#but hey as long as there is no application fee no reason not to try | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

respectable-username · 3 years

Text

🔐 Why You (Probably) Don't Need A VPN

A rant by a software engineer sick of VPN ads from her favourite YouTubers

TL;DR:

Here are some legitimate reasons the average internet user might want to use a VPN:

To connect to their company's internal network

To bypass the Great Firewall of China (or other types of website blocks at country or organisation level)

To watch Netflix etc as if you were in another country

Here are absolutely rubbish reasons to use a VPN:

Privacy

And today, I'll tell you why.

Hang on, won't a VPN stop hackers from stealing my passwords?

I mean, it does encrypt the web traffic coming from your device.

You know what else encrypts web traffic coming from your device? Your browser.

Yes, in the year 2021, pretty much all websites on the internet are accessed over HTTPS. The "S" stands for "secure", as in "your request will be securely encrypted". If your browser is using HTTPS, nobody can capture the data you're sending over the internet. More detail in the "I like too much detail" section at the bottom of this post.

It's very easy to check if you are using HTTPS by looking at your URL bar. In most browsers, it will have a lock on it if secure:

(From top left to bottom right: Chrome on iOS, Safari on iOS, Chrome on Windows, Edge on Windows, Firefox on Windows, and Safari on Mac. Screenshots reflect the UI at the time this post was written. Oh gosh this has taken over 4 hours to write.)

But isn't moar encryption better? What if somebody breaks HTTPS?

For starters, nobody's breaking your HTTPS, and there isn't any benefit from double encrypting. This is because of the maths behind encryption/decryption!

Encryption works kinda like a lock and key, except the lock is maths and the key is a special number only known to the person allowed to unlock the information.

The important thing is, without the key, all the locked data looks like complete and utter garbage. Completely unusable. Barely distinguishable from random noise. There's absolutely no way to tell what the original data was.

The other important thing is that the key is nearly unguessable. As in, with current technology, will generally take more than the lifetime of the universe to guess by chance. And when technology gets faster, we just make the numbers bigger again until they're once again secure.

For any major website you use, they will use a strong encryption algorithm (ie lock) with big numbers so your keys will be strong enough to withstand an attack. This means your data is safe as long as that lock icon is in your URL bar.

A VPN will not make the existing garble any more garbled. The extra $10/month or whatever you're paying for does not buy you any extra protection.

If you want to know more about how encryption and HTTPS in particular work, see the "I like too much detail" section at the end of this post.

Something something viruses

How's a VPN going to stop viruses? It controls the path your internet traffic takes, not the content that gets sent down that path. I guess it could block some known virus-giving hosts? But if it's known to the VPN provider, it's probably also known to the built-in antivirus on your computer who can block it for you.

(Oh yeah, 3rd party antivirus is another thing that's not worth paying for these days. Microsoft's built-in Windows Defender is as good as the third party options, and something something Macs don't get viruses easily because of how they're architected.)

Honestly though, keep your software up to date, don't click on anything suspicious, don't open files from sources you don't trust, and you'll be right most of the time.

And keep your software up to date. Then update your software. Hey, did I mention keeping your stuff updated? Update! Now! It only takes a few minutes. Please update to the latest version of your software I'm begging you. It's the number 1 way to protect yourself from viruses and other malware. Most major software attacks could have been prevented if people just updated their damn software!

But my ISP is spying on me!

Ok, it is true that there are TWO bits of data that HTTPS can't and won't hide. Those are:

The source of a request (your IP)

What website that request is going to (the website's IP)

These are the bits of information that routers use to know where to send your data, so of course they can't be hidden as the data is moving across the internet. And people can see that information very easily if they want to.

Note: this will show which website you're going to, but not which page you're looking at, and not the content of that page. So it will show that you were on Tumblr, but will not show anyone that you're still reading SuperWhoLock content in 2021.

It's this source/destination information that VPNs hide, which is why they can be used to bypass website blocks and region locks.

By using a VPN, those sniffing traffic on your side of the VPN will just show you connecting to the VPN, not the actual website you want. That means you can read AO3 at work/school without your boss/teachers knowing (unless they look over your shoulder of course).

As for those sniffing on the websites end, including the website itself, they will see the VPN as the source of the connection, not you. So if you're in the US and using a VPN node in the UK, Netflix will see you as being in the UK and show you their British library rather than the American one.

If this is what you're using a VPN for and you think the price is fair, then by all means keep doing it! This is 100% what VPNs are good for.

HOWEVER, and this is a big "however", if it's your ISP you're trying to hide your internet traffic from, then you will want to think twice before using a VPN.

Let me put it this way. Without a VPN, your ISP knows every website you connect to and when. With a VPN, do you know who has that exact same information? The VPN provider. Sure, many claim to not keep logs, but do you really trust the people asking for you to send them all your data for a fee to not just turn around and sell your data on for a profit, or worse?

In effect, you're trading one snooper for another. One snooper is heavily regulated, in many jurisdictions must obey net neutrality, and is already getting a big fee from you regardless of where you browse. The other isn't. Again, it's all a matter of who you trust more.

For me personally, I trust my ISP more than a random VPN provider, if for no other reason than my ISP is an old enough company with enough inertia and incompetence that I don't think they could organise to sell my data even if they wanted to. And with the amount of money I'm paying them per month, they've only got everything to lose if they broke consumer trust by on-selling that data. So yeah, I trust my ISP more with my privacy than the random VPN company.

But my VPN comes with a password manager!

Password managers are great. I 100% recommend you use a password manager. If there's one thing you could do right now to improve your security (other than updating your software, speaking of, have you updated yet?), it's getting and using a password manager.

Password managers also come for free.

I'm currently using LastPass free, but am planning to switch after they did a bad capitalism and only let their free accounts access either laptop or mobile but not both now. I personally am planning to move to Bitwarden on friends' recommendation since it's not only free but open source and available across devices. I also have friends who use passbolt and enjoy it, which is also free and open source, but it's also a bit DIY to set up. Great if you like tinkering though! And there are probably many other options out there if you do a bit of googling.

So, yeah, please use a password manager, but don't pay for it unless you actually have use for the extra features.

No I really need to hide my internet activity from everybody for reasons

In this case, you're probably looking for TOR. TOR is basically untraceable. It's also a terrible user experience for the most part because of this, so I'd only recommend it if you need it, such as if you're trying to escape the Great Firewall. But please don't use it for Bad Crimes. I am not to be held liable for any crime committed using information learned from this post.

Further reading viewing

If you want to know more about why you don't need a VPN, see Tom Scott's amazing video on the subject. It's honestly a great intro for beginners.

I like too much detail

Ahhh, so you're the type of person who doesn't get turned off by long explanations I see. Well, here's a little more info on the stuff I oversimplified in the main post about encryption. Uhh, words get bigger and more jargony in this section.

So first oversimplification: the assumption that all web traffic is either HTTP or HTTPS. This isn't exactly true. There are many other application layer internet standards out there, such as ssh, ftp, websockets, and all the proprietary standards certain companies use for stuff such as streaming and video conferencing. Some of these are secure, using TLS or some other security algorithm under the hood, and some of them aren't.

But most of the web requests you care about are HTTP/HTTPS calls. As for the rest, if they come from a company of a decent size that hasn't been hacked off the face of the planet already, they're probably also secure. In other words, you don't need to worry about it.

Next, we've already said that encryption works as a lock and a key, where the lock is a maths formula and the key is a number. But how do we get that key to lock and unlock the data?

Well, to answer that, we first need to talk about the two different types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption such as AES uses the same key to both encrypt and decrypt data, whereas asymmetric encryption such as RSA uses a different key to encode and decode.

For the sake of my writing, we're going to call the person encrypting Alice, the person decrypting Bob, and the eavesdropper trying to break our communications Eve from now on. These are standard names in crypto FYI. Also, crypto is short for cryptography not cryptocurrencies. Get your Bitcoin and Etherium outta here!

Sorry if things start getting incoherent. I'm tired. It's after 1am now.

So first, how do we get the key from symmetric crypto? This is probably the easier place to start. Well, you need a number, any number of sufficient size, that both Alice and Bob know. There are many ways you could share this number. They could decide it when they meet in person. They could send it to each other using carrier pigeons. Or they could radio it via morse code. But those aren't convenient, and somebody could intercept the number and use it to read all their messages.

So what we use instead is a super clever algorithm called Diffie-Hellman, which uses maths and, in particular, the fact it's really hard to factor large numbers (probably NP Hard to be specific, but there's no actual proof of that). The Wikipedia page for this is surprisingly easy to read, so I'll just direct you there to read all about it because I've been writing for too long. This algorithm allows Alice and Bob to agree on a secret number, despite Eve being able to read everything they send each other.

Now Alice and Bob have this secret number key, they can talk in private. Alice puts her message and the key into the encryption algorithm and out pops what looks like a load of garbage. She can then send this garbage to Bob without worrying about Eve being able to read it. Bob can then put the garbage and the key into the decryption algorithm to undo the scrambling and get the original message out telling him where the good donuts are. Voila, they're done!

But how does Alice know that she's sending her message to Bob and not Eve? Eve could pretend to be Bob so that Alice does the Diffie-Hellman dance with her instead and sends her the secret location of the good donuts instead.

This is where asymmetric crypto comes in! This is the one with private and public keys, and the one that uses prime numbers.

I'm not 100% across the maths on this one TBH, but it has something to do with group theory. Anyway, just like Diffie-Hellman, it relies on the fact that prime factorisation is hard, and so it does some magic with semi-primes, ie numbers with only 2 prime factors other than 1. Google it if you want to know more. I kinda zoned out of this bit in my security courses. Maths hard

But the effect of that maths is easier to explain: things that are encoded with one of the keys can only be decoded with the other key. This means that one of those keys can be well-known to the public and the other is known only to the person it belongs to.

If Alice wants to send a message to Bob and just Bob, no Eve allowed, she can first look up Bob's public key and encrypt a beginning message with that. Once Bob receives the message, he can decrypt it with his private key and read the contents. Eve can't read the contents though because, even though she has Bob's public key, she doesn't know his private key.

This public key information is what the lock in your browser is all about BTW. It's saying that the website is legit based on the public key they provide.

So why do we need symmetric crypto when we have asymmetric crypto? Seems a lot less hassle to exchange keys with asymmetric crypto.

Well, it's because asymmetric crypto is slooooow. So, in TLS, the security algorithm that puts the "S" in "HTTPS", asymmetric RSA is used to establish the initial connection and figure out what symmetric key to use, and then the rest of the session uses AES symmetric encryption using the agreed secret key.

And there you have it! Crypto in slightly-less-short-but-still-high-enough-level-that-I-hope-you-understand.

Just realised how long this section is. Well, I did call it "too much detail" for a reason.

Now, next question is what exactly is and isn't encrypted using HTTPS.

Well, as I said earlier, it's basically just the source IP:port and the destination IP:port. In fact, this information is actually communicated on the logical layer below the application layer HTTPS is on, known as the transport layer. Again, as I said before, you can't really encrypt this unless you don't want your data to reach the place you want at all.

Also, DNS is unencrypted. A DNS request is a request that turns a domain name, such as tumblr.com, into an IP address, by asking a special server called a Domain Name Server where to find the website you're looking for. A DNS request is made before an HTTP(S) request. Anyone who can read your internet traffic can therefore tell you wanted to go to Tumblr.

But importantly, this only shows the domain name, not the full URL. The rest of the URL, the part after the third slash (the first two slashes being part of http://), is stuff that's interpreted by the server itself and so isn't needed during transport. Therefore, it encrypted and completely unreadable, just like all the content on your page.

I was going to show a Wireshark scan of a web request using HTTP and HTTPS to show you the difference, but this has taken long enough to write as it is, so sorry!

I could probably write more, but it's 1:30am and I'm sleepy. I hope you found some of this interesting and think twice before purchasing a VPN subscription. Again, there are legit good uses for a VPN, but they're not the ones primarily being advertised in VPN ads. It's the fact that VPN ads rely so heavily on false advertising that really grinds my gears and made me want to do this rant. It's especially bad when it comes from somebody I'd think of as technologically competent (naming no names here, but if you've worked in tech and still promote VPNs as a way to keep data safe... no). Feel free to ask questions if you want and hopefully I'll get around to answering any that I feel I know enough to answer.

Nighty night Tumblr. Please update your software. And use a (free) password manager. And enable two factor authentication on all your accounts. But mostly just update your software.

#technology #vpn #things you don't need #things that piss me off #res rambles #res writes

577 notes · View notes

yutaya · 3 years

Text

Iron Fist Week Day 7: minor character/missing scene

Albert is a man. A man... with a van.

He's proud of his van. Sure it was a bitch and a half to get certified and sometimes trying to drive three freaking blocks in this city when he's having a bad enough day can threaten to put his blood pressure through the roof, but he's ground out an honest living for himself with it. That's no mean feat, in this neighborhood.

Plus, Al likes his job. It involves a lot of visiting every nook and cranny of the area, meeting loads of people at varying levels of talkative - it's a job that requires someone personable, and Al doesn't think it's too immodest to say that he fits the bill.

Staring down a fully loaded armoire, though, Al can admit to himself that there are times he's less fond of this job than others.

By the time he's got the thing down on the sidewalk, doors and drawers bound shut and with an initial layer of wrapping to protect it from pedestrian traffic while he sets up the loader, Al has mentally added two upticks to his pain-in-the-ass fee.

"Woah, can I help you with that?"

Al pauses in his transferring long enough to take a look at who's spoken. It's a white guy, 20s, a little scruffy but looks comfortable, and, most importantly, seems genuine.

Al smiles at him. "I appreciate the offer, but these need to be moved in a specific way to prevent scuffing."

"Oh." Al goes back to loading the armoire. "...Would you show me?" Al pauses again. Looks back at the guy. "I'm Danny, by the way," he adds, and smiles beatifically.

Al blinks up at the sky. Had the sun shone more brightly for a second, there? He turns back to wrapping the furniture with blankets and bungee cords. "You need to move a lot of furniture, Danny?" he asks while he works. Engaging in friendly conversation with strangers is second nature to him, at this point.

Danny, who has the courtesy to remain standing out on the street behind the van as they talk, bounces a little as he replies. "Yes, actually! My girlfriend and I have been redoing her apartment."

"Wow, big project. Hey, if you guys need stuff moved around, I've got you covered. Back and forth from the storage unit, delivering your new stuff from the store, bringing your old stuff wherever it's going... My rates are fair and, as you can see, I'd actually take care of your things." He pats the carefully cushioned furniture from his current job in indication.

Danny laughs a little, looking at it. "At least that isn't a piano, right?"

"Hey man, pianos have wheels. I can walk them right up the ramp."

Danny eyes the ramp Al uses with the handtrucks. "Isn't it too skinny?"

Al laughs again. "What kind of piano are you picturing, a grand?" As if anyone who owned one of those would be hiring Al to move it. As if anyone who owned one of those would be living in this area at all.

Danny shrugs, unbothered. "I haven't seen one since I was a kid. Maybe it seemed bigger back then." A beat passes, and then Danny continues talking, the oversharing sort of babble symptomatic of the sleep-deprived. "Anyway, we'll definitely call you for help with our stuff. And you can show me all the right ways to handle everything! I'm probably going to be doing a lot of rearranging furniture and stuff since Colleen is out at Bayard all the time now; she keeps talking about helping the community during the daytime - Colleen's my girlfriend, she's the best - and, I mean, she's right, of course, plus, we just got back to the city and I am not used to not having to do something -" he cuts himself off, lighting up. "Hey, could I get a job with you?"

Al startles. He can usually recognize when someone's coming at that angle. Granted, they usually don't seem to stumble into it by mistake.

"The shop down the street is hiring," he offers. "On the corner."

"Thanks! I'd like to work for this business, though."

Al pauses. Revaluates "Danny". There are only so many reasons someone would be looking for a moving job specifically, and in this neighborhood, the most likely scenario is one that Al has been very carefully steering clear of for 30 years.

"I appreciate the interest," he repeats cautiously, "but we're a small business. I'm afraid we don't really have the means to hire right now." It's a bit of a risk, revealing a vulnerability like that. Luckily, Albert is overstating it a bit; it won't be that easy for any of the triads to put financial pressure on him, and, well. He's stubborn. He swore a long time ago that he wouldn't go there.

"Oh, that's not a problem!" Danny says brightly. "You wouldn't need to pay me. I'm more looking for the experience, you know? I've never had a normal job, and Colleen thinks it'll be good for us to start over."

The alarm bell clanging in Al's head rises to a shriek, then falters. If this is a ploy, it is astoundingly poorly executed. If this guy is in with any sort of organized crime, he can't be more than a fledgling recruit. Al feels a moral obligation to try and steer him better, even if his self preservation instincts disagree.

"Look," Al says, watching Danny's face carefully. "I'm running an honest business, here. I'm not interested in having our name attached to anything. And, if I could offer you a word of advice?" Danny, who mostly just looks confused, nods. "Don't go saying that stuff about working for free. Depending who hears it, that's a good way to end up either severely taken advantage of, or in a coffin. Anyone you might be trying that hard to get a resource for won't be happy about you overplaying your hand."

Danny still looks confused. Al mimes swinging a hatchet. Danny's eyes go wide with clarity.

"I'm not with the triads," he says disconcertingly earnestly. "I'm the Iron Fist. I'm sworn to defend the city from people like them."

...Ok.

Well, at least this is an interesting conversation.

"If you're not with the triads, why do you want this job?"

"I guess I'm looking for something new. For fifteen years, I had one purpose. Now, it's done. Now, I need to build a new life, and..." His voice dips in a certain way with the next words, a way that makes Al's stomach sink with the familiarity of it. "...keep a promise to a friend."

Al looks at Danny, a pit in his stomach and memories in his heart. Resignation settles underneath his skin.

"You have a résumé?" he asks. At least Danny doesn't seem inclined to just throw things around, like some other shipping companies that Al could name. Royal Al Moving provides quality for its clients, thank you very much.

"I don't think so. What is that, equipment? I could buy some."

Al stares at him. He'd been expecting either an agreement to email or bring by a copy later, or a conversation along the lines of 'do I really need one?' followed by a verbal listing off of previous work or even just ability.

"Do you have any previous experience?" Al tries again. "Had any jobs before?"

"Yeah, I have," Danny says, and doesn't elaborate.

White people.

"What about ID?" Al asks, despite knowing full well he'll probably pretend not to notice if anything seems off about it.

Danny laughs a bit, seemingly unphased by his own complete lack of knowledge regarding ordinary job application/interview etiquette whatsoever. "Oh, I definitely have that. Had to fight really hard for it, too. It was almost all gone, but once everything got sorted out, we made, like, 10 new copies of everything." Danny pats around at his pockets, not appearing to notice Al's incredulous expression. "I don't have any of those with me right now, but... Ah ha!" He pulls something out triumphantly. "Business cards! I'm pretty sure my brother thought I was just going to destroy them, but my friend Jeri said it's important to always have one. It might have gone through the laundry, though, sorry."

Assuming this day can't get any weirder, like a fool, Al takes the card.

Even worn and slightly crumpled, the obnoxiously expensive quality of the original card is still clear. There's embossing and gold foil, for god's sake. The Rand Enterprises logo glints up at him almost mockingly even as the three dimensional lines of the border rise and fall under his thumb. Either seems unnecessary and frankly tone deaf for a Humanitarian Aid company, let alone both. Then again, maybe they reserve this version of the card for the executive level, those who hobnob among the elite, who need to make a certain type of impression on the too rich in order to convince them to donate well.

Because that's another thing this card reads, right there in plain English: a 9pt bold 'Daniel Rand', and under that, 'CEO'.

'What,' a little voice in Al's head wails semi-hysterically, 'the fuck?'

"Is this a joke?" Al asks out loud, vaguely surprised by how calm he sounds given the way the voice inside his head might be having a meltdown. "Am I on Candid Camera?"

But, no, wasn't he just thinking that this card is way too expensive - and thus definitely too expensive to be a prop?

"Hey, I know that one!" Danny Rand says cheerfully. "Joy and I used to watch it together!"

'Joy,' the voice in Al's head supplies. 'Joy Meachum.

'Well, at least this explains why he said he doesn't need money.

'Wait, why is he looking for a job in the first place? Is he not CEO? Did they kick him out or something? Did they disown him for wearing a hoodie with holes in it? Is that what he meant earlier when he said the thing he was doing before is over now?'

Al has never felt more rueful that he doesn't pay much attention to celebrity news.

"So," Al tries to find a way to word this that isn't 'have you been cut off or what?' "Why is Danny Rand looking for a job here?"

By "here", Al means a lot of things. This type of neighborhood, in general. Chinatown, out of all of them. At a low-wage position in a manual labor business with very little room for growth, if they're really getting into it.

"I like your name," Danny replies. It's far from the kind of answer that Al was expecting, but he finds himself unperturbed. Maybe he's hit a point where nothing is surprising anymore. "It reminds me of a friend. He was more of a Big Al than a Royal one, but I saw your logo and it seemed right."

(Al still pays Danny, because he refuses to be a shady business and because if he's finally getting around to setting up an employee system, he's needs to make it one that will work for anyone he might hire in the future, too. They won't all be Danny Rand. Danny keeps finding ways to immediately give it back, because he's literally a billionaire.)

#here it is like an entire week late #it took so long to write and i still kind of hate it but whatever #ironfistweek #iron fist #danny rand #fanfic #?#my stuff #the immortal iron fist #the internet is for fanfiction #colleen and misty's days still to come #they're just gonna be gifsets tho so~

18 notes · View notes

torishasupremacy · 4 years

Text

hey, as high school juniors start looking into colleges, here are some major tips I learned during my process under the cut because it got pretty long. this is really for anyone wanting to learn tips for the college admissions process!!

1) make sure the school you’re applying to has the specific major you want to do (if you know what you want to major in) so that you’re not halfway through a supplemental essay before you realize you don’t actually want to go to that school.

2) if you’re interested in colleges, go to virtual events. there are campus tours, faculty panels, student q&as, and department specific stuff. a lot of it is useful information, and even if you find it boring, you’ve demonstrated interest in the school which helps your chances at getting in. right after you’ve finished the event send a thank you email to the person running it (when in doubt, send it to the admission office) saying how you enjoyed the event and are interested in applying to that school. keep it enthusiastic, professional, and short.

3) application fees suck. for a lot of colleges you’ll have to pay $50-80 to apply which is bullshit and adds up quickly. ive gotten fee waiver codes by attending virtual events and emailing admission officers questions about my application. this is obviously not a guarantee, but again, demonstrated interest will give you a higher chance of saving money and getting in. make sure to tally up all the fees of schools you're applying to before you start the application. I applied to several no-fee schools, and had fee waivers for others, and still was looking at paying $1,000+ just to apply to the rest of my list, which got shortened pretty quickly after that little calculation

4) apply to a reasonable amount of colleges. the more colleges you apply to, the more extra essays you have to write, and the more money you have to pay. a model you can try and use is applying to safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. safety schools are schools that you are very likely to get into. match schools are schools that you have a decent chance of getting into. reach schools are schools that you have a slim, but possible chance of getting into. i would say apply to 2-6 of each type of school

5) you’re gonna have to write supplemental essays, and it’s gonna suck. so get started early. there was one girl in my grade who did all of her college apps in the summer of her junior year. i was stupid and didn't do that but I sure as hell wish I did because I went into the first semester of senior year with a lot of unnecessary stress. try spending 30 min-1 hour per school day working on college things, and you’ll get so much done by the end of the summer. you will thank your past self SO much

6) again, supplemental essays. you want to have a base pool of writing that you start off with. I applied to some UCs (university of californias) which have four insight questions you have to answer. I spent several weeks writing those and polishing them with my college counselor until they were really good. I ended up recycling them into my common app essay, supplemental essays for multiple schools, I put in the effort in the front end and it really paid off

7) seek out all the information on the specific application process for each school multiple times. if you’re applying for any kind of visual or performing art- including directing, stage managing, playwriting, comedy, etc- chances are you will need some combination of an interview/audition/portfolio, and you’re gonna wanna make sure you know the requirements before you put a bunch of time into something. if you're gonna be applying for visual arts, you really want to start building up your portfolio as soon as possible, and noting all the different requirements for each school, because there is no uniform portfolio that you can use to apply to all art programs. I personally didn't apply for visual arts but my poor friend had a real rough time with it so please learn from their mistakes

8) schedule interviews as soon as you can!! they can really help your chances at getting in- ive gone to virtual events about interviews and college admission officers say that 99% of the time interviews turn out really well! but there are never enough slots for everyone so get those applications in early because a lot of the time you can only get an appointment after you apply. I applied to one of my top schools two months early and got one of the five remaining interview slots. but remember time zones when you schedule interviews so you dont have to wake up at 6 or stay up til 12

9) fuck deadlines. dont kill yourself trying to get your app turned in three months early, and dont sacrifice quality, but really, the sooner you can submit an application, the less stress you have to deal with. deadlines are the LAST day you can submit an application, not the only day. and if your application is a few days late, send it anyways. they can’t do anything but reject you, and as long as you dont have an app sent in, you're already not getting in

10) colleges care a lot about extracurriculars. it’s like their 2nd most important thing besides grades/test scores (which are becoming more and more irrelevant). but it looks way better to have concentrated and held leadership positions, so don’t make yourself miserable not doing what you want to do/doing what you don’t want to do, but keep in mind how colleges will view it. when you're writing about your activities for your application, try to sound as impressive as possible while still sounding truthful

11) if you're a good writer, this process is gonna be a lot easier for you. if you're not, im sorry. I fall into the former category and wrote my common app essay a day before it was due, which is something I dont recommend, even if you are a good writer. its just stressful. if you're a good writer, your first drafts will still not be polished enough. get feedback and edit. if you’re not a good writer, start your essays early, and get a fuck ton of feedback and do a lot of editing. im serious, my college counselor said that from his experience, mediocre writers who frequently met with him to revise their work and good writers who didn't meet with him much often ended up having writing that was around the same quality. it will take more time and effort, but you can produce good work. meet with your counselors. meet with your english teachers. meet with your parents if that makes sense, or any good writers you know.

12) if you're a boy/girl scout, GET YOUR EAGLE SCOUT/GOLD AWARD!!! im not kidding that thing can get you tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in merit aid!! I was a girl scout for several years and hated it, but I did my gold award on something I was passionate about, it didn’t suck as much as I thought it would, and it literally paid off. get it done as soon as you can before the admission process because I pretty much finished mine right before the admission deadlines and it was hell

13) there will be days where you just have to sit down and grind out a bunch of admissions stuff. that’s just a reality, not matter how well you schedule your time. try to make a calendar with deadlines for each app/essay and have a plan for when you’ll work on each thing. you may not follow it to the letter but it will help guide you and keep you on track

14) im so serious, finish your apps during summer before senior year and you will feel so light while the rest of your peers are being dragged into hell. please please get your apps in early. please

15) if you really dont want to live in a certain place (its way too cold, its way too populated, its too far away, etc), just dont apply. there are a gazillion different schools that can give you great experiences without subjecting yourself to environmental misery. for example, my anxiety levels spike when I leave large cities, so I only applied to schools in major cities. if anything, it definitely helps you narrow down the list

16) apply to several schools that you would be happy going to instead of pinning all your hopes on One Dream School. admissions processes can be the most arbitrary decisions and there is ALWAYS a chance you won't get into a school that you thought would be a cinch. there is not one sole school that is your perfect fit, there are hundreds of schools that you would have fulfilling experiences at, so make sure you apply to a few of those. it’s like my dad says, don’t close any doors until you know which one you’re going to walk through

17) apply for financial aid, even if you don’t think you’ll get it. the same goes for merit aid. apply for as much aid as you can. college is expensive as fuck, and the majority of people are gonna come away from it with some form of debt. but debt WILL drag you down, so you want to try and get as little as possible. apply for scholarships, not necessarily the big $100,000 lotteries that a billion people apply to, but to several $1000 ones that require you to write 500-800 words. if you wrack up several of those it can seriously help you out. there are a lot of interesting ones you can find, and you'll probably come across a prompt that you're passionate about. and remember, there’s no shame in going to community college if everything else is going to put you in too much debt to climb out of. remember, there’s interest to that debt, so you can spend your whole life paying off the interest and not the debt, and end up paying more than you took out in debt without actually paying off the debt

18) the college process SUCKS. its classist as hell, and inherently designed to make it hard as fuck to apply so that the more persistent people get in. you're just gonna have to accept that, get started early, work hard, and make sure you're passionate about what you’re writing about/applying to. make spreadsheets or lists or whatever helps you organize. do your research. START EARLY, you’ll hate the world a little less. good luck!!

#college #college app tips #college app #college applications #college tips #application #university #university application #university application tips #school #admisssion #studybrl #long post

34 notes · View notes

sorceress-coffee · 4 years

Text

Roaming Fees May Apply

AO3 Link - Phase 2 Chapter 21

River P.O.V. Health class with Coach Lawrence was going as well as to be expected. We were currently on the digestive system and Steve was having a field day with poop jokes. I will never understand the mind of teenage boys, or just Steve, it could just be Steve.

Toby was sitting behind Jim and Claire behind me as we explained what happened before the spirit rally. “So, the reason you were late and covered in dirt was that you were fighting a ‘mud monster’?” Claire asked, leaning forward on her desk.

I leaned back slightly, taking notes as we talked. “Eri said it was a ‘golem,’ a totem made the dirt come to life.” I slipped my hand into my hoodie pocket, stroking over Eri’s fins as she snoozed.

“And there was some gnarly troll watching you two? Talk about creepy,” Toby shuddered.

“I know.” Jim groaned, leaning over the back of his chair. “It was like he was studying us.”

Coach finally got to the part in our lesson where food travels through the intestines and exits the ‘back door,’ as he so awkwardly put it. At this point, he’s just fueling Steve’s jokes.

“What are you going to do?” Claire asked us, worried about this new troll.

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Jim replied as Steve’s jokes were getting worse.

“I’d like to ‘gas’ a question!” Steve snickered, causing the classroom to burst into laughter.

“Watch it Palchuck,” Coach warned, he hated having to teach health as it was, Steve’s jokes were just going to make this worse for everyone.

“This is serious!” Steve chuckled as he tried to get more jokes out.

Jim rolled his eyes, having enough of Steve’s antics, “Hey, why don’t you shut your hole, Steve?” He groaned, dropping his head in his hands as he realized what he just said.

I snickered at Jim’s slip up, while I didn’t find digestive jokes all that funny, Jim unintentionally feeding the fire was.

“Oh, that’s it. That’s it, jokers!” Coach yelled, fed up with the jokes. “Both of you, principal’s office, now!” He ground out, pointing from the boys to the door.

Jim and Steve got up quickly, heading out the door. Jim was glaring at Steve’s back while he continued to joke as they left.

“This isn’t going to end well,” I sighed, watching them leave.

“Leave it to Steve to put Jim in Strickler’s hands,” Toby huffed out, “So, what was the creepy troll like? How could he be out during the day?”

I shrugged, tuning Coach out for the rest of the lesson. “Not sure, the totem was buried in the middle of the field, in the sun. We only saw him in the shadows though. He had holes all over his stone flesh and gold eyes.” I recounted, making a quick sketch of the troll my notes, showing it to Claire and Toby.

“Again, that’s just creepy,” Toby cringed, trying to shake the picture out of his mind.

“Aren’t some trolls immune to sunlight?” Claire asked, having read ‘A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore’ Vol 1 through 47.

“As far as I know it’s just Stalklings, but Blinky said they’re one of very few who are,” I shrugged as the bell ring, dismissing school for the day.

The three of us packed up quickly, deciding to wait for Eemeli and Jim by the lockers.

“So, possible daytime Trollhunting, along with quests to find the stones!” Toby cheered, excited over being able to go on quests.

“That’s assuming we can decipher Bodus’ riddle,” Claire pointed out, waving to Darci and Mary as they headed home.

“It gives us three very vague locations, but Blinky has been working non-stop to figure it out,” I leaned against my locker as Eemeli showed up.

“I just saw Steve and Jim heading out of Strickler’s office and, honestly, I’ve never seen Steve look so scared.” Eemeli snickered.

Jim huffed as he joined us, pulling his books from his locker. “Let’s go. If I see Strickler again I might pull Daylight on him in front of everyone.”

We quickly left to keep Jim from killing our principal today. Whatever happened between them set Jim on edge. “You okay?” I asked as we reached the canal, heading to the portal for Trollmarket.

Jim sighed, pulling out the horngazel, “I should have pulled Daylight on him right then and there.”

“Steve would have gone bananas,” Claire argued, knowing it was more important to hide right now.

“More so then what he was when you two left,” Eemeli chimed in, smirking at the image of a panicked Steve running out of Strickler’s office.

“It’s probably good you waited,” Toby interjected, “I imagine murdering your principal looks pretty bad on your college application.”

“I’ll just have to wait and get him alone,” Jim shrugged.

I felt a chill run through my spine as Claire and I jumped, turning to look over the canal. “What was that?” I asked, reaching into my pocket to see if Eri was messing around with her ice, only to find her snoring.

“What’s wrong?” Jim asked, looking between Claire and me.

“You felt it too?” I asked, noticing Claire was on high alert too.

“Just- I just got a weird feeling.” Claire surveyed the area, eyes straining as she stared at the bridge further down the canal. I followed her line of sight, but we were too far to make out anything.

“I get those all the time, it’s usually after the school lunch,” Toby joked as Jim opened the portal to Trollmarket.

Eemeli sniffed the air, letting out a huff, “If there’s something out there it’s upwind, I can’t catch a scent.”

“Let’s get inside, whatever it is, I don’t like it,” I instructed, making sure we grabbed out things.

Once the portal was opened, Jim grabbed his bag and we headed in quickly, “Come on, Blinky said he had something urgent he wanted to tell us.”

Claire paused, looking over to the bridge once more. I grasped her shoulder, smiling as we headed in. “We’ll figure it out, for now, we’ll be safe in here.”

Draal met with us at the bottom of the crystal stairs, grinning as we entered, “Finally, Blinkous has been driving me mad!”

“How many books did he throw are your head?” I smirked, pulling a page off one of his horns.

“Stopped counting after seven. Would’ve pounded him to the ground if this wasn’t so important,” He sneered, shaking his head as we headed for the library.

“Sorry Draal, I know Blinky can be a lot to handle when he gets hyper-focused on something,” Jim apologized, patting Draal’s shoulder as we drew near.

“Do not worry Trollhunter, unless he consumes more coffee, then be very worried.” Draal huffed, ushering us in quickly, staying far behind us to avoid more books being thrown at him.

Arrrgh grinned at us as we entered, holding stacks of books as Blinky ran around him, sifting through more shelves and throwing the books in random directions. He’s definitely had more coffee.

Blinky’s steps halted as he saw us, he grabbed a book at the bottom of the stack Arrrgh was holding and slammed it on the table. “I’ve spent night poring over the legend of the stones, decoding its hidden meanings. Endless, sleepless nights!” Blinky began, on a caffeine high.

“The Triumbric stones!” Jim grinned tossing his bag on the table as we all gathered close to see what Blinky found. “You found something?”

Blinky nodded, grinning at Jim’s excitement. “At first, I combed every library for insights, but there is nothing written. Rumors say they are tied to Gunmar’s life force. So, I searched for stones that would have significance to his past!” Blinky declared as Arrrgh dropped another book from the pile he was holding onto the table.

“Birthstone,” he said, nodding to the book as Blinky began rifling through the pages.

“Indeed. Such as Gunmar’s Birthstone.” Blinky agreed.

“Like how my birthstone is Topaz?” I asked, knowing it was a stretch that Blinky would be referring to birthstones, it was a human construct after all.

“You were born from crystals?” Blinky asked, surprised, “Ah, blue topaz, that would explain a lot.” He concluded his thought, making me more confused.

“No, it’s something humans do. Each month has a specific gemstone associated with it, River’s happens to be topaz for November,” Claire explained.

“Ah yes! That is an ancient tradition, I believe the stones are different depending on where you are in the world,” Blinky nodded, opening the book to show us what he meant.

“Isn’t that a Heartstone?” Jim asked, “Is that why his ‘birthstone’ is so powerful?”

“Long ago, trolls lived underground, blissfully unaware of humankind above.” Blinky began, finding the pages he needed. “Inevitably, our world collided. Trolls and humans each wanted the world as their own and fought for it. Blood was shed, and our first Heartstone rotted from within.” He sighed, flipping through the pages to show us how darkness consumed the Heartstone. “And from it, Gunmar was born.”

“Wait, you’re telling us that Gunmar was conceived by war and death?” I asked, shocked at the picture of a full-grown Gunmar shattering the crystal from the inside out. “Are all trolls born from a stone?”

Draal nodded, leaning over my shoulder as he examined the picture. “The first troll born from a rotted stone,” he snarled.

“Indeed,” Blinky nodded, setting the book aside.

“Birthstone, okay,” Jim sighed, wrapping his mind around Gunmar’s existence. “Where would we find that?”

“Don’t we have three locations to try?” Eemeli asked, flipping back and forth through the pages of Gunmar’s birth, sneering at the pictures.

“Birthstone gone,” Arrrgh explained, putting the scattered books away.

“It was plundered before any good could come from it,” Blinky sighed “but Eemeli is right. This passage, ‘Three forces Elemental thou must seek in marshland, caverns deep, and mountain’s peak,” He grinned, “Which is elusive, but the clue,” he began as we cut him off.

“Is hidden in the final stanza – ‘mountains peak.’ It’s so obvious!” Claire cheered, “The stone is hidden in a mountain!” The boys all stared at her, shocked at how quickly she put two and two together. “Sorry. I’m a riddle dork.”

“That leaves a lot of mountains for us to check,” I sighed, wondering how we could narrow this down.

“Yeah, um, I’m not getting it,” Toby spoke up, confused about how we got to our answer.

“Gatto’s Keep,” Blinky opened another book, showing us a picture of a mountain encircled with a sketch that oddly resembled the Amulet. “is a vault of the greatest treasured untold. Treasures too powerful for the underworld to possess. Treasures kept locked up by Gatto himself.” Blinky explained, “Treasure like-“

“The Birthstone!” Jim exclaimed, interrupting Blinky again.

“So, this Gatto has the stone that will help us get Enrique back?” Claire asked Blinky.

“If I could just finish a thought,” Blinky tried.

“Even if he has it, how do we know he’ll give it to us?” I asked, tracing the sketch behind the mountain.

“We don’t, but I know of Gatto, everything has a price,” Eemeli sighed, not fond of going to Gatto’s keep.

“When do we leave?” Claire asked, grinning in anticipation knowing this would get us one step closer to saving Enrique.

“Wait, this sounds like a quest.” Toby’s face split into a grin, the kind he usually got when we decided to eat at Stuart’s Taco Truck. “This is a quest!” He cheered, hooking his arms around Claire and Jim’s necks, hugging them tightly. “Guys, we’re going on our first official Trollhunters quest!” He cheered.

“All of us?” Draal rose a brow ridge at Toby’s excitement.

“Dealings with Gatto are always uncertain, the more people that come, the more likely it is that we’ll have something he wants.” Eemeli explained, “If not, well, few make it out of Gatto’s keep alive.”

“So, we all go, it’ll increase the odds that he’ll find something interesting enough that we keep out heads.” I nodded, agreeing with Eemeli since he seemed to have experience dealing with this Gatto.

Blinky nodded, “Pack your bags. There’s more to see in this world than you know.” He grinned ushering us out of the library. “We will meet here tonight and head out to Gatto’s keep.”

Jim, Toby, and I ran home through the sewers quickly, excited at the thought of going on a quest, and the prospect of finding something to help defeat Gunmar. “Pack anything you might need, and anything that might catch Gatto’s attention,” I instructed as we entered the basement.

Toby ran home as mom pulled into the driveway. Jim and I took off upstairs, packing quickly. I searched through my room for anything that Gatto might want, unspeakable treasures weren’t exactly in high supply in a nineteen-year-old’s room. My eyes landed on the last small crystal made of my magic. I smiled softly picking it up, tracing over the spikes and ridges that resemble Draal’s back.

“You’ve got that stupid look on your face again.” Eri’s voice chimed in slipping out from the pocket of my hoodie, she coiled around my neck to keep eye level with me.

“What stupid look?” I huffed, rolling my eyes at her.

“The one you get when something reminds you of Pebble,” She snickered, looking down at the crystal in my hands. “Ooh, shiny,” she slowly slid down my arm, bopping the crystal with her nose. When her scale made contact, the crystal began to glow with excess magic. Eri quickly absorbed the magic, causing the scales of her underbelly to turn a darker shade of blue.

“I brought it home because it looked like Draal.” I stuck my tongue out at her, just happy she wasn’t trying to eat it.

She huffed, pulling away from the crystal, “It does look like Pebble.” She dove into the sleeve of my hoodie, making her way back up to my shoulders. “What are you doing with it? Taking it to Gatto?”

I nodded, packing the crystal, “Eemeli said everything in Gatto’s keep has a price, I figured maybe a stone of condensed magic would be enticing.” I shrugged, quieting down quickly as I heard mom and Jim arguing in his room. Eri his in my hood as I grabbed my backpack, walking out to see what was going on.

“Okay, well. You can ground me when I get back.” Jim pulled his bag from mom as he walked out of his room.

Mom frowned at me as Jim left, “Should I even try grounding you?” She asked.

I winced, watching Jim’s back as he headed out the door. “Out of the two of us, Jim’s more likely to follow rules,” I said, repeating the one thing every adult has told me entire life.

Sighing, mom hugged me tight, “Just, keep each other safe. For me?”

Nodding against her shoulder I hugged her tight, running out of the house as soon as she let go. I couldn’t stand seeing her upset, especially at Jim and me. “Let’s go,” I walked past Jim quickly, meeting up with Toby.

Once Jim joined us, we headed off for Trollmarket, Claire and Eemeli would be meeting us in the Canal.

“Is she okay?” Jim asked as he and I trailed behind Toby.

“She’s upset. With both of us,” I sighed, grasping his shoulder tightly. “All she asks is that we keep each other safe.” I smiled softly.

Jim nodded, calming down as we met up with Claire and Eemeli, heading into Trollmarket. We made a beeline for Blinky’s library where he, Arrrgh, and Draal were waiting for us.

“This way younglings!” Blinky grinned, leading us further into Trollmarket than we had ever been.

“Whoa. You’ve never taken us this far before,” Toby spoke as he ran from rock formation to rock formation, analyzing our new surroundings.

“Because out here, Tobias, there is no protection,” Blinky explained from the back of our group. “Beyond the barriers of Trollmarket lie unforgiving realms, ripe with lawlessness.” He grinned, moving to the head of the group as we entered an alcove lit by a neon sign of the Heartstone, ‘Gyre’ written underneath in Trollish. “We’re here! Did everyone come prepared?”

Jim nodded, sifting through his bag, “Yeah, I’ve got my flashlight, horngazel, amulet,” he began listing off.

Claire pulled her backpack forward, “I’ve got a first-aid kit, matches,” she trailed off going through all her camping gear.

“Brought argyle socks and cat fur from the groomers.” Eemeli shrugged.

“And I got tacos!” Toby grinned pulling out a taco truck taco, “Extra spicy!” At Jim and Claire’s confused glance he pouted, “What? I get hungry on a quest.” He defended.

“And you, River?” Blinky asked, ignoring Toby’s outburst.

I pulled out the crystal from my bag, showing him, “Other than the big one in the Heartstone this is the last crystal I made. I figured if Gatto collects rare and powerful items, this might catch his eye, and be enough to trade the Birthstone for.” I explained, carefully setting it back in my bag.

“That this isn’t going to explode right?” Toby asked, stepping behind Jim quickly.

Eri huffed, sticking her head out of my hoodie to flick her tongue out at Toby in annoyance, “As long as she wears the collar and I’m here you’ll be safe. From that rock at least.”

Draal smirked at Eri, “What is Gatto wants the Noodle?” He asks, trying to rile her up.

Eri hissed at him as I scratched the top of her head, “Then I pull midnight out and we get the Birthstone the hard way.”

Eemeli laughed, poking Eri’s nose, “Gatto likes treasure, if he in danger from anyone it’s the shiny obsessed noodle.”

Blinky shook his head, gesturing for Arrrgh to open the doorway. “Enough bickering, we’re wasting time.”

Arrrgh groaned, reluctantly opening the door.

“What’s wrong, wingman?” Toby asked, worried about Arrrgh’s reaction.

“Hate gyre.” Arrrgh huffed out as we headed inside.

“What’s a ‘gyre’?” Toby asked, hesitantly walking through the doorway. If Arrrgh wasn’t excited about this, should they be?

“Come with me and prepare to be amazed!” Blinky grinned ushering us to a round platform.

The platform began to glow as we approached it. Once Jim stood at the edge it sprung into action, the entire platform rotated to reveal a vehicle made of several metal rings.

“I’m guessing that’s the gyre?” I asked Draal, as we headed towards the staircase.

Toby ran up the stairs quickly, marveling at the machine in front of him. “That’s the coolest troll-y trolley I’ve ever seen!”

“Gyre,” Arrrgh winced, hesitating as he stepped onto the platform.

“Yes,” Blinky grinned. “A gyre. Our kind’s quickest form of transportation.” Blinky explained as he ushered us onto the gyre. Arrrgh sat with Jim, Claire, and Toby. Draal held onto the side as the ring closed us off from exiting.

Eemeli shifted into his troll form, sinking his claws into the side of the gyre. “This beats flying any day.”

Blinky began to pull levers explaining how trolls traveled using a vast network of subterranean sewers that connect every corner of the world.

I eyed Draal and Eemeli as they braced themselves. “Should we be holding on to something?” Draal quickly held onto me as a dangerous glint flashed through Blinky’s eyes, causing Eri to coil as tight as she could around the collar.

“Wait,” Jim called out, realizing what Blinky was saying, “Gatto isn’t in Arcadia?”

Blinky laughed, “Of course not!” He pulled a level retracting the stairs. “He lives under what you humans call Argentina.” Pulling the last lever, the gyre began to spin rapidly around us.

“This isn’t going to end well,” I quickly held on tight to Draal’s arm, keeping my head down so my jaw was covering Eri.

“Let’s burn some tunnel!” Blinky shouted, slamming the giant button on the panel.

The gyre shot off fast than any airplane should go, let alone a tunnel-locked vehicle with no seatbelts. Blinky’s mad laughter and screams were the only things I could here as shapes and colors flew by. Nothing was discernable due to our speed. We could have passed Gunmar and not even notice.

We were shot forward as the gyre fell quickly. Toby, Jim, Claire, and Arrrgh were suspended in the air. Eemeli sunk his claws deeper into the metal of the gyre. Draal’s prosthetic was holding onto the gyre ring so tight, it had thoroughly dented the metal. I clutched Eri tight as Draal kept me from flying off, making sure we all got to Gatto’s Keep.

We came to a sudden stop, everyone as thrown forward hitting the floor of the gyre hard. Everyone except that mad troll who drove us here!

“A new record!” Blinky cheered as he exited the gyre.

I teleported myself and Eri onto the ground, falling onto my rear as I tried to get my bearings again. Everything was still spinning, I felt like I could hear colors.

Toby ran past Blinky and me as he found a rock to puke behind. He might regret eating those tacos before the ride.

Arrrgh ran off the gyre, yelling in Blinky’s face as he passed him, “Hate gyre!”

“Was that so bad?” Blinky asked, thinking Toby, Arrrgh, and myself were overreacting.

“Yes. Yes, it was,” Jim answered as he and Claire stepped off the stairs.

Draal and Eemeli exited after. Draal snarled at Blinky, “You are not driving home.” He walked over to me, setting me on my shoulder so we could continue while the dizziness faded.

“Agreed,” Eemeli growled, shaking off the tension of holding onto the gyre.

“Out of curiosity,” Jim began as we headed further into the mountain. “Have any of you met this Gatto?”

“I’ve dealt with him indirectly, but I’ve never actually met the troll,” Eemeli spoke, falling into step with Draal.

“Uh, no, Master Jim,” Blinky answered for Arrrgh and himself. “In fact, I’ve done everything in my power to avoid him.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” I sighed, laying my head against Draal’s horns, willing the dizziness to go away.

“Very few ever return from his keep. So,” Blinky sighed out.

“Stay close,” Arrrgh finished for him, warning the teens.

Toby groaned, crying out “It’s so hot. Why is it so hot?”

“Because we’re in a volcano, aren’t we?” Claire asked.

“We’re what?!” I yelped out, snapping my head up, everything was red and spinning. I groaned screwing my eyes closed again, “Nope, it sounds like apples.”

Draal sighed, patting my over so I was leaning on his horn again. “Keep your eyes closed till you adjust.”

“Welcome to Ojos del Salado, the home of Gatto,” Blinky’s voice called out ahead of me. At least I think that’s ahead of me.

“‘Ojos del Salado’? Well, that’s not gonna be good for my mobile plan.” Toby sighed out.

“How are we going to explain that to mom?” I asked in what I thought was Jim’s general direction.

“Satellite glitch?” He asked from the opposite direction.

Draal came to a stope as Blinky spoke up again, talking to someone about getting an audience with Gatto. I could hear a few grunts and we began to move again. I slowly opened my eyes, trying to see if the world was still spinning. Everything seemed to be fixed in place now, however, there was a lot more lava than I was prepared for.

“Those aren’t apples!” I yelped, clinging to Draal’s horns tight as he and the others were climbing some sort of scaffolding.

Eri hissed, pulling closer to me as the heat increased, “Too warm, need to cool off.” She slithered from around my neck, into my backpack. Using her ice breath, she sealed herself inside to cool down. As an ice-based familiar, this probably wasn’t the healthiest place for her to be.

Once we reached the top, Draal sat me on my feet. I began looking around, trying to find Gatto. “Isn’t he supposed to be here?”

“Are you serious?” Toby cried out, exhausted from the climb.

“Okay, where’s Gatto? They said he’d be here!” Jim exclaimed, irritated that Gatto wasn’t there after climbing the entire way up here.

“Gatto’s a real butt-snack,” Toby glared.

The mountain began to shake around us as a voice echoed through the volcano, “Who has awakened Gatto?”

“Oh, no!” Toby’s face fell in horror, “I am so sorry I called you a butt-snack.”

I turned, looking up as the mountain was moving. I grabbed Jim’s shoulder tight as he pulled out the Amulet, “F-Found him.”

“A human Trollhunter? How interesting,” The volcano, Gatto spoke, his eyes glowing with lava as he peered down over us.

Jim yelped, turning to face the giant head quickly.

“Trolls can get this big?!” I whispered yelled to Draal. First, I learn Trolls are literally born from rocks, now I’m learning that some can be the size of a mountain!

“How unique.” Gatto called out, eyeing our group, “A witch? I have spoken with one of your kind in over 10 centuries.” He laughed as shock overtook our group. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“We’ve, uh,” Jim cleared his throat, putting the Amulet back in his pocket, “sorry, we’ve come for, um.” He stuttered, trying to calm his nerves.

A troll wearing a metal mask approached with a wheelbarrow full of rocks. Gatto’s mouth opened and a magma covered tongue swiped over the scaffolding pulling the wheelbarrow and the troll into his mouth, eating both.

Toby jumped, pulling on Arrrgh’s arm, “Did he just eat a troll?” He cried out, shocked at what we just saw.

“You must excuse me,” Gatto apologized, “I never talk business without something to eat. Go on,” he urged Jim to continue.

“We need, uh,” Jim tried again, looking over the giant troll face, “we need the Birthstone.”

Gatto began to laugh, “The Birthstone of Gunmar. Very powerful. Why should I give it to you?”

“Because we are going to destroy him,” Jim declared, refusing to back down.

“Why do I care?” Gatto chuckled, “Why should I give it to you?” He asked again, steam billowing out his mouth.

“He’s negotiating, Master Jim,” Blinky called out quickly.

I took a step next to Jim, pulling the crystal out of my backpack. “How about a trade? One magic stone for another?” I asked, holding it out to him.

Gatto’s eyes widened at the sight of the crystal, “Concentrated daylight? This is from you?” He asked quickly.

I nodded, “I formed it with my magic.”

Gatto hummed, shaking the scaffolding, “It is, almost enough.”

“What do you want then?” Jim asked.

Gatto grinned, “That gem, and the answer to a little riddle.”

“That’s all?” Toby called out, voice laced with relief, “I thought Claire was a goner.”

“Answer it correctly, the Birthstone is yours,” Gatto explained. “Answer it incorrectly, I eat you all.”

“Eat?” Claire gasped out, “Did he say ‘eat.’”

“Yes, humans.” Gatto slurped, drooling lava, “I hear they have a gamey taste. And the little witch, if you hold daylight, then Merlin’s blood runs through you. You will make a fine addition to my keep.”

Draal snarled, pulling me further away from Gatto’s mouth. “This isn’t right.”

“Think Eirwen would give him brain freeze?” Eemeli asked, growling at Gatto’s deal.

“He said ‘eat’.” Toby fainted.

Blinky grabbed Jim’s shoulder, “Master Jim, we must not enter into this binding agreement. I’m beginning to catch on why so few trolls ever leave this domicile.” He tried to rationalize.

“We’ll play,” Jim announced, shocking us all.

“Are you insane?!” I snarled, head snapping to Jim. “He wants to eat us!”

Jim helped Toby up as he came to, “Look, we need it to save Claire’s brother and, besides, she’s good at riddles.”

“Not ‘bet-our-lives’ good!” Claire snapped.

“You’re a straight-A student!” Jim argued.

“When do we got to ‘riddles’ class?” She asked.

Blink grinned, stepping between them, “Ah, I am savvy with words.” He turned to face Gatto, pointing at the giant troll head. “Gatto, do your worst. Riddle away.”

“He’s literally asking for it,” I groaned, staying between Arrrgh and Draal.

“What begins and has no end, and ends all that which begins?” Gatto asked, smirking down at us.

Blinky’s face fell, “I have absolutely no idea. Those words mean nothing. Indecipherable!” He began to panic.

We all quickly began working through the riddle. Each calling out different answers as our panic grew.

“Ten more seconds,” Gatto informed us.

“You didn’t tell us we’re on the clock!” Blinky yelled, even more agitated.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock. Five more seconds.” Gatto began to count down.

“You know this. You have to know this or we’re gonna die!” Jim grabbed Claire’s shoulder, begging for an answer.

Gatto called times up as Claire shouted the answer, “Death! Death is the answer!”

Gatto was stunned for a moment, “What? No one has ever answered that before.” He sneered. Our cheering was short-lived as he continued, “And lived to tell about it.” The troll miners closed in on us, using axes to corral us. Blinky, Draal, and Toby were slowly moving closer to Gatto’s mouth.

“You were never going to give it to us!” Blinky yelled out, “You horde treasure only to lure those into your literal trap!”

“Oh, come now. A mountain has to eat you know.” Gatto grinned as we were separated further.

“Yeah, well a mountain doesn’t have to eat us!” Eemeli snarled, pushing me behind him as the guards drew closer.

Jim summoned the armor, pulling Daylight out on the troll miner. I activated midnight, getting ready to fight our way out of here.

Draal, Blinky, and Toby were pushed back into Gatto’s mouth, and he ate them.

“Hold on!” Jim yelled, trying to catch them.

I watched as Gatto’s mouth snapped close. I could feel something in my mind snap. “You,” I snarled, as the burning sensation of magic overtook my senses. “You ate my MATE!” I screamed, forcing magic into my throat. The sheer volume knocking several miner-trolls off the scaffolding and causing Gatto’s face to crack.

Eemeli rushed over to me, trying to get me to calm down, “They’ll be okay! Remember Coach’s lesson? We can get them out!” He tried grabbing my arm only to let out a yelp, ripping his hand away as his palm burned.

My magic slowed hearing Eemeli in pain, the collar forcing the changes back. “I’m so sorry!” I cried out, grabbing my head tight as I tried to focus.

Eemeli grabbed the Heartstone belt, pulling me out of the way as trolls began to chase us. “I’m alright, just focus on controlling it!”

Jim sliced through the trolls, clearing a path for everyone as we headed down. He paused as his phone played the gun robot theme, Toby’s ringtone. “They’re alright!” He cried out in relief, turning to me, “They found Gatto’s keep, they’re looking for the Birthstone.”

Grabbing Midnight, I flashed behind him, blocking the axe of a troll sneaking upon him. “Okay,” my jaw tightened as I twisted the staff, slicing up the troll’s abdomen, turning them into stone. “They’re alive, that’s good.”

Jim went to grab my shoulder but Eemeli caught his hand, “I wouldn’t do that yet.”

Nodding Jim rushed forward as we continued to cut through the trolls, reaching fewer and fewer as we drew closer to the bottom of the scaffolding. Pausing to catch our breath, Gatto reached out with his massive hand, trying to crush us as more trolls gave chase. We took off quickly, Gatto’s troll getting crushed instead of us.

As his hand drew near again, I pulled the crystal from my backpack. Focusing on control, I pushed enough magic to start the detonation process. Turning quickly, I tossed the crystal into the air and used Midnight to bat it, sending it straight into Gatto’s hand.

The crystal exploded on impact, shattering a good chunk of the mountain’s palm. The cavern began to shudder as Gatto roared in pain, pulling his arm away from us. We continued our descent, trying to keep steady as everything shook around us.

Draal’s P.O.V.

“I’ll cover the charges!” Blinky yelled at the fleshbag, Tobias.

“We need to find a way out!” I snarled as an explosion went off above us.

“That sounds like a pissed off River,” Toby shrank back, quickly texting Jim.

We quickly began to rifle through piles of treasure, trying to find the Birthstone. Gatto’s stomach began to shake causing the lava acid to slowly rise.

“Forgot the Birthstone, we must make haste!” Blinky called to us, heading back to Gatto’s esophagus, “We can’t possibly climb out of here. I’m afraid we are without an exit.”

“Blinky, there may be another way,” Toby piped up, watching the lava rise in thought, “and neither one of you is going to like it.” He looked between Blinky and me, then pointed to the lava acid. “If this is his stomach, then there must be a ‘back door’ too.”

“Back door?” I asked, not liking where this was going.

“Oh no,” Blinky’s face fell, coming to the same conclusion. “No, no, no, no, no!”

Toby grabbed a barrel, throwing it into the acid. “If we upset the stomach, we may have a chance to be passed through.”

“I’d rather die in a stomach than go out through a- an alternative route!” Blinky shuddered.

“Well, I have a mate to get back to, so grab everything you can, and throw it in.” I snarled, shoving a box at him. We began throwing everything in sight into the lava, causing it to rise faster as the stomach trembled.

Blinky and I made it to a shelf filled with vials and potions. Quickly, we grabbed as many vials as we could and tossed them into the lava. As the bottles shattered, the contents were set aflame, the explosion threw Blinky and me back.

“Are you two okay?” Toby asked, rushing to us.

I coughed as Blinky tried to speak, his voice coming out in a high-pitched squeak. “I’m okay, I’m okay. Sounds like it was helium-based” He hit his chest, throwing his voice back to normal. “I’m glad that wasn’t permanent.”

A dark purple glow caught our sight, “Toby!” I pointed to the pile of gold he had been sifting through when we first fell into Gatto’s keep.

“Is that,” he trailed off, rushing to the pile and pulling out the glowing stone.

“The Birthstone!” Blinky cheered. As he celebrated, I pulled him and the fleshbag back to the esophagus, the lava rising higher.

“It’s not working! We need more, something that will really upset his stomach.” Toby explained, but there wasn’t anything else in sight to toss into the lava.

“We must move!” Blinky yelled out, a stone slab slowly floating towards us as the lava rose.

“We can use that, Draal,” Toby pointed the slab. Nodding, I tightened my hold on the town and jumped for it. The landing was a little awkward as the slab wobbled on top of the lava.

“Now what?” I asked as we floated away from the esophagus, we’d be dead before we floated back in that direction.

“We’re not gonna get out of here, are we?” Toby asked as I sat him and Blinky on the stone slab, looking for a way out.

“I fear we are doomed! And that this will be our final,” Blinky trailed off as Toby began rapidly stuffing tacos in his face.

“What?” Toby glared at us as we stared. “I’m stress-eating. Don’t judge!”

“Tobias, your tacos!” Blinky cheered, trying to grab his backpack

“My tacos?” Toby glared, moving around me as he tried to dodge Blinky. “Are you crazy? What are my tacos gonna do?”

“Tobias, I’ve had your tacos. I know what they do to the insides of a troll.” Blinky declared.

I grabbed Toby by the backpack, allowing Blinky to grab the bag of tacos. As soon as he grabbed them, he tossed them into the lava.

“No!” Toby cried out, “Those were Diablo Maximus!”

I winced, knowing exactly what was about to happen. Leaning down, I anchored the prosthetic as the cavern began to shake.

“Oh, dear.” Blinky braced for the ride. “And that’s the one.”

The lava began to quickly drain as the stone slab followed. “Blink! The back door is open!” Toby yelled over the rushing lava.

“I hate to repeat myself, but it might be apropos. Let’s burn some tunnel!” Blinky yelled, holding onto the slab tight as we were shot down into a tunnel.

Toby pulled out his phone, trying to contact the others, hold onto the Birthstone, and stay on the slab at once. I grabbed him quickly, keeping him steady as he texted Jim to head to the gyre.

River’s P.O.V.

The trolls had disappeared by the time we made it off the scaffolding.

“Where did the rest of the tolls go?” Claire asked as the cavern appeared to be deserted.

Lava shot up around the rocky path, the entire cavern trembling. “I think they knew this place was gonna blow!” Jim yelled watching as lava spilled from the cracks in the walls. Toby’s ringtone chimed shifting Jim’s attention.

“What did he say?” I asked, keeping an eye on the lava streams closest to us.

“Okay, Toby says they’re gonna go out the back door.” Jim read of, confusion lacing his voice. “What’s the back door.

Eemeli burst out laughing, the stress of almost getting eaten, and the hilarity of the situation finally made him snap. “Steve’s not gonna have anything over Toby after this!”

I groaned, realizing what they meant, “Because that’s not traumatizing,” I grit out.

“There they are!” Claire shouted as a slab shot out from a tunnel. Toby, Blinky, and Draal riding the lava wave towards us.

“Start it up! Start it up!” Blinky shrieked as the slab hit the stone, the three of them running for the gyre cave.

We quickly ran to the gyre. Arrrgh tossed Jim and Claire up. Eemeli easily climbing up himself. I stopped next to Arrrgh, watching the doorway for the guys. As they ran in, Draal threw Toby to Arrrgh who then tossed him on board. Blinky was thrown next, and Draal quickly grabbed me, jumping into the gyre.

“Leave it to me!” Blink yelled, pulling levers and pushing buttons as fast as his four arms would allow. “You infernal piece of agh! Arrrgh!” He yelled, unable to start up the gyre himself.

Arrrgh nodded, heading to the back of the gyre, he grabbed the ring. Quickly pulling it down to jumpstart the gyre, he climbed on, holding Jim, Claire, and Toby tight as Blinky launched us down the tunnel faster than our trip out here.

Once we finally made it back to Heartstone Trollmarket, we took our time finding our legs, trying to get off the infernal piece of scrap metal called a gyre.

Exhausted, singed, and some of us technically digested, we made our way to the troll bar, falling into a table for some much-needed rest.

“I vote we never do that again,” Toby groaned, laying his head on the stone table.

“Never,” Blinky agreed.

I sat next to Draal, holding his hand tight. Still shaken from seeing him and the others get eaten. “You three ever do something like that again, I’m ripping the troll open and killing you myself.” I snarled.

Draal nuzzled the top of my head, “I don’t think we plan on that happening again. Speaking of ripping trolls open, what exploded?” Draal asked, referring to the explosion he, Toby, and Blinky heard inside Gatto’s stomach.

Eemeli snickered, ruffling my hair as he took a seat, “That would have been this one. Kept Gatto from crushing us.”

Eri popped her head out of my backpack, nuzzling under my chin, “Pebble’s crystal went bye-bye, but so did most of Gatto’s hand.”

“I knew it!” Toby jumped up, pointing at me, “I knew you were pissed off!”

“I just watched my mate, mentor, and friend get eaten by a giant troll, who then tried to crush us multiple times while we were fighting off his minions. He’s lucky all he lost was his hand.” I grit out, eyes burning as my sclera flashed.

Draal hummed, nodding to Toby’s bag. “If we hadn’t had been… eaten, we never would have found Gatto’s keep.”

Toby grinned pulling out a glowing purple stone. My Heartstone belt hummed as the stone was placed on the table. “I’m guessing that’s it?”

“Never in my wildest dream did I dare think I would see such a sight,” Blinky spoke, awed by the stone.

Toby glared at the stone, sitting back, “I’m never gonna look at food the same way again.”

Blinky shuddered, pulling away from the stone, “Indeed.” He grinned looking over the table at everyone present, “We were all quite the intrepid heroes today, but a special accolade to you, fair Claire, master of riddles.”

“It was a team effort,” Claire smiled, “Besides, we still have two more stones to find,” she pointed out quickly. “The next ones might not be so easy.”

“Easy? We were eaten!” Toby cried out, terrified of what could be worse.

Blinky stopped Toby’s rant quickly, wanting to keep their adventure from all of Trollmarket. “Tobias! The less said about our escape, the better.”

“Just think of the moniker we would receive is the trolls found out about it,” Draal huffed, annoyed at the situation as much as Blinky and Toby.

“Gorgus forbid we are remembered for that in the history books,” Blinky shuddered before sneezing, smoke coming off of him.

Draal’s nose began to twitch as Toby began to tease Blinky. He ended up sneezing so hard his face hit the table.

“Draal!” I jumped, checking where he hit, “Are you two okay?”

“We’ll be fine,” Blinky waved off the groups' worry. “Seems we may be allergic to something in Gatto’s belly. But nothing a good night’s rest won’t fix,” He reasoned, sneezing roughly.

“We should let you rest then,” I smiled, standing from the table. “We could all use a good night’s sleep.”

Draal nodded standing with me as, Toby, Claire, Jim, and Eemeli following us out of Trollmarket. We separated outside of the canal, Eemeli escorted Claire home since his place was close to hers’ and the rest us headed home to the cul-de-sac.

As we drew near to home, we spotted Strickler’s car outside of the house. Jim summoned the armor immediately at the sight.

Draal snarled, heading for the sewer entrance, “I’ll go through the basement.”

I nodded to Draal, Toby quickly ran off to his house, watching out of the window as I teleported Jim and myself into the car. As Strickler left, we watched him, staying in the shadows of the car until mom closed the door.

As he entered the car, Strickler smirked, adjusting the rearview mirror to see us. “Young Atlas, and the lady Mordred, is that,” Jim cut him off, summoning Daylight.

“If I ever see you near her again,” Jim threatened. Hands clenching the hilt of his sword.

“I expected this time would come,” Strickler smirked, eyeing us through the mirror.

“Oh, yeah?” Jim asked, sliding Daylight closer to Stickler’s neck. “Give me one good reason not to do away with you right now.” I spat through gritted teeth.

“Did you happen to spot my companion watching you the other day?” Stickler sneered at our reflections. “He’s my assassin with… how should I put this?”

I snarled, realizing Strickler was toying with us, my eyes burned, sclera turning to fire as my irises glowed bright blue.

“Enchanting abilities,” He finished, eyes widening as he caught sight of my eyes, “And it seems he was correct about you, young Changeling.”

Jim tilted Daylight enough to block my eyes from Strickler’s view, glaring at him. “That was you? What do you mean by ‘enchanting’?” He asked quickly, trying to keep Strickler on point.

Strickler’s eyes shifted back to Jim when they cut from mine, “He entwined your mother’s fate with mine.” He explained, eyeing the blade. “Any harm you do to me will be done to your mother,” he sneered, sliding his finger against the blade, just enough to cut himself.

A crash from the house pulled my attention. Jim and I could see mom holding her hand, having dropped whatever dished she was putting away in shock at the cut.

“What strange magic.” Stickler grinned, tending to the cut, “What happens to me happens to her.”

I snarled, hands clutching the passenger seat in front of me, burning through the leather.

“You two have hurt your mother enough. So, what will it be?” He smirked, watching the smoke as the leather melted in my grasp.

Jim’s hands trembled around the hilt of Daylight before he dismissed the blade. “River.”

Jaw tightening, I forced my hands to cool as I grabbed Jim’s hand, teleporting us out of the car.

“What are we going to do?” Jim asked as we watched Strickler drive away.

“Find out what that troll did and reverse the magic. If it’s a spell, there’s a counter,” I sighed, feeling the exhaustion from our mission and Strickler’s antics settle over us. “Come on,” I headed inside as Jim trailed behind slowly. We parted, him heading up to his bed, and me heading down to Draal.

Making sure mom was still upstairs, I slipped into the basement, heading down the stairs. “I swear, if anyone else tries to pull something tonight, I’m moving into the abyss of Trollmarket.” I snarled.

“Um, you might want to sleep upstairs then,” Draal voice carried over.

Frowning as I turned to his voice, I stopped short. That was not Draal. A HUMAN male was standing in the middle of the basement, wrapped in blankets from the nest. My brain felt as if it short-circuited. Snarling I pulled Midnight out, holding it to the stranger’s neck. “5 seconds. Explain or I run you through. Who are you?”

The human’s brow furrowed before he kicked a large bronze object out from under the blanket. “As cute as you are being overprotective and cranky is, I’d rather find some pants.”

I blinked, Midnight deactivation as the human spoke in Draal’s voice. Looking down at the object I could see it was Draal’s prosthetic. “Oh no,” my head snapped up, finally taking in the human.

He still managed to tower over me, even as he shrank into the blanket. His bronze flesh a drastic change from the sapphire hued stone flesh I was used to. His hair seemed to make up for the lack of blue skin, short turquoise and sapphire locks trailed into a close-cut beard. His eyes, however, were familiar. The same fiery gold orbs studied me as my brain caught up with my eyes.

“Draal?” I dropped Midnight, rushing to him quickly. “Oh, no” I grabbed his face, turning it from side to side, “How did this happen? What happened? Does it hurt?” I shot off questions as fast as my mind came up with them.

Draal stood to his full height to pull away from my grasp, unable to bat my hands away as his left hand was holding the blanket tight. “If your grasp tightens anymore, you might break something.,” he teased, before looking down at the blanket. “You wouldn’t happen to have any pants, would you?”

I squeaked, pulling back, “I’ll ask Jim!” I almost screeched, flashing up to Jim’s room, falling onto his sleeping form. “Wake up!” I grabbed Jim by the shoulder, shaking him quickly.

Jim shot up in bed, armor activating in his panic, “River?!” He grabbed my hands, keeping me from shaking him further. “What wrong? Are you okay? Is it troll assassin?”

“I need pants!” Was all I could yell out in my panic.

Jim blinked, staring at me like I’ve lost my mind, “Okay, I know today was stressful, but did you break something up there?” He asked, tapping my temple.

“Not me, me. I need them for Draal.” I huffed, whacking his hand from my head.

“Draal has pants, well shorts,” Jim stated, still confused.

“Do we have anything left from your uncle James?” I asked, hopping off of Jim’s bed.

“Dad?” He asked, armor dissipating as he calmed from the shock of me waking up. “River, what’s going on?”

I grabbed his arm, flashing us back down to the basement where a human Draal was waiting. “That’s what’s wrong. Do we have any or no?”

Jim yelped, covering my eyes quickly, “Why is there a man, wearing a blanket, in yours and Draal’s room?” He squeaked out.

“Hello to you too, Fleshbag,” Draal huffed out, sitting on the nest.

“Draal?!” Jim cried out, dropping his hands from my face.

“Shocking, I know. Now, about those pants?” I asked again, pushing Jim’s jaw up as it dropped.

“Attic,” Was all he could get out as he grabbed my shoulder. I nodded, teleporting us up to the attic. Once inside, Jim quickly ran to some boxes in the back corner, tearing through them. “How did this happen? Are you sure it’s Draal?”

“Yes I’m sure, he wouldn’t be moving around the room freely if I didn’t think so,” I stated, catching clothes as Jim threw them over his shoulder, quickly finding a few things that might fit our newest human.

Exhausted, we used the old fashion way of exiting the attic, using the ladder. With sweatpants and a t-shirt in hand, I quickly headed down the basement, Jim choosing to process things on his own for now.

Draal huffed as he came over to the stair, “You’re exhausted,” he stated, allowing me further into the room to set the clothes down.

“And you’re a human, sort of,” I sighed, shaking my head. “Will you need help?”

He shook his head, “I’ll manage, I do with my normal clothes,” he chuckled.

Turning around, I waited for him to changed, too tired to run up the stairs or teleport.

Draal grumbled behind me, curing in Trollish at the ‘stupid strings’ until I heard him flop on the nest “Alright, the fleshy clothing is on,” he mumbled out.

I turned to see him face down in the nest, on the verge of passing out. “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s exhausted,” I teased, climbing in the nest with him. This was going to take some getting used to. “Do you have any idea what caused this?”

Draal mumbled about thinking in the morning before his breathing turned to snores. Giggling, I grabbed the blankets and tucked us both in. We would find the answers in the morning.

#Trollhunters #trollhunters oc #trollhuntersoc #trollhunters draal #Draal #draal the deadly #DraalxRiver #DraalxOC #River Marie Lake #River Marie Wyllt #river of arcadia #episode 16 #chapter 21 #roaming fees may apply #phase 2

15 notes · View notes

seaspiritz-blog · 5 years

Text

Please read and help pregnant, disabled, LGBT girl escape bf

Hey Im so sorry but I made a SECOND post recently but its gotten way more notes than help again and its slowing down a LOT so since someone suggested I make a new post so people don’t think that its old or that I’m okay now! The date is 6/1/19 right now! TW for content!

TLDR: My name is Em I am a mentally ill, disabled 18 year old who just found out I am pregnant. I am living with my controlling, violent, unstable BF and need help leaving this dangerous environment SOON before he realizes I am pregnant and trying to leave.

I will try to make this short but I started living with my bf who is in his 20s when I was 17 because I was also being abused severely at home. I thought he could understand me bevause we both had mental problems and he seemed very sweet. After awhile he started getting very controlling, manipulative, paranoid, checking my phone and taking it, locking the door and refusing to let me leave. He has threatened to let me sleep on the street because of his paranoia that I am cheating on him/trying to hurt him/ect. He has stopped taking his medication and I have tried to work through this with him because I do love him but he has only gotten worse. He has put his hands on me, forced and threatened me into sex. He belittles me for being disabled, calls me stupid, calls me a slut, he is homophobic because he realizes I am bisexual and thinks girls are only for men. We have almost gotten kicked out because he even threatened our apartment manager. And so much more that I dont even want to list.

I will be homeless if I dont leave because I cant just handle only putting my own life at risk. I know if he realizes I am pregnant he will react very badly. I have tried calling the police on him (which he holds over me now) but they did not have enough evidence of crime. He has a long record of violence but because he is mentally ill he goes to a hospital and then gets out when he becomes violent or threatening and then it happens again when he is off of his meds.

My parents have cut me off for leaving and refuse to support me despite begging for help. I am trying to reach out to all services suggested without raising attention. If anyone has anything to spare, I can afford an apartment on my own with my disability income but I need help affording the application fees, deposit/move in costs. I can pay my own rent from there and be okay! I have no way to work because of my disabilities. My SSI would also be taken away. I have tried even sex work but that is dangerous for numerous reasons and ended badly. I have been looking into shelters but in the meantime trying extremely hard to raise money because I know I can support myself if I am able to pay move in costs. I have had bad experiences in shelters before I moved in with him.

Cashapp: dietseasprite

Paypal: [email protected]

I know this is annoying and I am so sorry. Please please boost. I am terrified of him finding out about any of this every single day and its hard when I dont know whats going on with me and he can tell Im acting weird. I would do anything at this point. Thank you for everyone who reblogs and has reblogged and continues to help me.

Ive done the math and for a cheap apartment I can afford I would need about 6000 to move out safely. Its A LOT and I dont expect to get all of this but I am trying to save on my own also whenever I can. Im currently at around 800/6000 and will keep posting updates!!

#donations #boost #signal boost #abuse #help post #help me #paypal #cash app #emergency #donation post #lgbt #trauma warning

2K notes · View notes

ive-been-reminding-you · 4 years

Text

OoC: The Big, Long Post of Where the Hell I’ve Been

Before I begin, I want to apologize for just disappearing. I’ve had some contact with a couple of people here and there within these past months, but not as much as typical when I’m active.

This post is to just tell you all where I’ve been and what’s been going on with me. I’ve told a couple of people a couple of things here and there, but I never really got too deep into it.

I’m going to keep most of this under a Keep Reading for a couple of reasons. The first reason is because, as the title suggests, this is going to be really long. The second is because of some of the really heavy things I’m going to be talking about, and I think it’s best if you read at your own discretion rather than have me splash this across your dashboards without any warning. So, please, see the tags before reading.

OK. Here we go...

Back in March, I got sick. I have no idea what I had, but I just know that I was sick and that it lingered for a considerable length of time.

I had had four or five shifts in a row, and I had one more to go before I was to have a couple of days off. The morning of that last shift, I woke up with a scratchy throat. I didn’t really think much of it because I typically feel like I’m sick when I first wake up (one of the problems that comes with my insomnia). However, a couple of hours later, as I was getting ready to head into work, I still had the scratchy throat. In addition, I had begun to have a really intense headache.

That’s when I got a group text from my boss telling us to stay home if we had a cough or sore throat. I sent him a direct text and told him what was going on and we agreed it would be best for me to stay home.

The scratchy throat, which later evolved to include a cough, lasted for nearly two months. The headache also lasted that long. And when I say that, I mean that every single day for two months, I had a bad headache that never went away and only fluctuated slightly in how severe it was for that day.

Neither my boss, nor the other managers, were taking me seriously. That first week I was home, I was trying to rest and every single day, I was getting texts with questions like, “Hey, you’ll be in for your next shift, right?” or, “Why don’t you just go get tested? Easiest thing in the world!”

No matter how many times I explained my situation — medical professionals told me not to come in for a test because supplies were scarce and they were only testing people with emergency symptoms. In addition, I was told, “If you come here and you have the virus, you’ll be putting other people at risk. If you don’t have it, and you come here, you risk exposing yourself to it. You just need to stay home and monitor your symptoms until they either get severe or until your cough and sore throat go away.” Also, mind you, I use public transportation, which people were especially advised not to use if you were feeling sick to keep the virus from spreading, so... How exactly did they want me to get to a testing facility? — they always acted like I just didn’t want to get tested. My friend that helped get me the job kept sending me articles about new testing sites and kept arguing with me about it. He also kept telling me that I should get tested so that I could be cleared to come back to work if I didn’t have it. At this point, I was feeling like a broken record, and I had told him loads of times that even if I didn’t have the virus, I still felt like shit and there was no way I’d be able to stand all day, anyway.

Finally, after weeks of this back-and-forth, my boss told me to contact HR. They put me on a retroactive leave of absence. However, it still has not been approved and it will most likely get denied, which means that I will not be paid for the time I was out of work. And I only just went back to work two weeks ago.

In addition to being out so long, my hours have been severely cut. I worked two days the first week I was back. Then this past week, I had no hours at all. This week, I only work four hours on Saturday. It’s hard for me not to feel like this is intentional, considering the fact that I wasn’t taken seriously the whole time I was sick and they were acting like I was just being dramatic or needlessly cautious (also, apparently I work with a bunch of medical experts because even when I was telling them information I got from the CDC, they were still telling me that that wasn’t right 🙄). My first day back, one of the managers asked me how I was doing, and asked me what I had been feeling. When I mentioned the severe headache that wouldn’t go away, he chuckled and went, “That’s not even a symptom of the virus!” And he very clearly didn’t believe me when I explained to him that it is, in fact, a symptom that many people who were confirmed to have had it had reported. Just because it’s not one of the more common symptoms doesn’t mean it’s not a symptom.

I am now drowning in debt from being out of work so long, in addition to not receiving any hours. Our rent was still being collected this whole time, and I had to pay April and May’s rent together in one go because I was still quarantined in April and couldn’t make it to my bank. This almost completely wiped out my funds. My gas company isn’t charging late fees, but they have still been charging regularly every month and I don’t even know how much I owe them at this point because I can’t pay it, anyway, so I stopped looking. Last I checked, it was over $300. I’m assuming that it’s closer to $600 now. My internet is going to most likely be shut off at the end of the month. There have been days where I was afraid to go buy groceries because of how low my funds are. I have had to accept help from many people, a couple of them were almost complete strangers who came out of nowhere and helped me out significantly.

The stress is getting to me terribly. I have spent so many days these past months living in a fog where nothing feels real anymore. I think I’m shedding hair more than usual, and every time I wash my hair, there are clumps left in the shower. My insomnia is magnified, and now with the heat of it being summer, that’s just going to get worse because my room gets substantially hot. And because of my financial situation, I’m trying to run the air conditioner as little as possible and only run my fans. My appetite has been affected and I often just eat once a day with maybe a little snack here or there.

Things got so bad for me psychologically that I reached out to my Employee Help Line, provided to people who work for the company I work for. I tend not to call numbers like that because of bad experiences in the past, but I needed to talk to someone. There was back and forth between myself and several counselors for two or three weeks, and they tried to get me an appointment with a therapist over the phone.

The Employee Help Line counselors were all wonderful people. The therapists I tried to schedule appointments with? Not so much. The first one canceled on me by email just an hour before my session was supposed to begin. The second one also canceled on me by email the night before my session.

The third one was a truly mystifying experience. So much so that she gets her own paragraph. Not only did our session only last about thirty minutes (instead of the forty-five to fifty minutes that it should have been), but she gave me such advice as, “Just don’t worry so much.” And her entire tone made me feel like I couldn’t speak to her because I felt the need to justify everything I was feeling or explain myself. Then it took an even more bizarre turn when I Googled her to see her hours of operation (I felt so uncomfortable with her that I wanted to call and leave a message to cancel our next appointment instead of talking to her directly) and found a website, full of evidence, that she was an animal abuser and that she had been investigated for insurance fraud for charging patients for sessions that never happened or double-billing them. I also found a website of reviews and there were so many that talked about how unprofessional she was (smoking in a closed office during sessions, inviting patients to stay the night at her place, charging someone for two months worth of sessions that never took place because they canceled after just seeing her once). And she told me she was mailing me paperwork which I haven’t received yet that I need to fill out and mail back (with what postage, I wonder, since I can’t afford to buy a book of stamps?) instead of letting me do that electronically.

After that whole experience with those three therapists, I decided to stop trying to get into therapy for now. And, for the record, this is exactly why I’m afraid to go back to therapy because my bad experiences far outweigh the good ones. In this time, too, the Employee Help Line people had been trying to find solutions to my funding problem. Absolutely none of what they found was good for me. I either didn’t qualify, or they weren’t accepting new applicants, or some other thing kept me from being able to use whichever service.

And there’s one more thing... I’ve been alone this entire time. My brother, whom I live with, went to visit a friend of his before things got bad. He was only supposed to be gone for the weekend, but then I got sick the day before he was going to come back home. And then his friend’s state went into lockdown before I started to feel any better. So he has been stuck there, and I’ve been living alone and dealing with all of this alone this whole time. Don’t get me wrong, I have friends who are checking in on me and who are trying to help me however they can — and my brother and I have been in contact as much as possible — but it’s not the same as having someone physically present. I’m the very definition of an introvert, so it doesn’t usually bother me, but there have been times where I greatly needed someone physically here for me and nobody was able.

And that’s why I’ve been gone for so long. I’ve probably even forgotten some stuff, or just haven’t added stuff (like how I have to hand wash all my laundry now because I don’t have a washer or dryer and it isn’t safe to use the laundromat anymore for the time being) because everything has been a tremendous mess and this is already a monster of a post. I’m still not 100% sure when I’ll be back, but I’m definitely coming back. Until then, I’m going to try to be around more often for DMs at least. I love you all and I hope you’re all OK. ⚔️ Spike ⚔️

P.S. If you’ve read to the end of this, thank you for doing so lol. You have a much greater attention span than I do xD. P.P.S. I posted this and then took it down for a second because I realized that I forgot to add tags and this post really, really needs to have tags.

#mun ooc #tw: long post #tw: mental illness #tw: depression #tw: depersonalization #tw: insomnia #tw: covid 19 #tw: coronavirus #tw: debt #tw: financial burdens #tw: mention of animal abuse (without detail)#tw: therapy #tw: bad experience with therapy #tw: isolation #tw: quarantine #tw: illness #tw: heavy subject matter

24 notes · View notes

prorevenge · 5 years

Text

How I got revenge on my cheating ex!

TL;DR at bottom.

This story takes place almost 12 years ago so I'll do my best with the dialog and details but admittedly some things are a little fuzzy. Most of my life I've had a problem with picking men that were not good for me, so much so that I even had a phrase for it "saving the world, one moron at a time". One of my more spectacularly bad choices was a guy by the name of "Bob" (obviously not his real name). I met Bob when I was working one of my 2 jobs at the local mall, he worked somewhere else in the mall so we hit it off and soon enough we were in a relationship. Within a few months my lease was up and we ended up moving in together which obviously in hindsight was a huge mistake but I was dumb and lonely.

Soon enough red flags began to fly, he would say things in common conversation that were simply incorrect (like there's only 4 continents and the rest are actually owned by the martian government and thus don't count etc. ) and when challenged would circular talk until you either agreed with him or dropped the subject. He would also make claims that seemed entirely unbelievable such as when I asked where he had been staying prior to his mom's house he said he "camped in the woods" when I asked how he did that for months on end and without any gear he simply gestured to himself and said "this is all the gear I need". The worst trait though by far was his epic LAZINESS! I have never witnessed someone so lazy in my life.

Bob was unemployed for over a third of our relationship and would simply sit in the apartment watching netflix or playing some war game on "his" computer AKA my spare computer typing away in the group chat. He would never clean up after himself leaving dirty dishes in the sink and filth on every surface while only taking a shower MAYBE once a week. The smell that permeated my apartment could only be described as revolting and could easily gag a maggot. I would inquire a few times a week on his "job hunt" only to be dismissed or given a growing amount of excuses such as "but I don't have a car, how would I get there"... "the bus doesn't run in that area"... "the internet went down so I couldn't apply"... etc. etc. Meanwhile I am working double and triple shifts at my job to try to make up the lost income and running him all over town in my off time getting applications and helping him fill them out and turn them in. Keep in mind he doesn't have a cell phone so all of these apps have my contact info on them. Thus begins the era of him "holding my phone" while I'm at work so he can make calls or schedule interviews as well as I can get a hold of him from my store phone if I needed to.

Things began getting weird, he began staying up later and later on this group chat, sometimes till almost dawn. Sometimes we would hang out all evening until it was time for bed. Then he would always make some excuse on why he needed to check the game before bed and he'd be right there.... hours would pass... no Bob. I began to get suspicious but nothing incriminating seemed to be taking place so I just shrugged it off as me being insecure. Then he started asking to use my car to go see his best friend "Ben", now I wasn't super comfortable with this but I did know Ben pretty well and we got along almost better than Bob and I did so I guess to a degree I trusted Ben more than Bob and agreed to it. This happened a few times while I was working the evening shift and he was always back at the allotted time with my car and my phone and relatively grateful for the opportunity to hang with his buds. Suspicious... umm yes, but I'm the kind of person that is loyal and trusting to a fault and don't assume anything without proof and from every angle all seemed to be on the up and u so I took it at face value.

So one day he asks to borrow my car and go with his friends to a card gaming tournament, he put on a great show telling me how the prize money would help us out and with the deck he had there was no way he could loose. I just had to let him use my car and phone this one last time and he would be able to buy himself a phone with the prize money. I wasn't a huge fan of the idea but nothing untoward had occurred in the previous instances and I didn't feel like spending my only day off at a card game convention that I literally couldn't care less about so I acquiesced. I bought myself a couple green monsters and some vodka and had my own little personal drunk party. Hours tick by and no Bob... Eventually I pass out only to wake up at the crack of dawn VIOLENTLY sick, this went way beyond a hangover. I start retching in the bathroom until there was nothing left but bile but the retching wouldn't stop. Hours ticked by and I lay in my bathroom floor sweating and convulsing with no phone, no car and no Bob. I eventually was able to crawl to my room and wrap myself in a bath robe before crawling down my apartment building stairs and began knocking on the closest doors. It took 3 apartments before someone opened the door and allowed me to use their phone to call my mom. My mother was at my apt in 6 minutes flat and rushed me to the ER where I was diagnosed with an aggressive and antibiotic-resistant strain of C-Dif. Bob finally showed up later that afternoon phone and car keys in hand looking very concerned and claiming to be deeply apologetic but my mom hated him from that point on. I was out of the hospital and back to work within a few days but it was the beginning of the end.

During these last months we were constantly scraping by due to his lack of consistent income and poor spending habits. There were jobs gotten and there were jobs lost for various reasons throughout our relationship but the final job was one I helped him get literally 3 buildings down from my own workplace. This company rents furniture and electronics on a weekly/monthly basis and I happen to know most of the employees and the hiring manager as they are regular customers at my coffee establishment . I was able to use what little sway I had to get him on there and he accepted a job as a delivery man.

Within a few weeks I come home from work to find a brand new TV and entertainment system and him grinning like an idiot. I tell him we can't afford this, we can barely afford to eat and are surviving off scraps I bring home from work. He talks about his amazing employee discount and assures me it's no big deal that the rental fee will just come out of his check etc. I was pissed! Not only had he not consulted me, he also had me on the account as well (my info had been taken from the credit app I filled out as a favor to help their numbers) so if HE flaked I was liable. Fast forward another few weeks the rent is late and we are receiving eviction notices on our door, I come home from work and the tv is mysteriously gone. "Thank goodness" I think, "he finally realized we can't afford it and took it back"... he gets paid, rent gets paid and all is as good as it can be. Until I found a pawn slip for the TV in his pocket as I was doing laundry and went ballistic! He assured me he had plans to get it back in the works and to not worry about it, it will be taken care of soon and no one will be the wiser? I was too pissed to catch on to the secrecy aspect of the situation.

A few more tense weeks go by with him working mornings and myself working evenings while we shared one phone and car... Until that fateful day arrived! I woke up that morning with a migraine headache and opted to let Bob take the car but leave me the phone so I can call someone later on for a ride to work. A few hours of uncomfortable sleep go by before I am awoken by my phone.... I answer the phone still groggy "Hello?"

There is a long pause on the other end of the line until a female voice asks "Umm is Bob there?"

I felt a sickening feeling in my gut and began to shake.... is this real? Am I dreaming?

"No, he's at work right now this is his wife (total lie but hey) is there something I can help you with?" I wasn't rude, I phrased it as a genuine question rather than an accusation.

Another long pause before she began to stammer about maybe she had the wrong number but it was obvious she just wanted to get off the phone with me as quickly as possible and I realized in that moment that I desperately needed her.

"Please" I said with an edge of desperation in my voice.. "I don't know what's going on but I just really need somebody to tell me the truth" the last word came out in a sob and I sat there for a moment in silence trying to quell the urge to just cry uncontrollably.

"Listen" the voice on the other end was almost gentle "I need to make a few phone calls but I promise you I WILL call you back". She said it calmly and with so much conviction that I really wanted to believe her...

"Please, you promise?" I almost begged.

"I promise" she replied

"Ok" I took a deep breath and released it, "I'll talk to you soon" and hung up.

I then proceeded to aggressively pace my living room floor staring at my phone while chain smoking and muttering to myself like a crazy person. I knew who she was calling... I was replaying all those little red flag moments in my head from the last few months, pinning down dates or behavior I'd found suspect when the phone rings again. It's her. I froze for a moment... shocked she followed through and called me back, terrified of what this meant... I answered the phone and what followed was about the most soul crushing 45 min of my life

After initial introductions June (again not the real name) and I began comparing stories and it became glaringly obvious what was happening... They had actually been in a relationship several years prior and had run back into each other on the aforementioned war game where they began to flirt on group chat. All those nights he'd been on the computer he'd been chatting with her. All those times he'd go hang out with his "friend's" he been using my car to take her out and my phone to communicate with her. The time I was sick and alone with NO resources... you guessed it... he was with her! Oh but it get's better...

"Do you have a little silver hummingbird necklace?" she inquired. "Yes, my mother gave it to me for my 27th birthday actually I love it"

"Really?" she said "Cause he gave me one for mother's day"

"OMG" I almost yelled into the phone as I ran to my room and tore through my jewelry box... it wasn't in there... it was around her neck.

From there we discovered not only had he been giving her my property as gifts but he'd had her over to our apartment passing it off as his own. I didn't want to believe him capable of doing something so cruel and disrespectful when I have allowed him to sponge off me for the better part of 3 years. Unfortunately as in confirmation she began describing my apartment to a T, all the way down to my bed sheets. June said he even pulled my "secret box" from beneath my bed and offered to use my adult items on her. She said she found it weird and didn't partake but I threw them away due to the sheer ick factor. Finally she uttered the words I didn't know I wanted to hear"

"You know what we should do? We should bust him together."

My mind immediately started racing, indeed we should! I was a mix of fury, adrenaline and despair so my thinking wasn't exactly strait and details begin to get hazy here. We arrange to meet up at my work and find a way to lure Bob over there but unfortunately she lived about 40 min away whereas I only live about 6 miles from our destination so if I got there first I'd need to stall him (assuming he wasn't out on a delivery). I called a trusted coworker of mine at work sobbing and begging for a ride... to his everlasting credit he got somebody to cover and LEFT WORK to come get me and bring me to my car. When I got to Bob's workplace I went inside to retrieve my keys (this isn't uncommon as they know the car is mine) and was stopped half way through store by Bob's manager wanting to talk about the payment due on "our account".

I don't remember the exact dialog but I said something along the lines of "Look, I don't know when you are going to get your payment." I looked utterly defeated and told him we could never afford the TV in the first place and how I had begged Bob to take it back and now we don't have it anymore as Bob has pawned it and I don't have the money to get it out let alone pay him. I was full on blubbering at this point when he stopped me to clarify that his EMPLOYEE pawned a rental TV under contract. I confirmed that this was indeed true and presented him with the pawn ticket. HE WAS MAD! Apparently such an act is illegal and is terms for immediate termination but he assured me that if I could get the TV back to him there would be no harm no foul and he would terminate my contract without any penalties. I thanked him for his understanding and told him to let Bob know I would be over at my workplace.

My heart is pounding in my chest and blood is roaring in my ears... what was I going to say? What was HE going to say? Would June make it here before he did?? My heart sinks when I see Bob's hulking form making it's way in my direction, I frantically scan the parking lot for June's car... she's not here yet and I'm out of time. He hits the door looking out of breath and guilty as hell and I just stare at him stone faced. I walk outside silently to light a cigarette unsure of exactly what to say and he follows me wordlessly outside.

He starts in with the "it's not what it seems" and "it's all just a terrible misunderstanding" and I just let him dig himself deeper into his hole of lies. I listen, I nod, I pretend to understand until a particular car pulls into view. June parks in the space directly next to where we were standing and gets out of the car... "Hey Bob, how ya' doing?" Bob has gone visibly pale, he hangs his head and sits down on the curb saying nothing to either of us. June and I greet each other and awkwardly shake hands before again returning our attention to Bob. June begins berating him on his lies and deceit, unveiling all of our mutual info and subsequent conclusions while I stood mostly in silence agreeing at the appropriate times but mostly still in shock. After 20 minutes of this I finally mustered up the courage to take my stand.

"We are done, I don't want to see you ever again. I'll pack up your things (only 2 boxes worth) and your sister can contact me in a few days to pick them up. Now I want your key." I held out my hand and looked at him. "Not until I get my stuff out, then you get your key" he replied. I tried to argue but he continued to refuse and used his large stature to his advantage knowing I'd have no chance in a physical altercation. He turned and walked away heading back toward his workplace, June and I talked a little more before she handed me my hummingbird necklace and left. I stood there alone staring at nothing trying to wrap my head around what had just transpired and then I cried... oh how I cried.

With nowhere else to turn I had only one call to make... to my mom. The moment she answered I unleashed this deluge of words at her that were half sobs and half rant. "Stay right there, I'm coming" she said. God Bless my mother! Soon enough both of my parents pull up in my dad's truck and my mom gets out to comfort me and give me hugs. I look at the driver's seat and see my father with his jaw is clenched and a death grip on the steering wheel while staring strait ahead... OH Crap! They take me to the pawn shop and my parents write a check for more than $500 to get the TV out, we then drive strait over to Bob's workplace and return the TV to the manager. As the manager finishes up the cancellation paperwork my dad spots Bob pacing around the back of the parking lot talking frantically on the phone. Unfortunately I didn't get to hear the ensuing conversation but my dad returns within a few minutes holding my house key and looking victorious.

"I believe this is yours" he says as he hands me the key and then pulls me into a hug and I cried a little into his shoulder. My dad gave me a squeeze, kissed my temple and whispered into my ear "They're firing him." I leaned back to look at my dad and he just smirked and said "Now he's jobless and homeless." I thought about it for a second before I said in my most sarcastic tone "Ohhh I'm sooo soorrryyy to hear that" We laughed about it a little and my parents gave me some words of wisdom before leaving me to drive myself home where my best friend was already waiting to keep me company.

Bob and his sister showed up a few days later for his pitiful boxes of stuff, he tried to talk to me, to explain... but my best friend descended on him like a harpy if he muttered more than a few syllables in my direction so he was shut down almost immediately. He left that night and I have never heard from him since, I blocked him on social media but there was really no need as he made no effort to contact me on any level. That's Bob... ever lazy, ever deluded and always an a**hole.

So here I am many years later happily married to my high school sweetheart and the mother of two beautiful little boys and grateful to have moved on when I did. The experience with Bob certainly took its toll I lost a lot of weight due to lack of appetite but had a myriad of trust issues moving forward but the point is I moved forward. I have grown leaps and bounds as a person since this experience and am truly content with where my life is now but every now and then when I'm drifting off to sleep I can't help but wonder... what ever happened to good ol' Bob? Is he out there somewhere... in the woods with a stick and his wits as his only gear... waiting for a martian government to make its move.

Ah well, a girl can dream ;)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to message me with any questions or comments :)

TL;DR: I discovered my boyfriend was cheating so I organized a sting operation with the other woman. Boyfriend ended up chickless, jobless and homeless within a matter of hours.

(source) story by (/u/Jenabear7897)

#prorevenge #by /u/Jenabear7897 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

294 notes · View notes

jessie876125 · 4 years

Text

Top 10 Critical Mistakes People Make When Leasing A Car

According to examine car's history records, narrow Cheapest bmw lease your choice. This step may be very important. It will help for you to eliminate half of the vehicles from your list with potential crises. Vehicles that been recently flooded or restored after serious accidents, those with rolled back odometers, heavily abused vehicles (e.g., ex-rentals), those with outstanding liens, etc. could be eliminated after simply checking the history record with the vehicle. In fact, around the globe not just a good idea to look into a car until you check its history. There is no offer i know with the pays remaining lease payments for another leasing company or manufacturing plant. So, in other words; If Chrysler can give to be worthwhile Toyota, however usually some more for the story. As a worthy consumer you ought to know the vehicle loan value if in order to just about to avail obtaining loan. Taking the condition with the economy note even a used car appears to be be expensive merchandise. With such circumstances individuals are aiming at getting better deals in car borrowing. The associated with the rental-car is basically determined on his or her number of miles how the car would travel. Here is the scene on daily period. However, if you go for car hire, some you can drop you rather than you driving i9t on. If you are deciding upon car hire for business purposes, it would exercise routine much cheaper for anyone. Every car company charges you VAT. When you use car lease hire for business purposes, you can get a waiver based on a number of kilometers a person actually use the car lease hire. There usually is a fee to return the car early. You should know ahead of time exactly how much it'll be, but frequently than not it's quite large number. Make sure it's something worth paying if need to return the car early for reason. How would you go about finding and landing top possible auto lease package deal? The first thing that have got to do is check on the lease for down payment to you. If it requires one, indicates you want to pay up a great deal of money, payable in cash or credit. First payment can be also paid indicates of non cash trading allowances. If you think made that first move payment won't be an aspect of an outstanding auto lease deal, then you can should avoid lease that needs them. Do have got an older version from the model searching at? - If you're looking at a 2010 VW Golf will be price is really a little higher than you have to have to pay, the dealer might be permitted access to some 2009 VW stock is definitely priced less expensive. Rather than stretch yourself, ask the salesperson if they have additional VW Golfs in stock that are an earlier edition or it could possibly be an ex-demonstration. The sales person would "assess my ought." Then get me to pay back for getting that they had in stock on the lot. Then I'd require to go and play with it. Then negotiate on a cost. Fill out a credit application program. Sign the paperwork on the inside Finance and Insurance health care business. All the while they attempted to trade me additional add-ons towards car--paint protection, under coating, and extended warranty. This statement is just not true. Numerous always ways out of every contract, yet of time they are really unfavourable, knowledge the the very least ,. If you prefer to terminate the lease contract before appeared due, are going to have devote an early-termination fee, that be extremely pricy. What can be car leasing websites out in order software program the early termination on the lease contract, is managed it to another person. Getting the best from choices new car deals critical. This will not only assist the best vehicle between a wide range of options but also assist you in obtaining a payment scheme that is equipped to monetary. They're offering $3,000 money-back OR 0% financing for 60 months on the 2008 Tribute Hybrids. My credit union is offering 5.25% to acquire a 60 month loan, or 3.75% to get a 36 month loan. Generally if i decided to get a 60 month loan, I'd break even when i paid journey loan at 51 seasons. Any shorter than that, and I'd be better off to adopt the $3,000. I was planning to pay it off in 4 years, so I'm in order to squeeze my budget just a little more and take the 36 month loan at 3.75% at a credit union and then take that $3,000 cash return. Find out as much information as attainable. Some ads only specify present retail price and not its residual value or vice-versa. Some details of the lease contract such as additional monthly charges and mileage may be omitted altogether to make the deal attractive on the fly. 107. car leasing websites Let's imagine you're working to get a seller to name the asking price and he won't. Try this: "How about about $ 1?" At the very least you'll break the ice. At best.he'll name a price finally. Well, I guess at best LITERALLY may be you purchase it for a dollar-- hey, it can happen. Please be aware that I have no issue automobile salesmen. Offer developed a reputation all on their without any help from me; and everybody's gotta make a living. I'm just glad Practical goal selling cars to make mine. Sometimes don't you long for your good days of the past??

1 note · View note

raywritesthings · 4 years

Text

In Pursuit of Happiness

My Writing Fandom: The Flash Characters: Patty Spivot, Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon Pairing: Patty Spivot/Barry Allen Summary: Regretting their breakup, Patty returns to Central City just in time for the second particle accelerator explosion. *Can be read on my FFN and AO3, links are in bio*

‘It was easier said than done’ never applied more than when it came to letting someone go. Patty was finding that out the hard way in Midway City.

Her bed felt empty. It was so ridiculous; they’d only started staying the night at each other’s homes about a month before the breakup. Or mutual leaving. Or… whatever it had been. Every lanky guy with brown hair looked like Barry from behind, and her heart would do this stupid leap up into her throat before he turned and she realized his jaw wasn’t right, his eyes didn’t sparkle with warmth and mischief, and he usually had bad acne anyway. Then her fellow student would keep walking to wherever he was going and the hollow feeling in her chest resumed.

It didn’t help that she knew for a fact Barry could show up here any time he wanted with no trouble at all. But he didn’t. Not that he had a reason to.

She knew she’d hurt him by going, and a little piece of her had wanted him to hurt. Had wanted him to know what it felt like to get shut out of something huge in his partner’s life. But that little vindictive streak had died out pretty much the minute he’d left the train. Now she just felt alone.

She hadn’t thought she was lying to him about the grad school. She’d sent in the applications months ago, just before they’d even met. Reading his reports had inspired her to go for her dream, for crying out loud! She’d always meant to tell him she was waiting to hear back, but then they’d been going on dates and it wasn’t really a good idea to tell a date you were possibly moving a few hundred miles away. And then they’d been together, and she’d known she should have brought it up, but then there were all these little things she felt like he wasn’t sharing with her — why he’d really been out sick that one week, what his nightmares were about. It wasn’t like she’d known it was because he was busy being a superhero!

She read articles about the Flash, now. Voraciously. Anything that was published. Was that stalking him? She decided no, because it was publicly available information. A well-informed citizenry was best for democracy, after all. Even if all she was informed on was forensic science and her ex-boyfriend.

She liked Iris’ articles best. They really gave the sense that there was a person, Barry, there under the mask. Probably because she knew. Patty didn’t begrudge her that; Iris was Barry’s best friend and Joe’s daughter, and Joe totally knew. He’d known a lot of stuff he wasn’t willing to share with her despite being her partner. Didn’t trust her, she guessed.

Had Barry just not trusted her? She understood him holding onto the truth at first, of course. Wouldn’t be good form for a superhero to go around revealing his secret identity to every person they met. But he’d said he loved her. Didn’t trust come with love?

Maybe Patty wasn’t worthy of either. After all, she’d proved his point, right? Up and left. At the time, she’d felt it was necessary. She didn’t want anyone to think they could go on just lie to her face over and over and she’d go along with it.

But maybe, maybe they could have talked things out more, explained how and why they were feeling. If she hadn’t thrown the grad school bomb into the middle of things, if Barry hadn’t clammed up… maybe it still would’ve ended this way, but who knew?

Patty kind of wanted to find out.

Her spring break was coming up. Patty still had the apartment back in Central — the lease was up next month, and she hadn’t wanted to pay the extra fee to break it. She could go back. She could go home. Just for a little while, anyway. She could see Barry, if he wanted to see her, and try and get to the root of their troubles, come up with some kind of compromise. Even if they just came out of it as friends, he’d been the best part of the last year or so of her life and she missed him.

So Patty booked a train ticket back to Central and spent the last week of classes in anticipation. And, as she kept reading articles, a bit of worry started to cool in the pit of her stomach as well.

The Flash didn’t seem as active of late. Supposedly he was still being glimpses around the city, but he wasn’t really stopping to chat or doing much of anything. Was he okay? Had he been hurt? Was it just all in her head?

Patty’s fingers drummed on her thigh the whole train ride. She thought about calling. Then she thought it was best not to give a guy with superspeed a head start on running away. What if he didn’t even pick up her call? What if he’d blocked her? She was scared to find out, so her phone stayed in her pocket.

Patty got into the city and dropped her duffel at the old apartment. She didn’t stick around long, still able to remember when that man had caught her unawares in her own home and the terror she’d felt waking up in that warehouse. It was important to find Barry anyway, before she lost her nerve.

She tried the precinct first, nodding to the desk sergeant when she walked in. “Hey, Spivot!”

She grinned as she entered the bullpen. “Vukovich, how’s it going?”

The older officer shrugged. “Same as usual. What’s brought you back?”

“University’s on a break. I wanted to see some people. Uh, Barry, for one.”

“He’s off for the afternoon,” Vukovich told her. “Hey, if you get that fancy degree, bring it back this way. We could use more than one smartie, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Patty said with a light laugh. She couldn’t help wondering what that might be like, working side-by-side with Barry — in his day job, even if he didn’t want her involved with Flash stuff.

A glance over at Joe’s desk showed he wasn’t in, either. Maybe they were having a family thing?

“Well, I should get going. Good seeing you.”

Patty debated with herself the whole way over to Joe’s if she should be dropping in unexpected. Her old partner had only just found out about his son right around when she’d left. Family time was probably important to them.

It turned out she needn’t have worried. There were no cars in the driveway when her taxi pulled up outside the house. No one was home.

“You need to go somewhere else?” Her driver asked.

“Uh…” if Barry wasn’t at work and wasn’t at home, did she have any hope of catching him running around out there in the streets?

Or she could wait for him where he went after he was done with Flash stuff. Patty has never been told, but it didn’t take a detective — former or otherwise — to know that Barry was incredibly close to the good folks at STAR Labs.

“STAR Laboratories, if you don’t mind.”

As they returned to downtown, Patty noticed a growing number of clouds in the sky. By the time they were turning down the road that led to the Labs, thunder was booming and lightning streaked overhead. She couldn’t help the growing feeling that something was about to happen.

“You sure you wanna go here, lady? This place gives me the creeps.”

Patty glanced away from the window at her driver and made up her mind. “You know what? I’ll get out here.” She paid him quickly and watched as he made a quick u-turn and sped off. Then Patty started walking towards the parking lot.

Though, as she approached, was there a person standing on the roof? She sped up to a jog, then a run.

“Hey!” She called out. “What do you think you’re doing?”

As she got closer, she could see it was Barry’s friend Cisco standing there, stretching his arm up high with some kind of metal rod in his hand. Patty’s emergency training kicked into gear and she barreled through the Labs. She had to get to the roof access door before Cisco found out why Ben Franklin’s friends had thought he was crazy flying a kite in a thunderstorm—

There was a great boom that rocked the whole building, and Patty stumbled as a strange yellow, crackling light swept down the corridor, knocking her off her feet.

Her eyes slipped shut as the energy seemed to rush all through her, a voice echoing in her ears. “Patty… Patty…”

“Barr...y?”

---

Barry had never realized just how much he’d needed to learn about the speed force until he was within it, literally talking to it. Having it assume the form of his mother had been toughest of all, and yet, he felt better for having heard her words, since the speed force had told them they were hers as well. He very nearly felt at peace in a way he hadn’t for a long time.

It had seemed like he was out of control for the longest time, the others constantly offering this or that advice making him question if he was really making his own choices or not. He knew they didn’t mean it that way — or most of them hadn’t. He still couldn’t shake the bitter regret from having listened to Harry about what to do regarding Patty, only to find out that the man had been working with Zoom behind all their backs. Only Jesse’s captivity at the time allowed Barry to forgive him, but the regret still sat in his heart.

Then there had been his Earth 2 counterpart, and Iris’. A year ago, he would have been over the moon to view a world where they were together. But, despite what Harry had thought, he knew that wasn’t really them. He could care about what happened to an Iris on any Earth while acknowledging that at home, they were not husband and wife. Even when a future newspaper said they someday would be.

But that future no longer existed, and Barry couldn’t help resenting the idea that a newspaper and another Earth had to be the things that prompted Iris to think about the possibility of being together. That it wasn’t him alone that could make her see him in that light.

He knew that was his fault. If he’d told her the truth when he’d first gotten his powers, maybe she would have seen him the way he’d always wanted, before she’d fallen completely in love with Eddie. And while Iris was learning to let Eddie go, Barry couldn’t shake his own guilt; he was the reason Eddie was dead, because he hadn’t been able to beat Thawne on his own. He couldn’t be happy with Iris while knowing that, exactly the way Thawne had predicted in his message from beyond the grave.

He’d been happy with Patty, but he hadn’t fought for her. He’d just let her walk out of his life.

Guys like him didn’t get the girl, Oliver had tried to tell him. Oliver, who himself was no longer engaged. But a relationship wasn’t the kind of life either of them were allowed to have. Speaking with the speed force, however, had given him a sense of purpose and a clear head, and these would have to be enough.

It was as he thought this that Barry was finally able to catch hold of the black blue he’d been chasing. As it solidified, it asked in a voice he instantly recognized, “Barry?”

“Patty?” He stepped back in shock. How was this possible? Was it just the speed force?

She turned around to face him, and his breath caught. He hadn’t forgotten her, but she was so much more beautiful in person than in memory. She met his eyes, and a smile lit up her whole face. “There you are.”

“What are you doing here?” She didn’t have the calm manner of the speed force, nor was she frantically calling out the way Cisco had.

Patty gave an easy shrug. “I don’t know where here is,” she said, looking around his old home. “But it’s nice. I wasn’t expecting a nice dream after I got knocked out.”

His brow furrowed. “What do you mean? What happened?”

“I don’t really know, but I don’t want to worry about it right now.” Patty walked up and wrapped him in a hug. “This is dream you, so we can just be, right? Don’t even have to apologize yet.”

“Apologize for what?” Barry asked, choosing to ignore for the moment that Patty was under the impression that he wasn’t real somehow. Definitely not the speed force. But then what was she? If she was the real Patty, then how?

“For leaving,” she muttered into his shoulder. Barry’s arms, which had landed loosely around her waist when he’d automatically returned her hug, tightened, although there was something strange to her. It was as if she wasn’t fully solid, wasn’t fully there. “I know why you felt like you couldn’t tell me. There was stuff I didn’t tell you, too. But I thought that was maybe changing at the art show, and then…”

“It didn’t,” he finished for her.

“I made the Midway decision without you because I was upset, and I’m sorry,” she told him, leaning back to look into his eyes. “I’ve really missed you, Barry.”

“I’ve missed you, too. It’s okay you were upset. I was gonna tell you, and then I backed out.” If he’d just listened to his heart instead of letting his fears get to him. He couldn’t let his fears control him, he had to let them go. Just like the speed force had shown him. “If I could do it all over again—”

“What if we could?”

Barry gave her a funny look. “What, you want me to go back in time and change it?”

“Okay, you saying that like it’s a possibility is super interesting,” Patty said. “But, no. I meant more like, what if we just started again? It’d be long distance, I guess, but we could call and text. Write letters for some dramatic effect. Even just as pen pals!”

“You’ve really thought this out.”

“I kept trying to come up with a speech or something on the train ride back, but this is much more helpful practice,” she explained, which left Barry even more confused. Patty really was talking as if she was the real deal. Not the speed force, not an illusion, but his Patty. And if what she said was real, he needed to get out of here.

Almost as if his very thought had summoned it, Cisco’s vortex reappeared. Though instead of Cisco, it was Iris who called out to him. “Barry! Come home!”

“Whoa!” Patty backed up this time in alarm. “What’s that?”

He looked from the Vortex back to Patty. “I have to go.”

Her face fell. “Okay.”

It wasn’t a trick to make him stay. Patty thought she was dreaming, and her dream had suddenly turned into a bad one thanks to him preparing to leave her. He didn’t want it to end like this.

“Barry!” Iris shouted again.

Barry looked back and extended his hand. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t how this was supposed to work. He had caught back up to Patty, and he wasn’t letting her go again. “Come with me.”

Patty nodded, reaching out. Her fingers twined through his own.

“Run, Barry. Run together,” the speed force said in his mother’s voice, and so Barry did run. To his surprise, Patty did right along with him.

Iris stood within the vortex, her hand reached out as far as she possibly could. He clasped hands with her and felt himself pulled through.

The next thing he knew, he was back in STAR Labs, the others embracing him in joy. Barry looked around, his left hand empty. “Where’s Patty?”

The others’ eyes all widened. “How’d you know?” Joe asked.

“I saw her. She was—” He turned around on the spot, feeling frantic. Had he left her behind after all?

“You can see her once we got Girder taken care of, dude. Promise,” Cisco told him. It was quickly relayed to him what had happened to Tony Woodward thanks to the second explosion, and Barry rushed to complete the task with the electromagnets to end the meta’s reanimated rampage.

His father insisted on checking him over after, and Harry was insistent on him seeing Jesse, who had been knocked into a coma like he had once been. Barry somehow knew what he needed to do to revive her, however, and she quickly awakened to the relief of her father.

At last, Cisco and Iris showed him the room they had placed Patty in.

“We don’t know when she got here or what happened, exactly,” Iris said. “But it was hard to move her.”

That was due to the electricity that seemed to crackle across the surface of her skin. Like before, Barry reached out with confidence. He felt a jolt rush through him, and it filled him with warmth and hope as Patty’s eyes flickered open.

“Barry?”

“Patty.” She had really come back. She really wanted to try again. It hadn’t been a dream. Barry day on the edge of her bed, drew her up from her prone position and hugged her. This time she felt truly solid, and he relished the feel of her in his arms again. “For the record, I would love to be your pen pal,” he murmured in her ear.

Barry felt her stiffen in his hold before she drew back with wide eyes. “How did you know I… and what happened? There was this light that hit me in the hallway and then that house and then — and Cisco! You’re okay!”

“Uh, yeah,” his friend said, confusion evident as Patty gasped at him.

“What were you doing on the roof in the middle of that crazy storm? You could’ve gotten killed!”

“It’s fine,” Barry interjected with a laugh. “He knew what he was doing. And it all worked out.”

“Maybe a little too well,” Iris noted. “Bear.” She nodded to Patty’s right hand where it rested on the bed covers. It was vibrating.

“Oh wow,” he breathed.

“How is this happening?” Patty asked in wonder as she held up her hand to stare at it.

“You were in the speed force with me. It must have forged a connection to you.” He hadn’t been imagining it when he left for the vortex with her; she had been running with him.

“I can’t make it stop,” Patty said, her amazement shifting to worry.

“Yes, you can. Patty, just focus.” Barry took her hand in his, watching as she worked to slow her breathing. Her hand stopped trembling in his and was still. “See?”

Her smile returned, tentative at first, then growing as he smiled back at her.

“Speedster couple. Awesome,” Cisco said. Iris bumped his shoulder and he quickly added, “Or not couple. Not trying to assume anything.”

“It’s okay,” Barry told his friends with a grin. Barry looked back at Patty, who nodded. “We’re ready this time.”

He leaned towards her, and Patty met him halfway in a kiss that sent sparks straight through him. It felt like they kissed for an eternity, but his heightened awareness of his speed told him it had only been a few short seconds for everyone else. These extra moments were something they could share together now, just the two of them.

With Patty at his side, literally and figuratively, Barry found he was no longer worried about what Zoom or any of his other enemies would do. He knew he and his team could handle it. In fact, he felt pretty close to invincible.

#spallen #patty spivot #barry allen #the flash #my writing

12 notes · View notes

callboxkat · 5 years

Text

Second Chances part 5: Roman’s Story (1 of 2)

Author’s note: Hello! Welcome to the installment of Second Chances that got so long I had to cut it in half! This is Roman’s story.

I encourage you guys to read the warnings. If you can’t read this story for whatever reason, don’t feel bad! The rest of the au will still make sense. It’s most important that you guys take care of yourselves.

One thing to remember as you read is that this is Roman’s view of the events that happened. This is how he remembers things, and how he perceived them at the time. As such, there may be some small details that aren’t quite accurate to reality, whether he’s purposefully altered them or not.

Summary: In Roman’s senior year of high school, everything was looking up. He was the star of his school’s theater program. He had an acceptance letter to a selective university, a new car, and a loving boyfriend. A part of Roman almost couldn’t believe his luck—did he really deserve all this good fortune?—but Roman brushed these doubts aside. He was dedicated to chasing his dreams. Was it really any surprise that some of them were coming true? What else could be in store for a passionate, dazzling, chivalrous Prince like himself?

Unfortunately, he would soon find that fate had other ideas.

Warnings (for part 1): homelessness, insecurity, emotional manipulation/pressure, bad relationships, lying, arguments, breakup, false accusations

Word Count: 5232

Second Chances Masterpost!

Writing Masterpost!

...

It was the evening of Roman’s first day working at the café. He, Patton, and Logan were all sitting in Patton’s and Logan’s living room, relaxing. Logan’s sister, Val, hadn’t come home yet, since she was out with some friends of hers.

To Roman, it seemed as good a time as any to get something off of his chest. As much as he hated to interrupt the calm atmosphere of the room, Roman felt that he owed an explanation to Patton and Logan. The couple had taken him in off the streets and let him stay in their home, and they hadn’t even asked for anything in return. They had a right to know why he had been homeless in the first place, and to know what kind of person they had let into their home. If Roman refused to share, he figured they would eventually start thinking he was some kind of criminal or something, which was the last thing he wanted.

He cleared his throat, interrupting the comfortable silence and drawing both Patton’s and Logan’s attention.

“Hey, guys…” Roman began nervously. “So, I’ve been thinking, and… you two have been really, so incredibly kind to me. And I’m—I’m so grateful for that. But… it really isn’t fair of me not to tell you… why I was homeless. You deserve to know. So, um, if you guys still want to know, I’m ready to tell you.”

Patton, of course, was quick to reassure him. He abandoned the coloring books and pencils he had been using and hurried to face him. “Oh, Roman, you don’t have to do that! I wasn’t trying to push you before.” He had, in fact, asked Roman this very question the previous day, but he’d quickly backed off at Roman’s hesitancy.

Now, Roman shook his head, wanting to assure him that Patton hadn’t pushed him into anything. “No—it’s okay. You guys deserve to know. Is—is now an okay time?” If it wasn’t… well, Roman wasn’t quite sure that he would be able to summon the courage again.

Patton gave in and nodded. Logan simply looked expectant, closing his book and setting it in his lap.

So, Roman took a deep breath, in and out, to ready himself. And he told them.

He told them how, in his senior year of high school, everything had been looking up. He was the star of his high school’s theater program; he was getting A’s and B’s in all of his classes (Logan looked surprised to hear this, but Roman pretended not to notice); and he had a loving boyfriend, Jay, who was so supportive of Roman and his dreams of becoming an actor. He and his boyfriend were looking into universities, planning to stay as close to each other as possible after high school. The ideal scenario was that the two of them would get to attend the same university, and then get both work together, on the stage or as television actors. Roman loved the idea of seeing himself on the big screen one day, or even (dare he say it?) on Broadway.

He told them about how he’d been accepted into the theater program at a highly sought-after university, and received a scholarship that seemed almost too good to be true. He told them about how proud his parents had been of him.

And, of course, he told them how it all went wrong.

…

It was late February, early in Roman’s final semester of high school, and Roman was getting ready for school. His boyfriend, Jay, usually drove him to class, since Roman didn’t have a car and his parents left home much earlier than he did on most days.

“Roman, mijo,” his mamá called. “Would you please check the mailbox for me?”

“Can’t you check it when you leave?” Roman asked, looking up from his laptop. It was cold outside, and his hair was still damp from his shower. He would like to hide indoors for a little while longer, thank you.

“Roman,” his dad said pointedly from the kitchen table, glancing up at him from over the rim of his coffee.

Roman sighed. “Fine, fine.” He closed his laptop and grabbed his coat, shoving his feet into his stylish black boots. He unlocked the front door and walked down the lawn towards the mailbox, his footsteps crunching on the frost-covered grass. He huddled down into the collar of his coat until he reached the end of the yard. He stepped into the street, careful not to slip on the thin layer of ice there, and opened the mailbox. The metal hinge creaked in protest, and a couple of tiny icicles broke free and fell.

Inside, a thick envelope sat on top of the stack of mail. Roman felt only mildly curious about it at first, but when he was about to grab the entire stack, he saw the characteristic logo stamped across it. It was the seal of the Saint Gabriel Academy of Fine Arts. Roman suddenly felt as frozen as the ground beneath him, staring at it. It was too soon, wasn’t it? He wasn’t expecting to hear anything back from the colleges he’d applied to for another month, at least, let alone this one. Of all the colleges he had applied to, this was the one that Roman most wanted to go to. It had a very prestigious acting program, known across the country; and, of course, it was very exclusive. Despite how selective it was, Roman had insisted on applying, just in case. He wouldn’t earn any opportunity he didn’t pursue in the first place. And it wasn’t as if he saw himself as a sub-par actor, or that other people did, either. Several people, including the head of his high school’s theater program, had actually encouraged him to apply to the school.

Admittedly, Roman wasn’t sure how many of them actually expected him to get in. He knew that even his boyfriend, as supportive as he was, had his doubts.

…

“Are you sure you want to apply there?” Roman remembered his boyfriend asking, watching as he scrolled through the university’s website. They were sharing an armchair in Jay’s house at the time, Roman practically sprawled on top of his boyfriend. It probably would have looked uncomfortable to a bystander, but Roman was perfectly content. “I mean, it’s kind of far, isn’t it? And do you really think you’d get in? They only take, like, the best actors, right?”

“What?” Roman had joked. “Are you saying I’m not the best?”

Jay laughed. “Well, of course I think you are. I just don’t want you to waste your money on the application fee if you don’t get in. And we both know I’d never get in, and I’d be heartbroken if you left me.” He gave Roman a pouty look.

“There’s nearby schools,” Roman said. “If I get in, you can go to one of those! We can see each other all the time.”

Jay pursed his lips. He was starting to look annoyed, not just worried.

“Look,” Roman said. “I really want to go to this school. Would it be so bad if we didn’t go to the same one? Besides, it’s just the application. I don’t have to accept even if they do let me in.”

Jay looked at him for a long moment. “Okay,” he sighed. “You can apply.” Then he grinned. “Just don’t come after me asking for help paying that application fee,” he joked.

Roman laughed.

…

Roman snapped back to the present as the front door opened.

“Roman?” his mamá called. “¿Qué pasa?”

He realized he had been standing in front of the mailbox for far too long. He shook his head, snatched up the pile of letters, and closed the mailbox, sending a rain of small icicles clattering down in his haste. They sparkled like shards of broken glass on the frozen earth.

“Lo siento, Mamá,” he called back. “I’m coming.”

He hurried inside after her and shut the door. He took the first, thick envelope off of the stack and gave his mamá the rest.

“Whatcha got there?” his dad asked, watching as Roman sat pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. Roman was staring at the envelope in his hand like it held the secrets of the universe.

“It’s….” Roman let him see the envelope. He could hear his mamá approaching from the other room. She gasped when she saw the logo.

“¡Ábrelo, ábrelo!” she urged.

Roman smiled, happy that she was as excited as he was.

Of course, there was voice in the back of his head, whispering that it was not a good sign at all that he’d gotten this response so soon. Saying that he’d only gotten it so early because the school had decided to deny him the second they received his application. He stubbornly ignored that voice, and he opened the envelope. If the envelope held bad news, then it would be better to get it over with.

Several papers were inside. Was that a good sign? Surely they would have only sent one if they were denying him, right? Roman held his breath as he pulled out the first page. He scanned it, his hands shaking slightly.

“Mr. Roman Prince,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted—"

Roman shrieked, jumping up so fast that his chair fell over backwards. His startled father spilled his coffee, and his mamá had to snatch the rest of the papers off the table to keep them from getting drenched. Roman didn’t even care. He spun around in a circle, reading those words over and over again.

Accepted.

He’d been accepted!

Sure, he still had to figure out how to afford the tuition; and Jay would be a bit sad that they wouldn’t be attending the same school; but Roman wouldn’t let those things bring him down at this moment. He’d just been accepted into his dream school!

He only stopped his excited bouncing and spinning when his mamá gasped.

“Mijo, look!” she cried. She had pulled out the other papers in the envelope and was reading them. “You—They are giving you a scholarship!”

Roman stopped, dizzy with giddiness (and from the spinning). “A scholarship?” he echoed. He grabbed the paper, and he almost fell over at the numbers he saw there.

“Roman,” his dad rumbled after a moment, amused, “close your mouth, you’ll start catching flies.”

“I—but I—”

Roman’s mamá pulled him into a rib-cracking hug—she was small but deceptively strong—and his dad got up and clapped him on the back, smiling. “Congratulations.”

…

Roman stood in the yard, too impatient to wait inside his house. He didn’t even notice the chill. He held the envelope in both hands as he rocked back and forth on his heels, waiting for Jay to arrive. He was so excited to tell his boyfriend the news!

His smile widened, if that were possible, as his boyfriend’s black car pulled up to the curb. One of the band logo bumper stickers on the back had come loose, flapping slightly in the wind until he came to a stop. Jay honked the horn once.

Roman hurried to the car, pausing to fix the loose bumper sticker. Jay would be upset if they drove up to the school with it like that. With that done, Roman hopped into the passenger seat.

“Jay, look,” he said before he’d even finished putting on his seatbelt. He was practically vibrating with excitement.

“I’m driving, babe,” Jay said, pulling away from the curb.

“I got in!” Roman cried, unable to wait until they got to the school. “I got in, and I even got a scholarship! I can go!”

“You got in…?” he glanced over at Roman, and seemed to realize then where Roman meant. “Oh.”

“Yeah!”

The car was silent for a few seconds.

“Jay?” Roman asked, his smile faltering.

“Yeah, babe, sorry. I’m happy for you.” He stopped a little suddenly at a stop sign, and Roman’s seatbelt bit into his shoulder as he lurched forward.

“It’s going to be great!” Roman continued, his smile returning even as a slightly uneasy feeling churned in his gut. “You can visit me, and I can come see you. We’ll see each other all the time. Besides, there’s breaks and stuff.”

“It’s far is all,” Jay said eventually. “And there’s still textbooks, and housing, and meal plans, and other supplies. Even with the scholarship, I’m just not sure you can afford it.”

“I can,” Roman insisted. “It’ll be fine. And you can come see me all the time!”

Jay frowned.

“What’s the problem, anyway? We’ve talked about this before. You said it was okay if I applied.”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actually get in!”

And there it was. A long, awkward silence fell over them. Finally, Jay pulled over and unlocked the car doors. They were still three blocks from the school.

“Look, can you get out?” Jay sighed. “You can walk from here, right? I need a minute to think.”

Roman sighed. He’d be late, but…. “Yeah, fine.” He picked up his backpack from the floor and put his papers inside while Jay waited impatiently. “I’ll see you in English?”

“Yeah.”

Roman leaned over for a kiss, but Jay seemed not to notice, reaching over to open the door for him. Trying not to feel hurt, Roman got out, and watched as Jay drove off. That bumper sticker had come partially unstuck again, and it flapped in the wind as he went.

…

Roman was late to class that day, unsurprisingly. To add to his embarrassment, his English teacher, Ms. Dawerst, was the sort who locked the door after class started. So, Roman had to knock, wait for the teacher to open the door; and only then could he go in. There would be no slinking inside, no going unnoticed by any but his very least observant peers.

Not that Roman cared all that much about perfect attendance, but the whole charade seemed a bit much to him. There were some nerds—like his nemesis, that dramaturd in the theater program who was always shooting down his ideas—who would probably melt on the spot if they found themselves in his place. Roman was mostly just annoyed. A few of the houses had not shoveled their sidewalks, and the snow had soaked through the hems of his jeans. He just wanted to sit down and get on with the school day.

He heard a couple of kids snickering as the door opened, and Roman was met with his very unimpressed-looking English teacher.

“Ah, so you have decided to join us today. I’m out of packets, so you’ll have to share.”

She stepped back, tsk-ing with disapproval as he handed over his late slip. Roman shrugged nonchalantly and entered the room. Jay was there, sitting in the back corner as usual, but the seat beside him was already taken. Roman would have to take one of the empty seats at the front of the room.

At least this way he could read the board properly, he reflected, trying to stay upbeat as he sat down. (Roman should probably have had glasses, but he didn’t want to look like a nerd. Besides, his eyes were one of his best features.)

He scooted his desk nearer to that of the girl sitting beside him, and she moved her water bottle out of the way so that he could see the packet. Class started again, talking about poetry or something, but Roman was distracted. He kept glancing back towards the corner, towards Jay, who didn’t look up once. The envelope in his backpack felt like it was burning a hole through the fabric.

…

Jay ignored all of Roman’s texts that night, which hurt terribly, but Roman tried to pretend that everything was fine. Roman didn’t tell his parents or anyone else that anything was wrong. He just kept up his usual demeanor and talked excitedly with them about his future. It wasn’t hard, to be honest. Roman was a good actor, and besides, he was excited. He’d gotten into Saint Gabriel! How could he not be excited?

Jay would come around, he was sure of it.

The next day, Roman asked his parents if one of them would be willing to drive him to school. He claimed that Jay was busy that morning and wouldn’t be able to take him.

“Of course, mijo,” his mamá said. She looked a little concerned, probably because Roman almost never went to school with anyone but Jay. She and his dad left for work well before he had to leave, so if they drove Roman to school, he’d be there awkwardly early. But Jay hadn’t answered Roman when he asked if he was going to pick him up that day, so being awkwardly early was pretty much Roman’s only option.

Technically, he supposed, he could walk, but it was far. He’d be tired well before he got there, and his outfit would be absolutely ruined. Roman shuddered at the thought of showing up to class looking anything but his best. The day before had been bad enough, and that was only three blocks.

Ten minutes later, he and his mamá were outside, scraping ice off of her car. The car engine rumbled, the heat on high to try to help melt the ice. Roman’s backpack already sat inside, on the floor by the back seat.

They finished clearing the windows, finally, and got ready to leave. Roman had just placed his hand on the passenger side door handle when a horn honked, startling him. He turned around, and there was a black car at the end of the driveway. Roman couldn’t see the back of it from his angle, but he knew it was covered with band bumper stickers.

“Oh, he came after all!” Roman’s mamá said. “Do you want to ride with him instead?”

Roman took his hand off of the handle. He cast an apologetic look at his mamá, thanked her for the offer to drive him, and then practically ran to Jay’s car.

“You came,” he gasped, grinning, as he threw open the door.

“Of course I did,” Jay said, the corner of his mouth going up in a smile. “Now get in; let’s go.”

“We’re going to be super early,” Roman pointed out, already getting in the car.

“Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure I caught you,” Jared shrugged. He gestured at Roman’s mamá’s running car to prove his point.

They drove to school, talking about normal things. They didn’t bring up Saint Gabriel, or their argument the day before. Soon, though, they pulled up in the mostly empty school parking lot, and Jay put the car in park.

Roman looked around for his backpack and realized it was still in the other car. Whoops.

“Ro?” Jay said.

“Yeah?” Roman asked, stilling.

“So… I’ve been thinking. And, um, if you really want to go to this school—if you really want to leave me—I can’t stop you. I don’t want you to, obviously, but—”

“I’m not leaving you,” Roman protested. Jay hated to be interrupted, but Roman couldn’t help it.

Jay blew air out through his nose. “Well, I mean, it’s just—like, I want to be able to see you. And, you know, we’re both going to be busy with school soon, and I’m worried that you’re going to forget about me. There’ll be lots of cute guys at that college. How do I know they’re not going to try to take you from me?”

Roman frowned, hurt by the implication that he would ever cheat on Jay.

“Maybe we should just forget it. I should have known you’d want to be single in college.” Jay sulked, looking out the window. “I mean, why else would you pick a school so far away?”

“Wait, what?” Roman cried. “No! That’s not what this is about!”

“So you’re not leaving me?”

“No!” Roman floundered. “I’m not—I—if you—” He swallowed, feeling tears building. “If you really want… I can find another school.” It wouldn’t be the same, it wouldn’t give him as many opportunities, but he didn’t want to leave Jay. Roman realized how it must seem to his boyfriend, that he’d chosen a school that was so far away, that his boyfriend wasn’t going to. Jay probably thought he was trying to get away from him. But that wasn’t true at all! He had to know that!

Jay leaned back in his driver’s seat, looking up at the ceiling of his car.

“Fine,” Jay eventually said.

“…Fine?” Roman echoed.

“You can go,” he said. “I guess it’s kind of sh*tty of me to try to stop you. Just… don’t leave me, okay?”

“I won’t,” Roman promised.

Jay leaned over and kissed him. Roman blushed. They almost never kissed near the school. It wasn’t as if they were afraid that people at their high school wouldn’t accept them as a couple—at least half the theater program was in some way not straight and cis, for example—but Jay preferred to keep their relationship low-key. Roman was sure that a lot of the other students had figured out that they were together, but a lot of them probably thought that they were just close friends. (Not to imply that there was anything inferior about friendships compared to romantic relationships, of course; Roman and Jay just happened to be close friends and boyfriends.)

Roman leaned into the kiss, smiling against Jay’s lips. He assumed that this exception to their usual rule was because there were so few people at the high school so early in the morning. The parking lot was still nearly empty. Whatever the reason, he was happy to kiss his boyfriend back.

…

For a while after that, things seemed to be going well. Better than well, in fact. Things were absolutely wonderful.

Roman had accepted his place at the Saint Gabriel Academy of Fine Arts with his boyfriend’s blessing. He was keeping up his grades, he’d scored the starring role in the last play their theater department was putting on for the year, and he was happily with Jay. Roman’s parents were so proud of him and his achievements that they bought him a new car as a reward. It wasn’t his dream car: it had no rims of gold, no windshield of diamond; but it was new, and it was his.

Roman’s future was bright, glowing with stage lights and rich with the cheers of his adoring fans.

…

Unfortunately, by the time spring came around, things had begun to change.

Jay had seemed a bit different for a while. Roman supposed that it had started back when he accepted his place at Saint Gabriel. At first, Roman thought he might have been imagining it. Then, he thought that Jay might have been stressed about their upcoming graduation, and the fact that they were going to different schools. But the situation quickly spiraled.

As Roman’s senior year progressed, his boyfriend grew more and more controlling. He began demanding to know where Roman was at random times, reading his text messages, and being around him as much as possible. Even though he claimed to be fine with Roman going to Saint Gabriel, he made a point of often saying things like “I love how I get to be around you all the time,” or “I’m so happy when I’m with you,” and lamenting how miserable he’d be when Roman was gone. Words that seemed nice on the surface, but whose implied double meaning dug into him like barbs.

To Roman, at the time, it seemed like a sudden change. Roman couldn’t fathom why Jay would start acting like that out of nowhere, but it felt very out of character. It was only later, much later, that Roman began to consider that Jay might have always been that way. That it might have simply taken the threat of Roman leaving him—even if only to attend a different school—to bring those traits out of him enough that Roman could finally see it.

At first, Roman did his best to adapt to Jay’s demands, mostly because he didn’t want to ruin their relationship with less than three months left of their senior year. He saw Jay every day, half of his classes were with him, and Jay was just as involved with theater as he was. Plus, as strained as their relationship had become, Roman still loved him.

But as time went on, Roman’s boyfriend grew more and more overbearing, until finally, Roman had had enough. He told Jay in no uncertain terms that he needed to back off. They fought, and Roman broke up with him.

One small mercy was that they broke up on a Friday, so Roman didn’t have to see him the next day at school. Regardless, the next two days were filled with a lot of rather un-princely crying. His phone, stuck in a sock and shoved under a pile of clothes in his closet, kept blowing up with text messages—from Jay, of course—that he refused to let himself read, let alone answer.

He tried to tell himself that it was for the best. “Good riddance,” he murmured to himself, curled up on his bed in the dark, hugging his beloved stuffed bunny, Mrs. Fluffybottom. “Good riddance. I deserve better than that—than that jerk.”

He was too upset to come up with a better, more hurtful nickname.

There was a knock on the door.

“¿Mijo?” a voice called, slightly muffled.

Roman debated whether or not he wanted to answer. It wasn’t as if his mamá would be fooled into thinking he wasn’t here, but maybe she would think he was asleep. He wasn’t sure he could face having company at the moment.

“I have hot chocolate,” she tempted.

Roman sniffed, rubbing at one eye. He said nothing for a moment, but his mamá didn’t leave.

“With cinnamon?” he asked, wincing internally at how rough his voice sounded.

“¡Sí, claro!” his mamá called back, as if offended that there had ever been any doubt about it. Roman almost smiled. He’d always had cinnamon in his hot chocolate what his mamá made it, ever since he was a kid. He’d tried it once out of curiosity, and now it was the only way he liked the drink.

“Five minutes?”

“Five minutes,” she agreed. “Te espero abajo, cariño.”

Roman reluctantly sat up, rubbing away tear tracts with his sleeve. He dragged himself out of bed and padded down the hall to the bathroom, where he splashed cool water on his face, brushed his hair, and used a bit of makeup to hide some of the redness around his eyes. Five minutes later, he went to meet his mamá downstairs.

He expected to find her in the kitchen, and was surprised to instead see her sitting in the living room, a mug of hot chocolate held in her hands. Another mug sat on the coffee table. She patted the sofa cushion beside her.

Roman slunk into the room, rubbing his arm, and sat down next his mamá. He picked up his hot chocolate, welcoming the warm smell of cinnamon and chocolate wafting up from the ceramic mug, and took a sip. The drink was still hot, but not too hot to drink. Roman would happily take a delicious chocolate drink as an excuse not to talk, even if it had lured him from his sanctuary in the first place. His mamá knew that he had broken up with Jay—it was hard to hide, what with how upset he was—but she didn’t know the details.

His mamá took a sip of her own hot chocolate, then turned to Roman. Despite her hot chocolate mustache, he couldn’t help but look down towards the floor as if expecting to be scolded.

“Roman, you can talk to me,” she said. “I want to help. I know you and Jared—”

“Jay,” Roman corrected. He preferred to be called Jay. Roman wasn’t sure why that still mattered to him, but it did.

“I know you and Jay were very close. I’m sorry that it didn’t work out.”

Roman gripped his hot chocolate tighter, swallowing against the lump in his throat.

“If there is anything that I can do—?”

“Can we just sit?” Roman asked. “Just… sit here?”

“Of course, mijo,” she said. “Whatever you need.”

They sat together in the dark, drinking their cinnamon hot chocolate in a companionable silence.

“Where’s dad?” Roman asked after a while.

“He’s in bed already,” his mamá answered. “He has work early tomorrow.”

Roman nodded.

“I can take you to school tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Mamá,” Roman said.

They fell silent again after that, and they stayed in the living room well after they had both finished their hot chocolate, until finally Roman’s mamá decided that it was time for bed.

…

Roman was nervous for his return to school on Monday. So nervous, in fact, that he skipped English class. He wanted to avoid having to see Jay. He could get the notes from one of his friends, he told himself. He didn’t want to be around in case Jay decided to make a scene, or for the sheer awkwardness and pain of the situation. He was conveniently absent that day whenever Jay would be around, in fact.

Finally, at theater practice, Roman couldn’t avoid Jay any longer. He was playing the lead in the play. He couldn’t skip.

Jay was, of course, at the practice. He played a more minor character, but they had several scenes together. To Roman’s surprise, Jay almost completely ignored him. An outsider might have thought that nothing was wrong, and that they were simply cast mates working on a production together. Of course, the rest of the theater department knew better than that, and Roman got a lot of strange looks.

The only one who seemed completely oblivious was Roman’s nemesis, Logan. He was probably just happy that Roman wasn’t trying to take any creative licenses that day. They didn’t get into a single argument, which was not so much unusual as practically unheard of for them.

…

Jay more or less ignored Roman for a solid week after their breakup. By then, Roman had started trying to move past it. He started to focus more on getting ready for college, and told himself that maybe he could even find himself a new boyfriend on campus once he was settled in. Preferably not a fellow actor, if only to save himself from potential pain and awkwardness in the future. Having to see Jay so often after they had broken up, having to act like everything was fine, was a struggle.

Time passed, and the weekend when they’d perform their play was rapidly approaching. In addition to his excitement about his upcoming final high school performance, Roman was relieved. He’d be done with theater for the year, and it would be one less time of the day when he’d have to be near Jay. Even as the pressure to finish preparing the show grew, Roman found himself growing more at ease at the thought that his torture would soon be over.

So, naturally, the week before the performance, everything came crashing down.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #sanders sides fan fiction #ts fanfic #second chances fic #ts sides #ts roman #ts logan #ts patton #logicality

76 notes · View notes

serenlyss · 5 years

Text

For the Sake of a Smile Chapter 6

Rating: G Relationships: terumob, teru&tome Chapter Summary: "Feeding people is a way of loving them, in the same way that feeding ourselves is a way of honoring our own creativeness and fragility." — Shauna Niequist Crossposted to AO3: Chapter 6

Chapter 5 // Chapter 7

---

“I wonder how he got into the special class in the first place.”

Teru glances over his shoulder from where he’s sitting at his desk, chatting idly with Shigeo before the start of class. He’d been listening to a story about someone from his after-school club, but it isn’t hard to place the voices and, by extension, to determine what and who they’re talking about.

Shigeo’s voice trails off, ending on a note of curiosity. “Is something wrong?” he asks, leaning his arms on the edge of Teru’s desk and attempting to follow his line of sight.

“He seems awfully friendly with Kageyama. I bet he used his connections to force his way in, just like Kageyama did.”

“I bet he’s just as untalented as him, too. I wonder what he put on his application to get in?”

Teru tears his eyes away from the group of gossiping teenagers and looks back to Shigeo, mustering up a well-practiced smile. “It’s nothing,” he assures, “I just got distracted for a moment. What were you saying?” He wonders if his classmates know he can hear them just fine from across the mostly-quiet classroom, or if they’re speaking loudly on purpose just to get on his nerves. Either way, it’s working.

Shigeo frowns, his gaze flicking to the group across the room before looking back to Teru. “Sorry about them, they’re always like that,” he murmurs, even though he has no part in it and Teru has never seen Shigeo so much as approach them. “They’re always so suspicious of new students, and they’re not very forgiving, either. I’ve been in the same class as them since elementary school, and they still haven’t really accepted me. Most of the time, they just pretend I don’t exist.” He shrugs his shoulders, glancing down at his notebook.

Teru raises a brow at him. “Really? That’s an awfully long time to hold a grudge based on nothing,” he grumbles disapprovingly. “I would have thought that most high school students would have gotten past all the petty assumptions by the time they graduated middle school, but I guess some people never grow up.”

Shigeo shrugs his shoulders. “I’m not so sure about that. Sometimes it’s hard to know why people do things, but there’s always a reason, don’t you think?” he replies with a little smile, leaning his head forward to rest it in the palm of his hand. “They probably seem childish now, but everyone has room to grow. They just need a little more time to figure things out, I think.”

Teru’s tempted to deny such sentiments right away, but he finds himself unable to say anything when faced with Shigeo’s unabashed honesty. He states his case plainly and with a tone akin to fondness, and Teru finds that there’s nothing he wants to argue about. “Huh, I guess you’re right,” he concedes, but it doesn’t stop the little splinter of homesickness that worms its way into his heart, the longing to go back to somewhere he’s accepted by everyone.

---

“... and that’s about it. I’m homeroom teacher walked in pretty soon after that, and I didn’t hear anything else from them for the rest of the day,” Teru says into his phone. Snowflakes swirl around his head and fall at his feet, only to be flattened beneath his thick snow boots as he walks back to his dorm room. Each word comes out of his mouth in a puff of fog, which hangs in the air for just a moment before dissipating out of sight. He reaches up with one mittened hand to adjust the scarf around his neck, tugging it tighter around his chilled neck.

“Talk about uptight! I bet they’ve never experienced a hard time in their lives. Maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to gossip if they got a taste of their own medicine.” Tome’s voice comes across the line crackly and somewhat distorted, and in the background, Teru can hear the telltale sounds of children playing in the winter’s first snow as Tome watches over them. Their screams are almost loud enough to drown out Tome’s voice entirely, but rather than feeling annoyed at their loudness, Teru feels a pang of loneliness that he isn’t around to experience the first snow with them. “Want me to come beat them up for you? I’ll get an express train,” Tome threatens.

Just like that, the loneliness is pushed to the back of his mind, and he has to stifle a snort of amusement at her overly-serious tone. “Absolutely not, I’d never give you the chance to embarrass me like that,” he teases, but it’s hard to keep the fondness out of his tone at the thought of her sticking up for him, just like when the other kids would try to tease him when he was just a child. “I’ll probably just leave it be. None of the other students seem to pay them much mind, and it’s not like they have a leg to stand on with their arguments, anyway. They just need to grow up a little more.” He tugs on the edge of his hat, drawing it down over the pink tips of his ears before the cold wind can get to them.

On the other side of the line, Tome laughs, loud and boisterous. “That’s the spirit! Don’t let those elitist brats get to you. You’re gonna be--Hey! Get down from there, it’s icy!” Tome cuts herself off suddenly, her voice coming across more distant as she scolds what Teru assumes to be the younger kids getting a little too adventurous. “Don’t make me come over there, you monkeys! Uh, Teru? I’m really sorry, but I gotta go, the kids are trying to climb the trees. Call me again soon, okay?”

“Okay--” Teru starts, but before he can even say goodbye, the line goes dead. He pauses in his walking, looking down at his phone’s blank screen for a moment. His own reflection stares back at him, eyes filled with disappointment and a petty sense of annoyance that Tome had dared to hang up on him, and after a moment, he sighs and slips his phone into the pocket of his winter coat. He tugs his scarf up over his mouth and nose, feeling the loneliness easily streaming back now that he has no one to distract him. He glances up at the cloudy, snowy sky, gray and impenetrable. It’s the last day of classes before the winter holiday, and the snow is a reminder that Christmas is fast approaching. This winter, it feels even bleaker than before, and Teru’s experienced a lot of bleak, lonely Christmases growing up, some of them self-imposed. It’ll be the first Christmas in many years that he’s spent away from home; he’d love to go back to his hometown for the holidays, but he doesn’t make nearly enough money working for Reigen to pay for a round-trip plane ticket, not to mention baggage fees and taxi rides to the airport and back. Besides, he thinks to himself glumly, if I go home now, I might not come back.

As desperately as he’d love to see Tome and all of the other kids he’d come to consider his siblings, he has a sneaking suspicion that he’ll lose his nerve if he relaxes too much over this break. After all, even with how difficult the schoolwork is and how abrasive his classmates can be, he still has a goal to reach. Someday, somehow, he’s going to find the boy who saved his life so many years ago and give him a proper thank-you. He can’t do that if he’s bogged down by his desire to go home, to just give it all up and go back to what he knows. Besides, he’s survived the first semester, so surely the second will come easier, right?

Despite his attempt at positive thinking, his glum attitude clings to him as he takes a detour toward the gym in an attempt to get out of the oppressive cold for a few minutes. He tugs his scarf down once more as he enters the building, the sudden shift in temperature causing his nose to run just a little. He sniffs, walking down a quiet hallway that separates the two main gymnasiums; the larger of the two houses the basketball courts and bleachers, while the smaller is relegated to extra storage and small school activities. It’s late enough at night that the building is empty, or at least that’s what Teru believes, until he hears the telltale sound of the dribbling of a basketball coming from behind the wide-open doors of the main gymnasium.

Teru pauses in his walking, curious, and peeks through the open door to see who could possibly be practicing this late at night. He’s expecting someone from the basketball team, coming to practice their shooting before bed, but instead he finds himself staring at Shigeo, still dressed in his uniform’s white shirt and navy slacks, his tie and jacket discarded to somewhere else in the gym. It’s so surprising that Teru does a double-take, his brain catching up with his eyes just in time to see Shigeo attempt a basket from the free-throw line. It bounces narrowly off the basket’s rim and hits the ground with an echoing thud, and Shigeo watches it roll away with slumped shoulders. Then he turns abruptly on his feet and looks up from the gym floor, catching Teru’s eye as he lingers in the doorway.

“Teru,” he exclaims, footsteps stumbling just a bit. He starts to make his way over, and Teru moves to meet him halfway, eyes lingering on the retreating basketball with curiosity. “What are you doing out here? Aren’t you going home for the holidays?” Shigeo continues, obviously surprised to see Teru still on campus.

“I could ask you the same question,” Teru says with a faint, forced smile, his previous feelings of isolation still not banished. “They’re going to close campus soon, right? You should hurry back, before the security guards come by and get angry with you for breaking curfew.” It’s already long past closing hours for the gymnasiums, and it isn’t really like Shigeo to overlook a detail like that when it’s clearly printed on the signs on every door.

Shigeo looks away, and Teru’s surprised to see a rather glum, faraway look come to his expression. It’s rare and just a little troubling to see Shigeo like this, compared to his usual small smiles or stony, expressionless default. “I guess I’m just not really ready for the holidays,” he murmurs in response, turning away from Teru and sitting down on the lowest bench of the built-in bleachers. “My family is always kind of weird around this time of the year. It’s… hard to be around them. I guess I’m just putting off the inevitable.”

Teru tilts his head, curious but hesitant to breach what could potentially be a sensitive topic for Shigeo. He lowers himself down onto the bench alongside his friend. “Weird how?” he asks eventually.

Shigeo just shrugs, still looking away. “I don’t know, exactly. It’s been like this for years, but I don’t remember what happened to make things like this. Even Ritsu…” He trails off, eyes fogging over for a brief moment as he goes still and stares out at nothing in particular. He’s only frozen for a second, but it’s enough to put the idea in Teru’s mind that something must be really wrong. Then Shigeo shakes his head and breaks the trance, turning to offer Teru a small, now-familiar smile. “It’s probably just my imagination, but I guess I’ve just been feeling kind of down about going home for the holidays.”

“Guess we’re both feeling a little sad today,” Teru chuckles, and finds himself, surprisingly, a little comforted that he’s not the only one feeling a little depressed now that the holidays are quickly approaching.

“You too?” Shigeo asks, but before he can say anything else, he’s interrupted by the sound of his stomach loudly growling.

Teru stifles a fit of giggles with his hand, the edges of his amused smile peeking out from between his fingers. “C’mon, why don’t we go over to the diner?” he suggests, standing up and holding out his hand to Shigeo.

Shigeo blinks up at Teru in surprise, though he doesn’t hesitate to take his offered hand. “Now?” he clarifies, letting Teru haul him to his feet.

Teru nods. “You probably missed dinner at home, right? I bet there’s something at the diner that we can whip up,” he urges, readjusting his bag on his shoulder while Shigeo retrieves his suit jacket and tugs on his winter coat and hat.

“I guess it’s worth a try, though Reigen and I already cleaned out the pantry and fridges for the break,” Shigeo mumbles into his scarf, which he wraps tightly around his neck as the two of them make their way down the familiar path to Sweets & Such’s front door. The lights are out and Reigen is, as expected, nowhere to be seen, but it’s easy enough to pluck the spare key from under the store’s welcome mat to let themselves in.

Shigeo flicks on the kitchen lights as Teru begins to root around the fridge and pantries to see what’s left over, but, as Shigeo had anticipated, there isn’t much left behind after the end-of-semester cleaning.

“An onion, some leftover shredded cheese, and half a loaf of stale french bread… there really isn’t anything left,” Shigeo sighs, staring down at the meager contents they’d managed to scavenge from the bare shelves.

Teru, on the other hand, is looking at the haul with bright eyes. “No, this will definitely work!” he assures with a grin, shucking off his jacket and rolling up the sleeves of his white undershirt to keep them from getting dirty. “I’ll just go french!”

“French?” Shigeo echoes, curious. Teru’s already moving around the kitchen, pulling out pots and setting them on the stove to heat while he scavenges for a few essential herbs and spices. “You can really make something with these ingredients?”

Teru meets Shigeo’s eyes across the kitchen and winks, his mind already racing with possibilities. “You can go ahead and wait for me in the parlor, okay? This won’t take long,” he assures, already cutting butter into the bottom of a small pot. I’ll use chicken stock as a base, with a little bit of salt for taste and the french bread to give it substance, he recites to himself, chopping onions and dropping them into the pot to caramelize. A little shredded cheese to top it off, and this is sure to make a really good soup.

As he goes over the recipe in his mind, he moves fluidly around the kitchen, now completely comfortable in this space that he’s come to claim for himself. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm, and the familiar processes that come with cooking are repetitive and soothing, drawing some of the tenseness from his shoulders and smoothing over the persistent crease in his brow.

He slides the shallow pot into the oven to toast for a few minutes, undoing his apron strings and hanging the dirty apron on its designated hook. He pauses for a moment, lets his hands linger on the apron’s edge, and frowns softly. The kitchen is too quiet. For a time, cooking here had made for a good distraction, but now all he can think about is the fact that there’s no one here but himself and Shigeo. No children hovering at the doorway in search of treats, no Sisters poking their heads in to see how he’s doing, no Tome come to steal tastes from his bowls and distract him with silly stories and dreams made up on the spot. He’d never realized before how much those little things meant to him, but now they seem so far away that they’d be impossible to obtain without giving up on his own dream.

Sighing defeatedly, he pokes his head back out into the parlor to let Shigeo know that the food is nearly ready. However, he hesitates when he sees that Shigeo has fallen fast asleep, his head resting on his arms atop one of the round tables in the middle of the room, his quiet breathing the only thing breaking the silence.

He must have been tired, Teru muses, wandering over to his table to stand at his side. He’s wearing his winter coat, but it’s still cold, even inside the diner. Just to be safe, Teru picks up Shigeo’s discarded uniform jacket and drapes it over his back and shoulders, if only to provide an extra layer to help stave off the cold.

Teru stands, quietly, at the side of the table for a few long moments, eyes downcast. Despite his desire to keep moving, to finish what he came for, he can’t help but feel like he’s not wanted or needed here, at least in the eyes of most. He has a job here, a class schedule, and friends, but even as he tries to list the good things in his head, he can’t seem to outnumber the bad. He sniffles loudly, reaching up to rub his nose as his throat tightens and he feels his eyes begin to burn. He has everything he could possibly ask for here, but he still finds himself sinking under the weight of his loneliness.

When Teru leaves the diner for the night, he leaves behind two things: the finished pot of french onion soup, and a neatly folded note containing only three words: “Thank you. Goodbye.”

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mp100 fanfic #kageyama shigeo #terumob #hanazawa teruki #kurata tome #serendipitousfics

9 notes · View notes

seouledbysisi · 5 years

Text

Moonlit

Chapter 2

Chaeyoung hurried to the mail box. Everyday she was praying that she would hear something from one of her top college choices. She figured college in Seoul probably would never happen but she had to try. At least if she didn't go it wouldn't be from lack of effort. The mail box was empty once again. Weeks had passed since Sapphire and Riley had spoken with the investor and they had the decision to expand. She couldn't let her sister leave without at least trying to get to their dream together. It sounded ludicrous of course, but Korea sounded like a good experience.

Chae ran into the house and noticed her mom at the kitchen island reading something. “Hey mom, bye mom.” She yelled and attempted to run downstairs.

“What the hell is this, Chae?” Her mom stopped her.

Chae could tell she was angry about something. It couldn't be her grades because she was acing everything and she hadn't been in any trouble so she was confused.

“What is what, mom?” She moved closer and noticed the small font reading Hongdae University.

Her mom slammed the packet onto the island. “Why, Chaeyoung? Why the hell would you think it was okay to apply to a college all the way in South Korea? Are you crazy?”

Chae sighed. “I didn't think I would actually hear back from them.”

“So you wasted a application fee for what? A joke?” Her mom was becoming even more angry. “College is not for games. You could've used that money for something else.”

The front door creaked open. Riley could hear the conversation which made her want to bolt back through the door.

“Mom, can't you just be excited at the fact that I actually got accepted?” Chae smiled big as she held the packet close to her heart.

Her mom chuckled a bit. “Why would I be excited when you're not actually going?”

Riley took a deep breath but stayed quiet.

“I am going. I have a scholarship that I can use anywhere. I got accepted to my dream college, I'm going.”

“I am your mother so as long as you live under this roof you will follow my rules and one of those rules is that you're not going to college out of the country. Especially not your first year.”

Chae's eyes began to fill with tears. “Why are you doing this to me, mom? It's not like i'm going there alone. Riley and Sapphire will be there too.”

“You had something to do with this, didn't you?” Their mom looked towards Riley.

Riley stared at the ground for a moment. “I knew she had applied but I didn't coach her to do it.”

“So you didn't coach her against it either did you?”

“Mom, she's about to be 18. You have to let her spread her wings and fly. Who am I to tell her not to follow any dream she has? She's not hurting anyone.”

Her mom's eyes welled with tears. “Why are y'all both leaving me?”

“Mom, we're not leaving you. We're just trying to live our lives. I'll visit as much as possible and we have phones for a reason but don't make her throw this amazing opportunity away. Please!”

Chae grabbed her mom's hands. “Please ma. I really want to go.”

Their mom snatched her hands away. “I've made my decision. You're not going. Riley, I can't stop you but I won't let you take my baby girl and that's the end of it.”

Riley shook her head and mouthed sorry to her little sister.

“I love you for life but I'm going to Hongdae University whether you agree with it or not and that's real. You can't stay mad at me forever.” Chaeyoung spoke honestly.

Her mom simply shook her head and grabbed her keys and left for work.

Riley sighed loudly. “Did you really have to say all of that?”

“Well it's better that she knows now, instead of me just packing and hopping on a plane in a month. I have to get situated there during the summer before fall classes start.” Chae shrugged.

“I know but she's really upset with us.”

Chae patted her back. “She'll get over it especially when she comes to visit and sees the reason why we want to be there so bad.”

“If she ever does visit. She's super mad, sis!” Riley took a deep breath.

A month had passed and the deal with the club promoters had been finalized.

Sapphire and Riley were at the airport getting ready to depart for Seoul.

Chaeyoung's eyes began to well up. “I'm going to miss you. Both of you.”

Sapphire and Riley pulled her into a huge hug. “You'll see us soon!” They both guaranteed.

Riley and Chaeyoung's mom shook her head. “Yeah when y'all come back.” She intervened.

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes a bit. “That's what you think.” She said under her breath with a sly grin.

Riley hugged her sister once more. “Everything will work out, no matter what. Trust me.” She kissed her forehead.

Sapphire squeezed Chaeyoung's hand a bit. “Stop crying, Chae.” She nudged her chin with her knuckle. “We'll see you in Seoul.” She whispered.

Riley embraced her mom. “Please just think it over about Chae. This has been her dream forever, don't make her miss out on it because of your fears. Plus me and Sapphire will be with her every step of the way.”

“Have a safe flight!” Their mom disregarded Riley's last words.

Riley simply sighed and nodded her head as she watched her mother and Chaeyoung walk away.

After a few days of endless unpacking and business meetings they finally had gotten settled in their new apartment in Seoul. It almost felt like home.

A knock sounded off of the door to their apartment.

“You expecting anyone?” Sapphire asked.

Riley gave her a peculiar look. “I've been here just as long as you have, how would I know anyone?”

Sapphire shrugged and headed for the door. She looked through the peep hole and saw their dark haired business partner, Minho. He was a handsome man who had to be in his later 30s. He was slim and always wore business suits, but that may have been because the only time she or Riley had laid eyes on him was when there was a meeting involved. With his debonair looks it was a shame that he didn't have a wife at home, where ever that was. For all they knew he may have been gay. He never really seemed to show an interest either way, and he never mentioned his life outside of work but it seemed like work was the highlight of his life.

She swung the door open and moved to the side so that he could come inside. “What are you doing here?”

He was wearing a red, black, and grey plaid button down shirt with black casual pants to their surprise. He looked nice when he wasn't overdressed.

“I'm taking you ladies out. Get dressed!”

Riley cleared her throat. “Excuse me? This so last minute.”

“Plus, why tonight?” Sapphire asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “It's a Friday night. If you want to beat the competition you have to scope them out.”

“So you want to take us to a club?” Sapphire was a bit confused but she wasn't about to turn down a night of fun.

He nodded. “The HOTTEST club yet. That is until Moonlit in Seoul officially opens.”

“And which club is this?” Riley probed with her hands on her hip. She was all about having fun but they had literally just put away the last box of their things and her body was exhausted from all of the moving.

“Ever heard of Club Aura?” He asked as he made himself comfortable on their couch.

Riley's eyes bulged. “I think I saw a billboard somewhere around here with that name on it. Is it that hot?”

“Get dressed! VIP waits for no one.” He snapped his fingers.

Sapphire's breath got caught in her throat. “We have VIP?”

He nodded and waved them away. They both went to their separate rooms to find something to wear.

About an hour later they emerged from their rightful rooms and Minho was literally shook at how beautiful they looked.

Sapphire

Riley

“Y'all went from sweatpants slouch couture to Goddesses.” Minho exclaimed as he stood up and grabbed his phone. “Pose like the models everyone will think you are tonight.”

They struck poses together and left the apartment to head to the club.

When they finally made their way through the crowd they were escorted by some of the club staff to the VIP section which was huge and their were multiple private areas which were already filled. Minho nodded to a group of guys.

“Y'all performing tonight?” He asked the men.

Sapphire and Riley barely paid attention to the interaction. They were more intrigued by the aesthetic of the club itself and how alive it was. There wasn't a dry spot in the building, kind of reminded them of how their club was back home but it was refreshing to be on the other side of things this time.

The guy shook Minho's hand and pulled him into a quick hug. “Nah not tonight, we just coolin'. Two dates tonight?”

Minho chuckled a bit. “No it's not like that. We're business partners. They just moved here for a while so I'm welcoming them.”

Riley tuned into the conversation.

“Hey, ladies!” The guy approached closer to them. “You look like my next girlfriend.” He added.

Sapphire giggled. “You must have us mistaken for desperate broads. Nice to meet you though.”

“Chill Loopy.” Minho shook his head with a small laugh. “He's joking I swear.”

Riley stared at this Loopy character for a bit. “You know they say when guys joke all the time they're trying to distract you from the area that they're lacking in.” She winked at him and walked away.

Loopy's smile faded quickly. “She ain't have to hit me like that, strangely I like it.”

Sapphire shook her head and walked to their reserved area as Minho finished his conversation with the guy.

Sapphire bobbed her head to the music as she crossed her leg over the other. She examined the activity of the club and the surroundings.

“Is it just me or has that guy with the tats on his arms been watching you since we got up here?” Riley asked as she discreetly kept her eyes his direction.

Sapphire looked around to see what Riley was going on about. The guy sure enough was staring but he could've been staring at anyone, it was more than just them in the VIP. “Girl, he’s probably looking at those girls shaking their non existent asses over there.” Saph laughed out loud.

“If you say so.” Riley knew better. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Sapphire since Minho's interaction with them started.

Minho sat between them on the couch. “So those guys are rappers, pretty well known and I may have secured you an opening night performer.”

“They any good?” Riley asked honestly. “We need opening night to be the absolute bomb!”

Minho pulled his phone out and showed them a few performances of the crew. “Are they good?”

Sapphire nodded. “Pretty dope. But we need someone for Friday and Saturday so we can sell out both nights.”

“We still have time to find others too, but anyways they're signed to a label called MKIT Rain but they're all solo artists.”

Sapphire and Riley nodded.

“Whose the guy that can't keep his eyes off this one?” Riley asked out of the blue.

Minho looked over to see who she was referring to. “Oh, that's Bad boy loo or in short form just BLOO. He's originally from L.A. I'm surprised you don't know him. His music has a really chill vibe to it. He doesn't talk very much in fact I've never had a real conversation with him that I can recall.”

“Ooh dark and mysterious. You like that don't you, Saph?” Riley messed around.

Sapphire took a sip of her mixed drink. “Seems to me like you like it more than me since you keep talking about him.”

“I'm kidding, I'm sorry. He is cute though.”

“Is he? I hadn't noticed.” Sapphire backfired.

Minho interrupted quickly. “So, do you like the club?”

“I can see why there's so many people here.” Sapphire answered as she walked to the railing and watched the men and women bouncing and jumping to the music.

There was a hip hop artist onstage and the crowd seemed to be very into it. There was no doubt that she had a sick flow even if they couldn't understand half of what she was saying. They had been studying Korean for a while but her flow was really fast so they could only catch bits and pieces of the lyrics.

“Is she really popular?” Riley asked as her toe began to tap against the cream colored flooring.

Minho shrugged. “I've never heard her before tonight but the crowd doesn't seem to mind that she's new.”

Sapphire noticed the Bloo guy light a cigarette from her peripheral which he held between his front teeth.

“I think I'm going to go down there. Wanna come?” She asked.

Minho stood as well. “You're not going alone. I'd feel bad if anything happened to the both of you on my watch.”

Riley grabbed her hand as they walked past Loopy and his crew.

“Leaving so soon?” Loopy begged for their attention.

“We're checking the place out, why do you care so much?” Sapphire raised her eyebrow.

Loopy sized her up from head to toe. “I can't have my eye candy leaving without telling me goodbye.”

“You don't give up do you?” Riley asked with a smirk on her face.

Loopy reached for her hand but Bloo caught it before he could make contact.

“They're obviously not interested like that, just cut it out man.” The smoke steadily escaped his mouth as he spoke.

Sapphire stared at him as he sat back down on the couch and pulled Loopy with him.

“Enjoy your night ladies.” He spoke again and then there was silence.

The ladies descended down the steps to the main floor with Minho in tow behind them.

“It's a miracle, seems like you got Mr. dark and mysterious to talk after all.” Minho added.

#fanfic #stories #short story #bloo #daniel kim #loopy #k hiphop #mkit rain #soft hours #night club #seoul #vegas #aura #aomg #ph-1 #h1ghrmusic #haon #sik-k

7 notes · View notes

cryptocoinguides · 3 years

Text

VeChain (VET): 5 Things You NEED TO KNOW

Hey, how’s your going? My name’s Josh Burns and welcome to Josh Burns Tech. The best cryptocurrencies to invest in that will make you rich long-term, are the ones that will be the most used and solve the most global issues, and one of the absolute best cryptocurrencies fitting that description perfectly is VeChain, it’s one of the earliest blockchain technology companies in the world, with offices in China, Europe, US, Singapore, and Japan as well.

Unlike a lot of cryptocurrencies, VeChain’s utilization has been proven in the real world, and is a front runner in cryptocurrency adoption as well, in my opinion, VeChain is a cryptocurrency that you definitely need in your portfolio.

So in this content, we’re gonna cover five things that you need to know about VeChain, also, if you appreciate all the hours that I pour into creating cryptocurrency content for you, then you can easily support the channel by hitting the like button, and also subscribing as well, either way, I really hope that you enjoyed this content and learn why I believe VeChain is one of the best cryptocurrency investments for years to come. The first thing you need to know about VeChain is who is the founder.

VeChain was founded in 2015 by Sunny Lu, the former CIO of Louis Vuitton China, who held various other IT leadership positions at well-known companies, such as Bacardi and 3M. As the CIO or chief information officer, Sunny Lu served as the bridge between technology and the business, he also learned a lot about large-scale enterprise needs, and how to solve them with technology solutions.

According to Sunny Lu, he actually submitted a proposal to Louis Vuitton in 2012, regarding accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, now, unfortunately, this was rejected, it would have worked out very well in the long term. However, his experience in bridging the business with technology, is exactly what he now brings to VeChain.

So when Lu first got into cryptocurrency, most people at that time were so immersed in the tech, they weren’t really thinking about how to provide value to the business, because of his CIO role and other professional experiences, he understands that technology needs to serve and also provide value to the business, you can have amazing cutting edge blockchain tech, but if it doesn’t provide business value or have a real use case, then in success will be limited, and completely built on hype and speculation.

Sunny Lu brings a competitive advantage to VeChain, by instilling the process of first identifying a use case, then a product, then the technology, the use case should drive the product, and the product should drive the technology, not the other way around. – The future of the blockchain is blockchain needs to prove the business value, if we just talk about trading or cryptocurrency trading without any valuation, then, no future, so, the blockchain needs to prove its business value to go for the next stage.

– This strategic focus and positioning are why VeChain is often referred to as the Amazon web services of the public blockchain, and while VeChain is paving the way for cryptocurrency adoption as well. The second thing you need to know VeChain is what’s VeChain’s mission, what are they trying to accomplish?

VeChain originally started as a revolutionary disruptor to traditional supply chain models, which is an industry that seemed very little change or improvements in decades, however, in recent years, VeChain has evolved into so much more than just a blockchain solution for the supply chain.

As I mentioned earlier, VeChain is arguably becoming the Amazon web services equivalent for blockchain technology, okay. So VeChain’s mission is to enable business owners, enterprises, governments, or any individual to move their business activities to blockchain effortlessly, similar to opening an online store in Amazon with just a few clicks and no technical knowledge required.

VeChain has a three-phase approach to achieve mass public adoption as the world’s premier choice of blockchain, which includes technical consensus, business consensus, and governance consensus. I personally love that VeChain is enterprise-focused in building solutions that solve real problems, there are so many cryptocurrencies in the world today, built on hype and speculation that don’t have any real business value, do you think a lot of those cryptocurrencies are still gonna be around and successful 10 years from now?

The truth is, a lot of them won’t be, or they’ll be replaced by platforms that have real use cases. VeChain also did something that no one really did before, before they launched their main net or even went to the design, Sunny Lu and other members of the team, talked to around 40 different executives at Fortune 500 Companies, they asked the same questions over and over again, how do you want to build out your blockchain application?

And what hurdles or roadblocks could you encounter if you wanted to migrate your business to a public blockchain? VeChain’s mission and focus on mass adoption is a massive competitive advantage, which I believe will help VeChain continue to rise in market cap rankings and be a top cryptocurrency in years to come.

The third thing that you need to know about VeChain, is why the supply chain needs VeChain. The global supply chain is still feeling the ripple effects of the global pandemic with shortages of shipping containers and air freight capacity, along with materials like semiconductors and plastics as well.

There are also numerous supply chain issues that have been around for years, such as tampering, counterfeiting, and poor quality, the pandemic highlighted many of the failings of the current highly inefficient traceability systems that we depend on globally. Large enterprises collectively pay billions of dollars per year for supply chain solutions that don’t get the job done, and are stuck on traditional supply chain models.

If you want another example of why the supply chain needs VeChain, just take a look at the building material shortage and the dramatic growth in housing prices this year, lumbers record high prices day back to the start of the pandemic, and come from a combination of a supply chain under a huge amount of stress, and a massive jump in demand as well.

Blockchain technology is one of the best solutions to many global supply chain issues, and VeChain is the best platform that can solve these issues. VeChain is designed to mitigate challenges that many businesses frequently face in their supply chain process, by improving their efficiency, traceability, and also transparency of supply chains.

VeChain created the ToolChain system, which helps deliver to and validate data on the blockchain, enabling businesses to stream on supply chain and product management processes. By using RFID tags and sensors, VeChain is able to accurately track the entire supply chain process, and record data onto the VeChain through a blockchain, work can not be altered or manipulated.

VeChain is also in the top 10 global companies for blockchain-related patents as well, most of these patents protect their toolchain innovations, which is the main reason why I personally believe that VeChain won’t have much competition in the supply chain space when it comes to blockchain technology. Now there are so many use cases for ToolChain, so to keep it simple for you, the main thing for you to remember is that it can be used to track and authenticate products in numerous industries, while also reducing counterfeiting in the process.

Now, before we dive into the impressive technical aspects and discuss why large enterprises are using VeChain, you’re probably wondering where can you buy VeChain? One of the best places where you can buy the VeChain VET token, just so happens to be the sponsor for today’s content, Crypto.com is by far one of the best places where you can buy, sell, track, store, and send cryptocurrencies that have over 10 million users.

The Crypto.com app offers up to 100 plus cryptocurrencies with 20 plus fiat currencies as well. You can also use Crypto Earn, which is really similar to a savings account, that allows you to stake your crypto to an interest of up to 8.5% on your crypto, and up to 14% on fiat. They also have a crypto.com visa card which is extremely popular. Can use the crypto.

com visa card at 50 plus million locations worldwide to pay with crypto without annual fees.

It comes with tons of amazing rewards like up to 8% cashback, free Spotify, free Netflix, and free Amazon Prime, depending on the card tier. VeChain is a cryptocurrency that I personally invest inconsistently by dollar-cost averaging. Crypto.com makes it extremely simple for beginners to buy crypto, and to show you just how simple and quick this process is, I’m going to purchase 700 VeChain VET tokens right now using the crypto.com app. Okay, so here we are in the crypto.com app, I’m going to navigate to buy, select the VeChain. Okay, this default order is way over what I wanna purchase today, so I’m gonna go ahead and update this to 700, (soft music) select buy.

And one thing that I personally love about Crypto.com, is when you first sign up, they waive all debit card and credit card fees for 30 days, so, this 2.99% fee, would not apply to you for 30 days if you sign up. Okay, now I need to check this box, click continue, order summary, it’s gonna be $68 that includes the fee, go ahead and click confirm, and there we go. We just purchased 700 VeChain VET tokens using the Crypto.com app that was so quick. So go ahead and use the link down below in the description, to get $25 when you sign up using code JBT.

Thank you so much Crypto.com for sponsoring this content and supporting my channel. The fourth thing you need to know about VeChain, is what is the VeChainThor Blockchain? The VeChainThor blockchain is not a proof of work blockchains like Bitcoin, or proof of stake blockchain like Cardano, but rather uses a Proof-Of-Authority consensus model. Proof of authority is often viewed as an improvement to proof of stake since all nodes are validated and approved by a trusted central party, which is more appealing to large enterprises, it also eliminates the risk involved with having anonymous block producers.

So at a very high level, VeChain nodes can be divided into two types, authority nodes, and economic nodes. Authority nodes are used to validate all blockchain transactions, there can only be 101 authority nodes, and to become one, users must take a minimum of 25 million VET, which is only 24,999,300 more VET than I purchased earlier on Crypto.com. – Really?

– In addition, to become an authority node, users must also submit identifying information to the VeChain Foundation as well, and after acceptance, the 25 million VeChain VET must be locked up in order to remain in the authority node, this basically means that you can’t sell the 25 million VeChain VET once you’re approved, you have to hold it in order to stay in authority node.

Economic nodes do not validate blockchain transactions, but they offer stability to the ecosystem and provide benefits when compared to non-node VeChain owners. A minimum of 1 million VET is required to gain access to the smallest node, no hardware is required, all you have to do is place your VeChain VET tokens into a traceable wallet, and then use the VeChain mobile wallet to go to rewards and upgrade to a node.

In order for the VeChainThor blockchain to run as efficiently as possible, VeChain uses two native tokens, VET and VTHO. VET is used to store and transfer value, while VTHO which is known as VTHO Energy, is used for transactions on the blockchain. The two token design isolates the price volatility of the VET token from the cost of computations on the network, allowing applications on VeChain to charge stable fees since the VTHO token supply can be adjusted to maintain a stable price for transactions.

Simplified at a high level, if you want to ride data to the blockchain, then you have to pay for it using VTHOR, additionally, it’s important to know, that if you hold the VeChain VET token, then you’re considered a stakeholder, and automatically generate VTHOR, which is really easy passive income, and similar to dividend income when you think about traditional investing. It’s so simple that all you have to do is hold your VeChain VET tokens in a supported wallet and that’s it, you will automatically receive VTHOR payments in that wallet.

As the VeChain 2.0 Whitepaper states, these solutions are not just theoretical, these are solutions that are tested and discussed with over 700 enterprises, and implemented for over 100 plus fortune level enterprises. VeChain has some of the best partnerships and collaborations in all of crypto, some of the most notable include Walmart China, DNV GL or DNV, PWC, H&M, BMW, Bayer China, and now even Salesforce.

VeChain has been enabling Walmart China’s traceability strategy for products, as well as pioneering the large-scale application of a blockchain traceability system. By scanning products, customers can acquire detailed information about the source of the scanned products, the geographical location received by Walmart, the product inspection report, and many other data points as well.

One of the biggest problems in the contemporary business world is data sharing between stakeholders, it’s basically impossible for a business to verify the quality and integrity of data of a third party without extensive time and cost requirements. One of the recent major partnership announcements is Salesforce, which has been named the number one CRM provider for seven consecutive years.

CRM stands for customer relationship management and is a technology that helps companies keep track of everything about their customers, and potential customers as well. The Salesforce director of strategy and architecture recently tested enterprise adoption ideas on VeChainThor and successfully connected VeChain ToolChain with Salesforce.

He stated that the driving decision in choosing VeChain, was a simplicity of integration using VeChain ToolChain, which provides a powerful and easy way for enterprises to implement blockchain use cases, this is why VeChain is the best platform for enterprise adoption, because the use case comes before the product, and the product comes before the technology.

You really need to understand that the Salesforce and VeChain partnership, and potential for software integrations, is absolutely massive for cryptocurrency adoption. VeChain continues to pave the way as the front runner for enterprises and businesses seeking to unlock new value through blockchain technology.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think VeChain will become the Amazon web services of blockchain and solve major issues in the supply chain industry? If you’ve found this video helpful and got value from it, or learn something new, then all I ask is they hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you wanna see more videos like this.

I’ve been using the Trezor for about four years now, and it’s a great hardware wallet. You can find links for the Trezor and Ledger in the description of this video as well. As always, thank you guys so much for watching, I hope to see you in the next one. (air whooshing) On this end screen, I recommend checking out these contents and be sure to hit that round subscribe button for weekly tech content, and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss anything.