#but the image of a cowboy in an airport was too good to pass up
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Did I pack too much? Did I say enough?
#alpharad#the song is obviously not to be taken like this#but the image of a cowboy in an airport was too good to pass up#alpharad fanart#ace of hearts#frozen in time#frozen in time fanart#ace of hearts fanart#art#digital art#illustration
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Day 13 of Via’s Taycember
pairing: lance stroll x reader
wc: 0.7k
cw: references to sex, thievery, fear
an: cowboy lance is my roman empire
And the tennis court was covered up with some tent-like thing and you asked me to dance but I said, "Dancing is a dangerous game"
Haunted by the ghosts of past love and betrayal, it had seemed. The tennis court of the country club was covered with white sheets, held up by poles, giving it the image of a tent so easily toppled over by a breeze, if one would come.
Lance had stood on the far side of the court fence, nursing an empty glass of what might have held wine earlier in the day; more mysterious, a tall, handsome figure watching over the desolate backside of the bustling country club, music loud and laughs cheery.
He’d held his hand out, cool, pale, inviting, despite the years that had passed since the last time you had danced with someone. You kept your resolve, attempting to decline the offer, but the danger beckoned you, reflecting in your eyes the curiosity shining in his.
Oh, I thought, this is gonna be one of those things. Now I know I'm never gonna love again
At first, you thought it would be one of those passings of things. A singular dance, perhaps, perhaps another night shared, but as you intertwined your fingers with his, footsteps finding a symphonic rhythm, dancing less to the country club music and more to your own, you came to an odd realization: you would never love again not truly, not in the way you’d fallen in love with Lance, or at the very least, the idea of him.
I've got some tricks up my sleeve, takes one to know one. You're a cowboy like me, never wanted love, just a fancy car
You were a con artist; tricks and hoaxes were all you stored within reach of your fingers, past the watchful eyes of the awaiting vultures, ready to peck at whatever the vicious vipers had left of you. You had perfected your craft, hidden away all the wretched part of you, or so it had seemed. Because Lance had seen it the moment he lay eyes on you, the way you carried yourself, pretending to enjoy socializing, avoiding the dancing and the alcohol. Had known you were never here to search for love, lest you be blinded by your desires, perhaps including a fancy car such as a Mustang or Mercedes.
Now I'm waiting by the phone, like I'm sitting in an airport bar. You had some tricks up your sleeve, takes one to know one
More often than not, your chair held your weight as you found yourself waiting more and more often next to the phone you kept for your more private affairs, waiting for it to ring with Lance on the other side waiting for your greeting, much akin to the way one sits in an airport bar, alert, excited, wary.
You're a cowboy like me, perched in the dark, telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear, like it could be love, I could be the way forward only if they pay for it
He was just like you, a cowboy perching in the darkness of society, coming out only when you needed to. You were easily shaped by your own needs, half-listening to whatever vile concept the rich folks believed in or wanted to discuss, rather than go against them and risk a plight.
It was a growing fear, slowly weighing you down from your perch, that the only way forward, or the only way Lance would take, would be through you, at the expense of them. The idea that you were ebony another so-called lover to swindle weighed your heart down, but it was too late to turn back.
You're a bandit like me, eyes full of stars, hustling for the good life, never thought I'd meet you here. It could be love, we could be the way forward and I know I'll pay for it
The only way now was forward. You’d really seen through the masquerades Lance performed in, always the mastermind in his quest for the so-called good life. Never had you—nor Lance—ever thought you’d meet him in this charade, dancing with him amidst a whirl of lacy dresses and sewn-up trousers each to their own, and you felt as if you knew the only way you could move forward, if Lance had done away with you as he’d done with so many false lovers, was to leave you penniless and desolate.
And the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up. And the old men that I've swindled really did believe I was the one. And the ladies lunching have their stories about when you passed through town, but that was all before I locked it down
The locks on the closet doors of your past grew weaker, threatening any day to break open and let all your wicked skeletons spill out, ready to tear down this fragile new thing called love. The old men, especially, were of the worst, truly believing you were the one for them, to keep them company as they withered away into the years. And the ladies had their endless stories of when Lance passed through town, calling him a ghost, a liar, a charmer, a wanderer.
But that was before you took matters into your own hands, and you found Lance rather than let him find you and a few simple gestures, a night of intimacy, and you'd locked him down.
Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon with your boots beneath my bed, forever is the sweetest con
It was a fragile thing, this romance, and it frightened you. So easily destructible, a simple spark and flame would catch, or a quaint raindrop and the storms would drown it all. Or perhaps it was all in your head, never existing despite how much every moment shared with Lance seemed to be real. And yet, his boots were there, beneath your bed, knocked over more and more often with the soft moans and sweet nothings; forever tasted so sweet, a con, but desirable, nonetheless.
You're a cowboy like me and I'm never gonna love again
#via’s taycember#lance stroll#lance stroll x reader#lance stroll fanfic#lance stroll fanfiction#lance stroll imagine#formula 1 fanfic#formula 1#formula 1 fanfiction#formula 1 imagine#formula 1 one shot#aston martin#cowboy like me#taylor swift#evermore#Spotify#fanfic#fanfiction
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Cowboy Like Me
Howdy partner! this song is clearly a reference to Taylors roots in country music - but it goes deeper than that. It’s about Karlie, and how both girls have built their careers off of selling the idea of love, karlie through modeling and Taylor through songwriting. Both are super ambitious and focused, playing the game and driving their careers forward, but have rags (ok - not rags, but upper middle class normalcy) to riches stories, which makes them feel like the don’t quite belong in the celeb world.
And the tennis court was covered up
Several people have noticed that this could be a reference to Tennis Court by Lorde. The last time Kaylor was seen together was the below pic at Lorde’s bday. Reading the lyrics to Tennis Court, it almost seems like the same setting as CBM. Lorde’s song explores the dark side of fame, talking about not fitting in and being surrounded by superficial fame. She says “let’s go down to the tennis courts to talk it out” and then we have CBLM that starts in the middle of a sentence with “and”, and takes place at the tennis court, where the cowboys are trying to impress the rich folks, almost as if the songs are sequential.
With some tent-like thing
Here we’re already getting the theme of not belonging somewhere. Taylor doesn’t say canopy - which is what she is referring to and actually would fit both in terms of syllables and rhyme scheme - she says “tent-like thing” which is both dismissive of her surroundings and tells us that maybe she doesn’t quite know the right word for them.
And you asked me to dance
Let’s just take a moment to remember that 1) Karlie is a dancer and 2) kaylor started at vsfs2013 where they danced on stage together like this:
dancer karlie!
But I said, "Dancing is a dangerous game"
This references DWOHT - which is the ultimate Kaylor song and is all about dancing even though its dangerous, like in the lyrics “can we dance through an avalanche?”, “Swaying as the room burned down”, etc.
Oh, I thought
This is gonna be one of those things
There’s a song called Just One Of Those Things by Nat Porter that you can listen to here, and it seems like Tay is referencing it here. The song lists great loves (ex. Romeo & Juliet) being cast aside and belittled as “one of those things”. This reminds me of people saying that being gay is a “phase” in order to devalue it. Specifically one line in Just One Of Those Things really makes me think about Kaylor - “If we'd thought a bit, of the end of it When we started painting the town We'd have been aware that our love affair Was too hot, not to cool down”. It expresses how they were so loud while glass closeting and had so much chemistry that they couldn't just tone it down they had to go completely dark in order to keep closeting.
Now I know
I'm never gonna love again
In many ways this references the theme of “right where you left me”, Taylor can’t move on because she fell too hard for Karlie and no love will ever compare.
I've got some tricks up my sleeve
Takes one to know one
You're a cowboy like me
Taylor sees a lot of herself in Karlie. They know how to play the same games in terms of their careers and bearding, but because of this they understand each others vulnerabilities, etc.
Never wanted love
Just a fancy car
They weren’t looking for love when they met, they were both just in the place they were because they were trying to advance their careers. However, as Tay has talked about before, the lure or riches and fancy cars isn’t enough to satisfy her. It also references this line in King Of My Heart, where Tay literally says that all the boys aren’t as good as her lover (Karlie) is.
Now I'm waiting by the phone
Like I'm sitting in an airport bar
You had some tricks up your sleeve
Takes one to know one
You're a cowboy like me
also:
Perched in the dark
Telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear
Like it could be love
I could be the way forward
Only if they pay for it
Both Karlie and Taylor have built their careers off of selling the idea of love - Taylor through her music and Karlie through her modeling, especially with Victoria’s Secret. Both of them are capitalizing and cashing in on romance. They play the game of love to be valuable to the record labels, fashion brands, and industry overall, getting the “rich people” in the industry to invest in them and their careers. However, both are caught off guard when they encounter the real thing and actually fall in love.
You're a bandit like me
Eyes full of stars
Taylor talks about eyes a lot, but I think this has two meanings. 1 - both of their eyes are full of stars because they are surrounded by other celebs and so they are literally seeing stars all the time. 2 - the more conventional meaning would be that their eyes are bright and beautiful.
It also references two songs that are very much about Karlie: “Starry eyes sparkin’ up my darkest night” in Call It What You Want, and “The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo” in Dorothea.
Hustling for the good life
Again, Taylor brings attention to the fact that they are both really career focused and trying really hard to be as successful as possible. They don’t have the same type of fallbacks that celebs with famous parents and old money have.
Never thought I'd meet you here
It could be love
We could be the way forward
And I know I'll pay for it
Here Taylor knows that she’ll pay for her relationship with karlie in two ways, 1- she’s paying for it in that by falling in love and pursuing a relationship she’s on the “treacherous” road making her life much more complicated given that she’s choosing not to come out, 2- she is literally paying for beards so she can have a public muse for her relationship songs.
[Chorus]
And the skeletons in both our closets
Plotted hard to fuck this up
Here Tay is talking about closets again. This actually makes me think of two meanings.
1- it makes me think of the “skin and bones” line in treacherous (maybe because I was just talking about that song) and how tay has used that type of language to talk about her and her lover in the past. The skeletons in the closet could be a reference to the past karlie and Taylor being in the closet, when they were both really thin and Taylor was battling her eating disorder. In the past they were plotting so hard to cover their tracks and stay in the closet, which eventually messed everything up for them.
2 - The more obvious interpretation is that the skeletons in the closet are the people who were controlling their careers, who they have now moved away from, like SB2. These people messed things up by keeping them in the closet.
And the old men that I've swindled
Both karlie and tay have had careers that were mostly controlled by men who are older than them - VS CMO Ed razek, SB2, etc. These men thought that they were controlling kaylors careers, but kaylor is individually profiting as well.
Really did believe I was the one
This references The One, the first track on folklore.
And the ladies lunching have their stories about
When you passed through town
Karlie has quite the rep for making people fall in love with her quite easily (see the klossanova video that @theprologues made here).
But that was all before I locked it down
Love locked down! for more details check out this post and this one, but basically Karlie posted and image with the caption “love locked down” on March 6, 2016, on the same day Taylor posted “one year down” with the picture of a locket. This was one year after their Vogue cover came out in March 2015. Because of this, it seems like they were celebrating their anniversary some sort. Hence the line “I locked it down”.
Now you hang from my lips
Like the Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, known as very beautiful and an incredible feat in engineering (beauty + engineering are both things that describe karlie!). However, archeologists are unable to find proof of their location - therefore it’s unclear if the gardens “were an actual construction or a poetic creation”.
With your boots beneath my bed
This is a metaphor for sleeping together and is also referencing cowboy boots.
Forever is the sweetest con
It’s impossible to be with each other forever - when we say forever we know that we will actually be separated by mortality and factors we can’t control. However, Taylor is okay being “conned” with ideas of forever, because it’s understood that they will be with each other as long as possible.
And yet, this also references Hoax - it’s a different way of saying “your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in”. Leaving us wondering if the love was real or a con.
[Chorus]
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Deep Water | 05. October
Summary: With fame comes pain. A fact that Caitlyn knows all too well. But when she is the one thrust into the spotlight instead of one of her relatives or friends, she struggles to keep her head above water. Especially when her frenemy Harrison is destined to become her co-star in an animated version of her favourite book. She has to hide her family’s past. He has to hide his feelings and truth. They can’t trust anyone not even each other and if their secrets ever come out, they’ll end up in deep water. This Story follows the trials of the three Watson sisters as they battle to keep part of their past secret.
Warnings: Mentions of Violence, Slight mentions Torture and Swearing
Character Page | Masterlist
OCTOBER 5th: Brenten
“It’s Spooky Season Bitches!” Jasmin yelled at us walking into the school building toward us.
“Too early,” Harry muttered, his head in his locker.
“What’s with him?” She asked me.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about something,” He told us.
“At this point, you have to change your code for Cat. We’ve broken it,” I told him.
“I don’t care if you’ve figured it out,” Harry muttered.
“Is that a hickey?” Jasmin asked him, looking at the purple-blue mark on his shoulder.
“No, I hung out with Cat and she was watching over one of Ellie’s play dates and Ellie now has a suction cup bow and arrow that leaves hickey looking marks,” He told me.
“That’s either the best or worst thing I’ve ever heard,” I laughed.
“Fuck you mate,” He said.
“How’s Cat handling everything? I feel so sorry for her, it’s just getting worse and worse the more time that goes by,” I asked.
“She’s doing alright, she’s trying to protect Dot and Ellie from it all,” He said.
“It’s taking up most of her time and energy. With Alice on tour, Bea on set and her mum working hard, she’s the only one between them and the media. Her cousins are busy too,” Jasmin said.
“It’s like a nightmare come to life. Do you guys even know what happened?” I asked.
“Her dad was a dick and he reportedly killed someone,” Jasmin said. “But she doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Why was he released?” Harry asked, “All she told me was that he was released because of reasons.”
“The main witness to the murder charge was in a coma and the trail wasn’t fair for the victims. He was only put away for abuse, only a few years and good behaviour but the murder trial is restarting,” Jasmin told us.
“Fuck, Cat. She needs a lot of help,” Harry complained.
“And you’re going to have to help her. She needs you, she needs all of us but she needs you to stop being a dick at any point in time. Ever wonder why she hates you being a dick so much?” Jasmin said.
“Wait, Cat needs him?” I asked.
“Oh right you don’t know,” Jasmin said, getting a look from Harry, “Mark,” She simply said to me.
“Oh my god,” I said realizing the reason Harry started wearing make-up on his neck. “You and Cat?”
“Shut up man. I just want to live my life and we came to an agreement,” He said.
“That you’d broken before you came up with it,” Jasmin said.
“Don’t tell that to Cat, please. She doesn’t need that on her plate as well as everything else,” Harry begged.
“Too late,” Jasmin muttered.
“It’s going to be a long day,” I muttered as the pair glared at each other.
OCTOBER 12th: Jasmin
“Ready, Jas?” Mum asked me from my doorway.
“As I’ll ever be,” I said grabbing my suitcase.
“The first of many, I hope,” She said, “Your uncle will pick you up at the airport and if he’s not there call me and I will kill him.”
“Why do I have to go to the airport with Bea?” I asked her.
“Because I have to get to work and she’s on the same flight as you,” Mum told me.
“Alright. I’ll miss you,” I said giving her a hug.
“We’ll miss you too. I’ll make sure no one goes into your room while you’re away,” She said, “Love you, make sure your uncle’s nice to you and don’t get caught up in a scandal like Caitlyn and her sisters.”
“I’ll try but that wasn’t her fault,” I said, stepping through the front door.
“I know. Now go, go toward your future,” She smiled as a car pulled up. Perfect timing as always Watsons.
“Bye,” I waved going to the car.
“Bye,” She yelled back as I got in next to Bea.
“How’s it leaving your sisters when your all back together?” I asked her.
“Scary. I’m the only one not there and they’re going to make a statement on the whole thing next week and I’m going to be in LA,” She said.
“It sucks, everything about it sucks,” I told her.
“It does but we have to keep marching forward rule 23,” Bea smiled.
“How would have thought your grandmother’s rule book would come in handy?” I laughed.
“I know. All that time spent memorizing them, thinking they applied to a long-dead world and in fact, they help us with fame,” She smiled.
“She knows her stuff,” I said.
“That she does. How are you? With all the stuff going on at home I hadn’t thought to ask for a while,” She asked.
“I’m good. Not going the best but not nearly as bad as you guys. I just feel for Cat and you guys, none of this is your fault and yet they blame you for it all.”
“They need a villain and sadly for years, they’ve decided that Alice is one and that any side she’s on is the bad side, even if she is truly the victim. She’s accepted it, we all have. Sadly the media hates women and sure she’s not always the victim but she is this time,” She said.
“Well, as long as I live I’ll defend Cat and you guys,” I said.
“Thank you,” She said, “I’m sure she’d love to hear it.”
OCTOBER 19th: Harrison
“I’m here,” I said running through the Watsons’ backyard and into the house.
“Yay, my saviour,” Cat said sarcastically.
“Everyone ready?” Cat’s mum asked.
“Why do we have to do this mum?” Ellie asked.
“Because the people with Cameras are being mean about your older sisters and you,” I told her, getting a smile from Cat.
“Everyone?” Her mum asked again.
“Yup,” Four of the five sisters said.
“We’re here,” Arya said, referring to her sisters and parents, “With Grandmother.”
“Let’s do this,” Cat’s mum said.
Cat grabbed my hand and squeezed it whispering in my ear, “Thanks for coming and standing with us.”
“Brenten wanted to come but his parents wouldn’t let him,” I said as we walked out of their front door to the sea of press.
“Hello everyone,” Cat’s mum started as everyone stood behind her, Cat let go of my hand before anyone could notice that we’d been holding each other’s hands. “Thank you for coming today. I just want to start off by saying to every member of our family, by blood or not, that’s here with us. I also want to say that Florence wanted to be here but couldn’t due to work.
“I also want to say that the way you’ve all been covering this is shameful. You blaming my darling daughters for what they had to endure is just another show of the way the media victim blames women. My daughters had to put up with that monster for years, so for them to try to pretend that he doesn’t exist anymore is an entirely rational response to the trauma they went through.
“They shouldn’t have to explain themselves for protecting their images to the public. They didn’t want to be seen as victims, not because that is inherently bad but because they don’t see themselves as such.” She breathed trying not to raise her voice, another of the rules Cat talked about. “I know want to pass this over to my eldest daughter to talk about her experience.”
“Hello everyone,” Alice said, “I don’t want to comment on whether, or not my father hurt me but I have to not for me but for others. He did hurt me. He hurt all of us. Not just physically but mentally. Ever wonder why I can’t keep a boyfriend, now you know,” She joked getting a few laughs from her family and the media. “He is and has always been (Dot, Ellie cover your ears) an asshole. For as long as I can remember my mother has done her best to protect us and I’ve seen that some of you blame her and that’s wrong. She is a survivor and a badass single mother of five who looks out for her daughters and family, encourages them to follow their dreams and supports them. I’ve never met someone that I’m so glad to be related to. Liv,” She said handing it to Cat.
“Screw all of you for what you’ve said about us. We never said that he died like many of you have reported. And for any of you who claim that I’ve been fired from Disney, I’ve got news for you I haven’t and I’ll be around for a long time, so get used to this face. I can’t put it as well as my older sister, words are her job, not mine. But I can tell all of you the truth. I love my family and I’ll do anything to protect them, their the real world not you. I don’t give a damn about my reputation or what you write about me as long as I have them. So I’m sorry if I’m not your darling anymore but I don’t care,” She said keeping a smile on her face the entire time. When she turned around her grandmother gave her one in return, showing some sort of emotion and I’m not sure it was happiness.
“We will not answer questions or anything. Now please politely get off my property,” Cat’s mum smiled as she said it.
“You did good Cat,” I told her.
“I think I just shot myself in the foot,” She said back making me and Alice laugh.
“Better the foot than the head,” Her grandmother spoke coming to stand near us, “That was good Caitlyn but next time, less foul language.”
“Alright,” Cat said as we walked into the house to celebrate.
OCTOBER 31st: Caitlyn
“Ready to go trick or treating mini-me?” I asked Ellie, popping my head into her room.
“I’m ready!” She smiled, “Lola and Willa are coming too?”
“Yup and Kenna, she wants candy,” I laughed.
“Space Cowboys unite!” Lola yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
“Space cowboys!” Ellie yelled, running down the stairs. While her and Ella started talking about school I walked down the stairs toward Lola and Kenna.
“So Cat, how are you?” Lola signed.
“Better but I worry about Ellie and tonight,” I signed back, knowing that if we were going to talk to this we had to do it in sign language if we didn’t want Ellie and Willa to hear what we were talking about.
“Can we go?” Willa asked us.
“Sure,” Lola said to her little sister. “Let’s go!”
“CANDY!” Kenna signed rapidly.
“CANDY!” Lola and I yelled.
“CANDY!” Our younger sisters yelled.
“I’ll drive,” Lola said trying to grab my keys.
“My car, I’ll drive,” I said keeping my keys out of her reach easily.
“Trick or Treat!” The two six-year-olds shouted at one of the doors.
“How lovely, two cowboys,” An old lady said from the other side of the door. “And three older cowboys.” She smiled at us. “Are these your sisters?” She whispered to Willa and Ellie.
“Yes,” They whispered back.
“Well, would you all like a candy?” She asked.
“Yes!” The two of them said.
“Well here you go,” She said handing them each a chocolate bar and then handing us one each. “It’s nice to see your generation taking care of your younger siblings. It’s a good skill to have.”
“Thank you,” Lola and I said, while Kenna signed, “They’re not my sisters but thank you.”
“You sign?” The lady asked both aloud and in sign.
“Yes,” Kenna signed back.
“My husband’s deaf, since the war and he was a boy,” The lady explained again in both sign and spoken.
“It’s nice to know others are out there, I’m the only deaf person at school and only one teacher speaks sign language. So, Lola and Cat here have to translate the classes,” Kenna signed.
“I’m sorry about that,” The lady signed.
“It’s alright. I can hear some but I like going to normal school,” Kenna signed.
“I bet you do.” She signed to Kenna before turning to Ellie and Willa. “Take care kids, it’s a full blue moon on halloween. There could be creatures out there,” She told Ellie and Willa.
“What does she mean creatures?” Willa asked.
“She means that there are werewolves, vampires and witches are out under the full moon!” I told them spookily as we walked to the next house.
“Ahh!” They said, not at my voice but at the two boys approaching us.
“Happy halloween!” A jester/christmas tree clad Harrison said.
“Back off demon!” Willa yelled.
“Hello to you to Willa,” He responded with a laugh.
#october#deep water#writing#my writing#my ocs#ocs#celebrity au#celebs#pjo#caleb mclaughlin#jake t austin#olivia holt#Amandla Stenberg#Social media#social media au#'cause i still fuckin' love queue babe#sorry it's so late!
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Jersey on my mind (part 19)
Mila’s feet dangle in the air as she sits on the edge of the guard post, while looking out over the surroundings. Next to her on the floor lies a bottle of vodka, in case she gets bored. She turns her eyes to the flickering flame of the oil lantern, the only source of light. Besides the lantern its pitch black. The darkness is wrapped around the surroundings like a heavy blanket. No lights are on in the houses.
Before she put on her jacket, hid the vodka bottle in the inner pocket and went out to the guard tower Mila tucked Juri in for the night. She helped him choose a cassette tape to fall asleep to, made sure he had all of his ‘friends’ also tucked in; the brown dog named Jeff (Mila had no idea why), his soft bunny named Bruce after Bruce Springsteen and the teddy bear that goes by the name Eddie, after Eddie Vedder. But Mila hasn’t been able to figure out Jeff. Who’s Jeff? Instead of asking him about it, she kissed Juri on the forehead and left for guard duty. Daryl wasn’t at the guard tower when she arrived, so Mila made herself comfortable.
She taps her fingers towards the floor and hums the tune to “Hungry heart”, starts to sing faintly. Springsteen makes her think of the summers in New Jersey. Driving around on hot summer days, the long days at the beach in Point Pleasant, eating tons of ice cream and drinking Pepsi Cola, riding around Atlantic City with Darya and Laura in Darya’s dad’s convertible-
“You sing well.”
Mila looks up. Daryl has joined her, finally. In one hand he holds the crossbow and in the other two bottles of water.
“You’re late.”
”You’re easy prey, sitting like this.” Daryl sits down besides her, lets his legs swing over the edge next to hers and gives her one of the bottles.
”Wolves are gone. Walkers don’t jump.” Mila removes the lid and takes a sip of water. “I think I’m fine.”
”You’re really good.” Daryl looks down at his knees. “I mean, singing. Your accent disappears when you sing.”
”Yeah. I’ve heard that.” Mila laughs and puts the water bottle down, next to the vodka bottle. ”It would sound even better if I had a guitar and a cowboy hat.” With a smile she grabs the Vodka bottle from the floor, unscrews it and takes a bountiful sip, before offering it to Daryl. ”I’ve heard you should drink at least one liter a day.”
”Thought that applied to water?” Daryl lifts an eyebrow and brings the bottle to the mouth and drinks, lets out a cough as he lowers it. ”Gotta get you a guitar then, Jersey.”
“Yeah I wouldn’t worry too much about that.” She replies. “It sorta’ feels pretty pointless now. I haven't played in forever.” she meets Daryl’s gaze. “I was engaged to this guy, before- It’s because of him I play the guitar, and sing in ‘American’.”
Daryl stiffens up at her words. It’s barely noticeable, but Mila notices.
“He’s dead anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” Mila takes a sip of vodka. “My father hated him for encouraging my interest in music. Said it was a waste of time. He didn’t understand the phenomenon ‘hobbies’.” Mila tries to remember what her dear papa yelled at her through the glass. It was hard to hear exactly what he yelled, since he banged at the window, but she could make out some of it. ”Eto chepukha, Milena, chepukha!” she repeats. “Nonsense.”
“Seems like a charmer.” Daryl replies. “Ain’t a waste though. I like it.”
Mila glances at the broad archer next to her. Somehow he reminds her of Jim; tall, broad shoulders and muscles. Jim had brown hair and beard, a bit more groomed than the Southern archer, but still-
The first time Mila laid her eyes on Jim was during a gig at a bar in Brooklyn. She was there with her friend Laura. Jim played guitar in the band and halfway through he pulled his shirt off. Milas eyes were glued to his bare chest during the rest of the performance. Even a blind person would have noticed such an intense stare down; as did Jim on stage. Afterward he asked her over to their table, and she fell like a paw for the big Oklahoma native, with the pretty eyes and the kind smile. Jim was big as a bear and kind as a puppy. He was warm, had a boisterous but contagious laugh, he was friendly and charismatic. Everybody around Mila adored Jim, everybody except papa, which made sense. Papa hated everyone, except himself.
Physically, Daryl reminds her of Jim somewhat, but their personalities are like night and day. Jim was able to entertain an entire room full of people, and happily did so by telling stories or playing the guitar. Daryl would probably never even think of entering such a room. He’s encased in armor, a hard shell no one seems to be able to break. She hasn’t heard an ounce of bursting laughter from him and he barely talks. And yet she likes his company. When she saw him walk down the street into the Safe-Zone last night it felt like a ton of brick was dropped from her chest. Of course she was still angry with him for some unimportant reason she can’t really remember now, but she was happy for having him back.
“Where’s he by the way?” Daryl asks. “Your old man. Ya’ said ya’ came here together.”
“In prison.”
The statement doesn’t seem to surprise Daryl significantly.
“What for?”
Mila hands him the vodka bottle again. Daryl looks puzzled at it.
“If you want to hear about it, you might need it.” Mila explains and doesn’t take her eyes away from his. “There’s a legit reason why I have alcohol problems.”
“Haven’t noticed.” the archer winks at her over the bottle and drinks. “Why’s he locked up?”
“Murder. And for kidnapping me.”
It might be so easy to say it because she feels some kind of connection to the man sitting next to her, or maybe it’s because the whole world went to hell and papa, Mila’s perdition, her Achilles heel, probably is dead by now.
Mila was the only child. Her father, her papa, wanted to have a son. Instead he got Mila. Her mother, who loved her more than life itself, couldn’t bear more children and Mila was punished for that her entire life by her father. Papa was stern on her from the start. Sergey Yuruchenko’s offspring wouldn’t be a weakling. Her sole purpose in life would be to make him proud. Like a show dog. He hardened Mila like steel; dragged her out on the frozen river Volga during the winters for an ice bath, a procedure to ‘man her up’. If Mila hesitated or began to cry she had to stay longer in the water. Eventually she stopped crying. He taught her to fight, games that often resulted in cracked lips and black eyes. Sometimes Mila began to cry because it hurt and she felt scared, but he assured her it was a fun game, and she believed him. He coached her in sports, to make sure she would win. Second place was never enough. Mila could’ve easily become an olympic marathon athlete, if she would have had the choice. But he had already set out her entire future.
”My mama loved me with all of her heart and papa made sure that I never forgot how he grieved the son he never had. It was my burden and my responsibility to prove that I was worthy of his affection. I was a wreck emotionally. Thrown between boundless love and emotional abuse.” Mila pauses and takes another mouthful of vodka. “I got respect from him for the first time when I was fifteen. He firmly argued that if a man couldn’t hit a soup can fifty yards away with a gun after drinking a whole bottle of vodka, he was a wimp. He didn’t count on me, a fifteen year old girl to even dream about trying.” She raises her eyebrows at Daryl. ”But I passed the test and he eased the leash.”
After that summer, Mila had a great year. She was ‘allowed’ to be an ordinary teenager in all its meaning. She went to parties with her friends, dreamed of Leonardo Dicaprio when she kissed her first boyfriend Dima for the first time and she was convinced that life would continue like that.
“Then one day he asked me to come with him on a trip abroad, for work. It was just the two of us at home that day and he was so different. Friendly even. It felt odd, but he was so convincing. He asked me to be ready in an hour with a bag. I felt so excited. Not until we walked through the gate at the airport I understood where we were going. I couldn’t believe it. We were going to America! He made the whole trip sound so exciting. It felt like we were friends for the first time. That I finally had a father.”
Mila pauses. She’d thought about that moment many times since that plane ride. How it all was just an act. How he used Mila’s cluelessness to save his own ass. In reality he didn’t feel like that at all. He didn’t care about her.
”We were arrested as soon as we got through the passport control at Newark. We were separated, put in different rooms. I panicked the entire time, fought and cried. An interpreter and two policemen came and told me that he was arrested. I tried to convince them that it must have been a misunderstanding. But it wasn’t. I was kidnapped and papa was internationally wanted for murder in Russia by Interpol. Or serial murders, I think it’s called, in the case of more than three victims.”
“How many?” he asks.
Their eyes meet through the darkness. The only sound that’s heard is the chirping cicadas, the wind rattling in the trees and the thudding sound of the walkers crashing into each other on the other side of the wall. Well, he hasn’t run away yet, Mila thinks.
“Including the policeman he killed at the station the day after we arrived; ten.”
Daryl doesn't even try to hide his astonishment.
”A woman disappeared in Moscow in- gosh, I don’t even remember the year. Anyway, she was found under a bridge, two days later. Then another woman was found a few weeks later, under a viaduct. Seven women and two men around Moscow. One woman was completely beheaded. I was fourteen when they found her, and my father told me to ’be safe’ when I walked home from gymnastics practice.”
Mila remembers almost all of them by name. They were read out during the trial in New York, while images of them were displayed on a projector. Mila saw their bruised faces, the dead eyes in the pale, straight faces. No matter how awful it was, she couldn’t look away, like passing a car accident. Mila had to watch, to understand that it was her papa, who worried when she would go home alone from gymnastics, he who always urged her to beware of boys in a group (or boys in general), that had done these horrible actions. The youngest victim was eighteen and was found in a shallow part of Volga. They had to identify it through dental cards. In court, sitting on that hard bench in between Ellie and Joe Galka, Mila desperately tried to meet her father’s gaze, wanted him to turn around where he sat, with his back against her. When he finally did, Mila didn’t see a trace of regret or empathy in them.
”He kidnapped ya’ to- what, to save himself?”
“It didn’t seem suspicious if he traveled with his daughter. I was his ticket out of it. If he did get caught, he could use me as-” Mila fiddles on a thread in her jeans. “-Yeah, I haven’t figured out that part yet. He really knew how to inflict maximum damage to his advantages. Because of his position, working for the state, which is... corrupted beyond imagination, he could change my documents without anyone asking, making himself my sole guardian. On paper, I no longer had a mother. It was- He was so split. On one hand, a well regarded worker for the state, modest and punctual. And on the other hand, emotionally disturbed, a psychopath. A monster.” She sighs. “The same day we were arrested he overpowered a police officer. He killed him, granting him life in prison here, not risking being extradited to Russia. Social services took care of me and I ended up at the Galka’s. The first six months I visited papa in prison weekly. It really fucks you up in the head, being pulled back to the root of evil, to one's perpetrator. In my case, it was the same person. Perpetrator and father. Evil impersonated and the only person I felt I had some connection to here. And yet, I never got an explanation to why he did what he did. Eventually, thanks to the Galka’s, I stopped visiting. He didn’t like that, being out of control.”
Mila had never revolted, but when she had to acclimatize to a new culture and language all on her own, that changed. She could just as well have ended up dead behind a dumpster from drugs, but instead she went on to study at Columbia University. When papa found out that she studied to become a dental nurse, instead of a ‘real dentist’, or ‘the president of all dentists in the entire world’, or anything equally grandiose, he went all mad and had to be dragged out of the visitors room by the guards. A few days later he made a phone call and yelled at Mila for three straight minutes, until the call broke. When Mila paid him a much involuntary visit a few weeks later he’d calmed down a bit; he’d been in solitary confinement since that lash out.
”Of all professions...” Papa snarled into the handset. ”Dental nurse? A servant! Milaya, why are you causing me this pain?”
Mila pulls herself away from the memory of Southport Correctional facility’s visiting room, back to the present, to the cool, calm night, where she shares a bottle of vodka with the archer.
“As far as I’m concerned I don’t have a father.” Mila meets Daryl’s gaze through the faint, warm light from the lantern. “I moved on. I made it. I got pregnant while in uni and tried to commit suicide. That was a nightmare. Once again I had to... switch on survival mode. I felt so defective. How could someone with a father like mine, someone who’s been hurled between motherly love and fatherly abuse, possibly be a good parent.” Mila takes a sip of vodka. The bottle is almost completely empty by now. “I haven’t had much space for making my own choices in life. Until recently.” she says. “I did some stupid choices on the way here. But at least I turned out... fairly good in the end.”
They look at each other in silence. Nothing is heard but the walkers collected hissing breaths, like a choir of rotten asthmatics, gasping for air, while pushing up against the wall. Sometimes a thud, like flesh against metal, is heard when the ones in the back push the ones in the front extra hard into the wall.
”Ya’ think he’s alive? Or they?” Daryl asks, husky. ”Your parents?”
Mila shrugs her shoulders; she doesn't know. After a while in the weeks following the outbreak, the phone calls to her mother in Russia stopped working. Her father can’t be alive. It would be impossible, just as impossible as it is to escape a high security prison like Southport.
”What about ya’ foster parents?”
”I don’t know.” Mila bites her lower lip. ”When the two of us came back to Jersey the Galka’s were gone. So we left, me and Juri.”
”Ain’t too bad, though.” Daryl says, in what Mila thinks is an attempt to cheer her up. “He’s a great kid.”
”He is.” she smiles. ”I never thought I’d make it, being on my own with him like this. He’s my everything, the better person of the two of us; wakes me in the morning, cheers me up and is always happy. I don’t know how he does it. He’s three!”
”And a half.” Daryl smirks.
“Touché.” Mila looks at him. “Gosh. I’m surprised you haven’t ran away.”
”Why would I? Ma’ old man was a boozer, an ass.” Daryl replies, and his eyes suddenly shift from almost warm, to dark. “I hadn’t much of a mother. Smoked herself to death, burnt the entire fuckin’ house down at the same time. Ma’ brother went in and out of juvenile. Died, as everyone else.” Daryl hesitates, but then he continues. ”I’m a nobody. Always been. I don’t have anything to run from.”
Mila lays her hand on top of Daryl’s, that rests against the floorboards. He twitches by her sudden move, like a stray dog that has never felt a friendly touch.
“You’re not a nobody.” Mila says, emphasising every word. “You saved my life. Heck, I think you saved more lives than my sorry ass. Do you always push those who care about you away?”
Daryl becomes silent.
”Sorry.”
”Don’t be.” Mila says. “Honestly, It’s like you don’t think you deserve anything; people being kind to you, that people care. That’s not healthy. No wonder you’re so peevish. Just let the guard down once in a while. You do so much for everybody here, who are so thankful for it and want to show that to you. Let them. You need it. Let people in. Have you never done that?”
”Never had a chance.” he answers. ”It’s always been bloody knuckles and shards of glass.”
”But does that mean that the whole world is dark and evil? I’ve had a bumpy ride too and I’m not all stiff and irritated with everything.”
”Well ye’ ain’t me.”
”And thank god for that.” Mila smiles a little. ”No matter what your life was like before it doesn’t have to continue being like that.” she gets silent, before she meets his eyes again. ”Have you ever just sat down and thought about what you want? Not what everybody else needs, or what they tell you to do, no matter what you think. Have you?”
”Never gotten that chance either.” Daryl grunts, and continues to look at his shoes.
“Well, do that.” Mila holds up the bottle of vodka in front of her. It’s empty. “Crap...”
“Ya’ haven’t had enough of that?”
Mila puts her head to the side and smiles dazzling.
“I told you I have problems.” Mila smirks and puts the bottle down. “But I’m workin’ on fixing that. Not tonight though.”
The corners of Daryl’s mouth curves slightly upward and he chuckles faintly. They sit quietly for a moment before he once again turns to her.
“Ya’ really a dentist?”
“Dental nurse.” Mila corrects. “What, are you surprised?”
“Not at all.” Daryl replies. “How’s that like?”
“We'll take that one another time.” Mila adjusts herself on the floor. “I have to save some cock-and-bull stories about tartar and teeth extractions for later.”
“Can’t wait.” Daryl smirks. “If ye’ want to sing something, I don’t mind.”
Mila smiles. They sit next to each other, watching the night turn into early dawn. Mila sings faintly, to avoid unnecessary attention from the walkers, dangling her legs in the air, while Daryl’s eyes rest on the horizon, wearing a pleasant smile upon his lips.
#daryl fanfiction#daryl x oc#daryl dixon#twd daryl#Jersey on my mind#Daryl Dixon Fanfic#The Walking Dead fanficition#The walking dead fanfic#fanfiction#twd fanfiction#fanfic#twd fanfic#the walking dead fandom
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Cocaine and The Cyclops
The queue in the bank seemed endless and as much as he tried to blank out the conversation of the old couple in front of him, it was almost impossible.
They spoke very loud and it was almost as if they were putting on a show, it was obvious they were drunk and desperate for attention. They were both rough looking and a step away from being derelicts.The woman was angry and aggressive and carried a tin of strong lager.
“If you don’t behave yourself, I’ll take you to the care home, I mean it!”
“You don’t take me to the care home, I take you to the care home, you bitch!”
“I hate you, you're disgusting and your knob stinks!”
“Yes, but at least I haven’t wet myself.”
She slapped him around the face and he slapped her back. Her beer fell on the floor and there was a hideous shriek.
At this point the bank security guard appeared behind them and ushered them politely to the exit.
Glen laughed and walked out of the Bank, the crazy couple had taken his mind away from his problems.
He realized that the demon drink had messed their lives up in the way cocaine had messed his life up. Now he was in a crisis situation.
He had considered his problem from every angle and it was clear there was only one realistic option. He would have to go to his dealer and explain the situation and ask for more time. Getting his dealer to believe that his wife had accidentally put his jacket with £10,000 worth of cocaine in the washing machine would not be easy.
His dealer was not a man to be trifled with and not known for his sense of humour. His nickname was Cy, which was short for Cyclops and rumour had it he had lost an eye in a knife fight.
Having made the decision to confront Cy, Glen felt nauseous with worry. His ambitious plan to turn his addiction into a business had become a nightmare. It seemed the world was conspiring against him, how could somebody so good looking be so unlucky?
Glen phoned one of Cy’s Lieutenants and 10 minutes later he received a text message with a location for the “meet.”
As Glen drove across London to the “meet” he felt a mixture of fear and depression. Now everything was about cocaine it had begun dominating his life and he felt he only had a slender contact with the person he had once been. Even his relationship with his wife had suffered, she said he had become paranoid, short tempered, and needed help and today for the first time he realized she was right. Underneath his left eye twitched furiously, this only happened when he was highly stressed. On two occasions he stopped the car and was tempted to turn back but he was already a month late with his payment and if he did not show for the meet they would think he was trying to rob them and the consequences would be dire. He had his wife and daughter to consider. He called his wife but her phone was switched off.
His Sat Nav indicated he had arrived at his destination, which turned out to be ladies hairdressers.
It was packed and he made his way to the counter.
He spoke with a huge middle aged woman dressed like a Barbie doll, she looked at Glen with hard eyes pressed a buzzer on the desk an indicated for Glen to go up the stairs.
At the end of a passage was an iron door covered by a curtain. An eye appeared at the peep hole and Glen could hear the sound of bolts being released.
He was greeted by Archie, one of Cy’s inner circle.
Archie always made Glen feel uncomfortable, he was was a former night club bouncer, very tall and muscular with a shaven head and an unblinking stare. His suits always appeared to be too small and gave you the impression he was about to burst out of his clothes like The Incredible Hulk. In spite of his forbidding appearance, strangely he had the voice of a girl.
He indicated for Glen to pass through an Arch positioned at the centre of the room
“Walk through that arch slowly and lift your arms above your head.”
“Why what’s that?” Glen asked slightly alarmed.
“It’s a body scanner like they have at airports.”
Archie stood close behind Glen and whispered in his ear
“You’re not armed, are you? Or carrying a recording device? That would be extremely unfortunate.”
“No, of course not!”
Archie gave him the creeps and he felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
A girl sitting at a desk, staring at a computer screen looked up at Archie and said “He’s clean. Go through.”
Cy sat behind a stylish desk, he was a small man, middle aged, of Mediterranean appearance, with an intense face and receding hairline. He appeared relaxed but it was hard to gauge what he was thinking as he wore sunglasses.
Glen sat on a chair placed in front of the desk, while Archie and another man sat behind him.
Glen’s mouth felt dry.
“Good afternoon Glen, first I must say that over the years you have been a good customer. What one might call steady, which is why we were good enough to credit you with £10000 worth of Charlie so that you could start your own business. Archie tells me that you have had an accident with said cocaine… Explain.”
His voice was deep and melodious, almost comforting and it put Glen at ease and he explained in full the mistake his wife had made.
Cy took off his sunglasses and sat back in his chair.
“When I was younger I envied guys like you, tall, good looking and popular with women, from a privileged background and my guess is you’ve charmed your way through life without much effort, and is there honey still for tea? I on the other hand I come from a poor family with minimal education, I have always been short and I started going bald at 20. I had to become a drug dealer to get money, women, power, and influence.”
“And in my quest for these things I lost one of my eyes as you can see, so as you can imagine I find it very difficult to feel sorry for you. Now bearing in mind you are already a month late. When are we going to get our money?”
“Cy, could you give me a month please?”
“You have built up a lot of positives with us up until now, and out of the goodness of my heart you have 14 days, after that you have a problem because I can’t take you to court and killing you is not an option, because removing identifying features like heads and hands and incinerating bodies is expensive time consuming work. So you leave me with no option, we are going to have to hurt you in a very public way as an example to others.”
“Cy, what about 3 weeks? My parents will be back from a cruise and I can borrow the money from them.”
Glen could feel himself close to tears.
“No, 14 days maximum, we gave you the opportunity to earn thousands of pounds and you reward our trust with carelessness and fortunately for you I’m not even going to consider the possibility you may be lying, and it could be your trying to rob me.”
“Glen, I don’t like violence but I have people on my staff that do. Archie is one them. Do you know he gets an erection if he hears the death scream? And if you don’t bring our money I’m going to let Archie here, perform an operation on your nose. When he’s finished, instead of having 2 nostrils you’re going to have one big one. Which is most appropriate given the circumstances, and from what Archie tells me this operation can be performed in matter of seconds, sadly without anesthetic and unlike the NHS YOU WON’T HAVE TO WAIT!”
From behind him Archie reached forward and put his hand on Glen’s shoulder.
Glen was startled and he screamed and stood up.
“I wouldn’t scream like that, none of us wants Archie getting an erection”
“Before you go Glen. Archie is going to show you some photo’s on his phone of some of his previous, let’s call them patients, who have had their noses remodeled.”
Archie took a large pair of pliers from his pocket and placed them on the desk in front of Glen.
Archie pulled his chair alongside Glen’s and smiled. He took his mobile out and showed Glen a number of images of men who had their noses mutilated, they were horrible.
Glen was traumatised by the photo’s he began breathing heavily, his heart rate soared and he began shaking violently, he became hysterical and began screaming in a high pitched thin voice,
“I’II get the money, I’ll get the money!”
“Two weeks, that’s all you’ve got, otherwise your daughter is going to be asking Mummy, ‘why does Daddy look like a hover?’”
“Have a nice day Glen. Archie, escort our guest downstairs please.”
Glen sat in his car and he felt exhausted both physically and emotionally. He phoned his wife he was desperate to hear her reassuring voice, but her phone was switched off.
When he arrived home the flat was empty, all the lights were off except the bedroom.
He opened the bedroom door. The bed was stripped and in the middle of the bed was a Stetson cowboy hat. Leaning against the hat was an envelope with “Glen” written in felt pen. Glen opened the envelope with trembling fingers:
‘Glen, by the time you get this letter me and your
daughter will be starting a new life in America.
It was me that took the cocaine to help make up
for 8 years of my life you wasted. You’re a loser
and you always will be.
Your real wife is cocaine and I hope you will
be very happy together
Lots of love,
G.’
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I Want Crazy (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction)- Chapter 1- Leaving Manhattan
*Authors Note: I wrote this story as if it happened during 2012 to follow some of the timeline of real events that occurred for Hunter Hayes.
Savannah wasn't the average girl you would see walking down the street in midday. Her looks were very appealing to the average eye. She had luscious brunette locks, which seemed to fall perfectly in small ringlets down to her mid back. She didn't even have to do any styling to her hair but wake up from a long night of beauty rest. I guess that's why they call it beauty sleep. Many of the girls at her elite private school coveted her good looks and charm she had with the boys. No, she was no perfect Malibu Barbie but she did have a few tricks up her sleeve. Between the endless shopping sprees, the best fashion sense, huge parties no one could miss and running for student body president, she was able to win over a mass majority of the student body. Of course there were those who swore her as their biggest enemy, but even they couldn't help but respect her. Just because she was popular, rich and cunning, Savannah had an authentic side to her as well, it just wasn't the first thing that showed. So, who wouldn't love Savannah? She was everything anyone wanted to be, and more.
Savannah sat on the floor while she folded neatly the last of her clothing lying around her room. She placed it nicely in her designer suitcase. Savannah looked around her room wishing that she wasn't about to leave the place she loved most in the world. All her pictures and decorations on her walls were taken down and already packed away in the rest of the moving boxes. She sighed, saddened by the blank white walls. Her journal was sitting on her nightstand, the last thing she needed to grab before leaving. She carried that thing everywhere and it was very worn down. Journaling allowed Savannah to have a personal outlet. It allowed her to write her private thoughts down and look back on them whenever she pleased. She opened the brown leather book, and turned to the newest entry written just hours ago and began reading through it.
August 13th, 2012
Dear Diary,
Today is moving day. The day I dreaded since I first found out. I can't believe I am leaving the best place in the world for a crummy redneck town. From Manhattan to Nashville, now you don't hear that one often. I could barely even say the name when I told my friends I was leaving. I think the worst part was that I knew for sure they wouldn't have Burberry, Louboutin, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and even Dior. I am going to be reduced to jeans and cowboy boots, yuck! I would rather be dead than seen wearing old torn up clothes without a designer name. I hear Nashville is where all the aspiring country singers move to, in hopes of making it big. But, what I think of when I hear Nashville is, the country full of farms with animals. And what about the smell? Now that's something that doesn't sound delightful.
I can't believe my mom talked me into this. It was always me and my mom ever since she was 16 and pregnant. I know, sounds boring, the typical sad story of another teenage pregnancy gone wrong. But, the difference she claims is that she's going to Nashville to find my father and get back together with him. Sure, I would love to meet my father who abandoned my mother when she was pregnant, not. He sounded more like a disappointment than a hero, as my mom made him out to be. Regardless, I can't just let my mom go by herself and get hurt. Indeed, I have anger built up against her for wanting to move, but she is all I have. I love her more than anything. I mean, she is my best friend. I guess that's sort of a cliché, but it's the truth. I wouldn't be anywhere without my mom, my biggest supporter in life. I would do anything for her, including packing up all my things and moving thousands of miles away. Of course I can't just let it be, I have the right to be a little mad about it.
I can't imagine why my father had picked Tennessee out of all places to move to. I mean Tennessee? What better place on earth is there for high class living and fabulous fashion, other than New York? Maybe Paris, yeah that would definitely be more suitable than Nashville. I hear it's home to cowboy boots and country music, and did I mention the awful fashion sense. Maybe when I get there it would be different from the endless movies I've seen- but I doubt it. All I know is that this isn't going to be a permanent situation at least I hope. My plan was to go there, meet my father, have him fall back in love with my mother and then convince him to move back to Manhattan. However, my mom wasn't too convinced. She would rather us try to fit in as a "real country family" and go about getting my father's attention that way. With her strategy we would need a miracle for my father to not recognize my mother. Or just a miracle to survive.
As she finished reading, she closed the precious book and put it in her purse.
"Time to go!" her mother, Amelia, called from downstairs. Savannah carried her one last suitcase down the stairs, through the foyer and out the front door. Her mother stood there impatiently waiting for Savannah. "Finally. Now let's go so we can get there by morning" Amelia said annoyed at her daughter since she had planned to already be on the road by now.
"Seriously? We're taking the limo? I'm not so sure that's how people in the country do it mom. I thought we were trying to fit in" Savannah said a little too sarcastically. But she couldn't complain, the limo is way more comfortable.
"Well, that's a good point but it's just this one time. And plus there's a ton of country stars there, so maybe they have limo's too. You never know. We could be living by someone famous!"
"Yeah, okay mom, and my father is the president of the United States. That's how unlikely it is" Savannah replied, rolling her eyes and giving attitude.
"Okay, I get your point, but it could still happen" Amelia said, sounding defeated. She really wasn't in the mood for Savannah's attitude. She knew this was just the way her daughter expressed herself, and she was thankful she was going at all. Amelia knew that Savannah was giving up a lot so she knew putting up with the backlash was just going to be part of the process.
Savannah let Colton, their personnel driver, put her suitcase in the trunk and slid into the limo. At least the long 13 hour drive would be more comfortable in the limo. "Mom, I still don't know why you insist on driving instead of flying" Savannah said nervously picking at her loose hangnail.
"Well, I don't know. I guess because we have no one to pick us up from the airport."
"You should have thought about that before we moved! We don't know anyone there. And how do you even expect to find my father? It's not like he's just going to magically appear!" Savannah practically shouted.
"Savannah don't raise your voice" Amelia said in a light tone trying to calm her down. She was already nervous enough about the drive and the move itself, but of course she wouldn't tell her daughter that.
"Don't call me Savannah then."
"Fine Sav, don't raise your voice. Now whether you like it or not, you agreed to go. So I expect you to be on your best behavior" Amelia replied as the limo started to pull out of the driveway.
Savannah looked out the back window taking in one last look at her house she lived in her whole life. She couldn't believe that this view wouldn't be the one she would be driving up to over the next year, as she had grown accustomed to over the last 18 years.
Savannah realized that complaining wasn't going to get her what she wanted the most. What she wanted was to stay in New York and take on Columbia University one step at a time with her best friend Madison. The only person more upset about the move than Savannah was her best friend. Madison, unlike many of Savannah's peers, didn't actually covet what Savannah had. That's why many believed they ended up as such good friends. Savannah and Madison were equals. They were both equally pretty and popular. Unlike many friends, they didn't have a secret rivalry between them. Madison had no interest in being student body president and Savannah wasn't jealous that Madison was dating the hottest boy at their high school. Anyways, high school was so past them. They had just graduated from high school two months ago. But, now Madison was off to Columbia and Savannah was stuck moving to Nashville.
Savannah relaxed and pulled out her journal. She continued writing where she left off.
I can't believe I'm leaving my sanctuary, the place I feel most comfortable in, behind. Luckily, my grandparents were dirt rich and my mom was an only child so we received all the inheritance when they passed on. I mean my mom and I are both responsible with our money- but we do know how to live on the upper side, especially since living in the center of Manhattan doesn't come cheap. Back to the point, we didn't have to sell our house, which I am so thankful for. Otherwise, I would have put my foot down and not left at all. But, we are just renting it out for 10 months. And the 10 months, one school year, was the time limit my mom and I both agreed upon to live in Nashville.
____________________________________________________________
*A/N: From time to time you'll see multimedia pictures of different celebrities. I am not basing any of those actors/actress as characters in this story, only Hunter. The images are either used as inspiration for the look of a character I am creating, showing off an outfit or just using it for a picture. i.e my inspiration for Savannah's look is based off of Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl, but she herself is not Savannah's character.
#hunterhayesfanfic#Hunter Hayes Fanfiction#hunterhayes#Hunter Hayes#love#romance#drama#country boy#nashville#city girl#fanfiction#fanfic
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We were supposed to go sailing with a family friend, and right beforehand, the friend broke his leg! Needless to say, the entire trip was off. For them, not us. We continued on with…
No plans. No reservations. No…really
I knew there’d be pros and cons to seeing a country this way. On one hand, it allows for more freedom. On the other hand, I probably spent entirely too much time scrolling Booking.com or Airbnb on my iphone for places to sleep that night. Must-haves: good reviews, A/C, Wi-Fi, preferred Superhost, location, location, location.
If you’re going from Hungary to Croatia, you have a few transportation options:
Rent a car with a v high one-way drop free (unless you plan on going back to Budapest)
Hire a car & driver for a high fee
Take a train (that wasn’t running the day we left because of a public holiday)
Take a bus
Day 1
We left Budapest at 10:30am on a FlixBus (booked day-of!) for about €20/passenger. Now I’m not a traveler that typically gravitates towards the public bus systems of central Europe, but this one didn’t disappoint mostly because it was half full, clean, and came with a view…and because the bus driver let me off to get a banana because HUNGER PAINS. With a border crossing consisting of 25 minutes, the total drive was ~5 hours. That’s 5 episodes of GoT. All good in my book.
Once at the Zagreb bus station, t’was time to hail a cab to the airport so we could rent a car and be on our way. (So let’s rewind and count: that’s 1 cab to the Budapest bus station, 1 bus ride to Croatia, 1 cab to Zagrab airport just to get to the rental car. PHEW). I wasn’t in the Volkswagen for 5 minutes before I went the wrong way down a one-way while stopping traffic everywhere. Then Google Maps took us the scenic route which was the definition of backroads if I’ve ever seen ’em – tractors, horseback, cyclists, greenery, and loooots of wide open land. Honestly, it looked a lot like Arkansas. I immediately felt right at home
After another 2 1/2 hour drive with a pitstop at Cowboy Western Ranch for lunch (if you’re doing this route, you must stop here and get the Texas Burger. Just do it. Not because it’s good, but because it’s a monstrosity and funny when you’re sleep deprived. Plus, it’s like you’re in Texas but you’re in Croatia. It’s weird).
Stay
Around 8pm we finally rolled into Ethno Houses Plitvica Selo. It’s not perfect (rude creaky floors), but I’d stay here again for its location in the heart of Plitvice Lakes National Park and extremely close proximity to Entrance 3. While you can’t purchase entrance tickets to the national park at Entrance 3 (big question mark here), the hotel offers to do it for you – alleviating you of getting back in the car and driving to Entrance 1 or 2. *Raises hand*
Day 2
Explore the gems of Plitvice Lakes National Park
Breakfast at the hotel
All day exploration of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Note: You walk here, there’s no driving, and you also can’t swim. I’m sure it’s for safety/sustainability reasons, but the waters are crazy inviting. Near the entrances, there’s food/water/ice cream stations. Stock up on water! Beware of the circus during the hours from 10am – 6pm. I honestly can’t come up with too many other nature-derived experiences that have been *this* crowded. Once 6pm hit, it was insanely calm and beautiful.
Dinner at Ethno Houses Plitvica Selo
Shop my favorite pair of high-waisted pocket leggings (pictured below)
Stay
Ethno Houses Plitvica Selo
Day 3
More Plitvice Lakes National Park + Travel Day
Breakfast at the hotel
Morning exploration of Plitvice National Park. Here’s a favorite spot of mine:
In front of the Big Waterfall is a staircase. Go up the stairs and at the top, walk right. You’ll find a road. Walk for about 2-3 minutes until you see a wooden bridge. Turn right after the bridge onto a path and walk for 1-2 minutes until coming to a lookout point. STUNNING!
Around noon, head towards Split (or Krka National Park on the way to Split)!
Dinner in the Old Town Harbor while the best people-watching unfolds before your eyes for some gold nighttime entertainment.
Stay
Marasovica Apartments – highly recommend based on location (5 minute walk to Old Town), communication, price and terrace views!
Day 4
Explore Split!
Wander the many historic alleyways and dig deep. Get lost. Eat at any gelato stand. Twice. Maybe three times. Take too many photos of 4th century Diocletian’s Palace. Head towards Marjan for a 550-ft high hill forested with cypress and Mediterranean pine trees – a perfect spot to hike off the questionable decisions from the day before.
Fig Split for dinner (or all meals because it’s *that* good)
Stay
Marasovica Apartments
Day 5
Island Day!
We went back and forth between hiring a private sailboat for the day or taking a small passenger speed boat to neighboring islands. Ultimately, we chose the speed boat because it allowed us to go further, see more AND get dropped off at Hvar that evening. We booked the tour the afternoon before down at the Old Town Harbor where many tours are on offer.
Komiža on Vis island
Stiniva Cove
Budikovac Island for snorkeling (lunch here)
Blue Cave
Hvar (we got off the boat and stayed on Hvar, although everyone else went back to Split)
Shop my easy breezy black sarong (pictured below)
Stay
DeVecchi Rooms in Hvar – This was one of my favorite hotels from Croatia due to the location, furnishings and outdoor space/view! We booked a Deluxe Double with balcony
Day 6
Langonini Beach Club
But first, coffee. Head right outside the hotel to Kava 37
Catch a small boat docked at the harbor (you can’t miss them) for the 15 minute journey
Just typing the name of this beach club makes me exhaleeeee. Laganini means “slowly” in Croatian, and it’s the exact vibe we encountered while there. A relaxing, no worries atmosphere, where water splashes and Balearic music make up the soundtrack. Note that there’s a spending minimum for bungalow use. We enjoyed a few cocktails and sushi mMmMm.
Leave on the last boat back to Hvar (6pm I believe, the same boat that took you over will pick you up) and wander into somewhere yummy for dinner. I’m not going to lie – we chose a very bad pizza spot so I can’t recommend!
Shop my Red Carter bikini top and bikini bottoms
Stay
DeVecchi Rooms
Day 7
Travel day
But first, wake up and hike to the Spanjola Fortress for insanely beautiful views.
Breakfast at Fig Hvar
More options: St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Square, Hvar lavender fields, Sveta Nedjelja aka wine region! Red Plavac Mali grapes thrive here.
11am ferry back to Split (ferries are every hour and tickets can be bought at a booth near the docking point)
Find the rental car where you left it at the last hotel Drive to Dubrovnik. Realize that the drive from Split to Dubrovnik is insanely pretty. Cancel all plans to swim next to pirate ships and explore Bosnia.
Shop my Aritzia yellow one-piece
Stay
In order to get to the southern portion of Croatia, one must pass into Bosnia and Herzegovina occupying just 12 miles of Adriatic coastline in the city of Neum, the 2nd shortest coastline in the world after Monaco…essentially cutting Croatia in two. There are a few other examples of geographically discontinuous countries, but this is definitely a rarity, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this geography lesson. Due to extremely late booking (around 4pm day-of!), options were minimal, especially good ones. We ended up booking at the Grand Hotel Neum, an extremely large hotel that I’d never recommend. Between feeling like cattle and the horrid buffet, I’ll sleep in my rental car next time… (kidding, sort of).
Day 8
Wake up very early to explore Bosnia & Herzegovina. This little country is super underrated. Having only spent 24 hours here, I’m sure there’s SO much we missed. Next Up: What to do for 24 Hours in Bosnia
Drive 2ish hours to Dubrovnik
Eat dinner at Horizont (recommended by host, yummy Mediterranean!)
Stay
Airbnb Stella Mia with a Sea View 2 – I highly recommend this Airbnb due to its size, location, price, and host. Fair warning: If you don’t like stairs, don’t stay here. Scratch that. If you don’t like stairs, don’t go to Croatia at all.
Day 9
Walk the Old Town, get lost in the alleyways and get your steps in on the steep staircases
Let the Game of Thrones tour commence (sorry not sorry)! It was fun, it wasn’t cheesy (not to me, at least!), and our tour was mixed in with lots of Dubrovnik history. 2-in-1, how good is that?! You can find times inside the Visitor’s Center near the Onofrio Fountain.
For everyone who said take the cable car: It was closed due to tax evasion. *EmBarRasSing*
Dinner at Pizzeria Tabasco (recommended by host b/c I had a pizza craving!)
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Stay
Airbnb Stella Mia with a Sea View 2
Day 10
Walk the City Walls as soon as they open (8am). Note: It’s HOT, even early.
Hydrate, eat somewhere yummy in Old Town, try to stop sweating
Take a ferry from the Old Harbor near the east gate (10 minutes) and relax on Lokrum Island for the day
Find the window cave (near station 5 and 6)
Take the 6pm ferry back
Walk to Buza Bar for sunset drinks (and cliff jumping if you dare). This hole-in-the-wall bar on the side of a cliff was so nice, we went twice!
Stay
Airbnb Stella Mia with a Sea View 2
The next morning, we flew to Slovenia. On my wish list for the following Croatia visit: Pula, Rovinj, Brac, Korcula and the Peljesac Peninsula!
The post Road Trip Itinerary: A Guide to Croatia appeared first on The Road Les Traveled.
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100 Days of Comics! 055/100: H.A.R.D. Corps #9 (1993)
Today’s selection from the recently disappointing box of mystery brings me an issue of The H.A.R.D. Corps.
Oh Valiant comics. You tried.
I mentioned feeling bad for Jim Shooter earlier. Valiant comics is a reason why. Valiant was set up to be a creator owned comic company but unlike Image, the idea was to out-write the competition instead of out bad anatomy them. It was kind of like the New Universe, done better. The world outside your window. Each comic was set concurrently with its release date, with some exceptions for multiple part stories. The origin of powers was limited to psychic powers, technology, or magic so the universe was more consistent and gave it more of a hard sci-fi feel. And the company had a big focus on training up new artists, creating a new generation of talent.
And then Jim Shooter was fired from his own company, a bunch of the people he had brought on were shown the door, and his successors quickly drove the company into the dirt.
The early 90s were a sad day for the comics industry.
Anyway, H.A.R.D. Corps. Aside from being a dumb name, it also stands for Harbinger Active Resistance Division Corps. Harbingers were like the serial-numbers-filed-off mutants of Valiant. The Corps were a bunch of comatose Vietnam vets who were revived through brain implants that also let them use Harbinger powers, one at a time. They oppose Toyo Harada, who is like if Professor X decided to take over the world for its own good while maintaining the guise of a benevolent businessman.
I had to look this up because recap technology is a forbidden art, used sparingly.
Jim Shooter has already been given the boot, apparently, because Bob Layton is listed as the Editor-in-Chief.
Anyway, again.
Mister Clean imposter Captain Peeves alias Hammerhead is out on a camping trip with his daughter Dana when his strength mode starts failing when he’s in the middle of supplexing a boulder just because he can. He manages to toss the boulder aside without being crushed. When Dana asks him what all the noise was he claims it was elk mating season because I’d like to see you make a good excuse on the spot after being almost crushed.
He calls into his woman in the chair, Lifeline, but she doesn’t see any anomalies in their equipment. Hammerhead asks to be switched to invulnerability in the meantime so he doesn’t have to worry as much about being killed.
Although if you think about it, if your invulnerability cuts out when you’re relying on it, that’s going to be just as bad.
Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Flatline and Superstar. Now Flatline was not a Vietnam vet, I don’t think. He took a bullet that put him in a coma during the LA Riots. And now that the Corps are giving him a little more slack on his leash, he has returned to his family business to reunite with his wife.
And Superstar was a super star before he joined the Corps so he has to be in disguise in public. He’s either a cowboy or an orthodox jew. I can’t tell.
Anyway, Flatline learns that his wife thought he was dead and because of the damage from the riots, she has decided to return to Korea. She left for the airport not two hours ago.
Back in Colorado, Peeves and Dana are stopping at a gas station for some camping essentials (beer) when a young punk tries to shoplift some spaghetti. A big buff native american stops him and Peeves is casually racist calling the guy ‘one tough redskin’, justifying it because that’s what John Wayne would say.
That’s what you get when you uncoma people from about twenty years earlier.
His daughter is less than thrilled by the casual racism, as she’s been less than thrilled with the whole camping trip so far, I think.
Back in LA. Flatline tries to get his power switched to flight but harbinger powers can’t be authorized in populated areas except for an extreme emergency. So he has to get a cab.
But they run into gridlock because some terrorists have taken over not-Disney Land Ditsyland (starring Ditsy Duck). They’ve taken the Japanese ambassador hostage and have threatened to kill him if Congress doesn’t pass an immediate ban on Japanese imports.
Rather than sit in gridlock, Flatline and Superstar use ghost mode to sneak in and take down some of the terrorists. But the terrorists have already started a timer on a case of C4 so Flatline flies the hostages out of the Ditsy castle while Superstar switches to invulnerability and lays on top of the bomb.
And invulnerability is good stuff because he survives the explosion and being launched out of the castle. And actually if they ever need to do this again, he calls dibs. It was a hell of an adrenaline rush.
Unfortunately, after all that, Flatline arrives at the airport too late. His wife’s flight left twenty minutes ago.
Meanwhile, camping. Now that Dana is asleep, Peeves calls the other mission control person (mission control has shifts like anyone else) Softcore. She reports that the diagnostic on the equipment came up with no problems. So Peeves figures the interference is on his end. Radioactive mineral deposit or something.
He has his power switched to flight and flies around to investigate. But when he gets close to an abandoned miners cabin, his flight cuts out, painfully dropping him to the ground.
And he discovers that he’s landed in a Turok crossover when a dinosaur shows up and tells him he’s made a big mistake coming here.
Dinosaurs always make comics better. Fact. Probably.
Also. There’s a Deathmate ad in this book. It’s like a premonition of death. Like a grim or a skull just laughing from the middle of this book.
Deathmate was a big crossover between Image and Valiant, kind of like Amalgam in that the IP merged briefly but also the Image side of things specifically Rob Liefeld released their part of the crossover late (Rob’s was over a year late and Bob Layton had to come sit in his apartment and refuse to leave until Rob did his damn job). The failure of Deathmate not only did heavy damage to Valiant but helped spur on the near destruction of the comic industry and definitely the downfall of many brick and mortar shops.
So its weird seeing an ad for what was then an ongoing event, knowing what would come of it.
Anyway. H.A.R.D. Corps. I like the concept of it. And I peeked. There’s another issue tomorrow but in true box fashion, its an earlier issue. Features something on the cover that looks designed to sell toys.
#100 Days of Comics!#H.A.R.D. Corps#Valiant comics#you should just go and listen to the rise and fall of a comic empire
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The Nature of Reality
I recently had a conversation with a friend about the perception of reality. You look at those around you and you see what is chosen and selected for public consumption. This happens in everyday life, at work, in relationships, but to some special level within the outdoor community.
You see the beautiful sunsets, high summits and perfect yoga poses. But there is much left to the imagination. You don’t witness the innumerable shots to get that skyline just right, you don’t feel the numbness and phantom pains that stick around for months after long distance backpacking, you can’t smell that delightful mix of garbage and rotting human that the backcountry gives to every person eventually. The reality of the wild is not always, or even usually, a nice one. Don’t get me wrong, the benefits are beyond worth the struggle. But, to use a simple phrase: the struggle is real.
The day before had been a hiker trash dream, restful and happy, with good people around us. Bird, Whiskey, and I enjoyed a zero day (a day in which no miles are hiked) camped out at the Tehachapi Airport. We played card games, drank the cheapest of boxed wine and laughed too loudly to hear the interminable sounding of train horns as they passed by.
The next day, after grabbing a hitch from a local in the bed of his pickup, we were back on trail. We spent the day picking our way through cactus fields and far more bees than I thought possible in a place with no water. We took a half day at only 12 miles, and decided to set up camp early. Bird, Whiskey and I decided to make camp in a small grove of joshua trees, on a mountain side overlooking the desert floor we had come across that day. It seemed a beautiful spot, with eastern views for the sunrise in the morning.
Here is where I say, we should have known better. The area that we had just hiked through, was the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm. The joshua trees we deemed so idyllic, had piles of wind worn sticks and rocks built up around them as a fortress. The ground was swept clean and the trees were hunched. Every single sign of high winds were there, and we simply ignored them.
After a quick dinner Bird retreated to his tent and we to ours. Within minutes we were all asleep. I woke at around 11 PM in the dark to the howling of wind and the violent flapping of nylon as our fly struggled to free itself from its mooring. I don’t know why, but thankfully, Whiskey and I had decided to fully stake out our tent the night before, even using one of the trees as an anchor point, reinforcing our stakes with rocks. At that moment I was not grateful, but genuinely frightened, and felt as though the wind would pick us up and carry us in our sleeping bags down the side of the mountain.
As we lay there, debating what to do, the sand spraying through the mesh from under our fly, into our faces and every nook of our gear, we noticed that our poles were not doing well. The supportive crossbar was bending, almost beyond it’s breaking point,and the whole tent was leaning in a sharp angle, straining the guylines. With a quick look between us of, “Oh, shit!”, we began bracing the main pole and for the first time I felt the force of the wind. We could hardly push back against it. Whiskey crawled out from under the fly to check the stakes, while I held the tent together, and found that he couldn’t stand, but only crawl low without the risk of being blown away. It seemed the structural integrity of the tent was all that was keeping it upright, one stake pulled, one zipper unzipped and it would collapse and fly across the desert like a tumbleweed.
As we sat, tired and sore, bracing our home from destruction, we came up with a plan to outlast the wind. We decided to take turns. There was no taking the tent down, it would tear like tissue paper the second it was unzipped. One would support the poles for 45 minutes, while the other napped, and would then trade. We had 20 miles to hike the next day to a water cache and needed the rest. Hours passed, in a haze of half sleep and stress.
All of a sudden, around 2 AM, a loud snap and a litany of cursing came from next to us. Bird. His tent had given way. We stuck our heads out from under our fly to the image of a 6'4", 250 lb man punching his way out of his collapsed tent, howling louder than the wind. His gear blew across the campsite and the remains of his tent flew and caught on various cacti and shrubs nearby. Whiskey and I tried to help, but quickly realized there was nothing to be done in the dark, with winds so high you couldn’t even stand. We retreated back into our tent, while bird cowboy camped with his sleeping bag pulled up around his face to shield from the whipping sands.
We spent the entire night in this position. Trading back and forth between sleep and using all of our arm strength to hold the tent together. Finally, around 6 AM, the winds died down enough to get the tent put away. Bird was still huddled in his sleeping bag, and the campsite looked like a bomb went off inside a backpack. Shredded mesh and nylon dotting the landscape, broken pieces of poles stuck in the sand.
Eventually we packed away the remains of Bird’s tent, along with the rest of our gear, and continued on. What else is there to do. There is only forward on a long trail. The point of the story, I guess, is that sometimes nature sucks. Reality is not what you see on the Internet. Reality is hard, brutal, exhausting and painful. However, it is more rewarding than anything else I have ever experienced. Yes, that night was extraordinarily difficult, but it is now one of my favorite stories. I will forever laugh at the image of a grown man punching his way through a $500 tent. The following days were some of the most beautiful in the desert section, filled with unique rock formations and stunning wildflowers. Had we allowed this horrid night to stop us, we would never have seen them. Outside perception is not reality. Reality is so much more.
#Pacific Crest Trail#pct2015#PCT#hiking#backpacking#Nature#desert#California#bear claw blogs#bearclaw blogs
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Priyanka Chopra Paired Cargo Pants with Cowboy Boots—and Somehow, It Worked
New Post has been published on https://www.claritymakeupartistry.com/priyanka-chopra-paired-cargo-pants-with-cowboy-boots-and-somehow-it-worked/
Priyanka Chopra Paired Cargo Pants with Cowboy Boots—and Somehow, It Worked
Most of us laypeople head to the airport in our comfiest duds—tank tops, sweatshirts, leggings, sneakers and any other pajama-y clothing we can pass off as athleisure. Even celebrities opt for this cozy approach (or a slightly dressed-up version of it) when they travel to and fro.
But when Priyanka Chopra was spotted at New York’s JFK airport this week, it was clear she’d decided to do something a little different with her airport outfit. She’d chosen to wear cargo pants. With cowboy boots.
Now, cargo pants don’t sound too far off from the comfy AF airport uniform I initially described. They’re undeniably cozy—that’s honestly one of their only strengths. But Chopra’s weren’t normal cargo pants; they weren’t the bulky, tan standard you might find in a high school boy’s wardrobe in the early 2000s. They were trendy cargo pants—sleek, teal and tailored.
Chopra’s cargos sat at the intersection of chic and comfortable, which is really what you want in an airport outfit (assuming you give a shit about how you look at the airport). But then she paired them with… cowboy boots?
Adrian Edwards/GC Images.
Cowboy boots are far from comfy, and they’re not particularly walkable, either—making them a strange choice for travel. Even stranger was her decision to pair them with cargo pants, mostly because it implies actual intent and creativity, rather than simple laziness.
And perhaps the most shocking part of this ensemble is that it actually looked good; the cargo pants paired surprisingly well with the cowboy boots, and they looked all the more excellent with the white button-down and gray trench coat she wore them with.
The look was far from any kind of airport outfit we’d think to assemble, but we have to give Chopra props where props are due—her outfit looked chic, (mostly) comfy and (mostly) functional. And she definitely gets bonus points for creativity.
While we’re not convinced that cowboy boots are the hottest new trend in airport wear, we have been persuaded that cargo pants and cowboy boots make for a surprisingly chic combination.
Who knew something so wrong could look so, so right? (Other than Priyanka Chopra, of course.)
Source: http://stylecaster.com/priyanka-chopra-cargo-pants/
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The Best Places to Live in America, 2018: Revenge of the Burbs!
iStock; realtor.com
Home is where the heart is, home is where you make it—but given the option, wouldn’t you want to make your home and store your heart in a place with a great sense of community, excellent schools to set your kids up for success, and affordable homes so you can set yourself up for financial stability?
Of course you would. And we’re here to help!
For the second year in a row, realtor.com® teamed up with Money magazine to come up with its annual Best Places to Live list. Having focused on small towns last year, we set our sights this time around on places with populations of 50,000 or more.
To figure out the best of the best, we took into account more than 135,000 data points, covering economic health, public school performance, local amenities, housing, and cost of living. We disqualified places with high crime rates (more than double the national rate), depressed income (less than 85% of the state median), and a lack of racial diversity.
The resulting list doesn’t feature any of the nation’s best-known big cities (could it be due to their higher crime rates and skyrocketing home prices?), but many suburban towns that are within a decent commute of one. That means you get those classic suburban amenities (a big house, a backyard for barbecues, great public schools) without totally giving up on the big-bucks jobs and fun factor of the big city.
“For someone who’s starting from scratch, this is a list of areas with great quality of life, healthy housing markets where affordability is important, and great overall community,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com’s chief economist.
Ready? Let’s take a cross-country tour of America’s top-drawer places, 2018. (See the list of all 50 here.)
Best Places to Live
Claire Widman
1. Frisco, TX
Median home price: $449,900
Median household income : $117,642
Population: 177,286
A three-bedroom home in Frisco for less than $500,000.
realtor.com
For the first time in at least five years, Frisco topped the U.S. Census list of America’s fastest-growing big cities. From 2016 to 2017, the city added an average of 37 new residents every day. Over a year, that added up to a population jump of 8.2%.
The city about 30 miles north of Dallas is home to the splashy new headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys, The Star, a megacomplex that includes offices, a hotel, and swanky bars and restaurants. North Texas is on fire economically, and as Mayor Jeff Cheney pointed out in his (apparently unsuccessful) sales video aimed at snagging Amazon’s new headquarters, Frisco still has plenty of room to grow.
With its 177,000 people, Frisco is already a good-sized city—but one that still has a sense of community, says Julie Howell Stutts, who’s been a homeowner there for seven years.
“You still kind of feel like you know everybody here,” she says.
Schools here are top-notch and a prime draw for families. But while in the past the area’s housing consisted of mostly single-family homes, the recent spate of building has included apartment complexes more appealing to single professionals.
2. Ashburn, VA
Median home price: $519,990
Median household income: $120,862
Population: 49,692*
A large home in Ashburn
Tim Kitchen/Getty Images
A couple of decades ago, Ashburn was a country town with just one grocery store. That’s when Kim Rabinowitch and her husband bought a townhouse, just after their marriage.
“We liked it because we could get a lot for our money back then,” she says. But they fell in love with the schools and their neighbors, and when they decided to trade up to a house, they bought one just down the street.
“People want to move into our school district,” Rabinowitch says. “Houses go on the market, and they’re on there for less than a day.”
With great schools and convenient transportation—it’s 10 minutes by car to Washington Dulles Airport and 40 minutes to the District of Columbia, plus there’s a new metro station to DC under construction—it’s no wonder that Ashburn has become popular with commuting federal employees. And other nearby suburban towns such as Tysons Corner and Fairfax offer more job opportunities closer to home.
Single-family homes, many with four to five bedrooms, dominate the housing stock, along with some townhomes. An impressive 83.4% of those homes are owner-occupied.
3. Carmel, IN
Median home price: $374,000
Median household income: $106,546
Population: 92,198
Coxhall Public Garden in Carmel, IN
Purdue9394/iStock
Just 26 miles north of Indianapolis, Carmel has become a sought-after suburban destination for its excellent schools and amenities.
“It’s mostly young families that are moving in,” says Kelly Lavengood, a real estate agent with the Lavengood Team in Indianapolis. “I frequently receive calls from people looking to relocate to Carmel from out of state.”
But it’s not just a magnet for parents—Carmel’s walkable downtown and plentiful parks also make it appealing to empty nesters.
“A lot of times, people think that suburbs are just an extension of the city,” Lavengood says. “But Carmel has really become an entity of its own.”
There’s a variety of homes for Carmel buyers to choose from, from entry-level abodes all the way up to mansions. Architectural styles vary, too—there’s even a pocket of midcentury modern homes designed by Avriel Shull.
4. Ellicott City, MD
Median home price: $558,950
Median household income: $121,019
Population: 70,780*
Shops in Ellicott City, MD
Walter Bibikow/Getty Images
Founded in 1772, Ellicott City has plenty of charm, particularly in its historic downtown district. Here, you can dip into boutiques and antiques stores in buildings that are pretty much antiques themselves.
But that doesn’t mean this place is stuck in the past. Its top-rated schools attract young families, and its affordable housing and access to two major metropolises appeal to professionals as well.
“The cost of living is high in Maryland; Ellicott City just happens to be located between Baltimore and Washington [DC], and it offers affordable housing,” says Jon Sandler, a real estate attorney who has been practicing in Ellicott City for 21 years. “Half the people are [Washington] Redskins fans, and the other are [Baltimore] Ravens fans.”
It’s the kind of place, he says, where locals stick around, or eventually come back to their roots. Many of the older buildings downtown have rental apartments upstairs, and there are also historic single-family homes, typically built with granite blocks, just outside downtown. There are also quite a few newer developments aimed at young professionals, Sandler notes.
But if you buy here, you’d best get flood insurance—the city has been subject to disastrous inundations in the past, and is weighing whether to invest tens of millions of dollars to redirect water from downtown.
5. Cary, NC
Median home price: $389,000
Median household income: $94,617
Population: 165,904
Four-bedroom home in Cary, NC
realtor.com
Cary sits within North Carolina’s Research Triangle—an area of scientific innovation marked off by the cities of Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham, which is home to more than 200 companies.
The area is rife with highly educated professionals who want the best schools for their kids—and Cary can offer that, says Merry Ann Cutler, a real estate agent and relocation expert with Re/Max United in Cary.
“Some of the people moving here are coming all the way from the West Coast,” she says.
Plus, it’s relatively affordable—you can buy a nice, single-family home here for $400,000.
“There’s a huge influx of people moving in right now, and construction can’t keep up with it,” Cutler says. “Homes sell very, very fast.”
Despite the development, there’s still plenty of green, crisscrossed by the largest number of walking and biking trails in the Triangle.
6. Franklin, TN
Median home price: $549,900
Median household income: $88,961
Population: 78,321
Downtown Franklin, TN
Dan Reynolds/Getty Images
Franklin may bask in the reflected glow of nearby Nashville, but it has a gravitational pull of its own. Big-name companies such as Nissan, Schneider Electric, UBS Financial Services, and United Healthcare have offices here. The surrounding Williamson County is one of the country’s richest, with the lowest property taxes in the region and top-rated schools—a knockout combo.
“Franklin is a desirable place to call home,” says David Wright, a real estate agent with Benchmark Realty in Franklin. “It’s a variety of people moving in: families, empty nesters, and newly graduated professionals.”
Developers are still building out the city, Wright observes, with new communities and commercial areas. Westhaven, one of the most successful new communities that’s still under construction, has a target of 2,750 homes, townhomes, and condominiums. It features trails, resort-style pools, drop-in day care, and even a 37-seat theater. The townhomes and houses range from roughly $500,000 to $1,500,000 for 2,100 square feet to over 5,000 square feet.
7. Dublin, CA
Median home price: $898,000
Median household income: $128,403
Population: 60,939
Dublin, CA homes
yhelfman/iStock
If you thought there were no good places to live left in the San Francisco Bay Area—Crazy expensive! Unfriendly! Dirty!—well, Dublin is here to tell you that you are wrong. This East Bay burg has a small-town feel that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find within just a few miles of Silicon Valley.
“Even though it has been rapidly growing, it still feels close-knit and family-oriented,” says Rebecca Briggs, an elementary schoolteacher (in neighboring Pleasanton) who’s lived there since 2002.
Like the other cities on this list, Dublin’s public schools are a prime attraction.
“Dublin stands behind its schools, and in turn that increases the level of educational excellence,” says Briggs, who sent her two children through the system. She notes that the community consistently votes to pass parcel taxes or bonds when they’re needed to meet the schools’ funding needs.
8. Highlands Ranch, CO
Median home price: $475,000
Median household income: $111,332
Population: 106,596*
Home for sale in Highlands Ranch
realtor.com
While many towns have sections dominated by new construction and tract homes, in Highlands Ranch, that’s all there is. The entire suburb outside Denver was planned out back in the late 1970s by the California-based Mission Viejo Co. Highlands Ranch has since ballooned, with different parts being built out by various developers. But unlike some other communities that have experienced growing pains, this town already has infrastructure in place, like wider roads, to accommodate growth.
Terance Freeman and his wife moved to the area in 2013, mainly for a shorter commute to his job in Aurora.
“The first thing that I really noticed was how family-oriented the community was,” he says. He noticed there were always kids playing in the street.
And despite the community’s upscale reputation, he soon realized that it’s actually cost-effective.
“Per square foot for the area, we actually got a better bang for the buck than we did in Aurora or would in Denver,” he says.
The flip side is that without kids, Highlands Ranch loses a bit of its luster. Kevin Mullen lived in the community for 14 years. But with his sons nearing the end of high school, he’s decided to pull up stakes.
“I don’t think it lends itself to a place that you’d want to live once your kids are up and gone,” he says.
9. Sammamish, WA
Median home price: $1,137,000
Median household income: $153,253
Population: 64,548
Lake Sammamish
4nadia/iStock
Head due east from Seattle as the crow flies, and you’ll eventually find yourself in Sammamish, which has turned into a bedroom community for Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, home of Microsoft.
Ann Gallinger moved to Sammamish about four years ago from Gig Harbor, where she and her husband felt they didn’t click with the community. Sammamish was a different story.
“It’s been exactly what we’ve hoped for as far as a sense of community, people being involved, people being open, and having a sense of the importance of things that we feel are important”—including funding parks and schools, she says.
The Microsoft force is strong here—Redmond is just 6.5 miles away. And with workers continuing to pour into the area, builders have been cramming large, two-story homes onto modest lots.
Amy Nielsen Hanson has seen the city develop over the 21 years she’s lived there. When she bought her first condo, she was just 21—prices were still affordable then. These days, despite the building boom, there are fewer options for first-time buyers. In addition, infrastructure such as roads haven’t been improved at the same pace as the housing expansion.
“For people who actually do have to commute, it’s gotten atrocious,” she says.
10. Woodbury, MN
Median home price: $369,642
Median household income: $101,922
Population: 69,756
Woodbury, MN
realtor.com
In Minnesota, there are the famed twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. And then there’s Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul and the largest city in Washington County.
“Woodbury is the economic energizer of Washington County, which is basically all the eastern suburbs of Minneapolis,” says Matthew Johnson, a real estate agent with Anew Real Estate Group in Woodbury. “We have the largest population in the county and the most jobs. We’re known for great restaurants, great shopping, and great people.”
Health care provides both abundant job opportunities—280 of the 900 local businesses are in the health care industry, Johnson says—and good quality of life for residents who know they will be well taken care of.
A large part of the local housing stock is two-story houses with two to three bedrooms, Johnson says, and that’s what most families are looking for. Those homes run about $390,000.
Editor’s note: Median household income and population numbers are from 2016 U.S. Census data, with the exception of * entries, which use 2017 data. Home price data are from realtor.com.
Allison Underhill contributed to this report.
The post The Best Places to Live in America, 2018: Revenge of the Burbs! appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
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GWS Giants expose gulf in class as Gold Coast Suns sink in Sydney’s west
GWS 7.4 10.8 16.12 24.16 (160)
Gold Coast 1.2 5.4 7.8 8.10 (58)
Goals – GWS: Cameron 6, Greene 5, Johnson 3, Kelly 3, Smith 3, Lobb 2, Shiel, Reid Gold Coast: Martin 3, Wright, Witts, Kolodjashnij, Ablett, Barlow
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Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
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Previous slide Next slide
Plays of the Week
Plays of the Week
Ingenious catches, last minute tries and spectacular goals, these are the plays of the week.
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
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Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Rafa rolled by unseeded Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1 7-5 to reach his fifth Miami Open final.
Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
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Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
Perth Glory have come away with a 1-all draw with Adelaide United in Round 25 thanks to a controversial free kick awarded to Diego Castro.
LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
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LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
LeBron James has moved up to seventh on the NBA all-time points-scoring list, but he couldn’t prevent his team’s loss to Chicago Bulls.
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
Play Video Don’t Play
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
The North Queensland Cowboys have beaten the South Sydney Rabbitohs 20-6, on the back of a solid defensive effort.
Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
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Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
The Bulldogs toppled Sydney in the grand final replay that lived up to all expectations.
Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
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Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
Nick Kyrgios pulls off an amazing return during his quarter final clash at the Miami Open.
Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
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Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
The airport in Madeira, Portugal, is renamed in honour of Cristiano Ronaldo, but a new statue of the football star overshadows the event.
Plays of the Week
Ingenious catches, last minute tries and spectacular goals, these are the plays of the week.
Best – GWS: Greene, Cameron, Kelly, Mumford, Ward, Kennedy, Wilson Gold Coast: Miller, Rosa, Martin, Kolodjashnij
Umpires: Nick Foot, Robert Findlay, Shane McInerney
Apprenticeship complete: Toby Greene of the Giants. Photo: Getty Images
Crowd: 8022
VOTES GWS v Adelaide
(James Buckley)
Toby Greene (GWS) 9
Jeremy Cameron (GWS) 9
Josh Kelly (GWS) 8
Callan Ward (GWS) 8
Shane Mumford (GWS) 8
The Giants dished out a 102-point thumping of a woeful Gold Coast Suns on Saturday to recalibrate their season before coach Leon Cameron dismissed constant talk his team was the AFL premiership favourites.
Toby Greene kicked five goals in his 100th game while Jeremy Cameron went one better to collect a half dozen as the Giants quickly put to bed last weekend’s round-one flogging by Adelaide in front of 8022 fans at Spotless Stadium.
Jeremy Cameron kicked six goals for the the Giants. Photo: Brett Hemmings/AFL Media
But Cameron was quick to swat away the premiership favourites tag that will likely stick to the club for at least one more week after their biggest ever winning margin over the Queensland expansion club.
“Internally we know that we’re not up to the mark of Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn, West Coast Eagles yet and that’s just to name a few,” Cameron said.
Mercurial: Steve Johnson. Photo: Getty Images
“I probably should have added the Bulldogs. Every year they back up. Every year they find a way to either finish top four or play finals.
“There’s no doubt that the external noise that’s been floating around the competition over the last three or four months over the pre-season period has been about us and the ability to take the next step. Is that a good thing? I suppose it is a good thing if they’re talking positively about our footy club.
“We’ve had one winning season, and that was last year. We’ve won one final, and lost a final.
“When you start to get that sort of credit, and it takes years to get that credit, then I think it’s fair that people can start talking about your footy club about being a really, really good team.
“We’re learning to get there; today was a good, positive step but we’ve got a long, long way to go.”
The gulf between the AFL’s two newest expansion clubs was exposed on Saturday as the Suns, who entered the league a year earlier than the Giants, were well beaten all over the ground.
Jonathon Patton was a late withdrawal for the Giants, still battling the groin injury he sustained against the Crows last weekend, and that handed Sam Reid his first AFL start for the year.
There certainly didn’t appear to be a gaping hole in the Giants forward line with Greene and Cameron absolutely superb and ably assisted by Steve Johnson, Devon Smith and Josh Kelly who banged through three goals each apiece.
“Anyone that plays 100 games of AFL is a fantastic effort,” Cameron said of Greene.
“He epitomises what we want to stand for as a footy club and that is you want to be able to compete. Whether Toby’s playing forward, wing, on ball, you know he’s always going to put his head over the footy and the finishing touches that he’s added to his game in terms of what he can do when he’s forward of the footy is a credit to him.”
Phil Davis and Adam Tomlinson did a solid job on danger forward Tom Lynch down back while Suns stars Gary Ablett and the returning David Swallow were well below par.
After a seven-goals-to-one rout in the opening quarter, Gold Coast bounced back and kicked five straight goals either side of half-time before GWS stopped the rot and executed a second-half rampage.
“We seemed to not be bold any more, we seemed to worry about making mistakes, we went back into our shell and when you’re reactive like that it just suits a team like GWS who are such a bold side,” Suns coach Rodney Eade said.
“Today I think it was just a team that was more hungry than us early.
“The number of mistakes we made, they kicked 23, 24 goals; they kicked 16 goals from turnover, which is a horrendous amount. A lot of the errors we made were pretty basic errors, like dropped marks, just missed easy targets.”
Eade said the flag favourite talk around GWS was premature.
“I think that’s unfair on them, maybe it’s Melbourne media doing that to maybe detract their mental state. I don’t think being six or seven years in that they could be flag favourites,” Eade said.
“I was sitting here 12 months ago saying how much talent they’ve got. They’re a young group too, they’ve got exceptionally good players and exceptional runners and their skill level – they hardly miss a target.
“I don’t believe in favourites but they’ll be one of the teams there at the end of the year.”
The post GWS Giants expose gulf in class as Gold Coast Suns sink in Sydney’s west appeared first on Footy Plus.
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Giants demolish woeful Suns
GWS 7.4 10.8 16.12 24.16 (160)
Gold Coast 1.2 5.4 7.8 8.10 (58)
Goals – GWS: Cameron 6, Greene 5, Johnson 3, Kelly 3, Smith 3, Lobb 2, Shiel, Reid Gold Coast: Martin 3, Wright, Witts, Kolodjashnij, Ablett, Barlow
Play Video Don’t Play
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Play Video Don’t Play
Previous slide Next slide
Plays of the Week
Plays of the Week
Ingenious catches, last minute tries and spectacular goals, these are the plays of the week.
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Play Video Don’t Play
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Rafael Nadal reaches Miami Open final
Rafa rolled by unseeded Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1 7-5 to reach his fifth Miami Open final.
Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
Play Video Don’t Play
Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
Castro controversy snares draw for Perth
Perth Glory have come away with a 1-all draw with Adelaide United in Round 25 thanks to a controversial free kick awarded to Diego Castro.
LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
Play Video Don’t Play
LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
LeBron passes Shaq on NBA’s scoring list
LeBron James has moved up to seventh on the NBA all-time points-scoring list, but he couldn’t prevent his team’s loss to Chicago Bulls.
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
Play Video Don’t Play
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
Cowboys too strong for Rabbitohs
The North Queensland Cowboys have beaten the South Sydney Rabbitohs 20-6, on the back of a solid defensive effort.
Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
Play Video Don’t Play
Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
Dogs bark loudest in replay classic
The Bulldogs toppled Sydney in the grand final replay that lived up to all expectations.
Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
Play Video Don’t Play
Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
Nick Kyrgios wonder shot at Miami Open
Nick Kyrgios pulls off an amazing return during his quarter final clash at the Miami Open.
Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
Play Video Don’t Play
Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
Ronaldo honoured with bizarre bust
The airport in Madeira, Portugal, is renamed in honour of Cristiano Ronaldo, but a new statue of the football star overshadows the event.
Plays of the Week
Ingenious catches, last minute tries and spectacular goals, these are the plays of the week.
Best – GWS: Greene, Cameron, Kelly, Mumford, Ward, Kennedy, Wilson Gold Coast: Miller, Rosa, Martin, Kolodjashnij
Injuries – GWS: Gold Coast:
Apprenticeship complete: Toby Greene of the Giants. Photo: Getty Images
Umpires: Nick Foot, Robert Findlay, Shane McInerney
Crowd: 8022
VOTES GWS v Adelaide
(James Buckley)
Toby Greene (GWS) 9
Jeremy Cameron (GWS) 9
Josh Kelly (GWS) 8
Callan Ward (GWS) 8
Shane Mumford (GWS) 8
The Giants have recalibrated their season with a 102-point thumping of a woeful Gold Coast Suns on Saturday, exposing the vast gulf in talent between the AFL’s two newest expansion clubs.
Jeremy Cameron kicked six goals for the the Giants . Photo: Brett Hemmings/AFL Media
Toby Greene kicked five goals in his history-making hundredth game while Jeremy Cameron bagged a half dozen in a dominant performance as last weekend’s round-one blemish against the Crows in Adelaide was put to bed in front of 8022 fans at Spotless Stadium.
For long periods the Giants produced the kind of slick football which has them labelled at premiership favourites this season. Gold Coast, meanwhile, a club one year further advanced in its existence, will again struggle to make a maiden finals appearance after dishing up the most insipid performance so far of this fledgling AFL season.
Mercurial: Steve Johnson. Photo: Mark Metcalfe
They’ve managed just 10 wins in the past two seasons, while GWS have racked up almost three times that amount – their latest by a record margin over the Queensland expansion club.
Both clubs were given access to draft picks and list concessions to build a team to compete at this level. They boast similar amounts of first-round draft picks on their roster, but the gap in talent and potential is yawning.
Greene made history for the Giants, becoming the club’s first draftee to play 100 games in the orange and charcoal. Kevin Sheedy said during the week that a century of AFL games was the equivalent of finishing an apprenticeship, and last year’s All Australian celebrated in style with arguably his best performance to date.
He was joined on Saturday by 10 teammates who sit within the 50-100 game bracket, several of which will also finish their AFL apprenticeships in the months to come.
One of those is Cameron who did as he pleased throughout, working tirelessly across the forward half of the ground in the absence of fellow big man Jonathon Patton who withdrew before the opening bounce with the hip injury sustained against the Crows in round one.
That followed up from the four he collected last weekend, but this was a much more rounded performance from the prolific left-footer.
Another of those in the 50 to 100 bracket is Josh Kelly who was just as influential as Cameron, helping himself to three goals and starring once more with 27 disposals in the middle of the ground.
The waxing lyrical of these Giants youngsters could go on, but in fairness they were barely challenged by the Suns, particularly in the first and fourth quarters where GWS seemed to be enjoying nothing more than a training run.
A Rodney Eade spray at quarter time when the margin was already 38 seemed to wake up the visitors and they managed to just about stop the rot kicking the last three goals to half time.
They stood up for moments in the third quarter before an avalanche of orange and charcoal ran up the score in the final term.
But the damage was done early and it was irreparable.
Gary Ablett was invisible in the opening term and had just the one touch to quarter time. Devon Smith helped himself to two goals in the space of three minutes – marking the ball on both occasions while standing in acres of space on his own in the forward 50.
Smith nailed his third in the final term when the Giants were lining up to beef up the scoreboard. He had more to do on this occasion, and was good enough to snap it around the corner from 40m.
But this was the Greene-Cameron show right to the end, and they kicked five majors between them in the final quarter.
Steve Johnson finished with three brilliant goals and could’ve had a few more were it not for inaccuracy. Yet the veteran was nothing more than a sideshow in a Giants forward line which still has to welcome back Patton, and potentially even Brett Deledio who continues to recover from a calf injury.
Perhaps Giants coach Leon Cameron will opt to play Deledio in midfield when he eventually does overcome the calf problem. It would only serve to improve what is already very good service to the likes of Cameron, Greene and co.
The post Giants demolish woeful Suns appeared first on Footy Plus.
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