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osir-ethria · 3 years

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...... I have ideas and all but if anyone finds my head canons interesting enough feel free to ask me about a topic that I can turn into a head canon or scenario/drabble/mini story/one shot. If anyone does do this then fair warning I may not immediately respond or it may take me a bit to think of something or create said something. Or I may not choose to respond to it if I don’t feel comfortable to do so.

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For now, Happy B-Day Weiss! (I finally got an idea and it’s probably late to some people but it’s still May 15th for me so here we go.)

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How RWBYJNRWWWQEOK+AceOps and maybe Sun and Neptune act today... Maybe Raven and Tai too, I want Raven to join them and Tai to reunite. More so let’s just have the entire found family.

(Setting they are in a building, not a tent. Like maybe a room in Haven or after Salem fight and they survive but making sure the world doesn’t break is becoming stressful on the group because they were main figures in the war. Now hold leading positions that I won’t get into but y’know it be hard for them.)

First is the mutual agreement to LET WEISS SLEEP IN TILL LIKE NOON. They be letting the Ice Queen rest especially with all the bullshit she has to put up with on a daily basis and the fact she hasn’t slept properly in days.

Weiss does try to wake up, thinking it’s a normal day but it isn’t, Ruby pins her to the bed where she is laying on top of Ice Queen. Weiss doesn’t have the strength to resist and just lays there asking Blake and Yang for help but no response. She eventually passes out again and Ruby gives Weiss her cape before sneaking out.

Yang and Blake go out to get ingredients and anything they need to make a meal of the size of the party they are going host for Weiss.

Ruby is making cookies with the current ingredients, Yang’s style based on Summer’s recipe, and Winter is getting some coffee ready.

Whitley, Ren, and Jaune are organizing presents. I’ll list what they got Weiss.

Ruby: A pocketknife she made, girl be way into weapons. (I’m giving you choice here, choose the design.)

Yang: (She be making the cake but y’know) I like the idea she gets Bumblebee back and it would be upgraded. Taking Weiss on a ride with it.

Blake: Simple but gets the new White Fang badge with the Schnee insignia as an acceptance. Would offer to help her with duel wielding after learning that she can and had to do so when they fell.

Jaune & Neptune: They’d go off on how much of assholes they were during Beacon. Jaune for not taking “No” as an answer and Neptune acting the way he did. Weiss would get a good laugh then retaliate with “I was just as much of an asshole as you two but thanks for saying that.”

Ren: Would carve out the flower he associates Weiss with the most out of wood and paint it over perfectly.

Nora: Depending on the timeline either new kitchen ware or take over any manual labor tasks for the next week for her. Maybe both.

Willow: She found a store filled with puzzles of all sorts. Buy Weiss three and a book on puzzle making and concept. Probably get her a lot of information based books but she knows by now that Weiss likes them and isn’t weary on if it’s the right thing to buy.

Whitley (Depending on if CVFY joins then with Coco): New stylized clothing of both grouped “feminine” and “masculine”... Do you hear my sarcasm. They just styled and got tailored Weiss’ new wardrobe. Whitley has the courtesy of a sweater/hoodie with FIGHT on the back representing her response to Jacques’s abuse. Also got Winter one with ‘Flight to Fight’, Willow one with “Froze but Thawed”, and himself “Fawned but Freed”. Just something nice. (Klein got a hoodie with “True Schnee Dad” on it and I don’t take no for an answer).

Winter: Got Myrenaster sharpened, taking over all ‘logically enduring’ tasks of the next week that don’t require Weiss specifically. Going out to dinner the next day but that’s the next day. With the help of Ruby she picked out new jewelry. The one she thought would suit Weiss the most was a custom made necklace with silver, the Schnee emblem, and small rubies.

Klein: Did a stand up comedy act with his many split personalities with a little help from Neo. There, that’s Neo contribution. Acts like his butler self for the day which brings a rather nice nostalgia to a poor past.

Qrow: After years of traveling together, much to Winter’s dismay, he has allowed Weiss to refer to him as Uncle if she wants to. Paid for the material to her new wardrobe by Whitley and Coco.

Tai: Helps her with hand to hand combat. Knitted a sweater for her that has some goofy dad joke on it in reference to her. (Btw, as much as Weiss cringed she loves the damn thing.)

Raven: Goes on the whole apology, she did a big one for everyone but this one was directly for Weiss. She teaches Weiss how she made the dust blades and the whole concept, and to Weiss’s request, will be teaching Ruby the same thing. (I wouldn’t take it as an unknown thing, dust blades, but it’s difficult to craft and you need to master it perfectly.)

Emerald: Probably also put on something funny but this time she’d disguise herself as Jacques for an hour as Weiss goes all out on how much he hates him. Best thing to watch and the entire time Emerald has to keep herself from breaking down by the reminder that this is towards Jacques not her. After the whole ordeal Weiss hugs Emrald thanking her and said she acted him out perfectly.

(You guys got to think of other characters, I can’t think of anything else for presents right now while writing this.)

Weiss wakes up after, after Ruby finished cookies and Winter coffee and Klein a proper breakfast, and she is greeted by both of them along with Whitley and Willow. Ruby is smiling animatedly which always gets Weiss to grin, Winter sits down on the edge of the bed with a calmer smile but she has gotten better with emotion, Willow is at the edge with a motherly look that Weiss starts to cry a bit, and Whitley has climbed onto the bed and is on the other side of his sister, sitting there, smiling.

Ruby places her breakfast down before using her semblance in a quick burst to get directly to Weiss’s right side and lean on her. A few rose petals are there but nothing has been disturbed. (At this point the Schnees have gotten used to Ruby’s and Weiss’ closeness, either as partners or if you ship them like me then maybe more.)

After brunch she is dragged out by Ruby again to just lounge about the town or city. Weiss is saying that she should be doing tasks and Ruby is always responding with “nope” which leads Weiss to give up.

When dinner comes they go back and to Weiss’s surprise their entire group is there with presents, food, and a huge cake. They all scream happy birthday to Weiss and she starts crying. Past birthdays for her weren’t great and she has gotten used to smaller celebrations by her team, but seeing all those she considers family here, she breaks.

Gets all the hugs, Ice Queen deserves them.

Afterwards she just outright says-

“I honestly forgot it was my birthday, just thought everyone was being soft for no reason.”

Everyone is stunned but in the end everyone is laughing.

The rest of the night is a blast, everyone is having fun, Weiss roles her eyes at most of the presents or smiles genuinely. Just Weiss smiling the entire time because of pure joy. They get Sun to use a aura clone to take a picture of their entire group which is huge. That was using Velvet’s camera.

(Weiss treasures that photo like it’s more expensive than any jewel/gem one will find.)

As a last gift given by her team they all do a snuggle pile when they sleep. Yang holding all of them, Blake snuggling into Yang’s left side, Ruby either snuggling into Yang’s right side or Weiss, Weiss’s arms a little under Yang and just wrapping around far enough to just meet Blake, and Blake has her arm, like Weiss, going as far as it can.

It’s loving Weiss day and I wrote this as me showing how much I love her.

#weiss schnee #whiterose #rwby #team rwby #Happy B-Day Weiss #love the ice queen #I love her #my favorite character #loving weiss day #rwby weiss #rwby crew #found family

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wsl-chelsea · 2 years

Note

the blake/ryan one is gone too. she only kept group ones & deleted couples or solo rachel pics. I don't think you can delete individual pic from a photo dump so she kept the ohai/watts wedding. or she forgot to swipe through.

yeah ^

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spahhzy · 3 years

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"Oh if your here then that must have meant...you failed, oh well I guess we can just start again"

"I can fill you in on the details I guess while we wait for the rest of the group"

"no no! sit down! We are going to be here for awhile! Look I even have it book marked! Now sit, grab a cup of coffee or whatever it is your kind drinks and relax"

"How are they doing?" Asked qrow as he took a swig from his flask. The question given to the eldest schnee, Winter.

"If by 'They' you mean the team of Oscar, Nora, Ren and your niece Ruby physically they are all healed...no long lasting damage after the mission but mentally..." Winter trailed off not looking up from her paperwork.

Qrow sighed before taking another sip from his flask, this was all one big fucked up headache.

"If you insist on drinking could you please do so away from here..." Winter said to him to which qrow just looked at her before capping the flask and walking out of the office without so much a rebuttal.

Once the door closed, Winter let out a frustrated sigh before slamming her fist onto her desk.

-WBY- Vacuo general Hospital.

The room was quiet. all three girls laid on their respective beds both thinking and reflecting on the days that had passed.

It wasn't long until Blake spoke out.

"So...now what do we do?"

Ah yes what do they do indeed.

"I...I don't know" came Weiss as she too didn't know the answer to that question.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Came the frustrated voice of Yang.

"In case you forgot Yang...we got outclassed and outmatched by Salem I'm not sure their is anything we can do right now" Spoke Weiss to which Yang just grabbed her pillow in frustration.

Silence fell over them again.

"How...how is Ruby?" Weiss asked to the older sister.

Yang just looked at Weiss and Blake and just shook her head.

"She's asleep; she was taking it pretty badly"

The fall of Atlas, Ironwood's desperate actions (some would disagree), and now this...

Ruby's hospital room.

Ren, Nora and Oscar all looked like a mess.

All three were sitting in chairs bandaged and bruised but all staring at the sleeping form of one Ruby Rose.

"What changed for things to be like this?" Spoke Ren while voicing his thoughts the question was mainly for Ozpin.

Oscar remained silent.

"He started acting differently back at the Schnee manor when we rescued yiu from the whale" Ren said calmly eyes still on the sleeping Rose.

"Things came to a head in the desert after Cinders defeat" he stopped trying to relive that horrible memory.

"he was ready to carve her up and in his words 'slice her apart so he could expose her rotten innards so she can be judged for what she had become' that's not him, that's would never be him" Ren stated as Nora agreed.

Oscar remained quiet.

"Things blew apart more when I stopped him...I could feel his anger Ozpin, that hatred and when he told me to 'stand aside' that gaze he sent me..sent us?" Ren shivered at the memory.

"We got into a fight, as in fight-fight headmaster but he seemed to stop and freak out a bit before healing us and apologizing profusely" Nora said allowing Ren to follow up

"All that hate and anger...gone. as if it was never there and I realized we had our brother back"

"So if there is anything you need to say tell us now...please"

Oscar remained silent. Just staring at Ruby sleeping.

"Is that all you can do? Be silent!?"

Ren just clutched at the arm rest in anger.

"Ren please calm down maybe even headmaster doesn't know why she did what she did!"

Ren scoffed. A trait not usually found within the young man. He turned his head to face the boy.

"You know something... I can see the gears turning up their but you don't wanna say anything"

Oscar still remains silent.

"Damnit Ozpin tell us something, anything!" Ren all but pleaded to which Oscar said nothing.

Ren sighed before getting up and with Nora in tow left Ruby's room without another word.

Before leaving Nora turned and spoke "he was right not to trust you" and closed the door.

Leaving Oscar to just stare at the still form of Ruby as she slept before shifting his eyes to one object that was laying on her bed with her.

A broken Crocea Mors.

Ren punched the wall in frustration outside of the hospital leaving small cracks.

"Ren!"

" I'm fine Nora just.."

"Your mad...I know I am too, I really...really wanted to break his legs but it's Oscar legs too" Nora said before hugging him from behind.

"We'll get him back Ren" she said as Ren sighed.

"I know Nora...I just can't help-" he was interrupted by a sudden rumble in his scroll and a beep signifying a new message.

Oddly enough Nora's scroll beep as well.

With a sigh he and Nora pulled out their scrolls.

"Did you get a message as well?" Nora asked

Ren nodded.

It was a video from an unknown number.

The video being titled 'Have you heard the good news?'.

"Did you guys get a video message too?" Came the voice of Qrow as he walked towards them with his scroll out as well.

" Yes which if you got it...then I wonder if Weiss, Yang and Blake got it as well" Ren asked and Qrow rubbed his chin thinking.

"If they did then this couldn't be by random coincidence let's go to their room and find out" Qrow said to which Ren and Nora agreed.

The trio headed out to find the other three.

As the footsteps faded from the room Oscar, still looking at the sleeping form of Ruby, sighed.

'Why couldn't you tell Ren anything?'

'What would you want me to say?'

'Something just...something'

'Somethings are better left unsaid'

Oscar rolled his eyes, Ozpin was hiding something that much was clear.

His scroll went off.

He had received a video message from an unknown number.

Oscar opened the message and pressed play.

"Today....today is a wonderful day!" Oscar eyes widened at the voice it was...

"Yes its me Tyrian the ever faithful servant to our goddess!" He said dramatically hands spread out wide in stage like fashion.

"How is all of you by the way...and by you I mean those receiving this video hmm?" He asked tilting his head.

"Ah you must be fine physical wounds heal and such" Oscar just glared at the mad scorpion on the screen mocking him.

"How is Miss Rose? Hopefully not taking it too bad?" Again more mockery. What is the damn point of this video?

"Ahaha, enough I can guess your all pretty upset but why? Why be upset?...haven't you heard the good news?"

What good news can come from a psychopath who blindy follows the devil herself?

"Well before I can give the good news allow me to give you some bad news!" Suddenly a crude drawing of stick figures graced the right side of screen while one gracefully drawn person was on the left. The one on the left was undeniably Salem.

"My goddess has deemed you all , and by that I mean humanity and faunus alike,as disgusting bacteria; a bacteria that only infects and destroys!" Some of the stick figures Oscar noticed had some distinguishing features, 3 had capes, 1 had a yellow arm , 1 had a big gun, alot had animal traits and some had white hair and surrounded by money.

"So it with a heavy heart that I must tell you that you all will be released from this level of existence by the mercy of my mistress!" He said as he put a hand over his heart as if paying respects.

That was before a large crazed grin etched onto his face.

"Now with the bad news gone! It's time for the good news!" He all but squealed as he then held up another two pictures.

The one on the left was again a portrait of Salem her arms spread open, while the picture on the right was of four stick figures.

One figure with blonde hair in front of three others. The other three were on the ground defeated almost. One had black and a pink line in its hair, the other had a hammer and orange hair and the last the one closest to the blonde had a red cape.

"I knew their was a reason I found him so...interesting!" He said which made Oscar shudder.

"But did YOU know this Ozpin hmm?"

Did Ozpin know what?

" is that why you accepted him into Beacon and not the whole 'untapped potential' jargon you preached?" Tyrian question before long his face cam back to the screen.

" I've learned some very crucial information...information that makes me wonder who really is the good side in all of this" Tyrian said acting as if he was putting on his thinking cap before snapping his fingers.

"You really tried to keep him from her...and how far did you go to achieve that I wonder..."

Tyrian was rambling trying to rile Ozpin up, because Oscar could feel a slight tugging on his consciousness.

"But fate works in strange ways...you of all people should have learned that" he said before motioning to a big portrait of Salem.

"She dances and sings in the light, she lurks in the shadows and she always gets her way" the scene changes this time.

"I've berated you enough...I think I'd like a quick chat with those three closest to him"

Oscar looked away from the screen too the sleeping form of Ruby. Then back to the screen. If he got this video then possibly everyone did too.

"Too the Valkyrie, the Calm One, and to Miss Rose especially..." a dark grin marred his face.

"Your words mean nothing to him now!" He stated sinisterly before a series of pictures flashed on screen.

It was of a blonde haired man with striking deep blue eyes , his armour worn out and cracked and his shield discarded as he held a broken sword.

Another photo but this time it was a photo with a women banged up , bruised her cape in tatters and her eyes reflecting despair. She was in the background, on the ground arm outstretched trying to reach the blonde haired man in vain.

"Now he only hears...her truth"

Before finally one more photo appears and this time it makes Oscar's and in extension Ozpin's blood run cold.

It was a photo of the blonde man and a pale woman who had red eyes and black veins.

"No it can't be" this time it was Ozpin who spoke.

It was of Jaune Arc and Salem embracing.

"Now...he's home"

The video ended and remained on that image.

"This isn't right that's too far ahead! No this won't do! Stupid bookmark ugh"

"Well just have to start from the beginning my bad buddy!"

[Here we go, off to a bad start.]

#jaune arc #rwby salem #lie ren #nora valkyrie #ruby rose #oh no

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antecedentlypod · 3 years

Text

EPISODE 5 TRANSCRIPT

[OPENING MUSIC]

[FISH LAUGHS EXCITEDLY]

FISH

I think that today, I will cause problems on purpose!

Ummmm… Okay. [unintelligible muttering] Uh—here we go. [she clears her throat] I don’t… remember how he does his intro.

[Clearly and with intent] Siren’s Song.

FISH (STORY)

Your name is Harmony. A bit on the nose, maybe, you like it just fine. After all, you picked it out yourself, didn’t you? Yes, because before it had been Piper, and Jane before that, and Cicily before it was anything else at all. And now, you’re Harmony, and the lights are bright downtown and you are so very far from home. Do you miss the sea? Do you miss the biting air and the feel of the salt embedding itself beneath your skin until you can’t tell the difference between it and your veins? Of course, you do. But most of all, you miss a good and proper meal.

Your name is Harmony, and you are dancing until your feet ache. You can’t remember the name of the club, just that the music is loud and you know the girls on stage. They smile back at you and for a moment, under the strobe light that matches the pounding in your head, you can nearly see the gills or the flash of a feather. And faintly, beneath the base and the shouting, you can hear them sing along.

Their name is Adah. They’re dancing alongside you, against you, everywhere. They grin and ask something you can’t quite hear over the music but you nod anyway. You can tell they’re the sort of folk that’s there most nights and they’ve coated their face in wonderful, pink glitter. They’re swaying and jumping along to the music perfectly in sync with the way it’s entranced them. It’s then that you know exactly what they’d asked for when you reach into your back pocket and slip out a little tab. It’s got something or another printed on it you don’t remember. It’s whatever they want it to be. They laugh and stick out their tongue when they see it and you shake your head, and you lead them to the bathroom. They skip behind you and keep a hand on your waist the whole way down. They don’t seem to notice how boney it’s become.

You come out of the bathroom Adah-less and pleased. Your hunger is quenched for the time being, although you do feel awfully sorry for whoever wanders in there next. You let the tab sit on your own tongue, and then you’re off again, waiting for someone to get just this side of too close. You rather like it at the clubs and cabarets—easy pray and all, but it isn’t long before the inky black floods the streets and you decide that that’s much more their playground than yours.

And so, his name is Markus. He plays the guitar, albeit rather poorly, and he sings with confidence rather than skill. You found a flyer for his show on a telephone pole in the city, and you talked to him at the small merch stand afterward. Markus… Markus wants to be a star.

So, your name is Harmony and suddenly, you’re an agent.

He shakes your hand with a broad grin and babbles about how excited he is to be working with you. You invite him over to talk business and he agrees to Wednesday afternoon after his shift at a nearby sandwich shop. He doesn’t notice when you lick your lips in excitement. Days come and go, but nothing really matters but the approaching promise of company. Wednesday comes slowly like a watched pot, but still; there’s a knock at your door. He stands beaming and clutching a tattered guitar case, shifting feet before the porch while he goes on and on about his day and such. You aren’t really listening,

“Enough chit-chat,” you tell him, “let’s get to it then.” So you clear your throat, and then you’re singing the sweetest song he’s ever heard. “All you have to do is sign right here and I can make all your dreams come true, Mr. Cunningham. I can put a good word in with the right people, I can get your name out there. Really, it won’t be long before everyone knows your name. And that’s what you want, isn’t it?

“Aw, poor Markus, no one’s ever known your name, have they? Even your father called you champ when he forgot. Last picked in gym, always having to partner up with the teacher, or making a group of three with best friends that glare at you what you do a bulk of the project. Not anymore. They’ll be in the front row at your concert. Screaming your name. I can make you a God.”

That’s more than enough to get him inside, that lovely glazed look in his eye all the way up the steps. You’re on him before the door is even fully shut. Teeth meet flesh and tear like scissors through wrapping paper, the hope in his blood making it taste that much sweeter. Your wings unfold and lift you high enough to descend upon his face, gnawing it down to bone and relishing the way his tongue slides whole down your throat. After some short time, The bones of Markus Cunningham lay licked clean and dry on the floor of this months’ home.

You really ought to stop making such a mess.

Your name is Harmony and this month, you’re a defense attorney. You’ve never been very good at arguing, but persuasion happens to be your specialty. Lace that sweet sing-song into your words and any jury will fall at your feet. And you’re paid quite well too. You like to pick up the tough cases, the real irredeemable scumbags. “I’ll get you off scott-free,” you tell them, “You know how many cases I’ve lost? None. Lower than anything, yeah? I do my job right well sir, you trust that.”

So this month’s name is Blake McFarlin, she held a family at gunpoint for some debt the father owed, money they didn’t have, and she shot the little one dead. All evidence points to her, she cleans up about as well as you do. The best part is, she doesn’t seem to think she did anything wrong. And, in no time, you’ve got the jury convinced of the very same. The judge lets her go with a couple years parole and she’s clinging to your arm, crying, thanking you. You smile at her, and you say “Of course, doll. Now say I buy you a drink, huh? To celebrate?” She nods into your sleeve and you take separate cars to a bar a few blocks over. You’ve got the photos of that poor little kid in the testimonies of her weeping parents in your head the whole way over. You’ve only just barely dragged her into the back alley before you’re ripping her apart. It feels… right. It feels just to get her that close to freedom and take it all away. You hope that little girl knows this monster got what was coming to her. Her vocal cords are stuck between your teeth like floss before she can scream for help, her arms and mangled hands are waving frantically around for purchase, finding nothing but your bared, sharp shoulders and kicking at your legs long off the ground. You lick your lips clean and let her fall to the ground almost lifeless. You snap her legs, toothpicks between your taloned feet, and you leave her there to bleed the rest of the way out. She doesn’t deserve to go out clean and quick.

Your name is Harmony. You sit in your office chair throne at the tippy-top of a many-leveled building that towers over the people that walk beneath it. Beneath you. It’s been an endless food chain of prophet and the profited, and you fancy yourself the apex predator. There’s not a thing in this world your money can’t buy. And yet, it’s never quite enough. Tear down these apartments, pave this forest, drain them all dry of pennies and dimes, and the blood on their bones. Sing them sweet on fortune and fame and toss them when you’re done gorging yourself on all they have to offer. It’s not quite the sea but, times change. And sometimes, for the better.

You aren’t sure of the last time you met hunger, but satisfaction begins to bore you. And you find that you so desperately crave the hunt. And so you tear that castle of exploit and exploited down to rubble from top to bottom and you set off to the next city, the next country, the next chorus, the next meal.

Your name is Harmony, but it isn’t is it? No, your name is something pitchy that leaves a burn on the tongue of those unfortunate enough to speak it. But don’t let that stop you, you’re getting awful… hungry.

The end.

[FISH BREATHES HEAVILY IN HORROR, A DOOR OPENS]

LORRIE

Hey, uhhh, whatcha doin’ there Fishy?

FISH

[obviously horrified] Um… I, I, uh, I was just… Y'know, um, fucking around? [nervous laugh] I was just um, I dunno poking a little fun at you? Y’know, like a little sibling does, but, um, what the fuck is up with this story? I-is this a joke? I mean, it was marked in your book. I wanted to see what it was all about so I just kin—I just kinda read it? This is the shit you’ve been reading? The one I sat in for was, like, totally fine! But this?

LORRIE

[guiltily] Uh, yeah. Yep, I—I know. Some of them are… really off-putting—

FISH

[duh, but make it scared] Yeah.

LORRIE

That’s… That’s one of the reasons I, uh, I kicked you out the other day. I read all the stories before I record them just to like, get them in my head and get ready for them, and I knew that second one was weird? I didn’t want… you to have to listen to me read it. I kinda go into a, uh, like a uh, uh, a trance? Sort of? When I read.

[FISH SCOFFS QUIETLY]

FISH

[appalled] You… you don’t think it’s a little weird? That your children's audiobook company or whatever is sending you shit like this? What—what do you even know about them beyond the name on your paycheck? This is—this is fucked up!

LORRIE

[dismissive] Mhh, I-I mean they’re weird but that’s what they sent me! They just send me the story numbers for this month, y’know, and then I record them, send them off, and I get paid. I don’t particularly care what happens after that.

FISH

[angrily] Yeah. You get paid. Lorrie? Bubba? This story is basically some twisted, gory version of the truth of late-stage capitalism? The world? I dunno—this isn’t a fucking kids story is what it is.

LORRIE

None of them really are! What else did you expect? Like, hell, The Devil’s Sooty Brother, does that sound like a kid’s story to you?

FISH

I-I dunno! It’s not this! I-I just, I thought you were reading, fuckin, Goldilocks, or something! Not, like… gore...dielocks? I just—Listen, I—this is giving me really bad vibes, like intensely bad. Like, horrible, money-grubbing, child-traumatizing vibes. There’s gotta be other jobs out there.

LORRIE

[a bit fed up] There are other jobs out there! I like this one! I don’t have to leave the house, or like, talk with anyone, and I get to hang out with our dog all day. The story contents don’t exactly bother me much.

Why do they bother you so much?

FISH

I… I dunno. I don’t usually get scared easily it’s just—it’s not right, bubs. It’s not fucking right. Something weird is going on here and you’re just ignoring it! What if you’re getting tangled up with something… I dunno something really, really bad? I don’t know what I would do if you… [Lorrie sighs]. You really don’t see anything wrong with this?

LORRIE

[struggling] I mean—I, I guess I do? I don’t fucking know! [frustrated noise] I need to record, Fish. I need some fucking peace and quiet.

[FISH SCOFFS]

FISH

[angry disbelief] Yeah, fine. Whatever.

[FISH LEAVES THE ROOM, THERE IS A LONG TENSE SILENCE. LORRIE SIGHS]

LORRIE

[in denial] It’s fine. It’s fine! This—this isn’t that big of a deal. I’ll—[sigh] I’ll talk it out with her later, it’s fine. We always work out our little fights, I guess. Siblings fight all the time! It’s normal. Even if… you’re not related by blood. [deep, steadying breath]

Take one of Rapunzel. [muttering] I need to find the page. [Another sigh, pages turning as Lorrie looks through the book]. Take one of Rapunzel. Read by Lorrie Ada--

[SCENE CUT]

LORRIE (CONT)

Take three—

[SCENE CUT]

LORRIE (CONT)

Take seven of Rapunzel. Read by Lorrie Adams.

LORRIE (STORY)

Once upon a time, there was a husband and wife who, for some time, had been wishing in vain for a child. Finally, the dear Lord gave them a sign of hope that their wish would be fulfilled. Now, in the back of their house, the couple had a small window that overlooked a splendid garden filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden, however, was surrounded by a high wall and nobody dared enter it because it belonged to a sorceress who was very powerful, and feared by all. One day when the wife was standing at the window and looking down into the garden, she noticed a bed of the finest Rapunzel lettuce; the lettuce looked so fresh and green that her mouth watered and she had a great craving to eat some. Day by day this crazing increased and since she knew she could not get any, she began to waste away and look pale and miserable. Her husband became alarmed and asked, “What’s wrong with you dear wife?”

“Ah,” she responded, “I shall certainly die if I don’t get any of that Rapunzel from that garden behind our house.” Her husband, who loved her, thought ‘before I let my wife die I’ll do anything I must to make sure she gets some Rapunzel.’

That day at dusk, he climbed over the wall and into the garden of the sorceress, hastily grabbed a handful of Rapunzel, and brought them to his wife. Immediately, she made them into a salad with great zest, but the Rapunzel tasted so good to her, so very good, that her desire for them was three times greater the next day. If she were to have any peace, her husband knew he had to climb into the garden once more. So at dusk, he scaled the wall again, and just as he landed on the other side he was given a tremendous scare, for he stood face to face with the sorceress.

“How dare you climb into my garden and steal my Rapunzel like a thief!” She said with an angry look. “You’ll pay for this!”

“Oh,” he cried, “Please let mercy prevail over justice. I did this only because I was in a predicament, my wife noticed your Rapunzel from our window and she developed such a great craving for it that she would have died if I hadn’t brought her some to eat.” Upon hearing that, the anger of the sorceress subsided, and she said to him; “If it is truly as you say, I shall permit you to take as many Rapunzel as you’d like, but only under one condition. When your wife gives birth I must have the child. You needn’t fear about the child’s wellbeing, for I will take care of it like a mother.” In his fear, the man agreed to everything, and when his wife had the baby his sorceress appeared at once. She gave the child the name Rapunzel and took her away.

Rapunzel grew to be the most beautiful child under the sun, but when she was twelve years old the sorceress locked her in a tower in a forest. It had neither door nor stairs, only a little window high above. Whenever the sorceress wanted to get in, she would stand below and call out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair for me.” Rapunzel’s hair was long and radiant, as fine as spun gold. Every time she heard the voice of the sorceress, she unpinned her braids and wound them around a hook on the window. Then she let her hair drop twenty yards and the sorceress would climb up on it. A few years later, a king’s son happened to be riding through the forest and passed by the tower. Suddenly, he heard a song so lovely that he stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel, who passed the time in her solitude by letting her sweet voice resound in the forest. The prince wanted to climb up to her, and he looked for a door but could not find one. So he rode home. However, the song had touched his heart so deeply that he rode out into the forest every day and listened. One time as he was standing behind a tree, he saw the sorceress approach and heard her call out;

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Then Rapunzel let down her braids and the sorceress climbed up to her.

“If that is the ladder that one needs to get up there, then I am also going to try my luck,” the prince declared. The next day as it began to get dark, he went to the tower and called out “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” All at once, the hair dropped down and the prince climbed up. When he entered the tower, Rapunzel was at first terribly afraid for she had never laid eyes on a man before. However, the prince began to talk to her in a friendly way and told her that her song had touched his heart so deeply, that he had not been able to rest until he had seen her. Rapunzel then lost her fear and when he asked her whether she’d have him for her husband, she saw that he was young and handsome. She thought, ‘he’ll certainly love me better than old Mother Gothel’. So she said yes and placed her hand in his.

“I want to go down with you very much,” she said, “but I don’t know how I can get down. Every time you come you must bring a skein of silk with you and I’ll weave it into a ladder. When it’s finished, then I’ll climb down and you can take me away on your horse.” They agreed that until then, he would come to her every evening, for the old woman came during the day. Meanwhile, the sorceress did not notice anything until one day, Rapunzel blurted out; “Mother Gothel, how is it that you’re much heavier than the prince? When I pull him up, he’s here in a second.”

“Ah, you godless child,” exclaimed the sorceress, “What’s this I hear? I thought I had made sure that you had no contact with the outside world, but you’ve deceived me.” In her fury, she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful hair and wrapped it around her left-hand several times, grabbed a pair of scissors with her right hand, and snip! Snap! The hair was cut off and the beautiful braids lay on the ground. Then, the cruel sorceress took Rapunzel to a desolate land where she had to live in the great misery and grief. On the same day she banished Rapunzel, the sorceress fastened the braids that she had cut off to the hook in the window, and that evening when the prince came and called out “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” she let the hair down. The prince climbed up, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel on top, he found the sorceress who gave him vicious and angry looks.

“Aha!” She exclaimed with contempt, “You want to fetch your darling wife, but the beautiful bird is no longer sitting in the nest and she won’t be singing anymore. The cat has got her, and it will also scratch out your eyes. Rapunzel is lost to you and you will never see her again!” The prince was beside himself with grief and in his despair, he jumped off the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns he fell into pierced his eyes and so he became blind. Now he strayed about in the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but mourn and weep about the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he wandered for many years in misery, eventually, he made his way to the desolate land where Rapunzel was leading a wretched existence with the twins, a boy and a girl to whom she had given birth. And when he heard a voice that he thought sounded familiar, he went straight towards it and when he reached her, Rapunzel recognized him. She embraced him and wept, and as two of her tears dropped onto his eyes, they became clear and he could see again. Then, he escorted her back to his kingdom, where he was received with joy and they lived happily and contentedly for a long time thereafter.

LORRIE

This one… wasn’t so bad. I mean, like, it’s still got gory bits, unfortunately, but it’s not nearly as bad as the last one. The one that Fish read, I mean.

[slowly spiraling] I don’t like fighting with her. It makes both of us feel bad and then, then, th-then shit is weird between us for like, days and it sucks feeling like I can’t talk to her. Because she’s the most important person in my life. Thank god we don’t fight that often. [sigh] But this fight seemed… different. I don’t know what she’s thinking is so wrong with the stories! They’re just, they’re jus—They’re just stories! There’s not really any issues, right? I—It’s just a book! Doesn’t matter that it was on the other side of the office this morning when I came in to set up. Fish probably came in and like, browsed through it last night. Probably just wanted some light reading material.

[Sadly] I really should go talk to her. I’m gonna go talk to her.

End recording.

[CLOSING MUSIC]

#antecedently #antecedentlypod #antecedently transcripts #antecedently podcast

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chiseler · 4 years

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The Old Masters: Kurt Kren

31/75: Asyl / 31/75: Asylum (1975)

Kurt Kren (1929-1998) was best known for his work with the unpleasant bodily-fluid ridden productions of the Vienna Aktionists, a group of Hitler’s children whose post-war adolescence did in art what Ulrike Meinhof did in direct action. The suffocating atmosphere of retooled Nazi industrialists and amnesia with a born-again uptightness produced predictable results: the state must not be allowed to retain a monopoly on violence. How many Blood Order members can you watch, parading sanctimoniously on television, grinning in deathsheads from podiums, telling everyone that they have always been good citizen democrats, without wanting to burn it all down?

The body is alienated by the rigid control systems of Nazi and post-Nazi Germany (a continuum by other means); the invisible bodies of the pulverized dead shadow the plants and office blocks; Tiergartenstraße No. 4, where Aktion T-4 (Aktionist?) was hatched—the extermination of the unfit and insane—is now a bus terminal; tourists marvel at the great modernist IG Farben complex, alone in an otherwise-erased Frankfurt (IG Farben’s American legal representative: John Foster Dulles, who also worked for Krupp). No wonder Kren and his friends Otto Muehl and Herman Nitsch wanted to cut off their fingers and smear themselves with vomit, filming it all straight on, just like the Nazis shot the Warsaw Ghetto.

Kurt Kren

Sitting through works like Kardinal, Self-Multilation, and Sodoma remains a chore, but for different reasons than in 1969, I hazard. The glaring bright colors now reflect Japanese game shows or late style millionaire pop art; the beatings, couplings, spurtings and evacuations have long been appropriated by gross-out horror shtick in mainstream Hollywood, likewise the flashing old film stock and jump cuts. What is left is a past-tense sense of the epic, a lofty Wagnerian pronouncement that the cinema is best equipped to investigate violence and that entertainment is really all just fascism. Shaking off the idea of gesamkunstwerk or the marble atrocities of Arno Breker proved harder than it looked, no matter how true every sickened pronouncement of Aktionist agit-prop was—and it was, it certainly is true.

If the ‘Baroque’ aspect of these films was once part of the attack, it has now become a sign of the long dreary reach of fetishism and managed hypocrisy. The problem with animal intestines, bodies wrapped in metal wire, and piles of soaking flesh is that the arrangement does not mirror the repressed psyche of a generation of sons of Gauleiters, born-again liberal bureaucrats and captains of industry, but a great cathedral of interlinked reactionary problems to be solved hermetically. From this point on, such problems were doomed to become wholly personal—as if the artists were unconsciously terrified of collective nihilism after Goebbels cornered the market. Austria is mainly Catholic, and the confessional is never far away from Aktionist agony. Redemption rears its bestial head—which also implies a second innocence, which is postmodern salvation.

To expose the unreality of what remained of the saccharine and morose Nazi regime via vitriol and bleeding flesh was clearly not enough. After the Aktionists called it quits and retired to their various castles and cultic fiefdoms, the Red Army Faction kidnapped former SS officer, then-CDU member, and Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie head Hanns Martin Schleyer in 1977. When the German government refused to trade this grotesque relic for four captured RAF fighters (who were mysteriously found hanging in their cells afterward, á la the ANC in South Africa, and also like Ulrike Meinhof, a year earlier, another ‘suicide’—all of which shows the repulsive cynicism lurking under a supposedly ‘democratic’ state), Herr Schleyer was topped and left in the trunk of an Audi. No loss, but tears and outrage flowed from a middle class that forgot that it was a far, far greater executioner in ‘39. The late 1970s were dark, dark, dark. The very outrageousness of their ‘happenings’ show that the Aktionists were suckered in by hope ten years prior. The world remakes itself, oblivious.

The case of Aktionist Kren is more curious and longer lasting than the King Ludwig-like careers of Nitsch and Muehl. His early films were stark or wiggly or frozen: trees, landscapes, little images, people in rooms doing hypnotized screen tests. Unlike his later direction in Sodoma et al, he seemed concerned with the medium’s archaic properties and the possibility of making still-life and landscape political. He returned to this program out of the Aktionist dead end.

31/75: Asyl, from 1975, a sequel to his 1960 3/60: Bäume im Herbst, is one of his best films. More Holbein than Kaspar David Friedrich, it shrinks the epic panorama down to an insect view. Using a simple form of time-lapse photography, a static shot shows farmland and a winding road in late autumn to early winter. By placing various filters over the lens, days pass in globules, wax drippings, thick polluted rain, condensation and gum. A man with a dog goes in and out of frame; the snow melts, it rains; light shifts. Not blood and soil but damp, oily mud like a Turner marsh. And no heroics with geysers of blood, iron crosses and milk, the exegesis of guilt. However, there is certainly something displacing the day here. The status quo of round-ups and tests? Isolation, inner migration? The ‘asylum’ of the title suggests a place of refuge but like in English, the German asyl can also mean a madhouse or political asylum. The film was shot in Saarland, West Germany, under French control after WW1 but returned to Germany in 1935. Saarland is border country, a place of several masters and populations on the move. Kren himself was sent off on one of the Kindertransport to Rotterdam, where he lived until the end of the war.

Wilhelm Reich, in his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, showed that the mysticism of Nazi ideology was depicted foremost in pretzeled human bodies, a combination of Protestant asceticism and cheap porn cartooned in the figure of the swastika. Before landscape, Fascism uses bulky propaganda to conjure up the Fatherland and recites bad poetry about the holy relation between man, pig, earth and muck. Sacrifice is the Father’s cloying prayer, his own death extended by his sons’ dying—for most fathers in the Fatherland rented their land from wealthy landlords, rented rooms from good Aryans, worked for Herr NSDAP Millionaire Flick. Places of death are used over and over again; their industrial emptiness ensures that no birds sing. No birds sing, but not out of reverence for the dead so much as disgust for the living—the quiet living that made those dead, that signed contracts for transport expediency for a Jew, Gypsy or a Red.

Kren’s view from a windowsill does have some of this void mood, yet he rejects the trap of timelessness in favor of everyday decay. The immortal Frost Gods can only bury dogshit in deep snows, give you pneumonia, cake your axel with mud. The landscape lives on geologically and not mystically. It has beautiful things, extraordinary things, because its own microscopic changes are more fabulous than eternity. Kren’s little film avoids both faces of the same reactionary crisis: that of the epic-making National Socialists, and his own earlier anti-epics that attacked the drapery of the historical fasces. Fall and winter last a little over 8 minutes in the duration of this film, which took 21 days to shoot. The Third Reich was supposed to last for 525,600,000 minutes, which is a thousand years of unreal time. William Blake wrote: He who binds to himself a joy/ Does the winged life destroy.

All of Kren’s films are curious, even his old naughty routines. He moved to America in 1978 and travelled the country, stopping to show his films at universities before finally settling in Texas, where he split his time between Austin and Houston. There, he became a fixture in the punk scene, appearing with some of the best bands of the time, projecting his films behind the noisy vigorous music of Left agitators like Really Red and Culturcide. Always a workman, he made new films while employed as a security guard at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. He died back in Vienna in 1998.

by Martin Billheimer

Links:

Technical details of the film here: http://www.resettheapparatus.net/corpus-work/id-31-75-asylum.html

The film @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cblbgbnE1wo

‘Ode to Kurt Kren’, fan video with photos, using the tribute song by his friends, Really Red, recorded 1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3_RfD0Qv_k

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richardmurrayhumblr · 4 years

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In the future, aside Mons Huygens, in the capitol of the E.N.U., a school for age 6s in district five, Gandhi Academy, has Origin Day. The children wait for the box of noted old things from Earth's past to be revealed. A teacher open up the box, flanked by her peers, and various items are present. Each child in the school's roster take an item. ... Marianne look at the storage unit and read from a letter, by White Feather. "My grandfather was told by his grandfather, as they opposed the building of a pipeline, that he remember his son, my great grandfather, fighting in the original American Indian Movement. How these white men came and took his son's daughter one late evening. They found her weeks later two states over in Illinois. Local authorities or federal authorities never found out who did it. But, my great grandfather, with the bow he made, lived in the street and hunted those men with the old ways. He eventually found those men and murdered them. The police nor other law enforcement came but the family knew as he told them how he did it, and it coincided eerily to the news report. My grandfather was told this tale during the video presentation you are watching. The AIM flag was not preferred by my great grandfather but after avenging my great grandmother, he flew it proudly wherever he went"

Gentle Cougar took out an old photo and read a letter from Candace Nascimento. "My grandmother was a field nurse during world war I. She knew about the field from her grandfather, a former buffalo soldier, who had a forebear that served the British during the united states war of independence. He told her he was forever shamed about his tenure in that unit and she should never serve the USA in any fashion, giving him the chance to kill for a fantasy. But, during the war to end all wars, she saw many of her friends heading off and wanted to join them. And she did. She lost her fiancé in Southern France, a sander from Louisiana, deterring the main German offensive. The USA never awarded him. But she survived and was emboldened to be a pan africanists. She wanted to find her way to a Black country. And she is waving the flag in this photo. Some white cops later that month confiscated all the money they had gathered to make a boat with provisions. It broke my grandmother's heart. But, she found her husband, Rodrigo, later that year and he was always proud of her waving that flag, as he never had saw such an exhibition in Salvador"

N'Dule took out a colored photo and read a letter from Georgina Blake Jefferson. "My grandmother grew up in the bayou, in true cajun country. She never finished elementary. And decided to work as a house cleaner for the elites in New Orleans. One day, soon before her eighteenth birthday, a group of guys from the North were partying for Mardi Gras. They waited for her to leave her shift and grabbed her. She couldn't struggle against a group of five men. She learned later, her brother as a member of Beauregard's men secretly patrolled new orleans to keep the cajun women safe. And, even though one had violated her, before the others could get there turn, her brother and his friends found the rig of her captors. She never forgot seeing the beauty of the battle flag of northern virginia on their jackets. It represented a safety the stars and stripes never did, a pride in being southern. This photo she took at her birthday party later, she would always carry a battle flag with her wherever she went"

Carlos Tenji took out a drawing and read a letter from Madiba Patel. "My grandfather was a refuge and his family chose the usa cause it was the biggest option. Any country in europe seem smaller and already too congested, and no one spoke chinese or russian or portuguese. My great grandmother spoke english so that was an assist. My grandfather was an internet millionaire with his roaming cinema verité. Going around hitchhiking, taking online viewers on his journeys. This graphic was designed for a government official. Some people were tearing it all down. My grandfather gained a limp trying to stop them. He told the people, he wasn't trying to change them, but asking them to stop trying to change others. If we learn to live side by side unlikely neighbors, neighbors we oppose while we don't try to change, we can have true peace, not a deceptive slavery. It took many decades but we finally did learn how"

... Other kids presented items from yore but none were flags.

…If you enjoyed this tale check out the others utilizing the links below Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-murray-16885e64-6c28-459e-bf5f-45c7d458ce49 AALBC https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/blog/29-richard-murray-hearth/ Poetry or More Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Poetry%20or%20More&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=06baba96-5af5-5d24-9b8a-f06360287dc9 Visasiki Audiobook https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Visasiki%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=965aea81-4e13-53fe-8bc8-22fcb6d28a39 Short Story Collection https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Richard%20Murray%20Short%20Story%20Collection&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=014c67c4-d29d-584e-ada0-62c0fa015714

#rmflagday #rmaalbc #submission

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kkglinka · 5 years

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DragonCon was pretty mellow for me this year, except for the part where I discovered that the RWBY cast were attending for the first time, and that all the RWBY stuff was basically the first day of the con. Oof, because I'd been planning to test and adjust my cosplay before the serious part of the con. On the upside, I got to meet the cast and got my prop signed.

I did a homestay at the place called In-Town Spot Beltline which proved both very nice and convenient. There was a shopping complex I could walk to and the Marta terminal was right up the street. The woman who owned the house filled it with gluten free stuff which was a pleasant surprise. Sure, it was right by the train tracks but I spent my teens close to some and tuned it right out.

I'm the regular Blake in the photos, except I was pretty shiny and there are no close-up photos to show off the spiffy low-key pattern on my dresscoat. :( I know there are more pics of me floating around but I forgot to check the site info of the main photographer of the group shot. "Starrk63 Cosplay" has a facebook with more photos and, presumably, a link to the official photographer's page. The important thing is that small children universally agreed that my costume was really pretty and that's about the highest praise you can get.

I attended a few panels but there was nothing particularly new at the RWBY ones. The usual questions about work inspirations, habits, techniques, etc. There was far less Bee's rep than I expected too, which was a surprise. There was that one silly Adam stan who claimed that Adam could have won the waterfall fight, during the Lightning Round questions. Arryn predictably shot him down.

#kkglinka does stuff #dragoncon #dragoncon2019 #rwby #blake belladonna #pyrrha nikos

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malachite-isms · 4 years

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Team RWBY's Kissmas Challenge pt1

(The idea for this came to me after rereading a prompted post by @miss-pyrrha-nikos-isms that was very well written. I wanted to write this before I forgot, and before Christmas was too far gone. In any case, enjoy!)

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A pair of silver eyes stared confidently at the brick building before them. To the owner of those eyes, tonight would be a night of triumph, development, and camaraderie. The same could not be said of her three compatriots.

"Ruby, I know you mean well," said Blake, genuine concern on her face ",but don't you think this is... I don't know..." The blush that crept its way onto her face said what she couldn't.

"I have to agree," said Weiss, continuing the train of thought ", while I do think this is a unique way to practice an invaluable skill, I can't say I'm entirely comfortable walking into a metaphorical shark tank."

Ruby turned to face her team. "Oh come on guys, this perfect! Those two have snuck up on us and basically smacked big 'property of the Twins' stickers on us!" Her team flushed at the memories conjured by their leader's words. "Not only will we be having fun at a real nightclub," Ruby continued, woefully unaware ", we'll be practicing our awesome huntress skills, and getting those monkeys off our backs!"

"While I do enjoy nightclubs," Yang piped up, still wearing a blush that first appeared when her sister announced her plan ", I feel like those monkeys won't be getting off our backs so much as getting... on... elsewhere." The implication caused the group's blushing to intensify.

"Only if we let them!" Ruby countered, her enthusiasm refusing to be contained. "We know their game, so if we stay on our toes, I'm sure we can walk out of there without so much as a smudge of lipstick on us!"

"Actually," Yang interjected ",this is a pretty busy time of year for the club, so they might not even have time for their usual antics."

"I feel like they'd notice if their 'favorite playmate' walked in," Blake responded with a playful smirk aimed Yang's way.

"Yang's right!" Ruby continued as her sister face lit up beet red. "This is one of the best chances we'll get to win back team RWBY's pride!"

"Oh for the..." Weiss sighed ",whatever, I'd rather go in there now than go all the way back to Beacon in this cold."

The team walked towards the entrance to the club, unaware of the hunters waiting for them within.

--------------------

A feeling of dread permeated through each of the four warriors as they entered. Immediately, they all noticed the alarming decorations hanging above most of the expansive room.

There, suspended from the rafters were dozens, if not hundreds of small bunches of mistletoe. The strings were so thin, one might assume the plants were suspended by an unseen magic.

Our heroes however, were less awed by the whimsical decoration and more anxious at the implied threat that awaited them on the club's main floor.

"W-Well," Ruby stammered, a blush beginning to appear on her cheeks ",we can still assume they won't be focused on us, right?"

Four scrolls buzzed, each alerting their owner to a message that read:

"Always nice to see such pretty faces~ Even better to kiss em 💋💋💋"

The team's faces lit up as they read the ominous message from their assailants.

"W-W-Well," Ruby said, failing to sound remotely confident ",let's do this, team!" She shook her head in an attempt to regain her composure "We'll show them they can't defeat us so easily!"

The four huntresses took cautious footsteps into the sea of revelers.

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That dolt! Weiss thought as she made her way towards the bar, keeping to the edges of the dance floor. Of all the holidays to drop us into this lions' den, why did it have to be one of the two where kissing was a popular tradition?!

Her eyes darted between countless club goers she passed, making sure each and every one was not one of the formidable twins.

Finally, blessedly, she arrived at the bar. She was no expert on this sort of establishment, but she felt confident enough that she would not be assailed in such an area. The heiress ordered a Cold in the Shadows. Safe though she felt, her color had yet to go down, a fact not helped by the fact get mind waa wandering back to the fateful day she was targeted by the Malachite Twins.

She had heard tales from the likes of Yang about the Twins' beauty and amorous brand of mischief, but she has assumed that it was something the fiery brawler brought upon herself. When the Twins actually made their way into the dorm room of team RWBY and gave her a demonstration of their antics, Weiss was well and truly enamored.

No. No no no.

She was not enamored by the inappropriate Twins and their inappropriate prank. She most certainly did not enjoy being assaulted in unwanted kisses that stained her skin from an unruly pair such as them. She laid on the floor, unable to speak because she was immobilized by anger, certainly not by any kind of uncouth emotions.

No. Most definitely not.

"Your drink, miss." Came the voice that shook her from her definitely-not-fond recollection.

"Thank y-" Weiss's blood froze in her veins when her eyes found the holder of her desired beverage.

"I suggest you come here and get it before the ice melts~" teased Melanie Malachite "or..."

A sudden flash of red darted up from beneath the bar and threw its arms around Weiss's neck. "We could bring you to us~"

Weiss could not respond before Miltiades's lips found hers and pulled her over and beneath the bar. A cacophony of kisses went unheard beneath the bar as Melanie knocked back Weiss's beverage with practiced speed before joining her sister in marking their first prize.

--------------------------

Yang layed on the bed in the private room of the club, face papered with lipstick and most of her clothes strewn on the floor.

"Damnit," she said to the ceiling.

Their second target was no challenge.

--------------------------

Blake sat alone in a booth away from the main dance floor. She counted herself lucky to find such a secluded spot in such a populated public place.

She was not entirely sure if she was lucky in this particular situation however. While she was isolated and had a wall at her back, she had spent the better part of the last half hour scanning the best routes of escape should the Twins find her. This would not end like last time if she had anything to say about it.

She'd been assailed by the Twins once before in her preferred bookstore. She was always glad to find peace in that particular shop; not too big, not too busy, and plenty quiet. They were quick in their work, painting Blake's face in kisses before leaving her to collect herself. However, she would lay there, lipstick-riddled face staring into the void until the shopkeep had to come rouse her to close the store.

She could not say she did not like kisses, but she would prefer to have them on her terms.

Blake was awoken from her trance by the most wonderful feeling behind her left faunus ear. She closed her eyes and leaned into the feeling, stopping only when her cheek met a pair of lips.

She jolted upright and saw Melanie, lips still puckered, sitting right next to her.

She made to scramble backward, but was stopped short by a scratching below her chin. She followed the culprit finger to its owner, Miltiades who was sitting on her right.

The red twin gently coaxed Blake to pull her face closer. Blake, putty in her hands, obliged and was rewarded with a peck on the lips.

To her horror, Blake could hear a purr emanating from within her. She flushed a deep red, eliciting a giggle from the Twins.

"Having fun there, kitty cat?" the Twins asked in unison. Before she could form a coherent response, Blake's chin was gently scratched back toward Melanie, who planted a soft kiss on her lips as well.

All of a sudden, there were no plans of escape. Just gentle scratches that Blake could not resist and kisses she couldn't not avoid.

Blake purred through it all. Their third prize had submitted herself to them.

------------------

Ruby stood ten paces from the bar. Seated there were the Twins who had harmed her team's pride. They were looking right at her, waiting. Not for the right moment to strike, but for the inevitable to occur. Ruby would sooner die than give them the satisfaction.

... Those cookies did look fresh though.

Their fourth and final target was a success of preparation.

------------------

The next day, all four members of team RWBY sat on their beds in their dorm. A look of sullen defeat painted their now lipstick-free faces as they gazed at their scrolls.

On the screens were dozens and dozens of photos their assailants had taken during their mischief making.

All four of them agreed they had a horrible time. All four of them fully intended to try again some day.

------------------

(I know this is silly and probably dumb, but I couldn't do anything else until I put this idea into words. Anybut, Happy Holidays everyone!

#rwby #Malachite Twins #team rwby #ruby rose #Weiss Schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Christmas

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collecting-stories · 5 years

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East Wing - John Blake

Could I request a Batman nolanverse for John Blake (aka Robin)? If yes, I had an idea where the reader is Bruce Wayne's sister and she met John a ways back just by random chance, so over time they became friends and he was always sweet on her. The fic would be a reunion after the Bane incident, maybe where she's helping Alfred prepare the Manor for the boy's home that moves in and her and John see each other again and it's just cute??? Maybe even the boys tease them? Thanks beautiful xxx

East Wing - John Blake

You stood at the closed doors of the east wing, hand on the doorknob as you listened to Alfred down stairs, instructing the movers. It had been less than two weeks since your brother’s funeral but the renovations to the manor were almost complete. You hadn’t lived at Wayne Manor since you left for college and had little interest in keeping the estate for yourself. Leaving it for the boy’s home from which your brother had received help and care when he was young had always been something the two of you spoke of. When he passed you honored his wishes, agreeing to renovate and leave the home to the boys. But the east wing had yet to be touched, Alfred had offered to take care of it but you had refused, telling him that you needed to clean it out yourself.

“Alfred told me you would be up here.”

You were a baby when your parents died. Too young to be affected by their death the way that your brother was but you had grown up experiencing Bruce’s trauma second hand for the better part of your childhood. Alfred had strived to give you some semblance of normalcy, a life where you weren’t constantly expected to mourn for people that you had never even met. But it was the boys home in the heart of Gotham City that truly saved both you and your brother. Bruce was a boy when Alfred sent him there in hopes that the community of young men and counselors would provide healing that he himself could not give. You never went, there was no home for young girls would had lost parents or needed out-reach, a problem in itself that you had been giving more and more thought to since your brother’s passing. But you had visited a couple of times. When Bruce was older he liked to go back there, see the place and help with funding for the building and supplies. It was there in the boy’s home that you met John Blake.

John was around your age and he’d lost his parents as well. He had a complete memory of them though, like your brother did, not just someone else’s words. He also lacked a fancy manor or a butler who was more of a father or the resources to provide for himself. So he was there, like most of the other boys, full time until he was eighteen. And it was just before his birthday that you meant him. Accompanying your brother on a publicity day, you stayed mostly in the background of the photos and greetings. It was Bruce who posed with kids playing basketball while you stood, awkward and seventeen, by the door.

“The Wayne foundation has really done a lot, for this place I mean.” John had come over to speak to you and he started off sounding like all the middle-aged men in suits who spout lines to kiss your brother’s ass.

You had laughed at the gesture, “it’s alright, I won’t tell him if you don’t say something nice.”

“Sorry,” John smiled, sheepish and maybe a little unsure of himself, “I’m John.”

When he offered his hand you took it, introducing yourself. The rest of the afternoon you spent with John, talking about what he planned to do after he left the boy’s home and what you planned to do once you graduated from high school. You lacked your brother’s need to leave Gotham and while you knew of his nightly activities you wanted to help the city you loved in a different way, for a different reason. John was an easy person to be friendly with. Things with Bruce had always been on edge, your brother was secretive and he pushed people away with more ease than he trusted them. You knew he had his reasons, especially when he started to don the cape but there was never a time you could truly remember him making space for you in his life. Just a reminder that your parents, his parents, were dead. With John around you felt happier than you had in a long time and you spent much of the next few years in Gotham City, with John. It was only as work increased for both of you that you began to drift from each other.

“I can’t open it.” You replied, looking over your shoulder finally to see John standing there. He was holding a duffel bag and he was out of uniform, though you weren’t sure he planned on continuing his career with the police department after everything that happened. You had seen him during Bane’s upheaval of the city, but only briefly on television. This was the first time in years, since he’d become a cop, that you had actually seen him in person. He looked older, but maybe that was just the trauma of the last few years and not age.

“Do you want help?” He asked, setting the bag down and moving toward you.

“It’s not...” you shook your head, realizing what he meant and smiling for the first time since the funeral. “it’s not jammed, I just, can’t open it.”

John nodded in understanding and then gestured to the door, offering his help still. You backed away and let him open the east wing. You almost expected to see Bruce standing there in the center of the room but you knew it was foolish to think that way. Even if he wasn’t dead, and something in you said that he wasn’t, he was never coming home to Gotham. He was good as.

“Thank you.” You didn’t meet his eyes as you spoke.

“Do you need help clearing it out?” John asked, looking into the room.

“I couldn’t ask you too. I’m sure you’re busy.”

“I’m not. I offered to help move the boys in anyway.” He noticed your hesitancy and shrugged, “I’m sure Alfred needs some help downstairs. The boys were eager to get in and they brought them early so,”

“Oh, I can imagine him now.” You laughed, thinking of all those boys running through the manor and remembering how you and John, even as teenagers, used to run through the halls after each other. Alfred must’ve yelled at you hundreds of times and you were positive it was driving him mad not being able to scold these boys for tearing up the house that used to be under his charge.

“There are some boxes downstairs, if you want I can box everything in here and put it in my car and drive it to your apartment.” John offered, “you don’t even have to go in.”

“I moved,” was all you could think to say. That old walk-up on the northside of town had always given you trouble and you had moved a few blocks over to a small apartment above a bodega on the corner. Bruce always made fun of it, pointing out that you could afford something nicer than that but you insisted on it. The manor was always too big for you and even Bruce’s penthouse was overwhelming.

“I know.” John nodded, “I’m a cop remember?”

“So you’ve been keeping tabs on me Blake?” You laughed, “cause if you have then I wanna know why all those parking tickets are still in my name?”

“Try paying them,” he teased, smiling at you.

His smile made you feel like you were seventeen again, up on the roof of the boy’s home while he tried to flirt with you by complimenting your brother’s company. You smiled, “how’ve you been? I missed you.”

“Well some crazy guy tried to destroy Gotham, don’t know if you heard about that,” John moved subtly into the room and you followed without realizing it, “but otherwise you know, same old same old.”

“I think I did hear about that. Hero cop helped save the day right?” You asked.

“Hero detective.” He corrected.

“Right, sorry about that. I forgot you got a fancy promotion,” you replied, hands finding a picture of Bruce and Rachel from their college years. “They were so in love.”

“Sounds familiar.” John said, glancing over your shoulder at the framed portrait.

You looked back at him as you placed the picture down again, “we were, weren’t we.”

With one hand on your waist his other held your arm as he leaned down and placed a kiss on your shoulder, right beside the strap of your tank top. The smile never leaving his face as he looked back up at you, “I know I still am.”

“John,” you turned around to face him, leaning your forehead against his and reaching your hand up to brush his cheek.

Suddenly you pulled away from each other, gagging sounds coming from the open door of the east wing. When you looked over a group of the boys were there, looking around the sides of the doors laughing. John pulled away from you, walking over to the door and shaking his head at them. You laughed as he closed the doors on them.

“Bye,” you called, waving as they groaned and protested being shut out of the room.

“Now, where were we?” John asked, smiling at you.

“I think you were, cleaning this whole room out for me all by yourself?” You teased, walking toward the door. You smiled when John held his arm out and stopped you from leaving.

First time writing John Blake...I do love Joseph Gordon Levitt though.

#John Blake imagine #batman (nolan-verse) imagine #batman imagine #John Blake fanfiction #robin imagine #John Blake/Robin imagine #batman (Nolan-verse) fanfiction #batman fanfiction #collecting stories imagine

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hwu-adventures-blog · 4 years

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For The World- Thomas Hunt x MC fanfic:

Series: Red Carpet Diaries, Hollywood U, references to High School Story app.

Pairings: Thomas Hunt x HWU!MC, references to Matt x RCD!MC, references to Ethan Blake x Addison Sinclair (seriously I used to ship them so hard when I started playing Hollywood U so I though it would be fun to include them in there).

Description: Eight years after RCD and ten years after HWU, Thomas Hunt finally has got the life he wanted. (Because he deserves a happy ending even if he’s not your LI in RCD)

A/N: Just thought I’d clear some stuff up before the fic starts, this is following my personal headcannon that since I refused to romance Hunt in RCD (no matter how tempting it was, I still shipped him with HWU MC and they are my pixelberry OTP) the HWU MC and Thomas broke up before RCD and got back together after RCD 3. In my previous fic I played with the break up and the potential friendship between the two. But here’s what I’ve decided is still going on or is cannon in my headcannon of what happened (if you get my meaning) after just to clear up some confusion you may have about this fic and the previous fic:

Chris and HWU!MC did not get married or have a kid, this was confirmed by RCD 3 where we met Chris’ wife, however, HWU MC did have a fiancé when she and Hunt reconciled (all will be explained in this fic).

The reason for the break up did still happen because HWU!MC’s mum is a b*tch and couldn’t allow her daughter to be happy.

Her Fiancé referenced in the fic was one of Luke’s frat boy friends and it explains, why it didn’t end well and how she ended up with Hunt again when, well, just wait and see...

Anyway here it is and I hope you enjoy the fic!

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For The World:

A five year old girl with dark hair and brown eyes sat in the living room with her brother, a boy of about three years, with brown hair and blue eyes looking over at a photo album their mother was showing them of her years in high school and university that they had both demanded to see as she was sorting out the office.

“Mommy, daddy isn’t in any of these pictures” the young girl said

“That’s because your dad isn’t fond of having his photo taken and we haven’t got to the ones he’s in yet l” her mum replied

“That being said, who’s that?” She pointed to a photo on the next page, a photo her friend Autumn had taken of the gang at the set of ‘Hamartia’, which gave her her first acting role (and a bit of a dip into directing) with Chris Winters and-

“daddy” the younger sibling exclaimed

“He’s not smiling” the elder one pointed out

“He wasn’t happy that a bunch of high school students wanted to take a photo” their mum laughed

“But you were there, wasn’t he happy about that?”

“No, your dad didn’t really know me at that point, to him I was just another annoying fifteen year old in the background of a film”

“You’ve got that wrong, I knew you were special even then, even if I didn’t quite know how special or in what way” a voice said from the doorway

“Daddy!” The girl immediately jumped down from her seat and ran towards her father and hugged him tightly

“Hello Isobel, how was kindergarten?” He asked returning the hug

“Great! I made lots of drawings!” She pulled away from her dad

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“Why don’t you go and bring them to show daddy?” Her mother smiled and the five year old skipped off to find them as her mother smiled at her husband “hi Thomas, I thought you weren’t back until late tonight?”

“You know how unreliable filming can sometimes be, Maddie, and we were ahead of schedule, so I thought I’d spend an evening with my family, even if it is gone seven” Thomas smiled moving into the room they had been in and giving his wife a kiss hello.

“Daddy, you forgot me!” The three year old exclaimed interrupting his father and mother and reaching out for the director as if he wanted to be picked up

“I didn’t forget about you Teddy” Thomas smiled at his son scooping him up from the wheelchair he was sat in. Edward or Teddy, had been paralysed from the waist down from birth and that had proved a challenge for his parents, and whilst that was the case, It didn’t mean his parents and older sister didn’t love him any less

“Mummy’s showing pictures”

“what pictures?”

“Just my high school ones and University ones, don’t worry, nothing too bad”

“I wasn’t worried, you’re a good enough mom”

“Daddy! Look at what I drew!” Isobel or Izzy had returned holding a drawing out to her father he took it and looked at it fondly

“It’s of, me, Teddy, you, mommy, auntie Rachel, uncle Steve and Jonathan”

Johnathan was Rachel’s son, who was born two months after Isobel was and the pair were the best of friends, which Maddie found hilarious considering Thomas’ tendency to argue with his sister.

“That’s very good Isobel, I expect Jonathan would like to see it when we see them next week, so you would be best off keeping it safe in your room” Thomas said

“Speaking of rooms it’s time for bed” Maddie said looking at her watch which said seven thirty

“Aw, but mommy you said we could stay up”

“For half an hour more, half an hour ago, besides your brother is already asleep”

This was true, Thomas noticed that his son had fallen fast asleep in his arms in the two or three minutes he had been holding him.

“Daddy, can I-“

“No Isobel, your mom is right”

“But I wanna stay up and spend time with you daddy!”

“How about I make you a deal? You go to bed nicely and I’ll be up to read you a story” Thomas, trying to avoid a tantrum, spoke gently but sternly to the five year old who, considers the offer before nodding

“Night night mommy!”

“Night night Izzy, sweet dreams” her mum smiled kissing her forehead before doing the same to Teddy and taking Thomas’ hand, Izzy lead him up the stairs to the bedrooms, leaving Maddie behind to switch on the TV quietly and find a film for her and Thomas to watch.

Twenty five minutes later, the spot on the sofa next to Maddie dipped down and Thomas sank back into the furniture with a sigh of exhaustion, he wrapped his arm around his wife as she stretched out on the sofa and leaned into him.

“Tired?” She asked

“Who knew a five year old would be difficult at bed time?”

“You’re lucky the three year old was asleep, then it’s two verses one!”

“I do not envy you” he said before realising what was on tv “Prominence?”

“It’s just starting, figured you’d need to watch a film to relax, I was lucky it was one of your favourites” Maddie said “really takes you back doesn’t it?”

“it does, hopefully we won’t have anyone to interrupt us this time” he smiled

“Well except from a five year old and a three year old”

“I was thinking more of your arch rivals but those two would do to, Isobel is one handful, thankfully for a three year old, Teddy is not so much of one, well apart from, but that’s not his fault”

“No, like you told me when he was born, it’s not anyone’s fault , nobody could do anything about it. It’s just one of those things” Maddie agreed, Teddy’s birth had been long and hard, for Maddie and because of the resulting paralysis of her son, she had struggled with thinking she’d done something wrong and caused it, luckily Thomas had been there to comfort her and make her realise that it was not her fault, it was just the way things were and nobody was at fault “Izzy is definitely less of a handful when you’re around, she’s a daddy’s girl”

“No she isn’t”

“She is! If it was me making that deal with her she’d have refused and gone straight to tantrum, waking up Teddy who would have then joined in” Maddie laughed “she’s as stubborn as you are”

Isobel was definitely a daddy’s girl and everyone knew it! When she was born, she took a liking to Thomas, more than she did Maddie, as she would always be good when Thomas was looking after her, but when it was Maddie she’d just scream, it was quite comical actually, Maddie had developed a theory that the reason why she was like that was because Thomas had named her and he’d chosen to name her after Isobel Lennart, a famous screenwriter and playwright, famous for films such as ‘Love Me or Leave Me’, and ‘It Happened In Brooklyn’, and for writing the book for the musical ‘Funny Girl’ as Thomas had pointed out, was one of Maddie’s favourite old musicals. And it appears her theory was appearing to be correct.

“Well in that case Teddy is a mommy’s boy”

“Of course he’s a mummy’s boy, he’s the baby of the family”

Maddie was the one who named Teddy, Edward, after one of the characters in her favourite book, ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows’, Teddy Lupin and after one of her favourite actors of all time, Eddie Redmayne, and another character in one of her favourite musicals, ‘Blood Brothers’, which Thomas was delighted about, but she was lucky he liked the name Edward so, it stuck. And that appeared to confirm Maddie’s theory, as Teddy became a mummy’s boy through and through, as it was the complete opposite to what happened with Isobel, he’d be good for Maddie but not for Thomas.

“So you were showing them photos today?” Thomas nodded to the album on the coffee table

“Yeah they wanted to, like I said earlier, it was just the ones from my teenage years, didn’t even get onto Hollywood U so you were barely in them”

“I wouldn’t have minded if I was in them, our children deserve to know our story, as long as there’s no inappropriate ones in there”

“Why would I put inappropriate pictures in a family album? No, your underwear modelling photos are safe away from children’s eyes, along with the other photos that could destroy their innocence all together” Maddie said teasingly as she noticed her husband going red “anyway, speaking of family, what did you mean when you said to Iz about seeing Rachel’s family next week?”

“I knew you’d catch onto that slip of the tongue”

“Nothing get’s past me anymore, it came with the mothers intuition”

Thomas shifted in his seat to make himself more comfortable “I may have invited Rachel, Alice, Chris, Addison and the others and their families to celebrate our anniversary next week”

Alice and Matt Rodriguez were the second of the group to have children, after Chris, then it had been Thomas’ sister, Rachel, who had lost the having kids part of the sibling race/competition between them to her brother by two months, so now they were currently equal in the race, and finally everyone was surprised (well, maybe not Maddie) when Addison had started dating Ethan and had a kid within a year of doing so. It was weird, all their friends had children, they had children, and yet they were pretty much all still in their twenties, well, with the exception of Thomas of course.

“Is that all?” Maddie raised an eyebrow at Thomas

“No, but I am not going to divulge you in what I am planning”

“Not even if I reward you for it?” She smiled coyly loosening Thomas tie, he cleared his throat and put his focus back to the film

“No, not going to work”

“Damn” Maddie cursed before looking at her wedding band on her finger Thomas noticed this, and turned his attention back to his wife

“What is it?”

“I can’t believe next week is our sugar wedding anniversary”

“It’s been six years and we’ve had two kids and yet I can still remember it as if it was yesterday” Thomas smiled at his wife

“Probably because I ruined it by making you cry because I told you I was pregnant with who would later be Izzy and completely destroyed your reputation as a heartless bastard”

“You didn’t ruin it, it made me the happiest man in the world twice over, and whilst I would be awful for someone to announce their pregnancy at another person’s wedding I think there are exceptions if you’re the bride and you’ve just found out you’re pregnant or you don’t announce it to everyone which you didn’t. And the Hollywood tabloids should have known I wasn’t heartless, just honest, by that point”

Thomas could remember that moment easily, it had just been just after the first dance, in which he’d surprised her by not telling her they were dancing to ‘Beauty and The Beast’ which had been her only dream wedding requirement as a child that had secretly stayed with her her entire life. She’d pulled him off to the side, telling him she had a surprise for him too, an extra wedding present, if you will, and handed him a small box with a positive pregnancy test in with a nervous smile. After opening it and realising what the hell it meant he had been so overjoyed that he’d completely forgotten about his reputation, pulled her into a tearful hug and spun her around happily, not caring if anyone saw them.

“That’s debatable, some would argue you’re just as heartless as the day you broke up with me” Maddie pulled him away from the memory teasingly

“That wasn’t my fault” he defended himself

“Relax, I know, if anything it was the ultimate bitch’s fault for the whole thing, and I’m glad that you knocked some sense into me to cut ties with her permanently especially after Teddy was born and besides, I like to think that without that three year blip in our relationship, we wouldn’t be where we are today”

“Well, I could argue we would be exactly where we are but go on” he said

“Where do you think we’d be now if you hadn’t crashed my wedding?”

“I did not crash your wedding! That would go completely against my character to....I merely delayed it a little, by strolling into the church a little late and expressed my opinion on the matter, you were the one who actually ended it and went with me”

Maddie raised an eyebrow at him again that was literally the definition of wedding crashing and objecting to one.

“Okay, fine, I did ‘crash’ it but I wouldn’t have without that letter from a certain someone”

“Touché”

“And to answer your question, exactly where we are now”

That took Maddie by surprise and she lifted her head to look at him

“Are you saying my marriage to Jason wouldn’t have worked out?”

“Jason was a misogynist, and a player, not to mention he spent most of the time down at a bar with his college friends, you said it yourself, you weren’t cut out for being, what was it that you said? ‘Being what Lizzie feared to be at the beginning of Shaun of The Dead’? I expect you’d have had it annulled and found your way back to me eventually”

“What makes you think I’d go back to you?”

“To quote your letter again you were ‘like Olivia Newton-John in Grease, you were hopelessly devoted’ to me and considering we were friends at that point it isn’t much of a stretch”

“Well, you are the Danny to my Sandy” Maddie smiled cheekily at him “or is it the other way round?”

Thomas chuckled at the joke before turning to the screen and pointing out a bit of the film

“this is a brilliant bit of Cinematography, North really captures the emotions the characters are feeling in a single shot”

“And there’s the man I married” Maddie smiled and turned to the screen snuggling into her husband and focused her attention to the film.

A while later the film had ended with surprisingly no interruptions by either of their children. Thomas switched off the tv, getting ready to go to bed, and looked down at his wife, her chest rising and falling at a steady pace, a peaceful look on her face, she had fallen fast asleep during the film. she must have had an exhausting day, looking after the children, which she had volunteered to do whilst he worked on his latest film. He smiled, as he tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear, his fingers lightly tracing the soft skin of her face.

“I love you” he whispered “so much” before leaning over to kiss the top of her head, Maddie stirred at the movement and opened her eyes sleepily to look at her husband

“What did you say?” She asked barely awake

“Just how I feel about you, now come on, it’s nearly midnight, and I have to be up at half five”

Maddie shifted off Thomas, allowing him to get up and offer her a hand up, she took it and they walked hand in hand upstairs to the master bedroom, where in less than ten minutes they were in bed, face to face

“Thomas?”

“Yes?”

“Would you change anything? If you could”

“Are you asking I regret being with you? Because if you are, I swear-“

“No, it’s just a thought that popped into my head”

Thomas took Maddie’s hand under the covers tracing her fingers with his.

“Eight years together, almost six years of marriage and two wonderful children, I wouldn’t change a single thing”

Maddie smiled and pulled him into a kiss, deep, and fraught with emotion, Thomas pulled Maddie on top of him, fully intending on it going further, when-

“Mommy!” A cry from Teddy echoed down the hall “Mommy!”

Maddie sighed and rolled off Thomas, sitting up and swinging her legs over the bed and standing up

“Those kids sure do have great timing” she muttered as she left of the room earning a laugh from Thomas as he watched her, a smile playing at his lips.

And he knew he was right in what he said to his wife. he wouldn’t change a bit of what he had. Not even for the world.

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A/N: so thanks for reading, for anyone interested, I’m currently working on the entire story of how a fanfic on how they got back together on AO3, if anyone would be interested in reading (although chapters are slow on there), I might post it chapter by chapter on here, instead, but updates are probably going to be slow because I’ve also got university to look at, anyway, yeah, essentially Hunt crashed Maddie’s wedding....who knew he’d do such a thing 😂 but yeah, there’s a bit more to the story than that, which is why I am thinking of writing the whole story, but let me know if you want me to and I’ll tag you in it when I get round to posting on tumblr. I’ve also got a sad fanfic set in a AU, during HWU I’ve been debating on posting since the app is dead now, but if you want me to post it to read also let me know, Anyway thanks again for reading!

#mc #pixelberry #thomas hunt x mc #hwu game #hwu!mc #hunt x mc #mc x hunt #references to matt x mc #hollywood u: rising stars #choices: red carpet diaries

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roads-rise-to-meet-me · 5 years

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blake can fite my 5'1 ass how dare he leave ariadne 😤😤 also- she has a very pretty face and a v pretty name. I like how she dresses too, very fancy. :33 Anywhoss, i saw a photo of Ariadne and Kieran, how did those two get together?

My 5′3 ass will be right there with you ready to throw some punches tbh. And AHHH thank you for the kind words.

It was a very right place, right time kind of situation for how they met.

Ariadne and her gang were moving camps back up to their usual spot in Aurora Basin, and were passing through Lemoyne one night when they spotted a group of O’Driscoll’s riding across their path. One of her boys pointed out that they had a person tied up on the back of one of their horses, and that was enough to get her to want to stop and investigate. They inadvertently thwarted the O’Driscoll’s attempt at torturing and murdering Kieran before the attack on Shady Belle. Kieran was bloodied and bruised, but he was alive. And because they had no idea where the O’Driscoll’s had taken him from, they put him in the back of one of their wagons to continue the journey with them. He slipped in and out of consciousness for days, and by the time he awoke, he was in a tent in The Foster Gang’s camp, with his wounds treated and Ariadne at his bedside waiting for him to come to. Once he could he explained who he was and where he had come from, and Ariadne offered him a place to stay while he continued to heal and wait for when it was safe for him to return to the Van der Linde’s. She even went as far as to assist him in writing a letter to Arthur, letting the gang know that he was still alive and what exactly had happened, and to give him the all clear to come back when the O’Driscoll presence in the area had died down. Kieran continued to heal up, and started pulling his weight around the camp as he waited for his signal to return to Shady Belle. He got to know Ariadne and the rest of her gang, and found himself fitting in quite nicely in their dynamic. They were a significantly smaller group than what he was used to, but extremely tight knit in their own dysfunctional way. The boys took him on homestead robberies, Ariadne would take him hunting with her, and in turn he taught her how to fish which had never been her strong suit. They bonded over these and other various activities, and became closer as Kieran came to feel more at home with her and her gang. It grew to a point where they both briefly forgot that Kieran’s stay with them wasn’t supposed to be permanent.

And then Arthur turned up with Branwen in toe, as a reminder of that fact. Arthur stayed with The Foster Gang for a few days, and in that time witnessed the relationship that had blossomed between Kieran and Ariadne. Arthur knew Kieran wasn’t coming back to Shady Belle with him, even before Kieran knew it. When the time came for them to return home to the Van der Linde’s they only made it as far as the Upper Montana River before Kieran realized he wasn’t willing to leave Ariadne and the others behind. To Kieran’s surprise, Arthur was willing to let him go. They parted ways; Arthur returned to Shady Belle, and Kieran turned Branwen around and rode as fast as he could back up to Aurora Basin. Ariadne was already mourning his loss when he rode back into camp, and tears of joy were shed when he returned to them. Feelings were confessed, and the rest is history. ;)

#red dead redemption 2 #red dead online #rdr oc #rdr oc: ariadne foster #kieran duffy #ariadne foster x kieran duffy #oc x canon #rdr: the foster gang #cometoceantrenches

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peterpcrkcr · 6 years

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Who is She? (part iii)

Part One ; Part Two

Peter Parker x Reader (shifting points of view)

Words: 6.0k +

Summery: You wake up only to find out that the people you’d seen taking pictures of you with Spider-Man sold or posted the photos. Ned confronts Peter about the mystery girl he’s been hanging out with as Spider-man. Peter finally gets around to breaking things off with Jessica. You have dinner with your mom and she heads off to work during the meal and you find out the news. Peter scours school all day just to find you.

You had just awoken. You’re eyes had little clumps of sleep dust at the sides and your throat felt extremely dry. You went to look at your phone to see the messages, only to find that it had died during the night because you forgot to plug it in again. At least is was a Saturday and you didn’t have to worry about things like waking up on time.

You got up from bed and walked into the bathroom. There was a note from your mom on the mirror that said ‘got called in to work, there’s donuts, love you’.

You kissed your fingers and pressed them to the note lovingly before brushing your teeth and doing your daily morning dos.

Once out of the shower you wrapped yourself in a towel and went to check on your phone. It still wasn’t turned on and so you went into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee.

While you waited you ate one and a half donuts and read the back on a book your mom had just finished reading. It intrigued you so you started reading a few pages and then forgot you had made coffee so when you poured the cup it was not only extremely hot, but boiling from sitting for extra time on the burner. A little creamer and a couple of blows to soothe the heat and it was perfect despite the forgetfulness.

You took the book, a donut, and the cup of coffee into your bedroom and got dressed for the day. While you were reading the book and enjoying your morning treat your phone turned on. After a couple minutes of being alive, it buzzed.

Definitely a text from Jessica, but not only that, there were multiple texts from Jessica and a few from a couple of people that you ate lunch at school with.

First you worried that it was actually Friday and that you missed your first two periods.

Secondly, you worried that maybe a new villain was in town and you were in danger.

Thirdly and lastly, you were calm because the sexiest man alive was Blake Shelton and that was freaking everyone out as it was.

So you didn’t stress yourself too much when you lifted the phone and unlocked it. You did begin to worry, however, when you read what they actually said.

The texts all said very vague and caps lock questions. Mostly about how you did it. They all confused you until you got to Jessica’s spew of messages. When you scrolled to the start of them there was a link.

|Spider-Man’s Mystery Girlfriend

And the picture on the front was of him trying to kiss you and you smiling. His head blocked most of your face, but you could very well tell it was you. Obviously other people knew it was you too or else they wouldn’t have sent you those messages. As your eyes widened while you read the article, your phone started buzzing with an actual call.

It was Jessica.

You took a deep breath and closed your eyes because you knew that the energy in the other end was going to be massive.

“I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE DATING THE SPIDER-MAN! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!!” She yelled so loudly that you were able to hear her completely even when you held the phone away from your ear.

“We aren’t dating. So that’s why I didn’t tell you. ” You said calmly. “And it’s just Spider-man, no the.”

“YOU STILL SAW HIM MORE THAN ONCE AND HE TRIED TO KISS YOU!” She was too close to the phone, but you were proud of her. She wasn’t one for calling of any kind, so this was a big deal.

“He was teasing me.” You said and she started to do this loud scream-laugh of excitement. “Jess, please stop screaming in my ear!”

“I’M NOT I’M JUST-“ she cleared her throat. “I’m just super excited for you!”

“Why?” You asked as you took a bite of your donut.

“Because! You haven’t had any dates or any conversations with anyone and when you finally do it’s with the local crime fighter hero! That’s so cool! Like you’re cooler than me which I thought was impossible!”

“Thanks, Jess. You’re so supportive.” You rolled your eyes but what she said didn’t upset you. You were used to it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that, but honestly I think you two are my new favorite couple. You need to have super powers so that you can be a legit power couple. Like do you know what I mean?”

“Yeah I do and that was actually really clever.” You said while chewing another bite.

“Are you eating?” She asked a little annoyed but unsurprised.

“Yeah, why?” You asked after you swallowed the bite, but just before you took a sip of coffee.

“Let’s go out to eat.”

“I don’t really want to leave my apartment.” You said honestly. Jessica made a whining sound. “Especially with this article out right now.”

“Come on...! I want to hear all the details...!” She said in a whiny voice. You sighed very heavily in an effort for her to back down, but she was unrelenting. “Come on! I’ll drive and I’ll pay.”

“Fine! Fine... pick me up in ten.” You said pulling the phone away from your ear.

“But you’re 20 minutes away!” She yelled loudly enough for you to hear.

“Then hurry!” You said before hanging up.

You settled back in to reading your book and enjoying your coffee. The donut was gone and that upset you, but the prospect of free food was keeping you happy. Jessica text you with a bunch of angry emojis, you smiled.

“Have you seen this?” Ned asked Peter as they walked to the only remaining retro arcade in town. He was holding up his phone and an article was up that suggested Spider-Man was dating a mystery girl. Peter turned bright red.

“Uh- no I have not...” He said with all of his attention on the sidewalk in front of them.

“What’s it about, man? This doesn’t look like Jessica.” Ned said as his eyes squinted while trying to make the picture out.

“I don’t know.” Peter said plainly.

“It says you kissed her and flirted with her and shared hot dogs with her.” Ned was still looking at his phone, which meant he was not paying attention to where he was walking.

“I didn’t.” Peter lied. Ned clicked his tongue in the roof of his mouth.

“This picture is really not letting you get away with saying that to me, dude.” Ned zoomed in and showed it to Peter. Peter decided Ned was right and then Peter decided that this was a nightmare. “What about Jessica?”

“I didn’t want to say anything until after, but I’m telling Jessica I just want to be friends tonight.” Peter said which made Ned look up from his phone and to Peter. “I’ve waited too long.”

“Yeah, you’re not kidding. It’s been almost two months man, that’s crazy.” Ned put his phone back into his pocket and sighed. “Cindy is gonna be so upset.”

“Cindy? I’m more worried about what Jessica will think of it, especially if she finds out that I’m doing it because I actually am probably in love with-“ but Peter cut himself off there and felt his skin nearly boil with embarrassment and nervousness. Ned stopped walking and took Peter’s arm in his hand so Peter would stop too.

“You want to do what with her who?” Ned asked in a tone that was mildly upset. “What happened between the two of you?”

“We never got along.” Peter cleared his throat and looked around. His fingers pulled at the ends of his sleeves and he kept chewing on his bottom lip. Ned knew that because Peter was doing those things, that Peter was afraid of something. “I couldn’t have a conversation with her, and I couldn’t develop any feelings for her no matter how hard I tried. It isn’t her fault, I- I just want to be friends.”

“Yeah, so you can go around and date someone she knows!” Ned said loudly enough for Peter to wince. God, what if Jessica was listening, what if (y/n) was? “Who is it? Is it the same girl in that article?”

“Maybe!” Peter said looking down. Ned shook his head.

“That’s dangerous, man.” Ned said.

“I know...” Peter said quietly, his eyes meeting Ned’s.

“Who is she?” Ned asked. Peter sighed and relaxed his shoulders.

“It’s Jessica’s friend from Midtown, (y/n).” He said embarrassedly, but he handled your name with great care. “You remember the picture she showed us on the group date? It’s her.”

“What! Dude what! That’s insane! Her best friend?!” Ned didn’t sound as upset as Peter thought he would get. He seemed more entertained or amused. “You gotta tell Jessica.”

“What? No! No way! She’ll hate me!” Peter’s eyebrows furrowed. “She’d never talk to me again.”

“You’re not interested in her anyway! And she’ll probably find out from (y/n) anyway..”

“But dude, what about Cindy? What about (y/n)? Cindy will definitely hate me after I do that to Jessica, and (y/n) will think I’m a jerk for hurting her friend.”

“Not if she feels the same way!” Ned sounded encouraging. It confused Peter.

“Why are you so calm? Also, why does it sound like you want me to do this?”

“Because she makes you happy Peter, that’s all I care about.” Ned said setting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Peter grinned, Ned smiled. It was nice. “So you’re giving Jessica the news tonight? On what? A sort-of third date?”

“I guess you could call it that. I just want to take care while I do it. I don’t want to sound like a jerk or like I don’t care about how she might feel about it.” Peter spoke while they both started walking again.

“Are you going to tell her about (y/n)?” Ned asked raising an eyebrow toward Peter. Peter shook his head. “Why not?”

“It’s too early. Plus, (y/n) doesn’t know that I’m Spider-Man, so it’s like I’m two different people to her. I can’t confess my feelings, she’ll think I’m a lunatic, and I can’t really talk to her again in the suit because it would put her in further danger.”

“You think so? I mean I’m not saying you’re wrong in doing that, but if that’s how you feel most comfortable go for it.” Ned smiled at Peter, Peter smiled at Ned.

“Do you think she’ll like me?” Peter asked. Ned nodded.

“Of course dude, what’s not to like?”

“This Vietnamese food is amazing.” You said with noodles sticking out of your mouth. You sucked them up and grinned.

“See? I bet you’re glad I said we should go out now.” Jessica said pointing chopsticks at you. You shrugged, drank some water. “Now you have to tell me everything about your new boyfriend.”

“What? At least let me finish my dish, Jess!” You said setting down your glass. She shook her head, you rolled your eyes. “Not fair. You can’t ply me with food and then expect drama!”

“Yes I can, that’s how I work and you’re easy like that.” She said before taking a bite of her own food. You sighed and moved some noodles around in your bowl.

“What can I say?” You asked as you looked down dreamily. It was the first time you had really realized this, but you had feelings for Spider-Man. Real feelings, romantic feelings.

“What can you say? Spit it out!” Jessica said swallowing her food. You smiled at her excitement. For once she was relying on your for entertainment and not the other way around.

“Well it was a little strange, but when we first met he was stopping this guy from stealing my phone. It was on the day of your date with Peter actually now that I remember...” you said almost questioningly. And Peter was late that day... you thought to yourself.

“Wow. That’s romantic! He like, saved you.“ Jessica said with an award winning smile on her face. You shrugged.

“I wouldn’t say he saved me, I wasn’t in danger.” You said fishing around your bowl for a vegetable.

“I mean, okay, but you could have been and might have been if he didn’t show up like a knight in shining armor.” Jessica sighed dramatically and rested the back of her hand on her forehead. “Oh sweet prince, do save me! For I am but a beautiful damsel in distress and am in need of your saving!”

“It wasn’t... like. that. And anyway, he left right after that.” You took a bite and chewed slowly.

“But you saw him again after that! Twice is fate! Were you even in danger?” She asked, eyes wide, excitement coming out of every pore in her body. You shook your head.

“I had two hot dogs and gave him one. That’s where this picture came from. He had stuff on his face and was teasing me.” You said it with happiness etched into every syllable. “He did actually kiss my cheek, though. It was so nice.”

“You like Spider-Man!” Jessica exclaimed. You shushed her. “And Spider-Man likes you!”

“Shut up, Jess!” You said covering her mouth with your hand. She licked your palm but you didn’t budge.

“I’ll be quiet.” She said muffled. You nodded once and then slowly took your hand away to wipe it on the jeans you wore. “So? What’s next?”

“We saw each other a third time. Just a casual bumping into someone familiar sort of thing.” You said before taking a long drink of water. Her eyes grew wider and wider while she waited for you to say something else.

“And? Did you kiss? Did you have sex?!” She practically screamed this. You threw a chopstick at her and it bounced off of her forehead and onto her plate. “Ow...”

“Well?! Don’t just tell the world that you think I slept with Spider-Man! I don’t even know him or anything about him in particular other than he’s white and probably our age!”

“Wow. You’ve seen his skin!” She exclaimed.

“Yeah! Can I please talk!” You asked with annoyance in your voice. She nodded. “We bought snacks and a drink to share and he literally whisked me away to the rooftops where we enjoyed each other’s company. I asked him if he ever wished things were different, if he ever wished he didn’t have powers and if he could live a normal life. He said no, but he also said that he thinks about it when he meets someone who challenges his routine. Someone who’s always in the right place at the right time to steal his heart.”

“What?!” Jessica was so giddy she couldn’t contain herself, you begged her to. “What happened next?”

“I said, like me?“ You recited with the same care in your voice as you’d used in him. She squealed.

“AND?!” She yelled. You glared at her and she mouthed sorry to the people around you that had turned to look at the commotion.

“He said, like you.” You said in a slightly deeper voice to insinuate that it had been him that said it. Jessica pretended to faint, and then she smiled fully and made happy sounds. “Yeah.”

“That is so romantic.” She said in a light and breezy voice.

“Mhm...” You said taking another bite of your food, satisfied and happy with her response.

“When will you see him again?” She asked.

“I’m not sure, that’s up to fate.” You said slyly. Jessica squealed again and then slumped over onto her arm. She was nearly laying down on the table. “What’s happening?”

“I wish Peter was like that...” She said, her voice dull against her arm. You almost choked on your food.

Why was there this feeling of a mass coincidence upon your shoulders? Why did it feel like you were about to uncover a great truth in the back of your mind? Why was Peter Parker stuck on the tip of your tongue, but the back of your heart chanted Spider-Man?

“You okay?” Jessica asked sitting up to see you better. You nodded a little while you drank long sips of water.

“Yeah, I’m fine. How are you?” You asked.

“I’m fine... just sad about seeing Peter tonight.” You laughed. She sighed.

“Why are you sad?” You asked.

“Because he’s nothing like Spider-Man! He’s not romantic or charming or poetic.” She said taking a bite of her dish, letting the noodles slide up her chin. You grinned.

“Well, best of luck to you.” You said. She threw a crumpled napkin at you and smiled back.

Peter was nervous. Now, this wasn’t end-all-be-all nervousness. It was a casual nervousness, the kind that always hung around. Like bugs, or a bad smell you just can’t forget. Peter had wrestled with what to wear to a break-up date and decided on a grey sweater and some jeans. Something comfortable to calm him down if he got himself worked up over everything. He put on his raggedy classic Nike shoes and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror.

“You look handsome.” May said.

“Thanks.” Peter said with a smile as he headed for the door.

“Have fun breaking up with your date!” May yelled.

“Thanks!” Peter yelled back before closing the door.

It was actually nice outside. His jacket kept him plenty warm, and even though his nerves were wound tight, he let himself enjoy the city air. An older couple walked down the sidewalk holding hands. They kissed, smiled at each other, and she rested her head on the taller woman’s shoulder as they went on.

Peter wanted to have that; couldn’t wait to have that, with her. With (y/n).

So when he saw Jessica waiting outside of the Mexican food joint, the light of her phone making her face glow, he felt his shoulders tense. He wasn’t afraid of her, she didn’t scare him, but he was terrorized by anxiety and the fear of being someone he didn’t like himself.

“Hey, Peter. How’s it going?” She asked. He cleared his throat, looked around for a moment to collect himself.

“Uh- I’m good. You?” He cleared his throat again.

“I’m fine...” Jessica tucked hair behind her ear and slipped her phone into her pocket. “Are you okay?”

“Just thirsty.” He said plainly. Jessica nodded and then linked arms with him.

“Shall we?” She asked.

He knew she was trying, he really did. He knew she wanted this to go well, he knew that if his heart hadn’t been stolen already that there could be a chance between she and him.

He nodded his head almost grimly. She smiled and nodded and pulled him along and inside.

Once seated he kept the menu blocking his face so he could dab away the sweat accumulated on his forehead. He nearly chugged half of the glass of water that the waiter had brought them. He also took forever to order, an excuse for not speaking or looking Jessica in the eyes.

“What’s going on with you, Peter?” She asked.

“I don’t want to... say...” He nearly whispered the words. Kept them to himself like inner thoughts. Jessica tilted her head, furrowed her brows.

“Well now you have to and I won’t take no for an answer.” Jessica said a stern tone. He closed his eyes and right when he parted his lips, she started speaking again. “I bet you’re nervous. This is the first date you’ve decided on, on your own. You haven’t really spoken much, which means you’re wrestling with your emotions like always, or you’re plainly uninterested in me. Why’s that? I’m a catch... I’m patient. I’m polite. I’m not mean, and I know I’m not humble so it doesn’t bother me to tell you that I’m beautiful too! I may not be smart enough for you, but I have a lot of heart.”

“I-“ His motivation faltered. She nodded.

“And honestly Peter? I can tell you’re not interested, but why? I didn’t do anything wrong and I have been nothing but nice to you even though it wouldn’t hurt to tell you that you’re kind of boring! You don’t add to the conversation! My friend told me about how she went on like two dates with Spider-Man, and I told her I wish you were like him, but as I can tell like right now, you are nothing like the guy!”

Peter tried not to grin, and that was easy because he felt awful. How long has she been holding this back from him? Since they met almost two months ago?

Jessica could tell who the mystery girl is?

“I’m sorry.” He found his voice and his strength. “I’m sorry I’m not like that for you.”

“That’s okay, we can work on it.” She said reaching across the table to try and rest her hand over his. Peter shrugged her off and put his hand on his lap. “What’s going on?”

“I want to be friends.” He said looking her in the eyes. She nodded.

“Okay? We are friends.” She said.

“No, I want to be just friends.” Peter said firmly.

“What?” She seemed genuinely confused. It made his stomach lurch.

“I don’t want to be in a romantic relationship with you. I only want to be friends. It isn’t because of anything you’ve done, it isn’t because I don’t think you’re not attractive-“

“I know that...” Jessica said as her eyes trailed down to look at the table setting in front of her. “Why didn’t this work out?”

“I think it’s because we aren’t similar. I didn’t try, I mean, I haven’t been trying. This isn’t a break up, this is a non-starter sort of deal.” He tried to get her to face him.

She didn’t do anything for a long time. Her phone kept buzzing. The waiter came by and was ignored. Peter tried to apologize profusely, but she didn’t move.

“I...” Jessica started as a single tear fell down her cheek. She looked up and Peter saw that her eyes weren’t shiny. She wasn’t emotional, she was stoic. This wouldn’t falter the character she was. “I really liked you.”

“I’m sorry.” He said again.

“I know you are.” She sat up straighter and took a sip of her tea.

“What are you gonna do?” He asked.

“Eat a big burrito with my friend and go home.” She didn’t sound mad. She sounded annoyed, definitely, but no sort of anger read in her tone. Peter immediately felt all stress and worry flood out of his body.

“Thank you.” He said, relieved. Jessica nodded and then they went on with their meal.

This made one thing for sure, Peter had to find you with his mask off.

There was one message lighting up your phone. You knew who it was from but you didn’t care to look at it seeing as she had just been on a date with Peter and it probably said something that would make you upset that you weren’t her.

Your mom had cooked an easy dinner. Tomato soup and grilled cheese. It wasn’t particularly cold outside, but this was one of the few nights she had off from work so she tried to make it as warm as she could.

“How is it?” She asked just before taking a spoonful of the soup.

“Fantastic.” You said. It was soup out of a can, and heavily, heavily processed cheese, but you could care less on any other day, and especially today. “Best soup I ever had.”

“I’m glad you like it.” She said smiling at you from across the small dining table. You smiled back. “Did you see who the sexiest man alive is?”

“Yeah, let’s not talk about that.” You said with a bite of the sandwich in your cheek.

“Why not? I think he’s handsome.” She said with a nonchalant shrug.

“Mom... I’ve already been through this at least five times today. At least.“ You said finishing your sandwich. She shrugged again.

“I still think he’s sexy.”

“That’s fine!” You said trying to get her to stop.

“What about you? Who would you have voted for?” She asked before taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Honestly? When we have people like the King of Wakanda and Thor walking around this good green earth, I find it hard that mass amounts of people chose that guy.” You said speaking your truth. Your mom nodded.

“I love Tony Stark.” She said. You nodded, rolled your eyes.

“I know you love Tony Stark, Mom.” You said lifting your bowl to drink some.

“If I ever met him I’d really just let loose, I heard he was like that back in the day. Think he’ll still be up for some adult fun?” She asked while winking at you. You nearly choked on your soup.

“I don’t think this is back in the day, and also.... please don’t talk about anyone like that with me again... please? No shame, I just can’t stomach it.”

“Your mom’s hot! Get over it girl!” She said while doing a little hip dance.

You gave out a deep sigh and stood to rinse your bowl and place it in the dishwasher. The soup made you feel warm and safe and every nice thing your mom had made you feel your entire life.

“What in the world is attractive about Tony Stark?” You asked with your chin in your palm while you watched her finish up her meal.

“I really like the beard!” She said with a huge smile. You shook your head and grinned. “And? He seems like once he really cares about you and you break through his tough exterior, he’d be completely devoted to you. It’s sweet.”

“How in the world do you eat that from that guy?” You asked. She laughed.

“How do you not? Who do you like then, since Iron Man isn’t your favorite flavor?” She asked as she took a sip of her drink. You shrugged, tried to play is off coolly.

“I don’t know... Spider-Man... maybe...” you said trialing off so it would seem like an after thought, but it was your every thought. You knew your mom could tell because she was eyeing you with a suspicious smile. “What?”

“You have a crush on Spider-Man...” she said in a sing-song voice. You scoffed, rolled your eyes.

“So what? Not like anything more’s gonna happen...” you said.

“What do you mean more?” She asked but right when you sorted your lips her phone rang. It was work. They needed her to come to the lab.

“Work?” You asked even though you knew. She nodded and wiped her face and cleared her throat. She stood, a far-off look filled her eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah..” she stood, held her stomach as though she might vomit. “I’m fine. I just have to get to work now.”

“Yeah, I know.” You said, worried and confused at the change in demeanor. “Mom, are you alright? You’re worrying me...”

“I’m fine, honey. I’m fine...” she walked over to the and put her coat on and slipped on her easy shoes. You followed her there and gave her a long and strong hug. She kissed your forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you.” You said muffled into her hair. You both pulled away at the same time. She blew you a kiss goodbye, you waved, and then she was gone.

You opted to cleaning to fill your extra time. Dishes, vacuum, dust, vacuum again because you should’ve done that last anyway.

You finally laid down in bed to sleep and when you did you remembered you had a message from Jessica. When you read it your heart skipped a beat selfishly.

Peter broke up with me.

This meant he was free now whether it was right or wrong. Your heart said it was right, and your mind agreed.

Peter felt invigorated. He went to school on Monday not only with more pep in his step than usual, but a mission: find her.

During class, outside of class, around the halls. Lunch time. Study hall. After school wait by the front door one day, the next day wait by another. He felt excited at just the prospect of meeting her face to face. He felt nearly faint at how hard his nerves were spun.

He wasn’t nervous about her at all, about how she would be as a person, about how she might talk to a stranger that couldn’t help but stare at her fully and devotedly in love. No. It was nerves for what he might say or do to make her never want to speak to him again.

During class he stared at the clock.

A while ago he was doing this because he couldn’t wait to hop into the suit and help people out, now he did it because each second that ticked by was one second longer he had to wait to see her.

Teachers knew that when he zoned out he was still listening, so they left him alone.

During breaks between class he scopes every inch of the hall as he walked to his next class. His eyes tuned in to the frequency of her body, and as close as he cut it to the bell, nobody that passed him by ever matched it.

After third period it was lunch time and Peter jogged around the entire school during those 45 minutes. He took bites of the sandwich he had thrown together in the morning but it wasn’t very good. He mixed up mayo with relish, how he did that he’ll never know. He still had to eat though, and it wasn’t so bad. He didn’t focus on the taste at all because he was too busy thinking about her.

About hearing her voice.

About seeing her smile.

About saying her name and having her know exactly who it was coming from. No masks, no secrets.

Well one, but Peter wasn’t worried.

After lunch he went through his classes and searched high and low for any hint of her. Then, last period he started to feel hopeless even though this was his first day sleuthing her out.

Peter groaned in the middle of his Phys. Ed class. He was slowly climbing the rope, a way to cast doubt he could even do it, and had everyone’s attention on him.

Flash Thompson, his regular heckler, had some words to say about this.

“I know you’re week Parker, but this is new. I thought you were stronger because of all the jacking off you do.” Only two people chuckled, and Peter suspected that it was mostly because Flash talked about masterbation in the middle of class.

Coach blew his whistle but wasn’t fully committed- he was one of the people that had chuckled.

Okay, so Peter was worried. What if she didn’t think Peter was as cool as Spider-Man? He would feel awful if he came off as a total loser, if he didn’t seem good enough for her. This was insane. No one has ever made his heart clamor as hard as she did. Nobody has ever made Peter feel this clammy and worried about what one might think as she did. He let out a long exhale as he walked out of the locker room after changing to head to his book locker.

Ned was there waiting for him.

“Hey man, Cindy told me that you broke it off with Jessica.” Ned said. Peter nodded, looked over Ned’s shoulders as if he might see a glimpse of the love of his life.

Peter watched the lights because he knew they’d be brighter with her there.

Peter listened for the sound of her voice because he’d never miss his favorite song.

Peter kept track of his heartbeat like a homing beacon, because once it found her there was nothing else left to search for.

“What in the world are you looking for?” Ned asked with a half smile on his face. Peter met Ned’s eyes and forced himself to maintain eye contact. “Dude?”

“I’m looking for (y/n).” He said it firmly, but let himself cave around her name. Ned smile fully, punched Peter’s shoulder playfully.

“You’re really doing it man! You’re really going after the girl you have your eyes on. I’m proud of you.” Ned encouraged.

“It’s not just my eyes that are set on her, it’s my heart.” Peter was mumbling, but Ned heard. “It’s my soul.”

“Are you in love with her already?!” Ned was fully astonished and all Peter did was nod his head in the smallest way possible. Ned’s mouth gaped open. “What!”

“I can’t explain it.” Peter said closing his eyes. Ned watched Peter as he searched his soul. “I met her and we clicked. No tremor or heart attack. I got her phone back for her and I never wanted to leave her again. Like I’d been with her this entire time and all of a sudden I have to reintroduce myself. I’m not upset about it though.”

“Why not? Sounds tedious.” Ned pulled on his backpack strap.

“Nice word.” Peter sidetracked. They bumped fists. “But anyway, I’m not upset because we get to meet each other and feel all of those same feelings we felt when we met before.”

“But she won’t know who you are. It’s just you swimming in all of this pining.” Ned said tilting his head. Peter shrugged.

“It’s worth it, Ned. She’s worth a million hello’s. I’d learn it in Mandarin if that’s what she needed. I’d learn it in Morse Code. I’d learn it in Braille and sign language and Australian.” Peter grinned at the last one.

“I think they say good-eye.” Ned said in his absolute worst accent. It was pure trash and it made Peter’s eyes crinkle at the sides.

“Thank you...” Peter said laughing a little bit. Then his head turned so suddenly Ned looked worried for the safety of his friends neck.

“What’s going on? Spider-sense?!” Ned loudly whispered. Peter shook his head very slowly as his eyes scanned the crowd.

There she was.

He’d seen her a million times already, but this time was monumentally different.

In Peter’s moment of courage he took a deep breath, balled his fists at his sides so tightly his knuckles turned white, and then he took a step forward.

Instantly, everything in the hall slowed to a near stand-still. The after school chatter meshed together, the other students blurred. His entire world slowed to a stand still. Papers stuck in the air, peoples mouths open in mid-conversation. A moment stuck forever until Peter’s forever began.

He could only hear the beating of his heart and the light tapping of the soles of his shoes on the ground.

The girl he’d pined after, dreamed of, thought of in every waking moment for three months was finally, finally! standing before him, and for once he wasn’t in that god forsaken suit.

And her eyes were shining.

thump.

And her hair looked soft.

thump.

And her voice was gentle and warm.

thump.

And he saw the subtle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

thump.

And her lips were so pink he thought that even though he’d never really been one for the color, he’d like to live in it now.

thump.

His heart was going to combust, his hairline was beaded with nervous sweat. He thought about all the ways he could make himself look like an idiot. He thought about what she would say when he introduced himself for real this time, as Peter Parker and not the masked man she’s used to knowing. He thought about how he wished they could be past this part- that she knew everything about him, masked and unmasked.

He wished she knew so when he hugged her and held her tightly she wouldn’t ever dream of letting him go. He hadn’t even met her yet and their forever was already planned. Destiny had already set the race. Now was the time to run it.

So what do you do when you’re about to meet the love of your life, and there’s no mask to hide behind?

taglist ;

@rileywrites-parker , @twilight-loveer , @lookclosernow , @legendarydazekitten , @feeling-straange , @tmrhollandkay

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onestowatch · 5 years

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Durand Jones & The Indications Pick 15 Artists Reviving the Classic Soul Sound

Photo Credit: Rosie Cohe

The soul-driven band Durand Jones & the Indications is comprised of five young men all fueled by their old, for lack of a better word, souls. Their sound and aesthetic are rooted in the golden era of groovy 70’s sonics. While they find a majority of their inspiration from artists who made it big in past decades, they are modernizing soul without surrendering the genre’s classic funk and grooviness.

Guitarist Blake Rhein explains that the band utilizes sampling mentality in the same way hip-hop producers do. They listen to music from their various inspirations and hone in on what makes the tracks feel electric. After, they experiment to recreate that magic into their own projects, like in their sophomore full length album American Love Call.

Catch Durand Jones and The Indications live on tour to support American Love Call here.

As experts in the category, we asked Durand Jones and The Indications to share a few artists who are inspiring and reviving the classic soul sound. Here are selections from Aaron Frazer (drums/vocals), Durand Jones (vocals), and Blake Rhein (guitar).

Photo Credit: Horatio Baltz

Aaron Frazer’s Picks:

1. The Moments - “Not On The Outside”

A perfect summation of the Stang label discography. 70′s vocal group where the singing is smooth, but the drums are hard. It's my ideal balance of sweet and melancholy.

2. Bob Marley & The Wailers - It Hurts to Be Alone

I was floored when I discovered this song was from The Wailers. For a while I was under the impression that it was a young Marley singing, but in fact it was the group's youngest member- 14-year-old Junior Braithwaite. The vocal performance is legendary, complemented by equally stunning guitar work. It represents this moment to me where Jamaican music was still molten, guided by stateside radio transmissions of Wendy Rene.

3. Gil Scott Heron - I Think I'll Call It Morning

Gil Scott Heron could write a scathing takedown of governmental corruption, economic inequity or substance addiction. But he was also able to be loving and tender. He was a warrior, but never lost his ability to be soft. This is one of his soft moments, and it feels radical in a time when so many of us walk around with fists perpetually clenched.

4. Foster Sylvers - Misdemeanor

Sometimes I hear soul music from before the advent of hip hop, and I marvel and just how "hip hop" some of their decisions were. I love the Jackson 5, but I'm not sure they ever got this nasty. It's one of those tracks that make your face scrunch up from the first bar.

5. The Manhattans - The Picture Became Quite Clear

George Kerr is one of the unsung heroes of soul production, and a big influence on our new record. Kerr constructed his orchestration with the precision of a watchmaker. The more you listen to this song, the more you'll notice tiny intricacies. The way the strings, vibraphone, piano, guitar, harp and background vocals dart in and out, somehow NEVER stepping on each others toes. Each turn of the arrangement leads perfectly into the next, like a beautiful soul machine.

Durand Jones’ Picks:

1. Sharon Jones - "Mama Don’t Like My Man”

Perfect ending to a beautiful album. What makes it perfect to me? The simplicity. Just guitar accompanying voices. Sharon’s vocals shine and soar, while Saun and Angee hold her down with flawless unison and harmony backgrounds.

2. PJ Morton (feat. Pell) - “Claustrophobic"

PJ Morton brings a fresh perspective to R&B and soul music with his topics of choice and this tune is no different— he uses his gifts to sing of issues dealing with black masculinity. Too often, black men are expected to be or fit certain stereotypes to be successful. PJ let us know from the get-go that he’s not trying to fit into anyone’s small mind of what they think he should be. #blackboyjoy

3. James Blake - “Not Long Now"

My first introduction to James seven years ago. This track attracts me with its musical rawness and minimalism. I love playing this shit as loud as I can in the car, especially for the end.

4. Cheryl Lynn (feat. Luther Vandross) - "If This World Were Mine"

The blaxploitation film, ‘The Wood’ introduced this tune to a new generation of black teens and adolescents back in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Of course we heard our parents jamming this out at the cookout or in the car, but the movie added a freshness of young love to it. Something a young heart yearned for or could relate to. I recently rewatched ‘The Wood’ and forgot about the magic this tune brought to scenes. I’ve had it on repeat since.

5. Nina Simone - "Do What You Gotta Do"

The High Priestess of Soul just doing her thing. Always have been a fan of Ms. Simone, but this particular track has been on repeat for me lately.

Photo Credit: Rosie Cohe

Blake Rhein’s Picks:

1. The Whispers - "It Only Hurts For A Little While"

This is a really lovely doo-wop track from ‘64 or ‘65, long before they struck gold with "And The Beat Goes On." Their original label Dore re-released the cut on an LP 1980 with a bunch of percussion overdubbed. That's the version that's on Spotify, and I actually like it more than the original.

2. Jus’ Us - "Don't Stop Smiling"

To me, this is the definition of a soaring falsetto, especially when it gets toward the end of the track and he's really going for it.

3. Brothers Of Soul - "The Love I Found In You"

It's hard to pick a favorite from the Brothers of Soul catalog, but this one is definitely up there. There's an incredible video of the group lip-syncing to this track on a Detroit public access show in the 70s that's available on YouTube.

4. Sly Slick & Wicked - "Sho Nuff"

This is one of those songs that feels like it should be a lot more known than it is. It's undeniably catchy and the production is fantastic. Even after a prominent sample in Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie,” the song is still pretty underground.

5. Dwight Sykes - "Walk With Me"

I always love discovering music from around my hometown. Dwight Sykes was originally from Kalamazoo, which is about an hour from where I grew up. Most of his recordings are just synths, drum machine, and vocals, which I absolutely love. However,"Walk With Me" features a full band, and I think it's his best work.

#durand jones & the indications #soul #Durand Jones and the indications

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alwaysaprille · 7 years

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APRIL’S UNITY DAYS WRITE UP

Day 2 (January 14th) Part 2:

After lunch with #Bactus:

it was time to go handle other business. We split up here, with some of going to the Costume Panel and others going for autographs, unfortunately the costume panel with Wendy Biscuit was cancelled with no notice and the autograph lines were horrendous so we wound up just charging our phones and chatting for a bit until the Delinquent Panel, which featured Eliza, Bob, Chris, Richard, Jarod, Chelsey and Katie (Lindsey was supposed to be on the panel, but she was still not at the even yet).

I was actually a bit late to the Delinquent Panel because I had my Bob photo op pictured here:

He’s a genuine sweetheart guys. Like, he remembered my name from the quick meeting we had at the panel in the morning, said he liked my hair, and asked if I’d eaten (he smells like mint-he was eating one-and super clean laundry, btw), before saying he had. When he asked how I wanted us to pose, I just asked for a hug and he said “Of course!!” He gave me a real hug first and then we did the side hug for the photo.

Then I joined the other gals in waiting for another Bob photo op, because Jen had two. After Gina, Sam and Jen took their individual ops, we all ran back for a group, which made Bob really smile, he was super surprised:

We finally made it to the Delinquent Panel and here’s the relevant info I gathered from there:

Everyone got their Custom Funko Pops, they were all super pleased (Sachin cat called from the audience because he didn’t get one).

They talked about their character’s ages, with Bob pointing out Bellamy isn’t really a Delinquent, Bob said Bellamy is about 24) so he must have had a birthday on the ground, same as Clarke.

This is Harper’s biggest Season thus far (which makes sense because she’s finally a series regular).

Clark says that the Jonty high five in the trailer is a good indicator of the promise for Jonty this Season.

Bob said Bellamy thinks Octavia is responsible for Monroe’s death (which I agree with.)

When asked why they sided with Pike, Monty said it was for his mother (which I’ve always thought, so good to have that confirmed!). Jarod (who was anti-Pike) said it was because Pike was a Brother (another black man) and that the others wouldn’t understand.) Someone reminded him he was anti-Pike, it was funny.

Jarod said he gets nervous working with Bob because he respects his ability as an actor so much.

Murphy had a lot of respect for Pike by the end of the Season, Richard loves Murphy’s relentlessness.

Clarke’s emotional side comes from Jake, while Abby is where she gets her diplomatic/political stuff from.

They all joked about being chipped or “chip-faced”.

Eliza said Monty is her all time favorite character on the show.

When asked which other show they’d like to be on: Eliza said Broad City, Bob said Black Mirror (everyone cheered), Chelsey said Homeland.

Richard said he thinks Murphy and Bellamy are back to some semblance of mistake and Bob made like...a “sure, Jan” noise.

Season 4 has a huge power imbalance, with no real Chancellor or Commander and so the power shift is tumultuous.

There will be a mutual respect between the Delinquents and the adults because they all have to collectively come together.

END DELINQUENT PANEL HIGHLIGHTS:

After the Panel was over, I had a few more photo ops scheduled, so I took care of those:

The Bad Boys op with Jarod, Bob and Richard. Sachin snorted when he heard their op was called “The Bad Boys”, lol:

I asked them to do a Charlie’s Angel pose, with me as Charlie, presenting my angels. Bob still looks too innocent (He can’t help it), but Richard’s face is perf!

I also squeezed in my Jarod Joseph photo op, I wanted to do the “Unfriendly Black Hotties” thing-Jarod, nailed it, me-unsure:

I missed the Camp Jaha Panel, because I was given a random free Meet and Greet with Luisa d’Oliveira.

Luisa is the sweetest, she started off by asking everyone where we were from (and remembered every place). She was so genuine guys. She doesn’t seem to realize that people actual like her outside of the Memori relationship.

@adancergirl did a thorough write up of this, so I’m linking that here:

http://bellamyblakesprotectionsquad2k17.tumblr.com/post/155973832354/forgivenessishardforus-adancergirl-luisa-meet

END OF LUISA MEET AND GREET SUMMARY

Then I shot over to get my Photo Op with Lindsey “Actual Angel” Morgan done:

After that was done it was time for the Grounder/Mt. Weather Panel which featured Chris, Jarod, Chelsey, Tasya, Luisa and Jessica.

Chris was late and walked on to the stage looking like a hipster college student. (He wears a backpack everywhere guys and he always has his hood up, it’s adorbs).

Tasya confirmed that Echo is a royal guard for the Ice Nation and said there will be more Becho interaction this Season. Bellamy is the only Arkadian that Echo trusts (although we don’t know if that sentiment is returned-I expect to see some tension here!)

Jessica said it’s pretty obvious when you start watching Season 4 where Niylah’s allegiance lies. She’s super funny, btw.

Chris is so deadpan guys. Like, his humor is out of this world. I love it.

My favorite Chris quote was: “When Jarod's hand was on my knee in episode 210, I've never felt warmer.”

He asked how many people shipped Minty by show of hands (and then Marper). It was about even and Chelsey raised her hand for both options.

Chris wanted a photo of the audience but he doesn’t have a smart phone (according to Jessica it’s a flip phone) and so he took out an Old School disposable camera that he’d just bought from London Drugs and took a picture of one side of the crowd, forgot to roll the film forward, so had to pause and do it, and then the other side. Jarod shook his head and laughed.

When asked which character they’d like to play other than their own everyone but Jarod said Bellamy. Jarod said Monty, because he’s like a cat-to which Chris replied “What?”

Marper was organic and not planned at all. They often didn’t have lines in Season 2, but were told to do things in the background, so Chris and Chelsey discussed what they would do in the situation if this was real (after Harper has her butt drilled) and Chris said “Well, we’re friends, so I’d try to make you feel better” and this is where the cup scene originates.

Chelsey said they kept improvising those little scenes in the background and eventually the writer’s must have picked up on it and actually made Marper canon.

Chris closed the panel with the following: He asked how many people had ever been in a breakup that was so bad that you thought you’d never love again, lots of people raised their hands, including all of the cast and then he said:

“Monty and Harper are at a position where they are super excited and super terrified because they are starting something new and they're sharing so much with each other so when that person leaves you it can be soul destroying. Welcome to Unity Days.”

Everyone cracked up and that was the end of that panel.

END OF GROUNDER/MT. WEATHER PANEL SUMMARY

Then I ran up to get my final two autographs of the day, both from Bob. I gave him #Bactus and a handwritten card first, he smiled super big when I gave him Bactus and he and his manager both laughed when I explained it’s name, he said that was clever.

I asked him to sign my “Bellamy Blake Protection Squad Shirt” with @indygoh‘s art on it:

and the postcard I won in the Cancer Gets LOST silent auction. He loved the BBPS shirt and said, sometimes Bellamy needs some backup and he and his manager said that the postcard’s artwork was cute. While I was leaving, he said “Thanks for Bactus, April.”

And I died on the inside because he remembered my name from hours before.

After the Convention closed for the evening, everyone gathered in my room and we had an impromptu pizza party where we just in person meta’d (and I got teary about Lincoln-which was super embarrassing) and it was such a great night, because talking in person is always so much easier than online.

We hung out pretty late, until most of us were sleepy and then parted ways to get ready for Unity Days Part 3.

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abiteofnat · 6 years

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SLOWLY LEARNING THAT YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL...

Because when luck suddenly strikes, it strikes in the form of a lot of free food and a couple hangovers at 5pm. I took those headaches gladly as they meant we took advantage of a good time when it presents itself, and given that nearly everything I ate/drank this weekend involved sugar, carbs and booze I’m really proud of the fact we let no bite go unbitten. So what on earth was I up to besides ruining my skin and healthy arteries, you ask?

WELL. I lived my dream foodie weekend. I’m still pinching myself. And in blatant transparency, it’s because it was all. fo. free. Not a penny spent except to go see a movie and indulge in my favorite fall-time beer, and to buy a hat for one of the events because my hair was *humid* and felt hats are VERY fashionable right now... or so Instagram tells me. Now, there’s never any issue with paying for experiences that make you happy, because literally everyone who reads this blog knows that I lack any sense of saying “no” to my stomach and a good time involving food. If it’s financially feasible, do it, fuck it, you’re on the Earth for a LIMITED TIME ONLY. But... I also like living a life of pretend luxury sometimes, when luck should have my back. Disney gave me such high expectations as a kid.

But here we go! Starting off on Saturday, I got to round up some of my favorite ladies and our favorite men for ping pong, mimosas, and Eggs Benedict PIZZA thanks to Ace Bounce! My sorority group that’s lasted past the post-grad blues is a core group of (mostly) PR women who share a love of beautifully crafted cocktails and a dope weekend ambiance, so we tend to tag each other in EVERY SINGLE giveaway on social media that offers a chance to experience either of those hobbies. Beautifully crafted cocktails, you may ask, are indeed a hobby. The algorithm behind the perfect Instagram photo involves time getting ready, time securing the location, stalking the menu for the right option that will take the best photo, and of course finding the right lighting to execute said photo. Yes, you’re rolling your eyes, I can feel it. But that’s the reality behind the science of why we love to live in Instagram world; it’s fun when people do all of that for us, isn’t it?

So, back to Ace Bounce. They found my comment on Facebook buried amidst the rest in a contest to win FREE BRUNCH!!! and somehow, I won FREE BRUNCH!!! I almost fell out of my chair at work because these things... they do not happen to me. Warning: I’m not going to be chill this post; not at all.

My group of seven showed up at noon on Saturday for two hours of debauchery, and after living right near the Ace Bounce in Shoreditch (London) during it’s opening I had so many questions what this one in Chicago would be like. Seeing as the one in London was the typical basement-style bar with men in their navy suits drinking endless beers after work while playing polite games of ping pong, I imagined bottomless brunch might be a bit... different. To my enjoyment, the atmosphere was incredible and the design was really brilliantly done! With lots of dark leather, strange zoo-like details, exposed mint green brick, and some delicious neon signs suggesting naughty things I was sold on the environment. And don’t forget the many, many ping pong tables! As I tried to prove to Eric that I AM talented at ping pong, very attentive waiters came around with the start to bottomless mimosas poured in very Gatsby-esque glasses for us to get some game-time courage from.

The mimosas were wonderful, the ping was being ponged, and then there was time for food! Carts of luscious little buffet-style things came around for the second half of brunch, once everyone was a little more spirited and awake, and we filled our plates with a very hearty variety of food. My plate included mac & cheese (I chose to ignore the brisket on top since it didn’t touch my spoonful), breakfast potatoes with sour cream and chives, coconut shrimp, little donuts, and EGGS BENEDICT PIZZA. This pizza stole the show for me. It had a thin crust topped with eggs, spinach, cheese, and hollandaise sauce strewn about. Holy fuck, between that and the mac & cheese I was in heaven.

That night, once the mimosa headache set in and Eric and I were done handling my energetic terror of a dog who literally cannot get close enough to Eric without suffocating him, we went to my favorite movie theater in Evanston to see “A Simple Favor” starring my queen, Blake Lively. Anna Kendrick didn’t even strike a match next to her. Blake. is. Everything.

ONTO THE NEXT! Sunday was the event I still can’t believe I was so lucky to attend- Chicago Gourmet. Yep, the biggest foodie event in Chicago that costs an arm and a leg to go to if you want access to all the yums! Since my entire Instagram feed is comprised of foodie accounts that have reached a wayyyy bigger following than mine, I've dreamed of attending this event for years and just never saw it... happening. I think honestly, I didn’t want to allow myself to go and feel like a fraud for not being top tier enough. Social media gets to us that way! But when Brett Firdman of @hertastylife announced I won the tickets I entered for weeks ago, in her partnership with Country Financial, I freaked. When the tickets arrived in my email, I screamed and woke Eric up and he didn’t care AT ALL until it was 10am the next morning and he knew he was going with. He understands why it was such a big deal now!

Sunday we both woke up pretty jazzed to get the day started, and then after a trip to Walgreens for blister Band-Aids and a trip to Staples to print the tickets out we got ready, chugged some cold brew, and headed out the door. Then in transit, I realized I forgot the tickets at home. After very quietly admitting my mistake and expecting Eric to lose his mind from hunger, he instead proved to be the best boyfriend ever and did not roll his eyes when we had to go to another Staples to print the tickets. Thank goodness for Staples!

Finally, it was time to enter the fantasy land and I was actually kind of nervous! I didn’t know what to expect, what to eat, what was worth it, and what kind of people would be there! Walking in they hand you a wine glass and a plate with your swag, and you just LOAD THAT SUCKER UP. The wine flowed endlessly from the nicest suppliers ever, the plate was suddenly full of smaller places featuring Indian delights and tiramisu and sushi and pasta and sooo much goodness. Part of me wishes I had paid closer attention to what I was eating from where, but I think part of the fun of this event is just enjoying everything in the moment and then seeing what you look back on fondly to find again. I’d eat the curry sauces topping all of the little plates all over again, RIGHT NOW.

We really did not waste any time eating and drinking everything, from brightly colored cocktails to the deepest red wines, and even though it rained a little being stuck under a tent with endless wine and my love until it passed seemed to good to be true.

The entire aesthetic of the event was intriguing; there were people in cute fall sweaters and jeans and dresses and expensive little booties (not like mine, lol) and there were also people in running clothes and what could pass for pajamas. Since it’s an outdoor festival in the fall, in the middle of Millennium Park, it’s understandable that one would want to be cozy. But it was really cool to see people just enjoying themselves and their endless wine on a Sunday, comfortable and sharing good times with friends! I think the lesson learned for next year (tickets ARE worth the price) is wear shoes that can get a little dirty, expect some lines but know it’s worth it, and go on a Saturday so it can be a longggg day of really savoring every bite. We stayed the perfect amount of time since it was a Sunday and rainy, but sit me in a chair with wine and I can stay all day!

So was it as magical as Instagramland makes it all seem? Indeed it was. I felt like a kid at... you guessed it, Disney. Reference my high expectation meter earlier; Chicago Gourmet really did blow me and my Prince Eric out of the water. I’ll stop.

I want to repeat I feel beyond lucky to have won access to both these events this weekend, so the biggest thanks goes to Ace Bounce and Brett / Country Financial. I’m always counting my blessings that I’m part of Chicago’s food scene, and weekends like this just keep confirming Chicago will have my heart forever and ever. You can’t get bored here!

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie

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