#(these are currently not for sale!! were ordered as a test to see how I liked the quality and such ;^^)

[dragon-spaghetti]

EXCUSE MY TERRIBLE PICTURE TAKING SKILLS BUT GUYS 👁👁

[eldritch-spouse]

Currently you're sitting at a table with your master, waiting on your meal. You have complicated feelings on Nebul. He doesn't necessarily treat you badly, he takes care of you but that's because you've been cooperative, you've seen him less gentile…..

The chef walks on by dragging a man screaming and wailing. His eyes look searching for someone, until they fall on you.

“Help me!” He looks at you with pleading eyes. “He's going to kill me!”

You are no savior, you have no power here. You look down at your lap, hearing his cries for help become more and more distant. Dread and despair grows in your heart.

[I can write this out from his perspective.]

Nebul enjoys pets like you.

One might glance at him and think that perhaps the trainer would prefer a real brat. Someone who stomps their feet, bitches and whines and spits. The kind that just won't take it lying down and nearly breaks themself in their effort to be free of his controlled dominance.

But they'd be quite mistaken.

Nebul loves a pet who instantly recognizes their place. A darling thing like you, smart enough to realize that you have no chance of ever escaping intact, and thus, become subservient to your rightful master. You know Nebul will protect you, will provide for you, because you're learning to be the perfect pet he's training you into on a daily basis. There's something just insanely satisfying and obscenely arousing about your immediate submission to Nebul, he savors it slowly, preens you, makes sure you'll last him long.

Many were the tests you've been subtly subjected to since your time under his care. Some were elaborated to get a feel for your character, others for the amount of progress in obedience and loyalty you've developed. The undead quickly adjusts his methods depending on your performance, though you've been nothing if not stellar thus far. Very impressive, very good.

This moment is both another test and a reward. You have earned yourself time outside of the shop, time watching others, pretending to be a member of a community. Not that this particular community sees you as anything but a breathing toy, but he knows it's enough to bring a semblance of comfort to a contact-starved psyche like yours.

See, tonight you're having dinner at The Clergy's restaurant. And the place is quite packed, much to Nebul's distaste. His organism, unalive and magic-riddled, may not require food, but yours sure does. Nebul did take the care to make sure you will not be ingesting "human products", as he already ordered your meal a fair bit ago. Now, he's just making idle conversation and attentively mapping your reactions to seeing so many monsters ogling you like a steak. At certain times, it feels as if you want to sit next to him on the ground, where you have correctly learned is safest, and he glows with pride.

Many a client have stopped by and wordlessly pointed at you, every each one receiving a polite and consice explanation that you're not for sale or a free-use treat. He relishes the dread in your eyes, but even more so the relief. Gratitude that you had been picked by the wraith, and not some uncaring, sadistic entity looking to rip you open.

Yes, the sooner you understand how good you have it here, the sooner you'll drop silly ideas of escape and freedom.

Your rhythmic fidgeting with the silver tag of the collar around your neck is harshly interrupted by the sound of the closest elevator parting its doors, and a very angry monster stomping out, dragging a badly injured human man by medium-length hair.

Nebul senses the way your breath catches and a spike of adrenaline makes you pale, eyes wide, so tense you might pop.

He diverts his attention to Morell. The chef looks more than agitated, genuinely irate. It's not likely that the human actually managed to place a dent on that cinderblock of a monster, but it is a possibility that it outsmarted the chef in a moment of stressful workflow. And that, Nebul knows, will have the shroom smashing through furniture.

" Fuckin' pig! Ah was gonna make it smooth for ya, make it fast, ya wouldn' even feel much- "

The chef's apron is smeared with splatters of blood, what Nebul thinks might be some kind of sauce, and a decent chunk of dirt from the messy chase. The man, on the other hand, is bruised on the face and limbs, one hand bent at a bizarre angle and his ankles most definitely crudely twisted to a mockery of a ragdoll.

Even through the immense pain the undead can sense emanating from this human, the resilience commonly associated with this species shines clearly, as he screams and tries ever so hard to claw the mushroom monster's skin. Broken nails fail to so much as scratch the calloused pudge of his executioner's fingers, who are so tense around that mangled arm it might just explode.

He tries still, he tries, and will continue to for as long as his organism can supply a powerful dosage of adrenaline.

The mostly pointless squirming does succeed in one thing however, getting on Morell's nerves. Predictably, the chef turns around just enough to land a powerful steel-toed boot kick right to his middle, making the man wheeze like a dying animal. He seems to zone out for a moment, probably due to the immense pain wracking his body.

He doesn't zone out enough to miss you, the only other human present.

Nebul expected his frantic screaming, and he can't lie, part of the undead was looking forward to seeing how you'd react in a situation like this. Do you have any kind of wit in that cranium? It seems you do, because even when he's dragged by, pleading with all the remaining breath in his lungs for the help of his kin, for salvation only you can provide, you hardly react.

Aside from a light twitch of the limbs, as if you're trying to guiltily swat a mosquito away, you hang your head and focus on your intertwined hands on your lap. Your stare glazes, losing its alarmed quality, and your breathing becomes steady. You're effectively out of the scene.

Good.

Very good.

Morell makes an apology gesture towards the shopkeeper when he realizes that's the table he just walked past, eyes lingering on you with morbid curiosity before he slams the kitchen doors open and drags the drained human inside.

Nebul doesn't let you dissociate for too long. It's not the first time he's seen you do this, but he needs you quite present for this feedback. A grasp upon said clasped hands gets you to inhale sharply, shaking a bit. You glance at him with fear, as getting distracted in certain moments can earn you punishments.

" You've been performing exceptionally well. " He purrs. " With such exemplary behavior, you're on the fast track to perfection. Pets like you deserve rewards for their discipline, and you will get one once we're done eating. "

You nod hastily, fidgeting on your chair while you try hard to ignore the stains of blood on the floor.

Nebul's mist swirls playfully. " Now, what do we say? "

" I'm sorry, Master- Thank you, Master. "

" Very good. "

[clovercoin]

YAY SEPTEMBER, CLOVERCOIN IS BACK!

[ Original Patreon Post ] Phew, almost forgot the life updates after doing all those art packs in the other post. So let's catch up with what's happening with CloverCoin! Life has been very very busy since I got back from my mom's funeral. Our dog Junior (rottie) had a previous elbow injury that wasn't healing over and when I got back home we decided to take him to the vet for a second look since the pain meds they gave us ran out. Turns out Junior had big swollen ball of cancer in his elbow and he was never going to regain function in that arm again. He was in so much pain we were really apprehensive on what the right course of action was. But the vets all worked with us since they knew Junior so well from all his previous visits, with their help we managed to get an extra fast amputation surgery scheduled for the infected arm. It was extremely expensive but it gave our dog immediate pain relief while we figured what treatment plan we were going to do next. Originally we all thought it was bone cancer and that he would likely need to be put down to avoid further pain in the very near future even with his amputation. With further testing and investigation of his cancer arm, we found out it was actually a type of blood cancer of his white blood cells. We all assumed if it's blood and fluid that must mean it's everywhere, right? We were wrong AGAIN! Wither further scans we found no further signs of cancer growth in his body, lymph nodes, or organs. With this new information we made the decision as a family to pursue oncologist for Junior and get him chemo / cancer treatments. It drained the rest of our savings account that we've been working so hard for to buy a house next summer... But Junior himself has completely bounced back to the happy dog he's always been. He's eating again, learning how to run and play on his one foreleg, and just excited to still be here. So while it did cost all of my savings, I have to say it's been worth it. With his reviewed case, he went from less than 6 months to live to possibly living 2-3+ more years now. So we're all so happy and grateful to still have our service boy still with us. Now that we're on a routine with Junior and his chemo treatments, I'm also getting back to work on my end! CloverCoin Patreon is back online for September 2024! We're so excited to see so many patrons stuck around and how excited you all are for more art! Thank you!!! I'm currently working on setting up a Bigcartel shop page with all of our stickers and postcard goods. I'll be sure to announce the shop's grand opening here soon as it's all ready. Thank you so much for all of my patrons testing out merch every month with me so we can make this possible! Last big to-do on my list now is that my current desktop Cintiq is not working for me. We had an original Cintiq 22 HD from 2014. But that poor thing died last year. We ordered a new tablet on super sale from amazon but.... We're very unhappy with the product and it doesn't work with my desk or work station. So we'll be taking it down and trying to resell it to get our money back. However this means I still do not have a desktop tablet to work with for online streams and recordings. REALLY BUMS ME OUT! I'm very fortunate that I still have my ipad and it's been working great. So I'm not totally without a tablet for work. But Prov and I will now be making an effort to replace my Cintiq tablet with a new one maybe before the year is over. Ouch my poor savings account, it's already taken such a beating from all the vet bills and now I have to replace very expensive hardware? yuck! So... Lots of money being spent. But overall we're very lucky and we're so happy. I'm just so grateful to have my happy dog recovering really well. I'm glad my ipad works great even after being beat up for past 7-8 years?? Woah! Good job lil buddy. Just... A lot has gone wrong this year. A lot of bad shit has happened. And Prov and I are so damn lucky to be here and have everything we do. So I'm going to keep working VERY HARD to get all this updated, shop posted, commissions completed, and make back every single dime of my savings!!! OR SO HELP ME! >:0 Thanks everyone for sticking it out while we're figuring out every bump in the road. We really appreciate all your patience and kindness. You're all the best and I can't wait to share even more art with you all! AJD . ART

[midautumngame]

We're back at it folks!

Hi folks! It's been a few months since our last update and we're excited to talk about how development has been going!

How did our Early Access Launch go?

Short answer: it went well! It's been a few months now so it's a bit easier to see the impact of our early access launch and it accomplished a bunch of things we needed it to do. First things first, we managed to not go broke, which is always something to be thankful for when you make video games for a living! We hit our financial targets for launch, which let us verify that our current target scope for the game wouldn't be too big to support financially, or too small to meet expectations! After putting out a couple bug fixes we were able to take a much needed rest and then most of the past couple months have been under-the-hood fixes to prep for the rest of our early access plans.

We've also been monitoring how the game has been faring for folks coming across it out in the wild instead of as part of our existing community. Finally, after confirming what's been working particularly well with our gameplay and story, we have a much better sense of what we want to do with our remaining two biomes! We've got a solid plan in place of what we'll need to do to bring the game to a really satisfying conclusion, as well as what we need to add to existing parts of the game in order to support that!

Controller Support!

The major feature in our most recent build is that we now have full controller support as well as controller remapping! The early access launch was a great stress test for us to help make sure we implemented controllers in the best way possible! We were able to put some of those initial early access sales towards some more controller plug-ins to help us add fixes for less common controllers faster and more reliably. We were able to get a wider variety of test controllers, and prioritized the kinds of controllers we were hearing the most issues about!

Going forward, If any folks are having issues with their specific controller being detected, you should be able to use the controller remapping menu in the options menu in the short term to bypass that issue. That same menu should also show you a name for your controller, which may sometimes be different from how your controller is typically recognized. If you let us know what name is showing up in that menu, we should have a much quicker time creating a long term fix for your controller!

Development Progress

The latest build update won't have a lot of noticeable content updates since we really wanted to focus on getting controller support working right away, but a lot of the things we're working on are going to revolve around adding more variety and more to do in the existing 3 biomes, while we build out an initial release of Biome 4 behind the scenes. The update we put out after this one should include some new enemies to find in Wooden Refuge and Lotus Sea.

Some other stuff we are working on over the next coming months (I've ordered these in terms of how long I think these will take, so the higher ones on the list should come sooner)

A new gift giver character

more story events for the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game

Some new Narakan Loom abilities

Adding more things to do in the Temple District and Sakurafest hub areas

Biome 4 (Qilin Peaks) is in active development, it will probably be a while before it's playable though! Looking at our remaining task list, it looks like about another year's worth of development before we're close to a version 1.0 of the game. There's going to be a LOT of content between then and now though so If anyone is waiting for a particular feature or point in development before they jump in and play, let us know and we can send y'all a reminder once we have those elements in game!

Hope y'all are excited for what we're working on! Thank you so much for all your support so far! Every wishlist, purchase, review and even just sharing these posts helps us out so much!

And if you haven't yet please consider checking out Midautumn and playing our FREE demo!

[askgothamshitty]

I am slowly getting into socialist feminism & eco-feminism (I took the feminist perspective test to gauge my current beliefs, and they were my highest result). Do you think that it is possible for me to create my own business where I sell garments that I have created myself that value craftsmanship, longevity, functionality, and vintage styles while not falling into capitalist greed? I want the basis of my business to promote quality-made garments that are meant to last and are actually meant to be worn and repaired, kind of like the "make, do & mend" movement during WW2. I don't plan on selling a ton of designs; I have only limited ones that promote those values above on a made-to-order basis. I know the topic of fast fashion is big, and my business will always be sole ownership, where I do everything myself. I only plan on using eco-friendly packaging, high-quality natural fabrics, and sewing techniques that promote more longevity and comfort in garments. Of course, the topic of sustainability in garment construction and textiles is extremely nuanced and isn't black and white. But if I do this, then these garments won't necessarily be cheap at all, and I feel like pricing high will make me fall into capitalistic greed, but if I price low, then I won't be compensated fairly for my work. I guess I am just wondering how I can navigate a business like this without falling into any pitfalls of capitalism and exploitation and if you have any book recommendations about exploitive labor in the textile and fashion industries, and is it still possible to go with this business idea while still being a feminist. I just don't want to be that business that uses feminist or anti-capitalist buzzwords to gain sales/profit I want a sustainable business that values and honors my craftsmanship and where I can build a community of like-minded individuals. But is it possible to do that while still selling stuff, especially at a high price? or am I just overthinking things?

So the reason capitalism is objectionable to socialists is not because of some vague idea of “greed” (although we can definitely say capitalists demonstrate this anyway) but because of the material relations underlying the system: privatized means of production and the exploitation of the proletariat. This exploitation is the source of profit; capitalists extract surplus labor from their workers and appropriate it for themselves.

As a small business owner you would still be sourcing your profit from exploited labor because you will need it to produce your supplies. The textile industry specifically is notoriously rife with corruption and human rights violations. You can google “textile industry exploitation” to see a myriad of sources on this.

Capitalism isn’t something you “fall into”. It’s the system in which any and all businesses are contextualized. Just as there is no ethical consumption, there is no ethical production.

[peerbear]

The Saint Catherines Fundraiser, Pub Quiz and Open Mic Night

After the location recce, we were having an issue as a group with our funding. We had much less than we expected to have and there was little time remaining until our shoot and we knew we needed more money than we had to make the film. So despite Orla's incredible efforts and organisation expertise the money just wasn't coming to the extent that we had planned for on our crowdfunder.

We talked as a group and after attending Oj Tato's fundraiser Katie and I were keen to organise a fundraiser of our own. This was something we had both wanted previously but were unsure if we would have the time to do it, but seeing Oj Tato's night we felt inspired to do it. Orla and Jack as our co-producers amongst so many other roles, on different films as well, had so many things on their plate that it made sense for us to help out extra and make the fundraiser happen so that they had something less to worry about and think about. I took this role as lead organiser, so to say because as DOP, Katie still had more to do than I did in preproduction.

Upon Katie's suggestion of getting in touch with The Three Sisters and them not replying to her email, I took matters further and emailed them as well as called them immediately after and thus secured the venue, which we could hire for free as students and solidified our fundriaser's timeframe and an estimated capacity for the event.

I then put together a running order which was as follows:

Doors Open: 7pm

Start: 8pm Katie and Orla introduce the project Screen Proof of Concept (Test Shoot): 8:10pm

Talks by Charities: 8:20pm ⁃ Sexpression and Sex on Campus

Pub Quiz: 9pm-10:30pm ⁃ Rounds: 1) Film and TV, 2) Women in History, 3) Music and 4) Physical Challenge

Open Mic: 10:30pm ⁃ Open to all to participate

End/Doors Close: 00:00

I also made an Eventbrite and created an account on Square: Point for Sale, so that we could sell tickets, merch and artwork at the door.

Here is what the Eventbrite looked like:

The photo right above this is the beautiful poster that Katie designed for the event which we posted on our Instagram and Eventbrite page.

Here is the link to the Eventbrite (It looks a bit different now because the event has happened and Eventbrite does not show all the information after the event):

Katie and I had an art session before the event where we created paintings, postcards and t-shirts with Saint Catherines written on them underneath a print of the view from Saint Catherines onto the hills that overlook Loch Fyne. These were our prize products and they required some planning to figure out how to execute them and they took hours to make. But we were super happy with the results.

On the night we started off with Orla and Katie introducing the project (their love child as I secretly call it). We then screened our test shoot as our proof of concept to show everyone who was attending what the film would be about.

Making a film on such a delicate and important topic as sexual assault we all agreed it would be great for us to have some charities there to speak to our audience and show other projects that are currently making a difference and fighting against sexual assault in society and trying to make the world a better place. I organised for two student-led charities to speak at the event. These were Sexpression and Sex on Campus, both are run by Edinburgh University students and support a cause that we at Saint Catherines thoroughly support as well. Sexpression is a sex educator group that is based at universities UK-wide where students go to schools and teach sex education to pupils from ages 11 to 18. I am part of this group outside of uni and can confirm that it is run and handled with great professionalism and care for young people's safety and ensuring that they feel more comfortable moving forward through their youth and into young adult life. Sex on Campus was a more similar and well-paired cause to our project as it is battling rape culture in universities, especially at Edinburgh University. Sex on Campus is even affiliated with our film which felt like a very special backing to have which we are honoured to have and very grateful for. I'm afraid we were unable to have Sexpression's affiliation as they are such a big charity and their affiliation would have meant that they would have been involved in the edit of the film as well.

Here are some photos of Sexpression and Sex on Campus giving talks at the fundraiser:

I also created a pub quiz with help from Katie on a few sections and this was the absolute hit. Or at least I had so much fun making it and hosting it as well. We, of course, had a film and television round, a women's history round (because of our feminist crew and project), a music round and as inspired by James Fox himself we had a physical challenge round, where we had participants suck and lift skittles with straws from one plate onto another. What I really enjoyed about this was trying to make it into a quiz that was doable for a different audience to your typical quiz goer, offering music and film choices that I would mostly actually be able to get myself, when usually I can only offer a couple of answers correctly. I tried to put in a little something for everyone, but of course, you can't make everyone happy. My favourite part was the physical challenge because it completely changed the dynamic and the atmosphere in the room.

Here are some photos from the quiz, including Katie and I hosting, the physical challenge set up and people at their quizing tables:

At the end of the night, Katie hosted an open mic night which was really special as well. That girl can sing! No, really her voice is beautiful and actually features in both soundtracks of Saint Catherines and Where Currents Meet.

The fundraiser was a success and helped us with getting together some substantial money for our film. Most importantly though it was a great time and felt very rewarding. It reminded me why I am on a project like this trying to support and further a cause I believe in so strongly.

Funnily enough a couple of days after the fundraiser we had a massive donation from an anonymous donor who turned out to be a rich man Orla had met at a bar a month earlier. We all joked about it, but this just happened to be someone who often puts money into different projects and we were lucky. And even though we might not have needed to do the fundraiser if we had known he would donate, I am still so happy to have done it. It showed me that I can organise events to a level that I am very happy with and can be organised when I put my mind to it.

We made just under £300 at the fundraiser which was nice to add to our overall budget. I will be organising more events soon because I enjoyed it so much so stay tuned.

[adamgant]

7.12 Friday Faves (and a giveaway!)

7.12 Friday Faves (and a giveaway!) https://ift.tt/50wTuS4 Hi friends! How are you? Happy Friday to ya! What’s going on this weekend? I blocked off this morning so I could take the kiddos to the museum and bowling, tomorrow, we’re going out, and Sunday, we’re swimming with friends. Monsoon season is here and it’s been such a welcome treat from the 110-degree scorching oven. (This week’s reading + tubes for my Women’s Wellness test) I’d love to hear what you have going on! It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the comments section below. 7.12 Friday Faves Fashion + beauty + random: Reader Faves for June! It’s always fun to look through analytics and see which products you love the most that I’ve shared here on the blog. Here are the top picks for June: My favorite bikini – on sale now, too! It’s functional, flattering, great fabric, and actually covers your booty This gel moisturizer This travel dress! I wore this walking around Sevilla with white Vejas My go-to cleanser (that I can actually use with my super sensitive eyes) This Farm Rio STUNNER (on sale, too!!) This matte bronzer stick What I use to clean my Peloton and yoga mats This super inexpensive yet cute stadium bag SkinMedica SPF moisturizer This amazing anti-aging skin cream (in stock right now, too!) Nordstrom Sale is still going strong! I’ll be updating this post with all of the currently in-stock items before public access goes live, but in the meantime, you can browse all of my favorites here. Some of the top sellers so far: These Chelsea boots – Liv and I both have and love these This gorgeous pendant necklace Comfy and cute pocket joggers The best kids’ rain boots These flare jeans! I can’t wait for my pair to arrive 🙂 Double pack of my fave cleanser This thing saved my life when the girls were babies! If you’re expecting (or know someone who is and you’re looking for an awesome gift), I highly, highly recommend it This classic everyday dress The perfect black pant! They truly are perfection and I wear them with flats, heels, and boots all fall and winter These beautiful and silky travel pajamas Read, watch, listen: We watched the Celine Dion documentary and while it was devastating, it was very well-done. I keep praying for her healing. Her voice is such a gift to the world and it brings her so much joy, too. Nurturing meaningful connections offline. Don’t forget to check out this week’s podcast episode here. Fitness, health, and good eats: Making this paella tonight! It won’t be the same, but I can try lol. Spicy peanut soba noodle salad. You need this tart in your life. It’s giveaway time!! I love surprising reader friends with goodies and treats, so here is the July giveaway! 2 lucky winners will recieve a goodie pack full of some of my favorite wellness essentials. These are usually valued around $300. Last month I added beauty products, coffee frothers, dry brushes, barre socks, and lots of my favorite treats and snacks. Winners will also receive an Oliveda product of their choice, like the famous 59 serum. Here’s how to enter: – Leave a comment below with something you’re excited about this month! – For an extra extra, place any EquiLife order between now and next Friday! (My code FITNESSISTA10 will stack on top of any of the current promos!) Send your order number to gina@fitnessista.com subject GIVEAWAY . I’ll be including their new insulated tote for the winners! Hope you have a happy weekend and I’ll see ya soon! xoxo Gina The post 7.12 Friday Faves (and a giveaway!) appeared first on The Fitnessista. via The Fitnessista https://ift.tt/gRlEr83 July 12, 2024 at 12:28PM

[2024inwords]

I’ve always thought that when companies donate to non-profit organizations, it's considered a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. However, recent class discussions taught me that CSR is not about how a company spends its money, but rather, about how they earn it. A company can donate funds to organizations, but if they acquired the money through illegal means, they are not doing their part for society. Another thing I learned in class is that CSR is a change in mindset that requires businesses to be more socially responsible and ethical in their operations. It's about treating people well, including employees, customers, and partners. Although this may sound basic, if we reflect on practices of companies around us, we can see that it is an area where many companies have an opportunity to improve. Often, businesses prioritize profits over these values, but it is important to realize that treating people well can have a significant positive impact on a business. For example, creating a culture of kindness and respect can help attract and retain talented employees. I have personally experienced this in my current workplace. The company I work for has a culture of kindness that permeates through the organization, allowing me to work with teammates who share the same values. The company's culture of kindness is one of the reasons I have remained with them for seven years now. Although there have been changes here and there, the culture of kindness is still evident with the people I work with, and for that, I am truly grateful. Similarly, I realized that being a "nice" company can also improve customer satisfaction. A few years ago, our company was ranked as one of the nicest to do business with, particularly with partners, through an official survey done by an external party. Although some may see this as a derailer for success, I felt proud when I heard this because it is not common to hear about businesses being "nice" these days. Business is business, and tough conversations are inevitable, especially during negotiations. However, staying polite and respectful during these push-and-pull situations is the ultimate test of true character, and I believe our company culture is what allowed me to embody this. I am a firm believer that being "nice" is synonymous with practicing common courtesy. How we treat others is how we will be treated in return. As someone who has worked in sales, I have encountered difficult partners who would not release a purchase order (PO) simply because they were unhappy. This could be due to something I did directly or something completely unrelated to me or our company. Despite an out-of-stock situation that prohibits shoppers from getting access to products, POs were still withheld. I have always struggled with accepting this kind of behavior because while I understand that in business, there will always be difficult conversations, I believe that everything can be settled in a proper manner. Professionalism is one thing, but common courtesy and basic respect should always be present. It is a sad realization that common courtesy and basic values are not so common and basic after all. But at the same time, this makes me grateful to have grown up in an environment that taught me the importance of good manners and right conduct. In conclusion, I have come to realize that being a socially responsible company is not just about how one makes or spends their money. It is also about operating in a socially responsible and ethical manner. By treating others well and being a "good" company, businesses can create a positive impact on their employees, customers, and partners, which if we think about it – is the main reason why businesses exist - to serve the community.

[sultanaislammow]

How to dig out product experience optimization points

Many students have questions about how to HE Tuber find optimization points for user experience. In fact, we are immersed in our own design teams and are far away from the business, resulting in blocked ideas and unable to find optimization points. Based on his own experience, the author summarizes three practical suggestions, hoping to be helpful to you.

The previous article mainly discussed how to promote user experience in production and research at work. Maybe many students will ask, how to find user experience optimization points? Are there any good ideas or methods?

When I was first asked this question, I was shocked and couldn't even answer it. Later, I calmed down and analyzed it. It was because I was immersed in the design team both at work and socially, and was too far away from the business. As a result, my business ideas were not developed, and it was difficult to find inspiration for experience optimization.

Based on project experience, the author provides some practical suggestions, hoping to help everyone:

Open up your social boundaries and make more friends with pre-sales, sales and after-sales colleagues.

Keep the information on the same frequency and optimize the experience in a timely manner. Before new product functions are launched, developers often conduct smoke tests to test whether the system is testable and then hand it over to testing. After the development is completed, some interaction problems may be detected. At this time, the design can also maintain the same frequency as the development and adjust and change some interactions.

Participate in industry conferences to clarify market pain points. Participating in more conferences within the SaaS industry will help you understand industry trends from an overall perspective.

1. Business participation begins with opening social boundaries

When the author was working on medical SaaS software, pre-sales colleagues often needed to visit community hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine clinics, medical aesthetic clinics, etc. Everyone knows that the core job of pre-sales colleagues is to find ways to sell the software. But before the sales relationship is concluded, they need to do a lot of KYC (know your customers) work.

Since medical SaaS is a companion enterprise, our main job is to help medical institutions solve their pain points and maximize revenue. Pre-sales colleagues need to understand the clinic's current operating model, development pain points, software used, operating conditions, etc., in order to build a foundation of trust.

In short, pre-sales colleagues know the market conditions and the competing products used in clinics best. By becoming friends with pre-sales colleagues, you can understand the difficulty of promoting pre-sales work from his few words, and thus also indirectly understand the product. Market Competitiveness. Get inspiration from competing products that pre-sales colleagues know about.

At the same time, pre-sales colleagues also need to design and prepare ammunition depots for them to seize the market. If the interactive experience can become the highlight of sales, it will greatly facilitate their work. It is obvious that designer friends communicate more with pre-sales colleagues, which not only pre-positions their roles and participates in the market, but also makes many friends, achieving multiple goals with one stone.

As for sales and after-sales colleagues, their work focuses on maintaining relationships. In the relationship maintenance stage, the business side will make demands to the sales and after-sales, and all these demands will be prioritized. At this time, if the design role is front-loaded and you have a deep understanding of the business, you can self-examine the unfiltered needs and see how you would optimize the experience if it were you. Maybe some experience optimization demands will be given a very low priority, but we can think and plan in advance. When the need comes, you can put forward your own thinking, backup plans, etc., and you will not be short of time and think poorly.

[purple-plum-petals]

—⊱ Gentle Hands Caress my Skin ⊰ || Azul Ashengrotto x Reader

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮       Character(s): Azul Ashengrotto (Twisted Wonderland), Jade Leech (Twisted Wonderland), Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland), Ace Trappola (Twisted Wonderland, mentioned), Deuce Spade (Twisted Wonderland, mentioned), Kalim Al-Asim (Twisted Wonderland, mentioned), Grim (Twisted Wonderland, mentioned)       Reader Type: Human, Ramshackle Prefect (Gender-Neutral Pronouns)       Warning(s): Brief Descriptions of Blood (Specifically a Bloody Nose and Stains on Gloves), Mild Violence, Spoilers for Book 3(?), Use of Japanese TWST Terms (Dorm Leader instead of Housewarden, Madols instead of Thaumarks, etc.)       Genre: Drabble, Fluff (slight Hurt/Comfort), Platonic or Romantic Relationship       Word Count: ~2,600 words       Prompt: “Sit still.” “I’m fine.” “You’re bleeding.” [Prompt List]       Author’s Note: Azul my beloved. 🥰 I just wanted an excuse to write Yuu babying and taking care of Azul which leads him to become flustered because of the Prefect’s concern over him – flustered Azul is best Azul and I will die on that hill. Whether Azul is flustered because he has a crush on Yuu or is touch starved is completely up to you; that’s why I have the story listed as being either romantic or platonic in nature. I also kind of wanted to play around with the whole fish-mafia thing which is why the ending is a bit… darker than what I usually write for these types of drabbles. Don’t worry, they didn’t do anything too bad to the student – just roughed him up a bit so he doesn’t think he can get away with punching Azul in the face.

→ If you enjoyed my work, please reblog it if you can! Exposure on Tumblr is based on reblogging content rather than liking it, so your support would be much appreciated!  ♡ ╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

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             You were sitting by yourself at a secluded table in Mostro Lounge, nursing a drink as you studied for your upcoming history exam. You would just do it back at your dorm, but Grim had a nasty habit of distracting you by demanding you go to the school store to buy him something to eat. So, in order to combat his near-constant commands for you to go on a food run, you just started studying at the lounge instead (he was still much too scared of Azul and the Leech brothers that he didn’t even want to step foot in the establishment). You’d still bring him dinner after you were done studying, leaving the lounge and stopping by the store and get him some tuna and whatever they had on sale. Though, he would still whine about how he was starving in typical cat fashion despite you having given him plenty of snacks to eat while you were gone for an hour or two. Sometimes, you wondered if Grim thought that you were made of madol.

            You were nearly done with the practice test you had made with some of your classmates, sitting pretty on question 41 of 50 as you tapped your pencil on the table. The smooth jazz of the lounge was relaxing, and the sound of your pencil on the paper in front of you was nearly hypnotic as your hand wrote down the answer mindlessly. For once in your life, you actually felt confident when it came to a history test. Not being originally from Twisted Wonderland made your life harder in more ways than one. Not only did you not possess a single ounce of magical ability, but you also had to learn an entire world’s history while everyone else looked at you like you had lived under a rock your whole life. It was tiring but, somehow, you were managing to keep your good grades in addition to having a blossoming social life.

             Your relaxing study session was suddenly interrupted by yelling from across the lounge. You jumped in your seat from the sudden noise and turned to look at the source of the screaming. You saw Azul, Jade, and Floyd standing across the room from where you were currently seated, talking with a seemingly very irate student from across the way. You didn’t like the way they were clenching and unclenching their fists as they looked at Azul, their dislike for him burning in their eyes so brightly you could see it all the way from your table.

            Just as you were about to go over and use your amazing “beast taming” abilities to help calm the situation down, that’s when the sound of the student’s fist hitting Azul square in the face echoed throughout the lounge with a sickeningly wet thud. As soon as his hand made contact, the student turned tail and ran away, leaving Azul hunched over and holding his nose in his gloved hands. Floyd and Jade were still standing by their dorm leader, seeming to be frozen in shock; by the expressions on their faces, you determined they weren’t expecting the student to do that.

             “Oh my god – Azul, are you alright!?” You shrieked, abandoning your things at your table in order to go make sure Azul was okay; that punch didn’t sound pretty. Sure, you may have had a rocky start to your relationship with the Octavinelle dorm leader, but who hadn’t you had a bad first impression with? Kalim doesn’t count. Jade and Floyd turned to look as you ran towards them, their eyebrows raising slightly in surprise; ah, it appeared as though they had forgotten you were there.

             “Ah, Prefect... sorry you had to witness such a thing when you’re supposed to be here relaxing.” Azul told you, standing up straight and putting on a hardened expression despite the tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. He said aloud, looking towards the twins as he ordered, “Floyd, Jade, bring that student back here for me – we can’t let him get away with such brutish behavior.”

             Jade bowed slightly, sending a small smile your way despite the situation as he told Azul, “Yes, sir.”

             “Hehe – on it, boss~…” Floyd said, the tone of his voice and the smile on his face not matching the pure and unbridled rage currently swirling in his mismatched eyes.

             You and Azul watched the two of them leave through the glass doors and, eventually, the premise of the dorm. Everything was silent, the only sound being the smooth jazz still playing in the background through the speakers of the lounge. You turned to look at Azul, taking in the pained expression on his face and the slight glimpse of a scowl under the cover of his fist. When your attention was on his hand, however, that’s when you noticed red slowly seeping through the white of his glove, the stain growing larger and larger as the seconds ticked away. You reached up and gently touched the hand covering his nose, effectively grabbing his attention as you told him softly, “Azul, your nose is bleeding.”

             “Hmm?” He pulled his hand away from his face, looking down at his usually pristine white gloves with blood stains near his fingers and palms. Upon realizing he had been bleeding, all Azul said was, “Oh, I suppose it is.”

             “Is there a first aid kit in your office?” You asked, wanting to help him get cleaned up and to check to see if his nose was broken; you and your friends found yourself in trouble more often than not, so you had gotten fairly skilled when it came to first aid. Hell, you’ve had to patch up Deuce more times than you could count on one hand whenever his delinquent side took over the logical part of his brain which was, admittedly, not the biggest.

             “I do believe so; Jade put one in the bottom drawer of my desk in case of a situation like this. I’ve never needed to use it before, so it should still be there.” He told you as he returned to holding his nose tightly between his fingers, not caring if more blood were to get on his glove considering it was already ruined at this point.

             You grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and lightly tugged him along as you made your way to the VIP room, saying aloud, “Okay, then let’s go get you fixed up – don’t want to get blood all over the rest of your uniform, right?”

             Azul didn’t answer you, allowing you to drag him to his office with no attempt to stop you. You eventually made your way there, opening the door and making Azul take a seat on one of the two leather couches in the room as you searched for the first aid kit. Once you found it, you grabbed it and went over to the glass coffee table, placing it on the surface and opening it up. You grabbed the instant cold pack and put it to the side before picking up some disinfectant wipes to clean up the blood that had started caking around his nose.

             “Okay Azul, move your hand for a moment so I can clean you up.” He did what you had asked, rolling his eyes slightly and removing his thankfully not broken glasses before setting them on the table next to the cold pack. You gently wiped his face, removing the drying blood with a careful hand so you didn’t cause him any more pain. Luckily, his nose wasn’t broken but, sadly, it was starting to bruise around the area where he was hit.

             “You know you don’t need to do this, right? I am perfectly capable of doing this myself.” Azul told you, opening his eyes and taking in the concentrated expression on your face as you carefully tended to his injury.

             You looked up to make eye contact with Azul, smiling slightly as you reassured him, “I know you can, but you might have a hard time doing this by yourself. Now shush and sit still.”

             He just sighed out, his voice strained as he said, “I am fine, Prefect.”

             “You’re bleeding, Azul – you are absolutely not fine…” You lightly scolded him, placing the bloody wipe on the table before grabbing another one so you could continue cleaning him up. You kept talking as you did his, leaning closer and closer to his face as you said, “Luckily, your nose doesn’t look like it’s broken, so that’s good. I’ll just clean up the blood and…”

             Okay, wow – you were a lot closer this time around than you were before. Azul could feel your breath lightly fanning against his face; you smelled like the fruity drink you had been enjoying before he was punched, and he found his cheeks heating up at the closeness. He wasn’t used to soft moments like this and stuttered out, cringing at the sound of his wavering voice, “P-Prefect, could you… uh, step away for a second? You’re… a little too close at the moment.”

             “Huh?” You dumbly asked, looking at Azul’s gray eyes as his face grew hotter and hotter by the second. You had just wanted to make sure you had properly cleaned up the smeared blood across his nose and cheeks and seemed to have moved closer subconsciously. Upon realizing how you had been mere inches from his face, you exclaimed as you moved away from him faster than the speed of light, “Oh! S-Sorry Azul – didn’t mean to overstep my boundaries there, haha. I’m just, ah, used to patching up my group of idiots since they tend to get into trouble more often than not.”

             Azul took a moment to calm his racing heart before asking, clearing his throat before he spoke, “Ah, Trappola and Spade?”

             “Hehe, yeah… Sure, they might share the same brain cell a majority of the time, but I love them nonetheless. Deuce usually gets roughed up more whenever his delinquent side decides to shine through, though.” You chuckled lightly, the lovely sound filling the office like a melody as you continued to speak, remising about past events with your friends, “You know, there was this one time when…”

             Azul gladly listened to you speak as you finished tending to his injury, enjoying the sound of your voice as if it was music to his ears. You pulled away and smiled, Azul missing the warmth your touch made him feel before shoving that thought down into the furthest part of his mind as you said, effectively interrupting his internal struggle, “Aaaand… done! You’re all cleaned and patched up, Azul – good as new!” You turned away from him and began packing the first aid kit back up, noticing the instant cold pack on the table. You grabbed it and cracked it in your hands, turning back to Azul who was putting his glasses back on as you said, “Oh, here’s the cold pack; it should help with any swelling.”

             He paused for a moment before gingerly taking the pack from your hands, uttering softly in a tone you had never heard from him before, “…Thank you, Prefect.” However, the vulnerability didn’t last long before he returned to his businessman persona, asking you in his usual tone, “I owe you for your service, so what shall it be? Name whatever you’d like and I’ll make it happen.”

             You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his words, shutting the first aid kit and making sure the latches were secured before standing up and making your way back to the desk to put it away. You spoke as you walked, trying to keep the exasperation out of your voice as you told him, “Azul, you don’t need to do anything – I helped you because you’re my friend and I didn’t want to see you in pain. I didn’t do it for personal gain, you know.”

             “Y-Yes, but I do not like being indebted to anyone. Just… name your price, please.” He said, the tone of his voice sounding more exhausted than anything. Whether it was from the adrenaline crash or by you making his life more difficult, you couldn’t quite tell.

             You took a moment to think, placing your finger against your chin as if you were truly contemplating something big. After a moment or two, you smirked as you asked, “Hmm… how about a free drink on the house the next time I come in?”

             Azul paused for a moment, looking at you as if you had just thrown away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as he asked you, “…That’s all?”

             “Yep! Your employees know how to make a mean drink, that’s for sure – I love being able to come here and study away from the chaos back at my dorm. Grim makes studying near impossible the majority of the time.” You told him, making your way over to the couch and taking a seat on the crouch across from Azul.

             He smirked and said, reaching out to shake your hand, “It’s a deal then – one drink on the house the next time you come in.” You shook his hand playfully, smiling softly since you knew that he wasn’t using his unique magic for it; it was pretty much just habit for him to say the phrase at this point.

             Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from the lounge, “Azuuuul~ – we brought the minnow back with us!”

             Okay, you were not sticking around to see what they did to that kid, so you stood up and said, making your way to the door in a slight hurry as you gave Azul one final wave, “Ah, it seems it’s my time to leave. Well, see you later Azul!”

             “Goodbye, Prefect.” He told you, an unusually soft smile gracing his features. You made your way down the hallway, passing Floyd and Jade as they dragged the assailant by the collar of his shirt in a similar manner picking up a cat by the scruff of their neck. Jade gave you another curt nod while Floyd was too busy dragging the student like a sack of potatoes to notice you slinking by. You went back to your table and hastily packed your books and supplies back into your bag, slinging it over your shoulder as you began your way home. Yeah… you would just have to finish that practice test back at your dorm – you weren’t going to sit around and listen to some kid being squeezed by Floyd for who knows how long. Surely you could deal with Grim’s nonsense for just nine more questions, right?

~~~

             “Now, despite having changed my ways, I am certainly not going to just sit back and let you walk away after assaulting me and ruining the Prefect’s only time of relaxation.” Azul sounded angrier at the fact that the student had stressed out Yuu more than he was about being punched in the face, but the twins decided not to point that out… well, at least not right now. Azul turned to the two of them, asking with a smirk, “Floyd, Jade – what do you suggest we do with this brute, hm?”

             “I have a few ideas. Would you like me to run them by you?” Jade asked, smiling wickedly as he glanced down at the student who was shaking like a leaf in a storm.

             “I’d love to hear them, Jade. Floyd, why don’t you squeeze him for the time being while we think of a… suitable plan of action.” Azul said, glancing over at Floyd who had been cracking his knuckles in preparation for this.

             Floyd just smirked even wider, making his way over to the student who began backing away as he got closer, saying sadistically, “Hehe… sounds good to me~.”

             …Let’s just say the other students of the dorm had to try and ignore the screams of their fellow classmate for a couple of hours.

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[yoongiseesawmp3]

just about perfect - seonghwa

howdy folks, back with another fic but i’m switching it up on ya! i might start writing regularly for ateez as well so y’all are cool with that right? right.

summary: this is NOT inspired by seonghwa saying he watches nevertheless. why would you even think that.

warnings: not the kind of warning u were expecting but there’s no smut (i know its based off a show abt friends with benefits so that’s why i’m warning u. do not get ur hopes up) a little cussing, a lotta me waxing poetic abt the perfect man park seonghwa. also slight tomfoolery from the teezers

word count: 10.6k

the bookstore just off campus is your current go-to study spot, mostly because the cafe inside has a drink special where you buy one coffee and get a voucher for the new bakery next door. so, let’s just say the past few days you’ve been well caffeinated and well fed. you’re on the way there now, already planning out what your treats are going to be. 

today you were supposed to meet your “study group” after your last class of the day, but it looks like you’re the only one here so far. and you say “study group” loosely, the professor for your music theory elective encouraged everyone to make a study group for the upcoming final and your group of friends chose to work together. there’s been no studying going on, though.

especially not when hongjoong’s new friend seonghwa has been flirting with you literally nonstop. he’s apparently friends with everyone else in your group too. san knows him from an art class they took together last semester, meanwhile wooyoung and yeosang claim they lived on seonghwa’s floor freshman year and he always bought them booze. seonghwa denies it, only because hongjoong would slap him if he admitted to buying alcohol for underage kids. 

tasteful delinquency aside, seonghwa is a fine person. you mean personality fine, not like, fine fine even though san would beg to differ. he knows you’ve developed a thing for seonghwa despite trying not to, and he’s secretly trying to get you two together. 

which is why san suddenly texts you and says he can’t make it, and neither can yeosang or wooyoung. they decided to ditch studying to practice for the final in their dance class instead, so it’ll be just you, seonghwa and hongjoong. and little did you know, hongjoong was trying to do the same thing as san. so we’ll see how this goes. 

- 

“y/n, you can’t do that,” hongjoong warns you, referring to the scale you were trying to fill out. 

“why not?” you ask, looking down at your work and wondering what’s wrong.

“because it’ll sound like shit,” seonghwa replies before sipping his coffee. 

“what he said,” hongjoong agrees, grabbing your paper and erasing some of the notes you had scribbled out. “it should look more like this.”

you glance over at what he’s done on top of your old work and sigh. you took this class because you like music, and you thought learning about how it works would be interesting, but it’s hard. 

“can’t you just do all my work for me?” you plead. at this rate, you don’t think you’ll be able to pass the final. 

“no, i don’t want you dragging me down in this class,” hongjoong replies. “my grades are great.” 

“i hate you.”

“what are you struggling with, y/n?” seonghwa asks as he finally looks up from his laptop. he had been working on an assignment for another class this whole time because he, like hongjoong, is great with music theory. so maybe this study group was a good thing. 

“here, you can switch seats with me,” hongjoong says as he clears the spot next to you on the weathered loveseat. “i’m going to look for a book i should’ve started reading two weeks ago.” 

before you can protest, seonghwa is sliding his laptop across the coffeetable and slides himself into the spot next to you. when he sits you notice your thighs are touching, which is weird because there was plenty of space when hongjoong was here. you don’t know that seonghwa is doing this on purpose, that hongjoon really left so he could flirt with the cute cashier in the cafe to give you and seonghwa some alone time. 

“so,” seonghwa starts once he’s settled. “what are you struggling with?” 

“hmm, all of it?” you reply. your answer makes seonghwa smile, and you like the way his eyes sparkle when he does.

“then i guess we’ll be here a while.”

-

about an hour later, seonghwa has walked you through all the major and minor scales you need to know for the test and you’re starting to understand a little more. you’re still having problems with the back of the study guide where you have to come up with note combinations that can apply to those scales, but you have time to work on that since the final is two weeks out. right now, your brain is fried and you need a break. 

“do you mind if i go get a coffee?” you ask seonghwa, who was in the middle of sending you the minor scale cheat sheet he made. he looks up from his laptop and shakes his head before he speaks.

“i would only mind if i can’t come with you.”

“it’s literally right over there, why do you need to come with me?” you question.

“i think i would just miss you too much,” he pouts, and you roll your eyes. seonghwa shuts his laptop and stands up. “what if i need coffee too?”

“you already had one,” you remind him as you stand.

“yeah,” he nods. “but teaching you is exhausting, so i need another. c’mon.”

he walks ahead of you to the counter, and you’re too busy searching for your wallet to notice he took his jacket off, revealing a sneaky tattoo on the back of his neck. it isn’t until you’re behind him in line that you get a look at the hand drawn star right on the nape of his neck, and you have to refrain from reaching out to trace the lines.

“i didn’t know you had a tattoo,” you decide to say. he turns around and instinctively rubs his hand across the tattoo, smiling at you with those sparkly eyes again.

“yeah, i have a couple,” he replies. “but this one is my favorite.”

“why?”

“because my name means ‘to become a star’, so i like knowing that i have a reminder with me all the time,” he explains.

“nice. it’s really pretty.”

“thanks, so are you.”

“sir?” the barista calls, pulling seonghwa’s attention from you. he steps up to give his order as you stare at the tattoo again, noticing alongside it a couple of freckles that almost make it look like a constellation.

“y/n?” seonghwa’s voice draws you out of your thoughts and you realize he’s finished ordering. “what do you want?”

“oh, i can get it,” you begin, but he cuts you off.

“no, my treat,” he insists, and you sheepishly walk up to the counter to give your order. seonghwa makes a mental note of what you get, and he also snatches the bakery voucher from you before you can put it in your pocket. you make a confused sound and seonghwa laughs. 

“why’d you do that?” you whine.

“you only get to use it if you come with me to the bakery later,” he teases. “say yes or i’m drinking your coffee and getting myself an extra cupcake.”

“fine,” you huff. “but i have an assignment due at midnight, so i can’t stay long.”

“it’s 4pm, that’s not enough time for you to finish it?” he asks while you step out of the way for the next customers.

“i haven’t started yet,” you admit. 

“you like saving things until the last minute, don’t you?”

“what makes you say that?”

“well, it looks like you haven’t been studying music theory at all, and now this,” he shrugs. 

“not everybody can be perfect like you, park seonghwa,” you grumble as the barista places two coffee cups on the bar. you hear seonghwa giggle shortly, and you give him a questioning look.

“so you think i’m perfect?” he smirks.

-

it’s the next day, almost midnight, and you really need spray paint. 

why? well, you’re stressed because you have so much to study for your finals and you don’t know where to start. yes, seonghwa helped yesterday, but he’s not in all your other classes, so you’ve decided you need a break from tearing your hair out over the material you can’t comprehend. the best way to distract yourself from that is to finally paint that dresser you got from a garage sale a few months ago, hence the spray paint. 

thankfully, san is still awake, and he has a car, so you ask him to pick you up for a quick run to the art supply store that’s surprisingly still open. a bonus of going to college in the city, you can get anything almost whenever you need it. 

“thanks for coming to get me,” you tell san as you hop into his car. 

“no problem,” he replies. “i was bored and hongjoong said he needed paint pens so this is a win-win situation. plus, i get to hear about your date with seonghwa yesterday.”

“it was not a date,” you groan, choosing to ignore the suggestive way san is looking at you right now. 

“but you spent the whole afternoon together,” san starts. “he bought you coffee and you went to the bakery together and talked about, like, your favorite colors and stuff. sounds like a date to me.”

“how do you know all that?”

“seonghwa told hongjoong and then hongjoong told me,” he explains as he turns onto the street that’ll take you to the art store. 

“well tell hongjoong that i’m still mad at him for ditching us,” you reply. “and i’m still kinda mad at you and the other two for bailing in the first place.”

“hey, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had your first date with seonghwa,” san points out.

“it was not a date!” you cry. “we studied most of the time we were together, then he bought my coffee and bullied me into going to the bakery. i couldn’t stay long because i had a paper to write, so we talked about stupid shit until i had to leave.”

“it sounds like the beginning of true love to me,” san sing-songs. 

“stop the car, i’ve decided to walk.”

-

when you get to the store, san separates from you quickly because he sees his friend mingi behind the counter. they’re busy talking while you search the store for the paints, and you’re so busy looking up at the aisle names that you don’t notice you’re about to run into someone. 

“hey-” you start to complain, but you recognize the man you almost bumped into. “oh, seonghwa.”

“y/n,” he smiles at you. “what are you doing out so late?” 

“uh, distracting myself from how small my brain is,” you explain. “what are you doing here?”

“hongjoong needed paint pens,” he says, and you’re about two seconds away from finding san and slapping him. did they really plan this too? 

“why didn’t he come get them?” you ask as you remember what you’re here to find. your eyes scan the aisle behind seonghwa and you spot the paint cans at the end, but he’s in your way.

“i offered,” he says with a shrug.

“you must be a really good friend, then.”

“well you did call me perfect yesterday, so...” he trails off, smirking. you roll your eyes at him but can’t help the blush creeping up your neck. he interrupts his new favorite activity of staring deeply into your eyes (just to fluster you, of course) and he sees that you’re looking past him at the shelves of paint. “you need something down here?” 

“um, yeah, the spray paint,” you reply, awkwardly trying to skirt around him to get into the aisle. he steps aside to let you through, but still follows you as you search for the color you want.

“what are you making?” 

“i’m painting a scuffed up dresser i’ve had for a while, so i want something simple that’ll go with the rest of the things in my room,” you explain as you stop walking and crane your neck to scan the bottles on the top shelf. seonghwa stops behind you and places his hand on the small of your back as he reaches for a can just out of your reach.

“what about this one?” he offers, handing you a can of light blue paint. it’s really pretty, and it’ll stand out with the white furniture you already have, but you really like it.

“oh, that’s perfect!” you say as you take the can from his hands.

“there you go again,” seonghwa teases, and you shoot him a questioning look. he smiles as he responds. “calling me perfect?”

“i said the paint was perfect, weirdo,�� you snap. “but thank you for finding this.”

“anytime,” he tells you. “you said your favorite color was blue right?”

“right...” you mumble, thinking back to the conversation you had at the bakery yesterday. “how’d you remember?”

“ugh, i’m hurt!” he exclaims, hand flying to his chest in mock surprise. “i can’t believe you already forgot that it’s my favorite color too.”

“hm, guess i was too distracted by how perfect you are,” you joke. seonghwa laughs at that, a sharp sound that seemed to catch him off guard. he covers his mouth to stifle the sound, but you’re close enough to the cash register now that it draws attention from san and mingi.

“find what you need?” san asks with a shit eating grin.

“hm, just about,” you say as you place the paint on the counter. “couldn’t find a hammer big enough to drop on your head, though.”

“wow, harsh,” san scoffs. “and to think i brought you here out of the goodness of my heart.”

you’re too busy half-bickering with san to notice that seonghwa has paid for your paint and the pens he promised hongjoong. he mumbles something to mingi, who then hands him a piece of paper. he scribbles his number down for you before handing you the can and his number. 

“i gotta go, but i’ll see you later for study group, right?” he confirms. you’re still processing the fact that he keeps buying things for you and you can’t respond in time, so san steps in.

“yeah, y/n will be there,” san assures seonghwa. he nods and shoots you one last smile before he excuses himself and leaves. you’re stuck with san and that stupid grin again. he looks at you and then checks the paper with seonghwa’s number on it. “yep, i think you got what you needed.”

-

even though seonghwa very willingly gave you his number, you’re still afraid to text him. it’s kind of hard to believe that he’s into you the way you’re into him, so you’re fine with just seeing him for study dates. or, uh, not study dates. study gatherings. with just the two of you. because the other guys have bailed, again.

this time, though, you’re not working on music theory. you have an assignemnt due for your ethics class, and you need family and friends to read about your results from this morals test. you wanted san to do it, but he’s currently “chasing a sweet piece of ass,” whatever that means. he’s probably bothering his lab partner that he claims descended from greek gods. you would usually tease him for saying something like that, but it’s a thought you’ve had about seonghwa, so you kept your mouth shut.

anyway, you know you need someone to answer these questions for you, but you can’t bring yourself to ask seonghwa. he kept up his “perfect” demeanor again today, showing up at the bookstore before you so he could get you the coffee you like. you would ask why he keeps doing things like this for you, remembering your favorite color and your coffee order, but you’re afraid he’ll stop if you bring it up. little do you know, every time he learns something new about you, he writes it down in his notes app, keeping a running tab of the things you like.

“y/n?” you hear him ask. his voice snaps you out of your thoughts and you realize you’ve been staring at him this whole time. the smirk you’ve become so familiar with makes another appearance as he gets ready to tease you. “something on your mind?”

“no, i...no,” you stutter. “i’m just thinking.”

“about what?” he questions as he lifts his coffee cup to his lips. you watch the way he slightly pouts them before taking a sip and you have to stop yourself from staring again.

“just this ethics assignment i want to finish,” you explain. “sorry, i didn’t realize i was staring at you.”

“must be an important assignment,” he nods, leaning forward to put his cup back on the table in front of you. you get another glimpse at the star tattoo on his neck as he does. “because i was definitely staring at you too, and you didn’t even notice.”

“oh?” 

“yep,” he confirms. “i was giving you my best puppy dog eyes and everything.”

“puppy dog eyes?” you ask, unsure of what’s coming. “do you need something?”

“eh, not really,” he shrugs. “i’m just worried.”

“why?”

“you never texted me the other night.”

“after the art store?” you ask incredulously. 

“isn’t that when i gave you my number?” he smirks. 

“i didn’t think you wanted me to text you immediately...”

“well, it’s been three days and i still don’t have your number,” he pouts. 

“hold on a second,” you mumble, reaching for your bag. you fumble around in there, searching for the piece of paper with seonghwa’s number on it as he watches you fondly.

“what are you doing?”

“looking for your number,” you reply like it’s obvious. seonghwa laughs a little and places his hand on your arm to stop you. 

“you do know i’m right next to you, and i could just put my number in myself?” he asks, eyes sparkling as he half-smiles at you. you blush, because no, you weren’t thinking about that. you sheepishly hand him your phone and watch as he adds his number and then texts himself. he gives your phone back and replaces it with his own before asking, “what’s your favorite emoji?”

“um, the smiling cowboy?” you offer, not sure why he’s asking. he laughs again, like he did in the art store, but this time it’s harder for him to quiet the breathy giggles coming from his chest.

“why that one?” he asks, typing something quickly.

“it’s funny,” you shrug. “why?”

“needed something cute to put next to your name, but you’re a weirdo, so it’s not as cute as i was imagining,” he explains, showing you the contact card in his phone. your number is saved as “y/n 🥰🤠” and you can’t help but laugh. you look up at seonghwa, warmth in your eyes, and he starts laughing too.

“see?” you giggle. “it is funny.”

“whatever, at least now i have your number.”

-

after exchanging numbers with seonghwa, you’re starting to let yourself believe little by little that he might feel the same way you do. it’s not anything serious, but there’s definitely something there. the texts he sends are always flirtatious, and it has your heart beating faster every time you get a notification, hoping that it’s him. you’re in the middle of studying for your spanish final when you feel your phone vibrate on the bed next to you, and you smile when you see who it’s from.

seonghwa 🥺💫, 6:28pm: are you busy rn?

you, 6:28pm: not really, just studying

seonghwa 🥺💫: can’t be studying too much if you replied that quickly 🥸

you: what do u want

seonghwa 🥺💫: be nice :-(

you: sorry

you: hi seonghwa, how are you? what do you want.

seonghwa 🥺💫: come get dinner with me? 

you: right now?

seonghwa 🥺💫: no, in 30 years. yes right now 

you: but i’m studying ://

seonghwa 🥺💫: liar!

you: fine, when and where?

seonghwa 🥺💫: i’ll pick you up in ten 🤠

- 

“you sure like staying close to campus, huh?” you ask seonghwa as he walks you about a block from your usual hangout and to a little hole in the wall restaurant that looks like it could seat maybe 20 people, uncomfortably. 

“i know what i like,” he responds with a shrug. “speaking of things i like, you look nice.”

“oh, thank you,” you semi-laugh. you’d been close to panic trying to figure out what to wear (because you’re not sure if this is a date) so you went with something simple, but you’re glad seonghwa likes it. not that you wanted to impress him. but you did, a little. anyway, he looks...well, perfect, wearing black ripped jeans and a velvet-y navy shirt. you continually have to stop yourself from reaching out and stroking his arm just to feel the soft fabric (and maybe his muscles). 

“so i take it you’ve never been here before?” he asks as he hands you a menu. you shake your head no in response. you can’t tell if he’s doing it intentionally, but seonghwa leans closer into your side as he explains. “you pick a main entree, but each dish comes with these sides. they say no substitutes, but i know the guy behind the counter so you can ask for more of something else if you don’t like one of them.”

“i might do that,” you say. “i don’t really want dumplings, so could i get extra sweet potatoes?”

“of course,” he nods, noting the way you smile slightly. it makes your eyes light up, and his heart does a little backflip knowing that he’s the reason for it. well, the sweet potatoes probably are, but he’s the one getting the sweet potatoes, so he’s taking that win for himself. once you both confirm what you want, he places his hand on your back and guides you to the counter.

“hey seonghwa!” the tall guy with a lopsided smile behind the register greets. “long time no see. who’s your friend?”

“hey yunho,” seonghwa smiles back. “this is y/n, a vip, so make sure you give us the good stuff.”

“extra sweet potatoes?” yunho laughs. you and seonghwa both nod as yunho continues taking your order, and you find yourself comfortably leaning into seonghwa as you wait for yunho to calculate the price. before seonghwa can even think about taking his wallet out, you’re handing yunho cash for the food, which makes seonghwa sputter.

“what? y/n, i was going to pay,” he whines, and you simply shake your head.

“nope, my turn,” you tell him. “you’ve bought me coffee too many times.”

“but i asked you out! i don’t want you to pay on our first date if i’m the one who brought you here,” he continues to complain.

“so this is a date?” you confirm, right as yunho asks suggestively “oh, this is a date?”

“yunho, give y/n’s money back,” seonghwa says, ignoring the two of you. “i’m paying.”

“yunho, if you give me that money i’ll be forced to leave and stand seonghwa up for our date,” you say, emphasizing the last word. now you’re glad you wore clean pants.

“seonghwa, why don’t you let y/n pay for this, and then you can get the next one?” yunho suggests, sending you a wink before he turns to the kitchen to share your order with the chef. you’re left with a flustered seonghwa, which is a sight you’re not used to, and it makes you laugh.

“c’mon,” you say as you pull on his arm. “let’s go find a table.”

you’re the only ones in the restaurant, so the food comes out pretty quick, and you have to stifle a laugh when you see that someone has arranged the sweet potatoes on a separate plate in the shape of a heart. seonghwa blushes at this, and you’re taken aback by how shy he’s suddenly become.

for some reason, seonghwa showing signs of nervousness puts you at ease, and you lead the conversation to something stupid san told you about the boys and their shenanigans at their dorm. the story has seonghwa laughing, and he confirms that yes, yeosang does have a sword by the tv, and yes, hongjoong did threaten to use it on him after he lost an intense match of fifa. 

“in hongjoong’s defense,” seonghwa begins, “i do think yeosang cheated. wooyoung was definitely helping him.”

“it still sounds ridiculous,” you tell him. “why does anybody need a sword?”

“yeosang is just...yeosang,” seonghwa replies. “he’s weird but he won’t admit that to anyone.”

“i’m just saying, if i went to someone’s house and there was a katana by the tv, i’d haul my ass outta there.” seonghwa giggles at how serious you look, but this conversation reminds him...

“you never showed me your room,” he says bluntly. you pause for a moment, spoon halfway to your mouth, and seonghwa realizes how that must sound. “i mean, the paint, your dresser. you never showed me a picture once you fixed it up.”

“oh,” you breathe out. “let me grab my phone, i can show you.”

“show him what?” a familiar voice suddenly asks from the seat next to you. when you notice that san, and some of your other friends, have snuck their way into the restaurant, you have to keep yourself from groaning.

“why are you here.”

“i’m hungry,” san replies, then turns to seonghwa. “you didn’t tell us you were getting dinner.”

“i didn’t want to,” seonghwa deadpans. “ i wanted it to be just me and y/n.”

“too late for that, pal,” honjoong says as he slides into the seat across from you. “hi y/n.”

“hey hongjoong,” you grumble. “please tell me you’re getting your food to go.”

“we were, but then we saw our good friends eating all by themselves and thought we should join them,” hongjoong teases. by now, the rest of the boys have sat down around you, some at other tables, and one of them you don’t recognize. that must be jongho, their younger “roommate” who technically lives in first year housing but doesn’t get along with the other guy in his room. you’ve heard seonghwa complain that jongho eats all of his snacks. 

“well, i hope you enjoy your food, but seonghwa and i were just about to leave,” you lie, looking at seonghwa with a stare that pleads ‘please go along with this.’

“where are you going?” wooyoung asks, one table over.

“my apartment,” you respond quickly, standing up as seonghwa follows your cue with a stupidly adorable look on his face.

“oh, perfect!” san chirps. “we’ll come with you!”

- 

so much for your date with seonghwa. it was hard to stop the boys from insisting they all join you at your apartment, especially after yunho said his shift was over and he could really use some destressing. and by destressing he meant booze, so you currently have 8 tipsy boys scattered across your living room. if you thought they were loud before...it’s amazing that your neighbors haven’t complained yet. 

it started off innocent enough, you were just playing card games at first and the loser of each round had to drink. then it turned into never have i ever, and each time you put a finger down you had to drink. then yeosang suggested shots, and it really went downhill from there. san tried convincing everyone to play a round of spin the bottle just for the chance of making you and seonghwa kiss, but mingi and wooyoung were the only ones down, so majority ruled there. 

“san, stop pouting,” you laugh, noticing that he’s upset over his evil plan not working out.

“it’s fine,” he lies, duck lips on full display. 

“spin the bottle is such a tween-y game too,” jongho pipes in. “and we’re adults, so it would be kinda stupid to play it anyway.”

“says the baby of the group,” yeosang scoffs. 

“what about truth or dare?” hongjoong suggests. “still immature, but we can make it fun.”

“yes!” san shouts, suddenly back in a positive mood. 

“i’ll start,” mingi volunteers. he takes a deep breath as he looks around the room, eyes narrowing when he looks at you and seonghwa. you’re currently smushed into your armchair together, not really by choice, because the couch is completely full and neither of you wanted to sit on the floor (you know how dirty it is, and seonghwa has a bad hip). thankfully, mingi has mercy on you and directs his gaze to his best friend. “yunho, truth or dare?”

“truth,” yunho slurs out. you’d say he’s the opposite of stressed by now.

“did you sleep with that girl you met at the party last week?”

“no,” yunho replies quickly, cheeks turning a knowing shade of red. “i just walked her home.”

“and went missing until the next morning?” yeosang asks. he gets a few snickers, and you laugh a little too because you remember san and wooyoung talking about their friend who disappeared for a few hours last weekend.

“whatever,” yunho groans. “yeosang. truth or dare.”

“dare,” yeosang chooses confidently. 

“kiss wooyoung on the cheek.”

“no,” he replies, just as confidently. 

“then take another shot,” yunho concedes, waving his hand at the stubborn boy. wooyoung mumbles something about how kissable he is as yeosang downs what looks like more than just a regular shot.

“this is boring,” jongho whines, which makes him the next target. he chooses dare, and you have to detach yourself from seonghwa so you can go into your kitchen and find the lemon juice in your fridge so jongho can chug what’s left. he’s sputtering after a few sips and gives up, grumbling up to you, “ i hate you for that.”

“hey, it wasn’t my dare,” you defend yourself. “you owe me lemon juice.”

“i’ll give it to you if you choose dare,” jongho challenges. you roll your eyes and take the bait, earning a round of ooo’s from the boys around you. 

“make her kiss seonghwa,” someone hisses.

“or me!” wooyoung chirps. jongho looks over at him with a death glare, and wooyoung shrugs. “i just want someone to want to kiss me.”

“i think you’re cut off,” hongjoong says as he leans across your coffee table to move the bottle away from wooyoung.

“everyone be quiet!” san shouts. “jongho has to give y/n a dare.”

“hmmm,” jongho starts, tapping his finger on his chin. “what should i do?”

“for someone who said this was boring, you’re really milking this,” seonghwa says under his breath. you’re perched on the arm of the chair, close enough to hear him, but thankfully no one else does.

“what’s that other childish game called?” jongho wonders aloud. “seven minutes in heaven? i think you should do that with seonghwa.”

“do i have to?” you pout, and your reluctance makes seonghwa stiffen. he thinks you said that because you’re uncomfortable, and not because you don’t want the boys pressing their ear up to the door while the two of you make out.

“rules are rules,” hongjoong concludes, nodding his head toward your room. “go have fun. i’ll keep the kids from bothering you.”

you look to seonghwa, who isn’t looking directly at you. you tentatively take his hand, giving it a squeeze before you stand up and lead him to your room. there are so many catcalls, whistles and cheers coming from your friends that you barely hear san say “take your time! it doesn’t have to be just seven minutes!”

once you get to your room, you let seonghwa go in first and then you lock the door behind you. he quirks an eyebrow at that, and you shrug shyly. 

“don’t want one of them bursting in,” you explain. seonghwa nods, and you both fall silent. it’s not necessarily awkward, just tense. you both want to do what seven minutes in heaven is meant for, but you’re not gonna make the first move and seonghwa still isn’t sure you even want to be in this situation. so he takes this time to turn around and take your room in, pointing to your dresser.

“is this it?” he asks. you hum out a yes in response, and he runs his hand over the freshly painted wood. “it looks nice. whoever picked out the color sure knows what he’s doing.”

“eh, he’s just lucky,” you joke, and you both laugh. you move to stand next to him and place your hand on top of his. “sorry we couldn’t finish our date.” 

“sorry my friends are so annoying,” seonghwa adds. 

“sorry san pushed me into your lap earlier,” you continue, and seonghwa smirks.

“well, i didn’t mind that,” he says. “i wanted you to sit with me, but i didn’t want to draw attention.”

“oh,” you squeak, feeling a blush on its way to your cheeks. a heavy silence falls over you, and seonghwa is the first to break it.

“listen, if you don’t want to kiss me, that’s cool,” he begins. “i kinda got the vibe earlier that you didn’t want to do this, and that’s cool. if you don’t want to do this we’re still cool.”

“you don’t sound very cool about it,” you chuckle, and seonghwa’s face flushes. “but i was only nervous because i didn’t know if you wanted to kiss me.”

“oh i want to kiss you,” he says firmly. “have for a while.”

“why don’t you do it then?” you challenge. seonghwa takes a step closer to you, and before you know it he’s pinned you against your dresser. you balance your hands on it and the cool wood helps you ground yourself as your body heats up from having seonghwa so close.

“are you sure?” he asks, only a few inches from your face. you nod and whisper out “i’m sure” and seonghwa quickly cups your face and smothers you in a kiss. it starts off slow, and your face warms at his touch. once you relax into it you move your lips against his, nipping at his bottom lip slightly and earning a groan from the man before you. you take the chance to slip your tongue past his lips as you bring your hands up to the nape of his neck, slowly brushing through his soft hair. his hands find their way to your waist, gripping tightly but not too hard, and he leans in to get as close to you as possible. you keep kissing for a few moments, but eventually you need to breathe so you lightly tap on his neck. he pulls back, breathing heavy, and his smile shines like the most beautiful stars in the sky. “so?”

“so?” you repeat, equally out of breath.

“that was nice.”

“it was.”

“the boys are gonna know we made out.”

“of course they are,” you laugh. “your lips look swollen.”

“so do yours,” he counters. 

“but wasn’t that the whole point of us coming in here?” you ask. your hands have fallen to his chest, and you finally get a chance to smooth out the soft velvet of his shirt. and you notice his chest is very, uh, firm, too.

“we didn’t have to kiss,” he says with a shrug. “we could’ve just talked.”

“about what?” you ask with a smile.

“my keen eye for interior design,” he replies. “how sexy you look in low lighting.”

“so you think i’m sexy?” you tease, and seonghwa rolls his eyes.

“i just had my tongue in your mouth, does that answer your question?”

another silence comes over you both, but this one is lighter than before. you’re subconsciously rubbing your hands over his shirt, and seonghwa brings a hand up to cover yours, stopping it right over his heart.

“we don’t have to tell them,” you offer. “i mean, they kept it a secret from us that they were trying to get us together this whole time.”

“oh no, i was fully aware of that,” seonghwa tells you, and you scoff. “do you think i really wanted to get out past midnight just to buy hongjoong some expensive markers? he never even paid me for them.”

“well now i really don’t want to tell them we kissed,” you whine. “how could everyone be in on this except me?”

“it was more fun that way,” seonghwa teases before pecking your lips. “but we can keep this between us, for now.”

“i think we should,” you say with a nod of finality. “it’s more fun that way.”

“c’mon, let’s go back out there before they send a search party.”

you return to the living room before seonghwa (so he can sneak into the bathroom and fix his hair) and you find most of the boys asleep on the floor. you sigh as your eyes meet hongjoong’s, and he shrugs.

“at least they didn’t bother you,” he says. 

“can you help me find pillows and blankets for them, please?” you ask, and he nods before jumping into action. he throws one of the couch pillows down to yeosang, who takes it and hugs it to his chest. you have a couple extras in your hall closet and you pass them to yunho, who’s sitting up when you come back. he places one under mingi and another under jongho and keeps the last one for himself. san and wooyoung are on the couch, and hongjoong tells you he’s fine with the armchair. seonghwa is out of the bathroom by now, and, like the perfect man he is, he’s carrying blankets in his arms. the three of you work on getting all the boys covered before you realize that seonghwa doesn’t have a place to sleep.

“i can take another spot on the floor,” he assures you. “do you have another pillow i can use?”

“let him sleep in your room, y/n,” san mumbles from underneath wooyoung. you pause and look at seonghwa, who’s looking back at you with something you can’t read in his eyes. 

“it’s not a bad idea,” hongjoong pipes in from somewhere within the blanket cocoon he made for himself. “he was just there. you can put him on the floor.”

“y/n?” seonghwa asks, pulling your attention back to him. “i don’t have to if you’re uncomfortable.” 

you would try to fight it, so you could hopefully ignore taunts from the boys in the morning, but you’re suddenly really tired and you just want to lay down.

“i’m ok with it if you are,” you yawn. “take the rest of those blankets, we can use those for your bed.”

“make good choices,” honjoong mumbles as seonghwa leads you back to your room, and you hear san going “oooooo” as you close your door a second time tonight. this time you don’t lock it though, and when you turn around you see the blankets on the floor and seonghwa sprawled out on your usual side of the bed, so you tell him.

“well why don’t you come join me then?” he teases with a grin. you blush and shake your head.

“scoot over.”

he does, but only by an inch. he still looks at you with that flirty glint in his eyes, and you can only shake your head again as you crawl into the tiny space next to him. he immediately wraps an arm around your waist and gives you a tight hug, placing a kiss on your shoulder.

“thank you,” he whispers into your back.

“for what?” you reply.

“for not putting me on the floor. and for liking me.”

-

you just woke up from maybe the best night of sleep you’ve ever had. seonghwa’s arms and legs are draped over yours, so you can’t get up without waking him, but having him so close is a welcome source of warmth. your apartment is quiet, and the sun is peacefully filtering into your room through your curtain. it’s the perfect moment, with your perfect boy, until- 

“i think they’re still asleep,” you hear someone whisper from the hallway.

“wooyoung, leave them alone!” another voice hisses. there’s silence for a moment, and then a smack, followed by someone jiggling the doorknob to your room. you quickly untangle yourself from seonghwa before you watch as the door cracks open a bit, revealing wooyoung in all his bed-headed glory. you close your eyes as much as you can while still peeking at who’s sneaking into your room, and you see jongho close behind him. he must’ve been the one who got smacked. or did the smacking. either way, they’re both staring at you and seonghwa in your bed, but you notice wooyoung smile and pause.

“i knew it! they definitely got together last night.”

“how do you know?” jongho asks. “maybe y/n let seonghwa sleep on the bed because of his old man hips.”

“whatever. they’re in the same bed, so that’s at least something,” wooyoung replies. “lame, but still something.”

“what did you expect?” jongho asks incredulously. “you thought we would catch them doing it?”

“i mean, not exactly, but couldn’t i get a little cuddling maybe?”

“you want me to cuddle you hyung?” jongho deadpans.

“yes, actually-”

“hey!” a third voice whisper shouts. you hear footsteps and then you see hongjoong pulling wooyoung out of your room by the neck of his shirt. “leave them alone. and you, jongho, i’m surprised you’re playing along with this.”

“well...” jongho mumbles.

“well what?” hongjoong asks, sounding like the mom-est mom to ever mom.

“they’re the only ones that know how to make breakfast.”

“both of you, out! now!” hongjoong semi-shouts, and you feel seonghwa stirring behind you. hongjoong doesn’t realize you’re both awake and closes the door as he leaves.

“what time is it?” seonghwa grumbles out, and your heart skips a beat hearing how deep his voice is when he wakes up.

“early,” you reply, turning around to be face to face with him. his arms slowly snake around you as you look up at him and share a sleepy smile. “how can you look this good when you first wake up?”

“weird, i wanted to ask you the same thing,” seonghwa replies, leaning in to kiss you but you touch your fingers to his lips and stop him, so he pouts. 

“uh uh, not until i brush my teeth,” you say as you try to get up, but seonghwa’s grip on your waist keeps you down.

“please,” he pouts again, sparkly eyes on full display as he pleads with you. it takes about half a second for you to cave and kiss him quickly, catching him off guard. he shifts to pull you on top of him and deepen the kiss, but he loses his grip on you and you’re able to slip out of bed before he can stop you. a noise comes from deep in his chest that almost sounds like a growl, and you shoot him a glare.

“hey, you got your kiss,” you warn. “now i’m going to make breakfast for the gremlins. do you want to help me?”

-

after the intrusion into your bedroom, wooyoung obviously told the boys what he saw. but, like jongho said, most of them thought it was just because of seonghwa’s hips that made you share a bed with him. there wasn’t enough evidence otherwise, and none of them really expected either of you to make a move despite their efforts. but they’re starting to get suspicious.

little do they know, after the set up fell into place, seonghwa wanted to take you on a real date. the only way to do that without your friends knowing was to sneak around without them, which was kind of fun. it was nice having this bubble with seonghwa, just the two of you, but it was getting harder to avoid your friends. seonghwa lived with them after all, so they pestered him about how often he was out and who he might be out with. 

“san keeps asking if you’re a good kisser. i told him i didn’t know, and then he asked if he could find out for me. should i be concerned about that?”

“we need to be more careful, yeosang said he saw us at the taco place yesterday, and he said we hold hands weird.”

“hongjoong has been saving seats for us at the bookstore, and each time we don’t show up i think he steals something from me.”

you have been ditching study group lately, but that’s more because you need to do some deep studying for your other finals and your friends are too much of a distraction. seonghwa can be distracting too, but at least he can take a hint and back down when you really need to focus. it’s been nice actually, just spending time in his presence. you were so nervous around him just a few weeks ago, and now you feel like you could trust him with just about anything.

today, you don’t get any personal study time, though. your music theory final is coming up and seonghwa wants you to get all the terms memorized before the review session in class tomorrow. he’s motivating you with a kiss for each right answer and the promise of him making dinner once you’re done. you’re currently cruising on five wrong in a row, and you’re getting frustrated. 

“c’mon y/n, you know this,” seonghwa encourages you, but you just whine in response. “we did this like four minutes ago, and i told you the answer so you could remember it.”

“yeah, well i obviously didn’t,” you snap, and seonghwa fakes being hurt. “sorry. can we skip this and come back to it?”

“sure,” he agrees quickly. “but first you need to write down the circle of fifths for me.” 

“i hate you.”

“hm, wrong answer,” he hums. “but kiss anyway. maybe that’ll keep you from getting so grumpy.”

“i am not grumpy,” you defend after kissing him gently. “i’m stressed.”

“you know what you need?”

“hm?”

“you need to go on another date,” he begins. “with me, obviously.”

“damn, i wanted to know if yunho was free,” you tease, and seonghwa doesn’t think it’s funny. “now who’s grumpy?”

“ignoring that,” he scoffs, but you can tell he’s trying not to smile. 

“when would we go? i’m really busy the next few days.”

“what about after class? we could both clean up and do something nice before we get some dinner?” seonghwa suggests. “why don’t we go to that art exhibit you told me about?”

“ugh,” you groan as you learn your head on his shoulder. “that sounds amazing, but we both said we’d be at study group tomorrow, remember? hongjoong practically begged me to be there, and i said i would ask you to come.”

“what about not letting them know we’re a thing?” he pouts. you don’t tell him about the youngest two that saw you all cuddled up, but instead you assure him that you inviting him to study group wouldn’t look unusual to the boys.

“plus, if we both cancel last minute, they’d know for sure we were up to something together,” you continue. “so yes, we need to go on another date, but just not tomorrow.”

“fine,” he mumbles. “now i am grumpy.”

“would something from the cafe make it better, my little boba ball?” you ask in a baby voice.

“ooh, actually, boba sounds good,” seonghwa smiles. “let’s go.”

-

the next day you get to the bookstore late because your professor gave a pop quiz at the end of class and you’ve been so busy studying music theory you forgot to study for anything else, so you needed all the time you could get. when you finally arrive, all of the boys are there, surprisingly. since you’ve never seen yunho, mingi and jongho here before you’re a little confused, but happy to see them nonetheless. 

as you walk up to the usual spot, you notice a coffee cup sitting in front of an empty chair, and you point to it as the boys greet you.

“is this for me?” you ask, placing your bag on the ground before grabbing the warm mug. “thank you, coffee angel.”

“you’re welcome, actual angel,” seonghwa replies, and you almost choke on your first sip. what is he doing?? you’re supposed to be sneaky sneaks and keep your relationship quiet, but here he is flirting with you in front of everyone!

except, that’s what he did before you started dating too, so it’s not out of the ordinary. in fact, no one pays any mind to it, so you’re left with a burnt tongue and blushy cheeks while seonghwa looks at you with a stare that only you would understand. you quickly shoot him a wink before you put your mug down and reach for your notes.

“um, hello? what are you guys doing?” you ask yeosang next to you, who’s rabidly tapping at his phone, just like everyone else. if they weren’t distracted they might have picked up on the vibes between you and seonghwa, but thankfully they’re the oblivious ones now.

“playing a game,” half of them respond, just as hongjoong says “writing lyrics” and jongho mumbles “texting my mom.”

“aren’t we supposed to study?” you ask. “or did you already learn everything in the world while i was gone?”

“well you’ve missed a lot of study sessions, y/n,” san begins. “so yes, we have learned everything. now we just come here to hang out.”

“so then why did you insist on me being here, joong?” you ask newly orange-haired hongjoong. it’s been a while since you’ve seen him, he must’ve dyed it recently. 

“we missed hanging out with you,” he says simply, eyes peeking up from his phone. your heart constricts at this, and you catch seonghwa’s eyes again. you might have to rethink the whole sneaking around thing if they really do miss you.

“yeah, we missed you AND we had to make sure you and seonghwa are still spending time together,” wooyoung adds, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“where have you been anyway?” yeosang asks. “you don’t have other friends.”

“yes i do,” you scoff.”

“give me names and numbers.”

“ignore him,” yunho tells you, and you nod.

“i always do. but i’ve been really stressed about finals, so i had to do some soul searching on my own to decide if i need to graduate or not.”

“seems fair,” mingi agrees. “i almost had to drop a class.”

“because he forgot he was even enrolled in it,” jongho clarifies, and you laugh.

“but seonghwa has been missing a lot lately too,” san starts. “i wonder what he’s been doing.”

“or who,” wooyoung snickers, and hongjoong reaches over mingi to slap him.

“i haven’t been feeling well,” seonghwa says with a shrug. “i’ve mostly been in my room, or at the pharmacy to get medicine.”

“oh, so you could’ve bought new paper towels for the dorm then, huh?” hongjoong asks, and as the two of them start to bicker, yeosang nudges your arm.

“i saw you two,” he says quietly. “at the mexican restaurant.”

“i know,” you whisper back. 

“so i know you’re dating.”

“are you gonna say anything?”

“hmmm, no,” he thinks. “but you have to buy my silence.”

“with coffee?” you offer, and yeosang smiles. he stands up and puts his phone away before speaking, looking directly at seonghwa.

“my best friend y/n is gonna buy me coffee, we’ll be back,” he says as he loops his arm around your shoulders. seonghwa watches as you walk away (and stares at your ass) but he’s mostly thinking about how he’s a little jealous right now. like, he knows you wouldn’t do anything, he trusts you, but he doesn’t want his friends thinking you have a thing for anyone but him. so while you’re gone, he talks.

“i haven’t been sick,” he admits. “i’ve been seeing y/n.”

“we all knew, dude,” hongjoong says casually, and everyone agrees.

“then why didn’t you say anything?!”

“because YOU weren’t saying anything,” jongho replies.

“yeah, we figured that we did enough trying to get the two of you together, so if you didn’t end up dating then that was your fault. we were just waiting on you to make a move,” san explains. 

“then why did you let us lie to you like that?”

“it was fun,” wooyoung shrugs. “by the way, did y/n let you sleep in the bed because of your hips, or because you wanted to cuddle?”

the red tint on seonghwa’s cheeks gives him away, and the boys start laughing and ooo’ing so loud he’s afraid you’ll hear it over by the coffee counter.

“ok, ok, just. keep this quiet for now,” he says. “y/n may still want this to be private.”

“but you just told us about it,” yunho says. “why would you do that if you knew y/n wouldn’t want you to?”

“well,” seonghwa begins. “i need your help with a date.”

-

seemingly by an act of god, you have time this weekend to go on a date with seonghwa. little did you know, he’s the reason your plans suddenly freed up. san said you could critique him and wooyoung for their dance final another day, hongjoong said he would send you his music theory notes from the review and save you hours of studying and then yeosang found the exact spanish book you needed to finish your performance final ahead of time. it was the perfect circumstances, orchestrated by your perfect boy and his perfect-adjacent friends, who all agreed to help him with this (hopefully) perfect date. 

it starts with seonghwa picking you up from your apartment, coffee in hand. 

“you’re the man of my dreams, you know that?” you say in passing as you grab the warm to-go cup. even if you were only saying it lightly, it made seonghwa’s heart soar. you notice he hasn’t said anything to you, so you meet his eyes to find them full of stars like always, but this time there’s something scheme-y in there. he’s up to something.

“are you ready for the best date of your life?” he asks with a smile that puts the stars in his eyes to shame.

“yes, i think,” you respond, grabbing your keys and locking your door. “but i don’t know what we’re doing.”

“and it will stay that way until we get there,” seonghwa says firmly as he laces his hand into yours. you squeeze his hand and sigh.

“i guess i just have to trust you then.”

“but that won’t be hard right?”

“wait, didn’t you say something earlier about going to that art exhibit? is that it?” you question, even though you know he won’t budge. seonghwa just shakes his head no and punches the button for the elevator. a moment of silence passes before you guess again. “a movie? you rented out a movie theater, like you said you wanted to?”

“i tried, but it was expensive,” he admits and you have to laugh. “funds are tight right now.”

“i watched you buy a couple hundred dollars worth of legos the other day babe. maybe that’s why the date fund is lacking.”

“you’re not coming between me and my collectables, y/n,” seonghwa scolds. the elevator pings to open to the parking garage under your building, and you’re confused for a moment before he explains. “i want this to be a nice date, so yunho let me borrow his car. it would be no fun if we show up all sweaty because we were walking.”

yunho’s car, which is actually pretty nice thanks to all the tips he gets from flirting with clientele, is parked by the elevator. seonghwa leads you to your door and opens it for you, revealing a basket of flowers and candies in the seat. you coo as you pick it up, and seonghwa looks on proudly. you lean over to give him a kiss, and you whisper your thanks as you pull away.

“that was mingi’s idea,” seonghwa tells you, smiling brightly “i got all your favorites.”

“i see that.”

“but look around the flowers,” he guides you. “there’s something else.”

you hold the basket up to eye level, noticing the silver sparkle around the stems of the flowers. is it glitter? you tug at a flower and realize it’s a chain, and attached is a hand drawn star charm to match the tattoo on the back of seonghwa’s neck. 

“seonghwa, this is beautiful,” you say breathlessly. “we’re gonna match! that’s so cute. who’s idea was this?”

“would you believe me if i said it was mine?”

“no.”

“that’s what jongho said too,” seonghwa laughs. “it was his idea.”

“tell him thank you,” you say as you play with the charm. “mingi and yunho too. it’s a good date so far.”

“oh baby, it hasn’t officially started yet.”

-

in the car, seonghwa plays a mix of songs that he really likes, and he’s mixed in some of your favorites too. he has to keep convincing you that the songs aren’t clues, because you ask every time a new song plays.

“so are the songs just distractions?” you ask, finally giving up on getting any information out of him. 

“why do you ask that?” he smirks as he turns down a familiar road.

“because i can tell you just took the long way to the record store,” you explain. “are you stalling?”

“me, what? why?” his response does nothing to manage your suspicions, and suddenly you remember how your friends have helped with the date so far. are they all in on this? you need answers.

“seonghwa, i swear to god, if san or wooyoung jumps out to surprise me wherever we’re going-”

“that won’t happen,” seonghwa laughs while he parks the car. “we’re here anyway, and i promise this is the last surprise of the night.”

“the record store?” you question, looking up at the shop you’ve been to countless times to shop and to bother hongjoong while he works. 

“yeah, you said there was a new album out you wanted to get, right?”

“yeah,” you blush. “but i just said that in passing, i didn’t expect you to remember.”

“y/n, i want to know everything about you,” seonghwa says seriously. “so of course i remembered. wait, don’t get out yet. i’ll open the door for you.”

as seonghwa helps you out of the car, you quiz him on the other things you’ve said around him that you didn’t think he remembered. sadly, he does remember you saying your favorite disney movie is ratatouille and you’ve always wanted to try the mushroom/cheese concoction remy makes in the first scene.

“that’s a little embarrassing,” you sigh as you reach for the door. you’re going to complain some more about how seonghwa doesn’t need to remember everything about you, but the sight in front of you makes you stop mid-breath.

the record store has been decorated from floor to ceiling in fairy lights, and there’s more flowers all over the place. as you look around, you notice the flowers are tucked in the shelves next to your favorite artists. next to the door is the album you were talking about, and a little further down you see your favorite album of all time with a few extra flowers next to it. you’re still taking everything in when you notice hongjoong behind the counter.

“did you help him with this?” you ask breathlessly, and hongjoong nods. 

“yeah, but the flowers next to the albums was my idea,” hongjoong explains. “we’re running a new special called “y’n’s favorites” so everything that’s marked with a flower is yours, if you want it. everything is on the house.” 

“i...i don’t know what to say,” you start. you turn to seonghwa and there are those starry eyes that you love to see. you reach out to cup his face and smile. “thank you. this is...perfect.”

“it’s even more perfect now that i’m here!” wooyoung shouts from the front door of the shop, followed by san and yeosang. you look at seonghwa and all he does is laugh.

“what? at least he didn’t jump out and scare you,” seonghwa teases.

“oh, i would never,” wooyoung nods with a half-serious look on his face. “but i definitely wouldn’t do that when i have your dinner in my hands, i can’t let all this hard work spill.”

“especially not on my clean floor,” hongjoong warns. 

“you made dinner for us?” you ask wooyoung, but you’re looking at seonghwa, who simply shrugs.

“yep, i made one of your favorites and then threw in a couple recipes i thought you’d both like,” wooyoung says as he and the two other boys place food down on the counter by the register.

“and what did you two help with?” you ask san and yeosang.

“who do you think made this place so beautiful?” yeosang asks incredulously.

“yeosang did the lights and i bought all the flowers,” san explains with a smile that makes his eyes turn into happy half moons. “you’d be surprised how many places i had to go to get all your favorites.”

“i really don’t know what to say,” you whisper in disbelief. “i can’t believe you all did this for me.”

“it was all seonghwa’s idea,” san tells you. “we did it for both of you.”

“yeah, we’re just his little minions,” yeosang jokes, and wooyoung giggles. 

“you tell me how that food tastes, got it?” he asks as he backs out of the store. “don’t say anything mean though. i only accept compliments.”

“wooyoung,” seonghwa smiles tightly. “please leave.”

wooyoung holds the door open for san and yeosang as he gives seonghwa a thumbs up. san waves goodbye sweetly and yeosang gives you a knowing smile before the door closes behind them.

“well, i think that’s my cue to go,” hongjoong says, handing the keys to seonghwa. “don’t make a mess. if i get fired, i’m selling all the stuff i stole from you when you were sneaking around with y/n and not telling us about it.”

“i’ll keep him under control,” you assure hongjoong, who nods as heads to the door. you don’t see him leave because seonghwa has stepped in front of you, and he places his hands on your waist to pull you closer.

“so,” he begins.

“so.”

“what do you want to listen to while we eat?” he asks, pulling you by the waist over to a row of records. you stand there quietly, looking over the albums hongjoong pulled to the front for you, and you just can’t believe how much work went into this date. you can’t believe how sweet it is that each of your friends helped, and you put your hand on seonghwa’s and give it a squeeze.

“hwa,” you whisper. he hums in response, but you place your hand on his cheek and guide his gaze to yours.

“thank you,” you tell him. “thank you for this.”

he smiles at you with a look in his eyes that can’t be anything else but love, and you smile back with that much love, if not more, in your own face. you use the hand on seonghwa’s chin to guide his lips to yours, and you lose yourself in the kiss, in seonghwa, for who knows how long.

“mm, y/n,” he mumbles against your lips before detaching. “the food will get cold.”

“you’re right,” you sigh. “but we didn’t pick any music.”

“how about this?” he asks, pulling an album out from the top shelf. you smile at the cover, knowing exactly what song seonghwa wants you to hear. 

“perfect,” you agree. “i’ll put it on while you get the food?”

and that’s how you end up eating the perfect meal, on your perfect date, with all of your favorite things around you, sitting right next to your perfect boy.

[pedanticat-scratching-post]

Hallway Pining

Sashanne Drabble

The hallways of Saint James High School were crowded with the bustling bodies of students as dozens of conversations all intermingle to create one incoherent ramble as they discussed their plans for the weekend. While some students complained about how their parents would be grounding them due to getting a low grade on their tests or others were looking forward to attending a party, Sasha's own group of friends squealed about seeing the live performance of Titan Bones later that night.

"I still can't believe we managed to get tickets for them!" Taylor exclaimed.

Wade stretched out his arm and groaned. "After all the work we put into buying the tickets, I'm glad we did. My arms are still killing me from lifting all of Mr. Johnson's boxes. Why does he have so many damn books?"

"Well at least all you had to do was lift heavy books," Amber replied. "I spent so many nights babysitting kids. I'm telling you, some of those kids are complete monsters!"

Sasha chuckled at her friend's gripes. "Look, I know you guys would have rather spent your time literally doing anything else, but it was the only way to get the tickets. Isn't that worth a few days of busywork?"

Her friends mumbled "I suppose so," with it making Sasha chuckle some more. While she may have spent her free time doing work to afford the tickets such as mowing yards, she found that kind of work to be a breeze compared to all the hardcore training she did while she was in Amphibia (with her still maintaining that training even years later).

Though while her friends went back to discussing their excitement about the concerts, an all too familiar laugh diverted Sasha's attention from the conversation to the source of the laugh. Sure enough, the source of the laugh was Anne's from across the hall. She was currently hanging with some of her friends from the herpetologist's group she formed when the two had first entered high school. The group was surprisingly popular, and not just cause Anne's celebrity status from Frogvasion still being somewhat relevant at the time. Apparently invading robot frogs led by a giant salamander ended up sparking people's interest in amphibians. She's seen the group do a variety of activities for the past two years such as volunteering at the aquarium, hosting lectures about different types of amphibians at the library, and even holding bake sales to fund trips (they ended up becoming more successful once Anne stopped trying to sell people on pastries filled with bugs).

Yet while Anne seem to be close with all of the members, the one she seemed to be the closest with was a girl named Jasmine, as evident by how she had her arm around Anne's shoulder with her not seeming to mind at all. Even outside of the club, she always saw the two hanging out together whether it be hanging out at the mall or seeing Anne post pics of the two of them eating at Thai Go online. As far as she was aware, the two weren't dating yet she still felt flickers of anger. It's not like she was mad at Jasmine. After all, even though she never talked to her, she seemed like a nice enough person. And it's not like she couldn't ask Anne if she wanted to hang out. Yet despite knowing that, as she saw the two continue to joke around, she felt her face slowly turn into a frown.

"Hello, earth to Sasha?" Amber asked. "Are you still with us?"

Eyes snapping away from Anne and Jasmine, she turned back to her friends who were staring at her in concern. Not wanting to worry them, she put on her best fake smile. The exact same fake smile she has put on for years in order to not just others, but also herself. "Yeah, I'm all good. Just ended up daydreaming about Titan Bones is all."

[urban-homesteading]

Hey do you know what kind of tools I should buy if I want to move into a house? It won't have a yard yet, but fingers crossed for the future. Thank you!

Congratulations on the new house! Since you said that there's no yard yet, I'm going to focus only on tools I use inside my house and ignore gardening and lawn maintenance.

What tools should you have around your house?

So here's a pretty simple list that will cover most minor problems you will encounter.

Hammer

Cordless power drill

Screwdriver set (grab one with the ten basic sockets)

Drill set

Adjustable wrench

Level (bubble works, but I upgraded to laser and it makes life so much simpler)

Tape measurer

Utility knife

Flashlight

Extension cord

Step stool

Spare batteries

Toolbox (or even a cardboard box, just make sure you have somewhere to return your tools or they will escape to the four winds)

So how to acquire these tools while maintaining zero waste?

1) Start with your research

If you are completely unfamiliar with tool brands and the features available on tools, do a little research. Visit the websites for Sears, The Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, True Value, Ace Hardware or any retailer that sells tools, and take a look at their new selections. Most websites organize tools in a straightforward way so you can easily find what you're looking for.

Head to a local store to get a firsthand look – many tools will be on display and out of the box so you can actually pick them up. You'll see the most-recent models, from low-end to top-of-the-line. Make notes on the prices and available features (especially relating to safety). This is your base from which to work when evaluating prices.

The next step is to look at online auction sites, such as eBay, to get an idea of prices for used tools. This gets a bit tricky because you'll need to really look at the age and condition of the tools as described by the seller. But again, make notes for a range of features and prices. Don't try to list everything you see – just make a list of price ranges for the tools, with notes on the variances in relation to brand. For example, for circular saws that range in price from $30 to $60, jot down what separates the bottom-priced tool from the top.

Head over to pawnshops as well. Pawnshops only buy items they know they can turn around and sell, so they won't have tools that don't work (everything they purchase is tested), and a pawnshop won't carry poor-quality brands. Also, the prices will accurately reflect the current value of tools in the marketplace. Make sure you visit operations that are members of the National Pawnbrokers Association, as these businesses abide by a code of ethics established by the association.

2) Name Does Matter (For the more expensive tools)

Now that you have an idea of what you'll expect to pay, it's time to consider how you'll evaluate and decide what to buy.

It used to be that if a name brand was good, it was good.  But I have found that the ‘good’ name brands have been sold so many times that most manufacturers are coasting on their reputation and they are the same quality as the ‘cheap’ tools.  Even worse, manufacturers will have different quality tools that are sold by different stores.  For example, a DeWalt power drill sold at a Home Depot will be better quality than a DeWalt Power Drill sold at Walmart because DeWalt will have two different manufacturing plants and they will send the lower quality ones to Walmart, since Walmart demands that DeWalt sell them to them at a cheaper cost or else they won’t buy from them at all.

My personal rule of thumb is buy cheap for the first one, then if you use it so long or so much that it needs replaced, buy expensive quality the second time.  This prevents you from spending hundreds on tools you’re only going to use a couple of times.

3) Where To Buy

You can start your shopping by revisiting some of the places you accessed when doing your research. Clearly you'll save money on shipping if you go to a local operation or an individual. Remember to test and examine tools closely no matter where you shop.

Pawnshops As mentioned earlier, pawnshops are a good bet for buying tools. You're going to find better-known brands that are probably on the higher end of the quality and price spectrum. Although, you're going to have little to no negotiating room on price compared to if you were buying from an individual.

Thrift Stores A thrift store may be a little less reliable for quality, and you'll probably find a lot less availability, especially at a thrift store that obtains its wares through donation. However, those that aren't donation-based aren't going to want to develop a bad reputation by selling inferior items.

Live Auctions Check local notices for potential auctions in your area. You may have a good chance of finding quality tools, but “auction fever” may set in, and you could wind up overpaying if you are bid up. These may be a good source for large equipment.

Garage Sales You could score the best deal at a garage sale, as the seller may be less likely to know the value of the tools being sold. Sellers will also be more open to price negotiation, and you can offer a bundle price for several items. Quality is going to be your biggest concern, so look these tools over really well.

Flea Markets These are similar to garage sales when it comes to negotiating, but the seller at a flea market will probably be more knowledgeable on price. Some flea market vendors have access to surplus or closeout suppliers, so you could see a potential mix of newer and older tools that haven't sold well at retail.

Classifieds Search online or newspaper classifieds under the equipment and tools categories. You may see a set or combination of tools listed as one price, which can be a good deal. As with garage sales, look these tools over carefully.

Online Websites offering tools are almost too numerous to mention, but eBay is certainly one that comes to mind. Check the seller ratings and reviews when shopping on auction sites. You'll also want to take a look at Amazon, which offers a lot of items, both new and used. Overstock.com, for example, has surplus items and may be a good source for refurbished items. You can often get limited warranties.

Retail Speaking of refurbished items, you may do well by looking at the clearance aisles at hardware stores and home centers. Sometimes they will heavily discount tools that have been returned. Check the reason for the return because it can be merely cosmetic.

4) Be an Inspector

On corded power tools, examine the electrical and basic mechanics of the tool. Aside from plugging it in and turning it on, thoroughly inspect the cord. Look for any visible defects, such as a crimp (what looks like a big dent), or if the cord is bent at a severe angle. A thick wad of electrical tape will be a big tip-off that something might not be right. Also take a look at where the cord meets the tool to see if it's heavily worn or loose. Closely examine the prongs of the plug. A slight bend on one of the prongs isn't a big deal, but if the metal looks heavily worn at the bend, it may be close to failure. And don't forget to check out the switch to see if it is loose or cracked.

Cordless tools present their own challenge. If you've ever looked at the price of replacement batteries, you know they can be quite pricey. Some are very expensive in relation to the cost of a new tool and can be as much as half or more of the cost of a new tool. Plus, it's hard to tell if the battery will hold its charge for any length of time. Sure, it may work fine in the short time you test it, but it's difficult to determine if it will hold a charge for longer than a few minutes. Only opt for cordless tools that you know are at most a couple of years old. Refurbished units are your best bet here.

With both corded and cordless power tools, be sure all the parts and guards are there. It's a bonus if the case and operating manual are included (although you may be able to find a copy of the manual on a tool manufacturer's website). You can easily find replacement accessories, such as saw blades, for many tools because the standards for accessory sizes are pretty consistent.

While you can't exactly take a small screwdriver and dismantle a power tool to look at its inner workings, you can search for a few telltale signs that all may not be well. Be prepared to use all five senses.

Take at look at the motor vent area of the tool (which looks like little slits in the housing). Ideally, you want this to be free of any sort of dirt, grime or buildup – a tall order for a used tool, but a good indication of how well it has been maintained. While inspecting this area, look for any burn marks or smoke trails (take a peek at the switch area as well). These would be clear indications that there's been an electrical problem. But just in case the evidence of a fire has been cleaned up, give the vent area the old sniff test for odor of smoke.

Keep the focus on this area and turn on the tool. You don't want to see smoke or sparks emitting from the housing. Notice how the tool feels in your hand while it's running. Look for intermittent operation or jerkiness. Yes, a power tool will vibrate in your hand, but you should be able to control it. If it feels like the tool could jump right out of your hand, there could be issues. Listen to the tool. Is it making erratic sounds or grating noises? Think back to other tools of the same type you're inspecting. Does the used tool sound significantly different?

You can look for specific things such as the movement of the blade in a circular saw or table saw. With the tool off and unplugged, move the blade around to see if there is a significant wobble to its motion. An old blade may be the culprit, but the arbor (the metal rod on which the blade is attached to the saw) may be bent. It would be difficult to replace and not worth purchasing the tool.

These tools will be a pretty good head start and will enable you to repair most minor work around your home.  

[greyfongschemmenti]

Could you write a angst turned fluff for Lin x female or gender neutral reader?

Bonus points if the reader is a firebender. You don’t have to tho :)))

okay, so I’m gonna have to split this into parts because weeee boi 

do I write a lot.

Fun Fact: This story was a piece I was thinking of adding to my Book 4 of See You At The Station Series. Idk If I will still use it, but I did change the Reader to a fire bender per your request. ;)

Reunion (Lin x Reader)

This is set after the whole Zaheer (within the three year gap)

“Thanks for agreeing to accompany me tonight, Cin” you gave your date a gentle smile

“If I didn’t, you would make some excuse to leave early. What of our potential investors and buyers?”

You laugh as you fix your collar while looking at the rearview mirror “It’s always about business with you.”

“Here let me help” Cinder offers and reaches over to fix the collar laying it out then flattens out the suit jacket. Your cheeks slightly blush of the close proximity. Cinder slowly looks up and meets your eyes.

You clear your throat as you straighten up “thanks”

She gives you a warm smile as she sits back into her seat and puts on her seatbelt “don’t mention it. Let’s go”

Asami was invited to attend a state dinner in Republic City as she has been coming up with plans on modernizing Republic City's Central City Station. Asami had a stroke of inspiration on the tram designs and wanted to work on the ramifications. So she couldn’t attend so you offered to go as a representative for Future Industries. Rather than attend this dinner by yourself, you decide to take Cinder.  The Head of Automotive Interiors for the Satomobile. You and Cinder, a firebender, have become friends in the past six months after going through a bad breakup. You decided it would be a good idea to bring a fellow designer to talk up the next line of Satomobiles while you talked about the business.

Walking up the steps into the government building where the state dinner was being held. You smoothed down your suit jacket and let out a deep exhale. “You good?” Cinder looped her arm around yours giving your hand a gentle tap. Looking over you nodded your head “yeah, all good.” you reassured her and gave her a smile before walking the both of you toward the doors giving the guard your invitation.

“There’s president Raiko, we should introduce ourselves” Cinder looks at you and she starts walking both of you towards his direction. “Mr. President” Cinder approached and Raiko’s brows raised as he saw you giving you a big smile, “Captain y/n! So nice to see you here!” he extended his arms.

You smiled politely before gently correcting him “that’s former Captain, Sir. I no longer hold that position, remember? I’m now working along with Ms. Sato at Future Industries as partner and Head Designer.”

You and Raiko grab each other’s forearms in greeting as you give a firm shake “Right, sorry Ms. y/n, but is it okay if I call you Captain still? Despite the trouble in the city you held that position well. Wonder what happened.” He spoke as his security team covered him, keeping him safe while the perimeter was protected with RCPD’s finest. He took out his metal cigar canister taking one out.

“Uh...sure I guess although I’m not sure how the current Captain will take it” you looked around before looking back at Raiko as he is looking for a lighter “oh allow me Sir. If I may of course”

Raiko looks back at you and gives you a nod and you flick your finger, a flame coming out. An officer approaches to stop you but Raiko puts his hand up to prevent him as you continue lighting the cigar for him. “Thank you, Cap”

“Anytime, President Raiko.”

Cinder nudges you and fakes a cough giving you a cue “oh right so sorry” you apologized and turned dropping your arm down as you direct the attention to your date. “Mr. President, I would like to introduce you to Cinder, our brilliant Head of Automotive Interior of our successful satomobiles. She has been working diligently with our creative team on creating a beautiful car in the next season.”

Raiko gently shakes Cinder’s hand as she gives him a smile and respectfully bows “Mr. President, pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh no the pleasure is all mine. Are you two?” he eyes and points at the two of you. Your cheeks slightly blush “no no, sir. Purely business associates. We’re friends of course but just colleagues.” you clear your throat trying to bring down the head to your face.

“My apologizes”

“It’s okay, I understand with my arm around hers and our clothes slightly matching. I’m also from the Fire Nation.” Cinder tries explaining and you gently put your hand on her back and whisper in her ear “I think that’s good Cin.” you smile at President Raiko as he nods understanding “I don’t judge.” there’s an awkward silence before Raiko’s assistant comes up and whispers in his ear. Raiko speaks up, turning back to the both of you “Well I hope you enjoy the state dinner.”

You and Cinder bowed to the president before Cinder rubs her eyes “I blew it didn’t I?” she whispered. “Noooooo not at all.” you tried to assure her when she glares up at you and you laugh softly “it’s okay. He’s going to forget about it by the end of the night.”

A waiter with a tray of drinks comes by and you grab two glasses handing one to Cinder “Here this should take the edge off” you pass her a glass and watch as she downs it quick then grabs the one that you intended for yourself and downed it as well.

“Uh...that was for me…” you looked at Cinder then down at the two glasses in your hands

“Crap, I’m sorry”

“No worries, this isn’t my kind of drink anyways. Feeling better?” another waiter comes by and you set the two empty glasses on the passing tray. Cinder gives you a wide smile and nods “loads better. We should be meeting with these important officials on transporting vehicles for sales.” Cinder grabs your hand and tugs you along, but you stop. “Woah, how about you speak with Ambassador Zeng from the Earth Kingdom while I grab myself a drink from the bar.”

“Seeing as I took your glass back there. Fine. See you soon” Cinder gives you a smile before she heads over and approaches Ambassador Zeng.

You sigh as you near the outdoor bar unbuttoning your suit jacket as you wave a hand at the bartender, “a Pegu Club please” you order and the bartender nods as she starts pouring some gin, curaçao, lime juice, and bitters into the shaker with crushed iced. She starts giving it a good shake before pulling out a chilled cocktail glass and pouring the drink in it, finishing it off with a twisted lime and hands it to you. You gave her a nod and raised the drink in appreciation before taking a sip. Once you savored the alcohol you felt your shoulders relax.

“New haircut? Surprised to see you here”, it’s been a while since you heard that voice. It still gave you an effect as you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You inhaled before turning around and placing a smile on your face, “Chief Beifong, I’m sorry I can’t say the same. Figured I’d run into you sometime throughout the night, but it seems like you ran into me.” you calmly spoke as you took another sip from your drink.  

“Pegu Club?” she eyes the glass then up at you as a little bit of your facade escapes but you try regaining it and look away. “Yes, it is” you tap on the glass.

“At least some things never change...” She looks away at the surrounding scene, before her eyes look back at you. Noticing your physical changes, for once you’re dressed in a fire nation suit and your hair once long in length has been cut short. It looks nice on you, Lin thinks. Though the thing she couldn’t stop looking at were those eyes she missed. The bright amber eyes that seem to look like glowing embers from a fire. Sometimes it brought a shiver down her spine in the way you looked at her at night.

“It’s a favorite-” your voice brings her back from her thoughts and she looks back at you.

“I know….” a sudden softness slips from her voice, causes you to look up and meet those jade eyes. It causes you to lose your breath for a second that you need to take another sip to regain some control. Pegu Club was one of your go to drinks and Lin would often order it for you at restaurants and even tried to prepare it for you at home. Home.

“It’s good to see you Lin-I mean- Chief Beifong. I should get going. I left my partner alone long enough.” you stepped forward and started walking when Lin grabbed your arm to stop you “that Fire Nation girl you gallivanted in with? You sure have a sweet spot for fire nation don’t you?” she looked at you talking under her breath.

“What are you insinuating?” you looked down at her then darted your eyes around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Lin doing the same. “Say it”

“Don’t act daft. First Iris and now her.” Lin put an extra emphasis on the word and you arch your brow up. Lin thinks you and Cinder are together. Is she jealous?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Lin. Please let go.” you mutter back and Lin’s grip loosens as you smooth the sleeve and button it up. “Now, if you excuse me, Chief. I have business to attend to” you bowed your head and walked away. Lin watched you go and pinched the bridge of her nose as she cursed herself for acting like this.

-/-

After talking to various ambassadors and important officials at the dinner making influences and possible deals with the neighboring cities and nations. Cinder and you decided to leave a couple of hours early before the festivities were to end.

“If you wanted to stay, I could have left you the car and I could’ve called a cap” you smiled as you walked Cinder down the steps to the valet. “Nonsense, what fun would I have with you gone.” she nudges you and you laugh nudging her back.

“I’m glad you came. I needed a friend tonight and glad you helped with the pitches. Hopefully we’ll hear from the assistants tomorrow morning on scheduling test runs and meetings.” you talked as the valet driver handed you the keys and you opened the door for Cinder. Cinder smiles and gives you a kiss on the cheek before squeezing it “look at you opening doors for me. So cute, but I could’ve done that myself” you laugh as you rub your cheek “I know, but let me do something nice.”

Cinder rolls her eyes and gets in the car as you close the door for her and starts walking around to the driver’s side. You open the door before looking up and see Lin talking to one of her officers and she turns her head and looks at you.

You sigh and tilt your head down on the roof of the car before you run your hand through your hair, “I’ll be right back, I forgot something” you told Cinder before you stepped back and walked over toward the Chief of Police as she orders the officer back to their post, “leaving so soon?” she folds her arms as you exhale “uh.. Yeah busy morning at work” you slide your hands in your slack pockets. Lin looks over your shoulder then back at you “is that what you’re calling it?”

You roll your eyes and look away “you can just say it Lin”

“Say what?”

“That you’re jealous for starters.” you smirk a bit as Lin rolls her eyes and shrugs “I’m not.”

“Sure, so you insinuating falsely over the relationship between my colleague and I twice in one night has nothing to do with you being jealous.” you pulled your arms out and folded your arms looking at the chief of police. The night late and a sudden chill with a couple party goers starting to leave and head to the valet.

“I have work to do” Lin snarls as she drops her arms and starts to turn. You step forward and touch her arm but quickly retract it “If you want to talk, really talk. I’m going to head back to my office after dropping Cinder off”

“Cinder?” Lin pursed her lips and you sighed getting the car keys from your pocket “office”. You sternly looked at her before you turned and walked back to the car. Getting in the car and starting it up “everything okay with the Chief?” Cinder looks at you as you slowly let go of the clutch and apply equal pressure to the gas, driving out of the area “yeah, just wanted to check up on former bosses. It was nice to see the chief” you look straight down the road as you drive away from downtown. “That lady scares me. She’s so intimidating.” Cinder taps on the window then decides to roll down the window as you let out a chuckle “yeah, she can be, but once you get to know her she isn’t all that bad” you turn a street and drive down the bridge until you reached Shassa Village. “You had to live in one of the fire nation neighborhoods.” a light chuckle as you looked at the street signs. “Well do I need to remind you that I am a fire nation lady” she ends in a sing-song tone.

“Yeah, but just because you’re from the fire nation doesn’t mean you have to stay in a fire nation borough.”

Cinder shrugs and smiles “it reminds me of home. Is that a problem?”

“No, of course not” you smile back as you pull up to Cinder’s townhome “alright, here we are.” you shift the gear stick in park, “thanks for the ride and for tonight”. Cinder gets out of the car and closes the door “See you bright and early tomorrow morning” she taps your car roof then walks up the steps and opens her door to give you a wave and you wave back, driving off.

-/-

Rubbing the back of your neck as you stare at your drafting table looking over the sketches you drew in the past two hours. Drinking the glass of whiskey you’re holding then rubs your eyes. It’s been the third straight night that you’ve snuck back to your office to work. Stifling a yawn then quickly blink as you set your glass down and grab your brush and softly brush off the eraser shavings from your drafting papers and get your pencil and compass to work on the new satomobile’s curves. You were planning on presenting a new line of satomobile, a luxury line. This new car would be sleeker with curves, integration of phones into the cars into the Public Switched Telephone Network of Republic City, and a better radio system.

-/-

Lin was able to secure and made sure everyone left the area safe and sound while her men checked surrounding areas. Saikhan approached the chief “I saw the state dinner was a success.”

“It seems it had” Lin gruffed back as she watched her men work

“Were my eyes deceiving me or did I catch Cap in the night? Did you request them to help us with the security intel?” He looked at the metalbending officers packing up the squad cars before looking at the chief.

“No, former captain y/n was here as a guest. It appears Ms. Sato couldn’t make it so y/n had to come as a representative for Future Industries.”

“Some snazzy date they had” he commented and Lin glared at Saikhan “apparently they’re just colleagues” she muttered and Saikhan nodded “So you two talked?”

“We ran into each other at the bar earlier in the night”

“Did y/n want their job back? As much as I hate to admit it, they were a damn good detective and leader” he gruffed as he folded his arms.

“No, let’s head back to headquarters. I don’t want to hear a word from your wife about how late I’ve kept you. All because you wanted to gossip.” Lin dropped her arms and started walking away, thinking back to her interactions with you throughout the night. Never forgetting how you looked and worked around the room.

-/-

You looked up at the clock and noticed it was nearing 2 in the morning. “I should leave now and get some sleep on an actual bed”, you muttered to yourself as you stood up from your drafting table and walked over to your desk to grab your jacket. You turned around to look out your office window as you fixed your sleeves and collar. A part of you was upset that a certain chief of police didn’t show up, although you understood. She had a job to do tonight and she most likely had better more important things to do. You sighed then finished off the whiskey left in your glass before setting it down on your counter. As you’re cleaning up your desk you hear the door open across from you “I’m sorry Jed. I know I promised to leave sooner, but-” you shuffle some papers into your portfolio.

“If you’re going to keep Jed up this late. He should get a raise or at least buy the poor boy a coffee. He was practically asleep when I saw him”

Your eyes widened as you placed your palms on the desk and slowly looked up. Lin standing across from you. Slowly stand up straight and walk around your desk “We provide our security with the amenities. I would have to check up on that later.”

For a second there was silence between the two of you and you were unsure of what to say “I wasn’t sure you would show up...”

“Neither did I...”

[maxwell-grant]

So that ask about a Doc Savage/The Shadow crossover (which as an aside, I agree that Doc is probably the worst of the archetype he is functionally the Ur-Example of that isn’t an intentional deconstruction focusing on his worst eugenicist/borderline-fascist aspects to create a villain) has me thinking: what exactly would be the boundaries for a good, well-written crossover between the Shadow and different genres or eras of what we all collectively call pulp? Could someone do a crossover between the Shadow and Indiana Jones that didn’t rely on one or the other being little more than a glorified cameo in a small portion of what was essentially the other’s story, or reducing the former to his lamest two-dimensional “gun-toting homicidal maniac” interpretations? Could the Shadow ever functionally exist in a universe shared with a space opera setting like the Lensman series? It seems like one could theoretically do a crossover between the Shadow and a character of the same era like Nero Wolfe or Sam Spade, but would it strain credulity to attempt it with characters from an updated form of the private detective archetype like Thomas Magnum’s Hawaiian noir or Rick Deckard’s cyberpunk dystopia? Obviously not expecting answers to each of these hypotheticals specifically, just as examples of the kind of thing I’m wondering now.

I will be going through some of your hypotheticals though, you clearly gave a lot of thought to this and it's only fair I respond in turn. I am always eager to respond anyone who wants to ask specifics about writing The Shadow, because much of what I strive to do through this blog is to just inform people about the many, many things that made The Shadow great, the things that have been neglected, and to provide paths anyone who wishes to write the character may take. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to write The Shadow someday, but the least I can do is spread knowledge as I work my way there. I'd like to think I've done allright so far.

It's a fairly big question though so we're gonna through it by pieces...

...not THAT way

what exactly would be the boundaries for a good, well-written crossover between the Shadow and different genres or eras of what we all collectively call pulp?

Part of the reason why I did a post yesterday on The Shadow's influences is because looking at them, looking at a character's influences and history, I think are always essential to the prospect of tackling them. And in that regard, The Shadow doesn't actually have much, if any, boundaries stopping him from crossing over with just about anything. The most that's stopping the pulp heroes currently is, besides legal issues, their time periods and obscurity, but The Shadow is the most famous of them all, and a lot of stories have already worked with the idea that he's immortal (which I have my misgivings with, but for better or worse is clearly not going anywhere, and it's not a unworkable concept).

Right from the start, The Shadow was designed to be a long-running, versatile character that could partake in whatever adventures they felt like telling, and part of this is due not just to an incredibly strong personality not afforded to most pulp heroes or characters in general, even those who tried imitating him, but also the fact that he often takes a narrative backseat to the agents and proxy heroes, which means he doesn't have to carry a narrative by his own (and is in fact best suited not to), can blend in to just about anyone's story, and still stand out and be the center of sprawling mysteries. Actually, I'm gonna let Walter Gibson answer this one for you:

While his major missions were to stamp out mobs or smash spy rings, he often tabled such routines in order to find a missing heir, uncover buried treasure, banish a ghost from a haunted house or oust a dictator from a mythical republic.

There was no limitation to the story themes as long as they came within the standards of credibility--which proved easy, since The Shadow was such an incredible character in his own right that almost anything he encountered was accepted by his ardent followers.

Widespread surveys taken while the magazine was appearing monthly showed that a large majority of newsstands sold nearly all their copies within the first two weeks of issue. While other character magazines might show an early flurry, their sales were either spread evenly over the entire period or gained their impetus about the middle of the mouth and sometimes not until the third or even the fourth week.

From the writing standpoint, this made it advisable to adhere more closely to the Cranston guise and to emphasize the parts played by The Shadow's well-established agents, since regular readers evidently liked them. Also, it meant "keeping ahead" of those regulars, with new surprises, double twists in "whodunit" plots, and most exacting of all a succession of villains who necessarily grew mightier and more monstrous as The Shadow disposed of their predecessors.

Always, his traits and purposes were defined through the observations and reactions of persons with whom he came in contact, which meant that the reader formed his opinion from theirs.

This gave The Shadow a marked advantage over mystery characters forced to maintain fixed patterns and made it easy to write about him. There was never need for lengthy debate regarding what The Shadow should do next, or what course he should follow to keep in character. He could meet any exigency on the spur of the moment, and if he suddenly acted in a manner opposed to his usual custom, it could always be explained later.

The Shadow’s very versatility opened a vast vista of story prospects from the start of the series onward. In the earlier stories, he was described as a “phantom,” an “avenger,”, and a “superman,” so he could play any such parts and still be quite in character. In fact, all three of those terms were borrowed by other writers to serve as titles for other characters.

Almost any situation involving crime could be adapted to The Shadow’s purposes

The final rule was this: put The Shadow anywhere, in any locale, among friends or associates, even in a place of absolute security, and almost immediately crime, menace or mystery would begin to swirl about him, either threatening him personally or gathering him in its vortex to carry him off to fields where antagonists awaited.

That was his forte throughout all his adventures. Always, his escapes were worked out beforehand, so that they would never exceed the bounds of plausibility when detailed in narrative form. And that was the great secret of The Shadow.”

In some regards, The Shadow is a mirror. He presents himself to people the way that's best suited to them, the way they'd like him to be, the way he needs to be to affect them. They want money, he has it. They want honor, glory and purpose, he gives them that. They want to fight and turn around social systems for the better, he funds their dreams. Gangsters want the underworld's greatest hitman on their side, he becomes that and lets it be their doom. The story calls for a rich aristocrat who can rub elbows with politicians and kings and presidents, he can do that as long as it suits him. Kent Allard can be a world famous celebrity in one story and a disfigured, broke and faceless nobody in the next. You want a kind janitor with unexpected fighting skill to spy on police and assist the homeless, he has a little someone named Fritz for the occasion. You want an evil monster to be defeated, bring out Ying Ko. Hell, James Patterson's upcoming Shadow novel, which by all reviews seems to be pretty lousy, apparently features The Shadow transforming into a cat. Why? Screw you, that's why! But you'd never see James Bond or Batman spontaneously transforming into a cat without outside interference. He's The Shadow, he's got a face for everything.

(Okay to be clear I don't actually want the Shadow to literally transform into animals, at least not without a good explanation which the book clearly doesn't provide, but I do think it illustrates my point about how generally weird he is)

He is a shapeshifter who can be just about any character in any given narrative who only reveals himself when it's time to materialize into a cloaked terror or a familiar face (whether it's Cranston or Allard or Arnaud and so on). War stories, romance stories, sci-fi stories, globetrotting stories, parody stories, he's done all of them and then some. He doesn't need to be the protagonist of a story, he doesn't need to be invincible, and he doesn't really have any set rules regarding powerset. Gibson stressed credibility a lot, but for over 70 years now, that's clearly gone by the window of the character's writing. By design, he was always meant to be able to smoothly integrate into any existing narrative. Frankly, the only thing that's really holding him back (or saving him, depending on how you look at it) is the fact that he's not public domain (yet).

I think for a start, it's not so much boundaries, because in make believe land boundaries are just things to be overcome on the way to telling a story, so much as it's a good working knowledge of the character and of how far you are willing to stretch your storytelling limitations to include him, because he can account for just about all of them. Now, obviously there's stuff that works for the character better than others, a lot of Shadow fans don't like it when they take the character too much into fantasy, there's debates on how superpowered should he be if at all, and so forth. I have my own preferences, but one of the bigger tests of long-running characters is how can they succeed and thrive when placed outside of their element, and The Shadow can do that.

Could someone do a crossover between the Shadow and Indiana Jones that didn’t rely on one or the other being little more than a glorified cameo in a small portion of what was essentially the other’s story, or reducing the former to his lamest two-dimensional “gun-toting homicidal maniac” interpretations?

would it strain credulity to attempt it with characters from an updated form of the private detective archetype like Thomas Magnum’s Hawaiian noir

Well regarding the first question, the latter portion I think is very easy to do. Just, don't write him like that. Just be aware of why that's a mischaracterization, why the character doesn't need that to work, why he works better without it, and so on. It shouldn't be that hard.

Regarding Indiana Jones and Thomas Magnum, I think these two actually lend themselves very easily to crossovers with The Shadow. On Indy's case, he already is a Pulp Hero operating in the same time period, who's got a heavily contrasting niche and personality to build a fun dynamic around. Indy is more story-driven, in the sense that the Indiana Jones moves are all centered around his experiences and point of view and growth as a person, compared to The Shadow's stories, which are not really about "his" story as much as they are about the stories of the people he comes in contact with. Indy is a blockbuster superstar while The Shadow lurks and slithers through the edges and cracks of a story until it's time to strike. But if anything that just makes even more of a case as to why they could team up without issue, since there's a further built-in complimentary contrast to work with.

I have never watched Magnum P.I so there's definitely stuff I might be missing, but looking him up, past the necessary explanation as to why The Shadow's hanging around the 80s, it wouldn't strain credulity at all for the two to team up. The Shadow has had Caribbean/beach-themed adventures and one unrecorded adventure in Honolulu, he has a beach bum secret identity called Portuguese Joe that he could use for this occasion, and Magnum seems like exactly the kind of character who could star as the proxy hero of a Shadow novel. He's lively and friendly and can look after himself, he has a job that leads him to trouble and puts him on contact with criminals as well as victims, he's got secrets and a dark past and a laundry list of character flaws, he's perfectly capable of carrying a story by himself but can be out of his depth in the schemes that he gets caught up in.

Could the Shadow ever functionally exist in a universe shared with a space opera setting like the Lensman series? Or Rick Deckard’s cyberpunk dystopia?

I'm going to tackle parts of this question more throughly when I answer one in my query that's asking me "How would you do The Shadow in modern day?", which I still haven't gotten around to answering because it's a tricky one. I won't go into the specifics for the two examples you listed because I've never read the Lensman books and googling about them hasn't helped much very much, and Deckard's a fairly standard P.I character mostly elevated by the movie he's in, there's not really much to discuss regarding him specifically interacting with The Shadow. The question you're asking me here seems to generally be: Could The Shadow functionally exist in settings so radically apart from the 30s Depression era he was made for?

My answer for this is a maybe leaning towards yes. Starting with the fact that the concept of The Shadow is more suited for allegorical fantasy along the lines of space operas and cyberpunk, than the gritty realism he's been saddled with for decades, which I'll get into another time. For some reason, a lot of people seem to harp on about how the Shadow's costume is impractical and unworkable for modern times, and said James Patterson novel mentioned above ditched it all together, which as you can guess was a massively unpopular decision. Matt Wagner talked once about how cities don't have shadows and men wearing hats anymore and that's part of why you can't have The Shadow in modern times (as if The Shadow was always supposed to be dressing like an average guy, and not cowboy Dracula). But nobody seems to have a problem with characters dressing up exactly like The Shadow showing up all the time in dystopian future cities with fashion senses where they stick out like a sore thumb (and really, they should stick out, otherwise what's the point of being all weird and dark and mysterious?)

Although The Shadow is specifically suited for urban settings, is conceptually rooted in 1930s America, and there are important facets of his characterization related to history like the Great War, there are not the be-all end-all of The Shadow. It's part of the character. Other parts integral to the character are, as mentioned above, the versatility and metamorphous nature he was always intended to have. His nature as a character who exists to thrive in narratives not about him and not centered around him. His roots on Dracula and King Arthur and Oz and Lupin which are concepts that have had so, so many drastical revisions and turnabouts that still stuck to the basic principles of the icon.

Besides, The Shadow's already been there. He's already been to space, he's already been in alternate dimensions, he's already reawakened in modern/future times several times now (when he doesn't just live to them unchanged). He's been a cyborg twice, and between those, El Sombra, Vendata, X-9, the Shadow-referencing robot henchmen from Bob Morane and Yu-Gi-Oh's Jinzo referencing the movie's bridge scene, it's enough to constitute a weird pattern of The Shadow and Shadow-adjacent characters turning into robots. Perhaps one positive side effect of The Shadow's decades-long submersion in fantasy is that it's opened the character for just about anything, and I think this could be a good thing if it was married to an adherence to the things that made him such a juggernaut of an icon in the 30s and 40s.

Really, The Shadow partially works on Predator rules. And by that I mean, the big secret of the Predator that filmmakers don't seem to get is that the best way to make a Predator film is to just put the Predator somewhere he's not supposed to be, and let that play out. Because the Predator is, by design, a trespasser who invades narratives and turns the power dynamics around, and that works for any narrative you put it into.

The first movie is all about setting you up for a jungle action movie with Schwarzenegger's Sexual Tyrannosaurus Crew as the biggest baddest death squad around, only for the Predator to appear, turn the tables on these shitheads and pick them off one by one until Arnie scrapes a victory by beating it at it's own game. The 2nd movie is about a drug war between cops and gangs in L.A, until the Predator shows up and suddenly he's the big problem again that's gotta be put down. All the other movies fail because they try to be "about" the Predator, but the Predator doesn't work that way. He's a ugly motherfucker who's here to fight and kill things in cool ways for the sake of it's warrior game, who already has a specific structure to how his story's meant to play out, and that's all he needs to be. What you do is just take that character, take the structure he carries around, and throw it somewhere that works by different rules, and let the contrast play out the story.

Obviously there's a lot more to The Shadow than this, I write a billion essays on the guy after all, but much of what makes The Shadow work, much of what made The Shadow such an icon at the decade of his debut and such an interesting character to revolve any kinds of stories around, was because of the great contrast he posed to everything surrounding him, and the ways he can both be at the forefront as well as the backseat of any story.

Going back to what Gibson said:

Almost any situation involving crime could be adapted to The Shadow’s purposes. He could meet any exigency on the spur of the moment, and if he suddenly acted in a manner opposed to his usual custom, it could always be explained later.

The Shadow was such an incredible character in his own right that almost anything he encountered was accepted by his ardent followers.

advisable to emphasize the parts played by The Shadow's well-established agents, since regular readers evidently liked them.

The keyword here isn't that the Shadow should be realistic, frankly that's always been a lost cause. He was never really that realistic, and it's unfair to expect writers to keep pace with Gibson who had lifelong experience with the in and outs of magic and daring escapes and whatnot. The keywords I want to stress here is "accepted by his ardent followers".

Make a good explanation, an explanation that fits the character, an explanation that works, and the rest will follow. And if you can't, make us like the character. Make us accept that he can do and be all these things. Give us something to be invested in. And if that can't be The Shadow himself because he has to stay at arms length constantly to be mysterious, Gibson cracked the code almost a century ago through the agents. Make us invested in them, and through them, we will become invested in The Shadow.

The pulp Shadow would get tired, get injured, need rescuing, need to stop and rest and catch his breath, would need to think and plan and make split decisions on the spot and sometimes would make the wrong ones only to reverse them in the nick of time, and it made the fact that he was achieving all these things all the more impressive. The pulp Shadow was a creature of fantasy grounded in the history of the world he was a part of.

If you can make people care about The Shadow, be truly, genuinely invested in him and his world and the people he comes in contact with, be as invested in those as audiences were back then, you can and maybe should put him anywhere, doing anything, as long as you know what you're doing. As long as you understand what makes The Shadow tick, what makes him work and what doesn't, and whatnot.

Which is a lot of words for "do whatever you want, just don't fuck it up"

[freckledoriya]

“say yes to the dress” (midoriya x reader)

WARNINGS: none, just fluff!

WORD COUNT: 1.5k

SUMMARY: Shopping for your wedding dress with your fiancé brings up old memories of the two of you together as hero and sidekick. 

LINKS: ao3 | masterlist | ask box

TAGLIST: at the end of the post, message me to be added/removed!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: this my fifth fic for @bnhabookclub‘s bingo event (see my bingo masterlist here). a lot of the ideas in this fic came from a request from @belli-jelly, so a lot of credit goes to them! i changed some things, but hope what i did with your request was okay! 

You and Midoriya were never the “traditional” type of couple: always doing things out of order, never following the proper timeline of a relationship. So when it came time for you to go wedding dress shopping, you didn’t hide away from the fact that you wanted your fiancé there in the store with you. 

Opting to not believe in the superstition of bad luck being bestowed upon those who let their soon-to-be-husband see their significant other in their wedding dress before the big day, you invited him to the wedding dress boutique you now found yourself roaming the aisles of. When the time arrived for you to start thinking about wedding dresses, you wanted nothing more than the man you love to help you make the big decision. 

Rows and rows or dresses surround you, encompassing you in walls of white and lace. You turn to look back at Izuku who is sitting on a large white couch, nervously twiddling his scarred thumbs as he usually does when he’s brought into new and different social situations. Sighing, you signal to the saleswoman helping you that you’ll be a moment as you walk over to your soon-to-be-husband. 

“Hey,” you say softly, placing your hand delicately on his shaking knee. “You okay?”

He looks at you apologetically. “I feel like I’m not supposed to be here.” 

“You can leave if you want,” you say. “You don’t have to be here.”

He shakes his head and puts his hand on top of yours. “I want to be here. With you.” 

You feel your lips reflexively turn into a smile, as they often do when you're around him. You’re about to confess your love for him for the millionth time when the saleswoman walks up with a few beautiful wedding gowns in tow. 

“Have you thought about necklines?” the sales associate asks as you run your hands over the plastic coverings of the dresses she picked out. “V-neck, off the shoulder… a sweetheart neckline would look wonderful on you! I’ve picked out a few here for you to try on.”

You hum in agreement and stand up to walk over to the fitting room, looking back at your fiancé, who flashes you an encouraging smile. “Sweetheart sounds great.”

“We’ll be going as high school sweethearts,” you explain to Midoriya. “The villain hosting this social event won’t see through it if we make it believable.” 

The two of you ride in a taxi to the disclosed location, dressed up in your formal wear for the evening. You and Midoriya had worked as pro-heroes at the same agency for only a few days before the two of you were paired together on this mission. Both of you were assigned to go undercover as a married couple to a villain’s large social party in order to gather information. Since neither of you had become well-known heroes, you both were perfect candidates for the mission. 

“B-believable?” Izuku asks, his face turning a slight shade of pink at the thought of what that could imply. 

“Relax,” you say with a flick of your wrist and eye roll. “We won’t have to do anything beyond hand holding.” 

Midoriya lets out a nervous laugh, and you can’t help but notice a twinge of disappointment in it. Maybe you’re imagining things. But between that and his nervous muttering when you appeared in your outfit for the night, you couldn’t help but wonder, could this green-haired hero have a thing for you?

“If something happens, we might have to reveal ourselves,” Izuku says, determination filling his eyes. 

“I’m prepared for that eventuality,” you reply with a smirk, reaching behind you to unzip the top of your capped dress, revealing the compact folded cross bow and three arrows you have strapped to your back. 

“Oh,” Izuku says in surprise. “I thought you could create your arrows using your quirk? Like how Creati makes things?” 

You let out a laugh. “I don’t have a quirk. I’m just a person that’s good with a bow and arrow.” 

“W-Wait, really?!”

You giggle at his shocked expression as the car comes to a stop. “Show time.”

“So how long have you two been together?”

“About two years,” you reply to the saleswoman as the two of you sort through the pile of dresses you’ve picked out. “Well, officially for two years, unofficially for almost three.”

“Unofficially?” she asks.

You nod and laugh. “I was his sidekick for a number of stealth missions and our undercover story was always that we were a couple.”

“Sound romantic,” the woman teases.

“You’d be surprised! Our first kiss was due to a villain testing us to see if we really were a couple.”

“Oh? How’d that go over?”

You smile back at the memory. “I grabbed him by his collar and kissed him right then and there. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being turn a brighter shade of red. He almost blew our cover.”

She laughs along with you. “I see what you meant when you called and said you two weren’t a traditional couple.”

You hum in agreement and begin to unzip a dress to try on. “I like this one.”

The saleswoman helps you step into the dress. “An a-line silhouette with an illusion neckline. Good choice! I love the small opening on the back.”

“If we see something suspicious, we’ll only have a small opening,” Midoriya says, handing you the binoculars.  

The two of you sit side by side in your agency’s stakeout van, trading off who’s on lookout duty. Both of you had been tasked with staking out a villain’s possible hideout. The chill winter air from the outside makes the inside of the van frigid. Wrapping yourself up in the hoodie that Izuku leant you, you breathe in the scent of him and cherish how it feels, as if the hero himself were embracing you. 

This is the first mission since you realized your newfound feelings towards Midoriya. Over the past months, the two of you have gone from one-time mission partners to hero and sidekick, you being the latter. But you really didn’t mind being Deku’s sidekick. He was courteous, attentive, and caring. What you did mind, however, was how you began to feel about him.

It’s an unsaid code that hero/sidekick relationships are a no-go. Romantic feelings tend to get in the way of what should be a professional agreement between two parties. You loved Izuku Midoriya. You loved his never-faltering smile, the speckle of freckles across the apples of his cheeks, the way he put 110% into everything he ever did, and you loved the way he made you feel like anything was possible, quirk or no quirk. 

However, you cherished your current relationship with him too much to risk it all. Because in no universe could he return feelings from a quirkless doomed to be a forever-sidekick like yourself.  So you kept your amorous feelings at bay, electing instead to steal longing glances when you thought he wasn’t looking.

But he was looking. He would often swear to himself that he saw you staring from the corner of his eye. He began to question if you felt the same way about him that he felt about you. That couldn’t be, though, right? You were amazing; an incredible person whose strength went seemingly unmatched. And he was just… Deku. 

The truth is, ever since that mission that forced you into an impromptu kiss, he has wanted nothing more in the world than to feel your lips on his again. He was too shocked, too nervous to appreciate it the first time around. He wished another situation would call for such a gesture again, so that he could truly cherish what it could feel like to be loved by the most amazing person he knew. Because he truly loves and adores you. 

It was moments like these, 3AM in a stakeout van, the cold air just begging for the two of you to use each other for warmth, that tested both of your limits. You felt the lock you kept on your feelings starting to loosen as the hours passed, maybe because of the lack of sleep, maybe because the hole where you were shoving all your feelings down had reached its limit. Either way, you couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of your mouth, even if you wanted to. 

“Midoriya…. You’re-”

“Incredible,” the saleswoman says simply as you turn around in your dress, the white fabric swaying across the floor. “You look absolutely incredible!”

“Thank you,” you say, staring at your reflection in the mirror. It’s finally starting to sink in that you’ll be getting married. Not just married to anyone, but married to the man of your dreams, someone who you could, figuratively and literally, fight side by side with forever. 

“What do you think about this one?” you ask, stepping out of the dressing room.

As expected, your fiancé immediately starts tearing up. 

“You look perfect.”

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