#and I am almost certain that along with me and my besty nerding out I will also get to witness 5 yo Lily nerding out also. I'm excited!!

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

I'm not saying I'm in love with my best friend, at least not as long as it pertains to romantic love or anything beyond that, but I will happily admit that laughing with my best friend is like coming home. I don't know how else to describe it. All I know is that if I get to laugh and be myself wholeheartedly with my best friend, there is nothing safer or more sacred.

[ashes-writing]

stranger things ● summer of 86 pt 3 ● e.munson

warnings

blatant disregard for season 1 through 4 canon. Forget what you think you know because it doesn't exist here. mentions of bullying / confrontations and small town gossip. mentions of alcohol/smoking and other vices. eventual filth. eventual overload of PDA, holy shit. barb and robin are gay and we're all here for it, alright? + the internalized angst and fears that go along with being gay in the 80's. small town and their crappy mindsets and the way everyone talks and judges everyone. gifted kid burnout / hints of reader having had recent struggles with her own future.

reader/you are female. you/reader are also the oldest Byers, putting you at 21. you/reader are also very confident in yourself despite a past track record of clearly not being that. you/reader have female parts / a certain personality and appearance aesthetic you enjoy now. listen, i left this as vague as possible but know this is me being a self indulgent little shit, so... if less than vague readers aren't your thing, friend..

word count

2640 exactly. If you need context for this, you can find ( part 3 ) here.

(( I am.. fully in the grips of all my bullshit. ))

summary

it's the summer of 86. eddie's just trying to figure his way through his 'adult' life and all the freedom that goes along with. you're back in hawkins for the first time since at least 84, on the heels of a bad breakup and your spur of the moment to drop out of college in your second year. they say people meet each other when they're most needed, right?

taglist + shoutouts

-- taglist is ( here ) if you want to be added, please click or let me know to add you. if you signed on to this for gareth/steve other character content and you don't wanna be tagged in Eddie things, also let me know.

@eddiemunsonspantschain i had to tag you in this. i had to, okay? it's our guy. Feel free to ignore, babes!

@tbmunson babe.. bestie.. babessss.. this is all you because you didn't talk me out of starting this one. I hope you know you're my inspiration and i looove youuuu.

@allelitesmut your tags mean the world to me omfg. you have no idea how good you make me feel. i'm glad you like my writing and I hope you like this too.

@caravelofthesun

@chaoticcancer

@dylanwritesgood

@just-a-blue-nerd

@slyisbehindyou

other links

masterlist ● eddie's masterlist ● about + rules

And I just want to make love to you

Feel your body heat 

Eddie hears Gareth’s drums hit the concrete floor and brown eyes pop open. Glaring. Gareth’s snickering, doubled over and laughing so goddamn hard he’s  totally red in the face. “The fuck is so funny, Emerson?”

“Why the hell are we playing this shit?”

Eddie’s mouth opens and closes and he scowls when words won’t come. Truth is, he heard you humming along to this song as you roamed the aisles in the gas station when he bumped into you earlier in town.

And he wants to impress you even though he knows him and you are a dream concept and it’ll never actually happen.But the overwhelming urge to impress you somehow is there and he’s being tortured fully by it, so.. He’s learning the song of a band he doesn’t particularly care about one way or another.

And he’s trying real hard not to make a music video in his head starring you and featuring the more suggestive lyrics in the song.

“Fuck off, Emerson.” he grumbles at last. “Can you keep it in time today? Maybe?”

Gareth laughs even harder and Gareth doesn’t think that’s possible because he was almost wheezing not even three seconds before. “This has nothing at all t’ do with the bartender..”

“Fuck you.” Eddie flips him off as he digs out a partially crushed soft pack of Camels and presses one between his lips to light. “Fuck you, man.” and he’s laughing because the whole thing in itself is hilarious to him. Because he’s making himself embrace and be okay with the fact that guys like him never get the girl.

Because why would it be any different this time?

“I gotta get going. Work, dudes. We’ll pick this up later, right?” Eddie asks his friends as he pockets his keys and begins to unplug his guitar and the amp he bought himself at the end of May. Gareth nods and Ethan gives him a thumbs up, grinning. Jeff speaks up casually.. “Later, man.. Maybe while you’re out and about, you could stop in that store your little bartender works in and actually talk to her instead of staring at her every time she bends down or over, dude? Just a thought.”

“I was not staring. I was appreciating a piece of art, Jeff.”

–

“Gonna go hide in the bathroom and cry now, Jane? Go ahead. Go cry. Loser.”

Jane’s fists clench at her sides. Max tenses up and she nudges Jane. “Say the word and I’ll punch her in the throat.”

Jane shakes her head. “If we ignore her, she’ll leave.”

“She hasn’t actually done that yet, Jane, c’mon. I need to punch her in the throat.” Max mumbles back.

Jane’s eyes dart around the crowded roller rink.

You’re standing over by the barricade with Robin, Nancy and Barb. The four of you are passing a soda around.

The last time Jane mentioned the situation with Angela, you made her swear she’d tell you the second something else happened. And you’re her sister now. She doesn’t want to break that promise. She also doesn’t want to look weak and pathetic or become known as the tattletale because according to her friends and her brother Will, that’s not a good thing.

Max follows Jane’s gaze and spots you. She grabs Jane’s hand and she’s practically dragging her across the wood floor as one of the people working the skate counter calls out to the two to get their street shoes off the skate floor. Max raises her middle finger and yelps out over Van Halen, “Calm your tits, idiot. We’ll put the damn skates on soon.”

You’ve just taken a sip of the extra large cherry Coke you’re sharing with Barb, Robin and Nancy as your eyes dart around the skate floor. 

You spot Carol Perkins and Tommy Hagan sitting at a table on the outside of the barricade and you laugh. “They look so miserable.” you shake your head as you say it and Nancy takes the drink from you, raising the straw to her own lips. “They are. They fight non-stop. Or that’s what Steve was telling me, Jonathan, Barb and Robin the last time we did movie night. They’re not sleeping at all because a toddler and a five month old are apparently not a fun combination to have. Tommy  didn’t get some promotion at that new car dealership so they were fighting about that too.. It’s awful, I feel bad for them..”

You cringe. Shrug mildly. “I mean, to be fair, they’re both selfish and childish, how’d they think having kids together was going to work… I said what I said. They weren’t adult enough to play house. I feel bad for those poor kids because their whole little story reminds me of a case I got to sit in on before I dropped pre law… It sucks when the kids suffer their parents obvious stupidity. It really sucks..” and you take the drink back from Nancy, taking another sip. You spot Carol and Tommy looking your way and when it gets to a point where it’s not only obvious but annoying, you give them a sarcastic little wave before turning your attention back to your friends.

“When is Steve gonna let me meet his future ex wife anyway?” you’re only half joking. Truth is, between what your brother and Nance have told you and what Barb and Robin have also told you, you’re kind of worried about the guy. He just doesn’t seem to be in the headspace to be moving in with this new girl he’s been seeing and she’s just.. Immature from what you’ve heard all your friends say.

“He says they’re not serious enough. I’m telling you, she’s a full on airhead.” Robin laughs. “It’s got disaster written all over it and I.. I mean we.” she gives Barb a soft little smile as she says it, “We keep telling him to just hang on, there is someone out there for everybody, even him.. But he’s determined, like.. He wants all these things and he wants them right away.”

“Oh yeah, that’s gonna go horrible for him.” you agree with Barb and Robin. Barb is the one who mentions your most recent relationship. “Why’d you break up with Daniel anyway? You were all about him before Christmas.”

You shrug. Blow at your bangs as they fall into your eyes and sigh. “He’s a douchebag. And get this.. Would you believe he expected me to like.. Give up anything I wanted to do just because we were going to get married? Like… I’m sorry, what? I’m the one out of both of us who even came close to getting that stupid internship before I quit. If anybody’s gonna be the trophy here, man, it ain’t me.”

Barb, Robin and Nancy all share a laugh. “That’s not all though, is it?” Nancy’s staring at you intently. Concerned. Because she’s overheard some of the messages that Daniel’s left on your mom’s machine begging you to at least think about coming back. He claims to love you, he claims that he’ll do whatever it takes to fix things. And you were always such a hopeless romantic, you were always the kind of girl who would try and try and try to make things work until you just couldn’t make it work a minute longer.

“Nope.”

“There’s more?” Barb’s cringing. Robin’s gaping a little. “He didn’t like.. Hit you or anything? Right?”

You laugh and shake your head. “If he’d been brave enough to try he would not have liked the way it ended for him, I promise you that. Nope, if he’d laid a hand on me this would’ve been over way before I finally ended things.” you go  quiet. “I caught him throwing away my pills, man. And I found out he was screwing the secretary at his father’s firm? In our apartment?” you cringe a little. “I burned the sheets, took everything that I actually gave a shit about and left him in the middle of the night while he was out of town with his family. He’s called my moms house a million times since he got home on Monday.”

“He did what now?” Nancy nearly chokes on the sip she’s just taken and she’s looking at you with stunned eyes. “He threw away your pills?”

“Yeah. And he kept hinting at rushing the wedding. Having kids. Like… I want those things, I really do.  You guys know this..” you rub your forehead. “This just felt all wrong, man. From the word go, I shouldn’t have gotten in that deep with him.”

“That’s crazy.”

“It’s entrapment, that’s what it is.” Nancy’s passing the soda to Barb and you feel a tap to your shoulder. You turn to find yourself face to face with your younger step sister Jane and her best friend Max Mayfield.

Jane is shaking her head, Max is trying to coax Jane into talking.

“What’s wrong, J? C’mon, talk to me.”

“Angela.”

Your eyes flit around the crowded skate floor and settle on the bottle blonde baby sister to Carol Perkins. The one that’s been making your sweet little stepsister cry and hide in the bathroom at lunch some days since at least Christmas.

Because she has a crush on Mike and Mike rejected her.

“Oh. Right.” you remember what you made her promise. And you rub your forehead. Your eyes darting around again just in time to see Carol huddled with her little sister and all her little sister’s snotty little friends and they’re all staring right over at the way you and your little group are gathered on your end of the open rink.

Carol’s visibly shocked when she realizes who you actually are. And when you hear Angela and her stupid little friends laughing it slams you all the way back to middle school.

Nancy sees your jaw tighten. “Hey, whoa.”

“This is not a good idea, __.”

“Sit down. Calm down.”

“Guys, this is not happening to her too, alright? It’s just not. It ends now.” you’re determined as you slip an arm around your stepsister and her best friend Max and the three of you make your way over to the other group of girls.

“Shit.”

“We better get over there, Nance. Remember second, sixth and ninth grade when she got it in her head that she was going to make Carol stop bullying us?”

You clear your throat and Carol looks up from lacing the skate shoes of a little girl with gapped front teeth and a heavily freckled face. Practically Tommy Hagan’s mini.

“Oh hey, ___.”

“We have a serious problem, Carol.” you’re calm when you say it. She’s got a brow raised. “Oh? You think so?”

“I know so. Stop playing dumb. You know what your sister’s doing to mine. You’re probably encouraging it for all I know.” you step closer to Carol as she stands to full height. But the heels on your boots and your teased hair make you just a little taller. You smirk down at her. “Your sister is going to apologize to mine and she’s going to do it right now, Carol.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Carol laughs. Shakes her head at your obvious audacity. You clench your fist. You smirk and it’s calm and cold. You’re not showing an ounce of the fear you did every  single other time you tried to stand up to her for yourself in the past this time and Carol doesn’t know what to do with that.

“Oh she’s going to. One way or another.”

“Wait a second.” Carol laughs. “Is this you threatening me?”

You step even closer. Laugh and shake your head. “Oh it’s not a threat. It’s a promise.”

Angela skates up.

“Apologize to Jane.” Carol tells her sister and it’s so dismissive that instantly, it rubs you all sorts of wrong.

“Sincerely, Angela. If you pull one of those fake ones, I’ll know.. And maybe I’ll help my sister and her friends find clever little ways to make your tenth grade life a living hell.” your hand settles on your hip as you glare at the blonde.

“She won’t do anything, Angela. Just apologize. Because unlike ___ and her sister Jane, we were raised with class.”

As soon as Barb and Nancy hear that and see you going for the huge leopard print hoop in your ear, Nancy steps up. So does Barb and so does Robin. All four of you have your arms folded. Carol gulps as her eyes flit from one of you to the other. “You wanna say anything else, Carol?”

“Everybody knows it, __. You’re trash. Going away to college didn’t change it magically.”

“Really? That’s all you got?” you tsk at her and shake your head laughing. “She’s really losing her touch, I guess.” you say it and share a laugh with your best friends. The laughter dies and you tap your wrist. “Times ticking, kid.. Apologize now. Sincerely.”

“I’m sorry, Jane.”

“It’s..” Jane goes to tell her that it’s okay, a reflex you also used to have, but you elbow her gently and shake your head. “Do not tell her it’s okay. It’s not okay. She doesn’t get to treat you like crap.”

Jane nods. Max smirks at you and nods in agreement and she stands taller. “And the next time she even looks at either of you, you have my permission to give her whatever you think she deserves.”

“But Hopper..” Jane starts to point out that Hopper’s always told her not to fight.

“But Hopper will be fine with it. I’ll take the blame, alright?” you reassure her. Jane nods and takes a shaky breath. 

“Apologize again, Angela.” you turn your gaze back to the blonde teen. “Now. With a little more conviction this time because I’m not sure you meant it.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“And you’re going to say it again.. I mean unless you just want me to make sure Chief Hopper knows what a bullying little brat you really are.” you threaten. Carol’s jaw clenches and she glares at you. “Is this really necessary?”

“It’s more than necessary, Carol.” Nancy asserts, giving her a calm smirk. “I mean.. Unless you want every single thing I know about your personal life to magically make the gossip pages in my newspaper?”

Barb and Robin grin and both high five Nancy.

You laugh. “What’s she know, Carol?” and when Carol tenses again, you shrug. “It’s just a question.”

“That’s none of your business. Or hers. If Tommy doesn’t stop telling Steve everything!” Carol’s loud when she says it and several parents watching their kids skate are all looking at her. The four of you burst into laughter.

“C’mon girls. We’ve tortured her enough tonight. It’s actually gotten boring. Let’s go, Max. C’mon Jane.” you call out as you start to walk away with your friends, “There’s a really killer sale on swimsuits down at JCPenney. And I think we could all use a little stop at the makeup counter, maybe?”

“Your stepsister is awesome.” Max laughs and Jane smiles, nodding in agreement as the two of them shove through a crowd to catch up to you and your friends.

And as you walk past the record store, Eddie Munson chuckles to himself and shakes his head. “Give ‘em hell, sweetheart.” he mumbles, having heard the entire confrontation.

Watching you defend your little sister and her best friend has done nothing but made his crush on you get even worse somehow.

But he doesn’t really mind.

Maybe you’re not like everyone else in Hawkins. And friends are always good to have, even if he knows in his heart of hearts that he wants so much more than that.

[shadowlorddemon]

Thomas Sides Mario AU belongs to @sugarglider9603

It was story-set of Super Mario Galaxy & Super Mario Galaxy 2 with fantasy mythology and star constellations plus references of twelve star signs and couple references of Greek myths.

But... I want to focus on Virgil as main protagonist here instead. With Logan, Roman, Patton, Remy and Bowceit as victim of kidnapping.

Through the storyline, there’s lot of references to Greek myths. (Idk why but I’m obsessed with Greek mythology)

The story went that Remy invites Sarcastic Bros and their prince boyfriends. Along Bowceit and his kids.

Remy want to show them his favorite planet that was filled of... dragons. Not just your typical dragons. These dragons are unique. (There’s a fucking dragon in Super Mario Odyssey. Why not having dragons in Mario AU too)

Remy: Hey! Let me show you my favorite planet that filled with dragons!

Virgil & Logan & Roman & Patton & Bowceit: DRAGONS?!?!??!!!

The dragons are called Star Dragons. These dragons are ‘born’ from the leftover of dead stars. (When the star went supernova).

When the ship lands on the planet called Contellstars and in the town called Gromeek the two first star dragons they meet is Pandora and Sirius, the sibling dragons.

Sirius is a light gray scaly dragon with orange, yellow and red spots that spattered across his chest, back and back legs. He bore a 5 feet wide leather dragon wings. He have white horn. (Like Impalas) He is stoic boy that rarely express his emotions to public. Only his sister can read him. His tail is club shaped tail.

Pandora have dark gray furry with dark purple and dark blue stripes on her back and tail. She bore 7 feet wide feather bird-dragon mixed wings. She have black horns. (Like Highland Cows) She is anxious but cheerful girl that can read her brother’s emotions. Her tail is spiked tail(three spikes on both sides of the tail).

Pandora: Hello, Remy! Brought your friends?

Sirius: Greeting.

Remy: you betcha! Everyone, Meet Pandora and Sirius. They are Star Dragons I told you about.

Patton: Oh my gawd! Sirius looks cool!

Roman: Yo. What kind name is Pandora?

Pandora: ...Rude.

After meeting star dragon siblings, they meet the dragon princess named Pavo.

Pavo is light green scaly with light blue underbelly. She bore five feet wide feather bird wings that have eyes shaped on each of her feather.(Pavo is the name of the star constellation that represents the peacock after all) She have yellow-green horns. (Like Bongo Antelope) She is peppy girl that like to move around a lot.(dance, fly, jump etc.) Her tail have a single long feather that is same with her wing feathers.

Pavo: Remy! My bestie!

She welcomed Remy first before she noticed Remy bought guests.

Pavo: is these cuties your friends?

Remy: Yup!

She then invited them to her castle which is typically medieval styled castle.

There, they meet the older brother of Sirius and Pandora; Pluto.

Pluto is a gray dragon with light gray under belly with two green spots on each side of his shoulders. He bore six feet wide scaly dragon wings. He have silver curly horns. (Like Kudu Antelopes) His tail have no distant features. He is a geeky boy that have interests in archeological. He wears a emerald green rimmed glasses.

Pluto notices that Pavo brings Remy and guests. He greets them, then asked for his siblings’ whereabouts. He then mentioned that he want to tell them about the stories that he found from the ruins nears the Stardew Valley. That catches Logan’s attention because he is a fucking nerd.

He would like to see the ruins.

Logan: Hey, Pluto? Can we come to the ruins with you?

Pluto: ???? You want to know about the ruins????

Other gets curious as well(except for Roman) and Pluto agreed to take them to the ruin after he finds his siblings.

Soon as he finds Sirius and Pandora, he takes the group include Remy and Pavo.(the star royalty have to go with the guests)

There they found bunches of ancient drawings of certain creatures and objects. Pluto begins to describe each drawing and tell the story behind the drawing.

Roman: Nerd.

Patton: Ro, be nice.

As he reaches the large drawing that features a large dragon with eight stars.

He begins to tell the story of Nova, the great star dragon that grants wishes to whom summons her with eight star stones.

Virgil: is he usually gets this excited about these old stuffs?

Pandora: yea. He does.

As Pluto finishes telling the story, a loud explosion sounds out from the outside of the ruins. Everyone runs out to see the antagonist.

The antagonist is a large black scaly dragon with golden underbelly and red stripe that runs from the back of his head to the tip of his tail. He bore 16 feet wide scaly dragon wings. His tail is two feet long blade(like a dagger). His name is Hercules. (I want to create a villain with unlikely name. I thought since I choose to use Greek mythology, why not use Hercules name? Yes I choose the Greek hero name for the antagonist. Sue me for want my fanfic to based on Greek mythology. Beside, a villain with heroic name? That’s little twisted in a way.)

Pavo looks pissed off when she see Hercules. She then called him out, stating that he shouldn’t be out of his prison.

Pavo: What the fuck, Hercules. You shouldn’t be here.

Hercules crackles manically. He then told her that he found a way out of his prison. Now he’s here to carry out his plan he had for long time.

Hercules: I would get Nova to grant me a wish I always want to have.

He then spotted new unfamiliar faces. He then decided to snatched them up. He summon bunches of five feet tall black griffins to snatching them.

Logan tried to protect Patton but both gets snatched up.

Roman draws his sword but it gets thrown off his hands when he clashed the sword with his own sword(dagger). He then gets snatched up.

Bowceit gets angry at Hercules and breathe fire at him. That didn’t affect Hercules but it angers him. He slammed Bowceit; knocked him out and grabbed him as well.

He grabs Remy which tries to protect the snakes kids. The kids gets grabbed as well. Only Bowceit Jr. escaped.

Pavo then ordered Pluto, Sirius and Pandora to get away and take Virgil with them as well. Pavo doesn’t want Virgil to get snatched. She unfortunately gets snatched.

Virgil: I don’t wanna to abandon them!

Pavo: You have to. Hercules is too dangerous to engage in battle with. Pandora, grab him.

Pandora just grabs Virgil by the hood and lift him up. (Bowceit Jr. end up running straight to Virgil and he just... pick him up and hold him close)

Out of three dragons, Pandora is faster than her two brothers so Pluto and Sirius ends up getting snatched.

Pandora: Bros!!!

Pandora takes Virgil and Bowceit Jr. to Remy’s ship.

Virgil is panicked. Bowceit Jr. was near to crying. Pandora joins Virgil’s panic time.

Virgil: Roman gets kidnapped! Lo gets kidnapped! Patton gets kidnapped! Even Remy and Bowceit get kidnapped!

Pandora: My brothers get kidnapped too. Princess is kidnapped as well. What the fuck should we do???

Bowceit Jr.: I WANT MY DADDY!!!

Soon Pandora calms down and calmed Virgil down.

She then explains that Hercules was probably trying to summon Nova. She tells him that Hercules is very dangerous to them for he won’t hesitate to kill others if they gets in his way. She then muttered about something about Andr-something. Virgil didn’t catch the rest.

She then asked him if he want to rescue others, he need to understand that it won’t be easy since they would likely to travel across the space. Virgil is little nerved by that fact but he is determined to save his brother and the princes along Bowceit. (They are on somewhat good terms here)

Junior(Bowceit Jr.) says he can help too.

Junior: I want save my daddy and my brothers and my sister.

Pandora and Virgil reclusively lets him come with him.

Pandora then tells him that she have ideas of whereabouts of eight star stones but Hercules would try to summon mythical creatures to stop us from sabotage his plans.

Virgil asked Pandora if she would came with him.

Pandora: ???? Of course??? I am not letting you go against Hercules and his summoned allies alone.

Virgil is relieving to hear that.

Virgil: Thank gods I am not alone in this like last time.

Pandora: you are absolutely insane for thinking that I won’t help you.

Somehow, they figured out how to pilot Remy’s ship. (Junior figures it out to Virgil and Pandora’s surprise)

Virgil: how did you know to drive a ship like this?!

Junior: I used to hijack daddy’s ships!

Pandora: I am almost afraid of you.

And their journey begins...

(The story will be launched in AO3 about mid-July, given or taken.)

[whimsiesofanerdgirl]

Reading More Productively | Getting Into the Habit

If you’re anything like me right now you’re shaking your head thinking, how did I not finish as many books as I had liked to this year? Or the classic “why am I not reaching my Goodreads goal?” Well, my friend, that means you have to read a lot smarter and no, I don’t mean more “intelligent books.” Having trouble getting back into reading can be a result of many things and I’ve noticed quite a few of these from my own reading habits.

LACK OF INTEREST

You might be finding yourself not having any inspiration to sitting down and having yourself a good old reading sesh. This is usually because you’re probably a mood reader and not only that, you’re bored af with your TBR list. You need to cut off and forget those books that aren’t serving you any purpose and are basically TBR place holders. If you need some more ideas on how to sort yours read one of my past posts on how to sort your TBR into a more manageable list.

FOLLOW BOOK BLOGGERS, BOOKTUBERS, AND BOOKSTAGRAMMERS

Sometimes all it takes is to follow someone who has similar tastes in books as you. Don’t waste your time following someone if you have nothing in common with your reading. It makes more sense to follow someone who digests the same genres and authors that you adore. Plus, you find another book bestie to read along with! :)

YOUR FOCUS NEEDS MORE FOCUS

Not gonna lie, this is probably my number one problem and I’m probably speaking on behalf of like 90% of other readers when I say that I have issues getting off the internet. Specifically as readers we struggle with this the most because we use the online world to find more books to discover and we are starving for knowledge or to immerse ourselves in another person’s world. This is completely okay, but taking all your spare time to check the latest tweets on Twitter? Eh, not so okay for your TBR pile. Unplug from the data and wifi so you can truly dive into that book that’s been sitting on your bedside table for over the past week.

JOIN IN ON #READATHONS

Sometimes knowing that you’ve got a community at the touch of your fingertips that’s reading at the same time as you makes the simple act of reading more fun! If you’re at a loss of which to follow go read one of my recent posts to discover some new readathons!

GRAB A READING BUDDY

So maybe you’re not the large crowd reading type? That’s okay too because there’s always the option of finding someone IRL or online to buddy read with who has similar reading tastes. A lot of times all it takes is a quick tweet/hashtag #buddyread/post/DM to ask others out there who’d want to join you.

START A BOOK CLUB OR JOIN ONE

So what if you’re an inbetweener? That’s cool, you can always create your own book club or find one that’s already established. Just search #bookclub on any of the social apps you use to find one to your liking. When in doubt look into some book clubs for your favorite genres in Facebook groups. If you need any tips on how to start a book club read another post from this #Bookmas series.

TAKE PART IN THE #READINGAFTER10 CHALLENGE

It’s funny, I’ve been telling myself to do this for like the past year. No joke. 😂 BookTuber, Ariel Bissett, started this challenge awhile back hoping to contribute more of her time reading versus wasting time elsewhere. You can search into the challenge and see what others have been up to by looking up the hashtag on Instagram. Ariel at one point explains that she fell off the bandwagon not long after, probably due to being so busy with all her creative bookish YouTube content that she’s always up to! Anyways, just because she may not be participating at this moment doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t give it a go! Let’s bring back this movement! Honestly, there’s a few awesome benefits to this. 1) Less time on social media = less exposure to blue light on your phones. This means that you have an easier time falling asleep at night. 2) More reading time. 3) Finally catching up on the top books of your TBR pile.

SUBSCRIBE TO A BOOK BOX

When you’re getting a newly released book every month you’re more inclined to read it if there’s others getting it too. Some book boxes even include fun activities and communities that you can be a part of. So if you’re feeling out of place with no close friends that read this would be a great option for you! I’ve conveniently made a list of 18 book boxes the other day that goes into detail of what they include as well as the current prices (as of November 2018).

USE SOME APPS AND PHONE SETTINGS TO DISTRACT YOU FROM ACTUALLY BEING “ONLINE”

FOREST

If you have a love for greenery and artificial woods then the Forest app is for you! This is seriously one of the most adorable productivity apps you can download on your phone or use via your browser (if you have easy access to a computer). Every day you start off with a clean slate of grass and the goal is to grow your forest as much as you can in a day. It’s fun because over time you rack up coins to buy different kinds of trees to grow! You can also sync your account from mobile to desktop if you have other stuff you want to work on like I do with book blogging! Another great perk is the ability to block yourself from certain apps and websites which is helpful against your online weaknesses.

POMODORO

This is an app a lot of people use when they need to get some sort of task finished, but it can easily be used as a timer for reading! Simple set the timer for 25 minutes and keep reading! If the timer goes off, feel free to either keep reading or move onto something else that needs to be done in your daily tasks. This is such a short time frame that it will be simple for you to dedicate only 25 minutes a day to reading or more sessions if you’d prefer.

STAYFOCUSD

For those of you that like to be on a desktop/laptop throughout the day this is another great service similar to Forest where you can block specific websites from being used while being in focus mode for specific amounts of time. This one is available as a Google chrome extension.

STAY FOCUSED

Almost the same name as the previous one I’ve mentioned as well as similar features, but they take it a step forward by letting you choose a maximum amount of time to spend on particular sites/apps as well as which days of the week. This is an app offered for Android. I have mainly android based devices so if you’re an iOS user your best bet is to search for similar apps/extensions as the ones I’ve mentioned above. Some may or may not be offered via both iOS and Android.

RAIN SOUNDS

If you’re a person that needs some kind of noise in the background, but isn’t distracting (like sound lyrics) you should look into downloading the Rain Sounds app. They have a variety of different tracks of rain in different atmospheres and environments and you can edit the specific sounds you’re hearing as well..

AIRPLANE MODE

Though, not QUITE as fun as using the Forest app you can always set your phone to airplane mode (or silent for those of you with better willpower). It’s the easiest and quickest way to get you sucked into a book.

I hope that I helped you figure out some new ways to get back into the habit of reading. I know it can be hard with the online world that we have, but your TBR pile misses you! Pay attention to it! Give it some love! :)

Check back on my socials, join my newsletter, and/or come back here tomorrow to read another #Bookmas filled post!

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[smilesthroughfandoms]

Ok but

Am I the only one who thinks a Star vs. the Forces of Evil and a Milo Murphy’s Law crossover would be the best thing ever. I mean, there’s tons of potential plot points to explore, like:

Milo and Star get along like fire and gasoline and it does not help Marco, Zack, or Melissa’s heartrates at all

Murphy’s Law somehow being responsible for Star messing up about 53% of her spells and the gang trying to put everything back to normal.

Marco being a huge nerd for Dr. Zone (like it’s a close second to Mackie Hand)

Star confusing Murphy’s Law for an Evil Wizard’s curse and her trying to fix it and MIlo and Sara telling her to just chill for a second and let them explain

Milo takes one look at Ludo and his army and like a tree falls on them or something.

Star’s spells misfiring and accidentally destroys Cavendish and Dakota’s Pistachio Cart.

Star and Marco join Milo, Melissa, and Zack on all their misadventures and vice versa

Star finding out Zack used to be in a boy band and insisting on having him perform for her (it’s through threat of a Narwhal Blast that he finally does, and Melissa gets it all on tape)

Ponyhead not hating Milo or any of them as much as she does Marco but you know she is Star’s first bestie so...

Milo, Melissa, and Zack acting as protective younger siblings to Star whenever Tom shows up (Melissa in particular will fight the demon prince if it keeps Star safe)

Kelly and Tad think Milo, Melissa, and Zack are pretty cool and they always try and hang-out when they can

Cavendish and Dakota (mostly Cavendish) thinking Star and Milo are out to sabotage their missions (and Dakota’s just trying to figure out where these’s sparkly narwhals are coming from because they are not near and ocean at all!)

Murphy’s Law and Butterfly magic either helps, hinders, or cancels the other out. It depends on the situation.

Melissa coins the Term “Murphy-Butterfly Theorem” in an attempt to explain it. BY the time 2175 role around it’s a common phrase

Only Cavendish and Dakota know how it originally started but no one believes them, and honestly they’re not sure if they believe it.

Imagine Missing Milo with Star traveling with Milo and the Pistachio Protectors and Narwhal blasting King Pistachion like “Fight me demon plant!”

And while Dakota and Cavendish both bond with them, Dakota takes a particular shine to Milo, Cavendish takes one to Star because he’s always been a fan of fantasy magic novels growing up but he won’t admit it

Likewise, Star and Milo like them both but Star subconsciously prefers Cavendish because his uptight but well-meaning attitude reminds Star unconsciously reminds Star of her mom and she thiks his mustache is “Pretty Neat”

When Toffee shows up he tips off the Burea of Time Travelers and Block sends in Brick and Savannah and Star just annilates them (Dakoat and Cavendish are not-so-secretly amused that the “Syrup-Tsunami-Shockwave is what did the two of them in)

Murphy’s Law is what helps Star break the crystal prison in Storm the Castle

One cleaved wand+Murphy’s Law=Disaster most of the time

Cavendish and Dakota helping to fight back Ludo and his Bird and Spider whenever they attack Star and Milo and their friends

Both of them being slightly concerned (read: a bit terrfied) when Star almost gets sucked into the portal in Bon Bon

“Don’t worry, Milo and Star almost get sucked into menacing portals every other week.” “That’s not reassuring!”

Sara kicking but like “How dare you attack my little brother and his friends!” and utterly dominating in a fight

Star helping to set-up MIlo and Amanda and her squee-ing like a fangirl when it finally happens

Milo, Melissa, and Zack comforting Star about the whole Jarco thing

Janna adoring Milo because she thinks it’s cool that he has a “curse” on him. He doesn’t have the heart to argue with her so he lets her believe what she wants.

Jackie and Melissa being two chill girls who are two cool for you.

Melissa swindling Ferguson and Alphonso because you knwo she would do that

Star and Marco joing Just Getting Started and each playing Keys and Drums

Zack helping Star talk to Oskar, y’know musician to musician.

Melissa getting her own pair of dimensional scissors because why not?

Heckapoo and her get along like fire and gasoline too and it worries Marco and Zack just a bit.

Milo befriending Rhombulous after he froze him in crystal

Milo doesn’t blame him and helps Rhombulous understand Murphy’s Law better

During Battle of Mewni, Star carries around Marco’s hoodie and refuses to let Moon heal a scar she got from a Murphy’s Law incident

Because that’s her favorite scar, obviously

Moon and River adoring Milo, Melissa, and Zack and Moon hopes this added experience will help Star grow as a person

They’re just shell-shocked to meet royalty

Also Milo and Sara join Marco in his little spot during Battle for Mewni and they join “La Resistence!”

Cavendish and Dakota breaking the freaking laws of fundamnetal physics and helping Melissa, Zack, and Diogee to Mewni to help fight Toffee in Battle for Mewni

Them getting they’re just in time to see River levitato-d and them pieceing together just what Toffee wants and tipping off Moon and Buff Frog

Buff Frog adoring Milo, Melissa, Zack, Cavendish, and Dakota. The babies love them and vice versa all around

Before Marco litteraly punches Toffee’s heart out, Zack breaks his neck and through the power of random bs from the backpack, Milo and Melissa put a few holes in his chest and Sarah just throws a big rock at his head

Milo, Marco, Melissa, and Zack staying on Mewni for the summer with Cavendish and Dakota being like their guardians/nannies because they can handle the chatic weirdness and let’s face it those kids need protecting

Diogee and the laser puppies get along fabulously

No one lets the laser-puppies near Milo for obvious reasons

Cavendish and Dakota quit the Burea after the Battle for Mewni to protect the kids full time and since no one knows who to trust, Cavendish says they’ve been hired to “Protect Precious Pistachios” and Block, Brick, and Savannah find that kinda suscpicious

They have pistachios on Mewni but they’re not edible. Like, you can eat them if you want but they’re to tough to chew so you either make a drink out of it or not at all. Instead it’s used in Mewni like oak wood is used hear. For like furniture and stuff.

Cavendish and Dakota are big fans of Skywynne’s chapter of the book and Father Time’s Dimension

They all still time travel because why wouldn’t they

Alertnatively, Block finds out by accident about the Murphy’s and having Brick and Savannah investigate and it turns out that Eclipsa is somehow responsible for the creation of Murphy’s Law don’t ask I can just see it.

Eclipsa goes from being a loving granny to all the kids to secretly plotting they’re demise

She loves Star and Milo and all the kids fear and admire her in equal measures but sometimes they look up to her more than they should

Cavendish and Dakota going through the Butterfly family history to help Star and the kids learn more about how to make certain histories repeat themselves

Doing this leads them to gain a respect for Eclipsa but they are intimdated by her and try to avoid her interacting with them and the kids as much as possible

Star invents a lot of Pistachio related spells like “Pistachio-Power Punch!” Cavendish and Dakota are flattered and amused.

You’ve heard of the Llama Incident? How about the Warnicorn Incident?

Cavendish and Dakota are both equally annoyed by Glossaryck. Glossaryck is neutral about them and everything (he likes Milo a lot though, like, he finds his hijinks entertaining)

The rest of the Burea (namely Brick and Savannah) try to take out the Butterfly’s and Murphy’s only for Cavendish and Dakota to drop some knowledge on their ignorant and hasty butts.

Alternatively, the Burea makes a deal with Eclipsa (again don’t ask) and it back fires and the Kids and Cavendish and Dakota have to save them.

Cavendish in particular sassing them out like “Her title is The Queen of Darkness and that didn’t clue you in?!”

Star and Milo and the rest of them (mostly Star) shipping Dakvendish

In turn, Cavendish and Dakota have they’re own little betting pool about the kids relationships, Melissa obviously helps them. 

They’ll take that secret to their graves though

Milo and Star being unstoppable forces of the Universe and woe to all who challenge them.

Theirs Princess Marco and Princess Melissa... Heinous hates them both and Gemini has both their dolls.

Cavendish and Dakota being 100% done with all the lizard-monsters who try to kill the kids. They’re worried of course, bu mostly done

“How many lizard-like-monsters are after you kids?” “We have no clue but maybe more?” “Work with us here, kiddos.”

Melissa is not afraid of Rasticore or Toffee or any force of evil like fight her

This does not help anyones heart rates

When Brick and Savannah finally figure out what Cavendish and Dakota do they’re 8% impressed and 92% horrified like “This is what you two idiots do on a day to day basis?” “It’s not that bad once you get used to it.” “Get used to what, almost dying?!” “I mean if you want to look at it like that...”

Imagine a Star vs, Milo Murphy’s Law, and Phineas ‘n’ Ferb crossover

Star adores Perry

All the animals get along and the laser puppies become honary agents

Phineas and Ferb making they’re own version of Star’s wand and using it to have the best day ever.

Star and Isabella getting along swimmingly.

JUst imagine all of this for a minute and tell me it’s not glorious

Has anyone besides me thought about this?

Because I have

A lot

[eastithoughtyousaidweest]

Malaysian Persuasion

7/17

Today was my first full day in Malaysia, and it was probably almost perfect.

First of all, it was so chill. Amalen also had just gotten home from a trip to China, so he just wanted to chill out, which was ok with me because I’ve been waking up at 6 or 7am to either work on my doc or travel for the past 3 weeks. So I woke up at 10am without an alarm (after drinking with him and his roommate until 3:30, to be fair), and it was really nice.

We spent the morning just hanging, just like a bunch of guys might do in the U.S. We slowly worked up the motivation to drive down the street to get some breakfast around 11:30am, and got some rice with fried pork and chicken called char suey. Pretty delish, despite being a bit heavier than my usual breakfast. I also found a dude selling buns out of his truck, and he had a bunch of flavors they didn’t have in China; I tried one with this coconut sugary paste inside called kaya, which was less coconut than I expected, but the bready bun was still floofy, which is really all I’m looking for.

We whittled away a few hours eating, chilling and watching the first new episode of Game of Thrones, which I was totally fine with, even though usual me would’ve been like “Why the fuck am I sitting around watching TV while I’m in Malaysia???” But honestly, I saw value in just building a relationship with Amalen and his roommate Kelvin, and didn’t see a need to force anything, especially when they were my hosts.

Anyway, around 2pm, Amalen and I started driving out to this waterfall in the jungle he’d been promising me all day. It was an hour and 20 min drive, but we just caught up and talked the whole way, so it was actually really nice. Before entering the jungle, we stopped and got a bunch of fried snacks from this stand in a parking lot, Amalen chatting up the older Muslim woman selling us the treats as if they were besties. People here at stores seem to really like chatting, and Amalen’s a pro at playing that social game.

To get to where we were going, Amalen had to drive his thankfully tiny white car down a skinny asphalt road, riddled with treacherous potholes, through an indigenous village with homes made of wood and tin roofs, and finally to a barrier where we parked. He comes to that spot a lot, and knew some of the indigenous people there, and he actually spoke in Malay to a few people we saw to make sure it was still ok to enter, so I knew we weren’t being disrespectful or something by entering this land.

And I’m so glad we were able to enter, because it was mind-blowing. Thick, lush, green rainforest all around me, buzzing and chirping with bug and bird hums, crinkling with the panicked retreats of tiny lizards, speckled with the sun sneakily glimmering its way through the cracks. It was sticky and humid, but not too hot. As we went, Amalen pointed plants out to me and showed me signs on the trail of wild boar having been there the previous night. Wild boar are super overpopulated in that area of Malaysia, destroying trails and crops, so Amalen told me hunting them, like deer culling in the U.S., was usually ok. And he broke out a pocket knife he’d sharpen before we came out to the jungle, so I knew if anything, we were at least pseudo-safe.

Luckily, no boar hunting went down. What did go down is that we finally arrived at this amazing waterfall Amalen called his secret waterfall. It flow down along grey boulders, white and frothing, pouring out into a rocky-bottomed pool deep enough to stand in. When we walked up to the waterfall itself, we could face away from it and just let the water work the tension out like a natural massage. The water was not too cold, and the area was totally isolated. We sat on a rock, ate fried plantains and egg rolls and doughnuts from the stand, swam and got waterfall massages, and just relaxed. After weeks of running, it was exactly what I needed. And I was so grateful to Amalen for taking me to such an amazing place I literally never could’ve even accessed on my own.

Only downside? Leeches. It sounds freakier than it is, but essentially, they were tiny, slug-like things, smaller than the top part of my pinky, who would latch onto our feet or legs after we walked through certain areas. Amalen helped me, teaching me how to use a pocketknife to scrape them off after they latched. They left me with tiny little circular cuts, which actually bled for a while because apparently their saliva is anti-coagulant. But they didn’t hurt, and really, it’s not different than a mosquito or something, just a bit more graphic.

Anyway, that didn’t take away from anything. Afterwards, we met up with Amaeln’s friend Ryan at a food court, where I tried satay (chicken on skewers with peanut sauce to dip in), coconut rice with spicy sauce, anchovies and egg, and panak (a sort of sushi roll but in a wheat wrap, with crunchy vegetables and some sort of tempura inside). We also bought ourselves three more-than-half-liter bottles of Tiger Beer from Singapore. We had just finished them, and I was feeling a solid buzz, when Ryan’s dad showed up out of nowhere and ordered us three more bottles. So we were obligated to get way drunker than any of us anticipated, but hey, we swapped stories about our countries, joked around a bunch, and really has an awesome greasy, drinky night.

I pre-screened my doc to Amalen and Kelvin tonight too. It was really cool to see how Amalen got so excited about certain parts, and how much discussion it generated afterwards about COP and Amalen’s NGO, even between two people who are in it. I’m really pumped to see how more people like it, and really happy to see the impact it’s making for those in it.

Exploring KL tomorrow with Kelvin. Night night.

<3Scaht

7/18

Damn. So much socializing today. Like 11 hours of it. But it was great.

Started off by heading into KL with Kelvin, who grew up here. He took me to get a really good outdoor food stall court, which there are a bunch of here, in Chinatown. There was food everywhere, but I trusted him to know what was good, so I let him order this spicy red coconut curry for us, brimming with crispy fried pork skin, oysters, green vegetables and eggplant. It was so delish, until I bit into a pork skin saturated with curry and it burst straight into my throat like a juicy grape full of spicy fire. Totally burned the shit out of my throat, but luckily dessert was a cup of shaved ice (really finely ground ice covered in coconut milk and supplemented with various jellies and red bean), so I was soothed soon enough.

We then spent like 5 hours walking all over KL. He took me to the Independence Square where a lot of protests have happened, to the looming, corn-cob-looking Petronas Twin Towers, to some fancy-shmancy malls, to a fruit stand where we drank some coconut water straight outta the coconut, and to Little India. On the way, he told me SO much about Malaysia, from its history as a British colony to the politics and issues with election rigging to the school he went to and what it was like, and so much more. He was a really great tour guide, and since he’s around my age and we have similar interests, he was able to provide me much history into the politics and social issues I’m always interested in learning about.

One thing he told me that really stood out is that he loves just taking people around the city, and that if someone asked him for directions, he’d usually be happy to just walk them there. He said that was actually a pretty common thing to do here. Also, when I tried to pay him back for the food, he told me to not worry about the money. He said that really in Malaysia, they like to treat their guests, and they try not to let money be a big deal between friends, so it’s a big part of their culture to do that. These two things really struck me because they’re just so much friendlier and communal ways of supporting one another than in the U.S., where most people don’t wanna talk to you at all in the city, much less walk you somewhere, and where even $0.25 is often Venmo’ed between friends. I wanna bring back some of that hospitality to my own practices, because it definitely reflects the way I’d like people to interact.

Next, I met with Jolene, one of the Malaysians who was part of my film, for dinner in a hipster part of town called Bangsar. It 3 or 4 hilly streets were lined with international cuisines, fancy bakeries and cafes, boutique clothes, and bars trying very hard to look chill and/or refined. We actually got a really good dinner at a Nyonya restaurant, which combines Malay and Chinese styles; a whole fried fish and these smoky, fishy sautéed greens, plus fancy cocktails. We chatted about life and joked around, and I really enjoyed just getting to know her better. Of course, she treated me, which was super nice cause these were no street food prices.

Last, she texted her friend Sidney to meet up with us, an awesome guy who actually filmed some follow-up interviews for the film for me here in Malaysia since I wasn’t here. I hadn’t met him in person until then, but he was really great. Deep thinker, really open about things like mental health and insecurities, and really into films. We nerded out over cameras and film editing and our favorite movies, and he actually ended up coming with me to this huge food street called Jalan Alor, which was lined for about 2 city blocks with restaurants and stalls selling Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysia, coconut ice cream, dim sum, and a whole lotta stanky durian. If you don’t know, durian is a huge spiky fruit, like the size of a football or bigger, which smells kind of like fart or rotten eggs or a combo thereof. Kelvin, who loves it, actually told me he wouldn’t consider it a fruit, but just its own food group: Durian. He also told me that if you eat it within 8 hours or so of drinking alcohol, it’ll fuck up your stomach. So I haven’t tried it yet, but I want to for sure.

Anyway, it was really special to explore the city with all of these people and build up my relationships here. I’m so grateful for the guidance and the hospitality, and I REALLY hope they can all make it to the States one day so I can return the favor.

<3Scaht

7/19-7/20

It has come to an end. These were my final 2 days in not just Malaysia, but of my trip overall. And I think it couldn’t have been more fulfilling and shitshow-y.

Wednesday I wandered around the city on my own, hitting up the National Museum where I learned a whole lot about the history of the Malay Empires and how Malaysia was a key trading midpoint between China and the Middle East and the history of colonialism in Malaysia and all sorts of other cool stuff. As any U.S. citizen would know, we just don’t really learn that stuff in our schools, and it was super cool to gain all this knowledge about a totally different part of the world.

One thing it made me think about was the idea of cultural appropriation, because the museum talked a lot about how in the 14th and 15th centuries, as people from different regions met up and traded goods and skills and ideas, many cultures adopted parts of other cultures. This meant anything from parts of their dress to artistic motifs to cooking flavors. I thought this was really interesting, because it was made out to be a very mutually beneficial kind of cultural exchange, as opposed to in the U.S. today, where the conversation about cultural appropriation emphasizes the stealing of other’s cultures. I think maybe the difference is that often in places like the U.S., the cultural appropriation is done for profit, or without an actual interaction with the people whose culture it is, leading to disrespectful use of cultural elements and profiting off other’s culture without giving them any credit or economic compensation. In contrast, it seems like in these old Silk Road trade exchanges, people were actually sharing their cultures of their own accord, and interacting with those whose culture it was. Not that this means there wasn’t any ripping off of cultural elements or fetishzation of other’s cultures, but it makes me wonder if this sort of cultural mixing can happen in a positive and beneficial way that enriches humanity.

Wednesday night was the big night: the “world premiere” of my film on the Malaysian Youth Delegation (MYD) to the COP21 climate negotiations. I’ve mentioned it throughout the blog, but to give you more context, I got a grant from my university in November 2015 to go with my friend Miranda and make a film on youth climate activism at COP21, the international UN climate negotiations where the Paris Agreement was created. We ended up meeting the Malaysian Youth Delegation, a group of 5 young peeps who were there for the first time representing their country. We hung out and filmed them for 10 days, and then over the past year and a half have been editing it together. Why’d it take a year and a half, you ask? Broken harddrive, Miranda graduating, me finishing school, general procrastination; these all comprise some aspect of the answer. But in a silver lining to a terrible event, Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement actually made the film relevant again, so I kicked myself into gear, committed to going to Malaysia, and have been working on the film at 6 or 7am almost every day of this trip to finish it before, well, two days ago.

The film came out to about 40 minutes, the longest film I’ve made by far (the next longest is only 12 minutes). Screening it was an awesome experience; 4 out of the 5 main MYD members were there, and about 8 of their younger members who they’re currently training to go to the next COP in Bonn, Germany were there as well. Screening a film to a group of people who are so intimately familiar with each other and the material is a cool experience; they were constantly giggling at seeing themselves or their friends onscreen, and they already understood the context of what was going on, making it easier for them to get into it. They also laughed at my jokes throughout the film, which I think is every filmmaker’s dream; it’s really hard to tell whether the things I think are funny are gonna land with an audience, but I think it went pretty nicely.

I did a Q&A after the screening where everyone asked a ton of questions, and it was really nice to be able to share my experiences and reflect on things with them. Overall, in the moment the whole screening just felt like a really casual thing; we were just in a classroom, watching it on a projector. Very intimate. But I gotta say I feel pretty amazing that I was able to make this happen. There was a long period of time where I thought this film was just gonna go incomplete, and it really made me feel guilty and weighed on me a lot. Now, that weight is finally gone, and I have a project that I actually followed-through on which I am really proud of. I’m hoping to submit it to some film fests too, so hopefully things will keep happening. But I’m really grateful that I was able to do this screening, and that I got so much time and energy and support from everyone in MYD, and everyone else who listened to me whine about this film over the past year and a half.

My final 12 or so hours in Malaysia were the shitshow part. Amalen, Kelvin and I had planned to drive to Kuantan, a small town on the east coast of the country where Amalen grew up. It was supposedly a 3-hour drive away, so we set off around 12am after a little post-screening dinner, hoping to arrive by 3am. The catch was that I had to take a bus back to KL the next day at like 1:30pm, so I really would only have like 10 hours in Kuantan. But I did it because Amalen promised me some beach time, and I didn’t really have much else to do.

Oh, and I should mention that we brought Amalen’s cat Jenny along too, because Amalen wanted to get her spayed at the vet in his hometown. Unfortunately for her and us, he didn’t have a carrier. Apparently, in the past, she usually just chills out under the passenger seat and is fine. But today for whatever reason, Jenny was not happy. She kept scrambling up to the rear window, then down under the seats, then up my legs into a box on the seat next to me, then under Kelvin’s feet as he drove. We all tried to make nice spaces for her and calm her down. but she took at least 30 minutes to finally just sit down and start distracting herself by licking herself clean. Poor kitty.

Anyway, I should’ve known things weren’t gonna go so well on this trip when about 30 minutes into the drive, we stopped for gas and Kelvin puked in the parking lot. He had some sort of stomach bug, and it all hit him right there. Of course, all the gas station convenience stores were closed, so he couldn’t even get some water to wash his mouth out.

Somehow, he kept driving, and we drove up to the Genting Highlands, a detour Amalen and Kelvin had planned without me really knowing what was happening. It’s these really high hills where Malaysia’s only legal casino is built. We drove up and around all these hairpin turns, the yellow lights of this massive casino glowing all across the peak of this looming hill. Eventually, we stopped at a lookout point where you could see the KL skyline and chilled for like an hour, drinking beers and chatting. That was all good, except for when Kelvin started puking again. Turns out beer doesn’t mix so well with stomach bugs. Who knew?

Amalen took over the wheel, and we kept going. At this point it was already like 3am and we’d only made it like 45 minutes towards Kuantan cause of all the detours. I did my best to stay up and keep Amalen company as he drove, but I could feel the exhaustion and the beer dragging my eyelids down like stones. I drifted in and out of conversation, nodding a lot with my eyes half open before finally passing out. Amalen ended up pulling over in a parking lot around 4:30, planning to snooze for like 15 minutes. We woke up at 6:45am.

In the end, the snooze was for the best to keep up safe, even though we didn’t actually arrive til like 8am. An 8 hour trip total. And I had to head back at 1:30pm. So much for a 3 hour drive.

At this point, I was also just exhausted and hungover and my stomach felt like butt. Some combination of the fried food I had eaten for dinner and the beer and the lack of sleep made my body real pissed off, and pretty soon my tummy opened up the floodgates. I felt weak, and had a headache, and even the smell of food made me feel nauseous. But I pushed through, determined to get to the beach and just pass out on the sand. Which I did.

We chilled at the beach for like an hour and a half, and I even worked up the energy to sit in the waves a bit and look at all the tiny little crabs that would scatter into holes in the sand as I approached. So at least I can say I’ve been in the South China Sea, even if only as an attempted hangover cure.

Amalen drove me to the bus station at 1pm, and I’ve been in transit between bus and train and plane since then. Amalen was a super awesome host, giving me a place to stay and taking me to get all the staple Malaysian food and showing me some really beautiful parts of his world in Malaysia. I also really enjoyed the long car trips where we just got to talk and get to know each other’s stories and life philosophies better. He’s a really thoughtful, knowledgeable, goofy dude, and he cares a lot about his friends, which I really respect. It really blows my mind that, because of a random thought me and Miranda had to apply for a grant to go to Paris, I now have lifelong friends on the other side of the globe. Life is pretty dope like that.

So yah, that’s all. Hope you enjoyed perusing my travels, and if you have any questions or things to say to me or want some travel suggestions, hit me up through one of the ridiculous amount of communication channels I now have (WeChat, Facebook, Text, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Email, Signal, whatever).

Annyeong kyeseyo (Korean)

Joigin (Cantonese)

Zài jiàn (Mandarin)

Pope gone mai (Lao)

Selamat tinggal (Malaysian)

Byeeee (Scott)

[vodka-aunt-coran]

archaeology au???? i'm currently writing a shallura fantasy au in which shiro meets allura because he's an arch nerd so I'm listening

oh boy oh boy oK LISTEN

(ok sorry i’m adding a readmore. this got long. beware y’all this is ENTIRELY self-indulgent, like, 100%, and i don’t expect anyone else to enjoy it.)

this begins in college but it’ll extend to post-graduation

i’ll start with shiro, a poor, tired grad student who took a few years after his masters to split his time between CRM and projects whenever he got the chance, but now he’s back to fight for a PhD

his focus is on…hmmm…for now i’m going to go with historical archaeology, mainly focusing on the cultural interactions between china and japan?

shiro is also a TA! and each semester, whatever class he’s teaching, he like. straight-up adopts the undergrads in his section. there are four undergrads in particular who keep popping up. they are his children now.

matt is also a PhD student! he got 2 majors and 2 minors in undergrad, completed his masters really quickly, and then tried to go for a PhD immediately but burned out :x he’s back now! just under heavy supervision from shiro.

matt specializes in reconstructing paleoenvironment. this is done through paleoethnobotany (looking at old seeds n shit), sometimes geoarchaeology (looking at dirt n shit), AND getting climate information………………from ice cores.

(and lake cores but i know what the people really want to hear)

allura is like…everyone’s goals. she took her time getting her degrees (coughcoughmatt) and had a 4.0 probably, she’s worked on a frankly astounding number of projects, and people can hardly believe she doesn’t have a PhD yet.

i’m not 100% sure what allura’s specializing in. i feel like she wouldn’t either? like, she’s worked on such a variety of projects that she took a while to figure out what she really wanted to stick with. my guess is that, like matt, she decides to focus on technical rather than area so she gets to work all over the place. i’ll go with…osteoarchaeology. aka. bones n shit.

that’s right allura’s the badass who gets to work with burials and is probably cursed 93% of the time

her dream job is working on the domuztepe death pit

(don’t look up the death pit if you’re squeamish and also bc the information won’t be as good as if you dm me for the deets update: i made a post concerning The Deets, but proceed with caution, because it is about horrific deaths)

allura and matt are TAs too but matt is not super helpful if it’s not about his own field? and allura is rly intimidating. so people generally just go to shiro for help.

The Children are just undergrads BUT what they end up specializing in:

keith: warfare lmao boy loves his weapon artifacts. he’s like. A1 at identifying them too, show him an old sword and he’ll be like “oh yeah that looks like a viking design from the early 8th century”

lance: he rly…rly likes working on sites near water…like every time he gets to work on a shipwreck or anything underwater his soul grows brighter. that being said, i wanna say his specialty is in preservation and possibly curation? so during important digs he’s on site and nagging everyone to be as careful as possible

hunk: does a lot of lab work! he’s like. the king of the lab. need that sample carbon dated? hunk’s got you. need to know the composition of that ceramic? hunk’s your guy. need lipid analysis? bring it to hunk. he can even get the ancient XRD machine to work, even though no one else can figure it out. he’s a legend.

pidge: …i want to make a her a paleoethnobotanist so bad. but like. i know she wouldn’t simply bc matt’s already doing that and the independent will of second children is strong.fcuk it, she’s a paleoethnobotanist. she’s ridiculously good at identifying samples, and usually ends up helping matt with it. she’s also really into reconstructing diets and stuff and gets excited when she gets to work with stable isotope data.

bonus! shay is a geoarchaeologist who asks for hunk’s help mayyybe more often than is strictly necessary. then again, hunk will sometimes ask her opinion on samples when she’s pretty sure he’s already interpreted it perfectly. a modern romance

ok some more nonsense about them follows in no particular order

all of them are rly passionate about combating looting, collecting, and other destruction of sites. keith almost dropped a collector at a convention once. shiro held him back, but they still got kicked out bc while his back was turned allura and lance were cursing out a rly skeezy (but rich) curator.

shiro: hunk, why didn’t you stop them?hunk: [writing a paper about the museum’s poorly provenienced polynesian artifacts] what?

shiro is more careful about who he brings along to his academic conventions.

i mean. obv he also wrecks these garbage people. but with heavily researched papers n shit.

[while in undergrad]professor holt: ok class today we’re going to watch a documentary on the excavation of this famous site in the 60s!whole class: [cringing at the poor methodology]professor holt: i know, i know, we’ll roast our predecessors after the video is over

keith and pidge are huge conspiracy theorists right. like. aliens are real and out there, you know? so you’d think they’re all about those aliens built the pyramids stuff

some loser: hey you know how the aliens built the pyramids right?keith: ok listen math and astronomy existed before greece there is so much evidence showing that the egyptians themselves built their pyramids and there’s a clear progression from stepped pyramids to perfect ones and the fact that stepped pyramids appear around the world doesn’t mean anything more than making it obvious what the easiest way to build a large structure is and while we’re at it let’s talk about the nasca lines–

basically they call out Certain Theories for what they are bc…like…bro didn’t u notice that u only claim aliens abt incredible achievements when the people aren’t white

shiro: so, wait. if you don’t believe that aliens interacted with prehistoric peoples, why do you believe in them at all?pidge: because they infiltrated european politics beginning with ancient rome and have currently shifted their focus towards controlling american governmentkeith: [pulling out a Conspiracy Board] do you want to see our research, we think it could be our thesis project

like how pidge and keith are into aliens, lance deeply believes in ghosts. he’s convinced that allura has a million curses on her and the fact that she’s still perfect is evidence that she is A Goddess.

allura: lance, there’s no such thing as ghosts. you won’t be haunted or cursed if you help me handle this burial.lance: …alright, fine. only for you.[three days later]allura: [picks up phone] hello lance. how are you?lance: A TREE FELL ON MY CAR YOU LIAR

[at a historical site w shiro]lance: so uh. how many ghosts do you think are in here.shiro: oh my god, you’re just as bad as the other two.pidge: don’t group me in with that! i know ghosts aren’t real.keith: eh, they might belance: you work with violent deaths, how could you sleep at night believing in ghosts?keith: i’m not a coward like some peoplelance: !! i am not a coward!![door slams down the hall]lance and keith: [sprinting back outside]

lance gets on everybody’s case abt what they should and shouldn’t touch, and how to bag things, etc

when anyone wants a lipid or dna sample run, hunk makes sure that lance is there to make sure they properly handle the artifact sharon if you don’t wear gloves and the facemask all your research won’t count for shit

keith is The Worst at bagging and labelling his shit like. lance sometimes just makes a point of coming to his digs for the express purpose of labelling all the stuff for him.

lance: keith are you really going to make me waste shelf space on all these soil sampleskeith: [softly] lance i don’t know why the fuck we even take soil samples this isn’t my job

lance made the mistake of going to pick up boxes of artifacts from the holts on april fools day. when matt ‘tripped’ and dropped the box, it didn’t matter that it was really empty, because lance was already in tears. shiro had A Word with them. pidge and matt had to be a lot nicer to lance after that.

allura and keith work together pretty often bc. y’know. war stuff and remains tend to overlap. they’re besties with a sense of morbid humor to rival shiro’s.

allura: keith you’ll never guess what happened to this femur!keith: it looks…bad?allura: yes. the individual was killed by a boiling tar poured over the nearby wall!keith: i guess he didn’t get a heads up?allura: haha!! exactly!! or else he would’ve suffocated horribly!!both: [laughing]shiro: [hunched over faded old documents] god i wish that were me

pidge: hey lance, i was sieving through dirt from the hearth area for seeds, but i think i just found a tooth?lance: oh god ok put that back i’ll call allurapidge: dude it’s just a tooth, it might not even be human. i think we can handle it.lance: what if it is!! where do you think teeth come from pidge!!pidge: look, someone just happened to drop a tooth in the fireplace!!keith: hey guys i think i just found a skull in the hearthpidge: DAMN ITlance: AHA!!keith: not the reactions i was expecting but,

hunk: keith, i need to break off a piece of it if you want composition. you know how this works.keith: [cradling knife to his chest] but i love her

(update: here are a few bonus additions to this, since this is more or less the main post and this is main stuff)