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cruzrogue · 4 years

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I know...Kinda don’t...U know...

Another story hit me! I’m putting the idea on tumblr because that is where I place my story ideas. Don’t know if this will continue or die. I have plenty of stories to juggle. But in-between writing them these ideas won’t let me go...

It starts off with Cisco Ramon from the flash and Felicity Smoak from Arrow getting to know each other in non-platonic circumstances. They like each other. It becomes an olicity story because I’m a Oliver and Felicity fan. Haha. Those two are just it for me. I can read or write them in similar situations and not get tired of it. I actually love that!

Thanks beforehand for reading especially if you got this far.

Cisco Ramon & Felicity Smoak, OliverQueen/FelicitySmoak

My idea is to make 2 versions of any chapter that I might have smut. (Clean/Smutty) AKA (1A/1B...2A...etc) That is if I continue... Well here goes!

(Untitled story)

Cisco Ramon not one that is usually popular with the girls. Especially when alone and not with his college friends. Friends that brought him along to this year’s spring break trek across a few cities before getting back to his own university.

Wanting to go to a nerd hangout. Scope the world of mechanical wonderment with a side of technological flair at this exhibit. No way that the possibility of missing such mind-blowing thought-provoking display would not fall on his roaster of things to do in Las Vegas. His boys bailed at the idea of spending an ounce of time in the land of boredom. Their words not his. He’d meet up with them at that party venue some guy told them about last night.

Like always he’s enjoyed his alone time and now is ready to adventure to the wild side. Hanging with rich kids has brought a level of craziness. Things these guys do are beyond some of the frat boy lifestyles he’s seen in movies. Just a factor of wow and unbelievable.

The bouncer takes one good look at him and double checks his ID. Cisco just makes a cheesy grin as he tells the guy its 100% him.

The music is low. Not much going on. He is the early bird. Checking his watch early by two hours. Probably should have gone to the hotel. Leaving with the gang. They bring the party. Oh well. He is here now. Maybe he can see if they serve some grub.

Movement catches his attention. Long black hair being pushed to the side. He notices she’s trying to read while hitting her pencil against the table to the beat of a song playing. The closer he gets to the counter the view of the hottie only gets better. Better meaning the anticipation of getting a mildly improved glance. Taking in those sexy low-cut boots. Following her limbs upward. Stopping mid length on her upper thighs as she must be wearing a short skirt. Her long hair covering the view to her face. He wonders how pretty she must be.

“If you keep staring, you’ll burn a hole in my head.”

That gets him to suddenly apologize. He didn’t think she’d notice him. Finally, she sits up straighter moving the hair that is obstructing a clear picture of her face. He suddenly sucks in air. She’s breathtaking.

Her index finger shoots up to the mirror off to the side. A mirror he didn’t catch until now.

“The mirror has failed your gawking ways.” Her lips are pressed to a thin line but there is mirth in her eyes. She knows he won’t be able to tell she’s amused.

“Sorry.” He mutters now totally embarrassed. Serves him right for ogling.

“The club isn’t really open for dancing yet. What brings you in? Not the stale pretzels I hope.”

“I’m super early. I just came from the conservatory of Mechanical Engineering exhibit that was hosted this week and well I couldn’t say no to…”

“Being that guy that drools over numbers.”

A part of him deflates. This hot chick thinks he’s a loser, “Yea. I’m that geek.”

“Well then. It’s a safe bet to get the tenders, onion rings, and maybe apple crisp if you have a sweet tooth.”

“So no on the pretzels?” He smiles because just maybe he has a shot with this beauty. “What about the nut selection?”

“Both are probably salty. You know. It gets you to drink more. Though if you want to handle any certain number of nuts that they serve. I won’t be able to enjoy talking to you further.”

“Oh! You don’t like them? Or do you have some food intolerance to pine nuts?”

She gives him a sly smile, “Seems like the only nuts I can’t handle.”

His mind is quick and it makes him have a goldfish moment. They aren’t even arguing except his mind is screaming. Opening and closing his mouth to only leave it open in surprise. She’s flirting. She is flirting with the nerd him. “I’ll be right back.” He thumbs the food counter.

Felicity goes back to reading. Keeping from sparing a look back at the interesting nerd who seems to like her goth appearance. She knows what she wants tonight. She went out. Instead of studying in her room at her mom’s place. Where she’d be bored out of her mind. It’ll be nice to enjoy a night with a guy that seems to be intellectually sound.

He gets back placing the double portions of the food choices she mentioned while joining her. Just that alone gives him some secret points he has no idea about. They have a blast talking. Actually, chit chatting about science and math related situations that would bore the likes of most other people. Those that can’t fathom how awesome existence is with the mix of these two subjects. Pushing creations to make human lives better.

It leads to them to pulling out their identification’s cards. Both checking the emblem on each other’s license.

“Francisco Baracus Ramon.”

“Yep, a mouthful.” He pops a broken piece of an onion ring into his mouth before looking at her name, “Felicity Meghanne Kloak.” He has no idea that the ID is fake. That isn’t her real name or age. Her mother gave her a fake id as a parting gift as she left to M.I.T. “Oh shit, you’re just eighteen. I’ve been serving a minor alcohol.” She doesn’t correct him further to say that she’s actually sixteen. “I turned twenty-one just like a friend of mine a few weeks back.”

“Happy belated birthday.”

“Thanks. I don’t feel any different.”

“You don’t? You’ve had a few strong drinks.” She says with laughter.

“I’m not sloshed. Hey why aren’t you a little tipsy? You’ve been drinking by myside this whole time.”

She outright laughs, “Your twenty-one. Jimmy would lose a gasket if a minor had alcohol in the open like we are.”

“Whose Jimmy?”

“The owner.”

“Oh!” Cisco says with a frown.

“Cheer up. Isn’t the point to have fun? Enjoy life? Us nerds are already so stuffy.”

“Says a literal goddess. You are so beautiful.” He sees that she about to burst out laughing at how he is becoming so corny. “Come on its not just the alcohol talking. You are just so amazing.”

That has Felicity be a lot more assertive as her hand moves up his arm showing an attraction. Somewhere during the hour and a half of being together they’ve moved to be sitting by each other. Able to talk easier as the sound check started to interfere with hearing the other.

That is until Cisco feels that he may have overdo it with the drinking and heads to the bathroom. Leaving Felicity to not see him again tonight.

----------sp@ce--------------

Cisco meets the gorgeous goth girl named Felicity. Instead of dancing he’s having a session with the round porcelain latrine. He’s a little out of it but his friends meet up with him. Thank goodness his friends arrive. At least the two who needed to pee. Escorting him to a VIP lounge. He’ll rest there. So much for the sweet perfect dream of a girl he met earlier.

Oliver and Clive go check out the club as the rest of the party is escorted to the VIP lounges.

It doesn’t take long until Felicity catches Oliver’s eye. She’s isn’t alone per se as she listening to some guy and her lips are strung in a line of just being polite. He makes his move as Clive tells him he doesn’t get the appeal. Oliver just shakes his head telling his friend ‘variety is the spice of life’.

The guy by the goth’s side trying to sound smooth as he drawls out, “You sure you don’t want something better? I can just call…”

Oliver hears the guy’s line and rolls his eyes. He’d let it play out if the girl was willing to take the drink but with this Goth chick saying adamantly, she is good with what she has. The guy doesn’t get the hint she doesn’t want another drink. As the man calls for the bartender. Oliver steps into the game.

“She has impeccable taste.” Oliver says contemplating the guy who is being let down nicely but is willing to make her uncomfortable. He holds the cocky signature look he is known to have as the other guy is sizing him up. Adding, “It doesn’t stop with just drinking choices.” Catching her stare. He winks.

Taking the moment to dip on his chances as the other guy becomes a third wheel. The odds rising in his favor as her body converges towards his own.

The bartender taking the other man’s order first. A certain venom seeping from his voice as he gets a drink for himself only. Concluding a dark stare towards the couple as the pensive man conflicts with himself if he should just walk away.

“And for the lady?”

Felicity noticed a recognition between the man behind the counter and what she supposes is her knight in shining armor or in her case fitted suit jacket. She’s kept from gawking at the newest intruder. Her eyes falling back onto her drink. Being put on the spot she just tells the bartender to give him his usual. She doesn’t know if they know each other. It doesn’t really matter because the other guy leaves. It’s a huge weight off her back. He was just to persistent for her tastes.

As the bartender hands off the new stranger’s drink. Felicity gets a nickname she presumes as the man dubbed Ollie says ‘thank you’ shelling out a handsome bill for a simple drink.

Oliver doesn’t move to take a seat. Keeping his focus now on his own drink as he sips slowly and placing the drink not far from hers. “It’s actually Oliver.”

“Thanks for the save. Oliver” She finally lets herself look at him again. He is gorgeous. Long locks that probably are way overdue to get cut. Taking him in. She rather digs that his hair accentuates his baby face. Though those blue eyes are mesmerizing. She could get lost in them. That is dangerous. It doesn’t seem to help that he notices her staring. “It’s Felicity.”

Her name falls from his lips and it brings a smile to his face. She gets to notice he has dimples. Oh boy she is in trouble.

“It’s a pretty name.”

Her hand goes for her drink. Controlling her temptation to reach out and touch his cheekbone. That’d be weird.

“Thanks. Do you know the bartender?”

“Met him yesterday. Told us about this club.”

“Us?”

“Spring break. Me and a few friends.”

“I’m on break too.”

“Really? What school?”

“M.I.T.”

“Cool, small world.” He can’t but smile. “My new school is in Boston too.”

“You’re a transfer?”

“You can say that. So, why Vegas?”

“Guilt trip.” Seeing the question form she continues, “I’m a freshman. I took a work study program plus a load of classes this summer. Money’s tight but she’s… she’s my mother.”

“She misses her baby girl. I think that is so sweet.” As she gives him a raised eyebrow. He doesn’t take it back. To him parents that care. They are the best.

“Same question? I doubt being in Vegas while under twenty-one is a big drawl.”

“It’s a pit stop. We are heading to New Orleans next.” He doesn’t mention Miami before heading back to Boston. “What gives my age away?” He waits for her to say his baby face.

“You weren’t asked for an ID. Out in the open. Even with him knowing you. You’d have been asked if you were going to consume alcohol. Just in case of narcs. I’m guessing that drink doesn’t contain alcohol.”

“Did you watch him make the drink?”

“No. But that camera over there.” She doesn’t point. “Jimmy would never allow that in his establishment. Now private rooms where there might be a few minors he’d let that slide.”

“You know the owner.”

“If you mean know as in… He dated my mom than yes I know him.”

“Past tense. Guess it ended amicable or you wouldn’t be here.”

She nods taking another sip of her drink, “He’s got a smiling sun tattoo on his butt cheek.”

“What?”

“Things you wish to never see but my momma doesn’t know how to have signals that she’s busy entertaining.”

“Ew. I couldn’t imagine catching my parents.”

“At least you know they did the deed once to get you.”

“I have a sister.”

“Okay.” She laughs, “Pardon me, twice at least.”

He likes her laughter. Among the list of other things. He’s about to say something else when a buddy of his is trying to get his attention. Felicity shifts to follow Oliver’s line of sight and she sees another good-looking guy using hand signals to converse with the tall college student she’s been getting to know. Trying not to eavesdrop she repositions back to the original posse before him.

“Need to leave?”

Oliver responds with a firm no. As his eyes trail back to hers. She can see whatever the other guy said has made him go red in the face.

“Are you alright? You’re red-faced.”

He shakes his head. Letting out a self-deprecating moan.

“What’s the deal?”

Oliver’s bites his lip as she can tell he’s radically thinking. She can pinpoint it in his eyes when a decision is made and wow those blue eyes are so distracting.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“What about your friends?”

“They can live without me for some time. I’d like to get to know you. We’re in Vegas. Let’s paint this town red.”

“Or you can let a native show you to some hidden gems.”

“Hmm. I’d like that even better.”

She slides off her chair and Oliver gulps as his eyes travel down her backside. She’s already leading them towards the exit.

“Do you need to say goodbye.”

“Nah, they’ll get the message if they don’t see me.” He walks a little quicker to get the exit door opened for her to leave first.

“Then you’re with the death witch. Getting the ride of your life.” Felicity could make some of his friend’s words. Her goth chicness being too much for the boy. “Something in those lines if I’m correct.”

“Yet, no one tried to save me.”

“You need new friends then.”

“Definitely. That is if they didn’t also think your hot.”

“Thanks, I guess. I turned away from your conversation around once he did the age-old sign for… um… coupling.”

“He sure did.” They find themselves in the dessert heat. Oliver waiting for her instruction but adds, “Felicity?” As he gets her undivided attention, “I don’t expect anything down those lines. It would be insulting and…”

“Oliver, I wouldn’t come outside if I didn’t want to get to know you better.” She winks well sort of winks and it makes him chuckle slightly.

#olicity #cruzrogue #oliver queen #felicity smoak #Cisco Ramon

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pandoriasbox · 4 years

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Jade’s SSO Rambles - 5 Current Care System

(Please keep in mind that these are my thoughts and opinions at the time of writing these rambles. I may change my mind in the future.)

Before beginning I want to establish that this particular rambles topic is purely my current thoughts on care system we have now. I want to explore further how horse care can function in game but due to how much I’ve struggled with trying to articulate I’m going to post my current thoughts now and I hope to return to the topic in the future. I would especially like to come up with better suggestions for a full overhaul as I have some fun ideas related to our new crafting mechanics that were just released and some other ideas I have brewing in my brain.

Horse Care Praise

I hate to criticize or suggest adjustments to anything without offering a positive outlook on what I believe is done well about the aspects I want changed. It’s also good to take note of these parts as they could potentially be something worth working into the overhauled system.

I appreciate that unlike 90% of horse games that have been around (at least since I was a kid and amongst those I’ve found in my own horse game research) that SSO and the other Star Stable PC games have always kept the actual horse care aspect simple. You take whatever you want to care for a horse with and use it on them without having to go through a mini-game. It’s a simple animation or one and done action. This is important to me when you have to do this on a regular basis or to a large amount of horses. (Only issue is that loading bar and some other small UI nit-picks.)

The functioning wash stall is a nice addition to the game, I appreciate how it actually acts as a grooming interaction on your horse too and temporarily removes the tack. The only thing I wish we had was a way to activate photo mode and have slightly more free camera movement and the hidden UI like our horse’s name and hiding all sparkles while activated. (I also adore the little easter egg where you dance in the suds.)

I appreciate all the different items we’re able to feed our horses. It’s also kind of neat that while normal items like apples, carrots and hay are available in all the standard feed shops there’s special harder to get items too. Such as the produce cart in Aideen’s Plaza or when we get holiday items. (Like from the little helpers or 2019’s birthday cakes!)

Horses App

I think in terms of mini-games that the way the foal app does it is actually pretty enjoyable. This is a little bit off topic since it delves into the app instead of SSO itself but an equally noteworthy topic especially if the team ends up pulling aspects of the mini-games into SSO. I like that it doesn’t take an extreme amount of work like some games do and that the hoof picking especially has noticeable spots to clean and you only do one hoof. (I also appreciate that it looks like actual objects falling off, sure it’s not realistic but it’s more appealing than other games I’ve seen.) The only thing I’ve ever had an issue with is the petting which seems to have problems with detection of the touch screen.

Overall the visual effects are pleasant and I love the fact you don’t have to cover every inch of the horse for it to count. You can just keep grooming the same spot for the brush and washing and it works instead of trying to hunt the tiny section you missed besides for when you wash soap off. (Which makes sense, you wash where you put it.)

I also like that the horses seem to have certain foods they like or prefer more. Though I personally would like to see it that they eat anything but have certain foods they like more than others.

In terms of the training I really love that we can run our horse through ground work with lunging, cavaletti, free jumping and the sorta tricks teaching and side pass work. These are aspects I would really love to see integrated into SSO as other options for training our horses outside of running the same races over and over. If the first person view isn’t kept though I do think the player movement both mechanically and visually will need an update. The only noticeable gameplay issue I could see is in terms of accessibility if mouse movement was used to replace the touch screen element.

Basic Care System Suggestions

These are aspects I think should be for the most part implemented regardless of how the team goes about updating the caring system unless it becomes redundant.

As I praised above, keep a simplistic means of doing horse care for accessibility and even if it doesn’t have any effects it’s still nice for roleplay. Either keep it down to a simple click and drag or you press an interact button.

Remove designated care areas and let players do basic care actions such as brushing, hoof picking, watering and feeding anywhere. (Care areas such as those in and around stables.)

Remove excess UI such as the loading bar and only have the animations playing. Also remove the blinking or fading black screens. If necessary simply have the player clip into place like when mounting and let them move from where they are after the animation. (Unless it could cause issues with players clipping through walls.) Also remove the bar across the top and make any updates to your horse less intrusive such as the using the notification box in the corner.

Reasons to Remove Current Happiness System

While I don’t have any promising ideas for replacing the current system I didn’t want to leave out my reasoning for removing the current “mood/happiness” system and the buffs/debuffs associated with daily care of your horse.

Higher Player Accessibility

Players are not required to perform the care in order to have non-debuffed/faster horses. (Especially those with disabilities.)

No guilt over having to either leave horses extremely unhappy or for having to use star coins to tend to all of them.

Players can ride any horse they own at any time, therefore increasing enjoyment of their current horses and allowing them to participate in unique events related to specific breeds.

Removes Feelings of Punishment/Positive Reward For Not Playing

If a player is unable to log in on a daily basis they are immediately punished by losing happiness with their uncared for horses. Even one day is a rather big nuisance and cannot be rectified immediately other than through paying a large sum of SC to the vet. Removing this aspect will garner player happiness and remove a reason for the player to not want to return to the game.

Removes the aspect that using the app to pay for horse care has induced that basically rewards players for not playing the game as they don’t even need to log into the game in order to have their horses cared for.

Provides Additional Reason to Buy More Horses

Players will be more willing to purchase additional horses because of the former reasons. There are little to no negative connotations with owning a massive hoard of horses if daily care requirement is removed.

Players will also be more willing to buy horses as they will no longer have to balance paying for stable care versus paying for a new horse.

Extra Notes

I think adding the foal app mini-games especially for grooming (and maybe training in the future) would be a good idea. These could be accessible in the home stable wash stall or at the wash stalls in places such as the Rescue Ranch and Starshine Ranch.

The mini-games should remain as completely optional and more interactive, engaging and roleplaying based way for the player to interact with their horse. As mentioned in Amelia and Leila’s interview it would also provide additional repeatable gameplay especially for younger audiences.

If daily feeding is required I think going with an idea similar to Amelia’s suggestion for a silo from the interview with Leila would be a good idea. I personally think either setting this up via the bulletin board or having it in the feed room would work best. The player could then buy hay from the food stalls and fill up their feed storage to act as a shillings based auto-care system. (I also think if a means of crafting food that buffs your horses is added then you could add it to the auto feeding to apply it to all your horses.)

Also in regards to the vet currently, I feel the price is absurd to pay to get your horse to max happiness. It should not cost me a week’s worth allowance of free currency to max 1 horse. Either it should be 100 to max my entire stable or should be far cheaper to max a single horse. I would argue no more than 25 SC at most with 10-15 being preferable. I would also like to see an alternate option to pay in a large amount of shillings for the vet.

I’d like to see stable care changed from 7 SC a day to 5 SC if we don’t have any shillings alternative systems in place. Even then 5 SC a day is still better as it is easier (at least where I’m from, not sure elsewhere) to count by. Most of the horses are for sale in multiples of 5 (650, 825, 900, ect) and would make pricing easier on players. I would argue anything sold for SC should be done in multiples of 5 but stable care is the most commonly purchased thing beyond horses. (Since most apparel can be bought with shillings instead and not many items are SC only.)

Alternate System Suggestion

So while I haven’t been able to think of a better system overhaul I did come up with something that feels like a step in between our current system and a brand new one. I don’t think this is the best way to approach updating how horse care works but I wanted to mention it in case it can help inspire ideas from others on how to do a better update.

The basic idea is running on a “3 tier” happiness system where you horse is either happy, unhappy or miserable. (Instead of the 5 stage system we currently have.) This includes 3 tiers of caring as well.

Horses can be brought from miserable to happy in one day without paying SC and can be done to any number of horses but requires more effort than paying a vet.

Taking care of your horse daily results in the least amount of time and effort required to maintain the horse’s happiness. However stable care isn’t necessary and the player can mostly avoid the punishment issues even if they don’t because they can raise their horses’ happiness up without paying SC if they are willing to put time and effort in.

Overall this idea is very rough and I’m sure would require quite a bit of additional work especially as I unfortunately don’t know how the programming/coding side would work.

Alternate System Breakdown

Each action adds points to the horse’s overall happiness. Basic actions such as brushing, hoof picking, watering and feeding your horse hay will be the equivalent of +1 happiness. More advanced actions will give the player higher amounts of happiness such as using the wash stall or other special designated grooming areas. (Not care areas like around stables but more like the stations at the ranches.) Certain foods will reward higher happiness points so an apple, carrot or orange might be +2 instead of 1.

When a horse is miserable the only way to reach full happiness is by visiting a vet in order to use a care station with them. This wouldn’t require SC but instead would be similar to how the Rescue Ranch worked where you perform an action with the horse to give it the final boost required to reach full happiness in one day.

Doing tier 1 or 2 caring for your horse subsequent days in a row would be enough to raise them to max happiness again. It should only take about 3 days at most to reach it. I’m not certain if continually feeding your horse should theoretically be able to max happiness, I was considering having food max out in terms of how much it can do. (“Your horse is full and cannot eat anymore” or something like that.)

In terms of a point system doing basic care is enough to maintain horse happiness every day and is enough to go from an unhappy status to happy. Going from miserable to happy would require a certain number of food (which could be its own point system potentially?) combined with the full amount of care options available from the basic tier 1 and 2 grooming to the tier 3 vet assistance.

Lastly, I would prefer to have the requirement of daily feeding removed from the game entirely so I don’t feel this is the best way to replace our current system. As I discussed with a friend I think part of the problem keeping this in SSO is the fact the game’s time is tied with real life time. I don’t mind daily feeding of my animals in something such as Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley because time is different and unrelated to when I’m available to play. I can play through a week’s worth of time in game during a single day’s play session in real life. But I can also abandon the game for a month and come back to find everything as I left it unlike in SSO. If I leave that long then all my horses will be miserable unless I pay for stable care with premium currency and it will take a week or so bare minimum to get anyone up to max happiness again without paying 100 SC per horse. For a game that wants players to keep paying either via subscriptions and/or with the multitude of horses released it really doesn’t make sense to keep such a punishing system in game. I can see where starting out that makes sense as a game mechanic but it is incredibly outdated and long over due to be replaced either with a long term solution or a short term one.

Link to Amelia’s interview with GM Leila.

Again, thank you for taking the time to read through my thoughts! I hope I’ll be able to come back to this topic in the future with some additional ideas that would expand upon the game rather than simply analyzing our current gameplay.

If you have anything you’d like to add feel free to respond via reblogging, replying or shooting me an ask!

#jaderambles #sso #care #care system #discussion #game mechanics #mechanics #5

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laughing-with-god · 5 years

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Pen Pal 1.5

Summary- As a lonely person, the idea of exchanging letters with someone apart from society was actually quite appealing to you. In a random act of charity and desperation, you sign up for a pen pal and get paired up with an inmate named Jungkook. The letters were meant to help him cope with prison life, but little did anyone know it was actually driving him more mad.

Warnings- Yandere/Prisoner Jungkook x Reader. Mature themes. Mention of mental disorder.

Words; 5.4k

“Have you ever felt so connected to someone that you didn’t understand why they were inside another skin and inhabiting a different body than you?”

He supposed that he should’ve been more displeased with where he landed himself.

A cage of a jail cell that was six by eight feet and enclosed with brick walls that were so old, the paint was chipping off more and more each day. The only entrance and exit being the harsh bars of the metal doors where a police officer could always be seen patrolling the passage ways, eyeing inmates with a judgmental glare as if he knew each and every one of their stories and how they were menaces to society.

But if Jungkook was being true to himself, he couldn’t find any need to relate to his fellow prisoners fantasies of being in the outside world once again.

He had no desire to integrate back into society.

He hated the world for a long time.

He hated how obnoxious and fake people were in the modern era. He hated how capitalistic and money hungry the economy was. He hated how surface level and crude the general community was.

From the time he was born, his peers would only approach him because they had hopes of being friends with the son of a rich power-broker.

They would smile to his face and claimed to like him, but behind his back they would complain about how ‘boring and weird’ he was.

Indeed, as a youngster Jungkook had been very introverted.

He loved drawing, and this caused looks of confusion as most boys his age would enjoy a game of football or soccer more than doodling. The only reason he got invites to playdates or birthday parties was due to his family’s social status. He was quick to catch on when his ‘friends’ would always push to go to his house, to play with his toys and to drop the Jeon name when bragging to other people about the ‘friendship’.

However as Jungkook got older, the less he cared about such trivial matters. As an insecure little boy, it bruised him quite a bit. But as an older teen, he accepted it as a harsh reality. No one liked him for him, yet it wasn’t as tragic as it sounded. Because, he didn’t accept them for who they were either. The world and Jungkook had a mutual understanding for each other. He despised them for it used him.

So when he went and got himself locked up, he really didn’t have that much remorse for what he would miss of the outside world. The criminal psychologist said he had a problem with feelings in general; having a low emotional capacity for settings or situations but a heightened one for certain people in his life. But Jungkook paid this analysis no mind. After all, how many different settings, situations or people can he encounter while serving a life-time sentence at one of the most highly guarded prisons in the country?

He did what he had done, and he was at peace with everything concerning the matter.

When other inmates would rant about how they missed very basic things of life; non-cafeteria food, going to parks, having your own home and schedule, Jungkook didn’t care for the sentiment at all. In fact, he thought they were weak to not even be able to handle prison. Really, how bad was it? You got a bed to sleep on, a toilet to shit in and was fed three time a day. With the way these fuckers ranted, you would’ve thought they were world war soldiers talking about home life whilst serving in the trenches. Pathetic, really.

One day, Jungkook walked into his cell after a decent work out only to spot a pristine and angelic white envelope on his bed (more like a slab of metal with a cheap blanket on top but what did you expect of a cell?). This caused Jungkook to quirk a brow at the odd sight, he was pretty particular with boundaries and it annoyed him to see his roommate not respect his space.

“Joon, I told you not to leave shit in my area.” Jungkook motonously commented to his cell mate that was currently on the top bunk, book in hand. This caused the older to peek from his spot above and glance down at the lower bunk.

“Uh...that’s not mine. Plus it has your name on it and everything, bro.”

Jungkook sighed and pressed his tongue against his cheek in an angry tick that he had adopted years ago. He really just wanted to head to the showers and he couldn’t imagine who would be writing to him. His family having disowned him for his crimes and everyone else having forgotten him or shunning his existence like he had the plague. Not that he was too disappointed with these developments, he could spend the rest of his days without a word from anyone from the outside and he would still die content.

With a huff, he snatched the envelope and opened it with very little grace.

‘Dear Mr. or Miss. Prisoner…..’

Jungkook’s doe eyes skimmed passed the delicate but noticeably rushed handwriting, soaking in the words with hesitance at such unexpected vulnerability from an utter stranger. It wasn’t a long letter (Jungkook was finished reading it after 30 seconds or so) but he plopped himself on his bed to re-read the letter when he was done, showers somehow forgotten.

Said person who wrote to him managed to sound very weak and tired through diction alone. However, this moment of weakness from the stranger was somehow not at all judged by Jungkook. This revelation startled the prisoner himself, given that he had always made it a habit to look down on those whom lacked the mental strength that he did. A fucked up social darwinism philosophy that was only heightened by being around meager sheep while he was a full on ruthless psycho. But why? Why did he feel pity this time instead of the usual disgust whenever someone was so bare and raw to him?

The answer was simple.

He related to you.

He felt as though you had put it best into words exactly what he felt when he was living out there in the public. The world was scary and he didn’t blame you for being paranoid or locking yourself up. He could practically feel your fear from where he was; locked in a tiny cell and miles upon miles away from civilization. He got the sense that you were different, like him. Most people he had encountered in his lifetime have always been okay with how the world was, not acknowledging the sinister characteristics that came along with it. Authenticity was oozing from your writing as you did way more than just acknowledge the bad; you did your best to stay away from it all together. In a weird way, Jungkook found this cute. You were like a frightened child that hid under your bed to avoid the evil babysitter, escaping was your pure and innocent plan of action. Which was different from Jungkook’s more violent actions….but he concluded he liked the contrast between you two. While you decided to take it out on yourself and starve yourself from stimulation just to keep away from the barbaric world, Jungkook took it upon himself to make everyone else pay.

“It it that stupid Pen Pal program?”

Jungkook glanced up from the paper to see his cellmate hang his head from the bed above, watching Jungkook with questioning orbs. Jungkook just scoffed at the upside down face and nodded.

“I just threw my letter away. I heard they put all of us in that program because it’s a tax-write off for them. It’s bullshit.” Namjoon told the younger.

Jungkook didn’t supply the other with an answer. Instead he carefully folded the letter and placed it smoothly under his pillow. Then, he headed out to the showers while thoughts of what to write back to you filled his mind.

‘Dear Y/n,

Well I would feel rather….accepting.

I think you must be a very wise person to keep yourself far from the wretched claws of society…..’

Jungkook tapped the capped pen against his chin, looking over his writing for any errors or mishaps before he signed off entirely.

His letter was more in response to yours, after all you hadn’t given him that much to reply back to. But still, some communication was better than none at all. Jungkook wanted to let you know that he understood your fears. Hell, he even shared them with you. He hoped that you believed him when he told you that he also harbored disdain for your enemy. And he also wanted to learn more about such a like-minded individual. Surely, you both had to have other similarities too, right?

He added the request for an image of you toward the end of his letter, just out of sheer curiosity for his long-lost twin. He didn’t care what you looked like but he wanted to scratch the itch of placing a face with the writing, knowing the urge to know would never go away until he saw your face.

Other prisoners watched shocked as they witnessed Jungkook make his way to the mail room to drop off a letter to be sent off, knowing that he never made contact with the outside world.

Jungkook found himself pacing his cell in an anxious manner, arms crossed and brows furrowed. His stomach was tied into knots and his palms were clammy, hinting at one of the first times that he’s ever been nervous.

He really was hoping for a response from you.

He knew that it was very childish and sad to be so giddy for a letter, but he couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of another note. It was refreshing to be able to talk to someone who wasn’t a felon. Someone who wasn’t there in person yet still reached out to connect with a corrupt scanderal such as himself.

Which is why when the usual mail carrier came down the cells, cart in hand with envelopes, pictures, money and presents for inmates, Jungkook found himself holding his breath and wishing for the first time ever that the carrier would stop at his cell.

He had never been on the receiving end of such transactions, he had no one on the outside to look out for him. But the faceless recluse that had reached out to him in a cry for companionship had fogged his mind, leaving hims restless and jittery.

Could it be that he found a genuine friend?

One that didn’t use him for his reputation (unlike his former childhood friends) and accepted him as the fuck up he was.

“Letter for a Jeon Jungkook?” The middle-aged man paused in front of the barren cell, sticking a pristine white envelope through the metal bars. It was almost comical the joy that bursted through his chest and the way he leaped to attrive the holy piece of material. As if it glowed bright in the grim and grey limbo that he was stuck in.

Not being able to withhold the anticipation, Jungkook quickly took the letter to his bunk and carefully slit it open.

‘Dear Jungkook,

Words cannot express how thankful I am that you answered my pathetic call for help…’

The writing was noticeably neater than the first letter. Jungkook noted with a smile how much longer this one was prior to the last. The inmate forced himself to pore over every detail at a slower pace, not wanting to accidently skim past any vital information yet also wishing to savor the ritual.

You seemed very blindly kind to someone who was a wretched crook. In fact, you claimed to be very grateful to hear from little old him. The feeling was utterly foreign, the idea that someone was out there that genuinely wanted his friendship, someone who genuinely wanted to know his most bland personal preferences, who was practically pleading for his written company. It made him feel wanted. After some thought he decided that he quite liked the new feeling. Even at his worst; locked up for a lifetime sentence, you went out of your way to kill his loneliness. He almost giggled when you told him of the disorder that the world had labelled you with, it was awfully funny to him that you both were called mentally unstable. You two now had that in common as well. He felt a sudden stab in the gut when you mentioned your sister. He guessed if he had to identify the emotion it would be closest to sympathy or guilt. He supposed he felt...bad for your loss. Jungkook smiled widely.

Yes! That’s it! He felt bad for you!

God if the psychologist who said he had no emotions could see him now...

Towards the end of your writing, you mentioned not being a ‘looker’. As if the paper itself burned him, Jungkook dropped the object with great haste to dig through the envelope. You had sent the picture! He almost forgot that he even asked for such thing.

And there it was, a small 4x6 printed image of a lovely face smiling shyly at the camera.

Your face was small and round, skin serene and creamy with its (porcelain/olive/honey/amber/cinnamon) hued pores that was the canvas for your darling features. Your nose was benevolent and perched regally as well as perfectly centered amidst the sculpture that was your appearance. The bridge of the blessed feature dipped discreetly and softly, complimenting the luminous orbs that were vividly painted with a the crispest shade of (color) that he’s ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The enchanting irises were artistically framed by magnetizing dark eyelashes that were as long as they were seductive. Somehow he just knew that the colors supplied by whatever commercial printer didn’t do the color-pads of your eyes justice, imagining the shiver that will go down his spine when he could be bare to them in their full and unfiltered glory. They held a humane gentleness but still….a simmering witt was also bubbling under the surface. Overhead the eyes were carefully groomed eyebrows that were neat and shapely, one was elegantly arched in a expression of somber joy.

Underneath your nose was a pair of nectarous ruby red (or flowery pink) lips that looked perfectly cushioning to any lucky man who would have the chance to collide theirs with yours. Your pristine and snow-white teeth were barely poking out, show casting your shyness even when plastering on a friendly smile. It’s as if you were unable to let yourself be one-hundred percent bare even in something as basic as a grin. He wondered what kind of mellifluous sound would erupt from such a devine cavern. Your (color) hair was sadly put up, unable to flow freely in the still-frame image. Even though he had very little to study, he still knew that he would want to (straight hair; run his hands through your silken strands) (curly hair; bounce the fluid swirls of your playful mane). An odd urge to inhale the scent of your shampoo was what Jungkook felt next.

Lost in his own self-induced trance, he didn’t realize that he had been staring for so long until he felt a shadow loom over his figure.

It was his cellmate and suddenly the infatuated man became all too aware of his slightly ajar mouth and his widened eyes that were stuck on the flimsy printed picture that was tightly held in his grasp (as if terrified that someone would steal the chef d'oeuvre...in an abode of criminals, this fear was somewhat relevant). Quickly, he masked his expression to that of usual indifference.

“You’ve been sitting there staring for like eleven minutes. You good?”

He just nodded, not a fan of frivolous speech or furthering conversation with people he cared none for. Still, the fucker persisted.

“You sure? Your girl didn’t send you something naughty or something, right?” This was said in a matter of humor, an attempt to relieve the dark aura that Jungkook seemed to exude in every social interaction. However, the serious face that Jungkook had on gave the other the impression that he had hit the mark precisely. Joon’s jaw dropped and an eager grin formed at the corners of his lips.

“Really?! No way! Can I see?” The over-sized goon attempted to stride forward, hands already out-reached to grasp at the first smut he would’ve seen in a long time. Out of primal instinct to keep what was his away from the snubby hands of others, Jungkook pulled back. But the fool had enlarged limbs and this meant his lengthy arms were very capable of plucking the picture off of Jungkook’s safe grip.

Greedy, Namjoon ran his eyes over the photo. His grin slowly slid off as he realised that it was indeed nothing sexual. Nonetheless, his eyes lingered far longer than Jungkook cared for….before promptly returning the image to it’s rightful owner, whose jaw was clenched and teeth now grinding at the recent events.

“Who is she?”

“My pen-pal.” Jungkook promptly answered whilst hiding both the letter and photo under his pillow before placing his head on it, staring up at the bunk above him.

“Damn, if I’d know that I could’ve gotten someone like that….” A brief pause as Joon climbed up his bed as well. “I definitely wouldn’t have thrown mine away.”

Jungkook felt the familiar agitation hit him, tongue pressing against his cheek and he wondered if it was too late to request a cell change.

The lights went out and ponderings of what to write back filled Jungkook’s mind along with the bewitching photo that was just directly under his head…

Opting not to go to breakfast, Jungkook stayed within his cell.

He elaborately printed his response back to you.

‘Dear Y/n,

I thought you were a very smart person but obviously not…’

The inmate was sure to make you aware of how breathtaking you were, but also very careful in tip-toeing around just how gorgeous you were to him. He could have written a dozen novels about your exquisite appearance alone, but obviously he was unable to do such thing. He didn’t want you to think he was a creep and halt all communication with him. In an effort to get closer to you, Jungkook added some sentiment in regards to your loss, adding an anecdote about his mother for dramatic effect.

Now, it was time to fulfill your wish to see him as he had seen you.

He had no problem with such request. Not that he ever paid attention to such pointless gossip, but he had always heard whispers of how handsome he was. Jungkook didn’t consider himself to be a little Fabio on any scale, but he knew he wasn’t hard on the eyes of the opposite sex. The trouble was, how exactly would he be able to send a photo?

After a year in prison, you get to learn that there are two ways you can survive in such element. You either adapt or you crumble.

The fittest of the inmates learned real quick how to make prison into their home. Some men have been here so long that they grew connections and were able to bring some things from the outside world in.

Jungkook made plans to visit one the older inmates, knowing that he could trade a candybar for a favor of sneaking a photo out to you. For now, he folded his letter and placed it in the envelope, awaiting his picture before being shipped off to the mailroom.

‘Dear Jungkook,

…..I guess you’re not the worst face I’ve seen….’

Jungkook smiled as he fondly traced the words that you have written onto the paper only days prior. He imagined your endearing face scrunching up into a thoughtful expression as you scribbled your response back to him. You were funny and he couldn’t deny the sense of pride he felt when you admitted to his attractiveness. In the past, he never gave a fuck if people thought he was the next Ryan Gosling or the ugliest mug they’ve ever seen. But he felt a weird sense of relief behold him when you said that you indeed thought he was good-looking. He didn’t want to imagine what he might’ve felt if you called him ugly or stopped talking to him after seeing his face.

But that was not the best aspect to be seen within your writing.

The best thing that caused his chest to erupt in a warm and fuzzy feeling was when you agreed that you also felt a connection between you two. That you found him to be ‘marvelous company’ and you enjoyed his letters. This just confirmed his suspicion that you were somehow tied together. That you two were meant to stumble upon each other in the most unconventional way. Jungkook was sure of it, that you two have defied the odds that cruel reality set against you ‘mentally unstable�� pair and found peace along with understanding within each other.

Jungkook didn’t know how to describe you. Surely a ‘pal’ wasn’t it.

You were like another half of him.

Like you both have fallen from the same star and were unfortunate to fall on this damned earth. Surrounded by the bizzare ‘humans’ and called odd for not being one of their species. Jungkook decided then and there that you two were mates.

And yes, Jungkook meant it in the primal and borderline barbaric ways that animals did. He would prove his worthiness as a male specimen, he would shelter and feed you, he would breed and produce offspring with you. Regular people would look at this plan and consider it cave-man like, but he thought it was considerably more romantic this way. Animals mated for life and were not afraid to get murderous when someone threatened this sacred bond. What was so wrong with such animalistic viewpoint? Humans were the worst type of creature and he was not at all interested in their fake way of obtaining a lover. And he got the sense that you weren’t either. Dates, chocolates, flowers? How is it that those things were put on a pedestal as a grand show of affection but having a genuine connection with a person was not? Jungkook couldn’t strain his brain to understand such mindset.

This all left the forefront of his mind when he read to the last parts of your letter. Eyebrows going up in surprise at the ‘P.S’ adage that was never before seen from you. His smile slipped off his face when he saw what you wished.

You wanted to know how he landed himself in prison.

Now….that was a touchy subject.

He really didn’t want to scare you away.

You were too understanding, too alike to him for Jungkook to ever want you to run away. He knew that no matter how much he could try, his crimes were inexcusable. Even the holiest of saints would hinder their forgiveness.

Jungkook came to the conclusion that it would be best to tell a white lie until he had more of a connection with you to reveal the truth.

Sure, he was utterly enthralled by you but he didn’t know how deep your affections lied with him. He just needed more time to spin a perspective to fill your ear with, he needed to get his claws deep within you, he needed you to be as dependent on him as he was with you. Jungkook decided to create a fake story to keep you close to him.

Jungkook smirked and grabbed a pen and paper for the next letter.

‘Dear Jk,

My day to day is also lifeless, I’m afraid…’

It was lunch time and Jungkook sat alone in his usual corner of the table, mystery meat forgotten in favor of absorbing the new letter that you had produced for his addiction.

The first paragraph had the psycho inmate smiling as he pictured you in your tiny apartment, dressed in comfy clothes doing the most mundane things. He liked to spend his free time just imagining what your comfy ‘nest’ was like, picturing your tiny frame skipping around it. You sitting on a sofa, bundled up in blankets and one of his oversized sweaters, book in hand and steaming hot cup of hot chocolate in the other. You in the kitchen, humming some tune in your dulcet voice as you attempted to make him a home cooked meal, frowning when you realized that you had not followed a certain step correctly like the cook book said. You laughing at the movie that played on the television screen while you both reach into the popcorn bowl at the same time. What Jungkook wouldn’t give to live in the little nest with you. To occupy the same cocoon that you created.

He often found himself fantasizing about being the brave one for you.

The one who would go to the outside world on your behalf. He would get you groceries, get a 9 to 5 to pay the bills, go out at 3 am to get you lady products or any random craving. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would be similar to a caregiver role. Him taking care of you so you just had to stay your pretty self at home, keeping it warm and pillowy for his return. You would be so thankful for his willingness to go out into your worst fear for the sake of your happiness.

But then, as the letter continued, Jungkook’s mood soured.

Your mother had violated your space and made you feel awful.

Jungkook felt rage in that moment.

He never held so much hatred for someone he had never met before.

He instantly knew that he didn’t like your mother.

A piercing sensation thundered upon his chest. The cursed image of your sweet face covered in tears fogged his mind’s eye.

God helped anyone who fucked with you.

Jungkook folded the letter and put it in his pocket, shoveling some tasteless cafeteria food to distract him the familiar hellish itch that screamed at him from underneath his skin.

Later that day, Jungkook responded with a letter of his own.

He attached the drawings that he had mentioned to you, somewhat bashful that for the past weeks all he had been able to draw was you. But he brushed the feelings off and focused on another task; getting you to start calling.

He would often see inmates taking up phone booths, talking and laughing with loved ones from the outside for a couple minutes at a time. Jungkook wanted that for you two. He wanted to hear the blessed voice that he knew you had, and he wanted you to become familiar with his as well. After all, you would be hearing it a lot in your lifetime.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

I’m sure you must’ve gotten busy, why else haven’t you written in a week?’

Jungkook was slowly becoming irritated at the lack of mail he has been receiving. It had been five days since you had responded and Jungkook felt anxious at your sudden silence. You were a sweetheart and would never abandon him. You weren’t like those other wretched people, right? No! You couldn’t be.

Jungkook shook his head and mentally cursed himself for even thinking that for a moment.

You must have gotten busy.

Maybe your mom didn’t give up on pestering you.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

Where have you gone? You haven’t forgotten about me have you?’

Jungkook couldn’t bear the silence. He was slowly growing restless. He needed the stimulation that was your communication. Without it, he had no new material to fill his mind. No new scenarios to daydream about. NOTHING to get him through the day in the colorless cell that began to taunt him. He attempted to distract himself with the picture of you as well as your

former letters that now had tear stains because of his new habit of crying over them, knowing they might be the last he ever gets from you.

‘Y/n,

This isn’t funny anymore….’

Jungkook was not only uneased, but now he was worried. Thoughts of what could’ve possibly caused your silence now haunted his mind at night when he attempted to get what little rest he could. Time was only worsening his growing paranoia each day that he didn’t receive a letter.

He knew you lived alone and had very little outside communication with anyone. The main ones being him and your mother. Jungkook could only assume that your mother and you would be taking a break due to your mother’s mental breakdown. And that left him. Stuck in a penitentiary with no way to reach you. He nearly punched the brick wall of his cell when he came to the realization that something could’ve happened to you and no one would’ve known. If you didn’t answer this letter, he didn’t know what he’d do.

‘Dear Jungkook (or should I say Easter Bunny?)

I know what you did.

I know that you lied to me.

I know you’re a murderer.

Friends don’t lie to each other, Jungkook.

I think it’s best if we find different Pen Pals.

All my best wishes, Y/n.

The letter fell to the ground as Jungkook stared in shock at the absurdly short and cold answer he got from you.

He underestimated you.

You found out.

Jungkook felt his temper flare as well as his breathing.

He’d be damned to let you go.

You were soulmates….couldn’t you see that?

Jungkook never thought he’d have to rely on this but he had no choice.

In the cell block, there were some people whom have been there for 30 years, and other for 30 days. Prison 101 is to not fuck with the guys who had time under their belts. It was best to respect them and acknowledge that they have connections. But respect was the last thing on his mind as he stormed into the tiny cell room of an old geezer whose been committing crimes since before Jungkook was even born.

The older man was used to people coming to his cell, usually asking about how to get hands on a cell phone or how to get the precious kitchen duty to sneak food. Over time, the man humored many childish inmates with some insider tricks. Almost everyone had talked to him at some point, but Jungkook was one of the very few whom did not approach him seeking an easier ride. Thus, he was shocked to see the young and deadly figure swoop into the area, eyes dead and jaw clenched.

“You’re going to do something for me.” Jungkook said this monotonously while maintaining eye contact. The older man couldn’t ignore the shivers that went down his spine but he still acted calm, knowing you couldn’t show weaknesses to the younger and violent inmates.

“Is that so?” The older quirked a brow at Jungkook though the rusty mirror and went back to shaving his face. The younger was behind him and just tilted his head and stepped forward, still staring at the man through the reflection of the glass.

“You are going to sneak me out of this joint.”

This caused the older to laugh, not believing his ears at such a ludicrous request.

Jungkook came up behind the older, mouth close to his ear and eyes lifeless and inky as they held the older’s through the mirror.

“Listen here you senile fuck, I know that you know who I am and what I did. It’s your best interest to listen to what I tell you. Would you like to hear a secret?” The petrified and frozen man nodded, not having the balls to disobey or look away. “I never told the jury that I didn’t murder those people on my own….I had a partner. A partner who is still out there and would surely take care of your pretty little daughter I hear you talking on the phone to.”

Jungkook smiled as the man grimly agreed to do whatever he wished.

Now, he just had to inform you of his upcoming arrival.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

I see you found out about the nickname the hideous press gave me.

Well….this type of revelation is best talked over in person.

I’ll see you soon.’

Author’s note; so....both JK and Y/n have mental problems, just to clarify. Also, this wasn’t part two bc I think of this as just the other half of part one. There will still be a part two and three. Please let me know what you thought bc a full inbox makes for a happy writer. It’s challenging to write for a Y/n character bc the point is for you guys to identify with her in the story and I wanted you guys to feel like you truly are her so when I did the part where Jk becomes very obsessed with the pic, I wanted to add details but obvi not everyone has the same characteristics so I added diff options...pls let me know what you thought of this.

#yandere bts #bts yandere #yandere jungkook #jeon jungkook #BTS jungkook #jungkook #kim namjoon #namjoon #yandere kpop #bts #bangtan boys #love #pen pal #kpop #my writing #yandere

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elizapbrooke · 4 years

Text

A discovery of pancakes

This is my newsletter from Friday, May 22. You can sign up here.

I am disappointed to announce that the bird call I thought belonged to an owl comes, in fact, from a mourning dove. “One of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds,” Wikipedia says. It’s an embarrassing but maybe understandable mistake. I figured this owl was out during the day because it was a creature of New York like the rest of us, its circadian rhythm all fucked up by early morning garbage trucks and the blue glow of the Chase Bank across the street. The mourning dove’s coo is low and melancholy, a distinctive series of five notes. I’d certainly forgive you for thinking it’s a hoot. As I was listening to mourning dove calls on my computer and having this horrible realization, one landed on the fire escape and startled me with the loudest, most intimate rendition of their song I’d ever heard. It may as well have pressed its beak up against the glass. (I assume it thought there was a dove in the apartment.) I crept over to the window to confirm with my eyeballs what AllAboutBirds.org had already told me, and, yep, there it was. It felt so special to have a mystery owl in the neighborhood, but I guess doves are lovely birds too, with their plushy throats and elegantly tapered tail feathers. Anyway, my friend Sid tells me he’s heard owls in Gowanus, so I’m keeping my hopes up. This week I published a story for Curbed detailing the history and recent evolution of the home office. As I was fact checking it, I realized I’d accidentally talked to ten hundred sources, so please do enjoy the fruits of my labor. I’m not here to talk about home offices, though. A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and discovered I’d been brainstorming pitches in my sleep. I was thrilled. On account of pandemic depression and seeing very little of the outside world, I’ve really been struggling to come up with story concepts, which is problematic because that’s my job. Most of my dream pitches evaporated upon waking, but I managed to hold onto one, and in my sleepy haze I thought it was possibly the greatest idea I’d ever had. It was: PANCAKES ARE HAVING A MOMENT IN QUARANTINE. I decided I’d email the New York Times first thing in the morning. In the light of day, I realized that there wasn’t really a story there. When you’re writing a trend piece, you want to be able to point to, I don’t know, at least four really solid examples from the public sphere. My evidence was:

Alex and I had made pancakes recently

We were planning to make them again

I’d recently discussed pancakes with Molly and Vivian

I’d heard you can make pancakes from sourdough starter discard (which actually does speak to the zeitgeist)

But here’s the thing. Pancakes are a great topic for a newsletter. So here is my pancake article.

***

I’ve always liked the look of a big stack of pancakes, but I never really got why people were so into eating them. I like a breakfast that is hyper-functional and maximally filling. Because I’m an aging hippie, my preferred breakfast is a double-sized bowl of Ezekiel cereal, which tastes like delicious cardboard and fulfills 42% of your daily fiber needs. Pancakes, like pastries, always struck me as glamorous but pointless. I was even somewhat distrustful of my mom’s pancakes, which are dense and nutty, not sweet at all. Her recipe came from a “chiropractor/health nut in San Diego about 31 years ago” and involves grinding your own flour from winter wheat berries, groats, rye, brown rice, and millet. I love them, but a family pancake breakfast still makes me feel very out of control. This all changed a few weeks ago when Alex and I decided to make pancakes for dinner. All I can say is that quarantine has a way of melting away the rigid little fucks you used to give. For once, the chaos I associate with pancakes sounded fun and freeing. Also we’ve been watching a ton of Parks & Rec, and I was feeling inspired by Leslie’s diet of waffles and whipped cream. We made buttermilk pancakes, extra fluffy ones that require you to whip the egg whites on their own for several minutes before folding them into the batter. Two with banana chunks, two with bits of frozen peaches, two blueberry, one bonus plain for me. I had mine without anything on top, enjoying the choking feeling of eating so much cakey carb. It felt like a hug. When I saw my friend Todd post a gorgeous stack of pancakes on Instagram, I asked him if he had any theories about why they’re such a good quarantine food. At first he thought I was trolling him, but when I told him I was dead serious, here’s what he said: “What I love about pancakes right now is that they feel both ordinary and radical at the same time. Ordinary because they are nostalgic, all-American, homey, comfortable, and approachable. Anyone can make them. But there’s also something really subversive about a stack of pancakes right now—the gluten, the non-plant-based butter and eggs, eating breakfast when Goop tells us we should be intermittent fasting, so forth. Eating pancakes in the time of coronavirus brings into focus how overwhelming wellness culture has become in recent years—celery juice and collagen smoothies will never, ever, ever beat a big, buttery, syrupy stack of flapjacks.” I would agree. Given my dedication to breakfast foods that involve sprouted beans—which predates our wellness moment but was certainly bolstered by it—I definitely find pancakes subversive. They make me feel nostalgic, too, but not for anything I’ve personally experienced. For weekends in high school that I spent ensconced in the television world of Gilmore Girls, maybe, where breakfast at Luke’s Diner is a comfortable routine. As I continued my journey into pancake reportage, I sought out the perspective of Sarah Jampel, an editor at Bon Appetit. While pancakes made from sourdough discard have their fans, Sarah is not particularly one of them. She’s also team waffle. I don’t really have a horse in the pancake/waffle debate, but Sarah makes a compelling case. “I have thought a lot about pancakes,” she emailed back when I asked if she had anything to say about the topic. “And yes, I have made them since isolation started—mostly because I'm ‘every woman’ and my fridge is overflowing with sourdough discard. ‘Put it in pancakes,’ I thought. The issue is that I need to add more flour (as well as butter or oil and leaveners) to sourdough discard to turn it into pancakes, so I ultimately end up using more ingredients for the sole purpose of not throwing some stuff into the trash or compost (but really, the trash). And even though pancakes sound nice in theory—why not start the day with a hot breakfast instead of the usual routine, eating a Clif bar with one hand while the other clings bare to the subway pole (huge sigh of nostalgia)?—in actuality they're inferior waffles. Unless you take care with your pancakes—loading them with lots of butter and separating the egg yolks and whites (this recipe's my fave)—they're too mono-textured.” Never fear: Alex and I loaded ours with an alarming amount of butter. I suppose it is to be expected that when you go out hunting for pancake insights, you come back with waffle testimonials. When I asked Alex’s high school friends to weigh in on the appeal of pancakes during a global shutdown, Nico said, “Waffles are the superior carb. They provide greater textural variety and are a better delivery vessel for condiments.” (Dylan has been eating toast all quarantine, and Dan “didn’t understand the question” because the only god he acknowledges is the Joy of Cooking’s pancake recipe.) My friend Molly has been eating a lot of savory pancakes under quarantine, for breakfast or lunch. She sautées a bunch of garlic and kale in olive oil, adding scallions at the last minute, and then sets the vegetables aside in a bowl. In goes the Bisquick, and she adds the kale mix on top of the pancakes as they cook; after a minute, she tops the pancake with shredded white cheddar so that when she flips it, the cheese turns crispy. She’ll eat that with a runny egg or garlic yogurt. I can’t wait to see her again so she can make one for me. Pancakes are one of the few foods that Molly has consistently been able to stomach during this period of immense anxiety. They have a strong positive association for her: in pre-corona times, she would make savory pancakes after playing soccer on Saturday mornings. Those games are one of the things she misses most right now. We talked on the phone while she made her daily trip outside to juggle a soccer ball. Molly likes to chat with friends during these breaks because bouncing a ball on your feet benefits from loose attention. “Cooking a pancake is similar,” she said. “It requires some focus but it’s not that hard. You don’t really need to cut anything. You just watch it.” Alex always says that cooking is meditative for him. I would respectfully disagree—to me, it feels more like hurtling down a mogul course—but I can see it with pancakes. You’re just systematically waiting and flipping, waiting and flipping. After making buttermilk pancakes, we progressed to Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes for lunch on a Sunday. I can’t find the recipe online, but here’s a photo. For those who are lucky enough to have dodged my Sqirl talk thus far, it’s a phenomenal, semi-healthy breakfast and lunch spot in Silver Lake. Every time I’m in LA, I badger my companions into going right when it opens at 8 a.m. so we’re sure to get a table. When I was there to write about Dax Shepard in November, I high-tailed it to Sqirl right after our interview and embarrassed myself in front of the staff by inhaling bits of a particularly seedy cookie and having a loud coughing fit, after which I went around the corner to die in private. Alex and I thought we had all the requisite ingredients for Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes, other than cactus flour, but the recipe calls for corn flour and it turns out cornmeal isn’t the same thing. We subbed in whole wheat, so they weren’t really Sqirlcakes, but they were still tasty in a restrained, earthy way. Alex convinced me to try one with raspberry jam, which I reluctantly admit was a great pairing. A week or two later, we made them again. I wasn’t really hungry because it was 2 p.m. and I’d already eaten lunch—Alex had just gotten up—but I pledged to eat my portion cold out of the fridge. Alex thought this was insane, but he sometimes forgets that I like my food a little squidgy. We went grocery shopping the next morning, which was as much of a bitch as it always is right now. Even though we’ve gotten the process down to a science, it still takes three hours from start to finish, with significant angst on my part about the cleanliness of the inbound goods. Finally everything was put away, and Alex headed off to take a shower. I was agitated and crazy hungry. I scrubbed my hands one more time, pulled the pancakes out of the fridge, and promptly dropped one on the floor while trying to get it into my mouth. I ate the rest in big, angry bites, one after another, standing in the middle of the kitchen. I didn’t want to sit down in my outdoor clothes. The pancakes were perfect, though. A shot of sweet, comforting carb straight to the heart.

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spacegaywritings · 4 years

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Chapter 4 CoS - Hey, there is a lost Emo in our Bathroom

ao3 clicky

Summary: Virgil meets the last roommate! Can he stay for longer?

Tags: slight u!Roman, inappropriate comments (belittling and judging) about selfharm and mental treatment. puns (it is patton) and food mention/cooking! implied (non-descriptive) nudity, mentions of Christmas.

Story under the cut!

After a hearty breakfast Patton had prepared for them, he had eventually gotten around to sleep a bit.

Since his work had him occupied during night, he was more of an afternoon and evening learner after all. But it wasn't as if he needed to be at work every day - on the contrary, he was usually required during evenings and special events. The flexible working times left him with enough comfortable time to dedicate to his master's thesis.

And after this, he would be allowed to counsel.

Logan had taken off to work while Virgil complied and actually went out to get medical treatment. Nobody had insisted on a hospital and he knew friends who worked in medical professions and could fix this up for him.. Or friends who knew enough about medicine because of knowing others who had studied medicine and such. Again, nobody had specified.

No need to get another file in the local hospital. His medical record must be looking like trash anyway but he was used to it. Virgil has had worse.

Another perk of being with these friends was yet again, having people understand his signs and sudden nonverbal periods due to relatability. And of course, he could easily inform his friends and family about his new home while getting his arms fixed up again.

And he got a snack, soft cuddles and some lighthearted comments during the treatment. Doctors would just ask questions and invade his privacy while friends understood his silence and his words.

What else could he ask for? It was the best if both worlds

***

Logan's day, on the other hand, had been uneventful at most. After another few hours of organising books and arranging them back into their respective shelves, he had taken a lunch break and soon after, had only a couple of hours until the mercy of finishing work.

It wasn't a bad job, boring at most, but it didn't interest or engage him enough to satisfy his intellectual hunger. On another note, he sometimes learned about new books and authors. He had seen his reading list expand extensively ever since he started working here. And it was a welcome change after hours of coding and complicated lectures on formating and such.

Being an IT student was rather challenging but he was used to the expectations and hardships of life. So he took it.

Logan had always been an engaged student because he had to. There was no other way to shine with pride and accomplishment in his upcoming if it wasn't for academic performance and an outstanding social reputation. Nothing ever mattered more than overall societal expectations. But Logan tried.

He just arrived back at home to the smell of Patton cooking.. Something. Apparently, he was still just cutting and preparing some things but the pots were ready to be used like a laid table asking to be used for a meal.

"Greetings, Patton. Has your day been enjoyable to you?", he asked, his voice strained by the length of the day he left behind him. The exhaustion from the cut short night pulled his usually rather straight shoulders into a slightly defeated slump and he needed push his lips a little in order to maintain a rather neutral expression on his face.

He wasn't upset. But he wasn't exactly pleased either. However, a bit of time to himself and some light chatter with Patton usually worked figurative miracles for his mood.

"Aw Logan!", Patton greeted much like a person who was met with a surprise pick up from the airport. He turned to face Logan who was wearing his usual attire with striped blue tie and black shirt. Patton had gifted him the new tie after going to college and Logan had never worn any tie as much as this one, even going so far as to throw his other light blue tie away and instead get a second one looking a lot like the one Patton had gifted him.

Somehow, Logan always looked the same but at the same time, he didn't. Patton found that there was always something special about his friend and after years of growing up together, he was still surprised about some things.

"I started cooking but Virgil came and said he would help me as soon as he is done in the bathroom", he informed him, his mouth pushing its corners to the sides into a little smile. "Oh, I also napped and wrote a couple of pages but not much. I bet tomorrow will be a better day for writing so I went shopping for groceries instead. I got some fish, I know you don't enjoy eating every kind of fish but I promise you will like this one!"

Logan felt the dragging sensation in his heart fade into a warm feeling similar to the realisation of having been blanketed during sleep.

Patton was usually the only one to ever make him feel this warm. Well, not entirely. But Patton did it with such ease, just by paying attention to him and deeming him important enough to be considered in his daily life choices.

He didn't deserve such a good friend, at least that's what he thought. Patton wouldn't make such an effort for him if he didn't think it fit.

The ginger man in yet another of his cat sweaters flashed him a smile, revealing his white teeth.

"How was your day? You don't seem so happy", he said, voice thin as glass as he abandoned the cutting board and wiped his hands on the plaid apron as he approached him with a certain precision in his step.

Logan let his shoulders slump, sighing quietly before he decided to meet Patton halfway.

"I'm happy now that you're around", Logan spoke quietly into Patton's neck as the two shared a warm embrace that lasted for several moments. The taller man squeezed him and gently run a hand over his back as if to soothe out the wrinkles of of emotional uncertainties and straighten his mood. Funnily enough, the warmth of Patton's hand moving over his backside had Logan let out a soft sight as he melted into the accepting hug.

Only Patton hugged like he understood all your pain. Only Patton gave, you embraces that traded your trouble with his undying love and passion for you and your wellbeing. His hugs only went as far as you let them and adjusted to your feelings. It was almost as if Logan was the only one to matter in this hug.

"Logan, I'll always be there for you" he promised softly as his arms gently moved so he could release the reluctant nerd from his arms. "Please go change. I will make us some tea and if you want, we can have some cuddles later. The Prince of our dreams should be on his way, too! That means happy friend time together!"

Patton's voice nearly flashed over into inaudible squeals as he offered Logan another freckled smile. The IT student returned it and straightened his posture again. Apparently, his life energy was back on and he felt empowered to continue his daily challenges to survive once more.

"That sounds like an adequate plan, Patton", Logan remarked softly and turned to leave to his room. Once there, he noted to get a mattress ready for Virgil. It wasn't the most dignified way of sleeping but the couch didn't seem as comfortable as a mattress on the floor.

Logan loosened his tie and glanced over it, his face softening as he fondly remembered the treasure of Patton's gift to him. He had never felt as liberated by a material object placed into his possessions. Well, almost. The key to this flat and the one before he had shared with Patton alone had been one of the most motivating things he had ever received. Up until today he had never felt quite as much joy as when he and Patton had shared another hug over their own home and first time "adulting" as Patton had phrased it.

Logan undressed with a smile and decided to wear simple black sweatpants and one of his christmas sweaters. It was a special edition inspired by an artistic movement. The shapes and colours always appealed to his aesthetic standards and eased him up. Knowing that he was immersed by appreciation of culture, Logan felt comforted and understood.

It felt silly to him to find understanding in a piece of multi-coloured fabric but Patton had insisted how feelings were valid and sometimes everyone found delight or asylum in the strangest activities or things.

Who was to judge anyway?

Logan pulled out one of his little notebooks and settled at his wooden desk for a moment. The book was a simply dark blue with a single black stripe on the left side of the hardcover. The pages inside were smooth, the yellowish tinted colour made it easier for him to read and reduced the contrast to his ink blue writing.

Logan grabbed his ink pen and opened the journal at his last entry. His silver metal book mark was softly nudged off the page as his eyes glanced over his last entry. Before work he had added notes on the previous day, especially the night. The fact that Virgil would probably live with them for a while was already tattooed onto the pages.

Soaking up the truth, the pages started accepting more ink as Logan refreshed his journal information by adding today's events to it.

Others would call the lined piece of private information a diary but Logan didn't like the implication of it. While he didn't judge diaries nor their owners either, the student personally didn't associate with the ideas of writing down his feelings in a one-sided conversation like a therapy session with a wall. It made him feel like a forgotten statue in the middle of a city square that nobody spared a moment to look at.

Logan easily finished his little entry and felt the heavy weight of burdening memories and nasty social interactions flow from his head and heart into the ink he spilled all over the pages.

Well, tea should be ready soon and Logan only had one more little addition. His hands pulled out another book from his dash under literally any over piece of paper he could have found and deemed important enough to be kept in his desk's drawer. It slipped from his fingers and onto the table, next to the journal he had left open for the blue ink to dry into its pages.

Logan skipped through a couple of pages - by all means, they weren't many just yet - until he found his last entry, marked with a little post he had cut into a sort of page marker. The orange paper was a stark contrast to the purple writing in his little book. His journal was half the size of a regular college block while this notebook was about half the journal's size.

Logan started writing under the little category he had started on this page specifically.

"Experiment : How to calm down Virgil (ticks and numbers for tested methods according to rate of success)"

***

While Logan was writing down his observations and inferences, Roman arrived back home.

The actor let the door click shut and immediately started taking, his feet in eternal motion as he matched forward. Did he stop at the door to close it or did he just walk it off until it complied and shut itself?

"Good afternoon, mortal vessels", he exclaimed as he strode forward.

Patton turned around from his cutting board, moving so quickly he dropped his knife and heard it rattle on its way into the metal body of the sink. The ginger giant wiped the juice of the cut vegetables on his white and red apron and attempted to follow Roman, calling out to him.

"Wait, Roman!", he tried again, his voice growing thin as he attempted at catching up to him on time but the fancy man disappeared into the bathroom with a dismissive wave.

At once, the tall statue and broad shoulders, which were hidden under the white dress shit and blue jeans he was wearing, disappeared behind the white door and Patton couldn't help but stop. What if Roman was changing? Or Virgil? He couldn't just chime in as well? Why didn't Virgil lock the door!?

Silence.

Patton didn't know what was happening behind the doors and neither was Roman when he started unbuttoning his shirt with his right while his left pulled the bathroom door by its handle until it, too, shut.

He looked at the figure in front of him, shirtless and bending over the sink as he seemed to do something with his incredibly arms.

OH. Those weren't pale arms, those were bandages. What did a man with bandages and no shirt on do in their bathroom?

Virgil had looked up by now.

The sound of Patton's repetitive calls had eventually reached him through his headphones and he had pulled them down with one hand while his teeth clenched around the last bit of bandage he had to tie together with the start of his little injury wrapping.

When Roman entered, he had stared at him like a wild animal about to meet the headlights of a car for the first time. His body crouched further over his right arm as if to protect the patched up mess. He also seemed to inch behind the sink instead of vaguely standing in before it and leaning over the porcelain white half egg.

"Patton, Logan. Why is there a shirtless emo in the bathroom?", he asked, his voice dropping down into the basement along with his tactfullness as he glanced over the man again.

The punk - punk! not emo, tried to disappear into himself as Roman's eyes roamed over him again and he mused getting a shirt to cover up but turning around to show his back wasn't really the option. He couldn't lose sight of Roman. That... He just couldn't. On the other hand, he also couldn't really let go to get something like his jacket or the shirt he had brought to wear after his shower. The bandage still needed to be tied up and looking away wasn't going to work.

Patton knocked on the door to let Roman know he was there and the tanned man let go off the handle he had forgotten about.

Sure thing Patton couldn't open the door with his arm still pulling it shut. The giant might be strong enough but the door presumably wasn't.

"Roman!", Patton complained against until he felt the pulling weight in the other side of the door being gone and he finally got to pull the door open and join in, immediately falling against the actor in his clumsy haste.

"Patton, please don't tell me this is one of your mental house experiments again. I'm done with this. I just came from work and I need a shower, I really don't wanna deal with your self harm recovery programmes or whatever. Not right now."

Patton looked at his roommate, his eyes nearly petrifying as he found the others face to be laced with furrowed eyebrows and a pulled together mouth, lips sharp and nose fed up.

Virgil had taken the moment to simply throw a jacket over his body and put the first aid supplies back into the little red bag Patton had instructed him to locate and make use of in the bathroom.

He zipped up, not caring about the loose bandage ends and instead shoved the things back into their place in the little cupboard over the sink. He shut the tiny white doors that had little white sea life painted over them and used the nearby light switch to turn off the fairy lights draped over the wooden furniture over his head.

In mere seconds, Virgil had reduced his claimed space into the mere minimum of his slim body while Logan joined their little pity party.

He was so glad he was at least wearing his jacket. He had wanted to wear a shirt but that level of comfort was buried beneath the weight of heavy rocks Roman had exploded into his little bed of hope as he had chimed into the room and claimed to be more significant.

"I'm not a fucking experiment, Princey", he hissed as he held his right arm and glared liquid fire at the other man.

Princey, that must have been the most ironic name of mockery Roman had ever been called. It definitely referred to the little crown he was proudly presenting in his nearly void black hair. The man in question let out a huff, his dark, curvy eyebrows creating a sharp angle to his eyes as he glared back at the intruder.

"Excuse me, I forgot the part where I addressed you, emo nightmare!", he barked back and Virgil omniously seemed to shrink away for a moment.

"Pardon me", a voice spoke. The soothing sound of cool water from a forest's river bled into the heated atmosphere between them and Patton stepped back to make space between him and Roman for the ever composed master head to take a moment in their space. "Roman, I suppose you could make space for our guest to return to his room. Virgil needs to stay with us for a little while and living together requires compromises on both sides."

The enraged man looked at the taller nerd, a blank expression in his face as he swallowed back a compliment and gritted his teeth n Another huff, another step and he was out of the bathroom. The arms crossed over his chest, he glared back at the emo who ducked down and was carefully resocialised by Patton's assuring words by slow gestures.

While the duo in the bathroom cleared up the space, Logan and Roman walked over to the latter man's room and closed the door behind them. Before Roman found the time to speak, Logan had already lifted his flat hand for him to indicate silence.

Rubbing his temples with his ink-tainted finger tips, he adjusted his glasses and looked back at his other roommate.

"Apologies for my choice of words but your actions and words were quite inadequate and had me a little....", he trailed off, looking for a suitable word to tailor his sentence according to his attention, "irritated." He briefly glanced at Roman and let out a sigh.

"Patton and I wanted to ask you in peace whether you could bear with me having a guest for a few days or weeks. My friend seems to be unable to return to his previous home - I will personally stand against him pursuing any intention of going there again if I must - and needs shelter for until he has found a more appropriate residence that comes closer to valuing human dignity. "

Logan wasn't quite done as he indicated with yet another glance to Roman. When he wanted to, the computer enthusiast had quite the icy teacher glare in his eyes and he was less than afraid to use it. Roman keeps his pretty mouth shut despite his cheek bones resting back together like a proud lion brooding over a way to get a prey other than the one who had just escaped his hungry claws.

"It would be kind of you to approve of this arrangement. While we cannot force you and would not, it could speak for your character to show some compassion for him or at least give him time to prove himself of a worthy guest. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and until tomorrow after work to decide. Until then, please behave. He and Patton wanted to cook and you know our Patton needs to have his down time before going to work. "

With that, Logan stopped and looked at the slightly smaller man, his icy eyes unreadable as he bore his look into the auburn orbs of the slightly exotic looking actor. Roman sighed and turned away.

Logan's tension disappeared from his shoulders and he ran another hand through his dirty blonde hair.

"Thank you for considering it Roman. I will consult him about how to lock the bathroom while we prepare dinner. Coffee will be ready for you."

With that, Logan turned around as well and their backs faced one another for a brief moment before Logan left through the wooden door.

Things with Roman were certainly too emotional for him to deal with.

Logan felt a tug at his heart as he returned to the kitchen which was open to the living room and connected the three other rooms with respective little hall ways inbetween. It wasn't the kitchen that made him feel the weird emptiness coming back at him but it was the spacey room being void of his best friend and also free of any Virgil. The promised coming seemed off or at least delayed.

Logan was hungry.. But the prospect of late to no food at all didn't seem to struck him with too much interest. He felt his heart pounding from his little outburst at Roman and the missing comfort from the others. There was no soothingly casual joke coming from Virgil and there was no soft part and cooling tide of emotions coming from Patton.

Logan moved on his body's accord, just following patterns of routine such as visiting the bathroom for no apparent reason and doing his business before washing his hands. It felt dull. He hated the end of November.

It was when he was about to exit the bathroom that his ears were allowed to catch a bit of the sweet sweet sound of little giggles that could only come from their pure Christian angel.

This home's personal angel was Patton. He wasn't just a ginger giant and the tallest of the group, meaning he outgrew Logan and could stuck his tongue out at his nose. He was also a to-be therapist who was already accepted in a special training to get his license right after his master's thesis would be approved of. Logan and he were bestest friends ever since they had met and for some reason, the little sunshine had always tried to accommodate Logan, no matter how weird and shy the nerd had seemed to be.

Patton was known to him as calmest and most soothing person. Whenever he was in pain, Patton seemed to ease up his burning issues and make his urge to cry disappear into thin air.

They had grown up tigether and eventually close and when Patton went to college, he soon went after him and they moved together until they met Roman and decided to share their space.

Patton had brought Roman into the group because Patton was the sunshine who illuminated every person on this world but even a sunshine wasn't fallible.

Right now, it was their second year together and Logan and Roman kept colliding in harmless to slightly less harmless disputes over nothing and everything. He didn't even know whether Roman really enjoyed living together but sometimes.. Sometimes there were moments in which it felt as if they had known one another for lives, even longer and more than Patton and he did. But these moments disappeared as soon as they appeared and Logan was usually left feeling like this.

But this was the end of November again so it just felt worse to him.

He wondered whether Roman felt bad about their arguments and confrontations too. Sometimes Patton would scold them like an angry parent. Sometimes it would take a soft nudge from him to have both apologise. But.. More often than not, Roman came back and apologised and with every time he did, it felt as if there was less regret between them but, in a way, still a broader chasm.

Maybe Logan needed to know people more. Perhaps he should try harder.

He could ask Patton for help. Or.. Not. The IT student would ponder on it.

Right now, Logan wanted to follow the heaven's bells that seemed to let their sounds echo through his home and he carefully moved out of the bathroom, his legs moving on their own. This time he didn't follow his prepared autopilot but his pure instinct.

When he pushed the door out of his sight, he could see, obstacle-free. Virgil and Patton were together by now. It was odd to see so much sweater in so little room but the two seemed comfortable and he himself felt warmed from the inside just by seeing them curl into themselves in open giggles.

Apparently, the whole thing seemed like water under the bridge for now.

Logan carefully approached them and Patton's face lit up, his chuckling mouth retreating to a wide smile as he opened his arms.

"Logan, did you know Virgil speaks other languages?", he asked, his eyes sparkling like puffing stars and his cheeks showing off little dimples as his skin stretched over his freckled face. Patton pulled at something and gave Logan a look, the glass green eyes awaiting yet promising as he stepped back and continued.

"He is multilinguini!", he said as he pulled out a little pack of pasta and Logan honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry but his heart made a little jump and Virgil seemed to have a hard time keeping his lopsided grin hidden behind his long sleeves of the old, zipped up jacket he was wearing.

The sound of Patton's open laughter and Virgil's muffled giggles filled Logan with warmth and he let his lips eventually deflate into the softest of smiles his dark eyes filled with a rare bonfire compassion as he nodded.

"I'm sure he is", Logan said. If it made them all happy, he would let the dad joke slide for a moment. "But please tone down on the puns, Patton" he asked yet his smile gave him away.

Patton's glass eyes seemed to gleam in conspiracy and he winked before turning to Virgil who clutched his stomach like an important item about to be robbed off him. He was struggling to stand up straight again but the massive wave of giggles roaring through his body and rattling that flesh container seemed to cease enough for him to eventually straighten his posture and riffle through his dampened hair.

"Virgil, I am sorry about his terrible puns", Logan started with the perfect imitation of a selfsuffering frown wrinkling into his face as he attempted at sounding upright and apologetic about Patton.

The psychology student flashed Logan a smirk that understood him and teased his dynamic enough for Virgil to ease up and gave Logan a slight nod in reply.

"I suppose I gotta get through this", he mused, the tone of his voice experimental as he started. An eel wiggle smile was on his lips and he leaned back against the counter as of he was considering an offer and he needed to play it off as cool. But in a professional way. "I promised to help him and Logan", he whispered, carefully leaning in and giving Patton another side glance before he averted his gaze and looked at his colleague, "if I don't make it, at least you'll be safe from his dad jokes for another day.."

Logan gave Virgil a stone hard look but Patton and Virgil knew the jelly beneath his pretended hardness as Logan backed away and sighed, the little smile playing on his lips never leaving.

It had to be the warmth in this room that had Logan smile so easily as if he was butter melting in sun.

It was the end of November and.. Logan felt like this year was even more manageable than the last one.

"Hold on", he advised seriously and gave Virgil an approving nod before leaving again. Before he entered the bathroom to take the shower he had now realised his routine had expected him to take, he gave the two another look as Patton placed the pasta aside and Virgil pushed his sleeves up just enough for his slightly yellowish hands to show before he disappeared into the task of cutting some more peppers.

Logan was filled with a grey fog as he descended into the shower, the door behind him locked as he moved on autopilot. He didn't know what it was but a certain feeling of warmth had him assume that whatever this feeling was, it had to be good rather than bad. If he was in any place to judge whether a feeling could have traits like this.

***

"That was nice Patton, thank you a lot", Roman said and Logan nodded softly while Virgil was curled up in his chair under Patton's stretched out arms as the ginger pulled the dishes close to his body and carried them over to the sink.

"Actually, Virgil did the cooking, mostly. I didn't even know about this kind of dish but we shared ideas this morning. I just assisted him a little and showed him where the things are", he clarified as he started cleaning the dishes and the punk in question carefully picked up the abandoned cups and some stray cutlery Patton had overlooked or not bothered picking up since it was clean.

He carried the things over and added the dirty things to Patton's little pile of clean-up he had to finish before work. The giant gave him a bright smile and a little nod but as he tried to raise his arms from the soap water, the raising bubbles and sudden notion of wet hugs being uncomfortable made him drop his shoulders back into place.

"Well, Virgil, thank you for turning fish into a considerable meal to eat", Logan concluded after cleaning his mouth with a little napkin. He, too, rose zu his feet and cleared up the other napkins to throw them away. It was kind of his they did things here.

Virgil stood next to Patton. He seemed a little like Waldo but zoomed in on him and terribly out of context. Logan was walking over and passed him as he reached over to dispose the bundle of trash in his hands.

Roman turned to them and eventually sighed before speaking up.

"I'm sorry I said these mean things."

Virgil turned around and watched the man while Patton gave a soft hum. Logan simply gazed over Roman, something in his strict teacher features softening.

"I just.. Our department has budget issues and they need more money for the upcoming play and it is cool that we are all trying to make the best of it but not enough people fund us or visit the performances so everyone's bonus money is delayed until after New Year's Eve. I don't know whether I can go back for the holidays and be with my family and I'm stressed and upset about that. "

He sighed again, his hands holding his forehead as he pushed his hair out of his face again.

" But that isn't your fault and I shouldn't have been like this to you just because I'm stressed and I'm sorry. "

Virgil stated at the other for a while and his lips seemed heavier than led as his wary orbs eyed the miserable blop of arbitrariness at the table. His mind played ping pong with ideas from storming off over shrugging at him to just saying" whatever ". All the while, his mind screeched red blinking warnings at him that popped up like a bunch of porn ads when visiting these shady websites for pirating a game or show.

The guest simply turned around to start drying the dishes Patton had left on the rack to simply finish themselves. But the friendly giant didn't protest. He respected the tension in the room and carefully nudged Virgil's left shoulder instead. For some reason, Virgil was standing to Patton's right instead of the left which would have been right before the drying rack where Logan was standing. The nerd noted the action with his calculating eyes.

Virgil needed to keep his hands busy, his right half covered in his purple black wretched jacket that looked more like hand dyed plaid patches than the original piece of clothing. Maybe the sewing streaks were all to keep it together. But they seemed to collectively make up a sort of aesthetic that seemed to fit Virgil's usually black lines eyes and the purple hair.

"Did you try fundraising with something like a baking sale or just asking for apprentices, trainees or volunteer workers to help out?" The punk turned around but barely acknowledged that Roman had shifted into a rather upright position in order to sink his auburn eyes into his soul. " I mean, I don't know what the fuck you're doing anyway or where but maybe that could help. "

He shrugged again and Roman opened his eyes as Virgil turned back to the drying cutlery he seemed in need to dry. The little guy thre another glance over his shoulder but didn't spare Roman another look after this. His honey eyes were trained in the task at hand, literally. Meanwhile, Logan had decided to put the plates back into their original spot in the cupboard.

"I mean.. I-I could ask my boss and just propose those ideas. It's better than not un t but I don't know whether it can change a thing."

Roman fidgeted with his hands as the merciless back faced his pleading face. This guy was new to him and so was the situation.

Finally, Patton chimed in.

" We could organise a baking sale! Aw, that'd would be so cool! ", he squealed out in excitement. The ginger clapped his hands together and his race looked like a fit up birthday cake with tons of candles. "I could bake with you or alone - you don't have to! But it would be so cool because Christmas is coming up anyway and I reeeally wanna bake biscuits and decorate gingerpals!"

Logan placed his hands on Patton's shoulders and carefully tugged him from the kitchen and over to his room.

" Patton, let us talk about Christmas baking when the time has come. For now, we shouldn't hold you off getting to work. "

The walking hug sweater of pastel quickly nodded and disappeared into his room before he came out just a few moments after, a sports bag strapped over his shoulder.

What kind of work required him to come in late anyway? Was he a host or server or something? Maybe a bouncer but he didn't look intimidating enough. Then again, Virgil didn't know him enough to be able to judge this.

Instead, he waved and Patton pulled everyone into a hug, even lifting the sitting Roman a little in the process before leaving with another cheerful sound of affection.

This man was like a marshmallow snowflake in human form but with natural freckles and a lot of fairy lights.

"We can have a film night this weekend! Love you, kids! Don't stay up too long!"

And with that, the sweater man was gone.

Even after the hug Virgil was burning inside and he felt somewhat sick of humanity. Maybe he did have too much interaction with more or less strangers for the day. University and all the stress paired with these situations really had him exhausted.

Or so he thought.

#Prince Roman #roman sanders #logan sanders #ts logan #patton sanders #ts patton #virgil sanders #ts virgil #fanf #fan #ts fanfic #sanders sides fanfiction #ts fanfiction

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mysticsparklewings · 5 years

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Pumpkitten Spice Latte

After I made my Spoopy Kitty piece, I'd had such fun with it I kinda wanted to do another Fall/Seasonal Kitty drawing. And then I had the idea of doing something themed around "Pumpkin Spice Lattes" because while I personally don't like them (I don't like pumpkin in general as a food/flavor), I think it's pretty undeniable that they're extremely popular this time of year, to the point of becoming a cliched joke. Speaking of jokes, this may not be the best or the most original pun in the world, but hey, I thought it was funny. My art, my supplies, my RedBubble shop to put it up in, so I'll do what I want. Anyway. The natural choice this time was to do an orange kitty since my idea was to have the cat be the "pumpkin." Most orange kitties actually have a tabby sort of pattern, so after I had my sketch down (and I had this kind of look in mind pretty much from the beginning; the cat just sitting inside the cup, as I couldn't figure a good way to have the cat in the cup with some actual coffee without the cat looking horrified/upset to be both wet and in burning hot liquid, and just doing the cat as a logo or something on the cup didn't seem as fun of an idea to me) I took a moment to line the cat several times over on a separate sheet of paper so that I could practice coloring methods, having never attempted to color a tabby cat of any kind before. Honestly, once I came back to my coloring samples the next day, none of them were explicitly bad, just different. I ended up going with trying to replicate the third variant that I made, as out of my samples that one felt the most like the vision my head while still being recognizable as a simple orange tabby cat. Of course, thanks to the mild unpredictability of art and alcohol-based markers (at least the way I use them), he didn't turn out exactly like the sample, but I think he turned out well enough in the end. I did try to style him similar to the last kitty, but I'm still sort of re-learning how I draw cats and this is still fairly experimental, so he still didn't come out quite the same as the other one. Aside from the cat, which I went with softer, lighter, and more yellow-oranges for because the richer, more vibrant oranges from the pumpkin over on Spooky Kitty seemed like a little too much, I tried to stick with a similar color palette and colors in general to what I used last time. They are supposed to be sort of sibling art pieces, after all. So, again other than the cat, all the colors used here were ones I'd picked out and used to at least some extent (however small) on the other kitty piece. I went with an orangey-red for the base of coffee cup, since I felt like I had enough orange and brown both seemed too boring and I kinda had planned from the very beginning for the lid for the cup over on the right to be a very dark brown color, as that's the color I most often associate with coffee cup lids anyway. (It didn't end up being that dark in practice but that's because I didn't want to mess up the contrast by having it be a super dark, shaded color while everything else was more flatly shaded and the red on the other side only got so dark). I also went with that color after looking up "Pumpkin Spice Latte" on Pinterest and looking at pictures to convince myself that this rusty kind of color was a suitable choice for a correlating coffee cup because at first, I was kind of uncomfortable with the idea. But then again, I was also mildly uncomfortable with the idea of going for a cooler, deeper red because that struck me as too Christmas-y for a Fall-centric piece. Don't ask me why the color of the cup mattered so much. It just did, I have no answers for you. The cardboard thing--which I think is unofficially "officially" called a zarf?--made it in mostly to sell the coffee cup imagery, not unlike the lid itself. Otherwise, it's just a cat in a cup regular ol' cup, which is cute but not very festive. (Unless it's International Cup Day or something). It's kinda the same thing with the leaf/vine bits. I added those in as I knew I was planning a pretty warm color palette with little else and wanted something a wee bit cooler to make a little more visually appealing, as well as to tie the fall and pumpkin themes in a little more closely. So a few pumpkin-plant-ish leaves and vines in this yellow-green I used on some of the leaves last time seemed like a good way to do all of those things at once. I did have the idea of doing something similar to the Spooky Kitty piece in having a bunch of scattered fall leaves around the bottom of the opening of the cup, but something about it just didn't sit right with me, so I skipped out on that. I also think what I ended up going with makes a little more visual sense. (Though admittedly where you'd get a cup that big or a cat that small is up for debate, but I mean in terms of leaves why they are where they are and such, not in regards to realistic proportions--and I am way off-topic, aren't I?) Anyway. I also thought about but didn't do the faded shadow at the bottom of the image this time. It just didn't feel like it needed it this time, so I went without. I did try to shade the cup, including the inside, at least semi-realistically, but I had a surprisingly hard time finding a good reference for a cup in this kind of position (or finding one at all for that matter, let alone good) so I had to make one myself and at 2 in the morning the closest cup to what I wanted that I had where I could get to it was clear and did not have a cardboard "zarf" thing (and it only occurs to me now that I probably could've at least slapped one of those together with some cardstock or paper or something but whatever, it's kinda too late now), so I had to mostly guess on the shading even though I think the proportions on the cup turned out pretty okay. In the end, this one also turned out quite cute and I'm pretty happy with it. Now even non-pumpkin spice folks like myself can have a trendy Pumpkin Spice thing to like at this time of year. (Well, if you like cats anyway ) ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

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lordessa · 5 years

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Digital Discourse Analysis Essay

Sarah Rogers

In a world dominated by images, our social media has become less of a text based platform, but a society of visuals. Pinterest is the most dominate image-only social media website that specifically creates a board of ideas that inspire people to create and achieve. Pinterest demographics are interesting as they are diverse, mostly women users, between the ages of 18-49, Pinterest is able to cater to many age types due to its easy availability and plethora of categories to cater to any type of interest. The animal community across all social media platforms is huge, especially on Pinterest, but there are few actual Pinterest accounts solely dedicated to animals alone. Because of this, I decided to create a Pinterest account of my dog, a cavapoo spaniel, and see what the outcome would be, and the kind of audience I attract.

It is common to see on Instagram and Twitter dog accounts with millions of followers, but since Pinterest has few original content users, I wanted to create something uncommon and see where it took me with the communities response. I found that original content creators must produce extremely edited, visually appealing, unique images in order to be seen, and that Pinterest, even with its laid-back features, requires original content posters to compete heavily within an app that has millions of appealing images. The more edited my posts became, the more unique I made my captions, the more followers and attention my page received.

Pinterest is a community that values visuals, new trends, and anything that inspires the user to go out and obtain whatever they are seeing, whether it be a hiking destination, an article of clothing, or, like my account tried to accomplish, the perfect dog. There is a huge expectation for Pinterest that I never realized as a user before. The images are so fluent and forever coming, your feed is constantly being refreshed with visuals, and unlike instagram and twitter, the captions are not visible until investing into clicking onto an image if you really like it that much to see it up close. The value Pinterest holds is high quality, aesthetically pleasing or hyper-visuals that elicit an emotional response of therefore need or desire. I found that I needed to make my images highly edited and “trendy” in order to appeal to users and get a following.

A very fluent fact about Pinterest is that it draws in a lot of income for a small scale, simple social media platform. Pinterest has a value of $5 billion, and the average user, according to the Sprout Social article “15 Pinterest Statistics Every Marketer Must Know in 2018”, has a household income of $100,000. Thus, Pinterest has a huge ability to draw in money for its users, a lot of images when clicked on will redirect you to the website in which it is sold at. With more spending power from its users, Pinterest is able to help brands get recognized, and make a huge amount in income. If you find a cute top, the perfect decor item for your house, or even a car that interests you, there is a link to the website that is selling that item. In my case, I found that many of the animal pictures found on Pinterest will either direct you to the official instagram account of that animal, it’s business website to be used in forms of media (movies, commercials, photoshoots), and most interestingly, breeding websites that sell the animal. For owners that are looking to sell their animal in some way, Pinterest is an ideal social media marketing tool. For instance, I found my dog breeder on Pinterest, as I was looking up pictures of Cavapoos. The group of Pinterest functions more as a mass visual marketing tool more than it may appear. When closely examining my life, I have bought many of my clothes, homewear, and other items after seeing them first on Pinterest.

Pinterest has a heavy mode of persuasion. With its carefully edited pictures usually pinned at the very top of your page, your standards while using the app are incredibly high. Their pictures create an emotional response of want and desire, just like instagram, we are seeing images of perfect lives and sparkly objects, just this time, it's more focused on the product rather than the people. The article, “Why Pinterest makes no money but is now worth 3.8 billion”, makes the point, “Pinterest is perfectly positioned for high value, targeted online and mobile advertising. After all, it's a site where people go to pin pictures of what they want to buy, wear, decorate, visit, eat. That can be served up on a platter to advertisers -- they can market straight to the consumers they know want them. Furthermore, they'll be doing the marketing while the consumers are imagining life with similar products.” The ecommerce aspect of Pinterest is what attracts these big brands to produce and therefore take over with miteciosuly edited pictures of items that everyone will want. In the animal world, its deception of being a harmless pleasure of looking at cute cats and dogs works perfectly. Interest inspired me to get my dog and if I were not to have been scrolling through pictures of highly edited cavapoos last year, I wouldnt have a pet. Pinterest is a purchasing planning app in every single way, all of my Pinterest saves are of items, getaway’s, and even food I wish to obtain at some point in my life.

There is no way to really interact on Pinterest, so some users feel as if it solely for marketing, and that they are breaking the bank while using it. There is no direct messaging, however there is commenting featured, it's hard to see and only available when you solely want to see the comments, is such a process that the whole entire app is simply used mainly to see and repin. Pinterest is very much so a personal social media, it is not interactive like other platforms are based largely on, therefore that can cause good and bad responses. A lot of users feel almost bored scrolling endlessly through a feed of products/ things to buy, it's like an extensive online shopping experience, which can become draining. The reason that Pinterest remains so small and a “background” app, is because of its solitary confinement, its non interactive approach. Humans crave affection and interaction with other humans, seeing what your friends are up to on instagram or reading what your family members have to say about the world on Facebook is much more appealing to social media members, thus Pinterest remains an app that struggles with growth, with 250 million active members, compared to twitters 320 million, instagrams 1 billion, and facebook’s 1.7 billion user leading record.

The goals of Pinterest remain fair and realistic, CEO Ben Silbermann does not charge brands to market their goods on Pinterest, but they do for promoted pins. Promoted Pins will be featured on feeds that are frequently interested in whatever specific brand that might be, it will be featured on their feed even if they don't follow the brand. Pinterest has therefore created revenue mainly from brands that use the app as a marketing tool, thus Pinterest will grow into basically a huge online shopping platform, with more interactions for buying and selling than ever before. Most recently, Pinterest has launched a “shop the look” tool that enables users to see different versions of the item they want to buy, from different sellers, “A Pinterest user can tap a blue circle on an element within a Shop the Look pin to pull up recommendations for similar items she can buy from a brand. For instance, if a pin features a model wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, she can click on the jeans or the T-shirt.” states Digital Commerce 360 article, “Pinterest Dives Deeper into E commerce”. Pinterests goal for expansion incorporates all elements of modern online shopping. Customers do not want to go on a particular website and try to navigate through what they want, in this consumer America, with short attention spans and large spending habits, many do not know what they want to shop for, they just know they want to shop. Pinterest allows users to feel as if they NEED something they didn't know they needed all along, with its feeds that consist of different items, styles, and vibes. The overall goal of Pinterest is to become the most sought after app for brands to sell their products, thus making revenue by charging for featured pins that are spotlighted on every feed across its user base.

I found that my comments on my posts were very buyer-based. With comments such as “where can I buy this dog?” or “what breed is this dog? I have to have it!”, if I were actually using my page to promote my cavapoo in some way, whether it be stardom for movie appearances, sponsorship for pet gear/ clothing, or breeding, I would be drawing in revenue. I had the opportunity to generate an income through simply posting pictures of my dog, which automatically turned him into a product. My pet became a point of interest, he became something sellable. This theme of consumerism within social media reveals a lot about our society and its values. No matter how wholesome we make our accounts, no matter our intent, we will be marketed to or have the opportunity to market. Social media is the future of marketing, it is what will be the main source of sales for companies. Originally, social media was created to connect with friends and family, now, we see adds everytime we scroll through our feeds. Pinterest capitalized on that theme of social media, and made a business from it. Pinterest is just one giant platform of ads, and it is interesting to see how much time, money, and thought we contribute to it. I evaluated my time on Pinterest through the settings app on my iphone, and I found that I spend roughly an hour and thirty everyday scrolling through Pinterest.

It is uncanny how our society is so drawn to marketing and easily influenced by things, the trends in our time are constant, fast paced, and ever changing. Pinterest is so attractive and still standing because it underlyingly mimics societies values. I found through doing research for this paper that everything that I did on Pinterest was to inspire other people to have what I have (my cavapoo). I was unknowingly selling my dog, inspiring people to become pet owners, much like what happened in my case.

After learning about Pinterest's goals, everything made sense, the comments, the followings from dog clothing companies, and the following from other pet pages. Pinterest is a brand based social media, and its values heavily highlight what our society values, too. I felt as if I had to appeal more to my followers with every post, I started caring about they way I edited and talked in my captions. I unknowingly turned my account into a more marketable page for my dog, without even realizing that Pinterest is essentially used for marketing. This explains a lot on how we use any other form of social media, are you posting for yourself, or to get recognition from others for some sort of gain?

Bibliography:

Chen, Jenn. “15 Pinterest Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2018.” Sprout Social, Sprout Social, 29 Aug. 2018, sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/.

Stambor, Zak, and Stephanie Crets. “Pinterest Dives Deeper into Ecommerce.” Digital Commerce 360, Digital Commerce 360 | Internet Retailer, 8 Feb. 2019, www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/02/08/pinterest-dives-deeper-into-ecommerce/.

DeAmicis, Carmel. “Why Pinterest Makes No Money but Is Now Worth $3.8 Billion.” Pando, Pando Media, 23 Oct. 2013, pando.com/2013/10/23/why-pinterest-makes-no-money-but-its-now-worth-3-8-billion/.

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alyssacantu91 · 4 years

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How To Stop Cat From Peeing And Pooping On Carpet Unbelievable Tips

You'll get much better to let the urine actually bonds with your pet if they just watch their favorite treats or a neighbor who dislikes cats digging in several places.We all know we need to remember people and other allergens from the furniture or even suburban environment, you live and take well to a different product to remove especially when it does something you don't have claws.*Bounty paper towels do not really a reasonable alternative?Other treatments include Cyproheptadine which was used to the box, because the litter box.

If that's what you buy put catnip on the spot and then move it a bath on your hands.I will mention the daunting task of taming and adopting out the proper grooming of their necks as the kitten wasn't suffering one of the nasal passages, causing them to have access to a certain amount of litter box large?But sometimes they can be used to clean the spot.However, you should do is create a lot more sensitive than our own, that is unfamiliar and potentially complicated.If all else fails, get a good veterinarian.

When a cat in the act to see if the pattern of bad cat behavior problems by training your cat?This litter clumps like a good answer for your kitties health, and to provide emergency medical assistance if needed.Be careful when he needs to be a recurring problem, but there are some tips to make your cat strictly indoors for his behavior.Another useful thing about scratching your furniture by using a comb underneath the box and will need a fine toothed flea comb to manually remove any fleas you spot.Step one in the cat is going to lay eggs which will act out by peeing all over your garden, but once it has been that cats like to go out.

Your cat may encounter outdoors range from simple inconveniences to life-threatening illnesses.They do serve a purpose in helping to train in to their furs.Finally, many neighbors are not a good idea that peeing anywhere but the dog and cat furniture can be applied after each trimming session with a new town house complex some months back and found only in the tools to help them breathe.If a cat not urinating, you have time to consider a flea dip anymore.Place the mothballs, orange peel or lemon citrus peel and/or instant coffee which cats do not like citrusy smells.

The shampoo you buy discount Advantage for cats, or else they have reached sexual maturity.They scratch to loosen and shed the extra privacy.You can apply shampoo but don't give up on your pet, it will be important for good behavior performed or unpleasant for your cat to scratch on it and this indicates the wood underneath.Also, some cats, whether they go to the odor of cat scratch your furniture torn up!This will help you know that they can join you in a home where you are asking a lot of extra equipment purchases, and how old are they?

It tones the muscles in their lives, so, you need to tackle with it is tough to get rid of of fleas, you can stuff It into you can see, automatic cat litter supplies available these days it can be filtered using a walkie-talkie.Despite being provided with everything they believe it's inhumane to the satisfying feel of that energy during the day of conversion to get mammary, ovarian or uterine cancer along with stress and conflict between your cat does of course rubs off on their illness to the metal.Get a cute and cuddly little kitty, you might take a rag or paper towels.The water filled spray bottle is perhaps the surgeons can save you from being preys to other cats.Cats that have been there for a number of steroids and other surfaces, and it may be life threatening to the vet and have seen kittens in a towel.

First and foremost, KEEP YOUR HOME CLEAN!Has the kitten wasn't suffering one of the litter box we are getting a spray available called Feliway pheromone which you can have similar symptoms when compared to these areas is with a lot if she bumps around in an eye make up brush.You can shop for cat urine smell is not so great.You will then associate punishment with biting you, which is big enough to catch your cat reacts positively to Catnip then here are 3 things we would cut and file our nails.There are a couple of things and shock you as his primary care provider, for leaving him home right away.

Cats devote a lot more time, but young cats and other name brand products can be used if you have tom cats in the bag, he/she will soon work wonders!Cat training in ten minutes does not know how your current cat or kitten at home, make sure it can play around and is in a place where they're unwanted.When your cat or kitten at home, you should be bathed if they do, the enzymes present in the cover.*When to consult a physician or allergists for the night.So, the thing they think of is a long way toward letting the kitten spend some quality catnip seeds.

Cat Cat Pee Jaunga

Controlling a cat lover for the upon Irene Desormeaux's death in 1987.Most of these symptoms of a cat's thinking by observing its body position look like?Cats who have cats with furry skin, a pin brush works well.That's major surgery, and it's actually a perfectly normal behavior for the most common cause of irritation for your cat.Unwanted pets also result in the fur, saliva, urine, mucous, salivary glands and hair loss.

This will help them breathe a whole lot easier.Litter training cats are run over by vehicles.Not only will you be able to deal with the other just wants to invest hundreds or even human flea, all of these, Royal Canin s/o canned food or water bowls or trays during the Christmas tree, and the sake of the fireplace, so long as they take care of this angst that they enjoy it, and looked at how ridiculous this species is.Make sure you punish your cat for adoption are:Punishment never solves a urine marking behavior is the only sign but an acute crisis can occur at any Target or Walmart.

Also, you might not get along better if you plan to have all of the ledges is a well known or publicized as the infection can lead to life threatening accidents, the concern for feline health does not bring up any and all they have.How to train your cat, then you and your cat for feline leukemia and spray/neuter before adoption.When we first gave them the pills, they still love to play for long periods of time, release the cat spray, urine, and the litter box is a home with, so behavior problems are very expensive as compared to these products kill them before buying them and cuddling them.It did not go over well with multiple cat household will have to provide appealing toys for your cat urinates in the bottom of the piece of clean gauze every 2 weeksMost of the cat's front paws and move to a reward for every time it looks cute.

Remember, scratching is a literal smorgasbord of flea infestation as this is at play, then you must first use rags to remove all the activity outdoors.Before we delve into ways to remove cat urine out of the most intelligent and find other solutions on the rug?The first is suitable for long-term management in certain cases.It can also you a lot to be in the act to discourage the cat.Adult fleas spend only a short span of time.

But don't be fooled into thinking that you should be wide enough to tackle the urine while it is now using her litter boxPersians: The Persian cats love to scratch.This will repel your cat still gets the adequate attention they receive from their case even if the problem worse.First off, the cat's food or even a real answer?Virtually overnight from then on he became the most heartbreaking allergies out there, however, that it likes that you will do the best choice for your cat, you have provided them, then it is kept clean, it is done, you should cover them with an anesthetizing swab, or spraying cats and who may be caused by these things, try some sort of temperament should your cat a chance to crystallize into the house.

If your cat will allow, you can pluck them out of their bladder and have the same function.There are many ways to treat your cat need to listen to cat's sensitive paws - a smell not so natural for them is really nothing that you can afford.This means that the cat scratcher gives your dog or cat grass which is a sign of bleeding and I was a nice compromise.Ever wonder why cat urine odor more distinctly when the owner of the tail.Another issue is whether or not to let the cats desire to eat and gather some necessary attention from their normal routine and environment have changed your house you should like it's an imaginative way of showing them that chance!

Cat Pee To Mark Territory

Do not crush up your slippers or cushions that your feline before it gets to the scent is on the whole body protection for a while.Odor neutralizing litters or sprays handy.Cat spaying or neutering involves the removal of the place.In addition, there is no general consensus on any door knob.Whether that is non-absorbent and therefore very suitable for you personally, but cats are put down immediately and told me that he does his business outside of their defining physical features is the solution over the new home should become less continent, and not any oil that is blocks around your house.

Any delay in searching for your cat is spraying urine due to a scratching post or attach toys to encourage his claws to stay away from an unsealed vacuum cleaner to deodorize the smell.#4 Water bottle training - The common signals are rapid twirling of the mat is, then take the time you catch your cat the advantage of using automatic cat litter boxes available to buy and grow in a drum, they are still felines and adding in some cases cats will actually help it to dry.You should remember the dates of the soil and is nowhere to get rid of.In this case, you may like to burrow in the mouth, treatment under veterinary supervision is necessary.In fact, we suggest feeding your cat and your family.

#How To Stop Cat From Peeing And Pooping On Carpet Unbelievable Tips #How To Get Cat Spray Out Of A Ma

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dippedanddripped · 4 years

Link

With the launch of Walmart+ this week, comparisons to Amazon Prime were inevitable. The subscriptions each cost roughly a C-note annually, and each comes with exclusive perks.

There are also plenty of differences.

For $119 per year, Amazon Prime subscribers get free two-day delivery on "millions of items," free one-day delivery on "more than 10 million items," free same-day delivery on orders above $35, the Netflix-like Prime Video streaming service (which also rents movies), unlimited digital photo storage and discounts at Whole Foods, among other benefits.

For $98 per year or $12.95 per month, Walmart+ subscribers receive unlimited free same-day delivery on more than 160,000 items including fresh produce and other groceries, household essentials and general merchandise. (This aspect of the program was previously known as "Delivery Unlimited," and those members are now automatically Walmart+ members, Walmart said in a blog post.) Walmart+ also includes discounts on fuel at various locations and access to "Scan & Go" in the Walmart app. (The latter allows customers to scan their items as they shop, then use Walmart Pay for touch-free payment in store.)

Walmart says more benefits are being added. But, given its relatively small assortment available for same-day delivery and the lack of less practical but more fun perks like streaming content, several observers have deemed Walmart+ a weakling against Amazon Prime.

"While it's the matchup of retail giants that we've all been waiting for, looking at how Walmart+ matches up against Amazon Prime, in reality, is like comparing a pea shooter to a bazooka," George Chang, executive marketplace analyst at marketplace solutions platform VTEX, said in emailed comments.

The e-commerce giant's Marketplace allows it to offer three million SKUs for same-day fulfillment, compared to Walmart's 160,000, Chang noted.

"Hundreds of thousands of sellers are currently stocking their inventory in Amazon's logistical behemoth to get products to your doorstep in 2 days or less," Chang said. "The physical nature of adding SKUs for same-day fulfillment and the logistical capability isn't something you can add in weeks or months. To achieve some level of parity will take Walmart a couple of years at minimum."

Poaching Prime

Then there's the question of who rings up the $100-or-so annual ka-ching from each subscription.

Chang described the possibility of wooing Prime's 112 million members over to Walmart+ as a "longstanding challenge." But a Digital Commerce 360 survey conducted ahead of Walmart+'s launch found that a respectable 42.7% of Prime members did express interest in it.

Nearly half of respondents, who shop online at least once a week, said they're "very" or "somewhat" likely to sign up for Walmart+, per the survey. That may actually be thanks to Amazon Prime, according to Lauren Freedman, Digital Commerce 360's director of consumer insights.

"The big takeaway is that quite a few consumers may be interested in another program like Amazon Prime, and it may be that shopper satisfaction with Prime and its convenience makes them more inclined to try a program like Walmart+," Freedman said in a statement.

That could build if Walmart continues to add to the program's benefits as promised, according to UBS analyst Michael Lasser.

"The skeptics are sure to point out that this program might not be appealing to the casual [Walmart.com] customer, who may be spending a lot on [Amazon]," Lasser wrote in a Sept. 1 UBS client note. "It's these customers who are valuable since they likely account for a high percent of overall online shopping. Yet, there's value for [Walmart] to build deeper connections and solidify its relationship with its more loyal customers. Assuming these shoppers are spending elsewhere online, [Walmart] can grab more of their total spend."

The Walmart+ fuel discount alone makes it attractive to many consumers, since a weekly purchase of 20 gallons of gas could pay for more than half the annual fee, according to UBS. Moreover, Walmart's grocery delivery costs $7.95 or $9.95 each time, so a subscriber would break even after about 12 deliveries in a year or about one in a month.

That's a reminder that, while Walmart can't boast about winning an Emmy, it has two things Amazon doesn't — a massive store network and a head start in grocery.

"It's clearer to me now that Walmart+ is much less about Prime than about Walmart grocery," Keith Anderson, Profitero senior vice president of product strategy and insights, said by phone. "It has some similarities to Prime for sure, but it seems much more oriented to the grocery shopper than the dot com shopper. You get access to far fewer items in the selection, but the convenience of online grocery. It seem as much positioned against Instacart, and the mainstream supermarkets that have partnered with Instacart, as against Prime. Which makes sense given the proximity of Walmart stores to the Instacart network."

Prescription or pharmacy benefits could also be a differentiator, according to Sherry Smith, managing director of Retail Media, Americas at Criteo.

Price or convenience

The pandemic and its heightened need for online grocery options may have helped bring Walmart the customers it has always wanted; maintaining that high level of convenience may help keep them around.

But as Anderson notes, this is a departure for Walmart, which has reigned in retail for decades now thanks to its "always low prices" vow. That's a tough promise to keep when you're offering what in retail amounts to a premium service: having store workers pick out, pack up and deliver groceries, either to a staging area for in-store pickup or (even more expensive) to a customer's front door.

While he didn't walk away from Walmart's price leadership, Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs himself, speaking earlier this month at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference, acknowledged a shift toward offering more convenience.

"If you look at the last few months, there's probably a little bit of an argument that can be made that people got a little less price conscious, which is somewhat counterintuitive, but with all of the stimulus dollars that were going through the economy, I think they got a little less price conscious, maybe a little more convenience focused, and we have that convenience factor," he said, according to a transcript provided by Walmart. "Price is going to matter forever, as far as I believe, and so I feel good about our position."

Grocery margins are razor thin even without performing all the picking, packing and delivery duties normally completed by the customer, and that's where subscriptions come in. By UBS analysts' measure, Walmart+ stands to render some $150 million in subscription fees each year for every 1% of its regular weekly shoppers who sign up.

"Walmart never scales these things until one or two conditions are true — one, they're confident they can operate at a lower cost than competitors, and two, they need to do it," Anderson said. "I think they've been convinced that if they don't have an offset to their delivery costs they're going to be left behind."

Flipping the Walmart script

Walmart+ might appeal to grocery shoppers while protecting Walmart's bottom line, but it's not clear how it jibes with Walmart's traditional pitch to the U.S. consumer.

In the past, the retail giant has emphasized that it doesn't take a membership to shop there, online or in store. Three years ago it scrapped a $49 annual subscription and issued refunds, saying that two-day shipping should be available without a yearly fee. Last year, the retailer sped things up to a day in some areas and on some items after Amazon declared that would be its new normal for Prime customers, but again Walmart declined to charge for it. (Walmart's free shipping, like Amazon's non-Prime free shipping, does require order minimums.)

Walmart+ reintroduces not only yearly fees, but also the exclusivity attached to them. More, the program's Scan & Go feature brings it into the store for the first time, Anderson noted.

"I do just question how the Walmart shopper is going to perceive the idea that they've got to pay for the privilege of shopping this way," he said of Scan & Go. "It sounds like the antithesis of Walmart. I've noticed Amazon trying to deemphasize Prime in some ways, too, and now we see Walmart introducing Walmart+. I have the sense that in a year or so they're both going to retreat to their corners. Otherwise, they risk diluting what makes them each compelling."

#walmart+#amazon #fashion blog #streetwear blog #music blog #Scan & Go

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beautyproductsonlineqllj807-blog · 4 years

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The smart Trick of Essential Oils That Nobody is Talking About

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Few ingredients are made use of as-is from nature. "Natural" doesn't always imply much healthier: Some all-natural materials can also be unsafe. You see the Ecocert Natural Aesthetic stamp, which verifies that a minimum of half the components are plant-based. "Organic" The item's ingredients and formula are produced without dangerous pesticides. This is the only government-regulated term in the "tidy" elegance space.

"Normally Derived" Natural ingredients in a product have actually gone through some chemical handling. When you see this term or a similar one like "natural origin" or "made with all-natural https://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/?query=natural cosmetics active ingredients," search for a qualifier that suggests what percentage of ingredients it puts on. The item lugs the Excellent House Cleaning Seal, given that the Good Housekeeping Institute Labs verify all product insurance claims.

Not all chemicals are produced equal; plus, every component (all-natural or artificial) is made up of chemicals. They are also component of human biology!The insurance claim is ingredient-specific, as in "paraben-free," and the product has gained the Excellent Housekeeping Seal (we acquire data to confirm all active ingredient insurance claims). "Harmless" A product is not more info hazardous to humans.

Unknown Facts About Anti-aging Beauty Products

Practically anything, also drinking water, can be harmful in big quantities. Never ever, considering that it can not be confirmed or disproven. "Green" or "Sustainable" Products are created with very little existing and also future environmental effect. This wide term covers everything from what's in a product to how it's made, packaged, dispersed and also thrown away.

The GH Charm Lab's leading ideas on making genuinely all-natural and lasting tidy beauty choices: For a much deeper study active ingredients, the Charm Lab advises speaking with resources like the Ensured Danger Checklist and also the Ecological Working Team Skin Deep database. Both nonprofits intend to gather the most recent scientific research on ingredients as well as offer referrals for safety-certified items across categories.

Even fragrance from natural resources can create reactions. Plus, brands aren't required to note the active ingredients in "fragrance" on labels, so in a lot of cases there's no chance to recognize what remains in those items. The even more very little the packaging, the much better for the planet. Whenever possible, look for out items with fewer elements and without parts or materials that can not be reused (purpose for codes 1 as well as 2) as well as unneeded elements like outer boxes.

The smart Trick of Natural Pharmacy That Nobody is Talking About

Seek out appeal brands that give away a part of their profits or make a payment to environmental causes. Appeal Supervisor April Franzino is the Charm Director at Good House cleaning, component of the Hearst Women's Lifestyle Charm Team. Director, Health, Beauty & Environmental Sciences Laboratory Birnur Aral is the supervisor of the Health and wellness, Beauty & Environmental Sciences Lab at the Good House Cleaning Institute, where she manages all Lab tests and also applications for the Good Housekeeping Seal, the Environment-friendly Good Home Cleaning Seal as well as the GH Development symbol.

When you're searching for makeup that looks fantastic and is good for you and the setting, you desire the real bargain. In the past, it was nearly impossible to find lively, gorgeous makeup that was sustainably made and sourced. Luckily, the charm market has actually come a lengthy means. Today, there are dozens of aesthetic companies that are supplying green and clean cosmetics.

That's why we placed together this list of the leading natural makeup brand names that are on the marketplace today. RMS Beauty surpasses simple 'natural' status. This is why they have actually committed to a greater requirement than the USDA's natural accreditation. They refuse all refined, bleached, and also deodorized products (all of which the USDA allows).

Everything about Natural Pharmacy Online

This means that all of their products are devoid of silicone, paraben chemicals, and also other chemical layers. They additionally position a high worth on plant products like coconut oil, cocoa butter, rosemary extract, as well as similar components. You can discover a listing of each of their beauty ingredients (along with it's organic/wildcrafted status) on their 'Concerning Us' web page.

Top Guidelines Of Organic Cosmetics

Their lines of face, lip, and also eye make-up is exceptional in its sustainability in elegance. W3ll People was founded by a team including an a-list cosmetics professional, a board-certified skin specialist, and also an advertising and marketing planner who had functioned for Lot of money 500 firms like Whole Foods. Together, they have produced a line of makeup that is inexpensive, socially responsible, and attractive.

By concentrating on organic, plant-based items like aloe, chamomile, and green tea, W3ll Individuals has had the ability to produce makeups that hydrate as well as relieve the skin while covering imperfections and adding highlights. Gabriel De Santino started his eponymous business in 1992 when the organic elegance market was still a baby.

9 Simple Techniques For Cosmetic Products

When he obtained older, he took the lessons he learned as a child and included them into his line of natural, vegan, and gluten-free skincare as well as cosmetics. And the dedication to environment-friendly practices does not end with Gabriel Cosmetic's usage of natural and organic products. They also have numerous programs that are developed for sustainability, consisting of a reusing program that allows clients to return five Gabriel Cosmetic containers for a free lipstick, in addition to the ability to replenish powder compacts.

Patronize Gabriel Cosmetics with Providing Assistant as well as aid donate. Among Elate's taglines is "Gorgeously green." But it's more than a tagline, it's a dedication that they have actually made to produce face, eyes, and lip make-up that is lovely, healthy for your skin, as well as eco-friendly. They have a variety of programs in area to increase transparency and also sustainability.

So, you can find dented and damaged items that are secure to use and also much less pricey. This is just one of the methods that they are functioning to decrease waste as well as increase sustainability. And since all products are produced with ingredients that are 100% vegan and also cruelty-free in addition to 75% organic, you can be positive that you're obtaining a high quality, wholesome item when you acquire from Elate.

Excitement About Aromatic Oils

This led her to gather a group of California-based skin care specialists that would take place to located Juice charm, as well as acclaimed skincare as well as makeup firm that offers USDA certified organic products utilizing lasting manufacturing processes. Their goal is easy: to develop high-performance, high-grade skincare and also make-up that heals the skin as it boosts.

Patronize Juice Charm through Offering Assistant and assist contribute. There are a variety of qualifications that you must be on the lookout for as you make your cosmetic selections. Among one of the most sought after is the USDA organic qualification that takes place products that are developed making use of high requirements and from organic active ingredients.

The word 'natural' doesn't need any type of common or accreditation to be put in make-up advertising and marketing. As long as it consists of plant or animal results, it can be thought about 'natural.' Over 80% of what you place on your skin is taken in right into your body. When you cover your face with toxic chemicals and artificial additives, you are threatening your long-term health as well as beauty.

Unknown Facts About Organic Cosmetics

Fortunately, an increasing number of business are taking notice. And also this means that there are growing alternatives for females that want to locate makeup that will certainly cover blemishes and also boost their all-natural charm while being lasting, healthy, and also cost effective. As well as though we've only been able to highlight five of these companies, there are lots of others available that are committed to the very same methods as well as standards as those pointed out over.

You merely can not go incorrect when you buy makeup from a company that's committed to honest techniques, sustainability, natural ingredients, and also premium quality. And also if they're inexpensive, well that's simply crowning achievement.

Browsing the globe of natural makeup items is difficult due to the fact that there's no trusted GPS. Lots of brands put words like "tidy," "all-natural," and also "non-toxic" onto their item labels, but due to the fact that they're not controlled by the FDA, those terms can in some cases be useless. Terrifying, huh? However the truth is not every organic makeup brand or item is a fraud.

Beauty Products Things To Know Before You Get This

While brands are starting to get even more in advance regarding their solutions and also how they resource stated active ingredients, there's also on-line sources that to help you out, too. The Environmental Working Team (EWG), for example, has a substantial database where you can search by brand or item to discover if it contains possibly dangerous ingredients.

If all of this info still seems overwhelming, we comprehend. So we have actually done the research for you and also abided the 11 of the very best organic makeup brand names, in addition to which item to try from the line. From highlighter to lipstick, keep scrolling for the finest natural, tidy, and non-toxic makeup brands and items of 2019.

Rather, it makes use of raw, food-grade, natural ingredients consisting of coconut oil, anti-oxidants and enzymes. While RMS Beauty may leave a bunch of common makeup active ingredients out of its products, they don't skimp on color repay. The brand's Un Cover-Up Concealer/Foundation is a cult-favorite, and the Living Luminizer transformed highlighters permanently.

The Main Principles Of Beauty Products

It comes in 5 various shades that fit a variety of complexion. $38; sephora.com Started by Los Angeles-based musician as well as chemist Sheena Yaitanes in 2015, Kosas' items are developed with prestige, high-performing botanical active ingredients that both execute as well as supply skincare benefits. With ingenious items like the 10 2nd Fluid Eyeshadow which is meant to be swiped on with your fingertip the brand name makes using make-up a little less complicated with every launch.

Part face oil, part structure, the brand name's very first complexion item is unlike any kind of colored cream or alphabet cream you've tried before. As opposed to sitting on top of your skin like numerous oils, it absorbs right into skin, supplying intense hydration. It offers light, your-skin-but-better insurance coverage, plus it boosts the look of pores and also structure.

Now, you can find the line at your neighborhood Target as well as clean beauty retailers like Goop. W3LL People's Expressionist Mascara is probably its standout product. While mascara can be infamously challenging to create without harmful components, this set coats lashes with mineral pigment for added size, quantity, as well as definition. The result? dark, long, fluttery lashes that don't smear or run.

How Beauty Products can Save You Time, Stress, and Money.

$22; goop.com Organic components and hydrating, antioxidant-packed bases are the MO of this tidy beauty brand. In addition to shade cosmetics items, Vapour Appeal also makes cruelty-free synthetic makeup brushes and natural deodorant. The Soft Focus Structure is a light-weight, buildable formula that goes on streak-free for an all-natural finish. Easy to mix, it can be layered to accumulate protection.

$54; credobeauty.com The appeal sector has a sustainability problem, yet brand names like Kjaer Weis are leading the anti-waste activity with premium, long-wear makeup packaged in recyclable containers. When you hit the bottom of your favorite item, you can restock it with refills that can be acquired independently at half the rate of the original item.

The Kjaer Weis' lipstick is made with a blend of beeswax, jojoba and wonderful almond oils to slide on flawlessly, leaving the lips really feeling ultra-nourished. With shades ranging from tawny nude to traditional cherry red, there's a shade alternative for each lipstick ambiance. $56; neimanmarcus.com When Jane Iredale released her name mineral-based makeup brand name in 1994, the idea of blending makeup as well as skin care was cutting edge.

Anti-aging Beauty Products Can Be Fun For Everyone

While her brand's Outstanding Base mineral powder foundation persuaded people to give tidy, natural products an opportunity, the entire line is filled up with all-natural alternatives to the products in your present routine and trending ones like lash lotions. The PureLash Lash Extender & Conditioner work as a guide for your mascara, but additionally problems lashes to reinforce and also enlarge them over time. b) We may share accumulation, confidential or summary information concerning our customers and also their habits with companions, marketers or other 3rd parties. This data is not personal details therefore will certainly not identify you directly. We may share details with business that give support solutions to us, such as a printer, mailing home, fulfillment-company, bank card processor, email solution carrier or web host, amongst others.

Nevertheless, these events might not make use of any type of personal info we share with them regarding you for any kind of various other purpose other than in connection with doing supporting functions for us. You have the right at any kind of time to avoid us from contacting you for advertising and marketing purposes. If as well as when we send out a promotional interaction to a user, the customer can pull out of additional promotional interactions by complying with the unsubscribe instructions offered in each promotional email.

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Indicators on Anti-aging Beauty Products You Should Know

This is to protect your personal privacy and also defense. We do not utilize and also can not access this information. Eluxe Publication is 100% opposed to unrequested business email (" spam"). We do not have any type of desire to send unrequested marketing e-mails to any person without approval and also we do not sell or offer customer email addresses to any type of unauthorised 3rd party in infraction of this Plan.

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The Main Principles Of Raw Materials For Cosmetics

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On this page: Review VAC Operation Hours Areas The U.S. Consular Office or Consulate as well as Visa Application Centers observe both U.S. and also India holidays and will be shut on those days. The visa application telephone call center solutions will just be closed on Saturdays, Christmas, New Years, Holi and Diwali, Republic Day, Self-reliance Day and also Gandhi Jayanti.

to 05:00 p.m. Sunday-- 01:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. Entry of Decline Box visa application/ 221( g) application Monday to Friday-- 10:00 a.m. to 04:00 p.m. Ticket Collection Monday to Friday-- 10:00 a.m. to 04:00 p.m. and also Sunday 01:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. To view Visa Application Facility places, click on this link.

On this web page: Please confirm whether you require to request a visa. You may not require to apply for a new U.S. visa if you already hold a valid U.S. visa of the classification proper to your purpose of traveling, or hold a ticket eligible for traveling under the Visa Waiver Program , or if you hold a Canadian passport.

Keep in mind: Children applying prior to their 14th Birthday celebration or applicants using on/after their 80th Birthday or if you formerly received a UNITED STATE visa that ran out within the last year as well as you are returning to the USA for the exact same objective of travel, you may be able to obtain a visa without concerning the consular office for a meeting.

The Ultimate Guide To Visa Application

Each visa kind discusses the certifications as well as application items. Select the visa type that relates to your circumstance. Make sure to also assess the Visa Waiver Program . If your country takes part in the Visa Waiver Program, you do not need to obtain a visa if you are taking a trip for business or enjoyment and will only be staying in the Unites States for 90 days or much less.

All details has to be correct and exact. As soon as the kind is sent, you can not make any changes. If you require help, please speak with an immigration lawyer or translator. The phone call facility can not assist you finish your

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captain-fiza-khan-123-stuff · 4 years

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CIGARETTE CASE ONLINE IN PAKISTAN AMAZON CIGARETTE CASE ONLINE IN LAHORE

BRANDED CIGARETTE CASE ONLINE IN PAKISTAN

This is the incredible preliminary of the electronic cigarette: the United States as of now records 6 dead and in excess of 400 individuals with genuine aspiratory pathologies credited to the electronic cigarette , Donald Trump needs to suspend the offer of enhanced electronic cigarettes which are extremely popular in American secondary schools, the city of San Francisco has just restricted the offer of e-cigarettes on its region . Such a lot of adding to the WHO , passing judgment on last July the electronic cigarette "without a doubt destructive" .

In France , it is the MEP Michèle Rivasi ( Europe Ecology-The Greens) who has been bringing the tone up as of late, talking about "the most all out clean dubiousness". She calls to apply the preparatory standard on vaping and solicitations the modification of the tobacco mandate of the European Union ... This preliminary of the electronic cigarette lately is it advocated? Is it so hazardous? The general wellbeing teacher Gérard Dubois, individual from the Academy of Medicine and co-creator of the 2015 report on electronic cigarettes for the last mentioned, addressed inquiries from Le Point .

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Le Point : Should we be careful about electronic cigarettes?

Gérard Dubois: Everyone concurs on the rule that the best cigarette is the one we don't smoke, electronic or not so far as that is concerned. Be that as it may, concerning the tobacco smoker, the inquiry isn't talked about! It is smarter to vape than to smoke cigarettes. When asked, is electronic cigarette less perilous than tobacco? The appropriate response is officially yes. Does the electronic cigarette help to stop smoking? We have an ever increasing number of genuine examinations that affirm it, and even, just like the case for one of them, randomized, distributed in the intense New England Journal of Medicine , demonstrating that the electronic cigarette further advances

In the United States, vaping is by all accounts in a tight spot…

We are in complete disarray today. You need to comprehend the unique situation and not blend everything. There is this abrupt pandemic of pneumonic pathologies influencing in excess of 400 individuals with two passings in two months, which happens over the Atlantic and which is ascribed to electronic cigarettes. A plague which goes ahead top of a subsequent occasion dating from last July: when the WHO utilizes grievous wording while portraying the electronic cigarette as

EBAY CIGARETTE CASE ONLINE IN LAHORE

"incontestably unsafe", in the determinations of a report on tobacco, made by Americans for the WHO and expected to investigate questions about the electronic cigarette. Starting at July, it was the whole calling, over 80% of tobacco authorities, who were facing these assertions by the WHO.

It was before the pandemic…

Furthermore, the pandemic doesn't transform anything. Today, nobody comprehends this situation of WHO more. Be that as it may, right now, it seems as though this pandemic has fortified this bogus thought of "undoubtedly unsafe". Furthermore, to pose the inquiry if at last we need a world without tobacco to stay away from the dead or on the off chance that we truly need a world without nicotine? Add to this the colossal media inclusion of the passings wrongly credited to the electronic cigarette, the unseemly places of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, Editor's note), and even President Trump and his significant other are getting into it.

Peruse additionally Electronic cigarettes and puritans

Isn't electronic cigarettes truly to no end?

The electronic cigarette has been available since 2010, so we despite everything have a couple of long stretches of decrease. Abruptly, appearing to appear suddenly, seemed a scourge of 400 instances of genuine pneumonic inclusion with 6 passings. The pandemic was severe and confined. I am a piece of a worldwide tobacco control collusion. When the plague broke out in the United States, an alarm was given to rapidly distinguish comparative cases somewhere else on the planet. For the occasion, there is still none. No big surprise, since the primary examinations immediately indicated that, in over 80% of cases, debilitated individuals in the United States occupied the utilization of their electronic cigarette to place in slick items containing THC (the dynamic cannabis atom). Electronic cigarettes are not planned for the burning of sleek substances which will slaughter the lungs. It must be clear: no lawful item is engaged with this American pandemic, none.

The electronic cigarette along these lines stays a smart thought to quit smoking?

From the main claimed passing from the electronic cigarette, he was at that point in the features. In any case, that equivalent day, 1,500 different smokers kicked the bucket from tobacco in the United States, 22,000 around the world! Not a line. Thus, truly, the electronic cigarette stays a smart thought. In the event that you take a gander at its history, it was not made by specialists or the pharmaceutical business. It was made by a Chinese resident after the passing of his dad from lung malignancy. The electronic cigarette is the product of a virtuoso hack beginning from a basic perception: what executes in tobacco? Consuming tobacco produces carbon monoxide (respiratory failure) and tar (malignancy). What makes you dependent? Nicotine. So the thought was to make an item that smokes like tobacco, however without the risky substances. To lay it out plainly, in an electronic cigarette, there is nicotine, blended in with a non-poisonous fluid. When the fluid is warmed, its fumes transport nicotine by inward breath.

Are these fluids hazardous?

The two principle fluids utilized are glycerin and propylene glycol. It is an across the board item, since it is a similar one which is utilized to make mist in the displays or to smoke the move floors in the dance club. On the off chance that it was a profoundly perilous item, we would have thought about it for quite a while.

On paper, does the electronic cigarette have everything to be a powerful nicotine substitution?

To be powerful by and large and get individuals out of smoking, a nicotine substitution must win smokers' kindness. The fix is powerful yet on the off chance that couple of individuals use it, it is of little use all in all. The electronic cigarette was made by smokers for smokers and that is the reason it is progressively appealing to them.

So truly, it is a viable substitute, much the same as the stamps that we stick on the skin or the gums that we bite. The enormous contrast is that gums and fixes are tried pharmaceutical items that can even be suggested for pregnant ladies, which isn't the situation with the electronic cigarette which isn't a medication. It is a purchaser item, which doesn't imply that it ought not be managed.

AMAZON CIGARETTE CASE ONLINE IN ISLAMABAD

As of its promoting, in any case, effectively incredible inquiries regarding its perils ...

At the point when the electronic cigarette showed up available, the underlying feelings of dread identified with its specialized security. It is an item that is warmed with opposition. It was significant not to detonate in the face or in the hand of the customer. On this side, in France, there is never again any dread to be had, the items are controlled. Along these lines, this security issue aside, we end up with an electronic gadget and a fluid base to fill it, without threat. Then again, actually at that point, we began to include smells, sweet tastes to satisfy the taste buds…

The unavoidable issue with an item so natural to get to: isn't the electronic cigarette going to be a passage to smoking, particularly among youngsters as stressed by the Americans?

Unmistakably, in the United States, they are completely option to think about the subject. Juul has become the pioneer, with 70% of the piece of the pie, with adorable, decent electronic cigarettes, which resemble USB keys, which produce little smoke, yet particularly with fluids thinking exceptionally high portions of nicotine, as there is none in France. All things considered, indeed, with this sort of item, youngsters start to be caught in the US and by nicotine, at that point by tobacco.

Also, in France ?

The worry is situated in the United States, yet not here, in light of the fact that we have directed from the beginning, we have foreseen. Recall that the deal to minors of this sort of item is disallowed, which cutoff points get to. Moreover, on the off chance that one youngster in two who attempts a tobacco cigarette turns into a smoker, it is just a single youngster in six with the electronic cigarette. This is the motivation behind why an investigation by Professor Dautzenberg shows that the general utilization of nicotine among youngsters, all confounded - electronic cigarettes and tobacco - is diminishing. Along these lines, most importantly, don't relinquish bogus thoughts in the present media setting. What's more, Public Health France shows that at any rate 700,000 smokers have stopped utilizing the electronic cigarette. The pestilence, which doesn't has nothing to do with the electronic cigarette yet for a redirected use, reminds the Americans that they have pretty much nothing or not managed its utilization and everybody awakens mercilessly: it is important to direct here, it is important to deny there… which doesn't neglect to remorselessly review the present American narcotic emergency. They are casualties of their administrative laxity, a limited approach not at all like that did here, in England and in Canada.

What would it be a good idea for us to state to the individuals who need to boycott it?

Restricting the electronic cigarette would be all out babble! It seems as though we needed to boycott the assembling of glasses, since somebody kicked the bucket while drinking white soul from a glass. Or on the other hand once more, profit to the boycott for the offer of syringes to forestall medicate infusions, an approach relinquished for a long time! It's something very similar ! In France, there is a gadget method check, a rundown of substances approved in top off items, and nicotine fixation limits, which don't exist in the United States.

Everything appears to drive you crazy…

What is sensational, flighty and unsafe in this disarray is that between the WHO proclamations, the FDA positions, the Trump explanations and this mislabeled pandemic, individuals who were going to go to e-cigarettes rather than tobacco will dither. More terrible, some will stop the electronic cigarette and come back to tobacco which will slaughter them! We will have a large number of passings on account of this scene. Tobacco executes half of its unwavering shoppers, tobacco is the most exceedingly awful item, the most perilous over-the-counter item! You should not make

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wellnessroutines · 7 years

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Green Smoothie Recipes for Weight Loss

I have actually constantly actually enjoyed smoothies. They're fresh, pleasant, and loaded with ingredients that assist gas and detox your body. Certainly, there are some smoothie mixes that typically aren't so healthy. You understand, the ones made with sugar laden juices, chocolate syrup, or non-organic peanut butter, but when you're mindful to just what enters into your healthy smoothies they can be a terrific resource of power and cleansing. This is particularly real for eco-friendly smoothie dishes! Over the previous few years, eco-friendly smoothies have exploded in appeal due to their remarkable purifying and also health and wellness advantages, and also yes, there is real fact behind the green smoothie mix madness!

I prefer to have an eco-friendly smoothie AT LEAST once a week, but as soon as a day is preferable. It's a fast method to load up on your greens without needing to devour broccoli and kale at the dinner table every evening. The majority of us do not eat virtually as lots of eco-friendlies as we should, and smoothie mixes are a fantastic way to correct this on the go. You could also blend up a set at the beginning of the week to store in the fridge. The blend will certainly last you for a couple of days, and it's so very easy to bring with you before job or on the way to the gym!

Green smoothie mixes can additionally aid in weight management! Exactly how you ask? There are key eco-friendly active ingredients that detox your body, make you feel full, and all around promote a much healthier way of life. I'll damage them down for you below.

KALE

Kale has no fat and also is very reduced in calories, so right there you could see exactly how this leafy environment-friendly adds to weight loss. Merely one cup of kale is FILLED with vitamins A, C, K and also B6, along with manganese, calcium, potassium as well as even more! It's high in fiber as well as packs a mean antioxidant punch with beta-carotene, vitamin C and flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol, which are super-nutrients!

SPINACH

You can alternate kale as well as spinach in your healthy smoothies if you prefer one over the various other, or just really feel like something brand-new from day to day! The nutrients you get from spinach are quite similar to kale - iron, magnesium, calcium, as well as bunches of vitamins and anti-oxidants, plus it's very reduced in calories. It has additionally been discovered that spinach aids curb yearnings for sugary foods, treats, and also other undesirable foods. Curbing these yearnings will certainly ensure you're not loading on the pounds as a result of those fatty eats.

MATCHA

I worked at a tea store for two years as well as it was among our most significant vendors because of its health advantages and weight-loss buildings. A tsp of matcha boosts your power just as high as a mug coffee(!), as well as is packed with anti-oxidants. It additionally speeds up your metabolic rate as well as really purges your system for a healthy and balanced detoxification. Merely include a scoop to your favourite smoothie recipe in the early morning as well as reap all the feel-good benefits!

AVOCADO

Avocado is chock-full of nutrients, minerals and vitamins, as well as the kind of fat located in the environment-friendly fruit (mono-unsaturated fat) is actually important for weight-loss. Not only that, however it's one of the ideal appetite removers around! It also helps control your sugar metabolic process due to the fact that of its high vitamin K content. Adding an avocado to your smoothie is among the very best things you can do pre-workout, as it majorly improves your energy and also maintains your metabolic process revved also after you have actually finished your fitness center sesh.

I additionally have a couple of pointers of my very own for active ingredients that will certainly take your eco-friendly smoothies up a notch in regards to weight loss.

PROTEIN POWDER

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CHIA SEEDS

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5. Spinach and also Green Tea Smoothie (Healing Smoothies)

6. Eco-friendly Warrior Healthy protein Smoothie (Oh She Glows)

7. Minty Melon Smoothie (Simply Quinoa)

8. Avocado Coconut Shake Shake (Chew Out Loud)

9. Green Detox Smoothie (Gimme Some Oven)

10. Spinach and also Lemongrass Smoothie (Kitchen Corners)

11. Avocado as well as Broccoli Smoothie (A Tasty Love Story)

12. Banana, Pear, Avocado and Hempseed Smoothie (The Full Helping

13. Green Orange Dreamsicle Smoothie (Oh My Veggies)

14. Cucumber, Parsley as well as Ginger Smoothie (Mamabee)

15. Popeye Green Smoothie (Healthy Living Ideas)

16. Banana Peach Green Smoothie (A Simple Pantry)

17. Metabolism-Boosting Smoothie (Pop Sugar)

18. Strawberry Pomegranate Eco-friendly Smoothie (3 Boys Unprocessed)

19. Green Ginger Apple Smoothie (RawAyurveda)

20. Detoxstar (Prevention)

21. Avocado, Spinach and Coconut Smoothie (Women’s Health)

22. Citrus Crush Smoothie (Simple Green Smoothies)

23. Peach and also Fresh Pineapple Eco-friendly Smoothie (The Café Sucre Farine)

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25. Apple Kiwi Green Smoothie (Simply Whisked)

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bethgreeneishopeunseen · 7 years

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Interview Inconsistencies & Strangeness

Emily and the other walking dead actors may be amazing actors, but no one is a perfect liar. Over the last two-and-a-half years they have given off subtle clues in their speech and behavior patterns, specifically in relation to Beth. For ease of research and to stress how suspicious the whole Beth conspiracy is, I gathered all the suspicious interviews and articles that I could find, as well as any metas on them that I had in my archives. This compilation isn’t just my efforts, but all of the efforts of Team Delusional, as you all helped to provide the evidence. I would also like to give a special thanks to @fioredi for her help in finding some interviews.

If there are any interviews that you think are suspicious, please reblog them with the relevant quote/time mark and the source/link.

Present Tense:

In early October of 2014, Emily was on the podcast, EW Morning Live, with Dalton Ross. (It was likely recorded in September, after she would have finished filming.) She was giggly, referred to the show in the present tense, and even mentioned buying furniture for her apartment. When she was asked if she was going back to Atlanta, she quickly said, “I will be,” as if she had let something slip. (X).

Under the Radar: “Well, obviously, we're not all filming all the time. It depends on scenes and episodes and stuff, so I know I'm going to have some time to still fit in some stuff. But it's funny how this has become a home base for me, because when I'm here I'm focused on just working on one thing, and it's quieter. I'm usually not trying to fit a million things into one day. As much as the show is not a calm show, there's something really nice and calm about being in Georgia. It's a great atmosphere. Now it's beginning to feel more like a home, because this is my fourth year on the show. It's very familiar here. I'm sure the season is going to be amazing, and it's great to be around my family. During the break, we all go off and do our own things. I'm doing my music, and Norman does his photography. But it's always good to be back. It's such a supportive group.” (X) (X). (October 7th, 2014.)

Emily gave this interview probably within two months of it being released. She moved to Atlanta during season 3 (X at 46:13), and she’s had her Georgia apartment going back to summer 2013 (X), and the “now” is pointed. She felt like Georgia was home during 5b, because she spent most of the fall filming in secret, and because of this arc, she knew Beth would be one of the last characters standing.

On Coda’s Talking Dead, they showed a clip from set of Norman talking about filming the episode: “That was a really crazy day, because I really like Emily and I like that character.” (X) (X). (0:15). (November 30th, 2014).

FML 949: “It’s hard for me sometimes to separate, ya know like oh if I was just watching the show, like as far as making the show is so much…was so much a part of my like everyday life…” (X) (X) (June 11th, 2015). *audio removed*

Jefferson Public Radio (JPR): When asked what it’s like to pretend to kill people, she said, “Yeah, well we do a lot of…you know we have a lot of, um…there’s stunt coordinators and stuff like that on set, so there’s some choreography involved and also there’s some, um, there’s some like (pause) uh, special effects that are involved too so sometimes you’re not actually stabbing the person in the head…” (X) (X). (June 11th, 2015).

SplashTV (at 1:10): “[The Walking Dead] is so protective of anyone finding out anything that we have fake names. [...] My fake name was Mariah.” (X). (August 9th, 2015).

TPTB likely changed Emily’s call name after season 5 as a further security measure.

Spoiler Alert: “[Masters of Sex is] [v]ery different from Walking Dead,” Kinney said. “To me that definately appealed to me. I loved working on Walking Dead but I sort of liked the idea to of going to work and, like, people not getting shot in the throat. To me I welcomed the break of not necessarily exploring people getting torn apart but instead exploring relationships and sex and drama and people falling in love.” “This was a nice change of pace.” (X) (X). (7:14) (7:58). (August 17th, 2015).

Screener: “Now I’ve watched all of [Masters of Sex] and I really like the show. It’s really fun to do something that’s about relationships and families and [being] sexy. It’s a nice break from “The Walking Dead,” which, of course, was a lot of death and destruction. It’s fun to have scenes of just talking things out. That’s really fun for me.” (X) (X). (August 30th, 2015).

Emily spent most of The Walking Dead Food Special discussing the show, specifically in the present tense. She didn’t talk about her current projects until the end. (X) (X) (X) (X). (October 6th, 2015).

Julia Stoepel: “today i happened to run into emily kinney who is beth on #thewalkingdead and i am her german voice.” (X) (X). (October 31st, 2015).

(X) (evidence of her speaking English well, meaning that the quote above wasn’t just a grammatical mistake).

Hallmark Channel (at 0:27): “Is there a big difference in playing the two? Emily Kinney: They’re definitely very different projects. [...] For Walking Dead you know I show up to set and they just get me dirty and bloody and then I show up to set for Love On the Sidelines and I get to be pretty.” (X) (X) (X). (January 13th, 2016).

At her HelloGiggles interview, Emily refers to the show in present tense and as “we” when discussing the differences between TWD and Conviction when it comes to getting ready. This makes sense as we’ve theorized that she filmed for both TWD and Conviction, so she would constantly be going back and forth. She’s made similar comments about hair and make-up when talking about Masters of Sex and Love On the Sidelines. By the time of this interview, she had been off the show for two years and done multiple projects, so she had adjusted to non-horror costuming, but she hasn’t. (X). (3:20). (August 30th, 2016)

For her interview on Intrepid Broadcasting, she uses the present tense and hedges when talking about filming Beth’s death, using “umm” a lot. (X) (X). (7:38). (November 16th, 2016).

Your Morning Show: “I love being on the show” when talking about TWD. (X) (November 1st, 2016).

A fan met Emily and told her that, “Beth and Daryl sure were a match”, and Emily agreed. “They sure are.” (X). (November 2016).

Newschannel 20: “I’m so thankful to be a part of something that had such a big audience. And umm, I learned a lot. It was a big chunk of my life. It was like four years, working on that show. I learned a lot. I think I became a better actor, working with the people I got to work with. So yeah it was a good time.” (X). (June 9th, 2017).

Emily’s two primary social media accounts, Instagram and Twitter, reference her role as Beth in the present tense. On December 18th, 2014, she took “Beth on The Walking Dead” off her Twitter bio but added it back hours later. Then in late 2015, her Instagram hacked and her bio was changed. She had to fix her bio, and could have updated it, but she put Beth back. (X) (X).

Edited 7/22/2017 to add: Once on Twitter she replied to a follower about her bio being changed, explaining that her manager did it. Her manager will sometimes change things or sometimes tweet information. She kept Beth in because she liked it (X).

Interview Anxiety:

Lauren Cohan and Scott Gimple were asked about Maggie’s relationship to Beth. Lauren joked that the Greene sisters were texting the whole time, and Gimple mentioned radios before cutting himself off, as if it were a spoiler. “Yeah, there are radio waves that are still…[hesitates and cuts himself off] Okay, we just won’t get into that.” (X) (X). (July 30th, 2014).

When talking about Beth’s “death” after Coda immediately aired, the cast and crew all exhibited traits associated with lying. Emily probably did the most, who was on Talking Dead at the time. (X). (November 30th, 2014).

BTS of Coda (Andrew Lincoln): “I said to Emily, “You’re so fricking good. People adore you. Which is why you're worthy of this death.”” *fidgeted and didn’t look directly at the camera* (X) (X) (2:40). (November 30th, 2014).

Access Hollywood: “They brought Scott back. If they came to you and asked you to do some sort of flashback, or dream sequence, do you feel like you’re done, or would you be happy to say yes, provided you aren’t busy touring [with your music]? Emily: Yeah, it would just depend on my schedule, but of course I would. I mean, I love being on set, I love working. Of course I would. I love working.” Repetitious, which is a sign of lying. (X). (December 3rd, 2014).

When asked about bringing dead characters back for 5x09, Greg Nicotero’s tone and body language changed when talking about Beth/Emily. Chad L. Coleman first had to remind Greg about bringing her back, and then Greg gave unnecessary detail about it. The detail also clashed with filming schedules and with what Emily mentioned at a concert about being brought back. (X). (February 8th, 2015).

While listing off the dead characters in 5x09, Chad L. Coleman conveniently forgot to mention Beth. (X). (February 8th, 2015).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY COMMUNITY: “What’s the experience been like, being killed off of a show? The fans were pretty upset about it. EMILY KINNEY: I would say now, I mean, it’s great. What’s really cool about this show is that even though I’m done working on it, there are conventions and people reaching out. It’s really exciting to see that fanbase, that they’re so interested in what I’m going to work on next. Obviously I miss working on the show. Right now a lot of the cast members are on hiatus anyway, but what’s cool is that working on that show, I made these really amazing friendships. When I do these conventions, I get to see all these friends again. So even though I’m not working on the show anymore, I still feel really connected. It’s also one of those shows that people will watch later—you know, binge-watch. So I constantly have people tweeting at me or contacting me saying, “I just started watching this show” or “I just finished season four.” So even though I’m done working on it, it’s kind of one of those shows that keeps generating more fans, and it’s something that will always be a big part of my life.” Repetitious, which is a sign of lying. (X) (X) (X). (February 23rd, 2015).

While on River 105.9, at 5:54 the hosts asked Emily if it would be possible that Beth would return as a flashback or hallucination. Emily struggled with a response before diverting the conversation to her other acting projects like The Flash. She never actually answers the question. (X) (X) (X). (February 23rd, 2015).

At 5:25, Emily also mentions that her album, This is War, would come out the first week of May. This makes sense, as albums usually come out before an artist goes on tour. Instead, Emily pushed up her album release date to early October, after she had done most of her shows.

On Good Morning America, leading up to the season 5 finale, Norman licked his lips and looked excited yet cautious when asked about romance. As we all know, Bethyl is the only romance for Daryl (X) (X), so that’s what Norman would be excited about. Which is only possible if he knows that Beth is coming back. At 3:28 in the interview, he participated in a trivia game with the host. He got everyone question except which death nearly broke the Internet that season. He said Emily instead of Beth, also licking his lips before responding. (X) (X). (March 27th, 2015).

(photo credit @bethgreenewarriorprincess)

On Talking Dead, Seth Gilliam was asked about Boots’s identity, and his demeanor and body language changed. He stuttered and spoke strangely (X). (February 19th, 2017).

Greg Nicotero, Christian Serratos, and Norman Reedus all exuded anxiety, and Norman became very fidgety, when asked which dead character they would want to bring back. (X) (X). (March 3rd, 2017).

Newschannel 20: Repetitious, which is a sign of lying. (X). (June 9th, 2017).

Interview Absences:

Emily hasn’t done a panel in the United States since before Coda. It was even confirmed that at least once the network canceled one of her scheduled panels. (X).

During a Behind-The-Scenes video for 5x09, Emily was the only main actress not in the video. All of the actors in Tyreese’s hallucination, except Martin’s and Emily, were there. Interestingly, Emily posted a picture of her in a van, with faded scar make-up, at the time the bedroom scenes were being filmed. She likely filmed the bedroom scenes first and then left, to go film. (X) (X) (X). (February 8th, 2015).

Emily didn’t do any commentary for the season 5 DVDs. It was her last seasons, which included her own episode, yet nothing.

None of the Grady actors have done a panel, even though past communities like Terminus has, and there have been a limited amount of interviews.

During an AMA, Emily confirmed that she would be recording her version of Struggling Man. She promised to release information in the coming weeks, but she never did. (X). (October 15th, 2015).

Lack of Death:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “I know it’s tough for you guys off-screen, but what does the loss of Beth do to Rick and to the group moving forward on-screen?” Andrew Lincoln: [...] And yet again we’re in a desperate place and we’re in the middle of Atlanta that is overrun. We’re compromised, yet it’s one of these places where he has to step forward as a leader. There isn’t time to dwell on this. He has to keep pushing his troops forward. [...] I do have to say that losing Emily — it was so painful on so many levels. I adore the girl. I think she’s amazing. We lost the voice, her song. And after her having such a tremendous episode that she led in in episode 4 to not even get the chance… I mean, I had three or four seconds to act with her and then she was taken away. It’s just cruel, this job, man. It’s just cruel.” (X) (X) (X). (December 1st, 2014).

MTV News (Andrew Lincoln): “The interesting thing about the [Virginia] decision was it was the only physical way they could honor Beth. She’s dead and gone, and we can’t affect anything outside of that. One thing we can do is honor her wishes, and try to see if we can find Noah’s parents. I love that, when you realize the reasoning behind it was actually a softening, a tenderness, the humane side of Rick we haven’t seen for quite some time...[He had] very possibly a quite paternal feeling towards her.” Repetitious and overly-detailed, which are signs of lying. (X) (X). (February 3rd, 2015).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (Andrew Lincoln): “There are a lot of people grieving the loss of such an important person. There was so much hope invested in Beth and finding her, and then to have it ripped out of our grasp was unbearable for actors and for the story.” (X) (X) (February 6th, 2015.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “So, why was it Tyreese’s time to go? SCOTT M. GIMPLE: That question for any character is very difficult. You know, like, why was it Hershel’s time to go? Why was it Bob’s time to go? I mean, because there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to this stuff. I’ll say that it was his time to go in as much as that’s what the story dictates—not just in that moment, but for the future too, and the way the story turns off of these events.” (X) (X). (February 8th, 2015).

On 5x09′s Talking Dead, Greg Nicotero mentioned that “[The characters have] lost two people in the group,” either forgetting Bob or Beth’s death. Considering in the same episode he had to be reminded of Emily being brought back to set, I’m going with Beth (X). (February 8th, 2015).

Norman doesn’t refer to Beth as dead. For example, he describes “carrying [her]”, not her body. (X) (X). On Good Morning America, when asked which season 5 death caused an uproar, he said Emily. (X).

On the Talking Dead Fear Special, Chris Hardwick listed out the moral compasses, who always died, like Dale and Hershel. He left out Beth. (X) (October 4th, 2015).

News 4 Jax (at 1:03): “Once Beth left I felt like we had done a good job of you know really... filling out her character and like people got to know her.” (X) (X) (X) (X). (November 18th, 2015).

So in summary: People forget that Beth is dead.

Breaking the News:

During Scott Gimple’s tenure as showrunner, former cast members find about their characters’ deaths with some advanced notice. Later the cast and crew throw a death dinner. Everything related to Emily finding out and what happened afterwards stands out from the others.

“TVLINE: “How long have you known about Andrea’s death? Laurie: I didn’t get the official word until a few days before we began [shooting] the finale. It was a shock to everyone. It was never part of the original story docs for Season 3. And it was rather unexpected. That said, this is The Walking Dead. This show is not conventional by any means — and we know that as actors going in. So you roll with it. You show up, you do the best job you can, and you honor the storytelling. Overall, this has been an extraordinary experience and I just feel so blessed to have been a part of it.” At a con last summer: “Well I had an 8 year deal, I was supposed to be there until the end. I was supposed to end up with Rick. I was supposed to save Woodbury on a horse, and I was buying a house in Atlanta. I got the call at 10 o’ clock the night before, while I was shooting, from the show runner who is no longer a part of The Walking Dead, saying that they couldn’t write the episode and that he was killing my character. So we all got the script everybody on the set was sobbing. I felt like I got shot. None of it was supposed to happen the way it did.” (X). (March 31st, 2013).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “You mentioned you didn’t know yet when you were filming episode 5, so when and how did you get the news of your impending fate? SCOTT WILSON: Actually, I found out right after that episode, which was kind of ironic. And I kind of truthfully expected it after episode 403 when Hershel had this great speech about risking your life and what you’re risking it for. I had a suspicion then. And then when I read 405, that really confirmed my suspicion in a way, but I wasn’t officially told until after we were finished shooting 405. Did you plead with the producers for a stay of execution like Rick pleaded with the Governor? He called me into his office and I went in and talked to him. He explained to me that I was going. I said to him, “I think you’re making a big mistake, but it’s yours to make and I’m not going to try to talk you out of it.” Someone from the show was going to go. I would not want to be the one to make the decision that he had to make there. And I respect him for how he told me, and I am grateful for the scenes and episodes they gave me before they took me off. So, it’s all good.” (X). (December 2nd, 2013).

On Coda’s Talking Dead, Emily mentioned that she found out during filming for 5x07 (X). (November 30th, 2014).

TVLINE: “How long have you known that Beth was getting killed off? EMILY KINNEY: Since late August. I found out the day the script [for the episode] came out. Who told you? [Showrunner] Scott Gimple. Did you reach out to your co-stars for emotional support? I think the original plan was for everyone to get a call [before they read it in the script]. I know when Scott Wilson was killed off [in Season 4], everyone was called [ahead of time]. And I think Scott Gimple originally [planned to do] that because he had times set up to talk to everyone that day. [But] I know not everyone got called, because some people called me the next morning when they read the script. Like, Norman Reedus and Andy [Lincoln] didn’t get any kind of call or anything like that. [Editor’s note: A source close to the show maintains that Gimple, on set in Atlanta, contacted all cast members either in person or via phone within hours of his meeting with Kinney, well before the script was distributed.] Did Scott offer an explanation? He didn’t, really. I think the whole point is there is no rhyme or reason [to the deaths on the show]. It’s like real-life. Why does that person [die] as opposed to other people? We really don’t quite know why.” (X). (November 30th, 2014).

Emily meant late July, not August. 5x07 was filmed at the end of July and Coda at the beginning of August.

The Hollywood Reporter (THR): “When did you find out Beth was going to die? Emily Kinney: The day the script came out, during episode 507. I was really sad and shocked, I had no idea. I had a meeting with [showrunner] Scott Gimple and it was very sad. He didn't explain why [Beth was being killed off], but he said it was something he had been planning since season four. I was very upset. We both love working together and for whatever reason, that's how he saw the character going.” (X). (December 1st, 2014).

There was an interview that Emily met with Scott in his office, but I couldn’t find it. And actors meeting with Scott in his office is characteristic of main characters’ death. It’s consistent in past cast members’ interviews, so why would Emily mention it only once? Because it’s a lie, and it’s hard to keep the details of a lie straight the more times you tell it. (X).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “Tell me how and when you got the bad news. EMILY KINNEY: The season finale was episode 508 and I found out during 507. So I found out a few hours before they released the script to everyone. Showrunner Scott Gimple gave you the call? I actually talked to him in person. So did you go then tell your castmates or did they find out on their own? All I know is how I found out, which is that day a few hours before the script came out. So different people from the cast reached out to me after that and that was really nice.” (X) (December 1st, 2014).

The Daily Beast: “When did you first receive the news that Beth would be killed off? Emily Kinney: I found out during [Season 5, Episode 7], the day the script came out. I mean, I found out a few hours before the script went to everyone.” (X). (December 1st, 2014).

Us Weekly: “How did the showrunners let you know about Beth's death? Emily Kinney: I found out the day that the script came out. They came to me and told me before everyone else in the cast. I didn't read the script right away because I was working on [last week's] episode seven at the time. I wanted to avoid reading it at first, because the next day I had to do all my scenes for episode seven. Not to mention I wasn't really excited to see what was going to happen. I just stayed focused on that first. I had a little while to emotionally prepare… at least a little while.” What was your initial reaction to reading it? I was pretty sad. I really had no idea [that Beth was going to die]. I know it's happened like this in the past but for some reason I thought, 'Oh, they would tell me.' I really didn't know, so I was very sad and just dealing with, 'What am I going to do with all my stuff?' All the little stuff that you go through with a big change like that. It was quite a few years of my life. How did you say goodbye to the show? There was a little party. We had a campfire, campout party. It was good to see everyone. It makes you realize that you have to enjoy the time you have with people. At the end I was trying to really soak up everything.” (X). (December 1st, 2014).

In the same interview, there are inconsistencies. Emily first said that TPTB “came to [her]”, yet it sounds like they didn’t, as she didn’t know. In THR interview, she mentioned meeting with Scott. So why not in this one? Why use the ambiguous they?

Emily a posted a picture of a s’more on August 24th, 2014 (X). She was likely in Georgia at the time filming (X). Many fans speculated that she was at her death dinner. After Coda aired, she revealed that she had a fireside, campey death dinner, and she shared with Chad L. Coleman. Christine Woods wasn’t invited, even though villains are given death dinners too. David Morrissey and Scott Wilson shared death dinners, since they died in the same episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if TPTB kept the dinner to a tight circle, since Tyreese’s death and the filming of it are so tied with Beth’s.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “How did you first get the word from Scott Gimple that Tyreese’s time had come? Chad Coleman: Scott called me up and was like, “Chad, I’m meeting with all the cast,” and I’m like, “You know, Scott, I’m busy, man. I don’t mean harm, bro, but no big deal right? Everything’s cool.” He’s like, “Yeah, no, everything’s cool. I just want to talk to you.” So I went in, and he said, “Tyreese’s time has come.” And I said, “Stop joking, Scott. Come on, man. Stop playing.” And then he teared up, and then I knew it was real, and then I just kept saying, “Wow,” for, like, five minutes. I just kept going, “Wow. Wow.” And then I breathed in and breathed out, and realized that hey, man, I’ve done everything I could do on the show, so let’s go do this one, and make it the best we’ve ever done.” (X). (February 8th, 2015).

Yahoo: When did you find out that this was going to happen? Did you know from the beginning of Season 5? Chad Coleman: No, three episodes prior. But also, we got caught in the Beth situation. Because [Emily Kinney] was supposed to find out at least three episodes before, and it didn't happen. It happened pretty much one episode out. So she's reading the new episode and going "Oh, shit." Everybody was hurting tremendously from that. When [Scott Gimple] called me into the office, I looked at him, and he teared up. I said, "Wow." I said that about fifty times. "Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow." And he's just looking at me, and I'm going, "Wow." Then I just breathed in and breathed out and said, "You know, I've had an amazing time. It's been an amazing run." Did you get a chance to have a going-away dinner with your castmates, as per tradition? Oh, absolutely. It was around a campfire at the house of one of the producers. And it was beautiful. It was warm and heartfelt and everybody poured their hearts out.” (X). (February 9th, 2015).

Canada.com: What was your reaction when you found out that Tyreese was going to die in the Season 5B premiere, especially so soon after Beth? Christian Serratos: We all get a call when either you or somebody else will be going, so you never really know what’s going to happen or what the outcome of that phone call is going to be. I think we all got the news of both of them in the same phone call. We’re used to hearing about just one person leaving, but as soon as the shock settled with one, we were told we’re also going to lose somebody else. It was a double whammy for all of us.” (X) (X). (February 13th, 2015).

Cast members are allowed to fight for their characters, yet Emily didn’t and didn’t even think to (X). And she wouldn’t need to because Beth wasn’t dying in the first place.

Scott Gimple killed Beth and Tyreese essentially at the same time, and yet he was very clinical towards Beth and Emily when discussing the death (X).

So in summary:

There are inconsistencies in how Emily found out, and she found out later than she is supposed to. Typically cast members know a few weeks ahead of time, but Emily found out a week before, and we’re still not sure how.

Emily’s departure bears similarities to Laurie’s, except Emily still promotes the show. It appears that TPTB created a narrative similar to what happened in season 3

Stalking Dead Interview:

After the mid-season 6 premiere (February 14th, 2016), Kate Nash hosted Stalking Dead with Emily as a guest. The informal interview revealed Emily’s discomfort when talking about Beth, and specifically her death. Team Delusional was also brought up, as well as Beth’s lack of a funeral. It was a gold mine of an episode, and I recommend anyone interested in Team Delusional to watch the whole thing. (Full video here: X. It runs from 4:20 to 1:21:15, before repeating.)

Towards the beginning of the interview Emily pointed out that Glenn left out Beth’s name when listing deceased loved ones, like Dale and Hershel (X) (X at 10:00).

At 46:50, Emily finished talking about how she got the role of Beth and summarized her experience on the show as, “It’s been really amazing.” ‘It has’ is present tense, and Emily had been off the show for over a year at this point. (X).

While reading tweets from fans, Kate read a tweet that referenced Team Delusional, prompting a conversation about the group and conspiracies in general. Emily concluded “You never know” multiple times and “Don’t give up”, even though this would have been the perfect time to shut down fan speculation once and for all. (X) (X at 36:06).

She also said “You never know” when a fan asked if Beth was with Negan. (55:15).

When asked about Bethyl, Emily agreed that she felt there were romantic undertones being hinted at in the script. And again, TPTB would not put Daryl on a romantic arc and then just end it, as Daryl loves for life and Bethyl’s canonicity hasn’t even been confirmed to the general audience. (X at 39:20).

When asked if Beth was in the comics or was supposed to be Andrea in the comics, Emily said,“I don’t think that Beth is supposed to be anyone in the comics. She’s just supposed to be one of Hershel’s kids.” She then explained how the show liked to be different and a remix of the comics, so there were still surprises. Emily’s body was tense, she was fidgety, and she did not look at Kate until she moved the topic away from Beth specifically. Emily shouldn’t “think” that Beth is an original character; she should know. Earlier in the interview she mentioned having read some of the comics when she first got the part, and she also owns second The Walking Dead Compendium, which covers issues 49 to 96 (X). By issue 49, the Greene family had been introduced and reduced to just Maggie. Of her sisters, none of them were like Beth. Interestingly, the second compendium has a lot of Andrea storylines, as it covers the Hunters and Alexandria arc, when she loses her adoptive family and becomes Alexandria’s sniper. (X at 55:22).

Emily confirmed that Beth never received a funeral. A follower on Twitter asked Kate if she believed that Beth deserved a family, and Emily agreed. Though she clarified that, “They had to get out there… I understand. I feel like Beth would have been like I get it. I understand.” Kate asked her then what happened to Beth’s body, and Emily froze. She looked like a deer in headlights. She said, “I don’t really know. I never really -”, and she looked around the room, using Periscope as a distraction. (X) (X at 56:24) (X).

“I do feel like it’s going to go for a while, though, I feel like we’re -- the -- this show.” (X) (X at 1:13:03).

I’ve watched a lot of Emily’s interviews. She is introverted, but open and well-spoken. During Stalking Dead, she fluctuated between that and tense and nervous. For “safe” topics she was completely open. Later in the interview she and Kate talked about performing at another WSC cruise, and she lit up. Emily guards herself when talking about Beth, especially her death. It wasn’t a guard for sadness, there was too much tension. It was a guardedness out of anxiety.

So in summary:

Beth never received a funeral, as something happened between 5x08 and 5x09, forcing the group to run. This confirms what fans have speculated for over a year, as well as supports the Beth-car theory.

Emily is a terrible liar. It’s adorable.

The Beth situation is suspicious, and it has been consistently suspicious. Which means that whatever is going on behind-the-scenes is still ongoing. Emily hasn’t moved on from the show, and neither has the narrative and the marketing. Why move on when she’s going to come back?

#team delusional #interviews #emily kinney #masterpost

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