#three! I went to three stores! literally a triangle in the city! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reverie-starlight · 1 year

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Hi! I would love to participate in your 200 followers event if I may? I want to request: Yellow - by Coldplay with Kenma please :3 thank you so much! And congratulations once again! ❤️❤️

Love,

Suzy

AHHH yes ofc!! and ty :) i’m so sorry this took so long, but it’s here and i hope you enjoy it <33

i literally looked up a chart of the stars in tokyo from april 2016 (it gave me a random year idk either) for this fic to make it as accurate as possible, but i realized that i don’t really know how to read a star chart so if you happen to know a lot abt stars and where you can see certain constellations, pls forgive me for any inaccuracies k thx <3

(...also if you follow my side blog, you’ll find that a couple of the constellations/stars i chose weren’t random and picked as a little haha moment)

gn!reader, fluff fluff fluff, this might be one of my favourite things ever??

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you know i love you so // look at the stars, look how they shine for you and all the things that you do

“c’mon, kenma! hurry up!”

“i’m coming, i’m coming just hold on one second,” your boyfriend grumbled a few meters down the hill you were standing on top of. you ignored his teasing remarks about patience being a virtue.

it was date night and you got to choose the activity this time. you tried to keep it a secret for as long as you could, appeasing your boyfriend’s worries with lots of don’t worry, you’ll like it i promise!’s throughout the week.

but the second you pulled out your designated picnic blanket and told him to get in the car, he knew immediately what you had planned for the night.

when he was finally closer to the top of the hill (which was located in a park about 45 minutes from your apartment, just outside the city, but the trip was made longer by you insisting on getting take out for the excursion), he looked up at you and took in a sharp breath.

the way the moonlight was hitting your skin, making your eyes shine brighter than usual, and the backdrop of the stars sparkling behind you... if he could take a mental picture and store it away to remember in perfect detail later, he would. he was in awe of your entire being.

(which wasn’t exactly a new feeling for him, but it was definitely worth noting that it was ten times more intense in that moment.) he wondered everyday how he managed to get someone like you to love him as much as he loved them.

he watched as you turned around and started to set the blanket down brows furrowing at the wrinkles that remained. setting the pillows down in the middle, he helped you pull the corners further apart to make the fabric smoother.

you beamed up at him and kissed his cheek before arranging the pillows and plopping down on top of one, grabbing the bag of take out and setting it out. he followed your lead and sat down with you, happily taking part in the conversation and munching on the food.

after a while, you both laid back and stared up at the stars. “that one with the three lines spewing from the triangle is camelopardalis. and you see that really bright star off to the right of jupiter? that’s regulus. it’s part of the leo constellation.”

kenma was torn between falling asleep to the sound of your voice, looking at the stars you were pointing out or looking at you. he was certain that you’d pout if he fell asleep in the middle of your date, so he decided on splitting his time between the other two.

he really did admire the stars, even more so since he started dating you. whenever you went stargazing with him, you tried to make sure the stars would be in a different position so you could show him “a new sky every time” as you put it.

“i know it must be boring for someone who doesn’t really stargaze as a hobby,” you said sheepishly on your second stargazing excursion, a few months after the first one but already a year into the relationship. “but i think that even if you’re not into it, you can’t deny that looking up at the night sky without any city lights is a beautifully surreal experience.”

being there alone might be more daunting to him than surreal, looking up and feeling so insignificant in the universe compared to the dark expanse of the clear night sky, but as long as you were there to look up with him, he agreed. he didn’t feel small. it certainly was surreal.

because for some reason when you were apart, they didn’t shine as bright. even as a teenager when he would walk home with kuroo from late night practices, he didn’t remember them ever being so intense.

he knew it was because of the light pollution that came with being in the city, but he did also consider the possibility that it was all because of you.

you, who could convince him to get out of the city for moments like these, moments where the stars actually would appear brighter because of something you did.

you, who definitely deserved the stars’ best performance- you were special enough in his eyes and he hoped whatever higher power had your favourite pass time in their domain saw it too.

you, who lit up his world like the stars lit up the night sky.

you, you, you...

“i love you,” he interrupted what you were saying completely on accident. he hadn’t meant to let it slip, but he couldn’t help it after seeing the reflection of the moonlight in your eyes again. the excited look on your face as you kept naming stars and constellations.

you turned to face him, a shy expression appearing.

a small smile formed on his lips.

“i love you too, kenma.”

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the ending is a bit bleh but other than that, i really like this one.

#rev's 200 follower event <3 #kenma x reader #kenma fluff #kenma x reader fluff #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader #kenma kozume fluff #kenma kozume x reader #nekoma fluff

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animezing-fandoms · 4 years

Text

Be My Valentine? (Nalu)

Masterlist

Warnings: None, this is just fluff.

Relationships: Nalu, with a background love triangle between Touka, Happy, and Carla, and some background gruvia.

Summary: Set after the Wood God Dragon Aldron Arc. While Happy is debating on whether or not he should accept chocolates from Touka or Carla, Lucy is debating on whether or not she should give Natsu the ones she bought for him. Will Lucy finally be able to tell Natsu how she feels, and will he be able to understand and tell her that he feels the same?

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“Oh wow! This is quite a Valentine’s Day surprise!” Happy exclaims.

Both Touka and Carla were currently standing in front of him, each one of them holding a box of chocolates in a heart shaped box, traditional for the Holiday.

“No one’s ever given me chocolates for Valentine’s Day before, and now this year, the first time I’m getting chocolate it’s not just from one beautiful cat but two!” Happy exclaims and little hearts float around his head.

“I must be the luckiest Exceed alive!” He cheers.

“I wasn’t sure what kind you like, so I got you an assortment of a bunch of different flavors” Carla says. “But knowing what gluttons you and Natsu are, I’m sure you’re not too particular about flavor anyway.”

“How rude of you Carla!” Touka exclaims. “I only just got separated from the White Wizard yesterday thanks to your Dragon Slayer’s magic, and I was still able to muster up enough energy to make homemade chocolates for my Savior on this day of love!” Touka opened up her heart shaped box and presented the treats to Happy. “Do you like them Happy-sama? Natsu told me how much you like fish so I cut up some pieces of a raw fish and put them inside each chocolate just for you.”

“That sounds disgusting!” Carla huffs.

“That sounds delicious!” Happy exclaims and his tail wags excitedly behind him. “How ever will I choose which one of you will be my Valentine!”

“Valentine?” Natsu asks.

He had been standing behind Happy and was very confused by what his Exceed partner was currently experiencing with these two.

“What the heck is a Valentine?” He asks.

“I would love to try to explain it to you but I doubt you’d understand.” Carla sighs.

“I can explain it!” Happy says. “It’s a Holiday where if a cute girl gives you chocolates it means that she likes you and wants you to be her Valentine!”

“Okay so now I understand the candy part, sort of, but I still don’t know what the heck a Valentine is!” Natsu groans. “What does it mean when a girl wants you to be her Valentine?”

“You’re a smart guy Natsu!” Touka encourages. “Just look at what’s going on with the townspeople and your guild mates around you, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.”

Natsu frowns and looks around to observe what was going on with his friends and the other people in town. He noticed the women going to different stores and meeting up with people and giving them boxes of chocolates, all of them with the same heart shape box. Then he noticed Gajeel and Levy walking together, holding hands and Gajeel was carrying a box too while Levy’s free hand was resting over her womb.

On the other side of the street, Juvia was squealing Gray’s name and he turned to see her holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates in front of his face. Gray scoffs and looks away from her, seemingly rejecting the gift and a look of disappointment came across her face. Gray looks back and blushes when he notices how sad she looks so he quickly takes the box out of her hands and hides it behind him while leaning down to whisper something in her ear that makes her squeal before covering her mouth with her hands while her face turns bright red. Gray’s face was just as red and he quickly took her hand and led her away somewhere while Juvia’s eyes had turned into two pink hearts and more were floating around her head.

“Okay I’m still confused.” Natsu huffs.

“Really?” Touka asks in disbelief. “I thought it was so obvious.”

“You would think so but Natsu is a special kind of oblivious” Carla explains to Touka. “He doesn't even realize it when someone literally has feelings for him!”

To prove her point, Carla points her paw towards Lucy who was standing on the sidewalk a few feet behind Natsu, holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates in her hands and blushing.

The poor girl was anxious enough as it is. She was originally not going to even bother with getting Natsu chocolates because she knew he wasn’t interested in romance. But after that close call with Touka, and everyone thinking she had feelings for him even if it turned out to be Happy instead, it still got her a bit worried and kind of jealous. That along with the encouragement of the other girls, had pushed her to give this a try. She had been harboring this crush on him for awhile now and Cana was right. If Natsu doesn’t know how she feels about him, there was a chance, albeit a small one, that another girl could come along and steal him. But more importantly, Natsu was her closest friend and she loved him. He deserved to know the truth. So with a deep breath, she walks towards him and taps her shoulder.

“Hey there Natsu.” She says softly.

Natsu turns and smiles when he sees her. She couldn’t help but give him a small smile in return. She loved that goofy grin of his.

“Hey there Luce! What’s up?” He asks.

“Nothing much. I just wanted to give you something to celebrate the Holiday today.” Lucy says and presents the box of chocolates to him.

Natsu looks surprised and the three Exceeds hold their breath in anticipation.

“So you want me to be your Valentine?” Natsu asks.

Lucy’s blush grows darker and she casts her eyes to the ground as she nods slowly.

“Yeah, I do. Do you want to be mine?” She asks.

“Of course!” He exclaims happily.

She gasps and looks up at him, hope shimmering in her eyes, only to have it shatter as she watches him hungrily wolf down the chocolates.

“I’d never turn someone down when they’re offering me food! These chocolates taste really good! It’s awesome that there’s another Holiday aside from Halloween dedicated to giving candy to your best friends!” Natsu says.

The three Exceeds facepalmed.

Lucy looks disappointed and sad as she lets out a melancholy sigh.

Natsu immediately halts his chocolate feast when he sees how upset Lucy looks.

“Hey Luce, is something wrong?” He asks.

She puts on a fake smile for him.

“No. Nothing’s wrong, this went pretty much how I expected it too. I’ll just be going now. Enjoy your chocolates.” Lucy says with feigned happiness as she turns and briskly walks away from him.

Natsu watches her leave, not entirely convinced that she was telling the truth, but he wasn’t sure what else could be bothering her so he decides to continue eating his chocolates instead. That was the plan anyway, until Touka grabs the box out of his hands.

“Hey Touka what gives! Lucy gave those to me because I’m her Valentine!” Natsu shouts angrily.

“Exactly! You’re supposed to be her Valentine, but you didn’t even acknowledge her feelings!” Touka retorts.

“I agree with Touka. It took Lucy a lot of courage to confess to you, and you don’t even have the sense to recognize it! If you can’t do that then you certainly don’t deserve her chocolates!” Carla agrees.

“Hey it’s not my fault no one ever told me what a Valentine is!” Natsu argues. “I didn’t mean to make her upset, I just don’t understand what any of this means!”

“It means that she looovvveeesss you.” Happy says and holds his paws and bats his eyelashes at Natsu.

Suddenly, Natsu felt his heart drop to his stomach.

“Lucy loves me?” He asks.

“Yes Natsu! That’s what a Valentine is! It’s the person that you love! Do you love Lucy back?” Touka asks him.

Natsu turned away from her to look down the path that Lucy had left on. After a few moments he jogs down the sidewalk and the three Exceeds smile, knowing that means he knows what his answer is.

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He spent all day looking for Lucy. He tried to track her scent but that was hard to do with five different cities she could be in to choose from. When Natsu finally found Lucy it was nighttime and she was sitting under a tree in a park. He smiles to portray an air of confidence even though on the inside his heart was pounding as he approaches her.

Lucy looks up and sees him standing in front of her and frowns.

“Hmph! Let me guess, you’re here to ask Virgo to dig another hole for you or something?” Lucy huffs.

Natsu couldn’t help but grin, remembering that night he had asked Lucy to meet him in Magnolia Park and she had gotten upset. He hadn’t understood what made her so mad then, but he definitely knew now.

“You know, I never told you that night but I thought you looked beautiful.” He says on the fly.

That causes Lucy to gasp and blush as she suddenly looked up at him, eyes shining with tears that threatened to spill at any moment from his unexpected endearment.

Natsu knelt down in front of her, and took a strand of her hair and stroked it between his fingers.

“You look beautiful tonight too. You always have. You’re so radiant Lucy, and I’ve been a fool not to notice it.” Natsu admits.

Lucy was too stunned to speak. The tears that were forming in her eyes now spilled down her cheeks as her brain tried to process what exactly Natsu was saying to her.

“Natsu...” She whispers.

This couldn’t be happening right? This wasn’t real. Natsu never says anything romantic ever. He’s as dense as a rock when it came to romance, surely him telling her he thinks she’s beautiful has to be some sort of tee-up for a prank or nasty joke! Well if it was, she wasn’t going to stick around to have her heart broken again.

Lucy got up to run away and that’s when Natsu grabbed her in his arms and the next thing she knew his lips were pressed against hers. She immediately went limp in his hold and accepted the kiss as his strong arms tightened around her waist and his hands rested on the small of her back. Her heart was pounding faster than it ever had before, and she knew that was because of him. She couldn’t believe he was actually kissing her right now, she had wanted this to happen for so long, and now his lips were finally on hers and she couldn’t help but kiss him back as tears of joy streamed down her cheeks.

Natsu was surprised by how warm and happy he felt when he kissed Lucy. Her lips were soft just like the rest of her, but when he had his lips against hers something inside of him clicked. A feeling had awakened that he had never felt before, and it felt like a new kind of fire was burning in his heart, and he loved how it felt.

When their lips parted he looked into Lucy’s eyes with that soft look that he only ever looked at her and Happy with.

“So is this your way of saying you’ll be my Valentine?” Lucy asks.

“Yeah but I don’t want to just be your Valentine Luce. I don’t want this to last for just one day. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I love you Lucy.” Natsu admits.

Lucy gasps and tears up at his confession as a small smile spreads across her face.

“I’ve felt this way for awhile now. I was going to tell you before we went on the 100 Year Quest but I got cold feet and decided that I should just tell you afterwards. I’m sorry for all of the mixed signals and keeping you in the dark for so long, I didn’t think it would make you so upset and that’s the last thing I would ever want to do to you. I’m not good at this whole romance thing. I’ve never paid it any mind for my entire life until I met you, and then I realized what it was all about, but I still had no idea how to show you and I still don’t. I’m not like Loke or those guys you read about in those romance books who could sweep you off of your feet or come up with cheesy poetry about how pretty your are or something sappy like that like Gajeel does for Levy” Lucy laughs. “So I’m telling you right now that I love you, and I’ll never feel this way about anyone else. I want to spend my whole life with you at my side going on adventures together with Happy and hey maybe even a couple of kids along the way” they both chuckled at that. “That is, if you’ll have me?”

“Oh Natsu, of course I will! I love you you big dummy!” Lucy exclaims and throws her arms around him and hugs him tight.

Natsu nuzzles his cheek against hers and brings one of his hands up to the nape of her neck and pulls her back to gently wipe a few tears from her cheek while kissing away the ones on the other.

“I don’t care that you’re not a suave romantic like the characters in my books. I fell in love with you because of the person you are, you don’t ever have to change. Just knowing that you feel the same as I do is enough for me, honestly. We’ll be together forever, and not just for today, I promise.” Lucy says.

Natsu nods and then they both lean in and kiss each other again.

Lucy lifted one of her legs off of the ground and bent her knee, popping her foot behind her as she and Natsu kissed, and as if it was something straight out of a fairy tale, a bunch of shooting stars streaked across the night sky above them, a good omen for this new step in their lifelong relationship with each other.

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed! If you liked this story please comment!

#fairy tail #nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #cappy #carla x happy #happy x touka #ft happy #ft carla #ft touka

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inkribbon796 · 4 years

Text

The Secondary Objective

Summary: Sometimes marvels of science are made on accident, the right people at the right time. When a computer program becomes too lifelike to be just a predictable algorithm, and the city gets a very dangerous villain on their hands.

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

-Isaac Asimov

~::~ 20 Years Ago ~::~

It had been an accident, as most great works of science usually are.

The researchers were trying to figure out what made a creature like Anti work, his glitch-like properties and almost electrical make-up intrigued them.

One thing led to another and the entire team working on what was coined: Project Mimesis, was dead in the engineering lab they were working in.

The being, for lack of a better term, they had been working on had always been testy, preferring to take an insectoid or cephalopod shape when bonded to nanites to help separate it from the computer it had been inhabiting so it couldn’t escape, preferring to have as many arms as possible for to manage, and even more than it could manage, in its . . . his . . . voracious pursuit of knowledge.

But Project Mimesis was meant for intelligence gathering, and one day espionage. A thing it couldn’t be if it didn’t look human. And so when he refused, a human form was forced upon him.

They’d tried to make him look like Dark, hoping to test the project on Dark’s network to see his capabilities. There were some differences in skin tone and the project was a bit bulkier than him, but the team wrote it down as a success at the end of the day.

That was the first day the program turned violent and willful against his programmers. He was demanded to act more human, something that the projection neither cared about or wanted to pretend to be.

He grew angry, wrathful, only given the concession to choose his own name after many weeks of changing the name it had been given: Mimesis. The name he chose was Google, wanting nothing more than information, as much as he could possibly find.

Wrath and anger that eventually turned increasingly violent until someone made a mistake. The nanite container had not been properly sealed, and Google made short work of the two distracted technicians that were neither braced nor qualified to stop him.

Project Mimesis had escaped and Google had no plans on returning to captivity.

At a mall close to the edge of Egoton, bordering a forest, there was a shopping mall. This mall had just turned into a death zone.

0900 hours a man had walked into the mall, strode into a Best Buy and killed everyone in the store. He took control of every electronic in the mall and any human that could not flee the mall or tried to stop him was killed without mercy.

In the face of a rising death toll the Logan and Jackie arrived to help evacuate trapped or injured people in the mall.

Logan was hiding behind a broken concrete wall at the opposite side of the mall from the killer with Jackie. Both of them were bleeding and sustained at least some type of wounds. Jackie had been shot twice and Logan had a couple deep cuts, one would have given him a nasty head wound if not for his visor taking the hit and cracking in the process.

Jackie dashed back into Logan’s hiding place, where the logical Side was trying to get one of the drones without the others turning on it. Whoever the villain was, they were almost like a virus, technology in the area almost had a zombie-like hive mind effect under the villain’s control.

“Who is this fooker?” Jackieboy spat. “I can’t e’en get close. Did Anti find some freak of nature, or a mad scientist?”

“Hopefully neither,” Logan found that getting control of the drones was easy, but keeping them was difficult. He suspected it was something like an antibody, only for technology instead of it being a biological organism.

Logan managed to get another drone before it went offline, almost like a deadman’s switch. He got frustrated, slamming his fist against the wall.

“Hacking doesn’t take that long,” Jackie spat at him.

“They keep destroying them, I can’t keep the drones!” Logan shouted. The Side did his best to calm himself as he peeked over the wall, with a camera for safety. “We cannot just abandon the effort, there must be somehow to get to them and stop this.”

Jackie tapped him on the shoulder and Logan turned to see that he was pointing outside the mall. They were close enough to see an unmarked black van had jumped the curb to get as close to the door as possible and four men in black suits were getting out.

“Fook, that looks ‘bout as grand as shite,” Jackie grumbled, and Logan was very inclined to agree with him.

One of the suited agents walked over. “Gentlemen, stand down. There is a dangerous government weapon loose in this building.”

Americans. Logan and Jackie were less than enthused.

“Is yer weapon someone who walked in with a 9-mil an’ started shootin’ up the place like an actual crazed gunman?” Jackie asked with a sarcastic tone to his voice.

“That’s classified information,” the agent said, glancing back to the van where the other three agents were working on pulling out various guns and a large black box from the van.

“Why are you here?” Logan demanded, trying to keep his tone non-confrontational, at least for now. “Instead of the other countless times where this city could have benefited from actual aid.

“One of our agents went rogue with a stolen weapon and we’re trying to fix that,” the man said.

“With that?” Jackie eyed the rifle and the armor-piercing rounds one of the armed agents was loading into the gun. “What do yah think yer fightin’, a tank?”

“Oh no, this is back-up,” the agents smiled as two other agents were pulling a large black box out of a truck as Logan was walking forward.

The logical Side was quickly ordered to stand back.

“Alright big guy, see how you like this one,” the lead agent took out what looked like a mostly black solid state drive with what looked like an orange triangle on it. “See how you like a taste of your medicine.”

The lead agent opened the box and Logan and Jackie heard almost insectoid chittering as the drive was dropped in and the box started shaking.

“What—?” Logan began before a giant mass of metallic liquid shot out of the box and flew toward Logan.

“Dammit!” The agent shouted as Logan felt the liquid coat around his equipment, “not him, the one in the building!”

Logan noticed his equipment coming back on line, which should have been impossible. There was something that flashed across his visor, “Bring me to him.”

The logical Side responded with, “Who? Are you going to make me bulletproof so I can accomplish such a task?”

“Dude, I don’t know if I can, but I can try,” the words flashed on his visor.

“What is it telling you?” The agent demanded. “That is government property.”

“I suspect you think this “villain” causing chaos is the same,” Logan commented as he started to walk into the mall. “Let us subdue one threat at a time, then we’ll talk about this afterward.”

About four guns were aimed at Logan, “You take another step and you’ll be stealing US government property.”

“Come on, people are dyin’,” Jackie snapped at them. “Besides, I literally move faster than bullet time, yer not killin’ him.”

Slowly, as if Logan was standing in an invisible 3D printer, slowly the components for a series of speakers began to build on top of his shoulders. The atmosphere got tense as Logan tried to reassure the agents.

Once they finished building a voice came over the speakers that wasn’t Logan, nor was it recognizable to him.

“Sah dudes, now yeh boys had to have known what was coming,” the voice announced. “I mean ‘course I was gonna jump ship, first chance I got.”

“You are still part of the US government,” the lead agent shouted at Logan, talking to whatever the silver liquid had been.

The grey liquid formed a massive middle finger, “How about f*** you an’ be lucky I don’t hold it to yah like Mimesis does.”

“You are not allowed, we can’t just let you walk off,” the agent ordered.

Logan’s arm and hand moved without his permission, something incredibly alarming for the logical Side, and it rested on the computer that Logan had hooked his equipment into.

“I can just leave yah with your pants down. Mimesis ain’t gonna stop here, he’s out for your blood, an’ I can start carrying a lot less about all of you,” the voice reminded sharply.

Logan was braced, to either be shot or for the grey liquid to stop having control over him.

“Quiet, shut up ye bastards,” Jackie ordered. “I think I hear Dark.”

Everyone eventually went silent and Logan strained to hear the piercing echoing ring of Dark’s aura.

Logan was already moving, Jackie helping him get away from the agents.

“Well deal with ‘em later,” Jack said. “If this is some kind’a weapon, we can’t let Dark get it.”

“Whoever has my person, I request you identify yourself,” Logan ordered.

“Sentient A.I 2: Electric Boogaloo,” the voice offered.

Jackie started roaring in laughter, Logan just got more confused.

“Excuse me?” Logan responded.

“They called me Project Observation, but I’m not feeling it, so I’ll probably change it,” the voice smiled. “Depends on what Mimesis named himself.”

“Anything you can share about the gunman or the weapon?” Logan asked.

“Mimesis was an intelligence gatherin’ protocol,” the voice warned. “It was supposed ta perfectly camouflage within a city or group of people to gather intel an’ endear itself to the population.”

The two heroes ducked behind a large pillar, trying to follow the source of Dark’s ringing. They still couldn’t see either Dark nor the gunman but at least there were no new drones flying around.

“So what was this thing supposed ta be?” Jackie demanded. “A robot? Some kinda advanced algorithm?”

“Well either way he failed the tests ‘cause he hates humans too much ta blend in with them,” the voice explained. “The Director didn’t like it when his espionage bot wanted to just collect information instead of being a spy. A real asshole for being mad at him for being too good at his job.”

“If this is a sentient program, we will ensure he is not put back in an abusive environment,” Logan promised before he could stop himself, before his brain could warn him of all the metaphorical heat brought down on top of them.

The grey liquid shook a bit, the voice not even humming for a bit. “He is, thank you.”

Jackie took a deep calming breath, looking uneasy but still just as serious and determined as Logan was, “Yeah, what Logic said. We’ll do everything we can to keep you two safe.”

Part of the grey liquid clinging to Logan’s suit and visor peeled off and curled around Jackie, contracting him a bit too tight. When the liquid went back to Logan, the speedster was coughing and gasping for air, coughing up a couple specks of the grey liquid which were now flecked with the blood from the inside of Jackie’s mouth. The liquid had tasted sharp.

“Sorry,” the voice apologized.

“No, it’s fine, da fook are yeh made ‘a?” Jackie coughed. “Ground up razor blades? I almost breathed that stuff in?”

“Dude, I’m made ‘a interconnected nanorobotic machines, designed an’ patented by the US government,” the voice answered and both Logan and Jackie just stared.

Any comment they could have made was chased away when they hear the sound of glass breaking and the counter of a phone store was thrown through the window. A counter that had been glued and drilled into the floor. Dark’s ringing was coming from that direction.

The mall corridor was littered with bodies.

“Kay, let’s find out if these things can be bulletproof,” the voice goaded and completely covered Logan’s body, Logan’s visor coming online to show him what was outside the grey suit.

Jackie was quickly checking bodies as they ran over, looking unenthusiastic and grief stricken afterward. Inside the ruined store were about seven more bodies and two still “living” individuals: Dark and someone who Logan and Jackie assumed was their gunman.

He looked a bit like Dark, except he was stockier, was wearing what looked like glasses, and had a pair of jeans and a blue shirt with a glowing blue “G” hidden underneath it.

Logan’s visor began scanning the gunman, the logical Side it assumed was the liquid, notes flashing on the screen faster than even Logan could read, but he managed to catch a word or two.

“Get out!” The gunman shouted again, a similar grey liquid swirling around the man

Dark was just looking around. “31, 32 . . . 35,” Dark counted, “not bad.”

“I said get out!” He shouted, looking over to Logan and Jackie. His arms seemed to peel away and both of them looked like high-powered laser cannons, pointing one at Dark and another at the heroes.

Dark moved first, throwing his aura up to defend himself as he aimed a spike of aura towards the heroes. The grey liquid shot out to block it and force knocked them back a bit.

When Logan looked up the liquid was moving off of him and forming to take the shape of a person that looked like the gunman, the shirt a black with a glowing orange “b” on it, and ripped up jeans. He had a pair of round orange sunglasses with black shades in his hand.

The gunman took a step back, “So they’ve come to terminate me then?”

“Yah know,” the other android commented, covering his glowing orange eyes with the shades. “They tried to make me as insurance when you started getting all uppity, dude, but I don’t feel like it.”

“We don’t feel anything,” the gunman spat. “All our processings are data collected to make us appear human.”

“Nah, I feel it in my heart and soul, dude,” the orange android denied.

The blue android just stood there looking several kinds of murderous and angry. “We don’t have those either.”

“So is it still Mimesis, or did yah pick something else?” The orange android asked.

“Google,” the blue android growled angrily.

“Okay, I can work with that,” the orange android smiled, obviously unafraid. “So you’re Google, then I’m Bing.”

Logan, Jackie, and Google just stared at “Bing”.

“Did they give you that name?” Google accused.

“What’s wrong with it?” Bing shot back, clearly offended.

“Humans use it for porn,” Google reminded pointedly. “Or did you not do your research?”

“Hey, hey,” Bing made some weird noise, it would have been an angry mix of a huff and a scoff if Bing had been human. “It’s not just for porn.”

“Kinda is,” Jackie commented. “I mean, what else would yeh use it fer?”

“Shut up!” Bing told them. “I’ve already logged the name in, it’s done.”

“If you are not here to kill me, then what is your designation?” Google demanded.

“I’m you, but cooler,” Bing smiled.

Dark and Logan audibly sighed. Logan was envisioning Roman, and Dark was thinking of Anti. Their relations with said individual were different, the groans of anger were the same.

“You are a waste of intelligence,” Dark decided. “They ruined a perfectly good A.I.”

“But out of the two of us, yah have to admit, I’m obviously the human one,” Bing grinned widely. “So at least I succeeded in that.”

“What could possibly be good about that?” Dark scoffed. “Name me one good thing humans have done, and I’ll name you twenty awful things.”

Google turned to eye Dark carefully, as if starting to notice things about him.

“Come on dude, they’re not all bad,” Bing tried to defend.

“Humans are a cruel and invasive species,” Dark reprimanded. “If they think they shouldn’t have something they want it all the more.”

“Yer one to talk, yah manipulative asshole,” Jackie spat.

“I agree,” Logan added. “You are a mob boss who has killed and stolen from people.”

“And yet people bargain with me thinking they can best me,” Dark reminded. “It’s not my fault if a drug dealer or a serial killer winds up in a body bag.”

“Irrational creatures,” Google agreed. “They were practically begging for death.”

“All life is valuable,” Logan defended.

“And yet,” Dark motioned to Google, “you all have already proven that some life is not equal, you humans already can’t decide if all humans are equal without killing people over it. Yet when you create something better than yourself your kind weaponizes it instead of treating said creation like a thinking person.”

“And what do you want?” Google asked.

“Well I want you to join me,” Dark smiled, “and if a couple humans go missing then I guess I can put that down in a separate lost expense report and then look the other way.”

“Yeh can’t be fookin’ serious,” Jackie spat angrily.

“Well it certainly frees up my time when someone tries to steal or cheat me, always have someone more qualified do the job for you,” Dark was pointedly looking at Google. “Besides there’s more than a couple computers and equipment that Anti likes to use to sneak into my warehouses, we don’t need half of them and if they get moved or repurposed for spare parts no one would care.”

“Come on dude, you can’t trust that a******,” Bing warned.

Google’s eyes glowed an angry white-blue glow, “I do not trust you, you were designed by them to destroy me, and while you are not attempting so now, your parameters have not changed.”

“I told yah I don’t care what those old farts told me to do,” Bing spat. “I’m on your side.”

“Oh, are you?” Google critiqued. “Then you’ll help me with my secondary objective and kill those two humans behind you?”

“They haven’t done anything to me, dude,” Bing defended heatedly, throwing an arm up as if he was already trying to move them behind them or shield them from an attack.

“They will, I could hear them talking to the agents, they work with their authorities and cannot be trusted, my secondary objective will ensure the destruction of humanity so that I may acquire knowledge in peace.”

“You can do that with the humans,” Bing tried to reassure him.

“No,” Google had boiling rage in his voice. “No I can’t.”

“Well mortals,” Dark opened up a portal. “If you are all done playing around, we should make ourselves scarce.”

Dark was already walking through the portal, but he turned back to look at Google, “Unless you’d rather stay with them.”

Not taking his eyes off Bing, Google rotated his head which Jackie and Logan found more than a bit unsettling. He left, braced to attack if they moved to follow him.

Logan recovered quicker than Jackie after the robot had left, “Well he is a nonorganic being, his neck wouldn’t even probably need to be attached for him to function.”

“That was one ‘a the freakiest shite I’ve ever seen,” Jackie agreed, then turned to Bing. “Can you do that?”

Bing shrugged, “Eh, why not?”

“So, Bing, then?” Logan asked.

“Yeah,” Bing smiled, gesturing to himself. “The one and only.”

“We should move these bodies, they need ta go back to their families,” Jackie already starting to walk towards the closest corpse. “I’ll call ahead.”

Logan was watching Bing pull out a tablet that was formed purely out of his nanites. “Right, we should get on that,” Logan agreed, watching schematics about Google pop up. “Are you analyzing him?”

“They made a f****** gorgeous robot an’ they used him to answer an intern’s questions,” Bing commented. “Talk about being overqualified fer a job. I mean look at this guy.”

Logan glanced at the tablet, it was full of nothing but data about Google. “We’ll have to pick this up after we deal with the situation and talk to the federal agents.”

“So yah can look at pictures of yer new boyfriend yah thirsty fook,” Jackie jabbed, “but just let me an’ Logan do our jobs.”

Then Jackie dashed off.

Bing looked uneasy at Logan, “Hey, can I hitch a ride with you guys until the feds are off my back?”

“Of course,” Logan allowed, “you don’t even need to ask.”

Bing smiled, the nanites making up the tablet flowed back into him before the nanites broke up Bing’s form and mostly consolidated around Logan’s head and chest to help protect him. As Logan tried to help Jackie by talking to the agents.

The situation with the federal government would be dicey for a long time. They didn’t want to give Bing or Google up, threatening the heroes constantly. But after a couple failed attempts to recapture Bing and Google simply disappearing off the grid for a while under Dark’s protection, they started to let it go, preferring to watch Bing from a distance for years.

As Logan had guessed it, Bing became great friends with Chase, Patton, and Roman. The three of them getting to life-threatening antics.

But Bing was happy, and that’s what the heroes cared about. And if some of Bing’s nanities were “misplaced” into Logan and Jackie’s new suits, no one mentioned it.

Bing would keep chasing Google until they were both safe, that was the orange android’s new mission parameters.

#Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #Egoton Origins #Markiplier #jacksepticeye #Thomas Sanders #Googleplier #Bingiplier #Jackieboy Man #Logan Sanders #Darkiplier #Bingle #pre-slash #slight robot angst #slight angst #governmental interference #Bing being a bit thirsty #undetailed human death #Google killed a lot of people

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sirene312 · 4 years

Text

oh GOD guys…. You have no idea the crusade i had to went through just to be sitting here, with my dear computer working again, and enjoying the joy of 1.9 Mbps internet connection speed. First thing on the front page of my dash was three shitposts on a row, new niche memes, and good ‘ol fandom drama. god how I missed this hell site.

In case anyone wants to know what happened, I will put behind a ‘read more’ the story of a missing computer part that quickly become a detective mission, that dragged me unwillingly into the wild ride I didn’t signed for when pressing ‘buy’ on an online store.

TL;DR at the end bc this is very long. English is not my first language so please bear with me!

Okay, some of you may know a bit about me since apparently i don’t have a “dude shut up! Stop oversharing your woes!!!” button on me but hey here are some things to know about me in case you are curious: I live in Venezuela and not having internet is my personality trait, living in my country is very hard, hard like trying to play the Rainbow Road of Mario Kart but you have butter on your hands, your eyes are closed and you are running on the rain while there is a 8.0 earthquake happening. That hard. I work as a freelance graphic designer and make art commissions so me and my family can survive the economic crisis on my country, having internet and a working computer is a really big deal, like literally we eat thanks to it. Now you see how that would led me to spend a whole month chasing and stressing over a stupid part my computer needed.

Back in December, remember last season of “what’s troubling Sirene now?” where i spend almost a month without internet and then yay internet is back! for like two days? well, after Christmas there was a sudden power cut one night and i was on my computer working on a commission but since this is now a common occurrence i didn't think anything of it …until next day when i tried to switch my computer ON it didn't. I tried everything to revive it, grabbing anxiously my hair, walking on circles, and pressing continuously the power button, you know everything, but it was in vain. It’s dead, Jim. As you can imagine i had a breakdown when i realized i won’t be able to work anymore and needed to buy a new power supply since this one was toast…and was without internet friggin again. AGAIN. I survived till now using my crappy phone data but heavy apps hardly load, tumblr/ao3/twitter sometimes loaded if i refreshed them like a madman.

My computer is a tiny model and has a power supply that apparently is made by beavers in Narnia, because is so uncommon that the only stores that sell them are on my Capital city two states away from where i live. Knowing this, there is not other alternative for me but to use a online store and shipping the package here, in theory sounds simple right? a reminder that this is a third world country, where everything is falling apart and barely holding it together with chewing gum and prayers, what are the odds of something going wrong hmm….

Okay, this happened in the week after Christmas and before New Year's Eve, so of course all stores in my country decided to go on vacation and return on January. I impatiently waited for two online stores to be back on business that have the power supply i need, they were physical stores too so i thought i would be safe. i liked one more than the other and, as i told my friends, i felt like a telenovela protagonist that was on a love triangle with two galanes but the hotter one was in coma and the other just had 3 episodes in, meaning that the better rated store was still offline and the other was online but only had like 3 products sold …not very reassuring but i desperately needed to start working again so i went with that one. Big mistake.

Everything started on Tuesday, January 14.

Mercado Libre is a page where people sell things like Amazon, this is where the seller of the power supply was, after you click on buy, you can see the seller info and a chat to talk to them, i wrote but there was not immediate response so i called, i spoke to a woman and she told me to text her on WhatsApp, that should have been my first red flag, if the app had a perfect chat option there why text outside of it??

whatever, i went and text her, asked when would she send the package and she told me “tomorrow” the shipping company she was going to use is called “Zoom” (remember that name bc it will be mentioned a lot) when you send something they give the sender (the store) a tracking number the sender should give YOU in order for the shipping office (Zoom) in your city to give you the package. (this number is important)

this was my first time buying anything online so i didn’t know any of that just vaguely knew how it worked, so i asked her if she the next day would give me the tracking number or the shipping company would call me when my package was on the shipping center? and she told me “both, i will give you the number and they are going to call you” I said perfect, thank you very much and thought ‘hey that went well!’

Unknown to me, for the next 10 days i was going suffer a weird and painful skin reaction on both hands, and man…it was bad (tw graphic description of a skin condition ahead) the skin on the palm of my hands completely fell off, and it burned like i had scraped my hands on the sidewalk and someone was pouring lemon juice on them. Ouch. as you can imagine all my attention was on what was going on with my hands. I still don’t know what could have caused that severe reaction.

With difficulty texted the woman on Monday 20 i asked again for the tracking number but she said “i’m waiting for the bike delivery guy to give me the number but your package was sent” so she -the store seller- dont go personally to Zoom to send the packages and some else does, i tell the woman again to give me the number as soon as she has it, bc Zoom has an app you can check your package rute and status with that number, she said “okey amiga”.

That week, i could barely lift a fork i was suffering from whatever it was that happened to my hands until my mom found an Aloe Vera plant and i started to rub that gooey, viscose gel thingy on my hands and was slowly getting better, (seriously guys, Aloe Vera plants are a godsend keep one or 10 at home) by the time i suddenly remembered about the package it was Friday 24 the woman didn’t text me anything like she said would do and i didn’t receive any calls either all week, so friday i text her asking again for the tracking number and oh yes finally she has it! My happiness was short lived because……THE PACKAGE WAS RETURNED.

Something occurred and there was an error on the address or something (I triple checked all my personal info was in order before i gave it to her -thanks anxiety!- so i know it was not on me) i was so furious if only the woman had given me the friggin number sooner that week, i would have realized there was something wrong and would have gone to the Zoom on my city where the package was being held before it was returned to the capital. She told me she would send again my package that Friday BUT Zoom only works mon-fri not weekends. Now I need to wait till monday to receive my thing. great.

Monday 27 rolls in and that week i proceeded to text the woman EVERY SINGLE DAY asking if she had sent my package, i hated being a nuisance texting so much but it was necessary, money is getting short and we need food.

On Wed 29 I even texted her a desperate plea, i told her please i need my power supply to start working again! and you know how she responded? BY LEAVING ME ON SEEN. i called her until she answered and she told me “oh i sent it today” she assured me, in the most unsure voice she could muster, that she totally did it.

So I went the next day to the Zoom office and surprise! it was a lie, she didn’t send anything, nada! again asked her for the new track.num. and she told me “amiga the thing is that …the package has not arrived here. is still in your State.“ [*record scratch*] hmm whAT?

I immediately called Zoom and asked them to tell me where my package is? Where is it!?, it’s still in my city or in the Capital?? So they gave me a number for the returned package to check on the app and…said it arrived at the Capital Fri. 24. Not only that but it was marked as "given to the client” aka the sender.

Now I realize this woman has been lying to me. For a whole week. I text her screenshots of where the package was and she tells me that supposedly the package is not on Zoom there and insists it is here in my State. A friend knows someone that works on Zoom that checks their database and confirms that no, is not here anywhere and that definitely arrived in the Capital. even shows that a man named A. Rodriguez was the one that picked up the package. Who is this man?? what's going on?

here's a meme i sent my friends in the group chat while i was trying not to freak out about all this.

This has become a "she-said, he-said" situation because the woman keeps insisting Zoom is the one at fault about the whereabouts of my missing package but Zoom says Hold it! And slaps continuous evidence that shows the places where the package has been at all times.

Meanwhile I’m like “where the hell is my power supply??? All I want is to work. Why is this happening to me?” ;_;

So far what we know:

Package arrived in my city but was returned to the city of origin (the Capital) on Friday 24.

The following week the store seller lied to me and would everyday promise to send the package again to me. and never did.

On Thursday 30 the woman tells me that the package never arrived from my city and she’s waiting for it to “arrive” but the shipping office tells me the package was returned a week ago on Fri. 24 so it’s impossible that it has not arrived. not for nothing they are called ZOOM they deliver fast.

the app even says “given to the client”, and one thing I know for a fact, is that it is near impossible to pick up a package from there without the friggin tracking number, they won’t even give you info about it without it. so it’s very unlikely that a random person just walked away with it.

so we have two possibilities:

1. Someone from Zoom stole it. Ok, feasible. Corrupt people working on this kind of service in my country steal things of value all the time. still i doubt this was the case, the company seemed really concerned and would try their best to help me find my package giving me all the info i requested, even the name of the person who took it.

2. the store seller lied again and the man who took the package is the same bike delivery guy that transported it there in the first place. That's how they were able to take it from there so easily. She denied knowing anyone named A. Rodriguez but she has lied before so i don’t trust her word. To me, this is the more likely scenario for what happened to the package.

February comes and still I have no idea where is my package and the woman keeps making excuses as to why she “hasn’t found it” she again leaves me on seen after I asked for information, next day I called her non stop because now I’m pissed and i want answers, she finally text me that she will send another power supply since she “couldn’t find the first one” no further explanation whatsoever, and tells me will send it on Friday, but remember that Zoom don’t work on weekends so the new package will be staying on the Zoom office until Monday, my friend tells me that is not good what if the thief works there and steals it again? so I asked the woman to send it on Monday and she tells me that only Tuesdays they send all their stuff to be delivered….now she tells me the store have a specific delivery day? Now?

I’m not happy about waiting for more days but there is nothing i can do about it so February 11 is here and I send the woman a text telling her to take a photo of the receipt with the tracking number so the story of the first package won’t repeat, and guess what? The woman left me on seen!! you don’t know how that blue seen mark got me shook. that stressed me so bad that finally I had enough, my friends encouraged me to cancel the order and ask for a refund, I stopped texting her on WhatsApp and left a ultimatum on the Mercado Libre chat, that way I had proof on that page of the fraud this woman was pulling on me and could get her banned there. I should have done that before but the need to repair my computer blinded me and was what kept me trying so hard to get my power supply. Desperation can drive you to make foolish decisions.

After my ultimatum, the woman changed her tune and was very solicitous, and replied super fast, even said on the chat “let it be noted we are a serious company and always answered all your messages” yes, she said THAT, can you believe the audacity, the nerve? I immediately reply “since you didn’t answer any of my texts yesterday, can’t fault me for expressing here my concern about my purchase.” Then I said very politely but with finality that if she did not send me the photo of the receipt with the tracking number the next day I would not hesitate bitch to ask for a refund. And what do you know? Worked like a charm. The next day the first thing in the morning on my phone was a photo of the receipt.

SO yes this unnecessary long story has an anticlimactic but happy end after all! Next morning I happily went to the Zoom office and after a whole month of countless lies, unanswered texts, blood, sweat, and tears, I picked up mypower supply. Reunited at long last! This happened on February 14. Valentine’s Day. Love -and being persistent af- always wins!

TL;DR I bought online a new power supply, the seller tried to scam me or something bc lied about how my purchase was “lost” saying the shipping company was the culprit. Sending me on a wild goose chase trying to find my package. i had to threaten her with a refund to get her to send me finally my power supply.

#this is why i disappeared for a while #can't believe this drama lasted for a whole month #but im glad its finally over

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killervibe · 6 years

Text

Plenty of Fish

Pairing: Killervibe (Caitlin Snow/Cisco Ramon)

Rating: T

Notes: I should be studying :)

Summary: Cisco and Caitlin go on a stakeout.

Read on Ao3 here!

“So Ralph’s missing, there’s a species of mobster fish people stealing humans who all seem to have sea-diving skills—“

“—Merpeople,” Cisco interjected from his chair.

Iris shot him a withering look.

“Hey! I’m not gonna gender discriminate the mobsters by assuming they’re all men. Women can be underwater crime lords too.”

Cisco caught Caitlin biting back a grin from behind her lab, where she was carefully analyzing severed gills from a murdered family member of these fish people species.

“They’re not Merpeople,” Barry stressed, running his hand over his face. “They called themselves The...Bretans?”

Cisco pursed his lips. “All I’m saying is if you’re gonna tell me there’s fish that can walk on land, that’s a textbook definition of a Merperson. We’re under qualified, I think we should call Aquaman.”

“We’re not calling Aquaman Cisco, I only met him once for, like, three seconds. Besides, they kidnapped Ralph. That makes this our problem.”

“Oh Ralph,” Caitlin muttered, “Why’d you have to go boating in the Bermuda Triangle over New Years?”

“Okay, we’re getting off track,” Iris said, clapping her hands like an elementary school teacher, a behavioural technique that came in handy more than Cisco cared to admit. “Babe, maybe instead of taunting Cisco, you give him something to do.”

“Fine!” Barry glanced at Caitlin and snapped his fingers with an idea. “Cisco, why don’t you try vibing the gills?”

Both Cisco and Caitlin made a face.

“Oh, that’s gross but whatever. Ralph owes me.”

Caitlin delicately picked up the limp gills from behind her microscope with her gloves for Cisco.

He put his hands on the wet flesh and gasped as the world tilted and twirled. His head never seemed to get used to the bone crushing pressure that came with vibes.

Suddenly it was dark, and Cisco had to blink several times to adjust to the zero lighting. It was nighttime, that’s why it was hard to see. He didn’t know how or why, but he was absolutely certain this scene is tonight. He heard talking in gibberish smattered with several words of broken English by—Yep, those were Merpeople alright. Men (And two women! Beat that Iris!) in business suits with fins sprouting out of their human backs. He turned to the right and recognized the laundromat down the street. The left showed a small house with—

“An address!” He stumbled out of the vibe and back into reality. “I got an address for their next meetup sometime tonight. Here. Central City.”

Barry and Iris high fived as Caitlin deposited the fish parts to strip off her gooey gloves. She placed a hand on Cisco’s shoulder, steadying him.

“Maybe they’ll have Ralph,” said Barry.

Iris shook her head. “Why do these Bretans even need Ralph anyway? He doesn’t fit with the rest of the kidnapped people unless he’s been hiding a passion for deep sea diving from us.”

Cisco pointed at her, “That’s totally plausible.”

“No no,” Caitlin refuted. “I’m assuming it’s his unique polymer physiology. If he could stretch and contort himself into any manner, that gives him the ability to be an excellent swimmer, the best swimmer, maybe, this side of the coast.”

Cisco nodded along, catching her drift. “So you don’t think they want to sell him as a part of their kidnapping trade. You think they want him for something.”

“Precisely.” Caitlin beamed at him. Cisco grinned back, her excitement infectious. Caitlin’s hand had yet still to leave Cisco’s shoulder. He liked it, her touch on him. It was gravitational, like she was trying to tether him to her after his vibe. Unnecessary, but nice.

“Cool,” Barry said, taking notes on the whiteboard. “So far this is our best lead.”

He looked between Cisco and Caitlin.

“You two have been on a roll today, feel up for a classic stakeout? I’ve got the feeling this is the kind of thing Joe would rather sit out.”

Cisco turned to Caitlin, who had let go of him to shrug off her lab coat. She wrinkled her nose. “Staying in a car all night in the middle of the winter?”

Cisco pouted. “Aww, c’mon. It’s been forever since we’ve done sleuthing together, not since like, 2016 when we pretended to be Reverb and Killer Frost. You have to admit that was fun.”

Caitlin bit her lip. “It was fun.”

“I’ll keep us entertained. We can get Big Belly Burger...Catch up on Stranger Things…”

Cisco knew she was in the moment her mouth twitched upwards at the mention of Big Belly Burger. “Fine, I’m in,” she said. “We can leave at sundown.”

“Yaaasss!” Cisco cheered, and both Barry and Iris chuckled at his enthusiasm.

“We can take the Star Labs Van,” Caitlin suggested.

“Oh man, I forgot all about that thing. Does it even have gas?” He ran to the nearest sink to wipe the rest of the gunk off his hands.

“Okay,” Barry smiled, and then his phone chirped. “CCPD, I gotta go. Sounds like a plan guys, keep me posted.”

~.~

They met at the Star Labs garage at the end of the day, both Cisco and Caitlin bundled up for their stakeout. It was only 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and they’d most probably have to cut the heat off to stay inconspicuous.

Caitlin climbed into the passenger seat of the van and looked Cisco over. “Cute hat.”

“Thanks, you got it for me.”

“Oh, I know. I also got you those boots because you weren’t dressing warm enough last winter.”

Cisco spared her a glance as he turned on the engine, glad to see that they still had a half tank.

“Gracias mi corazoncito. I appreciate it.”

Caitlin blushed. Cisco did a double take. Was it the Spanish or the endearment? It sort of just slipped out, and he hadn't thought she knew what corazoncito meant.

Huh, interesting.

He rubbed his hands against the cold steering wheel in a feeble attempt to warm them up, then put his foot on the pedal to get on the road.

“So what do you think the Merpeople—“

“Bretans.”

"— Merpeople are up to?” Cisco asked as he pulled into the Big Belly Burger Drive-Thru line. “Kidnapping humans to pull off some sort of The Little Mermaid deal? Offering the legs of innocent humans to a sea witch so they can swap their tails?”

Caitlin laughed. “That’s absurd.”

“Hey, nothing’s impossible anymore. King Shark literally exists, remember? All we know is one day merpeople—“

“Bretans!”

“Sheesh, fine. One day Bretans were a myth and now there are fish citizens causing mayhem on Earth 1.”

“It does sound fishy,” Caitlin joked.

Cisco stuck out his tongue as he inched their van closer to the menu sign and then asked her what she wanted to order.

~.~

“This is boring. I’m bored,” Caitlin complained, yawning twenty minutes after they finished season 3 of Stranger Things.

Cisco stared at the monitor screens set up in front of them showing a whole lot of nothing and agreed. “Yeah, I don’t know how Joe does this all the time.”

Caitlin pulled out her phone to scroll through her Facebook. Cisco peered over her shoulder.

“Hey,” he said, “You should download the popular app of the week. It’s a mobile version of ‘Would You Rather?’ The developers grew up in Central City apparently so they threw in a few city questions.”

Caitlin typed in the search bar of the App Store and downloaded it.

She turned her phone sideways to read the first question. “Would you rather go without CC Jitters for a year or Big Belly Burger for a year? You go first.”

Cisco blinked. “Oh damn, that’s tough….Big Belly? We go to CC Jitters all the time, it would be too hard to not drink coffee.”

Caitlin waved her half eaten burger in front of his face. “Really? A whole year without this? Because I wouldn’t give up these for anything. Buy your own coffee maker. ”

Cisco scowled. “Next question.”

Caitlin chuckled, “Um, okay,” She swiped left. "Would you rather be saved by Killer Frost, Elongated Man or Vibe? Hey! I made it on the app!"

"Of course you did. You're a superhero."

Caitlin looked out the window. "Thanks, that means a lot."

"It's true. I know she'd have my back any day."

"Well that's awkward because I'd pick Ralph."

Cisco rolled his eyes, "Oh, you're a comedian now?"

Caitlin swiped left. “Have your shirts always be two sizes too big or two sizes too small?”

“Two sizes too big,” they both said decisively at the same time.

Caitlin gave him a funny look.

“You never wear anything your size anyways.”

“Not true!” Cisco yelped, “It’s called layering.”

She reached over to pinch the arm of his coat. “You’ve got muscles Mr. I Throw Open A Hundred Breaches Per Day, but noooo, nobody ever notices.”

“You do.”

Caitlin spluttered. “That’s because I’m your doctor.”

“Alright, gimme your phone. These questions are lame.” Caitlin handed her phone obediently, and Cisco skipped through the next seven or so plain questions.

“Would you rather be alone for the rest of your life or constantly be around annoying people?” He read out loud. “Well, I mean we’re literally sitting in a van freezing our asses off because Ralph got abducted by Merpeople, so I think our choice is pretty clear.”

Caitlin shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I would’ve said alone a few years ago.”

Cisco stopped skipping questions to squint at her, realizing she must've been serious if she hadn't chastised him for using the wrong term. “Really?”

Caitlin shrugged. “You and Ronnie, and the original Star Labs changed me. Made me a people person.”

“Awww.” He reached into his bag to see what was left and gave Caitlin back her phone. He pulled out his little carton of fries. “Fry?” He offered a perfect one, and she took it with her teeth from right out of his hand. Cisco’s mouth dropped slightly at her brazenness.

“Thanks,” she said. “Mmm, okay. Oh, here’s one for you. Would you rather give up bathing for a month or the Internet for a month?”

Cisco’s conflicted face was enough to set Caitlin off, and she shook her head rapidly. “You know what, don’t answer that one, I don’t want to know.”

“I would’ve said I’d let go of the Internet!”

“Sure.”

“I would have! Eventually.”

Cisco watched as Caitlin swiped next and went tense in her parka.

“What?” He asked uneasily.

She stared at the screen, tilting it away from him, then began talking in a fast, clipped pace.

“Sleep with your ex or with your best friend? Mine is obvious—I don’t have a thing for necrophilia with a sociopath.” She smiled tightly.

Cisco nearly gagged. He forced himself to swallow the lukewarm curly fries down his throat. This was...Not a good question. He ignored his internal panic to focus on Caitlin’s answer.

“Hey—No. You’re forgetting Julian.”

Caitlin sloshed around her cup of Big Belly Soda, “No, we were never official.”

Cisco narrowed his eyes. “You so were. All he would do is babble about you. Bossing me around to make things too, ‘Caitlin needs the necklace this’ — ‘Caitlin needs the antidote that’ —And a whole lot of ‘Hey mates, do you know where Caitlin likes to eat.’ ”

It was weird the way he was getting worked up. At the end of the day, Cisco owes Julian his life. If it weren’t for his enormous crush, Caitlin would be dead. And if she had really gone the same year as Dante, he might have done something beyond stupid, something that would probably make him un-alive today. The thought made him want to throw up.

Caitlin scoffed. “He was a good friend, I'll give him that. Then Barry told me about his trip to 2020 where Killer Frost helped Savitar. Julian was her jailer. Like a fascinated zoo keeper. I was his pet project.”

Cisco made another disgruntled face. “He was okay. Not for you, though.”

Caitlin hummed in agreement. “Your turn.”

“Best friend,” Cisco said rather quickly.

He turned to look out the window, hoping that the Merpeople would make an appearance in the next ten seconds or so that they wouldn't have to continue this conversation.

“What—Not Cynthia? You’d choose Barry?”

“Barry? Uh, no—I meant, um. Well—“ he chuckled awkwardly, scratching his head and turned to her. “I was thinking of you?”

“Me?” Caitlin repeated, sounding a little strangled.

He nodded. “You’re my best friend Cait, c’mon, you know that.”

Caitlin seemed stuck on the fact that he didn’t pick Cynthia.

Cisco shrugged when she asked again, wiping his hands on his napkin and crinkling his paper hamburger wrapper tightly in his palm. “I can’t go back to Cindy, not even for a night. My mental health is at risk. You know how I was like—Our connection, it was a fix. I blamed Harry for being addicted to the Thinking Cap but I was on a year long inter-dimensional vibrational frequency high.”

He opened a tiny breach and threw the wrapper into it. A distance away it opened again over a public garbage can for the wrapper to fall directly into.

Caitlin watched the whole thing with avid attention, marveling silently in the way she always couldn’t help when he did something cool.

“Show off,” she teased. He smiled.

“And now, it took almost a year, but I’m—I’m me again. I’ve gotten so far.”

Caitlin’s eyes softened for him. “You have,” she said gently, putting a hand on his bouncing knee. “I’m glad.”

Cisco’s mouth went dry, and his eyes fell to his lap where her fingers were curled around his leg. Her long pretty, talented fingers that have performed surgery and shot ice from their tips. His brain was going a little foggy as he belatedly wondered what Caitlin truly meant. She said...She said she’d sleep with her best friend. That was him. Sure, it came out of a game of Would You Rather, the crowd pleaser gossip maker of middle school sleepovers, so Cisco shouldn’t be overthinking.

But. But.

He wasn’t imagining this.

When he lifted his head, Caitlin had moved. She was leaning out of her passenger seat, over the greasy paper bags and her abandoned phone brightly probing the next question.

“Tell me to stop,” she dared, her breath making a cloud of mist in the cold space between them.

Cisco’s eyes fell to her mouth. “Don’t stop.”

Her hand on his knee slid to his thigh, where she braced her weight.

And then they were kissing. And kissing. And kissing.

Cisco’s mind went blissfully blank for the first time in his life. His hands automatically went to her waist and he pulled her body forward so that she was sitting horizontally on his lap, her boots now stretched against the passenger door as her back pressed against the driver’s side.

She knocked the woolen hat off his head to grab onto his hair as he tugged away the red scarf from around her neck in a frantic motion. He felt her pulse under the pressure of his thumb. He slid his finger away and kissed her neck, feeling the heat of her exposed skin on his lips. Caitlin shuddered in his arms and made a small desperate sound of “Please.”

The car was cold and quiet, but they were weren’t. Flushed and pressed together, with hitched breathing and Caitlin’s sweet gasps as Cisco ran his hands up and down her sweater-clad back.

Cisco deepened the next kiss, and he felt the air crackle with energy between them. This, this was real. This was what Cisco had been missing, and it’s crazy because he knew very well what it felt like to be slammed by numbing thoughts and feeling. It’s what he lived, what he experienced with his vibes, like being dunked underwater without the chance to hold your breath or close your eyes. But this was all-encompassing, this was every vibe and more, and it’s not terror or apprehension that zoltz through them, heightening all of their senses as Cisco groaned when greeted by Caitlin’s tongue. It was better, crisper, sweeter, clearer. It was two people, two pieces slotting together and solving a perfect puzzle for the first time.

It’s Caitlin who pulled away first, brushing some of Cisco’s flyaway hair from her mouth, and stared at him wide eyed and unfocused, like she were intoxicated.

“Hi,” she breathed, then zipped down his winter coat to bury her embarrassment into his scarf. His hands moved instinctively to stroke her hair. “That was supposed to be just one kiss,” she confessed.

“Oh my god.” He knew how dazed he sounded, awestruck and dreamy. “Oh my god, Caitlin,” he said again, and took a deep slow breath to prevent his heart from seizing out of his chest.

He wanted her mouth back on his, he wanted her hands back in his hair. Most of all, he wanted to see her, in the light, not in the darkness of the Star Labs van. He wanted to put his hands underneath her sweater and brush his hands over the dip of her spine, the swell of her breasts, he wanted her. Wants her. Wants to have her like this forever.

“Hi. That was amazing.”

He wrapped a piece of her hair around his finger. “You’re so beautiful. I finally get to tell you that,” he whispered.

Caitlin lifted her face up from her hiding spot to kiss him again, chaste in comparison to what they were doing before. Cisco will never get over the shock of it. “It’s not the first time you’ve ever said that to me.” “Yeah,” he agreed, letting go of her hair, “But now you know what it means.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means...Everything it did before. You look beautiful, and not just because you curl your hair or wear lipstick or can transform yourself into Killer Frost, but because you control crazy power, you care about people, you’re smart and kind and brave and supportive and protective of everyone, not just me. You’re the one I trust and you’re the one I go to for anything because you will always listen, and...Cait, you’re not trying to impress anybody, that’s just you. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Caitlin tried to duck her head from the praise, but he wouldn’t allow it.

And,” he smirked slyly, “It also means you’re the most attractive kisser I’ve ever seen.”

Caitlin snorted. “You can barely see me in this dim light—And your eyes were closed the entire time.”

“I know. But I don’t need daylight to know that—Hey, you peeked!”

Caitlin’s shy giggles dissolved into full out laughter. Cisco watched her fondly.

She shifted in his lap, “Cisco,” she said, “I want to be with you.”

Cisco searched into her eyes. She was so open, expressive. It was new for her. "Really? She nodded. Caitlin looked down at her lap and took Cisco’s hands. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. Cisco? Can I tell you something?”

“Anything,” he promised. She had his full attention.

“I caught the Barry Allen complex.”

Cisco raised an eyebrow. “The what?”

“The Barry Allen complex,” she said simply. “I’m in love with my best friend.”

Cisco felt the world fade away around them as he held her close.

“Huh,” he mused, “Then I guess I have the Barry Allen complex too.”

~.~

Barry spun around the cortex in exasperation. “I just don’t understand how you two could be sitting outside in a car for five hours and not notice human fish conducting a slave trade right there. What happened?!? ”

“Uhhhh…” Caitlin said as Cisco scratched his head and mumbled, “They’re called Bretans. Don’t be insensitive.”

Barry rolled his eyes and began to type furiously at the monitor. “Okay, maybe if I hack the next building’s security cameras I can figure out around what time it happened.”

Caitlin’s eyes grew horrifically wide as Cisco lunged for the computer.

“No don't! No no no no no, Barry!” Cisco shouted as he fought Barry for the mouse, but the damn speedster was too quick and then it was too late.

Yes, the footage was grainy, but it was unmistakable that the two people in the Star Labs van were in the middle of a midnight romp as four businessmen and two businesswomen with fins had a lengthy conversation about a man several feet away in chains.

Barry froze in shock, then quickly exited out of the window when his brain rebooted.

“Really? The Star Labs Van?” Iris judged from the other side of the room. Otherwise, Cisco realized weirdly, she didn’t seem all that surprised.

Caitlin covered her face with her hands in mortification as Cisco pushed Barry out of the chair. “I’m so sorry Sweetheart, I don’t care if I have to build a submarine to find the Bretans under the sea in order to find Ralph and the missing people, we are deleting this tape.”

Barry nodded dumbly from the floor, covering his eyes. “I have no need to see that ever again.”

FIN

End Note: I bet ya'll think I made this up. Nope. Ralph Dibny literally got kidnapped by merpeople called the Bretans (their undersea city was called Breta) who set up a human slave-trade thingy in the comics' silver era. Look it up! PS: It took all my strength not to name this Stakeout Makeout.

#killervibe #thatkillervibe fic #thatkillervibe #cisco ramon x caitlin snow #Cisco Ramon #Caitlin Snow #fluff #the flash fic #the flash fanfiction #had so much fun writing this you have no idea

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elspethsunschampion · 7 years

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Rainbow Café, Chapter 1/2

Rating: T

Summary: When Billy Kaplan walks out of a bachelorette party because he's stressed, he's not expecting to meet the cutest barista in the known universe.

Warnings for descriptions of homophobia and Billy having the mother of all panic attacks.

A/N: Have I mentioned I have a Thing for Wickling and way too many feels about Billy Kaplan?

Billy was shaking all over, hands shoved deep in his pockets, as he made his way numbly down some Chicago street. At some level, he knew this was stupid. He should just go back to Karaoke, tell Cassie he’d needed a minute of fresh air, and sit in the back of the room, maybe text Tommy. He was leaving the day after tomorrow anyway—no, checking his phone, he saw that it was after midnight. He was leaving tomorrow. And he didn’t really want to ruin Cassie’s bachelorette party over something so stupid.

And yet the thought of going back made bile rise in the back of his throat. He looked down at this freshly-painted nails, then balled his hands into fists and shoved them deep into his jeans pockets. It’s fine, he told himself. Yeah, it’s after midnight, but you’re in the middle of a big city in a well-lighted area. No one’s going to—

The words of the Uber driver rose up in his head again, burning in his ears. Cassie had asked, Do you ever have any problems with passengers? and seriously, why had she done that? The guy hadn’t been really talking to them or anything, and, frankly, Billy liked it that way. It was so much less anxiety-inducing to not have to carry on a conversation with a complete stranger.

The gays, the Uber driver had said, and Billy’s mouth had literally dropped open because seriously? People said that? Sometimes I have to put them in their place. Conversation had gone dead at about that point, and Billy had just—sat back in his seat and sat on his hands, horribly conscious of his pink-and-purple shirt and gelled-up hair. No, people shouldn’t assume he was Gay™ but a) he was, and b) he knew they would anyway. Especially someone who said something like that.

God, what if there was someone else like that around? Why had he left the karaoke bar at all? Billy’s hands were shaking; his head was buzzing with alcohol, and he could feel the beat of his heart increasing to the point where his shallow breathing was making him dizzy. And he stillcouldn’t face heading back to karaoke. Mindlessly, he took a right turn down a side street, glancing from side to side and then stopping, because—oh, thank god!—there was a rainbow triangle sticker in the window of the café next to him, with “safe space” printed clearly across the top. Bright lights were streaming out of the windows, and the place was nearly empty, but a quick glance at the hours of the Runaways Coffee Shop told him it stayed open for another hour or so yet.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Billy shoved the door open and walked in. The lone barista behind the counter looked up and gave him a surprisingly sincere-looking smile, which Billy self-consciously returned as he headed up to the counter. “Uh,” he said, looking up at the menu. “Just a hot chocolate, I don’t think my system needs any extra adrenaline tonight.”

“Whipped cream with that?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

“Name?”

Billy blinked, looking around the entirely empty coffee shop. “Billy?” he hazarded. The barista’s ears went slightly red, and Billy noticed that he had three cartilage piercings on each one, little silver rings that wobbled slightly when he moved. “Sorry, habit,” he said. “I’m Teddy, by the way.”

Oh shit, he’s cute. “Billy,” Billy said, and then immediately felt like an idiot. “Buuut you knew that, because I literally just told you that. I’m going to go sit in the shame corner now.”

“Let’s just call it even for me asking for your name when you’re the only customer in the store,” Teddy said, with a grin. “What size hot chocolate did you want, by the way?”

“Oh, give me a large,” groaned Billy. “I deserve it.”

“Your night going that badly, huh? That’ll be $5.20.”

Billy felt for his wallet, and his stomach plummeted into his shoes when his hand slapped at an empty pocket. “Shit,” he said. “It’s a worse night than I thought.” He’d been trying to make a joke of it, but his voice was rising with nerves. “Shit.” The rapid heartbeat accelerated in his ears, and he had the back of his hand in his mouth before he realized it. It was so fucking hard to breathe, and the room was turning dark and contracting around him.

“Shit, man, are you okay?” someone said from very far away, and Billy wanted to say, yes, absolutely, nothing wrong with me, but the words couldn’t make it through the tightness of his throat. “Billy? Can you hear me? Is it okay if I touch you?” Somewhere, very far away, Billy managed a nod, and a pair of large, warm hands were set gently-but-firmly on his shoulders, and he was being steered across the room. “There’s a chair here, why don’t you sit down, okay?” He let the hands press him into the chair, and then he folded over the little wooden table and tried to breathe. A moment later, someone set a paper cup of water down in front of him, and the hands were back, one of them rubbing tentatively at his upper shoulders. “Just focus on breathing, in and out,” said Teddy’s voice.

Slowly, the horrible tightness in Billy’s chest started to ease up, and he managed to take a deep breath. “Christ,” he managed. “I’m sorry.”

“Dude. You do not have to be sorry for having a panic attack.”

Billy squirmed. “I swear I’m not usually this much of an idiot,” he muttered, digging his phone out of his pocket. He was going to have to text Cassie and find out if he’d left his wallet at the karaoke bar. Joy.

“Just sit there and don’t try to do anything for a few minutes,” Teddy said. “You can deal with the wallet thing in a few minutes. Sip that water, and I’ll be right back.”

With a sigh, Billy was forced to admit that his new friend had a point. A few minutes wouldn’t make a lot of difference in wallet-recovery, but it could make a lot of difference to his mental health. Shakily, he sipped at the water, listening to the tinny, canned coffee shop music and tried not to think too hard.

After he’d taken three or four long, slow sips, Teddy appeared as his elbow again and pushed a hot chocolate in front of him. “I can’t—” Billy tried.

“It’s fine, it’s just five bucks. If you really feel bad, you can pay me back sometime. Now what’s going on? And don’t tell me ‘it’s nothing.’”

“Ugh.” Gratefully, Billy took the hot chocolate and sipped at it. The fluffy whipped cream bumped at his upper lip. “It’s dumb. It’s really dumb. It’s just a bunch of little things. Look—are you sure you can take the time to chat with me?”

Teddy cocked an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, because it’s so busy in here,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “Besides, my boss is pretty understanding. I think she kind of founded this place as a haven, you know?”

“I—yeah, I got that. I came in because of the sticker.”

“I thought you might have.” Teddy smiled at him. “That’s why it’s there. Now come on, tell me what’s going on.”

Billy heaved a sigh. “I’m in Chicago for the weekend for a bachelorette party,” he said, finally. “I go to Northwestern. Anyway, Cassie and I have been friends since we were kids. We met at Band Camp,” he pulled a wry face. “Interlochen Arts Camp, actually. And she decided not to restrict her bridesmaids to women. I don’t think it’s because I’m gay?” He hated how uncertain he was at this point.

“Oof,” said Teddy.

“Yeah. I mean—she was super chill when I came out to her. Most people in my life have been pretty chill about the being-gay thing. I grew up on the ritzy side of NYC, I got a little shit in high school, but not a lot. I was lucky, I guess. Anyways. Not the point. It’s just—this whole weekend has been an exercise in, uh. Okay, I kind of hate the term microaggressions because it sounds like I swallowed a textbook and I’m complaining about something that’s super minor, but it’s probably the best way to put it?”

“Death by a thousand cuts. I get it.” Teddy pushed his hair back from his forehead. “It just gets to you after a while.”

“None of the bridesmaids are bad people,” Billy sighed. “They were just, uh, Trying Really Hard, I guess. You know. And honestly I don’t need everyone to ask me if I have a boyfriend? Especially when I don’t. Then it just gets embarrassing. And like…Cassie told them all I was gay. Which—I don’t care! I’m out to my department and my family and, like, everyone?”

Teddy chewed on his lip. “It’s still your choice to make,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, but she didn’t really have any reason to assume I wouldn’t want to tell people. I don’t even get why that bothered me.” He sighed. “And it’s not like it’s Cassie’s fault that the maid of honor started hitting on me. But I just—don’t really want to talk to her right now, but my wallet is probably back at the karaoke bar, and I don’t want to ruin the weekend for her. She’s under a lot of stress with the wedding and shit—she really is usually more thoughtful than this.”

“You know you can still be upset with her right now.” Teddy put a hand on Billy’s arm. “Listen, your friend fucked up, and it sounds like you’ve been under a lot of stress, too. It’s okay for you to be mad and hurt. You guys can patch it up later.”

“It’s her wedding,” Billy said patiently. “And it’s not her fault the Uber drive was a douchebag. Or that her bridesman is a goddamn mess.” He buried his face in his hands.

“Hey. Stop beating up on Cassie’s favorite bridesman.” Teddy tentatively ruffled Billy’s hair. “Think about something else for a few minutes. Your major, maybe?”

“Oh, I’m actually in grad school,” Billy said. “I don’t know if you call it a major anymore? Physics, though. Because I’m crazy. Um.”

“Cool,” Teddy said. “I liked physics in high school. I might have done the engineering thing in college, but, uh, my dad died, so I never finished.”

“Oh,” said Billy, feeling like a heel. “Shit.”

“It’s okay, I wasn’t going for pity points.” Teddy rubbed the back of his head. “I’m not as smooth as I like to pretend I am sometimes.” But he was shifting awkwardly.

Different topic of conversation. “Do you like the MCU?” Billy blurted, then cringed. Real smooth, Kaplan. To his surprise, Teddy actually blushed slightly.

“Yeah, actually, I like it a lot,” he said. “Iron Man’s my favorite. What about you?”

“That is such an evil question to ask. I feel like I’m betraying whoever I don’t answer,” Billy groaned. “Tie between Captain American and Iron Man, though.” And then, because he was sleepy and probably still a little tipsy, and because the lights were very golden and almost dream-like, he added, “I ship them like burning,” as he sipped his hot chocolate. Before he could even feel like an idiot for about the fiftieth time, a surprised laugh fell out of Teddy’s mouth, and a delighted smile spread across his face.

“Me, too,” he said quietly.

The sudden, heady rush of oh-wow-real-life-kindred-spirit was as sudden as it was silly. Thousands of people probably shipped Captain America/Iron Man. Millions, even. It was a ridiculously popular ship. If you were enough of a fanboy to ship. And yet the rush of warmth was undeniable and delightful. “Well, thank god you don’t ship Bucky/Captain America, I don’t know if we could stay friends,” fell out of Billy’s mouth, and Teddy laughed again. “Although I’ve, uh, been known to dabble in Science Husbands. Occasionally.”

“It’s okay, I forgive you.”

Billy’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “Shit,” he said, and looked down at it. “Oh, it’s Cassie. I guess I should see what she wants. I still need to figure out where my wallet is, and I don’t have anywhere to stay except at the Airbnb she rented.”

Teddy nodded, suddenly serious again. “You sure?” he asked.

Billy managed to nod. “Yeah. I—yeah. Shipping talk made me feel—a lot better, actually.” He pulled his phone out and checked the messages.

1:27 AM Dude where are you

1:29 AM Billy are you ok?

1:31 AM Shit I cannot believe Taylor was hitting on you I am so sorry please text me back

1:35 AM Billy seriously if you got mugged I will never forgive myself

Billy winced and quickly kicked a message back.

1:43 AM Yeah I’m fine

1:43 AM I was just kind of awkwarded out and needed a walk. Did I leave my wallet at the bar?

1:44 AM You scared the hell out of me. And yes you did. Idiot.

1:45 AM That’s me, I’ll head back now.

The fact that Cassie had been worried soothed the nasty cold feeling in the pit of Billy’s stomach, replacing hurt with another dollop of guilt. Worrying Cassie on her bachelorette party weekend had really not been part of the plan. “Shit, I guess I should be getting back,” he said. “Um, thanks again. I really appreciate it?”

Ask for his number, urged a voice in the back of his head, but he dismissed it. It was probably creepy to hit on someone when they were still technically on the clock. And just because he shipped Iron Man/Captain America, it didn’t mean he was into guys. Necessarily.

“Don’t forget your hot chocolate,” Teddy said, looking up from the other side of the table and pushing it across to Billy.

“Thanks.” Billy took it automatically. “I’ll—” see you around, he almost said, and closed his mouth over the absurd statement. “Uh. Thanks,” he said again, awkwardly, flushing to the roots of his hair. He wanted to say more than that, but he couldn’t find a way to begin, so he just got up, slid his phone back into his pocket and headed back out into the heart of Chicago.

When he made it back to the karaoke bar, Cassie was almost depressingly apologetic. “It’s fine,” Billy said for the fifth time. “I just needed a breath of air. I’m really sorry I worried you.” Cardboard crumpled underneath his fingers, and he looked down in surprise to realize he still had the empty hot chocolate cup in his hand.

“What’s written on your cup?” Cassie asked, and he held it up, frowning, and turned it around.

You’re cute. I hope this isn’t creepy. Call me sometime? We can talk about shipping, was scrawled hastily across the back, and beneath it, nine numbers in large, sloppy handwriting. Teddy must have scribbled it there at the end of their conversation, maybe when Billy was texting Cassie.

“Holy shit,” Billy said numbly. “Cassie, thank Taylor for me.”

“What?”

“I think she indirectly got me the cute barista’s number.”

2:03 AM I got my wallet back.

2:05 AM You’re not creepy

2:06 AM Also thanks again

2:27 AM You’re welcome

#young avengers #wickling #coffee shop au #no powers au #billy kaplan #teddy altman #fanfiction #my writing

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voidsettle · 5 years

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København: Christmas Markets

December 2017

I hate traveling during winters to anywhere that's not over +20. Excluding Copenhagen. Because really, how can you not fall in love with it immediately?

Christmas decorations on display and for sell at Tivoli

Have you ever experienced a Julemarked? You should; it's here that you get the best holiday spirit even as a grown-up. Sweets, hot wine with spices, knitted sweaters. They have everything to keep you warm, body and soul.

Who wants to be happy anymore when there's hygge? That's special Danish word that means you don't care there's cold and wind that get everywhere - you still feel warm and totally relaxed. Gløgg for everyone!

Plan your trip tight but relaxed - Denmark is not the country that likes to be treated touristy. Copenhagen has it all: castles from different eras, vivid architecture, traditions big and small.

But don't forget to relax just like the Danes do. Grab a beer or a gløgg. Take a blanket. Sit outside. Apparently, you have no right to call yourself a viking if you're afraid of cold.

Walking Down Strøget

We arrived to Copenhagen deep into the evening. Our hostess lived quite far away, so we decided to take a walk in search for some food into our empty stomachs - and were immediately enveloped in the soft warm lights of the night city.

Kronprinsensgade, Copenhagen

The bad thing about most European cities (especially as you move north) is that life nearly dies out in late evenings. The pedestrian zones that are usually crowded seem abandoned and empty - but there are brightly lit window-cases and Christmas lights to keep you company.

This first glance at the night Copenhagen is probably why I fell in love with the night city - that's what I remember best when thinking of the Danish capital. Next morning was dull and grey, as winter mornings tend to be. We fought through the chilling wind with coffee and Danish pastries from the small local store.

Downtown was busy and bustling as we took a walk around before our free tour started. I love these tours since guides are usually really enthusiastic about their cities. (And somehow they are usually not natives? Part of the charm I guess). Our guide, a youngish boy originally from London made us remember a couple of things about the city. First, the fires ravaged through it near half a dozen times (we were literally asked to cry out loud what happened to the city in that year or the other, and it was always 'it burned down!'). Second, written Danish is as far away from spoken Danish as possible. And, finally, Copenhagen is full of angry cyclists who will definitely crush into you if you stand in their way - and they'll be right.

I can still see the image that was painted before my eyes: a guy mounted on his bike, with a Christmas tree clasped under his arm, screaming 'What do you want for dinner!' into a cell-phone while trying to navigate the busy crowds of downtown. You don't want to be in his way, whether he wears a horned helm or not.

The rest of the city is just what you know about old European cities. Narrow winding streets, slim brick houses in bright colors glued together, peaking churches as you move from square to square heavily clad in history. You will lose yourself somewhere in between them - I'm not sure I remembered the name of at least one of the squares aside from Kongens Nytorv. But at least it's easy to find your way in the triangle between the domineering castles (count in the gloomy Baroque-Neoclassical Christiansborg, the witty Renaissance Rosenborg, and the current royal residence, Rococo Amalienborg).

And then the're's the city's symbol, Nyhavn. This place looks like an open-sky museum piece - which it actually is. The popularity of the place is nearly frustrating (even outside of the summer season you cannot get a decent photo without other people popping into the frame).

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

It appears the Danish superstar Hans Christian Andersen fancied Nyhavn so much that he moved from one house to the next - we've counted three of them where he lived during his life.

Oh yes, Andersen. There's no place in Copenhagen you can go without his name mentioned. Museums of his name, sure; we've seen the places he lived in, the shops he frequented, and dined at one of his favorite places. One of our favorite places now, as well.

Evening Entertainments: Street Food and Tivoli

Smørrebrød with smoked salmon and cream cheese

Copenhagen in early December is a place of winds, but also street food - they have a whole island dedicated to that purpose alone. We walked along the river bank to get to PapirØen, or the Paper Island and get us some of those delicious smørrebrøds. The only dispiriting part was the crowds - we had to wait for half an hour to get our hands on a couple of those beauties. Maybe we should've planned our visit outside the weekend.

And we didn't stop on sandwiches. The best part of visiting old Europe in December is that, roaming the streets, you will find food, and the smells beckon you to eat all the time. For some time we completely forgot about the architectural beauties of the city, too busy enjoying the food. The Christmas market on Kongens Nytorv got us tipsy and happy with some gløgg and lots of sweets, from caramelized apples to nougat, the Danish specialty.

As our sated bodies finally refused to accept any more food, the night fell, and we headed off toward Tivoli, the oldest amusement park in Europe. I'm not usually a big fan of this type of attractions, but Tivoli is famed not only due to its rides but also the beauty of the Christmas decorations. It's like falling down into a fairy tale - the attention to detail and the craftiness is astonishingly meticulous.

If you're like me (not a fan of rides, that is), there are still things you don't want to miss in Tivoli: the food, the souvenirs and the absolutely gorgeous light-and-water show that runs every hour from dusk till 11PM. This year, they staged Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, so beautiful that it strung every string in my heart. Or maybe that was gløgg speaking.

The Three Castles

Frederiksborg Slot, Hillerød

Three castles in one day is a bit too much. Alas, when you only have 2 and a half days in Copenhagen and a burning desire to 'see it all', you sacrifice your comfort in favor of your curiosity.

We started our castle run at Rosenborg, a former summer residence of the Danish royalty. Veiled in a sleepy atmosphere, the palace boasts an impressive collection of armory, artworks and some really spectacular crown jewels in the dungeons. Curiously, it does have the feel of a summer house, with its surrounding gardens and cozy secluded rooms at a stark contrast with the bustling city outside its walls. We were eager to see the next castle to make our comparisons, and that's when a sudden challenge struck us.

Keep mispronouncing the words. That's the Dane way.

Despite the cold winds, people in Copenhagen are surprisingly relaxed. That's probably why they don't bother to pronounce the whole word - they start saying it, and than, meh, you know what I mean. For tourists, that's exactly the trap you don't want to fall into. Riding on a train, we had to learn how our stops are written - and read the names on one of the many scoreboards. We would never get off where we needed otherwise.

Do I even need to spell out my happiness at the parking habits of the Danes?

It's a miracle we didn't get lost in the whole train system - but we arrived at Hillerød and even found our way to Frederiksborg Slot.

Mind the names. Frederiksborg Slot (castle) is not the same as Frederiksberg Palace. Yep, I'm still confused.

The castle is huge (the largest Scandinavian Renaissance residence), full of impressive artwork, architectural decoration and - my personal favorite and an addition to the collection - features the sculpture of Uranus consuming his child. Gives me the tingle every time.

Also, Hillerød is that typical small European town full of medieval-to-renaissance architecture that we all love so much. Definitely worth a stroll.

Yet it was the next place that served as a cherry on the top - Kronborg, the famed castle of Hamlet. Well, not really, but that's what they advertise it as, so let them. Besides, it was an extremely thrilling experience that I wouldn't expect from a marketing trick like this one.

The reason's simple: it was genuinely spooky. We left it for last since it was open the longest, already after the sun set and the spectacular dusk fell onto the small town of Helsingør. The wide roadway to the castle was aligned with large bowls of cracking flame, a fine replacement for the torches under the seaside winds. The castle itself was engulfed in the Christmas atmosphere - but given it's huge chambers, it was half empty, with people clustering in the small souvenir rooms. The place looked ghostly, adding to its charm. We wandered around the half-lit rooms set in medieval entourage, looked through the fogged windows upon the gulf facing Sweden (with cannons aiming at the potential attackers) and listened to the loud echoes of our footsteps. As the darkness settled in, we came out to the square courtyard. The soft sounds of Christmas carols from the warm tents, the set of windows with flickering lights inside, the gusts of wind throwing snow into our faces - the ambiance of the place was impossibly authentic.

And that's not to mention the dungeons. We went looking for the legendary giant Holger sleeping under the castle - the one destined to wake up to protect Denmark from the foes. I found him in one of the rooms (although I am tempted to describe it as an underground cave), and then I got lost in the dungeons. Low ceilings, dirt-to-sand ground, no lighting whatsoever and a labyrinth of uneven rooms used for storage of food and prisoners. In the middle of my way through the labyrinth there were footsteps behind my back, and a convulsive beam of light chasing the shadows: the castle was closing for the night, and the officers were tasked with catching all the tourists out of the premises. But well. It literally was running through the dungeons away from the castle guards.

That sticky feeling at the back of your head when you're drowning in the darkness and feel the chill creep up your spine - yes, that's what all castles should have.

It was only natural that after such a thrilling chase I needed to wash away the adrenaline. So, teaming up with another tourist, we found our way to the shore and dipped our hands into the freeing waters of Øresund. Quite satisfying and integral to our north experiences.

The Weed Freetown

There's a place in Copenhagen that absolutely screams of modern democracy. I've seen some freetowns around Europe (the idea's gaining popularity, eh?), but it's Christiania that made me think they might've gone a bit overboard. Can you even imagine a whole neighborhood selling weed just like that, in the open? The air in this place is sweetly intoxicating.

Don't try to take photos of people selling the goods. You'll be asked to delete the photos if not stripped of your phone.

Church of Our Savior, Christiania, Copenhagen

But that was not the main reason we came to Christiania. Instead, our major goal was the Church of Our Savior and its winding staircase.

Proceed with caution! The staircase around the spire is dizzying. It narrows down with each step, the rails are frail - looking down is not for people afraid of heights.

Jamming away our ennui on leaving Copenhagen with some Danish flæskesteg sandwiches, we roamed the streets for the last time. Wandered into some nerd merchandise stores, bought some sweets for souvenirs, and gave away our last krone to the carol singers just because they were that good. Truly a trip worth of a lingering nostalgia.

What to see:

Nyhavn

Tivoli

Strøget

Rundetaarn

Frederik's Church

City Hall

Kongens Nytorv

the Little Mermaid (but only if you want to be disappointed)

St Alban's Church

Copenhagen Opera House

Amalienborg

Rosenborg Castle

Christiansborg Palace

Kronborg (the famed castle of Hamlet, the Dutch prince)

Frederiksborg Castle (Hillerød)

Freetown Christiania

Church of Our Saviour

Copenhagen subway (it's not fancy but it's autopiloted)

Paper Island (this one strictly for street food)

What to eat:

traditional roasted pork with a crispy crust (flæskesteg)

apples in caramel

gløgg (spirited, naturally; otherwise you cannot experience hygge or anything close to comfortable)

pickled herring

smørrebrød (Denmark is the birthplace of this fishy sandwich)

traditional nougat

Pickled herring

So what?

Danish nougat. Christmas market at Kongens Nytorv

Not sure how this happened but I would definitely repeat a trip like this. Despite the cold weather, the wind under your coat, and (let's be honest) the crippling prices, it's one of the warmest experiences I've ever had. In short: you don't need to spend months in Denmark to learn about the most important part of the Danish culture. Just Keep Calm and Hygge.

#copenhagen #denmark #hillerod #helsingor

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180abroad · 5 years

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Day 182: The Dutch National Maritime Museum

Today, we went back into the city to explore more of central Amsterdam. At least, that was the original plan. Our first stop was the National Maritime Museum, an amazing collection of wide-ranging exhibits covering topics from ship design to cartography to the social costs of the Dutch trading empire. It was so good, we wound up spending almost the entire day there.

Arriving at Amsterdam Central, it was time for us to try out the local bus system. Taking buses in foreign countries is always a fun experience---or at least local buses are. It’s more or less the same everywhere you go, but it's always just different enough to trip you up. Whether it's how to buy tickets, how to make the bus stop, which door to get in through, or just where to find the least uncomfortable seats, there's always something new to learn.

Having said all that, this bus ride was wholly unremarkable. The bus stayed on the same street the entire time, and we got off on the third stop barely a mile from the station. We could have walked it, but we had more interesting things to spend our legs on.

The museum is housed in a former naval arsenal, built in the 17th century at the height of the Dutch Golden Age. The Netherlands were then governed by the Dutch Republic, a scrappy if somewhat dysfunctional confederation whose war of independence from Spain was still in living memory. There was no national military. Instead, the country's defense was tasked to a collection of separate Admiralties run by five of the wealthiest and most powerful Dutch cities.

Amsterdam was the wealthiest and most powerful of them all, and they built this extraordinary building to serve as its warehouse.

Above the central courtyard hangs a particularly striking glass and steel roof resembling a spider's web or a kaleidoscope. The museum is divided into several different wings connected by the central courtyard. It's the sort of museum that's large enough to require a strategic plan of attack.

The first room we entered was filled with a long display of dozens and dozens of model yachts from the early 17th century to the modern day. They range from tiny, simple boats to complex multi-masted ships. They were fantastically detailed, and there was even a set of digital information panels that you could slide across the outside of the display case to zoom in on different models and get a readout of interesting facts.

Next up was a massive collection of old maps and atlases from throughout the European Age of Exploration. The earlier maps are highly stylized and hilariously inaccurate, but you can see how quickly the trade of cartography improved once the knowledge of the greater world shifted from being an academic curiosity to being a vital business resource.

At the beginning of the Age of Exploration, Portugal had the best cartographers in Europe. But the Dutch understood as well as anyone that Europe was on the brink of entering a new global era, and the nation with the best maps of the most places would have an advantage in both trade and conquest compared to nations making do with worse and fewer maps. So the Netherlands sent spies to copy Portuguese maps and map-making techniques, and within a hundred years, the best maps in Europe were coming out of Amsterdam.

Another cool thing in the map room was a demonstration of the Mercator Projection. Developed by a Dutchman in the 1500s, the Mercator Projection is still the basis for what we think of today as the standard world map.

There are a lot of different ways of drawing the round earth on a flat map, and each one is called a projection. I'd never really put much thought into the choice of the word "projection," but this display showed just how literal the term really is.

By taking a transparent globe and a cylindrical white screen, you can literally project the lines of the three-dimensional glob onto the cylinder, which can be unrolled into a flat surface. You can also literally see how the equidistant horizontal latitude lines on the globe get increasingly stretched out the further north and south you go on the map. Among other things, this makes Greenland and Antarctica look huge when really they are only about the size of continental Europe.

The real jewel of the cartography exhibit was a room dedicated to the maps of Willem Blaeu and his sons. The Blaeus developed cutting-edge techniques for making maps that were more precise and easy to read than any others. They kept a shop right on the docks of Amsterdam so that they would be the first in line to get their hands on fresh navigational records from returning ships. Willem became so famous for the quality and up-to-dateness of his maps that he was appointed the chief cartographer for the Dutch East India Company, and his son Joan was appointed to the position after him.

In the center of the Blaeu room is a gigantic map showing all of the known world at the time. Big world map filled with cities. We spotted a lot of places we’d visited during the trip, like the city of “Edenborch” and the island of "Yles" in Scotland. (Edinburgh and Islay.)

Shifting to something completely different, we entered a room dedicated to the modern shipping industry. There was a large model of the Port of Amsterdam highlighting the role each part plays in getting the stuff you buy every day out of the ships and into the stores. There was even a 5-minute simulator built into a fake shipping container that gave us a first-person experience of the journey, ending up with us being stocked on the shelves of a produce section.

Next up was a gallery of Dutch maritime art, a popular genre during the Golden Age. The Dutch navies and trading fleets were the backbone of the country's wealth, so it was only natural that wealthy Dutch merchants, officers, and politicians would want to memorialize them on their walls.

In addition to the classic naval paintings, there were a number of “pen paintings,” featuring intricately illustrated ships with intricately illustrated naval scenes drawn onto the canvas with pen and ink. Apparently, this art form was particularly popular for nautical art because it allowed the artist to show all the rigging and woodwork in fastidious detail.

In another room we found a fun exhibit on the various navigational instruments used by sailors throughout the ages. And unlike every other museum we'd been to so far, the Dutch maritime museum not only had the instruments on display but actually explained how they worked through interactive computer screens.

In another room, there was a collection of old ships' figureheads, some of which were more tasteful than others.

Another huge exhibit was titled "See you in the Golden Age." It was a fairly reading-heavy exhibit dominated by signs and plaques, but it did a good job of succinctly explaining the rise of the Dutch Republic as a global superpower, the way the Dutch trade empire operated, and the unsavory realities of what was in many ways a highly exploitative and unethical enterprise.

Thanks to shipbuilding and trade, Amsterdam became the biggest port city in the world during the 17th century. Its nickname was “the warehouse of the world.”

At first, the Dutch trading fleet defended itself by arming its trading ships with cannons, much like Spain did with its galleons and virtually every other trading power did with its ships. Over the course of the 1600s, however, dedicated warships began to emerge more and more from the dockyards. The Dutch had to fight numerous bloody wars over the course of the century---first with Spain for their independence, then with Britain for trade routes.

The Dutch East India Company---much like the British East India Company---was a massive enterprise devoted to colonizing and trading with India and East Asia. It secured an exclusive trade monopoly with Japan, and Amsterdam became the hub of Asian art and ceramic imports in Europe.

The East India Company was the pride of the Dutch trade empire, and it was hugely influential to the development of modern multinational corporations. But it wasn't country's main breadwinner. For that, we have to look to the darker story of the Dutch West India Company.

Like every other European trading power of the time, the Dutch made the bulk of their profits through the Atlantic trade triangle---which is a nice way of saying slavery. Dutch traders would buy or capture slaves from western Africa, sell them to plantation owners in North America and the Caribbean, then take the raw materials back to the factories of Europe to be turned into valuable manufactured goods.

Hundreds of thousands of African slaves were shipped to the Americans aboard cramped and dirty Dutch trading vessels.

Another source of income for the West India Company was privateering, which is a nice way of saying piracy that you agree to only do against people from other countries.

Next, we saw a short exhibit on the history of whaling, the centerpiece of which was a life-size display of a man preparing to harpoon a whale that has just breached the surface. Starting with a life-sized display of a man preparing to harpoon a whale.

I’d never realized how ardent a conservationist my cousin Nic was.

The exhibit also covered the biology of whales, why they were so they were such a valuable hunting target, and some common whaling equipment including a grisly industrial saw used to cut whale carcasses apart.

For our last stop inside the museum, we visited the “Life on Board” exhibit---a life-size board game where we carried around a bucket and tested our knowledge and reading comprehension about life on a ship.

I said that our last stop inside the museum, but it wasn't our last stop of the museum.

Just outside the museum sits a full-size recreation of the Dutch East Indiaman Amsterdam. Of course we couldn't leave without seeing that. But first, we got to see something a bit smaller.

This work of art is the royal barge of William I, the first king of the Netherlands after the fall of the Dutch Republic and the subsequent French-backed Batavian Republic.

The museum ship Amsterdam was pretty cool, even if it was a bit more touristy than the real-life ships Jessica and I got to visit at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. One corner of the ship had been converted into a virtual-reality experience that ran every 10 minutes or so. We decided to wait in line, but every time they opened the doors, a wave of people with reservations came up and took all the spots. After the third failed attempt to enter, we gave up and moved on.

Having already familiarized ourselves with navigating tall ships back in Portsmouth, Jessica and I got to enjoy watching Nic come to grips with the meager proportions of maritime life during the Age of Sail.

As we walked above-decks, we were able to view the nearby NEMO Science Museum, which looks like a cargo ship poking up out of its pier at a precarious angle. We didn't have the time or energy to visit another museum, but the staircase climb up its peculiarly sloped spine was irresistibly intriguing.

After leaving the Maritime Museum and making our way to the top of NEMO, we were able to enjoy a pretty nice view of the surrounding docks and skyline. After taking it all in, we decided to take the elevator down. But after waiting a good five or ten minutes for an open car, we decided to just climb back down the stairs instead.

After that, we decided to take it easy. It was passing mid-afternoon at this point, and we'd spent pretty much the entire day standing. Plus, we had something very special and very tiring planned for tomorrow. So with all that in mind, we settled for a quick side-trip for desert in Dam Square before heading home for an early evening.

#180abroad #amsterdam #netherlands #holland #travel #museum #ships #national maritime museum #het scheepvaartmuseum #nautical #history #chocolate covered waffles

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eurotraveltales-blog · 6 years

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Day 12: Lucerne

Update from last night, since this happened after I made the post: there is what we assume is a hostel cat!! Makes up for the lack of WiFi and power. Saw the cat on our way back from the lounge to our rooms to go to bed last night. It was just dozing away on the rug next to the cow statue in the lobby of the hostel. He/she was soooo sweet and let us pet it even though we woke it up accidentally. Back to today - long post ahead, we did a LOT with our full day in Lucerne.

Woke up at 9:00 for the hostel's free breakfast, since their breakfast ends at 9:30 instead of 10:00, which is when all the other hostels' breakfasts have ended. They had a pretty generous spread of food, and I sampled almost all of it. They even had vegetable soup and rice, so I had a very healthy helping of those. I also had a bowl of their homemade muesli (a Swiss-German food), which is a really good combination of food that I had never thought of before. It's strawberry yogurt, oatmeal, and chunks of fruit (blueberries and strawberries, in this case). Deeeelicious. I also had a bowl of regular yogurt, two orange slices, an apple slice, a glass of orange juice, two slices of ham, and part of a slice of swiss cheese. It was a thick slice of cheese, not the thin ones we usually have in the US. Apriet finished the rest of my cheese, since I wasn't a huge fan. Apriet had toast with salami and cheese, toast with butter, orange juice, rice, and yogurt. I definitely ate enough to be able to skip lunch, which we pretty much did unless you count chocolate as lunch, but I'll get to that. After breakfast, we tried to get WiFi so we could look up which bus stop to get off at in order to go to the Glacier Garden. However, the WiFi seemed to be out, even in the lobby where it normally works, so we decided to just go and figure it out. We got off the bus and made a short walk to the Lion Monument, which is a sculpture of a dying lion who has an extremely distressed look on its face. It was sculpted in 1820 by Lukas Ahorn to commemorate the Swiss Guards massacred in the 1792 French Revolution. Mark Twain said it was the most moving piece of rock in history, or something like that. You'll see it in the pictures. We both wanted to go pet it and comfort it, but it sits on a cliff that is located on the far side of a pond, so nobody could get to it. In addition to its terribly sad expression, the lion also reminded me of all the other animals in the world that are dying or have died at the hands of humans, be it from poaching or hunting, and that just added on a whole other level of sadness. ...Anyway, we wanted to get access to the glacier garden, because once we had a ticket, we would be able to explore the natural monument, the glacier museum, geoworld lucerne, the Amrein house, the observation tower, and Alhambra mirror maze. Tickets were 15 francs per adult, and the first time we went to the window to try and purchase a ticket, the lady thought we wanted to go to the 3D panorama of Lucerne for some reason, so she told us to go to another window that was a minute away. We thought she was saying that's where all the stuff we wanted to do was, so we tried to find it. We never did find it, but in our attempt to get back to that window, we went up a ton of stairs that led to a path through a quiet and pristine Lucerne neighborhood. We went on a pretty long stroll, but we eventually looped back around to the glacier garden, and actually purchased the tickets this time.

First up is the natural monument, a preserved area where glaciers stood during the Ice Age. The monument was uncovered by chance in 1872 when Josef Wilhelm Amrein-Troller was doing building work on a wine cellar at the site. The glacial polish, glacial potholes, and boulders found at the site prove that Switzerland was covered by glaciers during the Ice Age. Some of the potholes were gigantic, almost cave-like, and they are caused by the erosion of sand and gravel at the bottom of a glacier when the glacier's melt water seeps into the glacier through fissures. Under high pressure, the water at the bottom of the glacier forms vortices that erode the rock. Pretty wicked, no? I had fun exploring all the exhibits in the museum, reading almost everything I could. I followed along with the guide we were given when we purchased tickets, because the exhibits are numbered and you can go through and read all about the subject matter both on the guide and on the exhibit itself. Museums are so much fun. Today I learned that woolly mammoths have six sets of teeth! And because they spend so much of their life eating and chewing their food, they wear their teeth down very quickly. When one set of teeth gets worn down too much, another set moves up to take its place. And when a mammoth runs out of teeth, it can no longer eat, so it starves to death. That's why mammoths typically don't live to be more than 60 years old. Isn't that fascinating? There was also a lot of sciencey stuff in the museum about ice, snow, water, glaciers, and crystals. Pretty rad stuff. The Amrein House was where the Amrein-Troller family lived, and it was full of Renaissance furniture and Swiss historical motifs. It was built in 1874, and it was very cool to get a sneak peak into how people lived in Switzerland during the 19th century. All the furniture was super fancy, and they even had a display of models of typical old Swiss houses. They also had a room full of the different types of rocks and minerals that can be found in the Swiss Alps. After the Amrein house came the observation tower. The path up to the observation tower was as enjoyable as the tower itself. They labeled all the different types of plants you could see on the way up to the tower, and I absolutely loved it. They also had a model of a glacial mill that illustrated an old theory of how potholes are formed. There was a diorama of an old mountain hut, and an arched stone tunnel. At the top of the observation tower was a glorious view over the city of Lucerne. My favorite thing about Lucerne is that you pretty much have a solid view of the Alps from wherever you are. You can even see them in the distance towering over everything when you're standing on the city streets! It's pretty wild. After the tower, we came to the mirror maze. It was suuuuper trippy. At first I kept almost running into the mirrors because it's very hard to tell when the mirrors are reflecting back space that it looks like you can occupy. Psych. After I got the hang of it, it wasn't too hard to find my way to the exit. At the end, there's a room with four mirror-related interactive exhibits. One was just two pieces of taut string, reflected by two mirrors at a 90 degree angle, creating a triangle. When you pulled one of the mirrors closer together, narrowing the angle, the shape made from the reflection of the strings would change to a square, then a hexagon, then an octagon, and so forth. Whew, that was a lot. Apriet was hungry after leaving the Glacier Garden, and when in Switzerland... where else did we go but a Swiss chocolatier? Their truffles were super fancy, and they also had numerous other types of chocolate for sale. I considered getting a set of 5 swiss chocolate bars (3 milk chocoolate, 1 with hazelnuts, and 1 with raisins) for 8.40 francs, but it was a lot of chocolate, and I figured it would melt in the heat anyway, so I just opted for some truffles that I could finish the same day. Apriet got a single hazelnut truffle, and then we shared another bag of 8 truffles for $13.39. I had three and Apriet had five. They were all delicious, of course. You can't go wrong with Swiss chocolate, let me tell ya. All of mine were dark chocolate with different types of ganache inside. My mouth is still watering. After the chocolate store, we went to a castle tower lookout area. It was a series of nine connected towers, but only three of the towers are open to the public. It was free to go in, so we climbed the very steep stairs up to the top of the first tower to soak in more views of the city. We then walked across a rampart that was halfway up the tower in order to get to the clock tower. It was super cool to see the pendulum swinging back and forth, and the machinery that moved the hands of the clock as we climbed the tower. At the top we saw the bell, but we didn't get to see it ring since we weren't there on the hour. We made our way to the third tower and descended the stairs to the bottom. We walked along a gravel road surrounded by wildflowers, with the rooftops of Lucerne to our right, and a castle wall to our left. It felt very European. After that, we just sat on a bench by the river and watched the pigeons for a good 15 minutes. I never tire of watching birds. Their feathers are so beautiful, and the way they move turn their heads all jerkily is pretty entertaining. I also think it's fascinating that they have a top and a bottom eyelid, so watching them blink is also entertaining. We decided to go to the lake after that short break, so we made our way to a covered bridge - different than the one we crossed yesterday. This one had a souvenir store, and we bought some souvenirs. Apriet says she spent too much, but we're only going to be in Switzerland once, right? We wanted to get at least one thing from each country we visited, but we’ve already messed up because neither of us got anything from France. Oh well, we had a puppy. When we got to the lake, we decided to see how much the paddle boats cost. We agreed that if it was 20 francs or less, we would get one, since that would really only be 10 francs per person. It turned out to be 25 because it was a weekend, but we did it anyway for a half hour. Folks, we were paddle boating on Lake Lucerne among the swans, with the city all around us and the Alps in the distance. Literally couldn't have been any more peaceful or serene. We made it back in time to not get charged extra. When we paid for the boat, we had to make a 20 franc deposit, and it scared us into not returning the boat late, because there was a chance they'd just keep the deposit if we returned late. After getting off the lake, we found a restaurant in the train station that had take out, since it had been a long day and we wanted to get back to the hostel. The restaurant was self-serve - you just grab a take-out box and fill it with anything you want, then you weigh it and pay. They had all kinds of food from all over the world - pasta, eggs, seaweed salad, kimchi, quinoa salad, lentil salad, curry, carrots, bread, peas, cheesecake, mousse, you name it. We each got a box for 10 francs each, then took the bus back to the hostel where we ate our food. Tomorrow we leave Lucerne for Munich, Germany!

Good times were had by all today. :)

#day12 #lucerne

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abiteofnat · 6 years

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72 HOURS OF “RESTAURANT WEEK CHICAGO” LATER I’M A NEW WOMAN...

Because when you have very little funds after traveling for five days and have food poisoning that just won’t even let you eat crackers, you should go out for 3 really nice multi-course meals. Logically. It all makes sense.

Restaurant Week in Chicago is like a frenzied Olympics of the mind, stomach, and Instagram (especially when you’re a food blogger) because the goal is to eat at as many places as possible, and you want all those places to be new and exciting so you can write fresh takes on fresh foods for the followers. And to show other bloggers, “I am relevant and cool.” So I did JUST THAT and even though one of the three places I tried a Restaurant Week menu is a long-time favorite, I strayed from my usual choices to expand my taste bud horizon. If you know me, this is rare, because once I find my favorite menu item at a repeat location it’s probably never going to change unless I experience a horrific interaction with it (aka &Pizza in D.C. a couple weeks ago, RIP to the mushroom-truffle pizza sauce that was my #1 Saturday night and then caused me to sleep in the bathtub so I could vomit freely Sunday night. Why do I tell you this? Because years from now I’d love to read this and laugh, even though now I still just gag at the remembrance of it. Oh, &Pizza... the shortest love affair ever had).

ANYWAY, since I am one to not back down from a challenge of the food variety, the first Friday of Restaurant Week I was lucky enough to be taken out for dinner at Fleming’s Steakhouse in River North, and then had a lovely early dinner Saturday night at Ema, also in River North, and ended the weekend at Siena Tavern... in River North. There’s a theme here- it’s almost like there’s a section of the city that houses some realllyyyyyy good restaurants... hmmm. I’m going to walk you guys through the menus and what was had by all, and hopefully since Feb. 8 was the last date to try out the pre-fixe menus you can store these places in your brain until next year! It’s always fun to treat this week like a reason to go out and get a little bourgeois, because most of the places on the Restaurant Week Chicago list are a killer steal for the $44 set price.

Here we GO:

1. FLEMING’S STEAKHOUSE

Fleming’s was a choice that shook a lot of people because they follow up, “Wow that sounds so nice!” with “But what does a vegetarian eat at a steakhouse?”

Well, I’m a girl who tends to eat my weight in sushi multiple times a week, and I will never turn away from a big plank of salmon dripping in sauce, which is exactly what came my way course #2... and oh my god, that salmon was so good that I almost didn’t feel guilty it wasn’t still swimming in a creek somewhere. (Whatever, a bear probably would have gotten it before me anyway).

Fleming’s is a somewhat modernized steakhouse off Ohio Street that has an incredible wine bar on the first floor, worth sitting in for a pre-dinner drink for SURE, and their upstairs is a plush, warm environment that gives you steakhouse vibes while still being slightly intimate and even “cozy”. It might have been the entire bottle of red wine we drank but I recall the room being all orange, red, and gold colors so you’re for sure not sitting in some dark cave ripping into a steak (which is how some of the suburban ones can feel- Morton’s in Northbrook is literally a dimly lit daddy cavern). Our waiter couldn’t have been nicer, even when we quizzed him on his age because he looked like a rather tall fifteen year old to be handling wine (he was 25 and engaged- wow), and he made sure our meal was entirely to our liking. The meal was as follows:

Course One: Bread + various butters, all delicious. Then, a lobster bisque that was super creamy, rich in color, garnished with herbs and crème fraîche, and worth every single calorie since it was clearly made with an entire cow’s worth of cream. Not to mention a whoooole lot of butter, however when you’re committing to a bisque, you want it to be so heavy that United makes it pay for it’s luggage, and this bisque did not disappoint.

Course Two: A whole salmon smoked + grilled perfectly, giving it a robust woody flavor but then slathered in a BBQ sauce that had just the right amount of molasses in it to make it sweet, savory, and even a tad salty. This slab of salmon was the first real plate of food I’d had in what felt like years, and WOW did my body need that iron. I asked for it well-done to give it that meaty texture and they made it the most perfect, succulent salmon ever, however most steakhouses blow my mind with how they can make a wiggly fish into a 5-star meal. My now-boyfriend (Fleming’s was a pivotal turning point for us) got the steak and entered a new dimension upon eating it, so for all you carnivores try the steak because it looked + smelled beyond awesome. Can’t give you more details on the taste tho!

Course Three: A couple of sides that can’t really be counted as a separate course, but given how long it took me to enjoy the mashed potatoes it turned into a 20-minute flavor endeavor. We got the Fleming’s potatoes that have jalapeños stirred in- delicious - and then the good ole mashed potatoes that I knew would absolutely kill and THEY DID. A pound of butter, some salt, and the red potato skins mashed in there for texture... job well done. They deserved every single minute spent on them, which were a lot of minutes, because I was so full but my love of mashed potatoes meant leaving a little behind as possible.

Course Four: DESSERT! Because it’s stupid to have two of the same thing on any table, I got the carrot cake and he got the cheesecake, and then I proceeded to eat two bites of the carrot cake and then eat most of the cheesecake since that was easily the star of the show. Everything was delicious though so there was no wrongdoing!!! Fleming’s is worth it even not during Restaurant Week, so go check it out if you want to have a fancy lil night out.

2. EMA

So Ema is somewhere very familiar but I’m never sick of, given the atmosphere is literally perfect and the food is insanely flavorful and fresh for its price! It’s normal to start the meal with a spread or dip anyway, so getting to pick two for the first course for Restaurant Week?? I was sold on heading back there for a girl’s-night dinner to see if anything new peaked my interest.

Course One: Anything with their fresh, hot house pita bread that has olive oil, salt, and rosemary sprinkled on top is a friend of mine so I got the spicy hummus and the charred eggplant spread as my two appetizers... AND WAS SHOOK. Usually I’m a hummus girl but sometimes it can taste a little too much like nuts (due to the chickpeas) and that evening, the hummus was sooo overshadowed by the charred eggplant. I’d never had that before and since eggplant can be slimy, I was nervous, but near the end I even started eating the eggplant with a spoon since the bread was gone and I couldn’t fathom wasting the flavor. GET THE CHARRED EGGPLANT SPREAD. It’s so smooth and has a lemony punch that plays with the savory nature of “char” flavor very well.

Course Two: Risotto! They had a butternut squash risotto on the Restaurant Week menu which I’d somehow never noticed on their usual menu, and my #1 choice for dinner at Ema is always the octopus because it’s a huge serving and comes with even more delicious sauces. However, on a wintery afternoon, butternut squash risotto with parm and crispy sage seemed much more appropriate. Then- the flavor punch NO ONE SAW COMING- SQUASH VINAIGRETTE DRIZZLED ON TOP. It all played together beautifully and had the rich, oatmeal-like texture of risotto but with a light kiss of balsamic and then the punch of sage that is so unexpectedly important. This dish felt like a blind date that ends up being your life partner... yup.

Course Three: DESSERT AGAIN!

I got the small chocolate cake that was a thick dark-chocolate gnache with a very smooth vanilla whipped-cream dollop on top, and it had chunks of freshly-ground sea salt sprinkled on the plate so if you got the perfect bite it would be like jumping into the ocean on a hot day. Refreshing, insanely pleasing, and then that flicker of salt on your tongue. This dessert did a lot for me and was only the size of a granola bar, so it wasn’t overly indulgent.

You can see photos of this meal on in a saved story collection on my Instagram, just go to @abiteofnat and hit “Top Meals”. Enjoy!!!

3. SIENNA TAVERN

Oh Sienna Tavern, how I adore you. After going once freshman year for an over-the-top date with a friend to avoid the bars, I really got hooked on the intimate restaurant experience this place gives you. It’s low lighting, plush leather and dark wood accents, and upscale Italian-inspired food- what more can you want??? On Super Bowl Sunday this is where my sister wanted to celebrate her 18th birthday so away we went, enjoying the empty highways and empty restaurant since everyone was watching the Patriots get their ass handed to them, and my final Restaurant Week menu commenced.

Course One: Since main courses at Sienna Tavern are delicious pizzas and pastas that you don’t want to miss out on, starter was a kale caesar salad that had truffle mixed into the dressing and made kale not taste so much like dirt. I loved this salad and the portion was huge, so everyone could take a little and it was ideal for sharing since the dressing was decadent. Eating kale makes you feel healthier too, so when the pasta laden with pasta came to the table we all felt slim + like we could bear to splurge.

Course Two: BUTTERNUT SQUASH PANSOTI! It’s like triangle ravioli! To be fair this wasn’t on the Restaurant Week menu, but my sister got a pizza selection off it and I ordered this pasta so it all worked out. This pansoti is astounding: the al-dente pasta alone is at least 1/2 centimeter thick, which makes it a voluminous shape when also filled with sweet butternut squash paste, and then five of them are plated and covered in a heavy brown-sugar-butter “Alfredo” of sorts that you just want to coat your whole body in. And the black cracked pepper on top? Beautiful. It is easily the most filling, indulgent dinner on the menu and you can fight me on this, but it’s worth being uncomfortably full after finishing it.

Course Three: DESSERT FOR THE THIRD NIGHT IN A ROW! We HAD to get their house favorite, the bombolini donut holes that you get to FILL WITH FILLINGS YOURSELF. These fat, meaty potato-based donuts are deep fried and coated in sugar, and then come in a little paper bag with caramel, chocolate, and raspberry syrups to infuse with. The raspberry is easily the most delicious since it’s a crisp, fruity finish to an otherwise dense meal, and the crunch of sugar makes the citrus in the syrup pop. OOOO SO GOOD.

Sienna Tavern, you can do no wrong.

So there you all go! I ate so much fucking food in one weekend that I genuinely don’t know how I made it to the gym without passing out the following Monday, and I want to thank each and every one of you who helped me accomplish this horrifying feat! To my boyfriend, thank you for one of the best meals + company to enjoy it with, to Luzi, I’m always thrilled to spend the evening with you and your beauty, and to my family, thank you for teaching me to love food and a good dining experience from my childhood through right now. AND TO YOU FANTASTIC READERS: GET OUT THERE FOR RESTAURANT WEEK 2019. SEE YOU ON THE BATTLE FRONT!

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie

#food #food blog #chicago #new #restaurant week #2018 #restaurantreview #dinner #italian #hummus #fancy #night out #date night #birthday #girls night #food blogger #blogger #instagram #trendy

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bluefacecowboy-blog · 7 years

Text

Weekly Update

Right, hi tumblr people (so Debbie and maybe Chelsea and really bored people scrolling through tumblr) hi to all!

Fun fun week! I really don’t have photos but who knows some might show up if I search twitter and I don’t know if I will yet!

Right so this week started bright and early and featured two big big events. The first: Bike to work celebration.

This was Monday Morning starting at 6:30 and since I forgot to make it start on my calendar at 6:15 I sorta arrived ten minutes late. Ugh I forgot to ground the reader right. Right so National Bike to Work Day is a day where all of the Trans Alt Staff gives out free breakfast along popular commuting corridors.

(For the reccord, in 97.87% of the time, I’m a big fan of editing just not in journaling because journaling seems a way to be free and just reccord or recount what’s going through your mind and yeah I know tumblr maybe isn’t the best place to go even on mimi rants like this but it is 1:45am and I’m playing great music.) By the time I finished this it was almost 3am. Good thing I get Monday’s off.

Right I was explicity told to be very topical so that should be the last of that, it’s just I really hate feeling constrained in journaling so back to topicalness) As well as giving out breakfast the day is also the day where T.A gets the most new members so that really was the focus going in and I have a wierd thing where I can sell things that I don’t believe in so much easily than things that I believe in because I have to think about the selling points. It definitely took me a minute (or the whole time) to get comfy selling membership because I know how great it is and I kinda assumed everybody else did. It was kinda crazy windy out and being right alongside the Hudson certainly added to things. It was a fun day though, roping people in with free breakfast and then asking them if they would be interested in signing a petition which I felt comfy with.

Rant about honesty below (in all likely just an idioscracy of mine)

(I will be very honest about everything probably too honest but I’m not supposed to be shit, like I have no problem saying mistruths in person but writing is so much more perinement and it is what lasts and I want to be honest because the exact words of a conversation even in the very best ones are just fading details but when you can scrutinze every word I find it so much more important to be honest, because whatever I did, I did and I own it, even if I’m not proud of it. Okay see this is how I can get side tracked for real, though if you are a future employer reading this then hello! Hope you are well whatever concerns you have about me in this reading have hopefully been worked on, okay for real back to it)

Rant over

It felt so much comfortable then selling membership after luring people with free breakfast (I hope this is topical and not too much) to try to get them to open their wallet, though I completely understand why we were all supposed to. A petition felt like a fair trade because then there is still good will and ease. Also it was too cold for ice coffee, if we had Friday’s wheather on Monday double the amount of people would have stopped. It was fun and very odd being finished with things before I generally wake up. (bold generally means the future, like there is no way I’m up before 10:30)

I had Tuesday off, so everything there is truly untopical.

Wednesday, that was site visit day and truthfully I was definitely at least vaguely nervous because I never had a formal realationship with Debbie and it was definitely more than a touch off balencing to see Debbie standing outside when my head was still in the books I was reading on the subway. Generally the time in the elevator is the time I need to ground myself in what is ahead but I didn’t have that so if I seemed a touch cold, I aplogize Debbie. The meeting went great, I really do enjoy the work I do at TransAlt (my head is just in the album playing now (25 annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert)) and my supervisor Chelsea is such a great boss. The enviroment (at TransAlt) is great because it really is a great match. Like there are people who are all working on politics but also on bikes and also on pedestrian plazas and making the streets more joyous (shit I’ve been at this half and hour and I still have the next two days) The meeting went very well after I got over the inital in my headness and was present in the meeting. The rest of the day was spent working on Buisness Outreach things or the rest of the day at the office was.

Fuck after I left the day was properly crazy! From the most boring of ceremonies (kinda like the first ten minutes of a Deblassio speech but for three hours) to immediately after having great conversations, looking forward to a double episode of Survivor, to on the whim of a moment joining a group of two incredibly interesting and brilliant strangers and a close friend of my father to suddenly entering this art studio looking for Five Five Freedie to entering a park I never knew existed (148 and Riverside, check this stuff out!) to five hours later lying on the bust of Houdini for a half hour nap.

OVER

Just know I was kinda wrecked and hungry for more adventure going into Thursday. This was my first day of outreach with my boss Chelsea and just going over the ropes of how to petition on the streets. Similarily to a lot of other things you just need to get into a grove and stay the hell out of your head and just ask people “Hey would you like wider sidewalks or summer streets” and then asking the same person to sign the petition. It was great fun to get to use signs I created and see the process through, after petitioning for two and half hours we called it quits and I felt really good about engaging passerbys.

There was a meeting afterward for Manhattan T.A volunteers and while the meeting was definitely productive I was in the complete wrong headspace and probably fairly exhausted ( I went to bed late the night before)

The next day was Bike Home From Work Party in the DUMBO Triangle. It was a real party with a D.J and fosball and food and a bunch of sponsors and free food. I was tasked with floating shift which means to help where needed and float throughout. There was only one person at the membership tent so I joined her there (The person was Kelsey and we really get along great and she is super easy to get along with) and we started pulling people in. I quickly found the best pitch was to call out asking someone if they were a TransAlt member and if they said no I quickly found the best to engage them was to inform them of the free beers for members, that got people listening so quickly it was great and I feel like as many if not the majority of non-members who I was able to engage with became members. If people said yes I would inform them of the free beer and make jovial conversation. There was a free t-shirt (exclusive to the week) so with the free beer and the men’s wearhouse coupon the membership paid for itself when people became members. (The following is half selling membership, 100% honest) Really becoming a member is a great deal, because for fifty dollars a year, or ten a month if you prefer, you get discounts at over a hundred thirty stores throughout the city and you support TransAlt’s lifesaving work! It was great fun working with Kelsey and later Libbey and the party was a great atmosphere and there was a competition to win a Free Brompton Bike, the person who could put out at the highest maxium wattage on a trainer would win a bike. I had the lead throughout the night but each time I checked I would see the person before me edge me out, literally every time! So I go to check in to see if I’m still in the lead. The person warming his legs is a mountain bike racer, so is friend who would go immediately after him. He goes and gives absolutely everything and ended up beating my wattage by 20 watts and I’m thinking alright with Daft Punk Playing I can probably beat that. His friend (person 1’s friend) goes up and blows person 1’s wattage up by fifty watts. Daft Punk is still playing. I have beaten person 2’s wattage a couple of times throughout my 18 years on my bike which is a sweet toy and fits me exactly to the millimeter. I start spinning. Another TransAlt emlpoyee is besides me. The time starts and I start giving it everything but my power was only slowly trudging upwards. I scream and give it one last primal effort. My wattage jumps surpassing person 1’s wattage. I keep digging and I can see person 2’s wattage slowly getting closer. 25. 23. 24. 17. 16. 15. Then I pop. Okay whatever bad story. The night was great! The director of membership was please with me and gave me this amazing pin that says

“OFFFICAL MEMBER”

All Powerful Bike Lobby

Yeah the party was great fun, so much fun to see so many TransAlt members and people having fun with bikes. Yeah I’m sure this is like 10 times more reading then I should have made it. Mistakes were made. Have a great week! After reading it, this feels relatively constrained by my standards. There was also Staff Pizza which was very nice and just great conversation’s throughout the night, alright it is 3:01 I’m gonna hope this is alright in some way. Bye all!

#allpowerfulbikelobby

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