#apartments with wifi wake forest | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

makeste · 4 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 288: ZOOM AND ENHANCE

Previously on BnHA: Tomura, AFO, Deku, and Nana all met up inside of OFA and were all, “wow this is awkward.” AFO talked a whole bunch about vestiges before realizing that nobody cared (EXCEPT FOR ME. I CARED!!), and was then all “anyway so just to get everyone up to speed here, Tomura is Nana’s grandson.” OFA appeared and was all “what up bro I see you’re still a dick”, and then everyone stood around for a bit waging psychokinetic war on each other and blowing up on the ground and shit. This didn’t really accomplish anything, so AFO shifted gears and started trash talking Deku instead, because he’s a whiny little punkass loser who can’t admit when his brother has gotten the best of him yet again! OFA was all “anyways Deku rules and haters gonna hate, peace”, and then everyone wooshed back out of OFA and back into the real world, Deku with his quirk still intact. Meanwhile Gigantomachia and the LoV stampeded ever closer to the city, and Toga started monologuing in preparation for a seemingly inevitable battle with Ochako! And then the chapter basically just ended there lol.

Today on BnHA: Imagine you are Uraraka Ochako. And you’re out here doing what you do best, saving bitches and being a badass, when all of a sudden some old lady runs up to you and is all “PLEASE HELP ME, MY HUSBAND IS ASLEEP OR SOME SHIT, YOU KNOW US OLD PEOPLE, WE’RE SO FUCKING FEEBLE AND HAPLESS.” And so you’re all “OF COURSE” because you’re a good fucking person, and then she speeds off like she’s got fucking wheels and it’s like damn, grandma, were you in varsity track or what, and then OUT OF NOWHERE she just spontaneously turns into HIMIKO FUCKING TOGA. And she’s all naked and shit, and it’s like damn, Toga, where are your clothes, and she just giggles and ducks into a nearby building. And so you follow her for god knows what reason, and she fucking pounces on you and starts interrogating you in like the most seductive way possible, and you’re all wtf is this. Like, can you even imagine. Anyway so Ochako is having quite a day.

okay lol so I’ve gotta kind of rush through this since I’ve got other stuff I need to wrap up today as well, so! fingers crossed that we get a nice, simple chapter with no controversies or elaborate revelations or anything like that! just give me lots of stuff to mindlessly keysmash about, Horikoshi. I’m counting on you bro

lol what

an actual fucking plane?? is that allowed?? how bizarrely normal. are we sure this plane does not shoot lasers or something or is powered by someone with like a fusion reactor quirk idk

and who tf is Takeo-san. some random guy Horikoshi is suddenly introducing after 300 chapters to come save everyone at the last minute? pretty sus. Horikoshi is this your self insert

GASP

NO WAY THIS IS ALL MIGHT, RIGHT?? holy shit I swear to god if it’s All Might this lady needs to TURN THE FUCK AROUND RIGHT NOW. stop at McDonalds, order a black coffee for herself and only herself, and drive the rest of the way back home without so much as a bathroom break. there are certain prophecies which we don’t need to be tempting right now, okay people?? holy shit

(ETA: OR, here’s a thought, WHAT IF IT’S BEST JEANIST. hope springs eternal lmao. anyways though surely it’s not actually All Might. he can’t die yet, he’s got like 5 million secret things he needs to explain to Deku, and also Kacchan is unconscious and he can’t just SLEEP RIGHT THROUGH ALL MIGHT’S DEATH like come on.)

oh look more heroes all lining up to be slaughtered by Machia

real talk, at this point their priority should just be evacuating any citizens in Machia’s path, and then getting the fuck out of his way. none of them stand a chance in hell at stopping him and they know it. the body count is already high enough as it is. regroup and live to fight another day, people

anyway, so Machia is apparently plowing through cities at 100km per hour. that... actually might not be fast enough. Gunga and Jakku were 80km apart, so at that rate it would take him nearly an hour to reach Tomura. that fight’s gonna be long done by the time they get there. huh

okay these guys are saying he’s going to reach them in about 8 minutes. ?? so are you telling me Tomura and Deku and the rest have been fighting for like 40 minutes already?? lmao Gran probably bled to death half an hour ago at this rate. Horikoshi please explain yourself. some of us spent our entire childhoods doodling comics instead of paying attention in math and science AND IT SHOWS

anyway so this is all very bad and this guy is really rubbing it in just how bad it is

I mean... yeah. obviously the villains are still to blame at the core of it all, but yeah. feels like you all could have planned a hell of a lot better for this. you knew there was the risk of Tomura waking up, and you knew there was also the risk of Gigantomachia waking up as well. and you pretty much had no contingency plan at all huh. society is really gonna be in shambles after this

lmao look at this shit. Machia is so big at this point that it looks like they’re having a picnic in the middle of some desert somewhere. at what point does it cease being a guy’s back and start being its own zip code

even has its own wifi. amazing

oh shit Compress apparently spotted someone and he’s asking Skeptic to “zoom and enhance” like it’s CS fucking I. that’s not how it works Compress you fucking boomer

anyway so OF COURSE,

was there a reason you needed to zoom in on them, other than to trigger Toga?? some people just want to watch the world burn

so Toga is now GEARIN’ UP!!

that honestly is so fucking handy. over at U.A. they have to carry their gear in briefcases like scrubs. does Compress actually have the best quirk in the world?? it flies under the radar so well that I always forget about it, but like WHAT CAN’T IT DO though, y’know??

WELL WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN MY DUDE

“oh hey is that the U.A. kids? Skeptic could you please zoom in on them for absolutely no reason? OH MY GOD TOGA IS RUNNING OFF TO FIGHT THEM, OH MY GOD WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN, OH MY GOD”

now he’s all “DABI PLEASE DO SOMETHING” but Dabi is all “DABI DON’T CARE”

Dabi don’t care about NOTHING OR NO ONE!! Dabi don’t got time for this

lmao I literally forgot that Spinner was even there, shit

so are you gonna go with her then or not? because I got news for you dude, it doesn’t matter how heartwarming your speech is, nothing can stop this girl now that she’s gone full distracted boyfriend meme

AW BUT IT REALLY IS HEARTWARMING THOUGH

Spinner is the glue keeping this dysfunctional Addams family together honestly. too bad he couldn’t stop Compress from OPENING HIS BIG DUMB MOUTH ah well

lmao but he’s letting her go anyway though

Spinner for new LoV President. all in favor??

ANYWAYS LOL THIS IS BAD

“ACCELERATE EVACUATIONS” LOL WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO OCHAKO HE’S MOVING AT 100KM AN HOUR AND HE’S LIKE FUCKING GODZILLA SIZED FKJLK

“PLEASE RUN OUTSIDE OF THE VILLAIN’S PERIPHERY” well thank fucking god the people have you guys to guide them what would they even do without you lklkhlkds

NO HORIKOSHI DON’T YOU DARE

IF YOU HURT MY GIRL FROPPY I SWEAR TO GOD!! LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BRIGAND

OH THANK GOD

“sorry for SAVING YOUR LIFE” smh. anyway so how fucking badass is Ochako though?? can we just talk about this. THE GIRL POWER ARC STRIKES AGAIN hot damn

(ETA: and btw, seeing as Iida is nowhere to be found, I’d say odds are pretty good that they did in fact send him to go warn the Endeavorsquad of Gigantomachia’s imminent arrival. godspeed Iida! they need all the help they can get right now honestly.)

EXCUSE ME BUT ARE YOU TOGA

IS THIS TOGA. THIS IS DEFINITELY TOGA OMG

“I IMMEDIATELY TRUST YOU AND I WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH” noooo Ochako nooooo

damn Toga you really drained some poor old lady’s blood just so you could pull this kind of sneaky shit. I forgot how much I loved you

ohhhh lol so it’s her “husband” that is Takeo-san lol

THE BETTER TO LURE YOU INTO A TRAP MY DEAR

lmao Ochako you rube

now you’ve done it Toga. there is nothing Ochako loves more than a good old fashioned Old People Romance. DID YOU KNOW SHE HAS SEEN THE NOTEBOOK LIKE FIFTY TIMES. AND NO MATTER WHAT, IT ALWAYS GETS HER AT THE END. meanwhile I just want to watch a movie where James Marsden actually gets the girl for once but we all know that will never happen

OH MY

ngl this page would be like a thousand times better if Ochako was still blushing omg. did I ship this before?? I honestly can’t remember but I sure as fuck ship it now goddammit

(ETA: pretty sure I shipped it back during the Forest arc too but I don’t have time to check right now lol. but Toga is just so horny on main for everyone, all the time, and so like, it’s hard not to ship it.)

so now Toga is running off all flirtatiously and Ochako is barreling after her lol

plot twist, Takeo-san is actually in there. and he has NO IDEA what’s going on. WHAT HAPPENED TO MY WIFE. WHY IS THERE A GIANT MOLE MAN BURROWING THROUGH THE CITY

Ochako why on earth would you follow Toga into this dark creepy house where she could spring at you from any angle out of nowhere. just go back outside and float up over it until you have a high enough vantage point to see all the exits and just wait for her to come out

Toga says she wanted to talk to Tsuyu-chan as well, but let’s be real, you and her don’t have the same kind of electrically charged kismesis energy that you’ve got going on with Ochako though

LMAO DEKU NOWHERE IS SAFE

getting dragged like a fucking wedding train and he’s not even there to defend himself, shit

blah blah blah just ask her your question already Toga

MY WORD

would someone please inform Toga that this manga is only rated PG-13

so now Ochako is all “seriously Toga wtf”

you see that’s what I wanted to know too, lol. I really like that the characters actually think about these things and ask these kind of questions. that’s exactly the contrast between the heroes and the villains right there. the villains care about each other, they’ll give each other heartwarming speeches to please come back alive, and yet they’re utterly indifferent to the thousands of people being killed as they demolish their way through city after city. meanwhile by contrast Ochako’s first thought upon being erotically waylaid by her sexy knife-wielding archnemesis is “but what about that poor old lady is she all right.” just completely opposite energies, almost to a hilarious degree. like maybe Ochako actually should worry about herself just a little bit more lol but heroes gonna hero

and so now what, Toga!! you’re gonna pout about it?? like she’s betrayed you somehow?

anyway so that’s the end of the chapter! and I’ll just come right out and say that I’m hoping that this fight ends up being something where Toga maybe starts to see things just a little bit more from Ochako’s point of view, and not the other way around, because otherwise I’ll be a little frustrated, ngl. the manga has done an excellent job of making the villains likeable and relatable and getting us to sympathize with them up till this point, but at some point it’s got to start refuting some of these arguments and making it clear that the villains do not actually have any kind of moral high ground here

and also! I really like Toga and would like her to have some kind of redemption arc! but as of now that’s looking to be really difficult if not impossible to pull off, because Toga hasn’t exactly shown a whole lot of remorse for anything she’s done so far, you know? because she doesn’t see it as bad in any way; to her it’s just her way of expressing love, and being true to who she is. but being true to yourself really should NOT involve, you know, MURDER, and so yeah. it’s a problem lmao

but who knows! maybe this battle with Ochako will be the start of something which eventually leads to some sort of change within her! I have absolutely no idea how that could play out tbh, but even so I can hope! either that or she will double down on the whole “villains are victims and heroes are apathetic cruel hypocrites” ideology and decide she wants to kill Ochako and Izuku for breaking her heart, in which case I will be very sad, but I guess if that’s the way Horikoshi’s gonna play it it is what it is!

and lastly, so is this going to be like the final battle between them or something?? surely not, right? like this is just round 2 of 3. well at any rate, it’s sure going to be interesting

#bnha 288 #himiko toga #uraraka ochako #asui tsuyu #mr. compress #league of villains #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

227 notes · View notes

sadaboutniall · 4 years

Photo

something about you;

introduction | masterlist | tag | wattpad

Twenty Eight. January, 2018.

The second time Niall gets to stare at Isla from the altar at a wedding, it’s because their best friends are getting married. This time, they’re both up there—Niall’s the best man and Isla’s the maid of honor and this feels so right compared to last time, so much more complete. Just like last time, Niall knows he should be looking at the bride but it feels impossible to keep his eyes away from Isla for more than a few seconds at most, to do anything other than think about what it might feel like, one day, to watch her walk up the aisle toward him.

They get to walk down it together, at least, arm in arm behind Mully and Emilia once they say their vows. Niall’s a little surprised to notice that he can hardly see through his tears, that every time he blinks the sight in front of him gets blurrier and blurrier, enough that he’s actively thankful to have Isla guiding him along. Over the music and the roar of Mully and Emilia’s guests in the pews, Niall can hear Isla sniffling too, and when he clears his vision enough to look at her she’s watery-eyed and emotional, clutching her bouquet to her chest desperately.

Niall knows this moment isn’t about them, but he can’t help himself. They exit out onto the stone steps of the church, flower petals fluttering through the air, and this feels real, just for a second. Isla, her hair blown back with the Irish wind, tears in her eyes, a boundless smile on her face. If he squints just right, this moment could be theirs.

He wants it to be.

‘Finally, if there’s one thing Sean and Emilia taught me,’ says Isla, holding her champagne glass in the air. Every eye in the room is on her, and Niall feels like he’s bursting with it, a combination of pride and protectiveness. ‘It’s that love will always find you. I’ve had a complicated, twisted love story of my own, and all along the way I’ve looked up to Sean and Mia. There’ve been moments where I was jealous that things worked out so perfectly for them, and moments where I looked at them and felt an acute sadness, a longing, a twinge of third wheel.’

Laughter, from Isla, and the crowd. Emilia blushes scarlet, and Mully looks smug. ‘But, above all,’ Isla continues, ‘watching Sean and Mia’s love story has shown me over and over again that love has its own way. I’m a pretty logical person, most of the time. I’m a lawyer, I like facts, and I like reason—but I also like to believe that the Universe has a plan for us all. I think Sean and Mia are living proof of that. When two people are meant to love each other, to be together, the Universe will conspire to make it happen. Maybe the Universe will make one teenager move halfway across the world, to a whole new country, to meet the person they’re meant to be with. Or, maybe, the Universe will bring two people back together after half a decade apart, because they’re meant to be together. The Universe has a plan, Love has a plan, and I think Sean and Emilia are a perfect, beautiful, flawless result of that plan in action.’

‘Mia, Sean, my two best friends in the entire world: I love you. Thank you for showing me what love is, what love can do, what kind of love everyone on Earth deserves. I think I speak for everyone here when I say I’m absolutely, unbelievably delighted for you. Congratulations, and I’m so, so excited for whatever comes next.’

Smiling, Isla wipes at her eyes with her palm, champagne glass still raised. ‘To the Mulhollands,’ she says, holding the glass higher, tipping it back for a drink as the rest of the wedding repeats after her. Around them, the hall bursts into cheers, and Niall wills himself to stop crying.

The night speeds by them, a blur of sweaty bodies on the dance floor, of roaring laughter and raised pints. Mostly, Niall remembers Isla: her cheeks flushed with alcohol, her hand brushing against his as she passed him her shoes to hold while Emilia pulled her away to dance, the wet brush of her lips against his cheek, the tendrils of brown hair curling around her ears. He remembers her delighted gasp when they cut the cake, her muffled sniffles during the first dance, her head resting on Niall’s shoulder as Emilia’s dad gave his speech.

He remembers being surprised at how happy Isla’s parents are to see him: at how his dad shakes his hand, how her mom kisses him on the cheek. He watches them, seated at a table with his own parents, and imagines them as grandparents someday, a mini him, a mini Isla, seated on their laps.

And he remembers this, too: slow dancing with Isla near the end of the night, guests slowly saying their goodbyes, the DJ gently bringing the party back down to Earth. They’re swaying in the middle of the room, Isla’s head on his chest, his arms around her waist, and it’s so peaceful, so right, that Niall doesn’t even want to go to bed, despite the late hour. He wants this, he’s sure. He wants it forever.

‘Isla,’ he says, smoothing one of his hands down her back. ‘Can I ask you a question?’

She glances up at him, eyes soft, head tilted. He can tell she’s tired so he pulls her closer to him, lets her support even more of her weight against his body. ‘Everything okay?’ she asks, furrowing her brow.

‘Jesus, yeah,’ he brings his hand up, cups her cheek. ‘Everything’s amazing. I love you so much.’

‘I love you too,’ she smiles, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of Niall’s thumb. ‘You look so handsome in your tux.’

‘Yeah?’ He can’t help it, the heat rising in his belly. ‘You think so?’

‘I do,’ Isla fingers one of the undone buttons on his shirt, skin brushing his chest hair. ‘Glad Mully decided to go with the forest green. It’s good with your skintone.’

‘You’re sweet,’ Niall brushes his lips against Isla’s gently. ‘So I’ve been thinking?’

‘Dangerous.’

‘I know. But this is a good idea, I reckon.’

‘I’ll be the judge of that.’

‘Actually, you’ll be the barrister—’

Isla laughs, shaking her head gently. ‘What’s up, Niall?’

‘Well,’ Niall hadn’t expected to feel so nervous asking this. He swallows thick, ignores the hammer of his heart against his ribcage. ‘You know that talk we had the other night?’

Isla knows what he’s talking about right away, he can tell from the sad look that works its way across her face. It breaks his heart now the same way it broke his heart then, holding Isla in his arms as she cried at the news that Mully and Emilia will be moving to LA after their honeymoon, trying to comfort her when she said, over and over, that London would never be the same without them.

‘It just… got me thinking,’ Niall smooths a hand over her hair, a little frizzy with sweat. ‘I know you’re really sad about them moving, and so am I but, like, maybe it’s time for you to move too?’

‘Huh? I can’t move to LA, Niall, I’d need to re-do law school and—’

‘No, no, petal,’ Niall laughs a little, biting back tears that are already working their way forward. ‘Move in with me?’

Isla exhales, mouth falling open gently. ‘Oh,’ she whispers. ‘Oh my God.’

‘If you don’t feel ready that’s okay,’ Niall rushes. ‘But, I mean, it’s way closer to your work and I already brought it up to Willie and he’d be only delighted to have you and I fucking love having you around all the time. And I thought maybe it would make you feel a little less lonely, too, on top of all that.’

‘Niall, I can’t afford—’

‘Honestly, petal, I don’t give a shit if you pay rent or not. I’m already paying for the place.’

‘But I want to contribute. I’m not just going to live off you for nothing, Niall.’

‘Yeah, I figured you’d say that,’ he laughs, heart fluttering as Isla blushes. ‘You can keep paying the rent you pay for your place right now, and I’ll use that money as part of the rent every month. Or you can pay for WiFi and electricity yourself, or pay for the groceries, or the heat and hot water. There are a million ways we can make it work, Isla. If you want to draw up one of your fancy contracts—’

‘I do,’ she says, softly. ‘It would make me feel a lot better.’

‘That’s okay with me,’ he brushes his thumb along Isla’s cheekbone. ‘I just want to wake up with you every morning. It’s bullshit, living across the river from each other. There’s no point.’

‘Yeah,’ Isla nods gently. ‘I want that, too. I love waking up with you.’

‘S’my favorite thing in the world,’ he tells her honestly. ‘I’d be the happiest guy in all of London.’

Isla laughs, eyes glinting with the golden fairy lights in the hall, with fresh tears. ‘Monday morning,’ she tells him. ‘I’ll take a stab at that contract.’

In his chest, Niall’s heart does a somersault. He feels a warm tear make its way down his cheek, his stomach turning to mush. ‘I’ll tell my lawyer to expect it,’ he laughs, leaning in for a long, gentle kiss.

####

taglist: @stylishmuser @thicksniall @stayclose-holdsteady @niallhoranruinsme @ajayque @flickerswinehouse @1dfangirls35 @crocodileniall @halfpinthoran @awomanindeniall @booksncoffee @edgeofmyniall @kare38 @emmathefantomes @coconutdawn @irish-nlessing @niallspeachybum @perksmikey

join the taglist here

#one direction #1dff #one direction fan fiction #niall horan #niall horan fic #niall horan fan fiction #niall horan imagine #niall #something about you #i was a little t*psy when I wrote this!#so god be with you!#:')

57 notes · View notes

mirai-eats · 5 years

Text

Rewind and Start Over:: Morning

Bingqiu, rated M, 5,677 words, part 1/6, Incomplete

Angst, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, re-transmigration, Angst with a Happy Ending, Rating May Change

Modern science is so good it kept a dead man alive.

Shen Yuan is dragged forward but his feet are stubbornly digging in the ground. Luo Binghe is running as fast as he can to catch up.

read on AO3

Inhale. A mechanical beep rang muffled in his ears. Exhale. There was an unnatural chill to his skin.

Inhale. The room smelled like chemicals. Exhale. His mouth tasted like ash, stuffed with cotton too deep down his throat to the point it burns.

Inhale. It took all of his willpower to make his finger twitch. Exhale.

---

An error message had blared across his mind’s eye during afternoon tea. The System suddenly awakened after almost a year of hibernation with a dozen pop up screens and flashing warning messages. He tried to shift through them but all he got from the glitching screens was that there was a serious problem. As soon as it started it all stopped, and one screen blinked in front of all the glitching windows, simply saying [Thank you for using the System! We hope to see you again soon!]

Before he could fully comprehend what it meant, a sharp pain overtook him and with a gasp, he felt the all too familiar tug of his soul exiting his body. The last thing he heard as his vision fizzled out to glowing long lines of code was the sound of a teacup shattering and Lou Binghe’s startled “Shizun!”

---

Fourteen months. For the twelve years he spent as Shen Qingqiu, his body had laid comatose in a hospital, an empty shell with no soul to host it and yet thanks to modern technology, his body was still breathing artificial air and his heart was still beating artificial pumps. Science refused to accept death, chasing immortality as a cultivator would.

It took him a while to actually wake up, but during his brief spells of consciousness he would hear the voices of his family coming in and out, voices he hadn’t heard in twelve long years. They’d only been whispers of them left in his dreams and he’d woken up with his heart in his throat and his eyes burning with Luo Binghe tucked under his chin.

When he did finally manage to pull himself out of the pool of sleep, blinking his sticky eyes open, he wanted to shield his eyes to the dim lamp sitting at his bedside and the electronic time of the TV mounted on the wall reading it was a little after three in the morning. He fell back to sleep.

---

The System was silent. No matter how much prodding he did it’s mechanical voice never whirred to life in his head.

---

He was officially discharged after a month. He needed physical therapy to get his limbs back in order and psychological therapy to deal with the “depression”. Maybe he was depressed, he was depressed after being pulled from his home away from his family and friends back to his old family and friends. He didn’t dare speak a word about his time transmigrating into the shitty stallion novel during the therapy sessions if they knew they’d cart him off to a very different hospital. He couldn’t bring himself to feel anything but painful longing, a numbing sadness filling his limbs with faux filling.

Shen Yuan was happy to see his family again, to see his two older brothers and younger sister, his mother’s sweet eyes and his dad’s gentle smile. He cried when he saw them once more for the first time in many years. It was a year to them, but a whole lifetime to him.

How could he be okay going back to this wretched modern world where he was nothing but a nobody who mooched off his parents’ fortune, spending his days crassly reading novels and hoarding collections of waifu material and spent the nights tucked into his phone reading raunchy novels and manhua until he couldn’t keep his eyes open only to rinse and repeat bright and early the next day at two in the afternoon? He had been an immortal peak lord! A revered shizun with many disciples in the path of cultivation! He had a husband who loved him dearly and he back.

He had heard his parents whispering sharply to one another about Shen Yuan just going back to wasting their money away on more anime figures, living in an apartment paid for by their money and eating food paid from the allowance they gave him, growing grosser and uglier by the day.

---

Because he had been comatose for so long his stuff had been moved from his apartment and either crammed in a storage unit or back into his old bedroom at his parents’ house. He needed to be under surveillance until he was able to walk down the stairs on his own without pausing to take a break. Right now he could do nothing but rest and recover.

He went back to reading web novels, sank deeper into a Shen Yuan shaped hole in his bed, the LED screen of his phone reflecting off his glasses until his vision blurred and he fell asleep. He had found fanart of Luo Binghe, the face too square and eyes too narrow, the demon mark not quite the correct shape, and the slim shape of his mouth a little too cunning to be his Binghe, but he still set it as his lock screen.

Airplane Shooting Toward the Sky had passed away while Shen Yuan was in the coma. Found dead in his apartment after a neighbor reported the foul odor seeping through the cracks in the walls and the landlord found the decaying body slumped over on the floor. Death by electrocution, the news article said. Proud Immortal Demon Way will never be complete.

Meanwhile, Shen Yuan progressed splendidly in his physical therapy and stumped his psychological therapist. There was nothing to say. He was sad, unmotivated to do anything at all besides sink back into his homebody self, pull his head back into the tortoiseshell cage he grew himself. He couldn’t tell the therapist why he was sad. He was prescribed antidepressants. They might have helped.

—-

He took walks, as instructed by his physical therapist, and ate lots of protein.

He wondered if he died again if he’ll be transported back to Proud Immortal Demon Way, die vehemently cursing it until he’s taken back into the novel. But who’s to know if he’ll be put back where he left off, or if he’ll start over and make a whole new timeline? What about his Luo Binghe?

What if he only died?

—-

He was going stir crazy. Before, a lifestyle of him living in his bedroom with nothing but his PC setup and an incredibly powerful WiFi connection would be the dream. Now he found himself unable to look at his computer for too long, his phone left behind more often than not.

—-

He had bought a fan, a cheap one that was beautiful, but the plastic was made to look like wood. The bottom of the fabric was already fraying a bit, but the beautiful cranes and chrysanthemum had caught his eye. He would keep it in his hoodie pocket, or tucked under a pillow. Sometimes he’d snap it open and shut, open again, then shut, alone in his room with his eyes on the faraway mountain peak. He tapped his own head.

He googled how to kill himself in the least painful manner, but Google gave him suicide prevention hotlines instead. He couldn’t self-destruct like the second time nor does he wish to take a dick so massive with so little prep it kills him like the third, but he wants to die quickly and painlessly.

Then again, will it work? His family will mourn again, but he was the third son and they had two much more reliable sons.

—-

There had been a movement not too long ago in China to bring back the traditional flowing Chinese hanfu to everyday wear. He ordered some robes online, exquisite silky white with trims of green, bamboo embroidered on the hems and sleeves, a matching headpiece tied with a pale green ribbon.

Before his coma, his hair had been relatively short with just a swoosh of bangs where at its longest would sometimes tickle the collar of his shirt to indicate it was time to get a trim. Now it had grown shaggy and long past his shoulders. His mother scheduled an appointment to get him a haircut. He didn’t go. He got a green scrunchie to tie his hair half up in a weak imitation of how Shen Qingqiu wore it, but messy and not at all graceful.

He stopped taking his antidepressants. He tries to drown himself in the bathtub with a cinderblock on his chest. The overwhelming pressure of the cement block was nothing compared to the pain in his heart, his lungs screamed for air and his chest lurched and twitched, attempting to throw his body up out of the clear water and save his life. He fought as much as he could until one particularly powerful jerk rolled him over and pulled him gasping and heaving from the tub, water overflowing and flooding the bathroom.

After hanging off the edge of the tub trying to catch his breath, he stood up and cleaned the bathroom. The physical ache of the cinder block digging deep into his ribs left a dark bruise on his chest that took over a week to fade.

—-

His parents were worried, his mother especially. They sent him away to a relatives estate out in the country, thinking the pollution and noise, the crowds and overbearing presence of everything, was too much for him and a nice trip in the mountains would relax him.

It didn’t. He couldn’t bear to ever go outside his little room, the house old in style with the curves roofs and bamboo furniture hand made by his aunt. There was a bamboo forest outside his window. The blinds were firmly shut the whole time.

His uncle tried taking him out on short walks. He went once and refused to go again. There was no WiFi here so he settled to lay on the porch and watched the summer roses sway while eating his aunt’s pickled vegetables.

He didn’t last a week before he begged his parents to take him home. He couldn’t stand the misty peaks, the bamboo forest, the thin, clear air that reminded him so much of home. He couldn’t live like this, crying himself to sleep every night and crying himself awake every morning and crying to nothing tucked under his blankets during the afternoon heat.

---

He stood in front of his mirror dressed in actual clothes and not sweaty and grimy anime shirts, no weak imitation cultivation robes. A pale green button-down with the short sleeves rolled up, a pair of slim-cut black jeans, beige boots with the laces were done up nice. His hair was neatly tied back.

Later that afternoon he came home with a job down at a local department store.

The next day he stood high atop the office building his brother worked in, the wind whipping past him ferociously. He closed his eyes and remembered his self-destruction to save his ass from being turned into a human stick. He was gone before he fell. If he fell now he would feel the fear coursing through him, making his last moment the longest moment of his life.

His breath caught in his throat when he looked down, his sneakers toeing the edge of the concrete border. A strong gust of wind can make him lose his footing. The fall was almost a hundred stories down.

He stepped down and went back down the stairwell.

---

He quit therapy, and physical therapy was finishing up. He passed with flying colors and was deemed fine to go about his business as usual, but to come back once a month for check-ins for the next six months. He re-enrolled back into his university and was accepted for the upcoming semester.

There were more phone numbers than ever in his contact list thanks to his nice coworkers who genuinely wanted to spend time with him outside of work, send him funny memes related to conversations they held whispering behind racks of clothes when the manager wasn’t looking nor when a customer was tracking them down. His feet ached from all the standing he did, his back hurt, and it took every ounce of his Shen Qingqiu patience not to bodily throw himself over the counter and strangle the next customer who asks after they’ve paid if there are any additional discounts they could add.

---

Sun Mei is a coworker of his with hair she’s styled like the California beach waves and wore a bold red lip. There was a beauty mark on her forehead and she was instantly drawn to Shen Yuan’s side when he first stuttered over to the register during his first week. She took him under her wing and showed him the ropes and was usually first on the scene when a customer was giving him a hard time. He couldn’t help be drawn to her because her favorite lipstick is the exact shade of red as Binghe’s demon mark.

She asked him to get coffee sometime. He agreed. Pre-transmigration Shen Yuan would have been over the moon, now he was just grateful he could have another distraction from nighttime eyes that still illuminate his dreams with the star-like tears.

---

Luo Binghe hadn’t come to his dreams. He’s always haunting his dreams, his lips like the softest rose petals tracing his bare skin and rough, large hands tenderly stroking up and down his arms, tracing his clavicle and counting down his ribs. He was a memory, a whisper of what he truly his. Shen Yuan’s hands always messed up the mirage whenever he tried to touch him back.

There were countless nights where his hands would unconsciously trace down his body and under the band of his pajama pants and grasp himself firmly in his hand, slowly bringing himself to completion with his eyes firmly shut, Luo Binghe playing on a constant loops behind his closed lids and Luo Binghe’s name dripping from his trembling lips, his trembling body arching toward Luo Binghe’s body that was so, so far away. He only cried sometimes when he opened his eyes and found the blank ceiling above him and not Luo Binghe’s bottomless eyes.

It happened less often, him waking up with tears dried on his cheeks and pillow. He didn’t know if it’s a good or bad thing. Sometimes when he was doing the most mundane things he truly dangerous thoughts ran across his mind- was any of that real in the first place? Was that just a really intense coma dream? He had “died” cursing Proud Immortal Demon Way, so what’s the chance of it playing over again so realistically for fourteen months?

He still had the Luo Binghe lock screen.

---

One of his coworkers also liked reading web novels to the same intensity as he (had). During after-hours recovery, they’ll have heated discussions about novels and tried to thrust recommendations upon each other. They had each other’s forums usernames and he was the only person he physically knew who had his Twitter.

During one such closing shift, the lights in the store half on and buried deep in the clearance rack did his coworker recommend Proud Immortal Demon Way.

“It’s really, really long and there’s a lot of pandering, but the protagonist is pretty OP,” his coworker explained. “So many cute sisters to choose from! And it’s such a twist seeing the protagonist going from the common hero to a black-hearted demon, justifiably so.”

“I’ve read it,” Shen Yuan said. He showed off his lock screen. “Luo Binghe is my favorite.”

Even with strings sawing away at his heart, pulling taut enough to cut it to shreds with just a little more pressure, he still participated in the discussion. After work, he sat in his car in the parking garage and cried until he gathered himself together, cranked up Hatsune Miku, and drove home recklessly.

---

It had been nine months since he woke up from his transmigration coma and started his first day of school. There was a nervousness he hadn’t felt in forever, a tingling to his scalp and his heart danced an uncomfortable rhythm in his chest. His hair was tied back at the nape of his neck in a messy bun, his glasses were brand new with an up to date prescription (a whole new frame style too, going away of his old rectangle plastic frames for a more stylish horn-rimmed shape). He was much shorter than Shen Qingqiu, he figured the top of his head would barely brush Luo Binghe’s shoulder. He had on new clothes he and his sister went out shopping for- nice fitting jeans rolled up at the cuffs, a light army jacket, a simple striped shirt, new sneakers that still smelled the new shoe rubbery smell. The cheap fan was tucked away in his backpack.

He felt daring going out with his ankles bare, then he remembered this is the modern world. He can go out with his whole leg bared and no one would bat an eye. He rolled them back down when he got in his car.

The classes were interesting, the professors genuinely enjoyed their subjects and were energetic for the new semester. He found a spot he liked on campus, a hidden bamboo grove he remembered the tour guide had mentioned offhand during his original campus tour. There was a stone bench and that’s where he ate the lunch he bought at an on-campus sandwich shop. He might have cried.

---

Shen Yuan found it uncomfortably easy to fall into a rhythm of school and work. The few people he’d met since he reverse-transmigrated could probably be considered as more than acquaintances but less than friends. On most days he would have someone to share a meal or go get coffee with, sometimes it was just sitting in the school library doing their work together.

Sun Mei went to his school. She was in a whole different department and thus their paths rarely crossed, but at least once a week they would have a break that lined up just right for them to go sit at the campus cafe and do homework together. She asked him once if he wanted to go to a party a friend of hers was hosting, tucking an artificial curl behind her ear. He declined.

There was a mid-autumn festival on campus. Sun Mei asked him out for the event with a couple of other coworkers. He agreed to go. At the event they had food stalls set up, live music, games, and little wares sold to commemorate the day. Lanterns illuminated the night and for a heart-stopping second Luo Binghe traced the edges of his mind. He shoved him way back deep, deep down into a little box he crafted just for him to sit.

A stand sold hand-painted paper fans, much nicer than the one that had lost a screw in his backpack and held together by scotch tape. He let his eyes linger on them, his fingers traced the intricate paintings on the delicate surfaces. One looked oh so similar to his favorite one- a simple white fan with deep, nearly black wood and watercolor bamboo. It was a little expensive, but it’s a price he’s willing to pay for art. This one, he promised, will stay in his room so it wouldn’t get damaged.

The rest of the event was pleasant. He ate plenty of mooncakes and other delicious sweets. Luo Binghe’s mooncakes were much better.

At one point in the evening, he did a double-take while passing a stall, there on the table were little porcelain figures of animals. Particularly, a little, black, Pomeranian with its pink tongue peeking out caught his eye. It was a little ugly, but it’s big, round eyes tempted Shen Yuan to pull out his wallet and purchase the damn thing.

That night, he placed the tiny Bingpup on his windowsill next to his paper fan, the big, beautiful autumn moon throwing his room into a decadent silver.

---

He moved out of his parents’ house and back into an apartment t. Most of his merch was kept in storage or in his childhood bedroom, but the Asuna body pillow moved with him to the new place. A simple one-bedroom with a kitchen and bath, a balcony that overlooked the city and laid a walking distance from campus (an uncomfortably long walk, but a walk nonetheless) and a few blocks from his work. He furnished it with his last apartment’s furniture and even took the time to go out and hunt for more pieces to build an actual home and not the nerd nest he made before. The bookcase was towering with books, he had a nice coffee table and matching mugs. There was a wall scroll of a beautiful watercolor bamboo forest hanging from his wall. The Bingpup rested on his nightstand that was the same wood as his desk, dresser, and bed frame. He commissioned an artist online to draw his version of Luo Binghe, the eyes softer and glittering with a thousand stars, his cheeks were tastefully angular, the shade of red for his demon mark exactly right. It was yet it wasn’t Luo Binghe because he’s starting to doubt that his version ever actually existed or if he was still dreaming of a canon-divergent storyline. The picture was framed on his desk.

Su Mei came over with a few other coworkers for a house warming. They brought beer and snacks and someone had brought out a Bluetooth speaker to play ambient music. He was not supposed to have a lot of alcohol due to his delicate body, his frame a flimsy bamboo shoot compared to the lofty, full-grown stock of Shen Qingqiu, but he still had a few beers too fast and found himself throwing up, Su Mei holding his hair back as he sobbed into the toilet. He thought he heard Luo Binghe’s name slip from his lips, but the rest of his words never made it past his garbled tongue. The next morning he woke up stiff, his mouth tasting sour, and only a slight headache. He stayed in bed all day rereading the beginning of Proud Immortal Demon Way and cried himself to sleep after eating his one meal that day- cup noodles and leftover guacamole. No chips, just the guac he spoon-fed into his mouth.

He felt he might have kissed Su Mei. There had been lipstick smeared at the corner of his mouth.

—-

Midterms came. He’s never been so stressed out in so long in this specific way. Yes, he had run from his life, been locked in the Huan Hua Palace water prison, found himself chased by blind corpses while dragging an unconscious Luo Binghe behind, had the worst anal sex ever to save the world. Sitting in front of his monitor, eyes tearing up behind his glasses and hands twitching, numb from overwork as he tried to write his analysis paper on old American poetry and its significance at almost four in the morning because it’s due in six hours and he still needed a little bit of sleep made him doubt if everything in Proud Immortal Demon Way could ever hurt like this. Why couldn’t he have the perfect immortal body of Shen Qingqiu where he could not eat and sleep for so long? That would be perfect right now, no need to spend his already meager paycheck on large cups of coffee. His doctor had warned him against large doses of caffeine, but his aching body told him no.

—-

After a majority of his midterms were done, he fell ill with the flu. Curse his weakened body.

—-

He applied to study abroad in America for a year. He wouldn’t hear back until February. He’s smart, he knows he’ll get in. In the meantime, he brushed up on his English by investing time in American TV, movies, novels, and music. It was a neon-bright culture with a gritty feeling in his teeth, the exact opposite of his Xianxia novels and his old Xianxia lifestyle.

If Luo Binghe, all of Qing Jing Peak, Cang Qiong Mountain and its disciples, were truly just a feverish dream he was crazy. If that was really real than he had abandoned his husband (unintentionally!).

It was getting harder to tell as time blended together in a seamless chalked out blur. He nestled himself back into his life as Shen Yuan- or rather, his new life as Shen Yuan. Maybe his twelve years as Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu really changed him

His brother made a point to mention one day over lunch.

“You’re more responsible,” he said, stirring his coffee. “Before you were locked up in your apartment all day reading novels and manhuas and watching donghuas and spending your allowance on useless things.”

He didn’t say anything, his eyes tracing the leaves of his salad. “It’s a little scary how your disposition changed so drastically, but perhaps its for the better. You’re going to America for a year you say?”

Shen Yuan nodded. “I’m setting aside money from my paycheck to pay for expenses while I’m there.”

“No girlfriend yet?”

He nearly choked on a crouton. Of course, I don’t! I have a husband! Is what he wanted to say. “No, I’m still focusing on recovery and getting used to balancing school and work.” And I’m married!

… right?

---

It’s been exactly a year since he woke up from his coma and there was no sign of Luo Binghe sweeping in through his bedroom window and taking him back.

---

Su Mei asked him out a third time. They went to a popular movie and got a nice dinner after. She slid her hand across the table and tapped his with her pink painted nails.

“I want to put a label on us,” she said, her cheeks red.

What label? They’re friends, right?

The look of confusion gave away his thoughts. “I want,” she continued. “To be your girlfriend.”

Taking in her unnaturally curly dark hair, the red lips in an achingly familiar shade of red, dark eyes framed with mascara laden lashes, the black scoop neck shirt with a thin, silver necklace she always wore. It hurts.

He’s married.

He gave her the same spiel he gave his brother, paid his part of the bill, and walked out. She didn’t text him goodnight as she always did.

---

Midterms blended into a calm before the storm and then he suddenly had four exams, three monster papers, and three presentations due in a span of a week. Work was piling on the hours and his days were growing so mundane he’d stopped crying himself to sleep at night as he was too tired to spend it wasting what little energy he had left. The Luo Binghe lock screen was turned into a pretty picture of a sunset he took from the library window.

There was a desperate hope at first that Luo Binghe would find him again, he always did. The days simply continued to wear on as he fell back into being Shen Yuan, or a newer Shen Yuan his parents were much more approving of. They were no longer worried about him being depressed, as he’s managed to bury the sadness away into a chest deep in his heart.

He put on the cultivation robes (fake, itchy) and sat at his low coffee table with a cheap tea set he bought and served himself tea, the little Bingpup stared up at him from the other side of the table with big, glittering eyes. He flickered open the bamboo fan and hid his face behind it.

---

He got accepted to study abroad in Los Angeles for a year. His parents easily paid the tuition and boarding fees. His sister bought him a nice set of luggage.

---

The crane and chrysanthemum fan he kept with him at all times broke completely. Instead of throwing it away he tossed it in a desk drawer.

---

His hair had reached past his shoulders. It was easily tied back into a knot at the nape of his neck, or in a neat ponytail when he needed to clean up. He collected clips to pin back the loose strands when he found himself hunched over his monitor for long hours or with a nose buried in a book. It will never, ever be as long as Shen Qingqiu’s long mane of hair, tracing his knees as he walked and whispering around his arms.

On a day off he went to a barbershop and got it all chopped off. It was long enough to donate. He did so and walked out with a weight off his shoulders and a needle-like pain in his chest.

---

His brother came over and helped him clean up his apartment a little bit. He tossed out the broken fan. Shen Yuan didn’t realize until he opened up his desk drawer a week later looking for a stapler and found it meticulously organized, the scrapped fan long gone.

---

He got himself a betta fish, black and sleek like an ink splot in his tank. He named the fish Bingmei.

---

Bingmei died.

---

During a break from school, he took a weekend off from work and went back to his relative’s house in the mountains. This time, he forced himself to appreciate the whispering bamboo forest, the misty mountain peaks, the tranquil silence that was muted by the pitched hum of the city. He took up piano playing again, tapping the keys awkwardly as if he was six years old again and his mother made him go to be more proactive with his life besides staying home after school every day and watching cartoons and reading comic books. His older cousin could play and she helped him get back on track, his fingers stiff on the keys and his wrists cramping from disuse. He taught himself a song he knew Luo Binghe loved him to play for him on the guqin. It tasted different.

He went home after the break and let his lungs fill with smog once again. He went to a music store and bought a cheap electric keyboard and continued to practice in his spare time. He would always start with that song Luo Binghe liked so much.

---

The fingers he used to caress the monochrome piano keys were used to finger himself wide open, face pressed into his pillow and ass arching up into his hand. Nothing will ever be as big as Luo Binghe unless he wanted to spend a small fortune on one of those embarrassingly large dildos and honestly, he didn’t have a face thick enough to order something like that. Even if he had one in his cart with a credit card held out in his hand ready to type in the numbers, his hand still led him to exit the page and tuck his card back in his wallet. He never touched himself often, maybe once or twice a month the pressure will get too much, a weight shaped like Luo Binghe was only relieved for maybe three seconds at the peak of his orgasm when his name traced his lips like a lullaby.

---

As much as he was letting go of Luo Binghe and everything to do with Proud Immortal Demon Way, Luo Binghe always found a way to nestle back into his chest cavity, make a home amongst his ribs and laid back against his lungs, his curls tickled his throat and his sticky, sticky arms wrapped around his whole heart.

---

The rhythm broke with a crack, a little over a year and a half after he returned to his world.

A literal crack.

He came home from class, one of his last classes before finals kicked in and was going to head to his bedroom and take a quick nap before he had to close at work when he heard a deafening crack echo from his bedroom. He quietly sat down his backpack, a scraping and muted thump followed. He grabbed the umbrella he had by the door as quietly as he could, stepped with care into his apartment. He had his phone out with 1-1-0 already dialed, thumb hovering to hit call at a moment’s notice. A muffled voice sent a lurch from his feet to his throat. He isn’t the powerful immortal cultivator Shen Qingqiu, he can die! Well, Shen Qingqiu did die a few times (oops), but he’s still hard to kill! Not Shen Yuan in his soft, mortal body with fragile bones, paper-thin skin, and a heart so delicate only Luo Binghe’s metaphorical glass heart could be compared. He didn’t have a spare body laying around to launch his soul into nor does he have the System to swoop in and save his ass again with a magic reboot. Once he’s dead, he’s dead.

Shen Yuan stuck close to the hallway wall and tried to peak through the crack in his door. From this angle, he couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t a sound at all and Shen Qingqiu started to lower his umbrella thinking it might have just been a loud neighbor when a definite rustle of clothes could be heard from his room. He tried to back up quickly, smart enough to know that this is something the cops should deal with not him!

He stumbled and fell flat on his ass, the air pulled from his lungs with a sharp gasp. His phone clattered loudly to the ground, screen dark, and the umbrella nailing the hallway wall. Oh no, oh no, oh no the intruder would have definitely heard him!

The door was thrown open and for a half a second all Shen Yuan saw was a dark blur before he pushed his glasses back up his nose, bringing the intruder into full 20/20 focus. Whatever breath he had left in his body left with a sharp gasp.

“Binghe?!”

#scum villain self saving system #scum villain #svsss #bingqiu #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #shen yuan #mxtx #fic #shen yeet #haha idk where im goig with this my plot is vague i just wanna flex my style a bit

21 notes · View notes

tactyl-ymon · 4 years

Text

DnD session recap - Hearts and horizons

IT’S TIME TO D-D-D-D DND. Two sessions worth because the world is falling apart and I’d forgotten how to word for the last 3 months. Slight housekeeping thing, We’re down a wizard for the foreseeable future and one of the rogues is teleconferencing in for a bit because of personal stuff. I feel the need to tell everyone that between the 3 IT/networking admins in the group, it took us several hours to remember wired internet was more stable than wifi. Shame us. Shame us so it won’t happen again.

With that all out of the way, let’s get to it.

We left off in the aftermath of an emotional bombshell between Emmi and our sorcerer npc patron, Core with Emmi asking how long Core knew her mother was Sharona, one of current ruling council members. Silence hung in the air between them and with the emotional depth of a spoon Core silently take a step backwards, closes the door between him and Emmi and leaves the keep. With no additional information gathered, Emmi returns to whatever drink remains in her room for the night.

Early the next morning, Tornur and Veiraen return around the same time, Veiraen with his self inflicted chest wound and Tornur with healers kits for the group to counter Eridol’s complete failure to react and heal Veiraen after Septima went ape. With the group reunited we receive an urgent message from Core to meet him at the slyph tower, something bad happened. So everyone gears up in relative silence and makes their way to the giant tower outside principium that supposedly links the prison bubble we’re in to the rest of the outside world to find Core and the massive door to the tower having been cut to shreds from the outside. The sylph either unable or unwilling to tell them if anyone had come through recently asks if they would like to travel. Septima steps forward and answers that yes they would and that the thrum of magic pulling him would be closest to a place called the Jaunted Pillars, the sylph explains in their round about way that payment is required to travel, those touched by magic will find it easier but if a sufficiently powerful spell is cast anyone could technically make the trip. Between Septimas eagerness to find whatever missing piece is calling to him, Eridols need to beat something up and Tornur’s general badassary spells are cast on everyone unable to do it themselves and one by one they throw themselves down the slyph’s well with their destination in mind and after a completely innocent description about bodies joining as one and rapturous bliss and the vague feeling of drowning everyone drags their way out of the weird person shaped stargate and into what would have at one time been an exact copy of the tower they were just in … if it weren’t for the pungent and weird spongey material making up the walls that disappeared into the darkness above them.

While Emmi takes one look at the door and decides nobody has time for that, she splits off and starts climbing to try and find a window or hatch in the roof, she climbed hundreds of feet before finding a small ledge and anchoring a rope to it before letting everyone know. Meanwhile down in the peanut gallery we had decided to move on from ripping and tearing at the weird mushroom flesh and moved straight to trying to burn a hole through. As Whisky moves forward into the paltry hole we’d made so far and breaks into a coughing fit due to the noxious smoke being given off by the burning flesh, she falls to the floor screaming and convulsing. Tornur and Septima begin using their various magics to remove the smoke and Eridol rushes in without a thought to get Whisky out of the smoke. Using his last bit of strength before also succumbing to the smoke to throw Whisky out of the hole to an awaiting Veiraen. While Whisky froze and saw terrors, Eridol giddily laughed and began scooting around like an excitable child or a dog with worms. With all this going on the ground, nobody paid attention to the thick noxious cloud wisping its way up towards the roof and towards an unsuspecting Emmi clinging to a wall several hundred feet up. With a brief coughing fit and an unfortunate locking of the joints she falls. Unable to call for help or try to move, the seconds stretch and warp from the mushroom fog in her brain and gravity does its job. 100 feet, 200 feet, she falls 350 feet before Veiraen notices a glint of metal he recognizes moving far too fast for comfort and instinctively casts featherfall. Emmi slows immediately to a crawl, coming to a distinctly non violent meeting with the ground.

With two members of the group dealing with full body lockjaw and one scooting around on his shield like a tiny angry roomba, the still thinking members of the group decide to maybe stop burning through the fungus and give Emmi’s whole roof hatch plan a go after everyones able to move. About an hour later, the relative silence of the room is broken by 3 distinct groans and strings of words best not repeated as Whisky, Emmi and Eridol come out of their respective trances, all varying degrees of sore and weirdly less anxious than before huffing fantasy paint thinner. We all make our way up the inside of what was once a nice looking tower and up through a narrow bramble path towards the now blackened sky and clamber out into a clear, open space made up of dead trees and after a brief sigh of relief from leaving mushroom city, people start noticing things. Pieces of fragile silver looking material, larger than any of the party litter the dead branches and as everyone slowly takes in their surroundings and things click together, one by one they all silently turn towards the centre of the nest and see the gigantic unhatched egg and before anyone can yell to scatter an impossibly large bird the colour or a starlit night crashes into the nest, knocking Eridol unconscious with the blow. With the cleric down and a very large and territorial night roc to deal with, the group splits. Septima, Whisky and Tornur run interference while the rogues and the bird play a nice game of keep away with the sometimes near corpse of the tiny healer, now with authentic battle damage.

What little dips into consciousness Eridol did experience were spent trying to keep the Roc’s attention on himself with large damaging spells and heals as required for the others. With it’s attention divided, Whisky takes the initiative to stun the bird while Septima lashes out with vines from the tree to ground the bird in place. While the rest of the group takes to the sides of the nest to flee, Eridol bears down on the bird with quite a lot of misplaced fury. Both beaten and bloody and extremely near death, the bird begins scrambling back. Taking what would have been it’s precious last seconds of life to try and hide the unbroken egg in the centre of the nest. Seeing the mother try to protect its young snaps Eridol out of his rage and with shame thinking about what he almost did, he heals the bird slightly before leaving. In the time left on Septimas sealing spell. The group silently makes their way to a cramped little hole in the trunk of one of the large perimeter trees, as far as their weary legs will take them from the nest.

Not wanting to waste the moment and wanting to get this over with before the post fight shakes sets in, Eridol calls over to Veiraen to discuss where they stand. With the group tending to their wounds in the background and the oppressive silence of the forest around them, Eridol begins by thanking the drow for keeping him alive in the last fight before explaining about how Veiraen’s done things he can’t forgive. Since they’ve known each other, Veiraen has only ever acted in his own interests, often at the expense of others. The final straws being setting Eridol on fire while he was trying to cope with the latest death he hadn’t been able to stop and Veiraen running off to the forests to try and deal with his psychosis and endanger Septima and a new ally rather than ask the group for help. Emotionally, Eridol mentions that he will still try to keep Veiraen alive like everyone expects him to, but he doesn’t have to like the rogue or forgive him to do that. As far as Eridol is concerned, Veiraen is just part of a job now. The rogue quietly nods before heading back to the group, leaving the cleric to his attempts to contact the groups sorcerer patron as well as sending an apology to the roc for entering its home and endangering its as yet unborn child. If the roc ever needs assistance, it can find them.

With everyone asleep and Septima taking his usual spot of standing awkwardly over someone for the night like an overprotective gargoyle, Eridol takes a mostly uneventful first watch until Tornur gets up and mentions needing to go take care of something and Eridol still being a bit mortally wounded and vaguely concussed just groggily waves at him and slurs something about not taking too long. It’s maybe 30 minutes and two unanswered calls later when Eridol starts getting suspicious that it shouldn’t take this long to go to the bathroom and goes to boot up Septima to help find the wizzing wizard. Knowing how vast the forest is, Septima animorphs into a direwolf to track by scent and with his weary gnome jockey aboard they take off into the night hot on the trail of unwashed dwarf. After about 10 minutes the trail begins to go cold and they come across a piece of parchment stuck to a tree with “This one has been called. I’m sorry” written in a familiar script with the recently purchased bracers of defence and one of the necklaces the group uses to communicate. The only gift not returned was the crossbow Eridol gave Tornur which is brought up sulkily before the duo return to the group. Septima mentions Eridol should get some sleep as he returns to his weird t-posing gargoyles perch over whichever party member will get the biggest reaction upon waking up. While the party slept the remainder of the night away, the last traces of magic surrounding Whisky, the tiny feline monk disappear and she begins to grow to her proper tabaxi form in her sleep. Thrashing around silently like a horror movie creature, flesh contorting and stretching until her previously 2 foot tall frame maxing out the height slider just under 7 feet and she returns to peaceful sleep, at some point wrapping Eridol in her new lengthy tai as Septima passively watched the whole thing instead of intervening or waking the group because it was funnier to not get involved and he is seemingly powered by low level chaos.

Night turns to day and as is tradition and the silence is broken by a mixture of confused screaming and levels of dead eyed resignation normally only felt by retail workers at the nba all star who replaced the tiny monk overnight. The shouting only got worse once it was revealed that Tornur was gone, seemingly summoned by an unknown entity which will definitely never come up in the future. With no further surprises, the group packs up their camp and a whimsical “Follow your heart” sequence begins except its through the bad type of fairytale forest and we’re following the urges of a chaotic warforged with severe memory corruption. Several hours of trekking pass as the forest thins out and becomes less “evil” before we find a worn path through the forest which we begin to follow, still being guided by septima towards his missing piece until we see two figures off in the distance. After hastily diving into the shrubs to not be seen a plan is devised, one of the group is to get out on the path and walk towards the pair to see if they’re friendly while the others creep through the brush to jump in if required. Now obviously it has to be someone who looks the most harmless and disarming at which point everyone just turns and looks at the sometimes gremlin of a cleric and with a sigh, Eridol wanders back out to the path and begins walking as non threateningly towards what we now know are a human and a warforged. After about a minute of walking, the human sees Eridol and confusedly grabs some binoculars to confirm what he sees before promptly yelling and throwing up before both him and the warforged point their spears towards the now halted gnome who puts his hands up and begins yelling at the pair about being a bit lost and looking for somewhere to stay.

Eridol carefully proceeding towards the pair trying to be as disarming as his crippling mental issues allow the human gets a look of recognition over his face. Proclaiming that he knows who the tiny cleric is and it’d been months since the gnome had come through on his religious quest. As Eridol tries to hide his sheer panic behind pleasantries about how he unfortunately doesn’t remember the hunter at the moment and that maybe they should introduce themselves. The construct just continues scanning the horizon but the human introduces himself as Jeremiah, current perimeter guard for the village of kincaid and that this is way above his paygrade so Eridol needs to come with him to see the village leader. Sensing a complete lack of hostility Eridol agrees, but first asks Jeremiah to not freak out over something real quick as he calls out to the rest of the party who were hidden in the undergrowth several feet away.

After the guard stifles a definitely manly shriek, his face gives way to recognition and curiosity as he seems to remember Veiraen and Whisky and then to pale reverence as he sees Septima. Before stuttering that they definitely need to inform the village leader about the group. The group and their new guide wind through the forest until they come across a village built in a clearing, cozy buildings and vegetable plots intermingle throughout the town as humans and half elves go about their business. An impossibly tall tree waving limply in the background, bands of decay and discolour damaging an otherwise pristine forest. Jeremiah leads Septima and by extension everyone else to the local tavern before excusing himself momentarily as he runs off and returns with an older looking half elven woman who exudes druidic power and introduces herself as Liana Cypher, current leader of Kincaid village and currently very confused as to how we’re all here, especially Septima because he left through to the sanctuary over a century ago and that should have been a one way trip to safety. If septima was capable of showing emotion he would have assuredly been annoyed as he matter of factly informed the druidic leader that where they had come from was no sanctuary, but rather a prison that we had escaped from through the magical equivalent of a secret tunnel and that Septima was being pulled somewhere close by whatever approximates a gut feeling in a magically animated mannequin. This gets Liana’s attention and she asks if Septima would like to talk in private while the rest of the group got settled in the few rooms available in the inn. Eridol spends his time deep in prayer frustratedly asking for guidance and receiving nothing. Veiraen slowly meditating through a song on his violin about the connection he had with whatever was inhabiting his prior sword. As the song reaches its peak he sees the briefest echo of the spirit of Cricket smiling at him before it fades away. While the angsty teens do their thing, Whisky and Emmi sample the local wines and ales … for research purposes, obviously.

Septima and Liana make their way through the remainder of the town towards the great deku tree, Liana going through how for the last few hundred years people have been drawn to the tree and it was supposed to lead to a safe haven but since Septima and his cohorts had gone through over a century ago, the tree and its surroundings had slowly started showing signs of disease that the abilities of the town could only slow but not cure, almost like there was something within the tree itself leeching the life out of the forest. As they reach the base of the great dying tree, the reverberations within Septimas’ soul seem to harmonise with ... something. Whatever he has being pushed towards is so close, almost close enough to reach out and touch, but as his hand grazes over the tree it can only feel the barest traces of life travelling through what he knows should be a vibrant spectacle of life. Liana asks if Septima would need to travel again like last time and is met with a brief murmur of agreement as he contemplates what needs to happen. The pair begin their short journey back to the tavern, with Liana reminiscing about the first time Septima had come through on the way there before bidding the group goodnight and leaving Septima to wrangle several drunk/passed out teammates which are promptly ushered/thrown into their respective rooms for the night. Come morning and septima lays out the plan, we need to travel into the great tree but make sure not to complete the journey to find what he needs and to help save Ostaria from the whole “reality shattering and destroying everyone” thing we had been sent to fix. With everyone in agreement, a message is sent and Tacty’l Ymon soon find themselves at the base of a once great tree alongside Liana who mentions that to find what they seek, they will need to trek to the top of the canopy and jump. Which is met with varying degrees of enthusiasm from the group. They travel for the better part of 30 minutes up the side of the tree until they reach the near bare canopy and look down a familiar well shaped tunnel through the innards of the tree ending far deeper than the trunk or physics would allow. Eridol feels his thread of divinity thrum slightly and he makes a silent prayer before imparting a mote of protection onto Septima. Liana asks if the group is ready and begins the ritual required to open the path between planes. With a whisper she proclaims “Fall through the leaves like sunlight and be reborn in the roots” and runs a dagger up her forearm, silver liquid spilling out and falling down the trunk in a solid sheet before ushering the group to jump into the definitely real portal that’s down there in the dark. One by one they fall through the darkness for what feels like hours before taking what feels like a hard bend and stumbling out in a heap into an endless flat expanse with no visible source of light. Withered near identical trees waving slightly despite the lack of a breeze spot the otherwise empty landscape as the Septima feels a strong tug and begins moving towards the horizon with the group silently in tow. Time seemed to stretch and contract around them, making it impossible to get a bearing on how long they marched past the near identical trees after what seemed like weeks or hours a blip on the horizon appears and grows into a seemingly dead and petrified version of the tree they had fallen through to get here. A malformed knot of flesh and stone rings the considerable tree like a cancerous growth. Shifting and unfurling as we approach. Before us stands a mostly decayed large red dragon, what little flesh remains is mottled with patches of stone and petrified wood, fusing it to the base of the tree and keeping the dragon in place. It’s cold undead eyes pass over the group, lingering on everyone but Emmi before resting onto Septima, both feeling the pulsing connection that ties them together, a piece of Septimas essence hidden deep within the dragon. A booming voice pierces the stillness of the place. The dragon introduces itself as Nerglyth and it would like to be free. We all learn that several hundred years ago it was held here by Septima, Fulgür and Fafnir and that over time the dragon had found itself being used as energy for the tree, until the dragon found that could go both ways and began leeching energy out of the tree and memories of those who had travelled through it. Nerglyths voice was all encompassing as it tried to goad Septima into finishing what he started before turning to smile at Eridol and ask if he was here to make another sacrifice and we were offered a choice, complete the ritual it needed to leave and we can have the piece of Septimas soul keeping it tethered here. It just needs two more lives, paltry in the grand scheme of things really. The semi petrified red dragon began to shift and extend itself away from the tree which in addition to proving how utterly gigantic it was also allowed a low hanging branch to come into view of the group. The branch contained 2 figures hanging from nooses along the branch, one almost ethereal and one fully visible. Free hanging nooses are visible throughout the rest of the tree. Veiraen and Emmi both recognised the bodies at the same time as the children taken to be sacrificed by the mistress and her makeshift coven as Eridol becomes transfixed by the girl swinging in the noose. The girl he had to use to complete part of the ritual leading to a possible escape to the material plane. Regret and anger and shame tunnel his vision until all he can see is the girl. Both he and Septima put themselves forward as sacrifices, each wanting this to be over and not willing to let someone innocent take their place. As they wordlessly begin their walk towards the dragon, Eridol falters slightly. A small surge of recognition making him take stock of the situation they’re in. Whatever this creature is, it is definitely undead and extremely powerful. For an abomination to be this smart isn’t unheard of, but letting it loose into the world is to be avoided no matter what. Eridol stops and says as much to the group, much to the disappointment and anger of the dragon. Over Nerglyth’s snarls and insults, Eridol goes to turn back to the group asking Septima to come with them, there has to be another way to fix this and they know what they’re up against. Septima continued forward towards the behemoth undead figure until they are feet apart and with a shout of “Get the heart!” begins shifting into something more wild, but Nerglyth as smart as he is saw the betrayal coming and a wave of necrotic ice washes over the druid and most of the party in an instant. The ground erupting into slippery jagged shards impeding all but Whisky from moving freely and with a roar the fight for our little piece of reality begins. Whisky and Emmi take up the offensive as Septima begins searching for what brought us all here. Both Veiraen and Eridol have major issues with the terrain, either from the rancid icy breath or draconic shouts that tore at the ground beneath them, leaving them buried up to the neck. As Veiraen and Eridol worm their way to freedom, Septima gets a lock on his missing piece from deep within the dragon and shifts into a mouse to more easily search the colossal moving carcass. The group continues their assault to distract the dragon with Emmi leaving wounds that would gravely injure other foes and the others doing what they do best, annoy anything larger than themselves. Septimouse slowly creeps through the putrid organs, careful to not draw attention to themself until they finds a small pulsing orb and it’s at this exact moment the dragon notices a missing warforged and the group watches in terror as it unleashes a torrent of gross mourning breath into its own ribcage, slamming into Septima with enough force to revert from his mouse form and knock the druidic construct unconscious. The spark of divine protection doing its job and bringing him back from the brink of death, but it’s too late, the stone binding Nerglyth to the tree snaps and sloughs off its form. A life has been given as required and freedom is so close. A surge of necrotic energy lashes in towards the barely conscious druid, leeching what remaining energy the druid had. WIth the last few moments before fading into unconsciousness, Septima reaches out for his missing essence, hands grasping at the shard inches away from his fingers and he sees a large draconic claw reach in and pluck it away. The group watches in awe as the dragon begins limping back towards the tree that held it for so long, Emmi Veiraen and Whisky trying to slow it down and inflict as much damage as possible, while a panicked Eridol reaches around his holy symbol and plucks part of his own essence, forcing it unceremoniously through a hole in the dragons chest and into the still twitching body of Septima. The drid makes a hasty exit through one of the freshly gaping wounds left by the group or the dragon itself and can only watch as Nerglyth presses the shard of Septimas essence up to the trunk of the tree and with an earth shattering kaboom a tear in space forms within the trunk. Booming laughter echoes through the landscape and in an instant Nerglyth is gone. The pressure of the tear grows stronger and stronger as this small pocket of reality collapses in on itself. Septima instantly shoots out a wall of vines to try and stop everyone from being sucked in, but the pull is too strong as both he and Veiraen tumble along the ground and tree towards the rip in reality. Knowing how close the dragon was to redeath, Veiraen desperately throws his daggers through the void as both he and Septima catch themselves feet from the opening. Septima reaches out for the sliver of his soul that had trapped Nerglyth here as a large coil of rope rushes past them before snapping taut. Eridol, Whisky and Emmi acting as anchors from their restrained spot on the ground giving them something to climb away from the yawning hellmouth. The pull of the hole only gets stronger as they begin making their way back up the rope and Septima dislodges his fragment from the tree. What little is left of this sparse landscape continues to fold in on itself as time bungee corded around as Septima becomes more self absorbed than normal and for the first time in centuries is whole again. He opens his hand and another smaller portal opens near everyone and they all tumble through at the last possible second for dramatic tension. The silent blank reality pocket is replaced in an instant with the sound of waves lapping on a shore. As one, they look out over the ocean in front of them and see a clear division of sea and air. A horizon that wasn’t there the last time they stood on the shores of Ostaria. Eridol excitedly contacts Core to tell him that they did it, they fixed everything and is met with incredulous joy from their sorcerer companion. The walls surrounding Ostaria had been gone for over a month, Core had been trying to contact us every day since trying to get an update. Tacty’l Ymon stands silently on the beach as Core congratulates them. They had done it. Hundreds of thousands of lives got to continue without the immediate threat of reality collapsing around them. We end the session with Eridol and Septima falling over laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation with the remainder of the group following suit shortly after.

#Tactyl Ymon #Septima #Eridol #Emmi #Veiraen #Whisky #Tornur #dnd

2 notes · View notes

min-inu · 5 years

Text

Hypnotic | y.kh

Genre: Horror (I guess); suggestive

Word count: 5296

Information: wendigo!Kihyun, female reader

Warnings: Mentions of blood and graphic depictions of other things that could be disturbing; a way of writing that is too descriptive (is that even a warning?)

wendigo: a mythological man-eating creature or evil spirit from the folklore of United States and Canada; a monster with some characteristics of a human. It's connected to acts of murder, insatiable greed and cannibalism.

Happy Birthday to my one and only amazing “mom”, @raibebe who I love very much. 💖 I wrote this for her, since her bias is Kihyun and I wanted to write something.

To my precious mom: I know it’s not a surprise, but I’ll keep calling it that. I hope you like it, even though it’s too long and descriptive. Please enjoy it and have an amazing rest of your birthday, even though I posted this pretty late. I wish you all the best things in the world, because you totally deserve them!

_____________________________________

You took your suitcase to the hut that you were going to stay in for this weekend and you started looking around as soon as you went inside and closed the door. The walls were made of wood, which made you feel somewhat comfortable. In front of you there was a big white sofa and a fireplace. There were also bookshelves, on which the owner has left some books and magazines. You were definitely not going to be bored here – after all the stress from the university, all you needed was exactly the cozy atmosphere that this house was offering, in order to get some rest. It was difficult to convince your family, though – they wanted to come with you, stating it was dangerous for a young girl to stay in a hut alone in the woods. But you assured them you were no longer a kid and you should be respected and trusted enough to at least take a short vacation on your own. Sometimes people really drained you and left you with no energy. That’s why you believed the best way for you to relax was to go on a trip – alone. Aside from that, it wasn’t as if you were outside of the country: you were in a small peaceful and safe village, close to your hometown. It was only half an hour drive, it passed almost without you noticing. You didn’t believe there was any reason for your family to be so worried, especially when you certainly weren’t.

You sighed, sitting on the comfortable sofa and took your phone out of the pocket of your winter coat. You checked the time - it was 2 pm, which was the perfect time to go out for a walk and get to know the village a little bit. You weren’t afraid you were going to get lost – you were actually pretty good at remembering paths. The only problem was the weather, because it was freezing cold outside. It was already winter, so low temperatures weren’t something surprising for this time of the year, but bad weather definitely wasn’t your favorite. You looked through the window to see it was snowing outside. The leafless trees were covered by thick layers of white snow which you found to be absolutely beautiful. You grabbed your phone, even though you knew there wasn’t any wifi connection or even mobile signal. You just felt safer when you had your phone with you. It wasn’t really a good weapon, if an unknown villager suddenly attacked you (just the thought of it made you laugh a bit, because your family really believed this was possible), but it made you feel calm, so this was a good enough reason.

You went out of the house, locking the door, then you started walking. It was quiet and you found this to be relaxing. You could barely hear your own humming, while you were walking near a lake. You stopped to look at it – it was frozen, but it was still beautiful; or maybe that was exactly the reason for its beauty. After you finished admiring the frozen lake, you resumed your walking. Before coming here, while you still had wifi, you looked up some information about the village – even though strangely there wasn’t that much. Maybe the mystery was what made the place attractive to you. You got the folded map out of your coat’s pocket as you unfolded it to read where the local shop was. You wanted to do some shopping – you needed to eat something after all. According to the map you had to go through the forest to get to the shop. That made no sense to you. “Why do I have to do that?” you asked yourself. Was that the only route possible? After all, your own hunger motivated you to keep going and find that shop, if there was one. You started walking, trying to remember the paths you walked on, for you to be able to come back. It seemed difficult, but you were sure that if you paid enough attention, you would be able to memorize it. As you were walking, you stumbled across a branch and you almost fell down, but you succeeded to keep your balance. What you saw in front of you, however, made you freeze in place in terror. You were quite sure it was a corpse. You prayed it wasn’t what it looked like – but as you took one small step forward hesitantly, your suspicions were confirmed. But it wasn’t animal’s corpse, even though that would be terrifying enough – it was human’s. You started shaking in fear. “This can’t be real. This is a nightmare”, you kept telling to yourself. But it seemed real. It seemed horribly real and it was. You could see the body and its skin which was not whole – it looked as if it was torn apart. But who, or what, could chew a person’s skin to that extent? Human teeth definitely couldn’t do that, even if cannibals existed. Just thinking about that, you felt you were shivering in fear. The face of the dead person also looked pale and lifeless, just like the rest of the bloody body. You even saw body parts that were slightly detached from the body.

Knowing that you have seen more than enough, you did the only thing which you could think of – run back to the hut. “I’m taking all my stuff right now and I’m going home. I don’t want to be here anymore”, you thought, but you were trying to run so desperately in the thick snow that you stumbled again and you fell down, feeling more hopeless than ever. “But… if I leave this early, my family isn’t going to let me go anywhere alone in the future. Seeing me so scared would make them think that I can’t be alone”. You wanted to prove them wrong and even though it was dangerous, you were willing to do it. You were not a person who was giving up easily – even if there was an obstacle, you always found a way to cope with everything. This time was not going to be an exception, so you got up from the cold ground and you continued walking until you got to the hut. When you were there, you locked the door as you sat to think of the possible reasons why the body looked like that. It seemed as if sharp teeth have ripped the skin apart. The image was still way too vivid in your mind, it was as if you have taken a picture of the body and now you couldn’t delete it. And you wanted to, because now you were sure you were not getting any sleep tonight. “Maybe it was a wolf”, you tried explaining the body’s condition. “Or some other animal”. Whatever this creature was, you only knew one thing for sure – you didn’t want it to approach you ever.

Hours have passed and now it was dark outside. It was late evening and you were starting to feel sleepy. You still haven’t eaten anything and you had a stomachache due to this fact. You tried to ignore it and just go to sleep, but it just wouldn’t stop growling. You took a blanket and you wrapped yourself in it, laying on the big bed in the bedroom. The light in the room was left on purposefully, in efforts for you not to feel that scared, but honestly it didn’t help much. You laid on the bed, trying to forget the image, but it wouldn’t go away, no matter how much you have tried to chase it out of your brain. Finally, you succeeded to fall asleep after a long time.

* * *

You woke up from rather peculiar noises coming from the outside. You took your phone to look at the time – only one hour and a half have passed since you went to bed. You succeeded to have a nightmare during the time you were asleep and it made you even more afraid to wake up in the real life. You couldn’t stop wondering why there was a corpse in the woods. Wasn’t there any police? Or any villagers who wanted to do something about it? And why haven’t you met at least one person during your stay here? That’s it – you had to find some evidence of people living here. You had go and see what the source of the strange noises was that made you unable to sleep. You got up from the bed and you took your winter jacket – actually you didn’t bring any pajamas, so you were still dressed in your jeans and sweater. You hoped the strange noises came from animals – bears, wolves, foxes. Even though you were scared of them, you were even more terrified of the creatures you had nightmares about. You put your boots on as you slowly got closer to the door. You were still hesitant about your plan to find and eventually confront the mysterious source of the strange noises, but there was not many things you could do. The other option was to stay asleep all night, hearing the noises and going crazier with every minute. You actually thought that there was a chance it was all in your head – you wanted to go and see for yourself that there was nothing to be afraid of. Or was there?

You walked out of the hut, feeling cold air slightly caress your skin even through the thick layer of clothes you were wearing. You put your hands in the pockets of your winter jacket, but only seconds after you took them out, deciding that hands were going to be useful if you were going to fight someone or something. Then you realized you didn’t have any weapon so you were quite embarrassed to go back to the hut and grab a knife from the kitchen just in case. When you went outside again, you started seriously questioning your sanity. Going out of the comfortable hut in the middle of the night to go fight some probably non-existent monsters? You felt as if you were out of your mind. But that didn’t stop you from walking – you actually heard the noise again and you saw a flickering light in the distance, which encouraged you. You felt quite excited – but your main feeling was still fear. You continued following the light, then you suddenly lost it again. Were there any people? This light really looked as if it could be coming from a flashlight. As you started walking deeper into the dark forest while you held your phone in one of your hands to use its flashlight and a knife in the other, you lost sight of the light again. Just then the flashlight of your phone landed on something rather terrifying. You were so shocked that you stumbled, while trying to take a few steps back, and fell on the thick snow, letting out a loud gasp, which attracted the creature’s attention. You also dropped your phone in the snow, but it landed in a way you could still see the light coming from it. You noticed the creature’s claws, sharp row of teeth, perfect for ripping skin apart – speaking of that, it was exactly what the creature was doing. You saw another corpse, but this one looked even worse than the previous one you saw earlier. The creature in front of it looked insatiable. No matter how much flesh it devoured, it just couldn’t get enough. There was a lot of blood, body parts that were partially bitten off and you could even see human organs such as heart, lungs and kidneys that were still in its place. What was that creature and why did it seem it only ate flesh? Even this was already scary enough.

“Oh, darling,” the creature said, wiping blood from his mouth. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

And in the next moment, in front of you stood a man. No sharp teeth, no claws, no inhumanly skinny body: it was a handsome man instead.

You were trembling, while you were feeling the coldness of the snow against your skin. Various thoughts were present in your head, but none of it was related to believing what was happening to you was real. You felt as if you were the main character in a horror movie; your second theory was that this was all a nightmare and you would wake up very soon. But why weren’t you waking up?

The man quickly put some clothes on that were obviously off during his transformation as he came closer to you. In response, you tried to move back, while you were still lying in the snow. You tried to take your knife, but as you reached for it, you felt another hand suddenly take it, resulting in the knife cutting through your own hand. You let out a silent whimper as you saw there was already blood. The man simply took your hand as if it was the most normal thing to do and he slowly licked the blood of it, savoring every drop.

“Only your blood tastes this good… I wonder what the rest of you tastes like?”

You couldn’t help but think of inappropriate thoughts and you felt your cheeks reddening in result. “What’s wrong with me? How could I be sexualizing a monster in my head?”. It was actually a simple task when the so-called monster was this attractive. You still didn’t understand what was happening, but his voice sounded somehow foreign to your ears. It was only natural that you get a little bit aroused, despite what you just saw. The feeling was like hearing a foreigner speaking your native language – the man in front of you had such an interesting accent and his voice was enough to make you addicted. When you looked into his captivating eyes, you got even more convinced about that. There was definitely something special in him.

“W-what are you?” you succeeded to ask as you were shivering from the cold and from all the fear that you felt that was holding your heart and causing you a pain there. You did not break eye contact with the man who didn’t look very human-like only a minute ago. But now he did and you couldn’t get enough of his perfect features.

“I can be your worst nightmare or your most beautiful dream. It’s only a matter of perception, love,” he took a deep breath as he continued speaking. “When you saw my other face just a minute ago, you didn’t seem to like it. Now look at yourself – your face getting redder with every word I say, as you’re swooning over me. I guess I just proved my theory to you.”

And he was right – as he was talking to you right now, you felt more relaxed. You almost forgot that he was a horrible creature just minutes ago – this man had a duality you never have imagined. He held his hand in front of your face for you to take it, but you did not do it. Instead you kept sitting on the snow, waiting for him to move back, so that you could stand up.

“Come on. I’m not going to hurt you. I just had dinner. Besides, I’m actually on a diet recently.”

If this was not real life, you could have laughed, hearing that last part. But you didn’t do it, because this was as real as it seemed. Suddenly, you heard your stomach growling. You pressed both your hands there in efforts to make it stop, but it didn’t.

“I may have eaten my dinner, but I see someone else didn’t,” the man giggled, which also sent shivers down your spine.

How could he have such a husky, yet angelic voice? You have never heard something as beautiful before. Even though he was just speaking his voice sounded like a song. Especially with his exotic pronunciation – this man may be terrifying, but he was even more intriguing. You found yourself staring at his eyes that shined bright like diamonds. You couldn’t exactly describe their color – it was a mixture of mostly black with some interesting highlights.

“What are you?” you repeated your question, this time saying it louder and more confidently, as you stood up.

You realized you were the same height as him, but that didn’t surprise you – you were quite tall yourself, so he definitely looked tall enough as he was standing in front of you just seconds ago. He had good body proportions, an attractive face and clean hair which surprised you. Monsters were supposed to look scary. But why was he so handsome?

“I’m called a wendigo. We are actually pretty rare,” he chuckled. “Not that I’m bragging, but I’m sure you have never seen somebody like me.”

You definitely haven’t seen someone nearly as attractive as him and that was a fact.

“Wait, a wendigo? Like those evil spirits that possess a human body and turn the person into a cannibal?” you asked with surprise. “So this is not your real body?”

“Consider me impressed. You definitely know a lot about my species, but you obviously know nothing about me. My case is a little bit different. I was born in this body, with this so-called evil spirit living in my mind. The first time I felt it was when I was a kid – I ate quite a lot of food so I was pretty chubby back then. No matter how much food I ate, it was never enough. This is until I felt a real craving for human flesh, thus, I tried tasting it and it turned me into a monster. Surprise.”

You were beyond disgusted when you heard that this attractive young man was born this way. How was it even possible? Was it something you inherited from your biological parents? Being a wendigo? That was impossible, right? Whatever this crazy illogical nightmare was, you wanted it to end soon.

“When I started satisfying my hunger with human flesh, I realized I never needed any real human food to begin with, so I lost weight. I still love food, though. Like, have you ever tried chicken burrito? It’s so delicious. I’m hungry now.”

This man definitely seemed to love talking about food and even joking about it. But the fact that now you knew what kind of creature he was still freaked you out.

“Let’s go,” he said, taking your hand, but you let go.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” you said, keeping your hands close to your body.

“I want to go and eat chicken burrito,” he pouted, looking almost innocent.

“Go by yourself and please leave me alone,” you said with trembling voice.

You started walking back to your hut but he quickly stopped you.

“I thought we already talked about this. I’m not going to eat you. I’m on a diet, so I only eat one person’s flesh a day.”

It was strange hearing him talk about this so casually. You felt as if it was all one big joke by the way he was acting. But you knew what you saw and he knew what he did. He was not nearly as innocent as he looked right now.

“Aside from that, you’re way too pretty. It’s my first time seeing such a beautiful human. I could never destroy such a masterpiece. Come and have dinner with me,” he said that sentence more as a fact than a request which was clear even in his tone. He was not asking you for permission: he already knew you were going to submit to him anyway.

The way every word was rolling off his tongue and the flavor his specific tone added to his voice was making him totally irresistible. Hearing this man talk could easily be your new lullaby. He sounded so persuasive without even trying. How could you say “no” when basically only one look into his magnificent eyes was enough to make you go weak at the knees? And him calling you a masterpiece – nobody has ever called you something like that. It seemed that he really meant it, so you were willing to trust him. He gave you no other option. Even though you were scared to death, you couldn’t help but trust him completely – you shivered because of that thought, mixed with fear and sweet desire to do something wrong. At this moment, you didn’t know if you wanted to pack your things, go home and never come back, or to stay here forever.

“Do you have a car?” he suddenly broke the silence and you nodded. “Great, where is it?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere outside of the forest?” you answered unsurely.

He sighed as you two continued walking in the same direction you came from and after a couple of minutes walking you succeeded to find your car.

“Is it your car?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, it is,” you said, as you unlocked the car and you went to the driver’s seat, but before you get in, the man stopped you.

You couldn’t believe you were going to have dinner with a stranger who was also not exactly human. Was there even a way this could get any more twisted than it already was?

“Give me the keys,” he said, grabbing them from your hand.

You were taken aback by his sudden movement as his hand touched yours. Another thing that surprised you was his bluntness. You shook your head in clear disapproval.

“There’s no way I’m letting a stranger, who is not even a person, drive my car.”

“Please, don’t discriminate,” he pouted. “Hi, I’m Kihyun. Done, I’m not a stranger to you anymore. You know my name and I’m also a human right now. I don’t think you have more excuses now, missy.”

You couldn’t believe he was making everything sound so casual. He seemed like an easy-going person, so now it was completely impossible to feel threatened by him in any way. The scariest thing right now seemed to be his sassy answers to everything you said. You were not sure you could endure that for too long, before snapping.

“Ki-Hyun,” you said almost breathlessly, as you listened to how the name sounded. It was beautiful just like the man next to you,

Before you even know it, he was already in the driver’s sit, getting ready to turn the engine on.

“Get on,” he said, looking at you invitingly.

You didn’t really have a choice, since the magical sparkle in his eyes was drawing you into accepting his invitation, so you just went to the front passenger seat next to him and got on the car as you both took off. It was pointless to try to avoid this dangerous attraction.

* * *

As he was driving to God knows where, you remembered to ask him a question which may or may not be sarcastic, but you really wanted to know the answer no matter what.

“Do wendigos even know how to drive?” you asked mockingly.

You knew he was a person, when he wasn’t in his wendigo form and he had just the normal human abilities like every other person.

“Don’t tease me or you’re going to regret it. I’m still hungry, you know.”

“You said you wanted a burrito, not a human. And what happened to your diet and your promise? You said you won’t hurt me. After all, I’m too pretty to be the person who satisfies your hunger. It was your words, not mine,” you decided to quote his words. You were starting to feel really comfortable in his company and you had mixed feelings about that.

“I have to admit that’s right, sweetheart. But I didn’t promise anything. I could change my mind any time,” he answered. He was not going to let you insult him like this.

“No, you can’t,” you stated confidently.

“And why is that?” he raised his eyebrows in clear confusion.

“Because I’m so pretty right now and I don’t plan on becoming less pretty any time soon. That’s why you can’t hurt me.”

“Are all humans that annoying, or is it just you?” he asked in astonishment.

“Are all wendigos that self-centered or is it your own fault?”

You seemed to always have a proper comeback to everything and that really irritated Kihyun. He wanted to be the winner even verbally, without having to use his special powers to convince you. He sighed, while keeping his eyes on the road. What was still unknown to you was the fact that you were starting to get under his skin too but there was no way he could let it show that soon.

Around less than 20 minutes later, you got in front of a diner, which had neon lights, used for text signs. Kihyun and you got off the car and you walked in. The interior surprised you even more – it looked like the typical American movie cliché. Not that you minded it though; the creature you were with right now could make any place and any activity feel like something exciting.

You sat on the sofas which were opposite one another, with a table between them, as the waiter came and left menus for you two.

“So… What do you want to eat? It’s my treat,” Kihyun mentioned and you quirked your eybrows.

“You can’t be serious! Wendigos have money?!” you acted surprised just to irritate him and he really tried hard to act as if it wasn’t getting to him.

But you could make him feel anything you wanted: whether it was sadness or happiness. If only you had known that, you definitely would have used it to your advantage.

“Then I guess I’ll pay only for myself. Thank you for saving me money,” Kihyun answered with clear irritation in his voice.

“But I want free food,” you pouted, trying to think of a way to convince him to change his mind.

“And I want to be respected.”

“I respect you. I really, really respect you,” you said, looking him in the eyes.

It was a bad choice, though. Every time you looked at those eyes you got lost in them. They were capable of making you lose every type of game or sassy remarks exchange you and Kihyun had. You couldn’t fight it anymore. You just couldn’t stay away from him. Even if you tried, you always found yourself back at the start; it was a meaningless attempt to run away from your real feelings. He was holding you captive using his exotic charm and now you weren’t sure you wanted to escape anymore.

When the waiter came to take your orders, you cleared your throat, as you averted your gaze, so that you were no longer staring into Kihyun and you got ready to speak, but you were cut off.

“… And french fries with a strawberry milkshake for the lady.”

The waiter wrote down this bizarre combination of food and drink as he gave both Kihyun and you a confused look, before getting back to work.

“Who drinks strawberry milkshake while eating french fries?” you looked at him with no less confusion than the waiter.

“Definitely looks like your style.” He locked eyes with you, making you unable to look away.

You were literally connected to his eyes by invisible but very strong strings that you could not detach from yourself. That didn’t stop you from looking for a way, though.

“I’ve noticed that you like some very unusual things.”

By the confidence in his voice and by his knowing look, you could tell he definitely knew what kind of an impact he had on you. And the unusual thing he meant was him. Stating that you liked unusual things was just a code for saying you liked him and he was quite aware of this fact.

“But don’t worry. I like people who enjoy unusual things,” he said with a small smile, while he tried to make his voice sound even huskier.

But he didn’t need to do that, since even if he was not trying, his voice was already husky enough to drive you completely crazy. Did he mean he liked you? You were unsure of what his real purpose was, but you still liked what he was doing to you.

After your food and drinks were served, you just had diner in silence. He tried to look at you a couple of times, but you were desperately avoiding his gaze.

“When I go home, I have to leave all the wendigo stuff here and forget everything that happened”, you thought as you took a sip from your strawberry milkshake.

Actually french fries and strawberry milkshake were really a nice combination for you, just as Kuhyun predicted. No matter what he said earlier, he still payed for your food too. When you went back to the village, he parked your car at the same place where you were earlier. You took your phone to look at the time: it was 4:30 am and you were surprised. You suddenly remembered everything that happened tonight. This seemed like such a long time in your mind, but it was actually only a couple of hours? How could you get scared, fall in love with a supernatural creature and eat dinner in that small amount of time? As you both got off the car, you finally let him look you in the eyes.

“Is this how we part ways?” he asked, sounding just as desperate to meet you again, as you were about meeting him.

He tried to hide that through fake coughing, but he couldn’t deceive you; you already knew his real feelings, even though when you first met him, you weren’t sure he was capable of feeling anything.

“We… We don’t have to,” you said with a shaking voice.

Why couldn’t you let him go, when that was the most reasonable thing to do?

“No, you know what? I really have to go. I can’t do that, Kihyun… I just… Goodbye,” you whispered, looking at his hypnotic eyes, trying to remember them.

They made you fall into a trance that you didn’t want to exit. When you finally succeeded to look away, you turned and you started walking to your hut. Your eyes were shining because of the tears that were starting to form in then, but you couldn’t let this stop you in any way. As you started walking even faster, you felt someone grabbing your wrist, making you turn to look at them. You knew it was Kihyun, yet you were still surprised. You opened your mouth to protest, but he made you stop by pressing his lips to yours in a long kiss that you didn’t want to ever end. When he took a step back from your body, you found yourself missing his warm lips that were making you forget all about the cold winter. Without saying anything more, you took his hand and you started walking to your hut. When you got there, you connected your lips to his again, but this time it was a heated kiss, the type that left you breathless and wanting more.

You felt his fingertips caress your skin, making you shiver under his dangerous but addicting touch. The feeling was indescribable, even though his body was usually cold, his touch somehow made you burn. Instead of making you cold, it made you feel warm – hot even. You buried your fingers in his dark hair, trying to keep him close enough to you. You knew this was wrong, but he had you under his spell. He was a sin you couldn’t get enough of.

#kihyun #monstax #monsta-x #happyraiday #happy birthday mom #i really love u sm #🥺#i hope you enjoy it #and i hope you had an amazing birthday

10 notes · View notes

wardoftheedgeloaves · 5 years

Text

China Story Time II: Learn Programming and Epidemiology the Very Hard Way

I haven’t posted more than two installments of my promised series on Chinese historical linguistics and dialectology. In lieu of progress on it, please gather round the campfire and enjoy this entirely unrelated story about the time I taught the summer camp from hell in Shenzhen. (Dialectology tie-in: we once had a cabbie who only [?] spoke Canto.)

I wish to emphasize that this story has not been embellished.

Summer in China is a sultry and slow-paced affair for the private-school English teacher--you stop teaching seriously in late May, school gets out in late June, and you don’t have to be back until early September. Your pay is good enough that you’ve got savings to last you the summer, but you could always use a bit of spare cash. Unless your social situation is good, your isolation (and the weather) doesn’t help your work ethic too much. Your life is lived at tea houses, reading thinkpieces and books and procrastinating on writing more thinkpieces and working on your Mandarin and getting around to that damned monograph. (Alternative English-teacher mode: hit the bars prowling for locals who may or may not fit within the (n/2)+7 rule, demolish a couple of six-packs’ worth of alcohol, hit the hay at 2:30 in the morning, wake up at noon, repeat. I was luckily never this much of a degenerate.)

As in the US, the affluent Chinese parent often sends their offspring to summer camp for some educational enrichment and peace and quiet at home. So it was that a recruiter offered me, and another English teacher (we’ll call him...Nick) in Chengdu, the chance to earn 7000 kuai (~$1050) each teaching programming in Shenzhen. A class in the morning from 9-12, repeated from Monday to Friday, with a chance for a second week in Lu’an, Anhui. Plane tickets and accommodation included, other details vague. Technically illegal--you’re not supposed to do any work outside of the job sponsoring your visa--but nobody cares about summer camps.

To learn programming, the students (and we) are provided with little inch-by-inch-by-inch plastic cubes with wheels called “Pocket-bots” or something of the sort. These are actually rather nifty little gadgets. You connect to them with your phone or computer in a spacious computer lab (or so the brochures say) and click and drag instructions to create and run programs. E.g., you might tell the bot to go forward for 10 seconds at speed 10, then check to see if it was on white (rather than black) paper, and sing a little song if it is, then turn left and repeat. The software allowed you to do if-loops, for-loops, and while-loops at the very least, which is pretty good for small kids. Satisfied that we would have the equipment needed to teach the class, we packed our Pocket-bots and arrived in Shenzhen on a sticky, hot, sunny July morning.

Now, a word on Shenzhen. In 1978 when Deng took the wheel, Shenzhen was a sleepy little fishing village of thirty thousand people whose only interesting feature was that it was right next to Hong Kong. This made it perfect for the early-80s experiments in capitalism, and over the next four decades it exploded (it now has 12 million people and a standard of living on par with Western Europe). As a result of its early rise to wealth and power, it’s home to the first private school in China, founded 1994. However, private schools in China tend to be boarding schools, and boarding schools tend to be out away from the city center where land is cheap and distractions are relatively few.

So this place is in the middle of nowhere, or as close to the middle of nowhere as it’s possible to get in the Pearl River Delta. It’s surrounded by forested mountains (Guangdong is surprisingly hilly). It’s about 95 (35) degrees, humid as hell, and in direct sunlight--July, south of the Tropic of Cancer. We’re in the kids’ dorm rooms (luckily we each get our own private dorm room with a private, cold-running shower.) We drop our bags, wash up, and go meet the kids.

And it turns out that a fifth of them are Americans! You see, this wasn’t just a programming camp--it was also an English and cross-cultural experience camp. Approximately 15 high-school kids from Florida and California were being flown out, all expenses paid, to be big-brother/big-sister with the Chinese kids, who were in late elementary school. The chaperone (we’ll call her Margaret; in fact I can’t actually remember her name, but it definitely wasn’t Margaret), the mother of one of the kids, was thoroughly perplexed--but, hey, a free trip to China.

So Nick and I go and look at the teaching rooms (this is about one in the afternoon). These aren’t the sparkling, spacious computer labs we saw on the website, oh no. We have a couple of primary school classrooms no more than about five meters by six, with laughably tiny kindergartner-sized chairs and tables. There’s a smartboard, which we can barely get to run and which we can’t connect to our computers to show the programs the kids are supposed to run. There’s no free access to the wifi. Instead, we have to get our teaching assistants to put their login credentials on every single device that needs to connect to the wifi--and since you have to have wifi to connect to the robots, well. In other words, it’s going to be a s***show, and we’ve got five mornings of it ahead of us.

We know the inevitable talk/confrontation with our boss/program coordinator is going to be a disaster, so we leave for a few hours to try and find a six-pack of Tsingtao. Remember how I said this was in the middle of nowhere? It was in the middle of nowhere. We walk out of the gates for a full kilometer (possibly more; the road meandered, and the terrain was by no means flat) past construction sites and dense forest bordering on jungle until we finally, finally reach an air-conditioned convenience store nestled between auto-repair shops, low-rise tile-walled tenements, light industry and eight-kuai noodle parlors. (Those of you who have been outside of a major city center in China will know the kind of neighborhood I’m talking about--not dangerous, by any means (except for the traffic), but boring, sprawling and not overly prosperous.) But they have beer, and we knock back two each along with a good liter of water.

We have a chat with the supervisor at about 9 o’clock that evening while the kids are engaging in...god, I don’t even recall. I think the Chinese kids were in bed, while the Americans were playing cards and vidya. Now readers who have spent much time in China or with Chinese organizations will know that it is a faux pas in China to admit fault, and an even bigger faux pas to play hardball to get somebody to admit fault. The result, usually, is deflection--our supervisor didn’t know about any of this, it wasn’t her fault, she would ask her boss to try and improve things.

(I don’t wish to come across as too hard on Chinese culture here. I think this is really a situation where American and Chinese culture are doomed to clash, and clash badly. If you fuck up in the US, you’re supposed to admit fault and apologize, at least theoretically--deflection and white lies are infuriating on the receiving end and the natural reaction is to start tearing them apart to get an admission of contrition. In China, the convention is often that you tell a white lie or deflect to save face--and if the other person you’re talking to is Chinese, they’ll often accept that even if it’s not really believed. The result in Chinese-American communication can be an arms race, where the American will get ticked off at the deflection and perceived dishonesty and start playing hardball, which prompts more deflection. Looking back on it now, it was clear that trying to play hardball with our supervisor was pointless--we were never going to get good computer labs or WiFi, and the only thing to do was to figure out something to do. But knowing that we’d at least theoretically been hired to teach programming, we endeavoured to do our best. (Remember, between flying all the Americans over and the company’s profit, the Chinese parents were getting fleeced.) Nick had recently discovered the stern precepts of Jordan Peterson after catching herpes-type-2 (that’s the bad kind) of the mouth from a liaison with his dermatologist, and reminded me that it was our duty to do the best we could by the students.

Day one: Monday.

There are about 70-75 kids in the program between the Chinese and the Americans, so we have about 35 each at least in classrooms of about fifteen square meters, sitting on tiny little kindergarten chairs at tiny little kindergarten desks (not so much of a problem for the Chinese elementary-schoolers, much more uncomfortable for the American high-schoolers). Our teaching assistants spend most of their time in the back playing on their phones after they’ve set the WiFi on each device, which takes about an hour to get worked out. (Remember, three-hour class with a fifteen-minute break). Each room has an underpowered air conditioner which succeeds in reducing the temperature from the mid-30s C to the upper 20s (from about 92 to 78 in freedom degrees) if the windows are closed, at the cost of any breezes.

And we run into the first problem. Your device uses WiFi to connect automatically and effortlessly to a nearby Pocketbot. That’s not a problem when you’re in a spacious computer lab with ten other people and a strong signal. When you’re in a tiny little room with thirty-five other people and a network that wouldn’t have been out of place in the last years of the Clinton administration, well.

Some kids couldn’t connect to their bot at all. Others were controlling four robots at once with a single device. Some were able to stay connected through the session, others’ internet kept crapping out every ten minutes.

After an hour and twenty minutes of this, we call a twenty-minute break.

easternestablishmentarian: “What the fuck do we even do?”

Nick: “No idea. Start in on the basic ideas of programming. Have the teaching assistants translate.”

We do. The teaching assistants are not all that happy about having to play translator, particularly since their English isn’t very good and the concepts are, well, complicated! I had some success in doing the teacher-as-robot routine you see in intro programming classes, where you have to tell the teacher exactly what to do (Keep going! *teacher-bot crashes into wall*), and extended this up to about half past eleven by making it a group activity where the Chinese kids had to direct their American big-sibling robots around the room. We spent about another fifteen minutes trying to do something, anything, with the robots--remember, we couldn’t show our laptop screens on the smartboard, which didn’t work, so we had to draw the program with chalk. At about 11:45 we just call it quits and let them leave for lunch early.

Right after lunch (which, incidentally, was extremely strange--the cafeteria staff had been instructed to try to make some sort of Chinese-Western fusion, with results like spaghetti with both tomato and soy sauce. If only they’d just stuck to good local dishes, of which there are hundreds, but oh well...) we call an emergency meeting with Margaret.

Margaret: You guys aren’t going to bail on us, are you? I have no clue what’s going on.

Me: No, but it’s clear that there’s no way to do programming and the kids’ll hate it. Let’s just do a regular summer camp.

Later that day we go back out for more beer and sketch out a plan. We don’t have WiFi or devices worth a damn, so electronics are off. However, we do have a campus of at least twenty or thirty acres filled with small fields and six-story dorms and classrooms connected by a labyrinth of walkways. (During the school year, the school is home to about three thousand students, all boarding, so it’s the size of a couple city blocks at least.)

We call a meeting with our supervisor.

Nick: This isn’t working. We can’t do programming.

Supervisor: Well, do you have any other ideas?

Nick: We could do sports and games.

Supervisor: Oh, I think that will be wonderful!

(Nick, later: “How much are these parents paying again?”)

Day two: Tuesday.

We start with Sardines, which degenerates into chaotic hide-and-seek but keeps them occupied for a good hour and a half. The teaching assistants are sent to look for athletic equipment like basketballs, which they’re not too happy about. Midway through break we run out of cups.

Us: “It’s 35 degrees outside and we don’t have enough water. There are only two water dispensers for 80 people and no more cups.”

Teaching assistant: “Oh, well, we didn’t know we would run out. I don’t know where the water is, maybe they can bring some tomorrow.”

Us: *sigh*

We discover that some air-conditioned buses (dlory! dlory! hallelujah!) stop right in front of the school and run towards a major commercial center. We go out for hotpot.

Nick: “So, fun fact--I’m actually on a spousal visa. I married a local chick for visa purposes.”

Me: “Huh.”

Nick: “Yeah, we divorced, but the immigration department doesn’t have access to divorce records and my visas’s still valid. Can’t technically work on it, though.”

Day three: Wednesday.

Capture the Flag, followed by semi-structured time in which the Americans are divided into groups, assigned Chinese students, and instructed to create activities. We run out of cups again.

Nick: *drinking straight from the water dispenser tap*

Me: “Didn’t you say you caught...”

Nick: “Shut up, easternestablishmentarian.”

Me: “...”

Me: “There are seventy-five kids here.”

Nick: “Just shut up.”

I buy my own personal supply of bottled water that afternoon. He did agree to only fill up a bottle from that point onwards.

Us: “Supervisor, please tell us--will there be WiFi when one of us teaches programming with the robots in Lu’an in Anhui?”

Supervisor: “Oh, uh, I don’t know, I am not going to Anhui.”

Us: “Please find out.”

Day four: Thursday.

It being sunny and slightly cooler, we take the kids on a hike through a back trail that goes by a farm and into the woods. Guangdong proves to be home to some terrifyingly large arthropods, none of which are aggressive.

After lunch, we debate who will go on to Lu’an. Nick makes a good case for needing the money, so I cede it (in part because Anhui is a notoriously boring and underdeveloped province, and Lu’an is only its second- or third-biggest city).

Us: “So, supervisor, please tell us.”

Supervisor: “Oh, yes, there is no WiFi for the summer camp in Anhui, I asked.”

Us: “But Nick’s going to be teaching robots again?”

Supervisor: “Well, maybe he can also teach something else, like English, but yes, it’s a robot camp.”

Us: “But you need WiFi to work with the robots.”

Supervisor: “Oh, I’m not the supervisor in Anhui, just here in Shenzhen, so I didn’t know.”

Day five: Friday.

After a laughably pointless closing ceremony, we collect our paychecks (in cash) and head into Shenzhen, where Nick tries to send it out.

Bank teller: “So, uh, what are you doing in China?”

Nick: “I’m visiting family, it’s a spousal visa.”

Bank teller: “OK, so I don’t think this is possible, you have the tax form?” (note: this is quite common for foreigners, even those on legal visas--foreigners’ money has all sorts of systems and regulations surrounding it that most bank tellers don’t know how to handle (because there are so few foreigners), and to avoid losing face they will often just tell you that it’s not possible to do what you want to do.)

At this point, I’m starting to shake my head furiously in Nick’s direction--get us out of here before they start asking questions about where this money came from and call immigration. After two hours, we give up.

Me: “You could have gotten us deported.”

Nick: “Nah, man, they’re just clueless bank tellers.”

I fly back to Chengdu the following day seven thousand kuai richer, while Nick hangs on until Sunday and then flies to Lu’an with the Americans, where another group of Chinese kids get their parents fleeced for robots that don’t work (though, as he told it, things worked out fine, kind of.) The kids, incidentally, were great about the whole incident--the Chinese kids I think in part because their lives are so structured that just getting to run around was a breath of fresh air for them. The Americans were fairly willing to work around the absurdity. Nobody got deported and nothing’s appeared in the news about an epidemic of the sort of disease that schoolchildren aren’t supposed to get.

So we come to the moral of the story, children: all’s well that ends well, and buy your own water.

10 notes · View notes

alarriefantasy · 6 years

Note

Annoying neighbours? Thnx!

I got a bit carried away here! I ended up making an all-around neighbors fic rec - BUT, since you wanted specifically, “annoying neighbors,’ I put * next to fics that are what you’re looking for! :) :) Hope that’s not too confusing!

Neighbors Fic Rec

*Won’t Let Go of You for Nothing by AFangirlFantasy

Words: 3k

Louis’ new neighbor is playing their music offensively loud, and he’s fucking pissed. Every night this week he hasn’t been able to fall asleep because of it, but tonight, Louis refuses to suffer again. Taking matters into his own hands, Louis goes over to knock some much needed sense into their brain.

Things may or may not go the way he plans.

Or a Love/Hate neighbors AU

someone new by larrytale

Words: 3k

After realizing that standing around and worrying is only wasting precious time, Harry braces his hands on the wall and takes a deep breath, trying to will his nerves away. He needs wifi.

“PENIS!”

He has to stop himself from laughing after the word leaves his mouth, the absurdity of the situation finally catching up to him.

Return The Favor by Taayjaay

Words: 3k

Louis has a habit for almost burning his apartment complex down while cooking. His new neighbour helps him out.

it’ll all come up roses by neonmoonlight

Words: 4k

or the one where louis really doesn’t hate his neighbor who keeps waking him up at the crack of dawn. ft magic, liam, niall, and zayn barely being mentioned, harry and his fucking motorcycle, a date and a kiss.

Through the Wall (Through the Wall) by taggiecb

Words: 5k

The prompt

“We live in adjacent apartment and one day I accidentally knocked a hole in the wall and into your living room. I’m really sorry oh my God you’re naked” AU from qulcksilvers.tumblr.com

Gimme Gimme by CarlyLovesLarry

Words: 5k

or where Louis is a broke college student with a hot new hunk of a neighbor

Lust for Life by larryent

Words: 6k

AU. After Louis moves into a new flat, his fit next door neighbour who happens to be a baker brings him cupcakes to welcome him into the building.

*Can’t Shake You Out by fackinglouis

Words: 8k

Or the one where Harry and Louis have lived in the same building for three years but just meet now and bond over their crazy neighbors.

you've got a friend in me by graceana

Words: 8k

Louis talks to himself a lot so he buys a hedgehog and flirts through post-it notes with his fit neighbor who makes wonderful apple crumble.

there was a reason i collided into you by sockslwt

Words: 9k

AU where Louis and Harry are neighbors who meet in the elevator of their apartment one morning and it becomes a routine for them. Louis pines a lot. Then one day, Harry doesn’t show up at the elevator like he usually does, and well, Louis might panic.

*Get Off of My Cloud by Marora_Daris

Words: 9k

Harry is the most annoying neighbour that sexually frustrated Louis could have. Niall decides it’s a good idea to handcuff them together.

Featuring guinea pigs, animal print leggings and inappropriate boners.

London Calls Me a Stranger by Thatscoolbutwhataboutlarry

Words: 9k

“Hello, my beautiful, conceited coquette.”

“Hi, daddy.”

Or the one where Harry is a tease, and Louis is his new neighbour.

*3B Neighbour by orphan_account

Words: 10k

Dear Neighbour,I love the sound of your rooster alarm, it’s sucha joy waking up 5 in the morning. Can you get itany louder?

Or: a mysterious neighbour keeps slipping the worst sort of notes under Harry’s door.

You and Me and the Devil Makes Three by moodlighting

Words: 10k

AU. Louis moves in next door to Harry. Louis has a ghost, Harry has an extra futon and a crush.

*I’ll Make This Feel Like Home by 5ft9

Words: 12k

Harry can’t sleep because the cat next door won’t stop meowing. He goes over to confront its owner, things go surprisingly well, and the cat ends up being the cutest thing that he’s ever seen. Well, besides its omega owner.

A love story quickly blossoms.

in midnights, in cups of coffee by suspendrs

Words: 15k

Or, Louis is overworked and cold, Harry is stressed out, and they might be in love.

*Cut to The Feeling by ishiplouis

Words: 15k

Louis has just moved into his new apartment in the fancy Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. All was well until he notices that his neighbour rarely closes the curtains which makes for an unlikely friendship to form.

Or AU where Louis is a ghostwriter working from home, and Harry is his firefighter neighbour who happens to have the cutest dog on Earth.

*Sweet Cheeks by NoShitSherlock

Words: 17k

Louis is an innocent, pretty in glasses, flustered mess of a high school sex-ed teacher who gets far too many dirty compliments and taps on the ass from his students. Harry, the lacrosse senior star and bad boy of Rowan High, gets transferred to Mr. Tomlinson’s sex-ed class after humiliating his previous teacher. It’s just what he likes to do.

Harry becomes set on humiliating Mr. Tomlinson who just so happens to be his next door neighbour, but it backfires when sexual comments get made. There’s one thing about Harry Styles: he doesn’t do teachers.

Until he does.

please don’t be in love with someone else by wildestdreams

Words: 18k

The one where Harry and Louis are neighbors and there’s a lot of overthinking, misunderstandings, Backstreet Boys sing alongs, embarrassing moments in the hallway, and pining. They somehow still make it work.

*That’s How I Know by allwaswell16

Words: 19k

Louis Tomlinson has just landed his dream job, coaching soccer at Augustus University. When he moves into a new house near campus, he meets his very fit new neighbor, English professor Harry Styles. Although their first meeting leads to an instant mutual dislike, the more Harry gets to know Louis, the more he likes what he sees.

Or the one where Harry’s African grey parrot spills his dirty secrets to his very hot neighbor.

In Dreams by dolce_piccante

Words: 23k

When Harry moves to a new city, his new flat come with a number of sweet, anonymous gifts and surprises that brighten his days. Could it be a friendly ghost? Another friendly presence in his new building is his tattooed neighbor, Louis, who seems determined to put a smile back on his face.

*A Whole New World by backonefish

Words: 24k

Louis has moved into his new apartment to start his new job as a teacher. Things would be great. If only his arsehole neighbour didn’t wake him up every morning by playing piano.Shenanigans ensue. Like a very inadvisable kissing bet.

hit me with your sweet love, steal me with a kiss by icedwaters

Words: 27k

or louis is a 22 year old photographer in his third year of uni, and harry is his 19 year old cat-loving neighbor.

Curtains, Cataclysms, and Constellations by aclosetlarryshipper

Words: 30k

Harry doesn’t understand the boy next door.

People don’t normally send surreptitious messages through the form of symbolic emotion and quick glances if they want to be left alone. Right?

No. His new neighbour is trying to say something to him.

(And if Harry decides to devote his entire summer to figuring him out, it will be a summer well spent.)

*Two Steps Behind by sacredheart (orphan_account)

Words: 38k

Or, Louis is two years younger than his neighbors, Harry, Liam, Niall, and Zayn, and he grows up bending over backwards to get their attention and acceptance. Especially Harry’s

Just Me, You, And This Box of Matches by tomlinsunshine

Words: 87k

Louis is fairly sure that his new neighbour is going to destroy him. And also their apartment building, and the dumpsters outside, and all the forests within a thirty mile radius. But. Mostly him.

updated: 03.24.2019

#ask

45 notes · View notes

flowerfan2 · 7 years

Text

Close to You - Ch. 6/11

Stucky, M, 21k so far, A03

Although Steve and Bucky are finally in the same place, they aren’t as close as they would like. And Steve’s having trouble being close to anyone.

(This fic is 100% complete, and will post at least 2x week).

Chapter 6

The next morning, when Steve’s at a therapy session, Bucky calls Tony. It’s weird calling him when he’s probably in the building somewhere, but Bucky doesn’t want to get drawn into playing a video game or let Tony poke around in his arm. Before they can finish their conversation, however, Tony has to get off the phone, and Bucky can’t tell if there’s really an important meeting Tony is late for or if he’s just blowing him off.

He spends the afternoon shooting with Clint, each of them trading off different weapons and challenging each other to make ever increasingly ridiculous shots. Bucky’s favorite is when Clint hangs upside down from the climbing wall and shoots arrows in the eye of the lizard robot targets (which slink terrifyingly across the floor), and Bucky amuses himself by trying to knock Clint down before he can take out all the lizards.

When Bucky gets back to the apartment, Steve is in mission mode, throwing clothes into his duffel and giving Bucky a stern look.

“Where’ve you been? Didn’t you get Coulson’s message? Wheels up in less than an hour.”

Steve fills him in while Bucky packs, grabbing the bow and arrows Clint urged him to try. Steve just shakes his head and grabs his shield, and they make their way up to the roof.

Coulson’s flying the helicopter, and he gives Steve and Bucky a curt nod as they climb in. Bucky leans back against the seat, half hoping to get in a short nap before they land, but Steve is looking over Coulson’s shoulder out the front window, engaged and interested with the process for a while. After half an hour or so, Steve gets antsy, and slides himself up into the co-pilot seat.

“Um, sir? This heading… I thought we were going to Detroit?”

Coulson gives Steve a mild look. “Change in plans.”

Steve fidgets, obviously torn between wanting more information and not wanting to piss off Coulson. “Sir, if there’s anything we should know, to be prepared for the operation-”

“Relax, Captain. There’ll be time for a full briefing when we arrive.”

Bucky is fairly certain Coulson is up to something, but it only cements his desire to get some sleep now, while he can. If the op is too bizarre to tell Steve about before they get there, it’s likely to need his full attention once they’re on the ground.

*****

Bucky jolts awake when the helicopter sets down. He climbs out behind Steve, still a little dazed from his nap, and blinks hard. They’re in a small clearing, pine trees all around, the scent of the forest deep and calming.

“Steve?” Bucky asks as they trail after Coulson. “Where the hell are we?”

Coulson turns and gives them his mildest smile. “Right where you wanted to be, Sergeant.”

They climb over a ridge and are met with a spectacular view - a rustic looking two story house with a porch running around three sides, on the edge of a lake that’s sparkling in the setting sun.

“Bucky?” Steve asks. “What’s going on?”

Tony, you amazing bastard, Bucky thinks.

“You look surprised, Sergeant,” Coulson says, the edge of his mouth quirking up. “Tony led me to believe this was your plan.”

“What – what was your plan?” Steve says, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“I may have asked Tony if he had somewhere we could go to take a break,” Bucky says, remembering the conversation with Tony that had been so abruptly cut off.

“A break?” Steve looks like he’s about to have a stroke.

“A vacation. You know, some time off.”

“I can’t-”

“It’s already been approved,” Coulson says. “But it’s not a vacation.”

Bucky stiffens. “It’s not gonna work if you’re flying him back and forth all the time to run ops.”

Coulson gives Bucky a measured look that smacks of an eye roll. “It’s a leave of absence. I’m thinking two months, maybe three. Depending on how you feel, Steve.”

“Agent, sir, I can’t-” Steve breaks off, looks at Bucky plaintively. “Tell him, Buck, I can’t just quit. It’s not right. I would never-”

“Hey, hang on,” Bucky says. He steps closer to Steve but doesn’t touch him, he’s too close to the edge for that. “I didn’t mean to spring this on you, I swear I didn’t. But I think you should give it a try. Even just for a few weeks, then you can decide how long you want to stay.”

Steve’s hands are clenched into fists, and he is looking over Bucky’s shoulder, not meeting his eyes.

“Stevie?” Bucky speaks softly, waits for Steve to focus on him. “This could be a really good thing for you. For us.”

Steve looks around, taking it in, and draws in a deep breath. Bucky thinks he can see the fight drain out of him, a look something like hope crossing his face.

“It’s pretty quiet here, huh?”

Bucky nods. “Seems to be.”

“No one within thirty miles,” Coulson interjects. “Pretty big mountains to the west, at least for New England. Stark security systems, access by air only, or maybe motorcycle if you’re daring.” Coulson turns to them. “The specs are inside. The mosquitos aren’t. Could we maybe continue this conversation over a glass of iced tea?”

Coulson gives them a quick tour, mostly consisting of pointing out the controls to various security and home systems and assuring them that Jarvis functions here too. Bucky can see Coulson trying to figure out whether Steve is going to go for it when Steve answers the question for him.

“You’re welcome to spend the night, sir, if you don’t want to head back this late.”

“I take it that means you’re staying?” Coulson asks.

Steve startles, and glances at Bucky. “Wait – you’re staying too, right?”

Bucky shakes his head at him fondly. “Of course, you idiot. I’m not about to pass up a luxury lakeside vacation.”

Steve grins and turns back to Coulson. “Yeah. We’re staying.”

*****

The house is beautifully appointed, if a little on the nose in its faux country decorating style. Bucky supposes they should be glad that the woodsy theme doesn’t extend to dead animal trophies on the walls.

He has no objection to the king sized bed in the master bedroom with the fluffiest duvet he’s ever had the pleasure to fall into, however, or the whirlpool tub and rainwater shower heads. The full gym in the basement is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Steve questions him for a few minutes after Coulson leaves, a little ticked off at the thought that Bucky had manipulated him, until Bucky explains that he hadn’t realized what was going on, either. “When I talked to Tony this morning, it was just an idea. I was going to talk to Coulson next, but I never got a chance.”

“So Tony convinced Coulson? And threw in use of his… what do we call this place, anyway? A hunting lodge? A chalet?”

Bucky laughs. “We’re in Vermont, not Switzerland. But it’s definitely fancier than a log cabin.”

Steve goes to sleep early, while Bucky familiarizes himself with the house and its surroundings. The security system is top-notch, as he would expect with any Stark property. It’s enough to calm Bucky’s paranoia and then some.

The kitchen is fully stocked, and Bucky sees that he has a text with instructions on how to order more food. They can also have more clothes and other personal items shipped up – although Coulson’s initial instructions to pack for a casual undercover mission that could last up to a week means that they aren’t completely unprepared.

Bucky walks down to the water’s edge, guided by tiny lights set into the path that can be controlled by an app he’s just installed on his phone. There are canoes stacked off to one side, and two boats with canvas covers on them on either side of the dock. The lake stretches out in front of him, glinting with moonlight. It’s quiet, except for the soft sounds of insects and a light breeze rustling in the trees.

He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and lets out a long breath. It’s as beautiful a place as Bucky has ever seen. He just hopes Steve likes it.

Later that night, Bucky wakes up to the sound of Steve whispering his name. He turns over in his fluffy cocoon and opens his eyes.

“Bucky?” He can make out Steve’s outline in the dim light, but not much else.

“Steve? What’s wrong?”

“I… I didn’t get to give you a good night kiss.” Steve’s voice is lightly teasing, and Bucky breathes a sigh of relief. This is a nice moment, not a panicked one.

“There’s still time,” Bucky replies, his voice rough with sleep.

Steve moves closer and rests his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. When his lips land on Bucky’s mouth, warm and sure, Bucky feels a shiver run through his body. They trade lazy kisses back and forth for a few minutes, and then Steve ducks his head, resting against Bucky’s chest. Bucky shuffles them until Steve is comfortably curled up against him, just like he did a few nights ago. Bucky doesn’t want to hope it will become a habit, but he can’t help it.

“Love you, Steve,” he says softly.

Steve presses into Bucky’s chest, tightens his arm around his waist. “Love you, too.”

*****

Steve spends most of the next few days sleeping. It’s like someone unplugged him, Bucky thinks. They stopped prodding him with all the things he felt obligated to do, and Steve just collapsed.

Steve doesn’t seem unhappy about it, though. Quite the opposite – he seems delighted with the fact that he can sleep all day long, and so Bucky goes with it. They nap together in bed, or downstairs on the couches. The first floor has a kitchen that opens up into a large room with a generous seating area and shining wood dining table. The big glass windows that open up onto a view of the lake have several settings to give them privacy but still allow them to look out, and Steve insists that the light won’t keep him awake, so they have a stunning view all day long.

When Bucky gets bored of sleeping he works out in the gym, putters around in the kitchen, or reads out on the deck. There’s wifi, of course, with a secure connection, and Bucky chats back and forth with Bruce, and Prisha, and even Pepper. Steve has shown no sign of wanting to talk to anyone else, which is fine, and Prisha assures him the whole sleeping beauty routine is normal – good, even. “It means he’s feeling less pressured,” she tries to explain. “He’s been expending a lot of energy, playing his part. It’s understandable that he’s taking some time to recharge.”

It makes Bucky feel like he should have done more sooner, but he tells himself that’s water under the bridge. Now he just makes sure Steve eats whenever he emerges, and then tucks him back into bed when naptime rolls around again.

On the afternoon of the fifth day Bucky is watching television when Steve shuffles into the living room. His hair is pointing every which way, and he’s wearing the same t-shirt and striped sleep pants he’s had on for about seventy-two hours. Bucky wants to wrap him up in his arms and kiss him silly.

“Can I join you?” Steve asks, and Bucky gives him a look that hopefully says “duh” as clearly as possible. Steve sits down on the couch and then stretches out with his head on Bucky’s leg.

“This okay?”

“Course,” Bucky responds. “It’s nice.” He plays with Steve’s hair a little, and Steve squirms.

“I’m trying to watch the show.”

Bucky laughs. “You don’t even know what I’m watching.”

Steve rolls and looks at Bucky, appalled. “You think I don’t know about Buffy? This show is a classic. Josh Whedon’s best work.” He harrumphs and rolls back over so he can see the screen. “But the earlier seasons are better.”

They argue for a while about which episodes are best. Turns out Bucky hasn’t watched nearly as much of the show as Steve has, and Steve takes it upon himself to remedy the situation. But they can’t agree on where to start, and Steve is too impatient to just begin at the beginning (the internet tells them there are 144 episodes, and Bucky has to agree that’s a lot).

Luckily they find a few good articles claiming to have identified the top ten or so episodes, and soon Steve settles back down again, content to point out favorite moments from his comfortable spot, his head back on Bucky’s thigh, hand gently resting on Bucky’s knee.

After a particularly affectionate moment among the Buffy version of the Scooby gang, Bucky comments that they’re kind of like the Avengers on a good day, and then all bets are off.

“Clint is definitely Xander,” Steve begins. “If anyone was going to get the funny syphilis, it would be him.”

“It would suck to be the one without any superpowers,” Bucky agrees. The serum has been the cause of both good and bad in Bucky’s life, but it definitely gives him an advantage when it comes to fighting evil. And he’s never going to have to worry about syphilis, funny or otherwise. “Natasha is some kind of combination of Willow at her most bad-ass, and Faith,” Bucky continues.

“Yeah, maybe,” Steve says. “A little bad-Willow history, that’s definitely Nat.”

“You’re Buffy, and Coulson is Giles-”

“I am not Buffy,” Steve protests.

“Are you kidding? You save the world on a regular basis, you fight bullies, and you don’t take crap from anyone. You are absolutely Buffy.”

Steve sits up and moves away from Bucky, his face troubled. “No, I’m not. I’m Angel.”

Bucky’s not letting that lie for a moment. “Dark, broody and tragic? Pal, that’s me, not you.” Bucky keeps his tone light, but their conversation has touched something painful in Steve, and he’s not sure what’s going on. He’s also not really interested in delving into the many additional traits he shares with Angel, complete with the back and forth between evil and good, without a doubt a characteristic that does not apply to Steve.

Steve stands up and wraps his arms around himself, and Bucky mutes the television.

“Steve? What’s wrong?”

“I am Angel. He couldn’t be with Buffy because he… he couldn’t be intimate with her.”

“You feel like Angel because you can’t be touched? Steve, Angel was cursed so that experiencing a moment of true happiness took away his soul. That is in no way the same thing as what’s going on with you.”

Steve purses his lips. “Might as well be. We’ve been here a week, and I still can’t let you… “ Steve paces in exasperation. “I thought this was supposed to fix me.”

“Steve, we’ve been here five days, and – and there’s no timeline for this.” Bucky stands and steps closer to Steve, trying to catch his eye. “Do you think that’s what I’m doing, trying to fix you?”

Steve just shrugs, but he doesn’t move away, flicking his eyes up to Bucky and back down at the floor again.

“You’re not broken, Steve, and you don’t need to be fixed. That’s not what’s going on here. You’re unhappy with this one aspect of our relationship, and so we’re working on that. And we can be together no matter what happens. Okay?” Bucky thinks Prisha would be proud of him for this – separating out the intimacy issue from the rest of their relationship. It’s not all about touching, she keeps reminding them. If only Steve would believe it.

Steve shrugs again.

“Steve, if you had found me when you first started searching, back after the helicarrier mess. What do you think you would have found?” It’s pretty much a rhetorical question, so Bucky just goes on when Steve doesn’t answer. “I wasn’t in a good place. I wasn’t ready to just hang out and be pals, shoot the shit at movie night… I could barely think straight. I didn’t know my own name – like, literally. Would you have just ditched me, because I wasn’t fit for civilized company?”

Steve looks appalled. “Bucky – no, of course not!”

“So how can you think I’d be any less understanding with you?”

Steve pouts and doesn’t answer for a long moment. “I dunno. It’s just… it’s hard.”

“I know.” Bucky sighs. “On the bright side, I’m pretty sure you were just snuggling on my lap like a sleepy kitten for the past three or four hours. Some pretty nice cuddling going on there. You haven’t forgotten that, right?”

Steve looks at him. “No. But…”

He’s nothing if not stubborn, but Bucky can see him relenting.

“You’re doing fine, Steve. We’re doing fine.”

“Yeah. Okay. Maybe. But… what if I am like Angel? What if we can never…?”

Bucky grins at him. “If orgasms send you off into hell? Then I’ll come find you and drag you out.”

“Just like Buffy,” Steve says, confident now. “You just proved my point. You’re Buffy, I’m Angel.”

Bucky laughs. “Pretty sure you pulled me out of hell the last time around. But please yourself.” He stretches and looks around as his stomach lets out a loud growl. “Want to take a break and have dinner, if you’re done beating yourself up for now?”

Steve shoves him in the shoulder as they go into the kitchen. “Jerk.”

“Punk.”

#stucky #Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #Captain America #Marvel fic #my fic

6 notes · View notes

princeofshadows-blog1 · 7 years

Text

“True Love”

Inspiration: "True Love" by P!nk (aka it’s basically got the lyrics written in sorry Broski’s lmao).

Fluffy Klangst.

Lance sighed heavily as he stared at his feet, only half listening to what Keith was saying.

"Lance! Honestly, pay attention will you?" Keith exclaimed, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossed.

Lance looked up and scoffed, "Yeah, sure, whatever, Mullet."

Keith glared, moving closer until they were practically nose to nose. "Shut the Hell up, Lance!" Instead of answering, Lance pushed Keith away, glaring back. "You know, sometimes, I hate every single stupid word you say, Lance!"

"Yeah? And sometimes I wanna slap your face with a chair!" He seemed to lose himself for a moment, before continuing in a much softer tone. "But then again, there's really no one like you, Keith." Lance advanced, gently taking one of Keith's hand into his own. "I mean, I've never met a person who could constantly push my buttons like you do."

"Yeah, I know. And I'm sorry that I'm always getting on your nerves." Keith smiled warmly at Lance, his cheeks tinted pink as he pulled Lance into a hug.

It was safe to say, that without the other, their lives would sincerely suck.

Lance hummed happily as he walked up behind Keith, hugging the Red Paladin from behind. "Hey there, Mullet."

Keith grunted in response, "I'm not in the best mood, Lance." He pried himself from Lance's grip and walked down the hall towards his room, Lance not far behind.

"But Keith! What did I do now?"

"Everything!" Keith whirled on Lance, glaring at the boy with angry violet eyes. "You piss me off, and yet I still freaking love you! Always going and flirting with strangers, always poking fun at me, insulting my hair! You know, sometimes I want to hug you, but I also wanna strangle you to death at the same time!"

Lance stared at Keith, processing all that he had just said. "Well, you may be an asshole, but I love you too. You know, sometimes make me really freaking mad."

"Sometimes I ask myself why I'm still here, and ask where else could I go to get away, but... You're the only love I've ever really known, you know?" Keith looked down at his feet, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"You know, sometimes I hate you," Lance replied seriously, hands on his hips. "Sometimes I just really freaking hate you."

Keith laughed, "I guess it must be true love, eh?"

Lance smiled, chuckling softly, "Well, they do say nothing else can break a heart like true love, so I guess it must be that."

"Yeah, no one else can break my heart like you, after all."

Lance sat in Keith's room, curled up on the red paladin's bed and staring intensely at the wall.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" Lance sat up and yanked at his hair, crying out in frustration. "Why? Why'd you have to..."

Keith stared at Lance, not sure what to say. He just stood there, waiting patiently for Lance to calm down, or to at least confide in him what's wrong.

"Keith! Why'd you do that? Answer me, damn it!"

Keith stared at Lance blankly, "Do what?"

"Push me out of the way!"

"Because I love you."

"Yeah, but you got buried under all that rubble instead! Do you realise how hurtful it was for me, watching and waiting and hoping you'd wake up soon? Did you even stop to consider my feelings on the subject?"

Keith huffed angrily, "And mine freaking don't?"

Lance opened his mouth to reply, but Keith wasn't having it.

"You may think that I didn't consider you're feelings, but I did! But I also considered mine, and neither way looked good, so I took a chance and risked my life for yours!" Keith crossed his arms and hung his head, staring at the ground. "I'd gladly give my life for yours."

Lance didn't speak for a while, and Keith knew he was thinking the same thing.

It wasn't until Lance started giggling that Keith looked up, violet eyes brimming with hurt at the thought of Lance laughing at him.

"Wow, way to be romantic." Lance chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye.

Keith's eyebrows shot up, "What?"

Lance rolled his eyes, "You know, romance? Repeat after me, R-O-M-A-N-C-E." Lance smiled brightly, "You can do it, babe."

Keith laughed, "I know what romance is, Lance. And I can spell it just fine. I was just confused, I guess."

Lance smirked, "Well then, I guess the teacher needs to teach the student a new lesson~" He stood up and walked over to Keith, wrapping his arms around the boy's neck.

"U-uhm, what do you m-mean?" Keith internally cursed himself for stuttering.

"Let me show you~" Lance purred, smirking up at Keith before pulling him into a wild, passionate kiss.

When Shiro found the two naked boys curled up together underneath the sheets the next morning, he didn't have the heart to wake them up, choosing to instead leave them as they were.

It was a couple years later, when the Paladins were back on Earth.

Shiro and Allura were happily engaged and were living in the castle, which was now safely hidden away in a beautiful forest where military people apparently couldn't find them. Coran lived there as well, and was always bugging the two with his laughable nonsense, but they didn't care.

Slav, on the other hand, also refused to leave the castle, which meant Shiro had to deal with him until the end of his days. Or Slav's days, if Shiro gets his way. (Don't tell Allura!)

Pidge and Hunk were sharing an apartment in the city, but still constantly visiting their friends. Pidge managed to land a job as a professional hacker for the government, and Hunk opened his own restaurant.

Lance and Keith lived in Keith's old little shack at first, but, due to Lance's constant complaints about how hideous it was and the lack of space and WiFi, Keith finally agreed to move to the city.

They moved into an apartment a couple doors down from Pidge and Hunk, so they were constantly having sleepovers and goofing around and hanging out.

It was paradise.

But then it all changed.

Keith started getting distant, and was constantly nervous around Lance.

Lance didn't know how to figure out what was going on, so he just sat and watched as the love of his life slowly broke their bond, bit by bit.

If only he knew what was causing Keith to break down.

Keith knew Lance was the one he wanted to spend eternity with when they first slept together. He had never felt more loved and cherished than in that very moment.

He went to Shiro for advice, and he realised what he had to do.

He went and bought a set of rings, and hoped to the gods above that Lance would say yes.

It's been a month, and Keith knew that if he procrastinated any longer, it would all fall apart before it even began.

So he set everything up.

A romantic candle lit dinner at Hunk's restaurant (because they all knew that the two would rather eat a good hamburger than something overly expensive and unnecessarily fancy), a friendly moonlit walk along a nearby beach, and finally...

"Hey, Lance?"

Lance snapped his head up to look at Keith, a somewhat dreamy smile on his face. "Yes, babe?"

Keith sighed, before letting go of Lance's hand and stepping away, "I have something important to say."

When Keith looked up at Lance, he could see something akin to fear upon his face, the boy looking ready to bolt.

"Nothing bad, I swear!" Keith rushed out, suddenly internally panicking because what if Lance doesn't want me anymore and says no?

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly when he noticed Lance visibly relax. "It's just... You've always been there for me, even before we were friends. And you never judged me for my past, you didn't judge me for being half Galra, you didn't... You stood by me.

"I don't know if you feel the same after me being all distant and nervous and all, but I know for a fact that I love you, and I don't want to live without you."

He took another deep breath, "Lance McClain, you are one of the most beautiful, most talented, and most charming men I have every met in my life. I love absolutely everything about you. The way you laugh until your stomach hurts, the way you smile constantly, even when your suffering.

"I love the way you wrinkle your nose when you find something rude or cruel or distasteful, and how you always seem to know how to fix problems..."

Keith looked away, getting down on one knee and pulling out a small, purple velvet box.

He looked up at Lance and saw that he was on the verge of tears, a quivering hand covering his mouth.

"I love you more than anything else in this world, and I'd like it if you could be mine forevermore." He looked directly into Lance's eyes and held his gaze as he opened the box, revealing a simple silver band with a single, purple diamond adorning it. "Will you marry me?"

Lance shakily removed his hand from his mouth and held out his left hand for Keith to slip the ring onto, "Idiot. Of course I will."

Keith smiled brightly and jumped to his feet, slipping the ring onto Lance's ring finger and pulling him into a kiss.

"True love came through after all, eh?" Keith mumbled against the others lips, smiling softly.

Lance chuckled, "Yeah, maybe true love does exist. I still hate you, though."

"I hate you too, Lance."

{La Fin}

~Prince Of Shadows

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #lance #lance mcclain #keith #keith kogane #voltron keith #voltron lance #klance #fanfic #fanfiction #gay boys in love

9 notes · View notes

kawasakidragonno · 8 years

Text

The Escape

It's the late late night. But in a big city, there's no such thing as turn the lights out and going sleep.

Skyscrapers stands up from the ground. Signs and lights light up the sky. A big city locates right in the middle of a flat land. Lights can be seen from far far away.

Bars, Clubs fill the downtown. Noisy music and flashes leak into the street. The city never fall asleep. But noisy as it get, there's always a place acts different.

Two motorcycles pass through the silent street. Only faint club music can be heard from here. This is the business block. Being light up by few lamps. Blue tone covers the dead silent block. Motorcycles turned right, into the backstreet and pulled over. Killed their yellow bright light.

Stepping down, two raccoons pulled their helmet down. Reveal their head furs. One is green, while other is Blue.

“Zee, you sure about this?” The raccoon with green fur says. “Yep. This is gonna be way faster than searching scrap yard.” Another raccoon replies.

They're both wearing black long jacket, with green and blue strips on. Giving a futuristic look. Their belt and pocket full of gadgets. Still no one knows what those gonna do.

“Alright, let's see...” The green raccoon pulls up his phone. Scanning the building. “I think this is it. The Bulldog. They have the chips we want. Bee, you brought that Disruptor with you right?” The green raccoon turned to blue raccoon.

“you really sure?” The blue raccoon sounds worried. “Yep, I turned it down a bit this time. It should just cover the wifi. Not frying our bike again.”

The blue raccoon then gives a uncertain look. But still nods. Pulling out a small black box from his pocket. Then press the button. A green light lights up. No spark or smoke. “Got it.” he says.

“Okay. Cool, let's do this. You ready?” The green raccoon pulls out a stun gun. Gives a confident look to blue raccoon. “Yeah, let's do this.” The blue raccoon nods.

They kick open the metal door. Making sure the disruptor suppress the alarm. Then sneaking into the building.

Few moments later, An Iron door swings open. A teaser gun sneak in first, then two raccoons step in. They found themselves inside a server room. Racks of computer lays in front of them. The whole room were cold, and cold blue light didn't make it warmer.

“Whoo, So cold. You think their database's here?” The green raccoon asks. His body shivering but he's really excited. The blue raccoon looks around and reply. he's also shivering from coldness. “Yeah, I pin down the IP. It's from here. Let's find a terminal and grab a higher access...then get out of here before we're frozen.”

Wandering through the racks, They stopped. Found a rack with screen and keyboard. Then plug in a usb sticks. Texts instantly fly through the screen, bringing some white light into the room.

But then, the screen went black. Nothing shows up. The green raccoon got confused. He turns to other raccoon. “Is this how it supposed to be?” The blue raccoon giggles. “Nah, just a screen saver. We're in.”

Tapping the keyboard, screen shows a desktop. The blue raccoon then begins exploring inside the system. “Okay. Let's find that chip we're looking for. Hope it's not in those chip bags inside vending machine.”

With green raccoon curious watching. Blue raccoon feed Lines of codes into the server. Run through the files. And a map shows up.

“I got it!” “What? So fast?” The green raccoon snorts. He was just about to wandering around. “Really?” “Yeah, They already put everything together. Watch this.” The blue raccoon taps the key. An unlock sound went through from far end. A glass door swings open.

“That's the storage room, let's grab the chip and get the hell outta here.”

The sky begins to bright. No longer pitch black but now dark blue-ish. The faint club music disappears from the street. It's the silent before dawn. The street seems really empty now.

Back door swings open. Two raccoons sneak out of the building, with giggles. “Dude, can't believe it's that easy. We should do this again.” “Sure.” They jump on their bike. Ignition. Just as they ready to roll out, A super bright light blocked their way. Making their eyes sore. And then, a loud shouting toward them.

“Get off your bike, now!” It's a guard. Two guards standing with guns armed. They been waiting for the two raccoons to come out.

“Damn, they're quicker than I thought.” The blue raccoon turns to the green raccoon. They both are blocking the light with hand. shrug, the blue raccoon seems not not scared at all. “How do you say, Zee?”

The guards shout again. Sounds really angry. “I say get off the bike, now!”

“well, time to do that I guess” The blue raccoon winks at his brother. And press a red button on the bike.

Suddenly, spark burst out from the guard's car. An EMP shock wave fried the car's system. Distracting two guards and leaves a big open space. The twins went full throttle, made engine screaming. “see you later slow-hos!”

Two bike disappeared and leave two guards breathing smokes.

“Oh yeah~ that was awesome Zee!” Riding down the street, the blue raccoon cheers. “Welp, that works. Still can't believe that worked.” Laughing and dashing down the street. It's almost dawn.

Buildings disappear behind the mirror.

They're leaving the downtown.

Jumping through a broken fences, two raccoons riding along the canal. On the side, flashy glass skyscrapers replaced by older apartments.

A moment later, In suburbs. They came to an old shack in the forest. The twins parked their bikes outside.

“Hey, Saki. We're back.” The Blue raccoon taps on the door. The from-the-scarp wooden door swings open. A tail tip greeted the twins on the door.

Inside the shack, 15 foot long eastern dragon lays along the wall. With the tail wiggling. He seems happy to see the twins. “Hey. How was last night?” “Nice, got a big one~” The Blue raccoon playful strokes the tail and walk in. The dragon then stretches his body happily.

The old shack is not big. But enough for two raccoons and a dragon. Some planks were pinned on the wall. Has many tools on it. A desk on the side. Piles of electronics on top of it. Some welding and cutting tool. And Two laptops with advanced look on them, plus transparent screens. Not blending well with old shack to be honest.

“So, how was the war? Did they push back?” The Green raccoon steps in. Dropping the bag on the table. The dragon shook his head. “Nah, they didn't make it. It's on the news.” He points at the laptop. “They're pulling out. The front line is moving this way fast. That's all I know. It's so hard to gather all these with trash news in the way.”

The green raccoon walks up and sits on the bed. He let out a long sigh. “Damn, looks like we might need to move then. I'll miss this small cozy shack.” The blue raccoon pulls a chair out. Sitting down in front the desk. Tapping on the keyboard, seems worried. “I hope we can find another place like this...IF we have to. We're lucky to find a place away from city still having electricity running.”

“Does that means, we are moving out tomorrow?” The dragon crawl up to the bed, laying besides the green raccoon. Letting the raccoon strokes his mane.

“Sorry Kawasaki, I'm afraid we need to use worst plan..” The Blue raccoon taps the enter key. hands a laptop to the green raccoon. “Here, take a look at this.”

A map showing on the screen. The dragon raise his head to take closer look. Some place were marked up.

“I already thought this could happen. So I find a cargo train driving to Glass city. We need to move tonight if we want to catch it.” The blue raccoon explains. Tapping the keys. A line drawing on the railroad. All the way to another city. “Train will be going for like hours. Unless we want to but tickets and get caught. This is our only ride.”

The green raccoon shrugs. “Guess time to pack up then. I'm gonna miss here. But before packing up...” He yawns and stretches his arm. Lies beside the dragon. “Ah...I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up at noon. Thanks~”

The dragon and the blue raccoon looks at the green raccoon. Then giggles together. “Hey Saki', you might want to see this.” The blue raccoon put his metal hand on table. Unscrewing a plate. Revealing few expansion slot. Some were already taken.

He then open the box at the corner. A shiny golden cartridge inside. “Woah... So this is the chip you got from the company?” The dragon raise his head. Staring at the golden cartridge like it's a treasure.

“Yeah” the raccoon saw the dragon's reaction, giggles a bit. “Some guard tried to get their chips back. They didn't made it. Okay, I'm gonna put it in. Let's hope my arm won't fry it.” He carefully insert the card into the slot. Then Both dragon and raccoon staring at the cartridge. Waiting. And....A green light lights up. The card's in now.

Closing the plate. The blue raccoon let out a relief. “Jesus, I thought it's gonna blow on my face.”

“What does this chip do?” The dragon tilt his head. Taping the metal arm. “Well, watch this.” The blue raccoon point his metal arm at the computer. The screen instantly fade out and went black.

“Nice, it worked.” The blue raccoon cheers. Then open the plate again and do some adjustment.

“Remote control to computer?” The dragon went over and tap the key. Bring the computer back on. “It's Wireless Remote Access Tool chip. I load some common protocols and decryption file on my arm. Now I can do simple hacking really fast. I guess we can hack some digital door for now. But who knows we can do in the future.”

The blue raccoon explains. sounds excited. “This is going to help us a lot on the trip. Alright, after I'm done with this then we need to pack up.”

The Sun went across the sky. The night falls. The city lights up again as usual. Moon doesn't come out. Tonight's a dark night for ferret twins and dragon.

Leaving the bikes in the shack. Covered up.Bags with some of their equipment. Far away from the noisy downtown. They are outside a train yard. Peeking inside the fence. There's many train parking. But not much going on. This scene got the dragon confused. “Hmm...strange, I thought everyone should be escaping now. But I don't see many people”

Blue raccoon turned his head and response. “That's why we're here Saki'. Stations in the town are jacked. But this station don't accept passengers. Hey Zee, you brought that pliers with you right?”

The green raccoon nods. Pulling out a big pliers from backpack. “Yep Bee, give me a sec.”

“So...that means we're not welcome here either?” The dragon asks, he's still peeking inside the yard. While the green raccoon clips a big hole on the metal fence. “Yep, plus we didn't pay for the tickets. So better watch out now. They're gonna be super mad at us.”

They waited and pay attention to surroundings. But no alarm goes off nor someone shows up. Then they sneaks in. giggling and excited.

In the yard, after crossing few tracks. They stopped between two cargo trains. The green raccoon turn to his brother. “Okay, which train we're looking for, Bee?“ The blue raccoon response, tapping his phone. “Looks like...Our train is on track 6. A long cargo train with white paint carriage. “

“Hey Saki' can you give me a hand? See if you can find it.”

The dragon nods. He leans his long body on the train and peeks out. Hope he won't draw attention. “Careful, don't want those people come find us.” the green raccoon says. The twins both are now watching the dragon peeking.

The train yard's really big. And the almost filled tracks aren't helping. He look around. Colorful carriage all over the place. But he don't see a white carriage at all.

“Come on....where is it? I don't want to get caught like this...... Ah screw it. I can't see stuff like this.“

The dragon raise his head higher. That scared the twins. But a pure white train catches the dragon's eyes. It was blocked by a taller train.

“Found it. 5 trains to that way. We need to cross these trains.” The dragon went down. Point at a direction and tell the twins. The green raccoon laughs.“Dude. you got some balls to stick your head out like that.” “I can't see stuff with that 'attitude' you know.” the dragon shrugs.

They then went to the gap between the carriages. Cross over and peek out. Everything remain silent. And quietly cross another track. Three of them finally made it to the white train.

“There it is. Come on, get in.”The green raccoon pulls open the carriage door. They climb inside the empty carriage. Let out a relief sigh. “Thank god no one find us. I think the guards are sleeping tonight.”

Suddenly, an echo of far steps approaches. “Shh! you hear that?” The blue raccoon lowers his voice. The twins ear both tens up and the dragon froze in place. “What's that?”green raccoon whispers. They're listening. Silently.

Blur talking sound. Metal clinching. Carriage door slide open and close. That sounds like...

''Damn it. Just when I think they're lazy.” The green raccoon's tail tense up. Walks over and try to lock the door. “Wait, don't lock the door.” The dragon shouts in lowered voice. That confused Blue raccoon. “What? Why?” the raccoon's just pulling out a big teaser from his bag. “just wait. You'll see”

Footstep gets louder. There's several guards approaching. The carriage door behind them slide open. Making a big noise. “Got anything?” “Nope.” Two man talks. The door slide close again. “So many people in the city. Hope they won't go this far to take a train. Or we will have form to fill. Damn I hate that.”

“I have an idea. Get your pack up and come here.”Inside the carriage. The dragon whispers. “We're playing advanced hide and seek.”

The footsteps come close. “Eeeep!” The metal door slide open. A bright light shoot inside the carriage the three is in.

“Yooo...look at this one” the gray uniform guard told another guard in blue suit. They both staring into the carriage now.

“So flashy and tidy. I bet this car's arrived here not long ago.” He let out a whistle at empty carriage. The raccoon twins and the dragon seems vanished. The guards didn't see them. They then Lean back a bit to see the shiny surface on the carriage. It's quite cleaner compare to other carriage in the same train.“Well. Come on Francis. we still got tons of cars to check.” The blue suit guard shrugs, shut the door close. And walk away with the other guard.

The food step went faint. And the talking faded out.

“Whoo...that was close.“ The dragon was sticking on the ceceiling all the time. Lucky the guard did not look up or enter the carriage. Two raccoons also riding on dragon's back.

He then floats down from the ceiling. They get down on the floor. The green raccoon open the metal door for a peek. “Welp, They're gone. That scared the hell out of me.”

“Thanks, Saki. That was nice one. They didn't even know we're here.” The blue raccoon stroke the dragon's head. “Welp, free ride to glass city. What else can I ask for.”

They drop down the bags then lies down and relax. Prepare for a long ride.

After a while. The train horns the loud horn and start moving. “How long is this ride by the way?” The dragon asks. “8 hours I think. It's quite far from here.”

The train pick up the speed and leaves the train yard. Road lamps pass by. The metal's clinching. Crossing signal passed by. And now there's only the train's noise's left. They're really moving now.

Leaving the city behind. They went into the forest. On the way for another city. And another unknown adventure.

This is a small story I wrote not long ago. Kind of like a small experiments.

Featuring Zippers (The green raccoon. AKA Zee) and Buttons (The blue raccoon. AKA Bee) from @banzai-jinto

Thanks Banzai ^w^ hope you like it.

#Kawasaki #banzai-jinto #Zippers #Buttons #story #I'm not sure how many people will read it but just writing this story is worth it ^^#oh well

3 notes · View notes

cornersofthew0rld · 7 years

Text

Colombia; Vol. 3

And now to commence my segment on the northern Caribbean coast! Again, bits and bobs were written on the day and the rest was written post-travels, so apologies for any confusion with tenses/lack of cohesion.

Tuesday 29th – so we arrived to the bus terminal in Cartagena at about 1pm (an hour or two later than planned), and I took a taxi straight to my hostel, through lots of heavy traffic. After dumping my stuff I walked around the entire centro histórico (incredibly beautiful colonial buildings) and bought a coconut on the street filled with its yummy water. Had some dinner in the only cheap traditional restaurant where I had a chat with the owner who told me about his life in Cartagena (where he moved to from Medellin). Got back to the hostel in the evening, and was about to have a shower when I saw a HUGE cockroach crawling along the floor! So naturally I ran out screaming and had to use a different bathroom. Had a beer and a chat with the guy working the night shift who told me about his life, and went to bed at about 12:30am.

Wednesday 30th – I wasn’t sure what to do today at first, whether to do something in Cartagena or go elsewhere; but since the historic centre is quite small so I had already seen all of it, and the majority of the city is poorly constructed residential areas, I decided eventually to take a bus and then a mototaxi (a ‘taxi’ which is really just a motorbike; I had a helmet but of course no biking leathers, yes parents I was fine but yes I was also pretty worried about injuring myself!!) to la Playa Blanca, on La Isla Barú. Right now I am sitting here typing this in my hammock on the white beach before the crystal blue and very calm sea, where I am going to spend the night. I have to keep reminding myself not to get carried away with how much time I spend in each place, as I don’t really have that much time to travel most of the north coast! Only two or so weeks! But this beach is really incredibly beautiful, even though it’s sometimes annoying that I have no running water/wifi/electricity apart from one hour when the sun goes down. Oh and rats chewed massive holes in my lovely tote bag overnight because I left a few bananas in there. Gross!

Thursday 31st – I decided to stay another night on la Playa Blanca since it’s so beautiful, and the rent of my hammock was a mere £4 a night. I woke up accidentally at about 6am and witnessed the sun rising, which was beautiful; at which point the food sellers started walking the beach and I bought egg arepas, watermelon and papaya. During the day I decided to pay for a boat ride to the Rosario islands, a collection of tiny islands about a 20-minute ride from where I was staying. I snorkelled around the coral reefs and saw loads of weird and wonderful fish! Returned to the beach, got an amazing 40-minute whole body massage from a local lady for about £8, chatted to loads of the locals and guys selling things on the beach, and the very hippie Argentinian couple who were pitching their tent on the sand near my hammock. Lovely chilled out day overall, though I did manage to get sunburnt, classic English style.

Friday 1st September – did a bit of swimming around the Playa Blanca, drove a jetski for the first time to another little coral reef off the Isla Barú and had a look at the fish with a snorkel, before showering, eating ‘pan de coco’ (coconut bread – delicious!) and getting my stuff together to catch the mototaxi back into Cartagena, where I then took a normal car taxi to the bus station. Having spoken a lot to the Spanish girl who ran my hostel, she had put me in contact with a man in Taganga (a tiny beach town on the outskirts of Santa Marta) who runs what I thought was just a normal hostel but is actually an Airbnb (I suppose it got lost in translation) and would give me a private room for only 20,000 pesos a night (i.e. ridiculously cheap, about £5.50). There was loads of traffic on the way to the station so I missed the 3pm bus I wanted to get by about 20 minutes and was told the next one was at 5pm, so was sitting around sweating all the liquid out of my body and with very little nutritional food on sale in the station. I arrived quite late to Santa Marta, so had to take a taxi from Santa Marta bus station to Taganga, where I met with José, my host for the weekend. He showed me the house and I played with his gorgeous spaniel Toby, before settling in for the night – I don’t know what it is about long journeys, but it just tires me out so much even though all I did was sit down!

Saturday 2nd – since José had no plans for the weekend he offered to show me some of the cool stuff around the area! We spent the day on la Playa Grande, where we had lunch and did some snorkelling, ate dinner at home and then drove to Santa Marta to check out the port and walk around the old town centre, had a drink in a bar that was playing reggaeton! Then we went back to Taganga as I was still really tired from the previous day. It’s also impossible not to wake up early in this extreme heat, so I couldn’t have had a lie in if I tried.

Sunday 3rd – we drove up to Minca, the cloud forest a little way into the Sierra Nevada mountains, and hiked up to the set of waterfalls with Toby. José initially was not in a very good mood as he received news in the morning that his friend in Cali was in a serious car accident, but we managed to have a nice time nonetheless. We went home and cooked there and just chatted – spending time with José really helped me practise my speaking skills! His English is very limited which I really appreciate haha, as it forces me to explain difficult things in Spanish rather than reverting to English.

Monday 4th – José left very early in the morning to go to work in Bogotá, so I decided to take his advice and do the mini diving course available at one of the dive centres on the seafront. I got there at about 9am and ask to join the group for the day, and immediately got on with the instructors there. Even though I did snorkelling on Isla Barú and at la Playa Grande, it was a shame as clearly a lot of the corals were bleached and there just weren’t that many to begin with. And of course I wasn’t able to go down very deep. But this was without doubt one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! Being able to dive down and coexist with these creatures even for just 40 minutes at a time is just wonderful. You can easily find statistics on the biodiversity of coral reefs and how despite the fact they cover a mere 1% of the earth’s oceans, they contribute about 20% to the fauna and flora species – this was apparent even on the short dives I did! I loved it so much I decided to stay in Taganga until Friday in order to take the 3-day diving course (which also allowed me to pass the NAUI diving test and become a certified scuba diver)!

Tuesday 5th – started the 3-day diving course this morning, which involved learning about all the kit, diving theory and doing underwater exercises with the ventilators and mask. We did most of the boring stuff (!) today, and did proper dives again on the following days; but of course it was still lovely to just hang out in the sun and have a laugh with the instructors. I moved into the very basic hostel of the dive centre (where they have cockroaches!!) to stay until I left Taganga, as it was free since I was already paying the fees for the course.

Wednesday 6th – 2nd day of the diving course – did two dives today; the one in the morning was to a little shipwreck off the point of the bay, and the other to the other side of the bay. Like the first day, I saw lots of morays, a squid, sea urchins, these weird lizard things that run around on the sand of the seabed, and of course plenty of fish of all different colours; and on this day I actually witnessed my instructor Yarith spearing a lionfish with his harpoon! This was made into ceviche later on that day, which looked incredible but alas, I of course did not eat it. Lionfish are the only species of fish that they are allowed to catch, as they were introduced to the Caribbean by humans (I think?) and are affecting the populations of basically all other fish on the coral reefs.

Thursday 7th – final day of the diving course, and today we went to Tayrona national park for the day – totally beautiful. Completely secluded white sand beach, crystal clear blue waters with visibility for like 15 metres underwater, and there was absolutely no one else around! The corals started a mere 3 or so metres from the shore, so I could see them just from swimming around on the surface! Loads of tiny hermit crabs about ½ of the size of my little fingernail, countless species of fish swimming in shoals, and all the other things I listed before. I took the boat back to Taganga with a couple of the instructors (the others were staying on the beach all weekend as the bogotanos who started their courses that day were spending their whole course there!) where we had a few beers before I turned in for the night.

Friday 8th – took the bus from Taganga to Santa Marta, got off at the stop and walked to the bus station, wading though torrential rain and ridiculous puddles up to my knees which led a truck driver to take pity on me and give me a lift to the bus station. Took a coach to Palomino, where I stayed at a very nice ‘hostel’ which was basically a hotel, it was so nice. Palm trees all over the area, a swimming pool, gorgeous huts for dorm rooms. Had a walk down to the beach and a little swim, then went back up to lie by the pool and swim there. Then a storm came down at about 4pm and it didn’t stop raining for about 5 hours so just hung around the hostel, had some dinner there and got chatting to the Colombians working behind the bar. When it stopped raining and they finished their shifts, I ended up going out to a salsa/bachata bar with them and having a dance! It was a nice place to chill out, but really I didn’t think the town was that interesting, there wasn’t a lot to actually do or explore and the beach wasn’t nice enough to just hang out there all day (although I suppose now I am a little biased, having already been to what I consider not only the best beaches in Colombia but the best ones I’ve seen in my life). Maybe if I wasn’t travelling solo and had chosen a better hostel (where people weren’t there to just chill out) I wouldn’t have got bored so easily.

Saturday 9th – checked out of the hostel by about 11am and then took a bus from Palomino to Riohacha, the biggest city (though still small compared to what I’m used to) in the department of La Guajira. Had a walk along the sea front, which was pretty dead by the time I got there as it was nearly sunset, bought a small dinner at a stall there before going back to the hostel, as there wasn’t much else to do and not many people staying at the hostel. Caught up on Game of Thrones after avoiding the internet for so long in case of spoilers! And had an early night, ready for the next day.

Sunday 10th – I was able to leave the bulk of my belongings at the hostel for the next few days, thanks to the kind hostel owner, as I knew I wouldn’t need much of it and lugging it around in the extreme heat would have been a pain. I took a shared taxi at about 9am from the hostel in Riohacha to Uribia, then took a mototaxi on a little tour around the Manuare salt flats (still very cool, but not as impressive as I was expecting them to be) and the flamingos that migrate to Musichi at certain times of the year. The driver of the mototaxi actually wasn’t as good at Spanish as I was expecting, as he mostly speaks the language of the Wayuu people who live in the region since there aren’t many people of European/other foreign origin there. He then took me back to Uribia, and as I was getting off (on the wrong side of the motorbike) I badly burned the inside of my calf on the exhaust pipe of the bike; the wound of which did not heal into a proper scab (it was just open flesh and pus haha, probably because of the humid environment and the fact I couldn’t properly disinfect it for a few days after it happened) for 2 or 3 weeks, and the scar of which I still have about 2 months later. I got onto the big jeep taking about 15 people to Cabo de la Vela through the desert, which basically just bumped over a dirt track for about 2 hours; this really is the middle of nowhere. If someone had a heart attack or something out there they would definitely just die; I think the nearest proper hospital is in Riohacha. I got chatting to a lovely hippie Spanish couple sitting next to me in the jeep, who said I could borrow their hammock to sleep in while I stay on the beach in Cabo, as they would be using their tent! This was so nice, I only had to pay about £2 for the two nights I was there to the rasta guy who owned the kite surfing centre, and also the thatched hut roofs which kept us sheltered from the sun during the day and the tree trunk ‘poles’ of which I tied the hammock to. We ate dinner all together at one of the beach restaurants that was next to our pitch, and settled in for the night not long after as there were basically no lights and it was pitch black by about 7/8pm.

Monday 11th – spent the middle 4 or 5 hours of the day hidden in the shadows of my hut, as the sun was so strong I was afraid for my skin and could hardly function in the heat anyway. This was a shame, but I had a dip in the sea every now and then, played around with one of the indigenous kids throwing sand with the consistency of a sort of clay-mud at each other, and later in the afternoon I had a walk through Cabo exploring, and met a Mexican guy who was also travelling by himself. Had some beers with him and the Colombian guys (not sure why I found this strange but they were all from Cartagena? I wondered how they all ended up there) who ran some of the kite surfing centres, before going to bed by about 1am, as I had a verrrry early morning the next day!

Tuesday 12th – got up really early, around 5am, to get my stuff into a jeep and travel a long way to Punta Gallinas, the most northern point of the whole of South America! This required a 2 hour long jeep through the desert again, to Puerto Bolivár, where we took a speedboat for 2 hours to Punta Gallinas. So we arrived a little after 9am, at which point we had breakfast in the little covered ‘restaurant’ (it was just a 50m2 platform off the sand with a thatch roof over it to cover us from the sun). We were shown to our hammocks, and then I took a short walk through a bit of the desert with a German girl to see if we could find something other than sand and cacti (we didn’t), at which point it was too hot to continue and I could feel myself starting to burn, so we headed back to the camp. The other boats had arrived from Puerto Bolivár (we had been the first) and so we set off in jeeps to see the Punta Gallinas landmark, a few photo opportunities at different sand dunes and bays, and then headed to a gorgeous beach where there were about a hundred pelicans floating around. I started talking to a hilarious German couple, Olga and Felix, who were just a few years older than me, and we had a lot of laughs together than day; I recommended the diving course to them if they had never done it before, and they said they might make a detour to do it. The Wayuu people living there had brought a cool box of beers and water, which were gladly received at this point as it must have been 40-45 degrees. I got chatting to a lovely Brazilian man called Biano who was doing yoga on the beach and of whom I was very jealous (I am not at the point in my practice where I can do headstands or handstands haha), and sat with him and the German couple for dinner, which was a huge meal and delicious. Those who ate fish probably had the best lobster of their lives – along with all the trimmings of rice, patacones, salad and other things, they had two enormously fat lobsters caught that day each, for about £10. I was still very pleased with my meal, which was the same except instead of lobsters I had some delicious green lentils and a fried egg. We stayed until long into the night just chatting and looking at the stars – we could see the Milky Way so clearly, it felt like a weirdly spiritual transcendent experience.

Wednesday 13th – left Punta Gallinas really early in the morning (though I was tempted to stay longer just to be in peace and quiet and enjoy the wonderful beach, Biano had already been there for 2 days by the time I arrived), got on the boat at about 5am to Puerto Bolivár, where the jeeps were waiting to take people back to Cabo de la Vela. My jeep back to Uribia, as I was supposed to be going directly, did not arrive at all and I was worrying that I would be stranded in the desert alone with no internet or phone service…another driver offered me his spare seat in his jeep to go back to Cabo de la Vela for free, which obviously I greatly appreciated, but was really annoyed as that had added another hour or so to my journey. I found the same Wayuu lady I booked the trip with in Cabo, and had a go at her for not sending someone to pick me up, as I had paid extra to go directly to Uribia; she apologised and said that since I was the only person going to Uribia from the port that they would not be able to set me up with a private jeep, so she put me straight on another jeep from there going to Uribia. I was of course still very angry, but there wasn’t really anything to be done at that point and I was tired, so I appreciated that at least I was getting my own jeep back to Uribia and went straight to sleep. Once I arrived in Uribia, I took a shared taxi back to my hostel in Riohacha to have a shower (this was amazing! I hadn’t showered since Saturday!), collect my rucksack and get the bus to Santa Marta; where I then shared a taxi to Taganga. I arrived in Taganga at about 8/9pm and went straight to my hostel to get some much-needed sleep!

Thursday 14th – got down to the dive centre at around 8am ready for my final dive in the Tayrona national park! And the lovely German couple I met in Punta Gallinas had decided to come too, so I had friends in them and the dive instructors, it was great! It was the same setup as the previous Thursday; boat to the national park, where we spent the whole day and ate freshly cooked lunch right on the beach, with absolutely no other people around. These dives were particularly special as I saw a manta ray!! I tapped on my oxygen tank to get the attention of Michael, my instructor, and the other girl I was diving with, and they were also both over the moon about it; my instructor told me when we reached the surface that even he hadn’t seen one before as they usually stay far away from the divers, and he’s been working there for a year or two, diving nearly every day! I feel so lucky to have witnessed that. We got back to the dive centre at about 7pm, and I was really sad to say goodbye; Gabriela (the 11 year old daughter of the owner), who seemed to have taken quite a liking to me, was also upset that I had to leave haha. I rushed to the bus station in Santa Marta as I had arrived later than expected and didn’t have much time to get ready to leave, but managed to make the 8:30pm bus back to Medellin.

Friday 15th – the night bus was really late arriving to Medellin, so as soon as I got off the bus in the station (about 2pm) I went to buy my ticket to Guatapé as I didn’t make it there the last time I was in Medellin. I had just paid to put my rucksack in the storage area of the station when the people at the ticket desk started shouting for me, saying the bus was about to leave; I rushed to go through the security and get my bag scanned, and was just approaching the bay when they told me the bus had just left. I was understandably very gutted about this, but accepted that I would have only been able to spend about an hour there anyway, which just wouldn’t have been enough time to fully appreciate it and see all the landmarks there – so I have vowed to myself that I will be returning at some point in the future. I went to find my hostel, where I relaxed a bit and started chatting in Spanish to a German girl (whose English was surprisingly not very good) who had arrived a couple of days before and was looking for an apartment; she said that she was going to be living in Medellin for the next year as part of her university degree! I was obviously very jealous! We went to the supermarket to get some food (where I also ended up spending about 30,000 pesos on a pair of trousers).

Saturday 16th – ate almost an entire watermelon and some granadillas and bread for breakfast, before sadly saying goodbye to my hostel in Medellin and getting to the stop for the ‘colectivos’ (shared taxis to the airport). Luckily these taxis take an amazing route up and around the mountain, so I had some wonderful views of my favourite Colombian city as I said goodbye.

#travel #travelling #colombia #caribbean #cartagena #isla baru #playa blanca #santa marta #taganga #riohacha #uribia #manaure #musichi #punta gallinas #puerto bolivar #cabo de la vela

0 notes

ruanaich · 8 years

Text

Waking up on Loch Moidart

I’d spent Saturday snowboarding at Nevis Range and the plan was to head out west once more to Ardnamurchan and stay overnight where Loch Moidart meets the Atlantic.

I made my way from the ski area to Fort William after a quick stop in Glen Nevis to watch the final rosé rays of the sun on the snowy mountain peaks. I had to visit the town to stock up on some overnight supplies and stop nearby the train station where I could make use of the wifi and download some podcasts for night time listening.

The rosé light in Glen Nevis

Once on the road it would be less than a 2 hour drive, but despite the lack of light for photography, I knew I’d make the odd stop to take in the surroundings. The Glenfinnan road is fairly fast, stopping just a couple of times to take in the blowing mountain tops under a full moon that was also reflecting off Loch Eil, where the wind denied a still reflection on its rippled surface. After turning off this main road I passed Lochailort and onto the Atlantic coast where once again I stopped to take in the shadowy shapes of the Islands of Eigg and Rum on the horizon.

The road narrowed and I passed a doe and fawn roe deer in the darkness, I vaguely recognised the road from just over a year before when I had passed in the opposite direction on the way to Arisaig. This time though it was reversed and in darkness, but my phone occasionally announced directions as I made my way through one of the most remote parts of the British Isles. Despite it being remote I passed a few settlements and as I closed in on my destination, notice a few of these roads were private, belonging to local estates, but eventually I found the carpark for Castle Tioram, my destination and sleeping spot for the night.

There was another vehicle in residence in the spot I had chosen, but since we were at the terminus of a rather long single track road, I was going to have to share this spot with neighbours. I don’t mind if they don’t. I parked diagonally opposite from them to maximise space and hopefully not disturb them with closing doors and the like. After a day of snowboarding and driving though, I rather quickly found my eyelids weighed heavy and it wouldn’t be long before I drifted of in the glow from my iPad as I failed to witness the end of another movie.

Cold shivers woke me from a relatively good sleep in the passenger side of the car. I was wrapped in my sleeping bag and I could feel the cold on my legs and feet. I hadn’t resorted to my down jacket in the night so it hadn’t been too bad. When I was awake enough to take note of the time, it was just before 7am. Not bad and not a particularly early start either. The sky was getting lighter and I could see the moon was still up, reflecting across a shimmering bay. I stayed here for a reason, so thought I’d better get myself up and out there and appreciate the view.

I was greeted with a view and a half. Almost clear cool blue skies were trimmed with pink clouds on the horizon and the moon hung low over the small islands in the outlet of Loch Moidart. Further out sat the Island of Muck. And there, surrounded by the still waters of Loch Moidart was Castle Tioram, with a backdrop of a Scottish fjord that looked like it could also have been in the Pacific north west, Vancouver Island or anywhere just as picturesque, they don’t have castles though! It was incredibly peaceful as I returned from a visit to the car with my camera and tripod. I shot a bit of video as well as the moon over the water, watching its steady progress as it sank into a bed of cloud where the sky met the sea.

I returned to the car to boil up some water for a coffee and the sky lightened. My camp spot in the parking area was surrounded by forest as well as being sheltered under a rocky outcrop so remained in the cold shadows. In contrast, the opposite side on the loch was being lit up by the progression of the sun. Rich copper tones painted the tips of the trees and the bracken covered hill behind, contrasting beautifully against a crisp cobalt sky. Isolated houses were dotted occasionally amongst the trees. Some were lucky enough to have their own boathouses with slipways down to the water. Idyllic accommodation, even more so in the summer I’d imagine, give or take a midge or a million.

After my coffee I made my way along to the Castle itself, which sat a small isthmus which was rapidly revealing itself as the tide retreated. I hopped over the remnant water way separating the castle from the mainland and continued over the sandy approach before climbing amongst the tussocks of grass growing out of bedrock taking me to the level of the ancient building. The castle’s location is its main appeal last the walls themselves are fairly featureless apart from some moulded features on the battlements on the seaward side. It was closed off for renovation with warnings not to enter, so I concentrated on the surroundings. Looking back to the shore a tree covered rocky cliff guarded an opening to Loch Moidart, a handful of tree covered rocky islands populated the waterway with hills rising beyond, the highest peak contrasted the burnt umber with its bright snowy covering. This really did look to me like some Norwegian fjord, or at least what I imagine a small fjord might look like having never been to Norway myself.

I scanned the still waters for life. Every ripple or alert from a bird could be an otter or something more exotic. No extraordinary creatures made an appearance though. Just the odd gull or curlew was seen. The animals were probably still tucked up in bed. The landscape was all I needed. The perfect walk on a crisp winter morning took my mind off the fact there was little snow around for sport and that I wasn’t spending as much time doing what I love snowboarding.

My stroll easily took up the whole morning and it was around noon when I thought I should start my way back through Ardnamurchan and take in the views as I drove up the coast through the beauty of Glenuig, Roshven and Lochailort. The views across the sea to Eigg and Rum were truly stunning with snow capped peaks and russet tones.

I returned to Fort William in strong sunshine and as I passed through Glenfinnan, the massive bulk of Ben Nevis and surrounding mountains looked resplendent in white. Nevis Range and it’s ski slopes looked tempting, but I was too late to make a day’s snowboarding happen. Did I regret it? No, not at all. I’d had some action the day before. Conditions may not have been the best, but my little Ardnamuchan adventure more than made up for it.

Ben Nevis from Glenfinnan

After grabbing brunch and editing some shots in Fort William, I then went on to meet friends staying in Glencoe. There may have been a chance that Monday would have opportunities to snowboard. This turned out not to be the case, with high winds, low cloud and rain. No matter, I had my day in the sun the day before.

Making my way home via Loch Tulla

Castle Tioram Waking up on Loch Moidart I’d spent Saturday snowboarding at Nevis Range and the plan was to head out west once more to Ardnamurchan and stay overnight where Loch Moidart meets the Atlantic.

#Aerdnamurchan #car camp #castle #Loch #Moidart #moon #photography #Scotland #west highlands

0 notes