#and she and the other managers have been horrible w scheduling recently

[wizardnuke]

boss lady just texted and asked if I could please come in for a few hours we r slammed. girl it is not my fault u are slammed rn it is if anyone's. your fault. for not prepping for this yesterday bc we all knew this was gonna happen

[laurenandloki]

Do you have any headcanons abt a tiny begging Loki to go outside and explore and Loki keeps saying “no you’re too small something could happen.” So they never go outside anymore and stay with Loki until one day the tiny is really down and depressed and Loki finally allows them to go outside with him and the whole time he’s so worried something will happen to them (like he can’t even see them in the grass when he lets them walk on their own so he’s esp nervous then) but the tiny is just so happy to be outside and feel the sun on their face!

I know it’s kinda specific but I really enjoy reading this type of stuff

The amount of fluff that this concept has-...🥺🥺

Also, instead of head canons, I wrote a long story!😆Enjoy!😁❤️

______________________________________________

~Outside These Walls~

“Loki please! I don’t understand what the big deal is!”, you exclaimed as you sat cupped in the hands of the God of Mischief himself, Loki.

“My little dove, you know why I can’t let you leave the safety of my room”, said Loki. He saw that you were about to argue back with him, so he gently placed his fingertip over your mouth and quickly said, “The outside world is cruel. I am merely protecting you from it.” You pushed his finger off of your face, earning a chuckle out of Loki. He set you down on his shoulder, opening a book and reading aloud to you. He hoped it would distract your mind away from wanting to leave the safety that the indoors had to offer.

You sighed. ‘I’m never going to get through to him’, you thought as you tucked your knees close to your chest.

Ever since you were caught by Loki about 1 month ago, he has slowly been shying away from the idea of you going outside. He even didn’t like you climbing down the bookshelves that covered the walls in his room or his nightstand anymore!

Unbeknownst to Loki, however, you used to live outside a while before you made your way into the Avengers Tower! Climbing trees, sheltering underneath the petals of flowers so that you wouldn’t get hit by a raindrop as water poured from the sky, using sticks as a defense mechanism to protect yourself—-if only he knew the predicaments you’ve gotten yourself into in Central Park. You felt as if your independence was being eaten up slowly and you had no idea what to do about it. You felt powerless.

———— 4 days later ————

Loki had made his point clear by ending any conversation that you tried starting with him where you mentioned going outside. He was not about to make the biggest mistake of his life. How could he let someone as small as you wander out into the wilderness? That’s a death wish at best, not an enjoyable, well spent afternoon.

At the moment, Loki was sitting at his desk going through a few mission files the Avengers had planned for him. He would rather be doing anything else than sitting at this run down desk looking at what was going to ruin his schedule in the next couple of weeks.

Loki had tried to get you to help him, but, you kindly declined and took a seat up against the floor-to-ceiling window in the room. This hurt Loki’s feelings immensely. You had never been one to not want to hang out with Loki. In fact, he would consider you the most clingiest person he had ever met, especially after the first time he had caught you roaming around his room. You always wanted him around.

As Loki tried to focus on the files in front of him, he couldn’t help but get distracted and glance over at your spot on the floor. Ever since you had asked Loki to take you outside a few days ago and he had refused to take you outdoors, you seemed...off.

He had offered his hand for you to climb on last night so that he could read to you, but instead of the happy, little mortal he’s grown attached to, he saw this new personality that overtook your joy——a more depressed attitude that Loki had never seen come out of you before.

You normally would bounce up and down with joy whenever he wanted to pick you up, but lately you’ve been acting like a completely new person. Your usual mood that would always brighten up Loki’s miserable one was fading slightly, and Loki did not like it at all. He knew why you were acting this way, but he denied the thought and just came to terms with himself that you weren’t feeling well.

You were looking out the window, staring intently at what stood on the other side of the glass—Central Park. Oh how you wish you could just be outside again.

“Small one? Can you please step away from the window? I can’t bear to see you so close to the outdoors. You’re only separated from it by a 2 inch thick piece of glass”, stated Loki.

You couldn’t believe what you just heard.

“I can’t even look out of a window now?”, you asked. You expected him to answer your question right away, but he stayed silent. You couldn’t take this no longer. You stood up and marched your way over to his bed. After having some trouble getting to the top, you finally made it. You walked over towards the other side of the mattress, eyes locked on the desk beside it where Loki sat hunched over.

“Loki, are you seriously not gonna let me even look outside? You know I can’t stay inside for the rest of my life, right?”, you questioned.

“Well of course you can. You can stay inside where you’re safe with me”, he said like it was a fact. Were you really going to be stuck inside forever?

“W-Why won’t you let me go outside?”, you asked.

You were on the verge of breaking down into tears. You absolutely love Loki to death, You admire his mischievous ways, as well as the softer side you somehow manage to bring out of him, but with his recent possessiveness that he’s been showing towards you, you realized how worrisome it’s been getting.

Loki stayed silent, focusing on the files in front of him and biting his lip in order to prevent himself from responding. Y/n couldn’t hold back anymore.

“I need to go outside at some point in my life! Where do you think I used to live before I met you?”, she exclaimed.

“Child, you are to stay here, in my room, with me where you are safe. You will not utter a single word about the outdoors, understand?!”, yelled Loki.

Loki visibly saw you flinch and instantly felt guilty. Instead of fearing him, though, you decided to fight back.

“You were never this overprotective before. D-Do you not see my as your friend? I am just another mortal that you want to have full control over? Why do you keep me here locked up in your room like I’m some sort of pet?!”, she yelled.

“Because I can’t lose you!”, exclaimed Loki. He put his hands on top of his head and got up from his seat. He began to pace around the room. Irritation and frustration filling his mind with each step he took. He couldn’t believe that you thought of yourself as some caged up animal. You were his equal, his friend, family even! He never meant for you to feel that way.

“Forgive me, I-...I-I don’t know why-..I just-...”, Loki had trouble thinking about what he should say to you after his outburst. He had never yelled at you like that before, and right now, he felt awful.

You sensed the guilt that he was feeling because he couldn’t even bring himself to look at you.

“Loki—-please, calm down. Let’s just talk things through like we always do. Okay?”, asked Y/n calmly.

You had never witnessed Loki in a panicking state. You wished that you were his size so you could wrap your arms around him in a hug.

Loki’s pacing had slowed down. He came to a halt in the middle of the room.

“Loki?”

He turned his head towards you, causing you to gasp. His face was wet with tears. You gasped.

“P-Please don’t cry! Come here, Loki, please..”, you said. Seeing Loki cry started to get you emotional.

Loki walked over towards you and bent down in front of where you stood on his bed. He held his head up with his left hand, while the other rested on the mattress.

He looked down at you as you moved your way closer to him. The tears had come to stop, but you could see them forming in his eyes, ready to overflow and fall down his pale cheeks again.

Without thinking, you went over to his hand and hugged his finger tightly. Loki softly chuckled. He adores how you both have such a tight-knit friendship. He didn’t want anything to come in between that. Humans that are his size stay far away from him, yet, here you were, a small mortal that barely just reached the height of his thumb, comforting him.

He decided to share something with you—-something that he had never opened up about in front of another being before.

“The last time I was extremely close with someone, something horrible happened to them. That person was my mother-..”, Loki stopped dead in his sentence.

You looked up at Loki with astonishment written all over your face. Loki had talked about his mother a few times, but he never showed much emotion whenever he spoke about her.

“I um—-she and I were inseparable. Nothing ever stood between us and the love we had for each other. But-..”, Loki took a moment and exhaled deeply before continuing. “But I was the reason for her death. I had caused it. And ever since you and I had our first encounter, I—-I guess my protective side came out more stronger than I had anticipated it to.”

You had no idea what to say. Loki had never opened up so much to you and this honestly caught you off guard. Normally, you would be the one to cry on Loki’s shoulder, but now the tables have turned. You could see the tears rolling down his face, some even hitting the desk in front of you.

Loki needed someone to comfort him, to tell him that everything was going to be okay. Whenever you were in this sort of state, Loki would just hold you close, whispering sweet nothings to you, and it always helped. Suddenly, an idea popped into your head. You knew exactly what to do now.

You walked around Loki’s hand and headed straight for his arm. You managed to get a grip on his leather armor that he wore and clambered your way to top of his arm. You glanced up at Loki.

He was staring at you now with tears glistening his eyes. They were red and looked swollen now, breaking your heart in two.

“L-Loki it’s okay! I-..”

Out of nowhere, you were gently scooped up by Loki’s hand and raised up. You closed your eyes, nervous if you had done something wrong. Suddenly, you were pressed against something firm and warm, but at the same time...soft. You cracked open your eyes and saw that Loki was pressing you against his cheek, his teary eyes closed.

This was new for you. You had never been this up close to Loki’s face. It was massive! You didn’t waste another second and quickly extended your arms out, trying your best to hug Loki back. Since you were pressed close to his cheek, you felt the muscles in Loki’s face move upwards. He was smiling from ear to ear.

As Loki began to break the makeshift hug, he began to speak.

“I cannot be the cause of you getting hurt—or worse. It will never happen under my watch. I shall make sure of it.”

He held you up to his eye level and gently ruffled your hair. He thought about if the next sentence he was about to say was a good idea or not. He sighed.

“I will take you outside, my dear”, said Loki, nervousness evident in his voice.

Your eyes widened. “R-Really?!”, you exclaimed. Loki simply nodded his head, a laugh escaping from him.

“Yes, but I will be keeping a close eye on you little one, alright?”, asked Loki.

You excitedly nodded your head yes and grabbed a hold of his finger to give him another hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”, you exclaimed.

To you, Loki looked happy, but deep down, he was panicking—-a lot.

————— A few minutes later —————

Loki was a nervous wreck as he walked through Central Park. He had safely tucked you away in his pocket as he strode along the pathway, trying to find a spot that was vacant and far away from the humans that were already there.

“Loki, when can I come out?”, you said as you poked your head out of his pocket. Your eyes widened at the sight of the outdoors——happiness and excitement filled you up.

“Very soon, my little dove. But for now-...”, Loki used his finger to gently push you back down into the safety of his pocket, and couldn’t help but smirk at how adorable your face looked when he did so. “...you must stay hidden. I do not want a single soul, besides myself, to see you.”

After what seemed like forever, Loki finally stumbled upon the perfect spot—-a tree with a bed of flowers planted in the grass beside it.

Loki walked up to the tree and sat down, resting his back up against the rough bark of the trunk. He sighed, knowing that you would be exposed to things ten times your size. Suddenly, the sound of your voice floated up towards Loki’s ears.

“Loki? I-Is the coast clear?”, you nervously asked. Loki was the only giant you had ever interacted with before. You hated that Loki knew how nervous you would get when other giants were around. To this day, Loki still feels bad about the time he attempted to introduce you to Thor. Tears fell down your cheeks, you clung to his shirt, and, as embarrassing as it sounds, you sobbed when Loki suggested that Thor should hold you.

After that incident with Thor, Loki made it his goal to keep you out of sight from the others that lived in the Avengers Tower. If the Avengers had ever found you and caused you to cry, he knows for a fact that he would go ballistic. No one makes his little friend cry.

“Don’t worry, Y/n. There is not one soul around us. I have made sure of it”, said Loki as he tenderly pinched your waist and hoisted you up and out of his pocket. He held you in his palm and allowed you to take in your surroundings for a moment.

“Loki..just look at it out here! It’s amazing!”, you said excitedly. The memories of the days you spent fending for yourself out here in the park all came flooding back to you.

“Can you put me down now Loki?, you said as you turned around to look at him. You jumped up and down in his hand as he held you. You could barely contain the excitement that you were feeling.

Loki gave you an uneasy look. Was this really a good idea? Had he thought this through?

When he saw the smile plastered on your face, however, he couldn’t burst your bubble and say no. You had been cooped up in the Tower now for how long. It was about time you got to experience nature again.

“Just be careful”, said Loki.

You nodded your head. “I will!”

A choppy sigh escaped his lips. “Promise?”, he asked as he brushed his finger tip over your tiny arm. He was scared to let you go.

You looked at him and smiled. “I promise, Loki. I’ll be okay.”

He paused for a moment. “Alright...I’ll take your word for it.” Loki lowered you down to the ground below.

You practically jumped off of his palm when it got close enough to the ground. You started to run around in the grass, laughing away. It was just about your height!

As Loki sat there against the tree, he took notice of how tense he became once you weren’t in his grip anymore. He thought he might’ve become paralyzed at just seeing how the grass reached your waist.

‘Calm down, she’s fine. She’s having fun and that is all that matters’, Loki thought to himself.

He watched you as you exhausted yourself. There were leaves and sticks all around, but what really caught your eye were the flowers that were next to the tree. Some of the flowers had fallen off of their stems. You, of course, made an appoint to go up to all of the flowers on the ground just to admire each one.

This is when you got an idea. You ran up to one of the fallen flowers—-a puffy-like golden one. A tiny part of the stem was sticking out from underneath it. ‘Perfect! I’ll be able to drag it over to Loki!’, you thought.

Even though you were having the time of your life, you did still feel bad about how this made Loki feel. He looked like he was about to start crying again when he put you down in the grass! You had decided to bring a flower over to him.

You grabbed a hold of the flower’s small stem and started pulling it over to where Loki was sitting. ‘This’ll cheer him up’, you thought.

Loki’s eyes never left you. He was highly confused as to why you were dragging a flower around, however, he didn’t question it and let you have your fun. But he noticed that you were bringing it over to him. ‘What is this tiny mortal up to?’ he questioned to himself.

“Hey Loki! Can you lay your hand down next to me so I could climb on it? I have a surprise for you!”, you said happily.

This caused Loki to smirk. “A surprise you say? I wonder what it could be”, he said as he chuckled. Loki did as you asked and offered you his palm.

You clambered onto his hand and pulled the flower up into the center of his palm.

Loki raised you up in front of his face and stared at you with curiosity.

“Surprise!”, you exclaimed with joy, throwing your arms in the air. Loki laughed as he looked at how out of breath you looked.

“You got this for me, Y/n?”, Loki asked. You nodded excitedly. “Thank you my little dove. I will cherish this with all my heart.”

You giggled at how formal Loki was being.

“I-I know we just got here not too long ago, but..can we head back to the tower now? I really want to listen to you read that book we started”, you said shyly. You hoped that he wouldn’t be upset with you since it was you who wanted to come to the park in the first place.

“Of course we can, small one”, Loki said. He gently brought you closer towards his chest and gently tilted his hand, causing you to slide into the empty pocket.

“Lets go home, Loki”, you said, snuggling deeper into the fabric all around you. As much as you loved being outside, you missed the quietness of Loki’s room.

Loki stood up to his towering height and began the journey back to the Tower. He could simply just teleport back to his room, but he wanted to admire the flower you had given him a little while longer. How would he have anytime to do that if he teleported? Walking would give him more time to appreciate the flower you gave him without the Avengers questioning where he had gotten it from.

He slowly stretched out the opening of his pocket and peaked down at you. He heard how your breathing had become steady and his ears picked up on the light snores coming from your sleeping form. You had fallen asleep in a matter of seconds.

He smiled as he closed the opening of the pocket to let you rest. Loki held the flower close to his chest as he walked home with you safely tucked away.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all”, Loki said quietly.

————————————————————————-

@rose7420 I am so sorry it took me so long to write this!🥺💗

I hope you liked it! ❤️❤️

[luvdsc]

Hey Cat!! I hope you're doing well as always ! 💖 AHHHH huhu I closed the form last Sunday since I've collected enough responses dy! (NOOOOOOOO ToT) I got a total of 221 responses at the end of the week, which is 3x the amount I initially needed! :o I'm beyond grateful and appreciative ToT I've cleaned the data and have proceeded to run some data analysis, but I ran into an issue whereby the scores on the subscales are equal (it has never been reported in past studies! :O) so I'm waiting for my supervisor's feedback on how to proceed. Hopefully it's nothing too serious ToT

Hehe finance is interesting indeed! I just started reading a book on finance for young adults (Rich Dad Poor Dad) and I look forward to learning more from the author's tips! The Coursera introductory course has also made financial terms a lil more familiar, even though it's just the basics and it's really helped w my financial literacy 🥺 I can push myself to study but it's also the numbers and calculations I'm worried of cuz I am rly a nong (idiot) when it comes to numbers * - * it runs in the genes I guess AHAHAHAHA my mom and sister aren't good at numbers either keke

Aww I'm glad yr professor made financial accounting enjoyable and a fruitful experience for you! Some lecturers / professors rly just have that spark in them to inspire ppl and I'm blessed to be surrounded by a bunch of em in the psych department!🥺😭 it truly makes a difference and I'm sure we both are living proofs of that!

After debating for a while, I've decided not to take a minor mainly because I'm so tired HAHAHAHAHAHA and I'll just do my own self-studying and exploration whilst working! Go out and explore the world, live life! Whilst ironically still staying in my room because of the COVID-19 situation in our country (cases are abt 20+k every day :') ) My proposal has been finalized and it's been accepted! It's just that some elements of my proposal is also part of my actual report, so I have some guidance to refer to in terms of structure! :3 and yes don't worry! I got plenty (sometimes a lil too much) rest during the sem break whilst remaining productive! Plus, I got to catch up w some friends and had game nights (maybe too much of game nights hehe) and movie nights w my friends which was truly refreshing! Also cuz I might not see a lot of them again after we graduate so we gotta cherish every moment 🥺😭

I'm a freelance graphic designer for my uni's newsletter! Occasionally, they'd ask us to create both the content and design! I'll place the link to my recent work below if you wanna check it out! UwU I'm trying to incorporate the same practices during sem break in my last sem (current sem) too! cuz yes mental health is so so important and I'm just tired of being academically tired you get me? :(

What makes me most trilled abt learning abt psychology is how to apply it in daily life too! I find it so fascinating and awestruck at how relatable and within reach these things are like wow we can be influenced in such ways?? :o can be both good and bad but imma stick w seeing it as the development and evolution of us humans UwU

Also, the vaccine has fixed my sleep schedule HEHE (another perk of getting vaccination :3) I got some rly good rest and managed to reset my usual sleeping time, thank you science ToT oooo I see I see, we've had cases of nurses injecting empty syringes hence the recording :( but GHIOGHWEOGIOHW I could never do that, I can feel the liquid entering me as it is so that's good enough ToT (* plays Love Talk * I can feel it coming)

OMG YOUR ART PIECES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL, ADORABLE AND ELEGANT! 💖🥺🥰 it must've required a lot of hard-work and effort AHHH thankiew for showing me yr work!! it's truly unique in its own manner despite it's simplicity UwU is there a reason or backstory to yr chosen theme and objects? :3

I just Googled Somi Somi and omg that's such an UwU ice cream AHHHH 💖🥺😭 ice cream is my fav food of all time and it looks like an ice cream haven omg imagine eating it after a loooong hard day's of work ToT and OMG THE SATISFACTION OF EATING THAI MILK TEA ICE CREAM ON A HOT DAY YASSS 😋🤤 hehe if you get the chance to try milk & biscoff, do try it! It's amazing !😍 and ooo i haven't tried alcoholic ice cream before but I will one day!! :3 my alcohol tolerance is rly low though, will I get tipsy over alcoholic ice cream? We shall see UwU (i can only drink half a bottle of apple cider before my face gets red and I start getting a lil tipsy + headache)

and lovie....knowing yr school schedule now...OURS IS DEFINTELY BRUTAL OMG a 3 month long sem break huhu that's only the total amount of sem breaks we get in a year ToT i thought uni was hard but not that hard ToT

Always glad and honored to have you onboard! and AHAHAHAH the contractions about to start soon 👀 I enjoy talking to you huhu you're such a sweet and supportive person 💖🥺🥰😙 huhu for my period cramps, I've been having them since I was 12 ToT my doctor prescribed me some panadols but sometimes I can't even swallow them cuz I'd puke them out ToT I've settled w heatpacks to reduce my reliance on medicine, but I finally got some upgraded and safe to eat medicine from my gynae! She said it's fine to take it every month to keep my womb healthy and apparently my ms. lil uterus is suffering from inflammation, hence the super crazy bedridden cramps :( the upgraded medicine worked for a while, but after time it kinda didn't help either :/ but I realised that exercise rly does wonders to reduce the cramp too (gynae also recommended exercising) so i take walks and do my back stretches more frequently now! my period in the previous months (2 months ago) have been almost painless and bearable, it's so weird not seeing my bedridden ._. when I was in high school, there would always be a day in every month in which I don't attend classes, and that's solely because of my cramps. It just isn't worth suffering in school, plus we don't have a sick room :/ I hope the pain continues to subside! ToT

And ayy internship is also working experience, yr advice would be of great help to me regardless! 🥺 oh yes, I always remind myself that interviews are similar to the speaking test I took for my Cambridge English exams! That kinda help calm my nerves down a lil, but w nerves comes bigger smiles, so I guess it takes on a rather practical form of coping mechanism (sublimation) AHAHAHAHA

WAAAA WHAT A QUEEN you got an offer from every interview?? I aspire to be like you! 💖🥺🥰 huhu skill wise I believe I have lots to prepare esp in terms of case studies, and I perform rly poorly on certain assessments (*ehem * esp those concerning numbers) so I took the chance to study a lil during sem break too ToT but noted on that! I will work on that too and try to maintain that me element in interviews and overall just be myself keke

That's all from me for now! Imma wait for my supervisor's feedback and journey on w my last semester. Bon voyage! Link to my recent work: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTBqGzjr6sN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Other works: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPpv-IyM7Gi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CL55EG-MbL2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

hi hello honey bee !!! 💓 omg i'm so sorry for the belated response, i finally got on my laptop 😭 i'm gonna put my response under the cut since it got a little long 🤧

omg 221 responses !!!!! that's so many 🙀 congratulations aaaaa it's amazing that you were able to get 3x the data you needed !!! was it difficult to run data analysis? were you able to solve the issue with the equal scores on the subscales? i hope it didn't create too much additional work for you ):

omg yes finance is really interesting! i enjoyed the classes i took for it :') how is rich dad poor dad? did you learn a lot from it? i know it was a book my prof recommended, but i never got around to reading it 😶 did you learn any helpful tips? and ooo i'll have to look into coursera! yeah, there's quite a lot of terms for finance, and it can be a little intimidating paired with all the math formulas and such, but it's pretty useful imo! how are your financial studies going so far? 💕 omg nong is such a cute word?? i would never think it meant idiot asdkfhlkajsdf omg my whole family is good at numbers and really like math, but i didn't like it 😭 my mom made me study it a lot everyday though rip are the financial calculations getting easier for you as you practice more hopefully?

yessss omg i absolutely agree with this!!!! like you can just feel when a professor loves to teach and is genuinely so excited to talk about their subject, and it just makes the most boring horrible subject into something you learn to enjoy and hate less :') and i'm really happy to hear you have tons of professors like that in the psych department 🥺💗

that's great to hear!!!! 🌷🌷 i'm glad that you're prioritizing yourself and your health, which is so much more important than taking on a minor. what fun subjects have you decided to explore and self study so far? 💞 oh my gosh, the rising cases are so high?? i hope it's gotten better there for you ): are you able to go outside yet?

big congratulations on your proposal being finalized and accepted, lovebug !!!! 🥳🥳 i'm very proud of you and hoping one day i can read your published studies in a scientific journal :') aaaa i'm so glad to hear that you got to rest and enjoy your time with your friends!! i definitely feel that omg i regret all the times i skipped out on movie nights or game nights with my friends because now we're all scattered across the country and the only way we can have them again is over zoom calls 🤧

I SAW YOUR DESIGNS AND THEY'RE GORGEOUS OMG I LOVE THEM SO MUCH !!!! 💖 I'M IN AWE AAAA IF PSYCH DOESN'T WORK OUT, I HOPE YOU BECOME A GRAPHIC DESIGNER 🤩🤩💖 and yes i totally get it ): i really felt the academic burn out when i was in college and it was really difficult at times 🤧 but i hope it's going better for you nowadays, sweetpea 💝💝

omg yeah i absolutely agree !!!! whenever i read about psychology, i keep it in the back of my mind and then when i see something irl that relates to it, i'm like :O amazing. it's so cool to learn about different psych tricks too and see how it works when you test them out yourself and whatnot. and it's really crazy to see how the human brain is so easily influenced at times ??? it truly is an amazing subject !!!

ah what a great side benefit of the vaccine - a better sleep schedule 🤩 i'm happy to hear that your schedule has been fixed 💘 and omg what ??? they're injecting empty syringes wth ????? 😭 that's absolutely horrible, are they getting sued?? lmaooooo that love talk reference askdfhlaksjd

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR KIND COMPLIMENTS 😭😭💗💗 there were many late hours spent in the art studio to finish them, but i'm really happy with the end products :') i thought light bulbs are an interesting subject to do, and my prof said that cutting out circular objects or sculpting them is the most difficult since they're made up curves and not straight lines and i was like ok bet i'm gonna do it aND I'M SO GLAD I DID BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE THEM 🥺 and i love honey bees !!! that's why i decided to paint them and we were supposed to paint them in a combined style of two artists so i tried monet's impressionist style with the short brush strokes and pop art triptych style like marjorie strider 💕

somi somi is sooo good and i just had it again a couple weeks ago :') omg ice cream is your favorite food? :o and YES ice cream is so satisfying after a long day of hard work, like it's such a nice reward to look forward to at the end of day ✨ aaaaa i have to try thai milk tea ice cream one day now !!!!! it sounds amazing 🤩 and YES i must look for places that sell milk & biscoff ice cream !! i have milk ice cream from somi somi, but i need to try to combined flavors 💘 i don't think you'll get tipsy over it !!! it's a really faint taste of alcohol, like i didn't even notice it at first, and i don't think they put very much of it in there! aksljdfhals omg you're a lightweight :o at least that means you save money on alcohol LOL i need like nine shots to get drunk 🤧

your school is too hard 😭 you need more than just 3 months of break !!! 😡 we get a week off for thanksgiving in fall semester and a week off for spring break in spring semester too and then the month long winter break and three month summer break. and we have the one day holidays off too like labor day, memorial day, etc. i can't believe they give you so little time off after working so hard???

asdfhlkajshdlksja loool are the contractions over yet? has it been born? what's the current status, doctor? 👀 i really enjoy talking to you too !!! i'm very sorry for the late responses, work is really taking over all of my time, and i never have enough time to get on my laptop to reply to my asks 😭 and thank you for saying such kind things about me 🥺🥺💝 oh my gosh, i'm so sorry to hear that you have such terrible cramps 😭 i can't even imagine going through that - mine are nowhere near as horrible 😖 do the heatpads help a lot? i'm relieved to hear that you were prescribed better medication though! but yeah, your body does eventually get used to the medication and you have to continue taking stronger meds for it to work, but that's not a very healthy solution /: but i'm really glad to hear that exercise has been helping out a lot!! 💖 hurray for almost painless and bearable periods 🥳 i'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that in high school ): that sounds absolutely horrible 😭 periods are just awful, but it's like i'm grateful that i have my period because that means i'm not pregnant, but also please go away aslkhdfaklsj

omg what was the speaking test for the cambridge english exams like? :o it sounds so formal and a lil intimidating askdjfhalsd do you know of any psych tricks that can possibly help calm your nerves? :')

aaaa yes i did !! i was really surprised that i got an offer from them all because at the time, i was not in the right major and i think i was one of the most underqualified applicants 🤧 one person who interviewed me asked why i withdrew from my engr physics class and i explained it in a kinda funny way but in my head, i was like "oof i'm not gonna get this offer anymore" but then he laughed at my response and told me about how his prof told him he should drop a guitar class he was taking because he was doing very poorly and we bonded over that aklsjdhfkals omg how do interviews for psych jobs go? do you have to discuss a lot of case studies? do they give you a list of possible case studies they'll ask about? :o what sort of assessments do you have to do? good luck on all of your interviews, honey bee 💛 i'm rooting for you, you're gonna do amazing !!!! 💘

omg what did your supervisor say about your case study? and how is your last semester going? are you almost done now? 🌸 (also how have you been? what have you been up to? thank you for taking the time to leave such detailed messages for me, i'm really excited to see all the fun updates in your life, lovebug 🌷🌷)

[wildflowerhigh]

Second Time Around (c.h.)|Part 2

Read part 1 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 

Summary: Calum and Harper get closer.

Word count: 2.4K

---

After almost 8 years, Harper became a part of the friend circle again. She had met Luke and Michael as well when Ashton brought her to the studio, on a day when Calum wasn’t there. It felt just like old times for all four boys. She became friends with all of their new friends and their respective girlfriends , helping her settle into the LA lifestyle.

Calum became really good friends with her again too, becoming even closer to her than the first time around. The two of them hung out a lot more than the others, be it binging sitcoms- they discovered a new sitcom that they both loved with a passion, The Office- or going to random stores together, or even just sitting together, talking about the randomest things. Conversation with her always flowed easily.

The others weren’t blind to their connection either. He was teased a lot about it by the boys, but he brushed it off. After all, they were just friends. Nothing more. That’s what he told them, anyway. His heart disagreed, but he pushed it way down and ignored it.

They all decided to go out after a few weeks, when everybody’s schedules lined up. Calum was tasked with bringing her to the club, but he hadn’t realized that she would decline.

“Come on, it’s just one night! You don’t even have work tomorrow,” he pleaded, but she shook her head firmly.

“I just don’t do that night club scene, Cal,” she responded, calling him by his nickname. This was a recent addition that had started a week or so back; it made him nostalgic, seeing as she called him that in high school as well.

“Why?” he questioned.

She shrugged, walking away from him. He followed closely. “It’s really loud, extremely crowded, there’s weird creeps rubbing up on you,” she listed, counting off on her fingers. “It’s no fun at all.” She stopped in front of her bedroom door and turned around to face him, her hands crossing themselves over her chest.

“It’ll be fun, okay, I promise,” he said. “Do- do you trust me?”

She paused, and he noticed her defensive stance soften ever so slightly. “Of course I do,” she replied, looking right into Calum’s mahogany brown eyes. Her statement seemed to hold a lot more depth than required for the situation, and his heart warmed.

“Then come with me. I promise it’ll be good.”

She stared at him for a few thoughtful moments, before caving and agreeing. She changed out of her sweatpants into an off-shoulder top and jeans. She stepped out of her room and sighed dramatically.

“Let’s get this over with.”

-----

Calum stepped into the club, Harper and his friends by his side, the music pounding its way through his body. Michael, already half drunk from pregaming, cheered loudly and pushed his way into the crowd, dragging Crystal with him. The whole group splintered into smaller groups, and he was left alone with Harper. She already looked uncomfortable. He could feel the bass of the song thumping in his chest.

“Do you wanna go sit there?” he screamed to her, barely able to hear himself, and gestured towards a corner with seating. He didn’t know if she heard him, but she nodded, so he grabbed her hand and pulled her there.

They pushed their way through a throng of sweaty dancing bodies all grinding against each other, before they made it to the corner. The music was a bit quieter there, and Calum could finally hear himself think.

“This is horrible,” she said loudly to him, a glare on her face.

“It gets better if you’re drunk,” he replied. “I’ll go get us drinks from the bar.”

“Calum, wait, no-” Before she could stop him, Calum had thrown himself back into the crowd, and pushed his way to the bar. Halfway through he realized he hadn’t asked her what she wanted, but it was too late; he finally made it, running into Luke and Sierra who were sipping margaritas. He placed an order for a gin and tonic for himself and a margarita for Harper.

“Who’s with you?” Luke asked, and Calum clarified that it was Harper, prompting smirks from the couple.

“So you and Harper alone, huh?” Sierra teased, wiggling her eyebrows at him. “Maybe you’ll finally make a move on her now.”

“I told you, she’s just my friend,” Calum said, and they both sniggered.

“Sure she is, Cal,” Luke said, and Calum smacked him on the head.

The drinks he had ordered arrived, and Calum snatched both of them up. “I got our drinks, I’m leaving, goodbye,” he stressed, turning on his heel and walking away.

“Don’t be a wuss!” Sierra yelled, and Luke’s drunk laugh filtered through the music to Calum’s ears. He rolled his eyes and focused on not spilling the drinks. He found an easier and less-crowded path back to Harper, and he managed to get there with spilling just a little bit of the margarita on his shirt.

Harper was sitting at the corner awkwardly, awaiting his return. “You’re an idiot,” she told him, shaking her head as he made his way over to her.

“I promised you a good night, so you’re gonna get one,” he said. “Drink up.”

She laughed, the clearest sound to Calum in that loud and hazy club. They sat there, sipping their drinks, commenting about the people in the club. They saw Michael and Crystal already making out at another corner, and they laughed at them.

After some fifteen minutes, Calum left his unfinished drink on the table and hopped down from his stool. “Let’s go dance,” he said, holding his hand out for her, and Harper laughed wryly.

“You wish.”

“What?”

“I don’t dance!” She took another sip of her drink. “Not these club dances, anyway. And definitely not in that crowd.”

“Come on, I don’t know how to dance either, you just gotta go with it!” Calum said. She shook her head decisively.

“I’ll show you, just watch,” he replied, pointing accusingly at her. Calum would have let it go, not being a great dancer himself, but now he felt like he had a point to prove. He downed the rest of his drink, and pushed his way into the dancing crowd.

Immediately, he knew it was a mistake. It was hot, and sweaty, and really crowded. He faked a grin looked over at her, who was watching his antics with amusement, and shot her a thumbs-up. She nodded with a smile and shot him a thumbs-up back.

He attempted to dance a little, but he was pushed around by the other club-goers. Some girl came up to him and started grinding against him, and that’s when he knew he had to get out of there. He immediately pushed her off and stumbled back to Harper, a defeated expression on his face.

“You’re right. This is the worst,” he accepted.

“I don’t wanna say I told you so, but…” She shrugged, and giggled as he flopped back onto his stool with a huff. He grabbed her margarita and took a long sip.

“Sorry I failed you,” he said dramatically, his head hanging low.

“Don’t worry, I’m having a lot of fun watching you embarrass yourself,” she said, grinning. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go outside for a bit.”

She took back her drink from Calum and gulped down the rest of it, and he followed her as she led them out of the club. She grabbed his hand so as to not lose him in the crowd, and the sweet gesture sent shivers up his spine.

“Have you been here before?” he asked, watching her weave through the masses with ease.

“Unfortunately, yes,” she shouted back, without turning around. She got them to a back door, which opened onto an empty alley. They stepped outside, Calum closing the door behind them, and they sat on the steps.

The cold air stung Calum’s uncovered cheeks a little, but she seemed unaffected by the cold air, despite her shoulder-baring top. She breathed in, a small smile forming on her face, and Calum looked away, realizing that he was staring at her.

They sat in comfortable silence, just enjoying each other’s presence. Calum couldn’t help but steal occasional glances at her- she looked so natural in the moonlight streaming into the otherwise dark alley, shadows dancing across her beautiful face. He didn’t notice her stealing glances at him as well.

“Was it hard in school?” Calum suddenly asked, a thought crossing his mind. “You know, after we left?”

“It… sucked,” she replied, looking at him. “A lot.”

“Shit, I’m sorry-”

“Oh, no, it’s not your fault.” She waved dismissively. “I chose to focus on my studies, and you chose your music, and we’re both doing great now. Life just took us in different directions.”

“And somehow brought us back together,” he commented, making her smile.

“Is this what coming full circle is?” she wondered out loud.

“Probably,” he laughed.

They started reminiscing about their good old days in high school together, and all the stupid shit they had done together. Like the time they had skipped class to just relax for a bit, because Harper was stressing out too much over a stupid exam (even Luke had skipped; despite knowing his mother would be angry, he had wanted to be there for his friend) and they had gotten detention after that for a whole month. All because they wanted a little ice cream to calm down a bit. Thinking over all the old memories made Calum pretty nostalgic, and he was left smiling like an idiot.

Harper traced a random pattern on her jeans, pondering for a bit. “You know, you’ll be amused to know that I…” She looked up at him expectantly. “I used to have a crush on you in high school.”

Calum could swear that his heart stopped for a full second. She had had a crush on him too? All this time, and he had never known.

His mouth fell open. “What? On ME?” he asked, cynical.

“Yes, you!” she declared. “I mean, a cute and sweet guy who was also the bassist in a band? Literally all the girls had a crush on you.” He leant back against the previous step, still a little in shock.

“ALL the girls?” he asked, unconvinced, and she giggled, a hand flying up to cover her mouth.

“Okay, maybe not ALL. Two or three, at least, including me,” she replied genuinely. He toyed with a button on his shirt, trying to not smile. “Plus, I had the privilege of being friends with you, and, well, how could I not?”

He looked at her. She was smiling, and he could see the twinkle in her eyes. “That’s comforting,” he replied, and she giggled, looking down. She had told him, so it was only fair that he told her about his crush.

“I used to have a crush on you too,” he said, and this time, she was the surprised one.

“What, seriously?” He nodded, smiling at her reaction. She shook her head almost in denial, and he spotted the grin she was trying to hide.

“Why me?” she asked him, looking back at him.

“I… don’t know. You walked in on that first day, and I immediately developed a crush on you,” he responded, making her giggle again. “And you were so nice too. And then later when we became friends, I realized you were funny too, so… I don’t know. Some things, you just can’t explain,” he revealed, and she nodded, looking away. A strand of hair fell onto the side of her face, her brown skin glowing in the moonlight, and she neatly tucked it behind her ear. She shifted on the step, stretching out her legs in front of her.

“Wait, so, hang on,” she piped up, after a stretch of silence. “That old song of yours… Out of my Limit, I think it was called?”

“Yeah,” Calum replied a little nervously. He knew exactly what she was going to ask.

“Did you write that about me?

“Yep.” He hoped she didn’t notice the blush covering his cheeks in the dim lighting. “Well, sort of. You inspired it, and then we wrote a song based off it.”

She laughed, her hand moving to cover her face. “I can now officially say that I have a song written about me.” Calum nodded and smiled at her beaming face. She paused, and her face screwed up as she thought. “I never wore high heels though,” she said, recalling the song’s lyrics.

“Wishful thinking, I guess.” He shrugged. She shook her head, smiling, and looked down. “You remember the lyrics of the song?”

“Well, yeah, I’d be a bad fan if I didn’t, wouldn’t I?” she said, wiggling her eyebrows, making him laugh.

“I think we all peaked in high school,” he joked. She snickered, and her hand played with her hair again.

“Well, you’re not too bad now either,” she said, grinning at him, and he smiled.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Harper,” he responded, looking back at her.

They kept observing each other, and Calum found his eyes wandering down to her soft lips. He moved back up to her eyes, and saw she was looking at his lips too. She looked back into his eyes, and she moved ever so slightly closer to him.

His heart was thumping so loud, he was positive she could hear it too. He moved closer to her, eyes dragging across her face, from her almond brown eyes to her full pink lips. Her lips parted slightly, and her eyes fluttered shut. He was inches away from her face.

He wanted to kiss her so bad.

The door flew open behind them, and two large men stepped out, chanting some drinking song. Harper’s eyes flew open in confusion, and Calum pulled away abruptly. They shifted to the side, making way for the men. The moment had passed.

Calum cleared his throat and stood up, shaking his head. “We should get going, uh-” he stuttered, pointing back inside. “-It’s getting late, you know.” He saw disappointment flash across her face for a second, before she nodded, smiling, getting up to join him. The smile didn’t reach her eyes.

They went back inside, gathering all the others, and they booked Ubers for everyone. She avoided him the whole time; Harper went with Luke and Sierra despite living in the opposite direction to them, and Calum’s heart twisted as he watched her drive away.

---

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[happy2bmyownboss]

Oh my goodness, what a day I’ve had and it isn’t even been lunchtime yet. I actually went to bed early last night as I was just so exhausted. Mr. Awesome had a meeting and wouldn’t be home until late so I made the most of the evening.

The kids helped me make Chili Dog Casserole for dinner. We made it a little bit different as we just put the hotdogs into hotdog buns, instead of tortillas, and then spread the chili sauce on top and sprinkled with cheese before baking.

Mr. Awesome is not crazy about the tortilla version so we decided to give it a try this way and it was a WINNER!

We actually had enough leftover that we will be having this again for lunch today which is a GREAT thing!

Multitasking while dinner was in the oven

When we put the casserole in the oven we managed to get six more freezer meals prepared! I actually tried out a few from a freezer bundle pack that we just purchased from Jamerrill Stewart over at Large Family Table. I really admire all the work she is able to get done and love supporting other mom bloggers out there.

After feeding the kiddos I went ahead a browned up the 20 pounds of hamburger we had picked up on Sunday when we actually did TWO Walmart Grocery Pickups… the system was having some glitches and errors but thankfully they seem to have them worked out now.

In about 2 hours we ended up with 8 freezer meals, 4 dinners worth of browned hamburger, and a batch of spaghetti sauce! Not too bad… but this explains part of why I was so exhausted. The other reason is that I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.

We have two each of the following:

Italian chicken (we will serve this over rice)

Chicken Parmesan (similar to THIS RECIPE but we use chicken in place of the breaded eggplant)

Lasagna (made with our favorite spaghetti sauce)

Creamy Ranch Porkchops (very similar to THIS RECIPE minus the rice and we added a pack of dry ranch dressing – we will serve it with rice)

Plus browned hamburger for:

Taco Ring

Daddy Can’t-Wait Casserole

Briarpatch Casserole

Mexican Tortilla Skillet

And a batch of spaghetti sauce that will make a super quick meal later this month. All of these can be paired with pasta or rice, a salad and/or some steamed veggies to make a well-rounded meal. The kids and Mr. Awesome will probably also enjoy some fresh rolls or buttered bread with their meals as well.

Getting back to today

Enough about what we did yesterday… this morning started about like any other day except that I woke up FREEZING! The AC had been left on all night and it was probably cold enough to hang meat… not good for me.

Once I managed to pull myself out of the bed and climb up to turn the AC off it was time to take the doggie out for her walk. Then back for my coffee and oatmeal.

As many of you know, I’ve really been trying hard to incorporate some of the Trim Healthy Mama ideas into my everyday diet. I need to have really like to have my morning coffee and I had switched over to the Dandy Blend before we started on these other diet changes so I wanted to try to make my creamer addiction a little bit healthier. You don’t have to add the ‘extra’ ingredients but they help to make this a vitamin-packed way to start your day. The Trim Healthy Mama books have a ton of ideas and flavor variations that you could try.

As I sat down to sip coffee and eat my oatmeal I worked on my email tasks and some other blogging related activities.

I really love looking through some of my old posts like this one HERE.

One of those involved me checking my Pinterest account so I could post a few recent blog posts to some boards. Well, while I was there I got distracted and starting pinning and then decided to check my notifications.

I have had quite a few new followers and decided to go ahead and follow them back like the good ‘Pinner’ I am. I also noticed a few more boards that I wanted to follow… you can probably guess what happened next…

Suspended from Pinterest?!

Everyone keeps joking that Pinterest is gonna ban me because I get so carried away pinning sometimes but I never really thought it would happen. I guess it was a reality as I found myself SUSPENDED!

Yep, I’ve been an avid Pinterest fan for over 8 or 9 years… maybe longer, maybe since they started… and I’ve never been suspended. Leave it to me to do get banned or suspended from Pinterest though.

Thankfully they have since fixed my account and said it was ‘mistakenly deactivated‘… Whew! I thought I had lost EVERYTHING and gosh knows I don’t have enough time in my days to go back and try to find all those wonderful things I’ve pinned to all of my boards.

The most HORRIBLE thing about this is that I lost ALL OF MY FOLLOWERS!!!! If you are on Pinterest please look me up and follow me again… thank you!

After reading a little more about this I realize it may have been because I had recently signed up for a trial with Coscheduler… maybe I actually was pinning too much between my manual pins and the ‘scheduled pins’? I have since ended my trial and don’t plan on purchasing.

After that scare, I figured that I should probably try and get to something a little more productive like homeschooling but I really had to PEE!

What didn’t I look before I sat down?

I went to our one little bathroom the moment I saw it was empty. I noticed that it wasn’t the only thing empty though.

Why is this such a hard thing to do?

First things first, I still had to pee and I was in a hurry so I didn’t check before I sat down…

Ewww… what did I just sit in?

If you’re a Momma of boys then you know that it is not a good thing to sit on a wet toilet seat. Luckily it seems that someone had just been playing with water and since the bathroom is so small the water had gotten EVERYWHERE.

Needless to say, I wasn’t a very happy Momma and this little experience prompted me to lead a quick bathroom training which involved:

Making sure EVERYONE knows to check the toilet seat and to wipe it if you make a MESS

Making sure EVERYONE knows how to change an empty toilet paper roll

Now they have NO EXCUSES… this doesn’t mean that I don’t expect I will always find a clean toilet seat and toilet paper but it should help a lot.

Next will be to show them ALL how to clean the bathroom with our new cleaning products!

Now we need to finish up our regularly scheduled school work and get on with our day which may include a NAP for me as I am already exhausted… What a day!

Did you notice our cute Dragon in the bathroom? Get yours HERE.

Oh, What a day! Freezer meals, Pinterest Suspension, and No Toilet Paper Oh my goodness, what a day I've had and it isn't even been lunchtime yet. I actually went to bed early last night as I was just so exhausted.

[pebble-xo]

The Secret (12)

prologue; part one; part two; part three; part four; part five; part six; part seven; part eight; part nine; part ten; part eleven; part twelve; part thirteen; epilogue.

Baekhyun had gathered all of his members in the living room first thing in the morning before anyone left for schedules. They had probably all read the article by now but none of them mentioned it as he knocked on each of their doors and asked them into the main room. He hadn’t exactly planned what to say. Maybe he should have. Maybe he wouldn’t feel so nervous if he had figured out how he wanted to explain this new part of his life to his brothers.

Still here he was, with eight faces staring up at him in anticipation, about to tell them about the new people in his life that he would happily take a bullet for.

“The suspense of this meeting is killing so I’m just going to come right out and say it,” he started, locking his hands behind his back and rocking anxiously on the balls of his feet. “I have a daughter.”

It was clear that they hadn’t immediately trusted the article, all of their mouths falling open in shock. Usually Baekhyun would have made a joke about the stupid looks on their faces but for the first time, he didn’t feel like joking around. Instead he waited for them to get over the initial shock before he said anything more.

Junmyeon was the first to recover, scooping his jaw up from the floor and clapping his hands together in his lap. “H-how?” he stammered quietly. “W-when did this happen?”

Taking a deep breath, Baekhyun launched into his explanation. He told them everything, all about you and your friendship and how close the pair of you were throughout school. As he spoke, his brothers were quiet and patient, listening to Baekhyun’s explanation with eagerness. “I left to become a trainee before she could tell me that she was pregnant. While I was here in Seoul, she was back at home raising our daughter alone,” he continued, wistfully thinking of all the years and memories he had missed. Now he had both you and Zoe in his life again, he was determined to make up for lost time.

“Recently she moved to Seoul for a new job and I met her by chance. Later she introduced me to her daughter Zoe, who happened to be my daughter too,” he told them, pinching his lips together and waiting for their inevitable questions.

Jongin leaned forward and pushed his glasses up to wipe the sleep from his eyes. “Do you mean the girl from the concert was your daughter?” he asked with a confused look on his face. He was probably trying to remember his only interaction with Zoe.

Baekhyun nodded, explaining that he didn’t know she was at the time.

“Are you sure?” Kyungsoo questioned, an unreadable expression on his face. “Are you sure this girl is yours?”

Running a nervous hand through his messy hair, Baekhyun sighed heavily. “If you asking me if I’ve had a DNA test then no, but I know she is mine. I trust Zoe’s mother and I know she wouldn’t lie, not about this. Zoe is my daughter, I know it in my bones,” he insisted. Out of everyone, he wanted his brothers to understand the most. They were his family too and he wanted them to accept Zoe as if they really were her uncles.

There was an awkward moment of silence where everyone just absorbed all of the information. The silence was deafening for Baekhyun but he remained quiet. Everything about this situation was delicate, especially now that the public.

“Well I think this is amazing,” Sehun exclaimed brightly, jumping up off the sofa and hurrying over to Baekhyun to give him a short hug with a hard slap on his back. “I always thought Jongdae would be the first one to get someone pregnant,” he muttered teasingly, heading in the direction of the kitchen.

“Hey! I heard that Sehun!” Jongdae shouted, throwing a cushion at the tall boy who poked his tongue out at him.

Yixing shuffled off the sofa and wrapped his arms around Baekhyun. “This girl is very lucky to have you as her father,” he complimented, beaming a little smile before he checked his watch and left for the stairs.

“So when do we get to meet her officially?” Minseok asked over the low hum of noise that had erupted.

Chanyeol perked up too. “Does this mean she’s like our niece?” he called out.

Baekhyun couldn’t help but smile. He had hoped that his brothers would have been happy for him but to see their own excitement, it warmed his heart. He knew that they were all going to love Zoe just like he did.

Junmyeon left the sofa and pulled Baekhyun off the corner. “Is this why you’ve been so distracted lately?” he asked, smiling when Baekhyun nodded. “I’m so happy for you, but this isn’t just about you now.” Trust Junmyeon to be the serious one. “The public know about your family too and they are about to be thrust into a life that we are used to but they aren’t. How does Zoe’s mother feel about all this?”

As if on cue, Baekhyun’s phone started to ring out muffled from inside Baekhyun’s pockets. “I’m about to find out,” he replied, patting Junmyeon on the shoulder and leaving to find a quiet spot to answer your call.

“Hello?”

Immediately your frantic voice sounded through the phone. “Everyone knows Baekhyun!” you said shakily, followed by some sniffles and hiccupping. It sounded to Baekhyun like you were crying and it only made his heart ache more that he wasn’t there to comfort you through all this. “There are photos of the three of us – at the restaurant, outside her ballet class, even outside my apartment Saturday night when you carried Zoe in! Baekhyun, they know where I live!”

At this point, you were bordering on hysterical and Baekhyun was starting to panic too. “Ok deep breaths! I don’t know how they got the photos but I will handle this,” he assured you, dragging a hand through his hair. “I’m just about to go to the agency and talk to the legal team.”

“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Hide out in the apartment?” you managed to get out between sobs, audibly trying to get a hold on your emotions.

Baekhyun wished he was there with you, to curl you up against his body and tell you everything was alright. “Honey, just act like nothing is happening. Take Zoe to school. Go to work. I will sort everything out and then call you tonight,” he tried to reassure you as best as he could through the phone.

There was a pause, followed by a lot of snivelling. “How did this happen?” you murmured softly, sounding less panicked and more saddened.

“I don’t know honey but I will sort it out. You and Zoe are a part of my life and nothing is going to change that. The public will just have to understand,” he told you, feeling his heart ache with a longing to be with you. If anything came out of situation, he hoped that it would bring you and him closer together.

“I hope they do,” you replied with a long sigh. “I need to get to Zoe ready for school but please ring me tonight!” The pleading in your voice broke Baekhyun’s heart. Him being a singer and a member of EXO was hurting his family and it hurt him too.

“Of course,” he answered quickly, waiting for you to hang up before he pulled the phone away from his ear. Sliding down the wall to the floor, he buried his face in his hands and pushed his fingers into his hair. Already he felt exhausted and the day had barely begun.

But then he remembered the weekend, watching you and Zoe playing in the long grass on the hill. The smiles on your face and Zoe’s laughter echoing in the wind: those were the things he wanted to protect. Your happiness was the most important thing to him.

The battle was just beginning and Baekhyun was prepared to fight … for his family.

###

If you had to describe your day in one word, it would be crap.

Complete and utter crap!

In the morning after your phone call with Baekhyun, there were a crowd of reporters waiting to catch a glimpse of you and Zoe as you left to take your daughter to school. Your first response was to panic, to run back up to your apartment and hide under the comfort of your warm duvet and hibernate until this whole thing was over. But then you saw Zoe’s worried and confused little face and knew she was picking up on your fear.

So you just picked her up and told her to hide her face in your hair while you made a quick dash for your car. As soon as you left your apartment building, you were hounded by the reporters, all of them directing cameras in your face and bombarding you with questions. Some of them were horrible too: asking if you were Baekhyun’s secret lover, if you had done a DNA test, if you were using him for money. Keeping your head down, you did your best to ignore the harassment and not show any reaction, focusing instead on getting Zoe into the car and buckling her in safely.

A little paranoid, you took the long route to the school, just in case anybody had followed. You parked as close to the school as you could and walked Zoe directly into her classroom. Her teacher pulled you aside to discuss the article and how much of it Zoe was aware of, which was none of it and that’s how you wanted it to stay. You left for work with assurance from her teacher that she would keep all this drama out of her classroom.

Not that work was any easier. There were no reporters hounding you outside your office but it felt like everyone in the building had read the article and knew you were involved with EXO’s Baekhyun. Some were upfront, coming to your cubicle while you were sketching and asking directly while others were snide and gossiped when they didn’t think you were listening. For the most part of the day, you simply blasted your iPod to block out the world and tried to distract yourself with sketching.

By the time you collected Zoe from her afterschool club and got her back to the safety of your apartment, you were exhausted. You had a mountain of housework to do with absolutely no energy to do it. Instead you and Zoe had cereal for dinner and curled up on the sofa to watch cartoons.

Slowly the day’s trauma seeped out of your body, leaving you only weary and tired. Zoe was your only shining light. Her happiness was the only thing that mattered. Her smile was the only thing you cared about. All you wanted to do was keep her safe and full of love and joy. That was not about to change because of a stupid article about a situation they had no understanding of.

When you were tucking Zoe into bed that night, she squeezed Mr Snuggles extra tight and poked her face out from behind the blankets. “Things will be ok Mummy,” she told you suddenly, reaching out a tiny hand and cupping your cheek with it softly. Since when did she become so perceptive?

You sighed softly and lowered your lips to kiss the middle of her brow. “Of course they will little one,” you whispered back, worrying that if you spoke any louder that your daughter would be able to hear the uncertainty in your voice.

“I love you Mummy,” she whispered softly, holding up Mr Snuggles with a big smile on her face. “Mr Snuggles loves you too!”

Trust your daughter to always get you smiling.

“I love you and Mr Snuggles too,” you replied softly, kissing her again and then pressing your lips to her teddy bear too. “Sleep tight little one,” you murmured, switching off her bedside lamp so her nightlight was the only source of dim illumination. Then you slowly backed out of her room, watching your daughter’s eyes flutter shut as you closed her bedroom behind you.

To distract yourself from all the stress you felt on your shoulders, you cuddled up on the sofa in your fluffiest blanket and decided to finish the sketch you had started on the hill a couple of days ago. If you closed your eyes, you could still picture the colours as if you were still on the hill. Easily enough, you lost yourself in the fields of green, colouring the scene that was etched in your mind so it could be eternalised on paper.

As you were finishing up the shading on the trees, your ringtone peeled through your quiet living room. Scrambling out of your blanket cocoon, you reached for your phone and smiled at Baekhyun’s name appearing on the screen. “Hello?” you said softly, wrapping your arms up around your knees and placing your chin on top.

“Hey honey,” Baekhyun replied gently down the phone, his melodious voice like honey for your ears. He sounded exhausted too, the weariness audible in his voice. “How has today been for you?”

You sighed wearily to yourself, raking a hand through your hair. “It’s been horrible,” you grumbled, running through the day’s events with Baekhyun, from the reporters to the gossiping at work, to even Zoe being able to pick up on everything. “Please tell me there is something you can do Baekhyun. I can’t live like this and Zoe doesn’t deserve to either,” you told him, rubbing your eyes tiredly.

It was Baekhyun’s turn to sigh and you knew it wasn’t good. “I spent the day talking to the legal team all day. Because the photos were taken in public places and you can’t see Zoe’s face in any of the images, there’s nothing illegal about them,” he explained, sounding regretful.

Meanwhile you were starting to panic again. “Baekhyun they know where we live. I can’t deal with reporters hounding me every time I take Zoe to school or I go to the shops. What if this doesn’t die down? Do you expect your daughter to hide her face forever?” she snapped back quickly, barely taking a breath as you felt tears sting your eyes.

“Of course not,” he instantly replied. “I’ve already thought about that and I think you should move apartments,” he told you, his words freezing you on the spot.

It was a definite water-spitting moment. Move? Immediately the idea didn’t sit right with you. Was that not just admitting that they had won? You had only just moved into this apartment and now he wanted you to move? Was this so he could hide you away before you tarnished anymore of his public image? Your mind was racing a mile a minute, arguing and counter-arguing yourself before you had even uttered a single word.

For a second he paused too and let the words sink in before he continued. “I found somewhere that’s closer to my place, closer to Zoe’s school, closer to your work and it’s in a private neighbourhood with security so any press in the area are technically trespassing and can be arrested,” he told you slowly. You could tell he was trying not to overload you with information. He knew that you didn’t function well when people explained things too fast.

Leaning back on the sofa, you hugged the blankets closer to your body, feeling colder for no real reason. “Baekhyun I could barely afford this apartment. What makes you think I could afford somewhere closer to the city with the extra cost of being in a secured neighbourhood?” you retorted, all of your panic and anger gone so only exhaustion was left. “Maybe I should quit my job and move back home?” you thought out loud. Out of all the options on the table, it seemed like the best.

“You can’t take my daughter away from me!” Baekhyun snapped loudly down the phone, jolting you with shock at how aggressive he sounded. “I won’t let you move away so I only get to see her less than ten times a year. It’s not fair!”

You didn’t have the headspace for all this drama. “I don’t want to take Zoe away from you either Baekhyun but I have to put her first and if her safety and her happiness are better when we don’t live in Seoul, then I have to consider it!” you argued, trying to control the volume of your voice so you didn’t wake Zoe up.

“I will buy the apartment,” he quickly declared without a moment of hesitation.

You balked a little in disbelief. “What?” you stammered.

“I will put down the deposit and make the payments for you,” he explained, sounding completely serious.

Your mouth fell open in shock at Baekhyun’s proposal. “Baekhyun I can’t ask you to do something like that,” you insisted as soon as you recovered from the shock enough to speak. “It’s too much of a commitment for me to ask that of you.” Already you were shaking your head. There had to be an alternative option to this – like maybe moving a little bit further out of the city. You didn’t want to have to rely on Baekhyun like that.

He responded almost instantly. “I would happily do anything that keeps you and Zoe as safe as you can be in this mess I created. I’ve already missed five years of her life and I don’t think I could bear to lose any more time with her. Or with you. If paying for this apartment keeps you both in my life, then I will gladly pay any amount of money,” he told you sweetly, making your heart swell with love for him.

“Please,” he begged, his voice cracking with emotion. “Let me do this for you and Zoe. I just want to protect my family.”

Too much was swirling around your head, too many thoughts racing through before you managed to make sense of any of them. You needed time to think about everything so you could decide what the best thing for your daughter. She was the most important part, everything else came second. “I need time to figure this all out, Baekhyun,” you told him. You were way too tired to function properly and sleep was calling you.

“Take all the time you need. Just please come and see the apartment on Friday?” he asked hopefully.

“I’ll think about it,” you replied, wishing him goodnight and moving the phone away.

Before you hung up, you heard Baekhyun call out your name. Sighing tiredly, you held the phone back up to your ear to hear what he had to say. “I love you,” he murmured softly, a hint of sadness in his voice that made your heart ache. “I always have.”

You gulped hard and hung up, dropping the phone into your lap and threw your head back in exhaustion. “I love you too,” you whispered, closing your eyes and imagining a life where you, Baekhyun and Zoe could live happily together.

Was life supposed to be so hard or was this just karma biting you in the ass for keeping Zoe a secret for so long?

[masterlist]

[easyfoodnetwork]

Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images A Supreme Court ruling makes it illegal to discriminate against an employee based on sexual orientation or gender, but that barely begins to address the unique pressures and harassment faced by trans service workers On June 15, in a historic case, the Supreme Court held that federal law forbids discriminating against an employee solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Such an action would be considered discrimination under Title VII, as “an employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” writes Justice Neil Gorsuch. In other words, a workplace couldn’t legally fire a man for having a husband because it wouldn’t fire a woman for having a husband. If “the employer intentionally penalizes a person identified as male at birth for traits or actions that it tolerates in an employee identified as female at birth,” it’s discrimination “because of … sex.” Much of the praise for the ruling comes from the fact that it’s been a long time coming. Until now, it’s been legal in more than half of U.S. states to fire someone for being gay, bisexual, or trans, even though it’s clearly a discriminatory practice. “The Supreme Court’s decision provides the nation with great news during a time when it is sorely needed. To hear the highest court in the land say LGBTQ people are, and should be, protected from discrimination under federal law is a historic moment,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, in a statement. However, she notes, “we still have more work to do to ensure that transgender people can fully live their lives without fear of discrimination for being who they are.” The food service industry has often been a place for society’s “outcasts,” including LGBTQ people, to find acceptance and community. But while this ruling is a win for LGBTQ rights in general, trans and nonbinary people in the food service industry are questioning how much of an effect it’ll have on everyday life — and imagining what could be done to effect tangible change. Niko Prytula, a nonbinary person who lives in Virginia, only recently stopped working in food service after eight years, most recently at a fine dining establishment with extremely formal practices. At most of their jobs, they were never open about their gender identity. “I was always out as queer, and there were not that many places where I was the only queer person on staff,” they say, “but when I was working fine dining, that was the first time where it felt like it would be a genuine obstacle to be out.” Most of that was not because of the risk of discrimination from management, but rather from customers. Prytula recalls the extraordinarily gendered style of service, which required serving the oldest woman at the table first, referring to coworkers and patrons as “Mister” or “Miss,” and serving mostly older, white customers. “I do think [coming out] would have just made things very complicated,” they say. “I feel like it would have required me to create almost like a flowchart for my coworkers of like, ‘Okay, so I want you guys to use the correct pronouns for me, but you can let the tables misgender me all they want, because I don’t want to get in an argument with some elderly person when it’s literally a matter of my income.’” Lucky Michaels, a trans rights activist and bartender at Storico at the New York Historical Society, says “as a trans person, job security is huge.” Michaels, a nonbinary trans woman, has been working in hospitality since the late ’90s, and says that because of the need for job security, “most of the trans people that I find [in the industry] are absolutely in the closet, stealth because it’s a really toxic work environment for people in general.” It’s not just discrimination from customers; it’s also the hypermasculine kitchen culture that persists in restaurants to this day. Having a job is a high bar to clear for many trans people, says Michaels. “If you don’t have a house to go home to, or a place to change your clothes and shower or eat, how are you going to be able to get or sustain a job in the first place?” While the risk of losing a job is worrisome for everyone, unemployment, homelessness, and food insecurity are things that affect trans people more across the board. According to an April 2020 report from the Williams Institute looking at pre-pandemic numbers, “78.1 percent of trans adults are in the workforce, 12.8 percent of whom are unemployed, translating to an estimated 139,700 trans people unemployed (and looking for work) nationwide. In comparison, between 3.9 percent and 4.9 percent of U.S. adults in the labor force are unemployed.” However, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated those numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the unemployment rate at 13.3 percent for May. And according to the Human Rights Campaign, trans people have been more likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic and economic crisis: “19 percent of transgender people and 26 percent of transgender people of color have become unemployed due to COVID-19, compared to 17 percent of LGBTQ people and 12 percent of the general population.” The numbers are particularly bad for the food industry. The BLS reports that an additional 1.2 million jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector were lost in May, on top of the 7.4 million lost in April. And HRC reports that LGBTQ people are more likely to work in industries affected by COVID-19, including 2 million (15 percent) who work in restaurants and food services. The SCOTUS decision sets a precedent, both legal and social, and signals to employers that there are bigger consequences for discrimination, but bigoted employers will always find other ways to alienate and push out trans employees. (The ruling does not apply to contractors, like most delivery drivers or Instacart shoppers.) Both Prytula and Michaels note how rare it would be to have “evidence” of a boss firing someone because they are trans. “I can’t tell you the number of times that people have tried to get rid of me because I’m trans without saying, ‘This is because you’re trans,’” says Michaels. “I’ve had managers and chefs try to get me to quit or leave, that have thrown around really horrible language. They’ll be using ‘faggot,’ I’ll be barred from the restroom of my gender identity, they give you inappropriate schedules, they give you inappropriate uniforms.” The nature of the ruling also just doesn’t apply when much of working in the food service industry involves interacting with customers, who are essentially your bosses for 90 minutes at a time and are under no legal requirement to treat you fairly. “If you’re no longer allowed to be fired for being queer, but your income depends on whether or not guests find you palatable, or performing the right way, or, god help you, attractive, it doesn’t really help that much,” says Prytula. Then there’s the issue of at-will employment. If you work without a union that has argued for just-cause termination, in most states, your boss can fire you without reason anyway. “Often the unique circumstances and additional burdens queer, and especially trans folks live with can make them more susceptible to ‘fireable offenses,’” says V Spehar, a nonbinary person who has worked in the hospitality industry for years, and who most recently was the Director of Impact at the James Beard Foundation, focusing on Women’s Leadership & LGBTQ programs. “Being late, having to grin and bear rude customers’ comments, lack of emotional or mental support, lack of secure housing or familial support” are all reasons that an employee could be seen as “not the right fit.” On an encouraging note, there are other legislative pushes that, while helping all workers, could protect trans people specifically. Prytula says doing away with tipped minimum wage would mean trans food service workers would be more likely to earn a living wage without monitoring their appearance for the sake of transphobic customers. Doing away with at-will employment could do a lot too, as Sarah Jones writes for New York Magazine, as trying to sue your former employers for trans discrimination “can burden workers who don’t have the independent means to hold their former employers accountable.” Spehar also says more change needs to come from within the industry, and not only from outside legislation. “Without creating a culture of understanding for the out-of-work burdens that disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community, we are all still held to the same ‘professional’ standards and expectations created by cis white culture,” they say. That means restaurant owners and nonprofits prioritizing anti-bias training, putting resources toward helping queer and trans people open their own businesses, and centering the fact that the food industry “is built foundationally on black, queer, women’s, and immigrant’s labor.” And making sure these issues take priority outside of Pride month, when many businesses use the LGBTQ community for marketing gimmicks. Michaels still sees the food service industry as a place where trans people can thrive. She notes that James Beard was an out gay man at a time when that wasn’t widely accepted, and how restaurants and bars, especially Black- and women-owned restaurants and organizations, are committing themselves to diversity, equity, and inclusion work. But she also notes there’s a bigger picture outside the rights of those who find employment. “I don’t know that it is in legislation,” says Michaels. The SCOTUS ruling is an important piece in the massive, and mostly incomplete, puzzle of legislation and activism that’s needed to truly secure equitable treatment for trans people. “Legislation, as we’ve seen, can be fickle, and driven by administration, politicized,” says Spehar, “and in the end will never do what humanity and compassion from the industry can do.” from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2VwynCf

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/06/for-trans-people-in-service-industry.html

[bike42]

Adventures in Quarantine March-May 2020

Corona Virus Upends Life as We Knew It              

Chapter One: Denial

Just after the New Year, we started hearing about Corona Virus, and the resulting disease of COVID-19 as something happening in China.  Without giving much thought to the global nature of life these days, we continued life as normal.  

On January 21st the first US case of COVID was confirmed in the US (Seattle area).

February 5-14: We flew to Florida for the IFA conference in Orlando, then spent a few days on the Gulf Coast in Sarasota.  We had uncharacteristically warm weather and thoroughly enjoyed our get away.  

Feb 25-27:  Jeff travelled to Atlanta for his BrightStar Performance Group meeting.  Compared to the flights just two weeks before, he said his flights were pretty empty, already people were cancelling their travel plans.

March 6 – I went to the UW Hospital for an ADRC Ambition Study Visit.  Seemed like business as usual.

March 6-8  We met Sandra and Matt in Minneapolis for the week-end.  With beautiful weather, we walked a lot and went to the Farmer’s Market at the Mill Museum, The Walker Art Museum, and on Sunday Jeff and I attended the Minnesota Auto Show at the Convention Center.  We didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last time we were in large crowds and were able eat in restaurants until who knows when we’ll be back to that?!

March 10  Jeff and I drove to Chicago to attend the BrightStar Midwest Owner’s Meeting.  Just before the meeting, BrightStar set up an option to attend the session virtually via something called “Zoom” meeting (had never heard of it before, but now we are Zooming nearly every day!).  About 40 people attended the session, and Shelly, the originally hugger, mandated that no one touch, shake hands or hug. Honestly, I thought that was a bit extreme, but now in the era of “social distancing,” it’s our new normal.  This was the last face-to-face business meeting we’ll attend in who knows how long.  The BrightStar Leadership Team also decided to cancel the BrightStar Leadership Conference scheduled in Dallas in mid-April.

Madison had the first Wisconsin confirmed COVD-19 case on March 11, at the UW hospital.

March 12 – Governor Evers declared a “public health emergency” for the State of WI.  We weren’t exactly sure what that meant at the time.  Also, that day, Jeff had scheduled a visit with his primary MD Trent Thompson to discuss heartburn / exercise induced chest pain that he’d had over the last several months (note title of this chapter = denial).  Dr Thompson scheduled an Upper GI exam and due the fact that Jeff used the words “chest pain” and he also had a slightly abnormal EKG, he also ordered a Stress Test.  After the MD visit, we headed to Costco where there was quite a buzz with people stocking up on cleaning supplies – we thought it was hysterical, but this was the beginning of the great “Toilet Paper Shortage” of 2020.  Crazy

March 13:  CMS mandated that all Nursing Home facilities across the country stop in-person visits and limit entrance to employees only. Although not required of Assisted Livings, we thought this was a good idea and implemented it for our BrightStar Senior Living communities.  We also instituted temperature and symptom monitoring for all staff as they entered the building, and daily temperature and wellness checks for our residents.

We also started having Home Care and Staffing employees that had traveled “out of state” start performing daily temperature checks.  Since we’d recently been to MN and IL, we also started our daily checks.

Around this time, many schools were on spring break, some extended the break a bit, throwing parents into a panic.

The government started talking about plans to help the country – promised of $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits (on top of state benefits), payment breaks on SBA loans, and several other loan and grant programs for businesses.  It really added to the confusion going on as schools were talking about closing, the threat of businesses closing, and then the uncertainty around if our business could be defined as “healthcare” and therefore an “essential business.”  We were just in the process of switching over to Waunakee Community Bank, for personal and business, so it was a great time to see how much of a partner they’d be for us.

Chapter Two:  This Just Got Real

Sunday March 15:  We attended church as usual, not knowing that this would be the last church service we’d attend in person in some time.  As it was, there was a bit of uncomfortableness during the time when we get up and move about and greet one another.  No hugs or handshakes – some people bumped elbows, some practiced “distance” high fives.  For the first time ever, I was uncomfortable with the thought of someone ripping off a hunk of bread for me as we participated in communion.

That evening we were notified that 2 BSL-M residents were sent to the ER with respiratory symptoms. We were relieved a few hours later to hear both had testing positive for influenza, and they were returned to the community where they were quarantined to their rooms and recovered without issue. We felt like we dodged a bullet.

Monday March 16: Jeff had his Upper GI procedure at St Mary’s outpatient surgery unit this AM.  All the nurses were decked out in full PPE with facemasks, and only a small percentage of the normally scheduled cases were performed.  With Jeff, they found a tiny hiatal hernia (too small to worry about), and Schottky’s ring (which they stretched).  We were sent on our way, feeling somewhat like we didn’t get the answers we are searching for.  

Sad afternoon, we got home from St Mary’s and decided we should take Tiger cat into the Vet’s Urgent Care as he’d been pretty listless for about a week.  The vet was on “lockdown” and you called them from the parking lot and they came out and took your pet in – you had to stay in the car.  I was not happy about that, but stopped myself from pitching a fit.  Soon they called and told us they found that he was in early stages of heart failure, so we made the decision to put him down.  We called Bailey to come out, and we were able to spend some final precious moments with a sedated Tiger, telling him how much we loved him and what a great cat he’d been.  So hard, but a good end to a wonderful 16 years.

Tuesday March 17: normal day at work.  We recorded several videos to be sent out to our staff with a “we got this” theme.  So odd to look back at that now, didn’t even realize what was in store.

Wednesday March 18: Up as usual, and I headed downstairs to our home gym.  Several minutes later, Jeff sent me a text saying “come up.”  I found him lying on the floor in our bathroom – with horrible chest pain.  I called 911 but it wasn’t until the EMTs were here with him hooked up to the EKG that I actually understood that he was having a heart attack.  Now we know there were warning signs, but something like this was never on our radar!

Amazing work from the Waunakee EMTs and we found ourselves back at St Mary’s in the Cardiac Cath lab. Ryan joined me there, and after about 90 minutes we met up with Jeff in Cardiac Care Unit.  Jeff had blockage of his cardiac arteries – repaired with 5 stents and now a life changing array of medications (blood pressure, cholesterol lowering and blood thinning).  He was always fit, ate well, exercised, had low BP and cholesterol … but heart disease runs in his family and you can’t beat genetics.

He was in the hospital until Friday March 20th, and our world completely changed during those days.  The cardiac event alone rocked our world, but during this time the governor signed a “Safer at Home” order which closed all businesses except those deemed essential. We emerged from the hospital on Friday to a different world.

Saturday March 21st was my dad’s 80th birthday.  My parents were driving back to WI from Florida (also in denial), and it felt so wrong to not have them stop in to visit, or be able to visit them, but we knew we had to stay isolated at home at this point in our lives.

It took some time to get used to our new normal and get settled into our home.  New routine for Sox our remaining cat as well.  Much of that first week was a blur.

Tuesday March 24th - BSL-W resident Bob, had respiratory symptoms as was sent to the hospital early this morning tested positive for COVID-19.  The news was devastating to me.  My heart was breaking for all the families that trusted us to care for their loved ones.  Even with restricting visitors and screening staff, the darned virus got in.  While we already knew we weren’t alone – I can’t describe what a devastating feeling this was.  Our management staff were amazing, however the majority of our caregiving staff (and our brother and sister cooks) all freaked out and left. Later that week, Doris, another resident that was already on hospice also died – presumably of COVID-19 since she had respiratory symptoms.   On Saturday April 4th, another resident (Ray) suddenly developed symptoms and was admitted to the hospital, not expected to live.  I took that news especially hard – I’d had a conversation with Ray during my last visit into the community (March 4th).  He’d been watching the news about how hard the nursing home in Seattle was hit with the virus and felt like they were “sitting ducks.”  What we learned was all attempts to screen or use available PPE wasn’t enough, when apparently, some carry the virus asymptomatically.  Also, on Saturday, Ray’s wife Lynne went to the hospital and also tested positive for the virus, but didn’t have severe symptoms.  On the morning of Thursday, April 9th, I was out for a run in the morning and as I was on my way home, I saw an ambulance outside BSL-W and I lost it. I’m sure I was quite a sight – yelling at God, screaming and crying on the sidewalk.  Probably the most helpless feeling I’ve ever had.  We finally got the health department to cooperate and provide tests for our staff and residents.  8 residents were presumed positive (3 deaths, 3 hospitalized and recovered, two showed no symptoms).  4 staff members tested positive and were quite ill, some out 4 weeks before they felt well enough to return.  True heroes – everyone involved:  residents and their families, managers, and staff.

Chapter Three:  Our New Normal

Government – I’m not even going to get into what terrible leadership our president demonstrated during this crisis.  Both the house and senate went to work in unprecedented fashion and in short time they introduced an array of bills – some good for us, some not, some that we’re still trying to figure out 6+ weeks later.  Payroll Protection Act – gave us loans that could turn into grants if we keep people working – Families First Corona Leave Act was an FMLA that gave non-essential workers unlimited time off to care for their families – Federal UI Act promising $600 a week in UI on top of what someone can get from the state (more than most of our workers are paid to work!!).  Crazy times, and a roller-coaster of uncertainty as we tried to figure out what applies to us, what works for us, what could hurt us, etc.

Zoom Meetings and “work” from home / gardening class.  Zoom church. Zoom Yoga.  Zoom meetings with friends.  Zoom meetings with WI DHS twice a week regarding COVID matters.  Zoom meetings with Littler twice a week, scaring the crap out of us with all the ways people can be suing us over COVID and myriad of other employment related issues!

School – though this didn’t affect us, school was cancelled for the rest of the year. Can’t imagine what that was like – the stress it put on working families, especially lower income who were less likely to have internet access and even access to food the way some kids did through school.  

Workouts – we loved getting up every day without the alarm clock, having our home gym.  On nice days I’d bring my yoga mat up to the porch.  We gradually got out walking, measuring heart rates and before long we were up to walking 7 miles with weighted packs.

Cooking – Jeff always loved to cook and it was great to have the extra time to make soups and clean out the pantry and see what kind of mixes were in there.  He also baked a Key Lime Pie, which was awesome.  

Wine – initially we were home with Ryan bringing us supplies and groceries.  My stash of “everyday” wine dwindled and I started tapping into the good stuff – I mean, what was I saving it for anyway?  By May, we were venturing back to Costco with masks on, so I was able to restock the “everyday” wine.  I also started making margaritas again – I mean, we had 5 bottles of tequila in our bar for some reason!!  As the weather warmed up, our condo ladies (Judy, Joan and me) started having wine parties on our patio - practicing social distancing of course.  Sure, was good to socialize with actual people again!

Puzzles – early into quarantine one night after Jeff had gone to bed, I got out a jigsaw puzzle that I’d had for awhile but had never put together (a series of VW beetles). We worked on it over the next few days and found it was calming, and something we could work on together. After we completed that, I found a few more in the basement, and then ordered a few more online.  Like a lot of things, they were becoming hard to find – took 3 weeks for Amazon delivery!!  The last one we are still working on – 1000-piece Macho Pichu with tiny little pieces!!

House Cleaning – after the heart attack, we realized we needed to quarantine alone, so we put our cleaning service on hold.  At first, we’d forget that the toilets needed to be cleaned and we’d realize the floor was disgusting.  It didn’t take long for us to get back into the routine of cleaning, and we think part of our new normal will be doing the cleaning ourselves again.  We’re not working the excessive hours that we were 10 years ago when we first broke down and hired cleaners.   Except wow – does the dust ever pile up!

Newspaper: “The Wide World of No Sports” The sports section is hysterical.  They’re working so hard to find things to publish.  Same with sports on TV.  Really – who wants to watch old games and old golf tournaments. One cool thing though was they published the AP Writers Top 25 Sports Movies, so were working on watching all of those (some old favorites, some good, at least one so far has been terrible). Here’s the list:

1.       Hoosiers

2.       Bull Durham

3.       Rocky

4.       Caddyshack

5.       Slap Shot

6.       Field of Dreams

7.       Raging Bull

8.       Major League

9.       The Natural

10.   A League of Their Own

11.   Moneyball

12.   The Bad News Bears

13.   Miracle

14.   Hoop Dreams

15.   Eight Men Out

16.   Chariots of Fire

17.   White Men Can’t Jump

18.   Remember the Titans

19.   Rudy

20.   Seabiscuit

21.   Breaking Away

22.   The Pride of the Yankees

23.   When We Were Kings

24.   Brian’s Song

25.   Friday Night Lights

26.   The Sandlot

Chapter Four:  Getting Old

Easter came and went. While I’m getting used to participating in church via video, Easter without family just felt like another day.

The week after Easter, we should have been at a conference in Vegas.  Its been rescheduled to September, on top of everything else.  If we can do things in September, we’re going to have to prioritize!!

Everything has been cancelled for the summer – IFA Summer Board meeting, Waunafest, Shake the Lakes Festival, State Fair, Farmer’s Market, everthing!!  No idea how or when Baseball and Football will start, and if they’ll play games in empty stadiums or what.  

The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that the “Safer at Home” order was illegal, which threw the state into a state of confusion.  There is a real divide between people that want everything back open, and people that are still freaked out.  No one knows. As of May 26, 2020 – places are allowed to slowly open.  Salons by appointment; restaurants at 25% capacity.  We are still wearing masks in public, and since we’re working in healthcare, we’re enforcing even wearing masks in our office – not a popular decision, but they’ll be thankful if this spikes up again!

I’m feeling more used to it, and spending more time working on some of the work projects that I thought I’d be knocking out during this time.  It was just so hard to focus for the first 8 weeks – everything was about the darn virus!!

Jeff is knocking off house projects like crazy.  We’ve bought a new dinning room rug and moved some others around; he’s washing and waxing the cars that don’t go anywhere.  I’ve got him on a chipmunk reduction program now.  

I’m still working on my Master Gardner certification via Zoom and I’ve been able to spend a lot of time outside in the garden here and at our Waunakee BSL (and at church).  

We’ve also taken a few social distance hikes with our hiking group, and just this week decided to postpone September’s trip to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro/Safari until September 2021. Its just too hard to believe that international travel will resume within the next few months.  I was terribly frustrated with that – I’m such a planner and it was making me crazy with nothing on our horizon.  Our hiking friend Gary came up with the idea to start knocking off segments of the Ice Age Trail – a 1000-mile trail that winds around Wisconsin.  Brilliant!! That’s exactly what I need – get away from the media, away from the crowds, and into nature.  By the time we’re done, things will be back to normal – whatever that is!  Stay tuned!!

We broke the news to our Leadership team that we’re about to hit the road again.  Most of them are used to it, and honestly, they brought us through this crisis with little support needed from us.  I’m so glad to have a plan.

[halflingkima]

i have no clue how exactly to describe my relationship with our current assistant manager but whatever it is, i think it’s mutual?

I’m definitely the only one at work who enjoys his presence. I breathe a little easier when he’s in the building, knowing that someone else knows what they’re doing. We don’t flirt (like the last AM did), we don’t party (like all our younger coworkers do), we don’t gossip (at least w each other lol). We only ever really talk about work and movies and occasionally other practical things like dinner and taxes (is this adulthood lmao). We can ALSO have comfortable silences which I have apparently taken for granted all my life because EVERYONE ELSE always tries to fill ALL silences. Like pls. i need an break.

but like 90% of our conversations are essentially me asking him questions ranging from useful and job-related – like “do you want me to take care of this?” “how do I do this?” “any news on that thing?” – to horribly un-useful – like “did you work here when this movie played?” “have you ever been the this location?” “have you ever met anyone from corporate in person?” – so I thought our positive relationship was one-sided and that I was this constant annoyance to him BUT RECENTLY I’ve noticed that that may not be the case? Maybe bc he just realized how old I am (I’m closer to him in age than our coworkers) and I’m not afraid to give him shit at this point but I’m not petty like CERTAIN people (we work with one of his exes). BUT MAINLY my hard evidence is

A) He put me up for a promotion. Which he did about a month ago and mainly just tells me he thinks I’m responsible and trustworthy and good at my job, so, confidence boost there, but not really anything personal EXCEPT

B) more recently, he told me he’s being transferred to another location next month and told me not to tell anyone and ASKED IF I’D WANT HIS JOB. AS ASSISTANT MANAGER. Which, no, lol, I’m barely getting by as is but it’s quite a leap from head supervisor to assistant manager. so he REALLY thinks i’m responsible and trustworthy and much better at my job than I think I am. He ALSO trusts me enough to tell me something that no one’s supposed to know and in our work environment that’s quite a big vote of confidence. (for reference, when our manager told me she was pregnant and not to tell anyone, all the supervisors knew by that night. not because of me but. it happened.) It also implies that I’m his closest current coworker, as it was clearly something he needed to vent about and we see coworkers so often even though they’re not supposed to know something like this. (i had the exact same reaction and wanted to tell like half the supervisors that he’d offered me the position and i COULDN’T bc then i’d have to tell them why lmao) AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT

C) tonight he asked if I’d work at the other location with him and it took me a bit to catch what he meant because it was Quite a Night and also we cover shifts at other locations all the time and I thought he was making notes for the next week’s schedule or something and asking me to cover a shift with him. and then i realized he was asking me to TRANSFER there with him. And it wasn’t in earnest or anything just like a casual ‘what if’ thing but it’s hitting me a bit. like maybe he asked me because i’m the only one who knows about it but he’s also going to a different location where he knows NO ONE and basically has to start from the ground up all over again (he’s been at our location like 4 years) and he’s really a genuine, quiet person so i’m sure that’s nerve-wracking for him. and he asked me to transfer with him like a last-ditch security blanket. bc i can handle my work and we’ve built a rapport, whatever kind it may be

and WOW this got long but i’m RLY emo about him leaving bc he’s really the only person i’m never upset with and i finally got over being kinda afraid of him (bc he’s older and my boss and basically a job robot) and we’ve built whatever this working relationship is and now he’s leaving and i’ll never see him :// and i can’t vent to my coworkers about this bc none of them like him and ALSO none of them are supposed to know this and then i feel weird discussing this w non-coworkers bc they rly don’t have all the context needed (like this whole post makes so much more sense if you know him and how our workplace is structured/operates) and anYWAY

i’ve been REALLY wanting to quit lately (bc so many others have and that’s resulted in so much un-asked-for responsibility falling to me) and honestly he’s been the one thing keeping me going and i rly can’t see myself staying that long without him

and now this post has got me considering transferring with him but it’s the downtown location that i’ve never even BEEN to let alone covered a shift at and i hate driving downtown & i’d have to pay for parking at work which is ridiculous i’m not gonna spend money in order to make it (even tho I did it for like a year on a university campus which is a MUCH bigger rip off). anyway. anyone know of any short term (like year-long) positions opening up soon?

[comicteaparty]

November 26th-December 2nd, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from November 26th, 2018 to December 2nd, 2018.  The chat focused on Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R by snuffysam.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R by snuffysam~! (http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PST), so keep checking back for more! You have until December 2nd to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 3. Since the comic utilizes a wide variety of comedy, what have been some of your favorite jokes to appear in the comic so far? What about the joke worked for you? Name as many as you would like for this question.

QUESTION 4. Do you believe that Mizuki will eventually discover her own magical talent, or will she be stuck stealing others’ abilities forever? What might her magical talent be? Also, regardless of your answer, how might this issue change Mizuki?

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

Okay, so I haven't actually gotten to reading this comic yet-- just started like... right now. But OMG. XDDDDDD I'm loving how they're breaking the fourth wall and poking fun at stuff. My favorite scene so far is this one:

And of course the follow up:

I really like the guard so far, though I have absolutely no idea if he'll ever appear again seeing as I'm still in the first chapter. ;v;

The fact that he makes fourth wall breaking remarks is what sort of sold me. If he doesn't appear again, hopefully someone else along with the main character will make better jokes that will sell me good.

BUT OMG!!! This one really caught me off guard:

XDDDDDDD

The comedy here is really up my alley man. ;W;

O v O

Just found my new favorite character.

Mr Holy Tree:

AH! Btw, I love how the siblings who are governers of the Sikode plain's clothes sort of match up with the work hours they took. <333

Just finished Chapter 3. 8^U!!!! If I have more time tonight, Imma try to read a few more chapters yo! But this comic is really snatching me with dem scripts.

snuffysam

glad you like it so far!

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

Of course! >W< Thank you for creating this silly hidden gem!!! <33333

ShaRose49

I love that it’s not perfect, and this is not an insult. My favourite character so far is the guy who sliced that squid in half he seems like a boss

It’s also amazing to see how far the author has come in their art, I looked at the original pages a bit.

snuffysam

Cahe Is A Good Boy

Kabocha

Cahe is good, but I do wonder about the magic of how quickly they had their baby... Maybe it's one of their magic love powers.

snuffysam

also yeah, I've changed a lot over these past three-ish years lol

there's been exactly one hint as to why that happened, and it's in probably the most obscure place imaginable

the game where you can play as everyone's favorite archery ace

ShaRose49

I obviously didn’t get to any baby yet whups

snuffysam

oh no that's not for a while

ShaRose49

Snuffy is pretty good at lighting and shading too. I still have plenty to learn about that

snuffysam

the baby doesn't happen for another like 350 pages from where you are

ShaRose49

Oh hi snuffy!

My bad lol

snuffysam

hi lol

i'm in blue this week

ShaRose49

Hey how do you know where I am?

snuffysam

oh i just assumed given your comments

ShaRose49

Yeah I know

Oh okay

I’m in the middle of chapter 2 I think

snuffysam

yup so i was right lol

Kabocha

Daaaaaang. That's some good accuracy. I'm lucky if I can remember my own name some days

snuffysam

i did have to look up the page numbers lol. it was just a matter of guessing that sharose hadn't started chapter 3 yet

ShaRose49

Hahaha

snuffysam

anyway yeah i wrote a shader script for blender to do the lighting properly. took me a couple years to figure it out but i got there eventually lol

ShaRose49

Oh my word I can barely use blender yet

So it IS CGI! I couldn’t tell for sure I thought maybe it was supposed to mimic CG

snuffysam

a lot of stuff is drawn in with photoshop. and i think i just recently passed the point where more than half the comic is CG as opposed to being drawn.

but ye

ShaRose49

Wow. I don’t think I’ll be doing my comics with CG but I do wanna be an animator one day. Good for you!

snuffysam

thanks!

ShaRose49

No prob. I just got to more doodley pages

snuffysam

yeah haven't updated chapters 3 onward yet

ShaRose49

Oh okay. I can relate lol. I’m glad to see this up here, you’re a brave artist

snuffysam

thanks ha ha

ShaRose49

They are so innocent ohmiword

“I thought for sure 1+1=2!”

snuffysam

mizuki may not have gotten an A in all her math classes, but she at least knows that much

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. Who exactly are/were the Galaxy Knights? How did they come to be, and what goals did they have? Do you think we’ll see more former or current members? Also, what are your theories about their involvement in the story given they’re in the title?

RebelVampire

1) it's still the end fight of book 1. which i wont go into too much detail cause i dont want to spoil for those just starting up. but i still love the entire choreography of that fight. seeing mizuki solve everything in the most unconvenentional ways possible is so immensely fulfilling. 2) cahe's mustache. i cant wait till it gets fed up with cahe, rips itself off his face, and joins mizuki to fight the good fight. (but also probably electric zebra because he believes in the power of love) 3) there's too many jokes to name. theres a lot of great ones. although one of my favorite more recent ones has actually been a callback to the fact that cahe never names his village. and lo and behold his village is revealed to be unnamed village. i was slain by the joke. 4) i think eventually mizuki will discover her own thing. but at the same time i dont think thatll stop her from using others' abilities cause i think she turns what others view as a weakness into a strength. so basically mizuki will just have more ammo for her mind magic arsenal. 5) i mean the obvious answer is that they were protectors of ppl and that mizuki is gonna join them. but idk. i def think were gonna see more former and current members though given the title. and mizuki will thrash them all with the power of stealing their abilities and stubbornness. in the end, there is only one super galaxy knight deluxe and that person is mizuki. lets not ask what the r stands for.

shim

I haven’t even finished chapter one yet but I love this guard guy.

snuffysam

lodu is best boy. i'm actually planning on having him show up again for real in the next chapter. and by book 3 he may even have enough screentime to jump up to major character status.

snuffysam

also rebel you really have a knack for asking questions that will be straight-up answered within a month or two.

like in the weekly chat back in may one of the questions was "what is the plot of book 2"

not saying which of the questions you asked will be answered in a month but just overall, it's an impressive skill lol

snuffysam

and yeah chapter 8 is my favorite arc in hindsight. i'm not sure i'll actually manage to out-do the 1v1 fight choreography there for a while.

Kabocha

I have to admit, I'm really enjoying the current fight scene. The banter's top notch. >:3 Dramatic text meets no-nonsense. Now give Mizuki that damn generator so she can win the talent show!

snuffysam

talent show > crimebusting

Kabocha

he can get it back after the crimes are solved... But the bigger crime really is that the King--- wait the King gets to make the laws doesn't he

Kabocha

....wait, what I just said doesn't make sense. Oh well. He can get it back after the talent show is done -- it's a crime Mizuki can't win it!

snuffysam

the two of them should bring criminals to the talent show and bust them on-stage

RebelVampire

mizuki should get back to the talent show if only because i bet the old man is still on stage trying to tell horrible jokes

Kabocha

get that man a google assistant... or sub him to r/dadjokes

https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/ok-google-tell-me-a-joke/ I'm sorry, I can't get over how bad some of these jokes are.

snuffysam

it's been well over 12 hours, and it's the middle of the night now. do you really think he's still on stage?!

(the answer is yes)

Kabocha

Of course! He's waiting for Mizuki

RebelVampire

of course he is, he is an angel. and everyone is too polite to tell him to get off the stage and go home

snuffysam

well they're waiting for mizuki too

snuffysam

interested to hear what the caught-up folks' reactions to today's page will be...

shim

don't say that, now I want to throw all my homework out the window and catch up all the way

snuffysam

lmao

as much as i want to tell you to go for it... put your homework first lol

shim

I am definitely planning to catch up once I have homework and finals out of the way. Unfortunately…that will also be after this week's bookclub will be over and we'll be discussing someone else's comic by then.

snuffysam

aww oh well

shim

I hope to read more before, then, though, so I can discuss some things. I just won't be fully caught up, hehe.

snuffysam

and of course, no reason you can't keep reading after your finals are done and just comment in the comic itself

(though this is a much better place for people to get theories out there)

shim

-procrastinates from homework-

Okay this restaurant owner

"Everyone does horrible things sometimes. So really, I was completely justified."

I love this so much

THEY JUST COVER EACH OTHER'S FACES THIS IS GREAT

snuffysam

Protection from indecency!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 6. Why do you think Mizuki drifted apart from Cahe and Pejiba so much between Books 1 & 2? Why did the couple not invite Mizuki to their own wedding? Will Cahe and Pejiba make a comeback, or are they settled down into domesticity forever?

RebelVampire

im gonna be optimistic and say her letter just got lost in the mail

because cahe asked someone terrible to deliver it

maybe the anecestral tree

and cahe walked away before the ancestral tree could remind him that hes rooted to the ground

or the ancestral tree was pissed he wasnt invited

Kabocha

I think Cahe and Pejiba were just so in love they forgot! Or ultimately, they just didn't like Mizuki so much. Granted, it's been ... a very short duration

RebelVampire

maybe its gonna be an it was all a dream thing somehow

mizuki has been having trouble sleeping

snuffysam

there is a misunderstanding involved, but it’s less about “why didn’t they invite mizuki” and more “why would they invite zebra over mizuki”

RebelVampire

thats easy: zebra is the best

Kabocha

Zebra also is much better at music, so

ShaRose49

I don’t mean to be rude but I wish Mizuki would wear more clothes

shim

Actually, me too…

ShaRose49

And IMO the boobs are too exaggerated. But I like how she eats the food lol

snuffysam

y'all are on chapters 3-4?

shim

Yeah I'm on 3

ShaRose49

I guess she actually doesn’t know what a shirt is? Whoa there are cool animations!! And the lady’s power is cool. @snuffysam I’m not sure hang on I’ll check

shim

No wait I'm on 4, oops.

ShaRose49

I’m on chapter 4

snuffysam

she buttons the jacket in chapter 5, and her proportions get fixed when i switch to 3d

ShaRose49

Yeah she’s less exaggerated in 3D for sure, and I’m glad she buttons up the shirt

snuffysam

the outfit in chapter 4 is a reference to how in the original short film i made that this comic is based off, her actor decided to wear the jacket with no shirt (which is not something i, like, wanted or expected)

ShaRose49

Huh okay

snuffysam

but i changed it because i didn't think it made sense to draw her like that

ShaRose49

How did you get gifs in the comic?

snuffysam

(though the in-universe explanation is that it just got windier)

i use photoshop to animate, if that's what you're asking

ShaRose49

Oh awesome, I didn’t know photoshop could animate

shim

Oh cool! I've dabbled with PS animations before.

snuffysam

most things are frame by frame, with motion & opacity (like the lights fading in and out, cahe flying around the room) being done with photoshop's tweening

shim

Ahhh.

Ow hot sword.

ShaRose49

You are a better animator than me so far lol

Or you have more experience

I love how they’re like “Oh no prob!” After the whole fight

I think that whole fight was a test to see if the two main characters were fit to be the new Galaxy knights or something

And that’s a nice sunset drawing in chapter 4. I love sunsets

shim

"What, are you going to throw your sword at people now?" HAHA!

ShaRose49

So so,done just got shot in the face

Someone

Yikes that!s a mean lady

snuffysam

and a magic mean lady at that

ShaRose49

Yeah I can’t believe he’s not dead

snuffysam

captains are very resilient

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Do you think we’ll see Gynu and Suzigu in Book 2? If so, do you think they have one of the power gems Mizuki needs? Will they give it to her? Alternatively, what other places or characters might reappear do you think, and how will things have changed?

mathtans

"Maybe we DO want them to get the wrong idea."

Using this as an excuse to finally get caught up with SGK. Should have a remark or two by weekend.

snuffysam

looking forward to it!

RebelVampire

(the archive for last week's chat on The Angel with Black Wings is now up! @Mharz https://comicteaparty.com/post/180645388940/november-19th-25th-2018-ctp-archive)

QUESTION 8. Why do you think King Zebugu closed the magic portal? Is he up to something evil, or did he actually turn over a new leaf and is trying to do something helpful that he just won’t explain? Will he succeed or will Mizuki defeat him do you think?

snuffysam

king zebugu turns over new leaves all the time

birch, pine, oak

it's the highlight of the month

shim

what about old leaves?

-is still in chapter five and has no idea who this king is-

snuffysam

if my leaf of the month club sent me an old leaf, i'd probably cancel my membership tbh

unless it was like... historical in some way

shim

haha

RebelVampire

this is too plausible not to be true

7) I think we'll see Gynu and Suzigu probably. Although I feel Mizuki might be at a disadvantage since they already lost to her. so now they know what he game is or something like that. and i dont think theyre gonna just give her the gem given the whole food fiasco and i kind of get this sense they want to test her? as for other characters, i hope we get to see our favorite immortal captain again. and electric zebra. electric zebra needs to come and sing about the power of love and all that. or at least be on tour and give mizuki a signed cd. 8) i feel hes not doing the evil, but i feel whatever the king is up to probably is dumb at least. maybe this is an elaborate prank from the wizard guy who is mad about having to put all the food back. he gave the king the wrong prophecy and now the king is trying to undoom the world. at the end mizuki will win, but winning might not matter. i think shell lose the talent competition tho. shell make it back in time but get disqualified over something trivial. like misspelling something on the contest form.

snuffysam

something worth pointing out about both those answers - in book 1, nobody knew what zebugu was up to except for the people in the castle (and the ancestral tree, cause of the omniscience). people like gynu and suzigu wouldn't have agreed with zebugu if they had known what he was doing. in book 2, zebugu has roped other people into his plan by giving them a gem to protect. zaxaty knew what her brother did, and so did the ancestral tree (being specifically instructed by the king to guard the gem and not tell mizuki the reason why). even taci ramino knew that the portal had been turned off, and zebugu didn't even give him a gem! so if gynu and suzigu do have a gem, what did king zebugu say to them to get them on board? and was he truthful to them, or is this all an elaborate ruse?

RebelVampire

the fact hes roped other ppl into it makes me believe that it is for the greater good. but on the otherhand blackmail and bribery are also options. maybe zebugu has an embarrassing photo of gynu from their last xmas party.

snuffysam

*life day

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. Do you think Mizuki will be able to win against Sword Warrior? Do you think Sword Warrior could be a potential ally, or is he just a one-off villain? What are Sword Warriors actual goals?

snuffysam

keeping in mind that sword warrior now has twice as many swords as before

RebelVampire

i feel like thats a hint

he must want the worlds largest sword collection

snuffysam

that was a hint as to whether or not mizuki can win

but sure

also, interesting how you seemed to describe "ally" and "one-off villain" as the only two choices...

RebelVampire

mostly cause i dont want the questions to be immensely long

snuffysam

lol

that's fair

RebelVampire

i believe in mizuki to be able to win. shes just gotta punch the swords hard enough to shatter them. and then sword warrior will have to change his name to just warrior

snuffysam

she already shattered a sword though. was sword warrior just "warrior" for that two-page period? are names all but an illusion giving us some sense of identity? is that identity earned?

RebelVampire

yes to all that, with a semi yes on the third one. you cant call yourself sword warrior without a sword. thats false advertising otherwise

mathtans

Okay, so, obviously the baby isn't theirs, unless gestational periods are really short or there was time travel hijinks. My money is on them looking after Zebra's kid, in exchange for him performing at the wedding. That's why they got him on short notice, for free. Though adoption's also possible.

snuffysam

I mean y’all can’t just skip over short gestational periods and time travel hijinks in a world where trees talk and sailors just forget that they’re mortal

But that’s a solid possibility

mathtans

I mean, there's magic, and then there's magic!

Clever plot twist in the most recent pages. I did not see that coming. I actually thought Taci had lied about getting one of the gems because he was embarrassed that the Swordsman had already stolen it.

Also, magic can be used to change dialogue into cursive, or something.

mathtans

I'll get to the questions later.

mathtans

-Scene-wise is tough, I don't even recall what I said last time. ^_^; The fight against the king was pretty epic though. Character-wise, I like Pejiba. Just something about her I guess, helpful, first major magic user, that kind of thing.

-Like Rebel, I'm not sure about grabbing any particular comedic moments. The stuff with the tree is pretty good though. Even more recently with the 'I am a jerk but that's not the reason' sort of thing. Also, used firewood...? O.o

-I dunno, stealing the powers of others can be a power itself, see Rogue from X-Men. Plus I think Mizuki'd be worried that once she finds her own, she'll lose the ability to copy everyone else.

-The Galaxy Knights are actually a bunch of mathematicians, that's why the King's advisor is one (if memory serves). Seriously though, I like how they were just randomly brought up recently. It's kind of like they're their own story running in parallel somewhere else. (Which isn't too far off, Gynu and them were in a guest comic series elsewhere, I think.)

Actually, it's impressive the number of guest comics and literary tie-ins that exist.

-Since only, like, a week passed between Books, idk. Maybe Cahe was given bad information, or their messages were cut off. Though the whole wedding seems like a rush job because honeymoon in an all female hotel what now? I feel like they'll still have cameos.

-Hoping we'll see Zaxaty again. That blush had to mean something. (Also, back to comedy, "Get out of my house", hah.)

-The King's probably doing this as some sort of test, like to see if Mizuki can be a new governor or something. After all, he seemed okay with how she spared him. Alternatively, the Galaxy Knights wanted him to do this, so that they could test for new recruits.

-Related to that answer is the possible answer to snuffy asking about what Gynu might have been told if he has a gem. All in a day's work. (Though a photo would be amusing.)

-Sword Warrior will be useful in terms of giving Mizuki many more magic ideas to steal. (Also, since he can make his own swords, I don't think Mizuki will win that way. Maybe she can get him to zip off the edge of a building.) I think Taci just has a thing for vigilantes.

snuffysam

math, are you completely caught up now? including wednesday and friday's pages?

mathtans

Yis.

I'm trying not to be too spoilery though. (I may be failing at that.)

snuffysam

na it's all good lol

also i don't remember gynu being in a guest comic series somewhere else? so if someone did that without letting me know

uh

whoops

actually i guess there were the crossover things on comicfury. but that was ages ago

if that's what you're referring to

mathtans

Yeah, the crossover things. I'd read those for the original Discord chat.

I haven't kept up on the latest literary stuff from StArt Faire though.

snuffysam

to respond to some of your things specifically - - the advisor is a statistician, which... i guess is a mathematician? usually when i think "mathematician" i think of people who write proofs for really difficult problems and not, like, nate silver. also, the wizard is a magic researcher, so he does a lot of math for his work. i guess the active galaxy knights are pretty math-y, except for that third as-of-yet-unnamed active galaxy knight that's shown up. -yeah the wedding was very much a rush job. zuzu was already a member of the family by the time cahe and pejiba were on their honeymoon. -we'll see zaxaty again sooner than you expect. and yeah, there's something there. blushes don't lie. (fun fact: the fight against zaxaty was originally going to be the first time in the comic it's implied that mizuki is into women. when drawing book 1 chapter 6, i changed my mind and worked a love triangle plot into the story. that's the main reason why mizuki never says anything to pejiba about being interested - because it's not in the script. that's also part of the reason why zaxaty's island is "lesbos 2: sappho harder". the timeline for making the comic gay got moved way up, so zaxaty had to be a bit over the top) -won't say much else here, but i like that people's impressions seem to be that zebugu's plot might be morally dubious, but maybe not exactly evil. we'll see how that pans out. -if he had the chance, taci would absolutely start dating sword warrior. he's totally into the tall, slender, vigilante crime-fighter type. (which may lead to some butting of heads down the line...)(edited)

mathtans

That's very cool... both about having Zaxaty in mind so early on, and for managing to foreshadow Mizuki's interests. Also, I don't know that Zaxaty was necessarily over the top (I didn't see a harem), though she does seem to like putting her interests (frustrations?) into her artwork.

As to Zebugu's plot not being evil, it allows for a scene where Mizuki goes off on him and him having some sort of retort. Even if it is to defer to the wizard or something. (Hey, maybe the wizard wanted all magic off so that no one would know that he was on sabbatical.)

snuffysam

you don't see a harem NOW because zaxaty went into seclusion.

it would be nice if zebugu gave his wizard a vacation, considering that he was kind of a jerk to the guy in the first book

mathtans

Ahh, right, I vaguely recall that. Missed the free love vibes what with all the tripping out.

To be fair, he was kind of a jerk to everyone.

snuffysam

true. maybe this is part of his new leaf that he's turning over?

mathtans

I wonder who convinced him to collect new leaves. His other sister, Pokemon? ^.^

snuffysam

he's a big animal crossing fan

he thinks he's stealing people's furniture

Kabocha

I guess his wizard better tell him he's moving to another town soon, so Zebugu can try to give him leaves and present boxes to get him to stay.

snuffysam

wizards love to scam people out of presents like that

Kabocha

... T_T Same with half of my animal crossing townies

shim

ahhhh animal crossing

RebelVampire

QUESTION 10. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

snuffysam

one thing i'm really looking forward to as the author is creating book 3. i think it'll answer a lot of your questions about the series, and there will be a bunch of character interactions that I know people will want to see

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

What I'm looking forward to is seeing the creator update all the pages into the 3d model style! <333 Although, I gotta say I really do enjoy seeing the hand drawn pages too. ;V; I'm still behind in reading, but hopefully when I have time, Imma try to get through more pages. But what I've seen, I've liked and enjoyed immensely!

But can I just say, I love how crazy and silly everything has been so far? XDDD Thanks to this discussion, I found this gem and ended up sharing it with a friend of mine. And they loved the golden comedy too! (Not to mention they're favorite scene was the tree saying they were a jerk as well. O v Obbb)

And I'd also like to commend the fact that the creator has been able to power through and draw so much content (not to mention reworking those pages into new ones. OMG!) OAO!!! As an artist myself, I know how much work it is to get to the number of pages I am now. Thank you so much for signing up for the discussion (because if you hadn't-- I probably would have never discovered yer work) and hope you continue to update the awesome sauce of a story Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe is! <333333(edited)

mathtans

More hints of Galaxy Knights is always fun. Wonder if they're all human, given there's a tree as a character.

snuffysam

@DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio) glad you and your friend liked the comic! I hope you both continue reading after the week ends! and yeah, getting this far has taken a bit of time. I've spent over 1000 hours total on the art aspect alone!

@mathtans i originally planned on one of the galaxy knights being a giant cyclops (in a future book), but i ended up writing him out.

mathtans

I could see lack of depth perception being a problem.

The big twist is probably that Cahe's kid is a Galaxy Knight. Explains everything.

snuffysam

...i'm trying to remember if zuzu actually does grow up to be a galaxy knight or not...

"marries a killer cyborg" is definitely in there for one of the zuzus, but i'm not sure about being a galaxy knight

RebelVampire

im looking forward to finding out if that old man really will just continue on with the talent show until mizuki comes back. and then ironically winning because ppl decided they liked his talent of talking for billions of hours

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R this week! Please also give a special thank you to snuffysam for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/

The Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R Twitter: https://twitter.com/Galaxy_Knights

[kidsviral-blog]

Kansas City Chief Jovan Belcher reportedly shot girlfriend, committed suicide

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/kansas-city-chief-jovan-belcher-reportedly-shot-girlfriend-committed-suicide/

Kansas City Chief Jovan Belcher reportedly shot girlfriend, committed suicide

http://twitter.com/#!/A_Mc47/status/274902251766702080

A player for the Kansas City Chiefs reportedly shot and killed his girlfriend then committed suicide earlier this morning. The player was Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher,  according to numerous unconfirmed Twitter reports.

Sad news regarding Jovan Belcher of Kansas City Chiefs, shooting himself at the stadium after killing his girlfriend.

— Andy Head (@AndyHead02) December 1, 2012

This news out of Kansas City is absolutely horrible. RIP to Jovan Belcher.

— Jeff Ratcliffe (@JeffRatcliffe) December 1, 2012

The suicide occurred at Arrowhead stadium, which is currently on lockdown.

* * *

Rolling updates:

Belcher’s Wikipedia page has already been updated with information about the alleged murder/suicide.

* * *

These Twitter users say Belcher recently had a baby:

Jovan Belcher just had a baby. Ugh.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 1, 2012

From FB page “Jovan is a daddy! Congratulations! Zoey Michelle Belcher born 9/11/12, 7.35lbs, 20″ fb.me/1VKquRRkQ

— Mr. ManSitChoAzzDown (@AngryBlkManDC) December 1, 2012

Damn… this pretty much sums up how tragic this is… #JovanBelcher twitpic.com/bi5qjz

— Mr. ManSitChoAzzDown (@AngryBlkManDC) December 1, 2012

* * *

Maybe this wasn’t a homicide. One Twitter user says Belcher’s girlfriend may survive the shooting:

@rolandsmartin girlfriend may live.Jovan Belcher is the player that committed suicide.

— Melvin Daniels (@melvind02) December 1, 2012

* * *

A producer for a local radio station received an anonymous tip about Belcher shooting his mother earlier this morning. The producer believed the tip was a “creative hoax.”

(1/2) Anonymous caller claiming to be a policeman says authorities are headed to Arrowhead to arrest #Chiefs LB Jovan Belcher for allegedly

— Nolan Woodford (@TeamACW) December 1, 2012

(2/2) shooting his mother.Surely, an extremely creative hoax.But the way things have gone for the #Chiefs this year…

— Nolan Woodford (@TeamACW) December 1, 2012

All other reports seem to indicate that Belcher shot his girlfriend, not his mother.

* * *

Coaches and the Chiefs’ general manager reportedly witnessed the suicide:

Jovan belcher killed himself in front of Chiefs head coach and GM #crazy

— Grab N’ Go (@bart_grabowski) December 1, 2012

KC police chief says Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself in front of “a couple coaches” and police.

— Ryan Hains (@RynoHainser) December 1, 2012

(Note: In an earlier update, Twitchy misidentified a coach and the GM as Chiefs’ players.)

* * *

The Kansas City police chief has ID’d Belcher as the shooter?

KC police chief says Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself in front of “a couple coaches” and police.

— Ryan Hains (@RynoHainser) December 1, 2012

* * *

The Chiefs are scheduled to play the Carolina Panthers tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium. Will the game proceed?

Reports of a shooting at Chiefs’ practice facility, NFL advises Panthers to travel as planned: blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) December 1, 2012

There is no way the Kansas City Chiefs should play tomorrow after today’s tragedy.

— Ryan Hains (@RynoHainser) December 1, 2012

Suspect we’ll hear soon that the #Chiefs– #Panthers game in Kansas City will be postponed. Can’t recall anything like this.

— Sports Collector (@SportsCollector) December 1, 2012

* * *

Fans are saying RIP to Belcher:

Very very sad…. I hate reading stories like this…and the 3 month old baby who was left behind… =( RIP Jovan Belcher

— natalie nunn(@missnatalienunn) December 1, 2012

RIP Jovan Belcher. You were a great guy and I know that. Never will forget ya #resteasy

— Jake W. Devlin (@_JakeyLicious) December 1, 2012

#RIP Jovan Belcher. Terrible news for a guy who had The world in front of him.

— Warren Smith (@Warren_Smith8) December 1, 2012

what happened to the chiefs is tragic, RIP Jovan Belcher

— Maurice Shelton (@mshelton4) December 1, 2012

RIP Jovan Belcher Kansas City Chiefs its a crazyy world man my prays go out….

— iRussygetFlee (@iRuSsyGetFleE) December 1, 2012

Let’s not forget that this man reportedly shot (and may have killed) his girlfriend:

Why would idiots say RIP to a murderer Jovan Belcher?And not only that but now a 2 month old has no parents. No sympathy to him.

— Chris M (@InvCmNj26) December 1, 2012

Rip jovan belcher? I think not, he SHOT his gf.

— Countra Boy Larry (@TeamTandB) December 1, 2012

Don’t get why people are saying RIP to Jovan Belcher when he murdered his girlfriend, killed himself and has left a 3 month old child alone.

— Sam (@TheBookOfSams) December 1, 2012

Can’t believe I’m seeing R.I.P. tweets for alleged murderer Jovan Belcher. He killed a woman. That’s a B.S. cowardly act. SMH

— Barry Cunningham (@barrycunningham) December 1, 2012

Yeah get out of here with your Rest in Peace Jovan Belcher tweets… If what they’re saying happened really happened. Get outta here w/ that

— Mike Ryan (@MikeRyan790) December 1, 2012

* * *

Unconfirmed, but this beautiful woman (Kasandra Michelle Perkins) appears to be Belcher’s girlfriend:

From FB… Jovan Belcher, girlfriend Kasandra & daughter Zoey on Thanksgiving on.fb.me/VlYjNs

— Mr. ManSitChoAzzDown (@AngryBlkManDC) December 1, 2012

Damnit. RT @angryblkmandc: Jovan Belcher’s daughter Zoey Michelle was born this past Sept. His girlfriend’s name was Kasandra Perkins

— Nig Flair, esq. (@MyNig) December 1, 2012

facebook.com/kasandra.m.per… damn RIP. she was beautiful

— Tanya (@Legginz) December 1, 2012

Perkins and Belcher had apparently set up a baby registry.

* * *

Some MSM outlets have yet to report the name of the shooter:

An unidentified KC Chiefs player has committed suicide at the team facility, police confirmed Sat. morning. es.pn/YBgKyk

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 1, 2012

Meanwhile, “Jovan Belcher” is trending on Twitter. If people can’t get the name from the MSM, they will find it elsewhere.

* * *

Reporter Chuck Goudie of ABC7 in Chicago reports that police confirm Belcher “shot and killed” his girlfriend before taking his own life.

Confirmation from @kcpolice that #Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot & killed girlfriend, drove to Arrowhead then killed himself.

— Chuck Goudie ABC7 (@ChuckGoudie) December 1, 2012

Police were reportedly on scene at Arrowhead when they heard the shot.

MORE: @jeff_rosen88: KCPD: Police were getting out of car when they heard the shot. #Chiefs

— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) December 1, 2012

* * *

As of 1:30 p.m. ET, it looks like the Chiefs-Panthers game will go on.

NFL says KC/Panthers game in KC tomorrow willbe played as scheduled.

— LexiStemple (@LexiFoxNews) December 1, 2012

NFL has full plans to play Chiefs game tomorrow. No changes for right now. See how it unfolds

— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 1, 2012

* * *

Source says #Chiefs Belcher murder-suicide followed argument over @treysongz concert kansascity.com/2012/12/01/394…

— Kansas City Star (@KCStar) December 1, 2012

A friend of the woman killed by Belcher told the Kansas City Star the couple argued after she returned home from Friday’s Trey Songz concert. The source was unaware of prior physical abuse.

Clark Hunt, chairman and CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs, released a statement this afternoon.

Statement from Kansas City Chiefs Chairman & CEO Clark Hunt – kcchiefs.com/news/article-2…

— Kansas City Chiefs (@kcchiefs) December 1, 2012

The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today’s events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy. We sincerely appreciate the expressions of sympathy and support we have received from so many in the Kansas City and NFL communities, and ask for continued prayers for the loved ones of those impacted.

Hours later, media are now beginning to report that Kasandra Perkins is the woman shot to death by Belcher.

Chiefs LB Belcher shot himself in front of the team’s head coach and GM after he killed girlfriend Kasandra Perkins nyp.st/Xc5yYN

— New York Post (@nypost) December 1, 2012

Kansas City Police identified the girlfriend of a KC Chiefs player killed in a murder-suicide as Kasandra Perkins. She has ties to #Texas.

— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) December 1, 2012

* * *

Belcher’s fans have reportedly set up a makeshift memorial outside his childhood home.

https://twitter.com/scottyeidz/status/275013614807699456

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/12/01/breaking-kansas-city-chief-allegedly-commits-homicide-and-suicide-unconfirmed-killer-was-linebacker-jovan-belcher/