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khushisingh2812 · 6 months

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Pune's Charm: Hotels that Showcase the City's Essence

Pune, the hub of Maharashtra culture, reveals its allure with a plethora of hotels and resorts, each telling a tale that reflects the spirit of the city. Pune's hospitality scene offers a range of experiences to suit different tastes, from energetic city life to tranquil retreats.

1. Heritage Havens to Contemporary Comfort: Exploring Pune's Hotels

Pune's hotels provide witness to both the current vibrancy and historical legacy of the city. Enjoy the modern appeal of places like Koregaon Park or lose yourself in the ancient splendor of the old city. The choices provide a blend of traditional and modern luxury, and are just as varied as the city itself.

Going a little further, Pune's cultural havens have architectural wonders that whisk visitors back in time. Discover locations of historical and cultural value, such as Shaniwar Wada, and stay in hotels that have incorporated these features into their architecture with ease.

Conversely, modern hotels with cutting-edge amenities can be found in places like Koregaon Park, where modern comforts are the main attraction. By contrasting these experiences, visitors may select lodgings that suit their tastes and design a uniquely personalized trip in Pune.

2. Urban Oasis: Navigating Pune's Tranquil Resorts

Discover Pune's resorts to get away from the bustle of the city itself. These undiscovered jewels provide the ideal combination of urban elegance and the peace of nature. Resorts provide a tranquil haven without deviating too far from the bustle of the city, whether they are tucked away in the Pune hills or among the city's verdant vegetation.

Pune's serene retreats often provide wellness facilities to improve the resort experience. Imagine taking a restorative spa day or a cool plunge in a natural pool. These resorts are perfect for anyone looking for a peaceful mix of urban and nature environments since they provide more than just a place to stay but also a comprehensive getaway

3. On Your Schedule: Embracing Flexibility with Hourly Hotels

The hourly hotels in Pune are revolutionizing the travel experience for people looking for flexibility. These rooms adjust to your schedule, whether you need a few hours to relax, catch up on work, or rejuvenate. Make the most of your stay with hourly hotels in Pune by experiencing it at your own pace, unrestricted by conventional check-in and check-out schedules.

For visitors on a tight schedule or seeking a short recharge, hourly stays provide a special benefit. With the flexibility to reserve a room for the precise amount of time required, Pune's vibrant cultural centers and busy commercial areas become more accessible, enabling guests to make the most of their stay

Hourly stays offer a unique advantage for those who are short on time or who just want to unwind for a little. By having the option to book a hotel for the exact duration of their visit, travelers may take full advantage of Pune's bustling business districts and lively cultural hubs.

4. Hourly Comfort: Tailored Stays in Pune's Hourly Rooms

Hourly rooms in Pune allow you to pay for the exact amount of time you need, making the experience personalized. These hourly rooms have all the conveniences of a longer stay, making them perfect for quick meetings or excursions. Accept the cost and convenience of hourly stays, which are a unique offering in the hotel business in Pune.

These specially designed lodgings cater to a range of needs, from leisure visitors looking for a short respite to business travelers needing a peaceful workspace. Pune's hourly rooms reinvent the concept of housing by making it adaptable to accommodate visitors' requirements and schedules.

5. Inclusive Stays: Pune's Hourly Options for Unmarried Couples

In line with the trends, Pune's hotels offer single couples hourly inclusive lodgings. Comfort, security, and privacy are given top priority in these lodgings to ensure that love knows no boundaries. Take pleasure in each other's company without giving each other unnecessary difficulty as you create priceless memories in Pune.

These hotels provide couples with more than just a room; they create an environment that is kind and inviting. Pune's strong commitment to inclusivity makes it a welcome destination for couples seeking a romantic getaway free from societal constraints.

6. Safe Havens: Hourly Basis Rooms Catering to Unmarried Couples

The hourly basis rooms in Pune go above and above to give single couples a secure and comfortable environment. Accept the freedom to spend your time without worrying because these accommodations are made to provide a safe and enjoyable stay. Enjoy the warmth of Pune during stays designed to accommodate contemporary partnerships.

Apart from providing seclusion and security, these rooms frequently have well-considered extras that improve the whole stay. Pune's hourly basis rooms provide contemporary amenities and comfortable décor that make it a perfect place for couples to unwind and reconnect

7. Flexi-Stay: Pune's Hourly Basis Hotels for Your Convenience

Experience the ease of hourly-basis hotels in Pune, where you may have as much freedom as you like. These lodgings reinvent the standard stay experience, whether you're a local in need of a quick getaway or a tourist on a tight schedule. Accept the opportunity to customize your visit so that it fits your schedule.

Hotels in Pune that operate on an hourly basis may accommodate a wide variety of demands, including last-minute business meetings and afternoon naps. These hotels offer a degree of convenience that blends in well with the fast-paced lifestyle of the city by letting visitors customize the length of their stay.

8. Pet-Friendly Retreats: Staying in Pune with Your Four-Legged Companion

Pune's pet-friendly accommodations provide pet owners a special chance to experience the city with their animal companions. Select lodging options that allow pets to ensure that the entire family enjoys their vacation.

Find lodgings that recognize the value of your dogs in your life. Pune offers pet-friendly accommodations that are not only cozy but also make your four-legged buddy feel at home, resulting in a lovely stay that will thrill you and your pet.

9. Art and Stay: Hotels in Pune Near Cultural Institutions

Pune is a paradise for lovers of the arts and culture because of its flourishing scene. A stay at a hotel close to cultural landmarks and establishments such as the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir or the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts immerses visitors in the vibrant arts scene of the city.

Choose lodging options that enhance your visit by showcasing Pune's creative legacy. Pune's creative sanctuary accommodations guarantee that cultural discovery is included into your stay rather than being restricted to outside activities, therefore enhancing your entire Pune experience.

10. Retail Therapy: Hotels in Pune Near Shopping Paradises

Pune's marketplaces are a shopper's paradise, and it's even more convenient to stay close to these busy centers. Hotels near busy marketplaces, such as Laxmi Road or FC Road, let you indulge in a little retail therapy while you're there.

Choose lodgings that not only provide cozy stays but also serve as entry points to Pune's spectacular retail district. Pune's retail areas, which range from contemporary malls to ancient bazaars, constitute a vital aspect of your visit.

11. Pune's Historical Stays: Reliving the Past

Pune's vintage hotels provide history buffs with a step back in time. These lodgings, which are frequently renovated historic sites, offer a sumptuous experience that blends the elegance of the present with the beauty of the past.

Opt to stay at historic hotels that have seen Pune's development. These lodgings, which may be found in colonial buildings or royal palaces, tell tales that have stood the test of time and provide guests with an unforgettable experience.

In the vibrant tapestry of Pune's hospitality, each hotel and resort tells a unique tale, weaving together tradition, modernity, and inclusivity. Whether you're drawn to the historical allure of Pune's old lanes or seeking a tranquil escape within the city, Pune's hotels cater to every explorer's whim. Unveil the city's essence through its diverse stays, each promising a memorable chapter in your Pune sojourn.

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holidayspackagesglh · 1 year

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Unforgettable Fiji Adventures: Packages from India

Fiji, with its stunning beaches, crystal-clear waters, lush rainforests, and vibrant culture, is a dream destination for travelers seeking unforgettable adventures. If you're in India and yearning for a slice of paradise, you're in luck! In this blog post, we'll explore the exciting world of fiji package from india options, providing you with the ultimate guide to planning an extraordinary journey to this South Pacific gem.

Discovering Fiji: A Tropical Paradise Awaits

Fiji, an archipelago of over 300 islands, is located in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean. With its serene landscapes and friendly locals, it's no wonder that Fiji is a top choice for those seeking a tropical escape. From the moment you set foot on this paradise, you'll be greeted with warm smiles and the promise of unforgettable adventures.

Why Choose fiji package from india?

You might be wondering, Why should I choose Fiji package from India? The answer is simple: convenience and affordability. These packages are tailor-made to suit the preferences and budgets of Indian travelers, offering a seamless way to explore Fiji's wonders without the hassle of planning every detail yourself.

Variety of Packages for Every Traveler

fiji package from india come in a wide variety, catering to diverse preferences. Whether you're a honeymooning couple, a family seeking a memorable getaway, or an adventure enthusiast looking for thrills, there's a Fiji package that suits your needs. From all-inclusive beachfront resorts to backpacker-friendly options, the choices are endless.

Choosing the Right Fiji Package from India

Before you embark on your Fijian adventure, it's essential to choose the right package that aligns with your interests and budget. Consider factors such as the duration of your stay, preferred activities, and the level of luxury you desire. By narrowing down your options, you can ensure a trip that caters specifically to your tastes.

All-Inclusive Fiji Bliss

If you're seeking relaxation and indulgence, all-inclusive fiji package from india are the way to go. These packages often include accommodations in luxurious resorts, all meals, airport transfers, and a plethora of activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving, and spa treatments. Imagine waking up to the sound of gentle waves, sipping cocktails by the pool, and dining on delectable Fijian cuisine – all without worrying about additional costs.

Adventure Seeker's Delight

For adrenaline junkies, Fiji has an array of thrilling activities to offer. Whether it's zip-lining through the rainforests, white-water rafting on the Navua River, or exploring underwater caves, adventure packages in Fiji cater to those with a taste for excitement. With fiji package from india, you can ensure that your heart-pounding escapades are organized flawlessly.

Romantic Retreats for Couples

Fiji is renowned for its romantic ambiance, making it an ideal honeymoon destination. fiji package from india often include special perks for couples, such as secluded overwater bungalows, private candlelit dinners on the beach, and couples' spa treatments. These packages allow you to create cherished memories with your loved one against a backdrop of stunning sunsets and pristine beaches.

Exploring Local Culture and Traditions

One of the most remarkable aspects of Fiji is its rich and vibrant culture. Many fiji package from india offer opportunities to immerse yourself in the local way of life. You can visit traditional Fijian villages, take part in kava ceremonies, and witness mesmerizing dance performances. These cultural experiences provide a deeper understanding of Fiji and its people.

Island Hopping Adventures

With over 300 islands to explore, Fiji offers endless possibilities for island hopping. fiji package from india often include itineraries that allow you to visit multiple islands, each with its unique charm. From the bustling streets of Nadi to the untouched beauty of Yasawa Islands, you can traverse this tropical paradise at your own pace.

Booking Your Fiji Package from India

Booking your Fiji package from India is a straightforward process. Many reputable travel agencies specialize in Fiji vacations, offering a range of options to suit your needs. You can also find excellent deals and reviews online to ensure you're getting the best value for your money. Don't forget to check for any additional visa requirements and travel advisories.

Conclusion: A Fiji Package from India Awaits

In conclusion, Fiji is a destination that promises unforgettable adventures, and with fiji package from india, it's more accessible than ever. Whether you're looking for relaxation, adventure, romance, or cultural exploration, there's a Fiji package tailored to your desires. So, pack your bags and get ready to embark on a journey to the heart of the South Pacific. Fiji, with its natural beauty and warm hospitality, awaits your arrival. Make the most of this opportunity, and let Fiji's magic leave an indelible mark on your soul. Your unforgettable Fiji adventure begins now!

Must Read: Fiji Calling! Unmissable Packages for Indians - Book Now

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originalpackersandmoversblog · 1 year

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Guide to Get Hassle Free Relocation during Your Retirement!

Everyone has moved a lot during their working days but what about moving after your retirement days have ever thought that? I am sure that most of you will never find it any reason to plan a move during those days as you are staying with your children. But here I am talking about if you want to move away from the boring routine life and enjoy the rest of your days with your spouse at the place of your choice. For this matter it is sure that at the age of 66 or 67 you will not be doing the process alone without any help, so skilled packers and movers will be your savior at that time. What if your time of retirement is coming closer and you have not figured out your moving essentialities till date? Then you have landed to the right place where you will get guidance for planning your shift properly even if you are left with shortage of time.

Relocation after your retirement is bit different from the previous ones that you have done because of your job or education prospects. Here it is all about relaxation and calmness. To achieve this you have to be strong with your physical and mental health so that anything at the end of the day cannot hamper your process. For this, you must be searching for some help book that can be beneficial for you in delivering you easy move in the future away from the busy city like-Kolkata. Let us read them below:

Choose where you want to move

You cannot land randomly to a place that is unknown to you. Previously you have moved and chosen a home near to your office or university but now that you have set yourself free, the choice of place matters a lot. Now you can move wherever to want to. You can move back to your hometown or pick any peaceful location where you can spend leisure time with your loved one. Choosing of such a place depends on your requirement where you are attracted by the serenity of a place too. You would want to move closer to your grandchildren. So here you have to be sure of sorting out the area before moving actually on ground. This is the vital part on which rest of your arrangements are made accordingly. Even if you are hiring any good supplier of packing and moving then also you have to come up with your demands prior.

Making a budget

Well it is the time to enjoy your life but not by wasting your money. You have saved your money to live a pleasurable life after your retirement, so you would not want to spend huge amount unnecessarily on renting packing and moving services without making an approximate budget. It is an at most requirement that will help you in your future expenditure within your estimated budget. Apart from this, you also have to keep some amount with you after making payment for the moving services you will rent for. You should be able to get the complete worth for your money invested in getting the services. However, the shifting services for residential relocation from packers and movers Kolkatais advisable to go with because they are the perfect sit for saving on your time, finances and most importantly energy. You need not worry about anything related to the moving, they will take care of entire process. They will offer you safe and secured packing, loading, transportation, unloading and reassembling of your personal goods at the destined location. Their services are the most lucrative in the whole industry that is inclusive of some additional benefits.

Helping With Preparing Check List

You will not be carrying all the goods from one place to another because it is not at all necessary to do that. Though you can buy some of the commodities in your new home but still it is fair to make the checklist of all the essential items at first place. It is very important to do that to get paid for some extra charges on the packing and moving of the goods. This inventory list can be prepared with the help of shifting coordinator who will come to visit your place while preparing pre-survey report for the same. With them you only have to instruct for the process under your supervision.

Advance Technology Driven Services

The services offered by the packing and moving suppliers also matters a lot because with the use of modernized driven technological equipment you will have the timely delivery of the products at your destination. This is one of the major advantages that are helping towards in making endless numbers of satisfied and happier customers from across the world. If you are on the verge of your retirement and planning to move from Kolkata to another city then, the economic services by using world class packaging supplies and moving vehicles durable in nature is provided by only trustworthy transportation company.

Relocating during retirement can be a big decision, but it can also be an exciting opportunity to start a new chapter in your life. Here are some tips to make the process as smooth and hassle-free as possible:

Plan ahead: Start planning your move well in advance to avoid any last-minute rush. Take your time to research potential destinations and decide on a timeline for your move.

Downsize your belongings: Consider downsizing your belongings to make the moving process easier. This can also help you save money on moving expenses.

Hire professional movers: Consider hiring a reputable moving company to help you with the packing, loading, and transportation of your belongings. Make sure to do your research and choose a company with a good reputation and competitive rates.

Notify important parties: Notify important parties, such as banks, utility companies, and government agencies, of your new address. This will help ensure that you don't miss any important mail or bills.

Get rid of unnecessary paperwork: Get rid of unnecessary paperwork that you no longer need, such as old tax returns and bank statements. This will make it easier to organize and pack your important documents.

Get a new driver's license and register to vote: If you are moving to a new state, make sure to get a new driver's license and register to vote.

Make new friends: Once you have moved to your new location, take the time to make new friends and get involved in the local community. This can help make your transition smoother and more enjoyable.

By following these tips, you can make your retirement relocation as smooth and hassle-free as possible. Remember to take your time, plan ahead, and enjoy the process!

Plan your next move with Packers and Movers Kolkata to get memorable experience for rest of your life.

Best wishes for happy moving.

#packers and movers in kolkata #movers and packers in kolkata #reliable packers and movers in kolkata #leading packers and movers in kolkata

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elldell1204 · 4 years

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Hair Me Out - Spencer Reid x Reader

Y/N wears her hair in many different styles, and her boyfriend, Spencer, seems to appreciate each one in different ways.

A/N: So, I just wanted to add, I try to make my ‘reader’ as ambiguous as possible, that way you can identify with them more. However, I struggled with this one, as I am a white female with straight hair and not much knowledge of (though deep appreciation and love for) natural or curly hair, seeing as I have little to no experience. Therefore, I have tried making this as inclusive as possible but I’m sorry if at any point seems too specific and you can’t put yourself into the story. Feel free to call me out on anything you aren’t comfortable with!

Warnings: Slight sexual themes, swearing, normal Criminal minds stuff (let me know if I missed anything)

wc - 3,217

Dutch Braids -

You and Spencer had just gotten off from work about an hour ago after a gruelling day with an equally stressful case. Which is why as soon as you were both showered, dressed in the comfiest clothes you could find and waiting for the takeout to arrive, you were both sprawled out on the couch in front of a movie, having no energy left to talk, let alone move when there was a knock at the door. Seeing as you were the one with less of the other person’s body parts draped across you, you got up and answered while Spencer didn’t move an inch. You couldn’t blame him; the poor boy was exhausted.

Around twenty minutes later, you’d both eaten, leaving your plates on the coffee table in front of you with the mental promise to wash them later, and were back to snuggling into each other, getting as close as you possibly could to soothe each other after the day you had. Your head was tucked neatly into Spencer’s chest, your knees drawn up to near your chin in the foetal position, making yourself as small as possible. Spencer was the opposite; spread like a starfish with his arm around your back and his head rested against the back of the couch.

If someone were to ask you what the movie was about, you wouldn’t have a clue where to start. Truth is, you felt like you were stuck in-between both the lands of sleep and consciousness, due to wanting to spend some time with your boyfriend (despite him being your work partner for the best part of sixteen hours) but also wanting to sleep for three days. In attempt to make yourself just a little bit more awake, you started trying to focus on different things around you. First it was the quote on the front of the main character’s t-shirt, then it was the Metro you could faintly hear as the last train of the night rattled by, then it was Spencer’s finger tracing up and down one of your braids that you’d done quickly after your shower.

“Spence?” You murmured the first words spoken in practically an hour.

“Hmm?” He hummed in response, his half-lidded eyes shifting to your face that you had lifted to face him.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” His voice was merely a whisper, and if you weren’t listening for it, the only way you’d know he was speaking was from the vibration of his chest.

You gestured to your hair with your finger, and only when he realised did he stop what he was doing and chuckle lightly and dreamily.

“Oh, sorry, I’m not sure, it just feels soft, I guess. I’ll stop.”

“No, no, it’s okay, you can keep going.” You smiled at him, mustering up the energy to lean up and press a sweet kiss to his lips before retracting back to your previous position.

Ponytail -

To say you were having a bad day was an understatement. You usually like to try and stay as positive as you could be when chasing a serial, paedophilic murderer, but there’s only so many deep breaths and coffee breaks you can take before you really start to get pissed off. Not only had you been stuck in hot and sticky Texas for near a week, but you had also been put into single rooms at the hotel you were staying at. Now, not to sound ungrateful (because you very much are of the fact that you at least have a roof over your head), but only having one single bed to a room means that you can’t snuggle with Spencer after a long day, and these were proving to be very long days.

And to add to the problem, Hotch was constantly on edge since the start of the case, with the victims looking a hell of a lot like Jack, and when you were the closest person to him on that first day when his tensions finally boiled over, you had been the one in the firing line of his rage. Which you can take. You knew he didn’t mean it, and if he had to take his frustrations out on someone for a few days so he could do his job with a clearer head, you were happy to be the target.

But now after a particularly rough six days, your patience was wearing thin, and everyone on the team could see it, which is why they offered you and Spencer any jobs they were assigned that would get them out of the stifling police precinct. And you knew they had good intentions, but even that was starting to annoy you.

So now you were sat at the table in the conference room, a pen between your teeth as your eyes frantically search over the evidence you have piled in front of you, desperate for the answers to this case to fly off the page and hit you smack dab in the forehead so you could just go home and have a fight with a pillow or something, anything to destress.

You heard the footsteps coming from the doorway, but you refused to turn around. If it was Hotch, you swear to god you might actually lose your job with what you were thinking of doing if he was short with you one more time. If it was Morgan ready to hand you a first-class ticket to visit the slightly wrinkly and very smelly coroner again, you might actually flip the table.

“Hey, Y/N.” Spencer greeted you warmly, sitting on the table to your right as your eyes slowly lifted to meet his. No, not Spencer. Hold it together, Y/N, hold in your rage, he’s done nothing wrong. “Oh, I haven’t seen you with your hair tied back in a while. I like it.”

Such a sweet statement, and yet it broke you. You could see in his face the moment your eyes lit aflame with anger, and you couldn’t miss the harsh swallow he took to brace himself for your fury.

“Well, Dr Reid, let me teach you a lesson, shall I? 3 reasons. One, it is way more practical for kicking someone’s ass, and right now, I would love nothing more than catching the sleazy son-of-a-bitch who is deriving pleasure from this,” You gesture violently to the crime scene photos splayed out in front of you before continuing to spit your venom. “And beating the living shit out of him until he’s crying out for his mommy. Two, do you know how many officers have tried to flirt up a storm with me in the past week? Way too many to count on one fucking hand! One even went so far as to try stroking my hair like a goddamn cat, and so to avoid that situation, I have put it in a ponytail, because if anything of that nature happens again, I won’t hesitate to break someone’s arm. And three, I usually have it down because most men think you’re dumber when you play with your hair, or I can play seductive to get what I want without a warrant fifty percent of the time. But seeing as we have absolutely nobody on the suspect list right now, and the sheer fury I possess at this moment, I don’t foresee the possibility of me needing to be either of those things, do you?”

Your lungs were heaving once you were done, and poor Spencer looked like you just told him you were a Russian spy sent to kill him. Your eyes were locked onto each other’s, and when you came back to reality from your rant, you recognised the softness and love in his that you were grateful for every day. Granted, they were a little masked by fear right now, but you’d admired him often enough to be able to spot even the faintest hint of your favourite emotions.

You let out a deep sigh, signalling you were back to your normal self as much as you could be right then, before dropping your head into your hands to rub your eyes with the heel of your palms.

It was then you felt the unmistakeable warmth of Spencer’s hand rubbing soothing patterns on your back as you gathered yourself together, bringing tears to your eyes as you opened them once more to face him.

“Oh, Spencer,” You whispered, grabbing his hands tightly with yours, lifting them to your lips and pressing sweet kisses to his knuckles. “I’m so, so sorry. You didn’t deserve that at all.”

“It’s okay, my love.”

“No, it’s really not. I never should have raised my voice at you, especially when it’s not your fault at all that I’m frustrated.”

“Y/N, I understand.” He smiled at you, a small and sympathetic one, but it calmed you nonetheless as he stood, pulling you up from the chair to wrap his arms tightly around you. You gripped onto him like he might run away if you didn’t, breathing in the warm scent that is so unmistakeably Spencer. Your vision was now cloudy with the tears that so desperately wanted to spill, but you were adamant you wouldn’t give the local cops the satisfaction of seeing you with wet cheeks. Luckily, Spencer knows you better than anyone.

“There’s a park a few minutes’ walk from here with a small duck pond. Would you like some fresh air?”

You nodded frantically against his neck as you finally let go, allowing him to lead you out of the precinct, hand in hand, his thumb running softly over yours as you walked.

“I don’t deserve you.” You mumbled, leaning in closer to him as you carried on down the path.

“Nonsense,” He whispered, pressing a kiss to your hair. “We deserve each other. Just remind me not to get on your bad side; I like having both of my arms functional.”

Bed Head -

A blaring alarm at 6am has to be up there with one of the most annoying things on the planet, and I work with Derek Morgan. You let out a groan, your arm floundering around to find the source of the wretched noise. Groaning in defeat of not being able to do it with your eyes closed, you cracked one open, locating your phone, and finding sweet relief in the snooze button. A very overexaggerated yawn left your lips as you attempted to stretch your arms over your head in an effort to wake up, only to find one immobilised in the grasp of your boyfriend.

You took advantage the rare opportunity of waking up before Mr Alarm Clock himself (also known as Dr Spencer Reid) by allowing yourself a few minutes to admire his form in the golden sliver of sunlight escaping the outside world through the gap in the curtains. It was only when your alarm went off again after the five-minute snooze timer did you try to wake him up.

“Spence, baby, time to wake up.” You whisper, attempting to gently coax him from his slumber. When that didn’t work, you laced your fingers through his mousy-brown curls, scratching lightly at his scalp, just how he likes. Only then did you receive a response in the form of a muffled groan into his pillow.

“C’mon, my love. We need to get ready for work.” You spoke softly, pressing a delicate kiss to his forehead.

You chuckled lightly, wrapping your arms around his torso as your legs entwined. “Okay, my sleepy darling. But only five.”

“Mmm, five more minutes.” He mumbled, nestling his face into your hair as he pulls you closer than you thought possible.

Safe to say you took breakfast to go, just so you could bask in each other’s embraced for a little longer than five minutes.

Post-Sex Hair -

You climbed from his lap gently, unsure if your legs could hold yourself up as you panted heavily. Practically throwing yourself down beside Spencer on the bed, he took the opportunity to grab your hand, lacing your fingers with his as you laid your head on his chest. You were both still a little dreamlike in your post-orgasmic haze, and when Spencer began to press kiss after kiss into your hair, you didn’t hesitate to enjoy them.

“You’re so beautiful.” He whispered into your hair, punctuating his statement with a final kiss for good measure.

You looked up from your position, shifting slightly so you were face to face, and scrunched up your nose. “Really? Even with sweaty sex hair?”

He chuckled, and you followed with a giggle of your own as he leant over to capture your lips in a sweet kiss. “Especially with sweaty sex hair.” He whispered with a joking edge to his voice, his lips brushing with yours.

“Well, I’m pretty sure the team wouldn’t love my sweaty sex hair, so I better hop in the shower.” You smiled, kissing him quickly once more before climbing out of the bed and walking towards the bathroom, a sway to your hips.

As you reached the door, you turned to shoot a smirk over your shoulder at the blissed-out boy behind you. “Oh, are you not joining me?”

You swear you’d never seen the boy move as fast as when he clambered from the bed and chased you into the bathroom.

Straightened -

There was something about going undercover that equally excited you and creeped you out. Especially tonight, when you were having to go under in a club to catch a guy who was killing adulterous wives. You were the closest person in the team to his type, so it was a no-brainer to choose you, really. Didn’t mean you were happy with it, and it seemed that Spencer wasn’t either, if his clenched jaw was anything to go by.

Well, you were going to do it no matter what, so why not get yourself dressed up and try to bring some joy back to a less than ideal situation? That is why you were stood in the locker room of a precinct on the west coast in a red crushed velvet minidress with black heels, a fake wedding ring and straightened hair, and you couldn’t lie, you were totally feeling yourself.

“Woah, Y/N, you look…amazing.” You heard Spencer say as he entered the room.

You turned your head and smiled at him, feeling a little flustered as his eyes trailed over your form. You attempted to push your dress further down your thighs as he walked to you, his hands encircling your waist from behind and his head perched on your shoulder.

“It’s not too much is it?” You mumbled, looking down at yourself to do a final once over.

You felt his fingers under your chin, lifting your head to look him in the eyes through the mirror, ones filled with love and a hint of desire that set your skin aflame. He brushed your hair aside from your neck to trail kisses down the side of your throat, eliciting a breathy sigh from your lips.

“No, Y/N, you look badass.”

You giggled at the word that seemed so foreign coming from Spencer, but that was soon muffled when he spun you around by his hands on your hips and his lips hungrily met yours. Your lips moved against each other’s, his tongue coming to swipe at your bottom lip in a request for entrance. You granted it, and soon you felt your back collide with the cool metal of the lockers. You grabbed a fistful of his shirt as you explored his mouth with your tongue, relishing in the taste of him. You laced a hand up into his hair as you felt a hand that he had at your waist moving to your ass, gripping it roughly, causing you to moan into his mouth.

“Reid? Y/L/N? You two lovebirds ready?” You heard Morgan mock from the doorway and you both immediately jumped apart like some sort of invisible wall had shot up between you.

Looking around to see that Morgan wasn’t in your eyeline, given that the lockers luckily blocked you two from his view. But not from earshot, seeing as you could quite clearly hear his hearty chuckles as his footsteps got quieter and quieter.

You looked up at Spencer, his hair dishevelled and his tie askew, a look of both embarrassment and amusement at being caught making out like two horny teenagers adorned his face. A grin broke out on your lips, which he mirrored, and soon you were both laughing hysterically as you sorted yourselves out in the tiny little mirror on the wall, attempting to make it look like you weren’t a few seconds away from tearing each other’s clothes off, before re-joining the team in the conference room.

Messy Bun -

Ugh, cold and flu season. You swear you never make it through it unscathed. And it seems as if your battle was commencing today. You woke up feeling dreadful; runny nose, scratchy throat, constant sneezing, and red-rimmed eyes. Attractive.

There was no question in having to call in sick, so after throwing your hair up in the messiest of messy buns and locating the snuggest blanket, you dialled the number. You could practically hear the wince from Hotch when you started having a sneezing fit down the phone. Now you weren’t sure if you could look the man in the eye when you went back.

Once that torture was over and done with, you were feeling sorry for yourself and decided on a warm cup of tea and a dose of shitty daytime television. You were halfway through some over-enthusiastic talk show when you heard a knock at your door. Refusing to leave the blanket behind that you’d burrito’d yourself in, you shuffled over to the door.

You didn’t expect a very sympathetic looking Spencer on the other side of the door, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a welcomed sight.

“Hey.” You croaked out.

“Hi. How are you feeling?” You gave him a look that said it all, and he chuckled lightly. He lifted the bag he had in his hand. “I brought the best cure I could think of; chicken noodle soup.”

“I don’t want to get you sick, Spencer.” You whined, wanting nothing more than to curl up into his side but holding onto your selfless and rational thoughts by a mere thread.

You smiled at that, stepping aside to let him in. He passed you and went and got comfortable on your couch, grabbing a fork on the way. When you met him in the living room, he was ready and waiting for you with his arms open for you to snuggle into.

“Don’t worry about me. Now come on, your soup is getting cold.” He smiled, making grabby hands at you.

You made your way over, sinking into his embrace as he passed you the container and your fork. After a few mouthfuls and several minutes of listening to his steady breaths and thumps of his heart, you were feeling much better.

“Thank you.” You mumbled once you were finished and had placed your empty container on the coffee table in front of you, nuzzling further into Spencer’s chest. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Now sleep, I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

Didn’t have to tell you twice.

#spencer reid #Spencer Reid fic #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid smut #spencer reid angst #Matthew Gray Gubler #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #mgg #mgg fluff

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stargazetheseries · 3 years

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OPEN CASTING CALL FOR STARGAZE: “THE PILOT” EPISODE & TRAILER VISIT: https://stargazetheseries.com/casting-call/ FOR DETAILS OR READ BELOW: A Borken Creative Production Sept 27, 2021 STARGAZE is a queer campy sci-fi adventure short-form adventure series intended for OTT. Executive Producers: Jill Golick, Carrie Cutforth Director: Regan Latimer Writer: Carrie Cutforth Union: ACTRA TORONTO (NEW MEDIA) Shoot: The pilot will begin shooting for 5 to 6 days between October 25-Nov 17th, 2021 Location: Toronto STORYLINE: A disparate group of rookie oddballs join an elite squad commissioned to save the Queerverse (from itself) only to discover the STARGAZE program is a sham make-work initiative to keep the crew from rocking the boat by sending them out on a fool’s quest (led by two elder queer chaperones who despise each other). Think: A 2SLGBTQIA+ The Facts Of Life meets The Breakfast Club in space! *BIPOC STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY **MUST BE 18+ TO SUBMIT EVEN IF CHARACTER IS LISTED AS YOUNGER THE STARTGAZE RECRUITS: SAF RON (she/her): Character is 20, cisgender woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities; some physical comedy required. LEAD. Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, Saf joins STARGAZE with high expectations. If the adults won’t save the day, she will… and finally get the credit she deserves! But can this lone wolf learn to connect with others, stop being a control freak, relax her unreasonably high expectations of others (and herself), and step into the leadership role for which she is destined? First, she’ll have to stop seeing anyone getting in her way as a mustache-twirling villain, learn to see her crewmates’ value, accept help, and open herself up vulnerably. Gets apoplectic when mad; Has a knack for creating very convoluted protest chants that no one can follow. WHIT SPRINKLES (he/him): Character is 19, cisgender man, gay, open to all ethnicities. Must be able to walk elegantly in high heels. LEAD. A social media influencer famous for his snarky and bitter ’reads,’ charismatic Whit has developed a parasocial relationship with his stans. Living life performing in the spotlight from a very young age, Whit has no idea who he really is, what his real interests are, or his beliefs outside of what his analytics tell him: “My fans are gonna love this!” Only joining STARGAZE under pressure from his stans, his inability to forge true intimate connections is exacerbated by his relationship with his mother/manager Mumsy Sprinkles, a talentless hack/narcissistic stage mother living her dreams through her kid. If Whit was a meme he would be: ‘Bitch, I dun give a fuck!’ But he does, indeed, give a fuck. ESSA T. HATCH (they/them): Character is 18, non-binary or agender, asexual, demiromantic, neurodivergent, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. Adorkable Essa is an introvert who doesn’t really ‘get’ people. The explorer among the crew with an engineering mind and a love of mapping places and spaces, they know every nook and cranny of the ship and are usually the first to forge ahead (i.e. wander off) on every expedition. Essa mostly wants to be left alone to their own devices because they actually prefer their own company (neurotypicals can be so exhausting!). This normally wouldn’t be such a problem except Essa was pressured to join STARGAZE to make friends and widen their social net out of parental concern (‘We won’t be around forever, Essa!’). Loves to knit, make Venn diagrams of relationships; speaks in emojis when emotionally drained. LEW D’SHUS (he/him): Character is 21, transgender man or transmasculine, pansexual, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. When babelicious Lew looks at you with his rapt attention and dreamy eyes, you feel like the only person in the ‘verse until his short attention span snaps away and he forgets you’re there. “Good vibes, only!” Lew will gladly give you your Tarot card reading, but not before taking the negative cards out first. With his strict ‘the universe is love, we are love,’ mantra, Lew never wants anyone to feel bad even when they are deadass wrong! His philosophy of

appeasement can cause conflict amongst the crew and his inability to take sides in crucial moments will often put them in danger. No, we cannot just hug everything out, Lew! CHRYSTRAH SNU (she/her): Character is 17 (must be 18+ to apply), cis-gender woman, identifies as ‘queer’ but just figuring it all out. LEAD. Chrystrah is a fresh-off-the-belt queer who has arrived with big expectations: ‘I’m here, I’m queer! Direct me to my spot on the rainbow carpet!’ The trauma of her homophobic upbringing has left Chrystrah without any real sense of self; her identity loosely held together like a fragile cracked egg. Any criticism, no matter how gentle, feels like an attack, causing Chrystrah to act abrasive, territorial, and defensive. She is always overcompensating in big bombastic ways because she feels so inadequate for not knowing the right words, behaviours, and codes. She is jealous of Saf (some might say obsessed) who does seem to get it all right. Fiercely loyal, Chrystrah is the first to run headlong into danger to save someone. She has a steep learning curve ahead. THE ELDER QUEER CHAPERONES: BAE TORGA (she/her): Character is late 30’s-early 40’s, cisgender woman, bisexual, bipolar, open to all ethnicities. PRINCIPAL. A war hero (or war criminal depending on who you ask), Bae sees STARGAZE as an opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes of former mentor and friend Oracle Cain. She is someone who struggles with self-loathing and self-doubt even though she’s spent her adulthood righting her past wrongs and reining in her bipolar disorder, which contributed to her past rash and reckless mistakes. Possessing a tough, gruff demeanor, Bae is outwardly sardonic but really a bleeding heart who holds back out of fear that any demonstration of affection and empathy will be seen as a commitment. ORACLE CAIN (she/her): Character is middle-aged or older, transgender woman, ambulatory wheelchair user or wheelchair user, open to all ethnicities. *Note, as this is sci-fi, younger than middle age may apply. PRINCIPAL. A founding figure of the Queerverse, Oracle has done her service, done her duty, and now she’s done. She wants a peaceful existence to guard her limited energy and manage her physical pain. Instead, she’s pulled out of retirement to command a ship full of bickering youths. She also has to contend with spoiled brat and former colleague Bae reminding her of the past that Oracle is trying hard to forget. But duty is duty and it’s not like complaining ever got her anywhere. Talking to Oracle can feel like playing a chess game where the aloof commander is always five steps ahead: you never quite know where you stand with her. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS ELP WHIPP (they/them or xe/xem): Character is middle-aged or older, gender-fluid, open to all ethnicities. Leader of the coalition of non-profit planets (each with its own conflicting Gay Agenda) that rule the Queerverse, Elp Whipp is a career bureaucrat/bean-counter who often gets caught in the trappings of their own political web — meaning much of nothing ever gets accomplished and progress is never made. Elp will appear throughout the series in that ‘Dean of the school’ role, occasionally showing up to demand overdue reports, warn the crew that their funding is at risk, and generally throw a wrench in the works. CARDIGAN JACK (she/her): Character is 30s, cis-woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities. Cardigan Jack is a ‘pussy-hat’ wearing neo-liberalist feminist with a pirate vibe. She is the ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ of TERFs, and Saf Ron’s nemesis. TO SUBMIT: Borken Creative is committed to diverse and inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers without regard to disability, race, age, colour, sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by law, unless otherwise specifically indicated, subject to legitimate casting directives. DEADLINE: Oct 8, 2021 EMAIL: [email protected]. SUBJECT LINE: Character(s) Role, Performer’s First and Last Name, pronouns. BODY OF EMAIL: Please provide contact info including phone number.

Please confirm you are 18 or over in the body of email if applying for a Stargaze recruit character. Submit headshot and resume as attachments to [email protected]. Resume should be in a scannable text file format (such as .doc, .pdf, .txt). First round selects will be invited to submit either a video clip audition or zoom audition invite. Only successful candidates will be contacted.

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#lgbtq #lbtqia #lgbtqplus #queer sci fi #casting call #auditions

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hilltopsunset · 3 years

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4 Ways to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise

I love the Pokémon franchise. It’s because I love it that I truly want new installments of the game to feel meaningful, to make an impact, and to provide players with something new, different, and worth coming back for without relying on complexities that could turn away new players.

As I will talk about in a later blog post, Game Freak seems afraid to stretch Pokémon’s creative muscles any further; meaningful innovation has been petering out since the end of Generation IV in lieu of minigames like Pokémon Contests and Super Training alongside inconsequential time sinks like Secret Bases and Poké Pelago. While I do enjoy the inclusion of things to do outside the main storyline, these additional events and sidequests should not be the only significant additions to new generations of main-series Pokémon games.

The main attractions of recent generations have provided slight twists to gameplay with the addition of mega evolution and Z-moves, but these changes don’t fundamentally change or challenge the way players experience the game on a moment-to-moment basis. And despite the graphical and processing power of recent gaming devices, and even the long-awaited shift of the franchise to a main console, we are still getting the same low-effort and outdated battle animations we’ve been seeing since X and Y. We are continually denied a more genuine battle experience with Pokémon physically interacting with each other through animations that more appropriately suit each Pokémon’s unique identity.

So what can be done? Here’s a short but detailed list of 4 things I would like to see in a new Pokémon game, in no particular order of importance.

1. Let the Player Character Be an Active Part of the Story

When has the player character ever been a consequential part of a Pokémon game? They never speak; they never have any personality whatsoever. They never experience any growth, regardless of NPC’s trying desperately to iterate how much the trainer has grown over the course of their journey. Certainly the Pokémon carried by the player character have some impact on the story, but the trainer?

Let them speak! Let the player character actually interact with NPCs in meaningful ways rather than just listening at all times. Give the trainer a personality of some sort. Don’t just slap a never-changing pleasant face onto the model regardless of tense, frightening, or sinister scenarios (I’m looking at you, Sun and Moon).

Giving the player character a more active role in the story provides intrigue—as a player, it doesn’t feel compelling being pulled from one place to another; it’s not interesting when the only thing pushing me forward is NPCs telling me I need to get the gym badges, or stop Team Rocket. It would be much more interesting if the Player Character had some imperative reason to pursue these endeavors, rather than get involved simply because “it’s the right thing to do” or, worse, “it’s the ONLY thing to do.” I want to watch the character I’m controlling grow as a person and make choices that have positive or negative consequences on people they care about and the places they visit, rather than be a perpetual observer of events with no real stake in the game.

2. Trainer Levels

Speaking of the player character, create a leveling system for them. There are so many possibilities for a system where the trainer more actively impacts gameplay. For instance, there could be a class system and each class can have unique skill trees that provide access to passive and/or active abilities that improve how the trainer interacts with the world throughout the game. It could be required to choose your path at the beginning of the game, or perhaps you can access them all throughout the game, but can only have one active at a time.

Here’s a list of example possibilities:

Explorer: The explorer class specializes in travel, as well as tracking and catching new Pokémon—this tree can be subdivided into those paths: Travel, Tracking, and Catching. This tree provides skills that assist them in accessing otherwise inaccessible locations, increasing encounter rates with rare Pokémon, and specializing in different types of Poké balls to improve catch chances. Experience for this class is gained through catching Pokémon, encountering rare Pokémon, and exploring (walking in new places, finding treasure, accessing hidden areas, etc.).

Combatant: The combatant class excels at offensive battle prowess through its three branches: Type Affinity, Commands, and Reputation. This tree allows a trainer to specialize in certain Pokémon types (up to 2) to improve their STAB damage. Eventually, you can get a skill that provides STAB for your specialized types even for Pokémon not of those types! You gain access to in-battle shout commands that provide momentary buffs to your party, like improving damage, resisting a big attack, or improving critical hit ratio. A strong reputation will allow you to avoid battle even with trainers who have caught your eye; and in battle, an enemy Pokémon may flinch due to your intimidating presence. Experience is gained by knocking out Pokémon, winning battles, using moves of your type specialization, and issuing commands.

Breeder: The breeder focuses on developing deep relationships with their Pokémon. Skills of this class can be divided into the Breeding, Bonding, and Healing branches. Through this tree, trainers can hatch eggs more quickly, improve high IV chance from newborn Pokémon, develop friendship levels more quickly, etc. Bonding provides Pokémon with beneficial defensive capabilities during battle, like providing a chance to survive an attack that would otherwise bring HP to 0, and having a strong will to resist abnormal status effects like paralysis and confusion. A Breeder’s knowledge of caretaking allows for healing outside of battle, and can even teach Pokémon how to slowly recover in-battle. Experience is gained through hatching eggs, developing friendships with your Pokémon (through feeding/petting, etc.), participating in Contests/minigames, and having Pokémon in your party with whom you have developed a close relationship.

The establishment of a class system like this, where experience is gained through different means relevant to each class, incentivizes players to participate in those aspects of the game, and provides extra rewards for players who already want to get involved. It makes the trainer feel like a relevant and impactful part of the team, rather than a hollow vehicle strictly used to lug the real heroes—your team of Pokémon—from battle to battle.

And for those who think the inclusion of such a mechanic would trivialize the content, I have several suggestions: first, they could easily make the game content more difficult to compensate. Second, they could mitigate the strength of these class skills during key battles like Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Enemy Team (Rocket, Galaxy, etc.). Third, NPCs (especially the aforementioned key NPCs) could have access to these skills as well. Remember, I’m asking for significant changes, and this would provide something new, interesting, and impactful.

3. Battle Animations

Update them. It’s that simple. Let Blastoise shoot water out of his water cannons rather than out of his face. Let Scorbunny run up to its opponent and give it a nice kick! Get rid of the old, outdated animations of a drawn foot—we now have well-rendered 3D monsters on gaming systems capable of handling the graphical processing necessary for this to happen. Give each Pokémon a more unique identity with their animations; make them feel like they’re actually in a battle with one another. It’s time.

I acknowledge that providing significant animation updates for the 800+ models is an enormous undertaking that would require a massive amount of time and manpower to make possible. To this I say: spend the time doing that rather than developing Dynamax or whatever. Spend the time on more significant animation development instead of wasting that time on another gimmick that isn’t going to significantly impact gameplay anyway.

To be honest, this point alone would be enough to convince me to buy a new Pokémon game.

4. Populate the World with Pokémon

I know that the Let’s Go series and Sword/Shield did this a little bit, and while it certainly wasn’t executed perfectly, it was fun running around and actually seeing all the Pokémon that inhabit it. Spawn rates in both games were often a bit too high, resulting in cluttered areas. Adding aggressive Pokémon would further enhance the immersive experience—being required to sneak around certain stronger Pokémon could be a really fun mechanic and provide tension; it was a bit too easy to avoid Pokémon in Let’s Go and in the Wild Area. While it was nice to get through Mt. Moon without encountering a single Zubat, imagine instead running through a section of the cave with a trail of 15 Zubats on your tail? Make me work for it a little!

Ultimately, I want to see Pokémon behaving more naturally in their habitats, and not just in sections of the world that I can’t get to. I want to run into a Caterpie hanging from a tree, or a Fearow fishing for Goldeen, or a Pikachu grooming itself. I want to interrupt Pokémon from their lives, not run into a giant gaggle of automatons circling tiny areas for no reason.

So there it is: a look at just a few things Pokémon games could include to make things more interesting and breathe new life into an aging franchise. These changes would require work, but any new game should—I would hate to see Pokémon continue the troubling trend of easy and/or insignificant content when there is so much potential to do so much with what they have.

With all that said, I do want to offer a bit of praise—Sirfetch’d and Galarian Ponyta are pretty awesome, and Galarian Weezing is perfectly ridiculous. But I ask that you keep in mind what your money is telling Game Freak when you purchase their games: it tells them that you don’t mind the severe lack of innovation and improvement. It tells them you don’t mind Scorbunny hopping in place as a giant, orange, human foot strikes its opponent. It tells them that you’re willing to fund their copy/paste animations from 6 years ago, their uninspired gameplay updates, and their ever-increasing focus on gimmicks and minigames.

As for me, I will continue holding Pokémon to a higher standard and hoping that, eventually, Blastoise will fire water from his cannons.

#pokemon #game review #game freak #hilltop sunset #suggestions

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arjuna-vallabha · 4 years

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GOVINDA DEV - the king of Vrindavan.

In the year 1514 , a Bengali brahmin was walking alone , leaving behind everything that he had in search of spirituality . He was the Dabir-i-khas or chief secretary to the Sultan of Bengal , Allauddin Hussien Shah . But due to his free mixing with the muslims , he was ostracized from his own caste and society , as was common in those times . Some days earlier , Shri Krishna Chaitanya had paid a visit to the village of Ramkeli , situated just outside the capital of Bengal at the city of Gauda . Thousands of people had gathered to catch his glimpse and pay their respects . Out of the thousands , the chief secretary to Sultan was also there . We do not know what transpired between them , but what we know is that the dabir-i-khas of the Sultan had such a deep change of heart that the entire meaning of life changed forever . Secretly he left home in search of the higher cause ! Dabir-i-khas became Shri Roop Goswami . His destination – the holy town of Mathura . Mahaprabhu through his spiritual insight undertood a forested wilderness near Mathura to be the lost pilgrimage of Vrindavana ! Back in those times , the fabled Vrindavana of the puranas was just a name . Nobody knew where the place was . Mahaprabhu had instructed Shri Roop – “ Go to Vrindavan and stay there . Ask Sanatan ( Roop's elder brother and the chief treasurer to sultan of Bengal , who would also become a renunciate monk later in life ) to vist me . In vraj write the scriptures that would expound the philosophy of divine love and rediscover and establish the lost places of pilgrimages . Spread the name of Krishna and the message of Bhakti . I shall visit once to see your work . “ So Roop set off with the intention to rediscover the lost site . But after reaching the forested wilderness of Vrindavan he was in a lurch ! How to search for something without any clues ? He got himself a manuscript of ‘Mathura mahatyam’ and started investigating . Alongside he led a life of exemplary renunciation and prayed to the divine to show him a way . Shastras describe the glories of Govinda as the supreme lord of Vrindavan . Agamas , nigamas and puranas sing in unison the glories of this form of lord . Varaha purana says – “One who sees the Govinda of Vrindavan does not need to go to the abode of Yama and attains punya . In Mathura Khanda of Skanda Purana , Narada says – ‘ Vrindavan is the abode of Govinda who is always served by his servitors . The king of Vrindavan resides with his beloved within the eight petalled lotus . ‘ SammohanaTantra says – ‘ I bow to Shri Radha along with Govinda of yogpeeth in center of Vrindavan . In Vrindavan Mahatmya , Mahadev answers Devi’s questions – “The groves of Vrindavan are dense with manju trees and numerous branches and creepers . This is the abode of sweet rasa and fragranced by aroma of pravala and other flowers .Within such a beautiful abode is the hallowed siddha peetha – the place of Govinda ! At the center of this yoga peetha stands a golden building . At its center is a bejeweled eight cornered golden throne on which blooms the transcendental eight petalled lotus . Govinda , the king of Vrindavan and his beloved ladies of vraj resides in the center in his beautiful vigraha form . . Roop was determined to locate that yoga peeth where Govinda resides eternally and shastras always glorify ! Even before him , Advaita Acharya , the most intimate associate of Chaitanya had come to Vrindavan and located the deity of MadanGopal atop the dwadashaditya teela hillock . Still earlier , the Guru of Advaita Acharya , Shripad Madhavendra Puri had discovered the deity of Shrinath Gopal ( now called Shrinath Ji ) near Govardhan mount . But the lord of Vrindavan , Govinda is yet to be located . It is said that after the demise of Shri Krishna , His great grandson had installed quite a few deities in vraj area . But in due course of time , all the sites had fallen into disuse and were forgotten . Roop Goswami started his penance in attempt to discover the lost sites . Finally he got the divine intervention that he was seeking . A local villager informed him that on the top of Gomaa teela hillock he sees a cow shower milk everyday on a fixed spot . Overjoyed at hearing this . Roop Goswami set off immediately with some other villagers and started digging at the aforementioned spot . Soon , Govinda manifested himself under the dirt ! The whole of Vraj was immersed in great joy and the deity was re installed in a simple hut on the Shukla Panchami tithi of Maagha month in the year 1536 . This news reached Mahaprabhu at Puri and he was overwhelmed with bhava hearing this miraculous manifestation . He immediately sent his associate , Kashishwar Pandit to take charge of the seva of Govinda . But Kashishwar was reluctant to leave the blissfull company of Mahaprabhu . Realising his pain of separation , Mahaprabhu gave him a metal deity of two armed Krishna as an extension of his own self . Kashishwar named the deity Gour Govinda and arrived at Vrindavan to help others in seva of Govinda . During those times , some other associates of Mahaprabhu were also residing in Vrindavan . Amongst the six main Goswamis was Raghunath Bhatta Goswami . His disciple built the first temple to Govinda . But presumably that temple was damaged pretty soon . At this point , Maharajah Maan Singh , the general to Mughal emperor Akbar , offered to build a new temple for Govinda . The funds for contructing this temple came from the Mughal imperial treasury ! And Akbar is said to have allowed the use of red sandstone , which was otherwise reserved for royal use . Red sandstone is the same variety that’s used to build the Red fort at Delhi , Agra fort and parts of Taj Mahal . The chief architect who designed the city of Delhi , Govinda Das , was appointed as the brain behind this project . A whooping 13 lakh rupees was spent in those days just as labour charges ! And finally after much waiting , the temple was consecrated through a lavish ceremony in the year 1590 . No temple of this size and opulence had been constructed in entire northern india , since the coming of islam till the end of british days !! Not atleast to my knowledge . Hindus of northern India back in those times had to regularly deal with external agressions and attacks on their religious places and hence had totally given up their traditional practice to erect big temples to gods . This history can easily be noticed in the art of the Govinda temple . Though the temple is huge and opulently carved , the eaternal walls are completely devoid of any representations of gods/humans or animals ! Which is very untypical of a hindu temple ! Whatever little human figures are to be found , are mainly concentrated around the main entrance door to garbhagriha , and they are not of particularly high craftsmanship . It is understandable that the artists working under Islamic regimes , being used to the Islamic tenant of not depicting human figures , had forgotten their skills in depicting anthropomorphic forms ! But that part apart , the rest of the temple is a glorious testimony to artistic excellence . Someone who has visited the earstwhile capital of akbar at Fatehpur Sikri would instantly understand the striking similarities between the two places . Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami , a eyewitness to the opulence and poularity of the temple in its haydays leaves behind a graphic description of the same – “ Situated in the center of Vrindavan Stands a golden palace . Inside that maha yoga peeth is a bejwelled throne , over which grows an eight petalled lotus . Inside the lotus eternally resides Govinda Dev - the dispeller of lust ! He is served like a king with different items of luxury . Jewels , valuable cloth abound ! Thousands of servitors do run errands daily around the temple The richness of seva cannot be described by a thousand mouths ! “ In British era the collector of Mathura district , F.S. Growse wrote in his records – “The temple of Govinda Deva , is not only the finest of this particular series , but is the most impressive religious edifice – that hindu art , has ever produced , at least in upper India . “ It is said that emperor Akbar himself had once come to meet the goswamis of Vrindavan , which is perhaps not an exaggeration , when you think of his inclusive religious nature and also the fact that he went out of way to fund this luxurious hindu temple using mughal funds . It is probable that he was impressed with the renunciation and eruditeness of the Goswamis . It is also quite possible that he was curious to see the man who gave up his position of chief secretary and is now living under a tree out of love for god ! Maharajah Man Singh donated huge tracts of land and other riches for the maintainence of the temple . Sehnai and other instruments used to sound daily from the Naubat-khana in the temple premises . By that time , Vrindavan had become a small human settlement from forested wilderness . But sadly the will of god would have it otherwise . Govinda Dev could not stay in his new temple for long . In 1669 , the great grandson of Akbar , Badshah Aurangazeb would order a demolition of all the temples of Mathura and Vrindavan . Perhaps the growing emergence of Vrindavan as a new site for idol worshipping hindus alarmed the rigid Islamic mind set of the king . Armies marched to Mathura and destroyed the temple of Keshava deva at the site of Krishna’s Birth , replacing the site with a Shahi Idgah ( mosque ) which still stands today . But Hindus were used to such events by now . News of impending attack reached the Goswamis of Govinda temple and they secretively escorted the deities out of Vrindavan and hid them in Radhakunda , some 20 kilometers from Vrindavan . Other principle deities of Vrindavan , Shri Nath Ji , MadanGopal , Gopinath were all moved out of the area . Only Radharaman , the tiny self manifested deity , was hid inside an alcove in the inner wall of a well where he remained for many years until the fear of Mughals subsided . Banke Bihari , another important deity also did not move out of vrindavan , because back then he was enshrined in a simple hut inside nidhivan without much fanfare . So his presence was unknown to outsiders and he would not have attracted the wrath of the marauders . The gigantic temple of Govinda was desecrated and its spire broken down completely and a small idgah made hastily on the top of the roof . That structure remained into recent times untill Growse had it removed as a part of archeological restoration project and thereby restored the temple to its original identity . Today the temple is maintained by the archeological survey of India . After staying for 2 years at Radha Kunda , Govinda was brought to Kamyavan . This way , Govinda Dev continued to shift between places for the next few decades . Initially the servitor Goswamis tried their best to protect the deity from iconoclasts and as well as try keep him within the borders of 'vraj mandal' ( the expanse of territory where child krishna lived and sported his leelas ) But inspite of their efforts , the political situation continued to worsen and finally they felt compelled to shift Govinda Dev out of the vraj mandal into the safety of Rajputana . Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh , a descendant of Man singh , came to rescue and brought Govinda to his own palace and built a temple to him within his palace compounds to ensure safety . He then dedicated the entire estate as the property of Govinda and himself as a mere servitor . His seal was etched with the words – “ Shri Govindacharan – Sawai Jaisingh Sharan” Even today , Govinda dev is being worshipped royally as the presiding deity of the town of Jaipur . And even today , the descendants of Bengali Goswamis serve them . Now let us come to the topic of this painting . I have tried to depict the temple of Govinda as it would have originally stood at its prime days . A natural question that may arise is - on what proof did I base my artistic reconstructions ? Is it merely an imagination or is there any solid evidence behind it ? Only the walls of the temple stands today at Vrindavan . The top is completely demolished . But there is a line drawing preserved in Jaipur city palace which has sketches of the temples of Vrindavan as well some of the important religious sites of northern india . This was painted when the temple still stood and provides the much needed clues as to how the original structure might have looked. But I shall post a detailed post on my artistic reconstruction later in this page . Hence im restricting my words for now on this topic . On the right hand side of Govinda Dev stands Shri Roop Goswami . On the left is Kashishwar pandit with the deity that Mahaprabhu gave him personally – Gour Govinda . Gour Govinda is still worshipped in the temple at Jaipur . Right beneath him stands Maharajah Man Singh in white clothes . Opposite Man singh in blue suit is Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh who helped the cause in times of distress . These two characters are thereby immortalized in the leela of Govinda . Today , a new Govinda temple erected in late 18th century stands next to the original temple in Vrindavan . And more recently , a new set of Gour Nitai vigrahas have been installed in the original garbha griha of the desecrated temple . The mind of a bhakta feels saddened to see the empty temple today . But I want to put forward a question to all readers at this juncture . Is divine manifestation only to be found in a deity and nowhere else ?! Can the eternal yoga peetha ever be detached from the eternal presence of the lord ?! Can we not say that Govinda is as much present in Jaipur as he is in Vrindavan yogpeeth ?! Wherever Krishna resides , that verily is the vrindavan . So when Govinda moved to Jaipur , the city became the new vrindavan ! And Govinda through his continuing presence in Vrindavan changed the place into a flourishing tirtha that it is today ! The dream of Mahaprabhu was fulfilled at last ! That is precisely why , one of the greatest gaudiya mystics of 20th century , Ramdas Babaji Maharaj never went to Jaipur to see Govinda . To him , Govinda eternally resides in the yogpeeth . Krishna promises to the gopis – “Vrindaavanam parityajya paadamekam na gacchaami” – I shall not leave ever from the land of Vrindavan . The divine leela of Govinda are eternal . And that all auspicious leela has created a thread of bond that runs from Bengal in the east to Rajasthan in the west with Vraj bhumi at its heart ! Jai Govinda !

Painting and text by Halley Goswami, more at https://www.facebook.com/Halleysart

#Krishna #Radha #hindu art #vaishnavism #bengal

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calumthoodposts · 5 years

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Broken Home | Part 1

Warnings: Swearing, abuse, sexual assault, drinking, hard drugs, and violence.

If you have any potential triggers to anything mentioned above, I'd advise you to not read this. Take care of your mental health <3

She stood at the bar waiting for the bartender to notice her over the bustling crowd. The lights overhead flickered to the beat of the bass that reverberated through the club. The flicker was the perfect rhythm and Reyna couldn't tell if it was intentional, or if it was just poor wiring.

In any case, she averted her gaze and squinted her eyes, the repeated flashing making her dizzy and nauseated. The room smelled of booze, sweat, and cigarette smoke, a combination that used to bother her, but was now something she frequently endured.

Every weekend on every Friday night for a year straight, her boyfriend and her would be found at the Ace of Clubs at no later than 9 p.m. They would often stay out until one in the morning, the earliest she ever got to leave was eleven-thirty, and would end the night with her having to carry Aaron out. The smell was hardly the worst part.

The bartender's attention finally landed on her and he gave her a small nod as a greeting. "The usual?"

"Yes, please." She smiled politely. It wasn't that surprising that Chris had remembered what Aaron got every time considering the club was small and on the outskirts of Mott Haven. It was located in the dodgy part of the dodgiest part of New York, only locals were brave enough to get intoxicated there or tourists who didn't know any better.

It still left her feeling uneasy. The idea that the bartender could pick her face out of hundreds because of how many times she had come there wasn't something she would brag about. Raging alcoholism wasn't something she wanted to flaunt.

Chris slid the single glass full of whiskey and ice over to her and she couldn't help but notice the slight hesitance as he did so. Nevertheless, he watched her pick up the glass without complaint, only offering her the smallest of crooked-yellow-toothed smiles and shouting over the loud music, "Let me know if you need anything." His offer had an edge to it and she noticed the way it was open-ended. She couldn't help but wonder if he was talking about more than just refills on alcohol.

She thanked him and left the bar, wandering back toward her table, the sound of her heels inaudible over the chaotic music and voices mixing together. Aaron sat in a high booth against the wall as he talked to his friend who was sat across from him and she couldn't help the thought that crossed her mind of just turning around and walking out of the establishment.

She hated it. In fact, she was certain that there wasn't anything she hated more than the rambunctious drilling of noise into her brain. She just wanted a single moment of quiet. Instead, she sat down at their table and slid Aaron his whiskey who, not tearing his gaze away from his friend, continued to tell the story about how he got suckered out of a job because he was caucasian and affirmative action had gotten too out of hand.

She knew that in the deepest parts of him, buried beneath his ego, he knew that he wasn't anywhere near being qualified for where he applied. He never was. This was just his way of compensating. He had dropped out of high school, a fact that she didn't know until later, and he had never sought out a GED or any higher education. The road seemed like a dead end to her, but she loved him enough to stick around. Of course, his friend agreed with him, that inclusivity was a plague and that it was ripping jobs away from hardworking "Americans". Whatever the hell that meant. She even saw his friend look over at her with narrowed eyes, to which she just looked away.

Her mother was from the Philippines and immigrated to the United States, in which becoming the head of nursing at NewYork-Presbyterian made her fall in love with the whitest and most Scottish doctor there. Reyna's own caramel skin was mixed with white, but if there was one thing she knew it was the fact that her immigrant mother took nothing from David Thomas, the man with more DUI'S than he could count.

The night continued like this. After he had finished his drink, she would get him– and eventually his racist friend– another. And another. And another. It was a cycle that continued even after the two men were slurring their controversial and offensive words together. This is how it had been for quite some time. She stared out at the sea of bodies dancing and groping one another and her heart yearned for her younger days. The days where she would be dancing along to the music she didn't know a single word to with Aaron whose hands gripped her waist tightly, almost as if he never wanted to let her go.

-----

The sun had gone down and the street lights immediately switched on, illuminating their path as they walked down the sidewalk to the bar that Aaron had promised was worth visiting. He had a portable speaker in his hand and ABBA's album "Arrival" made her dance to the rhythm.

She turned and walked backward while looking fondly at the boy in front of her. He had a boyish grin on his face as he watched her swing her hips and put her arms over her head during the chorus, dancing wildly but making adoration flood his green irises that looked forest-like in the dim lighting.

He wanted to make her eighteenth birthday memorable and he had told her that a club with friends was the only way to go. He knew the people who owned the place so she could get in easily. Truthfully, she didn't mind what they did, just as long as she got to do it with him. They had been dating for a little over seven months and she knew she was head over heels for him. He made her feel special and pretty, something she wasn't used to easily turning into something she craved.

Only from him. She only wanted his eyes on her because they were the only ones that mattered. She only wanted his hands on her, and it seemed that he read her mind as he gripped her hips and pressed her against the brick wall of one of the many rundown buildings they were walking past.

The sudden motion knocked the breath out of her in the best way, and it didn't stop the warmth from flooding her body as he pressed his forehead against hers. "I'll love you until the day I die, you know that right?" She was breathless and in shock at his confession before a large smile covered her face and she squinted her eyes happily, brushing her nose with his and returning his words with a kiss.

------

Instead of his hands on her hips, she felt one on her upper thigh. The callouses on his index and middle fingers from opening cans rubbed the exposed skin where the hem of her short skirt ended and she tensed as they trailed higher. Not granting him a reaction, she stared into the sea of people. All of them seemed to be having the time of their lives, except a curly-haired boy who was sat at a long table with a group of seven other people.

His eyes were already on her and the corner of his lips upturned slightly, giving her a small smile that she returned before looking back at the table in front of her. She fiddled with the rings on her fingers as she pretended to listen to the conversation that the two men next to her were having. She was great at playing the act by now. She shifted in her seat in discomfort when Aaron's right hand on her thigh pushed her skirt up farther and got dangerously close to her lace-covered center.

Public displays made her uncomfortable. Holding hands was an act that she could only tolerate in small doses and Aaron was well-aware of that fact. It certainly didn't mean he respected it. She breathed out a sigh before her hand found his and gently pushed it lower to rest on the skin just above her knee cap.

The muscles in his arms tensed and in the corner of her eye, she watched his jaw set into a hard line, the fingers on her thigh digging in more intensely. He glanced at her and she could see his eyes were filled with annoyance and malice, the whiskey further igniting his already short fuse.

She felt his hand trail north again, this time more aggressively and quicker, landing harshly on her core. The chill she felt run up her spine had her standing from the table abruptly, Aaron's hand falling out of her lap and onto the seat that she sat in previously.

"I have to use the restroom." She lied and quickly wandered away from the table to the back of the club where the bathrooms were. Weaving her way through sweaty bodies, she hastily made for the alley exit door instead and sighed contentedly at the cold air hitting her flushed body.

Pressing her back against the wall, she leaned forward and balled her dark hair up on top of her head, reveling in the feeling of the cool air hitting the hot newly exposed skin. Reyna leveled her breathing as best she could and focused on the relief of being out of the bar and finally breathing air that wasn't contaminated with body odor.

She couldn't help but jump when the metal door swung open and smacked against the brick behind it. It closed on itself as Aaron's shoes appeared in front of her, her brown eyes focused on the cobble beneath her feet, and now his tattered sneakers that he had owned since she first met him. The idea was scary and the anticipation was worse when she thought of looking up at the man she loved. It always was frightening, making eye contact with a man that she sometimes had trouble recognizing. She did it anyway, and when her eyes met his she could instantly see the single emotion that raced through them. Her mind remembered the very first time he stood before her like he was then, shoulders squared, eyes in angry slits and jaw clenched menacingly.

-----

Reaching the door to their apartment, she knocked with her foot and waited patiently for Aaron to open it. Minutes had to have past before she gave up, realizing that he was still at work, before setting the groceries down on the floor and digging out her own key. She made quick work of the lock out of habit and opened the door before she picked up the paper bags and walking into her home. The lights were on and she furrowed her eyebrows at it, knowing that the electric bill was expensive and knowing that Aaron would be annoyed at her if he found out.

She could have sworn that she shut them off, knowing that she had left well before sunset and there wasn't any need for lights then. Perplexed, she placed the groceries on the counter and trailed the way to their bedroom, noticing the door was open and the bathroom light was on. "Aar?"

She called out his nickname softly as she came closer to the bathroom, the door ajar enough to let the light flood out, but not enough to see inside. A part of her wished she didn't when looking back on her finding her boyfriend on his knees in front of the porcelain toilet, a dollar bill rolled into a straw and him snorting powder off of the closed lid.

Her mouth fell open as she watched him breathe it in as easily as air and as though his life depended on it. "What the hell?" Her voice came out shaky and incredulous as she looked at the man whose head snapped toward her, eyes wide and red.

"Rey? What are you doing back so early?" He quickly stood to his feet, the dollar he threw on the seat of the barely-there remnants of the drug he was snorting unrolled itself a little before rolling to the floor. He stumbled toward her in shock, him tripping over one of his feet and her backing away from him and into their bedroom.

When she didn't answer right away, too shocked for anything to come out as a sentence, he asked her again in a less soft tone. "What the hell are you doing back so early?" It was more of an accusation instead of a question. It was as though this wasn't their home, it wasn't the same one they had been sharing for a year now. The room she backed into seemed as foreign as the man that stood in front of her.

"What the hell were you just doing, Aaron?" She looked past his frame at the dollar bill on the floor and toilet lid, trying to process everything at once. "I asked you a question first." He stalked toward her and stood in front of her, his tall frame towering over her petite one.

She looked at his bloodshot eyes, his pupils were the size of dimes and shifted from her eyes to the bedside table, to the door, and back to her. He wasn't recognizable like this, with his body language unreadable as he fidgeted and clenched and unclenched his fists by his side. The man she knew and loved was only ever irritated. He had never been so paranoid and skittish.

"I only went to the grocery store." She answered him and looked at him with eyes that were just as wide as his. "It hasn't ever taken more than an hour. You're supposed to be at work and instead, I find you– I come home to this?" Her voice broke and her eyes pricked with tears.

There was a part of her that remembered trying to work out what she was feeling in that moment when she realized it was a mixture of everything. She felt betrayed and was distraught at the idea of him doing drugs as hard as what she assumed to be cocaine, much less doing it in their home. A large part of her felt anger and resentment at how he would even fathom the idea. She also acknowledged how much love she felt for him, but it was masked with a heavy blanket of disappointment and only showcased itself in the form of the wetness spilling out of her eyes and onto her cheeks.

"You're not going to tell anyone, right? You wouldn't." She gave him an incredulous look, said nothing all the while overspilling with rage and walked past him into the bathroom with him hot on her heels. Her eyes landed on the plastic bag by the toilet and she walked toward it, ripping off a piece of tissue paper and wrapping her hand with it before picking the baggy up.

"Wh–what are you doing?" His voice came out frantic and shaky with mock brevity failing to disguise his paranoia. "I'm throwing this shit away." She spoke as she began lifting the toilet seat up.

"No!" His voice range loudly, much louder than either of them had been speaking before, and his hands grasped at her wrists, pulling them away from the toilet and making the lid slam back down harshly. The baggy with white substance was ripped out of her hand and he grasped it tightly. Hiding it behind his back, he raised his other hand up with caution. "You can't do that. I spent so much on this."

She couldn't help the exhale of breath that escaped her lips at his words. It was a breath of utter shock. "Are you fucking kidding me? We can't have that shit in our house, Aaron." She reached for it again and he backed away, his hand that was raised pushed her chest and she stumbled backward slightly before she regained her balance.

"Did you just push me?" Her own voice was wavering now and she barely recognized. It seemed that everything surrounding her was foreign. The man she had loved for almost two years was a complete stranger in her eyes as his body trembled and shielded the bag of white powder like it was his most prized possession. "I didn't mean to, okay? You just can't throw this away. It's not yours to dispose of and this shit is expensive."

She scoffed at him and walked toward him again. Standing in front of him, her hand bravely reached to the one he had behind his back to try and grab it again. Her fingers shook out of fear of what would happen if anyone found out that it was in their house. She was trembling out of panic. "Do you hear yourself right now?" She interrogated him in a voice that was higher than what was normal, an inflection that showed how baffling his words were.

"Just give it to me, Aaron." She extended her arm further felt her fingertips graze the wrist that was holding the illegal substance. "I said no!" His voice was loud. He had never shouted at her before. In fact, he was the most levelheaded one in their relationship more often than not. His voice was loud, but the contact of his hand wrapped tightly around her throat and the cold of the pale yellow tiles of their bathroom wall coming in harsh contact with the back of her head and knocking the air from her lungs was even louder.

Her hands flew up to his wrist and her eyes widened at him, the tears that had gathered once again threatened to fall. "I said no. That's your fucking problem. You never listen." His grip got tighter and his glare bore into her soul. She couldn't find the green eyes that brought her comfort and warmth. The blackness engulfed every sliver of green as he gripped her impossibly tighter, before dropping his hand. She fell to the floor as he stalked out of the bathroom and she heard the front door slam seconds after.

----

"What the fuck was that?" His tone wasn't anything new, but it never failed to send chills up her back and onto her neck, before washing back down again in a waterfall of discomfort and emotional agony. Reyna trained her sad brown eyes on the cobble again, scared to hold eye contact in fear of the clash between malice and vulnerability.

"We're in public. It just didn't feel appropriate." She hated how small she sounded. She hated how small he made her feel, so small to the point where her shoulders still hunched and her arms hugged herself tightly. The bruise in the mark of a handprint was still visible on her wrist, but it was fading and she chose that as the silver lining. "You think I give a damn how you feel."

It wasn't a question he wanted her to answer and she knew that. The wind sang through the streets, avoiding the alleyway they were stood in as if to give them some unwanted privacy. It whistled along and paid no mind. She wished it would just sweep her away with it. "You do what I want you to do."

Aaron stepped closer to her and forced her body straight, his fingers, on one hand, gripped her cheeks harshly while the other pinched her clothed and most intimate place. He was a great pine in a forest of cherry trees. Everyone surrounding her withered away come the cold, even Reyna herself, and he remained standing tall, just as daunting as he was in the summer. He never went away.

"Hey man, why don't you let her go and step back?" Reyna never heard the door open, but she heard it shut and she certainly heard the voice that accompanied it.

Aaron's hand that was grabbing her face stayed defiantly in place. Her gaze snapped to the curly-haired boy who had just stepped out of the same door she had not too long ago and she felt Aaron tense in front of her. "Who the fuck are you?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders and stepped closer to the pair, his white dress shirt's sleeves were rolled up to his forearms that stretched the fabric because of the muscles there. He didn't seem scared in the slightest as he placed a hand on Aaron's shoulder and pushed him backward lightly, forcing the hand that gripped Reyna's face to fall away. She took a deep breath, gasping for air that she didn't know she needed so badly. Her hands shook as she pulled her skirt down and rubbed the ache in her cheeks.

"Why the fuck should I listen to a punk like you?" Aaron spoke in disbelief, glancing up and down the black-haired boy's body indignantly. He was a few inches taller than Aaron, allowing him to tower above his 5"9 frame intimidatingly. His broad shoulders were squared and his head was held high as he stepped in front of Reyna and stood in between the couple. "You shouldn't have to listen to me. She spelled it out for you, mate."

Aaron stomped closer and gave the boy a hard shove, sending him stumbling backward and nearly hitting the girl pressed against the wall, but he caught his balance before their bodies made contact. Nevertheless, the motion had the boy's cologne invading her senses. "I don't know who the hell you are, but I suggest you go back inside before I beat the living hell out of you."

He ran a tattooed hand through his curls, three letters briefly disappearing in the black, before he coolly and collectively responded, "I'm fine out here, thanks." Reyna was frozen in place. She could only see half of Aaron's features that were so blatantly painted with rage and the stranger's back in front of her. "I do suggest that you go back inside before you start something you regret."

He snapped. There were always certain trigger words or actions that made Aaron see red. When his vision flooded with it, there was no way he would be able to see reason. Nights of hers would be spent trying to pull him out of the darkness that so fully enveloped him to no avail. Simply as if a switch flipped, her caution was ignored and he'd escalate until he was shouting at her. By then, she would be too frightened to respond and would remain quiet, staring at the hole in the wall that his fist made months before while his voice pierced her eardrums and poisoned her consciousness with his venom.

The hit that landed on the curly-haired boys' jaw sent him shifting back into the bricks of the bar. She sidestepped away to avoid his large body colliding with hers and watched Aaron advance toward him. The stranger kept his hands bravely at his sides as Aaron's attached to the collars of his shirt. "Who the fuck do you think you are, kid?"

He coolly spoke and it took Reyna by surprise at how calm and collected he was. She was used to outbursts and violence and force, but she wasn't accustomed to passive level-headedness. "Just a kid who watched you sexually harass this woman on two separate occasions."

The question of why this boy had followed them outside never arose in her mind. Mainly focused on the present moment, she never thought that anyone– let alone the boy who smiled at her from across the dance floor– had seen Aaron get handsy with her as though she was a doll that one could do with as they pleased. She was embarrassed, but most of all she felt scared for the boy who didn't cower from Aaron's intense glare. He was a fool who didn't know what her boyfriend was capable of, she decided.

"She's my girlfriend, you dumb fuck. I get to do what I want with her." Aaron seethed through gritted teeth. Reyna watched fearfully from the sidelines as the stranger's stoic expression faltered for just a moment, his eyebrows furrowing in response. "She's a human being who clearly isn't interested in what you're trying to offer her."

Aaron's left fist collided with his chiseled jaw and everything after happened quickly. The dark crowned boy shifted under Aaron's arms and got out of his hold, only to wrap each of his wrists behind his back and press him into the wall with a hard enough impact to leave scratches across Aaron's cheeks. The stranger stood behind him and used his body to pin Aaron's front to the wall. "When I let you go, you're going to go back into the bar, get your things, and get the hell out of here. Is that clear?"

"Who the hell do you think yo–" Aaron's words were interrupted with a groan as the stranger used his body weight to press his face into the wall harder, adding to the pain that flooded the angry green eyes that Reyna was so afraid to look into.

"Is that clear?" Every word was emphasized and articulated in a way that made it impossible to misinterpret what he said. Aaron released only a grunt before the boy let him go, slowly turning to the girl who stood a few meters away at a safe distance. She noticed the way his eyes softened when they met hers, widened in fright.

Whether or not he was expecting what was coming was unclear to her, but she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand as Aaron jumped him from behind. The two men fell to the ground, Aaron on top and releasing punch after punch to the boy's face. She let out a shrill scream, feeling completely incapable of stopping her boyfriend's onslaught of punches. Her heart was beating in her throat and she couldn't breathe, wanting and willing everything in her to help the boy she didn't know.

He never fought back. He laid on the ground and took every drunken hit, his hands at his sides the entire time. By the relentless way Aaron delivered the hits, she knew that he thought he was winning.

It ended as soon as it started, blood spilling out of the nose of the boy on the ground and two tall men pulling Aaron away and pinning his arms against the wall. A girl kneeled beside the boy on the cobble, her bare knees paying no mind to the surface as she looked him over. Soon enough, the only things Reyna could see were the flashing blue and red lights of a police car, illuminating the alleyway in a dizzying glow as officers ran to the scene, shackling her boyfriend in cuffs and stuffing him in the back of the police car

Part 2? Feedback is always appreciated and helps inspire quicker updates!!!

#5sos #ashton irwin #calum hood #fanfiction #luke hemmings #michael clifford #broken home #sierra deaton #kaykay #calum hood imagine

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blackgirlnotes · 4 years

Text

Faux Activism and Exclusionary Practices.

Before I even begin this week's text post, I have to make it abundantly clear: All Black Lives must matter to you if you are going to be an "activist" or a social justice warrior. That said, let's have a conversation about what and why this new wave of activism in the black community is not inclusive nor real.

1. OUTRAGE

The outrage over the unnecessary killings and highly preventable deaths of black men and women is one hundred percent real and warranted. However, as I have noticed in my personal social media timelines, many people are unknowingly (or purposefully) excluding the names of trans people and non-binary people. This is abhorrent and frankly disgusting. Black people exist in every facet of life: from being a cis-woman who has a loving husband to being a trans man who lives with his life gay, cis-partner. Every version of the black experience is valid and worthy of protection and acceptance. Women and LGBTQIA+ folx have a hard time already existing in a straight, white, male dominated world. Imagine tacking on the fact that they are black. Now they experience two to three different forms of discrimination for things they didn't decide nor have the ability to change. If you are outraged at the injustices inflicted upon our people for generations, then you MUST also include your gender non-conforming friends and their experiences as well. Do not practice and exclusionary version of "Black Lives Matter." At that point, you are a hypocrite and liar because you, yourself do not see the value in the non-traditional (for lack of a better term) black life.

2. SILENCE

For the first week of protests and surge of political dismantling, we saw the names of nearly every black man who had died as a result of unjust policing and a corrupt government. Rarely did we see popular activists or celebrities mention the names of Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, or Atatiana Jefferson. Rarely did we see the same outpour of grief and support for the women also impacted by the world we live in. Never, in that first week, did I see a video or post about how to help locate the thousands of lost black girls snatched from inner cities. Last time I checked, the human mind is capable of focusing on more than one tragedy at a time. To not share the same loudness when it comes to the plight of the black woman is to be silent. As we have learned over the last few weeks: silence is deafening. It doesn't surprise me that our people don't make nearly as much noise behind the oppression and destruction of the black woman. This is the same community that had a generation raises young girls to "dress appropriately when there are men in the house," you know...the house the men are VISITING and you are STAYING in. The same group of people who deem black women ghetto for having multiple partners and children from said partners but praises men because "it must be so hard taking care of all those kids...as a man." The same delegation of humans who will bash a darkskin woman in order to praise a lightskin or non-black woman. Let me digress. The treatment of black women is so ingrained in to our psyche that we, as women, catch ourselves subconsciously giving in to these misogynistic practices. When my step mother tells me I should cover up because I live in a house with men, when my job tells me the uncomfortable advances from male customers is normal and I should just ignore it, or when the first lady of my church deems my knee length skirt too short simply because the old, perverted men in the sanctuary can't stop staring. It is done from a place of "protection" in their eyes but it stems from something deeper. To destroy the black woman is to destroy the black man, essentially. Every black man comes from a black woman. Before you try arguing in terms of "mixed kids with white mothers," learn basic genetics: the mixed boy with a black dad and white mom has a black grandma. His father's mother, and her mother and so forth, are all black. Do not be silent when Black women are oppressed, slain and abused. Be as loud as you are when George and Trayvon were taken from us. Be as loud as you are when your sport's team loses. Do not allow the black woman's life to be lost without at least trying to protect it.

3. PETITIONS AND DONATIONS

Yes, signing your name on petitions and opening your purse to the many sites created to help protesters is a great way to help make change but it isn't the only way nor is it the most effective. Stop bashing people who do not see the value in signing an online petition amd start suggesting other ways to be active in this fight. Organize something in your neighborhood, attend a protest, help localize the situations going on if none of the tragedies apply to your town. Educate yourself and a friend. There are many other ways to protest and be active in the community other than donating money you may not have or signing a petition because twitter user funyunslover48 told you to. This is a direct message to those demonizing others for not signing petitions online or donating online. Its not the end of the world if the petition with 400,000 signatures doesn't get signed by Sandy because Sandy has signed ten other ones today and doesn't feel like she has to sign another. I will say, as a counter, if you haven't signed at least one petition or donated anywhere of you could, then you are definitely not helping and you need to find some links and sign some ink. Period.

4. ORGANIZING

My only statement for this is to look at living, civil rights activist. Revisit history a bit and do what you can to try and rally our people together as a whole. We need, as a collective, to have leaders in the community who are bringing us together from all sides. Paris, London, Tokyo, and parts of New Zealand have all had BLM protests in accordance with the ones happening in every state in America. We must unite ourselves somehow so that the true message of what we're fighting for, globally, is not lost nor is it misconstrued. This is my only suggestion for this section.

In all, the practices that have been going on for the last two weeks have been positive and good mostly. However, there is always room for improvement and there needs to be room for those who we have been constantly ostracizing. Now is the time for black people of all sexualities, genders, ages, and backgrounds to come together and fight for ourselves. We cannot say that our lives matter if we exclude our women and LGBTQIA+ family. We are united by our shared experiences and culture, please do not let who someone shares a bed with at night deter you from that fact.

Here is a list of black-led LGBT organizations that you can glean information from or donate to (list curated by Eugene Lee Yang of the Try Guys):

TGI Justice Project

The Okra Project

Anti-Violence Project

SNaPCO

Black Trans Travel Fund

The Transgender District

Black Aids Institute

Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Brave Space Alliance

Voix Noire

- nellmaria

(please excues any typos. this has yet to be edited.)

#blackgirlnotes #blacklivesalwaysmatter #no justice no peace #african american #blacklivesmatter #lgbtpeople #lgbtq #trans lives matter #black trans lives matter

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kyberled · 4 years

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@cosmicnexus said:

// i don't even know the whole story but i know based on the red x's on the picture those kids ain't alright and i am S A D but holy fuck jay this picture is amazing!!! the shading and the rendering!!!!

// AaaaaAAAA thank you Kato ;w; You’re always far too good to me and I love you <3<3<3

The basic story is this is Braig’s little ‘inner circle’ group of best friends. He met Hano (the Cathar) when he was three, and they’ve been best friends ever since; he met Naweh (the Tarasin) not long after, and she fit in with them perfectly; He met Booda (the Gungan) when he was four, Lohata (the Rodian) when he was five, and he sort of knew the Affgor twins, Garak and Shah-Ki (the Weequay) in passing, but he didn’t actually know them until their Gathering, when the seven of them - at age seven - went to find their kyber crystals. Ever since the Gathering, they’ve sort of been their own little clique, so they refer to their collective selves as ‘the Gathering group’. Not very creative, but it suits their purposes.

(Little fun fact: Braig’s the oldest of all of them! Technically they’re all born in the same year, but he was born first. The actual age order is Braig -> Lohata -> Hano -> Naweh -> Booda -> the Twins. The Twins don’t know which one of them was born first, and change their answer depending on their moods.)

(more details under a cut because I rambled)

Tarasins, such as Naweh, have skin that changes colour based on their emotions. They can learn to control the changes, and even use them to communicate when they get older. Normally, Naweh keeps herself a calm, neutral blue-purple-green, but she knows her friends don’t care, so right now, she’s a happy/excited pink-yellow-orange. Anyone who knows Tarasin skin colours would take one look at her and go ‘wow, she’s stoked to be there’.

One of Naweh’s favourite places to be was the nurseries. She always said if she hadn’t been chosen to pursue knighthood, she would’ve been happy working with the younglings (to the point where if she ever had the Group’s braincell and advised against something, they’d usually chorus a light-hearted ‘Yes, Crechemaster’). She loved kids. That’s why, aside from encouraging Hano to embrace his bastard status, she’s braiding Braig’s hair. She doesn’t have hair of her own, but some of the little ones do, and having it braided makes it easier for them to do their training. She’s practicing braids so she can help the kids better on her next shift. (That’s also why she has a bunch of hair ties around her wrist, in part. She also just wore them because most of her close friends - Braig, Hano, the twins - have long hair, so she comes prepared in case they lose one of their own ties.)

She gets a red X because she was in her beloved nurseries when Order 66 was declared. She died shielding the younglings, helping the staff smuggle them out. One of the last things she ever did was use the Force to shove some of the smaller ones into a ventilation duct in the hopes they might escape. She knew she wouldn’t. If you were to find her body after the Purge, you’d find her still covering some little ones who weren’t so lucky, a guardian to the last.

Of course we all know and love Braig. I don’t have too much to say about him here, since, again, we know him already. He’s napping because he’s warm and safe, the Force in the gardens and with his friends feels amazing, and he’s been getting his hair played with for the past five minutes. He’s also, as the group’s healer, on standby in case Booda’s prosthetics hurt her, but they all trust the Twins’ work enough that he feels safe dozing.

He survives Order 66, so no X - but his connection to the Living Force, combined with so many deaths all at once, leaves him with near-permanent metaphysical chronic pain. Sometimes, the literal air around him just feels painful to him. It sucks.

Hano is the tallest and strongest of the group. He evens out at 7′5, over 300 lbs. The Force gave him a bronze crystal when he was young and he did not disappoint. The necklace he wears is actually a trophy from the first hunt he went on, a rite of passage among Cathar. The trophy just lets other Cathar know he completed the hunt and can be welcomed as an adult into their society. Given that he was training as a tracker (Braig always called him ‘the greatest/most skilled tracker I’ve ever met’), his success was inevitable. As intimidating as he can be, he’s a gentle giant and a goofball at heart. He’ll tear it up on the battlefield, sure, but he’ll also use the fact he’s strong enough to lift a clone trooper in one arm to carry wounded men back to safety, to carry his friends around for fun, or to help the men, other Jedi, and the Temple staff with more strenuous physical labor. He also enjoys play-fighting, especially with Braig and Naweh, and the control he learned through the rigorous training of a Jedi means he can easily do so without hurting them. He’s always had a penchant for mischief, which is why he’s been telling dumb jokes and awful puns for the past little while.

(Bonus fun fact: I joked, years ago, that he’s large enough that when he goes out with his friends - especially Small Friend Braig - he gets mistaken as their master. When I posted a WIP of this in my discord server, my friend Reece assumed he was their dad, so. It looks like that’s not a joke and actually happens, and Braig was quietly sulking that he’s three months older for a while after. Hano continues to think it’s funny.)

He survived Order 66, barely. He was blinded and lost a leg in an explosion (hence the red scribbles). His master, Yokar Eedai, hid him among rubble, commed some of his non-Jedi friends to find the location, and then lead the clones away at the cost of his own life. Hano spent many years hiding in the Outer Rim in self-imposed exile. (He does eventually reunite with Braig, though. If you swing by Braig’s weapons shop, you can usually see him there, bandages tied over his eyes and metallic claws peeking out from under his left pantleg.)

Garak and Shah-Ki aren’t very talkative or physically affectionate. They show their love for their friends through inclusion and acts of service. When they were young, still forming their group, Braig always thought that they were ‘each others’ best friend, and could live without the rest of us’. While that may have once been true, they’ve bonded with the rest of the Group quite thoroughly. So Garak is brushing Hano’s hair for him (Hano usually wears it in braids) and Shah-Ki is fixing Booda’s prosthetics, though they’re both debating the best way to enhance the water-proofing without sacrificing mobility. The twins were training as Shadows, a rare variant of Jedi that specializes in stealth missions. They were also brilliant slicers and engineers, making them incredible secret agents. By the time they were senior padawans, they could make not only themselves invisible through the Force, but one or two others, as well. They would often use this talent to bring one of the others of their group to see what they had most recently found or made. The rest of the Group always joked that you never knew what it was going to be. It could be a store room in the Temple that had fallen out of use, it could be a Battle Droid they repurposed, or it could be the complete dossier of someone who wasn’t legally supposed to exist. Just whatever they thought was cool.

Their penchant for going unnoticed also meant that they heard, intentionally or otherwise, all sorts of gossip throughout the Temple. They’d usually share interesting tidbits at mealtimes with their friends, a practice Naweh had affectionately dubbed ‘Holocast T’.

While Weequay can grow hair, braids are significant to them culturally, representing how many times they’ve visited their home planet of Sriluur. Because of this, the twins opted to have silka bead padawan ‘braids’ instead.

They were finishing up a mission when Order 66 hit. While they were never as outwardly friendly as some others, they did trust their men, and as such didn’t think to hide themselves from those that became their executioners until it was too late. They died only moments apart, still reaching out to each other, but weren’t quite able to touch.

Lohata and Booda are dating! They like to pretend nobody knows. The entire Group knows, of course, but they pretend they don’t, for their sake.

Lohata is as close to a ‘mom friend’ as you can get when you don’t have a mom and haven’t been raised to know what having a mom is like. She usually has the braincell, and does her best to make sure the others can get out of any trouble they get into. That’s not to say that she doesn’t get into trouble a lot, too, she’s just usually the one who can bail them out when ‘blame it on Braig’ isn’t feasible. She’s also a bookworm, and usually has a datapad in her hand (she always appreciated that her friends would just let her read when they all hang out, jumping into and out of the conversation whenever she wanted without judgement. It was nice). She and Braig often exchange ‘pads from the archives (with Mistress Jocasta’s permission) if they found one they thought the other would like. She has a fairly dry sense of humor, which is why she’s in the middle of telling Hano that if he tells the one about the Womprat and the Quacta again, she’s defecting to the Separatists so she can hit him with a tree branch without getting in trouble. (Hano, being Assigned Disaster At Birth, is now figuring out how to reroute the conversation into a good segue for the one about the Womprat and the Quacta.)

Aside from reading, she loved flying and singing, and was quite good at both - though she wouldn’t admit to the second. When Booda was recovering from getting her prosthetics for the first time, Lohata used to sing to her to help her relax. She wasn’t quite as good at dancing ad Booda was, but, if they had a moment alone, she’d make the effort for her girlfriend.

Booda is much sunnier and more open than Lohata, but not as outgoing as Braig (hence why he’s usually their mastermind). She has a joy and genuine love for life, and, in the moment, is just happy to be home with all her friends, all safe and together and able to relax for once.

As a Gungan, she knows all too well how her species is regarded by the rest of the Galaxy. She’s trained herself to not speak Gungan Basic in an effort to appear more ‘civilized’ and ‘respectable’ as a Jedi, and to hopefully avoid the negative stereotypes. (She only ever speaks it to other Gungans, now, and tries to avoid doing so in public.) Like Naweh, she figured if she ever got tired of field work, she’d be happy in the Temple - though she wanted to work in the Archives, not the nursery. She was a cultures nerd, like Braig, and the two of them often edited each others’ cultural papers and assignments before handing them in.

Booda got her prosthetics after a mission went wrong, damaging both her arms beyond repair for the current Jedi on the scene. Her master, a Nautolan named Nid Arto, blamed himself for it, and had to speak to his own (former) master at length and meditate for a while to come to terms with it. He visited her for hours on end every day in the Temple’s medbay until she was cleared. She hadn’t yet turned 16, so she was still growing - this, as well as the frequent wear and tear of missions, meant that she had to get them replaced quite often. Oddly enough, this helped her come to terms with it more. At Nid’s suggestion, she started getting coloured casings for them, and that made it a bit more fun. The Group would often visit her after these procedures with washable markers and draw or write little notes and designs on, which made it even better. By the time of this little meeting of theirs, she’s grown used to them, and is quite pleased with these new pink casings (they’re her favourite colour).

She’s also the best dancer of the group, and usually teaches the others different dancing styles to help with diplomatic missions. Naweh, Braig, and Lohata are her usual students, as they’re the ones who do diplomacy more often (and she likes being able to dance with her girlfriend). Hano doesn’t do high society - it’s hard enough to get him to put on a shirt, he hates how it feels with fur - and the twins are shadows, not consulars or guardians. The three of them still show up for support and shenanigans, though. The twins are quite good at a Corellian waltz. Booda and Braig had a long-running joke about how he insisted dancing was just like sparring without hitting each other, dips were take-downs you stopped half way, et cetera, and she, through increasing giggles, would try to convince him to stop trying to punch foreign dignitaries to music.

When Order 66 happened, Booda, Nid, and Lohata had just finished up a mission to Naboo (Lohata’s master had been sick, so Nid invited her along for the ride). They’d finished up early, so Nid, who knows Lohata likes to fly and Booda likes being on Naboo, decided to let the girls get a bit of flight practice in (with Queen Jamilla’s permission) in friendly skies. The men turned on them, and Lohata’s ship crashed, knocking her out. It was the fire and injuries that eventually took her life. Booda tried to pull her out, but only succeeded in damaging her prosthetics before Nid pulled her away to get her running. The two of them hid in a lake. When the men dropped depth charges, Nid shielded Booda and died in the process. She hid under water and in under-water caverns with air pockets for days, peeking out to still see her master’s corpse floating there before someone eventually removed it. She would never really be able to leave the lakeshore again, barely being able to venture into town for food weeks later, and to get her arms fixed over a year after the Purge. She, too, eventually reconnects with Hano and Braig - while she never feels safe leaving her lake, they make sure to comm her fairly regularly, and visit in person when they can, and it’s the closest to feeling truly safe she’s been in decades.

#cosmicnexus #&& give the sun a head start; ooc #&& temple archives; headcanons #&& from creche to grave; the gathering group #&& brave new worlds; padawan #&& end of days; order 66 #tl;dr jay loves their kids #and as such makes them suffer

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