#ALSO this was RIGHT after they decided to choose each other instead of boarding up hell

[pregnancykink]

I could fix s9 Dean

[skybluewritings]

Last Summer Part 4, Felix Catton x fem!reader

word count: 2.4k

Note: Thank you so much for all the support! This chapter is going to be a good one so stick around!

Two weeks had passed by quickly at Saltburn. She was surprised by how normal it had begun to feel, well normal was maybe an exaggeration. After an extremely stressful final year of university it was rejuvenating to do absolutely nothing each and every day. To wake up and have no plan of how the day might go. She might find herself doing any activity from playing drunk tennis in a silk dress to messing around with Venetia’s Ouija board in the library. The latter was not preferred by certain people (Felix).

And yet her time at Saltburn according to Farleigh had been fairly tame compared some of their previous summers. She still wondered about what Felix meant when he had told her was excited to finally have “good memories of his home in the summer.”

 

They were sprawled across the floor of a lavish bedroom, everyone was in varying states of drunkenness. A game of truth or dare had been going for the past hour, with the dares becoming increasingly more risqué. Two of the guys playing were old friends of Felix and if she was being honest she despised them both. One was a ginger named Hugo and the other a blonde named R.J. Hugo was the worst of the two, it was his party which made him be able to get away with being extra obnoxious. (Name) was sat next to Venetia, and it was her turn to pick a truth or dare. Felix had temporarily left the room to find more alcohol which meant without him as a grounding force this could go in any direction.

 

“I pick truth.” Venetia decided.

 

R.J scoffed at her. “You have to pick dare at some point you can’t keep picking truth.”

 

Venetia glared back. “Fine then dare.”

 

“I dare you to flash your tits to everyone in the room.” RJ said elbowing Hugo.

 

Farleigh rolled his eyes. “Pathetic.”

 

(Name) noticed Venetia stiffen next to her. “I-I’m not doing that.”

 

Hugo spoke up. “Last summer you gave me a handy outside and now you’re getting all shy?”

 

“Right, you don’t speak to her like that okay?” Farleigh snapped at Hugo.

 

“I’m sorry but what is that noise coming out your mouth?” Hugo snorted both he and RJ snickering like little boys.

 

Venetia had become uncharacteristically quiet. (Name) grit her teeth she was not about to allow her friends especially Venetia to be humiliated.

 

“Hugo this party is very-decadent.” (Name) told him. "Tiki Torches what a bold choice.."

 

He smirked at her. “Thank you-“

 

She let out a laugh. “Actually, it wasn’t a compliment, which you would know if you were less concerned with the gel in your hair and the porn on your computer, and picked up a dictionary every once in awhile.”

 

A chorus of oooing sounds came from the rest of the circle. Hugo didn’t bother to reply choosing to sulk instead. She felt her hand being squeezed in thanks by Venetia.

 

“Whatever, Venetia still needs to do her dare.” RJ pointed out.

 

Everyone stared at Venetia who shrank even more into herself.

 

“She’s not doing it I’ll take her dare.” (Name) replied. “But I’m not showing anything to anyone.”

 

“We could come up with a new dare.” Farleigh suggested, she smiled gratefully at him and he returned the smile.

 

 “Fine. She has to strip off in front of the whole party-“ (Name) gave RJ a warning look. “Strip off to her underwear and jump in the pool.”

 

She let out a sigh. “If you get me a shot I’ll do it.”

 

*

The group made their way out to the pool, the alcohol from the shot was making her head fuzzy which was good because it would take away the sting of humiliation. She stood by the pool next to Venetia, everyone was momentarily in conversation whilst she worked up the confidence to do it.

 

“You really don’t have to do this you know.” Venetia told her finally speaking up.

 

She shrugged. “I’ve already accepted it, those are the rules of truth or dare. Also I might be quite drunk.”

 

Venetia was able to muster a small smile. “Thank you for doing this to take the attention off me.”

 

“It’s nothing really, I was just looking out for a fellow girl all be it I’m now about to show a bunch of strangers my new Victoria secret set.” She responded rubbing her face. “Oh god this is really stupid.”

 

Venetia gave her a supportive pat on the back.

 

Hugo cleared his throat. “Ladies and Gentlemen this young lady has an announcement for you all.” He was treating her like she was on a game show.

 

Most of the crowded patio look over at them. She really had no choice now. She slowly edged closer to the pool.

 

“Come on then!” Hugo called out from behind her making her want to throttle him.

 

“This is a dare by the way.” She awkwardly explained to the crowd.

 

The confused murmurs turned to cheers when she finally pulled her cami top over her head, there was less commotion at her graduation than this. She was left in denim shorts and a lacey bra. As she unbuttoned her shorts a voice stopped her.

 

Felix jogged over. “What the hell are you doing?!”

 

He put down the bottle of wine and moved to stand in front. He grasped her upper arms, blocking the view of her half naked body. He gazed at her chest for a second before looking back up at her bashfully.

 

“I leave you for five minutes and-where are your clothes?!" He asked her.

 

Having him stand this closely sent a shiver through her, although it could be the fact, she was shirtless.

 

"I was dared to jump in the pool in my underwear." She explained the confidence leaving her voice.

 

"Hurry up!" Hugo yelled, a few others egging him on.

 

"Fucking prick." Felix muttered under his breath. This made her smile.

 

"I should probably get on with it." She told him, the pool growing more and more omninous.

 

Felix exhaled heavily. "Before you do that."

 

He pulled off his own shirt making her jaw drop a little, no matter how many times she had seen him shirtless in the past two weeks it always caught her off guard. His act earned him a few wolf whistles.

 

She let out a shocked laugh. "You didn't have to do that."

 

He shook his head. "What kind of friend would I be if I let you do this alone."

 

"She needs to take off more!" RJ shouted.

 

"Nope no she doesn't!" Felix shouted back.

 

He held out his hand to her and she took it.

 

"Ready?" He asked with a smile.

 

"Ready." She said smiling back.

 

They ran towards the pool and plunged straight in. When they surfaced from the water other people had started to jump in some even fully clothed. They begun to laugh.

 

He moved some of the wet hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. His hand didn't completely leave her face, delicately tracing her cheek bone. She blinked up at him, noticing for the first time the flecks of green in his hazel eyes. She was so close to him she could feel the heat from his body.

 

 Both their heads tilted and inched closer. She gazed down to his lips which looked so plump and inviting.

 

"You know I never realised you had freckles on your nose." Felix told her, her eyes flickering back up to meet his.

 

She chuckled. "Oh yeah?"

 

He softly laughed. "Yeah, they're really pretty."

 

Suddenly someone crashed into the pool straight next to them, practically a wave of water hitting them. They moved apart from one another the moment gone.

 

The person who had interrupted them was of course Farleigh who grinned at them cheekily.

 

"Are you  gonna gaze into each other's eyes or are we gonna have some fun?" He asked making them both huff out in annoyance.

 

She would spin what had happened between them round and round in her mind later, for now her friend was right it was time to have some fun!

 

*

Several hours later they were sat in a cab on their way home. She was now fully dressed again but her hair was still damp from the pool. She had also drunken much more than she intended. Both Venetia and Farleigh were asleep one in the front seat the other in the back. Only her and Felix were awake.

 

She stared up at him giddily, leaning into him.

 

He looked at her in amusement. “Why are you just staring at me?”

 

She hiccupped. “I’m trying to work out how you’re so attractive.”

 

“Genetics? I don’t know.” He chuckled. “Why are you thinking about that anyway?”

 

She ignored his question. “Like tonight you looked incredible, and I hate that I didn’t tell you that.”

 

He grinned at her. “How did you get this drunk?”

 

She liked him so much it was suffocating, and it was frustrating that despite wanting to hide it he’d never been able to tell. With the alcohol lowering her inhibitions it was harder to suppress her true feelings.

 

She sighed and flopped back against her seat, head spinning. “You just don’t get it!”

 

“I don’t get what?”

 

“Just how much you effect me.”

 

“Effect you?”

 

“Yes.” She said matter of factly. “It drives me literally crazy.”

 

“What-what are you talking about, are you trying to tell me something?” He asked her his tone becoming more serious.

 

The spinning got worse, this would have to wait. She rested her head on Felix’s shoulder.

 

“Sorry do you mind? My head hurts.” She asked voice slurred.

 

He felt rigid against her but eventually relaxed. “No of course not. Why don’t you close your eyes.”

 

Once she closed her eyes in her hazy state, she could’ve sworn she felt him stroke her hair.

*

When the cab arrived back at Saltburn they all blearily woke up. They tipped the cab driver and went into the house. Venetia and Farleigh wished them goodnight and went in the direction of their respective bedrooms.

 

She swayed a little when she walked, the short nap not fully sobering her up. Felix put an arm around her helping to guide her up the stairs.

 

When they reached the landing she tripped on the carpet nearly losing her footing.

 

He let out a sigh. “This is killing me, come here.”

 

“What are you doing-“She was cut off by him picking her up and carrying her bridal style. She gripped onto his neck and giggled in disbelief, about how this gorgeous man was now carrying her through the halls of a grand house like she was some damsel in distress.

*

He carefully placed her back on her feet once she was in her bedroom.

 

“Stay here I’m getting you a glass of water.” He told her going into the bathroom.

 

She sat on the edge of the bed leaning back on her hands whilst she waited for him. He came back from the bathroom and passed her the glass of water. He sat down next to her, patiently waiting for her to finish it. She set the empty glass on the bedside table nearly dropping it.

 

“All good?” He said.

 

She kissed his shoulder. “Yeah, thank you.”

 

She had never even kissed him on the cheek before. He touched the spot she had kissed. He was looking at her in this way that was different, she couldn’t fully determine what it was yet. “You know earlier when you said about me effecting you? Well I didn’t really understand what you meant but maybe I can show you how you effect me.”

 

She didn’t reply confused about where he was going with this. He gently took her hand and placed it on his chest. His heartbeat pulsed beneath her palm, the longer her hand stayed the quicker it became.

 

"Your heart's beating really fast right now." She quietly said.

 

His breath hitched. "Yeah I know."

 

She removed her hand and clasped it with her other, she could still feel his heartbeat. He gnawed at his lip waiting for her to give some type of response. She had a suspicion as to what he was trying to tell her, but she was too out of it to fully comprehend it. She didn’t know how on earth to react.

 

“Maybe it’s too late for this.” He softly said rubbing at the back of his neck. “I should let you sleep.”

 

He got up from the bed and went to leave the room, he looked back at her. Her lips parted but no words came out, after waiting long enough he gave up and closed the door behind him. She lay back on her bed trying to work out what had just happened.

Tag List: @emitaylorsverson @twiceinabluemoon

[insomniac4000]

Change of Heart Part 2

Second and final part, enjoy!

"So what are we doing for my birthday boys?" Chris asked excitedly. George and the pair of Arthur's looked at each other with knowing glances, since this was technically Arthur Hill's idea it was decided that he was going to be the one to break the news but he wanted to do it slowly.

"Well I'm actually playing a show in London that night and I thought you know... since we're flatmates that you guys could come, I've got VIP passes for you all. Maybe we could go out for a few drinks after?" Arthur said, his voice going a little high at the end through fear of what was about to come out of his mouth next.

"Sounds great, what's the catch?" Chris joked, oh he had no idea.

"Y/N's going to be there too, it's her show..." Arthur replied and flinched as he anticipated Chris was going to hit him. Instead the curly haired boy shook his head vigorously. These were meant to be his friends, how could they plan something they knew he would hate?

"That's fine. I'll see what Theo or Will or someone is doing instead." Chris was trying to stay as calm as possible but his words did not match his body language in the slightest. It was George who was the one to try and salvage the conversation, picking up on the panicked look from Arthur.

"Look Chris, this is at the Brixton Academy, it's Arthur's biggest gig to date. This is not about choosing sides in a stupid argument it's about supporting our flatmate and our friend," the younger tiktoker reasoned. He knew Chris wasn't an arsehole even if we was acting like one and Chris would want to be there to support Arthur if he could be.

"Fine. But I'm only there for Arthur," Chris sighed admitting defeat.

Chris was now on board, the boys thought it best to not specifically mention that to you that Chris was going to be at the show. Since you walked out of that pub garden you have had nothing to do with him and the guys had told you that "we" were going to be there so you assumed that it didn't include the little hobbit. So when you saw his scowling face in Arthur's dressing room it did come as massive shock.

"Technically we didn't lie to you," Arthur Hill said to you in a desperate attempt to defend himself.

"Whatever, I have no time to argue. I have a show to do." You stated simply before walking out of the room. Everyone was surprised you didn't try to engage in some sort of an argument but no one was as surprised as Chris. The bottom line was you were a professional and you had a lot of people you didn't want to let down. Even though you liked a drink you never drunk before a show, your voice sounded better that way, a fact that had also shocked Chris when Arthur told the group after George suggested going over to you with a drink as a peace offering after you had left the dressing room.

Arthur was on first and you went to see his set, like you did with everybody you played shows with in order to show support and also because you just loved music, you were also due to sing "Iced Coffee" with him which was closer to the end of the set. While watching him you clutched your bottle of water as you stood just to the right of George, Arthur was to his left and Chris was at the end. The curly haired boy kept glancing at you, you had changed into your stage outfit, a leather body suit with long but sheer sleeves and a sheer train at the back which just about touched the floor and a pair of black knee high boots. He had to admit to himself you looked really good and he wanted to kick himself for it, who was he kidding you always looked really good.

"Sure I can't tempt you?" George asked as he offered up his drink to you. You politely shook your head and turned to him.

"The minute I get off stage I promise,"

"That's quite honourable you know. It's weird how Youtube puts you in this bizzare bubble where it's not only acceptable to drink on the job it's encouraged. If I did that as a barrister I'd have been struck off," Arthur explained.

"That's true, I probably could but I think my voice just sounds a lot better sober," you explained. Chris's eyebrows raised a little, he didn't realise how hard you worked at your job and just hoe seriously you took your music career. He had assumed music was just something you did because you felt it was cool or popular and you just wanted something else to do as opposed to Youtube but he was slowly starting to realise just how wrong he was.

Soon it was time to join Arthur on stage as the moustached man introduced you.

"Now I would like to invite a very special person on stage that I knoe you're all waiting to see. Please welcome the insanely talented Y/N!!"

Chris couldn't help you watch you intensely, your smile wide as you gave a wave to the crowd. It was obvious to anyone that you absolutely loved performing to people. While he had heard your songs in the background when the other boys played it but he hadn't really paid attention before. Arthur started the song then you sang.

"Oh, we go up to go down Kiss, chase round and round Your head in my clouds, so high We're all over the place My hands on your waist Your changing the pace just like"

Chris didn't realise before how beautiful your voice was. It had a sad almost haunting tone to it which matched the lyrics to the song perfectly.

"I hate to be the one to clear the air This ain't no casual affair Don't mean the feeling wasn't there Just means you kinda made me scared"

You couldn't help but glance Chris's way a little when you sang the last line, you were always wondering what you did to make him hate you so much. The first time you appeared on his channel you made a couple of jokes but you were only trying to fit in. As you continued singing you felt the lyrics flow through you as you felt them.

I can't keep my cool When I'm around you I can't keep my cool When I'm around you

Chris knew that he had main character syndrome a lot of the time but he somehow knew that you were singing to him.

To his surprise Chris stayed for your entire set and watched as you effortlessly moved across the stage, singing your heart out.

After the show you came off stage' hot, sweaty and tired but that was just how it always was and you loved it.

"Wow you are really good," Chris commented as you walked past, a huge smile on your face. Everyone stopped for a moment and let Chris's comment, no Chris's compliment sink in.

"Thank you," you replied giving Chris a small smile before downing the bottle of water which was always left at the side for you after a show. Since he was showing you a little bit of kindness you thought he deserved a little back.

"Right, let's celebrate shall we?" You asked to a chorus of cheers as everyone went to get ready for the night out ahead. You had changed into something a little bit more comfortable, a black skirt and a white body suit with ruched sleeves and some white platformed trainers. Chris watched you as you spoke to people, some from the show, others you had worked with previously and he was impressed you remembered people's names, the lighting, the sound guy. Had he gotten you wrong all along? As the night went on and the drinks flowed everyone couldn't help but notice you and Chris had not bickered once, he had even just offered to get you a drink which you accepted.

"Thanks," you smiled as you took the glass of rum and coke from his hands.

"You're welcome, maybe it could be a peace offering?" Chris suggested. You looked at him and studied his face, he was quite cute when he wasn't pouting, well actually you thought he was very attractive when he was pouting. He had wonderful blue green eyes that changed colour depending on the light, sure you were a smidge taller than him in those shoes but it didn't bother you, he didn't give off short man energy instead he embraced it which you quite liked.

"Sure thing. I dunno what I ever did to make you despise me so much but I'm glad we're getting along now, only if it is for tonight," you slurred in his ear before taking a sip of your drink. Chris frowned and looked down at his feet, he was now feeling incredibly guilty in that moment.

"I never said I despised you," he slurred back, leaning on the bar for support.

"Sure acted like it, look I don't want to have another argument with you. Thanks for the drink and thank you for coming to my show," you replied before you went to walk off to talk to someone else. A pull on your hand stopped you, you looked back to see Chris holding on tightly with a look on his face you hadn't seen before, determination?

"I meant what I said. I think you're really talented tonight was great," he complimented and you nodded as you felt the blush rise in your cheeks, luckily the bar was hot so you could pass off any redness to that.

"Thank you. You're the only person I know who can make football interesting," you replied with a slight giggle, giggle? What were you a school girl? Chris nodded slowly as he licked his lips a little, God that was hot you thought.

"You're really beautiful as well. Maybe we could start again?" Chris asked letting go of your hand but placing it out in front of you as if he were asking you to shake it.

"Hi I'm Chris," he said confidently as he gave you a cheeky wink. Your face broke out into a big smile as you shook his hand.

"Hi I'm Y/N," you giggled out, biting on your bottom lip as he lifted your hand up and kissed it gently. Both of you looked so intently in the other person's eyes you both failed to notice the jubilant cheers going on in the background from Chris's flatmates.

[idv-sunsxin3]

Hello~! I would like to request a fluffy scenario in which Riddle Rosehearts plans to propose to his fem! s/o, asking her to be his future wife. Takes place after the events of Ghost Marriage. Make it super fluffy, please? Thanks!

Note// Y/N is considered as Yin instead of Yuu. Hope that's alright;;;

Note// I’m so glad I was able to speedrun to unlock his Ghost Marriage card before maintenance came- phew,,, :’3

It has been a few months since you last talked with Riddle after what happened that night. The series of events were undeniably unforgettable as they reminded you of certain thoughts that haven't crossed your mind for a while. Until now...

Thinking of the relationship you established with Riddle after years of growing your friendship since elementary... and how the future will it be for the both of you.

You're not worried about what happened back in his overblot arc, you're not worried about his strict mother who doesn't appreciate her son as much as you do, you're not worried if he ever hurts you someday... Because you have been already there to see him lose his mind, not only throwing it on everyone else but also at himself...

There's one single thought you haven't decided....

'Should i leave? Or should i stay...?' You carefully think, remembering the fact that you don't actually belong to NRC in the first place.

You were mistaken to be there when you're originally supposed to be in the Royal Tiara Academy. Technically the sister of Royal Sword Academy, an all-girls boarding school.

From the papers, the same exceptional report card as Riddle's, but different talents and career paths, Riddle's mother just knew you would rather belong in an environment full of goody-two-shoes princes and pricesses since the first glance-

Yet, a coffin happened to have snatch you away and escorted you to the NRC ceremonial hall--- your confused self finding yourself in ceremonial robes and waking up from a standing coffin that just opens magically, meeting curious, but puzzled eyes at the unusual newcomer.

But other than that, your lost eyes also met with a familiar pair of dark grey orbs... Riddle, elementary best friend, who also then became your high school sweetheart. Since the moment the magical mirror choose you to be in Heartslabyul.

It was an awkward situation at first from the 2 years of not seeing each other after middle school... The last year when you had to move away from the Queendom of Roses to a different land.

Yet, nothing can make Riddle seem more tender to anyone else other than you. He never thought you would come back to him, dreaming of you in his arms as you both hide beneath the painted rose bushes... yet here you are.

Of course, some obstacles happened that came between you two along... Riddle was notably greatly influenced by his mother's standards at that time... making him less lenient on rules with everyone in the dorm, rough yelling, and strict penalties here and there, leading to disagreements between you two by what would be the better for Heartslabyul. Some dorm studebts almost mistaken it as an "every night lovers' quarrel."

His once short-tempered and constant anger almost stopped you from holding on to him- yet you gave him the patience as time goes by, slowly waking him up from all the madness he has been going through- it was a tough task since it happened like a very steep downhill roller coaster ride, especially with the overblot event. It slowly worked out at the end.

So... why is Riddle not saying anything?

Oh, right.

RTA's headmaster discussed with the headmaster Crowley and decided to schedule a day to pick you up and escort you back to the royal academy.... The news seemed to affect Riddle a lot in a negative behavior. No matter how much you assure him that there are the possibilities to see each other more often outside the campus, Riddle is slowly growing more gloomy than ever in his little corner.

Until one day, he broke out of his bubble. Wanting to man up and speak to you like you both always do, before he ever loses his chance.

Taking the opportunity that he found you at the usual spot, you both often go together. A hidden part of the rose maze only you two, Che'nya, and Trey know so well, where a there is a table accompanied with 4 chairs. With a bonsai of a little cherry tree sitting on the center of the table.

He saw you there sitting at the round table all alone, looking down at the little cherry tree's pot. Even despite all the roses painted red or white waiting to be painted in red, there is always a single cherry tree hidden in the maze where Riddle just couldn't have the heart to get rid of... because you gave him the tree as an anniversary gift.

Nonetheless, the housewarden quietly walked towards you before sitting across. Everything was just silence, it is hard to figure whether it was uneasy or pleasant... Riddle has no used to desperately trying to find the right words to say quickly, and instead, he breathes in and tries to search for the right words, no matter how long it will take. Knowing you, you don't seem bothered by how quiet it seems.

"Have you wondered why the cherry tree hasn't grown yet?" You broke the silence with a gentle question. A purely curious tone. Your eyes are not looking away from the pot.

"...I have once." The red-haired whispered back, only glancing at the other's face with hands neatly folded on his lap.

It was the honest reply... Why hasn't the little tree haven't grown yet? It has never changed its appearance for 2 years already.

"That’s because it is meant to be designed to grow and change with you." You simply replied, recording back to the memory when you put a permanent spell on that tree. "And even if you're ever gone, the tree will be left as your legacy as long as you're remembered."

"What if I'm ever forgotten...?" Riddle then asked, his tone sounding quite soft and frail. Seem to afraid of the idea.

"That will never happen," you assured quite firmly, "Because I'll always remember you for the next 70 years of my life probably, and I'll never stop thinking of that smile of yours...!" You pointed determinedly. Also maybe a hint of light teasing.

"A-Ah...." Riddle stammers, ears going lightly red at the statement you made. He raises his gloved hand to cover his lower part of his face as you laugh softly at how your boyfriend is slowly turning red per second.

After a few minutes, your laughter slowly subdues into chuckles. Before giving a one more sad smile.

"Are you... angry at me?"

"Goodness- no." Riddle stops blushing before denying a bit.

"You seem very upset lately,,,"

"Well- i'm angry because i can't even bring myself to be angry!" Riddle lightly frowns which almost looks like a small pout, forming fists on his lap, "Right when you're getting comfortable here, those pompous princes and princesses now need you back? It's been already 1 and a half years!"

"It was indeed a tough situation," you admit lightly as you sipped your cup of tea, "but then again, RSA and NRC have this heated rivalry, so it was probably the same between RTA and NRC..."

"I- Yin..." Riddle hesitates, his voice frowing less exasperated into a hopeless one. "Stay..."

"Riddle...." You start off softly too, trying to reach for his hand. He seemed to hesitate, however. But he didn't want to look away from you either, fearing you'll depart at any moment.

The place you both are in has been always magical,,, but why does it feel more bittersweet?

"I need to confess... -"

"What kind of confession...?" You lightly ask, a bit curious what your beloved needs to say.

To be more honest, you were the first one out of the two of you to ask out- so it was astonishing to see Riddle taking initiative by words.

Which can also mean it's crucially important.

"I know it has been only 3 years since we started this relationship... And that we're too young for this step-," Riddle struggles to begin, the ironic it might sounds when he's a big spokesperson in debates, "but i just want to know, if you can wait with me until i give you a real ring...-"

These few words cued Riddle to hold your hand so tenderly, interlocking it before slowly unfolding your fingers....

Revealing a simple, silver band with a carved rose as the base in your ring finger.

",,,Would you be my future wife, just as I'm forever yours?"

"..."

"Yin... Please stay. I... I don't know what will i do if you leave..."

"..."

"It will never be the same if we part ways again,,,"

Your silent reaction slowly worries Riddle as the fear for rejection is starting to eat him up bit by bit.

Until tears started to slowly fall off your pretty eyes before embracing your boyfriend, now fiancé, a bit more tightly than before.

"Always... Always with you,,,." You quietly whispers through your sobs as you lovingly sit yourself on Riddle's lap out of innocent intentions, still hugging him in your arms before Riddle gently guided your face to share a soft, tender kiss. You complied with no more words, now sealing one thing you have been trying to decide...

"Yin... I love you."

"I love you, Riddle.”

"How... How are we going to tell the RTA's headmaster?" Riddle addresses one thing, a bit concerned. He struggled in wanting you to stay but also knows how much you wanted to return to the rightful academy you once called it "home."

"I'll tell him i already have a home here i already belong in." You shortly answered, smiling softly at Riddle before placing another kiss on his flushed cheek. Then, changing the subject into the topic about hedgehogs.

'I'll stay in Heartslabyul with him, then..' You thought, feeling all the weight in your head brushed away for the first time.

[bregee13]

Drawn to Life: Mario Party Edition (DS)

Round One

(Last Chapter)

(Also Available on ao3)

💸

After a quick loading screen, a bird's eye view of the board appeared on everyone's devices. The board was a giant pinball machine. It was dark, but with many bright neon colors and flashing lights. Parts of the board looked like it was ripped straight from a casino. 

Grinning, Wilfre could hardly contain his excitement. 'It looks just how I wanted that wasteland to be!'

The other three players looked up from their screens at Wilfre. His tail wagged violently. But none of them dared to bring it up and ruin his mysterious intimidating aura.

Then came the time to roll the dice.

"Okay, uh…" Mike, trying to redirect attention to the game, began to explain. "This is what will decide the turn order. Highest number goes first. Everyone ready?"

The Raposa nodded and pressed their buttons.

Jowee rolled a six.

Mike rolled a three.

Wilfre rolled a one, which made Jowee laugh.

Wilfre's grin fell and his tail stopped.

After glaring at Jowee, Mari rolled a nine.

"Woah! Nice roll, Mari!" Jowee complimented.

Mari sheepishly smiled. "Thanks, Jowee." 

"Looks like you'll be going first, Mari!" Mike added.

Wilfre grumbled to himself.

Mari shrugged to the group.

After receiving ten coins each, the first star appeared at the top segment of the board.

"Alright, before we get started, do you guys want me to explain how things work?" Mike asked. "Or would you rather go into it blind?"

"Ooh! Don't tell us anything! I wanna see it all firsthand!" Jowee exclaimed.

"Mm, I dunno... I really think I'd rather know what I was doing..." Mari interjected.

"Oh." Mike looked at the two, stumped. "Looks like we're tied, huh."

*ahem!* Wilfre cleared his throat.

"O-Oh. Uh, right!" Mike's skin crawled. "W-What do you think? Uh-"

"Wilfre."

"Y-Yeah, that's it... What do you want?"

"What I want is to get straight to the game. Seems simple enough to figure out."

"O-Oh. Okay well uh.. Guess we're going straight into it."

"Wait a minute, what about Mari?" Jowee argued. "She's going first! Shouldn't she choose?"

"Oh. Well, that's a good point."

Wilfre rolled his eyes under his hood and impatiently groaned.

They ignored Wilfre as their attention turned to Mari. "Well, Mari?" Mike asked.

"Uhh," Her gaze turned to Jowee, who gave her a reassuring smile. Then she turned to an annoyed Wilfre. "Um," She turned to Mike. "I guess I'll be fine without an explanation."

Jowee's gaze saddened.

"Alright then. Go ahead and roll. But if you change your mind, let me know, okay?"

Mari nodded and rolled a five. She moved straight ahead until she got under an archway. "Tap the spinner, see if you're a winner," she read aloud. She pressed a button. Mario cried 'Oh no' as she didn't win.

Moving on, she landed on a friendship space. "What's this?" She was prompted to choose a player to share coins with. "Choose a friend, huh?" She selected Jowee. They both received five coins. "This is for you, friend!"

Jowee perked up and grinned. "Aw, why thank you friend!" His cheeks turned pink.

Wilfre shook his head. 'These two better not be like this the entire time.'

Then came Jowee's turn. His tail wagging, he rolled an eight. "Nice!" He followed Mari through the jackpot archway, and passed by her. Picking up a hex along the way, Jowee had the star in his sights. "I'm gonna get it before you, Mari!" He teased.

"Nuh uh! You're short by two spaces!"

"Well, I'm still closer than you!" Jowee turned to the path of the star and landed on a red space, which made him lose three coins. "Aw, what!? That's not fair!"

Mari giggled.

'God, if he's saying that about a red space, how the heck is he gonna react to everything else?!' Mike rolled a five. But instead of heading toward the archway, he turned left. 'If I go this way, I'll go in the shop next turn. Besides, one of them will probably get the star by the time I get there anyway.' Mike landed on a blue space, gaining three coins.

Then came Wilfre's turn. After looking over the board, he rolled a nine.

"Uh, nice roll!" Mike complimented.

Wilfre nodded. Following Mike, he turned left. Passing by him, Wilfre entered the shop and carefully browsed before buying a double dice for three coins.

Jowee glared at Wilfre. 'He pressured Mari because he was impatient to sit in the shop for a bazillion years??'

After leaving the shop, Wilfre landed on a green space. A flipper whammed against Daisy, making her soar up into the air toward the top of the board. And as soon as she went up, she came crashing down directly onto a bumper. 

Jowee couldn't help but laugh a little. 'Serves him right!'

After the fall, the bumper awarded Wilfre with ten coins.

"WHAT!?" Jowee's mood instantly took a turn.

"Whoa! That's a lot of coins!" Mari noted.

"Oh, yeah, that's what those green spaces by the flippers do." Mike explained.

"That's not fair!!" Jowee complained.

Mike shrugged. "That's just how Mario Party is, sorry." 'Oh God no, what horrible mistake did I just make?"

Then came time for the minigame.

"Okay! Minigame time!" Mike redirected. "This is the main way to get coins."

Mario and Daisy's icons changed to blue and red respectively. 

"Oh. Looks like this will be a two versus two game."

The game roulette rolled through four of the minigames to choose. 

"Two versus two? You mean two of us against the other two?" Mari asked. "Who?" 

"Uhh, you'll see."

The game picked a minigame called Hanger Management. Where the players ride a hanger on a wire, and each team cooperates to get to the end first. And the teams were..

"Me and Mari versus Jowee and Wilfre..."

Jowee looked down at his game, distraught. 

"Aw, I'm sorry Jowee," Mari patted his back. "Maybe we'll team up next round, friend!"

"Yeah... Thanks, friend." He looked over to Wilfre, who was glaring at him underneath his hood.

"You better keep up."

Jowee sunk into his scarf. "Y-yeah."

Mike looked at the two before pulling Mari aside. "...Are you sure that guy is good now?"

"Um, yeah. Wilfre is just uh. Readjusting to things," She paused. "Jowee will be okay. Yeah." She nodded, reassuring herself.

"Okay," Mike said, unconvinced. "And don't worry about the minigame. I know this game like the back of my hand." He boasted.

"Uh, thanks"

The game started. Both teams got up to a rough start. "Left! No, Right! Your other Left!"

But after a second, Mari saw what Mike was doing and quickly picked up on what to do. Balancing evenly on their hanger, they started going much faster.

"Yeah! That's it!" Mike cheered.

Meanwhile, Wilfre and Jowee continued at a screechingly slow pace. "Watch out for the-" Jowee winced. "-Pole."

"You Baki, we're stuck! Move to the left!" Wilfre snapped.

"What!? You're the one who got us stuck!"

Wilfre and Jowee continued to argue, constantly bumping into things. And as a result of their poor communication, they lost.

Toad and Mario jumped and cheered, as they won. They were both awarded with ten coins.

"Nice work, teammate!" Mike complimented.

"Ah, thanks!"

"Hey Mari, good game!" Jowee shook her hand.

"Good game, Jowee!"

Wilfre stared at the other three, irritated. But, wanting to save face, he took a breath and nodded. "Yes, good work. But it isn't over yet," He looked down at his screen to see Mari had taken first place. "Not even close."

End Round Stats

Mari: 0 Stars, 25 Coins, no Items, 0 Items Used, 0 Blue Spaces, 0 Red Spaces, 0 Green Spaces, 0 Hexes Set, 1 Friends Made, 1 Minigames Won, 5 Steps Taken

Jowee: 0 Stars, 12 Coins, Ten Coin Hex, 0 Items Used, 0 Blue Spaces, 1 Red Spaces, 0 Green Spaces, 0 Hexes Set, 0 Friends Made, 0 Minigames Won, 8 Steps Taken

Mike: 0 Stars, 23 Coins, no Items, 0 Items Used, 1 Blue Spaces, 0 Red Spaces, 0 Green Spaces, 0 Hexes Set, 0 Friends Made, 1 Minigames Won, 5 Steps Taken

Wilfre: 0 Stars, 17 Coins, Triple Dice, 0 Items Used, 0 Blue Spaces, 0 Red Spaces, 1 Green Spaces, 0 Hexes Set, 0 Friends Made, 0 Minigames Won, 9 Steps Taken

[car-lozsigns]

A few minutes more (Pt16)

Synopsis: You and Carlos had crossed paths more than you thought was possible over a short weekend but time was not on your side. A love story that’s about the slow burn and companionship built connection, and how sometimes right place wrong time is the best of the available options

Author Note: Same as the previous part, there is the mention of covid in the early stages, story part in March 2020.

Length:~4.6k

Warnings: covid mention

Previous parts: Link to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15

Part 16

Carlos’ racing schedule and commitments picked up as Melbourne approached, him being distracted in calls but still putting the effort to be present. The remarks of ‘so many days to go’ and ‘can’t wait to see you’ picked up in frequency the closer you got to March. But with it also increased the anxiety. You were lucky you never really had to worry about it but the world affairs were bleeding into your mental resolve for the first time you could remember. You tried the push the news from your mind not allowing yourself to read the breaking story and choosing instead to remain ignorant to protect your own mental health. Was this a long term solution, no, but you just wanted to make it to March and you’ll worry about the virus that keeps coming up in conversation afterwards.

Carlos and you had planned on a call the week prior that you would fly into his hometown on the Thursday after work, then spend two days with you before a family Saturday night dinner introducing you to his parents where you and him were to stay the night and Sunday night, you and Carlos flying out Monday morning, you back to the UK and him to Melbourne.

The Wednesday before your weekend in Spain the mood was exceptionally uneasy across the office, many people opting to stay away from work with the news of this new respiratory illness making its way across Europe. Your work was encouraging people to only work in the office if required, with many already working a hybrid model to account for the cross timezone projects your team often were engaged with.

Your boss was hesitant to approve your leave to Spain with the news of everything picking up, it seeming worse than a regular flu that emerged every winter. You appeased them however, letting them know that you were bringing your laptop with you in case the worse was to happen and you had to stay a few extra days, you could always work from your hotel. You checked in with your team Wednesday morning but in seeing everyone was working from home you decided to pull a sick day to get your flight changed a day early to surprise Carlos. 

You had expected changing your flight would have been difficult last minute but there were plenty of spare seats, people in the UK weary of the news coming out of Spain and Italy, with many apparently cancelling their trips. Arriving at the airport for your flight on Wednesday night you noticed how much everything had changed in a few short months; everyone was wearing face masks, some even with gloves. The nerves were heightened from the regular type you see at the terminal, people trying to keep their distance from each other. Maybe ignoring the news hadn’t been the best idea you told yourself as you stepped in to purchase a face mask and bottle of hand sanitiser before waiting at your gate. 

Carlos had finalised your plans and schedule, you had messaged him saying you had the ok to travel, him sending through the itinerary he had meticulously prepared. you. You checked it one more time before boarding to see if he had made any last minute changes to the google doc and seeing it all the same, switched your phone to flight mode and tried to calm yourself for the flight. 

You had timed your flight with him so that you wouldn’t miss your regular call with him. So when Carlos answered he wouldn’t expect or notice anything different until you showed him the surprise. 

When Carlos’ phone rang on Wednesday night he was playing his dad in a game of chess. Normally the family rules of no phones during play was strictly enforced but as your name lit up the screen showing you were calling exactly at 7pm like normal , Carlos senior resigned that his son would be lost to him for the next hour, allowing him to look up potential moves to win the session.

“Hi Carlos, how was your day?” You tried to sound calm but you noticed the excitement seeping out in your voice.

“Hello, my day was good” Carlos started him launching into his activities as he walked out of the living room to the veranda. Carlos continued talking for a while him not allowing you to get a word in. You had intended on telling him straight out but Carlos was on a role, you decided to move the phone away from your face standing in front of the baggage carousel holding the phone out just wide enough so that your screen showed the “arrivals” sign in the background. You checked the time and waited to see how long it would take Carlos to notice you weren’t at home like you were meant to be.

He talked for another 6 minutes before he noticed, he was pacing around the backyard not focusing on the phone but where he was walking.

You saw his face scrunch slightly as you saw him take in where you were standing.

He had organised you to fly in Thursday after work, a reminder set on his phone to pick you up as soon as you had landed but he saw you standing at an arrivals today.

“YN is today Thursday? Did I miss your flight I thought I had set alarms?”

You laughed at this

“Nope, it’s Wednesday and guess who changed their flight to Wednesday?” You smiled the cheesiest grin when you saw the pieces click into place on Carlos’ face.

“Are you telling me you’re in Madrid, you’ve been here this entire call?”

Carlos was shocked but surprised in a good way

“I was going to but then I didn’t wasn’t to interrupt”

“YN come on you could be in my arms already, what terminal are you at I’m getting you now”

You replied with where you were sending him a pin of your location to help.

Carlos didn’t bother getting changed he swiped keys from the front door and called out to his parents he will be back soon, before driving much too fast to the airport.

The airport was quieter than Carlos expected it to be. Normally he’d have to queue to get into the pick up bays but there were only a few taxis and shuttle buses. Carlos like you had an uneasy feeling about what was happening and traffic is usually the sign something was amiss. Both he and his family had been checking the news everyday, with all of their career’s dependent upon travel they all wanted to know as much as they could, then finding information helped quell stress instead of induce it like the news did for you.

News coming in was influx with contradicting messages. It was safe to travel one day, the next it wasn’t, the next it was ok to travel as long as you hadn’t been in Asia. What was constant though was that in checking the restrictions and government guidance both of your plans were still allowed for now. So Carlos, entering the airport arrivals and seeing you with your suitcase confirmed it was safe enough for you to be here and that was all he cared about.

He pulled into the 15 minute bay, car still running, handbrake on, threw the door open and scooped you up in his arms. His hug was tight and lifted your feet a good foot off of the floor spinning you around quickly. You went to bend you head down to kiss him but he whispered to you.

“Not here” Letting you go and picking up your suitcase and hoisting it into the boot of his car.

When you were back on the road it was then Carlos unstoppered his excitement.

“You’re here early! Why didn’t you tell me!”

“Surprise” was all you said laughing at Carlos. He had surprised you and now you had returned the favour, seeing him that happy was worth it and you were glad you had changed his meticulous plans

“I haven’t called the hotel to change the booking but I was hoping that I could just stay with you tonight?” you said trying to sound casual.

“Of course YN plus with all the news going about I know I’d feel more comfortable with you in our home instead of in town”

“About that, I haven’t really read too much into things, how bad are they? I didn’t want to psyche myself out of the trip so I haven’t really caught up on everything” Caught up on anything you should have said.

Carlos knew travelling made you nervous, so he started at the beginning, the trip wasn’t too long back to his house and he tried to catch you up on the important details before he arrived home. The news Carlos conveyed across was not good, you maybe should have listened to your boss and seen the warning signs in his hesitancy when you brought up your trip, too late now, you were here.

Carlos lived outside the city centre, tucked away in what you would have called the suburbs, roads lined with leafy trees that looked like they had been there for decades , houses tucked behind greenery and the road front. The neighbourhood was starkly different to the built up area where your apartment was, it was closer in resemblance to suburbs back home but you couldn’t think of any of your childhood friends houses that had this much space between them and their neighbours.

“Welcome home” Carlos said quietly as he turned into a narrow driveway that was hidden behind an unkempt hedge with a large automatic wrought iron gate. As the gate pulled to the side, Carlos drove slowly up a dimly lit driveway, leading downhill. His family home was midway along a hillside, a sprawling and surprisingly modern home, a little out of place with the ancient overgrown trees and gardens. You weren’t expecting something so new and something so large, you understood that Carlos was well off but for some reason that hasn’t registered that his family was well off too. Carlos had stopped the car outside a closed garage and made to remove your bags, you standing up hesitantly taken aback by his home.

Carlos sensing your apprehension, tried to loosen one shoulder with a squeeze of his hand “It looks bigger than it is” with a wink led towards the wide wooden front door.

Carlos was a liar. What greeted you was large open space with walls made out of smooth polished concrete, walls laid out in subtle parque. You could hear noise coming from further inside the depths and Carlos let go of your bags by the front door and made to lift your handbag from your shoulder to leave it out if the way.

He took your hand and led the way. You knew that in surprising him it would mean a sooner than planned meeting his parents but the risk and anxiety attached with that did not outweigh how much you missed Carlos. So you swallowed, and took a deep breathe ready to put on a brave face in front of two people Carlos cared about deeply.

Carlos senior had seen pictures of you before. Carlos junior, when he had the chance had shown his dad the pictures of your trip away and any updates you sent through, so he was not surprised but the person standing by his son’s side. Carlos’ mother however did not know what to expect of his son’s source of happiness. She had been trying for months to get a morsel of information out of her husband and son but neither had slipped up.

**********

Carlos senior looked up from the chessboard at the sound of the pair of footsteps stopping. But instead of looking at his son and partner, directed his attention to his wife. Reyes took in a shallow breathe at the woman standing by her son’s side. She was stunning, in a way that was wholly complimentary to Carlos. Where he was calm and reserved this woman was confident and self-assured , strong in her posture conveying her attempt at standing up to this power play instead of hiding behind Carlos like his other girlfriends had. This woman unlike her son, had her emotions open to everyone, Reyes could see the love pouring out of her in the very way she was holding her son’s hand to the way that she had slightly angled in her body to him not straight on. These mannerisms reminded Reyes of a younger her when she had fallen in love with Carlos senior. In those days there weren’t many pictures of them together but she would have bet that if she someone had taken a picture when she first met her parent in-laws and compared it to the image in front of her they would have almost been identical.

Although this young lady in front of her reminded her of a younger self, she physically looked nothing like Carlos’ mother. Where Reyes and her daughters were angular with long lines and delicate features, the woman in Carlos’ arms was soft and supple hiding the strength Reyes had captured in your stance. Finally Reyes thought, someone who cares about who Carlos for who he is not who Carlos shows himself as. In the few short seconds that had passed, Reyes had decided regardless of what happened tonight, this woman was perfect for her son and she would do everything in her power to help Carlos hold onto her.

Carlos senior was not surprised by the intake of his wife’s breathe but the flicker of emotion that she had let slip was tucked away as quickly as it flashed across her stoic features, if he hadn’t been looking he would have missed it but the slip in her mask was all he needed to see. His role for the night would be supportive father, he didn’t need to be concerned or the convincing husband, his wife had already decided on her own.

As close as Carlos was with his father, he was his mother’s son. The two men may be spitting images of each other but Carlos junior and Reyes were one in the same. Both stubborn as they come but their stubbornness and conviction was very early misplaced.

Carlos senior stood up from his chess game, “You must be YN, welcome to Spain, we are very lucky to have you here with us” ending his greeting with a warm smile as he made his way to his wife placing an arm around her back. “I’m Carlos and this is my wife Reyes” Reyes moved her head to the side and broke into a smile that crinkled her eyes in the same way as her sons.

“Welcome to our home, Carlos show her around I’m sure she wants to freshen up before we talk some more”.

At his mother’s direction he started to lead you both back to the long corridor behind you before you had a chance to introduce yourself. Twisting back to Carlos’ parents you called back “Lovely to meet you!”

In a family full of travellers there was nothing worse than keeping the plane on you so there was an easy understanding when the young couple walked away from the older one.

Carlos guided you with his hand loosely against the small of your back pointing out along the way various rooms and their purposes before he stopped at the end of a passage hand hovering above the handle. You didn’t need Carlos to say that this was his room, the belongings inside told you what you needed to know. Everything was neatly laid out, bed made with a nondescript off white bed spread, helmets and trophies covering the shelves that were floor to ceiling along all the walls, bar the bay window that showed an amber lit patio.

All the things were Carlos’ but you got the distinct feeling that he didn’t use this room very much. Carlos had hovered by the door, waiting to follow you in to add commentary to your inspection of his childhood bedroom. He only stayed here when he had dinner at his parents’ house. Most of his time he stayed at his apartment in the town centre, with his work schedule so busy, when he was signed to McLaren he purchased a small home for himself to save on the commute time. That and all of his siblings had moved out with their partners, he didn’t want to be the sole focus of his parent’s attention, staying amongst his teen trophies that he was still their little boy and not an adult.

Your suspicions were confirmed with all awards and trophies dated prior to 2015. The pictures of Carlos smiling back to you was maybe 10 years younger than the one who stood at your back. Youthfulness evident with his toothy smiles and crinkled eyes on podiums and in the arms of his cousins and friends. The harshness of the world hadn’t touched him yet. The Carlos in the photos you had seen in your search had a clipped smile never touching his soul. You saw just how much your companion had changed over the years, and it sadden you how quickly he had to grow a tough exterior.

You had circled through the room before Carlos spoke up.

“I don’t stay here very often but when I do it’s as I left it” He wasn’t embarrassed by saying it, Carlos was proud of his upbringing, why would he be ashamed of his childhood even if it was a shell to what you would have experienced.

“Will you be staying here tonight?” You tenderly raised. As much as this room was nostalgia, staying in Carlos’ childhood bed at his parent’s house was not what you felt comfortable with.

Carlos saw the question you had hidden in the one you asked. “I will be yes, I’ve set up the guest room for you already”. Carlos in his anticipation had set up your room well ahead of time, his anxiety not letting his mind rest until he had done so the prior weekend.

He took your hand and directed you back the way you both had come, sliding open a glass door leading you out onto the patio towards a smooth path that mirrored the one at the houses entrance.

What you had thought was a backyard shed was actually a granny flat, and one much larger than you had initially sized up. It was more akin to a small townhouse, two stories with large worn stone bricks only broken by a few narrow windows. An old creeper plant of sorts had crawled up one of the walls with sparse leaves smattering the searching vines.

Carlos twisted a narrow door knob, lightly pushing the door open. Inside it was like stepping back in time, a worn paved floor stretched in front with a small wooden table covered in a transparent plastic cover with two chair pushed in the centre of the room, the left had an L shaped kitchen with a seventies narrow metal sink and sun worn scalloped lace curtains. The right of the room was a sitting area with dark brown fabric couches with laced doilies placed at the head rest area of each. The chairs were facing a stone fireplace with a narrow charred looking iron grate placed on the hearth.  

“My parents bought the house when they were married this was where they lived until they built the main house. They lived here until I was born as there is only one bedroom they finally decided they needed more space.”

Carlos had fond memories of this small home, many a summer his grandparents had stayed here, memories tied to helping his grandmother cook with him standing on a chair by the sink, playing cards with his grandfather at the table , or trying to play toy cars with the grout patterns between the tiles on the floor.

“My grandparents used to stay here until recently but now we take them to their home after they visit as they aren’t as young as they used to be. They prefer the comfort.”

You could picture a little Carlos running around the place stirring up trouble , a cheeky boyish smile greeting anyone who could him red handed.

You hadn’t noticed that tucked behind the main door was a smaller sliding wooden door which housed a narrow winding iron staircase, a concrete trough and narrow worn wooden bench with rain boots tucked in pairs neatly beneath. Carlos had switched on a hanging lamp and started to make his way upstairs. Two rooms were up here , a bedroom and a bathroom with of which matched the theme of downstairs save a new looking bed and renovated bathroom. Not quite as the seventies as the main area but more 90s but still a pleasant reminder that although Carlos and his family were well off, much more than you at this point could comprehend, were still appreciative of where they had come from, knowing that it was through hard work and sacrifice the reason for their current comforts.

Carlos was nervous that you wouldn’t like staying here, if you had protested or he had picked up on discomfort he would have offered for you to stay at his apartment, but he hoped that you would stay here, forming new memories alongside to the backdrop of his cherished ones from when he was little.

Carlos sat next to where you had placed yourself on the bed, “Just wait until you see the sun rose over those hills, you’ll love it”. You agreed with him, already In love with how candid Carlos was, knowing that what he said would solidify the fairy tale.

Dinner was an easy affair, Carlos parents were very similar to your own, fiercely protective of their son proving to be a united front in assessing you. Their facade although welcoming and kind staying in place for the evening, never slipping regardless of how much charm Carlos and yourself plied on.

You made a note to try again on the morning to see if they liked you tomorrow knowing that gaining their approval meant more to Carlos than you. His parents not liking you would crush Carlos so for his sake you would try again. But also told yourself that with the charm you wouldn’t bend over backwards and change yourself for them. You would for Carlos to make him happy as he would for you but it was the two of you together, not you dating his parents.

Carlos could see you becoming disheartened as dinner progressed to coffee. You had graciously helped clean up and prepare the hot drinks trying to see if Carlos’ mother would soften. But the warm parents who greeted you were still tucked away. So you had quieted as the night went, teaming it with yawns and hazy eyes trying to get them to see that it was time to call it for the night at which Carlos finally caught on close to one in the morning . Carlos excused the two of you collecting your bags front the front door and carrying them out to where you were staying. He ran through only how to run the hot water system before a final kiss goodnight. You didn’t hesitate turning for a warm shower and the night, wishing sleep bring you better luck tomorrow with getting his parents approval.

Unlike what you had assumed that Carlos’ parents disliked you, what had actually happened was a poorly executed plan in protective parents farce. While the two of you were touring the Sainz home, Reyes and Carlos senior had discussed tactics of how to approach the new lady in their sons life.

Reyes saw herself so clearly in you and whispered to her husband to follow her lead for the night. Carlos senior though apprehensive, did as his wife said, switching from his warm personality to one of protective father. It hurt him seeing his son slowly get confused as the night progressed. Questioning where were the parents on all of the arranged dinner dates and who had they replaced them with. Carlos senior however saw that as his son grew disappointed , you did too but still kept trying. It was the determination Reyes had been trying to seek out, and with you preparing coffee had been a crucial piece of the puzzle. For Reyes it was about familial respect as well as love. Her son could live whoever he wanted but if they were rude and improper she would try to get Carlos to see and to sway her son from his decision.

As Reyes had hoped, you had offered to help, never stepping on her toes a check in Reyes box. Tomorrow would be the second part of the puzzle, if her son could respect their wishes for the night. It didn’t matter to Carlos senior where the two of you stayed, you were both adults and educated not to be rash, but Reyes had only a few rules, one of which no sex while staying with the parents. She hoped Carlos could remember when they had could his older sister with her now fiancée and the verbal telling off Blanca had received. If Carlos could remember that for tonight then she was happy for the two of you with her blessing, time would tell in the morning.

Reyes excused herself for the night as her son re-entered the living room, clicking the back door shut from the encroaching chill.

Carlos, still confused nodded to his mother good night before taking a seat next to his father. They sat in silence waiting until the sound of water through the pipes started from the front end of the house signalling that their conversation wouldn’t be interrupted.

“I’m going to say this only once” Carlos senior was not acknowledging his son but maintained his stare into the dark gardens, his voice soft as if aware that if his wife caught him he’d be in serious trouble.

“You have both mine and your mother’s approval , she is all we want for you. You look at her like I looked at your mother when we first met.”

Carlos felt himself exhale a breath he hadn’t been conscious of holding.

“Your mother loves you very much but you know how she can be, she’ll let in YN, be patient son , the hard part is done.”

Carlos went to interject but his father continued “Your mother knows that if she missteps she will lose you, she will not do so , history will not repeat”

His father was alluding to his parents relationship with his maternal grandmother and the pain of that lost relationship that happened when Reyes introduced Carlos senior all those years ago, the catalyst for them living in the countryside away from her family to show that her decision which Carlos senior was lifelong and serious

Carlos senior glanced at his son and saw the confusion still there, they hadn’t spoken about his grandmother before so he didn’t know the story but he picked up the pieces enough to know that even though his mother looked like she wasn’t making an effort, she was actually doing as much as she could.

Carlos junior didn’t know it but as his parents were tucked in for the night, his mother whispered to his father “He’s finally found his person.” Before turning over and dozing. Carlos senior couldn’t help but agree happy at last that his family was now whole.

Link to Part 17

[beezonia]

Okay so I wanted to go over some basic stuff for the magic retold!

—-

Okay so Fairies can be either male or female same with witches I call the male counterparts warlocks

Wizards are warriors with magic, they hone their fighting skills alongside their magic and it powers their weapons

Whilst Warlocks focus on the negative sides of their magic (witches and warlock aren’t bad people they were painted that way) they don’t fight with weapons they fight with magic

So big difference is Wizards fight with weapons that are infused with magic whilst warlocks fight with their raw magic

Fairies tend to focus on the positive sides of their magic and help people more so then witches/warlocks

A group of fairies are called Fae and that is the general term for them in the magic dimension

Specialists are basically wizards but because they focus on their own magic and a certain weapons they got called specialists

So yes all the boys have certain bits of magic!

——

Alfea and Cloud Tower we’re all girls schools until about 10 years after the winx graduate (their early 30’s)

That’s when the headteachers after speaking with many alumni and other graduates decide to change making it so boys & girls or just any fairy, witch, warlock and wizard could choose which school to join with no repercussions

Red fountain bred wizards

Alfea bred fairies

Cloud tower bred witches

Warlocks studied in their own schools on their home planets until this change

And some fairies went to other academies (like Beta Academy in Solaria and Linphea College)

So now

Cloud tower welcomes witches and warlocks

Alfea welcomes all fae

Red Fountain now welcomes both wizards and warlocks also fairies and witches since some of these might want to go on to become warriors instead of actual fairies or witches/warlocks

So you have Damion and Caspian (Stella and Aisha’s sons) who ended up at Alfea and Cloud tower respectively

Pascal, Flora’s son ended up at Cloud Tower as well (he thrives there despite his shy nature)

Yijun, Musa’s daughter went to red fountain for a bit before transferring to Alfea in the middle of her first year!

Theodore, Stella’s eldest son is alumni of both cloud tower and red fountain (he graduated RF slightly earlier but took his last year at cloud tower)

So you get a variety of students at each college really!

—

Some other schools like Beta Academy and Linphea college had already done that or have still stayed as boarding schools of one gender

Beta Academy still only accepts female students

You have Leto Academy which is it’s male counterpart

Linphea college allows anyone of any gender to study there, Linphea is cool like that

Andros has the Underwater Auditorium for merfolk which is right underneath the Circle of Amphitrite so their close to their human counterparts

And there are plenty of other schools in the other planets but I might put that in a part 2!

[arguablysomaya]

This is a bit niche but Babs and Tim interacting with each other fic recs if you have any? Or if not just young justice being insane lol

i actually don't think i've seen too much of babs & tim... i do have some insane yj tho

by @charleswaterloo

There is an enormous container ship called the Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal. Young Justice is on the case. During their short adventure, they also: make a massive sand sculpture, enjoy some fanfiction, and unblock the Suez Canal. Not in that order. * ‘I am thinking,’ Tim said, with extreme calm, ‘that you have made something that looks like a very large penis when viewed from above.’

‘It’s a dick and balls, yeah,’ Bart said without embarrassment. ‘It’s poetic! I’m ending the journey like it started.’ * ‘Did you-’ Dick began, laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, ‘did you really tell him to: "at least make the shaft bigger”? Bart told Wally, and he told me but I have to know if it’s true, Tim. My life depends on it.’

i've probably recc'd this before but this crackfic should be given a plaque

by UntoldDepths

Tim's got a board zoom meeting in 15 minutes at Way Too Early and nothing ready to wear. His friends are absolutely no help and probably half the reason.

young justice are thirstyyyy

by @withthekeyisking-writer

When an alien invasion falls upon the Earth, Dick loses everything he holds dear.

Until he wakes up again.

Actually a crime this fic doesn't have more recognition

by Jonaira, Kimi_f

Conner was sure of only three things. One, Tim was a vampire. Two, he maybe really liked the guy. And three, Tim unconditionally and irrevocably hated him.

Conner has never really fit in. Pulled between a life of luxury, high expectations, and neglect with Lex or anonymity, living paycheck to paycheck, and awkward distance with Clark, Conner chooses the latter. He abandons his life in sunny Hawaii, leaving him miserable and biding his time until he can move out. That is, until he meets the dazzling Wayne family, and decides to unravel their supernatural mystery. Whether the Waynes like it or not.

Twilight AU. Kind of.

I have no excuse.

by Killthespare

The League has fallen. The team is dead. All that’s left is for Dick Grayson to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Easier said than done.

AU where dick grayson has to rebuild superhero society after failsafe kills a bunch of people. CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED!!!!!!! I'M NOT JOKING, PEOPLE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED

by wearealltalesintheend

Instead of dropping out of college to join Bludhaven Police Department, Dick Grayson takes a job at Gotham's Parks and Recreation Department.

In different ways, everyone follows.

Or, Parks and Rec AU

how much drama could one park even have?

by JadedJewels

Kyle lives in New York. Well, when he’s not living on Oa. He’s also kinda sorta dating Jason Todd and the batkids want to see what he’s all about. Kyle just thinks he’s lucky Batman himself hasn’t climbed through his window.

technically not about young justice but idc I wanted to rec it so here it is

by @leaping--lizards

Teen Titans Rebirth: Damian doesn't have any friends Me: okay but how about no

or, Damian Wayne's thirteenth birthday, done right.

An entire fic of damian being like that one tt audio "you asked me to make friends, I made friends. it was a task. i complete tasks."

[helltoyourdoorstepbtch]

Thomas x Kitty Headcanons #3

When Thomas finally started to realise he was in love with Kitty, he started panicking that he was "cheating" on Alison and wanted to let her know so he could "let her down gently"; alternatively, he's already over Alison by this point and they can be bros. Either way, once Thomas tells her his feelings for Kitty she's on board pretty quickly (it's cute and they'd be good for each other) and wants to help them get together.​

When Thomas tells the other ghosts he plans to Woo Kitty, they're less on board. Captain starts twitching. Cut to him chasing Thomas across a field. Pat helps calm him down but then also starts giving Thomas a shovel talk. He ends up getting about 20 shovel talks (the Plague Ghosts are here? And why is Mike trying to talk to him, he's facing the wrong way). However, once they see how badly he is at actually courting Kitty, they decide it's too painful to watch and all start giving him advice.​

He tries very hard to compose the perfect poem and after a lot of advice from the others manages to condense it down to just three hours! He ends up using a lot of confusing metaphors that Kitty doesn't really get, and she kind of gets distracted halfway through, but she still gives him feedback as always – not quite what he was going for though. ​

Alison suggests, since Kitty loves singing, he sings for her; he ends up choosing a sad song from a musical and she cries the whole way through.  He invites her on a “picnic” to the lake to cloud gaze but she does that with the Captain sometimes so it obviously couldn't be with romantic intentions! He invites her to watch their favourite films – again, chooses a sad chick flick that she cries the whole time through. ​

He tries every time to let her know his feelings but he either freezes, gets tongue-tied or she just doesn’t understand. She’s spent so long thinking she and Thomas would never have a chance that she doesn’t fully realise he’s serious.

The others try giving advice but that's even more confusing.

Thomas finally gives up trying to be romantic and just come out with it -​

Thomas: I've realised I'm in love with someone​

Kitty: really? That’s great, do they know?​

Thomas: Well, I've been dropping them the most insanely obvious hints for nearly a month now. No response.​

Kitty: Wow. They sound stupid.​

Thomas: But they're not! They're really smart actually. Just... dense.​

Kitty: Maybe you need to be more obvious? Like, I don't know... "Hey! I love you!"​

Thomas: I suppose you're right. Hey Kitty, I love you​

Kitty: See! Just say that!​

Thomas: Jesus fucking Christ ​

Kitty: If that flies over their head then, I'm sorry Thomas, but they're too dumb for you​

Thomas wants to smash his head into a wall but seeing as that's physically impossible for him, he decides to just go for it and kisses Kitty instead.​

He starts apologising for not asking her first but she just carries on kissing him. They do get to talk eventually (a while later) and explain their feelings to each other. From then on they're inseparable. ​

[pixelgrotto]

Pixelated Card Tactics

Whenever I look on Steam it seems like another digital card game's popping up. Apparently, the most recent hotness is Marvel Snap? I'm not especially informed, since when I play video games, I generally prefer to get lost in single-player, story-rich stuff. Also, if I'm going to play with cards, I'd rather hold 'em between my actual fingers - though to be frank, I don't play physical card games too often, or at least one-on-one stuff like Magic: The Gathering. This is largely due to the fact that I don't like losing. I wouldn't say I have a competitive personality, but when I'm up against a single foe, I'm awfully self-conscious about getting my butt whooped. (Cooperative or story-based card games like Arkham Horror are another thing.)

Whining aside, there are exceptions to my "meh" feelings toward 1v1 digital card games, and the biggest one is Duelyst, which can best be described as Hearthstone with strategic positioning. In Duelyst, you choose one of several factions - Lyonar (paladin types), Songhai (vaguely Asian), Vetruvian (desert robots), Abyssian (basically the Zerg from Starcraft), Magmar (kaiju) and Vanar (snow people). After choosing a faction, you proceed to select your units, each of which is represented by a single card. There's also a neutral faction to help fill out your deck. Finally, once you've got your troops assembled, you duke it out with other folks online.

Don't get me wrong; while I might like Duelyst, I'm not great at it. I lose regularly and haven't managed to break Silver on the seasonal ladder yet. I'm also sort of anti-social, perhaps due to the anxiety I feel around losing, and I have a grand total of 0 people on my friend list. But there's just something to Duelyst that draws me, and if I had to pinpoint it, I'd probably highlight the delicious pixel art and the appeal of actually moving little characters around a board.

To put this another way, I'm of the opinion that Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best games in its franchise, and Duelyst is reminiscent of FFT, minus the rotating polygonal map. Sure, you choose a "deck" of sorts, but instead of watching pieces of paper fly around as in Hearthstone, you get to see a nicely-animated sprite slice up another nicely-animated sprite. As I said before, if I'm gonna play with cards, I'd rather hold 'em in my hands - but Duelyst circumvents this desire by making its "cards" exquisitely "video gamey." Reminding me of Final Fantasy Tactics at the same time is a nice cherry on top.

Duelyst also holds a special place for me because it's one of the first projects I ever Kickstarted. Originally crowdfunded in 2013, Duelyst was made by Counterplay Games, who described it as the final form of a homebrew tabletop game that ex-Diablo III and Rogue Legacy devs worked on in their spare time. It was supposed to be a one-time purchase designed for fast and furious tactical combat, and it looked pretty as heck. I backed Duelyst right after Mighty No. 9 (which turned out to be a turd) and Hyper Light Drifter (def not a turd; I wrote about it here). I was there for all the drama when the devs decided that the game was going to be a free-to-player affair instead of a stand-alone purchase, and I was also there when Bandai Namco got the publishing rights and shut Duelyst down in 2020 despite promises of steady support.

That was a supremely sad move, but three years later, Dream Sloth Games acquired the rights to release a spiritual successor in the form of Duelyst II. The game's largely the same as the original with fewer, rebalanced cards, which might irk hardcore players but is something I can deal with. Thankfully, the first iteration of Duelyst is included in Duelyst II as a legacy freebie, and it's also available on duelyst.gg as an impressive fanmade recreation. To make this revival even sweeter, at the end of 2022, Duelyst's source code was released to the public under Creative Commons, ensuring that pixelated card tactics will live on in multiple formats forever.

This is an amazing resurrection for a title that was considered dead in the water just a little while ago, and there's some stuff I'd like to see in the future if the game continues to evolve. A story mode a la Gwent would be neat - Duelyst's certainly got enough unlockable lore to support such a thing, and several animated trailers were released in 2016 that fired up my imagination regarding the game's world. Then again, maybe those are just my single-player roots showing.

Even if a story mode never manifests, I'm grateful to see one of the only digital card experiences to truly absorb me alive and thriving. I'll continue playing Duelyst on and off for a long while, and I hope that the game's new iterations attract a legion of fresh fans. Just don't necessarily ask me to play with you - I'm perfectly glad messing around with Vanar in my own private time, filling the board with ice and being as happily anti-social as always.

[rquerdo]

I finished Saints Row (2022) and I have some thoughts...

If you guys know, I'm a fan of the Saints Row series ever since I can remember. I remember watching the a few game plays of Saints Row 2 and immediately was intrigued. So intrigued that I remember getting hyped up for the 3rd game and watched any leaks Volition and Deepsilver threw at us. Well, it's hard to say for the games after the 4th and reboot. I just want to discuss the Saints Row (2022) but if I mention the other games, I'll try my best to make sure it pertains to the reboot.

Keep in mind: These are just my opinions and by no means am I a professional reviewer or critic. Also possible spoilers.

First off, let's talk about the name they gave the game....Saints Row. Not to get mixed up with...Saints Row. But I thought that was such a poor move on branding. Little moments where I would stream Saints Row (2022 not the original), Twitch would mix the two up. Not only that, searching for guides and walk throughs were a bit messy as well. My suggestion: Give it a name that has Saints Row, but change it up. Example: Full House (the OG), Fuller House (the series). Maybe name it "The 3rd Street Saints". Just. Something. Else...

Graphics:

.... Yikes :)

Everyone's skin is so gross and THAT HAIR TEXTURE! You can literally see every pore as if it was marked with a highlighter-it was bad. Their skin looked so bumpy and it made the characters look more alien-like than realistic. I get it, we all don't have clear skin, but that skin's not human. As for the hair, it's stiff as a board and every time you wear an accessory, the hair goes right through it so sorry if you wanted to give your character longer hair.

The Outfits:

So my biggest issue with the outfits is this huge glitch. I'll talk about the glitches in a bit (because trust me, there's a lot) but I just want to talk about the overall, outfits that are available for the characters.

Overall, not the worst selection-but not the best. I was a bit annoyed where there are so many smaller stores with few items to choose from around the city compared to having 3 or 4 big stores with a bigger category to choose (like how they did in all the other games). Personally, I thought this was quite cheap of them to do that. Not sure how much they showed off the stores when doing their sneak peek game plays, but if they bragged about a "wide variety of clothing", then there's nothing to brag about, really-probably about the same as 3 and 4.

Story line:

Remember in Middle/high school where you have that one teacher or faculty member that tries too hard to make you or your peers laugh but instead, makes you cringe? Well, that was this game. To me, it felt as if the writers were trying to hard to appeal to the Gen Z audience.

Hear me out:

In the beginning of the game, you and your friends are struggling to make ends due, so each of you guys join separate gangs (Which if that was realistic, all of them would've been killed since they have some sort of affiliation with their gang's enemies; each other). Until, you and friends decide on creating The Saints (they never said 3rd Street Saints), your character would not shut up about how they can't pay rent or how they don't have medical insurance. Regardless or not if you find that funny, after the 3rd or 4th time hearing them on repeat, it makes them sound whiny and annoying.

The ending was alright. But leading to the ending was baffling. Something that I like about the 2nd and 1st game is how you can progress each story line one gang member at a time and when the gang member's story finishes, you move on to the next until you eventually get the prologue and ending. This game's like: We work for other gangs, we made our gang, party!, end of game.

Side story line/ non-main game play:

I actually enjoyed it. I'm happy with the things to do throughout the city and I often catch myself sidetracked with a few hitman missions or being an evil "yelp" reviewer on stores. I found it a bit annoying with the lack of fast travels, but I think that's a personal preference than anything. Overall, I do see myself going back to finish all the side missions and challenges

I will say, I've been working so hard to get the Let's Pretend store available to use, I was quite underwhelmed with the selections but I've already mentioned that complaint.

Your Character:

I would say from the 2nd game to this game, they all have the same generic personality. Granted, from the original Saints Row to the 4th, it's all the same boss. The reboot has no connection to the previous games which honestly lacks character development (or just a personality at all). The character is that same "I'm a bad ass-ready to kill" vibe where if there's a moment the other characters say something statistical, they get all "I don't care-I'm just gonna threaten them with a gun!" Again, no character development. Where's the weakness? Where's...basically anything else. I know nothing about this character and I played them for 20+ hours.

Glitches:

Another yikes...

Keep in mind that not all glitches are consistent with the player. These are the one's that I've received so keep that in mind...

During the end of my game play, I've been more-and-more nervous on my game crashing or finishing a task but the game doesn't register that you finished the task so you're stuck until you restart from checkpoint. I don't know if this is a PC glitch, but I've been getting that a lot with open world games; another notorious game that's prone to do that is Cyberpunk 2077. Only difference with that game and this one, I can actually restart from checkpoint; Saints Row 2022, I can't- I have to restart the game and start over.

Going back to the Character outfits, there's a huge glitch where you would put your character in an outfit, and it doesn't show. This was more towards the Jackets. When you boot up your game, you may also notice that your character may be missing a few accessories as well. Also, when shopping for pants, some stores never show the pants selection on your character; I find that weird.

Other than that, there were some funny, harmless glitches like an npc stretched out and is flying all over the place or when your character is giving a serious dialogue and their mouths are not moving.

Gameplay and Controls:

I'm very iffy on this one. Usually when I play games on the computer, I like to use my PS4 controller (sue me-I come from a Console only, gaming family). But I've noticed that I was not able to do quite a few functions. Granted, I should've changed the controls in the settings, but I can't remember why I got impatient and decided to go keyboard instead. The keyboard controls weren't too bad. Auto aim helps a lot and it's not too "deadlocked" on one enemy; I picked up real fast.

I will say, I don't know what the point of the emotes are in the game, I don't even know how to toggle them. (no hate for that, just a random thought).

Directions were pretty much to the point but the GPS arrow thing tends to throw me off a lot. I often find myself ignoring it since it's too wishy-washy on directions.

I played this game on the Hard Difficulty. I found Normal too easy but to be fair, I have a tendency to jump straight to Hard mode on any game (unless if I know it's a strategic game)

~~~Overall Thoughts~~~

I mean, I think you can tell what I think of this game; I'm disappointed in it. Gameplay wasn't the worst, but graphics, glitches, and the story line killed it for me. If I had to give an overall grade, it would receive a "D" or a 4/10. If you're debating on if you should get it or not, best recommendation is to wait for it to go on sale-this is definitely not worth $60, heck even $40. I'd pay maybe $15 for this game and that's not on sale. Hopefully the game ends up with some cool DLC's and patches (which I would not be surprised if they discontinued Saints Row 2022 because of the bad reviews).

It was a shame too because I was really rooting for this game. I let my love for the other games allow me to have a positive mindset when playing, but the more I played, the more I end up disappointed. I see The Saints Row series one roller coaster. 1st was the rising game, 2nd was the peak, 3rd was a slight fall 4th and Saints Row 2022 was the falling.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you'd be interested in more reviews!

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Kofi

Etsy

[rainathorpefan]

Raina makes her first appearance in The Kids Are Not Alright, when she meets Chuck Bass when he comes to the Thorpe Enterprises office looking for her father, Russell Thorpe. She lets it slip to him that there's a deal on the table for the sale of Bass Industries that is set to close in 24 hours. At a party hosted by Russell that night, Chuck comes to him desperate for any chance of teaming up to save the company. Russell reveals that Raina is his daughter and that he wasn't aware that Bass Industries was for sale. He also explains that if he did know, he would have bought it to dismantle and destroy it due to his anger at Bart Bass. Later that night, Raina offers to sleep with Chuck, and he presumably takes her up on the offer. Soon after, Chuck learns that Nate Archibald's father, Howard "The Captain" Archibald has taken a job with Russell. He asks Raina to have him fired, but she refuses. They argue for a period about combining business and pleasure, but eventually make up (Damien Darko).

Chuck later decides that the only way to get Russell to stop buying Bass Industries is if he can get Raina to fall in love with him. He enlists Blair Waldorf to help him, and is able to convince Raina to skip her meeting with the Thorpe board, where they will be voting on whether to buy the company or not. However, she later founds out that he kept her away on purpose and distances herself from him. Afterwards, Blair talks to her about Chuck and is able to get her to give him another chance (Panic Roommate). On Valentine's Day, Blair decides that a way to increase her standing at W Magazine is to get Raina to give an out of the ordinary interview. Raina originally agrees to do so, but backs out after Serena van der Woodsen asks her to; in an effort to keep Blair from getting hurt. At Chuck's party that evening, it's revealed he set up a private room for the two of them to have a romantic night together. But Russell planned to set Chuck up all along, and creates a right between him and his adoptive mother, Lily van der Woodsen. They argue in front of Raina, who is shocked at how little family means to Chuck, and the two break up (It-Girl Happened One Night).

In attempt to win her back, Chuck enlists Nate to help talk him up to Raina. The two end up spending the day together, and Raina has fun hanging out with Nate. They become attracted to each other (While You Weren't Sleeping) and eventually begin dating (Empire of the Son). At the same time, Russell blackmails Chuck, and Raina listens in, as Chuck is trying to prove to her how ruthless her father is. Shocked, she leaves without talking to him. Afterwards, Russell tells Chuck that the reason he hates Bart is because when he burned that building down intentionally (originally explained in season two's Bonfire of the Vanity), his wife and Raina's mother, Avery Thorpe was inside. After their meeting, Russell leaves to go back to Chicago but tells Raina that he is very proud to be her father and that she looks like her mother. In The Kids Stay in the Picture, Russell and Raina are slated to be photographed in the Modern Royalty book, but she refuses to go due to her being angry at her father. After the photographers ask if she would want to be photographed with her mother instead, she becomes curious on what happened to her mother and vows to look for her. Along with Nate, she hires a PI and he finds a woman named Avery Thorpe in New Jersey, so they go with Chuck to see if it's her. When they find her, they learn that she isn't her mother. Afterwards, Chuck confides in Nate about what Russell told him, and receives confirmation from Andrew Tyler that Avery was indeed in the building during the fire (Petty in Pink). Nate tells Raina, who becomes angry that Chuck has known the whole time but said nothing. She tells Nate to choose between her and Chuck, and he ultimately chooses Chuck. However, he chooses to be with her after seeing Chuck have a meltdown after learning of Blair's engagement to Louis Grimaldi. As revenge, she calls his uncle Jack Bass to invite him to come back to the city (The Princesses and the Frog).

In Shattered Bass, Nate finds out she asked Jack to the city, he is disappointed in her. Later, Jack teams up with Nate and Chuck to take down Russell, and Raina learns Jack never planned to help her out. Meanwhile, Jack, Nate, and Chuck learn that Russell was the one who left Avery to her death, not Bart. In exchange for not telling the police or Raina, Chuck orders Russell to leave New York and never return. Raina renews her vow to ruin Chuck and plans revenge. In order to save Chuck, Nate tells her that her father was responsible for her mother's death, and she cuts all ties with her father. Thinking Chuck rolled on their deal, Russell kidnaps Blair and plans to leave her to burn at the site of Chuck's new hotel. However, she is able to call Chuck and he, Nate, and Raina go to save her. They do so, and Raina tells her father that she forgives him for killing her mother because it was an accident. She continues that he is going to jail for a very long time and will never come to visit him. Afterwards, she tells Nate she wants to return home to Chicago. This is Raina's last appearance in the series (The Wrong Goodbye).

[sa7abnews]

Romantic Reveries, Volume 34

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/romantic-reveries-volume-34/

Romantic Reveries, Volume 34

April is the month we wake up the garden after winter. This is signalled by the blooming of the glorious corsage-like flowers on our peony tree. The tree is a rare specimen and was planted by the previous owners of the house nearly 40 years ago and each year it gains more flowers. It’s a rare spectacle and true joy, not just to us but to passers-by as well, peeling out the bells of spring from its humungous fuchsia pink petals.  

We are planning an exciting garden renovation next month, as well as a kitchen ‘face lift’, so its mood boards aplenty on our dining table right now! More to follow as the projects take shape.

I was lucky enough to spend a weekend in Lake Como recently. A true bucket-list destination, Lake Como has inspired poets, artists, and writers for generations. The best way to see the lake and surrounding areas is by foot, so we maxed-out our step count whilst admiring the romantic old world Italian charm and the impressive architectural world of columns, balustrades, frescoes, and murals. 

The area is famed for its silk due to the historic silk mill there, steeped in history it’s a place like no other. We rented vintage Vespas to visit the small villages surrounding the lake (thank you to Slow Emotions Vespa Tours – you were the highlight of our trip!), dined at Villa d’Este and hired a small boat for a couple of hours, and yes, we popped by to take a sneak-peak at George’s villa in all its splendour and Romanesque glory.  

Meanwhile, back at FB HQ, our design team are busier than ever creating collections of bedspreads, bed linen and cushions to enrapture and delight even the darkest of rooms.  Think Indonesian ikat, Indian hand-block and of course French toile! We’re also poised to confirm the exact tones of a darker colourway of our most-loved Gustavian Collection, more refined and defined, the deeper hues will give rooms a more ‘established’ look and feel, whilst still delicate and linear, with every detail well-considered.

On 10th May French Bedroom celebrates our 18th Birthday, and I think back to what triggered me to start French Bedroom, what lit my fire and provided the fuel to drive me to take the plunge.  In 2006 I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and it was from the summit (at sunrise) that I decided to start French Bedroom.  It was of course a risk, and something I’d not done before, but I knew that if I didn’t even try then I certainly couldn’t succeed.  My watch-words for 2024 are ‘happiness lies on the other side of hard’.  Running a business isn’t plain sailing, but we’ve adjusted our sails many a time, and not just learnt the ropes, but re-created them.  And when it’s born out of passion, the drive comes easily, it becomes an extension of your hobby and the weeks fly by – plus you get to have some fun along the way too!  

So here’s to a great start of peony season 2024, may the wind be in your sails and the waves swell your spirits.

Brunch With Jade

The newest member of the French Bedroom team, Jade sits within the Marketing Team and is our guru in all things social media and community engagement. We caught up with Jade to find out how she spends her time when she’s not brainstorming new content ideas or chatting with our social media followers.

Describe your perfect Sunday

The perfect Sunday always starts with a lazy morning. I live in a coastal town so a walk along the seafront or across the cliffs is always a great way to reset on a Sunday afternoon, followed by a roast dinner – with all the trimmings, of course.

What is your favourite self-care activity?

I would choose a bath instead of a shower any day, so a nice long soak followed by a good pamper session is my favourite way to unwind. I’ll use all my lotions and potions, a hair mask and listen to a podcast to finish off the perfect self-care evening.

What’s your favourite French Bedroom creation?

The Love Story Olive Velvet Upholstered Finial Bed! Everything from the tone of the wood to the luxurious deep green velvet is beautiful. The high footboard completely elevates the aesthetic, making the bed a real statement piece.

What’s your top tip for getting to sleep?

Despite social media being the main part of my job, I try to stay away from social media in the leadup to bedtime, otherwise I know I’ll get lost in a sea of reels and memes, and probably end up searching for holidays after seeing a photo of someone on the beach!

I find that going through my skincare routine and getting everything ready for the next morning kickstarts my brain into preparing for bed.

What’s your go-to guilty pleasure?

80s music!! Despite being born the next decade, 80s power ballads are my ultimate guilty pleasure. If I’m going on a solo road trip, you can guarantee I will be singing my heart out to anything from Joy Division to Madonna. The post Romantic Reveries, Volume 34 .

[thedaveandkimmershow]

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10

With my first alarm having tripped at 330AM and our previous night having been lengthened by that healthy bit of Back to the Future 3, we couldn't have got more than four hours of sleep. If that.

Still, the reality of catching our flight brought us to immediate lucidity and we were out the door by 420.

The DoubleTree's not more than five minutes from Doug Fox Parking and, since the shuttle snaps us right up and delivers us to the terminal, we check our bags in by 445. That's fifteen minutes before our Spot Saver appointment that cuts us to the front of the TSA check point line. Unfortunately, Spot Saver actually starts service at 5AM and the person who's supposed to run it isn't there yet. Isn't there yet.

Isn't there yet.

So we bail and get through the TSA check point in less time than we were standing around waiting for Spot Saver to open.

Go figure.

We're through the check point by 515, boarded a little after 545, and by 6 I'm already starting to nod off again, spending this first leg of our flight somewhere between fully awake... and fully asleep.

We manage a quick change of flight in Denver then we're in the air again, reaching Orlando a touch after five in the afternoon. We spent that flight, by the way, studying (Kimmer) and reading (me).

From Orlando International Airport (MCO), we hitch a Lyft. Actually... no we don't. We summon a Lyft whose ETA keeps changing, stretching 7 minutes into 30. And when the app indicates our ride's arrived?

Yeah. We can't find it, subsequently getting a call from the driver that they're on the level above us (departures) and can't find the route down to us. At which point both the driver and I decide this was not meant to be and I summon an Uber instead that shows up five minutes later.

The Uber driver's from Haiti and, as with a number of drivers from countries currently undergoing or having undergone outright war or violent oppression, his story is at times a bitter pill. There's more to him that just the negative, of course. He has family that's here in the States right now. I think his dad's the only member of the family who's staying put because he's very much an I was born here, I'm gonna die here kind of human being.

By 'n by, we bid each other fare thee wells at Universal's Endless Summer Dockside Resort. We stayed here a couple nights last year, spending a day in Universal Studios theme park before heading off to immerse ourselves in Disney which, as it turns out, sort of cured us of Disney for awhile, so now its all Universal all the time for us for the foreseeable future.

Now, the line to check in's kinda long but there's a family with a baby in a stroller ahead of us so we amuse ourselves (and the baby) by waving and making faces. The baby has an older brother who also serves as entertainment and, before you know it, we're at the desk checking in.

We don't realize it until later when we open the door to our room that the super nice person who checked us in also upgraded us to a suite after handing us a pair of buttons to commemorate our 31st wedding anniversary. She even wrote out 31st Anniversary by hand with a Sharpie. And she recommended what she considers to be one of the best taco restaurants around because Kimmer mentioned her love of authentic Mexican food.

By the time we're squared away in our room, it's coming up on 8 which is pretty all right because we've had a long day and we choose to end it as if we were home: with an episode of Madame Secretary and continuing a Harry Potter movie. In this case it's the beginning of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1 where they're all set to take off from Number 4 Privet Drive, attempting to confuse and avoid Death Eaters.

At some point in there... we fall asleep.

And then at some other point I wake up briefly, use the remote to turn off the TV, then fall back asleep again.

Thus endeth our first day in Orlando.

🙂

[awkwarddystopianwarlord]

I Shouldn't Leave My House

Once upon a last weekend, four island yahoos went to the mainland to spend two days with their mainland yahoo. The five yahoos planned to divert from their usual mainland adventure plan and explore new places, see new things, and make new happy memories.  

One new place was explored before everything went to shit.

It was the final activity planned for day one. We were headed to a board game cafe that we had reserved spots for after going for dinner. Whilst we have a board game cafe on the island, this one had fun snacks, drinks, and seemed worthwhile to try. What we didn’t realize was that it was located right by East Hastings. Now, I assume most cities have their own “tent city”, and that said cities should best be avoided. Well, we knew that too, but we didn’t notice just how close the board game cafe was to the street you should not walk down. Thus became a debacle of parking places. 

It was either a: an open dirt parking lot right next to the tent town, even featuring some folks selling random merchandise, or b. Option b offered a parking garage still near the area, enclosed but without as many eyes. Neither option looked good. Being in the open could deter folk from doing anything sketchy, lest they be spotted. Though, most people in the area were also sketchy folk and may not care regardless. The parkade seemed safer since there were walls and privacy, yet that would make it easier to carry out crimes without being seen. It didn’t feel like a winning choice. Some of us wanted the lot, some wanted the garage. We all kept going back and forth, weighing out pros and cons. Finally, we opted for the parkade. The feeling of dread stayed with me during the entire debate, parking the car, leaving our stuff, and heading to the cafe. I felt like I’d jinx us. By choosing the enclosed parking garage over the exposed lot, I felt that I doomed us into suffering despite our choice feeling safer. I was a ball of nerves, wondering if maybe something would happen just because we decided this was the better option. I am incredibly paranoid about jinxing things. I have a wooden phone case to knock on should I need to. I try to be careful with my optimism to avoid tempting the forces of jinx. I forgot to knock on my phone, but I also felt no optimism around our situation. I also forgot my feelings of doubt, dread, and fear once we settled into our destination. 

We had a reserved window of three hours. We played multiple games, ate snacks, and drank drinks. We played Guess Who with a twist where both teams would ask obscure questions instead of obvious ones. “Would your person have an affair?” “Would they stab their spouse?” “Do they partake in heavy drugs?” Honestly, it spices up the game way more and it’s hilarious to see how each team profiles the characters. It was a good evening, a strong end to a long day. Our spirits were high as we strolled out of the establishment, and we looked forward to loafing at our mainland yahoo’s house. 

To avoid taking up the entire sidewalk like some groups like to do, we walked back to the parkade in a pair and a trio. I was one of the pair and we were walking towards the opposite side of the car from the trio. That was why we only heard the gasp and why we were unsure of its cause. Except, I was only unsure for a second. Then I was in denial. I refused to believe that the thing I was internally shaking about actually happened. It was around eleven thirty at night. It was late, we were tired, and we were just going to go to rest. The day was over, we didn’t need anything big to happen, we didn’t want anything big to happen. When the two of us stood by the others and we saw the broken glass on the ground, the smashed window, I think the first thing I said was, “I jinxed it!” 

At first, we thought all of our bags were stolen. I wracked my brain, trying to figure out what was lost. Medication, more medication, toiletries, clothes for tomorrow and for sleeping in, my backpack I bought at a thrift store and would never be able to replace. We were all numb and shocked, our voices only heard as we realized another lost item. After more of a search, we found that only two of the three bags were taken.

For ease, let me quickly create identities for each of us yahoos. We have the punk driver, the good good boy sharing his house with us, the pink one, the disabled part one, and me, the disabled part two. 

My backpack, the disabled one’s overnight duffle bag, and the punk driver’s backpack survived, as did an incredibly expensive camera we brought along. It was the bags of the good good boy and the pink one that were stolen. Probably the two most expensive of the bags. While the rest of us had darker packs, the other two were brighter, even through the tinted windows, one being pink and one being purple. I ended up crying, first, because I thought I lost all my things, then second, because I realized I hadn’t and was one of the lucky ones. 

As calls were made by the punk driver and good good boy, us remaining three stood like zombies. All the yelling we had partook in after the initial discovery of our tragic situation left us quiet and stunned. Not long ago I was ranting and blaming myself and choking up and crying, and now I was…empty. We were there for about an hour. No police came but a lone security guard rolled up and brought us plastic and tape to cover the smashed window. He didn’t need to tell us that we shouldn’t have left anything in the car, yet he did. The good good boy swept the glass out of the car and the punk driver put a blanket over the back seats just in case. As the wee hours crept closer, we five yahoos solemnly drove out of the fated parking garage and made the forty five-ish minute trip to the house we should have already been at. 

We couldn’t even get into the house without a problem because it turned out the disabled one was trapped by her seatbelt. Glass had jammed it in a way that the thing couldn’t unbuckle and she had to weasel out. By the time we got ready for bed, It was nearly two thirty in the morning. We wouldn’t be able to sleep in though since our day two activity was reserved in the late morning hours. We also noticed, after looking at the driving time to the place, that it too was located near East Hastings. The decision this time was to leave all our bags at the house before going. 

I could say our bad luck ended that night, but I’d be lying. Leaving our bags was smart, however it would force us to do a convoluted back and forth trip to pick them up before heading to the ferries. The cat cafe we went to was lovely, though it was hard to fully enjoy what with the losses of the night before haunting us. It also turns out that the good good boy was allergic to cats and he suffered through sneezing and itching and teary eyes the rest of that day. Also everyone was exhausted since nobody was able to get a proper sleep. While we had booked a reservation for the last ferry, assuming we’d want as much of the day to enjoy our trip, all of us just wanted to go home after completing all our planned activities. Of course, we couldn’t move up the reservation due to all the boats being super booked. Instead, we drove to the terminal early and parked there until an available boat came along. Conversation consisted mostly of lamenting the lost goods. The thousand dollar Steamdeck. The newly-bought-worn-once two hundred dollar jumpsuit. The Instax camera with photos of a summer vacation taken recently as well as three rolls of film. The pins from highschool on the purple backpack. We were draped with a sadness that couldn’t really be joked away or laughed off. 

The ferry of course was delayed, so despite managing to get one that should have been two hours earlier, it was really just an hour. At least we were headed home. 

Oh but the bad luck ensues. 

Fast forward to heading to drop off the pink one, we kind of sped through a stale yellow light. The punk driver thought she saw a ghost cop car behind us but no effort was made to stop us after going through the intersection. The car did follow, though. We decided that we were in the clear, they were just behind us because they were going in the same general direction. Until we were two minutes away from the pink one’s house. After joking about being pulled over and how stupid that would be, the car flashed its lights. As we pulled to the side, we realized that the disabled one wasn’t bucked as the seatbelt was still jammed. The middle seat had a working seatbelt, it was currently buckling in a giant bear plush we got at IKEA. I watched as my two friends fought to free the bear, the disabled one madly sliding in to take its place, and the cop approaching shortly after.  The only luck we had on that trip was the cop taking pity on us. After he asked if the punk driver knew she was speeding, to which she replied that she was because she just wanted to get home, he asked about the window. It would have been cruel for him to give her a ticket after learning that her car got broken into and her friend’s shit got stolen. It was our one mercy. The pink friend was safely dropped off, finding out shortly after that the hot water in her house didn’t work and she couldn't take a shower. The rest of us were a bit luckier than that, we could at least try to wash off some of our sorrows. 

I’m going to sound like a conspiracy theorist here for a moment but when I say our group is cursed, I say it with sources. We each blamed our individual cursed selves for the events that happened that night because each of us individuals have dealt with cursed bullshit so many times before. Beyond that, us as a group are incredibly unlucky to a psychotic, supernatural, godly extent. I never used to believe in the “simulation theory” but I think I do now. There is no way we have dealt with as many things as we have naturally, it’s statistically impossible. We aren’t bad people, there is no karmic justice here. Karma doesn’t even exist, it’s a nice mindset but terrible people like the dickheads that stole our shit exist unpunished. We are in the Hunger Games fighting for our lives against tomfoolery, bullshit, stupidity, and no odds in our favor. Gamemakers are controlling these things, they are behind our suffering. It is the only way this makes sense. We are not responsible for our lives because there’s no control for us to begin with. No matter the kindness and empathy, and love, and compassion we have, it will never reward us. I’ve always felt like I was put in this world to suffer and now I know why, that’s what is designed. The Gamemakers like tragedy and they formed our group and all our unfortunate circumstances to fulfill that. It’s all false and real at the same time, but in the end, we are pawns nonetheless. That’s why, even if I never left my house in order to stay safe, my building would burn down. Just like there were no good options around us parking, there are no good options around whether I stay or go. I’ll lose either way. We would have lost either way, no matter where we parked. It’s what the evil overlords would have guaranteed. They were baking that weekend and they made sure to place the cherry on top of the cherry on top of the cherry on top of the shit cake they so maliciously crafted.

[thedisneychef]

What is the Best Recipe? Tips for Finding Your Perfect Dish

Hi everyone! I'm excited to share with you my favorite recipe. It's one that I've been using for years and it always turns out delicious. In this article, I'll explain why this is the best recipe around. I know there are so many recipes out there - some involve lots of ingredients, others require a lot of time and effort - but trust me when I say this one is worth making. Not only does it taste great, but it also isn't too complicated or difficult to make. So let's get into it; read on to find out what makes this recipe the best! The Ingredients Creating a delicious recipe requires some thought and effort. I like to start by considering the ingredients – what flavors work well together? What substitutions can I make if certain food items are unavailable or too expensive? Additionally, careful consideration of portion sizes is important for making sure that all components of the dish complement each other without overpowering any one flavor. When creating my own recipes, I often look up existing ones as inspiration before deciding which ingredients to use. This helps me come up with different combinations of flavors that might not be immediately obvious. Once I have an idea in mind, I then consider whether there are any food substitutions I could make due to dietary restrictions, availability, cost, etc. Finally, it's always useful to think about how much of each ingredient should go into the dish; this ensures that no single flavor dominates over another. So when crafting your own perfect recipe, take time to think through the ingredients you're using and how they blend together. Don't forget to also take into account potential substitutions and proper portion sizing! With these considerations in place, you'll be able to create an amazing dish everyone will love! The Preparation Process I love cooking up delicious meals for friends and family. Every time I start a recipe, the excitement is palpable! But before jumping into the kitchen, there's one important step that should always be taken: preparing your ingredients in a safe way, with consideration to portion sizes. Food safety is paramount when it comes to prepping any dish. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and soap both before and after handling food items - especially raw meats, poultry or fish. It's also important to make sure all tools are clean too; this includes knives, cutting boards and countertops. Finally, separate raw from cooked food to avoid cross-contamination of bacteria. Once everything is sanitary and ready to go, it's time to consider portion sizes when measuring out ingredients for a recipe. Measuring accurately can help ensure that dishes turn out as desired every single time - whether you're baking cookies or making an elaborate entrée! Too much of certain ingredient may cause flavors to become overpowering while not enough could leave the end result bland or undercooked. Pay close attention measures like teaspoons, tablespoons and cups so that each bite brings pleasure instead of disappointment! The Cook Time I'm always looking for new ways to make cooking easier and more enjoyable. One way I do that is by experimenting with different cooking techniques. I love trying out new kitchen gadgets too, like my new air fryer. Meal planning is a great way to save time and energy in the kitchen. It helps me to be prepared and have all the ingredients I need on hand. I also like to have a few tried and true recipes that I know I can rely on. I just love discovering new recipes and getting creative in the kitchen. Cooking Techniques Cooking techniques can make or break the cook time of a dish. From choosing the right cookware to portion size, it's important to know what you're doing when cooking up a meal. When selecting your cookware, keep in mind that materials like cast iron and stainless steel will retain heat better than nonstick pans and skillets. This means that dishes cooked on these materials will take less time overall to prepare. But also keep in mind not to overcrowd your pan as this will slow down the cooking process even further! Additionally, if you are looking for quick meals pay attention to portion sizes and how much food is being put into one pot or skillet at once. If there’s too much going on, it could end up taking longer than expected to get everything cooked through properly. All in all, making sure you have the right tools and ingredients before starting any recipe may save valuable minutes in the kitchen! Kitchen Gadgets Once you have the right cookware and portion size, it's time to get organized in the kitchen. Kitchen organization is key for cooking up a meal quickly and efficiently. Investing in useful gadgets such as cutting boards with built-in compartments can help keep ingredients separated and accessible at all times. Additionally, having food containers on hand will make preparing meals ahead of time much easier to navigate throughout the week. Meal planning also helps cut down on your prep time, since all the ingredients are already purchased and stored away. This way, when it comes time to actually start cooking, everything you need is already laid out nicely! All these little tricks go a long way towards ensuring that every dish turns out perfectly cooked within its allotted timeframe. Meal Planning Meal planning is the key to cooking a great meal in less time. By having a budgeting plan and being mindful of dietary restrictions, you can save yourself from spending extra money on ingredients that won't be used. It's also helpful for saving time by making sure all your ingredients are ready when it comes time to start cooking. Having food containers already filled up with the right portions makes it easier than ever before to whip up meals quickly and efficiently. And don't forget about meal prepping! Taking an hour or two out of your day once a week to make several meals ahead of time will make life much simpler during those busy weeks where you just don't have enough hours in the day. All these little tricks go a long way towards ensuring that every dish turns out perfectly cooked within its allotted timeframe without breaking the bank - which is something we can all appreciate! The Flavor Profile I imagine a recipe that combines savory and spicy notes for an unforgettable taste experience. The succulent combination of herbs, spices, and other ingredients creates a tantalizing flavor profile that's sure to be a hit with any dinner crowd. The first step is to create the perfect mix of savory elements. Aromatic garlic and onion give this dish its classic base while fresh herbs like oregano, basil, thyme add depth and complexity. To bring out the spiciness in each bite, I suggest adding some crushed red pepper flakes or jalapeno peppers. To complete the flavors, you'll want something creamy such as cheese or sour cream to balance it all out. Additionally, if desired, a bit of honey can also be added. With these components combined into one delicious masterpiece - your meal will surely be remembered by all who try it! The Serving Suggestions I'm sure you're all excited to get started on your delicious new recipe! But before you jump into it, let's talk about a few serving suggestions. When it comes to portion sizes, there are no hard and fast rules; however, I recommend using common sense when deciding how much food to make. If the recipe serves four people, for example, then divide it evenly among those who will be eating. It may also help to have some snacks or side dishes handy in case anyone wants more than what is served initially. Finally, don't forget about drinks! Whether you choose plain water, soda pop or something else entirely, having a variety of beverages available can really complete the meal and make everyone happy. So go ahead – indulge yourself with this amazing recipe and enjoy every bite! Frequently Asked Questions What Type Of Dish Is Best Suited For This Recipe? When it comes to finding the best recipe, there are a few things that you need to consider. The type of dish is one factor - some recipes work better with certain types of dishes than others. For example, if you're looking for something with lots of sauce variations or complex cooking techniques, then an Italian pasta dish would be your best bet. On the other hand, if you want something simple and easy to put together, then a soup might do the trick! Ultimately, the choice is yours – pick whatever type of dish works best for the recipe you have in mind. What Are Some Possible Variations Of This Recipe? When it comes to making variations of a dish, there are plenty of cooking techniques and ingredient substitutions you can use. For example, if the recipe calls for beef, try swapping in chicken or pork instead - this variation will give the meal an entirely different flavor profile. You could also experiment with herbs and spices to add some extra dimension to your dish. If you're looking for something on the healthier side, consider using vegetables like cauliflower or zucchini as substitutes for certain ingredients. No matter what modifications you decide to make, have fun experimenting with new flavors and textures! What Kitchen Equipment Is Necessary For This Recipe? If you're looking to make a delicious dish, the kitchen equipment necessary depends on what kind of cooking techniques and serving styles you prefer. For example, if you want to roast something in the oven, you'll need an oven-safe pan or baking sheet. Or if you plan on grilling up some food for your guests, then a grill is essential! No matter what type of cooking style you decide to go with, having the right equipment will ensure that everything comes together perfectly. Are There Any Health Benefits Associated With This Recipe? Cooking methods and portion sizes are two important aspects to consider when looking for health benefits associated with a recipe. For instance, if you're cooking something that's high in sodium or fat content, opting for smaller portions can reduce the overall impact on your body. Additionally, boiling or steaming instead of frying your food can make it much healthier by cutting down on added fats and oil. These changes may not be as flavorful but will certainly help you lead a healthy lifestyle. Is This Recipe Appropriate For A Specific Dietary Restriction? When it comes to meal planning, you have to consider whether the recipe you're making is appropriate for any dietary restrictions. Ingredient sourcing is key in determining if a recipe meets specific dietary requirements - some ingredients may not be accessible or allowed on certain diets. Fortunately, there are many resources available that can help make sure your meal plan fits with special dietary needs. Conclusion In conclusion, the best recipe will depend on your tastes and preferences. Whether you're looking for a hearty meal or something light and healthy, there is sure to be a perfect dish out there. With some creativity and experimentation, you can create a delicious recipe that fits all of your needs. Take advantage of the countless variations available and make it just right for you! Have fun in the kitchen and enjoy creating something new every time. Read the full article