#I guess queueing day will be tomorrow...rather than today.....

[sysig]

She's out of my hands for now, many hopes that it can be recovered 🕯

If anyone knows anything about Wordpad file recovery - my diary for the last two years is only displaying NULLs when I open it, both in Wordpad and Notepad++, but in the preview when I search for it I can see the first couple lines, and it's shows up in a search for a keyword I know I don't have in any other file

Is there a temp file I can get into? I don't care about formatting, I just don't want to lose two years of ideas and thoughts...

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Co-Workers

So there's some good news - I don't have to work overtime today and I might not have to work overtime anymore. That is ... basically it for good news in the work sphere.

The bad news? Oooooh let me count the ways.

First off, it's entirely possible that I might have to work Saturday. See, Goblin's away again tomorrow. I mean, not that she does all that much anyway, but given how things are going at the moment, it'll be enough.

The reason I say this is because "how things are going at the moment" have devolved into every other person who even touches the typing throwing all the hard shit at me while meandering through the short easy stuff. See, we have some new junior doctors (YES, AGAIN; we have so many more junior doctors than our current typing pool can handle even if we weren't inundated with unexpected absences), and they are both very, very bad at dictating. Guess who gets stuck with them? Not to mention the ones with the difficult accents, the ones who handle complicated cases, and the ones who dictate unnecessary bullshit and make the dictations longer than they need to be? That would be me; everybody's punching bag.

The end of the day today was particularly cheeky, as I'd ploughed through several longer bits of typing already and happened to notice that someone else had taken the other two, which was great, I thought! ...At least until those two ended up back in the queue at 5pm. So someone took them out of the queue, ignored them for a good chunk of the afternoon in favour of short snappy reports, and then went, "Oh, I guess I don't have time to do these ones; back into the queue they go! [Thess] can handle them!"

(Side note: I only had the time to handle one of them because the guy who did the dictation for the twelve-minute nightmare made such a mess of the block key that I spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out what the fuck he was doing before I gave up, bolded the problem areas, saved it to PDF, and emailed it to him - copied to our quality control department as per protocol - with the professional version of "THIS IS A MESS; SORT IT OUT".)

It's only now that Scruffman bothered to tell me that he was having issues with putting in my overtime hours; that apparently I had to if he was signing off on them. Of course, no one has ever actually demonstrated how to do that on our system, but I think I figured it out. I say "I think" because I don't see any evidence that the applications are pending and Scruffman apparently didn't have time to get back to me about whether or not there were any issues. That's a significant chunk of overtime pay, and if I don't get it in this month's paycheque, I'm going to be pissed. Though I guess if push comes to shove, it's extra Christmas present money instead of extra MCM Comic Con money.

So at this point, odds are pretty good that while I may not have to work today or tomorrow, I'll end up putting in a few hours on Saturday. Just because my colleagues (including the new temp, who I shall simply call Newbie; I have seen that this individual exists, though they're taking lessons from Temp insofar as leaving me with the long bullshit goes) are lazy fuckers.

Anyway, point is that I'm not committing to doing anything on Saturday because even if I don't have to work, I am a fucking wreck right now. I hurt very badly, I haven't been sleeping properly, I have a stress headache and sinus pressure that's probably going to turn migrainous fairly soon, and overall it's just not good. Like, at all.

Don't even get me started about what's going on in the UK at the moment. I cannot even think about the shit being spewed at the Tory Party Conference. I'm miserable enough without the reminder about how much this country hates me. I would love to say it's not specifically me they hate, but they do hate almost everything I am - or rather, everything I'm not - read, a British-born able-bodied wealthy cishet white male, since I only have one of those going for me. I don't really want to talk about it but it's there. Lurking. It adds to the stress, y'know? And I need way, way less of that.

But my Placid Plastic Duck Simulator has more ducks thanks to a certain bestie. So that's something.

[berenwrites]

Beyond the Battle - Chapter 19 - Stranger Things - Steddie

Beyond the Battle­: Action & Consequence

In apology for the delay of the next chapter, there are 2 chapters being posted today, this is the first of 2.

Click here for All Posted Chapters

Summary: Steve hits things with a bat or gets hit depending on who you ask. He definitely does not have anything to do with the psychic stuff. That is El’s domain. However, as Vecna is defeated, the rules change.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Other Relationships: Steve & Robin, Steve & Dustin, Eddie & Dustin

Rating: Teen

A/N: Multi-chapter story, updated regularly. Honestly not sure how many chapters it will have yet because it's still a bit hand wavy in the middle, but definitely more than 12. Thank you to my beta for find my mistakes and to all those who read/like/reblog.💖 Follow #st:beyond-the-battle for updates.

Also on AO3

Chapter 19.    Details

As the planning meeting broke up into smaller groups, Steve made his way towards Hopper.

“Hi,” he said.

“Let me stop you right there,” Hopper said before he could say anymore. “If you are going to suggest you can finish fixing me first, then the answer’s no. Even if we don’t get to implement this plan until tomorrow, you need to be in top form. And if you are going to apologise that you can’t finish fixing me, because of Max, don’t, because of course the kid who got Vecna’d is in front of an old man with a bad ankle in the queue.”

Steve blinked.

“God I’m too predictable,” was what he chose to say, shaking his head.

“Yes, Steve, you are,” Hopper said with a rather smug smile. “Out of interest, which one was it?”

“The second one,” he replied. “I’m not actually as dumb as the kids like to make out.”

“Kid, you’re not dumb at all, you just have some wildly fucked up priorities,” Hopper told him and patted him on the arm.

He tensed for a moment, but he relaxed as soon as the onslaught he was expecting didn’t come. It helped.

“See, you do a good job,” Hopper said and grinned at him.

“Let’s hope I can do as good a one with Max,” he replied, doing his best not to let his insecurities rise up.

“No doubt from this direction, Steve,” Hopper said, expression turning serious. “Now I think my daughter is trying to get your attention.”

Steve turned to see El smiling at him.

“Guess it’s time for the pre-game pep talk,” he said, more to himself than Hopper, but the man clapped him on the back as he walked away anyway.

Talking to El was surprisingly easy. They went over the plan in a bit more detail before shifting into discussing possible other practice sessions they could do along with Will. El had plenty of ideas which were only slightly terrifying as far as Steve was concerned. He was listening to El and Will discussing the Void when he heard the phone ringing. Jonathan disappeared to answer it, but Steve wasn’t really paying attention.

“Robin, it’s your mom,” did however get his attention.

“Oh, thanks,” Robin said, climbing over Dustin and Mike who had sprawled onto the floor rather than just sitting on it.

“If you get any closer I’m gonna need Steve to fix what you squashed,” Dustin complained.

“Then move, Doufus,” Robin replied, but she was already mostly through the obstacle course.

Steve tuned back into what El and Will were talking about, but kept one eye on the door, in case Robin needed anything. He was relieved to see her bounce back into the room smiling a minute or so later.

“Hey, Dingus,” she called across the room, “good news, technically we’re still employed, bad news, Family Video is not going to open for at least a month.”

“Problem for another day?” he asked, just in case it was something Robin needed to deal with before she could settle.

Sometimes she was like that, and he always liked to make sure.

“Oh, hell yeah,” she replied. “I will miss our mornings of double boxsets if we have to quit, though.”

“Highlight of my days,” he told her with a hand on his heart.

“You have no taste,” she shot back, before tucking herself back on the couch with Nancy.

With that dealt with, Steve returned to his previous conversation and asked what he hoped was a sensible question.

~*~

When Robin and Steve got back to his house, Wayne and Eddie were smoking in the backyard. They’d had no more news about when Max would be back in Hawkins, so the party meeting had broken up. Steve left the walkie on the table in the pool room as he headed out back and Robin disappeared into the bathroom with a quick, “Need to pee.”

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Steve,” Eddie said, face lighting up, “everything go okay?”

“As well as anything can go with that many fifteen-year-olds in the same place,” he replied with a smile. “We now have a workable plan for visiting Max without the hospital turning into complete chaos.”

“The Mayfield girl?” Wayne asked.

Steve nodded.

“She was hurt badly in the quake,” he explained, “and they’re transferring her back to Hawkins today at some time. She was in a coma when the evacuation happened but woke up a few days ago, so everyone wants to see her as soon as possible.”

“I heard she was in a bad way,” Wayne said. “Poor kid.”

“I’m sure she’ll be raising hell again in no time,” Eddie said, giving Steve a supportive smile over his uncle’s shoulder.

“Knowing Max, that’s for sure,” he agreed.

Wayne pulled out a packet of cigarettes and offered him one.

“Thanks, but I quit,” he replied. “Robin kept handing me flyers about lung cancer until I promised.”

“That’s because I’m a good friend,” Robin said, choosing that exact moment to appear from the house. “Terrible habit.”

“That it is,” Wayne agreed, even as he puffed away.

“Told you,” Robin said, grinning at Steve.

“So, what are your terrible habits?” Eddie asked, pinning Robin down with the I-dare-you look he had that did things to Steve on a visceral level.

“The tales I could tell,” Steve replied before his brain could go off on a tangent.

“You would break the best friend code?” Robin gasped, taking a leaf out of Eddie’s book and putting a hand over her heart and everything.

“Dammit,” Steve said, letting his shoulders sag, “you take the fun out of everything.”

“Do not!” Robin squawked. “Take that back.”

She slapped him on the shoulder for good measure. Of course, he had to retaliate, sweeping her into his arms bridal style so she screeched some more.

“Put me down you big bully,” she yelled, slapping his shoulder some more.

“I’ll put you down,” he said and took a step towards the pool.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Robin said, so he had to take another step. “No!” she squeaked, throwing her arms around his neck and hanging on like her life depended on it.

He rolled his eyes, laughing as he gently put her down.

“I would never,” he said, enjoying just blowing off some steam, “you’d get slime all over my house.”

Eddie snorted a very loud laugh at that.

“I hate you both,” Robin said, doing her very best impression of a kicked puppy.

It wasn’t that good, because she just didn’t have the eyes down, but it always worked on Steve anyway. He dragged her into a hug and kissed her on top of her head.

“Forgive me,” he said as she relaxed against him.

“I’ll think about it,” she replied quietly.

“You sure you two ain’t related?” Wayne asked from where he had watched the whole proceedings.

“He wishes,” Robin said with a bright grin.

Steve did not deny it. He often wondered what it might have been like growing up with a sister like Robin. Would he still love her in the same way he did, or would they have grown apart like many siblings he knew? Such questions plagued him.

“Well, I should be getting back,” Wayne said, standing up and stretching his back. “Took me an hour to get through those damn reporters yesterday. Almost missed my ride to the plant.”

“You’re having problems with the press?” Steve asked as Robin pulled away from him.

“Damn vultures,” Wayne replied, “all want a piece of Eddie an’ don’t care if he’s dead or alive. Had to sneak through each time before I decked any of ‘um for the questions they were asking.”

“That sounds terrible,” Robin said, and Steve nodded his agreement.

“You could stay here if you want,” he said as the idea popped into his head.

Wayne looked honestly shocked and Eddie’s eyes had opened in surprise too.

“There’s plenty of room and no one would ever guess you were here,” Steve added as both Munson men kept looking at him.

“I couldn’t impose like that,” Wayne said eventually.

“You wouldn’t be imposing, Wayne,” he did his best to assure the other man, “and it would probably be safer for Eddie having you here,” he added for good measure, “rather than running the gauntlet of press every time you come visit. I’m sure we could get Hop, or Jonathan and Argyle to pick up your things from the motel so no one is the wiser.”

Eddie was asking a whole host of questions with his eyes, so Steve did his very best to make sure his boyfriend knew he was perfectly serious.

“If we put you in the basement bedroom, you shouldn’t be bothered by noise when the house is invaded by teenagers either,” he said as it occurred to him.

They’d have to be more careful about where in the house they discussed anything Upside Down related, but it wasn’t as if every other house except for Joyce and Hopper didn’t have the same problem.

“He’s not going to let you say no, Wayne,” Eddie said, standing up and leaning on his uncle’s shoulder. “Once Steve adopts you, there’s just no way out.”

Steve seriously began to rethink his slime in the house rule as his face rapidly heated up. It might be worth it to see the grin wiped off Eddie’s face. Wayne was looking between him and Eddie now.

“Are you sure, son?” Wayne asked, facing him square on again.

“Perfectly,” he replied. “You’re welcome here.”

The way Eddie’s smile went soft and warm at that had Steve feeling warm for entirely different reasons.

“Then, thank you, Steve,” Wayne finally said. “I would be most grateful to take up your offer, especially to keep Eddie safe.”

“Great,” Steve said. “I can show you the room and we can call the guys so see if they can swing by the motel. What time do you need to meet your ride?”

He listened as Wayne gave him the details and they all headed back into the house.

“You’re going for sainthood, that’s it, isn’t it,” Eddie whispered in his ear as they made their way towards the basement.

“I was thinking more of worshiping my very own demon,” he replied in an equally low tone and very much enjoyed the way Eddie almost fell over his own feet.

End of Chapter 19

Chapter 20

[captainmartinisblog]

Put The Flags Out!

Saturday 22nd February 2025 – At Sea & Bora Bora

We were back in the Compass Rose Restaurant for dinner last night and the chief Maitre d’ was kind enough to give us a table with Min and Dhiraj, the excellent waiters we had 3 nights ago. They really are in a class of their own.

I had Cream of Broccoli Soup (no photo, you all know what soup looks like!) , a bit under-seasoned but correctible and still very tasty, followed by a superbly done Rack of Lamb with Gratin Potatoes and Buttered Vegetables. Meanwhile, Andrew was very happy with his salad followed by Stir-fried Cashew Chicken with Cauliflower Rice rather than ordinary rice.

For dessert, I had the Cointreau Strawberries in Brandy Snap basket. Unfortunately, the Cointreau was barely noticeable and the basket, though tasty, had lost its ‘snap’ and was a bit soggy! However, Andrew chose the Cheese Platter, which comes with complimentary Port and it was one of the most impressive set plates I’ve seen, with a great selection of cheeses (which changes daily).

With fairly brisk service from Min & Dhiraj (almost too brisk at times; you have to ask them to give you a breather after the main course or they will keep feeding you!) we had time to enjoy Duo Essenza in the Voyager Lounge before the show. That was lovely but sadly, the show entitled ‘Rockin’ Soul’ lacked any true soul and was just an excuse for a lot of wailing, shouting and occasionally off-note screeching. The dancers were very good though and the choreography lively and imaginative but the vocals? Well, they tried but we were relieved when it was over!

There were more blue skies today as we continued our South Seas passage, towards Bora Bora.

As we passed the outlying volcanic island of Maupiti, we had our first tantalising glimpse of Bora Bora before arriving in the lagoon around mid-day, almost a day earlier than originally scheduled. This was really helpful because the French Immigration officials were supposed to have come aboard in Samoa, enabling us to have our passports cleared for French Polynesia while we were at sea. But of course we missed Samoa altogether, so arriving early today meant we could get all that done without messing up our excursion plans the next day.

There was one slight caveat, however. Bora Bora has a strict 1,200 cruise passenger daily limit and there were already two other ships at anchor, Oceania’s ‘Nautica’ (684pax) and Windstar’s ‘Star Breeze’ (208pax), so as we’ve got 650 passengers aboard, while they allowed us ‘special dispensation’ to anchor, no-one was allowed to go ashore until the other ships’ passengers were back aboard. Immigration began around 1.15pm and was well organised, deck by deck to avoid too much queueing.

We lazed on the balcony, reading, snoozing and delighting in the stunningly beautiful colours of the lagoon until called at 2.45pm and we were done in less than 40 minutes. The young French official who dealt with us was so sweet; he asked if we were excited to be here and were we planning on doing some snorkelling? I said yes to both. In fact, he was so nice, I would have said yes to anything!

Tendering began around 5pm, so I guess the ship must have been given the all-clear. With quite a few passengers stir-crazy and wanting to go ashore just for the sake of it, we took the opportunity to have dinner in Sette Mari at La Veranda again. I had the cioppino (seafood stew) and it was really good.

A folkloric group came aboard a bit later and gave a show entitled ‘L’Amour de la Dance’. There was a lot of drum beating, with some very fit dancing but then they dragged a load of people on stage out of the audience, some more willing than others, after which I imagine there are going to be a lot of aching knees and dislocated hips tomorrow morning!

[aspiringauthorintraining]

Volleyball Actually: Scene 2

It was a cold, dreary day outside, which meant for you it was a perfect day to eat a freshly-made warm onigiri from Miya’s Onigiri. But really, everyday was a perfect day to eat at Miya’s Onigiri. And it seemed like the rest of Japan had the same idea as you, seeing the long line of customers when you walked in.

You made your way up the front of the line soon enough with the queue moving fairly quickly. When you reached the register, the girl recognized you as you took your mask off to order. And before you could even speak, she asked if you wanted your usual, to which you nodded happily. It wasn’t the first time this happened, although it was with a different worker. But with how much you visited the restaurant, you weren’t surprised the employees remembered your face. 

Holding onto your receipt with the order number, you walked over to sit down in an empty corner of the store to wait for your food. Sitting down on one of the stools, you checked your phone to see multiple text notifications. There was one from Kiyoko, wanting to make sure you were coming to the big match next week, one from Kageyama confirming your visit his team again later in the week, and some from your manager about an upcoming schedule.

A tap on your shoulder made you jump up from your seat.

“How’s my favorite customer doing?”

“’Samu!” You greeted him with a hug, surprised by his sudden appearance. 

Your friendship with Osamu had started out as a purely business relationship- customer and restaurant owner relationship to be exact. You had just moved into the city and went to the newly opened Miya Onigiri’s flagship restaurant for lunch, after seeing all the good reviews. After noticing you coming in frequently, he stroked up a conversation with you while waiting for your food one day, and the rest was history. 

“What are you doing here? You said you’d be busy this week with finalizing the opening of your new restaurant in Miyagi.”

He took a seat in the empty stool next to you. “I had to stop by today to check on the store’s inventory. And I heard you visited the team yesterday. How’d it go?”

“Great! Your onigiris were a hit with the team by the way. Thanks for the suggestion.” You shot him a thankful smile, before remembering what Hinata had texted you shortly after your visit. “Why didn’t you tell me your twin brother was also on the team?”

Osamu burst out laughing at your accusing question, putting his arms up in mock surrender when you frowned at his reaction. “‘Tsumu always needs to be knocked down a peg or two, and having a pretty girl not know who he is would have crushed his ego.”

You had thought it was a strange that there was someone with the Miya surname on the team, when looking up how many players were in the MSBY Black Jackals team. But when you had brainstormed ideas with Osamu on what food to to bring on your visit, and he didn’t mention anything, you thought it had just been a coincidence. 

“Also, last week that bastard said my onigiri was salty, so he deserved it.”

“Have either of you matured at all from high school?” You deadpanned. 

“I have, but he dumbs me down.” Osamu shrugged.

You shook your head with a sigh, not being able to imagine what it would be like to put up with two Miyas, when one was already draining your energy. Bless the Miya matriarch. 

“You know you could have just looked it up on the internet to find out.” he added.

“I wasn’t really that curious to investigate. And unlucky for you, he wasn’t even there when I went to visit anyways.” You looked to the front thinking you had heard your order number being called out.

“Well, let me know if you go visit them again. I’ll make him pay for the food next time. But you know, I am surprised you and the shorty are so close after all these years.” Osamu changed the subject, referring to your relationship with Hinata. “You weren’t even in the same year.”

You breathed a happy sigh, thinking back to your time at Karasuno. “The team, when I was in my third year, was really special. With everything we went through that year, it felt like we were one big tight-knit family. So I try to keep in touch with everybody and visit them whenever I can. And it helps that we have a big group chat with everyone that was on the team, making it a bit easier.” You smiled, thinking back to the last time you all got together- it being the Tanakas’ wedding. But even then, not everyone was able to make it due to their busy lives. “But I guess I do dote more on the first-years though. Even more so with Shoyo as of late, since he had gone to Brazil right after graduation.”

Having heard one of his workers call him over, Osamu got up as soon as you finished talking, heading over to the counter. You watched as he grabbed the bag handed to him, walking back over to you before placing the said bag in your hands.

“I told them to add an extra onigiri in there.” He informed you, sitting back down.

“Is this what it feels like to be a valued customer?” you asked, placing your hand over your heart in a dramatic fashion. “Did you know I didn’t even have to tell them my order up at the front? She knew what my usual was as soon as she saw my face.”

He smirked in response. “I think that’s rather a testament to how much you come here.”

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“With how often you come here and the amount you order when you do, I can’t help but be worried about the health of my favorite customer. I want you to live a long life ordering my onigiri, not have it be the cause of your death.”

You shrugged, brushing off his comment. “It’s healthier than other fast food options, since it doesn’t have any msg- which is good enough for me.” You looked over at the crowd of customers that had just walked in, seeing the restaurant having become even more busier than when you first came in. “I should let you get back to work.”

You got up from your seat, collecting your things after putting back on your face mask. Osamu watched you get ready to leave from his seat, when a sudden thought occurred to him.

“Oh yeah. I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” You paused your movement, waiting for him to continue. “How would you feel being the face of Miya’s Onigiri?”

“Eh?!” You reacted like he had just told you Atsumu was actually just him in a blonde wig. “Me?”

“I told you about the new location we were opening in Miyagi, yeah?” Seeing you nod, he continued explaining. “Well, I’ve been thinking about doing a celebrity endorsement, and I thought of you since you’re from the prefecture.”

You still weren’t understanding why he would ask you of all people. “Why me though?”

“Didn’t you say you were a singer?” 

“Singer? Sure. Celebrity? Not really.”

“C’mon. It’s not like we’re a super famous company either. Think of it as beneficial opportunity for the both of us.”

“I feel like it’s more beneficial on my end than yours, though.” You frowned. 

Osamu brushed off your worry. “I’d much rather work with someone who I know and trust than a random person anyways.”

Knowing it was a good opportunity for publicity, you sighed, relenting. “Well, If you’re okay with it, then I guess I am too. But,” you raised your finger, “I’ll only accept onigiri as payment. I’ll feel bad if the advertisement doesn’t help bring in any customers.” Osamu tried to argue, but you just ignored him. “I’ll give my manager your number so that y’all can work out the scheduling.”

And without giving him a chance to negotiate the deal, you waved him goodbye, scurrying out the door.

Director’s Cut: Scene 2 Part 1

“Hey, Tobio!”

“Hai, Hoshiumi-san.” Kageyama looked at his teammate, in the middle of changing into his practice clothes.

“Did you see this?” Hoshiumi showed the Adler’s setter Hinata’s picture posted the night before. “We have to be careful, Tobio. These guys might steal (Y/N) away from us! That’ll mean no more visits, no more delicious bentos, or sitting on our side of the court during matches. And worst of all, no more good luck hugs!” 

Hoshiumi started to pace back and forth around the locker room.

“Senpai said she will come visit us the day after tomorrow.” Kageyama replied with a straight face, resuming his changing.

“Who’s coming tomorrow?” The Schweiden Adler’s captain, Hirugami Fukuro, asked the two younger players, walking into the locker room.

“Captain!” Seeing his captain brought an idea to the Little Giant. “Can you convince Sachiro to come tomorrow with his dog? She likes dogs, right?” 

Kageyama nodded in response.

“(Y/N)-senpai said she’ll visit on Thursday.” Kageyama answered the confused Hirugami.

“Oh, Sachiro will definitely want to come then. He wasn’t able to come because of a midterm last time she came to visit.” Hirugami replied. 

“Who’s coming to visit?” Ushijima asked, having come back from the bathroom. He wiped his wet hands with a handkerchief, folding the wet part inwards before putting it away in his pocket. 

“(Y/N)-senpai.”

“I see.” The wing spiker nodded in understanding. “I will bring some of my tomatoes tomorrow. She mentioned she wanted to try some of them last time we talked.”

“Tomatoes? The Black Jackals can give her tomatoes too! We need something that’ll convince her to stay with us.”

“My tomatoes are of high quality. The MSBY Black Jackals will not be able to find fruit with similar quality and grade easily.” Ushijima responded in confidence.

“That’s true. (Y/N)-senpai seemed very interested when Ushijima-san mentioned his gardening to her.” Kageyama confirmed, agreeing with the ace.

“Maybe I should bring some seeds for her as well?” Ushijima asked. “You should ask her if she has fertile soil to support good seedlings.”

Hoshiumi had already left the locker room, realizing the conversation was going nowhere.

The Karasuno alumni gave him a nod, making a mental note to text his senpai after practice.

Director’s Cut: Scene 2 Part 2

You had a busy schedule the following morning, so you prepared to sleep a bit earlier than usual. Right as you were about to fall asleep, your phone pinged loudly, waking you up. Drowsily, you grabbed your phone to check who had texted you. 

Reading the text, you blinked in confusion, rubbing your eyes to see if you had read the message correctly.

Received 9:10 p.m.

From: Karasuno #9

Message: Senpai, do you have good dirt?

______

(A/N): Hoped you like Part 2! Leave a like, comment, or do whatever ^^

[oof-musicals]

Together, you and me//chapter 2

Part two! This one took a bit because I've been preparing for school stuff but here it is! I've never been to Vermont, it's only research. Of course, let me know if you want to be added to the tag list and here it is:]] it's also very dialogue-heavy and kinda rushed whoops.

Tag list (let me know if you'd like to be added): @tarantulas4davey, @racecrack-higgins

Race gets bored very easily and two people trying to sleep in the backseat in a car isn't the best idea. First stop: Vermont.

Aka: Albert loves Race in 1419 words.

Word count: 1419

Read on Ao3

**Please Reblog/Queue if you like**

If you told Anthony Higgins five years ago that he'd be traveling to all 50 states with his boyfriend, he'd probably tell you that'd be something he'd do. But when he thought about it, this was probably the most expensive risk he's taken in a while.

Also the longest.

He knew it was going to take a long time, sure, this wasn't England where it took five hours to get from coast to coast. They were going to spend a lot of time in the car. But it sounded easier to be in a car for days at a time in theory rather than in practice.

Vermont, luckily, was only around 5 and a half hours away from Manhattan. If they avoided making too many stops, they could make it there by eight-fifty.

It took Race until about four pm to start complaining.

"It's only been 30 minutes, you'll live," Albert rolled his eyes in response to Race’s whining. “You aren’t even the one driving.”

“Exactly Albie!” Race complained, crossing one of his legs over the other. “I have nothing to do.”

Albert stifled a groan and turned off the radio that had been playing 90s songs for the past half hour. "Okay, let's just, talk."

Race looked out the window. "I don't really know what to talk about."

"You're really annoying,"

"That's my job." Race winked.

“What about astronomy? Where are your star facts?” Albert suggested as he changed lanes. “Come on, I miss them.”

“Fine, you win.” Race groaned. “There are nine thousand and ninety-six stars visible to the naked eye in the entire sky. That’s a cool fact.”

“I thought you told me it was like a trillion before,” Albert questioned.

"That's galaxies," Race clarified, but decided to move on. "Uh, what else? Oh! Callisto, the pretty moon I showed you once is ninety-nine percent as big as Mercury is." He grabbed a notebook from his backpack, flipping through pages of detailed notes and mumbling softly. “The first supernova was recorded in 145 AD AND nearly 2000 years after that, the remains were still identified.”

The rest of the ride consisted of Race rambling on about astrology and Albert loving every second of it. He might have the whiniest boyfriend in the world, but oh did he love this idiot.

___________

As the car pulled into the rest stop 4 and a half hours later, Race let out a comically loud yawn.

"Tired, huh?" Albert joked, turning the gear into park and unbuckling his seatbelt.

"You might be the one driving, but that doesn't mean it's not exhausting to be in a car for 5 hours." Race remarked.

"You could drive.”

Race ignored him, unbuckling his seatbelt and grabbing sweatpants from the backseat. “Do you really think that is a good idea?”

“Absolutely not, actually.”

Ten minutes and a never-ending banter later, the two found themselves laying down in the backseat. Race on the edge, Albert with his back facing the seat. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but if they’re going to control their budget, they can’t spend every night in a hotel.

“And tomorrow, we can hopefully hike that Antone Mountian,” Albert rambled about their day tomorrow while Race hummed sleepily. “But now, you’re around one sentence away from passing out, so we can talk about it later.”

"Yeah,” Race yawned, giving Albert a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight Albie."

"Goodnight, T."

"I love you."

Albert smiled, his stomach still did a flip every time Race uttered those three words. He doesn't really know why he felt like a giddy teenager, considering he's in his mid-twenties, but the words never failed to make him feel just, so lucky. "I love you too."

Albert stayed up a little bit after Race closed his eyes. Not that he had any trouble sleeping, he could practically fall asleep anywhere he wanted. Race didn’t have the same advantage, even at home, where he was probably the most comfortable, he had trouble falling and staying asleep. It was only going to be more challenging in the backseat of a sedan with half of the space being filled with an ungodly amount of snacks.

It was really hard to find a position comfortable for the both of them. They could've really done without the snacks but Race insisted. If there was one thing Race was, it was persistent.

This was going to be a long trip. But if Albert was with Race, he’d do it a thousand times.

_____

Turns out, two people sleeping in the back of a sedan is not a foolproof plan. They found that out the hard way. Well, Race found it out the hard way - Albert didn't find out until the morning.

"Wake up," Race poked Albert in the side, resulting in Albert only groaning and slowly opening his eyes. It couldn't have been past 8 am, the sun was still rising. Why in the world was he being woken up this early?

"What are you doing up? You've never woken up early in your life." He asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

"Fell off the seat," Race grumbled, taking a seat next to Albert, leaning his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. "I've been trying to fall back asleep since like… four am? The sun came up and you were taking too long to wake up."

"'m sorry," Albert yawned. It was way too early to be up for someone who had to spend the day hiking mountains, that's for sure. He was going to need some coffee. Coffee sounded real nice right now. "What time is it now?"

"What am I a clock? I don't know."

"You are rude when you're sleep-deprived." Albert grabbed his phone, checking the time before setting an alarm. "It's 7:15. I say, we go back to sleep for two hours and then start out the day."

"You're sleeping on the edge this time."

Albert ignored Race's comment, slipping his arm under the pillow propped up against the blankets, one of which he took and tossed over his eyes to avoid the sun.

__

Race hated hiking. If that's one thing he decided today, it's that.

When he thought about it, the trail wasn't that bad, it really wasn't. And the view was probably beautiful, but hiking sucked.

"Maybe this hiking thing was a mistake. My legs hurt."

"You're dramatic," Albert called from up ahead. "Come on track star, you got this!"

"You've never been hiking before," Race jogged up to Albert. "I'm surprised you aren't dying right now."

"We walk around New York every day." Albert rolled his eyes "You shouldn't be dying."

Race "I hate you. So much." He said, tripping and nearly slipping off the trail.

"Don't fall off the trail there, Tones." Albert grabbed Race's arm, pulling him up. "Heard mountain lions like blonde idiots."

"Duly noted." Race replied sarcastically. "Don't think there are any mountain lions in this area though, wouldn't they have already gotten to me?"

"You're right."

"Well!" Race wrapped his arm around Albert, "Guess you're stuck with me."

"Shit, guess that's the worst-case scenario for me."

Race rolled his eyes and stopped complaining for most of the hike. And he was right, the view was pretty - breathtaking even. The rolling hills and never-ending trees… this was definitely worth the hike. This was definitely worth the trip. For all Race complained, he was having a great time.

__

"So!" Albert started the car, "Vermont, what'd you think?"

"I mean, I'm looking forward to other places. South Dakota has Mount Rushmore - which, no matter how many times you say, is cooler than the photos, I'm sure of it. Vermont just has mountains," Race adjusted the air conditioning, "but I didn't have the worst time."

"Mount Rushmore is just like the photos though," Albert rolled his eyes. "And if you don't want to go to states just for mountains, you didn't have to agree to go to every state."

"Albie, we've been dating for six years, you think I was going to not take it seriously?"

"I guess you're right, T. But if you keep complaining I'm not taking you on a road trip again."

"Rude," Race pouted.

"Only love, baby."

“But, I did like it.” Race admitted. “For all my complaining, I’m having a great time.” He took Albert’s hand, “Not to get sappy or anything but, thank you for bringing me along on this trip.”

Albert didn’t even have to say ‘I love you’ at that moment, Race already could tell.

[hinac0lada]

LET’S FALL IN LOVE FOR THE NIGHT

900 SPECIAL  — LET’S FALL IN LOVE FOR THE NIGHT

CHARACTER PAIRING: AKAASHI KEIJI X READER

WARNINGS: none

ALEX’S NOTE: hello lovely people! me and riss would like to thank you for helping us reach 900!! thank you all for appreciating our works and giving it some love. to compensate, i decided to post this song fic i made which was inspired by FINNEAS’ - Let’s Fall In Love For The Night  . if you can, please do listen to it while reading the fic, enjoy!

"he broke up with me, i should've seen this coming" i heard you say, a dry laugh coming from the other line, and then silence. i fiddled around with my fingers, worried about your state of mind. i knew this was coming, you were blinded with the love you had for that douche, but i could never blame you for loving someone. it was his fault, after all, for not seeing how amazing you are.

i sighed at the sound of your sobs that you struggled to suppress. we've been in situations like these before where you'd call me in the middle of the night after a heated argument, while i try to convince you to at least take a break from your relationship, but then i fail miserably because you adored that son of a gun too much. and in the end, you'd tell me you'll endure the pain until you couldn't.

i should get used to it by now, but no matter how repetitive this circumstance gets, i could still feel my blood boil every time i imagine the sight of you, sobbing on the floor of your shared apartment in a dimly lit room, all alone. all because of your loving boyfriend.

"k-keiji, i should've listened t-to you..i prepared for this moment, but why does it still hurt?" you managed to let out in between your whimpers. i could hear my heart crack, how could i let this happen to you? this was by far the worst you've ever been in— the lowest of the lows, and i don't want you to be like this anymore. and so, unlike most lonely nights, this time, i'll be by your side.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"w-what do i do now, keiji? he wants me to move out . ."

"..you can stay with me for a while, and i'm not taking no for an answer, (y/n)."

"..alright alright, thank you so much keiji, i owe you one."

"no problem. now pack your bags, i'll pick you up at 25."

i know it was impulsive of me— maybe even thoughtless as i've forgotten i made plans with bokuto tonight, but i can't just let you swim in your own tears. i want to help you mend your heart, which i should've done long ago .

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

exactly 25 minutes later, i arrive in front of the apartment complex you once shared with your— now ex— lover. your tear-stained face, accompanied with puffy red eyes that usually radiated joy was filled with deep melancholy, a complete contrast to your lively visual.

i hastily got out of the car, intending to help you with your luggage until i was greeted with a tight embrace, you clung onto me as though your life depended on it, with your face buried in my chest.

your tears poured like waterfalls, soaking my shirt. but i didn't mind, this was nothing but a piece of fabric compared to how much i value you. but how could he let you, a literal angel— a goddess if you will, disregard you just like that? how could he turn a blind eye to your selflessness just for his selfish desires?

i regained my composure, gently wrapping my arms around your quivering figure, shaking from your uncontrollable sobs. i caressed your hair and rubbed soothing circles on your back, whispering sweet nothings into your ear in an attempt to calm your frustrations.

i know you're trying your best not to burst right then and there, in the front passenger seat of my car. the drive was tranquil yet i could feel the slow, burning tension. i could sense the way you're choking back the lump in your throat from how loud your heart thumped in your eardrums while you tried distracting yourself by looking out at the city lights as they passed by in a blur.

i reached out for your hand while my other kept steady on the steering wheel, keeping my focus on the road. a smile made its way onto my lips, eyeing your flushed cheeks from the corner of my eyes. "let's forget about that jerk for now. why don't we have fun tonight?" i questioned, coming to a halt once the traffic light flashed red.

my gaze shifts from the road to your expression, feeling the heavy weight on my chest uplift, relieved to finally see you grinning. pools of (e/c) getting more vibrant every second, your grip on my hand tightening. a glimpse of green flared— a 'go' signal.

as if on queue, the radio played your favorite song, making me quietly sing along, hoping you would join in eventually. and when you did, the atmosphere shifted into a more gleeful one, the car ride filled to the brim with singing and laughter, your honey coated voice sounding like a beautiful song that i would never get tired of.

i still don't know how we went from eating to our heart's content, to end up doing karaoke. purple and pink neon lights set the mood of the room, your voice echoed throughout the small space, swaying your hips to the beat.

you're such a strong person, it's crazy. it's like the heartache you felt just hours ago, never was there in the first place. i've always admired how even if you went through the depths of hell and back, at the end of the day, you'd pick yourself back up and stay optimistic through your hardships.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"keiji come on, sing with me!"

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

you snapped me out of my thoughts and tugged me towards you, handing me a microphone. your sunny disposition has a way of rubbing off on those around you. i'm not one to let loose easily, but miraculously, it only takes you to let out this side of mine. it started off as just you, but then it transitioned to a duet. and now we're having a full blown mini concert.

the night was still young, we're unproblematic and carefree, not caring of what lies ahead for tomorrow. will we ever know?

"sometimes i wishhis mom just swallowed him.."

"y/n!"

"what? you'd wish the same too.."

"..yeah, you're not wrong about that"

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

you cackled while i chuckled along with you. it's 1 am and we got back with a tub of ice cream which we impulsively bought after the karaoke session. we sat on the couch in our pajamas, putting on a random TV show even though we weren't planning on watching, instead, i opted to listen to you venting about your ex, making commentary here and there.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"looking back, i don't really know what i saw in that jerk.."

"i guess you could say, love does make you go blind"

"does love make you blind, or is love blind?"

"i don't know, maybe both?"

time flew by fast and all our nonsense to intellectual conversations resulted in us trying to finish the gallon of ice cream while watching some TV series. i observed your eyes trying to blink away the feeling of tiredness, the activities of today starting to wear you down and make you lethargic. your constant yawning and droopy eyelids was a dead give away, you were like a child trying to stay awake.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"you're too resilient, you need to get your rest soon."

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

i chuckled quietly at your 23rd yawn, you rubbed your eyes sleepily. i turned the tv off before i led you to the guest bedroom, with your presence trailing behind me. upon entering, you settled down in the bed, arranging the pillows and sheets to your liking.

"well, i hope you have a good night's rest, y/n," i began to take my leave, heading for the door, however, i was stopped when you grabbed onto my wrist. i looked over my shoulder to meet your pleading eyes, those eyes that i could never resist. "keiji, i don't think i'd be able to sleep by myself tonight.."

"i-i mean..you don't have to stay the whole night if you don't want to, i just, really need someone's presence right now, at least until i fall asleep." you struggled maintaining eye contact with me, your cheeks vividly tinted with pink despite the dimly lit room. i was reluctant at first, not because i don't want to, but because it was quite unexpected.

"hm? ..sure, since you asked. i won't turn you down, ever." with that being said, i slowly but hesitantly got in the sheets, while you shifted, trying to get in a comfortable position. it was all foreign to me, feeling someone's warmth beside me in this cold bed, but i eventually got used to it. we laid there in silence, enjoying each other's company as we tried to doze off.

"i'm so stupid." i looked at you, a rueful smile displaying your beautiful features as you glanced up at the ceiling of my apartment room. i hummed in response, a sign for you to elaborate. in my eyes, you're definitely nowhere near stupid.

"so stupid for ever choosing someone i love rather than someone who loved me. an imbecile not to realize he's right beside me through everything. the highest form of stupidity, was when i kept denying my feelings for you all this time."

is this a dream? i must be dreaming, right? if it was, i never ever want to wake up.

"the look on your face definitely tells me you think this is a dream, am i right or am i right?"

you turned on your side to face me, the once bittersweet smile replaced by your signature cheeky grin. i felt my breath hitch, our faces just inches away from each other.

with your features up close, it was much more breathtaking than it already was from before. i want to say something, but why can't i?

"k-keiji, i know this is sudden, and maybe you've moved on and all, i can't blame you if you did. if it isn't too late, maybe we could fall in love for th-"

i crashed my lips with yours, cutting you off mid sentence whilst gently cupping your face in my hands. i feel your hands making its way to my hair, gently brushing through and tugging at it.

what am i doing? what has gotten into me? but whatever this is, i hope you and i never regret this night, or any nights we spent together. i know better than to ever call you mine, but maybe this time, this moment at least, i have the chance to. is it too selfish of me to think that?

we eventually pulled away, catching our breaths, in the process, my eyes never left yours. to tell you the truth, i'm the fool, the stupid one. stupid for running away from my feelings, stupid for not taking the risk and tell you how much i've loved you ever since. but it's better late than never,

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

". . how about we fall in love for the rest of our lives?"

GENERAL TAGLIST: 

@pyblos​ @some-oxymoron​ @kxgeyamasmilk​ @kunimwuah​ @hakueishirei​ @rollingthundaa​

[theastrophilearchitect]

I started writing a book.

And I’m mad about it, because I just started this post, brought up a new tab and lost it because I didn’t save my draft.

Anyway. That’s a thing I did. Wow.

As of this moment, this post won’t be going up until April 19th, but I’m starting writing this at 10.30pm on Sunday, February 21st, 2021. I’ve done a lot in the last couple weeks, and I want to have some record of all I’ve accomplished without just letting most of it fade over the next two months.

I’ve always wanted to be an author. From when I was reading under my covers with a torch past bedtime, through the years I wanted to be an artist, through the years I wanted to be a lawyer. It’s always been there - no matter what primary career path I went down, I wanted to be an author. The last few years, I’ve been invested in becoming a biologist, and that dream really took a backseat.

In the start of this lockdown, my mental health went downhill, and some advice my therapist gave me was just to prioritise myself. It sounds simple enough, but, even in my free time, I’d been focusing on schoolwork - revising constantly for exams I’m still not sure are actually happening. (Boris Johnson is apparently making an announcement tomorrow about beginning to ease lockdown, but we’ll see) So, on Saturday, February 6th, I started an attempt to coalesce the ideas I had floating in my head into something tangible.

I’ve tried to write books countless times (not technically countless - I have all the documents on my laptop, so I could if I wanted to), but mostly, I’ve never gotten further than a couple bare plot points and some characters, maybe some ideas for subplots, before I’ve stagnated and given up.

Three times, I’ve finished a skeletal outline. Twice, I’ve started to go back over those outlines only to realise they made no sense or just seemed week, and simply not cared enough to fix it. Until now, I guess.

February 6th, 7th, and fast-forward to my week off beginning the 15th, up until the 19th, I kept developing this concept I’d managed to form, but I was struggling to establish a coherent plot. I had up until and including a midpoint (which was later condensed into just a first act), but everything after that was just a void. I began searching for some skeletal structure I could apply to it, both to work on pacing and fill in the blanks. I tried several, and got a little further, but was about to give up hope.

Then I remembered a video by Katytastic I’d watched years ago about the 3-act, 9-block, 27-chapter structure she used, and couldn’t see the harm in giving it a go. And something clicked.

You can find the video here - the structure’s detailed and easy to follow, plus she even gives an example of using it to generate a plot.

I started binge-watching her writing vlogs in the background, and even started using her same writing program, Scrivener, which just made every a thousand times easier by taking away the need to juggle a billion Word documents. It’s fairly pricey, but I’m currently using the 30-day free trial - it’s 30 days of use, not of ownership, too: if you use it every day, it lasts 30 days, but if you use it once a week, it lasts 30 weeks.

Where Kat used the 27 parts the structure broke down into as chapters, I chose to refer to them as beats, and separate chapters later.

On Saturday the 20th, I finished defining my scenes and started writing an actual draft. I wrote two scenes, putting me at a collective word count (not including notes, synopses, etc.) of 2,580 words.

This morning, Sunday the 21st, I started over. I hated my opening. I’m not going to go through the mess of today’s process, but I currently have around 80 one-line-outline scenes, split into 3 acts. I wrote a draft of my prologue and detailed-outlined (which I’m mentally referring to as zero-outlining because it’s similar to how Katytastic does what she calls a zero draft, but is very much outlining, not a draft) two and a half other chapters. Scriver also tells me how many words I wrote in total, across notes, character profiles, location lists, a document I’ve named ‘Train of Thought’ for my ramblings as I go etc.

Today, I wrote a grand total of 4,141 words, which, rather counterintuitively, puts me at a draft total of 2,598. That makes sense. Anyway.

There are a lot of unknowns in the world right now, and I have no idea how much time I’ll have in the next six months to invest in this project, but I’d like, at bare minimum, to have one complete draft by the start of the next school year in September, which gives me just over 6 months. Which is probably too much time to actually motivate myself, but that’s not the point.

A manuscript needs to have a minimum word count of 50K words to be considered a novel, so, even though my ultimate goal for this project is around 80K words, 50K is going to be my goal for this draft.

I’m being optimistic about sticking with this.

Tuesday 23/02/2021 - Word Count: 3,099 I wrote nothing yesterday; planning to focus writing solely on days off rather than work days, but last night, watching through the incredibly long queue of Alexa Donne writing videos, I came to the conclusion writing every day, even just a little, would be the best way to ensure I keep working on this, so I set myself a goal of just 500 words a day.

Wednesday 24/02/2021 - Word Count: 5,350 After doing a little bit of maths as to how long this outlining and draft would take me if I were to only write 500 words a day, I decided to boost that goal to 1,000. I got started around 1pm today, online school draining me so much I couldn’t face another two hours. I worked on and off until 6pm, and around 4.45pm, I finished outlining Act One!

Thursday 25/02/2021 - Word Count: 7,022 I continued my scene outlining into Act Two, but I hit a brick wall around the midpoint. I have to write chronologically - some people jump around, but I have to write linearly, or it feels like I’m trying to make something in a void. It just doesn’t work. I didn’t know how to get from one scene to the next - there were so many things I needed to establish to get there, but I didn’t want to backtrack. I decided to re-jig the whole thing, but, after dinner, I realised I didn’t have to, and instead, decided to just start a draft, conscious of the things I need to establish as I go.

Friday 26/02/2021 - Word Count: 8,208 Starting draft one, I rewrote the prologue I’d already written, technically putting me to my second draft of it, because I’d been thinking about it for days and just wanted to revisit it, and it was so much better. Then I moved on to chapter one, but decided I wanted to re-jig my chapters. While outlining, I’d split the whole book into only about twenty chapters, but decided to go for shorter ones for more effective divisions of the story. I got most of the way through the first scene of chapter one, but basically ran out of both time and motivation, since I hadn’t heavily outlined that scene. in total, I wrote over 2000 words today, but because I only increased the prologue word count by about 100 words, it didn’t do that much to the total count.

Saturday 27/02/2021 - Word Count: 11,050 I got some chores done Saturday morning and focused on finishing my book so I could include it in my February wrap-up, but I still had time to get some writing done around mid-day. My goal was just to hit 10K this weekend, but I though I could do it in one day. I wrote about 1,000 words before feeling a little word-drained, but took a break for lunch, got back to it and wrote 2,400 words. Though that only added a little over 2,000 to the word count, it took me to 10K! I’m 20% of the way to being able to call it a novel! We’re in quintuple digits!

And then eight hours later, I wrote another thousand words and got to 11K.

Sunday 28/02/2021 - Word Count: 13,722 I spent most of my Sunday morning writing, though it took me more than two hours to write about 1500 words, though it only added about 1100 to my count. I decided to set myself an overall and weekly deadlines to hold myself accountable. Due to the fact I don’t yet have a clue how many words this will work out as, I decided I wanted to have either a complete first draft or 100K words (which I doubt I’ll reach, but it seems like a good way to make myself finish the draft before my deadline) by the end of April. Which works out to a little under 1500 words a day, or just under 11K a week, which is perfectly doable. Bearing in mind my current word count is including outlines, but I still believe in myself.

I wrote another 1600 words later, which took me to 14K, until I deleted the 300 word outline I wrote for one scene, but I worked out my words per day for the next two months with the assumption of a 10K word count as of March 1st and a target of either a complete draft or 100K words by the end of April, so I’m nearly 4,000 words ahead of schedule. Which gives me 6,606 words to write this week, instead of 10,328. (If you couldn’t tell, I like numbers. They just make sense to me.

Monday 01/03/2021 - Word Count: 15,005 I didn’t quite hit my daily goal, but I was completely leached of motivation today, I’m ahead of schedule anyway and I was only under by less than 200 words. It’s alright. But, hey, we hit 15K! Two days after hitting 10K!

Tuesday 02/03/2021 - Word Count: 21,119 This was an insane writing day. My end-of-day target was only 16,480, and that was still ahead of schedule - if I was sticking to the 100K by April 30th, I’d only actually need to be at 12,950 today. This was the best writing day I’ve ever had. I wrote before school and during breaks, which kept both my writing and working momentum up.

I didn’t read a page of my current read, but I wrote a total of 7,681 words and increased my wordcount by 6,114 words, or literally an additional 40.75%. I hit 20K three days after hitting 10K, and am 42.238% of the way to being able to say I wrote a novel, be it a shitty first draft that won’t be complete at 50K words.

I also finished chapter three, which I’ve been working on for three days and came out ~5,000 words, and wrote chapters four and five in their entirety.

Note to self: this is day 10 of vaguely outline-drafting this project.

Wednesday 03/03/2021 - Word Count: 23,364 I've only written 490 words today, as of writing this update, but I just wanted to make note of the fact I've done some calculations, and can reasonably finish my draft this month. I'm still not completely sure how long it'll work out to be, so I can't quite work out my daily words to finish on the 31st, but if I stick to my current 1,475 words a day, I'll hit 63,894 words by the end of the month, which is a little less than I imagine this draft will be, but if I stick to that as a minimum, my first draft won't have to go into April.

I'd like to post this later this week, but I already have a post for this Friday, so God only knows how long this will be by the time it goes up. So far, I've written 1,900 words today, and I don't think I'm out of fuel yet, but I'm stopping because I need to read today, and I'd rather not burn out. I'm over my goal, anyway.

Oh, also, I'm nearly at 25K, which is halfway to a novel, but I haven't broken into Act Two yet, which means this book will be 75K minimum. I'm going to do some maths and work out how many words a day to hit 80K by March 31st. 2,030. That's doable. So I haven't read, but back to writing for like ten minutes.

I've now hit an additional 2,245 words for the day, though I wrote a total of 2,663

Thursday 04/03/2021 - Word Count: 25,415 I've decided to work out how many words I need to write each day to hit 80K by March 31st, and watch the fluctuations. (I like statistics). It should steadily go down throughout the month if I surpass it each day. Today's minimum word count is 2,023, already seven words less than yesterday's. How exciting.

The last scene of Act One was very heavy on world-building I haven't yet figured out, so I stuck what was meant to happen in brackets and just moved on, meaning I have now broken into Act Two!

I think, during the week, I'm going to focus on just meeting my minimum word count rather than exceeding it, just to save fuel for the weekends, when I can write so many more words.

And, we hit 25K! I'm halfway to a novel!

Friday 05/03/2021 - Word Count: 26,693 In complete honesty, I'm beginning to lose momentum. Maybe it's just today, but I don't really want to write and feel like I need a break, but I'm going to make myself write anyway. I'm going to make myself keep writing until this draft is done, however shitty it may end up. I really hate first drafts.

When you say 2,000 words is only 7-8 pages, it doesn't sound like that much to write per day but my god. Luckily, most of the stuff I've had to save to a Pinterest board called 'Writing Motivation' says if you write when you don't want to, it should pass instead of worsening. I wanted to hit 35K this weekend, but I'm not sure I'll have the momentum. I'll at least hit 31,270, though, which is my minimum goal for this week. I'm still over 700 words off my goal for today, but I'm taking a break because my head is foggy and there's still eight hours left in the day. Besides, 700 after dinner is easy. She says, realising she's probably jinxing it. Oh, well. 80K by March 31st would be difficult, even if I weren't going back to school soon, but that's a stretch goal. 100K by April 31st is my minimum, and I'm 9,000 ahead of where I need to be for that.

I think I’m stagnating because I’ve hit the ‘Fun and Games’ section, which I find really boring. I’m going to try to keep going with it, but I may just skip it and come back later.

Saturday 06/03/2021 - Word Count: 28,150 So, I did not get the extra 700 words in. Before dinner, some stuff I had to deal with came up, and by the time it was done, I just wanted to go to bed, so I did. Today, I'm going to try to make up for it, which I think is reasonable because it is now the weekend. I'm still kinda exhausted this morning, but I'm going to do my best, and my wrist hurts, but I'm not sure why. You'd think it would be from all the typing, but only one wrist hurts - you know what? Never mind. They do both hurt. I'm just not sure why, but it doesn't hurt typing this, so that doesn't make any sense. Anyway, to hit my word count for the day, I need to write 2,555 words, which doesn't sound like too much, but it kinda is because I'm primarily writing Act Two at the minute, and for every thousand words I write, I lose like 400 from my outline. You'd think I'd just not include my scene outlines in the word count, but it's too late for that now.

I'm thinking this over, and I really don't think trying to write 80K by the end of the month is going to be good for either my motivation, mental health, or ability to function back at school, so I'm going to stick to 100K or a finished draft by April 30th, and re-work out my goals from there, based on yesterday's word count, so I'm not making myself do catch-up today.

So, to hit 100K by April 30th, I only need to write 1,309 words each day (which will decrease over time because if that's my minimum now, I'll probably surpass it, decreasing the amount of words left etc.). That's so much less pressure.

God, I really don't want to write today. I just want to watch YouTube and Netflix and read.

Okay, so here's the thing. I've been working on this story straight for three weeks and I'm kinda exhausted of it. I'm not done with it, not at all, and I want to keep working on it because it exists, which makes it workable.

I watched a writing vlog by ShaelinWrites yesterday, and she said she writes different projects at once, alternating in week- or multi-week-long blocks. I think I might try that.

My plan with this post and the following updates was to keep updating it until the day it goes up, the day after which is when I begin drafting the next, but, since I may be switching projects for a while and this is really about the project I've decided to dub 'Bay Tree' (which is just, I guess, a pseudonym for here because while I have no idea what it would eventually be called, I know that's nothing like the title I'd want to give it) so I'd want to start a new post for a new project.

I'm now doing a little outlining instead of actually continuing writing, but I think this will help me, though I'm still not certain about whether or not I'm going to directly continue with this specific project for the minute. Instead of setting daily goals based on a target, I'm also just going to say 1,000 words a day, and see where that takes me.

I've just been outlining into Act Three, and I've met a major plot stumble, but I'm going to work that out and explain what I'm doing in my next writing update.

So, go drink some water, eat if you haven't eaten in the last few hours, stand in front of the mirror and tell yourself how wonderful you are and how much happiness you deserve, and, if you want to write a book, stop thinking about it, and go write.

[kindahoping4forever]

Hi Crystal, hope you’re doing well (saw you have some health issues; fingers crossed that gets better soon!). First off: I need tips & tricks for proper manifesting!! Or rather, for my manifesting to reach the right drummer! For the past 3 days I’ve seen the drummers of 3 other bands post drum videos/covers. When all I want is an Ash drum video/cover. 😫 I hope that whatever we’re getting tomorrow is good, fun & chaotic, but the latter should basically be a given. 😉 Secondly: I watched the Superbloom live video on tv again last night (had been a little) and I noticed how much fluffier his hair is in that than in all his IG videos since. Wet hair is obviously never fluffy, but neither is his dry hair. ~ Rema

Aww, thanks, Rema ☺️ Yeah I've been on a bit of a carousel rotating thru my chronic conditions recently - past few weeks it's been a nerve issue I have that affects my arms and hands. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Makes it a bit hard to spend as much time online (or writing) as I would like but I'm trying to hang in 🤷🏻‍♀️💙

And ok HONESTLY when will we get a drum video??? It's been so long since he said the covers would happen and he had "lots of time to practice this year" - WHEN SIR? WHEN???

I was watching a bit of the Superbloom concert myself today 😌 (haven't watched the whole thing in a bit but there's some songs - usually Greyhound, Heart Shaped Box, Perfect Lie - that I'll queue up on their own fairly often) so yeah, I can see what you're saying about his hair. 🤔 My guess would be since he's letting the dye fade and his roots come in, there's a lot of different textures happening that's affecting the volume? I'd say it's not super fluffy recently but it still looks fairly soft tho 😍

@ivebeenasleepsolong

[megalony]

Help me, Doctor- Part 2

Here is the second part of my new Doctor! Ben Hardy series that I hope you are all liking so far.

Taglist: @lunaticspoem @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @jennyggggrrr @luvborhap @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly @luckytrashgooprebel @scarsout @deaky-with-a-c @killer-queen-ofrhye @bluutac @vousmemanqueez @jonesyaddiction @rogahs-drowse @milanosaurus

Series taglist: @blog-hannahnicole

Summary: (Y/n) is referred to Ben when her other doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her. Ben is one of the best doctors to treat her… but the problem is that he already knows (Y/n) and has slept with her before.

Ben Hardy masterlist

Part 1

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last thing (Y/n) remembered was Ben trying his best to hold her up and get her to walk to his car. The moment he started driving, her head had fallen against the cold window that was steaming up before her eyes turned to look at the back of her head and she felt as if a switch had turned off in her head.

Every so often Ben let go of the gearstick and reached over to his left to gently but swiftly nudge (Y/n)'s head back against the headrest when she flopped forward. If the seatbelt wasn't around her frame she would have been crumpled in the footrest.

He had no idea what caused her seizure but he wanted to get her to the hospital now as quickly as he could so if there was any trace of what was causing this, he could get it found on scans or tests. He didn't want this to be something that flared up and then suddenly disappeared without a trace. He had to find out what was causing this because it had clearly been happening for a while and it looked like it was progressing in the wrong kind of way.

"(Y/n), love, you with me?" Ben bent down on his knees beside her when he pulled up at the hospital. He unbuckled her seatbelt before pressing his hand to the side of her face, trying to see if she was conscious or not but she seemed to be out for the count.

Ben slung her arm around his neck before he eased her from the car, nudging her head so it rested on his shoulder and didn't fall back so no injury occurred to her head or neck. He kicked the door closed with his foot before trying to get inside as quickly but carefully as he could manage. The doctor didn't normally have to rush into the hospital at one in the morning with a patient in his arms.

When the automatic doors allowed him inside, he scanned his eyes around to try and see if he could catch someone's attention. He sighed in relief when one of the nurse's seemed to realise he needed help and speeded away, presumably to grab a stretcher.

Today was supposed to be Ben's day off but he already knew that he was going to be spending the day looking through scan and test results because he had to know what was happening to (Y/n). He didn't know if they were technically together but he could feel himself growing attached and feeling afraid for her. He was meant to be helping her and sorting this out but he had no idea what was happening to her.

The nurse who Ben didn't know by name came over with another nurse in tow, the pair of them pushing a stretcher over to him.

Ben tried his best to ease (Y/n) down gently, laying her on her side just in case she threw up which he thought she was going to do a few times in the car. He turned her head down just a little before nodding to the nurses that they had to move her.

"We can take her from here sir-"

Ben shook his head as he continued to hurry alongside the stretcher, fumbling in his wallet for his ID badge to show them he wasn't her worried partner, he was a doctor here. He knew what he was doing and he had in mind what needed to happen. They weren't taking (Y/n) down to A&E to be tested for things she had already been tested for. They were taking her up to the third floor so she could have another MRI and a CT scan and blood tests.

He was going to do every test he could think of to try and see if he could find the problem that seemed to be hiding whenever they tried to look for it.

"I'm her doctor, she's had a seizure half an hour ago. She goes up to the third floor and gets an MRI and CT scan now." Ben held his ID card out in front of her before stuffing it back into his wallet that he pushed back into his pocket as they entered the elevator.

When they got out of the elevator Ben went ahead to talk to one of the doctors leaving the third MRI room to check he could get (Y/n) in for an emergency scan now. They didn't use the MRI or CT scans after 6pm unless it was a patient from an accident or a medical emergency so Ben didn't have to push in a queue like he would have to during the day but he still had to check it was up and working ready.

Ben walked in with the nurses and the stretcher to the machine but when his eyes glanced through the wall of glass into the computer room where the images were displayed, his face fell. Gwilym was on nights and he was now performing the scans for any emergency patients.

Looking back down to (Y/n), Ben moved and stood on the other side of the scanner so they could switch her from the stretcher onto the scanner.

"One, two, three." They used the sheet on the stretcher and pulled it so they could ease (Y/n) onto the scanner. When she seemed stable, Ben put the head and neck brace around her before checking that she was still breathing fine and that she was still unconscious.

When the nurses left the room, Ben pressed the button on the side of the machine so (Y/n) was moved inside before he headed into the control room to sit with Gwilym and look at the results. He was silently praying that Gwilym wouldn't put two and two together even though he knew that was most likely going to be a possibility. He was also praying that something would come up on the screen so he could have some kind of answer to (Y/n)'s mystery illness but both of those wishes seemed like they were longshots.

"Is that mystery girl?" Gwilym questioned when he caught sight of the patient in the scanner that was the second emergency scan of the night so far. He recognised the hair strewn around her head and her features that looked a lot paler than usual tonight.

"Yep."

"Was she in an accident?" Gwilym asked as he looked over at Ben with a look of worry in his eyes. He knew Ben wasn't meant to be on a night shift and he wasn't meant to be in tomorrow either meaning something had happened. This was his patient now after all so he had clearly been called in because of her. They didn't do scans during the night except for mainly car accidents or some sort of incidents in the night so something had gone wrong for her to be here tonight.

"She had a seizure, I'm hoping something in the brain activity will be abnormal so I have some kind of answer."

Ben clasped his hands together as he rested his elbows on the desk, his eyes focusing on the screens lighting up in front of them. One screen showed the blood vessels in the image of the brain which all seemed to be normal, none wider or narrower than usual which was good. Ben was almost certain that whatever was wrong wasn't to do with her blood but he was going to take a blood test later to be on the safe side.

His eyes were focusing on the monitor in front of him which was of the nerves and the monitor in the middle of him and Gwilym which showed the brain activity. It lit up different sectors of the brain with various colours to show what was active and working and what was dormant for the time being. If something lit up that either shouldn't be or that seemed to be overactive them Ben had something to go on.

"You got here quick if she's only just come in. Who called you?" Gwilym asked casually as he clicked on the keyboard to zoom in on an image just to check that nothing was wrong.

He guessed that (Y/n) hadn't been taken down to A&E since she was still unconscious right now and they never sent for scans like this. It was the paramedics or doctors that sent for emergency scans and no one normally asked for a scan for someone who had a seizure. So if (Y/n) just got here then Gwilym wondered when Ben got a call to say his patient was here and who thought to call him.

"Hmm. I flagged her file, if she comes in I get paged." Ben wasn't technically lying, he had put a flag on her file on the computer system so if something happened and she was brought in, someone would alert him and let him know. It meant he could come in and do tests quickly if it was some kind of emergency and he could find out first hand what had happened and what symptoms she was suffering from.

Things were quiet between them for a few minutes as they both put their focus into scanning every inch of the images being presented on the screens but they couldn't find anything wrong or abnormal.

"When did you get here, if you came in with the nurses and she was on a stretcher?" Gwilym suddenly asked as he frowned, turning his chair so he was facing Ben who didn't bother to look over at him. Ben had come in with the nurses and (Y/n) who was on a stretcher, it seemed like a coincidence that he would have come straight up with her rather than bursting into the scan a few moments later. The nurses would have taken (Y/n) for an examination, not a scan so Ben clearly ordered this to happen.

"What does it matter? We have to do a CT scan, nothing's coming up." Ben hit his fist against the desk as he pushed himself back into the chair, anger raging through him at not finding anything.

It had been half an hour since she had her seizure, surely whatever had caused it couldn't have disappeared with no trace in such a short space of time. He had tried his best to get her here as quickly as he could to find out what was wrong but it was as if she was perfectly healthy like Joe had assumed in the first place. Ben knew Joe still thought (Y/n) was simply a party girl who drank too much but Ben knew there was more to this than meets the eye.

"We'll do a scan in the morning... oh my God, you slept with her, didn't you? She was with you when she seized!"

Gwilym leaned forward as he raked a hand through his hair, shaking his head in disbelief. It made much more sense but at the same time it didn't because Ben was a stickler for the rules. He had never gone with a patient before and he did everything by the book, this would be like he was throwing the book out the window completely.

"Wow, you got me, I fucked my patient. Happy? Come on, we need a CT machine." Ben rolled his eyes at the look Gwilym gave him but he felt irritation rattling through him when Gwilym held onto his arm to stop him from walking out.

"She's not an emergency Ben, she's your girlfriend. You know the rules for scans... you shouldn't be her doctor if-"

"Don't you dare give me a lecture." Ben snapped as he huffed before sitting back down in his chair. "She had a seizure for no reason, nothing upset her or provoked her or stimulated her brain but it happened. I need every scan and test I can get now because whatever is causing her problems is gonna fade and disappear like it does on every fucking test. This has nothing to do with my personal life, I'm her doctor now are you gonna help me or not?"

Ben wasn't ordering tests and scans because (Y/n) was his girlfriend and he wanted her treated first. He was doing this because he needed those tests now whilst her brain was still in the aftershock of the seizure that happened without cause. If Ben could find even the slightest trace of something out of the ordinary then he would have something to go on and he would have an inkling as to what was happening to (Y/n).

But if he found nothing then he was no closer to finding her a treatment and she was going to get worse, not better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ben, maybe she's under stress. She could have had a seizure induced by anxiety or stress." Gwilym shrugged his shoulders as he sat in Ben's office but the blond was far from happy and he clearly didn't agree.

Ben knew (Y/n) at least more than he knew his other patients and although she suffered from anxiety, it wasn't on an extreme level that it would push her into a fit or make her have blackouts or momentary problems with how her brain functioned. Anxiety couldn't cause the symptoms she was experiencing, both of them knew that but they were pulling at straws.

The MRI showed nothing, a CT scan showed that everything seemed to be normal. Ben did an ECG to check on her heart and it was in perfect condition and he ran blood tests and did a tox screen which all came back clean. He went so far as to give her an epileptic test to see if any lights or extreme flashing images would induce her into another seizure but she wasn't epileptic. He didn't know why she had a seizure last night and he was no closer to finding out what was wrong with her. All he knew was she was experiencing many symptoms that didn't seem to be lasting for too long and the only connection he could see between them all was that it was to do with her brain.

But her brain seemed to be fine on every single test.

"Who gets so bloody stressed after sex that they have a seizure? If that was the case I should have been the one to have a fit, not her." Ben frowned as he shook his head at Gwilym's logic.

He had never heard of someone becoming so stressed after sex that they suddenly had a fit or had any of the problems that (Y/n) had been experiencing. Out of the pair of them, Ben was the one who would have had the seizure because he had been the one who had been worrying about their situation. He was the one who was at risk of getting reprimanded for being with a patient but he was fine and (Y/n) wasn't.

"You don't get blackouts, seizures and brain function problems from anxiety Gwil."

"Well what have you found out? All your tests and examinations have shown that she's perfectly healthy and good in bed, what do you want me to say?"

"If you're gonna be a prick you can piss off." Ben snapped with a look of fury that Gwilym knew he shouldn't mess with any more than this. He didn't mean to be rude or provoke Ben but they had no ideas. No one they had ever treated or heard of had experienced these symptoms all together like this. There was no disease or infection that they knew of which would cause these problems for (Y/n) and it made both doctors feel worse to know that they didn't know how to help her.

"Alright, sorry. But... have you thought this through? Forget about whatever illness she has and if you can find it and treat it, she's still your patient. Are you really going to go through with this relationship or whatever it is?"

Ben hadn't really thought it through but he never liked to plan ahead or try and live his life along to a schedule because it never worked out in the way he would want it to if he tried that. He was just seeing where this led to and right now he liked the direction it was going. (Y/n) was genuine, she was funny and witty and kind and caring, Ben didn't want to restrict himself to simply be her doctor when he really wanted to be much more than that.

"Are you going to report me?" Ben quipped with a neutral expression. He couldn't say what he thought if Gwilym was going to go to the board of directors and rat him out for breaking the rules.

Gwilym had the right to go and tell them if he thought it was interfering with Ben's work or how he treated (Y/n) or simply if he thought it wasn't ethical. Ben couldn't really be mad at him for that because it was something Ben would have thought about doing a few months ago if a colleague was having a relationship with a patient.

But right now, Ben wasn't going to break things off with (Y/n), he was going to continue them for as long as they both wanted.

"You know I won't." They were friends, Gwilym would never have the heart or the courage to report Ben because it could ruin his career and he was one of the best doctors here. He was breaking the rules but it was a strict rule that didn't have many consequences when it was broken. Ben wasn't doing anything harmful or wrong right now by being with (Y/n).

"Then I'm gonna continue seeing her."

[thessalian]

Thess vs Thursday

So yeah, no, Thursdays are still a thing I have not got the hang of. Or maybe they just have it in for me, I dunno.

Slid on over to my work laptop to start the workday, finally got everything booted up and logged in etc (it always takes half past for-fucking-ever) ... and noticed that despite us not being very badly off yesterday, the typing queue was in a bit of a state. In fact, it appeared as though the queue hadn’t been touched since I logged off yesterday.

Then I checked my email. Had one from Scruffman, saying, “Yeah, if you were wondering why the typing queue’s insane, it’s because it’s only me, [Milady], and [this one other person who only really does filing] in today because illness, annual leave, and emergency leave. Nearly asked you to come in today but figured there was no point since we leave at the same time anyway. Sorry!”

I mean, dodged a bullet on the having to go into the office thing. Because seriously, no one who does any kind of typing is in today apart from me (for varying levels of ‘in’, obviously), so the last thing you can afford to do is put me in a position where I will be less productive. And I would be less productive at the office, owing to fewer microbreaks, worse chair, and ergonomics made of bullshit and baling wire. But still. No one typing but me and occasionally Milady if she had a minute. And she didn’t have a lot of minutes, obviously, because no one else being in.

So guess who got the entire typing queue all to themselves?

I managed to clear all of yesterday’s typing (everything from a little past 10am to just about 6pm; easily a hundred reports). I pushed too hard doing it, and I had to run a little over time to get the last few, but I got it done. This left me with five reports from this one woman who ... okay, her accent isn’t that bad. ...Okay, it is, but I’ve dealt with worse. It’s more that her voice is exceptionally high-pitched, and always ends on a rising note that effectively devolves into a squeak. Which it would appear is a migraine trigger; lucky me. Also had a couple of gentlemen whose accents I’m more or less used to but insist on talking with their mouths right up to the microphone - rather shitty microphones at that - so that you get the wonderful double act of “this is way to loud” and “you sound like you’re talking through a sock”. One of the newbies has not figured out how to use a foot pedal and her dictation breaks up in some really messy ways, and I dread the day it happens and she loses measurements or specimen descriptions or something I can’t fake. Not because I have any problems sending her an email letting her know that she cut shit out of a dictation (I have to do that at least twice a day anyway, because even the old hands apparently can’t figure out how the fucking foot pedal works), but because ... well, I figured it’d be good to know her email address for the inevitable moment when she does lose something I can’t fake, and it turns out she doesn’t fucking have one. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised; she borrows everyone else’s logins for dictation so why the hell not just coast through the place like a ghost with no form of contact whatsoever? That’s not even going into the guy who yells and refuses to listen to me when I tell him, for the eighth time, that I need the number of specimens per block even if it is on another system because someone who needs to know this might not have access to that other system and it’s also a way to check for discrepancies!

So it’s been a hard day. I’d say things will probably go back to normal tomorrow but given sick leave and emergency leave, I have my doubts. Those things often take multiple days to resolve. And on top of that, next week is when my new extended hours start. Honestly, that’s probably for the best because I can not push as hard and still get more done than I was getting before. Also I have drafted an email to Scruffman flagging up yet again Temp’s tendency to cherry-pick the typing, which I will send the next time she’s really blatant about it. Generally I understand that she’s the one doing the long ones when I’m not there and leaving the ones I’m there for to me is a way to achieve balance, but since I’ll be working longer hours, the balance is going to change, and if I’m having to spend six or six and a half hours dealing with Ms Squeaky, Mr Choked-By-Sock, the one guy who averages ten minute dictations, every single fucking placenta report with its bits of fiddly, and all the rest of the stuff that I understand that no one wants to do because I hate them as much as anybody else ... well, no. No, that can’t keep happening. I’ve done everything. I’ve given Temp all my little snippets where you can just type in a code and have a full report there with only the measurements / weights and a few details needing to be changed a bit. I’ve offered to discuss it if there’s people she struggles to type for so that we can find a working balance. All I get is “Don’t stress about it” and I am fed up. But obviously not something you send until there’s something to point at and say, “Look. You do not get more blatant than this. I know she just goes back to cherry-picking every single time you take her to task about this, but something needs to be done to make her take these things in chronological order like the rest of us do”.

As you can probably tell, I’m not in a great mood. Doesn’t help that I didn’t have much time for breaks and food was “most of a bag of Doritos stuffed into my mouth between reports”. I’m going to relax, have a cookie, and later on I will make my chicken adobo. The chicken’s been marinading since last night so I’m hoping for good things.

[bestfriendforhire]

Children of BFFH, Entry 54

 “I’m very happy that Father isn’t making us spend time in traffic.” stated Aid as we strolled to the family ship, now parked in the yard.

 “Mother convinced him.” announced Luce with a toothy grin.  This trip had been her idea, but we were all looking forward to it.

 “I’ll make sure to give her an extra hug then.” I told them with a smile of my own.  Most of my free time over the past couple of weeks was spent hanging out with our new friend, Valeria, trying to help her appear more human.  I was quite certain that her success could largely be attributed to Cosette and Mila’s work with her and Valeria’s determination, but all of us kids tried to help her practice, playing out countless scenarios to test her.

 “I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the city, even if only through a car window.  I quite like cars.” insisted Valeria.  Coming from a century where being kept inside, studying to be a proper aristocrat, was seen as something grand, she had a much different view on many things than the rest of us.

 Ella, on Valeria’s other side, happily exclaimed “I enjoy cars too!  There’s always something new to see!”  The day Ella could grow bored would probably be the day Auntie Aaliyah decided to permanently wipe out this universe.  Some things were incredibly improbable.

 “I prefer the view from the sky.  We’ll get to see everything at once!” suggested Aspy as he barely restrained himself from jogging ahead.

 Doc sighed dramatically before saying, “My brother’s wanting to look down on everyone again.  How can I get him back on the right path?”

 He moved to shove her, but was blocked just long enough by a telekinetic wall that she was able to move to the side.  Then he did chase after her, first on the ground and then into the air where they were quite obviously messing with each other’s abilities, falling an inch here and there.  Not having Crazy around to join them was sooo relaxing!  Stormcrow was too burdened with his bags to fly, and the quadruplets were probably arguing with their parents about what gadgets they should bring to show their grandfather.

 “Think Grandfather will recognize us this trip?” questioned Luce apprehensively.

 “If not, we’ll remind him again.  He usually senses that we’re of his blood.” replied Aid, giving our sister a hug.

 “Yes, but he doesn’t always really know us.” complained Luce with a frown.

 “He will one day.  We just have to be patient.” I assured her.  Father had told us that Grandfather’s madness was only temporary, but Grandfather had been confused since before we were born.  I couldn’t even guess what Grandfather would be like with his mental faculties fully functioning.  Mother only ever spoke positively of him, but I just couldn’t see the man she spoke of in the one I knew.

 Once on the ship, we quickly stored our luggage and prepared for takeoff.  Though Mila kept the ship in perfect order, my siblings and I were still expected to do proper flight checks when one of us flew.  Today was my turn, so I was finding what fake problems Mila had set for me while the others started deciding what game to play for the flight.  I knew my parents had us do these checks for when we flew spaceships without Mila, but the routine really was tedious.  Ten minutes and six problems later, I was barely done before everyone finished boarding.

 “If you want to play with the others, I’ll gladly convince Daddy to let me fly.” offered Dani while hugging Leilani.  My tiny niece would be turning four next week.

 “Thank you, but I’ll take my turn.” I told her, not missing that she offered after I finished my pre-flight checks.  “You fly a little fast for some of our passengers.”

 She rolled her eyes, but was grinning at me.  Dani was very well aware of how the rest of us felt about her piloting, given that she sensed our emotions.  Leilani was trying to wiggle out of her mother’s arms to hug me, no doubt sensing my feelings as well.

 “Enough, children.  On we go.” ordered Mother as she took the co-pilot seat.  “We’re already running a couple minutes late.”

 “Yes, Mother.” I told her.

 At the same time, Dani said, “Fine, Mom.”  Dani really did love to fly ships, especially at the edge of her ability to control them.  She was very, very good, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed to crash a few times that I didn’t know about.

 Once Dani was belted down and Father had Leilani, I guided us off the yard and into the sky.  The ship’s defenses were turned on, so local radar wouldn’t even detect us.  Father surely had permission for us to be flying from the yard already, but there was no reason to startle anyone with this ship’s speed, not that I’d push its capabilities at all this flight.  If I did push the ship, we’d probably arrive in Caerllion within an hour rather than three and a half.

 Mila could probably outfly my parents, but manually controlling the aircraft throughout the flight was a test of patience and awareness, especially with Mother discussing ideas Messy had told her about for a city.  I knew Messy loved the idea of creating a city too, but we rarely directly discussed it together, each plotting a big surprise for the other.  Unfortunately, she was probably ahead on her designs.  Messy was brilliant and could probably persuade Mila to help her even more than Mila helped me.  Being siblings had perks.  Then there was Auntie Aaliyah, who was just as doting as she was disturbing as a parent.

 Luckily, the conversation kept me plenty occupied throughout the flight, so I didn’t end up feeling like too much time had passed by the time I was taking us down for a landing West of the castle.  I nearly botched my landing when I caught sight of the most rickety-looking bus I had ever seen bouncing along the smooth road from our landing pad.

 “Just an illusion, Four.” stated Mother with a smirk once the ship was settled on the pad.  “Aaliyah’s driving, so expect a loud stop too.”

 Probably on queue, given that Auntie Aaliyah was well aware of our conversation before we knew we’d be having it, the bus seemed to swerve out of control, do three donuts, and screech to a stop perfectly over a couple parking spots.  I laughed, shaking my head.  Auntie Aaliyah waited outside the bus to admire all of our faces as we approached, despite knowing precisely how we’d react without looking.

 The bus’ interior was far more luxurious than necessary for the short trip to the castle, but I wasn’t going to complain.  The illusion on the outside would probably be dismissed before we arrived to keep up appearances with the locals.  Mother was a duchess and couldn’t be seen looking as anything else outside of the castle.  As her children, my siblings and I needed to have perfect manners whenever we might be seen by the public anywhere in Europe, which was one of the obvious drawbacks with our visits here.

 Despite not having the Slayer name, Slayer politics were part of our life when away from Somerset Estate.  Poor behavior on our part could lead to those under Mother to embarrassment, possibly leading them to betray Mother’s interests.  Sadly, our distant cousins were known more for their enormous pride than great wisdom.  Foolish attacks against one another were common.

 “How was the trip?” asked Messy once we were settled.

 “I’d wager better than yours.” replied Aid with a smirk.

 “What!?  No way.  Ours was awesome!” insisted Crazy.

 “She lies.  Mother was Mother, so there were constant hassles.” argued Messy, shaking her head at Crazy.

 Looking at Messy in shock, Crazy said, “But they were fun hassles!”

 After a little more debate, the two related their journey to the rest of us, probably leaving out bits that not everyone could know.

 “No, I’ll definitely pass.” insisted Luce when Crazy expressed her wish that we could have been there.

 Departing the bus with my luggage in hand, I noted that the bus was a slick, black vehicle that had to be custom built.

 “Lord James, a pleasure to see you again.” stated Sebastian, who was already waiting for us.  “Please, sir, allow the servants to tend to your luggage.”

 I refrained from sighing and left the luggage by the bus.

 “Are there guests already?” questioned Aid as he placed his suitcase next to mine.

 Nodding, Sebastian said, “Yes, Lord Aiden.”

 Luce frowned, setting down her luggage as well.

 “We’ll go see your grandfather tonight.  For now, show the others around.” ordered Mother.  “Most of our friends haven’t been here before.”

 After a little discussion, the trip started with a tour of the grounds to hopefully avoid bumping into our parents’ guests.  Cosette and Valeria were covered in protective spells to keep the sun from bothering them, and Dani and Leilani already had their inhuman skin and hair colors covered by an illusion.  We’d be safe if spotted, but I was counting on Aid steering us clear of anyone we’d want to avoid.  Not openly using magic was always a strange feeling for most of us.

 My siblings and I were able to answer most questions about the yard, even knowing the public stories of those in the family crypt.  Communicating through Aid, Sebastian told us that Father and Mother wouldn’t be available for lunch, so I suggested a light lunch down by the lake, knowing the servants would gladly bring us food if Mila didn’t beat them to it.  Luckily, the adults with us agreed.  Even Mommas Ai and Mai didn’t want to subject any of us to local business dealings.  Those two probably knew more about the area than even my siblings and me, given that they spent most of their childhood here.

 Resisting the urge to ask Doc or Momma Maple to show us all more of every given place’s history during the tour was torture, but this estate was steeped in Slayer family secrets.  We’d have to wait for tomorrow to have our history lessons when we ventured out to other parts of the United Kingdom.

[purplesurveys]

829

Are you the type of person who gets straight to the point? For the most part, yeah. I’m a little impatient and quickly get annoyed when people go around in circles. What was the last thing you said in complete caps? It was probably the conversation I had with Angela this morning since we talk in all caps 97% of the time. The subject of the conversation is a bit of an inside joke though so it’ll be complicated just to start explaining it. Do you enjoy playing board games? Not really. I’m bad at following instructions so I’m mostly uninterested when someone tries to explain a new board game to me. I stick with the ones I already know, which aren’t a lot. Are there any movies you are wanting to see? Yeah but not any upcoming ones (if there are even any). My film queue is full of stuff that’s been released in the past, and the ‘My List’ section on my Netflix for instance has movies like Rosemary’s Baby, The Pianist, The Truman Show, V for Vendetta, etc. Do you live closer to the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean? Pacific. I’m nowhere near the Atlantic Ocean.

Who was the last contact you stored into your cell phone, if you have one? The makeup artist who did my hair and makeup for my test grad shoot last December. My mom loved how I look so she had me ask for their contact just in case she needs it for future events. Did you wear anything new today? Nope, because I’ve been home for the last three months. That sounds more and more ridiculous to say each day... Would you ever have a calendar in your car? No, that’s what my phone is for. I think having a calendar in my car would be highly distracting too? What was the last song you sang along to? I’m not sure, I don’t think I listened to music today or yesterday. My guess would be Saw You in a Dream - The Japanese House. Are you a fan of the band Taking Back Sunday? No, but I heard of them a lot when I was a younger teenager. Do you ever eavesdrop on people's conversations? I don’t usually get to because my hearing is bad lol, but if it’s juicy and if I caught the context I probably would. Aside from waking up, what was the first thing you did this morning? I hung out with Cooper. I’m officially in charge of playing with him whenever he’s awake haha. I’ve never cared for a puppy before so one thing I learned is it’s a lot like taking care of a newborn baby? Cooper’s routine so far has been sleep for 1-2 hours, play for 1, and repeat. Once we notice him getting up, I’m the fun mom that plays with him until he tires himself out. Are you good at playing Hide and Go Seek? I can be good at it but I generally don’t like playing it. I always feel anxious whenever the It gets warmer to wherever I’m hiding. Do you live in an apartment or a house? House. Is there a music artist that never seizes to amaze you? In recent years Paramore has been drastically changing their sound for every new album they put out, so I’m always excited when they have new material because they always hit it out of the park. At what time do you normally go to bed? It ranges between 12 and 2 AM. It’s no longer as late as before. What is the last magazine you read? I haven’t read a physical magazine in a year or two; but the last online version of a magazine that I checked out was Esquire. How many words do you type per minute? If I’m taking a speed typing test where I really have to type as fast as I possibly can, I can reach 80-90. I never have to type that fast though so my typing speed would definitely be considerably less. What is your favorite term of endearment? I like baby. Do you like Twizzlers? I got into them as a kid just because Kristen Stewart ate it in the Twilight movie LMAOOOOO. Fangirls are ridiculous. I’m honestly just fine with them, they’re not groundbreakingly good or anything. I don’t even think I’ve had them again since my Twilight phase. Who or what made you smile last? I took a peek at what my dad was making for dinner and I already know it’s gonna be so good. Have you ever seen the movie The Wicker Man? Nope. How many states are between the state you live in and Florida? *yawn* Another US-centric question; though I got a little curious and looked up the distance between Florida and Manila instead. Google says 14,717 km. Do you sneak in candy/soda when you go to the movies? You don’t have to sneak in any type of food when you go to the cinemas here since they allow you to bring in whatever you want. I once bought Cinnabon buns to watch Wonder Woman hahah. The only unofficial rule is just don’t bring something that’s gonna smell and distract everyone. What was the last song you had on repeat? Back To You - Louis Tomlinson because of a question I answered on a survey yesterday. Do you often have that song on repeat? In 2017 I sure did. I don’t encounter the song these days anymore unless I look it up myself on Spotify. What brand of lotion do you use? I don’t use lotion. Where are your favorite pair of jeans from? I’m not sure actually. It was my mom who saw it and she bought it when she thought of me, and I never thought to ask her where she got it from. Silly string or confetti? Like, for a party? Confetti looks nicer to me. What month is your best friend's birthday in? June and September. One a scale of 1 to 10, how tired are you right now? 12 from taking care of Cooper, 2 in general because I made coffee. How long is your favorite song? I don’t really pick favorite songs because I have at least one in my preferred genres at a time. Nachos or tacos? Nachos. Also because I miss Nacho. Whose wedding did you last attend? My uncle and his then-fiancée, now my aunt, but that was 2007. It’s my parents who get invited to a lot of weddings, but not me and my siblings. Are you a rebel? Not anymore. I definitely acted like one when I hit puberty though. Does it take you more or less than an hour to get ready for the day? Less. I usually savor my time in bed then hurry up once I’m about to be running late haha. I’m out the door by 15, 20 minutes.   What was the highlight of your day today? Taking a survey this morning on the couch with Cooper napping beside me while Kimi was near my feet :) Do you tap your foot when you listen to music? No, especially not when I’m driving lmao. Would you rather use tape or glue? Tape, it’s more secure. Homemade or store bought cards? Either works fine because my ultimate takeaway is that at least someone thought of me. I would personally make homemade cards/letters though. When did you last eat popcorn? Sometime around Christmas. My mom started making us bowls of popcorn but we got tired of it pretty quickly so our popcorn binge only lasted over the break. Have you ever done community service? I’ve done it with my classmates for a class requirement, not because we did something bad and it was our punishment. Will you get your hair cut anytime soon? Nope, I just gave it a big haircut earlier this year. Are you uncoordinated? Mostly not, but I still have moments where I trip over air. Michael or Janet Jackson? Michael. I know Janet is crazy talented too but I just never started trying to get into her music. Do you listen to any hip hop? Just some. What will you be doing at this time tomorrow? Most likely doing surveys too, as is routine. Have you ever listened to Jane's Addiction? I haven’t. Orange or purple? Purple. & - the typical ending to my surveys - how about some lyrics? “There’s just no future left for us to dream of, living in an era of instability / So caught up in the culture of their rivals, fear breeds in honest men.” From High Pressure Low - Against Me! Been thinking about these lyrics for the last few days.

[lovemesomesurveys]

Do you feel comfortable wearing tube tops? Noooo. You’ll never see me in a tube top. I don’t even wear tank tops. Has something someone said today annoyed you? Not so far, ha. I haven’t interacted with anyone, yet. It’s only 4:33AM.  Can you hear the crickets chirping at night? No. Do you like listening to new music, or just sticking to your favorites? I like new music, but I do love listening to my good ol’ favorites. I have a playlist that consists of a variety of music, new and old, from various genres and decades, that I just click shuffle and listen.  So far, where have you been on vacation? I haven’t gone anywhere this year, yet. 

Did you ever feel that there was something you couldn't tell anyone? Yep. Old stuff and ongoing, current stuff. Do you tend to gossip, even if you don't mean it to cause harm? It does happen. I’ll see something on social media about someone I know and tell my mom or brother. Family gossip stuff. Not to talk shit, but it’ll be like, “omg did you see what so and so posted/did/whatever.” Or like if someone is pregnant or broke up or whatever.  My main gossip is celebrity stuff, though. ha. When was the last time you were bitten by a bug? I don’t recall. It’s been a long time, thankfully. Have you ever gotten your hair permed? No. Do you have a pair of sunglasses that are worth over $200? I don’t have any sunglasses. I don’t wear ‘em, but if I did I sure wouldn’t spend that much. Not anywhere close. Would you ever go on a trip to Europe? Absolutely. I’d love to. There’s so many places I’d love to visit. Are you brave when it comes to trying new foods? Nopeee. I have the same few foods I rotate between. It’s a small list. When was the last time you saw your significant other? I’m single. Is there a friend that you can always go to for advice? I can go to my mom. Have you ever been to a town/place where the people were just creepy? No. Ew, I hope I never go somewhere like that. What's the fastest you've ever driven in a car? I’ve never driven a car. If you see a piano, are you tempted to go over and play a little something? I would. Especially because it’s been over 10 years since I last played.  Is there someone you know who bakes amazing sweets? Yeah. Are you ashamed of your singing voice? I can’t sing for shit, but it doesn’t stop me from singing to myself or around my family. I try to sound as decent as I can, ha. I’m not like those people on American Idol they show that can’t sing well at all, but they think they can and they’re just on there wailing. lol. Has anyone teased you with the "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song? Yeah. Have you ever had a dream where you could understand a foreign language? No. That would be weird. What time is it where you are? 4:45AM. Do you have anything important to do tomorrow? I have my Bible study stuff. Have you ever owned a beanbag chair? Yeah, when I was a kid we had one. If you own a laptop, do you have a case for it? I do. What was the last movie you purchased on DVD? I don’t even remember. I haven’t bought a physical DVD in yearssss.  Are you a fan of retro things? Yeah. Do you do your own laundry? No. I need help with that, which my mom does. Have you ever used pastels? Yes. Is there a song you're listening to at the moment? No. Would you be considered to be knowledgeable about World War 2? Not really. Have you ever been in possession of a hundred dollar bill? Yes. Is there one food you cannot give up, even though you know it's unhealthy? I don’t eat healthy at all, but the worst thing I eat is probably ramen. I love it, though.  Will you bother having a party for your next birthday? Nah, I’m old. I just like doing something lowkey with my parents and brother. Although, last year my aunt and cousin came over for a game night and cheesecake for my birthday and that was fun. I’d be up for that again. If you're with someone right now, do you think it will last? Who was the last person you flipped off? I have no idea. That’s not something I really do. Like, ever. Do you currently have a job? No. What was the last movie that was unable to capture your interest? Hmm. I don’t remember.  Have you heard of the Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers? The name rings a bell. Do you have something to do, that you would rather not do? There’s a few things. Are you, in any way, feeling hopeless right now? I’ve felt that way for a long time. Is there someone you just need to call and talk to? No. I don’t like talking on the phone. Are you one of those people who can eat anything and not gain a pound? Yes. I used to like that about myself, but it’s a problem for me, currently. These past few years I’ve lost weight due to health stuff and as someone who was already thin...yeah, not good. It’s caused problems for me. Are you nails painted at the moment? No. It’s been a few years since I’ve painted my nails. Is there a song you've been listening to lately on repeat? There’s a few songs lately that I always like to listen when listening to music. I just hit shuffle on my playlist, but there’s a few I like to just add to queue to make sure they come up. Lately, it’s been a couple Billie Eilish songs. Do you know who you're planning to ask to your grad prom? I’m 30 years old. I did go to prom; though, but I didn’t have a date. I just went with friends. When was the last time you went shopping? A few weeks ago. Is there anyone who did something absolutely hilarious today? Not so far. Again, it’s really early and I haven’t interacted with anyone, yet.  Are you having one of those days where you feel unattractive? “one of those days” is everyday for me, old sport. I feel unattractive and I am unattractive.  Do you like hot dogs? No. Do you ever get bored of your music collection and get new songs? I like to check out new music and add it to my playlist to add to the rotation, but I love my old stuff, too. Have you ever bought a designer purse? I’ve been gifted one. What's the limit on how much you would pay for a shirt? I’d say like $30. I mean, I’d obviously prefer cheaper if I can find a good sale or have a good coupon, but if not then yeah about $30. Would you ever like to see the Walk of Fame? Sure. Is it currently humid where you are? No. Have you been in any sort of physical pain today? Of course. Have you ever heard of the German movie Das Boot? Nope. Who were the last people you hung out with? My mom and brother. Has someone ever called you "obnoxious"? Not that I’m aware of.  Most commonly, do you obey rules, or break them? I’m more of a rule follower. Do you like making funny faces in pictures? Nah. Is there something you look back on and go "I can't believe I did that"? A lot of things... Are you good at offering advice? I think I used to be. At least, my friends seemed to think so since I was the one they always came to for advice. I wouldn’t say I am now, though. No one should ask me anything. When was the last time you had to resort to a map? I just use Google Maps if I need directions. I’ve never used an actual map. Your significant other: have you told them you love them lately? What was the last thing to confuse you? Life. How many different colors have you dyed your hair? 3. Do you know someone who always spells "bored" like "board"? No. Are you wearing make up right now? No. I haven’t worn makeup in over a year. Is there a phrase that you use a lot? Words and phrases, yeah. Are you old enough to vote? I’ve been old enough to vote for over 10 years now. Do you have a favorite pair of earrings? Yes, the rose gold Minnie Mouse earrings I got for Christmas. Have you ever been to Disneyworld/Disneyland? I’ve been to Disneyland a few times. Have you dated someone more than twice? Not more than twice, but twice. Are you a fan of Keira Knightley? I’m indifferent.  Have you ever resorted to alcohol to make you feel better? It never helped. Maybe briefly, but it was always short lived. Do you own a full-length mirror? Yeah. Do you ever go on PerezHilton.com to get all the celeb gossip? I see his tweets. Have you heard about Mel Gibson's rant/freakout? Yeah. That was ages ago. Do you wish your bedroom was bigger? Yes, that would be nice. My room is quite small and I have too much stuff. Are you aware of the significance of the date April 14th, 1912? I am, actually. Do you ever just lay back and watch the stars? No. Lately have you had much time to relax? You would think so since I spend majority of my time at home in bed. I wouldn’t call it relaxing, though. Not for me. I have health stuff, physically and mentally, and feel like crap, so. Did anything important/changing happen to you in March 2009? That was over 10 years ago, I don’t remember. I guess nothing that important happened. Nothing memorable, at least. Have you ever felt like a "new person"? Yes, but not in a good way. These past few years have changed me and not for the better. Do you own any expensive jewelry? Yes. What size is your TV? 32 inch, I think. Do you occasionally creep on people on Facebook? Nah. I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook and what little time I do spend I’m just scrolling through my feed “liking” stuff and sharing an occasional post. I won’t say that I’ve never done that, though. ha. Who hasn’t. Has there been someone in your life that just wouldn't leave you alone? Yeah, in the past.  Do you hate to use public bathrooms? Yes. I very rarely do. Do you find most remixes of songs to be good or bad? It really just depends. I’ve heard good ones and I’ve heard shitty ones. There have been some I liked better than the original. Write something to someone who means a lot to you: Nah. I’ll just say goodnight!

[eldritchsurveys]

734.

Have you ever read the Hunger Games series? >> I have, finally! Read it during my trip to Texas in January. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would; my quibbles are few. I want to see the movies but I also don’t want to see the movies -- what I want are... not those movies, pretty much. I’ll probably give the first one a shot at least, just so I know for sure exactly what I’m protesting against, lol.

When was the last time you ran into something? >> I don’t remember, I don’t do that often.

Do you enjoy dressing up? >> Yes, absolutely, mostly because I don’t get to do it often so it’s a novelty.

Do you live in the city or a rural area? >> I live in the outskirts of a city. So, kind of the suburbs, but not quite.

Would you say you have a sense of style? >> I mean, yeah.

What’s your biggest fear? >> Being terribly aware of my every dying moment and carrying that awareness into another life or something.

Have you ever been bitten by a wild animal? >> No.

Are you close to any of your cousins? >> No.

Have you ever been lost in the woods? >> No.

Where did you last travel? >> For any significant distance? Houston, Texas.

Do you enjoy driving? >> I don’t drive. I enjoy driving being a part of my mythic self, though (my mythic self is called the Driver, you see).

What song did you last listen to? >> Sunlight by Hozier. Which was, of course, written specifically to call me out.

If you have a job, how often do you work? >> ---

What time do you normally go to sleep at night? >> Anywhere between 10.30p and 1a.

Do you watch a lot of movies? >> I do.

Do you like Tom Petty? >> I don’t.

Would you rather have snow or rain? >> Rain. Absolutely rain.

Do you own a lot of sweaters? >> No. I’m not sure I own any at all, actually -- oh, wait, I own exactly one. It’s a Hot Topic Christmas sweater and it says “Sleigher: Reindeer Blood” on it. I love it and I would live in it if I could.

Have you ever tried rock-climbing? >> Nope. Except on that small rock wall in the Museum of Science & Industry (pretty sure that’s where it was).

Ever ridden in a police car? >> Yes.

Favorite decade of music? >> I don’t have a favourite decade. I prefer listening to music from as many decades as possible.

Have any of your best friends been your best friend longer than a year? >> ---

Ever witnessed a murder? >> No.

Do you care what people think of you? >> I care what some people think of me.

Does your room have a ceiling fan? >> Nope.

Would you consider yourself poised? >> Not particularly. I never put any effort into it.

Have you ever tried blogging? >> Of course, lol.

Favorite television channel? >> I don’t have cable.

Have you ever lied under oath? >> No.

What are your religious views? >> Nebulous and subject to whim.

Are you a romantic person? >> No.

When did you last change your bed sheets? >> About an hour ago, actually. And I showered afterwards, so now I’m a clean boy in a clean bed. Livin’ the dream.

Would you consider yourself a flirt? >> No.

At what age do you plan to be married? >> 32, apparently.

Do you eat a lot of junk food? >> No. I really just don’t like a lot of the foods that are widely considered “junk”.

When did you last go on vacation? >> I guess the trip to Texas was kind of a vacation? But otherwise I’d say my wedding/honeymoon in October.

Are you resilient? >> Yeah. Like, I know I am. It’s been proven that I am. The fact I feel so fragile and wounded so often isn’t a contradiction of that fact.

Have you ever failed a subject before? >> I don’t think so.

If so, what was the class? >> Like, I should have failed English III because I got a zero on the midterm and the final, but I think the teacher gave me a D out of pity or whatever.

Do you wear more bright or dull colors? >> I don’t really wear colours at all. It’s not even an effort anymore, it really just seems that all of the clothing I’m willing to wear comes in black...

Do you know anyone who has attempted suicide? >> Yes.

What’s your favorite quote? >> DAMMIT. I totally forgot about that quotes file I was going to keep on Evernote. I gotta work on that so I have answers for this question.

Would you consider yourself mature? >> I mean, I suppose I do okay. Being post-traumatic means I have some pretty child-like responses to things sometimes, but, you know. I’m doing my best.

How many clocks are in your house? >> There’s one on my wall, although there’s no battery in it because I can’t abide the noise. It’s just a decoration. (It’s one of those records that someone cut a design out of, it’s really cool.)

Do you play any sports? >> No.

What is your biggest life regret? >> ---

Have you ever been injured in a car accident? >> Nope.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be? >> My mind went a lot of places with this question in 5 seconds flat, and I don’t even know how to unpack any of it. Half the shit I thought of didn’t even have anything to do with this lifetime.

Have you ever had highlights in your hair? >> No.

Favorite fast food restaurant? >> Meh.

In what country were you born? >> USA.

Are your eyes more than one color? >> Nope.

Have you ever caught something on fire? >> Accidentally? Yeah, a couple of times.

What would you consider your biggest flaw? >> I don’t know.

What do you think your best quality is? >> Curiosity and open-mindedness.

Do you enjoy listening to others’ problems? >> I’m not sure “enjoy” is the right word in this context, lol.

Do you keep any plants in your house? >> Yeah, Sparrow’s really into plants. I like them, but I tend to enjoy them more when they’re outdoors. Kind of like animals.

What is your mother’s occupation? >> ---

Do any of your friends like your musical style? >> At least some of it, I’m sure. I like way too much shit for me to have no music preferences in common with the average person.

What are you most looking forward to? >> That glorious day when I can just. Walk into a bar and have a drink and some lunch again.

What was your favorite television show as a child? >> I don’t think I had one.

Are you afraid of insects? >> Not as a rule.

Are you cold-natured? >> I don’t think so, but my 485745 defense mechanisms often make me appear so.

How old were you when you got your first pet? >> I was a toddler.

Did you / do you enjoy high school? >> I did not.

What would you say was your favorite age? >> ---

What annoys you most about social networking? >> The way it’s engineered.

Are you the center of attention most of the time? >> No.

What are you currently reading? >> Staring at the Sun: Overcoming The Terror of Death by Irvin D Yalom. It’s... not really giving me anything I can use, mostly because it doesn’t address the things I actually fear (like, no, I don’t fear not leaving behind a good legacy or whatever, I literally fear the awe-ful, terrible knowledge of my organs shutting down and shit like that, the helplessness of being pulled into the abyss. Literally. Not figuratively. This is a literal visceral thing I believe in. Also, I fear persecution by cosmic forces because I have internalised the idea that I am Bad and I will be Punished. Where is my book? I do like the title, though.), so I don’t know if I’m going to finish it. I might skim through it for a few decent nuggets like that one Nietzsche quote he used, “when we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago”. That was a good one.

When did you last go to the library? >> It’s been a while, since I usually just check out ebooks. Oh, wait, we went to the branch for a Black History Month event, so, February.

Are you ill at the moment? >> No.

Do people tease you about anything? >> I mean, Sparrow does. And some tumblr mutuals tease me about various aspects of my Brand, hah.

How late did you stay up last night and why? >> I think I dropped off at around midnight, idk. Because that’s just how it happened.

Have you ever written poetry? >> Sure.

Curtains or shades? >> I’m not sure what the difference is.

How many people have you spoken to in the last hour? >> One.

Do you tend to text a lot? >> No.

Ever lost a great best friend? >> ---

What is your favorite kind of flower? >> Sunflowers.

Do you own any guns? >> Absolutely fucking not.

What would you say is your favorite book of all-time? >> ---

Do you think you’re living a good life? >> I am doing my best with the life I have.

What’s your least favorite part of the day? >> I don’t have a least favourite part of the day.

Are you an over-achiever? >> No.

Have you ever won an award for a speech? >> No.

Do you tend to curse a lot? >> Sure.

Have you ever played on the Ouija board? >> Nope. I’ve never even seen one in person, except for seeing the box in a store or something.

Do you sleepwalk? >> No.

Have you ever slept on the floor before? >> Yeah, I did for years. I should probably have worse spinal alignment or something now, but I guess them’s the perks of doing shit like that while I was still young.

Are you a fan of public displays of affection? >> I don’t do well with physical affection whether in public or not, so, you know.

When did you last attend a yard sale? >> A couple of years ago?

Do you wish your life were simpler or more interesting? >> I like the level of simplicity I’m at right now.

What goals do you wish to accomplish tomorrow? >> ---

When is your birthday? >> 28 May.

Which is worse: going blind or deaf? >> How would I know, I haven’t experienced either.

What was the best part of today? >> Visiting a mutual’s house in FFXIV, signing the guestbook, and then turning around and there was her character (and her girlfriend’s character) right behind me, lmao. We didn’t get to chat long because their dungeon queue popped, but it was still nice.

Do you attempt to stay away from drama? >> I don’t have to stay away from it, it’s never anywhere near me in the first place.

What liquid did you last drink? >> Gose.

Do you ever prefer to be alone? >> Often.

Have you ever had a deadly animal as a pet? >> No.

Favorite Disney movies >> Lilo & Stitch, Moana, and Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Have you ever been to the beach? >> Sure.

If you have, how many times have you been? >> Like... a few dozen? I don’t know.

What was your dream occupation at age ten? >> ---

Are you terrified at the idea of weight-gain? >> I don’t know if terrified is the right word, exactly, but something similar to that.

Do you drink a lot of water? >> Not a lot. I drink when I feel thirsty, and that just isn’t that often? I don’t know. Maybe I’m not good at recognising thirst cues, that’s a possibility.

Does your room have carpet or hard-wood floors? >> Carpet.

Do you take naps daily? >> No.

Who were you named after? >> I wasn’t named after anyone.

Do you plan on traveling this spring or summer? >> Well, we had planned...

Do you know anyone who is colorblind? >> Maybe?

Have you ever been a teacher’s pet? >> When I was a child, I guess, because I was precocious and nerdy and adults are obsessed with that sort of thing for some reason.

What is your absolute favorite hobby? >> *shrug* What’s a hobby.

How many times a day do you brush your teeth? >> One, provided I remember and have the executive function.

Ever been to a tanning bed before? >> No.

Are you satisfied with your financial stability? >> No matter what, I still have more financial stability than I did when I was literally penniless and living on the street, so I can deal.

Who is your favorite actor / actress? >> When it comes to people I’m always excited to see in a movie, Javier Bardem is one.

Are your nails painted? >> Nope.

What’s the meanest thing you’ve ever said to someone? >> I don’t know, I’ve said a lot of mean things.

Do you ever accidentally talk to inanimate objects? >> Not accidentally, no. I do it on purpose, because it pleases me.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? >> Vanilla bean and matcha are the only flavours I actually like and don’t just. tolerate.

Have you ever kissed someone of the same gender? >> I don’t think I’ve ever kissed another agender person.

Do you receive any hate mail? >> No.

Have you ever sent a letter in the mail? >> When I was a kid.

If you could, would you have a pen pal? >> I don’t think I’d make a good penpal.

What color are the pants you’re wearing? >> Black with lime green print.

Have you ever had a stalker? >> No.

What is your life philosophy? >> I don’t have one.

Who last sent you a goodnight text message? >> ---

Do you own any clothes that are your favorite color? >> I don’t own any gold clothing, no.

Have you ever been in a hot tub before? >> I tried a hot tub once, at Easton Mountain. Five seconds in, I felt faint and like my heart was going to burst out of my chest, so I had to get out.

What’s your favorite comedy movie? >> Blazing Saddles and The Producers come to mind.

In which year were you born? >> 1987.

[sevenseasofrog]

Lads ‘n Lasses Chapter 4

single sex schools are never boring

high school!ben x fem!reader

2.7k words

a/n: lol hi, Me for the first time in about 10 billion years. I kind of hate this Chapter?? But I’ll put the next part up tomorrow which should be better :-)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

As the autumn colours became deeper and the summer temperatures began to fade, you began to feel as though you were dragging yourself through each day, the thought of your plush duvet at the end of it keeping you motivated. Luckily enough though, it wasn’t just you who the changing seasons effected, and your friends were also beginning to look a little more disheveled with each morning that passed by, and it soon became clear that everyone was desperately in need of a break from the school routine. By the final week of term, motivation to even get out of bed each morning was severely lacking, and it seemed to be the same for Ben. Some mornings the pair of you didn’t even have the energy to speak, still content in each others company though, leaning on each other when you finally flopped down on the tram’s plastic seats.

You hadn’t forgotten that you were supposed to be coordinating your friend’s costumes for the mysterious Halloween party you knew very little about, but it definitely wasn’t your top priority- especially since your workload in and out of school had increased rapidly only a few weeks after the start of the new term. Since the gathering was set to take place on Friday, it was Tuesday that you figured you had to at least start thinking about how terrible you wanted your four closest friends to look. After a few hours of careful consideration and research you found yourself rather impressed with what you had come up with. If they wanted a group costume, a group costume they were going to get. It was perfect, inducing childhood nostalgia and characters which seemed to parallel your friends personalities, the five of you were going as none other than the Scooby-Doo gang. You couldn’t help but feel at least a bit proud of your master plan, but decided to keep it under wraps, just to add to the suspense. You spent the rest of that night drawing out meticulous plans, giving yourself Thursday and Friday to finish them. Out of instinct however you left the next day free, knowing that it was highly likely you would be spending the evening out somewhere to celebrate the beginning of the short break from school.

As he had done for the past five weeks or so, Ben had waited patiently outside your house for you to stumble out the front door, usually looking a little disheveled. Believe it or not, this was one of the things he had begun to admire most about you, little to your knowledge. The fact that your hair sometimes fell across your face, still messy from the previous nights sleep, and more often than not you would have acrylic paint splodged over you like some form of radioactive dalmatian. Both of these were the little things Ben had started to pay more and more attention to, and he couldn’t help but find himself smile whenever he thought of you.

“Last day of your first half term then Benny boy” you spoke with a grin. “Ready to go back down South yet or can you handle a little more of this?”

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh, “I think I’ll cope y’know, maybe a little longer, might even make it to Christmas!”

“You bloody better Jones! otherwise I’ll have no reason to even leave the house in the morning, then I’ll drop out of school, adopt a load of cats and drink cheap wine every day because I never got any a levels.”

“What a pity that would be” He retorted, with blatant sarcasm. You rolled your eyes and gave a gentle shove before the pair of you continued the walk to the tram stop in a content silence.

Eventually, you made your way onto a tram and flopped down on each other. You closed your eyes, enjoying the warmth of the autumn sun and found yourself dozing a little, this didn’t last long however.

Ben flicked your cheek before he spoke, “y/n, wake up you big loser, what are we doing after school?”

“I was wondering how long it would be before you asked, I don’t really care though. Won’t it just be easier to wait till the others get on and ask them?”

“We’re seeing them on Friday though, and Saturday I guess, and probably most of next week too”

“You have a most interesting way of thinking Jonsey. But you’re not wrong. What are you suggesting?” You spoke, followed by a smirk, “Won’t you be seeing me today, tomorrow, the day after that and next week however?”

“Shutup and come to mine tonight okay? We can have a takeaway from wherever you want and we can make up shitty excuses as to why we can’t do anything with the others because right now I can’t really be bothered with anyone else.”

You felt a little taken aback, but unsure as to why. Ben had spoken with a twinge of emotion in his voice, and suddenly seemed a little wound up- most out of character.

“Alright. You got me, but only if we’re having a chinese?

“Suits me”, he spoke with a smile, seeming somewhat relieved, before you both sank into each other in the seats. Even making the cold plastic seem a little more comfortable.

School has been productive. Well, as productive as you could have made it given that you only had some art coursework to finish and given that Ben’s sudden decision that he didn’t want to see anyone else that evening was playing on your mind. You had scrubbed the last of the dried acrylic paint off the battered brushes you had kept for god knows how long and were about to put them back into your bag before being interrupted by the lunch bell. Figuring you should reconvene with Maria and Niamh, you began to head towards the common room so that you could grab some lunch before heading to the library for the rest of the afternoon.

“y/n! hello? care to join us here on planet earth?” Niamh waved a hand in front of you, you had forgotten about your mediocre salad and had started daydreaming mid-conversation.

“shit yeah, sorry, just tired, i was sorting out the outfits for friday until like 2 this morning or something like that”

Maria chimed in too at mention of Friday, “oh yeah! the costumes, I’d forgotten about those, they’d better be-“

You felt your phone buzz in your pocket, undoubtedly your mum checking if you were staying in school or leaving after lunch. “One sec, let me just check this”

Benny:

Call me when you can. i’m going home.

You couldn’t help but wonder whad gotten into the boy, shocked by the sudden character change, you figured this was your call to leave and find out what the hell was going on with Ben. Now all you needed was an excuse to leave.

“Shit, sorry, erm… it’s my mum…she’s locked herself out and needs me to let her back into the house…” You scrambled to pack your bag and put your blazer back on “duty calls… I’ll see you on Friday night yeah?” You signed out at student services and began to walk towards the met stop.

benny: incoming call

“Ben what the hell are you playing at? where the fuck are you?” You heard the frustration in your own voice and couldn’t help but regret it.

“Why do you sound like your running a marathon?” Because I’m speed walking like a lunatic to come and find you thank you. “I’m nearly at the tram stop.”

“Right, ok… wait for me… I’m nearly there”

“see you then.” He hung up.

You continued the walk, thoughts racing, surely someone had just said something to wind him up? Nothing worth overthinking really? You eventually found Ben after what seemed like an eternity of walking and he stank of smoke, he had a cigarette between his lips and it was certainly not the first one of the day. “You going to tell me why I had to up and leave or are we going to pretend it never happened?” You demanded.

“We’re not talking about it until we get home” He said, slightly muffled. As if on queue, one of the yellow trams pulled into the station and Ben put out his smoke before dragging himself onto the empty tram, you followed, still feeling slightly bedraggled. The boy threw himself onto one of the chairs, visibly frustrated, you sat on the row behind and began digging through your bag, simply looking for something to do.

The tram ride was long, painfully so. The silence between the two of you was deafening, something you never expected to happen, but it was clear that Ben needed space from the moment you met back with him. You reached your stop and the two of you stood up, briefly making eye contact with each other.

“I need to erm, get some fresh clothes from mine if that’s okay...on the way to yours..These aren’t exactly.. y’know.. comfortable” You spoke, gesturing at the suit you had worn the past two days.

He gave a curt nod, and you continued the walk away from the platform. You quickly unlocked your front door and shoved a few essentials in a bag, along with an oversized shirt and some joggers, well aware that this would be a long night. Ben has waited downstairs, waiting to head back out again a little further down the road to his house.

It was definitely bigger than yours, and much more modern. It wasn’t that you disliked newer houses, you just felt a somewhat alienated stepping into something that felt more like a spaceship than a house. Each to their own though- that’s what you had always figured.

“Gonna tell me what’s got you in a tizz or do I get the joy of guessing?” Desperate for some hint of the Ben you knew to return.

“We’ll go upstairs first yeah, then we can get changed or whatever” He began to trudge up the stairs and you followed. By the time you caught up with him in his room, Ben already had half of his clothes off, and although now definitely wasn’t the best time, you had to admit to yourself that topless Ben certainly wasn’t a sorry sight as you slipped into the marble en-suite.

“You’re killing me Ben. What’s happened for the love of God?”

“People happened.”

You checked yourself over before unlatching the bathroom door again. For the record, the old grey pants paired with the extra large shirt you had brought at some past gig certainly wasn’t your best look, but it was going to have to do for now.

“C’mon grumpy you can tell me all about it like i’m your very own agony aunt” You grabbed his wrist and flopped onto the bed,causing Ben to follow with a thud.

“So what have people done to you to cause such a commotion Benny? You’ve never been like this and you’ve got me proper fussing about you” He rolled onto his back and began to speak.

“They’ll do anything to drag you through the dirt. I haven’t put a foot out of line and half of the idiots at school have decided they don’t like me for it. It’s so fucking stupid I don’t know why it’s bothering me...It just is and I could honestly-“

“Ben it’s probably pissing you off because that’s a normal human emotion I’m afraid…”

“But it’s not just that and it’s another stupid thing honestly I don’t know what my problem is because it’s got nothing to do with me and-“

“One thing at a time okay? Start at the beginning and then if you want, you can tell me what else is getting to you.”

You felt bad for Ben, you really did, he hadn’t done anything wrong and it was clear he didn’t have much experience in handling his emotions. You threw a packet if tissues at him after he began to snivel and kept brushing his face. It was clear he trust you, this was something which brought a strange relief over you that you couldn’t quite explain. The main thing you could do do help Ben was to listen to him, and boy was he glad that the pair of you had all night.

You had migrated downstairs at around 8pm to order food, normally you would have both sprawled out separately over two of the three sofas in the front room, but when you came back from a trip to the kitchen for glasses of water, Ben had parked himself at the end of where you were sat.

“I was cold.” He looked up at you, as if trying to read your thoughts.

“I never said anything Jones! If it was anyone else I’d have told them to move but I think you can be an acception” You had honestly been expecting some sort of reply, and it came as a bit of a shock to you when you looked up to find Ben staring at the t.v. absentmindedly.

“Ben? what’s up?”

“Sorry it’s just, it’s not worth it don’t worry..” he trailed off

You have a stern look, “Anything you think or say is worth my time Ben, I really mean it.”

“It’s just. Jones. that’s what they call me, at school and, I don’t really know why it bothers me but… I’m not Jones, I’m Ben and, it bothers me-“ His eyes had gone slightly glassy again, “It bothers me because they don’t care about me, they care that I score tries and bring the team up the leaderboard. That’s Jones. I don’t even think Ben likes rugby, but what else can you do when it’s expected of you.”

“One thing at a time yeah?”

“I told you it’s stupid”

“yeah you did, and I completely disagree, it’s Benny from now on”

“No one's ever really called me that to be honest..”

“Does it bother you?”

“I think I like it.. but only you can get away with it from now on”

You leaned back onto him as the pair of you waited for the takeaway to arrive, you had sincerely hoped that Ben felt a little better at least, it was glaringly clear that he was more worried that unloading his problems would simply pass them onto you, and you had taken the opportunity to reassure him that you weren’t there to judge him at several opportunities.

You had been talking about this and that until a wave of fatigue hit you at what must have been around half one in the morning, Ben had insisted that you should go upstairs and sleep in his bed and he would take the sofa.

“Ben you’re my best friend I’m pretty sure I can cope with sharing a bed with you, we’ll both be out like lights when we get up there anyway”

You both made your way up the stairs, leaving the remainder of the takeaway to deal with in the morning, and fell onto the the mountain of crisp white pillows. You burrowed your way under the duvet, waiting for Ben to follow. “Y’know.. this is really comfy. Makes my bed feel like a fabulous pile of rocks.”

“Does the job I suppose”

“à le matin mon aimie”

“à demain”

You felt yourself drifting into a deep slumber, unsure as to weather or not Ben was still talking. “I know it’s late but are you awake?” You gave a grunt, which the boy opposite you took as a response.

“At school right.. well where else would it be.. and I don’t know if it’s true but I thought I’d tell you just in case but erm.. People were saying Lewis has a thing for you and I know you’re supposed to be my best mate but it bothers me because-“ he gave a sigh. “It bothers me because I think I like you, and I know it’s only been two months, but you’re more than I could ask for in a friend and-“ He realised that he had been greeted with silence. “y/n” Ben had to admit to himself that he was a little disappointed when he realised you hadn’t heard a word he said, already fast asleep. He wasn’t sure if he’d tell you again in the morning, or if it would ruin what he felt was one of the best things he had in a long time.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

@fatbottomedbitch , @crazyweirdocalledfriday , @borhapandshawn , @benhardyjones , @simplyvictoria-93 , @virtualsheepeat

Sorry that my tag list is a bit dodgey, pretty sure that usernames have changed so let me know if you want adding :) xoxo