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malebodyexhibit · 1 year

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Getting in the Action (a Next Door Boy tale)

'Never meet your heroes' is how that saying goes, but for me it should be, 'never become your hero.'

I first saw my hero on the big screen when I was in fourth grade. He was the coolest thing ever! There was a movie where he was a pilot and pulled off cool stunts in planes. My dad and I idolized him. He was the one who dragged me to the movie. It became his way to get me to do things, like "Tom always eats his vegetables" or "I doubt Tom failed his Math class." And, being the idiot I was, I obeyed.

The movie star’s influence steered my life to places I never thought I'd go. I got into weight lifting, because in all his movies, he always had that shirtless scene to hammer in the point that he was a man's man. That is what men should be. I bought a fitness magazine after I watched that movie where he has sex with his girlfriend and he strutted around his apartment naked. I wanted to be like that (confident in my own skin), so I studied the magazine and used my father's dumbbells. When I reached high school, I had washboard abs and biceps the size of grapefruits.

And sure, I was built like a linebacker, but I didn't enjoy sports. Of course I valued athleticism, but I also wanted to be an actor. I tried out for roles in Drama class and mostly got them for my good looks and body, but I really put in effort. It wasn't until we started rehearsing for Shakespeare's "The Tempest" that I started to appreciate the sounds and art of classical theatre. So in English I found a new joy. My dreams shifted from action movie star to a classical theatre. I really wanted to impress my hero that I was making something of myself for him.

Then the Next Door Boy craze happened. I'm sure you already know what happened. The debauchery and scandals. Yet, when it calmed, the benevolent acts stood out. People who lost out on life got a second chance. And then Tom announced something truly amazing:

"Hello, everyone. So many of you are my fans and have been since I was on the big screens almost half a century ago. No doubt I've gotten old. Seeing my gray hair is always a shock. But many of you suggested that I continue my legacy and through the efforts of Next Door Boy, I can. I won't just accept anyone. I want to only accept the biggest fan of mine. I want to take you with me to the stars in show business. So, fill out the application, send in those photos, and let's make something together."

The news was shocking. I could be him. He could be in me. We could share a future together. So of course I applied. I had my dad shoot the photos of me. He was over the moon. Anything for our hero.

And I was chosen. I couldn't breathe when I heard the news. The rest blurred in a rush of euphoria. I was seated in a chair at Next Door Boy as the agent went over the details. I was to be Tom’s body and I would still exist, but I wouldn't have control over anything; I would ride backseat in my mind. Do you accept?

"Yes," I said. Those were my last words spoken by my mouth by me.

---

"Tell me how much you like it when I do this," Tom whispered as he pulled my shirt over his nipple. He ran his hand over what used to be my stomach.

"Stop, please," I whimpered. I could only communicate in our shared mind. It had been a couple months since the procedure and since then, Tom has been using my body for his sexual gratification. I know he isn't even gay. He just likes tormenting me.

"I don't think so," he taunted. He stuck a finger in his mouth and gave a soft moan. As he pulled it out, a trail of spittle followed. He reached around our back and I felt the push against our tight hole. In a rush, he plunged it in. A sudden ache hit us and he moaned while I screamed, "stop!" He drove it in and out. He buckled over the restroom counter and continued to go knuckles deep. Finally, he pulled out the digit and wiped it on my six pack. "Well, that's enough for now. I don't want to make you too loose. I want this body to last a few years."

He jumped in the shower then got dressed. Around my parents he was a model son. Even though they know he wasn't me, but some middle aged action star, they still treated him like me.

"There's my boy!" My dad said and he stood to hug my body. My body hugged him back and my father beamed at us. He took my face in his hands and said, "have fun out there."

"Don't worry, dad. I will!" Tom said from my mouth. He was beaming his innocent smile. "Hey, mom. I have to fly to a studio today. We're starting on the set of a new movie. Could you pack me lunch?"

"Of course, dear. That sounds fun!" My mother smiled and went to prepare something in the kitchen.

"So how is it being the action hero?" Dad asked. I couldn't tell who he was asking. It seemed my parents believed I was still in control or that it was a mix of both. But no. It was always Tom.

I remember waking up from the procedure and seeing myself, unable to move or speak. I watched as he ran my hands over my arms and chest. I watched him flex in my body.

I felt how aroused he was getting from checking out my body. "God damn, boy," he said, "you're a snack." If it wasn't for health regulations, I'm sure he'd whip out our cock then and jerk off. But instead, he waited for the public restroom in the hallway. Since then, he tortures me by treating my body like a dildo or a fleshlight. It wasn't useful unless it was pounding or being pounded at both ends.

"It's pretty good. Let me tell you about the movie I'm shooting." Tom_ said, "It's about a college student, me, who has to fight off bank robbers and saves the day. It takes place in Vegas."

"That sounds cool," my dad said. "Remember, don't drink. You might be an action star, but you're still my son."

The man in my body smiled. "Of course."

We left the house and walked toward a limo waiting for us at the curb.

"It was a lie," he said now that we were alone.

"What?" I asked.

"There is a movie, but it's not one where the hero wins. He tries fighting the robbers and finds himself facedown in his own piss. He's then stripped and finds out how much loves a dicking and giving head."

"It's a porno?!" I screamed incredulously. "You can't make me do that! That's disgusting and I'm not gay!"

"It doesn't matter if you're gay. I already set up something with a studio. They're wanting a few hundred movies of us, well me in you. They like your body, and I do too, especially when it's a cheap slut for cock." He smiled, flashing the driver a toothy grin. His signature boyish charm displayed on my face.

"You're supposed to make me famous," I cried. The promise of his echoing in my head.

"And I will make you famous. There will be no gay man alive who wouldn't have seen take a couple dicks. I will make you a household name in the porn industry. I will wear out your hole and it so you can't pretend you're a straight virgin."

"Please, stop," I begged, uselessly. I watched as he pulled a beer out from a cooler. He twisted off the cap and chugged the bottle. Since he was in my body, he drank incessantly and ate passionately. He rarely maintained my exercise and I feared my fit body would slip away.

"Why should I? What's the point of working out when I can just get another teen like you desperate for fame? I'll know it's time to leave your body when I can't see my toes and I can't get a good fuck. You can have your body back when that happens." He said as he opened a second bottle of beer. He was already unbuckling his belt to relieve himself of the strain. I cried in the unfeeling void of his mind.

#possession #male mental change #straight to gay #male body exhibit #a next door boy tale #next door boy #male takeover #old to young #body theft

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cosmicdream222 · 20 days

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Some of my manifestations from last week (with photos)

Surprise gifts

My bestie A and I regularly update each other with about our daily plan for affirming etc to keep each other accountable. I said I was manifesting VIP treatment, put on some subs and affirmed while I was making breakfast (yes I’m not a morning person and make breakfast at nearly noon 😭)

Not even a half hour later, I received a surprise delivery from Amazon:

My friend L, who lives out of state, sent me food and new bowls for the stray cats I feed, and treats for my cats (Stella & Panini are my cats’ names 😹)

VIP treatment

That evening I worked a brand ambassador gig that I booked only a couple days before. I’ve been avoiding working as much as possible lately lol but this one was nearby and paid well. It happened to be a giveaway event partnering with a local radio station and ended up being fun. One of the radio DJs was there, and me as the sponsor brand representative was given the same level of VIP treatment as the radio DJ! There was an event coordinator who basically did all the work and I just got to stand around looking pretty and getting paid for it. 😭

Gift card

After work I got home and found another package from my friend L with a gift card for me 💕

More cat food

A few days later, my neighbor left a huge box of cat food at my door. My cats are getting more spoiled than me 😂

An air fryer

This one is cool because I specifically wanted to manifest this. I had heard about air fryers for a while now and it seemed like something I would use, but I didn’t really feel the need to buy one. A couple weeks ago I was at Trader Joe’s with my mom and the cashier was saying how much he loooved his air fryer and telling me all the things I could make with it. I decided that moment I would just manifest one eventually, and forgot about it.

So the other day my mom comes to pick me up for a family lunch and she has a huge box in her hands - an air fryer?? She says jokingly “happy birthday” - my birthday isn’t for another 4 months! She said she just felt like I needed one 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s so cute and I’ve already used it a couple times 💕

Attention from sp

Soo I have this crush-type guy we’ll call D. He’s one of my best friends and we’ve talked nearly every day for 3 years. I can talk to him about anything, including all things supernatural and shifting. We have admitted to having feelings for each other, and even had “online boyfriend” vibes for a while, but we live in different states, and he didn’t want to do long distance. I was sad and anxious about it for a while, but since I found out about loa and shifting, I realized none of it mattered and I could just shift to a reality where we’re together already 😂

Anyway I had become detached and stopped really thinking about him in a romantic way for a while. However, I realized since I basically didn’t care and wasn’t thinking about him, he was becoming distant in response. We hadn’t been really flirty or romantic in a few months, and I hadn’t even talked to him in a week, which was unusual. Although I wasn’t anxious about it or anything, I was still missing talking to one of my best friends. So I just started assuming he would go back to blowing up my phone all day, and I sent him some mental telepathy messages about what I wanted.

Monday morning he messaged me apologizing for being distant. He had been traveling for spring vacation and took a break from his phone. He then basically spent the whole week trying to make up for it, being super attentive, listening to my long ramblings about my void and shifting progress, sending me selfies every day, being more sweet and romantic than he had been in months, and kept telling me how pretty I was 🥰

Losing a follower LOL

This is just a funny one to round out my list. I hadn’t been on tumblr in a bit, and when I went to check my asks, I saw I had 556 followers. I thought “darn I missed the angel number, haha maybe someone will unfollow me so I can get the screenshot.” Not 5 min later when I went to look again, it had happened, and I got the screenshot 😂

(Up to 558 now thank you all 💕)

#manifesting #manifesting success #loa

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armoreddragon · 2 months

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how did you first get into making this stuff? do you enjoy it?

There's a lot of possible answers here.

For a couple years after college, I worked at a laser engraving and cutting shop. Leather was a material we knew we could cut, but nobody ever asked for it, so I looked up some basic info and put together some masks as demo pieces. Then I got fired for unrelated reasons, but decided to keep going with the masks on my own. A decade later, I’m still going.

I've always enjoyed making things. The focused calm of working a craft, the challenge of finding the problems that need solving, followed by the satisfaction of holding in your hands something that hadn't exited before. It’s hard to beat that feeling. If you haven’t done it for a while, I highly recommend making a habit of it.

Sometime in college I realized that if I kept making things just for myself, I would eventually run out of both space in my closet and money in my bank account. So I took the best photos I could of what I had, and started posting it up on Etsy.

In high school ceramics class, I had an idea to try and make a flexible dragon skin out of little bits of clay, all glazed differently. I had no idea how to do this. A friend of mine was like "Yo it sounds like you want to look up how to make chainmail for that." She was right.

I work in architecture by day, and the decision to do that was unrelated but definitely related to my crafting obsession. Designing a kitchen, a café, a house, takes months or years of work, most of which is tedious details like picking tile patterns or looking up exactly what order to layer different sealant tapes to make sure the walls are watertight. Designing a crafting project gives me a creative outlet that is immediate. I can sit down for an afternoon and take an idea from a sketch on trace paper, to a final mask formed up out of leather. There's an excitement to that. A reminder that, yes, I can make cool stuff quickly, without needing to sink two years into a project.

For a while I worked to teach myself to draw. I managed to get pretty decent at sketching from life, with a moderate understanding of anatomy and perspective. I liked art, so I thought I wanted to make art. But I struggled with it. If I was drawing something from my imagination, no matter how well I managed to put the lines down on the paper, I would ultimately look at it and just be sad that it didn't exist in the real world. So eventually I gave up on the drawing part, and focused on the part I seemed to actually care about.

I can't envision a version of myself that doesn't make things. I think on some fundamental level, I measure my worth as a person based on what I put forth into the world. I don't know what else to do.

When you decide to turn a hobby into a business, it of course takes some of the delight away. It's no longer something you do when you want to relax and have some fun. It becomes an obligation, to make and ship orders on time, to pack up your stuff and bring it to craft fairs, to track your expenses and file your taxes, to stay on top of the constantly changing social media landscape. But it also lights a fire under your ass. You can't just keep making the same thing you made three years ago–you have to keep making new stuff, keep improving your techniques, keep reaching for new ideas that have never been made before. You lose some of the joy, but you gain a lot of satisfaction.

All through my childhood I filled my closet with little handicrafts kits, that I got as gifts or that caught my eye when following my dad to the art store. Calligraphy, wood carving, weaving looms, boondoggles, spirographs, knitting, crochet, fancy nautical knots, sculpey, and more that I can't remember. After all those different things, I’m so glad that I found a couple specific crafts that really grabbed me, that take enough work to develop expertise, that have expansive enough applications and possibilities, that I could devote a decade or more of my time to focusing on them.

I’d been interested in the furry fandom ever since little fantasy reading teenager me tried looking for stories where the dragons were the main characters, and I found people online who were doing just that. There’s a powerful do-it-yourself attitude that’s baked into the core of the fandom: The world isn’t giving us the art that we want, so we’re going to make it ourselves. I keep having ideas for things that I want, that don’t exist yet. If I want them to exist, I have to be the one to make them.

My dad was a photographer, and I spent many childhood afternoons with him in his darkroom in the basement, delightedly washing negatives, turning them gently over in their canisters of chemicals, sitting still in the dark as Dad unspooled the sensitive film, squinting in the red light as the projected images magically re-emerged on the clean white paper. What could be more amazing, more normal, more right, than having your own little space to work such magic for yourself.

In about 2008 or 9 I ordered my first batch of metal scales, with the idea of trying to make a dragon tail in time for Halloween. It took probably a couple weeks to figure out how to make it, and within a week I had thought of how to do it better and disassembled the entire thing. By the 3rd or 4th time I'd rebuilt it, I thought that it was probably good enough that I wouldn't feel embarrassed to post it online and see if someone might want to buy it.

Of course I love working on these things I make. But I don't think that's exactly why I make them.

#Thoughts #Real Life #creative writing #memoir

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angelst4re · 2 years

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good morning to you

can you write something with jamie bower where the reader is a famous actress and she is on a talk show and there are some serious rumors that she is in a relationship ( because someone caught her after the oscar ceremony where she had won beat actress, kissing a blond tattooed boy ) with either Vinnie Hacker or Jamie Campbell Bower and so like she was is under a lie detector and it’s end up so fluffy and she confirms that she is with jamie since 1 year.

Hi my love!! I love this idea soo much because I saw a picture of Vinnie Hacker on pinterest yesterday and I actually thought it was Jamie... please let me know if this has happened to anyone else!!

Lie Detector- Jamie Campbell Bower x Reader

warnings: none! :)

note: this reminded me of the time charlie heaton and natalia dyer did a lie detector test so i kinda took some inspiration from that because they're adorable!

You and Jamie had done such a great job at keeping your relationship private, even after starring in the same movie and going on press tours. However, you knew tonight was going to change it all.

“Y/n,” The host welcomes you.

“Hello!”

“Oh, and Jamie! How are you doing?” They ask as you both sit down.

“Great, excited to be here.” Jamie speaks for you both.

“So, we had you come in a couple days ago to do a lie detector test! We’ve done this in the past with some of your co-stars so it was exciting to see the both of you do it, let’s watch it!”

“Wonderful, so… we’re going to be taking a lie detector test today, one of you will be hooked up to the machine whilst the other asks some questions, then you’ll switch. I expect you’ve seen this before?”

You nod your head, Jamie chuckles. You knew what was going to happen. It was all going to unfold…

“Who would like to go first?”

You look at Jamie with a grin and he sighs,

“Fine, I’ll go first,” he smiles as he stands and gets into place.

When everything was ready, you began to ask the questions.

Your questions to him were fun and easy, such as asking if he really likes acting, if he’s going to be in the new season of stranger things, if he wants to get married, etc.

And then it was his turn to ask you the questions.

“Growing up, did you always want to be an actress?” Jamie asked,

“Yes, it was always a dream of mine, I never thought I’d really do it though.” You answer.

“Who was your first celebrity crush?” He asks, his eyebrows raised.

“Uhh, I don’t remember!” You giggle, yet the lie detector said you were telling the truth.

“Do you remember your first impression of me?” Jamie asks, watching you smugly.

“I thought you were pretty cool, I liked your tattoos… made me want to get one.”

“Awh, do you still think that?” He asks,

“Of course,” you smile.

“Okay, last question, this is a pretty big one… are you ready?”

You knew what was coming, you took in a deep breath and nodded your head.

“There’s been some rumours going around about your love life, half the internet thinks you’ve got something going on with Vinnie Hacker, the other half seem to think it’s me? Can you tell us the truth about this picture?” Jamie can’t contain his laughter as he slides the photo over to you. You take a look at it and then look up at Jamie again.

“Well, this is a picture of me and my boyfriend. If you look close enough you’d notice that that tattoo on his upper arm matches one that you have… so I hate to break it to the people that think it’s Vinnie Hacker but this is infact me and Jamie Campbell Bower,” you can’t help but blush as you confess the truth, knowing the impact this will have on social media within the next hour. “We kept things secret for over a year so when this photo was released we knew it was just a matter of time until everyone found out!”

“Surprise!” Jamie shouted to the camera before bursting into laughter.

“So…” The host began as the video ended, you had your face hiding in Jamie’s neck as he spoke, “The truth is finally out! The rumours about the picture were true?!”

“Indeed they were,” Jamie smiles, “I feel so relieved now, it was really hard keeping it a secret!”

“Yeah, Jamie can’t even keep birthday presents a secret! He always ends up telling me what he’s bought weeks before my birthday!” You laugh as Jamie looks at you, pretending to be offended

“Excuse me!” He gasps, “I only spoiled one of them, at least I kept the rest a secret!”

You roll your eyes at your boyfriend and rest your head on his shoulder, smiling at the relief of no longer having to keep your relationship hidden.

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thenativetank · 11 months

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VA Native Fish Hunting - 20

So apparently I started recording my fish hunts two years ago this month and it seems appropriate that I hit a neat milestone in entry number 20 (not counting interludes)! And as kind of a neat coincidence, I had an eventful hunt with a few new species to share! Hope you enjoy :)

The tide was high today and the beach was gone (frown!) so I was unclear what luck I'd actually have hunting fishes. I've been to this location before and had a good idea of what I was likely to find here. What I had not found before were Bluespotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus) here! This little guy was dead and floating right at my start point - both a good sign and a bummer at the same time. What I thought was neat was this sunfish, unlike literally every other one I had found in VA, was in a basic pH river rather than an acidic bog. Makes me wonder what little offshoots I can explore with a kayak.

Another fish I haven't found here were Banded Killifish (Fundulus diaphanus) like this beautiful fellow above! Among my favorite NANFs for home keeping (or in general), this guy was iridescent gold and blue, bright breeding colors for this species. I let him go - hopefully the ladies will appreciate his "near death encounter" with a massive beast (i.e. me) and living to tell the tale!

Last time I came here, the most plentiful fish I caught, by far (like, 50-to-1) were Eastern Mosquitofish. This time? The most common catch were these Spottail Shiners (Notropis hudsonius), one of our small native minnows. Though they max out at 6 inches, 3 inches is much more common, and most of what I caught were about 1 to 1.5 inches. Probably only hatched earlier this year.

One net swipe here! A couple of fish, a couple of snails. Who can argue?

I caught maybe 3 or 4 of these Tesselated Darters (Etheostoma olmstedi) at this location - I love love LOVE the two I have in my tank at home and wouldn't mind more at some point, but I wasn't looking to keep any fish today, so they got to swim back home. But let me reiterate that anybody who keeps a North American biotope tank would do well to look into the Etheostoma genus of Darters!

It took me a few swipes to finally catch a female Banded Killifish, which as you can see do look significantly different from the breeding colored males. Still great aquarium fish for sure.

Though I only saw a handful of live ones, I saw a ton of shells for these Chinese Mystery Snails (Cipangopaludina chinensis), an invasive critter that has overpopulated in the area. How exactly one shell got wedged (very hard by the way!) into another shell is beyond me.

As I was swiping my net, I felt a crawling up my arm that gave me the willies (tick season does that to me) but very pleasantly it was NOT a tick and was instead this Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). He was trying to dry his wings out it seemed - probably recently emerged - and was very happy to pose for some pictures. I set him on a tree stem and he went upon his way.

Another first for me was this Toebiter (Belostoma flumineum), carrying eggs on its back! Very cool animal, but given their terrible bite (they ARE called Toebiters after all), I wasn't willing to handle it for a photo op. So. Into the plastic container it went for a few quick snaps!

What I actually came here for today was some Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata), another invasive species local to the area. But I'm looking to add some variety to my 55 gallon plant selection, and I figured it was worth a try. If it doesn't work, well, then at least I removed some invasives from the area.

#nanf #native fish #fishcommunity #fish hunts #native fish hunts #fishblr

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look-at-the-soul · 1 year

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Look at the soul- Part 5 I run to you

Cillian Murphy x reader

Series Master list

🎭 These two are getting closer! I hope you like this story and if you do, your feedback is highly appreciated.

Thank you @heidimoreton once more for the moodboard you created for this story! 🥰 I wish you could know for real how much it means to me, you captured the essence perfectly and your theater input has been a great help!

And we get to meet a new character today too! Please note using the readers names, is as a thank you! For your constant support and encouragement to this or any other of my stories and it doesn’t reflect the reader/writer’s reality or background 💕 I’m just adapting their names to fit the storyline.

Song: I run to you by Lady A

Marianne adjusted her coat over her chest, the weather seemed to change a lot during the day, now it looked like the rain would start to fall at any minute.

“Hello Marianne!” Greeted the owner of the café leaning against the brick wall, she was finishing her cigarette.

“Hi Alex -I-know-your-name’s-not-Alex.” She joked, anticipating the usual reply the girl with rebel hair gave.

“Oh, damn you won my answer now I can’t use it.” Both girls laughed at the inside joke they started to share every time she visited the coffee shop. “Are you getting your usual?”

“Yeah, I’m just dropping my bag at the theater first, and then I’ll come back.”

“Perfect then, can’t wait to show you the new mugs with quotes I got, it was a great idea!”

Marianne smiled at her, they clearly spent a good amount of time chatting. “I’m sure you’ll have to order more.”

And with that she walked one more block, until she was in front of the theater, in an unusual turns of event, that venue ended up feeling so close to home, giving her the opportunity to learn new things, meet incredible people and do something she never imagined she would be doing, she now knew her spot, learned a bunch of things and terms she had never seen in her life, how to move on stage… Marianne kept staring at it for a few minutes until she reached the steps and noticed a couple of people waiting outside.

“Are you here for the auditions too?” A girl pulled her from her thoughts.

Marianne shook her head. “No, I already got a part.” She felt like saying she had the leading role was a bit presumptuous, it still felt surreal.

“Really? That’s so cool! This is the first audition I go to, took some time off, so I’m freaking about it.”

“I’m sure you’ll do it amazing, trust your talent.” She tried to help her ease her nerves, just like Cillian and everyone else had helped her. “I’m Marianne.”

“Lee.” The girl answered. “Thanks.”

“What role are you auditioning for?”

“One of the women, you know.” She added moving her fingers as the quote marks.

“You’ll get the role, I’m sure. Best of luck, even though I’m sure you don’t need any.”

Lee thanked her as Marianne walked into the theater, the door to the stage was closed so she walked through another way, stopping midway as she found a photo that caught her attention, one she hadn’t seen before.

“You’ll probably say you won and arrived earlier, but I’m sure I won this time.” Cillian joked about an inside joke they had of who arrived earlier to rehearsal and approached her. “How was school?”

And her face lit up. “Great! In one of my clases we already got a business case of a company with all the financial information, each week we’ll get different balances like the Cash Flow statement, revenue, expenses… to build a financial strategy that fits their needs better.”

“That’s amazing.” She talked about it as if he knew a shit about the meaning, but he smiled and asked more about her assignments. And he loved to learn more about her world.

“One of my Professors won the Economic Nobel Price a few years ago.” She stated, excitement oozing through every pore.

“That’s impressive, I’m sure you’ll make the most out every course.”

Cillian had invited her to see the auditions, he mentioned it was one of the greatest way to learn acting tricks and tips from each performance, so she was really excited and willing to do anything in the books to improve.

“You kept this a secret.” Marianne pointed at the photo hanging from the wall, with a younger Cillian.

He blushed and looked down, hiding his hands in the pockets of his jeans, too self conscious, avoiding his portrait staring back at them.

“You know, Heidi recommended me watching a few plays could help me… your performances are out of this world. Remarkable.” She didn’t want to overdo with the compliments, but his performances weren’t just completely different from one character to another, but also he seemed to be like a different person. “I’ve a lot to learn from you.”

He was truly an institution in theater, a great mentor to her, she was really grateful for all the time he was dedicating to help her improve.

“Thank you, it means a lot.” He looked at her, feeling so humble about her words.

But Marianne disliked uncomfortable silences and as she stared back at the photograph, one thing kept running in her mind…

“In this photo you look like you’re part of the movie Interview with a vampire.” She couldn’t stop the words flying out of her mouth.

And Cillian couldn’t stop the laugh that was produced from the deepest part of his soul.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw him laughing like that.” Heidi pointed out to Enda as the pair stepped into the theater.

Enda squinted his eyes while he cleaned his glasses with his shirt. “Yup, it’s been a while.”

“I’ve bad news… Laureen, I tried to talk to her about the leading role, but she was adamant to be in LATS* with the main role.”

The screenplay writer shook his head. “We got that role covered.”

“I tried to make her understand she would get a good role here and she could get back her leading role for the next play, but she said no.” Heidi looked between Enda and Cillian and Marianne, a few meters away.

“Most of the people from the previous play are staying right?”

“Yes, but we need to choose soon to complete the cast, so I booked all the castings already, we start in twenty.”

“My Adria.” Enda left all his worries behind as the pair walked towards them.

“Sorry I didn’t get the memo.” Marianne looked from Cillian to Enda, both dressed in striped tshirts and black jeans.

Heidi snorted.

“Are you teaching her about theater or how to tease like you?” Enda faked an insulted look and turned to Cillian.

“Man I didn’t say anything!”

As Heidi left them to organize the audition, Marianne asked if she could see the performances from one of the seats in the boxes.

Taking the opportunity that they were left alone, Cillian took the chance to speak with his friend about something that had been running in his mind.

“I need to ask you for a favor.”

“I don’t babysit.” Enda jumped to declare.

Cillian rolled his eyes. “It’s about the contract, I need you to switch Marianne’s salary with mine.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Enda’s head snapped to look at his friend. “It’s the amount we’ve agreed for you.”

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Cillian lowered his voice. “She has offers from Google and Amazon for her grades, what makes you think what you’re paying her is enough? It barely covers for expenses.”

“I can’t compete with companies like that, you know it.”

“All I’m saying is, if she gets a better offer and decides to take it, what will you do with her character? We’re weeks away from the big opening.” Cillian pondered.

Enda seemed stressed out with every second passing by. “Why?” Enda wanted to ask why was he willing to cut down his own salary over someone who wasn’t a professional actress. But he left those words hanging in the air.

Internally, Cillian was asking himself the same question.

“Because I want her in this play as much as you do. And you need to remember how you trusted me back then for a play nobody believed in years ago.”

***

“This is indescribable.” Marianne whispered watching the actors move across the stage as Cillian joined her in the box. “They’re so professionals.”

Her point of view was so refreshing, for him it was like rediscovering theater for the first time.

“Can’t wait till the cast is complete, to finally do a proper rehearsal, you’ll love it.” Cillian could already imagine the venue full of people, the lights off…

She took notes and asked him endless questions during the auditions, until they came down, ready to go to the café to keep working on her character. But Marianne stopped a few rows behind Enda, looking at the woman on stage.

“Do you know her?” Asked Cillian in a low voice.

“I just met her earlier today, but she was really nice… she seems to be more the type for the role of the waitress if you ask me.” That role was fundamental for Adria, since the character would be the one suggesting her to use her beauty to get the money she needs to help the prostitutes, and she would be also Adria’s confident.

“Why?”

“Because that role needs to reflect someone you can trust, someone who helps Adria to see the positive side when she’s struggling with her demons.”

Cillian stared silently at the woman on stage, reading the lines for one of the prostitutes complaining about not finding anything.

Trying to not disturb the process, he took a seat behind Enda, leaning against the row of seats in front of him. “Did you find the waitress already?”

Enda shook his head first, then let out a loud sigh, still taking notes about the on going audition.

“Why don’t you try her for the role? Maybe you’ll find your Rebeca.”

Turning around in his seat, Enda gave him a long look, then looked back at Marianne, who was making him a pleading sign with her hands.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Mumbling something to himself, Enda stopped the lecture and asked Lee to change her character. She immediately moved to gather the tray and empty glasses focused as the man leaning on the bar of the club complained about not getting Adria’s attention.

“Barry, Barry…” she shook her head dramatically, pretending to pour him a drink. “You don’t understand what a woman needs.”

“What does she wants then? I gave her a sapphire!”

“If I’ve to explain her… then Adria’s not the one for you.”

Later after finishing her shift a the bar, Rebeca rushed to Adria’s flat.

“Barry told me he gave you a gift.” She poured them the remaining of the bottle of wine, a luxury these days and accepted one of the sandwiches Adria prepared.

“Yes.” Adria sighed. “But why do I want that for? I gave it to the doctor who attended Rainbow, I didn’t have any money to help her, he told me he’d give it to his wife and he would pay Rainbow’s hospital bill.”

“God, she got a terrible beating.” Rebeca stated. “I don’t know how you do it… after all the troubles you’ve been through.”

“Someone once told me that no matter how much damage the world causes, you shouldn’t let your heart turn into stone.” Marianne murmured Adria’s words, most of the script now in the back of her mind, and watching it through Lee’s performance was a completely different turn.

Enda turned around in his seat, staring at Cillian with open eyes, a big smile on display. Standing up from his place in the front row, he rushed to the stairs on the side of the stage.

Cillian turned then, to look at Marianne, a wide smile reaching his eyes, “looks like we found Adria’s best friend. Well done.”

It was now Marianne’s turn to blush. Sometimes the intensity of his eyes was too much, so she decided to suggest a visit to their regular café to keep practicing her lines, tones, she had a lot of things to keep up, to learn…

“How are you enjoying Ireland?” Cillian asked as she took a sip of her coffee. “Have you done the beer tour yet?”

But she shook her head. “I mean, I’ve been to the factories and done the tour, but I skipped the tasting.”

Cillian leaned back as if he had been hit by a truck.

“You don’t drink?”

“Occasionally, yeah a glass of wine or a martini, but I don’t like beer.” She scrunched up her nose in a way that made Cillian laugh, but his good mood quickly changed as his phone interrupted their chat.

“’Lo?” Marianne saw his features tense suddenly, followed by a firm no. He walked then to the back of the café, to an empty spot, during a few minutes, Marianne decided to focus on the script and the notes she had been doing, but her eyes decided to do something different and she found herself sending quick glances at Cillian, the man who had been helping her build a confidence on stage she didn’t know she had, showing her how to articulate properly so the soul siting in the last row of the theater would be able to understand her dialogue… but that was just one side of him, the other part was a complete mystery.

I run from prejudice

I run from pessimists

“Sorry, you were saying?” He took his place in front of her one more time, thanking the boy who arrived to pick up their empty cups.

“Everything alright?”

But I run too late

I run my life

Or is it running me?

Run from my past

In an instant, his eyes screamed that no, things weren’t fine. And he found himself shaking his head, after taking a deep breath, Cillian intertwined his fingers over the table and decided to open a door he rarely held open for other people, he told her that his wife passed away a little over a year ago and how he had completely focused in his sons ever since, canceling several projects in the process, he talked about how his family didn’t think twice to help him with everything; school runs, food, everything they needed, sometimes even stepping on the line, making him feel useless, he talked about his sons and the things they liked to do and for a brief moment, his eyes seemed to sparkle.

This world keeps spinning faster

Into a new disaster, so I run to you

But then he mentioned Andrew wanted to go somewhere on a school night, that was the call he just got, and by saying no, he was automatically the worst parent of the year.

She now was able to understand the sadness she found occasionally in his eyes, rare moments like flashes, but she definitely had seen them there, in the surface.

“I’m really sorry.” She offered her sincere condolences and an apologetic look.

“The hardest part is… thinking am I doing it right? Am I educating them well? I’m torn between been too soft or too strict, there’s no point in the middle.”

And she listened as he expressed out loud for the first time his fears and doubts of being a good parent, of not being there enough for his kids, for dropping his career to focus on his family, he might even had been a bit rude to his sisters and mother at some point.

“I’m sure you’re doing it great, you probably worry more than you should, but that’s part of being a parent.” Marianne tried to comfort.

And when it all starts coming undone

Baby you’re the only one I run to

Cillian leaned his head against his palm, over the table and finally, looked at her.

By the look of his eyes, he didn’t believe her.

“If you give yourself to your kids the same way you’re giving it all into this play, I can assure you, you’re doing a good job.” She insisted. “And I think you should accept all the help you can get… you shouldn’t carry out all of it by yourself.”

Cillian realized then, that he never talked to anyone like this.

He stared at her, directly into her eyes. How did he end up talking to her about such an intimate thing like his grief? When did he open up his heart to her like that? To trust her with things he didn’t dare to say to anyone else?

“I can’t just break right in front of them.” He shuddered, used to the constant pressure now. “Like what will happen when my family stops helping? What the fuck am I supposed to feed them 24/7?”

“Cillian one day it will blow up. Right in your face.”

He sighed. “I just want to raise them right.”

“I’m sure they are good people, having you as the role to follow…”

Cillian gave her a sad smile. “All they say is yeah, whatever,” he imitated, “and then their noses are glued to their phones.”

“If you’ve been a good father, which I’m sure… sooner or later they’ll go back to you.”

Having someone tell him he was doing a good job was a balm to his heart, in a non cocky way, he was relieved to hear some positive words.

“Thank you for listening to my shit,” he now felt slightly embarrassed, “I feel a lot lighter now.”

He really did, she didn’t seem to be judging him despite his sudden outburst of parental panic, no, she helped him put his feet on the ground and focus on things that really mattered.

Placing her palm over his arm in a soothing motion, she wanted to give him back all the things he was helping her with, but this was different. Oblivious to her worries, Cillian stared at her hand still on his arm as he felt a comfort he didn’t found in anyone before, something ignited.

But when Marianne removed her hand, he had to stop himself from reaching out and place it back to where it was. Instead he saw her looking at the window, it had been enough of him, so he decided to change the topic. “Are you ready to do the lecture with the whole cast?”

“Ugh, don’t tell me or I’ll get nervous.”

Cillian chuckled, easing her nerves. “You’ve nothing to worry about, you’ll do it amazingly!”

“Ow stop flattering me, I’m just a rookie.”

“You’re learning everything at a surprisingly pace, trust me… now I’m going to tell you something that might help you bring to life Adria and take her to the next level.” He leaned forwards as if he would be sharing a secret.

Marianne mirrored his move.

“Take a look at photographs, magazines… anything that makes you think of Adria.” Cillian smiled when he saw the way she was processing his words. “Think of a mirror breaking, pearls, a lioness… that’s how I see her protecting the prostitutes just as they will later protect her back, quotes also can help you, the more visual you can make it, the better.”

“As some kind of collage?” Marianne asked enthusiastically, already seeing it in her mind. Cillian nodded. “I like it!”

“It might sound simple, but small things like that can help you get in the right mindset of your character, you’ll focus Adria better…” he encouraged her. “Actually, I can already see her already in the back of your mind, you just need to bring her to the front row.”

Surprised, Marianne leaned back, crossing her leg she asked; “do you think so?” A head tilt and holding his gaze and Cillian felt goosebumps running up and down his body.

“That,” Cillian snapped his fingers and then pointed one at her, “that’s Adria’s look.”

He knew it from the start, Marianne just needed a little push.

****

Next part

A/N: LATS= short version for Look at the soul ☺️ the title got long haha 😆 hope you enjoyed this part 🎭♥️

Tag list: @lyarr24 @gypsy-girl-08 @cillmequick @zablife @prettylittlehoneyeyesxoxo @kettlechips3 @heidimoreton @forbidden-forest-witch @kaitebugg03 @thenattitude @forgottenpeakywriter @onlydeadcells @babaohhhriley @lonelyweeb0044 @lovemissyhoneybee @ange-thoughts @already-broken144 @midnightmagpiemama @shelbydelrey @cutecurly-hair @winchestergirl22 @moral-terpitude @elenavampire21 @lespendy @kittycatcait219 @stevie75 @esposadomd @sloanexx @shaddixlife @rangerelik @peakyscillian @woofgocows @cillianlove @imichelle-l-rigby @emmanuelle19

#that’s what Cill said #cillian murphy #cillian murphy x you #cillian murphy imagine #cillian Murphy x OC #cillianmurphy #Cillian murphy fanfic #cillian Murphy smut

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lu-cia-lu-nacy · 11 months

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Okay, so... I've been holding onto this for a long time, & I really want to get it off my chest.

So I attended a con years ago with my SO. I was feeling particularly anxious & unwell, so I basically stayed mute the entire day. When I found out Greg Cipes would be there, I got super excited because I love Beast Boy from the Teen Titans cartoon of the 00s, Mikey is my fave ninja turtle, & he's done a couple other roles I enjoyed.

When we got in line, I wrote a message to my SO saying how I was so nervous that I don't think I would be able to speak to Cipes. He sympathized & said he'd try to explain in a roundabout way why I wasn't talking. I sincerely appreciated his effort & agreed to the plan.

I finally got up to meet Cipes, & my SO goes onto say on my behalf, "Hey, this is Lucia, & she's a big fan of your work as BB & Mikey!" I smiled at Cipes, who gave me a confused look and a forced half smile as he said, "Does Lucia...talk?"

I felt my face grow hot, & any word I tried to say to explain myself got caught in my throat. I started to panic, but my SO luckily swooped in to say, "Uh, she does, it's just a little hard for her today! Can we take a photo with you?" Cipes awkwardly got close to me for a photo, scribbled hurriedly in the notebook I brought for him to sign, then nodded a goodbye.

After that, I couldn't handle the rest of the con and asked my SO if we could leave early, so we did.

I look back on that moment years later and I feel so many different emotions: embarrassed, confusion, and...a bit betrayed. Those words really cut me deep. "Does Lucia talk?" It made me feel like a freak, like he was already judging me.

He didn't have to say anything. My SO already introduced me. He could have just said, "Hey, Tina, thanks for being a fan! Want a photo?" But he looked me right in the face & asked as if I wasn't there about my ability to talk. He made no effort to hide his appalment, which made the blow hit twice as hard.

As someone that can go mute depending on how stressed/anxious I am, that really hurt me. If I could control my speech during times of stress, I would in a heartbeat. But it doesn't work like that for me. The fact that Cipes was visibly put off by a fan being unable to communicate in the "typical way" made me feel so...small, alone. Like I lost an ally - someone that I thought would understand.

To this day, I can't watch 00s Teen Titans, or TMNT 2012, or hear his voice in any capacity without cringing. My heart sinks even when I see the character Beast Boy because I'm instantly reminded of how alienated I felt when I met a voice actor that I thought was cool, funny, and understanding.

Growing up with 00s Teen Titans, Beast Boy was my favorite character, & I always got so excited when I saw him on screen. That excitement carried over when I heard Cipes' voice in other TV shows that I loved. It felt like I knew him, & I always imagined how cool it would be to meet him in real life. Well, look how that turned out.

I don't want to outright call Cipes an ableist...but his actions toward me felt ableist. It felt like the same stern judgment and disgust that I felt when teachers would chastise me for not sitting still, or forgetting to do my homework for the hundredth time (ADHD). Or when my boss would begrudgingly wish me well after yet another episode caused me to be too weak/physically incapable of coming into work (absent seizures & dysautonomia). It felt like the same apathetic, annoyed, "why are you like this" judgment that I would receive whenever a disability of mine rendered me less than perfect. And the last person I expected to feel that from was Greg Cipes.

I guess this is why they say you should never meet your heroes.

#my rambles #greg cipes #selective mutism #ableism #and to anyone who thinks that i might be overreacting #you might be right #but this is how i feel #this is how my brain interpreted the situation #so i ask that you please respect my feelings

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skippyv20 · 4 months

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Skip, Julie here. Merry Christmas to all and I hope every one of you has a safe, warm ( or cool if you are in an hot climate like I am or in places like Singapore )and Happy Happy New year and a healthy 2024.

I have been away for a couple of weeks with limited internet access but was able to check in daily and read everything that was sent in.

Skip, I marvel at the thought that 9 years ago no one apart from your wonderful husband, daughter, SIL and your family and friends and your community knew your name. Now, we all around the world know your name and experience your open arm friendship that envelopes us on our best or our worst days. You are the first person many, many people think of every single day. All of us have a picture in our hearts of what you look like and I am sure in everyone’s mind you are a lady that has the biggest heart, outstretched warm arms and golden wings. An Earth Angel absolutely.

I hope you and your family had some down time together over Christmas to enjoy the simple pleasures this season can bring and recharge for the year ahead.

I personally feel humbled by your whole group of amazing contributors who make everyone’s days with their incredible knowledge, wit, great photos, stories, beliefs, art work, research and sense of fun and belief in the good of most people. Also I love the loyalty to God and positive thoughts from others who may waiver in their belief or struggle to understand those who do believe but are tolerant of all of us who strongly believe in God and the Catholic religion. Oh and the animals. Aren’t animals the most precious gift you can have in your life. I adore my boys.

So I hope all of you found some joy during this season and look forward to fun, excitement, deep sighs and insights during the coming new year. Bring on the gossip I say.

May God bless every one of you and keep you safe during the coming year.

Thank you so much for the kind words Julie….it certainly feels like 9 years….but it is only 7. I am so blessed to have all of you that have stayed with me over the years. Many changes along the way, and yet, you stayed. I am so thankful. I love the fact we are all connected, and many feel this is their safe place. We have amazing people that are here. There are so many wonderful bloggers that I am fortunate enough to reblog from. They add so much. Yes, all those that contribute keep us going. Everyday I am amazed at the fact I really do learn something new everyday, just by being here. So many posts that are so informative that I would have no idea about, if I wasn’t here. I am also blessed new people come by, and many keep coming back. As always, such a joy hearing from you! I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas. Sending you hugs and love.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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snek-panini · 1 year

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Book time! At last, a new one! This is a bind of In Death's Embrace, We Are Reborn by Arinia. It's a fantastic series from the Good Omens fandom. Angsty but sweet, canon-adjacent 20th century history fic. Absolutely gorgeous, rich prose and in character the whole way. Don't be discouraged by the 6/9 chapter count for part 2, it reads as a complete story and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

So! This is a Coptic bind, which means it has no glue holding it together, only stitching, which is visible. I see those recommended a lot of beginner bookbinders, but I have a habit of looking at a new craft and thinking "I don't wanna do the boring beginner project, I want to do the exciting intermediate/advanced one that I don't have the skills for", so I went right for case binding and skipped this kind until now. Two years and a dozen books later, this is my first Coptic. I learned a lot, tried a lot of new things, and will for sure do it again.

More pics and process talk under the cut!

Pic of the spine and endpaper. I used metallic embroidery floss to stitch it, a decision I am going to call hubris. It looks beautiful but is so fucking slippery it's ridiculous. Also it won't hold a weaver's knot like the other thread I've used. I put a French link stitch in the middle (also a first for me) because I saw someone else on tumblr do that a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked really cool so I stole it, but I don't remember who it was so I can't credit them. I made a mistake in that part, where the needle caught a thread it wasn't supposed to, but I don't think it's visible in the photos. The endpaper is also stolen, in that I saw someone post a photo of stuff they'd bought and thought this one was perfect for this project, and I was right. White and black feathers are important to the story so it couldn't have been more perfect. Again, I don't remember who it was or I'd give them a shout-out.

When it came to cutting boards for the cover, I did the thing you do with case binding, which is cut them a little bigger than the text block on top and bottom, but because it's a glueless binding the stitching kinda sags down when it's upright on the shelf. I'm thinking it might put unnecessary stress on the text block down the line, so next time I do this I think I'll make the boards the same size as the block and see how that goes.

Pic of the title page and the section break artwork I made. I really need to up my title page game, it looks so plain. The section break was made with free clip art of feathers that I found via google. I've never experimented with vector art before and I still don't really know anything about it. All I did was find the image, rotate it, mirror it, and draw that little diamond shape in the middle. I made it a little too big and too bold, so it kind of dominates the pages it's on more than it should. I was tired of using a plain gray line for section breaks though, so I'm more or less happy with how it came out. And I learned stuff for next time.

Materials: textured cardstock for the cover, chiyogami paper for the endpaper (I love this stuff, it was so much easier than cardstock), metallic embroidery floss for the stitching (terrible, would not use again), and gold embossing powder for the title. I'm trying to up my cover game but it's hard. The text for the "Reborn" part didn't come out as clear as I'd have liked. I like the gold frame, though. Would do that again.

#bookbinding #fanbinding #snek makes books #snek joined renegade bindery so she could do binderary with them #it's nanowrimo but you bind books instead of write them #binderary2023 #good omens #fic rec

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dr-spencer-reids-queen · 1 year

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Birthright: Part One

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.1k

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there is any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

"It doesn't matter who my father was, it matters who I remember he was." - Anne Sexton

After what you and Spencer were doing in the car right before coming to work is enough to make a whore blush. You parked in the back of the parking garage just so you two could have some steamy alone time. There wasn't enough time to completely fix you two up, but you did your best with what you had. Still, that doesn't seem to be enough.

Everyone is waiting in the briefing room for JJ to come and present the next case, so you have some time to study Spencer's appearance. You two rushed to get redressed, and you can tell he missed a button. You wheel your chair closer to Spencer and nudge his side.

You reach over and quickly button his second button before anyone could comment on it. You also fix his tie to make it look more presentable. Spencer blushes slightly, and you wink at him before wheeling back over to your place. Derek is staring at the two of you, and you look up when you feel his eyes on you.

He smirks at you, and you shake your head playfully. JJ walks in seconds later with an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry I'm late." She picks up the clicker and begins showing you victims and the crime scene photos. "Last night in Fredericksburg, a twenty-year-old woman, Molly McCarthy, was abducted. She's the third to go missing in the last six weeks. All disappeared from public places. No one's seen them since. A couple days ago, body parts with cigarette burns were recovered from a national park which was once the site of the Battle of Chancellorsville."

"Were they able to make an ID?" Hotch asks.

"Only one. The first victim, taken six weeks ago. Decomposition indicated that she had been dead just over a week."

"That shows that he likes spending time with them. How'd she end up like that?" you wonder.

JJ flips through the different photos of body parts that were taken at the crime scene.

"The M.E. found microscopic tool marks on the bone."

"I remember reading about a case like this in Spotsylvania County. There were similar markings on the bone," Spencer explains. "It was the winter of 1980, also in Fredericksburg. five women, aged sixteen to twenty-four, buried in pieces with the same markings in the same civil war battlefield."

"Were they killed at the same time of year and left at the same dump site?"

"The case is still open. Back then, the victims were drug addicts and runaways."

"If he spends that much time with them, there's a chance these two women could still be alive," Hotch says.

"Wait. We think this could be the same killer? That's a hell of a cooling-off period," Emily states.

"The BTK Killer resurfaced after a twenty-five-year hiatus."

"True, but he didn't kill anyone. He only taunted the police."

"The marks on the bone and where he dumps them is a very specific signature. It's hard to copycat details that were never made public."

"Garcia, check the M.O. against girls missing in other states. It could explain the long absence."

"I'm on it," Penelope says and leaves the briefing room to get started.

"If this is the same unsub, what's he been doing for the past twenty-seven years?" Rossi asks.

"That's what we're going to find out."

You look over at JJ to see her checked out. It takes her five seconds to notice that everyone is packing up. She snaps out of wherever she went and stands up, gathering her folders. She is out the door before you can ask her if everything is okay.

The six hour flight from Quantico to Fredericksburg took shorter than you thought. Maybe it's because of the small nap you took, but once you landed, you were eager to get to the dump site. You might get something off the bodies that were dropped. They were found on the outskirts of a farm, but the farm is so big that the owner didn't even realize the property was a dumping ground.

You, JJ, Spencer, and Hotch are together with this one while the rest of the team headed to the police station to make it your home base for the week. JJ has been silent almost for the entire ride to the farm, and you're not sure why. You want to ask her about it, but you'll wait until you get an opportunity to.

"This killer has an obvious disregard for women. He sees them as disposable and worthless. You know, he'd need a lot of time and privacy to do this to them," Spencer comments. "It's funny how he always dumps the bodies in this battlefield, no matter what the risk."

"It's a respected landmark. He's flaunting. It makes him feel important," Hotch says.

The sheriff of the town is waiting for you when you get out of the car, and JJ heads over to him immediately.

"Sheriff Ballantyne, Jennifer Jareau," she says and shakes his hand.

"I appreciate you all coming down so quickly."

"Aaron hotchner. This is Dr. Spencer Reid and agent Y/N."

"Crime scene is right up here. I figured if this is the same killer as before, I didn't want to waste any time before I got your help."

Ballantyne walks you three to where the bodies were dropped.

"The other agents are meeting John Caulfield, the sheriff from the original case. Do you know him?"

"No, not personally. I just heard stories."

"How do you mean?" Hotch asks.

"Well, you know, by all accounts, he was a decent sheriff and good man. Truth is, we don't get a lot of murders down here, and this case broke him."

"How?"

"He started drinking and his marriage busted up. Finally, they asked him to retire." The dump site is sectioned off by police tape as it's still very fresh. "There were about twenty kids partying a hundred yards that way. Molly McCarthy was taken here. We found a blanket, a sweatshirt, and a pair of shoes over there."

"How does someone not see or hear them?" JJ sighs.

"It was dark. He had the advantage. Molly's boyfriend was the last person to see her. He said she was alone for a minute, maybe less."

"He works fast, but he's patient," you say. "He's perfected his M.O."

"If our unsub is pushing sixty, he's gotta be strong enough to carry her a long way without her struggling."

JJ steps away and pinches the bridge of her nose. She isn't doing too well, and both you and Hotch notice this.

"I've seen a lot of properties on unmarked dirt roads with no visible street signs, and nothing on any maps," Spencer states.

"Yeah. If you don't live around here, it can be hell finding your way around."

"That means he's local. Can you show us the various entrances to this place?"

Sheriff Ballantyne leads the way, holding up the police tape so that your team can pass underneath it. You pass by JJ and stop before you can get too far.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah."

She's lying, but you're not going to call her out on it.

"You know that if you need to talk about anything, my door is always open, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

With that out of the way, you do what you came here to do. There wasn't much to find at the dumping site since it was only body parts, and there was more than one victim out there. The bodies were already picked up, and the elements already messed up the dump site for you. It's shitty to say, but you can't do much without another body to go off of, and just like you knew would happen, another body surfaced.

It was the next day when you heard about the unsub dropping more bodies in the same battlefield as yesterday, and you wasted no time going over there to check it out.

"I got two sets of parents waiting for an ID," Sheriff Ballantyne says when you arrive on scene.

"I can help you with that," JJ offers, walking away to where the parents are waiting.

"He didn't spread them around this time. They were in plain sight. He's taunting us. He's basically saying, 'I'm doing this and there's nothing you can do to stop me'," Spencer says.

"Nobody can get in here without showing their ID at the gate."

"JJ has a copy of that visitors list, but there's a hundred ways in. These fences back up to personal properties. He could have gotten in a dozen different ways."

"He knows these grounds as well as anyone. He could have jumped the fence, disposed of his victims, and walked right back out," Hotch backs you up.

You pause and look around when you get the feeling that you're not alone. You don't sense any spirits or see any energies, but you get the feeling like you're not alone.

"Are you okay? What do you see?" Hotch asks you.

"I don't see anything. I just have a feeling in the back of my mind. Like there are other victims, but they're not here. Like they're calling out for help. I don't know," you shrug.

"Let's head back," Hotch announces, and you turn to leave the area.

You look back once more before getting inside the car. The local police work on IDing the bodies while you head back to the station to discuss what the next steps are with the rest of the team. Emily's side of the team was talking with the original sheriff that was on the case all those years ago.

"I've got a list of violations in this county that precede the 1980 murders. A DUI, petty thefts, rape, and assault. A few of these are repeat offenders," Emily states once everyone has gathered.

"Garcia's got something."

Derek places Penelope on speakerphone so everyone can hear her.

"Don't worry, it's not contagious," she jokes. "So, I have dug across the whole country looking for this guy's MO. I found a sum total of zilch. So, I went closer to home. I found a complaint filed by Karen Foley in the next county over. The story is awful. I sent a copy to all your hand-helds. The PG version is that she was kidnapped in 1979, but then she escaped."

"I never heard that story," John Caulfield, the original sheriff on the case, sighs.

"It wasn't your jurisdiction," Rossi says to him. "What if she was his first? He figured out who and where to hunt and learned what worked and what didn't."

"Maybe careful planning has always been a part of his process."

"Where is she now?" you ask.

"Baby girl, work your magic and find us an address."

"I'm on it."

Just moments later, Penelope got Karen's address. You and Derek share one look that says you will be going with him. Hotch approves of this, so you two grab your things before leaving the station together. Derek drove the fifteen miles it took to get to Karen's house. Before you can walk up her driveway, you could feel how closed off she wants to be. You can feel how scared she is with the recent news of these young girls getting kidnapped and dying.

You walk up to her door and knock, and she opens it barely enough for you to see her face.

"Ms. Foley? I'm Y/N and this is Derek Morgan. We're from the FBI. Do you have a minute?"

"FBI?"

Both you and Derek flash your badges to Karen, but that doesn't ease her mind.

"We're investigating the murders of 2 women and the abduction of a third in Fredericksburg. Have you read about it?"

"Yes. It's awful."

"Ma'am, we think it may be related to what happened to you in 1979. Your abduction."

At your words, she completely closes herself off. She does not want to relive her experience, and she certainly doesn't want to talk about it with you two.

"I'm sorry, you're mistaken. I made it up."

"We've read your report, Karen. You were drugged, burned, beaten, and sexually assaulted. You were held against your will," you tried to tell her, but she cut you off.

"I was seventeen. I had to have some kind of excuse for where I'd been."

"Where had you been?"

"Around. I was using back then."

"You called home, ma'am. Some offenders force their victims to contact families to explain their whereabouts," Derek explains.

"There was no offender."

"A lot of the details in your report are consistent with what happened to those women in 1980."

"You calling me a liar?" Karen says, glaring at Derek.

"Karen, I know a few things about protecting yourself from memories. You don't want to keep hurting, and I completely understand that. I was you, okay? Right now, you are the only person alive who can help us. No one else has to suffer. You survived this. We're here when you want to talk."

"I'm not a lead. I'm sorry. I hope you find whoever's doing this."

Karen shuts the door in your face, and you sigh sadly. She is hurting, and she doesn't want to remember, but you have to get her to remember in order to help you. You take out your business card and slide it in her door, turning to Derek.

He shakes his head, but you know you'll be seeing her again soon.

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

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kai-selfships · 11 months

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Random thing abt me and Rocket <3 (with some background me x Drax) this takes place a year or so after Vol3

This is self indulgent as helllll I’m actually so embarrassed

Kai knew every inch of his home. He had lived there only a few years, but the place was small (considering it housed three people), and he was the one who planned all the renovations and decor.

He knew every item in the place, too. Or at least the ones he bought, anyway. Sometimes Drax would accidentally break something and try to hide it, but Kai knew exactly how many glasses they owned, how many plates, how many bowls— probably too many for just the three of them, but Kai just loved the ones with pretty designs, or the colored glass. He loved his home in general

Anyway, the point is, Kai always noticed immediately when things were out of place— though he wouldn’t consider this particular item out of place, just new.

A framed photo. It hung magnetized to one of the empty walls in the kitchen.

It was small and worn and one of the corners had torn off. Kai didn’t even think they had a photo printing place on Knowhere— it must have been old.

The other indication of its age was the picture itself— it was of him and Rocket. Obviously a selfie from Rocket’s phone, with him smiling in the background.

Kai deduced from his own appearance (longer hair, pointed canine teeth, dark circles under his eyes) that the photo must have been taken shortly after the Guardians had gotten together. He recognized that it was taken on Peter’s Milano, but didn’t recall the exact occasion. That must have been almost fifteen years ago…

Realizing that he had been lost in thought, Kai took the photo off the wall so he could take it out of its frame. He flipped it over. The back didn’t have a date, it just read ME AND KAI, scrawled in messy, shaky handwriting. Kai smiled fondly.

He replaced the photo on the wall and continued his original task of making lunch for himself.

Rocket got home late that night; he had spent all day working on an invention in his workshop.

Kai was on the couch, relaxing while watching a movie. He paused it when he heard the door open, smiling. “Hey, how was your day?”

“Alright. Anything leftover from dinner?”

Kai stood and joined Rocket in the entryway, where he was locking the door after himself.

“Some. I’ll come eat with you.” Kai said, smiling.

Rocket told Kai about what he was building while he took of his boots and jacket, which always took him a while, especially after a long day and when he was distracted like this. Kai waited patiently, not really understanding the technology stuff he talked about, but content nonetheless.

“So anyway, how’ve you been?” Rocket asked as he stood up a few minutes later.

“Good. Drax and I holochatted with Mantis earlier; she invited us all to come visit her sometime.” Kai replied.

“Oh really? Sounds like fun.”

Kai nodded, hesitating a moment. “I also found something nice in the kitchen,”

Rocket didn’t meet Kai’s eyes. “What was it?” He feigned ignorance as he hopped up into his seat.

“Look,” Kai took the picture off the wall to show Rocket, briefly wondering how he had hung it up so high. “Its a picture of us. Did you hang it up?” He smiled wider before turning around to get himself and Rocket a bowl of leftover soup.

“Maybe.” Rocket answered curtly. “You can take it down if you want.”

Kai put a bowl in the microwave and started it. “No, I really like it. I just wanted to ask you about it.”

A few minutes later, the pair sat across from each other at the table, waiting for their food to cool.

“How long have you had it?” Kai asked, still smiling.

“I don’t know, a couple years…” Rocket said a little shyly. “I used to carry it with me, but I spend most of my time here now, so…” he trailed off, self consciously tugging on his cheek fur.

Kai had never pegged Rocket for the sentimental type. “Why me?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, we weren’t even dating back then—“

Rocket covered his face, embarrassed. “Well, you were my best friend… whatever, it doesn’t matter.”

Kai grinned. “That’s so sweet!”

Rocket grumbled. “Shut up. Its not sweet.“

“Aw, but you carried around a picture of me!”

Rocket began eating his soup. “Not all the time.” He muttered.

Kai laughed. He took a bite from his own bowl, enjoying the rich taste. Drax is an amazing cook.

He studied the picture again, feeling his heart swell with love.

He could tell from his angry-looking eyebrows that Rocket was embarrassed to be even taking the photo in the first place.

Looking at himself had Kai feeling a little bittersweet. He looked tired… he recalled having a few months of nightmares after the fight on Xandar. The smile was genuine, however.

Man, those were the days… living on a cramped ship with his best friends— only friends, at the time— stealing shit and helping people, exploring the Galaxy… Peter’s music and dancing, caring for a young Groot, Drax’s laughter— sometimes Kai missed how things were.

Kai pulled out his phone and took a picture of the picture.

“What’re you doing?” Rocket asked.

Kai shrugged. “I want to be able to see it whenever. Think I can send it to Peter?”

Rocket scoffed. “Hell no. Don’t want to give him any more material for makin’ fun of me.”

Kai smiled. “Alright.”

Some things are still the same, he thought as he finished up his midnight snack.

#a beloved mutual gave me the confidence to actually post this #also red if you see this I just learned your name I’m sorry if my posts about Red Guy (dhmis) are weird to read cause you have the same name #gotg tag

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dausy · 4 months

Text

I didn't upload my disney trip because I felt guilty I was at Disney and my husband is overseas and miserable doing army stuff and I just felt like such a bad spouse. Sometimes I wonder if I'm on the spectrum because I just do not comprehend social cues. However, he's on a neat Christmas trip right now in Rome and seemingly doing some cool once-in-a-lifetime Christmas stuff right now. So I think its ok. I don't know how much I'm typing so Ill put it under a keep-reading tag. But my in-laws didn't want me to be alone for Christmas so they paid for my Disneyland ticket..I mean I went and bought the tickets because I get a discount but they paid me back. I drove to their house 8 hours away and we all shuttled in a car and drove the 6 more hours to Disney. I honestly think in many ways Disneyland is superior to Disneyworld. The primary reason I'd ever want to go back to DW would be for the food/wine festivals in Epcot. I think its like a great woo-girl-girls-trip and I'd like to go with my sisters one day.

anyway.

We visited a food-hall in LA the day we got there. Me and my husband took my MIL to a couple food halls in Atlanta and she thought it was a neat idea and found one in LA and wanted to show her family. I forgot what it was called already but I got a pastry and a creme brulee coffee that got actually torched like a creme brulee. They also had a southern food restaurant and I got shrimp and grits just so I can judge it as I lived in Georgia for long. It was pretty good. Bit greasy but the food hall itself was really cute. I just honestly with these food halls, I need more kitschy shopping.

We then went to the Disney shopping district and you can judge but I did spend a lot of money on starwars earrings and all the simba merch I could find. Which was not that much but still very expensive. A lot of stuff is under construction. I really just wanted some Christmas themed cocktails and their main bar was down.

we spent the next couple days at CA and DL. We had park hoppers. I wanted to do the Festival of the Holidays which I thought was a bit disappointing compared to the food and wine I've had in epcot in the past.

I took a lot of clips rather than pictures because I thought about posting to youtube but I don't think I will. I did upload them all to facebook though.

The festival alcohol I swear didn't have alcohol in it. For the record I rarely ever drink alcohol ever. But for this trip I kinda just wanted to relax and not rush ride to ride and just browse and sip something that tasted like Christmas.

There is an interesting food dynamic with my in-laws that I can't explain the entire situation here but I did have to wander off a bit in search of the food. I got a turkey thanksgiving empanada which was pretty good and I think my favorite thing I had was the tamales and there were some little chicken bites that were good too. But these sandwiches were a bit of a disappointment and I found hair in the coleslaw.

random photos. We accidentally found Tiana by herself and we got a photo and she was absolutely lovely. I really wanted to buy some sort of a spirit jersey and I just couldn't find one that I thought was worth it. They did have a red The Lion King one but it was kind of too-red for me. I did find this green lion king hoody though which was nice. I got a lot of compliments on my everything..I swear to god this random guy came up to me like a cartoon character and he yells "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT SIMBA" the one I have hooked onto my shoulder. As he screams it about 15 of his own little magnitized character clip ons and pins pop off of him. It reminded me of the witch from the bugs bunny cartoons where her hair pins would fall out.

I did get to see the Festival of the Lion King show. I've never seen this one. I've seen the one at Disneyworld years ago which was really cool. I didn't know DL had one and I guess this is one of its last performances so I teared up a little.

Primarily me and my SIL who I absolutely love spent a lot of time in Star Wars. I had forgotten until we were wandering around that DL is the one place that has the Cal Kestis lightsaber so I went on a hunt to find it. I'm not gonna buy it but I did find it! I also was not fast enough to get a photo with kylo ren but I didn't realize they had little R2D2s walking the park either. I don't think they have R2 at DW.

I also am a bad planner. I'm not one of those disney adults that can plan out an entire day. I was afraid to try and reserve any sort of dining because again the odd food situation. But I did manage to sneak into Ogas Cantina which was imo, a much better experience then the one in orlando by far. It seemed bigger, more spacious and the food was actual food and these were the strongest drinks I'd had in the park.

They tell you you have 45 mins and you have to get out but we stayed a bit later than that and nobody harassed us. If I went back to DL again I'd hundred percent try and get a reservation here and at the Blue Bayou again. I was also trying to refresh the app to look for an opening in lamplight lounge but alas, it did not open.

the new Marvel version of Tower of Terror I thought was also a lot of fun. And the Haunted Mansion! I feel like like they should leave it Nightmare Before Christmas all the time! I've never been on it this time of year at DW but it was wonderful here at DL. My first time seeing the Jack Skellington stuff. Also! Jack was out as a character wandering the park which I'd never seen before either.

I have to say I was really impressed with the handicap accessibility of some rides. My FiL is blind and utilizes a wheelchair most times and we managed to take him on Mickeys Runaway Rail and I was very impressed with the transfer lane for that. Very impressed with the cast members.

but I think my favorite rides are still Rise of the Resistance and lowkey, Smugglers Run. I feel like everybody hates on Smugglers Run but my stomach and chest hurt so bad from laughing. This ride was hilarious with the right group of people. 6 of us went in and I swear my MILs elderly sister was coming out of her seatbelt rolling around on the floor because my piloting skills were so bad. The funniest experience I've had on a ride.

Before RotR came out though I was a huge Universal Studios fan because their Harry Potter world was just so immersive (I'm aware in recent days HP is controversial) that disney just didn't compare. But they caught on with the StarWars real fast. It is super impressive and they just need to roll out more star wars add-ons. Especially to compete with Universals nintendo and how to train your dragon thats coming out soon in orlando.

The trackless rides are just so clever and I'm excited to see where that technology goes.

oh and the weather! I don't know how to dress for California and I dont understand it. Last couple years we went to Knotts Berry Farm and I froze to death every time. November and December I'm freezing. I keep expecting it to be like Florida weather I guess and it isn't. I keep bringing warm weather clothes and freezing. We were in LA back in June/July to visit the beach and it was 70 and I was freezing. Not beach weather. This year, I bring all winter clothes. Fleece leggings and tights to wear under jeans and coats and hoodies....it got up to 80 one of the days we were there and I got really hot. I brought a tank top and that was it. Everything else was winter. California you killing me.

but thats about it for now I think. That I can think of anyway. Overall both of my Disneyland trips I've had have been better than my Disneyworld trips.

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aroaceconfessions · 2 years

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Uh hello, I'm kinda questioning... so i think I need advice or something,

I think I found a label that kinda fits but I don't know if it's fair to call myself aspec/under the asexual umbrella

But I'm gonna start from the beginning so this will make sense,

Ps: this got long so I'm gonna cut some parts and make some bullet points instead

When I was 8 I chose who to have a crush on

When I was 12 I joined a very gay fandom and shipped gay people (helped me stopped being homophobic)

"But I wasn't gay"

When I was like 13 every day on the bus I was thinking of this one girl

And I was like I can't be gay

And I had a whole list on my brain of why "I wasn't allowed to be gay"

Till a friend of mine came out as bi when we were like 13-14, and I realized that if they're allowed to just be Then There's no invisible wall forbidding me

And I did too, I came out to a few people as bi

When I was 12 I had a crush on a boy, once my friend pretended to like him to see my reaction(cause it was my 1st crush while they had a different one every week) and I had deleted my feelings after a 45 minutes class, but she just told me it was a joke but, I already like, felt nothing?

I've had a couple of crushes over the years, it actually takes me a long time to figure out "Oh hey this might be a crush" and most of my crushes, they were just random people from school, that I've never talked to and I didn't actually wanted to? Like that's my crush ok. End of story, no biggie

I only had a crush on a friend once, and I never told anyone about it. This was like when I was 15, and I recently (im 17 now) found out they have an online gf and I didn't felt any kind of jealously one might expect to feel, I'm happy for them

The thing with my crushes is, fictional characters? I usually love the boys, real people? Usually Girls that look gay

I think what mostly makes me question whether I'm fully bi, is that I related a little too much to Georgia Warr from Loveless by Alice Oseman (for anyone that doesn't know the book is about Georgia figuring out her identity as aroace)

One of my main suspicions is a photo, it was from an actor I really liked a few years ago, he was shirtless and all the comments were like "😍😍🔥🔥🥵🤩hot" and the first time I saw it I was like yeah, but then I saw the same photo a week later and I was like ew why is he shirtless get dressed dude, and I was confused with the same comments I saw and agreed a week ago

Also, some of the fictional characters i love I say I'm in love with them, but I don't actually want to "date" anyone (like my friends do) and 9/10 I ship the characters with someone

And I recently found out what Aceflux is

I would explain it as "on/off sexual attraction" that's how I understand it, at least. I don't know if/how much I'm wrong. I can't find a lot about it online

When I think about it, I'm not sure what I find "hot" sometimes I see someone and I'm like oh hot but not like in a "I wanna sleep with them hot"

I'm 17 and I've never been in a relationship or anything,

And while its sounds cool and all, I'm doing fine single yknow? I'm not actively looking for a relationship like most people seem to be doing

I've been questioning with the Aceflux label for a while now, it just makes sense,

Things I've done/thought in the past make more sense if an "on/off sexuality" is an option

but I feel like a fraud if I do use it and call myself that

Google is like "mostly on the asexual spectrum but sometimes allo"

What if it's a mix? What if I'm more allo than Aceflux? Or actually I'm not even sure anymore?? Idk I think I experience sexual attraction like 10 minutes a week when I see something on the internet that seems fancy

Is there a way to measure it?

Would it be unfair to use that label?

I don't even know anymore

Also, bc I've got double questions how? Romantic people? Demiromantic? How different? Like do people get Romantic feelings instantly?how? what? I don't understand

I'm questioning everything at this point

Only my gender, which I figured out at 15, seems to be safe...for now

#asexual #ace #acespec #aspec #aceflux #demiromantic #aromantic #aroace #arospec #aroacespec #arose

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demonkeeperdark · 8 months

Text

This is going to be a loooonnnnnggggg story so I'm having to put it under a keep reading line lol

For those curious - this is a recent experience I had at a metallica weekend concert which waz the best weekend of my life

My dad had gotten me metallica tickets for my birthday in April for night one w/pantera and mammoth WVH because I had never thought I would ever see pantera in my life (Due to Dimebags tragic incident) and I had already seen 5FDP last year when Megadeth opened up for them. A few days ago before the concert I found out that we had accidentally gotten both day tickets. I was stoked because I had been thinking how cool it would be to see 5FDP again along with metallica twice in one weekend. We carefully planned out our weekend because I was not going to let my dad waste those tickets let alone we had 2 more- One for his girlfriend and originally one of his buddies who backed out. I pulled along my boyfriend since 1) hes never been to a concert and 2) metallica is also his favorite band so if he saw them as his first band I thought- well shit- if I was in his position I wouldve been fucking stoked (best part he said the weekend was his best weekend ever)

Friday morning we skipped school and work and shot immediately down to LA to avoid traffic (if you live in California or have at least driven through LA at least once you know what i mean) and had to find somewhere to stay the night and get ready for the first night.

We get to the stadium and find our seats and hear Mammoth WVH first and ive never heard any of their music and it was very good (highly recommend listening to them) and I was slowly getting more hyped. Pantera came up and- Phil Anselmo gets out there on stage in fucking board shorts and no damn shoes on his feet and hella made the entire stadium straight up go fucking crazy. So well fucking performed that night. We had about an hour wait before metallica and when they came up playing Creeping Death- like holy fuck??? Just straight up slapped in the face by this godly fucking music ive only heard in the car- on my headphones through either phone or cd player- through my record player- and now I get to hear it for real...right there...and oh my god, I felt like i was in a dream all day that day, and this wasnt even the best part of this weekend- and I felt so fucking amazed. The next 2 were Harvester Of Sorrow and Leper Messiah and it sounded so fucking good...2 very good songs I wasnt expecting them to play but holy shit- it was worth it. On came The Memory Remains- the entire stadium was singing- you could hear your own voice align with everyone elses... And then it was Lux Æterna- and then it was Too Far Gone?... It was great- it was amazing. Rob and Kirk had a little bit of a "doodle"... And they looked like they were having fucking fun. Next they played Fade To Black, and I started getting emotional...then they played Shadows Follow which is my favorite off the new album which brought my emotions back up- Just to get myself lost into listening to Orion...and Nothing Else Matters really kicked me in the feels...

Sad But True played and my bf got really hyped since it was one of his favorites off the black album, and once again i got hit in the feels with The Day That Never Comes....

And once again Hardwired brought my energy and emotions up and when Fuel hit my dad and I went full on screaming the song to each other and watching the pyro and flames go off.

Metallica all paused for a second and went...

"We have time for a couple more songs...how do you all feel about...SEEK?"

I didnt hear the first "seek", but fucking hell...my bf lit up like a light bulb...

And then fucking Master Of Puppets to finish off put that cherry on top.

And all i could think off was...

I get to see them.

Again.

In two

Fucking

Days.

NIGHT 2

Hyped as shit.

I get to see 5FDP Again.

I get to see fucking Metallica Again.

My phone dies...

So I think welp I'm fucked if I want to take photos and videos for myself but eh I get to enjoy it in person, I dont really need my phone and I cant complain about just seeing it and everyone else could record it and take photos so we could all look at it later together or something and have fun with it

It was hotter this night compared to the first, so before we ran to our seats we got drinks and I ended up cutting my hand open on a water bottle but I didn't let it bother me much

We went to our seats and started getting settled and this guy came up with what looks to be a VIP ticket slung around his neck and an envelope in his hand and goes

"Hey how are you guys tonight?"

My dad with his audacity goes

"Well my daughter got a cut on her hand from a water bottle a bit ago but this is her late birthday present and shes not letting that bring her down so I think were doing great!"

"Fucking sick!" This guy replies and says, "Hey you know what?" He puts his hand into the envelope...

Fucking.

Snake Pit Wristbands.

He hands them to us along with guitar picks that my bf took so fucking many of and walks away saying

"You guys will be down there, have fun"

I start balling my eyes out.

I couldnt believe all of this was happening, we were trying to find our way down and I'm just crying while everyone was taking turns guiding me down and I stand there in this field and I look around really questioning if I'm asleep and I'm just tripping on drugs or if I'm literally in the middle of the snake pit and imagining how fucking cool James Hetfield is going to look standing there in front of me where I was standing against the wall.

I must've lost it for another 15 minutes before I came to my senses and actually started getting hyped for all this because everyone would be right there in front of me.

A few minutes later Ice Nine Kills performs and I also havent heard much of their music but they were badass, all dressed up and acting like they were killing people on stage and it looked so cool yet if you were where I was it also looked so fake at the same time but it was fucking great.

They ended and 5FDP was up next and the first time I saw them it was another situation where I was at the top of the stadium and i just saw them from a distance but now I could actually see them right in front of me.

And then they came up.

Holy shit.

I was so excited to see them again and right there that I couldn't stop jumping (literally) and I had more energy then everyone else in the pit for them to the point I had Ivan Moody, Zoltan Bathory, AND Chris Kael point at me at least once.

They started wrapping things up when Zoltan Came over, points at me, and throws a pick directly at me, and I had everyone around me trying to catch it before I did but I got it directly thrown at me and caught it and I got so happy I shook my bf, dad, and his girlfriend.

Next thing to you they played The Bleeding and Chris comes over and points at me while playing his bass guitar and we looked at each other and both lip sang to the song and I got more excited over that then getting the pick.

When they started leaving the stage he came back and gave me his sweatband that has his last name imprinted on it and I couldnt fucking take it.

It was so fucking cool and badass and I didnt stop wearing it till a couple hours ago when I could finally put it somewhere safe.

Everyone started crowding in for metallica and we all started getting crowded in, and once AC/DC's A Long Way To The Top started playing everyone got really excited and hyped and crowding in more.

Everyone also started looking at Jason Mamoa amd taking photos of him in the snake pit with us before metallica came out.

After Metallicas long cutscene/intro finished they came out and played Whiplash...

If I had just reached as far as I could I could've touched Hetfields foot thats how fucking close I was to him.

At that point I couldnt even explain song by song how amazing it was, I was just rocking out and I couldnt stop, it was so fucking cool and amazing and I couldnt stop jumping again and throwing up the devil horns it was great.

End of the show they were doing theyre out to and throwing everything out and my bf got one of their picks and I started having that verge of tears again because I still couldnt believe what I just witnessed.

Not only did I get rare collectables from 5FDP, but Metallicas crew gave us pit tickets to make everything possible and that proves how fucking amazing they are.

Best weekend of my life, I couldnt be anymore grateful.

#metallica #5fdp #five finger death punch #pantera #mammoth wvh #ice nine kills

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akwardlyuncool · 1 year

Photo

Wild Rivers Sidelines Tour 2022

Ft: Violet Skies

Venue:

The Summit Music Hall (Officially called “The Summit.”

(09.16.2022)

Stats:

1st time seeing Wild Rivers

1st time seeing Violet Skies

Friend Stats:

2nd show with the lovely Emma. (Technically the first full show we’ve been to together cause the first was a Warped Tour (date I can’t remember) that we met up with each other, but I stayed the whole day and she did not.

Photo Notes:

All photos taken by me!

It starts with Violet Skies’ set and then goes into Wild Rivers. Also I’m not drinking, drinking in that bathroom picture, I’m just finishing off my Liquid Death (expensive can water) while I have a post concert outfit photo shoot.

PS: I had an abundance of photos once again, so check out the Akward Side Blog for more photos from the show and just that day.

Hey Why Not:

I’d heard about this show and was excited, but wasn’t going to go or rather I wasn’t sure about going. It was like “you like 3 songs, is that enough?” Later on when planning for shows that I was sure about I asked my friend Emma if she wanted to go with me and she was down. Tentative plans were made, but I ended up buying tickets the day the venue announced a low ticket warning and she was luckily able to do the same. I dragged my feet on this one, but it all worked out in the end. The deciding factor was me walking around the world singing “Thinking ‘Bout Love” for the last 2 years and figured it deserved a live listen.

The Early Bird Gets “2nd” In Line:

After getting my friend out of bed and out of the house earlier than she would have chosen for herself, we went downtown for a decent lunch from the place that I always says disappoints me. This time it was alright but the firecracker fries or whatever they’re called, did truly have a kick and now I understand why I never got them before, they never come with your meal already. It should be a crime to have burgers or chicken tenders or whatever on a bar menu and it not automatically come with a fries or onion rings.

Anyway what I thought was late (like always) but was actually fairly early. We ended up being “second” in line, as there was a whole group ahead of us that had been following the tour for a couple dates already. I thanked my friend for braving the heat and the sidewalk multiple times, to which the reward ended up being meeting Khalid and Andrew (2 members of the band) outside of the venue beforehand, getting barricade standing spots and those chef’s kiss (in my opinion) photos I was able to take by just being up there.

Violet Skies Featuring Kyndyl On The Keys and Background Vocals:

In preparing for this show I found out that I actually knew who Violet Skies was based off of one song that Spotify recommended to me several years ago, which meant I didn’t feel too out of the loop on her, like some opening acts I’ve seen on other tours. I kinda learned “I’ll Buy A House” as well, but we all know the songs you prepare yourself with rarely make it to the setlist. That being said it didn’t matter that I only really knew “Is She Gonna Be There” cause the whole set was fantastic. Any line or chorus that I could hold onto I did and she just looked so cool up there, like do you see that outfit?! “The Internet” and “Never Be Cool” were standouts in the set list though for sure. AND THE LIGHTING COLORS?! Emma said it was her favorite performance of the night.

WILD RIVERS:

I did some runs of the Sidelines album and just Wild Rivers in general leading up to the show, but still thought I was gonna be hella rusty, when in fact I knew more than I thought I did. Again the stage lighting really set the vibe and the mood for the entire show and it just helped with the overall flow of their set perfectly. Some of the best lighting as an accessory at a show I’ve ever been to. Beyond lighting though, everything else was just great and I had so much fun being in that crowd. When you’re just vibing, feeling good and the crowd is good company, the show is so much better. This wasn’t a show with a bunch of distractions or extra noise. It truly felt like the people who were there, actually wanted to be there. (Still heard a little bit of noise from the way back at the beginning of the night, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Joy Oladokun show. At this point I think there’s something wrong with this particular venue’s sound, especially during the openers.)

They played “Amsterdam” early on which set things up for me to not struggle through the set. “Safe Flight” and “Long Time” were top notch live. I love those songs on the album, but live you get all the extra feels and story that come with them too. There were a couple covers thrown in there as well, something I never typically mind at a show. Dropping a non-Complicated Avril Lavigne track with “I’m With You” was much liked by the crowd, however if you ask the crowd for a song to cover and you go with The Backstreet Boys, which they did, you’re going with the safest choice and I wish we as fans/audience members would use our powers better going forward. PS: That’s not a dig on The Backstreet Boys or Wild Rivers, that’s just me saying can we find a new safe option.

The encore of course was “Thinking Bout’ Love” and my heart was just so happy. I took a video clip and I was just as loud as the band, so much so that it’s mainly just a video with me and the crowd as the main audio, with Wild Rivers as background vocals. This is what makes an encore for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The End Of The Night:

I should have gotten a picture with Khalid and Andrew (of Wild Rivers) before the show cause they didn’t come out afterwards, but it’s a lot more common during these particular times to not always come out at the end. Plus the show was sold out, so that is a real factor as well. That being said we did however get to meet Violet and Kyndyl at the merch table. They were both wonderful and very sweet. I’m already ready for them to come back.

I highly recommend y’all check out “If I Saw You Again” Violet’s latest album. It’s so good. If you need more cool, British, pop in your life, this is my nod!

#Concerts #Wild Rivers Sidelines Tour #Sidelines Tour #Sidelines Tour 2022 #Wild Rivers #Sidelines #Khalid Yassein #Devan Glover #Andrew Oliver #Thinking Bout' Love #Violet Skies #Kyndyl #If I Saw You Again #The Summit Music Hall #The Summit Denver #Fresh Jai #Fresh Jai Photos

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