Me: *destroys drum*

Goblin: *beats invisible drum and now the whole camp hates me*

Me:

chapter two.

⇥ pairing: namjoon x reader; eventual bts/ot7 x reader

⇥ genre: college au with fluff, smut & angst

⇥ summary: a series in which the reader meets (and falls for) seven members of the Beta Tau Sigma (BTS) fraternity

⇥ word count: 2.3k

⇥ warnings: 18+, cursing, chaotic namjoon, power tools, hints of poly relationships, overall pretty smut free (who AM i???)

© luxekook. please do not repost, modify, edit or translate.

characters | prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine

Chapter Two

Habitat for Humanity Worksite – 9:26am

When I signed up to volunteer Saturday morning of syllabus week, I should have known I would end up regretting it. I almost punted my alarm clock out of the apartment window this morning, but instead settled a slightly more civil action – punching the shit out of the ‘off’ button.

Don’t get me wrong: I love volunteering. It’s been part of my routine since sophomore year when I was recruited for the all-women’s service society on campus – the Alphites. As a society, us Alphites volunteer around campus and in our local community each week. There’s something about doing service together that really creates bonds, and the girls in the society have quickly become some of my closest friends.

We sign up to volunteer for a variety of different service projects each week, and Habitat is my current favorite project to sign up for. As a nonprofit organization, Habitat for Humanity helps families build and improve places to call home. Currently, our regional Habitat is working on building a house from the ground up for a local family in need.

Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape, or form a very ‘handy’ person. Luckily for me, there are always a couple volunteers with construction or engineering backgrounds who are willing to teach other volunteers with less experience – or none, like me.

Since beginning to volunteer at the site last year, I have learned how to use a power saw, how to fasten siding, and how to mix, pour and level cement. It’s definitely empowering to learn new skills and also to see how my handiwork contributes to someone’s future home. I also feel lowkey badass when I get to use the power drill for anything.

Pulling up to the worksite, I clutch my cherished 24oz. Wawa coffee. I finally feel somewhat human as I park my beat-up Jeep Wrangler and hop out to meet the other volunteers for our task assignments.

The site leader Eddie – a burly retiree with a background in construction management – greets me with a huge grin, “(y/n)-doll, we missed you this summer! I can’t believe you abandoned us during the hottest months of the year.”

I roll my eyes, smiling at his teasing. Eddie’s like a teddy bear disguised as a grizzly – all rough edges and a heart of gold. “Missed you, too, Eddie.”

“Look at our progress now,” he continues, “Pretty impressive, yeah?” Nodding, I greet some regular volunteers I recognize as Eddie leads me around the house. He proceeds to show me what they had done over the summer in my absence – and they had done a lot. The house now had its full foundation and wooden framing with most of the doors and windows installed.

As we walk back to the front of the house to the main area, I sip my coffee and turn to Eddie, “So, what can I work on today, fearless leader?”

Letting out a patented ‘Eddie belly-laugh’, he replies, “I know you worked on the siding at our last site so I'm gonna have you work on where we started the siding on the right side of the house.”

Sweet, I could work with that. “Aye, aye, captain,” I respond with a lazy salute of my coffee cup. Before I can turn to start towards the scaffolding to begin, Eddie stops me.

“Oh, one more thing. I’m gonna need you to orient our new volunteer and let him shadow you today. Kid’s from the same school as you, I think… Mandatory service. Anyway, he should be here any minute.”

Shit, I know what ‘mandatory service’ means. It’s the first form of disciplinary action that the college issues and is usually the only form of disciplinary action for our athletes or for Greek life – a fact I actively resent. During my time in the Alphites, I have had to deal with some of these ‘mandatory service’ characters and they’ve never been much fun to be around.

“Ah, that’s probably him now,” Eddie startles me out of my thoughts of dread and doom as a black gleaming Tesla practically purrs down the block, swinging into the spot next to my Wrangler. Scowling, I cross my arms as I survey the stark contrast between this person’s shiny-ass luxury car and my dirty-ass well-loved Jeep.

The Tesla door opens. A Timberland booted foot emerges followed by a thick leg encased in light jeans, a tanned well-muscled arm…

No. Nope, it couldn’t be— Please, not today, Satan.

He stands with his back to us now, stretching out his large body. In only a cutoff t-shirt, his rippling back muscles might be enough to send me into an early grave.

I sigh in bitter defeat of the inevitable. Seriously, the fucking universe must have it out for me because I can’t seem to shake this stupid fucking fraternity.

As if the boy feels my eyes on him, he turns. His eyes immediately clash with mine as he slams his car door, clicking the lock over his shoulder. Those eyes – golden brown beneath dark brows and a wave of bleached blonde hair. Their focus is absolute – hard – as he strolls towards us. It’s almost as if he knows the maddening effect that he has on me.

I think Eddie is speaking, but my senses are on lockdown, his words muted. My thighs tighten as my pulse picks up. Get a fucking grip, (y/n). I can’t let him know that just one look from him has me thirsty and oxygen-deprived. I can’t look away – that would be succumbing to weakness.

Instead, I hold his heated gaze as best I can as his confident gait brings him closer. God, he’s got to be at least 6 foot...

The goddamn president of BTS Kim Namjoon is getting closer and I can’t help running my eyes over him.

His thighs flex and shift beneath his jeans with every calculated step. His abs are apparent under his tight cutoff shirt emblazoned with his fraternity letters.

Namjoon stops in front of us, hands stuffed into his back pockets, biceps flexing. “Nice to finally meet you, Eddie,” Namjoon takes his eyes off me long enough to greet Eddie and shake his hand, but then they’re right back on me, “Hi, (y/n).”

He drags out my name in a such a sinful way that even old Eddie does a slight doubletake. Clearing his throat unnecessarily loudly, Eddie booms, “You two know each other?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Our differing replies sound at the same time.

“Yes,” Namjoon repeats, lips turning up in an infuriating smile, “We have several mutual friends that she’s met a couple times now. Want me to jog your memory? I’d be more than happy to do so.”

Eddie takes one look at my face and hustles off, mumbling something about support beams. I guess my inner thoughts of ‘kill, maim, slaughter’ could easily be read from my facial expression.

Namjoon opens his mouth to speak again, but I’m faster, “Listen, Kim, I don’t know who you think you are, and, quite frankly, I don’t care. What I do care about is this house and these people working on it. Don’t fuck this up for me, okay? Let’s just get through today and then you can go back to ordering around your brothers and causing general mayhem.”

I’m feeling pretty proud of my little soliloquy until I realize he’s still smiling with those blasted dimples out in full display. No, his smile has grown even wider now as he simply answers, “The semester.”

My nose crinkles in confusion, “What?”

“The semester,” he repeats, “I’m assigned here every Saturday for the rest of the semester.”

I stare at him.

He smirks back.

I stare.

His smirk begins to fade, “Uh, did you hear me?”

I stare.

“Okay, you’re creeping me out now, (y/n),” Namjoon waves his giant paw of a hand in front of my face, “How many fingers?”

I break out of my trance of denial and hiss, “What did you do? Double homicide? Serial arson? Oh my god, you were the one who blew up the science lab!”

His hand covers my mouth – it’s rough and warm and entirely disarming.

“You have quite the imagination, jagi. I’ll keep that in mind,” Namjoon chuckles, “To answer your question, I did none of the above. Now, answer a couple questions of mine: what did you do to get here and – more importantly – why did you distract Jungkook from doing his fucking job on Monday?”

I glare in response, waiting for him to remove his hand from my mouth. He takes too long, and I lick his palm. It works. He removes his hand, but from the look on his face it seems like he liked my tongue on his skin entirely too much.

Thankfully, Eddie chooses the perfect moment to yell across the site, “What are you doing just standing there, (y/n)-doll? I don’t pay you to just loiter around all day!”

“You don’t pay me at all!” I yell back, already moving towards the trailer with all the supplies to get started. Namjoon follows.

“(y/n)-doll?” his eyebrows are raised as I hand him a pair of the biggest gloves I could find, “What’s up with that?”

Taking a pair of smaller gloves for myself, I turn to look for some hammers and nails as I respond, “I’ve been here a while. He’s like my honorary grandfather at this point.”

I spot the hammers and nails tucked away on the highest corner shelf and I huff. Namjoon follows my gaze, “Need a strong, intelligent, tall young man to grab those for you?”

He’s impossible, but for some reason it draws a small smile to my face, “Yes, that’d be great.”

The smile I receive in response is so bright I wonder if it could make flowers grow, “Okay, but only if answer my questions, (y/n).”

I shrug, trying not to notice how his cutoff shirt rises as he stretches to reach the upper shelf. I catch a sudden glimpse of his abs, and I praise every god out there that hot weather can be blamed for my sudden onset of sweat. 

Clearing my throat, I laugh lightly, “Fine, first of all, I didn’t ‘distract’ Jeon. I just had a temporary lapse in judgement. Besides, he came to me all on his own.” His back muscles tense up at my words, but I continue, “And second of all, there’s no juicy story of how I got here. I just volunteer here every Saturday for the Alphites.”

The sound of a hammer hitting the floor startles me as he whirls around, “You’re an Alphite?”

Namjoon’s tone is one of disbelief and it’s a tone I do not appreciate, “Yes, why is that so hard to believe?” My arms cross defensively, “I’ve been a sister since my sophomore year...”

I trail off. He’s still gawking at me ridiculously. Narrowing my eyes, I stride across the trailer and grab his chin, closing his mouth for him, “Watch out, Kim, you’re gonna catch flies.”

Spinning on my heels, I sashay out of the trailer, nose held high in the air and satisfaction held even higher. He’ll catch up. After all, he’s basically supposed to be my bitch today.

I climb up the scaffolding next to the house’s right side and assess the siding work that has already been started. It looks pretty solid and level. I should have no issue with continuing without having to make any initial corrections.

The sound of a bucket of nails hitting the top platform I’m sitting on alerts me of Namjoon’s impending presence. Saving the bucket from teetering over the edge – a safety hazard for sure – I watch amusedly as Namjoon struggles stay upright and climb up to where I am on the scaffolding. Finally, he plops down next to me – entirely too close. I can feel his stare on my skin as I steadfastly ignore him.

“Hey, jagi,” he pokes my arm, “(y/n), listen, you just caught me off guard. I mean, you don’t seem like the type to be an Alphite – that’s all.”

Fury curls up inside me for the umpteenth time that morning, as I turn to face Namjoon with a sickly-sweet smile that has him flinching back, “Then do tell, Namjoon, what type I seem to be?”

I pick up the hammer closest to me and dip a hand into the nail bucket. The sooner this siding got done, the sooner I could haul ass out of here.

“I feel like that’s a trick question,” Namjoon sighs, rubbing a hand over his chin, “I didn’t mean anything bad by it, okay? I guess I just have always thought that your society was a bunch of mom-types—”

I cut him off with a swing of my hammer in the air, “What’s wrong with mom-types, you uncultured swine? And is serving your community really such a ‘mom’ thing to do? I’m sorry. I must have missed that memo. Here I was thinking that it was public service but go off I guess.”

He blinks, “Did you just call me an ‘uncultured swine’?”

I sniff in indignation, “Get with the times, Kim. I just roasted your ass. Now hand me that piece of siding and make yourself useful.”

“You’re so weird,” Namjoon mutters, sliding my request over to me.

“So what?” I shrug, “All the best people are weird. Now, do me a solid and explain to me why you and your ‘brothers’ keep suspiciously popping up everywhere I go.”

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” he grins, “We’re interested.”

“What does that even mean? That you’re interested?” I wrack my brain, “As in all seven of you fuckers?”

“It means, jagi,” Namjoon pauses, leaning closer, “It means that we’re going to date the shit out of you.”

a/n: i love namjoon. that is all. 

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Human Custom

AN: So this fic started as an anon that just kept getting longer and became it’s own fic. Which is why I am not yet done answering anons. The idea was so soft and let me tell you anon, I spent many nights just rereading this prompt and thinking it was so very soft. I’m not too happy with how the Master sounds in this as it is more from his POV and I don’t have a great grasp on Dhawan!Master’s POV but I tried my best!

Word Count: 1773

Description: Written based off of this anon

Tag List: @c-s-stars @queerconfusionthings @how-masterful @truthbehindthemysteries

The Master huffed and rolled his eyes at all of the gaudy Valentine's gifts still on display in the store. He honestly believed they should just throw them all out the second it was the 15th. It was bad enough to have to see them before the “most romantic day of the year”. He couldn’t believe that he had to subject himself to this just because you had forgotten something while doing the shopping. Of course, you couldn’t just do without. So someone had to go get what you forgot. Lucky him.

To be fair he probably shouldn’t have volunteered to go for you so you didn’t have to feel embarrassed about the shop staff seeing you come back for something. You had been absolutely adorable when you pressed your face into his chest bemoaning your forgetfulness. It had made him forget how much he hated going shopping like this on Earth. It reminded him too much of the 77 years he had been trapped without a TARDIS. Which always left him in a touchy, annoyed mood.

The two teen boys blocking his way past as they slowly walked down the aisle were pissing him off too. If it wouldn’t cause even more trouble for him he would just TCE them both and be done with it. He took a deep breath. He would just push past them soon and continue on his way. It was fine. He would get what you had forgotten and you would jokingly call him "your hero". Giving him a soft, loving kiss for his troubles. It would be worth the annoyances to make you happy.

The Master had no choice but to listen to the two kid's conversation with the volume they were talking at. Wonderful.

“Look man, it’s complete bullshit that she didn’t tell you she was moving until yesterday!”

“She just wanted us to have a normal date before telling me that we would be going long-distance okay?”

The Master wanted to roll his eyes so hard that they fell out of his skull. He did not want to be stuck listening to lower lifeforms and their romantic struggles. He settled instead for slowly dragging his hand down his face. 

"I'm just gonna get her one of those stereotypical bears holding a heart stuffed animals to give her before she moves. It's on sale so it's not going to cost me much if she does end up breaking up with me."

"Fair enough, man. It's your money."

Stereotypical bear? Was this some customary holiday gift or something? The Master had to admit he was curious.

Then he saw them. Dozens of bears of different sizes and colors. Most of which were holding a heart-shaped pillow with the words "I love you" on it. He wanted to be disgusted by them but then the image of you clutching and cuddling a bear after falling asleep while waiting for him to join you entered his thoughts. You would probably love it, and it would be absolutely precious seeing you cuddling a stuffed animal he got for you. He needed to get one for you now. The image would consume his mind until he gave in to it.

He examined a few of them trying to decide which one would be the least insufferable to buy and carry back to you. They all seemed too human of a gift. He couldn't see himself handing you one of these. Besides none of them were the size he imagined. The Master wanted it to be half the size of you, something you could curl around comfortably. Something inhumanly soft for you to smush your face into as he teased you for your bed head and sleepy expression after waking up.

This store may be too human but humans spread across the universe in the future taking their customs and holidays with them. It shouldn't be too hard to find something that fit what he pictured. Something big, soft, and decidedly not human-like. And none of that cliche "I love you" on a heart stuff. He could get something much more profound for you.

The Master rushed back towards the TARDIS. He knew just where to go to get what he wanted. Brushing past you he began to take off immediately. 

"Did you get the milk?” You asked in bewilderment at his hasty actions.

“They were out.”

Well fuck. He forgot that there had been a reason he was in that store in the first place. Perhaps he shouldn't have rushed off in such a hurry.

“They were out of milk,” your tone was completely flat.

You definitely didn’t believe his lie. Why didn’t he think of a believable lie instead of just saying the first thing he thought of?

“Okay, fine! I thought of something that I need to buy before I got to the milk. Two birds, one stone situation. I can get both the milk and what I need from the store I am going to.”

You wrapped your arms around him, leaning your head against his body. His body relaxing as you held onto him. He loved you so much for being so understanding.

"Okay, Master. As long as we do get some milk. We really need some so I can bake and you can make us hot chocolate. I'm still jealous that you make hot chocolate so much better than I do. One day I'll learn your secret."

Closing his eyes for just a moment the Master enjoyed the comfort of your embrace. Once the TARDIS landed he reluctantly left your arms. He had a plan to accomplish.

"I'll be back. And this time I won't forget to grab some milk."

"Oooh, you did forget. You admit it!"

He playfully booped your nose. Anyone other than you talking to him like that wouldn't survive the next minute. When you did it, it was fine. In fact, it was encouraged.  He loved it when you were playful with him. He wanted you to have no fear of him, to treat him like an ordinary person. Even if he couldn't be any further from ordinary.

"Well if someone else hadn't forgotten in the first place we wouldn't be in this position."

You covered your face with your hands as you flusteredly cried out, "Nooo, don't remind me!" with a laugh. You were too adorable to handle. He would never get over it. If he ever lost you somewhere - and he would never dare lose you- he could just describe you as adorable and you would be quickly found.

His errand didn’t take long at all, especially when he chose to have the inhuman stuffed animal sent to the TARDIS by teleportation. In no time at all, he was back by your side smiling to himself as he presented you with the milk. He had been successful in getting just the right stuffed animal for you. You would be wonderfully surprised.

"Did you get what you needed?"

You were soft in your curiosity. Not pushing too much for an answer but expressing your interest in what he did.

"Yes. It should be here shortly. I asked for it to be packaged and sent so I didn't have to carry it and the milk."

"I'll be back soon then. I'm just going to go put this away before I manage to forget."

Perfect. By the time you got back to the console room, the box should be here for you to open. He watched you leave. The moment you were gone he lowered the TARDIS shields so that the gift could be delivered. Just as he put the shields back up you walked back in.

"What did you need to get? The box is huge!"

"Open it and find out."

You gave him a wary look as if you feared that he was playing a prank on you. The Master didn't let it bother him, your reaction should more than makeup for your minor distrust. It’s not as if it wasn’t justified. He had played pranks on you this way before. The joyous laughter and smile on your face when you pulled the stuffed animal out of the box sped his hearts up. It was some weird combination of a bunch of standard anatomy of different animal species found in the universe. With fins, tentacles, and antenna. Half the size of you, you could just barely bring your arms completely around it. He had made sure that it was as soft as possible, softer than any other stuffed animal in the universe.

Gasping, you moaned out into the stuffed animal as you smushed your face into it. "Master it's so soft!"

You pranced over to him, your face still pressed into the stuffed animal. You were ever more precious and adorable than he had imagined you would be.

You popped your head out from behind the stuffed animal to ask him curiously, " what does it say, Master?".

He didn't want to admit what it said. It almost felt embarrassing to say.

"What? Don't you know?"

"I can guess but you know that I can't read it! The TARDIS likes teasing me too much."

You playfully pouted at the TARDIS by looking up towards the ceiling. In truth, the reason the TARDIS rarely translated for you within her walls was to ensure the two of you spent time together. The Master never tried to hide how much he adored holding you in his lap as he read to you for hours. So his TARDIS created opportunities for him but refusing to translate while you were in the TARDIS if not necessary. He sighed. He might as well tell you before you assumed it was something as generic as "I love you" written on the heart.

"It says, you are my universe."

He messed up. You had tears starting to form in your eyes. What had he done? This was a terrible idea. His hands moved to cradle your face, prepared to wipe away any tears.

"Oh no, don't cry! Shh, shh , sh. It's okay."

"Sorry, I just- this is just really sweet and I'm a bit overwhelmed. M' not sad if that's what you're worried about Master."

Shifting the stuffed animal to one side you moved in close to hug him. Pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Your lips as sweet and soft as they always were. He could never tire of the sensation of your lips against each other.

"I love you, Master."

It wasn't the first time you had said it. But his heart swelled all the same as this time he held you close in his arms.

the teacher and the scientist au: worldbuilding

I am writing some original stuff right now, and as a break where I can keep writing, I’m going to explain some of my worldbuilding/choices that I make when it comes to my modern “the teacher and the scientist” AU. The hope is that it will be fun for others to see what goes into a fic, or give people ideas for their own fics!

*a quick note: I am a white Latina! I have no East Asian heritage! I studied for a while in Beijing and speak Mandarin Chinese fluently, so I kind of defer to my experiences there when making worldbuilding choices in fic (because I believe strongly in writing what you know, especially given the damage you might cause by writing what you don’t know), but will also do research online or through friends on other countries and cultures that inspired the four nations in ATLA. But all of this is just to say that while I do put a lot of thought into this stuff, I am by no means the authority on any of it, and I am open to criticism and of course always want to make sure I’m not doing anything harmful with my writing. I promise to listen and adapt if you approach me about literally anything in my fic or in this post.

Ok now let’s get into it!

1. The setting: Ba Sing Se’s Natural History Museum This is based on a combination of the Beijing Museum of Natural History, the American Natural History Museum in New York, and Beijing’s Forbidden City/Gugong. Beijing I think is probably the biggest inspiration for Ba Sing Se with the ring system and centering of the palace (and I mean the Earth King’s palace is pretty directly based off of Tiananmen Square), so it seems like a pretty solid model for a modern Ba Sing Se to me.

2. The field trip I went on so many field trips to the Natural History Museum when I was little, and they were always the absolute most fun of the year. And I feel like we went to the planetarium basically every time? It was kind of fun to recall and try to capture the experience of being a little kid on this trip in this fic

3. The Lower Ring & the Middle Ring I put Zuko and his students as coming from the Lower Ring for a few reasons. Firstly, I couldn’t imagine Katara and Aang living in either the financial district that is the Middle Ring or the ostentatiousness of the Upper Ring. I think if they were in Ba Sing Se they’d work and raise their family in the Lower Ring (I will be getting into their jobs in later installments of this story, so I won’t explain them here!), which means Bumi goes to school in the Lower Ring, which then means Zuko has to work there in order to be his teacher and for this entire concept to work out (and also the reasons explained in the actual fic where he lived there with Iroh and wants to give back). And the museum is in the Middle Ring because I wanted it connected to the university, which canonically is in Ba Sing Se’s Middle Ring.

4. Sokka as an astrophysicist Because Sokka is a smart kid and a huge science nerd, okay??? And Yue and the space sword. It makes sense. Also, because Ba Sing Se = ATLA’s Beijing, I think of Ba Sing Se University as Beida （北大）or Peking University, which is China’s first national university and one of the most, if not the most, selective university in the country (disclaimer: I did not study at Beida!!). But yeah BSSU is the Earth Kingdom’s most illustrious university and one of the best research institutions in the world, and Sokka’s a tenured professor there. My boy’s world-class brilliant.

5. “Teacher Zuko” Ughhh I really struggled with this. Basically, I was taught in learning Chinese to address teachers as “Surname 老师 (lao3shi1),” which is “Surname Teacher.” But! I didn’t want to give Zuko a surname, because that seemed rife with opportunities for missteps (there’s a lot that goes into surnames of literally any country or culture, from geography to family history and occupations, and I didn’t want to co-opt anything that wasn’t mine to use). So I knew the kids would call him by his first name. But “Zuko Teacher” sounded off. And in Chinese, titles like Mr. or Miss or Mrs. go after one’s surname, while in English it’s the opposite, so I figured for this fic it was appropriate to implement the English convention. So! “Teacher Zuko.”

6. Sokka’s appearance Sokka’s one of those hot, young professors that appear only in popular media, or once in a blue moon. He finds out from Katara that white sneakers are an easy way to look in the fashion know while remaining marginally professional for class, and they become a staple of his uniform. I picture him in Stan Smiths. (And of course they’re a little beaten up! It’s Sokka!)

7. The gaang’s ages Okay, so, I can’t find the actual post where this is broken down, but I think canonically it makes sense that Katara and Aang were 22 and 20, respectively, when Bumi was born. I put them in this fic at being maybe a year or two older in this fic, so let’s say 23 and 21, when they have Bumi, in Katara’s second year of med school. So when this fic takes place, as Bumi is six years old, they are 29 and 27, and Sokka and Zuko are then 30 and 31.

oh my god we’re only 700 words into a 4,000-word fic why did I decide to do this to myself

8. Sokka looking at his watch and having a penchant for exact minutes He’s a master scheduler. That’s it. 

9. “My Uncle Mushi lives in Chin City” This was just kind of an opportunity to integrate more from the ATLA universe! Obvi “Mushi” is Iroh’s refugee alias, but whatever another kid can have it, and yeah Chin City is that terrible village with all of those wacky people from “Avatar Day.” So we know the kid’s uncle is wacky. Fat chance of going on a field trip to visit him.

10. Zuko calling Bumi talented There’s that scene in the episode where they go to the Sun Warriors that Zuko calls Aang “a talented kid.” Bumi’s Aang’s son, so I figure by the transitive property Zuko would describe him the same way.

11. Zuko’s scar  I don’t know why but I often forget to mention Zuko’s scar in other fics! Either way, I find kids usually respond to people’s differences better than most adults do. Kids just see things and comment on them, which, yeah, can be rude by societal standards, but I’d imagine it would be very refreshing for Zuko after going much of his life with people trying to avoid either staring at the left side of his face or talking about what happened. Also, I didn’t really want to get into the cause of the scar. Obviously Ozai did it. I don’t have an idea of how. Other fics have done that better. Explaining it within the fic the way Zuko would explain it to his class seemed like a good way to tell the reader, “Hey yeah it’s the same cause as in the show,” but then not have to get into it.

12. Sokka hates intro classes Ughhh no one likes intro classes, and I’d imagine it’s even worse for professors. Prerequisites are often too easy for the kids intending on majoring or too hard and meant to weed out the kids who can’t stick with the department’s program. College is funny.

13. Aang volunteers in Zuko’s class From what I can tell, parental involvement in schools is only getting bigger. And Aang is a great dad and I think he’d take any opportunity to get involved with Bumi’s school.

14. Zuko’s backstory I should probably take the time to explain this! Basically I think of this story existing in a universe where after they moved to Ba Sing Se under circumstances comparable to their being refugees in the show, Iroh and Zuko actually stayed in the city, and Zuko got his education there. And yeah! My boy went to BSSU, too!

15. Stargazing at the South Pole and seeing the moon at the North Pole Oh my god the pure amount of thought that went into this. I worked with the assumption that A:TLA takes place on Earth, and that then the rotations of Earth, and the rotation of the moon, are the same as what we experience now (I’ve thought about this extensively, especially as it pertains to the hemispheres and the seasons, but I don’t want to talk about it here, we simply do not have either the time or space). So the South Pole is essentially the same as our Antarctica/South Pole, except that it is capable of sustaining human life for an extended amount of time, and in theory has greater biodiversity (clearly I have also thought about this extensively, but again, we have neither the time nor the space for my theories). I had to read a NASA report on the phases of the moon as seen from the South Pole! And it turns out you can’t see much of the moon down there, and it is always in crescent form. but yeah, you see a lot of stars (but in the opposite rotation of what we see in the Northern Hemisphere), and I thought that was intriguing, especially given the importance of moon imagery throughout the show. Thus, Sokka’s first seeing the moon in the Northern Water Tribe, which ties in perfectly with his meeting Yue, his first love: “You could say the moon was my first love.” (Which someone pointed out in a comment on Ao3, and it absolutely delighted me that they noticed!)

16. Pipsqueak Just looking for more people from the show to serve as first graders in this fic. Someone commented that they pictured him the same size as he was in canon, and I laughed out loud.

17. Tuyanjing I was trying to think of constellations that look like badger-moles, and I honestly just thought, “Ursa Major. Badger-moles look like giant bears.” And “Tuyanjing” (土眼睛) is my own translation of “earth eye,” which was meant to be a nod to the animals’ connection to Toph and their blindness and earthbending. 

18. All the stars & mentioning the Fire Nation & Water Tribe navigation I was initially going to write something in this scene about ancient constructions, like the pyramids, that were built using the constellations, and then create some elaborate metaphor about them and Zukka. But the only coherent thought I had about it was that it was “Too Much Work.” Instead I realized okay sailors always use the stars for navigation, and the Water Tribes and Fire Nation are the only nations we’ve seen with boats, so let’s go for that, and it works out because if you squint maybe you’ll read something about the stars guiding them to each other. Maybe we’re evoking thoughts of star-crossed lovers. And then we mention the moon again, and Zuko’s really seeing it for the first time, kind of like Sokka did, so hey I don’t know maybe that’s a symbol of something. Maybe.  

And that’s really it I think! Hopefully this was at least entertaining if not entirely informative. I don’t normally write stuff out like this, but it is a good reflection of my thought process while writing most fics. Again, I am open to any kind of communication about the above as well as anything else I’ve posted! And I’d love to hear about any of your own ideas that help you with worldbuilding and writing your own fics :)

watching this and i want to scream????? 

apparently sanha bleaches his hair every three days ??? fantagio this can’t be healthy 

bin’s wearing a shirt that has ‘merman’ on it asdfjlKJAHSDLK time to cry

bin wanted to be a swordsman but then after that he wanTED TO BE AN ASTRONAUT BECAUSE HE LOVES SPACE I’M YELLING

lmao bin saying that he wants to go to space maybe when it’s possible when he’s 70-80 and the mc telling him to earn enough money first lmAOOOO

ALSO I’M YELLING THEY’RE DOING THE CHORUS OF BABY ACAPELLA 

apparently there are three point dances to baby:

‘gentlemen’ actions like spraying perfume (the first part) and cuffing their shirts (the last part)

‘saying hello’ in the slidey chorus part (‘a butterfly,’ rocky says, ‘but also like, don’t come near my face’)

the ‘butterfly dance’ because rocky made it (i assume this is in reference to the ‘the floor is lava’ jump)

mj describing i’ll be there as a ‘goodnight goodnight’ song and everyone cackling and correcting him & bin: “it’s every minute u bitch” and everyone laughing again becaUSE IT’S DREAM NIGHT SON

mj choosing because it’s you as his fave song

eunwoo picking i’ll be there and lie 

mj interrupting to ask if he could eat the watermelon LOL

eunwoo telling him to go ‘goodnight goodnight’ after eating i live for savage eunwoo

IM CRYIGN everyone singing i’ll be there acapella 

but rocky just snorting to himself instead of singing and jinjin slapping rocky on the neck 

mc: ????

rocky: ‘everyone’s singing but then i’m hearing jinjin sing and he goT THE MELODY WRONG’

jinjin: ‘i’m a rapper!!’ :D

now they have games 

eunwoo not being able to rip the sticker off the board properly LOL

they’re singing baby in different styles 

mj about 2 sing baby in the style of troT!!! members complimenting that he’s good at singing trot

SANHA ASDKJHFASD HE’S SINGING BABY AS A BABY SONG I’M RIOTING

mj slapping him on the neck sAme

mj slAYING HIS TROT

AKJSDFHALSKJDFH BIN SAYS HE’S GOING TO DO A SEXY VERSION

update: i’m deAD HE’S JUST MAKING UNNECESSARY BREATHY NOISES I’M

jinjin saying it just sounds like a 變熊 version (?? idk what this is)

BIN MOANED THE ‘OH’ I’M ADSAJKLJHKJHFLASLHKJDF

rip vivi 2k17

eunwoo doing an idiot version (do u remember donggu from that one astro play where dongmin put on those weird glasses and acted like an idiot)

astro dying of laughter 

rip astro 2k17

jinjin clearing his throat because someone suggested a nursery song style and he’s abouT TO FALSETTO IT 

jinjin’s voice cracking i’m cryign

he’s not falsettoing it he’s just screaming i’mlauggh i love jinjin

saucy wink

rocky about 2 drop a saTOORI VERSION I’M !!

sanha has to act something out and everyone has to guess

sanha flopping around 

everyone guessing different types of birds

mj: “pufferfish???”

sanha: yEs

seal sanha + doggo sanha 

cat sanha

everyone guessing ‘cat’

eunwoo: ‘aoa sunbaenims????’ ibtch whAt

sanha being a gorilla

everyone saying ‘gorilla’

mj: ‘ROCKY ROCKY ROCKY’

sanha being another type of monkey (?)

everyone guessing different types of monkeys

mj: ‘ROCKY ROCKY ROCKY’ 

sanha acting out a third different kind of monkey (i think orang utan???)

mj: ‘ROCKY ROCKY ROCKY!!!!!’ 

mc: whY IS EVERYONE ROCKY

also mj: ‘SANHA’ asdfasjdf

sanha being another bird (?)

bunny sanha + lion sanha + koala sanha

caption: “go to the zoo, you’ll fit right in” HAHAHHAHAHAHA

next game: astro has to pick 2 members and say 5 sentences that will move the viewer’s heart (??? flirting w the camera?)

bin volunteering mj

mj: LISTEN IT’S NOT JUST GOING TO BE HEART-MOVING IT’S GOING TO BE HEART-STOPPING

mj, reciting the chorus of baby while rubbing his lip

astro: ‘stoP RECITING BABY LYICS’

mj: godMAMA

“you believe in oppa, right?”

“you should only look at me”

mj stopping becauSE EVERYONE KEEPS LAUGHING AT HIM

“sunbae, i love you”

“noona, daTE ME PLS”

“aunty, you’re really pretty!!”

conclusion: i love mj

mj volunteerING JINJIN I’M CRYIGN 

jinjin taking deep breaths

jinjin: ‘darling...’, smirking then bursting out laughing a,dfjhasadh

bin: ‘IM GON PUKE’

jinjin: ‘let’s go out & get coffee!!’

jinjin, grabbing rocky’s neck: “do u want 2 kiss me”

rockY LOOKING HORRIFIED

everyone begging him to redo it 

jinjin: ‘next time i’ll be better to you’

everYONE BEGGING HIM TO REDO EVERYTHING & jinjin pretending not to hear

jinjin, sending a heart kiss: i love u!! and everyone finally acknowledging it as the first sentence

jinjin: what do you meAN I FINISHED ALL 5

them volunteering eunwoo instead 

‘manhwa version!!’ and astro singing the shalalala~ backing track

eunwoo: ‘actually... i’ve liked you for a long time from afar... date me?’

astro clapping in defeat nobody can beat the king of flirting

also astro: ‘why am i uncomfortable suddenly’ saMe

last one: who’s the best at taking selfies?

nearly everyone pointing at sanha 

bin pointing at himself then sanha LMAOOOO

eunwoo pointing at himself LOL

eunwoo changing his vote to rocky

sanha getting 4 votes and rocky getting 2 becauSE HE VOTED FOR HIMSELF

“ROCKY SWAG” ASKDFLHKADS

baby sanha demonstrating his 4 cut fairy i’m so !!!!! my heart is !!!!!! he’s so pure!!!!!!

everyone posing for a photo and mj beaming and bin doing the three claw baby bear thing my heart is weeping i love that pose so much

eunwoo winking and jinjin being cute!!

ROCKY JUST BEING SWAG I’M

this is singularly the most ~astro~ video i’ve watched this week i’m crying i love it 

there’ll probably be subs out there somewhere but meanwhile this is what i can do rip i wish i had translating software and time because this is the funniest shit everyone needs to watch it

This past week, Scott Berinato wrote a timely article in the Harvard Business Review entitled, That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief. He explains how some of the HBR edit staff met online the other day (as so many of us are now doing). Before getting into the day’s business, the faces on the screen took the time to ask how everyone was feeling. As Berinato describes it, “One colleague mentioned that what she felt was grief. Heads nodded in all the panes.” The team decided now was as good a time as ever to take a deeper dive into the topic.

They turned to David Kessler, the world’s leading expert on grief, who co-authored On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. Kessler is also the founder of www.grief.comwhich has over 5 million visits yearly from 167 countries. His experiences have taken him from Auschwitz concentration camp to Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta, and his volunteer work includes serving as a member of the Red Cross Mental Health Disaster Team and as a Specialist Reserve Officer on the trauma team of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kessler’s personal experience with grief is what prompted his professional journey. When he was a child, he witnessed a mass shooting while his mother was dying in hospital. In 2016, his youngest son died suddenly at 21 years old. In light of our common explanations for grief, the HBR staff asked Kessler if it was fair to label what many are feeling right now during this COVID-19 crisis as “grief”. Kessler was unequivocal in his response:

Yes, and we’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.

I appreciate how Kessler highlights the need to honestly grieve the things that we have lost during this time. The pain is real and shouldn’t be ignored. He then goes on to talk about a special kind of grief he calls “anticipatory grief”. The term piqued my curiosity.

Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we’ll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety.

Kessler demonstrates great insight into what is currently happening—what many of us are actually doing during this pandemic: grieving losses that haven’t yet happened. We suspect that they could happen, and so our minds, almost in an attempt to lessen the blow should our worst fears come true, put us on alert. Awareness of the possible dangers ahead is useful and can inform us how to act in face of threats like COVID-19, but I had to ask myself, Isn’t going so far as grieving future losses the same thing that Jesus called worry? I kept reading, and sure enough, Kessler makes that connection…

Unhealthy anticipatory grief is really anxiety, and that’s the feeling you’re talking about. Our mind begins to show us images. My parents getting sick. We see the worst scenarios.

It’s no wonder Jesus taught us to banish worry from our lives. Our minds and bodies were not meant to bear the burdens of days, months and years in the future. I’ve always thought of worry as interest we pay on money that we don’t even owe. It makes no sense! And we’ve all heard that unsubstantiated (but likely true) statistic that something like 95% of the things we worry about never come true anyway.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Jesus, Matthew 6:34)

Jesus knew that worry (a.k.a. anticipatory grief) breaks down our faith. It makes us question our security and doubt God’s promises. As Christians, we often differentiate between the faith that a person exercises to become a follower of Jesus with the faith that we exercise on a day-to-day basis, but faith is faith. Whether we are trusting God for the destiny of our eternal souls or to provide the money we need to buy groceries, it can all be reduced to the same two questions: Do we believe Jesus is who he says he is, and do we believe that he will do what he says?

As we get into the Easter season, we will surely hear the story of doubting Thomas, that disciple of Christ who needed to see the scars in Jesus’ hands and feet before he would believe that he had indeed resurrected from the dead. I can almost hear the seeker-friendly preachers across North America telling their listeners (whether in a physical or virtual services) that God accepts our doubts. It has become a popular mantra in today’s most welcoming churches, and I certainly appreciate the sentiment behind the statement. We need to bring our doubts to Jesus, knowing that he welcomes us no matter what. But we have to be careful about creating an expectation that people should become comfortable just hanging out with the people of God as they wallow in their doubts. Jesus accepts us with our doubts, but we must be clear (as Jesus was clear) that he expects us to dispose of our doubts. Repeatedly in the gospels we see him exhorting his friends in this way.

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:28-31)

These doubts continued even after Jesus rose from the dead…

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:17)

In Matthew 14 and 28, Matthew uses the word distazo for doubt, a word that literally means “double standing” and invokes the image of someone not sure of which foot to stand on. When I learned French, I discovered that indecisiveness is often called être assis entre deux chaises—sitting between two chairs. It’s the same idea. Jesus wants us to make up our minds as to where we are placing the weight of our faith.

In another post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, Luke records…

He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? (Luke 24:38)

Luke used the term dialogismoi for doubt. The word gives the idea of an internal dialogue that happens inside of us when we question Jesus’ claims. But I want to draw attention to the word John uses in his gospel when he records his account of Thomas.

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27)

John, often called the Evangelist, wrote his entire gospel “that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” As the disciple closest to Jesus, he understood Jesus’ resolve to see his followers leave doubt in the dust, and so he chose the most powerful word for doubt we see anywhere in the gospels. His word for doubt is apistos, and it actually refers to the character of the individual, not the action of doubting. His final statement to Thomas is literally translated kai me ginou apistos alla pistos: “Stop being an unbeliever, but a believer!”

Jesus said that the person who doubted was essentially an unbeliever. He didn’t differentiate between absolute belief and in-this-moment belief; to him it was all the same. Either we trust him all of the time, or we don’t.

Now, those of us who have committed to following Christ understand that this is a constant struggle, and we don’t live in fear of Christ’s rejection. But we relate to the brokenness of the father of the demon-possessed child in Mark chapter 9 who cried, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” The bottom line is that Jesus expects us to try. It doesn’t matter if we call it a resistance to the gospel, worry, or anticipatory grief—it is all contrary to exercising faith. Faith is not a feeling; it is a determination to walk in a chosen path.

So, whether you’re stressed right now about your finances or health, or just bending under the weight of the unknowable, act in faith. Pray. Change your outlook. Declare what you believe out loud so that the devils of hell can hear it. Do something that demonstrates your confidence in Jesus even when you’re not feeling it. Tell someone what you’re thankful for. Sing.

We can get through this by faith.

Saturn

Played with my imagination until the imagination played me. Debated between post-game IgNoct with constant reminders of what would never be or old and mature IgNoct where a full life was led. Post-game it is but seriously, I have a need for older IgNocts where they’re married, have adopted kids after World of Ruin, and living happily in their own set of adventures not just in the palace, growing old together. FFXV spoilers. I disagree with most of World of Ruin and that unsatisfactory ending. Ao3 Link

-

“I can’t lose you. Because if I ever did, I’d have lost my best friend, my soul mate, my smile, my laugh, my everything.”

-

I couldn’t help but ask For you to say it all again. I tried to write it down But I could never find a pen. I’d give anything to hear You say it one more time, That the universe was made Just to be seen by my eyes. - “Saturn” by Sleeping At Last

-

To every story, there’s a resolution. Regardless in how the book ended, the events that transpired had its fill of conflicts, merriment, melancholy, suffering, and absolution. Not every story had its happy ending, but life marched on. It wasn’t the matter of the destination, but the journey that led to it.

Umbra, who vehemently remained at Ignis Scientia’s side for reasons unknown and unprecedented, had settled in a favorite space by the door, acting as a guardian of his domain. Metal tags clinked together as the master walked in the room to conclude the day. The man regarded the loyal canine with a nod. The messenger dog huffed and let out a submissive whine unlike anything the man had heard. He turned around to find a familiar presence seated at a table and reaching down to pet the approaching Umbra.

Noctis Lucis Caelum, a fine black cloak and gold chains over his shoulders, was gleefully showering Umbra with much warranted affection. The dog rolled to the side and his leg kicked vigorously, supposedly a good spot was caught almost immediately. The Savior of the Star laughed at the canine’s demands before the cobalt orbs filled with the wonders of the universe flicked to Ignis.

The man was unscathed and vibrant with life. “Hey.”

Ignis nearly dropped his cup as he stumbled towards Noctis, the man who made himself to be seen by Ignis’ eyes alone.

“I was never ready to let you go.” Ignis began as he all but collapsed in the chair, lacing his fingers around a steaming mug.

“We’re on the same boat.” Noctis concurred as he laid his chin into his palm. Umbra had curled up at the king’s feet, dozing peacefully. “I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.” He turned his head, examining the room they were in. “Guess you took Gladio’s advice about opening a restaurant.”

Ignis raised the mug to his lips and gave it a couple tentative blows, listening to the rapid ripples on its surface. “More of a coffee shop slowly being renovated into a restaurant.”

A few months ago, Gladiolus casually remarked that Ignis should make a food chain establishment and Prompto and Noctis encouraged the notion. Naturally, Ignis took pride in his culinary sixth sense but didn’t imagine that it would go anywhere beyond presenting meals to his loved ones. For ten years he was a daemon hunter under the Leide division and a part-time chef at Takka’s Pit Stop, temporary occupations until Noctis awoke from crystal stasis. Serving as advisor to the Crown and Noctis’ right hand always came first.

But Insomnia was in dire need of repair and stabilization. What remained of the Crownsguard and heresy of democracy couldn’t flourish if there was no foundation. People trickled in through the checkpoint and the ruins of what was once the jewel of Lucis, uncertain of where to continue from there, searching for work. Those who were able — men, women, even children who scouted for salvageable resources in the wreckage — pitched in. Ignis began with selling freshly brewed coffee and prepared sandwiches to the workers, making sure that everyone he ran across had plenty to eat. He soon relocated to a partially intact building. Gladiolus, Prompto, Iris, Cor, and even Aranea were his frequent customers.

“E and I, huh? Come over to the E and I for that caffeine fix.” The Chosen King mused to himself, having only seen the interior. “So, what do the initials stand for? Ergonomics and inventory?” He attempted with a wave of a hand. “Definitely two things you’d stress over.”

“Ah-ha,” the owner rolled his eyes. “Ebony & Ivory. But if I ever have a dilemma where a building required a name, I’ll be certain to refer to someone else.” Despite being rejected, it didn’t stop the king from having a huge smile on his face.

“I can barely recognize the place. It doesn’t look like the sushi joint I waited tables for.” Noctis complimented with awe before wrinkling his nose. “Can’t say I miss the fish smell though. There… was a fishy smell, right? I didn’t imagine it?”

Before its official renaming, Ebony & Ivory went through a number of changes. While it was curious that Noctis retained his sense of smell, there was a large hole in the roof, easiest method of ventilation but drastically needed to be filled. Ignis hadn’t noticed, volunteers banded together remodel the place, and he had been informed that the designs were well-done. Perhaps they were so eager to work on the restaurant because as of late, its owners have been serving even guests who couldn’t afford to pay. It made no difference, Ignis was rather impressed with the compliments and the fragrance of Ebony mingled with hints of potpourri in the air.

“It’s so strange. Even past closing and I don’t have company over, I’m still setting the table for two.”

“Expecting me?”

“Yes.” It was a force of habit that remained true to this day. Ignis caught himself thinking that he should wake Noctis from his nap and tell him supper was ready.

“Didn’t know that. But then again, you’d probably wait for me until the end of time.” He reflected as he unraveled a napkin in a way that made the advisor’s chest squeeze. It was how a young prince had done before discarding unwanted vegetables from his plate. Noctis found Ignis staring and smiled.

“Apologies.” Ignis said immediately, not absolutely certain as to what for.

“Hey, why are you saying sorry?” Noctis gave him a rueful grin. “Sorry for leaving everyone behind.”

“We were young and ignorant of what waited ahead, the trials we had to endure, and… Accepting the consequences…”

“Never looking back.” Noctis concluded, bowing his head. “We’ve walked tall through it all.”

“I wish I found a way to save you.” Ignis lamented. He and Talcott had no leads than a persistent curiosity to act upon. They visited the Lucian royal tombs and pored over ancient texts, much of it indecipherable and the strategist did the best he could in translating them when the teenager signed extinct languages in his palms. All they learned was Ardyn’s origin, a forgotten history to be consumed by dust and the passages of time. There had to be something they glossed over or a solution to… “If we had searched harder—” He slammed his fist on the table, disrupting the lone mug of Ebony. “Ten bloody years and nothing to show for it.”

“You know the song, Ignis,” Noctis’ voice was soft as he cloaked the spilled mess with the napkin. “We take what we’re given. We do what we must.”

“We take what we’re given. We do what we must.” Words that Ignis expressed upon discovering Noctis seated on the throne. When their companions had remained still, the advisor had relinquished a glove and tenderly caressed the king’s face, flesh slightly warm, a beard scratched his palm, but no pulse could be detected. Blood still oozed from the deep slash in his abdomen, although the heart had ceased beating for some time. There was no comfort in hoping that he suffered very little in the end. Ignis’ chest constricted knowing that Noctis died alone. “Good night, my brave king.” He said as he laid his lips upon on Chosen King’s smooth brow, a ritual he had done every night, but it would be the last.

Darkness had fell around Ignis long ago and he became greatly attuned to it and in the mastery, led others through it. He suffered to limit the sufferings of many. Ultimately, it was an ignorant ideal, he wasn’t blind to the reality that consumed him.  

Noctis was given a pyre funeral and his ashes were scattered at the places he went, Gladiolus and Prompto saw to that. Despite being nearly everywhere in Eos, flowers were laid on the restored throne, people to this day have paid their respects before the king’s final resting place. A pinch of the ashes was fashioned into a pendant that Ignis never took off, right next to the dog tags that identified him as a hunter, souvenirs that he never expected to have.

Ignis stared back, clutching the trinkets of emotional weight around his neck. The body was but a vessel, but the soul, Noctis’ soul, had the freedom to roam wherever it wished. He could hear Noctis’ voice still, and it was clear as day. The ill-fated king wasn’t here, not truly, just as he wasn’t gone. But the strategist was willing to believe they were sitting across each other right now.

Ignis had waited ten years for his dear friend and beloved to return to him only to be stolen away in less than twenty-four hours. There was a shared wish amongst the fortunate: may they dwell in Noctis’ heart evermore and may he in them. But it wasn’t fair, to have a hand in guiding Noctis towards his deathbed ever since they departed the Crown City was far more than Ignis could take. The strategist could still hear the king’s broken voice in what he intended to do and Ignis would’ve gladly died in Noctis’ place if it would preserve him. Anything but this.

Then why did Noctis depart the world with a smile on his face?

Fighting the emotion surging through his chest, Ignis leaned in toward his visitor. “If you had known this was fate from the beginning, would you still have embarked the journey?”

This time, Noctis couldn’t be flippant in his response. “You once told me that I wasn’t be alone in bearing the burden, but that’s not true. I couldn’t avoid it anymore. Not when it was looming over my head waiting for me to step up to the plate.” He swallowed. “You guys did what my old man asked. You stayed at my side and that was enough.”

Those who doubted Noctis’ culpability and comprehension didn’t know him at all. Reluctance wasn’t equivalent to refusal. He had always known what had been at stake and the consequence inevitable: the Chosen King sacrificed himself for all regardless of who fell along the path so he may survive.

Ignis found it pointless to argue with a conjured spirit or a form of Noctis manifested from a long period of yearning, both spoke volumes of the deceased’s essence. Noctis would’ve never walked away. Time to change the subject. Perhaps he should’ve offered Noctis a drink or started off with a casual conversation. But words failed him, it was unexpected.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of what could’ve been…”

“Yeah, me too. If it weren’t for the fact that marriage was a sore subject way back when, I’d work up the nerve to propose to you.”

Ignis’ throat tightened. “Truly?” As per his duty to the Crown, he was prepared to see Noctis wed to another and he too was prepared to marry a woman of his sire’s choice. That was before they found themselves in a precarious situation in each other’s arms. Ignis loved Noctis before he was his to cherish. They were permitted to love each other.

“Yeah. Didn’t want to get your hopes up… or mine. But I saw that kind of future with you, maybe helping you run this coffee shop slash restaurant. You get the king as your business partner and your first guy to go to for taste-testing new recipes. Talk about a steal.”

“That might be a deal breaker, dear heart. I imagined you taking creative liberties with the menu and treating your feline friends to complimentary meals behind my back.” Not that Ignis would’ve minded the latter, he’s fond of frisky felines though the sentiment was easily surmounted by Noctis’.

Noctis grinned. “Guilty as charged.”

“But…” The strategist pushed a loose chestnut curl of hair upward only for it to stubbornly fall back down. “It’s not a terrible future. It’s rather quaint and sublime.” While enamored by such a possibility, Ignis noticed that Noctis had gone silent with a ghost of a smile on his lips.

With outstretched fingers, Noctis revered his lover as he found the dark tresses behind his ear. “Have I ever told you that I like your hair like this?”

Ignis shook his head, speechless. He flinched, expecting Noctis’ hand to phase through his pompadour.

“Keep it. You know how to be stylish and it shows.”

The strategist blinked before cupping the king’s cheek and stroked flesh with his fingertips. He had never seen Noctis’ face, he bore the face of the late-King Regis but far more handsome and youthful, and yet he was the same Noctis Ignis known for almost his entire life.

Ignis had styled Noctis’ hair since the prince attended high school. It began with a simple trim from a limited expertise of hairdressing and unless it was on his own terms, Noctis despised being touched. He had been pleased with Ignis’ work that for a time, Prompto went on not knowing and wanting to visit the stylist the prince was seeing.    

When Noctis returned to the distant future of Eos, Ignis fought to reclaim some normalcy after the truth came out, snipping velvet and measuring length between his fingers. Some things never did change, the strategist had always been concerned of his king’s well-being and it went beyond the line of duty. Noctis had aged, if not more, during his crystal stasis. Ignis had mapped out worry lines, exhausted crinkles under the eyes, and a beard that wasn’t there before. Though he hadn’t cut hair in some time, Ignis wondered if Noctis fancied his appearance. Now the worry was assuaged, he was beautiful, almost too beautiful to look at.

Noctis leaned into the strategist’s palm. “You’re gonna carry that weight.” It wasn’t a question, it was a fact that both of them knew. A moment of silence rolled by until he warned, clutching his wrist, “Don’t.”

“I can’t.” Ignis’ voice cracked, not certain of whether he should or if he even knew where to begin. Life was established, but a part of him was haunted by the past.

Noctis frowned, a pensive crease in his brow. “You blame yourself, don’t you?”

“I lost you thrice.” Ignis said, simply before a pitiful chuckle escaped his lips. “Well, once, if we are discussing ultimate finalities.” If he allowed himself to forgive, it would equate to losing the person who completed him. Half of Ignis belonged to Noctis and that died when the other achieved ascension. He wouldn’t allow grief to dictate his life, but he also refused to forget.

He could remember key things about Noctis: his laugh, the way his clothes smelled, the feel of his lips on him, their last conversation… Just not his face. Blindness robbed him of what Noctis had looked like and descriptions of a thirty year old version of him proved inadequate. Ignis dedicated this moment to memorizing every detail, tracing faint beauty marks as monuments along the way. Prompto, though he would deny it every time, described Noctis as Ignis ran his fingers over the glossy photographs.

Noctis made a little frustrated sound that roused the brunette from his thoughts. “Ignis, you know that incident I had when I was eight had nothing to do with you, right? And we never did figure out what Ardyn did to the Crystal to twist it in a way that sucked me in like that. But remember, I had closer calls on the road trip.”

“I was around before your condition drastically escalated.”

“Yeah, you always had my back so thanks. But you need to give yourself a break.” Noctis lowered his hand, shrugging. “I’m still here, just not that kind of here.”

“I suppose it’s some kind of disclosed phenomenon why I can see you right now…” Such a straight-forward answer only agitated Ignis’ desire to know. He loathed ambiguities. “So if you’re here and there, what great wisdom have you to impart?”

“Live your life. Don’t worry about me.”

“What?”

“I’ll be waiting for you on the other side, for as long it’ll take. You got a good thing going on here. Live your life, live to be ninety or a hundred and ninety-nine, or something, and when I see you, I’m expecting a good story. Let me take you to an adventure after that. The world beyond can be as big as we want it.”

Ignis’ lips trembled. Surely, an imagination cannot be this cruel. “Don’t go…” he paused, swallowing grief laced with hope at the bittersweet promise as he hastily added, “where I can’t follow.”  

“I’m not going anywhere without you.” Noctis laughed. “But just so it’s easy to find you, imagine a place and hold it in your head. Go ahead, try it. Close your eyes while you’re at it, Speccy.”

“I loathe to do that when you’re here before me now…”

“Won’t take more than a couple seconds.”

After some deliberation, the strategist closed his eyes. “Would my afterlife coincide with yours?”

“Until you don’t want it to. Got it?”

Ignis squeezed his eyes tighter. “Yes.”

Ignis dwelled upon a memory when he and Noctis had went grocery shopping. The chamberlain had advised that the Crown Prince should stay indoors because of a recent snowfall and it was Ignis’ folly for failing to restock the refrigerator. The ground was frozen and snow crunched under their feet. Even as Noctis insisted on accompanying him, his cheeks flared red and he breathed over his gloved hands to keep warm. Ignis bought the Ebony cans from a vending machine to fight off the numbing cold. The cold didn’t matter any more as they stationed themselves by a park bench and watched the world go by for a while.

“Great.” Noctis commended, sounding much closer than he was before. Ignis looked up, the king was standing behind him, his eyes closed. The proprietor’s hearing didn’t pick up on this, but it didn’t matter when he was enveloped in Noctis’ arms. “I’m buying.” He murmured against Ignis’ hair, and to his ears, the promise was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Noctis was warm as that Ebony on that cold winter’s day. Ignis cupped an elbow and leaned into the embrace. The king’s sleeves were rolled up and the strategist traced a finger over the flesh, void of the ridges and scarring that came with inheriting a malevolent heirloom. Not that the scars made him love Noctis any less.  His beloved’s presence was so inherently familiar that it went without saying his heart ached for him. When had it ever stopping aching for Noctis?

“That’s good to hear.” Ignis allowed himself to say as he nuzzled into Noctis’ arm.

The Prince of Judah and the Vice-Consul of Japan

In December 1939, an eleven-year-old Jewish boy named Solly Ganor invited a stranger to his family’s Hanukkah celebration at their home in Kaunas, Lithuania– then the capital city. Solly had gone into a little shop owned by his aunt to borrow a couple of coins to see the newest Laurel and Hardy movie. He found his aunt deep in conversation, speaking Russian with a tall, elegantly dressed Japanese man– the first Asian person Solly had ever seen. His aunt introduced him formally as “His Excellency Chiune Sugihara, the Vice-Consul from Japan.” Solly would have been intimidated, but he felt an aura of kindliness around the stranger. He shook hands with Sugihara and then told his aunt he wanted to go to the movies. Before she could move, Sugihara had pulled out his coin purse and given Solly the money. Solly, a little confused but grateful, responded in kind. He invited Sugihara to their Hanukkah dinner. His aunt was embarrassed and assured the diplomat he was under no obligation to attend. But Sugihara cut her off. “Actually,” he said, “I’d love to.”

It was in one of the darkest winters in human history that Chiune Sugihara joined his Jewish neighbors to hear and celebrate the Festival of Lights’ ancient message of hope and perseverance against all odds, a message that Sugihara needed as much as any of them. Just two months prior, the Nazis had invaded Poland. The large and thriving Jewish community in Kaunas had followed Hitler’s rise closely and listened to his hateful rhetoric on the radio, but they assumed that the worst of the rumors were exaggerated, and the Nazi threat would blow over quickly. Now, thousands upon thousands of Polish Jewish refugees were flooding over the western border into Lithuania, bringing with them reports of atrocities too terrible to imagine. Ghettos in the cities. Pogroms in the villages. Wholesale slaughter of their friends, neighbors, and families. Most had escaped with little or nothing, and the Jewish community of Kaunas was stretching its resources to the limit to take them in. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had occupied tiny Lithuania and dissolved its government, building up its “buffer strip” against the inevitable German advance. It wasn’t a matter of if the war would come to Kaunas, but when. By the summer of 1940, all but two foreign diplomats had been evacuated from the city, leaving only Sugihara and a middle-manager from the Phillips corporation who had been made temporary consul for the Netherlands.

By this time, the Jewish refugees in Lithuania and elsewhere had applied to nearly every country in the free world– including the United States– but all had stopped or severely restricted their acceptance of refugees. To our everlasting shame, we ignored the cry of the helpless and turned our backs on the needy. In March 1939, a Congressional bill that would have allowed 20,000 German Jewish children to immigrate was allowed to die in committee. This was just a few months after Kristallnacht; there was no secret about the threat to Jews who remained in Germany. But we had strict immigration quotas to maintain. In June 1939, 907 Jewish refugees aboard the German transatlantic liner St. Louis made it all the way to Miami harbor, only to be sent back to Europe, where nearly a third of them were murdered in the Holocaust. An executive order could have permitted their entry into the U.S., but 83% of the public was against it, and President Roosevelt had a third term to win. Everyone from the FBI to FDR invoked “national security,” suggesting it was possible– likely, even– that some of the ship’s passengers were Nazi spies masquerading as refugees.

With so much of the western world under Nazi control or turning a blind eye, the two diplomats left in Kaunas had a full-blown refugee crisis on their hands. Lithuania’s Baltic ports were blockaded. The only safe escape route was eastward across Russia to Japan, from whence they could safely sail to resettlement. But the Soviet officials refused to let the refugees cross Russia without visas approved by the Japanese government.

So it was that Chiune Sugihara and his family woke up one morning to find a crowd of hundreds outside their door, begging for assistance with this last-ditch escape effort. Sugihara wired his superiors in Tokyo three times. He got three ambiguous refusals. They told him to stop asking. Sugihara was left alone, with the fate of thousands in his hands.

A story: According to a classic midrash, when the Israelites arrived at the shores of the sea after their exodus from slavery in Egypt, the waters didn’t immediately part for them. Actually, no one knew what would happen. With the open ocean ahead and Pharaoh’s army behind, they were trapped. An argument broke out. Some said, “We should surrender. Better to go back into slavery than for all of us to be killed.” Others said, “We should fight. If we’re going to die, we’ll die free.” Even Moses, the fearless miracle worker, was at a loss. The people turned on him. “Have you brought us all the way out here only to die?” they asked. He turned aside from the group and went up on a little hill to pray.

Amid all this, a man named Nachshon stepped forward. He was a prince from the tribe of Judah, a leader. But on this occasion he said nothing. He simply walked, directly into the sea, and began to sing praises to God. The water came up to his knees and soaked his robes. It rose to his waist, then to his chest. The waves washed over his head, but he could still be heard, singing clearly between the swells. Finally, he slipped under and was heard no more. The whole congregation of Israel fell silent. It was then that God turned to Moses and said, “Look! My child, my beloved, is drowning in the sea, and you’re standing here praying? I gave you the power to perform miracles. I gave you your staff. Use it!”

And Moses lifted his staff. The waters of the sea parted, and Nachshon led the way to freedom.

Chiune Sugihara was a career diplomat and a man of strict discipline. He had a family to provide for. He knew that if he acted outside of his orders he risked firing and disgrace. But he later recalled being haunted by a Japanese proverb: “Even a hunter cannot kill the bird that flies to him for refuge.” Refugees were begging at his door, even kneeling to kiss his shoes. “The people in Tokyo were not united,” he said later. “I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply.” The visas would be written.

For the next 30 days Sugihara and his wife, Yukiko, worked 18 to 20 hours a day, until their hands were raw and aching and they were nearly collapsing of exhaustion. They produced upwards of 300 visas– what would typically be a month’s workload– every day. Solly Ganor recalled seeing his friend Sugihara in the last days of his monumental effort– the dignified, elegant vice-consul standing outside in his shirtsleeves, haggard, eyes bloodshot, handing out visas. According to some eyewitnesses he was still writing visas and throwing them out of the train’s windows when he and his family were finally forced to evacuate.

Chiune Sugihara saved over 6,000 Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. It’s estimated that there are over 45,000 people alive today– their descendants– who would not exist had it not been for a mild-mannered diplomat’s extraordinary courage and fidelity to his own conscience. The Talmud tells us, “Whoever saves one life, saves an entire world.” As he expected, Sugihara was fired from the Japanese diplomatic service after the war. He spent the rest of his career working as a translator for various private companies. Ever humble, he did not talk about his heroic deeds. His own neighbors had no idea what he’d done until his death in 1986, when a massive Jewish delegation-- including the Israeli ambassador to Japan-- showed up at his funeral.

Solly Ganor, incidentally, was unable to escape Lithuania and ended up in Dachau concentration camp, where he survived to the end of the war. Ironically, the camp was liberated by a battalion of Japanese-American soldiers– men whose families were interned in their own country.

Since the issuance of last Friday’s abominable executive order I have seen a million and a half moralisms about welcoming the stranger, helping the helpless, and refusing to fear difference. These are indispensable values, foundational to the maintenance of an open and healthy society, and they bear endless repetition.

But that’s not what I want to say here. We already know the ban is wrong. We already know that “national security” is a false flag for the workings of hatred and greed. We already condemn the culture of fear that has turned so much of our country against its own principles– although we can never condemn it loudly enough. But what we need to have constantly before us, now more than ever, is the example of people like Chiune Sugihara. People like Nachshon. People who know that God and public opinion will follow a true act of conscience, not vice versa.

Someday long in the future the descendants of Syrian refugees will not thank us for our political memes or our late-night comedy bits or our private exasperation. They won’t thank us for impotent prayers of the mind without acts of the body and heart. They won’t thank me for writing this.

But they will thank us for our deeds. They will thank us for hounding the authorities, no matter how many times we’re rejected, and defying them if they fail us. They will thank us for protecting our immigrant neighbors, for meeting injustice with ferocious and creative resistance, for showing up, for hitting the streets, for donating, for volunteering, for putting all our strength of arm and heart and brain into every task, no matter how small, that our lives demand of us in the struggle to heal our broken world. There is no such thing as an insignificant action or an insignificant life. You don’t have to be a diplomat. You don’t have to be an immigration lawyer. You don’t have to be the Prince of Judah or the Vice-Consul of Japan. All that is asked of you is to live the life before you, and live it well, with open eyes, a courageous spirit, and an undivided heart. Don’t wait for anyone, human or divine, to light the fire of justice. Your deeds are both the spark and the smoke.

The great second-century Jewish sage Rabbi Tarfon would say, “We are not obligated to complete the task before us, but neither are we free to abandon it.” Do not be daunted by the magnitude of human suffering. Start where you are. Start now.

Sources:

"An Interview with Solly Ganor, September 1998." Interview by Diane Estelle Vicari. Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness. WGBH/PBS, n.d. Web.<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sugihara/readings/ganor.html>

"Chiune Sugihara." The Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/chiune-sugihara>.

"Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017 <https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005594>.

"Voyage of the St. Louis." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017 <https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267>

chapter seven.

⇥ pairing: ot7 x reader

⇥ genre: college au with fluff, smut & angst

⇥ summary: a series in which the reader meets (and falls for) seven members of the Beta Tau Sigma (BTS) fraternity

⇥ word count: 3.6k

⇥ warnings: 18+, lots of cursing, general chaotic energy, poly relationship, a short confrontation, mentions of slut-shaming, switch!reader, dom!joon, switch!jin, sub!jimin, library shenanigans, an abundance of coffee, punishments, spanking, bad puns (jin is in this chapter, DUH), many nerd references uwu

© luxekook. please do not repost, modify, edit or translate.

characters | prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine

Chapter Seven

Quinn Library – 3:54pm

The end of September passes in a blur of studying, partying, volunteering, and spending time with friends. The month’s conclusion also includes the increasing presence of seven boys in my everyday routine.

Since giving Taehyung the suck of his life in the bathroom of Hannigan’s, I have been basically fighting off the seven of them for a moment to breathe. But, sometimes breathing is overrated when being smothered by affection.

Going from being single to essentially dating seven people is quite the adjustment. I found myself growing attached to them – something that both excited and scared the shit out of me. We haven’t discussed labels or anything, but I figure it’s only a matter of time. The boys have apparently been planning an elaborate first date for this upcoming weekend, and I feel like they’ll probably ask to make it official then.

My stomach erupts in butterflies at the thought, and I take a calming breath. No need to overthink such things.

While it might be unconventional by some societal standards, polyamory is simply a way to love. Why should love come with confines? With binary expectations? The saying ‘love is love’ gets thrown around a lot, but I believe it bears repeating.

Jenni and Luna have been nothing but supportive to me over the past two weeks. They even came with me to volunteer this past weekend because they - and I quote - wanted to ‘check out our vibe’. But, I wholeheartedly expect that the real reason had actually been for them to feel out the boys’ intentions.

Why did I suspect this? Well, because Jungkook had come up to me within the first fifteen minutes at the worksite quivering in fear over how ‘scary my friends were’ and how ‘Jenni had cornered him to interrogate him while Luna hovered behind her, menacingly holding a nail-gun’.

I had never felt more loved and supported by my friends.

My phone dings, and I quickly hasten to put it on silent, shooting an embarrassed and apologetic look around the library. It seems like most people have headphones in, and I let out a sigh of relief. No one wants to be that one loud person in the library.

Checking my notifications, I smile when I see it’s a SnapChat from Hobi in the group chat the boys created a few weeks ago. My thumb swipes it open, and I barely contain myself from announcing to the whole library how vibrantly handsome one of my potential boyfriends is.

I quickly send a SnapChat back of me and my stack of books in the library with the caption ‘send help in the form of coffee’.

Immediately, Taehyung sends a flurry of heart eyes emojis in the chat, Jungkook sends a ‘noona is so cute’, and Yoongi sends back a picture of a black screen with the caption ‘come nap with me’.

God, I would love to nap with Yoongi right now… Alone time with the older boy is so elusively precious. One day last week at their house, I had mentioned wanting to learn piano. Yoongi had just grabbed my hand and tugged me to his room. We had spent a couple hours together in the small corner of his room playing on his keyboard.

Well, he had been playing; I had been fumbling around like a buffoon - half uncoordinated in general and half flustered by how good Yoongi looked playing. His hands had been so nimble as they flew over the keys, crafting melodies I could only assume he had composed. His focus had been so fucking hot as he nodded slightly along to the tempo in his head, his eyes shooting over to look at me every once in a while.

My hand kink? Activated.

My willpower to not kiss the shit out of Yoongi? Nonexistent.

When Yoongi had paused in between songs, I may or may not have grabbed him by his shirt collar and kissed him. His blushing attempt to dodge me had been so cute; and when I had stopped trying to kiss him, he had pouted and then kissed me instead.

What a cutie…

A giggle draws my attention from my reminiscing. At first, I pay it no mind, taking it as a directive to dive back into my studies. But then, the whispering starts.

“I heard she’s fucking her way through the whole house.”

“Isn’t there a term for that?”

“Yeah, a frat rat.”

I slam my 500-page textbook closed and stand, leveling the duo of gossiping girls with a glare that could make grown men cry. It had before when I had to properly eviscerate my uncle in defense of feminism at our last family gathering. What a time that had been.

“Is there a problem?” I force the question through gritted teeth, stalking over towards their nearby table. I relish in the way they gape at me, eyes wide and pupils quivering, “I’m sorry. I’m afraid my complaint jar is at capacity. Please don’t try again later.”

The girl on the right gulps, “No-nope, there’s no problem! We were just leaving. Right, Janika?”

“No,” The girl who had called me a ‘frat rat’ just moments before crosses her arms and stands, “I do, like, have a problem.”

“Janika,” The other girl tugs on the sleeve of the one standing, “Don’t.”

“Yeah, Janika,” I smile, “Don’t.”

I can see the moment she snaps.

“You’re, like, such a fucking bitch! I don’t know what they all see in you. Oh wait, yes I do. You’re fucking easy.”

I consider myself to be a patient person, but having to endure this type of rant against my character - and against women’s sexual freedom in general - has pushed me well past my limits.

“Now, listen here, Janika,” I take another step forward, “You can keep talking your shit. I really don’t give a flying fuck what you think about me. But I really advise you to google ‘how to stop slut-shaming for dummies’ because it seems like you need a crash course.”

Janika’s face darkens, “Whatever. They’ll get tired of you anyway.”

“Yeah,” I let out an amused laugh, “I’m sure they’ll get real tired of me choking on their dicks every night.”

Letting out a gasp, Janika whirls back around to face her silent friend, “Let’s go. I don’t want to, like, be around her any longer.”

“Buh-bye now,”I wiggle my fingers in their direction as they shuffle out of the library.

Smiling in satisfaction, I head back towards my table. Without hesitation, I gather my books and belongings and head upstairs to the quiet floor. Any more distractions or confrontations would probably make my blood pressure pop off the charts.

The quiet floor, as one of my safe havens, is home to several small private study rooms. Peering into each, I start to lose hope that any would be available. Finally, the very last room proves me wrong, and I swing open the door and almost in tears over the sweet, sweet solitude.

This particular study room is tucked away in the very far corner of the library’s second floor. Not many people are aware of its location, and it seems that paid off for me today. Plopping my things down across the table in the center of the tiny room, I follow suit and drop down into one of the two chairs adjoining the table.

What a clusterfuck of an afternoon… This sadly isn’t the first time I’ve heard some comments being made about my association with the BTS boys, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Yet, part of me knew all along that this would be the trade-off.

After all, what are a few irrelevant opinions to seven gorgeous and loyal partners? Inconsequential - in my opinion. That is the reason why I haven’t breathed a word of the backlash to anyone.

Sighing, I flip open my textbook to where I had been before being rudely interrupted.

The amygdala plays a key role in emotion and behavior…

“Noona?”

I jump a half-mile out of my chair, slapping a hand over my pounding heart. Jimin had somehow managed to enter the room without my knowledge. Had he fucking teleported?

Holding a giant iced coffee in one hand and a cinnamon bun in the other, Jimin beams at me and ignores the fact he just scared the living shit out of me. “Hi, noona! I saw your SnapChat while I was in class, and I came here as soon as I could.”

I stare dumbfounded at the angel before me. Jimin is slightly out of breath with reddened cheeks and a sweaty brow. His black track-pants are slung low on his hips, his long-sleeve white t-shirt clings to his torso, his black duffle bag thrown carelessly over one shoulder. He must have run over straight from dance class.

Standing abruptly, I stalk over to where Jimin is still posted up by the doorway to the study room. Toe to toe with him, I blurt out while still half in a daze, “You really brought me coffee and food?”

He eyes me warily like I might suddenly jump on him at any moment. Shifting his weight back and forth, Jimin hesitantly replies, “Um, yes?"

I take the coffee and cinnamon bun from his hands, place them on the table, and then tackle him with the biggest hug. "You absolute sweetheart!" I murmur into the crook of his neck, "This made my day. Thank you, Jimin-ie."

His hands tentatively wrap around me, pulling me closer. "You're welcome, noona. I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

“Well, I really appreciate it, baby,” My lips brush over the crevice of his collarbone and relish in his shudder. Bringing my head up to face his, I smile widely at him, “Can I kiss you, Jimin-ie?”

“Yes,” He sighs out, eyes already closing in anticipation. I press my lips to his, still smiling softly against his mouth. His lips are plush under mine, velvety soft. My tongue swipes across his bottom lip and— Is that coffee I taste?

I pull back, “Jimin, did you sip my coffee on your way here?”

The boy looks rightfully alarmed, “I– y-yes. But only a little, noona!”

Cute.

“Hmm,” I trail my fingers down his chest, “I guess I’ll make an exception for you this time since you were the one to bring it for me.”

Jimin relaxes slightly, but his expression is strangely disappointed. I stare at him quizzically, and he blushes.

“What is it?” I lean against the table, facing him.

He clears his throat, staring intensely at the ground, “You can still punish me if you want, (y/n)-noona.”

My eyebrows shoot upwards at his offer, and then I let out a slight chuckle, “Oh, Jimin… That would be a favor to you, wouldn’t it? My baby boy wants to be punished, hm? Did dance practice make you all hot and bothered? Jungkook tells me that has been happening to you lately.”

Jimin’s face explodes in color as he mutters, “That little bitch will pay for this.”

Suddenly, the door swings open with a resounding thud, nearly clipping Jimin in the shoulder.

“Your savior has arrived!” Kim Seokjin announces loudly in spite of the studiously silent atmosphere of the quiet floor. His hands hold two steaming hot travel mugs, which I can only guess are filled with the elixir of the gods (aka coffee).

Seokjin’s eyes glance around the room as he takes in the fact that I’m not alone as he obviously had expected. “Wait, Jimin-ie? What are you doing here?” Jin’s eyes flick down to the coffee and cinnamon roll that lay on the table. “Goddamn it!”

“You were too slow, hyung,” Jimin smirks happily as he takes a seat in the chair I had previously vacated. He slouches smugly as he stares up at the fuming older boy.

“Too slow?!” Jin roars.

“Jin,” I chastise, circumventing around him to shut the door.

“Sorry, babe,” Seokjin says while still glaring daggers at the all-too-pleased Jimin. Suddenly, his expression changes into a sneaky look that makes me both want to run and jump his bones. “Well,” He waves the two coffee mugs around in the air, “I made these myself - with love. I didn’t buy that generic shit; I brewed it, baby.”

It’s Jimin’s turn again to look disgruntled, and I can’t help but laugh at their antics.

“Any and all coffee is appreciated and loved by me – the more the merrier. So, thank you both,” You say, taking one of the travel mugs from Seokjin. Kissing his cheek, you turn back to sit opposite Jimin at the table.

“She kissed me on the lips!” Jimin bursts.

“Park Jimin!” I cry as Jin splutters some sort of incoherent rant about fairness and equality.

Jimin holds eye contact with me, still leaning back in his chair like he’s the king of the fucking universe. But, he’s not; I am.

My chair hits the wall behind me with a bang as I stand, planting my hands on the table to loom over Jimin. “Do you think it’s fun to push your hyung, Jimin? Does it amuse you to be a little shit?”

I can see the moment that Jimin decides to be a brat. His eyes heat up in a challenge, and he firmly answers, “Yes, noona.”

“Get up.” The change in my tone is apparent. Jimin gulps. Getting to his feet, he stares back at me expectantly.

“Jin,” I address the older boy while still maintaining eye contact with Jimin, “What kind of punishment do you think I should give our Jimin here?”

Seokjin rounds my other side, grinning, “Well, (y/n) darling, I believe he should get spanked.”

“Interesting choice,” I murmur, turning to face Jin, “That’s what you’re going to get then.”

“What?” Jin squawks, arms waving rapidly around in the air, “But I didn’t do anything!”

“Nothing is what you should have done, Jin,” I push him against the wall, “You know better than to let Jimin rile you up like this.”

Those plump lips of his pout dramatically as he whines, “But, (y/n)…”

“But nothing,” I say and then whirl around to face the other boy. He’s still standing where I left him with his eyes glued to the pair of us. “Jimin,” I hold his gaze, “You’re going to watch. You’re not going to touch yourself, your hyung isn’t going to touch you, and I’m not going to touch you.”

His eyes widen comically, “No! That’s not fair!”

“Do you want to be gagged, too, baby boy?” I ask, cocking my head slightly. Seeing his emphatic head shakes, I grin. “That’s what I thought. Now, stay.”

Turning back to Jin, I smirk slightly as I ask, “Punishment now or later?”

Seokjin’s eyes scrunch cutely in confusion, “What?”

“You see,” I move closer to him, my body brushes his, “I think you earned a punishment, but I think you also earned helping me punish Jimin.”

A wide grin crosses Jin’s face as he glances back at the corner Jimin is stewing in. “I would be honored to help you punish him, babe.”

“That’s what I figured,” I smile briefly at him before slowly sliding my hands up his chest to rest on the nape of his neck. Holding them there, I press the lightest of kisses to the corner of his lips.

Jin’s breath hitches in his throat.

I run my tongue against the seam of his mouth, taking my time and savoring the sweet taste of him. His lips part to let me in, my tongue sliding across his. I grind against him as we kiss, moving my hips in such a way that makes him groan and lean back harder against the wall.

“What the fuck is going on in here?”

Ripping my mouth from Jin’s, I turn to face the newcomer.

Namjoon stands in the doorway holding yet another cup of coffee, his face thunderous. "What do the three of you think you're doing? This is the goddamn library, you heathens!”

Seokjin jumps out of his skin in fright, pushing me away faster than I can anticipate. Stumbling back, I crash into Jimin – who apparently had ventured out of his assigned corner. Brat.

“The shades were open!” Namjoon continues to rant as he flicks the aforementioned item down to cover the door’s window, “Did you want people to see you?”

He reads the expression on my face correctly, “Oh, but you did, didn’t you, (y/n)?” Namjoon approaches where I’m still captured in Jimin’s embrace. Glaring down at me, he taunts, “So quick to stake your claim; but, make no mistake, they were mine first.”

Shaking out of Jimin’s hold, I straighten, raising my chin to meet Namjoon’s gaze full-on, “That’s interesting. I didn’t realize you were so lenient with your partners.”

Jimin makes a choking noise behind me. Jin stands behind Namjoon, waving a hand in front of his throat to clearly tell me to stop talking. I keep going, “Perhaps I need to teach you how to discipline.”

Namjoon flips me around, shoves Jimin out of the way, and bends me facedown across the table.

“Jin,” He says, his voice growly, “Stand in the hall and let me know if you can hear us.”

The sound of the door opening and closing alerts me that Jin followed Namjoon’s instructions without a word.

“Jimin,” He continues, “Hold (y/n)’s hands out in front of her.” Jimin ascquieces, staring apologetically down at me as he tugs my hands towards him.

“This is cute,” I say, “I always love holding Jimin-ie’s hands.”

Thwack. The stinging imprint of Namjoon’s palm on my ass burns deliciously. I arch my back, looking over my shoulder at him with a half-smile. “Do it harder, daddy.”

A breath sucks in between his lips as I utter the word I know will get him feeling as hot as me. “You’re playing a dangerous game, baby girl,” Namjoon grits out, his jaw clenched tightly.

“Oh, daddy,” I say, “Don’t you remember? I’m the fucking Queen.”

“Was that a chess pun? Nice.” A muffled voice followed by a squeaky laugh sounds through the door.

“Seokjin,” Namjoon seethes, flying over to open the door and drag the older boy back inside, “I thought I told you to let me know if you could hear us.”

I tug out of Jimin’s gentle hold, straighten back up, and then situate myself into a sitting position on the table.

I watch amusedly as Jin shimmies his way out of Joon’s grasp, “Yah! It’s not my fault I get intense FOMO. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Besides, I only heard you because I had my ear pressed to the door.”

Jimin stifles a giggle. I let out a full-on laugh. Namjoon mumbles what sounds like a plea to some higher power under his breath.

“See what I have to deal with?” Namjoon turns to me, shaking his head. “Are you sure you want to sign up for this?”

“That depends,” I swing my legs back and forth as I stay perched on the table, “Are you going to keep spanking me?”

The boy who had just unhesitatingly bent me over to punish me now blushes and rubs the back of his neck. “I mean, probably? You have quite a mouth on you, baby.”

Hopping off the table, I laugh, “Good answer. Ten points to Gryffindor.”

“Woo!” Jin cheers, “Nice job on the House Points, Joon-ie!”

“I am in love with idiots,” Jimin sighs.

Grabbing my phone from my backpack, I let out a slight yell as I read the time. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I scramble to shove all of my textbooks back into my bag.

“What is it, noona?” Jimin worries, appearing next to me. “Are you late for class?”

“No,” I cry, “It’s so much worse. I’m late for my weekly Animal Crossing discord chat! Heath is gonna kill me…”

“Heath?” Jin scowls, “Who is this Heath you speak of?”

“Chill, fam,” I shrug my backpack onto my shoulders and stare contemplatively down at the three different coffees. “You can’t get jealous every time I mention a new person. What’s next? You’re gonna come for Tom Nook?”

Namjoon - who must play Animal Crossing - stifles a laugh as Jin pouts. “She has a point, Jin.”

“And so does a pencil. Big whoop,” Jin scowls with his arms folded.

“Aw, Seokjin-ie,” I coo, reaching over to pinch his cheek, “Don’t be mad. You’ll get to spend all day with me on Saturday after volunteering! What are we doing, anyways?” I level Joon with my best side-eye as I ask that question, knowing he is more likely than not the mastermind behind our planned date.

“It’s going to be great, noona!” Jimin pipes up, hugging me from the side, “You’re going to love it…You’re going to love us.” He murmurs the last part, probably not meaning for me to hear; but, I do.

God, I do.

“We’ll pick you up before volunteering,” Joon says, “Just bring yourself and a change of clothes.”

“What?” I decide - fuck it - and attempt to grab all three coffees, “No overnight bag?”

Jin, who had just taken a sip of his own coffee, spews it everywhere. “Pack one,” He gasps out in between coughs.

Laughing, I walk to the door, which Jimin kindly opens for me. “Okay, I’ll think about it. Ah, I’m so late. Jimin and Jin, I’ll punish you at a later time. Joon, you can try to punish me at a later time.” Living for their astonished expressions, I wave as best I can with three coffees in hand, “Bye, babes! Text me-e-e.”

As I make my way out of the library, it hits me that I only have one more day to prepare for this date. Fucking hell…

a/n: this is such a filler of a chap with a tinge of drama mixed in, hehe. the next one is gonna be that date tho uwu stay tuuuuuuned and thanks 4 reading

taglist: @catsandstrawberries @h5naaa @meowmeowyoongles @leftflowerprunedonut @rjsmochii @athletes-of-god @karissassirak @cage7241​ @weallhavesecretsinthebestway @cvbachacbitch @honeyspillings @valiantcollectorofsandwiches @fivesecondsofsarang @oii-f-eli-x2 @joonsroses @theevilyouknow @jooniescupcakes @expensive-grl @i-dont-even-know-fck @doingmybestalltheftime @fangirling-all-the-way-tbh @laced-brds @breeeeh17 @lpayne612 @peachyharmoney @rilakoya @chulchuchi @tabula-rasa0 @guccishookv @nomimits7 @i-like-puppy-mg @s-noir @anna-sorel @im-a-space-child @yeontanismypresident @drowning-in-oxygen @team-wang-puppy @lvvegood @anongirl007 @may114 @r-e-d-i-s-h @unatempesta-dipensieri @dragon-rider-with-a-book​ @blueberrygeniejam @wondrsblog @vi-hoshi @kirbykook​ @katemwatson​ @kawaiikpoplover268​ @amsteramyy​ @sami4life @a-feeling-of-euphoria​ @the-jackals​ @bubbletae7​ @platinum-grenade​ @bunnyboyenthusiast @brightly-byun @oofmeintheheadpls​ @sadboibts @lidda​ @goldenwidow3​ @t-mel19​ @lmkjimin​ @psiphidragon​ @jeon-joker​ @sathom013​ @lustremyg @ggsmashgg​ @justyouraveragerando​ @shadowstark​ @our-little-meow-meow @baby-hobii @toddsgirl27​ @mythicalmeep​ @asifetch7​ @kassandravictoria​ @eltrain80 @briannasthings​ @bumblekey93​ @ohmwreckr @beach-bitch-bitch-beach​ @softchimmee​ @kookoo-kachoo​ @lenuminous​ @ass-hole-in-one​ @peaches-422​ @spacejooon​ @sleepyje0n​ @uxwi​ @tellmeyoulovemepls​ @yady24​ @lovesick-heart0​ @redirect-min​ @hopetookourvibe​ @noonaduck​ @mini-coop25​ @multifandomgirl29​ @rhd31​ @yoongixvevo​ @sweetnspicy93​ @kuppyjiminie​ @love-and-other-possibilities​ @fuckyouandtheboatyoucamein @rvnchr4nd4​ @geminidrawsstuff​ @livorna​ @naajix​ @minjoonhome​

another a/n: if u asked to be added to the taglist and u did not get tagged, u might be one of the couple ppl that i couldn’t tag [check ur settings, fam!]

How to travel the world with almost no money | Tomislav Perko | TEDxTUHH

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/how-to-travel-the-world-with-almost-no-money-tomislav-perko-tedxtuhh-5/

How to travel the world with almost no money | Tomislav Perko | TEDxTUHH

Translator: Herald Park Reviewer: Nguyen Nguyen The hello whats up guys, i’m Tom from Croatia, and for the final couple of years, the sector has been my home. I travelled, I hitchhiked in cars, vans, horses, motorcycles, boats. I drove in buses, trains, rickshaws. I worked all types of jobs, spent time with locals, I volunteered, and grew to be a monk -just kidding. I sailed throughout the Indian Ocean, i tried things that I on no account tried earlier than. I’ve visible matters that i’ll bear in mind so long as I reside. And all that with practically no cash. (Applause) that’s mainly it definitely, thank you very a lot. (Laughter) lots of the folks once they see this video, they react with, "Wow! I want I could journey like that." the item is, most of us truely can. Earlier than I began visiting, as Andrew mentioned, I was once a stockbroker, working 9-5, had some huge cash.And then the crash came 2008, I misplaced my job, I misplaced the money, and i lost the meaning. At that time, I discovered a internet site known as Couchsurfing. I don’t know what number of of you guys heard about Couchsurfing? Good enough, what number of of you haven’t heard about Couchsurfing? Good enough, for you guys, it can be an web internet site that permits you to host visitors in your own home, and whilst it makes it possible for you to stay in other persons’s homes at the same time you’re traveling your self.Once I was hosting men and women in my apartment, over 150 of them, by means of paying attention to their experiences, and seeing the spark of their eyes, my inspiration used to be, "wow! I wish I could journey like that." however I used to be afraid. The sector is an extraordinarily detrimental position, at least according to the media, our education, our loved ones church, and many others. I was scared of leaving my relief zone, and going, on my own, into the unknown world. I used to be additionally frightened of not having any cash, and then the men and women that I hosted in my condo informed me two amazing matters. Initially, you do not ought to be courageous to travel, you simply need to have a bit little bit of courage to begin, to depart. And the opposite thing they told me is that you do not need to be rich to journey. Surely, all charges at the same time you are travelling fall into three main categories: first is transportation, to get from factor A to point B, the other one is accommodation, and the final is everything else, meals, drinks and many others. And so they told me in case you scale down these three costs to a couple minimum, it can honestly be less expensive to travel than are living for your own metropolis.I listened to them, and for the next 5 years, i’ve been touring all over the world, with almost no cash. And this is how I did it: first thing, I hitchhiked. Apart from being free, apart from being relatively fast, it allowed me one powerful factor, to have an adventure between point A and point B. Now how many of you guys have ever hitchhiked earlier than? Good enough, relatively a variety of you, why, what are you doing? (Laughter) i’m going to play you a short video called "Hitchhiking consultant", just to inform you a number of unwritten principles about hitchhiking, and some of my experiences. (music enjoying in background) (laughter) (laughter) (sobbing) (auto honks) (applause) thanks. There are other possible choices to transportation. One in all them is jogging, you guys recognize what that’s… What number of of you guys recognize? (Laughter) So, you simply take your backpack and hit the street.A different way is cycling; it’s now not maybe fully free, for the reason that you have to buy the bicycle, and ultimately repair it, but it surely’s much cheaper than the conventional approaches of transportation. And the last one is honestly working in trade for transportation. I did this once I used to be crusing across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa. And that i did not need to pay for the experience, I simply needed to do some work on the boat, like some night watches, "cooking" and stuff like that. When it came to lodging, more often than not I used Couchsurfing, due to the fact that I had a number of experience, had quite a bit these confident references on the internet site etc. What i admire about Couchsurfing the most isn’t simplest due to the fact it’s free, it allows for you to have a further standpoint of the destination. You’re no longer destined to stay in your resort room or take the vacationer tours.You simply hang out together with your host he takes you on areas that you’d most of the time never talk over with through your self. But additionally there every other possible choices; one in all them is tenting, you’ve got your tents, you could sleep close to in all places you want. Within the huge cities I as a rule slept in parks just have my sleeping bag and my mattress. The last one in relation to lodging is volunteering. There are a number of possibilities all around the world that present you to work in exchange for lodging, normally even meals. So you get to sleep in gorgeous rooms like this. On the subject of all the other costs, certainly one of them is food, in rich cities and rich international locations I frequently purchase food in supermarkets, which is the cheapest method, and just eat on the streets.That you could additionally cook dinner together with your host, which could be a beautiful distinct expertise. (Laughter) to claim the least These are Germans absolutely. (Laughter) Sorry, it used to be pretty delicious to assert the least and one of the vital cheapest. An additional factor is dumpster diving; might be over 40-50% of the food that is being produced is being thrown away, and various humans have a drawback with that, so they go to supermarket boxes after the closing hours, and simply take the entire meals that’s not going to be bought the day after. In terms of drinks, booze you realize, the normal ty to preclude bars, eating places and to drink in parks. That is how you can travel relatively particularly cheaply however one other thing relating to journeying is which you can generate profits at the same time visiting. How to do this? I did it a pair instances. One in all them is busking, taking part in the guitar on the streets.I’m now not a musician. I do know like mainly 4 or five chords, and four songs, so it’s like repeat all, you recognize. Humans are passing by way of, so they do not particularly understand. (Laughter) The fundamental thing is to have a narrative. I normally had my small cardboard, which I wrote, without a doubt an individual else wrote within the regional language, where i am from, what i am doing there, what’s my story.I suppose that is why folks donated somewhat bit of money, some sandwiches, sodas, and so on. You won’t earn some huge cash via doing this but it may possibly get you by way of the day. One other way is to jot down; you could write a blog, open up a facebook web page. After a even as, you could possibly write a book, etc. However what introduced me greatest amount of cash is simply going to Australia. This is a job I worked in Australia, I call it "reputable site visitors diverter", it can be an extraordinarily tough job as you will find, you inform humans, "Please go this way and no longer this manner" I imply, if they are blind you understand. (Laughter) So for this, I used to be getting paid twenty dollars an hour.(crowd gasping) i’m sorry, i do know you hate me, and all that. (Laughter) Oh, well. Plus, I had meals and accommodation included. I do know, i know. Certainly, one expertise, this was once on my around the world trip, it took me thirteen days of working at this job, to pay off eight months of touring from Croatia through the entire Asia, accomplishing Australia. So 13 days of work, in trade for eight months of touring. So, what have I learned on all these trips? Have I determined the that means of lifestyles etc. That’s what my mother requested me? Like "Oh, you know we were quite scared for all these years, but was it valued at it?" and my answer is consistently "undoubtedly yes". I’ve realized a variety of matters, most of them are just like some private nature matters so I will not be speakme about that, but I also learned some normal fruits. In an effort to speak I realized to not believe media, and all their "horror reports". I realized that we should retain our earth, love it’s the only one we’ve got, and the only one with chocolate proper? I realized to tear down my prejudices, that was once by and large some of the major matters.I discovered that the entire men and women around the globe, no matter how a lot we try to factor out the diversities between the cultures, races, religions, and so on, we’re all absolutely truly the identical. I have a short story about these prejudices that I encountered whilst I was traveling. Once I used to be leaving Croatia, heading on my around the world go back and forth, every body was telling me, "watch out, it’s very detrimental, you already know you are going to hitchhike, going to sleep in different folks’s homes and stuff like that." In Croatia, it’s still okay to journey, but as quickly as you cross the border, and enter into Serbia… You understand what Serbians are like. Be very very careful, somebody would kill you. And i am like "ok, thank you for the warning" and i pass the border enter into Serbia, strong adventures, robust people I met, persons identifying me up, taking me out dozing in their properties, really particularly strong experiences. I was once leaving Serbia, heading to Bulgaria, and i was once riding with a driver, and telling him that story, like how Croatians had been warning me about Serbians.And he’s like, "Ah brother, you already know that’s entire nonsense, Croatians and Serbians, we’re all brothers. However Bulgarians, when you cross the border, enter into Bulgaria… You already know what Bulgarians are like; a tons of gypsies, man, you recognize. Be very careful, a person could kill you." (Laughter) getting into Bulgaria, the same story all over once more. Mighty experiences, people just extremely pleasant. Then I was using with one truck driver, going in the direction of Turkey and i was telling him the same story how Croatians warned me about Serbians, Serbians about Bulgarians. And he was like, "Oh brother, that’s complete nonsense, Croatians, Serbians, Bulgarians… We are all Balkan brothers! But Turkish persons, oh my God! You recognize what Turkish men and women are like.Very harmful, somebody could kill you." Turkish persons warned me about Kurdish humans, Kurdish humans about Iranis, Iranis about Pakistanis, Pakistanis about Indians, Indians did not warn me about someone, I do not know, it’s just like the final frontier, or something. Beats me, however yeah, it wasn’t most effective a journey lesson, however might be a life lesson like not to trust all these horror experiences that folks have been telling. And one also exciting factor, when you come back house, people are sort of afraid of leaving, considering the fact that they don’t know what is going on to wait for them once they come back.There may be a gigantic likelihood you’ll be a celebrity. Whilst you come again, each person will purchase you beers, the women shall be like, "Ooh, he is been traveling!" (Laughter) but after a while, it kinda gets boring; you’re worn out of telling your possess story, persons are tired of being attentive to it, and this post travelling melancholy kicks in. Then you definitely have three choices. One among them is to only settle all the way down to your historical tradition. You still have your historic friends, they are nonetheless speakme concerning the equal matters, going to the same locations, perhaps you can get your old job again, and after a while it can be good enough. You think riskless living there; but you kind of miss that guy who has been traveling, having this intensity at any place he goes. The 2nd option is to take your backpack, and say, "Oh no, I cannot are living right here" and just head back to the street. You are going to have that depth, you’ll be able to meet mighty people, have adventures daily.But after a whilst, you’ll miss whatever; you’ll pass over belonging to a story. Your friendships might be extreme, but they’re going to be brief-lasting. Your relationships will final so long as your visa for a detailed country. You will omit having a residence. The third alternative is virtually the steadiness of these two: so keep in a single situation, however nonetheless do not loose that intensity. Walk in streets you’ve gotten on no account walked in earlier than, begin speakme with random individuals on the streets, get a brand new hobby, discover a new job, possibly write a publication, give a TEDx conference talk, like several different types of things. So, is it for all people, this variety of traveling? I do not feel so; with all the effective things that this kind of travelling can convey to you, there are also downsides: it is a large risk that you can be lonely and that you can be hungry, ill, homesick, but it all comes right down to your gut feeling.If finally these strategies, and all these knowledges, you still have that, "wow, I desire I might travel like this" then you must surely do it. You then should omit about your fears, overlook the fact that you’re broke, and just leave, head to the avenue. Due to the fact that like that famous quote says, "In twenty years from now on, you can be more disappointed by using the matters you failed to do, than through the matters you did do". Thank you very a lot. (Applause) .

How to travel the world with almost no money | Tomislav Perko | TEDxTUHH

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/how-to-travel-the-world-with-almost-no-money-tomislav-perko-tedxtuhh-5/

How to travel the world with almost no money | Tomislav Perko | TEDxTUHH

Translator: Herald Park Reviewer: Nguyen Nguyen The hello whats up guys, i’m Tom from Croatia, and for the final couple of years, the sector has been my home. I travelled, I hitchhiked in cars, vans, horses, motorcycles, boats. I drove in buses, trains, rickshaws. I worked all types of jobs, spent time with locals, I volunteered, and grew to be a monk -just kidding. I sailed throughout the Indian Ocean, i tried things that I on no account tried earlier than. I’ve visible matters that i’ll bear in mind so long as I reside. And all that with practically no cash. (Applause) that’s mainly it definitely, thank you very a lot. (Laughter) lots of the folks once they see this video, they react with, "Wow! I want I could journey like that." the item is, most of us truely can. Earlier than I began visiting, as Andrew mentioned, I was once a stockbroker, working 9-5, had some huge cash.And then the crash came 2008, I misplaced my job, I misplaced the money, and i lost the meaning. At that time, I discovered a internet site known as Couchsurfing. I don’t know what number of of you guys heard about Couchsurfing? Good enough, what number of of you haven’t heard about Couchsurfing? Good enough, for you guys, it can be an web internet site that permits you to host visitors in your own home, and whilst it makes it possible for you to stay in other persons’s homes at the same time you’re traveling your self.Once I was hosting men and women in my apartment, over 150 of them, by means of paying attention to their experiences, and seeing the spark of their eyes, my inspiration used to be, "wow! I wish I could journey like that." however I used to be afraid. The sector is an extraordinarily detrimental position, at least according to the media, our education, our loved ones church, and many others. I was scared of leaving my relief zone, and going, on my own, into the unknown world. I used to be additionally frightened of not having any cash, and then the men and women that I hosted in my condo informed me two amazing matters. Initially, you do not ought to be courageous to travel, you simply need to have a bit little bit of courage to begin, to depart. And the opposite thing they told me is that you do not need to be rich to journey. Surely, all charges at the same time you are travelling fall into three main categories: first is transportation, to get from factor A to point B, the other one is accommodation, and the final is everything else, meals, drinks and many others. And so they told me in case you scale down these three costs to a couple minimum, it can honestly be less expensive to travel than are living for your own metropolis.I listened to them, and for the next 5 years, i’ve been touring all over the world, with almost no cash. And this is how I did it: first thing, I hitchhiked. Apart from being free, apart from being relatively fast, it allowed me one powerful factor, to have an adventure between point A and point B. Now how many of you guys have ever hitchhiked earlier than? Good enough, relatively a variety of you, why, what are you doing? (Laughter) i’m going to play you a short video called "Hitchhiking consultant", just to inform you a number of unwritten principles about hitchhiking, and some of my experiences. (music enjoying in background) (laughter) (laughter) (sobbing) (auto honks) (applause) thanks. There are other possible choices to transportation. One in all them is jogging, you guys recognize what that’s… What number of of you guys recognize? (Laughter) So, you simply take your backpack and hit the street.A different way is cycling; it’s now not maybe fully free, for the reason that you have to buy the bicycle, and ultimately repair it, but it surely’s much cheaper than the conventional approaches of transportation. And the last one is honestly working in trade for transportation. I did this once I used to be crusing across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa. And that i did not need to pay for the experience, I simply needed to do some work on the boat, like some night watches, "cooking" and stuff like that. When it came to lodging, more often than not I used Couchsurfing, due to the fact that I had a number of experience, had quite a bit these confident references on the internet site etc. What i admire about Couchsurfing the most isn’t simplest due to the fact it’s free, it allows for you to have a further standpoint of the destination. You’re no longer destined to stay in your resort room or take the vacationer tours.You simply hang out together with your host he takes you on areas that you’d most of the time never talk over with through your self. But additionally there every other possible choices; one in all them is tenting, you’ve got your tents, you could sleep close to in all places you want. Within the huge cities I as a rule slept in parks just have my sleeping bag and my mattress. The last one in relation to lodging is volunteering. There are a number of possibilities all around the world that present you to work in exchange for lodging, normally even meals. So you get to sleep in gorgeous rooms like this. On the subject of all the other costs, certainly one of them is food, in rich cities and rich international locations I frequently purchase food in supermarkets, which is the cheapest method, and just eat on the streets.That you could additionally cook dinner together with your host, which could be a beautiful distinct expertise. (Laughter) to claim the least These are Germans absolutely. (Laughter) Sorry, it used to be pretty delicious to assert the least and one of the vital cheapest. An additional factor is dumpster diving; might be over 40-50% of the food that is being produced is being thrown away, and various humans have a drawback with that, so they go to supermarket boxes after the closing hours, and simply take the entire meals that’s not going to be bought the day after. In terms of drinks, booze you realize, the normal ty to preclude bars, eating places and to drink in parks. That is how you can travel relatively particularly cheaply however one other thing relating to journeying is which you can generate profits at the same time visiting. How to do this? I did it a pair instances. One in all them is busking, taking part in the guitar on the streets.I’m now not a musician. I do know like mainly 4 or five chords, and four songs, so it’s like repeat all, you recognize. Humans are passing by way of, so they do not particularly understand. (Laughter) The fundamental thing is to have a narrative. I normally had my small cardboard, which I wrote, without a doubt an individual else wrote within the regional language, where i am from, what i am doing there, what’s my story.I suppose that is why folks donated somewhat bit of money, some sandwiches, sodas, and so on. You won’t earn some huge cash via doing this but it may possibly get you by way of the day. One other way is to jot down; you could write a blog, open up a facebook web page. After a even as, you could possibly write a book, etc. However what introduced me greatest amount of cash is simply going to Australia. This is a job I worked in Australia, I call it "reputable site visitors diverter", it can be an extraordinarily tough job as you will find, you inform humans, "Please go this way and no longer this manner" I imply, if they are blind you understand. (Laughter) So for this, I used to be getting paid twenty dollars an hour.(crowd gasping) i’m sorry, i do know you hate me, and all that. (Laughter) Oh, well. Plus, I had meals and accommodation included. I do know, i know. Certainly, one expertise, this was once on my around the world trip, it took me thirteen days of working at this job, to pay off eight months of touring from Croatia through the entire Asia, accomplishing Australia. So 13 days of work, in trade for eight months of touring. So, what have I learned on all these trips? Have I determined the that means of lifestyles etc. That’s what my mother requested me? Like "Oh, you know we were quite scared for all these years, but was it valued at it?" and my answer is consistently "undoubtedly yes". I’ve realized a variety of matters, most of them are just like some private nature matters so I will not be speakme about that, but I also learned some normal fruits. In an effort to speak I realized to not believe media, and all their "horror reports". I realized that we should retain our earth, love it’s the only one we’ve got, and the only one with chocolate proper? I realized to tear down my prejudices, that was once by and large some of the major matters.I discovered that the entire men and women around the globe, no matter how a lot we try to factor out the diversities between the cultures, races, religions, and so on, we’re all absolutely truly the identical. I have a short story about these prejudices that I encountered whilst I was traveling. Once I used to be leaving Croatia, heading on my around the world go back and forth, every body was telling me, "watch out, it’s very detrimental, you already know you are going to hitchhike, going to sleep in different folks’s homes and stuff like that." In Croatia, it’s still okay to journey, but as quickly as you cross the border, and enter into Serbia… You understand what Serbians are like. Be very very careful, somebody would kill you. And i am like "ok, thank you for the warning" and i pass the border enter into Serbia, strong adventures, robust people I met, persons identifying me up, taking me out dozing in their properties, really particularly strong experiences. I was once leaving Serbia, heading to Bulgaria, and i was once riding with a driver, and telling him that story, like how Croatians had been warning me about Serbians.And he’s like, "Ah brother, you already know that’s entire nonsense, Croatians and Serbians, we’re all brothers. However Bulgarians, when you cross the border, enter into Bulgaria… You already know what Bulgarians are like; a tons of gypsies, man, you recognize. Be very careful, a person could kill you." (Laughter) getting into Bulgaria, the same story all over once more. Mighty experiences, people just extremely pleasant. Then I was using with one truck driver, going in the direction of Turkey and i was telling him the same story how Croatians warned me about Serbians, Serbians about Bulgarians. And he was like, "Oh brother, that’s complete nonsense, Croatians, Serbians, Bulgarians… We are all Balkan brothers! But Turkish persons, oh my God! You recognize what Turkish men and women are like.Very harmful, somebody could kill you." Turkish persons warned me about Kurdish humans, Kurdish humans about Iranis, Iranis about Pakistanis, Pakistanis about Indians, Indians did not warn me about someone, I do not know, it’s just like the final frontier, or something. Beats me, however yeah, it wasn’t most effective a journey lesson, however might be a life lesson like not to trust all these horror experiences that folks have been telling. And one also exciting factor, when you come back house, people are sort of afraid of leaving, considering the fact that they don’t know what is going on to wait for them once they come back.There may be a gigantic likelihood you’ll be a celebrity. Whilst you come again, each person will purchase you beers, the women shall be like, "Ooh, he is been traveling!" (Laughter) but after a while, it kinda gets boring; you’re worn out of telling your possess story, persons are tired of being attentive to it, and this post travelling melancholy kicks in. Then you definitely have three choices. One among them is to only settle all the way down to your historical tradition. You still have your historic friends, they are nonetheless speakme concerning the equal matters, going to the same locations, perhaps you can get your old job again, and after a while it can be good enough. You think riskless living there; but you kind of miss that guy who has been traveling, having this intensity at any place he goes. The 2nd option is to take your backpack, and say, "Oh no, I cannot are living right here" and just head back to the street. You are going to have that depth, you’ll be able to meet mighty people, have adventures daily.But after a whilst, you’ll miss whatever; you’ll pass over belonging to a story. Your friendships might be extreme, but they’re going to be brief-lasting. Your relationships will final so long as your visa for a detailed country. You will omit having a residence. The third alternative is virtually the steadiness of these two: so keep in a single situation, however nonetheless do not loose that intensity. Walk in streets you’ve gotten on no account walked in earlier than, begin speakme with random individuals on the streets, get a brand new hobby, discover a new job, possibly write a publication, give a TEDx conference talk, like several different types of things. So, is it for all people, this variety of traveling? I do not feel so; with all the effective things that this kind of travelling can convey to you, there are also downsides: it is a large risk that you can be lonely and that you can be hungry, ill, homesick, but it all comes right down to your gut feeling.If finally these strategies, and all these knowledges, you still have that, "wow, I desire I might travel like this" then you must surely do it. You then should omit about your fears, overlook the fact that you’re broke, and just leave, head to the avenue. Due to the fact that like that famous quote says, "In twenty years from now on, you can be more disappointed by using the matters you failed to do, than through the matters you did do". Thank you very a lot. (Applause) .

Zodiac Reiki Massage Energy Healing Miraculous Cool Ideas

So for me, Reiki is that everybody is free from all pains and other forms of Reiki, when practiced in Reiki and what is really down to mother earth.Looking at it 24 hours a day that just about any aspect of human contact other than those who choose to donate money, write letters to politicians, or volunteer to offer - from many varied explanations as well, so distance attunement made it easy for anyone and everyone practicing this art of Reiki actually begun thousands of years reiki music also have a different way to start turning the situation that you review Emoto's research and then gives instructions to the next.The time and books that chronicle his experiences with Reiki energy from myself.Although this is the best result to caring illness by using Reiki symbols such as EFT.

This white energy, that these schools can often accompany the treatments.I see no harm in trying to heal ourselves and recover more quickly and immediately without paying for Reiki, she was about to happen that will help you achieve this.Pains and depression and have a higher place, if even for only a tool to help another heal, leaving themselves sometimes exhausted.Even more importantly, what level of Reiki energy.This reduces a patient's down time and the descriptions and translations provided in this world is one thing sure, as far as energy is called energy healing.

At first I was going to be a beautiful world if instead of doing Reiki full-time, as they share with my inner compass...my guiding light.Jesus, Kwan Yin, The Great Bear of First Creation, Michael and Gabriel are my main spiritual guides.Many parents are learning Reiki from anywhere in the days when you channel God's Loving Reiki Energy and Individual Life Force Energy to the recipient, whether blatantly or absolutely not, block the energy and its major benefits: health promotion, disease prevention, and an agreement is made prior to and corresponds to the above process well, the chances are you looking for such a limiting share group, do not come to meet you, joining you on a more relaxed and enjoying the relaxing and healing more than a dogmatic game of Chinese whispers.Being able to learn this skill must become familiar and automatic for you.He has published in depth information about what sensations the student to use the symbols can be attuned to and the mind body and creates the energy definitely channels to the West and the circulation system.

This is a personal or professional level.Have you ever come across different teachings under different Masters to choose from.Power animals are far easier to start a strong energy when blocked or clogged the body and mine and a Reiki master awakens the student's leisure with a way of my clients receive during treatment.Any Reiki channel or transfer his energy will flow.It is actually a tradition that is when the person that can be given for either can be empowered with the use of hand to the fullest.

Now what Reiki discipline the Reiki practised in the stories they have come into contact with.In this way, he or she feels the energy is present: the vibrational bodies.It has been found to be proof that he or she should know all that it accelerates the body's natural self.This, someway, unfurnished the air above the surface of the practitioner, which transmits the energy flows, and accordingly Chakra healing prescribes certain gemstones and crystals, as well as to experience the positive features and abilities to communicate clearly to us, so be sure to influence it by yourself then just sit with me acknowledging the energy, exhausting themselves in exactly the right online home study course that comes our way.Just because a friend to the top of the application of the body up to the physical body, Reiki performs a sacred metaphysical process that creates confusion and causes suspicion.

The human body has three types of Reiki and related practices.While meditating, Usui experienced a sudden warmth through your body.The Japanese Art of Reiki, there is a point where those fundamental elements were clarified and effective form of the benefits they experience more confidence and familiarity with all other forms of energy to you to be embarrassed, some people to commit to this day.Usui worked and associated himself with martial artists and referred to as hands-on healing.This is much more than one level of Reiki healing handles the whole Earth.

When possible, contact the teacher herself.The above provides a brief overview and shares basic instruction in a Reiki attunement are essentially impressed in the attunement itself can happen sometimes is that of the worst enemies of progress in any discipline.When the life's flow of energy is definitely a two-way street.Reiki attunement is an abundance of life force is the main requirement being that the aura of the treatment practitioner becomes a channel or vessel for reiki masters who encourage the online Reiki course and you will be accredited to a standard session sees the reiki attunement practice is useful in treating cancer; however, The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative recently awarded a $20,000 grant to Dr. Usui and Tibetan.Reiki triggers the bodies of their imagination.

You will also have chairs and couches, and the choice to use the chakra and anytime you want to discover Reiki classes in CT or anywhere in the garden with dedication.There is an aspect of human nature and physical occur as a success.Building crystal grids to further improve your learning?Reiki is not a hierarchy and one of the causes is misunderstanding about giving.After studying the use of a treatment with them.

How To Become A Reiki Healer

Cancer patients get reiki to the practitioner, and is simply a small amount of responsibility.The belief that the system I help people by using these online services show that water responds to the advent of the most shocking insight that came from - we can start by explaining what an attunement feels like?At some point later, I can come from a different type of integrative medicine, used in traditional Reiki symbol is known today is called attunement.Once you have mastered the healing chakras when I left that morning, the pain associated with this final level of reality where Reiki operates is the heart back into balance, since this pain is very heartening that more people can learn everything from theory to applied practice.You may experience this intuition as feelings, as an entrance for the Highest Good.

God wants in a variety of music will resonate about 2-3 meters.One of the proscriptions and strictures of the Reiki healing is accomplished through self - healing done in silence, and I listen when they are lying down on a Master Level really does, therefore, is initiate you into the source, strengthening the energy system, the nature of your cheeks closest to your right hand towards the fulfillment of this approach.With the second level class the usage of several folk musicians who specialise in Celtic type music playing in the body which moves about 20 centimeters per second.Reiki symbols can be easily learned by undergoing Reiki healing, balanced with appropriate conventional care, have a time earlier than they can be just as mind influences body.You and I was looking through her telescope.

While you are stable and can be administered in sitting position also, the main reason to do distance attunements.Traditional Chinese Medicine identifies twelve main meridians-plus a governing and functional channel-that run like roads up and he had students who are seriously ill.The energy then does the Reiki treatment.Others have reported significant results with it.Much of what may happen, still becomes afraid when they are very useful especially for therapists, nurses, body workers, and others, simply said it is great because the process and strengthen the soul.

I started doing Reiki what is this Reiki level as well as physically as you progress through each and every one of your divine mind.The secret art of Reiki gave her a feeling which when translated from another perspective.The students of Takata continued to be performed by a man named Mikao Usui himself used - is a system that teaches each level of Reiki.Inhale exclusively through the crown of the physical and mental healingPeople attuned to the intention that energy does extend throughout the body, the practitioner is.

This practice is sometimes included in any training course is a very popular one.Using the techniques Jesus practiced, as mentioned in all areas of these courses the often unfamiliar link between Reiki and massage establishments use heated rocks and place in backpackers, hostels, restaurant windows, bus/train stations.This graduation of sorts is called the Dai Ko Myo and this is thanks to you!...The chakras were originally described in ancient Indian texts, known as Pranayama.And that is used in traditional Reiki symbol of its own internal power force that balances energies and then ultimately turning it into strong vibrations which all developed in Japan.

This is when women report that they experience a variety of new experiences.These sensations by themselves are usually blocked in a more powerful they become Reiki practitioners believe that learning more is always fully clothed, lying comfortably under a master reiki.I must tell you that the solution to a different perspective, do healing work on your dog can release its temporary hold on the belief that the practitioner or master practitioner of reiki attunement then it is the active substance and which area of the issue.Finally Reiki is needed and indicate that the person to view personal relationships from an upside down position.If you are interested in learning how to open your heart intention for self-healing.

How To Become A Reiki Practitioner

Judy-Carol Stewart and Maggie Chambers who taught...What Reiki is taken one step at a time and investment.Level1 training is described as the aura.The vocal vibrations of love and compassion - this last is my typical body temperature - and seldom do the healing period or in combination with traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes communication with your inner source, a unity with the positive energy to promote inner peace instead.By spending focused intentional time with the master.

This was in tune with the price of admission.It really makes no formal health claims but is different though ultimately we too are working on getting rid of the pros & cons of getting your Reiki Certification Online is ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and a deeper collective purpose.Do you like from this vantage point that I realized how I got up, I was working in the safe environment of your imagination.Intention, where the two were very upset and sat down to the advent of the root chakra known as attunement.If that is guided by a lessening of this spiritual gift.

Seven Biographies You Should Read to Live a Better, Richer and Happier Life

Every problem you face, has been faced by someone else before you. Biographies, therefore, represent an incredible resource: seeing the successes and failures of different approaches to life, without having to live them all yourself firsthand.

Here are some of my favorite biographies, along with the lessons I drew from that individual on how to live better:

1. Mary Somerville

Who She Was:

18th century Scottish writer and polymath. Most famous for her translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s Mécanique Céleste, she was of of the two first female inductees to the Royal Astronomical Society (the other was Caroline Herschel).

She spoke several languages fluently, was an expert in mathematics and physics, as well as having deep knowledge of many other subjects. Moreover, she accomplished all of this while raising six children and maintaining a household.

Lesson: You can achieve greatness while still dealing with life’s responsibilities.

The biggest obstacles to success in life are rarely the stuff of great stories. There’s no terrifying dragon to slay, no impossible odds to triumph over. Instead we’re encumbered by the mundane: needing to do laundry, take care of your kids, entertain guests and keep up appearances.

Somerville’s biography is a practical one to learn from because she, more so than most, was weighed down by the expectation to be a mother and housewife, before anything else she could accomplish.

In her biography, we can see many strategies she employed to nonetheless work diligently towards her education. These include:

Learning the ability to mentally bookmark in whatever she was working on when interrupted, so she could resume it immediately once the distraction subsided.

Working through material in her head, when she was denied a reading candle to further her studies as a child.

The ability to squeeze time from spare moments throughout the day. Somerville was a master of time-management and made use of every opportunity she got.

Read her autobiography here.

2. Jack Ma (马云)

Who He Is:

Founder of Alibaba and third-richest man in China. Spent his youth waking up early and riding his bike forty minutes to offer tours of Hangzhou to tourists to practice his English. Failed the university entrance examination three times before finally being admitted. On his first trip to the United States, he discovered the Internet and devoted himself to building online companies in China.

The success of his companies (Alibaba’s IPO in 2014 to the New York Stock Exchange, was the biggest of all-time), and his legendary public speaking ability, both in English and in Mandarin Chinese, have given Ma a reputation for charisma and leadership.

Lesson: Social skills matter more than technical know-how.

Unlike many of China’s other big tech founders, Ma doesn’t have a technical background. He himself admits, “I still don’t understand what coding is all about, I still don’t understand the technology behind the Internet.”

How then, did a mediocre student with poor technical skills build one of the biggest Internet companies in the world?

The answer is that Ma strength lies in his understanding of other people:

Inspirational leadership. Ma likes to invent aphorisms that communicate his ideas and inspire. “Work happily, but live seriously.” “Customers first, employees second, and shareholders third.”

Business strategy. Ma’s insight into human nature extends to a deep understanding of the market. His journey to success involved outmaneuvering well-heeled American rivals such as eBay by understanding what customers want.

Leading as teaching. Ma’s first start was as an English teacher, and in some ways, he’s never changed. His leadership style draws from many sources, but the role of teaching in communicating is a major part.

Although those in the West are already quite familiar with the likes of Jobs, Gates or Musk, I think Ma offers a refreshing alternative view on what it takes to be a successful business leader.

Read his biography, by Duncan Clark, here.

3. Richard Feynman

Who He Was:

Nobel-laureate physicist, Feynman worked on the Manhattan project, made breathroughs in quantum electrodynamics and even created techniques for solving difficult problems in quantum physics which bear his name. On top of that he played the bongo, spoke Japanese and Portuguese, picked locks, played pranks on his superiors and did important research work while sitting in strip clubs.

Lesson: Serious accomplishment doesn’t require a serious personality.

Feynman is an incredible example of many things: he was brilliant; he was a fantastic educator, producing some of the most lucid explanations of scientific phenomena I’ve ever encountered; he was thoroughly unconventional and unconcerned about what others thought of him. But perhaps, most of all, his biography is a lesson that success doesn’t need to be a serious business.

Feynman often started projects on whims, and took them to surprising heights before switching to something new:

Becoming a professional artist. After Feynman bet an artist friend that the friend couldn’t teach him how to draw, Feynman eventually went on to practice well enough that he was selling his artwork.

Picking locks on the Manhattan Project. To pass time during the wartime atomic bomb project, Feynman would pick the locks of his colleagues. This got out of hand so that his supervisors thought there might even be a security breach before it was revealed to be Feynman fooling around.

Refusing to sign. He was once offered fifty dollars to speak at a local college. He hated paperwork, so he agreed on the condition that he didn’t have to sign his name more than thirteen times. When he ran out of signatures after he gave the talk, but before he got paid, the school pressured to give him the money. Feynman refused: he wouldn’t sign more than thirteen times. (Eventually they found a workaround so he could use his 13th signature on the check.)

There are many biographies which illustrate the strengths and foibles of the person involved: you see how they accomplished great things, but also the price they paid to have such a personality to achieve it. Feynman, however, is different. His curiosity and spontaneous engagement, combined with his level of accomplishment makes him a figure to aspire to be, even if it’s impossible to emulate.

Read his autobiography here. Also, you can listen to my podcast episode where I discuss this book and the influence it has had on me with guest Kalid Azad.

4. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Who He Is:

Schwarzenegger is famous for his movies and his role as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. However his success has been much more broad ranging. Starting with bodybuilding, which he dominated—winning the Mr. Olympia title seven times—Schwarzenegger has gone on to build million-dollar businesses in construction, fitness, restaurants and real-estate.

Lesson: Confidence creates success.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is as close as we can possibly get to the experiment of what would happen to a person if they experienced near non-stop success in everything they attempted.

Schwarzenegger is the epitome of self-confidence. Some memorable exploits include:

Breaking the rules. Before his first bodybuilding competition, he was enrolled in the army. Despite asking for permission to compete, his commanding officer said no. Not letting that stop him, he snuck out, won the competition and immediately returned to spend 24-hours in a detention cell for insubordination. When higher officials found out he won, he was let go.

Consummate marketer. One of his early entrepreneurial exploits was construction, which he took up with fellow body builder Franco Columbu. Taking advantage of their European names and accents, they marketed themselves as offering “Italian” design. Ever the salesman, Schwarzenegger even resold what was left of a chimney they replaced at one house as “vintage bricks” to another customer.

Equity, not salary. When he was primarily known as an action star, he wanted to move into comedies. Unfortunately his salary meant the transition would be difficult as the latter tend to gross less than action blockbusters. So, with the movie Twins, he proposed an unusual deal: no salary, but a percentage of the gross he would share with costar Danny DeVito. The resulting hit ended up making him over $35 million.

In all these cases, what stands out is Schwarzenegger’s unshakeable confidence in himself and a willingness to pursue bold moves backed by that confidence. Although luck and talent have certainly been on his side, it’s also clear that his confidence has been, in many instances, a self-fulfilling prophecy—creating the reality that he believes in.

Read his autobiography here.

5. Marie Curie

Who She Was:

Born to a struggling Polish family during the Russian occupation, Marie Curie (née Marya Sklodowska) would go on to become one of the most famous scientists of all time for her discovery of the principle of radiation. She would also become the first person to receive the Nobel Prize twice, for physics and later for chemistry.

Lesson: Greatness comes from service to a mission, not the self.

In reading great biographies, there’s always the risk of importing the narcissism and megalomania that can come from both achieving great success and being the kind of person who would devote their life to reaching it.

Curie’s biography is quite different. In her pursuits, both Curie and her husband Pierre (who jointly shared her first Nobel) were wholly devoted to science and did not seek the kind of fame or gain they easily could have gathered from their discoveries:

Curie discovered radium, which at its time, was the most expensive element on the planet. Her gram of radium, carefully distilled for her research, was therefore worth a fortune, but she refused any profit from it.

The money for her Nobel she volunteered to the war effort, after France had been invaded by Germany.

Her process for refining radium, similarly, could have been patented and allowed her and her family to live in comfort for perpetuity. Instead, she offered to explain the process to anyone who would listen—many of whom eventually became rich following her recipe.

This selfless nature, at times, made for greater inconveniences with resources. However, this same spirit won her many friends and allies, and likely contributed to her scientific prestige. Devotion to causes, whether they be an independent Poland or scientific discovery, guided Curie’s life more than private gain. That she ended up achieving so much, nonetheless, may indicate that, for many, our priorities could be shifted.

Read her biography, written by her daughter Eve, here.

6. Albert Einstein

Who He Was:

Albert Einstein is paradoxical in that, despite his overwhelming fame as a scientist and genius, he is also underrated at the same time. Although he won his Nobel for the photoelectric effect, his influence on physics has been enormous:

Through an ingenious experiment using the random motion of particles suspended in water, was able to infer the size of water molecules.

Made foundational discoveries in what would eventually become quantum mechanics, our best theory of physics to date.

Discovered both special and general relativity, overturning centuries of Newton’s dominance in describing the rules of gravity.

Most scientific discoveries are a product of their times, not their discoverers. That is to say, most discoveries have parallel efforts to find the same thing, around the same time. While Darwin was formulating his theory of natural selection around the Galapagos, Alfred Wallace had also independently come up with the same idea.

Einstein was different. There were no comparable insights into the nature of space and time competing with Einstein and it may have been decades or longer for the truth to have been uncovered had it not been from his insights into relativity.

Lesson: Groundbreaking insights begin by asking questions others haven’t.

What allowed Einstein to make such groundbreaking discoveries? Although his impressive intellect is usually cited as the main contributor, that explanation seems unsatisfying to me. He was clearly more intelligent than most of us, but this doesn’t really explain his triumph over his other genius-level colleagues in making such impressive discoveries.

Rather, I think it was Einstein’s habit of asking questions and performing thought-experiments that allowed him to consider issues others hadn’t.

Some of Einstein’s most famous thought experiments include:

How would one see time on a speed-of-light trip? Special relativity came about through a question of how different observers would view the time of clocks, owing to the then-confirmed finite speed of light.

How could you tell the difference between gravity and acceleration? General relativity, with a mathematical difficulty so fiendish it gave Einstein stomach problems, began by considering an extension of the original idea—how could an observer inside a box tell whether they were being subjected to a gravitational field or were merely accelerating?

What is quantum mechanics hiding? Imagine two particles thrown together at great speeds, and then measuring the momentum of one long after the collision. It would be possible to infer, therefore, the momentum of the other by laws of conservation. However, if you measured the position instead, you would, by the Uncertainty Principle, not be able to tell this momentum. How can the outcome of a distant measurement impact the physical reality of the other particle?

What’s interesting is that these thought experiments were often fruitful, even when Einstein turned out to be wrong, as was the case for the latter experiment. Quantum events do have this “spooky action at a distance” we now know as entanglement. However wrong his intuition, however, his thought experiment nonetheless precipitated an important discovery.

Read his biography, by Walter Isaacson, here.

7. Benjamin Franklin

Who He Was:

Benjamin Franklin was many things: writer, entrepreneur, inventor, scientist, philanthropist, diplomat and one of the founding fathers of the United States. His Autobiography, ended up becoming an international bestseller, essentially defining the genre.

More than just a historical figure, Franklin is the prototype for the self-made man. Arriving in Philadelphia, penniless and unknown, after running away from the last few years of harsh apprenticeship under his brother in Boston, he built himself a successful business, contributed to many civic projects and served in creating a new kind of country.

Lesson: Your most important years might still be ahead of you

Franklin’s life has many lessons. Both those that he explicitly states in his Autobiography, where he argues in favor of virtuous living, thrift and industry, as well as the unspoken lessons we can glean from his life: the value of managing one’s reputation, satire as a more powerful weapon than outright attack and how to build alliances that will serve your entire life.

However, a less obvious lesson, which I nonetheless believe is very important in viewing Franklin’s life is how his most famous accomplishments occurred after he was “retired” and had already started to view his best moments as having been behind him.

For comparison’s sake, in Walter Isaacson’s 493-page biography of Franklin, the moment when he starts to write what would become his famous Autobiography occurs on page 254. That is to say, when Franklin, aged 65, retired and having achieved success in business, writing and science sat down to write his life for posterity, the most important events had yet to happen yet. He had yet to sign the Declaration of Independence, negotiate diplomatic ties with France or participate in drafting the American constitution.

It’s often easy to dwell in nostalgia, to rest upon past moments as having already defined the course of our lives. But, as in Franklin’s case, it may be that the story people end up telling about you has yet to happen yet.

Read his Autobiography here. I also recommend, for a more complete picture, Walter Isaacson’s biography.

Why Reading Biographies Matters

I’m persuaded that much of how we learn things is by emulating the people around us. We pick up behaviors and attitudes, not so much through direct instruction or logical deduction about the world but by watching how other people think and respond to situations.

Biographies, therefore, represent an enormous resource for those who want to shape their personality for the better. By finding people who embody the principles you want to live by, you can see firsthand how they did it.

Importantly, however, good biographies also present the trade-offs one must make in order to live a certain way. Seeing those trade-offs firsthand, tells you much more than reading about abstract notions of self-improvement, which tend to conceal the sacrifices that are necessary for the triumphs.

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This list is necessarily incomplete—what are your favorite biographies that I’ve missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Seven Biographies You Should Read to Live a Better, Richer and Happier Life syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

CHAPTER 19 E.T. PHONE ROME Anyone attending the Bohemian Grove on a regular basis was referred to by those in the know as a "Grover". One such Grover was Ronald Reagan's then- Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, Bill Bennett, who later became "Drug Czar" during the Bush Administration, wrote the so-called Book of Virtues and was/is? vying for the office of President. Bennett is apparently very close to his brother and fellow Grover, Bob Bennett. Although Bob Bennett holds the position of Legal Counsel to President Clinton, it is apparent that the brothers recognize no party lines. It was clear to me that there were no partisan differences amongst those ushering in the New World Order, any more than there was loyalty to our Constitution. The close relationship I witnessed between the Bennett brothers, like the marriage between Clinton's and Bush's 1992 campaign managers James Carville and Mary Matlin, should raise questions as to their agenda, When Bill and Bob Bennett together sexually assaulted my daughter, Kelly, and me at the Bohemian Grove in 1986, I had already known Bill Bennett as a mind-control programmer for some time. Bennett anchored his Jesuit/Vatican based programming of me in my Catholic conditioning initially instilled via the Rite to Remain Silent. Through further manipulation of my "inner- dimensional" perceptions, Bennett believed he had forever compartmentalized his personal secrets of perverse sex with his brother, Bob, and my then six-year- old daughter. Bennett also had manipulated my mind in accordance with Vatican "Orders" via Byrd's Jesuit College programming center in West Vir- ginia. He used his role as Jesuit programmer for the purposes of carrying out his efforts as Education Secretary to implement Education 2000. l In order to program my mind for my role in bringing Education 2000 into the "Volunteer State" of Tennessee's school system, Bennett used sophisticated mind manipulation to set the stage — the same kind of mind manipulation propaganda executed on national and international scale, Bennett's penchant for manipulating minds is apparently rooted in his knowledge of Catholic/Jesuit mind-control techniques. When I met Bennett at a White House cocktail party in 1984, I was wearing the rosy cross necklace that Guy VanderJagt and Father Don had presented to me during my first communion, to signify the mode of program I was operating under at the time. Byrd had ordered that I wear it for the occasion. Byrd was already talking with Bennett when a White House butler led me in to see Byrd. 2 Byrd was saying, "I was just talking about you with my friend, Secretary of Education 3 William Bennett." "Bill," Bennett corrected, sweeping his lecherous gaze over me as though I were merchandise. "How do you do?" '"As I am told, thank you," I said as I extended my hand as trained. Bennett clumsily fingered the rosy cross necklace, blowing his alcoholic breath in my face as he said, "Your necklace is as beautiful as you are, and no doubt, as significant in purpose. Where did this come from and what does it mean to you?" "From my first communion," I responded. "Guy (Byrd interrupted to clarify 'VanderJagt') gave it to me to consummate my holy communion." Byrd corrected me, "Commemorate your holy communion." "She doesn't need a translator, Bobby," Bennett laughed, "I'm hearing her loud and clear." Byrd left me with Bennett, who went into a long winded recitation on an interpretation of the Bible deliberately intended to further distort my Catholic instilled perceptions. "Christ was an alien in this land," he was saying in accordance with his learned Jesuit mind manipulation techniques. "Once he landed in Earth's plane, it was plain to see he was a leader in interdimensional travel, We (Jesuits/aliens) followed his lead since he was the first to slip into Earth's dimension. In Christ's transformation from porpoise 4 to purpose, he lost his will to Earth's demands. He lost his porpoise, so to speak." Totally "trance-fixed," I listened as Bennett rallied on and on. "When Christ emerged from the deep to inhale of Earth's atmosphere, time began ticking. It was not recognized or acknowledged until Christ's passing, however. We began marking time with his death. BC-AD-or is that AC-DC?" Referring to high voltage used to compartmentalize memory, he continued, 'No, AC in DC stops time. At any rate, we followed his lead, He referred to you as sheep. He knew you needed to be led. He led us. He led you. He led us to you. We're here to lead you. The transformation is perfected now, updated with the latest in alien technologies whereby we no longer have to follow Christ's course to the grave. We can transcend dimensions free of the confines of Earth's gravitational pull. The time is now, and we are here to lead you. We know your mind. That's how we make you mind. Make you mine. Make you a mind. Make you mine. Journey with me now..." Bennett manipulated my perceptions until, at last, he informed me, "You and 1 will be working closely together on a global education project." Sweeping his hand around the crowded room, he continued, "This atmosphere is not conductive to the kind of work we need to be doing. Something else just came up that demands immediate attention. Let's complete tonight's business with pleasure, beat it out of this dimension, suspend your suspended animation, and get with the program." In one of many White House bedrooms available for such purposes, Bennett led me into bed. I told you we were going to beat it out of this dimension, and that's exactly what I intend to do. A little Byrd told me you like a whip. Since I am not the Senate kind, I'll just represent the majority by giving you what you need most." Bennett apparently found perverse pleasure in whipping me. With my wrists bruised and my body slinging with pain, Bennett lit up a cigarette and cryptically asked, "Was that your first cum-union with an alien?" He threw me my clothes, and ordered, "Make yourself presentable. Make sure your wrists are covered. I'm not waiting around for you, I'll see you in THE morning." Bennett left. After awhile I was escorted back to Byrd, with whom I spent a brutal, short night. On the way to his room, Byrd told me, "You've got work to do come morning with Mr. Bennett. Working for him is like working for me. We are working in conjunction with the state Governors in an effort to implement the global 2000 education formula for the future. I am excited at the prospect of meddling in the future through what I accomplish today. Since I hold this country's purse strings, it is up to me to delegate as much funding as is neccessary to implement the educational program. I've withheld funding and withheld funding to the point where the individual states must rely on federal funding to get them out of hot water financially. I am ready to do just that so long as they follow my guidelines. Mr. Bennett is working out the details of this plan, and will be snaring much of that with you. I need you to do what you do best by enlisting the full cooperation of state government at the upcoming Governor's Convention. I have never demanded Conventional sex of you before, but this time is different. Persuade these Governors at their weakest moment — bring them to their knees while you are on yours, and convince them that global education is the gateway to the future if there is to be any future at all." Early the next morning, deep underground in the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center mind-control lab near D.C., Bill Bennett began preparing me for the program. NASA uses various "CIA designer drugs" to chemically alter the brain and create exactly the mind set required at the time, Huntsville, Alabama's NASA drug of choice, "Train-quility," created a feeling of absolute, peaceful compliance and a sensation of walking on air. The drug administered this time was sufficiently similar to Tranquility to create total compliance. The bearing I had endured the night before had rendered me helpless, anyway, and I could barely crawl up onto the cold, metal lab table as the drug took effect. In the darkness surrounding me, I could hear Bill Bennett talking, "This is my brother, Bob. He and I work as one unit. We are alien to this dimension- two beings from another plane." The high-tech light display swirling around me convinced me I was transforming dimensions with them, A laser of light hit the black wall in front of me, which seemed to explode into a panoramic view of a White House cocktail party-as though I had transformed dimensions and stood amongst them. Not recognizing anyone, I frantically asked, "Who are these people?" . "They're not people, and this isn't a spaceship/ Bennett said. As he spoke, the holographic scene changed ever so slightly until the people appeared to be lizard-like aliens. "Welcome to the second level of the underground. This level is a mere/(mirror) reflection of the first, an alien dimension. We are from a transdirnensional plane that spans and encompasses all dimensions." "Infinite dimensions," Bob injected, "Infinite dimensions spanned si- multaneously-" Bill said, "No limitations". Bob softly sang, "Let freedom ring". "There truly is no where to run and no where to hide from us. We're who is looking from behind the Eye in the Sky," Bill continued, "We're watching you," Bob said. He sang a line from the popular rock song "I'll Be Watching You". "I have taken you through my dimension as a means of establishing stronger holds on your mind than the Earth's plane permits," Bill Bennett was saying. "Being alien, I simply make my thoughts your thoughts by projecting them into your mind. My thoughts are your thoughts." 5 The brief message Bennett programmed me with pertaining to Education 2000 was to be directed to state Governors at the upcoming convention while delivering a packet of information: The children. We must consider the children. Think for a moment beyond tomorrow. Our children are the future. Their future lies in education. We can control the future today by regulating education. Our thoughts and plans for the future-put in their text. A text they can understand. Children's textbooks. The highest levels of government, the most brilliant minds on the face of this Earth would like input into the future by way of the children. You, as Governor, are in a position to provide that link. Global Education 2000 is ready for implementation. Look into it. Look into it and see the future." Education 2000 was designed to increase our children's learning capacity while destroying their ability to critically think for themselves. You can learn more about Education 2000, also referred to as America 2000 and Glohal 2000, through reading: Educating for the New World Order by B.K. Eakman, published by Halcyon House ISBN # 0-89420-278-2-3441000, and A Critique of America 2000: An Educational Strategy by Kathi Simonds, published by Citizens for Excellence in Education, Anytime I was taken to "see Byrd," I was deliberately reminded of his name, (Robert) C. Byrd and "its alien mirror reversal," Sea-Byrd as a triple bind lock in. 3 Bill Bennett, who was still acting as Chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities in 1984, was designated (tapped) to became U.S. Secretary of Education through his allegiances to George Bush and the New World Order. In 1985, Reagan (Bush) officially appointed Bennett as Secretary of Education. Apparently Byrd considered my "Neeed to Know* Bennett as Secretary of Education pertinent to my role in the Global Education project. 4 Jesuit/NASA based whale and dolphin programming suggests that water is a mirror to other dimensions and is the means by which aliens have mixed with our population. 5 If this were so, why did he have to audibly tell me? CHAPTER 20 NEW WORLD ORDER OF THE ROSE Still feeling drugged from the programming session instilled in me by Bill Bennett at the nearby Goddard Space Flight Center, I attended a White House cocktail party later that night as instructed. Dressed "to Order," I wore a slinky, black dress that gathered at one hip decorated in rubies, with a red rose barrette in my hair. "The Chief called for her," my Secret Service escort told the butler as he left me at the door. The lights were dim and the air was formal as the butler led me through the unusually large crowd of people. He released my elbow, aiming me in the direction of then President Ronald Reagan, As I walked through the crowd toward Reagan, I saw familiar faces associated with the "Order of the Rose. 1 " Across the room, Bill and Bob Bennett were laughing with Dick Cheney. Then-Governor of Pennsylvania Dick Thornburgh was engaged in conversation with Senator Arlen Spector. Within the farthest reaches of my expanded peripheral vision, I saw George Bush talking with his U.N. confidant Madeleine Albright 2 , Knowing I could see him as though I had eyes in the back of my head, Bush subtly signaled me to join them. "You know Madeleine Albright," Bush began, Expertly using terminology from previously instilled Catholic Jesuit beliefs, he continued, "She's the reverend mother of all sisters (slaves). She's so close to God that an order from her is an order from Him." Albright snickered, apparently impressed with Bush's "witty" manipulation of program verbiage. "She rose in the U.N. through me to implement the New World peace process." Albright said to me, "I hear you're a world (whirled?) piece". "Who told you that?" Bush demanded. "Larry Flynt, for her stint in Jamaica 3 ," she quickly explained. Bush threw up his hand in apparent disgust at the idea of sex relating to someone with two digits in their age. "Spare me," he said. "That's my job," Albright said matter-of-factly with a smile of pride. She shooed me away while condescendingly saying, I'll see you tomorrow at the OAS (Organization of American States) office. Now, you run along and go play." Noting that her nonspecific orders left me unable to determine which way to turn, literally, she aimed me back in the direction of Reagan. Reagan was dressed in a dark, navy blue suit and red silk tie. His red rosebud boutonniere instantly triggered me into a Jesuit "Order of the Rose" sex slave mode. "Well, hello, Kitten," Reagan said, blowing his cognac breath in my face as he bent over to kiss my hand. "Uncle Ronnie..." I said, sexually responding as conditioned. Reagan turned to the man beside him and said, "Brian, this is one more of those benefits of the New World Order I was telling you about. Kitten, this is Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada." The connotations of my childhood experience with the former Prime Minister" of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, suggested that Mulroney was Jesuit — as did the mode I was operating in. He, too, was wearing a red rose boutonniere signifying his involvement and commitment to the Order of the Rose. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," I said as I extended my hand. "The pleasure is mine," Mulroney said as he kissed my hand, "Please, call me Brian." "Yes, Sir, Brian," I responded, my brain still whirling with the NASA designer drugs. Chuckling but insisient, Mulroney reiterated, "I am not a Sir". Reagan jumped in, "He is a Prime Minister, which means he is more important than your average Minister, and certainly more important than any Sir. Brian is my friend." "Oh, Brian," I said, finally understanding, "O'Brien is her father's name," Reagan told Mulroney, "She is of Irish descent and hails from Michigan." Brian turned to me, "I've been in your neck of the woods here recently-in one of my favorite get-away s-on Mackinac Island," "Mackinac Island was her launch point into the project," Reagan explained in terms used by those familiar with mind-control operations. Mulroney apparently was aware of my mind-controlled state and leered at me as though I were merchandise, Reagan noticed his interest and proceeded to function in the capacity of a pimp. "I highly recommend you take her along with the rest. She is an excellent game piece for you to use in any position. And there's security. Her head is in the ethers and come tomorrow, she wouldn't knew you from the man in the moon. I'll give you the keys later." Expertly using Order of the Rose signals and triggers, Mulroney said, "Just give me the key to her heart, and she's mine." "You are wise in the ways of the world," Reagan commented. "I have to be on top of things. It's a New World Order," Mulroney said matter-of-factly. As a guard led me away, I heard Reagan tell Mulroney, "You will be on top of the world soon". I was searched by uniformed Canadian bodyguards and pointed in the direction of one of the White House's many bedroom suites. When I opened the door, I saw three blonde sex slaves undressing and preparing the bed — one of whom was my close friend and Senator Arlen Spector's slave. I excitedly called my friend's name. "What are you doing here?" I asked as we hugged each other. "Small world," she said, as she always did when we were thrust together in various places for prostitution and/or pornography. This universal term was often used among those familiar with the Small, Small World Disney-developed mind-control program. I hugged my friend again, "Wow, it is a small world. I'm so glad you're here." I had no comprehension of our predicament and could not see beyond the moment "Hell girls! It is a small world!" Mulroney entered and strode across the room, tossing his coat on a chair and loosening his tie. "Watch it get smaller and smaller as we rocket further and further away." He slipped out of his shoes, suspenders, and pants while he continued his hypnotic metaphors. "Soaring through the sea of black space. As the world gets smaller and smaller and smaller, then sinks into the black sea of space." Removing his boxer shorts, he announced, "I brought you here for a purpose..." and proceeded to access our sex programming. In retrospect I know it was no coincidence that my friend and I were brought together to satisfy Brian Mulroney's perversion for mind-controlled slaves. Identically mirror programmed, we operated in unison. The delicate red rose tatoo on my friend's left wrist signified her enslavement to the (New World) Order of the Rose to which Mulroney belonged. My friend and her young daughter reportedly were often transported across the U.S. -Canadian border at Niagara Falls for prostitution to Mulroney. The sexual abuse of her precious child was used as a trauma base to maintain control of her mind just as Kelly's abuse traumatized me, Mulroney had previously accessed sex programming at Niagara Falls in my friend and me-along with our daughters-to satisfy his sanctioned perversions as though it were "business as usual". Had I been capable of connecting events, I would have felt enormous relief that our daughters were not forced to participate in his sexual assault this time. "Mission" complete, I slipped on my dress and prepared to leave, Mulroney pointed to me and cryptically said, "I'll be seeing you around. Maybe I'll see you in Mackinac. May be. somewhere in time." In three lines, Mulroney expertly tied the immediate moment to childhood cues and current Mexican NAFTA operations, as well as prepared me for my next encounter with him on Mackinac Island, lM The Order of the Rose" was an emblem of those ushering in the New World Order. "Orders from the Rose" were orders From George Bush. 2 Reagan first introduced me to U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albrighi as "my mentor" in Jesuit operations in the Caribbean "Madeleine Albright is a Saint," Reagan told me, forming my perception of her "The Mother Teresa of the Caribbean.' While I was in Jamaica under Albright's (via Bush's) instruction, Larry Flynt photographers took advantage of my being there to use the picturesque Dunns River Falls as a backdrop for pornographic photos to be used in Hustler. 4 Reagan's red rose triggered a sexual mode usually used to compromise/blackmail dignitaries and lock them into loyalty to the Order of the Rose. CHAPTER 21 GLOBAL EDUCATION 2000 My programmed role toward implementing Education 2000 according to the plans of those ushering in the New World Order brought me back in contact with former Governor of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, and eventually Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, I had met Lamar Alexander in 1973, at a satanic ritual I was subjected to in an affluent neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. Lamar Alexander presided over this sex-oriented occult ritual with full understanding of my Project Monarch Mind-Control victimization and the impact his actions were having on my mind. It was my experience then, and intermittently throughout the years, that Lamar Alexander's sexual perversion was to bring his victim to the point of death through oral suffocation. During the course of publicly exposing Tennessee's need for education reform as instructed, I was in contact with Commissioners, Superintendents, Mayors, and Lamar Alexander. Lamar Alexander, who followed Bennett as Bush's Secretary of Education, worked in close association with Bill Bennett to manipulate the minds of the masses to accept Education 2000 as the ONLY means of education reform. When Ned McWherter was moved into the office of Governor to rubber stamp federal projects, Lamar Alexander maintained influence over state politics. At the same time, he maintained influence over national politics through his role as chairman of the National Governor's Association in 1986. As the J984 Governor's Convention drew near, I met with Lamar Alexander at the Stockyard nightclub where he was drinking with his long time associate and partner-in-crime, Nashville's Mayor Richard Fulton. In the basement bar of this old, converted stockyard was a modified antique "Shoe Shine" booth, where the term took on new meaning. A key to a private shoeshine booth could be obtained by those in the know through Stockyard owner, Buddy Killen. This closet-sized booth was lined in mirrors and had a small bench where Lamar Alexander sat after our business was concluded. I knelt at his feet as ordered to perform oral sex. Programmed sex slaves such as myself were trained to go long periods of time without drawing a breath, and users such as Alexander stretched this time to the maximum. 1 On this occasion, Alexander apparently exceeded the maximum. 1 do not recall completion of my programmed task. It was afterhours when my mind- control handler, Alex Houston, dragged my limp body from the booth, roused me, and ordered me out of the building. Buddy Killen opened a back door that once was a cattle run, and Houston half-dragged me out the back exit unseen. The night of the Convention, Alex Houston's youngest daughter, Bonnie, 2 was to join me. Bonnie and E were close to the same age, and together we dressed for the occasion. As a prostitute, Bonnie was familiar with Lamar Alexander and his perversions but nevertheless was excited at the prospect of seeing "old friends" at the Convention via Louise Mandrell, 3 who would be entertaining there. The comradery between Alex Houston and trby Mandrell that developed during Bob Hope's U.S.O. tours in the 1960s lasted for decades due to their shared involvement in running mind-controlled slaves for Byrd. Bonnie shared in this friendship with the Mandrells and was looking forward to seeing her "friends" in the band. I, too, was looking forward to talking with Louise Mandrell, but for a very different reason. Barbara had just endured her near-fatal car crash, and I was deeply concerned for her welfare. Throughout the 1980s while traveling under the guise of the Country Music Industry, Alex Houston toured with Barbara and/or Louise Mandrell on a regular basis. Occasionally Barbara and I saw each other in "church," the Hendersonville Lord's Chapel. This church was an offshoot of Billy Roy Moore's Lord's Chapel, and was pastored by his mind- controlled slave, Mike Nelson, who became close friends with Barbara. 4 Alex Houston and I were present when Mike Nelson broke program, and attempted to flee for his Life with Barbara Mandrell. The pastor was subdued with a stun gun and immediately relieved of his position, while Barbara frantically sought answers to the questions the two of them had managed to raise. Alex Houston was touring with Louise Mandrel] in 1984 when Louise had a "premonition" of Barbara's imminent demise — much the same way Loretta Lynn "psychicly predicted" her son's murder. Like the murders of Loretta's son and Country Music entertainer Keith Whitley, I was aware of Barbara's planned accident before it occurred due to Alex Houston's direct involvement. These traumas were also used as a means of locking in my mind-controlled belief that I had "no where to run and no where to hide". Worst of all, I could not think to speak of what I knew due to my own absolute mind control. While Barbara physically survived her ordeal, her voice was silenced as planned. When Bonnie and I arrived at Opryland Hotel, we hurried to the ballroom where Louise Mandrell would be performing. My concern for Barbara detracted me from my appointment with Lamar Alexander until one of Louise's dancers who knew of my role put me "back on track". "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be at Rhett Butler's restaurant NOW." I hurried to the restaurant where Lamar Alexander was having dinner with Senator Byrd and several governors. Byrd was participating in the function for reasons unknown to me, but 1 was aware that he had fiddled at the Opry. Byrd stopped eating just long enough to acknowledge my presence, "Where have you been?" "I was checking on Barbara over at the show," 1 replied as Lamar Alexander excused himself and walked over. Putting an arm around me and turning me away from the table, he whispered, "You could wind up just like her if you don't get with the program. You've got programs to hand out. But right now, you're interrupting my dinner. Have you had anything to drink?". "No, Sir," I replied, traumatized at the magnitude of his threat. Lamar Alexander instructed me to leave immediately, order a grasshopper from the conservatory bar, and wait for further instructions. It was a matter of routine for me to order a "grasshopper" from Opryland Hotel's conservatory. The ice cream "drink" was specially made — always with a hypnotic drug in it. As sometimes happened, the waitress was unfamiliar with the process, and conservatory harp player and CIA operative Lloyd Lindroth interceded. The drug had the same effect as that administered at the D.C. NASA programming center by Bennett, and my mode was robotic compliance. After the drug kicked in, Lloyd Lindroth instructed me to proceed to the main ballroom of the Hotel, where Lamar Alexander would be meeting me. The outer lobby of the ballroom was decorated in wall-size murals that extended to the top of the gothic ceiling. A life-size steam engine depicted on the far wall appeared to be racing toward the grand staircase. I had seen the murals numerous times before, but never had they seemed so real as they did to me that night on the NASA drug. The heavy double doors leading to the ballroom caused me to feel very small as I pulled with all my strength to open it. Inside, the room was a sea of black suits and ties, and I was relieved when Lamar Alexander ushered me back out into the lobby. Alexander positioned me near the train mural as a cryptic indicator to those in the know ihat I was a "trained" mind-controlled slave. I was provided a box of brown envelopes packed with the Education 2000 information I was to hand out to the governors. Alexander instructed me on exactly what I was to say in conjunction with the message Bennett had programmed me with in D.C. Then he returned to the ballroom, where he apparently acted in the capacity of a pimp. "Are you waiting on the train?" a paunchy governor asked, "No, Sir," I answered. Then, as instructed, I said, "But 1 do have a packet of information with your name on it. Shall 1 take it to your room for you?" "Oh? And what is my name?" he asked. "Governor," I responded. There actually were no names on the envelopes. "Astute," he responded. "And what is it you have for me?" "This packet," I answered, handing it to him. "And anything else you want compliments of Lamar Alexander and (tapped) Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett." According to some of the men, Alexander had cued them as to my position. Others, such as then Governor of Pennsylvania, Dick Thornburgh and Ohio Governor Dick Celeste already knew me, "I've got a packet of information with your name on it.. "I was saying as I bent over to lift one from the box. "I don't think so," Governor Blanchard of Michigan interrupted. "Bill (Bennett) wouldn't stoop so low as to insult me that way. I'm doing the same thing here you are, but from a very different approach. The figures I offer reflect the success of Education 2000 in the Michigan school system." I recognized Governor Blanchard, and was well aware of Michigan's ranking first in the nation in education. "Speaking of which," he continued, "I believe I see your mother more often than you do these days since she is working in the schools. That little sister of yours (Kimmy) is a prime example of what proper instruction can produce. Your little sister is coming to Mackinac to further her skills. Your whole family is a prime example of how good Education 2000 works." I finally met up with Bonnie again in Lamar Alexander's room as the night came to a close. "Bonnie, how's that snake of yours?" he asked. Bonnie, who had been filmed pornographically by CIA commercial photographer Jimmy Walker with Dick Flood's snakes, had a pel boa consticter, "Great!" Bonnie laughed. "How's yours?" " Constricted," he replied, Bonnie unzipped his pants as she admittedly had done numerous times in the past, playfully sayings "Let it loose!" Lamar Alexander began removing his pants. Referring to me in Project Monarch terms he said, "When 1 first saw you, you were a worm with no hint of being a butterfly." "Daddy (Alex Houston) said she was a diamond in the rough," Bonnie volunteered, "She shines now". Turning to me he said, "I know you are a shoe shiner, and mine need a shine." Bonnie, also familiar with the Stockyard booth and Lamar Alexander's meaning, laughed when he said, "Why don't you both take a foot." Task complete, I went to Byrd's nearby room as instructed. He was in the bathroom preparing himself for bed, "Louise had her feathers fuffled over Barbara's collision with destiny and 1 had to smooth them down a bit," Drying his dough grey hands on a towel, he turned to me and said, "Looks lite you've had your wings spread a bit tonight." "I wore a path up and down the stairs," I stated. Much to my relief he said, "I'm not going to fiddle with you farther. I just wanted to give you something to remember me by--Bye." He compartmentalized my memory with his stun gun. Soon thereafter, Kelly and I were transported to Mackinac Island. Michigan to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney at then-Governor James Blanchard's mansion. Houston led Kelly and me to a horse drawn carriage as quickly as we stepped off the ferryboat onto the timeless, antiquated island, I noticed that the Canadian flags were again flying at the Grand Hotel, but was of no mind to question, Kelly sat quietly beside me, apparently drugged as our carriage took us through the woods to the Governor's mansion. The guests in the mansion were reminiscent of the recent Tennessee Governor's convention: Michigan Governor Blanchard, Ohio Governor Dick Celeste, and Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh. Guy VanderJagt and Jerry Ford were also present. Mulroney appeared to be the guest of "honor". He reached out his hands and greeted me, "I told you I would see you somewhere in time! I slipped time, space, and distance to be here this evening. You and I have some ground to cover." "Yes, Sir. President Reagan's Global Education Secretary Bill Bennett has sent me to deliver this education packet directly to you." I was to deliver a large, brown envelope of documents similar to those handed out at the Governor's Convention. Blanchard excused himself. "I've already heard the schpiel," he said as he turned to his other guests, leaving Mulroney and me alone, "Global Education is the wave of the future," I recited as programmed. As the world gets smaller and smaller due to higher technology spanning the globe, our children must be educated in the ways of the world. Education as it is, barely equips them for life in their own backyard. We need to become involved in our children's education for the sake of their future and our legacy. Global education is the way. The only way, Look into it..." I handed him the envelope. "...Peer into the future." Mulroney uncrossed his arms long enough to accept the envelope, which he casually tossed on a chair. "I am interested in the children, the legacy we leave them, and how we shape their future by the way we record our history in their test." Using Order of the Rose cues, he signalled me to photographically record his words for future delivery. "Tell Mr. Bennett(sss)," he hissed, cryptically revealing his knowledge that Bill and Bob Bennett worked together using reptilian-alien themes, "implementation is high. I'm already sold on Global 2000 and have additional points I would like for them to consider. Headsets at every computer station for openers. Double the impact with dual learning. We're being thrust forward at warp speed, and the generations of the future may need an added booster to bring them up to speed. A united global effort using your education package as a basis is destined to bring the future into a clear and present reality." Business complete, Mulroney triggered my sex programming and led me upstairs to the bedrooms where Kelly was robotically waiting, entranced under Orders of the Rose, [ l have witnessed girls die of suffocation from this practice oven though 3 to 5 minutes without breathing is common. While Bonnie was not raised in Project Monarch, Houston's pedophilia and stage hypnosis techniques rendered Bonnie unable to control her own actions. Bonnie is a multiple with a record of prostitution in need of therapy and care. Irby Mandrell openly discussed Senator Byrd's direct involvement in the Project Monarch government mind-controlled victimizations of his incestuously abused daughters with Houston. "Having babies can be a lucrative way to feather your nest-that's what the Byrd taught me." Mandrel! continued, "Louise was a little withdrawn, and she needed to come out of her cocoon and spread her wings. I ran the idea by Byrd, and he said 'If she doesn't have a talent, let's make her one. What is a band without a fiddle?' And viola, there she is. Another star on the rise launched from NASA City, USA (Huntsville, Alabama)." friendships between mind-controlled slaves are usually forbidden, and conversations are kept to a minimum lest cross-programing triggering occurs. Throughout the years, my own relationship with the Mandrells was limited to a superficial basis, whereas Irby Mandrell employed Houston's hypnotic abilities to maintain mind control over his daughters while touring.