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ireadyabooks · 2 years

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Pre-Order Giveaway: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala!

Pre-order your copy of THE HONEYS at any of the independent bookstores below by 8/15, and you will get an exclusive branded nail polish at on-sale!

ALASKA

FIRESIDE BOOKS – PALMER, AK

ARIZONA

THE HAUNTED BOOK SHOP – MOBILE, AL

CHANGING HANDS – PHOENIX, AZ

BRIGHT SIDE BOOKSHOP – FLAGSTAFF, AZ

MOSTLY BOOKS – TUCSON, AZ

CHANGING HANDS – TEMPE, AZ

CALIFORNIA

BOOKS INC – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, CA

BOOKSHOP BENICIA – BENICIA, CA

BOOKSMITH – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

CHEVALIER'S BOOKS – LOS ANGELES, CA

FLASHLIGHT BOOKS – WALNUT CREEK, CA

GALLERY BOOKSHOP – MENDOCINO, CA

GREEN APPLE BOOKS – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

MOUNTAIN BOOKSHOP – SONORA, CA

NAPA BOOKMINE – NAPA, CA & SAINT HELENA, CA

NORTHTOWN BOOKS – ARCATA, CA

ONCE UPON A TIME – MONTROSE CA

ORINDA BOOKS – ORINDA, CA

PEGASUS BOOKS – OAKLAND & BERKELEY, CA

READERS BOOKS – SONOMA, CA

SKYLIGHT BOOKS – LOS ANGELES, CA

THE AVID READER – DAVIS, CA

TOWNE CENTER BOOKS – LIVERMORE, CA

A SEAT AT THE TABLE BOOKS – ELK GROVE, CA

ALEXANDER BOOK COMPANY – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

CHILDREN'S BOOK WORLD – LOS ANGELES, CA

COPPERFIELDS BOOKS – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, CA

DIESEL, A BOOKSTORE – SAN DIEGO, CA

EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS – OAKLAND, CA

FLINTRIDGE BOOKSTORE – LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, CA

HICKLEBEES CHILDREN BOOKSTORE – SAN JOSE, CA

JERICO BOOKS – BERKELEY, CA

LINDEN TREE – LOS ALTOS, CA

FACE IN A BOOK – EL DORADO HILLS, CA

MENDOCINO BOOK CO – UKIAH, CA

THE READING BUG – SAN CARLOS, CA

STORY IN ME – LAFAYETTE, CA

TOWNE CENTER BOOKS – PLEASANTON, CA

UCLA STUDENT STORE – LOS ANGELES, CA

WARWICKS – LA JOLLA, CA

BOOK LOFT – SOLVANG, CA GREEN APPLE BOOKS – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

MYSTERIOUS GALAXY – SAN DIEGO, CA

NOE VALLEY BOOKSTORE INC (FOLIO BOOKS) – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

PAGES: A BOOK STORE – MANHATTAN BEACH, CA

BOOKSHOP SANTA CRUZ – SANTA CRUZ, CA

CHAUCER'S BOOKSTORE – SANTA BARBARA, CA

COPPERFIELDS BOOKS – PETALUMA, CA

KEPLERS BOOKS – MENLO PARK, CA

RAKESTRAW BOOKS – DANVILLE, CA

BOOK PASSAGE INC – CORTE MADERA, CA

VROMAN'S – PASADENA, CA

COLORADO

BENDED PAGE: TATTERED COVER – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, CO

TOWNIE BOOKS – CRESTED BUTTE, CO

BOOKBAR INC, BOOKIES – DENVER, CO

MARIAS BOOKSHOP – DURANGO, CO

OLD FIREHOUSE BOOKS – FORT COLLINS, CO

BOOKWORM OF EDWARDS – EDWARDS, CO

MACDONALD BOOK SHOP – ESTES PARK, CO

BOULDER BOOK STORE – BOULDER, CO

NEXT PAGE INC – FRISCO, CO

OFF THE BEATEN PATH – STEAMBOAT SPR, CO

CONNECTICUT

BOOKS ON THE COMMON – RIDGEFIELD, CT

ELM STREET BOOKS – NEW CANAAN, CT

RIVER BEND BOOKSHOP – GLASTONBURY, CT

TURNING THE PAGE – MONROE, CT

BANK SQUARE BOOKS – MYSTIC, CT

R J JULIA AT WESLEYAN – MIDDLETOWN, CT

R J JULIA BK SELLERS – MADISON, CT

WASHINGTON, D.C.

BUSBOYS & POETS BOOK STORE – WASHINGTON DC

BARSTONS CHILDS PLAY – WASHINGTON DC

EAST CITY BOOKSHOP – WASHINGTON DC

LOYALTY BOOKS – WASHINGTON DC

POLITICS & PROSE BOOKSTORE – WASHINGTON DC

DELAWARE

BETHANY BEACH BOOKS – BETHANY BEACH, DE

BROWSE ABOUT BOOKS – REHOBOTH BEACH, DE

FLORIDA

MACINTOSH BOOKS & PAPER – SANIBEL, FL

STORY AND SONG BOOKSTORE – FERNANDINA BEACH, FL

STUDIOS OF KEY WEST: BOOKS & BOOKS – KEY WEST, FL

VERO BEACH BOOK CENTER – VERO BEACH, FL

SAN MARCO BOOKSTORE – JACKSONVILLE, FL

WRITER'S BLOCK BOOKSTORE – WINTER PARK & WINTER GARDEN, FL

BOOKS & BOOKS – CORAL GABLES, FL

GEORGIA

STORY ON THE SQUARE – MCDONOUGH, GA

LITTLE SHOP OF STORIES – DECATUR, GA

CHARIS BOOKS & MORE – DECATUR, GA

E SHAVER BOOKSELLER – SAVANNAH, GA

HAWAII

BOOKENDS – KAILUA, HI

IOWA

BEAVERDALE BOOKS – DES MOINES, IA

DOG EARED BOOKS – AMES, IA

PAGETURNERS BOOKSTORE – INDIANOLA, IA

PRAIRIE LIGHTS BOOKS – IOWA CITY, IA

SIDEKICK COFFEE AND BOOKS – IOWA CITY, IA

RIVER LIGHTS BOOKSTORE – DUBUQUE, IA

IDAHO

REDISCOVERED BOOKSHOP – BOISE, ID

WELL READ MOOSE – COEUR D ALENE, ID

ILLINOIS

BOOKENDS & BEGINNINGS – EVANSTON, IL

BARBARA'S BOOKSTORES – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, IL

SEMINARY COOP BOOKSTORE – CHICAGO, IL

LAKE FOREST BOOK STORE – LAKE FOREST, IL

UNABRIDGED BOOKS – CHICAGO, IL

ANDERSON'S BOOKSHOP – DOWNERS GROVE & NAPERVILLE, IL

BOOK CELLAR – CHICAGO, IL

BOOK STALL AT CHESTNUT CT – WINNETKA, IL

MADISON STREET BOOKS – CHICAGO, IL

WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST – CHICAGO, IL

KANSAS

RAVEN BOOK STORE – LAWRENCE, KS

RAINY DAY BOOKS – FAIRWAY, KS

WATERMARK BOOKS – WICHITA, KS

DUSTY BOOKSHELF – MANHATTAN, KS

KENTUCKY

BLUE MARBLE – FORT THOMAS, KY

PLAID ELEPHANT BOOKS – DANVILLE, KY

COFFEE TREE BOOKS – MOREHEAD, KY

CARMICHAELS BOOKSTORE – LOUISVILLE, KY

JOSEPH BETH BOOKSELLERS – LEXINGTON, KY

MASSACHUSETTS

AMHERST BOOKS – AMHERST, MA

BOOK ENDS – WINCHESTER, MA

BOOKLOFT – GREAT BARRINGTON, MA

BREWSTER BOOK STORE – BREWSTER, MA

BROADSIDE BOOKSHOP – NORTHAMPTON, MA

TITCOMBS BOOKSHOP – EAST SANDWICH, MA

ODYSSEY BOOK SHOP – SOUTH HADLEY, MA

WHITELAM BOOKS – READING, MA

BUNCH OF GRAPES BOOKSTORE – VINEYARD HAVEN, MA

BUTTONWOOD BOOKS & TOYS – COHASSET, MA

COPPER DOG BOOKS – BEVERLY, MA

HARVARD BOOKSTORES – CAMBRIDGE, MA

PORTER SQUARE BOOKS – BOSTON, MA

TATNUCK BOOKSELLERS – WESTBOROUGH, MA

BOOKLINK BOOKSELLERS – NORTHAMPTON, MA

EIGHT COUSINS BOOKSTORE – FALMOUTH, MA

AN UNLIKELY STORY – PLAINVILLE, MA

BELMONT BOOKS – BELMONT, MA

BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH – WELLESLEY, MA

PORTER SQUARE BOOKS – CAMBRIDGE, MA

BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH – BROOKLINE, MA

SILVER UNICORN BOOKSTORE – ACTON, MA

MARYLAND

BUSBOYS & POETS BOOK STORE – COLUMBIA & HYATTSVILLE, MD

MAIN STREET BOOK – FROSTBURG, MD

PARK BOOKS & LITCOLAB – SEVERNA PARK, MD

CURIOUS IGUANA – FREDERICK, MD

LOYALTY BOOKS – SILVER SPRING, MD

MAINE

DEVANEY DOAK & GARRETT BOOKSELLER – FARMINGTON, ME

NONESUCH BOOKS AND MORE – SOUTH PORTLAND, ME

SHERMANS BOOKS & STATIONERY – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, ME

THE BRIAR PATCH – BANGOR, ME

PRINT A BOOKSTORE – PORTLAND, ME

MICHIGAN

COTTAGE BOOKS – GLEN ARBOR, MI

MCLEAN & EAKIN BOOKSELLERS – PETOSKEY, MI

SCHULER BOOKS & MUSIC INC – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MI

BETWEEN THE COVERS – HARBOR SPRINGS, MI

BOOKSWEET – ANN ARBOR, MI

LITERATI BOOKSTORE – ANN ARBOR, MI

BOOKBUG – KALAMAZOO, MI

2 DANDELIONS BOOKSHOP – BRIGHTON, MI

HORIZON BOOKS – TRAVERSE CITY, MI

MINNESOTA

MAGERS & QUINN BOOKSELLERS – MINNEAPOLIS, MN

VALLEY BOOKSELLER – STILLWATER, MN

BOOKSTORE AT FITGER'S – DULUTH, MN

RED BALLOON BOOKSHOP – SAINT PAUL, MN

WILD RUMPUS – MINNEAPOLIS, MN

MISSOURI

MAIN STREET BOOKS – SAINT CHARLES, MO

NEIGHBORHOOD READS – WASHINGTON, MO

LEFT BANK BOOKS – SAINT LOUIS, MO

NOVEL NEIGHBOR – SAINT LOUIS, MO

UNDERGROUND BOOKS – SAINT LOUIS, MO

MISSISSIPPI

FRIENDLY CITY BOOKS – COLUMBUS, MS

SQUARE BOOKS – OXFORD, MS

MONTANA

CHAPTER 1 BOOK STORE – HAMILTON, MT

COUNTRY BOOKSHELF – BOZEMAN, MT

NORTH CAROLINA

SCUPPERNONG BOOKS – GREENSBORO, NC

QUAIL RIDGE BOOKS – RALEIGH, NC

BOOKMARKS – WINSTON SALEM, NC

COUNTRY BOOKSHOP – SOUTHERN PINES, NC

FLYLEAF BOOKS – CHAPEL HILL, NC

MALAPROP'S BOOKSTORE – ASHEVILLE, NC

PAGE 158 BOOKS – WAKE FOREST, NC

PARK ROAD BOOKS – CHARLOTTE, NC

MCINTYRES BOOKS & BOOKENDS – PITTSBORO, NC

NORTH DAKOTA

MAIN STREET BOOKS – MINOT, ND

NEBRASKA

THE BOOKWORM – OMAHA, NE

NEW HAMPSHIRE

TOADSTOOL BOOKSHOP – VARIOUS LOCATIONS, NH

WATER ST BOOKSTORE – EXETER, NH

INNISFREE BOOKSHOP – MEREDITH, NH

GIBSONS BOOK STORE – CONCORD, NH

NEW JERSEY

HERES THE STORY BOOKS – UNION, NJ

WORD BOOKSTORE – JERSEY CITY, NJ

WORDS MAPLEWOOD BOOKSTORE – MAPLEWOOD, NJ

JAZAMS – PRINCETON, NJ

LITTLE CITY BOOKS – HOBOKEN, NJ

THUNDER ROAD BOOKS – SPRING LAKE, NJ

WATCHUNG BOOKSELLERS – MONTCLAIR, NJ

NEVADA

SUNDANCE BOOKSTORE – RENO, NV

NEW YORK

ANDERSON'S LARCHMONT – LARCHMONT, NY

ASTORIA BOOKSHOP – ASTORIA, NY

BOOK CULTURE – NEW YORK, NY

BOOK HOUSE OF STUYVESANT PLAZA – ALBANY, NY

COLGATE BOOKSTORE – HAMILTON, NY

LONGS CARDS & BOOKS – PENN YAN, NY

MYSTERIES ON MAIN STREET – JOHNSTOWN, NY

OPEN DOOR BOOKSTORE – SCHENECTADY, NY

POWERHOUSE @ 8TH AVE & ARENA – BROOKLYN, NY

SPOTTY DOG – HUDSON, NY

STRAND BOOK STORE – NEW YORK, NY

WORD BOOKSTORE – BROOKLYN, NY

BATTENKILL BOOKS – CAMBRIDGE, NY

BOOK CULTURE – NEW YORK, PITTSFORD, & LONG ISLAND CITY, NY

BOOKSTORE PLUS – LAKE PLACID, NY

BRIARS AND BRAMBLES BOOKS – WINDHAM, NY

CENTER FOR FICTION – BROOKLYN, NY

OBLONG BOOKS & MUSIC – MILLERTON & RHINEBECK, NY

POWERHOUSE @ IC – BROOKLYN, NY

THE BOOKARY – GLENDALE, NY

THE BOOK NOOK – SARANAC LAKE, NY

THE CORNER BOOKSTORE – NEW YORK, NY

GREENLIGHT BOOKSTORE – BROOKLYN, NY

MCNALLY JACKSON – BROOKLYN & NEW YORK, NY

BOOK HAMPTON – EAST HAMPTON, NY

NORTHSHIRE SARATOGA – SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY

BOOKS OF WONDER – NEW YORK, NY

OHIO

BLUE MANATEE – CINCINNATI, OH

JAY & MARYS BOOK CENTER – TROY, OH

PARAGRAPHS BOOKSTORE – MOUNT VERNON, OH

PROLOGUE BOOKSHOP – COLUMBUS, OH

GRAMERCY BOOKS – COLUMBUS, OH

WALLS OF BOOKS – PARMA PARMA, OH

BEANBAG BOOKS – DELAWARE, OH

JOSEPH BETH BOOKSELLERS – CINCINNATI, OH

LOGANBERRY BOOKS – SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH

OKLAHOMA

BEST OF BOOKS – EDMOND, OK

BRACE BOOKS & MORE – PONCA CITY, OK

MAGIC CITY BOOKS – TULSA, OK

OREGON

ANNIE BLOOMS BOOKS – PORTLAND, OR

WAUCOMA BOOKSTORE – HOOD RIVER, OR

ROUNDABOUT BOOKS – BEND, OR

THIRD STREET BOOKS – MCMINNVILLE, OR

POWELLS – PORTLAND, OR

PENNSYLVANIA

COMMONPLACE READER – YARDLEY, PA

DOYLESTOWN BOOKSHOP – LAHASKA & DOYLESTOWN, PA

JAZAMS – LAHASKA, PA

NEWTOWN BOOKSHOP – NEWTOWN, PA

TOWNE BOOK CENTER & CAFE – COLLEGEVILLE, PA

CHILDREN’S BOOK WORLD – HAVERFORD, PA

FARLEYS BOOKSHOP – NEW HOPE, PA

RIVERSTONE BOOKS – PITTSBURGH, PA

READS AND COMPANY – PHOENIXVILLE, PA

RHODE ISLAND

BROWN BOOKSTORE & CAMPUS STORE – PROVIDENCE, RI

BARRINGTON BOOKS – BARRINGTON, RI

BOOKS ON THE SQUARE – PROVIDENCE, RI

SAVOY BOOKSHOP & CAFE – WESTERLY, RI

SOUTH CAROLINA

ITINERANT LITERATE BOOKS – NORTH CHARLESTON, SC

SOUTH DAKOTA

MITZIS MAIN STREET BOOKS – RAPID CITY, SD

TENNESSEE

UNION AVE BOOKS – KNOXVILLE, TN

PARNASSUS BOOK – NASHVILLE, TN

NOVEL. – MEMPHIS, TN

TEXAS

ARTS & LETTERS BOOKSTORE – GRANBURY, TX

FRONT STREET BOOKS – ALPINE, TX

LARK AND OWL BOOKSELLERS – GEORGETOWN, TX

BLUE WILLOW BOOKSHOP – HOUSTON, TX

BOOKPEOPLE – AUSTIN, TX

KATY BUDGET BOOKS – KATY, TX

THE BOOK NOOK – BRENHAM, TX

UTAH

DOLLYS – PARK CITY, UT

KING'S ENGLISH – SALT LAKE CITY, UT

VIRGINIA

HOORAY FOR BOOKS – ALEXANDRIA, VA

SCRAWL BOOKS – RESTON, VA

BARDS ALLEY – VIENNA, VA

BARSTONS CHILDS PLAY – ARLINGTON & MCLEAN, VA

BOOK DRAGON SHOP – STAUNTON, VA

FOUNTAIN BOOKSTORE – RICHMOND, VA

OLD TOWN BOOKS – ALEXANDRIA, VA

ONE MORE PAGE – ARLINGTON, VA

VERMONT

BEAR POND BOOKS – MONTPELIER, VT

NORWICH BOOKSTORE – NORWICH VT

STOWE BOOKS – STOWE, VT

THE BENNINGTON BOOKSHOP – BENNINGTON, VT

THE YANKEE BOOKSHOP – WOODSTOCK, VT

BARTLEBYS BOOKS – WILMINGTON, VT

VILLAGE SQUARE BOOKSELLERS – BELLOWS FALLS, VT

NORTHSHIRE BOOKSTORE – MANCHESTER CENTER, VT

PHOENIX BOOKS – BURLINGTON & ESSEX JUNCTION, VT

WASHINGTON

BOOK & GAME CO. – WALLA WALLA, WA

BRICK & MORTER BOOKS – REDMOND, WA

EAGLE HARBOR BOOK CO – BAINBRIDGE IS, WA

LOGGER STORE UNIV PUGET SOUND – TACOMA, WA

PAPER BOAT BOOKSELLERS – SEATTLE, WA

QUEEN ANNE BOOK COMPANY – SEATTLE, WA

RAVENNA THIRD PLACE BOOKS – SEATTLE, WA

SEQUEL BOOKS – ENUMCLAW, WA

UNIV BOOKSTORE SEATTLE – SEATTLE, WA

VINTAGE BOOKS – VANCOUVER, WA

WATERMARK BOOK COMPANY – ANACORTES, WA

WISHING TREE BOOKS – SPOKANE, WA

AUNTIES BOOKSTORE – SPOKANE, WA

ELLIOTT BAY BOOK CO – SEATTLE, WA

MAGNOLIAS BOOKSTORE – SEATTLE, WA

RAVENNA THIRD PLACE BOOKS – SEATTLE, WA

SECRET GARDEN BOOKSHOP – SEATTLE, WA

VILLAGE BOOKS – LYNDEN, WA

ISLAND BOOKS – MERCER ISLAND, WA

KINGFISHER BOOKSTORE – COUPEVILLE, WA

WISCONSIN

ARCADIA BOOKS – SPRING GREEN, WI

BOOKS & COMPANY – OCONOMOWOC, WI

BOSWELL BOOK COMPANY – MILWAUKEE, WI

KISMET BOOKS – VERONA, WI

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anitabyars · 7 months

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NEW today from Sawyer Bennett (you can tag @bennettbooks if you wish)!

Bain Hillridge isn’t hooking up with just anyone…he’s hooking up with his teammate’s little sister. 😬 But that’s just the beginning of what you can expect from this standalone hockey romance! You’ll also get…

A hunk with a dirty mouth

A woman who isn't afraid to go after what she wants

A friends with benefits arrangement

A 👀 into what the other Titans are up to

A ❤️ story no one saw coming

Get Bain directly from Sawyer by shopping the Sawyer Bennett Bookstore

➜ E-book and Audio (narrated by Connor Crais & Kirsten Leigh): https://bit.ly/STORE_Bain

➜ Signed Paperback: https://bit.ly/PB_Bain

Bain is also available at these retailers:

➜ Amazon: https://bit.ly/3jBAFPX

➜ Nook: http://bit.ly/3K9Io2D

➜ Apple: https://apple.co/3jGhV1N

➜ Google: https://bit.ly/3XiuHkF

➜ Kobo: https://bit.ly/3YCrz3Z

➜ Print: https://bit.ly/42MMSlf

About Bain:

Bain Hillridge is new to the Titans and he’s building relationships with his new team, both on and off the ice. If only he could keep his hands off his teammate’s little sister.

I loved playing for the Arizona Vengeance but I’m stoked to be part of the legacy the Pittsburgh Titans is building. A team that has risen from the ashes, I’m eager to help them achieve their goal of winning a championship. I’m also looking forward to becoming part of a new hockey family. A night out with my new mates introduces me to the little sister of our goalie, Drake McGinn, and I’m powerless to resist her.

Keira and I have an instant and insatiable attraction and it doesn’t take long before we find ourselves tangled up in one another. While Drake has declared his sister off limits, I’m not deterred because I always go for what I want. I refuse to heed Drake’s warnings and take great pleasure in goading him every chance I get. It’s become one of my favorite hobbies, outside of making his sister scream my name.

As things with Keira get hotter, feelings start to develop making it a little more complicated than we intended. But a bucket of ice-cold water is tossed on our relationship and we’re forced to reprioritize everything. Neither of us were looking for more than a hot fling but fates get twisted all the time. Faced with tough decisions, Keira and I know that no matter what choices we make, our lives are never going to be the same.

Bain contains subject matter that may be sensitive to some readers. If you would like additional details, please https://bit.ly/TW_Bain.

My Review

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hockey novels are some of my favorite stories and this one didn’t disappoint. It was filled full of sizzling passion, secret moments, heartwarming romance as well as a heartbreaking, and emotional, journey that will keep you glued to the pages until the end. I couldn’t put this down!

Bain Hillridge has recently been traded to the Pittsburg Titans, so while he’s trying to settle in to a new city, he’s also learning his new teammates and his place on the team. But when he is out at a team party he is totally taken by surprise by her! And what he wants he goes for!

Keira McGinn is the little sister of Titan’s goalie, Drake McGinn who has warned all the players that his sister is off limits. Keira is her own woman and although she initially turned down the new hottie defenseman Bain, their chemistry is undeniable and they soon agree to a one night fling that becomes more.

I really enjoyed these two characters, I loved their passion, their chemistry, their support of one another and how they were there for one another when their hearts become involved. But will their relationship be able to survive a heartbreaking situation which will forever change their lives? I felt every single emotion in this book, and loved these character as they each brought so much to the table.

I received an early copy and this is my honest review.

#newrelease #Bain #sawyerbennett #Pittsburgh Titans #hot hockey romance

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superstitionrev · 2 years

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Storytelling in a Climate Crisis

Storytelling in a Climate Crisis @changinghands @LaurenKuby

Storytelling in a Climate Crisis On September 14 at 6pm, Lauren Kuby will be at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix to exchange poetry and stories about the environment and environmental crisis. Please note that performer signups are limited, and these signups close September 7. The Changing Hands Bookstore is unique to Arizona and offers new and used books. They often host author…

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imaginedreamwrite · 2 years

Note

It’s late but I wanted to piggyback on the Simp Saturday trend. It’s still 10:56pm in arizona. Can you work one up for the Plus-size,Bridesmaid!Reader and CEO!Ari you drabbled for me earlier this week? I will love you forever.

It is 12:10 am when I started working on this, but I’m pulling through!

The bell above the door chimed and Ari had stepped through to enter the cozy, warm cafe and bookstore. He had closed the door behind him and first glanced upon the rows of shelving that had had bares handwritten ledgers depicting the different sections of the books you had to offer; and the other half of the store that contained the cafe and bakery.

“I’ll be right with you!” The voice that called from the back was recognizable to Ari as yours, the soft qualities drawing him closer to the front counter.

“Take your time, andromeda.” Aero had replied, the nickname coming from the memory of the conversation you’d shared at the wedding, the night you two had sat outside to look at the stars.

Andromeda was the only galaxy Ari had known and after seeing the pictures you’d pulled up on your phone, Ari had retorted that the galaxy was only half as breathtaking as you were.

“Ari,” you stepped out from the back with flour dusting your cheeks and your apron lopsided, “hi. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve heard about this cafe that makes the best pastries with coconut,” he had stepped up to the counter and set his hands upon the surface, “and a black coffee.”

“A gizzada?” You questioned, first grabbing a cup from the stack behind you to fill it up, before you had handed the coffee over. “Coconut tarts?”

“Sounds good,” Ari had thanked you for the coffee, placing a twenty down on the counter for you to take. “You busy this weekend, dromeda?”

“Busy?” You used tongs to place the pastry in the bag and set it down beside the coffee. “Not really, why?”

“I have some tickets to the game and I thought you’d like to go.” Ari lift the cup to his lips and sipped on the coffee within. “Since you lost the bet and agreed to go on a date with me.”

“Making sure I don’t back out?” You placed one hand on your hip and cocked an eyebrow up at him. “Baseball or hockey?”

“NY Rangers are playing the Bruins.” Ari’s lips twitched, garnering your attention.

“Oh I see, pitting the NYC and Boston natives against each other. Crafty, Levinson.” You crooned and then cleared your throat. “I’m free. I got the weekend off.”

“Great, I’ll pick you up for dinner.” Ari grabbed the bag with the dessert and the coffee, stepping back from the counter.

“Ari, your change…”

“Keep it, Andromeda. You deserve it.”

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betwecouldmakesome · 3 years

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car full of moments untold

fandom: julie and the phantoms

pairing: luke/reggie/alex and julie/flynn

word count: 3,656

read here on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27090439

Julie watches critically as Luke and Reggie seemingly play Tetris with everyone’s bags to get them to fit into the trunk of Alex’s Subaru outback. She isn’t sure why they have so much packed, they only plan on being gone 3 weeks. Flynn made sure to mark where their route and local laundry mats overlap so lack of clean clothes shouldn’t be an issue.

She also has a sneaking suspicion that one of Luke’s duffle bags is entirely beanies. She’s going to let it slide, knowing she’ll end up borrowing them.

She, however, won’t let whatever Reggie is trying and failing to smuggle into the car by hiding it behind his leather jacket, slide.

“Reginald!” Julie calls as she pushes off from the garage she was leaning against, hiding her smile when he jumps and flails. He looks to Luke for help, who shrugs and gives him a look, one she knows means “you’re on your own dude” before he heads back inside.

Reggie leans against the car and brings his hand up to hold his leather jacket closer to him, “Hey! Julie, fancy seeing you here, how’s it going? I’m doing fantastic, totally not doing anything."

“Whatcha got there?” she asks, purposefully ignoring his question and pointedly looks at his hand. Now that she’s closer, she can make out that the something he is holding is moving.

“What? this?” He lifts his hand and chuckles nervously before rubbing at the back of his neck, “it’s just uh, my binder? Yeah! my binder! I wanted to make sure I have a few extras on the trip just in case?” It sounded more like a question then anything.

Julie hums, knowing the boys made sure their binders were the first bags packed. They even checked to make sure they were in the car three times.

It only takes 13 seconds of making direct eye contact with him before he cracks, which to be fair, is a new record for him.

“Okay! Stop giving me the disappointed mom face.” Reggie sighs. He pulls his hand out from underneath his jacket, revealing Miss Petunia, his pet corn snake.

Julie continues to stare at him, slowly raising her eyebrows higher.

“Okay! Okay I’m going” He turns around heading back inside, presumably to give Petunia to Carlos who agreed to take care of her while they were away.

Julie sighs, this is going to be a long trip.

«»

They haven’t even made it out of Los Angeles before it starts.

“Why does Luke get shotgun?” Reggie complains, shoving his upper body between the two front seats.

“Because I won rock-paper-scissors.” Luke says, shoving Reggie back by his forehead. He sounded way too proud for someone who won a child’s game that involves no skill.

“Why is that how we always decide things? I always lose” Reggie pouts, crossing his arms across his chest.

“That’s why we do.” Luke laughs, quickly flattening himself against the door when Reggie lurches forward again.

“Hey! Cut it out. Reggie put your seatbelt on, you can switch with him when we stop.” Alex interjects, his gaze flickering between the road and Reggie.

«»

They’ve only been back on the highway ten minutes when Julie slurps down the rest of her slushie, noisily sucking on air at the end. It only takes a few seconds of her shifting around before she leans forward and announces her need to pee. Reggie and Luke quickly agree with her, although Luke looks sheepish about it.

“Seriously?” Flynn asks, raising a less than impressed eyebrow.

“Why didn’t you go at the gas station?” Alex also is not impressed but his eyebrows are less expressive then Flynn’s.

“I didn’t have to go then” Julie defends, Luke and Reggie nod in agreement.

“This is why Flynn is my favorite.” Alex complains. Although he changes lanes to get off at the next exit, so it doesn’t hold much weight

«»

It is pushing half past nine before Alex decides they’re done for the day. They planned on driving until eleven but there are only so many road games that he can take. If he had to listen to one more game of eye spy, he was going to drive them straight off a bridge. Flynn, the goddess she is, finds them a motel to stay in with two available rooms and reads off the directions to him.

For the first time since they left, silence takes over the car when they pull up to the motel. The place is creepy looking, like straight out of a horror movie.

After spending about a good twenty minutes trying to convince Reggie the motel is not haunted and that they won’t die, they cautiously make their way up the old rickety stairs leading to the second floor. They all jump when a loud clang echoes out from the alleyway and quickly scuffle up the rest of the stairs and into their respective rooms.

Alex lets out a relieved sigh, locking the door behind them and looks around the room. It’s not as bad as he was expecting. There is a weird smell he can’t, and doesn’t, want to identify, but it looks relatively clean.

Reggie comes out of the bathroom with Luke right behind him, both now having taken off their binders, changed into pajamas, and brushed their teeth. Reggie drops his backpack at the end of the bed and flops next to it, immediately grabbing the tv remote, “I’m so tired, driving is exhausting.”

Luke shoves at Reggie till he groans and moves to the top of the bed. Reggie takes the side farthest from the door and Luke lays beside him, taking the middle as he called dibs on it, “You didn’t even drive, Alex did all the work.”

Alex listens to them bicker while he brushes his teeth, dreading going back out there. He might have been the one to convince Reggie the motel wasn’t haunted but that does not mean he wants to sleep closest to the door. He spits out the mouthwash and heads back into their room, not at all surprised to see Reggie already asleep cuddled into Luke who looks seconds away from passing out himself. Alex smiles softly and shuts off the lights, he leaves the tv on but turns the volume down. He slides in next to Luke, who immediately, even in his half-asleep state wraps his arm around him and pulls Alex closer to him, burying his face into Alex’s neck. It doesn’t take Alex long to fall asleep, the comfort of laying with his boyfriends outweighing the worry of being haunted.

«»

Julie and Flynn wait till ten am for the boys to wake up before giving up and going to explore the town on their own. They walk down main street, hands intertwined, weaving their way through the crowds of people, stopping at any store that catches their eye.

So far, they had stopped at a local café for coffee, a bookstore where they got books for themselves and for each of the boys. Their favorite spot so far was a thrift store that they spent most of their morning trying on the most ridiculous clothing items they could find. and were now googling places they could go next.

Flynn keeps her attention on her phone as she walks, googling places they could go next. She glances up once and awhile but mostly relying on Julie to make sure she doesn’t run face first into a pole. She hums in question when Julie tugs at her arm, only to get her arm tugged on harder in response.

“Look!”

“What? Is there another dog in a stroller?” she asks, locking her phone and sliding it into her back pocket.

Julie grins and points across the street, “We have to go there.”

Flynn eyes where Julie is pointing and grins back at her, letting Julie pull her across the street to where a tiny tourist trap store is.

The bell rings when they push open the door. The person behind the counter jumps at their arrival, startled by the bell, and plasters a smile on their face before just nodding at them in greeting and goes back to flipping through their magazine.

They decide to split up and peruse the shelves for Knick Knacks. Looking for gifts for their families and funny things for the boys.

Julie ends up getting Carlos a snow globe with a ghost inside, her dad a joke book, a pair of earrings for her tía, some shoelaces with rainbows on them for Alex, and two cowboy hats for Luke and Reggie.

Flynn gets her mom a scented candle gift set, her dad a 1,000-piece puzzle of the town, her older brothers each a screaming goat figurine and a world’s okayest brother coffee mug, an assorted pack of stickers for cryptids for Alex, a pair of socks with ostriches on them for Luke, and a kid leash for Reggie.

(She got him a stuffed horse as a real gift but the look on his face, and the laughter from everyone else, when she hands him the leash is worth spending the extra money.)

«»

It takes 3 days and too many coffees and red bulls for them to get Alex to let Julie drive.

It takes an additional 15 minutes for them to convince him that they will not, under any circumstances, let Luke drive, before he hands over the keys and climbs into the back with Luke and Reggie, falling asleep in seconds.

«»

They are somewhere in Arizona when it becomes evident that it is too hot to keep driving. The temperature pushing 106° Fahrenheit and they are sweating through their t-shirts, hair sticking to the nape of their necks. They are practically all climbing over each other to get out of the car when Alex slows to a stop, having found a river nearby to stop at. Reggie and Luke collapse on the grass under the shade of a tree, leaving Alex, Flynn, and Julie to rummage through the bags for their bathing suits. They jerk upwards with a yelp when Julie throughs their swim trunks and tank tops at them, managing to hit them right in the face.

Luke is the first one changed and immediately runs towards the water. He dives under as soon as it’s deep enough before coming up again just as quick, a wide grin on his face as he shakes out his hair.

“Last one in has to pay for dinner!” He yells out.

The rest of them all share a look before sprinting towards him, letting out battle cry’s as they hit the water

«»

After spending a few hours having chicken fights and wading through the water they decide to camp out beside the river for the night. Alex makes a quick trip to the nearest store to get the supplies to make sandwiches and s’mores, Reggie and Flynn oversee the fire while Luke and Julie set up their sleeping bags.

They settle into their sleeping bags, the sound of crickets chirping, the river flowing, and the crackling of dying embers from fire the only noise, everyone silent as they look up at the stars. It’s dark, the fire barely going anymore, the moon and bright stars now their only light source. It’s peaceful and reassuring in a way the city could never be.

“What if we didn’t go back?” It’s Luke who whispers it, but it doesn’t matter, they were all thinking it, this is the most relaxed they’ve felt in forever.

«»

They take lots of pictures during their trip, snapping them whenever they get a chance. Photos of Luke, Flynn, and Julie passed out in the back seat, cuddled up and drooling on each other. Videos of Reggie yelling “Horses!” and pressing his face against the window every time they drive by any and Alex saying “if you do that one more time, I swear I’m going to crash the car” every time. They take pictures of themselves at every state sign they pass, and every landmark they visit. They take pictures of the scenery, the sun rising and setting. There are videos of them singing along to the radio at the top of their lungs. They have videos of every dumb stunt the others try, videos of them joking and laughing. They take as many as they can, trying to capture every moment, hoping to savor as much as they can.

«»

It takes Julie and Flynn 5 days to realize Reggie and Alex never call their parents.

It takes a few more for them to realize Luke doesn’t answer when his do.

«»

Julie and Flynn are leaning against each other drifting in and out of sleep, Luke already snoring in the passenger seat when they get startled awake by Alex swearing loudly and slamming on his breaks before making a U-turn.

“Alex! What the hell?” Julie yells, smacking the back of his headrest repeatedly.

He swats at her hand halfheartedly, “We forgot Reggie at the last stop!”

They all exchange a look, knowing they will never hear the end of this.

«»

Alex knows, rationally that it’s dumb to worry. Reggie can take care of himself, but there’s still a hollow feeling in his stomach as he pulls back into the run-down gas-station. He sure they’ll laugh about it later, just another funny story to tell, but the silence that hangs in the air as they pull in to see Reggie nowhere in sight is chilling.

As soon as the car is in park, they all spill out, running across the parking lot and into the building.

Reggie is fine, of course. They find him sitting on the checkout counter, kicking his legs back and forth as he chats with the cashier who’s working. He beams when he notices them, waving at them with the hand he is holding a hotdog in.

“Hey guys!”

Alex is the first one to react. He rushes forward and pulls Reggie into a tight hug, lifting him right off the counter, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

Reggie hugs him back at laughs against his neck. “Took you long enough.”

«»

They get ten miles down the road before Reggie clutches his stomach and groans, “I’m gonna hurl.”

They pull over three more times for him to throw up before deciding to stop for the night.

Reggie swears that he is never eating another hotdog again.

«»

It’s six am, raining and gloomy out as they leave the motel. It is entirely too early after checking in after midnight. Alex wordlessly hands the keys to Julie and climbs into the back, Reggie and Luke both still half asleep following him.

They don’t wake up for another few hours and even then, it’s not by choice, it’s by the girls shaking them awake. Flynn hands the cardboard tray with 3 coffees back to them and goes back to quietly talking to Julie.

Reggie yawns and takes a sip of theirs, leaning forward after to kiss the girls on the cheek in thanks.

“It’s a Them day.” They say, slouching back against Luke. They only stay awake long enough to hear the groups hums or mumbled “okay’s” in acknowledgment.

«»

They get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. A straight stretch of road going for miles and big open fields going as far as they can see.

“Shit,” Alex swears under his breath and looks to Reggie hopefully, who shakes his head and looks to Luke, only to get a sheepish shrug in response.

“Shit.” Alex repeats, louder this time.

Julie and Flynn exchange a glance before rolling up their sleeves, “We’ve got this, boys.”

“How did you know how to do that?” Reggie asks in awe, as the girls stand back up while wiping the dirt of their hands. The flat tire now replaced by the spare.

“My mom taught us.”

“We’d be lost without you.” Luke grins.

Flynn pulls him into a side hug and ruffles his hair, “Damn right you would.”

«»

Alex pokes at the paint on his cheeks, checking to see if it was dry. He had rainbow stripes on one side, and purple, white, and green on the other. He had been the one put in charge of doing everyone’s face paint and he had waited to do his own last. Luke had the demiboy flag painted on one cheek and the ace flag on the other. His nails painted pink, yellow, and blue, and is wearing a crop top with a trans flag wrapped around him like a cape. Reggie had Alex paint the genderfluid flag and trans flag onto his face, and his nails painted with the bi flag colors. Julie has the demigirl colors on one cheek and the bi colors on the other, with an ace flag wrapped around her. Flynn has dark orange, light orange, white, pink, and dark pink, representing the lesbian flag painted onto both cheeks.

Alex reaches around Reggie to grab his trans flag, the last part of his outfit, and wraps it around his shoulders.

Julie claps her hands together, getting everybody’s attention, “Everyone ready?”

Reggie lets out a shout of excitement, grabbing Alex and Luke’s hands, lacing his fingers with their own and tugging them out the door. Julie and Flynn follow them, shaking their heads and laughing as they watch all three of them try and walk down the narrow staircase side by side.

«»

“I’m dying.” Reggie gasps out, dramatically flinging themself over a rock.

“We’re almost there, it’s just a few more minutes.” Julie reassures them, the rest of the group taking the opportunity to stop and rest. All of them had woken up at five am to hike a mountain and watch the sun rise. The trail was about two miles, and this was the third time Reggie had announced that they were dying, although this one was more dramatic than the others.

“You’ve been saying that for the last 20 minutes!”

“Well this time I mean it.”

“Luke.” Reggie whines, drawing out the name as they shift their gaze to Luke, who is pouring some of his water over his head.

“No.”

“Babe! Please, I’m dying here.”

Luke sighs and rolls his eyes before crouching down, not being able to resist Reggie’s puppy dog eyes, “Hop on.”

Reggie cheers, jumping up onto his back, “Have I told you how much I love you?”

“I think you should remind me.” Luke grins, tilting his head back towards Reggie.

“Maybe I will.” They laugh, leaning forward and press their lips against Luke’s, smiling into the kiss.

“Hey!” Alex calls after them, “I’d like to be reminded too.”

“You were going to let me die, you don’t get any kisses.” Reggie looks back over their shoulder, sticking their tongue out at him.

“Well I’m the one carrying the food so maybe you should reconsider.”

“Are you bribing me?”

“I don’t know, is it working?” Alex asks.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” Reggie slaps at Luke’s shoulder, telling him to let them down.

Julie and Flynn make their way around them, wanting to make it to the top of the mountain in time.

Reggie skips down to Alex and wraps their arms around Alex’s neck, pulling him down to kiss them.

“So, can I have a snack now?”

«»

“Guys,” Flynn looks at the scene before her in exasperation, “I was gone for literally five minutes.”

“We know, help now scold later.” Reggie shifts, trying to yank his foot out for underneath Julie

“How did you even manage this?”

“We couldn’t decide which one of us got to sit in the cart and we thought we could all fit.” Julie peaks her head out from behind Luke. She blows a piece of hair out of her face so she can see, only for it to fall right back.

“You too, Alex?” Flynn asks.

Alex shrugs, looking guilty, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“You’re apart of a human pretzel!”

“We won’t do it again, just get us out. I have to pee, and Luke is crushing my bladder.”

“Hey! at least you don’t have Reggie’s knees in your back,” Luke argues, “and I’m not even that- wait, Flynn are you taking pictures?”

“Oh yeah, definitely” She nods.

«»

“That’s the fourth store we’ve gotten kicked out of this week.” Flynn complains, glaring at the grocery store.

“That’s not too bad.”

“Luke, It’s Wednesday.”

«»

They sit on a pier in silence, feet dangling off the edge as they lean with their upper bodies over the bottom railing. The sun is setting, gradually receding into the waters below. The sky is more purple than red now, further indicating that their night is coming to an end.

It had been a few hours since they made their way away from the carnival that was bustling with activity to somewhere quieter. Further away from the bright lights and loud music, the yells excitement and overwhelming noise of big crowds of people all talking and closer to the sounds of waves crashing against shore and seagulls squawking.

Julie picks at her cotton candy, ripping a piece off and hands it to Alex, who accidently dropped his into the ocean below them.

“Maybe we don’t go back.” Again, It’s Luke who says it. He sounds more confident this time.

“Are parents would kill us,” Alex says. He looks down awkwardly when Luke looks at him pointedly.

“Okay, Ray would kill us.”

“Hey! Ray’s cool, he would never.” Reggie objects.

“We can’t just not go back, right?” Alex looks around at each of them, “Could we?”

Flynn shrugs, “I hear Maine is really pretty in the Fall.”

«»

Ray is cool and he does not kill them. His exact response is “I get it, I’ll miss you! Stay safe and be careful. Send post cards. And because I’m being so cool about it, you get to be the one to tell your tía.”

#car full of moments untold #luke x reggie x alex #julie x flynn #luke patterson #reggie peters #alex mercer #julie molina #flynn jatp #jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms fic #userdhylen #naomi's content

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ginwhitlock · 3 years

Note

J/B pre-relationship 5, general 2 & 8, love 7 & 9, domestic life 8 & 11

Ugh I love being fed thank you!!!

Ahaha yes. Jasper particularly. This was before she had ever been in the Cullen house, he knew there was something about her, something he automatically loved but refused to let it come to the surface. He was going to let Edward have her. He was better for her, she could hve a human life with the boy, he wanted the best for her. This changed the moment she stepped foot in the house, her dress that was far better suited for Arizona than Washington, was just slightly wet under her jacket, her hair curling around her shoulders. As Edward played for her and introduced her to the family, showed her around, Jasper grew more and more jealous. He felt something for her that was entirely new, and the moment she turned to him during instroductions and offered up a smile all for him, he was lost.

Yes! I have actually written this fic! It’s a get dressed and go to dinner kind of date. Very traditional, and very rigid at first. I think Bella was nervous and Jasper was also very very nervous.

Jasper. There’s no contest. He’s strong in their relationship but God, does Jasper see red the moment one of the teenage boys at school wrap an unwelcome arm around Bella, or Edward gets far too close while he’s playing piano with her and once, memorably, when Emmett walked fully naked into their bedroom, covered in mud, to tackle Bella after a hunt (in a very brotherly way I swear. He didn’t quite realize he was naked). The entire house could hear Emmett scream.

Jasper enjoys helping Bella do the mundane. Go grocery shopping, go to the bookstore, go through the pile of clothes Alice surprises her with every so often. Bella’s a great cook, no matter that it makes Jasper’s stomach turn if it could, and he enjoys being a third and fourth hand for her when she making dinner. (He’s also not too bad a cook himself). They’re the couple that showers together too, not very innocently either. Their sex life is not as private as Bella would like by any means. But their favorite thing to do together is read in the warm nook of his study, surrounded by books older than him and Bella combined in some instances. A fire place roaring.

Hahah— this is not a question. Of course it’s Jasper, and I don’t think I have to explain why, but Bella is protective of him too. She doesn’t see her self as invincible, but will stand in front of him in a confrontation, something he dreads everytime. The moment Bella is turned, you’d rain hell to touch Jasper in any way that’s not friendly, let me tell you.

I think Bella treats holidays like their not important, to the outside world. There’s no eager celebration of Christmas or Halloween, no lights being dragged from the attic or blow up plastic figurines in the lawn. But the act of family, of being with her father and the Cullens is the most important thing. Growing up with her mother, holidays were forgotten or were sad apologies for whatever renee had done that year. With Jasper things were different, and he agreed with her way of showing it.

Jasper, while the same in the outward aspect, has holidays that are special to him because of his years with Peter and Charlotte. He’s quiet and pensive during these days, and Bella is a silent weight on his form everytime. She gets the idea to call them on one of these seemingly ordinary days and have them come up, with the help of a certain psychic. Jasper looks at Bella in a different light then, not even knowing he could love her more until that moment.

Bella claims she is a horrible dancer. Jasper.... agrees. She’s got two left feet and a horrible sense of rhythm but the cowboy doesn’t mind. She’s on his toes and locked inside his arms as he sways to a old country record, his loves far more dulled during these times.

Before their wedding, she tried to learn to waltz, curtesy of Emmett (with his many. Many. Many weddings he learned pretty quickly) but her inability to stop falling or taking the wrong step was unable to be remedied. Jasper didn’t care in the slightest. He had her secure in every swirl and back step.

I love this. send me whoever or whatever!

#Bella/jasper #mine #shut up adrianna #my writing #writing #Bella swan #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #jasper cullen

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dopescotlandwarrior · 4 years

Text

The Dancer-Chapter Four

A special thanks to @statell for all your help

Previous chapters on AO3

Chapter Four

Claire sat on a high-pile, soft rug with children circled around her. Jamie noticed they all leaned forward from their Indian-style positions, eyes wide and staring at Claire. They were all on their trusted ponies flying across the Arizona desert, running after the bad guys who robbed the train. Claire did her best to narrate the story with inflections of fear and desperation while the story became real to those around her.

Jamie made a trip to his office and was waiting for Claire when the wee ones ran to their mothers, laden with purchases from the store. The room emptied out in ten minutes and Jamie flopped down on an overstuffed chair. He handed a baggie full of orange slices to Claire.

He noticed that her hair was still down and today she wore a soft dress with a bright colored flower pattern. The skirt was almost to her ankles so sitting on the floor, being eye to eye with the kids was easy. He looked at her approvingly, happy she had embraced her new look.

Claire noticed Jamie hanging around during her Storytime and book club meetings and he always kept her after for conversation and shared food. She wasn’t sure she understood what he needed but if she could answer his questions and understand his conversation she just went with the flow.

“I’m leavin Claire. It’s time for a new manager to take over this store so I can get to Glasgow.”

“I’m sure you will be missed, Jamie.”

“I’ve been doin this for the past nine years. This is the last store I will build. Once it’s up and running I start a new job, new level, and maybe dinna move around so much. Even if I’m offered a corporate position it willna be here in Scotland. More likely Germany or London.”

Claire did not understand where the conversation was going so she just kept up for his sake. Jamie was always so confident about the book business, but she thought it sounded like a lonely existence and wondered if he felt the same. She had never known a man more beautiful than Jamie Fraser and thought it unlikely that he spent time alone if he didn’t want to. So why did he come to see her dance? Week after week leaving hundreds of pounds for her.

“Claire, I want ye to consider taking over for me, as manager of the store. Ye’ve owned a bookstore, this is just bigger. I trust ye lass and that is more important than any experience or degree. Please think about it and we can talk again in a few days.”

“How about tonight? There is so much I don’t know.” She watched him intently.

“Sorry lass. I have plans tonight and canna break em.”

Claire sped across town and found a grumpy Madu in her studio, pacing like an irritated bull. He could look quite intimidating Claire thought. He was over six foot with a muscular frame and a mop of black curls fell against his cheeks and forehead. A beautiful man, she thought, watching him in the seconds before he noticed her.

She could feel his interest in her, barely contained, ready to sweep her off her feet. They would make a good match she assumed. His family would embrace the orphan in her and Madu would show her the heights of passion she had only dreamed of. The union made perfect sense, but she had not fallen in love with him the way she always dreamed it would be.

Claire had only one reference for passion and love, the face of Jamie Fraser when she danced for him. She noticed the change in his look, his posture, his gaze that touched her in a place she had not known before. What started out as punishment for someone she hated had become a quest that she was ashamed of, but she continued, desperate to know what smoldered behind his eyes.

Claire jerked out of her reverie when Madu called to her. Her head flew up and she rattled off excuses for being late, running to dress for her dance. Madu gave her a knowing look and waited for the student to stand before him.

Claire considered Jamie’s offer to manage the bookstore. Her popularity for exhibition dancing and private parties had grown, as did her fees for such things. While the good people of Edinburgh were going to bed each night, she was draped in veils doing what she loved. She would help the new manager as much as she could but decided to decline Jamie’s offer.

As Jamie’s final days in Edinburgh grew near, he spent more time at the restaurant watching her dance. Claire tried to imagine his absence in her life, in the audience, and at the bookstore, as he went on with his life without her. The promise and desire behind his eyes would remain unknown to her and the blame was hers alone. If she had told him from the beginning that she was the dancer things would have gone differently. But she was hell-bent on revenge at that time and then it was too late. She tried to think of a dozen ways to tell him the truth but nothing would hide her betrayal, so she accepted her fate.

Jamie accepted Claire’s decision not to manage the bookstore like a gentleman and told her he was a phone call away if she needed anything. He promised to visit often as the new store was just a town away.

When he brought the new manager around for everyone to meet, Claire decided she was looking into the eyes of a human Bambi. John Grey was handsome on Jamie’s level but in a softer, more refined way. His smile was something to behold and she almost lost herself in it until she looked at Jamie and felt his power burn her on the inside.

Jamie was shaking hands and laughing with the staff, but he caught Claire in a moment of weakness and the look on her face made the hair on his neck stand up. She pulled away from the group and disappeared. He looked for her later wanting to spend some time with her before he left but she was nowhere to be found.

Claire drove home to get ready for her dance tonight. It felt like she was full of adrenalin with that awful feeling of impending doom. She knew this was about Jamie and his last night in Edinburgh. What ever did she want from the poor man who never received as much as a nod from her?

“Geillis! I have a problem. There is a man I have danced for numerous times. The way he looks at me makes my knees weak and I can barely keep it together. He is leaving town tomorrow and I may not see him again.”

“Okay Claire, you have my attention and I’m waiting for the problem. He’s married, he’s gay, he’s homeless, what?”

“No. None of those things. He’s perfect, and single, and moving to another town after tonight. I want to know him, that way, before I lose the opportunity.”

“That way?” Geillis was quiet for a minute. “Do ye mean ye want to fuck him, Claire?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then do it.”

Geillis caught on quickly that Claire needed help so she pledged to be there right after work, and they would make a plan.

Claire spent a quiet afternoon thinking about what she was doing and realized she could not stop herself if she wanted to. She spent an hour in a hot tub removing all her body hair, even her most intimate places. She was painstaking about her makeup, eyelashes, and bright red lipstick. The oil she smoothed over her skin was from Cairo, a gift from Madu. It heightened her senses when she dabbed it between her legs until she almost fell completely apart.

Pulling her most prized costume from her closet she zipped it into a garment bag for her second show, when she would touch Jamie and he would touch her.

Geillis whistled at the costume Claire chose and said she was getting hot just looking at it.

“Claire, relax. If ye want to fuck this guy and ye look like that, and he’s interested, then just let it happen.”

Geillis was winding the string of chains around Claire’s hips and looked at her friend.

“Ye know sex doesna bring love, right Claire?”

Claire nodded her head and raised her arms for the chain bra top Geillis was pulling onto her chest. It was time for her second dance and the invitation for Jamie to come to her dressing room. Claire felt the throbbing between her legs and could not wait for whatever was on the other side of that desire in his eyes.

When the spotlight hit the rows of chains, Claire sparkled like a thousand diamonds. Her body undulated up out of the fog layer Omar cranked out. Her performance was raw, and sexual, the best of her career because she would never have a greater prize than Jamie Fraser to dance for.

Jamie sat transfixed, unable to move as he watched the undulating hips and popping breasts promise forbidden love, the kind he would trade his soul for. As she spun in his direction the chains flew out at waist level looking punishing for any man who ventured to close to her. He watched her spin away from him and in a magical moment, he saw a card left on the table.

I await you, is all it said, and Jamie shook his head wondering if he imagined it was an invitation. He walked to the stage door and knocked softly. Diners were still eating but didn’t seem to notice him waiting for the door to open.

A warm hand pulled him into the dressing room which glowed with dozens of candles that smelled amazing and exotic. He bent to Claire and kissed her softly, noticing her chest rise and fall with her deep breathing. Whether from arousal or nerves he would take his time and see her relaxed and needy before he feasted on her body.

“What is your name lass?”

In that instant, Claire’s plan popped like a bubble. Holy crap, she thought, I have to talk to him? Why the hell didn’t I think this through? Her panic was rising, gripping her throat to choke her for being so selfish and concupiscent. In her panic, she could not think of a way to control the situation. She was bested and she knew it, so she just stopped moving and hung her head. She had heard enough Arabic to string some words together and show Jamie the door.

He looked confused but he left, and she locked the door behind him. Claire was too exhausted to cry or do anything else. She laid on the sofa waiting to hear Jamie’s truck drive away, praying he would not come back with more talking. She closed her eyes and imagined his touch, above her, beside her, behind her. Her body craved him and the sublime physical joining that would free her from the mundane world she lived in. Why had she convinced herself this was even possible? Because at the moment it felt like her life depended on it.

Claire heard Omar knock softly on the dressing room door, probably waiting to walk her out. When the door swung open Jamie lifted her up and kissed her quiet as he pulled the breath out of her lungs and every thought from her mind.

“No talking lass, just let me kiss you and touch you a bit then I go, without a word. There’s a reason you invited me here and a reason I came, that’s enough for me.” His kiss seared her lips with his heat and his hands ran over her body like he was touching the holy grail.

Claire twisted the buttons open and pushed his shirt off. She gazed at his muscled chest and arms feeling herself blush when he chuckled at her reaction. The kissing continued until Claire’s mind and body belonged to James Fraser. When she pulled her bra top off he held her away to look at her, then he embraced her, skin on skin, tilting her head up to kiss him again.

Claire knew the chains and veils would not easily come off without instruction and she did not want him to stop kissing so she pulled them off and stepped out of the tiny pants.

Jamie feasted on her perfect skin and lithe form watching the candlelight bounce off the flat planes of her body. He was speed stripping to catch up with her nakedness, wanting to feel her inside and out for as long as she let him.

Claire laid on the sofa, arms raised to him, mouth open, chest heaving. Jamie burned the sight of her into his brain to keep forever. His large warm hands caressed every inch of her from neck to feet as he laid soft kisses in their path. She felt his hot breath on her nipples before he filled his mouth and sucked to make her remember. When she was powerless to move, he pushed her arms over her head and wrapped several chains around her wrists before he stole the remaining part of her brain. His kiss started softly as his knuckles ran down her body, over her nipples, brushing against her core.

Each minute was more exciting and pleasurable than the last as Jamie swept her into an erotic fog that shot firecrackers to her brain. When Jamie’s knuckles started their return trip, he nudged her legs apart and dragged a finger up her fold. Claire bucked in his arms and she struggled to loosen the chains on her wrists. His long arm pulled the chains tight just before she felt his beard on the soft skin of her inner thigh. Pulling her legs apart he placed what felt like dozens of soft kisses between her legs, and inner thighs. Every few minutes the tip of his tongue would touch her bud nearly rocking her off the couch.

Claire didn’t think she could take much more without self-combusting. She felt Jamie shift his position and his hot, wet tongue slid into her, torturously slow as she gasped and arched her back seeking friction.

He would not be hurried with the beautiful dancer and intended to make this last, for both their sake. Claire was immobilized, without hands to distract him, so he set a slow pace and was thrilled the way her body reacted to him. He pressed his tongue deeper into her and his gigantic erection grazed the side of the sofa, hot and angry for being ignored.

Two long fingers replaced his tongue and he felt the walls of her pussy clamp down as he moved them in and out. She moaned and rocked his fingers feeling like she would explode. Jamie felt joy and satisfaction watching her fall apart. He lowered his head and flicked her bud viciously knowing the instant she left the earth. No longer on the plane of mortal man, she kissed angels and fell through layers of sparkling, raw sensation.

She felt the chains loosen around her wrist as Jamie kissed her deeply, preventing her full return to sanity. He wanted more, and she wanted to give it. He carefully negotiated the small sofa, pulling her knees up, creating a space to lay his long body as his tip pressed lightly against her opening. The intensity of his kissing made Claire’s hips rise to find him. Jamie smiled at her heroic effort to squirm under him until her wet pussy was pressing his tip into her.

He held her hips still and slowly pushed into her, watching her expression, feeling her energy shift to acquiescence. She surrendered to his strength, his need, his promise. As Jamie pushed into her he laid claim to her mind, soul, and body. His hard thrusting was banging into her clit making her lose her mind. Jamie kissed her deeply and felt her body grab him as her back arched tightly against his chest.

Jamie watched Claire’s orgasm second by second. She was wild, uninhibited, and completely under his spell. He released the iron grip on himself, slamming into her at least a dozen times, fearing he would lose his mind from the stinging in his balls.

The banging cymbals leading up to his release suddenly stopped as he was rocked to the core with pulsing pleasure. He floated back to her and nuzzled her neck. They were slippery with sweat and Jamie gathered her under him to keep her warm while she dozed. When she would startle awake her arms clutched him around his neck like she didn’t want to be without him, making his heart ache for her.

Jamie laid very still, watching Claire succumb to her exhaustion and kissing her quiet when she startled. He did not want this to end and letting her sleep added precious moments with her. He pulled her into a massive cuddle that overwhelmed her sluggish senses and she slept deeply for several hours while Jamie watched.

He was not used to the intensity of their lovemaking that now filled his head. Remembering her body quaking under him, mouth and eyes open, chest heaving while he pushed his full length into her. He could feel his erection growing until it throbbed for her again. She startled and grabbed him wrapping her arms around him to hold him to her.

Jamie pulled her to his chest and wiggled under her as his large hands held her gorgeous butt against him. She kissed him like her life depended on it and when he broke the kiss, she chased his mouth until he was putty in her hands. When she felt his tip against her, she pushed back until he slipped into her with a gasp.

Control temporarily lost, he wrapped his hands around her shoulders pulling down and pushing his cock deeper inside her. Jamie almost came when he looked into the eyes of a woman who would shred this couch to get to him. She needed to come, like a powder cake ready to explode and only he could make it happen.

Jamie grabbed her shoulders and lifted her upper body, so she straddled him. He groaned when her body opened to him, letting him sink into her warm wetness. Claire glared at him, panting, hands splayed on his chest. The feeling was so intense she couldn’t help but move her hips until she felt Jamie’s strong hands on top of her shoulders, holding her down. He sat up so they were face to face and pressed her shoulders down again feeling his dick go deeper into her body. He watched her eyes, only inches from his own. She didn’t know what was happening and no longer cared. She trusted Jamie to see her safely through the explosions she knew were coming.

We are almost there love, he thought, as he pushed her shoulders down and pressed his erection even deeper. Claire was wide-eyed and wanton when he impaled her, and he knew she had not been touched like this before.

Claire knew something was about to happen, good or bad she was powerless to stop it. He touched her cheek and smiled, then he touched her throbbing core and watched Claire’s world spin out of control. She threw her head back and rocked him with her hips until she slowly came back to earth. Her eyes opened and she smiled her gratitude, breathing deeply. He touched it again and she flew even higher in a long continuous moan as her hips rocked his cock again.

Jamie could not hold out any longer and flipped them pushing her legs over his shoulders for a dozen thrusts and stopped. Claire watched him get to his knees and push her legs open. He stared at her core for a long minute before he pulled her pelvis up and entered her again, watching the erotic show as his cock slid into her, over and over again until he shuttered and exploded deep inside her.

Jamie collapsed next to her panting for his life and refusing to let her go. He felt her hands on his cheeks as she kissed his face a dozen times, and then he felt nothing.

Some hours later Jamie woke up and smiled at the curled angel he held. He was leaving for his next job in Glasgow and wondered if he would ever see her again. He felt his heart swell at her trust and mutual interest. When he pushed the hair out of her face she smiled and pulled a lungful of air and opened her eyes.

Claire woke up to panic as the room was filling with light from the sunrise. Jamie could see the panic on her face and jumped up to dress quickly. He promised no words, so he kissed her softly and left.

She laid still with her heart ramming until she heard Jamie’s truck roar onto the road. Ten minutes later she was brave enough to get up and pull her sweatsuit on before disposing of the evidence of their magical night. She wondered if she would ever again feel a man touch her like Jamie did.

Claire looked at her watch and counted the hours until Geillis would come to get this wig off her head. Geillis added dots of the glue around the entire wig, so she didn’t worry about it slipping. Now she couldn’t get even a finger under it. She dropped her keys on the kitchen table heading for the shower. Raising her leg over the tub she saw warm liquid from Jamie run down her inner thigh. She watched it until her tears rolled down her cheeks and she pressed her face into a towel and sobbed.

Jamie pulled into Lallybroch and noticed Ian’s car in the driveway again. He looked up at Jenny’s window forming a possible reason before shaking his head and laughing. “It’ll never happen,” he said out loud. Ian was like a family member. Since they were lads Lallybroch was his second home and he often met up with friends and left his car overnight.

An hour later, Jamie tossed his suitcase, and briefcase in the back of his truck, the garment bag with his suits was hung inside the cab. With Glasgow just an hour away it hardly felt like he was going anywhere. How odd, he thought, that his last project would be in Scotland and so close to his home.

Once his big black truck was pointed at Glasgow, he sat back and let his mind drift back to the trauma he felt leaving home the first year. He hugged Jenny for a full minute and looked at her crying eyes trying to be brave. His Da shook his hand beaming with pride and fighting his own tears. Jamie walked away to board a very large plane that would fly him to Ann Arbor Michigan where he would build his first store.

The odds were stacked in his favor thanks to eight gentlemen that knew what factors influenced success and correctly matched the project to the manager. Putting Jamie on the other side of the world, where English was spoken, the winters were long and cold, in a college town with a superior football team, and thousands of coeds was no accident.

The next year was Italy, after that France, then back to America, England, Australia, Italy again, Germany, Edinburgh, and now Glasgow. He always came home to Lallybroch to rest. Sometimes it was three months, many years it was less.

Jamie’s natural charisma pulled people to him like moths to flame so he never felt lonely, or afraid. He saw his life as a never-ending string of new experiences, new challenges, and new people to meet, which became his Achilles heel.

Jamie remembered her still, the girl he cared for in Ann Arbor, the girl he left behind and then missed for the entire next year. It was a lesson to his heart to stay away from those most interesting, the most lovable, the most anything. He would find a lass or two in each town and move on quickly when they wanted more from him. It was a hard thing to do because he craved intimacy and feeling connected to someone. As his Scotland friends paired up and became a husband, Jamie realized he was going against the natural order, denying himself a heart to love. It got harder each year, but he never faltered from his plan. He would not leave a string of broken hearts in his wake.

The dancer crept into his thoughts and in his mind he reached for her, lovingly, protectively. Well, looks like yer comin to Glasgow with me. I thought maybe last night would cure me but here ye are. I’m no sorry. Ye are a rare gift to the world and I dinna want to let ye go. Not yet.

Geillis was losing patience, “hold still or I’ll spill this acetone in yer eye!”

She wasn’t feeling charitable this morning after being roused from her newest squeeze by a begging Claire. She dabbed the Q-tip into the glue as she pulled the hair from Claire’s skin.

“I hope the sex was worth all this.” She paused for a minute. “This is when ye tell me all about it lass.”

Claire stared out her kitchen window with a blank face seeming not to hear her friend's inquiry. She felt him touch her skin with warm hands that made magic happen the whole night. She tasted salty sweat from kissing his face when he was still far away spinning in pleasure.

“Claire!”

“What!”

“I’m talkin to ye lass. I’m gonna pull it off, ye ready?”

The wig pulled away and Claire instantly felt ten degrees cooler to her relief.

“Meet me at the wig store after work. Ye canna wear that one until yer skin heals. We can find somethin else to use. I have to break land-speed records to make it to work on time. Sorry to leave ye with the mess.”

Claire crawled into her bed where she would dream of copper-colored curls that tickled her nose, and thighs, and back.

For the next month, she spent a lot of time at the bookstore helping the new manager get settled. When she heard little voices yell her name she brightened considerably and watched tiny bodies run to the glass room with grateful mothers behind them.

The second month came and went but the bookstore still felt cold and sterile to her. John was becoming a dear friend who craved her company because he was alone in a strange city. Compared to Jamie, it was child’s play to avoid John’s constant questions about her other job. Claire was rarely bothered with anxiety anymore, so life went on with no great highs and no great lows.

When Claire was reading to her pint-sized fans she reached across the circle and pretended to grab someone's nose as little people erupted in laughter. Claire giggled back to her sitting position and froze when she heard his voice. Her heart was ramming and her ears almost hurt as they were seeking another sound wave, his wave, his cadence, and burr.

The story was over and the kids piled out to their waving mothers. Claire’s legs were hugged tight and tiny sets of eyes looked up to her smiling and waving. She waved back as the last few mothers led their children toward the exit. And there he was.

Claire felt the air evacuate from the room as she watched his genuine smile and outstretched arms. She leaned into him, smelling something lovely and familiar, wanting so badly to touch his curls and face. She felt his vibrating laugh when she hugged him and then quickly righted herself back to the friend zone tucking away her wants and desires for someone forbidden.

She smiled when John or Jamie made a joke but otherwise busied herself with cleaning up her room and flicking the lights off. She walked quickly to the exit and felt strong hands grab her arm pulling her to a halt. She knew that touch, those big hands, and felt herself shake inside.

“How is the new project going, Jamie?”

“It’s been a bitch, still is, but I’m done-in from all that anxiety and deadline insomnia.” He smiled at her, so relaxed and looking genuinely happy to see her. “I’m goin back tomorrow once I conclude some business here in Edinburgh, part of which is you.”

Claire looked up at him trying to look coy and relaxed. “What pray tell would that be?”

“Next weekend is Easter, Claire. I want ye to come to Lallybroch and spend the day with Jenny and me. Will ye come?”

“Yes, that would be lovely, thank you. And John? Will he be joining us too?”

“Who?”

Claire tilted her head to the upstairs office where John would be sweating bullets waiting for Jamie to announce the real reason he was here and hoping to have his job when he was through.

“Ah, yes of course lass, John too.”

Claire offered her hand and saw the change in Jamie’s face. “Until next weekend then.”

Jaime climbed the steps to the manager’s office feeling off balance at Claire’s stiff goodbye. His mind was in constant flux between two women since he left. The dancer reigned supreme in his thoughts and dreams, but he missed Claire in his life.

He felt his body calling to her, the dancer, and he knew it would take wild horses to keep him away from her tonight.

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authorjamesrollins · 4 years

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Have you been wondering what Tucker and his war dog, Kane have been up to? On Sept 29, a new anthology of EVERY short story that I’ve ever written debuts. UNRESTRICTED ACCESS also includes new introductions that offer a glimpse across my career. Plus a NEW Tucker/Kane story—and not just a “short” story, but a huge novella. It takes place in Sedona, Arizona, and forever changes their lives. And as the story takes place in Arizona, I’ll be hand-signing and doodling a limited supply of books at the Poisoned Pen ( @poisonedpenbookstore ) in Scottsdale. You can preorder one of those rare copies through the link in my bio! 📚 [PREORDER LINK IN BIO] 📚 Below are all the short story adventures in the book . 🖊New Tucker and Kane Adventure🖊 Sun Dogs . 🖊Sigma Series🖊 Ghost Ship Crash and Burn Midnight Watch Kowalski’s in Love Skeleton Key Tracker The Devil’s Bones (with Steve Berry) . 🖊Order of the Sanguines Series 🖊 Blood Brothers (with Rebecca Cantrell) City of Screams (with Rebecca Cantrell) . 🖊EXTRAS🖊 Tagger (a YA story from the anthology FEAR, edited by R.L. Stine) The Pit (from the anthology WARRIORS, edited by George R.R. Martin) (at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDt8seFgJ4B/?igshid=2re78pofosby

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corinthbayrpg · 4 years

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NAME. Jamie Price AGE & BIRTH DATE. 298 & October 21st, 1722 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He / Him SPECIES. Vampire OCCUPATION. Freelance Photographer FACE CLAIM. Thomas Doherty

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: prostitution, violence ) Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, James “Jamie” Brattin used to think he was born under a bad sign. Or at least to people who should have cared about him just a wee bit more. Looking back, he doesn’t blame them as much as he should, his parents were a young couple and didn’t quite know what to do with him and they didn’t have much support from their own families. Their union was that of a maid and a stable boy and if it weren’t for his gender and his father’s importance to the household, he didn’t think he’d have been allowed to be born period.

He could tell you a lot about the years before the fangs. About how he was a thoughtful and curious lad, loyal and had a soft spot for the animals he tended to. Too active, he detested lessons and preferred to be left up to his own devices, or hell, even manual labor, to sitting down and reading. Or how at one point it’d been annoying to hear women of the house make comments about how he was going to have to be ‘breaking a lot of hearts’ when he was older, but one day something just clicked.

There was currency in being attractive, and while he wasn’t always the most charming, he managed to catch the attention of one of the master of the house’s older daughters. Which, he’ll admit, he didn’t handle in the greatest way. He was rather hot and cold with her, liked her attention, the taboo nature of the relationship, but the moment she was on about running away so they could be together properly? He was mentally checked out. But being a hormonal teenager, he still snuck his way into her room every so often. Until one night he got caught by her father and even the good repertoire his parents within the household wasn’t enough to save him.

He could go on about how that same daughter managed to free him, how he stole a horse from the stables and bid good riddance to that life entirely in favor of heading two towns over. Asking to work in exchange for a room at the local tavern only had the business minded barmaid asking him if he’d prefer a very particular line of work, though he declined it. The first time anyways.

It was a lucrative business and he told himself it wouldn’t be for long, just until he got enough to get himself to the next couple of towns over. It wasn’t really a bad gig, not after the first couple of times. He had a roof over his head, a full stomach, and the owner kept a close watch on clientele. It still wasn’t ideal and the actual act itself he could handle, it was the whole wooing aspect of things that was the hard part. Skirting by on just his looks wasn’t going to cut it once he was behind closed doors. The bar owner and a couple of the other employees she managed were good teachers, but he’d have to learn all of the mental games by experience.

After a few months he went a couple towns over, decided to really start living. Changed his last name, got a job at a bookstore, and almost fell in love with a girl who showed up to only buy romance novels. That ended poorly, one of her suitors who happened to be a vampire, essentially bit him and dragged him a few more towns away and told him to mind his own business. Thus putting the idea of vampires into his head and making him fall back into the world’s oldest profession to make ends meet. Life was considerably kind of awful, but he had a purpose now. These beautiful, powerful, predatory things, he wanted to be one of them. And it wasn’t really hard to find them in his line of work, but getting one to do more than just bite and skip out was difficult. It was all rather stupid and self destructive, but he’d arguably always been prettier than he’d been smart.

He learned a lot about people during this search, had finally figured out the right things to say. Thank God, because he’d finally captured the attention of someone who felt rude just biting him and compelling him. And so Jamie finally became a vampire and immediately set out to kill every person that’d laid a hand on him. This brutality of his came in handy for his sire, whom despite caring about him a great deal (maybe even a little too much), used his undying loyalty and penchant for violence to kind of pick off adversaries.

But he wouldn’t tell you any of that, it’s not something on the table for discussion. Or that he has an ex boyfriend whom he turned that broke up with him like a year after he turned him, leaving him pretty broken up.

He will however tell anyone about various and often zany exploits that he’s had all over Europe for sheer shits and giggles. Or that he kind of finally found an actual profession aside from running around and biting people left and right in Arizona of all places where he went to school for photography. It wasn’t ever something he thought he’d be serious about, was meant to kind of document travels and people, but turns out he actually really has an eye for it.

Said travels eventually brought him to Greece where he inevitably tried to take a bite out of the wrong person. And so Safiye Basak kicked his ass and thus earned his undying loyalty. She needs a book on magic that’s five hundred years old and in Italy? Great, he’s going to go get it. Dark magical dagger used in some terrible ritual? He’s skeptical, but he’ll have it to her in a week. For these services, Safiye supplies him with a steady supply of Genasi blood which is all fine and dandy, but he’s kind of just in it to see what on Earth she’s going to get up to. And Greece is interesting despite his Greek being shit. He’s in and out of town usually, but he can definitely be found either taking a picture of the scenery or his abs for Instagram.

PERSONALITY

+ loyal, curious, intuitive - vengeful, distrustful, impulsive

PLAYED BY M. CST. She/Her.

#male #vampire #jamie price #thomas doherty

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almaasi · 5 years

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GISH 2019 List of Items

Need a clean, rebloggable, printable, copy-pastable, bookmarkable reference for the GISH 2019 item list in case the official site goes down? I’ve got ya covered. Includes the item number, photo/video type, and point value. List will be updated as the hunt progresses. Good luck, Gishers~

[ see also: 2011 list // 2012 list // 2013 list // 2014 list // 2015 list // 2016 list // 2017 list // 2018 list]

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Misha Collins or GISH. I just love the bleeping bleep out of both. c:

ALL of the Items below should either be captured as "images" (which are photographs) or "videos". When you click “Submit," there will be instructions on how to submit the links to these images or videos. You should only use YOUTUBE for the videos and for images - you may upload them directly on our site.

bUnless otherwise specified, ALL VIDEOS must be NO LONGER than 14 seconds. If you’re a second or two over we’re not going to penalize you (we know how finicky youtube can be), but aim for 14 or under. They can be shorter if you wish!

1 / PHOTO / 21 POINTS / Make an Assbutt of yourself in public. Literally.

2 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. Nothing caps off a good, hot summer day like a footlong s'mores eaten by two, Lady and the Tramp Style. (No hands may be used in the creation of or eating of the s'mores.) - Rae M.

3 / VIDEO / 57 POINTS / They say stepping on a LEGO is the greatest pain one can experience. We Gishers laugh in the face of pain. Make shoes entirely from LEGOs - no fluffy socks or insoles allowed- and demonstrate them in use. Post it to social media and tag the LEGO accounts and @GISH. - Deidra

4 / VIDEO / 59 POINTS / Hula hooping is hard, and you're just not ready to go it alone yet. Create a hula-hoop with training wheels for beginners and show it in use.

5 / PHOTO / 36 POINTS / At least 3 grownups working in an industrial mud-pie factory. They must be wearing hair nets. Supervising them is at least one tidy child under age 10 in a suit and carrying a clipboard.

6 / VIDEO / 28 POINTS / 7 out of 10 dentists and dental hygienists recommend Flossing, and they practice what they preach. Show us 7 out of 10 real dentists and dental hygienists flossing (not tooth-flossing. Dance-flossing.)

7 / VIDEO / 113 POINTS / SLOW-MOTION. It's time for the most elegant and beautiful of all affairs: the paintball ballet! 5 ballerinas playing paintball on pointe. They must all be pointe dancers; they can be wearing safety gear, but it must be pink and there must be tutus and pointe shoes.

8 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / It's summer, and that means it's time to do your civic duty. Take a swim in the jury pool -- complete with flotation devices, snorkel, etc.

9 / PHOTO / 34 POINTS / Bee-drinking poles are all the rage, but your neighborhood bees deserve to really unwind. Create a bee bar - a bee "saloon on a pole" using recycled bottle caps. Install it somewhere public. - Item Written By Misha's Mom

10 / PHOTO / 74 POINTS / A real matador in a real bullfighting ring with any of our GISH/gishwhes "flapes" (these are flags some Gishers purchase during registration). The bull is a Gisher, convincingly dressed as a bull.

11 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 31 POINTS / Listerine Mouse Wash.

12 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / A child reading a bedtime story to the monster under their bed. The monster should be charmed and cozy and cuddled up.

13 / PHOTO / 36 POINTS / The machines are taking over, and now they're even infiltrating the dating sector. Your blind date tonight at a 4-star restaurant is a humanoid robot.

14 / VIDEO / 58 POINTS / Nothing can shake you up! Show us how you keep centered: meditating on a moving mechanical bull. Keep your chakras aligned! Fall off in less than 2 seconds and score 0 points.

15 / PHOTO / 80 POINTS / Create a "food truck" that sells something incongruous with food trucks. It could be delicious pesticides, microchips, shower caps or anything in between. It can't be compassion, empathy, or anything that "feeds the soul." As loathe as we are to say this: get creative. Your truck must advertise its wares with flashy signage.

16 / VIDEO / 66 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Clowns were the original glad-iators. Prove it with Roman clowns fighting in an actual Colosseum or ancient amphitheater in a knock-down, drag-out pie fight.

17 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / Trip the light fantastic. Literally. - Kelli R.

18 / PHOTO / 53 POINTS / You know that saying: "Christ on a paddleboard!" Well, it's used for a reason - Jesus walked on water and was an innovator in the Stand-Up Paddleboard world. Show Jesus on a stand-up paddleboard, with at least 3 disciples following him in a rowboat, canoe, or scull.

19 / VIDEO / 49 POINTS / The world is in desperate need of more Cheese Balls. Many more Cheese Balls. Many many many more Cheese Balls. Delivered as rapidly as possible. Build a functional Cheese Ball launching/delivery system and demonstrate it shooting cheese balls from a distance of least 30 feet away. You must be able to catch at least 1 in your mouth.

20 / PHOTO / 12 POINTS / A housecat happily flaunting a stylish mustache.

21 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / You're a real dish. No, really. You and a friend, dressed as commemorative collector plates, donating platelets (that's what plates bleed).

22 / VIDEO / 291 POINTS / People always say, "GISH lights up the night!" Prove it. Get a bunch of drones with lights on them to spell out the word "GISH" in the night sky. The drones must serve as pixels in the sky, so you will need a lot of them. Probably at least 40.

23 / VIDEO / 41 POINTS / (Up to 20 seconds. You may use fast-motion or tight editing). When baking, measurements are vital to the culinary success of your creation. Small missteps will ruin your souffle. Of course, measuring cups and spoons, over time, change size and volume due to humidity and aging. Let's use a measuring device that you trust and know intimately: your mouth. First, figure out exactly how much volume is in you mouth and then use it to source and distribute all ingredients to bake a cake. You may not use any utensils or measuring devices. Grab whatever ingredients you use to make a cake and place them on your counter and then, without using your hands to measure or fill, fill your mouth with the appropriate amounts of each ingredient and then deposit in your cake dish.(Yes, this means you would need to "bob for flour" in your flour bag and then "mouth spout" it into your mixing bowl). Once the ingredients are all safely in the mixing bowl (again, delivered by your mouth), you are allowed to mix it with any device--as long as that device is a part of your face. Bake it and enjoy it with a loved one (without using your hands).

24 / VIDEO / 94 POINTS / Have a child under 8 years old create an original recipe, a la "Cooking Fast & Fresh with West". Record them inventing it, then executing their vision. It must be 100% child-led with an adult-only serving as sous chef. In a blatant cross-promotional stunt, the best recipes will be posted on my social media when my new book, "The Adventurous Eaters Club" hits bookstores. (BTW, you can pre-order now here.)

25 / VIDEO / 68 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS) You've been bragging you can out-dunk a professional basketball player, and now it's time to prove it: go one-on-one for a 30-second milk-and-cookies dunk-off against a pro-baller. Your competitor must be a current or retired member of the NBA or WNBA. Bonus points if your competition is a household name. Post your video on social media tagging the player with #GISHDunkChallenge

26 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / Be a stand-in for me! Wearing a convincing Misha Collins mask, have a cup of tea with someone who still has a bonafide original Team 3 Rhino Hunt puzzle piece. The puzzle piece must be visible in the image. If you are on a team and you are a Team 3 Rhino Hunt puzzle piece holder, you MAY collaborate with other teams to help them out on this one. (I will still honor the tea-time for any unredeemed puzzle pieces. This offer never expires.)

27 / PHOTO / 46 POINTS / Food waste is a real problem in many countries. At the same time, food deserts are a problem, making it difficult for some people to get fresh, nutritious food. We're helping both problems in one fell swoop with our GISH Mobile Free Grocers! Get a grocery store to donate the day's "ugly" produce, day-old bread, and any other still-edible fresh foods to you, then go and distribute it as a GISH Mobile Free Grocer to people experiencing homelessness.

28 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / The tooth fairy is sick and tired of waiting around to collect the teeth under kids' pillows, so she's gone rogue and has started taking them right out of their mouths to meet her quota. Obviously, she needs to be stopped! Create an effective anti-tooth fairy nighttime mouth guard and show it in use, successfully stopping the thieving fairy. -Ant G.

29 / VIDEO / 49 POINTS / (UP TO 20 SECONDS: You may speed up and edit video) The big trend in experience-based restaurants has you eating in total darkness, but these gimmicky restaurants charge a fortune. We're bringing it to the masses: Take a dinner date to an upscale restaurant - the fancier, the better - wear white. There must be a white linen tablecloth. Sit across from each other and feed each other dinner while both of you are blindfolded. You must be serving one another red wine too.

30 / VIDEO / 53 POINTS / The recorder is an under-appreciated instrument, with roots in ancient times. The depth of its mythical sirenic tones are magical and hypnotic. So what better place to play this divine woodwind than amongst the most beautiful sites in the world? Play the Kansas song "Carry on Wayward Son" at sunset on a recorder, overlooking one of the following: the Grand Canyon (Arizona, US), Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Machu Picchu (Peru), Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal (India), the Colosseum (Italy), Iguazu Falls (Brazil), Stonehenge (UK), Egyptian Pyramids or the Sphinx, Tikal (Guatemala), Angel Falls (Venezuela), Atacama Desert (Chile), Arashiyama Bamboo Grove (Japan), The Azores (Portugal), Boulders Beach (South Africa), Cappadocia (Turkey), Cliffs of Moher (Ireland), Disko Bay (Greenland), Lake Tekapo (New Zealand), Na Pali Coast (Hawaii, US), Sagrada Familia (Spain), Eiffel Tower (France), Reynisfjara (Iceland), Trolltunga (Norway), Ubud (Bali), Sydney Opera House (Australia), Banff National Park (Canada), Niagara Falls (New York or Ontario), Yellowstone (Wyoming), El Capitan (Yosemite), Statue of Liberty (Liberty Island), Eilean Donan Castle (Scotland), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany), Matterhorn or Zermatt (Switzerland), or Chichen Itza (Mexico).

31 / PHOTO / 75 POINTS / In the past, stained glass windows usually depicted flowers or devotional symbols like angels and saints. But modern culture venerates a different group. Create a stained glass window of a Kardashian, famous Instagram Influencer, or similar personality with more than 4 million followers. It must be someone who is worshipped simply for being worshipped for being famous. You may not use anyone from the cast of Supernatural. Bonus points if it's installed in an actual cathedral.

32 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / We're putting you in charge of Supernatural canon for the day. Paint a cannon with an elaborate SPN mural showcasing something that you think should be canon, with a caption like, "It's #SPN Cannon!"

33 / PHOTO / 24 POINTS / In the 2018 GISH Most Premiumerest Registration, we included a Misha Collins MishSqueezie stress ball. And though our concept artist did a great job, something got lost in translation and, well... Nailed it! But somewhere out there, there must be the guy that actually looks exactly like this stress ball. Find him and take a picture of him with the MishSqueezie.

34 / PHOTO / 81 POINTS / The Federation of Stormtroopers has been officially sponsored by the X Games this year. Let's see a highlight from one of their competitions with the stormtrooper participating in an extreme sport.

35 / VIDEO / 41 POINTS / A pop-up card that's for a blind child. Written in Braille, with pop-ups that can be understood completely by touch. Let's see it in action.

36 / PHOTO / 118 POINTS / Like many Americans, I've been trying to get supplies to the families and kids in detention center along the US border, and despite my C-List celebrity status, it's been tough. But we found a way. Go to SPNFamilyValues.com and follow the instructions there, then screenshot it and send that in as proof.

37 / VIDEO / 32 POINTS / I keep losing my stuff. Invent a Misha-proof AirPod-finding solution that is NOT a cord, because that defeats the entire point of AirPods - and one that works when they're not charged. Show it in use.

38 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / Ugly Holiday sweaters are great, but with the climate crisis heating up the planet, we've got to branch out. Model your best ugly Holiday bathing suit or bikini made of repurposed ugly holiday sweaters. Model it at the beach with a caption touting the virtues of your "Global Warming Holiday Sweater."

39 / VIDEO / 108 POINTS / There's regular golf, and mini-golf, but where are all the maxi-golf courses? We want to see it all - the giant putters, the huge balls, and of course, the windmill.

40 / VIDEO / 45 POINTS / The world is heating up! Time for an old-fashioned kids game that we all know: Hot Planet. With at least 8 people in a public place, play a game of Hot Potato with a reddened globe of the planet Earth. Everyone must be wearing oven mitts and summer wear and not be fazed by the heat, except for one person who is dressed in a suit with a red tie and a Donald Trump mask. Trump isn't wearing mitts and his hands are covered in blisters and while he tries to hide it when the globe gets to his hands, it really hurts.

41 / VIDEO / 67 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS). A high-speed giant game of red rover played by at least 50 wedding guests. The bride must be the one flung across the field. The groom must be running after her holding her train. - Inspired by mdsteele47

42 / PHOTO / 95 POINTS / TWO PICTURES SIDE-BY-SIDE IN ONE IMAGE. I always feel a lot of guilt about the tattoo items in GISH. The first time I added one, I thought it was funny until I saw the tatts and then I felt a little bad. Of course, it gives me a rush of power when I see them in person, and many of them are actually very cool... So I have an idea that allows me to keep feeling powerful, but takes away all of my guilt: Get a tattoo of the encouraging message you wish your higher self had written to get you through the tough times. Because I know many of you already have inspiring tattoos, you must submit two images. The first is an image of you getting the tattoo when you are �-way done at the tattoo parlor, in the chair, holding a sign that reads, "GISH made me do it." The second image is of the finished tattoo. If you can, include your triumphant face. (Don't include more than 2 images in your submission. Just one image with two photos side by side.)

43 / VIDEO / 24 POINTS / Choose a sport you’ve never played before. Go do it with your coach: a child under the age of 10 who is an experienced participant. - Inspired by Coach Odette Padalecki

44 / PHOTO / 94 POINTS / Recreate a Civil War-era photograph with Captain America, Iron Man, and/or their respective sides using the Woodburytype photography technique. As always, no Photoshop allowed unless specified. This one does not allow it.

45 / PHOTO / 62 POINTS / Why have chain letters, when you can have chain mail? Create an intricate medieval knight’s suit of armor entirely out of junk mail, with chain mail comprised of chain letters. Must include a junk mail shield, sword, and a codpiece (to protect your "junk").

46 / VIDEO / 135 POINTS / Someone turned your local parking lot into your favorite childhood board game! Using sidewalk chalk or removable tempera, transform at least 5000 square feet of pavement into an enlarged version of your favorite childhood board game. Using a drone’s eye-view, show the whole board (complete with people costumed as game pieces playing).

47 / VIDEO / 141 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS) Garfield phones keep washing up on beaches in France. As you know, that’s because mermaids love cats, so there’s a mermaid call center operation down there selling these phones on QVSea. Show us the QVSea commercial for these phones, as pitched by a mer-spokesperson. Oh, and it should go without saying, but all of this is taking place underwater.

48 / VIDEO / 64 POINTS / A real barbershop quartet singing a passage from the Mueller Report in front of a federally elected political leader’s office.

49 / VIDEO / 48 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS) Talk to an elderly person over 80 and learn all about the best day of their life so far. Then, create a diorama of their best day in a small empty tin or box and give it to them. The video should show them briefly describing the memory and then you presenting them with the diorama. Make sure we get to see the diorama you made and their reaction, too.

50 / PHOTO / 59 POINTS / Write a formal, one-page letter to Gina Haspel, the current Director of the CIA. In it you must outline a plausible, one-page decoding of the fourth Kryptos. The letter must frame the description as an urgent matter and must seamlessly deploy the term “wild unicorn training centers around the globe”. Post a photo of your letter on social media and tag @CIA.

51 / PHOTO / 27 POINTS / Conspiracy theorists need to get with the times! Update the tinfoil hat to reflect technological innovations.

52 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / Create MAILWHES, The Most Amazing, Intimidating Letterbox The World Has Ever Seen: a mailbox so amazing, so intimidating, so horrifying that your mail carrier will never dare leave you another piece of junk mail again. There must be teeth around the mail slot or opening.

53 / VIDEO / 64 POINTS / FAST-MOTION. At my friend Philip’s wedding, Giles Duley, myself and a few other forward-thinking innovators devised a new product and we would like to beta test the concept with you. It’s called: SoupFace and it involves eating soup from a bowl made from a plaster mold of your face. First, make a plaster mold of your face. Fill it with warm soup. Consume the soup without using a utensil and when the soup is gone and your face is back in the wet mold. Lift the SoupFace mold off the table without using your hands. Reveal the mask beneath.

54 / VIDEO / 59 POINTS / As all diehard Supernatural fans know, “Assbutt” was a featured player in Season 5, Episode 22 of the show, but the episode ran long and Assbutt’s scene was left on the cutting room floor. Rectify this oversight by releasing the never-before-seen cut of this scene.

55 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / TRIPTYCH. Dawid Planeta illustrates his depression as mysterious creatures. In a 3-panel illustration, show your biggest fear or struggle as a symbolic creature with which you gradually come to terms. Label it so we know what your creature represents.

56 / PHOTO / 73 POINTS / A lot of people use their cell phones while in the bathroom, which is really gross. We understand that it can get boring in there, though. Help people break society’s screen addiction with our new solution: Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter toilet paper! Re-create a verified social media account on a roll of toilet paper- images and all. Scroll away—but don’t read the comments. (They’re crap.) Install it in a public bathroom as a public service.

57 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / Send noods! There’s been an epidemic of people sending explicit noodle photos to unsuspecting people. We believe consent is important, and in this case, we consent—with some STRICT caveats: Recreate a TASTEFUL image of a famous nude painting or sculpture in noodles ONLY and then post it on social media tagged #SendNoods. Submit your actual image and a link to the tweet in your comments.

58 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 38 POINTS / Ask a child aged 5 or under what their greatest fear is. Create and photograph or film a scene of you and them conquering this fear together. - Kristin L.

59 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / Cement your own joy.

60 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 244 POINTS / Angry birds. Flappy birds. Candy Crush. All those other games are so boring compared to GISH: The Game! Build an app game for the GISH App. It must feature a GISH mascot and integrate fully into the GISH App. Full specs for integration can be found here.

61 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / (F)underwear.

62 / PHOTO / 72 POINTS / Each day, one member of your team must find one broken thing to upcycle and give to someone in need. Take a photo and, at the end of the Hunt week, submit a collage of the 7 now-useful items your team has gathered, refurbished, and donated. (You may not use a bicycle, but you may use a unicycle or tricycle.) - Inspired by Monica D.

63 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / The ’80s are back, and we can’t escape all that goes with them: including stereoscopic images. Make a stereoscopic “Magic Eye” image of something that scares you as much as '80s fashion scares us.

64 / PHOTO / 62 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Outside a migrant detention center, lift a massive banner using balloons, drones, or telescoping poles at least 10 feet high with a message like, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.” Be responsible with your balloons. Don’t let them fly away or burst and leave shards anywhere.

65 / PHOTO / 67 POINTS / An upscale art gallery opening at a landfill. All exhibits must be made from things found at the landfill. One professional art critic must be present to review the works.

66 / VIDEO / 256 POINTS / Plane air painting: A wing-walker on a biplane, painting a picture on a canvas of the landscape from their point of view. Show us the painting as it’s happening, and then the completed painting being held by the wing-walker.

67 / VIDEO / 49 POINTS / A signer performing the National Anthem silently in sign language on a field at a stadium that seats more than 5,000, with a sizeable crowd of spectators.

68 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / I’m not saying Jared Padalecki is a big softie, but here’s a portrait of him toasted onto a marshmallow. Just the way it should be.

69 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / Nobody’s more devoted or grateful to firefighters than we are, except maybe a dalmatian. Or Smokey the Bear. Go to your local fire station dressed as a dalmatian or Smokey the Bear and create a relaxation station to thank them for their work. You can bring treats, offer mani-pedis, foot or shoulder massages, aromatherapy... You get the idea.

70 / PHOTO / 69 POINTS / Over the years, Jensen Ackles has been depicted in Skittles, but we all know his character Dean loves pie. Let's do a crossover: Bake a Skittles pie with a portrait of Jensen baked into the upper crust. Lattice work in the top crust should allow you to see the Skittles inside behind Jensen. Here’s some inspiration..

71 / VIDEO / 66 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. Create a thạch rau câu (Vietnamese Jelly Cake) portrait of a classic movie monster. You may not use the blob. We must see the injection process and your completed jelly cake.

72 / VIDEO / 51 POINTS / In Chengdu, China, kung fu tea (long spout, performance tea pouring) is popular. But it was just a matter of time before it was appropriated by other cultures. Show us a barista performing the Mengding Mountain 18 Forms of Dragon Flying Postures Kung Fu Tea pour at a Starbucks.

73 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / An actual lumberjack working up on a tree with an impressive, long beard made out of googly eyes.

74 / VIDEO / 77 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds) A stop-motion animation of a life-saving first aid technique (CPR, the Heimlich maneuver, etc.) featuring dolls or puppets in crisis.

75 / PHOTO / 178 POINTS / Danish artist Thomas Dambo creates massive wooden giants from recycled materials and installs them in Copenhagen forests. That’s great, but some giants prefer urban living. Build a hipster giant that’s at least 8’ (2.4m) tall from recycled materials and place it in the middle of a busy city or town.

76 / PHOTO / 22 POINTS / Not all insects aspire to just be insects. Some have ambitions and hobbies! Without harming it, get a live fly, beetle, roach or other insect to sit on a sheet of paper and doodle an environment around it showing it at its job or hobby.

77 / PHOTO / 75 POINTS / An actual space suit with a GISH 2019 patch on it next to the national flag.

78 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / The Enterprise wasn’t the only vehicle in the not-so-final frontier. Show us Star Trek covered wagons. Tweet your image to @WilliamShatner with the message “Admit it, Bill. This is how you really voyaged.” You may use Photoshop for this item. Submit your image, along with a LINK to your tweet in your submission comments for points.

79 / PHOTO / 72 POINTS / The insect world is under-appreciated, but they are tiny works of art. Create a realistic-looking, oversized detailed sculpture of an underappreciated arachnid or insect out of bread, ice, or marble, the way Michaelangelo would have done if he’d had the time. You may not make a dragonfly, ladybug, butterfly or any other insect that has already been socially normalized as “cute”. - Inspired by Kat F.

80 / PHOTO / 49 POINTS / The Wondersmith makes surprise, fantastical parties in the forests of Oregon, which we find lovely. Set up a surprise party for hikers at least ½ a mile from a rest area that’s clearly been created by forest-dwelling fairies and/or trolls (that’s you). Make sure it’s welcoming, and capture the moment you’re surprising them— both you and the hikers should be in the image. They must be real hikers and strangers to you—don’t bring in ringers, or you’ll anger the fairy queen.

81 / VIDEO / 43 POINTS / Love makes the world go round. Build a machine that uses love to spin a globe.

82 / PHOTO / 160 POINTS / COLLAGE. In the Western United States, there are mountain monograms, giant glyphs of letters that are often there for no discernable reason. Create your own Mountain Monograms out of natural materials to craft a message with purpose. Submit a photo of your glyph message that says something inspiring to the birds and planes that fly over it. Your message must be at least 2 words long, with each letter at least 6 feet tall and each letter must be on separate peaks. You may not do this on protected land.

83 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / The London Zoo has a pair of penguins who are out and proud, but they didn’t get to march in Pride because they are penguins in a zoo. We think that’s just wrong. Dress up in penguin suits and march through your town with rainbow flags to show your support for Penguin and LGBTQIA+ Pride.

84 / VIDEO / 58 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. This means something… Subtractive food sculpture. Start with a block of cheese or a massive mountain of mashed potatoes and without using tools, eat your way to an ornate re-creation of a famous statue.

85 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / You’ve heard of a scarecrow, but let’s see a straw-stuffed scarevolleyballplayer at the beach.

86 / VIDEO / 84 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS) In 2020, we’re gonna need a 30-second GISH ad worthy of airing during the Super Bowl, advertising the latest in summer refreshment: “GISH.”

87 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 45 POINTS / Misha doesn’t have a ton of skills other than “acting on camera”, but he does try hard. He’s also at a potential career transition point. Help him explore other career paths by creating a poster of him photoshopped doing another job you think he’d be suited for.

88 / VIDEO / 31 POINTS / Ben Ferencz started each dinner table conversation with his children by asking them, “What did you do today to make the world a better place?” Wake up tomorrow and take a specific, positive action to make the world a better/nicer/happier/prettier place with a child as your assistant. Then show us what you did.

89 / PHOTO / 34 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Some people long to have a picnic at the Longaberger Basket Building, and you and your friends are no different. But size matters! Enjoy a to-scale picnic on the grounds in front of the building- giant fruits and sandwiches, etc. No Photoshop just forced perspective.

90 / PHOTO / 58 POINTS / It’s an ineffable Good Omen to see Azrapahile and Crowley sharing a hot fudge sundae on Sunday. Post your picture on social media tagged #GoodOmens and @neilhimself. Bonus points if the sundae is eaten at a Sundae School in Cape Cod.

91 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / A Cairn Terrier. (His name is Rocky. He won’t come when he’s called.)

92 / VIDEO / 48 POINTS / One of our Gishers was able to help her mom act FAST and responded in time to help her with a stroke. Last we heard, her mom is okay, but she can’t play this year—so in her honor, it’s time for a quick refresher on recognizing a stroke. Do a rendition of “Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes” with some kind of lyrics like: “Face, Arms, Speech, Call in Time (don’t waste time)! Face, Arms, Speech, Call in Time (don’t waste time)! When someone’s had a stroke their life is on the line! Face, Arms, Speech, Call in Time (don’t waste time)!” with the appropriate movements. Include a link to the National Stroke Association and GISH on a final card of your video. Post it on social media tagged #GISH, @robbenedict, and @natstrokeassn. - Inspired by Nicole’s mom

93 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / A Mom-and-Pop shop that sells Moms and Pops. (New and used.) Show a young child making a purchase.

94 / VIDEO / 36 POINTS / (AUDIO UP TO 90 SECONDS) We’re auditioning new anchors for G-ISH, GISH RADIO! Send us a clip of your team’s broadcast debut as you discuss the climate crisis’ effect on sea levels with a real, noted expert in the field.

95 / PHOTO / 63 POINTS / Tatsuya Tanaka creates miniature worlds with everyday objects. Her scenes are whimsical, which is how the world should be... but is not always how tiny-world actually is. Create a miniature, dismal and tragic scene using small reimagined objects.

96 / PHOTO / 15 POINTS / Write your resume as a haiku.

97 / PHOTO / 34 POINTS / 8554J46H+FH. You, the Carrot God, have summoned them.

98 / PHOTO / 95 POINTS / (GRID). The hot new trading card battle game is GISHémon! Create a trading card for each of your team mates with their photo and stats (location, Gisher type, powers, etc.) as the powerful kindness monsters they are. We must see each teammate’s unobscured face for it to count.

99 / PHOTO / 55 POINTS / Little known fact: when an avocado is fully ripe, it hatches. Show us the tiny, intricately carved creature sleeping inside (which you’ve carved from the pit).

100 / VIDEO / 24 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. Write a phrase on a piece of wood of something negative you say about yourself to silence yourself or hold yourself back. Burn the wood and the phrase in a fireplace or fire pit. Use the ashes to write something affirming about your strong self on a sheet of white paper.

101 / PHOTO / 30 POINTS / The heir to the throne of France was known as the Dauphin, French for "dolphin". According to Donald Trump, the heir to the British throne is the Prince of... Whales? Illustrate a meeting of these two majestic undersea figures, with Macron and Prince Charles as their respective attendants. (This may be photoshopped or, for bonus points, live action.)

102 / VIDEO / 31 POINTS / Reach out to a senior in your family or community and ask them about a commercially made snack or dish from their childhood that brings them fond memories—something that just doesn’t exist anymore. Try to recreate it based on their description, then share your creation with them and record their assessment.

103 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / A carbon footprint on a globe.

104 / VIDEO / 58 POINTS / A motorized vehicle with cheese wheels. It can be a motorcycle, tricycle, or 4-wheel vehicle, but it must have cheese wheels made from actual cheese.

105 / VIDEO / 320 POINTS / Get Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Jeff Sessions, Jair Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson, or any other duplicitous, nationalistic high-ranking politician to tell the absolute, verifiable truth about any controversial and uncomfortable (for them) topic they normally lie to the public about. It must really be the real person, not an actor or someone in a mask. You must be able to verify the facts through a nonpartisan, independent source. (This may be our first truly impossible item.)

106 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / A bacterial culture petri dish portrait of Jonas Salk. Tweet this to Melinda Gates thanking her for her work vaccinating children.

107 / PHOTO / 24 POINTS / Create a haiku for an animal on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species that tells of the animal’s plight and why we should protect it. Next to the haiku, include a hand-drawn picture or origami sculpture of the animal.

108 / PHOTO / 79 POINTS / Stonehenge was cool, but it just wasn't built with sustainability or environmental impact in mind, so now we're stuck with ancient druid clutter by the side of the road. As a modern druidic architect, you know better. Next to a highway, build an architecturally significant henge out of 100% recycled materials that represent our current culture. (Cardboardhenge, Styrofoamhenge, LaCroixCanhenge, etc). Stonehenge is 30’ (9.1m) tall, but don’t worry—yours can be as short as 1:3 scale—but it must include at least one dolmen.

109 / PHOTO / 96 POINTS / An elaborate hinged, Faberge-style Easter egg that opens to reveal Trump & Putin embracing.

110 / VIDEO / 21 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Play “the floor is lava” in front of the Osservatorio Vesuviano in Pompeii. If you can’t get to Pompeii, you can play it at any Olive Garden, as long as you get other diners to join in.

111 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. COLLABORATIVE. Swap-meet day! Use the GISH app to coordinate with at least 5 other Gishers in your area to meet up and hold a yard sale. Except, this is not a yard-sale, it’s a yard-giveaway: the GISH Community Bazaar. Bring as many items as you can bear to part with and set up shop. And remember, no money must change hands and no bartering! All items must be gifted to passers-by and everything must go!

112 / PHOTO / 24 POINTS / A jello mold with a funeral scene inside.

113 / VIDEO / 18 POINTS / COLLABORATIVE. In Uppsala, Sweden, there is a tradition called the Flogsta Scream. Every night at 10 pm, students at university stop what they are doing to let out a collective, primal scream from their rooftops and dorms. This tradition shouldn’t be exclusive to Sweden, so at 6PM on Friday, August 3rd, get together with as many Gishers and other humans as you can in a public setting and let out one deep, primitive, collective howl.

PS: We’re still #sorrynotsorry, Sweden.

114 / PHOTO / 46 POINTS / The best part about being in the hospital is the couture. Hold a hospital gown fashion show in your local hospital to show off red-carpet-worthy hospital gowns of your creation. Glam it up and walk (or roll) the runway with any patients that might be able and willing to participate… and don’t forget the slip-proof socks!

115 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. Bring an old bike back to life with a flourish—make it the most beautiful bike in the world. Give it to someone to someone in need. Submit photos of the bike before and after refurbishment, side-by-side. - Item Written By Misha’s Mom

116 / VIDEO / 40 POINTS / MONTAGE. Basic Training can be hell, and the military needs our support! Create a video of you and your team collecting and packing “basics” to send to a currently deployed serviceperson. The catch: your video should emulate a “basic training” montage from a movie-obstacles courses, bucket brigades, etc. (You must actually ship the goods, choosing ONLY from this list or a similar approved list for your country of origin: CLICK HERE) - Jennifer W.

117 / PHOTO / 45 POINTS / This year, we lost a beloved furry friend, Peter Mayhew (the actor who played Chewbacca). In honor of his memory, create a felted Chewbacca out of your pet’s hair.

118 / VIDEO / 46 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. The LGBTQIA community struggles a lot with erasure. Make sure everyone feels seen: create a portrait of an iconic LGBTQIA person by first filling up a page with a rainbow of colored pencils or pastels, then use an eraser to lift out the negative space, leaving the colored portrait behind. Include a message letting them know they are seen and loved. Post it to social media and tag the person, if they’re on social media, then submit your portrait with the link (if any) in the comments. (This may be done in oil pastels as well.)

119 / PHOTO / 82 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. Some people really do have eyes in the back of their head. Before and after images of a person with long hair, and then their head shaved and a recognizable portrait of their own face shaved onto the back of their own head. (Donate the hair to a non-profit organization that makes wigs for cancer patients.)

120 / PHOTO / 26 POINTS / Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Moon 50 years ago. To memorialize this amazing achievement, make your own “One Small Step” monument. Take a Giant Leap for mankind and put your foot somewhere it has never been before and probably should not go, then show us the resulting footprint.

121 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. You know those garden gnomes that dotted your grandmother’s backyard? Well, it’s been a while and now they have fallen on hard times. They have turned to a life of crime and misanthropy. Their little gnome hearts are filled with despair, hatred, and regret. Show us the before and after.

122 / VIDEO / 131 POINTS / The next time that Earth’s magnetic poles reverse themselves, your magnetic compass won’t be much help navigating. Fortunately, you remember a mention from a history class of a “south-facing chariot” [SFC] invented in China some 2500 years ago. To be better prepared for the coming magnetic mélange, you have decided to build a functioning SFC so that you can always find your way home. Of course, your SFC will be topped with an assbutt and your chariot will be modeled after a 1967 Impala.

123 / PHOTO / 81 POINTS / Everyone goes to visit the Southernmost Point in Key West, FL, but it really never gets to travel. We’re changing that. Make a 1:2 replica of the Southernmost Point and take it on holiday to the Westernmost, Northernmost, or Easternmost points of the US or any landmass. Take a photo with it at the nearest marker or tourist attraction to prove you were there, and submit with the location and coordinates in your comments.

124 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / Put your face somewhere it absolutely does not belong. Not a picture of your face. Your real face. In that place. Where it should NOT be! (Keep it clean. My mother will see this.)

125 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / Senator Ted Cruz is worried about pirates in space. Seriously. He is. Well, we are pretty sure that his fears are well-founded. Let’s prove it to him: Show us space pirates in action. Tweet your picture to him at @tedcruz (and be sure to use the #GISHSpacePirates hashtag!)

126 / VIDEO / 71 POINTS / Last year we asked you to put wings on something that absolutely should not fly and prove that it can. One team (Team Schnitzeljaeger) made a pizza box fly. For this year, make a pizza fly (sans box). You may not throw it in the air, drop it, or fling it. It must attain flight through some mechanical means. Just the pizza. Not the box. The pizza must fly from near ground level to at least 50’ high and must travel horizontally at least 100 feet by any means. Must be edible and consumed after it lands.

127 / PHOTO / 46 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. The Dalton Highway stretches 414 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. About halfway along it, there is a roadside marker denoting crossing into the Arctic Circle. Send us a photo of you standing next to the marker. Having a moose in the picture is optional, but preferred. Being dressed as a moose is mandatory.

128 / PHOTO / 56 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. We’re creating the GISH International Forest! Go out and plant as many trees as you can and add your trees to THIS MAP. Once you plant them, you will become their stewards, so choose your location wisely: make sure you’re allowed to plant there and that the trees are native so they can flourish. Add a small, eco-friendly sign with GISH INTERNATIONAL FOREST, GISH.com and your team’s name on it. Submit your photo along with a screenshot of its place on the map and number of trees you planted in the comments. If you can’t plant a tree on your own for reasons of mobility, hospitalization, etc, a donation to OTP of at least one tree will suffice, but you still have to tell us approximately where they are and how many trees you planted and add them to our map.

129 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / This year is the 150th anniversary of the first Transcontinental Railroad, which opened up rapid (for the time) access across the United States. The original event in 1869 was celebrated as the Central Pacific Railroad locomotive “Jupiter” and the Union Pacific Railroad locomotive #119 came nose-to-nose as a Golden Spike was driven into the final section of track. Well, we firmly believe that every good anniversary deserves cake! Recreate the Jupiter, or #119, or both, made entirely from cake.

130 / PHOTO / 26 POINTS / A cyanotype photo of junk-food wrapping or junk-food.

131 / VIDEO / 61 POINTS / You have accepted a new position with the Mars Tourism Bureau. To attract potential visitors to the wonderful Mars climate, you plan to inform them of the daily environmental trends. Create a 15-second video weather report, complete with temperature and wind descriptions and get a real weathercaster dressed as an alien to report it on local news during a live broadcast.

Note: Your Mars weather information must be real and correct for the day you submit your video! We will be checking!

132 / VIDEO / 132 POINTS / A very large balance scale. (The kind of old-fashioned scale that we think of when we say, “the scales of justice.”) On one side, at least 5 very wealthy-looking people. On the other, at least 5 very impoverished-looking people. The scales are tipped in favor of the elite. Find a way to balance the scales.

133 / PHOTO / 22 POINTS / Everyone talks about “viral videos.” We think we know what those are. Share a GISH video of a biological (not technological) virus and get it to go “viral” with at least 1,000 likes. It must include GISH.com in the video and text to count. #ViralVirus

134 / VIDEO / 81 POINTS / (UP TO 30 SECONDS). It’s time for GIFF - the GISH International Film Festival! Create a 30-second horror film. Noted author Neil Gaiman tweeted: “You've got a week to rob a bank using only a rattlesnake, radioactive uranium and a bottle of whiskey.” “Jed here has a week to steal a battleship using a goat, a can of gold paint, and three resin models of Warren G. Harding. Go!" Use either prompt as the plot of your GIFF film. Post your film on social media and be sure to tag #GISH and @neilhimself, then submit the video and the link to your post in comments.

135 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 51 POINTS / The aliens have been in Area 51 for decades. Why do they stay? Because of all the amenities, of course. Show us the leisurely life of aliens at Area 51: the best Retirement Community in the Universe! We want to see elderly aliens playing shuffleboard, mahjong, and bingo, getting alien spa treatments, doing tai chi and pilates... You get the idea. Post your submission to social media tagged #GISH, #Area51 & #SocialSecurityCheXFiles

136 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / COLLABORATIVE. Join the movement to cross-stitch what you care about: create a cross-stitch picket sign for a cause you believe in. Connect with at least 2 other teams and craft a protest march on a street corner. - Item Written By Misha’s Mom

137 / VIDEO / 38 POINTS / Megan Rapinoe reminds us all that despite equal skill, women are often not treated to a level playing field in business. Show us a team of female office workers playing soccer in traditional business attire opposite men with a ball that says “EQUAL PAY.” The women, of course, should score.

138 / PHOTO / 26 POINTS / The most stressful spa environment ever. - Lynette

139 / PHOTO / 126 POINTS / Recently, a mylar balloon from Disney’s Frozen was found on the bottom of the ocean floor… Clearly leftover from an undersea birthday party. Show us the underwater party, including the birthday person blowing out the candles on their cake. PS: Your mother doesn’t live there! DO NOT leave a mess or impact sea life.

140 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 37 POINTS / Now that Donald Trump is president, people around the world have squandered billions of man-hours talking/worrying/complaining about him. Have an economist calculate the cost to the global economy of these lost hours. They must show their work and be a professor of economics.

141 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / Part of your job for the Mars Tourism bureau is managing PR. Design a brochure or poster that convinces people to visit our timeshare at Scenic Mt. gishwhes (on Mars).

142 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Prove it was faked.

143 / VIDEO / 91 POINTS / Thanks to modern technology, we can relax and watch TV virtually anywhere, even in the loo—but we still can’t kick back on the porcelain throne and relax while we do. Create a toilet recliner to solve this problem.

144 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / You thought they said, “Get Out the GOAT.” Be the Greatest Of All Time by co-hosting a voter registration booth with a goat.

145 / PHOTO / 70 POINTS / Mary Poppins and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things both loved hanging around in the Upside down! Create a convincing image of you having upside-down high tea on the ceiling with Mary Poppins and a Demogorgon. Post it to social media and tag the Stranger Things accounts and GISH. - Inspired by TessaMac

146 / PHOTO / 53 POINTS / Every year, I send Gishers to visit my grandmother at Roland Park Place retirement home in Baltimore, Maryland, and this year is no different. Visit her retirement community (or any nursing home or community near you) and help the residents escape—metaphorically, of course. Take them on a tropical getaway by staging an impromptu beach party! Between the hours of 1 PM ET—3 PM ET on Monday, July 29 and Wed July 31 only, bring flower leis, small flowers, pre-packaged treats (nothing homemade), postcards with kind notes on them and/or a ukulele or guitar to sing with them. Ask them to reminisce about the happiest summer vacation they ever took. (PS: No bathing suits and leave the sand home, please. Hawaiian shirts are fine.)

147 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 73 POINTS / COLLABORATIVE. The evening of Sunday, July 28 is the event of the year: the #WeJustMetGala! Get together with Gishers in your area at your local museum in the strangest, fanciest attire you can create—go so all-out, you make Billy Porter jealous. Roll out the red carpet and a banner, then convince strangers passing by to pose with you for red carpet pictures. Be fabulous! We must see the museum in the background, and there must be paparazzi.

148 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / You know that this is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. But did you know that Woodstock the bird from Peanuts first appeared 2 years earlier? In 1967? So actually Woodstock the bird is 52. He’s drunk a lot of beer over the years and can’t hide it, but he is vain, so he’s had lots of work done. Tons of collagen and botox. He wears a toupee. He dyes his feathers. Show us what he looks like today.

149 / PHOTO / 81 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. A Jackson Pollock paint-by-numbers kit: before, and after it’s been painted. (No cheating- follow the numbers!)

150 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / A ukiyo-e woodblock print depicting an image of your worst nightmare. (Caption it so we know what it is.)

151 / PHOTO / 21 POINTS / You know how they keep making movies out of games? Like the Pikachu movie? Or Battleship: The Movie? Why don’t they ever go after the real money and make poems out of these properties? Write Battleship the poem, or Pikachu the poem. Must be at least 10 lines long.

152 / VIDEO / 63 POINTS / Birthday wishes are getting fulfilled so much faster since we automated processing. Show us a Rube Goldberg machine that is activated by a child under 10 blowing out candles on a birthday cake, and ends with the thing they wished for being delivered into their hands.

153 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / I said no more ponies in the living room, and I meant it! But unicorns are totally okay.

154 / VIDEO / 37 POINTS / It’s GISH University, Year 2! Each person on your team must attempt to learn a new skill they have never tried before and document the experience, including the first attempt.

155 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. Thar’s plastic in them thar waters! A prospector panning for microplastics on a public beach. Craft jewelry from anything you collect and show it to us.

156 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Where do angels go for tea? To the sky garden, of course! Depict two angels having tea while seated on a cloud on the edge of the Liss Ard Sky Garden in Ireland. Photograph them from the central plinth so it appears they are hovering in the sky.

157 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / A hand-made kite that looks just like the face of that famous person you look up to, high in the sky.

158 / VIDEO / 249 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. Oceanic exploration shouldn’t just be for the elite. Companies are working on making exploration affordable, but we need something now. Drop a camera and a light in a tiny, weighted, protected housing with a window on a line (so you can pull it back up). Just outside the window a common object filled with air. Like an aluminum water bottle, or a balloon animal, or something made of styrofoam. Lower everything at least 1000 feet below sea level. The camera should be rolling so we can see at what point your object gets crushed by the pressure of the ocean. You cannot contract a submersible company and cannot pay for this to be done—this is a DIY project only. Oh, and keep it green: you must retract the line or you will be docked points. If you leave any piece of this in the ocean, including the line, we’re docking you points.

159 / VIDEO / 7 POINTS / Right a great American novel. This is not a typo.

160 / PHOTO / 51 POINTS / The lunar ticks are in the hall… Pink Floyd knew what was up. Show us what the lunar ticks on the dark side of the moon look like (you know, because you have a specimen preserved in a jar in your front hall.)

161 / VIDEO / 81 POINTS / Thirsty for a challenge? Build a puzzle jug. Show you building it, then someone else figuring it out and successfully drinking from it.

162 / PHOTO / 77 POINTS / GRID. Thomas Deininger makes amazing representational sculptures out of found objects. Using EVERY piece of non-recyclable, inorganic trash you generate during the Hunt, create a 3-dimensional, representational self-portrait. EVERY member of your team must do this.

163 / VIDEO / 39 POINTS / Paint a Jenga set red, white, and blue. On each one write a word or phrase from the constitution. Get a real US Republican and a Democratic Congressperson to play (State or Federal). See how many they can remove before this whole thing collapses.

164 / VIDEO / 223 POINTS / ��Fake news” was bad enough, but it’s pervading all media now and we can’t believe anything we see. Create a Deep Fake of Misha Collins complimenting Donald Trump. (We put this item in at the last minute after Misha’s final read-through of the list, so he doesn’t know about it. Don’t tip him off. We just want to see his reaction. You know, because he loves Donald Trump so much. This must be actual, digital Deep Fake footage (google it), not you in a mask, and not just a voice over or clever edit, to count. Video must be at least 5 seconds in length.

165 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / Apparently, once upon a time, the US government weaponized ticks. (Really.) Show us a pinboard with an example of a tiny, weaponized tick, complete with Rambo-style military gear and assault rifles.

166 / VIDEO / 43 POINTS / Love has no borders, and neither does fun. Show two people on opposite sides of an international border crossing or wall playing a game such as charades, Pictionary, or another game that does not require them to touch or pass goods across the border.

167 / VIDEO / 36 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. Last year, we suggested Gishers melt a message into a glacier or iceberg with a laser and received lots of complaints. We now recognize that people melting words into icebergs for scavenger hunts is one of the biggest problems facing our environment today. Have a climate scientist calculate the volume of water produced by, let’s say, 10,000 people melting eleven 6’ tall letters, 2” deep in an iceberg. Then have them calculate the amount of water produced by the additional melting caused by a .5 degree global temperature increase. Show us the numbers and analysis so we know how bad Misha should feel.

168 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / Check out a book from a local small-town library that hasn’t been checked out in at least 20 years. Submit a photo of you holding up the book with the stamped inner jacket showing the dates or other visual proof of this stellar feat.

169 / PHOTO / 159 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. Tiny homes help those experiencing homelessness be a little safer and have dignity, but they’re hard to move around, and that presents a problem. Create blueprints for a Tiny Home that is durable and large enough for an adult to comfortably walk into through a door, yet can be folded down into a flat cart on with wheels for mobility and made of ultra-lightweight materials.

170 / PHOTO / 119 POINTS / Climb ev’ry mountain! Like most nuns, Mother Abbess was an avid climber. Show us a nun in a full habit, rappelling down a steep grade of mountain.

171 / VIDEO / 88 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds) Get a well-known sportscaster to do a play-by-play for a real wedding.

172 / VIDEO / 40 POINTS / They say that to perform CPR, you should compress someone’s chest to the beat of “Staying Alive” by the BeeGees. Get CPR certification while dressed in 70s disco attire.

173 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / Gishers have become nationals of Westarctica and other micronations, but it’s time we claimed our own land. Since nobody else has done it, we’re officially claiming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as New Gishlandia! Help us with our micronation building: Create a flag, a national anthem, a crest, a statue of our Founder or a propaganda poster (all material items should be constructed solely from plastic trash).

174 / VIDEO / 45 POINTS / The Gabra people of northern Kenya are a nomadic people who believe in living in balance with the environment and live by the tenet, “a poor man shames us all.” Mutual support is imperative in their culture, and no one is allowed to go without food, shelter, or hospitality—something the whole world could learn from. Take a page from the Gabra and go on a nomadic journey through your neighborhood, bringing with you as much food and water as you can carry along with cards with phone numbers and addresses for local shelters. Bring sustenance, hydration, and support to anyone in need you find, and document your journey including how far you traveled and how many people you helped along. Anyone appearing in the video must give permission.

175 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 41 POINTS / LOCATION-BASED. Do something you’ve always been told you can’t, or shouldn’t, do while at (or outside) the Forbidden Corner in Coverham, England.

176 / PHOTO / 68 POINTS / You look so festive with your “real avocado leather” purse or shoes made from avocado peels. - Inspired by Debbie M.

177 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / Remember FloJo? Florence Griffith Joyner a world-record-setting Olympic athlete whose long, intricately painted fingernails made her an 80s style legend. Times marches on, and now instead of FloJo, we’ve got BoJo—but style trends endure. Paint a portrait of Boris Johnson, FloJo style—on your excessively long acrylic pinky nail.

178 / VIDEO / 28 POINTS / When you want to say something sweet to your loved one, you always use s’mores code.

179 / VIDEO / 90 POINTS / Walking on water is so 2,000 years ago--but it’s a timeless tradition. Construct shoes that allow someone to walk on water. You may not be standing on anything that’s under the water and the water must be at least 6 feet deep. You must be in a lake, pond, river or ocean. NOT a swimming pool. You must take at least 6 steps. No stilts in the water. No super shallow water.

180 / VIDEO / 41 POINTS / Create a 6 ft by 6 ft painting using only your body, paint, and a white sheet for a canvas. Bonus points if you manage to create representational art. - Kamila B.

181 / VIDEO / 36 POINTS / On today’s segment of your cooking show, we learn how to make your world-renowned recipe for dessert haggis.

182 / PHOTO / 16 POINTS / You know that feeling, when there's a word on the tip of your tongue but you just can't seem to say it? Show us that word. On the tip of your tongue. - @baileysaurusrex

183 / VIDEO / 31 POINTS / My favorite poet, Mary Oliver, passed away recently. In tribute, make a video showcasing the top highlights of your team’s week and end it with the quote “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - Inspired by The Plaid Fox

184 / PHOTO / 63 POINTS / We've seen the pictures of dogs catching treats by German photographer Christian Vieler. Let's see a high-speed photo of your teammate catching treats in the same style and photographic detail. -Kandace

185 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / SIDE-BY-SIDE. Hasan Minhaj rightly points out that there are many places in the US (and the world) with offensive names. We’re all for a good Assbutt, North Dakota or ****, Michigan, but if it’s racist or marginalizes a group we’re opposed. Find a place on the map or a street name that celebrates a known racist or slave-holder or war criminal or simply a place name that uses a derogatory term and petition to have it changed to an inoffensive alternative. If you’re in the US, this is where you can start and if you’re abroad, seek out your local organization that manages names of cities, towns, and locations. Submit a screenshot of your proposal, then put your petition here so other teams can sign yours. Finally, make sure you sign at least 5 other teams’ petitions (you’ll find all the petitions here.)

186 / VIDEO / 35 POINTS / It’s not just for fine dining anymore... At a fast-food establishment, get a grill cook to create a McAmuse-Bouche and serve it to a waiting, unsuspecting customer.

187 / VIDEO / 104 POINTS / TIMELAPSE. In Japan, there is a fad of polishing aluminum foil into a perfectly polished ball. You just topped that with your wad of aluminum foil-turned-perfectly polished bust of your favorite celebrity. Tweet an image of the final product to your celebrity crush tagging #GISH, then submit the image and include the link to the tweet in the comments section of your submission.

188 / PHOTO / 69 POINTS / A menstrual Pad-alecki. Create a menstrual product bust of Jared Padalecki... and make sure his hair really "flows." Then, donate at least an equal number of products to a women's shelter. (We don’t have to see you donating: just include your donations receipt somewhere in the image by your sculpture.)

189 / PHOTO OR VIDEO / 49 POINTS / We're not saying the cast of Supernatural is hot, but your fumage portrait of a Supernatural actor or actress speaks for itself. Smokin'! (Be super careful with this one- and have a fire extinguisher at the ready just in case. Remember, GISH doesn't pay medical bills and you're not allowed to hurt yourself - or anyone or anything else. If you can't be sure of that, pick a different item. (Post your video to the actor depicted).

190 / PHOTO / 229 POINTS / Evolution of the selfie: A person with an iPhone taking a selfie next to a person with a point-and-shoot camera who is taking a photo of a person with a Polaroid camera who is taking a picture of a person with a 35mm camera who is taking a photo of a person with a daguerreotype camera taking a picture of a person with a camera obscura taking a picture of someone painting a self-portrait. This should be a single photo, not photos from each camera.

191 / PHOTO / 0 POINTS / We will post an ambitious charity item that we will all collaborate on together shortly. Get ready!

#gish #gishwhes #Misha Collins #gishwhes list of items #gish list of items #post of postiness

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buckeyenative01 · 5 years

Photo

What'd my dad and I do today? We fist bumped Geddy Lee. Thank you for making a stop in Arizona on your book your! @geddyimages @changinghands #rush #rushband #2112 #changinghands #arizona #az (at Changing Hands Bookstore) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4bTjLAniYI/?igshid=ackrblhqigt4

#rush #rushband #2112 #changinghands #arizona #az

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purplebenjy · 4 years

Text

Christmas || 2019

Benjy knows who it is by the knock on the door, Luke’s pattern different enough from Cass’s that it was easy to tell them apart. He’d only been in their lives since...July? August? He couldn’t remember, but that wasn’t really the point. Luke had fit in flawlessly and Benjy couldn’t imagine their lives without him now. There hadn’t been anything missing before, of course, but everything was elevated with Luke here.

“Come in!” Benjy calls, humming tunelessly to Christmas music playing in the background. He glances up from the Ballerina in a gas mask and leather jacket he was painting for Dora and smiles at his nephew, Cass’s twin. His chest fills with warmth and affection, thinking about how all the more lovely Christmas was going to be with Luke around, but of course, when he opens his mouth, it doesn’t come out the right way.

“What’s up? You see your own reflection and get scared again?”

“No, actually, just looking at photos of you.” Luke grins, flicking a bit of his long curly hair out of his eyes. Cass wanted him to cut it but Benjy and him had both refused. He’s got on a pair of jeans and one of the ‘vintage’ t-shirts he’d found in Benjy’s closet, though he resented the fact that the White Stripes T-Shirt he’d bought in college was vintage now. He has the black denim jacket on that Cass had bought him at an outlet in Arizona-it’d been a bit colder than anyone had anticipated and Luke had shown up with only the clothes on his back during the middle of summer and thusly hadn’t had a jacket on him. Benjy was now convinced that the 8th circle of hell was an Old Navy outlet mall, but it’d been a successful, wonderful trip otherwise. A precursor, hopefully, of what was to come for Christmas. They’d just gotten back Sunday, today was the first day back to reality, school for Luke, work for Cass and general household chaos for him. Benj had spent the morning decorating the kitchen for Christmas until inspiration struck for his first of countless Christmas paintings-Dora was going off to college soon and he thought he might as well give her a conversation piece. Per usual he hadn’t gotten changed out of his loose grey sweatpants and his pink kimono tied loosely over his bare chest, and he reaches back behind his neck to scratch at the tag that he keeps forgetting to ask Cass to cut out for him.

“Won’t being around me increase your fear?”

“What’s that thing called when you’re like, afraid of something so they force you to be around it as much as possible so the fear goes away?”

“...immmersion therapy?”

Luke nods. “That’s it.”

Benjy laughs and turns the easel towards him for inspection.

“Who do you think it’s for?”

Luke closes one eye and turns his head slightly to the side.

“Um...I’m still not up on everyone’s name but your one friend who used to be your roommate? With all the kids who loves her husband’s butt?”

Benjy laughs.

“Andromeda, no but close. For her oldest, Dora? She has pink hair and all the safety pin earrings?”

“Oh. I thought that was just her Halloween costume.”

“It very well could be, she just never takes it off.”

Luke grins.

“Well I like it.”

Benjy nods at it. “Definitely not my worst. How was school?”

Luke shrugs.

“School.”

“Riveting.”

“It was.”

Normally by now he’d shrug off his coat and backpack and crash onto the couch, working on homework and keeping Benjy company until Cass came home. Benjy glances up from mixing more pink and frowns slightly.

“What’s up, Lucas?”

It wasn’t his proper name, but it was what Benjy had deemed his proper name, what he called Luke when he was serious. Luke’s laugh is nervous and Benjy puts his paintbrush down, suddenly worried, his brain racing at all the possibilities and fully prepared to kick some teenage ass if needed.

“Um, I was wondering if you could help me with my Christmas present for Cass?”

Benjy feels himself physically relax.

“Oh! Yeah of course. He’s one of those boring people who likes practical presents, so you could get him like, a new mop and he’d go ape shit. Or, go to a bookstore, find the heaviest, dullest looking, complicated book you can find and he’ll finish it in like, two days and bore you to tears with a synopsis you didn’t ask for.”

Luke pauses and smiles slightly.

“Personal experience?”

Benjy chuckles.

“Maybe.”

“I uh...well I kind of had something in mind already?” Luke tells the floor. Benjy’s concern rises again, his mind moving too fast to even settle on a specific thought-just recognizing Luke’s anxiety and taking it in, hoping to hold any of it he could. Benjy’s voice softens.

“Well I’m sure he’ll love it regardless. Why do you need me? Is it booze? Weed? Something you need a credit card for? A stripper?”

“I-Benjy why the fuck would I buy Cass a stripper?”

Benjy shrugs. “Was just thinking of the most absurd shit I could to try to get you to relax. Dude, he’s like, obsessed with you. You could give him like shitty macaroni art and he’d go apeshit.”

Luke chuckles drily. “That is plan B.”

“What’s plan A, Lucas?”

He clears his throat, looking away from him still, his skin flushing and his freckles coming out.

“I was um...wonderingifyouguyswouldadoptme?”

Something inside Benjy blooms and he drops the paintbrush out of his hands as he stands, grinning.

“Wanna say that again?”

“I was um, wondering if you guys would adopt me?”

Benjy crosses the room and wraps Luke in a bone crushing hug, lifting him off of the ground even though he’s got too inches on him. He doesn’t respond, just keeps hugging Luke until his nephew hugs him back, melting into the embrace and laughing when Benjy kisses the side of his head like Tony Soprano.

“Oh my god, Lukey. Oh my god!”

“I can’t breathe-”

“Good.”

Benjy pulls away just enough to look at him, smiling so big his face hurts.

“You really wanna be our kid, like officially?”

Luke’s face jerks like he’s going to cry.

“I mean...you guys have been more of a family to me than my actual parents ever were. So yeah.”

“Even though I just called you Lukey?”

Luke laughs wetly. “Yes. I wanted to surprise you both for Christmas but uh, there’s a bunch of legal shit I need an adult for and I figured between you and Cass…”

“I have much more time on my hands, am better at using my annoyance to be effective and embody the true spirit of Christmas?”

Luke nods.

“Exactly.”

Benjy grabs the sides of his face and smiles before finally letting him go.

“He’s going to…” Benjy stops talking, his throat clogging with emotion as he grabs Luke fiercely, his chin resting on his shoulder as he blinks back tears.

“You’re perfect for us, Lukey.”

“Is that gonna be a thing now?”

“Shut up, we’re having a moment.”

After several more moments, where Benjy is fussing over him and crying just a little, they start setting the wheels in motion. Benjy promises to keep the secret from Cass, despite, as he told Luke at least seven times, he’d never really done that before.

“I’m mad at you.” Benjy says after about an hour of research. The legal emancipation his mother had sent in September a weird blessing now, making the process that much easier. Benjy had a few connections down at City Hall and with promises to call them in the morning, he was fairly certain he could get some form of adoption papers expedited to him by Christmas.

“Why?” Luke says, the fear returning. With a pang, Benjy realizes he’d probably been told that by a parental figure before, unironically. He’s suddenly as mad at Cyrus and Rebecca as he had been the night of their wedding in 2002-how dare they treat yet another sweet, smart, good person this way. Benjy pushes aside his anger for the time being and quickly continues his thought, making sure Luke can see his smile.

“Cause the really boring book I bought him for Christmas is going to pale in comparison to a family.”

Luke laughs.

“We already are a family, Benj.”

He reaches forward and grabs his son-to-be’s hand to give it a squeeze.

“But it gets to be official. And that’s going to mean more to Cass than I think either of us will ever know.”

#drabble #christmas #luke

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my-grindelwald · 5 years

Link

I translated Johnny’s Movie View Magazine Interview!

It’s a really really long interview (5.2k words) so I put it on google docs, but I also copied it over below the “keep reading” line if you prefer reading it on tumblr. He talks about his beginnings in acting, working with Tim Burton and other directors, the process of film-making, Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, the Hainan film festival, and his upcoming movie Waiting for the Barbarians.

DISCLAIMER: I translated this myself so there definitely will be places with a some errors, although I have tried to translate as accurately as possible.

How did you start off your acting career?

The word “acting” is pretty strange. I started acting accidentally. Or perhaps it was fate. When I first moved to LA, I was a guitarist for my band. After the band broke up, I lost my job. I tried many different things: working at record shops, bookstores, you name it. I had a friend who was an actor, and he thought I’d make a good actor, so he suggested I meet his agent. I shot my first movie not really knowing what I was doing. And then after a while, I realised that I was slowly moving towards another path in my career, and I knew I had to put aside my dream of becoming a musician in order to fully commit to acting. I started researching and taking classes in performing, and after going deep into the acting career, I realised the most important thing was just practice.

How did you feel when you first acted in front of a camera?

I remember feeling really stupid (laughs). That was my first time finding out how a movie was shot - how all the bits we shot were pieced together to form an entire movie. To be honest, at first, I thought acting was pretty boring, because there was always a very detailed flow we had to go with, and stuff like specific camera angles and close-ups would all be laid out in detail for us. At the time, I was really ignorant to how a film was shot, so standing in front of a camera for the first time felt totally absurd. But in becoming an actor, I’ve changed a lot - I’ve become more confident in front of a camera. Sometimes, I even feel more at ease in front of a camera.

It’s really been a learning experience for me. Learning is one of the most important things for an actor. You need to observe the people around you with a keen eye - their body language, the way they talk, that kind of stuff. You absorb all of that unconsciously, like a sponge, and in a couple years, when playing a character, you might find yourself using this knowledge you’ve picked up and adding it to your performance. And when you act more freely, the real you is also able to live more freely. Actors are observers, so I try to observe and copy the body language and speech of people around me.

When you first get a script, how long does it take for you to understand the character and find his inner motives?

I feel like it’s pretty natural. After receiving a script, my brain tells me how to make sense of it. I first pick out the more meaningful parts in the script, and see if the story has depth to it. I always see if the script itself is good before deciding if there are any good roles in it. If I’m not satisfied with it myself, it’s, of course, going to be impossible to convince me to bring the character to life. If I do want to take the part, but I’m not able to add something more to the character, I start to consider my limits, and from there, I find new ways of approaching the character. Sometimes, I’ll be offered roles that have not been acted by anyone else on screen before, and my heart would tell me to give it a shot. In these cases, I normally know whether the script is suitable for me by the tenth page, sometimes even the fifth page, of the script.

When preparing for a role, do you put yourself in the character’s shoes?

Yeah, I actually do. I’ll see these images of scenes, or maybe childhood memories, or just bits and pieces of the character’s life in my mind, and it helps me empathise with the character. When reading a script for the first time, I make some notes or remarks on it to record down these instincts I get. After that, reading it for the second time, I try to challenge the boundaries of my initial thoughts on the character, and find any errors in my concepts. If my thoughts on the character are the same on both readings, I’ll read it again, find the character’s defining characteristics, and then try and fuse myself with the character. Once I’ve finished reading the entire thing, I more or less have a rough understanding of the character. But I have a habit of not reading the screen direction too much. I rather let the character’s mannerisms and actions come to me naturally in the moment, instead of following these specific actions in the script, because it lets me fully immerse myself in the character.

When you first worked with Tim Burton, he was still a very young director. How was it like working with him then, and have you worked with any other young directors since then?

I met Tim in 1989. We agreed to meet at St. John Street in London. At the time, I thought he didn’t seem like he had the material in him to be a director. I had been wanting to shoot a film that was away from the normal, and I had continuously been looking for an opportunity like that. So agreeing to meet Tim was kind of like laying out the path for myself. At the time, I was shooting Cry Baby, and the director, John Waters, was the kind of person who created taste through film, but Tim wasn’t. I had been very sure that I wouldn’t be chosen for Edward Scissorhands, but I really loved the screenplay, to the point I won’t ever forget the emotions I felt getting that screenplay for the first time. I cried like a child, reading that script. Edward’s suffering really hit me in the soul - I knew that kind of feeling: the feeling of a constant lack of safety, being afraid to interact with all these unfamiliar people and things, and the fear of being hurt. I had thought Tim wouldn’t cast me for this film, so I had wanted to cancel our meeting, but my agent wouldn’t let me.

Little did I know, we got on like old friends from the first time we met. Tim’s pretty shy, and I’m not exactly the talkative kind either, and three hours and eight cups of coffee later, Tim’s hands were already shaking. A month later, I didn’t hear from him at all, so I assumed I hadn’t been cast. But then, I got this phone call from Tim, and he said, “Johnny, you’re Edward Scissorhands.” My mind just went blank; the only thing I remember was crying. I had found the strange, off road path that I had wanted. Crybaby had been my first step, and Edward Scissorhands my second.

What about later on? Were your films with Tim successful?

In those first three weeks of filming, Tim was a little hesitant; he was trying to decide if my acting was too weird, and in those three weeks, we didn’t get along as easily. But in the end, he let go, and said, “Just do it your way,” and somehow, we managed to get the stuff he wanted. After Scissorhands, Tim and I became closer, and we then shot Ed Wood. From there we just made movie after movie, and now it’s like we practically have a common language.

You’ve worked with many famous directors as well. How is working with them different from working with Tim?

I’ve got pretty good relationships with the many directors I’ve worked with before. Tim’s like a brother to me, and we’re both friends with many other directors. When working with other directors than Tim, I try even harder to get what they want in the character to present the story to the audience. Some of the younger directors are sort scared that they didn’t do enough preparation, or that something they didn’t expect will happen. I think they’re thinking too much into it - they’ve already got the entire film in their mind. Sometimes, they end up relying too much on the planning, and they’re overcautious, so they lose a lot of the freedom that comes with making a film. He’ll think, what if the stuff I shoot doesn’t look exactly like what I’ve got in my head? The more they limit their imagination, the fewer chances they have to think of something on the spot, and come up with something amazing that they didn’t initially plan for.

So when I work with them, I want to give them a chance to experience something fresh, or something challenging, something new and exciting. Sometimes, we could do 10 takes of the same scene, and still not get what we are trying to go for. I think it’s not good if the actors are all thinking too much about how they should act, while the director is thinking too much about how he should be shooting it. On set, I’m even more willing to improvise, by, for example, changing the way I say my lines, or adding some actions that aren’t in the script, and in that moment, we’re able to capture the natural, genuine reactions of the actors I’m working alongside in the scene. You need to step out of your comfort zone in order to find the most truthful interactions between humans. There’s some directors that are very strict, and at every step of making the film, they’ve got a very specific idea of what they want. But the problem with that is that they don’t understand that film is an art of human interactions, and it’s not something you can do with just one person telling everyone else what to do.

Do you have any Hollywood films and directors that you pay attention to?

In recent years, I haven’t watched many films outside of Hollywood. I remember when I was really young, I watched the film Time of the Gypsies by the director Emir Kusturica. The colours in that film were particularly gorgeous, and it was a very artistic film. I ended up working with Kusturica in Arizona Dream, but you could say that film was a nightmare for both of us. Normally, a movie takes about three to five months to be shot, but we took an entire year for Arizona Dream. Of course, that film became an important film in my career, and Kusturica is an amazing director,so he has always been able to do this without fear. I’ve always believed that fear is our greatest enemy - whether it’s in our lives or when making a film, fear is always there to drag us down.

Working with Kusturica was an extraordinarily meaningful experience for me. It gave me the opportunity to experience, first-hand, that as an actor, you really can try anything, so as long as the role is reasonable, I can go ahead and try it. There was once I worked with Faye Dunaway, and at the time, I was still pretty young, and she was already middle-aged. We were shooting a scene where my character, the young man, has to seduce Faye’s character, and he’s growing from a young boy to an adult. Our initial plan was for my character to run around like a rooster and follow Faye around, so when we were shooting the scene, we just ran around in circles in the house. You see, film can just be shot like that. When we discuss certain scenes, we don’t consider how to minimise the risks - the most important thing is that we embrace our curiosity; just give ourselves the freedom to explore, say, what kind of results would I get if I did this scene this way. When you make a film, you can’t follow the screenplay exactly. Sometimes, there’s beautiful dialogue in the script, but it may not fit with the vibe of the rest of the film, so you’ve got to reluctantly cut it out. In making a film, you need to push the boundaries. If you don’t try, you won’t know what kind of sparks you’re really able to create.

So making a film involves a lot of teamwork and putting aside your ego?

Yeah. For example, on set, another actor may ask to do another take, or want to try another way of doing the same scene. You could hate that they’re doing that - you could even hate the actor himself - but you should give him a chance to try, because it could help open another door for yourself, and in the end, you’ll definitely get something surprising out of it.

When shooting From Hell, the director Allen Hughes gave me many suggestions. Like when we finished shooting the scene where my character turns hostile, he walked over and he told me, “No sunlight.” I immediately understood: don’t give them a ‘good’ expression, just remain committed to being the bad guy. Even though the lines are already written out nicely, actors still need to figure out the emotions within those lines, and use stuff like their body language to bring across these emotions, and these are all actually hidden between the lines in the script. Simply reading out the lines is a very easy thing to do, like saying, “I love you” is easy, but the audience isn’t stupid. They can sense that the feelings behind the words “I love you” aren’t real. Of course, the script itself is very important as well - the information in the lines helps us to understand the plot. But these hidden, unspoken lines are what make up the atmosphere of the film, and it lets the audience feel the change in emotions in the characters, and the waves of emotions in the character. The actors’ performances and the script combined together creates the tension in films.

Are there any young directors who have moved you with a script?

If a young director works on a screenplay, he needs to leave the actors some space to explore on top of giving them his vision. A good script would be one that even if the actors go with whatever idea they have, the film will still work out - it means the script is flexible. Being an actor, I’ve got a responsibility to both the director and the audience. I’m the medium between the director and the audience - I bring the director’s vision to the audience, but through that, I also have my own interpretation of the stuff I’m doing. I always have a lot of ideas, so when shooting a film, I have to find a balance between my own interpretations, and the director’s vision, while still being loyal to myself. A good screenwriter always leaves enough space and chances for the actors to explore. Putting together a film is like making a montage of clips, really. If the director’s too harsh, too many clips will end up on the cutting room floor. But as an actor, if you’re not giving the directors a choice on what to leave in or cut out, then you’re not doing your job well either.

Other than acting, have you tried any other jobs in the film industry?

I’ve directed a film once, and I’ve written a screenplay. It a story about the native Americans and how they lived, but it was only a rough framework, not anything refined yet. I didn’t want to act in it myself, but people told me that if I didn’t act in it, it would only get maybe 2 million dollars, but if I did, it’ll probably get 5 million. I was convinced by that. Being a director isn’t easy. You need money to be able to shoot whatever you want to shoot. But actors and directors are two vastly different roles. A director has to manage everything on set, but as an actor, you only have to care about your own performance, and nothing else. A director has so many different things they need to take care of, while an actor just goes with their feelings and does the scenes they need to do. Actors don’t need to bother with logistics on set. If you made an actor take care of all this stuff, I’d bet you, within 5 minutes, the set would have to be shut down. They wouldn’t be able to concentrate on their performance. If I had to do that, I’d go crazy.

As a director, after work, you still need to sit down and read through your script, see if there’s anything that should be changed. To me, that kind of lifestyle might as well be from a scene from a horror film. And after a day of shooting, the director still needs to review all of the footage. If I’m both acting in and directing the same film, I’d be looking at my own performance the entire day, which feels really weird. So really, both acting and directing have their own challenges, and trying to do both is just extremely difficult.

As a casting director, I really wasn’t good at judging auditions. I never felt like screen tests had any relevance to the actual shooting process. Just reading a few lines won’t show a person’s real acting ability. When I was a casting director, I watched these people walk through the door every day, read their lines, and all of them couldn’t get the kind of feel I wanted for the film, and I was going slightly mad. To begin with, I wasn’t great at the auditioning process as an actor, so as a casting director, I wasn’t good either. So, a suggestion to people looking to audition for things, don’t just go in and read your lines. Act out a portion of the script. I want to see what you and your fellow actors sharing the scene with you can do. I want to see your interpretations, your style, the path you want to go down. Through a process like that, I can see the big picture of the film, and how much space you’re leaving me, as director, to make choices. Like I said before, a good actor should leave space for the director to make creative decisions as well.

So do you still want to continue being a director?

Yeah, I actually want to direct 2 more films. One of them is a screenplay that I stole 30 years ago. At the time, my agent told me the rough storyline of the script, and after I heard it, I just completely took it away. Also, I won’t necessarily act in films I’m directing, because I really enjoy the process of working with different actors and creating a film with them. I especially like it when they develop their characters and breathe life into them, because in that moment, as a director, there’s this sense of accomplishment. Basically, if I direct a movie, I want to put my entire heart and soul into directing, and not have to worry about my performance.

What kind of script catches your attention?

Those that resonate in me. As long as the character in the script is moulded so that it feels vivid, and the plot is interesting, it’ll catch my attention. About the script, I think about how much space the actor playing the role has to explore on their own - whether the actor is able to make the character even more well-developed, more thought-provoking, more interesting. The most fundamental part is seeing if I’m able to get a feel of the character. If I am, then the screenwriters did a good job of creating a vivid, believable character. I see if the script can still remain faithful when put under pressure from outside forces, to make sure that it’s not just another script with a storyline everyone’s heard a thousand times.

After Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released in China, Grindelwald became very popular amongst Chinese fans. J.K. Rowling did not include much about Grindelwald in the Harry Potter series, so how did you create this character?

First, I had to get the foundation right. Jo gave me many suggestions, and other than that, the most important part was just the screenplay. I made many notes on the script, and through reading the script multiple times, I slowly added flavour to the character. I didn’t want him to be a character that people could just take one look at him and understand him. He’s a master of manipulation who wants to convince people to join his side, and on the other hand, he does have softer, kinder parts to his personality. My take on him was that any internal conflict you had in yourself becomes very dangerous when dealing with Grindelwald. I think he has a double personality: one side of him is his original self, and the other is the side that tries to oppress - one clear, one mysterious. That’s also the reason why I chose to have different coloured eyes, to show the two sides to his personality.

The relationship between Grindelwald and Dumbledore is something that many of the fans pay particular attention to. Did the events that happened in their past have any influence on the way you created Grindelwald’s character? And did you film the “Mirror of Erised” scene together with Jude Law?

No, when I got to set, Jude Law’s parts had already been shot. Jo has really written an amazing story, and she really showed how Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s love and at the same time, hate, for each other was built up. I think the two of them are a sort of surprising pairing. To each other, they are the best person in the world. I believe that there once was a passionate love between them, and this love was born because they both saw a reflection of themself in the other person. But for Grindelwald, his love came with an envy. He had always thought of himself as the greatest dark wizard, but in his heart, he clearly knows that Dumbledore has the same level of power that he does, and that Dumbledore will become even stronger. His conceitedness is eventually the reason why they went on different paths.

From then on, Grindelwald harboured a grudge in his heart. But do you know what this grudge represents? There’s a side to his grudge that no one gets to know of - it’s wounds, it’s pain, and it’s this hatred that he has, having this, in a way, forbidden, love, yet having nowhere to vent his frustration. I understood Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s relationship from this point of view, and from some lines in the film, you can feel this paradoxical opposition between them, where they oppose each other like fire and water do, but yet are bound to each other. Grindelwald’s decision in the end was to continue on his path that led him to become the Grindelwald we know now. These are things that you can’t see on the surface of the story, because they’re all hidden within the tiny details. I think Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s past is filled with pain, so I also really want to know what exactly happened between them.

As we see in the movie, Dumbledore says that he cannot move against Grindelwald because they made a blood pact. If the blood pact did not exist, would Dumbledore be able to move against him?

I believe even without the blood pact, Dumbledore would still be extremely hesitant whether he is able to move against Grindelwald. This is also Grindelwald’s internal conflict, because he isn’t sure if Dumbledore will one day return to his side. But I’m guessing he’s also somewhat anticipating the day when the two of them finally meet to fight, because Grindelwald needs this battle to happen in order to achieve his final goal. His hatred, envy and bitterness will all be let loose in that one battle. Grindelwald is very confident no one in the wizarding world can be a worthy opponent to him, because his name is his faith. But in the end, it will be this exact arrogance that will lead to his downfall.

How do you feel coming to Hainan and having the masterclass session with young directors?

I’m very inspired by them. To have this sort of opportunity to chat with people that are willing to devote themselves to filmmaking is really special. When I attend press conferences, the questions the reporters ask are mostly similar. Once these reporters have been in the business for a while, they aren’t really that interested in your answer - they’re just trying to get their job done.

But here, this large group of young audience really is interested in the film business, and this makes me really happy. Like if someone asked me a question about acting, then I’d gladly share about my own experiences as an actor. You could even ask me, “How did you become famous?” And I’d say, “If you want to become famous, first of all, don’t think about becoming famous.” Don’t be too focused on reaching your goal, and focus more on the process instead. If you’re able to persevere doing the thing you love, then you will become the person you want to be. We often say that when someone has an ambition, it’s a curse, but really, the truth is that being able to do something you love while working towards a goal is also not a bad thing.

Having this opportunity to chat with young people that want to commit themselves to the film industry makes me really happy. They’re not trying to repeat what others have done before them - they’re like the future of film. If sharing my experiences are able to help them understand what a career in the industry is like, then I’d be very honoured. Nothing makes me happier than being able help others improve.

Another thing about the activity that made me very pleased was that everyone was very sincere. It wasn’t just about me sharing my stories - the more important thing was that I took something away from it as well. The questions that the audience asked also let me reflect about myself. They’ve given me even more hope for the future - the fact that more and more people want to go down the film industry path and face whatever challenges they meet without fear, it’s a really amazing thing.

Do you have any plans for the future?

To me, I’m not sure how the future will be like, and I don’t want to just follow in someone else’s footsteps. I think the most important thing is what kind of attitude I’m meeting the future with. I’m just going to think about how I can make my characters more real, more natural, because as an actor, you’re responsible for the role, and for the film. And I think that’s enough.

Sometimes, in order to do what you love, you need to persevere, and not just come to terms with what you have in order to make someone else happy. In making a film, every aspect is closely linked together, and if a director tries too hard to please everyone, his vision will end up becoming very restricted. I’ve told this to Michael Mann once, while we were filming Public Enemies. I talked to him about some of the choices I had made for my role as Dillinger, mainly about the way he talked. I had some ideas that conflicted with his. Dillinger was from northern Indiana. We hadn’t found any recordings of his voice, but we did have one of his father’s voice. His father had a very typical southern accent, which was very different from how people from Chicago and New York spoke. The place I was born is only 70 miles away from Dillinger’s hometown. I’m from Kentucky, so I’m familiar with southern accents because I grew up speaking it. I felt that Dillinger should speak with a southern accent, but Michael Mann thought he should speak with a Chicago accent. So I told him, “Look, in this gang from Chicago, you’ve got two Australians, the guy playing Baby Face Nelson, Stephen Graham, is British, and Marion Cotillard is French. I grew up 70 miles away from Dillinger’s hometown! You got a bunch of foreign actors, and you’re saying my American accent isn’t real enough?”

Out of all the movies you’ve watched in 2018, which one is your favourite?

I really like documentaries, so I’ll recommend this one: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. I can’t remember if it’s a 2017 or 2018 film. It’s about an actress in the 1930s. She’s a legend. She invented the radio. The ship that one of her friends and their family was on, headed from Europe to America, was destroyed by the Germans. Her friend’s death made her start to think about how to deal a blow back, so she started her research into the radio. Her invention is the foundation of our bluetooth and wifi systems today. But the American government took away her patent without notice, and she tried to appeal, but didn’t get anything out of it. So she ended up spending the rest of her life just slowly aging away. This movie was particularly touching, because it was written like a lament for Hedy Lamarr, and it completely moved me. There was another film, not a 2018 one, it’s Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra, I really recommend this one.

Last question, you’re working with Ciro Guerra on a film, right? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I think it’s definitely going to be a great film. It’s called Waiting for the Barbarians, and I think it’s really relevant to our reality today. The story is very intense. It’s about the history of a fictional empire, and the battle of good versus evil. We always say that the good will triumph over the evil, but sometimes in reality, it isn’t the case, and this story is told from this point of view. My character is an “intruder”. He says that the barbarians will do things to threaten everyone else, and threaten the entire empire, but it’s really not the case. But the story takes everything he’s come up with and turns it into reality. I’ll be working with Mark Rylance in this film. He’s a veteran in the industry that I particularly admire. I’m not sure when this film will be released, like how when I did Sweeney Todd, I could only imagine how Tim Burton would piece all the clips together to form the complete film. Sometimes I really, really want to see the complete movie early, but it’s not actually that easy. To an actor, this also pretty disastrous. Ciro Guerra has his own, very unique views and visions, and at the same time, he’s open to listening to our ideas about our characters. He’s a great director.

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