#i don’t think I could watch that video again it was just so surreal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fiveredlights · 7 days

Text

there's glitter on the floor after the party: the deleted scenes

i'm sure it'll make someone happy because i think we all need it! just as a note, this is all unedited so some of it might make no sense and that's okay.

(i recommend the google doc for easier reading otherwise the whole thing is under the cut)

Chapter one: 2023

I don’t have anything to show…anything I did cut has already been long deleted. My bad. The first two are very sparse because I was cutting unwanted things as my Google docs was lagging whenever I opened it. The only thing I remember writing that chapter was that it was meant to coincide with Daniel’s return to COTA in real life but I ran out of time so I pushed it back to Las Vegas.

Chapter two: 2024

CUT: Daniel winning the championship

WHY: Felt too rushed and easy. No emotional pay off, you were only just introduced to Daniel in RBR again. Also don’t ask me what happened to Max for him to not just clean sweep 2023-2027. Also don’t ask who won the championship in 2026. I declare that your favourite driver won it and I definitely did not forget to give a championship.

DANIEL: Oh my god, it’s just surreal like I don’t know how to describe it. Especially after the past couple years, it’s just—yeah. And to do it with Max too, it’s just something special for me and the team.

MISCELLANEOUS:

73 Questions With Daniel Ricciardo | Vogue

3.3M views 2 days ago …more

Vogue 4M

[00:00:00]

DANIEL: Hello Vogue, didn’t see you there. Welcome to my home away from home.

[00:13:33]

PRODUCER: One sentence you could tell your younger self?

DANIEL: Doors are meant to be opened.

[00:15:09]

PRODUCER: Worst thing about racing in Formula 1?

DANIEL: Accidents, hands down. It’s horrifying as a driver to watch someone crash, because that’s when everything sort of gets a reality check in the cockpit. Like we are racing around at three-hundred kilometres an hour, and there is a real chance that something could go wrong. I’ll never forget Max’s Silverstone accident, just—yeah it just a horrible thing to witness.

—

emotionalsupportredbull

not daniel fidgeting with his necklace when he talks about max’s silverstone crash… you ain’t slick boy

#yes i have deluded myself into thinking it’s from max #i’m already depressed i don’t want to hear it #join team emotional support redbull delusions

348 notes

frenchpine

qu'est-ce que tu sais, espèce de salope française qui aime l'érable et qui parle bizarrement ? sors avec ça (What do you know you maple-loving weird speaking French bitch? Come out with it)

#je ne veux pas te traiter de salope #ou peut-être que c'est le cas (#i don’t mean to call you a bitch #or maybe i do)

392 notes

(i promise i wrote this before he decided to rear end daniel in china. i pinky promise.)

landando

daniel “doors are meant to be opened” ricciardo

#what is my man on #doors are meant to be opened 😭😭 #he didn’t open a door one time and it’s haunted him for life

78 notes

Chapter three: 2025

CUT: Red Bull marketing video

WHY: Chapter was already very long. Also I couldn’t find any good questions.

Daniel and Max play the F1 newlywed game 💒💍

827K views 10 hours ago #Gives you wings #F1 … more

Oracle Red Bull Racing 1.58M

INT. RED BULL RACING HOSPITALITY - DAY

[00:00:00]

MAX: Hello everyone and today we are playing the newlywed game.

DANIEL: Are you excited?

MAX: I mean I have to say yes otherwise I look like I’m in an unhappy marriage.

DANIEL: Wow—

MAX:—Also the name doesn’t even make sense. Newlywed? That isn’t us.

DANIEL: [To off screen] Guys, I would get someone to approve your overtime, we’re gonna be here a while.

[00:02:01]

OFF SCREEN: Who is more likely to overpack for a holiday?

DANIEL: Don’t look at me!

MAX: We have three suitcases.

DANIEL: It takes effort to look this good.

MAX: Three suitcases every single race weekend.

DANIEL: What’s the next question?

CUT: Lucinda’s vaguely threatening email

WHY: Broke the fourth wall. Glitter on the floor is meant to be solely a third POV view and I couldn’t justify it.

CONFIDENTIAL: PRESS STRATEGY REGARDING MAX VERSTAPPEN AND DANIEL RICCIARDO

From: lucindasalzar@/press.redbull.racing

To: maxverstappen@/redbull.racing, danielricciardo@/redbull.racing

CC: christianhorner@/redbull.racing, teamdaniel@/press.redbull.racing, teammax@/press.redbull.racing

Date: 21 Nov 2025 at 3:04am

Hi all,

Please see attachment below for finalised details regarding your press strategy and talking points this weekend. Media have been advised to not ask any questions about the ring and we’d like to keep it that way. Remember to keep it vague if you do get asked, and if you don’t feel comfortable a simple no comment will suffice.

Please email for any further clarification or questions and good luck this weekend. (And please no spur of the moment Las Vegas—Elvis impersonator weddings you two.)

Best regards,

Lucinda Salzar (she/her)

Head of Communications, Red Bull Racing.

E: lucindasalzar@/press.redbull.racing

P: +44 ** **** *****

CUT: The chaotic Abu Dhabi super seat swap

WHY: I had to cut this because I altered the timeline, Las Vegas was going to the second last race. In an earlier version Max and Daniel were gonna come back in 2026 and also drop the Matilda news at the same time but I wanted more content just out of Maxiel so I had to leave this on the cutting board. Some of it made it into the published fic but the original thing was more chaotic. (Also I changed the Red Bull junior driver at least once a week because they kept dropping them. It went from Hauger, to Crawford, to Maloney and then I just gave up because I could not keep up.)

lights-out-away-we-go

red bull needed to replace two drivers and they did in THE MOST CHAOTIC way possible. okay, just listen:

the official red bull reserve driver is liam lawson (of alpha tauri, so he obviously gets pulled up)

alpha tauri then call on zane maloney to replace liam (alpha tauri’s reserve driver)

BUT, daniel’s car still needs to fulfil the mandatory rookie free practice session (max’s was completed in mexico when maloney drove)

red bull can’t get zane in daniel’s car again cause he’s got to drive liam’s… so they’ve got to find someone who has the super licence points … we’ll come back to this

so right now car 3 is being driven by liam lawson, car 40 is driven by zane maloney. i hear you ask… who is driving car 1? it’s none other than yuki tsunoda (of alphatauri)

I KNOW, but red bull have quite literally run out of contracted reserve drivers and i believe because every driver is technically employed by red bull (whether they drive for RB or AT) they’re able to pull them up or down without the FIA kicking up a fuss

i’ll wait for why red bull pulled up both AT’s

this means yuki tsunoda’s alpha tauri will be without a driver and once again, red bull call Pepe Marti

#i don’t even know if this is 100% correct i could be so wrong

13,482 notes

—

SKY F1 SPORTS- 2025 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE 1

David CROFT: Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our final race of the 2025 season, to our first free practice session under the blistering sun of Abu Dhabi and if this is your first time watching, welcome along cause this will certainly be an interesting race weekend. Now, eagle eyed viewers may have caught that AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda is in the Red Bull, and his team mate is sitting in the next garage over not in a car. Anthony Davidson is with me—Ant, care to explain to our viewers at home the driver seat swap chaos that’s happening down at Red Bull?

Anthony DAVIDSON: Hello everyone, wherever in the world you may be watching and yes, chaos is the right word for it isn’t it? I’ve got about five pieces of paper and I’m going to do my best to explain, what I think, is the most complicated driver situation in F1 history.

CROFT: Yes, for those who didn’t join us last time out or who may be new to F1, I promise driver seat talk usually isn’t this complicated but we’ll do our best to make sense of it all. Now we’ve got to start at the last race for it all to make sense. Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo had a nasty crash with Enzo Fittipaldi of Haas that left him with a concussion and bruised ribs, which is why presumably he isn’t racing today, and we wish him well in his recovery. Red Bull’s other driver Max Verstappen was also not able to race this weekend for an unspecified reason, so Red Bull are left with two empty seats.

DAVIDSON: We know that Red Bull’s official reserve driver is Liam Lawson, so that’s no problem there. He’s driving Daniel’s number 3 car, but here’s where the trouble starts. Car number 3 still needs to complete its mandatory FP1 session, which Zane Maloney was planning to do this session. But you’ll notice that Zane is in Liam’s car right now, the Alpha Tauri—and this is because he’s Alpha Tauri’s reserve driver.

CROFT: Still following everyone? So far, car number 3 is being driven by Liam Lawson, car number 40 is being driven by Zane Maloney. But Liam Lawson isn’t even in car number 3 at the moment, it’s Pepe Marti, who is currently racing in Formula 2 and part of Red Bull’s junior academy. He’s competing the mandatory rookie FP1 session for car number 3.

DAVIDSON: So now we move onto Max Verstappen’s car, which is being driven by the other AlphaTauri driver, Yuki Tsunoda. Which now means AlphaTauri needs a driver to replace him and it’s Red Bull junior driver, Isack Hadjar who is in car number 22.

CROFT: Right, so it’s Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson in Red Bull for the race, Zane Maloney and Isack Hadjar in the AlphaTauri’s and Pepe Marti in Liam or Daniel’s Red Bull for FP1. Confused? Don’t worry, so are we so bare with us if we accidentally get names and teams wrong because I believe this is possibly the biggest driver change in F1 history.

DAVIDSON: Yes and because I know people will be asking, “Why didn’t Red Bull just put Maloney in Daniel’s car for the whole weekend?” and we have an answer and officially, it’s because of contracts. Whatever behind the scenes isn’t allowing him to drive that Red Bull which is why they called up Yuki instead. Maloney has also said he feels more confident driving the AlphaTauri all weekend rather than the Red Bull, so that also may play a factor in this.

CROFT: But also this is a perfect opportunity for Red Bull to compare both drivers, should the opportunity for one of them to make the move into Red Bull when the time arises.

Chapter four: 2026

CUT: Netflix Drive to Survive script

WHY: Once again, I was lazy and didn’t want to write a script. I kinda wish I did though, I think it would’ve given Las Vegas 2025 more substance, especially because you only see it through a fan perspective whereas DTS allows you to get the driver’s perspective, but I do plan to finish this off…. eventually….

Netflix- Drive to Survive

Season 9, Episode 3 “Redemption”

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is back in town but it’s not all good fortunes for those driving. The biggest paddock secret is unveiled.

—

INT. KITCHEN - MORNING

We see scrambled eggs on a frying pan.

OFF SCREEN: Daniel? Where is my jumper? The blue one?

The camera zooms out from the eggs to see Daniel, wearing a light blue jumper, grimacing at the camera.

DANIEL: (Under his breath) To be fair it was my jumper first.

The camera swings to Max in the doorway, arms crossed as he narrows his eyes at Daniel.

MAX: I heard that.

(In the garage, during the crash.)

RED BULL TEAM MEMBER #1: Has anyone told Max?

RED BULL TEAM MEMBER #2: We’re not telling him.

RED BULL TEAM MEMBER #3: Seriously?

RED BULL TEAM MEMBER #1: He thinks his husband is dead, we’re telling him!

INT. HOTEL ROOM

PRODUCER: Do you have some fears about allowing the world to know about your relationship?

DANIEL: God, of course I have. We both have. But we spent so long being—not scared, but worried let’s say about the consequences of us just being together. But then Las Vegas happened and all I wanted was Max to sit by my bedside and make a stupid joke about me being in hospital again. And it was when Christian literally had to fight multiple people to get Max into that hospital I realised that what we were doing was unsustainable.

PRODUCER: Unsustainable?

DANIEL: Are you married?

PRODUCER: Yes?

DANIEL: Have you ever watched your partner crash into something at three hundred kilometres an hour and no one telling you if they were even alive? Because I’ve done that. We’ve done that. Multiple times.

Montage of different Max & Daniel accidents.

DANIEL: And then you have to go on with your day, going to debrief, doing press but all you really want to do is go to them and make sure that they’re even alive?

PRODUCER: …

DANIEL: So yeah. Unsustainable.

—

333 update account @/official333

📺 | Drive to Survive (Netflix)

Daniel talking about his relationship with Max on and off the track:

Q: Do you think it’s been challenging to balance out the relationship given your unique relationship with Max?

Daniel: No, and I think people over dramatise the complexity of it all. I mean sure, it has been somewhat difficult, especially at the beginning but in the end it is just racing, you know? We’re both aware that we are something different from the other drivers, but I like that. Not many people get to do what they love with their partner right next to them, so I definitely take every race we do together for granted.

476 replies 88 reposts 8,372 likes

CUT: Alternate ‘M’ reveal

WHY: I genuinely spent like half an hour thinking if fictional Max and Daniel would show Matilda, I had earlier drafts where they hide her face until I was like okay, this is fictional. Bad things do not exist in this universe, so it’s fine. Plus, Matilda is so cute I can’t hide her.

[Video: Daniel, standing in front of a door.

DANIEL: I know a lot of you guys might have noticed that I’ve been dropping clues towards who this mysterious M is and it’s finally time to reveal who it is.

He opens the door and pans the camera to Max.

DANIEL: M stands for Max. Sorry to break the news, it’s not that exciting. Wait, who’s that?

The camera pans further down to show Max holding a baby, she’s sleeping soundly in Max’s arm.

Photo: A baby. She’s wearing a light blue onesie, and her hand is wrapped around a mini honey badger soft toy.]

Liked by lucsalzar and others

danielricciardo Everybody meet Matilda. Matilda, this is everybody.

View all 5,638 comments

georgerussell63 They learnt what hard launching is and said we’re going to do it for everything… Congrats 🙌

landonorris be prepared for the onslaught of driver themed onesies coming your way…

1 March

CUT: The half-completed TIME article about Daniel

WHY: I did not have it in me to write another 1000 word article. I spent around a week just writing Daniel’s The Players’ Tribune article. But what I did write, I did like. Was also around the time TIME named Taylor Swift as their person of the year, so that’s where I got that inspiration.

How 2025 was the year of the Honey Badger—Daniel Ricciardo on winning his first Formula 1 Championship during a historic year.

by Tylda Rune-Liberi for TIME

February 15, 2026 9:33AM EST

It’s 2017 and F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was asked in a press conference what race he would like the new owners of F1 to host. His answer? Las Vegas. In 2023, five years on, his wish was granted. Two years later, in 2025, the race he had proclaimed as a dream race would turn into stuff of nightmares.

Leading the race and looking like he would take a first win at Las Vegas after a podium in 2023, it looked like everything was going Ricciardo’s way until a bizarre accident with Kick Stake Sauber’s Theo Pourchaire causes a major accident, leaving Ricciardo wedged in the cockpit for over half an hour.

Pourchaire had given way to Ricciardo as he was being lapped, before attempting to unlap himself, choosing the wrong moment as Ricciardo was heading into the pitlane. Radios released after the accident have Pourchaire admit he “didn’t think he was going into the pit lane.”

It’s a horrifying crash to watch—even with the knowledge that both drivers would be okay, and it would soon be clear that no one felt it more in the pitlane than Ricciardo’s own teammate: Max Verstappen.

Formula 1 drivers all drive with the knowledge that a crash could happen at any given moment, but this accident was different.

[Photo: Daniel, in a dark navy denim blue overshirt and jeans.]

Ricciardo and Verstappen have had a long and varied partnership throughout their career, first starting in 2016 where Verstappen was brought up mid season from then-Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso (now Visa Cash App RB), winning his debut race with the team, where it looked like the win would go to Ricciardo instead. They would go on to be teammates for another two seasons, before Ricciardo announced a shocking move to Renault (now Alpine).

One thing that stood out about their initial partnership was how their off track friendship never seemed to waver, even in their most turbulent of times (see Hungary 2017 or Azerbaijan 2018). In an era where friendships between teammates seemed to famously end in failure, in the likes of fan dubbed ‘Brocedes’ (Nico Rosberg & Lewis Hamilton; best friends growing up who’s friendship ended in rivalry fighting for a championship) or former Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber (Multi-21 Seb?), it was an outlier that the two remained such good friends, even after Ricciardo had departed Red Bull.

Even Ricciardo mentions that Lewis Hamilton had gone up to him to ask how Verstappen and Ricciardo had managed to keep their friendship going even though they had tussles on track. “I don’t really know,” Ricciardo says. “I mean it’s definitely all in hindsight now, but I think it was because we—or at least I—knew that our friendship was really important. Like it was no matter what happens I don’t go and screw up this friendship I have with Max.”

Ricciardo would go through a bumpy time in his post-Red Bull career, going through two seasons at Renault, two seasons at McLaren before a 6 month break where he was named ‘Third Driver’ for Red Bull, a 6 month stint in Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso, now Visa Cash App RB) which was marked with Ricciardo missing 5 races due to a hand injury during a free practice session in Zandvoort before returning back to the very seat he left six years earlier, Red Bull announcing Ricciardo’s return at the 2023 Las Vegas race.

A move that was then deemed as a surprise move by many pundits, all was put to rest when Riccardo finessed his AlphaTauri in the podium position, grabbing the team 3rd place and their first podium since Pierre Gasly in 2021.

Something was different about this second stint, and it wasn’t the journeys they’ve both gone on since they both parted ways. There was something different about them together.

[Photo: Max and Daniel laughing in the Red Bull garage.]

Nine years on since their first race together, it was oddly reminiscent of their first. Verstappen crossed the line to win a race his teammate had been poised to do so. Only this time, the celebrations were much different.

With Ricciardo in hospital, Verstappen quickly left the race track after a tuned down podium ceremony, skipping out on mandatory post-race media duties, where competitors and team can attract fines for doing so. (The FIA opted not to fine Verstappen and Red Bull in this instance.)

Even during the red flag it was clearly Verstappen was antsy, with his radio calls after finding out his teammate was in an accident conveying his state of worry. Leaked video from inside the Red Bull garage has Verstappen mention not finishing the race, wanting to be by Ricciardo’s side instead.

///

“I remember I posted the post and people were like ‘Oh, maybe he meant it in a friendly way’ and I was like f***, I’ve got to actually spell it out for them.” Hence, the iconic post that broke the F1 world was born.

[Daniel’s tweet.]

It’s 2020, and the Australian Grand Prix has just been cancelled due to COVID.

All the drivers and teams are left scrambling to try and leave the country before the borders close, and Daniel Ricciardo has just invited Max Verstappen to stay over at his house in Perth.

“I don’t think I can even call it a friendly gesture, because as much as I like the other guys on the grid, there’s no way I would’ve invited them over.”

///

“Yeah, I won a championship. But I’m still the same person.”

Ricciardo’s often been somewhat of an open book, he says—whether it was for the better or for the worse. Every aspect of his life has been so highly publicised, from winning races to what it looks like when he’s not, it’s remarkable how he still holds nearly the same candour, even if his name and career has seemingly been dragged through the mud a thousand times over by the media.

Last year he publicly came out in a F1-related podcast, to what he says was very unplanned. “I didn’t plan to come out, let’s say, it just kind of happened.

“I didn’t even plan to come out, let's say, it just kind of happened? I was recording a podcast and I was talking about 2022 and how it unfolded, the support systems around me and I said “my partner”, and a part of me went Oh, shit! I hadn’t talked about my relationships at length before that, and I knew people were going to absolutely run with it and then I was like—well, might as well just go the whole nine yards, so then the second reference to my partner I very deliberately dropped in he. And that was it.”

“I remember so vividly, I went home that night and I told Max, oh I think I did something stupid and his mind immediately went to me accidentally leaking like team secrets or something big like that, and I was like no, I may have accidentally came out and within like three seconds you could see is brain just switch.

“There is no we found the elephant in the room or whatever. The elephant has always been in the room and it’s just decided to make its presence known.”

“Look, I definitely understand some of the criticism that some people may have with F1 or Red Bull or us capitalising on our relationship or whatever, but I think now more than ever there’s a need to perhaps know who the drivers are when they aren’t driving.” Ricciardo adds.

“Because it’s all fine and good if John Smith is winning races and driving amazingly, but if you know next to nothing about the person because it seems like they’re packed up and shipped race to race, you’re not going to root for the guy because they’ve made no connection.”

Ricciardo quickly clarifies that it’s not a negative for sports people or celebrities to maintain their personal lives, but he sees it more as a way to express or show what he wants to show in his own lives. “We spent nearly five years it near complete secrecy from the outside world and whilst I’m not saying that we should’ve just been public right from the start—we probably wouldn’t have survived—I was just wanting to post a photo of Max burning dinner or something and not have gossip magazines or Instagram accounts dissect every pixel of it.”

Did Ricciardo get pushback from the FIA or his team? It’s a difficult question to answer, he tells me. NDAs and whatnot. He says, “The team was wonderful about it, though. Had multiple team members come up to us willingly to fight the higher powers if needed which was very sweet.”

“Let’s just say there were conversations that I had been made aware of that had made me feel like we weren’t even allowed to look at each other when we were in the paddock. I felt like they were asking me to only refer to him as my teammate, stuff along those lines.”

///

“One of our friends told us at our wedding something along the lines of for F1 drivers, you did move pretty fucking slow in your relationship! And Max was like yeah, did you know who we were in 2018?” Ricciardo laughs loudly, scaring one of the cats who seemed ready to take a nap.

///

“I used to rely so much on what other people thought of me, it wasn’t enough that I thought I was the best guy out there, you also had to think I was the best guy out there.”

///

Racing has always been part of Ricciardo’s life, but he doesn’t want it to be the only thing now in his life. He wants you to ask about things not related to racing, like how much he loves his family or how he thinks the Buffalo Bills are the greatest NFL team on earth.

“I’m not going to do this forever, you know?” He says, finishing the can of Red Bull he’d been slowly sipping throughout the course of this piece. “I hope when I look back at these years of my life I’m going to be equally proud of what I did in the car and what I did outside of it.” — With reporting done by Tylda Rune-Liberi and Nicolas St. Revelate.

CUT: Max and the team getting called up to the FIA

WHY: The FIA seems like an organisation who might send me a cease and desist if I wrote them as quietly homophobic. I don’t have money for a lawsuit. Also wanted to keep the universe happy because the real one is not. Still think my Mad Mex reference is funny.

Autosport @/autosport

Breaking: Max Verstappen summoned to the stewards after allegedly breaking parc ferme rules.

12 replies 90 reposts 821 likes

—

F1 - 2026 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX - POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE - TRANSCRIPT

23.3.26

Q: Sorry, Daniel just coming back to you now. We’ve just received word that Max Verstappen has just been summoned to the stewards for breaking parc fermé conditions, any reaction on that?

Daniel RICCIARDO: For what?

Q: Uh, we think it might be related to post race procedures around weighing. Not entirely sure yet, his meeting is at 6:15pm.

DR: Well there goes our dinner plans. To be fair our dinner plans were literally just Mad Mex in our hotel rooms before flying to Perth, but still.

Jack DOOHAN: Mad what?

DR: Mad Mex? You know, the Mexican fast food place. Surely you’ve had it.

JD: Oh, I thought you said Mad Max and I was like, “He finished P4 that doesn’t seem too bad.”

DR: Did Max not do the weigh in or what?

Q: He did, after your podium. Sorry mate, even more bad news for the team, they’ve been summoned to the stewards as well.

DR: If I find out I’m going to lose another podium about ten years on after the race here I’m gonna be pissed.

Q: This one is related to Article 26.13 b, where “Unless authorised by the FIA, no one under the age of 16 is permitted in the pit lane at the following times: b) The period commencing fifteen (15) minutes before the pit exit is opened to allow cars to cover reconnaissance laps and the time when the last car enters the parc fermé after the sprint session or the race has ended.”

DR: What cause we had our daughter with us at the podium celebration?

Q: Quite possibly, yeah.

DR: That’s interesting. I—yeah, I’m just gonna say that’s interesting.

Oscar PIASTRI: Kevin had his kids with him in Monza twenty four, didn’t he?

DR: Yeah, I’m sure the team will have a lot to say so we’ll just leave it at that.

CUT: Reaction to Australia winning

WHY: Timeline changes. Original timeline was Australia 2026 being their first race back after Las Vegas and relationship/kid reveal. I apparently also cut the all Australian podium. Can't remember why.

[Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4: Lucinda holding the constructor trophy on the podium, Daniel giving a big grin next to her.]

Liked by jackdoohan and others

danielricciardo Never thought I’d be able to share a podium with two other Aussies but what better time than at our home race. @/jackdoohan @/oscarpiastri @/redbullracing 🇦🇺❤️

View all 5,382 comments

ausgp Surely this gets us a public holiday?! @/auspm

oscarpiastri We’re about to get even more annoying…

—

Oracle Red Bull Racing @/redbullracing

Don’t mind us, we’re just in a puddle of tears over how cute @/Max33Verstappen and @/danielricciardo are 😍😭🫶

[Video: Taken from behind the parc ferme barriers, Daniel holding Matilda as Max hugs him, one hand around his waist and the other around the back of his neck.]

—

jeanie 🤠 @/COTADANIEL

flabbergasted about how well max and daniel hid their relationship from the world because man that he looks at daniel like he hung the moon stars and the sun and we’ve just been blind to notice

jake @/381racers

Maxiel admin logged on today thank you universe 🙏

—

DANIEL: Yeah, I just didn’t think I was able to have this, you know? If you had told me like seven years ago that hey, “You’ll be winning again and Max and your kid will be right along with you”, I would’ve laughed in your face. There is still absolutely more work to do, but I’m just glad I get to have my little moment without like some of these outside factors screaming and kicking at us.

CUT: Jake @/381racers meeting Daniel

WHY: Felt too indulgent. Loved it, but I think the idea pushed the boundaries/fourth wall maybe A Little too much, even for my low standards.

jake @/381racers

Only felt right that I get this signed

[Photo: Jake’s infamous tweet “Max Verstappen can you fight?” printed out and framed. Max has signed it and wrote “Yes he can.”]

—

jake @/381racers

First photo really Daniel did you have to shame me further . I thought we had a promise. Anyways, here's the video of me meeting them.

[Video: Jake meeting Daniel, in Red Bull hospitality. They’re both sitting down in chairs, and Jake has his hands on top of a frame placed face down on the table.

JAKE: Do you remember like two years ago in COTA you wore a leather jacket outfit and basically the internet blew up because of how good you looked?

DANIEL: Yeah, with the cowboy hat and everything!

JAKE: And there was a tweet that trended on that weekend—

Daniel sits up in his chair, eyes widening in realisation of who Jake is.

DANIEL: Oh my god you’re “Max Verstappen can you fight?” guy?!

JAKE: Embarrassingly, yes.

DANIEL: (offscreen) How did you find him?!

OFFSCREEN: Remember when I said I was going to bring my boyfriend this race?

Daniel looks back and forth behind the person offscreen and Jake multiple times before bending over and laughing hysterically.

OFFSCREEN: Yeah, I’m not happy about it either.

DANIEL: Oh my god did I like cause you two to meet?

jake @/381racers

No I too am not happy about my internet history coming back to bite me

CUT: Interview with Lawrence Baretto

WHY: I ran out of time. I had planned to post this at the end of Jan, but since I didn’t post that NYD bonus fic, I didn’t wanna go a month without an update so this got culled. Also my vague illusions to Max’s dad felt a little weird.

Exclusive: Daniel Ricciardo on retirement, 15 years of F1 and family with Lawerence Barretto

When I ask about his daughter and if they have any interest in making her follow in her parents footsteps, he shuts down my line of questioning pretty quickly.

“No,” he immediately says. “I’m not going to write out a path for her to follow, or put expectations for her to go into karting because of a family legacy. I think Max knows it a little bit more than me, how the expectations of someone who’s meant to take care of you can tarnish the thing you love.”

Jos Verstappen, Max’s father and former F1 driver hasn’t been seen in the paddock since 2023. Both declined to comment when asked.

“If she wants to start karting, then we’ll probably have a very long conversation about how it’s important that she finds it fun and if she doesn’t then she doesn’t. It’s not important to me that she wins or whatever, I just want her to enjoy it.”

Chapter five: 2027

CUT: Drive to Survive script

WHY: I did not have the energy to write a full script, and I felt like there were too many events to write about and I could not do it justice. Also I would like idk if Max and Daniel would show Matilda on DTS which is crazy because Matilda is not real…

—

Drive to Survive

Season 10 Episode 10 “One final rodeo…”

After fifteen years in the sport, Formula 1 says goodbye to Daniel Ricciardo.

[00:20:26]

INT. HOTEL ROOM INTERVIEW

PRODUCER: We don’t have to talk about Las Vegas.

DANIEL: No, it's fine. Probably should. Uh—yeah.

PRODUCER: We can take a minute.

DANIEL: Yeah, thanks. I didn’t talk about it last year did I?

PRODUCER: No. Okay, we’ll cut.

CUT TO BLACK.

Sound of car crashing into wall, before it fades in to show the Red Bull in the pitlane wall. Cuts to people reacting—Red Bull employees, fans in the grandstands and then a birds eye aerial view of the crash, showing the medical and extraction crew.

PIERRE HAMLIN (V.O): Daniel, are you okay?

Cuts to Max’s T-CAM footage, him driving past the car.

MAX (V.O): What the fuck happened?

PIERRE: Daniel, please just press the radio button so we know you’re okay.

Cuts to Daniel’s T-CAM footage, his helmet leans against the left side of the halo, indicating he’s unmoving.

PIERRE: Daniel, can you hear me?

Cuts to showing the Red Bull pitwall, everyone looking at each other worried.

DANIEL (V.O): The first thought I had was: Shit. This is really bad timing. Second thought I had was: Max is going to kill me.

Cuts to Daniel's forward facing cockpit onboard, him moving his head and looking up and down the cockpit.

PIERRE: Daniel?

DANIEL: Yep. Fuck. My chest, fuck. Shit, is um the other driver okay?

PIERRE: Yes, he's okay but don't worry about him. Do you think you can get out of the car?

DANIEL: Yeah no, I don't think that's happening with breaking something. Fuck, my ribs. Oh god. I think something's broken.

PIERRE: Okay Daniel, the medical team are nearly there but do not move if you think it will cause more damage. The car is safe, so do not worry about anything else.

DANIEL: Yep, okay. Um, will someone tell Max I'm okay? Just, don't freak him out yeah?

PIERRE: Copy Daniel, it will be okay, it will be okay. Just keep radio on please.

DANIEL: Okay. Fuck, this sucks.

INT. STUDIO

TEXT: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing driver

MAX VERSTAPPEN: Been a while.

PRODUCER: Didn’t think you were going to agree.

MAX VERSTAPPEN: Would be a big thing if you made it look like we hated each other again!

PRODUCER: We asked Daniel what his first thought was when he had that accident. He said “This is really bad timing” and that you were going to kill him. Why?

MAX: Well, because of Matilda.

EXT. PORT HERCULES, MONACO— MORNING

Long shot of Port Hercules, Monaco, filmed from a balcony. It’s peaceful, quiet—the city sounds filling the background before we hear a baby scream in joy.

DANIEL: Matilda!

Matilda is on the floor in the living room, on a playmat and she plays with wooden blocks. Max is next to her on the ground, with his back leant against the couch, Daniel is on the couch.

DANIEL (V.O): Yeah, she’s one of the best things to happen to me. For a long time my whole life was just racing, but now she’s my whole life. Like it’s okay if I have a bad race or whatever, I’ve got to move on quickly because she’s there at home waiting.

MAX: Having a kid does change you, I think. Daniel will not say his driving has changed, but it has.

PRODUCER: In what way?

MAX: I think now he is more focused on winning every race, not that he wasn’t before. But because maybe he knows that every race matters more now. You hope that the others around you will not be too reckless so that you can go home after the race.

EXT. CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS — MIDDAY

TEXT ON SCREEN: 2025 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

RED BULL EMPLOYEE #1: Hey, welcome back Danny!

DANIEL: Thank you, thank you. Hope you didn’t miss my handsome face too much.

RED BULL EMPLOYEE #1: I didn’t know Jake went on holiday!

DANIEL: I’m gonna crash the car just for that.

RED BULL EMPLOYEE #2: No, we’re just kidding. So how’s the baby?

DANIEL: She’s great, do you wanna see a photo?

RED BULL EMPLOYEE #1: Oh, she’s adorable. Matilda was her name?

DANIEL: Yeah, yeah. We had a list but I think Matilda was the only one that stood out to us. She just looks like a Matilda you know?

///

The camera swings to the right, as Daniel’s head sticks out from the door.

DANIEL RICCIARDO: You aren’t talking shit about me, Maxy?

MAX VERSTAPPEN: Of course I am.

///

MAX: I have raced with Daniel in every single year of F1. I think it will be weird.

DANIEL RICCIARDO I think I was a pretty good darn car mechanic.

CUT: Max’s interview with GQ

WHY: If you haven’t learnt by now, I am very lazy. Honestly, I just wanted this chapter out and I knew I didn’t have the time to write a whole article. Also I don’t think Max would be this open about this relationship but maybe Daniel made him more open in this universe. I still stand by the first sentence, it is possibly the truest thing to come out of the fic.

You can’t talk about Max Verstappen without eventually talking about Daniel Ricciardo, and you can’t talk about Daniel Ricciardo without eventually talking about Max Verstappen. This was a true statement in the earlier part of Verstappen’s career, but now perhaps even more so. “He’s made me a much better person,” Verstappen comments when I ask him about his husband. “I maybe wasn’t the best person to be teammates with when I was first in Formula 1, but he stayed friends with me. Even after he left and I was not being nice to him, he still stayed. That was very important to me.”

There’s a certain aura of happiness that comes from Verstappen when he starts talking about Ricciardo, and he says it’s probably one of the most documented love stories of F1.

It started in the early morning after the final race of the 2018 season, and a drunk voicemail to Ricciardo kicked things off. “I was still mad that he was going, and I had too many gin and tonics and I called him at like 12 am or something. Obviously he didn’t answer because he was sleeping but I said really embarrassing stuff in that voicemail.” He left one more a couple hours later, asking Ricciardo not to mention it.

“He really took that to heart.” Verstappen laughs. “I don’t really know why, we would talk when we saw each other on race weekends and pretend that everything was fine between us.”

They were seemingly friends only when it was the race weekend, but off track they had never been further apart. There was a lot of resentment and unsaid conversation from Verstappen’s side, self proclaiming that his stubbornness had put a pin in their relationship. “It’s easy to say now looking back, but I thought Daniel leaving Red Bull was also leaving me. And I didn’t take it well.”

But a little bit of push and shove from his fellow friends made him realise that having Ricciardo in his life was more important than whatever feelings he had towards him leaving.

///

Verstappen proposed two years later in December 2022 at that same house. “Coordinates of the house and everything on the ring,” Ricciardo comments when he drops in to grab something from the office. “Cried like a baby when I realised.”

Deleted Epilogue:

WHY: I still can’t decide if Matilda would go down the F1 path. If she did, she is definitely a Ferrari driver. Just to mess with her dads. I think she would sign with Red Bull in the junior seasons, maybe do two seasons with Red Bull then switch to Ferrari. A Sebastian Vettel if you will…let’s hope it turns out better for her than him.

[Photo 1: A Ferrari car crossing the chequered flag.

Photo 2: Matilda on the third step of the podium, holding the trophy in the air, the Australian flag wrapped around her shoulders.]

Photo 3: Matilda hugging her parents in parc ferme.]

Liked by danielricciardo and others

mvr one home race down 🇦🇺, one more to go 🇳🇱 😉

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scuderiaferrari 👏🎉

23 March

—

SKY SPORTS: 2048 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

David CROFT: And Matilda Verstappen-Ricciardo absolutely sends it down the inside and makes it stick, and what a move! Gosh, I was not expecting her to pull it off but she absolutely does and gets a roar of a cheer from the home crowd, Verstappen-Ricciardo is currently in P3.

Jenson BUTTON: I mean, we should not be surprised. Daughter of Max Verstappen, a six time World Champion and Daniel Ricciardo, another World Champion. A lot of racing talent in that family, I thought the last of the late breakers was Daniel but she has really put a new meaning on late!

DC: And speaking of there is Max and Daniel Verstappen-Ricciardo, who I imagine are probably the most nervous parents in the paddock right now! A lovely nod and clap of encouragement as we watch the reaction of Matilda’s overtake for P3.

—

matilda verstappen-ricciardo @/MVR

if you’re wondering if it’s embarrassing to have your parents show up at work to congratulate you just wait till one of them interviews you in front of the tv…. thanks dad i’ve never felt so uncool before

138 replies 98 reposts 20,482 likes

—

POST RACE: PARC FERME INTERVIEW

Daniel RICCIARDO: Matilda!

Matilda VERSTAPPEN-RICCIARDO: Oh my god, please be cool about this.

DR: Just wait till I convince F1 to let me and Max double host it.

MVR: This is actually my worst nightmare. Like maybe three other people will understand what I’m feeling right now.

DR:

///

MVR: I mean I’m not worried about a legacy, if people think I’m here to start or continue a legacy then they can think that, but I’m here to race. Not carry on whatever my parents did.

#maxiel #glitter on the floor #candle wax and polaroids verse

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moonpetrichors-blog · 1 year

Note

Hi!!

Can I request Scaramouche x Singer!Reader?

Like Scaramouche finds their songs online and really likes them, and ends up somehow getting backstage tickets for a concert?

Idol

Tags: Fan!Scaramouche x Singer!Reader, Heacanons, Fem!Reader, Modern AU, Mean x Mean LMAO

Warnings: None

As an idol singer, you are used to seeing stadiums filled to the brim just to see you perform. You relish in the fame, but don't care much for your fans as you are used to the attention. That is, until one of them catches your eye backstage.

* ˚ ✦ Read below the cut

╭┈─────── ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-╰┈➤ ❝ [03/01/23] ❞

Scaramouche has never been a big fan on music.

People would usually take one look at him and think, yeah, that guy totally listens to my chemical romance.

He doesn’t, contrary to popular belief. Who do you think he is, Xiao?

That’s why, when he discovered K-pop, it became his biggest secret of all time.

Could you imagine Scaramouche, the mean shorty with a stick up his ass 24/7, jamming it out to Twice?

His love for girl groups grew when he came across a dance practice video of yours on YouTube.

Not only were you insanely pretty, but you had the vocals, dancing skills, and stage presence to turn you into an absolute machine.

He would rather die before the day he openly admits you as his bias.

One day, as he’s aimlessly surfing the internet, he comes across an extremely sketchy website.

A website, which was selling tickets to one of your concerts.

Now, Scaramouche should know better than to buy tickets for a concert on a website filled with ads about promiscuous women 5km away from him, but the tickets were cheap.

And who is he to say no to cheap tickets to one of his favorite girl groups?

He should count his lucky stars because the tickets were actually real.

Fast-forward to a few months later, Scaramouche was standing backstage to one of your concerts.

He supposed he only had himself to blame for this. He didn’t actually bother reading what the tickets were for, just that he thought it’d be funny if he got shitty tickets to a concert that ended up being real.

And they were very, very real.

Scaramouche supposed he didn’t care though, because he was going to meet his bias backstage. It almost felt surreal!

When you and your group wrapped up the song and said goodnight to your adoring fans, you were watchful of your attitude when waving to them.

Fans always liked when you’d act cute; never mind the fact that you were a literal adult, but that’s what this industry called for nowadays.

When you finally walked out of sight from the seats in the stadium, you dropped your smile.

Wiping away your sweat, you finally let your true demeanor shine around your coworkers.

You weren’t necessarily a raging Diva, but it was safe to say that most of your fans would be offended at your crude language and carefree attitude.

The other girls in your group always joked about how you lived a double life.

As you continued to walk further backstage, you didn’t realize there was someone aside from your group with you.

Another fan.

Scaramouche was frozen. You were way prettier up close. Those cameras did not do you justice.

You tried to maintain your fake smile again, but it was very difficult when you were tired and just wanted to crash in your bed. Did you guys even do backstage passes?

Scaramouche greeted you, and you tried to be polite, but that other side of you was definitely starting to peek through in your interactions.

He picked up on it too.

Even though you’re his bias, that doesn’t stop Scaramouche from being disrespectful to just about anyone.

“What’s with your ugly attitude?”

The rest of the group’s jaw dropped. So did your smile.

“Haha, you’re talking with that bowl cut?”

Now you started to bicker. Your coworkers were too tired to stay back and watch, so they left, leaving you and Scaramouche alone.

“Wow, your company does an amazing job at hiding how much of a bitch you really are!”

“You don’t even try! What, did you get backstage passes like a weirdo to harass me?”

You had never experienced this kind of treatment from a so called fan before. Honestly, you were more intrigued than offended.

This was absolutely not how Scaramouche expected his meeting with you to go. Security started to notice the commotion, and told Scaramouche they would have to escort him out.

Before they could, Scaramouche pulled on his lower eyelid, sticking his tongue out at you.

Now you were truly interested.

You told the security to lay off, scrawled your number on a napkin, and roughly thrust it against his chest.

Scaramouche looked at the napkin, bewildered, as he noticed what the numbers were when it fell into his palm.

He looked up at you, speechless.

“You’re a funny dude. Call me!”

And with that, you proceeded to give him the bird as you sauntered away.

Scaramouche thought that maybe he paid to see a bootleg version of you.

He was never buying tickets off sketchy websites again.

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onlyinarijollyhoundstuff · 2 years

Text

What I hope to see with the New Default Skins.

(breaking my silence to hyper-fixate on default skins for blocc game wheeeeeeee!!!)

1. All of them Getting featured in those shorts and animations on YouTube, like Steve and Alex do.

I would love to see them all in the Animation Vs Minecraft series, or how they’d look in Music Videos, those Black Plasma Studios vids, the jokey meme videos, heck even the trashy clickbait videos would probably do a lot better for not re-using the same 2 skins over and over and over again.

2. There is enough of these skins to fill a small SMP world. So perhaps a DefaultSMP series either as Fanfiction, RP or a YouTube Series?

What better way to utilize all the new characters, than to show them all interacting with each other! I really enjoyed watching HermitCraft (haven’t been able to keep up with it the past couple of years but sssshhhhh) And having in mind all the different personalities and how they played off of each other, I think it would be great to have some of this with some Original Minecraft Characters too!

Sure, It might not be as 100% authentic as the real personalities, but them being fictional characters will allow more surreal and chaotic situations.

(Characters could be shipped together without making things really awkward for IRL alter egos + I don’t think any of the skins are ever gonna be outed for horrid/problematic behavior in this lifetime.)

3.Spin-offs and Crossovers to Feature these characters!

On the smaller side, I would like all of these skins to be Equip-able in Dungeons and Legends. (You can Equip Steve/Alex skin in Dungeons, so it would be consistent, and I think it’s safe to assume for Legends too.

If Smash Bros ever adds Minecraft to their game again, I would love to see all of these dorks make it too. (Tennis Alex and Enderman... I will miss you)

Actually, It would be neat if those crossover packs they did with Bedrock have, started to incorporate them as guests, even if just a little bit.

4. Default Characters Featured as Actual Protagonists in Story-Based Content in the Future?!?!

It just hit me, that all of these skins would probably make scripting and writing a lot easier for the official Minecraft Movie. (Though I would also be perfectly fine with Steve and Alex just exploring the world.)

But beyond that, If Minecraft were to ever try something like Minecraft: Story mode again, I personally would love to interact with them or as them, heck they don’t even need to talk, (though I would go wild if they did).

something something begging for Minecraft Story Mode Season 3.

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abbatoirablaze · 2 years

Text

His Sunshine, Chapter 10

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: mentions of smut/afterglow of it, violence, mentions of gun violence, mentions of fighting, murder.

“Well, it’s not up to her, Lloyd,” Denny said quickly. I watched as Lloyd’s jaw clenched and his hand reached out to me. Instinctively I grabbed it, and I felt the comforting warmth running from his grip and into my body. I took a step closer to him, and he let go of my hand long enough to protectively wrap himself around me like a cocoon, “she’s in the program, so I’m utilizing her.”

“I-I understand,” I stuttered, feeling scared and nervous. Lloyd’s eyes shot to me, and his mouth parted slightly, “Lloyd…I have to.”

“Denny, you just cleared her of the-“

“I know what we just did, Lloyd,” he replied, cutting his friend off, “and I’m sorry that I didn’t believe the two of you sooner and took six for his word. But now the truth is out there. Now he’s gone rogue and-“

“She’s not going,” Lloyd seethed, pulling me tighter to his chest. I felt the anxiety across our bond, and my hand rested on his pec. He looked down at me, “I won’t let you go, Sunshine. I’m not losing you again.”

“You have your own job, Lloyd,” Denny remarked, “I need some leads and I have someone at a safehouse…waiting to have a conversation with you.”

Lloyd smiled down at me, his oceanic eyes sending sparks shooting up my spine. The sun managed to peek through the curtains, lighting up his face as he looked at me. His hand reached up, stroking my cheek. My breath caught in my throat; it all felt too surreal as his voice sounded like the sweetest melody to me, “I’m the luckiest man in the world to have you as my soulmate, Sunshine…this is exactly the type of moments I pictured in my head when I first met you!”

“Lloyd…”

“Shh…” he cooed. He took a deep breath, and our eyes studied one another, “I want to make love to you every morning noon and night for the rest of our lives…I want to take you across the world and show you everything. I want to give you the world, princess. And I’m going to do it.”

“I have everything that I need in the world so long as I have you…”

His hand traveled down the column of my throat and between the valley of my breasts, before settling on my stomach, “and if I asked you for something…more…more than just us?”

“We stopped using protection days ago, Lloyd,” I reminded him sweetly, stifling my own giggle about how around the bush he was being, “you didn’t have to ask for us to start. It feels right with you…it feels…natural.”

I watched as the breath caught in his throat and his gaze shifted to my stomach, “y-you’re okay with us…”

“Only with you, Lloyd…”

“I hope they have your eyes…and your smile,” he rambled softly. My heart melted at his innocent pleas, and I thought about how wrong the agency had been about him when they called him my enemy. A man like him would never be my enemy. I’d zoned out, just admiring him for so long that when I looked back into his eyes he was nearly breathless, “Sunshine…can they just look like you?”

I could only giggle as my hand fell over his, and I patted it, “I’m not going to promise you what our children will look like, Lloyd. I can’t predict that.”

“Children?”

“Oh, Mr. Hansen…”I cooed, stroking his cheek once more. I watched as a shiver ran down his spine and he leaned against my touch, “you don’t think we’re stopping at just one…do you?”

His eyes immediately went to my still flat stomach before he looked up towards the video call. Denny had a brow raised, “I’ll do both.”

“What?” I asked, looking to him, “Lloyd, you-“

“I’ve built up our home so that it’s like a fortress, so that it can keep you safe when I’m not around,” he said quickly, turning to me, “I need you to let that happen now…I need you to let me do this for you…for us…”

“But Lloyd…”

“I’m not going to argue this,” Denny said quickly, “Hansen…I need you to have that conversation with-“

“Then she’s not going,” he growled quickly, “you seem to be forgetting that Six raped my soulmate. He used her to get to me. I’ll take the job in her place. She’s not going to deal with him.”

“Lloyd…”

“You owe me, Denny!” he reminded his friend, “and this is my favor. I’m cashing in. She’s out of the program. She’s done. Whatever you need from her, you come to me, and I’ll take care of it, but she’s not a sierra anymore. She’s just Sunshine…one day Sunshine Hansen…but you don’t own her.”

I watched as Denny seemed to be considering his friends offer. His eyes flickered off camera for a second and his jaw clenched, “fine.”

“I want her file and all records of her torched.”

“Lloyd…”

“We both know what’s on that drive, Denny!” Lloyd reminded him, “this is my payment, Denny…she’s out…entirely. Her file is gone.”

“Complete the mission…and she’s out!” Denny confirmed, closing out of the call.

Lloyd looked to me, and I could see the nervousness in his eyes. My nails grazed over his biceps and to the crafted polo he wore, “Lloyd…”

“Let me do this for you, Sunshine,” he begged softly, “let me take care of you, like I promised that I would…I fucked up when I didn’t just take you with me the day we met. Let me make up for that now.”

I nodded, not wanting to fight with him, “please come back to me…”

“Always.”

My heart raced as I watched the footage from that night. Lloyd was quick to pack up and take some of his team with him so that he could take care of the first part of his mission, but I’d delved into his accounts, and had found the file that Denny sent him.

He sat at a table, blending into the party in the elite Bangkok district. He was sipping on a drink as though nothing else in the world mattered, his gaze caught on the large floor to ceiling window, where the city was thriving outside.

I felt sick to my stomach watching him.

How could he just sit there like he’d done nothing wrong in the world? Like he’d never did what he did to me?

Dani showed up wearing a suit in a flowered print; her hair cut in a neat bob. She was quick to speak, sliding something across the table.

He scooped it up just as quick.

I had to rewatch it a few times to figure out that he’d been slid a toy gun, which he kept with him.

I followed the cameras. While he left the main area of the party, Dani had hung around, my guess was as backup or to confirm the kill when it happened. He went into a private room that the toy gun gave him access to. It had a chip in its barrel that allowed him to bypass the code.

The room that he was in was two floors below where dining car was making his way to. The most elite room, where the owner of the building was going to be meeting dining car while he partied with only the closest of family and friends.

But there was something different about six.

He refused to take the shot. My stomach twisted into knots as I tried to analyze why he wouldn’t fire. But then I’d caught it. The kid was too close to the shot.

My stomach churned at the thought. He was unwilling to hurt the little boy, but yet he’d had no problem with doing what he did to me.

Instead, he claimed that the gun jammed, but tossed it away from himself, and went towards the fire alarm and pulled it. Most people started slowly, calmly heading towards an exit. Just like him.

He slid up behind the group, tailing them for the perfect chance. When he got to the main floor of the party, he attacked. He fought dining car’s men, and with the help of Dani, had managed to separate him from his team. There was no video out on the firework’s boat, but I knew that he’d taken it. Denny had mentioned it over the call.

He took something that was valuable to him.

And Lloyd knew what it contained.

Chapter 11

Tag list: @lohnes16, @buckysteveloki-me, @tenaciousperfectionunknown, @valhalla-kristin, @danielle143, @noseyrosey1597, @marve2014, @littlemoistcarrot, @minaxcarter, @ohtobehappy, @ebonynextdoor, @dforever15, @bambamwolf87, @bigcreatorwombatdreamer, @multifandom-world8, @gh0stgirl33, @mrspaigeomega, @grimistangel, @mlekozpudrem

#the gray man #gray man #denny carmichael #lloyd hansen x reader #soft lloyd hansen #lloyd hansen #soulmate au #his sunshine #chris evans characters

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cecilysass · 2 years

Text

The Boy on the Beach (1/16)

Read on AO3 | Tagging@today-in-fic

Prologue

“My heart leaps up, said Wordsworth, when I behold a rainbow in the sky. So was it when my life began; so is it now I am a man.”

“And is that the case for you?” says Scully, for whom the truth is always irrevocable, a fixed star. “Does your heart leap up?”

Mulder considers the question. Did my heart ever leap? Leap to what, to whom, to where? And if it had, would I remember?

Chapter 1: The Empty Chair

Berkeley, California Thirty Seconds After Scully Vanishes 1999

One moment she was sitting in the chair. Her chin up, her expression ice. And the next moment she was gone.

No one had to tell Mulder something had gone wrong. No one had to tell him the difference between having Scully and lacking Scully. In that distinction he was expert.

And after all, he knew they were not supposed to be staring at a fucking empty chair.

Mulder’s terror slowed his body. Made his limbs thick and heavy, like he was underwater. He watched the scientists helplessly through the glass. He felt like one of his goddamned fish.

The assistants, probably graduate students, were putting on a good front. But Mulder, watching in surreal slow motion, could see they were giving each other uneasy looks, murmuring to one another. One of them, a young woman who had been speaking with Scully just a few minutes before it happened, began tapping the counter in front of her with nervous energy. Eventually she fidgeted and glanced behind her, making accidental eye contact with Mulder through the glass.

The look in the young woman’s eye was unmistakable: pity. And this was enough to wake Mulder from his stupor.

He discovered his feet again, began walking, faster and faster, and then he pushed into the room in a straight, unerring line until he was face-to-face with Dr. Hays, who stood, slack-jawed.

“Hey.” His voice was loud, echoing through the lab. “Hey. Why is that chair empty?”

It sounded like a simple question. But even Hays, who couldn't know all the rumors about Mulder, could hear the dangerous undercurrent.

“It is ... unexpected,” Hays said, smooth, placating.

“Yes, unexpected is one word for it.” Now Mulder’s tone was a rubber band being stretched. “The investigator has completely vanished. I would say that’s a little fucking unexpected.”

“Mulder,” came Skinner’s voice. He was entering from across the room, no doubt sensing trouble.

“I’m afraid I don’t know quite yet what happened, Agent Mulder,” Hays said. “It’s one of several possibilities.”

“Help me understand the possibilities,” Mulder continued, burrowing his stare deep into the scientist’s face. “Because this should not have affected her physical location. This was a telepathic exercise. We all understood this.”

“Agent Mulder, we are working to figure it out,” Hays said, a wan smile. “I am going to have to ask for your patience until we can assess the situation.”

“Dr. Hays,” Mulder hissed, “understand that I’m asking this as patiently as I can. Where is Scully? Where the hell is my partner?”

“Her body camera,” one of the technicians spoke up from across the room. “The body camera she had on. I think it just transmitted something, Dr. Hays.”

“Video footage?” Hays’s eyes lit up.

“No, a single image. A still photo.”

Twenty minutes earlier—when Scully was still in the room, avoiding conversation with him, dressed like an avenging angel in black—Mulder had been told to stay out of the control room. He had been told in no uncertain terms to wait patiently behind the glass with Skinner. He had been told he would be in the way, a distraction. He was to observe only.

Mulder decided that this rule no longer applied the moment Scully disappeared into thin air. Scrambling across the room, he made it to the technician’s monitor before Hays and Skinner did.

The image was still loading, small bars of grayscale appearing at an excruciatingly slow rate. Mulder peered over the technician’s shoulder, unable to rein in his impatience. He sighed loudly.

“Yeah, uh, this image should help us find her,” the technician said, nervously glancing at Mulder, who was standing uncomfortably close to him. He was young. Probably also a grad student. Mulder didn’t respond.

“What’s your name?” Skinner asked the technician, appearing to stand with crossed arms behind them.

“Anish,” the technician said, looking unhappy.

“Her body camera is designed to transmit pictures, Anish?” Skinner asked.

“No,” Anish said, watching the screen. “It was actually designed to send video, but the tech will revert to sending still photos at regular intervals if …”

“If sending video is impossible,” Hays said, also coming behind to watch, his eyes bright.

“And under what circumstances would sending video be impossible?” Mulder said, looking sharply at Hays again.

No one answered him.

“Look, here it comes now,” Anish said softly.

The image began to take on some form.

At first it only looked to Mulder like abstract shapes, shadows, corners, all in gray, white, black. Then, as more filled in, it began to fall into place as a recognizable pattern.

“It almost looks … like a face?” Anish whispered.

A face, perhaps, but unsettling. A suggestion of eyes, nose, mouth, but with a quality that was somehow inhuman. Wrong.

“It’s not a human face,” Mulder realized quickly. “It’s a doll, I think.”

It was a rag doll, he deduced. With yarn hair and round dark circles on each cheek. As more of the picture filled in, he could see that it was sitting propped up at the end of a bed, a bed that seemed to be covered with a blanket, some sort of busy flowered pattern.

In the background there appeared to be a faintly blurry bookshelf with books and toys, more obscured details along the walls. Mulder leaned in to try to make out anything he could, but the closer he got, the image only turned into unrecognizable pixels. Some of the picture, at the top, was still filling in.

Skinner was crouching next to Mulder now, peering over his shoulder. “It looks like a child’s bedroom, maybe?”

Mulder rubbed his eyes, nodding. “Yeah. A young girl’s bedroom,” he agreed, his voice rough.

“What’s that in the bottom right of the image?”

Mulder placed his finger on the screen at the darkened triangle Skinner was referring to.

“You think that could be Scully’s foot?” Skinner said. “Like she is sitting with her leg up?”

Mulder was silent, looking at it for a moment. “Yes,” he said. “She was wearing black boots this morning with that shape to the toe. The camera was on her head, so if she were sitting with her leg up, we would be seeing … yeah. Her foot.”

“You have any idea how she would end up in a kid’s bedroom, Mulder?”

“No,” Mulder said. “I don’t.”

In silence they both regarded the image. The technician coughed uneasily.

The dulling sensation of panic. Mulder felt it, creeping over his body again, making his blood freeze, threatening to overtake his capacity to reason through this.

Scully could talk him through this. He felt her absence like a threat. Like fingers closing tighter and tighter around his neck, sealing off his windpipe.

Sucking a breath roughly through his teeth, he made an effort to calm his respiration, to shut out what was threatening to take over. In his attempt to get his shit together, his eyes picked out a detail on the image.

“Wait,” he said. “Can you … can you zoom in at all?”

“Sort of,” Anish admitted. “We don’t gain quality, but I can make it bigger.”

“I need to see the book spines on the shelf,” Mulder said. “As much as you can.”

Skinner leaned forward. “Where? There on the bottom left?”

Anish fussed with the image, enlarging it and trying his best to bring it into sharper relief.

“Little House on the Prairie. Nancy Drew. Alice in Wonderland. And there, Moby Dick,” Skinner said, “It’s Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Mulder said grimly, his stomach tightening. “Moby Dick.”

The picture in Mulder’s mind was starting to fill in, too, like a grayscale image, pixel by pixel.

“Moby Dick is a pretty grown-up book for a kid’s room. That mean something to you, Mulder?”

“It might mean something,” Mulder said. “Or maybe it’s just all a huge, fucking ominous coincidence.”

Mulder turned around to search for Hays. The scientist was now facing the other direction, no longer looking at the monitor at all. Mulder glowered at his thin gray ponytail.

“What’s going on over there on the right of the screen? That picture there on the wall?” Skinner asked, pointing at the monitor.

There was something on the bedroom wall with prominent faces and a swirly typeface. Anish centered it on the screen, zoomed in to see it better.

“A poster, maybe?” Anish suggested. “Some kids’ band? Hanson? Spice Girls?”

Mulder blinked at it.

“It is a poster,” Mulder said woodenly. “It’s a poster for The Partridge Family. You can see the beginning of the word ‘Partridge’ right here.”

“The Partridge Family?” Skinner scowled. “The old TV show? Are you sure?”

“In a kid’s bedroom?” Anish commented doubtfully.

“It’s not a popular kids’ show now,” Mulder said. He began to raise his voice now, aiming it across the room at Hays’ turned back. “But when Scully was a kid, it was.”

Hays now swiveled, slowly and deliberately, to meet Mulder’s eyes. His lips were pursed, ever so slightly. Mulder was now certain: Hays already knew.

“Mulder,” Skinner said, taking a deep breath. “Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“I think Scully is in her own past,” Mulder said. “I think she’s in her own childhood bedroom.” His voice tapered off at the end.

“Time travel?” Skinner looked abruptly at Hays. The technician, bewildered, did, too. “Is he right, Hays? Is that possible?”

Hays examined his own fingernail, pensively, a strange little half smile on his face. “Well, yes. As a matter of fact … he might be right. And it’s extraordinary, isn’t it?” He sighed. “Time travel. Such a … breakthrough.”

In under a second, Skinner anticipated what Mulder would do next.

Mulder’s wrists were caught, easily, by Skinner before his fist reached Hays’ face.

And thirty seconds later, the Greek chorus of white-coated assistants and technicians were standing around in a semicircle watching, open-mouthed and horrified, as Skinner wrested Mulder back into a chair across the room.

“All right, all right, Mulder,” Skinner hissed, pinning Mulder’s arms behind him. “You’re going to need a cooler head here.”

“It was supposed to be me.” Mulder didn’t even recognize his own voice.

“It was never going to be you,” Skinner said calmly, like he was talking to an angry child. “It was never, ever going to be you. She and I agreed on that. So you can let go of that guilt right now. And the important thing now, I am sure you can agree, is to figure out what to do next.”

“How do we get her back?”

The chorus of assistants and technicians looked at Hays, too.

“That’s the thing,” Hays said, combing through his hair with his fingers, his maddening half smile still on his face. “I am not sure we do.”

Exact Time and Date Unknown San Diego, California

When Scully opened her eyes, she felt the world rotating rapidly under her. She felt like she had been on a rickety spinning ride at an amusement park, the kind of ride she had never enjoyed and usually avoided.

She also couldn’t see. With her fingers she rubbed her eyes rapidly, then blinked them open and shut in panic. Everything in her field of vision appeared as pink and orange, soft and blurry blobs of light. Her hands stretched out, patting around her. She could tell she was sitting somewhere soft. Someplace with pillows. Maybe a bed.

“Mulder?” she croaked, from a deep-seated instinct.

There was no answer. There was no echo either.

Also from instinct, she reached in her jacket for her holstered weapon. It was there. That comforted her somewhat, although it was an irrational comfort. You had to be able to see to fire a gun.

Slowly the world came into focus. The first thing her eyes could really make sense of was a rag doll. Somewhere close by, dimly, she heard a whirring and clicking sound that she couldn’t quite place or process. She shook her head, trying to shake the confusion, and instead looked again at the face of the rag doll.

Which was familiar. Very familiar.

Louisa. That was the doll’s name, it came to her. She got it for Christmas in kindergarten, and she and Melissa had named it together. She slept with it on her bed every night until she was in high school. Now, Louisa should be in a box somewhere in her mother’s house, probably in her attic.

Not here, not sitting facing her on this bed, in this room. This room. Scully forced herself to take a deep breath, to swallow. A deep uneasiness was creeping over her.

This room itself was vaguely familiar. At least familiar in its component parts, in pieces and fragments.

For instance, she was crouched on a tiny twin bed with a bright bedspread and a wicker headboard. It was unquestionably her childhood bedspread: cheerful pink and orange daisies, shapes she had traced idly with her fingers countless times. And this was her bed’s pale green headboard—the one she would, as a teenager, cover in Joy Division and the Clash stickers — but now looking clean, pure, sticker-free.

Across the room, the identical twin of her bed sat in perfect parallel, piled up with pink and orange daisy throw pillows. Melissa’s prized bear, Captain Mel, sat perched on top. A picture of David Cassidy and a flyer for a Christmas concert at Immaculate Heart of Mary School were haphazardly Scotch taped up above the pillows.

Scully’s attention turned to the bookshelves. The porcelain dolls, which they rarely played with. A globe of the world she used to spin and put her finger on, imagining visiting the place upon which her finger landed. Twister. Hungry Hungry Hippos. Her Nancy Drew collection.

Next to that, Melissa’s Partridge Family poster. The pious sampler their grandmother stitched with two red-headed little girls saying their prayers and the inscription: “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.”

Scully, moving her head in a slow, shaky circle, let her eyes scan the room’s contents. She heard herself take a ragged breath.

Whatever this was, it was a mistake. This is not where she should be. This is not what was supposed to happen. Her mind began the familiar and comforting process of sifting through explanations.

She could be simply experiencing the extreme hyperthymesia the experiment was aimed at creating, couldn’t she? She could simply be very intensely remembering her past. This was not the memory they had been attempting to revisit; Hays had wanted her to start by targeting a day at the office the week prior. But maybe it was not as easy to target as expected.

Still, this was not the way the EH had been described to her. Why would she be remembering this experience as occurring in her adult body? She looked down at herself: her suit, her weapon, her post-pubescent, thirtysomething physiology. That was not how the phenomenon was supposed to work. If this were simply an extremely vivid memory, she would be remembering this time as it happened. She would be remembering it as a child.

Perhaps this was some kind of hallucination. Maybe this room was a convincing sensory experience constructed by her brain, informed by her childhood memories. Maybe this was some side effect of the process Hays hadn’t mentioned.

“Daaaaaana.”

A young girl’s voice, coming somewhere outside the room, startled her out of inaction. She leaped up off the bed, and stood there, wobbly-legged, uncertain, in the middle of the room. Her heart thumping, she looked back and forth around the room in a panic for a place to hide. She felt like Alice in Wonderland having eaten the “eat me” cake: absurdly too big, impractically out of scale with her surroundings.

“Dana! Come help with the potatoes!” insisted the voice again, closer. She was aware of the sound of feet pounding up stairs.

God, it was Melissa. She recognized the voice with a sudden, certain jolt.

Closet, she told herself. She ducked into the small closet adjacent to their bookshelf, pushing herself towards the back, wedging herself awkwardly behind the clothing. The hangers holding her girlhood church dresses and school uniform skirts swung gently back and forth, creaking very lightly. She waited. Listening. Trying to slow her breathing.

It smelled so painfully familiar in this closet. A mix of scents that Scully could never have described if asked, yet were somehow exactly the smell of her childhood: her mother’s old lemon laundry detergent. The strawberry shampoo she and Melissa used to use as girls. Double Bubble gum. Penny loafer shoe leather.

If this was a hallucination, it was a very detailed one, involving multiple sensory inputs. But she didn’t, in point of fact, believe that it was only a hallucination. She believed, somewhat implausibly, that she was actually here. In her past. In her childhood bedroom.

Mulder would be so proud. Is it any more impossible than what you saw in Africa, or what you saw in me?

Through the closet door, she heard the sound of the bedroom door being thrown open, and then the impatient footsteps of a child pounding inside. “Dana! Didn’t you hear me?”

Silence.

“She’s not in here, Mom!” shouted Melissa. “That’s weird … I thought she was. She must have gone outside.”

Scully swallowed, breathing fast, feeling hot tears pooling in her eyes. Whatever was happening, that certainly seemed like her big sister outside that door. Very young. Very alive.

There was the sound of a child’s aggrieved sigh. And then clomping, heavy footsteps leaving the room. Scully could hear Melissa complaining as she went back down the stairs. “She can’t sneak off and not help with the potatoes at all,” Melissa called. “That was supposed to be Dana’s job. And what about the boys, Mom? Bill hasn’t done one single thing to help! Do I have to do everything?”

Her voice grew more distant—and was answered, somewhere, faintly, by her mother’s voice, high and young.

Inside the dim closet, Scully didn’t move for a moment, trying to process.

When she felt safe enough to step into the room again, she rubbed her wet eyes, blinking. She looked around the bedroom again, seeing it fresh.

This bedroom itself was not a room she remembered well. The Scullys moved often, in her childhood, at least up until high school, and she and Melissa normally shared a room, at least until Melissa was old enough to begin doing things like following the Dead or getting jobs at bead shops, but that all seemed to be several years away. She thought this room might belong to the second stint of naval housing they lived in in San Diego. That did not last long, only a year, because her mother didn’t like the house and they eventually requested a bigger place on the same base, a place Scully remembered better. Scully could not quite remember what year that made this, or how old she should be.

What year that made this. Scully sat down, her legs trembling, on the edge of her bed.

This was not … There was a lot to parse through here.

She tried to piece together what might have happened. She remembered being in the chair in Hays’ laboratory—and before that, Mulder, his … mission, the pain of their conflict. But that’s the last thing to be thinking of.

She needed focus.

She looked down at her clothing. She was wearing what she had been wearing in the chair: a newer black suit, fitted at the waist, her boots. Reaching her hands to her head, she realized, with a start, that she still had the body camera strapped around her head—it was lightweight, and in her anxiety, she had not remembered it was there. The whirring and clicking sounds she heard before must have been the camera recording footage, right after she woke up in the bed.

Where that footage was going, if it could possibly be transmitted anywhere… well, that was a problem to consider later.

If Hays’ little project had gone wrong, if she had somehow been sent physically to her own past, both time and place, a feat of reverse time travel that certainly should not be possible, then it raised the obvious question: where was her child self? Melissa had expected to find child Dana in the bedroom, but she obviously wasn’t.

Scully more carefully examined the surface of the bed, and this time, noticed a small green notebook sitting splayed open. Nearby, she spotted a shiny pink pencil about to roll off the bed.

She ran her fingers over the notebook’s cover. In black marker, written in straight and neat penmanship: Property of Dana Katherine Scully. Do Not Touch.

Something familiar hummed inside Scully. She flipped through the pages, seeing lines jump out, written in her own childish handwriting. “I punched Bill in the face, but he’s the one who got in trouble because I told Dad he hit me first.” and “Sister Spooky says if we dip our pencils in holy water we’ll do better on our spelling tests. Stupid.”

The last entry had only 8 and a half words. “Dear Diary, For Thanksgiving dinner today I am supp—” The last word was interrupted, the pencil mark trailing off.

And Scully could picture, with the clarity that usually came more easily to Mulder than it did to her, exactly what had happened. The child Dana’s body, sprawled here on the bed writing in her diary, was suddenly replaced, physically, by the body of her time-traveling adult self.

There was a lot she didn’t understand about the time travel mechanism at work here. From what Hays had described to her and Mulder, there wasn’t supposed to be a physical time travel mechanism at work here. Either Hays had lied, or some kind of unimaginable mistake had been made.

But her grasp of paradox, her general conception of physics and the flow of time, gave her cause to be worried. If adult Scully had replaced her child self, then her child self was no longer living the timeline that she had previously lived. This was a rupture in the established history of Dana Scully.

Whatever the ... emotional situation had been with her and Mulder before she left, once it was obvious she had physically vanished, she knew Mulder would be losing his mind trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

That didn’t change about Mulder. No matter what. After all, she thought bitterly, she would become part of the all-important mission.

But that was assuming Mulder knew who she was. That the timeline hadn’t been altered. That she had grown up to be the Dana Scully she was. That she had gone into the F.B.I., that she had met Mulder, that they had taken this case.

Stay calm. There are too many unknowns to panic. Take one step at a time. Scully put her hands on her head, making herself inhale and exhale, and felt again the elastic band of the camera apparatus under her fingers. She would have to decide what to do with that 1999 camera attached to her head if she was going to leave this house and go on a 1970s adventure.

She looked down again at her interrupted child self’s diary entry. Specifically at the top, where she had written today’s date.

Thanksgiving Day, 1973.

She should have been nine years old.

#x files fanfic #the x files #xfiles fanfic

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dreamy625 · 9 months

Text

This rockstar life - 4.1 Travelin' Band

So this is where the timeline really splits from reality, with Steve still in the band for the Adrenalize tour. Don’t worry about Viv, he'll be perfectly happy playing with Thin Lizzy or someone for a few years :)

Words: 4025 (sorry)

Content: Some mentions of alcohol

This rockstar life master list

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

== April 15th 1992 - Dublin ==

Dear Diary. Ah, I suddenly feel thirteen again! Kevin Peterson smiled at me in Geography, but I have three new spots and am totally gross so he must be blind. Blondie on Top of the Pops again…

Anyway, enough nostalgia. This will be my attempt to record for posterity our tour adventures April 1992 to… as yet undecided. Either for the biography I’m always threatening Steve I’m going to write about him, or just so that, when I’m an old lady, I can prove that I was once a cool rock chick (ha ha ha).

So I guess you’d call this the warm-up stage, although one club and then a massive stadium is a pretty weird warm-up! We're leaving for soundcheck in an hour or so, then they’re due on stage at 9pm. I’ve got to go and find Steve and try and make him eat something, but I’m rating my chances of success with that at about 1%. He’s been walking in circles round Joe’s garden since about 7am. I don’t think he’ll be hard to find, just follow the trail of cigarette butts. ----------------------------------------

McGonagles is surprisingly scruffy for such a famous venue. And small - Stevie looked like a tiger in a cage, pacing back and forth. I’ve seen the ‘In the round’ video of course, and a few bootlegs that Joe has a secret stash of, and the boy likes to move! Sav says in the early days he used to gallop around without looking and he had to take evasive action to avoid getting knocked off the stage! Happily no one went flying tonight though, and everything worked, and Joe only forgot the words once, and the crowd were insanely enthusiastic. So it was great. Surreal, but great!

And now I really must try and go to sleep, our flight’s pretty early in the morning. Sweetiepie’s already spark out and snoring - two nights of anxiety dreams and half a bottle of brandy will do that to a person.

Next stop, Wembley!

== 18th April - London, Wembley Stadium!! ==

Am I dreaming? I’ve dropped into a whole different world! I’ve just seen Elton John in a tracksuit!

== 19th April - London, Mookie Manor ==

I thought roller coasters usually warmed you up with a couple of gentle undulations before the ride got wild, but no, this one has gone straight for the big drop. I knew he got stagefright, and he was pretty twitchy at McGonagles, but this was a whole other level. He was okay yesterday - quiet, but you could see he was just concentrating really hard on remembering where he was supposed to be when, and getting the songs right obviously, but he could do that in his sleep.

Today though… I think it was seeing Robert Plant casually chatting with David Bowie and Roger Daltrey… he just went white, then grey, and rushed out of the marquee. Phil managed to haul him out of the gents loo in time for their stage runthrough, which went fine as far as I could tell, but then he vanished again and I couldn’t track him down. Backstage is crazy - there are dressing rooms and suchlike but, because there’s so many people, they’ve also brought in tents and portakabins and buses and there’s trucks and catering vans and flight cases all over - he could have been anywhere, so eventually I gave up looking because I was just getting in everyone’s way and went and watched the soundchecks from the press pit. Then Stacy appeared looking frantic and said ‘I think you’d better come, Steve’s…’. She didn’t even need to finish the sentence, I could guess and just asked where.

When I got to the hospitality tent, one of the roadies, Malcolm maybe, had him pinned up against a pillar. He’d drunk, I don’t know how much, presumably a lot, and apparently had started punching the wall, which had minimal effect since it was canvas, and then started on a table, and then taken a perfunctory swing at one of the bar staff when they’d tried to grab him. At which point Rick had run for Joe, and Stacy had found me. He was struggling against the arms holding him back, but went limp and hung his head when he saw me, instantly remorseful. I got him out of the marquee while everyone stared at us (you’d think this crowd, of all people, would be blasé about rockstar excess, but apparently we were still the afternoon’s entertainment) and into a taxi. All he said on the way back was ‘I can’t’ over and over. I’ve given him one of the pills he makes me look after so he won’t take a whole handful and he’s sleeping now.

Pretty scared about tomorrow. And it’s all going to be down to Joe and the boys - no hangers-on allowed backstage for the main event.

== 20th April - London, Mookie Manor ==

Wow. That was just. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in one place before! I don’t think I’ve seen so many people before full stop! They said 70,0000. And millions more watching on television apparently. To go from a few hundred people in that sweaty old club to this! Yesterday’s freakout looks like a pretty reasonable reaction now. And of course he was fine, better than fine. Like Joe said, the second he steps on the stage, he’s 100% rockstar. It’s just getting him on the stage that’s the struggle. Really, I don’t know how he does it. I don’t know how any of them do it. I would be so completely paralysed with terror at the mere suggestion of going out in front of that crowd. I guess that’s why I’m not a musician! Well that and a total lack of talent.

Joe, I think, had the best day of his life! Prancing around in front of a massive crowd in those union jack jeans (I don’t know where he finds these things), and then sharing a stage with Bowie, Ronno, and Ian Hunter - basically all his fanboy dreams come true. He acts so cool and confident most of the time and then suddenly his inner geeky little kid breaks through. He was bouncing up and down so much he was practically levitating with excitement! Stevie was not quite so exuberant but, once the adrenaline wore off, he was pretty mellow, just sitting quietly in the bar with a big grin on his face.

We’ve got a couple of days off now, and then he’s back to rehearsals and I’ve got a big pile of work I’ve been ignoring. This rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is not quite as glamorous as I had been led to expect!

== 19th May - Madrid ==

So here we are, first night of the proper tour. I was going to start before and record the pre-tour prep. But it was just like packing for a holiday really. All the instruments go with the stage set-up, so you don’t have to worry about that. And even Steve’s stage clothes go in travel cases and are looked after by the wardrobe assistant - this one is called Susie, and Steve has already nicknamed her Susie Sew. She seems lovely, but she’s about seven feet tall and six inches wide, so I hate her! If I looked like that I’d be a model, not washing a load of sweaty t-shirts every night!

These are supposed to be more warm-up gigs, so small clubs with minimal publicity. It sold out the day it was announced though, so that’s good. The club is apparently known as ‘El templo del heavy’ - The Metal Temple - so I don’t know how Joe squares that with his ‘we’re not heavy metal’ claims!

== 20th May - Paris ==

I was too tired to write anything after the show last night, and then we had to get up early for the flight to Paris, but today’s a rest day so we can be tourists. I haven’t been here since the occasional weekend trip on le TGV in my TEFL days, but of course Steve and Phil lived here on and off for years. They reckon it hasn’t changed - I don’t think the Parisians would allow it to! We went to le Centre Pompidou, and we’re doing the Louvre tomorrow if there’s time before soundcheck.

Lunch was hilarious. I ordered for us en français without even thinking about it, and then noticed Stevie staring at me with his mouth open. He went ‘You speak French?!’ and I’m like duh, I’m a translator, you know that! Apparently it had never occurred to him that that meant I could speak in French as well! Actually my conversational French isn’t that good - I’m more used to formal French and it makes me sound like someone’s snooty grandma to real French people. But he looked genuinely impressed. Even after living in Paris for three years, all he’d learned to do was ask for beer and cigarettes, and he insisted on me teaching him. Which was fine to start with - he’s a good mimic and can do the accent way better than me - but then the more wine we drank, the louder and more animated he got, and other diners started to stare and mutter. Then, when the waiter was bringing us dessert, Steve jumped up and intercepted him and decided he was the waiter now, with the whole folded napkin over the arm thing and everything, then he started waving menus at the customers at nearby tables and gabbling at them in exaggerated franglais - think Manuel* but French instead of Spanish. Honestly I thought they were going to throw us out! I had to lure him back to the table with tarte au citron, which was delicious of course. And then we left a REALLY big tip.

== 24th May - Munich ==

Another night, another disreputable little club. Look at me, so nonchalant already! Not really, not even slightly bored of this yet. I get to watch Def Leppard every night, how cool is that! They still look weird to me on tiny little stages, but they sound great. And Steve’s doing pretty good. Remembering Joe’s only comment on the Wembley freak out - ‘He does this’ - I was worried we were going to have a repeat performance every night, but actually he’s been okay. He goes quiet an hour or two before showtime, and he can’t eat anything, and I think the temptation to break his vow not to drink before they go on is always there, but there’s enough bustle in the dressing room to distract him and, now they’re into a routine, he’s definitely steadier.

== 26th May - Milan ==

The boys head back to Germany today, but I’m going home because I’ve got project meetings. I’m trying to get everything set up before we go further afield - it’s one thing to make a hop back across the channel to meet clients, quite a different matter when you’re on a whole different continent! I hope Stevie’s going to be okay on his own. He’s a bit pouty but trying to be stoic about it. And Phil, bless him, is going to keep an eye on him. Also hope I’m going to be okay on my own! I’ve never flown by myself before. Also faintly terrified about the client meeting. Never done one where it’s my project, there’s always been a proper grown-up in charge before. What if I say something stupid? What if I open my mouth and all that comes out is one of those anxiety squeaks? No one's ever going to book me again :/

I know people tend to think of me as Steve's nursemaid, but they don't see how he has to look after me too. There's things he's totally cool about, like travelling, that freak me out, and having him with me makes it much less stressful. Also just emotionally, he's just the only person who calms me down. He finds that strange, that he could be calming to anyone. I don’t really know how to explain it; somehow, because he’s as messed up as I am, I feel safer with him than I ever have with anyone else? I'm trying not to stress, and hoping that medication and meditation will be enough, in the absence of soothing Steve hugs, to not dissolve into a puddle of anxiety. It’s only a week and then we’ll be back together. And in Sweden, which is cool. I’ve never been there. I asked him what it’s like but all he could remember was pickled fish and Abba. He’s got a thing for Frida - another redhead, surprise surprise!

== 5th June - Copenhagen ==

Forgot to document the other Scandinavian dates, oops. Basically another two good gigs with happy shouty audiences and not too many wrong notes. And pickled herring is disgusting! Anyway, we’re in Denmark now, which is very clean and tidy, and everyone speaks English. I have learned two words in Danish - tak, which means thank you, and puttemus, which means cuddle-mouse and is Steve’s new nickname (especially because he wrinkles his nose in disgust when I call him that!).

I’m writing this at tonight’s venue, which is really tiny - I think my school hall was bigger than this! Steve always says that touring isn’t really travelling - you just see a hotel, a stage, and a bar, and could be anywhere. I definitely see the truth in that now. I thought we’d have at least some spare time in the places we’re in for two or three days, but he has to do interviews and radio spots and photoshoots everywhere and barely gets a minute to himself. I’ve been getting to know some of the other wives/girlfriends a bit better though, and today we all went on a little excursion to Tivoli Gardens, which is an old-timey amusement park. Took some pictures of the old classic rides and pretty buildings, but didn’t really fancy going on a wooden rollercoaster.

== 6th June - Roskilde airport ==

Oh god, so hungover. After the show we ended up going to a strip club as they stay open later than the bars. I have limited experience of such things, but it seemed kind of wholesome compared with the only one I’ve been in before, in London. Feel like maybe I should disapprove on feminist principle, but really if women want to make a bunch of money off men by writhing around on a stage in their knickers, that’s their own business. Also I was secretly thrilled to finally see some of this rock ‘n’ roll debauchery I’ve heard so much about! There’s this Danish liqueur made from cherries that they make cocktails with. It tastes like jam. And fun fact, when you drink too much of it, you throw up pink. Not looking forward to getting on this plane one little bit.

One more of these small club gigs then we’re back to Blighty and start getting into bigger places, arenas and such like. The boys are all very excited that they will finally get to play with their new in-the-round stage. This time the drum riser literally rises, ten feet in the air, as well as spinning round, which totally doesn’t sound like a deathtrap, honest!

== 15th June - Dublin ==

Back in the Emerald Isle and chez Joe. We’ve come over a few days early so the boys can, in the eternal quest to produce an album in less than three years, record some demos in Joe’s studio. I’m not sure how much actual music-making is happening, they seem to be using the majority of the time to play golf (mostly Joe and Sav), run up hills (mostly Phil), reacquaint themselves with obscure Irish brands of cigarettes (mostly Steve), and of course drink Guinness (everyone except Phil, and me because it is disgusting - yes, I am a traitor to my Irish ancestry!). There has also been a lot of reminiscing about when they lived here after the Pyromania tour, including visits to Booterstown and Belville House, where Steve, Phil, and Rick used to live (and which is now painted pink and looks like a birthday cake and about as un-rock ‘n’ roll as you could possibly get).

== 20th June - a plane somewhere over the Irish sea ==

Brilliant gig! Everyone sounded great, the stage and lighting looked amazing, and everything worked - all the fancy moving bits did what they were supposed to, and no one got flung off the drum riser! We couldn’t sleep at all last night, we were so hyper, bouncing around Joe’s kitchen at 4am until he came down and shouted at us to shut up! I think he’s happy his role as a hotelier is over - this morning he was muttering about it being like having raccoons living in his house!

== 21st June - Glasgow ==

Fucking freezing! It’s June! It’s meant to be summer?! How do people live here? Steve likes it. Must be his Northern upbringing. Freak.

== 24th June - Sheffield ==

Hometown gigs! Bit of a weird part of the tour actually. Most of the boys are thrilled to see their families and old friends - they had to make a VIP section twice the size of normal to fit them all in - but it’s been difficult for Steve. He hadn’t seen his parents since that horrible Christmas two years ago, but he couldn’t not invite them to the gig, so it was pretty awkward. Of course everyone was perfectly polite, we were in public afterall, but you could see the distance between them. I think Barry’s still angry, and Beryl obviously just misses him. She hugged him so tight, and didn’t want to let go. I know they all used to be so close, well, the boys and Beryl and the two grandmas anyway, so I’d hope they can get that back. But Steve doesn’t even look like part of his family anymore, and you can really hear how his accent has softened when he’s surrounded by proper working class Yorkshiremen. Not exactly a peacock among pigeons, but maybe a dove. He feels it too and it makes him really sad. He blames himself, but I’m not sure how you could stay tied to your roots while living such a vastly different life to the people you’ve left behind?

He doesn’t really even like being back in the city; he feels watched, like everyone knows him and is judging him for having ideas above his station. That period when they first got their record deal and people called them sell-outs and actually spat at them in the street has left deep wounds. There were a lot of problems with the sound last night, which was unfortunate, but it has provided Steve with an excuse not to see people or do local media - Joe and Sav are doing the interviews (wearing their team shirts of course - thank gods it’s the off-season or they’d be bickering about it endlessly!) - while he and Phil are here ostensibly helping to get the sound sorted out. Actually they’re just drinking a lot of tea and taking the piss out of Malvin, but it’s keeping him distracted from brooding which is the main thing. To be honest, I’ll be glad when this is done and we head back down south.

== 25th June - London, Mookie Manor ==

Back home again for a few days. Very convenient having Earl’s Court Arena basically just down the road from our house. Phil, Jacki, and Rory are staying over. We had to spend the evening building their bed as it had been sat in bits in boxes ever since Steve bought the house. Had to borrow spanners off the neighbours.

Rory has got so big and is into everything. It must be over a year since we saw him and Jacki as they mostly stayed in America while the boys were recording. I have no idea what to do with kids - they’re just loud and sticky agents of chaos to me - but Steve is really good with him. They’ve been playing hide and seek, and driving matchbox cars round the living room, and now Steve’s upstairs reading him a story. It’s really sweet. I wish… no I don’t wish, because we just couldn’t, for everyone’s sake. But in some ways, he really would make a great dad.

== 26th June - London, Earl’s Court ==

Very proud of the boys today - they won the Silver Clef award for outstanding contribution to British music! We had to go to the presentation lunch at the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane. It’s super-fancy, inside at least, but unfortunately was built in the 1970’s so is a hideous concrete box. Kind of terrifying - they took pictures of all of us when we arrived and I did not know what to do with my face, I was trying to hide behind Stevie as much as possible. And he ate most of my lunch so the waiters wouldn’t look at me funny.

Really looking forward to the gig tonight. This is the biggest one so far, I think the biggest one until we get to America? Phil’s mum is coming and we’re going to sit together. She’s such a sweetheart - you can tell where he gets his golden retriever personality from!

== 30th June - Birmingham, NEC ==

Second of three nights here as the ticket sales have been so good. Not the most glamorous of venues though! And I’m so glad we have drivers to ferry us around - I would die if I had to navigate Birmingham’s road system! One thing in the NEC’s favour though is that it has got really good business facilities. I have a mountain of work to get finished before we go to Australia, ugh. Steve was a little bit sulky when I said I had to work the whole time, but he does understand really. Phil has taken him to the gym today, so I’ll look forward to hearing how that went :)

The bigger venues they’ve been doing on this leg do make such a difference to the experience, now I'm seeing Leppard as I know them from videos. And Steve is unleashed! He runs around like a greyhound, doing all his signature moves. It's really… I feel ridiculous writing this, but really sexy! Not that I didn't fancy him like mad already, but ‘Stage Steve’ is a very different animal. I think it's the confidence, even a little bit of arrogance, and the power he has over the audience. He’s just… magnificent! I haven't worked out yet if it's entirely put on, just a performance, or if it's tapping into a part of his personality that's usually buried. I'm not sure he knows himself. Either way it’s really quite something! And I knew the tight jeans were an essential component of that outfit…

Argh, stop thinking about that! Got to concentrate on the blasted book! Les deadlines ne sont pas optionnels!

== 3rd July - Belfast ==

So King’s Hall is the last UK gig. It’s a really cool building - Art Deco with an arched roof over the main hall. It’s not all that big though, so there was a lot of worrying about whether the in-the-round set-up would fit. It does, and it should be a great show for the audience because most of them will be so close to the stage. I’m going to watch from up on the balcony to get the full experience (I’ve always been in the VIP section or the press pit, which of course is amazing, but they’ve always said this show is designed for the people in the cheap seats at the back!).

After this, we've got a few days back at home, time to do laundry and repack for hot weather, then we fly out to Australia on the 7th. Another new place and the longest flight I’ve ever done - well, flights plural as you have to do it in two hops. Steve’s really excited, which is so cute. And I think he’s even excited about going on a tour bus again, although he grumbles about it; he keeps telling me stories of their escapades on the High ‘n’ Dry tour. This all still doesn’t seem fully real to me; I feel like I'm inside an MTV rockumentary!

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

*Fawlty Towers reference

#steve clark #steve clark fanfiction #steve clark fanfic #def leppard fanfiction #def leppard fanfic #this rockstar life #ive worked out one reason this took so long #other than that its a million words #i like things to be as true to real world events as possible #and while ive read every interview and seen every bootleg video up to hysteria #after 1991 my knowledge is a lot patchier and so i had to do a lot of googling

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 1 year

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Are Ben & Ismelda meant to be boyfriend & girlfriend now or something? I mean someone said they saw a Gryffindor & Slytherin kissing at the dance, but I have no idea if that was referring to those two, it very well might not have been. But Ben canonly has a crush on Ismelda either way even if they aren’t officially together. I genuinely don’t know how to feel rn. 😕

Gail's going to be so mad.

No but for real, I can see Luca's jaw just hitting the floor, before they laugh it off and decide it's cute. But Gail is furious. Ben is her foster brother and she has never, ever liked Ismelda. It'll take time and a lot of it for her to accept this.

I don't recall seeing them kiss either, at least not when I played it. I still need to watch Akemi's video though, maybe I'll notice something there. When you say "someone" saw it, are you referring to a player or an NPC? If you mean an NPC, in like flavor text or something, I didn't catch that either - but if that dialogue exists, I think that's meant to be a clear indication that yes, a kiss happened, even if it's not direct confirmation. If you mean a player, then you may want to ask them to elaborate. Since never mind their outfits, it was very clearly Ben and Ismelda dancing together, not just a "Gryffindor and Slytherin" y'know?

Hah, this almost reminds me of Hermione's kiss with Krum which may or may not have happened. (But totally did.)

Either way, you're right. Ben and Ismelda are getting ship-teased a lot and honestly...like, wow. It's so surreal to me. Two years ago, I would have expected a scene like this to eventually appear in the game for an entirely different pairing. Remember when they used to drop hints like crazy that Jae and Chiara were close? If this had been the two of them, prior to their addition to the roster of love interests...I feel like people wouldn't be nearly as shocked. As it is, Ben and Ismelda are certainly an odd couple, but I dunno, I kind of dig it?

Ismelda is someone who likely doesn't think of herself as being attractive. So for someone to express interest in her, which I don't believe has ever happened before, how can she not jump on that chance? Ben is also a good guy, despite his flaws, and I think she could definitely start to see herself fancying and/or dating him. As for Ben crushing on her? It's certainly a surprise, but I dunno. We've never really had any indications or hints about Ben's type before. Ismelda could definitely be someone he falls for. There's a neat bit of irony in it, considering how the two of them each embody the stereotypes of their Houses (before deconstructing them) and said Houses have always been rivals.

The only real issue here is once again, the Hogwarts Mystery timeline, and how once again, the writers have made it more confusing. They write quests out of chronological order, but this doesn't stop them from writing the character arcs in a chronological order, if that makes sense. Ismelda has come a long way since her introduction, for instance, and that seems to be true in all the new quests no matter when they're placed. But in particular, I have questions about Ben, and what this crush means for him, where he currently is in his character arc. Is this "New" Ben? It would make more sense, but...no, apparently, this is a Year 5 quest. Hold on, if this is Year 5, doesn't Ismelda still have a crush on Barnaby? Even if you do this quest post-Crushed, it still doesn't make a lot of sense, because she explicitly stated that she now wants someone less innocent. Which does suit "New" Ben, but it sure doesn't suit "Old" Ben.

#Ben Copper x Ismelda Murk #Ben Copper #Ismelda Murk #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

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powderblueblood · 3 months

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YEAH exactly like sorry once you do a whole muppets episode you kinda have to hand it to the man

God I think about rocket building cult leader in an Elvis suit at least once a day, and it's insane how people saw that and thought the show didn't know that it was insane because like clearly it was. It's my roman empire

My second roman empire is Jessica Lange doing the name game on the second season of AHS

Like it drives me crazy how the YouTubers watching Riverdale for those 2 hour plot video recap just miss now intentional the derangement is

Oh and circling back to HAI I do think Lacey is very Veronica coded if Veronica lived in the 80s and was wound up so tight she could wrestle a bear

the way i was waiting with BAITED breath for Ryan Murphy to give in to the devil and start dropping musical numbers into AHS and that REMAINS the best of the bunch

I also have a soft spot in my heart for Jessica Lange anachronistically singing criminal by Fiona Apple in freak show like explain that. But don’t. Ever

OH YOURE TELLING ME I’ll be all geared up thinking here we go let’s get into the world of surrealism and tribute that Riverdale is and they’re like completely devoid of a sense of humour (AGAIN! The curse of um so that just happened! Who is responsible for this!!!)

Bang on the money baby. Veronica is definitely a main point of inspiration for our Lacy, like what if Veronica had Machiavellian chameleon disease and barely concealed bloodlust and is literally gripping onto her last hinge by her fingernails (and then you have Eddie, tickling her with a feather until she lets LOOSE rah rah like a dungeon dragon and I LOVE THAT)

#powder room talk #anonymous #I love these asks anon they run the gamut

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ajoytobeheld · 6 months

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End of Year Travels: Part One…ooooooh

December 14th, 2007

Hello and other festive greetings, I trust this blog finds everyone eating mince pies or at least contemplating the eating of mince pies. We managed to witness the xmas build up in Canada, North America and Japan so my brain is now riddled with carols and Cliff Richard songs.

The last two and a half weeks was a lovely finale to a extremely surreal year, we witnessed sunshine, frost bite inducing snow [has anyone else heard that apparently when you get frostbite your fingers feel like warmed marshmallows, ie, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside??? Ellen informed me of this a couple of days into our trip and I think that lovely image is definitely worth sharing with as many people as possible] and Gareth wearing little blue pants and a knitted mask at dinner. ( He had clothes on under the pants, which in a way makes him a bit like a freaky superman) (Pictures to follow)

The plane ride to LA was rather touching for us all as we were able to watch the masterpiece that is Ratatouille, which made some of our more sensitive members nearly cry, perhaps because of the parallels between the morals in the story and our own lives. The take home message is that “Anyone can cook,” and I like to apply this to myself as “anyone can make music.” Apart from that awful brother/sister duo on The X Factor. They really should be stopped.

We started out our adventure in LA which was a sprawling hubbub of confusing juxtaposition. There was poverty combined with the promotion of celebrity glamour (e.g people begging outside the kodak theatre where the Oscars take place) and a lot of Scientology related buildings. It’s WEIRD how seriously they all take it - there was the L Ron Hubbard Celebrity Community Centre (which we were assured did a lovely brunch), the L Ron Hubbard Christmas display, the L Ron Hubbard life exhibition and the various L Ron Hubbard workers trying to convince you to do “personality tests.” It apparently is the religion of now and in La would go perfectly with your Hermes bag and small obligatory dog. But LA did contain Ameoba records, which has everything. No, honestly, everything.

We also made a video out there, which sounds far more glamourous than it actually was because it was filmed in a recording studio so it could have been anywhere. But it was nice to sit around in the sunshine. I can’t say too much about the video before it is aired to the five people who will watch it, but it does involve small furry things which meow. I may have said too much. There is also a starring role from our lovely sound technician/tour manager Todge, which is maybe not Oscar worthy but should be given a nod from the Baftas. [Actually it’s up on youtube now so CHECK IT. And don’t worry, although it’s hard to believe given the skill of our acting, we are all alive and well. Although I have pulled a tendon in my knee. But that has nothing to do with the video.

There was also an afternoon spent in Melrose in the hopes of celebrity spotting (unsuccessful) which saw us discovering some ‘interesting’ Necromance shops featuring human bones, posters of how to perform surgery, books with titles like “the most fashionable clothes for mourning”, and my personal favourite– black toilet paper.] We did some shows also in LA, San Fran, New York, Boston, Ottowa, Toronoto and Montreal. San Francisco seemed to be where the crazies liked to hang out and generally talk to themselves, while we were having cocktails I witnessed a man continuously lifting a plastic bag up and down for an hour at what we thought was a bus stop. It turned out to a lamp post. He wasn’t waiting for a bus. He was just slightly eccentric.

New York was particularly fun as we got to play with our friends Johnny Foreigner again who were there recording their debut album, it also meant we got to go to Whole foods again which is perhaps the most magical food store in New York. [or the world] There was also a good two hours where is seemed Bright Eyes might come to our show, which where perhaps the most nervous of my life, I turned down cake because I was so nervous. He couldn’t make it, my dreams were dashed. [and you missed out on cake]

Boston was where we first witnessed lots of snow leading to cold feet and constant giddy excitement from Neil, who really likes snow. [aaaaaaand they gave us freshly baked WARM cookies when we arrived at the hotel. Pretty sweet.] In Ottowa we got apples in the hotel and some people received free champagne on their arrival. It was also where we got our bags throughly searched at the airport, with Gareth getting his toothbrush and ipod (!) swabbed for drugs. How cliched do they really think we are, we are strickly a // injected into the eyeball sort of band.

It was also where seven shots of a mysterious substance turned up on the right hand side of the stage [the crowd did try to help us solve the mystery by calling out that the drinks were called ‘Tracksuits’ …which didn’t really help]. We all accepted it politely and drank some (apart from Neil because he just isn’t cool) and luckily it wasn’t Rohypnol. It was alcoholic Irun Bru.

Toronto was where we were reunited with one of our favourite places, and caught up with some lovely people from Arts and Crafts including our favorite driver Aaron, who we convinced to come to Montreal with us the next day and miss work. His constant farting in the car made this journey rather difficult. [The drive was so loooooooooooong– why can’t they just build cities closer together??? It’s just open space in between…it SO wouldn’t make a difference. But luckily we were entertained on the way by our new driver Sam and his stories of how as a wee lad he excitedly volunteered to do a presentation on Toxic Shock Syndrome thinking it sounded really cool…until he realised it was to do with tampons. Gutted.]

We had heard so much about Montreal and were all rather excited about getting to see this lovely European style town where the fact they spoke French and they weren’t IN FRANCE was a huge novelty. I attribute that statement to myself, novelty for me is of course normal life for the Montrealians.

The thing about being in a band and that is places you want to see…you wont, you will see the street you are on between sound check and performance, which means you will see the restaurant/ Tim Hortons you eat in.

We supported Broken Social Scene, and the venue was rather beautiful but the fact wehad to get up at half five in the morning really really sucked… …to be continued…

As this blog has turned super long we thought we’d give you lovely readers a break. That is if anyone persevered to get to this bit. Also it gives us something to do when we inevitably get bored next week. So stay tuned – Part 2 to come. Lots of love, Ellen and Aleks x

#2007 #lc!blog

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s3899602 · 7 months

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Blog #10 - Week 10

Wednesday

Upside Down People

Today Mai Han and I showed Sara and Helen our progress in the Capitol. They thought the colours I chose worked well, I thought they fit with the colours in the video so that was a relief that they thought so too. Sara and Helen said the colours that I used were fantastic even though the purple on the ceiling was a little mistake, so that was extremely lucky.

Mai Han and I will also be working on the Dragon Tree Story scene, which is a low flickering candlelight. This should be pretty simple, I have already created a few different states already which I didn’t show Sara in the space but showed her after and she thought they were good. I think it would be best to avoid the arch throughout the whole scene and just focus on the walls. I’ll see how I go with improving what I have so far.

Thursday

Kingdom Dance

I’m not sure that I liked it when it played in the Capitol and I’m not sure if it was actually bad or if I was just imposter syndrome and I wasn’t watching it right. I was really excited to see it in space so I don’t know why I wouldn’t think it was good if it was so I’m confused. Darrin and Nik didn’t seem to dislike it (apart from the music and a few colour choices). I’m going to have a look over it this week to see if there’s anything to change. I recorded another work in the capitol that I thought was exhilarating, they used a lot of techniques that I hadn’t thought of before so I will watch that again and see if anything inspires me to change what I already have.

Jo’s Project

Light’s Project

Light and I had a long chat about his project and the kind of feeling he wants the sound to evoke and what he wants the sound to highlight in the video. We decided that I can just go crazy and do what I want with the sound which, admittedly, I am slightly afraid of, but Light has given me a lot of direction and has sent me a lot of inspiration from games and movies that he thinks I can draw my own inspiration from. We have very similar tastes when it comes to sci-fi movies so that’s a relief because I know I can make something that not only will fit the video, but that he will enjoy.

We had a talk about surreal and how Light’s other project is now very Surreal and we could chage up the word in this project. We settled on uncanny, but depending on how the sound design goes, Light says I can change it again if need be. I think with the visuals we probably can’t go very far from surreal or uncanny because the stop-motion AI is so out-there that no matter what the audio is, the video would still have surreal elements. We were also talking about movies and both thought the soundtrack to Arrival (2016) was spectacular and really fits the eerie, uncanny feeling that we are going for. There’s also Coraline and a few other movies that fit the essence of the video so I will have a deeper look at all of them and see what ideas emerge.

I had a listen to the Arrival soundtrack and really liked Sapir Whorf https://youtu.be/m87uapjnvKU?si=p4T4K9-K6JmnFtLf and Transmutation at a Distance https://youtu.be/swD1eqFSdYQ?si=AvKczhmvViMRgs0x because they both have a very otherworldly ethereal sort of feel to them which is what Light really wants the audience to feel. I love the use of vocals throughout the soundtrack as well. The whole soundtrack is honestly genius. Another great track was One of Twelve, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adiipvZTRg&list=PLff_8M2LCnlCP3deJhXdYJCxlqCIJjItL&index=18 I really loved the use of (what I’m pretty sure was) distorted string instruments to create a sense of realisation and a heightened sense of danger.

Research

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism

Surreal artwork is about artists finding ‘magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny’

As we settled on the work Uncanny, I thought I would do some research on surreal and uncanny. They’re have very similar meanings and sometimes used synonymously. Something uncanny is strange and unexpected, and surreal artwork is the celebration of that. AI is something that is widely considered to be ‘uncanny’ because it’s new and is not something we have seen before. Especially when talking to chat AI’s, it can feel as if you’re talking to a real human being and that can be jarring for a lot of people. What Light is doing with the AI generated images is quite uncanny and surreal already so so far it hasn’t been difficult trying to match that feeling.

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enassbraid · 11 months

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𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 - 𝐒𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐍𝐚𝐠𝐢

-> You can’t help but wonder if you’d be holding him back in his soccer career this whole time

Angst to comfort, anxiety, overthinking, crying, breakdowns(?), this was meant to be pure fluff with multiple characters but then my draft crashed and got deleted so i got petty, short, not proofread, post U-20 match

In all your years of knowing Nagi, you’ve never seen him so serious when it came to anything.

Living a lazy life where he doesn’t have to do anything? Sure, he was pretty serious about that. But that seriousness didn’t have any passion behind it. At least, not the passion you’ve been watching him put into soccer lately.

The man you were seeing on TV the day of the U-20 match felt surreal to you. Right before he left for Blue Lock, all he did was complain about how much work he had to do. No one could deny his talent was raw and natural, not even Nagi. But he could deny how much he enjoyed using that talent.

But who you saw on screen depicted a Nagi who’s passion was filled to the brim. A Nagi you’ve never seen before.

And you just couldn’t help but wonder if that seriousness has always been there.

Which is why you lie next to him now, trying to focus on anything but your racing thoughts.

He’s tapping away at his phone playing the usual first person shooter he’s always played with his leg swung over yours, keeping you aware of his presence.

You keep holding back words, words that’d reveal you’ve cracked. Nagi wouldn’t listen, would he? Maybe he’d pretend to be listening, or maybe he wouldn’t care enough to offer any words of reassurance like you wanted, needed right now.

Is this what others meant when they said they’ve never felt more alone next to their lover?

No, you didn’t feel alone. You weren’t alone. Were you? This was all in your head.

This was all in your head, and it should stay in your head.

“(Name)?”

“Huh?” You turned your head to the voice’s owner, eyes feeling awfully dry compared to a few moments ago.

“You’ve kinda just been… staring at that wall over there for a while now. Is there some kind of ghost there?” Nagi asked lazily, averting his eyes from his phone, to you, and then the wall you’ve supposedly been staring at.

“Staring, ghost?” You asked quietly. “There’s no ghost. I was just sleeping… with my eyes open?”

“You only do that during class, not with your boyfriend.” He ‘corrected.’

There’s the word… boyfriend. Nagi is your boyfriend, isn’t he? He has been for months now. But do those months with you matter to him as much as his months training in Blue Lock?

You look at him again, and his eyes are focussed on his phone once again. Anyone else in this position would probably be annoyed, but why aren’t you? Why was the thought of him paying extra attention to his calling more nerve wrecking than the thought of him ignoring you for video games?

“You’re staring again,” he peered back up at you. “At me this time.”

“Sorry…” you mumbled.

Nagi isn’t an idiot, most would go as far as to call in a genius. But sometimes…

“What’s wrong?” He said, finally closing his game and turning his phone off, giving you his full attention.

Sometimes, you wish he was somewhat of an idiot.

“Don’t you ever feel like… restrained?” You finally let go of some of the words you’ve been holding back

“Restrained…? That doesn’t make any sense… why would I-“

“I feel like I’m holding you back, no.” You’re voice cracks. “I know I’m holding you back.”

Nagi’s eyes widen a bit in confusion, not sure where this was going. He couldn’t think of a single time he felt like you were holding him back, so where was this coming from?

“If what you’re trying to say is that you’re burdening me, then you’re wrong.” He stated. “I dunno where this is coming from… but you aren’t holding me back.”

“But you were so serious during the U-20 match! And you looked so focussed and like you were enjoying yourself and…” words flew off your tongue faster than you could catch them, and before you knew it, Nagi’s hand made its way to yours.

“(Name).” You’re vision was blurry, and all you could make out was Nagi’s lazy eyes fixated on yours. “(Name), need you to look at me.”

“I’m looking- I’m trying to look- Nagi…” tears spilt out the corner of your eyes, and broken sobs made their way past your lips.

Your racing thoughts, his voice, your anxiety, his touch… it was too much to keep up with. The overwhelming feeling in your mind and chest felt like it was about to burst.

And even then, you still felt like you were burdening him. Even as he held your hand and gently rubbed circles along your back, trying to give you all the reassurance he could, it still felt like you were holding him back.

“You aren’t a burden… and you aren’t holding me back. You aren’t one of those bitchy lovers that don’t want their partner to leave the house without them. You’re (Name), my (Name). I love you for a reason.” He said quietly into your ear, patting your back as you sobbed into his shoulder.

For a moment after he said that, you still felt like a burden. But the more he soothed you and whispered sweet nothings into your ear, the slower your racing thoughts became.

“You swear I’m not holding you back?” You asked quietly.

“I swear.” Nagi replied softly.

His voice sounded sincere, maybe even serious. And everyone knows that once Nagi gets serious he’s not playing games.

While your mind told you there’s a difference between sincerity and being serious, your heart yearned too much to care about any differences between the meanings.

As long as Nagi caressed you in his arms, sincerity and seriousness were all the same to you.

#blue lock #bllk #bllk scenarios #blue lock scenarios #bllk fluff #blue lock fluff #bllk angst #blue lock angst #blue lock x reader #bllk x reader #nagi seishiro #nagi seishiro x reader #nagi x reader #nagi fluff #nagi seishiro x reader fluff

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feral-anthropologist · 2 years

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Hey, could people stop reblogging the post with this video?

[Image ID: A screenshot from a tiktok of a black man dressed in all black with a snake necklace standing in a forest]

I know what he’s saying seems weird and funny, but I can tell you just from this video that this man is a cult leader. The belief that your thoughts control reality and you just need to manifest your wishes into your life is very common in cults. It was something we were taught in the cult I grew up in. My parents genuinely believed that if you thought or said the right things, you could make things happen or not happen in your life. I took a cursory glance at his TikTok and it feels very much like it’s trying to draw you in. You see a man standing in the woods wearing a strange outfit and you’re intrigued. He has a very charismatic way of speaking the music is vaguely ominous and it’s so surreal that you can’t look away. Most of what he’s saying sounds like gibberish but it’s funny, so you keep watching. Some of it makes sense. Soon, more of it starts to make sense. What would be the harm in checking some of this out or trying it or trying out his app?

This is a cult. This is how cults recruit. He has the video that went viral pinned. He knows that people look for it and if they look for it they might start looking for more. As you get further down his page, he starts promising cures for depression. It gets weirder, as he starts talking about mermaids and UFOs and how the government is keeping secrets from us to keep us under control. He refers to the Matrix as a documentary. Once again, this is textbook cult. Sharing this video is just allowing him to gain more of a platform and more of a following while his message is not taken seriously and turned into a meme. I know his beliefs seem ridiculous, but these are actual things that people believe and that it’s easier than you think to get sucked into them. Mocking them also does not help cult survivors or people currently trapped in a cult. If anything, it heightens the idea that the world is against them and that the cult is the only safe place and makes it that much harder for them to get out.

Finally, this video is dangerous for people with psychosis or people who suffer from delusions or people like me who dissociate to the point where they feel like they aren’t a real person or like the world around them isn’t real. This video literally starts out with him saying that nothing is a coincidence and that your thoughts control your reality. That’s classic unreality and on a bad day that will send me into a panic attack, but I’ve never seen this tagged with any sort of warning for that. Please, if you’re going to reblog this, at least tag it properly. Or, better yet, don’t reblog it at all.

TLDR: The man in this video is a cult leader and spreading this further just allows him and his cult to spread. Please stop reblogging this.

#cult tw #unreality tw #cults #cult survivor #cult awareness #religious trauma #delusions cw #just... please stop reblogging it guys #it's not as funny as you think it is #and for a lot of people it can be legitametely triggering #important

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ithinkilikeit-reactions · 3 years

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The coffee and the cup (Jeong Yunho/Smut)

Ateez Masterlist Group Masterlist

A/N: You bet your ass this was inspired by the pottery video. I was also inspired by a lot of ceramics artists I follow on instagram and thought this was fun.

This is a feel good story, no bad things, just good. Just wanted a feel good thing.

Tags: Potter! Yunho x Café owner reader!, Fem! reader, a lot of pining and sweet glances, coffee, a freshly starting relationship, love confessions, Hongjoong that likes to judge

Smut tags: Very sweet, gentle, soft dom! Yunho, marking, oral (female receiving), Fingering (female receiving), scratching, Praise, teasing, Unprotected sex (wrap it up y’all)

Word count: 8046 (I don’t do short stories)

There was something utterly comforting about the feeling a café could give you. It was something that you had always enjoyed, from being in middle school, getting cookies and chocolate milk before school, to high school and college where you did all day study sessions, cafe’s had become a safe haven for you. Therefore it was only natural that you had grown up with a dream of starting your own.

With the little money you had managed to save up and the help from your family, your cafe had become a reality. A reality that you never thought would happen. It was even more surreal as you unpacked your first groceries and placed them in the pantry and refrigerator, looking around your place. Your place.

It was small, with only two, two persons tables indoor and two outdoors, it was more a “grab a drink and go” type of place and it was perfect for you. It was seated in a small street, filled with small locally owned businesses and what better way to introduce yourself, than to bake.

A classic lemon blueberry muffin was the taste of coming home, the taste you wanted to sell at your store, a taste you wanted to give your fellow shop owners. You wanted people to feel comforted at your place, so you made something comforting with a little twist, so that everybody could see what type of person you were. Baking was your second love to coffee, so you went to work making around 30 muffins. The delicious smell filling your store and placing a smile on your face. Nothing could drag your day down, not that day.

Once the muffins had cooled enough from coming out of the oven, you packaged them carefully and placed them all in a little wicker basket, setting off to say hi to your neighbors. Starting with the little music instrument store right next door. The owner wasn’t what you expected at all, young, well dressed with one painted nail on each hand, going by the name Hongjoong. He greeted you with an amazing smile, wondering how he could help you.

“Welcome! Can I help you find anything?” He asked and you couldn’t help but beam a smile back at him. “No believe me you wouldn’t want me playing any instruments. I bought the café next door and wanted to introduce myself!” You said raising your basket to show him. “Oh! Welcome to the neighborhood!” He shook your free hand, smiling at you brightly. “So you’re going to be providing us caffeine from now on. I greatly appreciate it.” He said and you couldn’t help but laugh. It’s nice that people were missing a café here, gave you hope that you would do well.

You grabbed one package of muffins and placed them on his counter. “I hope you like lemon blueberry muffins. I made them from scratch and well they’re my personal favorite.” You explained and he tore into the packaging quickly. “I’m partial to anything made with bread.” He said, pulling apart a muffin and popping a piece into his mouth. “Oh, everyone around here is going to love these. You should head to Wooyoung’s restaurant down the street, Yeosang’s skate shop, Oh and Yunho’s little store next door. He might eat you out of house and home but oh boy he might become your best customer. These are delicious.” He complimented and you felt a sigh of relief. No matter how many people tried your food and drinks, you still got anxious when it came to their opinions. “I’ll head there now. Would be nice to have a customer before we even open.” You said softly and Hongjoong nodded. “He’s loyal too. If he likes what you have, he’ll never go anywhere else.” He added, making you laugh.

The sound of the door opening behind you made you glance in that direction, seeing a teenage boy looking around the instruments. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it.” You said, heading for the door. “Thank you again for the muffins and if you ever need any help with anything, don’t be stranger.” Hongjoong told you, making you feel all warm in your chest. He was incredibly kind, you could tell from the way he carried himself. “I won’t. Have a good day!” You said, waving as you exited his store.

It was an incredibly good day out, sun brightly shining down on you as you walked to the little shop next to the music store. The bell signaled that you entered the building, but there was no one in sight. You stood by the door a moment, not wanting to overstep boundaries even if it was a store to shop in. Not only for that reason though, you were scared to knock something over and break it.

The store was filled with shelves lining the bright yellow painted walls, on those shelves were a bunch of clay made works. From little figurines to beautifully sculpted plates, vases and mugs coated with bright paint. It was all so colorfull and bright, making a large smile pull over your lips.

However, no one came to the front so you remained still another moment before calling out. “Hello?” You asked, holding on to your basket and leaning forward to see if you could spot anyone. “Hello?” You asked again, not really expecting a response but wanting to make sure.

“Come on to the back, I can’t open the door back here because my hands are really dirty!” A voice called out and spotted the door that muffled it. You maneuvered yourself carefully to not knock things over as you made your way to the door, spotting a few mugs and plates you wouldn’t mind adding to the café’s collection on your way. You stood in front of the door not quite knowing what to expect when you opened the door, but you did it anyways.

It lead to a little studio, with big windows in the back and more shelves lining the room. In the middle sat a pottery wheel with what looked like a half finished vase resting on it. But what was really eye catching, was the man washing his hands by the sink in the corner.

He was tall, with long legs, dark hair and broad shoulders. Wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt that had clay stains all over them. Then he turned around, finally exposing his face to you and you seemingly felt your knees get weak. Never in your life had you seen eyes like his, so big and full of emotion. It only made the stripe of dried clay on his cheek seem even cuter.

“Can I help you with anything?” He asked, drying his hands before walking towards you. Lifting your basket, you had a hard time finding words for a moment as he smiled at you. “I- uh- Hongjoong next door sent me over. I bought the café 2 doors down and wanted to introduce myself.” You explained, watching his smile get even bigger. You quickly stuck your hand out to his and he looked down at it, taking it gently. “I’m Y/N.” You said, really taking note of the way his eyes sparkled. “I’m Yunho.”

Now Yunho knew it wasn’t really all that common for people his age to make a living off of pottery and art. But he saw that as a challenge, a challenge he took head on and had managed to do it. It was his passion, it was what he was good at and well, the looks of surprise on people’s faces when they asked him what he did for a living was an added plus.

Now he hadn’t been expecting any visitors that day so he was taking the time to create a vase he had been thinking about making. But he wasn’t mad at the interuption at all, especially not one in such cute packaging. Your yellow sundress was inviting, your pink cheeks even more so and not to mention the wicker basket with baked goods. You looked like the angel of his own personal heaven.

“I made muffins, they’re lemon blueberry.” You said, pulling the two packaged muffins out of the basket and handing them to him. You were feeling incredibly shy suddenly, even though the man was radiating nothing but a positive energy. “Oh! You said Hongjoong sent you?” Yunho asked, taking the packaging. You nodded at his words and he let out a hearty laugh. “He knows my kryptonite, baked goods.” You couldn’t help but laugh at his words as he took one more step closer to you.

“I hope you don’t mind my asking, but what are you making?” You asked, gesturing to the pottery wheel. Yunho’s eyes widened at your interest before moving back towards the wheel. “I was asked to make a vase specifically for calla lillies. The design needed to be ‘unique’ according to the client.” He laughed and you took a step closer to look at the clay better. Unique was definitely an accurate description for it, but beautiful none the less. “It’s really pretty.” You said and looked back at him. He was watching your response to his work, finding it endearing how focussed you were on it.

“I have something for you.” Yunho said quickly, wanting to welcome you to neighborhood properly. He gestured for you to follow him back to the front of the shop as he scanned his shelves for something. “Something for me?” You asked, following him as looked around. “Yes, something for you. To welcome you to the neighborhood.” He said sounding incredibly cheerful which made butterflies fill your stomach.

It was funny how Yunho had taken a few looks at you and instantly had a piece of his in mind to gift you. It just seemed like it suited you, with your bright choice in muffin flavors and the sunny aura that you had radiated to him. It was just an obvious choice to him.

“There they are.” He said, pulling 2 mugs from the back of a shelf. They were made for a large cup of coffee, with sunflowers molded onto them and painted. They were very pretty and something you most definitely would have picked out for yourself. He quickly shuffled to his counter, wrapping them with paper for protection and placing them in a little bag. Yunho was a little scatterbrained, self admittedly, but it was only natural to get a little extra nervous when there was a pretty girl in front of him.

“I hope these get put to good use when the café opens.” He said, as he wrote something on a card and slipped it into the bag. You caught a glimpse of his handwriting, noting how messy and cute it was before looking away again. “I’ll definitely put them to good use. I’ll make sure to serve my first cup of coffee in one.” You promised and Yunho could feel his ears burning red. “Good.” He said softly, sliding the bag in your direction. “The shop opens in 2 days, I would enjoy it if you stopped by.” You said softly as you grabbed the bag and placed it in your basket. “I’ll be there for sure.” He said, simply standing and looking at you. You admittedly were doing the same, finding yourself getting absolutely lost in those eyes before tearing yourself away. “I have a few more stops to make-” You started, walking towards the door because you were embarrassed for staring.

“I really hope you enjoy those muffins.” You finished, placing your hand on the door handle and looking back at him one more time. “I most definitely will.” Yunho smiled, watching you leave his shop before leaning down and pressing his forehead against the counter. He hadn’t had a rush from someone in a long time, you were like a shot of caffeine and he had you on his mind for the rest of the day.

You had brought around the rest of your muffins before coming back to your shop. It was now late in the afternoon and the had calmed down quite a bit. You had discovered that your new little neighborhood was close, tight knit. Everyone seemed to know eachother and something about that was quite comforting. Wooyoung’s resaurant was incredibly home-y with delicious food (he had forced you to sit down and enjoy some food) and Yeosang’s skate shop was just adorable with a lot of custom boards there and they all seemed to know eachother quite well. It was helping you realise you had chosen the right spot, you needed the support.

Sitting down at a table, you placed your basket down as well. The whole afternoon you had been curious about what Yunho had written down on the card. It was on your mind the whole time and well so was he. He was quite magnetic, awkward and just very cute, you really couldn’t help it.

Pulling the mugs from the bag, you unwrapped them carefully so that you can take in the details more. You hadn’t really gotten the chance to before, you were entirely too focussed on something or rather someone else. You held one of the mugs in your hand, looking it over and running your fingers over the smooth ridges. It was all so incredibly detailed and such a sweet gift.

You put the mug down and pulled the card from the bag. It was just simple cardstock with no design on it, only his writing and you felt the butterflies bubble back up as you read.

“I thought it was a good day because of the weather, but I guess it was because you were in the neighborhood. I can’t wait to stop by your café when it opens, but I would love it even more if you would go on a date with me, maybe let me teach you how to sculpt. I’ll leave my number for you.

It was nice meeting you, sunshine.

- Yunho

P.S the mugs are handwash only”

You laughed at the last sentence holding the letter to your chest as you did so. A date with Yunho, it was all so sweet. Not to mention his nickname for you had you swooning.

Pushing yourself up from the table, you placed the mugs on the counter and put the card by your store’s phone. It was too soon to call right away, but you were definitely going to call. There was no doubt about that, you could feel a connection with him instantly and you couldn’t help but mentally thank Hongjoong for that.

Time had seemingly slipped away from you after that day. You had been incredibly busy the day after, getting everything ready and prepared for your grand opening. Baking what you could, grinding coffee beans and preparing mugs, plates and other items. You weren’t expecting a huge turnout or anything... but it never hurt to be prepared.

But that coupled with your anxiety for doing well, you seemingly forgot about Yunho’s number that was just waiting to be called by your phone. It was purely accidental that it happened, that it had all slipped your mind.

But you were quickly reminded of it when he stood in front of you, after you had given one of your first customers their order of coffee and an oatmeal cookie. There he was, standing in front of you at 10 a.m, wearing a lightly striped button down tucked into black jeans. Considerably more dressed up than the last time you had seen him, however this image of him made you think of his number and you panicked.

“Oh my god Yunho, I forgot to call.” You said, clasping a hand over your mouth in embarrassment. You felt absolutely horrible at the realization however Yunho could only laugh. “It’s alright, it’s alright sunshine. I figured you were busy with the opening and everything so I didn’t take it to heart.” He smiled at you and you pouted. “I feel really bad. What can I do to make it up to you?” You asked, walking around your little counter because from what you could tell, there were no more customers left to serve aside from him in the café.

Your response was just so cute to him, he didn’t think you owed him anything at all. He gave you his number and it was your choice to call him or not. However he still would have really like that date, especially seeing you again. You were wearing a simple orange, shin length, floral skirt with a black t-shirt tucked into it and an apron fastened around your waist. You were... sunny to him.

“You don’t have to make it up to me, you don’t owe me anything. But I would still like to know if you would like to go on a date with me?” He asked and you couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief at his question. “Oh and I would love another lemon blueberry muffin. I ate both alarmingly fast the other day.” He added on quickly, laughing as he did so. He didn’t want you to feel pressure, at all. Yunho wanted you to go out with him because you wanted too, not anything else.

You looked down to the ground in attempts to hide the blush on your cheeks, before pulling yourself together and finally looking up into his eyes. “I can definitely do a date and I can also definitely do a muffin.” You said and quickly disappeared behind your counter again. Yunho watched with adoration as you did, incredibly happy but trying to keep things cool.

“Here is your muffin... would you like anything else?” You asked, handing him the packaged treat and his fingers grazed yours. “No, I got what I came for.” Yunho said and reached for his wallet. “No, it’s on the house.” You stopped him and he looked at you, opening his mouth to say something. “I know you said I don’t owe you anything but, just take it. For my own sake.” You explained and he bit down on his lip to keep his smile to a minimum. “Thank you.” He said softly, back away from the counter because how much he was beaming.

“Call me to set up the date tonight? Okay?” He said, now leaning in the open door of the café. “I will. I definitely will this time.” You said and he nodded, walking away and letting himself smile fully.

Your first day was incredibly good, a total of almost 50 customers which really wasn’t much but still good and a date settled with an absolutely beautiful man. It was just a good day, you smelled like coffee when you got home and there was nothing better than that. Life was coming together.

He had set things up in such a specific way, he wanted this to be perfect. Something about you drew Yunho in so much, he didn’t want to mess this date up at all. It meant a lot to him.

So when you showed up to his store again, ready for your date, he had his heart in his throat. He had told you to wear something you wouldn’t mind that got dirty and well you listened, showing up in overall you deemed your “paint overalls” the ones you would wear while painting your house and some beat up Converse sneakers. Yunho was wearing the same clothes from the day you had first met and waiting inside his store when you appeared at the door.

“You look very cute.” Yunho commented, the second you entered the building and your cheeks flushed red. “I’m used to people starting conversations by saying hello.” You said, leaning onto the counter he was stood behind. He mimiced your actions, face getting closer to yours. “Hello. You look very cute.” He teased and you looked down to avoid his gaze with a soft smile. “Anyways, what are we doing today?” You asked, standing back up fully and slipping your hands into your pockets.

“Well, do you need anything else for your shop?” Yunho asked and you took a moment to think. “I was thinking about stopping by for some small, single flower vases. To see if you even had anything like that. Why?” You asked and he pushed himself off the counter.

Now if you had said no, he would have sat you down to make something random just to have fun. But now he was going to give you something you could absolutely make use of and hopefully something to remind you of him.

“I figured I could teach how to make them, something you want exactly.” Yunho said, scratching the back of his head because he was now completely questioning his own idea. “Oh!!! I would absolutely love that!” You said, needing to contain your excitement. Something about a date like this really touched your heart and even if this wouldn’t go anywhere, you know you would remember it for the rest of your life.

He let out a sigh of relief before leading you to his studio, where he had set up a picnic blanket on the floor next to the large windows with a basket filled with treats. You couldn’t help but place your hand on your chest, your heart pounding because of how sweet he was.

“Jeong Yunho, I do believe you are a romantic.” You said, gesturing to the blanket and he had to hold back a laugh. “Maybe just a little bit... I just thought we could talk a bit while the clay is in the kiln.” He explained, well rambled more. He was absolutely making your heart melt and there was no doubt about it.

He sat you down behind the wheel after preparing everything for you, the damp clay sitting on top of the wheel. You looked up at him, questioning what to do because this was completely foreign territory to you. “Start spinning the wheel and wet your hands in that bowl and just start feeling around the clay a bit. Get a feel of what you’re doing.” He said, crouching down by your side. You followed his instructions, under his carefull gaze.

Yunho had guided your hands carefully from next to you, until you had accidentally placed way too much pressure on the clay and denting the form. “Oh, uhh let me see if I can fix that.” Yunho said, seeing how you struggled to get it back the way it was. You stood and he took your seat, his height when sitting coming up to your shoulders. He was mesmerizing to watch as he sculpted, eyes focussed on the wheel and lips kind of pursed. He was just so pretty.

“I think I get it.” You said and he looked at you in confusion. “This suits you, sitting here behind the pottery wheel, working with your hands. It really suits you. You’re completely in your element. It’s really beautiful to see.” You explained further and he allowed the wheel to slow down, to look up at you.

You didn’t even realise how close you were until you felt his breath fan over your lips and you suddenly felt excitement in your chest. So you made a split second decision, you made a judgement call.

Leaning forward, you pressed a quick kiss to his very soft looking, plump lips. Yunho was caught off guard, not having expected that at all but not complaining either. In the few hours you had maybe spent together, there was something completely undeniable there.

Now admittedly, the kiss was too long for it to be a peck and that was because Yunho could’ve sworn he tasted strawberry on your lips. It left him wanting more, so he deepened the kiss and for a moment you forgot your hands were covered in wet clay. You cupped his face, only for him to laugh against your lips and you realised your mistake.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry.” You said, pulling away and looking at your hand prints on his cheeks. Yunho couldn’t stop laughing, maybe because of how ridiculously funny the situation was or maybe because of the pure joy he was feeling. “I got too caught up - I- I- completely forgot my hands were-.” You explained in frustration, really wanting to cover your face in embarrassment but deciding against it with better judgement.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Can you just maybe wash your hands and then hand me that washcloth by the sink?” He asked and you did as told quickly bringing him the damp cloth to help him get your marks off of him. His cheeks and ears were flushed the whole time as you did so, eyes following your movements and reading the concern on your face. “It’s really okay.” Yunho laughed, comforting you a little more but you couldn’t help but stay embarrassed. “It’s definitely a story to tell. Not my best first kiss admittedly.” You said and pushed your hair out of your face, not your brightest moment most definitely.

“I mean, I could act like it didn’t happen. Or we could just have a do over?” Yunho suggested, placing the cloth down on the counter and looking at you with a cheeky smile. He just wanted to make sure it was really strawberry he was tasting on your lips. “A do-over?” You asked, crossing your arms and looking up at him.

His hands came up to your waist, pulling you a tad closer by the belt loops of your overalls before leaning down to your level again. You cupped his face, allowing your thumbs to run over the smooth skin of his cheeks and smilled to yourself. “Oh sunshine, you’re just the cutest.” He said softly and closed the space inbetween you too. This was it, this was what it was supposed to feel like. Butterflies flying around your stomach and your heart pounding in your chest because of how badly you wanted to kiss someone. This was right.

Your hands moved from his cheeks to his hair as he deepened the kiss, tasting that sweet strawberry flavor again and making a mental note to ask you about it later. His hands held your waist gently, not moving in any way in fear of overstepping his boundaries.

Pulling away again, this time with a considerable less amount of embarrassment, you placed your hands on his chest gently. “You see, that’s what I was trying to do.” You said softly, toying with the fabric of his shirt. “I figured.” He said in response, letting eachother go in the process. “Your lips taste like strawberries, as if you couldn’t get any more sweet.” Yunho commented, just looking at you with mild disbelief as you sat behind the pottery wheel again. You knew exactly why you tasted that way, you were experimenting with strawberry creme for on top of cupcakes and had to taste test it.

“Come by the café some more and I’ll show you why.” You smiled cheekily and started to spin the wheel again, wanting to finish your vase. “Hmm, sounds good. It sounds like another date.”

“That’ll be 7.50.” You said cheerily before going to pour her coffee and grab her 2 slices of coffee cake. You handed her, her items and waved her out of the store before letting out a sigh. There was a dip in how busy it was and you had a moment to relax.

“I just noticed that your customer service voice is the same as your regular voice.” Hongjoong said from the table closest to your counter. He had been coming in on his breaks to hang out and talk and well this was one of those times. “Is it? I never noticed.” You asked with a raised brow, Hongjoong shook his head at you. “I can’t believe your just genuinely that sweet.” He commented and went back to looking on his phone.

“Of course Y/N’s that sweet.” Yunho’s voice came in from behind you, knowing he came in through the back. His hands moved to your hips from behind and rested his head on your shoulder. “They even smell cake 90% of the time.” He added on before kissing your cheek. This earned a blush from you and a sigh coupled with an eyeroll from Hongjoong.

“Disgustingly cute.” Hongjoong grumbled, standing from his seat and grabbing his coffee. “I’ll be taking this to go.” He added, leaving your cafe to give you both a shred of privacy.

Laughing, you turned around in Yunho’s arm and wrapped your arms around his neck. “Hi.” You said softly, toying with the hairs on the back of his neck. A few months in and you were incredibly close, ridiculously in love. The whole neighborhood knew, the whole neighborhood thought it was disgustingly cute and well you were incredibly happy.

“Hi.” He said back, leaning you backwards to press you against your counter. He had been missing you all day, all week more like. With the school breaks on top of general vacation days, business had been going quite well. But that also meant a little less time together. Which was alright, that was healthy but God Yunho was missing you.

He kissed your cheek, moving his lips over your skin lightly to pay you some special attention because there was no one in the cafe anyways and there was just something about getting you so flustered.

“What’s gotten into you?” You asked, taking a deep breath as his lips moved over your neck and down to the neckline of your dress. “When can I get you alone for more than 5 minutes?” Yunho asked, pulling his lips away from you again. He could tell you were breathing a little heavier and your cheeks were flushed, exactly what he wanted.

“I think I have more than 5 minutes of alone time after work.” You explained, only for his lips to find the base of your neck again. His hands were now massaging your sides, bunching up your dress slightly when the bell of your door rang.

“I forgot my phone and I’m glad I saw this so that I can leave a bad review on yelp.” Hongjoong said and you both pulled away from eachother quite quickly. “Come by the shop after you close up okay sunshine?” Yunho said, trying to hide his embarrassment as Hongjoong gave him a dirty look.

“I will.” You said, quickly pecking his lips one more time before he exited your shop. You were a total shade of pink because of the way Hongjoong was looking at you. “Don’t say anything.” You said, pointing your finger in his direction the second Yunho left. He started laughing, grabbing his phone from the table. “You two are so in love it’s disgusting. Get married already, have coffee filled, artsy babies.” He teased and you shook your head. “It seems like you two were half way there already, wonder what would’ve happened if I didn’t walk in.” He added and you turned away, suddenly feeling the need to keep your hands busy.

“Probably nothing, we haven’t gone that far. Doubt it would’ve happened in broad daylight, in an open café.” You said, now wiping down a fully clean counter to get out of your own mind. You wanted to take that next step with Yunho and he seemingly wanted to take that step too.

So you made your way over to his shop after closing, checking the way you looked in the reflection on the windows before entering. You weren’t nervous, at all actually. Everything felt certain with him and so did this. You instantly walked to studio portion of his shop, anticipation in your chest as you pushed the door open.

“Hey you closed early.” Yunho said as he cleaned his counter by the sink. “I did. Thought maybe we could stretch those 5 minutes into a few hours.” You said softly, walking behind him to hug him from behind. You missed him the last few days too, you were definitely realising it while holding him. “You can’t just kiss me like that in the middle of the day and leave.” You mumbled against him as his hands found your, drawing shapes into your skin with his fingers.

“Sorry about the inconvenience.” He chuckled and pulled you to stand in front of him, wedging you between him and the counter. “Big inconvenience. I’ve been thinking about you all day.” You leaned back onto the counter as Yunho took a step forward. His thigh, wedging between your legs as he did so. He was completely hovering over you, hands finding purchase on your hips. “Maybe that’s what I wanted.” His voice was a tone lower than normal, making your tongue dart out to wet your lips.

You grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him close because you really couldn’t wait much longer and kissed him. Yunho loved it when he brought you to that point because he found it oh so endearing when you needed him so badly.

Using his hands, he lifted you up onto the counter fully making your dress bunch up slightly. His hands moved down to the newly exposed flesh of your thighs as his tongue slipped into your mouth. This, this was what drove him insane because everytime he kissed your lips you tasted so sweet.

You tugged his hair as his grip on you tightened, making him groan against your lips. “How do you do it, you always taste so sweet?” He asked with his forehead pressed against yours. You leaned forward a little, making your core come into contact with his denim clad thigh and you whimpered before answering him. “That’s for me to know and you to be amazed by.” Shaking his head at your answer, he pressed his lips to yours again absolutely not caring if it was sloppy or not.

He continued to pull your hips down, making your core rub over his thigh and you couldn’t help but pull his hair harshly. This made him nip down on your bottom lip before moving his hands to hike up the skirt of your dress. He was absolutely obsessed with how soft your skin was in his hands every new inch that was revealed, didn’t disappoint.

Moving his lips down your neck again, he made sure to nip down on your skin and making you gasp. Yunho was going with intent to leave marks, there was just something that made him compelled to do so. His hands moved to your waist to drag you closer to edge of the counter and closer to him. His fingertips finding the hem of your panties to toy with them, making heat pool between your legs even more.

His mouth stopped at the neckline of your dress, before he looked up at you. “Can I take this off?” He asked, tugging on your dress slightly. The little question making heat rise to your cheeks. “Yes, you can.” You answered softly, helping him lift the fabric off of your body. You were about to throw your dress to the side when took it from you, folding it before laying it down gently on a chair. You sat, kicking your legs slightly as you watched him because the action made your heart flutter.

“Don’t want your dress to get dirty.” He said, turning back around to look at you. He could feel his heart stop a moment, you were incredibly just so incredibly beautiful to him. The dim lit room, coupled with your slightly swollen lips, pink cheeks and the fact that you were sitting there in nothing but your underwear, it was driving him insane.

“God you look...” Yunho started, walking back to you to wrap his arms around your bare waist. You curled his hair between your fingers, looking him the eyes. “Absolutely beautiful.” His eyes sparkled as he spoke, making your whole body fill with warmth as he looked at you. You wrapped your legs around him, to pull him even closer to you. “I’m feeling a little self conscious here. Can you maybe?” You didn’t finish your sentence, just tugging on his shirt in hopes he’d get the message. He pulled it off of him and simply threw it on the ground, not giving it the same care he gave your dress. “I don’t care if that gets dirty.” He said before kissing your lips quickly and sinking down to his knees.

Eye level with your core, he traced his fingers over your clothed slit slowly, looking at you to see your response. Your eyes were shut up and your lips were agape, body tensing as his finger grazed your clit. That was enough for him to hook his fingers into the lace, tugging your panties down your legs. You brought your hand to your face, taking your thumb between your teeth as Yunho pulled your legs over his shoulders.

He feathered kisses over your thighs, squeezing them as he did so and inching closer and closer to where you needed him. “You’re going to tease me when I’ve already been thinking about you all day?” You asked, voice muffled by your own hand. He looked up at you again, eyes darker and blinking at you. “Yes, because it seems to be working.” He answered, dragging his fingers over your slit. “You’re so wet, Sunshine.” He finished, kissing your clit lightly and your hips bucked for more friction.

He looked up at you one more time, taking a mental image of you with your finger caught between your teeth just staring at him before kissing you again. Allowing his tongue to move over your folds and tasting you. You attempted to clamp your legs shut at the sensation only for him to hold them open, not allowing you to go anywhere as he ate you out. Lips wrapping around your clit and making you moan out loud. Your hand moved to grip his hair, just wanting him even closer to you because fuck... he was making you feel so good.

“Yunho-” You moaned, making his fingertips dig further into your thighs. “Sunshine, you even taste sweet.” He commented, kissing your thighs again as you tugged on his hair for more. “Baby please don’t stop.” You begged, nearly pouting as you did so because you were oh so close to cumming.

He stood back up, face now level with yours again and you whined. “Relax.” He said softly, hand trailing down your body before cupping your core. His finger teased your hole while the other hand cupped your face, slipping a finger into and watching every expression as he did so. Yunho thrust his fingers into you harshly as your mouth fell open again. Eyes locked onto Yunho’s as he drew you closer and closer to your orgasm. Your fingers clawed at his arms as the coil in your stomach tightened. “Yunho, please.” You whined, feeling him insert another finger and stretching you out.

He sped up his pace, feeling you tighten around his fingers and the scratching down his arms get harder. “Come on, cum for me sunshine.” He pressed his forehead against yours as you let out a small scream that faded into a whine. The coil bursting as his fingers continued thrusting into you. Your face burried into his neck as you held onto him, needing something to brace yourself with.

He watched you slump into his arms, using his hand that was holding your face to now stroke your hair. “You’re alright.” He cooed, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his hardon pressing against his jeans. You kept your face in his neck as your hands moved from his arms down his chest and torso. Trailing down the faint outline of abs as your hands went down, resting on the button of his jeans as you finally looked at him again.

“I love you.” You said softly, as if it was a secret and you were in a crowded room. Your fingers undid his jeans, not waiting on a response from him. If he wasn’t there yet, he wasn’t there.

“Hey.” He cupped your face again, making your focus now be solely on him. You hardly gave him time to respond to your confession before you went undo his jeans, he needed you to focus on what he was going to say because he could tell you were scared for his answer.

“Relax, Sunshine. I love you too.” He said, taking in the way your eyes widened at his words. “I- I- can I?” You stuttered, gesturing to his jeans. “Yes, yes you can.” He laughed, continuing to cup your face as you undid his jeans and dragged the zipper down. He hummed as your fingers grazed his hard on, gripping your face a little tighter making you smile.

“Now who’s teasing?” He asked you and you giggled, only for him to shake his head. He grabbed your hands and pulled them off of his jeans so that he could pull them down, together with his briefs. “Can’t deal with what you dish out?” You asked and he shook his head, placing his hand next to your hips on the counter. “Not nearly as well.” He admitted and you wrapped your legs around his bare waist to pull him against you.

His free hand gripped the base of his cock as he rubbed it over your folds. You held the back of his neck, watching his actions before he slipped into you slowly. Your nails dug into his skin, making goosebumps coat his skin as he sheathed himself into you fully. The whimper you let out of was like music to his ears and the way you felt wrapped around him was better than he dreamed of.

Yunho gave you a moment to adjust before wrapping his arms around your waist and almost picking you up off of the counter. It caught you by surprise making you hold onto him even tighter. “Fuck Yunho.” You hummed, as he started thrusting into you, using the leverage he had gotten from holding you. His pace picked up, fucking into you slowly as your sounds filled his studio.

“You feel so good, Sunshine.” He praised, a low moan leaving his mouth afterwards as you scratched down his back. He thrusted a bit harder and faster, needing a taste of that sweet release because he too had been thinking about you all day.

“Right there-” You choked out as he hit your sweet spot, the heels of your feet digging into his thighs. He pressed his face into your neck, placing kisses everywhere he could reach and sucking even more marks into your skin. He continued actions, making you tighten around him very quickly. He let go of your waist to place one of his hands by your side on the counter and the other down to rub your clit, giving him leverage to bring you both to the edge quickly. Your hands moved to his arms, scratching down them as well just adding to the pleasure he was going through.

“Sunshine, I’m really close.” He moaned out, hips staggering slightly as he continuously rubbed your clit. You pet his hair, drawing his attention back to your face and that was it for him. You looked oh so fucked out and the way you were holding on to him, it was enough to send him over the edge. His hips stopped as he came inside of you, head drooping and beautiful loud moans leaving him as he did so. However, his fingers never stopped circling your clit and threw you over the edge with him.

He was a mess, moaning at the feeling of you contracting around him and the overstimulation of it. The way you felt holding on to him, stroking his skin as you both calmed down. He was now holding you close against his chest, still resting inside you for a moment as you caught your breaths.

“I meant it you know, when I said I love you back.” Yunho’s voice was soft spoken as he pet your hair. “I know.” You said as you traced over his arm. “Good, just wanted to make sure you knew I didn’t just say it because we were having sex.” He explained, body leaving yours and making you sigh.

“I know I definitely didn’t just say it because of that.” You said as he handed you back your underwear. “That’s good.” He smiled at you that goofy smile, eyes filled with love. You shook your head, before grabbing his face gently and pulling him for another quick kiss. You just really wanted him to know that you meant it.

“Come on, let’s go to my place. Maybe watch a movie, eat dinner, have round 2. All of the options are allowed.” He said laughing before handing you your dress, as you rolled your eyes at his words.

“Ah Sunshine, I love you to bits.”

“The back of Yunho’s neck looks like he’s been mauled by a tiger, you wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that?” Hongjoong asked as he entered Yunho’s shop the next day. He had to run errands and asked you to watch his shop for a moment, so there you were sitting behind his counter and painting a piece of pottery you had helped him make not to long before.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” You said, needing to bite on your lips to contain your smile as you continued to paint the clay. “Uh-huh, tell that to those hickies all over your neck.” He commented and you looked at him. “Do you ever spend time in your own store?” You asked in frustration and he started laughing, pointing at you. “I knew it!” He laughed and you shook your head. “Okay, okay. Shut up about it.” You hid your face in your hands, feeling how beat red you were.

“Fine, fine, I’ll stop teasing.” Hongjoong joked, walking around the shelves of pottery. No one else was in the shop, so the conversation wasn’t entirely inappropriate. “But it was good though? No hiccups, no awkward situations?” He asked and you could only smile at the thought of it all. “No, nothing awkward.” You said and he stood in front of the counter again.

“I told him I love him for the first time.” You added quickly, simply going back to painting. “Wait, you did? For the first time? It took you both that long?” Admittedly Hongjoong wasn’t wrong, but you had felt love for him a long time ago. There just wasn’t a desire to vocalize it just yet, on either end. “I mean it was obvious that you too loved eachother, I’m just surprised it took you so long to say it.” Hongjoong explained and you nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. But sometimes it’s better to just wait until there’s that moment. That perfect moment to say it.” Last night was most definitely that moment for you.

The store bell made you both redirect your attention to the door. Only for Yunho to pop his head in and look at you. “I was half way to the store when I realised that I didn’t ask you needed anything.” He said, smiling at you with stars in his eyes. “You could’ve just texted me.” You smiled back as Hongjoong watched the interaction. “I could’ve, but I would rather just walk back and see you instead.” He explained and Hongjoong laughed.

“You two, you two are something else.” Hongjoong commented and Yunho shook his head. “But you don’t need anything?” He asked and you shook your head. “No, I got all I need.” You said and he nodded before going to leave again. “I love you, Sunshine.” He said quickly, shutting the door behind him. “I love you too.” You said smiling, knowing he couldn’t hear you anymore but still taking the time to do it. Hongjoong rolled his eyes at you and opened his mouth to say something.

“As disgusting as you two are, how cute you are together makes up for it.”

A/N: Feedback is kind!

I’m not completely satisfied with the ending but I still like this story alot. Sometimes you just need some happy stories. I hope you guys enjoy!

#yunho #yunho smut #ateez #ateez smut #ateez reactions #ateez reaction

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