hello dani, a bit later than usual, but: how're you doing, what are you up to, how's life going????? any new stories or funny things that happened to you???? as always, i hope you and your loved ones are healthy and doing alright!!!!! and remember that i love you ♡♡♡

Heniii! Thank you again for always checking up on me. I appreciate it so much.

Sadly the usual things take up the most of my time lately and they've gotten me pretty down. So I'm not even going to mention them. Instead I'm going to list things I'm looking forward to this month/things that have happened to me lately:

My room renovation. The last time my room was wallpapered and painted was 12 years ago. And my furniture is even older. The schedule is to start just after Christmas.

It's Dutch tradition that employers give employees a thing called 'kerstpakket' around the 15th of December. It's most commonly a box filled with food items and a gift that's either a homeware piece or a kitchen utensil or something like that. This year I'll be receiving 2 (one from work and one from my internship) so that's exciting!

I am going to a gardening center soon to pick up some new plants.

My mom bought me a cactus that is dresses up like santa.

I've been partaking in some very intense retail therapy to try to cheer myself up and get myself out of a slump. But because I don't visit the local shops as much anymore (I still do but way less frequent) I have rediscovered Etsy and I've ordered like 10 things in the past 2 weeks. I'm very excited about the packages I'm going to receive and the ones I already got were really great.

My friend and I finally got around to meeting up at her place to do a gift exchange (I gave her dog a birthday gift and she gave me my birthday gift we hadn't gotten around to in August) and she got me one of those Astronord cd-player! You know the ones that are open and shaped like white squares? One of those! And I really like it. She also got me a puzzle and a skincare brush and a lovely card with lots of pictures from our inside jokes on it.

And that's mostly it! I tried to keep my answers as positive because I know that even if my life kinda sucks ass right now, I will get through it and I will be able to love everything about it again.

How has your couple of weeks been since I last messaged you? Still doing okay? As always, stay safe and take care! I love you 💖

More chillis please

Being the person who assumes the landscape of their environment upon entering the room and often designated as kin of the furniture, Yachi is very happy when people speak at her and not to her, so that unnecessary conversations do not occur and everyone can go back to ignoring her as they did before.

Acquiring a retail job runs something similar to that vein.

A retail job in a relatively functional business is great. People still try to be friendly - older people, and older men, which, no - but it's not too unbearable.

She gets a message, one day, while she's getting a one-on-one tutoring session by Yours Truly, Chameleon Expert Man Himself, Kinoshita, on calculus and tactics of evading eye contact. They're revising what she should know, she's confident that going to the job, with these new skills, will maximise her invisibility, when her phone vibrates and seeing as the team shares absolutely zero boundaries, she pores over the message with Kinoshita, who bites into a slice of orange.

"New shift?" He chews, eyebrow lifted.

She's noting that down as a skill that she needs to be taught. Kiyoko-san does it very often and it makes grown men cry on the spot. Yachi can weaponise that and turn it on the creeps at work. It can work for her.

"Hmm," she nods, mouth full of orange slices. Kinoshita slaps a napkin to her face, picks up her phone and types a response out. By the time she swallows the pieces of citrusy goods and wipes herself dry of unwanted orange spit, there is a hovering screen with the line I'm good to go on Saturday. Same time as usual? waiting for her approval from her upperclassman.

"All good, Kinoshita-san," she gives him two thumbs up, because he deserves it.

"I'm going inside to tell Chikara we're almost done. Send it and pack up. We're bullying Ryuu to buy us food," he rises, takes his books with him, and gives her a jaunty wave at the doorway.

She hits send. Working at the bakery in Miyagi central shopping district with the locals is great, but working in busy Tokyo where she will know nobody and the customers will assume she is a speaking brick wall?

Ideal.

She sweeps all her books into her tote bag and sprints after Kinoshita.

-.-

The nature of the bakery franchise she works at is that she rings in all the sales when customers approach her with the baked goods and she restocks when bread is running low. That's the official job description.

Recently the bakery, influenced a little by by multiculturalism and mostly by the owner being completely smitten with the Vietnamese literature teacher with the dimpled smile who passes by their bakery every second day, they also have a banh mi side gig.

According to Suga-san, what the workplace is doing is very similar to Subway, but more Asian. Regardless of the plagiarism of what had been done in food chain stores, this is her job and if she wants to save up for a nicer tablet for graphic design then she just has to suck it up princess and cry her way through the world of earning hard cold cash.

So now she makes bread. Per order of the customers who now have to interact with her, human to human.

It is just as uncomfortable for her as it is for the customers so - equivalent exchange?

Anyways. Now she has Stories. The team sets aside time to provide group therapy for Yachi and the Woes of Being a Slave to Capitalism. It is aptly named group therapy because it is a bunch of highschoolers sitting in a loose collection of volley playing brats and consoling a little blonde girl of her retail hardships.

Today's story, she muses as she runs nose first into Asahi's abruptly stopped back, must be the More Chillis Please episide.

It happens like this -

It is 10 o'clock, she had been there for two hours and made, to the worst of her memory and knowledge, at least twenty individual banh mi. She is righteously outraged by the smell of egg mayonnaise, and if somebody shows up in the store again she will Scream.

Anyways, once the moment of Mandatory Two Hour Fury manifested and dissipated, she settles back into greeting customers, offering her services, and registering sales.

She sees the two boys, clad in similar sports jackets, not a uniform, but it is close enough, on their very very tall and lanky frames.

She is immediately brought back to the sight of Kei and Asahi, except Asahi is twice as wide as one of these guys.

Yachi ties up the package for her current customer, bides them farewell and good luck on their date, and turns to the two boys, her Customer Service Voice already on its routine greeting and question.

"Hi, welcome to Dreamworks Bakery. How can I help you today?"

The slightly shorter boy, with bushy eyebrows and wow those really look like caterpillars, wait until the team hears about this, leans forward, friendly smile fixed across his crooked front teeth.

"Hi there, if you don't mind, can I have one pork roll please, that's cut in half."

Yachi sets to work, doesn't think too much or too hard at why there are two boys and only one bread. She picks up the tongs, considering the viable options -

They are sharing this tiny loaf of Vietnamese bread roll, which, is never going to be enough, even for her, and she eats roughly a sixth of the amount Kageyama eats, so that says Something. Maybe it's just a snack. Who knows

The grumpy boy with the face mask willingly walked his friend or walked with him to this busy bakery to wait for him to buy a small snack, which, Amazing Dedication

She finishes it up, takes the knife to cut the bread in half but wonkily, because she has a healthy fear of knives, you know, as a normal sensible human person would. The boys have been chattering between themselves, the one who ordered constantly bumping into his companion, grinning and tugging on his arm. While from the companion's end there is the long suffering Stop being annoying universal eye roll and sigh combo, it's done with the same degree of exasperated fondness Kei huffs at Tadashi, the unspoken but loud What am I going to do with you, you troublesome creature?

Yachi thinks that everything happening is meant to both be a private moment and a routine, and she shouldn't pry. She also thinks that she is reading too much into this, that toxic masculinity is slowly eroding away with her generation and boys can care for each other deeply without the gross gushing of others around them of Amazing, uwu, yaoi babies.

That had actually happened with Suga-san and Akiteru while they were running an errand so Ew. She's not going to become one of those people.

It's not really a big moment of deep euphoria when the shorter boy with the bushy caterpillar eyebrows slips a hand into the other's pocket, leaning right up into his side, under his retreated chin. It is a cuddle manifesting slowly in front of her eyes, and she pauses in her struggle with the paper bags and her two pieces of bread, to blink and the scene make an Ah sound in her lizard brain.

"Cool," she hums.

"Sorry again, but," Caterpillar Brow leans up against the glass, "would you mind adding chillis onto one half?"

Yachi is already stretching one nearest to her hand open. "Tell me when to stop."

He flashes her another winning smile. "You're so valid."

She grins, sprinkling chillis in the tiny half. After a good half of the bread is covered, and he asks her to stop.

Only for the masked friend to lean forward, tug down his face mask, and speak softly.

"Add more, please."

Because Yachi assumes things, as she does, like a presumptuous idiot, she goes on fulfilling the request and thinking that it's for the masked friend. The masked friend doesn't like ordering so his friend had taken up that responsibility for him and he has the taste bud of titanium which explains the excessive chilli situation.

"Is this," she is afraid to ask, "enough?"

She tries to make eye contact with both boys, but because the Presumptuous Moron Energy is on high visibility that day, the masked companion tugs his mask up and draws out his wallet, sighing softly.

"This one," he jerks his head to his companion, "likes his food to strip off skin when he eats. I hold no jurisdiction over his questionable tastes."

It's all kinds of a wonderful, wonderful plot twist. She accepts the payment and wishes them farewell in a rather mechanical manner, and spends a good half of the day just processing everything that transpired. Everything from the masked friend taking the bread from her and pulling the strap onto his wrist so he can hold the other boy's hand, to them knocking heads as they walk away, the excitable companion speaking onto his neck as they disappear into the throng of people.

Asahi apologises for almost running her over and into a medically induced concussion, but she reassures him that she's fine, I've been the victim of a spike before, Asahi-san, this is like a small shove next to that, oh no don't cry, please, I'll live.

Story time is going to be Lit.

//Back from the con. Full experience under the cut.

Thursday: We checked into the hotel. This was the first time we've ever gotten a hotel for Megaplex since we actually live relatively close. But it was totally worth it. The actual organization for pre-reg pick-up and non pre-reg was kind of chaotic, but we got it none the less. The roomie was trying to work on their fursuit half the night, but we still managed some decent sleep. Friday: So this is where things got weird. I got groped. This is the very first and only time this has ever happened at Megaplex for me and boy did it throw me for an unpleasant loop. I'll start at the beginning of the day. So the roomie still wanted to work on their fursuit and I wanted to go wandering around the con. Therefore, I went by myself. Also this was the first time I'd ever worn make up at this con. I'd gotten this super sweet purple shade that I thought looked cool on me and I was getting non-stop complements for it. Which made me really happy because I can't have my pink hair at work anymore. Everything was cool at first. I was running into con friends, was getting some sweet con-swag and commissions, and then I saw someone I'd seen for the last 4 cons now. So I was excited. Hey, it's my friends who are always friendly and sometimes share booze! I ran over, started talking to them.. and the first thing he does is reach over and touch his finger to my lips. "I LOVE these lips." He proceeds to wrap his arm around me, and as he keeps talking.. he keeps reaching down to rub his hand against my ass. NEVER has he done this before. I don't know howto react so I kinda just... stand there and take it and try to play it of as though nothing is wrong. He keeps asking me where my 'other half' aka my roomie is, and when I tell him they're up in the room working on their fursuit...he assumes I'm alone there. But then it gets worse and he asks me twice if I want to come to his room for harder drinks and 'to go for a ride.' Again I played it off and told him: "Nah, I'm good." After which he picks me up with one arm and I just kinda... laugh it off even though I was nervous as fuck. He tries to introduce me to some of his friends and at this point I'm trying to get away from them. As I excuse myself, he leans down to kiss me. I awkwardly move my head and he winds up kissing my glasses... to which I nervously laugh and go "That was my glasses." He apologizes and goes in for ANOTHER one. So I manage to turn my head and he catches my cheek instead. I finally manage to get away, and I hide for a little while with an artist I got a commission from. He tries to convince me to go to con security..and I'm just so busy freaking out that I can't do anything but stand there with him and chat for a bit. After that I decide to do some retail therapy and I head over to the Hyena Agenda booth to get t-shirts for my roomie and myself... and the guy comes back. He wraps his arms around me from behind and.. honestly I don't even remember what he said. I think he was asking me what I was buying. But the girl behind the booth thought we were dating I guess until he finally walked away and I admitted to her that I wasn't okay. She also tried to convince me to go to con security. I was just so nervous and afraid of being out there alone at that point that I got my shirts, went back to my room, messaged another artist friend about the situation as well as telling my roomie about it, and after a stress nap, the roomie went downstairs with me to finally talk to Con security. That was the most stressful day for me. But the con staff listened to me, promised I'd be left alone... and I did not see this guy at ALL for the rest of the con. Which was a relief. I kept seeing the girl he was with, but I didn't see him. We spent half of the rest of the night in Karaoke and then I went to the 18+ Ladie's panel, which was a lot of fun. Saturday: Luckily not much happened today. We went shopping, kinda waddled around, hung out with some friends, and ended the day in Karaoke where I kinda sorta got a little smashed. Which made everyone sound better lol Sunday: We went shopping. I managed to network with one of the dealers so I may or may not be working with them next yer to give them a little bit of help. Which will be awesome. I also helped another dealer get his Con shirt since he hadn't been able to leave the booth basically the whole time he'd been at the con. (That was an adventure. They'd already closed down the con store so I had to track people down for it. Especially since I had cash so they didn't have to do anything more than take the $20 and hand me the shirt.) We pretty much ended the day with the Puppeteering 101 panel, which was super fun and awesome. I wish more people had gone to that. Hotel rating: This hotel did NOT like us. It was pretty obvious from the way they treated some of us, as well as the fact that on one of the days, they had work going on IN the artist alley that pretty much chased a lot of people out of there. They didn't know how to keep it cold enough for the fursuiters and really only have a couple of areas cool enough that they wouldn't pass out. (in fact, someone DID pass out in the fursuit picture) It was also very awkward to have all of the day guests who weren't with our con wandering a round, shooting us all dirty looks, and hearing some of them making nasty comments at us. I didn't enjoy that at all. AND THEN THERE WAS PARKING. Those who had BOUGHT rooms couldn't park half the time. Security claimed there was no overflow parking...and it was just overall super hectic. The location also kinda sucked. You had to drive a ways in order to get to any of the food options around you. And honestly... the hotel food was not only expensive, but sucked hardcore. I was glad the roomie and I had been smart enough to bring sandwich stuff to live off of for the whole con. (Even though I had some complaints about how the con itself was run last year, last years hotel was much better. The full buy-out was fantastic, and they kept it cool enough it in all of the rooms so that the suitors wouldn't die. They had enough parking for the guests staying in the hotel and they also had overflow parking right across the street.) Con Management rating: *deep breath* Where do I begin? While I am VERY grateful and happy about how they handled the groping situation (I mean hell, the guy even kept checking on me to make sure everything was alright and nothing else had happened), other things... kinda left much to be desired this year. For example: The placement of the headless lounges. BOTH headless lounges, you had to walk outside to get to. While it was smart to have one next to the main hall (which was in the farthest building), the other one was in the building: The Tower. So the Suitors had to walk outside, through a restaurant or buy the pool, and crossover into the other building. Also, the fact that we were spread out into three different buildings was... quite odd. This might not actually have been management's fault, but the overall placement of things was a bit strange. I WILL Applaud them for corralling all of the baby furs in the farthest building for their panel, after some of the things I heard happened last year. Let's not let this turn into Rain Furrest. (AKA the con that was shut down primarily because of bad Babyfur behavior) Here's to hoping that next years will be a little bit better.