#and I’m over this whole pandemic thing but we’ve got months and months ahead of us | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lovesgonnabe · 3 years

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Love Is Worth It Episode V - We Got The Pandemic Blues Under a New York City Skyline

Characters: Chris Evans x Maya Alonso-Evans (Black OFC)

Warnings: straight fluff, cursing, implied smut.

Word Count: 3485

Summary: What happens in NYC stays in NYC!

AN: The NYC Skyline prompt is by @iguessweallcrazyithinktho thank you so much for letting me use your theme I hope I did it justice. If you haven't read any of her stuff what are you doing get on it!

Disclaimer: There’s only slight edits so there may be errors. Also if you haven’t noticed this series will have many time jumps and things referenced here may make more sense later on in the series when new episodes come out so please bear with me.

Taglist: @thesecretlifeofdaydreamss, @canadian-girl87, @i-just-like-fanfics, @omg-mymelaninisbeautiful if you would like to join the taglist message me.

Please leave a note and tell me what you think!

June 13th, 2020

Being with Chris had its many perks but not working was definitely one Maya never wanted to take advantage of.

When Chris first brought it up when they got engaged she looked at him like he had two heads and said “I worked to hard put myself through school to get these expensive ass letters behind my name to just stay my ass at home” and that was the last time they had that conversation.

But fast forward to 2020 If you told Maya that she would have to close both of her dermatology offices in the middle of award season a few months ago she would have laughed at you.

She just couldn’t see herself not working because she loved what she does, but with both New York and Boston putting in place stay at home orders there’s nothing she could do.

It didn't help that it was only Maya in Boston dealing with work and all that entails, Delilah's up in the air school situation, and a whole hoax of things while Chris was in L A being as supportive of a husband and father as he could be on the other side of the country.

At least Dodger was being pretty normal.

Thanks to Chris's family for being so helpful where they could because for a minute Maya felt like she was beginning to drown.

This saga starts with the beginning of the pandemic.

January was chill there were whispers that there was a deadly pandemic on the horizon but no one took it seriously.

February Chris had left at the beginning of the month to LA to promote his new show Defending Jacob and it wasn't like anything out of the ordinary the couple worked, and called each other daily.

Chris told her he'd have to be there through March but would be home in time for Maya's birthday in April.

Her lawsuit against Boston PD was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount that was donated to charity and trust me that lawsuit cost them a pretty penny because Chris was threatening to go to the press and Boston PD did not need anymore negative press.

After finding out that the older officer already had many reports against him for abuse of power he was "let go" by Boston PD and the other officer was demoted to desk duty and sent Maya an apology letter for his actions

She thinks he only did it because her husband is Chris Evans but she tries not to be a cynic.

In mid March with her offices were forced to close and the lives of her twenty employees were in her hands, but sin there was no money coming in she had to regrettably furlough all of them until she could open back up.

This news could come at a worse time because Lilah's school was trying to transition them to online learning for the rest of the year.

So Maya now had to also be her home school teacher for the last 2 months before summer vacation .

Maya does feel blessed because she was still able to teach some derm online classes through NYU, and her family was healthy but Chris still wasn't home.

Because of travel restrictions in LA on April 1st Maya found out that the earliest Chris could be home was in possibly July or Mid June if they are lucky because he need to start filming for Grey Man that was set in Boston.

Then rumors started to swirl that Chris could be cheating on Maya but

She doesn't play that and isn't a dummy

Chris isn't stupid and

He's been in their home in LA quarenting with his brother Scott the whole time so if some foul shit did happen she would be the first one to know and on the first jet smoking to beat some ass.

But hey when it rains it pours.

In interviews Chris would say he was "quartining with his family at home in Boston."

They would try to make the spaces look just like Chris and Maya's homebase in Boston even going as far as strategically moving photos of them in the background to make it look like his office at home.

And it actually work most people thought Chris was in Boston anyways and it was all gossip the others thought he went back home to clean up this mess.

But nope Chris was not in Boston he was 2,764 miles away and this time it all just felt different and he hated not being able to be there with them during this crazy uncertain time and Maya just needed a vacation.

In April Maya and Delilah just had dinner at the house for her birthday they facetimed Chris and once Liliah had gone to bed Chris and Maya had sexytime over the phone.

The rest of the month Maya just went with the flow and did the same through June.

Now we are all caught up and in the present day.

It's Chris's 39th birthday but he was still in LA.

Maya stayed up to call him at midnight in LA because that was their tradition but now it was about 12pm and Chris has not picked up any of her phone calls Maya was annoyed.

Maya and Delilah sat in the Den as Maya was detangling Delilah's freshly washed hair getting ready to put her curly hair into braids as Mulan played on the tv in front of them.

"Mommy can I call dad it's his birthday and I haven't got to talk to him today. Lilah says playing with Maya's phone.

"Go ahead sweetheart maybe you'll have better luck them me." said Maya as she sectioned Lilah's hair.

As the facetime ringtone went Dodger who was laying in his dog bed next to Lilah began to bark and then he ran for the front door Maya looked that way but didn't see anything since the alarm didn't go off either which she found strange.

She shrugged it off only for a second until she heard a bag hit the ground as she quickly stood up the only thought in her head was to protect Delilah helping her to hide under the couch.

As the person entered their den Dodger continued to bark and she grabbed a pair hair scissors about to attack the intruder until she saw his face and exhaled the breath she didn't even know she was holding.

"CHRIS you scared the shit out of me" she said before he could say anything.

He laughed "Baby I didn't mean to scare you" Chris said

Lilah screamed and crawled from under the couch.

"daddy, daddy, daddy I missed you and Happy Birthday." Lilah said running into Chris's arm.

"I missed you to babycakes you been taking care of mommy for me" Chris said holding Lilah and walking towards a still shocked Maya.

He kissed Maya's forehead trying to pull her into a hug but she rolled her eyes and pushed his hand away.

"Chris i thought you weren't coming home till July" Maya asked

Chris shrugged "plans change now are you gonna come and give daddy a kiss you what"

He said flopping on the couch with Lilah on his lap.

Mays sucked her teeth peeked his lips and told Lilah to come so she could finish her hair.

Her saltiness cause Chris to laugh as Lilah moved over to her mom.

They were sitting on the same couch so Chris bent over and began to whisper in her ear. "Stop acting like that baby I wanted to surprise you"

Maya gave minimal response and Chris didn't like that so then he brought heat.

When he walked Maya had on a beige short set the top was fairly tin and the shorts barely covered her ass, he could see her nipples stand at attention on her delicious breast when walked.

It's been 3 months since he's had sex with his wife and boy can he feel it. He gave her tigh a firm squeeze now pecking her spot behind her ear forcing Maya to stop mid greasing Lilah's scalp to take a deep breath.

"if you stop acting up tonight I'll do that thing with my tongue that you like if not daddy won't be letting you cum at all tonight.

Chris said moving his body back to his original position smirking at his shooken up wife whose attitude did a 180 quick, fast and in a hurry.

Chris was no home and with his girls and he couldn’t be any happier.

After braiding Delilah's hair Maya went and they dropped her off at Chris’s moms which was a fight in itself because she wanted to stay with her daddy but Maya had other plans.

The original plan was to take Chris out of the country for his birthday but plans change.

Before Chris showed up today Maya had nothing planned for Chris's birthday because he was not suppose to be home they were just going to the same thing they did for her birthday.

On there way back home my had an idea with there hands intertwined Maya began to speak.

“So birthday boy what do you want to do for your birthday” Maya asked

“You know I don’t care as long as I’m with you my love” Chris said kissing her hand.

Maya giggled “Well we’ve dropped Dede at your moms and Scott said he could take Dodger”

She states looking at the puppy through the rear view mirror as Chris began to rub is thumb over her knuckles.

“It seems you already have a plan for us babe” he smirks

“I know you are just getting home but how about we drop Dodger off and I was thinking maybe drive to New York, I need to get out of Boston and have a bit of a staycation”. She said.

Chris chuckled and looked at Maya as the stopped at the red light.

“Wherever you lead I’ll follow. He said

“You are so corny old man” Maya laughed as she leaned over and peek his sweet lips.

They continued their drive to Scotts and talked enjoying eachothers company for the first time in a while, they were so wrapped up in each other that Dodger had to bark to remind Chris he was about to pass Scoots house .

Maya laughed at the puppy then pet him telling him how good of a dog he is.

“Alright birthday boy Scott has Dodger now let's switch its my turn to drive you around” She said.

They headed home to pick up a few things and then The Evans were off and headed for there trip.

After the 3 and 1/2 hour drive they got to New York and the barren streets shocked them.

They are staying in there penthouse apartment on the upper east side that over looks Central Park and New York's famous skyline.

Before settling in Maya decided to get groceries once she got back Jazz played softly in her ears as the punchy aroma of the candle Slow Burn hit her nose.

“Hey Chris I'm back” she called out to him.

She was met without a response just the smooth stylings of Frank Sinatra.

Maya put the groceries in the kitchen and headed to their master bedroom.

Kicking her shoes off and following the rose petals into the bathroom that revealed Chris who sat in all his glory in the pink tinted bathtub.

Apparently he did not hear her as his eyes stayed closed and his arms outstretched.

And all Maya could do was admire the greek god that was her husband.

His long wingspan encompassed the entire back of the tub as his strong biceps would flex ever deep breath he took. And don't to get Maya started on those baby blues which were one of the only things Lilah did not get from Chris. Those same blue eyes were now looking straight at her.

“I was hoping you’d be back soon” he said

Raising his head to look at his goddess of a wife smirking at him.

“So I’m guessing you would like me to join you?” She asked

Maya teased him as she began to slowly remove her clothes.

“Hey aren’t I the birthday boy that shouldn’t even be a question Maya so you better bring your sexy ass in here” Chris said to her as his arms still laid on the back of the tub looking like a king”

Maya stepped in with Chris’s help the warm water encapsulating her body as she sinks down.

She sighs in satisfaction when her body is finally completely in the water as she lays into Chris’s embrace.

They just sit there and enjoy each other company, washing the dirt off of each other from the day, and stealing kisses from one another.

Maya and Chris were that couple you loved to hate they didn’t show off their love that much with Chris’s anxiety and Maya’s destain for public scrutiny because she’s black woman with a man of Chris stature, PDA was mostly off the table. However behind closed doors they are the cutest most intimate couple you’d ever meet.

Once she was clean from her road dirt Maya left the water first placing a kiss on Chris’s lips as she headed to start dinner and Chris laid back and continued to relax.

Once Chris finally got out the bath he found Maya in the kitchen halfway finished with dinner.

“Jesus babe it smells fantastic in here and I see you changed the music” Chris said

He was now fully dressed in a blue t-shit in matching joggers, his hair damp from the bath as Lauryn Hill's rendition of Can't Take My Eyes off of You played in the background.

She chuckled “only the best for you my king”

"Mhm I like the sound of that" He said as he went in the fridge and grabbed a bottle of white wine and poured them both a glass.

She was at the counter cutting up veggies.

“Ok so how long do I have wait before I can devour all this?” he asked placing the glass in front of Maya.

They took their first cheers of the night tapping the glasses together.

Maya took a sip and moan at the taste of the wine.

“Soon Chris don’t stress it babe you will be fed very soon” she said.

Her hips began to sway to the music as she hummed along.

At long last, love has arrived, and I thank God I'm alive

Chris walked up behind her wrapping her arms around waist swaying with her body and catching the rhythm.

You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off you

Moving her hair to her left shoulder Chris begins to kiss her neck.

"Remember when we first bought this place." Chris asked

"Yes you didn't want to you said my place in Brooklyn was enough for us" Maya said putting the knife down and melted into Chris's strong arms.

"Mmm but you did an excellent job at convincing me why we need this place, 3 bedrooms right in the Heart of the city just for times likes these when want to get away." Chris said with his arms still wrapped around her.

She laughed "I thought it was because you fucked me against the balcony on our terrace is why you said yes"

He smirked at the memory "well that to"

Chris sucked on her neck and moved his down her satin dress but the timer on the pot decided to be a cock block and go off before he could make a move.

He groaned and Maya laughed directed him to get ready to eat.

Just as the food was finishing up Chris set the dining table for two, taking the rest of the flowers from his bath laying them out between the kitchen and there Terrence where they were having dinner overlooking the city.

It was a beautiful night. There was a soft breeze and the city was a glow quieter that usual but still a sight to behold.

Maya brought out the food as Chris poured them another glass, they both sat prayed then rose their glasses to cheers again.

During dinner Chris made some corny jokes that always seemed to put Maya in a better mood as Maya would slyly rub her foot up Chris’s pant leg.

Next came dessert still out on the terrace they shared a slice of cake (more like Maya fed Chris cake) which is how she ended up in his lap enjoying the very expensive yet immaculate view they had from their home.

He rubbed her thigh as he kisses her shoulder just thinking of the fastest way to get Maya out of her dress.

"god you are beautiful" Chris said

His hand now playing with the trim of her panties under her strappy white satin dress.

"Oh no birthday boy you not fucking me out here tonight you gotta come inside for your last present" Maya said.

Chris groaned Maya got up seductively waking back inside her curves just begging him to follow her

“This woman Is going to be the death of me” Chris thought as he came back inside and closed the door that lead to the terrace.

Maya handed Chris his third and final glass of wine of the night.

He raised an eyebrow "Are you trying to get me drunk Mrs. Evans so you can have your way with me?" he asked.

Taking a sip from his glass he smacked Maya the ass and watched it move as she walked towards their living room.

She laughed "I wouldn't have to get you drunk to have my way with you Mr. Evans"

Their living room had floor to ceiling windows that overlook Chris's second favorite city, and that's where Maya stood wine glass in hand looking all the people that looked like ants. But all Chris could think about was how this woman fell for him.

She watched the scenery and he watched her but when that signature trumpet blew he remembered that the music was still playing and so did she.

Maya turned around to see Chris was watching her one hand in his pocket and the other still holding his wine, she made a face at him.

"What are you looking at me like that Chris, you ok?” she asked hand on her hip taking another drink from her glass.

The moon shined off her skin like she was in the sun, her white dress reminding him of their wedding day the way it hugged her figure.

Still speechless Chris walked up to her placing both of their glasses on the coffee table, he brushed her hair behind her ear and she moans nuzzling her head in his touch.

"Baby I am absolutely perfect because I am here with you" he says.

Chris softly pulls her by the waist bringing her flush against her body as raspy voice of Louis Armstrong in Le Vie En Rose brought butterfly’s to Maya’s stomach because this was their song.

His hands lay softly on her waist as her arms lay around his shoulder as they dancer slowly around there living room.

Hold me close and hold me fast, The magic spell you cast, this is la vie en rose.

His cologne sent waves of pleasure and warmth through her body, when Maya laid her head on his chest not wanting to let him go. As their heartbeat became in sync the moonlight casted their sillones on the ground.

They were two lovers who were lost in eachother hoping to never get out and wanting to hide from the world it felt new but familiar.

Once the song ended Chris kissed her so deep and and passionately Maya thought she was gonna cum then and there.

Chris's hands moved from their previously respectable position making circle on her hips to the bottom of her ass telling Maya to jump causing Maya wrap her chocolate legs around his waist.

As Chris walked he kept repeating how much he missed Maya so much while he was in LA.

They couldn’t even make it back to their bedroom for their first round of many.

And Maya was a goner as Chris made love to her all night in every corner of their apartment as the city watched as the couple were engulfed with each other.

But there was a little voice in the back of Maya's head "Well damn how are we going to top 40 next year" it asked.

The preoccupied side of her brain shooed hat thought away so she could just enjoy being with her man at this moment.

Thanking god there was no more space between them like the miles before.

#chris evans fanfiction #chris evans x black ofc #chris evans x black!reader #chris evans x poc!reader #chris evans x reader #chris evans x black reader #chris evans x ofc #chris evans x original female character #chris evans x black women

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libraford · 3 years

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We interrupt the feral celebration of ousting an oligarch to bring you a story about Yeehaw and his Branch of Mystery.

It has been a while since we last had some co-worker drama, but man- has it been a weird summer. I mean... we all had a weird summer in 2020, but I don't think I was really expecting this particular... flavor of weird?

This is a story about Yeehaw, but it starts off with a story about Aggie.

Aggie was someone we were excited to hire and part of our excitement was that it's rare to find someone with prior floral experience and we'd concluded at this point that it does no one any good to be picky about new hires in the middle of a pandemic. So finding someone who knew the difference between a carnation and a rose was a big deal for us.

I say that in jest, but saying that we do 'on-the-job training' means that we've had to explain that yes- the flower in my hand that looks like a carnation is a carnation and not some other flower that looks like carnation but is not a carnation. Floristry is a very straightforward practice and for the most part a rose is a rose and a daisy is a daisy and if someone asks for those things, you give it to them.

The hard part is, as always, making them look good together.

Which is why we were pleased with Aggie- who previously did weddings for her friends and seemed to have a basic understanding of how to do things with her hands. We were happy to have her aboard.

... until you gave her criticism.

She made her vases embarrassingly short, and if you tried to tell her how to fix it, she'd snap back with "I'm not DONE yet."

She was done until you said something.

If you gave her an order for two dozen white roses, she would take it upon herself to mix white and yellow roses together 'because it looks better.'

It did not.

Hashtag: #selftaught

When a client asks for all white roses, there is likely a reason they asked for all white. Given that 90% of our work is funerals, it stands to reason that they are asking for all white because that is a traditional color for mourning. Working with a client means doing exactly what they asked for. Doing a wedding for your friends may get you high praise from people who trust you to work in the same aesthetic as them, but in a shop setting you are being paid to follow things to the letter. Doing so shows that you can follow directions, and they may come back next time.

You don't know customer entitlement until you've been torn another asshole for leaving out a single rose.

This seemed to never occur to her, and so criticism was a painful realization that perhaps she wasn't perfect at an art that was exceptionally susceptible to criticism. There were plenty of opportunities to make something in her own aesthetic, it wasn't like she was being stifled. There was a considerable amount of downtime where she filled the front cooler with her own creations- enigmatically giving each of them their own names like "Autumn Walk" or "First Snowfall." (This is not something that we do, on the whole.)

Not very many of those sold.

But I think what bugged me the most is that she only ever designed. She didn't take out the trash, she didn't answer phones, she never helped customers. She just... did flowers. Nothing else.

Oh... and the chatter.

"Do you travel? Oh, you simply MUST go to Bali sometime! You've never been to Asia? Well, there's nothing like achieving inner peace at a Buddhist temple on a mountaintop in Nepal. They have temples here in Ohio, but it's nothing like the real thing! You say you've never even been off the continent? Well, what are you waiting for? You only live once, you know!"

Ma'am... we're in the middle of a pandemic. Ma'am... I only get paid so much...

While trying to relate, I talked about my summer in Montana and she gave me the BIGGEST stank-face. "Montana? Ew, WHY?"

Look, lady- I lived on a mountaintop next to an active, world-destroying volcano system. If that's not cool, I don't know what is.

But thankfully, she only worked on weekends. See, this was her fun job. The job she does to stay social during a pandemic and flex her creative muscles while she makes money at her much more lucrative,but boring,HR job. So I only had to see her twice a month when I was manager on duty.

Then she got fired from her weekday job and went full-time at the flower shop. Poor thing wasn't used to waking up at 7am every day. She was full of suggestions.

"I think it would be easier for me if we only opened at like... 11am."

"Don't you think we should be taking proper photos of our work? All we would need is a nice camera and a soft lighting setup. Couldn't be much more than $1000."

"Oh I know! We should be doing inventory on tablets instead of writing things down!"

Okay, you go buy those things then. It took her about a week of making those suggestions to realize that she wasn't real clear on how things worked around here and stopped. She became quiet, less enthusiastic about her 'fun' job now that she wasn't immediately the star of the show.

Enter Yeehaw.

We were excited about Yeehaw, too. He didn't just have experience with flowers- he had experience with a flower shop. He gave a good interview, he seemed like he knew what he was doing and was very passionate about flowers. He was definitely an entire hippie, but about 1/3 of all plant people are. Most importantly, we still had like three spots to fill left from our pre-Covid staff.

Hired.

There was an overlap of about a week where Aggie and Yeehaw worked at the same time. His work was... immaculate. Just... astonishingly beautiful work. You didn't even have to show him how to make anything. He just... knew.

Well, Aggie didn't like that much- we had only nice things to say about this new guy but all she ever got was criticism. And if we complimented him on something he made, he would give a little 'namaste' bow. And I could see her fuming with rage each time he did this.

One day, she rushed into the back to take a phone call and any time someone went back there for a vase she would lower her voice as if keeping a deep secret. Twenty minutes later, she called Grandpa into the back as well to discuss something. Ten minutes later, Aggie left the building with her Live, Laugh, Love bag, looking pissed.

"Where did Aggie go," I asked Grandpa.

"She got a new job," she said. "Doing HR somewhere."

"She didn't even say good-bye," Blue said, appearing unsurprised.

And so we went on with out lives without really putting much further thought into Aggie, apart from the occasional 'you simply MUST visit Bali' line thrown in for bougie emphasis.

Which brings us to the next part of the story, and that is Yeehaw.

There are some details to know about Yeehaw that are kind of difficult to fit into a story neatly. Here is a brief list that may come in handy to know later.

-He lives with his mother.

-He drives a Tesla.

-He can afford the Tesla because he was in a terrible wreck that had him hospitalized, and a lawsuit was won.

-Because of this, he has two screws in his head at the temples.

-Unrelated, he has hair that goes all the way down to his back.

- And...

"Grandpa, we need to tell you something," Blue said. "In private."

Blue and Kali pulled Grandpa aside while Yeehaw slowly put together a funeral order. "Grandpa, there's no polite way to put this: Yeehaw is drunk as fuck."

"He smells like whiskey," Kali said.

"He's stumbling everywhere."

"And he won't stop... burping."

Grandpa paused. "There's something I need to tell you," she said, and she reached for a manila folder. "Yeehaw has something called... what's it called..." She leafed through the file and produced a paper, reading from it. "Auto-brewery Syndrome. His body actually produces alcohol anytime he eats bread or sugar. If he's drunk, it's because he can't help it."

We each had a chance to go over the doctor's note, verifying that yes- that sure does look official. Everyone had questions, but it did answer the one I had about why he was sitting in the break room literally drinking peanut butter from the jar.

So that was incredibly interesting and we no longer asked about the burping or why he was so slow.

However, the fact that he was so slow was extremely frustrating. Our average number of orders runs approximately 100 per-day. This can be eased somewhat when we have a full-staff with five designers- an average of 20 designs per person in an 8-hour day, 3 per hour.

But it's a fine line some days, and if one person cannot keep up it turns into a struggle for all of us.

We did our best to accommodate. We gave him all the day-ahead orders so that we wouldn't be behind and he'd have all the time he'd need to make his gorgeous pieces.

We were willing to make it work.

A number of factors came into play one day, but most notably: Yeehaw's Tesla wouldn't start and he had to take the bus. So he was late.

I think I saw him make one entire item in the two hours that we were in the same room. He went to lunch around 12:30, I took mine around 1:00. I saw him stumble back in from lunch, looking... out of it. Just... absolutely incomprehensible- mumbling, barely upright, his hair out of the bun, quite possibly sleepwalking- who knows?

I saw him for that brief Sasquatch moment... and that was the last that I saw him that day. It was around 4:00 that Grandpa asked the question:

"Where's Yeehaw?"

And no one had an answer. We all had places that we thought we'd seen him: cleaning the cooler, in the break room, heading to the bathroom... but no one had really... seen him since he stumbled back in around 1:30.

We checked all these places.

None of them.

The person who actually managed to find him was Sarge, who noticed his feet sticking out from behind the bushes behind the building.

"Huh," he said, presumably. He gave the feet a light kick and Yeehaw slowly sat back up. "Hey dude. You... okay, there? They're lookin' for you inside."

Yeehaw mumbled something to Sarge and got to his feet, stumbling back into the shop without further interaction. He appeared into the workspace, holding a branch in front of his face for mysterious reasons. There were still twigs entangled in his long hair.

"Where were you at," Grandpa asked, concerned.

"Oh, I was in the bathroom," he lied from behind the branch of mystery. "I'm pretty tired. Is it okay if I go home?"

Bewildered, Grandpa gave him permission to leave. It was soon after he left that Scout found his phone in the empty sink. "Who's trying to wash their phone," he asked in the loud manner that is characteristic of old white men. It rang while in his hand and one of our designers snatched it from him. It was his mother.

"Hello," said the designer. "Yeehaw went home early, but he left his phone behind. Can you bring it home to him?" Mom agreed, she was just over at Trader Joe's anyhow.

We thought, of course, that we were doing something smart and nice. Yeehaw's mom looks just about what you would expect the mother of a 30-year-old hippie that drives a Tesla to look. Grandpa, in a polite way, explained that he'd fallen asleep in a bush. To which Mom seemed neither surprised nor concerned about his behavior.

"Okay. I'll be at Hallmark."

Somewhere between the bus stop and Bexley, Yeehaw must have realized that his phone was not with him and so he came back looking for it. Despite his mother being literally in the same strip mall as we were, he seemed irritated that we'd taken the initiative to make sure his phone got to him.

"Well, I bet if you just went down to Hallmark she'd give you your phone and probably give you a ride home."

He mumbled something and then left.

This seems like a decent place to pause, because him leaving the second time in the day should be the end of the story. However... at 5:00 in the evening there was still two hours left in the work day and from past experience... that is plenty of time for a lot of things to happen.

The thing to happen was a phone call.

"Hi, this is Jade from the main store. We've gotten... some... interesting phone calls. Is there... a... hmm... is there a dead body out in front of your store?"

Pause.

"We'll take care of it, bye."

Who wants to be the one to poke the cadaver on the sidewalk? A volunteer from the audience! Ms Crowe: won't you come down?!

I have had it planted firmly in my mind that Crowe certainly understands the concept of fear but does not recognize it. Apart from being one of our most reliable drivers, she is also a performer, a street medic, an activist, and most notably... a fire-breather.

You have your hobbies.

Point is- she's brave enough to check to see if the person laying on the sidewalk was dead or simply overdosed.

As it turns out, it was Yeehaw- curled up in the fetal position with his arm covering his face.

"Hey," Crowe said, poking him with her foot. "Heeeeeeey," she said again but more firmly this time. He moved, blinking in the evening the sun. "Buddy, you can't be laying around on the sidewalk. You gotta move on."

Again, he slowly got to his feet. At this time, his mother emerged from Hallmark to see him talking with Crowe. A group of four people escorted him into Mom's car while he stopped every few feet to perform another 'namaste' bow.

You think this is the end. But what have we learned?

There's always more.

He came in the next day as if none of this had happened. Conversation was difficult because we both desperately needed to know what the fuck happened and also did not want to trigger something. So we didn't bring it up. He apologized for leaving early: chronic fatigue syndrome, you know.

Other places would have fired him, but we're a very forgiving workplace. Falling asleep on company time is not, in any way, the worst thing that someone has done at this location while still keeping their job. There was Sugar and her drugs, there was the dude that used the company van to pick up prostitutes (this was before my time), there was the guy that screamed at customers over the phone... it's a long list.

The primary concern of our employers is whether or not you are a reliable person. If you routinely show up for your job and do the work, you're going to be okay at least for a little bit. And Yeehaw, for all his impeccable fuckery, at least showed up every day.

We kept this at the back of our minds.

One day, after the Day We Found Him In a Bush was behind us, one of the designers mentioned that they'd seen where Aggie works now. It was not in HR.

It was our major competitor.

Now, Grandpa knows this competitor well. She knows all her competition. It is the nature of a lot of florists to, once they've gotten sick of one place, move on to the next one and spill the beans on their operations there. So Grandpa gets the dirt on everyone.

This particular shop was very regimented. You don't wing it- you follow the recipe as listed. He's been known to pick discarded flowers up off the floor and tell you exactly how much money you're costing the company by letting it fall, to the cent. If you get so far as to make casket sprays, he will take your first one and chuck it across the room if it even looks like the stems are in there too loosely.

This is what I mean about us being an easy place to work.

Hashtag: #ohfuck.

People come in and out of your life like that, in little ways. Sometimes you just have to have a little laugh at it. But what I thought was funny was that she felt the need to keep her new employer a secret, as though we would get jealous or tattle. Curious thing.

Now that the glamour of Yeehaw's arrangements had worn off, we were starting to see more and more odd behaviors that didn't seem completely related to drunkenness.

"Did you just fart?"

"No, that was a spider barking."

Amazing.

Conversation with him was becoming... difficult. As I sat in the break room with my quick lunch and he drank soup out of a mayonnaise jar, he mentioned his area of study in college.

"Cognitive Psychology and Hindu Philosophy, huh? That's an interesting combination."

"Yeah," he said, funneling an amount of squash soup down his throat. "It'll take the rest of the world about 100 years before they catch up to where I am."

I sat, posed in front of my beef and broccoli which I was eating with a fork, trying to process a logical reason why the rest of the world will be sleeping in a bush in one hundred years. "Uh... huh."

This was followed by another thirty minutes of silence where I desperately wanted to know what he meant by that but didn't want to be the one to ask him.

People will tell you that a hippie is generally an ineffective, benign kind of person who chants 'love love, peace peace' in a circle and consider that to be an action for change. But I can say with absolute certainty that I have met some downright egotistical hippies in my life. Those were lessons in bias- which I will have to save for other times.

Eventually, Grandpa became frustrated with his slowness. We presumed that his speed of choice was a combination of his meticulous nature and his various ailments, but with the Christmas season coming upon us it was becoming much more than a series of symptoms.

Previous persons who lacked speed were chatty, would play on their phone, or get distracted. But Yeehaw... Yeehaw simply moved like a tranquilized sloth. He slowly picked off each leaf, each thorn, each guard petal and took a minute for each action. He would put in his greens and then contemplate it powerfully for ten minutes before putting any flowers in... slowly.

In the time spent doing this, I had already made something of a similar size and was starting on the second one.

It was during one of these times that Grandpa finally said something.

"Yeehaw, that spray is due in thirty minutes. Is there a way you can go any faster?"

He looked up from his greens, held one carnation to his face, and said:

"If you wanted me to move faster, you would pay me better."

Let me start by saying that we do not get paid well. We don't. Compared to other flower shops in our city, we are probably the lowest-paid. This is something that the company is starting to work on with benefits and raises, but any amount of change takes time. (And its still better paying than when I worked in retail. But that's another book.)

Yeehaw had been here for exactly one month. I don't know a single workplace that gives you a raise after one month and still lets you sleep on the clock without firing you. He knew what he was getting paid when we hired him.

So anyways, he slowly grinds down our nerves to a very fine dust- burping, farting, falling asleep on his feet, staring intensely into space, talking about how much he should be making but isn't, bragging about his enlightenment, and generally just slowing down production.

And then Grandpa had her well-earned vacation week. Blue was in charge for the most part and the week leading up to Halloween is generally pretty slow, so it was a good week for her to have a break with few mishaps.

Eh... hehe. Yeah.

Yeehaw... disappeared again. We checked the cooler, we checked the break room, we checked the bushes out back, we checked the sidewalk out front.

He was in the bathroom.

So we left it.

He was still in the bathroom an hour later.

We had one of the male drivers pound on the door to check on him. When Yeehaw opened the door to the men's room, there was a wad of toilet paper on the floor that he'd been using as a pillow.

If I may pause here to explain- our men's room is disgusting. I have deep cleaned it several times only for it to become a germ-fest once more in a matter of hours. I don't ask who is peeing all over the floor because, honestly, I have no desire to know what grown man can't aim his willy in the right direction.

So in order to fall asleep in the bathroom, you have to be willing to sleep in pee. During a pandemic.

He reappeared in the workroom, put his apron back on, looked around at all of us still working and said: "Wow, it must be really hard to get fired here."

It was at this point that Blue informed Grandpa.

"Tell him that he's fired," Grandpa said, clearly 1001% done with this.

"I'm not going to fire him," Blue said. "I don't think I can fire anyone."

So she had the driver that found him do it, which was confusing for all of us. He ended up calling Grandpa to clarify. And by 'clarify,' I definitely mean 'beg for his job back.' A synopsis of the 20 minute phone call went like this:

"What do you mean, I'm fired?"

"Just that. You're fired. I'm tired of it, Yeehaw. You don't work here anymore."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why?' You spend all day making a total of three arrangements and then you wander off somewhere and fall asleep."

"I can't help it if I have chronic fatigue syndrome!"

"This is a physical job. If your body can't handle an 8-hour shift without falling asleep for two hours, this isn't the job for you. Tell me: where is that fair to the girls that you do 3% of the work while they pick up the slack and you wander off to sleep on the clock?"

"I simply do not care about them."

"You don't care that you're shoving all the work on your coworkers, and that's why you're fired."

"I wish you'd given me a warning."

"Tell me, Yeehaw: how many employers can you find that will allow you to sleep on the clock for two hours and let you off with a warning?"

End of discussion.

Now, you're probably wondering where Aggie comes back into this. Just hold tight, I'll get there.

The Sunday after he was fired, he came in to pick up his paycheck. I was busy handling a minor emergency where one of our funeral homes forgot to order a spray and I had to make one as fast as I could. We held a brief conversation while I made the spray in a hurry.

"I'm here to pick up my check," he said while I greened the spray and leafed through the paychecks simultaneously.

"Here you go," I said, handing it to him without much fanfare. I presumed that he was looking for sympathy or some kind of followup or... I don't know. Sorry you suddenly care about your job?

"So what are your next plans," one of the designers asked, trying to coax more information out of him while I did the work of three people.

"It's kind of funny," he said slowly... as he did all things. "I've only ever been fired from flower shops." He paused, thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to go apply to the shop in Bexley that Aggie went to."

#as the world turnips

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delyth88 · 3 years

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Episode 6 reaction

Spoilers ahead!

Whoa boy! Yet again that did NOT go in the direction I expected! Overall I really enjoyed that and I’m excited to see what happens next. I can’t believe they left us on a cliff hanger like that!!! I do kinda hope this opens the door to Loki getting to be in the films with Wanda and Dr Strange at some point in the future (I want my magic trio!), but I don’t know if they’ll go there. I keep feeling like they’ll do almost anything but allow him to interact with the Avengers! Lol

So there’s no particular pattern to these thoughts… here we go…

I’m heartbroken for Loki that he lost Mobius in this. Mobius not recognising him just… agh! Can he catch a break?! I guess that makes sense of the odd sense of finality when they hugged goodbye in the last episode. And this comes after he loses Sylvie too. Very different circumstances, but he’s filled with this sense of urgency that they must fix the timeline and then all of a sudden the people he trusts to help him are all just… gone!

That moment when Loki first returns to the TVA. That was heart breaking! While I still don’t buy into the romantic relationship Tom sure can act, and this was so well done. You could see him take a moment to grieve then pull himself together for the greater good – to save the universe. Soul crushing. Ooof.

So yeah, damn. They were going for the romance. *rolls eyes* Ah well. At least I’d had a few weeks to prepare myself. :/

And they went the route of Sylvie betraying our Loki. Now that was interesting. It was something that I really didn’t want to happen, but I actually came out of this thinking that was quite well handled. I thought the idea that they would disagree over the approach to take was quite a good idea. It gave them an opportunity to dig deeper into the differences between these two characters. And I liked that it was a difference born out of their traumatic experiences. I think there’s going to be tons of meta on why Sylvie and Loki made their choices in that moment, and I LOVE that (as of right now – who knows what I’ll think in the morning) I feel like there is actually something to dig in to there, like it wasn’t completely shallow. It wasn’t some stupid repetition of the what’s almost a joke now Loki wants to rule line. And I liked that our Loki was the one who saw the grey areas and wanted some time to analyse it, he wasn’t just hot-headedly set on killing. And I liked that he finally seemed to have some backbone, some drive.

I was wondering where they were going to find some drama from when I saw that the head of the TVA was some new character (who I have to assume is Kang since online is full of how he’s the next big bad). Like how was that going to mean anything to me? Especially when so much of that scene was Loki and Sylvie sitting there listening. (I did love the identical postures with swords across their laps though. 😊) But this worked for me.

And I really thought for a moment they were going to have Sylvie kill Loki. How sad is that that the experience of IW and Endgame has made me fear for the lead character’s life so frickn’ much! Ugh!

One thing that I can see that may have been a problem for some people, and possibly me after I’ve had some more time to think about this, is that the finale had a lot of focus on setting up the next step in the MCU. Now while this is great, especially if it enables Loki to actually participate in events, it does sort of take away from the characters. At this point, for me though, the conflict between Loki and Sylvie worked enough to satisfy me. And then the mad tumble to the end where we get revelation top of revelation was exciting and a very energised way to ‘end’ the episode. But it is definitely NOT any sort of resolution.

And omg what are we going to do knowing where Loki’s at right now for the next months? Years? Till the next season comes out!? Lol

One thing I am grateful for, and again I think it’s a sign of my super low expectations regarding Loki’s treatment, is that I am glad that Loki seems to be relevant to things again. It’s felt so much like they’re trying to ease him out of the universe, so the fact that they wanted to make a second season when they very clearly didn’t need to does make me feel good on behalf of Loki, and Tom.

I felt like Loki had the opportunity to be a little more like my Loki in this episode. Particularly some of his responses while talking to Kang. And I think this just goes to illustrate the point that in the earlier films we’ve seen a lot of time where Loki is in very serious and high stakes situations. And the way this sets up what feels like some big action to come makes me hope that perhaps he might get the chance to be a bit more of that characterisation of Loki in whatever he shows up in the future in.

So, what happened to those shots of Loki in Stark Tower and in Asgard? I am terribly confused. They weren’t in there, right? I didn’t somehow miss them, did I? I thought, when we saw Miss Minutes and her offer, that they might have been moments shown to Loki to entice him to take up the offer. I’m a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to seeing Asgard and Loki in his Asgardian gear again. Did they maybe cut them out for time or some other reason? Were they pieces they filmed pre-pandemic and then decided against using later? If so, why was it in the poster? *shrug*

So no new Loki outfit. ☹ No new Loki powers. ☹ I still feel like the various hints in Episode 5 about Loki’s power really were leading to something and we haven’t (yet?) seen it play out.

Having said that, from the perspective of the end of the season, it now feels like the whole season was a bit of a lull, and bit of a time for Loki to learn about himself (and I would say ‘grow’ but all the talk of Loki ‘growing’ in Ragnarok have made me slightly allergic to that phrase lol), almost as though this is the set up for him to take on something bigger. I dunno. It probably isn’t, it never seems to be, but I plan to enjoy the next however-many-months we have imagining the possibilities.

I liked that Mobius got to have a conversation with Renslayer. That he called her out on all the nice things she’d said but didn’t mean. To me he’s one of those people who it feels worse to have disappointed at you than angry. I also like that he tried to stop her rather than letting her go for some old feeling of friendship or some cliché like that.

So that’s what that pen was all about. So is that a version of Renslayer that Renslayer is protecting? I’m not sure I followed? Or is it just a variant that B-15 found? If so, then why does TVA!Renslayer have the pen?

I get they were going for disarming, contrasting, and just a little mad, but I didn’t particularly like Kang. It’ll be interesting to see how he plays out in the films etc.

I’m here for the multiverse, though!

So, did Sylvie push our Loki into a different multiverse? Does each one have it’s own TVA? Is that a variant Mobius? Or is this some sort of ripple effect that’s changed the course of history, even in the TVA? Questions!!

My list of negative things hasn’t changed much since episode 3 really. I’m still sad that Loki’s characterisation is so different, that they haven’t addressed his time with Thanos or his pain from being Jotun, that he still hasn’t used a lot of magic, and that he never got to see Frigga again. And mostly that he really didn’t seem to be driving the action at all for most of the season. So I think I’m likely to be both happy with this show and disappointed, and apparently completely able to hold both these opinions in my head at the same time. The characterisation and the romance seem to be things I can become more comfortable with on repeated viewings.

I maybe a hopeless fool for Loki, but him having his heart broken and then being thrown into dramatic universe ending peril within the space of two minutes works for me. lol Poor Loki.

Right, that’s enough for me. I look forward to reading other’s thoughts.

Tagging a few folks: @iamanartichoke @scintillatingshortgirl19 @sparklegemstone @pinkpondofasgard @thelightofthingshopedfor @piccolaromana

#loki #loki series #loki episode 6 #loki finale #spoilers #loki spoilers #my review #my reaction #loki series positivity #loki series negativity

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mmvalentine · 3 years

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Lockdown Lovers, pt 2 | Feysand

Modern pandemic AU. Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

Feyre's smile dropped as soon as the bathroom door banged closed. She cursed herself mentally. Her crush on her best friend's cousin was getting wildly out of hand, she was pretty sure Rhys knew it.

Octopuses are so weird?! That was how she was trying to get him to spend time with her? Feyre slumped back in the couch, her legs sliding out in front of her. Octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes? She didn't know, but she was fairly certain it wasn't her grammatical clumsiness that made Rhys bolt for the bathroom and away from her. The poor thing had been stuck in an apartment with her for a month now, and clearly did not reciprocate her feelings. As the weeks went by, he had been avoiding her more and more. Feyre tried to stay out of his way, but in a tiny apartment where you weren't supposed to leave the house, it was very difficult.

Lost in the cringe, Feyre hadn't noticed the shower shut off, or the bathroom door open. She did, however, feel the kick against her ankle and the surprised yelp that came from Rhys as he tripped over her outstretched legs. Her eyes flew open.

"Rhys! I'm so sorry!" She scrabbled to pull her legs back and reached out to help him up. It was then she noticed he was naked in a towel, hair still wet, and she was touching his bare shoulder. His skin was soft and hot from the shower. She swallowed.

"Sorry," she mumbled again. Rhys just smirked. "Well, that's certainly one way to get me awake in the morning," he said. He ran a hand through his damp hair, and his bicep flexed with the movement. Feyre's eyes were dragged to the planes of his chest, and the harsh black lines of his tattoos.

"To be fair, I suppose this is my fault for having such a tiny apartment." "Yes, I mean no," Feyre replied quickly. "You know how grateful I am for you letting me stay. As soon as the lockdown lifts I'll be out of your hair."

Hair. His dark, thick crop looked so good slicked back like this. Feyre pushed her fingers though it in her mind, and had to will her focus back to the present. A funny look had come over Rhys' face, and she blushed, wondering if he had caught her fantasising.

"You can stay as long as you like," Rhys said. "Mor always says I get sullen when I spend too long away from other humans. Whatever that means."

Feyre smiled her thanks, and Rhys padded back to his bedroom.

For the rest of the day, Feyre bummed around the house. She watched netflix, and baked cookies, and cleaned the kitchen within an inch of its life. Like every other fucking day for the past month. Unlike Rhys, she was struggling to keep up motivation to work. Being cooped up like this made her feel both restless and sluggish at the same time. She did spend some time each day at her laptop, doing uni classes online, but it was difficult to get inspired to write when the environment was the same every damn day. She tried not to bother Rhys too much- as an extrovert, Feyre seemed to be struggling more with the lockdown than he did. By the time the sun was setting, she broke.

Outside Rhys' bedroom door, Feyre raised a hand to knock, then let it fall, then raised it again. Three times. After a month of living at close quarters, she wasn't sure why this was still so hard for her. Finally, she forced her knuckles to the wood, then waited. There was just the muffled music for a moment, then Rhys appeared.

"What's up?" he asked. His room smelled like him, and she got the sudden urge to go inside and curl up in his sheets.

"I, ah, was wondering if you'd like to come watch a movie with me. I ordered pizza." Rhys quirked an eyebrow. "Don't we have like a whole leftover lasagne that you made?" "Well, yes, but I felt like pizza." Rhys rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Sure. I'm just finishing up but give me a yell when the pizza gets here." Feyre nodded and headed back to the lounge. "And no more of those serial-killer docos we've been watching!" Rhys called after her.

Twenty minutes later, Feyre shut the front door and called out to her housemate. "Rhys, pizza's here," she hollered. She headed back to the lounge, flicking the lights off on her way through, and sat with her legs crossed under her. She balanced the flat boxes on one knee and pulled her laptop toward her on the other. A minute later, Rhys appeared next to her and sat down heavily on the couch. He pulled the pizzas from her, and opened the top box.

"Hey, you remembered my order," he said. Feyre snorted. "We live together, Rhys, I think I can remember one pizza order."

He picked up a slice and bit off half of it in one mouthful, then slung an arm round the back of the couch behind her while he chewed.

"So what are we watching?" he asked. "Not serial killers, right?" Feyre said. "Right," Rhys confirmed. She hit the link to stream to the TV, and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! came up on the screen. She expected Rhys to complain, but his eyes lit up and he leaned forward.

"Oh this is a great movie," he said. "Yeah?" "It's a classic, great choice."

Feyre smiled, surprised, and set the laptop to the side. She settled back against the couch and started on her own pizza. Rhys' arm went back behind her, and where his wrist hung off the couch, his fingers grazed her arm.

Feyre's skin warmed at even this slightest touch. It had been weeks since she'd had any real physical contact with anyone, and she sorely missed it. Mor was always so physically affectionate, she would kill for one of her signature hugs right now.

But alas, this was all she had. Feyre pushed the longing down deep and tried to concentrate on the movie.

Then, Rhys' arm moved from the couch, to actually resting across her shoulders. Feyre leaned back into him automatically, then tensed up as she realised what she had done. Before she could feel embarrassed, Rhys gave her arm a squeeze, and she relaxed into him. The warmth coming from under his soft hoodie felt amazing, and she almost groaned in relief.

Feyre stared ahead at the TV for a minute, the peeked up at Rhys. To her surprise, he was looking down at her, light from the screen flickering off his violet eyes. A slight grin tugged at his lips.

"Comfy?" he said. "Mmhmm," she murmured. He was so close she could have reached out and touched his lips.

Rhys turned his eyes back to the movie, and Feyre followed suit.

A few minutes later, he turned his body and lay back into the couch, pulling Feyre with him so she was between his legs with her head on his shoulder. She thrilled at the thought of being horizontal with him.

"Is this okay?" Rhys asked, just above her ear. "Yeah," Feyre replied, aiming for nonchalance. He chuckled beneath her, and she wasn't sure she achieved it. She felt the rumble through his chest, and loved it.

The movie played on, but Feyre lost track of it. She was busy secretly exploring this comfortable position with Rhys- the way his hoodie smelled like him, the solidity of his body beneath her, and the enthralling amount of contact their bodies now had. Sure, Rhys flirted, but she knew he wasn't genuinely into her. Still, she couldn't help moving her hand slowly across his chest, flexing as she felt the planes of his muscles even through the thick fabric. She breathed him in, and her head was dizzy with the scent.

Suddenly, Feyre went still, realising what she was doing. Her face burned in the dark room, and she hoped he was distracted enough by the movie that he hadn't noticed her smelling him. Feyre shifted her weight around, trying to find a position that felt less like she had pathetically draped herself all over him.

And then she felt something hard poking into her lower back, and stopped moving.

****

Keep it cute or go full smutty? These are the questions I have for you.

Also tags seem to not be working heaps well, so I don't know if pt 1 is more visible or if people just like it better. Any advice?

#feysand #feysand fic #acotar #acomaf #acosf #rhysand #mine #modern AU #fluff

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About “Separate Tides” from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who most likely won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...>A-hem< F**KING CALLED IT!

I said that the earliest that The Owl House would return would be late June and early July. And some of YYYOOOUUU sons of witches doubted me by saying it would be fall or winter. Well, guess what! "Separate Tides'' has come and gone, the show is back and better than ever, and we are all happy about it! You see how it pays to be optimistic, you persistent PACK OF PESSIMISTS!

...Sorry. Got a little hot there. I'm just so happy it's BACK!

10 MONTHS! It's been nearly 10 months since this show began its hiatus, large in part because of the pandemic. It was painful. BOY, was it painful. But I can already tell that the new season is going to be well worth the wait just by this episode alone.

But beware you mangey sea dogs! Thar be spoilers ahead when discussing such a premier.

And I swear to you that it's only spoilers for "Separate Tides." I haven't seen "Escaping Expulsion" either, and I promise you will be safe from anybody ruining it for you. But maybe don't read any responses from this post. Thar may be d**ks in these waters. So let's review, shall we!

WHAT I LIKE

Mirroring Season One’s Opening Scene: First off, this is a neat callback to what is the perfect first impression of the series. That scene perfectly introduces us to the type of show The Owl House is, while this one acts as a reintroduction to the world we left for way too long.

Second, this is also a well-hidden character moment. Luz is finally living the life she dreamed of, but it isn't exactly all that she expected. It's a great showcase that despite literally running away to a fantasy world, Luz is still getting a regular dose of reality. And I still love the irony in all of that.

(Plus, King eating the bounty is just funny).

The Recap Recording: This is a smart way to recap events from the season finale. It might be weird that Luz says things that the audience already knows, but she's not talking to us. She's talking to her mom. So she's going to explain all that she can in a way for Camila to fully understand. Besides, not every fan had repeatedly watched The Owl House Season One over and over again like a bunch of frickin' lunatics...You know who you are.

Plus, as an upside, Luz gets to explain new events and concepts for how she and the rest of the Owl House are making a living. In no way does it feel like forced exposition because, again, she's trying to describe as much as she can to her mother. It's a reasonable and natural way to talk to the audience in order to catch them up while also showing what's been happening since we've last left this show.

Luz Can’t Send Texts to Her Mom: ...Well, Texts to Home, it was fun while it lasted, but the current canon has decided that you're done. I'll miss you and appreciate all that you've done for me, but, yeah, this is the end. Sorry.

Alright, now that I got my jokes out of the way, allow me to explain how this is really a heartbreaking moment. Because the fact that Luz is forever cut off from her mother, even through texts, is an idea that just twists the knife in your heart when you really sit down to think about it. Luz's little goodbye at the end of her video does nothing but makes it worse.

On the upside, we get some solid character development as Luz doesn't even hesitate to send the video to Camila, learning her lesson from "Enchanted Grom Fright" about being more honest. She finally faced her fear, even if it was a fruitless effort.

They’re Doing Odd Jobs Now: This is a smart workaround for how the Owl House residents are making money. Some fans guessed that maybe Eda had so much junk piled up that they wouldn’t worry, but this seems more of a logical direction. Even if Eda had enough garbage to sell, she’ll can and will eventually run out at some point, meaning that they will all have to take the odd jobs anyway. So I appreciate the writers used that plot point sooner rather than later, as a fun romp as bounty hunters is something you want to do early in the season instead of later on. Especially with how Dana Terrace confirmed that s**t’s gonna go down in the future.

Lilith: ...I'm still willing to hold off--What the f**k did I say his name was? *looks up past review* Frederick Ulis--Frederick Ulisinsburg!

I am willing to hold off Frederick Ulisinsburg, for now, because Lilith is...sort of on the right track. I mean, I don't like how quick she was to playfully mock Eda or rudely yell at Hooty. But I do think that there is potential for her character. She feels genuine guilt for what she's done, and there's a chance that the new season will explore that further if the writers are smart (which they are). On top of that, there's a possibility that every time Lilith tries to act cocky or full of herself, she will be treated as a proverbial punching bag because of it. Like how her poster got burned down after boasting how impressive she looks. Or how Golden Guard's poster magically sealed itself to her face when Lilith tried to throw it away. It's the latter that primarily got me cackling like a madman due to how deservingly hilarious it was.

And, well...she happily clapped like a schoolgirl! Which was adorable! I can't hate characters who have the potential to be adorable! It's not in my nature!

So, while I am a little hesitant in liking her, I think there's a chance for improvement in her character in the future that I look forward to. We just have to wait and see if the writers pull it off.

(By the way, to the person that came up with Lilith wearing a "battery low" shirt...you're a genius in visual gags/storytelling.)

Greg’s List: Have I ever mentioned that this show is funny?

Who's Greg? Why does he organize a list of perfect bounties?

I don't know, but the idea of some random person in the Boiling Isles is putting it on himself to set up a list to make bounties...I'm sorry, but that's funny to me. It's also probably for how Craig's List was made, but when you really think about it, Craig's List is a funny idea as well.

Eda Isn’t Feared Anymore: I sort of guessed that this would happen, but seeing it is a whole different level of sympathy to feel for the character. Eda's main schtick was being the most powerful witch on the Isles, and that's gone now. She's forced to adapt to this new normal, which she's quick to do, but still. Tt's got to be a rough kick to the ego now that no one even cares about who she is anymore.

It's a low moment for her character that hopefully sets up her own arc for the rest of the season.

Luz Feels Like She’s a Burden: I will demolish her with love and kindness if she even CONSIDERS talking so poorly about herself again! Because Luz is not a burden. She is a beam of light that literally brightens up the lives of nearly everyone she meets. Eda already explains how her life is better because of Luz (through a heart-tugging speech that almost got to me, by the way), but it's not just Eda.

King now has his first real friend who admires him and treats him like the king he wants to be.

Willow has become much more confident and cheerful because Luz was always in her corner.

Gus learns more about the humans he appreciates with his whole heart while also having a friend that treats him like an equal rather than a kid.

And do I even have to say ANYTHING about Amity?

The Boiling Isles wouldn't be better off without Luz. It's better because of her. And shame on this girl for thinking otherwise...even though I fully understand where she's coming from.

I'm about to get personal for a second, so strap in. Because I am a twenty-somthing-year-old who is currently living with his mom. It's as pathetic as it sounds. But it's because I'm still attending college, and she says school comes first and jobs and apartments come second. Despite that, I feel like trash for just...living here as she still takes care of me and pays for the food I can't afford. She says that I shouldn't worry about it, but I still wait for the day I can finally pay her back for everything. Not some things, but everything. And that's Luz's mentality in this episode. The overwhelming guilt she's feeling for thinking she's inconveniencing Eda's life is something that hits really hard for me. It doesn't matter if it's true, but that she believes it's true. It's a heartbreaking character arc she's forced into for this episode that also adds more to why she's one of the many characters I heavily relate to.

Lulu and Hootstipher: Whoever thought of this idea...I f**king love you.

This is similar to when Noah and Owen became friends in Total Drama World Tour. Seemingly one-sided at first, you see a cute friendship that you would have never expected, but it works! Hooty is this happy and naive character who hardly understands what's going on half the time, and Lilith is...Lilith. Their chemistry is instantly fun as their dynamic is quick to understand.

This also shines with potential for character growth, for it could give Lilith a chance to be more caring and Hooty a chance to be more than just the comic relief. If you were to tell me that this is what was going to happen when the season premiered, I would have thought you were crazy. But now, after seeing it in action, I'm genuinely excited to see where this cute friendship between these two goes.

(As long as it doesn't involve fans shipping them. Because Hooty can do better)

Luz Getting Better with Her Magic: Our little bisexual princess is growing up! And, man, is it awesome to see. Luz going from just barely knowing how to do magic to full-on using her spells like second nature just warms my heart with all the character growth it presents. Now, some people might want an explanation for how she's able to do said spells, to which I say: "Who the f**k cares?"

If you ask me, Luz's magic is one of those things that doesn't need a direct answer because it doesn't matter as much. But if you're going to be a baby about it, here's what I can offer: As far as I can tell, it's equal parts having the glyph and mentally picturing what the spell should do. It's much like how Willow draws a spell circle and can either make giant jungle vines or a patch of flowers to land on. Luz's glyphs are her own spell circles. As long as she concentrates hard enough, she can make the glyph do whatever she wants it to.

There. You have your explanation. Now let's just all appreciate the fact that Luz can now throw fireballs and make vine whips like the superpowered teenager she most likely fantasized of being. Ok? Ok.

A Pirate Losing His Head...Literally: ...And I'm gonna go ahead and add that to the list.

I mean, for f**k's sake, WE SEE BONE! He puts his head back on, but we still see the bone!

Eda in a Pirate Outfit: ...That is all.

The Golden Guard: This guy shows up for only a few minutes, and I'm already beginning to like him. He seems just as threatening as Belos while also coming across as a guy who loves his job and being a ton of fun to watch because of it. I adore villains that find that balance of being funny and terrifying. The result is a character who makes me laugh on top of making me scared of what they could do to our protagonists. So far, that's the Golden Guard in a nutshell, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store with him. Whether it involves seeing him play with food as he did with Eda and Luz in this episode or seeing him getting kicked in the crotch like a little punk like him deserves, I am all for it.

(Bonus points if it's Amity who does the crotch kicking if he ever makes an advancement on Luz)

Eda Wanting to Protect the Selkidomus: I love this. It plays into the idea that Eda cares about things being wild and free and despises how Emperor Belos would want to control everything, including the most insignificant of animals. It shows just how kind Eda really is rather than someone motivated by greed...even if she does end up filthy rich in the end.

Emperor Belos’ Brief Cameo: Yup, still terrifying!

And if it turns out that Belos can see the Scrying Potion that Lilith made...we're going to have some problems.

Much like the actual problems that I have with this episode!

(Like that transition?)

WHAT I DISLIKE

King Being Stupid: King has two different personalities in this series. Either he's a pathetic wannabe ruler who seems intelligent or an idiotic Disney comedic sidekick. That latter version of King is what we get in "Separate Tides," and I don't like it (obviously). I don't care how cute it is to see him cling onto Luz's leg and exclaim how he won't let her leave. The same character who helped Luz break into a prison to save Eda shouldn't be the same one who falls asleep when a sheet covers him like a dumbass parrot! King's at his best when he's as intelligent as the rest of the characters. And not as dumb as someone like Hooty.

Eda Being Too Nice Around Lilith: This one bothers me the most. After being cursed for thirty years and having her life ruined by the person she thought she could trust the most, Eda is still all smiley and jokey when talking to Lilith. Yeah, sorry, but I don't buy that. No one in their right mind would be that cool with a person who did all of what Lilith did. It's a major misstep that squanders what could have been a fantastic overarching story of Eda learning to forgive her sister and Lilith trying to earn it. We'll at least get Lilith's guilt, but as is, I feel Eda showing genuine anger towards her would elevate that story by a lot.

IN CONCLUSION

But that's about all the bad things I have to say about "Separate Tides." As is, it is a well-earned, solid A of a season premiere. It introduces new concepts and characters I can't wait to see more of, continues old storylines and character development instead of ignoring them, and still proves that The Owl House is as charming and funny as it always was. Maybe the rest of the season could continue to be great, or maybe things might get worse. Time can only tell. For now, all I can tell you is that "Separate Tides" is a great and fun episode that makes me excited as we set sail to this new season.

(And Scared. Mostly scared)

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #the owl house review #luz noceda #edalyn clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #the golden guard #king of demons #toh hooty #what i thought about

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claudeng80 · 3 years

Text

Away From It All

There appears to be a dumpster hitched to Shirayuki’s car. “I didn’t know a Volkswagen Beetle had a towing capacity,” Obi says, because nothing else he’s thinking is fit to be spoken out loud. He’d thought for sure she was kidding when she brought up the idea, just nodding along because he can’t resist the way she smiles when he agrees with her.

“The technicians said it would be fine! There was plenty of room to install the hitch,” she chirps, bending over to show off the welds, and he looks at them because she wants him to but that’s not even close to what he meant. “And we’ve got the camper for the whole weekend, our own little cabin in the wilderness. Or maybe not wilderness, I don’t think a state park with paved parking spots is the wilderness, really-”

He saves her from herself. “And you’re sure we’ll fit? Two whole grown-up adults in this?” It makes a dull thud as he thumps it with the heel of his hand, and something inside shifts with a metallic clink.

But all she needed was for someone to argue with her, and now her confidence is back. “You know we both need to get away, we’ve barely been out of the building in months.” Obi opens his mouth, but she doesn’t even let him get the objection out. “Aside from work.”

He doesn’t even try the second time, just raises an eyebrow. “Yes, and volunteering, I know. It doesn’t change the fact that we need a change of scenery.” Another clunk sounds from somewhere inside the camper, unprompted this time. “I’ve got everything planned, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.”

That does not, in the least, stop him from worrying. She won’t let him drive, because “I’m the one on the lease, Obi!” So he folds himself into the passenger seat and has to watch her white knuckles on the wheel for three hours. Every time there’s a gust of wind they swerve. He’s made promises to at least three deities, and he’s driving back even if he has to spike her coffee.

She lets him pump gas, at least, waiting for him when he levers himself back into the car with enough hand sanitizer to drown a small animal. He won’t admit how much better it makes him feel, just lets her see him rolling his eyes over the edge of his mask. Hanging out with medical types during a global pandemic has not done his stress level or imagination any favors, but he has enforced all the best practices at the security desk and they haven’t had a case transmitted at work yet.

She’s waiting with a plastic bag when his hands are finally dry enough to shed his mask, and at last they’re finally back on the road. A whole weekend out and about - normally he’d be thrilled, but the thought of all the masks he’s going to go through is daunting. They’ll be down into the ones with the kitten prints that Shirayuki made him but he usually tries to lose at the bottom of the bin. The first time he had to wear one to work, Yuzuri ambushed him with her cat ears and he had to social distance her right into the elevator. His disloyal coworkers still meowed at him for a week.

When the lake shimmers into view through the trees ahead, Obi breathes a sigh of relief. Shirayuki flashes her ID at the guard, who checks it against a list and nods her in. Obi watches in the mirror to make sure she doesn’t take him out with the trailer, but everyone emerges unscathed. “Help me find slot eighty-two,” she demands, handing over a printout of a reservation email.

Down at the shoreline kids are jumping off the dock and a sailboat is being launched, and it’s really irritating to admit just how right Shirayuki was. He’s missed being outside. He runs regularly, but it’s not the same, not like hiking or even just playing Frisbee on a Saturday with Zen and the guys.

“You’re not helping,” Shirayuki complains without heat, as the lake slides out of view behind the first row of trees. “Was that it? It was, I missed it.”

She brakes, and her fingers curl around the gear shift. “I’ll just back up-”

Obi’s hand lands on hers. “Go around,” he suggests as nicely as he can. “If you want to drop me off here I can wave you in.”

It gives him a breather, one single minute to enjoy the carpet of pine needles beneath his feet and the distant sound of birds competing with the shouts of children down at the lake. A minute where he doesn’t have any new surprises. And when her bright yellow car turns the corner again, followed by the monstrosity they're ostensibly sleeping two nights in, he directs her into the spot with a smile on his face.

He does have an idea of what happens next- he’s done at least a basic amount of research- but Shirayuki has directions to read out loud and he would never deny her the pleasure. So he just waits by the jack until Shirayuki tells him what to do, and in just a couple of minutes they’ve got it leveled, secured, and cranked up into something actually resembling a structure. “And you thought this wasn’t a good idea,” says Shirayuki, gloating as she checks off the last item on the list. She climbs the two steps and knocks on the door, punctuating her sentence with its rattling report, and fails to notice it jittering in its track.

Obi catches the panel with one hand before it falls on her head. One step up to set the door back in its place presses her against the camper wall, and if Obi were a less selfish man he’d let her get out of the way. But elevated like this she’s almost face to face with him, close enough that he can hear her hold her breath as he stretches past her. There’s a latch she couldn’t reach, up high, and he grins as it snaps into place. “You missed a step, miss.”

“You missed it too.” Her words are almost a whisper, almost in his ear.

“I’m not the one with the checklist.” He steps back down and away to a safe distance, and she looks down at her checklist like she’d forgotten it was in her hand. After a moment of staring, she pokes at the door once more. This time it’s safe. And with a slam she disappears inside.

It isn’t until they’re halfway through pulling out the side sections that the problem becomes evident. There should be a mattress on either side, but one is just a bare board. There’s only one usable bed.

“Maybe it’s stacked on top of the other one,” Shirayuki says, and Obi knows right away that it won’t be. That’s not how his luck works. She thumps her way up the stairs and rummages around, but there’s never any doubt. Somehow they’ve managed to acquire a rental camper with just one bed.

“It’s a very big bed,” Shirayuki chirps when they’re both inside, barely fitting shoulder to elbow across the space. And maybe that’s true for her, who sleeps in a twin bed and doesn’t hang off the ends, but no bed is big enough for Obi that has Shirayuki in it. “Maybe when I mentioned there were just two of us, they thought we’d be okay with just one side. I don’t take up a lot of space. . .”

Obi would believe that if he didn’t know better. But he knows what will happen if he gets in that bed with her. She, like a heat-seeking missile, will chase him across the bed and end up on top of him, and then one of two things will happen. She’ll wake up far too acquainted with his dick, at which point he will have to go throw himself into the lake and drown dramatically, or he will say something embarrassing in his sleep. He’ll wake up and she’ll be looking at him differently because she knows, and he’ll just shuffle off the mortal coil right then and there.

No way is he sleeping in that bed tonight. They brought folding chairs and it’s far from the first time he’s slept sitting up. The sun draws an orange ribbon across the mattress, and he nods in a way that looks something like agreement. “It is a big bed. How about you get some sheets on it, and I’ll go start on dinner?”

By the time she joins him outside, he’s got the grill heating and hot dogs ready to go. Two low-nitrate corn-fed turkey dogs for her, two classic artery-hardening mystery meat dogs for him. She plops herself in the chair with a sigh and coils of tension drop from her like a weight, leaving her relaxed and smiling in a way he hasn’t seen her in months. She may not be in the hospital every day like she would be if she weren’t still a student, but it’s been hard on her nonetheless. When she’s not studying or glued to her laptop for classes or at the hospital anyway for whatever research reason Dr. Gazelt has her there for that day, she’s off delivering meals on wheels or distributing PPE kits or something.

To somebody whose first reaction would have been to hide in his apartment with a six months’ supply of freezer meals and play video games until his controllers gave out, it’s impressive. Or no, maybe he would have packed up and moved to a remote island country with strict quarantine rules, were it not for pesky things like an actual steady job and a neighbor who can’t be trusted not to fall asleep on her keyboard.

How things change, he thinks hours later as they brush their teeth side by side. The sink inside the trailer is tiny, and Shirayuki dribbles toothpaste, giggling, as Obi has to bend and twist to get his face anywhere in the vicinity of the bowl. He swishes slowly, enjoying the sound of her laugh far too much. Her hair slides into her face as she spits out her toothpaste in turn, and Obi clenches his hand to keep from reaching out to tuck it back behind her ear.

She turns, catching him looking, and just smiles up at him. The lantern casts most of her in shade, but the green of her eyes catches the light and glows and he can’t look away. All is quiet, not a sound but the crickets out in the trees, and they’re alone in a way it never feels like back in the city.

“Do you want the left side or the right?” There’s no answer for that but an excuse, and it takes him too long because he doesn’t want to do what he knows he has to. “I’m okay with-”

White light sweeps through the camper like a lighthouse beam, picking out the stars on Shirayuki’s pajama shirt and casting shadows of her body on the fabric. The afterimages stand in Obi’s memory far too clearly even after she moves, pulling back the canvas on the window to peer outside.

They have late-arriving neighbors, apparently. He recognizes a few words of the Hamilton soundtrack blaring from the truck’s open windows. Kiki made him sit through it enough times in the last few years to catch the quotes, and he’s caught Shirayuki humming it under her breath more than a few times lately. It’s insanely popular, there’s no reason it should mean anything, but Shirayuki’s staring at the truck parked in the next slot intently now. “Is that-”

Obi pulls the gap in the window to a level where he can see, and even in the dark he can make out the “Sereg Life” decal plastered all across the truck’s back window. “Lugis,” he agrees with a groan.

The passenger door swings open, cutting off the music, and Shirayuki scrambles for her flip-flops and a mask and flies out the front door before Obi can get a word in edgewise. “Kiki!”

He’s never seen Kiki smile so big as when Shirayuki skids to a halt six feet away. There’s a tiny flash of disappointment, but Shirayuki’s the one keeping everyone up to date on all the latest social distancing guidelines and there’s no way Kiki can be expecting a hug. All the more reason to get this pandemic over and done with. But Shirayuki bounces on her toes with excitement.

“Are you going to be here all weekend?” Shirayuki’s asking when Obi’s found his own shoes and made it outside.

“No, it’s just an overnight stop,” Kiki answers and Obi doesn’t know whether to be pleased or not. On the one hand, having others around, others who know Zen, makes it so much easier to behave himself. On the other, the sooner they see the back of Hisame, the better.

“Got a family wedding to go to.” Hisame isn’t smirking for once, unpacking the bed of the truck.

Kiki catches the look on Shirayuki’s face. “Don’t worry, it’s outside and we’re going to stay safe. How about you two? How’s the lake?”

“We got here too late to go swimming,” Shirayuki says, and Kiki’s eyes flit past her to speak directly to Obi. Well yes, he has been skinny-dipping before, of course, but he’s not about to suggest the idea to Shirayuki. There’s no knowing which would be worse, her being offended at the idea or her taking him up on it. It’s not an option. “But we have all day tomorrow to find out.”

Kiki’s eyes meet his again, and he really doesn’t like the sound of her hum of agreement. “Shirayuki, can you show me where the restrooms are? We hit Starbucks right before we got on the road, and somebody doesn’t like stopping.” They stroll off together.

Hisame hauls one last bundle out of the truck bed with a thump, then calls after them. “I’ll just set up the tent, shall I?” Kiki doesn’t even look back, just waves.

Miss would be so disappointed if she got back and he hadn’t helped. So while Hisame starts arranging canvas in the bed of his truck, Obi snaps together poles. They’re at least ten feet long- might be long enough if he keeps them between himself and the snake at all times. “Hadn’t taken you for a pop-up camper sort,” Hisame says as they set up the first arch of the tent.

“It was Miss’ idea.” He has to wonder a bit if Hisame intends to enlighten him- he’s slept rough before, and in tents, and for one particularly memorable period in an RV, although that was even less his idea than the other two. “Thought you were more of a five star hotel type, yourself.”

Hisame laughs, like a normal person. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been camping. Since Boy Scouts, probably. But Kiki wasn’t thrilled about staying in hotels, and if it’s a choice between sleeping in a truck bed and going without her-”

“Got it.” The last pole corner snaps onto its pin, just as voices herald the two women approaching, back-lit by the single light by the restrooms. Shirayuki’s yawning, and with a quiet wave she heads for the camper stairs.

There she pauses. “Obi, are you coming to bed?”

Three pairs of eyes dig into him, and it’s a miracle his heart’s still beating. As it is, it’s a moment before he’s capable of speech. “I think I’m going to sit out and enjoy the evening a bit longer. I’m not tired, and it’s nice here.”

“It is,” Shirayuki agrees, and the tension in his stomach relaxes by at least half as she accepts his excuse. She’ll fall asleep in no time, and when she finds him out here in the morning he’ll look silly. Better that than anything worse. “Don’t stay up too late, okay? Good night, everybody.”

“Good night," they chorus, then as the screen door slams shut behind her everyone finds their places. Obi manages to set up his folding chair without pinching any fingers, which feels like a small victory the way everything else has gone this trip, and settles back to watch the show. Hisame dumps a brand-new air mattress out of its packaging while Kiki plugs in an air compressor. The roar when she turns it on is obscene, and Obi groans as he slouches in his chair and closes his eyes.

Kiki’s standing too close when he opens them again. “I’m touched you wanted to spend more time with me,” she says, and Obi snorts.

“I’m not out here for you.” The chair digs into his hip.

“Then you should be in there.” She knows how he feels. He doesn’t regret telling her, most of the time. For at least one other person in the world to know gave him a safety valve that took away the pressure behind the words, making it so much easier to keep it all secret from Shirayuki. Of course Kiki would take a secret to the grave if he asked.

But he never did get around to asking then and he doesn’t now, just shuts his eyes again. But Kiki doesn’t take the hint. “How are the accommodations?”

He’s slept in worse. The sink is nice enough. “One star. It’s missing one of the beds.”

“Oh, really?” He doesn’t have to open his eyes to see the smile. “You are making my point for me.”

“And be deprived of your charming presence, princess?” The ungodly screech of the compressor finally ceases, leaving numbed silence in its wake, and at the sound of Hisame’s approaching steps Obi gives up on his attempt to nap.

The snake curves his arm around Kiki’s shoulder, tucking her against his side. Obi’s mildly surprised that she doesn’t flip him to the ground, but perhaps they save that for more private opportunities. “It’s a long drive tomorrow, we should probably turn in.” In spite of everything, Obi’s almost about to admit that maybe Hisame might be some percentage of a decent person, until they’ve turned away and Hisame tosses back one last farewell. “If the truck’s a rockin’, don’t come knockin’!”

Kiki, in lieu of the violent retaliation that deserves, snickers, and Obi just groans and slides deeper into his chair. Who knew that Mitsuhide had tempered her terrible sense of humor all this time? Hisame was a bad influence. He squirms again. If only the back of the chair were high enough to support his neck, or he’d thought to steal a pillow from inside, this might be a little more-

No, it would still be awful. Only one thing could make it worse.

Truck shocks squeak, and that’s the last straw. There's no getting around it now. He’ll take his chances with the bed.

#obiyukichopped #day 2 #modern au #2020 au in fact #thank you jhalya for beta reading #to be continued in the spring #fanfic #in which shirayuki rents a camper

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tbehartoo · 4 years

Text

Dungeons, Dragons, and Dating

A Present for @justknitstuff my giftee for the @lukanette-exchange. This sort of turned into a beast of a chapter and they haven’t even got to the game yet! I promise to get chapter two out as soon as I can.

Summary: Luka knows it’s hard to make new friends when all you do is work and study. He can’t believe it, but Rose and Juleka have finally convinced him to come to the university’s gaming club with them. There he meets some unique characters, and he’s not talking about the ones they create for their Dungeons & Dragons game. Hopefully among this room of strangers he can find some good friends for these hard times.

Author’s note: Set in a post pandemic world. After multiple plagues have swept the world, some daily things will have changed, but there are other things, such as the need for connections to each other, that haven’t.

Beta’ed by: @soloraven and @platypan Thank you both for your amazing help! They did their best, any mistakes are mine alone.

First Club Meeting

The first meeting of the University’s Gaming Club of the fall semester was full of nothing but the sound of rolling dice, the muttering of voices and the flipping of papers when Luka followed his sister and her girlfriend through the door. One of the lounge rooms off the cafeteria had several round tables with various people spread thinly around them. The room’s HEPA filters were humming quietly in the corners, a sound so common that it barely registered but comfortingly underlying the feel of the room.

A man hurried towards them while they stowed their masks in their packs. Luka thought the black eyebrows on the man’s head looked more like wings than brows. They were excellent at drawing attention from the guy’s balding head but couldn’t disguise how short the man actually was.

“Welcome, Rose! Welcome, Juleka!” he called as he passed out papers to the newcomers while they each took turns to put their hands under the automatic hand sanitizer dispenser. “It’s nice to see you back again this semester. Hope the summer break treated you well.”

“Oh, it was busy for sure,” Rose said as she smiled at the professor. “I did an internship at the library and Jules was able to pick up some work for local commercials.”

“Wonderful, girls! Wonderful!” He looked at Luka and picked up another bundle of papers. “And is this a friend of yours?”

“This is my brother Luka,” Juleka said as she took a packet from the man. He was practically vibrating with energy. “Rose has finally convinced him that he needs to come with us to the game club.”

“I’m Professor Damocles, the faculty advisor for the game club, and my pronouns are he/him,” he said nodding at Luka. “I ask you to please fill that packet out tonight. It goes over the club’s rules and by-laws as well as our expectations for following the university’s current pandemic procedure plans. The last page is for you to sign agreeing to abide by our rules and give us an email to contact you. You can use your school email or a personal one. Later, when we’ve got it processed, you’ll get your own invitation to our Discord channel and be able to look over what games the club has, as well as respond with your interest in each game. Go ahead and review the papers while we wait for the meeting to start.”

“It looks like you’ve already started,” Rose said and waved at a girl with black hair sporting bright blue streaks in her ponytail sitting a couple of tables over. Luka saw Juleka wave as well so she must be a friend of both of them.

“Oh, well not yet,” Professor Damocles said as he cleared his throat. “Our club president from last semester isn’t here to open the meeting and start the vote for club leadership. She said she had to stop off for something, but she should be here soon. In the meantime, I’ll have the vice-president-” he turned back to the room, “- ah, Adrien?” A blond young man looked up at the name. “Do you think you could get these three set up at a table while we wait for Marinette to get here?”

“Sure thing,” Adrien said as he came over, giving the three of them a small nod of acknowledgement. He scanned the tables before beaming at the girl Rose had waved to before. He nodded at the young man sitting a chair away from her. The guy wearing the baseball cap nodded and Adrien moved in their direction.

Those two don’t seem to be dating, Luka thought. Though they do seem pretty comfortable with each other, he noted they were both writing on something between them.

“Have any of you played Dungeons and Dragons?” Adrien asked as they wove through the tables.

“I have,” Rose answered, “But Jules and Luka refused to come to my game group with me.”

“It’s your time to be with your friends,” Juleka said with a chuckle. “We both have time away from each other,” she poked her girlfriend in her shoulder, “And you like to spend that time with them.”

“Her group always wants to meet while I’m at work,” Luka added on. He looked at Rose and smiled. “I’ve met them all as they seem to order from my pizza place only when I’m working and always request me as their driver.” He rolled his eyes, “I can’t even recall all the weird scenes I’ve walked into during their game nights, but I’ve never had a chance to play.”

Rose scoffed, but Juleka nodded to strengthen Luka’s claim.

“Well, last semester the club decided to try out twice monthly D&D games,” Adrien told them. “That way we can get a campaign going but still play our game closet every other week. Those who have played are helping the newbies roll up characters. Rose, if I put you with Kagami and Nino, do you think you can help Juleka and,” he paused before continuing both his eyebrows raised, “Luka?”

Luka nodded.

Adrien’s shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, uh, Luka, to roll up characters?”

“Sure thing, Adrien,” Rose said as she sat down at the table leaving two chairs between her and Kagami.

Juleka sat next to Rose while Luka claimed the seat next to Juleka.

“It’s good to see you again, Gami,” Juleka said, peering closely at the stacks of paper in the middle of the table.

“You, too Jules, Rose,” Kagami greeted the girls with a nod of her head. She raised a questioning brow at Luka.

“Oh, this is Luka, my brother,” Juleka said then tacked on, “-we all share an apartment off campus.”

"Ah, that's why you're not observing the mandatory one seat apart rule,” Kagami replied.

“Well it doesn’t apply to us as we share living quarters,” Juleka said with a small sigh.

“This is Nino,” Kagami said, indicating their other tablemate with a tilt of her head. “He’s Adrien’s brother from another mother and soon to be best man.”

Rose squealed and clapped. Juleka’s face broke out into a big smile.

“So who asked first, you or Adrien?” Rose demanded.

Nino barked with laughter.

“They had the audacity to ask at the same time,” he informed the beaming listeners. “So all bets have been cancelled.”

“Alix must be in a mood about that,” Juleka said with a grin.

Nino nodded. “She wouldn’t talk to either of them for a month. But now she’s working a couple of bets on swimming challenges between Kim and Ondine if you want in on that action.” He used his head to point out a girl at the next table. She was kind of short, wore clothes that Luka associated with skaters, and sported hair in a pink Mohawk with short cropped sides.

The whole group had a small laugh before Kagami’s face grew serious.

“Okay, I’m sure you’re familiar with the game, but here’s the short, short explanation just so we’re all on the same page. D&D is a group storytelling game. Every person has a character who has both strengths and weaknesses based on things like what fantasy race you’re from, like troll or elf, as well as what level you are in a certain job known as a class, like a fighter or sorcerer.

“You know, like my tenth level high elf pirate, Mistress Delores Myra Woodfield-Dee,” Rose said.

“We’re familiar with her,” Luka said nodding his head.

“Very familiar,” Juleka murmured.

“The Captain was so flattered when you made your character, well, her,” Luka grinned.

“Yeah, mom wouldn’t stop asking about her and suggesting things for Mistress Dee to do next,” Juleka informed Kagami.

“Mom didn’t understand that I had to listen to the directions from the DM,” Rose sighed. “She thought I could just take my pirate crew anywhere I wanted.”

“The DM is the one in charge, right?” Nino asked Rose.

“Yeah. The DM, a.k.a. the Dungeon Master, is the one that leads the story and settles disputes,” Rose said.

“It’s not an easy job, even though Adrien makes it look like it is,” Kagami said. “He’s been playing for years and DMing almost as long. He’s learned a few tricks to make things flow easily and he’s so nice that he rarely has people rules lawyering at him.”

“Rules lawyering?” Luka asked as he looked at Kagami then turned to his housemate, “I haven’t heard Rose say that before.”

“That’s because Skylar, my DM, doesn’t let James play anymore,” Rose grumbled. “He would argue over every little thing and try to pull out the rule book after nearly every play. It got so bad that Claire and Gia refused to play any more and the others in our group started to dread going.” She huffed and put a hand on Luka’s forearm. “If you really have a question about what happened or why something turned out the way it did, then, yeah you should ask the DM for clarification, but in a nice way.” Luka nodded at her as she continued, “Don’t be an ass about it.”

“I usually try not to be one in my day-to-day life. Why would I change that because of a game?” Luka asked.

Kagami shuddered, “Because when people really get into character and the game gets intense then you can have the sweetest, kindest person you know,” she looked directly at Rose, “Turn into a blood lusting, amoral, beast that makes you worried to try the cookies she brought.”

Rose’s jaw dropped. “Those cookies were from T&S! How could you question their fitness for consumption?”

“Because you set fire to the orphanage with the orphans sleeping inside it, for one,” Kagami said “And then you rolled a boulder through the school house while classes were in session!”

“Surti Snan was a chaotic evil Kobold!” Rose said defensively. “You cannot hold him to human standards of behavior.”

“I most certainly can and will,” Kagami replied with a smirk on her face.

“Besides,” Rose almost pouted, “My plan to lure out the mindflayer worked.”

“Only after you decimated three-quarters of the town we were sent to save!” Kagami pointed out.

The two stared at each other for a moment and Luka worried that they might need to figure out a way to deescalate the situation when the two girls broke out into laughter.

“We were fortunate that Marc was the DM that night as they were the one to get everyone to cool down after the orphanage incident,” Rose said with a grin. “I didn’t end up banned from the table or the game.”

“And that is why you need a good DM,” Kagami said. “They have to keep everyone working together and keep emotions from overpowering the game. They’re also responsible for adding in all the little things like descriptions of people and places and being all the NPCs.”

“Non-player characters,” Rose said as she saw the furrowed brows of Luka, Nino, and Juleka, “are like the shopkeepers or the townsfolk that you meet along the way, but aren’t permanent members of the party like our characters will be.”

“Oooh, Adrien told me that Damocles is going to pop in as some of the NPCs for our game this semester,” Kagami told the table.

Rose squealed, happiness showing clearly on her face, “He’s going to be the funnest little blacksmith!”

“I don’t think funnest is a word Rose,” Juleka said with a smile.

“I can totally see him as a blacksmith, too,” Kagami said. “He’s got all the in-depth history of historical weapons. I bet armor shopping with him would end up being a small comparative history lesson on why a Japanese Do would be better than a French cuirass for a specific race or class.”

“No one told me there’d be actual lessons involved with this,” Nino said with a scoff. The effect was ruined by the huge grin he was throwing in Kagami’s direction.

“Well you’d better get practicing your math facts before we start,” Kagami said as she pulled the visor down on his cap. “There’s a lot of adding and subtracting once the dice start rolling.”

“What are we using the dice for?” Juleka asked.

“Pretty much everything,” Rose said as she leaned into Juleka’s side. “They add chaos and luck into the game so it’s not just a match where you look to see who has the highest AC-” noting the confused looks of the uninitiated she added, “armor class.” Juleka still looked confused. “Dice are used for movement during confrontations to see if your actions hit and how much damage is done. But another important thing the DM uses the dice for is when we roll initiative before there’s a fight to figure out what order people go in, including the bad guys.”

“Does that even matter?” Luka asked skeptically.

“Yes, yes it matters a lot,” Kagami answered quickly. “If you have a party of five brawlers going up against two archers, and the archers go first, they can have the brawlers down on the ground before they ever get close enough to lay a finger on them.”

“But if the brawlers go first, they can get to the archers and overpower them while their bows become useless because the archers don’t have the distance any more,” Rose tacked on.

“And it can get real tricky and dicey, no pun intended, when they’re mixed up,” Kagami said.

“So is it better to be an archer or a brawler?” Nino asked.

“Yes,” Rose answered with a grin and Nino just groaned.

“Well, every character has strengths and weaknesses,” Kagami replied slowly. “It keeps the game more balanced and keeps even the gods from being too OP. So the answer to your question really is that it just depends. That’s why we’re hoping that not everyone will chose to be an Orc Barbarian or the only thing we’ll be able to do is be murder hobos.”

“Murder hobos?” Juleka asked with a wince.

“That’s when the group’s answer to every problem is to stab, club, or smite it and hope that makes it go away,” Kagami answered.

“It gets kind of boring when fights are all you do,” Rose said.

“But Rose,” Juleka said with a frown on her face, “every character you’ve ever talked about was a fighter of some kind. Your pirate, your kobold, the chef from the insane asylum,” she was ticking them off on her fingers, “there are a lot of others that you’ve made, and they’re all fighters.”

Rose blushed a little before answering. “Well, yes, I do like to play fighters more than say clerics or warlocks, but that’s because I use my characters to get out all the aggression I can’t use in real life. It’s just not appropriate to hit the library patron over the head with the book he keeps requesting, but then says it’s the wrong book every week.”

Everyone at the table chuckled.

“So if we’re not just getting into fights, what else is there to do?” Luka asked.

“There can be riddles, murder mysteries, royal court intrigue, puzzles, and, well, it is called Dungeons and Dragons,” Kagami said while shrugging, “so besides slaying dragons or raiding their hoards, there are also dungeons or other structures to explore. Some, well okay, all of them have traps of some kind or they might also have monsters in them.”

“One time Marc did a dungeon crawl where you had to come up with a rhyming couplet to get out of the rooms using the name of the treasure found in it,” Rose said thoughtfully. “We spent so much time trying to figure out a rhyme for the handy haversack,” she murmured.

“What did you rhyme it with?” Luka wanted to know. He was already creating a list in his head.

“We, ah, put it in the middle of the line and just rhymed floor and door,” she admitted. “Then we did that with the rest of the rooms and pretty much made Marc cry that night.”

Kagami was nodding along with Rose’s story. She looked at the three sitting at the table. “One thing you should always keep in mind,” she said to them, “is that the party always ruins the DM’s plans. The DMs know this and they try to be ready for it, but sometimes they just have to call a break or end a session because the group has gone off on a tangent even they didn’t predict.” She smiled at them. “It’s kind of fun, but it’s not something you want to make a habit of or the DMs don’t want to play.”

“What I’m hearing,” Luka said to Kagami, “is that we all just need to play nice with each other and the game will be fun.”

“That pretty much sums it up,” Kagami smiled back at him.

“So how do we get started making our character?” Juleka asked.

Kagami pointed to the piles of paper in the middle of the table. “If you haven’t played before, there’s a few races and classes to choose from on the papers. The more experienced players can bring in other races or classes if the DMs approve. Our DMs are Adrien,” she pointed at the young man they’d met answering a question for a girl in glasses with hair that started a rich brown but changed gradually into a deep red color, “and Marc” she pointed to another person sitting at the adjoining table with short black hair and some killer eye liner. Marc was helping someone with long, bright red hair pulled back into a bun that helped their mask stay in place. She gestured back to their table. “The pink papers have races on them and the details that you should know for that race. The green papers have classes on them. So you can either choose two papers at random or you can look through them to see what sounds interesting. To make things easy on all of us, we’re all starting at level one.”

“This all sounds pretty easy,” Luka said.

Kagami’s face lost all expression.

“That’s what I said to Adrien when he first introduced me to the game,” she shook her head. “You might want to get out now-- while you can.”

Rose reached a closed hand over to gently nudge Kagami’s arm. “You don’t mean that,” she said.

One side of Kagami’s mouth quirked up. “No, I don’t. It’s a wonderful game, but it can be kind of overwhelming, especially when you’re new at it.” She slid the stacks of paper towards the little group along with the bottle of hand sanitizer. “As Adrien’s one of the DMs, he asked Nino to play a paladin for story reasons so he just had to choose a race. These are free for you to look at.”

Rose took the sanitizer and squeezed some into her palm before passing it down the line. Luka knew that her time in the library made her very careful to clean her hands before handling something others might also have to touch. She took the pink stack while Juleka looked at the green. Luka said he was going to do the random thing so he started filling out the club rule packet.

A few moments later, a young woman burst through the door carrying a large box of what turned out to be individually wrapped treats from T&S. Tom and Sabine, the proprietors of the bakery, always greeted everyone with warm smiles and tasty samples. T&S was a favorite with students for having delicious pastries, as well as simple sandwiches on freshly baked bread, at prices even those struggling with their finances could afford.

Luka heard the girl apologizing to Damocles for being late, but she’d had to wait for her order to get finished- at this point she nearly dropped the box as she tripped over something by her rushing feet, but Adrien was there to catch both the box and the girl. He didn’t even hesitate to wrap an arm around her shoulders as he moved them over to a table at the front of the room.

They can’t be dating, Luka thought to himself. Adrien and Kagami just got engaged. And neither of the girls asked Kagami about how her or Adrien’s girlfriend was taking the news so they probably aren’t in a poly relationship together. They certainly don’t look like siblings, but I know well enough that siblings don’t have to be little carbon copies of each other. Maybe they’re roommates? Quick, be cool Luka, they’re coming this way.

Adrien walked the girl over to their table where she sank into the chair next to Nino and Luka felt his heart drop to the floor.

She must be dating Nino, who is Adrien’s best friend, so they’ve probably been around each other a lot. Which is why she’s sitting next to Nino and why Adrien felt comfortable enough with catching her, Luka reasoned.

Adrien put one hand on Nino’s shoulder as he leaned across the chair between him and Kagami to give his fiancee a quick kiss. He straightened up and gave Nino’s shoulder a squeeze before removing his hand.

“How are you so late?” Nino asked the girl with a teasing tone. “You left the house with an hour and a half’s head start.”

The girl blushed before she started talking. “When I got to the bakery, Felix was there,” she began. Luka noticed that Nino, Adrien, and even Kagami suddenly tensed up and Nino’s lips formed into a line. “He thought that just because I couldn’t be the club president this semester that I’d stop coming, even though I told him I still had to come tonight to open the meeting and to take nominations for the new president. He-”

“He just went all Felix on you didn’t he?” Nino said followed by a short huff.

She nodded.

“I know he’s my cousin,” Adrien said to her, “but sometimes I really wish he wasn’t related and could have gone to a different school instead of our family’s Alma Mater.” He reached around Nino and gave her a couple of pats on her shoulder before leaning back toward Kagami and grasping her hand. “Then you’d never have met him and all our lives would have been easier.”

This Felix guy must be, what, pestering her? They don’t seem to be worried about her safety, so he’s probably not stalking her. I guess everyone has that one friend you just have to limit time with, Luka thought.

She gave Adrien a strained smile.

“But then I never would have met you or Kagami,” she said. “You would have just been that one weird guy that Nino was in a bromance with in his Roman history class. The one who has an unnatural affinity for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood,” she added scrunching her nose up.

Adrien’s laugh was loud and free. Kagami, Nino, and the girl all relaxed at the sound and smiled at one another.

“Okay, you got me there,” Adrien said. “But don’t knock the bromance.” He batted his eyes at Nino. “The feelings of the bros are true, pure, and noble.”

At that, Nino pretended to swoon as he murmured, “Bro, don’t do this to me in public, bro.” He looked up at Adrien, his eyes open wide and a pout on his lips. “You know I can’t handle it when you declare your love for me.”

Both of the men tried to hold onto their awkward posing, but Kagami poked Adrien’s side and the girl leaned into Nino. They started sniggering immediately.

“If you’re really that taken with him,” Kagami said to Adrien with a grin, “I could always give him the engagement ring.”

“You’d do that for me? For us?” Adrien cried melodramatically.

Luka could see why Adrien would make a good DM if he was always this theatrical. Kagami and Nino also seemed able to drop into a performance easily. Even as a stranger, Luka could tell this was all in good fun and that Adrien seemed quite devoted to the girl whose hand he’d yet to let go of.

“Don’t worry Kagami,” Nino said to her solemnly. “I would never want to be the one to ruin you and Adrien’s happiness.”

Kagami pinned the boy with her stare. “You are the only one who ever could come between us, Nino,” Her tone icy, almost menacing. “ You know the terms: Sabers at dawn.”

Nino sat back quickly holding up his hands in surrender, clearly dropping out of the scene they’d been playing.

“Unh-uh! No way!” He made an ‘x’ with his arms. “I have seen you with your saber and I want no part of that,” he declared.

Kagami and Adrien both smiled fondly at Nino as they chuckled.

“A wise decision,” Adrien remarked. “Oh excuse me, it looks like Alya has another question.”

He pecked Kagami’s cheek before hurrying back over to glasses girl.

When Luka looked back at the table, after watching Adrien go over to the girl who must be Alya, it was to see Nino with his arm around his seatmate’s shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Marinette?” he’d asked quietly. “I know how Felix can get when he’s...disappointed.”

Luka was pretty sure that the only reason he heard the question was because he was seated on the girl’s other side.

Marinette took a deep breath in and let it out before nodding her head.

“I’m good Nin,” she’d replied.

The look on Nino’s face seemed to sport a trace of disbelief, but it was gone so quickly that Luka wasn’t sure that’s what he’d seen. Before he could think about it more, Professor Damocles stood at the front of the room to call for attention.

After introducing himself to the group and welcoming everyone to the club, he turned the meeting over to Marinette as club president. She called for nominations for a new president and the club officially got under way.

Soon enough Adrien, as the new club president, addressed the gathering.

“Well, as your new president, I’d like to welcome everyone here. I hope that we can all have a great time getting to know one another and having some fun playing games.” He grinned as his eyes scanned the crowd. Luka was sure he wasn’t the only one to notice the wink he threw at Kagami.

“Our good friends over at the Crazy Squirrel,” he gestured to a table covered in dice, velvet bags, trays, books, and brightly covered boxes with two smiling people seated behind it, “have brought a small selection of what they have on offer at their game store. You can look over the merch at any time tonight and be assured, they take all forms of legal tender. If you don’t find what you need, they’re willing to give student discounts all next week as long as you show a valid student I.D. Who knew those cards were good for anything, right? If you aren’t going to use an app for your dice rolls, you will need to make sure you also purchase a tray.” The smile dropped from his face. “We can’t have stray dice roaming the tables.” At this statement, there were various murmurs of assent.

“Marc and I will be DMing this semester,” he pointed to the student Kagami had indicated earlier, “so if you have any questions please feel free to ask us, but we’ve made sure there are two or three people at each table that can help you make a character if you’ve not done that before.” He smiled at the group. “We have a lot of plans for our game but tonight is going to be dedicated to creating your character and getting familiar with the mechanics of how things work. There’ll be several links to videos up on the server so that you can watch the pros in action, but please don’t expect that level of ability of your DMs.”

“You’re no Matt Mercer, but you’ll do,” a young man with brown skin, dark glasses, and blond dreadlocks pulled into a top knot said to the president who returned his smile.

The crowd broke into snickering.

“We know we’re not Max,” Marc replied from his table, “but then again you’re no Taliesin Jaffe or Travis Willingham either,” an ‘oooooooooooo’ ran through the room, “but you don’t see Adrien and I complaining.” Marc grinned at Max.

That got another round of chuckles from the group.

Adrien hastily added, “We’ll all just have to do our best.”

Professor Damocles stood up and Adrien ceded the floor to him.

“Alright everyone, back to your characters,” the professor said with enthusiasm. “Make them unique and special. Try new classes. Find out where your character came from, even if it’s a roll of the dice by the fates, and then prepare them to go out adventuring!” He practically vibrated with excitement.

“I am way too sober for this,” Alix mumbled into her travel mug before taking a long drink.

“One more thing,” Damocles said after Marc whispered something into his ear. “This is meant to be a friendly game, but permanent character death can happen.”

“You don’t say,” a female voice carried through the quiet room.

“Let’s have a moment of silence for Kagami’s weak ass tabaxi bard,” the pink hair girl called to the room. Everyone chuckled, but a few bowed their heads in Kagami’s direction. While a voice chided with a hissed, “Alix!”

Professor Damocles continued as if nothing had been said, “So, you might want to make a backup-” he looked directly at the source of the voice, “-or two-- Kagami.” He beamed at the room. “Let’s get busy!”

Kagami and Nino immediately put their heads back down to the paper they’d been working on. Kagami pointed to something and Nino’s phone sounded out the rolling of dice. Rose and Juleka each chose a paper from their stacks and then switched colors. Luka looked at Marinette for a moment. She seemed to notice his stare and turned to him.

The first thing he noticed was how very blue her eyes seemed. They were eyes he felt he could gladly get lost in. The second thing he noticed was how expressive her face really seemed to be. The expression right now was curiosity bordering on concern.

“Um,” he had to clear his throat before he could continue. “Doyou- haveyou-” he took a short breath to slow his words down, “Have you already made a character before?” he asked hesitantly.

“Oh yeah,” she answered. “I showed Adrien my character last week when he was over for Brotherhood night.”

“Oh, well, could you-” he tried not to look as pathetic as he felt, “could you help me?” He had to look away as soon as he’d asked.

He heard her giggle before she shifted over to be only a chair away from him, carefully observing the university seating policy, while still showing her willingness to help him out.

“I’d be glad to help you with your character,” she said and grinned.

Luka tried to get his face to move from its stunned expression, but all he felt was a bit of heat forming in his cheeks.

“Thanks,” he croaked out.

Juleka was quick to nudge him with her elbow while muttering, “Stop acting like a weirdo, ya weirdo.”

Rose giggled at his behavior, but issued a soft, “Jules, leave him be,” in his defense.

“I’m Marinette,” the girl in question said as she smiled at him again. “Nino and I rent a house close to campus-”

“Because you just have to have your craft room,” he mumbled without looking up from his phone.

Okay, they’ve got to be dating if they aren’t already married, Luka told himself. They’re living together and they’re close friends with Kagami and Adrien who just got engaged. Statistics show that you tend to mirror the actions of your peer group so why wouldn’t they be married? It’s so weird to think of people my age as being married. Why does it even matter? You’re here to make new friends and get away from work and school. This isn’t a dating service, Luka. And now you missed what she was saying.

“-but we’ve lived in each other’s house since forever. Nino’s dad and my dad have been friends since kindergarten,” she threw a smile in his direction. “I grew up calling Nino’s parents Uncle Sami and Auntie Halima and wondering why he had aunts and uncles I never saw at our family reunions, but never questioning that we were related,” she laughed a little at herself. “What about you?”

“Well, um, Juleka and I grew up on a houseboat with our mom. And Rose started coming over a lot when she and Jules were what, twelve? thirteen?” He looked over at his sister who nodded and then smiled at Rose. “She kind of joined the crew when her dad proved to be less than ideal as a parent.” He scowled remembering the night that a tear soaked Rose showed up on the boat and he had to hold Juleka back from killing a man while the Captain held the sobbing girl that was to become a second daughter to her. “It was obviously his loss, but certainly our gain. Mom keeps asking Jules when she’s going to make Rose official,” he stopped when he heard Juleka groan.

“She preaches free love and that marriage is just a piece of paper then goes and asks about ‘the wedding’ and ‘how soon am I gonna to get some grandbabies’,” Juleka grumbled.

“The Captain is a woman of many moods and an example of the most conservative rebel you’ll ever meet,” Luka confirmed to the half of the table that was looking at him with stunned expressions.

“Well she certainly sounds like an interesting character,” Marinette said.

At that, the rest of the table broke up into laughter.

“What did I say that was so funny?” she asked the group.

“Rose is way ahead of you on that one, Nettie,” Nino replied.

She looked at Rose. “Is she--Mistress Dee?” she asked with delight.

Rose just nodded.

“Oh. well then, I stand by what I said- Quite the character.”

Luka merely grinned at this assessment of his mother while the others returned to their own character creation.

“So,” Marinette said as the table got back to work, “Are you ready to make your fighter?”

“Does it have to be a fighter?” he whined, then the dumbest line that he’s ever heard slips off his tongue as he leaned directly into their shared space, “I’m more a lover than a fighter.” He grinned at her as he winked, then proceeded to blow her a kiss.

She stared at him dumbstruck as he saw Juleka facepalm out of the corner of his eye. Marinette hastily moved back a chair. She seemed to be almost terrified of him and he felt his gut clench in worry that he’d somehow offended or intimidated her.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” he apologized as he sat back with his hands up trying to make himself seem less of a threat.

“You’re doing your flirty delivery persona,” Rose said through clenched teeth, not even looking over at him. “It might get you more tips at work, but Marinette has a-” she paused and Luka was worried to find out what the next words out of Rose’s mouth would be, “-protective boyfriend so you’d best stop,” her voice had dropped to a dangerous whisper.

Luka looked anxiously over to Nino whose lips had flattened out from what had seemed like a permanent grin, as he put an arm around Marinette. He gave a short nod in Luka’s direction to confirm Rose’s statement.

“He’s not here Nette,” Nino murmured as he patted her shoulder. “He can’t give you crap over Luka’s fake flirt.”

“But he’ll know, Nin,” the shaken girl whispered. “He always knows.”

Nino just shook his head and sighed as he tried to get Marinette to breathe slowly and tell him everything she was going to do to the plain wooden box she’d picked up at the craft store.

Great, I’ve already insulted Marinette and made Nino distrust me. A wonderful way to go about making new friends, Luka, he mentally chided himself. You went overboard on the flirting. Just because they play along with Adrien and Kagami doesn’t mean they’d let me play the same way. How many times have I said that to the kids?

Luka’s head dropped to his chest in defeat. “Rose is right and, again, I am-- so sorry. I can see that I’ve caused you a lot of distress and that was never my intention. Please believe me when I say, it will never happen again.” He hadn’t even looked over at Rose as his whole focus was on Marinette. “I understand if you don’t want to help me with this after... that, but I do want you to know that I would never want you to feel unsafe around me.”

Marinette was still taking deep breaths and holding them before letting them out slowly. A nervous giggle escaped her.

She grinned timidly at Luka. “It’s not your fault,” her voice had a faint tremor. “You don’t know Felix or that we’re dating,” she said as her voice started to lose it’s warble. She looked at Nino for help.

“Felix... is mostly all bark and no bite,” Nino tells him sincerely. “The only problem is that no one has fitted him with a shock collar to keep him from barking all day and all night.”

“Nino, he’s not that bad,” Marinette protested.

Nino just gave her a flat look. “Do you not live in the same house I do?” he asked incredulously. “I’ve known him to call at 3 am to ask where you are and who you’re with,” his eyes dared her to dispute the fact. “And then there’s the morning and evening check-ins.”

“It’s nice to get texts first thing in the morning,” Marinette argued.

“No doubt about that, but he blows your phone up until you respond, and while I know you can sleep through a tsunami I cannot tell you how much I hate your phone’s notification sound.”

Rose laughed at that. “Oh man I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell these two off for leaving their phones on the charger and then not answering them when they’re getting notifications.”

Both Luka and Juleka looked sheepish.

Marinette looked back and forth between Luka, Juleka, and Rose and grinned.

“I see Rose is the one who rules the roost,” she teased.

Luka nodded and Juleka mirrored the action.

“Do not get Rose mad,” Luka whispered to the whole table. “You wouldn’t like it when Rose’s mad.”

Everyone including Kagami and Nino laughed and the tension round the table seemed to ease. Luka couldn’t help but notice the look that passed between Marinette and Nino.

“Sounds familiar,” Nino said as he grinned at Marinette and waggled his eyebrows.

“Shut it,” Marinette said, her confidence returning to her a little, as she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Make me,” he taunted back.

“Careful, Lahiffe, I know where you sleep and also where you keep your gear.”

At Nino’s gasp and look of mock horror, Luka asked, “Your gear?”

“Yeah, I’m an EMT and also in the nursing program. I have a lot of emergency supplies,” he looked back at Marinette, “Which you promised to never touch again unless I ask you to.”

“You have a tape emergency one time-” she grumbled. “Besides you just asked me to shut you up. Sounds like asking to get in your kit to me.” She singsonged at him. “I could probably tape you to the bed without you knowing, you sleep so deeply once you get off shift.”

“How many times must I say it?” Nino said as he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Don’t use expensive, high-quality medical tape for something that duct tape can do better.”

Marinette smiled as she bumped into his side. “I know where we keep the duct tape, too.”

The entire table had a laugh at their antics before getting back to their characters.

They really are a cute couple, Luka thought as he watched them. Nino seems like he’d be a better match than this Felix. At least, I don’t think Nino would be setting off a panic attack if some goon flirted badly with her. Luka couldn’t help the frown that crossed his face as he tried to puzzle out the two.

“And now we see who runs the place at your house,” Rose said with a giggle before instructing Juleka to grab one of the white character sheets so they could start rolling up her tiefling fighter.

After a moment of awkward silence between the two, Marinette began with, “So?”

“So?” Luka repeated, not understanding what she was asking.

“Are you ready to make your fighter?” She shifted to be a chair closer again.

This time, Luka thought of the space between them as a vast wall to keep her safe from his own apparent foolishness.

“Oh, um, Kagami said I could just pick one from each pile to make my character,” he said mostly to the table in front of him. He looked up and saw the scowl that Marinette shot the mentioned girl. “Isn’t that okay?”

Marinette’s lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s true that that is one way to create a character, but it makes you less invested in your player and by association into the game.” She huffed in Kagami’s direction, “Just because she’s gone through so many characters that she no longer cares-”

A muffled protest “Hey, you try to care about your fiftieth character your boyfriend has killed off this campaign alone,” came from across the table. “I can’t find anything he won’t take out. And I don’t mean on a date!”

“- that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t at least look and see what’s out there. This way, even if you don’t choose that race or class you’ll still have some idea of what’ll probably show up in our game,” Marinette supplied. “Though personally, when I have time, I do like to get deeply into creating my characters, especially their backstories.”

Nino snorted. “Please tell them about the time you created a complete novella of your dwarven mage only to have him k.o.’ed by the first henchman your party crossed,” he laughed again, “and you hadn’t even got to tell them your name yet!”

“They buried her with a headstone reading ’To the unknown dwarf. Gone and now forgotten.’,” Kagami added with a grin.

Marinette shook her head. “All that dwarven lore and history gone before it could be shared.” She looked at Luka, “I spent three nights typing up Thomyll Tharrgrisson’s clan affiliation, genealogy, home life, general education, apprenticeship, and mage studies.” She smiled and sighed as she seemed to drift off into another world. “If I’d had another night, I would have gone into his courtship, marriage, and widowhood as well as his daughter’s apprenticeship as a baker and his sons’ work in the war forges of their people. Thomyll and his family always felt most at home around a fire.”

Kagami snickered and the sound brought Marinette back to the table. “That’s what makes his death so epically ironic,” the laughing girl told Luka. “It was a freaking first level fireball that took him out.”

Nino joined in her laughter, but Marinette just rolled her eyes and turned her back to them.

“I was down to a single hit point,” she grumbled. “We’ll just ignore them,” she instructed Luka. “Nino is barely starting and Kagami hasn’t yet learned the importance of,” she changed her voice to be pitched lower and more nasally as she said, “Backstory! Backstory! Backstory!”

“Too bad you’re stuck with me and not Perry the platypus then,” Luka said with a small grin as he’d recognized the voice she’d been trying to imitate. Her thumbs up made him hope that maybe he hadn’t ruined everything.

“And when do you ever have time to write something that epic?” Juleka teased.

“Probably not much this semester,” Marinette answered her with a wry grin. “There’s already a student showcase to be prepping for this year. Fortunately they’ve all been told they can only use the black blocks we have as their sets and most of the student directors are doing one act plays that are set in modern times so their casts are using their own clothes.”

“Marinette’s a drama major and is into major drama,” Nino confided to Luka with a grin.

“Ugh, Nin that line is getting so old,” she said with a small eye roll. Nino didn’t look put out in the least. She thought for a moment. “I think they’re not going to be allowed to request any backdrops for the showcase either, so I just have to get all their props. Which is good since we only have one stagecraft class and they’ll be responsible for the main play this semester.”

“Oh is it that Voltaire play you were so excited about doing costumes for?” Rose asked.

Marinette nodded, “That’s the one.”

Rose’s eyes widened considerably. “Are you going to have to make dresses and suits for the whole cast?”

Marinette burst out laughing. “No, I won’t be making everything from scratch. Thankfully our costume storage has a lot of pieces that can be altered to fit our needs as well as our actors. It’ll still keep me plenty busy.”

“Well we know you’re really good at altering a situation for the best,” Nino said out the corner of his mouth, not really looking up from something Kagami wanted him to re-do.

Marinette reddened around the ears, but looked at Juleka. “Are you going to try out for this one?”

Juleka shook her head. “Madame Haprèle made me the lead make up designer.” She smiled a huge smile. “I get to design or approve designs of all the cast’s make-up and then I’m responsible for making sure everyone in the costume/make-up class knows how to read their sheet and apply the design to their actors.”

Marinette’s smile broke across her face and Luka could clearly read just how happy she was for his sister.

“That’s excellent, Jules!” She seemed to dance in her seat. “That’ll look really good on your résumé and it’ll be some sweet, sweet make-up.”

Juleka hid her face in Rose’s shoulder. It was a familiar action Luka knew she did when she was a little overwhelmed by any intense emotion.

“Thank’s Nette,” she said muffled by Rose's sweater.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Marinette said quietly as she tried to dial down her excitement. “But you should know I only spoke the truth.”

“She’s right and she should say it,” Luka said as he nudged Juleka’s shoulder with his.

“Don’t you meme me boy,” Juleka said as she pushed back at him. “You may be older, but I’m trending.”

Luka laughed a little too loud at this. “You’ve got me there,” he conceded. He looked back over to Marinette. “Anything else that you’re doing this semester that’ll stand in the way of developing your character’s backstory?”

She thought for a moment. “I know that they were thinking about adding a comedy at the end of the semester to try and help the rest of the student body keep their spirit’s up before the winter break, but I haven’t heard back about it.”

“Didn’t you tell me the dance program was doing something from the Nutcracker?” Kagami asked. “You wanted to borrow my saber for it.”

Marinette facepalmed. “How could I forget that I’ll be trying to get about twenty bon-bon costumes made or borrowed?”

“What? Why?” Luka asked.

“She’s the headmistress of the costume department,” Nino told him. “Only the dean has higher authority about what goes on stage. So when the dance department tries to do some kind of cross study with local dance studios to keep the littles doing ballet--” he pulled a face at Marinette and she shakes her head at him, “--to keep them dancing until they’re in college, it’s Marinette’s responsibility to make sure everyone from Sugarland is dressed as cupcakes or whatever.”

“I keep telling you there aren’t any cupcakes in the Land of Sweets,” Marinette grumbles at him.

“Then how can it truly be magical?” Nino demanded. “You know your parents would never approve of a magical land of every good dessert if it didn’t include cupcakes and pain au chocolat.”

“Why not?” Luka asked.

“You know T&S?” Marinette asked in reply. At his nod, she went on, “Well Tom and Sabine are my parents.”

“Oh, well, yeah,” Luka said as he smiled at Nino, “You’re right about that. No magical world would be complete without T&S pain au chocolat.”

“I knew you were a man of good taste,” Nino said. Behind Marinette’s back, Luka saw Nino point at him and then her and flutter his eyelashes.

Luka’s face began heating up. Okay Nino was turning out to have a good sense of humor, even if it was at Luka’s expense.

“Any way,” Marinette said thoughtfully, “I think that’s everything big going on stage this semester.” She thought some more then mumbled more to herself than to anyone in particular, “Of course we still have to do preproduction for the spring musical…”

Luka was just staring at her while Juleka and Rose were nodding along. “You have all that on top of classes?” he asked with a low whistle. “And I thought doing a double major and part-time work kept me too busy.”

“Oh Nettie never stops moving,” Nino said. “In her spare time,” he said the phrase dripping with sarcasm, “she’ll work on crafting things like some of the dice boxes over there,” he pointed at the table from the Crazy Squirrel.

“Nin, I don’t make the boxes! I just, like, add to them,” Marinette protested.

“And Michelangelo just added to the Sistine chapel’s ceiling,” Nino retorted. “As well as fighting the Foot Clan’s ninjas at night.”

Luka laughed, but Marinette glared at her housemate.

“Wow,” Luka said as he squinted over at the table with the boxes as Marinette seemed to shrink in on herself. “That’s seriously impressive.”

“It’s not that big-” she began only to be interrupted by Nino again.

“It is,” Nino said looking directly into her eyes.

“Nino, stop,” Marinette whined. “Go back to plotting with your co-conspirator. Help me out here, Gami.”

“Sure,” she said. Kagami looked Luka directly in the eyes and said with the most deadpan expression he’d ever seen, “Marinette is an angel come down from heaven. She does what no mere mortal can and her sweetness and kindness knows no bounds. She has been cursed to suffer us unworthy mortals as she is forced to live amongst the most idiotic and stubborn of humans.”

“Hey, no need to tear me down as you build Marinette up,” Nino offered in mock protest.

Kagami flashed him a smirk, “I didn’t mention you by name but if you feel the description fits...”

Nino and Kagami chuckled and the others grinned at their shenanigans.

“Hey Luka I just had a thought,” Marinette said as she looked determinedly away from Nino and Kagami. “Rose and Juleka need time to roll up their characters and you’ll probably want a set of dice even if you do eventually just use an app. Why don’t we go over to the vendor table and let these people work? You can even see my embellishments, up close.”

“You’re just going to avoid us now?” Nino asked with a grin.

“Yes,” Marinette said as she got up.

Luka was quick to follow her lead. They didn’t say anything until Luka was looking at the display of the different sets of dice and dice trays.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked her quietly. “You seem a little-- distressed.”

Marinette bit one corner of her bottom lip, but shook her head.

“It’s an old argument,” she said. “Nino thinks I should speak up more about my job titles and accomplishments, but that seems so much like bragging and I hate people that do that. Like, my accomplishments should speak for themselves, you know?”

Luka hummed for a moment before replying, “I see where you’re coming from, but the problem is that you can’t let your accomplishments speak for themselves if you don’t let people know you’ve accomplished them.”

“And am I supposed to go around telling people that I’ve eaten all of my sandwich as well as my chips today?” she asked without any heat.

“Do you have problems actually eating your lunch?” he asked with a grin.

She looked away, but quickly looked back. “Maaaaaaayyyyyybe,” she slowly admitted.

He laughed at her sheepish expression, “Well then maybe you do need to tell people, but only if they ask. Or if you’ve done something hard that you are proud of and a good friend would be happy for you, uh, for.” He smiled at her. “If Nino hadn’t jumped in, would you have told me about being in charge of so much?”

“I might’ve,” she replied truthfully. “If you’d asked about it. But why go over all of that if it isn’t your jam? If you’re not into theater then giving you my titles will only be confusing and lead to misunderstandings,” she did an involuntary shudder at some memory. “But if you are into theater than me saying that I work in props and costumes lets you either ask more or tells you that we have some common interests we can discuss later. Right?”

He nodded as he picked up a set of teal dice that were transparent like glass and started looking at the trays. Most were plain boxes, some also had velvet lining.

“These aren’t the fanciest boxes to choose from,” Marinette said as she looked over the selection with him. She looked at the dice he’d chosen. “With the white numbering you’re probably going to want a mid to dark color inside to help make reading them easier, but something like black might make it harder to find your dice in the tray.”

“Well they only seem to have the plain wood or the black velvet,” Luka murmured.

“I bet Marinette could help fix up a tray for you that would be perfect,” the woman behind the table said. “She’s done almost all of these, but I know she has an Etsy where she sells the real fancy ones that most of our clients just can’t afford.”

“Thanks Ms. Watson,” Marinette said with a grin. “You know I offer you a first chance at the more ornate ones.”

“Don’t you be tempting me with any more of your magic boxes,” the woman said with a smile. “I’ve already bought more than my husband realizes. I’m just fortunate that he keeps putting off making the display for them or he’d realize how much the pile’s grown,” she mock whispered.

The man helping Max with his purchases couldn’t help but turning his head and saying, “Oh I know that it’s grown, but it’s so big she doesn’t realize how many I’ve snuck onto the pile.”

“And this is why it’s dangerous for two pack rats to own a game shop,” she said to Luka. “You know Marinette, if he buys one of the plain boxes you can probably fix it up for him in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

Marinette paused for a moment then grinned at Luka.

“I think I have some gray velvet at home that would be perfect for your needs,” she closed her eyes and seemed to be scanning something with her forefinger. She brightened up before saying, “I even know where it is. If you buy one of the plain boxes, I can fix it up before our next meeting.”

“But you just said how busy you were going to be?” Luka objected.

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Those things all have their timelines and we’re at the beginning of the semester.” He didn’t look as if he believed her so she continued on, “You know what classes are like the first week. They'll only be going over the syllabus and discussing which books you must have, which books are extra reading suggestions, and which ones are only required because they were written by a member of the faculty but you can totally not go to this specific web address to get the text in question. Hint. hint. So it’s not like they’re even assigning homework this week. Or not on the first day.”

She grinned at him and he nodded, having had several of those classes previously. “If you suggested this project two weeks before winter break, I’d probably have a break with reality as I tried to be several places at once including my house working on it but-” she shrugged her shoulders “- like she said, I have an Etsy where I do stuff like this all the time. It brings in a little extra income and gives my hands something to do while I listen to lecture notes or my e-reader.”

“How much would you ask for a project like this?” Luka wanted to know.

“Well, you’re already going to be providing the box so it’s just parts and labor you’re paying for,” she said. “If you just want the velvet, which I already have, it’ll take me about ten minutes to cut and use spray adhesive on it-- then I’d say about five bucks. If you want me to give it a bit of a stain for some color then add another five?”

“You’d be getting a good deal,” the vendor said. “Our prices are pretty low this week because we remember what it’s like to be in school and want all the cool stuff, but don’t want to have to survive on ramen. However, we can’t sell them this cheap forever. And even though the box will only cost you ten dollars, once Marinette’s done with it, it’ll look like a million bucks!”

Luka picked up a basic pine box that had a small compartment for carrying his dice and the rest was an open tray. “So for twenty bucks, I can have this turned into that?” He pointed at a similar box that had a royal purple stain and black velvet lining.

Marinette smiled before saying, “Sure if you want purple, I could do that or something else if you’d prefer.”

“And it won’t be a problem for you?” he asked with real concern. “It won’t be stressing you out?”

She shook her head. “I promise, it won’t stress me out.”

“Okay, it’s a deal,” he said to both the women. Luka used his card to pay before asking Marinette, “So do you take Paypal, Venmo,” he paused before asking, “maybe cash?”

They started walking back to their table.

Marinette shook her head. “I try not to deal with cash if I can help it, but I do have Paypal set up with my Etsy or you could Venmo me.”

“Well, what’s going to make you more comfortable?” Luka asked as he sat back down next to Juleka.

“Oh,” Marinette brightened as she pulled out her purse. “I have a business card. Do you want to grab a pic of that? It has all the needed information on it”

Luka smiled as he pulled out his phone. “That would be perfect.”

He snapped a picture of the card before grabbing shots of the people at their table and then the rest of the room. After he played with the screen, Juleka and Rose’s phones both pinged. A few seconds later Marinette felt her phone buzz, too.

“Did you just send us pics of ourselves?” Juleka asked.

“Yup,” he grinned, “Sent them to the family chat. You know how the Captain is- Pics or it didn’t happen.”

Rose smiled back at him while Juleka rolled her eyes.

“Did you get the payment?” he asked Marinette. “Let me know if it didn’t go through and I’ll cancel that one to make sure you get paid.”

“What are you paying her for?” Juleka demanded.

“For your information I have just commissioned, uh, an angel from heaven I believe were the words, right, Kagami-” he lifted a brow in her direction and she nodded, “-to take this drab little box,” he held up the plastic bag containing his purchase, “and change it into the ultimate dice throwing experience.” He shrugged, “Well as ultimate as $20 can buy, anyway.”

The table laughed as he passed the bag over to Marinette after first wiping it down. She put it next to her purse and then grabbed a blank character sheet and the rejected pink and green sheets from Rose.

Marinette rifled through the class sheets while asking, “Do you really not want to be a fighter? I think there are a couple of other things in here like, um,” she pulled out one paper, “No, that’s Barbarian which is the opposite of not a fighter. Here’s wizard,” she lifted a few other pages, “-or there’s a bard.” She pulled out another paper, “or sorcerer.” She seemed to deflate. “That’s it for the less stabby, stabby occupations, unless you want to be a cleric or paladin which are more like holy fighters.”

Rose snickered.

“You should totally be a bard,” she said. She wiggled her eyebrows at Kagami who also broke out into snickers.

“Yes,” she agreed with Rose. “A bard would be perfect for you.”

Nino’s eyebrows contracted as he looked at Luka. “I don’t know if he’s got it in him to be a bard. His first attempt at barding was pretty lame and I don’t think he should be barding all over Marinette.”

Luka looked at his sniggering tablemates and then at Marinette who had some pink in her cheeks as she facepalmed.

“Okay, what’s up with the bard?” he asked everyone in general.

Marinette whispered, “Stop it Nino,” threateningly in his direction before answering Luka.

“Bards have a bit of a reputation for being highly charismatic, or thinking they are highly charismatic, and then trying to sleep with everything that moves and even some of the furniture.”

The table erupted into laughter.

“Oh,” was all he said even as he processed the earlier tittering. “I thought Rose was suggesting bard because I can play several instruments.”

“That never even entered my mind,” Rose said unhelpfully.

“You do?” Marinette asked. “What do you play?”

“Well, pretty much anything with strings but mostly guitar. Then I play percussion, some piano, clarinet, and sax and occasionally I play the bagpipes, badly.”

“I keep telling you,” Juleka piped up, “no one actually plays the bagpipes well. Otherwise they wouldn’t sound like that.”

The whole table broke into laughter.

“Are you in a band, dude?” Nino asked.

“Not right now, but I still sit in with a couple of guys I played with in high school. I don’t have much time with my job and trying to fit a double major into a single major time frame.”

“Oooh. What are you majoring in?” Kagami asked as she leaned over to hear his answer.

“Well music, obviously, but my other one is psych. I’m hoping to be able to do music therapy with children. Especially in lower income schools as they have kids that have high stress situations but low avenues for expression.”

Nino whistled. “That’s so cool man. What types of music do you even play?”

“Oh, I like folk, rock, pop, and metal, but I’ve also tried to branch out into punk and rap. I want to be familiar with the forms that the kids are used to and then help them express themselves through that music. It’s going to be tough though.”

“Why’s that?” Marinette asked.

“Because the school I was doing training in last semester has lots of kids whose families are from Mexico, Laos, and Pakistan and I just don’t know enough about traditional music for any of those groups. Not that they only listen to traditional at home, but those can be familiar to riff off. I mean I’ve heard of Mariachi music before, but it’s not the only traditional Mexican music.”

“Dude, you can’t be expected to know everyone’s music. You should probably let the kids show you what they like,” Nino said even as he motioned for Luka to continue.

I know that it’s not the only music they’d be exposed to or familiar with, but I only know about four phrases in Spanish-’ Mas, por favor, tortilla, and sí’. I don’t know any Hmong or Laotian words, and I’d like to think my little Pakistani friend wouldn’t try to teach me bad words, but I’m afraid to use what I learned from him in front of his mother. I’ve seen My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding!”

The group laughed again

“You certainly have your work cut out for you,” Marinette said.

Luka nodded then looked away. Seeing Kagami, he said, “Kagami you’re the only one here I haven’t really heard about majors or working. So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Kagami said with a grimace. “I’m a math major because I love it and a science minor because chemistry is just amazing, but I’m not sure what I plan on doing with either of those things.”

“It’s okay not to know what you plan to do yet,” Luka said gently.

“Doesn’t Adrien want to be a professor of History?” Rose asked, with a sly smile.

“Yes, what about it?” Kagami asked, raising an eyebrow at the grinning girl.

“Think about it, Gami,” Rose said with a sigh. “You and Adrien could be that cute professor couple that all the students ship! You could teach chemistry, because you seriously were the only one that got me through that class last semester, and Adrien could teach ancient Mediterranean history. And you could sneak into each other’s offices for lunch dates. I bet you could even keep the students guessing if you’re in a relationship or not for years. It would be perfect!”

Kagami smiled at her friend. “I don’t know if it works that way, but it might be something to look into,” she said to the girl who looked like she was actually making heart eyes at the prospect.

“Okay Luka,” Marinette said. “Grab a white paper and we can start creating your bard.”

The genuine smile on her face was something Luka couldn’t help remembering even after they left the club for the evening. He carried home his new dice and the hope that he’d actually found some new friends.

Two nights later, Luka was pulling up to an unfamiliar house with a very familiar person standing out front. He secured his mask and the pizza carrier before walking up the steps to the landing. Nino’s expression was a mixture of embarrassed and pissed, and when Luka heard the discussion coming through an open window he understood why.

Nino spoke up quietly while Luka was climbing the stairs, pausing at the top step.

“Um, sorry about this, but I kind of walked out without my mask or my wallet,” he apologized. “It’s just that whenever she’s talking to Felix, I end up wanting to punch a hole in the wall and we can’t afford to lose our deposit.” He smiled, but the joke attempt fell flat. “Can you just hang here for a bit? They’ve almost got to the end and then I can go get your money.”

“How do you know they’re almost done?” Luka asked.

Nino glanced over his shoulder and grimaced. “I’ve heard it enough times.”

In the awkward silence that hung between the two of them, Luka heard Marinette’s voice.

“I can’t afford to break my lease and leave Nino in the lurch for the rest of the semester as well as contributing to your rent.” There was a silence before she continued, “Because he’s my very good friend and you don’t do that to friends and then get to keep them afterward.” Her voice rose in volume, “No, I can’t just move in with you and have your parents pay for me, Felix. I’m not going to sponge off of your parents or have them telling me I owe them for this for the rest of our lives.” Her voice suddenly sounded tired. “There’s nothing wrong with where I work. I like it. No, it doesn’t pay as much as where we were, but it’s not as stressful.” And now she sounded just done. “I’m not having this argument again Felix.”

Nino just sighed heavily, “She says that every time, yet here we are.”

Luka tried not to make eye contact with Nino or eavesdrop, but, well, there wasn’t much else he could do unless he wanted to pay for the pizza himself and then leave.

“I can’t come right now, I just ordered food and it’s on the way.” Her voice had lost all it’s color and vibrancy. “Nino’s not in. I can’t ask him to get it.”

Luka couldn’t help glancing at Nino when she said it. He had the decency to look away. Her next statements sent up red flags for Luka.

“No, I’m not meeting someone.” Her tone got higher, a little more insistent. “No, I’m not cheating on you with the delivery driver! Nino’s on his way home. He’s probably going to be pulling up just as the food gets here.”

This time Nino watched him as he looked away. He knew there was nothing going on between himself and Marinette, but still he felt the blush as the accusation fell from her lips.

Her voice got low, she was pleading with him now. “Felix, I’m going to eat my dinner and finish my homework so that tomorrow I won’t have anything hanging over my head when we go on our date.”

Another pause before, “You’ll have me all to yourself, just the way you like.”

“Please, Felix, I can’t.” Each sentence was more full of begging for understanding. “Not tonight.” She got quieter. “Don’t be mad.” She started to sound like she was talking in a fake, cutsie voice- more childlike and with less adult authority. “Okay, you’re not mad.”

“Don’t be upset, Fe,” her tone was wheedling for his favor.

“Yes, of course, I want to see you!”

“Yes, I’m being good for you.”

They do this all the time? he thought. Luka was finding it hard to keep his chill and looking at Nino’s drawn brows and thin mouth the other man wasn’t liking what he was hearing either.

“You’re the only one for me,” her tone cowed and sweet.

“Bye now sweet-” apparently Felix already hung up as they could now hear Marinette taking in great gulps of air.

Nino took that as his cue to hurry into the house calling, “Pizza’s here!” In a few moments Nino returned with his mask on and wallet in hand.

The sound of ragged breaths was the only thing they heard as Nino rummaged in his wallet for his card to tap on the card reader Luka held out for him. Luka couldn’t help the incredulous look he gave Nino as he slid the box out of the carrier onto Nino’s waiting hands.

“Yeah, I know,” Nino said to the silent accusation. “I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but she insists that she loves him.”

Luka nodded as he closed the carrier.

“It sure doesn’t sound like love on this end of the line.”

Nino’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I know.”

Luka nodded to him and hurried to his car. As he started up the engine, he pulled out his phone and made sure his ear piece was on. He was pulling away from the curb when his call was answered.

“Jules, I’m screwed,” were his first words to his sister. “It’s Marinette. She’s a princess in distress and I want to save her from her a-hole boyfriend because, as we well know, I have a savior complex.”

He listened to her talk him through a grounding exercise before they continued their conversation.

“I know. I’m not responsible for saving anyone. We all have to save ourselves,” he sighed. “All I could ever hope to be is support. She has to want to get out of the situation and from the sound of it, she’s in it for the long haul.”

Juleka’s anxious voice mumbled the name Brinley. Luka laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve learned my lesson--no white knighting for me.”

He thought back to the overheard conversation. “But if I ever meet the guy in person, I’m going to deck him. I swear I’ll... I’ll give him concrete shoes and drop him over the side of mom’s boat at midnight. What do you mean what for?” he asked in surprise at Juleka’s question. “For making her feel bad for wanting to keep her friends, her independence, and her mental balance.”

Luka laughed at Juleka’s squawk and her subsequent expletive filled threat for Felix.

“No way, Jules! Rose’ll only have enough to bail one of us out and we both know she’ll choose you.”

Juleka’s bright laughter rang through the ear piece.

“Thanks, Jules,” he said quietly. “Yeah, I’ll bring home a Julerose special.” He smiled, grateful for the friendship of his sister. “I should be done in about an hour, yeah. Love ya!”

As he drove back to the pizza parlor, he couldn’t help but recall the quiet sobs at the end of Marinette’s call. His heart went out to her. He’d been there before, and it well and truly sucked. He determined that he’d try to be the best support he could for his new friend.

#miraculous ladybug #lukanette #lukanette exchange 2020 #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine #dungeons dragons and dating #my writing

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 3 years

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I’ve been sticking to lockdown rules quite carefully; I’m always surprised when the news tells me a new stay-at-home order has been issues in my area because I wasn’t aware that the previous one had ended. I mostly just stay the fuck home no matter what the rules are.

But a couple of nights ago, I made an exception. My best friend had just gotten the results back of a COVID test, and he was negative. He lives alone and I live with a vaccinated roommate. It was beautiful weather. So I agreed to go to my friend’s place and hang out outdoors on his balcony.

My friend and I run a sports team together. We’ve known each other for fifteen years; we were teammates for the first few years of that and have been co-coaches ever since. In normal times, for quite a few months of a year, almost every weekend we get in his truck and travel to tournaments. Then we go back to his place, have some beers, watch videos of the tournament, and talk about the day and our athletes. Our team has other coaches; those other coaches make up the rest of my close friends and are usually there at the tournaments and at the debrief drinks afterward. But different people in that group have come and gone over the years. This one friend and I are the ones who’ve been doing this together from the beginning, the ones who have built our whole lives around this team, the ones who are there every time.

Hanging out on his balcony the other night was wonderful, and also weird. We talked about our kids (most of the athletes on the team our teenagers, but they are “my kids” to me) in a way we haven’t in over a year. We sat down and discussed which of our kids have made the most progress in individual training during the pandemic. How the competitive field is likely to look after vaccines happen. How we can rally and rebuild and do best by all our kids and walk into tournaments this fall and fuck everyone up. My friend’s balcony is on a high enough floor so we had a view of many of the rooftops around us; even pre-pandemic we’ve always enjoyed sitting up there and making plans for our team because we felt like masterminds who were plotting to take over.

It was exciting. I miss this shit. I miss it so much. I’ve coped in the last year but getting so laser focused on my obsession with British comedy that I don’t let myself think about how much I miss it, but I really do. I got excited about having a goal again, making plans, getting ready to make a difference. Just thinking about how we’re going to get back to competing, to getting better, to helping kids improve and watching amazing things happen.

I didn’t stay too late at my friend’s place, because at night it got too cold to hang out outside and I didn’t want to hang out inside because COVID. So I walked home a little after dark. It was Thursday night, so I downloaded and watched the new episode of Taskmaster (s11e04). As I did so, I wrote my thoughts in a Word document and then posted them here.

I just reread that post, and I’m very amused by how easy it is to tell that I wrote it after getting all fired up about getting back to competitions. I am cheering for Lee Mack to win this season (yeah Sarah Kendall’s winning me over to liking her, but it would just be cheating if I jumped on the bandwagon of cheering for her when she’s twenty points ahead, I’m sticking with Lee).

A quote from that post is: “Five points to the team of three and zero to the team of two. That is going to fucking hurt my boy Lee’s overall score. Fuck.” I’m sure anyone who has seen me write on Tumblr before (or even anyone who doesn’t know who I am but just is on Tumblr and is therefore expecting any posts they see to be written by Tumblr-like people) will have assumed I was joking around with how I phrased that. I cannot emphasize enough how much I was not being remotely ironic when I made reference to “my boy Lee”. When I’m hanging out with other coaches - coaches from my own team and especially coaches from other teams - I will refer to male athletes as “my boy [name]” (don’t worry, equal opportunity, female athletes get “my girl [name]”) to hype them up, as in “My boy [name] is going to shock everyone at the competition next weekend.”

I was definitely still in that mode when I watched that Taskmaster episode; I straight-up watched it like a sports match. I didn’t realize until just now, when I reread that post, that I got so caught up in being in that mode that I’d accidentally made reference to “my boy Lee” in it. When rereading that bit of my post, I almost deleted that line because I was embarrassed to talk like a jock on this website (I’m honestly not sure if “jock” is still a term that people use, so I may be making myself look old now too, I think the term “bro” could work just as well). But then I decided to leave it in and write this post about it instead. Fuck it, I’m leaning into it. Backing my boy Lee until the end, even if he doesn’t understand the concept of keeping toilet paper on a roll.

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x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 3 years

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Amy Lee Dives Into the Tragedies That Inspired Evanescence’s ‘The Bitter Truth’ — Exclusive Interview

Congrats on the release of The Bitter Truth — how are you feeling?

Thank you, I'm feeling so happy that it's out. It's hard to really sum it up — awesome feelings of satisfaction. I'm really happy that it's out there and everybody's listening to it, it's cool to see the fans react to it and dig into it. We're going to be releasing our video for "Better Without You" (which came out on April 16), I'm so excited about the video!

So we're in a good, happy place right now. Looking forward to when we can be together again, for sure.

Obviously this wasn't your first record, but is the first new, original material you guys have put out in about a decade. Do you still find it nerve-wracking when you release new music, especially when fans have been waiting awhile for something new?

(Laughs) Well, I don't find it nerve-wracking as far as anticipating a reaction, I'm mostly just excited for that. It's just getting back into the groove of doing a lot of press and promo, and running around. And it's different nowadays with the pandemic because it's like, "Do your own lighting! Do your own audio! Do your own everything," and like, make it work from home most of the time.

So it's been a lot of work, but when you're working for something that you really love, it's worth it. I mean, it's fun. So I'm feeling good.

Have you seen any fan theories about any of the songs come up at all, and were any of them accurate?

That's a good question. I can't think of something off the top of my brain like that. I don't know, I feel like mostly they're just getting it. But you ask me whatever you want, and I will answer to the best of my comfort zone (laughs).

How did all of the personal tragedies that the band went through, and all of the events that have been happening in the world impact this album?

Those two things are literally the biggest lyrical catalyst for this time and for this album, particularly the grief. That's what started the whole thing. We started writing this album, focused on it, in 2019, at the beginning of the year. And I'm so glad we did, we had a bunch of writing sessions throughout 2019 in between touring, we'd just get together when we could and write. I was writing on my own, but just setting aside time as a band to write.

I lost my brother in 2018 at the beginning of the year, so that was just a really, impossibly hard life change. So I think I've learned, yet again, that the biggest challenges and the biggest pains in my life are usually what lead me to music, and it's hard to admit this, but what tend to make the best work for me. Not just grief, but challenges — things that are hard.

And the whole world has been going through incredible challenges over the last year, the last couple of years actually with everything going on, the pandemic and the fight for democracy in the world. All of that came at the right time, where I was coming out of grief. I'm still living in it, but processing it, and then this fire and this fight became a part of it. So the journey through all of that, that is the majority of what the album's about.

You kind of hit the nail on the head there because I was going to ask if you think that the best art seems like it comes out of a place of sadness and pain, since it is so cathartic for artists. And as you've called it — it's "writing to heal." So do you find yourself gravitating toward music that is more emotional?

You know, I don't even know if I can say it's "the best," but it's the deepest. It's the most meaningful. You have to go through something to have something to say that is going to touch somebody on a deep level. And for me personally, music has always been my therapy, my catharsis, the place to pour it out and spin it into something good that I can love and reflect on.

Instead of running away from all of the hard things in life, if I dive into them through music and really start pouring it out and processing there, it's like you're able to make it worth something. It wasn't just all a waste, because I have seen, over the last 17 years, with interacting with our fans how much that it can mean to them and help them connect and process and be something good in their lives.

Knowing that now, too, was something that pushed me forward in the times when I felt like it was too hard. Knowing that we were all going through something and our fans were down too and hoping for something, we promised we were gonna come out with a new album in 2020. We just all kind of made a pact at the beginning of the year when everything started getting shut down that we weren't gonna let anything stop us.

So how was your experience writing this album versus others in the past, and how do you think you've grown as a songwriter and a musician this time around?

We had to be brave. And you know, I have to say, it's weird to connect it to this, but Synthesis taught us something about being brave and trusting that something would work that we'd never tried before and just going for it.

I have always been the person who over prepares, practices for way too long before we get together, has everything totally run through when we're gonna play a concert that we've done before a lot of times. And I have broken from that routine so much in the past years.

Synthesis was important for us because we had to trust every day, the only way to do it was to work with a different orchestra every night. Having a different group of musicians onstage every single night was the only way to make that happen. You don't have time to have rehearsed the whole entire set with that group that day, and then play that whole concert that night, it's just not possible.

So we were literally playing the majority of our sets on that tour for the very first time with that group of musicians — without a click and everything else — just live in front of the audience. It was literally like a tightrope, like there's no way to know if something's gonna go horribly wrong, and we just had to trust that we were gonna be good enough musicians and performers to handle it and look at each other, and work through it and get to the next place.

Man, it was so satisfying, it was such a good experience, and it was so beautiful and rewarding. Part of the takeaway from that for me was to be confident and not to be afraid, and just to trust that we've got it in us to do what it is that we think we can do, that we dream of.

This year, going into it, we just started breaking rules. Before the pandemic even hit it was like, 'We don't have the whole album written. We just have a few songs and a whole bunch of pieces. We're not going on tour 'til March." That actually didn't happen, but we weren't planning to go on tour until last March (laughs).

Why don't we hit the studio for just a couple of songs and avoid burn out of having to have all of the songs before we go in, "Let's just go in for a couple of songs." It went really well, it turned into four and then we had to be apart for the rest of the album.

It was another one of those moments where it's like, "Okay, we can either have faith and just say 'Fuck it, I don't know what's gonna happen with the pandemic or when we're ever gonna be able to go back and get together again in person. But I have faith that we're gonna find a way to work it out no matter what. So let's go ahead and start putting singles out.'"

It was either that or just wait and go, "Sorry everybody, I know we said we were gonna release music, but we're not going to." I didn't want to be another disappointment. There was so much of it last year, I wanted to be something that was proof that life could go on.

So the decision was just like, "Okay, we're gonna go ahead. We're gonna put out 'Wasted On You' and make a video from home, and then release another one in a couple of months." And it wasn't just about not knowing when we were gonna get back together, it was that the songs weren't written, and for me, that's terrifying. Like, before the songs are written, we're already on a promo schedule and talking about the album, releasing songs already and like, the clock is ticking in a way.

That was a lot of pressure to put on ourselves, but it really was just like, "We're just gonna have to have faith in this. I know we can do it somehow. We always do. In the end it works out, it's gonna work out!" And thank god it did, we finally got to get together, most of us, last end-of-July. Jen [Majura, guitarist], we still haven't seen since those first four songs right before the pandemic lockdown.

That's wild. I mean, it's out now, and it seems like it came just at the turning point in all of this with the vaccine and everything. Everybody's starting to get back on their feet.

Yeah, I think it's working out honestly. Because now, it's just come out and we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel. Like you said, with the vaccines and stuff and getting back and eventually going on tour. Because the next thing that we're all just looking towards and dying for, is to play these songs live.

Absolutely. How do you think that these songs might translate live differently from anything you guys have done in the past?

It's just going to feel really good to have new material to play live, like so much of it. Because for so long, we've been playing shows a lot over the past, I don't know how many years, during this time that we haven't been putting out new music. So our live show has really just been about picking out hits and our favorites and whatever, and making set lists out of our music that's been there.

We finally have something that represents us now that isn't, there were a couple of songs on Synthesis, but literally since like 2011. We're a new band since then, a lot happened since then. So to put something out now that feels so exactly in tune with who we are, what our tastes are, what our abilities are, is just gonna feel really good. It's gonna be hard to play the old ones, honestly.

So let's dive into the album a little bit. Starting with the opener, I'm not sure if there's an actual significance to this or not, but is there a reason "Artifact" and "The Turn" are split into different parts?

They're different songs in my head, it was kind of a decision about the first bit, the second bit and "Broken Pieces Shine," like where the track markers were gonna go. And that was a tough choice for me because I know the majority of people aren't really listening in order on a CD, a lot of people are just plucking out a song.

So I want you to be able to click to "Broken Pieces Shine" and just hear the song, but it so needs that build-up, that's part of it in my mind. So it really was just a decision about clipping it.

The first part — "Artifact" — that's me in a hotel in the middle of the night on tour in 2019, just recording into my laptop. I just had an idea. We actually kept it and didn't re-record it, which was really weird, and I didn't expect to happen. But it just made sense in the end.

That next portion — "The Turn" — that's a collaboration between Scott Kirkland from the Crystal Method and myself. We just sorta met on tour one day and made friends, and decided, "Hey, send me stuff! I'd love to work with you, okay I'd love to work with you." And he sent me a bunch of stuff, and I sent him stuff. He had that bit of music sort of, and I rearranged it and wrote vocals to it and that turned into that part.

I knew early on that I wanted that into "Broken Pieces Shine" to be the beginning of the album because of the way the lyrics set it up. The first part, "Artifact," lyrically is just a dedication to my brother. I'm just gonna put it that simply — it's a dedication to my brother.

And then when "The Turn" starts, it's sort of just like this calling-us-back, like calling all of the spiritual forces in the universe back to ourselves and collecting all the pieces of who we've been, who we were, who we are and who we're gonna be.

After all this time that we haven't been out, it's like we need to just build into the moment where you finally hear the guitars come in. So that's part of it.

And then when "Broken Pieces Shine" happens... I've always sort of seen this album, the moment, like where it begins and what it's about, is it begins sort of at ground zero of a tragedy. The result of the album is about the journey getting back up.

So when I hear those guitars, and the first line starts, "There's no way back this time / What is real and what is mine / Survival hurts," it's like I see somebody face-down on the ground standing back up again and dusting off, clawing back up and then starting to walk forward and refuse to just lay there and die.

So that's the setup to the beginning of the album, and then the rest is plenty of ups-and-downs, and it's about plenty of things. But that's the beginning of the journey.

"The bitter truth" is a line that's repeated a couple of times throughout "Wasted on You." How did you go about choosing that as the title for the album, as opposed to any other phrase that's repeated throughout the album?

I think it really sums up a theme that we come back to a lot on the album, which is about facing the pain. The only way out is through, not just the pain, but facing the broken pieces, facing the things about ourselves and about our society that aren't perfect, that are flawed, that are broken or that are wounded.

Because we can't heal, we can't improve, we can't change, we can't grow and we can't ever leave the horror of the moment until we first accept the brokenness of ourselves. Until we accept that something's wrong, we can't fix it.

That song, "Wasted on You," that was one of the first ones that was really finished, and it was time to pick the album title and we were still writing songs. But it was already forming and I was like, "This sums up what we're talking about now and what we're going through in a really big way on an outward-in, inward level."

Based on the lyrics in "Wasted on You," do you consider yourself someone who has a hard time getting over things and moving on from things? What advice can you give to people who do struggle to move on from either failed relationships or a loss?

It's hard, because sometimes you're in a relationship that you just need to cut out of your life in order to move on. It's just true. It doesn't make you a bad person for you to just step completely away and cut somebody out of your life, and there are times I've had to do that. It sucks.

But you don't need to feel guilty about it if you're making a choice that's for health and stability and all of those things. But I think that we don't always have to do it that way either, and I do also think it's important to remember it's important not to just stuff stuff down like it never happened deep within yourself. I feel like it's better to hold onto your memories.

And even in those bad relationships, those bad breakups and those moments in time that you've had to move on from, I'm at a place in my life now where I'm not feeling anger anymore really. Not for the most part, even the people that were horrible (laughs). I'm not sitting around thinking about horrible, I wasn't able to actually still remember the good moments, too.

It's weird to say that. It took a really long time. But you only get one life. So I don't know, I try not to be the person who's constantly saying, "Oh that time was terrible, that person was terrible, everything about that was a monster," and flush it all away and forget about the parts about it that were why you were in that situation, too.

There's things that you need to move away from and then there's also things that you need to learn from, as well, so it's better not to forget, I guess is the right way to say it.

In "Yeah, Right," you talk about getting paid. Is that a literal reference to getting paid by an actual job, or is it in allusion to something deeper?

Uh, it's about money (laughs). I've seen money change people more often than I would've liked to. And it's always in a negative way.

Well I guess maybe this follows suit, does "Better Without You" happen to be about the music industry?

Part of it is, but it's not entirely about that. "Better Without You"... so each verse is dedicated to a different person or entity in my life along the way. And they go in order. I don't want to name-call, and I've carefully avoided doing that with this song and it's hard because they're about really specific things to me.

If you know me personally, then you know who it's all about. I don't really want to drag people into things many years later. So it starts out a long time ago (laughs) in the first verse with some battles there — a big one for independence. All of it was really a fight for independence.

The second one is the one that's more for the industry. And then the third one kind of brings us to today, in our world and the world around us. I sang the last few lyrics to "Better Without You," including the bridge, the day they called it for Biden. Not to make it political, because the song isn't really. But that was in my heart. I mean, "It's over. It's over now." Feeling it. And it felt so good to sing it knowing that it was true, at least in regards to Trump

Wow that's cool, I wouldn't have looked at it like that. There were a couple of songs where I was wondering if it was about a relationship or something on the grander scheme, and you letting go of that.

Yeah, it is. And it's funny because I don't want it to seem like it's all about the label. It's really not. That's been part of my journey, but there is stuff that's been way more personal than that, and harder. But when I say "the industry," it does mean more than the label. It's just the whole world of people that surround you when you're doing this.

And there was definitely more to it than the label that I was fighting against and struggling with during my journey, but one of the things that I remember being a threat at times was like, "If you don't do this or you don't do that, then it's just all gonna fall apart. You're not gonna have it. This is all gonna crumble. Everything that you have."

And I'm looking at it and going, "I don't want what I had. I want my future, I have an idea for something more." So the chorus, "As empires fall to pieces / Our ashes twisting in the air / It makes me smile to know that / I'm better without you," going like, "It's okay, go ahead. Let it burn down. Let the old idea of the tiny thing that you thought this could be go ahead and burn down because I have an idea for something bigger."

Can you explain the chorus of "Blind Belief," specifically the lines, "We hold the key to redemption / Let icons fall?"

This is another one that's a little bit in the political zone, or social. Why do we believe what we believe? Why do we do the things we do? Why are the laws that are in place, some of them aren't there for good reasons. Some things are just the way they are because they've always been that way.

And I think we've reached a time where we need to say, "That's not enough. We need to make changes that make sense for how much our world and our awareness has grown, and how we need to be better." We need to improve over time and not just leave things the way that they are.

I was actually writing those lyrics, being inspired by the Confederate statues coming down. We can still love our ancestors even if they made mistakes, and we can actually love them better, we can actually do better for our world. It doesn't have to be a betrayal if your grandparents thought differently than you.

We can only grow by moving forward and making better and better decisions as the generations go on. And if we want this place to get better, then we need to admit that things are wrong!

Saying "We hold the key to redemption" is saying you don't have to stand by something that's wrong. Go ahead and let icons fall! Just because something is the way it is and it's always been that way doesn't make it right. We should be asking those questions, and sometimes change is good. It's nothing to be afraid of.

To wrap up, of all of the topics that you cover on The Bitter Truth, what are you hoping at the end of the day that people will take away from this album as they sit with it?

I hope they feel empowered, I really do. I didn't go into this writing process feeling empowered, I started to feel that way through the process. It starts from feeling human, feeling vulnerable, feeling fragile and feeling broken.

But as I start to work, especially together with my friends, with people that support me and I support them, having a band is a really cool thing. Just having something to work on together last year and the year before, amidst the pain and the loss and the frustration, just made it so much better. It was such a healing thing for all of us, and I'm hoping that that same healing and empowered feeling can spread to those who listen to it. I really do.

Instead of just wallowing in grief, we found a way through the music to feel strength and inspiration and hope for something better in the future. I think, if there's a punchline, the biggest thing is that life is worth living.

I think that's something that people need to hear right now, because there has been so much to just feel sad about, so much to feel depressed and frustrated about and helpless, without a voice. Like, "It doesn't even matter what you do, I'm just one little drop in the bucket." But it's not true, that's a lie. We are strong, and change is happening.

And the greatest losses that we can imagine, we actually can overcome and there can still be good things left in life to experience, you just don't know what they are yet. If it can be empowering and spread hope to people, that's what I would most hope for.

#Amy Lee #Evanescence #2021 interviews

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handsofdarkness · 3 years

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Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation): "Emotions are the most important ingredient in music"

A few days ago we interviewed the singer of Within Temptation – Sharon den Adel. We talked with the artist from the Netherlands about what her life in the lockdown reality looks like, about her band's publishing plans and hopes for the coming months. Enjoy your reading!

The interview, which took place on January 14, 2021 was conducted by Mateusz M. Godoń via Skype.

MATEUSZ: Hi Sharon! First of all, how are you doing? How is your life during the current lockdown?

SHARON: I'm fine, thank you. Yeah, of course it's not the ideal situation, but, you know, we have to cope like everyone else. And that's just what it is.

MATEUSZ: So what do you do when you have to spend most of your time at home? Have you discovered any new passions recently or are you just developing some older ones?

SHARON: I'm mostly developing the older ones. But we've redone the whole house, for instance. So that's one of the things that I never thought I would enjoy that much. But if you are at home that much, it's nice to have something to do. So we’ve been redecorating, painting rooms and stuff like that just to keep busy, but obviously, we also devoted a lot of time to music.

MATEUSZ: Quite recently you guys have released your new single called "The Purge". Can you tell us a bit about this song? What is this piece about?

SHARON: Well, it's all about looking back on life and dealing with situations and decisions made in the past and living on – and because of dealing with it, you can live better. You know, sometimes you really need to look certain things in the eye to cope with it again and not take the burden along with you throughout the years – and it will be easier in life if you do it. And that's something that we had a lot of time for, I think, when we were in a lockdown to overthink life. Everybody's in a roller coaster, the whole year long and every year, so when there's a lockdown like this, you get a chance to re-evaluate your life itself and also directions and decisions made, of course. And that's, I think, why "The Purge" came together.

MATEUSZ: This is the second song after "Entertain You", which you are releasing as a part of series of singles. Why did you choose this form of sharing new material this time instead of waiting for a whole new album to be ready?

SHARON: Well, the first reason was to have some new songs while being on tour again, of course, when we are doing this co-headline tour with Evanescence. We felt like we've just been on tour, so it's nice to have on the new tour some new songs to surprise everybody that we don't just play the same - or more or less the same – setlist again, but we have some new songs added to it as well, which is always nice, I guess. And then of course, a lockdown came and we felt like: OK, you know what, we're just going to continue doing this and we're not going to release an album, because we don't know how long it's going to take before we get out of the lockdown again. And we need something to look forward to. And it's also an experiment in a way, and started with the fact that we wanted to present some new songs on tour. But, yeah, now it became a bigger experiment than we thought – it was going to be a longer one anyway [laughter]. But it's nice, because now we're right in the moment and that's good also, I think.

MATEUSZ: But after all, do you plan to release an album with all the singles you are now releasing in digital form? Fans still like to have all their favorite bands' songs on physical media, and I'm sure they'd love to have another release to add to their collections!

SHARON: Yeah, well, we are planning that still. It is still the plan to release eventually an album, but it will take us some time to get together and also record everything, of course. But we have enough time. Getting together is a bit of a problem – but we can do a lot already and we'll see how far we get. And you know, there's a lot of touring ahead of us when we are able to go on tour again. So that needs to come first, but of course, there will be an album eventually. But we're still going to keep on releasing some new songs here and there as long as this takes.

MATEUSZ: Not so long ago, you have created your own label. Why did you decide to do that? Does it have anything to do with trying to release songs in a different way than before?

SHARON: Yes, you know, we artists have different goals than record companies sometimes. And for us, this was very important to do it this way to try this out. And then you have to be, well, you know, on the same page with your record company, of course. And when it didn't happen, we decided to do it on our own.

MATEUSZ: Right! Not so long ago, because just two years ago, you have released your last longplay, "Resist", and it came out five years after the previous album. What it took you so long to release a follow-up to "Hydra"?

SHARON: Well, it was because of the fact that I had a little bit of writer's block. Little was a big one – and it was not just me, but I think the whole band was in a small identity crisis, I guess. In a way, it was a little like a lockdown for the band at that time. In a way, it was a little like a lockdown for the band at that time. You know, life can always be one big rollercoaster for everyone in this world – and sometimes, at a certain age, or maybe because of some problems (like in my case, because my dad got really ill), you can just have enough. I got into a vibe like I wanted to look back on life and started realizing: do I still want to do this? So I was a little bit in an emotional crisis in a way. And also together with this writer's block, I think, which was, of course, glued together, it was one big problem. Of course, it was all connected to each other. And it wasn't just me – I think a lot of them were like: OK, we've been doing this for so many years in our adult life, what else do we want to do? In the band, I'm one of the writers – not the only one, of course – but everyone was struggling to find a new direction, a new goal, a new challenge, I guess. And so I decided in the meantime that, just for therapy, I was going to write a few songs and it didn't have to be for Within Temptation. And it really opened the doorway of writing new stuff that I normally would never write and would come out of me. And so it helped me get rid of the blockage, this writer's block that I had. And I wrote a different album in the meantime. So that also took a lot of time. And releasing it was for me, a personal project that I needed to do for myself. It was called My Indigo. And yeah, and it helped us back on track with this, not just me, but I think everybody, because I also got some help from the other members. Everybody was, of course, in the same kind of ship and we were a little bit shipwrecked [laughter]. So it was, yeah, time for some cooling down and some distance, I guess. And that’s why it took us five years to come back with "Resist".

MATEUSZ: I'm glad to hear that the crisis is over or it's getting better at least. You've already mentioned this sideproject of yours, My Indigo. Do you plan to continue it and release more albums under this brand name?

SHARON: I'm only working for Within Temptation at the moment, but I hope to write someday again for My Indigo when I feel the need for it. It should be a project that is spontaneous and should come to me when I am ready for it, I guess. And at this moment, I don't have the inspiration for My Indigo. I hope I'll get it again – but it's also not always a good sign [laughter]. When I'm working for Within Temptation, I'm not working for My Indigo – and vice versa. I think I need both, probably, but at this moment I'm more in the vibe for Within Temptation.

MATEUSZ: Great! So, as you've already mentioned, last year you were planning to go on a big tour with Evanescence, but the pandemic thwarted your plans and the tour had to be postponed to fall 2021. Hopefully this tour will take place and there would be no more problems – but how do you envision the post-pandemic touring?

SHARON: I think people will be more fired up to hear music live! Fired up because of the fact that they're finally out of their houses, you know, everybody is out there and wants to be together again. And I think that it will bring a crazy kind of fire that will bring it to the next level. You know, people are really going to appreciate being outdoors again, not just for us, of course, not just our own shows, but every show that's going to happen after this lockdown. I think it is going to be crazy and so much fun. So I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really hoping that will happen soon.

MATEUSZ: Yeah, I understand you totally – I'm also looking forward to the return of concerts, because I'm a photographer during the shows here in Poland and I miss it so much!

SHARON: I can imagine! [laughter]

MATEUSZ: So do you do you miss playing live yourself?

SHARON: Yes, of course, I miss this interaction. I miss the people. I miss the crew. I miss the band, obviously! I miss everybody. The whole picture isn't complete without one or the other. So we need everyone and every single person that was involved in the past and hopefully will get on board again with this new tour, because there's also some problems ahead, I guess! Also because of the fact that you don't know if everybody is going to survive this lockdown – meaning like truck companies, the catering that we used to have... We know every each and every person almost who travels with us. You know, it's one big family – and that goes for every person who supports our team, like truck and bus drivers who travel with us from one city to another and to any country. And so you need everybody on board to be able to get this picture back in place again. And I really hope most people who'd worked for us, are still able to work for us when we start again, because everybody will start up at the same time more or less and there will be a lot of work. But you have your favorite team, of course, and they work for several people. So it’s just wondering, like, can we get the dream team together again? Hopefully they will choose us.

MATEUSZ: Yeah, sure! Let's hope that everybody would be available when this nightmare ends and there would be no more problems. So you are planning to perform in Poland again during the Worlds Collide tour. You have played here many times before. Which of those visits do you consider the most important? Do you have any special memories from here?

SHARON: Well, I love the city Cracow, because I think that's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to! So I like the Polish fans because they have a drive for music like no other, I guess, especially not in up north in Europe. You're very passionate people! And that's something that I love, because we feel the same passion for music when we are on stage. And it's easy to get in contact with Polish audience because they are so enthusiastic, so outgoing in their passion. And I really admire that because, you know, not every country has that. Not every people express themselves that easily. And that's really beautiful!

MATEUSZ: Thanks, that's very nice what you say! I've heard that you and your parents traveled to a lot of countries when you were a child. What did these experiences give you? Which of the places you have visited do you like to come back the most?

SHARON: Well, as a child I lived in Surinam, which and I think that's one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to, and also in Indonesia. I've lived in so many countries, but also I've traveled to a lot of countries. But still, I like the people very much in Surinam. They were very relaxed, very sweet. They were very easy going to get to know and very loving people. So I'm hoping to come back to that country one day again. But there are so many beautiful countries as so many beautiful place on Earth. I've been to Australia, I've been to Africa. But I think it's the people you meet in a place that make you find it beautiful. And I met a lot of beautiful people in Surinam.

MATEUSZ: What you say made me want to go there one day!

SHARON: Yeah, it's a really beautiful country, with such a nice jungle and the people are just really lovely! You should definitely go there someday!

MATEUSZ: OK, I hope I will be able to! Speaking of memories of your youth – you started your career in the fashion industry. What made you finally decide to switch to music?

SHARON: Well, you know, music was always my biggest passion, and you guys from Poland know about passion, so that's always leading. So in fact, fashion was a second plan, more like I needed a job – I needed to get bread on the table, like they say here in Holland. So you need to have your priorities first. And music was always a hobby to us, because at the time that we started there wasn't a big legacy of bands that were world famous. There weren't bands that could live from their music. And so we felt like: OK, you know, let's be realistic – the kind of music that we make, you know, how many people will like it? [laughter] That's what they told us also from the start! Our parents were like: OK, come on, guys, you know, be realistic, you're never going to make it in music. And not only your parents, but everyone around us was saying: OK, what do you do in your life? You make music? Yeah, OK, but what's your job? And they did make us think. And so everybody has their degrees. Robert did a study for education, for human resource management, I had this fashion management. We also had some whiz-kid in our band, a guitar player, who was developing websites and stuff like that. So everybody had their jobs besides the band. And all of a sudden we broke through and then everything changed – we had a huge hit with "Ice Queen" in the Netherlands and Belgium, we felt like: OK, why not go for it for just for a certain time and enjoy this? Because might never come back, and this is our passion – so let's leave the job and go for it! [laughter] And so we did, and we never had to go back to the job again, luckily for us. But, you know, since then, the music industry in the Netherlands has been getting bigger and bigger also not just because of us, of course, but there was so many different kind of styles developing at the same time, like the dance scene was huge in the Netherlands, and it still is quite big. And so, you know, it's something we never thought would happen. Also, besides us, there are so many other bands who started touring and believing in the fact that might be a chance to do this for a living, you know, to have your passion as a daily thing.

MATEUSZ: All right, thanks for such a long, nice story! So as a songwriter, as a stage artist, where do you get your inspirations from? Do you have any favorite other acts whose work has influenced what kind of artist you are?

SHARON: Oh, many! You know, as a small girl, I lived in Indonesia and one day I went to a drive-in show with my parents, where I first saw the movie "Grease". And afterwards I wanted to have the record with the songs from that movie, because I fell in love with the vocals of this lady who could sing so well, whose name was Olivia Newton-John! I just wanted to sing those songs from "Grease" – and I did, for many years, on a daily basis! [laughter] I know every song from front to back and back to front. I was Olivia's fan for a long time, and also from her music I got into country music. My parents were playing a lot of Eagles and, you know... I'm sorry I forgot the question when I started to talk! This is a very big story. What was the original question? [laughter]

MATEUSZ: Where do you get your inspirations from?

SHARON: Which people inspired me, yeah! So, as I already said, I started with Olivia Newton-John, and then when I grew older, I got into Tori Amos. But I also liked Mariah Carey, for instance, very much because she was for me "the Steve Vai amongst vocalists". It may not be the type of music you would expect from me – and it is certainly not my favorite – but Mariah was the most technical singer I've ever heard in my life. And I think that for many singers, a great way to practice your vocal cords is to sing her songs. I have never taken singing lessons myself – but practicing on my own, I was always trying to get that really idiotic high notes from Mariah Carey and try to replicate it. And I drove my parents crazy, but she was one of my inspirations, more on the technical side. And I also love Janis Joplin. During the concerts, she was all over the floor and she was crying on stage. She was so emotional. She was giving all her passion to the audience, and that was so beautiful! I was inspired by her – and I was inspired by Kurt Cobain, who did the same thing, but with a heavier music. And that was my first encounter with really heavy music – because, of course, I knew Alice Cooper, but he was more pop or pop-rock to my opinion. So Nirvana was my ultimate favorite band. So different artists inspired me in different ways, but especially how they expressed themselves on stage and made me aware of the fact that emotion is maybe the most important ingredient in music. So that way, yeah, I was really inspired by all these artists in a different way, I guess.

MATEUSZ: It's not good to ask about plans right now, because we can plan anything and the pandemic would always destroy our schedules. So what can I wish you for this new year that have just recently started?

SHARON: Well, the tour will go on at least and hopefully also the festivals. But, you know, that's quite close in the year, and I'm not sure everybody will be vaccinated or there will be a plan for that yet, but I hope that at least some festivals will happen and the tour will happen in September, but it's quite far away. I just want to believe that it will be real to come back on stage, and I wish that to every band because everyone is waiting to somehow get back to normal life. And it's you know, it's for some people even more important because it's the only thing they have. So for me, the best wish is that we can be playing life again, not just for us, but for everyone, just as that would be such a beautiful gift for 2021.

MATEUSZ: Yeah. Let's hope that it would happen! So is there anything that you would like to say to your Polish fans at the end of this interview?

SHARON: Well, I really hope they will hold onto that passion of theirs and I hope that we'll see each other sooner or later. Hang in there and stay tough! And, yeah, we'll make that bonfire together when we get there!

MATEUSZ: Thanks! Thank you very much, Sharon, for this conversation. It was quite an honor to me to speak with you today. And as you've already said, I hope to meet you on tour this year in Poland to gather with all the fans and to celebrate the return of normal life.

SHARON: Yes, totally! Let's do that. Let's hold on to that picture, that's very important!

#Sharon den Adel #within temptation #2021 interviews

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Creative Real Estate Financing Post Covid - Mortgage Notes and Real Estate

Why Creative Financing so Important in Today’s World

What is Creative Financing Black Swan Events Why Creative Financing has Always Come to the Rescue

Landlords are burning out. Tenants are behind on rent payments. Toilets are backing up.

Is there an alternative?

Uncover Why Savvy Investors Use Proven Mortgage Note Strategies for Massive Monthly Profits In Today’s Ever-Changing Market… Risk-Free!

Discover more about Note School and profiting without Tenants, Toilets and by taking our FREE one day class:

https://new.noteschool.com/TV

Latest Class Information:

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Download a Brand-New eBook by Eddie Speed It’s A Whole New Ball Game With Creative Financing

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Brian Lauchner (00:00): All right. Welcome back everybody to NoteSchool TV. My name is Brian Lauchner. I'm on the teaching team here at NoteSchool, and today we have a very special episode, just like we do every single Wednesday when we go live at 11:00 AM central time. So make sure if you're wanting to get the latest and greatest content that's coming out, be sure to like, and subscribe this channel as well as turn on the notifications by hitting that bell notification. And it will tell you on your device, Hey, we're going live. And then you can jump in with your comments and we'd love to interact with you here while we're live on the show. So today here at NoteSchool TV, we've got a lot of great content. If you're wanting to learn more about the Note Business or NoteSchool in general, you could go to www.NoteSchool.com/TV to learn more, or you could actually attend an upcoming industry event called Note Expo.

Brian Lauchner (01:05): And you can learn more about that at www.NoteExpo.com. So today on our live show, we have some incredible content about the Creative Financing Space and really why is it so important that investors really know this information? And we've got the latest and greatest of people to talk about this as well. We've got Joe Varnadore and we've got the one and only Eddie Speed as well. Tons of experience to kind of bring the content into our homes and learn a little bit more. So joining me right now are going to be, and we're going to dig into, Hey Eddie, Hey Joe, why is creative financing so important in today's marketplace?

Joe Varnadore (01:44): You know, Eddie and I were talking back in March early March, when this whole thing started, right? The whole pandemic and Eddie says, Joe, he says, you know, I don't think there's ever been a better time for a couple of, you know, older, gray hair guys, to talk about the way to, you know, build your business, double your net worth during a period of time then right now. And that's because of Creative Financing. Eddie, why don't you share with us, you know, some of your experience from the past, right.

Eddie Speed (02:22): Well, you know, I started in the business. I started in the business in a market that was a black Swan Market. I started in 1980. And what's interesting guys is that when I started in 1980, I was calling on realtors, that their clients had created Seller Financing or Home Builders. They were creating Seller Financing for their clients to sell a house, a new house to them, right. A new home builder. And the truth of matter is I was calling on them. I was a rookie in the business, young didn't anything, you know, just, here I was walking into their office and they're like, it was like a morgue, right? I mean, they were just, Oh my God, we don't know what to do. And it's scary and stuff. And in this business, because I came into it from a different kind of a knowledge base, a different perspective, it was a Bonanza for me.

Eddie Speed (03:23): And I thought that through the years they'd been doing it for decades and I've been doing it for months yet, I was killing it and they thought they were getting killed. Right. They're the ones that should have been telling me how to solve the problem, not me telling them how to solve the problem. Right. So sometimes because somebody has been doing something a long time, doesn't mean they're thinking in a progressive way. So Joe and I spent a lot of time about, yeah, this gray hair does mean something, but this gray hair doesn't mean anything. If we're not looking on the market horizon and saying, what would be the most relevant changes we could make to our business that would affect our net worth and our income the most.

Joe Varnadore (04:08): And, you know.

Brian Lauchner (04:09): being that, Oh, go ahead Joe.

Joe Varnadore (04:12): No, I'm just going to say, and that, and you know that, so Eddie is, you know, he is our fearless leader, right? He's a, but he is our visionary as well. And you know, one of the sayings that, we say it NoteSchool, and Eddie nailed it is, don't have a crystal ball, but I do have a rear view mirror. And all of these events, these Black Swan events really has prepared us, right. For what's going on today in the marketplace, you know, you don't know what you don't know. So yeah.

Brian Lauchner (04:46): And before we dive into some of these things, like these terms, Black Swan events, Eddie, why don't you start off start us off by really getting everybody on the same page, because we really need to understand what is Creative Financing before we dive into it. Because kind of like you said, you know, you're going into your spot speaking to these realtors and they're supposed to be the ones with the solutions, but the solutions for what? and what that's supposed to look like. So tell us a little bit about what is Creative Financing. And then we'll dive into a little bit about the opportunity.

Eddie Speed (05:17): Well, let's define Creative Financing is some kind of financial structure that's different than just to normal traditional bank financing, right? Or traditionally how people generally focus on doing something. Now I started out in the Note Buying Business, meaning that people would sell or finance a property. They would not only be the seller of the property, but they would be the bank and they would carry payments over time. Right. They would collect payments and then they'd wake up one day and decide they wanted to cash in early. Right? Now we've come up with Creative Financing structures even to buy their notes. Right. So, Creative Financing could be a Note Buying Strategy, right. Because there's more than just one way to buy note. Right. But we also want to make sure that people don't see us as just, we teach people how to buy notes because I've taught thousands of real estate investors, how to creatively structure buying a property and reselling a property, Creative Financing when they buy it Creative Financing when they sell it.

Eddie Speed (06:28): Right. So, that's kind of, that's , when we say Creative Financing is like, what does that apply to? Anything related to what NoteSchool does it could be buying a note. It could be buying a property and getting the seller to carry terms, maybe using a private lender for part of the terms, all these different ways. And then the other side is Creative Financing. When we sell it, I like seller financing property in this market, right. Now, people say, well, don't you ever believe in rentals? Well, I mean, you'd be crazy not to believe in rentals when you could buy a rental property, Brian, in 2013 and 14 at the discounted price you could buy that, right? Because you had a high potential of its lift in value. But if you've reached a market condition that says that you pretty much have peaked out the top of the market, we can argue that debate. But wait a minute right now, if I could sell it and get a giant down payment, I could put some money in my pocket, reduce my investment costs in the property. And then I could carry owner finance paper over time, a wrap note. And and so those are all things that would relate to Creative Financing. It's not just to buy, It's not just the sale, It's not just notes, and it's not just property. It's, this is why it's so valuable is because you learn to intertwine these ideas. I call them puzzle pieces. If you understand the concept of this puzzle piece, you can apply it to the story.

Joe Varnadore (08:09): And, you know, Eddie, we know that sellers will agree to terms that banks would never, ever, ever agree to. Right. We know that there are things like, the ability to be able to buy the note that we created, we're the borrower on, but being able to buy our own note at sometime in the future to discount and things like that. So we've got, you know, we teach 50 plus deal points that you can add into that. So it's that whole process of knowing and how to structure a deal, right?

Eddie Speed (08:43): Yeah. The concept is this, we're in a hype at the moment. We're in a hyper competitive real estate market, whatever happens next year. Okay. We can argue about shadow inventory and why there's going to be a lot of distress properties on the market. We can do all that, but at the moment, Brian, as you well know a real estate investor at the moment, he feels like he's having to essentially overpay. So he's buying a property at what he thinks is, man, this ain't much of a discount, but on the other hand, there's all these people wanting to buy the property from him. And so he can, it's hard to buy, easy to sell, but the problem is the hard to buy, how many people does he make a discounted price to a cash offer? And now all of a sudden they won't accept it now, what's he going to do with that deal? If they won't accept his price, what does he end up doing with that lead? It's in the garbage?

Joe Varnadore (09:46): That's right.

Eddie Speed (09:46): How do you dig that deal out of the garbage and go make an offer? That is a higher price, but it's how you pay them back.

Joe Varnadore (09:55): We lovingly refer to paying somebody in the future, structuring a seller finance deal, or buying with Creative Financing is buying with monopoly money. And everybody kind of looks at us like we have four heads, right? It's not really buying monopoly money. What we're doing is we're paying the seller, their equity over time. And the reason we can do that, you know, people, you know, you could buy it at a discount being a wholesale deal, or if we can pay them almost, you know, full price for it. And because we are structuring the deal and paying them over time, we can pay them more money. Therefore, if it falls out of the deal hopper, because we can't buy it for for a discount, then obviously it we can buy it with terms and give them closure to what they're asking for.

Eddie Speed (10:47): Yeah. It's another option. It's another option that lets us close a piece of business that we couldn't close. If a guy is training at NoteSchool and he's a high volume real estate investor, or maybe Brian he's as low volume guy, right? Maybe he only buys five deals a year, whether he does five or 500, the issue is, he may, he spends X amount of money on marketing and energy and effort. And he closes X amount of deals essentially to put it under contract and flip it to somebody else. Right. That's a, that's a wholesale deal. Right? Brian.

Brian Lauchner (11:23): Yeah. That's it. And the other piece of this too, is that it's not just people who have it doesn't matter what your marketing budget is, right? If you were talking to sellers, the thing that you almost always have in common is the fact that there's going to be competition as well. So there's also this variable of if the seller always wants retail or some high price and all the wholesalers are kind of in this lower price, how do I start to separate myself so that the seller just talks to me? So then I can kind of transition, you know, how do I, if everyone's at a a hundred thousand price point or in that range, how do I start to say, Hey, I'll give you 135,000 or 125,000 to where now I'm just in such a completely different ball game that they're willing to have the conversation.

Brian Lauchner (12:05): And then I get the opportunity since they've given me some time now to hear me out, and now I have the opportunity to say, look, I can give you that money over time. And here's even why some, you know, here's some reasons why would be in your best financial interest. So from an acquisition standpoint, now I'm monetizing more leads, right? Because that one was going to go in the trash can if I didn't get it, but I'm also separating myself from the competition. And especially in times like this, where the seller sentiment in the market, which is what the seller believes, right? Whether it's true or not, doesn't really matter. It's when they believe. And when they believe that their house is worth this much, you know, it's my house. I will only sell it for a million dollars, Brian, because that helps down there.

Brian Lauchner (12:48): So for a million dollars and it's like, you try to use logic, you tried to explain to them, but that house is 7,000 square feet and your house is 2000 square feet. They're not the same thing. Right. They're stuck on that. And so how do we start to get closer to the fact that, okay, if you have to have that price, I can give you that price, but here's how it's going to look. Right? And so, again, it just, it gives me more opportunity. And as we know, when we start to bring creative solutions to complicated problems, that's where we start to, to make a lot of money.

Eddie Speed (13:23): Brian, and just the audience make sure that you know this, you were right down in where the rubber meets the road, right? You did this every day for a living. This was your full-time gig. You made your mortgage payment, your car payment, you've sent your kids to school based on your success of buying these houses at a discount. Now you weren't the note NoteSchool a few years ago. Right. And you heard these other concepts, but you said, I don't know. It's, I'm not sure this really applies. And then all of a sudden, as it progressed, the market got tighter and tighter. What did you have to go do?

Brian Lauchner (13:58): Yeah, I needed some sort of new result, right? I can't keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result because the market shifted. Right. And when we look at you know, a lot of wholesalers and people who are talking to sellers, whether you're wholesale or not, maybe you're talking to sellers to acquire your own rental properties. The bottom line is the market has shifted. And chances are, especially since March of 2020, you've seen that maybe your marketing isn't performing, or maybe the sellers are demanding something different. And at the end of the day, nobody's telling you to stop making cash offers. That's not what Eddie's saying. Just to be very clear, definitely go make your cash offer. There's nothing wrong with that. That's going to help you get to your goal. But what do you do with those leads that you make your cash offer?

Brian Lauchner (14:40): And they say, Hmm, can't really do anything about it. Right? And so, you've got to be able to have another tool in the tool bag. And what Eddie's referring to is in 2016, when I met Eddie, he was like, you really need to add Creative Financing to your acquisitions. It will change your entire business in 2016. I didn't need a change. Like things were fine. I could go make a cash offer to a seller and they'd be like, okay. Yeah, it's probably worth that. You're right. You know what I mean? There wasn't any, there wasn't that hesitancy, there wasn't that resistance to get the deal done. But by 2018, at least in my market, things did start to shift and I did have to make a change and call up uncle Eddie and say, I need help. What am I doing wrong? And he lovingly of course said, look, it's what I told you two years ago, we just let's get to work. Right.

Brian Lauchner (15:30): So it's just about implementing it into what I was already doing. And because of that too, it was a very smooth and quick transition, which again, kind of bringing it back to why it's so important. You know it today, is look, the market has shifted. Everybody's aware of that. Well, I say everyone is aware of this. Some people think that it's just going to keep going like this for the next couple of years. Right. But the reality is if you're in a spot where maybe I need a little something different, I need a little something new. I need to start monetizing some of these leads that I used to, but I don't anymore. This creative financing element and the words of Eddie speed in 2016, if you'll add creative financing to your acquisitions model, it can start to get you a lot of leads and a lot of deals, which ultimately lead to money in your pocket, even in a market like this after what Eddie calls a Black Swan event.

Joe Varnadore (16:22): And, you know, we see that over and over people that were, you know, they were listening like you were in 2016, but they weren't forced to take that next step. Right. They weren't forced to say, okay, something isn't working. So now I've got a look at what else I can do to keep my business growing. And that's what it was. Eddie. Why don't you talk just a minute about, you know, for the folks that are wholesales about the three reasons that a wholesale deal or that cash offer deal just doesn't or can't work well all the time.

Joe Varnadore (17:08): All right. We can't so Eddie, let me jump in there. You've got a little sound problem there. So maybe we can get that worked out.

Eddie Speed (17:17): I don't know. How about a little.

Joe Varnadore (17:21): There you go. perfect!

Eddie Speed (17:21): A little munchkin jumped up there on my computer, Joe, and muted me. One of those gremlins,

Joe Varnadore (17:28): We know about those gremlins. Every time we would go do a live event, we would have everything set up perfectly, And.

Brian Lauchner (17:33): That's the beauty of live TV.

Joe Varnadore (17:37): Amen.

Eddie Speed (17:39): A real estate investor. The other thing that they can do is you, if you're not a giant operator, right? You're just a small guy doing the business. What you have to remember is there so many people doing the business today in the trashcan is getting full, fuller and fuller of people that just won't accept the discounted price, make a go, make a deal with them. And we can show you how to do this, by the way, very clearly go make a deal with them to go dig through their trashcan leads and go work the leads that they, that the cash price ended up in the trash. And there's, you know, there's some filtering to that, you can't go work every lead, but here's some simple filtering processes that could be put together. And then all of a sudden, Joe, I might go work part of my business or maybe all of my business and just going and working my competition's leads and letting them make something if I'm able to close it.

Joe Varnadore (18:40): That's. Right. Yeah.

Eddie Speed (18:43): That's an example of you know, we call it getting the juice out of the lemon, right guys.

Brian Lauchner (18:50): Yeah. But there's three main reasons that they even had that bucket of leads to begin with. Right? And every wholesaler, every rehab or anybody who's ever talked to a seller ever understands that the reason you're not getting the deal is number one, it's too far. You're too far apart on price. Right? You're here, and they just won't accept that price because they're way up here. And you're way down here, they just won't accept the price. So the second reason is just they can't accept it, right? They owe $87,000 on the mortgage and you're offering them 65,000. They'd have to write a huge check to do that and that's not an option. Another, the third reason is just you don't have the right buyer. Right? And that could be because you don't have a buyers list yet. And that could be because it's a really obscure property out in the middle of nowhere, or it's just a really weird house that nobody really wants, you know, to kind of mess with.

Brian Lauchner (19:40): There are those. But when you look at those, you could either talk to another investor and work a deal with them. Or if you're already in a situation where you're talking to sellers, kind of, like I said, before, you now have a secondary option, Hey, we can't make it work because you can't accept the price or you won't accept the price. What if we go about doing this a little bit differently? And and we buy it on terms, which is you taking the same equity, but you taking it over time, right? You want this much money. I'll give you this much money in chunks over time. And if that's a solution for you, because it's going to allow you to accomplish whatever that goal is. Well, now we can start heading down the path of how do we make that happen? What do those terms need to look like for this to be kind of a win-win solution.

Joe Varnadore (20:22): And you know, it's not only what you say, it's how you say it. You know, Eddie calls it the talk off, right? It's knowing how to present this terms offer this creative finance offer. Eddie. You can talk about that for just a minute.

Eddie Speed (20:40): Yeah. I think that's one of the key things that I've learned in whether I'm coaching somebody, that's a Ninja real investor and did 300 deals last year, or I'm helping somebody that did three deals last year. There's an interview process that we try to teach, not we try to teach, we definitely teach. There's an interview process of asking them the right questions. So let me give you one simple example to kind of wrap it up as we do this today. So Brian, let's pretend that you have a property and that you have, you've demanded a price that my cash offer won't meet. And so I've said, Brian, I can pay you your price if you take your equity over time. Right? And Brian goes, okay, that might work. And we can work around that. And then the second thing is, you're saying, well, because essentially what I'm saying to you is you're going to sell or finance it to me. Right. Brian, I'm not exactly saying it that way, but that's what the end result is going to equal.

Brian Lauchner (21:48): Right. And the interest to me is that I'm okay with taking my payments over time. I'm not okay with taking a discount or maybe it's paying real estate fees or something like that. That's why this would be a potential solution to continue talking about it from the seller's perspective.

Eddie Speed (22:02): So real estate investors regularly set this up. They regularly say that, but here's a mistake. I believe they make, they say, well, Brian, if I were talking to you, Brian, I would say, well, Brian, how much down payment do you want? You see, I'm inviting a conversation that is not going to be good for me. Right? Instead, Brian, here's what I must say. What are your immediate cash needs? Right. So now all of a sudden, if you say, well, I need 20% of the price of the property as my immediate cash need. Then I'm just going to go get a private money first and get you to carry a second lien for the 80%. There's the hundred 20 private money, 80% second. So wait a minute, I bought the property for nothing down, but it's because I ask it in the right manner.

Brian Lauchner (23:03): And the thing about this, what Eddie calls the talk off is there is such a logical rational way to have this conversation. And I think one of the reasons people fail with pitching terms or pitching Creative Financing solutions is they use a slick salesy type of approach. Like they're trying to just kind of work around the, you know, work around the problem to kind of get them to agree to these little weird things when it's like, you can just be direct and it's a more logical approach. And Eddie has just nailed this. And it's something I think NoteSchool teaches really well, is that when you come in from a standpoint of look, let me show you the most logical rational way to do this. And then on top of that, Mr. Seller, I'm going to explain why this is in your best interest. Look, what the money is going to turn into. If I'm, especially if I'm paying interest, like that's the most common way. And if not look how you can get the money that you're wanting, right. To be able to meet your immediate needs.

Joe Varnadore (23:55): So we have a question there, So, does it guys, can we do this? We can do this on a hundred thousand dollar house, or we can do it on a $800,000 house, right?

Eddie Speed (24:09): Yeah. You can do it on luxury properties. You know, I would say that you're going to need a really tighten up some things to go do it on luxury properties, but financing for luxury properties has been very drastically affected by this mortgage credit availability. So it can work. This is probably a deeper conversation of things to tighten up. But, yes, I think it can work even on luxury properties.

Brian Lauchner (24:42): And I think when you, if you looked at a hundred different assets that were seller finance or a thousand, you would see they're all over the price point, right? There's a common misconception that seller financing, Creative Financing is for these cheap crappy houses that you can't sell anyway, so you might as well play the role of the bank so you can potentially get rid of it. Right? Whereas so many small businesses are sold with Creative Financing, so many apartments, so many, you know, whatever, small commercial tthey are sold with seller financing and any price point it applies to. And I think that if you were to go and look at a lot of these I have a great story of a motel that I teach in a one day class that, you know, motels are not commonly known for getting bank financing the old fashioned way, right?

Brian Lauchner (25:30): It's going to have a little bit more creativity to it, because that motel owner was exercising their full legal right to write off all the things they need to write off. So they pay less taxes, but a bank looks at the valuation of that and they say, wait a minute, you want to sell this for a million bucks, your books, don't say it's worth a million dollars, but me as an investor can be like, don't worry. I see the valuation and I can play the same game. So I'm interested. I just need you to sell me the property with seller financing. So every price point would definitely work. It's just a matter of the nuances of that specific deal.

Joe Varnadore (26:03): That's correct.

Eddie Speed (26:05): That's it.

Joe Varnadore (26:05): Yep. Absolutely.

Brian Lauchner (26:08): What about sellers who want cash to buy their next home? Would that that's kind of to Eddie's point, right? Is how much cash are they really needed in the immediate term? So the conversation will be something along the lines of, you need a new house, you're getting are you getting a mortgage? Okay, what kind of money are you meaning to put down in that property? And then starting to have that conversation, even if it's $50,000 to Eddie's point, I can borrow that 50,000. And if you have to have that 50,000, I can do that, but you're going to have to give up some other things in order to get that 50,000, if it's truly what's most important to you, I can make it happen. I just need these other things over here to be in my favor, to make those things work.

Eddie Speed (26:50): Remember this, the guy that was paying cash for the house, solved a problem one out of 20 times, 19 times, he did not solve the problem. They did not, the seller did not get their problem solved. Are we saying that we can solve all 19 problems? Of course not. Let me tell you what would be amazing. Brian, if I could solve one out of 19 problems, right? Just one in 19 where the seller was accepted in my terms, and I could structure the way that was really good for me. I just doubled my conversion rate. Now I close two out of 20 instead of one out of 20. So this is part of the filtering process, right? And by the way, I will tell you this, this interview process and going through the deal with the customer is under start understanding that when people say they need cash, you start investigating why they actually say they need cash. So some people say they need cash, they don't need cash. They just cash relates to the price to them. Right?

Joe Varnadore (27:56): That's right.

Eddie Speed (27:56): So kind of the customer that that's where we, that's a part of a filtering process that we develop. Excellent question. But the answer is no, I can't solve everybody's problem, but I can solve a lot.

Brian Lauchner (28:07): Yeah. And on those 19 examples, right? If you're getting one out of every 20, those 19 leads, you're chasing down, you already made a cash offer. You weren't going to get the deal anyway. So what, if you could add something to your acquisitions model, the way you buy houses in order to convert another deal and ultimately double the number of deals you're doing, which would basically be free money because you've already made your marketing money back on that first deal. So a lot of really, really great stuff today. Unfortunately, it's not a show we could talk for two days on. And so I want to just, I'm so glad we can at least talk about what Creative Financing is. These Black Swan events, these cyclical events that happen. They just happen over time because real estate has cycles. When the market shifts Creative Financing will always fill the gap in the marketplace where the conventional traditional money does it. Right.

Brian Lauchner (28:58): And that's really what we're seeing right now is there's a huge need for creative financing in the marketplace right now, in my opinion, if you are an active real estate investor, you can't afford to not know this stuff. And as you learn more about it, you're going to start to find out this actually is the more profitable way to do a lot of different types of strategies. And so, again, thanks for joining us today. On NoteSchool TV, it is a live every Wednesday at 11:00 AM central time. I'm so glad you came again. Make sure you're liking it, subscribing to this channel, turn on the notifications so that you know, when we're live so you can engage like some of these others did and bring your questions to the table. If you're wanting more information, definitely go to NoteSchool.TV, I'm sorry. www.NoteSchool.com/TV to get engaged with us there and be sure to attend the upcoming industry event. Note Expo, go to www.NoteExpo.com to register. It's going to be an absolute killer event. Thanks so much for joining us this week. And we will see you next week on NoteSchool TV.

#NoteSchool #EddieSpeed #RealEstate #MortgageNotes #notes

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blazehedgehog · 3 years

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So rather than attach it to the last (rather large) post thread, I’ll start a new one. If you didn’t catch it on Twitter, friends managed to raise some money through nothing but sheer good will and I ended up booking a stay at the same hotel we should have gotten for free.

I’m starting a new thread because I want to ask a question, but first I want to clarify and provide a better timeline of everything that’s happened. This isn’t exact, but it’s as close as my memory can remember right now:

Late 2019/Early 2020: Whoever owns my apartment complex sells it to a new company in California. The complex is in Nevada. It’s a big apartment complex; it used to be two separate ones that were right next to each other and they merged to create a “project” that houses something like 150-200 units. If you consider families, somewhere in the realm of 300-700 people live here.

April/May 2020: We get a notice on our door announcing that our new owners want to renovate the complex. Every single unit. It’s such a big ordeal that they have to put in to get funding from the State of Nevada to do it. The initial claim is that they will move us out of our apartment unit in to a new unit for up to a month or two (at no cost to us) while they renovate. More information will come in summer 2020 during a town hall meeting we will attend in person. I expect that with the pandemic starting and “shelter in place” orders going out that there’s no way they’d be dumb enough to go through with any of this. The notice ends with them pleading with people not to take this as a cue to move out. In the months to follow, we spied at least four people who were smart enough to get out before the renovation hit. We considered it, but the housing authority we have to rent through went dead silent the moment the pandemic ramped up and have yet to say even a single word to us (even now).

Late October/Early November 2020: The town hall meeting finally happens, online, in a Zoom meeting. Three people in California dictate to the 40 or 50 tenants (maybe more) that attend the meeting how this is going to go. Plans have changed: the renovation will take place across ten days. Very tight schedule. In and out as fast as possible. In batches of 4-5 units at a time, going alphabetically across the complex, units will be renovated. New paint, new carpet, new cabinets, new sinks, new toilet, new shower, new appliances, redone balcony. Renovation teams will come in at 8am and work until 5pm. After 5pm, we will be allowed to return to our unit and sleep there. We will be allowed to keep one bed (per person) and one TV, which the renovation team will move out of the way during the day and return to our unit when they leave. We are also told we will be getting a sealable plastic tub to store personal items (toiletries and such) that the renovation team will also handle. We are assured they will be adhering to rigorous sanitization standards, with multiple temperature checks daily, masks, and gloves. During the day, we are free to go wherever, but the complex will be setting up what they call a “hospitality trailer” -- a communal space for everyone currently effected by the renovation to hang out inside, together. There will be port-a-potties and wifi. We’re told meals will also be provided, possibly in the trailer, but details are unspecific. We’re also told some landscaping will be done. All told, between renovating units and landscaping, they say the whole process from beginning to end will take 18 months or more. Tenants in the Zoom call ask questions -- if we don’t want to stay at the hospitality trailer, we’re told we should consider staying with family during the day. They ignore multiple questions from people asking if this will cause the rent to go up.

December 2020: Renovation begins, starting with apartments in the A block. We’re somewhere near the middle of the alphabet, and going by the ten-days-per-unit estimate, we’re expecting the renovation to hit us around March-ish, maybe even as late as April. I develop an ugly toothache; my face swells up. I do a phone visit with a dentist and he prescribes me antibiotics and schedules me for an appointment on January 18th to pull the tooth.

Early January 2021: Going to check the mail one day, I notice it feels like they’re spending a long time on the first few sets of units. Then, all of a sudden, renovations surge ahead, and units worryingly close to our letter start putting tarps up over their balconies, signalling they’re either mid-reno, or at least packing.

January 18th, 2021: Tooth is “fine” (big cavity, no pain) but we discuss options for pulling multiple bad teeth with this problem tooth, since a lot of my upper teeth aren’t in great shape. Will require multiple rounds of surgery to remove them all and set up replacements. First round of surgery is on February 24th. I immediately wonder if we’re going to get called early for renovation and it’ll land simultaneously with the surgery. I try not to think about it.

January 30th, 2021: We receive a notice that our apartment’s number is due. It’s post-dated, which means the notice is late. We’re supposed to have 45 days notice, and the move-out date listed in the notice is February 23rd. By the 45 day rule, this notice should’ve arrived January 9th. There’s also a degree of confusion: the notice was delivered to our apartment, but the notice is addressed to the apartment below us. Parts of the notice still mention our apartment number. We call the front office for clarification, and they tell us that the notice was indeed meant for the people below us. According to them, we’re in the clear for now. “You’re close...” tells us the person on the phone, “But it’s not your time yet.” We consider preparing early, but it sounds like we have to use the provided packing materials for organizational reasons when the movers come.

February 5th: I record my Patreon Podcast. I mention the renovation. If you consider 10 days per renovation, based on when the notice was actually delivered, I’m expecting we’re going to get our notice in the next few days.

February 8th: We get a knock on the door. A man from the front office is checking in with us to see how packing is going. Packing because the notice was actually for us. It was for all four units in this block. We tell him: we called. They said it wasn’t our time yet. He just kind of shrugs and asks if we need boxes. Of course we do. Our 45 day notice has been cut down to less than 14 days. On top of that, we’ve got doctors appointments and things coming up that’s going to eat in to this time. He says everything has to be in the office-provided UHaul boxes. Even if we have items already in cardboard boxes, they have to be specifically repacked in UHaul boxes.

February 13th: After days of trying to contact my dentist office via email, I finally get a hold of them via text. I try to reschedule my appointment, but the receptionist tells me it’s just another consultation, not surgery. I hope she’s right. The stress of all of this is making it hard to get packing as fast as we need to.

February 15th: My Mom tells me she’s managed to book an appointment for her first round of covid-19 vaccinations. Unfortunately, it’s on February 23rd, the day we’re being moved out.

February 16th: We talk to the people below us, an elderly couple. They’re panicking about packing because they have so much stuff. They mention that the front office booked them a hotel for the duration of their renovation. All they needed was a doctor’s note proving they needed it. Given that my 75 year old mother has a doc appointment literally the next day, this seems like extremely good timing. After doing curbside pickup for a grocery order that day, we pass the movers on our way back in as they are loading a unit in to their Ryder truck. None of them that I see are wearing masks or gloves.

February 17th: Doc visit happens, she implies that he kind of blew her off. She’s had chronic pain in her hands and knees for years, and in particular, the pain in her hands has been getting bad, fast. She wraps her thumb in sports tape because bending it hurts. She used to be a waitress, she used to be a cake decorator, she did data entry for a couple years, and now she’s dabbling with painting. Her carpal tunnel is severe and its accentuated with arthritis. Doctor just kind of shrugs it off, tells her if it gets worse to come back in a few months, even though arthritis can kill people if not treated properly. Still, he writes her a cursory note for the apartment front office. She talks to them and they’re very glad she contacted them about this; it sounds like the kind of thing that’s only available to people who ask, since presumably the owners don’t want to shell out $900,000+ rooming the entire complex in a hotel. Either way, we’re excited; maybe this renovation won’t be so bad. They tell us the name of the hotel and where its located.

February 18th: While doing laundry in anticipation of packing things up for the hotel/renovation, we happen to catch someone in the laundry room who just got back in to her apartment after her reno finished. She tells us a horror story: everything they told us in the Zoom meeting was a lie. They are renovating way more than 4 units at a time, they aren’t going alphabetically anymore, and she theorizes they’re going with a cheaper renovation team because half of her apartment straight up wasn’t done. The new tile was cheap plastic, which was already gouged by the time she got there. No new fridge, no new shower or tub, no new toilet. “Those will be happening this summer,” she tells us. Sinks got replaced, but the new sinks are apparently bigger than the old ones, leaving less counter space (a particular problem in the bathroom). Carpets were new, but already a dirty mess because of the movers. She had to go around and pick up nails stuck in the carpet that were left behind by the renovators. Since they didn’t take the fridge, she got to keep her food in there, which was important for her because she had special dietary food that needed to be refrigerated. The bad news? Some of that food was stolen. She had a broom and a dust pan stolen, too. She mentions how poor communication has been. We mention the hotel, and she lights up. She didn’t stay in her apartment either, they put her up in the hotel, too. So at least there’s that silver lining. Though she regrets it, because they damaged her TV while she was away. She finally helps clarify the food situation for us, too: we’ll be receiving a “food voucher” to pay for our meals, whatever that means.

February 19th: My Mom was supposed to call the front office to confirm we got the hotel, but in all the confusion, she didn’t get around to it. We’ll have to wait the entire weekend to get confirmation. But if the elderly couple below us got a room, and the lady we spoke to at laundry got a room, it sounds like we’re a lock.

February 22nd: The front office checks in on us again, shrugs their shoulders at how behind we are on packing, and offers us more boxes. They only give us large boxes; we need small, medium and especially rolls of packing tape. They mention they’ll have more later once they open the storage unit, but we never get any. Across this entire ordeal, we’ve only gotten a single roll of packing tape. We bought several rolls of our own after being tired of waiting. Front office guy says our fridge is being replaced, but we can still keep food in our old one and we’ll just “come in and change it out.” Whatever that means. Later, after getting off the phone, we learn we were rejected for the hotel. The doctor’s note wasn’t good enough and the head office in California denied our request. My Mom tries to contact her doctor again to get a more detailed note, but he doesn’t return her call. We’re going to be living out of the car for the next ten days. We talk about protesting this; by stopping packing right now and refusing to leave, but eventually decide that would be a bad idea. We don’t want to risk the movers breaking any of our things. A couple friends start spreading around my paypal.me link in the hopes of raising money for us to stay at a hotel. They raise a little over $200, but it’s hard to justify spending that on a hotel.

February 23rd, Morning: By this point, we’re running on empty. No sleep, physically exhausted, stressed out of our minds. Both of us on the verge of tears several times. With everything going on, we’re a little over halfway done packing and there’s no time left. We quickly move from “pack everything” to “pack what’s important so the movers don’t have to touch it.” Whatever we can’t finish, the movers will pack for us. At 7:30am the movers arrive, and they knock on the door at 8am. They are very polite. They are all wearing masks and gloves. We tell them they are nowhere near ready, and they offer to do our unit last. We do the best we can and leave the rest to them. On our way out, we talk to the elderly couple that lives below us, who claim the moving truck won’t be enough to hold everything in their apartment. It’s a big truck and a small apartment. I find that hard to believe. We go park somewhere and doze in the car until my Mom’s vaccination appointment at 10am. More friends, some of them with very large followings, start spreading the paypal.me link around. Momentum begins to build.

February 23rd, Midday: We get to the vaccination place only to realize we forgot some things at the apartment. We quickly jog back across town and plan to ask them if it’s okay if we can go in to the apartment and retrieve it. When we get there, they’re still unloading the couple below us, and I notice they aren’t just taking UHaul boxes, but regular cardboard boxes, too. Given it’s been almost two hours, this might be second truckful, maybe even the third. I grab the stuff we’re missing and we head back to the vaccination park. Afterwards, we hang out at my brother’s just in case my mom has an allergic reaction to the vaccine and she needs help. She’s fine, and by the time we’re through there, it’s getting to be time to head back to our apartment for the night at 5pm. Before we leave my brother’s, I use their wifi to check my Paypal account. I joke, “I’m worried that I’ll open my account and it’ll say $2000.” Combined with the little bit of money I already had in my Paypal, the donations have pushed my account close to $2200. I burst out laughing. “YOU WANNA GO GET A HOTEL?!” I shout. We agree we’ll spend the night in the unit tonight and decide what we’ll take with us to the hotel in the morning.

February 23rd, Evening: It’s close to 6pm and the movers are still there. They were supposed to clock out almost an hour ago. I browse Tripadvisor and Expedia in the parking lot and decide to just book the same hotel they dangled in front of our faces, since reviews specifically point out it’s clean and has extremely good quarantine practices. Expedia lets me pay with Paypal directly, but there’s a problem where it won’t connect to my Paypal account. As I go to transfer the money out of my Paypal and finish booking the hotel, the wifi dies. The movers just unplugged our modem and packed it up. They probably weren’t supposed to do that, and they picked the worst time, too. We spend the next 45 minutes driving around town trying to find free wifi so I can book this hotel. We end up parking at my brother’s place and leeching his wifi from the driveway. Hotel booked, check-in is at 3pm on the 24th. For now, it’s back to the apartment to decide what to take with us.

February 23rd, Night: Upon getting back to the apartment around 7pm, we find it’s... a disaster area. They spent so long unloading all the other units, they did not have time to finish packing and unloading what was left in our unit. There’s garbage everywhere, it’s mixed in with the stuff we want to keep, some of it’s broken, it’s horrible. It looks like they just swept everything off the tables on to the floor. TV remotes and mail are spread out all over the place. They didn’t leave us any lamps, so the only lights in the apartment are the front door light, the kitchen light, and the bathroom light. They might have left us our mattresses, but they didn’t leave us any pillows or blankets. Still, we spent the better part of the night sorting through the “trash” and separating it out in to the stuff we wanted to keep. We pack up most of the apartment with whatever materials the movers left behind, but we eventually run out of boxes and tape. We still managed to pack 99.9% of what was left. From 7pm to 2:30am.

February 24th, Morning: At 7:30am I'm woken up by the movers pulling up. I can hear them joking in the parking lot about who gets the honor of being called "papi" and cracking rude jokes about "assuming gender." They probably think nobody's around to hear them. We ask them for more time so we can wake up and get dressed. As we're loading up the car with stuff to take to the hotel, we overhear the movers complaining about how they are being made to wait because we were supposed to be out of here by 8, and it's close to 9. My Mom gives them an earful about how little time we had to pack compared to how long we should've had. "That's been happening to a lot of people here." one of them tells her. My whole body hurts after days of little sleep and packing extremely heavy boxes. I’ve had a throbbing headache for almost 48 hours. With the dentist appointment at 3pm that afternoon, we go to a park and I doze in the car for another five hours.

February 24th, Afternoon: Dentist appointment goes smoothly; they offer to start surgery, but I explain to them what happened with the renovation and they are perfectly fine postponing until a later date. By now, my feet hurt where the soles of my shoes have been rubbing. My ankles and knees are hurting from being crunched up inside a car for two days. My back hurts from all the lifting. I’m beyond miserable and realize there’s no way I could bare to spend 10 days living in this car. Thankfully, with the dentist appointment out of the way, it’s check in time. The hotel room is nice, but given I’ve never stayed in a hotel before, I don’t have much of a comparison. But when I fall asleep that night, I sleep harder and longer than I have in years.

February 25th: The elderly couple that lived below us at the apartment are here at the same hotel we are, and we talk to them. Turns out, the lady has the same doctor as my Mom, and they were rejected from his note, too. The approval they got for the hotel came from her husband’s doctor, who wrote an extremely detailed note about his oxygen needs. They mention that people living in our complex with disabilities weren’t housed here and they don’t know where they are or what happened to them. They also claim that the food provision stuff from the apartment front office is apparently some kind of a $45/day meal credit we get at the end of the renovation. But again, it’s still not clear, and the apartment itself has never clarified. That night, we return to the apartment again to raid our fridge for stuff to bring to the hotel. Now, if you remember, we were supposed to be able to sleep at the apartment every night. The apartment we returned to was in such a state that it would have been impossible to sleep in. No sinks, no toilets, no stove, no running water of any kind, and all of the outlets stripped down. Literally the only thing we could have done was sleep there; nothing else was possible. And even then, remember: no bedding. No pillows, no blankets, and it’s still winter out there.

Update on things I forgot: Also on the 25th, elderly couple in the unit below us also told of how the movers had thrown their $950 couch outside and left it in the dirt for multiple days, asking if it was “trash” because one of the washable seat covers had a single pet stain on it. (When we visited the apartment that night to raid the fridge, we even saw it) Not only that, but last year, our bathroom tub had been leaking in to one of their closets. They had to shut our water off for several days and fix the pipes. Apparently this caused black mold in their apartment that wasn’t discovered until they started hauling boxes out. Upon bringing it up with the renovation team, they got told “there’s black mold everywhere! it’s in the grass! it’s fine!” The husband went in to take pictures of the black mold, but by the time he got over there with the camera, the renovation team had already painted over it. Apparently another tenant on the other side of the complex had mold problems so bad that she’s been paid to stay at this hotel for more than a month already while they deal with it.

Which brings us, roughly, to today.

Now, the question I mentioned way back at the top: what are my options here, legally? A lot of friends have told me up and down that this is either illegal, or should be illegal, but I have no idea where to start with any of this stuff and frankly I’m a little gun shy. I don’t know what Nevada housing law is like, what renters rights are, and I don’t want to risk being evicted. But I also know that the threat of being evicted is also what keeps people complacent.

All I really know is that basically everything they originally told us was a lie, and they never informed us of most of these changes. As for the rest, well... just read for yourself.

Whatever you know, I’d like to know.

#renovation #timeline

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