#so it could also be a cool way to explore my neighborhood

[whentherewerebicycles]

ok so that butternut squash pasta was this week’s submission for the super-easy plant-based recipe book project & I’m only required to add one per week. but for some reason I’m feeling really into cooking at the moment and I want to ride that wave yknow?? the next easy recipe I want to tackle is shakshuka (for brunch this weekend?) followed by loubieh bi zeit (lebanese green bean stew) + pita bread from scratch, which I think will be next week’s recipe(s) for the project.

[anticipatecrime]

'𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩'| colby brock x male oc

a/n: enjoy ;) summary: sam, colby, corey and jake plan to go to the witches forest, little do they know, they’ll meet a friend of jennifers. he’s a lonely medium studying witchcraft, what happens when colby starts to feel a pull towards him? his feelings confuse him, and make him question himself. 

words: 8.8k (TOO FUCKING MANY, i got lost in the sauce🫠)

sam sat on his couch, dialing the number of the woman him and colby met at the stanley hotel. the latter began to film as she picked up. 

“hello?”

“hi is this jennifer?” they shared a look towards eachother, acknowledging the awkwardness.

“yes, this is she.” 

“sweet uh.. about that forest, was that a legit offer? colby and i have been talking over the past few weeks and maybe.. are you in la now?” he asked, curiously.

“yeah i am”

“cool so maybe tomorrow or later this week we could meet up, and we’d probably be filming it so if that’s cool with you, you could tell us more like about what the forest is and then maybe like find time to schedule to go out there or something?”

“yeah we can meet up.” jennifer said ominously. 

“okay cool, maybe tomorrow we’ll schedule a time then.” sam started to laugh from the awkwardness, and immediately after the phone call was over he threw the phone onto the table and freaked out. “why is it so awkward?” he cringed.

“everytime we talk to her.” colby chuckles.

they both start talking to the camera about their plans with the witches forest, and planning a whereabouts for the meetup. 

a day had past, and sam, colby and jake were in the car, driving to the area where they were supposed to meet up with jennifer. colby had parked very close to another car in attempts to not be in the way of someones driveway. “can’t park in this driveway brother, gonna get a ticket.”

“can’t go to jail again.” sam laughs.

“we’re in a neighborhood, it’s not that sketchy.” sam commented, as they all start talking about how creepy this whole situation was, joking about getting murdered. 

they walk into the park, and they look around until they see two people sitting at a park bench. “hey!” sam calls out, as he sees them. “nice to see you again!” he goes in for a hug with jennifer. 

“how was the shoot and everything?” he asked.

“it was good.” she responded, nodding her head, before looking over to her friend, the guy next to her. jennifer didn’t really care about meeting up with strangers but elias, found it sketchy, so he decided to come along as some sort of backup.

“hey, i’m elias, good to meet you.” he shook hands with the person closest to him, colby. 

“nice to meet you too.” colby smiled, curious about the guy infront of him. he looked pretty cool, his sense in fashion was definitely something out of a vintage movie. his hair was dark brown, about medium length. he had brown circle glasses pushed towards his nose, contrasting his freckled face. 

from what he was wearing, you could see a few tattoos under his sleeves, along with a few different ear piercings. ‘damn this guy is cool’ he felt like some kind of fangirl.

as sam talked to jennifer, colby starting asking questions to the other. “are you also into the paranormal?”

“yeah. i grew up around it my entire life, and now it just seeks me out i guess.” he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “how’d you get into it?”

“that’s the same as one of my friends, corey.” he acknowledges. “honestly it’s not that exciting, me and my buddy sam would explore like abandoned places and stuff then it became haunted areas and now we think we’re haunted.”

“that’s cool.” suddenly jake climbs onto the picnic table, creating a thud sound. “jesus jake.” colby laughed.

“so do you guys chill at the park often?” jake tries to make conversation with the two.

“yeah.” they answer at the same time. the camera is held facing jennifer as she begins to explain why the cabin is haunted, and why it’s called the witches forest. 

“you really have to figure it out yourself.” elias commented, chuckling. 

“so you’ve been there too?” sam interrogates him. 

“you could say that, i also own a cabin about a mile out.”

“would you say it’s haunted?”

“oh definitely, in 1946 a couple moved into the cabin and after a few years they started like experiencing financial issues, and it caused a lot of stress between them and eventually the husband started drinking, and one night he killed his pregnant wife before shooting himself in the head.” elias smirked, watching their jaws drop. “let’s just say i’m not legally able to rent it out anymore because of what happened to the last guests we had.”

“holy shit.” sam looked to the guys, with wide eyes. 

“that’s actually insane.” colby said, rubbing his eye. “so do you live there or just use it as a vacation spot?”

“bit of both honestly, the spirits don’t bother me much. i was just there a few days ago and i stayed about three months, left with tons of scratches and stuff.” elias explained.

“do you still have visible marks?” 

“yeah, the longest one is on my leg, i can show you if you like.” the guys nodded, so he stands up and props his leg on the park bench, before rolling up his black pants. quickly a red shiny scratch is visible. it starts at his ankle and goes underneath his thigh. “it’s one of the weirder marks i’ve gotten. it’s shiny and feels almost like a burn, like blistered over and stuff.”

“holy shit, that’s crazy.” jake muttered.

“i don’t know if we should do this anymore.” colby laughs, jokingly crying.

“so on a scale of one to ten, how is this a good idea or are we going to die.” sam wondered.

“let’s just say it’s scarier then the stanley hotel.” jennifer answered.

“is that the key?” jake zooms into colby holding the key to the cabin. colby pauses for a second, having an idea. “would you let us see your cabin?” he asks to elias.

“uhh, i don’t know, i would have to be there to supervise.” “not just because i don’t know you, but also for you’re protection. the spirits know me well, even the negative ones, they don’t like other people.”

“jesus.” colby mumbles. “is that why you can’t rent it out anymore.” he nods slowly.

“we have a friend out there that we met from the summer camp thing. a few of them are still there. elias can probably get in contact with one of them to help you out. since they’re both wiccans.”

“so you’re friend is a... wait you’re a wiccan?” sam asks towards elias, pointing the camera in his direction, receiving a half nod. 

“after i became a medium it slowly transitioned into exploring witchcraft, i wouldn’t like 100% consider myself a wiccan but i do partake in that stuff.” he holds up his pagan necklace. 

“wow, so does your friend live around the cabin?” 

“yeah.” 

“now i see why it’s called witches forest.” sam laughed hesitantly. 

“so a lot of people there are wiccans i’m assuming?” colby asks, before receiving a nod. “witches forest, wiccans.” he does a weird voice to express how crazy this situation is.

“this is awesome, thank you so much for this, we would probably just of done another hotel video.” sam thanked her. “should we call corey?” he asks to the guys.

everyone begins to say goodbye, colby hugging jennifer and elias. “we’ll let you know how it goes.”

“but uh, i just wanted to say, i haven’t been there in awhile so be careful.” jennifer calls out to them.

jennifer and elias start walking back to their apartment. he glances towards the group they had just encountered. “they seem cool, colby’s pretty nice.”

“yeah i guess. i’m surprised you didn’t give them the key.”

“first, they’re strangers, second, they seem like novices, i don’t want their deaths to be on my hands.” elias joked.

“you could’ve gone with them.” she shrugs. elias pauses for a moment, thinking about it. maybe he should. they are trying to find the most haunted areas.. 

“i’ll think about it.”

it was early morning of the next day, and elias had been messaging with colby since he woke up talking about whether or not he should go up with them. colby has been trying to persuade him, borderline begging him to come. they think it would be awesome for the video and their paranormal experience. 

and secretly colby just wants to get to know him as well.

the four boys were in their car, on the way to the first house, to talk to a wiccan who is offering a reading, and more information on the witches forest.

“i was thinking about what the physic said a lot last night, about how corey and i are in danger, and i think they could be right. i hope we have service because we’ve never been in this forest, who knows, like what if we get lost right? that’s why i think bringing elias, who knows the area could be helpful.”

“honestly yeah, and he seems like a cool dude so.” jake shrugs, agreeing with the idea. corey then calls and agrees to come, making everyone so much more relieved. 

“let’s just act like we’re going to a cabin in the woods.” corey says, trying to lighten the mood as he gets into the car.  

they keep on driving, about twenty minutes out, pulling over only to get jake some food because he kept complaining about being hungry. they pull into a burger king, and grab some food. colby suggests sitting at a table so he can fill both corey and the viewers in about elias and the other wiccan.

“just to catch everyone up, we got some food and we are ten minutes away from the forest!” sam starts it off.

“i’ve been texting with both this wiccan and elias, who agreed on meeting us, but they want to meet us at her house. she was just like ‘yeah swing by, and i’ll show you my tarot cards and stuff.’” 

“well, let’s hope we don’t die.”

they walk out to the parking lot, and talk a bit more, explaining to corey. “me, colby, and jake met up with jennifer and this new guy, elias, so the reason why he’s texting to this random wiccan is because they’re friends, them two would meet up with her at summer camp, and she’s going to tell us about the area.” sam said.

as they start driving, they encounter the fog of the mountains, and they struggle to see out the window.

“yeah, elias is going to be with the wiccan, so atleast it’s not like we’re by ourselves with a complete stranger.” colby mentioned.

“well we don’t really know him either.”

“better then completely alone though.” he shrugged, continuing to drive until google maps said he was at the correct address.

“so what have they told you?” sam asked. 

“nothing really, just gave us the address and said see you then.” colby explained, shutting the car door. they walked up to the door, not even having to knock before someone opened the door. “hey colby!” elias said, arm on the door. 

“yoo hey.” colby gave a hug before smiling. “thanks for taking up our offer on this, having you here and talk about some of the stuff is super great for the video.” 

colby felt nervous, seeing elias stand confidentially at the door, he looked more relaxed today, grey sweatpants, black hoodie and his usual brown glasses. you can tell he wasn’t planning on coming. 

in the light, it was much easier to see his face. he also realized elias’ hair was slightly curly. 

“yeah it’s no problem.” elias said as the other wiccan presented herself. “good to see you again.” 

“hey, how are you guys?” she asked. “wanna come in? if you don’t mind i’ll have to sage you though.”

“yeah it’s no problem.”

after the boys were saged, they sat around the table and began to talk about the witches forest. “so why is it called witches forest?” sam asked, getting down to business. 

“there’s a lot of rituals that go on in this area, it used to be a spot with mobsters, there’s a lot of satanic rituals, which aren’t as bad or evil as you would think.” elias nods along, agreeing with her. 

“so you guys would consider yourselves wiccans in the way that you both study witchcraft. 

“yes, i identify as a wiccan, but i feel like it has a different perception of what you would think.”

“okay so can you explain that to us.” sam asked.

“i like to live my life by the moon cycles, so full moon would be a time of like creativity and energy, where as new moon is more introspective and..” she trails off as the door opens for the second time. 

“we’re trying to spend the night here, in the forest. do you think that’s a good idea or bad idea?”

elias grimances, shaking his head. 

“what’s that supposed to mean?!” corey fake cries.

“a lot of people have died up there.. not recently so i don’t think you’ll die.” she says positively. “if you want we can do a little tarot reading.” she suggests, waving over elias to help her with it.

“tarot reading?” colby repeats asking for clarification. 

“tarot cards really tell you what you’re feeling subconsciously, and they help give insight into the past, your future, or the present. and basically however you relate to the card, it tells you what’s going on with your inner-self or stuff you may be doing.” he explains, before sageing the cards.

“this basically helps to detach anything thats holding onto the cards, so for example, the past readings she’s done, it’s possible that those readings could effect yours. so when i sage the cards, it clears anything on them.” he hands over the cards to colby, who passes them to sam, to jake and then to corey, to get their presence onto the cards.

she takes the cards and sets them onto the table. a few gasps come from the guys after seeing the death card, “none of these are bad, so don’t be afraid.”

“the tower is an iffy card in my opinion, so it means danger and destruction, it’s basically like a very sudden unforeseen change, which means you have to rebuild. it can lead to the next chapter of your life. so it starts out negative and eventually it leads to rebuilding which is positive.” elias explains.

“yeah and chaos isn’t always a bad thing, which relates to the death card.” she taps onto it. 

“the next chapter of my life is death?” sam asked.

“no.” elias answered shortly. “the death card will almost never mean death or represent anything like that. it’s typically more like the end of an era, so it implies new beginnings. it also is commonly known as the card that describes self awareness.” he was briefly interrupted by a bang upstairs.

“this card is all about fear and anxiety.” she points out. “but not a real fear, more like you’re worrying about something too much. like it’s in your head, like when you can’t sleep and you’re terrified but it’s not something that you should be worrying about. it’s more like you’re imagining something, like making up a problem.”

“like making conspiracy theories about yourself.” jake adds in, earning weird looks from colby and sam.

“just being scared of something that isn’t that big of a deal, like you’re more afraid then you need to be.” elias adds.

“that’s basically our group.” sam comments.

they talked more about the different chapters of their life, corey refusing to do more tarot. she gave more advice on how to keep the guys safe at their campsite, like taking the sage, having a ring of salt and holding hands.

elias watches as they huddle into the corner of the room and talk about some of their plans together. “honestly guys, i don’t know if i can do this.” corey admits. “this shit is crazy, we don’t need more spirits trapped with us.”

“i think we just have to hurry up because it’s a few hours from sundown, and we don’t know the area too well, i don’t want us to get lost.” sam comments.

“do you think we should invite elias?” colby asked.

“brother, now why would we do that.” corey said, shaking his head.

“he knows the area, and i think he would be awesome for content, he can tell us more stories, we can get to know him and maybe do more ghost stuff with him in the future.” 

“i’m down.” jake shrugs.

“we don’t know him very well, but i do think he’d be beneficial for this.” sam doesn’t seem to care that much.

“okay well i won’t invite him if you guy’s arent sure.” they all to look corey. 

“fine, but i swear to god if he murders us, i’m going to murder you again.”

“okay awesome!” colby walks away from the guys and up to elias. “i was wondering if you wanted to come with us, like to our campsite.”

“oh. uhh, i mean i guess i could hang for a bit, but it would probably be weird to stay the night with you guys. my cabin isn’t too far away in the forest so i’ll go back there once you guys are settled in.”

“we’d be chill if you wanted to stay the night in a tent beside us or something, but it’s cool if not.”

“i’ll figure it out later.” he shrugs, and follows the guys to the car. elias sits in the passenger seat, sam giving it up to sit in the back, so he didn’t have to sit squished next to strangers.

they began to drive in the direction of witches forest, taking a right turn onto a gravel road. 

“so where do you suggest us staying the night exactly?” 

“well i would say definitely be near one of the main roads, so you’re near your car, but as in area, if you keep going down here, there’s some pretty flat ground with trees surrounding it.” elias points in the right direction.

they pull into a blank area, and start gathering their stuff. “just down this way.” he leads, while helping carrying one of their bags. 

“awesome, thank you.” sam thanks him, actually kind of surprised how much this stranger was helping them.

“do you need help setting up your tent, or?” he wondered.

“uhh..” jake mumbled, knowing he’s never put up a tent in his life. 

“that is a possibility.” sam chuckles. ”so like, did you group up in california or elsewhere?” he took what colby said earlier, about getting to know him, and ran with it.

“oh uh, no i grew up in a small town out of seattle, but i moved to la when i was 17.” elias answered, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“oh cool. why’d you leave seattle?” jake asked.

“just bad memories i guess.” he took a deep breath. “the house i grew up in.. my brother he died there when i was 6. his death brought me into the paranormal world.”

“oh, i’m sorry for your loss.” colby commented, beginning to build the tent.

“don’t be.” elias laughed it off. “it was a pretty natural death, he was born with heart complications, honestly a miracle he lived till 14. he was very positive and i’m sure he wouldn’t want people mourning, so i choose not to i guess.”

“that’s a good way to look at it.” colby smiled at the other. colby took a liking to him, he wasn’t sure why though but it felt like something was pushing him to get to know him.

“so you said you’re a medium?” corey asked, helping colby with the tent.

“yeah, the thing with my brother, it guided me to other spirits and i just kind of fell into it all. i feel things more the most people, i hear more, i sense more.” he paused. “i don’t feel any presences here but i feel sadness and regret.”

“that’s honestly really cool, so to become a medium does it need to be something that happens to you or can you like learn and study to become one?” colby asked, setting up the camera on a camping chair, pointed to elias.

“in my opinion it has to come to you, you can’t work for it. if you are gifted with the ability you can learn and study to enhance it but you can’t force it.”

“the tent’s looking good.” corey nodded towards it. “but i swear to god i don’t want to sleep here.” he begs, making everyone laugh.

once everything was set up, and looking good, elias decided to leave. “i’ll probably head up to the cabin.” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

“yo, you sure?” jake asks, actually wanting him to stay. in the past few hours they’ve all been vibing pretty hard.

“yeah no pressure to leave.” colby said, giving him a smile. 

“i don’t wanna intrude too much on your video or anything, but feel free to come to the cabin if you have any problems or something crazy happens. can’t promise staying at the cabin will be any better but still. i have wifi, hot water, beds, all that stuff so don’t be shy.” elias smiled back.

“alright, thank you.” sam nodded. 

“make sure to say goodbye before you leave though!” elias called out, as he walked away. 

“bye!” colby shouted.

“cya!” jake yelled.

“dude, you’re staring.” corey pointed out, laughing at his friend. colby turned to look at him, before rolling his eyes.

“shut up, i just think he’s cool.”

corey winked to sam and jake, them chuckling to eachother.

it was hours later, maybe 3 or 4, and elias was in his cabin, drinking a glass of wine, while reading one of the books from the old bookshelf. his days here were simple. he’d tend to the plants, garden, read some books and drink wine. he wish he had a more extroverted life, and would sometimes regret missing out on opportunities. such as hanging out with the guys back at the campsite. 

he wondered why he didn’t just stay, when they were clearly okay with him there, but he was still unfortunately a stranger. they were okay with him there, but they didn’t want him there. 

‘god i need friends’, he thought. he’s been so lonely, his only friend being jennifer, and they weren’t all that close anymore since he’s started studying witchcraft. elias has only had a few friends in his lifetime, people thinking he’s weird or abnormal for his interests and gifts, and he’s only been in one relationship which ended around 6 months. 

he honestly hasn’t felt that interested in people, elias finds them too generic, but he did take interest in the group. no matter how goofy they all seemed, they were cool. especially colby, he seemed to care the most. and he was kinda cute so that’s a plus. but he was probably straight.

he paused, hearing a bang upstairs, before sighing. his only friends are the spirits of the forest. he took his glasses off and gave them a rub, as they got a bit foggy. 

‘maybe a bath will ease my mind’ as he began to run a bath he heard a scream for help. his eyes widened at the voice, that was definitely colby. 

“help!” it was a gut-retching scream. elias turned off the bath, and as he was running to the front door, he turned the outside lights on, immediately lighting up the area. 

“colby?!” he called out, opening the door. 

“elias?!” suddenly, he came into view. “holy fuck, thank god.” he sighed, relieved. he rushed to the door. 

“what the hell happened out there? where is everyone?”

“i-i i got lost, i don’t know where i am, i was chasing after a shadow and i thought sam and jake were after me but i went in circles and i walked for so long it’s been like 15 minutes and i don’t know where they are.”

“woah, colby are you hurt?” elias reaches out to the others side, seeing a few smaller scratches. he gently touches them, earning a hiss out of colby.

“ouch.” he chuckles. “anyways, i really need help finding them, i don’t know what the fuck happened.”

“you said you saw a shadow figure? was it just a shadow or were there any visible descriptions?”

“just a shadow.” he shrugs, shivering a bit. 

“theres been a few people spotting shadows around here, a lot of people think one of the main shadows, it’s of a larger male and it’s predicted that it’s the spirit of the husband i told you guys about earlier, and that he’s stuck in this forest as punishment.”

“jesus.” colby exhales. 

“here, come in for a second, i’ll get you a heavier jacket and i’ll get a bandage for your side.”

“oh, thank you so much.” colby rubs his neck, awkwardly standing in the others home. “this cabin is actually beautiful.” he said, not expecting it.

“haha yeah, i take pride in it. nobody ever is here to see how gorgeous the wood and plants are.”

“oh why’s that?”

“i just don’t have many friends.” elias said, while grabbing a few items. “gets lonely up here.”

“hey well, you can consider us friends, i think you’re cool as hell.” colby smiles, taking the jacket, and putting it over his shoulder. “it would be awesome to have you come with us to other haunted places.”

“i-” elias was about to decline, before he thought for a minute. he knew he would regret declining. “sure, why not.” he gestured for colby to move his arm so he could wrap his side. 

“that should do it.” he gave him a pat on the shoulder. “now, we really have to get you back to your friends, they’re probably freaking out.”

“yeah.” colby agreed, rubbing his side. 

“do you mind if i spend the night with you guys? i have a feeling.. like i can feel something bad in your future, and i don’t think it’s safe for you guys alone.”

“oh god..” colby sighed, not ready for whatever he’s talking about. elias grabbed a few more things, and shoved it into a backpack. “it would be appreciated if you stayed with us.” he laughed it off, pretending he didn’t care too much, but he actually felt pretty nervous about the idea. 

he’s never really found guys that attractive or anything but something about elias, it wasn’t even his looks, something about his personality or dare he say ‘spirit’ was alluring. colby just needed to know more, needed to get close to him.

“okay, let’s go.” he said, turning off the house lights, and turning on his flashlight. 

they walked through the forest, trying to avoid all of the unnerving noises they heard. “thank you.” elias said quietly.

“what? why?”

“because, today has been the most social interaction i’ve had in awhile.” he chuckled. they continued to walk in peaceful silence, colby instinctively walking closer to elias. they smiled to eachother, elias having to look away and blush out of sight. ‘jesus, what is happening to me.’

they walked a bit more, and finally began to see bright lantern lights, similar to colby’s. “guys!” he shouted.

“no way, colby!” corey shouted, running straight to him out of relief.

“guys!”

“holy shit it’s colby!” 

“colby!”

“what the fuck happened to you.” sam shook his head. they all looked closer and saw another person. as they got closer they realized it was elias.

“holy shit.” corey exclaimed.

“are you okay bro?” jake asked.

“the shadow person, i kept chasing it, i saw it again. it ran so i ran after it, i ended up going in circles and i got lost so i started screaming for help and i saw a cabin, thank god it was elias’.

“did you hear the scream? it was like a female scream.” sam explained. 

colby went to sit in a chair, his side aching. “no i didn’t, i scratched my side though.” he lifted his shirt to show the bandage. 

“dude, me and jake saw like a baby or something small hung.” sam said.

“bro, i looked at it, and my first thought was that it was a baby hanging, it was swaying and everything.”

“wait.. you said you saw a baby hanging?” elias looked at them in pure shock. “holy fuck.. you saw her.” he mumbled.

“what?” sam asked, eyes wide.

“what the fuck is going on.” corey shouted.

“the.. the story i told you guys, about the husband killing his pregnant wife. a few people i rented the cabin out to, they would see shadows of a hanging dead baby outside the windows.”

“holy fuck!” corey screamed, jumping before walking a few steps away.

“that is fucking crazy.” jake exclaimed, holding onto his head.

“i can’t believe this.” sam held the camera, beginning to shake. “okay, a rule, we can’t separate again.”

they began to talk about what the shadow could’ve been, talking about the biker kids they had seen earlier in the day.

“it definitely was not a biker, you would’ve heard it a mile away, and nobody just goes for a walk in the middle of the night.” elias shakes his head in disbelief at the situation. 

“i’m not staying out here any longer.” jake says, running into the tent. everyone else begins to pack away their stuff, making sure that if they got scared again, they could leave without having to worry about their scattered belongings. 

sam pulls out the camera once everything is put away, and gives the viewers a quick update. “just a little update guys, we did clean up our entire campsite, and now we’re going to chill in here for a little bit, because we don’t know what’s out here.” he gestures inside the tent.

“is it alright if i stay here? i don’t feel like walking back to the cabin.” he asks.

“oh yeah of course.” sam practically invites him in. “you’ll just have to deal with our gross selves.”

“i think i’ll be fine, i was a babysitter for 3 years of my life.” he joked, earning laughs from everyone.

a small fight ensues about sleeping bags with the guys, and elias sits off to the side of the tent, not wanting to get too close and make anyone uncomfortable. he watches as colby pokes around at corey’s pocket. 

“brotherrrr, scared the fuck outta me.” corey cries out. “it’s either colby hitting on me again or a ghost.” elias laughed at that.

“i like to use shrek’s belly as a pillow.” jake mumbles, away from the drama.

a few minutes go by, and bugs in the tent frighten elias, while sam and colby start swatting at them before jake and corey talk about the white people face. elias, guilty of making that face more then once tonight.

the rest of the night was filled with fivesome jokes, jake playing with shrek into the camera, dance parties, sam touching more spiders in the tent, and colby trying to rest his eyes.

he originally laid near corey, between him and elias. he was resting on the end of his sleeping bag, feeling exhausted with the night so far. after another bug was squashed, they placed the camera back in the center of everyone.

elias was the closest to the camera, slightly out of frame, colby close by, corey leaning to the front, jake beside him, and sam on the other side also out of frame. “who keeps farting?” colby asked jokingly annoyed.

“yo what is that smell bro.” colby started cringing, holding his nose, causing everyone to laugh, corey the most.

“who farted dude?” jake commented about the smell looking towards sam.

“i don’t smell anything.” he shrugged carelessly, elias agreeing with him.

“yeah cause it was you!” 

“someone ripped ass, and it was me two minutes ago.” corey revealed, laughing like a madman. 

“my face was right by your asshole!” colby shouted, making a disgusted face to the camera before slowly shuffling away from the guy, and closer to elias. he dramatically collapsed onto elias’ leg and begged him not to do the same.

colby found his leg oddly comfortable, holding onto it like a pillow. he didn’t want to get too over the top and make elias uncomfortable, so tried to stay away from the boys lap.

then, it was back to jake putting shrek up to the camera, pretending to ring an imaginary doorbell. 

“look guys, stop recording if we’re actually going to fuck.” corey pulled his sleeping bag over his face.

“yeah i don’t wanna be on camera.” elias said, holding his hands up, making everyone snicker. it was kind of awesome how they could go from complete strangers, thinking eachother was creepy, to then making jokes like this.

speaking of jokes, everyone made comments about colby and how he was sleeping all cuddly on the other, and god was it unbearable. 

it was awkward, and uncomfortable but oddly enough, the friendly teasing felt better then being alone, so he dealt with it, and listened to corey’s little story about the boys and the shadowman. 

suddenly, noises started getting louder. exhales, footsteps, bangings. corey felt uncomfortable, and kept demanding to leave the tent. everyone paused, trying to listen to the surrounding sounds, sam hearing a car, and elias hearing thuds. 

“yo, should we just try to go to sleep?” colby asked, genuinely really tired.

“uh, no.” corey answered like it was obvious

elias felt the need to interrupt. “listen, the noises are obviously scary and whatever, but you need to understand that you guys are overthinking. think back to the tarot cards. you are scaring yourselves.” he tried to explain, as a way to calm them down.

it definitely didn’t work, corey hearing another exhale, and telling everyone to get out of the tent as a safety precaution. 

eventually everyone began to rush out of the tent, into darkness, sam screaming for someone to get a light. elias put on his glasses, and grabbed a flashlight, pointing it around the camp.

he heard rustling coming from a near bush and started walking up to it, he peeked around trying to find what the noise could’ve been. “elias, hurry up!” sam called, as everyone began running to the car. 

he caught up to them, not caring anymore and jumping in the back with jake and corey. “holy fuck.” he exhaled. “where are we going?”

“jennifer’s cabin.” corey replied, nodding at the idea.

sam’s phone started to ring as colby was driving on a tight road. “yo, yo, look!” he answered the call, everyone hearing absolute gibberish. it was random noises, deep exhales and other strange noises.

“that sounds like someone fucking with us.” colby stated, as sam talked about telling all his friends he was coming here.

“holy shit, i don’t think it’s someone pranking you guys.” elias stared, wide eyed at his phone before holding it up so everyone could see. 

“fuck.” jake muttered. “answer! answer!”

elias answered the call, putting it on speaker phone. the sounds coming from his call was much different from sam’s. these, sounded like chants, as if a huge group of people were shouting into the phone, cursing the boy. “guys, what the fuck is this.” he had experienced everything, but never has he gotten no caller id calls, with scary ass chants. “are you fucking with me right now?” he asked the group, tears welling in his eyes.

“no! no! of course not!” colby assured him. “we don’t do shit like that.”

he pulled into the driveway of jennifer’s cabin, immediately opening the doors and seeing the pouring rain. at the door, jake started shaking the water off of him, complaining about being wet.

quickly, elias could see sam was struggling. he was digging through his bag trying to find the key. he was beginning to panic, and everyone was starting to realize. 

“wait you don’t have the key?” corey questioned, getting nervous. “sam.” he sighed.

“was it in your pockets or the backpack?” colby asked.

“when do you remember last having it?” jake watched as sam patted his pockets.

“n-no i had it today, i showed the girl that jennifer gave me the key.” he defended. “here, just check the car, i swear, i have it.” 

“really try to remember, did you put it in your bag or your pockets?” colby kept pushing.

sam frantically looked around the car as the others judged him, complaining and blaming him for losing the key. “hey honestly sam, don’t worry about it, it’s just a mistake.” elias tried to reassure him everything was fine, only for corey to say something.

“i thought.. it’s either here or in the backpack.. unless is it in our bags? should we check the trunk?” everyone was freaking out, and elias stood there awkwardly watching. he felt bad for sam.. he could feel the sadness and guilt dripping off of him.

“we need this key. we can’t get in. dude jennifer trusted us with this key, you can’t-”

“is this the only key?” “sam, are you fucking serious, dude. i’m not trying to be rude, but first you lowkey lost colby, and now you don’t have the key. i’m just saying, this is why i don’t like doing this type of shit.” corey raised his voice. 

jake and corey agreed they didn’t want to go back to the tent, as colby kept filming. elias took a breath before saying excuse me and pulling sam to the side. 

sam looked confused, but his guilt was overtaking it. “what?” he looked at the other, wondering why he dragged him a few feet away. 

“dude, don’t listen to them, losing the key, like i said is a simple mistake, any of them could have done it, they’re not upset at you, they’re just upset at the cirumstances. but you’re forgetting i have a place just a few minutes away.” elias tried calming him down, seeing tears well in his eyes. he could tell sam wasn’t one that could deal with being yelled at.

“it’s not anything big, it’s a two bedroom with a pull out couch.” elias shrugged. “please just accept my offer, alright?” sam nodded, wiping any sort of water away from his eyes.

“thank you elias, really.” sam suddenly grabbed onto him, giving him a side hug. 

“no worries.” he smiled, leading him back to the car, before they explained the plan to the others. everyone could see the disappointment in sam’s eyes, as he sat quiet in the passenger seat. 

jake whispered to elias, about what happened out there, him shaking it off as to say it was private. he guides colby down the different roads, and in a few minutes they were outside his cabin. 

“here we are!” he welcomes them inside, turning all the lights on.

“shit this is nice.” corey nodded, jumping onto the couch. 

“woah woah, take your dirty ass boots off.” elias joked, watching as he threw them off in the direction of the door.

“thank you so much for having us here.” sam smiled, setting his bag down. 

“really, don’t worry about it, i’m glad you’re here and not outside.” elias took their stuff and organized it by the doors. “okay so, there’s two bedrooms, you guys can take those if you want, i don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”

“hell no.” colby laughed, refusing to have him give up his own room in his own house.

“mkay whatever, someone can sleep in my room with me i guess, because trust me the couch is very uncomfortable to sleep on. plus the rooms are much safer. the living room is the scariest, you’ll hear the most shit out here.” he chuckled. “you guys can look around if you want, also feel free to eat anything you find, and use the wifi, passwords on the fridge.” he yawned. “i’m going the fuck to bed.” 

the guys chuckled, taking him up on that offer. 

for over half an hour, they decided to eat some of the snacks in his fridge, and taking crackers from the pantry. “god i was so hungry.” jake moaned into the leftover burger he was eating.

“okay guys, take it easy, we aren’t trying to raid their food.” colby snickered, watching as his friends ate like hungry rats. 

“yeah good point.” sam took a handful of crackers and put the box back. “should we talk about sleeping arrangements?”

“there’s no fucking way i’m sleeping on the couch or anywhere in the living room after what he said.” corey stated, heading into the direction of the guest bedroom. 

“yeahh, me neither.” jake followed after him.

“so.” colby shrugged. “do you care where you’re sleeping tonight?”

“not really, i’ve gotten to know elias pretty well so it doesn’t really matter to me.” the brunette squints at him. 

“what did you guy’s talk about?” he questions. 

“honestly, when he pulled me aside i was shocked. he like saw how overstimulated i was with the whole situation and he completely calmed me down, comforted me and everything.” he threw his arms as he was talking.

“yeah, i’m sorry about that, we were all just frustrated about the key.”

“don’t worry about it.” sam smiled. “are you and elias getting close? you were like all over him, sleeping back at the tent.” he was genuinely curious, considering he hasn’t seen his friend like this in awhile.

colby paused, thinking about everything that’s happened tonight. “honestly... i don’t know, it’s been really weird for me. i’m so confused with what im feeling.” he shook his head, so unsure.

“hm, i’ll go sleep with corey and jake.” they both nodded to that. “goodnight colby!” sam called out, walking in the same direction as the others did.

colby slowly approached elias’ room, pushing open the door gently. both bedside table lights were on, followed by a few candles around the room. he could see that the other boy was still awake. “oh hey.” he put down his book.

“hey elias. thought you were going to bed?”

“i was, heard some loud munchers in my kitchen though.” he giggled, as colby apologized. “no, honestly it’s okay, i was actually surprised how fast you guys decided to come to bed.”

elias yawned once more, stretching his arms out on the bed. “i can either sleep on the floor, make a little bed and shit, or if you’re cool i’ll just stay on the right of the bed.”

“literally don’t worry about it, not the first time i’m sleeping with a dude-” he paused, cutting himself off. “god that sounded bad.” he laughed, blushing with embarrassment. 

“wouldn’t be my first time either.” elias smirked, blowing a fake kiss before wheezing at their dumb jokes. 

colby moved closer, setting his personal backpack down and folding his jacket on the table. he shuffled towards the bed, and sat ontop of it. “i have no idea if i’m going to sleep tonight.” he sighed.

“that’s fair. it’s crazy out here. if you want we can just stay up and talk for awhile?”

“actually.. that would be nice.” colby rubbed the back of his neck. in was silent for a few seconds, him getting comfortable under the covers. “so..”

“how did you like the witches forest? scary enough for you guys?” the other asked, trying to start a good conversation.

“oh definitely one of the scariest places we’ve been to, like with the history of it and everything.”

“what other places have you been to?”

“uhh the stanley hotel, the biltmore, queen mary, cobb estate, griffin park, and we’ve explored so many creepy places, like morgues and abandoned hospitals.” colby explained.

“geez, no wonder you guys are haunted.” he laughs. 

“do you think we are? we joke about it but im genuinely curious if we are.”

elias thinks for a minute. “i don’t think you’re haunted. however, i can sense something with you. with you and corey. whatever is following you, is completely different then what is attached to corey. notice the different in words.” he points out. “i think you have gotten yourself into many negative situations, not just paranormal.” “would you consider yourself lonely, or sad?”

colby exhaled shakily. “yes, sometimes.”

“spirits love following people that are lonely, they find them to be like easy prey, vulnerable.” he emphasizes the last word. elias closes his eyes, really focusing on colby’s presence. “i think the spirit that is with you is also lonely. they are following along with you, because you are feeding into it, giving it attention. and that’s fine, but if you don’t want it with you, you have to make it clear.”

“is it friendly?” he asked.

“yes. it’s friendly. i can’t tell you where you picked this spirit up, but it’s positive, and enjoys your company. it will not hurt you-” he stops, feeling something float by him. “it will not hurt you, it doesn’t want to, that’s not it’s intent. infact, it wants to protect you. noises you might hear, when you go to a haunted area, it very well could be this spirit trying to assert dominance with other ones.”

“holy.” colby tried to calm his breathing. “this is crazy. as long as it’s friendly, then i welcome it.” “so, do you think corey’s ghost is like bad?”

“i wouldn’t say bad, but when i was sitting near him earlier, it isn’t as friendly as yours. it likes the fear that comes with scaring him, i’d even go as far as, it wants to scare him more, it wants to up it. and with that spirit challenging him, i am nervous for his health both physically and mentally.”

“jesus, i have to tell him that in the morning, he’ll probably freak.” he sighed. “it’s so cool how you can like sense this stuff, does it ever get overwhelming?”

“allll the time.” elias chuckles. “sometimes i can just be in a library back in la, and i’ll feel like some version of spirits and like all these weird emotions, and i have to leave.”

“wow i’m sorry that comes with such an amazing gift.”

“it’s okay, i feel at peace with it now. i think my brothers with me, helping me deal with it all. i think he realizes how alone i am, and has decided to follow me.” he laughs at himself. “sorry, sorry, let’s talk about something more fun.”

colby laughed along. “so do you have a girlfriend?” he wondered, making elias pause and blush lightly.

“no, i’m single.” “goes along with the loneliness, if you feel me.” he chuckled. “you?”

“same, it’s hard to date now that sam and i’s channel has blown up. a lot of people have tried to use me for like clout and stuff.” the other frowned at that, apologizing for his past experiences. “no, no it’s okay, i just hope i’ll find someone soon, i do feel you, it gets so lonely.” he fake cries.

elias sips his glass of wine, offering some to colby. “i’m a vodka and rum kinda guy.” 

and soon enough, the boys were drinking, gossiping to each other about absolutely everything. colby was a very talkative drunk it seemed. he was blabbing about his friends, girls, ghosts, anything. “so like, are you gay?” he asked.

elias spat out his wine back into the glass before turning to colby. “uh wow..” he rubbed the back of his neck. “where did that come from?”

“i-i don’t know.” colby admitted, trying to hide himself with the blanket. he really didn’t know why he asked, his weird confused feelings mixed with being drunk just made him ask, he was so curious.

“i’m bisexual.. how’d you know i was into men?” 

“i.. i didn’t.” colby mumbled into the blanket. he felt himself shaking, so nervous and anxious. he took a deep breath and exhaled aggressively before jolting up and looking right at elias. “i didn’t know you liked men but i think i do.” he rushed it out. 

“i’ve never felt anything for a guy before so i’m pretty freaked out right now and-d confused but i think i like you.” he rubs his eyes, embarrassed and uh pretty drunk.

“wait really?” he paused for a moment. ‘holy shit’ he thought. he never would have expected this, he just thought colby loved being physical with his friends from all the touches earlier in the night.

seeing that his confusing feelings were being reciprocated, it made elias the happiest he’s been in awhile. “dude, i feel the same way.”

colby stopped, completely still. both boys were completely shocked at each others confessions. 

“like i feel like i’ve known you for awhile.” elias commented.

“same.” he tried to think of what to say next, where to go from here. 

“hey.” the other touched his arm. “don’t get too nervous about this whole situation, we have plenty of time to get to know eachother, plenty of time for you to figure out everything you’re going through.” “don’t feel pressured into anything.”

colby thought for a few minutes. “thank you, i appreciate it.” “it’s.. it’s so weird feeling like this. ever since i was younger i’ve been so convinced that i’m straight, and now i’m getting all these feelings for you and it’s honestly making me scared. what if i do like you? does that mean i have to come out? tell my friends, family and viewers? what if i don’t and this is just a mistake?”

“you can.. or we can figure it out one step at a time.” elias smiled. “and by the way, never feel pressured to come out, it’s a personal and heavy thing to do.”

he shivered, tears threatening to spill. it was such a vulnerable moment for him. elias reached out to the boy, offering a hug. 

they shared a tight hug, elias rubbing his back out of comfort. 

their moment was interrupted by an incredibly loud bang, and three loud screams from the guys in the other room. “colby!” one of them shouted.

they pulled apart from their hug, just as the three barged into their room. “did you fucking hear that, bro?!” sam questioned, before looking at the people in front of him. he acknowledged how close they were, the slight tears in colby’s eyes,how intimate the room lighting was, the wine, the white rum.. 

oh fuck, they just interrupted a moment. 

the other two didn’t notice, too scared of the noises they’ve been hearing all night. “that was the loudest one yet!” jake announced. 

“i’m not going back in there.” corey whined.

“we’ve been hearing shit over there, what about you?” sam asked, before mouthing a sorry to the two sitting in bed. elias smiled at the gesture, before trying to wipe off his smirk.

“nope.” colby shook his head, his eyes less red then a few minutes ago.

“it’s safer in here.” corey stated, setting down the pillow he brought from the other room, and curling into a ball onto the floor, making elias laugh.

“are we having a sleepover?” he asked.

“oh, fucking totally.” jake snickered, running back to the other room and grabbing every blanket and pillow he could.

sam made a gesture with his finger, calling over colby. he noticed and walked to the bathroom with him. 

“uh, hey, sorry about that, we didn’t mean to interrupt you guys.”

“interrupt? you uh didn’t interrupt anything we were just talking.”

sam made a face, before nodding. it was his business, so when he wanted to tell him, he would, so he left it alone. “alright.. you ready for this sleepover?” he smiled.

“fuckkk yeahh.”

it had been over an hour, everyone was dead asleep, corey snoring. elias was the only one awake, he was too in thought to sleep. he watched over colby, who was laying right infront of him on the floor with the rest of the guys. they were each laying on both bed mattresses, covered in blankets, basically in a line.

he had been debating to put an arm around colby, but.. if they woke up like that he could expose colby to the rest of his friends, or atleast cause him to get teased. 

after a bit, he decided to shuffle his left arm under colby, so it was less noticeable. he held the boy, smiling, before finally falling asleep.

he didn’t know this, but colby was awake the entire time, smiling, wondering what the frick he was gonna do about this goofy medium he found himself possibly falling in love with...

[pancreasman]

I made more fankids…

And a rival and best friend for Artie…

More info under the cut

Y’all already know my Shadamy kids but Sunny is now a former G.U.N. agent. She quit. The reason why is a mystery.

We got some Knuxouge kids! Mirage, Warden, and Prickle. Mirage was meant to become the next guardian of the master emerald, but ended up passing it down to her little brother Warden who wanted it way more than her and became an actual G.U.N. agent like her mother. She takes after her mother in that way. She’s ultra tall and Warden is mad cause she was already taller than him at one year younger. Also she’s trans. Good for her. Warden is the “serious” one who is really dedicated to being the next guardian. He’s got the braincell of the three and is a short king. Prickle hates everyone and likes to be alone in nature. Despite Warden being the next guardian, Prickle is the most in tune with the emerald and angel island in general and often communicates with Tikal’s spirit. But nobody else can see, so for example, Rouge sees him talk to himself and is like “who tf is he talking to”

Tailsream kids! Lars, Specs, and Posy. L.A.R.S. stands for Laboratory Assistive Remedial Software. He is an ai that Tails made shortly before Specs was born to help him in the lab that turned out to be sentient. After specs was born, Lars dedicated himself to protecting her and being the perfect big brother. So Tails was like “Welp, I guess I have two children now.” and adopted him. They say he’s “15” just because that’s how he looks and acts. Specs is best girl. She’s very safety-minded and polite and she carries around a seemingly bottomless backpack full of anything you could ever possibly need. She’s called Specs after her glasses but also for how she would help Tails in his workshop and list of software “specs” for him. Posy is a little monster who revels in creating chaos, but she’s cute so she gets away with it. Also, she likes to drag Prickle around to act as her Guinea pig and he lets her because he’s too nice to say no.

The Silvaze Twins! They both live with their mother in the palace since they never know when the future will go to shit again, and Silver is usually there with them acting as Royal consort. Ember was born a few minutes before her brother, making her heir to the throne, which both are 100% fine with. Ember strives to be the best heir possible and takes her job very seriously. She loves to study and also practices fencing as neither she nor her brother inherited their parents psychic or pyrokinetic abilities. Her brother, Cinder, on the other hand, hates being in the palace and prefers to goof off most of the time. He’ll often try to cause trouble around the castle, which Ember will usually try to stop, except when he occasionally convinces her to join in. While Ember enjoys more classical studies, Cinder is fascinated by dimensional science and time travel and longs to explore all the countless dimensions out there.

Finally, some neighborhood kids. While Sunny’s main group is Mirage and Ember, Artie has these two weirdos. There’s his best friend Peppy, a reckless, energetic mouse who loves going on misadventures around town but is often betrayed by her own clumsiness. She and Artie are constantly arguing over who is the other’s sidekick and often have to save each other’s butts, but one thing’s for sure is these two idiots are inseparable. Spot, on the other hand, is the local delinquent and Artie’s official rival. Why? Idk, it doesn’t really matter. After all “all heroes have a rival” although this rivalry is often forgotten in favor of teaming up to get the job done or just to hang out. However, they still definitely hate each other and don’t like each other at all. They totally don’t enjoy the bantering or have a crush on the other at all. Pure rivals

Also, Sonic doesn’t have kids, he’s just the cool pseudo-uncle who visits a lot and babysits. And they all definitely have big family get-togethers and family dinners all the time. Because found family is the most important family of all. Anyway, thanks for reading imma go nap.

[eepuniverse]

Hexel's World Tour Week 6 – Seoul

Everyone, I'm home. I know it sounds so cliche, but the moment I got off the plane in Seoul, I felt like I was coming home🇰🇷❤️. I already knew I could speak Korean, so getting through the airport and to the main city was a breeze (but can we talk about Incheon airport? It is so cool. I could literally spend a whole day at just the airport). I quickly got to my hotel in the middle of Seoul and it is way too nice. I feel like an imposter staying here hahaha.

There are some parts of the city that feel so familiar to me, even though I can't fully remember them. One day, I ended up just walking instinctively to this hole-in-the-wall kalgooksu restaurant and had the best noodle soup ever! 🍜(or I think it's the best I've ever had. It also felt so familiar!) Another place that felt super familiar was Dongdaemun and the Design Plaza. It kind of looks like a spaceship, but I knew exactly where to exit the subway station to get there. It was like instinct. The markets in Dongdaemun are so nice! They have so much fashion and accessories 👗 it was all so overwhelming. But I was able to buy gifts for Georgia while I was there

Talking about cool shops, I just wandered around Insadong for like half a day. There are so many side streets with cafes and small shops that you wouldn't even know were there unless you went to explore. From Insadong, I ended up walking to Bukchon traditional village. Both Insadong and Bukchon are known for their traditional hanok houses. And you all, I could LIVE in one of these. They're so beautiful and smell amazing like wood and paper! I found a place in one of these hanok houses called Aromind which lets you design your own perfume scent! It was so cool and I made one for Krista (hope she likes it!) 🎁

I also wrote down all the food places I loved to go with Dustin if we ever come to Seoul together, including this place that does bbq ribs DIPPED 🍖🧀 in melted cheese and a jjajangmyeon place that handrolls their noodles! I wanted to get Dustin a whole package of Hanwoo--prime Korean BBQ beef (did you know you could buy those?!)--but I was worried about getting it through customs, also, it was a lot to ship back to the US. So I got Dustin some green tea from Ossulloc 🍵, I know it's not technically food, but it's food adjacent! And their tea house in Gwanhun-Dong was so gorgeous with all the traditional ceramics and the little displays about how the teas are roasted! Plus, they're right by Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. They told me Jogyesa is the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The building dates back to the late 14th century! And you can write your wish on a piece of paper and hang it like a little flag. All the wishes fluttering in the air were so beautiful!

I didn't mean to organize my tour around Seoul based on buying the perfect gifts for my friends, but it turned out that way. So I knew I had to find something amazing for Mac, and I did in Gangnam! That neighborhood kind of reminds me of midtown New York with all the skyscrapers and the fancy hotels and buildings. They have the flagship store to this amazing sunglasses store called Gentle Monster. But they don't just sell sunglasses, they also have amazing art displays that the store clerk told me rotates regularly! In fact, lots of the cool high fashion stores do fun artsy displays in Seoul! From there, I just popped over to Lotte World Tower and bought ALL the duty free skincare! I can't wait to try all my facemasks with the band! Apparently Lotte World Tower is the tallest building in South Korea. And they even have an aquarium in there!

[spicysix]

「eddie munson X gn!reader • roadtrip!AU」

3k words | prev | masterlist | ao3 warnings: all the touristy informations were taken from this amazing video. if stuff changed between 1980, when the video was made, and '86, well, we'll ignore that! songs of the chapter: the last in line - dio • the first day in august - carole king author's note: it's over :( i had the best time writing this fic, it's my baby, has been my main focus since the beginning of this year and i'm so very proud of having written, posted and finished it. thank you so much to everyone who liked, reblogged and commented. this fic means the world to me. love you all and see you soon!

Friday, August 1

Eddie took you to Seattle.

As you and him had gone to sleep early the day before, after all the activity tired you out, you both woke up naturally before the sun had even risen. Eddie thought it was a good idea to go ahead and get going to your next destination so you could arrive extra early and enjoy the day better.

He was saying that based on the thought that you’d move on after that, head to another new place; but the minute you passed Bellevue and crossed the first bridge to Mercer Island, the soft drizzle cleaning the dusty van and cooling the weather, you looked at Eddie and his face seemed different. He had a new glow to his eyes that you hadn’t seen before so far, a smile was slowly pulling his lips upwards as he stared at the city around him in awe.

And you just knew, somehow.

He wasn’t going anywhere after that.

He drove around for a good while before finding a neighborhood that didn’t look so expensive and a motel that you could afford with the rest of your government money. You still had a nice portion of it, but you knew his was running out, and the prospect of staying in Seattle indefinitely just grew with that. The drizzle had stopped by the time you found a place to stay, and the two of you took turns showering before deciding to go out and see more of the city.

He wanted to explore by foot again and you couldn’t say no to his big pleading eyes so you agreed. The motel reception offered tourist brochure guides just like the one in Sioux did, so you grabbed one on your way out. You and Eddie walked some blocks hand in hand before getting in the first bus headed downtown, and you memorized the number so you’d know how to get back later. Seattle was the biggest city you’ve been to so far in the trip, and the chances of getting lost were higher so you had to pay attention. It wouldn’t stop you from encouraging Eddie’s exploring, though.

You walked around a few more blocks before deciding to follow the brochure’s hint of getting a monorail ride. The monorail made no stops as it was a short ride to the Space Needle, and you and Eddie weren’t the only tourists on it, pointing at the windows to the pretty views of downtown Seattle.

Of course, you caught the elevator to the top of the Space Needle, embracing your tourist selves, and almost lost track of time at the observation deck. The weather had cleared out completely, and you marveled at the almost perfect view of Mount Rainier. It felt like the clouds left as you arrived just so you were able to see it.

“I’ve been to Chicago and Indy, and I know they’re both bigger, but this looks huge,” he said as you were staring at the buildings. You asked him when he’s been to those cities. “I went to Indy last year, a concert. And Wayne took me to Chicago on his last work trip as a truck driver before he settled at the plant when I started living with him.”

You hummed at his answer. “My grandma took me to Chicago too. The month before she passed away. It makes me have mixed feelings about the city because it was so weird and twice as heartbreaking how well she was during our trip, and how fast she got sick and died. But it’s also the place where I made a lot of my happiest memories with her.”

Eddie didn’t answer you, and you honestly didn’t expect him to. But he stepped closer to you and his shoulder pressed to yours as he intertwined your pinky finger with his. He smiled at you, a sweet comforting thing, and you rested your head against his shoulder as the two of you watched the city for a few more minutes.

Eddie wanted to visit the Science Center after you left the Space Needle, so you headed there next and occupied the last bit of your morning. The ticket fees weren’t cheap, but there were so many interesting exhibits inside that it paid off. Eddie was jiggling with excitement, and you walked behind him at all times as he admired and contemplated everything. He couldn’t get you tickets to the planetarium, but you promised him that you’d go another day, and he looked radiant — maybe catching the undertone that you’d be staying in Seattle longer.

You left the museum headed east until you ended up at a park at the southernmost point of Lake Union. You wandered around and there was a huge History museum, the ticket fees cheaper than the Science Center ones and Eddie actually liked History more than he liked Science, so you convinced him to get inside that one too.

And, what a great idea that was.

The Museum’s core exhibit was a full, detailed story of Seattle and you watched closely as Eddie got enthralled with everything about The Emerald City. As he read and learned about the Fire of 1889, and how so many things were destroyed and rebuilt, he touched the scars on his jaw, and you understood how that story got to him personally. Someone passing by saw it, saw him, and his scars, and stared openly and rudely. Eddie was too engrossed still reading the exhibit’s panels to realize he was being stared at, but you glared at them from behind Eddie’s back until they left.

The Museum visit took up the first couple of hours of your afternoon, and you left it and started searching for a place for a late lunch. Eddie told you all about what he had learned, retold you everything the exhibit taught him about Seattle, and you honestly weren’t as enamored with it as he was, but you didn’t mind him rambling about it for hours. Actually, for as long as he wanted to talk, you would happily listen. You might’ve not been that much enamored by Seattle, but you were definitely growing enamored with Eddie Munson.

Your belly swirled by that thought alone.

After some good walking, you ended up closer to the bay and found a place to eat, somewhere with Seattle specialties. It was a small restaurant, not as expansive as the ones by the docks, and you and Eddie tried a few different options of fish, salmons specially, he even tried a sample of oysters.

You left the restaurant and walked towards the waterfront, to the docks and the pier, and Eddie looked amazed to see the bay. You wanted to take him further west, to the sea, watch his reaction to the ocean — but you figured you’d have plenty of time in the future to get there.

The touristy attractions in that area were all alluring, and you chose and paid for a ferry tour. It lasted a little bit over an hour and took you to Bainbridge Island and back. Eddie kept growing mesmerized by the hour, observing the water, the other ferries, the people. And you kept observing him.

A few seagulls surrounded the pier as you returned, and Eddie looked amazed even by them as if he was under a love spell for everything about Seattle.

“Thought you were terrified of all kinds of wildlife?” you teased him, poking him with your elbow and he cackled.

“Guess I lost my fear of many things in the last ten days,” he answered when he finished laughing, throwing his arm around your shoulder as he pulled you back downtown.

You went to a local coffee shop, a funny looking logo that Eddie explained to you, with all his fantasy knowledge, was a two-tailed siren. Got your coffees to go, sat on a bench in a random park and kept people-watching in silence as you drank your beverages.

Eddie spoke up after a few minutes. “I don’t want to go back,” he admitted.

You turned to look at him, but he kept looking forward. The fingers of his free hand were pulling at a loose thread in his jeans, his feet tapping repeatedly. You knew he was nervous. At your reaction, maybe? You almost thought it was funny.

Didn’t he know you’d follow him anywhere by now?

You placed your free hand on top of his, stopping him from ruining his pants further.

“Then you don’t go back,” you assured him.

You almost said we, but all of a sudden you were hit by a wave of uncertainty if he wanted you with him. You didn’t want to assume, or impose, bother him with your complications. So you just comforted him, put your bad thoughts aside.

He smiled widely at you, though, so your chest felt less constricted.

“I’ve always wanted to leave Hawkins, but even more so after Spring Break.” He looked around again, contemplating the buildings. “I feel like I get to start over now.”

You nodded, hummed, and tightened your grip on his leg, rested your head on his shoulder. He let out a deep, relieved sigh, and you were content to be there with him, even if it didn’t last forever. It had been good enough. It had been amazing.

Once you were done with your coffees, you went back to walking around. Eddie acted as if he had never left his house before, and you thought it would become annoying at some point, but his happiness was contagious. You couldn’t be mad at him for finally feeling free. It was the whole idea behind his runaway plan in the first place, wasn’t it? The road trip had no destination, but Eddie arrived at his own destination anyway.

He dragged you inside a bakery for a dessert treat, dragged you inside a bookstore for a new fantasy novel now that he’d have time to read one, dragged you into a quirky little shop for a tiny rainbow pin he promptly attached to the collar of his battle jacket, dragged you to a guy selling postcards — you’d have a lot to tell your friends on your next stop at a post office, you thought.

He dragged you to a new record store. “Think we need more tapes,” he said, and you laughed at his enthusiasm. Neither of you needed new tapes, definitely. Your collection was big enough, but once again you couldn’t deny him.

There was a good number of different tapes there, new music for both of you to discover and enjoy. Eddie, almost completely out of the shell he had created after March, made friends with the other shoppers and the metalhead employee. You stood back and listened to their conversations.

“You’re going to The Central tonight?” the worker asked one of the shoppers leaning on the counter, a friend of his it seemed. “That band you liked will be playing again, I heard.”

The guy seemed excited by it and turned to talk to Eddie about it as the worker rang Eddie’s tapes. “You should go check it out. Those guys are a crazy thing, never heard anything like it.”

“As if punk and metal were smashed together and came out better somehow,” the worker added and his friend nodded, laughing.

He wrote down the place and time to the tavern gig and handed the note to Eddie with his bag full of tapes.

“I’ll see you there,” Eddie said as you both left the store.

You looked at the note over his arm and told him you’d probably have the time to go back to the motel and get ready before coming back for the gig. He agreed and asked a passerby about the bus, you provided him the number, and the local told you where you should catch it.

It wasn’t too long before you were back in your rented room, taking turns showering and getting dressed. Eddie really spruced himself up, found an eyeliner at the bottom of his bag, a beautiful leather jacket and amazing combat boots. He looked so confident, radiant. Gleaming bright, and you were a mere spectator to all of his blinding glow.

You got your best accessories and clothes to wear too, not to stay too far behind him as you dressed to the nines.

The receptionist at the motel called you a cab and when you arrived at the Central Tavern, there was a little crowd of people already waiting in line to get inside. Good thing you and Eddie both had fake IDs to show the bouncer, and you drank a couple of beers before the band went up the stage.

Not even two minutes into their music, you saw it happen. You thought you’d seen the last of that sparkle in Eddie’s eyes, you thought you’d seen the peak of it, but he kept surprising you. It had happened first when you crossed the bridge that morning, it had happened again in the History Museum, but neither of those times it was shining as bright as it did when Eddie felt the music.

The songs were, one after another, gloomy, melancholic, desperate, bitter. The lyrics told of running, of being hunted, of crying and screaming, of pleading and criticizing, of trying and failing, of trying and flying and leaving and feeling free. The words, the heavy basslines, the loud drums and the slashing guitar solos — they all ran through your ears and straight to your gut.

Eddie’s eyes were glued to the band and your eyes were glued to him.

His mouth was hanging open in awe, a few tears wetting his cheeks as the songs kept playing, his hand grasping yours in the tightest of grips, he was almost shaking.

You knew it, then.

You knew he had found whatever it was that he’d been searching for.

Eddie was truly, undoubtedly, unquestionably at home.

The gig ended and he clapped the loudest. Went ahead and talked to the musicians for a good while. You backed away to the bar again, watched him in his element.

When he got back to you he was smiling wide and his eyes were still wet. He was overwhelmed with emotions and you smiled as he hugged you tight for a couple of minutes before gripping your hand again and pulling you towards the door.

“Wanna walk a bit,” he said.

“Aren’t you tired?” you asked, your own feet aching a little from all the walking you’d done through the day. He just shrugged, still smiling.

He was silent as you walked to the waterfront again, north until you reached the piers. The last few ferries of the night were the only thing you could see in the water, tiny little things in their slow paces. It was beautiful, you could admit it.

Your head was spinning.

You could feel he had something to say, was preparing for it, and you were afraid of what it could be. At the end of the pier, Eddie leaned against the metallic fence and stared ahead at the water, still quiet. You were trying to give him the time to process his emotions, cause you knew he just had what was probably a huge realization, but your mind was spiraling.

“I want to stay here,” he finally said after what felt like hours of silence.

“Do you want me to go back?” you asked immediately. His head snapped to face you so fast you were afraid he sprained his neck.

“What?” he asked, searching for something in your eyes. You could feel them burning.

“Do you want me to go back?” you repeated.

Do you want me to leave you?

Or do you want me to stay with you?

Where do you want me? Point me to wherever, and I’ll follow.

“We gotta talk, right?” you asked instead. “We don’t wanna complicate it, right, so we gotta talk. I’m talking, I’m asking: do you want me to go back to Hawkins?”

Eddie stared at you for a long minute. “Why would I want that? Do you want to go?”

You shook your head furiously. “I don’t want to go. I want to give you space if you want it, to settle in, to find yourself.”

His eyes softened. He turned to face you fully, and you mirrored him. He grabbed your hand again, cupped your jaw and caressed your cheeks.

“I don’t want space. I want you.” He smiled and wiped away the lonely tear that escaped your eye. “Nothing with you, nothing about you is complicated. There’s no complicating this, no complicating us. We’re as simple as breathing. You make it so. I’m so glad you invaded my van and came with me, baby. You’ve no idea how glad I am. We’ve been through so much, we’ve come so far and I’m not talking just about all the miles we’ve traveled.”

You let out a wet laugh. The knot in your chest loosened and you couldn’t hold in a sob. He smiled wider, knowing it was happy crying. He brought you closer, touched his forehead to yours.

“We had so many adventures and experiences and I feel- I know there’s still so much waiting for us out there,” he pointed to the city to your side, before grabbing your hand again. You didn’t take your eyes off of him, though. “The whole world is ours now, it can start right here, and I want you with me. Our adventure just began.”

“There’s many more to come, right?” you asked.

“Many more to come, baby,” he answered, leaned in to kiss you, smiling against your lips and you knew it, then. You knew you had found whatever it was that you’d been searching for.

You were truly, undoubtedly, unquestionably at home.

Eddie was your home.

You couldn’t wait for all your tomorrows with him.

taglist: @amira0303 @rupsmorge @wyverntatty @inourtownofhawkins

[leighlew3]

Hi Leigh, friendly neighborhood blob here again. Here to say much love 💜. Also this time I come with a writer question. Before I start, I have to say you and the supercorp fandom have inspired me a lot to create a little bit more. And I've been working on a whole lotta stuff lately. Mostly for my own pleasure, but I think others will enjoy it too, if I could get it fully out of my head and into the paper 🤐. So my question is this - when you write, how much of yourself do you find in your characters that you create. I mean, when I try to create I don't go trying to make a super cool version of me or anything 😅, but somehow all of them hold myself within them in different ways. And honestly, kinda weirded out by the vulnerability and intimacy that comes with creating something meaningful to you. Does this happen to you?

Once again, I hope it gets better for you, I hope you find some kindness and goodness around you. And if you like ice cream, I hope you get one too. Basically I hope life gives you some good vibes. Much love 💜

Thank you. That’s so kind and sweet of you to say. Hearing that I’ve been any kind of an inspiration at all is so wonderful and humbling. 🙏💜

I think there’s a little piece of me in most of my lead characters — even if it’s not something overt. Even if it’s just an idiosyncrasy or a driving force behind what they do or a sarcastic joke they make …or sometimes yes, an entire personality.

And it can be a weird feeling sometimes absolutely because it is like putting a piece of yourself out there — both in terms of what you’ve written coming from inside of you then being served up for other people to either accept or reject and if you’re not careful, you can view it as acceptance or rejection of you, but especially when you do have a little piece of you in your characters or piece of your story in their story…

I think it’s just important to always remember that our art is subjective and everybody’s experience is different and can cause different reactions… so all we can do is put it out there and hope that it speaks to somebody and if even one person connects to it and it makes them feel seen or validated, then it’s worth it. Our vulnerability. And if it’s rejected, we learn if there’s anything valuable to take from the criticism and leave the rest behind and not internalize it or lash out.

My point is never be afraid to put parts of yourself into your characters or stories, because in a way, sometimes it becomes an exploration of self and you can actually discover things about yourself as you also discover things about your characters. And from that you can often grow as a writer and as a person. And it can be a really beautiful and fulfilling experience, no matter what happens after you put it out there.

I hope that made sense.

And I hope you keep creating. 😊🤙

[aimmyarrowshigh]

I know this is a super broad question, but; I'm in Chicago this weekend for MPCA/ACA and was wondering if you have any recommendations on what I could do in my freetime? Any smaller/niche museums or bookstores or whatever. Anything you think is interesting/nerdy. And food, of course! Food recommendations are always good :)

Oh man, I wish I had less touristy answers to give you, but I live just enough outside of the city that I mostly do touristy kinds of things when I go down there, and I've only been once since the 2020, so a lot of my answers aren't open anymore/didn't survive the pandemic.

BUT: I do have one that's not touristy! If you're into crafting or found objects at all, there's a secondhand crafts supply store called The WasteShed on Kimball Ave. that's very cool. My favorite thing there are the collections of donated old family photos and slides that people just sort of... give away, when someone in their family dies and they don't want to keep the personal effects(?????). I found an amazing pair of gorgeous family portraits from 1928 in Tokyo last time I was there. The family's names, ages, and the date are all written on the back in both Japanese and English. I'm glad those portraits didn't go into the landfill. But I'm a Small History person who loves things like ephemera. They also have tons of stuff for every type of art or craft imaginable!

Greektown also used to be super cool, but I don't know whether it still is. AFAIK the big tentpoles all didn't survive the pandemic, so don't quote me on that one.

I'm also always going to hype the fairy castle at the Museum of Science & Industry. It was created by and for Colleen Moore, the flapper and silent film star, and she used to tour the country with it to show at children's hospitals. It's fucking amazing. There's a 1" actual Guttenberg bible in there. There's a polar bear rug made of mink and mouse teeth. There's mother-of-pearl chairs made from her earrings from the set of a movie. There used to be running water on the Weeping Willow, but they had to turn off the water in the '90s because it was eating through the materials after 70 years. It's truly my favorite dollhouse, and I've seen the Nutshell Studies.

...I also love American Girl Place but that's literally just a me thing. I also sort of hate-love it, because they have Lost Their Way Severely.

I also am a big fan of the Field Museum -- I know, I know, museums evil, but it does genuinely seem like they're trying to course-correct and make amends -- and the Shedd Aquarium (same). You can touch a manta ray. You can see otters. You can smell penguins. I mean, you can also see them, but boy can you smell them. And Sue (the t-rex at the Field) is an unofficial Chicago mascot.

This is a good list of cool bookstores in the city, which I have to say I haven't explored as much as I should. I've been to a ton of cool bookstores in the Twin Cities, New York, and Staten Island, and some in the SF area and Seattle, but I haven't really explored the ones in Chicago too much because there used to be THE BEST children's/YA bookstore in my suburb and it was where I spent my entire life. This list looks like it has good options for many neighborhoods in the city, though, so wherever you're staying there should be something near-ish to you.

Which is kind of the other reason I haven't explored Chicago as much as other cities in which I've lived, despite living here the longest: public transit here FUCKING SUCKS and I hate city driving more than anything in the world. Maybe you'll have a better experience with the L than I ever do, though, so don't let me being terrible at the L put you off trying it out. I just am not good at it. I can do the subway! I can do trams and the Skyway! I can do street maps okay! I cannot do the L. Somehow every single time I try, I miss a stop and have to circle all the way around again.

Ooh, one other fun thing I did in like 2019 in the city was go ax-throwing, so if you want to try that, they have that right near the symphony building. That's surprisingly fun and not scary.

Food-wise, Chicago is full of good food. Pretty much everything I've ever eaten in the city was great, from the popcorn at Union Station (YOU MUST GET THE CHEDDAR AND CARAMEL MIX AT UNION STATION. IT IS THE BEST POPCORN.) to the $600+ per plate price fixe at Alinea (the only good thing I ever got from an ex). I feel like Sam @copperbadge has a more "a la minute" (hyuk hyuk) set of opinions about Chicago dining than I do -- like I said, a lot of the places that I really liked didn't survive the pandemic or they're outside of the city itself.

Oh! And it is sort of touristy but also very nerdy: the International Museum of Surgical Science. There's an exhibit right now about Frankenstein!

Honestly, looking at the MPCA/ACA website, I'm just jealous you get to be doing/seeing that all weekend. I feel like that's the nerdiest and most fun-seeming ticket in town. What are you there to present or see specifically?? I'm so intrigued!

[anemonecoronaria]

the tags on your post about the levant actually have me crying and missing home, so i hope you don't mind me gushing about syria in your inbox for a bit 😭❤ i've only ever been in syria in the levant, and i was only there from birth until i was 11 when the war started and my family left.

my memories are very foggy, but i remember damascus most of all (i've also been to hama a lot and tartus once). damascus is where i was born and god, it's so beautiful in a way i can't describe. i'm definitely biased haha, but it's just so charming. it feels both big and endless as well as cozy and intimate. also, because it's such a mountainous region and my neighborhood was like waaay up a mountain, there are parts of the city that are so vertical and you just keep going up, up, up. maybe it's because i was a kid, but everything felt so grandiose and magical.

i have a lot of memories of souq al-hamidiyah. it was so busy like 100% of the time, and it was always exciting and so cool. my uncle used to sell street food there, and every time we went, we would go to his cart and he'd give us chocolate for free.

there were also just so many incredible historic sites all over, especially in the old city, and i remember that as a kid i never understood their significance but i could just feel this sense of how grand and important they were and i felt excited just to pass by them in the car.

also, one silly little detail: all of my memories of damascus smell like jasmine. i know it's probably my memories mixing together because it was so long ago haha, but it is true that a lot of people grow jasmine flowers including ALL my extended family so i think that scent is just one that i associate so strongly with home. it's forever my favorite flower and my favorite smell in the world <3

i could go on and on lol, but i just wanted to get it out of my system 😂 i love my home so so SO much and i literally always want to share that love with everyone who will listen, and you said you've never been to syria so i had to share. my entire view of it is very much through the lens of a happy child's memories, and i get really sad when i think that i've never gotten the chance to grow up in my own country. i have the exact same dream as you to explore every inch of the levant, and i hope we can both live that dream <3

FEEL FREE PLEASE. You made me cry with your descriptions of Damascus, you made me feel like these memories were my very own in a way.

I understand your pain so much, even though I currently live in the levant, Jordan to be specific, I still feel like something is amiss you know? I feel like like I empathise and relate to the plight of Syrians the most out of everybody, and I hope one day we will be able to roam free in our Sham, drink tea in the alleys of Jerusalem, play chess in the streets of Damascus, walk along the beaches of Beirut, and just…soak it all in.

Haha, somehow I feel like I knew Damascus would be like this mainly because my neighbourhood in Amman is juuuuuust as high and mountainous and I feel going to the dokaneh is a workout in and of itself. Something about Damascus feeling ‘big and endless but also cozy and intimate’ rings so true, but I feel the opposite about Palestine. The west bank is actually claustrophobically small and its alleys tiny and narrow and shabby…but I feel like I know these sharp turns and they hug me in a way, like I’ll just melt into them. You feel the narrowness but also how high the walls are, with the sky like a skylight above you and its glass will shatter and the sky itself will fall on you and cut you up but it feels GOOD because it’s mine. Like I hear gunshots from my window everyday from one am to the fajr athan and I somehow feel most at ease sleeping there in that rickety bed listening to those gunshots, I feel so protected in Palestine it’s unexplainable, like the land hugs you and loves you back despite everything. It’s mainly that if I die now I’d have died in Palestine <3

If it’s any comfort to you, Amman’s streets smell like jasmine at every corner. You’ll pass next to a house and they’ll have the most fragrant jasmine scent wafting into the street. Our house in Palestine still has jasmines covering an entire wall, so I’m sure Damascus is blooming just as much with its jasmines and roses. I really want to hear the toll if the church bells and the athan from the mosques at the same time, I feel like it’d be enchanting.

I promise you we’ll be able to go back home and hear the birdsong at dawn, sweat while walking the streets in the summer, smell the jasmines, peel oranges in the winter, frolic on the beach, dip our feet into rivers, attend the olive harvest, drink sahlab on the sidewalk. Maybe you’ll open a shop like your uncle did and give your own nieces and nephews free chocolate…

I feel your pain and longing, I feel it so much and I wish I could hug you. If you want to say anything else to let it out of your system PLEASE feel free to, I feel like we don’t talk about this longing enough.

[elllteo]

12, 18, 27, & 44

OOO YEEEASSS

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot:

Do I Even Need To Say It....

--SIKE ITS SYLVIA COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

Sylvia is my wife's oc and they're extremely funny and the coolest little weirdo on the block. I love them and their tortured existence (burdened with knowing both sides of Matteo + Ellis' romance and unable to break the news bc its not their business) (but by fucking god they want the madness to end PLEASE)...also I think they should smooch vance a lot :) thank u

18. Any OC crackships? Oh god there's a lot that could be terrible here, UH HMM.

Matteo and Cassius is one - Cassius is a villain that gets detained for a number of Super Awful Crimes and he and Matteo HATE each other with a passion. There could be a weird little one-sided obsession thing going on there if you squinted so hard you went blind. Also I filled out this enemies meme for them one time so here's that :)

Ellis and Vance? ? ?? - Vance likes Ellis a lot he's his scrunkly (see this image) but it's not quite a romantic thing, so much as he likes to Observe him the way one observes a neighborhood cat who wont let you get close enough to pet, but will let you feed it....Ellis doesn't have much of an opinion of vance beyond "I respect him" and "He's very good at what he does" and "Jesus christ that man is tall."

27. Any OC's that were inspired by a song?

Not really any I've done any actual lore with!! I've done a few scattered designs here or there but their development fizzles out quickly. Usually I make a character first to fit a story/plot hole, and then apply songs to them from there :3

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

That they are so....me!!!!!

Not to be too sentimental I guess but I have become the person I am today by projecting the ideal person I wanted to be onto Matteo. I related more to the kind of soft and silly sarcastic little scruffy gender? ?? ? identity of him than of the person I thought I should be - some brooding "cool" persona. He gave me something to learn from and aspire to - and from there I have learned to be more kind and gentle and accepting of myself and others by exploring gender and identity and emotions and crisis and trauma through not only Matteo, but every other oc I have. (And a handful of my wifes ocs, thank u @peanutbudder-princess <333)

My ocs are the way I process the world, myself, the way I connect to others and express complex or nuanced emotions or dynamics that I can't normally / won't have a chance to otherwise. It's a very cathartic way to process things and I love them very much for that!! :3

TY for asking questions, these were lots of fun!!!! >:]c

[04tenno]

Yeah. It’s a bit of an interesting part of his character when you stand back and try to unravel it. But hitting women is a quick way to turn a character unlikeable.

Before getting into this series, I was not expecting well… any of this. I was genuinely believing it was going to be the same as other masculine media that seeks to uphold that very masculinity in very off putting ways. The kind where every guy is obnoxiously straight. Really took me by surprise to see Kiryu who’s crazy about toy cars, Yokoyama depicts him as a virgin, he lacks social skills (me too, king) and he’s still really cool. Majima is uh, everything about him. Ichiban needs no explanation. And Shinada is a sexual character who sometimes says something kind of perverted, yet hes got a lot of depth, a real golden retriever attitude, and has a lot of kind things to say about sex workers. Normally, I can’t stand the lovable pervert trope, but Shinada feels so different from that. I could stand here all month talking about just the surprising characters. The homoerotic subtext is something else 😭

I suppose I’ll be looking forward to the potential ask lmao. But it’s crazy how personally Mine took the stuff that happened when he went out with Daigo. Oh boy, I’ve made a few jokes about Nick and Daigo, but I’m wondering what you’ll have to say about them.

Wooooow. I noticed the pretty boy features, but didn’t know there were that many. The Dead Souls one sticks out to me a lot. Starting to really wonder if Yokoyama has a subconscious thing for GNC men. Do you have a picture of that man, btw?

I remember making a joke about Hayashi (while we were looking at the original Ishin) being a fruit to my friend and cousin which mortified them because it’s Hayashi. When I learned they switched it to Awano I was shell shocked and still kind of am💀

Baba and Zhao in that role really says a lot of course. Especially given how they already are in their own respective games. There’s some questionable behavior like Zhao’s excitement to see Ichiban nude if you choose that along with implying he’d want to get naked with him. A lot of things really, but there’s also an odd line from Baba and Zhao (although in his case it was being said about him) using the same word: horete. I only recently learned what that word can mean, and I’m still really curious about it and the scenes themselves. Seong-hui telling Ichiban that at the last minute just made me wonder “Why???” Baba though…

Japan liking 5 a lot makes sense. I remember seeing a popularity poll from around that time. The placements were pretty shocking.

Me neither! But I think that's one of the reasons I ended up giving the series a chance, because I'd read an article about how the series subverts traditional masculinity and that was one of the first things to get me interested.

I think before that I'd expressed that I was adamant about not getting into it, but I honestly have no memory of that, I just take my friend's word for it lol. Of course, there are also ways the series upholds traditional masculinity, but the characters are overall super refreshing.

With Shinada and Ichi, I especially love how those themes started to be explored in Y5 and were followed up in Y7 with Yokoyama having more to say and a better grasp on what he wanted to say. Of course, all of the protagonists (and even some other characters) have influenced Ichi's character in some way, but I was a fan of how big of a piece of the pie Shinada seems to have since we have yet to see him since.

And yeah! I don't think there's too much to conclusively say about Nick and Daigo, it's all the implication, but it's fun to connect the dots. Because I generally feel like the Champion District is a mix of Golden Gai and "Nicho," Shinjuku's hub of gay subculture.

At least that's the impression I get from the cluster of Bars Of A Certain Variety in the Champion District; I feel like if you're a regular there despite it being a "bad neighborhood," that probably says something about you. And of course Nick frequents Earth Angel, but Mine and Daigo's favorite bar is also located in the Champion District.

Well, of course some of Yokoyama's comments raise eyebrows, but in complete fairness he had basically nothing to do with the development of Dead Souls and I don't want to speculate too much. I'm a little split on DD as a character, but I'm trying to keep this "short" since I have a stream to get to, so here's DD and his actor Peter/Shinnosuke Ikehata (honestly slay):

Arguabiy Hayashi's always been like that too haha, but he and Awano definitely were Choices. Someone has to play Takeda though, right? I think all three make for entertaining villains at the very least, so they fit well in that regard.

Baba I honestly don't remember too well (though I remember him fondly!), because I missed Saejima's part in my friend's playthrough of Y5R when it came out and haven't gotten there myself, but of course when you have a bond like that it's noteworthy.

Zhao, on the other hand, I kind of honed in on him immediately even when Y7 was only out in Japanese, for sure. Since Ichi is pretty much canonically into men their interactions were a lot of fun to watch. Seong-hui does a fair amount of hinting, not just with Zhao but also the Florence Nightingale comparison with Nanba, right? But I think it's natural, because queer people somehow just find each other.

The usage of horeru I generally don't put too much stock into, at least by itself, though. I'd need to go back over the scenes to be sure, but usually when it means something, there are other clear indicators or it's worded in a really intense way.

Because I did go and compile a number of usages of the word by itself when KHHSubs found my post, and more often than not it wasn't romantic or anything by itself, and in some cases it would've been kind of alarming if it were. So a huge point in my updated post ended up being that it's never just the word by itself for Mine.

[beckyandrick]

First 2 weeks in Costa Rica…checking off the ‘hurry up and get settled’ to-do list…

Well, we made it! Of course Kai had to get a photo with the first ‘sloth’ she saw in duty free. ;) Ever since we told her we were moving here the thing that has eased the sting of moving away from her friends is getting to see her favorite animal for the first time.

It was a bumpy arrival…nothing to do with the rainy season weather. Arrivals are hard. Period. You’ve just left everything comfortable and familiar, leapt head first into a new place and after a day of travel are typically tired, hungry and anxious.

The good news was all of our luggage arrived no problem. The bad news started when customs flagged me over to open one of our suitcases. He dug through it and pulled out the bag of dog food we had brought for Ashe who was planned to arrive on a separate flight just after us. My broken and very rusty Spanish was little help to try to explain why we had dog food without a dog (apparently broken rule #1) and to ask if we could take enough to get us through the night/next morning once we were able to communicate enough through Google Translate to understand that the size of the bag was above the limit (broken rule #2). We were stressed, Kai was crying and we finally gave up and left the food to be ‘destroyed’. Ugh. Not the best start.

But after successfully finding our names on a sign in the sea of people waiting outside arrivals, getting our mountain of luggage into 2 vans (yes…for 3 people 🤦🏻‍♀️ and soooo much luggage) things got better as our smiling driver cranked up some good 80s music, gave us a big ‘Pura Vida!’ and sang all the way to our new apartment in the dark pouring rain.

Once Ashe safely arrived a couple hours later we could all relax a bit (and luckily he had some leftover food from his trip to get us through).

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there were some tears from all of us that night. Arrivals are hard.

But we’ve learned that the only way to feel ‘normal’ in a new country is to start doing things…check off the ‘get settled to-do’ list as soon as possible.

So…with a good night’s sleep we got started with our Day #1 to-do list (with the much appreciated help of our Spanish-speaking destination services provider): Get a rental car, go to Kai’s new student orientation, get local SIM cards/cell phone numbers and start house hunting.

The rental car was the first stop and then we were off to Kai’s new school

Oh wow. I mean we had heard how nice her new school would be but we had no idea. Rick and I both went to small public schools in rural Ohio (and turned out just fine! 😉). Kai has no idea how incredibly lucky she is. The campus is stunning. She loved it. A sweet second grade teacher and an amazing pool didn’t hurt!

We then spent the afternoon getting cell phones sorted and seeing a bunch of houses in several nearby neighborhoods. We didn’t find anything that felt like home yet but it felt better to be making progress.

We’re staying in a great temporary apartment in an area of San Jose called Escazu while we house hunt and wait for our sea shipment with all of our furniture to arrive. All that mattered to Kai was that it had a pool so after spending Saturday morning again on the Day #2 to do list (more house hunting, get groceries, get memberships at the local ‘costco’-equivalent, find new swimming and rock climbing spots, etc) she was happy to get much-awaited pool time.

Then by Sunday we felt like we had made enough progress on the to-do list to explore with a day trip. Of course sloths were first on the list to see. We got recommendations to check out the Toucan Rescue ranch which also rescues sloths and it was great! So cool for all of us to see our first sloths!

The following week we got out a bit more to explore the neighborhood…found a dog park for Ashe, the Lego store and good burgers for Kai, strolled to dinner along a beautiful side street, and got Kai going in her ‘normal’ activities…rock climbing and swimming lessons.

Tuesday Kai started school…Rick took her day one as she was a bit nervous but she rode the school bus home and to/from school the rest of the week. A first for this Boston city kid!

Rick and I continued the checklist while I juggled working my Boston job remotely (I start the Costa Rica role Sept 1)…bought cars/took a ‘field trip’ to the customs bonded warehouse to see them and got fingerprints taken for our residence permits at the ‘Dactiloscopia’…both quite the experience.

We did a bit more house hunting through the week and on Saturday morning (we think we found the one!) so felt accomplished enough for another day trip by Sunday…waterfalls! La Paz waterfall garden was also recommended by several people and we could see why. A beautiful, winding drive from the city to see toucans, monkeys, jaguars, snakes, hummingbirds and of course waterfalls.

So 2 weeks down…it’s a roller coaster as we all deal with the daily discomfort of not speaking the language (yet…working on it!), missing familiarity/friends but offset by early amazing adventures, super kind people and gorgeous surroundings. It’s going to be a great chapter…every page gets better!

[drkineildwicks]

Why do we like Pokemon?

Just listened to an Extra Credits video titled “The Economics of Obsession” and while it was interesting it also reminded me of a question I wanted to ask:

What do you like about Pokemon?  What parts, when you break it down, are what you like?

Is it the collecting?  The exploring?  The battle mechanics?  The cute and cool monsters?

I don’t think, for a lot of people, it’s simply that, because if that were the case there wouldn’t be such slavish devotion to the franchise when alternatives such as Temtem and Nexomon exist.  Rather than be excited at seeing a new one come out, Pokemon fans tend to dismiss these games as Pokemon clones and pass on them.

Me, personally, I think it’s the potential.  Pokemon, over the last several decades, has presented itself as this whole other world with functioning ecosystems and economics and jobs and cities based around human symbiosis with Pokemon.  It’s an expansive world where exploring is encouraged, and as someone who is seized with an innate desire to go tromping through strange forests, that hits me nice and deep.

But I also like the lore.  I cut my teeth on RSE, and discovering the Regis, this surprise out in the middle of nowhere that rewarded my exploration, that required puzzle-solving to even get to, is still one of my favorite memories of it.

I like the feedback loop of the RSE contests.  Berry-growing was fun, as was the Pokeblock-making, and then training my Pokemon to be good at both contests and battling?  I liked the change of pace from the set grind.

I LOVE the exploration and feeling of discovery.  Nine times out of ten when I think of my favorite moments in Pokemon games it’s the thoughts of exploring new routes, finding new secrets in old routes, encountering different Pokemon.

I think what started my thinking of this was my latest play session on Legends Arceus.  I love the exploring in this game, I love wandering around and collecting items and filling out the Pokedex (completing tasks scratches that collecting itch).  I was up where the Stantler are in the Obsidian Fieldlands trying to complete tasks for them when I saw a flash of orange.  I go sneaking up thinking it’s a Buizel and ready to laugh at a glitch--

It was a Chimchar.

The Chimchar line is not my favorite line.  It’s not even one of my liked lines.  But when I saw that Chimchar I had to pause my game so I could scream and flail at even seeing one--then save so I could try to catch it (I did and was SO THRILLED).

And that moment got me to thinking--if Pokemon could get me that excited at catching a Pokemon I don’t even care for...then we don’t exactly need new Pokemon.  We don’t even need a new region.  Legends is such a thrill to me after a decade of milquetoast because it’s a fresh, interesting take to me.  It lets us offroad while still ensuring we stay in the neighborhood of the story tasks (if it were fully open world my tail would have been seeing about scaling Mt. Coronet long before even getting the deer) and gives us a compelling reason to seek out all Pokemon and use them outside of documenting them in a Pokedex.  RSE and Colosseum were fun to me because they either had the option to change things up or were completely different from the usual standard of Pokemon. FRLG, despite being remakes of Gen I, were bland to me in comparison because I wasn’t interested in the core game loop of simply challenging the League.

We don’t need new gimmicks, or regions, or Pokemon.  Legends and RSE and Colosseum and Snap all show that interacting with the formula in a fresh, different way works so long as it scratches those core feelings of exploration, collecting, and companionship.  We take Furrets and Dustox and Bibarel to the Elite Four because we bond with them.  We go daft over being able to feed and pet and pamper our Pokemon because we bond with them.  We barge into strangers’ houses and root through their trash because the games reward exploring every nook and cranny.  We surf and rock-climb and bike all over because of that core need to explore, to find out what new thing is hiding around the corner.

To me, it’s not the core gameplay loop of battle the league to win that hooks me.  Nor is the story the hook--RSE’s story worked because it was spaced out between long bouts of exploration, and Colosseum’s worked because that was the main focus and therefore had to be compelling; there’s no meandering along trails in Colosseum.  For me, the hook is the exploration, and discovering the other fun things you can do with your Pokemon such as contests and races and picnics.

So I’ll ask you again: why do you like Pokemon?

[joeysayskonnichiwa]

May 23 - Okayama, Kojima Jean District (Free Day Independent Excursion 2, Media)

Today, I made a solo trip to the Kojima Jeans District in Okayama! I did this as a suggestion provided by my friend, who wanted some good quality denim from this place. I woke up almost late but I made it to the station on time. However, I do not like asking people for help so I was heavily struggling to use my ticket at the station for the bullet train. I then found out minutes before when the train was to depart, that all I needed to do was scan the code into the gate and be let through. I ran all the way to the train and got there right at 11:02, when it was to depart! It was so scary as I really could have lost out on about $160. Anyway, I made it to Okayama and had to take a local line to Kojima. I proceeded to ride on this really noisy line, to the point where my watch told me that the sound level exceeded 90 decibels. I was also on the phone with my friend the entire time, so I was kept company for a while. Upon arrival, I saw jeans hanging up outside of the station! It was so cool to see that. Also, Kojima itself is a pretty old city, a lot of the buildings of shops were still wood. There were also a lot of people surprised to see me, you can imagine why. I saw some middle school kids quite literally say: “外国人だね？黒い人だ！” if you can paint the picture, as they stared right at me. Anyway, I walked a while from the station to find the Jeans street. It was behind a neighborhood that I walked through for a minute to find, and it turned out to be more magnificent than I could have ever imagined. There was just a line of shops selling denim, and pretty expensive denim as well! The average was over 30,000 yen! However, my friend was definitely determined to spend a pretty penny as he wanted these jeans for a while. He did inspire me to do my media project on this area as well! We ended up finding this particular shop that he wanted to buy stuff at, which was called Dania jeans. The store owner made different types of outfits and accessories and stuff—it featured a lot of patchwork, or “Bolo/Boro”! It was so interesting to see the work of this man. The total my friend spent at this store was around 27,200 yen, coming to about $174 USD. Honestly, the stuff that he bought was so cool! The shorts he bought were 180000, and he bought himself and me a whale pouch made of denim for 4200 yen each! It was totally awesome. I then went back to Kyoto and just rested when I got home.

Media Reflection

The way this relates to Japanese media is the way Japan embraced the art of making denim following the conclusion of World War II. Due to the occupation of the United States forces, blue jeans and denim were introduced to Japan! As a result, they began with creating high quality denim. Since American culture was something that teens and adolescents really enjoyed in Japan, the denim aspect was wildly popular. There were several brands that popped up reflecting their images and perception of the west including Edwin, Betty Smith, John Bull, and others. I have seen various magazines, promotional material, and more before exploring Kojima. In addition, my friend had seen it all over the internet since he is really into high fashion and its history. While visiting the Dania store, I noticed magazines featuring the owner/president, Osamu Kanemitsu, conducting interviews and shoots with his work! It was super nice to chat with him and buy some of his things. I also read some articles about the history of denim with Japan, as well as found some YouTube videos that explained everything. When finding his store through the media I have seen, I was able to make a direct connection to World War II as there was one denim jacket that came from the U.S. Army back in the 1940s, costing 600,000 yen which is nearly $4000 USD! That was insane. It was mote extensive than I thought it was, and made me view Japanese denim in a very different light because of how interwoven U.S. culture is on Japan and how it presents itself to the world as a country. I am very thankful to my friend for putting me on to this because this was an incredible experience! We are definitely going there together again at some point in the future!

Here are some links I wanted to provide:

[eienoah]

May 10 - Farming Activit

 Fifth day and we’re back again but this time to talk about farming. We woke up a little extra early today to get dressed and ready for our first long excursion to a rice field in what felt like a little taste for what the countryside is like. Last night I bought socks to walk around the rice field but I wish I would’ve bought waders with how muddy that water felt. The bus ride over to the location was quite fun as we got to see great stores and slogans like hard off, stay hungry stay foolish, and many more. Some of the other sights were quite beautiful but getting to that field was really cool. There’s just something about a walk through a residential neighborhood after days in the city that is just calming for the soul. I digress, we all hopped in the muddy water to start planting rice one by one just like how farmers do which was interesting but I don’t think I could do that for more than an hour a day without some real gear. Just going in my socks one felt disgusting and two absolutely ruined them so I just threw them out. I was on the hunt for zarigani(crawfish) the whole time but didn’t manage to find a single one. The disappointment was immeasurable but my day was not ruined. I can always find more before I leave. I might bring a plastic bag with me to the next place though just in case I catch one so I could boil it up for dinner. The day is not over but I’m gonna end today's blog here just so I can go explore more. I’ll write about what I do today in tomorrow's free day blog. 

Academic connections

Pulled from the reading I would like to discuss about how some Japanese farmers will have part time jobs. Like how these farmers' part time job was to charge tourists to come plant rice for them. All jokes aside I could see as to how that becomes an issue with how little space there was at the farm. I have American friends who farm and they have 100s of acres to work with. Small scale farming definitely would not be enough for a single group to get by on. I also drew connections to low farming rates as I had not particularly seen any farms on the way. I know it isn’t likely to find many farms just on the roadside but I think I saw maybe one. One thing I wasn’t too sure about probably because of the venue was the age bracket. Most of the farmers seemed to be middle aged but I did see a few older ones.

[thenomadinside]

10 Places to Visit in Jeju Island

Seogwipo, South Jeju

라바르 lavarr This was probably my favorite out of all the cafes I visited in Jeju Island. The space is split up into three separate floors and concepts: The first floor is where the cafe with a pretty cool interior that looks as if it used to be a bathroom but converted it an art installation. The second floor is a dedicated exhibition space that showcased some paintings by a local artist. Lastly, the third floor is a working space for those that want to bring their laptops and get some work done.

Everything in this building seemed very carefully curated. I also liked that they are environmentally conscious and serve using aesthetic trays and cups that are made out of recycled coffee grinds. This cafe definitely feels more like somewhere you’d find in a more upscale neighborhood in Seoul but overall I liked how they curated the space.

Indigoterie I discovered this place in passing and somehow ended up staying a whole day here. This space is a unique combination of being a vintage artisan goods store that sells a range of clothing and objects, a cafe and also an art workshop classroom. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and occasionally on the weekends, the owner closes his shop to host a workshop that is centralized on excavating found objects by the Seogwipo shore, formulating a unique design and silkscreening it onto your shirt of choice. Definitely was a fun experience if you are looking for something a bit more tactile and hands on.

서귀포옷가게 Personality This brand is completely local to Jeju and the clothing style definitely hoists a lot of personality. I came across this place randomly on Naver Maps and thought it was worth a visit. It’s unfortunate that when I visited this store, they didn’t have a lot of sizes or colors in stock. I think I visited a day or two before they launched their next line of clothes which might explain the lack of supply. Oh well, will probably have to visit again in the future!

West Jeju

Anthracite Coffee This cafe is located in the west coast of Jeju Island so it’s a bit out of the way from both Jeju city or Seogwipo. The interior is definitely moody and has an industrial theme as the space used to be an old starch factory. It’s perfect for some coffee and conversation, but probably not as much for working. I tried both their iced latte and milk ice cream and thought both were delicious. If you have some additional time, I thought Hanlim was kind of a cute town/village to explore.

Camellia Hill I recommend coming to Camellia Hill on a gorgeous sunny day, as I think it makes strolling through the gardens a much more enlightening experience. I unfortunately wasn’t blessed with the best weather when we arrived as it started raining. I was most impressed with the gardens cape that had the pink muhly, as even on a rainy day, it was really breathtaking.

Osulloc Tea Museum Okay, this is probably the most popular spot that people come to visit when in Jeju, but I felt it was slightly a bit overrated. Or to more explicit, I think I just expected more things to do here. There is not much to “do” or really “see” but if you are looking for a casual afternoon to relax and drink Osulloc (renowned brand in Korea) tea and eat sweets, definitely come for a visit. They also sell a handful of Innisfree products, so you can also come to buy skincare products.

Arte Museum Out of all the interactive art museums I visited during my time in Jeju, this one was probably the most “impressive” and experiential. It’s similar to Tokyo Borderless where it integrates both visual imagery, performance and fragrance to create uniquely themed experiences.

East Jeju

고흐의정원 Van Gogh’s Garden This interactive museum utilizes AR (augmented reality) to create multi-dimensional exhibitions of the different eras of Van Gogh’s paintings. This wasn’t my favorite exhibition but could be worth a visit if you have nothing better to do.

Snoopy Garden This was my favorite place that I visited in Jeju and yes I’m biased because I love Snoopy since he’s my spirit animal. Snoopy Garden felt like a comic book adventure park that is broken down into the very many different personas and eras of Snoopy. I definitely felt like a kid revisiting his childhood after walking through the entire garden, and I’m here for it! In addition, they also have a souvenir store that sells many Snoopy-branded products, a cafe/restaurant on the second floor, and even an ice cream truck!

Jeju Folk Village I was pre-hyped at the idea of coming to this village because Dae Jang Geum (Jewel in the Palace) was the first k-drama I ever ever watched growing up. I was so inspired by the dishes that the court ladies made for the king and it definitely spurred an interest to learn how to cook korean dishes. The folk village is what you’d expect: very historical and you can learn about the types of “huts” they people lived in depending on their social status and class. Overall, a decent experience but I probably wouldn’t go back. That being said, the best meal I’ve had was the main restaurant located in the folk village, so highly highly recommend you eat there if you do end up going here.

[h-pelessly]

July 26, 2023

I don’t have a lot to catch up on. At least not recently, but here goes...

June 16th, I know is a long time coming, but I hung out with Karen from LD, and I found out a lot of stuff. First off, I’m proud of myself for driving to Irvine unbothered. Second off, the amount of problems from not knowing where tf I was going in the neighborhood to my phone overheating to her living in a GATED COMMUNITY where I had no way to go in were big issues. Once I got to Karen’s, we went to Irvine Spectrum with her car because I was scared to drive but irregardless. We went to eat at Yard House, and she wanted something off the Happy Hour menu and split the check in half so I had to pay extra like ?????????? But I was like it’s just a few dollars don’t make it a big deal. It’s just once. We also got ice cream and the workers annoyed me bc I was trying to read the menu, and I can’t see bc not only am I blind, the text was small. Also, there were 2 workers with no customers and was done helping Karen so one of them could’ve helped me, but mf looked back at the menu like we were at the optometrist and seeing if I was seeing correctly????? The audacity, anyways... Karen and I went to go talk to which I found out more things about Alex. Like I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did which makes perfect sense, but it just sucked. How Alex had a toxic ass friend that works at LD and she’s the reason Alex got into her car crash. How close her and Karen were, which I did not know because I thought Alex thought she was annoying. It only adds on when I went to Karen’s house and saw her polaroids with Alex like damn they were close. But it was cool catching up with Karen. Much needed.

July 12th, Trinh and I went to The Summer I Turned Pretty Premiere at Irvine Spectrum. I was going to have my mom drive me since Tim was being a hardass about not knowing when he would get out of work. But he got off work early so he took me to Irvine Spectrum. At first, I thought we could snag quick parking so I asked him to walk me in. Then, we found out parking was ass so I told him to just drop me off, but he was so tied into the idea of him walking me in that he tried to find parking. When he finally found parking, he complained about it being a bitch when I told him multiple times to just drop me off. Annoying. So we go inside and didn’t realize there would be a line so that was that. The line wasn’t long or bad tbh. We went to get complimentary snacks which we then didn’t realize fan girls went into the theater to claim and save seats. Super annoying if you ask me so we sat near the front. It sucked, but it was only one episode. Turns out the show was being released tomorrow so the premiere wasn’t worth it, but I’m glad I went with Trinh and it was free!! After that, Trinh and I went to Barnes and Noble to look at books. I got her into not only TSITP but romance books hehhe. I showed her my top books and she said aloud how much she loves spicy books which a girl responded same. So I was like well damn am I unapproachable? So I asked one of the girls who liked Dreamland Billionaires if she liked the third book to which she said eh. I have a huge bone to pick with her but anyways, that was my social work for the day. So Trinh’s going to get into romance books courtesy of me hehhehe.

July 14th, Tim didn’t take the correct day off so we are celebrating my birthday today. I think it was kind of funny that my dream this year was to go to San Diego to celebrate. I don’t think I told Tim that, but that’s where he took me to celebrate. He took me to San Diego Zoo, which was pretty cool because he planned something decent. The only thing that sucked is that we went later than expected, and since it was a Friday and rush hour, the drive was absolute hell. It took almost 3 hours to get to the zoo, and as it was already late, we only had 3 hours to explore the zoo. Lorena always said the zoo is huge, and I agree. I don’t think we visited all the exhibits, but it was very cool and spacious. We thought there would be a panda exhibit, which made me excited, come to find out China didn’t renew the contract last year or something so we missed it by one year. How tragic. We did get to see elephants and they looked like they were in a big exhibit so that was pretty cool-- I think Jamie’s rubbing off on me because there is no chance I’d be that excited for elephants if not for her. Overall, I don’t think we did a lot and saw a lot, but Tim thought it was worth it. I might want to return someday. Also, they had the wild safari ride next door that we didn’t go to, so one day, I would like to go to that. Then, we went to go for dinner. We didn’t know what to get, but I knew they had the best Poke in SD so we looked for that. Thankfully, not far away, they had a poke bar. Parking was ass because it was a Friday and it was close to UCSD, but the fish was fresh and I loved it. We thankfully found the same bar near Santa Ana so we could try that. Overall, I had a pretty solid birthday.

July 15th, I celebrated my 25th birthday. Quarter life crisis-- woot, woot. The fact that I thought it was funny to mention the phrase last year was a tell-tale sign because it is in full swing this year. Not only did I quit my job, but I don’t know what to do. Don’t get me wrong, I hated working at ACT, but at least I made money and had a schedule everyday. Regardless of how the schedule absolutely sucked, I had something to do everyday. Now, I feel like I don’t which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I just need some order in my life. But to add on, the order in my life should be from something I enjoy; I want a job where I’ll enjoy. Maybe it’s too soon for that so I should stick to things I hate that’ll make me money... Who knows. Well, because Tim took the wrong day off, I was forced to do daily Saturday things such as going to church n stuff. Tim wanted to take me out to dinner after and because I loved Shabu, he wanted to take me to All That Shabu, a place we both love. I didn’t think it was anything special because we always go here regardless of a special occasion or not so I didn’t want to go. Not only that, it was a Saturday so the line would be long. And mf had the audacity to ask me to pay for my half???????????? He claims that he doesn’t and I offer, which he won’t turn down, but are u fucking kidding me for my birthday? MF is DUMB.

Books I read this month;  Icebreaker by Hannah Grace (5/10) I didn’t see the appeal in this. Author describes FMC like a man and that bothered me a lot. My friend recommended it to me because she loved it and ate it up, loving the struggle of FMC to get out of her ways, but I think there was too much spiciness [fwb kind of book] to focus on the main idea.

Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher (10/10) I loved this book. I discussed it with Tara, and it went from being in my top 3 to just being really good. Although I ate this up in 2 days, I don’t think MMC was responsible or held accountable for his actions. He would say things like “whatever she wants, she gets” which is my dream, but what are the consequences of his actions? I loved this book so much more than the first of the Dreamland Billionaire series because MMC had it rough protecting his younger siblings from his dad. Do I like drama? Am I the drama?

A Long Time Coming by Meghan Quinn (6.5/10) I really wanted to like this book. Tara loves the Kane brothers (Dreamland Billionaires) and I thought these Cane brothers would be mine, but honestly I didn’t like the first brother as much either. The entirety of the beginning of this book was ASS. The FMC is getting married, and the MMC is her best friend so he’s her best man. The FMC irritated the fuck out of me, wanting the MMC to be at her beck and call if anything happens like wanting him to move near her and her husband when they move like ????? Boundaries????? But towards the end, MMC is a freak. People love him in that he shows FMC a good time, but I have never been so angry at a book in the beginning. Anyways, his brother is my hubby so tis ok. Final Offer by Lauren Asher (100/10) Tara said I would love it, and I did. MMC struggles with alcoholism and wants to be given a second chance with FFM and her daughter. It’s so cute how MMC did not like the daughter at first because he wasn’t used to having a her around, but the way the get closer and closer makes my heart so happy. He overcomes his alcoholism because he has someone to do it for now and UGHHHHHHHHHH. I went out and bought a copy so I can reread it again. Do I like middle brothers or do I like men with issues?

Throttled by Lauren Asher (6.5/10) Maybe I just don’t like the F1 racing scene but this book was not the best. Tara loves it, but I mean, I don’t see the appeal in the MMC. Maybe because of the cover and that’s not my type? But I do love how MMC is willing to go to therapy and fix his shit in order to have and appease FMC. I do like the brother’s best friend (teammate/rival) trope so I do love that. To be honest, I’m more intrigued with side/other character’s stories. No idea if I’ll get to them, but probably so. MMC and FMC deserve to be together.

Forbidden Hearts by Corinne Michaels (9/10) I honestly enjoyed this book. I prolonged the time I finished because I needed to peel myself from the book and exist in reality, but this book had me kicking my feet while giggling. This is a nanny and single dad trope that I saw on Tiktok so I wasn’t really excited to start because ngl, Tiktok does give some shitty recommendations sometimes. But I chose to read it because of Cal and Cami from Final Offer. MMC is a grump, and the nanny is the FMC, who MMC has known growing up, but never liked. FMC gets the opportunity to nanny MMC’s deaf daughter and gets along well with her, and whilst seeing how responsible FMC got, MMC fell for her. It really is the trope of he falls harder which I absolutely love. I cannot get past the idea of a 40 something year old calling me “sweetheart” during the deed but ya know it is what it is. It’s not me. But some parts are kind of cheesy. I thought it was a first book for Corinne, but apparently not and she’s been writing since 2015 so that was wild. This book was v cute-- reminded me of The Love Hypothesis, but that book is incomparable to anything else.

The Deal by Elle Kennedy (8/10) It took awhile for me to come around to reading this because of the book cover. It looks like a low res tumblr 2011 picture tbh. Tara convinced me it was an easy read and I wanted to add another book to my July read so I finished it in a day. The banter between MMC and FMC was so cute, and honestly, I knew what was going to happen, but the climax made me cry. This is one of the booktok books so I had high expectations. This book reminds me of that one movie on Netflix with Ken Jeong and Bella Thorne, but also, I feel like this idea is something I had in my head, but it was beautifully illustrated out in real life. MMC was such a college athlete which was so funny but the way he loves FMC made me sob. I love this. Adding this to my physical collection because it’s cheap.