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smackthedevilwrites · 5 months

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As the year comes to a close, almost, I just wanted to take some time out to say thank you to everyone who reblogged, bookmarked, shared, liked, read, left kudos and comments on my fics. I’m very lucky to have found myself as a writer within a community of really nice, genuine people from all over the world.

I love writing. I really should be spending time on my novel, which is unrelated to J2 but here I am, publishing a fic a month about these two yahoos who have really gotten under my skin. What can I say, I love them. There is just something unending about J2, no matter what other people say or do, J2 are eternal. As ships go, the aesthetics are heavenly and the chemistry of an almost 20 year friendship are the gifts that keep on giving. And with that, my brain will not stop until every trope, every occupation, every situation has been explored with J2 at the helm.

This year, Jared has been a lighthouse keeper, a multi-media management employee, a ghost, a Christmas tree-topper, a vampire, a hooker and a porn star in training amongst other things. Jensen has been a vampire too, a Greek soldier, a book-store owner, an ice seller from the 1920’s and a virtual reality coder. I keep them busy, is all I can say.

There is just something magical about creating worlds centered around the two most beautiful men on earth. I have a new fic lined up for the new year but I am going be (reluctantly) taking a break which is good because Christmas is fun but bad because I write literally every day of my life. I’m sure I’ll survive it.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Here below is the complete list of every J2 fic of 2023 – 666,130 words – make of that word count what you will. 😦

Very long list under the cut -

THE LOVE LOCKER

Jensen Ackles buys storage units for a living, it's a lucrative business which has made him a comfortable amount of money. One thing he learned on the job is that one man's junk is another man's treasure. People leave all manner of things in abandoned lockers; money, comics, designer clothes, sports equipment, antiques, books and sometimes (maybe just the once), people.

THE PURPLE IRIS

In 1926 Louisiana, twenty year old Jared Padalecki has been forever searching for something to fulfil him. The youngest of four sons born into a rich and privileged family, Jared is ignored by his mother, father and brothers who think him wild and believe him to be of no use to them. In a desperate bid to inject excitement into his life, Jared spends his formative years seeking thrills but finds nothing that suits his character, until he comes of age. Jared is a late bloomer, lonely and questioning his sexuality. Through self-discovery, Jared opens himself up to the world in the most intimate way possible, attracting the attention of the mysterious 'iceman' and a rich older friend of his father's who takes advantage of Jared's vulnerability and loneliness.

FOREVER SEVENTEEN

Jared Padalecki was well-traveled for a sixteen year old and had lived in many different countries around the world. His passion was history and joining his parents on archaeological digs, standing on the sidelines and watching as the past was slowly revealed. When Mr. and Mrs. Padalecki decided to take on regular jobs and settle down in Santa Cruz, it gave Jared his first taste of high school in the US. With only two weeks until summer break, he had little time to settle in and even less time to make friends to keep him busy during the summer. However, on his very first day, Jared was taken under the wing of the very mysterious but shockingly handsome Jensen Ackles. At seventeen, Jensen had a worldy air about him and an intelligence to match Jared's. Soon, they became insperable and during that crazy hot summer, they became eternal together too.

GLOW IN THE DARK STARS

Have you ever met a terrible person and wondered why they did the things they did? What happened to them that turned them into a bad person? Were they born like it? What kind of trauma led them to become such an a-hole? None of those questions are answered here. Instead, what you will find is what happens to terrible people when they realize that they’re terrible. Jared Padalecki is young, not particularly dumb (actually pretty smart, eventually) and definitely full of come. He’s also full of himself too. When his car-crash of a mother announces her marriage to Jensen Ackles (lol), Jared actually couldn’t care less but Jensen is harboring a secret. Mmm, I wonder what it could be?

BERRY PIE

1969 - the summer of love for young people all over the world, the moon landings and the last year of the swinging sixties. In Jared Padalecki's small world, none of that figured as he battles to make sense of himself and a girl called 'Juliet' in an unloving home. The Padalecki farmstead had always given the impression of a happy home; it was beautiful, the heart of the community and the family were well-respected. Jared had always felt a little different to what was expected of him and most of the time, his life and future felt hopeless and carved out for him. But there was something about him that said determination as he quietly and privately tried to bring 'Juliet' to life, the other part of him, the girl he so very often needed to be.

EROTAS

When Jensen was fifteen, he was selected by the Gods and the elders of the Sacred Army temple in Thebes to one day fight alongside a same sex lover as part of the three-hundred strong company of the most beautiful men in all of Ancient Greece. His looks, strength and sexuality was noticed by Zeus but the Theban council elders were hesitant to enlist him, worried that his peasant upbringing would not be the right fit for the army. At twenty-two, Jensen finally left his modest home to join the army, four years later than he should have. His beauty was much admired by his superiors who urged him to form a union of love and strength with the rich and equally beautiful Jared, who was plagued by prejudices of status encouraged by his biased mother. Jensen was loathe to chase after a man who did not want him despite Jared’s obvious beauty and soon Jensen’s eyes were eventually drawn elsewhere; love came swiftly to him in the arms another, leaving Jared seething with jealousy and the council left with no other choice but to take the matter into their own hands.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE

Jared Padalecki is the most popular of all the boys at The Cactus Club, an all-male brothel in the state of Nevada. He’s good at his job because he needs the money and has big plans for his future, just like all the other young men in the club. At twenty-two, Jared is a veteran of sorts, the ‘mother hen’ of the brothel. Independent and quite strong-willed, Jared’s life is turned upside down after a tragedy rocks The Cactus Club but he soon learns that there is a much nicer world outside of Jared’s sex oriented existence and Detective Jensen Ackles is the reluctant cop who teaches him the ways of kinder way of life.

PRET A AIMER (READY TO LOVE)

Jensen Ackles is the most powerful man in the fashion industry, editor-in-chief of ‘Sync’ magazine and an all round uncompromising hard-ass. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Jensen notices a leggy young man propping up the ‘Power House’ building where the ‘Sync’ headquarters are housed. Eventually, curiosity gets the better of him and after finding himself displeased with the models whom had been sent his way, he sends his assistant to drag the young man off the streets, a young man who turns Jensen’s world and the world of fashion upside down.

THIRTY YEARS IN AUGUST

After finding himself alone in a city he had always hated, amateur photographer and almost college student, Jared Padalecki takes himself off to Coney Island for the day in search of much needed adventure which he finds in the shape of one of America’s finest.

MIAMI & YOU

Miami based Jensen Ackles is a veteran porn star with a new venture on his mind and no plans to quit his career. After finding the perfect young man for his dubious project with the help of his manager Matt, Jensen’s unprepared body and mind are sent into turmoil.

WHOA, WE’RE GOING TO IBIZA

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles had been together for four years but life decided to throw one pile of crap after another at them which led to a sad and bitter break-up. A few months previously, Jared had booked a vacation for himself, Jensen and eight of their best friends to Ibiza. Not wanting to let the side down, Jared and Jensen agreed to allow the trip to continue despite their messy relationship. It turned out to be just as awkward as everyone had expected and fraught with drama none of the friends saw coming.

A TOWN CALLED KISMET

It was 1994 and Jensen Ackles was doing his best impersonation of someone who didn’t constantly have thoughts about other men on the brain. It had never sat right with him, being gay. He had never said it out loud, even to himself and then spent the rest of his time, burying it all under a false life which he hated with a passion. At thirty-two Jensen was seen by the people of Kismet, Iowa as successful. He had a good job, his own home, his own car and kept himself in favor within the community by lying about being a good little Christian too. His ‘friends’ and neighbors had taken to the version of Jensen he had created to hide himself away from the world and for seven long years, he had just about managed to keep it all neatly tucked away. But then, life has a funny way of throwing boys off buses in the middle of ‘Bumfuck Nowhere’ and into the path of closeted gay men.

THE BOYS WHO USED TO BE US

Jensen Ackles had moved on and so had his very private high school crush, Jared Padalecki. Jensen hadn’t gone quite as far as the star student he quietly wanted and for years, Jensen had always wondered what had become of the boy he once adored. We all leave echoes behind us wherever we go; discarded family and friends, legacies of achievements and memories left behind in the minds of everyone important who peopled our youth.

Jared Padalecki may have gone but for Jensen, there was something of a whisper of that boy wherever he went, a blanket of memories wrapped around him for all of his adult life. Little did he know, that soon, he would be making new memories with the boy who finally came home.

GOOD MORNING LOVELY

Jared Padalecki is a writer of ‘smut’. He gets paid for it but it’s not all that fulfilling. After being given a new project from his demanding publisher, Jared decides to go and research what it was really like, living in a small picture perfect town during Fall. He soon finds out that it’s much more meta than he was expecting.

IT’S ONLY A PAPER MOON

Jensen Ackles doesn’t believe in ghosts but then who does in the real world? When he returns home after a disastrous night out dressed as the ‘Leather Man’ from The Village People, Jensen discovers that he’s not alone in his apartment and hasn’t been, for a very long time.

PUMPKIN WARS

Jensen and Jared are newbies in a neighborhood they had no business being a part of but after a Hallowe’en themed run-in with the bossy leader of the Home Owners Association, they soon bring the community together by scaring everyone’s kids shitless.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Jared Padalecki had shifted his life from city chaos to small town comfort because even at twenty-six he decided he needed a quiet life. Rockfort, Maine was precisely what he needed. The place came with views, beauty, endless seas, an unlikely friend and the peace and quiet Jared had been craving for a long time. The towns most prominent feature, the old but majestic 1800’s lighthouse which had been guiding and keeping people safe for almost two centuries became one of Jared’s many places of work and his favourite thing about Rockfort and he didn’t realize at the time, just how significant the lighthouse would become in shaping his future.

JARED WITH A HEART

Jensen Ackles had never been a lover of social media. He just couldn’t see the appeal of posting every detail about his life online for a bunch of strangers to see. Didn’t care what that bunch of strangers were doing either. Jensen lived in the real world and he liked it there. However, during his nephews birthday party, Jensen found himself in possession of his sisters phone, a self-proclaimed social media addict herself. Leanne had only meant to show him something but that small gesture led to Jensen finding love exactly how he always hoped he would.

VIRTUAL INSANITY

The year is 2073 and Cherry Computers have taken over that other fruit-based tech giant. A largely ethical company, Cherry know how to look after the employees who work in ‘Earth X’, the world’s first virtual reality world. The perks are great and endless and working inside a beta VR means that employees can be whoever they want and create their own worlds. However, living in a fantasy-land can lose its shine when human beings forget to live in the real world.

ANGEL FACE

Jared Padalecki had a problem but it only appeared to a problem for everyone else. Jared was a professional sugar baby and cam boy and he embraced it. After breaking up with his long-term sugar daddy, Jared is ‘head-hunted’ and offered a dubious job by a mysterious yet gorgeous man who had been watching him from the shadows.

NUTS ABOUT YOU

The town of Chestnut Hollow famously held a Christmas Carol Contest every year to coincide with their wholesome Christmas Market. Bookstore owner, Jensen Ackles who loved his hometown to pieces wasn’t always that enthralled by the influx of visitors to the sleepy, picturesque town he called home but after a frosty encounter with enthusiastic choir conductor, Jared Padalecki, Jensen is forced to find himself thoroughly and festively enthralled!

THE BOX OF DELIGHTS

Recently single and not by choice, Jensen Ackles also found himself stranded alone in New York after a bitter break-up. Being alone and away from family was the worst at any time of the year but the holiday season hit harder. After a talk with his mother, Jensen is encouraged to inject a little Christmas spirit into his life and so finds himself one Sunday morning at a flea market with Christmas decorations on his mind. Everything is old and tatty but an intriguing box takes his fancy which turns out to contain more ‘delights’ than he could have ever dreamed of.

HOT SANTA

Jared Padalecki was used to having everything fall into his lap. But he had never been lazy and had proved that by excelling at the life he had been handed. No one was ever truly one hundred percent happy though, even the privileged. Money could solve a lot of problems but not all of them. With only his therapist and endless hook-ups aware of his secret, Jared lived his life around his family firmly in the closet and money really couldn’t fix that problem. At the annual Padalecki Christmas party, Jared had always been in charge of supplying the visiting Santa Claus to keep his nieces and nephews happy and festive. With work being crazy that year, Jared forgot and found himself on page two of Google, desperately trying to find a last-minute Santa. As luck would have it, he found one and he wasn’t ideal, at least not as far as the kids were concerned.

LET’S FALL IN LOVE AND DO NOTHING

Self-proclaimed ‘North America’s Laziest Man’, Jensen Ackles has just quit his latest job. At the age of thirty-six, he suddenly realizes that it’s about time he made some changes to his life. After applying for a new position suggested by a friend, Jensen gets a job working as a house boy in Aspen over the Christmas holidays. All he has to do is cook the family meals, serve at the dinner table and not, under any circumstances, diddle the boss’s son.

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

It was Christmas Eve and trucker Jensen Ackles had found himself at his familiar truck stop in snowy Minnesota. Not wanting to spend the holidays alone, he expects to find the boy he often paid for sex to keep him company on Christmas Day but when he arrives the boy is nowhere to be found. To console himself, Jensen sits down to eat at the truck stop diner but is interrupted in his solitude by a disarming French fry thief who winds up changing the course of both of their lives.

BATTLE OF THE BALLS

After the chaos of Hallowe’en, new ‘gaybors’ Jensen and Jared have sunk perfectly into their blossoming relationship and successfully ousted evil Wendy as their HOA ‘dictator-in-chief’, almost. With the holiday season on the horizon, Jared is determined to take their festive decorations to another insane level. During that time they clash with Wendy once again and wind up as reluctant therapists after another neighbor seeks their advice.

FROM LONDON WITH LOVE

After moving to London, England for work and on the cusp of regretting his decision, Jared Padalecki finds himself alone at Christmas in a city with no friends. With work colleagues occupied for the duration of the holiday season and his family overseas, Jared can do little else but keep himself busy by exploring the city. On a rainy evening a few days before Christmas, Jared stumbles across a market and decides to try some warm spiced to cheer (and warm) himself up. While taking in the view of the River Thames, Jared is approached by a devastatingly handsome man who has a familiar cadence to his voice and within only minutes of meeting him, offers Jared a very festive but decent proposal.

#j2 #j2 fan fiction #j2 fanfic #j2 alternative universe #j2 au #j2 fic rec #j2 fan fic #j2 au fan fiction #jared x jensen #jared padalecki #jensen ackles #smack the devil #smackthedevil

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supersonicart · 1 year

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Aron Wiesenfeld's "The Gardener."

Currently on view at Arcadia Contemporary in New York City is artist Aron Wiesenfeld's must see, extraordinary solo exhibition, "The Gardener."

Wiesenfeld's captivating artwork immerses viewers in atmospheric spaces brimming with an air of melancholy and a profound sense of solitude. His masterfully crafted scenes showcase dimly lit, enigmatic landscapes where the urban and the wild intersect, creating a sense of liminality. Characters often find themselves on the cusp of a mysterious abyss, seemingly lost in introspection.

Wiesenfeld's evocative compositions, which draw from his background as a comic book illustrator, skillfully intertwine elements of romanticism and mystery. His works primarily focus on isolated figures set in natural landscapes or desolate urban streets, all deeply inspired by his childhood town of Santa Cruz. He considers each piece an open invitation for viewers to weave their own narratives, inviting them to dive into the enigmatic scenes and explore the intricate emotions and stories they may evoke.

THE SUPERSONIC ART SHOP | FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM

#art #painting #aron wiesenfeld #arcadia contemporary #new york gallery #exhibition #fine art

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tokillamockingbird427 · 2 months

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some of your OCs have become canon in my mind and i’m now always suprised they’re not in actual canon/ other bits of fanfics/ fanart jahajshjs

I'm curious which ones now, I got a squad of the fuckers.

I'm ngl I also do that... I forgor.

I'm gonna list them, for fun. Diego Almagro Jr (Technically canon, but only shows up like once in a side material, and might have been mentioned in main canon, so I have to build him from basically nothing.) Uriel Walker Amparo (My beautiful son who causes nothing but chaos. Debuts in Repentance. Basically the entire story revolves around him.) Aurora Pascal aka Tia (Uriel's secondary caretaker, sister of Claude. Debuts in Repentance.) Claudette Pascal aka Claude aka Cherub (Lt of the Shikar in Repentance, debuts in Placeholder as an informant for the Ghosts. Also appears in Christmas/Yule fic I wrote as "Santa Claude") Alvera Hart aka Vera aka Heart (Debuts in Placeholder, also appears in Repentance. Big sister to all. Very much in love with Sarah. "Lets go lesbians!") Sarah Hart aka Sweetie (Debuts in Placeholder. Also appears in Repentance. Married to Vera in both. Hence the last name.) Adonis Rex aka Ghillie (Insert I wrote for a beloved friend. Debuts in Placeholder, also appears in Repentance. Very close to Keegan in both.) Katar aka Lucky (Literally me. He's a self insert. Debuts in Placeholder, also appears in Repentance. I use him mostly as comic relief, but he does help motivate the plot like twice.) Peter Cruz aka Pig (Debuts in Repentance. One of Dani's subordinates in the Shikar.) Abraham Perez aka Bram aka Shank (Debuts in Repentance. Member of the Shikar. Besties with Pig.) Deimos (One of Dani's dogs.) Phobos (The other of Dani's dogs.)

And outside a few minor characters that is pretty much all of them. Total is like eleven. (Others include Willow/Sticks and Silva/Silver.)

#cosmictap #call of duty #call of duty ghosts #call of duty oc #Dani is Logan so I can't count him as an oc lol

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goose-books · 7 months

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please check out @yvesdot's remastered debut! trust me, it's worth a read and a reread and a re-revisit. for the blog tour, i give you... another blast from the past, an old-fashioned writeblr-style comic sans powerpoint!

Something’s Not Right, published by tRaum Books, will be released October 10th 2023 and is available to preorder at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and itch.io. It will also be available upon release signed from Bookshop Santa Cruz. yves. will also have a local event at 6:30 PM on October 12th at the Santa Cruz Diversity Center and another on January 4th 2024 (to be announced) at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

(my sixth favorite story is koschei, btw. shoutout to koschei. sorry i left you off the slides)

(slides described under the cut)

all slides are written in white comic sans on a black background.

slide one: text reading "FIVE reasons YOU should read" over a cropped image of the cover for Something's Not Right, featuring the title. smaller comic sans next to the image reads "by yves."

slide two: at the center of the slide, text reads "1. IT'S GAY!" smaller text boxes, scattered around the slide, read:

so many transgender people

you want fluff? we got fluff. you want angst? we got angst. you want high octane drama? we got it

you like metaphors for queerness? we’ve got metaphors for queerness

some characters’ identities are plot relevant! some of them just happen to be trans!

there’s even an m/f couple i actually like!

there’s literally a lesbian robot what else am i supposed to say

first book where i ever saw a they/them lesbian referred to as a woman and they at the same time <3 <3 <3

you want monsterfucking? we got—

between the first and third boxes is this image of feathers. beneath the monsterfucking box is this image of a halo/eclipse. beneath the they/them lesbian box is the anakin image from this post, reading, "dyke business. go back to your drinks"

slide three: the top of the slide reads "2. CLEVER USE OF TROPES AND TALES." the bullet points beneath read:

the author was a lit major & lovingly: it shows

fresh takes on everything from sexy vampires to demigod/human romance

do you like russian folklore? do you wish it was set in your high school

hansel and gretel story followed immediately by wlw fairies

STORY WHERE VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN GOES TO A PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE

an arrow points from the sexy vampire bullet to an image of edward cullen, captioned "this guy isn't in there." another points from the frankenstein bullet to a picture of the book Frankenstein, captioned "this guy is, tho"

slide four: at the center of the slide, text reads "3. DELIGHTFUL NARRATIVE VOICE." smaller text boxes read "the sheer range of the range of character narrations in this book is impressive and so fun" and "we got teen talk we got litfic prose we got monsters narrating we got ordinary people." there are also three quotes from various stories, set in speech bubbles:

“Everyone’s cousin Tanya says she’s done it with an elf dude. That doesn’t mean shit.”

“And all of these things were true, and simultaneous, and all of them were occurring only a moment before she might be killed, and rise again.”

“At first, the plants seemed quite innocuous, and Ephraim watched them pile up on the windows of the little greenhouse with mild curiosity.”

there is also an edited image of the "she doesn't have the range" meme, reading, "they have the range."

slide five: the top of the slide reads "4. DON’T LIKE ONE-OFFS? NO PROBLEM!" the bullet points beneath read:

do you prefer your short stories unrelated to each other? completely tonally variant?

SNR has got that!

do you prefer your short stories interconnected? do you like recurring characters? do you want to see… characters from OTHER yves. projects?

SNR has got that too!

smaller text boxes read "Red and Eliza from Forest Castles are there!" and "maybe avner too. i'm not allowed to say"

there is also a picture of hannah montana's "best of both worlds" album.

slide six: the top of the slide reads "5. THERE ARE NEW STORIES IN IT!" the bullet points beneath read:

already an SNR fan? already have a copy? you haven’t yet read the new content!

THREE new stories

what if the alien abductee you were interviewing had questions… for you?

what if you had to love-potion your crush… for someone else?

what if you had to come out to your date… AS A MONSTER?

there are clipart images on the side of an alien spaceship, a bubbling potion, and a lit candle.

slide seven: word art with a glowing green shadow reads "max's favorite stories :)". each story blurb goes with a corresponding image:

Six Hours Under: the woman on the L train is crying, dead, and very very pretty. [clipart of a train]

Monsters and The Guy: there’s a guy in Arrivals. he’s being weird about it. [clipart of an airport]

The Hands and The Mouth: the story-speakers speak only in script. there are only a few of them left. [clipart of rolling waves]

Don't Feel Guilty: a teen’s plant collection starts to unnerve their father. [clipart of a leaf]

Blood Orange Tea: getting trapped at work with your crush is awkward even when you’re not a vampire. [clipart of iced tea]

slide eight: large text reads "THANK YOU. GO FORTH AND BUY SNR." in smaller text is the information paragraph from this post.

#max.txt #snr #something's not right #writers on tumblr #yvesdot #yves tag #by others #:) :) :)

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elekinetic · 1 year

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What are your hcs about the Stranger Things characters’ futures? Like concerning their careers, where they wind up living, pets, colleges, or anything else that you want to talk about!

ohhhh i’m torn. i want them to all end up in the same place. i don’t think this is the canon answer but this is what makes me happy:

the party ends up in california for college. they all go to uc santa cruz, cause they didn’t get a chance to do the whole college application thing while saving the world and owens pulled some strings. el and max are roommates. dustin mike and lucas get put in a triple, but if mike starts staying at a certain party member’s single most of the time…..that’s none of their business. max starts as a neuroscience major until she fucking hates it. she’s at the arcade one night and watches someone repair a broken machine and is like, oh shit. that’s kinda cool. she switches to computer science, then to computer engineering bc CS is for nerds. (dustin does CS.) lucas came in as a political science major, but he realized he was way more interested in helping max with her neuroscience homework. he ends up doing a double major in political science and human health sciences. mike majors in communication cause it’s a compromise between getting a business degree like his parents insist and studying something he’s actually interested in (this is the problem. mike has no clue what he wants to study). will is a visual arts major obv. el switches her major about seventeen different times (zoology, religion, international relations, mechanical engineering). she ends up graduating w mike in communication bc its the easiest to apply her various credits to. el and dustin get really into improv. el also does theatre, and mike ends up getting dragged into the tech scene. lucas plays club basketball and gets involved in student govt. he sets up a lot of food and blood drives. the party goes to a board game club, but will goes EVERY week and makes a bunch of great friends. max learns guitar and starts playing at open mics (el is the only one who knows. and lucas, a little later). they all join the college radio station. first its dustin helping a mutual friend fix radio tech, then its will filling in for a mutual friend’s missing cohost, then it’s will and lucas starting an advice show, and el and max starting a show where max makes the tapes and el just talks about whatever she wants, and mike fucking around in the background of all his friends’ shows and shouting out unsolicited comments. when they all move off campus, mike and will, dustin and lucas, and el and max get their own apartments respectively. lumax starts talking abt moving in together and el is like “i love you both but i am not trying to third wheel in my own home.” thus, henderhop house is born. these two were BORN to be roommates. they become such good friends and are so respectful of each others space and are so so communicative! and they both love to cook. henderhop lives together for like, six years post college. listen, they have two cats together. they don’t want to traumatize them with a divorce. mike and will get a dog when they’re older (late 20s, early 30s). they used to catsit for their neighbor, but mike is crazy allergic. it always sounds like he’s going through puberty again. the party ends up in southern california. el becomes an archaeologist and travels a lot. dustin lives in pasadena and works for JPL. max does some work with him, does some contacts for a few different companies. she eventually becomes a professor and spends her off time doing research. lucas becomes a pediatrician. later in life he serves on city council, then turns to non-profit work. will get a job as an illustration intern at a comic house straight out of college and works his way up from there. mike bounces around office jobs, does some time at a publishing house, and goes back to school for a creative writing MFA. he sells some original stuff but he ends up mostly writing comics for IPs with will. they make a name for themselves in the Star Wars EA and actually get invited to a couple comic-con panels. dustin flips his shit.

#stranger things #comic con panel #stranger things (ella's version)

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mosthomoeroticenemies · 1 year

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The List

This is just a list of all the contestants, now I must go make the round one matchups (I have no idea how long that will take, bear with me please)

There’s 186 contestants so putting it under a read more

Papyrus - Undertale

Sans - Undertale

Jack Skellington - Nightmare Before Christmas

Brook - One Piece

Skelly -Hades

Skeletor - He-Man

Skeleton - Minecraft

Lewis Pepper - Mystery Skulls

Grim - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

Héctor Rivera - Coco

Itward - Fran Bow

Ghost Rider - Marvel Comics

Skulduggery Pleasant - Skulduggery Pleasant

Death - Discworld

Lord Hater - Wander Over Yonder

Smitty Werbenjagermanjenson - Spongebob Squarepants

Skelita Calaveras - Monster High

Señor Hueso - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Mr. Skully Pettibone - Scary Godmother

Gaster - Undertale

Skull Boy - Ruby Gloom

Real Magic Skeleton - OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes

Dry Bones - Mario

Spooky Scary Skeletons - Silly Symphonies: The Skeleton Dance

Dr Bones Cookie - Cookie Run Ovenbreak

Manny Calavera - Grim Fandango

Kravitz - The Adventure Zone

Bonejangles - Corpse Bride

Benrey - Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware

Harrowhark Nonagesimus - Harrow the Ninth

Sans - Deltarune

Dry Bowser - Mario

Mamá Imelda Rivera - Coco

Houndstone - Pokemon

Rexy - Night at the Museum

Ainz Ooal Gown - Overlord

King Clawthorne - The Owl House

Clackula - My Singing Monsters

The Lich - Adventure Time

Skeletons - Skyrim

Benny - Halloweentown

The Skull - The Last Unicorn

Skellinore - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

The Dinosaur Skeleton - Dog Man

Zans - Going Under

Skul - Skul: The Hero Slayer

Ernesto de la Cruz - Coco

Royal Dominguez - Inscryption

The Skeleton Appears - The Skeleton Appears

Bonehilda - The Sims

Scraps - Corpse Bride

The Titan - The Owl House

Hector Barbossa - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Skeleton Horse - Minecraft

Samukai - Lego Ninjago

Oshare Bones - Puyo Puyo

Master Warden Palamedes Sextus - Harrow the Ninth

Skull Man - Mega Man

Cubone - Pokemon

Trazyn the Infinite - Warhammer 40,000

Death - Soul Eater

Lady Bone Demon - Lego Monkie Kid

Bone Fairies - Meme

Twelve Foot Skeleton - Twelve Foot Skeleton

Mr Death - Adventure Time

Bone Dragon - Dragonvale

Skeleton Horse Jockey - Minecraft

Skull - The Daily Object Show

Skeletons - Spy Kids 2

Skeletons that tried to kill Mr Krabs - Spongebob Squarepants

Skull on the Mantelpiece - Sherlock

Lerexus Novation - Elder Scrolls Online

Bone Monk - DUSK

The Augur of the Obscure - Elder Scrolls Online

No Name - Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the Dungeon

Mortis - The Clowns SMP

Skull with Party Hat - It's Time For Comics

Yorick - Hamlet

Skeleton - The G Keyboard

Environmentally Storytelling Toilet Skeleton - Various Post-apocalyptic Games

Skeleton - Oblivion

Atavist - Slap City

Gravelord Nito - Dark Souls

Xykon - The Order of the Stick

Death - Puppet History

Bones Malone - Tumblr

Stallord - The Legend of Zelda: Twilgiht Princess

Santa Claus - Puppet History

Poco - Brawl Stars

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra - The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Just Walk Out! - The Meme

Nakarkos - Monster Hunter

Skeleton - Morrowind

Caged Skeletons - Stardew Valley

Arc - Skeleton Knight in Another World

Banjaw - My Singing Monsters

Pip's Skull - South Park: The Stick of Truth

Gregor - The Adventures of Puss in Boots

Heisenbones - Breaking Bad

Death - Gregory Horror Show

Greg the Grim Reaper - Conker's Bad Fur Day

Skeleton - Crypt of the Necrodancer

Skeleton - Danny Phantom

Pariah Dark's entire skeleton army - Danny Phantom

La Muerte - The Book of Life

La Calavera Catrina - Mexican culture

Mr. Holbrooke - Little Witch Academia

Bart without his flesh - The Simpson's

Honda - Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san

The Boneraiser - Boneraiser Minions

David S. Pumpkins' Backup Dancers - Saturday Night Live

Bonesy - Gorillaz

Skeleton - "What's a skeleton's favorite snack?"

Décor and his husband - Tumblr user liquidstar's brother's room

Toumaï - Paleontology

Princess Rita - Once Upon a Tower

The Grim Reaper - The Sims

Elias Ainsworth - The Ancient Magus' Bride

Fabro the Necromancer - Slim Gretina's Grumpy Shark - Absurd Extravaganza

Death - Horrible Histories

Mind-Boggling Effects - Playstation

Mortaccio - Vampire Survivors

Halloween Novelty Pencil - Halloween 2016

The Skeleton Head - Lockwood & Co.

Captain Bones - Crashbox

Skullastic Superintendents - Monster High

Wither - Minecraft

Stray - Minecraft

Skelly - Monster High

Bonesy - Monster High

Grim - DanTDM

Bone - Aib

High Lord Wolnir - Dark Souls 3

Christmas tree skull - Real Life

Skeleton - Gravity Falls

Me the poll maker - The Near Future

Mr Bones- Mr Bones

Lego Skeleton - Lego

Kruncha and Nuckal - Lego Ninjago

Spider Jockey - Minecraft

The Lernaen Hydra - Hades

Skeleton Champion - Oblivion

The Skulkin - Lego Ninjago

The Nightmare King - Dimension 20: Fantasy High (Sophomore Year)

Queen Elizabeth 2 - England

Stalnox - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Stalkoblins - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Skeletons - My Closet

Lord Death Man - DC Comics

Cadaver Cain - Skulduggery Pleasant

Your Own - Your Body

Righty - The Lone Necromancer

Count von Dy - The Mystery of Greveholm

Skull and Bones - Skull Chapel in Czermna

Sedlec Ossuary skeletons - Real Life

Gary the Necromancer - DnD campaign

Manolo Sanchez - The Book of Life

Death - Cultural

Boneknapper - How to Train Your Dragon

Hooty - The Owl House

Monk Gyatso - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Skullgreymon - Digimon

Inaccurate Animal Skeleton Decoration - Home Depot

Skeleton - Bones Album Cover

Skeleton-T - Puyo Puyo

Skeletron - Terraria

Mr. Saturday - Skeleton Boomerang

Da Vinci - Ghost Stories

Milo Belladonna - Monster Camp

Bones the Skeleton - Skyrim Mod user jarrodrey99

Reaper (Gabriel Reyes) - Overwatch

Szarekh The Silent King - Warhammer 40,000

Calliope - Homestuck

Jared Hopworth - The Magnus Archives

Hexxus - FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Rem - Death Note

Grimm - Grimm's Hollow

Decay Dragon - Dragonvale

Melting - Nuclear Throne

Duskull - Pokemon

Bona - My Singing Monsters

Death Phantom - Sailor Moon

Charon - Hades

Necrodeus - Kirby: Mass Attack

Jimothy - Elsewhere University

Blight - Batman Beyond

#not a poll #contestants #ik no one will read all of them but theyre there if youd like #sorry if i misspelled any I mostly went by the submissions and what it said when I looked them up #these are also just vaguely in order by number of submissions #however everything bone fairies and down only had 1

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cdyssey · 2 years

Note

The Abbott staff meet up at a bar after work and a guy hits on Melissa and Barbara becomes protective

PROMPT

Ouch, Anon. :') But also, right up my alley.

CW: Alcohol, Unwanted Advances

UPDATE (11/16/22): Uploaded an edited version to AO3! I actually added 300ish words to the edit to help out a few rushed places.

—

Barbara leans against the threshold of Melissa’s classroom door, arms neatly folded over her chest, and patiently waits for the other woman to look up and notice her. It doesn’t take too awful long—Melissa’s vigilant eyes are constantly flicking towards the door, habitually assessing for potential threats—and when she quickly realizes that she’s not alone (and that no one is going to hurt her), she blinks and smiles tiredly.

There are dark circles etched beneath her pale eyes.

More lines creasing her forehead than usual.

An unsubtle sadness about her.

An utter exhaustion.

Joe got married to Nina Santa Cruz yesterday, and Melissa went to the wedding for reasons that Barbara doesn’t fully understand, perhaps judging from the safe distance of a high and mighty horse. Her friend stubbornly insisted that she and Joe want to stay on amiable terms—that even though he was awful to her for the last decade of their marriage, that even though he nearly brought them both to the point of bankruptcy with his spending habits, that even though he cheated on her with one of their mutual friends—things are good between them.

Great even.

Melissa’s always sugarcoated the whole sordid affair, made excuses for the bum that Barbara has learned to smile thinly at and nod politely to over time. Anything else has been quickly and viciously shut down.

You don’t know him like I do, she’d snapped when Barbara had called him a manchild for inviting Melissa to the wedding on Facebook Messenger of all places.

He doesn’t mean to hurt me.

It was the same thing one could say of a small child who didn’t know better.

Or a rabid, untrainable dog.

“Hey, Mama,” Melissa yawns, taking the opportunity to stretch her arms over her head before she leans back in her chair again. “Ya heading home for the evening?”

“No, ma’am,” Barbara drawls, shaking her head rather lavishly, “and you aren’t either. Remember? Larry’s birthday party is this evening.”

It is very clear—from the alarmed expression comically stretching her face—that the other woman had not in fact remembered Larry’s birthday party.

“Fuck,” she swears, dragging a tired hand across her puckered mouth. “I forgot that was tonight. Goddammit. I didn’t even get him a present.”

“He’s a seventy-two year old adult, Melissa. He hardly needs a present.”

Nor a birthday party at a bar that was infamous in the eighties for being the premiere place to snort lines in the bathroom, Barbara quietly thinks to herself—but their principal has always been an overgrown child at heart. Both Melissa and Barbara like him well enough, though, and they’ll be sad to see him go next year when he finally retires after putting in forty years at Abbott.

“Yeah, but it’s Larry and it’s fun to watch him get excited over stupid things,” Melissa shrugs, now knuckling her lips thoughtfully. “This bein’ said… I kinda don’t wanna go anymore.”

She gestures to the pile of spelling worksheets on her desk and the open gradebook next to it.

“Got stuff to catch up on,” she continues with a sigh. “And I’m still tired from last night.”

Last night.

The wedding.

Joe.

Being forced to applaud her ex-husband kissing another woman.

Kissing the other woman to be precise.

Barbara watches the shadows beneath her friend’s eyes subtly deepen—watches how her shoulders slump with the incalculable weight of what that specific trauma does to a person—and she hates Joseph Lombardo all over again.

If Melissa won’t, fine.

Good.

Bless her Sicilian soul.

In her heart of hearts, she’s always been far more of a saint than she presents herself to be.

Barbara will just hate the man enough for the both of them.

“It was a good ceremony, though,” Melissa adds hurriedly, as though she can read her thoughts. She likely can. Barbara has never been particularly adroit at disciplining her features when it comes to her less-than-warm feelings about Joe.

“Mhmmmm,” she hums noncommittally, smiling thinly and nodding politely.

“No, really,” the younger woman snaps, defensive now, even a little desperate. It’s always been far too important for her to receive Barbara’s uncomplicated and unadulterated approval. “It was fine. I’m fine. Joe and Nina—they’re… fine.”

She only falters at this last part, her brow furrowing lightly over her eyes, and Barbara takes pity on her.

“I believe you, hon,” she tries again, offering a smile that feels plastered on her face, caked like another layer of makeup. It must be a passable effort because Melissa relaxes in her chair again, somewhat placated … and still so visibly defeated at the same time, wearing her sadness like a tender bruise.

“Come out with us tonight,” she adds gently. “It’ll do you some good to get your mind off of”—she bites her lower lip and chooses her next word very carefully, enunciating it as though she’s delivering it to a wounded animal trapped in a corner—“grading.”

Melissa glances down at her pile of unmarked papers for what feels like a long time, clenching her fists in her lap. The seconds trickle down, the silence cloisters them, and Barbara’s already composing another line of persuasion in her mind, anticipating a blunt refusal.

However, when the other teacher finally looks up again—when she purposefully meets Barbara’s gaze—she looks less defiant than she does uncertain.

Almost lamblike in her chair.

Her eyes so wide and bright.

And Barbara nearly staggers backwards at the sight.

Melissa Schemmenti is rarely, if ever, uncertain.

She is not a helpless lamb.

“Could ya pick me up from my house?” She asks, and it’s a coded question, a subtly charged one. Melissa wants to drink to the point of not being able to get herself home anymore without saying those words aloud, and she’s asking for permission from Barbara.

She’s asking for the safety to do so.

This is also a new one in their relationship—Melissa doesn’t ask for help. Ever. She just suffers alone and seems to think she deserves it.

“Of course, honey,” she quietly replies.

But despite the lack of precedent for the question, there is no other possible answer.

Melissa will always be safe with her.

—

Larry’s party is very much Larry—loud and raucous and entirely too much fun for the sixty-three year old Barbara, but she carries out her social duties as a party attendee gracefully. She revolves around the crowded space to chat with friends and colleagues, occasionally reminding them, in her instinctively motherly tone, to drink some water after doing tequila shots. (“My goodness, Lorraine, you’re not twenty-two anymore! Enough is enough”) She abstains from drinking herself, taking her role as Melissa’s designated driver quite seriously. (“Oh, not for me tonight—thank you anyway. Do enjoy a Manhattan for me, though, but don’t bother with the wings. Lord knows they come off that grill still clucking!”) She happily videos the principal singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Mr. Johnson on the karaoke stage in the corner.

It’s off-key and it’s stupid and it’s entirely lovely all at the same time.

(“We can put this on the You-Tube!”)

As often as she can, she checks up on Melissa, who pretty much settled herself at the corner of the bar from the moment they arrived, steadily working through one Sam Adams after another. Larry tried to wheedle her into singing “Come and Get Your Love” with him, but she’d declined apologetically and told him that her throat was a little worn out from teaching today. A few of the third grade teachers had invited her over to sit with them at their booth, but she’d passed on this offer too with a pinched smile, gesturing to the TV mounted behind the bar and claiming that she was watching the re-run of the Eagles and Dolphins game. Barbara joins her from time-to-time and resists the somewhat inexplicable urge to press a hand on the small of her back and whisper quiet words of comfort in her ear, but Melissa expertly shrugs off her attempts at companionship too.

“Go on, hon,” she had said the last time Barbara made her rounds, smiling wanely, her eyes nearly black in the low lighting. “Have fun. I’m just not in the mood tonight.”

And so, Barbara, clearly dismissed, does what she can to run interference between her friend and everyone and their cousins who are starting to wonder what’s wrong with her.

Usually, Melissa is the life of the party, the first to the bartender and the last on the dance floor.

“She’s just not particularly feeling well,” Barbara smiles tightly at their friends and coworkers, all the while knowing that they’ve been gossiping behind Melissa’s back. They all know Joe. They all know what he did and how he hurt her. Some even get continue to get their haircuts from the new Mrs. Nina Lombardo. “Long day today.”

Larry, a barrel-chested man with a big, jolly belly, works his way over to where Barbara is standing by a tall table, watching Melissa from afar. She’d just been about to go over there herself, alarmed by the sight of a man with a poor combover sidling next to Melissa on the barstool next to hers…

Too close for comfort.

Both her own and her friend’s.

She’d seen the way Melissa reacted to the unexpected intrusion, how she’d nearly jumped out of her skin… she doesn’t do well with surprises.

“Barbara,” Larry barks out, slapping his hands on the table and startling her from her thoughts, “what the hell is Schemmenti’s problem?”

She frowns at the principal, annoyed that he’s blocking her view of the second grade teacher.

“Like you don’t know, Larry Chapman,” she mutters under her breath, craning her head to the left to no avail. “The whole bar is talking about it, and you, dear sir, have never missed a beat.”

“Yeah, but I wanna hear it from you,” Larry shrugs, unbothered by her clipped tone. “You’ve got the hot line to our red haired beauty. The rest is just fiddle-faddle and playground gossip.”

Barbara doesn’t say anything to this for a long moment, thinking about how Melissa would hate to know that she’s the center of attention right now, that despite every effort she’s made to fade into the background unnoticed, her melancholy is as bright as her hair.

“She went to Joe’s wedding,” she finally says, softly, with an air of disbelief, as though she still doesn’t know how Melissa found the strength to do so.

“The SOB had the balls to invite her?” Larry grouses indignantly, his brow forming a vee over his eyes.

“Crude way to put it,” she sighs deeply and wishes she had a Cosmo in her hand, “but yes—he did, in fact, have the audacity to do that to her.”

“Bastard,” the principal simply says before making the Sign of the Cross over his broad chest.

“Oh, I’m sure the good Lord will forgive you for that since it’s true,” she smiles at him tiredly, easily mollified by the recognition that he’s in the same boat she is in—entirely concerned for Melissa Schemmenti.

He shuffles around to the other side of the table so that he’s standing next to Barbara and—praise, Jesus—clearing up her line of sight to Melissa. To her disdain and confusion, she sees that the man is still there, leaning across the space between the barstools, tomfoolery in his hooded eyes.

Clear and undisguised lust.

And Melissa is leaning backwards as far away as she can from him, visibly uncomfortable.

But to Barbara’s utter and irreconcilable surprise, she doesn’t seem to be doing anything to discourage his advances, hasn’t pulled out her pepper spray or yelled the word stronzo once.

“She doesn’t see the good in herself,” Larry says astutely, quieter than he’s ever been in in his entire life. “Thinks she deserves schmucks like that.”

He points at the man who has now got his grubby hand around Melissa’s waist, pinching her hip. Heat rises to Barbara’s cheeks at the disgusting sight, guttural and speechless fury.

How dare he?

How dare he touch her?

“Want me to handle it?” Larry growls, already rolling up his sleeves. Once a former linebacker back in his day, he could probably snap the offending mongrel like a twig.

“No, Principal Chapman,” Barbara says coldly, placing a staying hand on his forearm. “Allow me.”

Larry will just end up getting arrested for a public safety violation if he gets the chance to go over there.

Barbara will take the trash out with a touch more delicacy. And so, primping the back of her hair once, she heels over to the bar in a few staccato steps. When she’s within a couple of feet of them, she can finally hear a snatch of their low conversation. She stops just short of them, somewhat reticent now that she’s made it this far and neither of them have noticed her presence.

“We could go back to my place,” he crows, his hand still on her side, “and you can take off that nice leather jacket of yours, and we could fuck.”

“You’re being presumptuous,” Melissa snarls, though she doesn’t slap the man’s hand away from her. “I said fifteen minutes in a car. No frills. No shirts flyin’ off. I got a knife in my boot and I ain’t afraid to use it.”

A short pause. With his free hand, he scratches the back of his neck.

“You want something cheap?” He asks skeptically, giving her a once over as though he’s already undressed her with his eyes. “A quickie in the backseat?”

“I just wanna to feel something,” her friend says distantly, and it is the saddest combination of words in the English language that Barbara has ever heard.

Oh, God, she could almost cry.

But because she’s Barbara Howard, she pulls herself together in a maddening instant, and doesn’t do that. Rather, she closes the space between herself and Melissa and the man who just wants to fuck her, batting down his arm from where it has slid to the younger teacher’s backside.

“Barbara?” Melissa asks, wide-eyed and surprised.

“Grab your purse,” she commands in her teacher voice without looking at her. “We’re leaving.”

“Hey!” The man protests, clearly lacking the sagacity to understand what just happened. He abruptly stands up from his barstool, inches away from Barbara’s face, towering over her significantly. His breath reeks of whiskey, his flannel shirt putrid with cologne. “She’s a grown ass woman—she can speak for herself.”

Our of the corner of her eye, she sees Larry yelling something and waving his fist around, sees that half the bar has stopped to watch them, but Barbara doesn’t flinch.

Doesn’t back down.

Refuses to lose her cool.

“And you, sir, are a grown ass man,” she hisses at him, “who is throwing a tantrum like a child. My friend deserves much better than that—much better than you.”

And even though she knows she shouldn’t, she jabs a finger into his bony chest, sending him stumbling backwards onto the barstool again, staring up at her dumbfounded.

“Larry, be a dear, and close out our tabs, would you? I’ll pay you back on Monday,” she brightly calls over her shoulder as she puts an arm around a numb, achingly quiet Melissa.

“Come on, sweetheart,” she whispers softly against her head. “Let’s get you home…”

—

Melissa is silent the entire drive back to her house, staring out of the passenger window, attempting not to cry apparently from the telltale way she is holding herself—all stiffened muscles, her limbs angled away. Barbara, knowing that she requires this space, well aware that Melissa Schemmenti hates to cry in front of others, doesn’t push the issue, knobbing the radio to the Gospel station and allowing the old hymns to fill up the space in the car where words are decidedly absent.

Perhaps there are no words for what happened in the bar.

What more is there to say except that Melissa went to her ex-husband’s wedding, and it cost her something to do it?

Anyone would be just as easily undone.

After twenty minutes of soundless driving, Barbara pulls into Melissa’s driveway and parks perfectly next to the other teacher’s black Civic, turning off her sedan with a click. The sudden absence of music and the gentle thrumming of the engine are felt.

All that is left is an emptiness.

The darkness of the night.

The shadows that stretch in the car.

“Thanks,” Melissa says flatly, reaching across her chest to unbuckle her seatbelt. She does it clumsily, with fumbling fingers.

How many beers had she downed?

How many did she think it would take to drown out the sadness, the pain, the noise?

“I can stay the night with you?” Barbara offers, perhaps a tad too overzealously, heat suddenly rising to her cheeks. “Gerald wouldn’t mind.”

Melissa is just a friend, and there is no marital rule against spending the night with friends. Her stomach lurches, and for a second there, she misidentifies the sensation as a manifestation of guilt.

She has nothing to feel guilty for.

Melissa is a friend.

“I’m not drunk, Barbara.”

“Never said you were.”

(Just privately thought it.)

“And I’m not… I didn’t… I don’t need your help either,” she finally gets out, overpronouncing every word as though each was impossible to say. “I’m not another one of your charity projects, Barbara. You don’t have to fix me.”

It stings.

Of course it does.

Melissa’s words have a singular way of doing that.

And a cutting remark almost rises to her tongue, a hearty, “Fine then! Sleep with random losers and boozers for all I care, Philly’s finest bachelors.”

But she stops short because she does care, and the thought of that cretin from the bar being inside of her makes her sick.

And because of what Melissa said to him.

I just want to feel something.

And because of what Larry said to her.

She doesn’t see the good in herself. Thinks she deserves shmucks like that.

Barbara swallows her hurt and reaches across the console between them.

Places her hand firmly over Melissa’s, feels the spines of her knuckles tense beneath her lined palm.

Feels the other woman immediately recoil beneath the touch.

Feels her halfheartedly try to pull away.

But Barbara is stubborn and she squeezes tight.

She will never let Melissa go.

“And why would I ever have to fix you, Melissa Schemmenti?” She asks softly, with all the tenderness of a first kiss.

“I can’t mend something that wasn’t broken in the first place.”

#work wives #melissa schemmenti #barbara howard #abbott elementary #s: abbott elementary #reginianwrites #i can't write a short one-shot lmfao

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originalgravity · 2 years

Text

#wildwest #classic movies #santa cruz mountains #classic hollywood #classic 80’s movies #santa cruz #wild west #cowboys #mountain men #frontier #western art #western comic #western #wild west art

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copperbadge · 2 years

Note

In the series - is it just going to be more and more kingdom royals getting married with short stories revisiting them, or will future books return to couples for events like marriage, kids, etc.?

The goal is for there to be a "new" romance in every novel, but that may not happen -- kind of depends on how the story twists and turns. I do want updates on the royals pretty regularly, but that's par for the course with most romance serieses -- you do a new romance but there's a couple of chapters scattered throughout that are like little updates on the characters.

I have a running list of stories I'd like to tell, many of which do tie the current royals (Gregory/Eddie, Michaelis/Jes, Jerry/Alanna) back into the story. Here's what's in the pipeline, with the caveat that I don't know how far I'll get.

the Eurovision story: features a Shivadh commoner, a musician named Caleb who gets roped into performing at Eurovision and falls in love with a fellow performer who has very different musical stylings from him. Caleb's Eurovision song is called "Tavat" and was based on him witnessing a paternal moment between Michaelis and Noah; Lachlan, Jes, Michaelis, and Noah will have supporting roles, Lachlan likely more so than the others.

Sidebar, I think this is possibly one of my favorite things I've actually written in this one so far:

"You still probably have like, feelings about it," Noah said.

"I'm sure you've heard Jerry say it, but members of the royal family are only allowed two emotions per year," Michaelis said. "And when you and Jes moved in, I gave you each one of mine, so."

"That is the sweetest and also the weirdest way of saying I love you that I've ever heard," Jes announced, walking into the kitchen.

the California story: concerns the royal family traveling to California to meet Eddie's family; primarily Eddie's sister Monday agreeing to do in vitro with Gregory and carry a child for Eddie and Gregory, plus an additional Surprise Child they end up with. Also features the Three Weddings Of Eddie And Gregory, but probably only in passing. I'm looking seriously at Monday/Georgie for this one, but it'll be heavy on the Eddie/Gregory as well.

"The Chicken Salad Wars": Simon LeFevre, the royal personal chef, falls in love with a fellow chef in town after entering into a combative relationship with them over chicken salad. The royals will likely be around, so there will be follow-ups, but unlikely they will have major roles.

A Galian romance of some kind, probably Ofelia/Carlo; bonus Milo and Bruno taking a much needed vacation to Askazer-Shivadlakia. I did write a short called "Count Carlo And The Pride Parade" but it needs work before I can post it. Given their association with it, Jerry and Alanna may guest star in the book.

Very distant ideas -- I'd like to do a story about Noah in a few years; I thought a lot about what his career path should be, and I think he's going to take a kind of Bo Burnham route and become a stand-up comic. He's got a whole set about what it's like to grow up in the New York City queer scene and then suddenly become prince of a small European nation. There's a Powerpoint involved.

I'd also like to do more with Jerry and Alanna, but I'm not sure where I'm going with them yet.

And, very distantly, I feel the poor Royal Librarian at some point deserves a name and at least a subplot if not a full story of his own. :D

Anyway, there's plenty of fodder if I want to keep writing, and I feel very proud of the initial trilogy if I end up not writing the rest. But I would like to at least do the Eurovision and California stories, not least because I'm very invested in inventing a fake California beach town modeled after the two beloved beach towns of my youth, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay.

#shivadhverse

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usnatarchives · 2 years

Text

From Mirror of America film, NARA ID 7408705. NARA gif online. #OTD 1884: 1st ROLLER COASTER Opens @Coney Island!

By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

Love is like a roller coaster. It can take you to the highest, most spectacular heights or drop you to bottom in seconds. However, even with the risks, love is undoubtedly worth it in the end. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee

On June 16, 1884, the first U.S. roller coaster opened at Coney Island. It moved at the breakneck speed of six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The white-knuckle ride was a huge success and soon became the top attraction at theme parks worldwide. Of course we have related records!

Shock SuspenStories' roller coaster comic cover, evidence from the Senate Hearing on Juvenile Delinquency, 1956. NARA ID 595384.

E. Prescott's Roller Coaster patent application, 8/16/1898. NARA ID 109183010.

NOT a water coaster: iconic Seaside Heights, NJ roller coaster in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, 11/12/2012. Photo by Patsy Lynch/FEMA. NARA ID 24471051.

Roller coaster in Santa Cruz, CA, 6/1972, EPA's DOCUMERICA , NARA ID 543212.

#rollercoaster #roller coaster #otd #amusement parks #theme parks #coney island

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ajoytobeheld · 7 months

Text

Ellen: it's been an awfully big adventure

December 7th, 2012

I don’t know how to start this, other then diving right in so….I’ll dive.

It is with a sad face I have to report that I am leaving Los Campesinos!. The show on the 15th of December in London will be my last, and I shall spend it struggling not to cry. Please don’t point out my tears if you come along. Simply pretend it is eye sweat.

Over the last seven years I have been blessed, not by God, because he doesn’t exist, but with opportunities and a life I will not fully appreciate until I am about forty-five. I will look back at old photos of the band, with our smooth skin and questionable hair, and go “fuck me. That was mental.”

The past and present members of Los Campesinos! have been my family for the last seven years and seen me at my lowest, my highest, my most angry, sad, happy, broken, fixed, grown up and immature. They have seen me fail, succeed, let myself and them down, learn the hard way, but they have also seen me grow. And they have always had my back, and I hope, I sincerely hope, I have done my best to have theirs.

There is not a terribly exciting reason for me leaving, (so please start some exciting rumours), I am just going to try something new. Fulfil my ambitions of becoming a failed writer and developing a opium habit. It’s all going to be very retro. I leave with the upmost love and support from the band, but I have requested my replacement not be too cool.

I would say I am sad to go, but that is too simple a word for the variety of emotions I have swimming around my head right now. I am sad, but mostly I am drowning in warm and happy flashbacks, vinaigrette images of us all laughing in the van on long drives across America. Joe Puleo, tour manager, at the front telling a story, Jason playing quizmaster and hosting a game of “Guess the Song,” from an app he has downloaded, and we all scream out responses. Rob taking photos of the scenery on his lomo, Neil watching gangster epics on his laptop, and maybe later on this long long drive Paul and Tom will play Tiger Woods Golf whilst I work out how long I can hold my bladder for before requesting we stop. I was the most frequenter pee needer on long drives. I am not ashamed of this. I owned it.

I felt warm and safe on those drives, listening to everyone tell stories, share experiences, make each other laugh. I am lucky to have shared a hotel room with so many exceptional ladies over the years, Aleks, Harriet and especially Kim, who shared my fear of the cold, love of porridge and put up with my ability to make a mess in any room in under 5 seconds. Starting and ending the day together, we did some good chatting.

I have seen a lot of this world, and I didn’t have to go on a gap year to do it. I have travelled across the breadth and depth of the US and the UK and I have seen a lot of different faces, and sampled a lot of backstage humus.I have seen a lot of graffitied backstage cocks.

I have met and worked with countless wonderful, interesting and horrifically talented people inside the industry, inside the venues, inside the recording studie and inside our practice space. (I won’t gush too much about how talented the people in the band are, you might get diabetes from my sincerity, but it has been a pleasure and a privilege to play the music that Tom writes.)

Also fans. Fans are awesome. You made it possible for us record an album in Seattle. To play a show outside of Wales. To play in a baseball stadium in Japan. A haunted restaurant in Santa Cruz. a handful of US universities and see Mexico! I saw Mexico! You girls and guys are truly humbling, and I hope I never took you for granted too much. I probably did. Thank you for knowing the words, for bringing cakes, and books, and t-shirts, and comics, and buying us drinks and for waiting and driving miles and cheering and clapping. For reading or watching or listening to anything we have ever done. Thanks. You kept us going and will continue to be the life blood of the Los Campesinos! family.

I was trawling through old photos trying to find the best one to represent a start and an ending, but I got lost in old memories and the process of ageing.

(God we looked young, look at our skin! Look at our clothes! Cardigans and ripped up Distillers t shirts, oh I still have that.)

I have eons of photos of the band at the start, at rehearsals, house parties, with experimental hair, (mine black, Gareth long and wispy, Neil’s fringe nearly covering his eyes and Tom always wearing his hat) and at our first shows. I remember when we first started, our summer of label romance where everyone wanted to take us out for a pub meal, and all we ever did was go out in Cardiff drinking and dancing. We said we would change our last names to Campesinos! if we ever played in the states, but we tempted fate, and we never changed out names but we did get to go to America a lot.

I sometimes wonder what alternative universe me would be doing if she didn’t go to that first rehearsal in Ollie’s bedroom. I think she is picking her nose right now in a bath of baked beans, bored and crazy because she spent all day in an office sitting next to a woman who told her about the time she slept with a navy seal. No one cares Brenda.

So 500 plus gigs, millions of air miles, gallons of backstage whisky and wine, a tonne of sweaty cheese and pita bread, a litre of tears shed on stage, hundreds of “don’t fuck up,” panics, hundreds of fuck ups, hundreds of “this is blowing my mind” moments whilst starring into a sea of unfamiliar and impassioned faces, break ups and ill advised hook ups later (don’t date musicians, like ever, we’re all mental,) I realise I have seen all the travel lodges, service stations, and states of America (apart from Alaska) and I have tasted more Marks and Spencer’s meals then I thought possible. I’ve been with some of the finest people I know doing a very unnatural thing, which is both the best and the worst experience and often at the same time, but never the same any given year. And we have done it fucking well. The best we can.

God I’m being dramatic, but I can’t help it, I was a middle child.

So some more self-indulgence.

I want to thank some people for being ace. John Goodmanson – a brilliant producer and a lesson in style and grace under pressure. Joe Puleo – the best tour manager, you never feel anything but safe in his company. Kelly Pickard – inspiration, mentor, wisest woman. Paul Rattcliff- The loyalist soundman whom gives so much. Kev and Alun and Mark Bowen, Wichita, Ben and Vicky, Gareth Dobson, anyone we have toured with or supported or who I have met along the way, everyone I forgot. I haven’t forgot, I am thinking about you.

My mum, because she told me I could be anything and do anything except get my tongue pierced. And I did that anyway, and she still wasn’t mad at me.

And the band.. Kim, Jason, Gareth, Tom, Neil and Rob who I will miss sharing experiences with that no one will understand, I love you guys. Like, loads. From our first Sweet Dreams, until our last, thanks.

Okay, too long, too emo. Bye bye.

Ellen x

#2012 #ellen!blog #lc!blog #lc!image

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