#technically 20 001 with this post

[justsigma-bsd]

I'm sobbing how did this happen-

(Ignore the drafts please)

[kg2hub]

SOBBING AND SHAKING U RN /POS

tysm sunny ily /p 😭😭 <3 i'm so glad you like my rp blogs hgfdfgdsdfdfg genuinely honored by this omg u have no idea :'''D

Honestly, can we bring back those roleplay/muse blogs?

I re-discovered these Kindergarten roleplay/character themed (ask)blogs and they seem so fun icl.😭

I would love to have a Cindy themed blog and answer funky asks, reblog themed posts and other stuff!🫠 Those blogs looked so awesome and so in-character💖💖

(edit: i saw Lou's muse/roleplay blogs and they were SO COOL. I loved the layouts they used for the text (idk how to explain it lolol but iyk,yk), their writing and so much more stuff. It looks like so much fun

Lou I don't want to ping you since im not sure if you're okay with it but if you see this - I adore those blogs so much<333:00)

[rindragon-from-twewy]

Raincode forte swap au character introooooos!!!! Part 3!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the last one as far as I know and I have plenty to ramble about! Seriously major spoilers for the og mdarc below the cut! (I super mean it this time)

Gosh I felt like such a mastermind genius writing the other intros and not name dropping The Chief - cuz I already knew Yakou and his Wife are swapping places too!

Introducing Yvette Furio: The Chief of the Nocturnal Detective Agency! I don't have much to say about her design this time honestly... gave her some simple office wear so she can blend in well with the other Kanai Ward residents, made her a little thicker and gave her the dead anime mum side ponytail cuz... well... technically she's dead in more ways then one- (Canonically, chapter 4, homonculi etc etc-). She took over from the previous chief to fulfil a debt she was unable to pay back before he died and keeps a photograph of him on her desk as a reminder to keep pushing forward. Though, it's more like the NDA was living on in spirit, since she doesn't know the first thing about being a detective and The Peacekeepers make it so nobody seeks out detectives anyways. The WDO themselves were never notified of this though, sending their Master Detectives to Kanai Ward thinking they're being put in good hands. Instead... they get a new wine aunt figure in their lives who'll be sobbing about being broke one minute and happily throwing them 20 shien and telling them to "buy yourself something nice, sweetie" the next.

Makoto is by far the most canon inkeeping of all. He's still Number One's homunculus and thus his original personality and demeanour remain more or less unchanged. The one exception being that he definitely asks Desuhiko about his opinions on the ethics of clone fucking at least once! His body and face are of course now carbon copies of Desuhiko's now instead of Yuma but I found that keeping his long hair a shade of blonde worked much better then the dark browns I was initially considering. His outfit is kinda a combination of Dazai and Chuuya's from Bungo Stray Dogs. Bolo tie, waist coat, jacket over the shoulders... the resemblance was unintentional but hey! Happy accidents! Made some alterations to his mask too - mainly I gave him red pikachu cheeks as well as a different nose shape. The thing I'm most excited about though are his earrings. They're basically just cattle tags that say "001" because of course the people who'd first created him wouldn't see him as anything more then just an animal - if not less then. Don't fret, though, these aren't stuck on him! He got a custom pair of earrings resembling the tags made as a sort of way to reclaim his origins. After all, earrings are cheaper then therapy!

And that's everyone so far!

For the record, I think it's important to say that I haven't played any of the rain code dlcs yet. I've been holding off on watching them on YouTube for like... 10 months now... cuz I really wanna play them myself. I'm hopefully getting them in a couple weeks time but this is a disclaimer that I know Yakou's wife shows up at one point but I have absolutely no idea what happens with her. All I know is that she doesn't have an official name cuz otherwise, I'd have been able to find that out on Google I think-

I think I'll take a few days break from drawing now since I've posted daily for over a week- I can feel the burn out brewing so I'm stopping while I'm ahead lol- maybe I'll focus on writing instead. :>

[curio-queries]

Run BTS: 020 | Korean Food War

Original Air Date: 23 MAY 2017 Episode Length: 20:10 Total Parts: 1 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: The guys divide into two teams and are assigned dishes to cook for Jin the judge

Production: Perfect filming location, concept, and coverage. We easily understand exactly what's going on and the edit is superb.

Endearment: The guys absolutely shine this episode. Not technically their first time cooking on camera but they did extraordinary for so early in the series.

Winner: YG, JM, V

Loser: JK, JH, RM

Best Cheater: none

Member Moments:

RM: They trusted RM, the god of destruction, with a knife.

JN: Jin's laughter during JKs magic show!!! So iconic.

YG: Yoongi's battle with the squid

JH: Hobi trying to intimidate the chicken....you're just too wonderful to be that scary!

JM: Jimin was such a diligent little worker this episode

V: V has so many great moments this episode, the blender, the chicken-peacock discussion, the squirrel bowl

JK: THE.SWEET.POTATOES! Easily one of the best moments in Run BTS history. Adhesive Strength!

Bonus Content: We do see that the losing team diligently carried out their punishment.

CQ Rank: 5

(CQ Eval Date: 30 SEPT 2023)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 019

Next Episode: 021

Analytics post: 001-020

[colourfullsims]

13, 16, and 17 for the storytelling ask game!!

13. from basic planning to a finished post, how long does that take you?

Ah, that depends on what I'm working on! So after I finish doing gameplay, I've got two word documents and an excel spreadsheet to work with: one word doc with the daily events schedule (couplings, challenges, dates, etc.), one word doc with my notes from the gameplay (results of challenges, relationship value changes, notable interactions), and the spreadsheet organizes all the character info I need to keep up with (traits, attractiveness, first impressions, challenge winners, etc.). I'm basically looking at a whole lot of raw data that I have to plug into the daily schedule and turn into a story. For events that are about repetition - like the coupling ceremony - it's typically a pretty quick process to come up with a script based upon the in-game results, and then head into game and pose everyone quickly and take those shots. What takes more time is when I have to make scenes that deviate from those standard, repetitive events.

So for example: it takes about 24 minutes of real-time to play a in-game day of sims. Since I have to pause sometimes to check what sims are doing and make notes, we can round it up to 30 minutes of gameplay. Then, I pause the game, check everyone's relationship values and take more notes: about 10 minutes. Take those notes and make a general bare bones script of who picked who at the coupling: 5 minutes. Adding ~flavor~ with Nina's introductions, as well as giving each character unique dialogue based upon their personalities: 30 minutes. Then - a deviation - aka Manny and Felicity's fight lol. I have to decide on a lot of little details: are they gonna get physical or just throw words, is anyone else gonna step in to the fight, being careful to move characters around in ways that keep each scene consistent, and in outdoor settings, keeping the lighting consistent (which typically means having to be shoot scenes in order rather than leaving more technical scenes for later). Stuff like this can take longer, especially if I have to use poses, so I'd say the repetitive parts take me about 20 minutes, and then I add an extra 10 minutes on with a detailed scene.

After all the screenshots are taken, I take my time to sort through them and select the shots I'll be using, labeling them based on challenge, day, and shot number (i.e. "LI Day 1 001"). How long it takes me to edit depends upon how many images I'll be editing that day, and how much dialogue has to be added on screen. But a typical post length for me is about 8-10 shots; editing outdoor shots with dialogue would take me about 30-40 minutes for that amount. Now that I have my screenshots ready to go, I take them to Tumblr, put them in a draft, add Nina's narration in the description, tag all the creators, and tag the post: that takes me about 5-10 minutes. And at that point we're ready to post! So in all, getting just one post out can take me about 2 and half hours on average. Of course, that's typically spread across multiple hours so it can take me even longer to do it than that lol

16. what about the process do you enjoy?

My favorite part is always seeing the pictures come to life in photoshop! I love looking at the finished product of everything I worked on

17. what about the process do you hate?

POSING! I love poses but actually going into game and posing has become a nightmare lmaooo. Especially when I have to factor in a big group of sims, cause I have to think about everyone's positions before I start. And with the number of poses I have installed, I'm typically scrolling for a long time just looking for what I want 😅

Thanks for the questions! ❤️

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2019 Megaman Valentine’s Day (Humor) Contest Results!

Apologize for the delay on this once again. Didn’t expect to be posting these results nearly a month after Valentine’s Day, but the extended deadline did help make sure we got a healthy competition this year. Thank you to all for your patience!

I’m going to start out this year’s results thread with a totally appropriate callout 4-Koma that is not technically an official humor entry from SubzeroIceSkater, even though it fit the rules. But it’s worth posting, to publicly humiliate myself anyways:

I'll take my token Akane-in-an-entry bribery any way I can get it, since nobody felt inclined to draw Mrs. Stelar’s fresh, piping hot, iced cinnabuns for their talent entry this year...Did I just type that? I mean, um...

Play me off, Johnny!

I kid, I kid! After all, these contests aren’t about me, it’s about the characters you love and want to draw. And that’s what makes everyone’s entries unique and helps motivate you to create time after time. And I am grateful for it, whether you are a long-time participant, or the yearly new contestant.

I’ll be doing things a little different this year, because the post would be way too long if I kept everything in one. So this first post will just contain the Humor category, and I will have a second, separate post for the Talent category. Raffle prize winners will be contained in both posts, so keep an eye out after my commentary on your art, for some possible winners here. The rest will follow soon. I’ll be contacting all winners soon enough, so sit tight!

Here are your humor winners and full gallery of entries, after the break!

Category 2 (Humor) -  Princess Sigmia Returns

A much smaller group of entries for this category, but the zany mergers were great, all the same. I thank you all for getting as creative as you could with this concept, as it was a little more than just a mere gender swap you had to consider, when designing your combined character. Whether you won or not, know I truly enjoyed seeing all of these pics. 

I know imgbox gallery gave people some issues before, so as always, let me know if images or links appear broken. Crossing my fingers this works smoothly this year! XD

After each entrant’s name, there will be a link in the character description to the entry, too, just in case the inserted external images don’t load for you. 

[Full humor gallery]

1.) SubzeroIceSkater - Arc Weldy Falls In Love (featuring Tundroll.EXE the Arc Weldy, plus ‘Master Albert’)

[Page 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Comics with length and substance always seem to steal the show, and this year was no different. Joining the ranks of fenril-huayra, wintesm and so many others in recent years, I believe SubzeroIceSkater’s wonderful tale will stick with many of you, as much as it did me. As a humor piece, sure there are great sight gags and comedic lines all around, but it also has a lot of heart. You feel really bad for Arc Weldy to start out, but also feel so many emotions of compassion, friendship and love throughout. Wonderful work, and thank you for all the effort you put into this massive entry!

Also, are 21 pages not enough for you all? Well, SubzeroIceSkater also had ANOTHER 15 pages worth of ideas, alternates, and outtakes to go with this comic. And, while I won’t upload each link or image here, because this one entry is long enough, you can see them in THIS GALLERY LINK. They are also really great.

*For coming in 1st, SubzeroIceSkater has won $100 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

2.) @drewblossom​ - Geminette 

Nearly equally deserving in length, Drew’s comic more closely followed the Bowsette-style transformation gimmick to give Snake Man his comeuppance. The classic bait-and-switch kiss, turned on it’s head with a ‘lil Search Snake rather than a gross Toad Man, was a funny end. 

Design-wise, I really liked what you did to create Geminette’s look. Splitting his helmet crystals to the side as like dual hair broaches, and keeping the motif with the choker, armband, garter straps and chestplate, worked out nice. I can see why Snake was so easily charmed. 

*For coming in 2nd, Drew has won $50 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

3.) @wimzik​ - Rollbble.EXE

If dominatrix Devil Roll wasn’t enough of a pain in Rockman’s side, I shudder to think how bad a Bubble Roll would be, puku! Or, would her devotion to him be as great (or clingy) as Bubs was with Shademan-sama? 

Taking Bubbleman’s yellow flipper feet motif, and turning it into a fish fin design, both on her feet, legs, and hair ribbon, turned out pretty neat. If anything, I’m sure this transformation gives her very kissable lips, though! XD I have to wonder what her plan is with that Roll Navi Data chip, now that the chocolate is all gone, and what it will do to Rockman?

*For coming in 3rd, wimzik has won $25 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

And the remaining wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

@3-oclock-blues​ - Dr. Willis 

What you talkin’ ‘bout, Wil-lis? Or Dr. WHY?!-ris, if you prefer. With that absolutely awesome wide-eyed grin, she’s hellbent on living together with Zero in a world where only Reploids exist. Being that they both have spent time piloting flying machine bodies, and have sorta possessed some form of an evil energy, it’s a rather fitting combo. Unless you are Zero, and it’s your dad and girlfriend merged into one being. Awk~waaaarrrd. 

The skull motif and spikes are subtle on Iris’ design, but fit in really well. Her bangs are just wild enough on both sides now, that it gives that Wily hair vibe, without having to give her a horrible, bushy mustache. XD

*3-OClock-Blues is the winner of Raffle Prize #2 - The X OCW artbook and Zero keychain*

@bracedshark​ - Mettayer

This might be a terrible concept, but I’m going to type it. When a Met pops out from under it’s helmet, especially in sprite form, usually all you can see is the whites of it’s dark, beady eyes under that helmet, on it’s dark grey/black blobby round body form. With Layer, you don’t get to see her eyes under her bangs, hardly ever. So staring at Mettayer’s underboob for too long, due to her chest armor mimicking a Met helmet, all I see is a Met’s pair of closed bottom eyelids, and I’m seriously waiting for those eyes to open up and start staring back at me. Would that not be the most wrong way for Mettayer’s eyes to work?! But I can’t unsee it! Her belly button even feels like a snoring, sleeping Met’s mouth. I’ll spare everyone of me editing this art to make my point. But it’s in your head now, isn’t it?

OK, despite that awful paragraph, this is one hot Metall Mommy. Sorry, I’m starting this paragraph off pretty badly, too, I guess. ^^; Despite my interpretation of the combination, the design elements do stand out in a unique way. The fiery reddish-pink hair seems like a different choice considering the characters merged, but it plays off the red of a Met’s mouth and earpiece, and, well, fitting for Valentine’s, too! And instead, you get the Layer color scheme in the pickaxe, so it still connects visually.

@drewblossom​’s 2nd entry - Roll n’ Rock

This bonus entry from Drew flips the genders of both DLN-001 and 002. I liked Roll’s hair bow converting into more of a bow tie, and Rock getting her version of Roll’s hoodie, in a Blue Bomber color scheme. The V-Day card concept, complete with crayon-ish name writing, made for a cute entry. Hearts all around!

@supernovabee​ - Bayer

No, there won’t be any paragraph about underboob eyes for this version of a Layer transformation, as supernovabee has merged her with Bass. Bayer loves belting out her hard and heavy siren song to woo prospective love interests during karaoke night. 

Keeping Layer’s purple hair here actually kinda still keeps a Treble Boost feel, that the color scheme fits seamlessly, to go along with the more obvious Layer armor design pieces.

[obstinaterixatrix]

2018 Fic Retrospective

it’s that time of year again! the end of it. all in all it’s been about 15 fics and about 40k, so like? that’s a pretty decent amount I think.

1/25

The Intricate Art of the Spite Selfie (or, Say What You Mean), Voltron, 3.5k words

The first selfie Lance takes with Keith, the first selfie Keith takes with Lance, and a few of Lance's many, many selfies that follow.

this was posted on my 9 year anniversary of the first time I posted fic, but it was actually written a solid while before? and scenes were drafted even longer before that? technically an old fic but w/e

3/28

Page Turner, or, Why Shoujo Manga isn't a Valid Point of Reference, Persona 5, 12k words 

Yusuke comes to Makoto for love advice. Futaba intervenes.

this was technically started in 2017, but finished in 2018 so it’s for the 2018 retrospective. it’s also like. the crown jewel of fics this year In My Humble Opinion. I’m so happy with this fic, it’s pure self-indulgence. my extensive experience with shoujo manga finally came in handy. I also get like. really irked when an f/f ship is tagged and it’s like... .001% of the fic so I wanted both my Big Persona Ships but I. Needed to focus on mako/haru. they deserve it.

4/7

follow the warmth of the sun, Persona 5, 2k words

Ryuji asks Haru for advice, then offers some of his own.

companion to page turner... still feel :/ abt the title but I honestly truly couldn’t think of anything else.

writing haru’s always really hard but something that’s nice and canon is how soft everyone is around her. also liz pointed out that page turner and this one basically start out the same and I. didn’t realize. I didn’t notice at all. I was tunnel vision on characterization I didn’t think about parallels at all,

4/13

ask a question, get an answer, Persona 5, 1k words

Hindsight is 20/20, but Ryuji feels pretty effin' dense for missing this.

I love foxskull. originally this fic was planned to be like. three times longer but then I realized I could condense it into a one scene oneshot. who cares about setup... foxskull time

4/21

shoot the messenger (at your peril), Persona 5, 2k words

Yusuke refuses to let Ryuji play the martyr.

[Rewrite of Ryuji's 8th rank]

okay I said page turner was the crown jewel of fic but this is also the crown jewel of fic because it’s really good alright it’s fantastic. sister helped me make the text segment because this was when my laptop died but such a trifiling obstacle can’t hope to get in the way of my foxskull agenda (this is hubris do not take it to heart). seriously though I’m a fan of my own vibe. slow-burning fury rooted in genuine concern... thats my brand and I am catering to my own tastes 

4/26

at your side, as your side, Kamen Rider W, 700 words

Philip apologizes. At least, he tries to.

you’re welcome jem

5/10

Live and Learn, Steven Universe, 700 words

A conversation about mistakes.

lapidot lol. I love writing peridot... she’s such a disaster dumbass but a genuinely good and kind character trying to learn from her past mistakes... also lapis’ song killed me... I... wamt to see how their reunion goes...

5/15

Inertia, Persona 4, 700 words

It's not an ending, just a change.

I’m adding this in the retrospective even though the majority of this was written like. four years ago. technically I also ‘finished’ vector sum and the dr fics but like. I’m not. including those. they’re so old,

6/17

it’s not nostalgia if there’s nothing to miss, Persona 5, 1.7k words

Ryuji and Yusuke talk about the kind of shenanigans they got into as kids: eating paint and flaming dodgeball.

legit the only time air was like ‘you could add conflict’ and I was like. no. 

I really liked writing dumb kid shenanigans... one of my friends once said how her sister tricked her into thinking color was a recent invention and that photos were black and white because colors hadn’t been dug up yet. while drafting I kind of kept that in as a placeholder for yusuke’s dumb kid thing, but thankfully I hit on the idea of. eating watercolors for art. what a yusuke thing to do. also I’ve said this before but flaming dodge ball was literally something that a friend did when they were a kid and I’m honestly kind of sad I never got to do something so ridiculously dumb and dangerous. is it really childhood without the threat of self-inflicted immolation?

7/28

the shortest distance between two points, Voltron, 7k words

Just when Keith thought he had his relationship with Lance all figured out, finally, Lance marches in and not-so casually declares his undying love.

(Or, his extremely small barely-there crush, but knowing Lance, same difference)

despite all my various feelings about voltron the show now that it’s over. I have to say. my voltron content is good content. You Can’t Change My Mind.

keith’s always a little harder to write than lance, but I really like... writing lance from an outside perspective. ‘this makes total sense,’ lance thinks, digging his own grave. ‘what the hell is he doing,’ everyone else thinks, as they get a front row seat to lance digging his own grave. also also I really like writing miscommunications that are like. fun.

9/18

accounting for taste, or, the unfortunate specter of middle school sensibilities, Persona 5, 1.5k words

Ryuji gives Yusuke an old necklace neither of them like.

99% of the foxskull I write is directly appealing to my own sensibilities and basking in my egregious self-indulgence because otherwise I’d be dying in the desert. this fic... is good.

10/1

star-crossed ain't the right word for it, Persona 5, 1k words

A handful of texts between Ann and Shiho.

this was a little tough to figure out at first— air def helped w the trajectory of the third chapter. but... I’ve always wanted to write more fun shenanigans with these two... and I’ve had the last chapter planned since the very beginning... I love ann/shiho...

11/11

Forward Momentum, Kamen Rider Drive, 2k words

After Chase comes back, Gou takes him to an amusement park. Then a movie. Then a cafe.

while watching the series I was like... ooo chase/gou has potential but the only thing that’s really selling me is the death scene so there’s not much I can do here... then... I listened to the drama cd... yall the drama cd... I’ve Been Pandered To... I really like writing Chase’s awkward perspective, also, I really like Chase.

11/16

coda, The Adventure Zone, 700 words

Sloane and Hurley rally people for the final battle.

(epilogue for Fortune's Wheel, Reversed)

this was a draft for a pretty long while but I really did need to give them something that reflected their current canon end. I like tragic romance but I like it *more* when it actually ends happily thanks griffin.

12/27

variety, spice, and however that saying goes, Persona 5, 4k

Rewrite of 6/11-6/12; instead of staying at Leblanc, Yusuke stays at Ryuji’s place.

a while ago jack was talking abt his headcanons for ex-sukeban mom sakamoto and ever since then I’ve been like... wow I want to write that. I think this actually has some of the best yusuke I’ve ever written just because I had to spend a paragraph describing a wine glass. also I have to admit, when I thought up the symbolism thing, I was very much. Oh I Am So Genius.

[fille-lioncelle]

12 with Eva/Noora pls and thx

“summer fling” is not a fucking smut prompt and you 100% knew I’d have to write you an entire fic, ADMIT IT!!!

20 scenes of Eva’s summer, and 1 scene from afterwards

(also on AO3)

001.

There’s a girl at the Bergen train station, sitting on the steps out front like Eva is. Maybe she’s waiting for someone too. Maybe her father forgot to pick her up too. She seems quite absorbed in her book though, never glances up. At least not when Eva glances over at her. So if she’s waiting, she seems to have settled in.

She’s pretty. Long blond hair and a loose blouse over high-waisted shorts.

Eva twirls her phone in her hands and stares at the girl until she realises what she’s doing and looks back down at her own lap, cheeks flushing with heat. She texts mamma she’s going to get an early dinner with pappa, which is not technically a lie but also technically doesn’t answer mamma’s question about whether pappa remembered to pick her up.

There’s a new photo of Ingrid kissing Jonas’ cheek on her instagram when Eva checks, posted just two minutes ago.

She hits the like button and sighs, refreshing her feed a few times in the hopes something else might show up, but all that does is another like on the post from Jonas and a gushing comment from Sara about how cute they are.

“Eva!” pappa calls, and Eva looks up and locks her phone, shoving it in her bag unceremoniously.

She grins when pappa jogs over and wraps her up in a hug, hugging him back.

“I’m so sorry, I completely got the days mixed up,” he says. “But, hey, you’re here!”

“I’m here,” she confirms, tries hard not to sound like mamma when she does.

“I guess I don’t need to show you around,” he jokes when he pulls back, keeping one arm around her. “But how about we go up to that Italian place you liked? It’s still open.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” she says, and lets him grab her suitcase and steer her towards the car.

 002.

It doesn’t take Eva long to reconnect with her old friends and by the time Friday rolls around the novelty of having her back has worn off for pappa like Eva thought it would, so he only waves his hand and smiles when she asks if she can go to a party with a few people.

“Do you want money for a taxi?” he offers. “I’d rather you didn’t walk back by yourself.”

“Yeah, sure,” Eva says and accepts the bills he digs out of his wallet for her. “Thank you.”

He smiles some more and winks at her.

“No problem, kiddo. Be safe, yeah? I’ll probably be working late, so you can call me if there’s anything you need.”

He’s laying the cool-dad thing on a little thick, but Eva smiles and nods, walks over to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks, pappa. Marte’s coming to pick me up in half an hour, so I’ll get changed.”

Thirty-four minutes later she’s in the car and Marte’s older brother is promising that he’s going to stay sober tonight anyway and if they all leave at the same time, he can take Eva back home. As far as Eva remembers, Lasse has never attended a party sober, and a quick side-glance at Marte and the way she widens her eyes significantly and shakes her head makes Eva glad for the money pappa gave her for a taxi.

“So, Eva,” Lasse asks from up front. “How are you down in glamorous Oslo, now that you’ve left all of us simple countryfolk behind?”

It’s not the first time Eva hears the questions that evening, but at least it sounds more teasing and less bitter than it does from a few other people. It’s not like it’s Eva’s fault her parents got a divorce and her dad wasn’t interested in custody. She’d have stayed, probably, if her dad hadn’t half-uncomfortably mumbled something about how the schools in Oslo would offer more opportunities anyway. She wasn’t keen on leaving her entire life behind her at fourteen, but she hadn’t really had a choice.

After extricating herself from the latest round of Oslo-themed teasing, Eva escapes to the kitchen to grab herself a glass of water, the living room stuffy and hot from far too many people crammed into it.

“You’re Eva, right?” someone says, and when Eva looks up, the blonde from the train station leans up against the kitchen counter next to her. Her hair’s in a loose bun today and she’s wearing another equally loose blouse.

“Um, yeah,” Eva says. “Do we know each other?”

“Not yet,” the blonde says, her soft pink lips stretching into a pretty smile. “I’m Noora.”

“Hi,” Eva says and then holds out her hand.

Noora looks a little surprised, but shakes it with a small laugh.

“You moved to Oslo and recently came back?” Noora asks.

Eva sighs and nods.

“Yeah,” she confirms. “Is it all anyone’s talking about?”

Noora laughs again.

“Probably. A few weeks ago that was me when I came back from Madrid, so I guess I have to thank you for that.”

Now it’s Eva’s turn to laugh, and she practically feels herself relax against the kitchen counter. The glass of water is still pleasantly cool in her hand and she shifts her weight a little, away from the sink so she can talk to Noora without being in anyone’s way (and being interrupted).

“How long were you in Madrid?”

“Two years,” Noora says. “How long were you in Oslo?”

“Two years,” Eva echoes, watching Noora match her grin.

“And now you’re back?” Noora asks.

Eva nods.

“Yes. Or, well. No, only for the summer. I live in Oslo with mamma but pappa asked if I didn’t want to spend the summer with him here, and, well.”

“Hm,” Noora says in understanding. “You don’t get to see him often?”

“Um, no. Not often,” Eva says. It’s a bit of an understatement, since she hasn’t seen him outside a handful of skype calls in two years, but. Well. She’s not at that level of drunk yet where she’s about to spill her entire life story to a stranger.

“Then it’s nice, right? Being here for the summer?” Noora asks.

“Yeah,” Eva says. “It’s nice.”

It’s better than Oslo right now, at any rate.

 003.

“I can’t believe you’ve left me here with Jonas and Ingrid to spend your summer in Bergen,” Isak says, sighing faux-deeply and rolling his eyes on the other end of their skype call. “It’s not like you grew up there or anything…”

Eva grins and dips the brush of her nail polish back into the bottle.

“You can third-and-fourth-wheel with Sara though!” she says and looks up to laugh at the way she knows he’ll roll his eyes at her.

He doesn’t disappoint.

“Yeah, that’s my ideal summer. Hanging around my ex-girlfriend while her best friend makes out with my best friend.”

Isak sighs again, but it’s a real one this time, and she feels it settle heavily in her chest and heaves a sigh of her own.

“Yeah, I don’t want to watch my best friend make out with your best friend either,” she says.

He shoots her a commiserating look that loses a good few pixels but no sincerity to the crappy connection.

“I mean, Jonas is my bro and everything, but honestly what is it about him that has everyone in love with him?” he asks her pulling on a grin.

Eva grins back and shrugs, swiping colour over another nail.

“Well, not everyone,” she says. “You’re not in love with him.”

Isak’s eyes bug and his cheeks flush and he seems to choke on air, coughing out his surprise. Eva can’t help but burst into laughter, a drop of nail polish falling onto the keyboard of her laptop. Oops.

“Very funny, Eva,” he says.

“I’m just saying. You and Sara seem to be immune, so maybe that means you’re meant for each other,” she teases and follows it up with a few kissy noises.

“Absolutely not,” Isak insists, and even as she laughs, Eva feels a little bad for Sara.

When Isak asked Sara out shortly after Eva moved to Oslo and befriended her and Ingrid, Sara played it cool and told them she’d only said yes because Isak was Isak. Good grades, good at football, always up for a joke, and cute too. ‘I’ll be one of the only girls with a boyfriend,’ she’d said and thrown her hair over her shoulder, and Ingrid and Eva had shared a look and not said anything about the flush on her cheeks.

Later, Ingrid had confided to Eva that Sara’d had a crush on Isak basically since kindergarten. And though that was two years ago and Sara claimed she wasn’t that sad when Isak broke up with her half a year later, Eva still always feels mean for knowing how definitely over Sara Isak is. It doesn’t help that when Isak worked out how Eva feels about Jonas and confronted her about it, striking up a strange friendship born from sharing a secret and the growing loneliness in Isak that Eva recognises from when she first moved to Oslo, Sara made a few very pointed comments about dating your friends’ exes. Pointed enough for Eva to make up a crush on Ole, who she knows won’t be joining them at Nissen in the fall and Eva can claim to have gotten over over the course of her summer in Bergen. Hopefully she’ll actually be over Jonas by the time she goes home.

“Eva?” Isak calls, like he’s done it two or three times already. “You still there?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Eva says, and then finally dips her brush back in the polish to paint her final nail. “Sara thinks I have a crush on you, did I tell you that?”

Isak frowns.

“Sara thinks you have a crush on Ole.”

“Yeah, because I told her I do. Because she thought I have a crush on you.”

“Fuck’s sake, really?” he asks with a groan and lets his entire body slump in annoyance. “Jonas has been hinting at that too. Can’t a guy and a girl be friends without either one wanting to fuck the other? No offence.”

Eva laughs again and screws her nail polish shut.

“None taken. The lack of interest is mutual, don’t worry.”

Isak grins and winks at her.

Before Eva can say anything in return, there’s a knock on her door out to the backyard and when she looks up, eyes wide and heart racing, there’s Noora, waving her phone in the air.

“What is it?” Isak asks.

“Oh, shit, sorry, I have to go,” Eva says. “Visitor.”

“A visitor?” Isak asks, and Eva spares him half a glance to roll her eyes at his tone.

“Talk later, Isak, bye,” she says, and cuts whatever it was he wanted to say off by slamming her laptop shut and hopping up from the bed.

“Your doorbell might be broken?” Noora says when Eva opens the door to her and sheepishly steps aside to let her in. “And your phone?”

“Must be. I didn’t hear it,” Eva says.

“Well, but you were distracted,” Noora says and leans in for a hug. She sounds as suggestive as Isak had, and Eva laughs it off.

“Nah, that was just a friend from Oslo,” Eva says, attempting to smooth down her duvet, since there’s nowhere else for Noora to sit.

Noora slips out of her shoes and settles in against Eva’s headboard while Eva clears her laptop and nail polish stuff away hastily. When she turns back to join Noora, Noora’s fiddling with her hair and finally looks up at Eva with a sigh.

“Can I borrow a hair tie?”

Noora’s hair isn’t quite as long as Eva’s, but it’s still long, and Eva definitely relates to that struggle.

“Yeah, sure,” she says, and grabs a random hair tie off her dresser top, where she’s stashed all of her beauty supplies.

“Sometimes I just want to cut it off,” Noora says as she wrestles her hair into another loose bun, and Eva laughs, climbing onto the bed to join her.

“Yeah, same,” she says.

Noora gives her a look and a smile that Eva can’t quite read, but then turns to face her more fully, face lighting up.

“Oh my god, I need to tell you about David from the other night,” she says.

Eva settles in.

 004.

“So, why are you spending the summer here in Bergen?” Noora asks.

Today, Eva didn’t even bother waiting for pappa to cancel their lunch date and just made one with Noora instead.

Eva pokes around her salad a little and then sighs.

“Um, well. It’s a bit of a cliché,” she says. “So don’t laugh, okay?”

Noora mimes zipping her lips and shakes her head.

“So, one of my best friends in Oslo has this boyfriend,” Eva starts, pushing half a cherry tomato around her plate, her cheeks hot and feeling like they’re probably around the same colour as that tomato.

When she looks up, Noora’s frowning. It makes Eva falter for a moment, but then she swallows heavily and makes herself go on.

“And I have a crush on him,” she says, a little too fast maybe, but Noora’s face lightens with understanding.

“Oh,” she says.

Eva shrugs and pushes the tomato around some more.

“Yeah.”

“That sounds tough,” Noora says and smiles at her.

Eva huffs half a laugh and finally spears the tomato.

“I’m determined to get over it,” she says.

Noora grins.

“That’s the spirit. You get over that boy, I’ll cut my hair.”

Eva’s laugh at that comes easily and she holds out her hand to Noora over the table.

“Deal.”

Noora grabs her hand and squeezes it tight, giving it one firm shake. Her hand is warm and soft, and the peach pink of her nails makes Eva slightly self-conscious about the chipped red on her own.

“Deal.”

 005.

Noora is– she’s so pretty.

This is not news, because Eva noticed that the very first time she saw her sitting on the steps in front of the train station, but it’s somehow different now.

Now that they’re getting ready for another party together, Noora winding her hair into a fish-tail braid that hangs over one shoulder loosely. The skin-tight jeans Noora pulls on over her slim legs and the cute cotton underwear with the tiny flowers on. It’s not sexy underwear; the grey has faded a little, but the sight of it makes Eva smile. It suits Noora somehow. This sweet, playful interior. Noora doesn’t wear a lot of makeup, but Eva watches, fascinated, as she dusts blush on her cheeks and swipes a light pink over her lips. It makes her look like she’s glowing.

Eva has no idea how to make herself look like that.

She wears her hair open, because she can’t be bothered to do anything with it and she doesn’t know how to braid it into the neat braids she sees other girls wear. She only braids it when she needs it out of the way.

She wears red lipstick because that’s what’s sexy, right? And her eye makeup is dark and heavy because she always fudges it and in trying to correct it, it just becomes heavier and heavier and then she can’t be bothered taking it all off and starting over again.

But Noora smiles at Eva like she thinks Eva’s the pretty one when she looks up from her own reflection in the mirror, and she brushes a strand of Eva’s hair back over her shoulder absentmindedly.

It makes Eva’s stomach flip.

 006.

“Isak, eh?” Noora says, half teasing, half commiserating when his name lights up Eva’s phone screen for the second time that afternoon.

“What?” Eva asks, denying the call and sending off a quick text to apologise, telling Isak to call her later in the evening as she’ll be free to talk then.

“Is he that boyfriend?” Noora asks, voice kind.

Eva looks up from her phone with wide eyes, the whoosh of the outgoing message getting lost in the silence in her head.

Isak? What boyfriend?

“Wha– oh! Oh, no,” Eva says, shaking her head and falling into a laugh. “No, Isak’s not who I have a crush on.”

Noora looks a little sheepish.

“Sorry, you just looked a little… I don’t know. Far away? When he called.”

Eva hums and looks down at her phone where Isak’s only sent her a thumbs-up in reply.

“No, Isak's… my friend,” she says.

She’s pretty sure by now he is. He’s probably the only person around whom she doesn’t feel like she has to constantly be careful with what she says. He knows about her crush on Jonas, he knows how she feels about her parents’ separation, about her dad. He knows how grateful she was that Ingrid and Sara took her in without question but that she doesn’t always… get them.

“You miss him?” Noora guesses.

“I kind of do,” Eva says.

“You sound surprised by that,” Noora says with a grin.

Eva laughs a little.

“I am,” she admits. “He’s, technically, the boyfriend’s best friend. And one of my best friends’ ex boyfriend.”

“Wow,” Noora says, eyes wide and an amused smile curling her lips. She’s not wearing lipstick today but her lips are the prettiest pink anyway. A girl could get jealous looking at her face all day, but not Eva. Noora makes her too happy for that. “Are there so few boys in Oslo?”

Eva laughs and drops her phone onto the grass next to her.

“You’d think not,” she says. “But they all grew up together, basically. Went to the same kindergarten and primary and lower secondary. I only met them when I moved to Oslo two years ago and everyone was already quite entangled.”

“That happens,” Noora says with a little nod. “And you’re all going to the same upper secondary in the fall as well?”

“Yeah,” Eva says. “Hartvig Nissen.”

Noora hums and then lies back on the grass, closing her eyes.

“I’m going to miss you when you leave.”

 007.

“Why did you go to Madrid?” Eva asks, legs dangling over the wooden pier behind the Old Bergen Museum. It’s not hot enough today for a swim, an overcast day, but Noora suggested the open air museum and Eva hasn’t been since she was a child. So now here they are, sandwiches in their bags, and the wooden pier mostly to themselves.

Noora sighs deeply.

“It’s a bit of a story,” she says, quietly.

Eva looks up from the dark blue water and over at her. Noora’s still looking out onto the water, the boats and houses tucked along the edges of the fjord.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

Noora sighs again.

“I want to,” she says, but doesn’t go on.

Eva puts her hand over Noora’s beside her and waits.

“I had a boyfriend when I was thirteen. He was fifteen. He made me feel so mature, going out with a fifteen-year-old,” she says finally and then snorts at the thought that fifteen is mature in any way. It’s easier now, at sixteen, to realise that it’s obviously not, if only because Eva doesn’t feel at all mature herself.

“It made me think that he was right about me being ready to have sex. So I slept with him. And then he dumped me.”

Eva feels her jaw slacken in outraged surprise.

“I got… bad,” Noora goes on. “Stopped eating, kind of. I thought it had to be me, you know? That I did something wrong or wasn’t as pretty as the girls his age.”

Eva wants to say something, but she has no idea what. She thinks of the careful way Noora assembled their sandwiches earlier in Eva’s kitchen, listing the benefits of each new thing she added. Eva laughed then, called her a professional nutritionist and joked about how she’d put Noora in charge of her diet from now on.

Fucking hell.

“My parents,” Noora says and drifts off into another sigh. “They wanted to have a kid more than they want to actually take care of one. You know? ‘Look, we have the perfect marriage and the perfect child’.”

“Noora…” Eva says helplessly, squeezing Noora’s hand.

“It’s not that they don’t love me because of who I am or anything. I think they might love me. They just aren’t the type of people who should have children, I don’t think. They don’t mean to ignore me, they just forget I’m there.”

Eva can’t help herself at that, throws her arms around Noora and squeezes her tight in a hug. She doesn’t expect Noora to burrow into her like she does, but it only makes her hold her even more tightly.

“That boy started spreading all sorts of rumours about me and I just… I had to get away,” Noora goes on. “I basically threw a dart at a map and ran. My parents said it’d be good for me to experience a different culture. They didn’t even ask why I wanted to go. I was fourteen!”

Eva suddenly wishes they’d stayed home after all, so she could cuddle Noora on her soft sofa, or her bed.

But they’re here on the weather-worn wooden planks, and Eva decides she doesn’t care. She pulls Noora away from the edge and lays them down, rubbing her hand over Noora’s back as she breathes stuttering breaths and tries not to cry, hiding her face in the junction of Eva’s neck and shoulders.

And when she’s calmed again, they lie there a little longer. Side by side, staring up into the grey skies, hands tightly clasped together.

Eva’s heart aches.

 008.

Eva’s had too much beer.

Eva’s had too much beer, and the music is too loud, and the lights are too low, and the room is too warm.

And Noora is just too pretty.

“You’re so pretty!” Eva shouts at Noora, arms loosely slung around her neck as they dance.

They’re dancing, right? Eva’s pretty sure they’re dancing. That’s why everything’s moving so much!

Oh. Wait, is that the beer?

Noora laughs, and her eyes glitter in the dark and her lips are a dark red today, not the soft pink they usually are. Her hair’s pinned up neatly in such a way that makes it look like it’s a lot shorter than it actually is. Her camisole top is slinky and soft under Eva’s hands and the light bounces off it. Eva can’t tell if she should notice how good the soft swells of Noora’s breasts look underneath it. It’s not like she can help noticing, right? She has eyes!

“You’re pretty,” Noora says back. Loud, so she can be heard over the too-loud music, but not shouting in the kind of far-too-loud way that Eva is.

Noora doesn’t drink. Eva’s noticed that.

“You think so?!” Eva asks, excited. She wore this dress on purpose. It’s a good fit for her, she thinks. Short, and she likes the way the skirt swishes.

Noora laughs again.

“Yes, Eva. You’re very pretty,” she says again.

Eva tips forward and puts her mouth on Noora’s.

Cheers erupt around them.

Noora pushes her back, weaselling out of her arms with a laugh.

Eva’s had too much beer.

 009.

“I fucked up,” Eva says, headphones on and plugged into her laptop.

Isak’s listening to some soft guitar stuff on his side of the skype connection, volume turned down so he can hear her and maybe because he can tell how hungover she is from the circles under her eyes. She looks a mess. She hasn’t said much the past twenty minutes of their skype call but she feels less alone with him on her laptop screen. The house is too big and quiet with just her in it.

His face falls and he turns his attention away from whatever else he was doing and back to her.

“What did you do?” he asks, voice soft and face kind.

It really is odd that she talks to him like this now. She doesn’t quite know when that happened, when him keeping her secret turned into her telling him more secrets.

“I kissed someone I shouldn’t have,” she says, quietly.

“Well, Jonas is here, so how bad could it be,” he jokes, raising a sardonic eyebrow.

Eva smiles a small smile despite herself. That’s true, she supposes. She hasn’t even really thought of Jonas in a good week.

“I kissed my friend,” she says instead. “And she pushed me away.”

Her heart is hammering inside her chest, but as she watches Isak fall silent, looking at her through the screen like he’s not sure what to do now, Eva doesn’t have it in her to be particularly worried about her confession. So she kissed a girl. So the fuck what. It’s not the first time she’s done it, though this doesn’t feel like it did when she kissed Sara at parties.

Still, she’s a lot more worried about Noora being angry at her than she is about how kissing girls is apparently a thing she does. Kissing Noora, at least.

“What happened?” Isak asks eventually, reaching for something outside view and then the music goes silent.

Eva sighs and shrugs.

“We were at a party,” she says. “I don’t know.”

“You just… kissed her?” he asks.

“I was drunk. She was so pretty.”

She blushes then when Isak’s eyes go wide, and turns her face away, sinking lower into her mountain of pillows and her duvet.

“Isak,” she whines, even as she hides from him. “What do I do?”

“I think,” Isak says carefully, his cheeks red too when Eva peeks out at her screen, “you have to talk to her? Maybe she was just surprised.”

She lets the hope unfurl in her chest slowly, watching him as he sits there in Oslo, six hours away, looking uncomfortable but determined.

It didn’t even occur to her to call Sara or Ingrid, she realises. Maybe this is why. Because he doesn’t know what to do either, but he tries to help anyway.

“You think?”

“Maybe,” he says and shrugs. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe… maybe she even likes you back.”

Eva swallows heavily at the thought and feels the butterflies in her belly turn from nausea to excitement. God, she does like Noora like that, doesn’t she.

They sit in silence for a while longer and Isak looks off to the side, staring into the middle distance like he’s trying to think of more to say. Finally, he sighs and looks back at her with a small smile.

“Or maybe… I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t. But maybe she’ll still be your friend at least. You won’t know until you talk to her.”

 010.

to: Isak Valtersen

Thank you for earlier

>> Anytime, girl

♥

>> ♥

 011.

It’s intensely awkward, having Noora sit on her bed like this now, but it felt too weird to ask her to hang out in the living room. They’re only there when they want to watch a movie on the big TV and they hardly ever bother with that. They both prefer the cosiness of Eva’s bed and her laptop screen, even if it’s a lot smaller.

“I’m sorry,” Eva presses out finally when the silence has gotten unbearably heavy. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

Noora flushes, red lighting up her cheeks and Eva curses herself inwardly for how good she thinks the colour looks on her. How alive it makes her face.

“I’m not mad,” Noora says.

“Really?” Eva asks, looking up at her through her eyelashes, heart beating heavily inside her chest. “You promise?”

“I promise,” Noora says, small smile on her lips. Eva can’t believe she kissed those lips and she only has a beer-stained memory of it.

“I didn’t mean to attack you like that,” Eva says. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“You were drunk,” Noora says with a shrug, looks away a little like she’s uncomfortable.

Eva’s stomach sinks.

“I was. I shouldn’t have done it.”

“It’s really okay, Eva. We all do things we don’t mean when we’re drunk,” Noora says quietly. “I just really don’t like being a spectacle.”

“I’m sorry,” Eva repeats.

Noora sighs a little and then pulls herself up again, smiling at Eva.

“It’s really okay,” she says, and then winks at Eva. “Just stick to kissing people sober.”

Eva makes herself laugh.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

 012.

It’s like she can’t stop noticing it now.

Noora’s hair glowing in the sun, the freckles the sun brings out on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. The way she stumbles around words when she’s caught off-guard and doesn’t quite know what to say. The pretty bow of her lips when she pouts at Eva to get her to agree to Noora’s choice of movie when they’re trying to decide what to watch.

The way Eva gives in every time because the only alternative is leaning over to kiss that pout right off her and that didn’t go so well last time.

And, shamefully, because this isn’t a way she should be thinking about a friend, the soft swell of her slim hips. Her tiny feet. The perpetually clean lines of her nails. The tips of her ears when she tucks her hair behind them. Her breasts when she wears a shirt tight enough to make them visible, and the knowledge of them under her loose blouses when she doesn’t.

Fuck.

 013.

Eva’s had too much beer again.

She’s had too much beer and she’s leaning heavily against Noora, but she’s not going to kiss her. She didn’t all night, even though Noora looks so radiant tonight.

“That’s nice, Eva,” Noora says, wrestling Eva’s house-key out of her purse. Pappa’s on a trip for a few days, so they don’t even have to worry about being quiet when they go in.

“I tried really hard, Noora,” Eva says. “You’re so pretty but I didn’t kiss you at all.”

“Yes,” Noora agrees, and the door swings open, making Eva stumble. Fuck, she probably shouldn’t have leaned against it quite so heavily. That was a stupid idea. Like kissing Noora would be.

“Because you don’t want me to kiss you, and I don’t want you to be mad at me,” Eva explains. “Even though you’re so pretty and I think about kissing you a lot.”

Noora blushes, but grabs Eva’s wrist and drags her inside.

“I’m sorry,” Eva wails, pulling her hand out of Noora’s grasp and hiding her face in them. “I shouldn’t have said that either.”

“It’s okay,” Noora says and gently takes her hands away from her face to guide her through the house again.

Eva nods morosely and follows after her, brushes her teeth when Noora presses her toothbrush into her hand, drinks down the tall glass of water Noora hands her next, sits down to pee when Noora turns her back.

It’s a bit humiliating, having Noora look after her like she’s a child, but when Noora climbs into bed with her, Eva feels warm.

“You should make me a list,” she mumbles.

“A list?” Noora asks.

“Of things I shouldn’t do. So I won’t bother you.”

Noora looks at her in a way that Eva is too tired to read properly. She looks sad, somehow, and Eva bites her lip. Another thing for the list. She doesn’t ever want to make Noora sad.

“You’re not bothering me,” Noora says, and strokes Eva’s hair away from her forehead.

“Yes, I am,” Eva insists. “I’m sorry I have a crush on you.”

Noora freezes and then she huffs a small laugh.

“You don’t have a crush on me,” she says. “You’re just drunk.”

Eva squeezes her eyes shut, willing the tears she feels welling up to stay put. She always gets so emotional when she’s drunk.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, voice cracking.

“It’s okay,” Noora says and strokes Eva’s head again. “It’s okay.”

 014.

If last time was awkward, this time is hell.

Eva doesn’t have as bad a hangover as she could, only a slight headache and her eyes unhappy at the bright sunshine filtering in from outside, but Noora’s sitting at the other end of the couch, knees tucked up against her chest, curled up into a ball like she’s trying to make herself as small as possible.

“I’m really sorry, Noora,” Eva says.

Noora tries a smile on for size and shrugs.

“It’s okay,” she says again. “You were just drunk.”

Eva groans out her frustration slumps over.

“I promise I’ll stop drinking, okay? I’m much better at handling this crush business sober.”

She’s blushing as she says it, but there’s no use pretending she didn’t tell Noora how she felt last night. Out of the mouths of babes and drunkards comes truth, after all.

“What?” Noora asks, eyes wide, her whole body frozen still.

“Um,” Eva says. Noora can’t have forgotten, can she? “I’m really sorry that I keep making it awkward. I promise I get that you just want to be my friend and you don’t like me like that.”

“You just kissed me because you were drunk. You have a crush on that boy in Oslo,” Noora insists.

Eva snorts a hollow laugh.

“No, I moved on from one inadvisable crush to the next,” she jokes. “I guess I’ll get over you when I go back home.”

Noora’s entire face goes red, her eyes wide as she stares at Eva.

Eva can’t help but stare back. What is happening?

“I thought you were just drunk,” Noora says, her voice timid and small, but here eyes glued to Eva like she can’t look away. The blush won’t leave her cheeks either, and Eva feels her heart trip inside her chest. Is this… a good thing? Does Noora maybe not hate the idea of Eva liking her? Or is this the exact opposite and now that Noora knows that Eva thinks about kissing her sober too, she’ll run.

Eva bites her lip hard. She can hear her blood rush in her ears, a little disoriented and hot down the back of her neck.

“I kissed you because I was drunk. I wanted to kiss you because I like you,” she says.

Noora is quiet long enough that Eva thinks she’s just going to call mamma and get on the next train home.

“I like you too,” Noora finally speaks. “I thought–”

She doesn’t finish the sentence, but she doesn’t have to. Eva fills in the blank in a dizzying rush of disbelief and relief, Noora’s words bouncing around her heart, filling her up with butterflies and fireworks and all the clichés.

“Holy shit, you do?” Eva finds herself asking.

Noora laughs, and relaxes where she sits, legs sliding down, face brightening.

“I do.”

 015.

Noora’s lips taste like strawberries. Which makes sense, because until a few moments ago they were lying in Eva’s backyard on a picnic blanket in their bikinis, eating strawberries with cream from a bowl they shared.

Only Noora’s hair shines like the snowcapped top of a mountain in the sun, and her eyes glitter even behind her sunglasses. Not to mention the way her lips go red with berry juice and her skin looks as soft as the cream. And there’s so much of it for Eva to see – Noora’s bare arms and shoulders, her back, her legs. Eva’s been trying not to look too much, but their shoulders and arms kept brushing together, and Noora’s smile was even sweeter than the strawberries as she told Eva about something she’s already forgotten about the moment she touches their lips together.

There’s nothing Eva likes better than this. No one she’s ever kissed who makes her feel like this. There’s nothing Eva knows to compare to the softness of Noora’s lips, to the way her hair feels tangled around Eva’s fingers. The smoothness of her skin and the way the press of her breasts against Eva’s own makes excitement pool hot and low in her belly, makes her rub her thighs together and glance her hands down over Noora’s arms, over her belly and sides, over the outsides of her thighs.

She never dares to push, but Noora never tells her off for touching her like this so she takes what she can, fits her mouth to the soft swell of a breast just peeking out over the top of Noora’s bikini, rolls her onto her back so her small breasts are almost flat against her chest and sucks a bruise there that makes Noora gasp and cling to her shoulders.

Eva doesn’t ever want this summer to end.

 016.

“Eva,” Noora pants, mouth slick and red with kisses, her hands on Eva’s shoulders where she’s perched on Eva’s lap – where Eva pulled her down into her lap instead of letting her get up to get them some more snacks for their movie night. Who needs snacks when Eva could be putting her mouth on Noora instead?

“Eva,” she sighs again when Eva slips her hand up under her top, stroking the soft skin over her midriff, her ribs.

And then Noora grabs her hand through the fabric of her camisole and pulls it higher, puts it on her breast and squeezes.

“Please, Eva,” she says.

Eva moans and presses her face into Noora’s stomach, winds her second arm around her waist to pull her closer and strokes the fingers of the other one over Noora’s breast. Fuck, she feels so good in Eva’s arms like this.

Emboldened by Noora’s request, she slips her second hand up under Noora’s top too, finds the clasp of Noora’s bra at her back and undoes it easily, feels the snap of it give way and the fabric come loose at the front.

Noora moans and wraps her arms around Eva’s head, holds her close to her chest and lets Eva pull the straps of her bra down her shoulders and then slips her arms out of them entirely, reaches between them to pull it out from under her camisole and drops it onto the bed next to them. Her eyes shine in the low light of Eva’s bedside lamp, and she hovers a bit, like she’s not sure she didn’t go too far.

“Okay?” Eva asks.

“Me?” Noora asks back. “Fuck, I want you so bad. Are you okay?”

Eva feels her eyes widen and then gives in to the impulse welling up inside her like a wave and presses her face between Noora’s breasts, mouthing at the skin just above the neckline before she turns sideways and sucks the hardened peak of one of Noora’s nipples into her mouth through her shirt.

Noora’s moan is sudden and high-pitched, a noise of surprise as much as one of pleasure, but she grabs the back of Eva’s head to hold her close, cards her fingers through her hair.

“Fuck, Eva,” she pants and shuffles forward on her knees, sinks down into Eva’s lap more fully to press them together as well as she can.

“Can I touch you?” Eva asks, feeling breathless at the sight of the wet stain she’s left on Noora’s top. “Please, let me touch you. I’m so wet thinking about you.”

Noora groans and leans down to kiss Eva, all eager tongues and messy faces.

“Please,” she says, finally. “Me too, Eva. I want to touch you too.”

 017.

“So that worked out well?” Isak grins, gesturing to his own collarbone and staring at hers.

When Eva checks the small image of her in the corner of the screen she sees the two love bites Noora left there and laughs as she puts a hand on it, her cheeks heating with pleasure.

“Yeah, it worked out really well,” she says.

“That’s great,” Isak says, smiling like he genuinely means it.

“It is great,” Eva sighs dreamily. Noora should be here in a few minutes and they’re going to go have a look at the Grieg museum. Eva doesn’t know anything about classical music, and neither does Noora, but the idea of going with her, learning something new, and getting to be on something of a date has Eva almost jumping out of her skin with excitement.

“But how’s Oslo?” she asks, looking for distraction.

There’s a flicker of something that runs over Isak’s face that she can’t make out from so far away, but she feels a tiny drop of dread at it anyway. When was the last time she asked Isak about how he was doing? Honestly asked him?

Have they ever talked about him?

“Oh, you know,” he says. “Same old. Jonas and Ingrid are surgically attached at the lips and Sara is talking about starting a bus as soon as they get to Nissen.”

Eva laughs at the exasperated way he rolls his eyes.

“Who gives a shit about that?” he asks. “We’ve not even started upper secondary yet. Russ is years away!”

“Well, you need to get started early if you want to be on a good bus, I guess,” Eva says diplomatically.

“I’m not sure I want to be on a bus at all,” Isak says, wrinkling his nose a little.

“We’ll go to a few parties when I come back. I’ll lighten you up. Take you under my wing,” Eva teases.

“You’re two weeks older than me, Eva,” Isak grins

“Well, but I got a hot girl this summer,” she points out. “What did you get?”

He laughs and looks off to the side, shrugging a little.

“Sunburn?” he suggests.

Eva laughs even though it’s a little weak of a joke, makes note of how he looks – relieved?

“You’re gonna need some aloe for that self-burn,” she quips back, and he snorts a laugh like he wasn’t expecting it.

“Alright, alright. Jeez,” he says. “Are you going to come back all cocky now that you’ve kissed a girl?”

“I’ve more than kissed her,” she says, because she wants to brag about it, even if it makes her whole body light up with nerves.

“Gross, Eva, I don’t need to hear that,” he complains, pulling a ridiculous face.

Eva laughs.

“I bet Jonas tells you about Ingrid!”

“I don’t need to hear that either!” he insists with the same exaggerated grimace. “Some things are meant to stay private, for god’s sake!”

“You’re a wimp,” Eva laughs, her attention drawn away when her phone lights up with Noora’s face where she put it next to her laptop so she won’t miss her call.

“I gotta go,” she says, barely glancing at the screen.

“Have fun,” Isak says, and she gives him a little wave before she closes her laptop again and jumps off the bed.

She’s already dressed and ready, and less than twenty seconds later she meets Noora outside her front door, feeling breathless with excitement.

Noora beams at her.

“Hi,” she says, and Eva grabs her to pull her into a kiss.

“Hi.”

 018.

There’s only a week left of summer holidays and Eva’s thoughts have spun out of control.

Last night she looked up schools in Bergen, considered sending in a late application. Surely pappa will let her stay if she asks. He won’t have to do anything. She’s self-sufficient. She can make her own food, get around herself. She’s sixteen!

Fuck, she doesn’t want to leave Noora.

But that’s crazy, right? She can’t uproot her entire life – again! – for a girl she only just met a few weeks ago. A girl who hasn’t promised her anything, even if she lets Eva kiss her any chance she gets, even if she’s touched Eva in places no one else ever has. And not just physically.

“I don’t want to go,” she whispers into Noora’s hair, moonlight the only thing illuminating their naked bodies tangled together under Eva’s light summer duvet.

Noora is tracing shapes into her belly and hips with her finger, moves up to circle one of Eva’s breasts occasionally.

She props herself up onto her other elbow and leans over Eva to kiss her.

“So stay,” she says.

Eva kisses her back, heart sinking.

Pappa might let her stay, but mamma won’t. And pappa won’t fight her on it.

So she kisses Noora, tucks her hair behind her ear, pulls her down so they’re pressed flush together again and rolls her onto her back. Slips a thigh between Noora’s to feel where she’s still wet and messy from Eva’s fingers and Eva’s mouth.

“Come with me,” she says, kissing her way down Noora’s neck. “Come with me.”

 019.

Noora goes to dinner with Eva and pappa on her last night in Bergen, wearing a light blue dress that Eva’s never seen before and looking like every one of the dreams Eva didn’t know she had. Her lips are a bright red and her hair– her hair is cut short, falling to just below her chin. She looks a little apprehensive, like she’s not sure Eva will like it.

“Well, look at you two girls,” pappa says with a jovial smile. “You’ll have all the boys falling over their feet when you go back to school.”

The thought makes Eva suddenly wild with jealousy, makes her claim to have forgotten her phone in her room and grab Noora’s wrist to drag her along while she goes to fetch it.

Inside, she wraps her arms around Noora’s waist and presses her face into her neck, knows she can’t kiss her now because Noora’s lipstick will give them away.

Noora hugs her back.

“It’s okay,” she says. “We’re gonna be okay.”

 020.

After dinner, when pappa goes out with a few colleagues to celebrate something Eva doesn’t care to remember, Eva carefully peels Noora out of her dress and doesn’t give a damn about the stains her lipstick leaves on Eva’s skin, about the stains her own leaves on Noora’s. She only wishes they were permanent, that she could wear Noora on her body like a brand when she goes back to Oslo. The thought that some day soon someone else would put their hands and lips on Noora like this– Eva can’t bear it.

So she buries her face between Noora’s legs, breathes in the scent of her and licks up her taste until her tongue goes numb and Noora’s cries go hoarse and tired. Until her hand pushes at Eva’s head weakly, begging her to give her a break. Tries to remember every detail of her body and her laugh and her touch.

“Come with me,” she breathes, kissing Noora’s stomach and her hips, her ribs and breasts. Her mouth.

“Come with me.”

Noora lifts her arms to hug her close, tired and sated, and nods.

“Okay.”

Eva closes her eyes and pretends she means it.

 +001.

Jonas, Ingrid, and Sara are walking ahead, Jonas and Ingrid’s hands linked while Ingrid and Sara talk about finding sponsors for the bus they’re going to start. They’re thinking a soft drink company. Something cool so they can get lots of people on their bus and establish themselves as the cool bus right away.

Eva watches Jonas and Ingrid’s hands and marvels at how only a little over a month ago she’d have felt like the sight was tearing her apart inside. What a difference a little distance can make. Well, a little distance and a gorgeous girl.

“You’re way too chipper for a first school day,” Isak says, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Eva beams at him and wraps her arms around one of his, pulling at it a little with her excitement. She does feel like she’s practically bubbling over with it.

“You know why,” she insists.

She hasn’t told Ingrid and Sara yet, but Isak knows, and so he laughs, even as he pulls his arm from her grasp, rubbing at his shoulder a little. Oops.

“Yeah, I know,” he says.

Eva beams at him and skips a few steps, just for something to do with the restless energy making her so jittery.

“Hey,” he says then, bumping his arm into hers. “I’m really looking forward to meeting her.”

Eva practically feels herself slow down and melt at the thought. It’s a little nerve-wracking, thinking about introducing Noora to her friends, but knowing that she definitely has Isak on her side makes it easier. If she has Isak, she has Jonas. And if she has Jonas, she’ll have Ingrid too. She’s far too smitten to outright say anything she thinks Jonas would think is uncool. And she doesn’t think Sara and Ingrid will have a problem with it anyway. They’ve been nothing but nice to Eva. It was never an issue when Eva and Sara kissed, so even if this is different… surely it’ll be fine.

“She’s looking forward to meeting you too,” Eva says, and watches Isak’s face slacken in surprise. Eva’s not sure what to do with that.

“Hey, you’re one of my best friends now. You’re not getting out of it that easily,” she teases.

He blinks at her and then laughs, though he still looks at her like she’s caught him off-guard.

“Alright,” he says, softly.

“Quit flirting, we’re going to leave you behind!” Ingrid calls back to them with a laugh, and when Eva looks over to her she realises they’ve made it all the way to their new school while she wasn’t paying attention.

Isak rolls his eyes, but Eva laughs as they pick up the pace to catch up.

“I promise you we weren’t flirting,” Eva says distractedly, searching the crowd of students in the courtyard for that familiar head of blonde hair.

Sara snorts, but Eva barely pays her any mind, catching sight of Noora stood somewhere off to the side by herself.

“What, because you have a crush on Ole?” she asks.

Eva lifts her hand and waves, grinning when she catches Noora’s attention, heart fluttering excitedly in her chest when Noora smiles back and starts making her way over.

“No,” Eva says, turning to Sara to shrug at her. “Because I have a girlfriend.”

Then she runs up to Noora and swoops her up in a hug, making her squeal with laughter when she almost pulls her up off her toes.

“I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I’ve been here for a week,” Noora laughs. “You saw me yesterday.”

“Still,” Eva insists putting her back down and leaning in to give her a gentle peck on the mouth. “You’re here.”

Noora’s smile softens and she laces her fingers through Eva’s, giving them a squeeze.

“Yeah,” she confirms, “I’m here.”

[karingudino]

Natural Gas (NG1) Down $0.01 in Last 4 Hours; Started Today Down 0.35%

Pure Gasoline 4 Hour Value Replace

Up to date December 02, 2020 01:50 AM GMT (09:50 PM EST)

2.872 was the closing worth of the four-hour candle for Pure Gasoline, ensuing within the present 4 hour candle being one through which worth moved down 0.35% ($0.01) from the final 4 hour candle. Relative to different devices within the vitality commodity asset class, Pure Gasoline ranked 2nd for the reason that final 4 hour candle by way of proportion worth change.

Pure Gasoline Every day Value Recap

The backwards and forwards worth movement continues for Pure Gasoline, which began at this time off at 2.872 US {dollars}, down 0.35% ($0.01) from the day gone by. Out of the 6 devices within the vitality commodity asset class, Pure Gasoline ended up rating 2nd for the day by way of worth change relative to the day gone by. The every day worth chart of Pure Gasoline beneath illustrates.

Pure Gasoline Technical Evaluation

Notably, Pure Gasoline is now near its 20 and 50 day averages, positioned at 2.85 and a couple of.8 respectively, and thus could also be at a key juncture alongside these timeframes. The clearest pattern exists on the 90 day timeframe, which exhibits worth transferring up over that point. It must be famous, although, {that a} pattern in the wrong way, happening, exists on the 30 day timeframe. So for those who anticipate the first pattern to renew, the counter pattern could also be offering a possibility to purchase dips. Or to view issues one other means, be aware that out of the previous 30 days Pure Gasoline’s worth has gone down 16 them.

“Vitality Ellen” is the collective pseudonym utilized by a number of writers who contribute to our vitality commentary who’re passionate in regards to the intersection of vitality, economics, and investing. Comply with Vitality Ellen on social media: Instagram

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The post Natural Gas (NG1) Down $0.01 in Last 4 Hours; Started Today Down 0.35% appeared first on Fikiss Permaculture.

source https://fikiss.net/natural-gas-ng1-down-0-01-in-last-4-hours-started-today-down-0-35/ Natural Gas (NG1) Down $0.01 in Last 4 Hours; Started Today Down 0.35% published first on https://fikiss.net/ from Karin Gudino https://karingudino.blogspot.com/2020/12/natural-gas-ng1-down-001-in-last-4.html

[indiavacancyjob]

DMW Patiala Recruitment 2020 Apply Now 182 Act Apprentices

DMW Patiala Recruitment 2020 (Diesel Loco Modernization Works, Patiala)

Government Job Vacancy

Are you looking for a government job? DMW Patiala Recruitment Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the Act Apprentices post. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the DMW Patiala Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert Click Here

Name Of the Organization

Diesel Loco Modernization Works (DMW Patiala)

Advertisement No 001/2019-20 Recruitment Process Online Application. Start Date Of Apply 27/02/2020 (27th February 2020). Last Date Of Apply 26/03/2020 (26th March 2020). Post Act Apprentices. Job Location Patiala (Punjab). Who Can Apply All Eligible and Interested candidates Can Apply. Number Of Vacancies Act Apprentices - 182 posts. Age Limit Applicants Age Limit Must be within the range of 18 to 24 years (as on 26.03.2020). Education Qualification Candidate must have a 10th Class and ITI course in the relevant trade. Application Fees General/OBC - 100/- SC / ST / PH - No fee. Nationality Must be Indian. Salary Not Specified. How to apply All Eligible and Interested candidates Can Apply Online through the official website. SELECTION PROCESS - If you submit your application form than After verification of all application forms, All the eligible candidates will be selected through the following steps. 1. Based on Merit List prepared in respect Marks obtained required Qualification.   DOWNLOAD PDF   Get all Free Job Alert Click Here DMW Patiala Recruitment 2020 Get all Government Job Alert Click Here   Apply Now The above information has been collected for various newspapers or Govt websites. We are not any Recruiter Agency or we do not hold any kind of Recruitment Process. So Job Finders are requested to go to the Official website of the Government Organization for more details. We are not liable for any kind of Misunderstanding or False information given by the third party Media Agency or Website.   Railway Jobs In India Police Jobs in India Defense Jobs in India Research Jobs in India Teaching Jobs in India Bank Jobs in India Hospitality Jobs in India Central Government Jobs Check Exam Result Download Admit Card Join Telegram Join WhatsApp Group Government Job Vacancy

DMW Patiala Recruitment 2020 Apply Now 182 Act Apprentices

Posted: March 3, 2020 DMW Patiala Recruitment 2020 (Diesel Loco Modernization Works, Patiala) Government Job Vacancy Are you looking for a government job? DMW Patiala Recruitment Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the Act Apprentices post. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the DMW Patiala Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert 0 comments

BEL Recruitment 2020 Apply Now – 150 Trade Apprentice Posts

Posted: March 2, 2020 BEL Recruitment (Bharat Electronics Limited) Government Job Vacancy Are you looking for a government job? BEL Recruitment Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the Trade Apprentice post. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the BEl Recruitment Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert Click Here Name Of the 0 comments

MPSC Recruitment 2020 Apply Now 806 PSI, ASO & STI Post

Posted: March 1, 2020 MPSC Recruitment 2020 (Public Service Commission, Maharashtra) Government Job Vacancy Are you looking for a government job? MPSC Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the PSI, ASO & STI Posts Vacancy. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the MPSC Recruitment Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert Click 0 comments

RITES Limited Recruitment 2020 Apply now 35 Civil Engineer Posts

Posted: February 29, 2020 RITES Recruitment 2020 (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) Government Job Vacancy Are you looking for a government job? RITES Recruitment Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the Civil Engineer Posts. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the RITES Recruitment Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert Click 0 comments

NRL Recruitment 2020 Apply Now 101 Apprentice Trainee Posts

Posted: February 28, 2020 NRL Recruitment 2020 (Numaligarh Refinary Limited, Assam) Government Job Vacancy Are you looking for a government job? NRL Recruitment Board has brought you the golden opportunity of the Apprentice Trainee post. If you are interested, please read the information below regarding the NRL Recruitment Board rules carefully. Get all Free Job Alert Click Here Name 0 comments Read the full article

[itjaspreetsingh-blog]

Airmen (Group Y – Non Technical), Gujarat

Post Name : Airmen (Group Y – Non Technical), Gujarat Post Date : 25/01/2020 Recruitment Board : Indian Air Force Qualification : 10+2 Advt. No. : 001/2021 Last Date : 17 to 20-02-2020 Rally More Information : Click Here for more information please visit our website https://govtjobsfinders.com Read the full article

[mocfactorystore]

New Post has been published on https://factory.sweb-demo.info/product/moc-9387-rc-race-buggy

MOC-9387 Technic RC Race Buggy - Jerry LEGO creations

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

See the full gallery at Bricksafe 

This is a really compact (482 elements) and quick buggy, with a topspeed of ~9km/h, utilizing 2 L-motors for propulsion. It makes use of 1 servomotor for steering and has 2 LEDs on high of its roof.

It steers very clean, even at excessive speeds (generally it does drift a bit although). The acceleration is respectable, although you have to about 10m of flat, clean floor to succeed in its topspeed.

It is sort of robust. However, each as soon as in awhile, it’s worthwhile to fasten the steering mechanism -by urgent towards the angled liftarms- and its gearing -by urgent towards the perimeters subsequent to the rear wheels.

I exploit 2 24 tooth gears and 1 eight tooth gear. This offers it a really excessive topspeed, although it takes longer to speed up and it reduces the torque fairly a bit. You can select to make use of 2 20 tooth and 1 12 tooth gear as a substitute. This reduces the topspeed, however it will increase the acceleration and torque.

Comments 2

Inventory 482

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MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

by marc.001

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

by marc.001

MOC-9387 RC Race Buggy

by dede_aja_tuh

[gadgetsrevv]

Toe Poke Daily: Zlatan Ibrahimovic is master of most things except bowling

Craig Burley says Zlatan Ibrahimovic reminds him of Ruud Gullit late in his career and lays out how Zlatan would fare if he returned to Europe.

The Toe Poke Daily is here every day to bring you all the weirdest stories, quirkiest viral content and top trolling that the internet has to offer, all in one place.

Jump to: Ronaldo’s new boots | Honda pleads for a new team

Several recognisable names from the footballing sphere feature on the high score list at the All Star Lanes bowling alley in Manchester.

As revealed by ESPN journalist Rob Dawson, the all-time list includes a variety of notable players, with ex-Man City defender Micah Richards right up there in second place having almost breached the 200-point mark.

– Guardiola does matchday stress like no one else – Ibrahimovic tags Pogba in new Matrix challenge – Balotelli’s daughter a mascot for rival team

Quite a few former and current United and City players make up the top 20, with Ederson, Ashley Young, Aymeric Laporte, Marcus Rashford, Kevin de Bruyne and Wayne Rooney all posting respectable three-figure scores.

However, it would appear that we’ve finally discovered Zlatan Ibrahimovic‘s Achilles’ heel, with the former United man barely beating the likes of television presenter Paddy McGuinness and Lady Gaga with his paltry high score of 108.

All the bragging, all that bluster and it turns out Zlatan can’t even out-bowl Michael Buble.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s new boots

Cristiano Ronaldo has a brand new pair of custom boots which pay tribute to the blinding pace at which he plays.

The boots are designed to illustrate the “DNA of speed” and feature a variety of technical details that have allowed the Nike Mercurial to bolster the acceleration of their wearers over the years.

“I’ve achieved so much wearing Mercurial boots,” Ronaldo wrote on Instagram. “Now, I am excited to see you all follow your dreams in my new Dream Speed.”

The large “001” decal on the flank signifies the boots being the first iteration of this new series while the “44.7 km/h” decal seen on the instep represents the “dream speed” for any footballer.

Given that the fastest player clocked in the 2018-19 Premier League is Timothy Fosu-Mensah at 35.32 km/h, and Gareth Bale/Kylian Mbappe have been timed at over 36 km/h, it looks like Ronaldo (who ran 34 km/h at the age of 34 this season) still has some way to go.

The Juventus superstar will take to the pitch in his new electric blue boots for the first time following their worldwide release on Oct. 3.

Honda pleads for a new team

While obviously not struggling for cash, Keisuke Honda is getting increasingly desperate to play top-level football again having been out of the game for the last year.

So much so, in fact, that the former Japan international has offered his services to both Manchester United and AC Milan in the space of 24 hours.

After seeing United struggle in recent weeks, Honda contacted the club on Twitter to inform them that he’d be willing to play for free should they wish to take him on.

Give me an offer. I don’t need money but I need to play with great team and great team mate! @ManUtd @ManUtd_JP

— KeisukeHonda(本田圭佑) (@kskgroup2017) September 27, 2019

Then, after watching Milan slump to a 3-1 home defeat against Fiorentina on Sunday and sink down to 16th in the Serie A table, the 33-year-old forward offered to return to the Rossoneri to aid them in their plight.

I have always wanted to help you. Call me when you need me! @acmilan

— KeisukeHonda(本田圭佑) (@kskgroup2017) September 30, 2019

Most recently, Honda took charge of the Cambodia national team on a part-time basis while also setting up a youth soccer school in partnership with Soltilo Angkor FC. He last played at pro level with Melbourne Victory in the Australian top flight, finishing the 2018-19 season with seven goals in 20 appearances.

Who knows, maybe he could still do a job at one of European football’s twin faded giants?

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[renovations-uws]

Sonax C-001-CHT Holland Component Stand

$202.75 Prime FREE Delivery

Technical Details Item Weight  61 pounds Product Dimensions 15.5 x 20 x 49 inches Item model number C-001-CHT Assembled Height  15.5 inches Assembled Width   20 inches Assembled Length    49 inches Weight    75 Pounds

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0071IMMRS/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER#

Know what you're doing when assembling! ... It's a great cabinet! Just like any other "requires assembly" kit, you have to have some common sense and minimal construction skills to put together successfully. I used a carpenters square to get the cabinet squared up before I nailed the back panels into place.

Yes! This cabinet will be unstable until you nail the back panels into place! It's part of the design and the panels totally solidify the unit once in place.

Until you get those panels in place be careful moving around the unit because you can damage the cams if you flex the cabinet off sides too far in either direction.

What I did was assemble the top bottom and sides on the floor and then I carefully tipped the unit up and laid it back down on its' front to align and attach the rear panels.

The glass doors fit well and there is only a slight rubbing with the hinges on the edge of the side panels when you open the doors fully, but nothing alarming.

The metal tabs that slide over the glass doors that close to the magnetic posts need to be squeezed closed slightly beforehand so that when you slide on the glass it GRABS. Of course it won't if you don't do this! All in all I have no issues with the stability of the finished product. It is a very nice cabinet.

What I DO have a small issue with and the reason for 4 stars, is that the cabinet could be just a bit deeper. I had to cut custom openings in the back panel to allow for clearance of my banana plugs in the back of my Pioneer receiver. Otherwise they would have been pinched badly against the back of the rear panel. Cutting the necessary openings carefully with a handheld reciprocating saw did not compromise the stability of the cabinet in any way at all that I noticed. If anything it made it nicer to have a direct access "port" to the back of my receiver.

[letscreateafricaorg]

New post in LET'S CREATE AFRICA (L.C.A.): airobi Responsibilities Responsible for timely rent collection and proper reporting to ensure arrears and bad debts are minimized. Direct and control all personnel and resources to ensure properties are properly maintained and management company objectives are met Update and organize all information relating to properties and tenants including building plans, regulatory certificates, statutory documents and tenancy agreements Maintain a record and contacts of all service providers eg, security, electricians, plumbers , garbage collectors etc. Undertaking any ad hoc duties associated with the accounts function, including maintaining financial files and records. Ensuring financial transactions are properly recorded and entered into the computerized accounting systems Ensuring regular invoicing, receive and receipt payment Ensuring all filing is done in a timely, accurate and organized manner Carrying out other related tasks as might be required from time to time Qualifications Degree/Diploma in Business Administration or related field At least 1-2 years’ experience in a similar position Must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Knowledge and experience in using Accounting Software packages such as Pastel, Sage, QuickBooks will be an added advantage. The suitable candidate should be of unquestionable integrity and mature They should also be dynamic and a team player Ability to work to tight deadlines in a pressurized environment Have high good attention to detail A track record of successful property mmanagement Excellent Planning and Organizing skills How To Apply Kindly send your applications to info@havilaplusestates.co.ke [5/10, 20:52] Nelson Komba: Branch Manager Job. TAVEVO (4 Posts) 10 May 2019 Branch Manager Jobs, Engineering Jobs, TAVEVO Jobs (JOB REF: TVO/05/2019/001) 4 POSTS Job Purpose To provide leadership in the Branches and to give effective and efficient supply of water within the branch. Reporting to the ASSISTANT TECHNICAL MANAGER Responsibilities To provide leadership in the branch. Supervise operations and maintenance of water infrastructure Ensure prompt connections and disconnections of meters Keeps track of water produced and distributed Ensure provision of clean and potable water Prepare monthly reports Handle customer complaints. Monitor production and quality of water in designated areas. Ensure implementation of distribution schedules. Ensure timely achievement of set targets. Ensure water quality through timely and efficient treatment of water. Ensure test processes are carried out as per set quality standards and specifications. Liaise with maintenance staff to ensure timely maintenance of equipment to avoid interruption in water distribution. Prepares water distribution reports. Maintain records and logs of all maintenance or repairs performed. Support and appraise staff on job performance. Manage Branch stores and finances as per company policy. Qualifications Be a holder of Diploma in Water Engineering or Civil Engineering or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution. Be a registered member of professional body will be an added advantage. Satisfactorily work experience performance in related water utility or equivalent field for a period of five (3) years. Proficiency in Computer skills Shown merit and ability as reflected in work performance and results Be able to work for long hours past the stipulated time even on emergency Satisfy the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 on Leadership and Integrity How To Apply Interested and qualified candidate should send their application letters with updated CVs, copies of educational certificates, professional qualification certificates and certificate of registration with a professional body where applicable. Take Note, Shortlisted candidates will be required to bring along their original certificates and testimonials during the interviews. Applications sent in a sealed envelope indicating the job reference number to the following address: The Managing Director, Tavevo Water and Sewerage Co. http://bit.ly/2JjMpTx

[oldnintendonerd]

The rest of the box

First pick-up? Technically?

So from the CameCube collection post you guys know my dad sent me a care package with all of the leftover gaming items from my youth and past decade. I revealed that the box contained my old black DOL-001 GameCube, along with Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, and Super Monkey Ball. Bringing the collection up to a respectable three games, for a cost of zero dollars, since, well, they were mine. They were just sort of... lost.

I wanted to do a separate post on the remainder of the box, mostly because the GameCube one was getting a bit long.

The first item not mentioned in the GameCube Collection post is my brother’s Platinum DOL-101. I was not expecting this to be in the box, but he said the only time he would ever play it is if he and I were together, which is seldom since he lives a 12 hour drive from me. So he sent it in the box along with mine.

It is not in terrible shape, couple scuffs, but overall, looks a good bit better than my black one. It is a DOL-101 though, so only one AV connector, no digital port.

The second item is something my parents bought for me, I believe it was Christmas of 1993. It was only $49.99 at the time, Nintendo attempting to refresh the momentum of the NES, even 2 years after the launch of the SNES. An NES-101 “top loader”.

Condition is ok, it is a little grubby, it was played, but not really maintained for the last 20 years or so. So will have to give it a good cleaning.

I remember we hooked it up for the first time, and were very pleased with how easy it was to get a game working. Simply pop in the cart, turn it on, and it worked. However, it had lines on the screen, now known as the “jail bars”. We thought something was wrong so we took it back to the store and exchanged it for another one. Of course, we found out quickly that there was nothing wrong with it, it just looked like that. Well, in my opinion there is something wrong, the video quality should never have been released like that. Nintendo knew this too, which is why, in my current research recently with all my interest in retro nintendo games, I discovered rumors that you could have called Nintendo at the time and complained about the video quality. They would have replaced the unit with one that had a multi out, like on the SNES. Model HVC-101. I have not been able to confirm this, again it is just rumors I’ve read. I only know for certain that the HVC-101 was the top loader Famicom model released in Japan. If there was a North American version that Nintendo provided to folks who complained, I can’t be sure. In any case, having a top loader is fun, so I am happy to have it in any case. Beggars can’t be choosers, this was free after all. Even though it was technically mine to begin with, my parents were just borrowing it for two decades. Ha!

In addition to the NES-101, there were a couple games for the NES they still had. Nothing rare or spectacular, the first is one that my parents actually played regularly up until just about a year or so ago. Tetris 2.

They would honestly wait for my brother and I to go to bed, and then play this game for a couple of hours. Multiple times a week. They loved it. So I left the NES-101, and the copy of Tetris 2 there for them to play for all these years.

There was an unlicensed game from American Video Entertainment called Tiles of Fate that was similar to MahJongg. We had gotten it for my mom, she loved MahJongg. Unfortunately this was too dis-similar for her taste and she didn’t play it much, but here it is anyway, right in this box.

The game is actually somewhat challenging, and doesn't suck at all. Can just be frustrating at times if you get stuck and that time just keeps running down.

A third game still was in the box, and if you read my NES Collection post, you know we had a second copy of NES Open Tournament Golf, I had the copy we bought after we thought we fried the one we bought new. After buying a second replacement copy used, we discovered the original one did still work. We used to play this when I would visit, so we had a copy at both of our houses. So much time spent playing that game with my dad. He sent that along as well.

That is almost all of it. I have an urge to see about getting the top loader modded for AV, or possibly HDMI. That would be a really nice addition to the collection, an NES that can play on any TV. Hmmmm.

The final little surprise that was in here was a disc only game, no case. I saw Super Monkey Ball was in the Platinum DOL-101, so when I opened the Monkey Ball case to put the game back in, expecting it to be empty, there was Metroid Prime staring at me. Again, not FZero GX, or Mario Kart, but I’ll take that nice little bonus. It does have a name written on it, right on the disc, in marker. AGH! But I can at least play the game, and another copy may come along, or an opportunity to pick up just the case for very cheap.

So here is everything in a group, not pictured are all of the RF switches and power adapters, as well as the two dog bone controllers the NES-101 came with. All of that was in the box of course, I just didn’t feel it necessary to photograph.

So, great “haul” if you want to call it that. Good stuff in good shape. Keeping me afloat while hunting is slow.

Speaking of hunting, I’m getting frustrated at the dry spell, still no finds or deals to date. Despite still hitting several yard sales and thrift stores. The best I found was a PS1 at one thrift store for $10.10. It was very yellowed, no controllers, no cables, nothing. If it was maybe $5 I would have bought it, but at $10 I just couldn't bring myself to do it on the off chance it didn’t work.

I have been absolutely scouring craigslist for yard sales, combing LetGo, and OfferUp for real deals. Still no deals. There have been a few people I have messaged, like Mario Kart Wii for $5 from a guy, but every time I ask where we can meet he goes silent. So doubt I’ll get that. Saw Viewtiful Joe on OfferUp as well for $5, the case had stickers on it so I offered $4 because I would need to replace the case. She agreed, but it was the day before she was leaving for a month. A month. She said it will have to be today. But I had plans that day and I could not squeeze the drive in. The time she could meet me, I couldn’t meet her. She said she’d message me in a month. We’ll see, that game isn’t super valuable, but $4 is a good deal on it. A friend says it is a fantastic game, so I do want to try it.

So a bunch of nothing at yard sales and missed opportunities on OfferUp and LetGo. We can only go up from here! Right?

Right?

Sigh.

Not giving up.

$83.09 remaining.

2017.05.04