#i am beyond overjoyed to have the chance to experience it again

[asgardian--angels]

LISTEN TO THE NAKED MOLE RAP

[chaoticbuggybitchboy]

SPOILERS FOR GOOD OMENS S2

am I the only one here who is seeing falling as a trauma allegory?? (more explanation with spoilers after the break)

(very long post)

In the first episode we see Crowley as an angel with aziraphale. He’s happy, he’s creating, he’s beyond overjoyed. We’ve literally never seen him that happy before. after that? We see him amused, we see him Not Unhappy, we see him around people he loves. But the only time we see him absolutely grinning with pure joy, he is an angel. It’s an angelic joy.

then he’s asking questions. And we know that’s why he Fell. I don’t remember right now whether it’s canon that falling is itself incredibly painful but it’s generally agreed so I’m adding that too. So Crowley is cast out of Heaven for asking questions. For not following blindly.

Crowley is betrayed and stripped of his status and he Falls. All of that combined with the pure physical agony of falling makes it an incredibly traumatic experience.

Aziraphale doesn’t have that experience. Sure, he might know what is involved in Falling, but he’s never personally experienced that. He lacks the experience to truly empathize with Crowleys experience with Heaven as an institution.

so why is this relevant???

Aziraphale offers Crowley the chance to rejoin Heaven as an angel. He doesn’t realize what that means to someone like Crowley. He is effectively asking Crowley to return to something that is well and truly gone. Because of Crowleys experiences as a demon he’s unwilling to work for Heaven again. They screwed him over, they’re the ones responsible for his trauma. Aziraphale doesn’t realize that this is what he’s asking of Crowley, that this is the offer Crowley is hearing from him.

as someone with pstd, this is the sort of thing I run into with non traumatized people. They misunderstand what I am really experiencing because they have no experience that they can use to empathize with. Someone who isn’t traumatized cannot understand the fundamental change that takes place when someone is traumatized.

and that sort of misunderstanding, not being able to recognize the changes trauma caused to someone you know, can really really hurt. For everyone involved.

By viewing Falling as traumatic and Crowley as a deeply traumatized individual, a lot of things make much more sense. Crowleys protectiveness (both for aziraphale and life in general), his defensiveness, the denial of feeling and happiness, the amount of miscommunication in their relationship.

Conclusion/tldr: Crowley is traumatized and this greatly affects his ability to communicate his feelings especially to the person he values most. While Aziraphale’s actions at the end of the season are deeply hurtful to Crowley, Aziraphale likely doesn’t fully understand why Crowley refused to join him, and didn’t anticipate Crowley being so deeply hurt by his actions. if I see anyone talking about how aziraphale is toxic or something I’ll fight them

[biglittleluobo]

守株待兔

大家好！

I am back again with another 成语 aka Chinese idiom or proverb! Today's story is 守株待兔 (shǒu zhū dài tù), literally "to guard a tree-stump, waiting for rabbits", with the meaning of "to wait idly for opportunities" or "rely on chance rather than take initiative". Let's get to it!

Long ago, there was a peasant who dreamed of having life easy (specifically 天上掉馅饼 (tiān shàng diào xiàn bǐng), literally "a meat pie falls from the sky" meaning "to have something fall into your lap"). One day, he worked his field to exhaustion, and leaned on his farming hoe to catch his breath. Suddenly, a wild rabbit ran in his direction! He shouted at the rabbit, scaring it immensely and causing it to run the other way. Not looking where it was going, it ran headfirst into a tree stump and promptly died. With a huge grin on his face (another idiom, 喜出望外 (xǐ chū wàng wài), meaning "to be pleased beyond one's expectations"), he picks up the rabbit and takes it home. Wanting to show off, he doesn't tell his wife how he got this rabbit, and they enjoy a tasty meal together. Daydreaming after the meal, the man imagines a life full of these days: waiting for rabbits to come to his tree stump, scaring them, then taking them home. Thrilled by this thought, the man runs back out towards his field. His wife shouts, "Hey you forgot your hoe!!" to which he responds, "What do I need that for? I'm just going out to get another rabbit!". His wife stares blankly as her husband runs into the distance. Guarding his tree stump, he gets overexcited with every rabbit that comes near, and quickly jumps up to shout at them! But none of the rabbits run into the tree stump. The man waits day after day, but never catches another one.

And there you have it! 守株待兔 as "guarding a tree stump, waiting for rabbits" meaning "to wait idly for opportunities". Did you enjoy the story? I thought this one was pretty humorous and straightforward. I'm starting to sense some trends in how the characters behave in these 成语故事...

See you next time!

Vocab list under the cut:

天上掉馅饼 (tiān shàng diào xiàn bǐng) - a meat pie falls from the sky (idiom); to have something fall into your lap

喜出望外 (xǐ chū wàng wài) - to be pleased beyond one's expectations (idiom); overjoyed at the turn of events

农夫 (nóng fū) - peasant; farmer

沉重 (chén zhòng) - heavy; hard; serious; critical

劳动 (láo dòng) - work; toil; physical labor

无力 (wú lì) - powerless; lacking strength

拄 (zhǔ) - to lean on; to prop on

锄头 (chú tou) - hoe

野兔 (yě tù) - hare

狂 (kuáng) - mad; wild; violent

奔 (bēn) - to hurry; to rush; to run quickly; to elope

精神 (jīng shen) - vigor; vitality; drive; spiritual

举 (jǔ) - to lift; to hold up; to raise

放开 (fàng kāi) - to let go; to release

嗓门 (sǎng mén) - voice; windpipe

惊 (jīng) - to startle; to be frightened; to be scared; alarm

转 (zhuǎn) - to turn; to change direction

逃 (táo) - to escape; to run away; to flee

截 (jié) - to stop; to intercept

露出 (lù chū) - to expose; to show

树桩 (shù zhuāng) - tree stump

慌 (huāng) - to get panicky; to lose one's head

及 (jí) - in time for

躲 (duǒ) - to dodge; to avoid

竟 (jìng) - unexpectedly

撞死 (zhuàng sǐ) - to knock down and kill sb with a car

炫耀 (xuàn yào) - dazzling; to show off; to flaunt

炖 (dùn) - to stew

顿 (dùn) - classifier for meals, beatings, scoldings etc: time, bout, spell, meal

尝 (cháng) - to taste; to try; to experience; already; ever; once

擦 (cā) - to wipe

全 (quán) - all; whole; entire; every; complete

费 (fèi) - to cost; to spend; fee; wasteful; expenses

功夫 (gōng fu) - skill; art; kung fu; labor; effort

辛辛苦苦 (xīn xīn kǔ kǔ) - painstakingly; with great trouble

匆匆 (cōng cōng) - hurriedly

拿起 (ná qǐ) - to pick up

捡 (jiǎn) - to pick up; to collect; to gather

苦笑 (kǔ xiào) - to force a smile; a bitter laugh

农具 (nóng jù) - farm implements; farm tools

守 (shǒu) - to guard; to defend; to keep watch

一心一意 (yī xīn yī yì) - concentrating one's thoughts and efforts; single-minded; bent on; intently

欣喜 (xīn xǐ) - happy

大喊 (dà hǎn) - to shout

[sparkedupsilver]

Fixing Vikings 6B (or atleast trying to)

Okay so me and @dottiechan have watched the Vikings season finale and were - like many people - less than overjoyed at how it went. I'm not going to delve into everything that didn't sit right, because I'm sure plenty of people have made some very valid posts already explaining that. Here, however, I am going to reveal my take on what might have been a better (??) ending for the show, drawing on conversations me and the wonderful @dottiechan have been having. A lot. Obviously, spoilers for all of s6 I think. Just a warning, it's a long one.

Not sure how much I'd change for the early episodes beyond some obvious character building stuff. More on Ingrid. More on her and Gunnhild bonding. That storyline changes so that there is no rift - Erik is not strong enough to tear them apart, not when Ingrid knows who he is and tells Gunnhild. He is either killed for his crimes or banished. Harald re emerges, stakes his claim to Kattegat. The wedding scene happens, but it's turned into him being sacrificed/killed instead. The women present as a united front, and the rest of their arc in the series is them falling the rest of the way in love, dealing with issues in Kattegat, and the birth of the child. (It looks, thankfully, nothing like Harald. If it's a son, they call him Bjorn.)

Hvitserk and Ivar actually talk more in Russia. Hvitserk about what happened during 6a with his addiction and fears, and about Thora. Ivar expresses regret, explains the power trip and madness he had spiralled into during his time as king. It's not quite forgiveness, but it's a start. His final conversation with Katya ends with him finally being able to see her for who she is - that is, not Freydis. The camera cuts away to show that Katya is played by a different actress who looks similar (her "true self", not as Ivar has idealised her). His relationship with Igor is the same. They decide to go back to Kattegat in hopes of finding where Ubbe went, and to make some kind of peace with the dead Bjorn. Gunnhild and Ingrid regard them with suspicion and distaste, but agree that they can stay for a short time to honour their status as sons of Ragnar. Hvitserk has his chat with Bjorn's burial mound (which we've never seen inside of since episode one and never will again! That bitch is properly laid to rest all comfortable this time!), and has an encounter with a god that doesn't end in sex but does reaffirm his faith and direction. Ivar has a simultaneous conversation with Bjorn on the beach of Kattegat, mirroring the one from the end of 6a. They put forward their plan to raid England to Gunnhild, who sees it both as an important piece of the Lothbrok legacy and a way of getting Hvitserk and Ivar off her back. She has control of Harald's men, after all, and sends them off with the agreement that they never come back.

Meanwhile, Ubbe makes it to Greenland. Asa does not die, but does start to get sick when they are there, shaking everyone's faith in the endeavour. Kjettil still loses it and the others flee, only this time they pause to take essentials for the boat. They still forget to take the sunstone/it gets lost early on. They have a similar experience of being lost, of losing people despite lasting longer due to having some food and water. We have lots of little scenes of Ubbe cuddling an ill Asa, with an arm around Torvi and baby Ragnar. They find land, at very long last, but it's impossible to tell where it is. It looks almost familiar though, and it isn't Othere's golden land. It's actually Ireland, and they get chased out by the Irish who are already sick to death of Northmen invasions. They decide to go back East to England for safety. That's right, we're getting an Alfred and Ubbe reunion.

It's a surprisingly happy affair - Alfred is glad to see them alive still, and Ubbe is weirdly proud of how his kingdom thrives. The East Anglia settlement still stands, and Alfred agrees to let them stay until they have all recovered and can make their way back to Kattegat, where Ubbe has decided to pay his respects to Bjorn. We also get proper introductions, with Alfred showing Ubbe his son Edward (who has... strangely bright blue eyes...), and Ubbe showing him baby Ragnar, and a slowly recovering Asa, who Alfred remembers from last time. Things get a little stilted after a while, though - Ubbe and Torvi are no longer Christian, and Alfred is more devout than ever, after having to harden against ceaseless Dane and Northman attacks. The Greenland refugees move out to East Anglia to avoid any building tension.

Unfortunately, it's right where Ivar, Hvitserk, and the army land, hoping to drum up more viking warriors. There is a very tense reunion between all three of them, with Ivar and Hvitserk trying to coax Ubbe to join them. Ubbe tries to convince them that England is not worth it, that they have something close to peace already and that they should attack the Irish instead. Either way, lots of grievances get aired.

Sigurd's death is finally brought into the light by all three brothers. Ubbe gets a chance to go off about the fact that he feels like he had to raise them all, about how everything revolved around Ivar when they were younger and they couldn't properly grieve Sigurd because of Ivar's feelings. Ivar gets to voice his own pains around growing up without the use of his legs, how he hated being pitied, how Aslaug smothered and babied him or left him alone entirely. Hvitserk talks about how torn he has always been, about how he's always followed someone around and how without one of them to guide him he doesn't feel whole. He talks about going under the ice, and Frankia, and how he has spent his whole life afraid of the next thing, so he pours it all into being a fearless warrior and relying on his brothers. It's both exhausting and bonding.

Here's a possible ending:

Ubbe caves and joins them. He's viking, it's in his blood. It would be both honouring Ragnar and surpassing him to finally take England, so they try it. The battle at Eddington happens almost the same way, with Ivar's tricks working at first. However, Alfred has the numbers and knowledge of the terrain, and eventually overwhelms them. Alfred and Ubbe meet on the battlefield. There are references and maybe even flashbacks to their time together. Ubbe hesitates. Alfred doesn't. His death does, however, fuel Hvitserk into fighting harder, despite how obvious it now is that they're losing. Ivar rushes to Hvitserk's defense, finally coming face to face with Alfred as he tries to save his brother. Alfred is injured and fended off for now, but Hvitserk is close to death, and begs Ivar to run. The last son of Ragnar retreats, regroups, and heads to Ireland, vowing revenge but knowing he'll never take it. He will, however, make a damn fine king of the Irish (if I remember correctly).

Not everyone escapes with him. Torvi, injured and desperate, tells Othere to take her children and go with Ivar, because the East Anglia settlement will no longer be safe. We don't see if he succeeds.

Flash forward so many years. Wessex, the villa. Edward is a young man now, Alfred an older, distinguished king known for his great deeds. There is another boy, about the same age. Piercing blue eyes, blond hair. Undeniably Ragnar's descendant. He wears a cross over his fine Saxon clothes, and when Alfred calls him to take a look at the old Roman papers, he calls him Athelstan.

Across the sea, we see an equally aged Ivar the Boneless, staring out from a cliffside. He has lived a surprisingly long life, and looks well for it. Beside him sits a young woman. Bright blue eyes. White blonde hair. She knows her family's name, her history. She is Asa Bjornsdottir, and she has been raised by her uncle. Now, she's getting ready to take revenge. The show ends with them sat together, overseeing her new fleet, Ivar spinning one last story.

Obviously this has it's own plot holes, and there are things that would have to still be addressed, like Othere and how Floki would make his reappearance (let's be honest, it can't end without him). It could end with another Brother's War, with Ubbe siding with Alfred, or any number of variations, but there's my attempt in broad strokes to maybe fix some of the bigger problems I had with the ending.

[more-quiverfull-sims]

Gorman Family Updates!!!

Author’s note: my husband told me today that Stetson and Ingrid look like siblings, which made me laugh since a lot of fundie couples get the same comment. Ingrid is not very familiar with diversity, and is clearly disturbed by her brother’s decision to marry Ruthie Park! Ruthie’s family is Episcopalian, and both her parents work. Ruthie is also a pretty accomplished skier, not to mention an aspiring physicist. Oh, and we can’t forget that Ruthie’s older sister, Midori, married Stetson’s only brother, Finley--and that she was pregnant at the wedding! Ingrid is still not over that, and Carolina is two now.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this blog! I finished up with finals this week, so I have some time on my hands. This has been so fun so far!

Well! Goodness knows that it has been HECTIC for our family lately. I delivered our second blessing, Josiah...and then just a few months later found out that I was pregnant with a GIRL, sweet Hope Geraldine Gorman! She is our first girl and was born just thirteen months after Josiah. She is just so PRECIOUS and loves all things pink!

Unfortunately, I had to go to the hospital during my birth with Hope. I was grieved at first, but soon realized that the Lord was using this as a chance to humble me. I mean, I had JUST turned twenty-three and already had three sweet blessings! I was filled to the brim with pride and the Lord needed to humble me! I am so grateful for the emergency c-section I endured because it brought us closer together as a family.

Despite everything, Hope was just the most PRECIOUS thing ever!!! I was able to breastfeed her right away, too! Recovering from surgery is no excuse, ladies!

Stetson and I have fallen into a great routine with our babies. We go to church with Mama and Daddy every Sunday! Oh, and Mama had her tenth baby, sweet Noah, by the way! She’s 43 now and there hasn’t been another blessing yet!

But, as for us...I’M EXPECTING!!! I CANNOT wait to welcome our FOURTH little one and our THIRD son to the family!!! Our babies are so excited, too. They just LOVE being part of a big family.

Oh, and TWO of my brothers got married recently. Thaddeus married Chelsie. Chelsie’s grandaddy is a pastor who works on the ground winning souls in San Myshuno! They shared their FIRST kiss for the altar and now they are expecting!! We are SO overjoyed that our babies will have a sweet cousin to play with. What a blessing!

Also, Nathaniel got married to Ruthie. Ruthie is only eighteen and Nathaniel is nineteen. I have to say I was astonished. Ruthie was even younger than me when she got married! But Ruthie says she wanted to get married before she heads off to college for a “distinguished” degree in physics. (Physics! I told her she would be the only girl in the department and that it was just not modest! Ruthie said there were plenty of other women and the department, and that she isn’t worried about modesty...Imagine my shock at THAT!) And Nathaniel informed us that he is going to Foxbury, too...to study a distinguished degree in biology! He says he wants to be a doctor...Lord save him. I can’t image going through so many years of education in a SECULAR place like that!!

Here is an engagement photo that my mother sent me. It looks a bit intimate for me, but I’m glad they’re happy!

You’ll notice that my SWEET sister Brenna, the musician, was a flower girl at the wedding. I was so shocked since she was so SHY when Stetson and I got married. She insisted she didn’t want to be a flower girl at all! I am SO glad she is growing out of her shyness, as it is just NOT becoming of a young lady.

At the end of the ceremony, Brenna even joked that she wanted Nathaniel and Ruthie to adopt her! She is so silly!

Well, I didn’t know what to say about all of that, so I stopped by their place and tried to give Ruthie a talk about her wifely duties, and discussed birth control with her. I reminded her that it has terrible effects on Mama and baby!!! Ruthie just laughed and told me that they are adopting a dog. Oh, my heart was so grieved for Ruthie!! And Nathaniel...he’s been in love with Ruthie since they were children. I was always confused why my father accepted the friendship, but I know his wisdom is greater than mine!

I did stop by again to talk to Ruthie more about the joys of motherhood. The poor girl showed up to the door in this tiny little skirt! She said she had too much going on with school to worry about a baby yet...and Nathaniel agreed! He told me it might be hard for me to understand Ruthie because I don’t have a lot of “life experience.” Well!! I had no idea what to say to THAT! I reminded him that I will have my fourth baby just before my twenty-fifth birthday, but he just chuckled! Well, dear reader, I will be sure to pray for him!

I will be praying for Ruthie as well, as she is apparently still attached to the skiing habit she picked up in childhood. This is what happens when young ladies aren’t drilled in modesty, my friends! And don’t worry about me saying this on the blog...Ruthie knows how I feel! She said we can be friends just the same! I just pray I can lead her to righteousness!

And yes, for those asking, Ruthie’s father is Aaron Park, the famous author. I have never read one of his books, as I heard they can be a bit...salacious for my taste. Aaron and Ivy, Ruthie’s parents, gave them a nice house in Brindleton Bay as a wedding present. Personally, I could never accept such a gift! I am happy for them, but as a woman I would want my husband to EARN a home for us! Stetson is already doing a GREAT job as a science teacher at a nearby Christian school. I am so grateful!!

Here are the latest pictures of our sweet family. We are SO beyond blessed. There are such rewards in being faithful to the Lord!

Pray for a safe home delivery for our fourth little blessing, Isaiah Stetson Gorman!!

[fanwright]

Fanwright’s Five! (... other ships besides Sokkla)

@gd2go2​  - Very late with this. Apologies.

So, I have five other ships I like as well. Some are more recent than others, some have been near and dear to me for a long time, and some might even surprise you. Here are just a few ships that like, in no particular order of importance. 

1.] Alita and Yugo - Battle Angel Alita 

This is closest I've ever come across to a cyberpunk Romeo and Juliet story. Besides the couple themselves, this manga (and OVA) solidified my love for the cyberpunk genre and showed me that one could tell story within a dystopian future that could revolve around a tragic love story. There is a reason why the recent live action adaption was made with their particular story arc in mind. Its about a cyborg girl with a mysterious past trying to find her place in a cruel world, about a hard working and desperate boy who’s just trying to find a better life beyond the slums. 

Its young love, sometimes innocent, and sometimes gritty, and ultimately tragic. Their story hit me hard and harsh lessons were learned by the main character. Alita became a more mature yet embittered girl after Yugo lost his life, but she kept on going all the same. She met other men, but Yugo, I like to think, continues to hold a special place in her cybernetic heart. Its not a story that’s going to win Oscars, but but man, did it really click with me. 

They’re very sweet with each other and on a few occasions they even address the fact about how odd their relationship is. Alita can’t actually feel his hands when they touch. Yugo even comments on the fact that their first kiss was electric. Literally. Like kissing a battery. It got me thinking about how relationships with a few physical hiccups can be possible, but also that they can be overcome in unique ways. As you can probably tell, the little moments between them really resonated with me. Its just very sweet.

2.] Dio and Luciola - Last Exile

Yes, those are two guys. And yes, that would make this a gay ship. In fact its probably only one of two that I ship seriously, the other being Korra with Asami. Surprised? So was I. So let me me explain. 

These two have a very interesting relationship. They’re technically childhood friends, but they first met as master and servant. The blonde guy, Luciola, is a servant to the white haired guy, Dio Eraclea. He’s essentially like a one-man retinue for Dio. And Dio is a kind of prince from a mysterious faction called “The Guild” who have a monopoly on technology in the world of Last Exile. Since they were young Dio and Lucciola were inseparable. There are strong hints that their relationship goes beyond being just close friends and its actually very touching to learn in its own way. Dio is very carefree, a bit childish and spoiled, and also sort of enigmatic. Luciola is very quiet, sober, and expressionless, often the voice of calm and reason for Dio. 

They have a weird charm that really resonated with me, being both oddly funny yet extremely loyal to each other. They actually got me to thinking that its okay to ship gay ships like this, even if I myself am not gay. If I have no qualms about lesbian ships why should I have qualms about gay ships that I happen to like? Its a learning experience. It is what it is. Same-sex fictional ships don’t really resonate with me, but this one did.

... also Luciola died trying to protect Dio. That kinda sucked. This would be the second ship to have someone die in it. 

3.] Jack and Ashi - Samurai Jack

When Samurai Jack was announced to be making a comeback for a final season, I was overjoyed. I had never thought in a million years that the show would ever make a comeback after it was dropped. It was last hurrah for a solid show and I was totally on board with seeing how it would end.

It did not disappoint me. Not one single bit. And if anything reignited my love for this show all over again. Even more so, it actually had a coherent story to follow and really did pull at my emotional stings in some places. Jack finally got to go back home and defeat Aku and he had some help along the way, from one of Aku’s daughters even - Ashi. Yes, Ashi actually a daughter of Aku and its just as disturbing to imagine as you might think. 

Jack and Ashi’s journey could be said to be one of the emotional driving forces of this final season. They started off as true enemies, with Jack actually having to kill Ashi’s sisters. She was honestly spared almost by chance. And the deaths actually weighed on Jack a lot, with Ashi bearing witness to an internal struggle that nearly concluded in Jack ending his own life. It was only narrowly avoided with the help of Ashi. It was honestly such an emotional roller coaster ride to see. and the payoff with them getting together and getting married was so good, along with Jack finally going back home after all the harrowing adventures he went through. It was great!

... but then Ashi died because of some time travel mumbo-jumbo shit and that made Jack really sad. I’m still salty about it. I’m starting to see a theme with the ships I like so far lol.

4.] McCree and Asche - Overwatch

Cowboy and Cowgirl. I just... I just really dig it. Its an awesome aesthetic. They sweat bullets and bleed whiskey and they’re like a futuristic Spaghetti Western couple with a bit of history together. I just really like that and I dig it.

I have no in-depth reason for liking this ship. I just do and I love it. Heheheh.

5.]  Jaune and Pyrrha - RWBY

This one is a recent ship that really captured my interest as I rewatch the show. RWBY has been a show I’ve been able to follow only very erratically, but from what I’ve seen so far its been a very solid show for me. And I also like the personalties of these two a lot, as well as how they play off each other and how the develop a relationship. Pyrrha takes inspiration from Achilles, while Jaune takes inspiration from Joan of Arc. I’m still trying to get to know them as properly rewatch the show, but I definitely like them together. Its a nice couple.

And yes, to those who already know, I know Pyrrha dies. It seems to be a running theme with the ships I like on this list unfortunately. Its not like I pick these to torture myself! I never wanted her to die anyway!

... seriously why do all these ships on my list have deaths in them! 

Anyway, there is my list of five. These aren’t my only other ships of course, I more less chose them at random. 

[starscheme]

Change My World

Chapter Six: Thank You

Spinel and Steven had settled in the tent that was set up for them. Their supplies had been brought from the lake and Spinel was sitting in this small inflatable pool that they had given them. It must have been how the other mermaids handled being on land like this.

“These are pretty convenient,” Spinel commented as she laid herself back in the shallow water.

Though Spinel seemed content, Steven couldn’t quite calm down. These people didn’t seem bad at all, but he had a sinking feeling about these Gems they spoke of. Pacing the floor of the tent, he tried to think of some way to talk Spinel out of it.

“You don’t have to worry so much. If this is something Peridot came up with, I’m sure it’s not as bad as they described it.”

“They said it’s like a big target,” Steven replied. “If that Gem happens to break, you’ll die. Doesn’t that scare you?”

Spinel sat up, her tail swishing lightly against the water. “I guess…it’s a little worrisome, but what’s the alternative? You can’t just carry me all over the place. It will make travel so much easier if I can walk too. I think it’s worth the risk.”

“…if you say so,” Steven replied with a long sigh. His main concern had been Spinel’s safety all this time. He just wanted to make sure she remained unharmed during this journey, but Lars was right, he hadn’t thought this completely through. He didn’t think about all the security they had near the shores or the ships they had out in the water to watch for Mermaids. In his small little beach village, they didn’t get much mainstream news. Spinel coming to town was the biggest thing to happen there in a long time and the only reason they used that harbor was because the ship couldn’t travel further in with the supplies they had. “…Well, they said it might take Peridot a little while to get here. …were you two close?”

Spinel flinched lightly, she only just now thought about it, but what if Peridot wasn’t happy to see her? “…Not too close. She was a part of a different tribe, but when everyone joined together for the war, that’s when I met her and Lapis.”

“If you two weren’t that close…how do you know this Gem thing of hers is really a good idea?”

“Why are you so against this?” asked Spinel. “I’m the one taking all the risk here.”

Steven’s cheeks burned lightly, “I’m just worried about you. They said the transformation into a human is pretty painful as well.”

Spinel stared up at Steven with a blank expression before she found herself stifling a laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Steven insisted, more embarrassed now than before, “I just don’t want you-“

“—No, no. I’m not laughing at you,” Spinel corrected with a smile and a wave of her hand, “it’s just, you’re the first one, human or mermaid that has shown so much loyalty so fast. I laughed because I was surprised at myself and because you’re still surprising me.” She finished with a giggle.

“…what do you mean,” asked Steven, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced away from her. Her cheerful expression only making the blush at his cheeks burn brighter.

“I believe I said it many times before, but you’re a strange one. You gave up your entire way of living for a complete stranger. You became a criminal…ensuring that you’ll never lead a normal life again…and you’re still just thinking about my safety. You’re a complete idiot…” Spinel muttered at the end.

Steven sighed and sat down beside the small pool she sat in, “You know…” he began, as if they were about to argue.

“...and I never thanked you for any of it,” continued Spinel quietly.

Surprised, Steven glanced at Spinel, who seemed rather embarrassed, hugging her tail close to her chest and averting her eyes from Steven, hoping he wouldn’t see her reddened cheeks.

“…So…even though I still think you made a stupid choice. ...I…want to thank you for making it.” Spinel finished, daring to turn her gaze towards Steven. He appeared dumbfounded by her words and said nothing in return. “I mean—it’s not much,” Spinel went on, feeling like a fool, “but I can’t offer you anything else. So—so my gratitude will have to do.”

Steven was honestly stunned to silence. He never expected Spinel to thank him so sincerely. At least, not this soon. He couldn’t help but smile, watching Spinel trying to hide her blushing face. She reminded him of a stray cat he once found. At first it would scratch and hiss at him, but it was so cute that he just couldn’t leave it alone. “Your gratitude is more than enough,” he replied finally, leaning over and wrapping his arms around Spinel’s shoulders as she continued to hug her tail. It seemed that they were finally becoming friends and Steven was overjoyed by the prospect.

Spinel was only able to make a small squeak as Steven hugged her, frozen in place over the shock of it. How long had it been since anyone hugged her so happily?

“Am I interrupting something?” asked Lars with a smirk as he stood at the entrance to their tent.

“Yes,” Steven joked while Spinel panicked and shook her head rapidly.

“Can we talk for a sec? I’d like to show you something,” continued Lars as he waved Steven over.

Though Steven let go of Spinel, he stayed in place sitting next to her. “You can’t talk to me here?” It wasn’t that he thought Lars was going to hurt Spinel. They’d done nothing but help them so far, he just didn’t really like leaving her alone.

“Go on,” Spinel insisted, eager for a chance to calm down on her own. “I’ll be fine as long as I’m in the water.”

Steven sighed a bit and got to his feet. He was still hesitant, but he didn’t want to be too overprotective. Lars smiled and led Steven from the tent, leaving a Spinel alone to watch their backs as they walked away. When she was sure they had gone, the mermaid brought both her hands to her cheeks, panicking internally as she held back the urge to scream. That was so embarrassing she didn’t know how to react properly. This human was honest, kind, and seemed completely unabashed when it came to showing affection. How was she supposed to deal with a human like that?

“You and that human seem rather close…” one of the Rutile twins commented as they stepped inside the tent, “…we wanted to ask you a few questions about him if you don’t mind…”

While Rutile was attempting to have a conversation with Spinel, Steven had followed Lars back to his tent, but while Lars said he wanted a word, he hadn’t said anything on the walk there. “So, what is that you wanted to talk about?” asked Steven finally, becoming a little impatient.

“You were pretty cut up by all those thorns in the woods before,” began Lars, “but the scratches I saw when you first got here are gone now.”

“…yeah? I’ve always been a pretty fast healer.”

“And carrying a mermaid? That’s an easy task for you? I was told you carried her all the way to the lake and I even watched you carry her to camp. A Mermaids tail is pure muscle you know. It makes them pretty heavy.”

“Did you ask me here to just state facts about me?”

“Do you know what they do at the Capital,” asked Lars, disregarding Stevens question. “They don’t capture Mermaids just to put them in a Zoo. They experiment on them.”  

Steven tensed up. People were experimenting on the Mermaids? “…how…”

“You saw one of the members of my crew, right? The Rutile twins. You may have noticed that they’re sort of joined at the hip. Well they weren’t always that way. They were just a pair of twin Mermaids that got caught before they were brought to the capital. I don’t know what the humans were trying to do, but the end result…was having the twins stuck together like that. That little Mermaid you saw? Padparadscha. She was also used as a learning tool for the humans. Her specific type of Mermaid are adapt at predicting the future. The humans were probably trying to extract that skill from her, but the experiments damaged her beyond repair. Now, the visions she sees are things that have already happened. As if she’s a few steps behind everyone in time.”

“…that’s…horrible…” Steven breathed out, unable to imagine going through something so awful. Who knows how long they were tortured at the hands of human beings.

“It is,” agreed Lars, “which is why I promised my crew they would never be caught or used by humans again.”

Steven suddenly realized where Lars was going with this and he deflated. “…I’m not gonna—“

“So here’s the thing,” Lars continued without allowing Steven to finish. “You should go back to your home. Tell the authorities that the Mermaid enchanted you or something. You’ll be questioned for a few days, but eventually they will let you go and everything will go back to normal for you. You won’t be a criminal anymore and we’ll even give you money for your trouble.”

“You guys may not trust me because I’m human, but I’m not going to leave Spinel alone,” insisted Steven.

“She won’t be alone. She’ll stay with us and her own kind. You won’t need to worry about her anymore.”

Steven thought for a moment. Would Spinel be happier that way? She did seem a lot more comfortable now that they found other Mermaids and an old friend was even on her way. “If Spinel doesn’t want me around, she can tell me that herself. Until then, I’m going to stick with her.”

Lars didn’t seem surprised by Steven’s reply; instead, he shrugged his shoulders with a sigh. “Fine, but it’s like you said, you’re a human. You’ve already seen a lot and if you keep traveling with Spinel, you’ll learn even more about the Mermaids that might potentially harm others if you suddenly decide it’s too much trouble. I don’t think you’re a bad kid, but there’s a lot at stake here. So, if you really want to keep going…I’m going to have to insist that you prove yourself.”

“Prove myself, how?”

“It’s going to sound a little extreme, but we don’t have any other way to make sure you won’t betray us,” began Lars, “it’s a spell, something like a contract. If you agree to it, there really won’t be a chance to turn back.”

Steven wasn’t sure what kind of spell this was going to be, but he was certain if he didn’t agree to it, Lars and his crew would most likely force him to leave Spinel somehow. “Fine, tell me what I have to do.”

[theteaisaddictive]

okay but you can't just tease us with a wedding meme mentioning ejts in the tags. spill :D

ask and ye shall receive my dear :D

1) Who proposes? 2) How do they propose? 3) Reaction of the one being proposed to

in the middle of the chaos post-transformation, belle probably whispers to eve that she never wants to leave her side again. 

‘i know, i know,’ eve whispers. ‘i remember. i’ll never leave you again.’

‘no, i-’ belle says. ‘i mean, i want to stay with you forever’, and she drops to one knee right there on the newly-constructed balcony, still strewn with rose petals and the rosy-fingered dawn. she holds out her left hand palm-up. ‘do you?’

eve joins her kneeling on the ground, her legs still shaking from the transformation. she takes her hand, her eyes almost shockingly large now that they’re in a human face. ‘yes. yes. yes, belle, dearest, of course.’ she leans over and they kiss.

they kiss for quite a while. 

4) How they tell the others

chip, of course, asks as soon as the general excitement levels have gone down, ‘are they gonna get married?’

the senior staff all glance at each other wondering who’s going to have to finally teach this emblem of hope for the future about homophobia, but before the silence can get more than half a step beyond natural, eve chimes in with an ‘of course we are, chip. in fact, belle asked me not twenty minutes ago and i said yes.’

while mrs potts is relieved that eve is human again and that she’s no longer cold and cruel-hearted, she notices a certain fire in eve’s eyes that came straight from her father – the stubbornness which means she’s going to get her own way come hell or high water. it used to apply to hunting, and petty matters of daily life. mrs potts is proud to see it used to marry belle. 

(marie doesn’t find out that they’re married for … a while. how long an interval it’s going to be? haven’t decided yet.)

5) Who’d they choose as ring bearer

chip, of course! who else?

6) Who’s the one that spends the most time worrying about preps for the wedding?

surprisingly, there isn’t actually a lot of time to prep for the wedding. neither of them have much of a taste for fancy celebrations and would prefer a simple ceremony, so that’s what they choose. (but yes, eve does manage to get her bee in a bonnet regardless)

7) When they go looking for their outfits

it’s less ‘looking for outfits’ and more ‘repurposing old ones’. belle would be more than happy to just wear her best blue dress, but even though eve had a transformative experience shaped by queer love, she’s adamant that belle has a new, different dress she’s never worn before for the ceremony (so belle is in basically the celebration dress from the remake, and eve is in essentially ella’s wedding dress from the 2015 film but minus the train. yes i am trash. no i refuse to apologise.)

IMAGINE THESE BLUSHING BRIDES. ALSO YOU WILL HAVE TO IMAGINE THEM AGAIN FOR ROSES AND LAVENDER BUT PRETEND FOR A MOMENT THAT LILY JAMES IS PORTRAYING A GENDER-SWAPPED BEAST HERE AND NOT CINDERELLA

8) Fusses over the other before the wedding day

they’re both very concerned about each other and it’s very sweet. they both stay up the night before the wedding in the library, keeping close together as midnight approaches. belle rubs her fingers soothingly against eve’s head and intermittently finger-combs her hair, and eve absent-mindedly runs her hand in circles over belle’s back as they talk quietly about tomorrow. 

9) Reactions to their wedding attire

ok so how i picture it is that since neither of them have people to give them away (léon and cogsworth offered their services, but both women declined), they mirror the ballroom scene so their first glimpses of each other are as they go down the stairs to the landing before descending to the ballroom proper. both of them almost stop in their tracks because of how BEAUTIFUL and RADIANT and HAPPY the other looks to be marrying HER. eve cries two tiny tears before she even reaches the landing. 

10) Who whispers the other “you look great”

belle to eve. they’re holding hands as they walk towards the servants, lefou and stanley, wait why are those two there what plot points will they be relevant to and léon

11) How are they feeling during vows

nervous as all fuck. jittery. excited. overjoyed. eve actually does start to cry during her vows. belle doesn’t, but she gets very, very close. 

12) What do their rings look like?

simple, thin gold bands. they wear them on their right hands. 

13) The kiss

the vows are exchanged. the rings placed. cogsworth looks at eve, whom he’s known and loved for the best part of a decade. ‘and now, by the power invested in me by the princess of this realm, i declared you to be married. you may now kiss the bride.’

belle smiles so wide that it hurts her cheeks, and she and eve take a step forwards at the same time. eve sweeps her into the kiss, one hand resting on her waist while the other cups belle’s neck. belle rests her own hand on the plane of eve’s back, allowing her other hand to brush eve’s shoulder as she kisses her wife. and for a moment in that kiss, it’s like their first up on the balcony – uncertain and desperately tender. eve breaks to take a breath, and belle pulls her back in for another kiss, their lips moving gently as the gathered congregation cheers. because they kissed. because they’re married. because eve is her wife.

14) What do they whisper to each other after vows?

nothing. they just look at each other. they’ve already said everything. 

15) When cutting their cake, and afterwards

the wedding breakfast is basically a garden party in the grounds with the staff and aforementioned guests. there is enough food and cake and drinks for everyone, and as the afternoon fades into the evening the mood goes from bright and joyous to quietly happy, but in that way where the amount of emotion present is the same it’s just expressed differently if that makes any kind of sense. both brides make speeches, and both begin their speech with ‘on behalf of my wife and i …’ (they had to make lumiere flip a coin bc they both wanted to go first but didn’t want to take the chance away from the other and it was halfway to becoming one of those stupid fights that in a sitcom would be the episode one cliffhanger of the wedding two-parter, but luckily lumiere was in possession of the throuple’s two brain cells that morning so he managed to de-escalate the situation.) belle went first, but the line got the obligatory cheer from the guests both times. 

16) The two dancing together

chapeau (or a Chapeau-Adjacent Character bc atm i can’t remember if i wrote him in or not) starts playing the fiddle, and the wives take their place on the ballroom floor (the reception has moved back inside by now). think home (reprise), the high note then gently glissandos down to the beginning of beauty and the beast. (can you glissando on a violin? idk. maybe it’s just a piano thing but you know what i’m trying to get across here)

they dance the steps that they first performed while eve was still a bird, and then eventually devolve into a gentle waltz. 

after the first dance, it’s country dances for all!! poor chapeau has his work cut out for him, but léon can play and stanley brought his accordion so by the end of the night everybody who has to play gets to dance to at least three songs. 

17) Who takes a picture of the other

not applicable! HOWEVER plumette takes quick sketches throughout the day, and in later years belle and eve have official portraits taken in their wedding dresses on repeat wears, so between one and the other they have plenty of memories.

18) Who lifts the other up (bridal style)

eve sweeps belle off her feet (again) (it’s something of a recurring motif for them)

19) The reaction of the person being carried

belle laughs, shrieking a little because she was caught off-guard. she presses small kisses to eve’s cheek and neck until her arms give out and she has to put belle down again. 

20) Wedding night

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

no, no, no, i’ll be genuine (and mildly explicit). they leave (eventually). chip fell asleep about an hour ago. the night is (fairly) young. they go up to the west wing together. eve can’t stop grinning. she has a wife. 

once safely in the west wing, they help each other out of the fine materials of their dresses and remove their stays, but otherwise stay pretty much fully dressed. they pile up on eve’s bed, in a similar position to how they were in the library the night before; belle is lying directly on the pillows, while eve is resting with her head on belle’s shoulder and their legs intertwined. before long, of course, they start kissing. and they clutch at each other, pressing so close they can feel their heartbeats through the layers of muscle and bone and fabric. and eve takes a very long time to roll belle’s stockings down her legs, kissing each inch as it appears. and then she kisses several other areas of her wife’s body (and belle can barely look at her as she does it, but the sight of that blonde head between her legs causes her to dig her fingers into eve’s hair, and that was a rather interesting discovery for both of them). and then belle, after a moment to catch her breath, pushes eve over to her back and pulls off her chemise. and she is just as slow as eve was, tracing her hands over eve’s body, and when she does finally push eve’s chemise away to press her lips to naked skin, the look in eve’s eyes is one she never forgets.

and then, after a long while, eve says, ‘we’re married. you’re my wife.’

‘and you’re my wife,’ belle says just as quietly. she presses a kiss to the top of eve’s forehead. 

‘i never thought this would happen,’ she says. ‘not even before the curse. i thought i would be like my mother, and that the most i could hope for was either to have a husband who would be kinder or to live as an old maid.’

belle wraps her arm around eve’s shoulders a little tighter, as if she wants to protect the girl of eighteen whom she never even met. knowing belle, eve thinks, that’s probably the case. 

‘i’m so glad i met you, eve,’ she says. ‘i never thought this kind of love could be possible. i’m beyond overjoyed that it’s with you.’

she cards her fingers through eve’s hair, the glint of her ring catching in the moonlight. a few minutes later, eve rearranges their positions, so that they’re both covered by the warm blankets and she’s pressed into belle’s back, her arms draped around her. their hands find each other under the covers, and they fall asleep peacefully on their first day of married life.

[zippdementia]

Part 74 Alignment May Vary: The Big Secret

Welcome to our ongoing blog for our long long epic long adventure! The latest scenario is that the players just completed a huge air race on a planet inspired by the elemental plane of air. Now they need to collect their prize from the criminal organization, The Whispering Wind, whom they have asked to locate a crystal for them which can power their ship and bring them ever closer to home on Toril.

For the last several days, Carrick has been having a vision, a memory, of himself as a young child. It is a reoccuring nightmare: he is exploring the woods outside his home when he falls into a cave and breaks his leg. Stuck down there he... but no, he cannot remember...

The aftermath of the race is a rush of audience adulation and a proclamation from the Genie that the races are going to be shut down and reopened as arena battles (inspired by the bloodbath in the Tornado). Knick Knack also approaches the players and raises his hands to the sky as shackles suddenly appear there and are shattered, the result of them beating him fairly (or mostly fairly) in the race.

The players are also given gold, lots of it, something like 60,000 gold pieces in total, for winning both first and third place. There is a lot of hugging from Star, who jubilantly embraces all the party members (Carrick seems awkward, Aldric likes it, Imoaza despises it).

Aldric also shares a sad moment with the elementals, whom he asks to join his crew. They tell him that when he defeated their summoner, he cut their time short. Now they must return to the air, but they thank him for allowing them to ride with him and, for a brief moment, to be the wind. As a tribute to them, he empties some of his winnings out into the open sky, watching the coins fall and turn and glitter as they catch the sunlight.

And speaking of sunlight, as he does this, sun returns to the grey skies and a bright day breaks as far as the eye can see. Carrick thinks it is because of his gesture to the air elementals, and tells him so, but Aldric suspects otherwise and, watching him closely from the crowd, Imoaza does as well.

Aldric finds Immerstal from within the crowd and shares his idea: that the rod of storms has changed in his hands, no longer forcing dark clouds upon him but now directly reflecting his mood. Immerstal invites the group back to his brothel to celebrate their win and there examines the artifact. He tells Aldric that the rod has definitely bonded to him and has changed. It has taken a piece of this planet, an elder tempest, and is carrying its power within it. It has reached its true potential and could be devastating in the wrong hands.

“You are now its guardian,” Immerstal tells him. “You may never let it fall into the hands of those who would seek to gain power or authority with this.”

It is a solemn moment, broken when Immerstal curses and starts waving his hands in the air. Magic springs from them and he holds out a pocket of his robe, where pieces of furniture go flying into it from the brothel. The place empties out before the eyes of the companions, girls being pulled away from customers (and some of the customers being pulled with them), beer being yanked out of hands and people being shoved out of the door magically until the place is empty except for Star, Immerstal, Aldric, Carrick, Alyss, Jacobs, and Imoaza.

“I’m coming with you,” Immerstal announces. “The rod is too important to let just one pair of eyes watch it. I am officially requesting to join the Green Company.”

Aldric is overjoyed to bring his friend, and a powerful wizard to boot, into the company. Alyss says she and Jacobs will return to the ship and prepare it for departure and says the rest of them should go gather their prize from the Whispering Wind.

Indeed, as they leave the now defunct brothel (”best days of my life, running that place!” Immerstal says, wiping away a tear) they are approached by a silent genasi who alerts Imoaza to her presence by blowing softly on the Yuan Ti’s ear. Imoaza’s reaction is immediate, drawing Drosselgreymer and spinning to get ready for an attack. Star intervenes and explains the use of any breath by an initiate (who is sworn to silence for a period of time) is considered a great honor and an invitation to the Whispering Wind’s palace. “We’ll be there,” she tells the Genasi, who nods and leaves.

The Prize

It’s back to the palace of The Whispering Wind to meet with Lakosa, the leader of the Whispering Wind. Here, all of the players receive a prize that befits their story--in addition to the information that the crystal is being kept by a strange old man who lives alone on an island out in the sky, running a farm of Chi Chus (we’ll explain that in a moment). Perhaps biggest of all, Lakosa pardons Star and tells her she is welcome to call this planet her home again.

Aldric and Lakosa have taken a liking to each other and the sexually charged mercenary finally meets his match in her, the two pleasuring each other for a few hours while the Rod of Storms responds to their lovemaking by creating a sky full of sunshine, light rain, and eventually beautiful rainbows.

While all this is going on, Immerstal takes Imoaza and Carrick on a tour of the city’s finest bakeries, having learned of Imoaza’s recent discovery of sugar and total lack of knowledge of baked goods. Carrick satisfies himself with a single macaroon and tags along as Immerstal and Imoaza engage on a decadent and semi-crazed sugar fueled romp through the city, becoming food-drunk on such delicacies as only magical beings can make. The journey leaves Imoaza almost literally out of her mind as she has a transcendental experience due to the sheer amount of magic infused sugar she ingests. She amazingly manages not to throw up, though! Also, they spend 13,000 gold pieces on the trip, which makes Carrick throw up. There are some special items purchased as well, most notably Ink that can convince anyone that anything written in it is real, for a short time, and with a failed save.

As they travel, Carrick finds himself preoccupied with another thought. He is thinking on Star and the Aether Craw, Cookie, which used to belong to her lover, Fesserania. Both he and Imoaza bonded with the bird during the race, but now he feels that it is only right that Star be given a chance to claim the bird.

Still, it is Aldric who ends up talking to Star first. When the group comes back together, they all listen to Carrick’s stories about Imoaza’s and Immerstal’s sugar binge...

"It was horrible,” Carrick said. “There was this one place we went, where these little pastries had sugar spun legs and they walked around, all over Immerstal’s, uh, body, while Imoaza ate them off of him. Then they started using whipped cream... I don’t... I can’t... unsee it...”

While the group keeps listening to this, Aldric realizes Star is not with them. He walks away from the group, through a beautiful garden, and out to a ledge that stretches over the sky abyss. Here Star sits, swinging her legs over the edge, her tail wrapped up next to her. Beyond her the horizon is beautiful, filled with the light of two suns and over a dozen rainbows.

Aldric takes a seat next to her and she greets him with a sad smile.

“I wonder if Fesserenia ever got a chance to just sit and look out at a beautiful day and just appreciate it. I hope when I died, I didn’t take that from her.”

“I spent my life, my whole life,” she continues, “trying to get away from this place. I thought I had to escape to be happy. And then I spent the next century trying to come back. I realized too late it wasn’t where I was that would make me happy, but rather who I was spending my life with. Wherever she was, I could have been happy there. By the time I realized it, life was over.”

“You’re staying,” Aldric says. It isn’t quite a question, but Star nods.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day. Everyone on the ship, they are trying to go home. For me, this is home. It won’t be the same without Fesserania, but I feel like being here at least keeps me close to her memory. I’d like to work with the Aether Craw more. Not for racing this time, but just to care for them. Bond with them, not to use them, but just to have that connection.”

Star looks at Aldric. “You could stay too, you know. Lakosa would let you. You could make each other happy, for a time. You could help me with the birds, or do whatever you like.”

Aldric paused, trying not to let her see how stunned and moved he was by the offer. “I can’t,” he says at last. “I have things I still have to do. I have a task that was set on me.”

“The Green Company? Someone else could build it in your stead. Captain Krisp would take it on, and he’d probably do a good job of it.”

“No. It wouldn’t feel right to give it to someone else. My journey isn’t done yet. Maybe someday it will be, maybe someday I could be happy here, but not now.”

“You sound like I did. Just be careful that someday doesn’t come too late. Don’t make the mistake I did. Don’t spend your life thinking that happiness is just around the corner and miss it standing right in front of you.”

She smiles at him again, less sad this time. “Goodbye Aldric. For what it’s worth, I would have been happy to join the Green Company.”

The Old Man and the Sky

Presently the companions gather themselves and head off into the sky onboard Percy (they leave Cookie with Star, as a going away/homecoming present). They find the island that Lakosa told them about and land on it. It is an idyllic farm, though its main inhabitants, floating yellow puff balls with legs and beaks called “Chi Chus” are utterly foreign to them.

They come to an old, well kept farm house and knock on the door. An old man answers and, after they tell him that they are looking for a crystal, he invites them in. He strikes Aldric as seeming very familiar, but he can’t place a finger on it, not until they are all sitting at a table, the old man sipping at tea, Aldric drinking a glass of delicious Chi Chu milk, and Imoaza munching on a fresh cookie. Then it strikes him.

This man looks exactly like an aged Carrick.

“You’re him,” Aldric says. “You’re the surveyor.”

It turns out it is a little more complicated than that...

Long ago, before time began, there were two forces fighting over the fabric of reality like a wife and husband over bed sheets on a wintry night. Primus, being of pure order and balance, and the Abyss, the embodiment of everything that was disorder and chaos.

The two fought endlessly. Primus created the universe so that there would be order out of the endless chaos. The Abyss breathed life into the Universe, an immeasurable ever changing mess. Primus created time and death so that life had restraints. The Abyss split the timelines and created multiple planes and universes. Primus created Devils to walk all of the universes and gather lost souls. The Abyss created desire and many Devils came to embrace the Abyss fully and became Demons, so Primus directed the remaining Devils to fight them in an endless Blood War. Even then, Chaos was always one step ahead: it spawned the drive for power. Seeking power, some of the oldest beings became gods and soon Primus was forgotten, though his creations still wandered the planes, among them the Inevitables (like the Inevitable of Justice that eventually Abenthy finds and usurps).

But he did not stop fighting Chaos. He retreated for a time, and for a time the world was thrown into chaos, with many races and planets coming into existence and many others, now forgotten, ending forever. It was during this time that the Elemental Princes of Evil emerged, and the Mindflayers, and on Faerun, the Yuan Ti ruled as the supreme beings. But Primus was not idle. He was contemplating, meditating on the nature of the universe, and in his meditations he came to realize that hidden deep within even Chaos itself was a pattern, an order. Primus then saw that the way to defeat Chaos was not from without, but from within. So he built a new being, a being who would be called the Iskth’cya (Iskaya) but who would eventually become known to other races as the Surveyor.

The Surveyor had a singular purpose. His role (though it looked roughly manlike, it was in fact genderless) was to shape the being that would eventually contain Chaos. To do this, they had the help of a powerful energy device, filled directly with a piece of Primus’  own essence in the shape of a crystal. This crystal would be the Surveyor’s tool to shape reality, but also their own lifeline. Inevitably, the Surveyor’s timeline would run out, the crystal’s power nearly spent, and then it would be up to them to build the next Surveyor, transfer all of their knowledge and discoverings into that new shell, and then expire. In death, their essence would repower the crystal, fill it again with Primus’ directive and energy, and continue the journey of discovery.

Many centuries of experimentation would pass before the Surveyors would eventually create humans. And is that so surprising? Humans are a mess of chaos: individuals pursuing their own desires and whims, and yet always on whatever planet they appear on, humans also create society, laws, and on the largest scale, move as one being towards order. Thus did Primus envision order out of Chaos.

But even here, Chaos had some reign. For the Surveyors themselves were not perfect. Nearing completion of the task, one Surveyor determined that he should be allowed to see the end result of his work. So he cheated his mission and decided not to die, keeping the primary crystal for himself and breaking off only a piece of it, pouring some of his lifeforce into it and leaving the next surveyor with an incomplete power source. The process took its toll: the cheater aged significantly, but he stayed alive, leaving his spaceship to the next Surveyor and dropping himself off on the planet of air, where he remains today with the original crystal.

The next surveyor was not privy to the full glory of Primus’ plan, denied had he been of this connection by his proginator. He came out... strange. His pursuit of the final goal was erratic, plagued with visions and prophecies and filled with a quest not for discovery but for recognition. He found a way to mimic the energy of his own shard of crystal and put this energy into other vessels. These he placed around various planets, mostly to force life to spark into existence. But some of them had other purposes. He was constantly trying to “have children” and spawn more of himself, but the experiment never worked.

In his efforts, he captured a dark spawn of Cthulu in a Jade crystal, a crystal that would end up becoming split into many pieces over the course of history, one of them being made into a Jade Statue which would cause no end of trouble for a group of adventurers. In the course of his work he did manage to create humanity, but when he brought them them to life on Toril, he angered the Yuan Ti, who had come to revere him as a god. Now, believing he meant to supplant them as rulers of the planet, they turned on him and when he fled Toril, they used their magic to release the Dark Spawn of Cthulu, who crashed his ship back down to Toril and killed him before sinking back into hibernation to heal the damage done in the fight. The Yuan Ti fled their broken empire and the age of humans truly began. But the Surveyor was dead, the vision could not be completed, and all that remained to tell of its final form was a prophecy left behind by the Surveyor: a triad of creatures, an Angel, a Devil, and a Dragonborn, connected somehow.

So how did Carrick get wrapped up in all this? Close proximity to the first crystal has been awakening his memories and the dreams he has been having of the cave tell the true story: as a child, he fell into a cave and broke his leg. Trying to get out, he crawled through the cave and came across one of the Surveyor’s crystals, specifically one of the ones he had used to try and clone himself and had discarded when it didn’t work. For whatever reason, it works now, imprinting the Surveyor’s identity and soul on top of Carrick’s, forever changing him. 

The immediate effects are to heal his broken leg and wipe his memory of what happened. But soon he begins to physically change, his body reshaping itself to look like Primus’ vision for the Surveyor. He is young enough that his parents write off the changes as due to him growing into himself. And he is a half elf: sometimes they take on the appearances of the elvish soul within him. His mother even takes to calling him an old soul, thinking these changes represent the old elvish soul inhabiting his body. She’s almost right.

But the combination of two souls has other effects on Carrick’s life. Chances are, it led to his dark past as he sought power and killed in the name of a pure kind of justice. Psychologically, Carrick must now question everything he has felt and believed in his life. Which pieces of this were his true nature and which parts were due to the Surveyor inside of him? Now, as he becomes more aware of the truth, he can even begin to hear a second voice inside his head, urging him towards tendencies he has long thought were his own inclination.

Carrick tells the old man he will try to fulfill his purpose, he will try to finish Primus’ vision, but the old man tells him it is impossible. Carrick may hold onto a piece of the Surveyor’s soul and memory, but his body is not of Primus’ creation. His body is still half elven, half human. It is not designed to channel the energy necessary to create life. He cannot finish the vision.

At this, the companions grow angry. They now see this sad old man as not a victim, but as an instigator of horrors: a selfish being whose acts not only hurt Carrick directly, but also the death of empires and possibly the ending of all things in a victory for the forces of Chaos. Carrick feels his own pain most directly, of course, accusing the man of stealing both his future and his past. Without even a hope of fulfilling the Surveyor’s mission, what else does Carrick have?

The old man gives them the crystal and tells them that this means his time will soon come to a close. He also tries to give Carrick some kind words, though he is not a being who was made to feel empathy or sympathy.

“You must choose what to do with whatever time you have left,” the old man tells him, but it is of little consolation. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth. I wanted to see the end of Primus’ vision. It did not seem fair that I should work so hard towards it and have nothing to show for it, not even be able to see the work for myself.”

“You do have something to show for it,” Carrick answers. “You have me.”

But the words are not meant to be gracious or consoling. Carrick is angry, and in anger, the companions leave the farm. All except Imoaza, who decides to revenge Carrick, whom she is coming to think of as an actual friend. She summons Drosselgreymer and cuts the old man down, who dies with a smile on his lips...

... until Carrick brings him back with a spell.

“Why?” the old man begs. “Why did you not let me die?”

Imoaza is also confused and upset. “Do you wish me to kill him again? Make him suffer a dozen times? I can do that.”

“No. He doesn’t get to leave that easily. He needs to live. He wanted to see the end result of the work, now he has to. You hear me? Don’t you dare die until this is all over. You need to live and know what you have done. You don’t get to hide from it anymore.”

For the first time, the old man shows emotion, his face filling with despair as he sobs uncontrollably and is left behind by the companions. Imoaza isn’t very happy about it, this doesn’t fit her definition of revenge. So she takes a Chi Chu from his farm as a final payment for their troubles.

Meanwhile, through Carrick’s anger, he is able to realize that Imoaza cut down an unarmed man, however deserving, and the thought makes him wary and anxious, afraid that this is a hint of darker things to come.

The Rod of Storms amplifies the group’s dark mood, and they take off into a sky filling with heavy clouds and hard rain.

[safeforwark]

The Sun Chases the Moon [SFW]

A romance fanfiction set in Final Fantasy XIV. When I saw these two interact in post-Stormblood I knew I had to write about them becoming a couple!

Magnai has long searched for his true love, his Nhaama. An encounter with Y'shtola Rhul leaves him certain (again) that the Sun has found his Moon. After a swift rejection however, he is left to think about what could have been, or perhaps what could be...

Contains spoilers for a post-Stormblood scene. I hope you enjoy kupo!

“Nhaama’s power is yours to wield!”  Sadu, Khatun of the Dotharl, spoke in euphoric glee after extended battle with the Warrior of Light.  “What does the Sun say to that?”

“Hmph. The Sun is not driven by base motives such as yours.”  Magnai’s breath was labored, having just crossed blades with Lord Hien and Y’shtola.

“But aye, they have been judged…and found worthy.”  Magnai stood and expressed his recognition of their strength.  “The Sun shall answer you call.”

As soon as the affirmations of alliance were clear, Magnai wasted no time in turning the gaze of his brilliant yellow eyes to Y’shtola. Her face was new amongst the people not of the Steppe. Her skill was astounding, and her grace unlike anything he had ever seen. Her platinum hair framed a sharp, learned gaze from eyes of pale silver. He had not imagined such profound power from so scholarly and beautiful.

“You. By what are you called?”

Y’shtola hesitated to answer.  “Y’shtola. Why?”

“Are you…” Magnai mumbled to himself. Unable to break his gaze from the cultured conjurer. His mind swirled with revelation. He wondered if it were not possible that his destined meeting, the introduction to his Nhaama, could it not be here and now?

“You shine with the full moon’s light, your healing touch as gentle as Nhaama’s love…”  Magnai’s voice grew louder in excitement at his proclamation.

“Beholding you, I am all but certain! My Nhaama is no woman of the Steppe!”  Magnai stepped forward, his intention clear to all at this point. He stepped close to gaze into Y’shtola’s eyes.

“Now, look into my eyes. Could it be…? Could you be...?”  Magnai smiled, his stalwart confidence allowing him to be overjoyed in the moment of his union.

Y’sthola smiled sweetly at the Au Ra man.  “I am…” Her lips became straight and serious as before, her words plain and direct.  “…not interested little sun. Try again when you have become a man.”

Magnai was slow to react, his mouth falling open in shock. He had suffered countless insults from Sadu’s sharp tongue, and had admittedly been rebuffed by those who had turned out not to be his Nhaama many times. Yet somehow Y’shtola’s rejection cut him unfathomably deep.

“Little…?”

A burst of laughter followed from Sadu, who began to chide him relentlessly. Suffering such grievous insult after being rejected set Magnai’s blood to boiling, and he drew his axe without hesitation. Scarcely had the battle begun that Y’shtola elected to depart, scoffing at the asinine nature of the Xaela ‘diplomacy’, or lack thereof.

After extended battle, which did little to provide succor to his wounded pride, Magnai returned to the Dusk Throne and retired to his chambers. He wished to channel his anger into breaking something, to splitting a rock in two or crushing Dzo bones into dust. Yet something strange happened when he lifted his axe or clenched his fist. He felt blocked. The Miqo’te woman’s words rang as clear in his ears as when she spoke them.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, frustrated and defeated. Her smile was so beauteous, she had shown it to him just long enough for him to remember, yet it was gone just as swiftly, and replaced with her stern face as she rebuked him. As angry as it made him, the Oronir recognized the strong, and strength she had. How could he dismiss the admonishment of one such as her then? She had shown her wisdom to be beyond her years, there were no flaws with which to tarnish her image. And her image was indeed burned into his mind…

---

The sun was setting on another day in Mor Dhona, and the Rising Stones had grown quieter as the hustle and bustle of scions and adventurers died down. Save for Tataru’s work station…

“I’m not sure I understand…” Tataru looked wide eyed at the towering Au Ra before her.

Magnai shook his head, annoyed.  “What is not to understand. I am here to join the order, this is the fold that calls themselves the Scions of the Seventh Dawn is it not?”

“Well yes, but, you’re…” Tataru stammered, she had dealt with questionable applicants before, but dismissal based on a lack of experience or credential would probably only serve to stoke this one’s anger more.

Magnai clenched his hands into fists.  “I have journeyed far little one, do you mean to play games with the Sun?!”

“Eep!”  Tataru jumped out of her seat and shuffled towards the door to the back room.  “I-I must consult a senior member you see, er, we will get back to you, terribly sorry!”

As the Lalafell vanished into the back Magnai sat down with his arms folded. The pure ridiculousness of the lengths he must go to. For her though… it would all be worth it to win his Nhaama…

After several minutes Alphinaud emerged from the back with Tataru in tow.

Alphinaud approached and extended his hand in greeting.  “Magnai was it? It is an honor to speak with the khatun of the Oronir. I am given to understand you are quite the magnanimous leader on the steppe.”

Tataru eyed Magnai sideways, leaning shyly toward Alphinaud as she tried to whisper to him. “Alphinaud that’s not what I—"

“It is the duty of the Sun to shepherd his people.”  Magnai hesitated, but then grasped Alphinaud’s hand.  “This land is far from the steppe however, and I am come to learn of its ways, of you Eorzeans.”

Alphinaud tilted his head a little, but still wore a diplomatic smile.  “Full glad are we to have your interest, let alone your presence. Pray tell though, why do you wish to become a Scion? Certainly there are other ways to learn of this land and its people.”

Magnai’s stern face clearly became focused on something altogether in his mind. He tilted his head back and folded his arms.  “Because the moon herself is of your fold, and of your people.”

Alphinaud and Tataru stood with slightly confused expressions, unsure of how to respond.

Magnai returned his gaze downward to the extant world.  “If this is the way of fate, than it is the responsibility of the Sun to shine for all his people. I must act not for the people of my blood alone, but hers as well. I would honor the moon in this way.”

Tataru tugged on Alphinaud’s sleeve, attempting again to deliver her words in a hushed tone. “This seems rather suspicious, I don’t think—"

“Very well!” Alphinaud smile as he boldly raised his voice.  “I would normally think to cross examine you more, but your passion as a defender of the people is plain. Your willingness to incorporate a larger body of people not your own is truly altruistic, and will serve you well.”

Tataru’s jaw slowly dropped open, she looked at Magnai, and then back at Alphinaud, and back at Magnai.

Alphinaud continued, “You see I am also not of Eorzea, in fact a great deal of the senior scions hail from the shores of Sharlayan, including the likes of myself, Urianger, and Y’shtola.”

Magnai’s expression changed upon hearing Y’shtola’s name. The change was ever so slight, but Tataru raised an eyebrow, noticing his widened eyes and retraction of his scowl.

Magnai nodded, slightly more enthusiastic for dealing with him.  “I am… grateful… for your acceptance. I would be happy to stand beside these… senior members.”

Alphinaud put a hand to his chin.  “Well, I certainly needn’t question your strength. I received a first hand account of your prowess during the Naadam from the Warrior of Light themselves. If you are truly willing to put yourself into potential danger for us, mayhap you could greatly aid some of our senior members…”

Tataru folder her arms and narrowed her eyes as she sat down, watching as Alphinaud chattered away with Magnai.

“It sounds as though stealth does not suit your skillset, and Urangier would not have much use for your axe… One of the members I mentioned, she is a healer. She is powerful in her own right, but having a warrior such as yourself would ward her from danger, and her skills would no doubt bolster your own battle capability.”

As they begin to walk away, Tataru silently shook her head. This could not possibly end well…

---

The sun was shining brilliantly over Vyllbrand.

“My… companion and I require passage across.”  Y’shtola passed a purse of gil to the ferrymen. She glanced back at Magnai. He was staring at her again, a small smile on his face. Rather he was almost always staring at her, which incidentally seemed to be the only time he saw reason to smile about anything. In her opinion the entire situation was as unwelcome as it was unnecessary. She sighed as the pair stepped into the small dingy.

Alphinaud had foisted it upon her without much choice. She remembered the conversation between them, how Alphinaud had seen ‘great potential for an ally’ and ‘a chance to diversify the scion’s staff’. While the order had decided on a loose structure, he was being awfully presumptuous to make such a decision without consulting anyone. Then he had brought him all the way to her with no warning! Y’shtola furrowed her brow. She had nowhere else to send him, he hadn’t the first clue about Eorzea, and Alphinaud had quickly managed to wash his hands of all responsibility.

“What troubles you, my… ah… Y’shtola.”  Magnai caught himself, she had put a swift end to being called the endearing title of Nhaama.

Y’shtola swept a hand through her hair.  “Nothing of consequence…”

She gestured to the approaching isle of Umbra, and the grand lighthouse skewered with corrupted crystal. “The Pharos Sirius, it was once the grandest single structure on Vyllbrand.”  Y’shtola had already quickly adopted the habit of explaining visible points of interest as if a common tour guide. This was often the only thing that would break his gaze away from her for a time.

Magnai took in the structure, thinking that from the very top it must be much taller than even the Dawn Throne.  “It is impressive to reach to the heavens so. Yet now it is…”

“Derelict, aye…” Y’shtola stared at the enormous shard that pierced the tower, clearly seeing it’s outline because of the corrupted aether within.  “This but one of many things destroyed in the calamity, and it is not the worst of it.”

Y’shtola looked toward the mainland coastline.  “For one who knew the lay of this land, it is a constant reminder. Where you now see barren bramble once stood verdant grains. Where you now see cliffs and peaks once lay fields and streams. Where you see rubble stood homes, and the families that built them…”

As Y’shtola’s voice faded from a hush to silence, the boat rocked gently with the waves, its small splashes in the water the only noise to break the silence. Magnai crossed his arms and looked at all he could see around him, noting every uneven break in the terrain, every set of decayed foliage, and finally the giant crystal shard that pierced the pharos.

“…To have the very heavens fall around you. The people of this land have suffered greatly.” Magnai’s tone was heavy.

The distinctly emotional response surprised Y’shtola. He seemed to truly take the gravity of her explanation to heart. She found herself staring at him for a change, watching his stern expression as he seemed to reflect upon the perspective she had presented him. They had only been traveling together a few days, mayhap she needn’t be so quick to judgement, her lack of patience with people these days was reminding her too much of her old mentor…

Magnai stood as the dingy approached the shores of Umbra, rocking the small boat with his size. His grip tightened on his axe.  “This place is abandoned then? Will there be aught to fight?”

Y’shtola gripped the sides of the rocking boat and flattened her ears, thinking that on the other hand she shouldn’t forget all she had witnessed on the steppe.

As the boat moored itself against the sand beneath it Y’shtola hopped over the side with Magnai following close behind. The waves lapped at her boots as she walked ashore. As they approached Y’shtola’s senses could make out the worn stairway leading up the Pharos. The scene was quiet, which would be conducive to her work, had she not a curious and love-struck follower ilms away from her at all times.

“Alright, I need to examine the crystals. It is dangerous to linger about them for too long, so keep your distance for awhi—”

Both heard the soft skittering in the sand approaching. Magnai raised his axe as several mantises appeared from the rocky terrain.

“Seems my quiet was not meant to be…”  Y’shtola sighed.

---

Though their pairing was farcical to Y’shtola, she did not dismiss Magnai, assuming he would tire of his duties or of her before long and return to Othard of his own volition. Days turned to weeks however, and as their time together stretched into months Y’shtola started forgetting to wonder when he would leave. It started to become all too second nature to plan accordingly for having him travel with her.

Much of her time was devoted to research, trying to understand the changes in the aether around the world. Magnai was a useful protector if naught else during such times, clearing hostile beasts and saving Y’shtola the trouble. Any other time he was simply observing her or asking questions about the world around them. Familiarity made his gaze less and less bothersome, and she began to enjoy teaching him about Eorzea, wondering if the self-satisfaction of enlightening such a wild and uncouth individual was how Matoya had felt teaching her.

On a typical overcast day, Y’shtola and Magnai set out for Oakwood. She had been asked by Limsan officials to look into the local fauna behaving strangely, with no naturalist able to discern why. They walked in quiet along a gentle stream as Y’shtola tried to spot any unusual patterns in the aether. Suddenly the sound of splashing water and screams broke the silence.

“Please!! Help!!”  A child’s voice, panicked and sobbing.

They both spied the young girl immediately, running across the shallow stream ahead of them. A group of three coeurl’s darted about on her sides, making ready to pounce on the child. Both Y’shtola and Magnai sprinted forward without hesitation.

Y’shtola shouted, “Magnai, the right!”

As Y’shtola jumped directly in front of the child Magnai flew passed them, bringing his axe down as quick as lightning on one of the coeurls, cleaving it against the ground before it could react. The other coeurl leapt at him with fangs bared, but was met with the flat side of Magnai’s weapon as he absorbed the force of its leap, and then threw the beast to the side. By the time it pounced back onto its legs, Magnai was bearing down on it, one slash of his axe leaving it bereft of life.

The third coeurl sprinted directly at Y’shtola and the child. Y’shtola conjured a flurry of biting wind that assailed it from the front, causing the beast to flinch and redirect its course. Before it could make another attempt Y’shtola focused on her staff, and a strong line of white light sliced through the air. The beast took only a single step before falling to the ground, thereafter motionless.

With the threat removed they turned their attention to the whimpering girl.

Y’shtola kneeled down in front of her.  “You’re alright now little one. What were you doing out here?”

The girl sniffled as she spoke.  “I… I jus’ wanted t’ fish… My da’ never lets me…”

Y’shtola nodded. “Mayhap for good reason, this place is not safe for a child on her own.”

The child whimpered, “E’ says… the wolves tha’ take our livestock would get me… but I ‘ate stayin’ inside the fence all day…”

Y’shtola shook her head. “It is for your own safety little one...”

“Nonsense.”  Magnai stepped forward toward them. Y’shtola looked at him in surprise, confused as to why he would interject.

The intimidating Au Ra stood dauntingly high over the young hyur girl. The shaken child looked at him anxiously, fearful of his intimidating presence. Magnai pulled a hatchet from his robe, presenting it to the little girl.

“Take it in your hand.”

The girl nervously reached for and put her hand on the handle. As Magnai let go the heavy hatchet fell to the ground with her fingers still around it. The girl put her strength into lifting it back up, the tool clearly being unwieldly in her hands.

Magnai addressed her sternly.  “Do not dishonor your family by becoming food for the beasts. You must find the strength to protect your land and your people. Thus do we earn the right to take of its bounty. Do not venture forth again until you can split a stone as big as you with your swing.”

The girl stared at him wide eyed and nodded. After it became clear Magnai had nothing else to say to her, she pointed down the path.  “My ‘ome is there…”

Magnai crossed his arms. “You set out on this journey by your own will, you must be able to complete that which you begin. Go forth, we shall follow.”

The girl nodded nervously. She turned around and began walking down the path, stopping and turning her head to look back at them every few steps. Magnai’s piercing gaze would drive her to take another few steps forward before having to look back again to ensure they were still there. As she forged on Y’shtola stood up and walked with Magnai as they trailed behind her.

She had not expected someone who had shown such disregard for simple diplomacy to have such a way with children. She felt remiss in calling him uncultured, even if she had found the Xaela practices oafish and savage. Now as she looked at Magnai she saw the aura of his aether differently, in a way she somehow never noticed before. His aura always looked so fiery and intense, she thought his ill-tempered and capricious nature to be the cause. Though as intense as it could be, she now observed how gently it glowed, so bright yet… a warm, welcoming incandescence.

“I am surprised at how well you handled the child. A bit blunt, but you gave her direction while warning her of the danger.”  Y’shtola’s tone belied her curiosity.

Magnai kept his gaze fixed on the young girl walking ahead of them.  “Children are not beasts to be tamed. They should be guided to reach their own heights, with their own actions, that is how we Oronir teach the value of strength.”

Magnai smiled to himself. “I can tell you were not brought up on so different of lessons, your will is like that of the steppe. I imagine they who raised you knew well the value of strength.”

Y’shtola’s ears perked up, her lips parting without sound as Matoya flashed through her mind. To think that he of all people could have such insight. She chuckled quietly to herself and smiled.

“Perhaps…”

---

The sun was already sinking below the horizon as Y’shtola and Magnai stepped onto the docks in Kugane.

Magnai looked around at the Hingan city.  “It has been a long time since I set out from this land to find you.”

Y’shtola scoffed at him. “Perhaps had you thought to investigate my identity rather than blindly asking everyone my name you would have found me much sooner.”

Magnai furled his brow. “Hmph.”

“Come.”  Y’shtola began walking along the pier.  “The Ruby Sea will be easier to cross by day, we’ll resume our journey to Othard tomorrow.”

As they crossed the city Magnai looked to the sky. The paper lanterns were hardly needed this evening, their soft glow outcompeted by the brilliant light of the full moon. He took a deep breath, gazing at its luster.

“Are you coming? Or do you intend to take in the night life?”  Y’shtola’s voice called out to him.

He looked back down from the heavens to see her standing in front of the inn. A sweet smile on her face. The same smile he had seen so long ago, on the day he first met her. He smiled himself, and then followed her inside.

---

“It has been too long since we were able to bathe and have a proper night’s rest.”  Y’shtola mused as she closed the door, returning from the baths. Y’shtola had donned a pure white yukata, beautifully complimenting her fair skin, much of which could be seen as the garment barely draped around her thighs. Magnai’s red skin conveniently masked the flushing of his face.

Y’shtola sat on the edge of the cot, looking over at Magnai, who sat at the window looking out over the inn’s moonlit garden. Tataru’s frugality was beginning to become extreme, one of her demands being that those afield together share lodgings. By now Y’shtola had become far too used to the company to complain.

“How does it look?”

Magnai turned to look back at her.  “It is lovely. The moon shines in great splendor tonight. It is… a shame you cannot behold it.”

Y’shtola shook her head. “I am still blessed to see a great deal. In ways I might never have imagined.”

Magnai stood and faced her, dramatically holding out his hands.  “Just as well, the sight still pales in comparison to your own radiance.”

Y’shtola tilted her head, letting her smile show as she did.  “Now on that I will simply have to take your word.”

Magnai walked over and kneeled down in front of Y’shtola.  “Tell me, long have I feared asking one who truly sees all as it is. What do you see, when you look at me?”

“I see…”  the strange mixture of emotion in his voice struck a chord with Y’shtola. She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder.  “A brilliant glow, it is bright and passionate enough to stand out among many, almost overbearingly so. Yet it shines softly, with purpose on all it touches. It is warm and welcoming, like the daybreak after a long night.”

Magnai nodded slowly, then reached to take up one of Y’shtola’s hands.  “Your words are succor to my heart. Though all my time with you has been a blessing. To be the Sun, yet see so little beyond thine own radiance is folly. You have been as my moon, showing me that the Sun’s brilliance is naught without aught to shine on.”

Y’shtola was taken aback by Magnai’s uncharacteristically eloquent speech. Squeezing the hand that held hers.  “I am moved that you would credit me with such. The… Sun, should be proud of his own accomplishments. Though I cannot help but wonder If he’s been listening to Thancred spin words for passing beauties.”

Magnai shook his head. “The Sun shines for all, but chases only after his moon.”

His free hand gingerly touched Y’shtola’s cheek as he leaned in toward her. Y’shtola looked at him softly, without speaking a word in response. As his face neared hers, he pulled her in until their lips met. His gentle demeanor didn’t surprise Y’shtola so much anymore. As their lips held together, she wondered if she just hadn’t been able to see it at first, or if their time together had brought out a different side of him.

The side of her yukata slipped down over her right shoulder as they kissed once more, and again, and again…

Outside their window in the garden it was quiet, with only the glowing moon as witness until it sank from the sky to give way to the dawn.

---

Y’shtola woke first, her unconscious stretching waking Magnai as she moved in his arms. They wearily opened their eyes and met each other’s gaze. They smiled at each other as thoughts of the many months leading to previous night drifted through their mind. Unusual for him, Magnai felt himself at a loss for words. Holding Y’shtola in his arms, feeling affection and warmth from her embrace, he finally felt… content.

Y’shtola sighed softly, speaking in a hushed tone, her normally strong words hinting at embarrassment. “I suppose this makes me… your Nhaama...”

They hugged each other a little tighter…

---

Magnai walked down the trail ahead of Y’shtola, his axe sitting on his shoulder as he took long, energetic steps. He reached the crest of a hill overlooking the valley path towards the Azim Steppe.

“Ah, we are so close to the Steppe! I can smell it’s familiar air on the breeze!”

Y’shtola chuckled as she walked up beside him.  “I’ve not seen you so giddy since we found that Wind-up Sun in the markets.”

Magnai nodded.  “It is momentous for the Sun to finally return to the Steppe, and when I tell them I now have my Moo—OOMPH.”

A stiff arm to the stomach cut Magnai short, as Y’shtola stared sternly.

“and I told you not to call me such til we are behind closed doors.”  Y’shtola gave him a coy smile.  “My dearest Sun.”

[madamenighttalon]

Why Desexualizing Women in Video Games is More Dangerous than Over Sexualizing them

Little known fact about me - I’m a nerd: starting from the very first time I picked up a game controller and found myself being tossed into a fantasy world filled with intrigue and danger I have been completely hooked. One of the largest issues as I had as a young girl was the fact that I could never really relate to the characters I was playing, I just didn’t have much in common with big meaty men in armour carrying around guns. So when I found games that let me play as a woman, I was overjoyed; the first game that let me fully alter my in game self was a MMORPG by the name of Perfect World. Honestly looking back it wasn’t that great of a game, it had a pay to play aspect that made it easy for some people to level up and do quests faster and it was pretty easy to find yourself in places that you just weren’t strong enough to handle yet. But that didn’t matter to me; there were eight classes in the game at the time and seven of those classes allowed you to play as a female - with one class (Venomancer) being restricted solely for women. I was able to completely customize my character - I could make make her tall or short, thick or skinny, I could even control the size of her bust and hips; I was in heaven, not because I could create some sex kitten ( though admittedly a lot of my characters were ridiculously pretty ) but because I could create the kind of woman that I wanted to be - I could make this beautiful woman who didn’t care if she was showing a little skin because if some jerk guy said something to her she could just take them out like a total BAMF.

And yes the clothing for Playable Female Characters (PFC) was pretty revealing, which I didn’t realize at that time was a problem for some people, all I cared about was that finally I had character that was feminine AND a total badass. Playing a game like this made me believe that as a woman, it didn’t matter what I was wearing - be it a mini skirt or leather pants, my clothing didn’t take away from my personal power or invalidate me. Games like this made me feel just as, if not more, powerful than my male counterparts.

Of course as I got older and took a break from my games I realized that the strength PW had given me was not applicable to the real world - in the real world as a woman I was inherently weaker than the men around me, I had to wear modest clothing so people wouldn’t think I was looking for trouble, I couldn’t read or use my phone in public because it made me a target - made me vulnerable. This was also when I became aware of the fact that some people, people that probably have never played a video game in their life, had a problem with the way that women were being represented. They believed PFC’s we’re being objectified, that their clothing or breast size made them inherently weaker than PMC (playable male characters). Sound familiar.

I started up my gaming addiction again with Fable II and Dragon Age : Origins - I fell in love again. These games, while limiting my customization, still allowed me to play as PFC that was just as strong as the PMC - in fact there was absolutely no stat difference between the two genders. But beyond that they gave me something that my previous gaming had kept from me - they allowed me to develop my characters personality and form bonds (both platonic and romantic) with other in game characters.

Now the fantasy that I dove into was different - I knew that in real life I wasn’t powerful, that I couldn’t say whatever I wanted or wear whatever I wanted, but in this fantasy world I could do that….and more. In the spirit of being completely open - of helping you understand why this game and the way it was made is so important to me, I should mention that I am a survivor of sexual assault. As are many other people I know. In DA:O you are given the chance to play as a young woman who, along with her cousin and friends, is kidnapped on her wedding day by a nobleman looking to throw a “party”. No one can help them out of fear of endangering the rest of their people, and so the women are left to their own devices - it is also insinuated in the game that this is a common occurrence, that women are kidnapped and raped by nobles all the time because they have no power to fight back. Now let me jump in and keep going before someone gets angry; yes this could possibly teach some little idiot that it's okay to objectify and abuse woman EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. You. Fight. Back.

The whole point of the origin is that you, a woman, fights back against her oppressor and saves her cousin and friends. You, alongside your male cousin who, interestingly enough, is weaker than you and honestly only there for moral support, fight your way through the estate taking out anyone that gets in your way until finally you find your younger female cousin who has just been raped by the nobleman and YOU GET TO KILL HER RAPIST. Now I understand that a lot of people may think that its impolite for women to get this excited about violence but anyone that has been sexually assaulted or knows someone that has can tell you that there is not a single moment where they haven’t wanted that person to pay for what they’ve done, but hasn’t felt like that was a possibility because in situations like this the law is rarely on the side of the victim.

Once again throughout this game you are give the choice to wear revealing clothing, and your femininity is highlighted even when wearing full plate armour - you can wear makeup and make yourself as pretty as you want, also as a side note the physique of the women is default set as being very fit and picturesque. Over and over again you are shown female characters who are not forced to sacrifice their beauty and sexuality in order to gain power. (Also they’re literally all gay but that’s a different post)

So maybe men “objectified” them, maybe they didn’t care about the backstories or personalities, but the young women playing these games 100% payed attention.

The rather long point I’m trying to make here is  that, yes, there are some people out there that purposely create unnaturally attractive women and put them in skimpy clothing because they want to play out some ridiculous sexual fantasy, or because they want to try and demean them and their abilities. Those people won’t respect women anymore if their wearing loose fitted clothing instead of tight leathers, and it’s ridiculous to assume they’re the only ones playing. Female gamers need these characters - they need to have power somewhere because I can tell you they certainly aren’t getting it in the real world; they need female characters that are beautiful without being ashamed, who show as much or as little skin as they want because IT’S THEIR CHOICE, who don’t teach them that in order to be equal to men they have to sacrifice their femininity

When I was reading articles to amp myself up to write this I found a quote that I want to share that said “men win battles and women wear heels.”. Now I’m sure the author was well meaning but they drew in on what I believe is the real reason why these characters offend people. Women are taught through other media and real life experience that beautiful women, with large breasts or curvaceous bodies, who wear clothing that highlights these characteristics can only fall under three categories; The Airhead, who has nothing to offer society and obviously cannot possibly be intelligent because they focus on and or take pride in their appearance, The Mean Girl, who while being ridiculously pretty also has nothing to offer society because she is so self absorbed,usually but not always rich/spoiled, and has no real worth or skill other than her looks so she spends all of her time bringing other people down, and finally The Slut, the obvious beauty who must be having sex with everyone and could only have gained any power or knowledge she has through sex because of the fact that she is unashamed of her body and sexuality - she also has nothing to offer society.

So when they see these characters, when they skim through gaming clips without context, and they see that flash of thigh or display of cleavage, they automatically put the female characters in one of these categories and become offended because they think it’s just another case of woman being demeaned and under sold by men. And maybe that was the intention maybe there's some big misogynistic CEO out there cackling because he thinks he put us in our place. But that’s not what happened, yes men do go into battle, and women do wear heels, that’s what the real world has taught us, but these games -

They taught me that women can do both.

[katelyndehoog]

Guatemala Mission Trip

          We knew going into this endeavor that it wouldn’t be easy, but I don’t believe anything or anyone could have adequately prepared us for what we experienced during our trip to Guatemala. No amount of bug spray, hand sanitizer or Imodium could have helped us with the mental and emotional struggles we each experienced. We knew this adventure would be extremely hard on us physically – that was a given, but I don’t believe a single one of us accounted for the overwhelming emotional rollercoaster that was our first ever Dental Mission Trip with KIA. Kindness In Action – is the most appropriately named nonprofit organization based out of Alberta, Canada with an absolutely fearless and eccentric leader, Dr. Dave Maskell. As per our knowledge, we were the first dental hygiene students to ever embark on an adventure such as this – which made it all the more intimidating and exhilarating. We have our beloved instructor, Nicole Edworthy, to thank for the opportunity. Without her persistence and advocacy, we may not have ever been given a chance to experience anything like this. 

      Volunteer. It’s one of those words with such a lovely connotation. But how much of yourself can you give to it? How far can you push yourself for to your cause? How committed, involved, or passionate are you? Empathy – is another lovely word. I don’t believe I understood it’s true meaning until this trip. Until you’re fully immersed and standing smack dab in the middle of it - faced with the reality of it all - how could you? It wasn’t until we were done Day 1, sitting on the bus heading back to our hostel that it hit me - exactly we were doing here & why this work was so important. Some things in life are so much bigger than anything you could imagine and no matter how much you thought you knew what you were getting into – your world is rocked regardless. This project changed a lot for me in ways I find hard to describe. It went beyond trying to do some good for people we knew didn’t live the luxurious lives we do – I feel as though I benefited so much more than they did. It has shaped me in ways I doubt any other experience will ever touch on. Just a simple task we perform weekly such as teaching oral health education – became a life-alternating event.  The children we were met with at these remote pop-up dental clinics were the most eager to learn. They showed more enthusiasm and attentiveness then any of the client’s I’ve instructed at our school’s clinic. My heart is overjoyed with the fact that we may have changed their lives for the better with a simple instructional session using a goofy oversized toothbrush and set of teeth. These children’s only motivation being a free toothbrush, maybe some floss or toothpaste but nonetheless they demonstrated how intelligent and quick to learn they could be, performing almost perfect technique. If all of my client’s could be taught to floss the way these children are now able to, then we’d be laughing. I’m so unbelievably proud to have had the chance to do to this.

      A sharp reality check occurred to me shortly after my heartfelt oral health education morning of Day 1. These people led bare minimal lives. I began to realize I wasn’t even sure if any of the local stores would sell floss. Later in the week we happen to pass by a vender selling toothbrushes and toothpaste as a bundle on the market street and that briefly made me hopeful. But this is a reality of living in a country such as Guatemala. Even an established city such as Chisec had the bare bones as far as what we consider ‘necessities’. So tell me, what good is a flawless flossing technique without a single spool of thread to do so? My heart sinks immediately thinking of this. How do you ask someone living in parts of the world such as Chisec to prioritize purchasing toothbrushes and toothpaste over food to feed their family? You certainly can’t, just as they can’t. All the good I thought I might have done for even just one child, vanishes before my eyes and I’m at a loss. The first of many emotional rollercoaster rides. We were only able to do so much for the people of Guatemala during our brief time there. Sadly that may have just consisted solely of their first and only professional dental cleaning or tooth extraction – and we had to let that be enough. No matter the toll it took on us. However, there is a silver lining to this aspect of the trip – or should I say silver diamine. We saw countless carious lesions (or cavities) in all stages of development – and the line up for restorations and extractions was never short. A new treatment to us, with miraculous powers was the application of this silver diamine fluoride. SDF has the ability to arrest further progression of the lesion, and also eliminate pain for the individual. I can’t tell you how many stories we were told of people chewing with only one side of their mouth, or eating nothing but soft food for sometimes years due to uncomfortable pain. I can’t imagine living like that but it was so common among this population – they shook it off so easily. Something any one of us would have such a hard time tolerating – dealing with this pain day in and day out. Thankfully SDF was quick and easy to apply and seemed almost heaven sent. I can sleep better at night knowing that even if we did nothing else for these people than aid to eliminate their pain and prolong the life of their existing teeth – then we’ve made a significant difference in their overall lives.

       Thankfully through every whirlwind of a day, we had an incredible team to fall back on. This sounds so cliché I realize, but my god was it ever true. Most of us arrived in small groups together conjugating at the airport in Guatemala City. We exchanged pleasantries and gathered our luggage having no idea the extent of the wild ride we were all about to take together. These were the people we set up a dental clinic daily with, operated using the most minimalistic materials and equipment, slugged at it all day in the abnormally hot and humid weather, worked full days through doing whatever was needed or asked of us to then pack it all up and lug it back to the buses to await the next day’s challenges. Our team consisted of dental students, hygienists, husbands and other family members, as well as the finest, hardest working handy men you could ever ask for and us – the first ever hygiene students, all wide eyed and bushy tailed. The group dynamic was pretty inspirational, considering you couldn’t pick a more random group if you drew names from a hat – coming from all over the country and having never spoken to one another before. We did pretty well spending the entire week together, working collaboratively on a project that most of us had no prior experience with anything even remotely similar to. It made me realize you don’t have to be a dental professional to make a dental teamwork, but you certainly have to be a team to make a dental profession work. We had one huge common denominator though – compassion. I am so honored to have been a part of this incredible group of empathetic professionals – each bringing the hugest amount of heart and give to every minute of every day. I was constantly in awe of every single one of them. Again, cliché but the absolute truth, I promise you. Plus the pizza dinners and evening laughs kept me rolling – I wouldn’t have made it through without them.

     But holy heck my girls. Oh my good heavens these incredible girls. You have my whole heart. From the very beginning of this endeavor playing luggage Tetris, packing ourselves into trucks, three flights, one 6 hour bus ride, three different countries, so many food/drink/airport mishaps, grouchy mornings, grouchy afternoons, evenings, days, all the mood swings, panic attacks, near misses, and baggage checks, shared snacks, water bottles and hand sanitizers, laughs, cries and proof of life pictures – these girls came through. I wouldn’t have lasted a single day without them – they’ll deny this but I know it’s a very true fact. They each showed me themselves throughout this journey. If I take away just the smallest piece of what each of them taught me, I’ll consider myself sincerely blessed. They’re empathy, knowledge, skill, grit and grind, compassion, patience, and love for they’re profession truly moved me. These young women have what it takes to conquer the world – I have no doubt about it. Things I feared we’d struggle with, they soon proved they were thriving at, things I worried we couldn’t do – they had already gone ahead and done, things I wasn’t sure if we should tackle – they jumped right in with. These women are my inspiration, my goals, and my tribe. I have a love for them that won’t ever be diminished – because we did this - completely together. There are never enough thank you’s to the ones who pull you through or give you they’re last granola bar – absolutely the most touching gesture.

      I can only hope to bring forward into my career, the vast amount of knowledge, skill and compassion I gained during this trip. My outlook on dental hygiene has now been expanded worldwide. Typically in office, we are told our most common client will be at a DD1 status (low in degree of difficulty in dental hygiene school terms). This is relative to the part of the world we’re blessed to be living in, but also the region in our province of Ontario. Although the population of Guatemala had particular dental attributes, I believe if we were to travel outside of our main cities, to regions of Ontario that are more remote, without fluorinated water and with less to dental care – we may experience similar conditions. I hope that during my career I am able to travel throughout Canada to aid the people in our own country whom are in need. With the experience I obtained from this trip to Guatemala, I feel as though I am better equipped to service these more vulnerable populations. The care I provide would be better geared towards them – with a greater understanding of their struggles, and dental needs. I feel I will be able to prioritize appropriate treatments and oral health education specific to the individual and based on their way of life. I look forward to future trips to help expand my knowledge of these remote locations an their specific needs.

      Perhaps the highlight of this journey isn’t something that can be pinpointed – it’s in the everyday life that follows - the constant reminders and memories, the things you bring forward with you into each day. I wake up more thankful, more patient, in a kinder mood, with a slower pace, and brighter eyes that stay fixated on the important things for a little longer. I remember telling my loved ones when I left, to expect a changed girl when I returned… but to be completely honest – I’ve never felt more like myself after all this. And that is an indescribable feeling that I hope more people pursue. However that may be. Find your journey and let it find you.

Thank you for reliving my journey with me. 

[tkmedia]

Brisbane 2032: IOC confirms Brisbane as host of 2032 Summer Olympics, Paralympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that Brisbane will host the 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Australia will become just the fourth country to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games three or more times. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Games and Sydney was the host of the 2000 Games.The announcement was made at the 138th IOC Session in Tokyo ahead of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, which officially begin Friday. In February, it was confirmed that Brisbane was the IOC's preferred bid for the 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.This began targeted dialogue between the IOC executive and the Brisbane 2032 bid to thoroughly examine the proposed plan for the Games.The process for awarding an Olympic Games has become much more extensive since the introduction of the Future Host Commission for the Games of the Olympiad.In June, the IOC's executive board unanimously voted in favor of the Brisbane 2032 bid which put it forward to Wednesday's IOC session.Only one major concern was presented at the IOC session, by member Pal Schmitt, surrounding the move to award the Games to Brisbane 11 years before and not the traditional seven.That concern was calmly addressed by the members of Brisbane's bid team, including AOC president John Coates, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.That left the IOC members to vote on the question, "Do you accept to elect Brisbane as host of the Games of the XXXV Olympiad?"All Brisbane required at the IOC vote was a majority of IOC members to vote in favor of the Games. The vote passed.It has been reported that five IOC members voted against Brisbane's 2032 bid. Eighty votes were cast using an electronic ballot, with 72 supporting the bid, five opposing and three abstaining. There remain some dissenters among the IOC membership with 5 voting against the Executive Board's recommendation to elect #Brisbane2032 to host the Olympics. Still, a very large majority easily pushed it through. https://t.co/hOBMOmv51n — Robert Livingstone (@enotsgnivil) July 21, 2021

Details of Brisbane 2032 bid

A lot has been made of the unique nature of Brisbane's bid model as organizers look to reduce overall costs but keep the same Olympic experience.As has previously been mentioned, the Brisbane 2032 Games will be spread across South-East Queensland.While Brisbane will host the majority of events, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast will also host events and athletes.The games will also take place in Australia's winter; Queensland's weather was a big part of Brisbane's pitch.The opening ceremony is scheduled to be July 23, 2032, the same day and month that the Tokyo Games will start this year.

Australian Olympic Committee https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sportal_com_au/1f/c1/brisbane-olympic-venues_1przl5cjhrwvo140vdt82ve4ok.png?t=-117398559&w=500&quality=80 The bid organizers have also made a contractual commitment to be a 'climate positive' Games. Brisbane would be the first host city to agree to this contractually.This has been a big part of what has set the Brisbane 2032 group ahead as it wants the city to be seen as "clean, green and sustainable".Palaszczuk also confirmed that the state is working toward 50 percent renewable energy by 2030.A majority of venues used for the Games (80 percent) are either already built, in use or will be temporary.This will severely reduce much of the cost of hosting the games, and much of the infrastructure program will proceed regardless of the Games being held in Brisbane.While on the bid alone, the Future Host Commission confirmed that Brisbane 2032 spent approximately 80 percent less on its bid than other countries have in the past.You can view full details of the Master Plan for the 2032 Brisbane Games in the video below. An impact study carried out by KPMG into the economic and environmental impact of the 2032 Games in Brisbane concluded that the event would bring in an estimated $6.1 billion to the state of Queensland.More broadly for Australia, the study estimated it would bring in $13.4 billion nationally.

Reaction to Brisbane's successful 2032 bid

It's no surprise that many Australians are overjoyed at the thought of the country hosting another Olympic Games.While it's set to be a massive economic boost to the country and in particular the state of Queensland, it will also have a massive impact on Australia's sporting landscape.Sporting News spoke with a number of Australian Olympians competing in Tokyo ahead of the Brisbane 2032 announcement.All being Queenslanders, it's no surprise they were excited that their state would be hosting the Olympics.Gabriella Palm, a member of the Australian women's water polo team, The Aussie Stingers, believes it's set to give a massive boost to sports like water polo that don't necessarily have a big profile in Australia."Any Olympic Games is special, but to have an Olympics on your home soil is extra special," Palm said."Having the Games in Sydney where the Stingers won gold, having the chance to do that again and have an Olympic Games on home soil, it means everything."I could still be playing then, it's a possibility, so to potentially participate in those Games is another thing. But just to have it in Australia, I think it will be such good coverage and awareness for water polo."We're not the most well-known sport so I think bringing the Olympics to Aussie soil will be really great for water polo."And having it on Aussie soil will be a real incentive for me to keep going."Two-time Olympian Alyce Wood reflected on her own experiences of attending Sydney 2000 when thinking about Brisbane 2032.Getting to attend those Games inspired Wood to become an Olympian and she has no doubt Brisbane 2032 will do the same for a new generation of Australian athletes."I think, if we get 2032 it's a game-changer for so many reasons," Wood said."First and foremost for me, I, as an 8-year-old, went down to the Sydney Olympics and watched basketball and European handball, which are two sports that I knew nothing about."Just being exposed to a multisport event like the Olympics and seeing how everyone got around it was what made me want to be an Olympian way back then."To have that come to our state would be so special because the kids growing up would get to experience the same things as I did."You find a lot of Olympians on this year's team and Rio had that experience as a youngster in Sydney."Obviously, just having so many facilities shared around the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Brisbane and being able to get involved in it and seeing how much excitement the Olympics brings."The Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast were huge and everyone got super involved, but I can safely say the Olympics are a lot bigger deal. They can create a legacy in so many different areas beyond what the Commonwealth Games did."Daniel Beale, a member of the Kookaburras squad for Tokyo 2020, already knows he's going to be booking his tickets for Brisbane 2032 in his hometown."I think it would be huge for Brisbane," Beale said."I think the Olympics are up there with the biggest sporting spectacles in the world, so I think for Australia to win it, let alone home town of Brisbane to win one, I think it would be great for Australia and great for the city of Brisbane."I will definitely be flying there and watching as much of it as I can if they do win it. I really hope it gets there."Prime Minister Scott Morrison believes Brisbane 2032 will create a lasting legacy for Australia similar to that created by the Sydney 2000 Games.“They will support economic growth and investment, deliver lasting community benefits and inspire the next generation of Australian athletes," Morrison said.“I am proud of Australia, proud of Queensland and proud of our team that secured this win for our country.“The Commonwealth Government has supported Brisbane’s candidacy for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games right from the very start. We believe in this bid.“We know it’s a huge opportunity for our nation, just like the Melbourne Games in 1956 and the Sydney Olympics in 2000."

Who else bid for the 2032 Olympic Games?

Brisbane was the only bid up for vote at Wednesday's IOC Session, but it was not the only bid for the 2032 Games.IOC vide president and Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates confirmed in June that several other countries were looking at bidding for the 2032 Games.Those countries included Indonesia, the Netherlands and Qatar.However, Brisbane's bid was so far progressed that it was chosen to proceed into targeted dialogue with the IOC and the rest is history. Read the full article

[jeffsterlings-blog1]

#National Fatten Niff Up Day → A Nick and Jeff Para

Tagging: @bigboynickyd​ & Jeff Sterling Timeframe: Just a random day of the week. Location: Jeff’s apartment, and basically all of LA. General Notes: Nick comes over for Broga to get his chakras aligned, but Jeff quickly realizes there are far better ways to relax his friend. Warnings: Niff being each others personal hype man, tooth rotting fluff, a lot of ice cream. 

Jeff: Jeff shouldn’t have been surprised that Nick agreed to come do Yoga with him, but he still kind of was. He knew of very few people who were down for almost anything; most people weren’t as receptive to different things as Nick was. It was refreshing, to say the least, and he always looked forward to hanging out with him whenever they both got the chance. Nick’s energy was always contagious, so the thought of seeing his friend again instantly put him in a good mood. He wasn’t sure if he was actually serious about the yoga thing, but he was sure time would tell. It felt like awhile since he’d seen him in person, so he wouldn’t even mind if they just hung out normally for a bit.  After a short while of getting distracted by the sitcom playing on TV, and making sure nothing was cluttering the floor of his living room, Jeff heard commotion coming from his front door. With a grin spreading over his face, he called out, hopefully loud enough for Nick to hear him. “One second!” Jeff rose up from his couch with a stretch and made his way over to the door. Pulling it open, he couldn’t help but exclaim out loud. “Dude! Nick. You made it!” He couldn’t help the excitement in his voice as he pushed his door open wide for him to come through. His first instinct was to reach out for a hug or a fist bump or something, but he figured he’d at least let him get through his door first. “Wow, can’t believe I’ve got the legendary Nicky D on my doorstep. Maybe I should instagram this.” He joked slightly before waving him in. “Come on in.”

Nick: Nick was beyond psyched to spend some quality time with Jeff. He didn't care what they were doing together... He just liked being around the guy and they just got along so well that Nick was up for anything. Yoga wasn't exactly something he would do on his own but Nick kept an open mind about it all and trusted that Jeff would help him get all of everything he didn't understand. When he arrived at Jeff's place, he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet and nearly tripped into the door because he was so excited. When the door opened, he yelled out at the same time as Jeff, stepping inside and scooping Jeff up into a big bear hug. "Dude!" he exclaimed, clearly overjoyed just from seeing him. "Jeff, man, it's been too long!" He laughed, still grinning ear to ear when he finally broke the hug. "We'll definitely alert the public of this amazing meet-up but I'm gonna be selfish for now. Man, Niff Squad back at it again!"

Jeff: Seeing how excited Nick was only hyped him up more, and he grinned wider as he was pulled into the worlds biggest hug. Not missing a beat, Jeff wrapped his arms around the guy tightly. “WAY too long. Can’t go that long again, man, I missed you.” He laughed out of excitement  as they broke the hug, and he took a small step back in order to give him space to come in. “They can wait, honestly, I wanna be selfish too and savor this Niff reunion first. How the heck have you been??”(edited)

Nick: "Don't worry... now that I'm a free man again,  I plan on hanging out with you every chance I get!" Nick told his friend, feeling relieved that he wasn't on a filming schedule anymore. Now inside Jeff's abode, he closed the door behind him and took a breath of air. "Honestly, man, I, like, really needed this chill day," as he spoke he seemed to deflate a bit from his initial exuberance from seeing his friend but still wore a smile on his face. "Now I'm only tellin' you because I know you're my boy and you'll keep my secrets but partying all of the time..." he let out another sigh and chuckled, "... it gets exhausting after a while, you know what I mean?"

Jeff: “Sounds good, we’ve gotta make use of our free time when we have it. I’ve been cutting back on my live shows so I can focus on other things. Sometimes you just need a break.” He calmed down some himself, and looked at him with some concern. “Hey, that’s what I’m here for, right? What good is it having bros to begin with if you can’t have chill days with them at least sometimes?” He knew Nick liked to party. That was no secret. But sometimes he wondered if it ever got tiring for him. He knew it was in Nick’s personality to be the life of the party, but everyone needed down days. Clearly Nick needed one today. “I know exactly what you mean. We can hang out here all day if you need that, Nick, I’ve got a clear schedule for once. We can Yoga it up, complete with incense and everything.” Jeff grinned again. “I’ll go easy on you, though, and if it isn’t vibing with you we can just watch a movie or something.”

Nick: Nick was glad to hear that Jeff was also clearing his schedule to catch himself a break. Even though he had no first-hand experience in that field, he was sure playing shows all of the time was probably exhausting.  "Yeah, definitely. I live for the days when I can just kick back and chill with you, bro. I am so psyched to yoga this thing up," he told Jeff with a determined nod of his head. "We can do the whole shebang with the yoga, the incense, and--" he paused as he tried to think about the other things related to that and then shook his head. "Well, you know all that jazz so today I am completely in your hands and I'm just gonna follow your lead." He did a little curtsy-bow, "Brofessor Jeff, Yoga Master." With a slight chuckle, he looked around eagerly. "So when do we start?"

Jeff: “I never thought I’d hear you say you’d be psyched to try Yoga. Or anyone, really. But I’d be honored to be your Brofessor.” He tried to say with a straight face, but his amusement shone through nonetheless. Nick was always so over the top over everything; it was one of the reasons why he was so fun to hang out with. “I’m not like, an expert, but I live for this kinda stuff. You’re in good hands. I do this every night; helps me sleep.” He laughed as Nick bowed and shook his head in amusement. “We can start now, if you wanna jump right into it. Take your shoes off, make yourself comfortable. I found some Chocolate scented incense at this shop downtown the other day. Had no idea those scents were a thing, so of course I bought it.  I can put that one on for you. I think you’d like it way better than my Frankincense.” He held his hand out to signal for Nick to wait a moment as he walked over to the counter that already had his supplies on it. He didn’t always go all out, cause he wouldn’t be able to take himself seriously if he was full out meditating every single night. But for Nick he’d definitely pull out all the stops — even if he didn’t end up being a fan of Yoga, maybe he’d at least have fun with the situation. “Alright, student Nick.” He said as he lit the end of the stick with a lighter that he’d left beside everything. “We’re starting out slow. Go ahead and sit down, criss cross applesauce style.”

Nick: Nick didn't really understand the whole yoga thing but he knew it gave Jeff peace and made him happy, so he was willing to try the things that made Jeff happy, too. "Yeah, totally-- let's just jump right into it!" he said with a broad grin, eyebrows lifting at the mention of chocolate. "Oh, man, chocolate scented?! For real?! I didn't even know that was a thing!" Nick kept where he stood but bounced on the balls of his feet, bubbling with excitement. "I thought that stuff just came in like, flower and herb smells. That's so awesome!" He watched with wide, interested eyes as Jeff lit the incense. This was a whole new experience to Nick and he wanted to know more about everything. When Jeff told him they were starting out slow, he did his best to reel his excitement back in and sat down just as instructed. "Criss cross applesauce," he repeated, taking a deep relaxing breath of air as he sat straight up. It was a little difficult to dial back his intensity but he knew relaxation and serenity was important in yoga... Nick just wanted to impress his friend that he could do this.

Jeff: Jeff knew it sounded a little ridiculous to people at first when they found out that he was into Yoga, among other similar activities. It wasn't just for girls or Mom's, though, it could be for anybody. So he was kind of really excited to do this with Nick. No matter what happened, it'd be fun. Things with Nick were always fun. "I didn't know until yesterday. I won't lie to you....It does kind of smell like a stale Tootsie Roll. But that kinda reminds me of Halloween, personally. And Halloween is always a fun time. So I say we just go with it." He smiled at Nick's excitement; it was honestly so pure. He'd seen him on TV before actually meeting him, and he was expecting some douchey party dude who was always wasted. But that wasn't Nick at all, and it didn't take him long to see that. And to want to befriend him ASAP. "It is mostly herb and floral scents, though. To be honest with you they kinda make me sneeze. Incense is so not for everybody."  Already barefoot and ready to go, he walked over to stand in front of Nick before slowly lowering himself to the ground. "Good. We just want you relaxed first. Normally I'd play music, but last time I did this I blasted Aerosmith for about an hour. And that might not be for everybody, either." He smiled at him and straightened his own back. "Okay! Sweet. We're just going to focus on our breathing. Nothing too crazy.  It helps if you close your eyes, just listen to my voice. It'll be like Simon Says without the mind games. Just breathe --- In. And out."

Nick: The aroma of chocolate filled Nick's nostrils when he took a deep breath in and he exhaled with a wide grin on his face. "Whoa," he giggled. "Man, I love the way Halloween smells. Plus, you can't really go wrong with candy, know what I mean?" He listened to Jeff talk about different incense smells and he almost wanted to just smell all of them right now to see which one he liked best. "This incense stuff is like perfume but like... it's just the air. It's so awesome, man." He grinned when Jeff sat down across from him. It was difficult for him to sit still but he closed his eyes at Jeff's suggestion and then all there was were the chocolately smells and Jeff's voice. "Simon says 'breathe'?" he joked with a quiet voice before following the blond's lead and breathing in and out as evenly as possible. He could already feel himself begin to relax a bit and that usual insistence to have his energy cranked up to 11 wasn't quite so insistent anymore.

Jeff: The grin never left his face as Nick continued to be wowed by everything. “Maybe you should invest in some. I’m telling you, man, it’s relaxing. You can probably find other candy scents, too. I’ll keep an eye out for you.” Jeff’s own eyes fell shut, and he was about to focus on his own breathing when Nick joked. A snort escaped him, and he cracked an eye open to look at him in amusement. “Simon says please breathe so you don’t die. I kinda need my best brodude to survive this yoga session.” He let himself fall silent for a second so Nick could focus. “Most of yoga is just breathing and learning how to carry yourself. Think about things that relax you, or make you feel good. Then push all of the bullshit out of your mind.” He began softly, hoping his talking wasn’t killing the mood. “Then we’re gonna stand up and do some stretches, ‘kay, dude?”

Nick: Nick was glad that Jeff liked his joke. He always liked attention but getting it from the people that mattered to him was his absolute favorite. Getting a laugh or two out of his friend was worth way more than any kind of ratings or the number of likes on a tweet. "Your bro's gonna be aces at this breathing thing," he insisted as he continued breathing in and out. He tried to think about happy things and then nodded. When they were quiet again and all that could be heard was the sound of each other's breathing, Nick let himself relax again. He thought he was doing really well so far. "Stretches, got it." Nick worked out and lifted weights on occasion and he always stretched beforehand so he figured it would probably be just like that.

Jeff: "You're already doing awesome, I mean --- you already know how to breathe, thankfully, so that's one thing out of the way." Nick seemed so intent on learning this Yoga thing that Jeff decided they should probably progress sooner. "Okay." He tried not to sound too amused. He kind of liked this whole teaching Yoga thing , especially if the students were all like Nick and super into learning it. "Let's stand. We're gonna do some of the classic stuff. Just simple balance stuff. Did you ever have to do gymnastics or something when you were in school?"

Nick: "This yoga stuff would really hard if I didn't know how to breathe, man," Nick laughed as he opened his eyes and followed Jeff to stand up off of the floor. Even if the mood was calm and quiet, he was actually having fun so far. He tried to think back to his high school days and couldn't remember doing anything like this or anything like gymnastics. "Uhhh, I didn't do any gymnastics but parkour is kinda like that, right? I can do some pretty awesome parkour!"

Jeff: "You prove an excellent point." Jeff looked at Nick for a moment as he thought about what would be best for him. "Did you really? That's so cool --- parkour was so big back in the day. Yoga is nothing like that. But. You still have to use strength! So I mean, it's kind of similar?" He thought out loud before rising to his feet. "Okay, my dude --- Up. Get ready for some stand-still parkour. If that even is such a thing. We're gonna balance and hope we don't fall over and break ourselves." He spoke with a solemn nod.

Nick: Nick brightened up when his friend commended him on his parkour skills but then deflated a bit when he also pointed out it wasn't really the same. But oh well, this whole thing was about new experiences anyway so he was still in the moment of it all. "Stand-still parkour," he repeated Jeff's words and nod. "Dude, I have ah-mazing balance so no worries here. What's first? Some cool handstands?"

Jeff: "If you wanna jump right into that --- then sure. I'll be here in case the ground shakes and you lose your balance." He nodded, not wanting to say it's a real possibility that Nick could very well lose his balance all on his own. "We may as well so you can see how cool it is when you really ---" He snapped in the air for affect "---Nail that pose." Jeff stretched his arms over his head as he looked at him, pondering how to go about this. "Okay. We're just gonna twist around for a bit until our muscles feel stretched out. Then. THEN, dude. It's gonna get real." He twisted his torso from side to side briefly. "And then....we're gonna reach down, and plant our hands firmly on the ground. Sound good so far?"

Nick: Nick laughed as Jeff snapped his fingers and he wasn't about to disappoint. He stretched along from side to side just as the other did, limbering himself up. "Right, Zombieland rule number eighteen-- limber up!" he nodded and was determined to really nail this handstand. It seemed like Jeff was pretty confident about this. "I didn't think there were actually cool handstands in yoga; I'm so ready, bro." he told him, taking a step back and planting both hands on the floor while his feet swung into the air. He staggered as he struggled to find his center of balance, 'walking' a bit wobbly with his hands before losing his balance completely and falling over-- directly into Jeff.

Jeff: “There can be anything in Yoga. You just gotta make it look fancy.” Figuring he should lead by example, Jeff also got in the position to do a handstand. Okay. So maybe it wasn’t traditional Yoga — whatever, he never claimed to be an expert. And Nick seemed to enjoy the idea of it, so why not. With his hands firmly on the floor, he let out an excited laugh at Nick’s words. In retrospect, maybe he should have taken one hundred steps back before they both tried this. But it was too late, because before he knew it, Nick was toppling over and onto him before Jeff was even fully balanced himself. Letting out a surprised yell, his hands wobbled and he began to crash down forwards and into Nick. “Watch out!” He tried to warn although, obviously, it was too late because they were both down now. “Are you okay??”

Nick: Nick let out a little groan from having fell over and then tried to laugh it off, untangling his limbs from Jeff's and lying down beside him. "I'm cool, don't worry, man," he chuckled and then turned his head to look at the other. "Are you okay? I didn't like, elbow you in your face, did it?" He pushed himself into a sitting position to get a better look at Jeff, making sure he hadn't bruised him. His tone had changed from joking to concerned. "Sorry I fucked up our yoga sesh... I thought I had way better balance than that."

Jeff: That was definitely not a professional move on his part, maybe he shouldn’t be opening his own Yoga studio anytime soon since. “No, you’re fine. I think you kicked me in the shoulder, but I also think I kicked you in the stomach. We both beat each other up. I think you had the worst of it, though, you came down pretty hard. You sure you didn’t break anything?” He lifted himself up and shook his head as a smile began to creep onto his face. “I’m fine, I promise. This isn’t the first Yoga related accident I’ve ever had.” He teased and reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t. I’m sorry I ruined your first Yoga sesh. We should have started out small. You probably don’t feel super zen right now. I don’t guess you’d wanna try again?”

Nick: Nick shook his head. "No, bro, you didn't ruin anything," he insisted, and Jeff's reassurances made him feel a little bit better. "It'll take a lot more than a foot to the stomach to keep me down. We can totally try again, though... I mean, I kinda suck at being your bro-ga student but I don't wanna be a quitter, either." He looked up at him and offered up a smile, patting the hand resting on his shoulder. "One little yoga-related accident isn't gonna keep me away from learning this stuff."

Jeff: "Dude, you're the best Broga student, don't get yourself down. Accidents happen, right?" He clapped him on the shoulder and dropped his hand down to the floor in order to push himself up to his feet. He reached a hand down to Nick to help him to his feet. "You went in head first, literally. I've never seen anyone try to learn that fast." Jeff shook his head. "What do you usually do to relax? We can try one of your things, since my thing almost killed you. Otherwise we can try to do some more handstands. Or cartwheels. I'll be honest with you, not the most traditional Yoga moves. But it is more fun."

Nick: With Jeff's help, Nick returned to his feet. "Maybe when I practice my balance, we can try this yoga stuff again," Nick suggested.  "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger so since I only almost died today, I'll be a master of yoga in no time!" When prompted about his preferred method of relaxing, Nick crossed his arms over his chest and a perplexed look came over his face.  He couldn't really remember a time where he specifically went out of his way to relax. He was always on the go or doing something or getting drunk. "Uh... does sleep count?" he asked with an embarrassed chuckle.

Jeff: “Eh, after a few more times, you’ll be way better than me. Guaranteed. We can try it again whenever; next time I’ll make sure to spot you so we have no other incidents.” Jeff raised an eyebrow at him in curiosity as Nick thought. “Hey, it can! I take naps all the time, dude. That always helps. And I mean, I’ve got extra room if you wanted to do that --- but no, I meant other stuff. Like Yoga. This chill day is for you. I said we’d help you find your zen and I meant that.” Jeff nodded, mostly to himself. “We will find your version of Yoga even if it kills us. Okay... no, that was dramatic. You know what I mean.”

Nick: "My version of yoga..." Nick mumbled to himself as he continued to ponder. He really appreciated that Jeff was so eager to help him out. It was true that Nick felt a little more stressed out than usual, especially after having spent the last month or so partying every single night. "I dunno, man..." he said, his instincts telling him to crack a beer or maybe something even stronger. But Nick wasn't here to drink. He didn't want to party-- not today. "I gotta find a thing that ain't about me getting drunk or doing other stupid shit... Like how you got your yoga and it's like, relaxing and smells amazing." He plopped himself down onto Jeff's sofa and let out an audible, exasperated sigh.

Jeff: "Yeah. And it could be anything. Playing video games, rock climbing, you could even paint ceramics if that was your thing. Screw what anyone has to say about it." Jeff came over to sit next to him, almost feeling bad that the Yoga thing didn't work for him, although he did know it wasn't for everybody. "You know, before I picked up the Yoga stuff, I was a mess." He admitted. "I was stressed out, like, all of the time. It was really effecting me mentally. But one day this friend of mine dragged me along to one of the sessions, and I thought I'd hate it --- but I didn't. You never know until you try things, you know?" He paused, in thought. "Okay, get your shoes back on, we're going out. Don't ask me where, because I'm 100% not sure. But we're gonna do something that'll blow your mind, dude." Hopefully.

Nick: Nick thought about all the things Jeff listed for him. Video games were fun but not exactly relaxing, and rock climbing was probably a little too close to working out to be considered relaxing for him. He never considered himself artistic to do any painting but that sounded like it could be fun. It really touched him that Jeff was trying so hard to figure out what could be Nick's new thing. "I totally feel you on the mental thing, man," Nick agreed, "I can't just be out partying all of the time because sooner or later I'll burn out, you know what I mean?" He perked up and looked at Jeff with curiosity when told to put his shoes back on but he trusted Jeff. He knew that Jeff would never lead him astray or make him do something he didn't want to do. So he listened and did exactly as he was told, excited for where this day was about to take him. "Alright, dude, adventure time?" he said, grinning from ear to ear as he followed Jeff's lead.

Jeff: "Yeah, I know what you mean." He offered him a small smile. Nick was always partying, whether it be for the show or in his downtime. When he used to party himself, he'd come home mentally drained almost every time. He couldn't imagine how someone could do that full-time, but Nick was different. He was fun and lighthearted and literally a bro to everybody. It was hard to picture him when he was feeling down, even now when he was telling Jeff it got to him. He didn't want his friend to feel like that, so he was going to try to distract him for at least a little while. "Adventure time." He confirmed proudly and stood up himself and walked over to the side of room to slip his own shoes on and grab his phone, wallet, and keys. "We live in one of the coolest cities ever, why not explore it? This day is yours, dude, we can go anywhere you want to."

Nick: "Anywhere?" Nick asked with a chuckle, thinking about all the places he usually visited. He knew he needed more variety in the places he liked to go to because all that popped into his head were different bars and clubs. Taking in another deep breath of air, the strong chocolately scent filling his nostrils, this time his stomach growled. "Ice cream," the words left his lips and then his mouth filled with saliva as he thought about the snack. "Or donuts." His stomach growled again, this time louder, and he laughed. "Can eating be my relaxing thing?" Nick joked.

Jeff: "Anywhere." He confirmed with a nod of his head. "Um, of course it can. Just look at Guy Fieri. His hobby is food too and he's killin' it." Jeff joked back, but was also sort of serious. "There's this ice cream place a couple blocks away. I say we check it out, then go from there." He made sure he had everything he needed and faced Nick completely. "You up for that?"

Nick: Nick had an excited sparkle in his eyes when Jeff affirmed that eating was a valid hobby. "Man, I could argue the only thing I love doing more than partying is eating good food, you know what I mean? Like, sometimes food is, like..." he gestured with his hands broadly as he tried to come up with the right word. "... healing, y'know?" He nodded eagerly at the decision for the both of them to go get ice cream, all ready and set to head out. "I'm so up for some ice cream, bro."

Jeff: “We’re gonna get you some food, then.” Jeff said decisively before nodding towards his door and walking towards it, silently urging Nick to follow. It made him happy that he found something that seemed to excite him. Jeff couldn’t blame him that it was over food. Food excited him from time to time, too. “Is that where the term Comfort Food comes from?” He thought out loud as they headed out. “We could have also partied if that’s what you wanted to do.” He offered lightly. “But I’m into this ice cream idea. We’ll have way less accidents than the whole Yoga thing.”

Nick: "Yo, I never even thought about that!" Nick exclaimed regarding Jeff's 'comfort food' comment. "But yeah, sometimes all food is comfort food. And sometimes I give a shit about eating healthy... I just wanna eat what I wanna eat. Right now I wanna get some ice cream into my belly." With a laugh, he followed Jeff out of the house and they headed down towards the ice cream place. "But dude, we gotta do the yoga thing another time. I won't let you down, Brofessor Jeff. I promise I'll get better at the balance and yoga thing. When I nail the yoga-ing, then we can celebrate with some partying!"

Jeff: "You know what, you're allowed to treat yourself. Why not, right? Eating healthy can wait 'til tomorrow." They began to walk, and while Jeff could have offered to drive, he thought against it. It was nicer anyway, and besides, this way they'd just end up wherever their feet took them. It'd be more of an adventure that way. "For sure. We'll definitely have to celebrate your graduation from Brofessor Jeff's School of Yoga. Or, you know, if you don't like that we'll just have to party because we got some good ice cream. That works too." He spoke as they rounded the block. "It's been awhile since I've partied Nick-style. I think I'm starting to forget what it's like. Scary, right?" He joked as they continued on.

Nick: Nick nodded with determination when was told that they could eat healthy tomorrow. It wasn't often he treated himself to unhealthy foods and today was one of those exceptions where he just didn't care about what went into his gut. It was a beautiful day in LA and Nick was going to make sure he and Jeff both enjoyed themselves to the fullest. "We'll get you to a kick-ass party soon, dude. I found some pretty awesome places on my quest for the perfect club and there are some that play some awesome tunes, too! We can also both go somewhere totally new to either of us and that'll like, but its own adventure on its own, you know what I mean?"

Jeff: Jeff ate relatively healthy himself, but he liked food as much as the next guy. So the prospect of having a cheat day was as appealing as their Yoga day was. “Yeah? I’d be down for checking some of those places out soon. You got me at awesome tunes.” It’d been awhile since he had last partied, and while he made sure he didn’t go too crazy on the drinks, making public appearances were something his manager strongly encouraged. Plus, Nick always made it more fun with his attitude, so that was always a plus. “Do clubs ever offer you free entrance to come check them out? I feel like you’re kind of a big deal for clubs and bars.” He asked, curious as they neared their destination, and opened the door to let Nick in first. “I’m always up for trying something new. Who knows where we’ll end up, man? I’m glad you’re doing this with me. You’re totally gonna be my go to Adventure Dude. While you’re on hiatus and have the time, at least.”

Nick: “Oh yeah,” Nick answered the question with a slight scrunch to his brows. “Before, when I was a nobody, sometimes I couldn’t even get my ass in a bar but now that I’ve done the show sometimes I’ll get, like, VIP invites and stuff.” He nodded and his eyes lit up at all the different flavors listed at the ice cream shop. “Dude, you know if you wanna party, next time I get the heads up for some killer event, we can totes go together. The world needs to know about the Niff Squad! Everybody in the club would be so psyched to see you show up!” Thinking more and more about this future hangout together was getting Nick excited all over again. “I got a pretty open schedule for a while... they told me they wouldn’t call me back ‘til next summer but who knows, right?”

Jeff: "Now that everyone knows you, I bet they're beating themselves up for not letting you in. You’re basically almost a club promoter now. I have no idea what it is they do, though.” He commented as he observed the flavors himself once they stepped inside. “I’d be happy to make an appearance. They won’t know what hit ‘em when Niff shows up. You’d hype them up so hard they’d have to be psyched to see me.” Nick was good at that --- he made things and people seem way better or cooler than they actually were. It got everyone he was around excited, for sure. “Next summer? That’s forever! But I guess that’s a good thing, right? Getting an extended break.” He smiled at the clerk behind the counter and order two scoops of the most chocolate-looking ice cream he could find, before looking to Nick so he could choose his. “It’s on me, dude. I almost killed you with Yoga so it’s only right.”

Nick: Nick wasn’t sure what a club promoter did either or what he did constituted as such. “Dude, I dunno... sometimes the clubs let me in for free but then sometimes they pay me to promote their club. Like, one club paid me a bunch to tweet about them and pose for some pictures but it wasn’t like I was rollin’ in the dough, you know what I mean? I got more from the show but I ain’t lookin’ to be greedy with the green— I just wanna have a good time.” When they stepped closer to the counter, Nick’s eyes went as wide as saucers as he watched the worker behind the counter scooping together an ice cream named Triple Fudge Chocolate Brownie Supreme. He didn’t know what was in it that made it supreme but it sure sounded and looked delicious. “Yo, that chocolate, bro,” he said, pointing at the chocolate ice cream that had been prepared for Jeff. “That looks like it’ll give me a chocolate coma when I’m done eating it!” He laughed. While the clerk scooped together another ice cream cone, Nick turned to look at Jeff. “Dude, you didn’t have to get it. I’ll definitely hit you back... Drinks are on me when we party together, alright?” The clerk handed him his ice cream cone and Nick decided to take a huge bite out of the top scoop instead of doing the normal thing and simply licking it. “Ohhh, dude...” he laughed again, mouth half-full with chocolate ice cream as he nodded. “This was the best idea we’ve had yet!”(edited)

Jeff: “You’re pretty much a spokesperson for cool things, then. I think you’re way more of a rockstar than I am, hands down.” Sure, it wasn’t like, what most people would consider a conventional career. But really, no career in the public eye was conventional, and the partying seemed to make Nick happy. Jeff was glad he found a thing he liked doing, even if Nick did say it left him drained sometimes.  “Hey, dude, if this is gonna be our wild cheat day --- why not get the Chocolate Coma Explosion?” He said in a serious tone as the ice cream was scooped for both of them. “Nah, don’t worry, but if you insist on the drinks, I won’t say no.” He wasn’t much of a drinker these days, but when he was dragged out to party, he didn’t mind having a few. Jeff pulled out his wallet to pay for the ice cream before tucking it back in safely and grabbing his own cone with one hand. From the corner of his eye, he saw Nick chomp into his, and tried to fight back his smile. The fact that his friend was so over the top goofy at times was endearing, and it was relaxing to be around ‘cause Nick didn’t judge him for being over the top either. “I honestly think it might be. I haven’t had ice cream in like --- eighty years.” He licked the bottom of the cone so it wouldn’t drip down onto his hand, and jerked his head towards the door. “Wanna stay here or continue on? Who knows, could end up finding even more junk to consume. Go big or go home, you know?”

Nick: Nick knew that Jeff wasn't as much of the partying-type like himself; he wouldn't force him to drink if he didn't want to but for Nick, drinking always seemed to make parties a bit more fun. He liked to respect everyone's-- especially Jeff's-- personal relationship with alcohol and wasn't going to push. "Well, if we get anymore food then I'll fork over the dough for it, 'kay?" he asked, taking a handful of napkins from the counter, already desperately needing it for the chocolate around his mouth. "We definitely gotta go big, dude. Like, first ice cream and then donuts or pizza or, like, just whatever sounds good, y'know?" He motioned for them to take their ice cream to go just as Jeff had also gestured. Thankfully another patron opened the door for them as they were leaving, so Nick wouldn't have to get his chocolate hands all over everything. When they were back outside, Nick started walking in no particularly decisive direction. They were in the middle of the city and odds were that if they kept walking, they were sure to run into something interesting or tasty. "Life advice, bro? Always go big. Because, like, if you want to win anything-- a race, your self, your life-- you have to go a little berserk... you know what I mean?"

Jeff: “If we end up finding anything equally as bad for us, sure.” He grinned and took a bite from the side, not nearly as large as Nicks but big enough to be greeted with an onslaught of chocolate. “Or one of those weird things, like a cheeseburger but instead of buns it’s donuts.” He suggested, before his face scrunched in slight disgust. “Or, okay, maybe not that. But yes to the other things.” Jeff was thankful for the random passerby opening the door for them, otherwise he would have had to open it with his back and shoulder and he always got weird looks when he did that. “I believe it. I know it’s your life’s motto and it’s been working pretty well for you so far. You’re a pretty hard core dude. Right now though all I wanna win is more ice cream. And maybe a pizza. I also wouldn’t say no to winning the lottery.” He took another bite as they walked along. Jeff was more of a go with the flow type of person, but he appreciated Nick’s philosophy nonetheless. In the distance, he noticed a few people staring in their direction, fairly obviously. He smiled at them briefly before turning his attention back to Nick.  “Uh, dude. Either we’re lookin’ real good today, or we’ve been recognized.”

Nick: Nick had made pretty good work with his ice cream, it already more than half gone and they'd just barely left the ice cream shop. He made an interested noise when Jeff proposed finding a cheeseburger consisting of donuts; it sounded like something he would at least try once even if it wasn't yummy. "You know I'll eat pretty much anything, bro," Nick said, thinking about how a cheesy, oily pizza would compliment this chocolate ice cream really well right now. "I could totally go for getting pizza and winning the lottery, though."  Looking up when Jeff mentioned being recognized, he looked in the direction of the staring people and shot them a wink and a single finger-pistol. "Uh, dude, it's obviously both. We look sharp-- ay eff-- and there's no foolin' anyone when Niff Squad is on the run." After Nick had acknowledged the people, it seemed they thought it was okay to come over and approach them. "Um, I don't mean to bother you both-- oh my god, I'm such a huge fan of you, Jeff, and I watch your show all of the time, Nick--" one of the girls that had approached them was speaking a mile a minute and she looked nearly overwhelmed just from this interaction. "Can I, um, can I please have a picture with you two? My brother would die if I met you and didn't get a picture!" Nick exchanged a look with Jeff... being recognized always boosted his already inflated ego. "How about it, dude? Niff squad selfie for the pretty peoples?" he asked, wiping the remaining chocolate off from around his mouth so he'd look picture perfect.

Jeff: Jeff was an active guy; he ate healthy and worked out on a regular basis. Which is why he didn't feel one shred of guilt over demolishing his ice cream and still thinking about more food. "I don't know if we'll be able to win the lottery today, but we should be able to hunt down a pizza somewhere in LA." He was a little slower to finish his ice cream, still with half a cone left when they saw the small group. Jeff laughed as Nick played it up for the people, and in turn Jeff waggled his eyebrows and lifted a hand to wave. "You might be right. Or we just have chocolate all over our faces." He teased, before the girls decided to walk over. This wasn't the first time either of them have been approached by strangers, but it was still so weird to Jeff that he was actually recognized right off the bat. Nick, he understood having so many fans. He was practically a meme, so everyone knew his face.  But having people recognize him too always flattered him. Jeff couldn't help but smile at the earnestness, and turned his head to exchange looks with Nick, offering him a subtle nod. "I think the lady means she wants me to take a picture of you two." He joked, dumping the rest of his ice cream in the nearby trash (as sad as that was, he didn't want to talk to the fans with sticky fingers). "But I like my selfies as much as the next dude." He moved around to stand beside the fan and motioned Nick over to the other side. "Okay, let's do this! Nick, we have an honorary member of the Niff Squad now. Does that mean we have to rename ourselves?"

Nick: Nick loved all of the attention and having people want to take pictures of him and with him. "Yeah, make sure you tag us when you upload this pic and hashtag us 'Niff Squad'!" He laughed, posing to take pictures with the girl who was fangirling over them. Unlike Jeff, Nick didn't get rid of his ice cream and didn't care that this girl's pictures would have a half-eaten ice cream in them. "Yo, my boy Jeff is one of the coolest cats I know, we're like, best buds, you know what I mean? And, plus, he's like the most talented musician that I've ever heard," he told the girls who just seemed to nod along and listen. Nick was especially high energy when talking with fans and this was an opportunity to get Jeff some exposure, even if it was just to these two girls-- one of whom didn't even really engage in conversation with them-- either because she didn't know them or she was just too shy. "Niff Squad is open to any honorary members but we're the founders and gotta keep the name for future branding, y'know?" He insisted with a determined nod. "Hashtag-Niff-Squad."

Jeff: Jeff could tell Nick was getting even more enthusiastic than he already was over the attention. The girls were eating it up, too, and Jeff couldn't blame them. Nick's energy was always infectious, even if he was making Jeff the center of attention. He'd be embarrassed if it were anyone else talking him up, but it was Nick and Nick was just always the worlds nicest guy. And Jeff was used to his elaborate ways by now. "Don't listen to this guy --- he's just biased 'cause I got ice cream with him." Jeff laughed off any bashfulness, and his lips quirked into another smile. "Look at him, though." He raised a hand in Nick's direction, "What an icon. I'm glad you guys asked to get a picture because I've been dyin' for another selfie with this guy. You guys are a bonus, of course."  The first girl seemed excited, but the other one seemed just along for the ride. Jeff wasn't offended, though. The first girl looked like this was one of the best days ever. Jeff stood next to the excited girl and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and waved Nick in closer so they could all get in the angle. He smiled big as the girl lifted her phone up to get ready to snap a series of pictures. "Is that what we're going with, for sure? What about Niffocalypse? NiffNation? Nifftackular?" He named off the first things off the top of his head, glancing down to see the fan smiling from ear to ear. "We should post a poll to see what everyone thinks."

Nick: Nick got in close, all buddy-buddy, posing with his best friend and the girl who was excited to meet them. If he had all the time in the world he would snap pictures all day with whoever wanted them. He waved off Jeff's praise and blew a raspberry with his lips, chuckling. "Oh, c'mon, bro, you are so much cooler than me," he said, adamant on that fact. “Like, you literally got me ice cream and it tastes amazing!” He half-sang the last word, finishing off his ice cream before throwing away the waste. The girls giggled at Nick’s antics and his rapport with Jeff. “You two seem so close!” Nick nodded. “Uh, understatement of the century, girl! Jeff here is my BBF— best bud forever!” Turning back to Jeff at the mention of a poll, he immediately whipped out his phone and tweeted it out, listing all the names Jeff had come up with. “We’ll let the people decide, then! Surely they won’t steer us wrong, right?”

Jeff: Jeff let out another loud laugh at Nick's antics. "It's not like I made the ice-cream. But you're welcome." The girls seemed amused by Nick, and Jeff was glad that they'd run into them, because it was fun hanging out with fans when they were cool like this. And Nick was having fun with it too, so it was a cool moment. Jeff nodded along with the sentiment, because as goofy as they got sometimes, Nick really was his best friend. "He's right, we've got friendship bracelets and everything." Okay, so that wasn't really accurate, but Jeff vaguely remembered finding some girls hair tie in the floor of a bar one night long ago and sticking it on Nick's wrist like it was a present. Perhaps not his most creative moment. After a few selfies with the fan, Jeff stepped away in order to look over Nick's shoulder nosily. "Nick, they'll definitely steer us wrong. But I say we do it anyway." He was throwing caution to the wind. Nick was rubbing off on him. Jeff looked over to the girls still standing by them. "Any suggestions while we're doing this? Nifferoni? Niff---?" Jeff frowned in thought, and gently tapped Nick on the shoulder as he spoke. "Hey, why aren't we Jick? Or Neff? Or Stuval? Who decided on Niff, was that me or you?"

Nick: Nick smiled and chatted animatedly, nodding his head as he continued to talk Jeff up. It was all the truth and Nick meant every word, grinning from ear to ear at this interaction. The girls that were talking to them seemed thrilled that they were talking up so much time just to speak with them. "Dude, if we legit got friendship bracelets I would cherish the fuck out of it and wear it all of the time," he said with a serious expression on his face.  As Nick tweeted out the poll about their proposed hashtag names, the thought of their supposed ship/duo name hadn't even occurred to him. Who exactly was it that got to decide this fact? It was probably some self-righteous writer of some cheesy fan blog somewhere on the Internet and it just happened to catch on. "'Stuval' sounds way more dignified than 'Niff', man,"  Nick said out loud as he thought about all the different possible ship names. He honestly couldn't even remember if it was either of them that thought the name up. "I have no idea, bro. It's a good thing you thought of that because after we trademark that shit, there's no going back, you know what I mean?"

Jeff: No one he’d ever met in his life talked him up as much as Nick did, and while Nick was just naturally an excited and exuberant guy, Jeff knew he was also being genuine. “Next time I’m sucked into doing arts in crafts, I’ll totally make you one, bro.” Jeff nodded, also with a serious expression. “Maybe too dignified.” He agreed with a nod. “Well yes it’s a big deal. This is a name that could be on our future merch.” He joked. “Honestly, though, no matter what they pick, I still like Niff the best though. We’ve been calling ourselves that for too long for it not to stick.”

Nick: Nick nodded in agreement. "Definitely, bro. No matter what the media or the fans label us, we'll be Niff forever." They waved the girls goodbye as they went about their way, both men headed in the direction they were originally walking before they were stopped. "I mean, like, we've known each other for what, two years already? Man, you're like my best bro and even if you become super famous and go away to live somewhere crazy like, I dunno-- Finland... You'd still my best bro, you know what I mean?" Nick said, trying to properly emphasize himself using what vocabulary he knew.

Jeff: “Why does Niff Forever sound like the title of an action movie?” He joked, waving the girls goodbye with a large grin. “Finland, huh? While that sounds like a cool experience, I think I’m good where I’m at here. I’ve got family and friends. I’ve got you. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Jeff looked over at Nick, understanding what he was trying to say. “Yeah, dude, I know what you mean.” He was trying to be more upfront with the people he cared about lately, but Jeff didn’t want to make the moment too cheesy by professing his undying friendship either. So he just gently nudged his arm with his and grinned, not for the first time that day. “Alright. Come on. I promised you a super chill slash cheat day and we’ve only even scratched the surface. I say we should hit up a pizza joint and any other greasy food eateries and take it all back to my place. Think anyone else will recognize us on the way?”

Nick: Nick laughed at Jeff's joke, the title in bright, bold, flashy letters popping out to him in his head with the two of them in cool action poses for the movie poster. "It totally sounds like the title to the last movie of our action movie saga," he agreed. He was glad to hear that Jeff had no intentions of leaving because Nick wouldn't even know what he would do if Jeff went away somewhere. It felt like they had been Nick and Jeff for such a long time, he couldn't even remember much of what it was like before he'd befriended Jeff. Not having much words to agree on the matter either, thinking Jeff had summed it up really well, Nick just nudged him right back with a goofy grin. "Pizza, yessss," Nick half-spoke, half-groaned as he thought about the cheese and oily pepperoni hitting his taste buds. "I need me some pizza pie in mah belly. Right. Now." Nick began looking around as they walked down the street, wanting to go to the first pizza place within view. "I don't doubt it, dude. We're both in LA and that girl was just one in millions just waiting to see Niff in the flesh." In addition to looking for a pizza joint, he also kept an eye out for any other people that might be staring or even following them. "I think more people will recognize you, though, because you're like, you're totally booming in the music industry now, y'know? And, and," he jumped once or twice as he walked, "People will probably totally bug you to get, like, backstage passes to your shows and stuff."

Jeff: “We’ll have to file that one away for future reference, then.” Jeff was at a point in his life where he was feeling good where he was at. When he was a little younger, he was set to move just about anywhere regardless of the consequences. But now it was different; it felt like his life was coming together again here in LA. And more than that, Nick was his favorite person. He made everything seem better than it actually was just by being around, Jeff didn’t want to imagine what it’d feel like if he wasn’t there. Nicks groaning over the pizza made him laugh and nod along in agreement. “Okay then let’s do it, I don’t want you to starve. Or me. I only got to eat half of my ice cream because I was dumb and threw it away, so now I’m like, super hungry.” Jeff didn’t actually think they’d run into more fans, because when they were just hanging out like this, it didn’t feel like when he was hanging out with other people who were in the spotlight. It was just him and Nick, not some reality star and musician. It never occurred to him that they’d be spotted until it actually happened. Seeing Nick bounce up and down made his smile grow; Nick was nothing if not exuberant.  “Yeah, right. I don’t think you realize how well known you are. Your face is all over the internet, and everyone knows you’re this super cool party dude. I’m just your lanky musician friend who’s always tagging along.” Jeff had his own following, sure, but in his eyes Nick was just more memorable with his friendly brodude attitude and funny sayings. “You know that has happened, and I almost want to. But then I get annoyed, you know? Because that comes out of my own pocket. Then I just look like the bad guy for saying no.” He paused his small rant as they got further into the city and neared more shops, the scent of several types of foods hitting his nose at once. “We’re close. I know there’s this place somewhere ahead. I don’t know about you, but I’m so hungry I could start runnin’ for it.”

Nick: Nick didn't figure anyone else might recognize him; it was one thing to be recognized whenever he was at a club but another to be recognized off the street. Maybe because he was with Jeff and he felt like he could actually breathe and just be himself, he was less in the reality TV mindset and more about just being a regular guy hanging out with his best friend in the middle of LA. But what Jeff was saying was true... He was more in the public eye than he had ever been and it was sometimes a bother when it showed its face in his non-partying life. "Luckily people only like, swarm me and ask me about shit when I'm out at clubs and stuff, you know what I mean? I haven't really had anyone really bother me in the daytime." He shrugged then, not giving it much thought. When Jeff explained his past experiences with people egging him on for free stuff, he shook his head with disapproval. "Just because people see us IRL doesn't mean they can just ask for free shit-- Man, who do they think they are?" At the mention of more food, Nick's stomach grumbled and then it practically roared when the aroma of foods wafted around him. "Oh, man, I could totally go for all the foods right now. I want, like, a smorgasbord of every food right here, right now."

Jeff: Making it big and being known everywhere was something that sounded better than it actually was. Still, Jeff wasn’t going to complain about how lucky he was to actually get his music out there. And he was sure Nick liked a lot of the aspects of being well known, too. It was just a lot for anyone to deal with 24/7. “That sucks, though, because that’s when you’re trying to have fun.” He cast a sympathetic glance at Nick. “You know... this is awful, but you could always pretend to be too drunk to understand what they’re saying.” He suggested, and almost felt bad about it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. “They just don’t know better, I think.” It doesn’t make it any less wrong, but when he took a step back and thought about it, it helped Jeff not get as annoyed in the future. “Can we do that?” His stomach and workout regimen would hate him tomorrow, but today he couldn’t care less. “Like...everything? All at once?” His eyes widened as he thought of the possibilities. “We should have brought someone along who can say no to our ideas, because neither one of us know how to do that.” He said seriously before grabbing onto Nick’s sleeve and tugging gently to alert him as a pizza place came into view. “I’d apologize for making this National Fatten Niff Up Day, but... I’m kind of excited, dude.”

Nick: “Sometimes it’s cool though, because people will buy me drinks just to party with me,” Nick laughed, finding it almost funny that anyone would actually pay money to hang out with him because when he was at the club he felt he couldn’t be in a friendlier mood. Even with his celebrity status now, Nick always just wanted to have a good time whenever he was letting loose at the club. “I totally could pretend like I don’t even know what they’re saying and just mumble stuff at them! People are dumb anyways and they’d believe it!” He snickered at the idea of tricking people into thinking he was too drunk so he wouldn’t have to engage them; it was a good idea and he might actually give it a try the next time he didn’t want to deal with people. Nick looked in the direction Jeff was showing him, getting excited at the prospect of pizza getting into his stomach very soon. There was a little skip to his step as he quickened his pace, making a beeline for the pizza place. “Bro, we should just totally christen today as National Fatten Niff Up Day and we’ll totally do this every year!” He said, the excitement obvious in his voice as he linked an arm with Jeff’s and pulled him along into the pizza place. Luckily it didn’t seem busy and they could go right up to the counter. “Garçon! What is your best pizza on the menu?” His stomach growled as the gooey cheesy smells invaded his nostrils and he was wondering to himself if he should get just a slice or a whole pie. They might get other foods after this, after all. “Dude, what should we get?” Nick turned to ask Jeff, looking to him for advice.

Jeff: "I can't say I blame them, I used to buy you drinks so I could party with you all the time. You're a fun guy to be around." Nick was fun to be around when he was sober, but truthfully, Jeff wasn't sure if a lot of his fans knew that side to him. "You could! Think of it as fine tuning your acting skills. Plus it'll give you time to yourself to just live." Having time to yourself away from the fame was necessary in order to keep your sanity; Jeff had learned that the hard way once upon a time. Jeff quickened his pace the second Nick did. He had no doubt in his mind that he'd be on board for it, but still, Jeff's excitement grew as the other man agreed. "Seriously --- can we do that? Obviously not everyone in the world will celebrate it, but I'll put it on my calendar and everything. Make it Niff official." Sure, some people scheduled cheat days once every week. But planning one huge feast with his best friend once a year? That seemed way cooler. Jeff let himself be pulled into the pizza place, and immediately was assaulted with the smell of cheese and sauce and grease.  He heard the guy working behind the counter laugh and answer Nick's question, but Jeff was too busy thinking about what to get to pay much attention. "How about... one large? And have them split it up into different sections. One fourth vegetable, because we need to be somewhat healthy. One fourth meat, because meat, duh. One fourth cheese. One fourth pepperoni? That way we get the best of all worlds." Jeff squinted at the menu and then looked back at Nick. "Is that too much?"

Nick: “Yeah, but you never needed to buy me drinks, dude. You’re like, the coolest guy to ever party with,” Nick told Jeff, grinning ear to ear. “And like, whenever we hang out I never have to... pretend, you know what I mean? I never gotta worry about what you think ‘bout me or what I’m acting like ‘cause we’re cool, y’know?” He hoped that the other man would understand where he was coming from but he could tell just from looking at him and grinning that he did. “One large pizza,” Nick repeated back to the guy behind the counter, pointing at him. “Exactly how my bro described with the fourths and getting a sample of all the awesome deliciousness.” Jeff was really smart and Nick continued to believe so; he had the best ideas and Nick never would’ve even thought about that. He probably would’ve just bought four separate pizzas without even thinking. Then that definitely would’ve been way too much. “That’s like, the perfect amount of pizza between the two of us, man. And that leaves room for a second dessert or something for when we’re done!”

Jeff: Nick’s compliment made him grin, although Jeff thought that Nick calling him was the coolest dude ever was a stretch. Jeff was, like, reasonably cool. “I’d hope you weren’t pretending around me. We’ll still be bros no matter what, you know?” He said before getting distracted by the pizza. Nick and him seemed to have the most casual heart to hearts, but it didn’t make it any less true. Nick was always there for him, after all, so he hoped he knew that Jeff would do the same for him. Jeff nodded along with the order. It was a little complicated, and he hoped they weren’t pissing the employees off by ordering four pizzas in one. But the idea sounded too appealing not to try, so he wanted to go for it anyway. “Yes. Like donuts — or cake. I won’t lie to you though, I kinda want more ice cream.” His grin turned sheepish. “I’m still not over me throwing mine away like an idiot.”

Nick: Even with the order being a bit complicated, it was definitely doable and this time Nick was determined to foot the bill after Jeff had so generously covered the ice cream. “Dude, after we get this, we should totally pick up like, a gallon of ice cream to take back to your place! We can totally pig out on pizza and ice cream and if we wanna get anything else, we’ll just call go deliver of get us some Uber Eats, y’know?” Nick pulled out his wallet to pay for the pizza, award they had to wait for it to cook before they could take it home. “In fact, bro— it’ll take a good twenty before we can even start on the pizza so let’s go get some ice cream now and then on the flip side we can pick the pie up before getting back to your place, know what I mean?” Thinking about ice cream again had Nick thinking about what he had missed out on with his first dessert: sprinkles. “We gotta get like, loads of sprinkles and chocolates and— oh, dude nuts and cherries! We can totally make an awesome sundae tower!”

Jeff: “I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. You. Are a genius. I love that idea.” Jeff exclaimed enthusiastically as the guy behind the counter took their order, with some confusion on his face, probably at their excitement moreso than the actual order. He noticed Nick take out his wallet and nearly stopped him because it felt weird whenever anyone bought his stuff, but let it go because he did buy the ice cream earlier. And would probably be buying more ice cream later on, as it looked. “Wow. Okay. Yes. And caramel and that chocolate sauce that makes a hard coating around the ice cream.” Jeff nodded enthusiastically. “Alright, dude. Lets go.” He stepped away from the counter, suddenly eager. He liked his ice cream sundaes and he wasn’t about to pretend otherwise. “Then we can just hang out at my place. They just added a bunch of stuff on Netflix. I don’t know about you but now I just wanna eat and be lazy.”

Nick: Nick nodded enthusiastically, the idea of lazing around and eating food at Jeff’s place sounding more and more appealing by the moment. After paying for the order and letting the guy behind the counter know they’d be back for their pizza in a bit, Nick all but dashed out the door with Jeff in tow. “Dude, we should get, like, a bunch of different flavors. Because I love that hard-chocolate-shell stuff on vanilla but caramel tastes amazing with pecan ice cream and whoa— just imagine all the different flavor possibilities? Like, talk about flavor explosion, you know what I mean?” He said, talking a mile a minute. He hadn’t even realized that with all of his talking and getting excited about ice cream, he was all turned around and didn’t know which direction they were supposed to be going in. “Dude, where are we even? You gotta lead the way ‘cause all that’s on my brain is ice cream and pizza right now.”

Jeff: As they headed out the door without a second thought, Jeff allowed himself to think out loud. "Caramel and pecan sounds so good, dude. Or if I get chocolate ice cream, and graham crackers, and mini marshmallows --- with the hard chocolate stuff? Ice cream smores, man." Of course, the second they actually attempted this, they may decide it's too sweet to actually eat. But the thought alone is fun, so Jeff is all for it. "Flavor Explosion should just be the name of an ice cream bar. Where they have all the toppings for you to pile on. You know, like a frozen yogurt shop only not as healthy." He was excited for the ice cream, but Nick seemed even more excited. They were going to end up with way too many sweets, Jeff knew already, but he didn't have it in him to be an adult about the situation. They didn't do this often, so he was going to enjoy it. "Uh. Yeah, okay. I got this." He looked at the street signs ahead and mentally calculated how far the nearest store would be. He'd grown up in LA, so while he liked to pretend he was just aimlessly walking around sometimes, he still remembered where most things were at. Or the general direction they were located in, at least. "We're about a block away from a store. I go there a lot, so I can guarantee they've got what they need." He offered Nick a friendly grin and waved his arm in front of him before continuing on. "Just follow me, I'll make sure we don't get lost. I'll be your human Google Maps for the day."

Nick: Nick pointed at Jeff as he listened to his ice cream bar idea with the toppings. "Dude, when we're super famous and rich, that should be, like, a thing we actually do! Y'know how celebrities are always either opening restaurants or cosmetics lines to further their success? Bro, we should open up an ice cream bar with all the toppings and it'll be uh-mazing because first, duh, Niff would be running it, and two, you're a freakin' genius and celebrity icon!" He followed Jeff closely as they made their way to the store, making a mental list of all the sugary and chocolate-y goodness they would bring home with them. He trusted that Jeff would know the way and they could bring back a bounty of ice cream and toppings. "Man, I wish I had your sense of direction... I feel like half of the time I don't know where the heck I'm going when I'm walking around here but somehow all the Uber drivers know exactly where I need to go when I tell them."

Jeff: "Yeah, dude, and open it right across from Danny Trejo's Donut Shop. Not that I'd want to be his enemy or anything, but he might stop by and come into our shop. And if Machete himself buys ice cream from our ice cream shop --- that'd be pretty cool." Nick and him seemed to have a lot of ideas, and if they bothered to follow through on even 1/3 of them, they'd probably be, like, shark tank rich. He slowed down some so Nick could follow along, knowing his friend tended to get distracted easily, but not minding in the slightest. "It's just something you get used to after awhile. I grew up around here, some things stick. My Dad didn't believe in free rides, so by the time I was thirteen, I had to walk just about anywhere." His family were serious about making sure their kids be self sufficient. "If you ever get super lost, Uber is amazing. Or you could have me come out instead." He grinned and shrugged as they turned the corner, the small store now in sight. "Alright, dude. You grab the toppings, I'll grab the ice cream?" Jeff suggested as he pulled open the door, waiting for Nick to follow suit.

Nick: "Oh, man, the Machete getting ice cream from our shop? Damn, that's a story I'd never get tired of tellin' at parties and stuff, y'know?" Nick laughed excitedly at the idea. It was almost tempting enough that he'd derail his entire movie idea just to open up said shop with his friend, but they had so many ideas in a single day alone that it all couldn't be done. Nick admired Jeff's independence; it was something he didn't have much of himself since he always relied on his parents for money. It was almost like the independence Nick had for himself wasn't really real-- at least not like the kind Jeff had. "Your dad sounds like a hard-ass but damn if it didn't make you know your way around... Maybe I should, like, just spend the day in LA without my phone and just figure out which street is which," he mused aloud. When they arrived at the store and Nick was given instructions to grab the toppings, he gave a determined nod of the head and moved to grab one of the shopping baskets to fill. He was going to get nuts, marshmallows, cherries, bananas, caramel, and the fancy chocolate fudge that hardened when you poured it out. He made sure to get two of everything-- just in case one wasn't enough for the two of them. In the end, it felt like he had almost too much in his basket but Nick figured you couldn't have too much of a good thing and these things were good.

Jeff: "Right, once you reach that level of awesome, there's really no topping that." You'd think that being in the public eye would stop one from feeling like a fanboy at the prospect of meeting celebrities, but nope. Not a thing. "That's saying something, but the crazy old man's methods did work. I mean, he's insane, but he's smart. Just don't tell anyone I said that." He joked, but God forbid that actually get back to his Father. They were both on speaking terms, sure, but that didn't mean they were ready to have any Full House moments just yet. The whole "turn them loose and see if they'll sink or swim thing"  isn't necessarily a parenting style Jeff agreed with, but it helped him shape up real fast. And it was in the past, he couldn't be bitter about it forever. He was trying to learn to let old things go. "You're fine, you know. You know your way around fine, if you ask me. But you could if you really wanted to. Just be careful and stay where crowds of people are." He said in concern without thinking, not that he didn't think that Nick wouldn't be okay, just an unnecessary bout of worry. He knew Nick could take care of himself, but still. He couldn’t help it. "You know, so all your adoring fans can keep you company." He smiled at him teasingly before they entered the shop.Jeff headed straight towards the ice cream, making sure to pick up the Pecan Ice Cream for Nick first before deciding on some Chocolate Fudge Brownie one for himself. Then, on a whim, he picked up two more flavors at random and tossed them into the basket. This was going to be way too much, and he knew it in his brain. But his heart was saying yes.  He juggled them in his arms for a moment, nearly giving himself frostbite, before some store clerk took pity on him and pushed him over a basket. Smiling gratefully at them, he unceremoniously dumped the cartons of ice cream into the cart and set off to find Nick. He didn't have to go far, before he rounded the corner and saw him with his own basket --- piled with nothing but various toppings. "The cashier is going to think we're hosting a birthday party or something." He greeted with a laugh, leaning his arms forward on his cart. "Jeez --- think we have enough?"

Nick: Nick grinned when he met back up with Jeff and his smile grew even wider when he saw the various cartons of ice cream that Jeff had picked out. “Awesome!” He cheered, doing a little fist bump with his friend as he scanned over their find. “Dude, this is technically National Fatten Niff Up Day So we’re definitely celebrating somethin’!” They pushed their carts over to the checkout lane but not before Nick spotted some waffle cones. “Bro,” Nick showed off his find before tossing it into the cart along with all their ice creams and toppings. When they made their way over to the cashier, the clerk eyed the two of them with caution and amazement, almost unsure if he should comment on the amount of sweets they were getting. “It’s National Fatten Niff Up Day, dude!” Nick supplied an explanation to the clerk, setting their things onto the conveyor belt one by one. “Um, and what is a ‘Niff’, sir?” The clerk asked. Nick’s jaw dropped in disbelief before he gestured between himself and Jeff. “We are a Niff, man! Don’t’cha check what’s trending?” He asked before pulling out his wallet.

Jeff: Nick's excitement was practically nonstop throughout the whole day, so it was contagious. No one else in the world would probably be down to get as much junk and binge it all with him, but Nick was always cool like that. He let out a loud laugh and fist bumped him, clearly agreeing. "Celebrating being lazy as hell and eating a bunch of food?" He asked, playfully, giving Nick's find an appreciative nod before they pushed their carts onward. Helping load everything on the belt, he wasn't even a little phased to hear Nick exclaim so loudly to the clerk.  Jeff glanced up at the both of them in clear amusement as he sectioned the ice cream and some of the toppings off so he could pay his half. "That's our ship name, like Brangelina. You know." Jeff tried to explain to the poor guy who wouldn't understand it, talking with his hands as he did so and waving one in the air as though that would help him gain clarity.  "It's an internet thing." He grinned and paid for his things as it became his turn. He lowered his voice in a stage whisper as he spoke to the cashier. "Personally, I think he coined it originally because his name is conveniently first, but that's borderline conspiracy theory territory." He continued to say jokingly so the guy wouldn't feel too awkward at the influx of Niff information. After saying thank you, he nudged Nick's shoulder gently and jerked his head towards the door. "And we're off. Pizza here we come.  I'd race you if our hands weren't full of bags."(edited)

Nick: Nick didn't get how some people just weren't aware of his and Jeff's presence in the world... He was under the impression they were both pretty well-known in each other's respective industries but clearly Nick needed to do more work getting themselves in the spotlight as a dynamic duo. "There's always a reason to celebrate and Niff is totally one of them!" he all but cheered with his exuberance shining through. He heard Jeff's whisper and chuckled, knowing that he was just joking around. He playfully elbowed him in his side, "Hey, hey, Niff is catchy and everyone knows you're the cooler one between us!" He grinned ear to ear and with all their goods now in plastic bags, they hauled them off towards the direction of the pizza shop. Of course, Nick let Jeff take the lead because he didn't want to accidentally lead them off into the wrong direction. "Dude, you'd win that race," he said, glancing down before laughing, "You're like, all legs and you do that yoga stuff so you're probably hella fit. Plus I don't think either of us wanna drop this ice cream and have it goin' everywhere."

Jeff: There were likely more people aware of them as a duo than Jeff fully realized. Sure, they had their sizeable fanbase online, but he just didn't fully realize the extent. So when Nick talked them up to people, trying to get their name out there, Jeff just figured it was him being Nick. But he always did think Nick had more of a grasp of the fanbase and what the people liked. "Dude, I'll always celebrate Niff." He half-heartedly dodged the elbow to his side with an easy grin and laughed. "Niff is catchy. I'm not doubting that. We're both cool,  okay? Just in way different ways." Jeff began to navigate the way back to the pizza shop, juggling the bags in both arms. "Hey, you never know until we try. It'd be a fair race. You're fit too, you might be one of those people who's a super athlete and doesn't know it. Not that I feel like testing that theory right now 'cause you'd beat me no matter what today, I'm too focused on food and not dropping it. But one day, dude --- be prepared for the Niff Olympics." He was joking, but honestly, that sounded like something they'd do. Jeff hiked the bags up in his arms as they continued on closer to the pizza place. "You know... It's a really good thing we're doing all this walking now, because later when we're in a food coma, we're going to be glad we at least exercised a little bit."

Nick: "Niff Olympics!" Nick parroted back but with ten times the volume and excitement. "Dude, that would make for an awesome YouTube video idea if we ever did that!" Imagining the two doing a bunch of different races and obstacle courses and challenges would not only be extremely fun for the both of them, but he was certain thousands if not millions of people would definitely want to watch something like that. "We can totally celebrate Fatten Niff Up Day today, because we're exercising now and the National Niff Olympics is officially in the works!" He laughed even though the joke sounded like a genuine idea for a future fun day. "Man, you come up with the best ideas... I gotta get my brain into high-gear if I wanna come up with some ideas, too! Ice cream can be considered a brain food, right?" he asked as they got back to the pizza place. "Or maybe at least pizza could be a brain food." With their grocery bags of ice creams and toppings, and now a large pizza to juggle, they were officially out of hands to get anymore food. But Nick knew it would be worth it when they made it back to Jeff's place and he was eating an ice cream feast out of a giant bowl. "Dude, I know this yoga day kinda took a turn for the weird with all this ice cream and pizza but we totally exercised with all this walking instead of Uber-ing around and we're all good, you know what I mean? There's always tomorrow, bro."

Jeff: Jeff had a feeling Nick would be a proud supporter of the Niff Olympics, and he had to agree. It kind of did sound really cool.  "Honestly, maybe we would be good YouTubers. We could totally do that and have randoms judge us so it's a fair contest and everything." Jeff grinned back at Nick and nodded seriously. "Ice cream is totally brain food, dude. And with how much we're gonna eat tonight night, our brains are going to get super huge. Like when regular people get poisoned with radioactivity and turn into superheroes." They finally reached the pizza place and Jeff stepped in for just a moment to grab the pie, precariously juggling it in one arms he walked back out to join Nick. "Weird, maybe, but I'm not complaining. I always do Yoga. I don't get to hang out with you and eat a bunch of trash food as often as I'd like." One of the bags nearly slipped from his hands, but with a quick fumble of all his limbs, he caught it and continued to walk as briskly as he could to his apartment so the ice cream wouldn't get melty. "True...One day, I'll show you Yoga for real. And make sure you don't fall. Unfortunately real Yoga involves way less handstands."

Nick: Doing YouTube videos was not only a completely valid way to gain or grow a following, collaborating videos together with Jeff sounded like a whole lot of fun. He already had an awesome time whenever he was hanging out with Jeff and they got into all sorts of shenanigans practically every time they hung out, it made sense to share that with the public. “We should totally plan some stunts and stuff for YouTube, man! I mean, like, obvs we wanna have our privacy too but it’d still be cool, you know what I mean?” Nick agreed with Jeff that even though this hadn’t been the most physically productive day, he couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun that wasn’t alcohol-induced. This day had just been a day full of genuine fun with a guy he really liked. Another day doing this— or whatever it is they’ll end up getting themselves into— was absolutely in their future. “Bro, handstands or not, I totally wanna get schooled in the art of yoga and learn all I gotta know to be in the know... y’know? I mean, you just caught those bags while juggling the pizza and had that been me, man, I definitely woulda dropped it.” When they returned back to Jeff’s, Nick was determined to get the biggest bowl possible and fill it to the brim with ice cream, toppings, and fruit to make the most stupendous-looking sundae ever.

Jeff: “Okay...you’re right about the privacy thing. We barely get enough of that as is. Maybe we should wait awhile on the YouTube thing.”  He was having a lot of fun, and while they did run into a couple fans, it was a good experience. And he basically got to spend the whole day with Nick, so that was always a good day in his book. “Alright, then, next time you come over for Yoga we’ll get serious. Promise. You’ll be an official Yoga master. Trust me though, Yoga had nothing to do with that —just years of being clumsy and learning how to prevent bad messes. It’ll totally make you feel stronger though, when you find your balance and can hold it it’s just... awesome.” They finally arrived at Jeff’s place and he headed straight to his kitchen, setting down all of the items in relief. Without skipping a beat, he walked over to his cabinets and looked inside. “Alright, dude, we got two options. We can each make our own, or —“ He reached an arm up to reach back into the cabinet, pulling out a large mixing bowl. “Make one huge one and just share it. I will warn you though, I’m gonna add literally everything.”

Nick: Hearing Jeff promise that they would get back to the yoga one day soon put a smile on Nick's face and he nodded enthusiastically. It seemed like it really helped Jeff out and maybe it could help Nick too; he was always looking for something new to do and having an outlet that wasn't partying would be beneficial. While yoga might've not been what he needed, he knew it'd be relaxing or at least fun to try. "Bro, I totally wanna get into my inner-yoga peace, y'know? With you as my teacher, I'll learn it in no time!" Nick placed the bags down on the counter with an exaggerated exhale of air as he rolled his shoulders. Given the two very tempting options, Nick's eyes widened at the sight of the large mixing bowl. "Dude..." his mouth nearly filled with saliva as he imagined all the amazing ingredients together to make one mouth-watering bowl of deliciousness, "We gotta go with the huge ice cream with everything in it!" He started taking the things out of the bags so they could start adding them into the giant bowl.

Jeff: “Next time then, it’s happening.” Jeff spoke as he fished out his ice cream scoop and a handful of spoons. He set them and the bowl down on the counter as Nick agreed, and excitedly reached out to help Nick unload all the ice cream and toppings. “This is such a bad idea.” He said happily, with a small laugh as all the item were spread out in front of them. “I’m so excited. Okay, here we go.” He handed the scoop and a few spoons over to Nick and took a few spoons for himself. “Ready to just... scoop everything in there? Don’t hold back, man. Let’s make this thing insane.” He began taking the lids off the ice cream nearest to him, genuinely excited for this.

Nick: With a big toothy grin, Nick nodded. He was almost tempted to just empty the entire container of ice cream into the bowl but this amalgamation of flavors was almost an art form; it needed to be controlled yet-- as Jeff had properly put it-- insane. As the lids came off of the ice cream containers, Nick started scooping different flavors into the large bowl. "Hell no, this isn't a bad idea, man," Nick protested Jeff's opinion as he layered scoops of ice cream with some chocolate and caramel before returning back to topping another layer of ice cream. "I've said it before and I'll say it 'til I get to the grave, bro: you're a freakin' genius! Like, this is gonna put me in a food coma later but it'll be so worth it!"

Jeff: He watched as Nick carefully started layering the ice cream in the bowl, almost as though it were an art form. It didn't take him along to want to get in on the action, though, and soon he was pushing the ice cream tub towards Nick and reaching out for the toppings himself.  In between scoops of ice cream, Jeff would help sprinkle on some of each topping they'd picked out. They 100% without a doubt went overboard today, but Jeff was really happy to be here with his best friend. Even if they were building a Heart Attack Sundae. "It's your idea, too. We're both culinary geniuses here. Look at how beautiful it is." He grinned and grabbed two clean spoons off the counter, sliding one over to Nick. "You wanna do the honors and take the first bite?"

Nick: When their amazing ice cream sundae was topped and it seemed the bowl could barely hold anymore, Nick took a step back to marvel their creation. Jeff calling him a culinary genius almost made him feel smarter and he beamed. "Bro, I gotta snap a pic first," he told him, taking his phone out of his pocket and doing just that. Maybe if he remembered afterwards he would take an "after" photo but for now he would tweet out the pic and tag his best friend. "Hashtag: National Fatten Niff Up Day," he read aloud as he typed and tweeted, making sure to hit up all his social media handles.  He gladly took the offered spoon, eager to take the very first bite of their very large sundae. "You know me too well, dude!" Nick sunk his spoon as deep into the sundae as he could, scooping up as many different flavors and toppings into one huge bite.  Making an exaggerated chomping noise as he put the scoop of it all in his mouth, he made a pleased sound as the flavors hit his tongue. His eyebrows lifted higher than he ever thought possible and he nodded eagerly as he continued making noises, pointing to the sundae with his spoon. With his free hand, he gave his friend a thumbs up and urged him even with his mouth full of ice cream to take a taste for himself.

Jeff: Jeff was so eager to attack their creation that he didn’t even think to Instagram it. Nick, though, always the more internet-smart of the two, pulled out his phone just in time. “See, you have the best ideas too.” Jeff fished into his own pocket, deciding that snapping a picture of Nick taking a picture of their sundae would be excellent Insta material later on. He made sure to stand just a little in frame of Nick’s shot too, so the fans would know he was in on this too. Jeff laughed at the hashtag Nick added to the tweet. “Now everyone’s gonna blow up our phones wanting in on this. I almost feel bad we can’t share it. Almost.” But not quite. Jeff set his phone on the counter beside him and rose his eyebrow in expectancy as Nick took the first bite, eager for his reaction. The look on his face was priceless, and the subsequent moans had him grinning from ear to ear. “I take it it’s good?” He said fondly as Nick chewed the mouthful of ice cream. How he wasn’t getting brain freeze was beyond Jeff, and he was pretty sure Nick was super human. He’d always had his suspicions, he didn’t know anyone else with his energy. Except for maybe himself sometimes, but he blamed that on Nick’s influence. “Alright. You’re making it sound awesome. I’m gonna get in on this.” He grabbed his spoon and moved it around in the bowl, paying careful detail to make sure he had every topping like Nick did before piling it in his mouth. “Oh my gah.” He mumbled around the ice cream, trying to chew it too despite the cold. “Thish ish amazsching.” He knew talking with your mouth full was gross so he reached a hand up to cover his mouth. With his free hand, he dropped his spoon in the bowl so he could put the cartons of ice cream out away before they melted.Swallowing the sugary concoction, Jeff was finally able to speak as he closed his freezer door. “I’ve never been more happy for yoga to NOT work out. That might be the best thing I’ve ever tasted, hands down.” He turned back around to lift the bowl up with his hands, and motioned towards his living room with his head. “Grab your spoon. This thing is totally going to be gone in five minutes.”

Nick: "Almost," Nick shared Jeff's sentiment as he swallowed what was a rather large bite and licked his lips, savoring the taste. Shoveling bite after bite into his pie hole might've been something he'd do but Nick actually wanted to taste every last bite of the deliciousness they had created together.  "People'll see the pics we snapped and totes want the recipe to try and recreate this madness!" Nick laughed, grabbing his spoon and following Jeff's direction to head towards the living room. He managed to reach over and scoop another bite before the two of them plopped onto the couch together. Whether they ended up watching TV or doing whatever else, Nick didn't mind either way as long as he had more of the extremely sugary sundae all up in his mouth. "Bro, we could totally do, like, yoga and then ice cream for an after-broga treat, you know what I mean? Like, nothing insane like this but I think ice cream is a sweet incentive-- literally."

Jeff: "Then the recipe is what we'll give them. Take one bowl. Take everything sweet in your freezer and fridge --- mix and serve." Their followers would more than likely think that there were more people going to eat this than there actually were. If they knew it was only the two of them who were going to eat this, they'd probably get some judgement from health enthusiasts. Jeff carefully held the bowl in his arms as they plopped onto his couch. Instinctively, he kicked his shoes off below him so he could sit criss-crossed on the couch, carefully setting their ice cream beside them. "Don't tempt me, Nick. That sounds like fun. I'd be calling you over all the time for Yoga. We'd be having ice cream like every day." He laughed again and dipped his spoon in the bowl, scooping himself out a bite slightly smaller than the last. With the spoon hanging out of his mouth, Jeff leaned forwards to snatch the remote off the table in front of them and flick the TV on, the screen already on the main menu of Netflix since that's what he'd been doing before Nick came over. Clearly, he was having a wild day. Taking the spoon out of his mouth, he leaned back against his couch. "What should I start? You have any preferences?"

Nick: Any possibility of backlash from healthy eaters and parents went completely over Nick's head; it just wasn't even within his frame of mind to consider those consequences whenever he did something for fun. Eating three times the amount of ice cream ever meant for an ordinary human just seemed like fun and he wasn't hurting anyone so why would anyone get mad?  "Dude, we could totally start a broga blog where you can be like, the yoga guru and then we always follow every lesson up with a ice cream flavor of the day!" Nick suggested, another bite down the hatch. With Jeff turning on the TV and Netflix appearing on the screen, he wasn't all too sure. "Hmmm," he pondered out loud with another bite of ice cream in his mouth as chocolate syrup was beginning to drip from the corner of his mouth. "I dunno, just no reality trash, y'know?" he said, scrunching his face a little and frowning as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and then wiped the chocolate onto his jeans. "Something fun where, like, no one dies 'cause I ain't about the negative right now, know what I mean?"

Jeff: "A live stream of Broga followed by ice cream? I could get into that." He thought about it, nodding along to the idea.  Yoga legitimately was one of his favorite things ever. If Nick wanted to really do it for real, he'd be more than happy to show him. He just didn't want to bore the poor guy. Jeff began to scroll through his options, avoiding everything in his Instant Queue because he never actually seemed to watch anything he put in there. Jeff was beginning to wonder if he was just a movie hoarder.  "Aw, man. No reality?  And here I was gonna put on your show. I think I'm behind a few episodes." He grinned to himself, only teasing him, before turning to cast a glance at Nick just in time to see him wipe chocolate onto his pants. He wasn't worried about him getting anything on his couch, because that'd clean up, but he didn't want him to have to leave here sticky because of all the ice cream. Leaning forward again, Jeff snatched a box of tissues he had laying around and pulled out a tissue, reaching it over to carefully place it on Nick's leg and setting the box next to him. "Sorry, I should'a brought napkins. I was too excited I guess."  He turned his attention back to the Netflix menu and hummed to himself as he weeded out the movies that had anything sad. "So I guess that leaves out Jurassic Park." He frowned in thought as he continued to look. "And definitely no Walking Dead. High School Musical is on here. We could watch Zefron in his most iconic role." That was mostly a joke, but he also wouldn't say no. "Oh, dude. Friends is on here. Let's do that?"

Nick: Nick chuckled when Jeff teased him about his show. "Bro, sometimes when I see myself on the show I get weirded out because like, that's me, y'know?" he said, laughing. He hadn't even seen the box of tissues but thanked Jeff anyways as he grabbed it and wiped it against the corner of his mouth to make sure he'd gotten all the chocolate off. He'd probably need to use another with the amount of ice cream he was eating, anyway. It hadn't occurred to him that it'd probably be best not to get his pants dirty but also he kind of didn't care because he knew he didn't have to care about his appearance when he was hanging out with Jeff. As Jeff scrolled through the selection, Nick looked up from the ice cream bowl to look along. "Bro, Zefron will never be able to top himself in the High School Musical trilogy. Like, there's just no way," he agreed before his friend landed on Friends. He pointed at the TV and gave a nod of his head. "Totes, Friends is like, one of the best sitcoms! I can't even think of a bad episode when it comes to Friends, man."

Jeff: "Oh, yeah, I feel that. I hate seeing myself on TV personally. It's so weird. I don't mind seeing you though 'cause you're funny. But I get it."  He almost wanted to reach over and help him wipe the chocolate off since it was getting everywhere, but he didn't think he was like, trying to be his Mom or something. Jeff was getting ice cream on the corners himself with every bite he took, and made sure to lick it off as he went, but he wasn't stressing too hard about the mess. The ice cream was too good to care. "He gives it a good effort, but I think you're right. Just like how Robert Pattinson will never outlive Edward Cullen. Man. Being an actor must be _tough. High School Musical is pretty iconic, though. I wonder if he's proud of being such a legend." Jeff stopped on Friends and opened it up. From where he last left off, it was somewhere in the middle of Season Six. But since Nick was here, he was going to take it all the way to the beginning. "Alright, man. Season 1, episode 1 it is. Can't think of anything better than that, honestly. People die in just about everything else."

Nick: "Well I do like making people laugh-- can't ever go wrong with that, right?" Nick said, attempting a smile even with his mouth full of ice cream and whipped cream. He was dripping more sticky ice cream and instinctively wiped his mouth with the back of his hand again before remembering Jeff had just given him a tissue and there were a box of tissues within reach. "Dammit," he grumbled as he wiped his hand on the tissue but it just clung to his sticky hand more than helped to clean anything up. As he struggled with the tissues and held his spoon in his other hand, he continued, "I think the Zefron probably knows that it was like, his big break, but prolly wants people to see that he's more than that too, y'know?" Nick couldn't help but think of how he wanted other people to see he was more than just some party boy who liked to drink. "Like, instead of just always singing he does all these weird movies like the one where he has a ghost brother or the one where he and Adam Devine go and get dates for a wedding. But man, he must like singing and dancing or else he wouldn't've done the Greatest Showman with Wolverine, yeah?" As the Friends gang came onto the screen and talked animatedly in the iconic Central Perk, Nick grinning while licking his chocolatey hand. "Bro, nothing gets better than Friends."(edited)

Jeff: "Right. That's a good thing, you know." Jeff quickly became distracted by Nick struggling to wipe the chocolate off his face and hands. It was hard to ignore, because seeing Nick struggle wasn't something that he could easily ignore (especially since the melting seemed to get progressively worse and Nick more frustrated.)  Still, he tried his best, instead continuing their conversation. "Yes! Poor Zefron. I think he's actually a pretty good actor. And he's musically talented. He's big now, but I'm surprised he's not bigger, you know?" Zefron the most underrated actor of their time.  "I agree, man. I could watch this over and over again and it's still good." As the Friends came into view, Jeff tried to distract himself by the familiar sight, but seeing Nick lick his hand out of the corner of his eye and undoubtedly not helping the situation caused him to reach his breaking point. Angling his body to the side to face him, Jeff resisted the urge to let his smile spread across his face, because he didn't want him to think he was making fun of him. "Nick...hold on. I need to do something, I'm sorry. I can't concentrate." Jeff took a fresh tissue from the box and wiped it on the side of the ice cream bowl, where clean condensation was forming on the side.  Reaching out, he gently grasped onto Nick's wrist with one hand while the other holding the tissue brought it down to sweep over Nick's palm and fingers. It wouldn't clean him up super well, but it'd at least get the ice cream and whipped cream bits off. He crumbled the tissue and grabbed another one, doing the same trick with the bowl before lifting it up to Nick's face, where he hesitated to invade his personal space to wipe the spots he missed on his face. "Can I get that too? Or you can, if you want, there's just a bunch of spots you missed."

Nick: As Nick listened to Jeff give his two cents on Zefron, he couldn't help but nod and agree. There were probably a lot of people in their own respective industries that didn't want to be put in this box of expectations or overlooked because they were stereotyped early on in their career. Just as he was about to respond, Jeff approached him with a clean tissue and helped to clean him off, which was greatly appreciated. Nick wasn't the messiest guy in the world but the amount of ice cream and chocolate smeared down his arm and across his face spoke otherwise. "Thanks, bro," he smiled, which faltered when he noticed Jeff hesitate. He shook his head and even leaned forward to give Jeff permission. "Nah, bro, I don't mind-- Get me good so my pretty mug isn't covered in stickiness," he chuckled as he bunched up the tissues in his hand to throw away. "Sorry I kinda made a mess; that ice cream was so good and I guess I got a little ahead of myself."

Jeff: Jeff laughed, relieved when Nick gave him the go ahead instead of slapping his hand away like he thought. “Okay, will do.” He nodded with a smile and leaned in. “I just don’t want you having to go home feeling gross and sticky, you know?” He went in with the tissue to wipe along the side of Nick’s face, the chocolate somehow finding place on his cheekbone. “Don’t even worry about it, dude. In a couple more bites I’ll probably have ice cream all over my face too. Then you’re gonna be the one cleaning me off. It’s just that good.” He reached his left hand out to grasp onto Nick’s chin to gently turn his face so he could reach the other side. “So... what’s new with you?” He said, jokingly, to break up the silence as he leaned in closer to see if he’d missed anything and wiped the corner of his mouth. Once he was finished he let the tissue fall between them next to their bowl and leaned back slightly, grinning at Nick proudly. “Wow, lookin’ good, dude. You’re good as new.” He glanced down at their forgotten bowl of ice cream between them and scooted back so he didn’t knock it over. “Okay lets get back to business and get ice cream all over ourselves again before it melts!”

Nick: Just like Nick had claimed, he didn't mind in the least bit when Jeff got well within his personal space to clean the ice cream and chocolate off of his face. He didn't feel embarrassed either; he knew Jeff wasn't the kind of person to make him feel insecure for his messy eating habits. Even when Jeff joked a little to break the silence, Nick still didn't feel any sort of discomfort and laughed it off-- he was at least aware of the close proximity. "Just chillin' with my best bro, man," he answered with a grin and was glad to see they were mirroring each other in facial expression. Once Jeff had finished cleaning him up, he moved his head from side to side as he rubbed his now-clean jawline, showing off his friend's handy work. "Definitely as good as new!" Nick exclaimed, still wearing a smile. When Jeff motioned to the ice cream, Nick picked up his spoon and this time made a conscious effort to remember a tissue in case he needed to wipe his mouth. He also knew that if need be, Jeff would have his back and help him out again, though.  "Dude, the great thing about ice cream is that even if it melts, then you got, like, ice cream soup and that's almost as amazing as a sundae, y'know?" He made his point by scooping a bit from the bottom where some of the ice cream had melted, a spoonful of different flavors and even some caramel balancing on his very full spoon. "And no risk of brain freeze!" He slurped it up and even licked the spoon to make sure he'd gotten it all.

Jeff: “Cool, cool. Same.” He nodded, still joking along so Nick didn’t feel awkward about Jeff’s hands being all over his face. Otherwise, all of Jeff’s hesitance had dissipated. That’s the thing about hanging out with Nick, though, Jeff was comfortable around him. Some of the people he was surrounded by on a day to day basis weren’t as easy going as Nick was. He had to watch what he said or did, which made him cautious from time to time. But then every time he hung out with Nick he was reminded that he didn’t have to worry around him, and that feeling was just awesome. And Nick always seemed comfortable with him, which made him feel good. He grinned again at his friend for the thousandth time that day, and picked up his spoon to dip into the bowl of slightly melty ice cream. “Dude...you’re a genius. Ice cream soup sounds amazing. I know what I’m eating next time I’m sick.” He stuck his spoon in his mouth, ice cream dribbling down the corner of his mouth now. He reached beside them to grab a tissue , noticing it was the last one and they were gonna have to stop being lazy and get napkins soon. But they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. Ice cream was no joke. It got everywhere.

Nick: "Totally, ice cream soup, gatorade, and like, skittles. 'Cause when you gotta pop all that medicine when you're sick, candy makes it even better, y'know?" Nick said, dipping his spoon back into the sundae. When his spoon scraped against the bottom he peered into the bowl and was astonished that it was already almost finished off. Though he supposed it also wasn't surprising since they could both put away food like no tomorrow. They still had the pizza that was left untouched; thankfully, Nick's stomach wasn't even close to being full. He shot straight up from the couch and practically bounced his way back to the kitchen to retrieve the pizza pie and grabbed some napkins while he was at it, knowing they'd need them. He made sure there was room on the living room table where the pizza could sit before taking a slice for himself and taking a bite. "Bro," Nick called to get Jeff's attention when he took his spoon and scooped a little bit of ice cream and placed it on the end of his slice. "Ever mix ice cream with pizza? It's like, hella weird but I swear it's also amazing because cheese and ice cream is the weirdest mix that shouldn't work but bro... holy shit." To demonstrate, he took a bite of the oily cheesy pizza topped with the bit of ice cream and let out a satisfied sound once he started chewing.

Jeff: "Gatorade I've done, but skittles? Never heard of that home remedy. Next time I get the plague I'll remember that." He glanced down into their bowl when Nick did, and was shocked to find out that they really put that all away. Jeff knew he was gonna be sick probably for the next few days, but right now it was so worth it. He sat up straight when Nick grabbed the pizza and brought it back to their spot. He turned to face Nick and the food and watched in fascination as Nick scooped ice cream directly onto his slice of pizza. "Nick, bro. You know I love you, and think you're a Master Chef. But that looks awful." He watched, perplexed, as Nick chewed it happily. "God, okay. I trust you." He grabbed a slice of pizza with one hand and hesitantly scooped a bit of their ice cream at the end. He looked from it to Nick and back again, before raising it up to his lips, looking at Nick cautiously all the while. As soon as he bit in it and chewed hesitantly, his eyes widened dramatically. "Oh. Dude. What the---?" He took another bite and chewed again. "Why... is this good?" He looked at his pizza oddly. "What ELSE would be good with Pizza?"

Nick: "I mean, I dunno that it actually helps with the actual cold but you can't ever go wrong with Skittles, know what I mean?" Nick clarified, thinking that maybe skittles on his pizza might even be amazing. He watched with expectant eyes as Jeff tried his weird little concoction of flavors and gave a little nod of encouragement when Jeff eyed him with hesitation. He loved that Jeff trusted him to try new and crazy things. Jeff's eyes widening in what Nick could only assume was the spiritual realization of the amazingness that was pizza and ice cream together had Nick absolutely beaming. "Yes! Bro, I knew you would love it!" he cheered before taking another bite of his pizza. Mid-chew, he answered Jeff's question. "Ranch dressing, but ranch tastes amazing with, like, everything. But, like, I don't think you could ever go wrong with anything on pizza. Except, like, I dunno-- pineapple." He swallowed and then scrunched his face up with disgust, shuddering at the very thought of fruit on his pizza.

Jeff: "I mean, they'd definitely help me feel better. Especially the sour ones." Jeff nodded along, before getting distracted by this new invention that is the ice-cream-pizza. Shamelessly, Jeff lifted up another spoonful of ice cream and dumped it on top of his remaining slice of pizza. "Ranch dressing is the best on pizza. We shoulda grabbed that too, but I'm happy with just this ice cream, honestly." He chewed his bite and swallowed before speaking again. "At the risk of ruining our friendship..." He began seriously. "I like pineapple pizza." He almost felt ashamed. "And anchovies. Not all on the same pizza, of course. I'm not a monster."

Nick: Nick stared at Jeff for a moment to be sure he was being serious about the pineapple pizza before shaking his head. "You're a brave soul, man. I dunno how you can take the fruit on a pizza and I wish that I had your taste buds because I wanna like it but... I just can't, man." He nudged his friend then, offering him a small smile. "You could like freakin' tangerines on your pizza and it wouldn't ruin our friendship, bro. And I like anchovies on my pizza, too, so next time we'll totes get some of that." He gave him a little wink before helping himself to another slice of pizza but not before spreading more ice cream on it before taking a bite. Once they were finished with all this food, Nick already knew there was going to be a huge crash where many naps would be needed while all his mental and physical energy went to focus on digesting all of this food.

Jeff: "It's okay, your taste buds can probably handle more things that I can. Like --- you always could take more shots than me." He smiled back and nudged him in return. "Anchovies, for sure. I say we skip those tangerines though. Not sure if I'd be a fan." He teased and smiled at the wink before helping Nick polish off the rest of the food. He could feel himself get more and more stuffed by the second, but he just kept going. When they were done, he let out a large sigh and fell back against the cushions of his couch. Friends was almost on episode 3 by this point, but he didn't think either of them had been paying much attention. "Okay... I think... I'm finally done." He yawned and threw an arm over his stomach as he rolled his head over to look at Nick. "You're not still hungry, are you? Cause I have more food. I just might not be able to get up and get it."

Nick: Nick had officially eaten too much. There was a tiny bit of cheese stuck to the pizza box that he was tempted to eat but his stomach protested and he let out a heavy sigh. At some point in his voracious eating, he had managed to slump back against the couch. Doing so made his tummy look bigger than it was he certainly felt very full. As Jeff yawned, almost on cue Nick had opened his mouth and let out a fierce yawn as well. "I want more food... but, I dunno if I can..." Nick replied sluggishly. His eyelids felt heavy and a food coma was inevitable at this point. "Sleepy," he murmured, looking away from the empty food receptacles and back to Jeff. "I don't think I can move either so you're good, bro." He blinked slowly, eventually closing his eyes completely as he attempted to focus his energy to making himself not feel sleepy-- not seeing the lack of logic in that path of thinking.

Jeff: Seeing Nick yawn made him want to yawn again, and he could tell right away that this was going to be a vicious cycle. "I know, I feel you on that." He reached over to pat his leg lazily before dropping his hand to the couch, trying to fight another yawn. "Y'can sleep if you want." He rested his head on the back of the couch, but rolled it to the side again to peer at Nick, who already had his eyes closed. Mustering some energy, he lifted their empty trash and tossed it on the table in front of them before collapsing back on the couch beside Nick. "I can move if you wanna stretch out. Then... you can eat more when you wake up." Even if he knew they'd probably be full for like eight years after this.

Nick: Nick barely found the strength to peek open through one eye to acknowledge Jeff and his suggestion. "Nah, bro, you're good," he replied in a voice slightly lower than usual, slow and sluggish. "Dessert... After sleep." He honestly felt like he could fall asleep just like this-- the cushions hadn't felt nearly this comfortable when he first sat down and now it felt like a cozy cloud. Closing his eyes again, it didn't much more to coax him into a heavy sleep.

Jeff: "Good. Don't wanna move anyway." He replied with a sleepy sort of laugh and slid down further against the cushions, reclining by lifting his legs to lay on a free spot on the table. Closing his eyes, he sank lower as he became more relaxed, and his head fell to the side to knock against and use Nick's upper arm as a convenient pillow. It didn't take long until he was fast asleep; not even the laugh track on the TV was going to wake him up anytime soon.

Nick: Nick was off to dreamland and remained that way for quite some time. The next time he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the TV, Friends had stopped playing and Netflix was prompting them to continue watching if they were still there. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, it took him another moment to realize that something heavy was on top of him and he couldn't move. "... Jeff? Bro?" He whispered, unsure if he should even wake his friend up. His arm had somehow slung its way atop of Jeff during his sleep so he carefully moved it as he shifted slightly where he sat.

Jeff: Jeff was one hundred percent passed out and dead to the world. As he was slightly jostled and his name was whispered, he stirred slightly, but otherwise stayed asleep. He further buried his head into the surface his head was laying on, and he tightened his hold around whatever his arms had thrown themselves on. It wasn't until the faint smell of chocolate hit his nose and the fact that his subconscious realized he didn't use a realistically heated body pillow that he woke himself up. "Huh? What?" He lifted his head up, and squinted at Nick until his sleep addled brain realized what had happened. "Oh. Oh." He released him as fast as his sluggish limbs could and sat up straight, immediately scooching to his side of the couch to allow Nick his personal space. He knew Nick probably wouldn't be mad about it, but the fact that Jeff let himself pass out directly on top of someone without like, asking first, was a little embarrassing. "Sorry. Fell asleep." He offered him a small sheepish grin, stating the obvious, before he yawned. "Uh. About how long were we out for? It's probably late, you're probably wanting to get home, and I'm over here suffocating you."

Nick: As Jeff slowly awoke from his slumber and their eyes met, Nick chuckled and grinned at him. It was a funny situation they'd found themselves in and Nick certainly didn't mind a comfortable nap with a friend. When Jeff sat up and scooted back, Nick shifted and straightened up as well. "It's no prob, man," he rubbed his eyes again before stretching his arms and cricking his neck a bit. "Dude, I don't even know how long we were out but that was like, the best nap I've had in a really really long time." He dug his phone out to read the time but instead his Twitter notifications got him distracted. "Oh, bro! We got loads of hits and comments on that pic of our epic ice cream sundae!" He laughed and turned his phone towards Jeff to show him. "We totally have to do this again-- soon-- and honestly? I wouldn't decline another nap because it was pretty awesome."

Jeff: Jeff couldn't help a small grin himself. It was kind of funny, usually people only fell asleep on each other in movies. They had eaten their weight and then some in junk food, though, so that probably helped conk them out moreso than usual. Despite the slight stiffness in his own neck, Jeff had to admit, the nap had been pretty awesome. "I won't lie to you... I didn't hate it." He nodded, trying to be serious, although the smile was cracking through. Obviously he didn't hate it since he practically tried to bear hug Nick in his sleep. As Nick pulled out his phone, Jeff thought he should probably do the same to check what he missed when dead to the world, but quickly got distracted by Nick's exclamation. "Really?" He leaned forward, excited to see just how many people commented on their creation. "Wow." He raised both his eyebrows. "They like it as much as we did and they didn't even get to eat it." He commented, idly wondering how he could do an ice cream giveaway to them before realizing that wouldn't be very easy to pull off with melting and whatnot. "I'm in. Maybe with slightly less food, but I won't say no to another Niff day." He paused. "Or a nap. But, uh ---" He reached over and swiped his hand along Nick's sleeve apologetically. "I'll try not 

Nick: "Yo, how 'bout-- 'Hashtag: Niff Naps'? Catchy, right?" Nick said jokingly with a teasing nudge. He put his phone back in his pocket, a smile still on his face at how much the picture of their sundae had apparently taken off on the internet. Even though Nick had quite the following because of his TV show, none of his other content gathered that much buzz. Convinced it was because he had tagged Jeff in his post, it was clear to him that public demanded more Niff for the future. "Dude, next time we go on an ice cream binge we have to, like, make a whole YouTube video of it or something, y'know?" When Jeff reached to wipe whatever saliva that Nick hadn't even noticed was on his sleeve, he chuckled. He stood up from the couch, stretching a bit more before letting out a little sigh. Nick didn't like goodbyes because that meant parting ways but he also knew this wouldn't be the last time he'd see Jeff and they already made many promises to hang out again-- hopefully soon.  "Alright, dude, sad to say I gotta go but I can't stay here forever; I'll eat all your food and then you'll starve and I can't have that."

Jeff: "Maybe. We'll come up with names for it next time." He joked back easily as Nick nudged him, feeling at ease with him. It never ceased to amaze him that him and Nick had their own fanbase. Maybe that's when you know you've really made it; your fans are more obsessed with you and your friends than they are your actual profession. Jeff wasn't mad about it, though, he liked that peopled liked them because he liked them too. "Definitely. Our very own Niff Mukbang." He laughed, before slowly standing up along with Nick, feeling the slight ache in his neck again from the position he fell asleep in. "Alright, man. Hate to see you go, but I probably don't have that much food. Come back once I get myself to go grocery shopping." He joked before stepping towards him and grappling him into a big hug. He clapped him on the back and stepped away, heading towards his front door so he could let him out. "We'll do this again soon, alright? Next time we'll document it more so the fans feel more included."

Nick: Nick looked puzzled, unaware of what Jeff had just said. "Huh? 'Mukbang'?" he repeated with his brows scrunched in confusion. He wasn't aware of the Korean video trend and it went over his head completely. Though, whatever it was he was sure it was, it'd probably be delicious or really fun. Or both. When Jeff pulled him into a hug, Nick immediately hugged back with equal enthusiasm and vigor. Jeff was his absolute best friend and conveying so in a hug was one of the best ways ever. "We are definitely gonna do this again, man. And soon, too."

Jeff: Jeff looked at his best friend in excitement when he seemed unaware of what he was talking about. “Oh, man, I’ve got to show you next time we hang out. It’s people who sit and eat a ton of food for views! You’re going to love it.” He nodded enthusiastically, before calming down as he said goodbye. He didn’t think twice about hugging Nick, he was practically his favorite person and he wanted him to know that. “Yeah we will! I’ll text you later, probably when I scroll past all the Twitter comments and find the good ones.” He smiles and stepped back as Nick left. “Careful on your way home, okay? Don’t want you falling asleep at the wheel ‘cause you’re still in a food coma.”

Nick: The whole mukbang thing sounded intriguing and Nick would have to remember to have Jeff show it to him the next time they hung out. He’d try anything once, honestly. “Totally, dude. I’m cool to drive and you know I got like, hella good judgement,” Nick assuaged his friend’s worries, waving at him one last time before finally departing. “Til next time, bro!”

[sonekamea]

The Final Journal

Through all the stress and anxiety and uncertainty, we’ve FINALLY made it to the end of the semester. I have finally made it to the end of my post-graduate program, and (for the time being) the end of my academic career! This final lap has felt like a sprint and I’m overjoyed to be nearing the end. Participating in this seminar course was a wonderful experience; hearing the stories and journeys of such a diverse group of industry professionals was an invaluable opportunity. There are a few things that I’ve learned overall from my time in this course that I hope to carry with me into the start of my career:

1. Keep learning

In an ever-changing industry, there is always something new to learn. And often, certain fundamental knowledge is expected of a marketer. And some things you just don't learn in class! If your goal is to be do the best at what you do, it's on YOU to get out of your comfort zone and build your skillset. There are sooooo many resources available online (both free and paid!) that can help you get to where you want to be. Learning something new is always beneficial to your growth and who knows, it could just give you that edge to score your dream job!

2. There is NO need to rush experience

As I mentioned in a previous post, not yet having gained any real-world work experience in the industry has always been a major concern for me. In a way, for a long time, I'd convinced myself that I would not be good enough for a position if I didn't already have the experience. Even after having already been offered and accepting an internship for the summer, there is a small part of me that worries that it was a mistake, that they'll change their mind about me for whatever reason (silly, right?). Having had the chance to hear from so many individuals and the paths they've been on to get to the position they are in today has shown me that there is no one way to achieve your goals and all our paths our different. We all start somewhere, and it's okay to be a beginner. So long as you keep pushing yourself to carry through, you will gain experience in time.

3. Who said you can't be creative?

The most memorable seminar week for me was the week we heard Brady Dahmer speak. Hearing him share with his is experience as a graphic designer, showing us his work and the process he works with really sparked an interest in me. Always having thought that a creative career isn't a right fit for me, Dahmer showed me that I can have career in marketing AND explore my creative side. There is absolutely no need to limit yourself to one thing, and again, there's always room to learn new skills. For me, going into this career, it's exciting for me to be able to dabble in something creative while also continuing to flex my technical skills!

One of the main reasons for having this seminar course is to give us students the opportunity to network! In truth, I am not someone who gets excited about networking, and having to get familiar with the practice during a pandemic made it all the more challenging. As much as I enjoyed hearing from each individual during the seminar, there was definitely a lack of motivation for me to connect beyond the course. I was lucky enough to have made a few connections through LinkedIn, but it shouldn't stop there. Connecting should be meaningful and personal, and unfortunately I just didn't get there. I am however grateful for the connections I made with fellow students in the program overall, and am happy to say that I've made friends that I'm excited to embark on this journey with (and hopefully actually meet in person once this pandemic is through). I am eternally grateful to have participated in the program and course, and I'm am now looking forward to started my internship in the coming month!

[twentysomethingmathman]

Failure is good

You’ve spent all of your academic life being defined by your success rate. A is for people who are worth something and F is for failures. Then you get to the workforce and now you’re defined by your speed and accuracy. You’re defined by more numbers. Nobody wants to listen to the story of how somebody failed. That’s not the narrative people love hearing. We all love the stories of success and progression that we forget that those are always the conclusions. No good protagonist is built only on success. There will always be failure involved in any good story. There are points that we should want our favorite character to fail. This not only humanizes the characters, but also speaks to another point that most people forget- failure is good.

As I mentioned in my last post, I finally found myself after I spent some time introspecting and making some major life changes. One of those changes was the decision to change my major. Before I attended the courses that were a core part of my major, I knew exactly what I wanted to go into and that I was going to be successful at every point in that plan because I knew I could do it. Well we all see how 17 year old me’s plan turned out. I failed out of one college, changed my major, and had to move back home to the local college just to hope to get a degree. Great job me. I had to leave the world I had made for myself and go back to the world that was made for me. It wasn’t that great. I honestly hated it. I was so upset that the plan I made didn’t work out, that I forgot to look at what lied ahead of me. I continued on with my major of choice, met some good friends, and found my fiancée all within the same semester. That... was better than I expected. I eventually go on to earn my undergraduate degree and decide to go for a Master’s degree while my fiancée is still in school because why not. Let’s see where that takes us. But for all of these things to happen, I had to fail. I had to have my GPA drop to a 2.47 before I finally got the hint to get out of the major that was killing my self confidence and my potential to be anything other than a depressed husk of a person. I had to lose my scholarship before I could do anything to move forward. I was forced to look at myself and ask, “Is this really what I want for the rest of my life?”. The answer was no. So I changed my plans. I went into damage control. I salvaged as much of what I could and tried to make the best of it. I ended up graduating with a 3.0 GPA. Not the prettiest when it comes to GPA’s, but manageable. I am currently on academic probation for my master’s program because of those low grades I got in my first major, but I still made it. I would have never had the chance to experience these great experiences such as finding a life partner, finding something I am passionate about, finding people with similar passions, and finding our who I am in general without failing. 

I used to work in my university’s tutoring lab. During one semester, we had a student that came in after the first test. They told me that they didn’t do well on the first test (try like 30/100), and wanted to make sure they new the content before the next test. Now the course was precalculus algebra, which is already a class with an iconic difficulty, so we got to work and started building her skills up for the next test. After getting to know them, they had some severe deficiencies in the math department. I now had the task of not only teaching the material, but also teaching the basics. We worked together for my entire four hour shift every single day that I was there from then on. They even showed up before my shift and worked with other tutors as well. We eventually got them to the point that they knew the material well enough to make a good score on the exam. Hooray for us. The only issue was that by the time that we got there, it was the end of the semester. Well great. We put in all that work for nothing. They understood where they failed, proceeded to fix the problem that caused the failure, and we still got our final grade back and it was an F. It doesn’t look good for anybody when that happens. But they needed the course, so they took it again the next semester. They start out the same way they did, going to us everyday. But then they stopped. We only saw them four times that semester. Did they finally quit?? Actually, no. They were the top student in the course for the entire semester and were a strong advocate for people going to see us for help. That semester passes, and we all receive and email. It’s from this student. They thank us for all of the hard work that we put in to them and their level of confidence with the topic was so high that they were overjoyed at the fact that they finally got it. 

So what was the point of my sharing that story?? Well I chose to use that specific story because it clearly shows that it sometimes takes failure in order to succeed. They were happy because they went from failing a course to finally understanding a classically hard subject.

The point of both of these stories is to demonstrate that your personal success is what you want it to be. Don’t let the definition of success you use be tied to something as arbitrary as a number. Numbers are great, that’s why I majored in math, but they never tell the full human story. You could test someone all day and grade them on a predefined rubric, but the results will never prove anything beyond the things in the rubric. A rubric is never the full story. It’s ok to fail a rubric, even if it is your own. The point of life is to learn and enjoy yourself, learning tends to happen because of failure and some of life’s best moments and decisions are made because of failure. Let it happen. Failure is a good thing.