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fire2forge · 3 years

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Looking back...

March 15th 2020. My ship said goodbye to to our last guests. We pulled into Miami, let everyone off and left to go drift out with all the other cruise ships. At the time we all thought that it would truly be a 30 day pause in operations, we know now how naïve that was.

I’ll admit for awhile it was nice. Crew had the run of the ship, bars were open earlier, we had very little work to do, late nights out having fun, all kinds of activities. We were all so confident that covid hadn’t made it to our ship, that we were all safe, and this was just gonna be a 30 day vacation.

Cut to the 21st:

We come to find out later that this unannounced drill was our super-spreader event. Because no-one knew it was a drill, everyone that was in isolation came out (we thought the ship was on fire)...by the time it was announced it was a drill and those confined should not leave it was to late...

Cut to the 24th:

I go back to medical later in the day, and after testing negative for the flu, am given a mask and told I was not allowed to leave my cabin (I luckily did not have a room mate), unless it was to come back for daily temp checks.

I find out later on that unknown to most of us we had a lot of people that had quietly been put into isolation (in a crew of 2000+, it’s easy to not notice). This was also the day of our first major repatriation effort 700 crew (mainly cruise division) where slated to fly...only a few did.

Cut to the 28th:

The first PCR tests are done onboard, sometime in the afternoon the Captain comes on and says we have one positive case. A few hours later its 14 confirmed cases, and everyone is told to return to their cabins until further notice (We never had an official announcement given after the first 14, but it was well over 100 cases by the end). The ship has just entered lock down.

On the 29th All crew got moved into guest rooms, this was both because of an order from the CDC, and so that the many smoker’s would be able to smoke on the balconies. We had different zones to divide everyone up:

Red Zone for confirmed cases, Orange for suspected/been in contact with, and the rest for supposedly healthy. It’s here that I note that even though I had already been in isolation for days, had a constant cough, and had had a fever (that by then had broken) I was never tested, nor was I put into orange zone.

At this point no one can leave cabins (excluding those working crew) and the company has started to realize that they need to get everyone back home as soon as possible. Repatriation efforts start to really kick into gear.

We stayed in what would eventually be labeled Phase 1 for 29 days. We entered Phase 2 April 26th.

PHASE 1

During the initial phase, all crew got asked if they wanted to stay onboard (unpaid), basically for those who didn’t want to or couldn’t go home for any reason. This would become Group 3. I was part of this group, for many reasons I did not want to go home, so the free room and board was perfect for me, and many of my friends. This is the sole reason I was onboard for so long, not because of anything the company did.

Those that did want to go home became group 2, many of them would end up waiting months before their country opened up and flights could be made, I remember how at the end of March beginning of April, we would constantly here from the Capt that some nationality was going to fly that day, only for him to come back and say that the got denied at some point in the process and would be coming back onboard.

Those few that were still getting paid, still had a job because someone had to run the ship became known as Group 1.

I don’t really remember that much from this time, the days really started to blend and the isolation was not helping anything. While people in the US where throwing fits over “Shelter in Place” orders, I was not allowed to leave a room that was roughly 20′x10′. They complained about not being able to see friends, I only saw 1 person a day (one of my managers twice a day for temp checks, approx. 5 second visits each). They complained that stores had limited hours, I had no store, I had limited choice in food, I had no ability to get snacks, it was 3 meals a day that’s it, you want some chips at 3pm to bad dinner won’t come till 6pm. (eventually they sorted out a system so we could by snacks, beer, cigs, and bathroom supplies). To top this all off we had no access to laundry services till round April 5th, I was put in isolation before everyone else, I had not done my laundry for a week before hand....I was struggling.

Looking through some old notes, apparently at one point I had made a schedule, Breakfast 9-10...Read till 11....Listen to the crew radio show 11-1...Lunch 12-1...Nap...Dinner 5-6...Sleep. Very stimulating days we had.

A month of solitude was not easy, especially when you keep hearing about crew members being denied entry into their own countries, the media blaming the industry as a whole for covid reached the US, constantly thinking our quarantine was gonna end only for it to be extended, and not seeing or really speaking to anyone the entire time. But a light at the end of the tunnel...Phase 2

PHASE 2

April 26th we got let out....kinda...

Split down the Middle...people on Portside got let out for 3 hours, then People on Starboard got let out for 3 hours (this excluded anyone in red or orange zone). After our “yard time” we went back to our cabins. Once a week you could go down and purchase up to 4 items from the slop chest (the crew shop). Everyone was wearing masks, the only time we weren’t is if we were smoking, one person per ashtray spaced about 8ft apart.

At some point during this time the Captain made a comment on how in hindsight we should of went straight into lockdown on March 15th, that we should of done 2 weeks then instead of over a month now.

We still had 2 temp checks a day (done door to door), and all meals were still delivered. There is a reason we joked about it being yard time, because it really was. You got to get some fresh air and maybe see a few friends that was it....Luckily it didn’t last long we entered phase 3 on May 12th.

But before that a note. By this time the fleet had started using our own ships to transport crew home, aka one ship sailed a bunch of people over to India. Along with that some people were getting lucky enough to have flights. So my ship was constantly losing people, either because they got a flight home or where being moved onto another ship. If I remember correctly our largest sign off was ~500 Filipinos, it was a hectic time in crew movement, by the time we got into Phase 3 we only had a few hundred people on board if memory serves right.

PHASE 3

We could finally be outside for as long as we wanted, no more restricted movement. Meals where in the large guest buffet area (seating 1 or 2 people a table only, all distanced), temp checks where done at division based locations, for me that was the theatre (still two a day)....that’s basically the only change.

We still had to wear masks at all times, we were still supposed to keep distance, no groups, no going into each others cabins, no fun nights out...in theory.

The first few days in Phase 3 we ended up signing off almost everyone that was in Group 2, by May 20th we were at minimum manning +16 Group 3 (in total about 100 people). It was then that we went back to eating in the crew mess and the restrictions where unofficially forgotten about.

When I say this you must keep in mind that at this point it had been almost 3 months since any of us had touched land, and a solid month and a half since we had a positive case. Much like New Zealand and Australia now, we no longer had to worry about covid. We still wore masks around the ship (thanks to the CDC), but unless Chief Safety caught you no one was gonna look twice at a large group eating at one table, or a group staying up late drinking and playing cards (guilty of that)...By the end of May it was almost like we had regained some normalicy...so of course it couldn’t last...

MOVING SHIP

May 21st, Group 3 got a notice that we would be transferred to another ship in the fleet to consolidate all of us together. They said it would be a few weeks before this transfer...We finally got moved on June 22nd.

As of today March 16th 2021 a full year after we stopped sailing, the last remaining Group 2 and Group 3 people from my company have gotten home, those that were in Group 2 came from Vietnam, and Trinidad and Trabago it took a year to finally get them home...let that sink in.

...

And here is where i’ll end this tale, if anyone is interested in knowing about life on the 2nd and 3rd ship I got transferred to before going home in December, let me know i’ll type something up.

#cruise crew #Cruise Ship #covid #crew #long post #there is so much i didn't put down #all the little things #all the rules #all the shit the cdc did to us and still is doing #a lot of nuance #is lost here as i tried to make it not a super long post #as well as keep it vague what company i work with #and don't get the wrong idea here i will be the 1st one back on a ship #i just felt like doing a retrospective on how my covid experiance differed from others #maybe its because my friends from the ship just got home and seeing them reacting to just everything that's changed ....#well it got me thinking

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prorevenge · 5 years

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You wanna take credit for my work? You wanna tell me you hope my family dies? Want to try to fight me for winning-out against your bullshit? Ok how's losing your ability to work in this city and a few years in jail as well as public humiliation?

We have to get a few details about me out of the way:

Backstory TLDR: Do not fuck with me. I'm blunt and stubborn. Also I'm better at my job than you will ever be so just get over that now. Also I hate my career field. I work in tech but I'm not going to be more specific than that.

A note on the stubborn-ness: I am the most stubborn, and blunt (rude if you push me) person you will ever meet. I expect everyone (Doubly so for management) to do the right thing even when no one is looking. One of the things I have learned is that narcissists and sociopaths cannot fucking stand me. They will actively melt down if they work with people like myself. Those people thrive when people have to 'be nice.' The exception to my stubborn bluntness? If you work under me. I help everyone working under me with everything they need 100% of the time and am super friendly unless they give me a reason not to be. I treat people under me (in terms of technical position and in the companies hierarchy) like royalty and the people beside and above me like "You should be at least as competent as myself, no excuses."

Example: If you lie about me/to me? Well I had better be getting an open, and public apology (to the people who you lied to) with admission of guilt or I'm going to make you fucking regret it. Best not be treating anyone else below you bad either. Lots of managers have a problem with this for some reason. Don't want this to happen? Don't lie.

Now with that said I have a constant wave of job opportunities. Every company I've ever worked for (including the one that fired me) begging to have me back at a higher pay rate than what I made when I worked there. Actually about 25% more than the highest pay in the country I live in. So I'm not in any position to care if someone is going to fire me.

Now thats out of the way, at my current job I've worked here for about 2.5 years. I took this job because it was going to allow me to have the time off I wanted: About 35 days of PTO, and 10 weeks (first 2 unpaid) of vacation time. Its a long story but basically I need the time off. I was hired in at about 50% of the standard rate of pay for this reason. Contractually I can take this time off any time I want. I could, if I so desired, leave work mid day and go on vacation.

When I first started the company laid off every other "IT Guy" after about a year aside from two. Those guys are mostly there to cover me leaving suddenly and if someone needs to pull something while I work on something else.

My previous manager actually recommended me to manage the department but I didn't want to take it so the company gave me an open door to take said position any time I wanted and they would just demote anyone in said position. This is where Sociopath comes in: To manage.

First day he pulls us all (My team + one more) into a meeting and talks about how hes a 'nice guy' but is going to drive us to work extra hard. This is where the first altercation occurs "Yeah how is that the case? [Other team] is purely reactionary and our team has literally no issues inside the company and 100% of our work is completed at nearly 3 times the rate of any other business in the area?" "We will hold questions for private meetings." "Ok fair enough."

He pulls me in and the first thing out of his mouth is to yell at me: "I never want you to question me ever again!" I was honestly stunned. "Excuse me?" "You will do what I say when I say! NOW GET OUT!"

He wraps up the 'meeting' by saying "I'm really glad to have gotten this job because I cannot leave this town due to the fact that I am obligated to watch my kids half of the year. So I can't wait to get to know all of you!"

I immediately went to HR as soon at the meeting was over and explained the situation. Thing is HR is the guy who hired me, and we like each other a lot. He tells me "Ok, well, unfortunately it would be against company policy to fire him this quickly. Also I have to take his side of the story first."

He didn't 'yell' at me after I went and spoke to HR but called me in and said "Listen, they are telling me to apologize to you and thats just not going to happen. I'm your boss its my right to treat you how I see fit. I didn't realize you were a rat, but now that I know that I'm afraid that I am going to be extra hard on you. Better do what I say or its your job!"

I replied "Its not your job to yell at people and maybe you should understand that. If you were half as competent as you want to seem I don't think you would ever have a reason to yell at anyone. Also if reporting behavior that is against company policy makes me a rat, then being a rat must be a good thing." He just yelled "GET THE FUCK OUT!" and pointed at the door. I replied "I'm afraid I'm going to have to go to HR again about your behavior if you don't apologize now." Which I did.

The issue? Well I live in a one party state for recording conversations. So I recorded said conversation.

Three weeks later and HR has decided to keep him on because we are still way ahead of everyone in terms of metrics. Since then my team and the other team has gone from loving their job to hating it. Everyone is reporting to me that he is screaming at them constantly but only in private. He doesn't even speak to me. The way he is treating the guys under me is what was really getting to me. They are HIS EMPLOYEES. He SHOULD NOT be treating them this way. I hate to use a quote from the office here but Micheal Scott is 100% correct: "A manager is not here to hire and fire, but to lead and inspire."

Now we are supposed to have certain metrics passed down to us by management but he has 'decided against that' to 'keep morale up.' However I knew what he was up to. So I went to my friend in HR and didn't tell him that he wasn't sending me the metrics (which he is required to do as per company policy) and had him send me a copy of everyone's metrics early "but keep it on the down low!"So he did.

For several months I told my team and the people under me "Just hold out on quitting he won't be here for long, trust me."

Slowly things between myself and him escalate. I make decisions that he doesn't like because "You didn't run that past me first." In reference to my vacations and days off. Contractually I don't have to do this and to be blunt I cant fucking stand him so hes just SOL when it comes to me not being there. This leads to several times of him trying to scream at me while I sat there and was 100% calm and patient but blunt and moving in my position that I can take leave when ever I want contractually and he is just going to have to get over that.

One of the things I specifically remember him yelling at me the last time: "You will do whatever I tell you when ever I tell you. If I throw a ball and say fetch you will fucking retrieve it. Do you understand?"

At this point I lost my patients and said "Are you done yet? Ok great you are going to listen to me now! You are hands down the worst manager I have ever worked under. You are unproductive, and the least competent. The other two guys metrics have been falling since you have been hired..."

Him: "Because your dumbass never listens to me. You are the problem here not me get out NNNNNNOOOOOOWWWW!"

Me: "Are you done? Because I think you are going to want to hear what I have to tell you! Your absolute childish behavior is unacceptable and I don't think that your supervisors or HR are going to appreciate how you have treated myself or this..."

At this point he gets up, grabs the chair in which I'm sitting, and literally rolls it towards his door screaming "I DON'T HAVE TO FUCKING LISTEN TO A DIP SHIT LIKE YOU! I'M THE BOSS DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD!"

I replied: "I hope you know this can be considered assault and battery."

Him: "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" and he promptly rolls me out of the office.

Now here is the thing: Before that meeting I said I wanted an HR rep to sit out side of the office and listen in. They said they couldn't do that but would place one in the meeting. He was late. He over heard he last SHUT THE FUCK UP! Just as he rolls me out into the hall. He then proceeded to look up, see HR and start sweating bullets.

Him:"Oh...huhuh, I was... we were just joking around."

Looking up at him: "No we weren't. He was just screaming at me and insulting me for no apparent reason."

He looks down at me hard and says: "This team always jokes around! I mean it was just a joke!"

I then pull out a small recorder and looked at HR and said "Well given that you missed the meeting I think you should just review it here on this tape as this is "just a joke" apparently performance reviews are 'just a joke' around here now."

HR insists we go over the performance review. He pulls his copy out and begins going over the metrics on it talking about how bad of an employee I am. As soon as he finishes I look at the sheet of paper he is going over I pull the metrics that my buddy in HR sent me. "No...No I'm afraid this is all wrong."

He looks at me "I...I'm sorry."

Me: "Oh yeah, [buddy in HR] sent me my metrics independent of what you sent me. In fact, and I can't believe you didn't know this, all of the metrics are review-able by any employee at any time if they make an inquiry. Actually you have failed to send us any metrics at all as is your job to do weekly."

The HR rep then looks at me "Is that all?"

Me: "Yes."

HR Rep: "Ok I think we are done here."

He requests that I stay, I look at him and reply: "No, I'm afraid I'm done listening to anything you have to tell me. Afraid I have an appointment to review your behavior with HR."

So HR and myself review the tape and their jaws are on the floor. HR Buddy apologizes to me. They ask me what I think should happen as I was the one who was originally up for promotion. I explain that he should not only have to write a letter apologizing for his behavior in email form, but also apologize to all the teams under him in person at one time. Just after they send an email to him I drop by his office and say "Hey man, don't worry. I didn't let them review that tape."

He sends an apology letter and tells me that "You are on my good side now!"

A few moments later HR comes down and tells him that its not enough and to have all the teams gather in front of him. In the mean time I rig up the conference room to have a typed letter of all the times he has yelled at every single person which took me all night to do.

He comes in and makes some bullshit apology thats a non apology "I'm sorry I was so hard on you guys. I just know your potential and...."

I cut him off (HR isn't in the room) "Excuse me? Thats not good enough! I'm afraid you are going to need to apologize for your actual behavior and not give an apology that sounds like "I'm sorry I was trying to help you and you didn't like it." No, I'm afraid you are going to need to actually apologize and admit to wrong doing and tell the actual truth!"

At which point he visibly starts to get angry "I...I AM APOLOGIZING!"

Me: "Ok go on"

Him: [More non apology with him being obviously fake upset.]

I press play on the slide show. "Ok since you didn't get the message the first time we are going to go through these individually. On December 11 2001 you screamed at Robert Robbington where in you failed to give him a review and simply called him a dumbass." I continue: "You need to repeat these words exactly if you want to keep your job: "Dear Mr. Rob, I apologize for being overtly hostile and rude. I apologize for failing at my responsibilities as a manager to both you and the team. I understand I have a problem with anger and am willing to seek help with my clear lack of empathy for other people. As such I will be signing a document admitting fault, under the circumstances that I ever hit you again I want everyone to know that I would be 100% at fault and you would not be, and proof of my misbehavior towards you as proof of my honesty in apologizing two witnesses will be signing this document."

As soon as I finish speaking he stands there and starts turning angrily red and says "MrBurington, we need to speak alone. NOW!"

I reply "No, I'm afraid we don't. If you do not wish to apologize to Robert Robbington then you can apologize to me for this!"

At which point I play the audio of him talking to me "I really hope your [family member] dies. I mean really. I'm your boss and this is your job and you care about [family member]? You think I give a fuck about them or you? You could die for all I fucking care. When [family] dies if you mourn I'll be mocking you. I just want you to know that. Now fuck off." (You see after that little incident I couldn't have given a fuck if I did get fired I just wanted to ruin this guys life.)

He immediately starts howling at me that I 'edited' the audio and runs to get HR. Shortly there after HR comes back and the entire room denies that any of this happened. We all instead go through with a plan I had from the beginning: I was going to expose him for the POS he was/is IF he does not honestly apologize and admit to actual wrong doing.

HR then tells him hes fired. He storms off.

Now this is where the hard core revenge part comes in. I used to work for every single IT Company in this town, or have connections to them somehow. Hell I trained at least half of the management at the last company I worked for. My words have weight. So I make calls to all of the places I have ins at which is literally everywhere in town telling them to black list this guy. However at two companies I request that if he applies I would like to show up and help them interview him. He applied to both jobs and I was sitting there in the meeting room "Oh hey! Just wanted you to know that I knew Mr. Meet for years." Middle of the interview I bring up his behavior with the audio from him telling me that he hopes my family member dies.

I then tell my ex-manager: "Also just note, you may want to write this down, all the tech jobs in our area will have a copy of this audio. So you can go ahead and explain to them why you told me this and they can relay that to me."

As soon as we get out into the parking lot he swings on me and starts screaming "I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU. FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU." I run back into the building and security detains him and calls the police (My buddy recorded this on his phone, as well as obtained a copy of the video from security)

After a quick court case and going to jail he shows up at my house with a knife screaming "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU! RUIN MY CAREER JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A BITCH." (I think he had the address from working at the company with me)

I called the police, got my gun, and explained the situation while I waited on the cops to show up. He proceeded to be detained and got sentenced to a 2 year stent in prison.

When you get out I hope you read this you see this you stupid fuck.

(source) story by (/u/MrBurington)

#prorevenge #by /u/MrBurington #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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reignmyworld · 6 years

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30 days and 30 nights - Roman Reigns x Reader

Summary: You and Roman decide to spend your vacation in a cabin in the middle of the woods to relax from your stressful life as WWE superstars. All could be so romantic if you hadn’t the feeling that he primarily brought you there, so the both of you could spend most of your time having sex without any interruption. As you confront him with that thought Roman denies your accusation and in order to prove you wrong he suggests to go 30 days and 30 nights without making love to you. You are certain that he can’t make it but you nevertheless agree. But who said that you would play fair? Of course he wants to win his challenge but so do you by making him lose.

Warnings: smut

Pairing: Roman Reigns x Reader

Life on the road could be tough from time to time. You loved your job, of course you did, but stepping in a ring every evening could be rather challenging. But no matter how much of a challenge it could be some time, you nevertheless enjoyed it. Especially since you shared that adventure and that passion with your boyfriend. Roman and you had known each other since your NXT days and spending so much time together on the road somehow led to more between the two of you so that you had become a couple in the course of time. But no matter how great that experience was, sometimes this kind of lifestyle was pretty stressful. One would think that being together on the road day by day would make a relationship easier but you could feel that sometimes it just had the worst of you, just like it had the worst of him.

Especially throughout the last couple weeks you were constantly at each other’s throat, arguing about things you wouldn't have taken too serious in the past. Not having had a proper vacation for months already had not only gone on your nerves but Roman’s quite alike. You couldn’t believe your luck when Roman surprised you by telling you that he had talked to Vince and he had made sure that the both of you got unpaid vacation for almost a moth since they wanted to write you out as a part of a storyline so you could come back with full force. Since you were able to live from the money you had saved, this sounded like a beautiful dream, that would come true. And to make it even more perfect Roman had rented a beautiful cabin in the middle of the woods for the both of you with no other person around, making sure that you and him would be completely without any interruption.

As you entered the cabin after a three hour drive, you were taken by surprise of how beautiful it was here. You had to admit that you were looking forward to the vacation you would be spending with Roman here, since whenever you both were touring as part of the WWE your relationship was primarily dominated by stress as you were heading from town to town, standing in the ring in a different city every night. Therefore you were extremely grateful when Roman surprised you with a vacation to a cabin in a beautiful forest that he had rented for the both of you. Nevertheless no matter how cute the gesture was, there was one nagging thought, that didn’t let you enjoy this in peace. And the whole thing didn’t really get better as Roman was closing the door behind you, invading your private space while doing so.

Roman put his hands on your hips, trying to pull you closer to him. You were dating for quite a while now and this whole time was rather intense to put it PG rated. As you felt his hips against your body you could clearly tell that he wanted to have you moan out loud under him. But no matter how much you enjoyed having sex with him, it kind of set you off, thinking that this was the main thought occupying his mind. It made you feel insecure not knowing whether he just dated you for the awesome sex you had on a regular basis or whether he dated you because he truly loved you. And that insecurity kind of made you mad. So instead of going with the flow, you wanted to know quietly: „Are you only thinking about fucking? Because if you do, I’m not quite sure whether I like that kind of relationship.“ Roman frowned as he took a step back from you, answering. “Of course not. And you know that Y/N – don’t you?” You just shrugged your shoulders, not being to sure about that.

“Baby girl if you don’t believe me, I will gladly show you.” ,Roman said. It was no big secret that he was always up for a challenge, no matter how hard it might seem to be. „And how exactly do you want to show me?“, you wanted to know, crooking an eyebrow at him. “That’s actually pretty easy. 30 days and 30 nights no sex.”, Roman exclaimed victorious while giving you one of his devilish yet handsomest smirks. You were laughing out loud as you answered: “You want to go 30 days and 30 nights without sex? You know that you can never do that. You are going to fail so hard, Ro.”

“Tell yourself that baby girl, but I can assure you that I won’t.” he said with you smirking devilishly yourself this time as you said: “Fine, having no sex for 30 days and 30 nights. But that also means no other way to get some release. Masturbating is off the table as well.“ Roman shrugged his shoulders before he answered: “No problem babe, I can do that.“, before he wanted to know: „What about the non- sexual but nevertheless intimate stuff? Like cuddling or hugging?“ You smiled at him as you answered: „Both of that is allowed, just like kissing, but nothing else.“ Roman smirked down at you before he leaned in to kiss you gently, mumbling: „Good, because I think I can manage going 30 days and 30 nights without making love to you. But I’m not sure whether I can go 30 days and 30 nights without feeling your lips on mine.“ If he was honest to himself, he had no idea whether he could go indeed 30 days and 30 nights without loving you passionately, but if he had to in order to prove to you that he was not just dating you because he loved having sex with you but because he loved you from the bottom of his heart, he had to somehow make it, no matter how hard it would be. You smiled at him mischievously as you added: “Oh and to make I extra hard for you babe - no pun intended of course- I’m going to alter the rules a little bit.” He crooked an eyebrow at you as he wanted to know: “What exactly does that mean?” You gently cupped his cheek, placed a passionate kiss on his lips and whispered: “You won’t get the chance to fuck me for 30 days and 30 nights. And as we already had agreed, you won’t get the chance to release yourself either. Me on the other hand? Well if I feel the need to I am allowed to let my fingers do the talking because I don’t have to proof that I’m dating you in order to have sex with you because I love you as you already know.” You could see that he was gulping hard, but he was nevertheless willing to accept that challenge.

Five days had already passed of Roman's and your vacation, that you both spent by heading out into the nature quite often. You were enjoying long walks around the lake or just sat on the porch while having a delicious barbecue, going for runs to stay in shape or just relaxing with a good book or listening to your favorite music while the sun was shining down on your faces.

Despite your agreement Roman had tried to seduce you from time to time but you strictly reminded him of his promise that he could go 30 days and 30 nights without making love to you. And you could tell that it was taking a toll on him. He was slightly grumpy and frustrated but he was not willing to give up his challenge that he had placed himself. Of course it was hard for you too, but you would have never admitted that, especially since you still had the option of helping yourself, an option that was off the limits for him. Besides that, you were also willing to make it through those 30 days and 30 nights not giving in, no matter how strong the seduction was. And sometimes it was enough to just watch him while he was working out, sending your thoughts on a journey of their own while you watched his muscles flexing, hearing him moan out in effort but nevertheless picturing him naked and sweaty over you while he was pushing in you, making you scream in pleasure. No it certainly was not easy for you either.

As you wanted him to lose, you decided to play a little unfair to make it even harder for him while making the whole deal more amusing for yourself at the same time. It started with little things like running around without wearing a bra which Roman definitely recognized judging from the longing glances he was given you when your nipples became extremely visible whenever you were freezing as the nights could get really cold out here. You also decided to skip on wearing panties at night causing Roman to almost loose his challenge when the both of you were lying on the bed one night, kissing each other passionately as Roman let his hands roam over your body only to find out for himself that you were completely naked under your night gown. He couldn’t help but groan against your neck: „Baby girl, you're a fucking monster, I hope you know that." You were smiling at him mischievously only to moan out in lust just seconds later when Roman bit your neck, sucking on that sensitive skin there.

With day seven of your challenge you decided to make it even harder for your boyfriend. You couldn't help but draw satisfaction from driving him nuts while knowing that he couldn't give in, shouldn't he want to lose. And you knew that he always was a fighter, achieving what he tried to achieve, no matter how high the costs might be. It was evening already with the sun having almost settled after a long day. The whole house was painted in a beautiful sunset as you were cleaning the dishes after the dinner you had with Roman just minutes before. As soon as you were done, you headed to your bedroom where you got out of your clothes and put a gown on only. You knew that Roman had mentioned that he wanted to relax in the pool on the porch for a little bit, so you decided that you might as well just join him.

As soon as you had arrived there, you carefully made sure that he was covered in boxers. Otherwise it might have been you that lost your challenge in the end - you were only human after all and no matter how annoyed you were at the beginning of the challenge, you nevertheless had to admit that you wouldn’t mind him fucking you nice and slow by now. You looked at him for quite a bit before you asked your boyfriend: "Mind if I join you?" Roman just grumbled something that you decided to interpret as his approval. Oh how underused and unsatisfied he was by now… You would rather bite off your own tongue than telling him that you almost were at the same state of mind. Instead, you smirked to yourself. That was going to be fun, you were absolutely certain about that. You slowly got rid of your gown, noticing satisfied that you had Roman's full attention as he swallowed hard eyeing your naked body, that he instantly wanted to roam with his hands while sending shivers down your spine until you would beg him to fuck you.

"Anything wrong?", you innocently wanted to know from him while crooking an eyebrow at him. "You're a monster" ,he just groaned. "Care to explain that a little more?“, you pouted unimpressed. "You know that I have promised you no sex or jerking off for 30 days and 30 nights. And you know damn well that it's hard to pull that through. And yet here you are sitting completely naked in front of me, knowing exactly how much you turn me on and that right now I don't want to do anything else but take you hard baby girl while you scream my name, leaving visible marks on my back as you would dig your nails in it due to me fucking you until you would be way too sore to walk anymore." ,Roman groaned while trying to focus on something else, anything else but you. You would have never admitted it but this confession combined with his dirty talk turned you completely on. But you would not give in, quite the contrary. You planned on making him suffer, just for the pure joy of it.

You moved over to him slowly, whispering in his ear as soon as you had reached him: "Honey, I would never make it extra hard for you." With that you slowly started kissing his jawline until you captured his mouth in a passionate kiss. Roman responded immediately to your affection, pulling you closer to him. Things got more and more heated between the both of you and you smirked into the kiss when you sat down on his lap, the warm water surrounding you while Roman groaned into your mouth. You were gently tracing the tattoo on his arm with one of your hands while the other one was on its journey to roam his chest, feeling his muscles tense under your touch with every millimeter you were exploring.

"You're a real beast", he moaned into your mouth with you muffling his noises with another passionate kiss. "Oh don't say that honey, that's hurting my feelings" ,you purred while slightly grinding down on him, your breasts rubbing over his chest. "Fuck", Roman groaned and you could clearly feel how erected he already was. "Don't even think about that, you know what you have promised. And don't you dare to cum. And whatever you are doing, don’t - under no circumstances - imagine how good it would feel right now if you could get rid of that fabric covering you, only to push yourself into me while my walls would tense around your dick, making it absolutely phenomenal to slide in and out while you set the pace of how fast or how slow you fuck me like you had done so many times before", you whispered in his ear while slowly continuing to roam his chest with further gentle touches. You hated to admit it but you were close to giving in and let him win that stupid challenge. By now you didn’t even care whether you were right or not. You had to admit that you wanted him, wanted him bad and that your whole body was aching to be touched by him, to feel his tongue and teeth leaving their marks everywhere they could only to be filled up by him completely in the end.

Before things could get even more heated between you however, you heard your cell phone go off on the kitchen counter. You grinned at Roman and said: "You should really thank whomever is calling me for saving your butt. I'm pretty sure that you would have lost our little challenge otherwise." You kissed him gently one last time, before getting out of the tub, putting your gown back on and turning back to Roman. "Just remember that you have to go for another 23 days and nights without sex and I sure as hell won't make it any less hard for you, honey." With that you left in order to answer your phone.

Roman was groaning in frustration, covering his eyes with his arm: "Fuck, me and my big mouth. That means war, sweetheart, that means war.“ And with that he was left alone in the jacuzzi with a hard on, that he wasn’t allowed to do anything against, while you were talking to one of your best friends, watching him through one of the windows, enjoying the agony and frustration he was facing as it lightened your own.

The next evening Roman and you spent a beautiful dinner together. "So you're really having troubles resisting me, don't you?", you smirked at him. "Of course I do. I want you every damn minute of the day and you're not really helping me with putting up with the challenge when you're acting like you had been doing recently. I can understand that you want to win that little challenge, but so do I." ,he confessed, before smirking at you: "How about I'll pay you back with your own means, getting you all hot and horny, just to leave you behind like a trembling mess?"

"Just try it and see what happens" , you smirked back at him before both of you continued with your dinner. You studied his face and you noticed how determined he was. You had no doubt that he would pay you back with your own weapons sooner or later. And you didn’t really have to wait long until he started running around shirtless the whole time as he knew how much you loved the sight of his chest as well as his huge tribal tattoo. In addition to that he did not really care anymore about putting a towel around his hips whenever he came out off the shower. And he knew damn well that you enjoyed what you saw, enjoyed it a lot. Whenever you thought that he wouldn’t notice, he could see the hunger in your eyes, causing him to react instantly. Of course it was challenging running around with an errection, not being allowed to do anything against it, but whenever he noticed that you had an extremely hard time yourself not to head over to him and beg him to fuck you hard, it was definitely worth it.

Nevertheless, day by day had passed with Roman turning more and more grumpy. You had listened to him, deciding not to play him like an instrument any longer or at least not to the full extent, just enough that you and him were equal. You of course had your fun with whispering all of those naughty things in his ear, touching him when he least expected it and making him rock hard during various occasions but you nevertheless felt sorry for him. The only thought that kept you going was that you - contrary to him - would be allowed to help yourself reaching a mind-blowing orgasm that at least would take away some of the friction you were feeling currently. Roman on the other hand, well if he wanted to win he had to suffer for several more days, thinking only about fucking you, not really making it any less challenging for him while doing so.

You were not gonna lie, you wanted him, you wanted him bad, but you would make it through those 30 days and 30 nights even if it required your whole self-control. And you had to admit, that you really thought that it was flattering that Roman was trying so hard to suppress his own needs and desires to make it through his little challenge, to proof to you that he wasn't with you because of the sex but because he loved you. Of course you already knew that, how couldn't you? If you were honest to yourself you even knew it before he suggested that challenge. But you simply were way too annoyed and frustrated back then, your stress having the worst of you, to just take a step back and admit that your accusation was just mean. But you nevertheless didn't want to break the challenge yourself and you didn't want to force him to give in. Okay that was a lie, you actually wanted him to give in, so you would be the winner of that little challenge and would finally be able to feel him inside of you again. But besides all of your mutual desires you knew that Roman was not the guy that would give up something easily if he wanted to hold on to it and somehow win it. Even if it was a stupid challenge.

As he was going for an extended run the next day, you had to confess that you had enough. Of course you would not ask him to skip the challenge but you felt that you were frustrated enough by now that you were willing to pull your joker. You definitely felt slightly bad that you could help yourself while Roman was not allowed to, but on the other hand, you didn’t really plan on telling him. You knew that he would probably be out there running out his frustration for the next hour at least. You headed for the bedroom and stripped out of your clothes, laying naked on the bed once you got there. As you lied there you thought about those countless times you had slept with Roman. To say that you had great sex with him was almost an understatement. He knew exactly how to push your buttons so you would turn into a trembling mess underneath him. You were thinking about how skillful he always licked you, circling his tongue around your clit before he would eat you out for what felt like hours. That - most of the time - was already enough to push you over the edge. Not to mention all of the different ways he was capable of fucking you just like you needed it in those various moments. He could be soft and gentle but he could also fuck you hard, leaving visible marks if you asked him to do so. Just thinking about all of this got you incredibly wet and you couldn’t really avoid the soft moan coming from you as you were tracing your fingers over your clit, gently rubbing it before you slipped your fingers between your wet folds, caressing the soft skin there, rubbing yourself in just the right rhythm you required in that moment. You dipped your middle finger into your dampness before returning back to your bud, gently massaging it before your rhythm increased. By now soft moans left your mouth as you imagined how it wouldn’t be your fingers but Roman’s tongue doing the work. You could feel your sensation slowly building up as you set your own pace, your fingers leaving your swollen clit just to return to your damp folds, circling your entrance before you slowly pushed one finger in, moving it just like you needed it in that moment. “Oh god”, you breathed, closing your eyes, imagining Roman’s fingers inside of you instead. It didn’t take you long adding a second one, fingering yourself just the right way so you reached that bundle of nerves that caused you to breathe harder and harder. As your fingers were moving in and out of you as if they had their own will, your free hand was grabbing your breasts, squeezing your already hard nipples, giving you sweet pleasure that you more than welcomed in that moment. You kept going at a steady pace, building the sensation in your body bit by bit while you were picturing Roman biting down on your breasts as he was fucking you in just the right mix of rough and pleasing while his rough fingers were teasing your throbbing pussy like he had done so often before. This thought alone was enough to send you over the edge and while screaming out his name your orgasm washed over you, leaving you trembling on the bed while your fingers continued their work. “Oh fuck”, you exclaimed while trying to catch your breath again, feeling how your juices were dripping along your thighs.

While you were still making sure that you were experiencing your release to the fullest, you had no idea that Roman had returned in the meantime and he was quite aware of how you took advantage of the joker you had requested for yourself right at the beginning.

As he had returned from his run, he was quite surprised that he couldn’t find you anywhere in the house. Before he could call your name ,however, he already heard your moans. He was walking up the stairs as quiet as he could and although he knew that it was wrong to spy on you, he simply couldn’t help as he was carefully opening the door to the bed room just to see you lying there completely naked while your fingers gently fucked yourself, your voice already hoarse by now as you moaned out his name again and again. He always loved watching you fucking yourself just as you loved watching him whenever he was stroking his dick before he would sink into you. Usually you were quite aware of his eyes on you, but not this time though.

As he was watching you from the other side of the door he had to stop himself from just going in there and taking over, giving you the pleasure that you so obviously needed. And he even more had to stop himself respectively his hands from vanishing in his pants in order to grab his dick and help himself through his misery. He wanted you, he longed for you and he sure as hell wanted to fuck you in that very moment. But he knew that he couldn’t. Not if he wanted to win that stupid challenge he had suggested himself.

Roman held his breath as he realized that you had been shifting on the bed in order to get up and head for the bathroom. As you were doing so, he could see that you were licking your finger, tasting yourself while he wanted to scream out in frustration. He never made a big secret out of the fact that he loved your taste, that he loved to lick you for as long as you wanted him to because before his own pleasure there was always coming yours. He had to stop himself from cursing out loud as he was standing there fully aware that you were heading for the shower, probably in order to continue where you had just stopped, while he was standing outside of the room, completely hard by now, not being allowed to do anything against it. Of course he couldn’t help that the thought of him going down on you automatically occupied his mind, replacing your fingers with his tongue just how he had done so many times before.

Just seconds later he heard the water in the shower running and quietly he entered the bed room in order to head for the bath room. He knew that he shouldn’t spy on you but he enjoyed watching you fingering yourself while moaning his name way too much to stay away, even if it was absolute torture for himself right now. He tried to ignore his erection as best as he could as he moved over to the bath room door, that you haven’t even cared to close completely as you thought that you were still alone.

As you felt the warm water caressing your skin you let out a small sigh. To say, that you helping yourself would have eased the tension somehow, would have been a lie. You really hated yourself for having agreed to that damn challenge and you hated yourself even more in this moment that you had voiced your concern that Roman would only be dating you in order to be able to sleep with you since you knew quite well that he loved you. If it wasn’t for your mood you could have had amazing sex with the man you loved since the start of your vacation already. Being quite aware of that fact absolutely frustrated you, especially since you could have ended it right away but you were too proud to give in.

You were determined to beat him in this game and if it meant that you would have to help yourself for the next couple of days, so be it. At least you had the advantage of being allowed to, contrary to Roman. As you were standing under the shower your fingers slowly traced over your belly in order to return to your sensitive spot to continue their work there while you were already sighing in anticipation, knowing damn well how to touch yourself to stimulate your biggest satisfaction. Just as your fingers had reached their destination you thought that you had heard a noise outside, making you stop in your tracks. You opened the door to the shower, letting the water run and tiptoed over to the door, that you left ajar.

As you slowly opened it, you were staring right at your boyfriend, who looked as if he had just been caught during shoplifting. You crooked your eyebrow as you wanted to know: “What are you doing here? I thought you would be going on an extended run?” You didn’t even care that you were naked as you almost instantly noticed the condition Roman was in. He cleared his throat while he answered - his deep voice slightly hoarse: “Yeah it wasn’t as extended as I hoped it would be. I guess you had some fun in the meantime?” You blushed slightly but this was soon replaced by a sly smirk as you answered amused: “You would know judging from the hard on you are spotting.” With that you moved closer although you knew that it would be anything but fair. As you were standing right in front of him, your breasts touching his sweaty t-shirt, you wanted to know while locking eyes with him: “So tell me babe, what erected you more? The fact that I was fingering myself or the fact, that I was imagining it would be you doing the dirty work while I was moaning your name?” You could see that your words had an enormous effect on him as he was shifting under your gaze. He knew that it was senseless to deny that watching you fucking yourself gave him this massive boner and he didn’t even care that you probably could see desire and longing on his face quite alike. To say that he was beyond frustrated by now was a major understatement when all he wanted was to have his way with you, paying you back for what you made him go through. “Both quite alike.”, he groaned before grabbing your neck, pulling you closer and crashing his lips on yours, kissing you passionately, making you feel how much he wanted you, making you shiver right away.

You were slightly surprised at first that he would dare to take that step as you knew how hard it was for him to stop once he had started but instead of warning him that he might lose his challenge you responded to his kiss with the same passion. It felt good being that close to him. You wrapped your hands around his neck, deepening the kiss even more. As soon as you broke apart Roman mumbled, his voice even hoarser than just seconds before: "God, you have no idea how much I love you." With that he kissed you again, slowly tracing his hand over your belly, gently stroking the sensitive skin there, making you moan into his mouth. You slightly pushed him away while mumbling: "Stop it or you're going to lose your challenge. You still have several days ahead of you and the no sex sign is still up."

"How can you expect me to stay away from you after what I have just seen? I know how much you want me baby girl, don’t even try to deny it. I know that I can somehow make it, but the question is... Can you? Besides that, it's not about sex, sweetheart. It's about showing you how much I love you and I don't need sex for that.", he kissed you again, before whispering in your ear: "I just want you to know that I will have my way with you once that little challenge of ours is over. And then I will pay you back for every little thing you had done to me, meaning I will push you as closest to the edge as I somehow can by licking and fucking you and once you need that last little push to stumble over, I will leave you hanging, absolutely enjoying the frustration that you sure as hell will be feeling then." He didn't even give you a chance to respond to his words, since he was kissing you roughly right afterwards, pinning you against the wall next to the bath room door, with you being trapped between him and the wall, slightly moaning into his mouth. You just hoped that your self-control really was as strong as you wanted it to be. As he pinned you against the wall, he decided to use your own weapons against you. His hand slowly trailed over your skin, his rough palm sending sensations through your whole body while his erection pressed against you. As his fingers were slowly wandering towards your clit, he gently teased you, feeling quite well how aroused you still were. Knowing that you wanted him just as much as he wanted you, was at least a bit of a comfort in that freaking nerve-wrecking situation.

You groaned as you did not want to give in but you would have given anything for those days to be over already. Roman captured your lips in a greedy kiss before he pushed his hand down completely and gently touched your moist folds, making you moan in pleasure just to pull his hand away seconds after, letting go of you and taking a step back from you while he looked down at you, a sly grin on his face as he wanted to know: “So baby girl, how does it feel getting all worked up just to be left alone right when it starts to feel good?” You shot him a deathly glare but you had to admit that you deserved that after all you had done to him.

It took a few moments before your facial expression changed and you smiled up at him. “You know what Ro? How about you go for another extended run of yours? By the look of it you definitely need it.”, you said with a knowing smile at his boner before you added: “I on the other hand... I have a shower waiting for me and if you would excuse me now, I would like to continue where I had stopped before.” With that you winked at him before you returned to the bath room, closing the door behind you and stepping back into the shower, a devilish smile on your face.

Roman let out a frustrated curse before he rubbed his hand over his face, considering his options. If he was honest with himself, by now he was absolutely fine with accepting his defeat, with accepting that he had failed the challenge. He really wanted to make it through it but you just had shown him his limits. Of course you hadn’t made it easy, not at all, but standing here now, imagining how you would let your fingers go to places in just a few seconds where his own as well as his dick should be instead, was too much to deal with. He was quite aware that accepting his defeat would mean him accepting that he was weak, but who was he kidding? When it came to you, he was simply weak as he could not resist you. He not only loved you from the bottom of his heart but he also desired you that it physically pained him not being able to touch you, to feel you, to sink himself into you. It just took him a few more seconds before he decided to act on it. “Fuck it I’m done.”, he mumbled as he stripped out of his t-shirt and his shorts before he opened the door to the bath room.

As he saw you standing naked under the shower while your hand travelled down slowly, he didn’t know that he could grow even harder, but he was proven wrong. Roman noticed that you were way too trapped in your thoughts to even notice his presence hence why he smoothly stepped into the shower behind you, pressing his body against yours, drawing a surprised gasp from your mouth as he hugged you from behind, letting you feel clearly what reaction you had on him. “What are you doing here?”, you wanted to know, trying to ignore how close and hard he was. He leaned down in order to whisper into your ear, his breath hot against it: “Proclaiming my defeat baby girl. I have tried to stay away from you for those 30 days and 30 nights but I failed miserably. It was fine the first few days although the thought of making love to you had occupied my mind ever since. But it grew harder and harder as time went by - no pun intended. And when I saw you before all hot and trembling on the bed moaning my name, I had to accept that I failed. I even tried to stay outside of the bath room a couple of seconds ago, but it’s just not possible. I want you way too much to do so. The only thing I want to do right now is to fuck you, sweetheart, and you know, just as much as I do, that you don’t want anything else more in this moment than being fucked by me.” With that he started nibbling on your neck, making you moan as you had to admit that he was right with every single word. “Me winning under those conditions is absolutely fine with me.”, you breathed before you turned around in his arms, only to be pinned between the wall and his body. He gave you a little smirk before he leaned down in order to kiss you passionately while he held your arms over your head, pinning them to the wall as well.

As he kissed you passionately the warm water caressed your bodies. When he let go of your hands, you wrapped your them around his neck before they traveled up to the back of his head, searching for his hair tie that you removed in one swift move the moment you found it. Roman crooked an eyebrow at you as you smiled up at him, whispering: “Don’t blame me, you know how much I love it when you wear them open.” Before he could protest, you were pulling his head down to kiss him again, while pulling at his hair, making him groan. Bit by bit your kisses grew more passionately while your hand left his hair in order to reach out for his dick before you started to slowly stroke his thick shaft, paying some extra attention to the tip of his head that you gently caressed with your thumb. “God dammit Y/N”, he breathed heavily, his body slightly trembling. You knew damn well what you were doing to him and you also knew damn well how much he loved it whenever you rubbed him just the right way.

As you slowly increased your pace, Roman decided to pay you back by not only biting in the sensitive skin in the crook of your neck, making you cry out in pleasure but also by attacking your swollen bud with his skillful fingers, rubbing you in the same pace you were working on him. You knew that it was just a matter of time until you would come all over his hand due to the sweet torture he was exposing you to. Before you could worry about that too much however, you heard your boyfriend groan: “I need to be in you, NOW. And there’s no discussion about that.” You had no problem with admitting that his demanding tone aroused you even more hence why you just nodded and let go of his dick before you mumbled: “This is something I certainly won’t discuss about. Just hurry up and fuck me Ro.” He didn’t really need to hear that twice. Although he actually was all in for foreplay and getting you set up nice and slow in advance, he had to admit that right now he absolutely had to skip on that as he was dying to finally be able to bury himself inside of you.

He gave you another passionate kiss as he grabbed your ass, squeezing it tightly before his hands travelled to your thighs, holding them firmly just as he lifted you up, pressing you against his body and the wall. You wrapped one of your hands around his shoulder and grabbed his cock with the other one once again, guiding him to your entrance. As you could feel the tip of his dick caressing your folds, you locked eyes with him, slowly nodding your head. This was signal enough for him to grab your thighs even harder before he pushed himself slowly into you, giving you time to adjust to his size like you always needed. You gasped out loud, absolutely enjoying the feeling of him filling you completely as you wrapped both your arms around his back, digging your nails into it, showing Roman that he was allowed to have his way with you just as he wanted to. That was all he needed as a reassurance before he lifted you up, bucking his hips to meet you halfway as he was lowering you again, fucking you slowly and gently while your nails scratched over his back. “God, baby you’re so fucking tight”, you heard him moan into your ear, sending shivers down your spine as he was pushing in and out of you, drawing soft moans from your lips as you crossed your legs over his butt, allowing him to push even deeper into you. “You like that baby girl?”, he asked you, a sly smirk on his face as you answered amused: “Like is an understatement. I love it. Just one thing Ro.”

“Anything baby.”

“Fuck me a little harder.”, you moaned and just as you had said it you were rewarded with rougher thrusts and an increased pace he was fucking you in. “Nothing easier than that, Y/N”, he smirked at you, biting into your neck while his hips moved harder and deeper into you than just seconds before. You were moaning out in pleasure as your nails scratched over his back before you digged them into his butt cheek, making him groan out in sweet agony as he was ponding into you, making your whole body tremble. “Fuck it, just like that”, you moaned, enjoying every thrust he was blessing you with while you covered his dick with your juices. You knew that pulling his hair while he was fucking you had the effect that he would get even a little rougher with you and you were fully willing to deal with those consequences as you lifted one of your hands, grabbing a handful of his long black locks and pulling on them forcefully, making him hiss out in pain and pleasure quite alike before he thrusted into you harder.

As he realized that you were close to coming he gave you a devilish smirk and stopped immediately in his tracks. “What the fuck is wrong?”, you wanted to know frustrated as you were so close to your orgasm, only to feel it drift away again the moment he forcefully stopped fucking you. Roman leaned down and bit into your neck, sucking on your skin, making you whimper due to the mix of pain and pleasure. You were quite aware that he was marking you as his and just as he was done, he looked at you, a sadistic smile on his face as he stated: “You don’t really think that I’ll make it that easy for you after the last couple of days, do you? No sweetheart. You want to come, you will wait until I am willing to let you come.” With that he pulled out of you. You wanted to scream out in frustration due to the sudden emptiness you were experiencing. “Are you fucking kidding me?”, you groaned, not willing to accept this one bit. “Not at all baby girl”, he mumbled before he freed himself from your legs around his butt, making you stand on weak knees. Just as you wanted to make a big fuss about it, he was turning you around forcefully, pressing your front against the wall. You could barely move and your surprised “What the hell?” was simply ignored as Roman forcefully spread your legs before he entered you from behind, pushing himself deep into you, making you cry out in pleasure.

You held on to the wall in front of you for dear life, while his tattooed arm held you up around your waist. His left hand was pulling on your hair this time, pulling your head behind as he was fucking you from behind, giving you a completely different sensation than just minutes before. You had the feeling as if he reached spots this way that he hadn’t reached before. His hips were moving in a steady pace and you decided to increase the sensation for the both of you by meeting his thrusts halfway. “Fuck baby girl you feel so good.”, he groaned while his arm left your waist, traveling up to your breasts to squeeze them before he pinched your nipples, causing you some sweet pain.

As he was sliding in and out of you, he started kissing your neck before he turned your head so he could attack your lips in a passionate kiss. When you broke apart, he mumbled: “You like it when I fuck you like that?” You just nodded your head, breathing heavily: “Yes” He suddenly stopped in his tracks once again, making you scream out in frustration as you furiously wanted to know: “What is it this time?” You looked at him and saw the serious expression on his face as he answered: “You want to come, don’t you sweetheart?”

“You’re fucking the living shit out of me, of course I want to come.”, you groaned angrily. Roman was grabbing your neck, making you look at him as he dangerously replied: “In that case you should be a little more enthusiastic about it. I have asked you whether you like it when I fuck you like that and I want an answer. And by answer I don’t mean a fucking yes, but I want you to tell me that you love it when I take you hard. So be a good girl and go ahead, otherwise you can kiss your orgasm goodbye.” You knew that it was one of your usual games and like every time it angered and aroused you quite alike. You gulped hard as you whispered: “I love the way you are fucking me, babe. It’s just perfect.” He kissed you passionately again before he answered: “Good girl, it wasn’t so hard, was it?” And before you could react he shoved his dick back inside of you, picking up his pace once again while you cried out in pleasure with Roman grunting at the same time.

As you felt his dick moving inside of you, you could tell that your orgasm was about to hit you with full force. You were breathing heavily as you mumbled: “Oh god I’m going to come.” with Roman answering: “Come for me baby girl.” It didn’t take you long until you orgasmed, screaming out Roman’s name while doing so, who kept on thrusting into you, expanding it while doing so. Just moments later you could feel how his thrusts became sloppier and sloppier before his dick started twitching inside of you. “Oh fuck.”, he groaned as he pressed himself closer to you, pushing hard into you another time before he shot his load into you, riding out his own orgasm while holding you close. He refused to pull out of you for quite some time, thrusting into you a few more times, so you and him could enjoy the aftermaths of your orgasms quite alike. Your own juices as well as his cum were running down your thighs but you didn’t care for one bit.

As Roman pulled out of you, he gently spun you around before kissing you, his tongue begging for entrance that you happily granted. While he was kissing you slowly and gently this time, it didn’t take long until you felt his hands roaming your thighs as he was cleaning up the results of your heated love session. As you broke apart he was smiling down at you while you returned his smile, wrapping your hands around his neck, gently caressing the back of his head while doing so. “I have never cared so little about losing a challenge as this time.”, Roman smirked at you while you replied amused: “You know what babe? Since I had my doubts that you could actually go without fucking me for just a couple of days, you had held up quite well. Therefore I will grant you that you won this challenge.” He laughed out loud as he said: “Thank you baby, you just have to promise me one thing.”

“And that is?”

“That we won’t repeat it.” You had to laugh as you gently cupped his cheek, whispering: “Nothing easier like that. I can’t go long without sleeping with you myself.” You placed a soft kiss on his lips, before you added: “We should really catch up on the last days we had missed out and should start round two, preferably on the bed this time.” He smirked down at you, answering: “Your wish is my command Y/N.” He engaged you in another passionate kiss as he lifted you up in order to carry you over to the bed to show you another time how much he loved you.

Both of you mentally thanked Vince for those unpaid vacation he had granted you. The next days sure as hell would be spent useful, neither you nor Roman had any doubts about that. And you would start with it right away as he pushed himself into you another time, making you moan underneath him again.

#roman reigns imagine #roman reigns x reader #roman reigns fanfiction #roman reigns smut #smut #roman reigns one shot #roman reigns fanfic #roman reigns story #roman reigns

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lubdubsworld · 6 years

Text

Bird Bones

Chapter 2

“Do you want to order take out? Or do you want me to make you some fried rice or something else?” Hoseok said quietly, helping me take off my jacket and shooing me into the cozy apartment , right over the dance studio he owned. Hoseok’s home was a two bedroom bed-sit of sorts, comfortably big and furnished rather eclectically, with bright and muted colors and fabrics of different textures. It looked homely and soft in some places, all hard edges and elegant perfection in others. But the whole thing came together pretty well, much like their owner.

A study of contrasts.

Both Hoseok and his home.

“ Anything you like. Sesame oil makes me throw up.” i said softly, toeing off my sneakers after bending down to untie them. Soon , I wouldn’t even be able to do this, I thought bleakly. There would be a baby belly on my way. I swallowed drily, feeling lightheaded as I straightened up. And something told me that not being able to bend over and tie my shoelaces would be the least of my worries.

“I’ll make you some chicken soup then. Go wash the rice and put it in the cooker.” He said casually, taking off his tie and unbuttoning his shirt swiftly. I hesitated before dropping my bag on the couch and moved to the kitchen, separated from the rest of the dining space by a small granite counter. i saw some unpaid bills and a few brochures for exotic tours in the mail, spread out on the black surface.

“When was the last time you took a vacation…” I said casually, flipping through a pamphlet on Angkor Wat. Hoseok grunted and i peered over the edge of the wall to see him pulling his belt out of his pants, taking off the neatly creased slacks as well. I took a deep breath and went back to opening the cupboard, grabbing the small pouch of rice and moving to get the measuring cups.

He came back out a few minutes later, shirtless except for a white wife beater and wearing his loose sweatpants, moving to the freezer to get the chicken before starting with his meal prep. He was good at this, easily grabbing sugar salt and olive oil, getting some lemon zest, crushing garlic and thyme and seasoning the meat with practiced ease.

We made the meal in relative silence, the kind that comes after years of being comfortable with each other. He had music playing and it was only when we had settled down for dinner that he brought the subject up. “So…when did this thing with jung kook happen…”

I hesitated.

“About seven weeks ago.” I said with a shrug. “ it was a one time thing…” “Were you drunk? “ I flinched. “A little bit. But not enough for it to be non consensual or anything. We both..well we both wanted it.”

Hoseok frowned. “You do realize that this going to change everything.”

I swallowed. “I’ve been thinking about it…. “ I said awkwardly. “ Maybe I could just get a part time job , enough to hire a nanny or …”

“You can’t be a mother and a student, Da Som. It will literally kill you.”

I stayed quiet.

“Have you considered adoption?” I shrugged. “I don’t know… I mean. Yeah, if someone can give this baby a better life then.. I’m not… I mean… I won’t be opposed to it .” I said softly not sure what I was agreeing too. It was early, too early for me to form an attachment but who knew what the days ahead would bring? What if I fell in love with this child? Would I still be able to give him or her up.

“It’s the best option. I don’t want to be cruel but there can be nothing worse for that baby than for you trying to raise it in that shitty dorm of yours, while you struggle to get a degree and a job.”

“I was planning on moving back to Seoul…” I said grudgingly.

“you still have an year of university left.” Hoseok said sharply.

“Can we not talk about this..?”

“Da Som….”

“I’m serious. I’m tired and this…this soup isn’t really doing much for my nausea, to be honest… I want to go sleep now.” I began to stand up but Hoseok brought his palm down on the table with enough force to make me jump a bit.

“Finish the damn food, you’re not starving when you’re pregnant.” His voice was as sharp as a whip cracking through the air.

I grudgingly sat back down, feeling bone weary and tired. Everything was just too much now, a sort of heaviness in my stomach and a hazy cloud of self pity threatening to take over. I felt like I was trapped, airless and struggling to breathe.

“Jung Kook has plans too.” He said suddenly and I looked up confused.

“What?”

“They’re not mine to say but I want you to know that he’s got his own plans, for how he wants his life to be and a child is not in those plans, no matter how much he tries to act like he wants to take care of you.” I sighed. Hoseok was honestly preaching to the choir at this point. No one knew, better than me , that jung kook and I did not belong in the same sentence, let alone the same path in life.

“He doesn’t have to do anything.. I told him he can just leave me be and…”

“He refused right? Instead he offered to take care of you… Don’t deny it, I witnessed it myself . Did you think why?”

I frowned , wondering what he was trying to tell me. Jung kook had acted like a decent human being, that’s all. Nothing out of the way amazing or extra-ordinary.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply here…”

Hoseok sighed.

“I just want you to know that people like him have a different way of …thinking things through, you could tell. i don’t want you to get swayed by his gestures or his words. Not when there is literally zero chance of him actually living up to his words.”

I knew Hoseok was right.

He knew better than anyone else how badly these people treated me and jung kook had, till a few weeks ago, been one of them. He was right. He was looking out for me.

But his words still hit a nerve. “You sound like you almost want him to treat me like shit.” i said angrily. Hoseok looked taken aback before sighing deeply.

“ You know that’s not what I meant, Dasom. I just want you to be careful. I don’t want to see you getting hurt because of misjudging the guy…”

I fought the urge to cry, tamping down on the urge with barely there restraint. It felt like I was always on the verge of tears, these days, the tears just welling up at the slightest trigger , but I also knew that it was both unfair and wrong to take it out on Hoseok. Hoseok, who had been and still was the only dependable person in my life.

“I know.. I just… I’m trying to work this out, oppa.”

He nodded.

“We’ll go see Seokjin hyung tomorrow, alright? He runs the Health center off campus and I can take some time off from the studio in the evening. Taehyung and Jimin will be able to cover for me.”

I nodded, only half registering the words. I didn’t particularly dislike Jimin and Tae. They were younger than Hoseok and taught some of the younger kids at the studio. However, they were also pretty close with Jung Kook, both their parents were part of the town council and their mothers were always working closely with Mrs Jeon in most of her charities. They didn’t really acknowledge me, other than the odd smile or nod when I ran into them at the studio.

“Okay.”

“And about the adoption thing. I don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you into this in any way. If you.. if you decide to keep the baby, I’ll be supportive , as much as I can. But it won’t be easy… You know it won’t.” There was a wealth of exhaustion in his tone and I noticed, rather clearly the bags under his eyes and the slightly loose fit of his clothes. I felt worry well up inside me, combined with genuine guilt. Hoseok did not deserve to be saddled with someone like me.

I nodded, finally taking the last bite of my chicken and grabbing a glass of water.

“I won’t make things difficult for anyone , just because I … just because I want to be selfish and…”

“it’s not selfish to want to raise your own child , Da Som…”

I bit my lips before laughing a little, the tears forming before I could stop them.

“Maybe not for others. But for someone like… well like me? It’s the most selfish thing in the world, really.”

“Da Som…”

“I’m going to bed now. I’ll see you tomorrow, oppa.”

~~~~~~~~~

“Well, you’re eight weeks along at the moment which means that you’re probably going to have another month or so of nausea. I can prescribe some meds for it but don’t take them too often. Also, are you taking all your supplements?”

I nodded, tapping the table with the pen as I frowned at the form in front of me. There was a whole section allotted to the ‘father’ and I literally did not know a thing about Jung kook.

“ Uh… is this stuff , necessary?” I said awkwardly , pointing out the columns asking for some stuff. Seokjin glanced at the paper and gave me an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry honey. They’re mandatory . Especially the one about his blood group and his allergies.”

I swallowed.

“okay.. Can I get back to you with these? Later?”

“of course. Take your time , Somie-ya. Just drop it off with Hoseok and I’ll get it from him , if you’re uncomfortable bringing it over to me yourself. I’ve written a note for you to carry in for your next appointment. You can probably meet me in my private clinic hereafter. I’ll be able to get your scans done there as well.”

I nodded, carefully folding the form and placing it in my bag . Hoseok helped me back into my jacket and gave me a kiss on my forehead.

“I love you baby girl. I’ll be busy tonight and tomorrow as well. There’s a showcase this weekend. I’ll see you on Friday before I leave to Seoul, alright?” He said fondly and I smiled.

“Sure, oppa.” I gave him a half hug before zipping myself up and pulling my bag up further over my shoulders. The moment I stepped over the threshold, I felt the blood drain out of my face.

A group of girls stood near the entrance, looking smug and downright scary.

I recognized two of the girls from my Creative Writing class, both of them huddled close to the door, looking rather to obviously, like they’d been listening to what was going on inside. But it was the girl in the middle who made my stomach churn.

Sana. Jung kook’s fiancée.

“SO guess all that sleeping around finally came around to bite you in the ass, huh?” one of them stage whispered and I went still.

I stared at them, half outraged and half in disbelief.

To my surprise they didn’t look even remotely ashamed. Instead the taller girl stepped forward , grinning. Sana didn’t stop her, still staring expressionlessly at me.

“What? Are you going to deny it?” The girl snapped and I shut my eyes.

“Get out of my way.” I said calmly.

Sana smiled then and I stared at her.

“We’ve never met before. I’m Sana. Jung Kook’s fiancée.” She grinned.

“So?”

“You don’t know who he is , do you? The father? Isn’t that why you couldn’t fill in the details?” she said casually.

I laughed out loud.

“I can’t believe you think it’s okay to talk to me like that? Is that what they teach you in your finishing schools?”

“Well, they certainly don’t teach us to spread our legs for every guy with a dick. Isn’t that something your mother taught you? Heard she was just like that…”

And it was amazing, that even though I’d heard variations of that sentiment, all through my life, it still stung.

“Wow. You really are a bitch.” I said softly moving around to get the hell away from her when her arm shot out, gripping my arm with surprising strength. I almost winced from the pain.

“Stay away from Jung kook. I don’t know what your game is but if I see you sniffing around him, I’ll make sure you get kicked out of college. Then you’ll have no choice but to be a real whore…” she whispered.

I yanked my hand back and grinned.

“Sweetheart, I really don’t give a damn about your boytoy. If you’re so insecure about keeping him, maybe you should get him a nice leash…”

“A slut like you doesn’t deserve to even breathe around someone like him. He’s a Jeon! He deserves only the best. He shouldn’t be anywhere near something like you!” She shouted.

“Go tell him that. He’s the one who can’t seem to stay the fuck away from me” I hissed angrily.

Her nostrils flared and I tossed one last glare before stalking away angrily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I moved to the bus stop, I caught a glimpse of Jung kook, leaning against the stop sign, grinning at his phone and looking, for want of any other word, downright beautiful in the fading light.

I felt fury rise up inside me like an ugly snake rearing its head.

“Hey, Da Som.. how was your day ? I was looking for you and-“ Jung kook stopped himself when he saw the look on my face.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” I snarled, curling my fingers into fists and shoving him hard, making him stumble. He swore and righted himself easily, moving closer and grabbing my wrists gently, stopping me from hitting him again.

“What… Da som.. are you okay?” He looked alarmed, pulling me closer and wrapping one arm around my back.

“Let go of me!!” I screeched.

“fuck… baby, stop screaming people are staring..” He panicked, wide eyed and confused but it only made me angrier. Yes, people were staring. People would always stare if I stayed anywhere near this man. He was the reason people stared at me. The reason complete strangers thought it was okay to hurl abuse at me. To call me a slut and a whore and a fucking prostitute!!

“Who gave you the fucking right to call me that!!! I am not your baby.. I’m not your anything… Stop.. I said let me go…” I yelped as he all but carried me away, arms wrapped tight around my waist as he hauled me to his car.

I grunted as he pushed me in, reaching over me and putting the belt on me. I felt my stomach lurch in helpless arousal, his cologne doing that thing where it sort of went past my longs and imbibed itself in my blood, made everything else haze except for the scent of him. The heat of his body, evident even through the layers of clothes and the few inches between us made me want to wrap myself in his arms.

All bad ideas, really.

When he was sitting in the driver seat, he took a deep breath and turned to me.

“Now… mind telling me what’s the problem.”

I took a deep breath.

“I met your fiancée. Lovely girl you have there by the way. I wish you both the very best.” I sneered.

Jung kook flinched and looked genuinely uncomfortable.

“shit.. did she… say something. Look she’s actually a nice girl, okay? She’s a bit possessive with me …so whatever she said, it’s probably not personal… so don’t take it to heart.”

“She told me that I’m a whore because my mother was one as well. It’s hard not to take that personally.” I said waspishly.

Jung kook had the good grace to look ashamed.

“shit.. I’m sorry. I just… I’m sorry you had a bad day.. let me make it up to you, okay? Let me take you out to dinner…” He begged and I stared at him disbelief.

“what do you think you’re doing?” I said in genuine confusion.

He blinked.

“what?”

“this..thing. where you keep acting like you actually care about me.”

He groaned.

“I do care.. why is that so hard for you to believe. That bay in there is mine as much as it’s yours and…”

“yours? Are you kidding me…? I do not see you puking twenty times a day and staying up all night because your body aches… I don’t see you feeling like death every time you have to swallow down food, or worrying about getting a part time job because you can’t even afford to buy maternity clothes when you get as big as a truck…. So enlighten me, how this baby is yours…” I shouted angrily.

Damn it, Somie don’t fucking cry…

“I would if I could.” He said softly and I froze.

“jung kook…”

“I want to be there for you, Da Som. I’m not joking… I swear I’m not. I just.. I know I can’t take away your nausea or your body aches and I certainly can’t have the baby for you…but everything else… I’m here. As a friend. ”

He moved closer, fingers reaching out to rest awkwardly on my knee.

“You shouldn’t be.” I whispered. “ there is no parallel universe in existence where you and I could be friends without it ending in disaster.”

Jung Kook reached out and cupped my face in his hands.

“Hey… that is not true. I can be your friend. I want to be your friend. And I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t care what anyone thinks…. I’ll be there for you. Because that is what friends do…”

How naïve was this boy?

I sighed in defeat.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking. But fine. You can start out by filling this form for me.”

#jungkook fics #jungkook smut

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

Text

Bowie Museum Pt. 2 — May 17th through May 19th, 2018

When I was initially planning my spring vacations, it was largely around a monthly cycle of Bowie Exhibit and Mattachine experiences. Since the Exhibit was scheduled to run from early March to the middle of July and since I had been enamored of Bowie the majority of my life, this was an expense I was more than willing to take on. In fact, now that David was no longer alive, this would be the closest I would be able to get to seeing him perform live — a pale comparison, I was certain to actually being in the same venue as the man….

But…as with the last travel experience, plans change. They have to. Either by a change in financial status, a change in emotional status, or a change of larger plans. For me, larger plans meant going to Australia to see John. By this time, four of the five dates had been announced and the tickets released for purchase. The first and second being the absolute bookends for the trip with Adelaide and Brisbane. Naturally I had tickets to all of them, but I knew that when push came to shove, I’d have to pick whichever grouping of dates gave me the most concentrated amount of shows for the least amount of time. I didn’t think that I had been with my current job long enough to justify taking that much time off — even with the explicit reassurance that I knew perfectly well that I would be taking a significant part of that time as unpaid. Even if I had been with that job long enough to justify taking what would amount to five weeks, I wasn’t sure that I would want to.

So plane tickets were booked and budgets adjusted around the understanding that my first show would be on July 6th in Sydney and I would have what more or less amounted to a show a week for three weeks (even if they weren’t quite spaced like that.)

In lieu of the extra couple of weeks in Australia, when it was announced that Mason and Mimi would be bringing back their Taboo staging, I jumped at the chance to go again. I confirmed the tickets were available and then a couple of days later booked the plane ticket. The first time the show had sold out, but only within a couple of days of the actual date. I had felt confident that it wouldn’t sell out that quickly this time and that I could secure a good rate for the plane tickets before purchasing the show tickets. When I went to book them though, something had come up. The original link that had been posted for the tickets routed to a dead end that wouldn’t allow the tickets to be finalized and the website for both the venue and the production company had been all but scrubbed of the existence of a second show.

I thought about cancelling the trip, refunding the money, and having more money to play with when I got back to Australia. But instead, Risa and I planned a trip that would be an extended stay at David Bowie Is where we would take a full afternoon at the show, bringing both Advil and water into the exhibit and then later take in a live talk with one of David’s most prominent designers. The one that had designed the first outfit you saw when walking in. And the second day, instead of being spent seeing Mason would be spent taking an informal tour of Hedwig history, one where we would visit the now-remodeled Jane Hotel, the Belasco, the West Village that featured so prominently in JCM’s videos, but not Mattachine now that the ticket had been booked for the week before the Thursday we were expecting it to be.

This time going up to New York, I came into the Philadelphia airport and witnessed a much longer drive up to Brooklyn. The flight in had free wifi for the majority — a pleasant surprise given that a child on the plane was having what sounded like the worst experience of its young life. Instead of screaming baby, I was able to listen to nonstop David Bowie music. Just the thing to set the mood for the afternoon.

Risa and I took great pains to stress that we were capable of walking to the museum ourselves. The last time, we had been a little…escorted and given that we were both adults within the very safe confines of a museum, we were safe in the assertion that we got this. The only thing to call that into question was my nice new, still weeping thumb scar — a product of my being relatively careless with a craft knife while shaping a custom Funko Pop doll.

After we convinced her parents, we went upstairs to the exhibit. This time having untimed tickets, we were able to go in whenever we pleased. I checked the time on my phone and deemed it far enough away from the start of a fifteen minute block to go in. We received our headphones, but this time paid significantly less attention to them. Being the Bowie enthusiast of the pair of us, I gave Risa a mini-tour, filling in some of the information left off of the exhibit cards, disputing information that rang false (which given that the exhibit was put together from Bowie’s archives, but not his fact checkers was necessary at times), and tying things back not only to Hedwig and John, but to other cultural touchstones that Risa might have known.

Without the urging of her parents to take less time exploring the minutiae, we spent more time examining the video footage and getting close to the items we wanted to see. And since we had already been there before, we were able to be more confident that we were seeing every section of the show as opposed to passing over rooms due to crowd movement.

We left after inching our way through the exhibit, we made our way out to the gift shop. I took the chance to ask what the difference was between the hardbound and softbound versions of the catalogue other than the obvious one was hardbound and the other wasn’t. It took two different exhibit workers to get an answer but apparently in terms of content, they were the same. I had a list of memorabilia that I had purchased the last time and a list of things I had wanted to buy the first time, but they had run out. Originally, I had placed a $300+ order through the website, but it had been cancelled after a few days due to a high volume of sales.

After the last time, the lady in charge of upstairs merchandising recognized me. I wasn’t sure if it was the fussiness of asking over a $1.50 button or the amount that I had spent. This time, she helped me find a record that I had rethought my position on buying and telling me the price of a t-shirt that was significantly higher than the other ones the exhibit had on offer. After some difficulty getting checked out, we exited.

Immediately getting into the more traditional museum fair, it felt like the building’s fever had broken. We sat down in the relative coolness. Risa texted her parents that we were out and I texted my mom. Her parents wanted to know what we were going to do for lunch as they were going to come and get us if we were going someone. The last time we had eaten in Brooklyn, it took us close to forty minutes to find a restaurant that wasn’t crowded and even then, it wasn’t one that I had an easy time finding something to eat at. My position was that Risa and I could find one on our own. And we did, agreeing that Popeye’s sounded nice as we passed a gentleman eating a box of chicken in the downstairs café.

Her parents thought it was too far to walk compared to the time we had to be back for the talk. Regardless of whether it was or not, after significant back and forth over what to do it became too late to leave the museum for food at all, let alone to leave and come back for dessert like had been my plan.

A few more moments of quibbling over whether or not we’d want to actually at the overpriced café, the overpriced café with items specifically designed to go along with this exhibit, we just stood up and decided it would be then or never. Good timing because if we had waited any longer, we would have missed out on that night’s talk for sure.

In the café, we ordered a Blackstar cake — a dark chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and an orange glaze with little dark chocolate cookies spelling out David’s name in the Blackstar font — and a Thin White Duke drink for me that comprised a coconut rum, vodka, lime juice, and a cherry. We were both thrilled with the food selection and the well-timed service of our very nice waiter.

Just on time, or perhaps a touch late, we went down to the auditorium where the talk was being held. Kansai Yamamoto, the designer we were seeing, had more than a few antidotes memorized in English that he told at the start of the talk with impeccable timing. He was less interested in answering the host’s questions and more interested in delivering interesting stories tangentially related or on topics that he wanted the audience to know about. He told us about his design history outside of working with David, what his inspirations were, how proud he was of his daughter…. He talked about his first impressions of David and the ones he held later as they worked together on more projects. He talked about hosting David when both of their children were small and showed a photo of Duncan with his own daughter.

After the part that he had preprepared, he turned the English talking over to his translator, a very attractive and funny man in his own right to whom he had been introduced to only that morning. While he was able to understand the majority of the English around him, he explained that his brain wasn’t fast enough to translate the sentences he wanted to say, which was why he used the translator. Kansai also admitted that he was answering the questions in ways that interested him over more straight forward answers.

At the end of the speech, Risa and I chose to wander around the museum looking for things of interest. They were having a Bowie ball of sorts with dozens and dozens of people dressed up. We walked past where they were setting up and when we ran into him, personally thanked the translator for what he added to the talk.

Walking around, we looked at exhibits centering around Egypt, again with less than impressive captions and saw the tiniest mummy figure, a miniature dildo, and some of the pages of the Book of the Dead. That was the sort of thing that if I knew more about Egyptology, I would have been highly interested in studying at length.

We meandered our way downstairs, checking out the final part of the museum that had caught our eyes — the exhibit on Korea. That one again the captions were lacking, but added context that in terms of how anthropologists looked at Korea, they have only recently started to have their own cultural relevancy with the majority of their history being under the reign of China, Japan, or other Asian forces that had invaded them over the years.

We went downstairs and caught up with Risa’s parents. While we were seeing Kansai Yamamoto’s talk, they saw the free talk downstairs talking about David’s influence in fashion. Both had sounded appealing. The last thing we bought at the exhibit was a grapefruit margarita that Risa bought for me before we headed back to her car. The majority of our things were already in the car from earlier, which made a very easy post-event depositing into the car.

On the way back, we got McDonald’s and once we were back at Risa’s house further discussed David and the museum, this time with added youtube links for songs and photos that hadn’t been exhibited when we went to go see. Another few hours and we didn’t even make it out of the 70s in terms of content.

The next day, we chose to sleep in late. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before the flight and was up more or less for 24 hours before I was able to get into bed. Plus after the lack of agency we had at the museum, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to take a New York tour that very much would have to be guided by her parents.

Instead, we chose to go to Risa’s favourite Asian market. Knowing my fondness for the Asian grocers near me, Risa was eager to show off the shopping plaza that she and her anime group often went to. I agreed and late in the afternoon, we left for Mitsuwa.

Once we arrived, we got lunch and I found one of the things I had been missing most from Japan — coffee jelly. The coffee jelly in Japan was cut up into cubes and placed into a nice milky base as if the cubes were acting like ice cubes in a drink. The one here was a denser selection of jelly with soft serve ice cream swirled on top.

Among the other food I purchased was three additional drinks I’d never had before with the idea that three was reasonably the limit I could get through before going home, a bag of gummy lychee candies because I’d wanted to try them for awhile, and a box of my other favourite Japanese food, raisin sands.

We looked at the makeup, cookware, booze, and other sections of the store, sometimes with me explaining what a product was or could be used for and other times with Risa pointing out that she had seen something before or that it was something she had tried at the anime mart. We found no end to things that would have to be tried later either for a lack of immediate funds or, more often, a lack of time in which to do it.

We stepped outside of the food market portion of Mitsuwa and back into the food court. Risa insisted that I try a fish shaped waffle with red bean paste called taiyaki. I was surprised at how well the flavours went together.

The next place we went was the bookstore. At the very back of the store was a separate paper and stationary store set up not unlike how Borders used to have their stationary, but with greater detail and actual variety of items and not just casings. I could have bought the entire tiny store with its brightly coloured papers, meticulously lined notepads, rainbow of ink selections in gel and ballpoint and all manner of cute. I limited myself to a floral plastic folder for papers, a small lined notebook to make my attempts at learning Japanese and Korean seem more authentic—and so that my letters didn’t dwarf the page, and a small corn shaped eraser for my mother since it reminded me of the Dekalb corn signs that she’s so fond of.

In the outer bookstore, there was less of interest. It was a beautiful store, but given that whatever I bought I would have to carry on my back back to Kansas and the high prices in a real bookstore as opposed to my usual used bookstores, there were automatically less appealing options. I did find two books on Yuri!!! On Ice, one of which I bought to make up for the lack of show merch I was able to find when I was in Japan.

Last was the general items store. Again, Risa and I spent a long time looking over times like sushi themed socks and cute luggage that might have made travelling easier had I not already had my obnoxiously unique purple hearted luggage. We stayed until the store was ready to close, apologizing that we hadn’t realized that it would be closing so soon and I picked up another button for my coat jacket — a pink Hello Kitty produced by a drink company I was familiar with. It soon found a spot next to the Bowie pin and the clay Hedwig pin that I had bought off of Etsy.

We went back to Risa’s, me eating on some of the food I had acquired at the Asian market and carefully trying to balance starting a new drink so that I could have a different new one at Rocky Horror and the last in the morning before my flight.

For evening plans, Risa’s mom had suggested either a live performance of Cabaret, which neither Risa nor I was super enthused about or a shadow cast version of Rocky Horror. We opted for the Rocky Horror experience.

In between goings on, I created a new punk/glam makeup look, applied a fake tattoo to my stomach, and changed into the blue Origin of Love shirt I had brought with me. I figured why not combine my two favourite musicals?

We drove out slightly past midnight to a dead looking strip mall movie theatre. Risa’s mom dropped us off and said to text her when the film was over knowing from past experience that the show started at eleven, but the actual film could start anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half later than that.

We bought our tickets and another pin for my jacket and Risa and I went to sit down. We picked the back row, naturally.

The show started and they had an “impromptu dance party” that lasted a few seconds, a Rocky Horror baptism where they placed rice on the new baby of two former shadow cast members, and a few quick announcements before having their virgin activity and starting the show. The shadow casters and the audience weren’t exactly the stuff of legend that I’d been hearing about for over a decade in regards to Rocky fandom. The cast didn’t know their lines and the audience seemed to be going through the motions of “this is what we do on Friday night.”

So I decided it was a sing along. And I decided that whichever songs I wanted to get up and dance to, I would. I shouted a few new things or things I’d read in my Rocky Horror books to liven up our experience with the showing. For the most part, it didn’t interfere with the other movie goers since we were seated so far back and the things people did observe were met well. We left very happy and I felt like I had mentally reclaimed a film that had been tarnished by a bad experience with an ex and the atrocity that was Fox’s attempt at a remake.

We went back to Risa’s house again for a few hours before we all had to leave for the early morning flight back to KC. Given how much trouble we had had getting me back the first time, we left extra early to make sure I actually got on the damned plane the first time around. Naturally, I was almost through security as soon as I got there.

For airport food, I chose a coffee and some Popeye’s fries and during my layover, I grabbed a bagel and lox. From the moment I got off the plane in Kansas City, I would have to be up and awake until at least one in the morning due to volunteering to take the late-late shift to avoid missing any work. It took until I got back to Kansas City since the airport one was only serving breakfast, but I finally got the Popeye’s I had wanted for three days.

#bowie museum pt. 2 #New new New New New New New New NEW New York #travel diary #travel diary new york #new york day 1 #new york trip 2 #new york trip 2 day 1

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ecotone99 · 4 years

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[RF] The Gazing Flower

Wake up, clean up, work, eat, sleep.

She did not had to leave her house to enjoy life. Her home, was also her office. She was one of the few residents still living on the tallest apartment in the neighbourhood. Her office overlooked at a roofless restaurant surrounded by other empty apartments and palm trees around.

A long, grey, and quiet hallway would greet the brave people who took the metallic trap box of an elevator. The brown dusty carpet on the floor lead the people to her door. She would clean parts of the carpet weekly to make it known that someone was there, in between the dirt. A welcome mat stood outside of her wooden door. Next to the mat, a Weeping Fig named Ördek stood tall. Its puffy and green leaves were slowly reaching for the roof with every passing season.

She had removed her name tag from the side of the door bell permanently, to right below the peephole after it went missing one morning. Now, a bronze metal was screwed to the door that shined with her name; Dr. Özlem Karadağ.

Özlem would greet the clients herself, if her little girl was not around. A smile she practiced longer than her job would be on Özlem’s lips moments before opening the door. A tall wooden hanger stood next to the door that was mainly empty. Her clients would often carry their jackets and bags with them inside the office. On her first year of practice, she realized people who were anxious and depressed often needed a familiar object to reattach them with reality. Inside, the door opened to a short hallway. Flowers of all shapes and sizes decorated each side of the empty wall. She had photos of her daughter, and a few landscape photos taken by her over the years. One end of the corridor lead to Özlem’s own bedroom, adjacent to her daughter’s smaller room that was occupied every weekend. It was decorated with cutouts of rainbow and various animals. On their first week of moving in, her daughter borrowed a blue marker and a piece of paper to notify any passerby with her own hand writing; Aylin’s Room. The paper was taped on to the white door, which would fall down with almost every swing.

The visitors peaked at her corridor, to take a glimpse at the lifestyle of their psychiatrist. Özlem then would gesture them to a small opening behind an arch that lead to her office.

Özlem did want to keep the decorations simple at first. There was a beige couch for those who wanted to lay down. She sat on a red chair in front of the couch. She had a work desk during her off hours to work on reports, and to keep her leather notebook in between sessions. A short, yet wide table seperated the couch with her seat for those who wanted to rest their legs. A kettle on a small cupboard would finish running moments before every appointment. Single use tea and coffee packets were available next to the sugar cubes.

Although she wanted to fill the cupboard with actual cups, Özlem got tired of picking new and special ones rather quickly. There was only a handful of them now. She first pick out what was popular on TV that year for their decorations, but all became rather dull in colour as the years passed. A colleague suggested her to pick ones with motivational quotes on them. Özlem did not want to give false hope to her clients. It was not her job to make people happy. Books of various genres slowly began to take more space on the cupboard than glasses.

The ones who sat on the couch were able to take a peak at the restaurant below through a wide window. It was alive every day of the week, from morning to late at night. The laughter and chatter of the crowd below helped her patients to escape their minds even if it was momentarily.

The once plain walls saw many changes throughout the years. She had a map of the world behind her chair, right where the clients faced. Then she moved it a little bit higher, to hang a plank on the wall for her flowers. It was only a few lines of carefully cut wood at first. Her flowers grew in numbers as the years passed. Once the house had enough flowers, she would take Aylin with her on a road trip, to Özlem’s village where her parents lived.

During her first introduction with a new patient, Özlem would try to match them with a flower in her mind, then she would place their flower in front of the window before every appointment. She named them all based on a specific word her clients had said previously.

Her new favourite flower was a white Orchid that was not for a patient, but a gift for her after a conference she attended recently. Özlem was invited as a speaker by an old professor to talk about the ways her patients dealt with the anxieties of terminally ill patients. Although Özlem thought she bombed the speech, many of her colleagues had approached her afterwards to give their praise.

The flower itself was a gift from the widower of a famous psychiatrist. Özlem and the woman only chatted for a brief moment at the end of the conference, yet she found the Orchid waiting by her door with a “Thank You” card.

The nameless Orchid stood tall on a table by the window, occupying most of the space. The flower for that hour’s patient stayed in the shadow of the Orchid, listening to the patient with Özlem.

Today, it was a sun flower seed that was growing for a few months. While Adil the Fifth was still some time away from producing any seeds, it had finally given out yellow leaves that turned itself over the couch. The brown and rough disk on the center stared at the two human.

A man was sitting in front of Özlem today. His hands met above his khaki pants. His thumbs fought each other as he thought about words to say. His dark brown eyes took a tour around the room. It never stared at Özlem for long, but she kept hers on the man through the appointment.

His eyes found the world map still hanging on the violet wall as he prepared himself to speak. A blue vein that was pulsing in rage above his eye brows slowly calmed down. Gray lines of his hair shined in the summer heat. Whatever left from his old brown hair was slowly succumbing itself to the grayness with each passing week. He was full of life just four months ago when he first knocked on her door. As the sessions continued, he only gave details about himself during his outbursts.

“At least she is still letting me see my kids.” He spoke calmly.

“Of course. That is your parental right.” Özlem replied. “Have you planned anything with them?”

“I wanted to take them on a resort.” He scratched the wrinkles that had appeared recently by his eyes.

“Maybe to İzmir. My son loves his history, and my daughter enjoys the water. She will become a great swimmer one day.”

“Will you go?”

“I really do want to leave.” His eyes turned towards the two flowers bathing under the afternoon sun. “It would be good for me too, I suppose. I am planning on taking an unpaid leave from work.”

“But?”

“I don’t want to drop dead on vacation, and leave my kids all alone. The doctors are not giving me a clear time table. They first said it would take 10 weeks for the cancer to make me bed bound. It’s been eighteen, and I can still walk. I even run in the mornings.”

“How do you feel during your runs?”

“I have the energy of my son, with the back pains of my dad. I run twenty minutes before cramps hit my leg.”

“But what do you feel during those twenty minutes? Do you feel free? Do you get tired? Nauseous? The couch you sat on saw a lot of tears from people before you.”

“I will not cry.” The man said. The vain had appeared above his brows once again.

“It is a perfectly normal response.”

“I have a killer following me everywhere, and there is nothing I can do. It is more frustrating than normal. I run because that’s what a normal human does to relax, not because I want to outrun the illness when I know I can’t. I know I am dying. I know I may not wake up the next time I go to bed. I know today might be the last time I will ever see my kids. I know the kiss I gave to them may have been the last. The beer I drank yesterday might be the last. The goodbye kiss I got from my girlfriend this morning might be the last. I know all those things, and it is not fair to them.”

“What makes you think life is fair?”

The man moved his eyes towards Özlem. They were open wide as he struck his brows to think. “I worked hard to be where I am in life.” He spoke after a moment. “My wife… my ex-wife, and I lived in a one bedroom apartment not far from here for half a decade before I began making a proper living. I didn’t bought her current house by slacking. I put my blood and sweat to give my kids the life they deserved.”

“Yet, you did not provide the same love for your wife.”

The man turned his eyes to the sun flower during his reply. “I don’t think she did the same for me either. She filed for divorce months after she learned about the affair. She was gone as soon as my wage tripled.”

“Do you think she was right to leave?”

“I did beg for forgiveness.”

“Before or after your diagnosis?” Özlem doodled on her notebook.

“Both times.” The man smiled. His fingers reached for the sun flower leaves momentarily. “I didn’t want to start over again with a new woman, I suppose.” The man’s words were cut short with the clock on the wall quietly ranging. Özlem got up first, and the man followed as they slowly walked out to the corridor.

“Thank you for coming today. Think about what we talked until our next meeting.”

“If I am still standing.” The man mumbled.

“You are stronger than you believe. Much more stronger.” Özlem smiled as she opened the outside door.

“Thank you for having me.”

Özlem sat on the stairs of the building’s fire escape during her supper. She had a few extra bottles of beer on the side, and a plate on her lap. Her feet dropped on air as the warm evening breeze hit her face with the sunlight. She drank and ate with the patrons of the restaurant below. It was not long before the neighbourhood cats smelled the meat and cried for her on the ground.

“You again?” She smiled at the gray cat. Another ginger furred one watched her silently.

“Meow.” The gray cat responded.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Özlem picked a piece of meat to drop on the ground.

“Meow.” The ginger cat watched the gray one eat.

“Here.” She tried to drop the next piece closer towards the ginger.

One beer was to escape from the heat. Two to forget about her daily patients. Three beers made her mind fuzzy, and allowed her to walk without thinking for long. She left her apartment when the grey streets were lit by lamps and the moonlight above. Music blasted on the narrow streets of Kadıköy. Every turn brought new and different melodies. She could feel their echoes on her ears. She chose a pub built underground as her destination, with dark walls and playing music to push her on the dance floor. She did not speak other than ordering more drinks. She danced for hours before coming back home alone.

The door bell woke her up the next morning. She still had her clothes on from last night. She noticed her messy hair on the mirror before leaving the bedroom.

The door bell rang once again.

“One moment, please.” Özlem yelled as she ran to the bathroom at the other end of the corridor.

The door bell rang again.

“I will be right there!” She responded as she quickly threw water on her face, and combed her hair. She grabbed a towel on her hands as she walked over the door. There was no one on the other end of the peephole, but she still opened it.

“Mommy!” Aylin jumped on Özlem to give her a hug.

“You are early, hun.”

“Daddy said he had a last minute meeting come up as he was packing for his vacation.”

When Özlem looked at the end of the hallway, she saw the elevator doors closing on a man. She could make out the colours of navy blue T-shirt she once bought before the sliding metallic doors met each other.

“I see.” Özlem grabbed her daughter’s backpack from Aylin’s shoulders, and held her hand as they got inside. “Did you had your breakfast yet? I am starving.”

“I did.” She stared at her mom with big eyes. She had gotten Özlem’s wavy black hair, but those green eyes that gazed one’s soul were definitely from her dad. “Sarah got me this new colouring book, and we went to the zoo yesterday.”

“Well, tell me all about it.” Özlem sat Aylin on the kitchen table as she grabbed the ingredients.

Wake up, clean up, work, eat, sleep.

Özlem did not had to leave her house to enjoy her life. She taught Aylin how to take care of the flowers during the day, and Aylin would question her about random ones around the house. Özlem could listen to her little mess talk for hours. She read books out loud every night as Aylin fell asleep on her chest.

Original post was removed for a mistake on my end. Here it is again. It was an interesting experience to write a Slice of Life short after losing myself in so much Sci-Fi/fantasy.

submitted by /u/HydraVea [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/361mhE3

#Blogger #Story

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celtfather · 5 years

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What Are You Doing While Listening to Celtic Music #432

I want your feedback. What are you doing while listening to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast? This week, I'm gonna share a bunch of feedback from the past couple o'years.

Poisoned Dwarf, Seldom Sober, Songs For Ceilidh, Mitchell & Vincent, Ciunas, Kennedy's Kitchen, Alasdair Fraser & Tony McManus, Kellswater Bridge, Captain John Stout, The Jig Is Up! from First Steps, Brobdingnagian Bards, Dylan Walshe, Sylvia Woods, The Jackdaws, Claire Roche, Black Market Haggis, Crepuscule, The Round Table, Tartanic, The Celtic Kitchen Party, Moch Pryderi, Teton Skye, Alexander James Adams, Molly's Revenge, Celtic Woman, O'hanleigh, Ciana, Vintage Wildflower, Katherine Nagy, Bellow Bridge, Jil Chambless

I hope you enjoyed this week's show. If you did, please share the show with ONE friend.

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is dedicated to growing our community and helping the incredible artists who so generously share their music. If you find music you love, buy their albums, shirts, and songbooks, follow them on Spotify, see their shows, and drop them an email to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.

Remember also to Subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. Every week, I'll send you a few cool bits of Celtic music news. It's a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Plus, you'll get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free, just for signing up today. Thank you again for being a Celt of Kindness.

THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC

0:05 - "Bolt The Door" by Poisoned Dwarf from Bolt The Door

5:58 - WELCOME

7:25 - "The Ferryman / Mason's Apron" by Seldom Sober from Six Months of Confession

11:24 - "Rothsea-0" by Songs For Ceilidh from Falling Forward

14:36 - Alexis Fickes emailed: "Hey Marc, I am Alexis and I just wanted to tell you that I love the podcast, especially #426. I listen to the podcast on the bus and while I paint. Absolutely amazing. I love that there’s someone who appreciates the artists and music like this. Keep doing you!!"

Simon Dillon emailed a photo: "Hello Marc. Although over month ago, this photo shows me driving back from Canberra to my home town Bendigo (700km) while listening to your podcast. Myself and my friend, and fellow musician, Keven McCarthy had just spent the Easter long weekend at the Australian National Folk Festival presenting “Songs From The Australian Tradition” session on each day of the festival. Australia has many traditional songs. Many of these songs use traditional Irish melodies or are even parodies of traditional Irish songs.

The Nation Folk Festival was one of 3 festivals the Kevin and I attended in South Eastern Australia over 17 days around Easter. We started at the Lake Cullulleraine Music Festival, then the National Folk Festival and ended up at the Koroit Irish Festival. By the time I arrived back home, we had covered 2800 km and listened to many Irish and Celtic Music Podcasts, the quintessential road trip podcast. Keep up the great work.

16:13 - "Seven Stars, The Sloe" by Mitchell & Vincent from The Preservation of Fire

19:18 - "Celtic Tiger" by Ciunas from High Time

22:59 - Ruben Lopez emailed a photo: "I heard the podcast #393, and was drawing. Here's the drawing. Have a good one."

Alexander Randall 5th emailed a photo: "Hey Marc: I put your sticker on my car... I should put one on the boat, but only fish and mermaids would see it..."

Conor Coll emailed: "Hey Marc, Just replying to let you know I received the music you sent and I am currently listening to them, still trying to decide between my favourite!

As an Irish man I have been hearing Celtic music all my life and it takes me back to a lovely atmosphere when I listen to these tracks. Recently, I have been following a band which I had done a little camera work with in the past, The Ronan Gallagher Band. They are very talented and are from the region I come from, so I am a big fan of their music. They are what inspired me to look for more traditional music which lead me to this newsletter."

Submit music to the podcast at 4celts.com.

25:00 - "Eoin O'neill Has Gone To Clare" by Kennedy's Kitchen from The Whiskey of Truth

30:25 - "Lady Louisa Gordon's Strathspey / The Highlands of Banffshire / The Merrymaking" by Alasdair Fraser & Tony McManus from Return to Kintail

34:50 - Marshall Blosser emailed: "Greetings Celtfather, I've been listening to your podcast for well over a decade. We've circled around nearby cities, but never met. You moved to New Orleans just as I moved from there to the Mississippi gulf coast. And now you are in my old stomping grounds of Atlanta.

My family is moving from the Mississippi gulf coast to the eastern most city in North America (St John's NL) so my wife can get her PhD in analytical chemistry. (I know you understand about moving to support your wife)

We will be driving there mid December (all 54 hours of it). Apart from episode 421 the long drive - that's an understatement - we would like to have a few CDs to pass the time on the road. I know there is a large Celtic music scene up there. Do you know of any St John's or Newfoundland Celtic artists that we could buy to support and listen to on the way there?

Thanks muchly,

P.S. I am an aspiring writer and your podcasts have inspired several stories (now if I could just get published) Txs again. Keep the Celtic light burning, in all its colors"

Marshall Blosser emailed: "Marc, I have enjoyed your podcast for over 12 years. The variety of music you bring to this show never fails to inspire and amaze me. The fact that you follow the roots of the music and the tendrils of its influence show just how connected the world is and how music is one of those things that can unite everyone. You understand and respect that musically there is no one Celtic musical voice. But rather that it is a rich and varied chorus of voices that make up that sound. I applaud the fact that you are seeking musicians and tunes for a Celtic LGBTQIA+ Pride special next year. The fact that you stand for the diversity that makes this music so touching and valuable is wonderful and so needed everywhere. Peace and may you never lose your laughter, your joy or your autoharp Marshall Blosser"

38:08 - "Keys to the Castle" by Kellswater Bridge from The Proof Is in the Pudding

42:32 - "Hail to the Autumn" by Captain John Stout from Love Abides

46:35 - James Cope emailed: "Hi Marc,Your ebook is a wonderful gift, thank you. I see the changes in the music business, some beneficial, some not so much. Your ideas and knowledge help me as a long time, and older generation musician “unpaid Professional” (mostly) to find where I can land and have the best impact on the art form.

Being upbeat in these changing times is a choice and you are an inspiration. As a friend of mine once said, “Damn! Jim you have made something from nothing!” So…. Damn Marc!! you have made something from nothing. Thanks again."

Melinda emailed: "Marc, I have subscribed to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast - I am still listening to shows from years ago, which was where you played the Joss song, and the "Don't Drink with Hobbits" song, which I LOVE! Shared it with my son who just cracked up with me.

We are in El Paso - as far West as you can get! Have not been to any of the festivals in Texas, but go to Phoenix each year to enjoy the Ren Fest there. Have been to the Ren Fest in Bonner Springs, KS, in MD (think they shut that one down, but it was huge and wonderful!), and AZ. Actually, I am still listening to your podcasts when you still lived in Austin, so didn't know that's not where you lived now :) Would love to see you live. Will have to make sure to listen to the more up to date podcasts to get your latest events - or check your website. Keep up the great work! Slan Agat!

49:33 - "There's Worse Then That Around - Polka Niall - John Walsh" by The Jig Is Up! from First Steps

55:33 - "The Prettiest Hobbit" by Brobdingnagian Bards from I Will Not Sing Along

55:54 - Todd Thorne emailed photos: "Hello Mark, From the attached few pictures, I’ll bet you can instantly figure out where I took the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast this past month. For ages my wife and I aspired to visit Australia and New Zealand. Being two unabashed geeks, we could not make a trip Down Under without dropping in for a tour of Hobbiton. What an amazing day it was conjuring up the feeling that, at any moment, Sam, Frodo or Bilbo might emerge to challenge all of us interlopers in The Shire. While that particular encounter didn’t happen, I did get to talk up the podcast to fellow tourists plus our guide in response to their questions regarding my catchy and quite fetching t-shirt. Hopefully, you’ll pick up a few new worldly fans as a result.

I’ve been a devoted listener to the podcast for many years and credit multiple episodes for enriching and expanding my collection of Celtic music. At last count, some 15 artists have joined my growing mix, which all came about only because you featured them in an episode after they submitted their hopes, ambitions and livelihood for consideration. Thanks to you and all the incredible indie Celtic artists for providing us a way to connect and support what we love.

In closing, here’s an idea to ponder. What about a future Celtic Invasion Vacation to New Zealand? After all, Dunedin in the South Island has a mighty strong Scottish heritage and the Celtic spirit is alive and well I hear. Not to mention Hobbiton beckoning away on the North Island. A bit ambitious perhaps but it would be up there in the Trip of a Lifetime category, which I can definitely vouch for.

My best to you, your family and all the fans in the 2019 new year. Sláinte!

More about A Long Expected Party, next one is in 2020

58:38 - "Cut It Down" by Dylan Walshe from All Manner of Ways

1:02:56 - "Metamorphosis" by Sylvia Woods from The Harp of Brandiswhiere

1:05:37 - Margaret Zavala emailed: "Mark I just want to say thank you for the podcast that you put on. When I travel the world I can still listen to my celtic music. A few shows back, you featured Bangers and mash. well they’re playing near my hometown. in fact playing for two weeks just a five minute drive from my house. thank you for keeping me a contact such wonderful bands"

Rachel Bryant emailed: "Marc, Just dropping you a line to say how much I'm enjoying all your podcasts!! This time of year, I especially appreciate holiday music that is different (and better) than what I'm forced to hear in public.

Today, I am cleaning the house ahead of company, and enjoying the music and a very thematic beer, pic attached. I wish I could mail you some... maybe it's available in your area? I highly recommend this beer.

I try to wear my podcast shirt so I can spread the word! I made a new group of friends that way just a week ago, and we swapped stories of our favorite music venues and Irish/Celtic festivals.

Happy Holidays to you and your family!"

Subscribe to Celtic Christmas Podcast. It starts back up in November!

1:07:14 - "Erin's Revenge" by The Jackdaws from Colors

1:10:59 - "My Mother" by Claire Roche from From Then Until the Here and Now

1:14:58 - Darius emailed photos: "Hello Marc, I came across your wonderful podcast recently & subscribed!

Regarding voting, although all your featured musicians are wonderful, when asked to vote for a specific episode's featured musician, perhaps asking to vote for that particular/featured song would be more appropriate? By that I mean, I have gone back & searched the bands featured but found 2 or 3 songs as my personal favourites. Absolutely no offence to the great bands but I wouldn't go as far as voting them as my favourite bands, rather songs :)

Also, what do you think about either as the final episode of the year or the first episode of the year, featuring the top rated songs of the year, voted by the listeners?

Anyway thank you again and I promise to become a paid subscriber once I have some income.

Currently in the process of starting a sustainable, holistic, self sufficient & off-grid Ecovillage in Canada. More on that if you are interested. Namaste"

Vote in the Celtic Top 20.

Begum Unveroglu emailed a photo: "Hello there! I am listening to Scarborough fair episode on a train trip from Ankara to Istanbul. I am loving your show! By chance, I had opportunity to hear my favorite American Irish Music group the Gothard Sisters!!! Much love"

1:17:26 - "4 Concertina Reel Set" by Black Market Haggis from Better Than It Sounds

1:20:14 - "Rob Roy MacGregor" by Crepuscule from Hap and Rowe

1:23:15 - Dan Kulhanek emailed: "Marc,I was able to receive the downloads. Thank you so much! I use them on my running playlist. I have your podcast to thank for where I am today.

My wife’s family is Scottish and Irish. I am of German heritage. After attending several St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with them, I really started to listen to the music. I stumbled upon your podcast shortly thereafter.

I was a casual listener for a number of years. After the economic collapse of 2008, I found myself without a job. I went back to school to become a nurse and found that I needed to learn how to speed read in order to keep up with the assignments. I used the jigs and reels in your podcast to help keep me on tempo and keep my speed up.

Fast forward several years later....

My daughter wanted to take dance lessons. My mother in law told her that if we enrolled her in Irish or Highland Dance she would pay for lessons. My daughter settled on Highland Dance and we found a group that offered lessons. It was a pipe and drum band with a dance troop. They also offered bagpipe lessons for free. After listening to your podcast for several years, my love for the music had grown so much that I jumped on the opportunity to learn the bagpipes.

I now have become an active member of the band, performing for gigs and the competition team, but I also have branched out on my own as a solo piper.

I look forward to your podcast every week. Please keep up the great work and we’ll keep listening!”

1:25:14 - "Love Is Ever the Strongest Spell" by The Round Table from Tales from the Turning Leaf

1:29:44 - "Jiggy Biddy's Slur Horn" by Tartanic from Uncharted

1:32:46 - Gerry Corr emailed a video: "Marc, Had a great evening listening to your Podcasts…….sitting on the deck on a cool, late summer evening enjoying sweet Uisce Beatha"

GERRY CORR VIDEO

Mike Coombs emailed a photo: "Dear Marc, I really love your podcasts! Thank you so much for introducing me to loads of superb bands and singers that otherwise I wouldn’t have heard. I listen mostly in my car. I’m a peripatetic guitar/bass/banjo teacher in the UK. I also play in a barn dance band and compose mostly acoustic guitar based instrumental music.

I hope to be recording my first solo album with a couple of Celtic style tracks in the next few months."

1:34:05 - "Pride of Newfoundland" by The Celtic Kitchen Party from Sociable

1:37:42 - "Welsh Medley" by Moch Pryderi from Jig Moch

1:41:39 - André Paz emailed: "Hey Marc Gunn! I'm a brasilian biologist, musician and flute player. I love your Podcasts, and I always listen to you, mainly while working/studying.

I've started with the Celtic music because of a brasilian band called Tuatha de Danann. I'd like to indicate them for you. I just listened to the "Summer Road Trip #361", and I heard a Brasilian band, Braia! They have almost the same musicians of the band I mentioned. Here follows some other names I remembered, mainly with flute or Whistles on their songs:

Kernunna (BR),

Tuatha de Danann (BR) ,

Braia (BR) ,

Flook,

Luar na Lubre,

MuteFish,

Thanks for your very nice mood, always, and for your inspiration! Enjoy the summer there! Hugs from Brasil"

1:43:04 - "I'll Neither Spin Nor Weave" by Teton Skye from Teton Skye

1:45:55 - "Harvest Season - Second Cutting" by Alexander James Adams from Harvest Season - Second Cutting

1:48:47 - Erika Burkhardt tweeted: "Thanks for episode #371 of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Putting it to good use this morning planning lessons at the park."

Sasha, the Travelin' Quaker emailed a photo: "Hi Marc, I saved up several episodes of the show for us to listen to as we hiked part of the Barrow Way on our trip to Ireland (we are still here). It has been great catching live music and recognizing many of the songs I have heard on the show. Thanks again for an amazing show!"

1:49:30 - "Emmet's Hedgehog" by Molly's Revenge With Moira Smiley from The Western Shore

1:54:10 - "Ae Fond Kiss" by Celtic Woman from Ancient Land Deluxe

1:58:03 - Bonfilio Acencio emailed: "Hi Marc. I have been loving the podcast for like 3 years. I work outside landscaping so the music fits the surroundings, although Tennessee hills are not as great as Ireland it will do. But right now I have the great luck to go back and pick some of my favorite episodes, my girlfriend and I are going to the beach and I get to DJ the road trip (well really you do) Give my love to the family and ill let you know how the trip go's. Keep up the amazing work."

Annie Moisan emailed: "Allo Marc, I am from Québec, Canada. I am french so sorry for my english!!! Just for tell you that I love your podcast. I listen it during I'm working (I'm a IT programmer at home). We love Irish music. My husband and I have a duo and we play Irish music not professionnaly but we did a "home CD" two years ago and went to Ireland 4 times now. We like to sing Irish songs in French, English and Irish. We do little show with the projection of our photos of Ireland during we are playing for transmit our love of this country. I specially like harmony voices like The Selkie Girls, Lumiere, Sora, High Kings, Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer. But also Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Caladh Nua, Barrule. Thanks a lot to promote Irish music. We discovered on your podcast many signers and groups that we love. Still continue! With great regards! Annie"

2:00:10 - "Town of Strabane" by O'hanleigh from Of Irish Crossings Told

2:04:19 - "Tom McElvogue's / The Monaghan Twig / Woman of the House" by Ciana from Loneliest Road

2:07:40 - Daniel L emailed photos: "Hey mark! I love the podcast, thanks for being such a dedicated collector and distributer of Celtic music. I listen through Mixcloud, and love to dig into old episodes daily.

My father was a piper and flute player. your podcast is a great way to keep the traditional music I was raised on, in my life.

Here's a pic of me at work (I'm on the left side of the left rig) we rig suspended scaffolding and then paint beautiful signs and advertisements. This one is for Gucci in downtown manhattan. If you zoom I've got my headphones in, listening to your podcast of course!

An (almost) finished picture. And one more of our truck once we packed it all up. Keep doing your thing! Much love from nyc"

2:08:37 - "Sweet Bride" by Vintage Wildflowers from Lovely Madness

2:12:27 - "Gypsy Lady" by Katherine Nagy from Single

2:15:35 - "An Buachillin Ban" by Bellow Bridge from Cautionary Tales

2:19:28 - Jay Martin emailed from San Francisco: "Marc, All right, I Spotified. The first song I heard was "Last Gift" by Marys Lane. That song answers a question from Michael Truman Kavanaugh in show 376. How did that happen? Thanks for the music."

Listen to the Irish & Celtic Music Playlist on Spotify

2:21:46 - "When First I Came to Caledonia" by Jil Chambless from The Ladies Go Dancing

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. To subscribe, go to Apple Podcasts or to our website where you can become a Patron of the Podcast for as little as $1 per episode. Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/.

CELTIC PODCAST NEWS

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. My name is Marc Gunn. I am a Celtic musician and podcaster. This show is dedicated to the indie Celtic musicians. I want to ask you to support these artists. Share the show with your friends. And find more episodes at celticmusicpodcast.com. You can also support this podcast on Patreon.

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Each episode list the showing times for each song played on the show. This makes it easy for you to skip around or find an artist you love

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Listen to the next episode of the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast every week

TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through it's culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Join the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com!

VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 With the new year comes a new votes in the Celtic Top 20. This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. Just list the show number, and the name of as many bands in the episode as you like. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2019 episode. Vote Now!

THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST! Because of Your kind and generous support, this show comes out every week and has done so since 2014. You can pledge a dollar or more per episode and cap how much you want to spend each month over on Patreon.

Your generosity funds the creation, promotion and production of the show. It allows us to attract new listeners and to help our community grow. Plus, you get to hear episodes before regular listeners. When we hit a milestone, you get an extra-long episode. We are super close to getting a two-hour instrumental special.

I want to thank our Patrons of the Podcast:

You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast at http://patreon.com/celticpodcast.

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#irishmusic #celticmusic #irishcelticmusic

Check out this episode!

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photomattjames · 7 years

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I've only got one pair of hands... until now!

Finding a solution to doing everything myself has long been at the top of my long list of priorities. I've found over the years, that it's definitely getting easier to outsource some of the work I do, especially when students answer the call for unpaid work experience. Naturally I also receive a lot of requests from amateur photographers asking if I ever need a spare pair of hands. I'm flattered, of course, and wish I could accommodate them all in my growing business. Sadly it's not that easy, although I do have a small team of guys I go to when I need a second photographer or an assistant to help me out, and this seems to be working out.

In particular, a former Photography Workshop attendee called David looked after the business last year whilst I took a four-week vacation to the other side of the world. David took on several assignments on my behalf and was just a phone call away whenever I needed him. Without his help I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the holiday, and I might not have been able to go at all! Since then David has started his own photography business, and he often assists me during weddings and portrait shoots. He even speaks Spanish, which came as a great surprise when one of my clients from South America started conversing with him. There was even a client whose grandmother spoke no Engish, only Spanish, and yet David was able to chat with her and make her feel welcome. I should at this point mention that David is German, and therefore speaks that language as well. It all helps.

Inundated with requests

Another guy who's been backing me up is fellow Brit, Matt Marsh. Matt contacted me a couple of years ago wanting to assist whenever possible, and later told me I was the only one in Denmark who answered his email. It's unfortunate news, but it probably happens a lot. As I mentioned earlier, I get inundated with such requests, and have started to feel frustrated that I can't really help most of them anymore. Matt's timing was perfect, and thankfully we've struck up a good business relationship and friendship. It always helps to reminisce with someone from your country of birth, even if that person is 15 years younger than you!

What I like most about Mr. Marsh is his ability to listen and learn, as well as his willingness to crack on with the job. In journalism, deadlines and communication are paramount, and Matt is pretty good at fulfilling both. He's also gone on to start his own business, and is working hard at networking and perfecting his craft.

Joseph Miller is the third (but not final) name on my list. Originally from Wales, Joe now lives in Malmø in Sweden, yet commutes to Copenhagen every day for work. Joe approached me in a similar manner; eager to get back in to journalism and photography. Since then, Joe has heeded my advice and regularly finds himself photographing live music concerts all around Europe. Not only that, but his writing style is fresh and unique and he's contributed a couple of articles to my own personal blog.

Joining forces

So this year the four of us decided to become a team and start a brand new venture. The Copenhagen Photographers website is already live, but we are still in the process of ironing out the creases before we start producing regular content. Trying to find ways to fund it is a real head-scratcher, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. You can go take a look if you want.

Which leads me nicely to the final gentleman in this ongoing search for permanent assistants, and fingers crossed I may have found "the one." Elijah James and I go back a long way – 19 years, in fact – and have been through a lot together. Maybe one day we'll get round to telling his full story (I like a good tale, me) but for now we'll keep it clean. Elijah (or Murdy as I like to call him) and I used to play in a band together, and I was always struck by his forward-thinking approach to our image and marketing strategy. He had ideas the rest of us would never even dream of, and he just looked awesome on stage. One time he stitched a triangular cut of Adidas material from his joggers straight in to a pair of bell-bottom jeans and looked absolutely rock-n-roll.

On another occasion he ordered us to print a bunch of posters for an upcoming gig (one we hadn't even booked) with the words CANCELLED pasted over the top. His idea was that the poster stood out more with the word CANCELLED on it, and when we replaced them with BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND posters the fans (and soon-to-be fans) would take notice. I have no idea whether or not it worked directly, but in the space of a year we were selling out local venues that wouldn't even let us play 12 months previously.

A blog you'll want to visit

As of yesterday, Elijah and I have been collaborating on the Photography by Matthew James project and I have high hopes. His ideas are already producing interesting results, and the goal of making this journal an interesting place to visit now-and-then is at the forefront of the brainstorming process. But don't expect me to give away any secrets just yet...

The business is now entering its fifth year, and I'm reminded of a photographer I met here in Copenhagen at the start of my journey. It takes about five years to build a network, he told me, so if you can hang tight that long you should start to see major results. Well, I'm pleased to say that I've been seeing strong results ever since I opened my door to other people, and sharing my daily business struggles with them. It's not been an easy process, nor have I always been willing to share all my trade secrets. But to quote Elijah himself, the only person you're in competition with is yourself.

I trust you'll all join me in welcoming another Mr. James to the fold, and I hope you enjoy what's to come.

#photography #copenhagen #business #photography assistant #photographer #fotograf #københavn #blogging #marketing #marketing for photographers #business advice #Photography tips and advice

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ecotone99 · 4 years

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[RF] The Gazing Flower

Wake up, clean up, work, eat, sleep.

The visitors peaked at her corridor, to take a glimpse at the lifestyle of their psychiatrist. Özlem then would gesture them to a small opening behind an arch that lead to her office.

The nameless Orchid stood tall on a table by the window, occupying most of the space. The flower for that hour’s patient stayed in the shadow of the Orchid, listening to the patient with Özlem.

“At least she is still letting me see my kids.” He spoke calmly.

“Of course. That is your parental right.” Özlem replied. “Have you planned anything with them?”

“I wanted to take them on a resort.” He scratched the wrinkles that had appeared recently by his eyes.

“Maybe to İzmir. My son loves his history, and my daughter enjoys the water. She will become a great swimmer one day.”

“Will you go?”

“But?”

“How do you feel during your runs?”

“I have the energy of my son, with the back pains of my dad. I run twenty minutes before cramps hit my leg.”

“But what do you feel during those twenty minutes? Do you feel free? Do you get tired? Nauseous? The couch you sat on saw a lot of tears from people before you.”

“I will not cry.” The man said. The vain had appeared above his brows once again.

“It is a perfectly normal response.”

“What makes you think life is fair?”

“Yet, you did not provide the same love for your wife.”

“Do you think she was right to leave?”

“I did beg for forgiveness.”

“Before or after your diagnosis?” Özlem doodled on her notebook.

“Thank you for coming today. Think about what we talked until our next meeting.”

“If I am still standing.” The man mumbled.

“You are stronger than you believe. Much more stronger.” Özlem smiled as she opened the outside door.

“Thank you for having me.”

“You again?” She smiled at the gray cat. Another ginger furred one watched her silently.

“Meow.” The gray cat responded.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Özlem picked a piece of meat to drop on the ground.

“Meow.” The ginger cat watched the gray one eat.

“Here.” She tried to drop the next piece closer towards the ginger.

The door bell woke her up the next morning. She still had her clothes on from last night. She noticed her messy hair on the mirror before leaving the bedroom.

The door bell rang once again.

“One moment, please.” Özlem yelled as she ran to the bathroom at the other end of the corridor.

The door bell rang again.

“Mommy!” Aylin jumped on Özlem to give her a hug.

“You are early, hun.”

“Daddy said he had a last minute meeting come up as he was packing for his vacation.”

“I see.” Özlem grabbed her daughter’s backpack from Aylin’s shoulders, and held her hand as they got inside. “Did you had your breakfast yet? I am starving.”

“Well, tell me all about it.” Özlem sat Aylin on the kitchen table as she grabbed the ingredients.

Wake up, clean up, work, eat, sleep.

Here is my DeviantArt page with my other short stories and a few poems. It was an interesting experience to write a Slice of Life short after losing myself in so much Sci-Fi/fantasy.

submitted by /u/HydraVea [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2rVvO0Q

#Blogger #Story

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