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farfromsugafanfic · 3 years

Text

Sutures - Chapter Three: Anosognosia

Genre: Soulmates AU, Idiots to Lovers, slight Enemies to Lovers

Pairing: Yoongi/Named Reader

Warnings (chapter specific): drinking, drunkenness, light smut, sex dream, implications of oral sex, obsessive behavior from an ex, unhealthy relationship dynamic (not on part of Yoongi & OC)

Synopsis: “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” –Jean de la Fontaine

There was only one thing you and Min Yoongi had in common that night. You were both brokenhearted. You only intended to be together for one night, but when you both end up in the hospital the next day you discover that you are soulmates. It could kill you to be apart. As you and Yoongi attempt to sever the bond between you, will another be formed?

Notes: This was originally written and completed on Wattpad between 2018 and the beginning of 2020. I’ll be slowly posting the chapters here. I may make a tag list depending on if enough people want to follow along with updates. Leave me some feedback if you would like added to a tag list.

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Yoongi saw the look in your eyes shift from soft curiosity to sheer panic. He felt the pit of his stomach fill with guilt. He shouldn't have slept with you; sure, the two of you would still have this problem, but no one would've had reason to find your shoes. You wouldn't have had reason to leave them behind.

He'd felt betrayed, he'd felt lonely, he'd felt unloved by those he wanted to love him most. But, that was no excuse to sleep with the first attractive girl he found.

"Have you told Bang PD yet?" Namjoon asked, his demeanor calm, but Yoongi could see the slight shock cross over his features, causing his thick lips to pout and his chin to jut out.

Yoongi shook his head.

"I'll call him," Namjoon said. The leader placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder. He blocked Yoongi's view of you. He worried in those few seconds you were blocked from his view that you would collapse into Namjoon's chest and cry the tears meant for him. The tears because of him.

Namjoon left the room, leaving Yoongi alone with you. He tried his best not to focus on the way your tank top hugged your chest and exposed the hickeys he'd left the night before and that Namjoon probably noticed it too.

"You look tired," Yoongi said. "We can't do anything until tomorrow anyway. Try and get some sleep."

You nodded and Yoongi wasn't sure if you were just trying to reassure him or yourself. He remembered the way you'd fallen asleep long before he did. The way you'd fit against his body; how it felt like two puzzle pieces joining together for the first time. He blinked away the thoughts and tried to focus back down on your eyes.

"We'll pay them off," Yoongi said. "We'll make sure nothing comes of this."

---

Jihee (9:00 am): Are you all right?

Jihee (9:05 am): I heard you're in the hospital

Jihee (10:01 am): None of your members are texting me back

Jihee (12:31 pm): Baby, the news is reporting something about your soulmate? What happened last night?

Jihee (2:43 pm): Yoongi! Please respond to me! I'm worried

Jihee (5:12 pm): Yoongi...what I did last night...what happened was all a mistake...

Jihee (5:12 pm): I still love you

Jihee (6:00 pm): The news said you were released hours ago! Respond to me!

Jihee (8:20 pm): Yoongi, I miss you

Jihee (9:30 pm): I know I don't deserve you. But, please just tell me you're okay

Jihee (11:50 pm): Goodnight. Love you.

---

"Baby," you moaned. Your hands slipping beneath Yoongi's shirt. They were cold, but he still loved the way they moved over his stomach and chest. Your fingertips grazing over his skin, a fingernail occasionally catching and causing him to squirm.

His hands were in your hair, messing it up and causing it to form mountain ranges as his fingers hiked the peaks and valleys. He loved the way it felt between his fingers, soft and light.

Your lips moved from his and down to his neck where your lipstick stained his skin. He kept his grip on your hair, feeling it tug slightly as you move downward. He helped you slip his shirt off as your lips connected with his chest.

"You don't have--"

You silenced him by tugging on the waistband of his jeans and rubbing your thumb over the button, teasing him slightly.

"I want to," you responded, unbuttoning his jeans.

Yoongi tightened his grip on your hair, trying not to focus on the way your lipstick was smeared above your lips. He could already imagine the way they'd look...

His head lulled back and his fingers loosened.

---

Yoongi awoke. He was covered in sweat and ran his hand through his hair. He glanced down at his phone: 6:41 am. He sighed and headed to the bathroom.

He slapped himself softly, trying to stop the thoughts that continued to cross his mind. He didn't have feelings for you, it was simply lingering from he slept with you. Nothing else.

He wasn't going to deny he was attracted to you, he wouldn't have gone back to your apartment otherwise, but he felt nothing romantically for you. Yoongi knew the attraction would continue and probably only get worse, but he had to fight it. The last thing he wanted to do was break either of hearts more than they already were.

Yoongi turned on the shower, the water colder than usual.

---

You stood in Yoongi's studio where he kept his computer. You'd suppressed your laughter at the ridiculous amount of hoops you'd had to jump through in order to enter. A doorbell, black curtain, and two doors. You respected the fact he took his work seriously though. The wall full of awards and trophies he'd won, a few even separate from BTS.

There was a couch in the corner, but you were too anxious to sit. You just wanted your shoes back and whoever took them to get their money and leave you alone. You were thankful your name hadn't been released and the only other person who knew the full truth was Eunji.

"There's many of us trying," Yoongi said. "Me, Namjoon, our managers, other people at the company. One of us will get them."

You nodded and watched as the countdown on the auction neared two minutes to the end. There weren't many bids, but the shoes were somehow already over 300,000 won ($276 USD). You'd brought your knitting needles and some yarn and mindlessly knitted.

"What are you making?" Yoongi asked, a small smile breaking out across his lips. It was tiny and barely recognizable. You weren't sure if he pitied you or if simply trying to break the tension.

"Nothing in particular," you said. "I just need something to keep me busy."

Normally, when you went in without a plan, it turned out as a scarf. You bit you lip as the timer hit a minute.

Yoongi saw your gaze shift to his screen and he readied to enter his bid as close to the end as he could. He entered one million won ($920.00 USD) and hovered his finger over the enter button.

"That's too much!" you said.

"No one will outbid it."

"I know," you said. "But I feel bad. I shouldn't have forgotten them in the first place."

The timer hit twenty seconds. Ten seconds. Yoongi waited just a few more seconds wanting to time it just right.

You heard a scream and a crash and almost simultaneously an error message appeared on Yoongi's computer. Please connect to Wi-Fi.

"Shit," Yoongi said. "Jimin!"

You followed Yoongi to the living room, leaving the partially started scarf behind. You saw Jimin and Jungkook crowded around the router working to connect the cord back into it.

"Did you trip over it again?" Yoongi asked, his voice breathy and exasperated.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm not used to it."

Yoongi sighed and turned back to you. His dark eyes looked down at you apologetically and he sat down on the couch, pulling out his phone.

"I'll try and see if I can see who won."

---

"It looks like they're going to have to come out and fix it," Namjoon said, hanging up the phone. "We won't have internet until then."

The members groaned.

Jungkook walked into the kitchen and brought back a case of beer, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Let's play a game," he said. "To welcome Sumi to the dorm."

"What game?" Namjoon asked.

"Answer or drink," he said. "On your turn, someone asks you a question and if you don't want to answer it, you have to drink."

Everyone agreed and sat in a circle. Yoongi sat on one side of you and Hoseok on the other side. Your knee brushed Yoongi's and you felt a small pang in your chest as you pulled away.

"All right, we'll go in order of age. Jin, you're up first."

You didn't really pay attention to the questions. You'd fall somewhere towards the end. Between Jungkook and Taehyung.

Jin answered the question. He didn't seem like the type to be embarrassed easily, a quality you admired in the eldest.

---

"Yoongi," Jungkook said. "Your turn."

The room stayed silent. No one had a question for the boy and he couldn't help but smirk slightly. However, Taehyung meekly raised his hand.

"What happened with Jihee?"

Yoongi cussed to himself. He knew she had been texting the other members about him. The other members would always consult him first before telling her anything when it was obvious he wasn't talking to her.

"She cheated," Yoongi answered simply.

The other boys' eyes widened and they nodded. However, it wasn't their gazes Yoongi felt boring into him. It was yours. He could feel your eyes staring at his profile.

Yoongi had been careful the night he met you. He managed not even to tell you his name. He'd only mentioned he'd recently gotten out of a relationship. He figured you didn't need to hear his sob story. Besides, he planned on keeping Jihee's betrayal a secret. Just as she wanted. The only people he could trust with the truth were his members.

But, you deserved to know the truth. It was unfair to keep you completely at a distance, especially when he'd overheard everything about your ex.

Yoongi noticed you drinking, you'd already cracked open another can by the time it got Namjoon. He felt a twinge in his chest. Yoongi quickly suppressed it, your drinking habits were none of his business. And based on the way Eunji talked the night at the bar, it didn't sound like you drank much. Only when your heart was broken.

"Sumi," Jungkook said. "Your turn."

Again, the room fell silent. No one knew Sumi well enough to ask her such a personal question. But, then again, everyone was tipsy, or in a few cases, already drunk.

"How's Yoongi in bed?"

Everyone except for Yoongi and you laughed.

"Seriously?" Yoongi asked.

He knew it was the alcohol that asked the question, but it was still inappropriate. He didn't want you to have to drink. Your eyes were glazed and your cheeks rosy.

Yoongi reached over and drank for you, crumpling the can when he finished.

"Move on," he said. "It should be your turn, right, Jungkook?"

"Wait," you said. "I didn't answer."

Everyone turned to look at you. It was obvious you were too drunk to notice that Yoongi had technically already drank for you.

"He's good," you answered. "Better than my ex and I hate that cause..."

You drifted off not noticing the seven stunned faces staring at you.Your words slurred, but they hung in the room. Your eyelids drooped and your head lulled forward into your chest.

"I think it's time for bed," Namjoon said, standing up and helping you stand. He threw an arm around you and led you down the hall towards your bedroom.

Despite the fact that the situation was perfectly appropriate, Yoongi still felt a small pang of jealousy. He knew he shouldn't and that it was all the soulmates thing, but that didn't stop his fists from clenching.

"She probably won't remember this in the morning," Yoongi said. "Don't remind her."

Yoongi swallowed the rest of his drink and left the room on the pretenses of being sleepy--which he was--but he also didn't want anyone to see the blush come to his cheeks.

---

You awoke the next morning with the worst headache you'd ever had. You clutched your forehead and glanced at the time: 10:30 am. You sighed.

You spotted your knitting things from yesterday placed on top of the dresser. You didn't remember fetching them from Yoongi's studio, but then again, you barely remembered anything after Jimin knocked the Wi-fi out.

"All I drank was beer," you muttered to yourself.

You weren't known for being a lightweight causing you to wonder just how much you'd drank the night before.

As you squirmed you felt something soft move in the crook of your arm. You looked down and saw Kitty. You smiled at the stuffed cat and her droopy eye.

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tellywoodtrash · 3 years

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immj2 16 + 17.12.20 lb

16.12.20

riddhima having completely opposite reaction to me, on discovering ki iss shakal ke do do bande ghoom rahein hain dharti pe.

hubs praising wifey’s intellect (he has a real low bar huh) in attached note and saying ki yeh birthday kamaaaaaaaal ka hoga.

meanwhile kabir has come back to investigate the trap door. bhai you keep saying “policewaala hoon, policewaala hoon” but i don’t see you actually going to work. “policewaala hoon” is this show’s “main AAAAADIIIINAAAAAGIN hoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to which literally all of us just respond, haan toh???? nahi matlab, sach mein.......... TOH??? hum kya hi karein iss bohut hi obvious yet useless information ke saath?

A+ hide and seek game going on here.

lmaooooooo iski shakal dekho, on being interrogated. he’s suchhhhhhhhhhhhh a shady fuck.

oh boy she said the word that shouldn’t ever be said to tellywood MLs..... “warna”....... it only leads to one thing:

yup. this fuckery.

“tumhe har baat kyun jaanni hoti hai??? nahi bataana.” lmao well, when you put it like that......

some ainvayi ka blah blah meant to deter her but only makes her more determined. coz hubs knows wifey veryyyyyyyyyy well by now.

also he just said that the raaz is “khoobsoorat”. so this has a positive result ultimately i think?

andddd he dropped a new aag metaphor: “aag dekhne mein khoobsoorat hai lekin usmein haath daalna akalmandi ka kaam nahi hai.” (remember when he told her as vansh wrt the whole ragini thing ki “aag mein haath daalogi toh aag ko kuch nahi hota, lekin tumhare haath jal jaayenge.”)

also lmao kab karti hai riddhima akalmandi ka kaam????? yes MO is literally just “is it questionable and are people telling me RIDDHIMA NOOOOOO? THEN RIDDHIMA YESSSSSSSSS.”

so of course she’s like fuck you i wanna know at alllll costs.

“yeh raaz tumhe ek aisi duniya mein le jayega riddhima jahaan se laut ke aana tumhare liye impossible hai.” ....... so exactly like being stuck in this house/family????? pfttttt, warn her with something she HASN’T been dealing with everyday for the past 6 months.

some more dumb mysterious metaphors and he finally leaves.

NOW WHO THE FUCK IS WATCHING HER FROM OUTSIDE?????? OUFF THIS FUCKING HOUSE IS FILLED WITH CREEPS AND PERVERTS.

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MIRROR KE PEECHE THERE’S ONE ITTTU SA SAFE MADE SPECIALLY JUST TO HOLD ONE (1) THIN PIECE OF PAPER. AMAZING.

OH?

OHHHH??????

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

meanwhile idhar someone badeeeeeee safaai se maarofied the photo. ok you were spying on her from outside and knew that there was a compartment behind the mirror. BUT HOW DID YOU CRACK THE PASSWORD ON FIRST TRY??????????? IDHAR MERE KO APNA HI GMAIL TUMBLR INSTA PASSWORD 3 BAAR ENTER KARNE HOTE HAIN BEFORE IT LETS ME IN.

“happy birthday, Dollar Biwi!” mmmmhmmm got you all wet under the shower in black, Happy Birthday to all of us, indeed!!!!!

“i hope tum hamesha aise hi girti raho aur main pakadta rahoon!” snort. vihaan babu, permanantly yahaan ghar basaane ka plan banaa liya hai kya???? not even pretending anymore that he’s not in this mess for saath janam.

lmao she’s like fuck you i just wanna know the secret.

smarmy fuck is like hmmmmmm, birthday ke din bataaa hi doon kya? fucking tease.

he’s like ok fine, in the evening, at the party you’ll get a gift that’ll be your answer.

she’s like if you break your promise and don’t give me the answer?

“toh koi aur de dega.” this fuckerrrrrrrrrrr. he playing 3d chess, he fully knows what’s happening outside with the picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

she’s like pls no one else knows this secret, i have hidden it verrrrrrrrrrrry safely; and he’s like, if there’s one thing i learnt from vansh, it’s that the walls of VR mansion are neverrrrrrr safe. kabhi bhi kuchhhhhhhh bhi ho sakta hai.

Chehra Appreciation Break.

she runs out and........... the photo is goneeeeeeeee.

riddhima constantly wanting to beat up/murder vihaan is such a Mood lmao.

anyway he beat her with the powers of Logic. and Handsomeness. mostly Logic tho.

so if he didn’t do it................. she concludes ki obviously it was kabir.

ok but what if it was ANGRE, who’s milofied with boss to give bhaabiji an excellent birthday surprise???? he too knows howwwwwww much sis loves to do jasoosi and play these games. MAN JUST GIMME MY V/ANGRE BROTP BACKKKKKKKKKK.

anyway, birthday surprise has now turned into a headache and hubs like oh nooooooo, this is not what i wanted???? i wanted her to be happpppy and enjoy herselffffff.

girl back at bappa’s sharan. coz where else to go, really?

oh shit dadi’s here ranting and raving about knowing the truth. ohhhhhhhhh boy.

dadi has decided to make herself the birthday candle that riddhima has to blow out.

man, the matriarch of the house is throwing kerosene all over herself and everyone’s just standing around watching, instead of intervening in any useful way. everyone just want that raisinghania $$$$$$$ huh?

oh. dream tha. this bloody show and its never-ending dream sequences.

waise bhi iss set pe roz 4-5 cake aate hi honge, toh unko bas stack kar liya, ho gaya kaam. production mein se extra budget nahi nikaalna pada iske liye.

V has specialllllllllllll gift for Dollar Biwi. yeh hua na gifttttttt. yisssssss gimme that USD, sonnnnnnn. exchange rate 73 touch kar gaya hai and the way it’s going........ it’s gonna reach even higher soon.

aslkjdaslkjdlaskjdlkaslksajd riddhima and kabir’s reactions. they’re honestly so fucking done with this asshole.

ishani like since when you have such a sense of humour, bhai????? arre tha hamesha se hi, tum logon ne mauka hi kab diya hai bande ko joke maarne ka? har waqt kuch na kuch kalesh chalta rehta hai iss ghar mein jo bechaare ko sametna hota hai.

kabir adding to anxiety with this birthday will be so special blah blah blah.

and now the cake R cut just exploded with red liquid that ishani injected into it. birthday ke din hi tum sabhi manhooson ko bachchi pe bhadaas nikaalni hai???? ek din toh baksh do bechaari ko.

LOL DADI KNOWS IT’S ISHANI AND SHE’S JUST LIKE

sab ka cake khaana khilaana blah blah.

hubs takes a moment to actually wish her sincerely with mushy eyes and soft voice. sweet.

ouff one moreeeeee surprise. aaj shaam birthday party. organized by kabir. greaaaaaat.

riddhima’s face = mine when i too am forced into social events that i have less than zero interest in attending.

lmaooooooooooooo kabir called him “vansh bhai” and the slowwwwww turn V did to look at him like ‘bitch what you say??????’

snark snark snark.

kabir rolling out some tray and......... the episode ends. god this is so fucking boring so much buildup to a bloody partyyyyyyyyyyy. just get it the fuck over with my god!!!!!!!

———————————————————————

17.12.20

K’s presented her with a buncha envelopes to choose the theme of the party or some such shit and riddhima’s like the fucker had put the photo in one of these for sureeeeeee.

Chehra(s) Appreciation Break

anyway she picked one envelope and there’s a letter from K saying i have the secret you were hiding, it’ll be out in the party, blah blah.

interesting thing is that this letter is written in hindi. the letter from vansh was hindi transliterated in english. hmmmmmm. i mean, lol, this has no larger bearing on the plot, just an observation i’m making and wondering about the show’s choices.

lmao he did this lil eyebrow thing that just neeeeeeded to be giffed. i love this face so much!

hubs is sensing something is realllllllllll wrong and taking charge of the conversation and declares party ka theme colour is gold, and that riddhima is gonna look hot in black and gold. uh....... ok?

everyone disperses and V is warning K ki if you fuck this party up in anyyyyyyyyy way that makes the birthday girl upset..............

vishal is making sooooooooo many amazing gif-worthy faces today. about time i make a set on him.

riddhima turning K’s room uthal-puthal to find the photo and obviously failsssss.

and he’s here with a bouquet of balloons and OMG BURSTING THEM ONE BY ONE LIKE THIS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

lotsaaaaaaaa threatening blah blah and riddhima is trying to reason with him and............ god i’m so bored.

“tum na riddhima bohut hi ajeeb type ki ladki ho. jis kaam ke liye mana kiya jaata hai tum EXACTLY wohi karti ho!!!!” hahahahahaha both her boytoys should meet up over a drink about this very special characteristic of her’s. they’ll find they have more in common than they think.

lmao literally noone else can make a party horn and the birthday song seem this hilariously threatening. i love him so muchhhhh.

behen is now crying in front of vansh’s photu. you know, to spice things up a lil.

saw some random photo frame sitting there, and just opened it and happened to find a bank transfer reciept from vansh to vihaan. for 5 crore. and on the 8th of december, 2017. ok but my question is what about the frame said ki open this and find exactly what you’re looking for behind the picture???????

storming off to find V and............

lo ji aaj ke girrne ka karyakram shuru.

lmao the contrast in reactions.

“kismat tumhe har pal, har kadam mere aur kareeb laa rahi hai, riddhima.”

he’s being very cute in this scene. he genuinely does want her to have a good birthday, it seems.

unffffffffff. aise na mujhe tum dekho................

lmao she’s like you are the singlemost biggest fucking reason of all my stress, birthday or otherwise. wtf vansh give you 5 crore for????/ he’s like patience lil birdy, the answers are your birthday present. it’ll come in good time.

she’s yelling at him for being so chill when kabir is about to expose them and he’s just putting it all on her saying you’re the one going down for it anyway. and maybe if you’d told me about that mysterious letter earlier, i coulda helped you. SO BLOOOOODY ANNOYING HE IS.

anyway he’s like don’t worry i’ll handle it. but you have to give me apni zindagi ki ek khoobsoorat shaam. which............... gross. didn’t have to frame it like THAT.

she went to slap him but ofc he intercepted. ugh he’s so massive how the fuck is someone to even subdue him????? god i hate men.

anyway she told him he’s disgustaaaaaang and won’t take his help and he’s like yeah but it’s not just about you, there are manyyyyyy lives at stake here.

HE’S SUCH AN ASSHOLE FOR PLAYING WITH HER THIS WAY. THERE’S NO WAY SHE WINS HERE IN HIS EYES. IF SHE DOESN’T TAKE HIS HELP, THAT MEANS SHE HOLDS HER EGO AND SELF RESPECT OVER THE FAMILY’S SAFETY. IF SHE DOES GIVE UP HER SELF RESPECT TO SAVE THE FAMILY, HE’S JUST GONNA USE IT TO THROW ACCUSATIONS AT HER CHARACTER. FUCK IT’S JUST SUCH A HORRIBLE, BAD FAITH EXPERIMENT. I HATE HIM. AND SINCE WE KNOW ALREADY THAT SHE’S GONNA AGREE FOR THE DATE OR WHATEVER, I SWEAR TO GOD IF HE SHAMES HER FOR THAT LATER, IMMA CLIMB INTO THE SCREEN AND CASTRATE HIM WITH A RUSTY BUTTER KNIFE.

the signal for the yes to the offer is a........ “flying dance” during the party. which sounds as fucking ridiculous as.......... everything else in this fucking show, i suppose.

LMAO SHE IMITATED THE LIL SMUG EXPRESSION HE MADE IN SUCH A CUTE/FUNNY WAY. WHY THIS SHOW DOESN’T LET HELLY ALSO BE MORE EXPRESSIVE WITH HER FACE IN A CUTE WAY???? SHE LITERALLY HAS A DISNEY PRINCESS FACE AND ALL THESE FUCKERS MAKE HER DO IS CRY AND SCREAM AND BE WORRIED.

what a fucking simp for his wife. i love it.

askdjlksjdlkasjdlksajldkjlkdjlkj there’s a watermark on the mumbai stock footage. this show gives nooooooo fucks about quality at all.

party time. and the lights have gone out.

someone messing with the electronic equipment in the worsttttttttttt fucking way, by putting kerosene on the floor and setting a fuse alight??????? like????? just cut all the wires instead of causing a fullll fucking house fire like this?????????

lmao ishani is like lights ko gaye itna time ho gaya, yeh zaroor riddhima ki kismat ka koi ishaara hai. sis you need to chill with the savage. ek din toh chhod do usko.

ok they’re really hot today. really fucking hot.

lmao she’s smiling but chabaa chabaa ke saying ki i’ll never say yes to your shady idea.

kabir walks up to her, gives her flowers, AND ACTUALLY THREATENED HER RIGHT IN FRONT OF V’S FACE. THE WAY V’S FACE CHANGED IN SECONDS YOU GUYS................

coldly impassive.....

...... to YOU’RE REALLY TRYING TO RUIN MY WIFE’S BIRTHDAY WHEN I EXPLICITLY WARNED YOU NOT TO?????????

..... to OH HE GON’ DIE TONIGHT.

.......... to silently giving reassuring look ki he’ll handle this.

that fuse is stillllllllllllll burning. at the fucking speed of paint drying on a rainy day.

speech timeeeeeeeee by kabir. and he has a video too. lorddddd.

V still cheekily offering his services, and she’s like bitch i did my own intezaam already. ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. kerosene aur fuse waala stupidass plan iska hi tha. should have guessed from the level of sheeeeeer dumbness that it was her and no one else.

lmao he’s like ok but this was too good an opportunity for me, so i counter-attacked YOUR counter-attack. that wasn’t kerosene. i switched it out for blue paani. OH GOD RIDDHIMA DUMBASS DID YOU NOT EVEN SMELL THE FLUID TO CHECK WHAT IT WAS??????????????

“kahaani kuch bhi ho, important yeh hai ki uska climax kya hota hai. aur iss kahaani ka climax tumhare saamne hai, riddhima.”

bitch yehi toh dikkat hai, ki abhi tak koiiiiiiiiii climaxes nahi milen hain issko. na vansh se, na vihaan se. what’s the use of all this thopda and ambidexterous haath if there’s no climaxes resulting from them? waste fellow. get working on delivering those climaxes PRONTO, sir.

#ishq mein marjawan 2 #immj2 #immj2 lbs #episode liveblogs

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nutty1005 · 4 years

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Xiao Zhan: Extraordinary Journey, Starting from This

Translator’s Note: This article comes from Harper’s Bazaar Oct 2019 Side Issue.

To Xiao Zhan, the Summer of 2019 was destined to belong to “The Untamed”. The drama’s popularity and high viewership garnered Xiao Zhan, who was the lead role in “The Untamed” as “Wei Wuxian”, the most attention of this summer. Our extraordinary journey shall stop its time in the summer. The Abu Dhabi Emirates Palace Hotel glistens under the brilliant sunlight. This grand palace, costing 3 billion USD, carries with it the lovely dreams of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with hopes that it will become a local landmark building. Whereas for us, this is where we will start our extraordinary journey.

This summer was very hot, and there was not a single shower that was memorable.

We strolled on the Sir Bani Yas Island, the “Noah’s Ark” of Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, measuring 5,963km away from Beijing, with ground temperatures at 45°C.

If there were really a “Noah’s Ark”, it probably looked like Sir Bani Yas Island. It carried the hopes of the founding father of UAE – in its history, the clan family of UAE used their enormous wealth on this desert island and created the biggest wild animal reserve; they grew more than 3.5m fruit trees on this arid land and carefully cultivated them everyday; they brought in more than 30 different endangered species onto this island for release.

Xiao Zhan was just 20 meters away from a 4 day old giraffe calf. The young calf stumbled ahead, learning its steps. This was the first time Xiao Zhan was up close to a wild giraffe. Everyone was bending low and looking down, moving carefully and silently, so that we would not provoke the alert mother giraffe. The guide informed us that these seemingly gentle animals actually have a irritable temper, and an angry giraffe could easily kill a grown lion with their kicks. As our jeep got closer to them, the hidden giraffes became clearer, and we saw 5 to 6 adult giraffes surrounding the trees, quietly eating the leaves. Under the sunlight, Xiao Zhan slowly moved closer, until he was standing next to them, quietly observing them, and enjoying the rare peace and serenity of this summer.

“Packing my bags for an unknown journey”

The Summer of 2019 was destined to belong to “The Untamed”. This web drama, adapted from “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation”, became one of the hottest topic online after a few days of broadcast. Xiao Zhan, who starred as “Wei Wuxian” in the drama, also became one of the hottest names of this summer.

The first time Xiao Zhan performed on stage was on X-Fire, a talent search show, as an amateur contestant. Thereafter, the first real big performance was when he was part of the performance for Zhejiang New Year Eve broadcast. After multiple rehearsals, as he stood onstage and the spotlights came on with a “pa” sound. Instantly, his mind went blank, and he said that his movements were entirely based on survival instincts.

“I remembered I was especially nervous, and when I was backstage, I was so nervous that I was shaking nonstop, I could not say a word. When the spotlights came onto us, there was one or two seconds of memory loss, as in my mind went blank. After that I had no choice, I saw that my teammates got into their positions, so I quickly walked to mine.”

To the amateur Xiao Zhan then, the entertainment business was all glitz and glory – an interesting world filled with the unknown. Only after he really entered the business, he realized that everyone had to put in a lot of effort in order to gain a little bit of attention. After entering an idol group, Xiao Zhan spent a great deal of effort practicing singing and dancing, wanting to use hard work to catch up with the others’ professional training – once he practiced until his toe nail came off, but even then, he never stopped. His character is warm but tenacious, when he encounters difficulties he rarely speaks of them, instead he will learn to cope, he always says “it will be fine after a night’s rest”, and continue to fight the next day. In 2017, he joined the production of two dramas consecutively, “Battle Through the Heavens” 《斗破苍穹》 and “The Wolf” 《狼殿下》. These two dramas opened the doors to an actor’s world to him. From the first scene until the last, from the winters of Shangri-La to the hot summers of the Elephant Mountains, his exhausted body could not contain his itching desire to become an actor. He was deeply fascinated by the roles and lives of the people in the scripts.

When he first received the script for “The Untamed”, Xiao Zhan felt that he was totally different from “Wei Wuxian”. Xiao Zhan is not a talkative person, instead, he is a very quiet person. When they were script reading for the first time, the producer was there as well, and Xiao Zhan had to continuously remind himself that “I am Wei Wuxian, Wei Wuxian is me, I am WeiWuxian, I am now a very lively talkative person, I have to make everyone adore me”. After establishing this belief, he blended into his character, and allowed the character’s emotions and his merge into one. After the broadcast of the drama, he himself would read reviews online – “It seemed like his smiles are different every time, possibly even his cries are different as well, did he design it as such?”

However, it is precisely that Xiao Zhan does not know all these techniques, but instead he blended into the role, and allowed the story to direct the character’s emotions, and used that character’s status and feelings in his acting.

Xiao Zhan said “The role is really very big, and the span is really long. Because when we shoot dramas, it is according to scenes, for example, the final scenes were shot like 2 days into the start of the shoot, and I needed to quickly get into the situation. And then the next day could be another different scene, switching back and forth, I would get into a confused state. I remembered the most anxious period was in Heng Dian, I would be drowsily doing my make up in the morning, after which I got pushed onto the bus by my assistant, dragged to the studio, start shooting, after that was done my assistant would say ‘We are OK with this side, let’s go to B group’. At that moment made me feel like ‘Am I alright? Is it alright performing this way?’, it was a very concerning period for me.”

But when it was time to shoot, another actor told Xiao Zhan that no matter what happened behind the scenes, as long as the director shouted “Action”, you need to adjust yourself to your best status, you need to give your greatest passion, because the audience will only see what is done after “Action”. Even if you are in low spirits that day, you might be going through the darkest days of your life, but once you are at the studio, standing in front of a camera, the director yelled to start shooting, from that moment on you are no longer yourself.

Xiao Zhan smiled as he said, “That’s cruel, but that’s an actor’s job.”

“I am not a brave person, but I need to become a brave person”

In the winds, a herd of antelopes and deer ran past us, Xiao Zhan grasped the dagger that signified strength and bravery, as he stood on the red rocks on the side of the cliff. The scenery before us are a rarity – it took billions of years of tectonic movements to create this miraculous sight. On an island in the Gulf of Arab, there actually exists such an alien sight. In order to get to this cliff, you need professional guides and you need to climb up and down for half an hour or so. The usually quiet Xiao Zhan also exclaimed “So beautiful!” in spite of himself. We could use an unknown adventure to describe life – the more mysterious it is, the more you want to explore.

Xiao Zhan said that he is not a brave person, but it is life required him to become braver – only the brave can face all of the unknown and mysteries in an unknown adventure. Previously, he had to face the transition from an amateur to an artist, the adjustment from a commoner’s life to a life under the bright spotlights of the stage; now he faced the tight scrutiny of his life under the spotlight.

After the end of shooting of “The Untamed”, many felt that Xiao Zhan became more lively than before, and he spoke more often. In the past, he was always uncomfortable facing strangers, but now he will use a very active attitude to communicate with others, in hopes of receiving more information from that. The role not only gave him more attention, it also gave him strength and growth.

For his future planning, he laughed as he said that he had not decided. He was just passionate about acting and hoped that he could move ahead in the path of becoming a good actor, one problem at a time, and become braver and stronger. He felt that this is not just about himself, many of his friends and young people are the same – undaunted by the difficulties in life, and become stronger as a result. This is like the antelopes who are almost being baked under the intense heat of the desert, unafraid of the sun, sprinting ahead, never looking back.

“No one will like you for no reason”

Xiao Zhan’s father once said this “No one will like you for no reason, if someone likes you, you have to cherish that person’s feelings.” Xiao Zhan truly believes in this.

In his youth, Xiao Zhan liked Stefanie Sun, and went to her concerts and album sales events. He hoped that he could catch a glimpse of her from afar, watch her shine onstage, immerse himself in her voice, and learn from her, become a better person, become a star who could shine for another person. He said that that was how the youth of his era fan an idol. The idol is a truly an idol, the motivation to encourage himself forward. Now, he cherishes all of his fans’ love for him, and he does not reject the term “traffic” – this is a term that many would avoid. (TN: Traffic is a term that is used in China to describe idols with a lot of fan following.)

“You might feel that traffic is not good, right? Feel that traffic is another derogatory term? Actually I feel that traffic is quite fine, of course the term to me means that a lot of people know you, like you, I feel that’s a good thing. At least I feel that no one can be high traffic forever, what’s most important is how you handle it, how you face the traffic, and let this traffic become a motivation to move forward, I think this is very important.”

He hopes that he can translate the love from his fans to become his motivation to move forward. An actor could depend on a popular drama to quickly accumulate fame and attention, but the art of performance requires professional training and experience accumulation. Xiao Zhan’s favorite actress is Zhou Xun. When he spoke of her, his tone utterly reveals him as a fanboy, “I don’t know how she evolved to this.” Our answer was simple, time and talent, both of which you cannot do without. Talent will help your potential in the domain of acting, and if fate ordinates, help you grasp the opportunities that knock on your door. Whereas time is the sharpening stone, every minute and second spent on the acting career will show itself in the performances thereafter.

“There are no small roles, only small actors.” Staying true to his original intentions and initial thoughts, doing his best in his own profession, seriously working hard in the acting domain, he will eventually find his own place.

Xiao Zhan said, “In this era where traffic comes and goes, staying true to myself, staying real, I feel this is the eventual goal. But it is so difficult to do this.”

Wish him well.

Q&A

Q: Before you came to Abu Dhabi, what you did imagine it to be? A: The image I had was that, endless deserts and wilderness, soaring majestic buildings.

Q: When you knew that our journey is somewhat similar to an adventure, being with animals, what did you imagine it to be? A: I thought about it. Something like African savanna, sort of like animal migration, herds of animals moving past you, especially spectacular. However, the animals on the African savanna are wilder, over here, the wild animals are mostly the gentler antelopes, giraffes.

Q: In your personal life, are you a person who also likes adventures? A: Yes, I can be considered as such.

Q: When there are many things that the results are unknown, does that excite you? A: If there are many things in my life that I already know the results, my interest in the new and unknown will wane. I prefer not knowing the results, there are many paths to take, and the destinations could all be different, this makes me feel more excited.

Q: So in your imagination, Abu Dhabi suits your sense of unknown? A: Yes. It is just very mysterious, a feeling of an unknown land, to be explored, and full of endless treasures.

Q: There are so many animals on the island of Sir Bani Yas, which do you want to contact or wish to take a picture with? A: The giraffes. To be able to take a picture with them, to get up close with them, I just feel this is very exciting. I have never had the opportunity, I used to only go to the zoo. Being able to contact animals in the wild is very rare.

Q: This time you were able to look into a giraffe in the eye, how did you felt? A: Just that I am able to look at it in the eye.

Q: Aren’t you afraid of giraffes? A: I am not afraid, I feel that giraffes are quite cute, why do I need to be afraid of it?

Q: They are quite strong. A: The giraffes?

Q: Did you know that in the culture of Abu Dhabi, daggers signify strength. In the ancient times, the Emirates used them as a self-defense accessory. Their founding father, Sheikh Zayed, almost wore one for half his lifetime, and daggers are found in many of his portraits. Even now, the young Emirates frequently wore them in public. A: The sign of bravery and strength. Actually, when I saw this dagger, I felt that it gave me bravery and strength, the start of an adventurous journey.

Q: Holding the dagger and walking along the cliffs, how did it feel like? A: Wow, every inch of this land is mine, I felt that I could jump down that cliff, there was nothing to fear. Especially when the wind came and blew open my windbreaker, it was especially refreshing.

Q: What did is the biggest feeling this journey gave you? A: Actually, not many people understood Abu Dhabi, after I came here, I was surprised to find that there were many beautiful scenery and interesting cultural traditions, and the underlying adventurous spirit within. It is like a pair of eyes, showing us new discoveries. Actually, the interesting discoveries that we don’t usually find in our daily lives, and this journey is tinted with the colors of adventure and mystery, makes me feel very excited. This city, it has its own cultural background, the collision with new things, is a very wondrous feeling.

Q: If your friend wants to go to Abu Dhabi for an adventure, what recommendations do you have? A: Actually there are plenty. I feel that if the friends around me were to come to Abu Dhabi, they have to experience the unique Arabic culture, the buildings here and their totems, I feel that these have special meanings. Those of my friends who loves art can go to Abu Dhabi Louvre. And there’s one more thing that cannot be missed, that is the adventurous journey to get in touch with nature, I feel this is especially great. Abu Dhabi’s deserts and islands, will really satisfy your adventurous desires to explore the world, you can look up and see the flying saker falcons, then look down to see the running antelopes and cheetahs, and turn around to see the giraffes standing behind you.

#xiao zhan #sean xiao #xiaozhan #肖战

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fanartfunart · 3 years

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Heya! I really really like your style and saw the commission thing and was wondering how to, y'know, commission a tningy ^^' I haven't done it before

Glad you like my art and like it enough to consider commissioning! ^u^

My commission information page is here. I suggest looking through it. I explain how I work in that as well, at the very bottom. But, I’ll give ya a breakdown for the Never Commissioned Before. (since that version lowkey assumes at least slight familiarity)

It’s not too difficult or anything so don't stress it! If you want a general price-point before diving in or anything: for me, an average work tends to be around $35-50ish USD (usually mostly depending on color or number of characters) but some of the more complex stuff, which often includes multiple characters and background goes more up towards $200ish. If you’re tighter on cash, as I know a lot of people are, I suggest setting yourself a budget and telling me what it is! That way if you want something, but you can’t afford it, I can help make it something affordable! (ie I may suggest not using full color, or having a bust rather than a full character- etc)

For the actual process, I’ve put it under the cut. I go pretty in-depth and it got long.

Step One: Message me with what you want to commission me to do. Give a short description.

You can message me on tumblr or through my email [email protected]. I like it if you come in with a semi-solid idea of what you want. Hopefully you read through my commission page, but, I’m also happy to provide suggestions and ideas as well. I do fanart and original works! You should have a description of what you have in mind ready.

Here’s two examples on each extreme of what I can work with:

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips. They have long brown hair and eyes and wear a pirate-like costume”

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips, a little sassy in pose an expression. They have long brown hair that goes to their hips, and is parted to the left. They have brown eyes, and a small scar on their cheek. They’re a little stocky and they wear a v-cut loose black tunic, a purple vest and leather belt.”

I’d ask more questions for both of these! I’ve never had a commission where I don’t feel the need to ask for more information. If it’s an original character (or even au-versions of fanart or characters I’m not familiar with), I love hearing about who they are as a character, since that gives me a sense of what energy I’m trying to portray with the character. If you have references (doesn’t matter if it’s an amalgamation of references plucked off of google or something you drew yourself) that’s awesome! I don't require it, but, they’re always appreciated. I am totally open to helping you make decisions too! if you have the base idea, but you don’t know if you want them to have a coat or not, I can give you sketches with both options.

Step 2: Pricing.

If you don’t already mention it, I’ll ask you specifics of the things in my commission post- ie: if it’s full body or a half body, or if it’s full color or anything.

If anything on my commission post confuses you, you can always ask me for more examples or an explanation of the difference!

After determining exactly what you want me to do, I’ll usually give you an estimate for how much it would cost to complete. Sometimes, if you’re still deciding between things that determine the price, like how complex the pose is, I might do some sketches first and see which ones you like before giving you a price. I have a little leeway on pricing here, and if you think it’s too much, you’re welcome to ask me to explain why I priced it that way and if I can lower the price. That said, a lower price means lower complexity and detail.

If we’re confident in the price, I like if you pay me at this point, rather than later, as it’s easy to forget, and frankly, I’d rather not do all this work just for someone to take the image and not pay me at the end. I have some leeway, but I usually prefer if you pay me before I get to the last step before completion. If it’s a lineart work, that means after the sketch. If it’s a colored work, it means after the lineart.

Step 3: Sketches.

When I get started with sketches it usually takes me a day or 2 to get them done. I’ll give you several to choose from. I usually do about 4-6 individual sketches and label them by number (because I’m dyslexic and for the life of me never remember left vs right).

Once I send you a batch of sketches I’ll ask you for your opinion. I basically want to know: which sketch(es) fit your idea the best and if there’s anything I’m missing or need to get rid of. It’s going to be loose and messy, so if you want me to explain anything about how it looks, please feel free to ask. I can combine sketches if you like parts of one or two of them but as a whole they’re not perfect. If I’m totally off the mark, you can totally tell me so! That kinda means I didn’t do my job right in step 1, and I’ll ask more questions to understand which aspect I’m missing.

Once we have one sketch that works, I’ll ask you a few more questions about what you’d like to see on the lineart.

Step 4: Lineart

Depending on how complex it is and how busy my life is, this might take me a day or a whole week.

Using the sketch as my base I’ll use this time to make clean lines, get some details in (this is usually where expressions and clothes are defined beyond the general structure.)

I’ll send you the sketch after I’m finished and once again, ask you what you think and what might need adjustment. Your job is to nitpick here! Please, feel free to nitpick. Is the hair too short? Is the arm in a funky angle? Tell me! You’re buying it, you get to critique it. I’ll work with you to come to an agreeable look.

If you’re commissioning me for a colored work, I’ll also ask you for any clarification/changes from the original concept for the color.

Step 5: Color

This tends to take about 1-3 days.

If it’s flat color, it’ll be pretty simple, and shading or lighting will be done with kinda flat bold lines unless otherwise stated that you just want it Flat-Flat. It’s not my usual style, so most people tend to go for full color. Full color is my usual coloring style, and I use some pretty soft shading. It tends to reflect a midday-look, but if there’s a specific background I’m doing, I will match the color to it. Dynamic shading is a secondary layer of color. I usually do color and shading on one layer. Dynamic shading is where I work with really bold, dramatic lighting.

I usually work with a background at the same time as everything else, but, sometimes I don’t because I focused on one aspect or another, so that might be an additional step.

Once again, I’ll send the work to you and ask for your opinion.

Step 6: Finishing up

Once you’re happy with it, all that’s left is A) confirming you paid me (I’ll usually remember or write it down, so if you had, I won't ask.) B) signing the artwork and C) sending it to you via email. I usually send it as a .png but you’re welcome to request other filetypes. I’ll ask you for all these things too.

You’re also welcome to request that I record the process I can take screen-capture videos or I can screen-shot each step that I’m not screen-shotting already to send to get your opinion. (you’d have to ask me to do this at the beginning though.)

After all that, I’ll usually post it on my tumblr here, and you’ll have your commission!

#commissioning #answered asks #fanart's commissions

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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 4 years

Text

Writing Commission - Where I Want To Be - Chapter Nine (END)

Summary: Yamada Hizashi, better known as the Voice Hero Present Mic, is a busy man. He has classes and students to teach English to, an agency that always seemed to be in the middle of a disaster to help deal with, and a radio station that was one bad show away from being cancelled to run. He doesn’t have time for a bad day triggered by nightmares and fears and anxieties that just never seem to stop.

Luckily for him, his partners are Aizawa Shouta and Yagi Toshinori and neither of those two are very good at leaving Hizashi to suffer alone.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Characters: Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Yagi Toshinori | All Might

Rating: Teen Audiences

Word Count: 29,323

Transaction Amount: $200 (USD)

WARNINGS FOR: Past childhood abuse (both emotional and physical) and anxiety attacks verging on panic to PTSD episodes. Please read with caution if needed.

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Check out my writing commission information here! Pledge to my Patreon to get exclusive content! Or buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi!

⁂

Chapter Index

<<1>> <<2>> <<3>> <<4>> <<5>> <<6>> <<7>> <<8>> <<9>>

⁂

Hizashi gave a soft sigh, stomach pleasantly full and thoughts cloudy and murky as he felt sleepiness tug at him from all sides. It was hard to resist the urge to just give in considering he was curled up on the couch between an equally sleepy Toshinori and Shouta, all three of them curled under blankets. Their bowls and cups were empty on the table, dinner long since done, and Hizashi felt like he could give in and purr like their cats at how warm and content he felt.

Toshinori was the first one to shift, looking up at Hizashi with bleary, but worried eyes, “How are you feeling, sweetheart?” If Hizashi thought his partners had been worried at the start of the day, it was nothing as to when he had finally gotten home and had been smothered in love and attention for the rest of the night.

“Honestly? Like I could sleep for a couple of years, at least,” Hizashi said, smothering a yawn against Shouta’s shoulder, who gave a quiet chuckle. “Sorry you had to deal with all of that today, Toshi-”

“No apologies,” Toshinori cut off, giving him a stern look. “We all have our bad days, and I know you would do the same as I did today.” The man paused, face twitching towards amusement. “Actually, knowing you, you would go overboard with it.”

“He would and he will,” Shouta snorted, easily betraying Hizashi and the years of trust and love they had. Shouta at least softened the blow by moving to wrap an arm low around his waist, kissing at the edge of his jaw. “It always helps, though.”

The three lapsed back into silence, Hizashi closing his eyes for a moment as he listened to the soft sounds of their shifting and breathing. It felt like both a second and an eternity before he tilted his head towards Toshinori, resting against him with a soft sigh before he spoke, “It happened when I was a kid, but it was stopped by the time I got to U.A.”

Shouta was still and quiet, but Hizashi felt Toshinori twitch against him before he was speaking, “You don’t have to explain anything to me, sweetheart, but I’ll gladly listen if you want to share.” God, Hizashi had gotten so fucking lucky when it came to the men he loved.

“I know I don’t have to explain anything,” Hizashi said quietly, eyes fluttering shut and staying that way. Curled up between the two men he loved, he didn’t see the memories he loathed when he closed his eyes. He saw just them, warm and content and curled up together on the couch. “Besides, I don’t think I have to explain much to you. You probably already have most of it figured out, but to make a long story short… I had a villain’s quirk.”

“You had what they called a villains quirk,” Shouta said firmly, hugging Hizashi closer. “You’ve never had a villain’s quirk, ‘Zashi, because you’d never be a villain.”

“Hey, now, I think I’d make a pretty decent villain,” Hizashi pouted, letting himself be tugged away from his memories as Shouta gave a sharp snort of laughter. “Hey, hey, I could be evil! I could be terrifying!”

“You’d start bar fights and still try to get cats out of trees,” Shouta shot back and, well… Hizashi wished he could say the man was wrong, but he probably would be like that as a ‘villain.’ “A nuisance at worst, but never evil.”

Hizashi grumbled before opening his eyes and turning back to look at Toshinori, who was looking at him with a soft smile. Hizashi couldn’t resist the urge to lean up and give him a soft kiss before he continued, “Right. Before Shouta so rudely interrupted, I had a quirk that they were afraid of. You’ve probably heard the stories, by now, yeah? Blew out the hearing of everyone in the delivery room when I was first born?”

“You’ve had your quirk since birth?” Toshinori blinked, looking surprised. “Huh. I’m afraid to say that I didn’t know that. Has your quirk always been this powerful, then?”

“Oh- Well.” Hizashi sat up, already recalling what he could remember about quirk theory and everything he had learned and looked up. “It’s actually pretty interesting! You see-”

“Off track,” Shouta interrupted, and, right. Hizashi could geek out about quirks and quirk theory later. Toshinori was stuck with them, after all, so it wasn’t like he could easily escape even if he wanted to.

“Right, right. Okay, so I had a quirk they were scared of that was pretty powerful, and, well…” Hizashi trailed off, giving a nervous shrug and a smile to match it. “What kid can perfectly control their quirk when they’re that young?”

Toshinori sighed, something old and deep as he hugged Hizashi closer, lips pressing against his cheek, “And so they forced control upon you themselves.”

“That’s the short of it,” Hizashi agreed, curling in closer and smiling when he felt one of Shouta’s hands lace their fingers together. “Kid with a voice quirk that’s activated by opening his mouth. I think it’s pretty obvious what happened from there.” It made him think of Shinsou and how the kid knew sign language so fluently all while having a voice-activated quirk that could control someone’s mind. He’d have to remember to see if he couldn’t find out more about the kid’s home life; just to be safe. “They made sure my mouth didn’t open.”

Toshinori nodded grimly, Hizashi sighing and continuing, “It’s not… When I have a bad day, like I did today, it’s usually not too bad these days. It’s phantom sensations for the first half of the day and then, when that’s over, it’s just words and memories that don’t matter anymore.”

“If they still hurt you, then they matter,” Toshinori said softly, reaching a hand up to brush against Hizashi’s cheek. “They matter a hell of a lot. Is there any way to prevent these days from being too hard on you?”

“Nah.” Hizashi shook his head, settling back in and reaching the perfect position for the utmost comfort. “These kinds of days don’t really… build, you know? They just sort of happen.” He wished there was build up and signs that let him know when to prepare for a day of hell, but, as of yet, there hadn’t been much way to tell until he woke up panting from a nightmare. The best they could figure was that stress could make them more frequent, and that wasn’t much to go on. “They’re sure as hell not easy, but I’ve learned to deal with them.”

“There is that, at least,” Toshinori laughed softly, relaxing more against him with a soft sigh, content to just rest in the quiet the three of them had made.

It was a quiet that Hizashi was all too happy to rest in, peeking his eyes open to see Shouta looked to have already fallen asleep. The man was slumped against the couch, body limp and mouth cracked open as he made soft snuffling sounds in his sleep. It was adorable enough that Hizashi didn’t bother fighting against the urge to take a couple of pictures once he dug his phone out, only stopping when he noticed he had messages waiting for him.

The most recent was from Nemuri, a quick, ‘Hey, we’re going out drinking this weekend. Don’t tell Shouta so we can kidnap him.’ The messages before were her typical check-ins and picture spams all designed to make him, if not at least feel better, than distract him from his thoughts.

The next messages were from Tensei, his typical nightly check-ins to make sure Hizashi wasn’t dead after a busy day. ‘Hey it’s 3-job day. Text me later so I know you lived. Oh, and Nemuri says we’re going out drinking this weekend. Bring All Might so I can threaten him into treating you two right.’ ‘I also need to make jokes before Nemuri can.’ ‘I at least show mercy and know when to quit.’

After that it was Tenya, a simple message that was dated for not long before the curfew of the dorms, ‘I hope you are resting well and doing better, Hizashi-nii-san. Please take care of yourself!’ Damn, the kid was so fucking sweet. Hizashi couldn’t wait until he graduated and dropped the stupid ‘Yamada-sensei’ bullshit he had been doing since he had been accepted into U.A..

The messages were shorter after that, but they were still all there. A picture from Shinsou that showed a cat high off catnip, a message from Shima that was just her being annoying as hell, a reminder from Ito to get his shit together and rest, and even a check-in from Suzuki that wavered between telling him he was going to die of stress in less than five years and giving him detailed updates on everything that was happening in the studio.

It was… They were all just… Hizashi didn’t know how to explain what he felt, but he knew he fucking loved every single person in his life who had his back.

“You know,” Toshinori spoke up, voice soft and sleepy, “You don’t have to deal with these kinds of days on your own.” He really, really didn’t. “I don’t know if it was different when you were younger, but you’re not on your own. You don’t have to deal with this yourself.” And Toshinori was… right.

This wasn’t back when he was a teenager who had just gotten into U.A. and was still frightened of anyone moving too fast or getting too close to him. This wasn’t back when his ‘bad days’ would end up with him screaming and crying to the point of seeing hallucinations, a teenage Shouta clutching onto him and keeping his quirk erased for hours at a time so he didn’t tear the whole block down.

“That so, huh?” Hizashi turned his head back towards Toshinori, looking up at him and feeling nothing but warm fuzziness filling him up from one end to the other. “Because you’re here?”

Toshinori barked a laugh at the tease, tugging Hizashi into a soft kiss before parting just enough to whisper a soft, “Because we are here.” As if in agreement, Shouta gave a loud snore, Hizashi burying his face to try and contain the wild burst of laughter that almost flew out of him. “Think you’ll be able to remember that sweetheart?”

“Trust me, Toshi, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting that anytime soon.” Because every single one of them had been there, in some way, to try and make his day better. It had been a bad day, and a hard one at that, but Hizashi had gotten through it just like he had all the ones before -- and all the ones he knew would come after.

Letting his eyes fall shut, Hizashi settled down in the warmth and quiet of the room, hearing nothing but his Toshinori’s soft breathing and Shouta’s sleepy mumbles and mutters; no whispers or words to be heard. It was just the three of them, home and safe and where they belonged.

It was exactly where Hizashi wanted to be.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #where i want to be #allerasermic #mha #my hero academia #original #my writing

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eva-writes · 4 years

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I was tagged by @danwritestuff (a million years ago and only now I actually got to finish this thing) so here it goes:

1. How did you begin writing? Technically I started when I was like seven or eight and was working on an illustrated story about a dog and a magical bone. Yup, true story. But I think I actually started to get into writing when I was in seventh grade and a teacher told us to write a short story as homework. I don’t even want to think back on what I wrote because it probably wasn’t good, but I will never forget that my teacher told me that she enjoyed my story and that I was good at writing. There’s literally nothing better than having someone believe in you. And I initially only wrote in Spanish but funnily enough after getting into roleplaying my brain kind of made a switch and it comes more naturally to me now to write in English.

2. What was your first writing project? Tell us a little about it. Again, the story of the dog and the magical bone. But the first serious project that I still hope might see the light of day when I stop planning and actually sit my ass down to write it is a fantasy trilogy. I started it in 2008 and needless to say my mind has changed a lot in a decade, so as a result that story has changed very much from my original idea. I think that’s why I haven’t really done much writing and I’m stuck in ‘development hell’, because the thing just keeps mutating and my ideas for that world and those characters keep growing and changing.

3. What is your preferred medium for writing first drafts? I’ve always used Microsoft Word.

4. What rituals or habits do you have around writing? I always have a cup of tea next to me. And I say stuff out loud too, especially when it’s dialogue. I also sort of act out certain stuff to find words that could describe that. Definitely not rituals, just weird habits I have.

5. We all have a “type”– of character, plot, theme– what is yours? Well, I always go for fantasy or scifi stuff because it’s easier for me to make up shit than do extensive research about things that are real (also it scares me that I migh portray something in an inaccurate way). So yay, I’m lazy like that. I tend to include reserved, quiet characters (even if not the protagonists, they’re there). I don’t know, I just have a deep appreciation for introverted people that are more of the observing/listening type than the talking type.

As for plots or themes, I like to dabble into the ‘self-discovery’ paths for the protagonists and the ‘change established structures’ in the world. As for important themes, family bonds are always there in one way or another (both biological families or ‘found’ families amongst the characters). Also I have this weird thing about names. In every story I have characters that are called a certain way by most but then they are given a different nickname or are revealed to have a different name by someone that is/becomes close to them. For some reason the way other people call each other has always had such a deep meaning for me.

6. Introduce us to one (or more!) of your OC’s. I have an army of OCs, I have no self-control when it comes to creating them... my latest one is a gentle giant of a man stuck on an island where people don’t age and those stranded there can’t escape (shoutout to Mira and Ally for @timelessrpg!). And this guy is mute and deaf because I’ve learned a bit ASL and I wanted to integrate that into a character, explore different ways to have him interact with those around him without having to rely on speaking.

7. What’s your favorite genre to read? Fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction and psychological thrillers. But I’d give a shot at every book that sparks my interest regarding of genre.

8. Your favorite genre to write? Fantasy and science fiction. I like creating my own playground rather than using our lovely little world.

9. How do you conduct your authorial research? Google searches to start off. Then once I get a general overview I start to look for more specific stuff in books, videos, etc. I use YouTube a lot. That thing is a treasure chest of information and it helps with ther ‘overview’ part so then I can do more digging about specific subjects.

10. What does your editing (gasp) process look like? I’m such a jerk to myself when I edit, so I guess that’s another reason why it’ll take a while for my stories to see the light of day. If you look up the word perfectionist in the dictionary you see my picture... But I’ve been trying not to be so hard on myself lately and instead of staying stuck on that endless cycle of writing and erasing, I’ve been allowing myself to just write on. I’ve also made a deal with my roomie: I have to pay her $15 pesos (little less than $1 usd) whenever I got back to edit a chapter I had already finished. I’ve only paid her once, but it’s a good incentive not to go back an edit stuff too much and just go ahead to write.

11. What are your favorite tropes? I have too many, especially with romantic/platonic relationships. Enemies to lovers, is definitely one. Also any sort of yin yang/light and dark representations in character dynamics, I’m such a sucker for those. Any kind of trope that involves characters not seeing it coming and then just knowing they’d do anything for the other person (not just necessarily in a romantic way, I love bonds like that with people who become siblings to each other). Any sort of trope that involves a ‘partners in crime’ or ‘ride or die’ dynamic, I’M SOLD.

12. Show off your writing space. It used to be a desk when I still lived at my mom’s place. It was in it’s usual state of controlled chaos, as I like to call it (because there’s stuff everywhere but I know exactly where everything is). Now my roomie and I share a desk, and most of the times I just end up writing in bed, using a folding bed tray as my desk.

13. What is the most useful piece of writing advice you’ve ever used? Sit down and write is one. And also something that I saw in Victoria Schwab’s instagram: “I’m not writing a book, I’m writing a chapter. I’m not writing a chapter, I’m writing a page. I’m not writing a page, I’m writing a line”. That helped me feel more confident. The work put into trying to write a book always felt so overwhelming and like something I would never really get done. But thinking that even a little bit counts has made it feel like a less impossible feat.

14. What is the least useful piece of writing advice you’ve ever ignored? That it’s wrong to repeat a character’s name or identifier (the queen, the thief, etc). I used to think it was wrong to it because ‘being repetitive means you’re a bad writer’ and you’d have me do mental gymnastics to figure out different ways to refer to my characters which, honestly, end up coming off as forced. So yeah, I’ve definitely begun to ignore that now.

Another one is that writing ‘said’ is wrong. I’d rather use ‘said’ a hundred times than throw in random shit like ‘ennunciated’ just to avoid using ‘said’.

15. Your writing beverage/snack of choice? Tea, always. Either black tea or rooibos with milk.

16. How do you compile your ideas? Quick notes on my phone when I don’t have a notebook at hand. Word documents. And notebooks. Lots of notebooks. I have a specific notebook for each story. Lately I started posting stuff on my wall. I have a summary of each chapter that I’ve already written in little pieces of paper, kind of like a timeline. Above each ‘chapter’ there’s a blue post-it note with the stuff that led to the events of that chapter, and below there’s a green post-it note with the plot points that chapter will set in motion. It’s kind of to keep in order all the information I’m dealing with. And then above the timeline I have even more pieces of paper with specific events that must happen eventually and I just keep moving them around to construct the rest of the story. It might sound weird and confusing, but I swear it helps. I’m a visual person and it’s very damn helpful to see those pieces of story and ideas have some order.

17. What are your controversial opinions ™ on the craft of writing? That being a best-seller means the book is good. I don’t know if it’s controversial or not, but I don’t think quantity equals quality. Also, LET STORIES END. I get it, sometimes as readers we love a group of characters so much or a world that we want more, but that doesn’t mean there should be more. I feel that a lot of prequels, spin-offs and extended series end up taking away from the original story/saga because they were clearly not in the author’s mind from the beginning. There are exceptions to this, I’m sure, but I just feel authors should know when enough is enough rather than try to milk their series for all they’re worth. And I might get shit for writing this, but I’m also against the idea that all characters have to be woke and politically correct 24/7. I believe characters should be allowed to be ignorant and say wrong things and make mistakes, because then they get to learn and grow and become better people, and yes, possibly get called out or educated throughout the story. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me having faith in people learning and growing, but I happen to like characters that start out not so great and begin to really become better human beings during the story.

Tagging: @azianxpersuasionwrites, @briannaswriter, @allywritestuff, @proserpinewrites, @theichthyostegawrites, @montaguew, @loeswrites, @eridawrites, @roshwrites, @rjwrites, @ashlaaaywrites, @trishywishy & @dude-im-batman

#*about me

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pokemagines · 5 years

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JAPAN TRIP 2k19 with Mod Elesa (1/?)

hey n’yall it’s mod elesa, lemme tell u bout my japan trip! u can find some of the photos of these events on my instagram @atel2er! i didn’t want to flood this post with pictures hehe ,,

GENERAL STUFF

went for school, study abroad trip to study visualization and simulation of “serious games” that businesses buy and use (but i dont feel like talking abt it since this is the FUN POST

may 10-26

the flight was 11 hours, p easy, i didn’t know anybody going into the trip because i didn’t go to any of the meetings HAHhaHEHA

whatever. everyone on the trip initially came off as if they had yellow fever and i was like ... i’m really not trying to interact with FETISHIZERS

turns out they were all really cool! only this one kid was a real weeaboo who was greasy and tall and a neckbeard who kept talking about being “culturally insensitive” and speaking japanese constantly to the teacher and the TA like ... ok patrick we get it you flex

i stayed in a hotel in shinjuku! everything is so small and i used the bidets for the first time and WOO chile that shit feels FUNKY on your asshole

i visited shinjuku major (kabukicho aka red light district, couple other places!), ikebukuro (THE MEGA POKEMON CENTER), mt fuji, fuji q highland, akihabara, hamamatsucho (area where tokyo tower is), HARAJUKU, and the emperor’s palace! i’m probably forgetting some places since we went to a lot of temples and shrines that were cool ...

the public transportation in japan is scarily on time.. like, by the second. they apologize if they’re one minute early and will wait until the scheduled time before they move omg

the subway stations have their own jingles! they kind of act as an alarm system because a lot of people sleep on the subway (which is why people generally don’t talk on it) and will recognize the jingle for their stop!

the crowded hours on the subway are noon and 6-8pm... like, its insane. it’s actually packed like sardines in there.

EVERYONE THERE IS SO SHORT.... i was taller than a lot of the grown men there (i’m 5′4″ or 162 cm for reference) and most people were around 5 feet tall... the only people taller than me were some kids around my age and this gaggle of japanese schoolgirls who were like 5′7+ and i was like. sis you’re 13, why are you that tall

pokemon is EXTREMELY prevalent in japan wherever you go. there’s pikachu stickers on taxis, pikachu is on ads on the subway and at the AIRPORT, pokemon go is widely played by a lot of people and so many of the people in my group played it so i got conned into playing again. i leveled up 5 times within 3 days and honestly? i’m god

anime is very normal there... i know that sounds all “weeby” but a lot of normal shops had animated mascots and there were ads for anime all over the place.

literally gacha machines everywhere i spent a lot of coins on gacha machines plz kill me

the homies in japan loooove crepes. they sold so many crepes. everywhere. just crepes. also spaghetti carbonara! and corndogs HAHAHA

the food there is so cheap but SOOO GOOD. sushi isn’t all that expensive at all?? like a set of 16 pieces is 1080Y... meanwhile that cost in america is like. $6000 HAHAHAHAH.

very humid? at all times? also the RAIN is debilitating if u make one wrong step you will slip and die (like i did! i stepped on a tile and fucking fell into a puddle! i have bruises still!)

SHINJUKU (detective pikachu day, may 10)

i went to go see detective pikachu on its release day in shinjuku! before that, i went to a couple sega buildings--

the sega buildings are 4 story buildings FILLED with claw machines holding stuffed animals, figurines, candy, all kinds of stuff. when i went, there was a lot of detective pikachu-related stuff. i saw this detective pikachu hat in one of the machines and spent 1000Y (about $10) or 10 attempts at the claw machine ... i still can’t believe i got it ... nobody was there to see it besides me and i YELLED when it dropped

i wore the hat that entire day around shinjuku because i honestly felt like god. people would point at me and go like “ah! meitantei pikachu!” and smile at me. i was a celebrity. i wore the hat into the movie theatre, i wore it through the entire movie, and when i was walking out, someone tapped on my shoulder and asked for my picture. she was all nervous about her english and was like “i love your hat. may i take a picture?” and i was like omG YES U CAN... sweet bab... so that’s the first photo of me that ended up on some random person’s phone

we waited around for the mass of people to exit the theatre and then left, and we ran into her again! she asked me more questions about the hat: “did you make it?” “no, i got it in a claw machine in the sega building.” she looked dumbfounded. “in shinjuku?” “yes.” “in the sega building? over there?” “yeees.” “in a claw machine?!” “yes!” “ah! i thought you made it! it’s so cute! i’m going to get one for myself.” “lol ok have fun”

i learned that its customary to stay until the very end of the credits before leaving a movie out of respect for the people who made it! meanwhile in america we walk out when the credits roll FHDSKFJS OOPIES

SHINJUKU (visit #2)

we went in the night time to go see the red light district aka kabuki-cho because thats where a lot of the bars are

i don’t drink so i didn’t join the people who went to the bars to get CRUNK, so i dragged two other guys with me and we walked around the red light district

I SAW SO MANY HOST CLUBS. so many maid cafes. so many bars. i saw a love hotel too... i was like... i wanna go inside... Blease... and my friends were like “you’re so weird KHEDJFSk” and im like “I WAS GOOGLING THESE IN CLASS TODAY, I DIDN’T THINK THEY WERE REAL”

my friend sean (he’s from taipei, cool guy, could read a lot of the kanji so we used him to navigate the subway HAHA) was walking with me that night and we saw this hole in the wall that had stairs going down to a peep show ... homegirl had her whole ass out on the sign... tiddies covered with caution tape ... i said MAAM?

one of the signs in kabuki-cho had a woman doing straight up ahegao with (what i’m pretty sure was) nut on her face. it was a small sign and i was the only one who saw it. i lost my shit. it was the funniest thing ever

kabuki-cho is really really dirty... like people straight up litter all the time bc there’s no trashcans around? so people throw their shit on the ground? and everyone steps on it... very seedy area, very gross, but i was absolutely enthralled with the nightlife and the blatant sexual vibes half the places had!

some dude stopped me and started speaking english saying “do you like karaoke? you should come drink with me for two hours, it’s a great price if you drink a lot” and i was like “no... i have to go home” and he’s like “come onnnn it’s a good price” and i was like. i’m not very assertive with men so i started panicking and my friend sean (A GOD AMONG MEN) started speaking chinese to him and he backed off ... i love you sean you’re so fucking COOL

IKEBUKURO (pokemon mega center)

so there’s this huge mall. i forgot the name, but it’s got like a lot of floors and they’re MASSIVE

on the 2rd floor is the MEGA POKEMON CENTER!!! i was so HYPED to go in there!!! it was teeming with people but there was just... so much stuff. all kinds of merch. they had plushies of the original 151, a shitton of really cool tshirts, a whole block for detective pikachu-themed merch (pins, socks, canvas bags, shirts, patches, hats, etc), and sooo much more. there’s a giant charizard statue when you walk in, as well as a statue of a pokestop HAHA. i was so excited and i wanted to buy so many things when i was in there bc they had stuff for all the legendaries (LATIOS AND LATIAS STUFF WERE THERE I WAS SO HAPPY)!!! literally anything you can think of, they had in some kind of pokemon print. including underwear. yeah i said it. here’s a really good article that showcases some of the stuff they sold there!

for reference, 100 yen is about 1 usd. a lot of things there were 480 yen ($4.80) or 3000Y ($30) and it was just... beautiful.

when i was there, yen didn’t feel like it had monetary value since it’s not the currency i’m used to, so i sPENT WAY TOO MUCH AHFJKDFD

they had themed cash registers with each of the starters... i cried :’)

i actually went there a second time but it was packed for a different reason. some idol group was performing on the ground floor and a shitton of girls were screaming fanchants while their jpop boys danced LOLLL. now i know how people see kpop stans ...

AKIHABARA (i went like 8 times)

this is what i like to call my birthplace

we went to the maid cafe. of course we fucking did. i got a dreamland passport and some cat ears. THE MAIDS ALL LOVED HATSUNE MIKU

SPEAKING OF HATSUNE MIKU AKA MY GODDESS, she was pretty popular in akihabara! she was also on some posters in the subway stations (across tokyo, not just in akihabara) and was apparently having some magical mirai concert???

there’s this giant tower called radio kaikan thats right outside the akihabara station that’s filled with all sorts of anime shit. i spent so much money in there. Good God. there was a furret plush for 5400Y and i was so STINGY that day i shouldve BOUGHT IT.... it was a longboi and i was like... sis!!!!

remember how i said my brain didn’t register that yen had monetary value? yeah i spent hundreds of dollars here no cap ...

i went to a kaguya-sama cafe as well on another day bc my friend joe (one of the figureine-collecting weebs) wanted to go and get a chika coaster

i went into a three floor sex shop and gave no fucks, the bottom floor was filled with bdsm shit and LEATHER SCHOOLGIRL OUTFITS and it was WILD. and these two old men were just casually browsing this shit like we weren’t both looking at whips and buttplugs in Public you know

i wasn’t fazed by a lot of the stuff there bc i read Funky fanfiction but the people i went in there with were major uncomfy ... i was like PRUDES HAJKFDAHDS i almost bought something don’t tell anybody

OKAY SO. there’s this place called super potato that has a floor dedicated to old games and consoles. they had so many gameboy advances and gamecubes and old consoles (famicom, dreamcast etc) for CHEAP. they had a gameboy color for 4900Y and a gamecube for 5600Y. a bitch almost cried. they had every old pokemon game under the sun (the original red, blue, yellow, gold and silver) and i ,,, they were 480Y. they were 480Y. that’s five fucking dollars. do you know how much collectors pay for that shit on ebay? HUNDREDS. i could’ve mass bought those and sold them and made so much cash but I DIDN’T.

that store had an original unopened copy of super smash bros melee and pokemon colosseum and i was like... wait if i cop a gamecube i could play pokemon collosseum like a true g... ((i didn’t cop))

but anyways there were a lot of games that didn’t make it to america (including mother 3! which my friend connor bought! as well as the console to play it!) and just... so many old things i grew up with ...

whenever i walked out of the super potato we’d end up in an alley where all the girls who work at cafes were advertising their stuff

i always took the flyers from the girls bc they spoke their cute english to me and i was like... i’d die for you, yknow that?

ALL KINDS OF CAFES. regular maid cafe, pirate cafe, ninja cafe (you could do that thing where you karate chop a wooden block in half), sailor cafe (as in actual ship captains), shrine maiden cafe, vampire cafe, prince cafe (for the ladies ;3), catgirl cafe, bunny girl cafe... i took all of the goddamn flYERS THEY WERE ALL SO CUTE :( i wanted to go so bad...

FUJI Q HIGHLAND (also known as the time i flipped my shit and went on rollercoasters)

when i found out about fuji-q, i told my group that we HAD to go. i didn’t want to go to an onsen. i wanted to go to fuji-q. i had to. i love rollercoasters, it’s my passion, my driving fORCE IN LIFE

so fuji-q is home to 4 record-breaking rollercoasters! u got fast boi aka jojo reference do-dodonpa; EXTREME TALL BOI fujiyama; superior to x2 at six flags eejanaika; and the steepest rollercoaster in the world TAKABISHA ... i got to ride fujiyama, eejanaika, and takabisha! the scariest one was probably fujiyama despite it being very cut and dry up for... ever ... 79 meters ... oh god ... i lost my shit on the way down ladies let me TELL YOU

FUJIYAMA ALSO HAS A VIEW OF MT FUJI AND I WAS LIK E”YO GUYS ITS MT FUJI” and then we went down and i screamed

please watch the pov videos for these rides they’re very good but they don’t convey the absurd amount of excitement i had going on these rides

anyways the fuji-q park was having a sword art online collaboration when i visited, so they played SAO music and had cardboard cutouts for them across the park... kirito’s ride was fujiyama (aka the king of them all). i forgot the other ones but those alicization kiddos were there but ion care about ALICE OR EUGEO

the first ride i went on was eejanaika which is a 4d rollercoaster, pretty epic, total Baby Ride though

i went on as a single rider so i ended up getting put in this group with these college kids! the guy i was sitting next to spoke to me in english and asked basic questions: “where are you from?”, “is this [ride] easy for you?”, “how old are you?”, basic stuff. he asked why i was in japan and i told him i was studying at waseda university, and he immediately perked up and went “I GO TO WASEDA!!! WASEDA YEAH!!!” and fist bumped me ... his friends were giggling and kept asking him to ask me questions and it was just. so wholesome.

when we were abt to get on the ride he looks at me and says “my name is soichiro. call me so-chan ok??” and i was like... “so-chan” and his friENDS ALL STARTED GIGGLIGN AND I WAS LIKE U///W///U

while we were going up on the ride, he kept yelling “JESUS FUCK YOU JESUS CHRIST” and my favorite: “JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK YOU” because apparently fuck cannot be standalone! “what the fuck you” is my new fave insult (i miss you so-chan)

afterwards he kept coughing and was like. dead. his soul left his body. so i asked in him japanese like,,, “daijobu ka?” and he was like “nai.” and i just laughed at him bc BA B Y SO-CHAN CANT HANDLE SOME SPINS

i bought a corndog at fuji-q at this place called arirang hotdog which is a korean style hotdog place??? BRUH that shit is so good but i shat myself for a good minute afterwards ... damn i want those corndogs

sadly i did not get to go on do-dodonpa because nobody wanted to ride with me and i didn’t want to go by myself >:/// still mad abt that bc that was the FAST BOI ...

also. takabisha. the guiness world record with the 121 degree drop. not even scary. BUT they do hang you there for like 3 seconds before making you go down and i was like “YALL FUCKIN WITH ME” really loud when they hung us there ... PLS watch a pov video you’ll see what i mean ...

HARAJUKU (i totally forgot abt this place OH lord)

i bought ... clothes here ...

they have all those clothes with the random english words on them so OF COURSE i had to buy one AS WELL AS a hat to match!

i also bought one of those ear hats where u press the paws and the ears move ... bts inspired that one

so many people in harajuku absolutely DECKED OUT in fashion. what a bunch of legends.

apparently wearing shirts that say “babygirl” are popular here i have no clue why ,,,, also im pretty sure i remember seeing a shirt that said “call me daddy” and i’m like. Ok Japan

half the shit in english made ZERO SENSE or was SPELLED WRONG and that was common all across japan, not just on harajuku fashion pieces LMAOOOO

deadass i went to a couple businesses (fuji xerox, nissan factory, etc) and they had spelling errors all over the place... nissan really had a placard that said “Prease do not touch” AND I CACKLED hfDSKLJF ilove u nissan

#mod elesa goes to japan #mod elesa speaks #not an imagine #long post #elesa in japan 2k19

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Getting rid of employees can be costly.

Well, I had sort of forgotten about this but was reminded by an old colleague last week. It involved me (ME), Old Senior Vice President (OldSVP), new Senior Vice President (NewSVP) and a ton of HR people.

I was working at a tech company about 8 years ago. At the time, I had put in about 6 years of service and was pretty happy with it. The company was (and still is) pretty leading in it's field, but not terribly large - under 2000 employees. It was one of these places often seen as a great place to work, good work/life balance etc. I had held a few technical roles but when this story happened, I was heading up a project management group. Pretty tightly knit team, 5-6 guys, all very nice and capable. Most of them I had employed myself or was instrumental in hiring. The company had a pretty big project upcoming, and I was horizontally promoted to assistant VP, basically being the right hand guy for the OldSVP. (We had like 6 SVP's in the company, so that was sort of a big job, only second to the CEO).

I was running the big project, working closely with the OldSVP whom I had known for several years and we worked together great. I was making pretty good money at the time - around 120k/year which for that position was very good. The big project completed, and I was given some bonuses and career recognition, which was nice, but not really a big deal for me. Then it happened - one of the SVP's who had been working in the states as a lead regional director was moving back home and needed a new position. The OldSVP was degraded (various reasons, but he was originally hired by another CEO, so it was the usual corporate BS political stuff).

OldSVP was pretty upset and quit after a few months. No worries. Now, as my big project had completed, I had been gone from my department for 12 months - half way through I was asked if I wanted to continue in that capacity when I was ready, or if I wanted to be "degraded" to being a regular PM, but with same pay/contract. I preferred working as a PM, and put up one of my colleagues as department head. He was a nice guy, 15 years older than me, not a great PM, but a good people person and manager - and had run a similar department prior to working with us. He was super happy to get the job and everything was good.

Now, NewSVP who had been working abroad for 5-6 years returned and took over the reigns. I had met him several times, and liked his no BS management style, so I expected us to hit it off. For various reasons, I quickly discovered that he was on a major power trip. The sort of guy who is super nice and flexible when around the other SVP's and CEO but as soon as you had him alone in a room he was bloody nuts. He had unreasonable demands in every way possible. Unrealistic targets, management by fear and so forth. A full blown psycho. I, and several colleagues were shocked. But we were making good money, and most people directly in contact with him, were 5-10 years in the company and had broad respect in the management level - so we just did our best and tried to avoid his wrath.

As I had been involved in most large projects and been doing a lot of PA stuff for the OldSVP, I quickly ended up working a lot with NewSVP. In the beginning it was okay, but he became more and more enraged with minor problems and issues, and quickly started firing people left and right. One of our group managers was fired by email on the day after christmas - with over 90 staff on CC, because NewSVP didn't know how to use outlook. It was crazy.

HR department was bewildered and had weekly meeting (shouting meetings) with newSVP. Well, after a while he cooled towards me and sent me back in my old department (under my old employee/group lead) which was fine. A few of the PM's got stressed out and one quit, so we were very busy. I ended up running way too many projects. One of our last big clashes was his unreasonable requirements for me to fly to far away places (10-15 hour flights) to attend simple meeting we'd usually handle over the phone. After 3 weeks of travelling, he demanded me doing another 2 weeks on another continent, and I refused. His rage grew even bigger when he found out I was on a old contract - old contract guys flew business class or first. So I was racking up tens of thousands of dollars on airfare and hotels, while other PM's had to fly cattle class. NewSVP had no idea, and his power play had backfired. He was pissed.

Now while this was happening, my wife was expecting our second child, now, In my country this is a pretty big deal, as parents can take 12 months (by law) leave - and the company pays the first 3 months - and the state pays you like 50% of full salary the last 9 months. Usually dad takes like a month, and mom takes 11. That was "common" back then. However, my wife was not working, so I could theoretically take 12 months - but had requested just 3 months, at the time. I sent the request to my team manager. Now, NewSVP had an alliance with another department head and they began creating static as to my performance. Honestly, I was doing everything right, but not walking the extra mile -as our relationship was so poor now. I was just "sticking to the rules". In all regards, reporting, timesheets, vacation time etc etc.

This alliance to undermine me, of course worked and my team manager called me to a meeting and complained about all of these "complaints" put towards me. They were of course all from newSVP and this one other manager (his friend). However these complaints were never filed in writing and I was never given any formal warnings.

Just a few weeks before my wife is to give birth, it dawns on newSVP that I'm going on leave for 3 months. He is raving mad a bout this, as it will mess up some of the projects i'm running. (I was running at 120% capacity already). I had given notice to this like 6 months earlier but for some reason it had escaped his attention. I had done everything right with HR and team lead. He was pissed. We had a meeting where he basically said he did not want me to come back. But didn't fire me. (Firing someone during leave, is like the biggest no-no in employer law in our country. The fines are huge and the courts always side with employees on this stuff).

So here comes the pro-revenge. Just prior to starting leave, I file a request with HR to extend the leave to 12 months instead of three. I made the cutoff by like 5 days. They emailed me back (none the wiser to the bigger picture). I go on leave. During the first month, I get a million emails and calls about all sorts of extra things I was handling (outside my actual job description) and I helped colleagues and generally ignored managers. They had no right to contact me, but I was nice about it. 2 months in, i'm called to a meeting with HR. I go to the meeting. NewSVP is in his office, sees me come in, looks self-content and I go to meet the very new and naive HR girl. HR girl opens up at me - NewSVP has this huge list of stuff I had supposedly done wrong - as soon as my leave ends they want me gone. Leave ends in 1 month, so they will give me 3 months severance- fuck me. I laugh. I don't tear into her, I just politely make a few points - leave is ending in 10 months - not one - as per my request (I had the emails printed out etc). I'm on old contract so severance is 6 months, i'm on the old stock programme, so I get bonuses etc. She freezes. Then freaks out - "YOU HAVE 12 MONTHS LEAVE AND NEWSVP SENT ME TO FIRE YOU 2 MONTHS IN????!" She knows they are toast. I'm like, yeah, so see you in court. She scurries away, gets the HR SVP, whom I by chance know quite well, and she says - lets do a new meeting. We'll get back to you.

Then I begin the scheduling game. They have no technical right to contact while i'm on leave - so I drag meeting planning out for months. Oh, i'm sick, yes, I have time 2 months from now, bla bla. **The trick is, NewSVP can't hire someone new, until i'm off the books. Company policy.**

And hiring someone for my job, while i'm on leave, is the SECOND biggest no no in my countrys employer laws. Eventually HR director calls me up and is like "ok, what do you want". Well, I ended up with 12 months full pay, fully vested stock options, full company bonus, full department performance bonus, free phone and internet for a year, two free laptops, a free phone and full insurance etc for a year. Altogether more than 150k usd. And I was free to work again while they were paying my 1 year salary. I took the jump and opened my own consulting company, and i'm happier than ever.

After this mess, colleagues were shocked at what had happened, so I took it upon myself to help one of my headhunter friends poach their key employees. After 3 months NEWSVP was moved to a smaller position and after a year, fired. His career never recovered and he is now doing halfassed management consulting from his home office, making less in a year than I do in a month. Not bad. Oh, twice He applied to jobs in companies I was working at as a freelancer. I can't say I was instrumental in him not getting those jobs.....

(source) (story by qwerty_2100)

#prorevenge #by qwerty_2100 #pro revenge #pro revenge stories #revenge stories #pro #revenge #revenge story #last10

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parniarazi · 4 years

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Tulum is a magical place where the jungle, sea, and ancient spirits all come together in one place. Being my first international travel destination independently, and being Pavel and I’s first international trip together, it was even more special (even though being in Texas we have the advantage of being a very short flight away). We saved, planned, and booked this trip right before school started for us in August, so we would have something to look forward to throughout the semester and after we finished our finals. Tulum has become increasingly popular in the last several years, as traditional tourist spots like Cancun and Playa del Carmen have become dated and worn out, while Tulum offers a more authentic and fresh experience.

It’s tempting to get an inclusive-retreat style hotel when traveling to these parts of Mexico, especially as people are often (overly) concerned about safety in Mexico and want to stretch their hard-earned vacation money. I initially considered this too, but quickly learned that Tulum offers a lot less large resorts and hotels (at least for now) and is all about small, boutique-style hotels. Plus, getting to visit other hotels, restaurants, and just wandering in Tulum is an essential part of fully experiencing all this amazing place has to offer.

We stayed at Coco Limited Tulum for 5 days, which was the perfect amount of time in my opinion. Even weathering a day and a half of clouds/rain, we still had enough time to rearrange our plans for the weather and just what we were feeling that day without stressing about not having enough time to do everything we wanted. For anyone planning a trip to Tulum, I would definitely suggest a full week though, especially if you want to venture out to more remote spots. Here are some of the spots we visited that are essential to check out and a little bit about our experiences at each place.

☽ Cenotes at Casa Tortuga — I was initially planning to visit one of the open cenotes here because I was scared of swimming in the caves and covered cenotes. When we went to the front desk of our hotel for a taxi there they had a deal with Casa Tortuga and we were able to buy our tickets there to visit all 4 cenotes. It turned out to be incredible even though I was really terrified at first to go into the caves, we had a guide and were with a group so that really helped ease me into it and also made the entry price well worth it. It ended up being so beautiful and so much fun to experience this place as our first cenote visit!

☽ Archeological Zone of Tulum (Mayan Port City Ruins) — absolutely beautiful and within biking distance to most hotels on the Playa strip! It was a really cool place to experience history, walks in the jungle, gorgeous views of the water, and even some wildlife all in one place. Definitely take a bike ride here or just to the Pueblo, biking is also essential in Tulum and most hotels will have them to rent. Also, TONS of tourists from cruises and other areas visit here daily, so arriving early before the crowds will save you lots of time and make it less crowded for photos. We arrived around 10 am and there was no line for tickets/entry, but by the time we left around noon, there was a massive line waiting to get in.

☽ Tulum Pueblo — way cheaper to get souvenirs/hand-made goods here than you’ll find around the Playa area and some great cheap/local food too! We rode bikes here after visiting the Mayan ruins, and it was really close with a lot to see along the ride there. If there was one thing I would recommend doing while visiting the city is to go to a supermarket and buy a small cooler, ice, and drinks/snacks to just keep in your room. It’ll save you a lot on overpriced drinks along the beach, we got a 6-pack of Coronas (which I totally fell in love with while there) for about $1 USD while along the beach they would be at least $4-5 for one!

☽ Ahau & Raw Love Tulum — Ahau is a hotel and restaurant and within their property is one of the most loved and photographed sculptures and raw vegan spots in Tulum. The massive Raw Love statue was donated to Tulum by South African artist Daniel Popper and represents 𝙂𝙖𝙞𝙖, mother earth, opening her heart and giving loving energy for all of us. She loves and gives to us unconditionally. She keeps us alive. She gives us food, air, water, love, and so much more. To me, this perfectly captures the spirit of Tulum. Sadly, she was closed off for maintenance while we were there so we didn’t get good photos, but still seeing this amazing sculpture in real life was very cool. Just checking out this property and coming here twice during our stay for food was great. It’s a perfect spot for a light and refreshing lunch with a view of the beach. They also offer yoga and other holistic healing classes that I would have loved to join if we had more time there.

☽ Cenote Nitcte-ha — a little farther of a drive from the Playa strip, this cenote is among the most beautiful and well-known in Tulum for its open clear waters and vibrant lily pads and well worth a visit. I was so excited to swim here and take photos, but I overlooked one small thing. This cenote has a lot of little fish and I am absolutely terrified of fish (yes, even the tiny ones). Maybe an odd fear for someone who loves being in the water, it actually really freaked me out and took me a while to get in the water without hyperventilating. The water was so cold and felt amazing, and it was worth the cortisol pumping through my body to experience this place!

☽ Resturants for dinner — among the best-rated in Tulum and worth visiting in our experience are Taboo, Ziggy’s, Mur Mur, Cenzotle, and Casa Jaguar. Keep in mind, a lot of these places are expensive with prices comparable to higher-end restaurants in the states. Don’t expect Mexico prices at restaurants along the Playa, but honestly, the quality and unique flavors of the food are incredible and like nothing I’ve had before. It’s worth the extra money to splurge on some of the amazing meals these places have to offer. I wish we had more time to try more of the restaurants and bars in the area though because they’re all amazing and delicious, you really can’t go wrong.

☽ Swim and walk along the beach — simple, and of course what most people come to do, but I seriously cannot emphasize how healing and amazing it feels to have your toes in the sand and let the waves of Carribean sea wash over you. Saltwater has incredible healing properties, and on the days where the water was calmer, it was so much fun to swim in the crystal-clear waters. Not to mention you feel so relaxed and sleep like a baby after playing in the waves and sand all afternoon.

Tulum is seriously an incredible, magical, and special place. The way the sunshine lights up the green leaves of the jungle, the smell of burning Copal, and the sound of the waves are something I won’t forget and would totally go back for. Well worth visiting, the only thing I would do differently is to spend more time researching the ethical practices of the places stay and dine at. After our trip, I was curious and did some YouTube learning on the history of Tulum. Of course, tourism always comes with an environmental cost, but I learned why this issue is especially critical for Tulum. I also learned about some of the beliefs and values of the indigenous Mayan people, and I think it makes travel much more valuable when you actively care about and learn about the culture, the environment, and the history of places you visit.

Speaking of this, some of the most striking memories I have of Tulum go beyond the beautiful views and tasty food. At one of the shops at the end of the Playa strip near the city, we bought a dream-catcher and some other little souvenirs and when we went to pay, the man pointed to the back where there was a little table with two women were cooking food on hot plates. “They hand make these,” he said as he pointed to the women who kindly smiled at us. As a tourist, the least you can do is spend your money at local places so women like them can feed their families. The culture of this region in Mexico is one of kindness and trust. Vastly different than in America, when we took taxi rides to the cenotes, both times our drivers offered to take us round trip and waited for us while we visited the cenotes. They wouldn’t even let us pay for the ride there but would leave and come back or simply wait for us, trusting us to find them for our ride back. Even offering to keep our bags in the car so we didn’t have to rent lockers, the local people you’ll encounter in Tulum are just incredibly trusting and kind. Many of them would give us tips and talk about their favorite cenotes, and I was in love with the open, kind culture of the people here. My conversational Spanish really picked up while I was there, and I was inspired to finally take my Spanish skills a step further after years of being exposed to Spanish to be fluent by the end of 2020.

The experiences, memories, connections, and inspiration that comes with traveling like this is truly invaluable. Taking this trip was one of the best things I did this year and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to do so. I can’t wait to keep traveling, checking off places on my list, and being inspired by the places and people I encounter.

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burnouts3s3 · 5 years

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Kill la Kill IF, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Arc System Works Developer: A+ Games Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 49.94 USD (I got a pre-order discount) Number of Playable Characters: 8; Satsuki, Ryuko, Nui, Houka, Ira, Uzu, Nonon and Ragyo (Satsuki and Ryuko have 2 variations). Number of Stages: 6 Rated: M for Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes and Violence Nudity: Lots and lots of cleavage and side boob. Characters usually dressed down to bikinis and thongs when disrobed. No visible female nipples. Can I play offline: Yes How long I played: 4 Hours. 2 hours to complete Satsuki's perspective on Story mode and 2 to complete Ryuko's. Microtransactions: None so far. What I played on: My Nintendo Switch. Performance Issues: When the Switch is docked, the performance 'mostly' runs smoothly, albiet shows the soft textures up front. When in handheld mode, the framerate sinks like a rock and becomes stitled. One instance of the game pausing for one moment before resuming. Lenghty loading screens whether docked or on handheld mode. And of course, no anime game is complete without its most famous feature, missynced lip flaps. Dual Audio: Yes. Both English and Japanese voices are available. English Cast: Erica Mendez as Ryuuko Matoi, Carrie Keranen as Satsuki Kiryuuin, Matthew Mercer as Aikuro Mikisugi, Patrick Seitz as Ira Gamagori, Stephanie Sheh as Nui Harime, Christine Marie Cabanos as Mako Mankanshoku, Kaiji Tang as Tsumugu Kinagase, Grant George as Uzu Sanageyama, Romi Pak as Ragyo Kiryuuin, David Vincent as Senketsu, Sarah Anne Williams as Nonon Jakuzure, Steve Staley as Hoka Inumata and Todd Haberkorn as Shiro Iori My Personal Biases: I recently watched Kill la Kill and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought it was a good show. My Verdict: Even fans aren't going to be satisfied with this package. With an anemic roster, few stages and a battle system where you fight the camera more than you fight your opponent, Kill la Kill: IF is wasted potential. Even the amusing cutscenes can't save this piece of junk. Wait for a sale. Kill la Kill IF, a review

It's strange that after 5 years of one of the most beautifully animated action shows that we finally now get a release of Kill la Kill IF. Based on the popular anime, will the game do its original source material justice? Let's find out in this review! For those of you who aren't familiar, Honnouji Academy is a fictional high school situated in Tokyo Bay, Japan on the island of Honnō City. The school is dominated by its fearsome student council led by their president Satsuki Kiryuin. Its students wear Goku Uniforms, which give their wearers superhuman abilities because they are constructed with a special material known as Life Fibers. Vagrant transfer student Ryuko Matoi, who wields a scissor-shaped longsword that can cut Goku Uniforms, challenges the council as she searches for her father's killer. Although she is initially easily defeated by Takaharu Fukuroda, she finds a sentient sailor uniform that she names Senketsu, a Kamui which is completely made of Life Fibers and transforms her so that she can face Kiryuin and her trials and obstacles. Kill la Kill IF is a filler story set in the anime's canon storyline. Gone are the various side characters and multiple developments throughout the story and instead speeds through to the main battles and opponents. Set as an arena fighting game, players control one of the characters found in the show and use their unique abilities to whittle the enemy's lifebar to zero. Each character is given access to a melee attack, a ranged attack and a grab which breaks the opponent's guard. Overtime, a player's SP bar builds up. 2 out of the 4 bars can be used for a special attack or to unleash bloody valor, a rock paper scissors mechanic to gain boosts such as attack or health. Losing the battle results in damage while winning continuously allows you to unleash a final ultimate attack. The issues become evident right from the start. Despite Studio Trigger, the animator of the series, supervising, the game's engine just cannot live up to the 2D anime that told the original story so well. While the art direction certainly lives up to the original with its use of contrasting colors and unique aesthetic, the actual animation itself remains stilted and choppy, even on the best of machines. While the animators are able to work around this (Mako's scenes continue to be the highlight of the franchise), you can't help but feel the 3D counterpart is struggling to match up what Trigger mastered in 2D animation. You better get used to the visuals. In order to unlock any of the other modes, you'll have to play the MANDATORY story and watch the stilted cutscenes (which you can skip, Thank God). Because who wouldn't want a story mode that has cutscenes that are longer than the actual gameplay? After all, it isn't like someone won't upload those cutscenes up to Youtube and you can watch them for free... Wait... And that's not even mentioning the numerous loading screens that come between every other cutscene and before the gameplay starts. I don't know if the loading screens are shorter on more powerful consoles and PCs, but they were certainly a slog on the Nintendo Switch. So, if you're in the market for a game with little gameplay, lengthy cutscenes and lots and lots of loading screens, have I got a game for you. Most matches are set between an individual opponent and involve whittling down the foe's health bar to claim victory. However, certain modes allow multiple opponents to face off against each other, either in battle royale or with pairing into teams. Half the time, the game plays like a Musou or Open world beat em up where in the player character must defeat multiple enemies on screen. Sometimes it's rogue Covers, sentient uniforms and other times its Nui clones. With no camera control and no ability to lock on to individual opponents, you'll often miss your intended target and end up hitting a new enemy instead. Story mode, even on its easiest difficulty, opts to pad out the game by giving certain enemies so much health, it takes forever to shrink it down to zero. Forget the sword sponges throughout the game; half the time the camera can't keep up and my poor player character is out of frame because of all the enemies are upfront while said PC is all the way in the back. In addition to the story, there's also Online matchmaking, survival challenge in which you play AI opponents in a row and Covers Challenge, in which the game becomes a full Musou and you must defeat all foes in the arena. All the original voice actors from the anime's dub cast have returned. Erica Mendez as Ryuuko Matoi and Carrie Keranen as Satsuki Kiryuuin give the same respect to the source material as did the Japanese Seiyuu and it's always fun to hear Patrick Seitz, Grant George, Stephanie Sheh, Todd Haberkorn, Matt Mercer and Steve Staley again. If you dislike the voices, the game comes with Dual Audio and you can switch to the original Japanese. CAVEAT: What a waste! How did such a great property get saddled with such a lousy adaptation? Kill la Kill (the anime) still holds up as a show even 5 years after its release. It's too bad all that potential is made into a cashgrab of a game. With its limited roster, wonky camera, and lack of stages, even diehard Kill la Kill fans should wait for a sale while watching the cutscenes on Youtube. It's too bad. For just a brief moment, I did see the makings of a good game. The only reason this anime adaptation doesn't take home the award of "Most squandered potential of an anime property" is because Jump Force came out earlier this year. Verdict: Rental or wait for a sale. Or just watch the anime again.

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furbyq · 5 years

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oh my god it’s a bad idea someone has probably already done before with terrible results. but that’s my sim secret, i’m always terrible, so here we go.

when i posted that thing the other day, or last week or whenever, this is the post i wanted to make. i had written most of it and saved it in my drafts, but i thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea. thinking about it today, i’ve realized i don’t really care. i may still delete this post or hide it later, so get your looks in now.

there’s basically 4 hate secret archetypes:

you’re shit

your cc is shit

your sims are shit

and my favorite,

you did this thing unrelated to sims, don’t do that, it’s shit

some people who receive these secrets don’t deserve them. i can’t say whether or not i did, since i am biased, as i am me. but there are a lot of people i’ve seen get picked at who really don’t deserve it and cannot take that kind of rejection from the community. everyone who has ever gotten a hate secret that they felt was unfounded needs to remember: you don’t just have to take shit your entire life from people who treat you like trash. you can also rare back like a horse and hoof them in the face.

so what i’m going to do in this post is go back through all the secrets i have saved that were directed towards me and critique them on how founded they were. and perhaps how nice they looked.

at the same time, i’m going to tell you exactly what i felt about them when i first saw them and exactly what i feel now. and i may not be very nice. in fact, after having written the rest of this post, i wasn’t nice at all.

chances are, the people who made the secrets did the right thing and stopped following me or looking at my blog a long time ago. and that’s a very healthy thing to do, i’m proud of them. however, possibly, the people who submitted these secrets might be people i know and have talked to, or still talk to. the problem with simsecret is, you never fucking know. maybe i submitted one of these and don’t remember. that’s right, i was me all along.

now, first of all, i must commend this person on making an aesthetically pleasing secret. i mean, the part that they added actually matches my old blog theme a little bit. however, i have to dock points for lack of consistency in that second pooklet. i’m not going to give grammar too terribly hard of a time, because i’m not going to complain about people who may not be native english speakers. i have no way of knowing. but consistency? you get an 8/10.

let me explain you a thing. when a lot of people start posting in any community, it’s easy to be nervous about people critiquing your personal choices. for me, this was a big stumbling block. i emulated pooklet and azaya because their games looked good. they were two people in this community that fanned the flames of my love for ts2 into a fire that will burn for centuries.

this was also when pooklet had just released their lovely templates, which i still use, and they are likely to be the only templates i use until the day that i make my own. milkshape consistency is important to me and diverse facial features are important to me (keep in mind, this was before custom sliders). i would like to think that i evolved as someone who can make sims that look distinctly like my own, despite being based on someone else's templates, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

nothing is ever going to please everybody. i could release a lovingly crafted piece of cc every day for the rest of my life and someone would complain about me clogging up their dash instead of unfollowing me. but to someone who is new in the community, criticism like this is much more harsh than you may intend it to be and may have an amplified effect. derivation is common in the start of new hobbies, even you probably derived at some point.

the second secret that was specifically aimed towards me is so low effort, i would give it a 3/10. or a 6 out of 9, you somehow fucked it from both ends by making this shit off-center.

first, if you have a similar opinion, you may need to learn the fact that i may prefer to view different things with my eyeballs than you do. since i only have my eyeballs, and not yours, i tend to pick colors i like.

you may think to yourself, “well, why did you make that top area of shirt a different color to the bottom area of shirt??”, and i will tell you, they are not both shirt. the top part is a jacket overlay or some shit. it was a different color on yuxi’s original as well. as for the color choice, i just liked them. especially the middle one, which i tested colors on for half an hour because i knew i wanted to keep that minty jacket and i had already used too much purple.

what does using colorblind as an insult accomplish in this context? you are criticizing something that, if i actually had it, would be a type of disability i could not help. say it’s shit, and say it’s shit to my face so that i know not to share these things with you.

at least use better colors. my colors are notoriously eye-searing but that red is about to give me a goddamn aneurysm. 6/10.

i don’t know how to break it to the original maker of this secret, but much like the tooth fairy does not exist, perfect humans also do not exist. why are you holding me to a higher standard than other people and then discarding me the moment i do something you personally do not like? you liked me. i fucked up. you liked me less than if someone you disliked did the same fucking thing?

in 2015, adfuck was a shitshow, but it is nowhere near the shitshow it is now. i also always provided a secondary link without adfly. i did that shit where i made it smaller for a couple of posts. i did the scum thing. i thought it would be lucrative and help my situation a tiny bit. a dollar earned from adfuck was a dollar i did not have before, and if you’re dying from starvation a dollar will save your life.

the subtext is, if you were afraid of viruses, you should have used the non adfuck link every time. if you were like me, and you had downloaded a thousand things from behind mandatory adfucks with your block disabled before the skipper (the adfly skipper, not like, a sea captain or anything) and hadn’t had a problem, you could very easily toss 1/1000 of a cent to a creator whose work you liked.

my stance on adfucks have changed drastically since 2015. i would never do it again because of its more clear association with viruses and the fact that i do not enjoy knowing that i could’ve made other people’s lives immensely shittier by being complicit in fucking up their computer. but i did do it, and no amount of apologizing is going to change that.

for future record, if you ever find one of my old, reblogged furbyq-sims posts, never click the shortened link. use the non adfuck one. i would have to push link shorteners every single nanosecond of my entire life for it to ever pay anything of substance, and i refuse to promote shorteners anymore. i will never cash it out, so clicking the links is a waste of time. since i deleted furbyq-sims, i cannot edit the links out. do not click them.

do note that during my run with adfuck, i received 579 total clicks that registered as ‘valid’ or what-the-fuck-ever. those clicks amounted to $1.53 USD. when people use adfucks, be aware that they are doing so to make, probably at most like $5 USD a month if they get thousands of non-blocked clicks. it is the definition of pointless. the danger element is enough to put most people off, the shitty pay should take the rest of them, and yet.

“hey, stop spamming” “hey, to resolve this, spam more” what do you fucking want from me?

again i’m pretty sure this person is not a native speaker, so i’m not going to poke at the grammar more than to mention that contradiction. you got your point across very well. remember to add a white outline to your text next time. 7/10.

let me tell you, desperation will make you do things that may not make sense to anyone else at the time.

think about this: my mom has serious lymph node deficiency that contributes to her getting pneumonia frequently. she’s on an oxygen concentrator at this time. now, oxygen concentrators are the thing that you get when a person needs nearly full-time oxygen. you don’t get a million tanks, you just get a single concentrator, which requires continuous electricity to work. ring ring it’s the electric company, your power is getting turned off tomorrow. you call hospice, hospice is like “well we can get a notice to them in like, two days” so you panic. you scramble for what you believe at that moment is the most important thing, regardless of whether or not you are right.

people who are in need will generally get help to some extent on the internet if they are brave enough to ask. but when it is a dire thing, you will reblog the post as many times as it takes to soothe your profound panic. every time you reblog, maybe one more person will see it. maybe that person will reblog, someone will see that and send $5 your way to help. you have got to keep things like this moving, if you do not ask you will not receive anything and dead posts are as good as not asking.

i don’t mean to sound overly terse, but i do sound that way for a reason, because some things are worth being terse over. and i hope, i hope to whatever deity may actually exist, that you never have to be in that position, where you know exactly why i did what i did. because it means you’re living in hell and it is no place to be.

i know this is an undertale reference of some kind. i don’t understand it, i haven’t played the game. if you’re going to say something mean to someone, maybe you should use your own words instead of formatting cryptic bullshit that includes the word 'garbage’. 3/10.

if you’re going to insult someone, be specific. because when you insult someone, you wield a sword. when i get stabbed, i want it to be a killing blow to my heart and not some lukewarm stabbing about in my midsection. fucking kill me or leave me alone. those are the options, pick one.

people in the sims community make custom content. and some of it is great, and some of it is shitty. and sometimes, both of those things can come from the same person, because everybody in the entire world has off days. i’m not going to say my shit is great, but i have made things i am proud of. proud that i took the time to make something and it paid off, and i realized a creation that would not exist without my existence and efforts.

other times, my stuff has been shitty. you are not obligated to download what you don’t like, and i’m sorry that me taking up 500 megabytes of the entire internet to host my shit on impacted your life so much back in 2016 or whenever the fuck.

after some angry secrets, it’s good to end on this one. it makes me laugh every time i see it. 9/10.

i’m going to address three points in this picture, but i’m not and have never been mad at this one. whoever made this secret, inbox me. you’re my favorite motherfucker.

when i made the phantom rage skin i had a picture of a man who had very speckled vitiligo saved as inspiration. i lost that picture when i cleared out old files, but this model, genesis castillo, is very similar to the vitiligo pattern that man had. there are a hundred winnie harlow skins. there were none like this where the vitiligo was not evened out with makeup. i then paired tones 1 and 10 and 2 and 8 for contrast, but the 1 and 10 one looks much odder in the low opacity parts, like camouflage, someone said once.

as someone who has a skin condition, i know how emotionally traumatic they are when they change your appearance drastically. i cannot empathize with any traumas of vitiligo that are directly tied to people of color being affected by it because i am not a person of color.

if i offended anyone who has vitiligo, i am genuinely sorry. my intention was not to make a ‘costume’, it was to make a virtual representation of a type of human being that actually exists. i hope that learning from this experience and using that knowledge to the best of my ability in the future is enough to undo even an iota of damage that was done.

point two, what is wrong with the middle sim? what is wrong with the middle sim? what is wrong with them? they have a mole? they’re wearing two head accessories? what is wrong with them???

point three, the bebebrillit hairline conversions weren’t terrible. fitting shit to the different hairline shape is difficult, so it can lead to some weird edges. at the time i took the previews for the hairlines, i didn’t have a ton of hairs in my folder. i just started doing nouk hairs. i needed to take a picture of the high fashion ponytail, so i killed two birds with one stone. this is not a combo that i played with, thinking they fit together like jigsaw pieces. it was a preview and it even showed that the hairlines did not work with every hair.

also,

there was a mythical 8th secret (yes, there were actually fucking 8 of them, i’ve averaged 2 hate secrets a year which i consider a life achievement). it was a picture of my first ts4 skinblend with the word “hideous” or “this is hideous” or some shit on it. it had the word hideous in it. that secret was deleted before i could save it, but i still remember it. and i can’t even be mad, i mean, they’re right. 10/10. best secret. it wasn’t a secret at all.

i actually can’t remember why it turned out so shiny, i think it’s because there were like no skins close to what i wanted and i tried handpainting before i knew how to.

in conclusion, please, in the future... stay salty, stay mean, continue hiding behind anonymity, but either grow a sense of humor or commit to what you’re doing instead of hurling balls of infernal bitching gently at my face.

#negativity //#questionable ideas #i felt like using an inspirational quote on the header #do you like it

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sweetdisabled · 6 years

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Guide: Shopping on Taobao with Yoybuy

note: the pictures here will be uncaptioned. i’m sorry about this, but it’s going to get pretty visually heavy!

shopping on taobao is a pretty essential life skill for any lolita or lolita-to-be - and quite frankly it’s also just fun. what can i say, my forefathers stalked the savannah, working on bringing down that wildebeest, and in the same spirit, i stalk one yuan sales. they still sing tales around the campfire about how i got all of those fuzzy socks.

taobao is a marketplace of many different stores. think of it kind of like the ebay marketplace. it is located in china, and stores there largely ship only to other chinese addresses, so you need to use a buying service if you’re not in china yourself. for this guide, we’re going with yoybuy, because i’ve had good success with it and find it easiest to DIY.

first step is to open a browser to do your online shopping. i really like chrome for this because you can set it to automatically use google translate on a page. however, you’re going to want two tabs open before you even get to taobao...

in one tab, google for ‘google translate english to chinese’. google will automatically pop up the english to chinese boxes. we want simplified chinese here (which is usually the default).

also google ‘yuan to usd’ (or insert whatever your local currency is for usd). this will mean you can convert prices easily and readily, with that tab already at the ready.

one more tool and we’ll be ready to actually go to taobao!

when you right-click a webpage in chrome, this is the menu that pops up. we want to pay attention to translate to english here.

most of the time chrome will automatically translate. however, it may need a little push here and then.

with all of these tools ready, we’re finally ready to actually open taobao.com in a new tab.

this is... pretty overwhelming, right? google translate can automatically translate text, not anything in a picture, so it still ends up half-translated. phew. get your bearings a moment, though, and soldier on!

tonight i’ve decided that i could really use some cute hankies to go with a strawberry-themed outfit i’m planning. so, tab over to our english to simplified chinese...

now copy those chinese characters into the search bar on taobao...

it will give you some further suggestions - but let’s keep it pretty general for now. hit ‘submit’, and let’s see what we have.

looks like we’ve lucked out - there are tons of choices!

to get you acquainted with this page, the column on the right is where recommended advertised items show up. these can largely be disregarded. the main block of items will be underneath all of these options at the top.

as you can see we have a lot of different choices we could look into, if we wanted to narrow it down. however, this grey bar is where we have the important stuff.

we can hit the price button to sort things. scroll over it, and we’ll get more options.

since all i got is like three fiddy and some pocket lint - plus i’d rather have a cheaper cotton hankie that i won’t feel guilty about perhaps blowing my nose on - i usually sort price from low to high, so cheapest items are first.

that’s more like it! (7 yuan right now is about a dollar.) now we can browse for what catches our eye. you’ll also see, next to the price, how many people have bought it. under that is the translated name of the product, then the name of the storefront.

i like the looks of this one - properly frilly and fancy! right-click and open it in a new tab so we can keep organized. (that way there’s no getting frustrated if it’s a ‘bust’.)

now we’re on the product’s page in the seller’s store. we can look quickly off to the side for some information about the seller.

this guy’s apparently been selling on taobao for 6 years. the shop is rated out of 5 points in three areas - how accurate the description of their products is, how good their service is, and logistics (which probably covers things like how quickly they ship the products and how well they wrap them up, etc). this guy’s got a 4.8 rating that is rising.

that means we can probably buy from him with some confidence. if you see a store that hasn’t been open for very long, that would be a red flag. same if you have a store with low ratings, or absolutely perfect ratings. if it’s 5.0 across the board, it’s a little too good to be true sometimes! one red flag may not be worth it to stop you in your tracks, but be on the lookout for them, just like you would with any online seller.

and don’t worry about see all baby. google translate likes to think all items on taobao are babies... (it’s a mystery to all of us.)

wading past the translation, it looks like this shop sells a lot of linen goods, especially for the european market.

a really cute tea party vibe, right? :D

this is where we could browse this store more - it’s very cute, after all - but i’d like to maybe make the coordinate a little more specific and cohesive. let’s see if we have any better luck with a more specific search!

when you get more specific with your searches, it means there’s often a lot less items - for example, there’s only one page of search results instead of 15+. but i think we’ve found something that’s perfect!

cute, right? looking at it closer, though, it’s not embroidered, and it’s more of a terrycloth or towel texture. those are two things i’m not really sure about - this is why we open our finds in a new tab.

it does give me a chance to talk about this one thing, though -

sometimes the final price of an item will be hidden unless you’re a ‘VIP’. you can login and make a taobao account if you like - it requires a cell phone with texting, but international cell phones are okay. however, i usually just shrug and go “well, we know it’s somewhere under 9 yuan”.

whatever taobao agent you use will usually be able to get the VIP price for you.

another trick is that if you find an item that you go ‘oh, that’s close, but not quite....’ about, hover over its picture in the search results. you will then get two choices - find the same or find similar. the first option finds the exact same thing, but at other retailers. find similar, well, finds things that are variations on that same thing.

this hankie looks perfect! so... let’s actually buy it!

since taobao sellers largely only ship to people in china, and i’m in america, i can’t just hit that buy now button. this means i need to use an agent - and there are a lot of different choices out there.

i’ve used two so far, largely for ordering BJD stuff and home goods (and some accessories) (largely necklaces... what can i say... i read the words one yuan sale and my eyes light up). taobaospree is a professional outfit that you contact via email. they definitely give you the ‘white glove treatment’. their prices are very fair, and their staff very helpful. if you’re making really big important purchases, or purchases you’re worried about, i’d recommend them.

however, yoybuy is also really good for if you want to park the car yourself and walk instead of handing the keys to the valet, so to speak. i’ve also had really good experiences with them.

for taobaospree, they ask that you just email them a list of what you want with some details - they have a template you can use on their website. but since we’re just buying hankies, let’s use yoybuy.

first things first, we’ll need to sign in. yoybuy offers deals every so often like ten dollars of credit if you register with them, so it’s worth looking out for if you’re about to place an order. (every little bit helps, right?)

once you’ve signed in/signed up, take the url from the item you want...

and copy it into the search box at the top of yoybuy’s website, then click buy now.

yoybuy’s website will then load up all of the item’s information, like this.

now we can just shop as normal! it give you the converted rates of how much each item is, plus the domestic shipping, or how much the shipping will be from the seller to yoybuy. (yoybuy will help calculate the shipping from yoybuy to you later.)

so i’d like 6 total, and i can select the options. just to make things clear, i’ve also said as much in the ‘comments’ box. if something is a little unclear, you can add your comments there to make sure they get the right option.

as you can see this is totally meant for a much wider screen than mine, but it gives you an updating total of what is in your shopping cart.

on the black bar you also have some options like being able to ask for a live chat with someone if you get very confused.

when you’re ready, click ‘buy’. you’ll have a chance to do an overview of all your items before clicking the ‘pay’ button.

as you can see, there’s a couple of options here.

you can pay via a regular visa or mastercard, paypal, or use some other services i’m not familiar with. you can also send money via money transfer (like western union) and have it waiting there in your account.

there’s a service charge which is usually around 4% here. yoybuy themselves charge a fee of 10% for acting as your agent. they don’t ask for all of this up front. you pay in two parts - one is the items and domestic shipping that’s been calculated. they then bundle up all your items and figure out the best way to ship them to you, and you pay the 10% fee to them then.

if you’re initially doing a large order, your bank may balk a bit - so be prepared. for me, it took a text message of them going “uh hey, was this you? because random chinese company charging your credit card 200 dollars looks real sketchy.” and me going “lol it’s ok guys”.

however, in this case, handkerchiefs get!

you will now get an overview page of your order.

each item will have its own line, and you can track how things are going.

the agent will purchase the item for you, then await shipment of it. you can click the chat bubble at any time to chat with the agent to ask them about the state of the item. this is where they’ll also inform you if something is out of stock or if there are any difficulties. you can also ask for them to take a picture to show you, if you want to make sure something is ok before they send it on to you.

as your items come in, you can click the checkbox and get an estimated parcel weight. that will help you figure out how much the shipping from yoybuy to you will be - and they even estimate how much they’ll have to spend on shipping materials.

once your items all arrive at yoybuy and they ship them on over to you, you can look at the options on the left to find a record of all your packages.

redacted information ahoy, folks, but let’s take a look-see at the package i already got from them -

the parcel number is what you click to open up an information page, showing all the items that are in the box they sent. the tracking number will be what you can check to track your package. they offer a variety of different carriers to use, and iirc, all of them come with tracking numbers. (you get yoybuy’s cut rate on shipping through all carriers, though!) if there are any problems, they’ll show up in the status - along with things like if it’s in an immigrations check.

if there are any problems, you can then report it to yoybuy and they’ll help you out - however, i’ve not had any problems with them. all my items came safe and sound!

so there you have it, a short guide - ah, well, at this point, just a guide - on how to, step-by-step, order stuff off taobao via yoybuy.

good luck in your own shopping, and happy hunting! 💖

#lolita tutorials #beginner lolita #taobao #online shopping #🍭 Lollipop Guild Guides

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samanthaknopper-blog · 6 years

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Salkantay Trek / Rainbow Mountain After Thoughts

I was going to make a video but basically since i have been back in Colombia i have been extremely tired and then i got the flu. I haven’t really had much of a voice for 3 days and it still isn’t great, and i often have coughing fits so i give up lol and will just go back to the old school typing way.

So... Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

1st.... It was the most difficult thing i have done ... ever. And yes for the people that know...I did walk the Camino de Santiago which took me around 3 weeks across ~500km. The Camino was hard and i was in pain every single day. Salkantay was a whole different game. The high altitude really effected my muscle stamina especially on the up hill stints. I was always at the back of the pack.

* guess i should explain the pack i was in. There was 10 of us ( well level with the guide) 2 women from USA, A couple form Denmark, a couple and another guy from The Netherlands, A woman from England, A guy from Australia and me and our Guide, Wayna. I was the 2nd oldest. Most of the were on the good side of 25 years old :/

Ok back to it.

So i was always at the back going up hill, especially, when it was on a super steep incline. The others just seemed to not slow down at all and not be effected by the lack of oxygen 4000+ meters above sea level. I would try to keep up with them but they just powered ahead. I would arrive 5 mins or more after them at stopping points dripping in sweat and they would be all laughing away eating snack looking like that were on a stroll in a park. Super helpful in the endless mental battle that is hiking.

When we went down hill i was usually in the middle of the pack, i could descend faster then some. It became quite painful going down hill as it was pretty steep and my knees were taking a hammering. But i can push through pain ( thanks to the camino) doesn’t really stop me much. Also, the help of gravity pulling me down was awesome. On flat ground i was usually at the front, but i was having to really walk super fast. I didn’t really enjoy the group speed. They were trying to break some sort of time record for completing each day. Every day Wayna would give us an estimate of how long it usually takes groups to finish the section and they would be like we can do it in half. I definitely am a slow walker and prefer to plod along at my own pace then be forced to rush at a super fast pace. I could barely even enjoy the view of where we were as i was so worried about my feet placement (especially downhill) and i would have to risk stopping to look around and enjoy it or take a photo and then try to walk faster to make up for the lost time of stopping.

I won’t go into the specific of the hike like for each day. The food was pretty good, and they fed us really well. I got alone well with pretty much everyone, but like didn’t really connect with anyone specifically. My shared a room every night with the chick from England and we chatted nicely at night, but it didn’t turn into some amazing connection through a hard experience, because i feel like she skipped up the mountain lol. I don’t generally think of myself as an unfit person, because generally my every day life is fairly active. However, my lifestyle in colombia is prettt sedentary. Just because I don’t have money to go places, i dont feel super safe just walking around the neighbourhood and my apartment is so small everything is with 10ms of my bed. On a good day i can maybe get 5000 steps if i purposely go out of my way to do more steps, but normal is around 2500 steps. Compare that to the, on average ,35,000 steps a day i was doing on the hike it was a big jump. That could be a major factor to while i was struggling a lot. I was exercising 30 mins 3-4 times a week to increase my heart fitness but obviously the step count matters more. I also think the basically lifestyle of the Danish and Dutch people gave them a huge advantage. They all rode their bikes to work everyday. Just the leg strength would have been extremely helpful. Advantage Europeans.

Anyways, when We finished my knees were so done especially after the 2000+ steps to get up to machu picchu and then walk around the city. It was super impressive and i dont know how the heck they can build stuff like that back when there was no real machines helping. I would not want to lug rocks up there.

There are 2 mountain options that you can climb to get like a more overall view of the city. One is a shorter, scarier walk that takes 45 mins and the other is like 2 hours up and 2 hours down. You have to pay extra.... but you have to pay like months in advance. No one mentioned that maybe you will be tired or have sore knees after the 5 day walk... and so most of us had purchased the extra ( including me) but not one of us did it. Everyones’ knees were done and couldn’t not mentally fathom walking up a mountain purely to get a better view of the ruins. Now, that i think of it... i don’t know why i wanted to do that. it was only $USD 25 so not a huge loss to take.

Most of us took the bus back down from the mountain as 1900 steps down didn’t sound nice. I totally fell asleep on the bus down ( it was only 20 mins) then we just hung around the town, Agua Calientes, until it was time to get our train back to (some place) and then we got a van to our hotels in Cusco.

The train was an interesting 1.5 hours. There was some random dudes doing dances in crazy masks and then there was a fashion parade of clothes made from alpaca wool. I assume the fashion parade was so people could see the clothes and then buy them.

When i got back to my hotel, i had a really long hot shower and then passed out. I had to check out of my hotel the next morning at 9am and then move to another hotel as that first one was with the package of my hike. I had a full days break and then i was going up Rainbow mountain. Was a bit of drama before that happened. I got to my new hotel at like 11am and they didn’t have my reservation. I had it printed out and they didn’t know what to do. PS these convos i had were all in spanish as they didn’t know spanish well. They seemed to have a paper system and me booking online didn’t seem to carry over. Luckily they had a room available, so i just took that. We then had to renegotiate the price as they thought the price i paid on the internet was to cheap and i was like well that was the point, it was a deal with my airline ticket. Anyways we made an agreement we were both happy with and i went into the room. I lay on the bed for a very long time not moving and then went to find food. Found a good vego restaurant and had a massive veggie burger and chips and orange juice. It filled me up for like 15 hours. I didn’t eat again until 6 am the next day when i was on my way up to Rainbow mountain.

So, my hotel room was a bit of a boom. When traveling in a hiking pack you basically need to empty it to get access to everything. I was planning to washing some of my socks and stuff just because i could. I normally do it in the shower with me... but as i was saddened to find out... there wasn’t really hot water at the hotel. Which was some what disappointing as the temperature outside at night is -5 meaning the pipes are gonna be freezing making the normal water super freezing. There was some sort of electronic thing at the top of the shower head which i guess was like an electric heating contraption that was heat the water as it passes through. I felt like it was a bit unsafe have electricity flowing and having water pass through the gadget. It was on and was live. I found that out the hard way when i was fiddling with it drying to make it work when i got a little electric shock. To be totally honest... when i turned it off at the wall there was a difference in temperature from freezing to ... mildly freezing. I am use to cold showers here in colombia but this was a whole different level. I just quickly soaped up my body and rinsed of before i got frost bite and then layered up and got into my bed. I didn’t wash anything as i thought i would be to cold for anything to dry.

So the next morning i wake up at 3am as my pick up time was between 3:30 - 4am to start the 2 hour drive to breakfast and then another hour drive to the start of the walk to the summit of rainbow mountain. So i go out of my room at 3:30am and walk to the road where they are gonna pick me up. I wait and wait... a few people are stumbling back from the clubs. It was super light in the street so it wasn’t really scary or anything. Heaps of people are out and about because a lot of hikes leave super early. One guy stumbled along on the other side of the street and was trying to open a door for maybe 15 mins and ended up napping against the wall. Was a bit entertaining to watch him. It got to 4am and i was like ok these people are late. I went back inside and started chatting to the lady and asked her if she could call and find out where they were. She called and they said 5 mins. Then she asked me if i was checking out and i’m like no i have one more day.. she says on the book there is someone checking into the room after a bit of back and fourth... we came to the conclusion that i had to get my stuff out as i only had it for one night. At that moment the guide rang the door bell for me to come out. I quickly rang back into the room and shoved all my stuff into my pack and then gave it to the lady who would hold on to it for me until i got back that afternoon. Then the whole 2 hours to breakfast i was thinking how the heck i am gonna get a hotel, and having not internet on my phone didn’t help.

We got to breakfast, which was a weird soup thing with meat and then fruit. I just had a couple cups of hot tea as my throat was killing me and some bread with some sort of honey / caramel spread. We drove the next hour and arrived at start of the walk. It took us maybe an hour and a half to get to the summit and again i was struggling. We were only a group of 6 including the guide and it was a bit of a slower pace. But again i was struggling with the altitude. This time we went up to around 5200m and it is crazy how little energy your muscles have. It is really amazing how the mountain just naturally has different colours. When i got to the top i kinda of collapsed on the ground and just sat looking out on to the other snow capped mountains. A black dog came up to me and sat next to me and rested his head on my legs. It was a bit cute. Also was very warm. It was freezing up the top. Any natural water that would have been flowing had frozen along the path. It was also super windy so that made it super icy cold. We stayed up the top probably for almost an hour, just looking around and then taking photos. We walked back down and then started the drive back to the restaurant where we would have lunch . Along the way kids would run along into the street and up to the car. The guide would give out extra snacks ( oreos and fruit) that we hadn’t eaten. The kids were super excited. Its crazy the small little kids that just run around free in the paddocks of the mountains, no parents in sight. The helicopter parents would be having a freak out.

Lunch was fairly basic again i ended up just having rice and some water. I slept most of the 2 hours back to Cusco. There was no head rest so it was a slumped head bench backwards over the back of the chair, my neck was sore for a few days after.

When i got back to Cusco i headed to Starbucks and bought a drink and then got the wifi and searched around for a hotel in the same street for a reasonable price but one that would guarantee me scolding hot water and a heater in my room. As it was my last chance for a hot shower for the next 3 months i wanted it to be definite. I found one for like $70 bucks in the same street and checked in. Again i had to come to an agreement with the reception as they thought the website quoted to cheap, these internet sites need to be better at giving discounts that the hotels will actual honor. I moved my stuff in after i checked in and then had an extremely long shower, hot water is so amazing and really makes washing your hair a pleasure instead of a mental challenge. I went back to the same vego restaurant and then snuggled into bed ready to leave the next day.

The hotel had the added bonus of a free buffet breakfast. I checked out at 9am and then grazed in the buffet until it finished at 9:30am. I then sat in the sun at the main plaza and there was a big parade for some reason. Went to starbucks again and had my last chocolate frappe for 3 months even though my sore throat was not advising it. Headed back to the hotel and picked up my bags then waited for my transport to the airport.

Overall the trip was a good experience. Definitely not relaxing or like super fun. But it gave me some amazing chances to see nature at it bets. I would not advise doing the salkantay trek for older people as a lot of people were struggling with altitude and had to take horses ( which cost more money). You can just catch a train or bus to Machu Picchu if you want to see it. Which does seem more logical but the experience you get in the mountains is pretty amazing.

I have 1 more week free and then i start the 2 week teacher prep before the students start at school. I am hoping my cold is gone within the next few days, i have been eating a lot of raw garlic which helps but my diet is not the best so the process is pretty slow. I’ll upload some pics on here of the mountains.

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kateemmerson · 6 years

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Confessions of a location free maverick - it's over!

Confessions of a location free maverick – it’s over! How the Pretend Cat and the Pet Rock are changing the landscape of my life. I find it deeply ironic and bizarre how I can go from travelling the world with ridiculously minimal belongings (even minimal for miss LIVE LIGHT, LIVE LARGE over here) and living mostly out of a suitcase for the past 2.5 years … to buying Tupperware, water containers, dishcloths, coffee plunger, bins and gasp of all gasps, kitty food – because I suddenly find myself with a “pretend” cat and a huge pet rock! Neither of which will fit in my suitcase, which can mean only one thing – a little home again.

Chances are you might have some insight into my motto, my life work and how I have been gallivanting around the world to speak, run writing retreats, masterminds and work with the YPO? And laze on beaches of course! Yet with this lifestyle comes the highest of global highs and the lowest of lonely lows.

Every decision we make has consequences on all sides. There is really no such thing as a decision that doesn’t have pro’s and con’s. That’s delusional. It’s just about choosing the ones that you most prefer, that bring you more joy and meaning, isn’t it? It’s not that any decision is better than any other one. And decisions are never usually forever are they? We get to choose and re-decide further down the line, whether about how we think or what we own, to what we do in the world and where we live.

I have been living with the consequence of choosing to have no home for the recent past. It’s a feeling of deliriousness combined with displacement. Sometimes it is truly a joyful experience, easy to broadcast on Instagram pics, carefully curated into an authentic feed, or a hopefully motivational post and pics of exotic food whilst lounging by the sea. New spaces, places and delights at every corner. Yet it’s not ALL wild, laugh-inducing adventures and Pollyanna playtime.

It’s also the polar opposite – sometimes a scary, wide open world knowing no one, needing to constantly be wondering where the next pit stop is, can I convert enough ZAR into USD to survive a northern currency, where will my work call me to (from Lagos, to Dubai to San Francisco), other people’s reactions to being “homeless” when I say I am #locationfree. Yes, but where is your home, Kate?

I have personally found that whilst my senses are constantly being awoken and titivated, it’s simultaneously a tad grueling on my body and takes me longer to adjust to new surroundings to feel totally integrated. I have stayed in the best of 5* hotels, to revolting homes I housesat (that really should have been a three week, massively paid declutter job). I do find it easy to feel at home in someone else’s space, but have become way more susceptible to the energy of the house and how it impacts me. So it has been in short, the past 2.5 years have been a profoundly intriguing, enlightening time.

Being a #locationfree maverick naturally takes some toll on my committed relationship with ENP and yet also provides us both with space to really miss each other. Even when I do make Lesvos, the world renowned Lesbian pilgrimage island, (where the 10th muse and lyrical poetess Sappho was born), my destination of choice. He doesnt batt an eyelid- and that tells you everything about him! Friends delight in my pics, tales and gifts, but also beg to know when I’m coming “home” – I remind them I don’t call SA ‘HOME’ anymore. You know how when you speak to people in the UK (yes Mum, that’s you!) and they bleat on about the weather? Well, pretty much every time I speak to a dear friend they cannot help themselves but ask, “so when are you in SA again”? I have done my best to implore them to not say when are you coming “home”. Or even when are you BACK. Those words imply it will suck me back into its clutches, and SA honestly is no longer home. It’s a beautiful and complex place that for many decades was my home, where I still work and see ENP and my friends. I have awesome clients there and … it is simply no longer my home! I am being called north again, and have been for the past 4 years, ever since I first traveled to the USA. So, I typically say I am simply where I am right now and thank God for the likes of Skype, Whatsapp and Zoom.

At the start of this process of packing up my home in JHB, I always knew I would be location free for a year at least; then after a year had flown by I had no desire for it to be any different; my travel trajectory was as delicious and busy for the year ahead, so I just kept at it. Living with 90% of my belongings with me, three boxes in storage and traveling to places MOSTLY in summer or the shoulder spring and autumn to obliterate the need for huge bulky clothes.

But towards the end of last year, even though I am in a beautiful, committed relationship to a man who just adores and trusts me to live my life with no betrayal to us, and vice versa, I found myself feeling somewhat lonely (whilst meeting new people everyday), restless (whilst constantly moving), bored (even though I see and experience more in day that some do in a year) and just a tad unsettled (yet this was my very own choosing wasn’t it?)

The irony of this insight is never lost on me.

Enter a pretend cat and bit pet rock!

It is not about needing to be in ONE PLACE forever; I am not that type. I have gypsy energy in my very DNA, and love traveling just so much. But after not having anywhere other than my heart and body to call “home” for 2.5 years, I was starting to inch towards the idea of a little space I could “claim” as my own. ENP is unraveling his life in SA too, and these global swallows need a new nest/s.

I remember the day I was housesitting the most GLORIOUS home right on the San Francisco bay, in Pointe Richmond and having this feeling of being so blessed by the beautiful home I find myself in whilst I travel, but I suddenly had this overwhelming longing to have a space for me. A space where I might be able to leave a costume and a pen, maybe even my art. A space I could imprint myself on. It was a little bit of a surprise. It also took the natural transition of my 50th Birthday in April this year to shift me into this next phase. I needed to close out some big commitments before I had the space for this phase.

So the logical heartwarming place for my first little space in the northern hemisphere was Greece. I am even toying with the idea of buying a home, but am rather just putting my feelers out this year. Getting to understand the lay of the land. What is it like to have another little base and how does that impact my life and me again? And others around me? And so, in the gorgeous, remote and truly authentic Greek village called Skala Eressos that I have been visiting for the past 3 years (with writers on our retreats), a space where I have built a community and with one of the most beautiful beaches in all of Greece, I found myself negotiating a contract for a light airy apartment for a year. A year!

Confession #1: It IS totally glorious to say I have a place I can call home EVEN though I will also “rent” it out to visitors, friends and colleagues. I have the coolest pet rock (see below) – my nan used to paint rocks so this is highly divine for me – but yikes, it’s a biggun, and will never fit into a case, so I guess I am destined to stay a while. See pic of beautiful rock complete with my name! It all came about when I asked my landlady if she had any door stoppers, a huge grin erupted on her face and she said she had a rock half painted, and she would complete it for me. All my favourite colours, the coolest of flamingos and my names emblazoned across it, lest I forget where I am.

Confession #2: Having a kitty on my bed again makes me deeply joyful. When my beautiful landlady said yes I could claim her little apartment as mine, she said I was an angel for her, but the truth is she is an angel for me. Letting me love her kitty, bringing me oregano bouquets, painting me my very own pet rock as a doorstop so I don’t wake the whole village when I sneak out to write my morning pages on the verandah, lending me a bike, fixing stuff I ask to be fixed and just being delightful – along with FANTASTIC English.

Confession #3: I am startlingly amused by just how insanely fast I wanted to buy “STUFF” Not a lot of stuff, for sure, but it is still amusing. And I want my Nan’s hand-made patchwork quilt here on my bed – NEXT TRIP! Unless you are coming to visit and will bring it with? And how Mum gifted me the most exquisite handmade, olive wood TAVLI – Backgammon set! Oh, the joys of a little place for STUFF!

Confession #4: I am plotting my return here – my coming BACK HOME. I have already started inviting friends here, seeing as I never pulled it off for my 50th earlier this year– 51 seems just as fabulous a time to gather on an island! Perhaps I can also entice my Mum to visit a second time with the pretend promise to eat more meals at home to stretch the budget.

Confession #5: I fell off my bike and swore like a trooper – because my sundress was hitched around my thighs and I got stuck as I hurled myself towards the pavement. It was a “boy” bike with a big crossbar and so as my huge, white sun hat flew off my head when going down the hill, I panicked and tried to slam on breaks to run after my hat before it picked up pace across the fields, never to be seen again. I just couldn’t extrapolate my legs and dress in time and got caught up in a heap. Tears welled, words flowed and I cannot tell you the relief after I had embarrassing walked my bike home with a bleeding toe and bruised ego, grease filled legs and finally turned the corner and saw “My home”.

Confession #6: Kitty food is now on my shopping list again. And I have a pet brush. Everyone laughed at me when I said I wanted one, but I found it in the Euro shop, and this kitty just LOVES being fussed over! Every now and then it feels like a betrayal to my beloved Stripey, but Nikos is my “pretend cat”. He is not really mine; I know that – just that we get to love each other furiously when I am here. When I told Ms. S that I was letting Nikos, the #gingersnap cat sleep on my bed, she nearly fell off her own feet. You are crazy Kate Emmerson. And yes I am, but when I walked home last night after devouring the most delicious “orange pie” oozing with syrup and a creamy cappuccino to wash it down, my heart did a little skip when I saw Nikos waiting for me at the end of the road – a bit out of his usual comfort zone. My Greek is shocking, so I speak to him in English, (other than a strong reprimand of OCHE when he wants to get agro) and we ambled off down the road side-by–side, ready for a little cuddle.

Confession #7: Yes. I miss you, ENP. Every day! But you are in Russia at the world cup with all your Argentinian lads, doing what you love to do, and that makes me happy! Enough said we will entwine again in a few weeks when in the same country again.

Confession #8: I deeply love that my office of choice, Gialos on the platea, has exceptionally kind owners, friendly kitties and the most heavenly view on the planet! Along with great coffee, conversation and a way to observe this little village and all its folk – from Drug dealer, to prostitute to writers, foreigners who return year after year after and the locals getting ready for thier work day. A great place for writers to simply sit and observe…

With love from me, to you, from Skala Eressos and my new “home” – for now x

(And yes, I will be IN South Africa for August and September for work :) )

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Morning pages ….

Confessions of a location free maverick – it’s over! was originally published on Kate Emmerson - The Quick Shift Deva

#changes #location free #new era #transformation

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