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imanativeofswlondondahling · 4 years

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Becoming A Stark? (13) Peter Parker x Stark! femReader

Word Count: 2881

Warning: Swearing, because it’s me lol

Author’s Note: Let me know if you want to be tagged on future chapters of this:) Enjoy!

Chapter One || Previous Chapter || Master List

Pepper promised not to show your dad the permission slip. You didn’t want him to appear out of nowhere during the field trip and ruin everything. The fact that your name on the building wasn’t enough of a permission slip alone apparently, so that was where Pepper came into everything. You had her sign the slip and then turned it into Mr. Shah.

“So the Avengers won’t be there when we visit?” Betty asks you as you and Astrid walk towards the bus with her.

“If you’re asking if Bruce will be there, the answer is no. I haven’t seen him since basically you guys came over for dinner that first time. He’s off world or something.” You file into the back of the bus, before you see that it’s not only your class getting on the bus. “Who’s the other class that’s joining us?”

“Mr. Harrington- Teaches junior sciences and decathlon. I think it’s the decathlon team that’s coming with though. Yeah, has to be. Look there’s Liz!” Betty waves to Liz through the window. Decathlon, that means…

“Fancy meeting you here Y/N.” Peter’s voice comes from the seat in front of you. “Stark Industries? Didn’t think you would even be interested in visiting.”

“I thought it would be an enrichment opportunity. See what the public sees Parker.” You smirk at him. “What about you? You going to give the tour?” Before he can respond, a voice from a few seats in front of him calls towards him.

“Penis Parker, you harassing Y/N Stark? Just wait until we get to the SI and her dad sees that you follow her around like a lost puppy. He won’t want trash near her. He’ll want people of his own caliber near her.”

“Just ignore him.” Peter pleads softly. He should have guessed that a Stark doesn’t walk away from a problem though.

“Eugine right?” You ignore the fact that everyone calls him Flash. He looks up at being addressed by a Stark. “I don’t think my dad would appreciate you calling his personal intern Penis. But I can check with him. In the meanwhile, I’d like to keep garbage away from me. And by that, I mean you.” Flash goes quiet and turns around in his seat.

“That probably will just make him worse.” Peter says, looking over his seat as he talks to you.

“And if it does, I’ll call a few Avengers to deal with him. Maybe I’ll get Dad to call Spider-Man. I hear Eugine is a huge fan. Wouldn’t it be great to see him get a talking to from him?”

“Sure, but I don’t think Spider-Man does that kind of thing.” The kid sitting next to Peter glances at him, trying to get an answer from him that you don’t understand.

“I’m Y/N.” You offer a hand to him, trying to figure out who this other kid is.

“Ned. I know who you are. You’re like all Peter talks about. Well like besides Mr. Stark and like-” Peter’s hand goes over Ned’s mouth.

“That’s not at all true. And I think you’ve said enough Ned.”

“I’d love to hear more.” You say with a smirk. Peter talks about you? “What else does he say?” Peter shakes his head at Ned.

“Is it true that you know the Avengers?” Ned changes the subject.

“Yeah? They lived at the tower with us for a while. Then they didn’t. Now we don’t live at the tower.” You explain with a shrug.

“So who’s the best Avenger?”

“Don’t I have to say Iron Man by default?”

“No. You could say anyone. Like Black Widow, or Spider-Man, or even Falcon.”

“Spider-Man isn’t an Avenger. He works on his own?” You say, the question in your voice.

“Really? I thought he joined the Avengers from time to time, but maybe I heard wrong. You know news can be made up. Who’s to say what’s true and what’s not these days?” Peter elbows Ned to try and get him to shut up.

“I haven’t heard anything from the Avengers about him joining. I teased my dad that Spider-Man would yeet him off a building. Spider-Man is probably too cool to be an Avenger anyway.”

“I think Spider-Man would join the Avengers if given the chance.” Peter throws out quickly.

“I’ll tell my dad you think so.”

“Is your dad going to join the tour?” Astrid asks from across the aisle.

“God I hope not. I had Pepper sign the permission slip so that I wouldn’t have to tell him I was coming.”

“Why would him knowing you’re coming to the tower be a bad thing?” Betty asks.

“Because, you know how bad he can be when you guys just come over for dinner? Well imagine him doing that in front of our entire class plus the decathlon team. It would be awful.” You turn to look Peter in the eyes. “If you text him and tell him we’re coming I swear I will end our Snapchat streak.”

Peter throws his hands up. “I didn’t mention it. I honestly was more worried about him embarrassing me if he knew I was coming and I’m not even his kid.”

“Good.” Your bus pulls up in front of the building you had called home until you had moved into the brownstone in Queens. As you file off the bus, a very familiar voice gives instructions.

“Everyone will need to wear their visitor badges at all times. At the end of the tour you will return them. So do not lose them. Also you will go through the scanners before you are able to enter the upper floors.” Happy hasn’t spotted you or Peter near the back of the group after getting off the bus in front of the tower.

“Do you think I get a visitor badge?” You whisper to Peter.

“I hope so. Or else Happy might have to kick you from the building.” Peter whispers back.

“That would be the best thing for the paparazzi to see. Head of Security kicks Tony Stark’s child out of SI.” You say with a laugh. “Pepper would never get home tonight having to deal with that press.”

“Ok, who are our two trouble makers in the back who aren’t paying attention?” Happy’s voice raises and you and Peter are suddenly the center of attention. “Should have guessed it. You two better have your badges, I only have visitor badges for non staff and family.”

“Damn Happy I thought I’d get to be a visitor.”

“Your name is on the building kid. You don’t get to be a visitor.” Happy kids with a smile then returns to his no nonsense face. “Just like airport security. Bags and anything in your pockets go through the scanners. Then you pass through the metal detectors. Peter, Y/N- go through your normal entrance.” There is a separate scanner for those who have special clearance, limited to the Avengers, Pepper, Happy, you, and a few others that you don’t know of off the top of your head. It’s a quick body scanner done by FRIDAY as you enter through a door. Just to appease Happy you clip the badge that you never really need to wear since you are never really at the tower onto the bottom of your forest green cardigan. Peter has pulled his out too and clips it to his decathlon blazer.

“Y/N, Peter. Shouldn’t you be at school?” FRIDAY’s voice speaks as you both walk through the scanner.

“Field trip FRI.” You use your dad’s nickname for FRIDAY, not even realizing you did. You walk over to meet back with the group, hoping that this field trip goes off without a hitch.

Up on the sixty seventh floor, Tony is jamming out to Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC as it plays off of your playlist that he’s grown to just ignore the name of it. He’s learned that Tony Stark Can Rot is your upbeat playlist while I Hate My Life is your more slow music. But both have good music on them, ignoring the couple of Taylor Swift songs that shuffle on every now and then. And it makes him feel closer to you, so he’s grown used to playing one of the two while he works, especially when you’re at school. On his datapad, he’s running the numbers for a new attempt at the closed loop system. He wants to nail this for you. But a couple of the components just aren’t working.

“Boss, Y/N is 75 and dropping.”

“Text her and see if she’s correcting.” When you’re at school, there’s not too much he can do but wait for a response.

“She’s on the 34th floor. Should I have someone take her a snack?”

“Y/N is here? At the tower? But it’s a school day?”

“She and Peter are on a field trip.” Both his kids are here and no one told him? Well, maybe a break would be better right now.

“I’ll take her a snack.”

“Here we have…” You can’t fully focus on the voice speaking in front of you. You know you should check your blood sugar. The lack of focus usually means you’re either dropping low or running really high. With all the walking around the tower, your bet is dropping.

“You ok?” Peter asks from next to you. Though he can’t tell anyone, his spider sense is on high alert. And you’re not looking too good. Your face is pale and your eyes don’t seem to be focusing. Plus your hands seem to be shaking ever so slightly. You almost seem to be shifting in your spot and he wants to reach out and grab you.

“I got this one kid.” A very familiar voice speaks from behind the two of you, but you don’t even react to it.

“Mr. Stark I think she’s low.” Peter starts to say but Tony wraps an arm around you and starts to lead you to a chair.

“I know. FRIDAY told me.” Betty hears Tony’s voice from the middle of the group and pulls Astrid towards it.

“Is Y/N ok?”

“‘M fine.” You slur ever so slight. Tony screws the cap off the apple juice he grabbed from the kitchen on his way down here.

“She’s just low. She’ll be fine as soon as she has some sugar.” He offers you the open juice. Your hand reaches to take it, but he even notices the shaking as you try to take it. “Bambina, you’re ok. You just need to drink.” You take a couple hesitant sips. “Why didn’t you treat already?”

“Didn’t feel it.”

“I know you don’t feel your lows. That's why you have Wallace.” Your hypo-unawareness was nothing of a secret.

“Didn’t feel Wallace.” You shrug as you drink some more juice.

“Is that Tony Stark?” A voice from the other side of the room says. Peter notes that it’s Flash, but says nothing, more worried about you. Tony and you don’t even hear it. However, Mr. Shah notices you sitting in the chair with Tony basically holding you.

“Is everything alright Y/N?” He asks, trying to not act like being around Tony Stark is as big of a deal as it is.

“‘M low.” You say.

“Drink some more. You’ll feel better if you do bambina.” Tony doesn’t even look up at Mr. Shah. He’s too focused in on you.

“Don’t want it.” Your stubbornness with your lows sneaks in.

“I know, but it’s either this or we head over to the medbay and Dr. Cho can give you an IV.”

“Fineeeeeeeee.” You draw out the last syllable as you force some more juice down.

“Mr. Stark, I’m Flash Thompson-”

“If you don’t get out of my face, Happy will escort you out of the tower before you can say Avengers.” Tony snaps, not caring who this kid is. Right now his only thought is getting your numbers high enough for you to be back to his normally sarcastic but loving kid. “FRI what’s Y/N’s number?”

“68 and dropping still.”

“Pete, run down the hall and grab something with carbs. Cookies, chips, soda, candy. Anything.”

“Of course M-Tony.” Peter would normally just call him Mr. Stark, but since Flash was just shut down, he wants to show him how close they are. Then he remembers what he was just asked and basically sprints down the hall to where SI keeps a bunch of snacks on hand. He grabs the first things he sees that are high carb- some chocolate chip cookies and a packet of Skittles. He also grabs a soda at the last second to be safe. Making his way back to where you sit, leaning against Tony’s shoulder he offers the snacks to you. “Which sounds better, cookies, skittles, or soda?”

“Death.” You mumble.

“Not an option on the table kiddo. So how about you take one of the three Pete offered?” You fling a hand out and snatch one of the three not really caring. “Mr. Shah, I’ll keep Peter here in case I need him to grab more things for Y/N, but I don’t want the rest of the group to lose out on their tour. We can catch up with you when Y/N is back up in range.”

“If you’re sure Mr. Stark.”

“It’s not the first time we’ve had to deal with stubborn blood sugars.” Tony says before turning his attention to the group as you munch on the cookies you don’t really want to eat. “Lilly, keep going with the tour. I’ll keep Peter and Y/N. They’ll catch up.”

“Sure Mr. Stark. Let’s continue on this way.” The actual intern leads the group on as Mr. Harrington, Mr. Shah and the rest of the students follow. Astrid and Betty’s eyes trail behind, watching Y/N, but they know your dad won’t let anything happen to you. After the group is out of the room, Tony’s attention stays on you, but his question turns to Peter.

“So I’m Tony now?”

“Uh not if you don’t want to be Mr. Stark.”

“No take backs. I heard it. The group heard it. Happy probably heard it down on the first floor. I just was wondering what changed.”

“Eugine.” You mumble over a mouthful of cookies.

“Who’s Eugine?” Tony asks you.

“Flash. Thompson. That kid that tried to introduce himself while Y/N was crashing.” Peter clarifies as you open the soda that your dad doesn’t allow in the house. Will he buy it if you’re in the city and crashing, sure. But will he stock it in the house? Never. However, after growing up around the sticky drink, you’ve missed the taste. “He doesn’t want to believe that I actually intern with you.”

“So calling me Tony?”

“You called me Pete. It felt right.”

“Well if it feels right, keep doing it.” Tony’s attention goes back to you. “How you feeling kiddo?”

“Like death microwaved over.”

“FRI what’s her number?”

“68 and stable.”

“Well that’s better than dropping still.” Tony says. He looks at the soda in your hand. “I think that’s probably not needed.” You hold it away from his outstretched hand.

“I’m still low.”

“That is full of crap. Let me get you a green juice or something?” You scrunch your face.

“I’ll pass. You already make me drink one at breakfast. I only get these when I’m low.” You say before taking another sip. Peter should be surprised, but the part of him that pays attention isn’t that surprised. He’s never seen soda around the Tower when you lived there or at the brownstone when he’s at the labs. “Do I really have to catch back up with the tour group? It’s actually kind of boring.” You ask.

“I can see if you can sit in with Pep. It would make more sense for you than going on the public tour anyway.”

“Why with Pepper? Can’t I just go chill out upstairs or something?”

“You’re supposed to take over the company one day. If I’m pulling you from the field trip, I’m going to make sure you’re still getting an educational day. At least if I leave you with Pepper, you’re still learning stuff.” You’re hesitant. Sure it’s years away from the day you have to make an actual decision, but you have no real plans to take over the company. But a day spent with Pepper sounds more fun than going on a tour that’s 100% science based anyway. “Or,” Your dad adds sensing some hesitation, “You can come work with me on some stuff.”

“Like in the lab?” You and Peter ask at the same time.

“That is where I work on stuff.”

“I would mess everything up.” You reply honestly.

“Can I come work?” Peter asks, hoping to get out of the tour he doesn’t need either.

“And take you away from learning about what SI is working on? No. Kid, I want to see what you think of what we’re working on. So let’s get you back with the group. Y/N, I’ll let Mr. what’s his name-”

“Mr. Shah.”

“Mr. Shah, know that I’m pulling you for official Stark business and then take you to Pep.”

Becoming A Stark Tag list: @persephonehemingway @iamaunicorn4704 @furiouspockettoad @daughter-of-stark @eternalharry @huntective-kyeo @riiis-stuff @sunnyoongles @cosmicqueenieb @sovereignparker @bbarnestan @teenwishes08 @iamthescarlettwitch

Permanent tag list: @wormonastringonastick

#peter parker #peter parker x stark!reader #peter parker x reader #peter parker fan fiction #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fan fic #peter parker fanfic #Tony Stark #tony stark can't be dead if you just don't let yourself believe it #tony stark daughter #tony stark x daughter!reader #tony stark x daughter!you #Pepper Potts #mr harrington #betty brant #astrid #flash thompson #imanativeofswlondondahling #becoming a stark?

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mellifluousleaf · 5 years

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Tell Me Your Lies Pt. 16 & 17 (Final)

Pairing: Poly!BTS x Reader

Word Count: Unknown, but it’s really long

Warning(s): some angst and fluff

Posted 6 June 2019 at 2:55 AM

Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16/17 (final)

Quick Synopsis: Even the sweetest of angels will sin

Author’s note: Hi ya’ll it’s been a while. This school year was hectic and I just couldn’t get around to this series as much as I wished. Truth be said, I got stuck on where to lead this story. I have an idea for the ending, but the middle part was a blur. Parts 13-15 are parts I kind of want to revise but I just don’t even know where to begin. I’m deeply sorry and apologetic to those who have been reading this series and staying with me for this whole time. I’m sorry for the late uploads, I just don’t want to rush my writing and put out something I know I didn’t put all my effort into. But thank you so much for those who have stayed and still supported me. It means a lot. No words can describe how happy I am to still see people finding this series and reading it. I hope to finish this series during my summer break before this series reaches its one year anniversary. I hope to improve my writing more and make this series enjoyable for everyone. Thank you once again and please feel free to send any messages to me. <3

————PART 16 —————

Y/N’s POV:

Three months… They said three months.

The first month was fine. We called and texted every day and night, and then, it just all stopped.....

I called continuously but they never picked up. They just ended up sending a small text saying they were busy. Nothing more, nothing less.

I wanted to text more, but I worried I would just be disturbing them. I mean, going on a world tour is a difficult thing, but maybe they could’ve saved five minutes a day to maybe just chat with me? Maybe I’m just being too clingy....

By the third month, my phone, which was once constantly blowing up with notifications from the boys, was silent. Every time my phone chimed, my heart would flutter in hope, but then I would realize it was a random notification from my other apps.

Did I do something wrong?

Each day following the moment they stopped texting me was a struggle. In addition, I did’t understand what was going on with me. I continually had a tight feeling wrapped around my heart. Each day, it felt more constrictive. I went to the doctors but they said I was fine, nothing wrong.

On top of that, my dreams have been getting out of hand. There has been a reoccurring crow that circles in my dream. It’s been trying to attack me every time I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I’ve spent countless nights waking up in a cold sweat. Something has been really off, but I just can’t put my finger on it.

It’s been a hectic three months but today all the boys were coming back. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see them, and hopefully they haven’t changed much.....

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2nd Person POV:

Once your shift at work ended, you dashed out to your car, excited to head back to the dorms. It’s been three months since you’ve last stepped foot in there, and you couldn’t wait to go back and see the boys again.

Your car pulled into the dorm’s garage and parked in the spot they had reserved for you. The sound of your feet jogging to the elevator echoed through the silent garage. It was night time now and the only light that illuminated the floors was the new moon.

You quickly punched in the access code and happily jumped into the elevator the moment the silver doors softly slid open. You fished the electronic key out of your bag and tapped it against the security detector box. The doors proceeded to close shut as the elevator made its ascent back up to the dorm floor. You couldn’t help small smile that ghosted over your lips.

The elevator began to slow its movements as it arrived at the destination. You darted out of the elevator and towards the dorm’s entrance door, the dorm key the boys gave you a long time ago dangling in your right hand. You slowly slid the key into place and began to turn it. The familiar sound of the metal clicking into place sent chills down your spine.

I’m back home....

You gently opened the door to be met with a quiet and dark living room. The boys’ luggage littered the entire room, and you couldn’t help but laugh at the mess they made. You feet shuffled to the familiar hallway where all the others’ rooms were located. Your head tilted in confusion as you saw a soft dim light seeping from underneath one of the doors.

Is one of them still awake?

Your quiet footsteps shuffled closer to the door but paused at the sound that seeped from the cracks of the door.

Your ears strained to hear, but then it became apparent to you what was going on.

The sound of a female’s moan echoed through the silent hallways. It was loud and clear now. Deep murmurs of appraisal from what sounded like seven males followed after.

No... they wouldn’t dare. They’re too sweet and kind to do this.

Your heart rate picked up as you quickly pulled your phone from your pocket. Your hands wavered for a bit as you pulled up your contacts. You scrolled until you found Namjoon’s contact.

He always answers, I know it

You pressed the call button and waited.

You could hear the muffled ringtone coming from the other side of the door. The room quickly went silent as you heard Namjoon shushing the others.

“Oh hey sweetheart, the boys and I just got off the plane. We’re really tired and we plan to sleep for the majority of tomorrow. We’ll call you when we wake up, okay?” Namjoon said, his voice pouring out from the phone. His fake attempt to sound jet lagged and sleepy almost deceived you if it weren’t for the fact that you were right outside the room he was actually in.

“Okay, no worries,” you quietly replied back, trying your best not to let your voice reveal your emotions.

“Thanks baby girl, love you,” Namjoon replied, cutting the call off without even waiting for your reply. A few seconds of silence soon followed before the sound of a female’s giggle resonated through the hallway.

You didn’t want to put yourself through anymore pain so you just slowly began to make your way back to the front door. That restrictive feeling around your heart that you’ve been feeling for the past month began to close in around you. Each step towards the door felt harder and harder.

Shallow breaths barely make their way past your lips and you reach for the handle.

What the hell is going on now?

The next moment, your vision begins to change and dim. Your hand weakly grips the handle, but your strength has left your body entirely. Your eyes begin to droop as the sound of your heart rate fills your ears. Soon darkness begins to consume your every being. All that you could hear before you lost conscious was your heart beat. It sounded just like the wings of the crow from your dreams. Your body and head dropped to the floor as the living room went deadly quiet and dark. The new moon slid behind the clouds and your mind went into your dream world.

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Dream:

Everything was dark and cold. You had no clue where you were. The sound of a knife slicing through the air rang throughout the place. You began to tremble as the sound of a bird beating its wings neared.

It’s that damn crow again. It wouldn’t leave you alone. The glimmer of a crow’s golden eye passed by before disappearing into the darkness. Next was an eye with an amethyst color followed by a stormy grey eye. You ducked in fear as the sound of a crow diving down got closer. You felt the air above you shift as another crow passed in front of you. This time its eye was the color of a deep ruby. The crow blinked and it was an icy blue color this time. The image of the crow melted away and you were once again left in darkness.

Within a split second, claws had pinned you down against the cold hard floor. You tried screaming but nothing came out. All that appeared in front of you was the dark silhouette of a crow. One eye was colored a deep emerald green while the other was an unusual hazel with stark gold curling around the pupil. You tried to scream and move away but found yourself paralyzed. The sharp sound of a knife slicing through the air started again and increased in intensity within a few seconds. You blinked and looked up at the crow still pinning you down. You gasped as you saw the eyes turned to a glossy black marble color. The crow’s screech harmonized with the sound of the knife slicing through the air. Your head became fuzzy as your panic reached an all new high. Too much adrenaline ran through and in the next second you were back to floating in darkness. Nothing moved, nothing existed, nothing.

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-Two hours later-

As the new moon passed over the dark clouds, all seven males awoke from their slumber. The room was dark, but they knew something was off. They all met each other’s piercing and confusing gazes before all quickly getting up. They froze in panic, realizing they weren't alone in the room.

Their eyes wandered to the bundle that sleepily shifted under the blankets. Yoongi quietly moved the covers to reveal a sleeping female dressed in her bra and panties. Upon realizing the woman was half dressed, Yoongi quickly put the covers back over the body, his eyes widening in surprise at the realization that the woman wasn’t Y/N. Silent communication passed around the seven males before Namjoon stepped forward. He gently moved the covers to reveal the woman’s forehead. He lightly pressed his palm to her head as his eyes shifted colors. He sorted through her memory and checked last nights events. He then proceeded to clear any memory of her meeting BTS before stepping back.

Namjoon sighed in relief at the realization that no sexual intercourse happened during their encounter with the woman. Seokjin stepped forward next and proceeded to gather the woman in a bridal style, making sure the covers didn’t slip off of her. Namjoon softly murmured the address of the female’s place that he retrieved from her memory. Seokjin nodded and headed towards a window. Jimin quickly unlatched it as Seokjin’s tattered wings spread from his back. In a flash. Seokjin was out the window, nothing but a slight breeze to indicate that Seokjin was even there a second ago. A few seconds passed before Seokjin appeared before the six males again, a silent nod to indicate that the woman was back safe and sound where she belonged.

None of the seven males spoke as they tried to gather their thoughts together. Questions bombarded their minds as the silence consumed each of them. How did they end up back at the dorms? Why aren’t they still on tour? Why was there a woman other than Y/N in the bed? What day was it even?

At the realization that it may not be the day they thought it was, all seven males scrambled through to reach their phone in their pocket. They simultaneously turned their phone on to reveal that a span of two months has passed since their last memory of consciousness.

“What the fuck.....” Jungkook softly murmured out.

“It’s...It’s not just me right? I swear to god I don’t remember anything this past two months,” Hoseok shakily said, a slight panic setting into his mind.

“Jungkook, y-your camera. You were recording for your next Golden Films video right? Maybe we can find evidence there?” Jimin stuttered out, his eyes filled with distress and confusion of the situation.

All seven males quickly filed out of the room and into the living room. Jungkook ran ahead and made a quick dart for his luggage in order to hopefully find his professional camera in there but stopped in his tracks as he realized the lump of shadows near the front door.

Jungkook squinted his eyes in the dark, but it didn’t take long for him to recognize the shape of your body and your hair splayed all over the floor.

“Y/N!” He yelled in panic, his body instinctively running to yours. The others heard the younger one’s yell of distress before they began running to the front door too.

Jungkook quickly dropped to the floor and gathered you up in his arms, his eyes darting everywhere to check your physical state. As he cradled your head, the air surrounding the both of you began to hum with an oddly static noise.

“Jungkook what the fuck are you doing?” Taehyung said in a panicked voice the moment he became aware of the electricity flowing from Jungkook’s body.

“I-I don’t know. Something’s happening... I think today’s events have really affected me,” Jungkook replied, his arms still delicately holding you.

“No time for talking, we need to get her to a bed so I can check for any concussion, “ Jin quickly said, urging the younger boy to carry you to a room.

Jungkook quickly gathered you into his arms as he carried down the hall to the room they were in with you the night before they left for the tour.

As the door creaked open, the seven males were met with a darkly lit room, the new moon peeking behind the curtains. Nothing had moved or changed since the last time you and the seven members were there.

Silence encased the room as Jungkook settled you down on the bed, moving aside to allow Namjoon and Seokjin to observe any injuries you may have.

After ensuring no physical damage was done to you, all seven members finally let out the breath they were holding. No words could describe the worry that swam through their thoughts on how you ended up at the dorms unconscious on the floor.

“What do we do now?” Jimin wondered, the exhaustion from the day’s stresses finally taking a toll on his mind.

“I’ll go back to searching for my camera. We need to find out what happened these last few months. You guys should check your phones for any clues then,” Jungkook said, heading out the room without a glance back.

The others murmured in agreement as they found places to sit around the room. They all pulled out their phone and began their search for any clue of the past two months.

“Hey guys.... look at the group chat...” Yoongi said, his eyes quizzically analyzing the phone.

“I don’t remember texting her saying we were too busy...” Hoseok mumbled out, staring at the group chat with confusion.

“Same here, I don’t remember texting her that too....” Seokjin said.

“That means we lost our memories from that day onward. We were texting Y/n everyday until then,” Namjoon noted, his fingers scrolling up to the previous texts in the group chat.

A few seconds later, Jungkook rushed through the door, holding his camera in both hands.

“I found it,” Jungkook panted out, sitting on the floor as the other males surrounded him.

The room fell silent as Jungkook turned the camera on and headed straight for the most recently stored video.

The sound of an audience cheering spilled from the professional camera, concert lights flashing from the tiny screen. Jungkook quickly pressed the rewind button and watched as the screen distorted and stretched.

“Hold on, I saw something just now. Go back a little,” Namjoon said, squinting down at the lit up screen.

Jungkook followed Namjoon’s directions and slowed down the video back to regular speed.

The sounds of sharp static radiated from the device. The screen displayed a small clip of gold shimmering wings being released from someone’s back, the feathers turning an ash black as a few seconds passed. The clip quickly changed to a video of the glimmering eyes of each members eyes when they are usually out of control. It happened for a split second before the device switched back to images of the concert.

“Wait go back, that was so fast...” Jimin said, face morphed into a perplexed feature.

Jungkook did as asked, slowing the video down by half. The images appeared again, and this time it revealed a set of seven crow feathers falling and turning to gold. The feathers fell and landed in a perfect circle.

“What the fuck....” Yoongi breathed out, disturbed by the scene being shown.

“Continue rewinding it Jungkook, there might be more clues.....” Taehyung said, his breath coming out shallow.

Jungkook re winded the videos, but after a few minutes more, it was revealed that there was nothing more than videos of the concert.

“What the hell was those clips supposed to mean?” Hoseok wondered, standing up from the chair he was previously sitting in.

“I-I don’t know” Seokjin replied, confused at the events.

“Jungkook can you show it again?” Namjoon asked, moving closer to the screen.

Jungkook nodded and sped the video back to where the clip was supposed to be. When Jungkook got to where the clip was last time, he was met instead with videos of the concert. Jungkook frowned with confusion as he continued speeding the video to the end. Not once did the previous mysterious clips appear.

“Where’d they go?” Jungkook wondered.

Jungkook re winded through all the videos again but found nothing.

“T-They’re... they’re gone...” Jungkook said in disbelief, passing the camera to Namjoon. Namjoon’s fingers quickly went through all the videos too but found nothing either.

“No that can’t be... that’s our only clue of what might have happened....” Namjoon whispered out, his eyes darting through all of the camera’s storage.

Just as Namjoon put the camera down and turned it off, everyone stilled in the room as they heard a soft rustling from the bed.

“W-Where am I,” you groaned out, sitting in bed. Your eyes met all seven males as you became conscious. Flashes of the memories from just a few hours ago played in your mind immediately. Pain and anger quickly surged through your veins as you quickly threw the covers off of you.

“You all are sick.... playing with me like I’m just some toy last night.... fucking sick...” you softly spat out, getting out of bed and making a beeline to the room’s door.

Upon realizing that you meant the woman that was randomly in the room a few hours ago when the boys woke up, Jimin was quick to block the door.

“No no Y/n, it wasn’t what it seemed. We promise. Please let us explain...” Jimin blurted out, his body blocking the entrance.

You ignored his comment as you tried pushing past Jimin. Jimin quickly wrapped his arms around you as he tried to hold you in place. You began to squirm and push against his chest.

“Let me go!” you yelled, using all your force to get him off.

“Please Y/n, we can explain everything, please...” Seokjin said, walking closer to you.

You continued to struggle but your energy was being drained fast. Soon enough you were just a ball of tears, all your emotions erupting at once.

“Oh god please no, please don’t cry sweetheart,” Hoseok said, his heart constricting in response to your tears.

You continued to cry more, letting out all the tears you kept from the past two months. You felt so alone those past two months and it really emotionally pained you to be away from all seven members.

As you continued to cry, the boys were quickly became aware of all their eyes switching colors to their unstable mode and staying that way. They all felt the air begin to buzz with different elements of nature.

“Hey guy.... cut it out....” Jimin said, aware of the atmosphere changing. He was still holding your sobbing body, his heart nearly bursting from pain. Upon hearing another sob come from you, Jimin’s body also weakened and he ended up on his knees, you still being cradled in his arms.

All the other six members had also ended up on the floor, a few writhing on the ground due to the pain that erupted through their entire body.

“Shit... it must be the bond that we left uncompleted.... it’s making us all unstable now,” Namjoon gritted out, his eyes closed as another wave of pain over took his body.

Another pulse of pain sent all seven males into a groaning mess. They felt like their heart was being torn up.

“Please don’t cry Y/n, please....” Jimin softly whispered to you in pain. He held you close to him because it was the only way he could alleviate some of the pain he was experiencing.

“I-I’m sorry.... Ii’s- It’s just been so tough without you all here for t-the past two months, and w-what I heard last night j-just really broke me... a-and I know I should h-hear you guys out, but m-my emotions got in the way...” you sniffled out, your tears beginning to slow down.

No words could describe how much guilt they felt for putting you through those two months of pain.

Once your tears settled into only sniffles, the males were able to finally regain control of their body. They all moved to sit around you and Jimin, ready to explain themselves.

“Are you still okay with us explaining ourselves or do you want so more time love?” Taehyung asked, reaching over to smooth your hair down.

“I’m ready right now,” you managed out, your voice slightly sore from sobbing earlier.

“Okay this is going to sound extremely terrible but all seven of us don’t have a single recollection of our memories from the past two months...” Namjoon started.

“We’ve only regained our conscious back when we woke up today. We had no clue who that woman was, but we can assure you that nothing intimate happened between her and us. Namjoon checked her memories and it showed nothing,” Seokjin chimed in, his voice spoken in a soft whisper because he was afraid that even the smallest noise could hurt you right now.

“But..... how is that possible? You guys were on tour and everything. You were all still performing as usual and....”

“We’re not sure. We tried looking through Jungkook’s camera but it showed no evidence besides some mysterious clip. All it showed were some clips of angel wings and feathers and stuff, “ Yoongi mentioned, his eyes glancing at the abandoned camera laying on the ground a few feet away.

“But for some reason, those off clips were removed from the device within a second. We still don’t understand them and how they went missing so fast,” Hoseok said, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“How do I know you all aren’t just lying to me...”

“Because you’re our -” mate. Jungkook frowned once he remembered that it was near impossible to say anything about you being their mate without their voices cracking.

“Because I’m your..?” you repeated back, your head tilted in confusion.

“Because you’re our only reason to live on this earth. We could go anywhere in the world, but we want to always stay by your side because you feel like home. You are our home,” Jimin softly said, finishing the sentence for Jungkook. Jimin’s arms still delicatly surrounded you, providing you a comfortable feeling of warmth.

“We really can’t explain it further than this Y/n.... this is all we can piece together. We’re sorry......”

“We understand if you don’t believe us, but please know we would never intentionally hurt you. We would rather have the world collapse than be forced to hurt you....”

All seven boys had their head tilted down in guilt and pain. They wished so badly to be able to know what really happened, to be able to explain everything, but they had nothing to go off of.

You looked around and felt your heart constrict at the sight before you. It was a scene of seven broken males who were lost.

Logically, you knew you shouldn’t easily believe their reasoning, but at the same time, a part of you knew they really were telling the truth.

“None of this makes sense..... but I’ll trust you. Please don’t make me regret this decision...” you softly said, causing all seven boys to look up in surprise.

Before you could say anything more, you were being ambushed by all the members. Soft butterfly kisses were being placed all over your face, and you felt your body being hugged tightly.

An airy laugh escaped from you before you could help it.

You felt like you were finally home.

---------------- PART 17 --------------------

- a month later-

“Hurry up guys! You all are so slow!” Jungkook yelled as he ran down the beach, you clinging onto his back for dear life.

“Wait Jungkook slow down! You might trip,” you yelled as your arms wrapped themselves against Jungkook more.

Jungkook just laughed at your warning as he began to spin you around.

You closed your eyes and let out a small scream for help. In a matter of seconds, you found yourself in the arms of someone else. You slowly peeled your eyes open to come face to face with Hoseok. He smiled down with you before placing a small kiss on the tip of your nose.

“You called for help, princess?” He chuckled out as he continued carrying you to one of the beach seats.

You all were taking a quick break on a private island, the day before their big concert in Korea, and it was an amazing time of your life. The boys finished their rehearsal early and decided to steal you away to a small vacation before the concert tomorrow.

You let out a small chuckle as your replied.

“Thank you my dashing prince,” you jokingly said, wrapping your arms around Hoseok’s neck. You placed a small kiss on his cheek and immediately saw him begin to blush.

You began to laugh more as you noticed the dust of rose that appeared on his cheeks.

“Is that a blush I see right there?” you laughed out, enjoying how shy Hoseok got from the kiss you gave him.

“Uhh I have no clue what you’re talking about, uhhh look over there! Birds!” Hoseok quickly said, trying to distract you. As he did that, he was quick to place you down on the beach chair before disappearing to chase Jungkook.

You laughed to yourself as you settled under the shade from the umbrella placed near the beach chair. A few seconds later, you saw another chair appearing next to you. Yoongi quickly settled in the vacant spot and threw you a lazy grin.

“Hey beauitful, mind if I join you under the shade?” Yoongi asked.

“Hmm... you might have a small price to pay in order to sit there,” you joked back, meeting the soft gaze of Yoongi’s.

“And what would that be?” Yoongi said, leaning over to you, his face coming extremely close to yours. His eyes flickered down to your lips before going back to your eyes.

“A kiss,” you replied back, a smile blossoming onto both you and Yoongi’s face.

Yoongi didn’t hesitate before he placed his lips softly against yours. He leaned back and stared adoringly at you.

“Hold still for a second my muse, I also have a small gift for you,” he said. You watched as he held out his palm and began to summon crystals to appear from thin air. In seconds, a beautiful tropical flower made of soft blue ice crystals appeared. You blushed a little as Yoongi moved forward to place the flower in your hair.

“It shouldn’t melt or anything so it’ll help keep you a little cool under the sun,” he softly murmured, pushing some of your hair out of your face.

Just as you were about to go in for another kiss, the sound of Seokjin’s laughter got louder. Soon after, you heard Namjoon groan in response to Seokjin’s pun.

You smiled to yourself as you looked behind you to see both males walking over to where you were, each carrying a beach chair of their own.

“Y/N! Come listen to this great pun I just said! It’s hilarious!” Soekjin said upon noticing you gazing at him.

He began to quicken his pace as he neared you. In a matter of seconds, Seokjin had lifted you bridal style off of your chair as he whispered the pun to you. Instantly you were laughing in response. Seokjin’s face lit up immediately at the sound of your laughter. Soon he began to pepper butterfly kisses all over your face.

“Wait, Jin! That tickles!” you playfully yelled out, trying to avoid the onslaught of kisses.

Just as Soekjin was about to begin another round of kisses, Namjoon lifted you from Jin’s arms and placed you back on your chair.

“I can’t believe you actually found his pun funny,” Namjoon chuckled out, pushing some of your hair out of your face.

“Oh come on Joonie, it was pretty funny, “ you laughed out, placing both of your hands on his cheeks. Your fingers began to poke at the dimples that appeared as Namjoon smiled upon hearing you call him Joonie.

“Hmm... okay I’ll admit it was a bit funny. Just don’t tell Jin that,” Namjoon chuckled out, leaning forward to place a kiss on your forehead, followed by your cheeks, then quickly pecking your lips.

“Your secret is safe with me,” you replied, staring lovingly into his hazel brown eyes.

“Hey Namjoon! Move your lazy butt and come over here and help me carry the cooler!” Seokjin yelled as he attempted to drag the blue box across the sand.

Namjoon smiled to himself as he shook his head in amusement. He placed one more kiss on the top of your head before moving to help Seokjin. You glanced over to see how Yoongi was doing, but ended up smiling to yourself as you saw him passed out on the chair, his hat covering part of his face.

You leaned back in your chair and closed your eyes, enjoying the sounds of the ocean. However your mind was quickly taken away from the sounds when you felt someone covering your eyes.

“Guess whooooo?” Taehyung said, trying to hold in his laughter.

“Tae, I know it’s you because of your voice,” you giggled out, moving his hands away as you looked behind your chair. Taehyung gave you a sheepish grin before moving to stand in front of you. He held out his hand, and you reached up to hold it in response.

“Come on princess, lets go to the ocean for a bit,” Taehyung said, sending you a wink as he pulled you to your feet.

You gave him a big smile as you felt him tug you to the ocean, your feet sinking slightly into the warm sand. After a few steps, Taehyung paused, his head still facing the ocean.

“Tae, is there something wr-”

Quickly, Taehyung had turned around and threw you over his shoulder, laughing loudly as you screamed in surprise.

“Kim Taehyung, put me down so I can kick your butt for scaring me!” You playfully yelled, your body dangling down Taehyung’s back.

Taehyung laughed at your statement before giving your butt a small smack as he continued walking.

“No can do baby girl, I got to get you to the ocean before I can put you down. The sand is super hot and could burn your feet,” Taehyung chuckled out. Just as he reached the part of the beach where the water met sand, he finally put you down, a boxy grin already on his face. You tried to pretend to be mad at him, but you couldn’t help the smile that made its way on to your lips. As you were about to say something, you felt the cold water of the ocean crash against your feet.

You yelped at the sudden cold feeling and instinctively clung to Taehyung. Taehyung chuckled at your reaction and wrapped his arms around you in a protective manner. He dipped his head down to plant a kiss in the crook of your neck.

“It’s okay sweetheart, I got you. Nothing will hurt you as long as I’m here,” he softly whispered, planting another kiss on your neck. You shivered as his deep voice reached your ears, your mind becoming distracted from the cold water that splashed at your feet.

You both pulled apart and stared at each other with indescribable adoration. Just as Taehyung leaned in to kiss you upon your lips, he quickly pulled back as he felt water being sprayed against his back.

Taehyung quickly whipped around to meet the gaze of a terrified Jungkook. Jungkook held a water gun in his arms as he threw a sheepish grin at Taehyung, fear radiating from him.

“Jungkook, you better start running now!” Taehyung scolded out, already sprinting towards a terrified Jungkook.

Jungkook quickly threw his water gun down, darting back up to shore while Taehyung was close on his trail.

A soft laugh escaped from you as you watched the scene. While you were entertained by the scene of the two males running around, Jimin had secretly appeared behind you, his hair slightly damp from the ocean. His arms slowly wrapped around you, surprising you in the process. You couldn’t help the grin that appeared on your face when you realized whose hands were holding you against their chest. No words were said as the salty ocean wind wrapped around the both of you. Jimin hid his face in your neck, whispering how much he loves you.

“Want to see a magic trick?” Jimin whispered into your ear, softly nipping your earlobe in the process.

You nodded in response to his question, leaning your back into his chest more as the ocean breeze picked up slightly.

Jimin smiled and wrapped his hands closer around you. He then raised one hand and motioned the water to move, and the ocean responded to his wishes quickly. He then moved his hands in such a way that created a dome of water that encased the both of you. You were mesmerized at the fishes and crabs that flowed in the water that Jimin controlled. You leaned forward as you tried to touch a fish, but the fish was a little faster than your hand. You let out a small chuckle as you saw the tiny fish dart around the dome of water.

Jimin gently moved his fingers and managed to trap the fish you were looking at into a ball of water that was separate from the dome. He moved it and brought it closer to you. You were in awe at the beautiful colors that glowed off the fish.

Just as Jimin was about to do another trick with the water, Namjoon called from the shore.

“Food is ready! Come and get it!”

“You hungry my love?” Jimin asked, returning all of the water back to the ocean.

“Yeah, we should head to shore soon,” you replied, turning around to face Jimin, you arms instinctively wrapping around his neck.

He sent you a flirtatious smirk before grabbing your waist and lifting you up. He wrapped your legs around his waist and carried you all the way to shore. As he walked, he placed kisses upon your cheek, adoring how you blushed at each kiss you received.

Once you both reached the shore, you joined the others and had a big feast. It was one of the best times in your life, you felt.

At the end of the feast, all eight of you had climbed the truck that you guys drove in to arrive on this spot on the island. The sun was close to setting, but it hadn’t gone down just yet. All seven males surrounded you, providing you with warmth and love. They all were joking around and discussing the funny mistakes they have done while practicing for concerts. You laughed along as Jungkook was being teased by his elders.

“Oh shoot, I left my Polaroid camera on the picnic bench,” Taehyung quickly said, his eyes squinting as he stared at the table that was a few meters away from the truck.

“I can go get it, I left my sunglasses there too,” you offered, already moving off the truck before the others could interject.

“Wait, are you sure princess, one of can go get it instead,” Seokjin said, his eyes furrowed with worry as you slid off the truck and onto the soft sand.

“Mhm, it’s not that far so I’ll be okay,” you said, sending all seven males a heart stopping smile. You quickly turned around and made your way to the picnic bench, grabbing the camera and sunglasses.

As you made you turned around, you saw all seven males still chatting away on the truck with their backs to you, the sun still bright and strong in the sky. It was a perfect picture moment.

Hmm I don’t think Taehyung will mind if i used the camera once

You raised the camera to your eye and steadied your hand. A slow breath left you as you snapped the photo, the clicking sound of the camera being camouflaged by the sounds of the ocean waves. You watched as the photo was released from the device, the image slowly being developed before your eyes. The final picture was simple but it was perfect to you. You tucked the photo away into your pocket and continued your way to the boys.

The rest of the day was spend upon the truck, watching the sun set as the sky began to fill with stars. Each member took their turn in pointing out constellations in the sky and making new ones up. It was a beautiful and unforgettable day for you. Soon sleep had began to overtake you, and the boys became aware of that. They all piled into the truck, Hoseok carrying into the back seat so you could sleep. They headed back to the private jet waiting for them about a mile or two down the island shore.

Within an hour or two, all eight of you had arrived at the same hotel you had all first met in. The same room was rented out again, and it was as if nothing had really changed from the last time they were there, The gold decor still shined on the walls and tables, the curtains drawn back to reveal the moon shining bright in the sky.

Jungkook had carried your sleeping body from the car and into the hotel. He brought you to a room they decided would be yours for the night. He carefully tucked you in before pressing a delicate kiss upon your forehead. He whispered a good night before closing your door behind him, heading to the room he would be sharing with Taehyung for the night.

The entire hotel room was quiet as the next day soon began.

-------------------------------------------------------------

You woke up due to the sounds of chairs being moved and footsteps running around.

You turned your head to the side to look at the clock.

9:00 AM

You looked around at your surrounding and soon realized you were back at the hotel that you had first met the boys at. Your eyes landed on the small porcelain figurine that sat on the bed side table. It was the crouching angle with the wings wrapped around itself. This time, however, all feathers of the wings were painted gold.

Hmm they must have fixed the scratches and painted it

You got out of bed and looked outside to see what was going on. When you sleepy entered the living room area, you were met with all the boys running around, trying to get their clothes in bags.

“Uhh morning?” you squeaked out, watching as Jimin and Yoongi nearly run into each other.

You were met with a chorus of cheerful good mornings, each male sending you their signature smile.

“We’re heading to the arena in an hour or so. You should get ready too, you’re going to be back stage for this concert,” Namjoon said, sending you a quick wink.

“Oh, I’m going to be with you guys this concert?” you asked back, surprised at the sudden invitation.

“Yup, we need our good luck charm with us,” Taehyung said, sliding past you and planting a kiss on your cheek as he headed down the hall.

You chuckled and headed back to your room, quickly diving for your small duffel bag of clothes in search of something to wear. As you were getting ready, you noticed something fall out of your pocket. It was the picture from yesterday. You smiled down at the photo before tucking it away in the pocket of the jeans you were going to wear to the concert.

Within an hour, everyone in the hotel room was ready to go. You were extremely excited because this was going to be your second ever time seeing a BTS concert. and this time you got to be back stage with all seven of them.

Everyone quickly made their way out of the hotel room and to the van waiting outside for them. The trip to the arena was short, and from the moment the boys stepped out of the van, they were being ushered quickly to hair and makeup. You were guided to one of the waiting rooms filled with snacks, drinks, and a TV. Some of the boys would occasionally pop in when it wasn’t their turn to get dressed or have their hair done, usually just cuddling with you until they had to rush out again.

Soon, it was time for the boys to begin their concert. You were brought to a special private spot behind stage where you could see where the boys would be performing. The crowd was cheering loud, and you couldn’t help but smile at how proud you were of all seven males.

Your smile widened as you saw all of the members appear before you, dressed in dazzling outfits.

“May we get a quick good luck kiss before we go perform my dear princess?” Seokjin asked, taking your hand and kissing the back of it.

You laughed at his request and nodded yes in response to his question. You gave each one a kiss on the cheek, whispering a good luck to each one as they received their kiss.

Before you knew it, all seven males were out on stage, beginning the concert. The crowd was going wild, and the lights were flashing. You thought you saw the slight illumination of the silhouette of the wings for the members, but you couldn’t tell because it disappeared as soon as it appeared. Each male stood on stage with a strong and confident aura radiating off of them. They really did look like angels on stage.

--------------------------------------------------

The concert came to an end around 12:30 AM, the lights dimming as they finished the final note of Let Go. It was a beautiful scene, the lights shinning on the seven boys, their skin glistening under the flashing lights. It was like an unforgettable scene.

You and the boys made your way back to the hotel under the shadows of the night, The full moon was shining bright in the sky, glimmering alongside the stars. All seven males were exhausted from the concert, but they were proud of the performance they gave.

“Do you all want to maybe watch a movie when we get back?” Jimin suggested as you all rode the elevator to the seventh floor.

All the others murmured in agreement, liking the idea of maybe all spending the night in the living room together.

The elevator’s metal doors slid open to reveal the dimmed hallway, the elegant decorations on the wall still glimmering. Within a few minutes, all eight of you were sprawled all over the living room, a Netflix movie being played. You sat on Taehyung’s lap, curled up to him as you watched the movie. Jungkook and Hoseok sat on the ground right in front of you, their heads leaned back so thay you could play with their hair whenever you wanted to. Yoongi sat to the left of Taehyung, letting you absentmindedly play with the rings on his hand from time to time. Jimin was on the right side of Taehyung, his hands often playing with your hair as he watched the movie. Namjoon sat to the left of Yoongi while Seokjin was on the right of Jimin. Both would often steal glances at you when you weren’t looking, admiring the beautiful moonlight against your skin.

Through two thirds of the movie, you had begun to fall asleep against Taehyung, your eyes barely keeping open. Soon enough, your head began to droop, and all seven males took quick note of that. Taehyung began to sing a little of Spring Day, in hopes to help you fall asleep faster. The others were quick to join in as they saw the lullaby working on you. Quickly, your eyes fluttered close as your breaths evened. All members stared at your sleeping form and couldn’t help the happiness that filled their minds. Namjoon quickly turned off the movie and silently communicated to the others that it would best to sleep now too.

The others nodded in agreement before closing their eyes, letting sleep finally take over. The full moon slipped behind clouds and left the living room in a blanket of delicate shadows, nothing moving as the night continued.

-------------------------------------

The bright sun shone through the room, causing you to stir awake. You slowly peeled your eyes open to reveal the hotel living room. Your vision began to clear and you found yourself gazing at the angel statue sitting on the table, the same one you saw earlier on your bed side. The gold feathers glistened under the sun’s ray, causing a small rainbow to be splayed upon the table. You sat up and looked around, confused at why the other boys weren’t near by. You looked around and saw the place was kept clean and tidy, no more clothes laying all over the floor from the previous day when the members were rushing around to prepare for the concert.

You got up and checked the hallway to see if any of the members were there. You called out for each of them, but were met with silence. You frowned at the realization that no shoes besides yours littered the front door. You pulled out your phone to try to call Namjoon, but your number didn’t go through, the robotic voice saying that the number you were trying to reach isn’t in service.

You looked around, but there was no clue or indication of where the boys went. Your train of thought was broken when you heard the sound of the room’s door handle being toyed with. You quickly rushed to the door in hopes that it might be one of the members, but instead you were met with one of the cleaning ladies.

“Oh, I’m sorry madam, I thought no one was in here,” the woman said, bowing her head slightly as she moved her cleaning cart away from the entrance.

“Wait, have you seen seven tall males come out of this room yet?” you asked, walking up to the woman.

She frowned at you and said that no one has checkout yet today. You thanked her for her help and told her that you would be gone from the room in half an hour. She nodded at your response and left the hotel room, closing the door behind her. You quickly ran to your room to pack up. You opened the door the reveal your duffel bag sitting upon a neatly made bed. It was as if no one had ever been in there. You looked inside the duffel bag to see all your belongings sitting inside. You frowned in confusion.

I don’t remember packing

You ignored the thought and quickly rushed out of the hotel. When you made it to the parking lot, you realized that your car wasn’t with you. Since the boys had driven you here last night, you decided to use a taxi to get to head to the dorms.

Where the hell are they? Why would they leave without telling me

You were irritated to say the least, but more worried at the fact that Namjoon didn’t answer his call. He always answers no matter what.

You thanked the taxi driver before stepping out of the vehicle. You stepped onto the concrete sidewalk before looking up at the building. You frowned as you noticed the name of the building was different from what you usually remember.

Am I in the right place? No, this is the place. I know it,

You headed towards the parking garage and approached the lock door. You shuffled through your duffel bag and pulled out the apartment key the boys had given you a long time ago. You tried to fit it into the lock, but it wouldn’t fit.

Did they change the lock recently?

You frowned, but attempted again only to fail. You stood there for a few seconds before deciding to try to call the other members and Namjoon again.

Fifteen minutes and seven robotic messages saying the number you called was out of service later, you found yourself still standing in front of the garage door, a slight panic starting to fill your mind.

Where the hell are they?

You decided to take a taxi home after that and hopefully clear your mind a little so you could figure out where the boys were. You took a shower the minute you got home. As you undressed, you realized something was still in your pocket. You pulled it out to reveal the picture from the beach the other day. The picture only showed the back of each male, but you could easily tell who was who. You smiled at the picture before placing it on your bed and continuing on into the shower.

Once you finished showering, you pulled out your laptop, sitting on your bed as you opened the device.

Hmm, usually they post on social media about where they are. Maybe I can check that to see where they are.

You pulled up google and searched up the BTS twitter, but you frowned in confusion when google provided you only with links to behind the scene videos of various video creators. You tried searching up BTS, but again, nothing but behind the scene recommendation videos appeared.

You pulled up your YoutTube subscription and searched for the BigHit channel, but found nothing. At this point, you felt panic finally starting to settle into your bloodstream. You continually searched on google for them, but nothing appeared. When you searched up their full names, nothing appeared. There were no google results for each member.

You quickly pulled out your phone and dialed one of your co workers, your throat starting to become constricted at the confusion that was making you panic.

“Hey Y/n, was up? You usually don’t call on the weekends,” your coworker said, their static voice being emitted from your phone.

“Uh quick question, you know who BTS is right? Do you happen to know why there are no search results about them on google?” you asked, your mind rushing with thoughts.

“BTS? You mean like ‘Behind the Scenes’?” your coworker said, a hint of confusion in their voice.

“No no, the boy band you know? The really famous ones that have been holding world tours and everything like that?”

“Uhh, I don’t recall any band with the name BTS. Are they new or something?” your coworker asked, still sounding confused.

Each response you were getting back only made you more panicked.

“Uh that’s okay, never mind. Just ignore what I was asking. Thank you,”

“Yeah no problem Y/n, feel free to call again anytime,” your corworker said before hanging up.

You sat in your room in silence as you tried to sort through your thoughts.

They couldn’t have just disappeared like that. It’s impossible. They were here.

You quickly pulled out your phone and headed for your photo gallery.

Photos. I should have photos of them. They were real. I swear.

You opened the gallery only to reveal that there was no trace of them, Nothing.

No no no this can’t be.

Tears began to well up in your eye as you continually scrolled through the photos you had. Not a single photo indicated anything related to BTS. Nothing.

You couldn’t help the sob that soon racked your body. You were confused and so lost. You didn’t have anyone to hold you this time as the tears came down your face. Your dropped your phone on the bed and tried to stop your tears by wiping them with your hands but they just wouldn’t stop.

They were here, I swear. I loved them so much, they wouldn’t just leave like this.

An hour passed and your sobs soon turned to sniffles. Your vision began to clear as the tears slowed, your room beginning to darken as the sun started setting. You looked around you for some tissues but paused when you saw the small Polaroid photo still sitting on the bed. You shakily reached over and brought it closer in your field of vision. There, sitting upon the truck with their back to the camera, was the seven males. You smiled at the memory.

This is all I have of them at the moment....

You couldn’t help as another overwhelming wave of emotions overtook your body again. You cried again until you couldn’t anymore, fatigue finally overtaking you. You fell asleep unknowingly, the Polaroid picture still held in you hand. It was your last evidence that they were real.

----------------------------------------

Half a year passed, Autumn went and Winter had arrived with full force. You had spent the first three months asking friends around about BTS, hoping one of them would understand who you were talking about, but their responses revealed they had no clue who BTS were. You spent every night of the first month without the seven males crying yourself to sleep. You felt like half your heart was gone. It was so difficult to carry on in life without them. But time soon passed, and as the winter breeze arrived in Korea, you slowly began to give up on your search for the seven males you had come to love in the past. You kept that Polaroid photo you took at the beach with you everywhere you went, just as a small reminder that the love you experienced was real. You learned to fall back into the regular flow of work life again, but you always felt like you were missing something important in life.

--------------------------------

It’s now been seven months since BTS had disappeared from your life and the world. It’s been three months since you’ve given up your search.

It was another regular work day for you, and it was one of the coldest days of the month. Winter this year was a lot harsher than the previous years. You had bundled yourself in a red coat, a scarf wrapped around your neck to keep you warm.

You glanced at your clock and realized you were running a little late. You grabbed your wallet and keys from the wardrobe top, about to make a rush for the door when you saw something flutter to the floor. You stopped and picked it up. It was the Polaroid photo. You kept it in your wallet so you always had it with you wherever you went. A small bittersweet smile graced your lips as you gazed down at the picture. Your could still vividly remember the moment you took the photo in your head.

Kim Seokjin, Kim Namjoon, Jung Hoseok, Min Yoongi, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook

You recited their names as you your eyes flickered to every figure in the picture.

I still haven’t forgotten your names

You stared a little bit longer before placing the photo on the wardrobe top, opening your wallet to slide the photo back in. You paused for a second as you stared at the photo again. You looked down at your wallet before closing it, sliding it into your purse nearby. You walk back to the wardrobe and picked the Polaroid back up. A sigh left you as you leaned the Polaroid against one of the picture frames on the wardrobe instead of putting it back in the wallet.

I’m ready to let go, but I’ll never forget

You quickly grabbed your purse and keys and headed for the door, the cold winter breeze meeting you as you prepared to step out. You looked back at the Polaroid one more time from a distance before heading out. locking the door behind you.

Your feet softly crunched against the snow that thinly coated the ground. The sound of birds chirping and the sound of the city filled the silence. As your feet dragged to your car, you glanced up at the small snowflakes that littered the morning sky. You smiled as one landed on your lips. You paused slightly as you saw a small feather fall from the sky alongside the snowflakes. it was small and white, its beautiful shine creating the illusion of a rainbow. It fell slowly and landed on your open hand. You toyed and twisted the feather in your hand before letting it continue its descent to the ground where it was camouflaged among the snowflakes again.

You got into your car and made your way to work again, a content smile graced on your lips and you started your day.

----------------- FIN ----------------------------

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ruffiorocks · 5 years

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Little scene I'd enjoy seeing.

You know what I'd really like to see this season? Lena being pissed at Supergirl but she goes about it in petty amusing ways:

. She starts to lock her balcony doors

. she has tech set up to alert her if Supergirl is flying by , she has shutters on her doors and windows now.

. Supergirl as we all know is very loose with her X Ray vision. Seeing Lena's office all blacked out she immediately uses her X Ray vision to see through the door.

. Supergirl gets a rude awakening though when she immediately gets a head ache and can't see through the glass. Turns out Lena has repurposed the tech she used so Reign couldn't see through her cell, the one Supergirl got all pissed off about even thinking it could hurt her, when in reality it gave her a headache and just meant she couldn't be nosey.

. Supergirl of course is both pissed and confused so she tries to land on the balcony, but Lena knows she's there and amuses herself by pressing a button that either throws up a barrier or retracts the balcony everytime Supergirl tries to land.

. Supergirl is desperate to know what's going on and a little suspicious because she suddenly can't invade Lena's privacy and why would Lena need privacy from a Super? Must be suspicious! She's not used to be denied!

. Left with little options other than smashing through the balcony, making a scene, pissing Lena off and causing a lot of damage she knows she can't pay for since the DEO are no longer covering Super related public destruction she is left with one option....

.Supergirl has to land on the street and go through L Corp lobby! Signing in like any other visitor. It slips her mind that it's Kara Danvers who has access all to Lena's office, NOT Supergirl, since she just tends to land on the balcony. So she has to stand in line with the mail man, a few in turns and some other businessman. Oh and it takes a WHILE!

. Once she's signed in using the visitors book, and has a temporary ID badge given to her she thinks she can go and see Lena! Oh my sweet summer Kryptonian....

. Supergirl then has to have a full pat down in front of EVERYONE! Lena doesn't take any chances with her security since Alana the Traitor and the amount of people with guns who have made it to her office. Supergirl is cursing herself right now for suggesting some of these security checks to Lena to keep her safe.

. Once the pat down is done, which included her having to remove her boots and stand around in her tights she then has to go through a metal detector.

. Supergirl raises an eyebrow at the security guard but he doesn't even flinch. She walks through it and sets it off because 1. Her ear comm and 2. She is made of steel.

. This leads to more security guards heading towards Supergirl and she is trying to explain she is literally made of steel!

. While this is going on visitors and employees at L Corp are taking their phones out and filming it.

. Lena has already been informed Supergirl is in the lobby and she's watching this circus unfold on her big TV with satisfaction. She is going to make sure to upload the footage to YouTube when it's done.

. Eventually Supergirl is allowed to go to the top floor, but she's told she's not allowed to fly in the building, when she asks why she's told it's simple L Corp policy, Lena employs many aliens and some can fly, but she won't have flying in the office anymore than she allows running in her halls!

. Supergirl is then forced to wait for the lift and squeeze in with a lot of people. She has to stop at every floor and have everyone stare at her and take photos as soon as the doors open.

. Eventually she makes it to the top floor, she thinks this nightmare is over but then again it's Kara Danvers with 24 hour access to Lena NOT Supergirl. She strides past Jess' desk only to be halted by an unamused (although cackling on the inside) secretary. Jess demands to know what Supergirl thinks she's doing and Supergirl can't manage anything more than wanting to see Lena.

. So Jess tells her to take a seat while she calls Lena.

. Jess is on the phone with Lena for a few minutes and then she looks up and asks Supergirl if it's an emergency? Supergirl can't say it is, so Jess tells her that Lena is busy, but she's welcome to wait until she's done?

. Supergirl sits on the couch for half an hour and is offered a cup of tea by Jess, which she accepts. As soon as she starts to drink it more people take photos of her.

. Supergirl then starts to talk to Alex over her comms because she hasn't checked in for a while. Jess is NOT amused and says she can't have that on in here, if she has a call to make she can take it back downstairs.

. Dreading the idea of having to get back in the lift and go through this charade again she abruptly tells Alex she's fine and cuts her off.

. Eventually Jess' phone rings and Supergirl is allowed to go and see Lena.

.Lena schools her face into her CEO mask because shes been trying really hard not to burst out laughing knowing Kara would hear her.

. Supergirl schools her face into what she thinks is her hero face, and marches into the office only to be met by a Lena that hasn't even bothered to look up.

. "you have 5 minutes Supergirl, I'm a busy woman."

. Supergirl then tries to throw the retracting balcony and the forcefield in Lena's face.

. Lena still doesn't look up from her paper work and merely states "for you to know there was a forcefield at all you would have had to used your x Ray vision to violate my privacy Supergirl. I would have thought blacked out windows were a sign I don't want to be seen, unless you're about to accuse me of more nefarious deeds and being out to get you when you're the one who just admitted to violating my privacy, you know like the time you asked my then boyfriend to spy on me? X Ray vision doesn't give you the right to violate privacy Supergirl! Next time get a warrant!" Lena finally looks up and raises an eyebrow.

. Supergirl is gobsmacked and has NOTHING! She tries to claim she was worried, but even she knows that isn't true really. She jumped to conclusions again and has had a big dose of reality thrown at her, she can't just do whatever she wants.

. Lena says she's had her 5 minutes, Lena's tech only gives Supergirl a head ache at best. It's all perfectly above board so Supergirl can't go crying to the DEO or Alex about it. Lena tells her if she ever tries to violate her privacy again she'll take her to court. Now she can leave the same way she came in.

. Supergirl looks longingly at the blacked out balcony windows but Lena, who has gone back to looking at her work states "and no, you can't use the balcony, the lift is good enough for me and my employees so it's good enough for you. I did state to you once that my balcony is NOT an entrance, it's not an exit either."

. Supergirl leaves and is to wounded to even care she's still being filmed. Lena was right, she used her powers to take advantage of Lena's privacy and not for the first time. She can't just use her powers on people, it's not right. She assumed Lena, her best friend was up to no good. She didn't respect the fact that the blacked out windows, barrier and retracting balcony were obvious signs Lena wanted to be left alone.

. Lena sits back in her chair and sighs, she enjoyed the first part of this plan, but the rest was a bitter sweet revenge. She decides not to upload the footage, but she doesn't bother with anyone else uploading it. She doesn't hate Kara, but she isn't ready to be OK with the lies. Kara had just proven to Lena that she doesn't fully trust her no matter how much they have been through. But she makes a silent promise to herself that she will still be there for Kara even if she is a colossal ass!

. She won't tell Kara she knows though, she wants to know how long it will take her to come clean. Kara using her x Ray vision just reinforces the idea that she was spying on Lena the whole time.

#supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers #alex danvers #supercorp #jess the secretary

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renegade-is-in-my-blood · 5 years

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Following my previous article called Quick trip to Salt Mine Wieliczka in Poland here is another of my Polish trip. After our salt mine tours me and my family headed to nearby town Oswiecim. The German name for Oswiecim is Auschwitz and I hope that’s ringing some bells now. Even though from my experience many non-Europeans are not very familiar with this horrid part of our history. Now I’m gonna bring you on our tour over Auschwitz concentration camp and the dilemma that’s been bothering me ever since I visited.

Do you take selfies in places like concentration camps?

Just like with any other trip we prepared ahead. Checked some websites, the address, how to get there and other stuff. But the reality was slightly different and from the organization point of view it was terrible and I’ll explain why.

From Wieliczka, it was like an hour-long car ride. We found out that Slovak and Czech tours over the summer end by 2 o’clock and we arrived at around 2. Our bad.

There were several lines of people waiting and all of them were very poorly labeled.

Plenty of lines and the combination of an extremely hot day equals bad start.

Luckily there was a girl sitting at the information table so I asked what to do to get in. She pointed me to one of the lines. Still, I had no idea what ticked or tours do we need as a group as all of the information were written on the paper next to the ticket stall, that was just too far for me to see.

On the internet, we found that the entry without the tour guide is free, but you can’t get in without a guide. I also found somewhere online that you can get in for free in times expect 10-15, but I can’t confirm that as that info was nowhere to find in the area of the camp.

After a while, I saw this small tv screen that shown upcoming tours. We could choose from English, Polish, Spanish, French, Italian and German. The frequency was similar that the one in Wieliczka salt mine. English was every 30 minutes or so. Other languages were in between 30-60 minutes each.

I asked for 5 adult tickets and English tour guide. At that, the lady handed me a small piece of paper and asked to write our names on it. Didn’t expect that so I asked for more info but the lady only said to write all of our names.

As a pharmacist, I’m not legally allowed to ask my patients for their name or any other personal information because of newly established GDPR law. To have 5 names written on a piece a paper and then slide it over to the lady was so odd for me.

Didn’t get an explanation of why is that necessary.

I have a very doctor like handwriting. It’s terrible and even I have issues reading after myself sometimes. So naturally the lady laughed after glancing at the paper I handed her, and starter decrypting our names and I guess typing it to the computer. After a while, she asked for 60zlotys per person and handed me 5 stickers with Auschwitz gate and 2:30 written on it along with 5 bills, each with our names on it.

I could only guess where to go next. From Wieliczka experience, I assumed the tour queues would be labeled with the flag of the language but I was mistaken. So I asked where is the English one and we stepped in line. It was 2:20 and our tour started at 2:30.

All of the websites inform you that you can’t bring bags inside so obviously we left everything besides phones and water bottle in our car. Just like the Wieliczka, there were plenty of parking spaces and guys in neon vests pointing you towards it. Ours was like 8 minutes from the Auschwitz entrance.

When it was our turn I handed the tickets to the old guy. Suddenly he read my fathers name out loud. Another surprise. For a guy working on an American tour guide entrance, he had terrible English. I asked him what is going on and he just said: “one ticket one ID”. Obviously we left it all in our car. I tried to explain to him that, but the language barrier was so strong I said fuck it. Let’s run to our car and get the ids hopefully in time for our tour.

It was 34°C and we spend 20 minutes on direct sunlight waiting in various lines.

Gosh, we were all so sweaty it was disgusting. We actually run to our car and got back to stand the line. Again. We each showed our id to the old guy and he let us in. Not to talk about my family much but we all have very volatile nature and we were tired and sweaty. We were furious. Little did we know we were nowhere near our tour yet.

From one gate to another, where we went through the body checkup. We didn’t even have bags but we had to go through a metal detector. Guys had to strip their belts into the bin to get through with it. It was 2:32. We were already late only to find out we need to wait in yet another line. We were done. It felt like the whole trip was ruined before it even started.

At this stopping point, we were handed recorder with a set of headphones. The ones that go over your head and to the both of your ears. Much better than the previous ones. The girl working there handed me another 5 stickers and I told her we already have those but no one told us what are we supposed to do with it. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world, she told us to stick it on our shirt. So we did and we saw a lady in the back with an “English” sign on it so we run towards her. She was already speaking to our group of 20 people. We were late, out of breath, sweaty and upset we already drank half of our water supply.

Finally, we put our headphones on and the Auschwitz-Birkenau tour began.

I don’t want to get into historical facts in here as it’s something you’re either familiar with or can easily find out. You can know all about the timeline of the events, the mechanism the reasoning, but nothing compares to the real-life experiences of walking the concentration camp.

I’ve been to the holocaust museum in Washington D.C. at my summer in the states and I shared my experience in Summer in USA – Washington D.C. article. The Auschwitz group I was in reminded me of my American experience. The gasping, the whispering, headshakes and the whole body language of my co-tourists made me sort of angry. Angry at the system that doesn’t provide the information that many people learn them at the spot.

Sounds like I’m full of myself I get that. I get that not everyone is into war documentaries and it’s safer not to talk about the holocaust. I’m sure it’s different when you learn about the holocaust because you have to in school, and different because you want to. It’s hard to talk about or even think about. I get it.

There was this quote at the front of the first camp block:

I believe says a lot. More if you think about how the camps were not supposed to serve to systematically murder millions. The beginnings were not “that bad” in the later comparison.

Don’t get me wrong it was still horrendous but when we went from Auschwitz I. to Auschwitz II. the difference was substantial.

First was supposed to hold the targeted group of people in inhuman condition, even offer them some sort of trials. Playing proper society. Make them feel safe, make them hope that their stay is only temporary, pack their belongings to preoccupy their mind form the fact they are never coming back. If that doesn’t sound like the current world situation, I don’t think you’re paying attention.

Let’s go back to the tour.

We went from one block to another. All of them were numbered but not all of them were open for visitors. That was great in case you want to visit after hours to walk the camp on your own. The tour guide told us much more than what we could read from the posters ourselves. Told us what to focus on, the story of the items we were seeing.

Our tour guide was a young lady that had a german accent but it was quite simple to understand her English. I already mentioned it was terribly hot that day and the inside of the camps obviously had no climatization and quickly the smell of the camp melted with the sweat of the thousands of tourists. They did have some fans in the rooms to make the tour manageable.

We moved as a group, took some stops at several talking points where our guide talked us through the facts. Inside of the Auschwitz was much better organized than the outside of the camp. There were some arrows to point the way of the tour, separation ribbons, manny explanatory posters and photographs and more.

The whole experience was chilling.

You stand in front of the showcase with hundreds of shoes collected from the Jewish people who died in the place you stand on and you ‘re thinking how terrible that is. Then you move along the next room and you’re standing in a hall that has showcases full of thousands of shoes on both sides of the room and your breath hitches. You move to the next room where the actual hairs of holocaust victims are stored behind the glass but the smell and the vibe are too strong. In the next room you find baby clothes, next the tons of suitcases and the other one contains glasses, next one the empty cans of chemicals they used to murder millions and you wonder how much more can you handle.

You get out of the block through the hall full of photographs. People that spend horrible but hopefully short days in the camp. Each person had their name, profession, date of capture and date of death written underneath. Some survived days, some months. When you get out of the building you’re standing in front of the death wall. A place where the people stood when they were executed with the bullet in the back of their head. you walk past the block they did horrendous medical experiences on people. You turn around and you’re standing in front of the gas chamber. You enter the room. Plain, empty room that witnessed the death of thousands of people. Around 400 hundred per day until they build up Birkenau to increase the number and efficiency of their murders. I knew it was gonna be bad and I tried to brace myself for it.

But I don’t think anything can prepare you for the twisted feeling in your guts, the unease you feel and the chill of standing in the middle of the gas chamber.

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Since Auschwitz I. was no longer fulfilling the nazists needs, they build the other camp nearby referred to as Auschwitz II or Birkenau. Part of our tour was also the visit of Birkenau and for this purpose, there were busses prepared. The ride by bus from Auschwitz to Birkenau took like 3 minutes, victims back then had to walk to their execution by foot. In summer. In winter.

Only later on nazists build a railway to bring the next hundreds of Jewish people straight to the gas chamber. Sure they had sort of selection process that was basically just eenie meenie. Left meant immediate death. Right meant death after inhuman torture.

Birkenau was supposed to be part of our paid tour but no one checked our tickets. Not even on the bus, not even at the entrance to the Birkenau. I’m sure you could get in for free.

The difference between those two camps was quite visible. Auschwitz living conditions were horrible but they did have some sort of dignity in the form of walls, stairs or windows.

Auschwitz II basically stopped treating their occupants as human beings, rather just livestock as they had to live in a building that looked just like stables.

Even smelled like one. One bed for 8 people. Toilets in the form of a hole in the ground all of the people had to use the facility in 20 minutes 2 times per day. 1000 of them. All at once. They had a bucket to use in case but most of the people were so exhausted they couldn’t move on their own to use the bucket, so the body fluids and waste were all over the place. Those who were too weak or too slow to work the whole day long on a coffee and a liquid soup they got as a breakfast, were simply selected for elimination.

At this time of our tour, the weather changed dramatically. From previously unbearable hot day to a big storm. To see these big ass lightings and hear thunders over the gas chambers was unbelievable.

Suddenly it becomes very dangerous for us to stand in the middle of a plane with so many metallic components. We had to end our tour earlier but it still left a grand impact on myself. It was 3 hours long tour with a 20 minutes break between the two camps.

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There is this one thing that’s been bothering me since the entry of the camp. Someone from our tour group asked our tour guide:

“Is it ok to take photos?”

“Yes, in a respectful way.”

And my question is: where are the boundaries? Do you take selfies in a place where millions died?

As a blogger or influencer or whatever your main goal is to promote. To sell. To bring attention to something. You can do it in many different ways but visual aids are mostly the golden choice. If you search Instagrams or twitters hashtags for Oswiecim, Auschwitz or concentration camp there are few patterns that occur. The photograph of a person sitting on a Birkenau railway with a gate in the background. The photo in front of the Auschwitz gate or the photos from the roll-call square.

And I’m just trying to grasp what is the meaning of it.

Aesthetically pleasing? Of course not.

Proof that you travel? That makes the most sense.

You’re into deeper issues? Possibly but do you achieve this statement with selfies?

I personally didn’t even think about taking photos of myself at the camp. To be fair I take a shit a lot of photographs from every random thing I like and my family is super annoyed with it. That’s why they were kind of surprised I didn’t ask them to be my personal photographers in Oswiecim.

Is like, do you need to promote this part of history? Talk about it and remember it sure. But how do you do it?

Do you smile for the photos?

Do you need to remember the place by looking at yourself in there?

I just felt like I was being super disrespectful by even taking the photos I did and shared here with you.

There were several places where the museum actually asked the visitors not to take photos. Like in the room with the hair of the deceased. And still, many visitors from our group shamelessly took out their phones and took the pictures anyway. Honestly, are you ever gonna forget that image?

I feel like I’m shaming the people that do take selfies in concentration camps and I apologize. I would really like to hear your opinion on this issue in the comments thought.

After 3 hours we were exhausted both physically a mentally. No matter how badly our Auschwitz tour began the result was unforgettable. I believe that everyone should visit places like concentration camp or museum of the holocaust at least once in their lifetime as a reminder of evil humanity is capable of.

Auschwitz concentration camp and the dilemma of selfies Following my previous article called Quick trip to Salt Mine Wieliczka in Poland here is another of my Polish trip.

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berniesrevolution · 6 years

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I knew my school would put up prison bars sooner or later. It had been too free to last. I haven’t been back in ten years, but I wasn’t shocked when a friend showed me photos of what it looks like now: all around our once wide-open campus, there are bars and metal security gates. In my day, you could walk on and off as you pleased (and we did). No locked doors could keep you out; it was like a college campus. Now, you have to pass through one of the few official entrances, no doubt manned by security personnel.

I doubt there was any public opposition to putting iron bars around the campus. In fact, I’m sure it was applauded: in my hometown of Sarasota, the school board has frantically been spending millions on “long-overdue” security measures at all of its schools, making sure nobody can just walk into a school and every visitor is tracked and registered. This just makes sense, post-Parkland. At Sarasota High School, there have been long debates about how to close off the last remaining way that the campus can be freely accessed from the street: it’s an intolerable risk, everyone seems to think, not to have a barricade.

I don’t share this instinct. I am horrified by it, actually. The fact that everyone thinks it perfectly reasonable to build a gigantic cage around the school, that they think this is so sensible and necessary that nobody could possibly see anything wrong with it, suggests to me a world gone completely insane. I look at the black barriers around my own Pine View School and I see what is quite obviously a dystopia. We were free, and now the students are behind bars. We used to wander wherever we chose. Now you need to get permission. How can anyone look at that and not be disturbed by it? How could anyone watch them building the barriers and not scream “Stop! What are you doing? This is a school, not a fortress!”

Of course, to the extent anyone was disturbed to watch the gates go up initially, their feelings will subside soon enough. Human beings can get used to pretty much anything, which is one of the reasons terrible things happen and nobody notices they’re abnormal. And soon there will be generations of students who don’t even remember when it wasn’t caged. They won’t even be able to imagine such a thing. A world without the security doors would be inconceivable. In fact, the above photos probably don’t look nearly as disturbing to you as they do to me. You can’t see what I see, because you never saw it differently. I see a path that used to be traveled freely, a place I spent nearly ten years wandering around doing whatever I felt like, hideously deformed with bars and gates. You just see a fence, like any other fence. You might even think I sound demented.

I don’t know. It’s very hard to convey what this means to me without sounding crazy, and that’s what worries me. Increased security measures are so rational that they seem inevitable. School shootings are so awful that we’d be crazy not to put in metal detectors and hire an army of guards and give the teachers guns and build a giant wall. And yet to me it feels so, so wrong. I can’t easily argue against it, but I feel it just mustn’t be allowed to happen. It’s partly because I experienced incredible freedom when I was young, and I know there is nothing like it, and I can’t accept that future students won’t get to have it, because that will mean the world is getting worse, and we have to stop the world from getting worse. Surely the gates are just temporary. Surely we’re all committed to tearing them down eventually, at least. But I know they’re not. Once those fences go up, they never, ever come down. Security measures only ever heighten. They do not get relaxed.

I should mention that I do also think this is a stupid response to the problem of shootings. We are all very familiar with mass shootings, because they are so horrifying and seem to occur so often. As a factual matter, however, students in public schools are not really at much risk. In the 20 years since Columbine, there have been half a dozen shootings with multiple fatalities at elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States. That’s half a dozen too many, obviously. But they are not a problem that justifies turning every school in the country into an armed compound. In fact, many of them could have been prevented if we were committed to sensible gun policy and had a school system that was capable of detecting and dealing with troubled students. The Parkland shooter had been reported to police dozens and dozens of times, and had openly made threats to shoot up the school. That was where the failure was, and that’s what needs to be fixed. The Sandy Hook shooter should never have had access to heavy weaponry. By the time these people get to the schoolhouse, we’ve already failed.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #current affairs #school shooting #public education

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happiness-and-klainebows · 5 years

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Love on the Star

Over seven billion people in this world and I'm the one whose dreams come true. It couldn't have been someone else who had much more exciting dreams, no it had to be me. The boy who has the most basic dreams ever, get on Broadway, win a Tony, and maybe start a fashion line. Oh wait, I forgot the most basic part, I want to meet Blaine Anderson.

Blaine Anderson is an alternative singer who sings from the soul. He is the lead singer of my favourite band and I am lucky enough to have tickets to one of his concerts. Me and my best friend Rachel Berry will be in the front row of his first concert back in his home state of Ohio. Blaine was named the best singer of our generation and I have to agree with that.

Rachel and I both graduated from high school last spring and decided that we were going to take a semester or two off and go to NYU in the spring. Both of us were going for musical theatre, and we would be living together in an apartment. It was going to be fabulous!

At the moment I am in my room doing my nightly skincare routine since I most likely will not want to do it after the concert and I need to keep my porcelain skin free of blemishes. Rachel and I had the entire night planned out, and it was going to be the best night of my life!

Suddenly I hear the doorbell ring, must be Rachel. I yell to Finn that I'll get it, if he gets it then I will never get Rachel out of the house. You see, Rachel has a huge crush on Finn and has since sixth grade. Finn is my step brother and became it when my dad and his mom got married back when we were juniors in high school. Finn is this big oafy football player who surprisingly sings amazingly but dances like a giraffe learning to walk..

I throw open the door and sure enough there is Rachel in all of her kindergartener glory. She has long brown hair with blunt bangs across her forehead, a nose like a beak, and cheekbones that could cut glass. The only thing that makes her unattractive is her clothing, she dresses like a kindergartener on picture day.

“Hey Rachel,” I say blandly as Rachel throws her arms around me.

“Kurt! So I just got this new sweater just for this occasion and I thought I would ask the expert what he thought of it!” I am in no way an expert, I just love fashion and read vogue more than the average person..

“It totally looks fabulous!” I say in what I hope is a convincing voice, I may hate her fashion taste but I don’t want her to know that.

“So what’s the occasion?” I look behind me to see Finn standing there.

“We’re going to see Blaine Anderson in concert,” I try to explain, “we have VIP tickets and it’s in Columbus so we have to leave now to get there on time.”

“Okay, well have fun then,” Finn exits the room slowly while staring at Rachel, I’ve begun to suspect that he likes her back.

“You ready Rachel?” I say as I turn back to her.

“Absolutely!” We turn toward the door and head out toward my black Navigator.

I climb into the driver’s seat of the car and turn on the engine. Rachel immediately hooks up her phone so that she can start playing Blaine Anderson songs. This was gonna be a long car ride of singing and listening to Rachel’s self-absorbed babble.

We pull up to the concert venue after dinner and checking into the hotel. Once I find a parking spot I climb out of the car excitedly. I am shaking with anticipation as I open the door for Rachel. I grab her hand and run up to the door of the venue. When we get there I hand the attendant our tickets and I release Rachel’s hand in order to go through the metal detectors at the entrance. We get through and find our seats. We are right in front of where Blaine will be.

By the time the warm up bands are over the venue is full. I am kind of feeling claustrophobic and so I sit down, Blaine will be out in around five minutes. The five minutes go by quickly and at this point I am feeling extremely claustrophobic. I have a headache and feel like I may pass out and throw up. Rachel hasn’t noticed this and is instead jumping up and down in anticipation. The lights dim and I see a figure enter the stage through the floor, which has opened up. I stand up immediately and start yelling as well, almost all of the claustrophobic feelings dissipating my body as I see Blaine on stage singing.

At the moment Blaine is backstage getting ready for whatever song is up next. The lights are getting gradually darker as we wait for Blaine, without him onstage I have nothing to focus my attention on. The claustrophobic feelings are coming back and this time they are so much worse. Rachel turns to me and yells, ”Are you okay?” there is no way I’m yelling back so I just nod my head weakly. She seems to take this as an affirmative answer and just goes back to screeching with every other fan in the arena.

Soon I could see a shape on stage, it was short and I could just see the hint of curls on its head. Just from this outline though, I knew exactly who it was. Blaine was back onstage, but this time the feelings of claustrophobia did not dissipate completely.

The opening chords to the next song came on and the lights went completely out. Then they turned back on slightly and suddenly I saw a figure in front of me. The figure had dark hair that appeared to have been gelled but now curls were springing out all over the place, he wore an incredibly over the top gold suit, and I knew his name to be Blaine Anderson.

I couldn't breathe, I felt like I could pass out. He seemed to notice this and pulled me into a tight hug while singing the opening lines, once he pulled back he stopped singing and pointed the microphone towards me and said, ”Sing,”

I nearly passed out right then and there.

I sing the next lines much higher than he would have, I have an abnormally high voice for an eighteen year old boy, so when I sing I’m a countertenor, I was the only one in my glee club at McKinley.

When I finish singing he turns the microphone towards himself and starts singing again, pulling me into another hug. This time he starts to venture down the row further, hugging or giving handshakes to everyone who wants one. The claustrophobic feeling is completely gone now thanks to Blaine.

I can just faintly see Blaine as he belts out the last note of the song, at this point he has made his way to a piano. Soon the piano is being lifted up into the air. I am in wonder as he sings on this piano. How could this eighteen year old be singing at a sold out concert on a floating piano? It was just crazy.

I look back up at Blaine and see him staring directly at me as he sings the song. He's singing a cover of Teenage Dream by Katy Perry, I can remember that this was the first song I ever heard him sing, it's also the song that he got famous for singing. It seems like he is singing it to me but I know logically he isn't. He doesn't even know I exist.

The concert is over now, it's time for me to meet the one person that will completely change my life. Me and Rachel are following the security guards who are leading the small group of people with backstage passes. We flash the guards our passes and walk past into the room where Blaine will be. The guards have left to go get him while all of us get into a line. Rachel and I are in the middle of the line, which means that we have at least a half hour to wait. They take each group to hang out with him for ten minutes, and there are only six separate groups. Finally it’s Rachel and I’s turn to meet him. We walk up to the guards as Blaine says goodbye to the last group, my heart is racing as I see his eyes flick over to mine. His hazel eyes widen as they land on my glasz ones. I feel my heart flutter as Blaine grabs my hand and shakes it.

“My name is Kurt,” I whisper in a barely audible voice.

“Blaine. Obviously,” I can’t believe that I’m actually talking to Blaine Anderson, I feel weightless. Then Rachel ruins the moment with her loud mouth.

“My name is Rachel Barbra Berry! I am like your biggest fan. Well except maybe Kurt here, he's been listening to you since you sang Teenage Dream on your Myspace page!” Rachel continues to ramble on as I glare at her. Blaine is now paying attention to her, and I hadn’t realized that we were walking to another room until now. Finally, Rachel stops rambling. Blaine turns to me and asks how I am, this starts a conversation that lasts the full ten minutes with Rachel butting in every time she feels necessary, which is every ten seconds.

Finally our ten minutes are up and we have to leave. As we are gathering our stuff to leave Blaine yells something out.

“Wait! You guys didn’t get anything signed!” that’s when I realize that we didn’t, so I grab out the picture I wanted signed as Rachel grabs her’s. We both give him the pictures and he signs them. I don’t bother to look at mine as I give him a hug and say goodbye. I grab Rachel’s hand and scurry out of the room.

Once we get out of the venue, we get in our car and drive to the hotel. When we finally get there I look at the picture for the first time. It’s all normal, just a signature, and then I notice something strange. There seems to be a series of numbers underneath the signature. I freak out when I realize that it must be a phone number. I decide to text it to see whose it is.

Hello, who is this? I type this and then wait for an answer. When I don’t get one within the next hour, I start to think that maybe it’s a prank and so I go ahead and crawl into the bed next to Rachel, who is sound asleep. I am half asleep by the time I feel my phone vibrate, I grab it immediately and see a text back from the number.

This is Blaine. Is this Kurt? I drop my phone out of surprise. This can’t be Blaine Anderson, there is absolutely no way. I decide to text back to find out.

It’s been three months since I met Blaine and my life changed for good. Now he’s off tour and we are best friends, I told Rachel about Blaine and to say she freaked out would be an understatement.

After talking for two months we decided to take our relationship to the next level and we started dating after I accidentally told him that I had a crush on him during one of our phone calls and he said that he liked me back. It’s been a month now and Rachel is the only person who knows.

Blaine is finally coming to Ohio to visit his family when our worlds flip upside down and inside out. We’re celebrating our one year anniversary and going to our favourite restaurant, Breadstix. We hadn’t expected there to be paparazzi since it was late at night, but we obviously underestimated them because the next day there were pictures of us doing stuff from walking hand in hand down the sidewalk, pecking each other on the lips throughout dinner, and just sitting with each other sent to Blaine.

I find out about the pictures when Blaine calls me up crying and having a panic attack. I immediately rush over to his house, it’s strange to see him crying and panicking when he is usually always smiling and happy. This pictures obviously have distraught him quite a lot. When I get to his parent’s house, I knock on the door. His older brother Cooper opens the door and ushers me up to Blaine’s room. I’ve met Cooper once, when Blaine and I met for the second time in person, It was the first time since the concert.

When I get to Blaine’s room I knock on the door and announce my presence to him. He throws open the door and runs into my arms as I wrap them around him. His cheeks are tear streaked, and his usually hazel eyes are bloodshot. His usual gel helmet of hair is a curly and matted mess from sleep.

I feel him mumble against my chest and I pull back to hear what he is saying. He repeats the same phrase over and over with tears streaming down his cheeks. He’s choking on his words, and it hurts my heart to hear what he’s saying.

“My life is over, I’ve ruined everything.” That’s all he says as the tears drip onto my shirt. His hands navigate towards my waist as he bawls, I’m holding him tightly and rubbing his back. “Have they posted the pictures?” I whisper softly. He shakes his head and croaks out.

“No, but they said they would if I didn’t tell the world before Thursday.” The problem with all of this is that Blaine isn’t out of the closet yet and would like to keep that on his own terms, but at this point he’s just going to have to tell everyone.

“Blaine I think that you should tell everyone.” I whisper this softly, barely audible yet Blaine hears it.

“I think I will.”

Soon, Blaine and I are sitting on his bed., he has dried his tears, and is typing out a tweet to tell the world everything:

‘Hey guys, I have something that I need to confess. I have been keeping this a secret for years and quite a few of you have guessed. I’m gay, and I have an amazing boyfriend. His name is Kurt Hummel and I love him. If you don’t approve then go ahead and stop listening to my music. Thank you.’

I look over at Blaine and see fresh tears running down his face, I wipe them away as he presses the post button. Blaine throws his phone across the room as he starts sobbing again. The phone hits the wall with a crash and I’m honestly fearful that he broke the screen. I hear the phone vibrate with notifications as the tears fall from his eyes down to the soft sheets on his bed. I’m not sure if I should leave his phone or grab it, I’m not sure if I want to know how the world is reacting to the news. I finally decide to take the risky route and get up off of the bed, I cross the room and with shaky hands I grab the phone. I don’t look at what the replies say as I cross the room again and drop onto the bed next to Blaine. Without looking at the replies, I unlock his phone and open the ‘Twitter’ app. I open the tweet and start to scroll down to see the replies, my finger lands on the first one and I almost start crying along with Blaine.

‘I’m so happy for you. Everyone deserves to have joy in their life and it seems that you have found that joy. No one should be angry about you finding the one person who makes you truly happy, not even if that person happens to be a male. I hope that you are both very happy and that you know that you will always have at least one fan.’

A tear finds its way down my cheek as I turn the phone towards Blaine, he grabs the phone and reads the reply. He looks up at me and smiles through the tears, I lean forward and press my lips against his in assurance that everything’s going to be fine. It is going to be fine.

A year goes by and we are living our life on the high side. I moved in with Blaine about a month ago and life couldn’t be better. Rachel and Finn got together three months ago and now live right next door in the apartment on our left. It truly is a dream come true.

At the moment Blaine and I are sitting in a recording studio composing a tweet to tell the world about the fact that we will be starting a duo career. Blaine and I talked about it for a while and finally decided that it would be fun, we are dropping our first album in May and I couldn’t be more excited.

Finally everything in my life is perfect. Finally I get to live my life fulfilling my dreams instead of feeling like I’m fulfilling someone else’s. Finally I get to live my life the way I want to and I get to live it with the one person who matters most to me. That person just happens to be Blaine Anderson, and I couldn’t be happier about that fact. No matter how much disapproval we get from the public I know that I will always have Blaine. I know that the disapproval is inevitable as well because I found love on the star side.

#klaine #fanfic #writing #i wrote this for school #i got an a if anyone was wondering #romance #kurt hummel #blaine anderson #glee #help me #this is a cry for help

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esthersnippe · 6 years

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What it is like to be a level 6 security threat at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport

Ben Gurion has one of the most intense airport securities in the world.

Forget the American TSA, or Cuba exit check—this is the most insane security checks in the world.

Now, I only found this out after going through it, and googling “What the fuck is up with Ben Gurion Airport’s security?” (I read one or two stories that were milder or on par than mine, and one or two that were much more intense.)

Turns out that it actually a pretty well-known thing.

Luckily, just by chance, I arrived at the airport 3 hours before my flight, and thank god— because the majority of that was going to be spent waiting, and being searched, waiting, and being questioned, and waiting to get through to my departure gate. (Plus a touch of feeling humiliated for good measure.)

I arrived in the Arrivals Hall, and after a topsy-turvy wander about, I found the Departure Hall.

I printed out my ticket and made my way to the carry-on security check.

There were three lines, I saw the one was moving at a decent pace. So I stood for a good 30 minutes only to get to the front, where the security agent asked me where my sticker was.

I told her I had no idea what she was talking about.

She told me I had to go back to the front of the Departures Hall and pass the first stage of security.

A little pissed at the confusing nature of this, I stalked out of the line, and searched for the “First Security Checkpoint”.

Finally, I found it (turns out there was a sign for “Security check for carryon-only passengers” that I had missed.)

Security check for carryon-only passengers: Round One

There was no one in the line, so I automatically stood at the front of the line

“Excuse ma’am, that is not the entrance.”

“Sorry?”

“You have to go back and around to the entrance.”

“I don’t understand what you are trying to tell me.”

“You have to pass through that woman first,”

He said this pointing to a woman 10-12 meters away.

I rolled my eyes and walked to her.

She glanced at my passport and ticket and waved me through.

Security check for carryon-only passengers: Round Two

I went and stood back to where I had been standing a minute ago, and he waved me forward. Three other people would make the same mistake of just rocking up to the front: he was just as short with all of them sending them to see the other lady first.

He asked me some of the standard fodder airport security questions like “Why are you travelling?” “How long did you stay?” “What do you do for work?” But then some stranger questions were mixed in.

“Do you speak Hebrew?”

“No.”

“None? Not even a few words?”

“No.”

“Not even a bit in school?”

Wtf.

“No.”

“Tell me what you were doing in Lebanon. Where did you go and who did you meet?”

I answered carefully and honestly.

“So, you were Couchsurfing. What were the first and last names of all your hosts?” “Did you meet their families?” “Friends?” “What do they do for work?” “He was in logistics? What kinds of things was he shipping?” “Did you have correspondence with them before you arrived in Beirut? “ “For how many weeks?” “Have you kept in contact with them while you were here?” “When was the last message you sent them?” “What was that message about?”

“Please tell me the first and last names of everyone you stayed with here in Israel.” “How long did you stay with each person?” “Where did they live?” “Did they give you any gifts?” “Are you still talking to them?” “Do you have a copy of the correspondence you had with them?”

He asked me if anyone had given me anything, or if I thought anyone might have put something in my bag, multiple times. I told him he was free to check—and he chuckled and said “That will happen later.” I immediately was filled with contempt for him.

Security check for carryon-only passengers: Round Three

He called his supervisor over, and they chatted for 3-4 minutes. He started to walk toward me, then turned around and walked back to her. Another 2-3 minute chat before he handed her my passport. She was a pleasant young woman who told me to stand in front of her on the other side of the desk. She asked me many of the same questions over again, repeating the question about whether I had been given anything twice.

Finally, she slapped a sticker on my passport. And I was told I could go. I waiting in the security line again for an additional 20 minutes.

Later, I would find out that the sticker was an assessment of my risk factor.

1 and 2 are reserved for Israeli passport holders, 3 and 4 are seen as a mild risk, 5 is a high risk, and 6 is an extremely high risk.

When internationals fly alone out of Israel, they get a “6” or a “5”. This number is a sticker you get on your passport and bags that helps the Israeli airport security evaluate your level of Zionism. “1” is awesome, “6” is you’re fucked. 1 is reserved for white Jewish Israelis, 2 is for white Jewish non-Israelis and friendly internationals, 3 is a suspicious Israeli or international, 4 is sometimes given to non-white Israelis, 5 is for Arab Israelis or questionable internationals, and 6 is for Palestinians, Muslims, and hostile internationals. Hostile is defined as not Zionist or suspected of questioning Zionism. Anything above a 3 means interrogation. Of course these are my definitions based on the people I’ve talked to who’ve gotten one of the six. I don’t know what the official language they use says. -Lia Tarachansky (read her full article here.)

Guess who got the sticker with the 6?

Funny thing is that I didn’t feel hostile towards Israel in the slightest until this episode.

You wait. And wait. And wait.

When I finally got to the front of the carry on luggage and metal detector line, the security woman said: “You are in the wrong place. You need to go through the special security.” “What? Are you joking? I have literally been waiting for hour already to get through.” “Yes. Ok. Follow that woman there.” I followed her, and she took me to the packed line of about 40 people. “Are you kidding?” I have already been waiting an hour,” I huffed. But she didn’t reply, merely shooting a glance in my direction.

She led me to another two women, where I waited to have my name written on a clipboard. I asked what was going on, and she told me not to stress out, that someone would come for me soon. No one did.

Streams of people went passed me in the line, and I had no idea what was going on.

And then you wait some more

“Come on. I have been waiting here for ages, can someone please explain what is going on?,” I complained

“Yes, there are still 12 people ahead of you, but I will come to get you when it is time. That’s why you are standing here.”

After a good 20 minutes, she told me to cut the line. The man who I was instructed to stand in front of got pissed, and tried to worm his way ahead of me. “Excuse me, sir. I was told to stand here.” I actually began to start feeling sick.

Finally, I got up to the front. Two security agents glanced at my passport, but no one talked to me. Finally, not seeing another option I just stuck my things into the X-ray scanner. A young security agent came up to me “Who are you with?” “I don’t understand.” “Which agent are you with?” “What do you mean?” “You have to wait until one of the agents comes for you and your things.” He took my things out of the machine and put them back in front of me. I stood there for 10 minutes, while people streamed past me.

I actually felt myself start to tremble with rage. This was absolutely ridiculous. I stopped one of the security agents and begged her to just explain to me what was going on.

She brushed me off and told me I had to wait.

Another 5 minutes, and 4 other people went ahead of me.

The Bag Check

Finally, a sour young women came up and without a greeting demanded I pack my things and follow her. We walked to another side of the security area. “Sit down over there.” She commanded.

She proceeded to empty every single thing out of my bag.

Every single thing out of my cosmetics bag. Every receipt. Flipped through all the pages of my books. Sent my laptop and iPhone away with another security agent. When she came across a pack of cigarettes, she demanded to know where my lighter was. “Probably in a pocket” I snapped back.

“I don’t see it.”

I was enraged, all my personal belonging, clothes, condoms, mascara, panties, books, and papers were spread out in front of her, and as if this wasn’t enough, she was now demanding a lighter.

“Check my jacket”

She pulled out all my bank and credit cards from my pockets, headphones, and opened up my lipgloss to check inside.

Finally, she found it, and without a word, tossed it in the garbage.

Explosives Trace Detection (ETD) tests: Swabbing for drugs or bombs or who the fuck knows.

Then she started swabbing everything.

Not a customary swipe—no, she swabbed every single piece of clothing, every pocket, every charger, my curling iron, my nightie. Checking each swab on her detector.

It took ages, and I felt a deep hate for her growing watching her finger and handle all my little things.

“Follow me,” She said, “we need to do a body scan.”

Another security agent came up, and they talked.

Finally, she told me to take off my shoes. I guess just having my shoes taken was pretty lucky, in light of what I read online afterwards.

In addition to being forced to undress for body searches, Arab passengers are often detained in secure rooms in the departure area at Ben Gudrion Airport before their flights and escorted on to planes by security staff in full view of other passengers. They may also have their hand luggage confiscated. -Jonathan Cook, “Israel's strip searches at airports 'illegal', Aljazeera

The body scan and multiple pat downs

“Sit there and wait” she snapped—I was seriously losing my cool with this horrendous procedure and this woman in particular.

I waited another 10 minutes, barefoot, on the grungy security room floor. Feeling downright disgusted.

“We need to scan you” she took me to a body scanner, where I was told to stand, “Open your legs wider.” she demanded, and I retorted “What the fuck. They are wider than the footprint-guides already.” I snapped.

“Fine. Then lift up your arms and don’t put them down until I tell you to.” I stood there like a criminal getting a mug shot.

When I came out she patted down my arms and legs.

Then we waited. She talked to someone on her radio, then told me I had to remove my necklace.

I wanted to scream, but with dead eyes stared ahead as I carefully removed it.

I went back into the machine and they scanned me a second time.

When I came out, the colleague was back with my shoes, this time, she patted me down, spending extra time under my arms, on my back, and sleeves.

I went to grab my shoes, and the sour security agent said “Don’t touch those. Go back and sit down.”

I lost it with her tone, and said “You are acting in a disgusting way. I am just a traveller and don’t deserve to be treated like this.”

She rolled her eyes at me and repeated that I needed to stay seated.

About 10 minutes later, the man came back with my laptop and mobile phone. They had an extensive conversation and she giggled. Oh. Hell. No.

I was not going to sit there and watch this bullshit while they just made me wait. I stood up and with contained rage “That’s enough. Are you done?”

And she repeated that I was to sit down and wait.

Losing all hope, I sat back down.

Finally, she said, “You can take your shoes.”

I snatched them and pulled them on. I don’t even know how long I was sitting there because I didn’t have a mobile.

Finally, she had another quick word on her radio, and started to walk away.

Over her shoulder, she said “We are done here. You can leave.” As I started to repack my bag, I thought “No we aren’t, you f*** b***.”

I asked to speak to the supervisor, and when she came she asked me specifically why I was upset, and what the security agent had done that was inappropriate.

I explained about her tone, but more importantly that I felt I was being treated as a criminal which was unfounded and disgusting.

All I had wanted to do was visit their nice country, and this had been such an awful experience that I wasn’t sure I would ever want to come back.

She gave me an email address and asked me to share my experience.

I thanked her, but felt tears burning in the back of my eyes.

I felt so violated, so disrespected. I had done absolutely nothing wrong, and yet was being treated as if I was one second away from blowing up their whole damn airport.

I grabbed my bag and left for my gate, promising myself I would never fly through Tel Aviv again.

Even hours after getting off the plane at my next destination, I still felt disgusted. Actually—I still do. It really changed my view of the Israeil state.

My story here is not unique, many seasoned travellers have had similar accounts. I think it is important to share and read these, so that if you ever go to Israel, you know the risks. Read some of their stories and other articles here:

What it means to go to Ben Gurion airport with an Arab friend

My Horrific Security Experience at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport (TLV)

Israel's strip searches at airports 'illegal'

Leaving Tel Aviv: My Experience Through Airport Security at Ben Gurion

Airport Security Woes – My Experience Leaving Israel

#ben gurion airport #ben gurion airport security #traveller horror stories #airport security #travel

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waitingtobeimpressed · 6 years

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The Silent Serpent Part 1

Chapter 1 - South Side High

Sweetpea x OC

Part 1

Warnings: maybe a lil bit a violence but that’s life for you.

Word count: quite a bit.

The picture is mine and I did, in fact, create it. And umm if you didn't notice it can kind of only be used for my story because it has the title of the book and my name in it Sooooooo......

I also did not create Riverdale but some people get salty about not making that clear. However, I did create the character of Maeble Mikaelson/ Forgarty and all the relationships she forms. So. Yeh.

Yes her name is Maeble Mikaelson. For a bit of context, her mothers maiden name is Mary Mikaelson and her Fathers name was Fish Forgarty (It's complicated), She prefers to use Forgarty as her last name because to put it lightly she hates her mother with a passion…

She doesn’t remember her father because he was given life in prison when she was still a baby. We might see more of him in the future though...

I’m still new to the whole Tumblr thing so just give a chance and hopefully, I will figure it out.

Car pollution and second-hand smoke filled Maeble Forgartys lungs as she and fangs pulled into South Side High car park. It hadn’t been the first time she had been here even though this was the first time she was actually attending the school.

Maeble spent every summer she could remember on the south side. Her father, who was brothers with fangs’ dad, was a serpent so she knew the majority of the people she saw here. Her mother didn’t really approve of gang lifestyle and shipped her off to England where she attended a prestigious school for ‘Troubled Young Ladies’. Maeble laughed to herself every time that place happened to come up in conversation because she was hardly a rebellious child. She was quite the opposite actually as she didn’t even like socializing, let alone cause any trouble.

Fangs jumped off of the bike and gave Mae a huge grin. She, in return, gave him an eye roll.

“Why are you happy?, if anything I’m going to embarrass you…” She said sliding off a taking a wary glance at her immediate surroundings. Looking to the school she noticed the hoards of students around the entrance, taking turns in tormenting the people who attempted to make their way inside. To her left, she spotted the large row of motorbikes, a line in which they were also sat. Fangs noticed this and smirked with pride.

“Can’t I just be happy that the closest thing I have to a sister is going to be going to the same school as me?” Fangs continued to smile to the point it was starting to make mae feel uneasy. Almost like he was planning something.

“Shut up, Do all of these bikes belong to serpents?” Maeble questioned with a bit of amazement, already knowing the answer.

“Yeh, but this one,” he said and patted the bike they had just ridden in on. “Is the coolest” he stated. Maeble raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. “I dunno Fangs, that one is pretty impressive.” mae said and began to walk to one that had caught her eye. It was completely black except the sliver handlebars and rims of the wheels.

“You would fucking say that wouldn’t you?” Fangs huffed in defeat. “That’s Peas”. Maeble and Sweet Pea had met a few years back when she came to stay with her aunt and fangs for the summer when she was nine. He had immediately taken a liking to her and it quickly became obvious that he wanted to make her life as hard as possible.

Death by cheesy pickup lines…

So whenever she came to stay in the future Maeble would do anything in her power to stay away from him. Not in a cruel way, just as a way of self-preservation for his influence.

Mae’s eyes widened with annoyance “Well, in that case, you’re right, your old, rusty piece of crap is the coolest.” Fangs smiled with satisfaction not letting her words hit him too hard. He Swung his tanned muscled arm around her pale shoulders and guided her towards the entrance of the school. As they walked up the steps of South Side High she could feel the burning glare of at least half of the student body as they quickly ascended. Once they were through the doors Fangs removed his arm and took Mae’s bag and deposited it into a little grey tray and continued to guide her through the metal detector. On the other side, Fangs grabbed the bag again and handed to her

“Well, that was quite the experience.” She mumbled sarcastically (Sounding extremely Britsh making her cringe), pushing her thick, blonde coils of hair out of her face and back into place. Maeble’s hair had always been unruly, but it was only recently that she had become hyper-aware of what it was doing. Mae grabbed a black hairband for her wrist that was already cutting off the circulation to her hand. She attempted to grab all of her wavy curls with one hand and successfully managed a half decent messy bun with minimal effort. Smiling at her self she looked up to see what fangs were doing.

“That was a sight…” he grinned at her playfully.

Maeble rolled her eyes and jabbed him in the ribs. “ you have No idea how much practice and still was needed to pull that off, dear, sweet, baby cousin.” Fangs started to walk away without any explanation. Only looking back to see if she was following. When he saw that she wasn’t he quickly made a hand gesture and she casually followed, trying not to look threatened as a row of greasy Goulies hit their fists against the battered lockers and wolf whistled in her direction. “FRESH MEAT” A voice boomed and echoed through the corridor as almost everyone stopped what they were doing to look. Fangs came to meet her halfway and swung his arm over her shoulder again, glaring at everyone who dared make eye contact with him.

“She’s spoken for, shes with the Serpents” Fangs shouted and they continued around a corner until they were out of sight.

“Shit, Shit. Shit. Fuck” Fangs rambled as his pace slowed, pulling his free hand through his gelled hair. He looked panicked, not his usual state. Fangs had always had a laid-back demeanour, even when he was being scolded. The Serpent institution was an absolute breeze for him.

“What?” Mae asked, genuinely confused and only slightly insulted that she was being treated like today's entertainment.

“Well, darling Cousin. I pretty much just told the whole school you have aligned yourself with us, which puts an even bigger target on your back that if were still a sheep… so it's not great.“ he said.rubbing the back of his head

Suddenly an ear-piercing ringing noise filled the already bustling halls and everyone started to file into the designated classroom. “ Shit, where the fuck is…” Mae Paused to pull her class schedule from her black denim jean pocket. “ B10? History, I think?” Mae looked up, either hoping that Fangs would be in the same class or at least he would be close by.

Fangs’ bad mood jumped off of his face and an evil grin appeared. “Ohhh, unlucky… Soz Cuz, looks like you have Mr Stevens, or over wise know as ‘Brass Balls’”.

“I’m not even gonna ask” Mae sighed and followed Fangs into the classroom. He motioned for her to enter and as soon as she did her bright blue eyes locked with a certain tall Serpent she was hoping to avoid like the plague. He smiled a sickly sweet grin and Maeble turned oh her heal and left, bumping into a hard chest just outside of the room.

“Fangs!” She exclaimed as she hit him lightly. “You arse. You knew he was in there didn’t you?”.

Fangs pretended to look innocent but Maeble knew they had set is up. Those assholes, she thought. Fangs spun her around and pushed her back into the classroom. “I had no idea he would be here, honest, scouts honour, And you cant be skipping on the first day, you're giving the serpents a bad name,” he muttered as he quickly ran back out of the room smirking, leaving her to stand awkwardly at the front. Maeble’s eyes scanned the room hoping to find a seat that was as far away from Sweet Pea as possible. She found one relatively close to the front and as soon as she sat she hear her name being called out from the back.

“Mae Mike? Is that you?” Maeble smiled recognising the voice and the nickname instantly. She turned in her seat to see Toni grinning wildly.

“Toni, God Damned, Topaz!” Toni jumped out of her seat and ran to the front of the classroom, engulfing mae with a soft hug. When they broke apart Mae took the time to see how much her best and only friend had changed over the past year. Toni had defiantly grown into her body, looking absolutely stunning in a black pair of waist-high shorts and a red flannel shirt tied off around her hips. Her long wavy hair was somehow longer and sporting pink stripes that highlighted the structure of her slender face.

“ What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, kicking the kid out of the seat in front of me so she could face me.

“I moved in with Fangs Last weekend… Mum was getting to be a bit much and I got kicked out of the third boarding school she sent me to…” Mae said, smiling when she saw the impact her words had on Toni’s face.

Toni stood up and held her hand out, offering it for Mae to take.

“wha-?” Maeble started but she was yanked out of her seat and being dragged to the back of the classroom, to where the Serpents sat, to where SP sat. “you can’t sit down there, you’re an honorary Serpent, which means No Ghoulies” mae was confused but she noticed Toni’s line of gaze no longer matched hers. Mae followed it to see a slim, bleach blonde girl twiddling a piece of her hair in between her fingers as she flirted with a boy who was sat in front of her. The boy, that was, being Sweet Pea was straddling his seat so he could face her. “Scram Brit” Toni finished, glaring at the girl until she finally collected her stuff and strutted her the seat Mae was just sat in. Mae slid uncomfortably into the warm seat, feeling Sweet peas eyes gaze over her facial features. He didn’t turn around, but then again Mae didn’t think he would.

“Female Forgarty, always a pleasure,” He said as he leaned in even closer, so he could rest his elbows on the table.

“Not for me.” Mae rolled her eyes, Let the torture begin, She thought.

#sweet pea #sweet pea riverdale #riverdale #sweet pea imagine #silent serpent #part 1 #riverdale imagines

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suchaprettypoison · 6 years

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I was born and raised in Broward County. I went to college there and I even taught in the Broward county schools. Even though I have since moved away, Broward County is my home and I’m proud to have come from the 954.

Now, I’ve read a lot of opinions since the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, everyone has a view on what to do next, but let me talk about my experience going to school in this county and teaching in it.

I went to an ‘A’ rated public schools in Broward. They were good schools in a good area. My high school was built in the 1970’s, when I was there is was an open plan because that was the style back in the day. Our classrooms were separated by dividers and if it rained there was a 75% that you were going to be soaked going to your next class. We had security guards who road golf carts around the campus, we had two school police officers, one patrol car at the entrance, student parking was gated off at a certain time and there was always someone posted around that area, and the whole school was surrounded by a chain-link fence. We were safe. Our administration was always pretty present, we had cameras up in the hallways, and lockers that were no longer in use. There were portables out back, because we had so many students and not enough class rooms. My junior year, we had a bomb threat almost every Wednesday for a semester and we had to go on lock-down once during my senior year (I was stuck in health class for several hours). My teachers on a whole were completely amazing. I have great memories of my time spent in Broward public schools as a student.

When I worked for the schools, I had the chance to go to multiple secondary schools. I went back to my old middle school, which only had one way in which brought you straight to the front office and a police officer at the entrance of the school. Our classroom doors locked behind us and you had to have your key to get in – this is the norm now. I believe this came about after the shooting at Virginia Tech, that the shooter would bypass rooms if the doors were locked. We had drills of what to do if we were put on a code red. The students knew where to go in the classroom and again the door would have already been locked.

I keep seeing things that call to arm the teachers. Our job is to TEACH. My first priority when I was in the classroom was the students. We are not the police – we are educators.

And where would you like me to keep this gun (that I would never be comfortable using and I’m pretty sure that would make me dangerous with it)? Locked in a drawer in my desk? In my purse? Well it needs to be somewhere safe, just in case someone decides to try and grab the gun from my classroom. Oh, and on that note, how am I going to get this gun if the worse were to happen?

We can’t leave the classroom for five minutes to go to the bathroom on a normal day, most teachers wouldn’t want to leave their kids if the worse were to come. They would want to be there with them, comforting them, trying to keep them calm and quiet.

I went to an ‘A’ school, I worked in ‘A’ schools. Teacher were having to buy paper and other supplies out of pocket, half way through the school year because there weren’t the funds for it - the state’s funding is stretched as it is. Are you going to expect teachers to go out and buy their own gun and go about paying for training?

I don’t know if you all know this, but the salary for teachers in Florida is LOW, I’m talking like 35k (before taxes) which may seem high but the median income in Broward is about $64k and the cost of living in South Florida is more expensive than most places in the county. A studio apartment will run you (on average) $773 a month, 1 Bed you’re looking at $980, 2 Beds - $1253. If you think about paying back college debt, putting money into savings, paying for food/utilities/insurance/car/phone – teachers don’t have much spare income to be throwing around.

I also keep seeing that this isn’t a gun issue, it’s a mental health issue. If you are going to play that card, then please explain to me why one the first things that Trump did as president was to repeal an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy a gun? And if it is a mental health issue, then wouldn’t you want a background check done? And in the same breath, then let’s talk about healthcare in the States. If you don’t want universal healthcare but you want the freedom to buy guns willy-nilly from Walmart, and then claim it’s a mental health issue when a white male who was ‘mentally disturbed’ shoots up a school, then I really need you to explain your logic to me like I am a five-year-old because it doesn’t make sense to me. Additionally, how many people have a mental illness but aren’t diagnosed?

The only true way to guaranteed that a person who wants to buy a gun, would be for them to be cleared by a medical professional, like that be a step in to being able to purchase a gun.

Then there are those who want to post armed guards and metal machines at the entrance of every school –again, WHERE IN THE LIMITED SCHOOL BUDGET ARE YOU PLANNING ON FINDING THE MONEY? On top of that, is that really what we want this country to come to? And this latest murderer knew the school, knew the lay out and the schedule. If he kills the guards on duty, that metal detector isn’t going to do a whole lot.

So, let’s talk what the students of Broward County have called for – gun reform. Because those thoughts and prayers aren’t doing a whole lot.

In Florida, it is a lengthier process to get a driver’s license than for someone to buy a gun. I’m not saying ‘take the guns away’ because it seems like there are people care more about the 2nd amendment more than any other. Why not make it a process? First you have to go to training, then get a medical certificate stating mental health, then you can get a permit. Will people break this law – of course. And if you want to play the whole, oh look at Chicago and how well the gun laws worked for them. THAT’S WHY WE NEED FEDERAL LAWS! If I can just pop over to another state and pick up all the guns I want, then the state laws aren’t all that effective.

If the people who have had to live through this tragedy are calling for gun reform, then LISTEN.

Let’s talk about how to prevent this from happening again.

My heart goes out to all those have been affected. I am Broward Strong.

#i've been sitting on this for a couple of days #but i just needed to get this out of my system

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fat-pastel-mermaid · 7 years

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TW DEPRESSION SUICIDE

Literally everything hurts right now. I'm confused about gender things, every little thing I try to do has a huge roadblock. Unemployment still hasn't come through, my insurance won't cover my meds until I get a 90 day prescription rather than 30 so I'm not going to have that med for a couple more days, I have no money, no job, no pills, and everyone in this stupid hick town (save for a few) is so fucking stupid I can't fucking stand it. Literally 2/3 of the people in this town have a gun. There was a shooting at a school game and no one has said anything about gun removal. No one died, thank god, but if maybe those guns HADNT been there no one would have been shot??? No. Instead they're putting metal detectors in front if every school entrance. You don't use those when you go to the fucking stadium. Guns. Literally. Kill. Jesus christ no one here knows how to drive. They all stare at me when I hold my gfs hand, and I just fucking hate this backass hick bullshit but I have to take it for another year and possibly more because we could never get the money to move. So yeah. I want to die really bad right now. I don't know how I would do it, and I'm not going to do it, but God do I want to. My gf got me this cute stuffed tiger for vday though... they were free at her school.... and a super sweet note.

#suicide #depression #trigger warning

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eileensadventures-blog · 7 years

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Washington, DC

I had an opportunity to tag along with Nancy and Bob on a trip to Washington, DC. With some advanced planning, I was able to get us passes to tour the White House, Pentagon, and Capital Building. Once we were in DC, we discovered Senator Patty Murray holds a Thursday morning coffee session with constituents. We were all over that. Other than the scheduled tours, we really had no plans yet somehow we all flew home absolutely exhausted and lacking sleep.

When I arrived DC, Nancy and Bob were already there. Bob immediately invited me to rent bikes and go to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate. It was only 8 miles south of Alexandria where we were staying. The bike trail was awesome; up, down, weaving left and right. We only crossed a few street besides that we were along the river.

If you visit Mount Vernon, be sure to watch the 20 minute movie in the visitor center. We did not have time before before our scheduled tour of his home so we stopped on our way out. George really was an amazing man. It is said the only thing our government has ever agreed upon was that George would be our first president.

His home is very simple. The center is the original 4 rooms. Then George built up a floor. Then he had a wing on each side built.

When you walked up the stairs, you used the original wood railing. The bed in George’s bedroom is the one he died in. The desk in his study is original. Almost everything on the estate is original. And when they need to repair things, they use materials from his time. Bob and I spent sometime watching the blacksmith make nails. For any history buff, this is a must see.

Bob and I spent the next 2 mornings getting up a 6:30 (eastern time), logging onto the Museum of African American History to try and get “day of” tickets. These tickets go so fast... 3 minutes max. This museum opened over a year ago and people still line up daily at 1pm to see if there is any open space in the museum.

The unique part of the Museum of African American History is that half of the museum is above ground and the other half is below. You start by taking an elevator down 3 floors. When the elevator open, you step into the beginning of slavery. How it all started. The museum moves you from slavery to racism to the civil war. Through segregation and the civil rights movement, ending with today and returning you to the ground floor.

They do an excellent job of incorporating movies, write ups, and visual experience like walking through a very dark slave ship where you hear individual talking about a day in the life of a prison. I liked the fact that at the end of each floor they had benches and another movie. Nice break before you headed into the next experience.

Not sure what was above ground. After 3 and half hours on the lower floors, my time was up and the museum was closing. I will definitely be going back.

The only other museum we got to was the Holocaust Museum. After being in Europe this last summer, I must say it had some difficult parts. What I did like was learning about what the USA saw and did. We did not have this view point in Europe.

As we exited the exhibit, there was this quote on the wall. Good thing to always remember.

After 2 intense days of slavery and the holocaust, I was ready for the White House. The White House has the most amazing security, as it should. Our passports were examined twice, we went through a metal detector and some sort of screening that involved a dog, and we were only allowed to bring in a cellphone or small camera, car keys, umbrella (if raining), and a wallet (no purse). If you had a baby, you were still not allowed to bring a diaper bag.

Once inside, you could stay as long as you wanted but there are no bathrooms, water fountains, or food so eventually every has to leave.

We entered the White House through the East Wing and the gardens.

This hallway contains all the fun pictures of the Presidents. Lots of pictures of them playing with their dogs and kids.

Other pictures include guests like this one with Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta.

This is the wing that displays the Presidential China, ....

... has the library ...

... and the ever famous China Room.

We were not allowed to go into these rooms just look through the door. Once we were inside the main house, we were free to roam (under Secret Service supervision) through the Ballroom, ...

... the Green Room, ....

.. the Red Room, ...

... the Blue Room, ...

... and Dining Room with a painting of Abraham Lincoln over the fireplace.

From the Blue Room, you could look out the windows and see down the back lawn all the way to the Jefferson Memorial.

There were painting of previous Presidents all through the rooms.

The tour ended with the flags inside the front doors where we had seen many famous pictures from.

Nancy and I had a blast trying to get a picture of us as a reflection in the entryway antic.

The tour ended with us walking down the steps in front of the White House looking out over the fountain and lawn at the people with their faces pushed up against the gates.

The Pentagon was not as impressive but security was pretty much the same. We were not allowed to take pictures once we got past the meeting room.

After leaving this room, we went up escalators, past the guy with a machine gun (yes, machine gun), and through small glass doors. We entered a private city with a chocolate shop on the left and a bank on the right. Everything one might need is inside security: doctors, dentists, hair salons, and grocery stores.

The tour was non-stop walking. They don’t let you stop any where. If you need the bathroom, the group goes with you. Not sure I would recommend the tour but the 911 Memorial outside on the grounds is very well done. I would visit it again. (If you go, make sure you dial the phone number at the entrance so you get the audio tour.)

We spent the rest of our trip on Capital Hill. We had coffee with Senator Patty Murray.

She was very friendly yet direct. Talked to us about what was going on right now and in the near future. Then took questions and discussed issues that we had. There were 14 of us. We only got 30 minutes of her time but we all felt privileged.

The Senate and the House were both in session and had votes taking place. She gave us tickets to the Galleries so we could watch. The first day we sat in on the Senate. We missed the vote but we were still fascinated by the going ons.

The first thing we learned was a Senator has to sit in the main chair if there are in session even if they are the only one in the room (they rotate ever 60 minutes). There are pages everywhere. They look like high school age kids. They ran documents, got water, and setup/took down podiums.

Different Senators came in, stood at their desk, and addresses the empty room with the issue at hand (today it was the life time appointment of judges). Every Senator has their personal desk. They are ordered by seniority and look to be from the 19th century.

The next day we went to the House. It was a big room with benches. Democratics on the left and Republicans on the right. Both faced a stage with the Speaker of the House or someone representing him.

They were working on a Vote so we got there early to avoid a long security line. By the way, you are not allowed to bring anything into the Galleries. You check you stuff in before you go through security.

The House ran more like a courtroom. The first hour was closing arguments on the Vote. Each side took turns address either the Speaker of the House or the crowds in the Galleries. Their speeches were timed and multiple Representatives spoke from each side. No one had the floor for longer than 2 minutes. When it was over, one side asked for a postponement of the vote so everyone voted on that.

Directly in front of the Galleries where wallpaper once was a reader board appeared with all the Representatives listed. As each voted, a Y or N appeared in front of their names. On the ends of the assembly room, scoreboards appeared displaying the number of “no” votes versus “yes” votes plus a 5 minutes timer which was counting down.

When the vote was over, the “no” votes won so all the votes were cleared and they immediately went to voting on the the issue. It was awesome to watch the floor come alive. When we first got there, it was civilized with only 20 people in the room. By the time the vote came, there were 400 people in the room. A few brought young kids around 4 or 5 years old. Bring your grand kid to work day?

After the vote, it took about 15 minutes for the Speaker to get the floor cleared so they could move on to future business. At this time, the Majority Leader and the Democratic Leader took their prospective sides and started to discuss where they are on current projects.

They both summarized their visit to Puerto Rico and talked about issues there. Then they discussed a few more issues before the release of the new tax cuts hit the floor. It was at this point that things got really interesting. They went back and forth like attorneys arguing a court case. We were very impressed with the manure they conducted themselves.

After about 30 minutes on the tax cuts, they moved on to other committees and the issues they are working on. It was interesting to hear that there is an issue that is being held hostage. Something they both agree on but the Majority Leader won’t bring it to the floor. I have heard of this but it was interesting to see it was real.

We were so very lucky to get to see our government in action. This was not something that could be planned. If you are in DC, I advise asking the guards at the bag check in. They seem to know what is really happening. Don’t rely on the published schedule. Things are always changing.

While at the Capital Building, we did take the public tour. I have taking it before and I consider it a must do. New to the tour was the original Supreme Court meeting room.

They also showed us the new chambers.

All this under one roof

During our time in DC, we were able to fit in a tour of NPR (National Public Radio)

I took a 4 hour walking tour of the National Monuments. Highly Recommend.

The Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is new. They carved him stepping out of “A stone of hope”. The detail was amazing.

One of the trips highlights was watching the sunrise from the Lincoln Memorial. You would think we would have the National Mall to ourselves but there were joggers everywhere.

#dc #washington dc #nancy #white house #capital

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goingrvway · 7 years

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Best Dam Tour in Utah

Today we drove the 35+ miles over to Flaming Gorge Dam. The dam was built between 1958 and 1964, and it took twelve years to fill up. Unlike many other western dams, this dam retains most of their water from year to year…seeing a 10-12 foot drop in off years from fall readings year to year. This year is a record year. See that water shooting out in the bottom right of the picture above? That water is going full bore, has been since March…where as normal years it only shoots out for 4-6 weeks.

Our tour guide was named Carrie (I hope I am spelling this correctly). This is her first year giving tours, but she gives them like a pro…knew every answer asked, was very informative, very outgoing, very nice, and is a local from the area having grown up here. Her mother gave tours when Carrie was a child. When she introduced herself, she welcomed all four of us…yes, we were lucky enough to have only four people on the tour…and Carrie said, “Welcome to the Best Dam Tour in Utah!” Of course, she added, it is the ONLY dam tour that is offered in the state of Utah…which makes it the best by default. However, if the other tour guides are anything like her, and the other people we met, they would still be number one in the dam tours in our book. Marcia was able to use her GoGo for the tour, however “WE” did carry her GoGo down six stairs so that she could get outside at the bottom. And when I say “WE”, Carrie and the guy pictured with Carrie (who is a fulltime RVer with his wife who is not pictured) helped me carry it down, and a dam worker, electrical engineer I think, helped me carry it back up.

The dam is just over 500 feet in height, is just under 1,300 feet in length, and has a capacity of 3,788,700 acre feet of water….it is currently at 86% capacity. Carrie said that it raised nearly 15 feet in the past two weeks due to snow runoff.

They are currently releasing 6,600 cubic feet per second. The water is shooting out of those release tubes at over 100 mph. It is so “white” because they aerate the water so that it will spray down into the green river away from the man-made ponds needed to run the electric generators. Carrie said the water is about 50 feet deep between where I was taking pictures, and where the water is shooting out. Remember, the water is released like this for only a short period of time through the year…this year is much longer, one would normally not see this in a normal June time period.

There are three generators that combined produce over 150,000 kilowatt of electricity, enough to supply power for around 100,000 people…that’s homes, offices, restaurants, etc.

The dam tour lasts just about an hour. The time went by so fast that I did not even notice it go by. It starts in the nice little visitor center, where you sign up for the tour, and there is security to man the metal detector that everyone has to pass through, with a wand to pass over people who cause it to go off. A security guard walked by us a few times during the tour while we were down in the dam too. You take an elevator up on level, where you can get a view of the dam below...which is where the first picture was taken. Then you walk to the middle of the dam, and take a quick elevator down to the bottom. As you reach the stairs, there is a wheelchair lift, but they won’t allow motorized units to use it because the weight makes it break. Marcia's would have been fine, but we just carried down and then back up the six steps while she walked those steps down and back up later. At the bottom near where the water was shooting out, lives a large school of fish which get fed by people who wish to put a quarter into a gumball type machine, which releases a handful of food. The other two people on tour with us dropped some food down, and the fish acted like piranhas…gobbling up the food within seconds. If you look close in the picture above right, you can make out the fish under the green water. Although the river is named Green River, the water here is green due to the algae which grows up against the dam.

Before you get to the dam, you pass over the Cart Creek Bridge, pictured from both the west side (left) and the east side (right).

Back to the motorhome, after being gone for nearly 4 hours, we had two very happy puppy dogs. It was near 80 degrees, so we turned on the A/C for a few hours. It is amazing that here in the dry heat that the A/C will run off and on, but very little water runs off the sides of the motorhome from the A/C units…and some that does dries before it hits the ground. Had a visit from four of our Pronghorn friends…saw about eight different ones today between the entrance to the park to within the park itself. They run away from any people, and are very weary of the dogs, of bicyclist, and especially automobiles. Saw a lady a few slots to our north who tossed some sort of food their way…they ran. I felt like telling her that we are not suppose to feed the wildlife…but why argue with stupid…she knew better and did it anyways.

We arrived at Flaming Gorge on Wednesday, if you missed it, read about that and see pictures of Red Canyon here. Friday will be a “stay around the motorhome” day, although I will probably go and get the car cleaned up for our visit with my daughter in Salt Lake on Monday and Tuesday. Saturday we plan to do the scenic drive, and on Sunday we head for Lake Jordanelle.

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supporthosechi · 7 years

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Our Third Visit

Home again, whatever that means exactly. Moving for most people is terrible because it involves putting a bunch of small things into larger boxes, carefully wrapping delicate items—heirlooms, art, instruments, televisions, anything which is not really designed to be packed into a van or truck or other vehicle and moved any distance. It also can mean uprooting oneself, which obviously cuts both ways: no more favorite diner down the street, no more garden in the back, no window which catches the light in the morning just so, no paint on the walls which has been redone to suit moods or fancy, no immediate physical access to friends, family, and work left behind, all to be exchanged for comparable or better versions.

Our LeLe’s move shares variations on many of these characteristics. She moves from maximum to medium-minimum security, from 2000 fellow inmates to 500, from a facility housing people who will live out their natural lives within to those who will be there nine years or fewer. She leaves behind an ex-partner to become “fresh meat” at a new facility. She sacrifices friendships and a place where anything might be obtained to one where inmates are far more cautious and the state’s control is more ironclad. She cannot bring her paints, for which her nails have (temporarily) suffered, but the kitchen has a fryer and not everything is made of soy, by dint of which her skin has immediately cleared. She exchanges the promise of contract work to reduce her sentence, the possibility of working with animals or cosmetics for a kitchen job which pays next to nothing (from 15 to 20 to 30 dollars a month as she moves up the ranks, rapidly), and layoffs in prison labor which do not allow her sacrifice herself to menial labor to move towards swifter release. It’s a new place and there’s not much going on. We sometimes think of our jobs, our relationships, our apartments, the very contours of our lives as prisons, and it sometimes feels as if we move from one to the next. Alisha Walker’s situation has in some ways actually gotten worse with this move, and I can tell, and it tears at me, which in turn makes me feel dumb, because it tearing at me does nothing for her.

It is hard not to imagine what it was like for her arriving as we do, pulling through a proper town and into a different sort of stone and barbed wire hell. There is a funny little hut with some tables at the entrance and I momentarily lose track of where I am, thinking: “this would be a nice spot for Alisha to sit with her family.” The presence of the eerily immobile guard standing beneath a strangely folksy, wooden sign proclaiming “Staff Only” quickly dispels that notion. These are places of utmost control and power over, and any person who leaves them not wanting to smash, kill, and destroy after serving their time is either an incredible model of restraint from whom we all could learn that lesson at least, or else has had their spirit so utterly broken that it must take many soul-searching hours to find themselves anew outside. This being our first visit, we brace for different regulations and novel layers of arbitrary command to fight through to gain entry. We are not disappointed in this expectation. Our first time through the double glass doors finds paperwork and, interestingly, more people of color behind one desk than we saw at the entire facility at Logan. We are informed that one of our membership’s attire will bar her from entering, despite it being identical to what she wore on our last visit, and so I run back to the car to find something else she might wear, to no avail. After a trip to Target to buy something less revealing than thick black tights and a hooded sweatshirt (the dead cops t-shirt is fine, mind you), we make our second attempt, now being told that we need a second form of ID each, which I dutifully return to the car again and procure. The third try reveals that the hooded sweatshirt cannot be worn in, nor can my cardigan. When we finally make it through the metal detector, we’re left to peruse the scenery outside the gendered shakedown rooms, then left again to our own devices until we realize we can walk into the visitation room on our own accord. The distance from the visitor’s entrance to the building to the door behind which we’ll spend the day with our friend is perhaps thirty feet, entirely indoors. This is emblematic of an entirely different, arguably even more nefarious affect of the Decatur facility.

The entry desk is opposite a giant set of plaques devoted to employees of the month and retirees, each of which is clearly hand-carved, burned, and painted as if we were in a backwoods hunting lodge such as one might find just a few miles away from town. There is one calligraphed sign for “Warden,” one for “Guard on Duty,” and a variety of smaller ones for the time clock and a key rack. There is a hand-etched lithograph commemorating a mother and children reunification program, to help reintegrate ex-offenders, which is distastefully hung next to a prison-staff lotto game of some variety where officers can put in their names for a monthly drawing for cash prizes. I’m uncertain which is the more disingenuous of the two. The guards interact with us in a generally saccharine tone (“It’s always more complicated the first time, sorry.”), wholly opposite the gruff, put-upon affect of the previous set. I detest them and their complicity in this system, and I do not want to muse on this being a better work environment than the previous facility, that they get on better with each other and perhaps even the inmates, I want them to feel the full gravity of the despicable institution in which they are cogs, and I want them in turn to be as miserable as possible as they help make this needless societal scourge for the women inside.

But this is not the place for any more of this particular screed. I am privileged to see and hug and laugh with and hold and update a friend who has gotten closer and closer, and I want to know she is as all right as is humanly possible in a place designed to rob her of her humanity at every turn.

We know each other a bit better now. Alisha knows which one of our troupe she’ll have wild parties with and learn about the tough edge of the anti-fascist struggle when she gets out, which one will take her to tiki bars and teach her about the subject position of being a queer femme and all its responsibilities and travails, and which one will laugh too hard in spite of himself at all her jokes and make sure she’s well-fed when she needs home cooking with her Chicago family (I’m the last one, if you were wondering). LeLe is her usual combination of vivacious hilarity and genuine interest in what we are up to on the outside. As has been the case throughout, some of our mail has gotten through (all her birthday cards) and some, infuriatingly and arbitrarily, has not (two of our members’ last letters), so there is some general updating to be done on our end. But we are, as anyone would be, curious about our friend’s move, and it is safe to say Alisha is at least a little wistful for the, shall we say, woolier world of Logan, a place better suited to her bawdy, mischievous, and social personality. In short: our girl is bored. But I am reminded more acutely in this visit also: our girl is easily but deeply funny. She tells us about the first set of clothes she got at the new facility, the crotch and thighs stained (“somebody had like a toxic vagina or something! Just burning through!”), and how she soon found that there was no fashion scene to keep up with here. We comment on how clean the clothes she has now look, and how she has clearly lost back some weight from the—marginally—better food and find that she’s wearing her “special occasion” polo, pristine and white, and her pair of shoes from Logan that “nobody else got.” At the old facility, she’d be altering clothes and getting the new garb whenever it came in or else risk ridicule, which would result in mouthing off, which consequently would result in something worse. We comment this sounds like high school all over again, and Alisha’s eyebrows go up as she busts up laughing: “It’s worse than high school! They’re criminals! You get your ass beat!” She tells us about the sort of pranks unique to a place where people are already on edge but used to certain routines which mark out the time. There is the regular practice of lining up to receive prescription medication, which LeLe naturally thought was worth crying wolf at, at least once: “MEDLINE!” The effected inmates, of which there were many, all piled out of their cells to line up for drugs, furious at the false alarm. When one of the older inmates got especially angry, Alisha responded with the natural question of the nonplussed prankster: “You mad? Are you big mad or little mad?” knowing full well this would be the end of the incident. In this “minimum security” place, loaded with contradictions, the restrictions regarding fighting and sexual relationships are vastly harsher than the previous: either will get you cited and likely put in solitary confinement, in the hole.

We ask her a few questions on behalf of a reporter friend who is doing a profile on Alisha, one of which we already have a sense of the sad answer to, but ask anyway and receive a classic LeLe answer.

“How are you passing the time at Decatur?”

(slight pause) “Dyking out!”

She goes on to explain that she is “talking to” three people, but there are ten more interested. We get into a discussion about how “everyone is gay” on the inside, because there’s nothing else to be. As mentioned before, she has been separated from the partnership she had begun to build at Logan, which we assume would be difficult, but as it turns out, not for the reasons we guessed. Suffice it to say, Alisha had her heart broken while she was still at the last facility, subjected to the same sort of amplified betrayals that anyone who offers up herself to another, who feels she has forged a connection through the harshest of obstacles, who takes a calculated risk knowing separation is immanent, would find themselves susceptible. The classic coping mechanism of “needing to spend some time alone” is drawn into brutalist relief in a place like this where one is at once in a uniquely profound solitude and at the same time never more than ten feet from another person or fifty. Alisha proclaims she is “manic depressive,” a diagnosis about which we are all concerned and interested in how it is made and treated in this environment. It turns out that a formal diagnosis has never been made, and Alisha explains how there is no intermediate state for her, she is either hyperactive and excited, sociable to the point where she kids with the guards in the dining hall and pushes buttons just to get some kind of reaction from the subdued and tamped-down inmates, or else utterly depressed. Not just sad about her lost girlfriend, the absent opportunities which were available to her at Logan, her missing family and friends, the wrongful nature of the system which reminds her daily it would have simpler if she had just died that night, but a purer, simpler low, resultant from the basic realities of being a giant spirit and personality cordoned off and hidden away from the society she would choose and which would, I am certain, choose her.

The time is more real now, she says it and I can see it, because this will be the final destination before release. She bargains with us for all the things she would give up to be able to step outside, or do anything positive for herself at all, and then we hit the crux of the matter. Alisha tells us she is not used to—and at this point, there’s no reason to think she’ll ever get used to, which is fine—having to ask for everything, and being powerless to help those she cares about. Among the myriad motivations for doing sex work, the at least potential command over one’s income, how often and what sort of work one wants to do, was clearly foremost for our girl. Her mother, brother, sister, and new nephew need her, not simply financially or even emotionally but—and I do not use this term lightly—spiritually. Anyone who meets Alisha and finds favor with her would comprehend this sort of need; she is magnanimous not because she is a saint but because it is clear that when she cares it is wholesale and not easily vacated. She will never become accustomed to be so dependent on, having to ask for things from, her mother, having to be shaken down to use the bathroom, finding nearly every step, of which there are only so many which can be taken anyway, requiring official and explicit sanction.

It does no real good for me to soften the situation in these reflections: our dauntless survivor is hurting, each next forced renegotiation of her dignity and creative power taxing the underground wellspring of strength from which she draws. The tiny gold cross she wears around her neck borders on satire; this is no cloister for the likes of Alisha Walker, and there’s no spiritual quest or fulfillment concealed within. Just the full, indifferent weight of the state’s corporal fetish borne down on a young woman full to bursting with creative potency. I, insignificant and impotent in the face of such forces, have two options, with only the first being at all viable. Either LeLe will emerge from this place, sooner than later, intact and excited to make good on all the plans we make every next visit, or I do not want to go on existing in the world which not just allows but applauds her forced sacrifice.

Alisha is disappointed that one of our members does not eat red meat, having raised cows in her youth and, accepting this reality, turns to me in mock-frustration:

“Aaron, please tell me you eat steak.”

I do, LeLe, I do, and I don’t know if it’s going to taste right again until you’re on the opposite side of the table from me for the first time.

-AH

#justiceforalisha #freelele #sexworkiswork #rightsnotrescue #survivedandpunished #alishawalker #prisonabolition #visitinglele

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