#ALSO!!!!! how ARE you all??? won’t be back fully online until the weekend sadly I’m sorry :((((( I’ll answer asks as soon as I can!!!

[corrodedcoughin]

hi, saw live music, life is worth living again, bye 🫡

[tartagilicious]

Victor - Coming Home (translated date)

Here’s another translated date, requested by @shimizusora​! This time, here’s the card beforehand, as I couldn’t find the separate versions to place when they appear ^^

spoilers for a date not released in EN server beneath the cut~

The meeting has lasted for almost 3 hours, and everyone is waiting for Victor’s final decision. In addition to dignity and fatigue, his expression also showed a trace of annoyance: before he came, he did not expect the situation to be so heavy!

Earlier, when it acquired shares in the SE online video platform, LFG issued a circular to the public saying that this was an important and strategic move for LFG to sweep the overseas film and television market.

In just two years, SE was in debt due to a bad project, and the capitol chain was broken several times -- all accounting for a debt totaling 10 billion…

Many insiders in the industry secretly insulted Victor and took a few days to turn a blind eye; after all, this incident was only passable as a joke for the wine table to them. The people of LFG’s public relations department exhausted all available media resources to suppress the negative rumours of this matter as much as possible. Fortunately, the news did not end up flowing out.

Only this time, LFG did lose.

Everyone at the meeting exchanged glances. The president had not closed his eyes for two days -- from his plane landing to now. He had spent a lot of time looking at the report documents, and sometimes the project information. He even tended to sit alone in the meeting room for several hours.

No one dared to step forward and say something, even the question of a cup of coffee seeming threatening.

It wasn’t until everyone came to the meeting room three hours ago that they found the dinner they had sent was still tucked in the corner they had left it.

Goldman: President, the most difficult problem is in the long return period of the project. SE now also has stable advertising revenue and a large amount of copyright resources, which we can fully leverage on their acquisition, wholly owned. (t/n: big words. He’s basically saying that with the deal, LFG can buy the aforementioned things and get complete ownership of them.)

Goldman: With LFG’s resources involved, these batches of information may not be able to go online smoothly, and there will be a turn around.

Victor: There’s no need for this.

Victor closed the folder in his hand and raised his eyes across the conference table.

Victor: Talk about prices with a few funds, don’t make a habit of stepping deeper and deeper.

The lengthy meeting ended at this moment.

When Victor returned to the hotel, the number of unread messages accumulated on his mobile phone exceeded one hundred again. He didn’t pay attention to this information, though, just clicking a single number from the countless list of tips.  

Unsurprisingly, it was all nonsense gossip, accompanied by small expressions of different styles.

Victor loosened his tie and read them one by one from top to bottom.

“I made an improved egg omelet for dinner, would you like to try it?”

“What’s Goldman’s circle of friends talking about? I know you’re probably irritated and tired, but I hope the meeting still goes smoothly!”

“Remember to eat…”

“Also remember to sleep!”

Victor’s motion stopped after that line, and soft emotions flooded his eyes.

“The internet celebrity lawyer I told you about last time agreed to my interview invitation, so I have to hurry up and plan the case for this Saturday. Do you want to come supervise the work?”

Victor opened the dialogue box and typed a single ‘good’, and immediately received a cat with a smiling expression. But, he raised his eyebrows slightly when thinking about the time in China.

I sat up in bed and was preparing to have a long discussion about the weekend schedule, but my phone in my hand suddenly rang and shocked me.

Victor [over the phone]: did you sleep or stay up?

MC: haha….

Victor: Why are you laughing?

MC: Because I feel like that’s often asked by me, but now you’re the one asking…

Victor: It’s only 5 o’clock here, but there..

I understood what he meant.

MC: I wanted to wait for your reply and couldn’t sleep well, ok…..

I rolled over in bed and changed to a more comfortable position and held the phone against my ear.

MC: What projects have you been busy with this time? Is it going well?

Victor: Smoothly. But, you should go back to sleep again before it’s too early.

MC: ...I’m not too sleepy. You told me before, but will you still come back Thursday?

Victor: Before Saturday.

MC, sadly: Today is only Tuesday, and today’s sun isn’t even out.

I heard Victor laugh seemingly indiscriminately, and I noticed a little laziness in his low voice.

Victor, softly and groggily: Is it too late?

MC: Don’t you dare, as long as it’s not for something important, postpone your return. But, even if it’s necessary for work, you still have to say one thing, you have to promise me:

A slow sigh fell to my ears, revealing faint fatigue.

Victor: Go on.

MC: You can’t stop eating or sleeping.

The other side of the phone was silent for a few seconds.

Victor, humming: Then, I promise you.

The misty light of Loveland was reflected faintly on the curtains, and in the moments of silence, I closed my eyes to feel the frequency of every breath from him.

MC: ...It has been raining in Paris these past few days.  

Victor: It’s the season.

MC: The meetings… Are they cold?

Victor: Not badly.

My consciousness became uncontrollably deeper, but I could still clearly capture his voice from within the grotesque dream.

Victor, sweetly: Sleep if you’re tired. I’ll hang up now.

MC: ..No… I’m not sleepy… Don’t go.

Victor: Your words are slurred but you still refuse to sleep?

MC: …

I can wake up in five seconds.

I hummed gently, not sure if I actually said this.

Soon, Victor’s long and heavy breathing was close to my ears, very close, making me feel calm and almost as if I was next to him.

Victor: Sleeping?

MC: ….

Victor: Go to bed.

Victor: ….

Victor: Sleep peacefully.

On Saturday afternoon, I looked up at the wall clock for the nth time. Until the hour hand reached the number 3, I couldn’t help but call Victor. But after waiting, the robotic voice reminding me that the other party could not be contacted sounded. The doorbell rang before I could react.

Victor, who was standing outside the door, was putting his phone back in his pocket the moment I opened it. I looked hesitantly at his empty hands.

MC: Your luggage…

Victor: I let Goldman take it back, and I’ll go to LFG tonight.

With that said, he entered the door and walked to my bedroom after changing his shoes at the entrance.

Victor: What have you been doing these past two days?

He walked over to the coffee table, and carefully picked up the interview outline that I had been writing all morning. A corner of his lips raised with a single glance.

Victor, teasingly: You said that you worked hard for several days, and listed a few outlines.

MC: Don’t underestimate me, I have read a lot of information in the past few days, see--

I pointed to a pile of hot social cases and legal books on the ground to show Victor.

MC: I did not sharpen the woodworker by mistake. And I’m also very self-knowledged, aren’t I, supervisor?

I busied myself and dragged a chair to the coffee table, and took a medium-sized pillow and placed it on the back of it.

MC: You sit.

MC: I guarantee that from this second, I will devote myself to planning, and I will surely have the first version of the results before the sun goes down.

Victor couldn’t help but laugh, hang his coat up by the door, and pull out the chair. Just sitting down, I remembered what it seemed like, and sighed slightly.

Victor: Let me borrow your computer.

I handed the laptop to Victor, and a thought flashed through me. How could he come here without a computer?

MC: Victor Li, when were you infected with my bad habit of losing everything?

Victor: Only once. I put in the backseat of my car and forgot to bring it down.

Victor avoided my gaze, and opened the LFG website without changing his expression, and approved the documents.

Victor: The sun will go down in two hours.

MC: Maybe the sun won’t want to go home today. (t/n: maybe the sun will stay up a bit longer and she’ll get to work on her report longer)

I sat back in my position and looked at Victor from across the table with a hand under my chin. The light golden slightly projected from the window slowly enveloped Victor. The quiet and warm light was also calmed by his smooth wooden fragrance, which was very comfortable.

Victor didn’t speak, and tapped his fingers one by one, so in the quiet room, even the sound of our breathing was quietly amplified.

Not knowing how long I had taken, he finally raised his eyes to meet mine.

Victor: Will staring at me finish the planning case?

MC: I’m not staring at you, but conceiving a plan in my heart.

As soon as my voice fell, a short ‘ding’ sounded.

MC: Wait for me~

I ran out of the room and to the kitchen, taking out the fragrant cookie from the oven. I put it down carefully to cool, and took it back with two hot drinks.

MC: Afternoon tea time!

Victor took care of his cup, the steam rising up to slightly warm his eyebrows. The milk in his glass was a light temperature, and the similarly warm scent of the cookies melted into the room.

MC: Your dark circles are so heavy, didn’t you at least drink coffee while you were away?

Victor: I’m fine.

I thought Victor didn’t mean to drink the milk, but when the words left his mouth, he still picked up the glass. After watching, I pushed the dish with cookies in front of him again.

MC: Take a look at my new designs. Cute, huh?

I pointed to the painted kittens with different expressions on the cookies to show Victor.

MC: This one is yawning, this one is surprised, this one is asleep, but I like this one the most--

MC: It looks really angry, so I named it “flaming”.

Victor glanced in the direction of my finger.

Victor: It looks like you.

MC: Is that so?

I let air fill my cheeks, trying to look like the cat on the cookie, and raised my face to look at Victor. He didn’t react, and his eyes that were connected with mine were full of silence. I just smiled and picked up “buffoon” and brought it to his lips. (t/n: “buffoon” as in another named cookie)

MC: Can you try it?

Victor took a bite of the cookie in my hands and looked back at the computer.

MC: Would you like to comment?

His lips were pulled into a weak line, and I couldn’t tell if he was smiling or not. Then, he moved a little closer and ate the remaining half of “buffoon” in my hand. Warm lips briefly rubbed my fingertips, leaving a soft warmth in its wake. A fluffy, sweet, happiness suddenly bloomed in my heart.

I patted away the crumbs on my finger with satisfaction and picked up the pen again. The smooth tip made a rustling sound on the paper, and I wrote it down with the same strokes of the previous outline.

But today’s weather is so nice….

The sky is a clean blue, the clouds a lazy white, and the room is full of rich and warm fragrance. I turned away absently, quietly looking to Victor. The sense sunlight was reflected in his dark pupils, refracting the invisible layers of his thoughts into a glorious glow.

He doesn’t have any emotion when he works, and his expression is always calm. But the appearance of deep concentration in his eyes is not the same as usual.

To say what’s different….. It’s probably even more eye-catching.

Victor: It’s only been a few minutes, and how many times have you lost your concentration?

I quickly returned my eyes and scribbled onto the paper, pretending to be like a good student who was caught by the teacher during a lesson. But, my ideas were not connecting, and nothing could be written, so I opted to draw a little heart on the upper right corner of the white paper instead.

I noticed that Victor was still focused, so I kept drawing this little heart, adding a tilde to its tail. But after a short pause, I sighed and raised my eyes slightly.

Victor sighed.

MC, flushed: ..I can’t help it.

Victor: And what can’t you help?

MC: I can’t help but look at you.

I folded my arms and changed to a more comfortable position on the table, tilting my head and looking at Victor. He chuckled almost inaudibly and was about to speak, then a familiar ringtone came from his pocket.

After seeing Victor answer the phone, all the messy thoughts in my head disappeared in one evil stroke, secretly lost.

Victor: the time now is…..

Victor looked at the bottom right corner of the computer during his speech, paused for a moment, and then quickly looked back to the mobile phone.

Victor: It’s 4:30 right now, so let them reply to me by 8pm.

He hung up the phone in a concise manner, and I asked a little hesitantly,

MC: Are you…. Going back to LFG now?

Victor: Don’t worry, I won’t go.

Victor said this, muting the volume of his phone and sliding it to the corner of the table. Facing my doubtful eyes, there was a trace of helplessness in his calm eyes.

Victor: Your computer is in Paris’s time.

I didn’t understand the random topic for a moment, but nodded subconsciously.

MC: Well, it’s more convenient to look at the time like this.

Victor didn’t speak, and glanced at the computer again. At this time, the system pushed out the weather forecast for the next 5 days in Paris -- a continuous rain every day. He smiled lightly and closed the computer slowly.

Victor: ...it’s all getting stupidly convenient.

MC: Yes, yes, taking care of a fool like me really makes the president troubled…

I deliberately stopped talking there, and couldn’t help laughing with Victor as I got up and picked up the two empty glasses.

MC: I’m going to go wash the cups, do you want anything else to eat?

Victor: No need. Do you think I’m you?

I groaned, irritated, and turned my head towards the kitchen.

I originally thought it would take less than a few minutes to wash the cups, but after I cleaned them and cleaned all the tools I used for baking before, a half an hour had passed.

When I came back, Victor was already lying on the bed, still holding my unfinished outline. I walked past him quietly, and whispered near his ear.

MC: Victor, are you asleep?

Victor didn’t answer me, only taking a shallow breath that made his twilight-coloured eyelashes tremble.

MC: Are you really asleep or pretending to sleep?

I climbed onto the bed, approaching him little by little.

MC: ...Victor?

I called him again softly, but he still did not stir. Only the corner of lips raised, into a badly hidden smile.

MC: You didn’t fall asleep!

I laid my arm on the bed and picked up a few strands of his hair. Looking down at his smoother and sharper jawline, my fingertips unconsciously rubbed against the tips of his hair.

MC, whispering: ...Have you been tired recently?

Victor, with his eyes still closed: No.

In his words, there is obviously fatigue. I don’t know if he has rested in these past few days, and the possibility of him fainting after a bit of relaxation crosses my mind.

MC: Didn’t you read the outline of my interview? How does it look?

Victor: I see what you’re written.

I thought of the heart with the small tail, and was suddenly caught speechless.

Victor: You deliberately brought this to your supervisor, but in the time I’ve been here, you wrote so few lines?

MC: Yeah, I guess you should go overseas more often, then. When you are near, the efficiency of my work plummets!

I reached out and pulled away the notebook in his hands, and covered him with a blanket. Victor turned his face and looked at me for a moment with his eyes half open. I rarely saw his tired eyes, but felt that all the emotions in my heart were softened a hundred times by him in that moment.

MC: Still want to go to LFG after a while? I’ll wake you up at 7:30.

With Victor’s degree of rigor in scheduling, this time, he temporarily canceled several important meetings and later flew to Paris while delaying the return time twice. He had already said that it would be before Saturday, but suddenly, it was changed to Saturday…..

It’s not very difficult, it won’t be like that. He’s also very stubborn in insisting he’s not tired.

I put my index fingers on his temples and slowly massaged circles into them. After a moment, a flirty smile overflowed from his lips.

Victor, laughing: …..

Victor pulled my right hand and wrapped my fingers into his palm, and moved me closer to him wordlessly. The close distance has our breaths mixing, and I can’t help but lean down to press my lips to the corner of his forehead. In the silence, all I could hear was our heartbeats and breaths, slowly accelerating together.

Victor, softly: Do not worry about me. I’d never let a fool worry.

MC: Ok, I know…

I responded softly to him, but I couldn’t hide my calm smile.

MC: ...I just can’t help it.

I can’t help worrying about you, whether you’re hungry, cold, or tired. I can’t help but want to see you whether you are in front of me or not. I can’t help but smile, only because of your figure in my mind.

I looked out at the clouds stretching out of the window, spreading out a large dim twilight, the stars looming, the golden sunset and the quiet night meeting at the end of the sky.

The sun is going down.

MC: Victor, I did not finish the interview before the sun set. Will you punish me?

Victor: ….

The only response to me is his even and steady breathing. I looked down at his sleeping face. This familiar face became thinner in just a few measly days. I reached out and stroked his cheek gently. But, still afraid of waking him, I just watched quietly.

MC: Go to bed.

MC: …..

MC: Sleep peacefully.

[speaknowslut13]

Hello honey bunches!

I am also dead after yesterday’s announcement akdhskhska Red was not at all what I was expecting to come next but I’m so excited! Red holds such a special place in my heart ugh 🥺 which songs are you most looking forward to??

Gross, I’m sorry to hear that the fire season is already bad there. It’s predicted to be a bad one in my home state too, but it usually doesn’t come in full force until august. I do not miss the smokiness at all. It hasn’t quite hit triple digits here yet, but close, and it’s so humid, I feel like the air is sticking to me. Hopefully it cools off just a bit soon for both our sakes!!

Awe that’s so cute! 🥺🥺

Well maybe I’ll take a dive into black panther this evening while I lay in front of my fan hahaha. Oh I didn’t realize Deadpool was marvel! I love that movie, Ryan Reynolds is *chef’s kiss*

The answer is NEVER to downsize books oml 😶😶 I have four bookshelves at my parents house, one at my friends house where I lived for five summers, and one where I currently live. Someday they will all be back with me, but that day is not today sadly

Awe okay love that! I’m happy for you that you’re all close 🥰 I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned but I have one younger sister and I miss her terribly.

Ohhh interesting! Coding goes way over my head, I’ve tried a few free online courses to like learn the basics but I just can’t quite seem to get there. I love watching resin pouring videos, it looks so cool! WhT kind of stuff would you want to make?

Okay but like it’s a fun poem. And that last stanza is really touching! Honestly if it speaks to you, why not want to have it read? Ahh sonnet 130. We spent probably too much time analyzing it in my Shakespeare class but I still can’t hate it because it’s so beautiful. I just finished “The Carrying” a collection by Ada Limón that was pretty good! Quotes from her work sometimes float around on here.

Satire is good when I like it and bad when I don’t, hope that helps 😌 A Modest Proposal is always a fun one to read, and as far as contemporary stuff goes, every once in awhile reductress has something good. That’s so funny about your husbands reaction tho hahahaha would’ve loved to have seen his face.

Ohhh that ones had been on my TBR for awhile, I read Daisy Jones & the Six by that same author and loved it, so your recommendation may have just bumped Seven Husbands up on the list!

What have you been up to over the weekend? And what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? 🍦

Thanku for the flowers omg sunflowers are my favorite 🥺 here’s some back to you 🌹🌷🌻

During the actual school year, I work part time as an assistant English teacher at a high school/English lecturer at a college, right now I’m doing online tutoring! I definitely want to stay in education long term.

Sending you big hugs! Xoxo 💖 Drew

Hey Drew my dear! I’ve had time to process red being announced. I’m a little bummed because we have such a long wait. I fully anticipate being a complete wreck when it drops. I love almost all of red. I’m looking forward most to the unreleased tracks and that ten minute song we all know is all too well.

It was funny in ironic way that she described red as a heartbroken person. I was baffled when the academy told her it wasn’t cohesive enough to win Album of the Year. I’ve always argued that they missed the point. That grief isn’t traditionally sonically cohesive and that’s why it actually is sonically cohesive. Just not in the way they expect. She said it way better than I ever could though.

Ryan Reynolds is top tier amazing. Any movie he’s a part of I instantly like. I’m pretty sure Chase and I would both leave each other for him if he asked. No questions. And we’d both understand entirely. 😂

I need to get my hands on a copy of Daisy Jones and the Six. I want to read that one. But unfortunately, the public library and I aren’t on speaking terms and going and buying a book recently hasn’t been exactly easy. I can’t wait to go into a half price books again. I’m just waiting to do all the non necessary shopping. My daughter obviously isn’t Vaxxed yet. I’m hoping they approve the vaccine for her age group soon. 🤞🏻. I’m nervous to send her back to school in August. But it’s important. She’s on an IEP. So this last year has been rough on all of us. Now the district won’t offer online again so it’s in person or not at all.

Yay America! 🙃

We spent the weekend doing errands and swimming. I have a job interview this week. I haven’t worked in years but I feel like I need to again. There’s just multiple complicated facets to my life that I’m not sure how to juggle. Hopefully I will figure it out. Or it’ll be all for naught.

So I have a few favorites. Like coffee, orange sherbert, and chocolate. But I can’t eat any of them anymore. I have to avoid dairy. I can have a little dairy here and there but milk and ice cream irritate my digestive system too much anymore.

I love food. Love it. Salsa is amazing. Pizza. Wonderful. Spaghetti and marinara dishes are my entire world. Do you know what all that has in common? 🍅 in the last couple of years I’ve not only developed a slight dairy intolerance, but a tomato allergy and a gluten intolerance! I’m sad 😞 Tomato is in everything though. It’s like I can’t get away from it. It really sucks.

I 100 percent don’t recommend chronic illness. If I was leaving an Amazon review it would be one of those “have to give it one stars but it’s really zero” reviews.

Bless you, Drew. I admire anyone who educates. It’s a skill set that I have very little patience for. So anyone who can is like a god to me.

So my little ADD brain almost forgot to talk about the resin! It’s a cute little idea we have for Dungeons and Dragons. But I’d also like just to create all kinds of different things. Plus it’s an excellent reason to acquire a 3D printer.

Chase and I are trying to learn how to play DnD. He’s always been interested and I’ll follow him anywhere 🤷‍♀️ plus character creating is fun! When it comes down to the actual playing, I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it or not. But I’ll try almost anything once.

I hope your weekend was splendid and I can’t wait to hear back from you soon!

[canaryatlaw]

OKAY. It’s Sunday night, I’m on the plane back to Chicago from Clexacon in Las Vegas. What a weekend man. I had such an amazing time with friends I already knew and ones I just met for the first time. However, much of how the con was run was an absolute shit show. I must’ve said a hundred times that being that they’d done this for like 3 years already, they should know better than to do the stupid kind of shit they were doing, and yet there we were. So that led to some crappy situations, but I still had a great time do to the awesome people around me. I can’t say I’d go again though, because it was just a very poorly run event and I’m (obviously) not afraid to call them out on it in public, because it’s clearly needed when they’re prioritizing getting every last dollar out of everyone rather than the safety/wellbeing of the guests and the experience of the congoers (and the sanity of their volunteers, for that matter. But I should start from the beginning.

I left off Thursday night right before trying to fall asleep. I say trying because sadly it did not come easy, I think I fell asleep finally some time around 4, which put me at like 3-4 hours of sleep for the night, which made me feel a lot more exhausted through all of the very long day I had. I think I woke up at 7:30 am on Friday, that sounds right. Threw the last of things together and got an Uber, picked up Jess and was on our way to the airport. Got through everything okay, for one reason or another they let us go through just the metal detector instead of the full scan machine thing which was nice because the whole machine is a giant pain. We got to our gate and waited, and got somewhat delayed but eventually got in the air. Landed about 1 pm Las Vegas time, so 3 pm for us, so it already felt like it’s been forever and we wanted to get there as soon as we could. We ended up taking a taxi to the place instead of dealing with their airport’s Uber procedures, whatever those were. It was a pretty short drive, so we got there and walked into the casino part, and proceeded to get very lost until we saw someone that looked like they would be going (take that to mean whatever you’d like) and begged them to help us which they readily did thankfully lol.

So with some help we got to the actual part the con was taking place at, and found our friends who were in line for the Avalance panel that was at 3 pm. They were fairly close to the front for the regular admissions at least, so we got fairly good seats. I was going to live tweet but since getting off the plane my signal had been very poor (apparently Verizon doesn’t get good reception in Nevada) and not only did the place not have WiFi, but some people were saying they actively dampened the cell phone signal to “keep people focused on gambling” or something like that which is wild, really, all of this leading to the conclusion that my battery was gonna die a lot quicker than normal and I couldn’t afford to live tweet. Clexacon is also really good about putting their whole panel’s online though (one thing to their credit at least) so I didn’t feel too bad about it. The panel was great though, Jes and Caity together are always fucking hilarious and they were honestly so bad at paying attention and staying on topic it was really funny. They definitely like, hinted heavily at several things upcoming in the rest of the season, I won’t get into it because I know some people don’t like spoilers so I’ll leave it there and say if you want to know more go watch the panel. It was really great though, and as was suspected, Katrina Law crashed it and it was hilarious.

After the panel we rushed over to Jes’ table as soon as we could, which took a minute because instead of the normal con set up where each celebrity has their own table, they were switching off tables in shifts more or less (a dumb mistake which led to issues when they needed the table for the next guest but still had a mile long line, one of many things they totally should’ve known better than to do). So we had to wait a minute and then get in line and wait for her to head over, which wasn’t too long. Jess got a photo signed because she had a nice new one and it let us talk to her lol. She was doing selfies but that wasn’t quite established yet, since the con had put out a whole statement saying there would be no selfies (and then the guests were like yeah right we’re gonna do them anyway, bless). So we talked to her for a few minutes about some spoilery stuff we had gotten told about and then moved on since she had quite a line already.

After that we walked around the merch hall for a few minutes before heading over to the photo ops, and oh what a chaotic mess that was! After a while we managed to get in the right place with the right people and then had to wait a while longer lol. But for that night we had a duo op with Caity and Jes with Season, Jayne, Jess and I, with a pose inspired by the breakfast club (I’ll post my crappy quality picture of the print out since they don’t have the digital downloads yet and don’t know when they will after this) which involved me lying on the floor lol so that was amusing, got to say hi to Jes and told Caity I’d see her tomorrow.

Once we were done with that we waited for a bit for other people that had different ops since they were all clumped together (singles for any of the three including Katrina, duos with any of them, or trios with all three) and then once we were all done we left to go to the Taco Bell, the infamous Vegas Taco Bell that you can get married in and was famously featured in Jess’ social media au that I didn’t read 😂 but it had become quite a big deal, so we walked for about 15 minutes till we got there. They were blasting music inside at like a way too loud volume, so after ordering and getting our food we ended up sitting at their little outside portion, where we could still hear the music but it wasn’t quite so bad, lol. So that was certainly an experience.

When we walked back to the con place we met up with some friends who had brought along some games and such for a game night, and we ended up playing games with them for several hours, which was very fun. We played one called The Resistance which is kind of like Mafia and whenever we play any game like that I will ALWAYS end up being the “spy” as it was in this case, and it happened both rounds we played 😂 it’s just more fun that way. We played a few different fun ones. It was getting late though and I was like high key tired, and since we weren’t actually staying at the hotel there because it was very expensive (though the rooms were very nice) so after a while Jess, Melissa, and I ubered back to the holiday inn where Melissa had gotten a room and was letting us crash with her lol. Our Uber that night was a red hummer, so that was wild. I was like getting deliriously tired at that point but I knew if I didn’t wash my hair it would look like shit in photo ops the next day so I forced myself to wash it quickly and then go to bed right afterwards.

I set my alarm for 8 or 8:30, I’m not sure which, but I got up and got ready for the day, grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading over to the con. The Nyssara panel was first thing that day but since we knew it was gonna be online anyway we decided to skip it in favor of Jes’ line on a hope that most people would be at the panel instead (there were actually a good number of people there, but I’m sure there would’ve been a lot more without the panel). So we waited a bit for her to show up and she started signing, then we had to wait a few minutes while she went and crashed the Nyssara panel of course in payback for Katrina crashing the Avalance one the day before, which we fully expected to occur lol. Then she came back and we got to her pretty quickly. I had her sign the op of her and Caity that we got the night before.

Once that was done we headed to the photo ops since they were shortly afterwards, also a shit show but no surprise at that point. I just had a Jes op, and I decided since I was wearing my Captain Marvel tank top I got from hot topic a few weeks ago I decided we should do the pose with our arms extended since that was their kinda thing, and it came out really well, I was happy with it. Once everyone was done with photo ops, which took a while longer, we went to the autograph/merch hall and decided to hit up Caity’s line while we could, I had her sign her side of the duo op from the night before and got some selfies, it’s always great to talk to her, Sara’s always gonna be my favorite character and a big part of why I love the fandom as much as I do so I always love getting to interact with Caity, and she seems like she remembers me pretty consistently at this point so that’s always nice.

Once we all got through Caity’s line Jes’ was still really long so we decided to go to the Black Lightning/ThunderGrace panel with Nafessa and Chantal, who were both super awesome and the panel was great. They were so much fun to get to talk to and it was good to hear the writers were playing the long game with their relationship since at the beginning of season 2 it looked like that might not be the case. Towards the end of the panel we were informed that Jes’ line had been capped, which was very weird because she was supposed to be signing till 5 and it was only like 3:45 at that point which is WAY too early to cap a line. So after the panel we headed straight over there to figure out what was going on. One of the other stupid things the con was doing was overpromising things to their VIPs and basically just letting them through over the regular admissions at a rate that was impractical and frankly just didn’t make sense. So there was a VIP line that was very long and looked like it might be being added to, and a shorter regular admission line. We basically decided to be stubborn though and see if we could play it out on the hope that if they tried to end it before we got there Jes would see us and want to talk to us basically, which I’m not sure how successful we would’ve been and did not at all know if it would work or not. But basically we planted ourselves at the end of the regular admission line on the premise that we were talking to our friend who had managed to get added to the line, and then as things evolved basically more people started getting in behind us which the volunteers were not happy about (I want to make it clear though, I’m not at all blaming the volunteers for the shittier parts of this weekend, that blame lies solely with the con and the decisions they made, including not training their volunteers for all the situations they should’ve been trained on, but the volunteers were just doing their job and I would never fault them for that) which was understandable but we were gonna try.

We eventually more or less got added to the line but there was zero guarantee we were actually going to get to see her.

At some point around 5 Jes wanted to stay through the line so she had to get moved to a different table since they were still doing their shitty system with the tables, and then had to lead the whole line over behind her, which we think they basically just put the entire VIP line in front of the regular admission people, even those who had arrived clearly after us, so we ended up waiting quite a while there with seeming little to no movement. After we had been waiting a little while they Black Lightning girls had come to the tables nearby and Nafessa didn’t have a line, so I ducked out quickly (with plenty of friends to save my spot ofc) to her table because I’ve wanted to meet her for a while now but never had the chance, and thankfully she was doing selfies so I got to talk to her for a bit and then take some selfies with her, she was really really great and I basically cried talking to her about how much I love the show and the character of Anissa so much and just how iconic it was to see the image of her standing there in her superhero outfits and having the bullets just fucking bouncing off of her after so many LGBT female characters were killed off often for very shitty reasons, I’m like tearing up just thinking about it now lol so I was really glad I got to meet her.

Once I finished there I ducked back into Jes’ line, which had finally seemed to move some so we were a little closer, but still had to wait a bit longer. Jes was a total champ because she absolutely did not have to stay for everyone there, but she chose to do so despite being super tired and worn out herself, so she gets major credit here. We got to see her finally though after going through way too much shit to get there lol, I got my op from earlier that day signed, but had to forego a selfie because I was out of cash lol. Oh well. It was sad because the only con coming up she has scheduled is the love fanfest which is in Barcelona this summer (and in case you were wondering flights to Barcelona for those dates are sitting solidly around $800) and we’re ofc not planning on attending that so having to say goodbye without knowing when we’d see her next was kinda sad (and of course we’ll be bugging HVFF like crazy to fucking invite her to their cons, ugh) but I was still really glad we got to see her.

When we finally finished there god we were all so wiped and hungry since it was almost 7 pm at this point and we hadn’t really eaten since breakfast, so we ended up taking an Uber to the closest In-N-Out which was of course a must whenever we’re somewhere there is one (usually California but in this case Vegas). It wasn’t terribly crowded so we were able to get a table and food fairly quickly, god their strawberry shake was so fucking good and their burgers and fries were great too. We stayed there for a while and just talked and had a good time before deciding to walk back since we now had food in our stomachs, lol (we were originally going to walk there but my stomach was already like mmmMNOPE and walking for 20 minutes would’ve been high key bad). Once we got back to the con place we met up with the game friends again and played for the rest of the night. We started with a game called joking hazards which is like cards against humanity but based on cyanide and happiness comics which I read religiously for years and you basically had to build the funniest comic strip and my entries had everyone cackling basically the whole time even if I didn’t win the round, it was just all really hilarious and fun. We moved on to some other games which were fun, around 10 or so Jess had to head to the airport because she had been planning on going to Star Wars Celebration Sunday (plans which got thwarted by unexpected snow in Chicago) so she was flying out that night and arriving at like 6 am Sunday morning. We kept playing till like 1 or so at which point everyone was just really tired so Melissa and I headed back to our hotel. I washed my hair again quickly and got ready for bed. One thing we messed up on was forgetting to bring any makeup remover wipes or otherwise makeup remover, and there’s only so much you can get off in the shower, so when I get home tonight I need to like, douse my face in makeup remover and get off all the damn mascara that I couldn’t get off for three fucking days. We headed to bed though, Melissa’s flight was early Sunday morning so we said our goodbyes and went to bed.

I was set to wake up to my alarm at 10 to an empty hotel room which did in fact occur, but it took a little longer for me to actually get out of bed because I was very tired lol, I don’t think I actually fell back asleep but I rested my eyes a bit more until like 10:26 at which point I convinced myself to get out of bed. I got ready and officially checked out of the hotel room (which just involved telling the front desk the room number and that we were checked out) and headed over to the con place, messaging a few various friends I had made since arriving since my original friends were now gone, lol. I met up with them shortly afterwards in the merch hall where we wandered around for a bit and I did buy some stuff, mostly small art stuff and a few buttons, before we headed to the short film festival that was taking place from 12 to 2. I grabbed a sandwich quickly from the little cafe they had and headed in. The films ranged between comedies and dramas of different subjects, they were all really good and several made me cry, one had me like on the verge of sobs at the end lol so yeah they were very good I’d say. Once those were finished they had a little talk with some of the film creators and actors that were there which was fun.

Once that event was done I headed back to the merch hall with one of my friends to find a few things, and once we were satisfied there we ended up walking out across the street to the New York, New York casino which had a shake shack, where I got a burger and a root beer float which was very good. So we ate and talked and had a nice time. We walked back to the con area after, my friend went to a pitch session and I went back to the merch hall for a final round before finding another friend and sticking with them for a bit, one of the tables had been doing a raffle so we waited for the results of that which was entertaining, then talked to a few vendors we knew, and ended up going back to my friend’s hotel room for a little bit. My flight was supposed to leave at 7:25 so I was planning on leaving the con for the airport around 5, but I had gotten an email from southwest saying it had been delayed half an hour, so I ended up staying until around 5:30 before saying my final goodbyes and getting an Uber to the airport.

The Uber ride was quick, check in was very easy and I breezed through security, again only having to do the metal detector, so I made it to the gate shortly after 6 and then had plenty of time lol. So I just sat and listened to podcasts and went on my phone while having it plugged into one of the outlets they had under the seats for about an hour or so until I got up and grabbed some Burger King for dinner, then returning and eating that while we started the boarding process, the flight before us ended up getting in a little late so I think our ultimate take off time ended up being like 8:10 or so. We’re supposed to get in a bit before 2 am Chicago time, which should be fairly soon since my phone is currently reading 11:25 pm Vegas time, which would be 1:25 am Chicago time. Of course I packed super light since I was carrying my backpack around all day for two of the days I was there, so I just have the shorts I wore today which was great for the 80 degree Vegas weather, but being that it FUCKING SNOWED in Chicago today I’m guessing they’re gonna be a bit less than adequate. Since I flew Southwest we’re getting into the airport that’s further from me, but the roads will at least be clear and you can just take the expressway up so it doesn’t take too much longer than the one that’s closer to me (which is always just a pain in the ass because it’s O’Hare but it’s where pretty much everyone flies out of except Southwest). So now I’m here, sitting on the plane and typing this. As things stand right now, Jess had gotten off of work tomorrow for Star Wars Celebration which she wasn’t sure she was gonna do on Monday but since today didn’t end up working out she’s gonna go, I was able to get a single day Monday ticket to go with her so we’re gonna get brunch at 10 and then head down to that con, lol, probably stay mostly in their merch hall and maybe meet up with some people, before going home to watch the Legends episode of course. And yeah, that should be fun. I’m running low on battery so I’m gonna stop typing for now, I’ll probably write a final few sentences once I’m home or almost home and about to go to sleep.

Okay, flight landed at 1:49 am, it’s now 3:08 am and I’m lying on my bed about to go to sleep. Goodnight peeps. Hope you had a good weekend too.

[finn-nelson-for-the-win]

Before the World Stops Turning: Pt.9

Hello my lovelies! I fully intended to finish writing this chapter and post it earlier this week, but alas! That did not happen haha...This is the penultimate chapter in this story and we’re getting closer to what everything has all been leading up to. THIS IS SO EXCITING!! :) So without further ado...

If you’d like to be added/removed from my tags list for this fic or my Forever Tag list, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Everything I’ve written can be found right here!

I hope you enjoy this chapter! (As always, additional notes/random commentary I have will be at the end beneath the tags, if you care to read that far!)

***

It had been just over two weeks since Izzie’s accident and although Izzie was a bit stubborn and reluctant to the changes that came afterwards, she and Rae had fallen into a routine that was working well for both of them thus far.

Izzie had reached out to her Dance and Accounting instructors only hours after she left the hospital that afternoon to explain the situation and determine what she would need to do to make up her final exams and avoid failing those classes.

Izzie’s dance instructor had been more than understanding and already given Izzie an above passing grade for her performance, but she also voiced her willingness to hold Izzie’s place in the Dance Program as long as Izzie needed to ensure that her injuries healed completely.

To Izzie’s relief, her accounting Professor had also been very forgiving given Izzie’s circumstances and he promised Izzie that he would do everything in his power to work out a solution that would not lead to Izzie failing his class.

As Dr. Jackson had suggested, Izzie made a follow-up appointment to have her ankle checked out again after about two weeks, which is why Rae currently found herself sitting in an exam room down the hall from the one she had sat with Izzie last time as she waited for Izzie to return from the additional scans and x-rays that were being taken of her ankle.

There was a light knock on the door, which caused Rae to look up at the same time that the nurse that had taken Izzie back earlier walked through the door and held the heavy wooden door ajar as Izzie followed behind at a slower pace using her crutches to aid her steps.

“Thank you for being so patient, ladies. The doctor will be right back with the results of the x-ray,” the nurse replied as she helped Izzie climb onto the exam table before stepping out of the room and closing the heavy wooden door behind her.

Rae looked over at Izzie who was sitting on the exam table staring at a poster on the wall detailing the proper procedure for stopping the spread of germs when coughing or sneezing while absentmindedly biting her lower lip.

“So Izz…” Rae began and paused for a moment to allow Izzie to turn her attention towards her friend, “Are you excited for summer classes to start on Monday?”

“Ugh, please don’t remind me, Rae-Rae! I still can’t believe my Accounting final that I missed counted for nearly a fourth of my grade in the class!”

“It could’ve been worse! And at least Professor Andrews was pretty understanding about the whole situation. Sure you have to take the accelerated version of the course again, but at least he arranged it so you could do it free of charge!”

“Yeah, I suppose so...I guess I just thought that our summer was going to be nothing but you and me going on adventures and going to concerts and just enjoying ourselves...but then I had to ruin everything by getting hurt and now we can’t do anything fun,” Izzie trailed off with a small grimace.

“Hey now! None of that negativity, Izzie! You know how much I love hanging out with you and it makes no difference for me whether we go on adventures or just watch movies...as long as we’re spending time together, I’m happy!”

“Thanks Rae, you’re always such a good mate to me! Anyways, enough about me...have you talked to Finn at all or made plans to hang out again?” Izzie asked tentatively.

“Don’t you think I’d tell ya if there were any developments with Finn?” Rae asked which earned a shrug from Izzie before she continued, “Well, no...I haven’t talked to him or heard from him at all in a few weeks.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, Rae…”

“It’s fine...I don’t know what I expected to come from our coffee date or whatever that was or why I even expected anything to come from it, but I should have known better.” Rae said in an attempt to convey indifference.

“Well have you spoken to him at all since then?”

“No...I texted him the night of their most recent concert after you hurt your ankle letting him know how much I wanted to come but that I was needed elsewhere, but I told him that I hoped the show went well.”

“And?”

“And nothing, Izz...he didn’t respond. I’ve texted him a couple times since then and I even sent a message or two to him on social media, but he hasn’t responded to any of them.”

“Really?” Izzie asked with surprise obvious in her voice.

“Yeah, take a look for yourself!”

Rae handed Izzie her cellphone that was opened to her text message conversation with Finn and Izzie read the messages spanning from the last text sent by Finn, all the way to the most recent text sent by Rae nearly a week ago.

Finn: I really enjoyed meeting you formally and getting to know you better over coffee today as well. I definitely look forward to seeing your pretty face in the crowd on Friday, girl! ;) xx

Rae: Hiya Finn! You’ll never guess how crazy my day has been, but my best mate Izzie had a bit of a fall and got pretty badly injured and I needed to step up as best mate and help nurse her back to health, so sadly her and I couldn’t make it out to see you perform tonight. :( In all honesty, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again all week long

Rae: I hope the show went well though and I look forward to seeing all the videos and pictures posted online from the show! :)

Rae: I saw the videos that Archie and Chop posted from the show on Friday! You guys sounded great and it looks like you guys drew in a huge crowd (no surprise there, since you guys are bloody amazing!) :D

Rae: So I may or may not have an exclusive preview for the new shipment of music that is being put on the shelves at Off the Record because I know the right people. I don’t know who else would appreciate the significance of this opportunity other than you, so I just thought that maybe we could grab a bite to eat together and check out what new music came in. If you’re not busy this weekend, of course...Just let me know!

“I probably sound really fucking desperate and pathetic, huh?” Rae asked as she reached for the phone that Izzie was handing back to her.

“Not at all, Rae! Don’t be silly! I just...well, I don’t understand why Finn wouldn’t be responding to you…”

“Yeah, I don’t know either…”

Izzie continued sitting on the exam table scrolling through her phone with her eyebrows furrowed until she heard a quick knock on the door of the room before Dr. Jackson stepped in and gave both the girls a beaming smile.

“Good afternoon, ladies! I have the results from your latest x-ray right here, Isabella, if you wanna take a look...it’ll just take a moment while I get them set up.”

“No problem, doctor! We’re in no hurry and I’m eager to see how I’m healing so far!”

“As am I, Isabella! So what have you two been up to in the last couple weeks?”

“I’ve been resting mostly. Rae and I drove back home to visit my family for the last week and a half, since we haven’t had the chance to go back home since Christmas. Now that I’m back here, I have a couple summer courses at my University that are starting this week, so that will be keeping me busy for a little while!”

“That sounds exciting! How’s the foot doing?”

“A lot better now! The first week was really rough, but I just kept following all the advice you and the nurses gave me!”

“I’m glad to hear that it’s feeling better now, in that case,” Dr. Jackson was still getting the x-ray images set up on the machine to view them when he glanced at one of the images for a moment before turning towards Rae and Izzie, “Ms. Ross...have you been trying to keep weight off the foot?”

“Yes!” Izzie replied with a smile

“Hmm...Excellent. And you’ve been icing down the swelling and bruising?”

“Yes, whenever it felt necessary,” Izzie said with a small nod

“That’s good! And have you been wearing the walking boot?”

“Yeah...well, mostly...it itches, so I only wear it when I know I’ll be on my feet a bit more” Izzie’s response was slightly quieter and more sheepish than before, but she knew that it would be best to be honest with her doctor no matter what.

“Hmm...I see...and the crutches? Have you been using the crutches?”

“Well...sort of…” Izzie trailed off without making eye contact with Dr. Jackson.

Dr. Jackson nodded silently before turning towards Rae and waiting for her to corroborate Izzie’s statement.

“She used the crutches for about a week when we were with her parents, but then she decided that she was healed enough to not need them anymore.”

“I see...well just by looking at these images and my most recent examination of your ankle and foot, I have some good news and some not so good news...which would you like to hear first, Isabella?”

“Good news, please!” Izzie replied immediately as her gaze fell to where her hands rested in her lap and she began pulling at a string that was loose on the hem of her shirt.

“Your ankle is healing very nicely and it definitely does not look more serious than just a sprained ankle.”

“And the bad news?” Rae asked when the tense silence hanging over the room became unnerving.

“Not bad news, per say, but the dancer’s fracture on Isabella’s foot is not healing quite so well...I think you may have been a bit overzealous with laying off the crutches. The bone is setting, but not as well as I would like it to. It’s completely your choice Ms. Ross, but as a dancer, it will be more problematic for you in the future and you’ll be more susceptible to the same injury if it doesn’t set fully”

“So what do you recommend?” Izzie replied as she looked up at him for the first time during the conversation.

“Surgery...but a very minor one at that. You won’t have to be put under, just a mild anesthesia and some local numbing should suffice and we can put a couple pins in the bone to make sure  it will heal exactly as it should. After the pins are put in, we will just need to wait for the incisions to heal and then you can begin the physical therapy regimen to help strengthen your ankle and get you walking and dancing before the end of summer...how does that sound to you?”

Rae looked at Izzie who was currently looking down at her hands again where they sat in her lap, trying to gauge her best mate’s response to what the doctor had said

“Alright, well...I trust your judgment, doctor, so if you think surgery will be the best way to ensure that I heal properly and can get back to dancing as soon as possible, then I’ll do it!” Izzie said with certainty in her voice when she finally looked up at him again after a moment of weighing her options.

“Splendid! Would you like to get this done as soon as possible?” Dr. Jackson asked as he looked at one of the sheets of paper attached to Izzie’s patient chart on the counter of the exam room beneath the x-ray image viewing machine.

“Yes, please!”

“How about tomorrow morning at 9am?”

“Oh wow...that is soon…” Izzie mumbled.

“We can do it later if you want.” Dr. Jackson replied with a smile to ensure that Izzie knew he was not intending to pressure her into making any decisions now.

“No, tomorrow will be great.” Izzie added with a nod and a small smile before looking toward Rae who was still in shock at how quickly the situation had unfolded around her.

***

The next morning, Rae gave Izzie a ride to the hospital where she had to fill out paperwork before being taken back for the actual procedure on her foot.

Rae remained in the waiting room flipping through the various health and home decor magazines that were piled on the table beside where she sat until she saw one of nurses walk through the door that led into the waiting room.

“Good morning, Rae! Isabella is all done with the procedure if you’d like to follow me back, you’re more than welcome to see her now.”

“Wow that was fast!” Rae mused as she stood from the chair she had been sitting in and set the magazine she was looking at back on the small table beside her.

Rae followed the nurse from the main waiting room to the recovery room where Izzie had been taken after her operation was over. Rae could tell that Izzie was still a little bit groggy and impaired from the anesthesia and numbing during the procedure, but she still appeared to be more coherent than Rae had anticipated.

“Is there anything else I can get for you right now, Isabella?”

“No thank you! I’m fine for now, I think!”

The nurse nodded and left the room as Rae walked into the room and sat in the chair that was against the wall beside the bed where Izzie currently sat with her bandaged leg propped up on a stack of pillows.

“Rae-Rae!”

“Hiya Izz! How are you feeling?”

“So far, so good! I was afraid I was going to have a huge scar from the surgery, but it was just a small incision on the top of my foot!”

“That’s great babes! I’m so happy to hear that everything worked out fine, like I knew it would.”

A few moments later, Dr. Jackson knocked on the door and entered the room with Izzie’s patient chart in his hands.

“How is the foot feeling, Isabella?”

“It’s not really feeling anything right now…” Izzie replied with a chuckle.

“Yeah, the numbing and anesthesia has a way of doing that, but you should be regaining feeling in your foot fairly soon.”

Rae and Izzie laughed at that as Dr. Jackson set the patient chart he was holding aside and took a moment to examine Izzie’s foot.

“I just wanted to come in here and tell you that the procedure went very well and I do not foresee any problems with your foot anytime soon or in the future. The nurse will give you the prescriptions for some medications to help you heal a bit faster and for you to take if you have any pain. She’ll also give you the contact information for one of my colleagues and close friends who specializes in sports medicine and physical therapy for you to set up an appointment with once the incision from the surgery is healed enough...in about a week or two.”

“Thank you, doctor!” Izzie replied with a polite smile.

“You’re welcome! If you have any other questions or if your foot hurts too much or anything, don’t hesitate to give us a call or come back in and we can take a look for you!”

Dr. Jackson stepped out of the room again and a different nurse stepped inside to go over the aftercare details with Izzie and give her all the prescriptions and physical therapy recommendation notes she would be needing in the next couple weeks.

When the anesthesia had worn off enough and Izzie was cleared to leave the recovery room of the hospital only an hour after her procedure had ended, Rae and Izzie walked side-by-side out of the hospital—Rae walking much slower to keep pace with Izzie as she limped and took slow steps aided by the crutches that she was going to have to begin using again until her foot was sufficiently healed—towards where Rae’s car was parked in the lot outside.

“So Izz, it’s still pretty early and today is our last day to relax before you start your summer classes...is there anything you want to do on your last day of freedom?” Rae asked as she opened the door to her car for Izzie.

“I’m still a little tired from the anesthesia and I honestly think I’d just like to take a nap for a little while. I’m fine with just relaxing and watching movies with you for the rest of the day, but first...can we get something to eat? Pizza, maybe?” Izzie asked as she leaned her crutches against the side of Rae’s car while she climbed into the passenger seat.

“Of course you’re hungry right now,” Rae replied with a chuckle as she put Izzie’s crutches into the backseat of the car before continuing, “Yes, of course we can get pizza, Izzie!”

***

Rae had been allowed to leave work early for the first time in a couple months and since leaving work early on a Friday was such a rare opportunity, she decided to accept her boss’s offer and grab lunch with Izzie instead.

The past month of summer had seemed to fly by in a blur of work for Rae and summer classes for Izzie and while they still spent most of their time outside of work and summer school with one another, they still found it hard to find time to make any formal plans when their schedules always seems to conflict.

Izzie’s ankle and foot had been healing exceptionally well since her surgery and she had been going to physical therapy in one of the offices on the second floor of the fitness center on campus for almost two weeks to ensure that everything was healing properly and she could get back to dancing as soon as possible. After each therapy session, Izzie and Rae always tried to meet up to discuss the progress Izzie was making and with each day it seemed Izzie was getting a small step closer to where she wanted to be in the recovery process.

Rae: Hey babes! I’m at our usual table, so feel free to take your time getting here. :)

Rae had texted Izzie as soon as she arrived at the cafe close to campus that they always met at for lunch during the semester, but she had been waiting for nearly half an hour without any response.

Huh...her physical therapy appointment should have ended nearly an hour ago...I wonder if I should try calling her…

As soon as Rae began to contemplate calling Izzie, she heard her cell phone vibrate against the table where she had set it down momentarily with an incoming notification.

Izzie: I’m so sorry I’m running late, Rae-Rae! Physical therapy ran long today and the time just got away from me. I should be there very soon though!

Rae sent Izzie a quick reply letting her know to take her time, but true to her word, Rae soon saw Izzie walk through the door to the cafe talking to a very familiar looking and handsome boy dressed in athletic attire.

“Thank you for walking me over here, Alex! I’ll see you at our next session on Monday, right?” Izzie said as she stopped beside the table where Rae was currently sitting and trying to hide the mixture of confusion and shock on her face.

“Absolutely! Just make sure you keep doing the stretches and exercises we worked on today over the weekend and I think we’ll be ready to move onto some more challenging things next session. Have a nice weekend!” Alex gave Izzie a high-five and turned to give Rae a quick smile as well before walking away.

“Sorry I was late, Rae!”

“Uh, no problem...that was, uh, that was Alex? As in Alex from Kings and Queens, right?” Rae asked, still trying to hide her surprise.

“Oh yeah! Did I not mention that he has been the one doing most of my physical therapy session as of lately?” Izzie asked as she pulled out her chair across from Rae and took a seat.

“Uhm, no, not that I’m aware of…” Rae muttered.

“Oh! My bad! It must have slipped my mind because I definitely meant to tell you.” Izzie replied with an embarrassed giggle.

Rae sat there nodding silently as she took a sip of her lemonade and stared at the menu in front of her.

“Alex was actually part of the reason why I was running late to meet you. Our session was running long as it was, but we got caught up with talking and lost track of time.”

Just then the waiter stopped at their table and took Rae and Izzie’s lunch orders before refilling their beverages and assuring them that their food would be out shortly.

“So, uh, what were you and Alex talking about?” Rae asked as she tried to pick up their conversation from earlier again.

“Well he mentioned that their band just booked a new show at the end of July, but it happened literally last night, so they haven’t posted about it on social media at all.”

“I see…”

“And we talked about Finn and the rest of the band a bit...just sort of what everyone has been up to in the last month or so of summer.”

“Okay…”

“Have you, uh, talked to Finn at all lately?” Izzie asked hesitantly.

“Nope” Rae stated matter-of-factly.

“Have you tried reaching out to him again?”

“Nope”

“Rae...why not?”

“Clearly he doesn’t want to reach out to me since he hasn’t been replying to any of my texts or messages on social media. I don’t want to seem clingy or desperate. Trust me, I got the message loud and clear from Finn, so I won’t try to make plans or text him anytime soon.”

“Rae, I don’t think you sound desperate or clingy…”

“Well either way...I’m leaving it up to him at this point to reach out to me if he chooses to do so…”

“That makes sense, I suppose. So...does that mean that you wouldn't want to go to their show that at the end of July or…?”

“Do you want to go?” Rae asked in response to Izzie’s question.

“Yes, I mean...I suppose so. I think it would be nice for us to do because we had to miss the last one because of me...”

“Izz...I’m not mad at you that we missed the last show, so you don’t need to make it up to me”

“Perhaps not, but I want to! Plus it’s a bit over a week after my birthday, so I just think that it might be a nice sort of belated birthday present to myself!” Izzie replied with a cheerful grin.

“Okay, it’s decided then, we will go!” Rae added with an equally wide smile when she saw how happy that statement made her best mate.

“Are you sure?” Izzie asked after the initial wave of excitement had waned slightly.

“I’m positive!” Rae replied with a nod.

***

Later that day when Rae was back at her apartment her thoughts kept returning to her conversation with Izzie during lunch.

Should I really give up on trying to talk to Finn?

Izzie had reassured Rae time and time again how much it didn’t seem like Finn to simply not reply to her text messages, so there must be something else going on.

“I can talk to Alex about it if you want,” Izzie had offered as a solution to figure out why Finn may not be replying to Rae.

“I can ask Alex to pass along a message?”

“I can convince Alex to bring Finn to our next session and you can talk to him in-person like that to settle things once and for all?”

“I can…”

Izzie had offered every suggestion she could think of to help Rae get the answers she needed; however, Rae had refused each and voiced her appreciation for her mate’s offers nonetheless.

Hmmm...Perhaps it is worth it for me to try reaching out to Finn just one more time…

Rae: Hey Finn, I heard from a little birdie that your band is playing a show at the end of the month. I don’t know if you all are selling tickets for less like you have for past shows, but if you are, I’d like to buy some. Please let me know!

Rae placed her cell phone on her bedside table and laid on her back staring at her ceiling once she sent that message.

What if Finn doesn’t reply to this message either?

Rae remained in her bed beside where her phone sat on the table, waiting for the chime of her phone to signal that a new text had been received, but by the time she could feel herself giving into her exhaustion after a long day at work, she had still not heard her phone sound in the time that had passed

Fuck it...If Finn won’t reply to me about the tickets, Izzie and I will just have to purchase them online.

@arathewallflower @eveerez @tinakegg @hey1tskat1e @lurkernolonger @milllott @nutinanutshell @i-dream-of-emus @milymargot @vivammfd @bitchesbecrazy89 @mallyallyandra @kneekeyta @tothetardissterek

A/N: Yay! Officially 9 chapters down, 1 to go! I don’t really like this chapter very much, but I knew it had to be posted to help speed things along for the conclusion to this fic to be post next...In fact, I already have the final chapter written, but I’ve elected to wait a few days before posting it so I can edit it further and try to make it sucks as little as possible! :D

I already have a different little story drafted up that I intend to post relatively soon...I asked for fic suggestions for what you all wanted to read next from me and a few of you certainly delivered! I just wanted to give a quick shout out to @vivammfd, @bitchesbecrazy89, and @eveerez for your input on what fics you’d like to see next...I promise that they are in the works now and I will be posting them as soon as I can! If you have any other requests about what you’d like to see me write next, I’m ALWAYS open to suggestions! :)

On a semi-related note: GUESS WHO IS OFFICIALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL FOR THE SEMESTER AS OF TODAY!!!! I think this occasion deserves a “FUCK YEAH!!!!!” don’t you think?!? :D

And last but not least, as much as I love reblogging things from the same 3 people over on my main blog (no really, they post some quality content), I am definitely looking for new blogs to follow. My main blog is @awaiting-something (insert shameless self-promo lol) so you’re more than welcome to follow me and I can follow back or just let me know some of your favorite people you follow or idk...I’m just trying to make friends and find cool people who like some of the same stuff that I do haha

I feel like this Author’s Note has gone on long enough and it’s not even related to this chapter anymore, but oh well! I love hearing what you guys think and getting questions/messages/whatever from all of you, so if you have any comments/questions/concerns, etc. related to this chapter (or anything really, MMFD or otherwise), feel free to let me know!

Stay awesome, my friends! :) 

[transition-of-lanabean]

Soooo hiya! It’s been a rather busy week, which is why I haven’t posted... anything since like last Friday... 8 days, wow, never had a stretch that long between posts! Anyway...

 So since my last post, I have finally gotten my new ID in the mail today with correct gender marker and new name! Yay! My debit card was a bit more of a challenge. My new one I ordered after I changed my name at my bank came to my old dead name, both on the letter and card itself, which was a bit disappointing to say the least. One disappointed email left with my bank, and another with the nice woman who helped me change my information, and I got a call back from her and the bank the next day apologizing, sending me a new one via priority and I got it 2 days later, instead of the usual 5 or so, corrected name and all. Plus, earlier this week, I also got my new insurance ID card with the proper name as well.

 The only thing I haven’t heard anything about, to no surprise, which I only mailed out on Monday... or Tuesday... is my corrected information to social security. I’ll see what, if anything I missed. I had my sister read through it, and I mailed the completed form I was advised about MONTHS ago when I emailed them about it, plus a copy of my judge-signed ordered  name change, so I hope that was enough. Time will tell though, I suppose.

 I’m pretty much exhausted at this point as I have worked 60 hours the last 6 days, and was *supposed* do to the same next week. Thankfully my sister told me to stay home on Tuesday (3 days from now) and she’ll work my position for the day. As she’s my boss, she’ll do fine. So next week is a ‘mundane’ 50 hours or so, with Tuesday off. Yay? I get tomorrow (Sunday) off, but then starts week 2. By the end of next week, I have a feeling I’m going to get sick at some point not long after. This much work usually wears me out to the point my immune system goes kaput. I’ll hope for the best though.

 Anyway, onto more fun news, is that I picked up a couple games recently. I’ve been behaving, so I treated myself. First was Final Fantasy XII on PS4 - I have the PS2 version, but only played a couple hours. It’s not like I didn’t like it, but for some reason I never continued it. I plan to this time.

 Second is Kingdom Hearts remix 1.5/2.5 remix. Sadly, this game came DOA on me. I found the cd loose inside the case, which normally isn’t bad as of late, with how protective cases have been, but apparently this was enough to make the game all but unreadable. I got to the main menu, then starting a new game on Kingdom Hearts 1 brought stuttering video, and eventually, just pauses for good. If a pause lasted more than I think around 30 seconds, the PS4 auto ejects the cd and gives you a corruption error. Never seen that before, but there you go. No amount of cleaning helped much, and while I was able to get a few seconds later into the opening video, a crash would happen. I had to return it to Amazon, sadly.

 BUT for the heck of it I went to Best Buy’s website and they had it on sale with free shipping. So, $10 (20%) off means I get it again on Wednesday, and hopefully cheaper and in working condition.

 To top that off, I decided to just have Amazon give me credit for my return on that site, and have used all but maybe $10 on a couple new dresses that are coming in Monday. I have a feeling that they won’t be too scratched up to wear, so baring them having terrible sizing (which has happened), I should be good to go there!

 That almost rounds out everything except one final note. I have a battlenet account, which I thought about for a while, and decided to inform them of my name change, got them the appropriate paperwork, and boom, Lana there too. The problem? Well, those friends I have told y’all about (all 3 of the primary ones I see the most), are on my realid, meaning, they have my real name show up on their accounts.

 I had a thing I wanted to do, but chickened out as there were too many people at a games night last weekend. Basically, last Saturday, maybe 4:30 pm, I submitted the paperwork online as I usually do, asked them about it probably 10 months ago to see what they required. Thinking it would take a couple days. Nope. i got home at a bit past 10 pm and they had changed it already. Welp. The next day, my friend asked me about it online, but as I was laying down and not paying attention, I didn’t see it until I was about to shut my computer off. Sooo I shut my computer off, and no question since. Quite a while ago, probably back in December, I changed my nickname on battlenet to Lanabean, which I hoped they’d notice and kinda open up their minds a bit, so maybe that helped? Probably not?

 Yeah. So the cat’s out of the bag whether I want it to be or not, which is what I wanted to force myself to come out to them. Soooo I’ll see what happens when I see my friends again, which will be soon as it’s one of their birthdays in just a few days. I fully expect someone to say something, which I’ll be happy to respond.

 At this point I’m so ready to come out to them but crap happens, my head does it’s thinking thing (dang head) and I back out. This time I hope they will ask, plain and simple, I’m done hiding and fully accept whatever they decide to do, accept me, or not. Though I must admit, O do hope for the former...

 I do hope you have all had a fantastic last week, and may the remainder of the weekend treat you all well!

 - Lana