#also this made me google if you would be allowed to wear nail polish in a government facility

[thatcakelovingwitch]

They are judging you from across the diner

#tried a bit different style #also this made me google if you would be allowed to wear nail polish in a government facility #it never stated anywhere that you werent allowed to #i also finally drew Marissa and Charlie #i cant believe i havent #i love them so much! #marissa ng #marissa ng wbg #charlie wbg #woe begone marissa #woe begone charlie #woe.begone #woe begone #w.bg #w.bg fanart #if you see tattoos #no you dont #birds of a feather #little cake drawings

[path-of-my-childhood]

Taylor Swift: ‘I was literally about to break’

By: Laura Snapes for The Guardian Date: August 24th 2019

Taylor Swift’s Nashville apartment is an Etsy fever dream, a 365-days-a-year Christmas shop, pure teenage girl id. You enter through a vestibule clad in blue velvet and covered in gilt frames bursting with fake flowers. The ceiling is painted like the night sky. Above a koi pond in the living area, a narrow staircase spirals six feet up towards a giant, pillow-lagged birdcage that probably has the best view in the city. Later, Swift will tell me she needs metaphors “to understand anything that happens to me”, and the birdcage defies you not to interpret it as a pointed comment on the contradictions of stardom.

Swift, wearing pale jeans and dip-dyed shirt, her sandy hair tied in a blue scrunchie, leads the way up the staircase to show me the view. The decor hasn’t changed since she bought this place in 2009, when she was 19. “All of these high rises are new since then,” she says, gesturing at the squat glass structures and cranes. Meanwhile her oven is still covered in stickers, more teenage diary than adult appliance.

Now 29, she has spent much of the past three years living quietly in London with her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, making the penthouse a kind of time capsule, a monument to youthful naivety given an unlimited budget – the years when she sang about Romeo and Juliet and wore ballgowns to awards shows; before she moved to New York and honed her slick, self-mythologising pop.

It is mid-August. This is Swift’s first UK interview in more than three years, and she seems nervous: neither presidential nor goofy (her usual defaults), but quick with a tongue-out “ugh” of regret or frustration as she picks at her glittery purple nails. We climb down from the birdcage to sit by the pond, and when the conversation turns to 2016, the year the wheels came off for her, Swift stiffens as if driving over a mile of speed bumps. After a series of bruising public spats (with Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj) in 2015, there was a high-profile standoff with Kanye West. The news that she was in a relationship with actor Tom Hiddleston, which leaked soon after, was widely dismissed as a diversionary tactic. Meanwhile, Swift went to court to prosecute a sexual assault claim, and faced a furious backlash when she failed to endorse a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, allowing the alt-right to adopt her as their “Aryan princess”.

Her critics assumed she cared only about the bottom line. The reality, Swift says, is that she was totally broken. “Every domino fell,” she says bitterly. “It became really terrifying for anyone to even know where I was. And I felt completely incapable of doing or saying anything publicly, at all. Even about my music. I always said I wouldn’t talk about what was happening personally, because that was a personal time.” She won’t get into specifics. “I just need some things that are mine,” she despairs. “Just some things.”

A year later, in 2017, Swift released her album Reputation, half high-camp heel turn, drawing on hip-hop and vaudeville (the brilliantly hammy Look What You Made Me Do), half stunned appreciation that her nascent relationship with Alwyn had weathered the storm (the soft, sensual pop of songs Delicate and Dress).

Her new album, Lover, her seventh, was released yesterday. It’s much lighter than Reputation: Swift likens writing it to feeling like “I could take a full deep breath again”. Much of it is about Alwyn: the Galway Girl-ish track London Boy lists their favourite city haunts and her newfound appreciation of watching rugby in the pub with his uni mates; on the ruminative Afterglow, she asks him to forgive her anxious tendency to assume the worst.

While she has always written about relationships, they were either teenage fantasy or a postmortem on a high-profile breakup, with exes such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Harry Styles. But she and Alwyn have seldom been pictured together, and their relationship is the only other thing she won’t talk about. “I’ve learned that if I do, people think it’s up for discussion, and our relationship isn’t up for discussion,” she says, laughing after I attempt a stealthy angle. “If you and I were having a glass of wine right now, we’d be talking about it – but it’s just that it goes out into the world. That’s where the boundary is, and that’s where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable.”

Instead, she has swapped personal disclosure for activism. Last August, Swift broke her political silence to endorse Democratic Tennessee candidate Phil Bredesen in the November 2018 senate race. Vote.org reported an unprecedented spike in voting registration after Swift’s Instagram post, while Donald Trump responded that he liked her music “about 25% less now”.

Meanwhile, her recent single You Need To Calm Down admonished homophobes and namechecked US LGBTQ rights organisation Glaad (which then saw increased donations). Swift filled her video with cameos from queer stars such as Ellen DeGeneres and Queen singer Adam Lambert, and capped it with a call to sign her petition in support of the Equality Act, which if passed would prohibit gender- and sexuality-based discrimination in the US. A video of Polish LGBTQ fans miming the track in defiance of their government’s homophobic agenda went viral. But Swift was accused of “queerbaiting” and bandwagon-jumping. You can see how she might find it hard to work out what, exactly, people want from her.

***

It was girlhood that made Swift a multimillionaire. When country music’s gatekeepers swore that housewives were the only women interested in the genre, she proved them wrong. Her self-titled debut marked the longest stay on the Billboard 200 by any album released in the decade. A potentially cloying image – corkscrew curls, lyrics thick on “daddy” and down-home values – were undercut by the fact she was evidently, endearingly, a bit of a freak, an unusual combination of intensity and artlessness. Also, she was really, really good at what she did, and not just for a teenager: her entirely self-written third album, 2010’s Speak Now, is unmatched in its devastatingly withering dismissals of awful men.

As a teenager, Swift was obsessed with VH1’s Behind The Music, the series devoted to the rise and fall of great musicians. She would forensically rewatch episodes, trying to pinpoint the moment a career went wrong. I ask her to imagine she’s watching the episode about herself and do the same thing: where was her misstep? “Oh my God,” she says, drawing a deep breath and letting her lips vibrate as she exhales. “I mean, that’s so depressing!” She thinks back and tries to deflect. “What I remember is that [the show] was always like, ‘Then we started fighting in the tour bus and then the drummer quit and the guitarist was like, “You’re not paying me enough.”’’’

But that’s not what she used to say. In interviews into her early 20s, Swift often observed that an artist fails when they lose their self-awareness, as if repeating the fact would work like an insurance against succumbing to the same fate. But did she make that mistake herself? She squeezes her nose and blows to clear a ringing in her ears before answering. “I definitely think that sometimes you don’t realise how you’re being perceived,” she says. “Pop music can feel like it’s The Hunger Games, and like we’re gladiators. And you can really lose focus of the fact that that’s how it feels because that’s how a lot of stan [fan] Twitter and tabloids and blogs make it seem – the overanalysing of everything makes it feel really intense.”

She describes the way she burned bridges in 2016 as a kind of obliviousness. “I didn’t realise it was like a classic overthrow of someone in power – where you didn’t realise the whispers behind your back, you didn’t realise the chain reaction of events that was going to make everything fall apart at the exact, perfect time for it to fall apart.”

Here’s that chain reaction in full. With her 2014 album 1989 (the year she was born), Swift transcended country stardom, becoming as ubiquitous as Beyoncé. For the first time she vocally embraced feminism, something she had rejected in her teens; but, after a while, it seemed to amount to not much more than a lot of pictures of her hanging out with her “squad”, a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham. The squad very much did not include her former friend Katy Perry, whom Swift targeted in her song Bad Blood, as part of what seemed like a painfully overblown dispute about some backing dancers. Then, when Nicki Minaj tweeted that MTV’s 2015 Video Music awards had rewarded white women at the expense of women of colour, multiple-nominee Swift took it personally, responding: “Maybe one of the men took your slot.” For someone prone to talking about the haters, she quickly became her own worst enemy.

Her old adversary Kanye West resurfaced in February 2016. In 2009, West had invaded Swift’s stage at the MTV VMAs to protest against her victory over Beyoncé in the female video of the year category. It remains the peak of interest in Swift on Google Trends, and the conflict between them has become such a cornerstone of celebrity journalism that it’s hard to remember it lay dormant for nearly seven years – until West released his song Famous. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” he rapped. “Why? I made that bitch famous.” The video depicted a Swift mannequin naked in bed with men including Trump.

Swift loudly condemned both; although she had discussed the track with West, she said she had never agreed to the “bitch” lyric or the video. West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, released a heavily edited clip that showed Swift at least agreeing to the “sex” line on the phone with West, if not the “bitch” part. Swift pleaded the technicality, but it made no difference: when Kardashian went on Twitter to describe her as a snake, the comparison stuck and the singer found herself very publicly “cancelled” – the incident taken as “proof” of Swift’s insincerity. So she went away.

Swift says she stopped trying to explain herself, even though she “definitely” could have. As she worked on Reputation, she was also writing “a think-piece a day that I knew I would never publish: the stuff I would say, and the different facets of the situation that nobody knew”. If she could exonerate herself, why didn’t she? She leans forward. “Here’s why,” she says conspiratorially. “Because when people are in a hate frenzy and they find something to mutually hate together, it bonds them. And anything you say is in an echo chamber of mockery.”

She compares that year to being hit by a tidal wave. “You can either stand there and let the wave crash into you, and you can try as hard as you can to fight something that’s more powerful and bigger than you,” she says. “Or you can dive under the water, hold your breath, wait for it to pass and while you’re down there, try to learn something. Why was I in that part of the ocean? There were clearly signs that said: Rip tide! Undertow! Don’t swim! There are no lifeguards!” She’s on a roll. “Why was I there? Why was I trusting people I trusted? Why was I letting people into my life the way I was letting them in? What was I doing that caused this?”

After the incident with Minaj, her critics started pointing out a narrative of “white victimhood” in Swift’s career. Speaking slowly and carefully, she says she came to understand “a lot about how my privilege allowed me to not have to learn about white privilege. I didn’t know about it as a kid, and that is privilege itself, you know? And that’s something that I’m still trying to educate myself on every day. How can I see where people are coming from, and understand the pain that comes with the history of our world?”

She also accepts some responsibility for her overexposure, and for some of the tabloid drama. If she didn’t wish a friend happy birthday on Instagram, there would be reports about severed friendships, even if they had celebrated together. “Because we didn’t post about it, it didn’t happen – and I realised I had done that,” she says. “I created an expectation that everything in my life that happened, people would see.”

But she also says she couldn’t win. “I’m kinda used to being gaslit by now,” she drawls wearily. “And I think it happens to women so often that, as we get older and see how the world works, we’re able to see through what is gaslighting. So I’m able to look at 1989 and go – KITTIES!” She breaks off as an assistant walks in with Swift’s three beloved cats, stars of her Instagram feed, back from the vet before they fly to England this week. Benjamin, Olivia and Meredith haughtily circle our feet (they are scared of the koi) as Swift resumes her train of thought, back to the release of 1989 and the subsequent fallout. “Oh my God, they were mad at me for smiling a lot and quote-unquote acting fake. And then they were mad at me that I was upset and bitter and kicking back.” The rules kept changing.

***

Swift’s new album comes with printed excerpts from her diaries. On 29 August 2016, she wrote in her girlish, bubble writing: “This summer is the apocalypse.” As the incident with West and Kardashian unfolded, she was preparing for her court case against radio DJ David Mueller, who was fired in 2013 after Swift reported him for putting his hand up her dress at a meet-and–greet event. He sued her for defamation; she countersued for sexual assault.

“Having dealt with a few of them, narcissists basically subscribe to a belief system that they should be able to do and say whatever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want to,” Swift says now, talking at full pelt. “And if we – as anyone else in the world, but specifically women – react to that, well, we’re not allowed to. We’re not allowed to have a reaction to their actions.”

In summer 2016 she was in legal depositions, practising her testimony. “You’re supposed to be really polite to everyone,” she says. But by the time she got to court in August 2017, “something snapped, I think”. She laughs. Her testimony was sharp and uncompromising. She refused to allow Mueller’s lawyers to blame her or her security guards; when asked if she could see the incident, Swift said no, because “my ass is in the back of my body”. It was a brilliant, rude defence.

“You’re supposed to behave yourself in court and say ‘rear end’,” she says with mock politesse. “The other lawyer was saying, ‘When did he touch your backside?’ And I was like, ‘ASS! Call it what it is!’” She claps between each word. But despite the acclaim for her testimony and eventual victory (she asked for one symbolic dollar), she still felt belittled. It was two months prior to the beginning of the #MeToo movement. “Even this case was literally twisted so hard that people were calling it the ‘butt-grab case’. They were saying I sued him because there’s this narrative that I want to sue everyone. That was one of the reasons why the summer was the apocalypse.”

She never wanted the assault to be made public. Have there been other instances she has dealt with privately? “Actually, no,” she says soberly. “I’m really lucky that it hadn’t happened to me before. But that was one of the reasons it was so traumatising. I just didn’t know that could happen. It was really brazen, in front of seven people.” She has since had security cameras installed at every meet-and-greet she does, deliberately pointed at her lower half. “If something happens again, we can prove it with video footage from every angle,” she says.

The allegations about Harvey Weinstein came out soon after she won her case. The film producer had asked her to write a song for the romantic comedy One Chance, which earned her second Golden Globe nomination. Weinstein also got her a supporting role in the 2014 sci-fi movie The Giver, and attended the launch party for 1989. But she says they were never alone together.

“He’d call my management and be like, ‘Does she have a song for this film?’ And I’d be like, ‘Here it is,’” she says dispassionately. “And then I’d be at the Golden Globes. I absolutely never hung out. And I would get a vibe – I would never vouch for him. I believe women who come forward, I believe victims who come forward, I believe men who come forward.” Swift inhales, flustered. She says Weinstein never propositioned her. “If you listen to the stories, he picked people who were vulnerable, in his opinion. It seemed like it was a power thing. So, to me, that doesn’t say anything – that I wasn’t in that situation.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump was more than nine months into his presidency, and still Swift had not taken a position. But the idea that a pop star could ever have impeded his path to the White House seemed increasingly naive. In hindsight, the demand that Swift speak up looks less about politics and more about her identity (white, rich, powerful) and a moralistic need for her to redeem herself – as if nobody else had ever acted on a vindictive instinct, or blundered publicly.

But she resisted what might have been an easy return to public favour. Although Reputation contained softer love songs, it was better known for its brittle, vengeful side (see This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things). She describes that side of the album now as a “bit of a persona”, and its hip-hop-influenced production as “a complete defence mechanism”. Personally, I thought she had never been more relatable, trashing the contract of pious relatability that traps young women in the public eye.

***

It was the assault trial, and watching the rights of LGBTQ friends be eroded, that finally politicised her, Swift says. “The things that happen to you in your life are what develop your political opinions. I was living in this Obama eight-year paradise of, you go, you cast your vote, the person you vote for wins, everyone’s happy!” she says. “This whole thing, the last three, four years, it completely blindsided a lot of us, me included.”

She recently said she was “dismayed” when a friend pointed out that her position on gay rights wasn’t obvious (what if she had a gay son, he asked), hence this summer’s course correction with the single You Need To Calm Down (“You’re comin’ at my friends like a missile/Why are you mad?/When you could be GLAAD?”). Didn’t she feel equally dismayed that her politics weren’t clear? “I did,” she insists, “and I hate to admit this, but I felt that I wasn’t educated enough on it. Because I hadn’t actively tried to learn about politics in a way that I felt was necessary for me, making statements that go out to hundreds of millions of people.”

She explains her inner conflict. “I come from country music. The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’” In 2003, the Texan country trio denounced the Iraq war, saying they were “ashamed” to share a home state with George W Bush. There was a boycott, and an event where a bulldozer crushed their CDs. “I watched country music snuff that candle out. The most amazing group we had, just because they talked about politics. And they were getting death threats. They were made such an example that basically every country artist that came after that, every label tells you, ‘Just do not get involved, no matter what.’

“And then, you know, if there was a time for me to get involved…” Swift pauses. “The worst part of the timing of what happened in 2016 was I felt completely voiceless. I just felt like, oh God, who would want me? Honestly.” She would otherwise have endorsed Hillary Clinton? “Of course,” she says sincerely. “I just felt completely, ugh, just useless. And maybe even like a hindrance.”

I suggest that, thinking selfishly, her coming out for Clinton might have made people like her. “I wasn’t thinking like that,” she stresses. “I was just trying to protect my mental health – not read the news very much, go cast my vote, tell people to vote. I just knew what I could handle and I knew what I couldn’t. I was literally about to break. For a while.” Did she seek therapy? “That stuff I just really wanna keep personal, if that’s OK,” she says.

She resists blaming anyone else for her political silence. Her emergence as a Democrat came after she left Big Machine, the label she signed to at 15. (They are now at loggerheads after label head Scott Borchetta sold the company, and the rights to Swift’s first six albums, to Kanye West’s manager, Scooter Braun.) Had Borchetta ever advised her against speaking out? She exhales. “It was just me and my life, and also doing a lot of self-reflection about how I did feel really remorseful for not saying anything. I wanted to try and help in any way that I could, the next time I got a chance. I didn’t help, I didn’t feel capable of it – and as soon as I can, I’m going to.”

Swift was once known for throwing extravagant 4 July parties at her Rhode Island mansion. The Instagram posts from these star-studded events – at which guests wore matching stars-and-stripes bikinis and onesies – probably supported a significant chunk of the celebrity news industry GDP. But in 2017, they stopped. “The horror!” wrote Cosmopolitan, citing “reasons that remain a mystery” for their disappearance. It wasn’t “squad” strife or the unavailability of matching cozzies that brought the parties to an end, but Swift’s disillusionment with her country, she says.

There is a smart song about this on the new album – the track that should have been the first single, instead of the cartoonish ME!. Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince is a forlorn, gothic ballad in the vein of Lana Del Rey that uses high-school imagery to dismantle American nationalism: “The whole school is rolling fake dice/You play stupid games/You win stupid prizes,” she sings with disdain. “Boys will be boys then/Where are the wise men?”

As an ambitious 11-year-old, she worked out that singing the national anthem at sports games was the quickest way to get in front of a large audience. When did she start feeling conflicted about what America stands for? She gives another emphatic ugh. “It was the fact that all the dirtiest tricks in the book were used and it worked,” she says. “The thing I can’t get over right now is gaslighting the American public into being like” – she adopts a sanctimonious tone – “‘If you hate the president, you hate America.’ We’re a democracy – at least, we’re supposed to be – where you’re allowed to disagree, dissent, debate.” She doesn’t use Trump’s name. “I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy.”

As we speak, Tennessee lawmakers are trying to impose a near-total ban on abortion. Swift has staunchly defended her “Tennessee values” in recent months. What’s her position? “I mean, obviously, I’m pro-choice, and I just can’t believe this is happening,” she says. She looks close to tears. “I can’t believe we’re here. It’s really shocking and awful. And I just wanna do everything I can for 2020. I wanna figure out exactly how I can help, what are the most effective ways to help. ’Cause this is just…” She sighs again. “This is not it.”

***

It is easy to forget that the point of all this is that a teenage Taylor Swiftwanted to write love songs. Nemeses and negativity are now so entrenched in her public persona that it’s hard to know how she can get back to that, though she seems to want to. At the end of Daylight, the new album’s dreamy final song, there’s a spoken-word section: “I want to be defined by the things that I love,” she says as the music fades. “Not the things that I hate, not the things I’m afraid of, the things that haunt me in the middle of the night.” As well as the songs written for Alwyn, there is one for her mother, who recently experienced a cancer relapse: “You make the best of a bad deal/I just pretend it isn’t real,” Swift sings, backed by the Dixie Chicks.

How does writing about her personal life work if she’s setting clearer boundaries? “It actually made me feel more free,” she says. “I’ve always had this habit of never really going into detail about exactly what situation inspired what thing, but even more so now.” This is only half true: in the past, Swift wasn’t shy of a level of detail that invited fans to figure out specific truths about her relationships. And when I tell her that Lover feels a more emotionally guarded album, she bristles. “I know the difference between making art and living your life like a reality star,” she says. “And then even if it’s hard for other people to grasp, my definition is really clear.”

Even so, Swift begins Lover by addressing an adversary, opening with a song called I Forgot That You Existed (“it isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference”), presumably aimed at Kanye West, a track that slightly defeats its premise by existing. But it sweeps aside old dramas to confront Swift’s real nemesis, herself. “I never grew up/It’s getting so old,” she laments on The Archer.

She has had to learn not to pre-empt disaster, nor to run from it. Her life has been defined by relationships, friendships and business relationships that started and ended very publicly (though she and Perry are friends again). At the same time, the rules around celebrity engagement have evolved beyond recognition in her 15 years of fame. Rather than trying to adapt to them, she’s now asking herself: “How do you learn to maintain? How do you learn not to have these phantom disasters in your head that you play out, and how do you stop yourself from sabotage – because the panic mechanism in your brain is telling you that something must go wrong.” For her, this is what growing up is. “You can’t just make cut-and-dry decisions in life. A lot of things are a negotiation and a grey area and a dance of how to figure it out.”

And so this time, Swift is sticking around. In December she will turn 30, marking the point after which more than half her life will have been lived in public. She’ll start her new decade with a stronger self-preservationist streak, and a looser grip (as well as a cameo in Cats). “You can’t micromanage life, it turns out,” she says, drily.

When Swift finally answered my question about the moment she would choose in the VH1 Behind The Music episode about herself, the one where her career turned, she said she hoped it wouldn’t focus on her “apocalypse” summer of 2016. “Maybe this is wishful thinking,” she said, “but I’d like to think it would be in a couple of years.” It’s funny to hear her hope that the worst is still to come while sitting in her fairytale living room, the cats pacing: a pragmatist at odds with her romantic monument to teenage dreams. But it sounds something like perspective.

#taylor swift #interview #by taylor #the guardian #lover era #lover album #not sure how I feel about the interviewer's approach...there's a lot of irony in it #but a fun read for us nonetheless

[boymeetsweevil]

For Science 4/7

Grouping: Reader x Nerd!Jungkook

Word Count: 9.6k (im sorry its so long!!)

Warnings/Themes: definitely probably nsfw but purposefully not that many again. drunk jungkook being angry and then clingy, idiot kook, making out? ANGST?? Hoseok being the slimiest being on the face of the earth, 

Summary: Jungkook asks you to let him watch you get off. For science.

A/N: I would like to thank @b-angst-tan for beta reading this series as it is so far. I also would like to tag @m-icdrop , @jiminslye & @ephemeral-mindset to let you know that i finally got my shit together and posted lmao. hopefully i didnt leave anyone out who wanted to be tagged. if i did im very sorry and if you want to be tagged for subsequent posts, just DM me and let me know :)

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6, part 7

You wonder if maybe you should have chosen something more weather appropriate as the chill of the still early air nips at your stockinged ankles. It was a hard choice: The fleece-lined sweatpants with the dried tide pod stuck at the hip or something cute and feminine so you could play catch-up with whatever nice thing Yoori was wearing. The sight of Yoori in a slightly similar outfit of an elegant pea coat and demure pleated skirt convinces you that you made the right decision. But while your anxiety about picking the right clothes wanes, a sudden wave of exhaustion hits you. Normally you would be able to rest on a Saturday after 90 minutes of contorting yourself into endurance-testing positions, but today you had no time to untangle mentally—only physically—as you rushed through a shower to give yourself enough time to run to your apartment to grab a change of clothes.

Yoori looks up from her phone and sees you approaching her where she stands by a Starbuck’s storefront. A large grin splits her face, revealing a pair of adorable dimples on each cheek. You’re not expecting her to shove her phone into her coat pocket so she can run over to you and crush you in her arms.

“Hi, how are you!”

“Oh, uh, I’m good. How are you settling in?” Her grasp is fairly constricting , but you try not to appear shaken as you spit her hair out your mouth.

“I’m doing fine. I leased my apartment while I was away so, I’m still at the hotel until that contract ends. But that’s only for a few more weeks. After that I’ll move back in and really be at home. You smell lovely by the way. What scent is that?”

“Thanks,” you blink, “It’s just soap.”

“Mm, what kind of soap?”

“The dollar store kind.” She nods with a smile. “Um, where are we going?”

“Just to this little place up on Main Street. It’s called La Lune, have you heard of it?”

“Of course I have. They’re notorious for only ever being un-booked twice a year! And even then it’s just because they’re taking breaks so the owner can fly to her house in Paris.”

Yoori plays with the sleeve of her coat. “I suppose it does have a bit of a reputation. I must have just gotten lucky with their date book.”

“Don’t you need an appointment to get in?”

“Yes,” Yoori trails off.

“Will we be able to even get in? I-I didn’t call ahead to make a reservation since you said you’d take care of the plans for today.”

“They said they have an extra spot open for us today since they’re training a new technician.”

You don’t push because you know what they say about looking gift horses in the mouth. But you can’t help but wonder how you could have gotten so lucky on your first attempt to get seen at the nail shop. Any suspicion you have about Yoori’s methods of getting onto the appointment book evaporates when you step foot into the shop.

From looking at the pictures of the interior that you could find on Google images, you know that the design is based off of a bunch of spas that the owner herself went to during her many travels to Europe. All the décor is a novel twist of organic meets minimal with polished woods and metals and clean, sloping lines all existing harmoniously. You sit down in a plush chair in the waiting area while Yoori chats enthusiastically with the woman sitting behind the front desk. She does a little spin for her as they most likely talk about how much prettier she looks since the last time she came to the shop.

After confirming the appointment, Yoori makes her way over and sits next to you. She leans over the arm of her chair to peer over your shoulder at the vials of designer nail polish in your hands.

“Do you know what color you’re going to get?”

“Not yet. I usually just do black since it doesn’t clash and it doesn’t make my fingers look as stumpy”

“What are you talking about? Your hands are precious.” She reaches over to bring one up to inspect. “You have such a nice natural nailbed color. A nude would be perfect.”

“You don’t have to flatter me, I know what my hands are like. We can’t all have perfect OPI model hands, Yoori.”

She grins at your indirect compliment. “You think they’re perfect?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. Some things are just objective facts.” She’s quiet for a bit, a small expression on her face as she looks at you carefully.

“I think this shade would look good on you”, she picks out a specific soft shade that highlights that mimics that pink tone of your nails. “Plus, its suitable for the winter and spring. So, you could wear it for a while.”

“It’s really pretty. Thanks.”

“I could buy it for you. If you like.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t ask you to do that, you’re already doing so much for me today as is. I—“

“Too late.” She swipes the bottle out of your hand and gets up to go pay.

The guilt is too much for you to sit back and let it happen, so you launch yourself out of the chair and rush past her to the front desk, debit card out and ready.

“I’d like the buy the shade that Yoori has in her hand, please. Thank you.”

Her eyes are wide, but she doesn’t argue, and lets you buy the shade. You give her a pat on the arm and accept the tiny satin drawstring gift bag and try not to think about the chunk of money that just left your account.

You can only assume the rest of the nail appointment is nice but you can’t know for sure. You do know that you must have enjoyed yourself because you promptly fall asleep two minutes into the hot rock hand massage that comes with every booking. Yoori snapped a quick picture of your lax dreaming face and woke you up when the technician asked her what shape you wanted your nails. Leaving the salon finds you refreshed and with a beautiful manicure.

“Feeling hungry yet,” Yoori asks after she catches you staring wistfully at a random pedestrian with a bagel. “There’s still time for it to be brunch at the place I was talking about.”

“Yeah. It’s just too bad my nails are all nice now,” you joke. “Saturday mornings are for ribs at my house.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. They don’t have ribs on their brunch menu, I don’t think. Do you want ribs? I can check and see if there are any barbecue places that are open for lunch.” She fumbles for her phone and types frantically like she didn’t just get a hundred-dollar manicure.

“Yoori, Yoori, hold on! I was just kidding. There’s no way in hell I’m messing these nails up. I’m almost considering just drinking water for lunch so I don’t have to use my hands.”

“Wow, you…really got me.” She lets out a breath of relief before side-eyeing you. “Are you sure you don’t want ribs?”

“Positive.”

“Good,” she chuckles.

The two of you make small talk about what brought each of you to engineering as you take walking directions from Yoori’s phone. The walk ends at a pretty looking place with a yet another French sounding name. It’s filled to the brim with fresh flowers, giving the air a sweet scent that has your mouth watering even more. You take a chance and allow Yoori to order for you, trying not to be suspicious of the strange cheese dish she orders as an appetizer.

“—And that’s how we met Tae. We didn’t meet Hoseok until about a month later when he spilled his drink on me in line for the comic book signing at the campus bookshop that one year.”

“I think I remember that day, actually,” Yoori blinks up as if sifting through the memory in mid-air.

“Oh! Did you go? I feel like I would have noticed another girl there. I think I could count all of us there on one hand.”

“No, I wasn’t there. I’m not a comic book person actually. I just remember seeing all the people coming back in cosplay. There was actually this one really beautiful green elf costume I saw on my way to class. There were lights woven into the fabric and everything—I almost took a photo.”

Your cheeks heat up and you duck your head to take a sip of your extremely expensive blood orange mimosa. “That was actually me.”

“Was it really? Did you make it yourself?”

“No—well, yeah, I did the bulk. But Jungkook helped me a lot and Tae helped me find the materials.”

“And Hoseok?”

“Hoseok scratched his ass and watched.”

“Wow, I can’t believe that was you. It’s like destiny. We must have been meant to meet,” she lays a hand next to yours. You can’t help but notice how well the color of her pastel nails goes with your nude.

“Yeah, I suppose so. But enough about me, I feel like I’ve just been blabbering on and on about my friends.”

“No, I love hearing about them. I always envy people with lots of stories to tell about their friends. I feel like I have to ask,” she trails off, a shy smile splitting her face. “What’s it like being the only girl in that friend group?”

“It’s…only mildly frustrating,” you say with a laugh as your food arrives. It smells wonderful and given the amount of truffle shavings, you’re glad you chose to come here on a day that you weren’t paying.

“How so?”

“I mean, you know how guys are and you know how STEM guys are. Add to that the fact that they aren’t getting laid and you have a very interesting strain of emotional constipation.” Yoori nods along understandingly. “And let’s not forget all the stupid questions they ask me since they can’t ask any other woman.”

“That sounds like it might be frustrating.” You chuckle at her diplomatic tone.

“I mean it is, but they’re nicer than most guys and they mean well.”

The sly smile appears again and she leans forward to create a bubble of privacy.

“Nothing more than platonic has ever happened between you and one of them?”

Thankfully, a waiter rushes by and bumps the table a little and you can use that as an excuse for suddenly choking on your food. You certainly weren’t expecting her to inquire about your sex life so early into the conversation, and the irony of the situation isn’t lost on you. Of course, the apple of Jungkook’s eye would ask you about which of your guy friends you’ve ever screwed around with.

You blot at your face with a cloth napkin. Luckily for you, the way you look when you’ve narrowly avoided asphyxiation and when you’re concealing guilt is very similar. “Oh my god, please. I’m trying to enjoy this food, not regurgitate it. But to answer your question, no. They’re not my type. They’re too…” you make some abstract gesture in the air with your fork and Yoori nods.

“What about Jungkook, then? Surely, he’s decent otherwise I’m sure you would have warned me by now.”

“No, he’s nice. He’s a little out of it sometimes, but that’s always been his thing, you know? But he’s really kind and warm and funny in his own way. Plus, he’s in love with you so I don’t think you have to worry about him doing the man-child thing too much.”

Yoori blushes and shifts in her seat, looking a little uncomfortable. “Yes, I figured as much.”

“Can I ask what took so long for you two to finally meet up? I just—I know he’s been contacting you for a while now.”

“It’s complicated,” she sighs.

“I can keep up.”

“You could say I’ve just always been very wary of the men in our department. They’re not your average guys, but they’re still men. They still want the same things from you. And,” she looks away from you to continue. “I wasn’t sure if Jungkook was that way as well. So, I kept my distance. This must seem pretty suspect to you. Especially since it happened after he got put on the department website. I’ve heard what some people have been saying.”

Your hands fly out to console her. “Oh my god, of course not. That makes total sense. You’re not obligated to entertain everyone who expresses interest in you. I get it.”

“Oh, gosh, I feel so bad.” She hangs her head in her hands and you watch helplessly as her hair nearly falls into her water glass. When you inquire why, she shakes her head with guilt. “Jungkook never outright expressed an interest in dating until a few weeks ago. All the times before that, he’d been a perfect gentleman via text. But it was the way he would stare at me in public with those…those moonpie eyes!”

“He does look like that sometimes. Especially with those glasses.” She points at you like you’ve hit the nail on the head.

After doing a cursory look around the restaurant to make sure no one around will be able to hear her confession, she elaborates. “It was just so obvious how he felt and I was so used to guys feigning wanting to be platonic friends only to corner me in the parking lot after what was supposed to be a friendly dinner out. I-I couldn’t trust him. But then I heard that you were friends with him and I decided I would give it a chance.”

“Why would you trust him just because of me?”

“I have my reasons. And I just figured if you were willing to be friends with him, he might not be so bad. Plus, my mom has been pestering me about getting married and I wanted to get her off my back.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re giving him a chance. It means the world to him and he can finally stop pining silently. When is your first date,” you ask neutrally. Although you know that as soon as you get a date, you’ll have to terminate your weekends with Jungkook.

“Oh well we haven’t really discussed anything like that. I think he might ask about it soon, though. I’ll keep you posted.” The little eye roll and laugh she lets out breaks the heavy mood and you try to steer the conversation in a lighter direction.

“Tell me about your friends, Yoori.”

“Me? Well, I probably don’t have as much to say as you do. Most of my friends have long since finished the program and I’ve been so busy with my dissertation that I just don’t have as much time as I used to for hanging out and stuff like that.”

“I thought you were friends with Sunyoung. The bio double major? Jungkook said you were pretty close.”

“Well, he’s right. At first, we were. She’s been really busy ever since she got engaged, so,” she trails off.

“To that Jaehyun guy, right? But, wait,” you drop your fork as the details fall into place. “Weren’t you guys all friends? And didn’t they get married like half a year ago?” Your heart breaks when you realize Yoori may have been alone for at least 6 months while working.

“I could tell I was making things difficult by third wheeling, so Sunyoung suggested I give them some space.”

You were pretty certain you saw Sunyoung and Jaehyun hanging out with a few of the other women in the engineering building on the regular when you went to print things for class using the department printer. Even with her indirect language, it’s pretty clear what happened between Yoori and her friend and you don’t push. Though you do feel bad for the animosity you felt towards her when she first introduced herself.

“Well, I’m glad we met. It’s nice to finally have a new girlfriend,” you say. She looks up at you with slightly dim eyes but perks up when you lace your fingers together briefly.

The smile she gives you is brilliant and infectious. “Me too. So much,” she says quietly.

When brunch ends, Yoori suggests continuing your stroll so you can walk off the post-food sleepiness. The weather is a bit brisk and there are unanswered texts from Jungkook on your phone, but you don’t say no and keep the notifications unread. Something about the fact that you’re in the shopping district with a pretty manicure and your pretty friend makes you feel good. Good in a way that you haven’t felt in a really long time.

You link arms and window shop for hours, though it doesn’t feel like it. She pulls you into store after store because she saw something that she thought would look ‘splendid’ on you. Somehow you manage to look past her imploring eyes and put the designer garments back on the rack, but not until after she’s made you try them on and spin around in them so she can sing your praises. While you browse each shop, you make comments about the other shoppers or the items that make her dissolve into giggles or make her cheeks flare up with a warm blush and a gaping, incredulous smile. By the time you finally part ways, you almost don’t want to get into the cab she’s called for you, but your feet are aching and the sun is starting to set. She blows you a theatrical air kiss and makes a surprisingly dorky ‘call me’ gesture with her hand that has you covering your face so she can’t see how hard you’re smiling. When you step out to face Jungkook’s building, the mood of the day’s outing lingers on you like a perfume. Or maybe it’s a halo. Either way, Jungkook notices something about you is slightly different when you finally arrive at his doorstep.

“Hey,” you greet him without looking and instead focus on getting your feet out of the little heeled booties you’d been wearing for so long.

“You changed?” His voice is muffled from where he lays with his cheek smushed into the sofa. The xbox controller in his hand dangles as he takes in your appearance. “When did you do that?”

“I went back to my house after yoga. I couldn’t go meet her in a rank t-shirt and the sweats that I slept in.”

When he doesn’t say anything, you turn to see why he’s so silent. One look at the handful of empty beer bottles sitting neatly by the floor by his feet lets you know what the deal is.

“You been drinking, Jeon?” Jungkook when he’s drunk is quite the handful, but the owlish way he blinks at everything when there’s liquor in his system is almost funny enough to make the rest of his drunk antics worth it.

“Yep,” he hiccups. He tries to shoot finger guns at you but almost ends up flipping you the bird.

It draws a string of giggles out of you. He squints and takes in your frizz free hair, your glowy skin, your nice blouse and skirt, the easy way you walk over to the couch to sit by him. His stare is tangible.

“What?”

“You’re really pretty,” he rasps and his hand reaches out without his permission to trace the swell of your cheek.

His comment takes you by surprise and you can only laugh awkwardly and lean out of his reach, unsure of what to do with such a blatant compliment.

“Wow, I spend one afternoon with Yoori and you’re calling me pretty? She must have rubbed off on me real good.” You take the controller out of his hands to un-pause the game of Zelda he was playing.

“S’not cause of her. ‘S cause you’re not hiding,” he mumbles before picking up the other controller that was laying off to the side. His comment doesn’t reach your ears which he’s secretly glad for. “You want a beer?”

“Sure.”

He reaches over the arm of the couch to fish out one of the leftover full bottles and hands it to you. He doesn’t say anything while he watches you chug half of it, meanwhile nudging the inside of his cheek with his tongue. A classic sulking Jungkook pose.

“Oh my god, what? Are you mad I got to spend the day with her and you didn’t?”

He blinks, surprised, when he realizes that he’s actually not mad about that. Rather he’s mad you spent so little of the precious Saturday with him, though it wasn’t clear at first. To think that he’s jealous of Yoori is funny enough to break him of his brief pouting session.

“Yeah,” he fibs, “but it’s fine.” He scoots clumsily nearer next to you. “You’re here now and there’s still the rest of the weekend.”

“That’s true. But I don’t want to play Zelda. Let’s do Mario Kart?”

“Loser each round has to take a shot and winner picks the next course?” He’s already stumbling his way back to the kitchen to pull the tequila bottle someone left in his fridge a while back and a pair of plastic shot glasses.

“Is there any other way?”

It takes three rounds, the first two of which are Rainbow Road, but you quickly catch up to him in terms of tipsiness level. Your whole body feels like its vibrating, and the tequila makes it seem like your blood is carbonated. Like you could float away at any moment. By a streak of luck and then redirecting to Bowser’s castle, you manage to get in the winning position. You’re on a roll and get cocky enough to start gloating, egging Jungkook’s underlying competitive nature on.

“Shit,” he curses under his breath as you cross the finish line 9 seconds before him. His stomach feels sloshy after four shots and the bottles of beer he downed earlier. You slam down his, now full, shot glass in front of him, spilling some of the clear liquid onto the table.

“That’s like, what, your fourth one? No, wait, it’s your fifth one. My bad.” You stick out your tongue as you perch next to him, pressing yourself to his back and reveling in the way he grimaces at the shot. “If I had known you would make the game so easy, I would have stayed out with Yoori.”

You’re so busy teasing him about his slow gaming reflexes that you don’t notice the way his smile twitches after he downs the drink. He moves uncharacteristically fast and all you can do is sit there as he tosses the tiny plastic cup to side and then turns to lunge at you. Your back hits the couch cushion with a soft thud and your breath leaves you in a whoosh. If it had just been him caging you into the couch because he was fed up with your taunting, it would be fine. But the moment his fingertips dig into your sides, you lose it and start thrashing.

Jungkook knows better than anyone else that you’re a wild tickling victim, all flailing knees and elbows. Truly a danger to anyone who dares to tickle you. But he’s still smart despite being five tequila shots and a few beers in and uses his bulk against you to keep your movement to a minimum. Perhaps it’s a little cruel to take it out on you, but he still can’t get over the selfish simmering of regret at not suggesting you ditch Yoori in favor of letting him spend the day wrapped up in you. He missed you, is what it really boils down to.

“No,” you cackle underneath him, “No, please! Jungkook this isn’t fair. Please!”

He merely flashes you his teeth in a mean grin and continues until your eyes are shimmering with unshed tears and you’ve stopped squirming so you can keep your bladder in check.

“Jungkook, please,” you beg softly in surrender, toes curling.

Maybe it’s the angle. Maybe it’s the pleading voice you’re using, maybe it’s the sparkly quality of your eyes, or the fact that you smell like lavender. The color, not the flower, he notes. Whatever it is, his eyes fall closed automatically and he leans in to slot his mouth over yours. It’s a slow kiss and even though his tongue swipes across the seam of your lips, it has a chaste feeling still. You wriggle your arms out from under his weight and push him off you slowly. Thoughts of Yoori float around in the back of your mind and you can’t turn them away without feeling awful.

“We can’t get into anything today,” you snap and smooth out your skirt. “I got my period while I was out.” You wince when the lie comes out, but you don’t know if there’s any other way to put enough distance between you so you can keep your head straight.

He watches you look around until you spot your overnight bag at the end of the room. “Are you leaving?” His tone bleeds annoyance and takes on a sharp edge.

“Yeah,” you say like it’s obvious. Because it kind of is and the longer you stay, the weaker your resolve gets. “We can’t fool around if I’m on the rag.”

“Just because we can’t fool around, doesn’t mean I want you to leave.” He’s thinks for a second. “Do you want to leave?”

“Well, if we don’t fool around, I should probably go. Otherwise, why the hell am I here?”

His frustration flares up once more and you’re surprised that he’s as upset as he is. “Because I want you to be? And because maybe you want to be here too? Is that so weird? You said yourself this wasn’t anything to make a big deal of.”

“It’s not. But—”

“Then why the hell are you leaving?” He rakes both hands through his hair until he looks frazzled and barks out a sarcastic laugh. You’ve never seen him so angry with you before and strangely your first instinct is to get angrier.

“As opposed to sticking around? To do what?”

“I don’t know. Anything? We could play Mario Kart until our eyes bleed. You could let me practice kissing you and feeling you up all night. Or we could just be silent and drink until we both pass out. I really don’t care just…tell me what you want. Just stay if you want to stay.”

Your cheeks warm at his blunt words, but you put your bag down. He lets out a sigh of relief when you don’t charge out the front door, but he tenses up again when you head out the living room and only relaxes finally when he hears the shower start up. After nearly half an hour, you emerge looking squeaky clean and a little guilty in sweats. He’s not sure what the cause of the guilt is, but he tries not push. You shuffle over to stand in front of him, the sheepish curve of your shoulders making you look tiny.

You hesitate for a second before planting a knee on either side of his thighs and seating yourself in his lap. Your arms come to wrap around the breadth of his shoulders and you rest your cheek on top of his head.

“How was your day,” you mumble into the strands of his shiny chestnut hair.

He preens silently at the affection that he didn’t realize he’d been craving all day and his arms mirror yours. They come up to snake around your waist as he reclines a bit and shifts so he can relax into the couch without jostling you. Out of all of the things you’ve started physically doing with Jungkook, cuddling with him like this might be his favorite thing to do. There’s something incredibly satisfying about getting to bury himself in your scent and softness.

“Fine. Got my work done, skyped with RealiCorp. Met Tae for lunch. Tried to call you to see if you wanted to do dinner with us, but I guess you were busy. How was your time with Yoori?”

“It was,” you sigh, looking for the right word. “It was really fun. Honestly, its really nice to talk with another girl for a change. I’m glad we were able to.” He hums sympathetically and squeezes you a little tighter. “She’s really nice. You’ll be good together,” you admit.

He tenses a bit and changes the topic.

“I could fall asleep like this.” It’s the truth. The way your fingers run through his hair and the warmth of your breasts pillowing his head make him drowsy. Though he can’t focus on it as much as he’d like or else he’ll ruin the mood with an awkward boner.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he says, shifting so he can smile into your t-shirt.

“You’re so…” you can’t get the words out so instead you hastily smack a loud kiss onto his cheek.

It shocks both of you, but he doesn’t look put off. Instead, he merely adjusts his glasses, which you jostled with the force of your kiss. The gesture is so characteristically him that the floodgates open and you keep planting kisses on his face until he laughs and starts trying to catch your mouth with his own. He manages one or two cheeky kisses on your lips, but you swerve around enough to keep things PG. He huffs and keeps trying, one of his hands coming up to grab at your arm and keep you still. He leans forward, forcing you to lean back in his lap until you can’t anymore without risk of falling. When you clutch at his shoulders to maintain your balance, you’re right where he wants you.

Your eyes are squeezed shut as he brushes his nose against yours. It’s cute, he thinks. By now he knows in theory how you feel about period sex, but where’s the harm in kissing?

“Why are you being so shy? I just wanna kiss you,” he scoffs while attempting to nip at your bottom lip.

“Just kissing?” You open your eyes cautiously, lids at half-mast. He nods hurriedly, fingers drumming an impatient beat on the small of your back.

“O-Okay.” You barely get the word out before he’s swooping in with a low contented sound.

Making out just for the sake of making out reminds you of your time with your first boyfriend, the summer before college started. Only this is so much better because it’s Jungkook and because there’s no race to sex like there was when you were 18. Every press of lips is a deliberate choice and when you finally come up for air, somehow, you’re horizontal and are regretting the lie you told terribly.

He pulls away with a kiss-swollen pout and checks the time. When it’s an appropriate hour for bed and he suggests you both retire to the bedroom to watch TV before bed. You’re a little wary at first, but he’s a gentleman and doesn’t do anything untoward. He even lets you take control of his laptop and the HDMI cord while he writes continuously in his journal. You try to peer over at what he’s writing once you recognize it as his sex journal, but he pins you with such an offended look that you can only turn around feeling properly scolded without having actually been verbally addressed. You don’t think too much of the fact that he’s writing in it despite the fact that you haven’t done much in the amorous realm and he wrote on and off the entire day yesterday.

Even after you’ve watched three episodes of Elementary, he’s still writing. You unplug the computer and turn to look at him in his pretzel legged position. Every so often he’ll look over at you and then return to frantically writing in his journal. You try to engage him in an unspoken staring contest, but your eyelids drop closed and prevent you from winning. Only once it becomes clear that you’re trying to sleep does he wedge his journal underneath his half of the mattress and turn off the lights.

Passing through the weekend and into the next week doesn’t suddenly bring things back to normal. Instead it feels as though you’ve entered the twilight zone.

You and Yoori text on and off all of Sunday and into Monday to compare schedules and see when you can meet up for some quality girl time. This means that Yoori has started to come meet you outside your lecture halls when your classes end to walk to the library together and you arrive at your agreed meeting spots with her preferred coffee order. Your nails are holding up amazingly and you tell her so constantly while she smiles at how excited you are at something she often takes for granted.

Yoori suggested you have your your study sessions in the corner of the library coffee shop because the picture window shows all the light snow you’ve been getting and provides a nice form of visual ambiance to work to. Sometimes the guys attempt to crash the sessions. Often times you have to shoo them away by letting them take your ID card to stock up on hot chocolates with extra whip from the front counter. Your funds are depleting at an alarming rate, but it’s better to have the uninterrupted time with your first girl friend in a long time so you can get to know her better.

“So, are you going home during winter break,” you ask one day while typing away at the results section of a lab report. Yoori sits across from you in an oversized cashmere sweater you wish you could pull of half as well as she does. She’s been working silently for nearly an hour and you know she won’t take a break unless you distract her from the work.

At the sound of your voice, her head pops up instantly, her loose bun spilling out of its structure with the movement and cascading down her back. A freshman walking by the table nearly slams into a door trying to keep looking back at the same time. She closes her laptop, completely unaware of her effect on the people in the surrounding area.

“Yeah, I am. I haven’t in the past few years but my grandparents are coming from the countryside, so I should probably go this time.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you. I’m sure they’d all like to see you.”

“Are you going?”

“No,” you give a bittersweet smile as you play with the damp stirring stick next to your drink. “My family lives too far away for me to be able to go home and make the plane ride worth it. I’ll probably see them in the summer, though.”

“Won’t you be lonely? Do you want to come home with me?” Her brow furrows in sympathy and she reaches out to rub at your arm.

“No, that’s okay, I’ll be fine. It’s not my first rodeo, you know. Plus usually some, if not all, of the guys stick around since they live nearby but still want a break from their families during the day. But thank you though.”

“Okay, well there’s still time if you want to change your mind.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Are you almost done?”

“Almost. I’m waiting on my VASP energies to come in and then I can update my poster and I’ll be all set.”

“VASP? Since when do you do chemistry,” you get up to peer at her computer screen.

Yoori pats the open seat next to her and let her explain the very quick favor she’s doing with a professor she’s been in contact with since undergrad when she thought she would be pre-health.

“—So basically, now she’s just waiting to evaluate grain boundary energies to see if the electrolytes we’re using actually have the right structure to make a difference in hydrogen atom velocities. And I’m just here to help with some minor calculations.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

A small ping from your phone alerts you of an incoming text from ~JK~.

Is Yoori with you?

“Um, I think Jungkook is trying to reach you.”

“Oh! I keep my phone on silent during the day,” she explains and hurriedly switches on the volume before opening whatever texts he must have sent her before he texted you.

“Really?”

“I have yours set on urgent, though.”

You grin. “And why’s that?”

“Because! What if you send me another meme about neural networks? I can’t just let it rot away in my inbox.”

“No one appreciates my memes like you do.”

“Aren’t I great?”

“So great,” you admit with clenched eyes and fists for dramatic feeling.

“I wish I didn’t have to go. I’m enjoying you complimenting me.”

“Oh. Are you headed somewhere?”

“Unfortunately, yes. The energy files just arrived and I’m about to finish entering them. I think Jungkook wants to meet up to discuss things, so I’m just going to pack up now and meet him at the dining commons before the dinner rush kicks in. I’ll text you later.”

“Okay, sure.”

After Yoori packs up to leave, you consider texting Jungkook to ask what he plans on discussing with her, but it feels so clingy and invasive that you’re ashamed of yourself and force yourself to dive into work. The lab report is nearly done, but there are a few articles you could read to get further ahead in your classes. It takes a long while, and you work through the usual dinner time to do it, but you manage to finish thanks to having turned your phone off as soon as Yoori left.

When you turn it back on there are a few recent messages from Taehyung and Hoseok inquiring about late night munchies plans. You figure eating with them is better than eating soup alone in the middle of the nearby convenience store. And better than ignoring the messages in favor of going home early to have pity sleep for dinner. You text them back saying that you’ll meet them in 10 and pack your things up.

You arrive at the smoothie place feeling haggard and not ready to balance Taehyung’s energy and Hoseok’s chaotic existence. The bright side is that there is a medium chocolate shake sitting in the empty seat at the tiny high table they’ve managed to save. You greet them with a tired smile and immediately suck down the drink, reveling in the way the chocolate is already lifting your spirits a bit.

“You look like shit,” Hoseok greets you. Taehyung slaps his arm, but turns to you with concerned eyes.

“Are you sleeping?”

“Why are you guys acting like you don’t see me passed out throughout random parts of the day 80% of the time?”

“Because you don’t look like you do,” Hoseok quips. At your blank stare, he goes back to innocently sipping his guava juice. “Just looking out for you, buddy.”

“Yeah, well I slept all of this weekend, thank you very much. What about you guys? You get up to trouble at the Dairy Queen again? Is that why we’re here this time?”

Tae nods somberly. “Hobi put lit firecrackers in their dumpsters again. But this time he almost caused their elderly delivery guy to go into cardiac arrest.”

“Something is wrong with you.” Hoseok merely winks at you in response.

“The worst part is that I didn’t even have anything to do with it, but they still wouldn’t let me in, even when it was just me and Kook,” Taehyung whines.

Hoseok snorts. “Ok, that’s on you. You were my accomplice even though you technically didn’t touch the fireworks but people remember your face better than they do mine. Should have waited at least a week before trying to go back in there.”

“Wait, this was all in one weekend?”

“Yeah,” Tae reaches over and dips a fry into your cup. “The fireworks were Friday, after game night. And then we tried to go in on Saturday, but they wouldn’t let us in. We tried calling you and everything.”

“You’re mad at me now? It’s not like I could have helped you.”

“Yeah, you could have,” Hoseok corrects, gesturing to your general chest area. “You’ve got the tits for that sort of thing.”

“Why are we friends,” you ask him with a soulless smile.

“Because you won’t let me motorboat you.” His response is immediate and just as dry. It spooks you a little.

“Well, I’m gonna go. I would say it’s been fun, but it hasn’t.”

“Wait!” Taehyung scrambles out of his chair and helps you back into yours. “You can’t leave. Jungkook might be done soon and said he’ll try and meet up with us. It’ll be the first time we’ve all been out together in such a long time.”

“We literally saw her on Friday,” Hoseok groans and tosses his head back in what looks like a mini tantrum. You roll your eyes.

“That was at Kook’s house, that’s not ‘out’. It doesn’t count.” Taehyung turns to plead with you, eyes big and starry, with a comical pout on his face. “Please stay? For me? Ignore him. I do.”

“Hey!”

“Fine,” you sigh before shaking your empty cup. “But I need another one of these. And Hobi is buying.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Do I have to remind you that if it weren’t for you and your whipped cream fixation, I wouldn’t be in the red for dining dollars and I might be able to afford my own drinks from time to time? You owe me, Jung.” You try to poke his sternum menacingly, but he moves to snap his teeth at your finger and you quickly pull back with a shriek. He agrees, though its reluctantly at best.

While Hoseok waits in the line to order your refill, Taehyung scoots his chair closer to yours. Carefully, he attempts conversation.

“How are you holding up?”

“With what, work? It’s the same as always. Tedious.”

“No, I mean with…Did Kook not tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“That he planned to officially ask Yoori out tonight,” his voice is quiet and uncertain.

“Oh. No, he didn’t tell me. But, it’s not like its our right to know. He’s an adult. H-how did you find out, though?”

“He told me.”

“And me,” Hoseok says as he sets down the second milkshake in front of you.

“I see.”

You start drinking on autopilot, too busy thinking about why Jungkook wouldn’t tell you such big news despite your being his best friend. You figure maybe he found out about your big fat crush on him and decided he’d rather tiptoe around you than have to let you down gently. Or maybe he just didn’t care enough about you enough to tell you these things now that Yoori was in the picture. What’s good is that the latter thought doesn’t make any resentment towards Yoori rise in your stomach. Instead you just want to curl up in a ball and wonder you did in your past life to deserve such a horrendous love life. Or, you suppose, lack thereof.

“He just shared his location. I think he’s on the way,” Taehyung tentatively disrupts you from zoning out any further.

If you hurried, you could probably take the campus shuttle home and be on your way home before Jungkook arrives, but part of you wants to see how he’ll explain his decision to you. You decide to stay because you don’t want to be anything less than supportive of his new relationship though it’s kind of crushing you in the process.

“Tell him to hurry up, then. You know what happens when I drink cold things,” your voice is light and a little bouncier than is appropriate and you know Taehyung knows what’s going on in your head. But Hoseok doesn’t and you don’t want him to.

Jungkook arrives 10 minutes later with Yoori in tow. She looks sheepish until she sees you sitting at the table and her dimples make an appearance. She runs ahead of Jungkook to envelope you in a hug. You’re still working on the physical boundaries of your friendship given that you’re not a huge fan of suffocation. Still, you pat her arm and let her get her fill before pulling back and offering up half of your chair. She gratefully accepts it and links arms with you immediately after settling down. Everyone scoots closer to open up more space and Jungkook pulls up a seat as well.

“It’s good to see you both, again,” Yoori chirps politely. Hoseok melts at the sound of her voice and beams at her. It’s gross.

“We’re good. It’s nice to see you so often now.” Taehyung chances a look at you. The initial shock of watching you and Yoori become fast friends apparently still hasn’t worn off. You don’t blame him but he’s so obvious about it.

“It is, isn’t it? You guys are just so fun to be around.”

“We like hanging out with you too, Yoori.” Hoseok’s voice climbs almost half an octave trying to sound so abnormally accommodating. Everyone else tries to contain their laughter. “You know, you still haven’t come visit me at the dance studio. I’m starting to get hurt feelings.”

“W-well, it’s just that I’ve been so busy and I still haven’t figured out a gap in my schedule when I can properly come see you. I’m very sorry,” she squeezes your arm unconsciously as she bows her head a little to him in apology. Your pulse picks up sympathetically for her.

“Hobi, if she wanted to see you do sweaty body rolls in an empty room, don’t you think she would have done it already?” When his smile twitches at your comment you add a quick, “I’m only trying to be realistic. I’m looking out for you, buddy.”

Yoori hisses your name in your ear, but you can tell that she’s trying not to smile at your sharp wit from her tone of voice.

“Anyway,” Hoseok starts up again, “Yoori, don’t you and Jungkookie have some good news to tell us all?”

Yoori’s cheeks redden at the sudden shift in topic and she looks to Jungkook for help. His face is similarly pink with embarrassment, but he still clears his throat like he’s about to make a toast.

“It’s not a big deal. I just wanted to say that I can’t do game night this Friday since I’ll be having dinner with Yoori in town.”

“You’re all welcome to join us, if you like,” she quickly amends. Your eyes widen and you swoop in to help Jungkook save face. You know it probably took him a lot to muster the courage to ask her out in the first place and if you don’t do anything, you know Hoseok will gladly wriggle his way in and ruin the date.

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly intrude on your dinner. But, thank you, for the offer. Right Tae? Right, Hobi?” Hoseok sulks but wordlessly agrees to stay out of their date.

“Yeah,” Taehyung jumps in to help you. “We’ll just have the game night at my place. I want to play cards anyway, instead of console games this time around.”

Everyone nods until the awkward air dissipates and all that’s left is the background noise of the diner and the sound of people finishing their drinks. The cold from your shakes starts to seep into your bones and you decide to use this as your exit ticket.

“Hey, sorry to ruin the fun, but I’m freezing and I didn’t bring a real jacket, so I think I’m gonna head home. You guys have fun without me, though.”

“You can just wear my sweater,” Jungkook pipes up and begins to pull the thick, woolen pullover he was wearing over his head. But you hold your hand up to stop him as you get down from your stool and collect your trash.

“No, Kook, you’re fine. I’m just gonna use the cold as motivation to get to the bus quicker. Have a good night, everyone.”

“It’s colder out there. At least take his sweater,” Yoori calls out to you. “For me,” she adds when you look like you’re thinking about it.

“Fine,” you huff as you take the sweater from Jungkook. You slide it on in front of everyone so they can have their worries assuaged. It’s still toasty from his leftover body heat and smells like his laundry detergent. He might not get it back for a while. “See? I’ll definitely be fine now.”

“Why don’t I go with you? I’ve still got a robotics assignment I have to work on. Plus, we can split cab fare instead of waiting for the bus.” Tae shrugs on his own coat and goes to stand by you.

“Okay.” You ignore his probing look until you finish waving to everyone and leave the restaurant.

Taehyung shoves his hands in his pockets as you request a ride home through an app on your phone. The silence is companionable, but the waves of pity and sympathy rolling off Taehyung are damn near palpable and you’re about to burst if you don’t address it.

“Just say what you’re thinking. I can practically hear it anyway.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m not 12. I’m not going to be devastated just because they’re going out on one date.”

“Yeah, but,” Taehyung hesitates for a bit, trying to cushion the blow, “You know it’s just a matter of time before they become official, right?”

“I know that too,” you wince when your voice cracks a little.

“If you ever need anything, you know we’re here for you.” You raise an incredulous eyebrow at the implication that Hosoek would do anything less than laugh in your face if you came to him looking for comfort. “Well, I am, at least.”

“I know, Tae. Thank you.” You let him wrap you in a one-armed hug, but don’t let him pull away so you can steal his warmth as you wait for your car to arrive.

Yoori’s apartment is nicer than anything you’ve ever seen. So much so that you have a hard time believing that you even live in the same town. It’s technically not your first time visiting her building and you’ve called many a late night cab from her plush lobby. You’ve even started to make small talk with her doorman since you’re there so often. But something was keeping you from coming up and visiting her actual apartment. All the times you’d hung out off campus had been at your place or at Jungkook’s place. There had been a lull in all that since Jungkook announced that they’d be going on a date only a few days prior.

After that fateful day, it was hard to act like there hadn’t been subtle changes in the way people were acting. Jungkook was suddenly super busy or always at the gym and couldn’t ever pick up your calls. And when he did return them it was only when you were dead asleep and couldn’t pick up your phone. For that, you were actually kind of grateful because you were certain that the next time you saw him on your own, he would try to break it to you that he couldn’t return your affections and that you could no longer be friends.

Taehyung and Hoseok, on the other hand, were still somewhat normal, but Hoseok was too excited about Yoori’s unofficial entry into the friend group and Taehyung kept soft-touching you like he could take up your pain through osmosis. Yoori was the only one who hadn’t suddenly turned weird and it was only because she wasn’t aware of the chaos floating around you all.

When she’d asked you to come shopping with her on the high street, you had a hunch that it was so she could get some new outfits for the many date nights with Jungkook ahead. You didn’t expect her to try and rope you into buying things as well, though you managed to get out it by truthfully explaining to her that Taehyung and Hoseok were still using your student ID like it was a credit card in someone else’s name and you had to be frugal as a result. But just when you thought you were in the clear as you approached her building, she invited you up to help her style the stuff she bought and stick around for dinner. To keep from having to explain yourself, you said yes.

But you instantly regretted it as you stood in the middle of her chicly decorated bedroom with picture windows and realized that despite the fact that you were extremely fond of Yoori, there was still a very small part of you that wished you had her life. It felt juvenile and reminded you that even after you stopped being a teenager you still had a ton of self-esteem issues left to address. The sooner you finished helping her with her outfits, the sooner you could maybe curl up on her couch and down the bottle of wine you bought while you were shopping earlier.

“I don’t think I like this one as much now that we’re not in the store anymore.” Yoori frowns at her reflection from inside the walk-in closet. The fact that she had a walk-in closet did not surprise you, but your mouth still dropped open when you the little seating area and the full-length panel of mirrors inside of it.

You finish picking out an alternative and then call out to her. “Come out and let me see it?”

She emerges in a short and slinky dress that would be perfect if it weren’t for the way it slouched at the neckline. It seemed intentional in the store with the way the salesman was pushing hard for her to buy it, but now it looked oddly frumpy.

“I think I see what you mean. Turn?” She obeys and turns gracefully, the skirt flaring out around her hips. “Why don’t you try these? They’d look amazing with that red blouse you wore when we went to the movies that one time.” You hand her some satiny trousers that she picked up on a whim but ended up really liking. If she paired them with red, Jungkook’s favorite color, he’d eat his heart out.

“You’re right, I think this is the one,” Yoori smiles widely at you and comes out with two pairs of shoes in her hand. Silently you point to the pair that would go better with the outfit, the ones with a subtle gold traces etched into the stiletto heel.

“If you want, you can wear your hair in a ponytail. Show off your neck, he’ll like it.”

“Really?” She laughs, slightly bashful. “Is he a neck guy?”

“For you? He’s a neck guy, hand guy, lips guy, ass guy. You name it.” As soon as Yoori hangs up her outfit for the date and puts it on her closet door, you flop face first into her bed, exhausted in so many ways.

“Why do you know so much about his, um, preferences? Is he vocal about that sort of thing?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” your voice is muffled by her bedspread.

“And are you not vocal about that sort of thing, then?”

Luckily she can’t see your face as you roll the question around in your head. You’re no prude and if it weren’t for the unfortunate series of events that is your life, you would love nothing more than to swap sex stories with Yoori as a form of bonding. But given that you can’t and you don’t really want to end up having to listen to her talk about sex with him when it comes, you decide one more white lie won’t hurt.

“I’m just a really private person, so I don’t really do that.”

“Good to know,” she chuckles and you miss the disappointed look on her face when she realizes she won’t be able to share with you. Although, it would make sense that you wouldn’t want to hear her talk about your childhood best friend like that. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Sleep.”

“Are you tired? How about we take a rain check and think about it again in a few hours? I’m gonna go come up with some slides for my coding class, but you’re welcome to nap in here and I’ll wake you up before it gets too late.”

“That…sounds great. Thanks, Yoori.”

“No problem.”

You wait until she closes her bedroom door and you’re certain you’re alone. When the sound of the soft music that she plays when she works drifts through the speakers in her living room, you crawl up to the head of the bed, get under the covers, and cry into the pillow. The sleep that follows is amazing though and you think it’s half because your body was running on fumes and half because Yoori has the best mattress you’ve ever slept on.

#bangtan bookclub #bttnetwork #networkbangtan #btswriters #bts scenarios #bangtan scenarios #bts fanfction #bangtan fanfic #bts imagines #bangtan imagines #jungkook fanfic #jungkook scenarios #jungkook imagine

[underoos-shield]

little italy

summary: peter’s first day in a foreign country

warning: peter speaking italian

A/N: hello angels, i just rewatched ‘call me by your name’ and this fic series is going to be based on it. i hope you guys like it 💓 also, i’m trying to learn italian this year, so 99% of these translations are through google. please let me know if there are any errors so i can fix them!

so far, italy was beautiful. it was 6 in the afternoon when peter and his class arrived and the sun was setting, casting a beautiful glow on the buildings and architecture around them. it was golden hour in the beautiful city of milan.

peter had to resist the urge to kiss the floor once they made it out of the aircraft. the flight from new york to milan was eight hours too long, and peter had always hated airplanes, anyway. his family had a bad history with the huge machine and he was happy to be back on the ground. but he wasn’t home free yet, they still had an hour bus ride to get from the milan airport to their actual hotel in bergamo, italy.

after grabbing his luggage and typing a quick message to may, peter walked out of the airport and on the bus with the rest of his classmates.

ned was sitting next to the window near the center of the bus and the boy was furiously turning his head left and right as if he was afraid to miss anything. it was only their first day. and they had plenty of time for sightseeing.

they had to return home in a month, which was great, but the trip was expensive and peter was so grateful that may allowed him to go. although may had to take dozens of extra shifts to cover the expenses, it was worth seeing her boy’s excitement.

“what do you want to see first?”. ned breaks the silence as peter reads ‘call me by your name’ by andré aciman. he’s reading the italian version though, wanting to get a better grip on how to properly speak the language. although he’s completed the four years of learning italian at school and has gotten an a+ in every grading period, peter was slightly obsessed with mastering every hobby he had, and his latest one was one of the romance languages.

“not sure”, he says as he keeps his index finger under the sentence he was reading. one of peter’s pet peeves was losing his place, especially when he was reading a good book. “i’m hoping wherever we go has food. i’m starving”, peter laughs. ned agrees, none of the kids had had a proper meal in hours.

they stop at a small cafe in piazza vecchia. it was a beautiful place with amazing architecture. the contarini fountain was displayed at the center of it, decorated with sculptures of lions. peter lifted up his sunglasses until they rested on top of his head, holding back the mocha curls that he had spent a few months growing out. he’s just about to tell ned how happy he is to be there when a sweet voice fills his ears.

“benvenuto in italia!” (welcome to italy!).

the young boy frowns and lifts onto the balls of his feet to see who could have spoken those words, surely not any of his classmates. and although it was a simple sentence, peter had never heard of anything more beautiful in his life.

a young girl with gorgeous skin and silky hair greeted them once they had taken their seats at the small cafe. she was wearing a loose and flowy summer dress that made her appear to be sweet and innocent. her hair was out and slightly frizzy from the light wind. the stunning stranger’s voice was so velvety and peter raised his eyebrows once he got to look at her clearly.

she was so beautiful.

peter slips his way past his classmates to the front of the small crowd. she looked so different from the girls he had seen back home, none of them quite catching his eye the way she has.

her eyes skim over everyone and peter just about loses it when she smiles at him. she takes a moment to look over his appearance, and she admires him in his white t-shirt and beige khakis. he looks so american. his chocolate curls and brown eyes were basic, but attractive and captivating for some reason.

“per favore, lascia che ti faccia fare uno spuntino” (please, let me get you all a snack).

and by a snack, she apparently meant a platter of crackers, fancy cheeses (that even peter had a hard time pronouncing), and a plethora of different meats.

he’s starving, not having real food for almost half-a-day, but peter can only muster a few bites. although peter knows he should been enjoying the moment rather than spending it reading his new book, he can’t help but distance himself from his excited classmates. he likes to be alone sometimes.

“ciao, come va?” (hello. how are you?). music fills peter’s ears once again and it takes him a moment to realize someone was actually speaking to him. peter looks up from his page and is met with a friendly smile. he sits up from his bad posture and smiles back at her as he closes his book, this time not marking his place. he replies, saying he’s doing well, and tries not to get lost in her eyes as she introduces herself.

“sei molto carina” (you are very pretty). a small, shy laugh emerges from her and she tucks her hair behind her ears, allowing peter to see her beautiful face even clearer now. his eyes cast over her nose and mouth and finally her ears. he hums to himself as he sees her non-pierced earlobes...it was just something to notice.

“perché non sei con i tuoi amici?” (why are you not with your friends?). there’s genuine concern in her voice and she’s worried he might have not liked the snack she made for them.

“mi piace essere solo ogni tanto” (i like to be alone sometimes). it was odd to her, she didn’t understand it. she loved being with her friends at all times...maybe it was an american thing?

the girl-peter now knowing she goes by y/n- politely nods. she wasn’t a very judge-y person.

y/n lifts her neatly polished nails on the table, inching closer and closer to peter’s softcover copy. she’s impressed that he’s reading in her native language.

“posso leggerlo con te?” (may i read it with you?).

of course peter said yes. how could he refuse? it would have been foolish of him to say no. and he was happy he didn’t, especially now that her head was lightly resting on his shoulder.

the pair read a full chapter together, perfectly in sync until it got too dark to read. even their breathing evened out to match the other’s.

she left with a soft “ciao” and two kisses on peter’s cheeks. she would be seeing him tomorrow morning along with the rest of his class, they had breakfast planned out.

peter happily leapt into bed once he was in the comfort of his and ned’s hotel room. although his roommate had bid him a good night already, peter still kept his bedside light on. he was caught up in thought about his book, although he couldn’t think of much since most of his memory was filled with thoughts of y/n.

peter shakes his head as he grabs his copy from his bag, realizing he’s forgotten all about the chapter.

andré aciman summed it up perfectly; But it might have started way later than I think without my noticing anything at all... How couldn’t I have known, you ask? I know desire when I see it—and yet, this time, it slipped by completely.

-

chapter 2

tags! (plz let me know if u want to be removed)

@ephermcls @directionerfae @milkyholland @tomshufflepuff @spideychronicles @unicorntrooper @cloudyyparker @spideyphysics @evrthngblvk @im-marvels-slut @spdys @legendarypenofeating @mrvlfangirl3190 @sarepurdy @bbscx1987 @honeymarvel @emistrash @bisexual-jesus-jr @schyuler @stylemute @shuriwithparker @deviantsupporter @unknwn98 @ohhowiwishtobemrsstyles @unusual-kindred-spirits @bands-and-shietz @midtownhighs @iwillalwaysreturm @softestgalaxy @peterbparkerthsecondblog @tangledmusee @stydia-4-ever @bbyeliza @spideylovely

#peter parker #peter parker fic #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #spider man homecoming #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fluff #spider man fanfiction #little italy fic #underoosshield #underoos-shield #call me by your name #cmbyn #parkersletters #collab #love her!!! #peter parker au

[ego-to-ego]

Painted Nails (Darkstache)

I haven’t posted anything in a good long while, so here’s some Dark and Wilford fluff with a little angst mixed in. This is probably the most shippy thing I’ve written so far, and it was kinda unintentional. You can take it as either platonic or romantic, whichever you like.

I also have to give @cinnamon-grump some credit for this because they always draw Dark and Wilford with painted nails and it gave me inspiration. (P.S. I love you Ash keep making cool stuff)

Dark had a splitting headache.

He was trying to go over Google’s reports on social media activity, but the numbers kept blurring and the lines kept overlapping. His vision was pulsing along with the pounding of his head. The demon groaned, pushing himself back from his desk. He still had stacks of paperwork to go through.

Dark rolled his neck, wincing as the jagged bones reset into place, causing sparks of pain to travel down his spine.

He was just about to get back to work when a loud bang jolted him upright. The shower of glitter that landed on his head a second afterward informed Dark exactly what he had just heard.

Wilford Warfstache slung his arms over Dark’s shoulders, missing the sharp hiss of pain Dark made as his back was forced to support the weight of Wil’s body.

“I’m booooooored,” Wilford whined. Dark pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He did not have time to babysit right now.

“Wil, I am working. Could you kindly fuck off?”

Wilford pouted, mustache drooping.

“Ya know, I think you need a break.” he said. He stood up, finally releasing the burden on Dark’s shoulders. He snapped his fingers, and Dark’s desk was completely clear, paperwork disappearing with a pop.

Dark’s shell cracked, a blue and red figure ripping to the side in a scream before his composure returned.

“Can you not be a pain in the ass for once in your life?” Dark said flatly.

“Shush, Darkipoo. You look exhausted. I’m sure you have all sorts of dark circles under all that makeup”. Wil grabbed Dark’s hand and pulled him out of his seat. He dragged him towards Dark’s adjoining room. Once released, Dark immediately collapsed face first on his bed. His aura was twitching and pulling apart as Dark resisted the urge to scream into his pillow.

“Let’s have a spa day!”

Dark rolled over to see Wilford dramatically gesturing to the array of materials he had made appear on Dark’s dresser.

“First...” Wilford grabbed a package of makeup wipes. “Let’s clean up that face of yours.” Dark growled but sat up and didn’t resist as Wilford aggressively rubbed his eyes, the wipe taking off his eyeliner in black smears. When he was done, Wilford tisked.

“I was right. You look horrible.”

Dark rolled his eyes.

“Well just because you’re a piece of shit doesn’t mean you can’t be beautiful!”

Wilford turned around again, grabbing a bottle of black nail polish of the dresser. He was a little aggressive with it, considering he comically knocked over every single other item on the dresser like he was trying to get a strike in bowling.

“Wilford, please.You’re going to paint my whole hand black.”

Wilford gasped dramatically. “You doubt my ability?” He held up his own hand, showing the glittering pick color of his fingernails, and winked. “I can promise you, I’ve had plenty of practice.”

And, suddenly, Dark’s aura was overwhelmed with red, and he was flooded with a memory that wasn’t his.

“William, dear, you’re painting my entire finger black,” Celine giggled.

“I guess I’ll just need more practice then” William said, with a wink.

“You’re ridiculous,” Celine was still smiling. “But I think that can be arranged.” She leaned in, placing a kiss to Will’s lips. His mustache tickled her upper lip as he kissed her back. When they parted, William was gazing down at Celine lovingly behind his rose-tinted glasses.

“Celine, I-”

“DARK!”

The demon was ripped from the memory when his head was wrenched to the side. It took a moment to realize this was because Wilford had slapped him. He reeled backward, clutching his stinging cheek with one hand.

“You were just staring off in space.” Wilford explained. “I was trying to tell you about the new idea I had for my TV show. It would-” Wilford paused in his ramblings as Dark buried his face in his hands, red aura growing out of control as the blue retreated. “Are you still listening?”

Dark wasn’t listening at all, he was too busy trying to convince himself that he wasn’t Celine, and that he shouldn’t have her memories.

Finally realizing that maybe he should be caring about Dark’s wellbeing, Wilford placed his arm on Dark’s shoulder, just like he had seen in the movies.

“Are you alright, my good man?”

Unfortunately that was all it took for Dark to snap. He shoved Wilford away, rising to his feat.

“Get. Out.” he growled. His aura unfurled, cloaking the room in darkness. The pink of Wilford’s hair and mustache started to turn monochrome as tendrils whipped out to lash against his face.

“You don’t scare me, Darky” Wilford singsonged, unfazed by the situation.

That was, until the high-pitched ringing of his aura got louder, to the point where it was physically painful.

Wilford’s shoulders tensed, but he refused to flinch.

“Dark. Stop it.” Wilford said with gritted teeth.

He wasn’t planning on giving in, but it became a little too much when he felt his ears starting to bleed, warm liquid dripping down his jaw.

“You’re just being a grump. I’ll come back later,” he said before disappearing into thin air. Dark was relieved as soon as Wilford was gone, allowing his aura to run wild for a couple seconds more before taking a few deep breaths and pulling himself back together.

Dark felt horrible. His headache was back even stronger than before, and his damn papers were still missing from his desk. With a sigh, Dark decided to just give in and go to bed early.

The next morning, Dark woke up at 5 am like usual. He almost could have forgotten the disaster that was the night before, except for the fact that his room was an absolute mess. Wil’s beauty products (and Dark’s lamp) had been thrown against the walls from the force of Dark’s aura.

Just another thing to add to the to do list. Dark decided he would deal with it later. Right now, he needed a shower. After scrubbing himself clean and getting into a fresh suit, Dark decided he might as well leave his office and talk to Google about his “missing paperwork”. His hair was still wet as he combed it over his left eye, careful not to let it smudge his eyeliner. Appearances are very important to him. He pushed open the door to his office, and looked down in mild surprise when the movement made a small clinking sound.

Knocked over right outside his office was a bottle of black nail polish, with a little heart-shaped note taped to it.

Dark stooped over to pick it up.

Didn’t mean to keep this with me. You should wear it, it totally goes with your look. Call me any time if you want a repeat spa day ;)

-Wil <3

Dark smiled a little bit to himself, pocketing the bottle. Wil definitely brought out the human side to him. He hadn’t even thought he had a human side, but here he was, smiling like an idiot over a bottle of nail polish.

Dark pulled himself out of his reverie, remembering he still had work to do. As he strode down the hallway towards the Googles’ room, he could hear the lilt of Wilford’s voice from the studio, ordering people around like always. And Dark definitely did not remember when that voice was a little gruffer, a little more contained. Because those were not his memories.

Dark shook his head, trying to detach the thoughts from his brain. He wasn’t going to let another day be ruined for him.

He would get the files from Google, get some work done, and then maybe indulge Wilford in some ridiculous antics. If he had free time. 

You’re only trying to gain his trust, one part of his mind told him, trying to keep what remained of the demon’s dignity.

It’ll be easier to break him that way.

Dark scoffed to himself. He had long given up on the thought of manipulating Wilford into anything. He wasn’t sure if that was because he couldn’t, or because he didn’t want to.

Probably both. And honestly, Dark was okay with that.

#markiplier #darkiplier #wilford warfstache #wkm #darkstache #fanfiction #ethan writes

[anneedmonds]

These Aren’t Just Gel Nails…

I get questioned about my gel nails constantly (what shade of polish, where do I get them done, how much do they cost) and so I thought that I would put all of the information into one permanent post. Because my nails are gel nails but not – possibly – as you know them.

I’m going to adopt the voice of the woman from the Marks and Spencer’s adverts here, if you don’t mind, so please do play along and read this in a similar tone.

“These aren’t just gel nails, these are virtually indestructible, always-perfect, non-discolouring gel nails that form a new layer over your natural nail.”

This isn’t Shellac, or base-coat-colour-coat-top-coat gel, this system uses a builder gel (from Young Nails) that forms an entirely new base – hence why it’s used to correct broken or partially missing nails if they look unsightly. Marathon runners who lose all or part of their toenails, for example. The builder gel gives a huge amount of strength and allows whoever’s applying it (someone well-trained, hopefully!) to contour and correct the nail surface by basically creating a whole new nail above the natural nail.

Admittedly it’s not the lowest maintenance routine in existence; I have to go to the salon every four weeks to have the old layers buffed off with a drill and then new stuff applied – but in between visits, there is absolutely no upkeep and I rock up to my appointments with nails that are as perfect as the day I left the last time. No chips, no splits, no lifting – only the regrowth gives the game away.

But that’s another little twist in the tale; rather than choosing an outlandish colour each time, I go for exactly the same shade. Beige 102. (Again, from Young Nails.) Now some might think this is boring, to go for the same neutral shade each time, but I say: clever. It’s almost a match to my natural nail colour (“my nails but better”) and so when my nails grow and I have the band of regrowth it’s honestly barely noticeable. I just can’t rave about my particular little gel formula/perfect nail shade-combo enough – I feel pretty smug about it, truth be told, so something will probably go wrong soon. Dems de rules.

The only downside of this gel nails method is 1) you HAVE to make your appointments because the builder gel can’t be soaked off and filing it off yourself would be a crazy endeavour and 2) the nails stay so perfect-looking that it’s tempting to stretch out the time between appointments, and then you get nails that turn you into Edward Scissorhands. It becomes impossible to type, open tin cans or wipe yourself after the toilet without causing serious injury to your lady garden. Blinding yourself whilst itching your eyes becomes a very real scenario. Small children run away in fear lest you accidentally maim them with your diamond-strength talons.

The other great thing about the shade I have (Beige 102) is that you can get away with just one coat, whereas many shades need to be fully opaque. It means that I can keep my nails relatively low-profile and they don’t have to look like big bulbous jelly beans stuck to the end of my fingers – they stay chic and natural-looking. Hurrah.

Now the biggest question is: where you can get these miraculous nails done? I go to Martha at The Suite in Bath (website here) but it seems that there aren’t that many places that do them. Most salons seem to do your standard gel nails that last 1-2 weeks maximum. (And reports seem to be that they can be quite damaging to the natural nail, which I did find on the occasions I’ve had them but wouldn’t like to generalise!)

So finding a place to do them – and do them properly – isn’t that easy. I tried Googling “synergy gel nails near me” but that brought up quite a few places that turned out to not do them and also – weirdly – didn’t mention The Suite in Bath, which is where I go.. It may be a case of just phoning around until you find one, unfortunately, although I am going to try and list a few places in the comments. (Note that these are not tried and tested and I’m not recommending them, I simply thought it would be a good starting point. If anyone has any recommendations or info then please do add!)

I pay £33 each time for my nails and although sometimes I begrudge traipsing into Bath when I could be at home eating my secret chocolate stash, wearing a tracksuit, it’s quite good that I’m forced to get out and about. I do some chores, admin, sometimes meet someone for lunch or pick up a bit of shopping and then it’s all worthwhile. And – most importantly, from a beauty perspective, my nails always look impeccable. It has made it an absolute joy to plonk my hands and nails into every video close-up and still-life photo, whereas before I was always working out how to hide my chipped polish.

If you’d like to see Martha from The Suite in action then I filmed my gel nail session and put it into a vlog. Just press play on the screen below, or you can view in Youtube here.

  The post These Aren’t Just Gel Nails… appeared first on A Model Recommends.

These Aren’t Just Gel Nails… was first posted on March 20, 2019 at 5:46 pm. ©2018 "A Model Recommends". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at [email protected] These Aren’t Just Gel Nails… published first on https://medium.com/@SkinAlley

[dante2568]

The Polar Vantage V is the Finish companies latest top-line smartwatch, but can it go toe-to-toe with the high-end watches of its competitors? Let’s see!! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

Polar Vantage V Review – Have Polar Made a Garmin Killer?

Polar has had a bit of an underdog status over the last few years. While Garmin has continued its relentless march buffing the Fenix series, and allowing trickle down of features to its other watches, and Suunto releasing and also polishing the Suunto Spartan Series, the offerings from Polar in the M430 and the M600 have looked a little tired.

BUT the Fins have not been sitting wringing their hands, and have been developing two brand new watches: the Polar Vantage V and M series. To be clear, the Polar Vantage series feels like a device born out of a company that knew it had to nail the watch on the first iteration, with the latest 2019 firmware running on the Polar Vantage V they have.

I have worn a Garmin Fenix as my daily watch since the Fenix 2, came out, and feel that the Garmin Fenix 5 Plus is one of the most fully featured sports watches on the market. So it might surprise you to hear that the Polar Vantage V has REPLACED the Fenix 5 as my daily wear watch! Read on to find out why!

Currently, the Polar Vantage V is available in three colours, white, black, and orange. Which I feel is a nice lineup, bright, subtle and colourful.

While I’m normally a fan of yellow straps, I do think that the orange colour and the gunmetal grey case are the sweet spot of the lineup

Let’s be honest here, Polar has been playing catchup in several important areas when it compares to Garmin and Suunto, but they have been playing a lot of attention to the areas where the now practically ancient Polar V800 was really having it’s lunch money stolen. As a result, there are a few salient points that should be raised where Polar has literally leapfrogged their competitors with the Polar Vantage V

Effective integration of a touch screen, in a way that enhances the experience of using the watch

Polar Precision Prime – The Polar OH1 demonstrated that Polar understand how to work with optical heart rate sensors, and have refined this with an additional sensor to be able to assist the watch in knowing it is in contact with the skin

Running power, not integrated, but baked into the hardware. You can also still opt to use Stryd if you wanted/had the device

User feedback, training feedback, with a dedicated widget is excellent

  Polar Vantage V Review – Design

So what has Polar put in the box for us?

Inside the box, we have a couple of manuals, the actual Polar Vantage v, a charge cable -nothing really mind blowing

There are two versions of the Polar Vantage V, without the chest strap, and one with the Polar H10 heart rate monitor and chest strap.

As good as the optical HR strap become and the Polar “Precision Prime” sensor is excellent as we’ll see later. Optical HR devices are not able to do R-R variability and thus are still needed for the orthostatic tests, which a key to the advances training features on the Polar Vantage V.

From the front, the Polar Vantage 9 screen sits practically flush with the casing on the black version of the watch, made to feel all the larger with the glass border before the bezel

The Polar Vantage V really ups the style points with the very thin, brushed metal surfaces of the case, which practically disappear when viewed face on

As a result of the rough texture to the metal case, and the slim-line sides, I’ve actually found the Polar Vantage V quite resistant to scuffs and scrapes

Whilst I’ve never really been a fan of touch screens on watches, the Polar Vantage V does make good of the functionality, mainly through scrolling across long menus and some of the very detailed feedback that it displays after a workout.

To be clear, I have no issue per say with touchscreens. The Polar touch screen devices work well, as obviously do the Apple and Samsung touch screen watches. BUT that is because touch is their primary mode of input, and the whole operating system is built around it. Rarely have I seen a half way house that works. I’m pleased to say that the Polar Vantage V touch screen is more of an accoutrement to using the device, rather than the main feature. As such ,I was surprised to see how is adds to the device positively, rather than being an irritation, as I’ve found with similar sports watches such as the Suunto Spartans

Staying with the screen for a moment. The backlight has one setting, on or off. Which is a shame as the brightness isn’t bad, but fractionally brighter would be better from in the sun etc. Additionally when using the backlight in the dark, unfortunately, the illumination isn’t uniform. There are not deal breakers by any stretch, but definitely minor irritations

Back to the controls, on the RIGHT side of the case, we have the three buttons which navigate through the Polar Vantage V. The middle button in red works as a “select” option and also the power button. The two outside buttons mainly act as menu navigation.

If we move to the left side of the watch, there are the openings for the barometer needed for the inbuilt running power. The top button toggling the back light and the bottom watch menu/long press to sync

From the watch face screen, pressing the bottom button will take you through the main menu of the watch: Start Training –> Timers –> Orthostatic Test –> Settings

The Polar Vantage V has an interesting setup for viewing your metrics. Rather than a specific widget menu, you swipe, or click, across the watch face

You scroll through: Standard face –> Activity Tracking –> Training Effect –> Heart Rate –> Training history –> Sleep

The sleep widget face is a good example of the additional data. From this watch face, if you click the central red button, then you are loaded into the previous night’s sleep tracking data

You will get similar deep dive information on any of the other watch screens

If we flip the Polar Vantage V over can see one of the most interesting developments from Polar, their Precision Prime sensor, which is a distinct evolution from their Polar OH1 optical sensor.

The metal dots also work as the contact pads for the charger. There is a small magnet in the charger that helps the dock align to the back of the watch, and a little notch on the left the watch interfacing in the charger

The band on the Polar Vantage V can be removed, but it is not a quick release strap, and crucially can’t be used interchangeably with the Polar Vantage M stars

So that pretty much covers the overview of the Polar Vantage V, but what is it like to use?

  Polar Vantage V Review – Specification

Screen Resolution: 240×240 – with Corning Gorilla 3 glass

Weight: 66g

Bezel: brushed steel (as this matters to some people)

Communication: BlueTooth LE – no ANT+ here, which will always be a deal breaker for some

Sensors: Altimeter, Digital compass, Optical Heart Rate, GPS, GLONASS

Battery – 320 mAh – Up to 40 hours training with GPS and optical heart rate

Waterproofing: 30 m – not as much as some of the other units, but in keeping

Activities: >80

Standard features: Corning Gorilla 3 glass, GPS, Valencell HRM, 24/7 activity tracking, HRM works with swimming

While it is only a very small thing, due to using the Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Polar has a hydrophobic coating on the glass surface of the Polar Vantage V, something which I find makes the screen easier to view both in the pool, and if you end up doing a run in the rain!

Polar Vantage V Review – Manual

Polar have an INCREDIBLY in-depth electronic manual for their Polar Vantage V you can access HERE

Polar Vantage V Review – Using the Watch

As with every sports watch, the first step is to download the corresponding app. In the case of the Polar Vantage V, you are looking for Polar Flow – Here for iOS and here for Google. You’ll still need to sign up to Polar Flow, in order to get access and more importantly download the latest updates for the watch before you use it for the first time. This is very important, as mentioned previously there were some rather big holes in the Polar Vantage V when the device first came to market. As far as I’m concerned about releasing a smart watch in 2019 without smart notifications is just not acceptable – thankfully resolved now! – You can also update via the desktop apps

It’s really worthwhile pointing out two things, i) Polar is very honest about their estimated sync/update times when updating via the phone app ii) sync/updates can be a little slow if it says 15 mins, it means 15 mins. Go and grab a coffee

The main reason for the delay in this review coming out, is because I was waiting for the second major firmware update which brought with it the significant features of GPS Route Guidance and smart notifications (how someone can launch a phone WITHOUT notifications today is utterly beyond me)

When the new firmware landed, it also seemed to bring with it a Bluetooth bug, meaning the watch needed to be restarted frequently at least once a week. You can normally tell that the communications have fallen over as the watch will say it is not connected to your phone.

Won’t connect to other sensors either.

Yet will still receive smart notifications – certainly an odd one

Similarly, I’ve had several episodes where the Polar Vantage V would just curl up and die. – Edit this seems to have been resolved with the Late Feb firmware update

Polar Vantage V Review – Smart Watch Features

After the recent firmware update, the Polar Vantage V notifications can go toe-toe with the best in class. Now you’ll get all the Facebook birthday reminders and other daily distractions directly to your wrist

When an alert comes into your phone, the watch gives a small buzz, at which point, if you raise your arm you the watch activates, and displays the smart notification. The Polar Vantage V does NOT have the option for smart previews as we’ve seen from other Polar devices in the past. You either have notifications or not.

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If you have missed the little buzz to tell you there is an alert, then on the watch face a bouncing red ball appears at the bottom of the screen. If you swipe up using the touch-sensitive display, it will bring up the notification and the notification menu.

If you scroll down to the bottom, there is also the option to clear all existing notifications. This is not restricted to phone notifications. Any alerts from the Polar Vantage V, such as a reminder to do your morning orthostatic test, will also appear here.

The Polar Vantage V also has limited two-way communication with your phone, allowing you to see who is calling, and dismiss them if need be. It’s my sister, so of course, I’ll ignore that call!

Similarly given the two-way functionality, I do miss the “find my phone” option from the Garmin Fenix 5.

From a smartwatch perspective, i.e. a watch that something will live on your wrist most of the time, smart alerts, are thankfully not very intrusive. I say this, because there is no easy way activate a “do not disturb” mode on the Polar Vantage V other than going into the Polar app on the phone or digging into watches menus system, which is touch surprising as you can lock the watch simply with a long press of the top LEFT button?

Initially, I found the lack of smart previews a little annoying; I couldn’t just glance at my wrist and see what is going on – for one thing, the “rise to view” function can be a touch flaky at times. HOWEVER the longer I used the Vantage, the more I came to realise that NOT having the smart previews was actually less disruptive for me. I’ve found devices such as the Fitbit Charge series which merely alerts you to say there is a message slightly useless. The Polar Vantage V falls into a nice middle ground where the control over the notifications is returned to you.

Polar Vantage V Review – Activity Tracking

The Polar Vantage V has just one watch face, ok that isn’t fair, you can opt for digital or analogue faces but that is it. Instead, the data displayed varies around the watch face. You can see that with the activity tracking page

As mentioned above, the activity tracking on Polar Vantage V is quite straightforward. You activity simply goes to fill up the outer circle of the screen as you potter about your day.

If you hit your goal, in my case of the default 10,000 steps, the Polar Vantage V will buzz to alert you. But nothing further. If you want to dig deeper into your activity, as mentioned above, you hit the red button on the RIGHT of the screen. Giving your step count and calorie burn

I’m a big fan of the new training load status, and the additional data it brings. Polar clearly understand I am going to be much more motivated when I can constantly see my training load, and more horrific if I’ve had a busy week and it slips to detraining!?!

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Training load is comprised of cardio training load, in addition to muscle load and perceived effort. As such I have found this element of the Polar Vantage V, much more effective than Garmin’s move nudges. These are obviously very personal insights, and your own preferences may mean some approach is more or less irritating than another

Further tracking is available as sleep monitoring on the Polar Vantage V. As with activity tracking; you access more data from the specific watch face

Even so, the info on the watch itself a textual representation of the data you’ll see on the app, covering Sleep Time, Actual Sleep and Sleep Continuity

If you sync and look at the Polar app, you get just the same data but with the addition of a sleep graph.

While the Polar Vantage does have 24×7 HRM, this data is not displayed in the sleep section, but in its own part of the app. At least there it is highlighted when you are catching zzz’s

The setup for sleep tracking is relatively minimal, just wear the watch. Polar Vantage V monitors your movement, and when registers the activity pattern associated with sleep, you get the recording. At the time of writing this, I haven’t had the time to compare with the latest Apple Beddit Sleep Monitor, but the Polar Vantage V is providing tracking within 4-7 minutes of the recordings of my existing Beddit Sleep monitor.

In the mornings, you have the option of providing feedback about how you slept

This is probably a good point to talk about the Polar Vantage Precision Prime sensor, as we’ve raised the point of 24×7 HR tracking. At first, glance, naming the sensor the Precision Prime seems a little… well like asking for trouble. Then you start to break is down.

Polar has basically redesigned things from the ground up when you compare with the Polar OH1 sensor

The Prime is comprised of five pairs of LEDs, and four sensors. It is difficult to see on the above picture, but each pair is comprised of a green and red LED. However Polar has found that the central pairing is not required, and to increase battery life has disabled one of those LEDs

Normally sports watch makers don’t actually shout about the accuracy of their optical HRM, as the chest strap has been the gold standard. Polar if sufficiently confident that they have designed a sensor accurate to within 1BPM of the true value.

The accuracy of heart rate monitor: ± 1% or 1 bpm, whichever larger. The definition applies to stable conditions.

Very impressive, but still not sufficient to remove the need for the Polar H10 for orthostatic testing

The reason Polar has needed to spend this much effort in developing the Prime in that movement artefacts are the big headache for optical HRM units. There are a lot of sources of noise when it comes to simply use light to measure capillary blood flow. Thus Polar has leveraged the charging dots on the Polar Vantage V to provide a filter function to the HRM calculation algorithm. The metal dots allow the watch to determine the strength of the skin contact.

The better the contact, the less external light will be hitting the sensors, and the less noise filtering required, further filtering is determined from the accelerometer to try to deal with motion artefacts. Difficult to achieve, but seemingly to be effective, perhaps Polar wasn’t over selling things with the Polar Precision Prime namings

It is going to be interesting to see how the competitors respond if nothing else

  Polar Vantage V Review – Cycling

Let’s look at cycling as the first sport with the Polar Vantage V. Press and hold the red button to shortcut to your last sport. So here cycling. That first launch screen confirms everything is good to go. HR locked (green circle), GPS searching (red circle), bike sensor (red so searching).

The GPS+ GLONASS chipset acquired lock quickly, if fractionally faster than the Garmin Fenix 5. Given a shared chipset with Suunto, the acquisition time was about the same!

Once all set, hit the red side button again and enjoy the ride!

How did the optical HRM do for Polar?

Well, certainly a mixed bag there! Vibration from cycling is notorious for interfering with wrist-mounted optical sensors… so it is interesting to see if the metal contacts of the Polar Precision Prime have been effective. Certainly, the Polar Vantage V agrees with the 4iiii and Wahoo TICKRFit, both of which are protected from road vibrations to a greater degree. The Garmin Fenix 5 was alright at the start, and then clearly got lost.

Thankfully on zwift, things are better

Also of note, as this is the first activity we’ve done, when you have completed your work out, you get a recovery advisor which pops up at the end of every activity telling you when you are good to go again

This is based off both your current efforts, or training load, but also the feedback from the orthostatic tests

You can actually set the Polar Vantage V to set reminders in the morning, which can actually be quite helpful when I’m half dead brushing my teeth in the morning!

As mentioned the Polar Vantage does need to be connected to a chest HRM which is able to R-R variability to determine your recovery status. About 45 secs lying down, then standing up, and waiting to see how long it takes for your heart rate to return to resting

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You need to provide the Polar Vantage V feedback on your muscles, energy levels and sleeping at the end of the test, whereupon it will give you feedback on your training load if possible, or tell you to test more often

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Polar Vantage V Review – Running

To my mind Polar have previously released the best focused running watch with the Polar M430 – yes it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the current generation of watches, but for the price, a great bit of kit. With the Polar Vantage V, Polar have taken that great running pedigree, further enhanced the optical HRM, and now added wrist-mounted running with power!

During a run, you have access to various metrics, time elapsed, pace, distance, heart rate, altitude and now power. Which is initially set up on a different data field page

The initial screens set out on the device are all clear and very legible for the most part, and well, more importantly, they are logically set out.

All of which is quite good, it isn’t, however, possible to adjust the fields on the device, but you can easily make the changes from the Polar Flow app as long as your phone is with you. To get the Polar Vantage setup, just as you want, does take a bit of extra work compared to other devices – particularly Garmin’s Fenix

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Oh, something else you might notice on the above pictures “HR visible to other devices” this is only possible on certain gym equipment, and much to my annoyance, not on my Garmin head units, or on Zwift.

OK, but enough of the setup, sometimes a run can be overly complicated! To the fields!!

I’ll be honest I really prefer having the powered running built right into the watch, and no need to sideload apps etc. Yes, I might not have more detailed information on the run, that Stryd gives such as GCT while running along, but for the price, the inclusion of power alone is going to make the Polar Vantage V a device of considerable interest for many

At the end of a run, you get a breakdown of your power zones on watch; such is the level of integration with the Vantage. I think it is quite fair to say that the power function here is given equal time to that of heart rate monitoring

But pretty graphics are only so good. What is the quality of the data?

Much like the Garmin Power Pod, the actual power readings are very different when comparing the Stryd output with that of the Polar Vantage V. HOWEVER the actual traces seem to mirror each other reasonably along the run. We see significant variation compared to the Styrd though

Running with power is definitely here to stay, but it still seems that determining accuracy is still being debated

One thing which IS missing from both the running and cycling functions of the Polar Vantage is Strava Segments. This is another scheduled feature which is still being worked on. Polar does have an amazing device here, but without a doubt, it is being held back by software and firmware developments

So in terms of going for a run, how does the optical HR fair? The Polar Vantage and OH1 align nicely pretty much all the way through. The Wahoo TICKRfit is a touch odd at the start, but after about 1 mins comes in line.

The Garmin Fenix is doing its own thing as ever

It is worth while noting that the graphs have a 2-second smoothing applied to them, to make the trends a touch clearer. When we do that, while we can see that all the heart rate traces  (save Garmin) are now within the same ball park. I wonder if one of the reasons for the Wahoo TICKRfit being slightly different as that is was run on the opposite arm?

One of the things which you don’t have to worry about so much with the Polar Vantage is battery life. Again in stark contrast to Garmin user define everything, Polar has the GPS recording fixed at the 1-second rate. You know you are going to get a reliable 40 hours of quality GPS data for that. However, there may be some in the ultrarunner camp who wish that you could sacrifice a little accuracy for greater battery life. This has been my opinion through the whole of the Polar Vantage V testing period. It isn’t perfect, but this watch has been built to do everything well for the average sports person up to amateur triathlete

  Polar Vantage V Review – Swimming

Polar has matched Suunto here, bringing optical HRM into the pool. The Polar Vantage V does seem to lag a little compared to the Suunto, and similarly is reading ~10BPM low.

When in the pool, again the screens can be customised, but have all of the information most people want right at the start. Unfortunately, that customisation doesn’t really run to any useful swimming metrics

When you go for a pool swim, before hitting start there is an options menu which will allow you to select your pool length – either from the default 25m, 50m, and 25 yard and 50-yard pools, or custom pool size from 15 m all the way to 330m!!!

Then you do the whole splish splash thing. Given the limitations of the Polar Vantage V display when in the pool, it is an interesting surprise to find considerably more detail when you return to the Polar Flow on a desktop

We’ve got what I would consider all the missing data! Strokes/min, Swolf, the software even does an attempt at interpreting your stroke type. I think the lack of recording any front crawl says more about my lack technique post fracture rather than the monitoring of the Vantage V!

Polar Vantage V Review – Routing

With the 3.0 Firmware, along with smart notifications, we also received Routes and Back to the Start functionality.

Let’s deal with Routes on the Polar Vantage V.

You can go to any of your normal route creation sites. Or grab an existing route on Strava, and upload it to Polar Flow as a Favourite. Unfortunately, You don’t appear to be able to designate a past workout as a favourite on the Polar Flow App

A Favourite, such as a Route is activated from either the Favourites menu, or the cog when you open up a training sport

From there select your training plan, or Route

You will then be given the options of Start Point –> Mid-Route –> End Point to reverse direction –> Mid-Route to reverse direction

If you are starting the route midway through, you’ll be directed to the route via the shortest possible distance, which may not actually be possible!

You don’t get a map on the Polar Vantage, and you are literally following a previous GPS path. As long as you acknowledge that, things should be ok

You shouldn’t go too far wrong even in the middle of fields. If you did end up wandering off, you’d get appropriate prompts ‘On Course’ and ‘Off Course’ etc. to pull you back the course

  Polar Vantage V Review – Conclusion

Polar  has clearly done a lot of work to build a great first launch device. I think it is quite telling though that Polar still kept the M and V titles for the Vantage brand, melding together the M430 and V800 lines. I think that this new line may turn out the bit the hit that Polar needs

While I’ve been writing this review, I’ve had a series of little irritations with the Polar Vantage V. Pet peeves which just niggle, which make you think, no, I’m going to go back to my regular Garmin Fenix. But then you realise what is actually going on here

I think that the fact the Polar Vantage V “only” goes down to 30m water resistance is in keeping with the whole watch. The Vantage doesn’t QUITE have the reach of its competitors, but is MORE than good enough for 98% of the user base – do I actually need a watch which will go to 50m? NO!

More importantly, shock news – The Polar Vantage V has pushed my Garmin Fenix 5 Plus from my wrist as a daily wear. If I want to do specific training – such as with the Stryd and GCT data, I’ll return to the Fenix – and a chest strap, as that Garmin Elevate optical HR is terrible.

Overall the Polar Vantage V is just slightly more polished from a watch perspective than the other alternatives on the market, and has fewer significant irritations – exterior scratches less than the Suunto Spartans, reliable optical HR, unlike the Garmin units:

Yes the Garmin Fenix 5 Plus is technically a superior device, (or should that be more capable?) but I’ve found the Polar Vantage covers 95% of the things the Fenix does which really matter to me – onboard device MP3 doesn’t matter to me, I have NEVER once used Garmin Pay, I don’t have any ANT+ only devices now and the Garmin IQ app/ watch faces I can easily live without. No, it is NOT perfect, so only 4/5 TG stars, but definitely a recommended device. With a bit more firmware development Polar should have a run away success with the Polar Vantage V, and as far as I’m concerned the pending Strava Segment firmware, due later in 2019 will make this a 5/5 watch

  Is the @PolarGlobal Vantage V A Garmin Killer? As a long term Garmin Fenix 5 wearer, I'd say a cautious no... BUT my conclusion to the #PolarVantageV review might surprise you! @polarUK_IRE #PolarVantage The Polar Vantage V is the Finish companies latest top-line smartwatch, but can it go toe-to-toe with the high-end watches of its competitors? 4,805 more words

#apple watch #cycling #garmin #HRM #Polar #running

[auctes]

                                    ◣ F I V E   T H I N G S !!  ◥

                       ( fill in the categories with 5 things that your character can be identified by .                                                       repost, do not reblog !!  )

✖   I. EMOTIONS / FEELINGS.

01. SORROW .   fukawa  doesn’t  have  the  most  sunny  disposition ,    but  it  runs  far  deeper  than  general  malcontent .   her  deep  &  introspective  sadness  informs  many  of  her  creative  choices   &  conduct .   it  took  a  while  for  her  to  be  candid  about  it . 02. SHAME .   of  herself .   of  her  body .   of  her  actions ,   and  her  haplessness  to  control  them  .   fukawa  can’t  bear  to  look  at  herself ,   or  allow  others  to  look  at  her  for  as  long  as  it  takes  to  put  together  a  read  on  her .   she  is  highly  self  conscious . 03.  GUILT .   fukawa  carries  what  she’s  done  on  her  shoulders ,   and  doesn’t  attempt  to  hide  it .   not  just  over  the  murders ,   but  over  her  constant  maltreatment  of  her  friends .   fukawa’s  every  living  moment  is  focused  on  reparation :   making  amends  to  the  dead ,   and  the  living . 04.  INFATUATION .   it  hits  hard  and  fast ,   and  it’s  all - consuming .   although  fukawa  has  come  leaps  and  bounds  in  controlling  her  infatuation ,   her  mind  still  crumbles  under  the  pressure  of  affection .   while  it  used  to  be  lethal ,   fukawa  weaponizes  what  she  feels  to  protect  to  object  of  her  infatuation . 05. LOVE .   fukawa’s  own  ideals  of  love  differentiate  exponentially  from  her  earlier  portrayals  of  it  in  her  books .   her  heart  was  built  to  love ;   she  has  a  lot  of  it  to  give ,   as  she  can’t  give  any  to  herself .   love  and  romance  are  mutually  exclusive  to  fukawa .

✖   II. GREETINGS.

01.a  death  glare . 02.physically  removing  herself  from  the  situation  without  a  word . 03.' what ? ’ 04.' why  are  you  staring  at  me ?! ’   +  a  lengthy  i’m  so  abhorrent  diatribe . 05. ‘ yes ? ’   as  polite  as  it  gets .

✖  III. COLORS.

01. DEEP  BLUE .   fukawa’s  favorite  color  is  a  dark ,   almost - indigo  blue .   it  represents  a  deep  and  turbulent  ocean  to  her ;   a  sensory  attachment  which  has  always  brought  her  calm . 02. MAUVE .   a  romantic  and  often  ostentatious  color .   stick  mauve  onto  anything  to  grant  it  a  softness  without  being  too  insipid ;   a  strength  that  is  also  muted .   it’s  an  artsy  color . 03. GREY .   the  easiest  way  to  posit  conservatism  and  down - played  charm .   fukawa  does  not  believe  she  deserves  to  be  swatched  elaborate  or  beautiful  colors ;   this  is  her  aesthetic . 04. DESATURATED  AMBER .   the  color  of  komaru’s  eyes .   a  warm  and  comforting  color  that  reminds  fukawa  of  springtime .   she  could  happily  paint  her  walls  in  this  color . 05. RED .   fukawa  ignores  the  general  connotations  of  red  as  they  pertain  to  her ,   and  instead  prefers  to  consider  it  a  romantic  color .   a  lot  of  her  personal  stationery  is  red .   it’s  a  metaphor ?

✖   IV. SCENTS.

01. OLD  BOOKS .   what  fukawa  will  describe  when  asked  to  remark  upon  ‘ home . ’ 02. BLOOD .   something  she  can  describe  the  taste ,   texture ,   and  smell  of  effortlessly . 03. VANILLA .   subtle  and  unassuming ,   when used  correctly .   an  innocuous  scent . 04. SILVER  POLISH .   her  clothes  seem  to  always  smell  inexplicably  of  it . 05. BLACK  TEA .   taken  strong ,   without  sugar .   average  of  five  cups  a  day .

✖   IV. ITEMS . 

01. GLASSES .   it  would  be  rather  pointless  continuing  with  this  list  if  she  couldn’t  read  it .   fukawa  is  incredibly  near - sighted ,   and  has  always  favored  large ,   round  frames . 02. FOUNTAIN  PEN .   of  which  fukawa  owns  several ,   but  favors  one  that  she  uses  to  edit  physical  drafts .   using  a  fountain  pen  to  write  overturns  the  most  compelling  stories . 03. STUN  GUN .   the  possession  that  gave  fukawa  back  her  lease  on  life ,   and  a  feeling  of  control  over  her  own  body .   she  could  do  without  the  electric  shock  part . 04.  SYO’S  SCISSORS .   as  much  as  fukawa  doesn’t  like  what  they  formerly  represented ,   they  were  made  with  her  own  two  hands .   always  at  least  forty  pairs  on  hand . 05.   FRIENDSHIP  BRACELET .   made  with  love  and  given  to  fukawa  by  komaru ,   her  most  treasured  person .   while  fukawa  doesn’t  always  wear  it ,   it’s  on  her  person  at  all  times .

✖   VII. VICES / BAD HABITS.

01.   going  days  without  eating ,   or  eating  no  more  than  a  handful  of  something  a  day . 02.   pushing  herself  to  the  brink  of  exhaustion ,   then  sleeping  for  up  to  a  day  consecutively . 03.   maladaptive  daydreaming ,   and  a  heavy  dependence  on  escapism  as  a  coping  mechanism . 04.   engaging  in  lengthy ,   one - sided  arguments  with  herself  regarding  her  own  worthlessness . 05.   googling  herself ,   or  starting  arguments  on  anonymous  message  boards .

✖   VIII. BODY LANGUAGE.

01.   absolutely  dreadful  posture ;   hunched  in  on  herself ,   from  hours  a  day  spent  at  a  desk .   02.    touching  her  hair  for  comfort  or  clarity ;   hiding  behind  it ,   toying  with  or  gripping  a  strand . 03.    incessant  nail - biting ;   gnawing  the  skin  from  around  her  cuticles . 04.    clutching  or  scraping  at  her  scalp  to  dissipate  transience  during  or  preluding ,   an  anxiety  attack .  05.    restless  hands ;   fidgeting  with  items ,   apparel ,   constantly  searching  for  occupation .

✖   IX. AESTHETICS.

01.    masses  of  black  hair ,   swirling  in  a  shower  drain . 02.    ink  blots  on  the  skin ,   mussed  by  an  intention  to  remove  them . 03.    a  bathtub  filled  with  water  tinged  red .  04.    a  grey  before - dawn  sky ,   filtering  in  through  shuttered  blinds . 05.    raised ,   seared  &  shiny  flesh .

✖   X. SONGS.

01.   purity  ring  /  ASIDO . 02.   daughter  /  BURN  IT  DOWN .  03.   verite  /  LIVING . 04.   hana  /  WHITE . 05.   ed tullett  /  FAUX .   

TAGGED BY.       @vivesprite​ .   thanks ! TAGGING.           @gungambled​ ,   @gunframed​ ,   @guncared​ ,   @gunsleuthed​ ,   @gunhacked​ ,   @gunaided​ ,   @gunprophet​ .

#( SO ANYWAY THANKS FOR THIS glad i eventually got round to it #I HAVE A LOT OF OPINIONS ABOUT MUSIC and everyone should ... talk to me ... about music #or come to one of our spotify parties upon occasion they're great #OH but give the youtube foundry version of that verite song a listen #she's amazing #( OOC . ) 📖 / ❝—— 𝑺𝑯𝑺𝑳 𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑻𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑹 . #( introspect . ) 🖊 / ❝—— 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝒀𝑶𝑼 . 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑰𝑫𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝒀𝑶𝑼 .

[dante2568]

The Polar M430 is an update to the excellent Polar M400 running watch, with the inclusion of heart rate monitoring on the rear. So now that optical HRM has trickled down to the mid levels of Polar’s portfolio, what’s the M430 like out on the run?

Polar M430 GPS Running Watch Review

Let’s be honest, when Polar “released” the Polar M460 cycling GPS this year, it was basically as software update, and felt a touch disingenuous to call it a new device. That is not the case with the M430.

One of Polar’s strongest devices, in my opinion, has been given a proper nip and tuck, with the addition of the headline optical heart rate monitor taken from the big brother the Polar M600 and a few features polished as well. So with that in mind, let’s have a look at what the update has brought to runners

Device Design

  The Polar M430 has always been a good looking device, but visually Polar have made an interesting choice with their new model. Specifically dropping the black band option, and replaceing it with grey. But personally I actually like the grey, but would have liked to have seen slightly more colour variation – buy them i’m aleays holding out for a yellow colour option on most devices!

So what’s in the box? Very little actually, we’ve the watch, charging cable, and the dead tree manual

Unfortunately, when you open the box, you realise the biggest negative change on the Polar M430, the waterproof micro-USB cable has gone! In its stead is a new specific charger

I know that Polar had issues with the USB port corroding, so I know it makes sense, BUT polar have a great flat connector on the Polar Loop and the M600, I wish that the company had simply standardised on that. Although perhaps that is more my own dislike of have hundreds of different cable types

Which seems all the more odd, as the new charging port is now exposed and recessed, but for what it is worth, I have had no issues whilst testing out this unit.

Staying on the back of the unit is the optical HRM. Now it’s important to highlight that this HRM module is not merely a parts bin grab from the M600, but has had tweaks applied to allow it to monitor your heart rate whilst swimming.

However before we get too excited, the swimming mode is limited to duration and heart rate regarding monitoring.

The screen is a 128×128 monochrome black and white affair taken directly from the M400. As I’ve mentioned before, very clear screens such as this are the perfect proof that sports watches, dont need colour screens. That said, I think the M430 could have done with a slight pixel count bump, although again, this is purely asthetics and nothing else

On the sides of the unit are three buttons to the RIGHT, the top and bottom acting a menu navigation, and the red central button as select

On the LEFT, two buttons, with the top button acting as the light and quick menu function, and the bottom, the back/pause button, and manual sync

On the M400 Polar had chosen a delightful electronic click when you pressed the buttons. In the new Polar M430, we have a vibration motor, which is used to inform about notifications, and has now taken over the feedback function for the keys, giving a buzz on each press. There is however a casualty of war with the vibration motor, has now replaced audio alerts. Which will be a win for some, loss for others

Polar have really managed to nail the design language with their current devices. Yes you might not be able to easily swap the straps on the Polar M430, but it has a deisgn that blends in very well with a day to day wear. It doen’t screen I’M A SPORTS WATCH, which is without a doubt one of the reasons for the success of the Garmin Fenix line

Specification

Screen Resolution: 128 x 128

Weight: 50g

Communication: BlueTooth

Smart notifications: yes

Sensors:

Altimeter, Optical Heart Rate

Compatible with external foot pods and heart rate monitor (can record optical hr whilst swimming

note, that is the restrictions, so you’re not getting cycling sensors here

Battery – 30hrs low power GPS or 8 hrs with normal GPS activity, 20 days activity tracking

Waterproofing: 30 m

Activities: Any activity available on Polar Flow can be uploaded, but note previous comments about sensors

Standard features: 

GPS, low power GPS Activity monitor, VO2 Max,

PolarM 430 User Manual

The manual for the M430 is available in PDF format here

Using the Polar M430

As with every sports watch today first stop is to download the corresponding app. In the case of the Polar M430, you are looking for Polar Flow – Here for iOS  and HERE for Google. You’ll still need  to sign up to Polar Flow,  in order to get access and more importantly download the latest updates for the watch before you use it for the first time

It’s really worthwhile pointing out two things, i) Polar is very honest about their estimated sync/update times ii) sync/updates can be a little slow if it says 15 mins, it means 15 mins. Go and grab a coffee

Running

When you load up any of the outdoor tracking options, the device tells you the percentage of the way it is towards having a full GPS lock. The GPS chipset in the M430 has been changed, and whilst lock on is not an fast as with the current Garmins, it is certainly faster than with the previous unit.

You can see that sometimes it actually takes a little longer to find the optical heart rate than it does secure the lock on the GPS. But in both cases, once locked on, they tend to say for the duration of the activity.

At the very bottom of the screen is the foot pod icon, so show that the Polar M430 has paired to my Stryd unit

But the Stryd is only connecting in terms of cadence. Whilst the Polar V800 now has access to Stryd Running with power, this isn’t available for the M430

During a run, you have access to various metrics, time elapsed, pace, distance and heart rate, altitude, but one thing you don’t see is cadence, you need to manually add that field in the Polar app

The initial screens set out on the device are all clear and very legible for the most part, and well more importantly, they are logically set out.

There is a lot to be said for customising your displays, I know I’m a real so-and-so for getting the data fields exactly as I like them. But the data fields available on the Polar M430 out of the box seem to work quite nicely – the inclusion of the heart rate and relevant training zones on once screen is a nice touch too. Again, the way the heart rate zones are displayed is easily digestible and accessible to the user.

All of which is quite good, it isn’t however possible to adjust the fields on the device, but you can easily make the changes from the Polar Flow app as long as your phone is with you

You can also easily load new activity profiles from the Polar Flow app, and they are legion,

Coaching

As part of the user interface the Polar M430 uses “Smart Coaching” which is really great for both the casual runner, but also the more seasoned athlete, who is quite happy to run and let the watch do the thinking for him.

First off, at the end of an activity, you have Distance, Speed and Calories based achievements – if you’ve been so lucky

Then you get the more simple langauge training information �� and this is the real benefit to the smart coaching in my eyes. Polar cleanly and clearly tells you what you have done

As part of the smart coaching is the Race/Finish Time Estimator, which Polar goes about in the opposite direction to most other companies…

Most Garmin running devices, for example, will give you a prediction, based off your VO2 max, as to how long the watch thinks it would take you to complete an event. As I have commented previously, my feeling is that Garmin is rather optimistic, compared with relality,and thus their race predictor is a feature I see little use for.

Having a Garmin tell me that I, theoretically, can run a 5km in nearly 2mins faster than I’ve ever done before is useless to me. Having the watch say it thinks I’ve only 5mins left in my 10km is a great thing to know, but also a great motivator – “Yes I can drop another 2 secs off that estimation – PUSH!!!”

In comparison, with Polar’s Estimator, you tell the watch what your intended distance/event is at the start of the run. E.g. 5km, and it will give you a predicted count down of how long it thinks you HAVE LEFT on your run.

What it doesnt do is give you an estimated race time, just for interests sake, but actually give you a usable target based on your current performance, which will change across the run. Personally I like this, if only as a way to push myself a little more – beat the target and all that!

  In terms of your athletic profile, Polar now allows utilisation of the optical heart rate strap to perform a VO2 Test with the M430.

To start the test, the Polar M430 displays an instruction to relax and start the test, that should really be lying down…

So I did, and even when you are lying down, that relax part is very important

When I say important, I really mean it, no phone browsing, no moving the arm, basically lie still. I had to restart several times due to seeing this notice:

When you do submit, and actually lie still, you can see when it is recoring your heart rate

You just lie there for about two mins, and then the Polar M430 gives a little buzz and you are done

More in-depth detail, and more importantly tracking over time is available on the Polar Flow

Cycling

The M300 does have cycling features, but they are relatively rudimentary, and based on the watches GPS, rather than the ability to connect speed/cadence meters -which is not possible. So similarly to running you get pace, speed, distance, time and heart rates data.

If we have outdoor, we’ve also got indoor cycling options is also available, which is the same with the optical HR running, and the with thec GPS off, So this is basically a recording of time and heart rates during that training session. As such there is limited useful data that can be taken from this – as you cant connect ANY cycling specific sensors.

This is REALLY something I don’t understand the logic on, Polar allows connections to heart rate monitors and foot pods via Bluetooth, why not go that little bit further and add cycling sensors as well?

Activity tracker

A little like smart notifications, if you sports watch does not have activity tracking, it’s not really appealing to the current market,

You can either see your progress on the device either from the watch face, or the My Day menu

Inside the My Day section, well you get a recording of what you’ve done during the day!

The Polar M430 monitors your total step count using its internal accelerometer, and when you sync the device at the end of the day it will calculate a distance walked for those steps. This same accelerometer is then used to monitor your sleep levels.

Whilst you can see most of the activity information actually on the Polar M430, if you want to look at the granularity, then it benefits you to load up the Polar Flow app, where Polar uses a clock face to visualise your activities

Previously I’d not been a fan of Polar Flow, as the app felt very basic, and I personally prefer using mobile interfaces when possible rather than the web sites. But with updates over the last year, the Polar Flow app covers most of my needs, and when I WANT to additional detail about my training, and heart rate performance, it is all on the website.

In terms of an activity trackers, Polar also takes a similar approach as the coaching aspect, rather than simply giving moving reminders, (which do come through vibration nudges) Polar again comes to the fore with the human touch with regard to activity goals. At the setup of the device, you can select which goal, 1-3 you want, and rather than base your choice on an arbitrary number of 10,000 steps, plus there is a little description of suggestions as to ways you could complete your activity goal that day

As mentioned the accelerometer is also used to monitor sleep. I’ll be honest, currently the sleeping feedback is pretty rudimentary, and just tells you i) how long your slept, and ii) how much you have in the way of interrupts.

I’m definitely blaming the larger interruptions on the cat jumping on me! He seems to think he helps with reviews… he doesn’t!

Optical Heart Rate Monitoring

This is the major change on the Polar M430. A six LED system, with tweaks from when the sensors originally debuted on the Polar M600.

Now you can go running like a numpty, with every watch you can get strapped to your wrists to check out how the optical heart rate sensors compare… but that is going to induce too much error into the readings. Been there, tried it, confirmed it doesn’t work

So the optical HRM should only be tested one arm at a time, meaning the most you’ll be able to compare devices is two at a time. So how did the Polar M430 compared?

On a 5Km run, the Polar M430 tracked quite well with the Polar H10 chest strap. The Garmin Fenix 5 was a little slow to wake up (But then I haven’t been impressed with their new Elevate sensor!), after a slow start, the Fenix did get it’s act together thought. It’s worth while highlighting that the Polar did read a little high at points compared to the other two devices.

But the Fenix 5 isn’t really in the same price range as the Polar M430, so another, longer run, with the Garmin ForeRunner 35 instead. The Forerunner didn’t cover itself in glory, but this time the Polar M430 have have a few niggles too, particularly, as it appeared to lose the plot towards the end of my sprint at the start of my run.

Very much like the Polar M600 before it, it does appear that Polar certainly have a handle on optical heart rate monitoring. I’d love to know what their secret sauce is, it’s got to something other than using the six LEDs compared other manufacturers two and three LED units!

One thing that the Polar M430, CANT currently do is 24×7 HRM. The optical heart rate is ONLY activated during training sessions. You can however request the watch to display your heart rate at any time, by accessing My Heart Rate from the menus.

24×7 optical heart rate monitoring is coming but later in the year via firmware update

One other tip bit about the Polar optical HRM, which sound great in theory, is the ability to broadcast the heart rate data out to other apps… but I couldn’t manage to get it working for some reason 😦

Smart notifications

Smart notifications, are now a requirement on sports watches, as GPS used to be years ago. So they have been shoehorned into the M430 but they slightly rudimentary. When a notification comes through to your phone, the M430 gives a little buzz and displays the notification.

But only one screens worth of info. There isn’t a way to see anything more than that. Similarly, once you press the button to dismiss that message here is no easily accessible notifications screen for you to look at messages which have been received. The is exactly the issue I had on the Suunto Spartan, iftjust seems to be an odd omission.

Staying with the smart watch vibe, you can now also chose from various watch faces (four in total) which are accessed by long pressing the top button

Although I’ve actually kept the standard out of the box watch face. Liking the small bar that moves up the screen with my activity, and partially as I’m being shamed into moving as the little man on the screen sits down.

I’ll be honest, this little seated person design if far more compelling to me than any *buzz* MOVE notifications. But that might just be me!

Polar M430 Conclusion

The Polar M400 on which the M430 is based was a very good device. The M430 is a strong update, and it’s nice to see Polar produce a strong device.

The running features, and end user customisation are brilliant. The optical heart rate monitor, is working itself up to be possibly “best in class”, and the overall design of the M430 is fitting for both work and play.

The ONLY major criticism that I have for the Polar M430 is the limitation to running only sensors. Seriously Polar would be such an unbelievably good seller on their hands if this was a proper multi-sport watch.

As it is, the Polar is a great running watch, if your main activity is running, for the price, I think this is possibly one of the best watches on the market currently.

So 4/5 based on not connecting cycling sensors, and the fact I cant get the optical heart rate broadcast to work!

Is the @PolarGlobal #M430 just an updated #M400 or has Finland created one of best running watches for 2017? #OpticalHeartRate #PolarM430 The Polar M430 is an update to the excellent Polar M400 running watch, with the inclusion of heart rate monitoring on the rear.

#activity tracker #cycling #Optical Heart Rate #optical HRM #Polar #running #running watch #sports watch