#or at least any sort of update on if your fix will be cheap or expensive

[techmomma]

;_;

[anexperimentallife]

Hello! I haven’t been as active on Tumblr in recent months, so I sort of missed the end? of the story about you guys trying to get your daughter’s paperwork finished, and you guys finally leaving the Philippines (temporarily?)

I can’t seem to find an updated post about it. Would you either tell me about it, or send me the link to the story? I’d like that very much. I was very invested in your story. I even sent some money, I was very touched.

Thanks,

Kelli

So sorry this took so long, and thank you! We finally got her "corrected" birth certificate (still has her middle name wrong, but at least the part that was screwing us is fixed, so I guess that's her legal name now, because we couldn't afford the time or money to fight any more), then it took a couple of in-person appearances at the embassy in Manila, as well as some documents exchanged via courier and more emails and phone calls, but we were finally able to get her citizenship confirmed (which was supposed to be automatic) affirmed, get her a passport, and take a cheap round trip flight as a family to reset our visas.

It took a bit longer to get her an SSN, and now we're waiting for her to be added to my disability. We're a little nervous, becaue they demanded the ORIGINALS of some stuff like El's birth certificate and our marriage certificate and stuff--they were supposed to make copies and send us back our originals, but have not done so yet.

Thanks to you and others kicking in, we were actually able to accomplish all this. It HAS left us about 15K or so in debt, though, which is gonna keep increasing for a while. We're just hoping El's backpay is enough to pay off the expenses for fixing her stateless status.

Thanks again, for everything, and I hope you're doing well. ❤️

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also had civid a couple of times during this while process, had to be on oxygen for a month, was admitted to the hospital once, and required a foot surgery for a persistent infection, plus some other medical issues, so that complicated the whole process, and keeping me alive added to the expense.

[thirstyforcharacters]

Bar Fight (Din Djarin/The Mandalorian x fem bounty hunter! Reader)

Part 1 of 2 of The Bounty Hunter and the Mandalorian

Summary: When a bounty hunter attempts to get her quarry, the ensuing battle with a mysterious stranger takes an unexpected turn.

Notes: Hello! This is meant to be the prequel to Rendezvous, (which you can find here) it's the scene that was briefly described in one of the beginning paragraphs. It can also definitely be read as a standalone, though! I know my updates definitely haven't been as frequent because finals are getting close, but I'm still trying to write because it's one of the only things keeping me sane. Hope you enjoy this Mandalorian story! PS: Thank you for 50 followers 🥰 I know that doesn't sound like much, but I honestly didn’t think that anyone would actually read my content, so thank you for giving me serotonin! (use of she/her pronouns, no y/n)

Warnings: smut! 18+ only! a bar fight (duh)/canon-typical violence, finger-fucking, hand jobs 

WC: 2.8 k

Another day, another bounty. That’s what you were thinking to yourself as you flew Freya, your trusty ship, back to Nevarro. Solonoe Carslit apparently owed some money to the Hutts, and of course, being one of the best bounty hunters in the guild, you were able to get the job done. Dragging Solonoe back to Tatooine wasn’t much of a problem once you knocked him unconscious and froze him in carbonite, and the Hutts payed you well, giving you enough money to make a much needed repair to your hyperdrive and get enough fuel to last you for a few weeks. You even splurged on a new pair of boots, since your old ones were torn to shreds. Now, you were headed back to Nevarro; Greef Karga said he would have some more jobs by now.

You touched down on the planet, landing in the open space just outside of town. You strode your way down the streets, and most who were in your way practically leaped to the side as you brushed past. You usually had this effect on people, your stoic expression, dark and practical clothing, and the blaster rifle, which you took off the body of a Stormtrooper, slung across your back, the blasters hanging from your belt, and the knives tucked snugly in their thigh holsters usually intimidated those who weren’t like you. You swiftly entered the cantina in which you knew Karga would be located.

And there he was, sitting at a booth, tucked in the corner of the bar, glancing around for anyone interested. And interested you were.

You sat in front of him, folding your hands on the table and giving him an intense stare.

“Ah, you’re back,” he acknowledged, “I’m sure the Hutts paid you handsomely.”

“You could say that. But I want a little more.”

He chuckled, “Always on the move, you are. You’re lucky, I think I have something for you.”

He took one of the familiar pucks from his pocket and turned it on. A human woman appeared on screen with bright green hair, which was shaved on one side, and eyes to match.

“Isahei Haradde is the name. Apparently, she stole a sizeable sum from a rich Imperial family. Rumor is that she’s hiding out somewhere on Bespin. They’re offering a pretty sizable reward for the one who catches her. In beskar.”

“Beskar?” your eyebrow raised, “that could be enough to buy myself a new blaster. Or make some new armor.”

“Indeed. I’m sure you’re up for it, you’re one of the best we have. Though, I will tell you, there are multiple other bounty hunters gunning for her as well, given the size of the reward,” warned Greef.

“I can handle it,” was your short reply.

Karga wished you good luck as you snatched the puck and jumped up from the table, eager to move to your destination. You made your way back to Freya. You were quite proud of her; she was an old, beat up Republic gunship you found in a scrapyard that you had fixed up yourself. The heavy armor and multiple guns you had rebuilt meant that almost no one could take down your baby. You had gotten her pretty beat up a couple times, but you always made sure the dings and bumps were taken care of.

You punched in the coordinates to Bespin and off you went. You launched into hyperspace and put the ship on autopilot, choosing to focus your attention on the job instead. Bespin was a mining planet, which mostly appeared clean from the outside. But you knew where all of the shady spots were, the seedy bars, the dark alleyways, the mine shafts that were used as hideouts for criminal masterminds, etc. Knowing the type of personnel you usually had to deal with, you figured you’d probably start in one of the bars.

Before long, you had arrived on the planet. You landed on one of the landing strips more on the outskirt of the city so that you could be a bit more inconspicuous, and wandered through the city until you found your destination.

Cloud City Cantina wasn’t exactly a creative name, but the drinks were cheap and there was plenty of activity not meant for the faint of heart. You could already hear some commotion from the inside when you approached the door and peaking inside confirmed your suspicions. Four people were standing by the bar, one you immediately recognized as your quarry. The other three were a Togruta female, Rodian male, and someone dressed head to toe in beskar armor, so you couldn’t tell exactly who he was, but you recognized him as a Mandalorian. Though you couldn’t see his face, he was alluring; while the other two were arguing loudly, he just stood there, observing through his helmet. He was casually leaning against the bar, one of his hands propper up his head, and the other was holding his blaster. The trio were obviously bounty hunters who were “discussing” who was going to get the bounty. You decided that you would decide for them, and you strode over to them.

“Sorry to interrupt,” you snarked, clearly not sorry, “but I’ll be taking that bounty.”

Before any of them could react, you swept the Rodian’s legs out from beneath him. He squawked in surprise and the other two lept into action. The Togruta shot at your head, and you managed to duck just in time. During the confusion, Isahei sprang from her seat and made a run for the door, but the Mandalorian launched a whipcord from one of his vambraces (which you didn’t see coming) and it wrapped itself around her, causing her to topple to the ground. The Rodian staggered up from the ground and threw a punch at your head, which you skillfully deflected. You reached behind you and grabbed a beer mug and promptly smashed it over his head. He dropped to the ground once more, definitely at least unconscious. You turned your attention back to the Togruta, who shot at you again. You took out your vibro-knives and ran at her, slicing first at her blaster wielding arm, then at her face. She jumped back, expecting the charge, but you still managed to clip her arm, making her hiss in pain. She brought her elbow down and slammed it into your stomach, making you groan in pain. You slashed back at her in retaliation, and blood soon tinged her thigh from the deep cut you inflicted. She dropped to the ground as well.

You looked around for the Mandalorian, and barely saw him dragging the quarry through the crowd. Without really thinking, you hurled one of your knives at him and it sunk into one of the gaps in his armor, jst above his elbow. He dropped the quarry with a grunt of pain and whipped around while yanking the knife from his arm and throwing it on the floor. You assumed he locked eyes with you, making you smirk triumphantly.

“Couldn’t let you get away with that,” you called to him, stepping through the crowd, which parted for you, “I’d like that reward.”

“Well, you’re not getting it,” came his reply, which was sort of staticky through the helmet.

Even so, the deep timbre of his voice made a strange flipping feeling make itself known in your belly. Being attracted to your competition wasn’t going to help you in this situation, especially seeing as you were now practically face to face.

“Really? I beg to differ.”

“I’m the one who restrained her. That bounty should go to me.”

“Well, I’m the one who started the fight in the first place, and you wouldn’t have been able to restrain her without that. So technically, you couldn’t have done it without me.”

He didn’t say anything after that. You thought that maybe you had gotten to him when he suddenly took his rifle off of his back and swung it at you. You ducked out of the way and took out your own. You were in too close of quarters to be able to shoot at each other, so you used your rifles as bludgeoning weapons while Isahei, your quarry, just layed there.

After a long bout of fighting, it became pretty clear that neither of you was more skilled than the other. You both leaned against the bar, out of breath, staring at each other. You were sure that his stare was meant to be intimidating, if his body language told you anything. But yours was also a bit more of a sensual nature. You couldn’t help it; he was a strong fighter with a sexy voice. You could tell that there was muscle upon muscle underneath his armor, and you were able to see the way his pants hugged his massive thighs. You did your best to be subtle, but that was kind of difficult in such close quarters.

“I saw we just do rock, paper, scissors and call it a night,” you joked.

He chuckled, “I think I have a better idea, especially since you can’t keep your eyes off of me.”

You flushed slightly at being caught, but hoped that the dim lighting of the bar covered it up, “I’m just trying to be intimidating. This usually works.”

“Yeah, because staring at my thighs is extremely intimidating.”

Oh. Well, you couldn’t play it off anymore.

“To be fair, I can’t say I’m entirely innocent in that regard, either.”

Oh. He was attracted to you, too. That was news.

“I see. So what’s this idea of yours?” you questioned.

He leaned in close to your ear and whispered, “Whoever makes the other come first gets the bounty.”

Your eyes widened comically. He was asking for what you had been thinking, and in pretty explicit terms, too.

The soft laugh near your ear sent shivers down your spine, “At a loss for words? Or are you not up for the challenge?”

“No,” you said immediately, “I’m up for it. I like to think I’m pretty good with my hands.”

“I’m sure you are,” he murmured, picking up your knife and tucking it back into your thigh holster, purposefully brushing his fingers along the inside of your thigh, “but so am I.”

The two of you dragged the quarry to a small, unassuming inn and snuck into one of the empty rooms. You left the quarry outside of the room, attaching the cord to a bannister, knowing that it was a very small chance of her escaping. Once you closed the door, the game was afoot. Almost immediately, he pushed you onto the bed; you should’ve known you were fighting a losing battle then, but you were determined to get this quarry. He draped himself on top of you and teasingly pinned your hands above your head.

“That’s cheating,” you snapped, “how am I supposed to get you off if I can’t use my hands?”

“Get creative,” he replied while his hips slowly began to grind into yours.

Though he was playing it cool, you could feel how hard he already was through his pants. Maybe you had a shot at this, as long as he didn’t know that you were already dripping. Every grind of his hips against yours made it more and more difficult to keep the moans that were threatening to spill from your lips at bay, but you managed to keep them in. Until one of his hands travelled from you wrists down your torso to the small strip of skin showing between your now-untucked shirt and your pants. His fingers slipped under the band of your pants and somehow almost immediately found your clit, rubbing vigorously. You couldn’t help but moan softly at the feeling.

“Maker, you’re dripping. Sure you’re gonna last?”

That was enough for you to spring into action. You pulled your wrists out of his one-handed grip and trailed them down his armor-clad torso. You removed the armor that was blocking your path downwards; though it was difficult without his assistance, you managed. You were about to dip your hand under the waistband of his pants when he ran one of his fingers through your slit, making you whimper and temporarily forget what you needed to be doing.

“Shit,” you breathed when his finger pushed into your dripping cunt.

“That’s it, sweet girl,” he murmured, “bet you’re gonna cum soon with how wet you are.”

With all of the self-control you could muster, you grabbed his wrist to still his movements and used your other hand to finally reach into his pants and grab his rock-hard member. A soft groan crackled through the helmet, causing you to finally see through his put-together facade.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” you crooned, starting to move your hand, desperate for him to cum before you.

You saw him nod jerkily, then he used his free hand to pull your hand from his wrist and begin his movements in earnest.

“It does,” he started, “but I need you to come first.”

“Not a chance,” you said through gritted teeth, twisting your hand around his dick, “that bounty is mine.”

Only moments after you said that did he add another finger, making you clench around him. He curled his fingers inside of you, making a soft “fuck” fall from your lips as you continued to jerk him, brushing your thumb across the tip. He cursed as you brought your thumb, covered in his precome, to your lips and sucked.

“You taste divine,” you whispered, batting your eyelashes enticingly.

“Glad you think so,” he snarked, “Maker, you’re just gushing around me, aren’t you?”

You couldn’t deny it; this was the wettest you had been in a long time. You knew that you weren’t going to last much longer; your legs were trembling and you were barely holding back your orgasm, making you redouble your efforts. You increased your pace, making him moan out in pleasure. Just when you thought that maybe you had him, his thumb rubbed against your clit, and you were done for. Your orgasm washed over you and you whimpered as he fingered you through your high. You tried to continue to jerk him through your orgasm, but you lost your grip on him as the pleasure overtook you.

You came down from your high and you could almost feel him smirking.

“Guess I won.”

“Guess so. You may have won the bounty, but I could just leave you on edge with no way to get back down. Not much of a winner now, are you?” you sassed back, pulling your hand out of his pants.

In a flash, his hand grabbed your wrist and pulled it back in, “Now that would be rude, wouldn’t it?”

“So is taking my bounty.”

You attempted to pull your hands away, but he grasped them both in his own. You knew that he was stronger than you, but you tried to break free anyway.

That is, until you heard him whisper, “Please.”

You looked into where his eyes would be in the helmet and you felt your resolve break. You knew you couldn’t just leave him high and dry, even if he did just take your bounty.

“Okay,” you replied, and he released your hands.

Your hands returned to their former position, wrapped around his dick. Now that you weren’t worried about getting off, you focused your attention on him. His dick was pretty, hard and absolutely leaking. You knew he was close. His body language was tense, like a bowstring that was too tight.

“Cum for me,” you purred, “I can tell how close you are.”

A sound akin from a whimper fell from his lips as one of your hands moved to toy with his balls. It wasn’t long before the bowstring snapped, and the white liquid covered your hands. You wiped off his release on the inn’s sheets, knowing that someone would probably clean it sometime. You both got off of the bed and got yourselves together. You exited the room and the Mandalorian took hold of the quarry. Disappointment began to settle in at your lost bounty, though you tried not to show it on your face.

You must’ve failed though, because he meandered back over to you and placed his hand on your shoulder, “You’re a really good fighter. You’ll get another one.”

“Thanks,” you replied softly, though you were still pretty frustrated.

“At least you got a pretty decent orgasm out of it,” he remarked.

A small smile spread across your face at that, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Here, give me your holo,” he requested.

Your quirked up your eyebrow, but handed it over. He punched something in and handed it back to you.

“If you ever want to do something like that again, let me know.”

He dragged the quarry behind him then, and before long, he was out of sight. When you couldn’t see him anymore, you took out your holo and glanced at your contacts.

Mando.

That’s what he had saved himself as. Your small smile grew wider. Perhaps you’d be seeing him again. For now, though, it was time to get your next job.

[arysthaeniru]

aAAA the joy of seeing an update on your current favorite fanfic is just aAAA

I always felt that kiwami 1s Nishiki was just a bit too,, I dont know how to describe it; but essentially he just felt off, granted yakuza 1 is a product of its time and therefore the plot is a bit dated and whack as all hell

The way you write Nishiki just feels so much better and realistic; in the original he just seems so uncaring towards Kiryu? which just feels kinda OOC? You'd think he still cares about Kiryu despite it all, especially when you take Yakuza 0 into consideration; and i feel like you portray Nishiki much more accurately

I never thought much about Yumi, because honestly, in the original she was kinda just, there? You actually made her a very interesting person! like I'm actually invested in her in your story! (side note you ever think about her clone who got tortued and died? yeah who WAS that???? thats never brought up is it??)

Theres so much more to talk about but in short; This is the best fix it/rewrite of a game plot I have read to date and it brings me joy in my current stressful school life. and no I will not stop praising it or the author, because this work has made me very happy. ;)

I just have a gift for picking favorites that end up dying,,aand another favorite of mine is Mine

imo theres a lack of soft, reassuring Minedai, i just feel like he'd need a reminder that people love him as a person and not just for the money he can provide, even if its obvious

I'd love to see how you'd write them, but I understand if theres more interesting/appealing drabble requests!

- Carp

CARP, thank you for this <3 this is so sweet!!!!! I’m so happy you enjoy my Nishiki! I had fun playing with what Yakuza 0/the Kiwami additions gave us about Nishiki’s personality and outlook on the world, and trying to reconcile that with the plot that Yakuza 1 initially had. Ultimately, I fell on the side that you did: even if Nishiki’s ambition took him down a monstrous path, I don’t think he’s the sort of person who neglects to pay back his debts. And he’s aware of the huge debt he owes Kiryu. Not to mention, their bonds of trust and love vanishing completely because of jealousy felt unreal to me. Their relationship becoming twisted or strange? Yes, but vanishing entirely felt unsatsifying to me. 

And Yumi!! I had so much fun excavating her character from the clues we get of her in canon. I worry sometimes, that she’s unrecognizable, because you know, I’ve given her a college education, and a whole bunch of interests beyond hostessing alone, but people seem to like it and like her, which is great!! I hate fridging women characters, so keeping her and Reina alive was important to me, hahaha. (RE: fake!Mizuki, there’s this substory in Kiwami that actually addresses who she was, BUT IT’S EVEN MORE HORRIFYING. So that’s why Yumi in my fic is the one captured and tortured by Nishiki’s men, because the thought of this poor innocent woman getting dragged into the mess was just untenable to me.)  

Anyway, thank you for your support and kind words, and I hope you’ll continue to read and that my fic can continue to relieve stress. I--tried to write this about Mine, but Daigo kind of stole the spotlight a little??? I hope you still like it--if not, I will try a ficlet from Mine’s perspective too. I enjoy minedai a lot, but I haven’t had room to think out their dynamic yet, so this took me a while. 

Daigo’s no stranger to being desired. He’s attractive, he knows this—his mother’s beauty lives in his veins, and he’s always had the money to look after himself. Fancy soaps to wash his face, the invisible retainers to keep his teeth straight, fancy suits and skin-tight shirts to show off his frame. For all that Kiryu insists his charisma is something that comes from the soul, Daigo knows it wouldn’t be able to draw the sort of attention he does without being attractive.

Which is to say that Daigo’s not especially thrown off by the intensity of Mine’s gaze. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. The thing that surprises him is how much he relishes in being seen by Mine.

Maybe it’s because Mine’s an island in a stormy sea, one of the only yakuza his age who’s sensible and level-headed enough to make it big. Maybe it’s because Mine’s gaze is always so reserved, polite, never overly lusty or overstaying its welcome, and Daigo has so rarely been desired so quietly. Or maybe it’s because Majima and Kashiwagi so clearly disapprove of him—Daigo’s always been something of a rebel, and he hasn’t shaken that off, even now he’s in his thirties and is the arbiter of rules for the Tojo Clan.

Daigo can’t quite put a pin on why he’s so comfortable with Mine’s yearning looks, but he’s never been one to hold back when he wants to indulge in something good. Not exactly a hedonist, not by yakuza standards, but Daigo has never kept himself from enjoying life, in the name of some dubious ‘honour.’

Which is why, in an after-hours meeting with Mine, as they eat cheap takeout sushi together, Daigo takes his chance. A momentary slip, the slightest hint of wasabi left at the corners of Mine’s lips and Daigo swoops in, rubs a thumb over the corner of Mine’s lips. Mine stutters to a stop, mid-sentence through a rundown of the real-estate that the Hakuho Clan’s been purchasing up, and stares at Daigo, eyes bewildered.

“Sixth Chairman?” he asks, his voice still remarkably composed.

“Wasabi.” Daigo says, nonchalantly, as if it’s nothing, and sticks his thumb into his mouth, slowly licking it off with a lingering lave of his tongue. He feels a sharp stab of satisfaction as Mine’s eyes turn darker, and his gaze follows Daigo’s hand down.  

Daigo straightens up, languidly, and cracks his neck, casually. At this point in the day, he’s untucked his shirt, and he knows that a slight strip of his stomach will be visible when he stretches out his arms towards the ceiling. And as predictably as clockwork, Mine’s gaze darts downwards, to that pale expanse, to catch that brief second of skin. Daigo can’t help but feel warm. Something about being watched by Mine is exhilarating.

“Smoke?” offers Daigo, but as usual, Mine refuses, with a polite shake of his head.

Daigo knows from hearsay that Mine’s something a health-freak, so he’s not entirely surprised. It’s already too late for Daigo to preserve his health—he knows that his liver’s already been pretty ruined from long nights of binge-drinking as a youth, and this job’s too stressful to withhold from vices like smoking and drinking, without an optimal end-goal. So he walks over to the window, cracks it open a little, and lights up.

The breath of nicotine curls over his body, a tender caress, and Daigo feels his shoulders drop, as the relaxation hits. He pulls off his cufflinks, tosses them into his pockets and rolls up his sleeves. He takes it slow, runs his fingers over his skin a little more than strictly necessary. Surreptitiously checking the reflection in the window, Daigo watches Mine watch him, and smirks at how intense that gaze is, how Mine’s mouth has opened, and Daigo can just see the soft pink of his tongue.

“Dojima’s just fine, you know. When it’s just us two.” Daigo says, turning over his shoulder. He smiles, one of those charming smiles that had always gotten him whatever he wanted as a child, “We’re same-aged friends, after all.”

“Dojima-san.” Mine acknowledges, after a brief pause.

Daigo turns around, to properly look at Mine and lifts an eyebrow. “Dojima. Or Daigo, preferably. Dojima-san’s always my father in my head.”

Mine nods, face impassive. Daigo can’t read him like this. Maybe that’s why he likes when Mine stares at him, filled with longing. At least then, Daigo feels like he knows him. In moments like these, his implacable gazes might as well be a brick wall. “Right. Your Father was also in the Tojo Clan.”

Daigo smiles, wryly, and blows out a puff of smoke. “One of the most horrible men I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting—and I had to call him Father. But damn if he wasn’t good at the job.” He sighs and stubs the cigarette out against the ashtray. “...sometimes feel like I’m competing with his dead spirit. Everybody’s looking at me and wondering if this is what my Father would do. Or what Kiryu-san would do.”

“You’re doing better than any of them.” Mine says, immediately, with a vicious ferocity that Daigo wasn’t expecting. He can’t quite stop his eyebrows rising in surprise, and Mine straightens upwards, looking self-conscious immediately. Daigo regrets his instinctual reaction, immediately. “That is to say, Dojima, that I think that you’ve pulled this Clan into somewhere far more respectable. From what I’ve heard of your Father, he didn’t have the temperament to do proper business on this level—too insistent on formal obeisance and unable to be flexible as the times require. And Kiryu-san might be very honourable, but we are yakuza. There are certain things you have to do as a Chairman, that he couldn’t bring himself to do. But you are practical and do what is necessary, while also not overstepping into excessive violence. You are uniquely suited for this job, Dojima.”

...he’s taken aback a little, he can’t deny it. Daigo wonders if his cheeks are colouring, wonders if his obvious shock is offputting, wonders if this is how Mine feels every time Daigo teases him lightly about his obvious attraction. A startling warmth spreads through his chest, and Daigo can’t stop the slight smile that touches his face. Has anybody ever said something so unreservedly kind and measured about Daigo before?

Maybe this is the difference between everybody else’s gazes on him, and Mine’s gaze. It’s based on something more than desire alone. Respect.

Daigo runs a hand over his slicked-back hair and ruffles it free, with a rueful smile, a smile that he couldn’t take away from his face, even if he tried. “I appreciate that. You know I couldn’t do it without you, right?”

He’d never really believed himself capable of attraction to a man like Mine. All of his previous childhood crushes had been on bright, cheerful conversational, pure-hearted people. Daigo had always figured they would balance out his sardonic cynicism. He’d never thought someone as reserved and principled as Mine would ever make his heart flutter. But then, there was something about that deep hunger and passion that Daigo craved. Perhaps it was because he was no longer the gloomy punk of his youth. Maybe his tastes have changed towards tall, dark and handsome. Maybe Mine’s just that special.

“Dojima—” Mine says, clearly trying to refute it, but Daigo cuts him off.

“I mean it. Everybody in this fucking Clan wants me to do something or be somebody else. Kashiwagi-san wants me to be my mother. Majima-san wants me to be Kiryu-san. Everybody else expects my Father. But not you. You deal with me honestly, and with candour, and never hold any expectations against me except success. I appreciate your faith in me.” Daigo takes a couple of steps forward, until his shoes almost brush up against Mine’s own. He leans down over Mine’s chair. “I could not do this without your backing and help. Truly. I don’t think I’ve ever had someone like you in my life. A true friend.”

Mine tilts his chin up to meet Daigo’s gaze, a hungry devotion in his eyes, and Daigo, for a moment, wonders if this is wrong. If he should hold back, like Kiryu would. But Daigo is Daigo, and Mine clearly wants him anyway, so he leans down and kisses him.

Mine’s mouth is velvety smooth and wet and hot and it is oh-so satisfying a feeling to put his hand against Mine’s broad neck and feel his warmth up against Daigo. He pulls back, with a satisfied sigh, and feels the burn of wasabi across his lips, a final parting kick.

[boldly-ho]

Another Life - Chapter 23

Fandom: What We Do in the Shadows 

Pairing: Vladislav x Reader

Series Rating: E

Word Count: 1772

Chapter Summary: Reader gets jealous upon watching Vladislav seduce a woman (to eat).

A/N: Hi guys. I may not be posting every week from here on out, though that’s still the goal. With the new semester in full swing I don’t always have time to work on my fic :( Hopefully it’ll never be more than a week without updating, though. Thanks to everyone for reading! <3 As always, this is also on AO3.

“Did you fuck last night?” Deacon asked.

You didn’t look up from your laptop, still hard at work. You didn’t even know what time it was, long since having covered the small time display with a post-it, not wanting to be drawn out of fixing the work problem that you may or may not have, but definitely did, cause. The fact that Deacon was up, though, meant that more time had passed than you’d thought.

Eyes still glued to the screen, finally nearing the end of your task, you responded with a deadpan, “I’m sure you know that we did not.”

Deacon grunted. “That’s what Vlad said, too.”

“Well?” you prompted. “Why would you need to ask me, then?”

“Maybe he lied.”

“Why would he?”

“To protect your modesty.”

You snorted, finally navigating to the site for clocking in and out. “Does Vladislav seem overly invested in modesty of any sort?”

“…No.”

“So why would he lie?” you repeated, closing your laptop. “We didn’t even get-“

You froze upon turning to look at him.

“Deacon, what the hell are you wearing?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Nothing out of the ordinary, unfortunately. That was the problem. It was just a horrid combination that you hadn’t yet seen. Somehow the color orange had become involved.

“Are you going somewhere tonight?”

“Yes. We’re going out to find victims. Do you want to join us? We’re meeting Nick at Boogie Wonderland. I think Stu might be there.”

“Stu?” You’d go if Stu was going, but you didn’t want to be the only human there. At least, the only human who wasn’t on the menu.

“Pretty sure.”

“Yeah, then I’ll go.”

And that was how you ended up watching the man who had just taken you on the best date of your life try to seduce women on a crowded dance floor. Not your best idea ever.

You scowled into your drink.

You knew you were being stupid. He was just trying to eat them. There was no reason to be jealous.

Jealous. Ugh.

You’d had one date with the man and you were jealous.

If he found out, you might just have to die of embarrassment.

You jabbed the straw into the ice and glared.

“Need another?” Stu asked, appearing behind you.

You huffed. “I guess. Struck out?” You glanced back to the table where Stu had been chatting up some cute brunette.

“I guess,” he parroted back to you.

You moved your gaze to where Vladislav and Viago stood with a gorgeous woman. She placed her hand on Vladislav’s arm and you turned your face to your newly refilled drink, loudly, angrily, sucking it up through the straw.

Stu, having followed your line of sight, offered you a sympathetic smile. “You know, I really don’t think you have anything to be worried about, Y/N.”

You sighed. “I know. I’m just working myself up.”

“You never really struck me as the jealous type.”

You shrugged your shoulders. You liked to think you weren’t usually the jealous type.

“Really,” he said, somberly, “You don’t want to be her.”

You nodded. You knew that, of course. Maybe you should slow down. The alcohol may be exacerbating your ire at the situation.

“Hey Stu!” You both looked up to find Nick standing behind you, shouting over the music. “I’m going to head out. I’ll text you tomorrow, okay?”

Stu nodded, and Nick turned his attention to you.

“How was your date last night?”

You blinked in surprise. Stu only knew about it because you’d told him tonight at the bar.

“Viago mentioned it,” he explained.

“Oh. Well, it was pretty nice, actually. We’re going out again the night after tomorrow.”

He gave you a thumbs up and left. If it wasn’t for his vampiric hearing, you’d have guessed he hadn’t been able to pick out your words over the background noise.

“I should probably head out, too.”

“No!” you protested, as Stu pulled out a few bills and laid them on the counter to cover his tab.

“I have to work in the morning.”

“So? I do too.” It wasn’t technically true, as you could get your hours at any point in the day, but Stu didn’t know that and you wanted him to stay.

“Then you should probably get home, too.”

You scowled, and Stu valiantly hid a laugh at your overdramatic response.

“Do you want to split a cab?”

“No,” you sighed, realizing you couldn’t convince him. “I want to finish my drink, and the busses are still running for a while.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Try not to let it bother you too much.” He gestured to the dance floor at large when he said ‘it,’ but you knew what he was referring to.

You turned back to your drink, trying not to glare at it again. After all, it hadn’t done anything wrong. When you looked back up, Stu was talking to Vladislav. He pointed to you. Oh crap. You looked back down, not wanting to make eye contact while Stu was very clearly ratting you out. You took back everything nice you’d ever said about him.

“Hi there,” Vladislav whispered into your ear. How did he get here so fast?

You winced into your drink.

“Hi.”

“A little bird told me someone needed a bit of attention.”

You rolled your eyes and loudly pulled more alcohol up through the straw.

“That little bird was Stu, and I’m going to kick his ass.”

Vladislav lowly laughed into your ear, and you tried not to smile as its warmth bubbled through you. You turned to look up at him and, of course, his smile was contagious. That bastard. No one would let you wallow in your misery in peace.

“Don’t be too hard on Stu. After all, it worked right? I’m here now,” he whispered in your ear, gently brushing your hair aside.

You knew he was just teasing you, but his voice was starting to make you melt, anyway.

You pulled yourself together and smacked him on the shoulder. “Take your ego down a notch and don’t be such a dick.”

For a second, you feared you’d overstepped a line. In this strange new limbo between friends and something more, you weren’t sure what was and wasn’t appropriate anymore. Thankfully, though, he threw his head back and laughed, and you actually let yourself smile. Sometimes he could be so stoic, so inexpressive. When he laughed, it was such a juxtaposition from his default state. It was warm and bubbly and you couldn’t help but feel it all the way down to your bones.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked. He grabbed your hand and yanked you over to the noisy, crowded dance floor before you could answer him.

You decided to have fun, jumping up and down, moving your body more or less in time with the thumping bass of the music. Vladislav’s dancing was… eclectic. But this was a club full of drunks, so his dancing didn’t really stand out any more than anyone else’s did.

Vladislav moved his hands to rest on your hips, and you instinctively moved forward, closing the gap between your bodies until you were flush against one another. You were more or less grinding on each other, now, and you felt that maybe you should be embarrassed. You weren’t.

He ducked his head down until you felt his lips brush against your neck. You relaxed into it, tilting your head to give him better access. A shiver ran down your body at the realization that his fangs were so close to your vulnerable, exposed neck. Vladislav gently nipped at the soft, thin flesh. It hadn’t hurt, but you yelped in surprise anyway.

He moved a hand from your hip to place it reassuringly on the small of your back and brought his lips up your ear. “Relax. I’m not going to do anything.”

You weren’t entirely certain what he meant by ‘anything.’ If a regular human guy told you he wasn’t going to do anything, you’d take that to mean he would keep his hands to himself. You very much doubted you could make such an assumption regarding Vladislav.

More likely, he’d meant he wasn’t going to do anything with respect to drinking your blood. Of course he wouldn’t. You knew that. You’d simply been startled when he’d playfully, flirtatiously nipped at you… because he was a vampire.

“Sorry!” you shouted over the music.

Vladislav chuckled lowly in your ear, and actively stated backing you off of the dance floor. It wasn’t much of a task, as you had gradually made your way towards the darkened back corner of the room over the course of your dancing. As Vladislav fluidly advanced, his hand still guiding you from the small of your back, you almost tripped over yourself as you were raced back. You were backed into the wall, and his hand moved from your back to the wall beside your head.

“You need to learn to relax and have some fun.”

You opened your mouth to respond, but his lips crashed onto yours, effectively silencing you. You brought your hand up to his open shirt, fisting your hand in the material and holding his body to yours. His tongue delved into your mouth and you moaned around it.

Soon, though, your brain moved from solely registering sensation, and you tasted him. The acrid taste of metal suddenly flooded your mouth. Your hand that had been pulling him towards you instead pushed him away while your other rose to wipe your mouth.

He hadn’t even left the club! When had he found time to-

“Y/N?” Vladislav’s concerned voice pulled you from your thoughts. He looked almost hurt.

“Shit! Sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Are you okay?” His eyes searched your own.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry. I- it tasted like blood…” you trailed off and looked down. You weren’t sure entirely why, but you felt like a supreme asshole.

“Ah…” Vladislav began. “Yes. I just ate.”

“It’s fine,” you quickly covered. “I’m sure I taste like cheap booze…” You nervously laughed, though you weren’t sure how convincing it was.

“Y/N-“

“Really, it’s fine.”

And it was fine. It had just startled you. Of course he tasted like blood. He ate blood. You knew that.

You’d come to terms with that.

It was fine.

“Maybe we should-“

You silenced him with a kiss of your own. He stood all too still for an excruciatingly long moment. Eventually, though, he leaned into it, reciprocating, pushing you back into the wall as your hands rose to his chest.

And it was fine.

[meggiejolly]

Title: Cabin Life 

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed

Pairing: Rebecca Crane & Shaun Hastings

Prompt: Cabin 

Rating: General Audiences 

Links: Fanfiction.net, AO3

Sumary: Shaun and Rebecca are stuck in a tiny cabin together, working on analyzing the latest Animus data. This is a little glimpse into their daily routine.

They had been sent to this tiny cabin in this forest in the middle of nowhere to analyse the data from a few crucial Animus sessions. The only problem was that there was literally nothing around, the power and satellite link that had been set up for them was more than basic and only worked with a lot of begging and possibly a few sacrifices, or at least that's what Shaun suspected. Rebecca, of course, told him it was just his bad aura around technology. It certainly only worked for one person at a time which was more than inconvenient.

Another part of the problem was that it was just the two of them, which spelled disaster. They didn't do well without some sort of buffer.

And Shaun couldn't even hide in his history books when he needed a break from Rebecca's constant nagging. (Mind you, she said if anyone was constantly nagging it was him, but what did she know?) Because he hadn't been able to bring a lot of material. He mostly had to rely on online archives which he could only access when Rebecca wasn't using the satellite link for her analysis. And of course, she was of the opinion that her work was a lot more vital.

"I'm looking for underlying programming, glitches, glyphs, strange code that could help us find more pieces of Eden. That's something we can only get through the animus. Your boring old history has been there for ages, so shut up and let me work."

"I will have you know that it has not been there for ages, new theories and discoveries are happening all the time. And with the Animus, we can prove what happened. It takes all the guesswork out. It is vital that I get our data bank as accurate as possible, so future animus users have the correct information at the correct time. A wrong date or name can spell disaster and cost us valuable time in the race against the templars."

"But that is both in the past and in the future. Finding more leads for pieces of Eden is right now and is much more important. So shut up and let me work."

"You already said that. And analysing what people say and do and how it differs from recorded history is just as likely to provide us with leads." He sighed and took his glasses off to clean them. "But fine, fine, I am the bigger man as usual, so I will let you work and cook some dinner. But you'll do the dishes after and I get to work then."

Rebecca just shrugged. "Fine, but you're not the bigger man and not the bigger person either."

“Yeah, yeah." He mumbled and went over to the tiny kitchen area of their one-room cabin to see what he could manage to make for dinner.

"We have a choice of baked beans on toast, canned pasta or an omelet with the last of our cheese. We need to make a supply run in the next two days."

Supply runs were always risky, they needed to stay hidden and as of the radar as possible. According to their contacts, Abstergo had been sighted to nose around this area.

Which meant he would probably have to wear that horrible fake beard again and Rebecca would be complaining about the too-tight wig she wore as a disguise. At least it was sunny so the base caps and sunglasses wouldn't be too strange.

"We had baked beans for breakfast. So make the pasta and we'll eat the omelet tomorrow morning. I'll check with the others if it's safe enough to go out tomorrow."

Shaun nodded and searched for the can opener, of course, it wasn't where it was supposed to be.

"Can you not just put the can opener back where it belongs, it's really not that hard, it's not like we have that much space."

"Sorry, look near the bread."

"Found it." He poured the contents into their pot and started heating it over the camping stove.

"At least it's not Ramen. If I never eat another packet of cheap Ramen it will be too soon."

"Don't be such a baby Shaun, Ramen is the stuff we survive on and you know it. College students, minimum wage workers and undercover people everywhere swear by it. Don't look down on them, you fancy-schmancy." She laughed and Shaun couldn't help but join.

"Fancy-schmancy am I? What an insult Rebecca, what an insult."

He gave the pasta a stir and grabbed the two bowls and spoons from beside the tiny sink, the only one in the entire cabin. Privacy was a foreign concept by now and so was showering.

"Food's almost done, so finish up what you're doing."

Rebecca nodded. "Alright. I'm just gonna let this handy little program search for abnormalities while we eat."

"As long as it's done so I can work after dinner."

As an answer, Rebecca just shrugged and Shaun sighed. He highly doubted he would get to work today. Well, maybe he could argue that it would be safer if only one of them went out tomorrow and use the time she was away to work.

Oh, who was he kidding, if he did that he would worry about her the whole time until she got back and barely get any work done. He would just have to get to the computer before her tomorrow. She wasn't a morning person anyway.

The sauce started to bubble and he gave it another stir before filing it into the bowls.

"Here you go Beccs, gourmet canned pasta with no cheese because we're saving that for the omelet. Enjoy."

Rebecca grinned and took the bowl. "Always impressive that they can make tomato sauce taste like nothing, but at least it’s somewhat filling."

Shaun just sighed full of resignation. "How much longer do we have to stay here?"

Rebecca shrugged. "Who knows. Two more weeks at least, but maybe longer. I guess it depends on Abstergo’s activity and what we find."

Shaun nodded. "I guess. Any new leads worth mentioning?"

"I don't know, there is something strange that I picked up on. But it's very different from all the first civilisation things we've found so far, so it might be unrelated. Maybe just a bug in the programming of the animus. Of course, fixing that would be a good thing, but that wouldn't be a lead. You?"

"Oh you mean did I find any leads twiddling my thumbs and flipping through old notes and the few things I was able to bring? No, not really. But I did work on editing a few minor database entries. Nothing big though. I really need access to our archive."

"Yeah, yeah my program will be done in 15 to 20 minutes tops and then I can print the results and you can use the computer. Stop whining."

"Whining, Rebecca? I never whine."

As a response, she just shoved him and nearly made him spill his pasta.

"Careful, I want to savour every bite of this tasteless sludge with vaguely noodle-like bits in it."

After they finished eating, Shaun, of course, ended up doing the dishes so Rebecca could finish up her work. But after, she did let him use the computer and started pouring over her printouts with a pen and a notepad.

Shaun plugged in his headphones and went through some of the recordings they took during the Animus sessions.

"It is truly fascinating to witness history like this. I wish my ancestors had led more exciting lives. But at least I get to meet some amazing historical figures this way. Too bad I'm not allowed to publish any of this. It would change so much. But the only people benefitting from my work are the Assassins and Abstergo when they once again somehow manage to get our data."

"Yeah, but we get their data even more often than they get ours. So who cares. As for publishing your work, I have helped design and update a machine that lets you relive memories from people that lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and I'm not allowed to tell anyone. Do you know how much that sucks? How much I wanna rub some assholes from college faces in it sometimes? But no, instead I eat canned pasta and baked beans in a tiny freezing cabin when I should be winning a Nobel prize or any number of prizes and grants for my work."

Shaun looked up at her. "I'm sorry. You are right. We both deserve more recognition and money. But we're saving the world, right?"

Rebecca sighed. "Right. Let's not forget that. But a thank you would be nice from time to time wouldn't it?"

"100 percent it would. But hey at least our lives aren't boring."

"No, but this cabin is."

Shaun chuckled at that and Rebecca joined him. After that, they worked in silence until it got too dark for them to work with the little light they dared to use. Both for stealth and power saving reasons.

Rebecca yawned. "Time for bed. Mind if I use the bathroom first?"

Shaun shook his head. Bathroom was a very generous term anyway, it was just an outhouse with no running water and almost no light. But at least it was better than a bucket in the corner, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t had to make do with that on other missions as well.

He used the time Rebecca was outside to wash himself as well as he could in the tiny sink. No pyjamas, in case they had to flee in the middle of the night and he couldn’t exactly take his shoes off before he went outside.

Once Rebecca returned it was his turn in the ‘bathroom’ and her turn at the sink.

She was already in her sleeping bag when he came back inside and he climbed into his one next to her. They slept pretty close together because it could get pretty cold at night.

“Night, Beccs.“

“Night, Shaun.“

[toothpastecanyon]

We Walk Like Humans Do, Chapter 2

The Transcendence has been, on the whole, a good thing for magical creatures... for the ones that walked on two legs and fit in doorways, at least. Lacie has other problems to overcome before she can live in the big city.

Thanks to @feferipeixes for help editing this chapter! Go check out their awesome stuff!

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

________________________________________________________________

               Oh, my stars. Alcor hasn’t laughed this hard in lifetimes.

Chapter 2 of Wizard Animago’s Not-So-Secret Spellbook - Everything You Already Knew About Transfiguration and Literally Nothing Else

Hi, I’m 18Lacie5 and I wrote another chapter for you humans. Everyone was really confused on my last post and seemed to think it was a joke, so I’ll start out by answering the five most common questions you had.

1 - Yes, I am a basilisk.

2 - No, I am not the basilisk from Harry Potter.

3 - No, I do not live in the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter.

4 - No, I am not the horcrux snake from Harry Potter.

5 - No, I am not in any way related to Harry Potter.

Are we all on the same page now? Good, because holy shit some of you really missed the point here. I got a visit from one of you with a replica of Gryffindor’s sword, and that was so annoying I didn’t even feel bad killing him - like dude, all that tells me is I KNOW you read my post about not coming down here, and then decided to come down here anyway ‘cause fuck me, right?

(The sword wasn’t even that good. It was made of cheap plastic, snapped like a spine.)

Anyway, despite all this the last post was fun to write, so I’m doing it again. Also it seems like the number of visits from treasure hunters has gone down since I posted, though it’s hard to tell. There’s not really a consistent number from year to year, and the day I start keeping a deathcount is the day I give up on life and buy a mirror to see if I can kill myself with my own reflection.

For science, you know?

               Alcor’s read the entire blog by now and it’s just perfect. The snark, the sarcasm, the casual disregard towards human lives that could only have been written by an ancient and powerful being - it’s hilarious!   And the spell entries… man, he could listen to Lacie tear apart someone’s Latin any day of the decade. If only she could come to some of his summons; she’d have so much material to work with there.

               With a chuckle, Alcor looks up and glances around the darkness of the Mindscape. He needs to show this to someone. But who? Mizar? She’s only a year into the current reincarnation… hmm, she might be a little too young to understand it. Lucy Ann’s somewhere around; he probes for her, and finds her - dammit - during naptime at some kindergarten in Portland.

               Anyone else?

               …

               No one else.

               There’s absolutely no one else in his life right now. That’s… that’s a fun reminder.

               He sighs, and sits back on the fabric of reality. Maybe some cultists’ll summon him; he could read them a blog post, see if they laugh. That’d be fun, right?

               Al narrows his eyes at the great nothingness before him. It’d be something, at least.

               ...You know, he can feel a little tug now.

               A weak one, just one summoner, and no circle. That confuses him at first - even the real amateurs usually manage to scribble out some sort of rounded shape - and when he looks closer, he sees it’s holding one of his summoning cards, holding it in its… hand?

               No, not quite a hand, and Alcor jolts right up as he realises shit that’s Lacie trying to call him, shit he didn’t think she’d call him back so soon! How long did he keep her waiting? It’s been a couple hours - shit!

               Alcor tessers over to her in an instant, his mouth already open and spilling apologies: “Oh my stars Lacie, I am so sorry for the delay! I got distracted and I didn’t think you’d call back so soon so I wasn’t watching as closely as I-”

               A deep, rumbling growl cuts him off. It’s a deafening sound, coming from a creature lounging on a pile of bones and gold with teeth the size of Alcor’s entire body; he can’t help but cringe at that. He takes a deep breath, remind himself that he’s an all-powerful demon who definitely doesn’t need to be scared of some mere mortal… even if she is pretty scary for a mortal.

               You know, relatively speaking. He isn’t scared, he just thinks she’s scarier than, like, a human.  Like a human from that pile of human skeletons she’s smashed into the wall. Yeah, that’s not scary at all. That wouldn’t kill him… looks like it would hurt, though.

               He double checked he isn’t standing near that spellbook she’s bound to, right?

               Just as he’s thinking this, Lacie lets out another even louder growl, and he jumps back with an undignified yelp.

               “Hey, whoa, Lacie!” Alcor watches her head shift to the side. “Lacie? Hello?”

               She doesn’t reply, and he looks to her face for an answer. He sees one of her eyes now: it’s closed?

               Closed.

               The realisation washes over him as she lets out another slow, rumbling snore.

               “Oh. You’re… you’re just sleeping, aren’t you. Duh.” He straightens, and casts a glance around the room as he fixes his tie and straightens his hat. “Glad no one noticed that… Lacie?”

               She doesn’t stir, and Alcor makes a face. He’s never turned up to a summons  and had the summoner fall asleep; would she want him to wake her up? Her dreams feel pretty peaceful to him, and even though that thing - is that a giant laptop? - she’s using as a pillow doesn’t look particularly comfy, it doesn’t seem to bother her in the slightest.

               Yeah, it looks like he should just let her call him back… but there is something. Embedded in her sluggish thoughts, he can feel a sort of drive, a sort of desperation, and that makes him hesitate. He looks for her tail, and spots it still wrapped around his summoning card, still squeezing it in a death grip.

               Alcor frowns. He watches her snore one more time, then makes up his mind. With a deep breath, he reaches out and prods at her thoughts; they immediately begin to stir. He prods again, and Lacie lets out a grunt. Her eyelid cracks open, and she drags a sleepy glare across the room.

               Her gaze meets his, and he feels pain, pain in his soul, his soul feels like it’s being pushed out through his ears ow ow OW- and he recoils, unable to bear it for a second longer.

               Wow, he thinks, that really is potent. What on earth makes it so powerful?

               Before he can wonder about that, there’s a noise. Gold coins clink against each other as Lacie jerks up, blinking hard, panic flashing in her aura. Alcor holds up his hands.

               “Hey, hey, it’s just me!” He looks down as she fixes her eyes on him. “Sorry if you, uh, didn’t want to be woken up, I just thought… you know, you called me, and… what are you doing?”

               She’s cast the summoning card aside and is now wiggling the touchpad on her laptop. He cocks his head.

               “Whoa, I’ve never seen a laptop that big. Where on Earth did you buy that?”

               Lacie doesn’t acknowledge his question. She starts typing something, and he floats closer to see her login screen.

               “18Lacie5. Heh, I like your username.” He watches her click on the password box and slowly, painstakingly jab each key with her tail. “E… Y… E… What? Why are you looking at me like- oh. Oh, I’m so sorry!”

               There’s a faint snort from Lacie as he turns away. His cheeks redden.

               “Sorry, I forget hu- uh, mortals? Mortals tend to like their privacy on stuff… it’s kind of useless since Al-V can hack into pretty much any computer on earth - um, the Alcor Virus, that’s Alvie.” He hears the typing stop, and suddenly wishes he’d chosen literally any other topic in the world. “Um, not that I would make him hack into your computer! I’m just saying he could, and he probably has already… um, I just made him to get rid of Twin Souls though, you’re fine! O-or you should be fine - you don’t, by any chance, happen to like Twin Souls, do you? It’s, um, this book - well it’s a movie now but it was a book - and Mizar - who is my sister by the way - well, that’s why I hate it, because it has my sister and I, umm…ugh, sorry, it’s gross, my sister and I, we’re- huh?”

               A low hiss makes him look back, and he sees Lacie - ow - staring right at him. She gestures to the screen, which has a word document open on it with big, bold letters.

               “Oh, you want me to read that?” He floats closer, and frowns as he reads the first line:

               Im pretending 2 type rite now 2 see how long u wil ramble 4 wtf youre still going and now twin souls no nono why r u explaning i actually cant take the awkwardnes i got 2 stop u

               Alcor blinks, then shoots her a dirty look. The noise coming out of her now sounds an awful lot like snickering.

               “Wha- I was just-! I just wanted to clarify the hacking thing I said, I-!” The snickering gets louder, and he rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I guess I’m a little rusty at small talk, very funny. I’d like to see how awkward you’d be if the only practice you could get is on a bunch of cultists in basements. They’re not exactly social butterflies either, you know!”

               Lacie just keeps laughing, and Alcor… well, he puts on a show of crossing his arms and heaving a long-suffering sigh, but he’s fighting a smile.

               It’s strangely nice, being here. Lacie’s strangely nice to be around; she already feels - and he has to remind himself he’s only met her twice - almost like a friend? Maybe he just has a low bar these days, but he hears her laughter, and… it’s just very, very nice. Nice in a way that’s hard to describe.

               Nice in a way he hasn’t felt for a while.

               The feeling lingers even after Lacie’s chuckling dies off, and he’s still smiling as he watches her reach for the laptop again. She jabs the down arrow a couple times, and some more, better punctuated text comes into view.

               I have revised the terms of our deal, it starts, and Alcor clears his throat, squares his shoulders, tries to get himself back into business mode. He reads on: and I would like to exchange the human bones that are currently in my room for a human disguise I am capable of putting on and taking off at will.

               He raises an eyebrow as he reaches the end. This is not the deal he was expecting to make. A human disguise… he can tell she’s no demonologist, that’s for sure; there’s so many interpretations of that, so many wonderful ways to tw͏is͡t her̡ ̵w̢or̵d̸s ͏a͟g̢ai͘n̸st͠ ̢h͝er-

               No. He shakes his head to clear it of his worst instincts, but they won’t leave, not in the presence of such an enticing deal. Suddenly, he’s glad he doesn’t have to look her in the eyes right now; he trains them on the ground instead, and starts to speak.

               “So, um… when you’re saying a ‘human disguise’, what do you mean by that?” He can’t see her face, but he can see a bolt of frustration flash across her aura. “Huh? What’s- oh right, can’t talk, uh… well, do you want me to make an actual, convincing disguise? You know, instead of, like, a wig and some sunglasses?”

               Lacie nods vigourously. He watches her tap the caps key and add ‘CONVINCING’ before the human disguise bit. A part of him screams at all the opportunities he’s giving up - willingly! - but he forces a smile and nods.

               “Cool, I can do that. I’ve made a few humans before- human bodies, that is, not… um.” Alcor coughs. “Anyway, I can give you a convincing human form for those bones of yours. How does that sound?”

               She taps the screen.

               “What…? Oh, yes, I’ll make it so you can switch back and forth at will. Good catch. Now, do we have a d̕e͇̪͍̜̻̪͘a̙̻̬̦͔ͅl̲̝͓͔?”

               He doesn’t extend a hand to shake, but blue sparks spurt from his fingertips as he watches Lacie mull it over. Her aura fizzles with nervous energy, but it only takes a couple seconds for her to tamp it down and give him a firm nod. The rush of a newly made deal makes his grin go wide; he tries not to let it go too wide as he claps his hands together.

               “Alrighty, then,” he says, rubbing them until those sparks turn into a full-blown fire. “One meatsuit coming right up!”

               He extends a hand to the pile of bones in the corner of the room, and with a flick of the wrist he rips the energy from them all  and absorbs it. The sacrifice warms him like a good meal, and he turns back to Lacie, ready to put that newly-gained power to use.

               He steps back and sizes her up with his hands, a gesture that makes her aura simmer with uncertainty. She makes a low, nervous sound, and he waves her away.

               “It’s alright, I just… need to remember how big a human is, how much I need to squish you down... Got it!!” Alcor readies his fingers to snap. “Okay, I’ve only done this on myself before, so there might be some kinks I haven’t thought of! Don’t worry, though, I’ll probably be able to fix them!”

               Before Lacie could respond, he snaps his fingers, and his magic rushes around her like a cloud. Skin forms over scales, hair grows over horns, and the figure that remains when it disperses is unmistakably human.

               It’s also falling to the ground from the height of Lacie’s head, and oh shit catch her catch her catch her - he freezes her momentum a couple inches from the ground then lets her plop, safely but definitely not gracefully, into a puddle.

               “Oh, my stars! Are you okay?” Heart pounding in his chest, he dashes over. “I am so sorry about that fall, how are you- ow, okay , I’m gonna need to get you some sunglasses or something - how are you feeling? Here, let me help you up!”

               He extends a hand, and Lacie… just stares at it.

               Just stares at him, not moving, and he can feel panic flaring up in her aura as she can’t move, oh stars she’s so tiny right now and she can’t move oh fuck-

               Alcor blinks. “Oh, right. Um, don’t panic-”

               Don’t panic??? DON’T PANIC??? FUCK THIS SHE’S LIKE FIVE INCHES TALL RIGHT NOW AND SHE CAN’T FUCKING MOVE OH MY STARS WHY DID SHE DO THIS TO HERSELF THIS IS THE STUPIDEST FUCKING IDEA SHE’S EVER HAD IN HER LIFE-

               “Lacie? Take a deep breath… Lacie? Lacie!” He cringes when Lacie’s eyes fix on him again. “Okay, um, I can see this is… a little stressful for you?”

               She nods vigourously.

               “Alright, um… don’t worry, I made it easy for you to change back! You just, y’know, gotta think of yourself being a basilisk again - or is it pronounced ‘battle-isk’? ‘Bas-til-isk’? Heh, that’s a weird word, I’ve only ever seen it written down-”

               Lacie ditches her human disguise as fast as she could, shooting back out to her original form and cutting Alcor off mid-tangent. He jumps back, watching relief flood through her aura as she could move again, thank the stars she could actually move and everything’s normal sized again… fuck, everything’s normal sized again. She wasted her deal!

               The relief’s spiking up into another panic, and Alcor clears his throat. “Alright, so that deal didn’t go to plan. No worries! I can’t exactly do refunds, but you’ve still got plenty of good stuff to sacrifice in here! Doesn’t bother me if this takes a few tries, heh.”

               But that doesn’t calm Lacie in the slightest, because now she has to think of another deal, her mind’s blank, she’s got nothing! But she’ll fall asleep if she makes Alcor leave again… maybe she will have to go for that deal.

               It’s hard to read her thoughts when they go quiet, but Alcor definitely picks up something about that deal as they’re retreating into a murky bubble of disappointment. He sees how she hangs her head at the idea, then lugs her laptop over to her, begins to peck away at the keys.

               He sees that, and frowns. “Hey, uh,” he starts, and right away her eyes dart over to him. “If you don’t want to make a new deal, I’m sure we could make this one work?”

               Lacie cocks her head.

               “I mean, I’ve been… I know a thing or two about being in a human body. It’s been a while, but maybe I could… y’know, show you the ropes?”

               She doesn’t say a word. The silence stretches, and Alcor laughs nervously.

               “I-if you want. I mean, it’s been a while, but maybe I could show you enough to get around? I did technically promise your disguise would be ‘convincing’, so a couple human lessons should be easy enough to fit in, without… without another deal... um, I don’t know if you like this idea or you want me to stop talking? If you do that’s fine, I can do another deal, just give me a-”

               There’s a sort of fwoomp sound, and the coils and coils of Lacie’s body seem to twist out of existence. At the same time, a human takes shape where her head was, and falls right into Alcor’s arms before he has time to blink.

               “-a sign?” He finishes, and stares down at her. She stares right back, and he’d admire the steely resolve, the carefully-controlled fear in her gaze a whole lot longer if it didn’t make his soul want to push itself out through his ears.

               “Oh, Okay. Wow, you’re, um… diving right in, huh?”

               Lacie gives her closest approximation to a human smile, and Alcor’s caught off guard by how quickly he finds himself grinning back. An actual, genuine grin stretches across his face for the first time in too long, and he chuckles.

               “Alright, Lacie, I like your gumption!” He summons a pair of sunglasses, and sticks them over her eyes. “Let’s get humaning!”

________________________________________________________________

               Humaning. Lacie had taught herself many human things over the years; she’d taught herself to read, to type, to write - heck, she’d even managed to summon a demon (and in proper human tradition, had made a poorly thought-out deal with it.) She was no novice in learning how to human.

               Maybe that’s why she thought the whole human form was a good idea. She was great at humaning! She’d taught herself so many of their skills, educated herself on so many of their customs, she was able to pass as one of them online… sometimes, it really didn’t feel like she was all that different from them.

               After all, if she could read like a human and write like a human and think like a human, how hard could it be to walk around like one, too?

               …

               As it turns out, hard.

               Very, very hard.

               Duh.

               Everything, everything is different in a human body. Sure, she thought having arms and legs would take some getting used to, but how about all this hair? How about her cramped little mouth and her stubby tongue? How about her skin? Her skin is stupidly sensitive without scales; when she was lying on the stone, she could feel every little bump in it, could feel water soaking her, making her shiver - and shivering, ugh! What an awful sensation! Even though Alcor’s got her propped her up in a chair now, her skin won’t stop whining to her that, gasp, the fabric’s a little itchy!

               Whoop de fucking do, skin. Hopefully she grows a thicker one soon enough, because this is driving her crazy.  She’s laughing at the Lacie of a couple hours ago who thought she’d just be able to stand up and walk out of the sewers, and oh, speaking of walking ?

               Hah! Try moving them at all!

               Lacie’s been without these strange appendages all her life, and moving them would be like a human trying to nod with a second head they’ve just sprouted - sometimes she’ll get lucky and hit upon whatever bundle of nerves is controlling each of these limbs, and after two hours of Alcor’s patient coaching she can make them twitch on a somewhat consistent basis, but she’s not getting anywhere fast with them any time soon.

               She can only lie here, with her blunt teeth, with her papery skin, with her useless limbs…

               Helpless.

               Absolutely helpless.

               Alcor looms over her whenever he stands up… and that scares her more than she thought it would. Everything looms over her in this form; the - she called it little - pile of treasure she sleeps on now seems like a great mountain, the ceiling she often bangs her head on is higher still, impossibly high. She sees her spellbook resting on its lecturn, and it’s about the same size as her now; she remembers how tiny it once seemed, and- OH FUCK WHAT’S GOING- oh, she’s shivering again.

               Lacie frowns at that, and she lets out a noise that’s weirdly squeaky in this throat, and Alcor taps her shoulder.

               (And she feels that, holy shit skin it’s literally just a hand)

               “...need to take a break?” He’s asking. Frowning. “Lacie?”

               She nods, quickly, and he takes the sunglasses off her face before scooting back. Closing her eyes, she thinks of being a basilisk again, and all these alien sensations fall away with a flood of relief. Lacie is herself again; she takes a long moment to savour it, to lounge across her sleeping pile, to listen to her scales scratch against the stone floor, to open an eye and see Alcor as a tiny figure in her field of vision.

               “That looks comfy.” He says. He’s grinning, but she can barely make that out. “Darn, I should’ve moved the chair, too.”

               The chair? She lifts her body, and finds the chair she’d been sitting on, crushed beneath the weight of her coils. With a little chuckle, she sweeps it out from under her, marvelling at how tiny it is - how tiny she was.

               Alcor laughs, too. “Sheesh, you flattened it. I think it’ll be easier to make a new chair.”

               Laying her head on the ground, she lets out a lazy snort.

               “…um, when you’re ready, I mean.” He adds. “Or we can stop, if you’re tired? I can-”

               She heaves herself up. Ugh, she is tired - it creeps up on her. She can’t sleep though, not when she’s so close, so fucking close to getting out of here.

               “Oh, okay… are you sure? We’ve been at this a while, I really don’t mind taking a break…”

               Lacie tugs at that mental link in the back of her mind, and feels herself switch back into human form again. Unlike switching the other way, this form greets her not with a flood of relief, but with a host of silly little complaints: her back hurts, the stone’s not comfy on her face, it’s cold, she’s wet, on and on and on and she just wants it all to shut up… but, she will admit, there is one thing she likes.

               Alcor hoists her up on one of those tiny little chairs she’d been laughing at just a second ago, and she stares at him, and she feels awake.

               Completely awake.

               She can’t remember the last time her head’s felt this clear, and it’s a pity she has to spend half her human time fidgeting in a seat because otherwise it’d be amazing. Is this really how bad the energy situation had gotten down here? Wow, she really needed to get out of here, and fast.

               “Hey, Lacie?” Alcor’s saying something, and she looks over at him. “So I know you said - or, uh, indicated, anyway - that you didn’t want a break…”

               He pauses expectantly, and then, seeming to realise she isn’t going to follow it up with a ‘Yes?’ clears his throat.

               “Right. Well, I kind of would. Like a break. If that’s okay with you.”

               Lacie blinks.

               “You know, we’ve been doing this for a while, and I’m thinking maybe we could do something else? You know, it could be something fun! It could be something like, um, like… oh, do you play Scrabble?”

               She shakes her head.

               “No? Oh, I guess that was a longshot… how bout chess? I know there’s like, online chess… no?” He frowns at her continued head-shaking. “Alright, well… What do you do for fun down here?”

               Lacie thinks on that for a moment, then turns her head towards the laptop.

               “Oh, your laptop? Nice, nice.” He grins at her. “I love your blog.”

               Wait, her blog? He’s read that? He likes that? The surprise must be showing on her face, because Alcor starts laughing.

               “Yeah, it’s hilarious! I was actually so caught up reading it, I didn’t realise you were summoning me! I love just how sarcastic it is! It’s amazing!”

               Lacie blinks. Is he… gushing? Is Alcor the Dreambender gushing about her blog?

               Is this her life?

               “Man,” he rambles on. “that joke about a killcount, that was great. I just don’t get why it’s not more popular!  Humans, they just don’t have any taste… they’re, heh, they’re too busy reading Harry Potter, amirite?”

               He nudges her like he’s made some kind of clever reference, and she snorts at him. Okay, wow, demon or not, this guy really is an absolute plonker. She loves it.

               “Haha, yeah! They’ve been, uh, playing Quidditch too much to read your stuff! Yeah! Or they’ve been, um… making swords? Making- I should stop now, shouldn’t I.”

               With a big dumb grin on her face, she nods.

               “Yep, that was getting out of hand.” Alcor rubs his neck. “I just wanted to say I really liked it a lot. It was funny.”

               Lacie’s grin got even bigger.

               “So, uh, you really have been down here all your life, huh? Dealing with treasure hunters-” He chuckles when she rolls her eyes. “Hah, I can imagine that’s not fun! Yeah... so, uh, have you ever been outside?”

               She shakes her head. Maybe before she was old enough to remember, but that was a long, long time ago. Alcor makes a face at that.

               “Yeah, yeesh. No wonder you want to get out of here, no wonder…”

               He trails off, and Lacie watches his eyes go distant for a second before a thought seems to strike him; he blinks, frowns, then, slowly, he starts to grin. He turns to her again, and she raises an eyebrow at the shine in his eyes.

               “Hey, Lacie,” He says. “Want me to take you on a little tour?”

[detectiveharmony]

How I Planned My Wedding

  Hi guys! I realize this isn't normally the sort of thing I write. Usually, I write book advice that has to deal with writing, editing, publishing novels, and everything in between! But as I have recently been married, I thought I would release the secrets of dark magic I conjured in order to plan my wedding.

1. Set a Budget

   The first thing is first. Set a budget. If you ask yourself if this is really necessary, yes, it is. It is 1000% necessary. While you are setting a budget, I would also get a binder to make your wedding binder. Whether you want to or not, you are going to be purchasing a lot of things for your wedding, and it's best to keep all receipts together in case you need to return some things.

   Now, as far as setting a budget goes, I just downloaded a free spreadsheet online and printed it out. If you don't want to print one out, there are a lot of websites that have online budgeting and spreadsheets. Weddingwire.com and the Knot App were especially helpful for me because they had super helpful checklists plus budgeting, registry trackers, and online RSVP. I kept budgets on everything I made. My printed budget looked something like this:

   I didn't use all of the spaces, but it at least kept me on track. The goal is to set the absolute most you are willing (and have the ability to) spend on any certain thing. This was sort of a game for me. I'd set the amount, and see for how much cheaper I could get it, with quality, in reason. Mine and Josh's total wedding budget was around 11K. I think we actually ended up spending around 7K. A lot of our services were gifts from friends, and for that I'll be forever grateful. Which brings me to my next point:

2. Find Talented Friends Who Are Willing to Help

   I would first and foremost like to say that just because you have a photographer friend does not mean you should go up to said photographer friend and blatantly ask them to take pictures of your wedding for free. It's cheap and demeaning to them, especially if that is their only source of income, or if they work a job with low income. Even if they have plenty of money, they are not going to be willing to take 6-10 hours out of their day plus weeks in editing to take pictures of your wedding with no compensation. The same principle applies to other services. What I am meaning is to search out friends who render services, and ask them for quotes. In my experience, 9/10 times they cut us a deal or even offered the service for free as a wedding gift. If you are part of a church family, I would definitely recommend looking there first. In the spirit of the Lord, most people are more than happy to help you for free without you even asking. My church family is where my cake, sound, and officiant services came from, and they were all more than perfect. It's also worth noting that I tipped my friends anyway, even though they didn't ask to be paid, because I really appreciated their services (even though some of them returned the tips and refused any type of payment).

   The talented friend also applies to friends who have also been married before, who are good with money, or good with budgeting if you don't know where to start or how to begin.

3. Set a Guest List

   When you are setting your guest list, it's important to remember that you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) invite everyone you have known since kindergarten or on your Facebook. The more people you have at your wedding, the more expensive it's going to be. In our case, if our guest list exceeded 100 people, our security cost would double, so I tried to keep it at a minimum, only inviting close friends and family. A lot of people didn't understand this, and you'll probably make a lot of people mad in doing so, but it was important for me to cut costs wherever possible. At the time I was financing an 11k wedding by myself on a 20k salary. Long lost cousin Susie wasn't a priority on my guest list. People I hadn't seen or spoken to in years weren't a priority. I gave my husband a pen and paper and told him to invite whoever he wanted, but he also understood that we were trying to save money. Every penny saved helped, and honestly, the day went by so quickly I don't even remember a lot of the people who were there. If people truly care about you, they'll understand that married life is hard and will be eager to help you in any way they can, even if that help is not coming to the wedding. Most of my friends and family were understanding when I explained to them that we didn’t have the money to invite everyone we wanted. And at the end of the day, it's your wedding, nobody else's.

4. Do as Much as You Can Ahead of Time

   If you want to be so stressed out that you are incapacitated, then wait until the last second to book all of your services. I recommend, if you can, to book at least a year ahead of schedule. I didn't, and around four months before my wedding I was wondering how everything was going to get paid for.

  You will end up financing a lot of things, especially the more expensive things. Unless you have boat loads of cash just laying around, of course, and a lot of places will turn you down if you don't have an adequate time frame to finance. The most important of these are the wedding ring, your catering service, the venue, the cake, and your wedding dress. A lot of DJ and music services will also require you to book ahead of time. We did, but I ended up stressing anyway because our DJ canceled on us 2 weeks before the wedding.

  The process of looking for these people is pretty straightforward. I just googled the service I needed and made inquiries until I found someone within my budget. The venue will be slightly different though, as you'll want to tour venues and see which best suits your needs. It's also worth mentioning that before you choose a theme for your wedding, look at venues first. I originally planned for us to have a vintage wedding, but then we got married in a barn in Texas, so it ended up being a country fall wedding.

   The very minimum amount of time you want to have for your dress is six months, unless you are having a friend or family member make your dress. Besides it taking a long time to pick a dress out (for some of us, anyway), bridal boutiques need time to clean and do alterations on your dress. I went with David's Bridal, but I personally wouldn't recommend them. The first time I picked up my dress from cleaning, I was deathly ill, I had to wait for 3 hours after they said it would be done, and when I picked it up and drove almost two hours home, I noticed the next day that my dress had oil stains all down the front of it from the sewing machines. They eventually fixed it, and my dress turned out to be gorgeous, but I would rather not have had that stress, especially when I was running fever and lost my voice. Not to mention the arm and leg I paid for my dress. I know a few who have had similar experiences, but I also know some who have had great experiences with David's Bridal. Either way, it's up to you.

  Weddingwire.com had some great timelines to follow for booking all of your services. If you are past the month mark for booking your services, don't worry about it. I did the bulk of my planning in the last 6 months of my wedding (not recommended).

5. Wedding Shower and Wedding Registries

   I forget how early I made my registries. I think maybe 5 or 6 months in advance. Even if you are already living together and have house stuff, making wedding registries is a good idea because you can update all your stuff, or get new stuff that you've wanted for a while. People are going to buy you gifts regardless, so you may as well have lists people can shop from to avoid ending up with a bunch of duplicate gifts or useless stuff that will just sit in the garage or in the corner of the junk drawer in your kitchen for years to come.

  I registered with a variety of places. Amazon, Target, and Walmart were my top choices. I would especially recommend getting an Amazon registry because a lot of people are last seconders, and prime 1 or 2 day shipping will still give them a way to buy your gift even if it is the last second. Amazon was my most highly trafficked registry. Walmart was second, but a lot of people don't like shopping Walmart online because it can take up to two weeks for items to ship, and even if you go in store, most stores carry different products. Just because they have it online doesn't mean every Walmart (or any Walmart near you) carries it. When making your registries, don't be afraid to put anything and everything you could possibly want or need on there. I wish I had put more stuff on mine because nearly everything got purchased. I amended my registries right before the wedding, but very few gifts were purchased at that time.

   Your wedding shower is typically two months before the wedding, around the same time you send out the official invitations. A lot of people I knew didn't know what a wedding shower was, so here you go: A wedding shower is an event where people bring gifts to the new couple to usher them into their new life together, helping them settle in. No matter what you do, weddings will end up being expensive, and if you buy couples gifts, even small ones, it helps them out a great deal in the long run by helping them save money on house things they won't have to otherwise purchase.

6. Wedding Day Preparation

   Assemble a wedding day crew. Find people who are going to help you set up decorations, organize, direct, and put everything away once the event is over. It's easiest if you assign small duties to everyone who is helping you. I made lists of all my bridesmaids names, plus my grandparents, brother, parents, and aunt, who also came to help me set up. Under each name I wrote what I wanted them to do. It can be simple things like, “Decorate tables,”, “Set up head table,”, “Be in charge of handing out cake after the cake cutting,” or, “Decorate main stage.” Whatever small thing will make it easier for you, designate it to someone you can trust. My family was wonderful and helped me out more than I could ever thank them for.

   I also had a table chart everyone could reference, so when we were moving tables and chairs around, everyone had a picture of what I wanted everything to look like so they knew what I wanted without asking me. It's also important to set a wedding day timeline. Even before the ceremony starts, you want to have given time frames for any activities, including decorating, salon trips for hair and makeup, a love note exchange, or whatever else you want to do before the ceremony and during it. Unless, of course, your venue let's you decorate the night before, which ours didn’t.

7. Last Bits of Advice

   Your wedding day is going to happen one way or the other. Some things are just going to go wrong, and you have to let it happen and not worry about it. You're going to be married at the end of the day anyway.

   Do as much reading as you can on planning a wedding. Every little tip I read helped, and in the end, I think my wedding was perfect. The only thing I would have changed was shortening the ceremony a bit so we would have had more time for family pictures. The wedding itself ended earlier than I thought, but I wasn't going to complain. I was exhausted, and thankful to get to go to bed early.

   As my last piece of advice, turn your phone off on your wedding day and give everyone someone else's phone number to text or call for important questions. I designated my maid of honor for this task, but you could also use your mother or anyone else for this. Turn your phone off on your honeymoon too, or if you can't turn it off, don't answer text messages. And if you are that person who calls or texts on wedding day or honeymoon, unless it's of dire consequence, don't be that person.

Happy wedding planning!

[chasingthecosmos]

Three Hearts to Own

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: G Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Chapters: 1/10 Read on AO3 here.

A (sort of) season re-write centering around the Doctor's touch telepathy and the many ways that it makes his life difficult while he attempts to move on from the loss of Rose Tyler. This work is based around Seasons 3 & 4 and the Tenth Doctor. It's the final entry in the "A Hand to Hold" series, but it can also be read as a stand-alone. The first four or five chapters will just be short excerpts from the Doctor's time away from Rose, but there will be a Journey's End fix-it and a happily ever after at the end. Tags will be updated as I go. Chapters will vary in length.

Chapter One: Martha (Part One)

---------- The Runaway Bride ----------

Life without Rose was surprisingly simple - or perhaps simple wasn't the right word. Maybe numb non-acceptance would be a more apt description.

The Doctor had exactly thirty-six seconds to wallow in silent self-pity before a new glorious, much-needed distraction came in the form of a feisty red-headed human dressed in a long, white wedding dress. She introduced herself as Donna, and even though she asked far too many questions about the Doctor's recent, crushing loss, he was surprised to find that he quite enjoyed her company. Even when she was yelling at him and calling him rude names, it was better than the overwhelming silence that had reigned inside of the Doctor's head for those first agonizing thirty-six seconds.

Having a new partner at his side who looked and acted nothing at all like Rose was a strange new shift, but one that he welcomed nonetheless. The Doctor didn't think he could go back to being alone the way that he had been before Rose - that road was madness. But if he was going to start chaperoning companions again, then he knew that he needed a change - someone who wouldn't constantly be reminding him of the woman who he had loved and lost.

He found that he was being more cautious than ever as he carefully put up every mental shield that he could possibly think of before he took Donna's hand in his and slipped the bio-damper onto her finger in an attempt to keep her safe. He had never before wished so desperately that his species wasn't so telepathically enabled. The Doctor refused to risk even the slightest bit of connection with another sentient being right now - not when his own mind and hearts were still so shattered and aching.

He felt an overwhelming amount of sympathy for the brash, over-confident Donna when she suddenly discovered that her picturesque, idyllic wedding was nothing more than a ruse - an attempt to use her for the nefarious purpose of yet another alien invasion. The Doctor knew that he should have felt more remorse for drowning the Empress of the Racnoss and her children and putting an end to an entire species - however sinister they might have been - but as he stood over the empty ravine left behind by the river Thames, he couldn't quite seem to make himself feel anything more than that same grim, numb purpose that was quickly solidifying around his hearts and erasing all of that gray moral space that he had been operating in for centuries.

He took Donna back home afterwards, but he couldn't force himself to leave without asking first - without at least extending the offer for her to run away from her life and to help keep him distracted for just a little bit longer. She refused, just as she should have, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt twice as much when the Doctor returned back to his empty TARDIS alone.

She offered him Christmas dinner before he left, but the Doctor knew immediately that such a request was completely outside of the question. There were simply too many memories - too many reminders of pink cracker crowns and holding hands in the snow and Christmas dinner with the family that he would never be able to visit again.

So instead, he did the one thing that Donna refused to do - he ran, and he didn't once look back.

center---------- Smith and Jones ----------

After that, the Doctor's life quickly unraveled into a meaningless, colorless blur. He smiled because it was easier than crying. He made jokes with the individuals who he crossed paths with because it was kinder than yelling at them. He saved innocent people from evil because it was the right thing to do - but all the while he felt nothing but a numb, burning ache in all of the places that he knew that Rose should be occupying.

Thankfully, a new distraction came to him in the form of a young woman named Martha Jones. The Doctor liked her almost immediately - she was kind and clever and kept up with him as easily as though she had been doing it all her life. The two of them fell quickly into an easy rhythm with one another - a fact that both concerned and excited the Doctor.

Martha made him believe that maybe finding a replacement for Rose wouldn't be such a hopeless endeavor after all. She made him think that maybe he didn't have to be alone anymore. She gave him hope that maybe he could finally move on and leave his dreams of pink and yellow behind ...

He could feel Martha's interest in him when he went against his better judgement and kissed her in order to get the genetic transfer that he needed in order to save the innocent lives of all of the people that the judoon had transported to the moon. Even with all of his mental barriers up in an attempt to shield his telepathic abilities as much as possible, her sharp spike of attraction and desire hummed against the sensitive skin of the Doctor's lips and quickly reminded him that there were other options - he didn't have to be heartbroken and alone forever if he didn't want to. There were plenty of other women out there in the universe who were no doubt just as clever and brilliant and beautiful as his Rose.

However, the Doctor didn't want any of those other women - he only wanted the one, and she was trapped away in a universe that he couldn't ever reach.

The Doctor still went back for Martha, though. Even after the world was safe again and she had returned back to her family and her normal life, the Doctor still couldn't leave well enough alone - instead deciding to show off with cheap tricks and slight-of-hand in order to entice her into his old time ship. Unlike with Donna, it was an offer that Martha couldn't refuse, and he knew without her having to tell him that she was coming along.

"Where is everyone?" she asked suspiciously as she finally stepped aboard the TARDIS and glanced around at the expansive console room with wide, shocked eyes.

"Just me," the Doctor stated plainly, already setting their destination for some place that he thought she might enjoy. He didn't give her a choice for her first trip like he had with Rose. He couldn't risk Martha choosing some place that held too many painful memories.

"All on your own?" she insisted curiously.

"Well, sometimes I have ... guests - I mean, some friends, traveling alongside me," he explained haltingly, hating the way that his mouth still seemed to have a tendency to run away without his conscious permission. "I had ... It was recently ... a friend of mine. Rose, her name was - Rose. And ... we were together ..." Her name on his lips after so long without her was like a balm to his wounded hearts that both stung and soothed him at the same time.

"Where is she now?" Martha asked quietly, her dark eyes seeming to see straight through him.

"With her family, happy. She's fine," the Doctor muttered dismissively, forcing himself to meet her gaze so that he could prove to her (and, more importantly, to himself) that he wasn't lying. "Not that you're replacing her!" he added quickly, pointing a condemning finger in the young woman's face instead of directing the blame at himself where it really belonged.

"Never said I was," Martha replied with a small, teasing smile.

"Just one trip, to say thanks!" the Doctor continued insistently. "You get one trip, then back home! I'd rather be on my own."

Martha's smile faded as she watched him, and the Doctor suspected that he wasn't fooling either of them with his bitter, desperate lie. Thankfully, all of time and space was at their disposal, and he was able to dodge the rest of her flirtatious banter as he always did by busying himself with the TARDIS controls.

Still, the Doctor couldn't seem to shake the feeling that he was making a very big mistake in bringing Martha aboard - but he also couldn't deny the fact that he was tired of being alone, and he ran headlong into the bad decision anyway. He simply had to trust that he would be able to find some way to work everything out before it all fell apart around him.

---------- The Shakespeare Code ----------

Meeting Shakespeare was a laugh, and even running into the carrionites was exciting, but spending the night in a medieval inn with Martha ended up being the most dangerous part of their first trip out in the TARDIS. The bed that they had to share was small, and the Doctor turned towards her to stare deep into Martha's eyes as though he could somehow will her into being the blonde-haired, brown-eyed face that he most longed to see. He barely dared to blink as he stared hard at Martha's features in fear that if he closed his eyes for even a second, his own imagination and traitorous hearts would take over and convince him that the longing that he felt burning against his skin was coming from a different woman.

Later on, the Doctor was forced to lower his mental shields so that he could communicate telepathically with the architect of the Globe Theatre in order to find answers about what was going on, but that left him weak and vulnerable when one of the carrionite sisters suddenly descended upon them and began to use her words to devastating effect.

"The naming won't work on me," the Doctor warned the woman dangerously as she smirked down at him with an air of cool confidence.

"But your heart grows cold," she murmured in mock sympathy. "The north wind blows and carries down the distant ... Rose."

The name stung, just as the carrionite had intended it to, but instead of further wounding the Doctor, it only managed to fill him with a deep, burning rage.

He ended up being as merciless with the carrionites as he had been with the racnoss - sending them all back into their strange crystal ball where they could scream and rage into eternity with no hope of ever being released. The Doctor had once described himself as a man of "no second chances". He found that without Rose there to hold him to a better standard, he was certainly living up to the description.

---------- Gridlock ----------

They went to New Earth next because the Doctor was an old, weak fool and he thought that maybe he just might be able to hold on to Rose by visiting the places where they had traveled to before. He was wrong, of course - not only did he and Martha end up landing in the middle of a planet-wide bio-disaster, but when they finally did manage to make it up to the city, the clear sky and the smell of apple grass did nothing but sting the Doctor's already bruised and battered hearts.

Martha made him explain, of course, once it was all said and done. She was good at that - making him answer for himself. The Doctor thought that it was probably a good thing, but at the moment, he was too hurt to acknowledge the healing process.

"But what did he mean, the Face of Boe - 'you're not alone'?" Martha asked quietly.

The Doctor tried to dodge the question, but Martha really was too clever for her own good. "I lied to you," he finally admitted quietly, hating the way that his empty tone rang off of the dirty walls of the surrounding slums, "because I liked it. I could pretend. Just for a bit, I could imagine they were still alive, underneath a burnt orange sky. I'm not just a Time Lord - I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong, there's no one else."

Rose had asked him once if he was sure. Martha only wanted to know what had happened. The Doctor forced himself to tell her - to relive the memories, both good and bad - in grim repentance of all that he had done. The old images of Gallifrey in his mind still burned like they always did, but there was a new empty ache in the place where his people were meant to be - an ache that only the presence of a bondmate could ever soothe. The Doctor didn't tell Martha about that part, though - he just let it sit and fester for another day. After all, it was the least of what he deserved.

---------- Daleks in Manhattan & Evolution of the Daleks ----------

He took her to New York next - the proper, Earth one this time, though the TARDIS happened to land them a few decades shy of the present. The longer he carted Martha around, the harder it was getting for the Doctor to ignore the blatant way that she looked at him, and for the first time in his many lives, he was almost ironically grateful for the distraction of a dalek invasion that wedged its way between them.

However, it was the first time that the Doctor had seen the elusive Cult of Skaro since the Battle of Canary Wharf, and their sudden reappearance now did nothing to ease his troubled mind.

Leaving Tallulah and Lazlow behind in a turbulent time and place where even half-human hybrids could live out their lives and go largely unnoticed did spark something in the Doctor, though ... It was an idea, as crazy and impossible as the strange couple themselves.

He wondered curiously if they really could do it - could they live a life of contentment together despite their many trials and differences? Could they really make a happily ever after out of the strange cards that the universe had dealt them?

The love that the Doctor saw in their eyes gave him a surprising amount of hope - another thing that he hadn't encountered since Canary Wharf - and when he and Martha eventually stepped back onto the TARDIS again, he continued his current trend and didn't give her any input at all as he determinedly set their destination towards modern-day London to take her home.

---------- The Lazarus Experiment ----------

"Where are we?" Martha asked as soon as they'd landed, glancing up at him with that eager, expectant look that he had come to recognize from many of his companions over the centuries.

"The end of the line," the Doctor answered cryptically, giving her nothing more than a pointed look as he waited for her to take the initiative to open the doors and see for herself.

Martha, unsurprisingly, wasn't pleased to see that he had brought her back home, just about twelve hours after they had left (he was certain that he had gotten the timing right this time - one good slap from Jackie Tyler had gone a long way in teaching the Doctor his lesson, it seemed). However, he spared very little sympathy for the shocked, hurt look in Martha's eyes as he let the TARDIS doors fall closed between them and prepared to carry out his plan to leave her to her normal, human life back on Earth.

The Doctor had more than fulfilled his promise of "one trip", after all, and he knew that the longer that Martha stayed on the TARDIS, the more awkward things would become when he inevitably had to turn down her increasingly bold flirtations. However, the strange and impossible Professor Lazarus had caught the Doctor's attention quite against his will, and Martha had a direct family connection to him, so it only seemed prudent to bring her along while he did a little bit of investigating.

The Doctor realized his mistake as soon as Martha announced that the event that they would be attending was "black tie required", which all but guaranteed that she would be watching him appraisingly out of the corner of her eye for the entirety of the night while she, herself, wore a dress that exposed far more skin than normal.

However, eyeing Martha's knee-length flowing skirt and heels only served to remind the Doctor of what a fool he had been when he had forced Rose into a maid's uniform back in Pete's World instead of allowing her to dress up as she had desired. Over nine-hundred-years-old and he was still just a daft old idiot who never knew how good he had it until the opportunity was gone and lost forever.

The Doctor made a pointed effort to keep his hands tucked firmly into his pockets throughout the entirety of the event - becoming even more cautious after he was introduced to Martha's family and her eagle-eyed, suspicious mother. However, when Lazarus's experiment eventually went wrong, as it was always going to do, the Doctor suddenly found himself crammed into a tiny capsule that didn't really allow for much modesty between him and Martha at all. Every single one of his telepathic abilities was crying out against the forced closeness, and it took all of the Doctor's (admittedly limited) self-control to keep himself from fleeing from the capsule and running straight into the jaws of the monster waiting for them outside.

However, when it came down to it, the Doctor was still nothing more than a weak, old fool, and when the night was over, he still asked Martha back for one more trip on the TARDIS. He was shocked into dumbfounded silence when she quietly refused him - he was certain of the lingering glances that she had been passing him all night, and he knew that he hadn't misinterpreted her anger when he had tried to leave her behind earlier.

"I can't go on like this - 'one more trip', it's not fair!" Martha clarified heatedly.

"What are you talking about?" the Doctor asked in confusion.

"Well, I don't want to be just a passenger anymore - someone you take along for a treat!" she insisted desperately. "If that's how you still see me, I'd rather stay here."

The Doctor felt a twinge of guilt as he stared at Martha's back and silently cursed himself for being such a useless, sentimental old man. He knew that he should leave her behind - he really, really should - but he just couldn't. He needed the company, he needed Martha's lingering glances and adoring looks, he needed to feel as though he meant something to someone, somewhere. And so he relented, just as he always knew that he would.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Martha cried excitedly as she ran up to him and eagerly threw her arms around his neck in gratitude. The Doctor held his breath as he willingly hugged her back, craving the physical affection she so easily offered, but knowing that he would only be disappointed when he was met with a smell that was not Rose's familiar shampoo.

"Well, you were never really just a passenger, were you?" he muttered as he graciously allowed Martha to step into the TARDIS before him.

She flashed him a wide, hopeful grin over her shoulder as she skipped eagerly into the console room and the Doctor just knew that the mouth on this body was going to get him into trouble in one way or another. He could only hope that Martha truly was as clever as she appeared - maybe she would be able to see through his brash, confident exterior to the wounded, ugly thing that lay beneath. Maybe then she would stop looking at him with such adoration in her eyes and finally run away from him as she should.

[thereunionvii]

Operation Reunion -The Fight for FFVIIR Legacy Cast FAQ

Hi there. I'm glad you're here. My name is Kelsey and I am a part of this wonderful movement known as Operation Reunion -a passionate, dedicated group of Final Fantasy 7 fans aiming to return the original English voice cast/our beloved VAs back to the remake. I’ll be more than happy to answer some of the more common questions that have come our way.

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: I'm a fan that loves Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy 7 in particular holds a special place in my heart. The original FF7 English voice cast introduced in Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core are utterly PHENOMENAL. Many of these same VAs have been in other series I've grown with and they have been near and dear to me for a long time. They are talented and they clearly GET these FF7 characters to where they've always been just as irreplaceable as the original Japanese cast.

Q: Even Steve Burton?

A: YES. Absolutely. I'm not even a General Hospital fan (and that's putting it nicely) but Steve has always blown me away as Cloud. He just IS Cloud. He's played Cloud for almost 20 years, that doesn't happen if you aren't good and don't have the fan support. A lot of us here were ecstatic to have the English cast return for the remake.  

Q: So, obviously they're not in the remake now.  Did they just not want to do it?

A: Actually. . .no. . .it's far more complicated than that. . .The original EN and JP cast was always planned to return. In 2015 Gematsu interviews, producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura repeated that the only voices that were left undecided at the moment were the ones that never had VAs such as Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, etc. In the 2017 trailer, Steve Burton and Beau Billingslea (Barret) are clearly still there. Steve Burton and George Newbern (Sephiroth) even returned for Dissidia NT only last year. Quinton Flynn (Reno and Axel (Kingdom Hearts) ) even returned just this year for Kingdom Hearts 3.

Despite all that, Kitase, who is not even the director and has no control over the localization made the absolutely feckless, unwarranted, and disrespectful decision to remove the entire cast-from what it seems right before the State of Play trailer. None of the actors were ever told they were being replaced and only found out along with the rest of us this was even happening. Some like Quinton Flynn and Crispin Freeman are STILL not even sure they'll be asked back for the remake.  To all of them, this change was just as much as a shock, and they were all very happy, willing, and beyond excited to come back as well. . .

Q: Won't the original cast at least be back for side projects? Kitase said so. . . .

A: Yes, Kitase claims they are keeping this "legacy" cast for future side projects but even if that were the case, WHAT side projects? Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia are pretty much done. Square has no control over Smash Bros. either. . .Everybody is busy with the FF7 remake and then the eventual FF8 remaster. There are ZERO "side projects" planned at the moment. Kitase's statements are just the "polite" way of confirming an entire cast was replaced without notice, even to the VAs themselves. . .

Q: Didn't the original FF7 not have voice acting?

A: Aww.. . .you're cute. . .Let's be real though. The remake was always going to have voice acting. Voice acting is a staple of 99% of major video game releases. Square has done voice acting for FF ever since FF10. And Square has always provided an English dub along with the original Japanese cast.

Q: Shouldn't we get a fresh, new experience with new VAs? This IS a remake. . . .

A: The original Japanese voice cast has ALWAYS stayed the same. The official Japanese cast list has never changed for anything FF7-related. Japan gets to keep all their original voice cast for the remake. It was only the English cast that got the abrupt and rude dismissal. . .

Q: I don't know, is it just too late to change this? The new VAs must be too far along. . .

A: Nope. Based on all existing evidence so far, and the fact NONE of the original VAs were made aware that they were being replaced, this change just happened. Likely just before the State of Play trailer. So at most, probably a mere 2-3 months ago. . .

Q: Did Square ever say anything about this beforehand?

A: No. Aside from a deliberately veiled 2017 interview https://www.siliconera.com/2017/02/22/final-fantasy-vii-remakes-voicing-main-story-pretty-much-completed/ that could have meant just about anything (and take a note that it says the voice acting is pretty much finished at this point. . .), Square gave ZERO warning to either the fans or the cast that this was going to happen. Even after the State of Play trailer, Square refused to give any official announcement over a new cast until E3, a mere two weeks ago. . .

Q: Why haven't I heard anything about this from Kotaku/GameInformer/Gamespot/IGN/my favorite video game news publication? Didn't you try to contact them?

A: Yes. I have tried. Several times already. So have several people from Operation Reunion. We haven't heard a response from anyone and the VA announcement rarely gets a passing glance in these publications as well. . .

Q: Have you tried Youtube? What about my favorite Youtuber who LOVES Final Fantasy? Why haven't they talked about it?

A: Beats me. . .Without naming anyone, I and several other members tried to get in contact with several popular Youtubers who are clear FF7 fans. The clear answer is that most of them are simply not interested, even if it might of interest to their fans. However, we are currently working on our own Youtube channel so stay tuned for some updates and more fun on that one.

Q: Okay. . .but why don't you give the new cast a chance?

A: Believe me, neither I nor anyone from Operation Reunion hold any malice towards the new cast. For the record, I actually kind of liked some of them. . .We have NOT, do not, or will not support, encourage, or endorse ANYONE to go out of their way to attack the new cast. . .HOWEVER. . .that doesn't change the fact the original English voice cast was always going to return, they always wanted to return, and Square replaced them at the very last minute. . .And that the original English cast deserves to be a part of the remake just as much as the original Japanese cast. . .

Q: But. . . what's done is done right? I mean, Capcom keeps replacing Resident Evil voice actors? Kojima replaced David Hayter as Snake for the last true Metal Gear titles. . .

A: Just because other people have done this sort of thing before doesn't make it okay. It will never be okay. I never forgave Capcom for sacking Paul Mercier, my favorite Leon VA. Nor when they fired Sally Cahill (Ada Wong), and refused to bring back Alyson Court, the ONLY voice for Claire since the beginning, for the RE2 remake because they didn't want to pay her more money, and found an actress who would be willing to do it cheap-which is a disrespectful to both those women. . .

What Kojima did to David Hayter, who will ALWAYS be Snake and has been Snake since Day One of Metal Gear Solid, was always unforgivable as well. . .Honestly, the Metal Gear fans should have rallied harder to bring Hayter back. THAT should have been the tipping point. . . but that is another matter. . .

But what Square did to their FF7 English voice cast. .. that is simply a new level of low in my eyes. . .This is replacing an ENTIRE CAST without warning and without their knowledge in the matter. . . An entire cast that has been loved and adored by fans for over a decade now. . .

As for "what's done is done". . .NO.  . .The English voice actors always should come back. And given that the remake is split into multiple installments, it is a fairly easy fix for Square to bring them back. Which is what this petition is for. . .

Q: But. . .that's unprecedented?!?!?!

A: Quite. But it never should have happened where the English cast was replaced. I will refer to this awesome comment left by the remarkable Fidgety Aura: "If Netflix can manage two or more audio options for languages I'm sure the developers can figure this out to let the new cast shine for newer fans without disrespecting the original English cast or all the English speaking fans."

The remake is slated to have a dual audio feature, it is not out of Square Enix's power to bring back the old LEGACY cast.

Q: But. . .isn't it just a "voice" after all?

A: NO. Voice actors are just as important and just as worthy of respect and recognition as any other actor. (Kotaku may not think so https://kotaku.com/why-excellent-video-game-voice-actors-cant-or-shouldnt-5821597.) English dub anime/video game VAs still don't get the credit, appreciation, and respect their deserve either. . .And that just finally needs to change. . .Replacing an entire cast is a VERY dangerous and slippery message to send to the video game industry-that any and all of our beloved VAs, any ACTORS are simply "disposable" at any given moment. . .

Q: Why don't you just stick to the sub?

A: Doesn't change anything. . .A lot of people love the original English cast as is and still want them back. Nor does that change what Square did to them. . .They always deserved to be a part of this remake. . .And they deserve to be brought back. . .

Q: But do the VAs even want to come back?

A: Yes. Both Quinton Flynn and Crispin Freeman have stated that they'd love nothing more than to come for some more Reno and Rude. Steve Blum has said he would love to come back-he "loves Vincent." George Newbern has said he's "always ready to assist if Square changes their minds." Steve Burton, Jamieson Price (Reeve), and Wally Wingert (Rufus) have all given support to this petition in some way. . .These VAs were just as excited to come back for the remake as we were. . .They still want to come back if given the opportunity. And they deserve every opportunity to come back. . .

Q: What can I do to help?

A: We have a petition to bring back the original English cast like they were always supposed to. . .If this matters as much to you as it does to us, please take a moment of your time to sign the petition. Share the petition with everyone you know. Keep tweeting Square Enix's official Twitter channels and comment on their Facebook pages that you want this to happen. . .Send the message that this is NOT OKAY and we all want our beloved voice actors back. Keep contacting your favorite Youtubers to do a video on this and keep contacting you favorite video game news publications to cover this story. We definitely have some fun things planned once we reach 777 and 1,000 signatures so stay tuned.

Q: But what can *I* really do? I'm. . .me. . .and Square is. . .Square. . .

A: A lot more than you give yourself credit for, actually. As a fan, it is your right to voice when you know something is just not right. No one can ever take that away from you. As a fan, you deserve respect, even to yourself. As for Square, they are never infallible nor impervious to criticism. If you are not happy with Square, you have the right to say, "NO. I do not like this. . .Here's why. . ." If you even just get involved for one person, do it for YOURSELF. Make Square respect you.

Q: Can I offer any ideas/suggestions that might help?

A: Oh, YES. Absolutely. Any new ideas/suggestions are always encouraged. This is a fan group made up of FANS, so there's nothing wrong with having a little fun with this along the way. . .And we're always happy to have anyone on board.

 Thank you everyone for all your support, kindness, dedication, and just overall awesomeness. . .And anyone who wants to join. . .Welcome, and we're always happy to have you. . .Let's make this happen. . .

[vpshostingindia8090-blog]

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[okimissu-blog1]

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UV or matte covering shields a card from scratching and scraping. It likewise looks and feels increasingly proficient. You don't need your cards to look or feel like they were imprinted on your office printer.

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On the off chance that you need to update the card, do they offer the alternative like spot UV covering, silk overlaid cards, foil printing, plastic cards, lenticular cards or different sorts of cards that have a wow factor impact to stand out?

Before you select a cheap web based printing service, it's in every case best to look at their client assistance. On the off chance that they offer free examples, round out the examples demand on the web. Perceive how quick they arrive. Do they follow up to ensure you got them? Continuously pose inquiries. Is the individual on the opposite end accommodating or do you get exchanged around. To what extent do you spend on hold? How quick do you get a callback?

Finding the cheapest printing on the web might be critical to certain organizations however a brilliant business searches at the least cost with the most incentive for a quality item. The response to the inquiry, which is progressively significant - cost or worth is esteem. Make certain to search for the cheap web based printing service. Plan ahead. Try not to be in a hurry to pick the primary printers on the principal page without check what they offer at the cost. There's a whole other world to business cards and postcards than simply ink on paper.

[humanityinahandbag]

I have not even seen HT3 but you've got me cackling over the image of Ericka holding a handful of file folders, spread in her hand like a proper folding fan, peering over them at Drac until he notices her and then fanning them further, wiggling her eyebrows as she shows off the colored tabs she's just placed on the folders. Alphabetical by color of course.

I’m fucking cackling. Might expand on this later and make it a longer one shot. But for now, have a quick Fanfic. 

So here it is: my first Hotel Transylvania 3 One Shot. 

Enjoy, @bunnikkila. This one’s all for you.

Kiss Me Alphabetically

A story in which Ericka has time and uses it productively. 

Dracula does the same. 

Ericka stood at the desk, alone. Not alone per say. Not if one considered the piles of folders she’d obsessively piled around her as companions of their own kind. Each of them filled with receipts and notes and menus and itineraries. Each adorned with neat, archaic, graceful text. It was a quirk she soon learned about Dracula; that he refused to use anything less than gold-tipped fountain pens, claiming something of nostalgia. It was his way of dealing with the modern changes of the world, she decided. If he should be made to carry a cellphone and log guests in by means of a computer, then he’d at least find the time to dip pen to ink.

She flipped through them. It was a slow night. Monsters filing in and out lazily, asking for little more than direction or spare towels. He’d long gone to deal with a mess on the third floor (apologizing for having to scuttle away, pressing a kiss to her cheek before leaving her to her own devices).

It was an honor in itself that he trusted her alone with something as important as his hotel. The way he’d said “I’m refiling the finances for the next quarter- files are in the top drawer” without any hint of question fumbling his words, which were (as they always were in the way he commented, the way he spoke, the way he watched and smiled and loved) brewing in respect.

She was familiar with the processes, as she was in most things in the industry, and so she’d drawn out the files and riled through them, searching out the logs from the past months.

What she’d found was a certain amount of organized chaos. “Whooo boy…” To a degree, they were understandable. Notes with notes. Finances with finances.

And yet…

Ericka rolled her shoulders before grabbing a pen and one of the many markers she kept on hand in the little drawers under the desk. One of the zombie bellhops -Carl was his name? Or maybe Callum?- wandered over and groaned something.

“How did you deal with this?” she asks, patting the piles of folders.

“Auuuuurgurarg” said Clyde/Callum.

“Was there any rhyme or reason?” She picked one up and waved it. “Look at this! No color? No alphabetizing?” Ericka picked open one of them with two pinched fingers like she was dealing with a dead rat and not months worth of massage receipts and pool-related accident reports. “And look at this! Did he date three months out? Did he prioritize dates? Did he converge files? No! Of course not!”

“Auuuugragagalll” sympathized Clyde/Callum.

Ericka slapped down the files. She scrubbed her forehead, pinched the space between her brows, and rubbed her eyes. “How has this Hotel not collapsed yet…” she muttered. “How has this hotel not gone up in flames. Because I can assure you- obsessive color coding is totally integral to the success of any business.”

“Aghhhhhhphhhh” agreed Clyde/Callum.

Ericka took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. “Right,” she said, giving the colored markers a determined, long look. “I’ll need a coffee, a new box of staples, and a whole lot of hope. Think you can do that?”

“Pfffff” said Clyde/Callum, hobbling off.

Ericka flipped through the folders. There were at least twelve out. All of them, as he’d directed, taken from the top drawer of a blue filing cabinet. But there were three filing cabinets behind her (one blue, two gray), not mentioning the manilla folders and the cheap fold-out capped boxes left along the back wall.

Fixing her hands on her waist, mumbling an old captains sailing prayer, Ericka drew forth whatever strength years battling the high-end luxury seas had bestowed her before throwing herself to task.

Dracula eased through the slim crowd that perused about his hotel, greeting them all with gracious smiles and sharp, stately nods. He hoped the slow gait and hunched shoulders wouldn’t give away his exhaustion. It had been a leak in one of the vacant rooms. A burst pipe that needed attending to. And so he’d taken down the serial numbers, talked to the on-site handymen (zombies), and managed to get some sort of estimate on timeframe and payment.

He’s grateful to return to the relative safety behind his desk. The lobby was empty by the time he returned, nearly silent except for the telltale sound of paper scraping against paper and the scrape of a pen writing. 

The sounds, once he follows them, come from Ericka and a desk hidden beneath folders.

He stepped closer. Cocked his head. “Um…?”

She looked up. “Oh!” Ericka grinned. “Hey there, you! How’d the repairs go?”

“They’re going. What are you doing?”

She shrugged. “Light work. Nothing too drastic. Just keeping busy, you know.” Pointing across the mounds of folders she’d stripped from the filing cabinets behind the desk (all of them he saw open and empty behind her) she said “I finished the quarterly report, by the way.”

“Uh?”

“Don’t worry. Ran the numbers three times. We should probably think about cutting buffet expenses. I think we’d be able to pull through next quarter with extra money for pool repairs if we cut back.”

“Um?” He blinked. Sliding cautiously into the space behind her, careful not to disrupt the Whatever that was going on in front of her, he nudged open the folder she’d pointed to.  

Her own steady handwriting had joined his. Red circles around certain numbers and blue underlines pointing to mistakes he’d made with past calculations.

“Oh, and I also organized your notes. You should really think about donating to an archive or something? These are from… what? 1847?” She poked a set of folders farthest to the left. She’d colored in the tabs on top with blue and wrote dates in on black.

The set beside those had been colored orange. And the ones beside those, red.

“Um…” he said again. There was a tiny fire building in his chest.

“Oh, and look.” She put down the pen she’d been using to meticulously mark dates on each colored tab to grab the Yellow stack (sitting between the now green and fuscia folders), fanning it in front of her with the grace of a dancer. She gave them a flutter, and then did the same with her lashes. “Alphabatized,” she purred. “You like it?”

He blinked. He couldn’t seem to find a way to shut his mouth, his jaw weighed down by invisible pullies. 

Dracula’s silence must have lasted too long, because her delighted expression turned into something of disappointment, and she was soon fussing with the closest stack of folders despairing; “You hate it. Oh- god. I knew I shouldn’t have touched anything but your system wasn’t updated and… and I’d like to remind you just like I did Clyde or Callum or whatever his name is that obsessive color coding is integral to the success- MMPH.”

His mouth against hers effectively cut off whatever she was about to say.

He was glad there was no one in the lobby. Especially when he flicked a hand, blue energy leaping out to push folders to the side to make space when he lifted her up and sat her down at a level height.

“I was working on those! Dracu-mmm!” He moved his mouth from hers down to her jaw. Her throat. The dip between her neck and shoulder. “Honey, we’re in the lobby.”

He nipped her neck and she gasped. “No one here,” he said against her skin.

“Not yet, but anyone could- oh my god do that again.” He dragged his teeth down the line of her artery a second time. She huffed, crossing her legs. Chiding herself for a fuzzy mind, she reminded herself about the task at hand. A voice in her brain chanted; color coding! color coding! color coding! “Someone could check in! Any second! And I have to finish!”

He kissed her again anyway, harder. “You color coded my papers.”

“I did.”

“That is… so incredible.”

Her laugh tapered off into a gasp when he paid special attention to her jaw. “I’m loving this praise. I really am. But Dracula- someone could check in.”

“Good.”

“No! Not good! Not good! They could see a Vamp-mmmm-a Vampire going to town on a -aughhh- humans neck!”

“It’s a lovely neck,” he reasoned between kisses. “Absolutely delectable. A world class, delicious neck. Have I ever told you I love this shirt?” She’d swapped out her higher collared wear for a white button up that she’d only found reason to keep buttoned to mid chest.

“Yes,” she said, watching him reach a hand up to move the collar of the shirt away. “Many, many times.”

“You should wear it more, you absolutely organized minx, you.”

“Dracula,” she snapped.

“Ericka,” he crooned back.

“Dracula I’m busy.”

“So am I,” he argued. To prove his point he bit down lightly on her clavicle. “Very, very busy.”

She groaned. He laughed, reaching behind her to get a firmer grasp on her back with every intention of hoisting her higher to see just how far he could get his teeth down her shirt before having to start the unbuttoning process. His fingers pushed back on the folders. Three of them slipped to the floor.

With a righteous gasp and a frustrated exclamation of “oh come on” Ericka was pushing him back, turning around to growl frustratedly at the fallen soldiers of scattered papers on the lobby floor, and then turning back to fix Dracula with a steel and stone glare. He did his best to make his eyes look as I-Am-A-Victim-of-Circumstance as possible. “Do you know how long it took me to organize these!” Her fingers flew up to assault her blouse, securing a button that had begun to undo itself with more force than necessary. Dracula watched forlornly.

“Oh- Whoops.” She glared harder. His smile was all fangs and guilt. “Sorry, honey… Would you believe it if I said I was distracted?”

“No.”

“Well I was!” Dracula waggled his brows.”You’re very distracting when you talk about bureaucracy!” 

She huffed, flapping her arms up, letting her hands slap defeatedly down against her thighs. “I’ll have to go back and reorganize them all, now!”

To his credit, he did actually look guilty, grimacing down at the mess behind her. “It’s only a few. I can help-”

She breathed, heavy and slow, anger dissipating into something fond. Who was she to pass up affection from time to time? And… it really hadn’t taken her that long. “No- no it’s fine. It’s faster if I do them alone. Maybe you can help after I laminate them?” 

Dracula’s head snapped back. He blinked. Blinked again. The feeling of holy fire in his chest returned. “Laminate?” he peeped.

“Mmhm. I was going to staple together the financial reviews from the last few years, too, and compound and color code them. Maybe we can draw up some sort of two-year plan-”

The rest of the folders flew neatly to the floor, caught by a blue light, and settled into piles around the lobby. Dracula’s arms linked around her, his mouth back to work tracing patterns up and down from her neck to her mouth.

Ericka found herself suddenly very unconcerned with two-year plans and was instead decidedly concerned with how deep she could burrow her fingers into wonderful black hair.

“You are incredible,” he said, every word punctuated with affection. “That (kiss) is the most (kiss) attractive thing (kiss) I’ve (kiss kiss kiss) ever heard, Captain.”

“Oooh! You like that!” She wound her legs around his waist and pulled her head back to look at him from between her lashes. “Wait until I tell you about my plan to consolidate the computers check-in system.” Ericka lowered her voice into a husky, svelte whisper. “It’ll save us at least seven percent on the bottom line.”

The check-in desk was left empty when Dracula very quickly lifted her up and whisked her back to their room, her laughter a ghost against the stone.

The files were temporarily forgotten. 

But they’d get back to them later. Much, much later. 

[jtzvintagetamadrums]

What does $50 buy on Facebook Marketplace these days?

Hello again and Happy New Year! I hope this post finds you enjoying a prosperous baby New Year. Hopefully all good things ahead in 2019!

Okay...so I’ve been away from the old blog and WAY away from drum parts and restoration for quite a while now. I gotta admit, it gets to be a pain in the ass tracking down orphan drums, sorting parts, tearing down, cleaning, cataloging and restoring...and most of all, fielding questions and parts requests from vintage Tama drum bros from all around the world. I’ve also taken a break from selling on eBay and Craigslist because we all know what a royal pain in the ass that can be...and with increasingly diminishing returns to be had nowadays. I seriously needed to step away from the game so no one got hurt!

So back to “biness”. I always enjoy adding a few extra bucks per month to the investment account from diligent drum parts schlepping...and lately my personal finance bottom line once again came a calling. I was feeling I needed something to jump start my epic return to the old grind. Maybe a cheap kit to restore? Nope...got too many of those and my wife would murder me in my sleep..again! Most likely a decent lot of roached orphan drums to part out and/or restore and flip. Well a few days ago I found just the ticket, oddly enough...on Facebook Marketplace.

So being the bottom feeder that I am, here’s what $50 bought me...

Yeah...I thought the same thing. At first glance, no big wowy zowy right? A roached King Beat snare and some other crap. 

Break it down one time!

(1) 81′ Tama King Beat snare

I was obviously into this deal for just the snare alone. This features a surprisingly complete KG parallel strainer assembly (shocker…both knobs are there!). I’ll need to remember to reassemble the complete strainer on the shell to ensure full functionality prior to scrapping the shell. Up close, overall this is not as shitty as it looks. The shorty coffin lugs (always in demand) don’t seem all that pitted nor do the PC die cast hoops. When I say “not all that pitted”, I mean typical of the era. There’s even a nice clean badge to boot. The big knob muffler is complete but the felt has disintegrated. Sure the shell is toast and is headed to an artificial reef but otherwise…parts heaven.

Cha-to-the-ching!

(1) 98′ Spitfire by Slingerland 22″ kick drum

Wait what? A Spitfire by whoesy whatsit? Yeah I sure as hell never heard of them either. Not much info on these drums as they were a part of the tail end of the sad Slingerland demise and much akin to the Chinese import “Swingstar by Tama” entry level junk of the era. The wrap is a bit bubbly on this drum and it is missing both spur sets. It’s also sporting a pair of roached, previously chrome and otherwise pedestrian Rockstar looking hoops that have been painted black. These originally came with matching wrap inlay hoops similar to the Taiwan level early 90′s Tama Rockstar hoops. Me thinks to myself…”Self…hey…I have pair of black inlay Rockstar hoops! I also have a pair of telescoping, diamond bolt pattern mount plate “Camco by Tama” (yikes!) kick spurs somewhere in the workshop that might fit the bolt pattern. Maybe I can smack this beast in the face, get it back into player’s shape and get $50 for it or donate it to the church for a tax receipt”. Win-win!

Here’s a pic from an old Guitar Center listing of what a “Spitfire by Slingerland” kit should look like. I guess it’s your basic, late 90′s, Korean firewood shell, entry level beater you’d buy for your kid at Christmas that he then stops playing a week later. Again, standard Taiwan Rockstar style matchy matchy wrap inlay hoops and typical telescoping spurs of the 90′s era. Still sporting the vintage style Slingerland lugs all around though. Hmm. 

(1) Mid 60′s 13″ Ludwig Keystone badge Rack Tom with Gold Sparkle Wrap

Okay so this one is a bit out of my wheelhouse. I’m no vintage Ludwig guy by any means, but this was kind of cool to stumble upon. Sadly painted black by some doofus from days of yore…there is clearly a vintage gold sparkle wrap that lurks beneath what looks like some black house paint hot mess. This drum does have the original tom mount intact, but is missing the bottom lugs and t rods so it is about 75% complete. I believe the bottom hoop was in the lot as well. The uber-fatty re-ring shell appears to be sound, in round and the “who knows how long it was exposed” bottom bearing edge doesn’t look all the bad surprisingly. The badge is a bit roached, but this drum is worth a re-wrap and resto by some eager Ludwig aficionado that has the parts and a shit load of free time on their hands. Heading directly to an eBay near you.

* 1/10/19 UPDATE! Upon closer inspection, what I thought was thick black paint turns out to be the same shitty contact paper/vinyl that is on the timbales mentioned below! I easily peeled some off this morning and the wrap looks pretty decent underneath.

So the plot thickens on this drum...resto or no?

(2) No name 60′s era Japanese 13″ and 14″ copper over steel Timbales

Ole!

Well now these are pretty f-ing cool. Listed as “no name concert toms” in the Facebook Marketplace ad, I was pleasantly surprised that these turned out to be steel shell timbales. Hell, who knows, they may be copper. Likely not…they look 60′s Japanese, which basically means they’re one step away from scrap steel. They’ve been wrapped in a flaking, deteriorated black contact paper (same doofus maybe?), but they appear to be your classic copper plate over steel finish beneath. I guess I’ll find out when I tear them down. Can’t really tell if it is all surface rust on the inside of the shells or just copper patina that gives it that “old penny” look. The lugs to me look like the pointy Japanese Star style lug common to the 60′s Star kits and similar Japanese stencil kits of the era. Regardless, I will likely keep these as I don’t actually own a set of timbales and they’d be fun to bang on. The t rods are pretty toasty so they’ll need to be addressed. Thankfully, the clip/slide mounts are intact as is the original dual mount that I can retrofit into something period correct or even a vintage Titan stand. If the shells are too crusty on the surface to recover the copper finish, I’ll have them media blasted locally and then send them to my nephew in Vermont to powder coat with a fun finish.

Also included was an orphan but nonetheless classic Ludwig dual tom mount whose length seems to indicate it was from a stand. Then again, WTF do I know about Ludwig hardware? Regardless…more eBay fodder for the Ludwig loonies.

Okay so it is time to break down the potential flippage numbers “American Pickers - Bundle Mania!” style. I’ll keep it on the lower end of the $ scale.

King Beat snare parts:

Coffin lugs, sold in pairs @ $15 clear, assuming 4 good pairs ( I’ll keep a pair) - $60.00

KG strainer assembly, hopefully complete, the original extended snares were coiled up inside the shell and bent so I’ll keep those and try to salvage them.- $75.00

Muffler - I have broken tone control arms with good felt so I’ll fix this one, keep it and sell a good one - $50.00

PC die cast hoops - generally fetch in the neighborhood of $45.00 each - $90.00

Imperialstar badge with or without salvage grommet - $10.00

T Rods and washers - two sets of ten at $10.00 each clear - $20.00

Snare total salvage - $305.00

Slingerland Kick drum:

Parts needed are zero cost, sell or church tax receipt donation - $50.00

Kick total salvage - $50.00

Ludwig 13″ Rack tom and mount:

Sell as is or attempt to remove the black paint with citrus stripper, then sell on an  eBay auction style listing starting at $25.00..maybe I’ll clear - $40.00

Tom mount is missing one L arm but in nice shape. might clear  - $15.00

Ludwig total salvage - $55.00

Timbales :

I’ll keep these, will cost a bit to restore, random value at $75.00.

Timbale total salvage value - $75.00

So the total comes in at around $485.00 on a good day. Backing out my $50 cash outlay and the $75 value of the keeper timbales…with a little luck, I could potentially clear at least $350 on this lot. Not too shabby, considering the seller pretty much brought the drums to me right around the corner from where I work.

Now all I need is some free time, a whole hell of a lot elbow grease and the boundless patience for the eternal agony that is eBay and Craigslist.

Thanks for taking a look and maybe I will post a follow up on this lot. Some fun stuff in this batch for sure!

Cheers to a Happy New Year!

- jt

[marigoldwitch]

I’m So Stressed Out

warning: this is a long one.

I’m so stressed right now and now I have another thing to be stressed about. I’m trying to figure out how I’m gonna get groceries, catch up on my business taxes, run my damn business and look for a new place to live, and my boyfriend’s family is worried about me getting a driver’s license. 

I want to point out that my lack of driver’s license has never hindered me or caused me any major problems in my life. My biggest problem with not having the legal ability to drive is satisfying my midnight cravings for cheap tacos lol. Which I’d say my lack of driver’s license has probably saved me from a life of unhealthy late night binge eating. I run my online business from home and I can literally walk pretty much everywhere in my town. Like for real, everything is within a 3 mile radius from my apartment lol. So having a driver’s license does absolutely nothing to benefit my own life right now. 

Lately I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress. My rent recently increased, we’re currently looking for a new apartment, I’m 2 quarters behind on my taxes, I have a half a dozen custom orders to finish up, I have another dozen or so new designs to make, I’m trying to figure out my finances so that I don’t end up starving for a week just so I can pay my internet bill and to top all this off, my parents are currently in town and my boyfriend’s mom is basically forcing me to get my driver’s license.

First of all, yes I am 27 and no I do not have a driver's license. I used to drive back in Maryland (where I used to live) but it gave me such bad anxiety and after getting into 2 (minor) accidents, when I moved to North Carolina I just didn’t have the desire to drive anymore and I didn’t have a car anyways. That was in 2010. Fast forward to 2013, my mom fixed up my brother’s old truck (my current vehicle) and gave it to me as a gift for my 22nd birthday. It’s old, falling apart but gets us where we need to go. So she gives me this truck with the condition that I get my license. I tried. Believe me, I tired to drive but every time I got behind the wheel I had a panic attack. After 2 months my boyfriend finally had enough of seeing me go through these panic attacks that he said not to worry about it and that he would always make sure I got where I needed to go. A promise he is still keeping to this day, 7 years later.

Anyways, now that you know that little backstory let’s jump ahead to yesterday. So my parents went back to their hotel room and I went with my boyfriend to his family's place to do a load of laundry. We get there and my boyfriend’s younger brother’s girlfriend (that’s a mouth full lol) finally got her driver’s license. We’re all very proud of her. She’s sort of a workaholic and just never found the time to study and just get it, so the fact that she’s doing management training right now and was able to find time to do this is very impressive.

This milestone in her life sparked up the conversation about me and my lack of (legal) driving ability. Now before I get into all the excuses I gave his mom I want to tell you why I had to give “excuses” and it’s because his mom isn’t big on the idea that other people go through shit. I don’t want to get too much into her problems or anything because this isn’t about her, it’s about me lol. Anyways, she comes at me like “So you’re the last one Sarah. Why don’t you have your driver’s license?”

Well.... I haven’t gotten new glasses (or an updated prescription to order new glassed) in the 4 years since I broke mine and I can not legally drive without glasses, which cost money.

I also have a 20 year old truck that literally breaks down at least once a month, the driver's seat is broken and can not be pushed up all the way (so I can’t reach the petals anyways, thank goodness my bf is taller than me or else we’d have a serious issue lol). My headlights do not work right and you have to do this twisty thing with the wires to get them on. Oh yeah and my dashboard is all but falling off because we have to get behind the dashboard to do the twisty thing with the wires to get it to turn the headlights on. It looks like we’re hotwiring my truck every time we have to drive somewhere and it’s dark lol. My truck is old lol. And to be honest I suck at getting the headlights to actually work, my boyfriend is better at that lol. Also my driver’s side door can’t be opened from the inside. You have to roll down the window and open the door from the outside to get out of the truck... this doesn’t affect my ability to drive the truck or anything, I just thought I’d throw that in there to prove the point that my truck is very very old lol.

I am currently dealing with being super behind on my taxes (which is gonna result in a fee, it’s like what you owe + 4% of what you owe or something) so I’m trying to catch up on that, I’m trying to figure out how I’m gonna pay my bills this month and also not starve to death lol, we’re trying to look for a new place to live, I have a business I’m trying to run (alone. by myself. just me. doing everything. including taxes which I’m clearly bad at lol) and getting a driver’s license is time consuming and cost money. Time and money are 2 things that I just don’t have right now.

Oh and I have a fucking panic attacks every single time I get behind the wheel. 

So she says “I’ll pay for you to get your license. Even if you can’t drive your truck right now at least you’ll have it and you can borrow my car if you need to. Everyone else is able to do it and find the time, why can’t you?”

Okay. First, it’s very nice that she’s offering to pay for me to get my license but she completely dismissed everything I told her. I still don’t have money for an eye exam or new glasses. I still won’t be able to drive my own truck and it’s nice that she’s offering to let me borrow her car but I live 30 minutes away from her so her car isn’t gonna do me much good. I still have a TON of work I need to finish and I seriously do not have the time or energy to study to get my license right now.

And can I just say I HATE when people say something like ‘so and so did it, why can’t you?” I feel like this subject alone deserves it’s own discussion but I just need to say this: We’re all different. We all have different struggles, stressors and triggers. It’s great that so-and-so was able to go to college while working 2 full time jobs and raising 3 kids. Seriously congrats to them. But I am not them and I can not handle that much pressure and stress. Bet your ass they couldn’t either and underneath the surface they’re losing themselves but they feel like they can’t speak up or reach out for help for one reason or another. But we can talk about this another time.

So, just to get them off my back, I say “sure you pay I’ll go get it.” I just wanted to end the conversation because if I stood my ground and said “No” then they would switch the discussion to my work and how I need a real job. And honestly, I was just not in the mood yesterday to go into this whole ‘your job isn’t real because you’re not getting a check each week and you can do it from home’ and whatever else they want to throw at me to make me feel like shit about not making some CEO rich.

And now, because I’m a dumbass who didn’t feel like arguing about MY life with people, I have to be ready to take my driving test in 2 weeks. I also have to:

catch up on my taxes

finish 6 custom orders

finish 12 new designs

write, photographic and edit 2 new patterns

figure out how i’m gonna pay my bills 

overcome my crippling anxiety related to driving and study for my driving test

All in the next 2 weeks.

Did I mention that I suffer from a neurological disorder called ADHD that literally makes doing all of these things 3x harder than it would be if I didn’t have it. I didn’t mention that? Well I do.

Why do I do this to myself?

[alyssam9976-blog]

BlisBalm V.S SlimeshopbyMadelyn

            Fist competition! I bought a “Iced Fruit Punch Fishbowl Slime ~ Clear slime ~ fishbowl slime ~ scented slime” from SlimeshopbyMadelyn for $6.00 USD plus $7.95 USD for shipping and handling. I was not very pleased that the shipping cost more than the slime it’s self but bought it anyway.This slime also has a 4 1/2 out of 5 star review and says it is 4oz.  As in the title, it states it’s a “clear slime’’ witch I know is a hard slime to make from experiences because it can start to get cloudy if not needed for a long period of time. I bought these slime’s on October 29′th 2018 and is now November 1′st 2018 and this slime has still not shipped. Almost right away, I got a note from the seller that stated 

“The ‘scheduled ship by date’ is the date your order is scheduled to be shipped out from our location. Thank you for your purchase! By purchasing you are agreeing that you are 18 years of age or have the permission of an adult to order. ***VERY IMPORTANT*** - Orders will be shipped to the exact address indicated at checkout. If there is an error in submitting your address you must contact us prior to shipment. PLEASE double check your address! You will receive a tracking number from Etsy once your package ships - www.usps.com and enter the tracking number for updated scans. Please contact me If you have any slime related questions and/or concerns Thank you! Follow me on instagram @slimebymadelyn and youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/slimebymadelyn” 

I think that this note was very professional and nice.

            The next slime I bought was from a seller named BlissBalm and I got a “Cloud Slime with Charm Large 8 oz W/Extras Best Seller Customize Choose Scent & Color Cheap slime Slime Shop” I did pick the color peach and a watermelon scent. I really liked the verity of the colors and scent. you can get the colors:

Pink

Green

Orange 

Yellow 

White 

Purple

Light blue

Dark blue 

peach

            And for the scents you get your pick from:

None

Vanilla

Chocolate Lava Cake

Strawberry

Blue-Raspberry

Bubblegum

Cotton-Candy

Monkey Farts

Coconut

Cherry

Unicorn Poop

Pineapple

Vanilla-Bean

Peach

Watermelon

Iceland Escape

Strawberry Cheesecak

Chocolate Chip Cooki

Cake-batter Ice cream

Yummy Gummy Bear

Rainbow Sherbet

Fruit-Loops

Pink Fluffy Candy

Dreamsickle

Raspberry Vanilla

OREO cookie  & Cream

Buttercream Cupcake

And last but not least, Blueberry Muffin

I was a little confused why some of the names where missing a letter but I’m also very impressed how many options there where. This slime cost $8.99 USD plus $7.50 USD  for Shipping and handling. I think this costed a little more because This slime is supposedly 8oz as the other one was 4oz.  It has a 5/5 star review as well. One thing I found a little annoying is that the slime first said it costed $0.99 but as soon as you added color (witch was mandatory)  it turned into a $8.99 Slime. I have seen this become more and more popular on Etsy But I do think it is sort of a scam. I personally think they should fix it but I’ts not a deal breaker for me. Like of the last one, almost right away they sent me a note stating:

           “Whoo! Celebrate, your order is being processed & will ship right out! If you haven't ordered from us before here is what you can expect. You will receive a coupon code with your order for 10% off your next order! :) 1. Timeliness! We will ship your order right out, we know your excited to receive it! Please allow 1-2 business days for us to make your order then normally first class shipping takes 2-5 business days for delivery. 2. Attention to detail, we take great care in making sure your order is correct! We will get your items securely packaged and shipped right out to you. You will receive a tracking number by email after your order ships. 3. Rock solid customer service, we take our business serious, we only want the best experience and quality products for our customers. Should you have any questions or concerns, please send us an email, we are happy to help you! Thank you again for your business & I can't wait to do business with you again soon!! - Laura & Kayla BlissBalm P.S. *If you love your product, please post a 5 star review! *Sending an appreciation photo of your finished product is even better! I love your photos! *Please like, comment or share via Instagram or Subscribe to us on our Youtube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmbJP-QD7OQchcHgJ5K5piA I always love to hear from you!”

            I think I liked this note a little better than the last one because they tell you how they pay attention to detail and I’t looks a bit nicer than the first one. Also yesterday October 31′st 20018 It went out to Pre-transit  and I got a tracking number. As as the other slime from SlimebyMadelyn as still not shipped

Thank you so much for reading and make sure to follow up on who wins Slime battle #1, Hope you have a great rest of you day! Bye for now! .

♥