny immediately gets a sample and keeps it in his pocket and takes his gun out. Mark gets up and does the same. The men try to run away and escape, Johnny runs after them and Mark takes his bike. The two finally get to corner them and Johnny pits one of them on the ground.
"You have the right to," Johnny tries to utter the Miranda Rights as he puts handcuffs on the man that is trying to eagerly resist him. "To shut the fuck up!" Johnny was being too focused on trying to handcuff the suspect and forgets to recite the rest,
Reciting those did not even cross Mark's mind as he just also focused on trying to handcuff the man.
"You are coming with us!" He yells and drags them to the police station, which was only a few meters away from them now.
--------
As the case was investigated, their chief commends them but then discovers that they forgot to recite the Miranda Rights, which can possibly make the charges be dropped, but thankfully the violation to the law was enough for the men to remain in jail.
"Technically you still did this wrong," the chief puts a hand on his chin and taps the polished wooden table. "But since you're just starting out, i'll give you another offer."
The two young men eye each other, anticipating the chief's suggestion. "An offer?" Johnny asks, straightening up in his seat.
"Jump street." The chief says.
"Wha- what's that?" Mark furrows his eyebrows in curiosity.
"Since the both of you look younger than the rest of the people here, our undercover police unit is in need of officers." The chief informs.
"Please, continue." Johnny lets him explain further.
"You pretend to be college students. It's practically the same, but it would be more suitable for the both of you because it's your crowd. You see crime and injustice, you report. But, you will be disguised as college students to ease the procedures of trying to find what those students have been up to. We have your back." The chief explains.
"Cool." Mark simply says because he is astonished by the idea.
"So where do we report? Do we have a new head quarters?" Johnny asks.
"You will be transferred. Down in 21 Jump St." The deputy Chief declares.
____
They head to the headquarters that was disguised as an old chapel. "You sure this is the one?" Mark questions as he gets out of the car.
"It does say 21 Jump St. so, let's have a look." Johnny turns off the engine and both of them enter.
The setting was a typical chapel, but it was dark and full of stock equipment. Mark takes a look at the altar that was dimly lit, and bows before the image of Christ to show respect . Johnny on the other hand was not a person of religion but follows Mark's simple gesture anyways.
"The both of you!" A man shouts from afar, and it echoes, "come over here."
The two are startled but proceed to the hidden room. When they enter they see two women who are already disguised as cheerleaders. Meanwhile the two are still in their police uniforms. The ladies take a look and have a good laugh at them. "You do know that you're supposed to go undercover right?" She says, eyeing them from head to toe.
"W-we didn't get the memo that it was gonna be today.." Mark trails off and fidgets with his hands.
"Go and dress like teenagers! Now!" The chief commands and the two quickly change right away.
When they get back they are briefed by the set of rules they have to follow and about the goals of this undercover project.
"Rule number 1. DO NOT get expelled. No one in the system knows that you are undercover. So be disciplined and don't cause major trouble. Getting expelled would mean that you'll get your asses kicked out of jump street." The chief sternly explains, making the assigned officers hold their breath from fear.
"Rule number 2," the officer walks past the rest and stands in front of Johnny. "DO NOT have any sexual or intimate relationships with the students and professors. You hear that pretty boy?" And specifically locks his eyes on Johnny, making the boy gulp and purse his lips. After the general meeting, the two were called for a detailed one, personally with the chief.
It was said to them that they had to find a synthetic drug that has been spreading around the campus called NCT. A sample of its packaging was shown, it was definitely something you wouldn't think of as a drug. It was about a size of a large coin, and looks like a small biscuit. It was sealed using assorted hand drawn stickers of different objects. They were also advised to never give out their real names, because new identities have been assigned to them. Johnny's being Rolan Kim and Mark's being Kalen Park.
"When the youngsters take this drug, it apparently makes them laser-focused on studying for about an hour. And for the succeeding hours, they party like it's fucking 1999 until they pass out. Infiltrate the dealer, find the supplier." The chief gives his final orders and sends off the both of them for their mission.
-----
"Dang, we're really going back to college?" Mark says as he finished up packing his things for the dorm that the agency assigned to them. They had to be as realistic as possible.
The two head to the university, reminiscing their own college days. The two might perhaps over-do this whole "blending in" thing, which might give out the disguise.
"Woah their campus is HUGE." Mark says, mesmerized and wears both straps of his backpack.
"Bro, that's not very college of you." Johnny fumbles with the strap of Mark's backpack.
"What?"
"You're two strapping dude. You have to just sling one of them on your shoulder, so it's cool and grown up. You're in college, not middle school." Johnny fixes Mark's bag for him.
"Right. College." He utters to himself. He seems to be enjoying it too much, and starts saying hi to everyone he sees.
"Knock it off, Mark. You're giving us away." Johnny nudges his arm and tries to cooly stride along the campus, keeping his composure.
Mark acknowledges him and goes with the flow. The two arrive in their dorm that they gladly share only among themselves. Mark is new to this, because when he went to college he stayed with his parents. Thankfully he could trust Johnny to always have his back.
The two set their things down and pick their beds, it didn't really matter much since the room had two singles and separate desks for the both of them. It also had a small book shelf that could come in handy, if they ever plan to take lectures seriously.
"Let's just fix these later. We have to go to the Dean's office to confirm our enrollment. Act natural okay?" Johnny lazily brushes his hair back and straightens up his shirt in front of the small mirror that the vanity had.
"Oh- uh okay." Mark leaves the pile of his clothes undone on top of his bed and grabs his phone and keys.
It was the afternoon of fall, the campus has been covered with different hues of orange leaves and subtle sunlight. The breeze was cool but not strong as it blew against their hair. The university seemed peaceful, but they had no idea what went on once the sun sets and the lights are off.
After a couple minutes of walking, the two arrive at the Dean's office for their interview.
"Good afternoon gentlemen, please take a seat." The middle aged man smiles at the both of them.
The two are slightly nervous, but eventually get over it. "Nice to meet you, Mr..." Johnny reads the name plate on the desk "Mr. Bennet." and gives the man his signature smile. Mark does the same and they start their interview.
"Okay, so which one is Rolan and which one is Kalen?" Mr. Bennet asks and there was a short period of silence. Two had seemed to forget which identities were theirs.
Johnny raises his hand, "I'm Rolan sir. Rolan Kim." and he nudges Mark's shoulder.
"Ah yes and I'm Kalen... Park" he barely manages to blurt it out.
The dean furrows his eyebrows but lets it go and proceeds. "So the two of you are?" He asks. They were not prepared for that question.
"Brothers."
"Family friends." the two say at the same time. They give each other a funny look, and Mark gladly saves them from the mishap. "Well we do really treat each other as brothers sir, we grew up together pretty much." and clears his throat. A close call.
"That's good to hear. So Rolan is going to be trying out for the football team and Kalen will try out for the Music club. Those two are very different from each other, but don't worry the opportunities in this school are endless. You can always transfer if you feel that you aren't happy with what you chose." The dean explains and the two acknowledge.
Mr. Bennet goes a little further with the interview and gives them their schedules for the semester then eventually dismisses the two, wishing them well.
"Dude how can you forget the identity that was assigned to you!" Johnny quietly scolds Mark for his slip away.
"I'm sorry okay it's a little confusing!" Mark scratches the back of his head and looks at the floor.
"Ayt, I'll see you later. I have Chemistry in 15 minutes. I can still catch up. What about you?" Johnny asks, putting his hand on his pockets and the other on Mark's shoulder.
"Well, I don't really have any classes for the day anymore. I guess i'll head back to the dorm so I can start unpacking already. I'll see you then. Let me know if you find any leads." Mark gives him a small salute and heads back to the dorms.
-----
Johnny arrives in the lecture hall and receives strange looks. He tenses up a little but nonetheless shrugs it off and takes a seat next to a boy who looks like a whole generation younger than him.
"Yo, you look really old. Were you held back?" The boy asks in a nosy manner, unintentionally pushing Johnny's buttons.
Johnny clenches his jaw and keeps his composure. "No I don't... You look young. Super young. Were you held forward?" he tries to redeem himself.
"No? Whatever. I'm Haechan by the way." The boy introduces himself.
"Im Joh- Rolan." Johnny almost slips but the latter doesn't notice.
The professor immediately hands a quiz, which Johnny has no idea of because he arrived at an odd time of the semester. He guessed all the questions with all his might. But to be quite honest he also wasn't the best in chemistry when he still went to school.
He turns his paper in and walks towards the exit but gets stopped by Haechan. "Uh do you need help with the topic? You seem to be clueless about it." Which came off as a little rude, but that wasn't his intention at all.
"No." Johnny insists because it hurts his pride. "I know everything." He stiffens up.
"Yeah? Do you know what a covalent bond is then?" The boy cheekily asks.
Johnny bluffs, because he doesn't. Or to put it in a better light, he forgot. "Fuck man, I don't have to tell you what it is."
"Woah, I wasn't trying to be rude. But anyway if you need help you can just ask me. See ya." Then Haechan was off and got lost in the sea of people.
Apparently, it was Johnny's last class for the day because it was already almost evening. He texts Mark to inform him that he's heading back to the dorm as well. He doesn't let his guard down and continues to observe the students if they're up to anything suspicious.
As he walked to the dorm, he saw a bunch of boys that were about as tall as he was but more athletic gather around the corner of the football field. He acts nonchalant but keeps an eye on what they are up to. He tries to move closer to the scene without getting caught and acts like he's only passing by.
"Yo hook me up with some more of those, I can't fail my classes or else i'll get kicked out of the team." One says to the other.
Johnny immediately pulls his phone out to text Mark about what he just heard and hurries back.
-------
"Dude, as expected the football team has it. I'm trying out tomorrow and I'll surely get with them." Johnny discusses with Mark.
"Yeah? Can I come watch your tryouts? So I can see what they look like." Mark requests.
"Sure. 2pm at the field." Johnny informs him.
The two were mostly busy arranging their stuff in the room until they heard a knock on the door. Mark offers to get it.
"Hey new neighbors!" two men appear with big smiles.
"Oh hey, uh... thanks?" Mark blankly answers as he was usually awkward meeting with new people.
Johnny comes and checks to see who it was, and to his surprise, it was Haechan and his roommate.
"Oh hey Haechan, and hey..." Johnny looks at the unfamiliar guy.
"Renjun." He smiles.
"Right Renjun." Johnny nods. "Oh by the way Kalen, I go to the same biology class as Haechan." Johnny calls Mark by his fake name.
"Oh cool, what about you Renjun, what's your major?" Mark asks.
"Classical music!" Renjun enthusiastically says.
"Oh I'm in Music Prod! I'll probably see you around during org meetings." Mark smiles.
Their neighbors introduce tips for them that could be useful during their stay and seem to be genuinely nice people. But Mark and Johnny cannot trust anyone, so they keep their guards up and try their best to not give anything away.
Although it may have seemed like an easy task for them, it wasn't. The drug was all over the school, it was going to be difficult to find the root of it if they ignored even the smallest details that could lead them to find out the supplier.
---
The following day, the two wake up early ready to officially start the day. Mark and Johnny head to their own classes, hoping that they find out something about the case today.
Mark enters the lecture hall for his Philosophy class. It was almost 80 percent full as it was a basic class for almost everyone. He awkwardly looks around, hoping to find a seat that wasn't as far because of his bad eyesight.
"Psst." You try to catch his attention. When he looks over, you tap the vacant seat next to you, "you can sit here." You offer.
"T-thanks." He says and gives you a smile.
"You seem like a new face. I'm Y/N" You say to him because you have observed the people in this class every day.
"I'm Kalen. Kalen Park." he scratches the back of his head. "I uh, just got enrolled yesterday. You know, when your family moves into another town... yeah" he trails off with his made-up excuse.
"Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry about it." You genuinely assure him, "It's college. You can take your time." You chuckle because he was so awkward, but seemed very kind.
"Definitely." He bites his lip, unsure if he should keep talking or not. But the professor arrives just on time.
He observes his surroundings and keeps an eye on suspicious students that might have a link to what they were looking for. He whispers to the guy in front of him who was just playing games on his laptop and wasn't listening in class. "Hey, do you know where I can get myself some NCT?"
The guy raises his brows in doubt, "are you a narc?" and might have said it way too loudly.
Mark tries to brush it off with a stiff laugh "What are you talking about man? I'm not I swear." and refuses to make eye contact.
The airhead lets it go and slips mark a cellphone number that could possibly be a step closer to what they were looking for. "Just text them "looking for a hookup" and they'll know what you're talking about."
"Thanks, man." He gives him a small pat on the back just to show that he wasn't up to anything, which actually just makes him more suspicious. Thankfully, the guy didn't really care.
Mark was delighted to have found a lead easily, and immediately texts Johnny about it. After that, he actually paid attention to the class, just because it genuinely fascinated him.
When it ended he immediately gathered his stuff and put on his backpack, ready to meet Johnny.
"Psst, two strapper!" You call out and try to barely tap his shoulder.
He looks back and immediately drops one strap of his backpack off his shoulders, he definitely forgot about what Johnny has advised him. He scratches the back of his head with his hands on his pocket, "yeah?"
"You free this evening?" You casually ask.
He nervously gulps because he really has to be somewhere right now, but he didn't want to be rude. "Uhm, I guess? I don't know yet. Why?"
"We're having a poetry slam at the art hall, you might be interested. I saw some good stuff you wrote in your notebook" you smile, hoping that it doesn't freak him out that you saw one of his works.
His eyes widened, "oh, okay cool I guess I can try. But I have somewhere to be right now, I'll see you..around." And he awkwardly walks off.
You furrow your brows because of his strange mannerisms, but he seemed like no trouble at all. In fact, it was kind of cute, how awkward he was.
------
It was time for Johnny's football tryouts. Given that he was already good at it during the time that he was actually in college.
Johnny was naturally a sociable person, he blended well with crowds and easily made friends. That's why this was the perfect place for him to be in. He sits himself at the bench while he wears the spare uniforms from the team and is greeted by a dude that was a little shorter than he was, "Goodluck" the boy with ash purple hair says.
"Thanks!" he enthusiastically replies.
"Captain! We need you for a sec." the coach calls, then the boy who has wished him luck gets up and reports to the coach. Well, he did give off an impression of one. He was highly presentable, his smile was hospitable, his form was great and his attitude was pleasant. Everything else—was just the ideal makings of a captain.
The tryouts start and Johnny looks around for Mark, who had just arrived and casually sat himself on the bleachers, waving at Johnny from afar. As the tryouts went on and finished, the coach praised everyone who attended for a job well done and announced the new members who had qualified. All of which included Johnny of course.
"Hey man, great job out there." The captain is back on Johnny's side to praise him.
"Yeah, thanks. I'm Rolan by the way." He introduces himself.
"Of course I know, I was the one who picked you from the list." He laughs, "Jaehyun. Jeong Jaehyun."
-----
"Hey!" Mark hears a familiar voice faintly calling his name. He searches for it but takes him awhile because of how wide the campus is. "Over here two stapper," you chuckle and he finally sees.
"Oh hey," he muttered quite embarrassed at how awkward he was.
He takes a seat next to you at the bench near the hall of the poetry slam event, he wanted to go together. "Chilly night huh? I should've brought my sweater.." You trail off, rubbing your arms for warmth.
You didn't mean for it to come off that way, but Mark willingly takes off his jacket and offers it to you. "Oh it's alright really-" you insist.
"No it's fine, I'm from Canada, this is nothing." He laughs.
You nod your head with his remark, and proceed to wear his jacket. It was quite big on you, but it was definitely cozy. "Shall we go?" You ask, standing up.
He nods and lets you lead him to the hall. The campus was only lit by lamp posts at this hour, but there were many sculptures in the school of arts that he had wished to see better. Well, there was always next time.
The both of you enter the hall which was quite filled with students already. It had been set up like a cafe, with a small platform in front that was lit with a spotlight.
"Give it up for Naya Kim everybody!" the emcee announces, encouraging everyone to give the person a round of applause after presenting a spoken word. "Do we have another volunteer?'
The crowd falls silent as everyone looks around, mindlessly making eye contact with each other, waiting on who was going next.
"Anyone?" The emcee taps the mic.
"I have one!" You yell, and Mark looks at you with wide eyes.
"Dude no-" he resists, trying to shrink himself into his chair.
"C'mon it'll be fun!" You nudge his shoulder, "We have Kalen over here!" You grab his wrist and raise his arm for him, even if he was resisting it, he had no choice.
The emcee squints and eyes the both of you and acknowledges you volunteering your new friend. "Alright we have Kalen next! Stage is yours." The emcee steps off.
He had all eyes on him now, eyes hungry of anticipation and to witness raw talent amongst themselves.
"G-good evening everyone." he greets, holding onto the mic tightly and takes a deep breath. His expression changes into a serious one.
Will it ever come?
The nights know me well.
I was a frequent by-passer but now I am no stranger.
A boy who grew up with sharks does not need to be taught how to swim.
Good night,
These words feel like the vast sky
Darkness, but not hollow.
Black but not bitter.
After he recites his poem he becomes flustered again from the faint applause he had received from the audience that was present, he puts the mic back to its stand and does a small bow.
"Not bad, tiger" You pat him on the back. There was more to him than what meets the eye, you just knew.
"You think so?" He says with hopeful eyes.
"Yeah!" You assure him.
The rest of the evening passes by with the both of you having a splendid time watching others unleash their passion and talent for reciting spoken word and poetry. Some were tear jerking and some were downright hilarious. So this is college. Mark thinks to himself.
In the past he had always been a loner who didn't go to many parties because of his strict and conservative parents.
He was way beyond his borders now. But he couldn't get carried away. No, this isn't a time for him to redeem himself from his early years, this was time for him to perform his duties. So he snaps out of his little daydream.
As the both of you were seated at the bench in front of the hall where he found you, he had asked you about your major.
"Fine arts." you laugh bitterly.
"What's wrong? You don't seem like you're happy with it…" He trails off, swinging his feet that was hanging off the bench.
You shake your head no, "I am. It's just that my parents don't really know I took this course. I told them I got a scholarship and they were just relieved that they didn't have to pay anymore. Otherwise they'd force me into some business course or something "more practical"" you emphasize with air quotes.
"I see. Okay so fine arts huh?" He tries to lighten the mood. "What can you say about that one over there?" Mark points to the sculpture to your left, about 20 metres away.
"They're like two beings, leaning on each other" you pause, dramatically for impact, "They support each other so one doesn't fall." you interpret.
He seems impressed, then asks "Support huh? How about you? Do you have anyone—who supports you?"
"Hm, not really, no. I like to be alone and just spend time with myself." Your eyes wander but all you could think about is how he's looking at you with such attentiveness and interest.
He chuckles, "I feel you. You know I'm an expert at being alone. Don't you just love it when you're in a room full of people but no one gives a shit about your presence?" He claps his hands together just once then purses his lips into a bitter lopsided smile. "Yep. Had a lot of those." He masks his personal statement with humor.
"Well," You say, kicking the shortly-trimmed grass on the building's lawn. "If you don't wanna be alone, you walk me to my dorm" you offer.
He looks around and takes no time to think about it, feeling that it was unsafe for you to go alone. "Sure." He smiles.
The walk to your dorm was silent but comfortable. You weren't sure if he was quite a talker or just shy. But one thing you couldn't get out of your head was how unconventionally attractive he was. You've never gotten a vibe like his before and you've been in this university for 2 years already. You wanted to get something out of him even if it takes you to be the bold one here.
"We're here," You whisper, looking at him seductively. Like you were a puppy begging to not be left alone. "Do you wanna come in? My roommate left for the weekend" you smirk.
Mark gulps. He had been resisting this kind of tension he had with you ever since he met you. But you made it so hard. "Come on," you say, putting your hand at the back of his neck while tracing mindless patterns on it with your finger.
"My brother he might be-"
"Oh you have a brother? Is he hot?" You joke.
His eyes are wide with stitched eyebrows. But eventually catches on. "Nah." and he pulls you closer to him by the waist. His eyes now staring at you deeply, so hungrily like he was that tiger you called him as earlier. Come and get it.
Without any words said, he had finally crashed his lips onto yours. And you kissed him hard. Like you wanted to have him to all yourself at that very moment. Your tongue grazes his lower lip, begging for entrance which he had granted. Your tongues meshed together at a quick pace, with the heat of your core starting to throb.
You push yourself closer to him and you start to feel his prominence and unconsciously grind on his jeans, making him grunt. You break the kiss for a quick moment, his eyes are glazed and his mouth agape, out of breath. You turn around and enter the code to your dorm and pull him inside.
For a brief moment that your bodies were detached, Mark couldn't stop wanting more. Not even thinking the slightest of the consequences of this act that will dawn upon him if it ever gets out.
You were back to slamming your body with his as you took off his jacket, making it fall to the floor. His hands snake underneath your shirt and started roaming around your body while he peppered kisses on your neck. With a swift flick of his fingers he had unclasped your bra and his hands groped your breasts, you threw your head back as he buried his face in your clothed cleavage. Like he was begging for this bothersome piece of clothing to be gone.
You grant his invisible wish and quickly lift your shirt off, while your bra falls off your arms naturally, his mouth watering at the sight. You trace his abs underneath his shirt, your core getting wetter with how toned they were based on your touch.
And you didn’t doubt the results one bit. When you lift his shirt, his torso was delicately lean, toned in all the right places that your mouth could water at the sight of it. You bite your lip and roll your eyes at the sensation of him sucking your tits, his grip on you intense but gentle.
“I don’t have condoms right now, so this is going to be all about you.” He whispers seductively, feeling your wetness through your soaked panties. You softly moan at the sensation and hungrily kiss him again, not having any moment to waste.
When he slides two fingers to massage your folds, you whimper. "Fuck," you breathe.
"God, that's hot." He says with a hitched breath. You couldn't possibly get any more turned on right now.
When he slips his digits in your cunt—you go fucking insane. You haven't felt this good in quite a while, it made you ecstatic to remember how fucking good this feeling was, you hoped that this wouldn't be the last. Mark was different.
He picks up his pace, and you try to keep your composure, but the forced arch of your back says otherwise. You grab a pillow to cover your face, scared that you would be too loud and get caught, or else this would be the last time for the both of you.
“My fucking God.” You whimper, pulling Mark’s head on your chest, holding onto him for dear life because you just entirely lost control of it all. He finishes you off like his life depended on it, licking your wetness from his fingers, savouring it, then wipes his fingers on his jeans.
“You were so good to me, yeah?” He chuckles when you are left speechless.
“What about you?” You ask, looking at his crotch that was painfully hard.
“It’s- It’s alright. You don’t have to” He says, and it makes your heart thaw like ice. You didn’t deserve him.
“But I want to.” You plead, you couldn’t possibly resist him. “Come here,” You say, rubbing your palm against his jeans.
You didn’t waste anymore time and unzipped his pants, lowering it with his boxers just enough t make his cock lightly hit his stomach. His size is definitely more than what you expected. You take his wet, glistening cock in your hands and pump it gently, smirking in satisfaction when you hear him hiss and moan softly.
“Can you keep it down for me, tiger? We might not be able to do this again,” You coo, and he obediently nods, grazing your lower lip with his tongue, asking for entrance which you gladly grant but not for long.
You smile as you lowered your head down to his throbbing member, licking the precum that had escaped the tip. Mark bites his lip, trying to keep as quiet as possible. You slowly put his dick in your mouth, testing a few times how far you could go. He bucks his hips by accident, making you gag very slightly. “I’m so sorry,” He strokes your hair away from your face. You keep going until you reach the brim, a throaty moan escapes his lips when he couldn’t take it anymore.
You bob your head up and down in a consistent pace while he holds your hair, “You’re such a good girl” He says, throwing his head back. You keep going until you feel tears slowly coming out of your eyes and tried to hollow your cheeks as much as possible, he was so close.
“You don’t have to swallow,” he says, pulling back from you. Nonsense. You were more than willing to.
“I want to.” You say, putting his cock back in your mouth.
With a few last pumps, his member twitches in your mouth and you feel his warm release and take it all in. You wipe the sides of your mouth as you finish, giving him a sweet smile.
After the both of you pass out on your bed, Mark has lost track of time and receives a text from Johnny.
"Dude where the fuck are you? Do you know what time it is?"
Mark jolts up and checks the time, 2:45am. Shit, he was screwed. He quickly gathers his clothes that had been thrown around your room and dresses himself in panic.
"I'm sorry, uh Joh- Rolan, my brother has been waiting for me at our dorm, I lost track of time and i think he'll beat my dick off," He nervously chuckles, almost forgetting to use his fake identity again. He has got to get used to it.
"Not if i did it first" You both burst out laughing. "Alright, I'll see you in class." You say, snuggling yourself in your blanket and shutting your eyes.
He leaves your dorm quietly and runs a hand through his hair before giving Johnny a call.
"Dude listen-"
"Are you fucking around Mark?" Johnny answers, clearly enraged.
Mark was scared as shit but never misses the chance to fuck around Johnny. "I might've."
"Get your ass back here, Lee"
"Ayt."
He slips his phone back to his pocket and starts walking briskly to their dorm. Damn this campus was mad creepy that it actually brought chills to his body. He wondered why he felt so cold then realized he left his jacket at your place. It was too late for him to get it back so he settled by running to warm his body up.
Finally, he was back at the dorm. He hesitates to turn the doorknob because he knows he will be dead meat or nagged to death by Johnny. Or not.
"Where you been huh?" Johnny examines him, standing up from his bed. He sniffs Mark and the latter flinches. "You smell like sex!" He slaps his shoulder.
"You crazy? Some expert or something" Mark brushes him off. Wincing at the sting Johnny's palm gave to the skin of his shoulder.
"I should know, Mark." His mood was lighter now. "But who did you fu- i mean have sex with? we just got here wildcat"
"A girl I met in class like uh… awhile ago" The younger bites his lip trying to keep a smile from escaping his lips. He shouldn't be feeling this giddy over a rule that he broke for you.
Johnny could not believe what he was hearing right now, "Dang. Cheeky boy." He laughs, actually feeling happy for Mark. He can have a little fun, Johnny had his back when it came to these things.
The elder changes the topic and lets this slide. Johnny talks about the leads he gathered from hanging out with the football team. Which were still very much confusing since this substance is all over the campus. Meanwhile, Mark didn't have much besides that number he gave Johnny. Considering he was with the "decent" crowd of people today.
---
The two head to their quarters to report to their chief the next day, trying to ask for help on how they could improve this investigation.
The chief dumps a folder on the table and says, "This is what the deputy gave us recently. Take a look." He opens the folder into a specific case file to discuss with the two.
"Who's this?" Mark points at the picture of a girl, who seemed like they were around the same age as the people at University.
"Lee Minjung." the chief rubs his hands together. "Took some NCT and got locked out of her dorm, so she ended up falling off the roof and dying." The two are shocked by this revelation, it was more serious than they thought.
The chief flips a page, "Here's a picture of her buying the drug." The photograph had two people in it, one that had a visible face which was Minjung, and one guy who's back was facing the camera. He wore a hat so they couldn't really tell who it was. But one thing they could point out is the reflection on the window of the car beside them.
"Dude, look at this," Mark points out his observation to Johnny. "He has a tattoo, we could start with this."
"Bingo. There's your lead." The chief closes the folder and puts it back in his file. "The next time you get back here your asses better be presenting me some actual progress. Understand?"
"Yes sir."
----
Johnny and Mark head to the resident tattoo artist that was near the university, apparently they do most of the tattoos of the students there.
"Excuse me," They knocked on the table of the artist who was currently at the back of the shop.
The tattoo artist arrives out front and asks how they could help the two.
"We're looking for this tattoo, is it familiar to you?" Johnny asks while showing the artists the photograph.
The artist tries to think hard, but gives a hasty answer. "I'm not sure, there's too many of them who got that."
Mark pushes the subject, "Them? Do you think it's some kind of group tattoo?"
"I guess so. They were boys, all of them. Very masculine, had the body of an athlete if I were to put it at that." The artist states.
Mark and Johnny look at each other as if there were light bulbs above their heads. "Thank you!" Mark says and they run off the shop.
The possibility of this being in the football team was huge. They were athletes, and under a lot of pressure. They had reasons to use this drug but it wasn't an excuse for them not to eliminate this. They had to get to the bottom of this before it ends up like Minjung's case again.
---
Johnny was at football practice while Mark stood by the bleachers, watching the team and trying to look out as usual until Johnny calls him over to come down for a bit.
"Jaehyun, this is Kalen, my brother." He introduces him. With his assigned name.
Jaehyun chortles in disbelief when he sees Mark. "You have a brother?" He asks and Johnny nods.
"Sup," Mark tries to give him a bro hug, but Jaehyun shakes his hand instead.
Jaehyun pays no mind to Mark's presence and diverts his attention back to Johnny and proceeds to talk about their game plan.
When practice ends he tells Johnny that the football team plans to host a party tonight. It would be the perfect opportunity for them to keep an eye on everyone.
"Can I come?" Mark asks.
Jaehyun eyes him from the side, "Yeah uh sure" and only bids goodbye to Johnny. "See ya bro."
Mark could already feel that he didn't belong in this crowd, but he and Johnny had to stick together and investigate.
The night of the party came and the two brothers were stoked. "Our first frat party." Mark thought.
"Your first frat party." Johnny spat playfully, trying to meticulously style and wax his hair.
Mark scoffs, still trying to figure out what shirt to wear but at the end, he settles with a navy blue Ralph Lauren shirt. He was too lazy to fix his hair and wears a cap instead.
Johnny tosses Mark something that he thinks the younger might need later on.
"Are you for real? A condom?" A baffled Mark says in disbelief, but sliding it in his pocket anyway.
"You'll never know wildcat. You'll never know." He gives him a mischievous wink.
This wasn't just any party to them, this was an operation. Though they chose to leave for the party unarmed, they were thankfully trained well for hand to hand combat, just in case things went extremely wrong. But that was besides the point, they couldn't destroy their chances of blending in.
When the tandem arrives at the party, the elder was the only one to be greeted enthusiastically, Mark shakes it off simply because being friends with these jocks were the last thing on his list. It was Johnny's call if it didn't work for him, they had their roles.
"Go around for a bit, I'll take care of him." Johnny whispers to Mark with a drink already in his hand.
Mark shrugs his shoulders and explores the frat house, lit with red and blue, music blaring through speakers and the muffled conversations from the people that filled it.
Nothing seemed too off the bat here, it was everything you would expect a frat party to be. There hasn't been a trace of NCT anywhere, or maybe it was because they were being taken too discreetly.
"Want some?" a random guy nudges him, discreetly handing a packet of the substance. He takes it and plays it cool.
"Yo, sick. Thanks man." He pats him on the back.
“Yo it’s not free.” The guy laughs then it disappears. “20 bucks.”
Mark's smile fades, embarrassed. Thank god he brought his wallet. “Here. Thanks.”
"Don't sweat it." and he gives him a small salute.
Mark quickly slides it in his pocket, to keep as evidence later.
"Bad boy." You snake your hands around his shoulders. "Want some?" You offer your red punch with vodka.
His eyes widen, but eases under your touch. Finally, someone who's familiar. Overly familiar. "Hey, y/n" he shakes his head no. "I don't feel like drinking tonight" he makes up an excuse.
"So are you…"
"Am i?"
"Are you going to take that?" You say, pointing at the pocket where he hid it.
Uncertain, he shakes his head no. "But should I? Have you ever had one of these?"
"Oh god no." You say in disgust. "I have seen people's reactions to it though. It's borderline batshit crazy, those things." You explain. Hoping that he wouldn't ever try taking those. You knew about the whole Minjung incident. "One of the girls who lived next door died because of it."
Your remark sparks an interest in him. "Minjung?" He questions. This could be a big help to their operation. But it wasn't a good time to interrogate you.
You raise your brows, "How'd you know her name?"
He fakes a cough and tries to quickly think of a reason. "Mr- Mr. Benett told us. He said that recently a student passed away but never said it was because of the drug…"
You crease up, "That old man is fucking clueless." You cross your arms. "But I'm just looking out for you okay? There's safer ways to have fun."
"Right " He pursues a smile.
Too much fun wasn't part of the plan tonight but you made it difficult for him to do his job. Effortlessly.
You fake a pout. "C'mon tiger, live a little! It's not going to be that bad." You try to convince him, wrapping your arms around his neck, trying to keep your drink from spilling, his arms naturally overlapping and resting just right above your ass.
To hell with this. He's been dreaming of this his entire life. After being in such a conservative family and all, he deserved to try new things out. He was old enough. He thinks to himself, while catching a glimpse of Johnny chugging down a keg. "You're right." he smirks, and you offer your drink for him to taste.
Mark's face scrunches a little from the alcohol, but it felt nice. Good enough for him to grab you by the arm and head to get one himself.
He scans the counter full of different drinks with a variety of colored juices. He chooses the blue lemonade with vodka which you gladly made, handing him the red plastic cup after. "Cheers" you say, delighted with the smile he gave you.
It wasn't long enough until the both of you were back to dancing again, not giving a care like everyone else. He could kiss you right now. And he did, he couldn't miss the opportunity to make your tongues turn purple.
----
Johnny has done everything with all his might to get along with these jocks, kids these days do party harder huh? He doesn't remember having this kind of intolerance to alcohol before, he had to get it out of his system before he forgets what he's really here for.
"Nah this dude's a goner!" Yuta enthusiastically points at Johnny, who now had both of his hands on his knees.
"Hold on, I gotta have some air outside" he raises his arms in defeat, words slurring out of his mouth and vision so blurred he could barely tell where he's going. Finally after much stumbling and ending up in filthy corners, he managed to find a bathroom. Not a usable one though.
"Oh god- sorry" He says as he sees two people fucking each other's guts out on on the sink. "Nevermind" he immediately shuts the door and leaves them alone. It didn't take long for him to just head outside and vomit on the lawn of the frat house. Oh yes, great fertilizer.
Johnny regains a very small amount of composure and he felt someone tap and rub his back. "You okay?" Jaehyun chuckles, with a drunk Yuta tagging along.
Johnny takes a deep breath and tries to stand straight with all his might, trying to act like everything was under control. "Shits wild here" He chaffs, but his brows furrow when he sees a familiar pattern on Yuta's skin. "What's that you got there?" Johnny tries to reach for the latter's arm carefully.
Yuta excitedly raises his sleeve, revealing a tattoo. "Oh this? It's a tattoo man. Gotta get inked at some point!" Yuta says, proudly. "Do you want one? I know a place!"
Jaehyun sighs. He was hyperactive again. "Yuta-"
"What? C'mon look I got this as soon as I got out of my parent's house. Those folks made me feel like I was in jail!" The drunk boy overshares. Johnny pays attention because there was a possibility that these thoughts were sober.
Johnny was quickly disappointed, but not surprised. "Yeah? That's cool. I'll pass. Kinda scared of needles..." He trails off.
"Pfft. Pussy." Yuta spat, Johnny was ready to give him a piece of his knuckles.
Jaehyun blocks Johnny with his arm, "Cut him some slack man, I've known this guy since high school. Let him have his fun. He won't even remember this."
The three head back inside to enjoy the rest of the party when the duo completely forget what they were initially here for. Johnny had spent the rest of the night enjoying himself, so did Mark.
You and Mark decided to play along with the drinking games these people planned, with the faces that you will surely forget by tomorrow.
You've already had a couple to drink, so it became harder for you to aim in beer pong. Luckily, Mark was right behind you, with a steady grip on your hips and one arm helping you aim for the ball.
You close one eye trying to focus as he helped you aim for the cup. "She shoots, she scores!" he shouts playfully and there goes another drink for you.
"You still alright? We can stop if you want," He whispers, lips tingling on your collarbone, sending chills to your spine.
You turn to face him, a gentle hand on his lean chest. "I want you.". You whisper, dragging a painfully slow finger to his lips. You were so knit together that you could feel the growing tent in his pants on your throbbing core. He was irresistible.
He gulps. Here comes nothing. Johnny sure knows his shit huh?
Mark quickly leads you upstairs, looking for a vacant room to settle in. He turned the knobs one by one but they were all locked, your last resort was a surprisingly available restroom.
"Will this do for you?" Mark hesitates, because he didn't want you to feel uncomfortable.
Your tipsy self playfully pinches his cheek, "You do it for me, tiger." And it was enough to drive him to the edge.
As soon as the both of you enter the bathroom, your lips connect once again, sloppily kissing each other like you were out of your minds. Like you wanted to swallow and consume this man whole.
"I want you to see for yourself how crazy you make me." You say through the slapdash kisses.
He puts a hand under your dress, feeling your drenched cunt. "You're so fucking wet. Is this all for me?" He says out of breath, mouth almost watering with the thought of your pussy in his mouth.
"All yours baby." You bite his lower lip and stick out your tongue for him to suck.
He raises your dress just below your ribcage and slides down your black lace lingerie as it fell to your ankles, "Just so you know, I'm keeping this." Mark smirks as he quickly puts it in his pocket.
"It's meant to be yours," You purr, setting your back flat on the cold tiled wall, throwing your head back at the sensation of Mark leaving wet kisses on your thighs.
He kneels and places your legs over his shoulders, lifting your feet off the ground. He was sturdy as a rock as his two arms held your thighs for support while you removed his cap for you to wear over your head and your fingers to be locked in his hair.
"Fuck." You hiss as his tongue lapped on your folds, slurping on your wetness like he worshiped you. He sucked repeatedly on your clit making your legs tremble, so good that you might fall over but his reflexes were out of his world and he knew where exactly to support you.
Your eyes painfully roll to the back of your head from the sensation he was giving you, "God, Kalen don't fucking stop-" you moan and you swear this man had some spell casted on his mouth by how magical it worked.
You grind your hips involuntarily as his mouth followed it, like this could not get any better than it already was. But you could only take so much. "Kalen I'm gonna cum, fuck"
"It's not over until it's over baby," he sets you down and removes his mouth from your pussy, you could barely stand with your legs feeling like absolute gelatin.
Mark gets a condom out of his pocket and quickly unbuckles his belt, making his jeans fall to the ground and expose his throbbing cock, boxers wet with precum.
"You think you can last longer for me baby girl?"
You could only nod your head eagerly because you were growing extremely impatient.
He wraps your legs around his waist in a swift move. "Good girl" He whispers, and you were more than ready to take him. Again and again.
He inserts himself inside you, stretching your walls and you whimper, wrapping your arms around his head to keep his face close to the valley of your breasts.
"That's right, open up for me, pretty girl." He pleads as he continues to thrust in a steady pace. Breath hitched as he brought his face up to you, slurping your tongue once more like it was a popsicle that he couldn't get enough of. "Taking me so well like always huh?" he chuckles and picks up his pace, throaty moans escaping his mouth.
Thank fuck the music in this house was loud enough to blow off people's eardrums, making your moans almost inaudible outside, but loud enough for Marks pleasure. For his ears only.
“Fuck I’m almost-” Mark huffs, “there.” he breathes. When his pace becomes sloppy and finally comes, you hold onto him, your legs numb that you could barely stand on your own. Conscious with the fact that Mark will get to see how fucked out you look, but he absolutely loved it.
-----
"What'd I tell ya? That condom didn't go to waste." Johnny snickers while laying in bed, tossing his football.
Head in the clouds with the thought of you, Mark could only smile to himself but quickly changes the subject before they both lose all purpose.
"Find anything out yet?" Mark asks mindlessly, because all he could think about was you.
"Nope." Johnny says, popping the p. He lied.
And something clicks with Mark. That packet of NCT he managed to keep in his pocket. He rushes over to his hamper and flips the pockets of his pants.
"Someone handed it to me yesterday, I kept it for evidence to bring at the headquarters." He hands the packet to Johnny.
The elder observes it, trying to push the thought of Yuta possibly being a dealer to the very back of his head right now. Give it time. Mark was just starting to enjoy being with you, Johnny has been enjoying being one of the new aces in the football team, it wouldn't hurt to hold it out for a little while.
"Also," Mark adds, "Y/n knows about Minjung. Said she lived across the hall."
"And?" Johnny anticipates.
"That's all I know for now. It's still a big step though." Mark concludes.
----
Johnny spends his free time hanging with Jaehyun and the rest of the boys. If not in practice, they hit the gym to always be in tip-top shape.
Yuta swings a heavy arm over Johnny's shoulders, "Well isn't it our quitter!"
Johnny shoots Jaehyun a look, "You told me he wouldn't remember."
Jaehyun could only chuckle, "Well he did."
Yuta was loud as a goose, he seemed to have so much more energy than the other members of the team that Johnny became suspicious of where it came from.
He recalls the time when the chief described the effects of the NCT substance, and one of them was being focused and hyperactive.
Yuta, besides being silly, was on top of his own game. After joking around he was a hundred percent focused on the gym, his reps were consistent, his routines were clean. Jaehyun tells Johnny that Yuta was also one of the greatest instruments of the football team. Though not gifted with the brightest mind, he worked hard to stay in this university to prove his parents wrong—and to avoid business school.
He was a potential heir to a known electronics company in Japan, but he insisted that he pursue being part of the varsity team to keep his scholarship in sports science. Which until now was an endless debate between him and his parents.
Jaehyun had invited Johnny to stay over at the frat house to hang out, and he did.
It was different to see it in daylight, with no people partying, no vomit and crushed chips on the floor, it looked well taken care of.
"You guys clean this up yourselves after every party?" Johnny asks, impressed.
"Yep," Jaehyun proudly says.
"You gotta look out for the shit they leave behind here. It's amusing." Yuta retorts.
Johnny raises a brow, "Oh yeah? Like what?"
Without wit, Yuta replies, "Drugs"
Johnny, absolutely being taken back by his bold remark was immediately clutched by Jaehyun, "He doesn't mean it."
His suspicion grew so much that he couldn't help but finally bring up the subject. "Like what? Like NCT?" he enunciates.
Jaehyun, quite astounded by Johnny's knowledge with the substance replies, "Hm maybe. You know about that?"
And he was in the trance. "Heard of it yeah, can you hook me up with some?
"Oh sure it’s right-" Yuta reaches for his pocket, "here." and sticks his middle finger out playfully. Johnny swats it away.
"Woah there-" Jaehyun almost bust a gut while laughing. "You're definitely new to this. We don't have any." He tells Johnny. "Don't be such a narc."
Way too defensively, Johnny retorts, "I'm not!"
"That's what they all say." Yuta shrugs with a chuckle.
He spends the rest of the afternoon with them and surprisingly hasn't dealt with unusual rituals and behavior. They acted their age, playing games on a PS5, drinking soda until their bladders exploded, filling themselves with junk food and spray cheese. He could be wrong about them after all.
----
Days passed and not a single thing has led them closer to their target person, it was harder than they thought even when everything felt like it was right in front of them.
"Student-Parent day is coming soon, are you going?" You ask Mark as you take a sip of your coffee.
You took him to your favorite coffee shop for the first time, it's a nice and quiet place for you to study and relax.
"They have those?" Mark hesitates because then he'd have to tell his parents that he's undercover and they'd forget and blow it for him. "I guess so."
"Good. Because I'd like you to meet my parents." You smile. Though you didn't know where you stood with Mark, the past few weeks with him had been a breath of fresh air. He was kind, funny and supportive. He was simple yet his ways of showing his thoughts were sophisticated, never had you once thought that you would get along so well with a person in such a short time. You weren't the one to ask for labels though. You simply liked to enjoy whatever you had at the moment. In your experience, putting labels on things just always gave a reason for it to vanish.
"What why?" He says, a little too surprised.
"Look Kalen, don't break a sweat with this. I'm just going to introduce you. They won't mind." You assure him.
He simply leaves the topic behind and ponders on how he could make this work. He was scared because you had no idea that this was all temporary, and he's terrified by the fact that he wishes it wasn't. He was finding all the possible reasons and excuses to retract himself from this relationship he has with you, but all you ever gave him was a reason to stay. It broke his heart knowing that one day, he'll have to disappoint you with the truth.
"Something wrong?"
He snaps out of it. "Nothing." and forces a smile.
-----
"We aren't making any progress man," Mark runs a hand through his hair and sighs. His back falls heavily on his bed.
Johnny anxiously bites his lap, eyes fixated on the floor. "Yuta has a tattoo…"
"What?" the younger jolts up.
Johnny backs up defensively, "But it wasn't the one we saw! You know how the tattoo artist said he's done a couple of those."
"Are you shitting me right now? We've been trying to find it for weeks! Why didn't you tell me?" His voice raises, and a vein on his forehead couldn't help but emerge.
"I don't think it's him man, I told you it’s not the same tattoo" Johnny defends.
Mark lets out a pungent laugh, poking his tongue on the inside of his cheek, his jaw stiffens. "Right. I knew it. " He says in disbelief. "Everything's right in front of you already! Too scared to bust your new besties now?"
"They aren't my new besties stop making up bullshit." The elder stubbornly defends.
"No you stop because I'm actually trying here!"
"Oh you are? Explain why you're getting so serious with that girl of yours. Wait until she finds out that she's just part of the plan." He jumps on Mark's throat and walks out of the room.
The thing is, you weren't even part of the plan. Not at all.
-----
"You better have good shit for me today." The chief clearly was not being in his best mood today.
Mark scoffs, he and Johnny had not settled their differences since the fight from two days ago, they were doing their own investigations without communicating. Which was a big no.
"Ask the big guy here, I'm sure he has something." Tongue in his cheek, Mark glares.
The chief slams a big hand on the table and shouts, "Stop acting like fucking children!"
Johnny stiffened up on his seat, and gulped before he spoke. "I think we need to initiate a drug test on one of the students, chief. I have my eye on this one person. We could pretend to say that the thing is randomized and mandatory. If the intel can look up information about his parents, we could send a pretend automated message about their child being randomly selected for a drug test."
The chief seems to be taking Johnny's point well, "And who is this you suspect?"
"Nakamoto Yuta."
Mark looks at Johnny with wide eyes, he thought Johnny wouldn't be turning him in.
"I see. I'll get the department to execute this idea of yours and we'll let you know right away. Dismissed."
Mark catches up to Johnny who had been walking ahead of him and tries to reach for the elder's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Let go of me," Johnny knocks Mark's hand off his shoulder. "Are you happy now?"
Dumbfounded, Mark couldn't seem to understand where Johnny's irritation was coming from. "Look man, I'm sorry you had to turn one of your friends in but you know it's our job."
"I know okay? I don't need you telling me what to do because so far, I know pretty damn well that I'm not meddling in your fucking business."
Mark pushes a hard hand on Johnny, making him stumble a little. "My relationship has nothing to do with this. Are you jealous? Because if you are, I know pretty damn well you can score a lot of chicks here. I don't see the problem."
Johnny tries to speak but was unable to because Mark had already stormed off elsewhere.
----
"Shit. My parents are coming to fetch me today." Yuta runs a veiny hand through his ginger hair; another reason for his parents to pull him out of university. But here's the first:
Jaehyun, disinterested even if he knew it was serious whenever Yuta's parents butt in and ask why.
"They wanna do a drug test on me."
Jaehyun chortles, "What? You? What made them think that? Besides you acting like a crackhead?"
"They got this stupid email from the dean that I was amongst the randomly chosen individuals to get tested." He pops a sour kid patch in his mouth, "They're never letting this go." He pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. "I have never even tried NCT." he rolls his eyes.
Yuta, though by the looks of him, gave an impression of a boy who would try everything in front of him, but he's a wuss with a good conscience. Too good.
"Well, you are innocent after all, right?" Jaehyun shrugs. "There's nothing to worry about. Um, besides your dyed hair, your tattoo, that lip piercing." He eyes him up and down. "No biggie, just probably uh—two weeks worth of grounding. And no allowance."
"Fuck you man." the ginger-haired boy glared.
------
Johnny walks around the campus, alone. It sucked to not be on good terms with Mark, what ever happened to bros before hoes? It just wasn't the same doing things without him. Johnny had given Mark his personal space for the both of you, but at times like this—it was the hardest to stay out of it.
As he passes by the back of the Fine Arts building, he sees two familiar faces on the exposed staircase.
He squints his eyes and tries to focus on who those people might be, the mop of ash purple hair too familiar. But one thing that utterly shocked him was the sight of someone he expected the least.
It was you and Jaehyun, standing way too close to each other for anyone's liking.
Johnny takes a deep breath and sucks in his cheeks. He didn't know what this meant, and he wished he wouldn't have to be the one to give it any interpretation that would disappoint him and especially Mark.
He walks away from the scene before you get a chance to see him.
"Jaehyun, you don't have to stand this close to me," You backed up, hips hitting the ledge lightly.
He looks to the side, then back at you. "Sorry," he cockily says, backing up with both of his hands raised. "Can't help it. My best friend's too fine. And someone was looking." he mumbles.
"What?"
"Nothing, he's gone"
"You know I'm with Kalen right now Jaehyun." You say with worry, it could've been anyone. "Quit. Don't ruin this for me."
He manages to let a disgruntled chuckle, "And yet you still can't put a label on it."
And with that, he was off.
The entire time Johnny was battling with himself if she should tell Mark about what he saw or not. Them being in a misunderstanding right now doesn't change the fact that he was still his best friend.
After the excruciatingly slow walk to the dorm, he had hoped that Mark wouldn't be around, so he wouldn't have to face him with the information he had right away. He couldn't even form the words for it. The. again, when did anything ever go his way, right?
Johnny enters the room and there was Mark, munching on some chips while viewing something on his laptop. Something probably for one of his classes. Mark didn't have to take this so seriously (by this he meant his classes) but he did, because the Mark we all know just loved to learn. Good for him.
He ignores Johnny's presence; though he was very much aware of it. The elder plops down his bed and grabs his football to toss around. It was so awkward; not greeting each other with their usual weirdness and excitement. It felt like there was this gaping hole between them that both of them were afraid to cross, and no one had the initiative to take a risk—for now.
"Find anything?" Johnny asks Mark, eyes on the ceiling.
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"Do you have anything?"
Well, he did. But not about their task. Instead, he says "Nope." but he couldn’t help but ask. “How are you and y/n?”
“Good.” Mark plainly answers.
“Good.”
And left it at that.
-----
You were going to let your parents meet Mark today, and his would meet yours. You were new to this, there was not a single man you had introduced to your parents, aside from Jaehyun. But that was a different story, because Jaehyun was a childhood friend.
So Mark was the first… whatever this was called. You couldn’t get yourself to call him that, you didn’t deserve to. For you labels were earned, not just given. But this will do for now.
You see him from a distance with his parents, he resembled his father’s face structure and his mother’s eyes. His smile was uniquely his own. You wave a hand in the air and he catches the sight of it, smiling even wider.
“You’re in college again honey?” Mark’s mom asks, clueless.
“Mom, I'm undercover please don’t bring that up anywhere. Please keep quiet for me.” He whispers sternly.
His mom zips her mouth figuratively, his dad got the idea of the whole thing, so they acted according to the assignment.
As he got closer to where you were, his legs grew weak. But he couldn’t falter, he had to put on a strong face. But at that moment, Mark wanted to be buried alive. He wanted to turn his back and run away.
“Mom, dad, this is Kalen.” You present him to them with a grin.
“H-hello.” Mark lets out, his chest clenching.
“Kalen. You sure I haven’t seen you before?” Your father says, gripping Mark’s hand firm, he could almost squeeze the guts out of it. Your father was his deputy chief.
Mark, crushed under the man’s grip, “N-no sir.” he manages to blurt out.
You sense the tension and tell your dad, “Dad, that’s enough.”
Your dad let go, with a smug and bitter look on his face. Your mom, who- with absolutely no idea what Mark has to do with your father, greets him politely.
You greet Mark's parents with glee, and proceed to walk with him, keeping a fair distance from both your parents. "Sorry about my dad, he's just stressed about his job. He's a deputy chief, rustling with knuckleheads all the time." You explain.
Sure he's been through a lot. Mark thought. "Yea yea, I totally get it. It's fine." he nods. Knuckleheads. He laughs to himself.
The rest of the parents’ day event was a total drag, every time Mark got into eye contact with their chief, it had seemed like the man wanted to rip his head away from his body, or maybe skin him alive. Mark had no idea, because if he did he wouldn’t have risked going this far with you. What is left to do now? How can he ever face his boss knowing that he broke the first rule given to them right in his face? And with his own daughter? He should start digging his own grave at this point.
But the chief didn't lay a finger on him, not now when his daughter was at stake.
----
Mark has been itching to tell Johnny about what had happened. He was willing to set aside their differences because he needed his best friend, now.
"Johnny-" Mark breathes, not making eye contact with the elder who was on his phone, this room had been dead silent for days.
Johnny's head perks up, it was nice hearing him call his name again. "Yeah?"
"I kinda messed up… big time." Mark scratches the back of his head, shameful.
Johnny sits up, and listens to the younger more attentively. "What do you mean?"
"Y/n.." he trails off, "Y/n is the chief's daughter." And catches his face on his hands.
"Fuck…" Johnny didn't know what to say. "How'd you know?"
"The student-parent weekend thing. God, I swear dude he was going to skin me alive if he could. But shit, I didn't know!" Mark exclaims, hands all over the place. "If I did then I wouldn't have gone through with this. She has never told me about her parents until that day. I don't know what to do."
He seemed so helpless, he didn't want to break to you like this, it was too messy. But damn if he didn't want to keep being with you. It couldn't end like this, not yet.
"I- I don't know what to say man… God I'm sorry this sucks ass. You know I always let you do what makes you happy right? But what if," Johnny stops, debating if he should go on with what he planned to say.
"What if?" Mark anticipates.
"What if she isn't who you thought she was?"
"Great. I'm so fucking stupid for thinking you would be with me on this one." Mark slams his hands on his lap and stands, slamming the door on the way out.
"Mark-" Johnny reaches for the door but misses a beat, it was too late. He let his best friend slip away from him again.
And as soon as Mark left their room, he was on his way to meet up with you, hoping you would be free. He hadn't had much time with you after the following days of the event because you had always excused yourself with how busy you are with your submissions and requirements, or that's what you would like to tell him.
Your phone rings in your pocket as you excuse yourself from the people you were with at the moment, when you check to see who it was, you find the quietest place possible.
"Kalen," You spoke, "What's up?"
"Are you free? I was hoping I'd finally catch you."
You sigh, you missed spending time with him. "I am," you say in advance before you bail out of this place you were in. "See you at the cafe in 10?"
You hear him chuckle over the line, and you just knew he was smiling when he said "Great, I'll see you."
"See you, Kal." You smile and tuck your phone back in your pocket.
"Who was that?" Jaehyun asks when he bumps into you in the hallway of the frat house. "Oh you've got that sickening smile right now. It must've been Kalen" He rolls his eyes.
"Whatever Jae," You brush past him. "I'm heading out."
"But we're not done!"
You didn't respond and left, shutting the door behind you.
The cafe was a short walk from your university, but you just happened to bump into Mark on the way, now you don't have to walk alone.
He smoothly slips his hand in yours, holding it gently and reading your expression. You look to the side with a wide grin on your face, unable to help the fact that you were blushing like crazy.
"Nice hoodie," he comments. The garment looked a little too familiar to him, he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. “You never gave back my jacket..”
You mentally facepalm, forgetting the fact that you were wearing Jaehyun's hoodie. You pray that Mark wouldn't see this on him anytime soon, you wouldn't want him to get a bad idea.
"Oh right that, I’ll get it dry cleaned and I’ll give it back" you utter. "Something bothering you?" You ask, trying to read his sulky expression.
He shakes his head, "No no, I want you to keep it. And I just missed you." He forms a small smile, making your heart melt. You were so easily captivated by his presence that it scared you. He always left you feeling unhinged—in a good way.
"I missed you too, tiger." You grip his hand a little tighter.
When he licks his lips, only by then you realize how much you missed kissing him. Right then and there, you just wanted another taste. This was exactly why you were trying to keep yourself busy and away from him for a bit; you had to convince yourself that you couldn’t be attached to him because you could never take care of the things you keep.
He opens the door for you like always and the chimes in the cafe ring in a sweet melody, a sound that always reminds you of your moments with him. The both of you always shared comfortable memories in this cafe, from small coffee dates to working on papers until it closed. You couldn’t imagine sharing it with anyone else.
When you settle down he automatically takes your usual orders right away. You could not take your eyes off him, he was such a dream.
He sets the tray down with your drinks, and a pastry that you shared a love-hate relationship with. Cheesecake.
You chuckle at the thought of recalling all the times that you convinced Mark that cheesecake slices weren’t supposed to be as huge as they are and that there are definitely better one’s in other places, but Mark’s favorite was Starbucks’. Maybe that’s why you have learned to love it somehow, because you get to enjoy it with him.
"I thought you didn't like this? You almost finished the whole thing… I literally bought this for myself." He says sarcastically, very much amused at how you barely even noticed that you were close to finishing the entire thing.
"Oh shit.. sorry" You show him a pout and feed the last piece to him. "Here." You smile cutely.
He rolls his eyes and bites it off your fork, you both bid goodbye to the cheesecake.
Mark’s phone rings in his pocket and when he checks to see, it was Johnny. He lets out a sigh and puts his phone back in his pocket.
“Are you going to take that?” You ask.
“Nah”
But Johnny was persistent, he did see this coming. He knew that Mark would ignore him at first so he decided to send him a message. This was about their job.
“Mark, I know you hate me right now but we have to go to the office. Yuta’s tests came back.” Johnny sends.
Mark takes a peek at his message, immediately standing up.
“Where are you going?” You say, surprised.
“I’m sorry I gotta go- meet my brother. He needs me for something.” He hesitantly leans forward, wanting to kiss you on the lips but kisses your forehead instead. “Text me when you get home okay?.” And with that, he was off.
Mark rings Johnny and the elder quickly answers the call, Mark informs him that he would be heading to the office by himself since he was already closer to the location.
But he suddenly remembers about his conflict with the chief. So he waited for Johnny to arrive outside.
Lowering his pride he says, “I’m scared.”
Johnny looks at him with empathy and says, “We can’t change what happened Mark. Just take it all in for now and we’ll figure out what to do about it later.” He pats the younger’s back and gives his shoulders an assuring squeeze before heading inside.
Mark could not look at his boss, the feeling of wanting to be eaten alive was back again, why did he have to be your father?
When Mark finally gets the courage to face him, the chief yells, “The fuck are you looking at?” making Mark flinch and shrink into his seat.
Johnny felt the need to protect his friend and at the same time, to get what they were really here for. “Um, Sir can you save the ass beating for next time? We really need to look into Yuta’s results now.” He scratches the back of his neck.
The chief grunts angrily, getting the file from his drawer. “Negative.” He says.
Mark and Johnny give each other a look and take the folder that had the results, trying to analyze how it could possibly be negative.
“Dammit.” Johnny whispers to himself, they had to move quickly before everything slips away from them. He takes note of Yuta’s contact number in the file to use for later. He closes the folder and places it back on the desk. “We’ll take care of this chief.”
“You better. And you,” He presses a hard finger on Mark’s chest, “Stop fucking around with my daughter. I’ll cut your dick off.”
Mark purses his lips before speaking, “She’s-” he gulps, “She’s really great sir. I’m not playing around with her. I’d never do anything to hurt her.”
“You already are.”
-----
The following day, Yuta receives a text from an unknown number, asking him to meet in an unusual location on campus. He was very skeptical at first but believed that it was probably harmless.
“Yah, Rolan! Sup.” He offers his fist to bump. “I was just waiting for someone here too. Some random number texted me and I was like "you know, fuck it"” he shrugs.
Johnny couldn’t help but chuckle. Was innocence even the word to describe this? "And you believed them?" Johnny shakes his head.
“Yeah! Look here’s the number” he flashes his phone screen to Johnny, “I wonder where they are. Let me give them a call.” he mindlessly puts the phone next to his ear. Yuta hears a muffled cellphone ringtone and looks around for it. “Yo, your phone’s ringing you should get that.” Yuta says to Johnny, still having absolutely no idea.
“It was us who texted you, dummy.” Mark retorts, appearing from the shadows, now both of them are cornering Yuta.
“Yo,-” Yuta laughs, still not getting the point of this all. “What’s your name again?”
Mark rolls his eyes, “Kalen.”
“Right! Kalen wassup? You’re his brother right?” Yuta points to Johnny with his thumb up.
Johnny pops a tongue in his cheeks, and cocks his brow. “Alright, fun’s over.” It was a shame he had to do this too early, but it had to stop. He locks Yuta’s throat with his arm, pushing him onto the solid brick wall.
Yuta tries to toughen up and tries to push Johnny’s arm off, but due to their size difference, Johnny definitely kept him still.
“What do you know about him” Johnny asks sternly.
“A-about who?” Yuta coughs.
“Jaehyun. What does he do?” Mark follows.
“Besides being the most handsome man I know, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mark shakes his head, “Well,” and gets a gun out of the pocket of his hoodie. “Will this make you talk?”
Yuta looks at him with wide eyes, he was now scared shitless. “Why- how- who are you guys!” He exclaims.
“The police mother fucker.” Johnny says.
But despite everything, Yuta’s tactless mouth was definitely not his best asset. “I knew it. you looked too old to be a freshman.” He looks over at Johnny. “And you, I didn’t expect you to be a cop but you did give Narc vibes in that philosophy class.”
Mark and Johnny give each other a look, they could not be sidetracked.
“Are you done?” Johnny tells Yuta, and he simply nods. “So are you going to talk?”
“I’m telling you I don’t know! He never trusts me with his business, he says I have a big mouth.”
Mark snickers, “I can tell.”
Yuta scoffs, and follows, “He’s been out often recently, but he never tells me where he’s going. So I don’t know what I can do for you.”
“Listen here buddy,” Johnny warns. “If this gets to your parents that you’re involved with someone who supplies and distributes drugs, you’re going to get your entire family deported. Do you want that?”
Yuta gulps, “No.” then helplessly says, “I don’t know how to earn his trust with these kinds of things. He’s known me since forever but-”
“No buts.” Mark interrupts. “Use that head of yours or your ass is going back to Japan.”
-------
Yuta had been on edge ever since that encounter with Mark and Johnny, now this entire thing would be up to him if he cooperated or not. Yuta’s heart had been lost a couple times, but it was definitely looking to be in the right place. So he’s trying his best to help out, even if it meant that he would have to turn in his best friend.
When he gets the time to be alone with his thoughts he looks back at all the times that Jaehyun had made him feel like he wasn’t enough to be his friend. Not giving him a good position in football, walking out on him whenever he wanted to, keeping secrets from him. Maybe he was too busy trying so hard to be validated by Jaehyun that he never really got to realize that he lost himself in the process. Letting himself be trampled all over by everyone; this was his time to do something not just for himself, but for everyone else.
On the night when Jaehyun could not escape from Yuta’s presence any longer, he thought that it would be harmless to let his friend tag along for once. It’s not like he had other friends to be with, right? Right. Jaehyun could believe that if he wanted to.
“I’m a bit sore today, you think you can drive me?” Jaehyun asks Yuta as they were walking in the parking lot after practice.
To be fair, Yuta was sore too. But of course they wouldn’t care. “Alright, where to?” He still manages to say.
“I’ll tell you along the way.”
Yuta simply shrugs and Jaehyun tosses him his car keys, placing their gym bags at the trunk of his car. Jaehyun had given him directions while driving and it was somewhere he had never been and seen before. “Are you sure it’s here?” He says, trying to drive into a dark abandoned building with only the car’s headlights being the source of light.
“Yeah yeah, wait for me here.” Jaehyun opens the door of the car and slips away from it. “Don’t worry, this place is safe.” He tells Yuta and shuts the door close.
Yuta immediately whips out his phone, thinking that this might be his biggest clue and texts Johnny.
I don’t know where I am, but I’m gonna send you my pinned location based on what my gps says alright? I think this was where Jaehyun had been going.
Johnny immediately tells Mark about this and they immediately take their car to go to where Yuta had told them.
Rolan: Yuta, it’s not safe for you to stay there. Can you drive away and head back here? It would be better if we keep you alive.
I guess I could, Jaehyun’s pretty far out now. I saw him go in somewhere, I’m sure you’ll find this entrance when you get here.
With that Yuta drives off and tries to find his way back to the campus, hoping that this would be successful for Mark and Johnny. He had such a strong feeling about this, everything could go right, or just extremely wrong. But he had to expect both to keep his feet on the ground. He did the right thing. He kept telling himself that.
“Dude this place is sketchy as hell.” Mark says, looking around. “Do you think Yuta told us the truth? I mean he’s Jaehyun’s bestfriend right?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to try Mark, he seemed pretty genuine about it. Besides, all Jaehyun does is use him. I’m sure he’s tired of it.” Johnny says as they searched the place with their flashlights, their guns ready to fire if they ever go under attack.
Finally, they find the entrance Yuta has been talking about, the chain attached to the door unlocked and loosened. When they get closer they arm themselves and keep their guard, Johnny kicks the door open and Mark could not believe what he had just seen.
This couldn’t be. He kept repeating to himself, he didn’t want to believe that this was his reality.
The reality that you were the one who was behind all of this.
“Hands up! We’re the police.” Johnny shouts, echoing throughout the entire warehouse.
Mark gulps, he could not bring himself to move his feet and go closer. When you see him, you feel like you have been the biggest disappointment in someone’s life. “Kalen,” You plead with your hands up, terrified with the fact that Johnny had called off a warning shot, making you and Jaehyun back up.
“Y/n.” Mark says, still struggling to get closer to you and lift his arm to aim his gun towards you. “Why- how could you?”
And you couldn’t answer him. The last thing you ever wanted to do was disappoint him, and yet you turned out to be every single disappointment that this world could think of.
“Great.” Jaehyun says in anger, remorseful with the fact that both of you just got caught by the two people who had been the closest to you these past months.
“Mark, come on. This is just as hard as it is for me than it is for you. We have to do this. It’s all we’ve been working for.” Johnny faces him, also extremely disheartened by this revelation.
Mark? His real name was Mark? “Who’s Mark?” You ask before he continues to approach you.
“Right. Now you know.” He takes a deep breath. He gets his handcuffs out of his pocket and races towards you before you could even get away. It was bizarre; how you even thought of escaping this.
“You have the right to remain silent,” His hands shake while putting them against your back, “Anything that you say can and will be held against you in the court of law.” He swallows, and you sob.
“I’m so sorry I-” he cuts you off.
“You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” He concludes the Miranda rights and adds, “It’s one thing to disappoint me, but another to disappoint your father.”
-----end------
#nct#mark lee#mark lee smut#nct 127#nct dream#mark lee fluff#kpop au#johnny suh#johnny fluff#johnny smut#kpop fluff#kpop smut#nakamoto yuta#jung jaehyun#jaehyun#taeyong#jungwoo#doyoung#winwin#haechan#taeil#kpop imagine
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Stray Kid’s Cafes || OT8
Summary || Stray kids if they were to own cafes!
Genre || Fluffff
Word Count || 1.7k
Note || I wrote this at 2am. (And nervous as hell to post this) I thought it was a cute idea (cause my love fore cafes u know & longing to go to one but covid-) buuuuut... if you think it’s written poorly, my excuse: my half awaken mind and questioning sleep schedule. It’s also because I’m used to writing formally rather than this. Enjoy though ヽ(ヅ)ノ
⤑Bang Chan
Inside/Theme: Dark, moody, and very spacious. Plants in macrame and outlets everywhere. Grey concrete tables with chairs of dark wood and black iron. Either lofi or jazz plays in the background. Flooring patched with large black and white honeycomb tiles. Wood of deep and mysterious browns are made for walls. Glass pendants dangle from above. Perfect for relaxing or studying. Even more perfect to visit on rainy days.
Hours: 9am - 2am
Menu: Cinnamon rolls, espresso, frappes, omelets, sandwiches, croissants (plain or chocolate), salads, raspberry scones, hot chocolate
It’s like your presence just sparked something in Chan. You were a frequent customer, so not only Chan, but other employees recognize you. It just so happened that this day was the day Chan felt braver than others. When you went up to the counter and ordered a hot latte, it was the beginning of an endless exchangement of (cringey) pickup lines. And they were all based on coffee... “If you were coffee grounds, you'd be espresso 'cause you're so fine.” (oh dear god-) The both of you realizing you don’t have all the time in the world, you finish your order but Chan refuses you to pay with money. “Giving me your number sounds like a fairer trade.” And also, starting from this day, would always be some note or saying written on the cup sleeve of your coffee.
⤑Minho
Inside/Theme: Cat Cafe! Small white stools and square tables. Windows as the walls with window sills where cats sleep. Cat toys scattered everywhere. Mini houses with beds and staircases hung on the walls. Like an indoor cat community. In the center is a giant wooden structure in the shape of a tree for cats to climb. Each one has a name. You receive a free slice of cake if you remember each cat’s name. 50% of the treats on display are just for the cats. (And of course, every cat there is up for adoption!!)
Hours: 8am - 10pm
Menu: Shortcakes, blueberry muffins, fruit sandwiches, cookies, lattes (with latte art of cats ofc), mochas, bagels, banana bread.
Scenario || You find a cat wandering the streets and get a hold of it, calling the number displayed on its tags. You eventually return it to the cafe. As a thank you, Minho freely gives you a treat off the menu and a free session with the cats. You two make time fly with endless conversations of your guys love for cats and his opinion on why cats should rule over humans and the entire world. When you're at home later that night, it’s 2am. Turns out Minho saved your number when you called for the loose cat earlier because he sent you photos of his own 3 cats. Many photos. And one with him and a funny/weird filter.
⤑Changbin
Inside/Theme || Open and welcoming, very convenient. A cafe kiosk placed in a park, sheltered by the tall swaying trees and surrounded by the small patches of blossoms. The kiosk is made of tan wood, outlined and roofed with black. The cafe space has a stretched out wooden platform next to it. Above is a wooden frame wrapped in string lighting. Iron benches and long tables. The experience is even more enjoyable during spring.
Hours || 9am - 11pm
Menu || Iced tea, matcha crepe cakes, sandwiches, mocha bread rolls, raspberry lemonade, cappuccinos, ice cream (of many flavors).
Scenario || You should’ve known it was going to rain today. It’s like the huge grey clouds were trying to warn you through the whole morning. Before the pour, though, you strolled through the park and saw the cafe kiosk and let me tell you, those mocha bread rolls sounded good (especially on a chilly day). While sitting on the benches next to the cafe enjoying the mocha rolls, you feel the sky spitting on you and it only gets more aggressive. You look around and see everyone has an umbrella. Except you. Changbin invites you to wait out the rain inside his cafe kiosk (which you gladly accept). He also notices your joy from the mocha bread rolls and decides to show you how he makes it. It was messy (since your lack of baking skills were definitely no help), but fun for the both of you.
⤑Hyunjin
Inside/Theme || A neat and cozy atmosphere dipped in traveling dreams. Walls displayed with plants draping to its heart content and photos of sceneries and dogs (which Hyunjin gladly took and displayed himself). Low tables painted with faint hues of grey, placed against the walls. Linen lounges and small glass vases of baby breaths. Large windows with window sills lined with fuzzy pillows. Towards the back, a small staircase leading to a wooden platform holding up bookshelves.
Hours || 10am - 12am
Menu || Americanos, strawberry crepe cakes, savory crepes, honey toast, fruit tarts, fresh strawberry milk, paninis, strawberry mousse.
Scenario || You’re roaming the section where the bookshelves are. Hands drifting across the aligned books and head pondering what to read. You look next to your side, taking note of Hyunjin suddenly talking to you. He asks about your favorite genres to read. He also recommends you some of his favorite literature (which you eventually discover that majority of them are poems/stories of romance) and says it be fun to read them together, along with his treat of fresh strawberry milk. Reading sessions and strawberry milk became a weekly routine for the two of you.
⤑Jisung
Inside/Theme || Shelves of pastries for you to grab and put on a tray. Filled with an aroma of sweet coffee. Simple tables and benches made of deep browns. White counters tiled with a large honeycomb pattern. Walls are of a light grey. Next to windows are woven hanging chairs with cute cartoon animal characters. On the counter is a jar of stick props for photos ‘cause why not.
Hours || 9:30am - 10pm
Menu || Cheesecake (of many different flavors), chocolate cake, iced americanos, croissants, cake rolls, custard bread, cream puffs, egg tarts, tirimisu.
Scenario || You ordered a few slices of cheesecakes after asking Jisung which ones he recommended. It was quite obvious he loved cheesecake more than anything and of course you couldn’t order just one flavor! Along with the few cheesecakes, You also ordered an americano. After receiving your drink (and cheesecake), you found a small note taped on the cup: “If you want more cheesecake suggestions, ask me anytime!” Below was a doodle of a squirrel and his phone number. AND maybe... just maybe... You take a photo of your cheesecakes to show your friend and Jisung ends up photobombing half of the photos you took (with some of the props from the counter). And of course you don’t notice until your friend starts spamming you about the guy in the background.
⤑Felix
Inside/Theme || A video game cafe, sells mainly bubble tea. Very homey with couches and bean bag chairs. A few TVs hooked up to the Switch. Simple patterned rugs and walls of a faint blue. Cute cartoon stickers displayed on walls and concrete counters. White shelves of board games.
Hours || 8am - 11:30pm
Menu || Bubble tea, brownies, cookies (of many kinds), bubble waffles, banana pudding, toast (sweet & savory), pancakes.
Scenario || You enter the cafe when it’s empty. You order a treat of your choice and make your way to play the Switch. With no other customer around, Felix decides it won’t hurt to take an extra break and play with you. (To beat you in a game or more of Super Smash Bros to be specific.) 1 game turned into countless that you both even lost track of your scores. And perhaps he got too distracted and almost missed the growing line waiting at the counter. But! Weekly video game tournaments between the two of you became something to look forward to. And maybe the two of you decided to play UNO one day and boy did the game put the two of you in a pit of raging hell.
⤑Seungmin
Inside/Theme || A comforting, more on the minimalistic side cafe. White brick walls, light grey flooring, and high beamed ceilings. Black pendant lights hanging, painting the cafe in light hues of honey. Long high tables with tall iron stools. Small potted succulents aligned on the table. White marble counters and pastries displayed in glass cake stands.
Hours || 7:30am - 10:30pm
Menu || Lattes, croissant sandwiches, chocolate mousse dogs, crepes (sweet and savory), lemon poundcake, biscuits with peach jam, homemade soups.
Scenario || Lets just say your day has been extremely hectic. For a cure, a treat from your favorite cafe sounds like a good plan. Though, you end up entering the cafe five minutes after closing hours. Great. Seungmin, who is inside cleaning up one of the tables, notices (and also recognizes you’re the frequent customer he has gotten to be friends with over his shifts). He unlocks the door and happily lets you stay after hours. You have latte (which Seungmin actually draws a happy face on the cream) and a chocolate mousse dog while chatting with Seungmin. Thanks to Seungmin’s constant invitations, late orders and chats ended up becoming regular.
⤑Jeongin
Inside/Theme || Low platform seating and low round tables. Small jars of fairy lights and daisies. Background music is either lofi or indie. Walls of a comforting dark green and floors of dark wood. Framed cute doodles and warm signs decorate the walls. High ceilings with gold lamps hanging.
Hours || 7:30am - 9pm
Menu || Milk bread, milkshakes, taiyaki (with different fillings), taro crepe cakes, fruit tea with popping boba, soufflé pancakes.
Scenario || You know that broken or no internet connection running dinosaur game (if not look it up and it’ll literally change ur life.)? Well, you brought your laptop to study but surely a game or two won’t be a big deal. And maybe playing also lended time to mentally prepare yourself just to ask for the wifi password. When Jeongin came to serve your cake order (a taro crepe cake or any crepe cake is a must try in life), he places the plate next to you and begins to speak as he notices your screen (where you keep running into pterodactyls and failing). And no, he wasn’t giving you the wifi password. “Can I try?” Beating each other’s high scores, still no wifi, and chatting. That’s how the rest of the afternoon went. (With Jeongin taking a break every now and then to help the customers of course.)
#stray kids#stray kids drabbles#hyunjin imagines#bang chan imagines#minho imagines#lee know imagines#jeongin imagines#jisung imagines#han imagines#changbin imagines#seungmin imagines#felix imagines#lee felix imagines#yongbok imagines#skz imagines#stray kids imagines#hyunjin drabbles#bang chan drabbles#jisung drabbles#felix drabbles#stray kids fluff#skz fluff#hyunjin x reader#bang chan x reader#jisung x reader#lee felix x reader#jeongin x reader#changbin x reader#seungmin x reader#minho x reader
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Best Online Free Video Editor 2021
With the advent of online social video sharing networks such as YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and Vine, editing and creating videos no longer remained the sole realm of experts. You only need a competent computer system right now to become a video editor.
You can now edit films online without installing any software on your Windows or Mac computer; all you need is a good internet connection.
Most of these free online video editors are user-friendly for beginners, so even if you’re new to video editing, you can create a video quickly with these online video editing tools. If you’re a seasoned video editor, have a look at our recommendations for the finest professional video editing software.
Personally, I don’t encourage using online tools because network connections aren’t always reliable, and when there’s a network fault, all of your hard work is wasted. Online video editing requires a fast upload and download speed, therefore it’s best for editing short and small video clips.
Furthermore, if you require more advanced editing capabilities and attractive video effects, online video editing solutions may not be the ideal alternative. In this scenario, I strongly suggest Wondershare Filmora as a must-have tool. Simply download it and give it a try to see what editing features, effects, and presets it has to offer
Best Free Online Video Editors
Although several of the online video editing tools featured below provide free trial versions, you may need to upgrade your free plan to the paid version if you need to download the video. In addition, some free versions will place a watermark on your 480p video recording. So, before you dive into this online platform, please pay attention to it.
1 FlexClip
FlexClip is a feature-rich online video editor that is both free and powerful. It not only allows you to post films in minutes, but it also gives you access to a library with 2.5 million videos and stock photos organized into categories like business, background, holiday, food, sports, and more.
Of course, you’ll want to upload your photos, videos, and music, which is simple to do: just drag and drop and you’re done. For maximum effect, you may blend footage with your own films, and there are hundreds of professional designs to select from.
You can easily overlay text on your sequences with FlexClip, capturing attention with elegant typefaces and spectacular effects, as well as smooth transitions between clips.
Furthermore, FlexClip’s aspect ratio functionality allows you to change the size and structure of your clips to meet the dimensions required by various social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram Stories, and others.
FlexClip requires no download or signup to use, and you can choose from three different options to get started: Basic (USD 4.99/month), Plus (USD 7.99/month), and Business (USD 19.99/month). Better still, you may try out the tool for free to see whether you like it.
2 Invideo
With InVideo’s wide range of ready-made video templates, you can make professional-looking videos up to 10 minutes long that are compatible with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Depending on the type of video you need to make, you can utilize their ready-made Instagram story template or Facebook video ad template.
InVideo also allows you to add effects, text animations, and stickers to your videos, as well as access to a collection of over a million photographs and video footage, saving you money on stock photography and video clips.
Furthermore, you can simply edit your films with their built-in editing tool, which will save you time and money compared to utilizing other editing tools like Screen flow or Camtasia.
InVideo also allows you to make videos in up to 1,000 different languages, so you can reach a global audience with your videos.
3 Biteable
Biteable is a video-creation platform that uses configurable templates to assist marketers, HR representatives, agencies, and entrepreneurs produce animated films for Facebook and Instagram ads, cartoons, commercials, presentations, and more. Businesses can create images in HD 1080p resolution using unique watermarks, built-in clips, and animations. Teams can also collaborate across projects and edit films utilizing the platform’s centralized interface.
Biteable is for you if you want to make a fantastic video, generate more leads and customers for your business, or just create an outstanding piece of content.
Biteable’s monthly pricing starts at $29.00 per feature. A free version is available. Biteable provides a risk-free trial.
4 Magisto
Magisto is a fantastic online video maker that is well-known for automatically transforming ordinary videos into beautiful emotional films and exceptional social videos. It’s easy to use and speedy, with all the features you’d expect from software you paid your kidney for.
You can add photos and videos to your account after joining up with your Facebook account. Magisto also offers a variety of video templates for a variety of businesses, including birthday greetings, weddings, promotions, promotions, and inspiring. Simply choose from popular, family, business, social, seasonal, fun, and clean editing styles.
Hovering the cursor over the thumbnail will show you a preview of the style. Some styles may require an upgrade in order to be used. Then you have the option of selecting music from the built-in music library or uploading your own. Magisto will automatically finish the following editing tasks and add transitions to the video.
Magisto is cross-platform, meaning you can use it on mobile devices, tablets, and the web with the same account. You may share the video straight to social media sites, but if you want to save it to your computer, you’ll need to upgrade your plan or ask others to download it for free.
5 Wevideo
WeVideo is a video-making tool that may be used by multiple people at the same time. You can add your own movies, photos, and music files to the Media panel from your computer or from social media sites like Google Drive, Facebook, Box, Instagram, Dropbox, and others, or you can use the built-in stock films, audio, and images to rapidly create a film.
Stock photos, movies, and audio files are only available in the Professional and Business plans, although you can replace Premium music with free music and sound effects. WeVideo allows you to add markers to a specific clip, or static simple text and callouts to the video, or transitions, background images, overlays, or frames to the video, in addition to basic editing and splitting.
If you upgrade to the subscription edition, you’ll get access to professional editing capabilities like green screen, voiceover, slow motion, screen casting , and cross-platform sync across iOS, Android, and the web, among others.
Despite the fact that WeVideo claims to support 4K resolution, 4K UHD is only available on the Unlimited ($9.99/mo), Professional ($19.99/mo), and Business ($39.99/mo) plans, and the free plan has numerous limitations, including the ability to only publish 5 minutes per month and a maximum video resolution of 480P. In addition, the Free plan includes a watermark in the right upper corner of the video.
6 ClipChamp
Clipchamp is a well-known free online video editing programme that includes a video compressor, converter, and webcam recorder in addition to video editing features. The best aspect is that its user-friendly work platform enables beginners to complete video editing in a short amount of time, and the product may be saved immediately to the computer or shared via Google Drive, for example.
You can cut, crop, rotate, and flip videos with ease using simple drag and drop tools. Furthermore, brightness, saturation, and contrast can all be easily adjusted. Transitions, text, overlays, and backdrops can all be added.
You may choose from a variety of aspect ratios, including 1:1, 9:16, 4:3, and 16:9, and it also comes with a built-in instruction to help you construct a video. Before you can use this all-in-one online video editor, you must first join up with your Google or Facebook account. Furthermore, the free edition is restricted to exporting at 480P SD resolution with no watermark.
Although 4K footage can be imported, it is recommended that you compress it first because huge files can cause editing issues and the video clip cannot be exported in 4K. I’m not sure what the issue is, but adding audio to a movie and playing it back did not work well. Please let me know if you’ve had any problems with it in the comments section below.
#video#video editing#video editing software#online video editor#online editing software#best video editing software#free video editor#free video editing software#free video edit#free video editing app for instagram reels#video edits#video editor#balwinder thandi#clipchamp#flexclip#invideo#biteable#magisto#wevideo
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this is kind of a silly worry: i wanted a reusable water bottle for the longest time. i was tired of always buying plastic water bottles. this year, i found a lavender one sale. no complaints, love it. decorated it with cute stickers. it has a drinking sprout connected to a straw. i begin to worry it will give me wrinkles like a smoker because you had to purse and succk daily. im 21 and have some wrinkle like nasolabial and frown due to eyesight and worry it make worse.
Anonymous asked:
Part 2) i don't think my lines are particularly abnormal at my age. I see stars my age in their early twenties without makeup that look similar and it'll probably cover up if i wore makeup. However, i feel worried using my bottle that i'm developing my wrinkles even more. It feels like I'm pursing my lips in a tighter position when using plastic bottles.
Regularly pursing your lips the way you do when drinking out of a straw may cause the skin to lose elasticity more quickly, which can lead to premature lines and wrinkles around the mouth, although in general drinking through a straw should not cause wrinkles.
But here's the thing- a lot of things can or may cause wrinkles. The repetitive facial movement of drinking out of a water bottle, and drinking literally anything except water, and not drinking enough water, and drinking alcohol, and eating sugar, and living in a climate that's too dry or having a room in your house that's too dry, and sleeping on your stomach or side, and not getting enough sleep, and expressing literally any emotions on your face... and even if you never do anything at all that might cause wrinkles, they'll still develop eventually because collagen breaks down as you age. It's better for your skin (and your overall health) to keep hydrated than to stop drinking out of your reusable water bottle because it might cause fine lines.
Plus, an estimated 80% of wrinkles are a result of sun damage and smoking (and smoking is largely because of the nicotine, not because of the facial movement), so whether you drink out of a straw or not isn't going to make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. My guess would be that the "straws are giving you wrinkles" people are mostly 1) journalists that need something to write about that they know people will panic over and 2) aestheticians and dermatologists who want to convince you to be insecure about wrinkles so you'll pay them to "fix" the problem. The best thing you can do if you're worried about wrinkles is just to wear sunscreen every day (even on days when it's not sunny) and to have a good skincare routine that's tailored to your specific skin type and needs.
But also, and apologies for getting up on a soapbox here, isn't it more important to take care of your body and enjoy your life than it is to be completely wrinkle-free? Wrinkles are a sign that we've lived and enjoyed ourselves, even if it's just a sign of a small pleasure like drinking out of a water bottle you really like. I know this wasn't really the point of this ask at all, but I'm tired of everything we do being "damaging" in some sense, especially since it seems like these "warning! Thing you do daily can make you less beautiful!" articles are disproportionately about small pleasures that women like and concerned with issues that are invented to make women feel insecure so that they buy things. You never see articles targeted towards men telling them to stop drinking from straws or to be worried about developing wrinkles, and there's not an entire industry dedicated to selling them products to "fix" those wrinkles, you know? It's okay to look your age, and I think it's really damaging that women are led to believe that we need to look like we're 17 for our entire lives in order to be attractive or worthy of attention.
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THIS BOOK IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS
This is no ordinary book. There are monsters inside! Yes, you got that right. Monsters exist and live with us. But don't be afraid, they aren't bad... at least not entirely.
Have you ever noticed that you might be missing socks or that you hear strange noises in the dead of night? You aren't absent-minded nor do the pipelines make noises. They're the Monsters of Darkness! But don't panic because there are brave detectives whose job is to catch them so they will stop bothering you. They are none other than the Monster Detectives.
What? Did I get that right? You want to be a detective too? Then this is your book! With Little Monster Detectives you can create a team with your friends and catch the monsters that scare you at night. Solve mysteries, get to know the Monsters of Darkness and prove how brave you are. But above all prepare to live a bunch of adventures and have a great time!
Welcome to the Monster Detectives Agency!
Little Monster Detectives is a Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game for kids. The game is about the Monster Detective Agency, children and grownups that investigate mysterious monster mischief. With simple and scalable rules and different game modes, Little Monster Detectives wishes to be the first roleplaying game for your kids.
The project's main goal is to obtain the necessary funds in order to print an English version and to share our excitement for this game with English-speaking kids and adults. Furthermore, this will be the first translation from the Spanish RPG publishing house Nosolorol. We want to share our game with players from all around the world.
Little Monster Detectives is a storytelling game. That is to say, it's a game where players create a story with their actions and the decisions they make during the game. When the game is over, the players will have created a new story where they have been the stars and creators. They choose the path to follow and what to do at every moment.
Just like other RPGs, this game encourages teamwork, there isn't a winner or loser, and you want to achieve the general well-being of the group. You learn to share, to respect others, to solve problems and to boost your imagination.
How to discover a monster!
Little Monster Detectives is a bestseller in Spain, with thousands of copies sold, and it has also been published in France as a huge success. Many roleplaying gamers of both countries are parents who love to play Little Monster Detectives with their children!
Little Monster Detectives is a game for children. Specifically, it’s a game to play with children. You love reading stories to your kids and you know how they like to question other aspects of the story and imagine different outcomes for the characters. They want to be involved in the story, change the ending and imagine what will happen next. Children are natural-born roleplaying gamers!
You can play Little Monster Detectives with children that are 5 or older. Of course, the game offers different rules and game mechanics to play with the youngest ones, who tend to have a short attention span and limited numeric comprehension. Older children, on the other hand, can take the role of Senior Detective (the Game Master of Little Monster Detectives) and guide their younger siblings and friends throughout the game.
This roleplaying game is mostly intended for children who are afraid of monsters that hide in houses. To help these children overcome their fears, we’ve created a game where they are the stars and they get to decide when and how they face these monsters.
Little Monster Detectives stimulates deductive thinking through the use of clues. Monsters always leave behind mischievous clues at the scene of the crime. Detectives must go there and investigate what happened. They will have to deduce which monster it is by finding clues and figure out the best way to catch the monster so it will stop causing trouble.
The use of star points and banners as a reward for good behavior and fair play (and of course, just for fun) is an aspect of the game that children love. These items are stickers that kids can put on their character sheets or wherever they want. This game promises we want to help with improve children's confidence and self-image.
The book itself is a guiding tool throughout the game. Little Detectives must look for monster information, tools and other information in the book and, this way, we can also work on their reading skills and encourage their love for books.
Little Monster Detectives is really easy to play, but the first times you play the game you might need a grownup’s help to play as senior detective.
You can see the sample pages by downloading the PDF of this link: http://bit.ly/LMD_Samples
What do you need?
3 six-sided dice
Detective contracts!
Monster tokens
A pencil and paper
Knickknacks and other stuff to dress up like a detective!
Are you the senior detective?
Then you are the Game Master in Little Monster Detectives. This is what you will have to do:
Help beginner detectives fill out their detective contract (Don’t worry, it’s really easy).
Choose the monster! You can create one with help from the book, choose one or roll 3 six-sided dice.
Read about the monster carefully (or define it) and think if you have to catch it, help it or find something it has lost. What could happen? If it’s a monster from the book, the pages will help you figure it out.
If you’re going to play sitting at a table, a map of the house might be a good idea. You can improvise one and draw it while the detectives explore it. If you’re not going to play at a table, you can direct it like a live action roleplaying game in your house or in any other safe location. The youngest detectives love to explore and run around!
Help the detectives by describing what is happening, about the clues they find or helping them solve situations. You will also have to set the pace of the game! And don’t forget about giving them a small scare.
Rolling the dice
When beginner detectives want to do something that has an uncertain outcome but is relevant to the storyline, they will have to roll 3 six-sided dice and take the average result, from lowest to highest. This depends on the situation, the help they are getting, the tools they have and if they are frightened. Normally, it’s enough to get a 4 or more.
Most children by age 3 won’t have trouble reading dice. From the age of 4, kids usually know how to order them and recognize which one is the lowest, the medium and the highest value. By the age of 5 they can read letters and a few syllables and by the age of 6 many can read the book and discover things about monsters on their own.
Fear-rate, Clues and Scares
As detectives find clues, they can solve them or link them to a little monster, which will help them avoid fear. If this isn’t so, the fear-rate will rise in the house and it will be easier for the detectives to be frightened when something strange happens. They can avoid fear by rolling the dice; it can be done with help from the rest of the group or Teddy the Super Stuffed Toy :)
Clues and scares are usually linked to the monsters. The Closet Monster has the habit of biting clothes, while the Attic and Basement Monster hides the broomsticks because he doesn’t like them one bit. With these clues and “The Book of the Monsters of Darkness”, detectives can figure out who is causing all this trouble!
Star points
Detectives will win banners related to their achievements, like the medal of courage, and stars that they can exchange for tools in the Agency. These will help them out in some situations!
Kickstarter campaign ends: Wed, October 23 2019 1:18 PM BST
Website: Nosolorol
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HOW TO USE SELF-CHECKOUT (at a store)
I’ve worked at a grocery store for a year and a half now, and noticed that a lot of people seem to get very frustrated at the self-check terminals, so, to save both you and the self-checker from frustration, I’m making a handy guide, and giving explanations for why the machine is doing what it’s doing.
Long step-by-step post, under the cut.
This is a self-check terminal. Or, at least the layout my store has. they don’t vary too much from store to store in the US, but maybe other countries have some bigger differences. Sometimes there will be only one scaney thing, but if there’s two, they will both work. I’ve labeled the big stuff.
OKAY! Some big things to keep in mind before you begin:
~ Look at what the screen is telling you: Usually the touch screen will have instructions on it. The biggest problem I’ve seen when people use the self-check, is that they don’t pay attention to what it’s telling them. Following the instructions on the screen will almost always fix the problem.
~The bagging area is usually a scale, just like the scale on the top scaney thing. Which means that it is going to weigh whatever you put there, and the computer has been programmed with a range of how much each item is supposed to weigh. The biggest problem I’ve seen occur is when people bring their own bags, and set them down on the bagging area. There is a set weight it thinks a bag should be, so if you have one of those nice heavy bags, the computer may think it’s not actually a bag and have the self-check person verify and approve your bags. THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT. It’s just a precaution to make sure you’re actually putting a bag down and not product, and therefor, stealing. Have patience and the checker will press the approve buttons for you and you can continue your transaction. Trust me, the checker is just as annoyed by this part as you are. Maybe more, because we have to do it ALL THE TIME.
~ The bagging area scale is VERY sensitive. Do not lean on it. Do not take things off of it before you’re done paying. Do not add more bags to it once you’ve started scanning. ANY discrepancy in weight will cause the things to stop and need the self-check person to come over and give approval again. EVERY. TIME.
~ Alcohol. I don’t know about other states, but the state I live is does not allow alcohol through self-check. It will not let you do it. If you scan any alcohol, it will pop up with a thing saying you can’t do alcohol through self-check, and the self-check person will have to come over to you, tell you we don’t take alcohol through self-check, and press the button that says we told you that we don’t take alcohol through self-check. And then probably point to the sign at the self-check line that says no alcohol through self-check, and then the signs on each self-check terminal that says we don’t take alcohol through self-check, and maybe even the sign at the self-check person’s terminal that says we don’t take alcohol through self-check. So, check your state laws and see if they allow it. If they don’t, don’t go through self-check.
OKAY! Now, lets’s go through how to use these temperamental things.
1) First things first! Usually there will be a button on the screen that says something along the lines of “I’m using my own bags.” If you’re not using your own bags, skip this step. If you are, in fact, using bags you have brought, and want to throw them on the bagging area scale, press that button! Then put them on the bagging area scale. Then wait a moment to see if it throws that fit I mentioned earlier. If it does, just wait for the checker to come over and approve it. Usually, we have a screen that tells us when the terminal is throwing a fit. We’ll see it. (Pro-tip: If you want to avoid this whole hassle, just bag everything at the end after you’ve paid. Keep those bags in your cart and you won’t have to worry about it at all.)
2) Scan your first item. (Regular item edition)
This barcode is what you’re looking for to scan. (Well, not this one specifically. I grabbed this off of google, and have no idea what product it’s for.) Usually, it’s on the bottom of an item, or sometimes the side, but sometimes the items have them in weird places. Just find the item’s barcode and make sure it’s facing the red lasers on the scaney thing. It’ll usually read, then beep, and you know it’s been scanned when the item shows up on the screen.
These are also sensitive. If the barcode is on a bag or wobbly material that folds and wrinkles, you may need to straighten it out in order to scan it right. If the barcode is scratched off at all or (and I hate when they do this, because it’s the company who made the item’s fault) the black bars are not on a white background, it may not read the code right, and won’t scan. You can do two things in this case: type in that long number under the barcode (we’ll go into how in a sec) or set the item aside and call the self-check person for help.
Once your item has been scanned, set that item in the bagging area. The system will not let you scan a second item until the first has been put in the bagging area.
You do not have to use our bags in order to use the bagging area. I’ve seen a lot of customers who don’t want to put the item down because they don’t want to use the bags. It’s okay! It’s just the bagging area. It is a scale, as mentioned before, and it needs to know that what you’re scanning is what you say you’ve scanned. Just set it down.
If the item is too big for the bagging area, like, let’s say, a case of 40 bottles of water, there is a button to “SKIP BAGGING.” Pressing this button will stop it from expecting you to put that item in the bagging area. But, be aware: Pressing this button too many times in your transaction will cause the system to become suspicious, and need the self-check person to come over and approve what you’re doing. Again, this to prevent sneaky business from happening.
Once again, the bagging area scale is sensitive. Make sure, when you’ve set your item down, that it’s not hanging off at all. If it is, it won’t weigh it right, and will call for approval, because what you’ve scanned doesn’t match how much it thinks it’s supposed to weigh.
Once all this is done, repeat the process until everything is scanned.
3) Scan your item. (fruit and veggies edition)
Unfortunately, fruit and veggies are a little more complicated than just scanning the barcode. They will have a code on them that needs to be typed in. Most produce should have a sticker on them that has the code on it. This sticker may also have a small barcode on it. Do not scan it. It is a lie. 90% of the time, it’s not going to work.
We’ll go with bananas here, because it’s the first produce code I learned, and I like bananas. See that sticker there? It’s got #4011 on it. That’s the code you need to type in. The code will usually be 4 digits long, though the organic stuff tends to be 5 digits. The really cool part, is that this code doesn’t usually change, and is the same from store to store. So 4011 will be bananas anywhere you go. (at least in the US, I don’t know about other countries.)
There should be a button on the screen that says “SEARCH OR KEY IN ITEM” or something similar. (this is also what you press if you need to key in the long number under a barcode that’s not scanning, fyi) Whether your item has a sticker or not, press that button. It will bring up another menu. If you have a sticker with the code, put that code in and press enter. Some produce are priced per item, so it’ll ask how many you have. Put in that number and move them down to the bagging area. However, most produce will need to be weighed, so set that down on the scaney thing scale and wait until it’s weighed it before moving to the bagging area. It’s important to have it on the scale right, because if what you weigh on the small scale doesn’t match what you put in the bagging area scale, you probably guessed, it throws a fit and the person will have to come over to approve it.
If you do not have a sticker on your item, pressing that search or key in item button should also bring up a menu where you can type in to search for what you have. Sometimes there are even pictures, which is nice. Find your item, press that button, and then weigh it, as stated above.
In my store, grapes are a bit of an exception to this, in that the bags they come in have a barcode at the bottom. A barcode that looks like it should scan. Don’t fall for its tricks. It won’t. Put in the 4 or 5 digit number on the bag instead.
4) Scan your item. (bulk foods edition)
If your store has a bulk foods section, the way to put them into the system is very much like the produce. You need the code though. When you fill your bag/container with whatever bulk item you’re getting, you NEED to write down the code on the bulk food bin your item came out of. There’s usually twisty-ties and pens nearby provided by the store so you can do this. If there’s not, they’ve probably just run out. Let a worker know! We’ll refill them. We want you to use them probably even more than you do. Because if you DON’T write down the code, it becomes a SUPER pain.
You cannot look up the item in the search menu like you can with produce, and we don’t have those number memorized most of the time. (I have MAAAAAYYYBE five bulk numbers memorized. Maybe. And there’s probably 150 different items over there, at LEAST.) So, once again, you NEED that number. If you don’t have it, and you call the self-check person for help, we’re probably going to have to call the bulk foods department, ask them, they probably won’t know it off-hand and will have to go check and call us back to tell us the number. Huge hassle.
PLEASE please PLEASE get that number. If you don’t, and then decide the wait is too much and don’t want the items, if your item is not individually wrapped, like candy? Let’s say you get rice or something. If you decide you then don’t want it, WE HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY. Once it leaves the bulk bin, we don’t know what you’ve done to it, and legally CANNOT put it back into the bin. Getting that number is IMPORTANT.
Once you have the number, just input the number just like you do for produce, and you’re golden.
5) Finish and pay. Once you’re done scanning everything, you probably want to get out and go home. There’s a button on the screen that will say something like “finish and pay.” Our store’s button also has your running total on it. Press that button! (Don’t just put the money or card in. You usually have to press this button first. I’ve seen people get annoyed that it’s not taking their money, simply because they just haven’t pressed this button yet.)
Here’s where it may vary a little from place to place. The state I live in charges for bags, so it has to ask how many you’re using. If you’re not using any, that’s great! Press 0, and then enter, and you’re good. Even if you say you’re using your own bags at the beginning of this whole thing, it’s still going to ask. Maybe you didn’t bring enough bags for what you bought? I dunno. It’s going to ask. It’s programmed to. And the self-check person IS supposed watch to make sure you take how many bags you say you will, because, again, by law, we have to charge for them. So, put in how many you want, and press enter.
The next prompt the thing will probably hit you with is to check your basket and make sure you got everything. It will tell everyone this. It’s annoying. Just make sure you didn’t leave anything in your cart and press okay.
Then, it’ll finally let you pay. Pick what your paying with (cash, card, other) and then either put your card in the card reader, and follow instructions from there, or put your money in the appropriate money hole. (EBT and gift cards count as cards, not other, at least at my store.) Once you’re done paying, it’ll spit the receipt out at you, and ask you to take your items.
6) Take your items. I’m only adding this as a step because after a certain length of time, the system will start yelling at you to take your items. (Well, maybe not yelling per-se, but our store’s system has a voice that tells you over and over, in the most annoying pleasant voice “Please take your items.” It will continue to say this until all items are off of the bagging area scale. It’s also a good way to tell that you’re not leaving anything behind, because she WILL keep saying it until you’ve taken everything.)
7) Other random stuff.
~Sometimes the machine is having a bad day, and will just not co-operate no matter how close to these rules you follow. We’re sorry. Trust us, it bothers us at least as much as it bothers you. We’re not trying to be difficult. Machines just be like that sometimes.
~If you do something like say, open a soda to drink while you’re shopping, but fully intend to pay for it at the end. That’s fine! Just keep in mind, that if you scan it, and then set it down on the bagging area scale, it’s not going to weigh as much as it’s supposed to because you drank some or all of it. This means it’s going to have to have us approve it. Do us a favor, and just press skip bagging on that one.
~Once you’ve set something down on the bagging area, don’t take it off again until you’re done paying. This includes trying to bag stuff while someone else is scanning things. The weight discrepancies are going to mess everything up, and you’ll need approval. Just do everyone a favor, and don’t mess with the stuff until you’ve paid.
~Most self-checkouts are 15 items or less (or similar.) This is not only because self-check is supposed to be quick, but because the bagging area scale is only so big. If you have too many things, they won’t fit, and the scale will throw a fit.
8) You’re done! Congratulations! Go home! You did it! Trial over! You won! Success! Now you know how it works! Thank you for your time.
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