#was a pretty fun day - i went to the mall + a little food place with my cousins as well

[crescentmp3]

fell today. i am literally a 2cm tall little guy and i am being met with such hard challenges

[naokyunnn]

SNEAKY FREAK !!

bachira x reader wherein you came over bachi’s place but his mom happens to be there.

cw: SMUT. handjobs (discreetly) while his mom is in the living room, characters are 18+, slight choking, mentions of doing the nasty in public places.

Bachira called you this morning saying that his mom is going out to work and you can come over and do some nasty things.

You and Bachira for awhile now have been trying to have a proper time for nasty time since both of your homes are pretty much occupied. You guys had plenty of make out sesh on mall’s fitting rooms, fingering inside the cinema, giving him head at the back of the library, him eating you out on public restrooms, and never a proper place to go do it.

You and Bachira decided to level up things and try to get the timing to have sex whenever no one is around in their house. Today was supposed to be the day but when you arrived at his place you’re welcomed by his mother.

“Oh [name] i didn’t know you’re coming over~ come inside” she greeted, by now you’re very confused as Bachira said she already left for work, its not that you don’t want her inside her own home but your mind is just full of questions right now. “Meguru!! [name] is here come down here!!” she smiled at you and went towards the kitchen “It’s perfect i made alot of food just for Meguru since i’m supposed to be away for today but meeh…. it was moved to another day” Bachira’s mom got instantly talkative about her work and about his son.

Bachira went out of his room, no shirt, hair messy and just sweat pants hanging dangerous low makes your panties damp already. “Hi Megu” you smiled sweetly to him he smiled back at you and hugged you but he seems like not in the mood today. “Meguru show some proper manners, put on a shirt honey” His mom sigh

“You need to get our AC fixed mom, the air that it’s producing is not cold anymore, ‘ts hot today” he protested “Let’s go to my room [name]” he tug on your shirt pulling you towards his room as you followed him at his room. “Keep the door open Meguru” his moma said

He kept the door half open and look at you and gave a silent laugh “Fuck sorry love her work was cancelled today” he said as his hands creases the back of your head and leaned for a quick peck on your lips “‘ts alright Meg, we can just play the game you found last week, you keep on talking about them" at this point you really lost hope of getting down Bachira’s pants or ride him til’ you both can’t anymore.

You and Bachira are having a quiet time playing a a game, with the slight noise from the tv in the living room as Mama Yu is watching kdramas. Bachira’s hands snake under your pants, you gave him a side eye and a smirk telling him to keep going, he gave your clothed clit slight rubs as you fix your sitting position, spreading your legs more so he can have better access. “This is kinda fun don’t you think” he said aloud with his usual tone of voice sounding normal “Yeah i keep on winning its fun” you went along his little play pretend like nothing is going on, because if it gets quiet, it’s gonna be suspicious. One thing that you guys don’t wanna happen right now it to Mama Yu to check up on you guys.

You quickly put your hands under his pants and inside his boxers, you can feel his slightly hardened dick and still growing on your hands as you stroke it, Bachira let out a sigh, probably keeping his moans back as much as you do. He put your panties aside and feels your wet slit, sliding up and down and back on rubbing circles on your clit, you could let out a whiny moan right now because of how good he’s making you feel. Your hands went faster on his cock while the other hand keeps on pressing random buttons on the controller.

“aahh~ [name] stop chasing mee!!” Bachira sneak out a moan from just that still trying to give a good impression to his mom that you guys are doing normal and just playing a game, while your lower lips almost bleed out because of how hard you’re biting on it just to keep your noises.

But by the time the games is about to end, you are very close to your orgasm already. “Close, close to you Meg!” its like both of you are speaking on codes “Okay, got it” his fingers went faster on your clit as he drop the controller and put two digits inside you, he attacked your lips to keep your noise from coming out.

“Mmhhm!” just when you guys are trying your best to keep it quiet you whimpered as you reach your climax. Bachira wrapped his hands around your neck to keep the noise coming “Try to keep it quiet love… mom heard it, grab ur controller and act like you lost, got it?” he whispered.

You did like what he said, you fixed your pants and grab the controller as you heard mama yu’s footstep getting closer to his room.

“HAHA YOU DIED” “i can’t believe i lost to you” you continue your acting “maybe if yer not stupid of using the gun blehh” Bachira went along. “Everything alright here?” Mama yu came inside the room while you guys are playing out your fake argument on the game you guys barely even played since both of your hands got distracted.

“Yeah mom she lost at me, you should be proud of your son mom hehe” said Bachira. Mama yu rolled her eyes “I thought you guys are doing something….” she said as he takes her leave

You and Bachira shared THAT look and laughed.

“I swear next time we’ll be fucking like an animal, and you gotta return me the favor hihi” he whispered to you.

thanks for readingg

[st4rwon]

dates w skz

maknae line x reader (separate)

hyung line ver.

warnings: none that i’m aware of!

jisung 지성

han takes you on arcade dates at least once a month

he is definitely a bit competitive

but likes to let you win just so he can see your pretty smile

both of you have every two player game they have

tried to win you things from the claw machine to impress you

but half the time it doesn’t work

loves to buy you stupid things with the tickets you earn

he’ll buy you stuffed animals, yo-yos, tiny trinkets, you name it

you have a small area on your desk where you keep all the stuff he’s gotten you

“we should definitely name him sam” you said, smiling at the bear jisung had gotten you “what the fuck, no” you shot his a look of disappointment “what’s wrong with sam?” “it’s hyunjin hyung’s english name, there’s no way you’re naming him that” “aww you jealous ji?” you said poking him as his cheeks heated up “whatever, let’s just think of a better name for our child” you giggled at his words “alright you baby”

other members under the cut!

felix 페릭스

picnic dates!! or cafe dates

always comes to pick you up with a bouquet of flowers (each time they are different and they always have a meaning to them) and some chocolates

such a sweetheart

constant compliments

“you look so pretty baby” “ooh that necklace is so pretty! isn’t it the one i got you?”

makes sure you’re enjoying the date and always caters to your needs

“oh you’re not feeling well? well let’s just stay inside then, i’m sure we can still find something fun to do”

makes you smile so much that your mouth hurts

“felix how did you find this place??” you said looking at the beautiful flower field around you. “i have my ways” he giggled “i’ll take it as you like it?” felix questioned “like it? i love it! i get to spend the day with my favorite boy and be in such an amazing place place!”

seungmin 승민

night time dates

seungmin really enjoys the atmosphere at night

it’s quiet, you can hear the insects, and the wind blows just enough to keep you from getting hot

he likes taking you on walks, sometimes around the neighborhood, or around the park

he likes the fact that he is able to see your face illuminated by the streetlights

though whenever he finds you to be a bit too cute he moves away so that his blush is hidden

little does he know that you’ve caught on to this and mentally give yourself a pat in the back for getting the kim seungmin embarrassed

you and seungmin walked hand in hand, walking towards the park that you typically went to. it was by the convenience store so the two of you would typically grab some snacks and go sit in the field. “minnie” you spoke, grabbing your boyfriend’s attention. he turned his head towards you in response, “you look so pretty today” you said grabbing his arm, pulling it next to you. seungmin lifted the mask further up his face, “no darkness for you to hide your blush today” you snickered. “you knew?” he questioned, “of course! i always pay attention to you” you said proudly, but before you could speak again you felt yourself falling forward, you held tightly onto seungmin’s arm. he swiftly pulled you up with both arms, now it was his time to laugh. “maybe most more attention to yourself pretty”

jeongin 정인

100% shopping dates

all the time!

tbh you guys actually don’t buy many things

it’s just fun to be around each other and try of different clothes to see what styles look good

you’ve definitely bribed him to buy matching clothes a couple times

but how could you not? they were so perfect for the two of you!

whenever you go to the mall, you’ll both run around different stores until you get tired and end up in the food court

jeongin is so happy to have someone that loves his passion for fashion just as much as he does

he’ll also keep in mind what your eyes are on, so that he is able to buy them as future gifts

“innie you need to try this on!” you said dragging him towards a rack, “ooh i love the color” he said, picking it up by the hanger. you both walked over to the dressing room and tried on your respected clothing. “looks nice…” jeongin said, as you twirled around showing him your outfit, “but i feel like the color clashes with you, it doesn’t fit your personality. the outfit you put on earlier complimented your skin tone perfectly! it really brought out all my favorite features on you” “really??” you asked surprised, “i thought it pointed out some of my flaws…” you mumbled. “baby you’re flawless in my eyes, and trust me with this. this color suits you really well! lets find some more” jeongin smiled. “let me go change back,” you said turning to the dressing room, “wait you haven’t tried on your clothes yet” you frowned. “it’s okay, i can always shop later. i wanna get something special for you first”

please don’t spam like posts, repost, translate, or use my work without my permission. all work is fictional and only used for entertainment purposes. © azurez 2023

[bouncybongfairy]

The Connection of Water Part 2

Percy Jackson x Water Nymph Reader

Summary: Your relationship with Percy is beginning to flourish, which causes some jealousy from Naylene. You explain that because you were raised by a full blooded water nymph, this meant you didn’t have any contact with the modern world. After learning this, Percy takes you to the city and indulges you in the first time you’ve ever been to a mall.

Word Count: 3k+

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When you woke up in the morning, most of the girls were already up. Once you started getting ready, you had three little girls asking you about what happened when you left with Percy. You told them you went for a walk, which wasn't entirely a lie, and satisfied their curiosity. You felt well rested and optimistic about today. You really wanted to learn more about the camp and how things were running around here. Percy was telling you about different competitions the camp hosts. After getting dressed, you make your way down to the canteen for breakfast. You pulled your hair into a ponytail as you walked. Once you got to the outdoor picnic tables, it didn't take long. They haven't issued you any camp t-shirts, so you wore the one Percy loaned to you. Percy motioned you over to sit at his table, which you did. 

"Hey, how'd you sleep?" he asked. 

"Great actually, I thought I might be uncomfortable because you know, a new place away from home, but it was fine," you said. 

After eating breakfast, Chiron gave you five camp half-blood tee-shirts, which you appreciated. It made you feel better to be wearing what everyone else was wearing. It gave you a sense of camaraderie. Not to mention Naylene was giving you dirty looks non-stop. You were pretty sure it was because you had not only gotten close with Percy, but wearing his clothes. You push that aside and head back to your cabin to change your clothes. Even though you missed your dad and sisters, you were so happy that the cabin you ended up being assigned to was so peaceful; everyone was so kind and caring. After changing, you make your way to one of the common areas, unfortunately there weren't any activities planned today. Just general combat training, but other than that, it was going to be an uneventful day. You make your way to a picnic table where Percy and a couple other campers were hanging out. 

"One of the things I've been missing about the modern world is going to malls. Even if you only went there to eat and walk around it was still always really fun," one camper remarked. 

"What's a mall?" you asked, which caused everyone to furrow their brows. 

"Wait you- have you ever like, see the modern world?" Grover asked.

"Well, I was raised by my dad and he's a full blooded water nymph and was extremely uh, paranoid about mortals and modern society. The only times he would leave the lake was to get certain medicines and foods. Oh he would also get our birthday presents from mortal commerce," you said. 

"Wow, and I thought I was isolated from the modern world," Annabeth said. 

"So you've never been to school, or movies or anything like that?" Percy asked. 

"No, I'm sure if my dad was mortal I would have but that's not how the cards were dealt," you said playing with the two roses on your necklace. 

After hanging out at the table for a while you departed and made your way to the lake. You stripped your shirt and jeans off and dove into the water. You let yourself float still for a couple moments, taking in all the sounds underneath the water. The water rushing pasted your ears or the frogs making ribbiting noises. You lay flat on your back, slightly above the floor of the lake. You looked up and gazed at the sun breaking through the surface, it was really beautiful. You swim around slowly, guiding yourself through the water. The water was cold but not in an overwhelming way, it felt more refreshing than anything. You were surprised by how big the lake was, it felt like you could swim for miles without stopping. You take a break from swimming and let the current take you, suddenly you feel something grab you by the back of your shoulders. You jump and whip yourself around to see what holds you. You let out a sigh when you see that it's Percy, he was laughing so hard that his face was covered with bubbles. You laughed and shoved his shoulder. You pulled your hair out of the ponytail that it was in and started swimming circles around him. He reached his hand out and let his fingertips graze the end of your tail. You stopped in front of him and made eye contact, he moved the charms from your necklace out of your face after they floated up. He signed the word beautiful which made your jaw drop. Most water nymphs can use sign language because it's the most effective way to communicate under the water. 

I didn't know you could sign.

Chiron has been teaching me just in case I need to in combat.

How did you know where I was?

Your tail is stark white, and when it hits the sun, you look like a ball of light.

You smiled at him and put your hand on his chest, he gently grabbed your wrist and pulled you in for a quick kiss before pulling away. After swimming around with each other for a while you decided to take a break, sitting on top of the large rock that the other naiads used to bask in the sun. You used your fingers to brush your hair out slightly, Percy was sitting with his elbows on his knees. His skin was so pale in comparison to his black hair which was even darker if possible while it was wet. You didn't realize how long you'd been in the water until you saw that the sun was setting. You were about to make small talk when Naylene and Madison jumped onto the rock. 

"My Gods, I had no idea your tail was white, it's beautiful," Madison said.

"Oh then-" you started but were interrupted.

"So Y|N, how's the dream house. Are you able to tell your sisters apart under all that hair?" she asked. 

"Yeah everyones really nice, it's nice to be around girls who don't feel the need to compete with each other. They were all super welcoming," you jabbed back and suddenly as you could. Naylene was about to respond but before she could Percy began to speak. 

"We actually have to get back to my cabin but it was nice seeing you both, let's go Y|N," he said standing up and diving into the water. 

"Look I don't know who you think you were, I guess you think wearing a shirt with his last name on it makes you queen of the sea or something. Percy and I are almost a thing and I swear to the God's if you fuck that up you'd better watch your back," 

"Naylene!" Madison said as she jumped off the rock into the water, "I'm sorry she's normally bitchy but I don't know what's wrong with her lately. I'll see you around," she finished jumping off the rock. 

You were a bit taken back by what Naylene said, it was like her words went down your throat and created a pit in your stomach. Percy popped out of the water as you were about to lower yourself into the water from the bottom of the rock. He set his hand on your tail and looked up at you. His eyelashes were clumped together because of the water, his eyes were dazzling. He asked you if everything was alright and you reassured him that it was. After hopping back into the water, Percy grabbed your hands and pulled you on top of him. You were lying chest to chest, he then used a current that propelled you both towards his cabin. You laughed and rested your arms on his chest, helping steer in the right direction with your tail. His hair was slightly covering his eyes because of the momentum of the water. This made you laugh and prompted you to kiss him on the chin. Once you got to the dock that was attached from his cabin he got up first and then pulled you by the shoulders onto the dock. He picked you up and carried you over to his bed that had a huge towel draped over it. He then handed you another towel, you used this to dry your hair and tail. 

"Thank you," you said. 

"No worries," he said while using a towel to dry his hair, he then sat down on his office chair before continuing, "so you really never seen the mortal world?" he asked. 

"No, like I said my dad told us about it but not very much," you explain. 

"Can I take you?" he asked. 

"When?" you asked slightly skeptical about these plans. 

"Tonight." he said matter of factly.

"Is that even allowed?" you asked, finishing up with drying your hair and moving your attention to your tail. 

"Well like Chiron told you, they can't force us to stay here and we are allowed to go into the modern world to get toiletries, clothes and other necessities," he said. 

"But at designated times right?" you asked, finally standing up, now that your legs had finally emerged. 

"Well yeah but I-," he took a big sigh and walked over towards you, pulling his tee-shirt over your head, "I really like you and I know we just met and I respect if you think we're moving too fast like really I do get it. Today when I went into the water you were literally sparkling, you moved with such fluidity and grace. You are so striking and I just can't keep my eyes off you, you're so kind and genuine and I love that. It may be selfish but I want to be the one with you when you experience the world," he said, wrapping his arms around your waist, you looked up at him and smiled. You weren't quite sure what to say so your heart generated an answer before your brain could. 

"I would love to come with you but I am a bit scared," you said resting your arms on his shoulders. 

"It's okay, I grew up around mortals until I came here. Not to brag or anything but I know my way around," he said kissing the top of your head before continuing, "let's get ready yeah?" he asked and you nodded, letting your head rest on his bare chest listening to his heart beating. It made you giggle when you noticed that his heartbeat was fast. 

~

After you left Percy's cabin, you walked back to yours to get your backpack. One of the older girls asked you where you were going as you were shoving different things into your bag. You told her you were going for a late night swim because you were used to sleeping in water rather than a mattress. She bought it and rolled over before falling back asleep. Your heart was racing thinking about going into a real city. You dad always told you stories about buildings taller than trees and all the different shops and people. Even though your dad did explain the glorious upsides to the modern world he didn't leave out the dangers that came right along with it. How mortals are extremely judgemental and can be so cruel when it comes to beings who are different. This scared you but you knew as long as you concealed any mystical aspect of yourself, everything would be fine. It also brought comfort to you knowing that Percy had extensive knowledge of the modern world. You finally made it to his cabin where he was also gathering his things into a backpack. You knocked as you walked in which made Percy jump and you laugh. He let out a sigh and slung his bag over his shoulders, asking if you were ready to go. You nodded your head and started towards the entrance of camp. Percy fills you in on how during this time of night they start training new campers to become guards; this means that the front gate won't be as heavily guarded as it normally would be. Hand in hand you slip right past the entrance of the gate. After walking in the woods for a while you both talk and giggle with each other, you guys finally reach a train station. 

"Have you ever been on a train?" Percy asked you as he bought your tickets. 

"No but my dad told me about them because he used to ride one to get into town," you said. 

"Well I'll be here for your first time," you blushed and followed him onto the train car.

When you saw Percy hand the worker green bills you immediately recognized it from when you left home. Before the dove symbol appears over your head your dad helped you pack a bag and gave you a fabric drawstring bag with similar green paper inside. When you asked your dad what it was, he told you not to worry about it and not to lose it. You pulled the small velvet bag out of your backpack and showed Percy to ask what it was, his eyes widened when he saw.

"Where did you get all that?" he asked while counting it. 

"My dad gave it to me before I left home," you said, setting your bag down by your feet. 

"150 bucks," he said before folding the stack and putting it back in the bag.

"Is that a lot in terms of human money?" you asked as he handed the cash back to you. 

"Yeah it's a nice chunk of change," he said. 

"Oh okay, where are we going again? I know we're going to the city but what are we gonna do?" you asked. 

"I was thinking we could go to this mall I used to ditch class to go to. It's called ShopLand Plaza, it's really cool. It had a carousel and a lot of different places to eat and alot of cool stores," he said, wrapping his arm around you. 

You ended up falling asleep for the hour and a half ride there. Percy woke you up 10 minutes before you needed to get off the train at your stop. You were grateful because it gave you time to collect yourself before going into modern society for the first time. You grabbed your backpack and stood up with Percy, following him towards the train door. He grabbed your hand to help you off, and you were a little overwhelmed to say the least. It was loud; music blasting from a couple different directions, children screaming and of course just the loud sound of the subway. It wasn't until he led you up the concrete stairs that you felt better about coming. Percy told you it was only a 15 minute walk to the mall, as you walked you were slowly taking in your surroundings. All the billboards and people with crazy styles of mohawks that were two feet tall and colored every color you could think of. Or the most beautiful woman you'd ever seen, she was wearing a white fur coat with bright pink lipstick and was holding a cat that had a bedazzled harness on. It didn't take you long before getting to ShopLand. Once you walked in, the smell of food was one of the first things that you noticed once you walked inside. 

"Let's eat, I'm starving," he said, taking you by the hand and leading you to the restaurants that were lined up along the wall. 

Percy ended up deciding on Chinese which you were very excited to try. It was amazing, your dad had made rice before but adding egg, carrots, and peas made it that much better. It was the first time you'd ever had broccoli beef and you fell harder for it than you did Percy. After you guys ate, you started walking around, wandering into different stores. You got to the Disney store and when you saw The Little Mermaid doll you completely lost it. You had no idea that there was any type of representation of water nymphs in mainstream media. It made you a bit confused because your dad said mortals had an negative outlook on mythical beings but seeing pop culture yourself gives you a different story. Percy bought you the Prince Eric and Little Mermaid plushies which kept you blushing for a solid 30 minutes. You then followed him as he walked into a store called Zumiez, he was browsing the Thrasher's magazines. You held onto his arm and rested your head on his shoulder. You got bored after a while and noticed they sold bathing suit tops which you needed. As you looked around you noticed a store employee walk up to you and start a conversation. 

"So uh, are you looking for anything in particular?" he asked, taking a sip out of his plastic cup. 

"Oh yeah, I'm looking for a bathing suit," you said, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. 

"Oh yeah for sure, are you like a model or something? I just asked because you're incredibly gorgeous so I- '' before he could finish his comment the drink he was holding had dropped causing water to spill all over him. He quickly made an excuse before rushing into the back room, when you turned around and saw Percy standing behind you a smile crept onto your face. He walked over to you and wrapped his arms around your shoulders as you looked through the bathing suit tops.

"Was that you? How did you know it was water in his cup?" you asked after deciding on a purple top, matching the one on the Ariel plush. 

"Yes it was and I didn't. I just hoped and prayed to the Gods that it was water," he said, giving you a kiss on your cheek. 

After you purchased your top and Percy got his magazines you started making your way out of the mall and towards the subway. Before you left however you had Auntie Annes for the first time and your eyes practically rolled into the back of your head when you took your first bite, washing it down with a frozen strawberry lemonade. You made it in time for the train and as you sat you looked up at him and tapped him on the shoulder. 

"I have a question and you can't laugh at me," you said which made a smirk appear on his face. 

"Okay, go ahead," he said. 

"What's a model?" you asked which made him laugh, you couldn't help but join him before entering a food coma for the rest of the ride home. 

[bihansthot]

Hi, how did the story with that annoying guy end? Did he leave me alone or did you have to put him in his place? How are you doing? What are you doing? How is your health? How is your family? How is the dog? How is the house? How is work? How is the weather? How is creativity?

I had to put him in his place, he wouldn’t leave me alone and I hate overly clingy men. I have a date with another guy tomorrow night so hopefully that goes better. I think I’m slightly under the weather, my mother in law was just visiting and I think she might have picked up something on the plane because my partner doesn’t feel awesome either. I don’t feel bad, just exhausted but I haven’t been sleeping much so that doesn’t help. We had a good time though and my partner got to finally share with their Mom that they’re nonbinary and she was accepting of it so that was good. We got to go to Frankenmuth which is this cute little town about an hour away that has a massive Christmas shop and a cute outdoor mall! I got some Halloween candles so that’s exciting. We also went to a new restaurant which was a really cool atmosphere but the food was pretty mid, everything had coconut rice as a side and I can’t have coconut so I had a salad lol Denny is doing good, he loves his Grandma very much so he had a lot of fun with her, he got lots of pets and attention. The house is still nice and clean but still kind of smells like Denny haha but that’s what the new candles are for! The weather has been great this week but will get warm again next week so I’m not excited about that. Currently the ac is back on because today was warm but the next few days are going to be very nice. As for creativity I don’t know where it’s at right now, I did write a little self ship snippet a few days ago so that was something! I’m hoping Khaos Reigns will reignite my creativity because I’ll inevitably have to write for Noob, I can’t leave my Big Tiddie Goth Boyfriend out of things! Thanks for asking love! Hope everything is good with you 🩷

[basicallysalad]

Help girl we're stuck in a candy store.

Yet another dumb frock fanfic by Basic lol.

"Alright little Timmy! Here comes the aeroplane!" The mother said as she moved the spoon of food towards the kiddo, but as the kid was about to eat the very yummy food,

*Thwack!*

The spoon was knocked out of the mothers hand by what seems to be a rubber band, worst thing yet, the food spilt on poor Timmy :( "OH DEAR!" The mother said as she quickly tries to wipe the stains.

From a nearby bush, a very evil laugh can be heard, "She never saw that coming! Oh and look at the little twerps face! Its PRICELESS!!" A certain yellowed faced jerk said as he cackles evilly once more. "Dude! Not cool, look how sad you made them," says a swell gravestone fellow hehe Im' having fun. "Well duh, that's the point! Its called a prank for a reason dude!" Frown said as he got out of the bush, Brock just rolls his eyes and gets up, it was just like any normal day really. Frown causes trouble and drags him along for the ride. Not that he doesn't like coming along, he loves tagging along to hang out with him. But maybe it'd be better if he would've told Brock it'd be a scheme thing. Cause he kinda doesn't like those lol.

"Well, that raps up my bucket list for today! Let's go home and celebrate my very awesome accomplishment!" The lil stinker said as he took out his car keys, "No way dude! You promised me we were gonna get me some snacks afterwards!" Brock said as he crosses his arms, clearly done with the others bullcrap probs, "Oh, yeah about that- can we get it another time? Its getting late and I'm pretty sure the stores are cl-" Frown stopped after noticing how upset Brock was, okay, if there was one person in this kingdom that he didn't want to see sad, it'd be Brock. I mean, they have a loonngg history together and as much as Frown may deny it, he kinda took a huge liking to Brock. Not in like, a lovey dovey way, like nooo pshh. No way. More like, a friend. Maybe. Frown just groaned and offers his hand to the other, "Fiiinnnee, we'll go get your stupid snacks.."

The other smiled brightly, so bright it was almost blinding. Brock grabbed frown and hugged him, even if frown absolutely hates it when he does lol. "Yayy! Thanks dude! It'll be super quick I promise." Frown just squirms in Brock's arms, of course he hates hugs. He was never a huge toucher. It was kinda nice though. But only when Brock does it if anyone else does he's choosing violence. "Yeah yeah whatever..now can you let me go?" Frown said being the lil grump he is. "Oh yeah- sorry-" he just drops the other down Man how do you elaborate. Then they just yeet to their car and vroom vroom to look for a store or something.

The traffic in the unikingdom wasn't as bad as the one in frowntown. Actually, it wasn't filled with traffic at all so they found a store pretty quickly. Speaking of the store, it was kinda like a mall but just a bit smaller. Think of the place to look like your local walmart. The place was loaded with lights which was just burning frowns retinas. He covers his eyes a bit from the lights. Sheesh, talk about over decorating. Brock just hops out of the car, "You wanna come with dude?" Seriously? Why ask that question in the first place? "NO!! The last thing I want is to be surrounded by a bunch of smelly idiots!" Frown said as he just sits in a more comfortable way in the car. "Pfft, of course. If you like, change your mind you can just go inside and look for me in the snack aisle. See ya dude!" Brock said as he waved bye bye to frown and went inside the walmart thing.

Okay so now frown's alone in the car park place. I mean, it was peaceful and quiet but he was bored out of his mind. Just looking at the people come in and out of the place wasn't very fun. Especially since he couldn't really like, terrorize any of them. He doesn't have the materials to do so. And then out of nowhere he gets the idea to hop out of the car and go look for something to do instead so he does exactly that. I mean he did find like, a giant rat just moving around and a bunch of people walking around and stuff but that wasn't very fun. So he just decides that it was too boring for him to stay and chooses to go inside the mall and hang out with Brock instead. It's at least less boring to be hanging out with your bro while shopping than it is to being alone in a car park.

Anyway he goes inside and looks around to see if he can find his buddy chum pal. Didn't take him long though cause a grey gravestone is very easy to spot in a vibrant background lol. He just runs over to Brock who was looking at a box of cereal and clings onto his arm. "Oh, hey dude. How'd staying in the car go?" Brock said as he puts the cereal in the lil cart thing he was holding. Frown just glares at him making the other chuckle, "it's okay dude. I mean now you can tag along with me so that might be more interesting for you."

"Actually it won't be that interesting. This was more of a last resort than anything! Don't think of this as anything else."

"Right, Gotcha. Oh by the way, which cereal do you think is better?"

And like that they were just chilling and shopping, nothing interesting enough that I can elaborate on. Until they stumbled upon the "toy" aisle. At that time it was pretty late, most people have gone home and stores near the area were being closed. Only like, a couple more were open. "Why are we even here? Aren't we just getting snacks?" Frown said as he crosses his arms grumpily, dude just wants to go home already. "Just a sec dude, I gotta look for something really REALLY important!" Brock was just looking through a bunch of shelves filled with lil cartoon figure thingies. He's a sucker for those. Frown never understood why he liked them cause you know, they're just toys that take up more space in their room than necessary. "Ugh! Just get the stupid toy already!" "Hey! Rude, it's not stupid it's valuable." "Ugh whatever! Just get the stinkin' thing and let's get outta h-"

And boom, before frown could finish his sentence the lights were off. Like, they were gone. Blooped. It was dark. And frown was a huge scaredy cat so as soon as that happened he immediately clung onto whatever was near to him, which was Brock lol. Brock blushed a bit and pats his roommates head to sorta comfort him? it was working so whatever heh, "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIGHTS?!-" frown said in fear, the grip he had on the other becoming more and more tighter, "Its okay dude chill- lets just go look for a worker or something and ask them about this?" Brock said he tried to loosen the grip the other had on him.

After a bit frown finally came to his senses and let go of his roommate and turned away from him, possibly to hide his face which was tinted with some pink blush. Brock chuckled a bit and held his friends non existent shoulder, "Pfft- its alright dude there's nothing wrong with being a lil scaredy cat," Brock said teasingly, frown just turns around with the regular ol' frown on his face as usual and smacked Brock's hand off him looking at his direction, "Wha- NO WAY!! I wasn't scared you were- ugh- whatever let's just get out of here already-" frown said as he grabbed onto Brock's hand and pulled it with him.

After a while of walking in the dark and getting nowhere, "Dude? do you even know where you're going?" Brock asked frown who just groans and sits on the ground all angry and stuff. After frown was done throwing his fit, they decided to just hang around in the food aisle thing whatchamacallit. The food was just there on the shelves for free and there's no one to stop them so,, they just took some and ate it. "Soo,, you have any ideas?" Brock said as he ate a chocolate bar, frown just shrugs and drinks his coffee, "Its pointless anyway, NOBODY is gonna be here to help us! so we're just stuck in this- place, with everything we need, all for free, and we can't afford usually,,," Frown said as he came to the realization and looked at his roommate with an evil lil smile on his face.

Brock just raised an eyebrow at that, "What?" Frown went over to Brock and put his arm around him, "Don't you realize this dude? We have ALL this stuff to ourselves now!!" Brock wasn't to sure about that, being the good lil boy he was, stealing stuff wasn't really his forte. "I dunno dude, wouldn't that be like, stealing?" Brock said touching both his non existent fingers together. "Uh, duh! that's the point!" frown said as he rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it, it'll be fine! no one's here anyway!" Frown said trying to reassure his friend. It took a bit, but Brock soon agreed to it. "Fine, but you better promise not to go too overboard on this."

Frown just made a lil victory gesture of sort which if you asked Brock, he'd call it pretty adorable. sometimes the reason why he even agrees to stick around with frown on these types of schemes is cause he likes seeing his friend all happy and excited, its nice. now that might make him sound like a bad person but can you really blame him? he's been crushing on frown for YEARS after all. Suddenly brock's daydreaming is interrupted by frown waving his hand in front of his face, "Uhh, dude? you dead or something?" "Oh- Oh uh- no- lets just go-" Brock said as he got up. Frown just brushed that off, it probably wasn't anything too important anyway.

Frown first started with the aisle they were in first. He took some cookies and a few sodas and put it in a basket (which he also stole). Brock wasn't really keen on the idea of taking the stuff. So he decided to watch over Frown and making sure he is um. Tamed? Picture it like making sure your dog stays on a leash and doesn't tear up your flower patch. Frown started giggling like an idiot at how evil he felt in that moment. He'd never stolen so much from a store as he was then, "Gosh the store is so gonna be bankrupt with all the stuff I'm taking!" you can insert another evil giggle here. Gosh, he loves that idiot. Brock keeps repeating that in his head everytime they go out and do this kind of stuff. But really, It's the truth. He'd never loved someone more than frown. If only he could just hold him in a more, loving way. As they maybe, sit on the couch. Watching a romantic movie. Well- they already do that but in more of a platonic movie night between friends way. He doesn't mind it of course but really, he could only yearn to be viewed as more than friends by his roommate. To be fair, frown is either ignoring his feelings or is just that dense and to be fair, he hopes for the latter. His daydreaming was cut short when frown accidentally dropped something he was holding. once he looked back at frown (in a less lovey state) only to find he had taken way more than he could carry. "DUDE THAT IS WAY TOO MUCH." Brock said, clearly that won't be able to fit in their car.

"Ugh it'll be FINEEE. We can make room and push it in." Frown said as he puts the overflowing basket down to stretch out his back a bit. carrying all that stuff was already doing bad things to his back. gosh, aging sucks. Brock just looks at him with a sorta 'I'm so done with you' look, but it was more softer of course. "Yeah right, and people wouldn't expect a thing when we're driving through the highway with a car full of items?" Frown stood there and thought a little. Okay, as rare as it is for this to happen, he might've overlooked that one. he groaned in an annoyed tone, "Fine whatever." He crossed his arms in a lil grumpy way which made brock wanna absolutely squish his cheeks. which he did. "Dawwww, don't be a lil grumpster now. Tell you what, how about instead of stealing, we just go and have fun in this place instead?" frown swatted his hands away from his face and looked at him angrily before thinking for a sec, "What kind of fun?" he said crossing his arms and looking unintrigued at Brock.

"Well I saw that there was a furniture aisle with tons of cool stuff to mess around with so like-"

"Ooohh!! Good idea! I could try and mess up the items and put them in the wrong places!! The employes are gonna be soo mad tomorrow!" frown said, interrupting Brock (rude) and doing that weird chuckle thing he did in the show when he has a dumb idea. FYI this wasn't what Brock was planning on saying btw. "Oh um, sure i guess. If you want." Brock said a little upset. He felt a little feeling of disappointment in his guts. Mainly cause he was mostly planning on just relaxing with frown there. But you know what, whatever it is makes frown happy, he goes with it. as long as nobody gets hurt of course.

"Well? What're you waiting for?! Come on!" Frown said impatiently, tapping his nonexistent foot on the ground and crossing his arms.

"O-oh- right- come on, follow me."

After a bit of just walking they finally arrived at the aisle and boy was Brock not kidding when he said there was tons of cool stuff in there. cause there was like, TONS OF COOL STUFF IN THERE. Frown's eyes had the lil hint of excitement in them. mostly he had the evil look though of course. he immediately began to unplug the tv's and move the vacuums to the blender section. Brock just lightly chuckled at how excited he was at just messing up the place. Though the lil feeling of disappointment was still churning in his guts. He felt as if he kinda screwed up a perfect opportunity. He tried not to overthink that fact too much. He'd only started feeling this feeling now which was weird to him. guess the darkness is really starting to set a mood in him or something. especially since it's just them. Alone. Brock went over the the beds part of the aisle and flopped onto one. he couldn't sleep obviously, not without his nighty night kiss. but it felt nice to lay down finally after standing and sitting all night.

Meanwhile frown was having the time of his life. He decided he was gonna misplace the pillows from the sofas. He laughed evily at the monstrosity of a sofa he had created. A grey sofa with bright neon yellow and pastel green pillows on each end, along with a bright blue blanket. Could bring tears to the eyes even, whether it be negatively or positively. Other than that he also misplaced multiple appliances in the place. He let out a content sigh, "Would you look at that dude! You could say I really outdid myse-" as he went to nudge his roommate, he realized he wasn't there hah moron. "wha- Brock?" Frown called out to his roommate. Brock never answered which compelled frown to go look for him. It's unlikely he got hurt. I mean, how could he. They're just in a mall after all.

After a while of just mindless walking, he finally saw Brock laying on one of the beds in the bed aisle. Frown felt a little angry that he didn't respond to his call earlier and decides to give him a little surprise instead.

Frown picked up a pillow and slowly tip toed his way towards Brock who looks a little dazed? Whatever it is, but he's definitely distracted. Maybe he took a nap. Frown just decided to not think too much of that. He smacked the pillow at Brock. Who jolted up in shock. Brock turned around towards frown and pulled him onto the bed.

"You little sucker!" Brock said lightheartedly as he held frown tightly. Like a bear hug maybe. Frown struggled to free himself for quite a while until he decided to just relax and lay in Brock's arms to the others surprise. Brock let go of frown who just slowly slid down Brock's chest which made him wiggle a bit from the weird feeling. He liked it though.

Frown then got up and looked at Brock with old grumpy expression. "What're you even doing here dude? It's so boring." Frown said as he crosses his arms and scoots closer to the edge of the bed. Brock couldn't just tell him 'oh I came here to try and distract myself from my fat crush on you!' no way. "Oh I uh, just came here to lay down, that's all." Brock said as he did the awkward gesture of rubbing his nonexistent neck. Frown looked at him in the eyes which made Brock look away immediately in response. Frown felt a bit uneasy about that. A feeling he feels so rarely he forgot how it felt. He felt bad. He knew that something was bothering him, but he can't really muster up the courage to try and ask him about it. His pride won't let him. But he knew if he didn't do anything about it, Brock would just continue to be upset and he wouldn't want that. After a solid minute of back and forth he decided to just shut out his thoughts completely.

Brock felt that the silence was a bit awkward and decided to turn back to frown to apologize. he assumed that maybe frown would be looking away grumpily and crossing his arms, waiting for an apology as usual. But this time, he was met with a much more, warmer presence. And by that I mean frown grabbed him by the sides and went in for the kiss. Brock was first overwhelmed by shock as his eyes widen by the sudden kiss but as time went on he slowly melted into it. It was a rare for frown to engage in physical touch like this. let alone a kiss that lasted longer than 5 seconds. They weren't going super hard at it or anything, it's just, a light kiss. but it was longer. after a minute frown pulled away. Brock looked at him and chuckled a bit, "Duuudee, what's with the sudden kiss?" Frown blushed after realizing what he did. How was he gonna come up with an excuse now. "WH- WELL- I-" he stuttered struggling to come up with a working sentence, his mind was practically just a blur at that point. Brock smiled gently at the other and grabbed frown by the place where his hips would be and placed him on his lap. they were in a sorta cuddle situation which made frown start to heat up from being flushed and somewhat anger too. but mostly being flushed.

"Well, if that was your own way of trying to cheer me up then, congratulations dude! You definitely did." Brock said breaking the silence. Frown wiggled a bit in the others grip, which made the other let him go. It wasn't cause he was uncomfortable or anything. He just, felt a bit restless. Especially since he suddenly has the blaring thought of him and Brock doing more gross lovey dovey stuff together, yuck. Maybe it's the darkness of the room or something, it's making him feel more mushy than before. author has no idea why he wanted to write him like this. Brock felt like he had to say something anything when all of the sudden, "Hey, dude?- I um- know this sounds super dumb but do you want to,,, uh-" Frown trailed off as he looked at Brock who was blushing as his eyes sparkled in a way that made frown's heart race and words to be stuck in his throat. He can't tell if that's part of his imagination or not. His face completely red as heart sparkle matter matter started to fling out all over the place. Brock knew exactly what's going on now which made him blush deeply as well. He brought up a hand to cover his mouth to hide his goofy lil smile. His heart pounding in his chest. Holy crap it's happening. But as he looked at frown, he looked like he had just malfunctioned. Brock chuckled as he leaned towards frown and firmly held frown's face as he kissed him. Frown returned it pretty quickly as he closed his eyes shut and grabbed brock by the sides.

This time, their kiss was much more deeper. Not deep enough to be considered anything sensual. After a minute or two, they finally pull away panting a bit. Brock looked at frown who seemed a bit dazed like he was just in a trance of sort. "h-hubba hubba!-" Frown blurted out which made Brock burst out laughing. Frown snapped out of it finally after that and immediately felt mortified at what he just said. He started smacking brock to silence him but that does nothing. Which makes Frown just grumpily look away from him. After a bit Brock finally calmed down a bit, "Pfft- wow dude- didn't expect YOU out of all people to say THAT-" Brock said trying to control himself, frown was still a grumpy about that which made Brock scoot closer to him an poke him playfully. "Naawwhh don't be such a grump noww. I thought it was pretty cute dude!" Brock teased lightheartedly. Frown stared back at Brock still with a frown plastered on his face. Brock pinched his cheeks a bit. "Oh cheer up maann, you know I'm just messing with you. Now come on, let's go watch a movie or something!" Brock said holding his hand out to Frown who sighs and takes it.

They managed to get the display tvs on and watched the amazing bulk together. Brock felt Frown's head fall on his nonexistent shoulder, Brock smiled softly as he turned of the tv. poor dude, must've been all tuckered out after all that scheming lol. Brock kissed him goodnight since he already got his nighty night kiss earlier. he fell asleep right there too.

.

.

.

.

"Hey,"

"HEY!"

The both of them were awoken by the sound of someone yelling, as they look around, the place was all bright again and they surrounded by staff members of the store. And they did not look happy.

Frown blinked for a bit adjusting to the brightness before his expression became more crossed.

"shoot."

______________________________________________________________

This thing has been rotting in my drafts for too long.

Take it away from me.

[luke-r-gillespie]

May 23 - Osaka / Kaiyukan Aquarium (Freeday) + Media Reflection

Freewriting

Today was another (and our final) full free day! It was a little unideal to have our two free days in Kyoto on days two and four in Kyoto, but it is what it is. I of course took full advantage of this opportunity to sleep in until 10 (I know, crazy stuff!) After rousing from my slumber, I ate two croissants (purchased from family mart yesterday,) before getting ready to head to Osaka with Zachary, Griffin, and Noah. Leaving the hotel, no one was super eager to navigate to Osaka, so I offered (rookie mistake on all of our parts to be honest.) I lacked the insight to find the aquarium's official name (Kaiyukan Aquarium) and assumed that Osaka Aquarium would be sufficient (it was not.) After about two hours of train rides, while waiting for our bus to "Osaka Aquarium," Noah decided to double check our destination and it turns out that "Osaka Aquarium" is a pet store about an hour away (by train) from the actual aquarium (oops.)

So, after catching ANOTHER train we arrived on the correct island and grabbed food in a shopping mall (which was probably the coolest mall I have ever been in) before heading into the aquarium. The island itself was super cool and had way more to do than just the aquarium, but we kept our eyes on the prize.

We split up in the mall and Zachary and I went to a beef place while Noah and Griffin decided on Wendy's. The restaurant we ate at was called ビフテキ (Beef Teki) and it was delicious (I have attached an image to rub it in!)

After eating, we finally went to the aquarium (roughly three and a half hours after out initial departure from Kyoto.) The aquarium was amazing (best aquarium I have ever been to hands down.) The standouts for me were definitely the penguins and whale sharks, although the seals doing tricks were also pretty cool.

We spent about two full hours exploring the aquarium before catching a few trains back to Kyoto (the journey back took significantly less time, I was not the one navigating.)

After getting back to Stay SAKURA, I chilled out for twenty minutes before grabbing dinner at a little place around the corner with Griffin and Zachary. No picture this time as I was pretty hungry and inhaled my food. It is now 10 and I plan on watching some TV for a little before getting an early night, as our meeting tomorrow is at 8:10 (meaning I will be waking up at 7:10.) Overall another eventful and fun free day in Kyoto!

Independent Excursion: Media Reflection (Jujutsu Kaisen & Kaiyukan Aquarium)

Jujutsu Kaisen is an extremely popular Japanese manga series (with an equally popular anime adaptation) written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. The series has been serialized in the popular weekly manga magazine, Shonen Jump since March of 2018. As of May 26 of this year, the well received manga has 261 chapters and is currently ongoing. Since 2020, Jujutsu Kaisen has been in the top four of Shonen Jump's most popular serializations, only losing out to One Piece for the first place spot for the past two years (2022 & 2023.)

I am a huge fan of Jujutsu Kaisen and after seeing Kaiyukan Aquarium and its iconic whale sharks be beautifully depicted in chapter 70 of the manga (as well as Season 2 episode 3 of the anime,) I knew this was a location that I had to visit while I was in Japan.

The section of the "Hidden Inventory" story arc that depicts Osaka, follows the main cast as they travel to Osaka to rescue a kidnapped character. Despite Jujutsu Kaisen being a Shonen series and centering around a fictious power system called "cursed energy," the series depictions of locations in Japan (such as all of Shibuya and much of Osaka) are extremely accurate. Much of the Japanese culture depicted in the show (by the high school and older aged characters) is also authentic to what I have experienced in my time here. After spending two weeks in Tokyo and two weeks in Kyoto, it is clear to me that Gege Akutami inserts his fictional characters into nonfiction settings. Perhaps this is a part of why his series is so successful in Japan, as well as in other countries.

Within the Osaka and Kaiyukan Aquarium sections of the Jujutsu Kaisen story, Riko Amanai is enjoying her final day of life with her new friends before she is to be absorbed (which is most likely to lead to her death) for the good of Japan and the world (within the world of the series obviously.) While walking in the aquarium and gazing at the whale sharks, she has an epiphany about how large the world is and how little of it she has actually seen up to this point. This ultimately leads to her making the decision that she wants to keep on living and see more of what the world has to offer. Below is the two page spread of Amanai walking past the whale sharks tank.

While in Japan, I have had a similar realization. Japan has totally changed my world view and opened my eyes up to how people live in other parts of the world. Prior to this trip, I had only traveled within Europe and the United States and all of the countries that I had visited had similar ideals to the United States and were set up in a similar way. Japan is the first major departure from this that I have experienced myself and it makes me excited about what else the world has to offer. Having struggled with my own mental health in the past, I relate to Amani's epiphany in seeing the beauty of things that were before, unbeknownst to oneself.

While at Kaiyukan Aquarium, I searched for the exact location of the manga panel that I previously mentioned. While I could not recreate the exact shot, I am still happy with the level of accuracy Gege Akutami provided within his work.

The vibe and feeling of the aquarium were dead on, aside from Amani being the only one there in the manga, as it was quite busy when I went (however, this is not an issue in the anime.) I would certainly say that Jujutsu Kaisen provided a reasonable depiction of the real world location, with almost no slippage between the media and reality.

[elaine-abroad]

Volume 5 Part 1

Week 4

I definitely tried to fit as much as I could into this last week to ensure I didn’t leave Korea feeling like I missed something. It was a little tiring doing that and wrapping up classes with final projects, but I’m ready to come home. 

To start off, Grace, Bianca, and I headed over to Itaewon on Sunday. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what there was to do besides the club nightlife, but I thought that I can’t leave without paying at least one visit. The other two didn’t want to go to the famous street where the tragic crowd crushing incident occurred last Halloween so we ventured to the main streets and some smaller ones. We were feeling peckish after arrival so we went to a cafe that sold Western styled breakfast.

I got berry compote french toast, Bianca got egg's Benedict, and Grace got banana walnut pancakes

They weren’t really good at serving us at the same time so I got my dish a good while after the others. Grace also eats faster than my boyfriend so it felt a little weird eating when she was almost done but that’s pretty much how it’s been when hanging out with her. 

Grace is apparently a big Barbie fan, so much so that it’s been on her list of possible Halloween costumes for a couple of years now. It just so happens that there was a Barbie cafe in Itaewon so we tried going there. Unfortunately all the tables were full and we had to put down a number, but only Grace had a working number. We never got a call and it was probably because it was an American number or something.

We went to a bingsu place instead to combat the heat though. Bianca and I shared this injeolmi flavored one. Injeolmi is basically a sweet rice cake covered in roasted soybean powder. I’m not sure how to really describe it, but the powder is dry and tastes nutty. I’m pretty sure it’s the same powder used on Japanese raindrop cakes.

It was also raining that day so we kind of decided to head back. There wasn’t much that caught our attention in Itaewon, but it was nice to visit.

On Monday, our painting teacher made us paint outside. It was not the most ideal, but I ended up painting a view of campus.

After class, the three of us headed back to Myeongdong to see the nightlife and street food market. I was pretty dead set on coming back with cash. Before we got into the vendors, we did some shopping and got dinner.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get photos of the fruit mochi I bought, but it was seriously worth my money. It looked like this though.

I also got this honeycomb and ice cream taiyaki. You’ve probably seen taiyaki before – it’s that fish-shaped cake. They served it with a small chunk of honeycomb and that was the first time I tried actual honeycomb which was cool. It was fun chewing on the wax.

On Tuesday, Grace and I got to go to the Starfield COEX Mall for our visual journal field trip. It’s pretty awesome that we were able to go on so many field trips for that class and that we got to go to a mall of all places. The mall was absolutely enormous. There was only one floor for shops, but we literally kept getting lost because of its size. Other cool things were attached like this massive library, aquarium, and movie theater.

We sat down inside the mall for some food and got what was probably the most incorrect Indian food I’ve ever had. I say incorrect because the flavor was okay, but the execution and everything was wrong. I’m no Indian food expert, but I questioned a lot of the things. The drinks were wrong and had the wrong consistency, they used the wrong rice (we had to pay and it was such a small portion too) – things like that. I guess that’s what we get for trying to get Indian food inside of a mall in the middle of Korea.

That night’s food made up for it though. One of the girls I hung out with after the Everland trip was turning 21. That same group went out for dinner to celebrate. We got kbbq in Hongdae because we all wanted to experience getting kbbq in Korea at least once. To be completely honest, it was a little pricey for the amount of food, but that was probably because of the fact that we had to share. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the kbbq buffets back home.

In case you couldn’t tell, bingsu is a big deal here. And of course we ended the night with some. We shared some new flavors: tiramisu and mango apple cheese. 

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. I had my painting final and we were given 2 hours to paint anything we wanted to, using the techniques we learned. It could be the plants we learned, something from Korea, or just anything we wanted. I painted the key parts of Korea for me which was basically Ewha’s ECC and all the field trips. I also included some flowers we learned.

For dinner Grace and I went to this place called Witch’s Kitchen. It’s a witch themed restaurant with a vibe crossed between Halloween and Harry Potter. Some of the food options were decorated in a way that made it all more fun.

We were most excited for the drinks. I heard that they served them in blood bags and that they did. Each table had one of those liquid IV stands they give people at the hospital and filled them with our drinks. We got to control how much we wanted in our cups and it was really fun.

I spent the rest of the night working hard on my visual journal project. I made a pop up book of where I’ve gone to in Seoul, basically the same thing as my painting final. It was a little bit of a risk since I’d never made a pop up book before. Albeit a little simple, it was a lot of fun. There was this lady that came into one of my classes in the second semester of freshman year who taught us the most basic techniques of pop up book making and I’ve wanted to give it a try ever since.

We had a mini exhibition within our class the next day and it was cool seeing what everyone else came up with.

Later that day, Bianca and I went out to check out the Gwangjang market, a traditional street market with lots of street vendors and mini restaurants. It was still light out when we got there so we got this white peach bingsu while we waited for the sun to set.

My friend Iris told me to go to Cheonggyecheon Stream which I’m pretty sure is the man-made stream my dad told me to check out as well. It stretched out for quite long. Here it is before the sunset.

Once we got back to the market, it was definitely a lot more lively. There were four main paths that we looked at.

We were looking for one thing to eat and luckily many of the restaurants there sold it. I’m serious when I say don’t knock it till you try it because multiple of my friends expressed their disgust, but it was actually pretty good. I’ve wanted to try this for the longest time ever and have always seen mukbangers and foodies eat this. 

For those who haven’t been to guess it, it’s raw squid. This is often confused with live squid. To be fair, people here do actually eat live squid, but the raw squid we had was just raw, NOT alive. It’s only called live squid because the tentacle nerves continue to move after being chopped up. 

Anyways, it was doused in sesame oil which made it good for me. I’m not a seafood girlie and don’t even know why I liked it, but it was fun to eat. We also got bibimbap with beef tartare (also raw) which was also good. This day was all about trying traditional things so instead of getting a basic drink, I opted for Sikhye, a traditional Korean fermented rice drink. I kept seeing it on the street there so I decided to try it out. I noted how it looked like something my mom had always made and Bianca said that was because Korea always steals stuff from China.

We also ordered bindaetteok, a mung bean pancake with bean sprouts in it. It was very very good.

We were quite full at the end of this so decided to get a snack that was truly authentic and worth it. I wanted Hotteok, a sweet filled pancake. My mom sometimes makes this for breakfast so it was cool to have it from the actual streets.

The stream was really nice to look at and walk along once dark. We spent a little more time there before going back.

[thmgau]

CHAPTER 20 - A DAY AT THE MALL [wattpad link]

---

During the drive to the mall, Spring & Storm had explained to the group why exactly they were on Earth in the first place. Apparently, their father had told the girls about their mom running away to Mercury last night, when nov SHOULD have told them about it 2000 years ago. That was pretty much the gist of it, anywho. Now, Spring & Storm want to have a little fun on Earth before they deal with the divorce.

Cherry pulled her car into the parking lot. As everyone unbuckled their seatbelts, they hopped out of the car.

“Welcome.. to the mall.” Cherry said, gesturing at the mall. “Ta-dah.” “Oooh! It’s so big!” Spring gasped, in awe of the mall. “Man, I haven’t been to the mall in years!” “We literally went last month.” “Your point?” “What are we waiting for?! Let’s get in there already!”

The 7 of them walked into the mall. It was massive inside, as most malls are. Shops & stores were lined across the walls, with an escalator leading up to a second floor, with presumably more stores. In front of the group was a map of the mall, labeling where all the stores & exits were.

“Alright, mall time!” Kalani cheered. “Wait! Before we go anywhere,” Nora started. “It’s going to be impossible for all 7 of us to shop if we all have to stick together. I think we should form 2 separate groups.” “There’s 7 of us, yea? These groups are gonna be uneven.” “I for one approve of this group idea. Even if it’s uneven, it’ll be fun.” “Ok, fine. We can do groups.”

& so, the group strategically split themselves into 2 groups. The first group was Leslie, Spring, & Juniper, while the second group was Cherry, Storm, Nora, & Kalani.

“Alright. Let’s agree to meet back at the food court in.. an hour? Is an hour good?” “We can work with that.” “Alrighty! See you in an hour!”

With that, the two groups went on their merry way.

“So!” Nora clapped her hands together. “What store are we hittin’ first?” “I don’t actually know. We only went here because Leslie wanted to get a present for Natalie.” “We could.. go to Dillard’s? Have you ever been to Dillard’s, Storm?” “This is literally the first time I’ve ever left the Castle. I don’t know anything about your human locations.” “Yea, that’s.. fair, actually.” “I think you’d like it. C’mon!”

-

Leslie & Juniper found themselves inside of Old Navy. Juniper had asked where Spring wanted to go, & she spun around & pointed at the Old Navy. Leslie doubted it’d find anything Natalie would want in an Old Navy (it seemed like Spencer’s or Hot Topic would be more her style, anyway), but it could use a new pair of jeans anyway.

“Ooh! What’s that?” Spring asked, pointing toward a mannequin styling a blouse & a pair of leggings. “Oh, that’s a mannequin!” Juniper said. “People use them to model clothes & all that sorta jazz.” “That’s neat!” she hummed. “I didn’t know humans had different types of clothes.” “You- You didn’t?” Leslie questioned. “No. The only other human I’ve met is Betty, & she doesn’t talk about what Earth was like often.”

Betty.. that name sounded familiar. It was in the list of Celestials that Leslie & the group were reading just a week ago.

To avoid talking about Celestials in the middle of an Old Navy, the group decided to put the topic at rest & ask more about Betty later.

“Oh! These look cool!” Spring ran up to a pair of jeans with a flower embroidered on it. “Oh, that is cool.” Juniper nodded. “If it’s in your size, you could probably get it. What size are you?”

Spring turned to look at Juniper.

“Oh. Yeah. I don’t think Celestials know what pant sizes are.” “I mean, hey! If they’re too big or too small, we could probably get Natalie to fix ‘em up. She did make that villain costume herself, after all.” “Well, I’ve never worn pants before, so this’ll be an exciting experience!” Spring grinned. “I’ll take ‘em!”

-

“So what, this place just sells.. foot gloves?” “They’re called shoes.” “Whatever.”

Cherry, Nora, Kalani, & Storm were in Dillard’s, a very widespread department store. The group typically didn’t go in here often, but it seemed like a general enough store for them to go to for now.

“I mean, Dillard’s sells more than just shoes. There’s bags, dresses, jewelry.. I think this is where I got my first skirt, actually!” “Oh yea, this is where you got your first skirt! It was you & me & Sorrel, who had just gotten their driver’s license, & they took you here to shop around!” “Why did you tag along again? I always forget.” “I think I wanted to skip out on some event my mom wanted to take me to. I dunno.” “Can we just shop?” Cherry crossed her arms. “We are shopping! Look at all this shopping I’m doing!” Kalani grabbed a sweater off from the hanger it was on. “Look! Doesn’t this look cool?” “That does look.. kind of cool, actually.” Storm said.

The sweater was dark blue, with a yellow thunderbolt design crocheted into it.

“Oh, yea. Thunderstorms are kind of your thing, huh?” “Duh. Why do you think my name is Storm?” “I mean, if you want the sweater, we can get it for you.” “Really?” “Of course!” “Well, then.. I’ll take it.”

-

A feeling of dread & agony quickly washed over Leslie & Juniper when they saw what store they were headed to next. It was purple, bright, sparkly, & not a very good place to get your ears pierced (Leslie would know, from experience).

Claire’s.

Leslie was certain it wasn’t going to find anything here for Natalie’s birthday, & Juniper’s punky aesthetic clashed with the store’s vibrant colors. Nevertheless, this is where Spring wanted to go, & the two of them weren’t about to say no to a Celestial.

Spring was in awe of everything in the store. It kind of reminded Leslie of when they walked into Claire’s for the first time. They just desperately hoped Spring wouldn’t ask to get her ears pierced here.

“Ooh! Look at this!” Spring gasped, holding up a pendant with a little white daisy on it. “Oh, that’s cute!” Juniper smiled. “I think that’d be perfect for you!” “Really?!” “Of course! C’mon, let’s go pay for it!”

As Juniper & Spring went up to the front counter, Leslie looked at all the necklaces that Claire’s had to offer. It wasn’t sure if Natalie would like these necklaces, let alone want a necklace at all. If they had known it was Natalie’s birthday beforehand, Leslie could have made cupcakes for her. They sighed, holding a pair of BFF Yin & Yang necklaces in their hand.

Yin & Yang are, to put it in simple terms, opposites that are interconnected. Did Leslie & Natalie really feel interconnected? Without delving too deep into it, the two of them could be considered opposites. Light & dark, passive & active... All sorts of things that are together in some way. Leslie’s only known Natalie for a month, but she’s always been intertwined in their heroic adventures. Helping out with the bananapocalypse (as Leslie liked to call it), fending off Pim & The Auctioneer, & even fighting the puppets on stage. Despite only having a squeaky hammer as a weapon, Natalie might as well be just a part of the group as anyone else.

Leslie grabbed the necklaces off from where they were hanging.

-

“So.. how do I look?”

Storm stepped out of the dressing room. Instead of the dress & hood the group had met her in, she now donned the sweater from earlier, along with some ripped jeans & fuzzy boots.

“Oh! You look so cute!” “Fuckin’ awesome, girl.” “Thank you!” Storm spun around a little bit. “This.. ‘sweeter’ thing is a lot softer than I had anticipated, but I do like it. A lot.” “I’m glad you enjoy it! Clothes shopping can be so much fun sometimes. We really need to do this more often!” “Oh yea, totally. It has almost been an hour though, so we should-”

Cherry paused, spotting 2 girls entering the store they were currently in.

“Oh no.” “Huh? What’s up?” Nora asked. “My sisters are here.” Cherry shuddered. “Oh, Poppy & Carmine? We haven’t seen them in years!” “Yea, for good reason. Those bitches always got on my case for breakin’ the rules.” “Ohh, yea, now that I think about it, they were kind of dicks to all of us, huh?”

Poppy & Carmine turned around & spotted Cherry.

“Cherry!!” Carmine waved as the two of them walked toward the group.

Poppy & Carmine were dressed a lot more fancy than Cherry was. Carmine, the middle sister, wore a white tube top & red, baggy pants. Poppy, the youngest, wore a red dress with a white belt & an opal necklace around her neck. Along with that, Poppy also had a red headband keeping her hair behind her, & some fancy dangly earrings. If you put Cherry, Poppy, & Carmine in a line together, you wouldn’t be able to tell Cherry was even related to them.

Cherry groaned, stuffing their hands into their hoodie’s pockets. “Hey, Poppy. Hey, Carmine.”

“What a pleasant surprise running into you here!” Carmine grinned. “Hey, what’s up with the necklace?” Poppy asked, pointing at the red tie necklace around Cherry’s neck. “You didn’t have that last time we saw you!” “Jesus, you’re not even going to say hi?” “Greetings are reserved for people who don’t wear lame old hoodies & necklaces shaped like ties.” “Oh, whatever. You & Mom have always been on my case over what I wear.” “Well, we are Russells.” Carmine said. “We’re expected to be the example.” “Yea, & as the oldest out of all of us, you should know that the best, Cherry.” Poppy crossed her arms.

Cherry groaned. Nora & Kalani stepped back a little, Storm following along.

“Who cares about being the example or whatever?” “You know Mom only pays for you & your friends’ rent because she thinks you’re out wearing dresses & being fancy instead of wearing trash like this, right?” Carmine raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do.” Cherry lied. “You have a standard to uphold, Cherry. We all do. So you better start upholding it.”

“WELL THIS HAS BEEN A GREAT MEETING BUT WE HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE!” Kalani grinned, pushing Cherry out of the store as Nora & Storm followed. “YOU TWO HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! SPARKLE ON!”

As soon as the group was out of range from Poppy & Carmine, Cherry sighed, sitting down at a table in the food court (which just so happened to be nearby).

“God, I fuckin’ hate my sisters.” “Yea, they suck bad.” “They’re probably gonna tell my Mom about this encounter & she’s gonna stop paying for our rent. I honestly considered going into Hero Mode just to fuckin’.. stab ‘em with my sword or something. I don’t know.” “I don’t even think you’d need the sword, honestly. Haven’t you been working out? You could just beat ‘em up!” “Yea! You’re right!” “You are not going to beat up your sisters, Cherry.” “Well, duh. But I wish I could.” “Hey! Over here!”

The group looked up & saw Leslie, Juniper, & Spring from across the food court.

“Les! Juni!” Kalani waved.

The two groups ran over to each other.

“Did you all have fun?” “Yea, it was awesome!” “Storm, check out my new outfit!”

Instead of the yellow & orange dress Spring was wearing earlier, she now wore a yellow t-shirt with a pocket (a picture of a flower was on the pocket), some jeans with a flower embroidered into them, & flip-flops. A necklace with a white daisy on it was also around her neck.

“Woah, that’s cool.” “Thanks!” “Alright! Who wants lunch?” “Ooh! Lunch time!”

-

The rest of the day went as well as it could. After the group had lunch at the food court, they went to the park, which Spring & Storm had enjoyed quite a bit. Then, they visited the museum for a bit & got some stuff at the gift shop.

By the time the group made it back to the dorm building, they were absolutely worn out.

Cherry parked their car as everyone unbuckled their seatbelts & hopped out.

“Jeez, it’s getting late.” Cherry yawned, looking up at the sunset. “We should be heading to bed soon.” “What about us?” Storm asked. “Yea, where are we gonna stay?” “Oh, you two can stay in my apartment if you want!” Nora suggested. “Really?” “Of course, I’ve got plenty of room! Hope Sorrel doesn’t mind!” “Wow.. you 5 truly are heroes.” “I suppose we are!” Leslie chuckled. “& tomorrow, you 5 are gonna get our parents back together!” “Oh. I forgot about that. There goes my Saturday.” “I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Kalani said, a twinge of doubt in his voice. “Let’s just head to bed for now. G’night, everyone.” “Goodnight!!”

[halfdeadjasontodd]

idk what i feel

so yesterday one of my friends (lets call her Lily) who i’ve only known for a few months invited me out with one of her friends (lets call her Marlene). So Lily claims that i’m one of her bestest friends ever, and that i get her like no one else does, blablabla… yk the usual. And Marlene and Lily have been best friends for YEARS. So naturally when i go with them i feel awkward. Marlene keeps telling me how well she knows Lily and i dont look too deep into it but i dont feel nice around her im getting bad vibes. Marlene has to bring her little brother with her so he’s stuck with us. On the bus ride to the mall, Marlene and Lily keep talking inside shit with each other, whenever Lily talks to me Marlene distracts her again, and that should have been an obvious sign that Marlene doesnt like me BUT OH GOD LILY IS SO INNOCENT. me being me tho i dont make a big deal out of it i just pull on the hood of my jacket and pretend to scroll through tiktok. everyone buys that im fine cuz im Emo™ i dont talk much anyway right? by the time we get to the mall and get food Lily is talking to me a bit again and i feel okay for a while, then we get to a table which has 4 seats (2 people on each side). Lily moves to sit beside me but Marlene asks Lily to sit with her. Lily’s worried bout me and asks me if im fine with it but i pretend i dont care when i actualy fucking do care we go to the library later, where i pretty much get ignored once more. i tell them i wanna go search for a book and disappear for a long time, i just wanna be by myself. the library is one of my fav places on earth, its supposed to be a safe haven, but i feel so sad and EMPTY like i had been such a dumb bitch if i actually thought that anyone here actually cared about me when i finally went back so they wouldnt worry, Lily was the only one who actually noticed my absence. I fake a smile once more but its SO FUCKING HARD I CANT KEEP DOING THIS i thought that maybe once we got home i could get a chance to talk to Lily alone, but NOOOO when we reached our neighbourhood Marlene said she was going the same way as me, and told me she enjoyed the day and invited me out again next week. so when i get home i fake having had fun so my parents wouldn’t worry, and i see photos of today that Marlene posted on her Insta and GUESS WHAT every photo is taken perfectly so that only her and Lily would be seen so yeah it was a shitty day. i feel so empty. i was actualy looking forward to this… i fucking hate that bitch

[huggybug]

(this one can be shared :))

okay, so I gave you the rundown of friday's super long day, but believe it or not, saturday was longer. we got up and went to breakfast in the lobby which was okay and then we checked out and went to this like outdoor mall right across from the hotel (which it's good it was so close bc like 3 guys missed the bus leaving the hotel and no one said anything to the coaches so they had to walk) but we got lunch and then got to the rink like 2 hours early so we were just hanging out.

game starts and it was going well, second period there was a fight (that I recorded lol) and it send 5 total players to the box but the third period was where things got interesting.

to preface this, the ceiling was pretty low compared to other rinks we've played at and one of our defenders went to clear the puck and it went up and hit a pipe and it burst. so water starts pouring down onto the ice, our bench, and also the space next to our bench behind the glass. so obviously, play stops and everyone is just kind of watching, not really sure what's going to happen, but then the fire alarm starts going off as well and the water all of the sudden turns like brown/black and that's when everyone freaks out and clears the bench and the ice asap. staff doesn't really know what to do or how long they're going to have to pause play, and they weren't even really sure where/how to turn the water supply off

the fire department showed up and turned off the alarm, but then we had to wait for another company to come do a system check or something, meanwhile they have a vacuum out on the ice to clean up the water that finally stopped flowing, but most of the guys changed out of their gear and the other two teams that were playing right after our game had showed up and were also just watching wondering what was happening. it took minimum 30 minutes to get all the water vacuumed and then run the zamboni over it before we could play the last like 13 minutes of the game.

we won, so we got the tournament trophy and they did a cute little ceremony for them and then we got on the bus and immediately headed back to campus, but we had to go out of our way to stop for food at the same place we stopped on the way bc one of the players left his car there since he met us, so I think it took like 6 hours to get home when it should've been only like 4. we didn't get back to our home rink where all of us parked until 2:15 am so I didn't get home until 2:30. also the guys were drinking on the bus which is kind of a no-no bc like a third of them are underage but no one really cared so that was very entertaining.

all in all, it was a very fun, but very chaotic weekend. I had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat :) I'm so sorry this is so long (especially since this is missing so many details) -🦋

wow such an eventful weekend and also wow to our fav boy because he looks so cute (especially in that team picture holyyy) !!!! so happy they won that’s super exciting but omg the pipe burst?! crazy like what are the odds😭😭😭 crazy weekend but sounds like you had a good time so that’s all that matters!

[laurenetuttle]

Japan Day 2 (September 7, 2024) 

Today was our first full day in Tokyo. We had a lot of fun today. We got a pretty good night sleep last night. Both of us woke up a couple of times but I still got a good amount of sleep. Unfortunately, the beds are a little bit on the firm side. But I think they were just so exhausted. It doesn’t really matter. we had breakfast this morning at the hotel buffet. It’s a very nice buffet with lots of options, including churros for breakfast! We both enjoyed some eggs and fruit toast. We then set out for our day and oh my goodness was it hot today. It was in the 90s and very humid. I think we were both sweating a lot before we even got to our first destination. Thankfully, mass transit in Tokyo is very easy to navigate. Our first activity for the day was called team lab planets. this is an immersive art museum. They made us take our shoes off and also put our stuff in lockers. We chose to use the restroom before we started in the museum and they provide bathroom sandals so you don’t have to go to the bathroom barefoot which was really funny. The whole museum was a pathway of different rooms with different things. The first pathway had running water going over it. There was also another room that had a deep water with colorful projections of fish. After each water activity, they provided towels to dry our feet off, which was very mindful. We also walked through a room with hundreds of thousands of strings of LED lights. There was also a room with these giant, colorful balls, another room with lots of orchids, and a room with these metallic egg shaped things. Spent a little over an hour in this museum, and we both had a lot of fun and also very much so enjoy the air conditioning. 

We then took the bus to a neighborhood called Ginza, which is a fancy pants shopping neighborhood with lots of high-end designers. We decided that we needed a snack break so we stopped and got some Italian gelato which really hit the spot. In Japan, it’s not a thing to walk around and eat. This ice cream store had a roped area outside, which was designated as the standing and eating your ice cream area. We then decided to wander through some of the stores, including she is a nice Japanese skin care company that I Like. We also wandered through some other stores in a mall and we wondered around for about an hour and a half before we took the subway to the next neighborhood where we had a tea party at a café called hot couture Café. I booked this as a celebration for my birthday. It was fully decked out and all these white flowers and it was a really beautiful scene. They also had the table set up for my birthday birthday sign a special birthday cake so it was really nice. The food was a little bit different than American tea party usually includes. There were no Sandwiches. The savory items were a little questionable. I tried today and cod. I avoided the shrimp, scallops, and oysters. But I enjoyed the parfait and moose and macaron and tart. It was great themed almost everything had some sort of grape in it , it was not quite as filling as we had anticipated because it was a different menu than we are accustomed to in the US. 

We then headed to the neighborhood called Shibuya. We did some more wandering around them all and then went up to an observation deck on the roof of a 45 story high building called Shibuya sky. Interestingly, they also had us lock up all of our stuff and lockers, but thankfully, we got to keep our shoes on this time. Thankfully we lucked out and had really clear skies today so we could see across Tokyo into the ocean probably for miles. We spent about a half hour at rooftop and really enjoyed it and then decided to go back down to the street level and cross the Shibuya scramble and do some shopping. We stopped in a store named loft and purchase some stickers for scrapbooking. We then were losing steam pretty quickly. So we decided to eat dinner at a place called Ichiran Ramen. it’s this well-known Ramen chain where you place your dinner order on a computer and get a printed out ticket you, you fill out a little sheet about your preferences for your Ramen like how spicy you want to be. And then you wait for an individual booth to open up for you sit down. It’s an introvert dream. Everybody gets their own private booth so you don’t have to talk to anyone or see anyone. the Ramen was great. We both really enjoyed the food. It really hit the spot after a long day after Ramen we decided to hit a photo booth spot and took silly pictures and printed them out. We then went to the mega Don Quijote store, which was an 8 story convenience store. We purchase some snacks and souvenirs. Then we both hit a wall. And decided to come back to the hotel. We had been out of the hotel for about 12 hours today. We spent all day sweating and walking around. We took over 16,000 steps today. We both had a lot of fun. And we are looking forward to a good night sleep and a fun day tomorrow. I spent probably 20 minutes typing up this blog today. And then when I went to post it, it didn’t post and it deleted everything that I typed up. So now I’m too tired to retype it all up. So I’m dictating it. I’m sorry for any typos.

[erynisdreaming]

hey guys.

eryn pendragon here.

little penny not boy not girl over here wants to introduce you all to how their luck works by telling a story.

okay, it is december 15, 2023. i just left from work and decided to stop by the mall just to walk around, check some books, anything to take my head off the stress of my daily life. i had visited one of my aunties at the hospital some days ago, and me and my family had a very uncomfortable talk about her last days. you know... making a big christmas party so she could enjoy her last one. dark af, so... i was stressed OUT.

i go down from the bus, and i go into the mall without looking back. i go to the place where i get my onigiri to... get a onigiri, and i begin to walk around while eating it. wonderful.

in my walking and chewing session i see one of those claw machines, you know, the ones with plushies? and i change my path straight towards it.

i carefully analysed the plushie disposition inside the machine; and my eyes did not deceive me. there it was. a weird ass frog plushie, right on the edge of victory; seems like somebody else's disappointment was about to become my glory.

i hastily finish my onigiri (i regret it, good food needs to be savored), and i use my credit card (i was shocked to know that these actually accept cards 0_0) and i get the frog in my first try. well. i was SO happy.

grown ass person with frog in hands, time to walk around a little more. i check my phone, and i see that it's getting later than usual for me to be out, so... i head to the exit. in one of the exits to that specific mall, there are more claw machines; two to be exact... and one of them had a Chainsaw Man plushie.

Don't question me on the legal part. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be there.

but i went for it, too. would my greed swallow me whole, or was i still engulfed by the same luck that graced me with a frog?

luck it was! chainsaw boy and weird frog go in the backpack, and i rush home, really happy. and then it hits. Dude. This is the first lucky day in a whole year. What is going to happen?

as a result, i got really anxious at the bus. after i finally got out of the second bus, i begin to run home. i stop at a drink store to get some beer for me and mom (legal drinking age in Brazil is 18!), and from there it wasn't too long before i was home.

to make her a surprise, i knock loudly on the door and i scream something along the lines of... "MOOOOOOM!!!!"

no answer.

i do it again.

no answer, again.

i do it a third time, despite feeling like i shouldn't, and i just hear my father scream something from the inside... a little angrily... Damn. Something happened.

i rush into my house just to see my mother crying at the living room; she doesn't cry often, so, whenever she DOES cry i immediately panic; and this time i felt like i knew what happened.

yeah. turns out my auntie, the same one i saw at the hospital some days ago, that the family was discussing the last christmas, had passed away. same day i got two plushies from the claw machine. which honestly made me begin to question my own sanity. like, someone must be having a lot of fun watching my life for shit like this to happen.

not much else to say, but... it SUCKED. i was staring up at the ceiling for SO long. it was the first time death took someone when i was old enough to understand. and i wish i didn't understand.

it breaks my heart to think she didn't get to enjoy christmas with us that year. i miss her a lot, and i didn't even get to grieve that much for... Other reasons, that I'll get into later.

thanks for reading this wall of text, ill be posting some... happier stories later!

[kaitothefirst]

May 18- Musashi Students

I was insanely excited for today, as I had made plans with some of the students that I met at Musashi University to go to Odaiba. This is where we walked around a mall called Diver City and along a beach that had a view of the Rainbow Bridge. We eventually walked across the Rainbow Bridge, which was much more pleasant than I originally thought it would be. In order to finally have some food of some quality substance, we stopped at a pretty decent ramen place before heading to Tokyo Tower to take some pictures. We later went to Shinjuku to visit the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I was a little surprised at the fact that we had to pay to enter a park, but, when we got through the gates, I understood why. The park was packed even despite the price (which is obvious considering its placement in Shinjuku), and such a park would not exactly be enjoyable if it was significantly more crowded than it was today. The rest of the day ended up being pretty chill. We went to Ikea because I needed a big bag, walked around some more shopping centers (where we saw cool businesses like the Sesame Street Cafe), and had some dinner. Overall, I think today was an amazing day to spend time with local Japanese people who had a good idea of what to do for fun.

[thisisryderinjapan]

(from left to right top to bottom: Unko Museum, Yokohama Cosmo World, Yokohama Chinatown)

May 11 - Yokohama + Unko Museum

Today was a free day and most of the group was going to Tokyo Disney Sea, but I hate waiting in theme park lines and thought it would be a good idea to venture to a part of Tokyo we weren't going to see over the course of the trip. We decided to go to Yokohama because we knew they had one of the biggest Chinatowns in the world and because we knew there was a ferris wheel and plenty of things to do. The China Town was cool, but we got there first thing in the morning and weren't really in the mood for Chinese food at that point so we wandered down a side road and found a non-Chinese cafe where we had lates and discussed which sense would be the worst to lose (sight easily with touch being second and smell being the easiest to lose). After the cafe, we made our way to the ferris wheel which was in a little theme park that was mostly deserted which was surprising given that it was a saturday. The view from the ferris wheel was really cool; we actually had a pretty clear shot of mount Fuji through a pair of buildings which was super cool. After the ferris wheel we made our way down for lunch and ended up stumbling upon a very chique western-looking area where we had Italian food. We were also able to see this popular red brick building that also housed a bunch of food venues before we left for our next stop. Then, we went over to this place called the Unko museum which I had seen a YouTube video about and wanted to try. I was expecting a bigger place (it was literally just a leased space in a mall) and I hadn't realized it was going to be so kid oriented, but the photos I was able to get were pretty cool so it made it all worth it I guess. At the end of the day we spent more than three hours on public transportation and are about to spend even more time on the trains because we are planning on going to a rooftop thirty minutes away. The venue just opened at the top of a hotel called the Aoyama Grand Hotel and the view looks really cool from the Google Maps photos. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun!

[mamabearwonders]

I'm so tired of my family. They keep wanting me to sOcIaLizE. They've never been there for me and don't even include me in the full plans or don't even want me there.

So I'm with my adoption be family. My birth mom and I don't talk and it's always awkward because she comes over here a lot although I have my own apartment I'm here a lot too. She comes for my blood sibling, but he and I don't talk anymore even though he lives here. And they go to places.

Okay so here's the deal. I have my kid cousin (13 years old( and my aunt staying with us for a week and my birth mom keeps wanting to take them fun things. Well, she left me out of an arcade. Didn't even tell me about it. She took me when my kid cousin's sister was here with her family a little bit ago, but she had all these thousands and thousands of points, but wouldn't share any with me to get prizes, but did for everyone else. My adoptive mom paid for my stuff.

Then they went to the mall a couple of days ago. And brought food back for my brother, but not for me. So then my dad took me to get a special Chipotle treat. And then they had the audacity to try to sit down on the porch and talk with me and my mom like they are my adoptive parents they basically shuffled them back into the dining room because they didn't like that they did that.

To be fair, my birth mom isn't really that good of a person anyway because she had at least $12 that my adoptive mom gave her to get drinks for my cousin and aunt and she didn't spend that money on them cuz my adoptive mom asked about it.

My doptive mom respects my space and that I don't want to socialize. But she's trying to get me to bond with at least my aunt and kid cousin and work around my birth mom, but I don't even want to deal with it.

And then we're going to an amusement park tomorrow and I'm only going because my kid cousin wants me to go. He doesn't understand all the crazy family dynamics and I'm glad he doesn't.

And on top of that. My birth mom has a connection with a hotel here and she gets a really big reduced price yet I can't go. t's so stupid. My birth mom always gets stuff for free or heavily discounted so it wouldn't cost me much to go. My kid cousin is sad I can't go so she doesn't care about him either.

And the sucky part is my adoptive mom doesn't want to pick me up from amusement park because it's very confusing with the entrances and exits. So she wants me to take the shuttle out to the hotel and then wait for like 45 minutes in downtown so I'm just going to be outside the hotel because I can't go in I'm going to have to awkwardly wait out there. I can't even go in lmao. I'll probably walk around a little bit.

My kid cousin wants to do all of these things and doesn't understand why I don't want to like go to all these places with him I mean he's 13 years old. He's a cool kid. But it's like it's not you, kiddo, I literally wasn't invited and not even welcomed when I am.

I'll be with my kid cousin all day at the mall. So I won't have to interact with my birth mom except when we are eating and like we don't talk at all. My aunt is going to probably make it awkward and try and get us to talk and I just don't understand why when there's hurt between family members that they try to make you work around it or through it like I want nothing to do with her. She doesn't mean anything to me. She's never been a mom or done anything for me.

She also divided me and my brother because my adoptive family and I had a lot of problems over the years like fighting and stuff. And she told my brother that I was crazy and all of this stuff and she probably thinks the same. My adoptive family and I have a pretty rocky relationship, but I think they're starting to regret things and trying to stand up for me more.

I'm just getting really annoyed because it's like why keep trying to make me socialize with you guys or like make me go to places when you don't even include me in the full plans. And My adoptive mom is like enjoy what you are invited to but she's kind of pissed too at my birth mom.

It's like those groups of friends in high school. They pretend they like you and they want to hang out with you, but then you find out that they hung out at this restaurant together and didn't invite you. But post about it all over social media.

It's already draining enough with them here. It's even more draining working around my birth mom. 🙄