#its 1:40 am and Monday so this will be the best art you will get from me

[lamentationsofalonelypotato]

You Call It Madness But I Call It Love

Chapter 1: You Shouldn't Have Answered The Door

Pairing: Soldier Boy x f!reader, Reader POV

Summary: When the reader left Payback 40 years ago after a falling out with her childhood best friend she never looked back, but when two men show up to her apartment and start asking her questions about the past, the reader begins to think those things can’t stay hidden and starts to question what’s real and what’s fantasy.  This is a re-telling of The Boys Season 3, where the reader is a supe who's known Soldier Boy since 1927. The chapters will fluctuate between past and present. This is chapter one of my "You Call It Madness But I Call It Love" series. (I'm so bad at summaries please forgive me!)

Word Count: 3.6K

Warnings: References to sex, Cursing (once or twice), Soldier Boy might be, is, really, absolutely, a little OOC,

Note: This is told from Reader's perspective. Any references to the reader is made using you or your. There is minimal use of y/n. I tried my best to proofread, but nobody's perfect. If you don’t like, don’t read, but if you do like, you’re my favorite!

Internal Monologue is in first person and is in italics

Masterlist

Chapter 2

******************************************

Present Day

Your head rests against your forearms on your desk, jerking upwards as a loud rhythmic knocking assaults the front door of your apartment.

What?

You think to yourself, rubbing your face with your hands. Your sketchpad was laid open on your desk beneath your head, the rough sketch of an egret bowing its head along the bank of a small pond splayed over the page in shades of gray. It would be the first in your new series of nature paintings that you would be unveiling in a month.

At least I didn't poke my eye out with the pencil. You think eyeing the sharpened point of the pencil that was dangerously close to your face a few seconds ago.

You turn your wrist to glance at your watch and note the time. It was an antique, square faced and strung on a simple black band, a reminder of a past life that you couldn't bear to part with.

Who would come see me at 8:00 am on a Monday?

For a minute you try to remember if you'd received a call from the curator of the gallery downtown, or if there had been a meeting or a lunch with your agent to discuss your next installment of work, but nothing comes to mind.

When you officially retired from being a hero you decided to become a full time artist, a hobby you had since you were a child. You hadn't expected it explode. You had enough money from your heroing career to live several lifetimes, not unwelcome given the fact that you couldn't die, not in the traditional sense at least, so art was supposed to just be a way for you to off steam. But you were happy with your life now, a lot happier than you had been when you were a hero on Payback. The thought of your previous employment with Vought sours in your mouth followed by the unavoidable thought of Ben that you push down with a well practiced sigh.

You didn't feel like reliving all that over again right now, though you knew it would probably happen later. It came in waves, especially at night when you found it difficult to sleep, the melatonin wasn't working, and all you really wanted was a hard drink.

Sobriety sucked.

The knocking persists, rattling around in your head like a bee trying to get out of a plastic cup.

"Fine. I'm coming." You shout standing up from your desk and making your way from the wall that serves as your studio towards the front door of your apartment, while trying to rub away the line the page made on your cheek.

Your apartment was the one extravagance you allowed yourself. Despite the amount of money you had, flashing it had never been a priority even in your hero days. The apartment was open concept with exposed brick walls, tall North facing windows that angled away from the inside and jutted outward over a raised wooden floored area that served as your studio. A large modern kitchen sat just to the right of the front door with stainless steel appliances, on another wall a tv hung above a leather couch and held a dark hallway that lead to your bedroom and the guest bedroom, the other walls were covered in your work, and the final wall held several bookshelves with art supplies and your vinyl record collection. A collection you started forever ago and that continued to grow with each passing year.

Need to get another bookshelf. You note looking at the limited space that remained.

You look through the peep hole in the solid metal apartment door. A tall dark haired man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a black duster and a thin younger guy with brown curly hair stare back at you.

"I don't want to buy any girl scout cookies." You shout through the heavy metal of the door.

The younger guy snorts.

"y/f/n y/l/n?" The dark haired man asks an accent tilting the ends of his words.

"Who's asking?"

He pulls out a badge, holding it up to the peep hole. "I'm Agent Butcher, this is Agent Campbell. We’re from the CIA, here to ask you a couple of questions about Soldier Boy."

At the mention of Ben's hero name you pause. You had avoided thinking about your former best friend as much as possible over the past forty years. Your relationship with Ben was complicated, the final few days you spent together even more complicated than the early years.

It hurt to compare what your life with him was like before you both became supes to the life you had together after. You had grown up together, forced into close proximity because your parents were friends and then became best friends yourselves. You stayed friends, before you both got injected with Compound V and a few years later moved on to Payback together. You were the only person able to keep Ben in check and as violent as his temper was, he didn't like to cross you. You were the only person who knew the real him, had been with him longer than anyone else. Not that he ever admitted that to you or admitted that he cared about you, but you thought somewhere deep down that he had to, felt at least something for you.

That was the problem. You were in love with him, cared deeply about him, cared more about him than anyone else you'd ever had in your life. On the night you finally slept together you were happy, you thought he felt the same way, and then the next day at his premiere you found him in the bathroom with Countess bent over a sink. The fight that followed had been your resignation from Payback and also the reason why you weren't there when Ben died.

Your jaw clenches together at the memory, followed by guilt. You were always there for him, you had his back just as he had yours, but the one time you hadn't been there-

You open the door to look at them. "The singer?"

"What?" Agent Butcher looks confused.

"The artist? Soulja Boy-" You arch a brow feigning confusion. "Because honestly I don't understand why the CIA would be asking me about that."

“No.” Agent Butcher holds up a photo.

You keep your face impassive. It’s a photo of Ben and you at a movie premiere the week before he left to go to Nicaragua. Both of you were standing in your supe suits, your own was a sleeveless black one piece suit with purple embellishments that traced from the sides of your ankles and stretched up under your armpits, while a dark hood covered your head and a black mask hid the bottom of your face. You always thought you looked more like a supervillain in it, but you were thankful that it hid your identity. It was so long ago, but you still remember that night clearly. The ridiculous movie, the afterparty where everyone was so tipsy and the smell of alcohol burned against your nose, and finally when you went to the bathroom and found Ben and Countess together, the immeasurable rage followed by heartbreak that you felt when you saw them.  Not to mention the fight that followed when Ben trampled all over your heart and stated that you meant nothing to him.

“You’re here to talk to me about my mom?” You flit your eyes back to the two men standing in the doorway, easily slipping into the lie that you and Legend invented.

“Your mom?” Agent Campbell looks confused.

“Yeah. Indigo? I mean y’all can come in if you want-“ You open the door wider, understanding that they won't leave, before you begin to move towards the kitchen. “I apologize in advance. I’m not quite myself, I was up late working.” You pause halfway into the kitchen. “I’m going to make some coffee, you guys want some?” You eye the man in the black coat. "Or tea?"

“Coffee is fine."

You find the coffee filters and shuffle through the cupboards to find a bag of coffee, still trying to wake up. Staying up late wasn't unusual for you. You tended to find the urge to create in the wee hours of the morning, not to mention everything that happened in the past kept you up.

You open the bag of coffee to smell the grounds, thinking that it will wake you up, but as soon as you do the smell of Agent Butcher and Agent Campbell washes over you.

You could smell the compound V in their veins pumping through their bodies with every beat of their hearts.

So, they're supes. You think to yourself, pouring the grounds into the coffeemaker. Which means they probably aren't from the CIA.

Despite the realization, you weren't worried. Your particular ability was a well-kept secret, a secret that only Ben knew despite you being on Payback. Stan Edgar and the others had believed that "Indigo," the hero name assigned to you, had enhanced strength and senses, but it was more than that. You had an ability that, if brought to the public, would probably land you in a government facility. Laying low had it's perks, your freedom was one of them.

You watch them begin to walk around your living room examining the artifacts of your new life, the one you crafted when everything fell apart. There wasn't anything in the living room to arouse suspicion that you were the original Indigo. The only remnants of your past life that remained were in a wooden trunk at the back of your walk in closet, hidden behind a collection of paint splattered overalls almost identical to the pair you were wearing right now.

"You've got a nice place." The younger guy says looking around.

"Thanks. It's rent controlled. I got lucky-" You fiddle with the coffeemaker to buy yourself some time.

Why were they here to ask me about Ben? It had been 40 years, hardly seems relevant now. And why were they pretending to be CIA?

"You're an artist?" Agent Butcher asks, staring at the canvas sitting on an easel by your desk. It was a collection of multicolored dark greens that swirled together, flecked with pieces of gold that shone in the brilliant sunlight from the wall of windows where your studio was.

"Yeah. And I tend to paint my best at night. Hence the coffee" You turn, placing your hands on the island to face the two men.

“You’re really good.” Agent Campbell says examining some of the canvases on the wall.

“Thanks.”

“So your mum eh?” Agent Butcher turns to look at you. You note the smirk on his face and incredulous raising of his brow.

He doesn't believe me. Hard not to. I don't age.

“Yes?” You raise an eyebrow to challenge him

“You look a lot like her.”

“Thanks. I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere.” You look from Butcher to the younger guy who has moved on to look at your vinyl collection. "And I'm pretty sure that most kids look like their parents. But I'm not a geneticist."

"NO WAY! You have a signed copy of Billy Joel's Glass House!" Agent Campbell shouts holding up the vinyl cover in awe.

"Yeah." You can't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"How did you-“

"Hughie." Agent Butcher sighs.

The younger guy now identified as Hughie puts the record back with a frown, before turning back to the collection.

“But you have the same name.” Agent Butcher's eyes flit to yours.

“She named me after herself. I’m sure the CIA can locate my birth certificate."

“Right.” Agent Butcher smiles, but it’s tight lipped.

You stand there for another minute looking from Agent Butcher to Hughie, trying to think of why they're here. "So what do you want to know?”

“Well is your mum around-“

You allow your shoulders to droop and take in a shaky breath. "She died about a year ago. Cancer."

They weren't the first to come here and accuse you of being Indigo. Legend and you had come up with the farce to protect you, help you start over, but you hadn't wanted to part with your name. So other precautions were put in place: a funeral plot was purchased and a death certificate was issued as was a fake passport, I.D, and birth certificate that made you thirty two rather than over one hundred.

“Really? I thought Indigo-“ It’s enough to make Hughie turn around and look at you.

“Don’t read everything Vought says." You interrupt. "That experimental shit they put in her veins may have made her powerful, but it couldn’t protect her from that.” You sigh again to sell the lie, before turning to the coffee maker, to pour them and yourself a cup. "There should be some milk in there, sugar's in the bowl." You gesture to the refrigerator and the small blown glass sugar bowl on the counter next to the coffee maker.

Hughie moves into the kitchen to pour himself a cup, but Agent Butcher continues to eye you suspiciously.

“It wasn’t in the news.” He grunts.

“They covered it up pretty well. I mean do you blame them? One of the first supes gets killed by something like cancer. Can’t be good for Vought given they pride themselves on showcasing unstoppable heroes. I mean can you imagine if Homelander or Queen Maeve died of something like cancer? Doesn’t look good.” You shrug your shoulders and take a sip from the coffee in your hands. “What did you want to talk to her about?”

“Soldier Boy.” Butcher moves to the coffeemaker and it takes a strong amount of willpower to stop the urge to turn towards him, but you know that you need to act indifferent.

“Did she talk to you at all about him?” Hughie moves to one of the bar stools on the opposite side of the island with his coffee in front of him.

“Yeah.” You look down at the mug with a sigh, rolling the warm glass between your hands. “He really did a number on her. Plus towards the end she started seeing him everywhere."

The emotion that you summon is not fake. You allow a small amount to trickle over the dam you built to protect yourself from falling back into the pit you fell into when Ben broke your heart and then died. When you broke every piece of glass in your apartment and threw your couch through the wall.

“I’m so sorry for your loss.” Hughie looks sincere when he says it.

Why is someone like him hanging out with this guy? You think to yourself eyeing Agent Butcher again.

“It’s been hard. But I took care of her, sometimes it was only me. It’s kind of hard to restrain an 103 year old with super strength.” You smile to yourself at the joke.

“So you’re a supe?” Hughie takes a sip from his coffee mug.

“No I was just able to talk her down. Guess that first batch of Compound V doesn’t work the same way. Never transferred. Plus my dad wasn’t a supe so maybe it just diluted.” You shrug, the lies weaving easily through the air. 

“But she did talk to you about him?” Agent Butcher presses. He's leaning against the counter to your left.

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“I mean what do you want to hear? There’s a lot.” The mug sends a pleasant warmth through your hands as you hold it, but does little to stop the chill of the past from creeping up your spine.

“Start at the beginning.”

“Well.” You take another sip of coffee. “I don’t know details-details but- I just know that she grew up with him, they were from the same neighborhood in Philadelphia.  All that shit they made up about Soldier Boy being from a poor family was just propaganda. His dad owned half the steel mills in the state of Pennsylvania. Used to invest in property with my grandfather. Soldier Boy and my mom were friends. When he got the Compound V shot, she did too. They were looking for female and male volunteers. I think he asked her to? Or-“ You shrug your shoulders to push away the memory of the day Ben told you about the experiments. When he told you he was finally going to make something of himself and convinced you to go with him.

“They were dating?” Agent Butcher asks.

The question makes you pause. It was difficult to think about that, difficult to relive the memories of Ben continuing to push you away and his final refusal to admit he loved you. Ben never did say that to you. You had been through so much together, so many years as friends and then after the night you finally were together he threw you away like you meant nothing.

“No, but he really hurt her-“ You avoid their gaze.

“What did he do?” Hughie asks leaning forward on the counter.

“They had been through a lot together and I think when their friendship began to transfer to relationship he pushed her away. My mother said something about him refusing to admit he loved her. I think the last straw when she caught him with Countess.”

“Do you know anything about how he died?”

The memory of the phone call strikes you in the chest, when Stan Edgar himself called to tell you Ben was dead. When the darkness swallowed you whole and all you felt was guilt and heart break over the fight you had and how you left him alone when he needed you most.

“It hurt my mother a lot. Broke her. She never really got over him, no one was good enough, not even my dad. She drove him away too and then it was just us.”

“Was she there when Soldier Boy died?” Hughie spins the coffee mug in his hands.

“No. She left Payback  before that mission. It was right after she caught Countess and him together.” You force a shrug. “I think she regretted not being there. She was almost as indestructible as him, but I think she felt worse because they had a big fight right before.”

“So she didn’t know about Nicaragua or the thing that killed him?” Agent Butcher raises an eyebrow.

You cock your head to the side feigning confusion. “What are you talking about? Soldier Boy got vaporized in a nuclear explosion.”

“Well I think we’ve wasted enough of your time.”

They get up to leave.

“Wait-“

 Agent Butcher turns to look at you. 

“Why are you asking me about him? It's been what? Forty years since he died-"

"That's classified love. Thank you for your time."

You watch them leave, but listen to them as they walk down the hallway.

“So do you believe her?” Hughie’s voice echoes in your ears.

“Not a bit. Maybe we trail her for a day. See if she really is an artist." Agent Butcher grunts. "At least until we go to Russia."

Russia? Why would they go to Russia?

You stand there for a second, holding the coffee mug in your hands. As you do the memories of the past 90 years wash across your mind, breaking through the damn that you built to protect yourself.

You were friends for years. You loved him since the moment you met. There were good times before the serum and then the bad, when he got famous and you were there to keep him in check. Sure you may have annoyed him, but he liked that about you, that you were able to bring him back from the edge. The day you finally had sex you remembered it, it was special, or you thought it was. You were excited that finally he loved you as much as you loved him. But then it all fell apart. That fight hadn’t been pretty. When you left him you felt yourself begin to slip, you didn’t eat or drink for days and when you finally got the phone call you thought it was him trying to apologize, but it was Stan.

You think again about Russia and finally your mind drifts to Countess.

She was the one that said that the Russians killed Ben, she saw it happen, saw his body get taken away-

Your jaw clenches together in anger and frustration as you remember the last time you saw her, when she taunted you and you almost ripped off her head. You never heard it directly from her that Ben was dead, only heard it from Stan. Of course the ridiculous funeral for Ben that you were expected to go to would mean that you saw her, but you hadn't gone, didn't want to keep up the charade. Instead you went to Philadelphia and walked the streets aimlessly with a bottle of whiskey in your hand, remembering what it was like when you were kids. Sometimes you think it all would have been different if you never got the injection, if you said no when he showed up in your bedroom and asked you to come with him. He was your oldest friend. The only real person you'd ever loved or cared about. The memory of the fight rings in your ears but you push it down.

You think again about Countess.  She was the reason why Ben and you had the fight. The reason you weren't there in Nicaragua. Regret spikes in your chest. You should have been there that day, should have tried to save him. You always had each others backs and the one time you weren't there he died.

Maybe it was time to pay her a visit.

**********************************************

Thank you for reading! If you'd like to be added to the taglist for this series let me know :)

Taglist: @roseblue373

[speedystrans]

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[notnctu]

nctblr ff survey results

hello nctblr writing community! i made a short form to assess reader preferences! originally, it was for me to optimize my own writing and to satisfy my own curiosity about what my readers enjoy to read. but i thought, why limit it to my own audience? I hope, readers and writers alike, can find these results helpful to your own works!

I had 162 responses and so, i want to thank everyone who took the time to take this survey and for the many writers who reblogged it! the audience is reflective of those who it reached in the nctblr community from reblogs and predominantly my own audience. with that being said, i am a blog that writes for both SFW and SMUT content. regardless, i hope you can find these intriguing and rather helpful!

please do not repost these results, but reblog/like/share it to your hearts content! these results are from JAN 2021.

i would like to preface to everyone to respect the opinions of the results and not to cause any discrepancy when viewing. if so, i will delete your comments. this is a safe place and i will not tolerate any slander regarding how the results played out. okie thank you!! you may view everything under the cut and again, lots of love and thank you to everyone!

general info questions:

1. are you a minor or 18+?

18+: 133/162 (82.1%)  minor: 29/162 (17.9%)

2. who is/are your nct biases?

*i want to note that many people selected multiple members for this question and aren’t reflective of who they read for. you will see later in the post that who people read for have different results. 

3. what timezone are you in?

- EST (32)

- GMT (17)

- PST, Pacific (18)**

- PST, Philippine Standard Time (3)** 

- GMT +8 (14)

- CST (13)

- IST (7)

- GMT +7 (6)

- CET (6)

- AEST (5)

for the sake of keeping this post not excessively long, these are the top 10 timezones that had the most responses. there are also people who didn’t know their timezones.  ** a lot of people didn’t specify between Philippine or pacific, and the 3 under Philippine standard times were the only ones that did. 

4. what days do you prefer to read?

1. doesn’t matter (149)

2. saturday (12)

3. sunday (9)

4. friday (7)

5. tuesday (3)

6. wednesday (2)

7. monday (1) & thursday (1)

5. what times do you prefer to read?

1. 12 AM - 3 AM (44)

2. 3 AM - 6 AM (10)

3. 6 AM - 9 AM (6)

4. 9 AM - 12 PM (6)

5. 12 PM - 3 PM (11)

6. 3PM - 6PM (24)

7. 9PM - 12 AM (50)

8. doesn’t matter (97)

the bold ones are the times with the significant amount of higher votes.

fanfiction questions

6. what genres do you read/prefer the most?

1. fluff (121) 2. angst (101) 3. smut (96) 

here are some that others included under the other option:

angst with happy ending (5) a mix of all three (3)  slowburn (2) crack/humor (2)

7. what are your FAVORITE tropes/aus? 

1. college au (112) 2. enemies to lovers (108) 3. best friends to lovers (91) 4. bad boy au (70) 5. childhood best friends to lovers (69) 6. fwb au (65)  7. friends to lovers (64) 8. soulmates au (62) 9. established relationship (59) 10. hogwarts au (55) 11. fantasy/supernatural (48) 12. strangers to lovers (45) / high school au (45)

some that others included under the other option:

idol au (3), coffee, mafia (8), fake dating (3), racing (2), reverse tropes, royalty (2), crush, mutual pining, mythology (2), ceo, idiots to lovers, based on tv shows/books/movies, dystopia, roommates (2), pwp, medical, rich kid/private school, historical, arranged marriage

8. what are your LEAST favorite tropes/aus?

1. fantasy/supernatural (50) 2. hogwarts au (40) 3. established relationship (29) 4. high school au (27)  5. bad boy (25) 6. soulmate (21) 7. none (18) 8. fwb au (13) 9. childhood best friends (12) 10. enemies to lovers (11) 11. strangers to lovers (7) 12. best friends to lovers (6) 13. college au (4) 14. friends to lovers (3)

some that others included under the other option:

sports au, royal (2), mafia (2), exes to lovers, stalker, yandere (2), hybrid, idol

9. story length preference?

15+k words and 4k-6k words tied for most at 33 votes (20.4%), while less than 1k words got the least at 2 votes (1.2%). 13k - 15k words had the second fewest at 8 votes (4.9%).

10. who do you read for the MOST?

top 5 members who are read for the MOST: 

1. Haechan (90) 2. Jaemin (79) 3. Jeno (76) 4. Mark (70) 5. Jaehyun (66)

please note that this should not discourage you from writing for other members! 

11. who do you WANT to see more fics written for?

top members who people want to see more fics for:

1. Doyoung (50) 2. Xiaojun (45) / Yangyang (45)  3. Renjun (43) / Kun (43)  4. Taeil (35)  5. Sungchan (31)

a biased a/n: i say this alot on my blog... but my mans dy’s tags are so dry and its obvious others know this too... so i hope this gives you more insight about who to write for!

12. Open Response Addition Feedback

- ALL OF YALLS WRITERS ARE AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for supplying us nctzens with A+++ quality fics to fill our days. Often times I seriously am at awe with how amazing all of you write and I’d think to myself, “damn.. i’m really getting all of this for free.” SO THANK YOU, YOU BEAUTIFUL AND MAGNIFICENT BEINGS. We all love and appreciate you guys so damn much ♥️

- thank you so much for taking time to write ♥️ i really wish i had time to write an ask/message to every writer who’s works i have read cause it helps me get through the day, especially when im on my study break 🥺♥️

- I appreciate you for even caring about our preferences :D writers don’t get enough credit and I wish yall know how valued you are in this community <3 take care and stay safe

- smut shouldn't be in high school AU's :// and people should stop using images from when members were underage in their smut headers :///// also, thank you for doing this!!!

- whatever you write is amazing and your opinion of your work should come before the readers. remember that you’re writing for yourself before you write for readers <3

- to all writers, i love u and ur art! keep the magic happening <3

- There's too little of doyoung smut collection

and to everyone who left me personal messages, thank you!! you’re all so sweet and im glad to be able to do this for everyone :) 

conclusion

thank you for making it this far and hopefully, this helps you in your own writing endeavors! i know this definitely helped me in many ways with my own and im more than grateful for everyone who participated (reblogging my survey, taking it, leaving open feedback). let me know if you have any questions :) 

[give-jack-a-lightsaber]

Just another Monday (Chicago PD x Officer!Reader)

A/N: Hi everyone! Just a little warning (?) I kinda implied the age of the reader here for the sake of the story, she’s around 40 or something like that, I didn’t put a number just keep in mind that she’s older than the team (not counting Hank). And a female reader again! I’m trying to write gender neutral but I’m having a hard time already just for writing in another language that I’m not that good at yet so bear with me! 💜 I hope you enjoy it!

Word Count: 2220 (I think lol)

The sensation of the sun caressing your skin right now was amazing, it made you like mornings just for this. You decided to get out of the car and lean on it to soak all of it while your partner was in the store, just crossing the street, when the radio inside the patrol broke you out of thoughts with dispatch describing a suspect in the area where you were.

You were about to answer to the call when you saw him walking in the same sidewalk you where, trying to hide with a red baseball hat wich was the worst “costume” you had saw in your life because the dude was enormous, with a horrific plaid vest that showed his big arms covered by ugly made-in-prison tattoos and looking everywhere like waiting for someone to jump at him. Fair enough...

There was a few people on the street so you decided to act distracted and wait for him to pass next to you where an internal street was desserted and there you could jump at him without hurting any civilian.

You saw your moment and punched him in the temple with all the force you could manage sending him stumbling on the empty street just like you planed. But what you hadn't previewed was that the guy was three times bigger than you and him recovering pretty fast. Just as you went for your gun he grabed your hand in his fist and throw you against a wall, sending your gun flying who knows where.

“Bad move you fucking pig” he growled at you with an incredibly pitched voice that thrown you off guard so badly that when you realized the situaction you were in he was grabbing you from your vest making your feet leave the floor, ready for toss you againt the trash cans next to you when he was sudenly hit in the back of the head releasing you in the moment.

That's when you saw him. Your fucking partner!!! But the reunion was short lived when the dude punched your partner in the face dropping him in the floor instantly and starting to go for his gun. Another possibility presented to and you didn't wait a second to jump in his back and start punching everything you could while holding him in a chokehold with your other arm to 1) not fall and 2) debilitate him enough until your partner finish recovering.

And that's how it when for what it felt like two hours of wrestling a bear. You guys landing pretty good and almost choreographed punches and the criminal landing all the nasty ones in your jaw and sides.

You could hear screeching tires in the background but you didn't have time to see what was it, you saw and opening and landed a punch in his groin destabilizing him so you finished with a kick on the back of his knees making him fall on his face. Quickly you cuffed him and sat down on his back so he wouldn't move. Panting hard you lifted your head up and froze when you saw the entire Intelligence Unit surrounding you and a few neighbors in the background.

You composed yourself when you realize that you were the one staring now and said "I think this belongs to you" and you were a bit relieved that a few of them laughed and not just your partner that was sitting against the wall. You were starting to get up when a rough looking hand appeared in front of you. Looking up you see Sergeant Voight with Burguess next to him and smiling at you.

"Thank you" you say taking his hand and trying to hide the pain that rushed through your entire ribcage but you couldn't help but wince. "You okay?" asked the rough voice. "Yeah just a bit very very sore" you answered panting through the pain and touching lightly your jaw to check it was on its place. "You probably have broken ribs, you're agitated" said Kim helping you towards the ambulance were your partner was being checked. "Just another Monday" you sighed sitting in a nearby bench while waited for them to finish. With closed eyes you tried to canalize the pain out of your body just like that only class of "experimental yoga" teached you to but like we already knew, it didn't work.

"I didn't remember you this badass you know" you heard a familiar voice talk next to you. Opening your eyes smiling at one of the best partners that Sarge Platt paired you with.

"Well you are a big boy now, playing with the big guns. I didn't even expected to be remembered by the famous Kevin Atwater" you joked giving him puppy eyes. You guys laughed and talked a little, now joined by Ruzek until a paramedic came and asked you to get into the ambo.

The second you lifted your right leg to get in a wave of unbearable pain shock your entire body and made you lose your balance. Thankfully one of the paramedics and Kevin catch you before the ground were even an option."Wow okay, Simon get bed out here now" yelled the paramedic lowering your body totally in the floor and started checking the vitals.

"I'm okay, just a bit dizzy" you reassured everybody as they came worried. You got lifted into the ambo and left with your partner by your side. He was okay but needed clearance from the ER. _________

You were in the locker room getting changed out of your uniform after being released from the hospital. 6 hours under observation. Yay. Now finally in the precinct you could grab your bag and leave to your now very tempting bed. You were in a sport bra and leggings trying to catch your breath after putting the laters on when someone talked from the door. "Damn that son of a bitch made an abstract painting in your middle" said Ruzek entering with Atwater, both looking at the colorful bruising that surrounded your ribcage. "Ha! You didn't see his best work yet" you commented while turning around to face them and pointing at the left side of your face. The bruise in your jaw was more like an angry red with touches of dark blue-ish already appearing. Thankfully, you guess, it was expanding more towards the neck than your face. That would just fucking suck. "Fuck woman, that's just ruining a piece of art" said Kevin grabbing gently your face and tilting it towards the light so they could see better. "Ha ha, fuck off Atwater" you said grabbing your shirt but it looked too tight so you just dropped it and went for an oversized hoodie and slowly put it on. "So why you guys here? You needed something?”. "Voight wants to talk to you, nothing serious, maybe go through a few details about today" "Okay, let's go" you breathe out, grab the bag and left with them. You were chatting, remembering the times you shared on the job with Kevin when Adam asked a curious question. "We never slept together, not even a little kiss, for God sakes Adam, he's way too young for me! And we were partners, it'll be fucking awkward" you answered him looking at him with a 'wtf' face stopping at the top of the stairs and of course dragging the attention of the rest that were up here. "C'mon, you're not old" replied Adam going to his desk, "even if you were you'll be totally a Milf". Your face turned bright red and everyone's jaw dropped at his comment. Out of the corner of your eye you could see Halstead trying not to laugh, Kevin nodding his head and Upton and Burguess scolding him. "Was it too much?" he asked honestly without a hint of regret. "I'll punch that pretty face of yours if I was able to lift my arm without passing out from the pain" you answered playfully narrowing your eyes at him but internally thanking the universe when you saw Voight's door office closed and him talking on the phone, not hearing anything of this. You talked a bit, the group asking how you were doing and remembering the badass movements you  pulled off earlier until the Sergeant opened the door and called you in. "Sit please" he said closing the door and going to his own chair. "What's the verdict? " "Well, where do I start" you chuckle lightly, "a nice looking jaw but it's just bruised. Two cracked ribs, one in each side and practically all of the lower ones bruised. Dr. Choi said that the dizziness was from the pain, it could happen again but from now painkillers and not sudden movements. And tomorrow I have to go get bandaged properly, so they can see if nothing got swollen". "Hell, you took a nice beating" he joked a they laughed a bit. After a moments of silence he talked again, "I like my unit how it is right now and we already have a new person coming, it'll get too crowded. But if I can have you as back up it'll be a gift. " "I love my job Sergeant" you breathe out after a minute of processing, "I love patroling and I love this city. This job saved my life...  I'm honored that you think of me like that and I'll gladly be a form of support for this unit". "I'm glad to hear that" he smiled at you. "Still I don't want you to get a wrong idea about me and later disappoint you for that" you tell him looking into his the eyes. "I'm not always this 'badass' officer that goes around beating bad guys and winning every fight. This is why I also am so grateful for, I been doing this for 16 years and I know I am not getting any younger and that the young boys and girls get picked up first because they malleable and ready to obey, so if you think of me for even a simple task once in a year I'll be the happiest gal in Chicago". You talk a bit more, it felt like a job interview but with a cool boss. You noticed he had your file on his desk and that he knew a few stories of you like if he had been around asking, but mostly was small chat. "Sorry to cut chat Sergeant but I took a few painkillers before coming up here and they started to kick in like right now" you said with an apologetic look on your face. "Please I'm the that should be apologizing, you had a hell of a day" said standing up and stretching his hand at you. "It's always a pleasure to meet people with such a conviction regarding work". "The pleasure is mine, sir" you said shaking his hand, opening the door and stepping a bit outside. "Thank you again, for the chance". "Bye guys it was nice talking to you" you smiled at the rest of the unit getting a few 'get well soon' and a 'see you later' from Kevin. Going downstairs, straight to the Sarge desk to check out. "You had a long chat with Voight, any news I should know about?" asked Platt handing you a paper to sign. "Just that I have young soul under this bunch of bruises" you winked at her and she chuckled a bit. "Come here tomorrow after your appointment and we'll talk about what you'll be doing until you heal". __________ Finally home. The sun was entirely hide from us and the moon was gigantic and shining, without a cloud bothering her. Opening the door from the apartment you were met with 3 seconds of silence until the sound of big paws and a soft 'meow' emerged from your bedroom. "Hello my babies" you greeted your dog, JJ, and cat, Atlas, that were already in front of you looking for kisses and hugs. You walked directly into your room, taking out the tight leggings but leaving the CPD soft hoodie on, just lifting it up to check your middle. Grabbed the painkillers from the bag and put them on the table next to your dresser, tall enough for JJ never reaching at them, and went to bed between your two fluffy friends. Just as you were reaching dreamland your phone alerted you of a message. It was an voice message from Kevin. If you don't remember wrong he was going to Molly's with the rest of the team. "Hey! It's Adam. Ruzek. Adam Ruzek you know? From today" he sounded totally wasted, "I just wanted to say sorry if I overstepped today at the precinct, calling you Milf and that. I mean you are not old enough to be a Milf, I think, wow I should have asked at least not just asume your age, but you'll totally will be a hot woman. Not that you aren't now, that's not what.. " and it cut itself. You stared at the ceiling for a few minutes until you started laughing like an idiot, even waking up your furry friends and having them look at you weird. And you thought after Voight chat this day couldn't have ended better.

[go-redgirl]

Donald Trump Demands Congress Add $2000 Direct Payments to Coronavirus Relief Bill

President Donald Trump demanded Tuesday that Congress amend the coronavirus rescue package and government funding bill before sending it to his desk.

The massive 5,593-page bill was passed by both the House and the Senate on Monday night but immediately drew criticism for only sending $600 of direct aid to each American.

Trump criticized the bill for extending direct coronavirus relief payments to family members of illegal aliens, getting up to $1,800 each.

“This is far more than the Americans are given,” Trump said.

The president did not say he would veto the bill but demanded that Congress amend it before sending it to his desk.

“I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000, or $4000 for a couple,” he said.

The also president lamented that the bill also failed to provide substantial aid to restaurants and small businesses.

Trump berated members of Congress for failing to even read the massive bill before passing it quickly in the last hours before the Christmas holiday.

“It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” he said.

He criticized the billions appropriated for aid to countries like Cambodia, Burma, Egypt, countries in Central America, and even $25 million for “democracy and gender programs” in Pakistan.

The president also ridiculed the bill for including $40 million for the Kennedy Center, $1 billion for the Smithsonian, and $154 for the National Gallery of Art.

“Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries and lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,” Trump said.

Trump demanded that Congress send a better coronavirus aid package, suggesting that he might not sign it.

“I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package, and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done,” he concluded.

____________________________________

OPINION:  Great news to hear and read about.  President Donald John Trump is one of the greatest Presidents we’ve had in our life time. He loves this country and its citizens.

No other President in our life time has done so much monetary for the Citizens of our great country.

Thank you Mr. President and may Almighty God continue to bless and protect you all the days of your life.  

You are the very best President in this country and no other former President out there these days could ever, ever top your performance and no other former Presidents would or could do what you’ve done for he American people in our country.

All God’s Angeles are watching over you, your family and America!

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 4x02-- The Gang Tries to Serve a Subpoena

Under the cut.

This isn’t the first episode of season 4, but since it’s the first episode that doesn’t take place in an AU… it’s basically the first episode. 

Reddick, Boseman, and Lockhart has been rebranded as “RBL: A division of STR Laurie”. Remember when Will tried to rebrand Lockhart/Gardner as “LG”? At least RBL isn’t a well-known appliance brand. But I think this might be the same “sleek” font as the LG rebrand.

The acquisition of the firm has led to a remodel. I enjoy how every season RBL looks a little bit less like the LG set.

This remodel makes the offices look like a spaceship/villain’s lair/cyberpunk nightclub. There is a giant spiky cocoon thing (nope, I don’t have better words to describe that) coming out of the ceiling in the conference room and a new spiral staircase near the name partners’ offices. It looks ridiculous and intimidating (and it is supposed to). 

There are also dogs roaming around off lash.

And neon lights and a giant fucking GARGOYLE outside of Adrian’s office. It’s so huge it looks like it was taken from the Harold Washington Library. (This may be the most authentically Chicago thing in this episode.)

Much like the last episode, the first thing we see after the teaser is Diane arriving at work and being greeted by Marissa. And, also much like the last episode, Diane is disoriented.

As it turns out, there’s been a bit of a time jump since the end of the last episode-- Diane’s been traveling/resting (doctor’s orders), so this is her first day back to work in 9 months. “What happened here?” Diane asks. Does it make sense a name partner would be so out of the loop on major renovations? Nah. We are not meant to spend much time wondering why Diane/Adrian/Liz would agree to an acquisition or how the talks played out. This is the premise for season 4 and we’re just supposed to accept it. I’m usually wary of this kind of re-premising, but this doesn’t bug me too much. We saw last season the firm had no identity (bc when the firm had an identity in season 1 it was ALL BC OF BARBARA KOLSTAD) and we saw them lose their top clients. Diane’s been on leave so she probably wasn’t that involved in conversations, Adrian probably welcomes acquisition because it’s more money, and Liz… has always only been idealistic to a point.

My point is: our heroes aren’t actually, and have never been, heroes. Sure, they’re the underdogs dealing with a big corporation… but also, they sold to the big corporation.

Marissa says the cocoon spike thing is a sunset. K.

Jay’s never been up to STR Laurie’s floor. The dogs running around, however, have been upstairs. Monday and Wednesday are pet days, but the pets always come through the RBL floor instead of the STR Laurie floor. 

The name partners can bring dogs. (How many name partners are there if there are this many dogs and STR Laurie is at most 4 people and RBL is 3 and none of the RBL partners brought in dogs?)

JUSTICE FOR JUSTICE! (Poor Justice is probably not still around 11 years later but I had to say it.)

In the partners’ meeting, even the food everyone’s eating looks more upscale. Adrian officially welcomes Diane back. One of the non-name partners is not so happy to have her back. Or, rather, he’s not so happy the name partners got a ton of money in the deal and the non-name partners got screwed. Fair point.

I guess neither Lucca nor Rosalyn got the partnership.

Adrian expositions that they were acquired because they couldn’t survive after losing ChumHum, and STR Laurie is the 7th largest firm in the world. Got it. 

Diane’s check from the acquisition of the firm is so huge it stuns her. You would think she would have known these details. But we’re here now and this show works better if you look at the themes instead of wanting all of the character motivations to always make sense. I’d probably be chewing this plot out if it happened on TGW-- why would x make y decision!? Why didn’t we get to see it!?-- but with TGF I have an easier time accepting radical changes in tone. 

And TGF did need a change in tone. You can’t get that much mileage out of episodes about 45 (whose name might not even be mentioned this ep? I will try to look out for that as I watch) and clearly no one on the writing staff is interested in small, character driven intraoffice power struggles as the primary plots. If the writers have something to say about massive corporations, I’d rather sacrifice a few scenes of character development for a season that has a POV than sit through a season as uninspired as s7 of TGW.

(Perhaps this is why I’ve always liked TGW season 6 more than others-- it’s messy, but it’s INTERESTING. I like the Kings’ work best when it has energy and say what you will about season 6, but it’s not lacking for energy.) 

There is a dog peeing on Adrian’s office door and he is NOT happy about it (no one would be, but he is ESPECIALLY fed up). One gets the sense he’s not just appalled that it’s happening but tired of the dogs altogether. 

Diane is summoned to go upstairs to meet with the overlords. According to Adrian, Mr. Laurie isn’t bad, but Mr. Firth might be. 

Upstairs, there is a very long, very white hallway. It looks like it’s out of a sci-fi movie. 

I see TGF has finally leaned in to their tradition of casting British actors by just… having STR Laurie be a British firm. 

The set decoration of Mr. Firth’s office looks like it belongs on Evil. It’s over the top, has a piece of art that looks like horns (much like the therapist monster thingy… just watch Evil okay) and light fixtures that are clearly crosses. 

Mr. Firth asks Diane what she wants to do and she says she wants to get back to work. “What work?” he asks. Diane wants to get back to her clients and Mr. Firth tells a story about a poor man who wanted to give everything, even the moon, to a thief. Neither Diane nor I understand. Mr. Firth says this story is about how he’s giving Diane her “moon” by having her head up their pro-bono cases because she shines when she has a goliath to face. True, but what does this have to do with the story!? I legit thought that story was going to be about how Diane gives too much of herself and should learn to accept high pay checks while doing no work and getting out of STR Laurie’s way. Maybe I missed something?

Anyway, Diane is getting the pro bono department with 22 lawyers and 40 cases. This is to keep her happy and to make STR Laurie look good. Feels too good to be true. Diane gets investigator time and partner billable hours, and she’s told this is fine-- make the firm a good citizen no matter how much it costs. WTF is going on here? Is this a trick?

Diane walks downstairs, happy, as Lucca heads up the stairs. Maybe she’s not a partner, but she’s important enough to be summoned upstairs. 

Mr. Firth explains to Lucca that he is “the sorting hat of lawyers.” Lucca explains she’s never read Harry Potter because she doesn’t “like wizard shit.” Impressively brave to say that to your new overlord, Lucca. I have missed you and your give no fucks attitude. 

“Yes, fuck wizard shit,” Mr. Firth responds, somewhat stiltedly. 

Mr. Firth wants Lucca to work on a divorce case for one of their top clients as the client has a personality clash with their head of family law. Their head of family law is, of course, David Lee. Welcome back, I guess. At least David Lee happening to end up at this firm that acquired RBL makes a ton more sense than all the ways they found to keep David Lee relevant to TGW in its last two seasons. 

David Lee hasn’t changed a bit.

Diane’s first client is XIOMARA VILLANUEVA!!!!!! 

But in this universe, she’s a restaurant owner whose restaurant is about to be torn down because of eminent domain. Diane tries one of her usual tricks- asking Xo (I’m sure she has a name on this show and once they say it again I will stop calling her Xo) to bring her food truck outside of the courthouse so everyone can smell how great her food is and be more sympathetic to her case. 

“You’re not the lawyer I expected,” Xo tells Diane. Diane responds, “I’ve changed.” Diane, I am pretty sure that’s not what she meant, but ok!

Lucca and David Lee’s first meeting with Bianca Skye, the high profile client, is a bit awkward, but Bianca instantly takes a liking to Lucca. (“I didn’t know this firm had any black lawyers,” Bianca notes. “Oh, they hide us,” Lucca jokes. But it’s not really a joke when all the black lawyers are the RBL staff and they’re on a different floor…)

David Lee has Bianca tell Lucca her whole case-- which is fairly straightforward-- with way too much detail. Before Lucca asks David if he’s just trying to run up billable hours, it’s clear he’s dragging this out on purpose.

“Oh good, the Angry Black Woman has made an appearance,” awful human being David Lee says after Lucca calls him out. 

David Lee plays rank on her and tells her to watch and learn. Yes, making a racist comment and then being condescending without explaining your strategy is DEFINITELY the way to get the lawyer characterized by her complete lack of interest in being a cog in a machine on your side. 

Adrian, Liz, and Barry are all helping Diane do a mock trial before her first day back in court. It’s fun. 

Adrian is SO over the dogs. His face when a pack of them run past is priceless. 

Diane’s mock trial strategy goes well; the evidence is on her side. And Julius, as luck would have it, is the judge on this case. (Why this is in federal court I don’t know.)

Julius is very happy to be a judge. 

Canning is back. Feels weird to have him here without Alicia. But, honestly, I was prepared for worse. As we’ll see as this scene progresses, Canning is the PERFECT person to have as opposing counsel. If there’s a new rule to exploit, he’d be the first to know about it. If there’s a slimy strategy to use while playing innocent, that’s his schtick. If there’s a corporation doing bad things, he’s your guy. 

Canning tries to explain his condition to Julius. I guess Julius must have been in the New York office when Canning was at LG in late season 5. Diane laughs, knowing that Julius can’t be tricked by Canning. 

Canning probably also knows it won’t work, because he’s already prepared to ask Julius to recuse himself. I feel like this is entirely reasonable. Diane isn’t just an acquaintance… they were partners at the same firm for over a decade.

Diane is TOTALLY the type of white lady to overdo the pronunciation of “chorizo”. 

The delicious smelling food seems like it’s going to work, but we quickly learn that what used to constitute tricky is now just child’s play. The CEO of Rare Orchard, who has been subpoenaed, has decided not to show up. He doesn’t have an excuse. He isn’t delaying. He’s just not going to show up. Like, remember when we thought it was egregious that the CEO Canning was defending in 4x11 kept putting off depositions and Alicia calling the judge was an effective strategy? HA! (Anyone know if this case is based on something or if it’s the writers taking some creative liberties for the sake of plot? My fear is that aspects of it are real because I can’t see the writers being this interested in a plot point they invented.)

Canning says he thinks the CEO doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the subpoena. Julius reminds Canning that he is a federal judge and his subpoena is legitimate. Canning is all, “yes, I know that’s your position” as though laws are opinions. AAAAAAAAA.

This show loves this kind of thing, just totally taking the basic assumptions away and letting chaos reign. 

This CEO sent Julius a memo telling him to “go fuck yourself.” Eeek.

Diane doesn’t even get to do much lawyering.

Then there is a random cut (which I hate) to a scene of a massive set falling apart during a battle scene. Why the fuck is this here? And what is this from? If I ff to the credits will it tell me? Nope. Dammit. Someone help me out here. 

Credits! Things are exploding again, yay! Aside from the images on the TV, these credits look really similar to S3. I think they may have increased the saturation on the color of the liquids exploding but I could be making things up.

Julius’s outrage at the situation continues after the credits. 

David Lee tries to get Lucca to agree to just be comforting to the client. Lucca is like, no, because I was brought on for a reason I am going to do my job. 

DLee calls this “PC shit” and says something else racist. Bianca answers the door and asks to do the depo prep on the run. What this means is that they’re all getting on her private jet and going to St. Lucia. 

David Lee is TERRIFIED of the private jet. I would be too since I hate small planes (and all planes, but particularly small ones), but I am still enjoying watching him squirm. Lucca is too. 

Lucca DELIGHTS in reminding David they’re in a small metal tube with nothing holding them up. It’s fantastic. 

Bianca offers David Lee a CBD cocktail, because of course she does. This episode is doing a good job of reminding me of why David Lee and Canning were both once really effective characters, so if the writers can use them this way moving forward, I’ll be happy.

Bianca googled Lucca and demands to see pictures of her very cute baby. She then takes Lucca’s phone and starts up Tinder. This is a strange dynamic because it’s friendly but also sudden and also Bianca is paying Lucca for this time. But both of them could use friends, so I’m just going to be cautiously optimistic a real friendship could grow out of this. 

David Lee chugging a CBD cocktail is most definitely something I needed in my life. Thank you writers! 

Our characters are wealthy but everyone they deal with in this episode is ultrawealthy. Like, disgustingly wealthy. Bianca seems nice but holy shit no one needs to fly to St. Lucia for lunch. 

Court stuff happens. This episode is more interesting than just “court stuff happens” but the point is pretty simple-- Julius gets increasingly outraged at the breakdown of the system he believes in, and things keep getting more and more bizarre. 

Julius turns to the corrupt judge Adrian is sleeping with (I think the writers need to tell me what I am supposed to think of her because… I just don’t understand who she’s supposed to be, unless “corrupt judge who creeps me out yet for some reason Adrian is still into” is the point OR unless I am supposed to see her corruption as somehow excusable... ) for advice. She calls their job “shadow play” and says the system is all fake. That would explain why she’s open to bribery, then. She agrees to help Julius get the CEO into court, but I think she’s just helping to illustrate how futile this will be if he tries to resist again.

David Lee also doesn’t like the food on the island. It’s so funny. 

Lucca’s dress is really cute.

Bianca says Lucca must think she’s crazy for flying just to get guava for lunch. Lucca says, “No, it’s just a very different lifestyle from mine.” That’s an understatement. Bianca’s life changed in the last few years, and she’s worried it’s all going to go away (so, it’s implied, she’s living it up now). It seems she has some sort of skincare/cosmetics empire. 

Bianca is worried that in the next recession (oh look at that timely comment), her products will be the first thing people cut back on. Curious to know if this is happening. 

Bianca’s other concern is that she has no friends now because she’s rich. Everyone wants something. “You’re so full of shit,” Lucca says, refusing to pity Bianca. This makes Bianca like her more. 

Bianca talks about a service to matchmake friends. She found it weird, but she doesn’t find “this” (befriending Lucca, even though she is probably paying Lucca WAY more than the friend matchmaker fee) weird. Lucca is always entering into friendships so formally! Okay it’s just two scenes (this one and the one where she and Alicia become friends) but still.

Lucca reminds Bianca she’s also her lawyer.

Bianca asks if DLee is drawing out the case. She’s not stupid. Lucca says David isn’t drawing it out, but I think they both know the answer.

(Question based on what happens later in the ep- if David actually has reasoning, then why in the world would he not tell Bianca OR Lucca about it? And why do they need to have overly long meetings to draw things out? Can’t they just schedule them with large gaps? Idk the whole thing is weird and if David isn’t going to share his strategy that’s on him.)

The CEO finally shows up in court and Julius thinks he’s won. He hasn’t. He says he’s asserting privilege he can’t reveal because it is privileged. The CEO acts like Julius is in the wrong, which pisses Julius off. The CEO gets held in custody and Julius says that the restaurant can’t be bulldozed until the CEO complies. 

Then Julius gets the mysterious MEMO 618. Dun dun dun. 

I know there must be more but I feel like we know what Memo 618 is? Like, no we don’t know who sent it or exactly what it means, but we know the effect of what it does. What is the mystery? Who sent it? 

At night, Julius takes the mystery memo to Judge Hazelwood. She plays dumb because-- as we find out later-- Adrian is within earshot. Adrian’s jacket is apparently very recognizable because Julius spots it. I believe it; Adrian has a distinctive style. 

Adrian talks about taking their relationship public. So Judge Hazelwood bribing people didn’t end the relationship? 

Adrian also asks about Memo 618. He knows she knows what it is. She distracts him by getting on top of him.

Depositions for Bianca’s divorce get contentious but she has the upperhand. Lucca suggests that Bianca settle now and get the ex out of her life-- “balance money with psychological wellness.” Sounds reasonable to me!

At work, Judge Hazelwood is more forthcoming. And Julius did recognize the jacket. Judge Hazelwood tells Julius to let the CEO out and stop asking about the memo. Julius wants to get her on tape, but instead she tells him to get in an Uber and go to an address. She also warns that the court has a program if you break your phone. Sounds like a threat…

Julius finds the Uber easily and then goes on a long journey to the countryside. The driver, it turns out, is a former federal judge who didn’t comply with a mystery memo and he warns Julius to just do what they say or he’ll end up an Uber driver barely able to support his family. (THINK OF YOUR SIX CHILDREN, JULIUS.) 

Lucca wearing heels at her standing desk is… just silly, why would she do this? She wouldn’t take off one heel to stretch her foot; she would have a pair of flats to wear in her office. (This episode is written and directed by men, just fyi.) (Do women actually do this? I hate heels so I would never even consider it, but I feel like everyone hates heels??? Even the people who wear them all the time???) 

David is all mad at Lucca for encouraging Bianca to settle because it has tax implications. Two things: One, if there’s this obvious reason to delay, I feel like Lucca would have figured it out. Two, LUCCA IS ON DAVID’S SIDE. And if he’s allowed to say this out loud now, he could have said it earlier. So… no pity for David Lee. This is why you cooperate with your colleagues instead of antagonizing them. 

Liz-- who has been quite underused in this episode-- is also fed up with the dogs. She and Adrian storm upstairs to say, in Adrian’s words, “they can’t use this floor as a toilet for their motherfucking dogs.” 

They bust through the doors to the long hallway (which in real life would DEFINITELY have a key card reader on it) and push past the receptionist. 

Mr. Firth is holding a very cute dog named Avenger. Mr. Firth also refers to Liz as “Elizabeth”. 

Liz asks that the dogs stop “shitting” on their floor. After all, this was supposed to be a partnership, not an acquisition (does anyone believe that? I think Liz is just using their BS corporate talk against them). Mr. Firth says he will find a way to deal with the dogs. Adrian takes the opportunity to mention that the equity partners need their money. “How do we want to satisfy this?” Mr. Firth asks. “Give them money,” Liz says. Mr. Firth agrees to meet about this next week. He also gives Liz and Adrian access to the executive elevator. He’s just trying to appease them so they’ll be more on his side.

Liz and Adrian both recognize that was too easy, but decide to take the win. I feel like this problem is going to come back…

Julius apologizes and releases the CEO. He recuses himself but says that in the meantime the restaurant will stand. 

Diane knows something’s off and confronts Julius. She’s furious but Julius asks her to leave. I wonder what Diane would’ve done in Julius’s situation. It’s very easy to become complicit…

The restaurant is torn down anyway, making Diane even angrier. She tells Julius it’s on him and he reminds her that he is a judge.

And this is how systems are perpetuated.

That’s the end of the episode, save for the message about the two week break before episode 3 from the cast and crew. I appreciate that they included this, and that they included the whole crew rather than just the Kings and the cast. 

I don’t even recognize most of the crew! I recognize the cast (duh), Dan Lawson (the costume designer), the makeup artist (I think I’ve seen her in various instagram posts), Brooke Kennedy, and the Kings. 

Jonathan Coulton is in the video too (he’s totally a part of the TGF family at this point-- and is one of few people to be on TGW, BrainDead, TGF, AND Evil) to lead everyone in an adorable (but somewhat out of sync) singalong. Awwww. 

[theonyxpath]

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Yihyoung Li

Hello, everyone! This is Dixie doing the Monday Meeting notes this week, so expect 89% fewer puns. We had a pretty short meeting this week, and focused mainly on what we and our freelancers are doing during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. As far as our day jobs go here at Onyx Path, it’s business as usual since we work from home, but we know that’s not the case for everyone. We have freelancers who work in healthcare, some who are immunocompromised or otherwise susceptible, and then others who have to take care of older family members or small children as cancellations continue.

In addition to anyone directly impacted by the outbreak, there’s also the spate of conventions being cancelled, and many people have had to postpone/cancel trips and events. this is very much still a developing situation, and we encourage our freelancers and fans to take measures to keep themselves safe and healthy. While some people may think, “Oh, this will mean everyone can get a lot of their freelance work done while they’re self-isolating!” that’s not always going to be the case (childcare, housemates all being home, etc.) but we’re working with our freelancers as best we can.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Gunship Revolution

The Onyx Pathcast hosts in particular would like to apologize if anyone thought we were making light of the COVID-19 outbreak in last week’s episode. I assure you, everyone here is taking it seriously.

That said, self-isolation can be difficult if you’re used to being around people, including gathering for tabletop games, so our friends at Astral Virtual TableTop are giving everyone their paid features for free during this time! There’s a post about it here: https://ift.tt/2TTFS5O, but your account should already have the features unlocked.

That’s all well and good, you might say, but I don’t have any new games to try out! Well, we’ve got you covered on that front, too. Today, you can pick up V20 Dark Ages for free at DriveThruRPG, and we’re putting up a new free corebook every day this week. They’re only up for one day each folks, so make sure you grab the ones you want!

You can get V20 Dark ages here today: https://ift.tt/2QjDtiw

Tuesday we’ll be offering the Werewolf 20 core here: https://ift.tt/38RNqdL

Wednesday is Mage 20: https://ift.tt/2IU0dBE

Thursday is Changeling 20: https://ift.tt/3b2fJr8

And we’re wrapping up the week by descending into the Underworld with Wraith 20: https://ift.tt/2vwtfEA

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate art by Gong Studios

In other news, the Legendlore Kickstarter is ongoing, and we’re close to halfway funded! I, personally, am a big fan of the setting. As Ian A. A. Watson put it on Twitter:

Do you like El-Hazard, Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia, Neverending Story, Magic Kingdom of Landover, Apprentice Adept, Castle Perilous, or the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon?

@VonAether

If so, this book is for you. Check it out and read manuscript updates here: https://ift.tt/2x03Pzp

Another cool thing you can do while you’re home is to attend Gehenna Gaming‘s VirtualHorror Con April 4-6. From the website:

VirtualHorror Con is a two-day virtual horror tabletop RPG convention that can be experienced on any screen no matter where you are. Many of your favorite events and conventions have been canceled, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the convention experience. This event will give fans and players the opportunity to connect with the game developers, artists, and publishers they love. No lines. Safe social distancing. Horror-themed actual play streams, live panels, and digital tabletop RPG one-shot sessions running the whole time!

All ticket and raffle sales will go to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization to support the development of vaccines, tests, and treatments for the coronavirus pandemic.”

For more information, check out https://ift.tt/2TTwcbC

There isn’t much else that came out of our meeting, as people are just buckling down to get some work done and continue monitoring the situation. We’re still working on the Dragon-Blooded surprise and will have that out to backers as soon as we can! So stay safe, wash your hands, and as always…

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

As noted above, Legendlore is in its first week of Kickstarter! Please go check it out; it’s a truly awesome book, compatible with the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game!

Onyx Path Media!

This week, we’re talking Scarred Lands with Travis Legge!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Despite everything in the world right now, or maybe because of it, we’ve got a massive number of shows for you on Twitch this week. Please tune in for an enjoyable distraction! We’re going to have three games of V5, as well as Chronicles of Darkness, Pugmire, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, and a Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle! 

This week sees the finale of Blood City as well as the finale of Uptown Shadows. I would like to give major recognition to both streams for their fantastic work in bringing our games out to the audience. Thank you! You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed! (Another great idea for social distancing!)

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Scion: Behind the Screen: https://youtu.be/v9Wo38rl5-Y

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/hxSbemynBLs

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale: https://youtu.be/gKAm-zGxTW4

Even more Scion: Behind the Screen: https://youtu.be/QDSIS_ClFbE

Pugmire: Paws & Claws: https://youtu.be/Ddm-cl48OR0

And even more Changeling: The Lost: https://youtu.be/dqM0ZdeS88s

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

The Story Told RPG Podcast reaches the penultimate episode of their excellent Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition chronicle right here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/the-78-laments-episode-4-passenger

And if you missed it, here’s The Story Told’s review of Trinity Continuum: Aeon http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-40-trinity-continuum-on-overview

Red Moon Roleplaying’s V5 Cults of the Blood Gods “The Family” chronicle continues on their YouTube channel, Spotify, their website redmoonroleplaying.com and everywhere else good podcasts might be found! https://youtu.be/PDPZyy-ZHNw

More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans out there:

Episode 88: Arms and Armor – Wyrd has a terrible premonition about the strike on the vampire Prince. The cabal helps ready Songbird when she is called to action by the Adamantine Arrow.  https://youtu.be/WPHjGDGwRmQ

Episode 89: Tactical Yeet – Songbird enters the vampire Prince’s haven with a small team of Adamantine Arrows while the rest of the cabal scrys on the proceedings. Things don’t go according to plan, in several ways.https://youtu.be/r5zuU4UglYs

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:

1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.

2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.

3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.

4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week, Geist: The Sin-Eaters Second Edition will be available on Studio2, IPR, and DriveThruRPG! Yay!

Conventions!

Though it’s subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

(We know why you’re here.

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Scarred Lands – RUST (working title)

TC Aeon – Under Alien Suns

TC Aeon – Mission Statements

TC Aberrant – Novas Worldwide

Exalted 3rd – Adversaries of the Righteous

Exalted – Exalted: Essence Edition

Deviant the Renegades – The Clades Companion

Deviant the Renegades – The Devoted Companion

Scion – Saints and Monsters

Mage: The Ascension – Rich Bastard’s Guide to Magick

Scion – Wild Hunt

Redlines

Exalted 3rd – Dragon-Blooded Novella 2 (Roy)

TC Adventure – Adventure!

Exalted 3rd – Hundred Devils Night Parade

Mummy: The Curse – The Book of Lasting Death

Chronicles of Darkness – Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters

TC Aberrant – N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment

Second Draft

Exalted 3rd – Exigents

Exalted 3rd – Crucible of Legends

Exalted – Many-Faced Strangers (Lunars Companion)

Changeling: The Lost – Kith and Kin

They Came From – They Came from Beyond the Grave!

Trinity Continuum – Assassins

Development

Exalted 3rd – Heirs to the Shogunate

TC Aberrant – Aberrant Reference Screen

Exalted 3rd – Across the Eight Directions

Chronicles of Darkness – The Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks

Mage the Ascension – Victorian Mage

Manuscript Approval

Scion – Scion: Dragon

Scion – Masks of the Mythos

Scion – Scion: Demigod

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Origin and Hero LARP

Geist the Sin-Eaters: One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart

Editing

Legendlore – Legendlore  

Realms of Pugmire – Pirates of Pugmire additional adventure

TC Aeon – Terra Firma

Exalted – Lunars Novella (Rosenberg)

Realms of Pugmire – Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire  

They Came From – Tales of Aquatic Terror

Mummy: The Curse – Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition  

Scion – Titanomachy

Chronicles of Darkness – Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle  

Chronicles of Darkness – Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart

TC Aberrant – Aberrant Jumpstart

Trinity Continuum – Jumpstart

Post-Editing Development

Hunter: The Vigil – Hunter: The Vigil 2e

World of Darkness – Ghost Hunters

Deviant: The Renegades – Deviant: The Renegades

TCfBtS! – Monsters of the Deep

Indexing

They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCfBtS!)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy

Tales of Aquatic Terror 

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Contracted

V5 Let the Streets Run Red

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

WoD Ghost Hunters – Getting KS artwork going

Aberrant

Pugmire Adventure 

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2 – ADing that out post Aberrant AD

Deviant

Legendlore – Kickstarter in progress

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God (KS) – Contracting

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

Contagion Chronicle

Vigil Watch 

Scion Companion – Artwork in progress.

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart 

Pirates of Pugmire 

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate

At Press

Ex 3 The Silence of Our Ancestors (Huggins Novella)

TC Distant Worlds

Scion Mythical Denizens

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Errata gathering

Dark Eras 2 – Errata with Aileen

VtR Spilled Blood – Josh wrapping up inputting changes and tweaking layout to account for any shift in the text

Geist 2e – Out this week

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

DR:E Screen & Booklet

DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Geist 2e Screen

Memento Mori

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Indexing

Chicago Folios – Awaiting PoD proof

Geist 2e Anthology – Errata gathering

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Errata gathering

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Yesterday was the Ides of March and tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! Please celebrate either one responsibly and while practicing safe social distancing. Also, today is my stepmom’s birthday! I don’t usually get to do shout-outs on the blog, but since I’ve taken over today I’m indulging myself. Happy Birthday, Laura! Hope you and dad are having a blast (still while practicing safe social distancing).

[fisherfurbearer]

fuck sam walmarts

and fuck management

I’ve had it. Left the store in tears tonight.

as some peoople probably/hopefully know. walmart closes at 6 pm on christmas eve. no one actually gets to leave at 6 becuase of shitty last minute customers. but it is what it is.

this. is really personal but im honestly SO close to just. killing myself? so who cares

basically. had a really really bad last few days. spent a lovely time with family (jessies family, his oma and opa and sister and parents and it was just a great time. theyre more family to me than most of my blood family) but it did make me Sad in Deep ways as we dont know if this is going to be our last christmas with his oma who isnt doing so good. and it just twisted me up a little but was othewrsiwse a great day. but then sunday i just...had a huge breakdown in the morning and decided to use my accomodation (i get 2 excused absenses a month) to cool down and gte myself together. slept a lot. woke up adn got a lot done, felt great, then i CRASHED really really bad, got really angry, lashed otu, took like...8-10 sleeping pills...theyre horrific things and im never doing that again...had to sleep for two days after that...felt horrifically sick, in pain, just awful. had repeating nightmares over and over. which has also been wearing me down recently. wasnt able to work monday either because i still couldnt stand and between the pills and the depression/anxiety and really just. felt like the world was ending.

decided sometime last night id just...try my best to make it in today, work my shift (really long 9-6, knowing i wouldnt leave on time nad htisis my first time working in 5 days now...which is rough...) and if i can get through this, i have another couple days off in a row after that (schedules fault, not mine...do feel awful i missed 3 days before that though...) and we can just. get back on track

today i DID go to work, jessie drove me in

i worked. a long time. im supposed to get a break every 2 hours and a 1 hour lunch

i gott my first break on timeish.

then i got my lunch 6 hours after i got in. at which time i got “locked out” for not taking my lunch and coudlnt do anything on the registers. i was supposed to get it 4 hours in. its christmas eve and excruciating and im still in pain and tired from my previous days breakdowns, but otherwise?? i did really good. i didnt mind at all that my lunch was so late. i was a little miffed, but its ok. i dont care, so long as i get it eventually. anyway they FINALLY noticed i was locked out and got me coverage and i ended my lunch at 4. things continued ok. worked on self checkout, met a lot of regulars i really like, prevented $200 of theft (HAHA WOW that was really really funny i love preventing petty theft. i prevent so much theft every week its my pride and joy) just did okay. then they had us close self checkout that took a little while. then at 5:00-5:10 or so i went to my Manager/Supervisor/”““People LEad” as walmart is now trying to call them, lets call her manager Y, and i told her i still need my break and will i get it before i leave. she said go to register 4. i asked again hey will i get my break though and she said yeah and i thought to mysel HAHA thats not going to happen but ok

really stupid that after bieng locked out the first time she couldnt give me my break before i openned a register with a line i cant get rid of

anywayy i did ok otherwise for a while

but at 5:25 or so i reminded a CSM “hey i need my break still can i get that?” and she just ssaid yeah well try to get someone and then more time passed so much time. i put through an ask on the register “assistance needed”. waited another 10 minutes. “assistance needed” again. starting to get anxious. its past 5:40. the line is so long. theres so MUCH NOISE. Its SO LOUD. the intercom keeps going off, no one is responding to me, i dont have a mat to stand on so my knees HURT,, im not doing okk

i switch my light to flashing/need assistance and start looking for someone to ask for help. its 5:45, i need my break NOW, i DESERVE IT for workng this long ass shift and they already missed several of my last breaks a week ago AND got me locked out today and im STARTING TO GET ANXIOUS PELASE I JUST WANT MY BREAK SO BAD

nnthgen a csm is passing by im about to lose it, so i tell her CSM J, please i really need my break now PLEASE and im starting to ccry and i try to tell her whats going on but she shushes me and goes and gets sometone

im full on tears at this point, im so strreesed out,,

manager Y and some other snooty manager come over andd. ffkcing. ask me whats wrong. im crying and i try to explain im really really stressed out, i havent had my last break, ive been trying to get someone for so long now, i just really need to leave im so sorry

and theyy just. fckkng

ffcking manager Y jjst ssays ok “ill give you your break” and “this is your last break” and i ssaid?? yeah i knoww?? andd she saidd “next time youre like this, just dont come in”

i quote that completeltyyy....i really lost it then...i cried som muchh

this isnt the first itme she said something like this to meee...

she asked me “why are you CRYING” When i had an anxiety attacki n the store once, when ic cloked in and couldnt get myself together,, she didnt give me time to calm down, she didnt listen as to why, she just said “why are you crying. this is a BUSINESS. you cant be CRYING Here.” and i just said ok ill go home bye and leftt

andd when i tried to get my availability changed from 7-9 to 7-6/7-7 because the random late shifts with 7 am shifts was messing me up really really bad and my doctor thinks i need to hcange it too, she just said “i cant do that. thisi sa BUSINESS.” and she wouldnt listen when i said i might have to quit because of this, this is for my health, im literally scheduled 7-2 every sunday in december, busiest day of the busiest month and you cant even chop TWO HOURS off my weekend availability????

andd i jjst

ive HAD IT with her

ive had ittt

im so ashamed and angry and anxious and i still havent stopped cryingg. she called me over to her again as i was leaving and she blamed me for it. she ssaid a customer was upset that i “Screamed” (ues i raised my voice a little but i wasnt screaming??? also the two customers i was attending to when this was going on and i cried were VERY KIND nad jjst said i was doing a good job and thanked me for being there) and called a manager over (but...csm J got them?? not a customer...??) and i cant be acitng like this, i cant do customer service when im stressed,, and d i should just STAY HOME If im going to be like that

then shee fufkcing toold me i DID IT WRONG, that i “shouldve called someone over” I TOLD HER I DID!!!!! I DID!!!!!!!!!! YOU NAIL INTO MY HEAD IM NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE REGISTER SO I DIDNT, I DID EVERYTHING ELSE I COULD THOUGH!!! I REQUESTED HELP TWICE!! I TURNED MY LIGHT TO FLASHING!!! I TRIED TO CATCH A MANAGER WALKING BY TO HELP ME!!! N OONE LISTENED UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE, I DID EVERYHTING I COULD!! yet she seriously told me to my face that “you didnt call anyone”, “you couldve turned your light to flashing” WHICH I DID and sshee jjst said that i made customers uncomfortable and i cant work like thatt and just stay hhome

ii stayed home sunday because i was having a mjor mental emergencyy.

i came in today because i was feeling better and i took it eaasy and ended up doing a wonderful job and mad eso many people smilea nd fixed so many problems that wouldve otherwise upset a lot of folks and i met my regulars and made old folks smile andd i prevented a lot of theft that no one else wouldve caughtt and i jjstt broke down after 9 hours and not getting a last break and all the chaos of register (WHICH BY THE WAY THEY KNOW I DONT LIKE REGISTER!!! I THRIVE ON SLE FCHECOUT!!! THATS MY JOB TITLE!! THATS WHAT I DO!!!! THEY KNOW THISS!!!!) and HER AVOIDING GIVING ME MY FUCKING BREAK and NOT RESPECTING MY FFUCKING METNAL DISABILITIES LJNASDKAJHDBASJSDNAJSNDKANSD

I JJST DONT KNOW WHAT TO DOO

i really want to die and i really want to never go back but i really loved my job i loved helpting people ii jjst hate her so muchhh and i feel GENUINE DREAD/SEVERE ANXIETY jjst SEEING her nnow

she doesnt CARE about anyone but herself shes a horrible peson i cant tell the store manager though cause she wont care either and manager Y has more clout than me so shell just twist my words and make me out as the bad guy as hte “CRAZY ONE” who cries and gets stressed (FOR COMPLETELY VALID REASONS AFTER BEING PUSHED OVER THE EDGE) even tthough i work SO FFRIKCING HARD and do SUCH A GOOD JOB and asdjanjsdhajshdas

i d ont know what to doo

i cant work another job because no where else pays as much or will let me do self checkout only, because being a cashier stresses me so muchh

ii...really wanntted to grow stuff and make preserves and sell bee products and work with folks raising heritage sheep and make more fiber art andd open a little stall at a local market and sell all that,, and offer more online and do customs andd stuff

i know i could mkae money that wa ybut i ccantt start it so sudenly and im too Broken to do it seriouslyy and i dont even want to HAVE to quit because of ONE PERSON But shes done this so many times now and this is the nfinfal streaww

i jjst dont know what to doo...

i cantt stop cryingg

i cant even enjoy christmas nnow. wanted to see my stepdad and give him his presernt and maybe be ok.

last christmas we had to move because our house was condemned after a fire. now im going to have to lose my job because of a horrible manager who doenst respect my metnal health or anything about me reallyy. and unfortunately im such a failure that i cant. do anything else and if i lose this job ill lse my animla sand i wotnt be able to do anyhtingg andd im jjust fucking trash

goddammit i dont know what to do. i really dont. hhahaaa. i just really want to end it. ive come so far and none of it fucking matters because of thiss fucking horrible manager.

[palemoonpersephone]

60 Question Tag Challenge

So I’ve been tagged by @kaffeinic to answer these questions. Here we go!

1: Selfie.

Gonna have to decline this one as I’m very shy but I’ll describe myself a little to make up for it - very long dark reddish-brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, fun size.

2: What would you name your future kids?

Can’t say for certain, I feel it would depend on what name felt right for that baby but I like many Italian and Celtic names.

3: Do you miss anyone? 

Yes, definitely. Old friends, old pen-pals/online friends who just seemed to disappear. And I miss my partner and my friends when we’re apart.

4: What are you looking forward to?

the weekend Seeing my partner again, working on my writing projects, starting third year of uni, and unashamedly the new Witcher series on Netflix!

5: Is there anyone who can always make you smile?

The lovely @kaffeinic for a start! My best friend, my partner, my doggy 🐕

6: Is it hard for you to get over someone?

All depends on the context. I’ve had crushes in the past that have been relatively easy to get over but then I’ve lost a couple of close friends and that had a pretty traumatic affect on me. Other times it’s been very easy because it’s been the right thing to do because the person I cut off was very toxic/bad for me.

7: What was your life like last year?

In some aspects very similar, my interests are all pretty much the same, my mental health was still difficult to manage and I was looking forward to my upcoming year of uni. But this time last year I wasn’t in a relationship and hadn’t began a really amazing journey of self-discovery.

8: Have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

feel so attacked rn yes, I very much have. Crying tends to be my natural response to most high-running emotions.

9: Who did you last see in person? 

Within my household, my mum as I’m currently home for the summer. Outside of that, my partner when he last came down to visit

10: Are you good at hiding your feelings?

I can be. I’ve found it depends on how well other people can see. Over the years I’ve had to hide all sorts of things, especially from my family. For years they didn’t know I was severely ill with anxiety and depression but that might be testament to poor observation and parenting skills, or maybe I just became that good and hiding things. I’m striving now to be more open about how I feel rather than bottling things up because it’s like drinking poison. 

11: Are you listening to music right now?

Not at this minute.

12: What is something you want right now?

a hug a life without crippling mental illness  probably inspiration to work on my novel

13: How do you feel right now?

Quite tired, a bit lonely. Really craving some energy and pizzazz

14: When was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

Probably the Monday before last at 4-ish in the morning when my partner had to leave for work.

15: Personality description?

Shy, careful, introverted, open, understanding, affectionate, creative

16: Have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

Pretty much the story of my life. For the last 10-12 years I’ve had to keep so many things to myself, especially regarding my family. I could never say what I thought/believed because it would all spiral into a catastrophe, wasn’t a very safe environment emotionally-speaking. There have been so, so many things I’ve wanted to say but haven’t for the risk of rocking the boat.

17:  Opinion on insecurities?

Most people I know have them, including myself but I think people can be misled to think that others don’t have them because of the outward images they display. And from my experience they’re usually there for all the wrong reasons (if there’s such a thing as a right reason to have an insecurity)

18: Do you miss how things were a year ago?

No, I’ve only gained things since then.

19: Have you ever been to New York?

Not so far but I can’t say I have any desire to

20: What is your favourite song at the moment? 

Perhaps Ring of Fire by In This Moment

21: Age and birthday?

21, born 18/09/97

22: Description of crush?

(also my partner) 6″1, dark/black hair, brown eyes, built like a brick shit-house, tan skin. He’s intelligent, considerate, honourable, principled, fierce, indomitable, funny, supportive and respectful. 

23: Fear(s)?

I’m just gonna say most things

24: Height?

5″3

25: Role model?

Not sure I have one. I aspire more to qualities like goodness, kindness and innocence

26: Idol(s)?

see above

27: Things I hate:

Small mindedness, cruel/selfish/narcissistic people, exclusion, organised religion (as more of an abstract concept), people not getting what they deserve, when people aren’t willing to listen and learn, having plans ruined, seeing people upset, people who don’t put in effort/only take and never give back

28: “I’ll love you if...”

Lots of possible answers as there lots of sorts of love. In short, if you give back. But then love shouldn’t be conditional, so I guess I should say I couldn’t love someone (in any way) who never gives back. 

29: Favourite film(s)?

Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, The Lion King, The Other Boleyn Girl, most Marvel movies

30: Favourite tv show(s)? 

Call the Midwife, Brooklyn 99, QI, The Last Kingdom, Doctor Who

31: 3 random facts.

I’ve been writing for almost 12 years now. I sleep with cuddly toys and make bed forts. I use fantasy to cope with reality.

32: Are your friends mainly girls or guys?

Right now, girls but when I was in secondary school most of my friends were boys.

33: Something you want to learn. 

In a physical/skills sense I’d like to learn how to dance. In an emotional/mental sense I want to learn how to unburden by troubles and let go of things holding me down.

34: Most embarrassing moment?

With an anxiety disorder many, many things feel hideously embarrassing. Don’t think I could pick out one exact moment.

35: Favourite subject? 

History

36: 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

Becoming a successful author. Make lots of money so I can give it to charities. Overcome/beat my mental illnesses. 

37: Favourite actor/actress? 

Probably Tom Hiddleston

38: Favourite comedian(s)? 

Stephen Fry, Dara O’Brian, Sandi Toskvig, Aisling Bea

39: Favourite sport(s)? 

Riding, archery, yoga (still physical activity so I guess it counts), swimming, running

40: Favourite memory?

Right now I think it’s when my partner told me he loved me for the first time

41: Relationship status?

If you haven’t guessed by now I’m concerned 😋

42: Favourite books?

Too many to choose from.

43: Favourite song ever? 

Probably Lithium by Evanescence

44: Age you get mistaken for?

Always younger than I am. I really haven’t changed much since I was about 16. Still get ID’d almost everywhere because I look younger than 18 apparently

45: How you found out about your idol.

Not really applicable.

46: What my last text message says.

That’s no one’s business.

47: Turn-ons?

Maturity, experience, intelligence, someone who knows themselves and is in control, someone who can give care and guidance, someone who can bring my out of my shell.

48: Turn-offs?

Idiocy, lack of self-care/hygiene, someone who isn’t willing to listen, entitlement, intolerance, confidence when it hasn’t been earned. 

49: Where I want to be right now.

The New Forest

50: Favourite picture of your idol?

Kinda need an idol first...

51: Star sign?

Virgo

52: Something I’m talented at.

anxiety? I’m quite good at riding and hopefully my writing isn’t too shabby

53: 5 things that make me happy.

Animals, people I love, random acts of kindness, smells that awaken nice memories, creative passion 

54: Something that’s worrying me at the moment.

Guess at random and you’ll probably be correct.

55: Tumblr friends?

@kaffeinic I feel we clicked really really fast and they are possibly the bravest person I’ve ever met and I hope we stay friends.

@alittleandherdaddysworld they’ve been really kind to me and we seem to have some things in common, I hope we get to know each other better!

@xxdaddyslitttleprincessxx they’ve also been really kind to me when I needed someone to turn to and I hope that we too can turn our acquaintance into a friendship!

@thorkingofasgard I think we’ve known one another for just over a year and have had many lovely talks over that time, they’re always a friend I can turn to.

@mblargh-its-me-loki a friend who I sometimes don’t hear from for long periods at a time and I often miss them and hope they’re doing okay

@c0ffeebee their artwork and dedication is second to none and I like to think we got on well when I commissioned them for some art

56: Favourite food(s)?

Love curries and stir-fry, anything involving noodles, Italian cuisine and I’ll never say no to cake

57: Favourite animal(s)?

Dogs, horses, deer, bunnies, foxes, otters, dolphins, mice (I really could go on so I’ll stop myself)

58: Description of my best friend.

5″5, dark blonde hair, brown eyes, tan skin. She’s lovely, intelligent, determined, hilarious, gorgeous and we know each other back to front

59: Why I joined tumblr?

At first it was to connect with more people and spread my fanfiction work but over time it’s become more about just sharing and interacting with what I like and trying to make more and more lovely friends

60: Ask me anything you want.

Hold nothing back

I’m going to tag my listed tumblr friends so that’s @alittleandherdaddysworld @xxdaddyslitttleprincessxx @thorkingofasgard @mblargh-its-me-loki @c0ffeebee and any of my followers are welcome to take part

[cherry3point14]

CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION | CHAPTER 1

DESCRIPTION: You are VP of Sales for a company with stores and major distribution links across the country and your executive assistant, and only real friend, is leaving. A temp is brought in to replace her, on probation, for you try him out. Of course, nobody told you that it was a him, or that his name was Dean Winchester, or that you’d want to try him out.

A/N: This is an office AU basically from this post. Yep, it’s all a setup for that joke.

[Dean x Reader. Characters: Dean, Reader, OFC Words: 2,477. Warnings: a couple of bad words that’s it I think. Mostly pining and eventual fluff]

Ao3 link if you prefer. Series Masterlist

Most days you loved your job. You loved the variety of visiting clients all over your corner of the country, you loved the moment you saw them change their minds because of you and you loved inspiring your teams. Some people were made for jobs like this and you were one of them, nothing quite gave you a thrill like making a sale or teaching someone else how to. It’s just, as Vice President of Sales for the east coast, you made pretty big sales.

Of course, the job had its drawbacks. Meetings that tested your ability to stay awake in the face of unending boredom. Reports so dull that you were sure your eyes might bleed. Not to mention the hours. Responsibility for the biggest sales region meant your hours were rarely nine to five. Honestly, Dolly Parton had no idea how good she had it.

It was fine, obviously. You earned more than enough to account for your hours and over the years you’d curated a good team, every one of them dependable and hardworking. You appreciated the hell out of them and you made sure they knew it.

That’s what made it so difficult to watch one of them leave.

You knew you couldn’t keep Maddy forever. You wished you could, obviously, she had been the best assistant you’d ever had. Constantly trying to impress you, she hadn’t needed to try so hard, she was pretty impressive as it was. Always here before you, left after you, never questioned your hours and pretty much made sure your life ran like clockwork. Unfortunately, she was smart as a whip so after two years you couldn’t ignore her potential anymore and a year after that she was moving on.  

“We all know why we’re here,” you held a plastic champagne flute in your manicured hand and looked over at your favorite employee, well, your friend. “Maddy, the traitor, is defecting to the dangerous world of marketing, leaving us and the field teams scrambling. God knows how many of us will end up at the wrong airport without her reminder emails.” You let your bright, office smile melt into something more genuine, “Mads, I couldn’t be more serious when I say I don’t know what I’ll do without you. But I’m so proud of you and I can’t wait to see you bust your way through that new team of yours until we’re working side by side.”

Everyone shares a collective ‘aww’ as you raise your glass in the air and finish with, “go get ‘em Mads!”

After your surrounding team has mumbled her name and taken a drink she finds herself trapped by people offering some personal congratulations and you find yourself leaning against her desk, watching everyone fawn over her. You’re the boss after all, as friendly as your staff might be with you none of them, save Maddy, were actually your friends. You didn’t have time for friends, which might be why her leaving hits you a little harder than you’d thought it would. For the amount of time you were forced together, she’s genuinely become more than an employee.

You linger a few minutes before you slip back inside your office. She was the woman of the hour and she needed to shake every hand and receive every hug. You, however, had a new product pitch that had to be finished before you could even think about leaving for the day.

“Knock, knock. Miss Y/L/N?”

Looking up you see the woman of the hour standing there, a smile on her face and rosy cheeks, you assume from the amount of champagne you’ve seen everyone pour for her.

You lean back and fold your arms over your chest with feigned annoyance on your face, “excuse me, is that how I asked you to address me?”

She laughs at you but doesn’t make any move to come further into your space, she knows not to disturb when you’re trying to work, “so bossy since you stopped being my boss.”

You return your eyes to the screen with a smile. “Stop getting ahead of yourself. You still work for me till Monday. I can’t be expected to brief your replacement. I have absolutely no idea how to run my own life.”

Maddy doesn’t let her own smile waver but her voice turns serious, “you going to have time for one more drink tonight?”

Your sigh alone should be answer enough but you look away from the letters that are turning fuzzy in front of you to apologize properly, “I’m sorry. If this isn’t done tonight then… well, it has to be done tonight. Besides aren’t those lot taking you out?”

She nods having worked for you long enough to understand. “They want to, but I told them my dragon of a boss needs me in early tomorrow to train her newbie. I think they’re planning on ruining me tomorrow night instead.”

“Oh, that’s considerate of them.” You're fine with that, you understand why you're not invited and you're not sure if you'd want to even go. Nobody want's to party with the boss and you don't want to be the person who turns the evening awkward. 

“I thought so too. You need anything else before I head home?” Even with half a bottle of bubbles in her, you can tell the question is genuine. If you asked her to go and photocopy something right this second you knew she would.

You shake your head, “get out of here before I have to fire you. I’m a big girl, I can call my own car,” you wink playfully, “for once.”

His phone rings out its alarm and he groans into his pillow in response. Five fucking AM. He hated five AM and everything it stood for. He hated that his new job required him to see this time in the morning but, it was a considerable jump in pay and an opportunity to get out of being a goddamn temp.

And if there’s one thing he hated more than five AM, it was temping.

He had his morning routine down to a fine art. Shower, coffee, clothes. Always the same order, always out the door in twenty minutes.

What he hadn’t counted on was problems on the F train.

He’s forty-five minutes late when he shows up, including the night guard still sitting at front desk not being able to find his building pass, but his jaw unclenches when he gets to his floor and sees an empty office. Maybe he’s got away with it? Or was the six AM start a joke, to begin with? Hazing the new guy? He’d admittedly thought it pretty fucking ridiculous when he’d heard it.

“Oh my God finally, are you Dean?”

He looks down to realize this tiny woman in front of him appeared from nowhere. She already looks like she’s run half a marathon and shows no intention of stopping considering the piles of product pamphlets in her hands.

“Erm, yeah?”

The pamphlets are shoved into his hands now making the messenger bag hanging loosely from his shoulder drop to the floor. “Good. I’m Maddy and I have one day to show you the ropes. I guess rule number one would be don’t show up nearly an hour late but hopefully, you’re smart enough to know that already.”

He motions to the bright but empty office at the end of the room, “but she’s not…?”

“She’s already in her first meeting genius. So, you’re late meeting her, you’re late for me showing you how she takes her first coffee and you guessed it, you’re late for her first morning run through.”

He cringes in a way that says ‘shit’ without the word needing to be spoken.

“Yep. Now bring those over to my desk, although I suppose it’s yours now, and I’ll try and give you two years of information in the next twenty minutes.”

“I have been an assistant before…” he starts but then he catches what else she said, “why what happens in twenty minutes?”

Maddy smiles wickedly like she’s enjoying this far too much, “oh, that’s when she gets back.”

“I understand the issues you’re dealing with Doug, but my guys have enough to deal with in the upcoming quarter, this is not going to help.” You’re standing outside the meeting room you just exited arguing with your least favorite member of the executive team.

Doug’s smile is tight-lipped and his tone patronizing as ever, “that’s why we have you right? Sell it to them.”

You school your features as you often have to while speaking to the slimy Operations head, also known as the bane of your existence, “sell them a 40% reduction in stock because your Supply Chain team didn’t plan correctly? No problem. And here I was thinking I was here to sell to our clients.”

You spin on your heel and leave, although momentarily satisfied at getting the last word the unavoidable problem plagues you with it’s potential hit to your Q3 targets.

You’re about to storm into your office when you find the glass door being held open for you by a stranger. A handsome, you didn’t see many of those in the office, tall, stranger who keeps his green eyes focused respectfully ahead of him while you slowed to an almost stop in the doorway.

Maddy shouts up from her desk, “that’s Dean, the new me. He finally showed, want to see us in five?”

“Yeah… erm, no.” You remember yourself and the outcome of your first meeting, “Make it fifteen. I need to make a call. Can you get me my breakfast and let Robert know that I need to push lunch until next week?” Although sounding like it, none of it is a question.

You take your eyes off of Dean, who you hadn’t been staring at the entire time you’d been speaking, and head to your desk with a mind to dial your phone fiercely enough to forget your frustrations. Your fingers linger over the keypad as you pick up the headset though. Dean sits back at the desk with Maddy writing down, with a pen and paper you note, every word she’s saying. As much as you spearheaded the paperless office initiative it strikes you as cute that he’s sitting there with his yellow pad and pen, nodding like a bobble head while Maddy talked, you were sure, at a thousand miles per hour.


It’s when the dial tone in your ear disappears and becomes an incessant beep, for you not having dialed, that you think maybe you need to focus. Focus on your job obviously, not on your new assistant, the person working under you, the person it would be incredibly inappropriate for you to have any sorts of feelings towards.

Not that you did. You were just thrown for a second. Nobody had told you that your new assistant was… him.

Y/N liked a coffee every hour from 6am to 11am, which yeah that’s six fucking coffees, after that she switches to iced tea or ice water depending on her mood and it was apparently part of his job to know which one she wanted without her having to ask. Maddy kept promising that she was actually the best boss he could hope for but then these crazy things would slip out of her mouth that made it seem like Maddy might be delusional.

Along with her beverage of choice on the hour, he needed to have a run-down of any calls she’d missed or declined to pick up, and a summary of all her emails for the last hour. That was fine, pretty standard, but then she’d hit him with the sucker punch like the fact that Y/N texts at all hours, seven days a week, so she doesn’t forget anything. And she expects to have summary notes on everything she’d sent the next day.

“You don’t get it. She’s the youngest VP in the company and the youngest woman VP in the industry. She’s a legend. And she’s actually a good person too but she just has quirks. And sometimes those quirks involve you having to bribe an airline to get her a seat on a fully booked flight because the next available flight is her unlucky number.”

“So, she’s crazy?” He finally asks after listening to a couple of stories like this. Don’t get him wrong. He could deal with crazy, he has dealt with crazy before, he just liked to know what he was getting himself in for.

The salary was more than worth a little crazy after all.

Maddy frowns and he thinks maybe he’s offended her. Maybe they have some girl power, sisterhood of traveling pants, feminist thing going on.

“No, she’s not crazy. She’s busy being successful. Successful and still looking out for her team of fifty people including those in the field.” Maddy’s eyes are wide and insistent.

Damn. It’s not a woman thing, it’s a friend thing.

He dips his head in apology, which seems enough for now, but the PDF on her screen, which has been titled ‘So you’re Y/N Y/L/N’s new assistant?’ tells him that he’s not entirely wrong.

It’s forty-nine pages.

He can appreciate that Maddy seems to have a sense of humour with some of the advice she’s written out, and honestly, he’s worked at jobs where they leave you high and dry to figure this stuff out for yourself, so he does appreciate it, but nothing she’s showing him is convincing him of his new bosses sanity.

He can totally understand why she’s loco. He’s not an idiot, clearly, he knows who she is and her reputation. She’s responsible for the +5% growth in the northeast last year while the top eight competing brands had figures in the minus. In one of the hardest years since the recession, she kept things in a plus. He gets that she’s worked hard to get to where she is. So, if he has to make sure that she only ever travels to Washington on Wednesday’s because she likes the alliteration, then so be it.

He just doesn’t get why everyone’s acting like there’s not something wrong with her.

Everyone he’s spoken to, which to be fair is Maddy and only a handful of others, either loves her or at the very least respects her. There’s no complaining about keeping the office at exactly 62 degrees because she runs hot or how she only drinks espresso-based drinks so they don’t have a filter machine on this floor.

That’s the amazing thing. Not her sales figures, or her age or reputation. It’s that nobody seems to hate her.

Although Maddy assures him that if he was asking Doug from Ops or Mark in Finance, he might hear a different story.

Continue to Chapter 2

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[camachameleon]

Cam’s Voltron Fic Rec 3/∞

VLD Rec Lists:  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Here’s a Fic Masterlist for my other fandoms. ( ** =  favorites )

    **Recoil/Release by Cheshyr

Word count:  22,387 (13/13)

Summary:  When Keith is bitten by an alien creature with venom that causes your dominant emotions to be amplified, the team is ready for a day of dealing with an incredibly angry paladin.

Which means they’re not ready at all for what actually happens.

Comments:  The almost stream-of-consciousness writing of Keith’s parts are really gut-wrenching because it’s as if you are experiencing it with him. (Warning for panic attacks- if you are triggered at all by that sort of thing you may want to sit this one out, it gets pretty graphic). A couple good song pairings for this fic to set the tone are Broken Crown and World Gone Mad.

    **Synergy by Kokochan & Spanch

Word count:  74,064 (10/10) 

Summary:  The vines were large, stiff, gnarly, and thick-stemmed, with blue leaves as big and round as dinner plates, but Shiro’s battle-arm was able to sever several long straggles with ease. The vines draped easily enough over the shuttle and hid it quite handily from view. “Good enough, I suppose,” Shiro said, glaring at the empty greenish-blue sky. “Come on, let’s… Hunk? What’s the matter?”

Hunk was staring at something behind him. “Shiro, don’t make any sudden moves just now, but there’s a really big lizard thing standing right behind you. Um. Two of them.”

Surprised, Shiro turned, albeit carefully. He’d never even heard them approach. That was rather impressive, considering the size of the beasts. It was as though someone had taken a pair of Arizonan horned lizards and rebuilt them more on the lines of a tiger without leaving out any of the spikes, then expanded them to about the size of an Indian elephant and added six large, intelligent blue eyes. Understandably, Shiro froze in place.

Comments: OH. MY. GOSH. OK. SO. This bad boy is Part 1 of 3, so far, with a total series word count of 241,404 at the moment. This beautiful titan of a series is named Of The Pack, and it updates with great speed, considering it has two top tier authors working on it. The several OCs in this story are so lifelike and realistic and fit so well into the universe that I forget that they aren’t actually canon and I kind of miss them when I’m reading other Voltron fics. My favorite part is the world-building it does. Everything about this fic is so dynamic and multi-dimensional, from it’s characters to the epic plot - this is the exact opposite of lazy writing. I am so here for badass Pidge, and the matriarchal Galra culture and the dragons. I👏LOVE👏THIS👏FIC👏

Also there’s magic! (with a scientific explanation, of course)

A cool song that I think goes nice with this fic is Heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw.

  The Kids Are Alright by pugglemuggle

Word count:  10,430 (3/3)

Summary:   Three Garrison Cadets Missing After Freak Satellite Crash

By Mara Garrett, News Editor | The Guardian | Monday, June 13, 2103 7:40 A.M. ET

Two seventeen-year-olds and a fifteen-year-old went missing Friday night after a rogue satellite crashed into the desert a few miles away from the Galaxy Garrison Training Facility, reports say. Garrison officials were quick to cordon off the area, claiming many of the remaining satellite fragments were dangerous and unstable. Government search parties have been sent out into the surrounding desert areas. Details are forthcoming.

—

Her brother is missing. Lance’s sister isn’t about to sit quietly while the Garrison keeps lying to the press. No—she’s going to get to the bottom of this.

(Or: The paladins’ families team up to find their kids and overthrow the corrupt Garrison regime. Told through news articles, prose, the internet, and art.)

Comments:  The format of this is very intriguing and fresh. We get to see scenes of our favorite paladins through the eyes of their friends and families, from before they disappeared and the aftermath. The open ending is still satisfying and leaves you with a sense of determination and hope for these characters that you just couldn’t help but get attached to. If you’re big on government conspiracies then this is the fic for you!

  **Patty Cake by Froldgapp

Word count:  7,829 (6/6)

Summary:  Quiet, aloof, and alone, Keith is distant from the rest of the team. Hunk begins to suspect why, and it’s only when the red paladin pushes himself too far, the Voltron gang realise he’s just as vulnerable as the rest of them.

Comments:  Aaaaahhh this fic. Something about this one has me coming back to reread it all the time even though I always cry. It is just so angsty but in a more poignant, sharp, breathless kind of way. Some of the things the characters say send painful stinging jolts into your chest and you can feel your heart cracking and then you get angry because how dare (I mean ch4 tho holy sh*t). I just want to hug Keith so much ugh. Hunk’s protectiveness of Keith gives me the strength to finish this masterpiece every time. Also, this can kind of be Sheith if you squint (or not, if you don’t).

  The Message by Shipstiel

Word count:  132,787 (45/45)

Summary:  (4:07) okay, but considr this, and hear me out here (4:08) so like, a photobooth u can do with ur pets like there’ll be lil costumes that u can dress them up in, and u can do liek, period costumes and shit with them (4:09) omg, can u imagine, u and ur cat/dog, and theyre in a lil 1800s dress and one of those lace umbrella things omg so cute

(4:15) Why the FUCK are you texting me at four in the morning with this

— 

Keith is texted by accident by some idiot one day, and honestly he’s not even sure why he responds. Or why he keeps responding. Yet somehow he finds himself drawn in, and okay, so maybe this fool is mildly entertaining after all. Who would’ve thought.

Comments:  Slowburn Klance Wrong Number AU. These two are so cute I just can’t. This is the perfect story if you are looking for something effortless and relaxing to read. Even though this contains some softcore Langst, it is still a very cute and heartwarming story about two dorks slowly falling in love. It features Lance’s mother who I fell in love with here, and the kind of supportive nosy best friends that everyone wants in real life (i.e. Hunk, Pidge, and Allura).

  **The Quiet by MilkTeaMiku

Word count:  66,700 (32/32)

Summary:  Does he not realize he’s dead?

Keith can see ghosts. As a part of his Garrison training, he’s sent to a hospital to do one year of medical clerkship - it’s there that he meets a charmingly irritating chose who definitely needs to learn what boundaries are.

Comments:  Modern Ghost AU with eventual Klance. This fic is the most suspenseful story I have ever read in my life. Idk if it’s just me, but I just have this feeling building up paragraph by paragraph of an impending… something. And it has my heart racing which is crazy because it isn’t even particularly fast-paced. There’s just a heaviness to the words that have the hairs on the back of your neck prickling. I literally have to take a breather from reading sometimes to calm down. 

A couple cool songs I think set the mood for this fic is Smother and Mirror.

  Finding Home by spacegaykogane

Word count:  26,966 (6/6)

Summary:  After the wormhole collapses, Keith finds himself stranded on a strange planet. Alone. Until Lance comes along. With their lions dead and resources limited, Keith and Lance need to put aside their differences and work together to get home. Wherever that may be, now.

Comments:  Klance. I love Stranded fics where they have to work together to survive and bond over that. So yeah this one has some whump obviously, bc you know, crash landings aren’t very fun. This one is angsty but its balanced out by the fluffiness in the end.

  Cuddle Puddle by nothingwrongwiththerain

Word count:  46,782 (6/6)

Summary:  Unexpectedly, Shiro’s hand landed on the top of his head. Apparently with Lance and Hunk taking up all the shoulder real estate, Shiro would settle for ruffling Keith’s hair.

Keith was fairly certain his soul was about to detach and abandon his shaking body on the couch. He was surrounded, in the complete and total sense of the word, by other people. Not once before, not in his whole life, had he dealt with a situation like this one.

Or, five times Keith found himself too close for comfort and one time he couldn't get close enough.

Comments:  Klance featuring ace!Keith. Don’t be fooled by the fluffy summary, this is a very angsty fic with lots of Keith whump. Basically, as stated by the author, this story is about ‘Keith struggling with physical contact and learning to accept people care about him’. I love touch-starved Keith stories, like this one. I love the scenes with Kidge bros, featuring a super supportive Pidge. 

  At the Beginning by Sakuraiai

Word count:  64,203 (12/12)

Summary:  Inspired by Anastasia

King Zarkon of the Galra empire lost his only way in to the Kingdom of Altea. In his anger, he put a curse on the royal family. The young, adopted half Galran prince Keith disappeared when the palace was overrun, never to be seen again -- or so it seemed. The only surviving princess, Allura, grieving for her child, offers a reward for Keith's safe return.

Con artists, Lance and his best friend, Hunk plan to pawn off a phony to the princess, hoping to reap the rewards. They hold auditions and choose an orphan man who has a remarkable resemblance to the missing prince -- all the way down to his fluffy Galran ears.

Comments:  Can anyone say Anastasia AU?! I waited with baited breath for each chapter to come out and I was not once disappointed. I love the integration of the different alien races in this timeless story, it all works out so well. Keith just wants to find his mommy and I just want to cry. Also Kidge bros are still my fav as always.

  out of orbit by rbillustration

Word count:  78,135 (19/19)

Summary:  Dragged apart by Haggar’s attack on the wormhole, the paladins and Alteans struggle to survive and find one another again. Luck has placed them all within the same galaxy… but their fortune ends there. Lance is stranded with a badly-injured Shiro and his relief at finding their leader still accompanying him soon turns to terror. Keith may be the only who can rectify the situation - but the Galra have him in their grasp, and they don’t want to kill him. They want him as one of their own.

Comments:  ANGST. SO MUCH ANGST. A brainwashed Galra!Keith plus a Possessed!Shiro. This is the perfect recipe for disaster if I ever saw one. If lots of blood bothers you proceed with caution. I love stranded fics.

A good song rec for this one is Darkside.

  VLD Rec Lists:  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Here’s a Fic Masterlist for my other fandoms.

[wfdwqfw]

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[wanderingfadz]

I was in Istanbul for two days which does not give justice to this historical city. It was just enough to visit the main attractions. This is my itinerary of the places that I went and visited during my short visit assuming that it is also your first time there.

I landed at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport (IST) at around 6pm on a Saturday. The immigration queue was very short as it was not busy which mean the free airport wifi also worked. After immigration, I proceeded to the basement floor to catch the metro heading to the city centre.

The Istanbulkart costs TL6 with each trip costing around TL2-3 and can be bought from convenience shops or ticket vending machines. The approximately 35 minute trip to my hostel in Sultanahmet involved a transfer from the metro to the tram line making the total trip costing around TL6.

One thing you’ll notice is the amount of mosques with their minarets piercing through the city skyline. After checking in, I walked around the Sultanahmet area dominated by 3 mosques namely the Hagia Sophia/Aya Sophia, Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque and Firuz Aga mosque ( a smaller mosque just next to the Sultanahmet tram stop). Be captivated by the adzan or call for prayers from these mosques as well as the other numerous mosques in the vicinity. It is an experience that will be hard to miss.

Because it was already night time and all the attractions were closed, I just walked along the main road called Divan Yolu. The tram line follows along this road. Shops and restaurants line both sides of this road and is one of the main tourist areas of the city hence the prices are more expensive. Following a westerly direction, the next station after Sultanahmet is Çemberlitas and then Beyazit. This tram stop is where the name of the road changes to Yeniçeriler Caddesi as well as where you stop to visit the Grand Bazaar. You can also walk around 10-15 minutes to get here from Sultanahmet.

Because I was only there for 2 days, I had to plan carefully so that I can visit the places that I wanted to go. Bear in mind the museums have closing days usually on Monday or Tuesdays. My first full day was the next morning which was a Sunday.

TOPKAPI PALACE

First stop the next morning was Topkapi Palace at the entrance next to the Hagia Sophia and Carpet Museum. It’s closed on Tuesdays. The first gate with guards is just for security checks. After passing through security, you will see a big park with Hagia Irene to the right. You will need to walk in a bit more to buy tickets.

The queues were not as bad as I thought it would be maybe because it mid May and not the peak tourist season yet. Ticket counters open at 9am and I was there at 8.30. So I just queued while enjoying the park view with its red roses and cool spring morning air. The walls of the palace were stacks of old stones around 4 -5 metres high.

There were a lot of renovation and repairs work when I was there. Similarly in Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. I bought the Istanbul Museum Pass card for TL125. It’s valid for 5 days but you can not enter the same museum twice even on a different day.Individual access to Topkapi Palace was TL40 and an extra TL25 for the harem. with the card, both were included.

Fearing a long queue, I started my visit at the Harem but there was no queue. Inside the harem ( and other rooms/buildings inside the palace) , there were a lot of Arabic writings on the marble walls which were also decorated with flower motifs. The doors in the harem were of wooden panel doors.

I particularly liked the Queen mothers apartments and the best I think was the Imperial Hall. The hall had a blue and red theme with couches for the sultan to sit in the middle of the hall. The background Turkish music played in the background when you are in this hall helps to bring you back in time. I am in no way an expert in art but it was beautiful and there are descriptions about the building structures, its’ functions as well as the materials used for construction that you read from the information panels.

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

Outside the harem, there are various parks and buildings that you can visit such as the Royal Kitchen, Audience Hall, Armoury Museum and Imperial Council Hall. There’s also some points you can go to see the views across the Bosphorus Straits.

For those interested in Islamic history, there’s the Privy Chamber – The Sacred Trusts Section containing among others ancient swords as well as various exhibits from the Kaaba in Mecca such as a Kaaba key from the 15th Century and Hajar Aswad.

There’s also information regarding Islam history and the prophets. As I approached the exit, I can hear the Koran recitation which I thought was a recording but it was actually a real person reading it from a small desk at the corner of one of the exhibits. All in all, I spent around 3 hours to finish visiting the palace. When I exited at 12 pm, there was a queue of around 100 metres for tickets.

Next, I went to Hagia Irene which is located within the compound and included in museum pass or else it will cost an extra TL20 (also closed on Tuesdays) . I don’t think it’s worth the extra fee and if it was not included in the museum pass, I wouldn’t have entered. I spent 10 minutes inside the old church which unlike Hagia Sophia, was not converted into a mosque.

Exiting Topkapi Palace from the same gate that I entered from, the next place I visited was the Tomb of Sultans which is located within Hagia Sophia but entered from a separate entrance. It is free to visit and you need to take off you shoes when you enter each building with the tombs.

HAGIA SOPHIA / AYASOFYA MUSEUM

The queue was around 100 metres at 1pm on Sunday. Do make sure that if you have a museum card, you have a look at the front of the line to see if you are actually in the queue to go through security and not in the queue to buy tickets. Hagia Sophia is included in the museum card or else it’s TL40 to enter. Closed on Mondays.

I have always wanted visit this place. It used to be a church which was then converted to a mosque during the Ottoman Empire and now it is a museum. However the night before, I saw a small mosque that was still in use next to the building and can be entered from a door located close to the entrance of Topkapi Palace and Carpet Museum.

While I walked around the insides of Hagia Sophia, I overheard tourist guides explaining the structure of the building. Some parts of the walls near the roof above are black because back in olden days they needed to burn candles and the smoke rose up the building which made the walls turn dark.

Also, the Kiblat which is in the direction Mecca is slightly off by around 1 metre to the right of the altar ( as explained earlier it used to be a church ) . Instead of destroying the structure to realign it, they set up the mihrab ( indicating the direction of Kiblat/ Mecca) a bit to the right. Hence, you will see that the mihrab and the windows are not aligned and it is set up a bit to the right of the windows . On top of the mihrab is where you will see the picture of Virgin Mary.

You can get a view from above by going up the stairs where there will be more paintings/mosaics from the days when the building was still a church. Before you exit, there’s a wishing column where if you can manage to twist your thumb in a hole in the column, it is said your dreams will come through. My visit was around 1 hour and there are some repair works inside so I didn’t get the whole view like the ones you see in the tourist brochures.

View from the upper floor

The mihrab is not aligned with the windows and is slightly to the right with the image of Virgin Mary above

ARCHAELOGICAL MUSEUM

After that, I went to the Archaeological Museum next to Topkapi Museum ( TL 20 or included in the museum card ) . You can also go here before Hagia Sophia but I decided Hagia Sophia was more important. I was right. I have little interest in looking at ancient ruins and artefacts or the mummification process. I still spent an hour there though. There were renovation works at the main building.

MUSEUM OF TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ART

At around 4.30 pm on the way to the museum, I stopped by Sultan Ahmed’s Tomb located a 2 minutes walk away since it was closing at 5 pm. The museum of Turkish and Islamic Art is open everyday 9 am to 7pm during summer time. It’s across the park close to the Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque. Not sure how much it costs to enter but it’s also included in the museum card. I also did not find it particularly interesting apart from some of the exhibits such as the Kaaba door covers. I spent around 45 minutes here.

ARASTA BAZAAR

After visiting the Turkish and Islamic Arts museum, I decided to walk around the nearby Sultanahmet park. Behind the mosque, there’s a bazaar selling Turkish arts and some restaurants/cafes called Arasta Bazaar. The buildings are colourful and worth passing through if you happen to be in the area.  Maybe it used to be a residential area because some of the buildings nearby the bazaar looked really old.

An old building behind Sultanahmet Mosque on my way to Arasta Bazaar

WHIRLING DERVISHES

Before exiting Topkapi Palaces earlier, there were people distributing leaflets about Whirling Dervishes at Marmaray Sirkeci Train Station. It was reasonably priced ( for tourists coming from countries with weak currencies like me ). It costs TL50 or TL40 for students and included free tea which were given before the start of the performance ( I’ve seen the prices for other Whirling Dervish performances going as much as 40 Euros per person).  It starts at 7.30 pm so I had to go buy my tickets because it was on a first come first served basis. I took the tram to Sirkeci station and the train station is just across the road.

Music players and singers

Whirling Derwishes

It starts with 4 people playing music instruments and singing followed by another 4 people coming in and whirling their way around the centre of the room. It was an interesting experience but the millennial in me found it hard to not record the event which did take some of the fascination and mystique away. Same when I see other guests moving to other parts of the room to get the right angle for a shot. I did not want to look rude since it was still a religious ceremony. So a compromise was that I recorded on and off and not the whole performance. The show lasted around 50 minutes. Information about the show was detailed in the brochure.

That’s the end of day one.

SULTANAHMET / BLUE MOSQUE

Because i was staying in the area, I started my second day visiting the mosque. You need to take off and bring your shoes with you. Plastic bags to put your shoes are provided. There was no queue when  I went there around 10am. I spent around 30 minutes inside. There’s also an Islamic Information inside the mosque which is opened to everyone to drop in but it is only manned at certain times. Before you leave, you have an option of giving a donation for the maintenance of the mosque after which you will be provided with a receipt.

GRAND BAZAAR

Going to the grand bazaar is like walking through the Ottaman times. The building itself is from the 1461. Next to the main grand bazaar is a maze of small alleyways and old buildings selling various goods and merchandise. All around and inside the grand bazaar you can hear people calling for customers, workers transporting goods and people sending tea and food to their customers. It seems like there’s a theme inside the bazaar with some sections selling gold and silver, some selling arts and clothing etc. The interior of the building had beautiful paintings some of them having faded with time and barely visible.

Grand Bazaar Entrance

EMINONU / SPICE BAZAAR

After the Grand Bazaar, I went down to Sirkeci Station in Eminonu  to explore the area. Eminonu contains a lot of buildings with Victorian designs. It has a European vibe with exception being there are numerous amounts of mosques around the area such as the Suleymeniye and Rustem Pasa Mosque. Similarly with the Sultanahmet area, it is quite breathtaking to hear the call for prayers as you walk the streets in this area.

There’s a big square located across the road from the ferry piers. It’s also where the spice market is located. As with the Grand Bazaar, the place was an assault to the senses. It is busy with people calling for out for customers and was very crowded. The air smelled of spices, soaps and perfumes. Other things sold around the market include arts, seafood and Turkish sweets/desserts.

BOSPHORUS CRUISE

Also nearby Sirkeci is the Eminonu pier where various boat and ferry services departs. I took the Bosphorus Boat Cruise from Turyol Company which costs TL15 , lasting 1.5 hours and departed almost every hour ( at least that’s what is put up on the ticketing window ). If you want the view of the city, you should sit on the left side of the boat ( i.e the right side of the boat when you enter from the pier ). Board early if you want to get a good seat. Someone will walk around selling drinks if you need it.

The boat cruises across from Eminonu to Karakoy which is still the European side of the city. It is the part that is most visible from the pier. I made the mistake of thinking that Karakoy was the Asian side. The Asian side is the landmass that’s further away in the distance across the sea.

The cruise continues north along the coast before it starts turning underneath a big bridge ( Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge ). That bridge crosses to the Asian side. Once the boat has turned, it will now cruise along the coast of the Asian side before coming back to Eminonu.

Turyol Ticketing Office

European side on the left and the Asian side on the right linked by a bridge

View from the boat

TAKSIM SQUARE / ISTIKLAL ROAD

After the boat cruise, I took the tram from Sirkeci to Kabatas (last stop of the line) then change to another funicular service to Taksim Square. Nearby the square, Istiklal pedestrian shopping street begins. Left and right of the road are various international brands selling clothings and food just like any other shopping streets you can find in Europe. The road is quite long and I did not have that much time to explore everything. There’s also a church along the road ( St Anthony’s Church ).

Taksim Square

Istiklal Pedestrian Shopping Street

St Anthony’s Church

That’s the end of my 2 day stay in Istanbul.

Recapping the places I went to in the two days :

Day 1

Topkapi Palace ( closed on Tuesdays )

Hagia Sophia ( closed on Mondays )

Archaeological  Museum

Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art

Whirling Dervishes at Marmaray Sirkeci Train Station

Day 2

Sultanahmet Mosque

Grand Bazaar

Sirkeci / Spice Bazaar

Bosphorus Cruise

Taksim Square / Istiklal Pedestrian Shopping Street

PRACTICAL STUFF

Weatherwise it was cool and not too hot during the day when I was there ( between 14-24C )

If you’re staying in the Sultanahmet/Çemberlitas  area, I stumbled on a small supermarket near Çemberlitas tram station. Exit the tram station via the turnstile that’s towards Sultanahmet then turn right into Peykhane Sokagi. Walk around 150m it’s on the right side of the road.

Another small supermarket called “Greens” along Kazim Ismail and Nur-u Osmaniye road. There are a lot of convenience stores that sell similar stuff but maybe a bit more expensive e.g 1.5L water for TL 2 instead of just TL 1 -1.25 at supermarkets.

I got my local simcard direct from Vodafone at their shop close to Beziyet/Grand Bazaar tram station. It was TL130 which included 12 gb of data, 1000 minutes local calls and 30 minutes local calls. That was the only package they had. I was expecting to stay in Turkey longer hence why I took the bigger package. I’m sure you can get cheaper maybe from other operatos such as Turkcell. I couldn’t find any Turkcell shops that were opened ( not the agents that sell Turkcell products ). I only saw a lot of Turkcell shops in Sirkeci and Istiklal Road. So head there if you want to get one.

As for the Museum Pass, if you just want to visit Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia then it’s better to just buy separate tickets  as it would only cost TL105. The only drawback is the need to queue for to buy tickets.

However, if you visit an additional one or two more museums, then it’s better to get one. I managed to just barely the cost of mine though since I did not enjoy the two other museums (Archaeological as well as Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum), I should’ve just bought two separate tickets for Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia.

EXPENSES

Istanbul Kart for transportation = TL6

Istanbul Kart top up = TL24

Istanbul Museum Card ( valid for 5 days )= 125

Whirling Dervish  =TL 40 (student) ( or full price TL50 )

Vodafone Simcard = TL 130

Drinking water (1.5L) ranged from TL0.99 to TL2 = TL7.50

Food (mostly fast food, some pastries, doner) = 23

Other expenses ( such as souvenirs, juices, blue mosque donation) = TL14

TOTAL = TL370

Two Days In Istanbul I was in Istanbul for two days which does not give justice to this historical city. It was just enough to visit the main attractions.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: The days are getting longer and lighter, bringing more opportunity to enjoy RI to its fullest.  Here is what is going on in Rhode Island this weekend and beyond.  Happy Weekending!

Current Month march, 2021 Windows On Pawtucket Walking "Gallery" Tour tue09mar8:00 am6:00 pmWindows On Pawtucket Walking "Gallery" TourOver 35 works by 28 RI artists / Daily to May15th / 8am - 6pm8:00 am - 6:00 pm Event Type :Art and Theater,Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Outdoor Fun Event Details On Display Daily to May 15, 2021  https://artleagueri.org/windowsonpawtucket/ Take a self-guided walking tour in Downtown Pawtucket Featuring 28 artists, 45 works of art in 15 more Event Details On Display Daily to May 15, 2021  https://artleagueri.org/windowsonpawtucket/ Take a self-guided walking tour in Downtown Pawtucket Featuring 28 artists, 45 works of art in 15 buildings. >>>>> Residents, business owners and artists come together to celebrate the artistic and industrious spirit and heritage of Pawtucket. During this time of COVID and struggling to make connections while social distancing. The Pawtucket Foundation, Art League RI and local business owners are helping to stimulate downtown Pawtucket with 15 exciting site-specific installations. >>>>> Windows on Pawtucket Project, a walking “gallery” tour, fills empty windows on Main Street and beyond, with more than 35 works by 28 Rhode Island artists. The project is a collaboration between the Pawtucket Foundation and Art League RI Download the Walking Brochure HERE     Time (Tuesday) 8:00 am - 6:00 pm CalendarGoogleCal The Best on Two Wheels Exhibit: Bicycles and Motorcycles 1890 - 1990 Audrain Automobile Museum 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420 tue09mar10:00 am4:00 pmThe Best on Two Wheels Exhibit: Bicycles and Motorcycles 1890 - 1990Audrain Automobile Museum, Newport, RI / Feb 20th - May 16th / Daily 10am - 4pm10:00 am - 4:00 pm Audrain Automobile Museum, 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420Event Type :Art and Theater,Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Special Event Event Details Motorcycles – exhilarating and adrenaline pumping! __ Starting life as modified bicycles, motorcycles advanced public transportation and excited people on and off the racetrack. As the popularity of motorcycles grew, several types more Event Details Motorcycles – exhilarating and adrenaline pumping! __ Starting life as modified bicycles, motorcycles advanced public transportation and excited people on and off the racetrack. As the popularity of motorcycles grew, several types were built to accommodate sporty, off-road and comfortable riding. __ This exhibit shares highlights of the evolutionary journey from the earliest bikes built in the late 1800s up until the start of the technological boom in the 1990s. From teetering bicycles to roaring superbikes in the space of a century- we will see what makes riders, motorcyclists and bikers thrill to the freedom of the open air. __ For details and ticket purchases visit >>>>> .. .. https://www.audrainautomuseum.org/balance-and-power .. ..   Time (Tuesday) 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Location Audrain Automobile Museum 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420 CalendarGoogleCal Candlelight Nights at the Coast Guard House Coast Guard House 40 Ocean Road, Narragansett, RI / (401) 789-0700 tue09mar12:00 pmCandlelight Nights at the Coast Guard HouseCoast Guard House, Narragansett, RI / Reservations Required12:00 pm Coast Guard House, 40 Ocean Road, Narragansett, RI / (401) 789-0700Event Type :Entertainment,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars,Special Event Event Details Dine by complete candlelight at the Coast Guard House every 2nd  Monday and Tuesday of the month. Offering a stunning & unrivaled view of The Pier Districts’ historic Narragansett Bay, more Event Details Dine by complete candlelight at the Coast Guard House every 2nd  Monday and Tuesday of the month. Offering a stunning & unrivaled view of The Pier Districts’ historic Narragansett Bay, The Coast Guard House has attracted family and friends for generations. And now you can dine in complete candlelight… a perfect way to make an evening special! They serve the regular menu with specials and the ambience is illuminated by candlelight in a seasonal theme. _ Reservations required _ Dates: 3/8/2021, 3/9/2021, 4/12/2021, 4/13/2021, 5/10/2021, 5/11/2021 Location: The Coast Guard House Restaurant Address: 40 Ocean Road, Narragansett, RI 02882 Phone: (401) 789-0700 https://thecoastguardhouse.com/ _       Time (Tuesday) 12:00 pm Location Coast Guard House 40 Ocean Road, Narragansett, RI / (401) 789-0700 CalendarGoogleCal Tiverton Farmers Market - Winter tue09mar2:00 pm6:00 pmTiverton Farmers Market - WinterSandywoods Farm, 43 Muse Way, Tiverton, RI / Every Tuesday Thru April 27th / 2 - 6pm2:00 pm - 6:00 pm Event Type :Community,Family Friendly,Farmers Markets,Outdoor Farmers Market Event Details A Local Farmers Market situated in the town of Tiverton, RI. Connecting the community to FRESH & LOCAL produce, products, makers & artists. Located at Sandywoods, 43 muse way, Tiverton, Event Details A Local Farmers Market situated in the town of Tiverton, RI. Connecting the community to FRESH & LOCAL produce, products, makers & artists. Located at Sandywoods, 43 muse way, Tiverton, RI 02878-4851. Email: TivertonFarmersMarket@gmail.com Time (Tuesday) 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm CalendarGoogleCal Audubon Wednesday Morning Bird Walks Audubon Society of Rhode Island 12 Sanderson Road, Smithfield, RI / (401) 949-5454 wed10mar9:00 am11:00 pmAudubon Wednesday Morning Bird WalksEvery Wednesday through June 2021; 9:00-11:00am / Locations Vary9:00 am - 11:00 pm Audubon Society of Rhode Island, 12 Sanderson Road, Smithfield, RI / (401) 949-5454Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Outdoor Fun,Special Event Event Details Wednesday Morning Bird Walks with Laura Carberry are back for the 2020-2021 season! Due to Covid-19, this season's walks will look a little different. Thank you for your understanding. more Event Details Wednesday Morning Bird Walks with Laura Carberry are back for the 2020-2021 season! Due to Covid-19, this season’s walks will look a little different. Thank you for your understanding. >>>> https://asri.org/news-events/birdwalks/wednesday-morning-bird-walk.html >>>>> Audubon offers small-group Wednesday Morning Bird Walks with naturalist Laura Carberry. Each week a new birding destination will be chosen. Face masks and social distancing will be required. Participants must bring their own masks. Advance registration is required and location will be sent via email to registered participants in advance. Please limit your participation to one (1) walk per month, so they can be made available to as many folks as possible. Contact Laura at lcarberry@asri.org if you have any questions. >>>>> Location determined weekly; Every Wednesday through June 2021; 9:00-11:00am. Fee: $5 / member, $10 / non-member. Ages 14 and up.   Time (Wednesday) 9:00 am - 11:00 pm Location Audubon Society of Rhode Island 12 Sanderson Road, Smithfield, RI / (401) 949-5454 CalendarGoogleCal Wing Wednesdays @ The Mist The Ocean Mist 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740 wed10mar5:00 pm10:00 pmWing Wednesdays @ The MistThe Ocean Mist, Matunuck, RI / Wednesdays 5:00 - 10:00pm 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm The Ocean Mist, 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars Event Details   https://www.facebook.com/TheOceanMist http://www.oceanmist.net/     Event Details   https://www.facebook.com/TheOceanMist http://www.oceanmist.net/     Time (Wednesday) 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location The Ocean Mist 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740 CalendarGoogleCal Dinner & A Movie Thursdays @ The Ocean Mist, Mutunuck, RI The Ocean Mist 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740 thu11mar6:00 pmDinner & A Movie Thursdays @ The Ocean Mist, Mutunuck, RIEvery week we’ll screen classic flicks with a Special Menu - 6 & 8pm Showings6:00 pm The Ocean Mist, 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars Event Details   Introducing Dinner & A Movie Thursdays! Every week we’ll screen classic flicks on our brand new, massive FOURTEEN FOOT Ultra 4K HD Projection screen with a special themed menu. more Event Details   Introducing Dinner & A Movie Thursdays! Every week we’ll screen classic flicks on our brand new, massive FOURTEEN FOOT Ultra 4K HD Projection screen with a special themed menu. _____ Visit The Ocean Mist Facebook Page For Movie & Menu Details _____ https://www.facebook.com/TheOceanMist     Time (Thursday) 6:00 pm Location The Ocean Mist 895 Matunuck Beach Rd, Matunuck, RI / (401) 782-3740 CalendarGoogleCal Yawgoo Valley Ski Area Open For Winter Fun! Yawgoo Valley Ski Area 160 Yawgoo Valley Road, Exeter, RI / (401) 294-3802 fri12mar9:00 amYawgoo Valley Ski Area Open For Winter Fun!Open Daily / Be Sure To Visit Website For Ski Conditions & Operating Hours9:00 am Yawgoo Valley Ski Area, 160 Yawgoo Valley Road, Exeter, RI / (401) 294-3802Event Type :Classes,Community,Entertainment,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details Rhode Island's only ski area and snow tubing facility is now open! >>>>><<<<< We Rely On Weather >>>>><<<<< Our daily report is updated by more Event Details Rhode Island’s only ski area and snow tubing facility is now open! >>>>><<<<< We Rely On Weather >>>>><<<<< Our daily report is updated by 8AM all winter.  Be sure to visit our website to check the report for open trails and to view our live webcam! >>>>><<<<< www.yawgoo.com >>>>><<<<< Scheduled hours, ticket sessions, and lessons are dependent on weather, conditions, and snowmaking abilities. Management reserve the right to adjust hours, sessions, and pricing without notice based on operational capabilities and weather. >>>>><<<<<   >>>>><<<<< GIVE US A CALL While we try our best, we are unable to assist everyone by phone. We kindly ask to please review our website and Frequently Asked Questions prior to giving us a call. If you still have questions the Main Office is open year-round, hours vary by season. >>>>><<<<< 401-294-3802               Time (Friday) 9:00 am Location Yawgoo Valley Ski Area 160 Yawgoo Valley Road, Exeter, RI / (401) 294-3802 CalendarGoogleCal Winter Trail Walks & Exhibit South County Museum 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400 fri12mar10:00 am4:00 pmWinter Trail Walks & ExhibitSouth County Museum / Friday & Saturdays thru March 27th - 10am - 4pm10:00 am - 4:00 pm South County Museum, 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details Keep that New Year's Resolution and get out Rhode Island! Meet us in the Visitor's Center for your free Canonchet History Trial trial map for more Event Details Keep that New Year’s Resolution and get out Rhode Island! Meet us in the Visitor’s Center for your free Canonchet History Trial trial map for a hike through the registered Homegrown National Park. __ Reward yourself with a hot chocolate bomb & whip cream, coffee, or tea when you come back from your hike in the Visitor Center and view the “Winter Walks” Exhibit. Live Blacksmithing demonstrations on Saturdays 10-4. __ https://www.facebook.com/southcountymuseum __ Time (Friday) 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Location South County Museum 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400 CalendarGoogleCal Baby Goat Pet & Cuddle at Simmons Farm Simmons Farm 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RI fri12mar1:00 pmBaby Goat Pet & Cuddle at Simmons FarmSimmons Farm, Middletown, RI / Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays!1:00 pm Simmons Farm, 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RIEvent Type :Community,Entertainment,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details There's nothing like the tender warmth of a baby animal to melt your heats and your worries. Let the stress of our current situation be washed away by the warm more Event Details There’s nothing like the tender warmth of a baby animal to melt your heats and your worries. Let the stress of our current situation be washed away by the warm cuddles and the tiny bleets of a newborn baby goat. __ They needn’t say a word, their warm cuddles, sweet eyes and tiny hellos, tell you everything is ok in that moment. They will help you let go of your anxiety and relax into a gentle peace, focusing on the loving little being cuddled in the safety of your arms. __ EACH VISITOR MUST BE WEARING A MASK AT ALL TIMES! You will be asked to wash your hands before and after you handle the baby goats. __ To Register Visit >>>>> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simmons-farm-pet-and-cuddle-tickets-102040122754?fbclid=IwAR2a1EJj6Et8nS74l2QXATo9-mGbs5WNIPJmXXdRnwwJy94O6p1-PKjnnrI __ Time (Friday) 1:00 pm Location Simmons Farm 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RI CalendarGoogleCal Weekend Newport Winter Foodies Stroll - Feb 5th - Mar 27th fri12mar5:00 pmWeekend Newport Winter Foodies Stroll - Feb 5th - Mar 27thNewport, RI / Friday & Saturdays / Feb & Mar @ 5:00pm5:00 pm Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Food and Drink Events,Tastings,Weekend Events Event Details Cozy up this Winter and enjoy a tasting at Newport's exquisite restuarants. Our progressive stroll will last several hours along Newport's Historic Thames Street and will encompass a total more Event Details Cozy up this Winter and enjoy a tasting at Newport’s exquisite restuarants. Our progressive stroll will last several hours along Newport’s Historic Thames Street and will encompass a total of .75 miles. Tours will run February and March, Friday and Saturday evenings or by appointment. Meet Tom and Sue, your tour guides, in front of the Armory at 365 Thames Street __ Tom and Sue will distribute masks and hand sanitizers.  The restaurants are covid compliant and all tours are limited to a maximum of 8 guests per group. __ https://www.newportfoodiesstroll.com/winter-foodies-stroll __   Time (Friday) 5:00 pm CalendarGoogleCal Beer & Girl Scout Cookie Pairing Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company 293 JT Connell Hwy, Newport, RI / (401) 849-5232 fri12mar6:00 pm7:30 pmBeer & Girl Scout Cookie Pairing6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company, 293 JT Connell Hwy, Newport, RI / (401) 849-5232Event Type :Classes,Community,Entertainment,Food and Drink Events,Tastings,Weekend Events Event Details Join us every Friday or Sunday, for the next 3 weeks for our annual Beer and Girl Scout Cookie Pairing. There are separate seating times for the event: Friday: 6:00-7:30pm, more Event Details Join us every Friday or Sunday, for the next 3 weeks for our annual Beer and Girl Scout Cookie Pairing. There are separate seating times for the event: Friday: 6:00-7:30pm, Sunday 2:00-3:30 pm and Sunday 4:00-5:30pm. __ Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased over the phone or in the Taproom. Only parties of 2-6 people will be accepted. The event includes a flight of 4 different beers and 2 cookies to be paired with each beer. Available To-go for $20 per pairing. __ https://www.facebook.com/NewportCraft/events/?ref=page_internal   __   Time (Friday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Company 293 JT Connell Hwy, Newport, RI / (401) 849-5232 CalendarGoogleCal Stargazing Nights at Frosty Drew Observatory Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center 62 Park Lane, Ninigret Park, Ninigret Park, Charlestown, RI / (401) 859 -1450 fri12mar7:30 pm9:30 pmStargazing Nights at Frosty Drew ObservatoryNinigret Park, Westerly, RI / Fridays 7:30 - 9:30pm 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center, 62 Park Lane, Ninigret Park, Ninigret Park, Charlestown, RI / (401) 859 -1450Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details Are you looking for that awesome astronomy thing to do? How about catching up on all the amazing things happening in space? Frosty Drew Observatory Stargazing Nights is the place more Event Details Are you looking for that awesome astronomy thing to do? How about catching up on all the amazing things happening in space? Frosty Drew Observatory Stargazing Nights is the place to be for all your astronomy needs. __ Every Friday night from 7:30 – 9:30pm (weather permitting) we open our Observatory, Sky Theatre, and telescopes to the skies and offer free views of the cosmos to anybody interested in observing with us. Starting at 7:30 p.m., views of the beautiful night sky over Ninigret Park will rock your night. Hang out with our astronomers and telescopes as we showcase the Rings of Saturn, the cratered lunar surface, the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, the polar ice caps of Mars, the phases of Venus, massive stars, speckled star clusters, vast nebulae, distant galaxies, and the best views of the Milky Way in Rhode Island. We stay open late, sometimes until dawn, and close when the skies become unobservable or everybody leaves. __ Please visit website for important information about visiting Frosy Drew during COVID-19 restrictions. __ https://frostydrew.org/events.dc/show/event-1084/   Time (Friday) 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm Location Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center 62 Park Lane, Ninigret Park, Ninigret Park, Charlestown, RI / (401) 859 -1450 CalendarGoogleCal Karaoke Fridays at Chan's - Woonsocket Chan's Fine Oriental Dining 267 Main Street, Woonsocket, RI (401) 765-1900 fri12mar7:30 pm10:30 pmKaraoke Fridays at Chan's - WoonsocketKaraoke IS BACK!! Join us on Fridays 7:30 - 10:30pm7:30 pm - 10:30 pm Chan's Fine Oriental Dining, 267 Main Street, Woonsocket, RI (401) 765-1900Event Type :Entertainment,Events,Food and Drink Events,Live Music,Weekend Events Event Details Join us on Fridays for Scorpion Bowls, Teriyaki and Karaoke. We're in the big party room where all the great jazz Event Details Join us on Fridays for Scorpion Bowls, Teriyaki and Karaoke. We’re in the big party room where all the great jazz and blues bands play. Lots of room for social distancing! Food served all night long. Now that’s a good Friday night! Time (Friday) 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm Location Chan's Fine Oriental Dining 267 Main Street, Woonsocket, RI (401) 765-1900 CalendarGoogleCal Windows On Pawtucket Walking "Gallery" Tour sat13mar8:00 am6:00 pmWindows On Pawtucket Walking "Gallery" TourOver 35 works by 28 RI artists / Daily to May15th / 8am - 6pm8:00 am - 6:00 pm Event Type :Art and Theater,Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details On Display Daily to May 15, 2021  https://artleagueri.org/windowsonpawtucket/ Take a self-guided walking tour in Downtown Pawtucket Featuring 28 artists, 45 works of art in 15 more Event Details On Display Daily to May 15, 2021  https://artleagueri.org/windowsonpawtucket/ Take a self-guided walking tour in Downtown Pawtucket Featuring 28 artists, 45 works of art in 15 buildings. >>>>> Residents, business owners and artists come together to celebrate the artistic and industrious spirit and heritage of Pawtucket. During this time of COVID and struggling to make connections while social distancing. The Pawtucket Foundation, Art League RI and local business owners are helping to stimulate downtown Pawtucket with 15 exciting site-specific installations. >>>>> Windows on Pawtucket Project, a walking “gallery” tour, fills empty windows on Main Street and beyond, with more than 35 works by 28 Rhode Island artists. The project is a collaboration between the Pawtucket Foundation and Art League RI Download the Walking Brochure HERE     Time (Saturday) 8:00 am - 6:00 pm CalendarGoogleCal St. Patrick’s Day Month = Brunch! Shannon View Inn 1901 Post Road, Warwick, RI / (401) 732-0999 sat13mar9:00 am2:00 pmSt. Patrick’s Day Month = Brunch!Shannon View Inn, Warwick, RI9:00 am - 2:00 pm Shannon View Inn, 1901 Post Road, Warwick, RI / (401) 732-0999Event Type :Brunches,Events,Family Friendly,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars,St. Patrick,Weekend Events Event Details It’s St. Patrick’s Day Month, so we’re taking more Event Details It’s St. Patrick’s Day Month, so we’re taking every opportunity we can to fill up on corned beef. Yup, even at brunch. _ For reservations 401-732-0999 _ Saturday & Sunday Brunch, 9am-2pm #ReggaeSunday with @japattyri, 3pm-7pm _ https://www.facebook.com/ShannonViewInn _ Time (Saturday) 9:00 am - 2:00 pm Location Shannon View Inn 1901 Post Road, Warwick, RI / (401) 732-0999 CalendarGoogleCal Farm Fresh Winter Market "2021" Farm Fresh Winter Market 10 Sims Avenue, Providence, RI sat13mar9:00 am1:00 pmFarm Fresh Winter Market "2021"Large selection of local farm and food vendors /10 Sims Ave, Providence, RI9:00 am - 1:00 pm Farm Fresh Winter Market, 10 Sims Avenue, Providence, RIEvent Type :Community,Craft Fairs,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Farmers Markets,Special Event,Weekend Events Event Details We are excited to invite you to the inaugural wintertime farmers market season in our new facility in the Valley neighborhood of Providence. >>>>> more Event Details We are excited to invite you to the inaugural wintertime farmers market season in our new facility in the Valley neighborhood of Providence. >>>>> * A custom-built facility designed for hosting year-round markets * Convenient onsite parking — no hills * Wide hallways that ensure COVID-19 distancing * Large selection of local farm and food vendors (see below) >>>>> Farm Fresh Winter Market Every  Saturday Through April 24, 2021 / 9:00am – 1:00pm 10 Sims Ave, Providence On the corner of Sims and Kinsley Avenues Parking lot entrance on Kinsley Ave >>>>> VENDORS INCLUDE (subject to change) Allen Farms Baffoni’s Poultry Farm Bami Farm/AARI Barden Family Orchard Barrett’s Garden Beautiful Day Bellicchi’s Best Biscotti Beth Bakes Butter Cuisine Chi Kitchen Clover Desserts Cluck & Trowel The Coffee Guy La Creperie Dasilva Farms Deep Roots Farm Deke’s Bagels Delicious Deli Earth Essence Herbals Fairland Farms Farmacy Herbs Fearless Fish Market Freedom Food Farm Fully Rooted gC Farms Great Harvest Bread Co. Harmony Hill Farm Harvest Kitchen Hopkins Southdowns Jack’s Snacks June Love’s English Bakery Just Like Nana’s Kane’s Kitchen Knead Doughnuts Langwater Farm Lara’s Cuisine The Local Catch Luluna Kombucha Martinelli’s Farm & Charcuterie Matilda Moonlight Rose Alpacas Narragansett Creamery New Harvest Coffee Roasters Ocean State Pepper Co. Pat’s Pastured Pickily Foods Poorboy Sharpening Provencal Bakery Red’s Street Kitchen Rhed’s Hot Sauce RI Mushroom Co. RI Shellfish Co. RI Spa Products Rocket Fine Street Food Sanctuary Herbs of Providence Seven Stars Bakery Silk Tree Farm Silver Thistle Farm (formerly Meadow Stone Farm) Simmons Farm Soul Fresh Proteins Steere Orchard Sweet & Salty Farm Sweet Possibilities Triton Seafood Virginia & Spanish Peanut Co. Ward’s Berry Farm Wishing Stone Farm Zeigler’s Market Garden Time (Saturday) 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Location Farm Fresh Winter Market 10 Sims Avenue, Providence, RI CalendarGoogleCal Aquidneck Growers Market / Saturdays Thru May 8th / 9am -12pm Aquidneck Growers Market - Gateway Center 23 Americas Cup Ave, Newport, RI 02840 sat13mar9:00 am12:00 pmAquidneck Growers Market / Saturdays Thru May 8th / 9am -12pmGateway Center, 23 Americas Cup Ave, Newport, RI 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Aquidneck Growers Market - Gateway Center, 23 Americas Cup Ave, Newport, RI 02840Event Type :Community,Family Friendly,Farmers Markets,Outdoor Farmers Market,Weekend Events Event Details Aquidneck Community Table (ACT) operates farmers markets every Saturday morning from 9AM-12PM, currently at Gateway Center Newport. ACT's Aquidneck Growers Markets serve as sales outlets more Event Details Aquidneck Community Table (ACT) operates farmers markets every Saturday morning from 9AM-12PM, currently at Gateway Center Newport. ACT’s Aquidneck Growers Markets serve as sales outlets for almost 30 farmers and small food businesses within 50 miles of the center of Aquidneck Island. >>>>> https://www.facebook.com/events/2738783436345429/ >>>>> SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), WIC (Women, Infants and Children Program) and Senior Citizen Farmers Market Vouchers are all accepted at our markets in order to ensure that fresh, healthy foods are available to all, no matter their financial circumstances. We participate in the Fresh Bucks system that allows us to offer Bonus Bucks (an additional $5 free for every $5 withdrawn) for fruit and vegetables to SNAP program customers. >>>>> Please visit our website to review our updated COVID-19 farmers market protocols: aquidneckcommunitytable.org/market Time (Saturday) 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Location Aquidneck Growers Market - Gateway Center 23 Americas Cup Ave, Newport, RI 02840 CalendarGoogleCal North Smithfield Heritage Hike sat13mar9:00 am11:00 amNorth Smithfield Heritage HikeEvent by North Smithfield Heritage Association9:00 am - 11:00 am Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Weekend Events Event Details Enjoy a woodland hike along old roads, trails and paths in the Booth Pond and Pine Hill Conservation Areas. Enjoy scenic vista and and historic more Event Details Enjoy a woodland hike along old roads, trails and paths in the Booth Pond and Pine Hill Conservation Areas. Enjoy scenic vista and and historic stone features. This is a rigorous two hour walk. Not recommended for children. __ Meet at the Aldi’s parking lot in Dowling Village. Masks required. Suggest comfortable hiking shoes and a bottle of water. __ https://www.facebook.com/events/410579586661421 __ Event Hosted By https://www.facebook.com/northsmithfieldheritage/ Time (Saturday) 9:00 am - 11:00 am CalendarGoogleCal Winter Trail Walks & Exhibit South County Museum 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400 sat13mar10:00 am4:00 pmWinter Trail Walks & ExhibitSouth County Museum / Friday & Saturdays thru March 27th - 10am - 4pm10:00 am - 4:00 pm South County Museum, 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details Keep that New Year's Resolution and get out Rhode Island! Meet us in the Visitor's Center for your free Canonchet History Trial trial map for more Event Details Keep that New Year’s Resolution and get out Rhode Island! Meet us in the Visitor’s Center for your free Canonchet History Trial trial map for a hike through the registered Homegrown National Park. __ Reward yourself with a hot chocolate bomb & whip cream, coffee, or tea when you come back from your hike in the Visitor Center and view the “Winter Walks” Exhibit. Live Blacksmithing demonstrations on Saturdays 10-4. __ https://www.facebook.com/southcountymuseum __ Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Location South County Museum 115 Strathmore St, Narragansett, RI / (401) 783-5400 CalendarGoogleCal St. Patrick's Day in the Square sat13mar10:00 am11:45 pmSt. Patrick's Day in the SquareWayland Square, Providence, RI10:00 am - 11:45 pm Event Type :Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Food and Drink Events,Live Music,Restuarants and Bars,St. Patrick,Weekend Events Event Details Come join us for socially distanced fun for all ages. -Live music -Outdoor dining -and more! and a treasure Event Details Come join us for socially distanced fun for all ages. -Live music -Outdoor dining -and more! and a treasure hunt for a pot of gold! Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 11:45 pm CalendarGoogleCal The Best on Two Wheels Exhibit: Bicycles and Motorcycles 1890 - 1990 Audrain Automobile Museum 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420 sat13mar10:00 am4:00 pmThe Best on Two Wheels Exhibit: Bicycles and Motorcycles 1890 - 1990Audrain Automobile Museum, Newport, RI / Feb 20th - May 16th / Daily 10am - 4pm10:00 am - 4:00 pm Audrain Automobile Museum, 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420Event Type :Art and Theater,Community,Entertainment,Events,Family Friendly,Special Event,Weekend Events Event Details Motorcycles – exhilarating and adrenaline pumping! __ Starting life as modified bicycles, motorcycles advanced public transportation and excited people on and off the racetrack. As the popularity of motorcycles grew, several types more Event Details Motorcycles – exhilarating and adrenaline pumping! __ Starting life as modified bicycles, motorcycles advanced public transportation and excited people on and off the racetrack. As the popularity of motorcycles grew, several types were built to accommodate sporty, off-road and comfortable riding. __ This exhibit shares highlights of the evolutionary journey from the earliest bikes built in the late 1800s up until the start of the technological boom in the 1990s. From teetering bicycles to roaring superbikes in the space of a century- we will see what makes riders, motorcyclists and bikers thrill to the freedom of the open air. __ For details and ticket purchases visit >>>>> .. .. https://www.audrainautomuseum.org/balance-and-power .. ..   Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Location Audrain Automobile Museum 222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI / (401) 856-4420 CalendarGoogleCal Weekend Brunch by The Sea! The Windjammer Surf Bar 321 Atlantic Avenue Westerly, RI (401) 322-0504 sat13mar10:00 am3:00 pmWeekend Brunch by The Sea!Every Saturday & Sunday / 10am - 3pm / All Winter10:00 am - 3:00 pm The Windjammer Surf Bar, 321 Atlantic Avenue Westerly, RI (401) 322-0504Event Type :Community,Entertainment,Family Friendly,Food and Drink Events,Weekend Events Event Details It may be cold outside but that’s no reason not to enjoy a great early day breakfast/lunch with an ocean view. Brunch at the historic Windjammer Surf Bar offers just more Event Details It may be cold outside but that’s no reason not to enjoy a great early day breakfast/lunch with an ocean view. Brunch at the historic Windjammer Surf Bar offers just that. Every Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am – 3:00pm, take in the ambiance and tranquility of Rhode Island’s iconic coast while enjoying a flavorsome brunch. Indoor and *outdoor patio seating available (*weather permitting). Brunch options include traditional breakfast fare plus an array of specials offered daily. Winter Brunch at the Windjammer runs all season on Saturday & Sunday’s from 10:00am – 3:00pm. Reservations highly recommended as seating is limited with COVID-19 restrictions. To make reservations and learn of the daily specials contact The Windjammer @ (401) 322-0504 or visit https://www.facebook.com/windjammermisquamicut  The Windjammer is located at 321 Atlantic Avenue, Westerly, RI   >>>>   Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Location The Windjammer Surf Bar 321 Atlantic Avenue Westerly, RI (401) 322-0504 CalendarGoogleCal Pawtucket Open Winter Markets! Hope Artiste Village 1005 Main St., Pawtucket, RI sat13mar10:00 am2:00 pmPawtucket Open Winter Markets!Hope Artiste Village Saturday November 7th10:00 am - 2:00 pm Hope Artiste Village, 1005 Main St., Pawtucket, RIEvent Type :Community,Entertainment,Fairs and Festivals,Family Friendly,Farmers Markets,Food and Drink Events,Weekend Events Event Details Join us every Saturday for a fun shopping experience in the historic Hope Artiste Village! Each week we’ll have a unique mix of local farmers, artists, and vintage Event Details Join us every Saturday for a fun shopping experience in the historic Hope Artiste Village! Each week we’ll have a unique mix of local farmers, artists, and vintage vendors throughout the retail corridor of 1005 Main Street in Pawtucket! >>>>>  <<<<< Sunnyside Food Truck will be serving up delicious meals all day, stop by shop safe and grab a bite to eat!   Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Location Hope Artiste Village 1005 Main St., Pawtucket, RI CalendarGoogleCal Bottomless Brunch Weekend Federal Tap House 279 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI / (401) 454-8881 sat13mar10:00 am2:00 pmBottomless Brunch WeekendFederal Taphouse & Kitchen, Providence, RI / Saturday & Sunday 10am - 2pm10:00 am - 2:00 pm Federal Tap House, 279 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI / (401) 454-8881Event Type :Brunches,Community,Entertainment,Family Friendly,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars,Weekend Events Event Details Bottomless Mimosas & Bloody Mary's paired perfect with our Brunch Menu. __ Federal Taphouse & Kitchen combines Craft Beer & American Comfort Food inspired Menu with Over 23 Beers on Event Details Bottomless Mimosas & Bloody Mary’s paired perfect with our Brunch Menu. __ Federal Taphouse & Kitchen combines Craft Beer & American Comfort Food inspired Menu with Over 23 Beers on Tap and over 75 in cans and bottles. __ https://www.federaltandk.com/     Time (Saturday) 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Location Federal Tap House 279 Atwells Avenue, Providence, RI / (401) 454-8881 CalendarGoogleCal Baby Goat Pet & Cuddle at Simmons Farm Simmons Farm 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RI sat13mar11:00 amBaby Goat Pet & Cuddle at Simmons FarmSimmons Farm, Middletown, RI / Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays!11:00 am Simmons Farm, 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RIEvent Type :Community,Entertainment,Family Friendly,Health And Wellness,Outdoor Fun,Weekend Events Event Details There's nothing like the tender warmth of a baby animal to melt your heats and your worries. Let the stress of our current situation be washed away by the warm more Event Details There’s nothing like the tender warmth of a baby animal to melt your heats and your worries. Let the stress of our current situation be washed away by the warm cuddles and the tiny bleets of a newborn baby goat. __ They needn’t say a word, their warm cuddles, sweet eyes and tiny hellos, tell you everything is ok in that moment. They will help you let go of your anxiety and relax into a gentle peace, focusing on the loving little being cuddled in the safety of your arms. __ EACH VISITOR MUST BE WEARING A MASK AT ALL TIMES! You will be asked to wash your hands before and after you handle the baby goats. __ To Register Visit >>>>> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simmons-farm-pet-and-cuddle-tickets-102040122754?fbclid=IwAR2a1EJj6Et8nS74l2QXATo9-mGbs5WNIPJmXXdRnwwJy94O6p1-PKjnnrI __ Time (Saturday) 11:00 am Location Simmons Farm 1942 West Main Road, Middletown, RI CalendarGoogleCal St. Patrick's Day Party Finn's Harborside 38 Water Street, E. Greenwich, RI / (401) 884-6363 sat13mar12:00 pm10:00 pmSt. Patrick's Day Party12:00 pm - 10:00 pm Finn's Harborside, 38 Water Street, E. Greenwich, RI / (401) 884-6363Event Type :Entertainment,Events,Live Music,Special Event,St. Patrick,Weekend Events Event Details Join us Saturday, March 13th for our annual St. Patrick's Day Party! Guinness on draft, Shamrock Jello-O Shots, Irish Egg Rolls, Corned Beef Sandwiches, Corned Event Details Join us Saturday, March 13th for our annual St. Patrick’s Day Party! Guinness on draft, Shamrock Jello-O Shots, Irish Egg Rolls, Corned Beef Sandwiches, Corned Beef & Cabbage dinners, Reubens, and live music! Doesn’t get much better than that! Willy O’ Ways Duo will be playing from 1-4pm Garda Irish Band will be playing from 5-9pm Come celebrate the luck of the Irish! Time (Saturday) 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location Finn's Harborside 38 Water Street, E. Greenwich, RI / (401) 884-6363 CalendarGoogleCal Weekend Brunch @ The Park! Ogie's Trailer Park 1155 Westminster Street, Providence, RI / (401) 383-8200 sat13mar12:00 pm4:00 pmWeekend Brunch @ The Park!12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Ogie's Trailer Park, 1155 Westminster Street, Providence, RI / (401) 383-8200Event Type :Brunches,Family Friendly,Food and Drink Events,Restuarants and Bars,Weekend Events Event Details We do brunch every Saturday and Sunday from Noon till Four! (We also have lots of parking and there’s usually no wait time for a table) Come see us and more Event Details We do brunch every Saturday and Sunday from Noon till Four! (We also have lots of parking and there’s usually no wait time for a table) Come see us and get your weekend going the right way! _ Ogie’s Trailer Park is an homage to the style and feel of mid-century America. That era from the Birth of Rock until the Death of Disco. Encompassing a fully functioning on-site Trailer Home Kitchen serving unique takes on classic comfort fare, a large outdoor “trailer park” lounge, and a selection of 60 American Beers in Cans, you will feel right at home whether you’re an Elvis (Presley or Costello) or even a Don

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[thisvaryingexistence]

STORY TIME: THE DAY I’VE REGAINED FAITH IN MANKIND

When I say “mankind” I mean mankind. Men. That part of the world.

Moving on with the story, I usually get bad cramps when I am on my period. Like-spears going through my lower stomach and not eating or moving in fear of angering them even more kind of cramps. I had only had one other episode where I was actually screaming in pain and telling my young 8 year old brother to get me medicine, a heating pad, while calling my mother to call me an ambulance. I am sure many of you can relate but to those of you thinking that I may have been overreacting, it literally felt like my insides were coming out and I was dying.

Anyway, that happened like 2 years ago. Fast forward to yesterday. I am a freshman nursing student with science classes and labs up the wasu. On Mondays, I literally have class, class, lab, class from 8:30-3:30. No break, no lunch, no time to sit down. So during my second class of the day, I noticed the early onset of cramps. Usually, if I spot them early, I could take medicine so that it will be effective before they leave me curled up on the floor. This time, I was in Anatomy and could not leave the class without missing extreme amounts of information, not to mention the part of campus that sold the drugs was quite a walk away. I decided to stick it out and asked my friends to come with me to buy some pills before heading to lab after we were dismissed.

On the way to the store, I literally knew I was in for hell. It had been too late and I would have to wait for the medicine to have any effect. After tearing off the package, we staggered to Chem lab and I made it exactly 1 minute before literally running out of the laboratory and heading for the bathroom. I had no clue if I was going to throw up or pass out I was in so much pain. I eventually staggered out, hair sweating and sticking to my face, all buttons and zipper down (my shirt was covering myself but just wanting to show how much of a mess I was), and my entire body numb and shaking. In the science building, we have couches all over the place if you need to sit or wait for class. The closest one to the bathroom was right outside it and there was a boy sitting there. If I had more energy, I would have kept moving but I could barely stand. I ended up laying all the way down, writhing in pain, one leg swung over the side of the couch. Biting and scratching my hand because I needed the pain to be somewhere else than it was. All the while, this guy is just looking over at me with concern and just went “....are you okay? What’s wrong?” I told him I had cramps quietly while almost crying and he gave a sympathetic sigh. I half expected him to laugh at me or move to another couch down the hall, but he just stayed with me. 

He stayed and legit was doing breathing exercises with me as if I was pregnant. He was telling me to breath in and breath out very slowly when the pain was at its worst. He breathed with me and explained how he heard taking the short, fast breaths I was doing prior would hurt me more. It was helping a lot, but I was still in pain. In utter desperation, I turned to this stranger and asked in the most pathetic way: “Hey...could you maybe dump out your soda and put hot water in there for me?” And he looked at me torn and I believe almost in disbelief (not anger, just like wow) and told me that he just bought it and he didn’t want to throw it away. After a few seconds, I saw him looking at me and seeing how much pain I was in, and he just looked at me and was like “Hot water right?” with a little smile. He went into the bathroom and returned with the makeshift water bottle and I had never been more grateful. At that point, I could barely even open my hands because they were so numb from gripping the side of the couch. I knew the heat would work and he had just saved me from either vomiting or fainting. After another 10 minutes (this was about a 40 minute experience writhing on the couch in total), I started to feel a lot better. We started to have an actual conversation, asking about our majors and how he knew what to do for my situation. 

He simply told me he had a girlfriend that got cramps similar to mine and he has heard about them before. He told me he wished he had chocolate because he knew it helped and another kind of medicine which I gently declined because I had already taken 2 pills prior. I asked him if he was going to be a doctor, but he simply just told me he was a senior chem student waiting for his next lab. He knew martial arts that is how he knew how to breathe, and he just had a lot of experience with cramps. 

After that time, I had to get back to lab (I have like a 3 hour lab so I had to go back and do it). I stood up and gave him an enormous thank you. We shook hands and we exchanged names and I bid him goodbye.

It takes nothing to be a good person. This guy had no idea who I was. I was a mess of a freshman who was almost passed out on the couch. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he left or even took a little laugh at me. I looked truly miserable. Instead, he tried his best to be there for me and make me feel comfortable before my medicine kicked in. I have no idea if I will ever see this guy again, but I hope he knows how much that meant to me, and probably how much it would mean to any girl in that situation. Even if you have no idea how to handle something like that, be kind to people. Ask if they need anything, be there for them through the pain. Even if you never see that person again, they will remember your kindness for a long time and most likely pay it forward. Always be on the look out; everybody needs help sometimes.