nerdsquad45

“Baby giraffe meets his father and the herd for the first time. Watch the parents embrace at the end.”

Basically, market research for japanese bakeries determined that a) they sell more breads and pastries the more different varieties they have, and b) japanese bakery customers prefer items which are not wrapped, because individually wrapped things give the impression of being like, preserved or something instead of fresh and good I guess? So the obvious solution is to sell as many different kinds of unwrapped breads and pastries as you can.

But! In actual practice, that’s a nightmare. No packaging means no barcodes to scan, so the cashier needs to know all like 200 different (often very similar) items by heart and add them up manually, which means training new employees is a slow and painful process and customer service in general suffers badly. And having a person handle all those un-packaged foodstuffs to count them or examine them, in addition to being slow and clumsy, is unsanitary as fuck.

So one bakery chain owner approached this computer guy in 2007 asking for a system to automate the checkout process. It took five years and the company barely survived a financial crisis in the middle, but long story short they developed a highly specialized AI that will look at the pile of bread a customer picked out and automatically identify everything, tally it up, and charge them correctly, while the live cashier is free to make small talk or help people out or whatever. The whole process is simple, fast, sanitary, and pleasant for customers and employees alike, and to an outsider it looks like fucking magical bullshit.

cut up fruit on a plate

doing work at the same table

adjusting someone’s collar, brushing off lint on their shoulder, fixing their hair

bringing home leftovers

you see, one of the elders has explained reincarnation to her and let it slip that the avatar before her was married to Sifu Katara and Korra is just so stoked that she had been married to someone as amazing as Katara.

Like... Zuko flies over to Ember Island or somewhere after getting his ass kicked @ the North Pole & we get a shot of him over the shoulder of an indistinct figure saying “Retirement is treating you well... but the world needs its greatest firebender”

and we get the ting and a closeup of golden eyes. Then it zooms out & we see her lounging on her porch with a fruity drink. She says something snarky about Zuko not being able to clean up his own messes. Zuko snarks right back. They smile warmly at each other. Azula insists on finishing her drink.

Idk how the rest of the season would play out but World’s Scariest Grandma Azula interacting with the LoK cast would be extremely entertaining. Cranky old fire sibling banter. Bumi & Kya half-jokingly calling her auntie. Azula dryly (but not maliciously) dragging Tenzin. The Bolin-meets-Toph scene but with Mako somehow becoming more awkward than he already is in s3 out of combined fear and hero worship. Vague, nostalgic allusions to adventures, schemes, and heists of unclear moral & political alignment— but genuine regret when/if the Ba Sing Se coup/occupation, killing Aang, the Agni Kai, etc are mentioned.

Also Azula appreciating Asami’s nonbending combat skills (having had highly skilled nonbender friends and having been a nonbender for an unspecified period of time), approving of Korra’s aggressiveness but advising her on how to win battles without throwing a single punch, sniffing out the latent sapphic tension in three seconds flat and making sly remarks that fly over Korra & Asami’s heads...

trouble and temper

Chloe smashes into Beca’s car. Or Beca smashes into Chloe’s car. Jury is still out on that, but one thing is for sure: sparks fly. Not necessarily the good kind.

rating: E (one explicit scene, the rest is M for cursing and implied adult themes)

word count: 10, 579

ao3 link

HUGE thank you to @snowonebutyou for putting up with my nonsense this week and helping me when I was stuck. You rock, dude! <3 Shout out to @anastasia-93-daybidaylove and @snowydot for their help at the start :)

bare gifs credit goes to @chloebeale

*

“What the actual fuck.” 

“Beca, calm down–” 

Ignoring her best friend’s plea, Beca all but rips her seatbelt off and stalks out of her vehicle, anger flaring within her as she takes in the damage. 

Her heated gaze moves up when she catches movement out the corner of her eye, as the dumbass of a driver steps out of their own car. 

“Are you freaking blind??” 

Having expected a damn apology, Beca recoils harshly at the attack, seizing the redhead with a glare as the stranger marches up to her. 

“Excuse me??” She all but cries, her jaw-dropping in shock. “You cut me off!” 

She briefly registers a blonde stepping out of the car parked behind the stranger’s. 

An irritated scoff puffs past the other woman’s lips and her eyes roll skyward. “I’m sorry, did you get your driver’s license in a freakin’ Christmas cracker??” 

If they were cartoon characters, there would definitely be smoke seeping out of Beca’s ears at this point. 

“Chloe. Are you alright?” The blonde questions, gently taking the other woman’s arm – Chloe, apparently. 

“I’m fine,” Chloe grumbles, barely acknowledging her as her gaze is still locked with Beca’s in a glaring match. 

(if Beca wasn’t so pissed, she would herself acknowledge how incredibly vibrant those ocean blues are.)

“How about we all take a deep breath?” Jesse suggests with his hands stretched out in front of him, Beca only now noticing his presence beside her. “At least none of us got hurt.” 

“He’s right, Chloe, it could have been much worse,” Chloe’s friend agrees. 

“Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Jesse’s question makes Beca whirl around on him. “I think we go to the same gym.” 

The blonde brightens, nodding slowly. “Oh, that’s right. I’m Aubrey.” 

Jesse steps forward, extending his hand with a charming smile that Beca knows all too well. “Jesse.” 

Beca shakes her head in disbelief. “My car is wrecked, dude, and you’re flirting?”

Asami: For fuck’s sake.

Drinking water

No longer making self deprecating jokes

Making sure to take time out of the day to relax and take a breather

Lighting candles

Counting ur breaths in and out if ur having a panic attack

I didn’t feel like listening to anything at all but I put on my favorite playlist anyway. Take On Me started and I finger stimmed to the keyboard riff and hummed along and by the end of the song I was smiling. A few more songs and I was fully singing along and feeling more present than I had in days.

“kiddo”

“buddy”

inform a friend to ensure you’re never left alone with them

refer to own age in conversation

“yeah, I know I look young, but you wouldn’t BELIEVE how awkward it is being mistakenly hit on by a teenager!”

upon that child turning 18:

“Happy birthday, kiddo!”

“Have you registered to vote yet?”