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deeahhnuh · 4 years

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2019!

I've done this year-in-review thing since 2007! 2007-2012 are over on my old LiveJournal, and 2013-on are right here on my Tumblr. :)

2020. 2020! That year sounds space-age or something lol, and not like it's just, well, tomorrow. Happy New Year, Tumblr!

What did you do in 2019 that you'd never done before?

Not too much, lol! I guess I just kept doing the things I usually do, but tried to do them better/improve them (when it comes to work!), or do more of them (fun times and family times!).

Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Every year I mention that I don't really make New Year's resolutions - more like little goals all year! - but hey, it's a new decade! This year I think I will make a resolution that I will hold myself to. In 2020, I resolve to work hard - like really hard - on being healthy! Eat right, exercise, lose weight, work on maintaining less stress - be good to myself! I know everyone makes that kind of resolution, but it's a good one for a reason. :)

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Aw, no new babies this year!

Did anyone close to you die?

Sadly, yes... my uncle (my dad's oldest brother) passed away in May. ♥ We also lost a beloved neighbor in August.

What countries did you visit?

Lol, none!

What would you like to have in 2020 that you lacked in 2019?

I seemed to lack the ability to chill this year, haha - I stressed out about everything! :O So I’m ready to go with the flow better in 2020!

What date(s) from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Can’t think of any big dates, but this December marked 5 years since I graduated (and gave a speech at the departmental ceremony, to toot my own horn lol!) from the University of Maryland! Time is bizarre - 5 years feels both forever ago and also not that far back!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I’ve been working in the registrar’s office at a community college for three years now! I love it, and I’m proud of the work I do!! :)

What was your biggest failure?

Everything’s a learning experience of course lol, but thankfully I didn’t goof too bad this year! ;)

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Oh my goodness, I started off the year with a thumping in my right ear (the name for it is “pulsatile tinnitus” - which somehow makes it sound scary!). :O Happily, that mess dissipated in a few months’ time, but it sure did worry (and annoy) me! Other than that - all good! :)

What was the best thing you bought?

I was very fortunate this year to buy a few things that really made me smile!

I do love a perfume! Dior Addict is a stunning, spicy vanilla (I love ‘em sweet!) that really hits the spot.

I’m also pleased, on the “I stan goofy dance music” front, to have found a couple of old Ministry of Sound compilations that I’ve had bookmarked on Amazon for awhile - they came back in stock this year and I snatched ‘em up. Anthems Sound of Dubstep (2012) is brash and obnoxious fun, and Sessions Ten (2013) is slightly less brash but just as obnoxious so I love it. They’re both releases from the Australian arm of MOS!

Oh and one of my fave used record stores had a copy of one of DJ Rap’s “Bad Girl” CD singles with mixes I didn’t have; I was kinda shocked to see it and very very happy to buy it! It was only 99 cents. Wow!! I do like a ridiculous deal! :)

Whose behavior merited celebration?

My mom is amazing, as always, and so are my dad and brother! I love my fam!!

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

No one!

Where did most of your money go?

See above - my more frivolous spending went toward perfume and goofy dance tunes, haha!

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

I will never, ever forget opening a very special present for Christmas this year. I love and adore It’s a Wonderful Life, and I even wrote a paper about it in college. I used a fabulous book as one of my sources - The It’s a Wonderful Life Book by Jeanine Basinger - and since then I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to purchase it someday. It’s a fantastic keepsake kinda thing for a fan of the movie. Unfortunately it always seemed to be out of stock, or way too expensive to consider, so over time I kind of just put it on the back burner.

But just a few days ago on Christmas morning as we all opened gifts, I tore wrapping paper off a box, pulled off the box top, and bam - there it was. Decorative tissue paper obscured it, but I could see the book cover peeking through - The It’s a Wonderful Life Book! My mama, the best mama, found this awesome book for me! My Christmas - my year! - was made! ♥

What song will always remind you of 2019?

Here’s a Spotify playlist of the songs that I loved this year; most are old releases lol. New(er) songs and albums I loved this year:

“Like Sugar” by Chaka Khan. Funky!

“Lost in the Fire” by Gesaffelstein feat. The Weeknd. Cool and atmospheric!

“Lights Up” by Harry Styles. Boy band guy makes good lol! Great tune.

Mazy Fly (2019) by SPELLLING. Dark, richly layered, weird, beautiful.

The Destroyer - 1 and The Destroyer - 2 (2019) by TR/ST. Two EP-ish releases that make up a whole album-ish listen. The Destoyer - 1 slightly edges out the second release, but I just like hearing so much synthy TR/ST goodness!

Compared to this time last year (2018), are you:

Doin' all right, and hopeful for a great start to 2020!

What do you wish you'd done more of?

Listen to more albums - new or old! The last few years I seem to listen to a handful of albums a year, then spend the rest of my music-listening time playing dance music compilations. Ah well, maybe I'll catch up on my massive "to listen" list in the next decade lol!

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Stress (see above lol) - but I'm def working on it! :)

How did you spend Christmas?

Family time!! ♥

What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in 2019?

Nothing, yay lol!

How many one-night stands?

None lol

What was your favorite TV program?

My silly cartoons! Family Guy, American Dad, Bob's Burgers, and SpongeBob SquarePants (lol idk, nostalgia is hard to kick!) still make me laugh even though I am otherwise a perfectly reasonable adult. :)

Bravo's Real Housewives - all of 'em! - crack me up and bring the totally ridiculous drama!

The Orville is fantastic, one of my fave more recent shows. I love the cast! Each episode really adds to their stories and builds the show's world. Looking forward to the next season!

Emergence is a great new sci-fi show with a strong cast - especially the sensible, big-hearted lead Allison Tolman - and suspenseful storyline!

I haven't seen the first season, and to be honest I don't think I'd be able to explain what the heck it's actually about because I'm easily confused, but American Gods caught my attention this year! The cast is excellent - even if the plot escaped me, lol, I really got into the characters.

And What We Do In The Shadows! Such a delight!!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?

I love a classic, slightly minimal style, but I'm just happy to look decently put-together lol!

What kept you sane?

My fam, my entertainment stuff (music, movies, TV, magazines), working with wonderful colleagues... ♥

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No! :O

What was the best book you read in 2019?

The It’s a Wonderful Life Book was probably the best book I read (well, most of it!) this decade. ♥

What was your greatest musical discovery?

SPELLLING is awesome - definitely an artist I'm excited to hear more from!!

What did you want and get?

I won't say The It’s a Wonderful Life Book again! :)

On a more serious note, I had my first MRIs in a while for MS maintenance - my previous neurologist retired and my new doctor wanted to get a baseline. I was very, very anxious about getting the results. My former doctor last ordered an MRI in 2011, so this was definitely a good and highly necessary step, but very nerve-wracking! I'm so fortunate to not be experiencing symptoms - and haven't since my initial occurrence of optic neuritis in '09 (though I was actually diagnosed with MS in 2011) - but what might the MRIs (brain and T- and C-spine) reveal?

I wanted to receive good results - a report of stability, not progression. And would you believe it? I did. My (amazing!) neurologist gave me the greatest news I had all year - stable, no new lesions, all good!! Of course this is for now - who knows about the future? - but I'm thrilled, and thankful. As this year ends and I reflect on all the good, this takes the cake!!

What did you want and not get?

Pffft, nothin' lol! I've got so many lovely things and reasons to be thankful - who could ask for more?!

What was your favorite film of this year?

Lol I did not see many new movies, but of the '19 films I saw, my fave was Knives Out! I only just saw it yesterday - what a fun way to close out the year! Fantastic cast, clever story, funny - just all-around entertainment.

I also loved Yesterday. All the Beatles references and the obvious affection for the group and their fans just felt like a great big hug! So good!

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Girl I'm well and truly a thirty-something now - 33!! I had fun! I did lots of little fun things with my fam - like shopping, watching movies, that kind of good stuff!

What three things would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Like I said above - who could ask for more? Not me! :)

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I'm late to the David Harbour bandwagon - but better late than never!

And also Daniel Craig in Knives Out was a good thing.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Ew, there's something stirring like every hour or so.

Who did you miss?

Losing my grandmother at the end of last year really colored a lot of this year... and then losing my uncle added more shadows. ♥♥♥

What is a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019?

I always answer this one with a twist on the Pet Shop Boys song title and my life philosophy - "Happiness is an option." So here we go! The chorus of the song acknowledges that "it is not easy," and some times are definitely like that. This year had those moments, and next year will too, because that's how life is! It is often not easy.

But! The last bit of the chorus follows "it is not easy" with "happiness is an option." Things can stink, but they can be okay too. That's what "happiness is an option" has always meant to me, and it means that just as much this year. Maybe even more!!

What quote can be used to sum up your year?

See above haha! "Happiness is an option” has been my fave quote for years, and I’m gonna keep on living it! :)

#year #deeahhnuh #2019

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lettersfromn0where · 5 years

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OC Interview Tag

Rules: Pick a character from your WIP and have them answer these fifteen questions, then tag people. Thanks to @leonajasmin-writeblr for the tag! These characters are from my original WIP, The Radiant, which is about a group of teenagers who developed strange abilities as a result of growing up next to a nuclear waste dump. (Don’t buy a house near a nuclear waste disposal site, kids.) I’m going to use three because they’re beans and I love them and also can’t choose. Meg is regular text, Gigi is italics, Diya is bolded italics.

1. What is your full name?

Margaret Mai Lien Pham. Margaret is...an elegant old lady name my parents liked, Mai Lien is a nod to my Vietnamese heritage, and Pham is one of the most common Vietnamese surnames (and my father’s).

Genesis Chantal Cappellini (if you call me Genesis, I will murder you in cold blood), because I have strange parents. Chantal was chosen because not very many names sound nice with “Genesis,” and Cappellini is a super obscure last name that happens to be my family’s.

Diya Sunita Patel. Not sure why I was named that, but it’s nice, I suppose.

2. What does your full name mean?

Margaret means “pearl,” Mai means “cherry blossom,” Lien means “lotus,” and Pham means “extensive.” Two flowers and a gem...hmm, I wonder what my parents were trying to get at there. (More likely than not it was chosen just because it sounded nice - I doubt they would’ve named me “cherry blossom lotus” if they were going for meaning.)

Genesis means “origin” and is a book of the Bible, Chantal means “stone,” and Cappellini is - I kid you not - a type of pasta. Yup, I’m named after a book of the Bible and a pasta shape. WHY, MOTHER? WHYYYYY?

Diya means “gift,” Sunita means “one of good character,” and Patel means something roughly like “village chief.” That sets a pretty lofty standard...

3. What are your nicknames/other names?

Meg! I don’t mind being called Margaret, but no one really does. Sometimes my best friend calls me other random nicknames for Margaret - I think I’ve been Maggie, Daisy, even Maisie once - but to everyone else, it’s just Meg.

Gigi. No one outside of my family and one person I’ve known since I was four even knows what my real first name is, so yeah, it’s always Gigi. Which is as it should be. A very select group of people can call me Gen, but again, 99% of the time I’m just Gigi.

I don’t really have one.

4. What’s your gender?

Author here: not going to bother with the fancy writing because they’re all female.

5. What’s your sexuality?

Author here: Gigi is straight, but the other two girls’ sexualities are totally irrelevant to the story.

6. Where are you from?

Phoenix, Arizona.

Originally from Chicago, but moved to Phoenix when I was so young that I’ve never thought of myself as being from anywhere else.

Also Phoenix. Thing to look forward to about going away to college: not being in Phoenix.

7. How old are you?

Turning seventeen in two weeks and a junior in high school.

Sixteen - I’m a sophomore.

Seventeen and a junior, like Meg, but at different schools.

8. What is your magic form/what species are you?

Human, but genetically enhanced (by accident, not experiment) - I can instantaneously predict the outcomes of situations, mathematically, when I see them.

Enhanced human - I shatter glass when I sing or raise my voice.

Human with powers - I “disappear”/turn invisible in direct sunlight.

9. What does your human form look like?

Average height, fairly thin but not tiny, very straight black hair. I’m naturally quite pale but tan easily, which I hate.

I’m very, uh...fun-sized. As in: 4′ 11.” I’m pretty petite in general but sorta curvy; I have olive skin, suuuuuper curly brown hair (VERY ANNOYING TO MANAGE), and green eyes. People have told me I’m cute but I would prefer to strike fear into the hearts of mankind...maaaybe. ;)

I’m 5′ 10″ - that’s what people usually notice about me first. That, and that I always wear my hair waist-length and in a braid. Otherwise, I have brown eyes, bronze skin, and black hair.

10. What’s your aesthetic?

I don’t know if I have one, honestly. I like things to be neat and organized, though, so I guess it would be kind of minimalistic? I really like floral things, too.

Is chaos an aesthetic? I guess not. But if I had to choose...backstage in a theater on show night. That’s my place, my home, and I suppose my aesthetic too.

Orange. Anything and everything orange. Bright colors. Fruit. You get the idea.

11. Who’s your best friend?

Phoebe Vu. She’s the daughter of my parents’ oldest friends, so we grew up together - same school, same church, same everything for as long as we can remember. We’re both very nerdy, but in different ways - she does my computer science homework, I do her biology - and we’ve been doing everything together for so long that I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

Uh...maybe Cassidy Donnelly? She’s my best friend from theater. And I’ll never admit this, but I’ve got a soft spot for Alex Allende, a guy I’ve gone to school with for eleven years and pretend to hate but very obviously don’t, too. We don’t even really get along, but he knows me better than almost anyone.

At school, I have only one friend, Jeremy Waller - he, like I, doesn’t really fit into any other groups, so we hang out a lot. But in truth, it would really be my brother, Deb (short for Debaditya, which no one calls him because most people can’t pronounce it). He’s a year older and we try to bash each other’s heads in from time to time, because siblings, but we’re extremely close. No one matters more to me than he does.

12. Would you ever get a piercing/tattoo?

Nope. Not my thing.

Uh, maybe if I had to for a role? My ears are pierced, but otherwise no.

Sure, why not? I’d get, like, one of those cute miniature tattoos, but a piercing sounds painful.

13. When are you happiest?

My family and Phoebe’s used to go to a lake house somewhere up north together every summer, and we’d always take out a boat and go tubing and shove each other off the dock and night-swim - I miss those days. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than I was at the lake. Other than that, when I finally grasp a difficult math concept - I’m pretty good at it, but I struggle sometimes, and finally getting a concept is one of the best feelings in the world.

When I’m performing. Musical theater has been my life since I was a little kid and I never feel quite the same as I do when I’m onstage, whether I’m in the chorus or belting out a solo - it’s where I feel most at home and alive.

When I’m trying something new. I’m very adventurous, and I hate monotony, so I’m always happiest when I’m doing something I’ve never tried before. Routine bores me - I need my dose of adventure.

14. What’s your biggest secret?

My ability (power? Do I have powers? I guess I do). I haven’t told anyone except Phoebe - I’m terrified of how my family would react if they knew.

The fact that I might be in love with Alex, my true first name, and the real reason I had to drop out of the Spring musical - not because I ‘didn’t have time,’ but because I’d shatter all the windows if I ever sang again.

I don’t have a lot of secrets...maybe that I’m realizing, after saying I’d be a doctor all my life, that I actually hate biology with every fiber of my being?

15. What was your first impression of [each other]?

Author here: this is set a week after the rest of the things, after they’ve all met at a support group for enhanced kids.

Meg: I was a little taken aback by Diya’s enthusiasm - I’m kind of introverted, and she can be A LOT. I was impressed by Gigi’s confidence but a *little* weirded out by how blunt she could be.

Gigi: I thought Meg needed a hug (I was right) and admired that Diya could eat an entire box of Pop Tarts by herself - which was what she was doing when I first met her. Not very deep.

Diya: You know that meme where it’s, like, “I’ve only had (name) for a day, but if anything happened to her, I’d kill everyone in this room and then myself” (I’m paraphrasing here, so those aren’t the exact words)? That was me as soon as I met Meg. She is a PRECIOUS TRAUMATIZED BEAN (her parents kicked her out shortly before we met). My first impression of Gigi was “yup, she’s definitely in love with that Alex kid,” and I also noticed how extroverted and theatrical she was right away.

Thanks for the tag! I don’t have a lot of writeblrs on my radar, so anyone who wants to do this is heretofore tagged. :)

#the radiant #WIP #tag game #Gigi Cappellini #Meg Pham #Diya Patel

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the-pontiac-bandit · 7 years

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all the way home i’ll be warm

so, thanks to @jakelovesamy for the prompt, and to her and @elsaclack for all of the help!! i’m only including the prompt because it seems important that y’all all know that this started as a creepy cabin drabble. (title is from “let it snow” bc yes i Obviously wrote a christmas fic in mid-june)

99. “We’re in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere. Sure, you’re totally right, nothing bad could ever happen here.”

Jake Peralta has never enjoyed the outdoors. Sure, that one Cub Scouts camping trip in first grade was pretty fun, but that was mostly because his dad was Assistant Scoutmaster that year, and Jake got to stay up until the sun started to rise, making s’mores with Charlie Daniels and his brother. Adult Jake Peralta prefers snow plows, massage chairs, modern insulation, and easy-access delivery food.

Which makes the fact that he agreed to spend Christmas in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York with his new wife’s family a remarkable testament to just how much he loves said new wife.

Of course, the Santiagos are a remarkably awesome bunch of people. Victor warmed up to him - finally - when Jake told the Santiagos about his intentions to marry Amy. He showed them the ring, and Victor decided that anyone who had managed to save up that much money with a credit score below 200 was plenty tenacious enough to be a Santiago. Her brothers, meanwhile, had warmed to him as soon as they learned how much he loved basketball and good cop movies (Luis once told him that there were so many Santiago brothers it wasn’t even that noticeable when they picked up a few extra along the way. Jake had never felt more thrilled to be so entirely a part of something).

Even with all that awesome, being snowed in with all of the Santiagos in an eight-bedroom “cabin” (it’s definitely way too large for that title, and yet still somehow too small for all seven brothers, their spouses, and the kids) for four days over Christmas was not his idea of a dream vacation. Jake has no idea exactly how many nieces and nephews he now has, but he knows that there are at least twenty children that made it to the cabin ranging from scarily-new infants to surly teenagers, and they all call him Tio Jake with an excitement that warms his heart.

That many kids with that few bedrooms, though, means that someone is always sleeping somewhere strange. Usually on the floor. Definitely at a weird time of day. And Jake definitely almost steps on them on his way to the kitchen for more Cheetos (Manny brought a seemingly endless supply - he keeps pulling more from his car every time the boys finish a bag. Jake is eternally grateful).

Amy always seems to know who’s sleeping where (she also knows all of their names, of course, because she’s a perfect aunt who filled up their entire trunk with personalized gifts for each child and all her brothers, leaving Jake with a much better understanding of why they couldn’t afford Paris).

There is a constant hum of noise in the cabin. On the first day, which Jake obnoxiously calls Christmas Eve-Eve to anyone who will listen, everyone is in and out - exploring the nearby town, enjoying the fresh air, playing games of soccer on frozen ground that gives Jake a bruise on his hip when he tries to bicycle kick for the winning point. All in all, a great first day.

Then, that night, the snow starts to fall. At first, it’s some flurries. Just enough snow to be romantic - when it falls, it’s light and fresh, and Jake’s been to the country before, but just rarely enough that seeing fresh, fluffy snow surrounding him is a novelty. The Santiagos, who grew up with a huge backyard and spent their winters rolling around in snow that no dogs had peed in, were less impressed, and thought he was insane for wanting to spend that much time in the woods in the snow at night.

But then Amy walked outside with Jake in her heaviest parka, and they stood together and watched it fall, illuminated by the faded light coming out of the cabin, where the Santiagos were playing the largest game of Apples to Apples he’d ever seen. Everything was perfect, and just a little bit magical, and when he leaned down to kiss her, he could see the snowflakes that had settled on her eyelashes.

Jake is thoroughly enjoying the feel of her lips against his, even if that’s the only skin-to-skin contact available with all the layers, even though the pom pom on top of his hat is slowly pulling the entire garment forward to cover his eyes, but it ends when Amy decides her hands are freezing - even in their wool mittens - and tells him very pointedly that if he likes what her hands were going to do later, he’d best go inside and save them from frostbite. After that, he moves very quickly back towards the fire the Santiagos lit in the living room (carefully guarded by the oldest cousin, college freshman Anna, to prevent any accidental burns to the five year-old twins racing past).

Everything is perfect until the next morning, Christmas Eve, when he wakes up to nearly two feet of snow on the ground outside. Of course nothing is plowed and of course their cars are buried and of course there are somehow now nearly forty people stuck in what used to feel like a very large “cabin” and Jake’s thinking everyone should have just gotten hotel rooms in the city instead, no matter how pretty the untouched snow is.

Jake and Amy are up ridiculously early, thanks to the wails of the baby that radiate from the room they share walls with. Jake gently pushes Amy back to sleep when she starts to get up to go take care of her niece - she never lets herself sleep, and she’s been absolutely exhausted lately. She deserves this.

So Jake finds himself in the kitchen with Luis, Manny, and Joel, sitting in flannel pajama pants and overlarge matching t-shirts (Joel designed Family Reunion 2018 shirts. Jake never wants to take his off). Children are playing quietly around him - all of them are aware that moms, dads, and older siblings are trying to sleep, and they’re Santiagos, so of course they’re complying. Jake’s enjoying his Frosted Flakes (also courtesy of Manny), and reveling in the early morning quiet (at least, compared to Santiagos at full volume), compounded by the thick coat of snow on the ground outside.

It’s Luis who breaks the comfortable silence, clearing his throat and shifting in his seat. His daughter Lucia, just barely three months old, is cradled in his arm, and he’s clutching a steaming cup of black coffee for dear life with the other hand.

“Man, thank God she fell back asleep. Sometimes she just won’t stop crying in the mornings, and I can’t exactly take her outside in this weather. Would’ve been a fun wakeup call for everyone.”

Joel shoots a pointed look at his little brother, just fourteen months older than Amy. “But it’s so worth it. I remember when the twins were that little - a handful, but the best gift I could have asked for.” His gaze rests squarely on Jake, looking inquisitive, and Jake squirms a little bit under the intense stare.

Manny jumps in shockingly quickly to support his brother. “Yeah, Sarah and I only got married a year ago, but we’re already talking about it - we just can’t wait to have some of our own. What about you, Jake? Any kids in your future?”

Jake laughs a little, feeling a bit uncomfortable but brushing it off - brothers must talk like this all the time. “Oh, I’d say they’re definitely somewhere down the line, but definitely not anytime soon. There’s a life calendar hanging above our bed that says no kids until Amy’s a lieutenant, at least.”

Luis starts to laugh, but he’s quickly silenced by Joel, nearly thirteen years his senior, elbowing him in the side. He swallows his giggles, looking furtively at Jake, but their new brother-in-law hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

They talk about their kids for a while, and Jake explains the elaborate color-coding system that Amy devised to pack for this four-day vacation. Then the boys give Jake, whose past experience with Christmas has been iffy and mostly related to Santa Claus, the lowdown on the innumerable Santiago family Christmas traditions.

The calm lasts until nearly 7:30, when Isabel Santiago emerges from the master bedroom, Victor looking a little sheepish at her heels. Jake had quickly learned at his first family event with the Santiagos that for all his commanding presence, Victor Santiago is constantly a little cowed and a little quiet when his wife is around. Isabel is furious that anyone let her sleep this late when there are grandbabies to feed and snowball fights to be had and children to catch up with. Jake quickly vacates the kitchen, knowing full well that any cooking done in his presence will quickly devolve into spilled batter and (somehow inevitably) explosions.

Back in his room, he decides to brush his teeth and hair and make some pretense to his new family that he’s less messy than this. His toiletries are stored carefully in the bathroom, in a nice case Amy got him to replace the messy gallon-Ziploc that never quite dried that he previously relied on. Everything is perfectly packed, and he knows exactly where it is. But when he tries the door, it’s locked.

“Amy,” he calls softly, not wanting her brothers to hear them through the frustratingly thin walls (seriously, how did Amy do this for eighteen years?).

“Jake? What do you need?” Amy’s voice is terse, barely audible. The shower isn’t running, so Jake decides she must be using the bathroom. He tries the handle again, wondering if it was just stuck, but nope - still locked.

Amy’s voice comes through the door again. “Can it wait, babe?”

He sighs. “Yeah.”

Then two minutes pass. Then three. The toilet never flushes, and he can smell French toast being fried in the kitchen all the way from their tiny bedroom in the back.

“Babe? I just need my toothbrush.”

“Just two more minutes, Jake. Please.” Her voice is tense, stressed, and a little hoarse, and he’s not entirely sure why.

“This is taking forever,” he whines. Then, a pause. “Babe, are you,” he brings his voice down to a whisper, “pooping?”

There’s a cough, then few seconds of silence from inside the bathroom. Then, a relieved sigh. “Yes, Jake. I’m pooping.”

“Amy, I’ve seen you poop before. Let me in.”

“How on earth am I going to do that?”

“Right.”

And he waits patiently until - finally - he hears a toilet flush, and she lets him in. The bathroom smells a little musty, reminding him somehow of their bathroom the week they both had the stomach flu. Her face is a flushed, and her eyes are a bit wild, darting around the way that they do when she’s stressed or anxious. Before he has time to question it or make sure she’s okay, though, he hears Manny call from just inside the door to their room that breakfast is ready and everyone else is eating. Amy replies that they’re coming, so Jake pours some toothpaste in his mouth, swallows quickly, and follows his wife (he’ll never get tired of thinking that) out the door.

All of the Santiagos are gathered around every flat surface in the living area of the cabin, each with a steaming pile of French toast, bacon, and strawberries. All of the weirdness of this morning is forgotten as he plops on the couch next to Luis with his own plate, leaving a corner of the couch for Amy. The pair immediately start discussing the Knicks’ playoff prospects with a few Santiago nephews sitting on the floor nearby (Jake’s pretty sure their names are Robert and Matty, but he can't be entirely sure. Everyone looks alike - those Santiago genes are strong.)

He’s so busy trying to convince his new family that the Knicks will win tomorrow by a full 70 points that he doesn't notice that Amy spends most of the meal taking deep breaths and leaves her French toast, her favorite breakfast, almost entirely untouched.

As soon as the conversation lulls, the sound in the room transitioning from lively conversation to quiet groans of sated contentment, Amy jumps up to start collecting plates. Her mother quickly follows, as she always does. They wave off all help (although not much is offered - everyone is far too full to move) from brothers and spouses, and even from Jake, and mother and daughter bustle off to the kitchen together.

Moms and dads, startled by the sudden lack of a syrup-covered plate in their lap, jolt to alertness, rushing to scrub powdered sugar, syrup, and orange juice off the faces of their children before they can ruin the furniture in the rented cabin. In the midst of the sudden reinstatement of chaos, Joel’s wife Mari stares at Jake, catching and holding his eyes. Then, seemingly unintentionally, her gaze shifts from him to the still-open kitchen door, out of which the clinking sounds of dishware being washed are emerging over the tumult of voices in the living room.

He gets the message (he thinks - that was a pretty weird look) and gets up to help his wife in the kitchen. He’s happy to go help anyway - after all, he has nothing to do to help clean up the plethora of nieces and nephews surrounding him, and he likes to be useful.

He’s stopped dead in his tracks at the door to the kitchen, though. Isabel Santiago is giving him a terrifying glare that is - like Amy’s - eerily reminiscent of that of a middle school librarian. It stops him in his tracks, and somehow, he knows to stay there. But instead of abandoning the room, going back to play with Robert and Matty, the eight year-olds who informed him during breakfast that he’s the coolest uncle they know, he backs away and sneaks behind the door, watching through the crack between the hinges, so that Mrs. Santiago doesn’t know he’s there.

Amy is gesticulating wildly at her mother, clearly frantic. When her hands reach up to start twisting her hair, though, her mom grabs them gently, says something, and pulls her only daughter into a hug. He can’t make out what’s being said over the din of the room behind him, but the cadence sounds distinctly like Spanish, so he knows he wouldn’t be able to follow even if everyone else would just shut up.

He’s relieved, though, to see Amy’s shoulders relax into her mother’s arms. He’s not sure what’s wrong, but clearly her mother has it under control. The sight of Amy’s breath steadying, her hands relaxing, calms him - whatever it is clearly can't be that bad.

And he's right. He’d returned to his room to change out of pajama pants (although this is the perfect kind of day for a pajama-jammy-jam) when Amy walks in, hugging him from behind and pressing her face into his shoulder.

He lets her stay that way for a few seconds, before pulling her arms just loose enough that he can turn around in her grip and properly hug her back. They stay that way, uninterrupted and holding each other close, for far longer than they should be able to, what with every single child in the house barging into their room at all hours to get some one-on-one time with their favorite aunt.

Finally, she pulls back, placing a quick peck on his lips before opening the top drawer of the dresser to find jeans and a sweater (before Amy, Jake didn't even know you could unpack on vacation, so he takes a second to marvel at the fact that he doesn't even have the opportunity to wreck the organization of their shared suitcase).

“So...you're okay?” he asks, a little tentatively.

Her back stiffens when he asks, and she freezes, one pants leg on, the other leg in the air. Then, in just a second, she's back to normal. In a carefully measured voice, she replies, “Yeah, babe, I’m fine. Why wouldn't I be?”

“I saw you talking to your mom, and you looked pretty upset.”

“Oh, that!” she replies, just a little too quickly. “I forgot the present for Mateo, and I didn’t know what to do, but my mom had an extra, so we’re giving him that!”

Jake’s pretty sure that he remembers writing Mateo’s gift tag himself, is almost certain it’s sitting near the side of the pile in their trunk, but he knows better than to argue. If Amy says it’s not there, then it’s definitely not there.

And then they hear Victor calling for them to come help decorate the Christmas tree that Diego drove up from New Jersey for the cabin, so instead of protesting, he grabs her as her head pops through the crew neck of her sweater (her softest one, which makes it by far his favorite) and plants a firm kiss on her lips. She laughs through it, wiggling away and protesting that we can’t do this, Jake, my dad might be coming in!

But then, when they hear her father’s footsteps fade into the background, she turns around and surprises him with a quick kiss before walking off, expecting him to follow. He does, but only after spending a few seconds marveling that the woman walking off with a new bounce in her step and a swing in her shiny ponytail is married to him.

Jake emerges into the crowded living room only a few steps behind his wife to happily discover that most of the younger children have been sent outside to play and release some energy. This means that the living room, while still loud - thanks to the room full of Santiagos, whose grasp of volume control is iffy at best - is full of the hum of polite conversation, rather than the screams of children trying to play tag between the boxes of ornaments, provided by Isabel.

When everyone sees them enter, though, the conversation comes to an abrupt halt. All eyes are trained on Jake and Amy, standing a few feet apart at the front of the room. Isabel starts to get up, takes a deep breath to say something, and then Amy shakes her head. It’s almost imperceptible, and if her ponytail wasn’t quite so bouncy, Jake wouldn’t have seen it at all.

Immediately, conversation resumes, as though nothing had ever happened, leaving Jake to wonder if he was imagining everything. Still standing in front of everyone, he leans in and whispers the question to Amy, who just shrugs in response - as if to say my family’s weird - deal with it.

So he does. He finds Luis sitting and untangling Christmas lights with Alex, their oldest brother. Alex looks up as Jake sits down, and a smile lights up his face as he claps Jake on the back.

“Congratulations, budd--” Alex is cut off abruptly from a sharp elbow from Luis that Jake definitely did not imagine.

Both men are looking at him warily, looking a little nervous for reasons that Jake can’t even begin to parse. They're silent for 10 seconds, and then 10 more, just watching him expectantly.

Then finally, with a relieved sigh, Luis breaks the silence. “Anyway, Jake, wanna give this string a shot? We can't get this knot out to save our lives.”

So Jake takes the lights they hold out for him and gets to work, doing his best to forget about the weird way that Alex had been staring at him.

Thankfully, untangling the lights turns out to be so consuming that he does manage to put his weird morning out of his mind for a little while. He has no idea how lights could have gotten this bad, until Alex explains that his kids used them as a rope for a hostage situation game that summer and put them away themselves. He’s a little impressed, honestly - figuring out how to untangle these lights might be a harder puzzle than any he's managed to solve with the NYPD.

Finally, though, he is able to hand Victor, who is taking meticulous instructions from Isabel about where the lights should be strung, a perfectly untangled strand of Christmas lights to add to the tree. The children are called back in to add ornaments to the now-lit tree (which stands taller than the trees Jake’s managed to squeeze into any of his apartments). The stomping of boots on the front mat sounds like a herd of elephants entering the house, and it lasts for what feels like an eternity as more and more kids traipse through, tracking an unbelievable amount of snow through the living room on their way to put up their coats.

His job done, Jake moves to the couch and squeezes into the impossibly small space left between Amy and the arm of the couch. Amy, laughing at the noises he makes as he tries to force his butt into the few available inches, gets up, settling on his lap as soon as he sits down.

Her head comes to rest against his shoulder as the kids reemerge, loud and ready to decorate. They watch the tree slowly acquire character via the addition of all sorts of ornaments - from fancy gold family heirlooms that only nineteen year-old Anna and her brother Sam can touch, hung high at the top of the tree, to paper drawings strung with yarn that two year-old Eliza drapes proudly on the bottom branches, balancing tentatively on chubby legs.

Amy slowly snuggles closer as they watch the scene unfold, so that her legs are folded on the couch (she may or may not give Luis, sitting next to them and playing with Lucia, a small kick as she pulls them up, just in case he’s done something today to deserve it), and Jake wraps his arms around her. Two of the thirteen year-olds are making faces at them and pretending to vomit in the corner, but Amy just laughs and plants a kiss on Jake’s cheek to bother her nephews.

Jake notices, when the tree is about halfway done and a few of the brothers are getting up to help their kids even out the ornament distribution (Jake has long-since discovered that Amy comes by her OCD honestly), that Isabel Santiago is watching him closely. She seems to have fixated on his arms, draped lazily over his wife’s (her daughter’s) abdomen. He can't read her expression, despite all his years of detective work, but he sits up straighter, trying to match the professionalism of Joel and his wife, sitting in the opposite corner of the room and gently holding hands in separate chairs.

As he shifts, though, Amy groans her objection, nuzzling her face deeper into his chest. That's when he realizes his wife is half-asleep. So instead, he settles back, deciding Mrs. Santiago must have been looking at something else - a quick glance confirms that she’s now talking to Diego’s wife animatedly about Christmas Eve dinner plans.

Finally, the tree is done. Isabel brings out sandwiches for everyone (Jake has no idea when she had time to make them. He’s at least 80% sure his mother-in-law is magical.), and lunch is finished in 10 minutes flat.

By this time, it's mid-afternoon, and there’s just a few hours until Christmas Eve dinner preparation begins in earnest. Matty and Robert beg their fathers for a snowball fight, and they agree eagerly, and before Jake really realizes what happened, everyone is getting up to go find coats and enjoy the hour or two of true daylight remaining.

Jake wakes Amy up (she claims drowsily that she’s been awake the whole time, thank you very much), and as they get up, Manny and Luis wander over to ask if Jake and Amy will be joining. Jake accepts enthusiastically, but Amy shakes her head.

“I don't think a snowball fight is up my alley today,” Amy apologizes with a yawn.

“Right! Because of the--” Manny starts, and then shuts his mouth so hard his teeth clack.

Amy gives him her special death glare, usually reserved for Charles when he starts talking in meticulous detail about her reproductive system.

Luis just laughs and drags Manny away, but Jake doesn't miss the excited hug Manny and Luis exchange when they think they're out of sight. Things are starting to get undeniably weird, Jake decides, furrowing his brow.

Amy is leading Jake back to their room when they find Isabel herself standing in their path. “Amy, could I borrow Jake for a moment? I need help with something, and your brothers are useless.”

Amy tries to glare at her mother, telling her silently to back off. But Isabel glares right back, and all of a sudden, Jake feels like he’s watching Amy look into a trick mirror at a fair - every mannerism is identical.

To no one’s surprise, Isabel wins, and Amy drops Jake’s hand, throwing one last concerned look over her shoulder as she continues to their room. Amy may have her mother’s glare, but her mother has an extra 37 years of practice.

Isabel starts to walk towards the kitchen, perhaps the only empty room in the house, and Jake follows automatically.

When they get there, she closes the door and turns slowly towards Jake. Slowly, carefully, she says, “You know, Amy loves you. A lot.”

Jake, feeling almost as nervous as when he asked them for their blessing to marry Amy, replies with the first dumb quip that comes to mind: “I’d hope so - we've been married for six months now!”

Isabel chuckles a little at that, seeming to loosen up. "I know. And we're all happy to have you as a part of the family," she reaches up touch his shoulder, her expression turning back to something more serious. "I know Amy likes to take care of herself. She's been like that her whole life - she didn't even want our help as a toddler learning to walk, which didn't go down well. There was the whole puddle incident," Isabel gets a far off look in her eyes for a few seconds before focussing back in on Jake, who has a host of questions about the phrase puddle incident. "I know she likes to take care of herself, but you're taking care of her too, right? We all need a little taking care of sometimes."

"Of course! We take care of each other - when she lets me," Jake shrugs, like it's obvious.

"Thank you," Isabel smiles a warm smile. "I knew I could trust you, Jake. I'm just reminded how lucky I am at times like these, that all my babies grew up and made such perfect families themselves. All these grandbabies!" Isabel gestures around as if there are grandbabies escaping from every crevice of the house (in fairness, they definitely are).

"They're all pretty special," Jake agrees, remembering the chorus of Tio Jake. No two words any adult (except for Amy) could say would make his heart feel so full.

"All so unique, and so precious." Isabel adds. And I just wanted to tell you how thrilled we all are that you all could be here with us this Christmas - I know it was hard to get off work, but it’s good for Amy to be with family, especially this year.”

Jake has already started to spew words about how of course they were thrilled to be here and it was never a question that they'd find a way to make it and they love seeing everyone. And then her last words register, and he pauses, his mind swirling as he looks for any explanation for what she might mean.

"What do you mean this year? Is-" he lowers his voice "is someone sick? Does Amy know?"

"No one's sick," she chuckles softly, "but Amy has been feeling a little under the weather. There's a special tea I have, it used to help me when...I mean, it helps with the nausea. I'll get you some to take up to her." Isabel starts for the cupboards, rifling around in the ones above her head. Jake isn't sure she can even see in there.

"Do you need any help?" He offers, but just then Isabel produces a lilac box and nods approvingly at it.

The tea takes five minutes to make, but Jake's distracted for most of it by Matty, who comes in with a hacky sack, which Jake can't say no to. The kid is surprisingly good, and Jake’s out-of-practice, leading to more than one miss and several repetitions of the phrase, “Aw! I boofed it!”

Isabel finally hands Jake a steaming cup of tea, which he carefully starts to carry back to Amy.

"Make sure she's getting enough sleep, too!" Isabel says as Jake starts turn away.

"Uh...I will, I guess?"

She laughs at his confusion, ruffles his hair (she has to reach up on her tip toes to do it), and hands him a cookie (Jake has no idea where she got it, but Isabel always has cookies. Jake loves her dearly for it).

With that, Jake knows he’s been dismissed. He walks out of the kitchen much faster than he should with the tea, carrying the cookie in his mouth.

When he finally navigates his way towards the glorified closet that he and Amy are sharing this Christmas, he throws open the door dramatically, startling Amy, who’s sitting on the bed wrapping a plain white box in red-and-green patterned wrapping paper (Jake remembers her packing the extra wrapping paper over his strenuous objections about the fact that there are no more gifts to wrap and there’s no possible way that she’s forgotten a gift for anyone - she even had one for Alex’s new puppy.)

“Babe,” Jake says frantically, his mouth still full of cookie, “I think your family is trying to kill us!”

“What?” Jake rarely catches Amy off guard anymore - she knows him almost as well as she knows herself. But he can see clearly that he’s surprised her with this.

“D’you think your brothers are still mad at you for that time you busted their party?” Jake is busy running through a list of every possible reason they could be on a Santiago hit list, but he’s discovering the list is pretty short.

“No way - I was nine!”

“Maybe it’s just me! Maybe they know 145 isn't a good credit score! Ames, what if they discovered I don't have a favorite font?”

At that, Amy gets up off the bed and walks over to him. “Babe, they already know that. And you do have a favorite font - it’s the title font from the Die Hard poster, remember? Everything’s totally normal - nothing bad’s gonna happen.”

The statement was clearly supposed to make him relax, and she turns around to find his coat for him so that he can go outside and join in the snowball fight, but Jake isn't satisfied. Then he notices that the peals of laughter he’s hearing are coming from outside, rather than inside, the house, and he realizes that they must be totally alone inside. The knowledge that they're alone in a snowed-in cabin adds an extra sense of eeriness to the afternoon light filtering through the clouds.

“Babe, we’re in an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. Suuure, you’re totally right, nothing bad could ever happen here.”

Abandoning the search for his coat, Amy grabs him by one hand and drags him back to sit down on the bed with her. “First of all, the cabin isn't abandoned - everyone is, like, ten feet outside the front door. Second, we’re on family vacation - you've been watching way too much true crime if you think someone’s trying to kill us. So what’s bugging you?”

Jake pauses for a moment, takes a deep breath, and then lets everything out in a rush. “Your mom just pulled me aside to make sure I knew to take care of you because you love me and everyone keeps staring at me and Manny congratulated me and I don't know why and you were even being weird about pooping this morning and they’re definitely up to something really freaky, babe!”

And then he’s cut off by Amy’s laughter. She’s fallen backwards on the bed and is clutching her stomach as deep belly laughs escape into the still air of the cabin. Jake just glares at her - he can’t believe she’d be laughing about something this serious! They’re in an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods (she can’t convince him otherwise) and their lives are on the line!

Finally, slowly, Amy catches her breath. When she’s gotten herself under control enough to speak again, she says the last thing he’d ever expect: “Want an early Christmas present?”

In shock, Jake replies, “Babe! Now is not the time for early Christmas presents! Now’s the time to dig out the car!”

“Jake.” She gives him The Look, the one that means that he’s being ridiculous and he needs to stop and listen. “Open the gift.” And she hands him the mostly-wrapped box that has been sitting forgotten on their pillow.

Still uttering half-hearted protests, he tears at the wrapping paper to expose the plain white box inside (what can he say? He’s a sucker for gifts). It looks vaguely like a box a tie might come in, and he looks up at her. “Santiago, clothes aren’t gonna fix the fact that something creepy is definitely coming.”

“Keep opening, Peralta.”

So he does. When he takes off the top, he looks up at her. She waits patiently for him to look down, to actually register what’s inside the box. When he finally does, his jaw drops as some still-unidentified emotion bubbles up in his stomach.

Because lying inside the box is a positive pregnancy test.

“I took it this morning, when you were with Manny and Luis and I’d woken up to throw up again and Mari bought it for me yesterday when they went into town and I was gonna give it to you first thing tomorrow morning but you’re in the middle of a weird...Jake?”

The sound of his name jerks him out of his reverie. Slowly, he looks up at his wife, a grin painted across his face from ear to ear (he’s pretty sure no one could wipe off this grin - not even the still-possibly-murderous Santiagos playing outside). Then, he’s tackling her back into the pillows at the head of the bed, being careful of her abdomen while their laughter mingles and fills the still-silent cabin.

Their legs are tangled and his arms are wrapped around her and her hands are combing through his hair and he’s never felt this disgustingly, blatantly happy in his life. “Santiago...You’re really pregnant?” he asks, awe saturating every word.

She nods in response, a smile growing quickly on her face. “You’re really happy about it?” she asks.

In response, he shifts forward and kisses her firmly. It’s far from their most graceful kiss - their teeth keep clacking because neither of them can stop smiling long enough to kiss the other properly. Jake doesn’t mind, though, because he’s too distracted by the pure, unadulterated joy that’s radiating up from his chest and out through his face and out through his fingers and the very tips of his toes.

Finally he pulls back. “Yeah,” he answers with a laugh. “I guess I’m pretty happy about it.”

She hits his shoulder lightly, rolling her eyes at her dumb husband that she loves so much. And he’s too busy thinking about the fact that Amy’s pregnant and all of the possibilities that that fact brings to even pretend it hurt. Instead, he shifts one hand slightly, gently, so that it comes to rest just over her belly button.

“You know, you can’t feel him kick yet.”

“I know! And him? It’s obviously a girl that we’re obviously naming Nakatomi!”

“Jake, Santiagos have boys. Always. Trust me, this kid is a boy.” She sounds so sure, but he can’t stop himself from giggling (he might never be able to stop giggling because he doesn’t think happiness this strong will ever wear off. It’s pulsing steadily next to his heart, filling him with the same warmth he felt when he saw Amy do the Double Tuck in her white dress as she walked down the aisle).

“Ames, they had you.”

She’s opening her mouth to retort, but the mention of the Santiagos reminds Jake how this whole conversation started in the first place. “Babe, this is all very exciting and everything, but it has nothing to do with why your family was acting so weird. Either you need to explain or we need to get the hell out of this creepy cabin. Something definitely just creaked and we’re the only ones inside!”

“Jake...that was you. You just moved and the bed creaked. And, to answer your other question, my family...might have known.” She sounds a little sheepish, but mostly she just sounds blissfully happy.

Jake looks at her in obviously fake indignation. “Amy! You told your family before you told me?”

“In fairness to me, my mom actually is the one who told me!”

Jake looks at her a little incredulously. “Babe. Come on. You keep track of everything to the hour. There’s no way you didn’t know about this.”

“I’m serious! I was a little late and pretty tired and nauseous, but didn’t think anything of it. My mom took one look at me and pulled me aside and told me. She’s had so many kids she just knows, Jake. Joel and Alex and my dad figured it out on their own, too - they’ve seen my mom have so many kids it takes them, like, half a second to pick out a pregnant woman. Between the four of them, things...got around pretty quickly. They’re all pretty horrible at keeping secrets.”

“No kidding.” Jake thinks back to the millions of weird looks that he’d forced himself to disregard and the dozen weird conversations he’d had since yesterday morning.

“They just get really excited about new grandkids, and they couldn’t wait for you to be excited, too.” Her voice is soft, as is her smile, and her hand has drifted towards his cheek.

“Trust me. I am.” He leans in to kiss her, a proper one this time. And it’s amazing and fireworks are exploding behind his eyelids and he hasn’t been this truly happy in...maybe ever and she’s rolling him over to straddle him and her hands are finding the buttons on his shirt, but then, a small voice is shouting outside their (thankfully closed) door to come outside. With a startled laugh, they break apart, jumping up impressively quickly to seated positions on opposite sides of the bed. Amy shouts back at her niece that they’ll be out in just a sec, and she begins searching for the coats and boots that they’d thrown off so hastily last night while Jake frantically buttons his shirt.

“There’s really no way we can get out of going outside?” Jake asks, a little disappointed.

“Remember when you were so excited for the snowball fight?” Amy retorts, a huge grin cracking across her face.

“Yeah, but now there are better things to do!”

And with that, Amy hands her husband his coat and boots, grabs his hand, and drags him to the front door. They emerge with his arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist (she’ll say she just needs to be kept warm, but really she just can’t stay away from him). They watch on the side for a while, and at first, everyone leaves them alone (or at least, no one throws snowballs at them).

Jake’s so busy looking down at his wife, who’s positively radiant, that he doesn’t notice the sappy grins being thrown their way by every single adult in the clearing.

They stay that way, blissfully unaware of the screaming children and the happy smiles from Mr. and Mrs. Santiago and the high fives Manny and Luis are throwing each other because their baby sister is having a baby, for quite a while.

And then Joel ruins it. “Ay! Peralta! Stop making eyes at your wife and get in here!” And then a large snowball hits Jake’s face.

Jake roars with laughter as he bends down to start making his own ammo, but he’s slow - certainly unused to the speed at which Santiagos can form snowballs. He’s getting pelted from all sides, and the kids have joined in, and one dumped a pile of snow down his back while he bent down to make another snowball and he’s going down.

And then Amy throws a snowball. It hits Joel square in the face, and he backs up, sputtering. Manny starts to charge, but he’s gotten a heaping pile of snow to the face before he can get anywhere near her (she’d shifted while everyone was distracted, placing herself strategically behind her parents and using them as a human shield that none of her brothers could touch). One by one, the Santiago brothers and their spouses go down, their children getting distracted by the prospect of tackling their own parents into the snow. Jake’s more than a little impressed with her accuracy - now he knows why her aim with a gun is so good.

And then he’s able to stand up, brushing the snow off his jacket and shaking it out of his hair but mostly looking at Amy, who’s all sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks as she gives her dad a high five. And then Victor Santiago is pulling his daughter into the tightest hug Jake’s ever seen and if he’s not mistaken a tear is leaking out of his eye (no - he must be mistaken - that’s definitely just melting snow) and Amy’s laughing a little and he can see her lips moving, reminding them that it’s still early and they’re not even supposed to know, but none of it seems to resonate because then her mom’s joined in the hug and Luis has found Jake watching all of this unfold.

“Congrats, man.” He pulls Jake into a quick hug, clapping him on the back before he releases him.

“Thanks,” Jake says, and he’s surprised to hear his voice crack a little bit on the word.

“Yes! I finally got to say it!” Luis shouts so loudly that Jake falls back down into the snow, startled.

Later that night, after the Christmas Eve dinner that was so amazing Jake may never need to eat again and the midnight mass that they all had to traipse through the snowy woods to get to, Jake and Amy finally get to lie down, limbs tangled as she rests her head against his chest. She’s in her flannel pajama pants and his academy sweatshirt, and he’s wearing her family’s reunion t-shirt, and he’s maybe never been more in love.

His wife is already three-quarters asleep - it’s almost midnight, and pregnancy has made her constantly, painfully exhausted. But through the thin walls, the sounds of her siblings putting out presents from Santa drift in, and he can’t help but smile. He’s pretty sure it’s Luis who stubs his toe and lets out a string of Spanish curses, and he’s guessing it’s Alex who shuts him up so abruptly. He laughs a little bit, quietly, and Amy shifts against him.

“Next year, that’ll be us, babe.”

She grins up at him, her eyes heavy lidded and her hair already a little mussed in its ponytail. “Can’t wait.”

#b99 #brooklyn 99 #jake x amy #jake peralta #amy santiago #the entire santiago family #literally the entire gang's here #peraltiago fanfic #my writing #ANYWAY YALL #THE CREEPY CABIN AU DRABBLE TURNED INTO A CHRISTMAS PREGNANCY FIC #AND U SHOULD READ IT

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huntertales · 7 years

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Part Three: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. (99 Problems S05E17)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader are outnumbered by demons, but are saved at the last minute by townspeople who are aware of the apocalypse. They meet a pastor, who introduces them to his daughter Leah, whom he claims is a prophet. When she starts turning the townspeople against each other in the name of the Lord, the Winchester and the reader realize they must kill her. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 4,362.

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Through the rest of the night and to the early morning, you spent your time with a tipsy Sam and a drunk angel, trying to figure out what exactly Leah's ultimate goal was here in this small town. Sam had started to grow worried when his brother hadn't returned home a few hours after curfew was placed. You were tempted to get the burden off your chest about the fight that you had with him, but you bit your tongue, knowing just the thought of what you said made a rush of guilt rushed over you all again. Dean was a big boy, he could take care of himself. But with Cas’ warning that things were only going to get worse with the matter of time, you could feel yourself starting to grow more nervous as time went on. But the man arrived back to the motel later in the morning, catching the three of you off guard while your nose was stuffed in a book.

“We went out looking for you—” Sam jumped up from the couch when he noticed his brother had arrived safely back home. But he found himself stopping mid-sentence when his eyes wandered down to the man’s hands, and taking notice of a substance that made him grow nervous. You slowly looked over to see what the fuss was all about. Your eyes widened slightly when you caught sight of the blood that stained his hands. “You all right?”

“Yeah. It’s—It’s not my blood. Paul’s dead.” Dean informed you and the younger man about what he had witnessed last night. You found the book slipping out from your grip as you felt yourself inhale a sharp breath from the news. Sam seemed taken back himself. He’d just spent a few hours with the man sharing a bottle at his bar. Everything seemed fine when he left. “Jane shot him.”

“It’s starting.” Cas said, talking to you and the younger Winchester.

“What’s starting?” Dean asked with confusion. He looked at his brother for an answer before he turned his attention to the angel that had been eerily quiet. Whenever they left him a message, the angel would be at their side in matter of moments. “Where the hell have you been?”

Cas looked over at the man and gave him the blunt truth, “On a bender.”

“Did he—Did you say ‘on a bender’?” Dean wondered as he looked at the angel with a confused expression from what he just heard.

“Yeah.” Sam mumbled. “He’s still pretty smashed.”

“It is not of import.” Cas said, not wanting to talk about his hangover. You couldn’t help yourself but let out an inappropriate chuckle as you shook your head from what was going on here. “We need to talk about what’s happening here.”

“Well, I’m all ears.” Dean offered as he went to the sink to wash his hands.

“Well, for starters…” Sam sat back down on the couch and gave his brother the bit of news that you had gathered last night all on your own. While Dean might have seen a softer side to the woman, you gotten a strange vibe off her that turned out to be right. “Leah is not a real prophet.”

“What is she, exactly?” Dean asked.

“The whore.” Cas answered for the man.

“Wow. Cas,” The oldest Winchester was caught off guard from the response as he grabbed a rag from the counter to wipe his hands clean. “Tell us what you really think.”

"She rises when Lucifer walks the earth. 'And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.' She’s called the whore not in the sense she is sexually promiscuous with others, but because she's unfaithful to the man she's supposed to worship—God. ‘And she shall come bearing false prophecy.’” You explained to the man as you set down the book you’d been reading before he came in. Setting it down on the table, you tapped your finger to the drawing to give Dean a better idea. “Cas says she has the power to take a human’s form, read minds. Book of revelation calls her ‘the whore of Babylon.’ Whore is catchy and to the point, really.”

“The real Leah was probably killed months ago.” Sam speculated.

“What about the demons attacking the town?” Dean asked, bringing up a good point.

“They’re under her control.” Cas explained to the man. You wondered if the nifty exorcism that everyone had been using was the real deal, but come to find out, she was lying to them for the fun of it. “Fake. It actually means ‘You breed with the mouth of a goat.’” The angel had gotten a kick out of the joke as he smiled to himself. He looked over at the three of you to see if you had found it just as funny, but you looked nothing short of confused, the brothers stared at him with a blank expression. “It’s funnier in enochian.”

“So the demons smoking out—that’s just a con?” Dean asked. “Why? What’s the endgame?”

“What you just saw—innocent blood spilled in God’s name. And you heard all that Heaven talk to try and win over these people.” You said. “She’s manipulating them. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“To slaughter and kill and sing peppy little hymns.” Dean muttered underneath his breath. He pushed himself back to his feet and headed back over to the counter and threw the towel back down where he found it. “Awesome.”

“Her goal is to condemn as many souls to hell as possible. And it’s just the beginning.” Cas said, giving the three of you the unfortunate news. They weren’t on their way to paradise, but a one way ticket to eternal damnation. “She’s way on her way to dragging this whole town into the pit.”

“All right. So, then,” Dean asked the important question. “How do we go pimp of Babylon all over this bitch?”

The angel looked over at you and Sam, as if you had any clue to figuring out how to solve this problem and kill a whore. You shrugged your shoulders as you looked over at the younger Winchester, but when you did, you noticed from the corner of your eye that Cas had disappeared from your sight. You didn't know why, but his tactics of leaving had annoyed you every single time, you should have gotten used to it by now. The three of you waited around for a little while until Cas got back. You changed spots so you were now sitting on the couch with Sam as Dean took your seat to occupy himself. Your feet were occupying an empty corner of the table so you could rest the book on your thighs to balance it better. As you drifted off into your own private thoughts, you didn’t realize your odd habit was rubbing someone the wrong way.

Your eyes wandered away from the pages when you felt someone’s burning gaze upon you for more than just the appropriate few seconds. Sam was occupied with reading a book of his own, and Cas was still gone, leaving one culprit for the rude behavior. Dean was sitting to your right in the chair but his focus was only on you. From the annoyed expression on his face, it seemed the man hadn't come back to the motel room after spending the night away from you with a clear head. Whatever you did annoyed him to no extent.

“Mind getting your grubby feet off the table?” Dean asked you. “It’s not very lady like of you.”

“I could, if you just say the magic word—Oh, wait.” You stopped yourself for a second as you pretend to think for a moment before you decided to give him another jab after what he did. “I forgot. Mommy wasn’t around long enough teach you manners.”

Dean wasn’t the least bit amused from the dead mother jokes as he grunted a not so nice word underneath his breath. You retorted back not even a second later. Sam, however, found himself starting at the two of you with the utmost confusion from the sudden behavior that seemed like the polar opposite from what he was seeing not too long ago. Both of you stared at one another with looks, and if they were deadly enough to kill someone, you and his brother would be dead on the ground in the matter of seconds. He found himself deliberating if he wanted to break the tense silence to ask what was going on here. But before he could get to the bottom of this very small problem, compared to what you were dealing with right now, Cas had arrived back after his journey somewhere. The three of you looked down at the table to see the angel had placed down what appeared to be a wooden stick with a sharpened edge.

“The whore can be killed with that.” Cas explained to all of you. Dean picked it up to examine it out of curiosity. “It’s a stake made from a cypress tree in Babylon.”

“Great.” Dean said, thinking the worst of this was over. “Let’s ventilate her.”

“It’s not that easy.” The angel said, giving you a bit of bad news. He fetched a clean glass from the counter top and filled it with a glass of water to take a drink. “The whore can only be killed by a true servant of Heaven. Not you, Dean. Or me. Especially not Sam. And Y/N, of course, is an abomination. We’ll have to find someone else.”

“That’s a new one, I’ll give you that.” You said, kicking your feet off the table so you could now sit normally. You and the boys went silent for a moment, trying to figure out who could do the fun job of murdering a whore. It had to be someone who was a servant of Heaven, someone who spoke and devoted their life to the practice of spreading the gospel. “Could a pastor do it?”

+ + +

Knowing there was someone in town who could do the dirty deed of killing a whore helped give you some confidence that not all was lost for this town. But it would be precious timing to get David on your side. All of you couldn't go up to him with the accusation that his daughter wasn't a prophet, but more, the whore of Babylon with her sole purpose to turn these townspeople against one another and send the rest to hell. It might clash with the promise of paradise. So all of you waited around until it was the right time. Night had fallen and Cas quietly spent the time tracking down the pastor until he found the perfect moment to confront the man. You and the boys waiting around for a little while, keeping yourselves occupied with random activities until the angel arrived back in your motel room with a special passenger, who looked confused as to how he managed to go from the outside street to your motel room.

“What the hell was that?” David questioned the angel with a very confused tone.

“Yeah, he wasn’t lying about the angel thing.” Dean said, knowing exactly what was must have going through his mind after Cas gave him the speal about being an angel of the Lord. “Have a seat, padre. We got to have a chat.”

You told the pastor everything; from how Leah wasn't a prophet, the things she were saying and her promises were just empty lures to get this town to do exactly what she wanted. The reason why Paul was killed was because he didn't abide by her rules. She made Jane believe if she killed the evil around her, it would help bring her closer to paradise and she could see her son again. Soon this town would be a bloodbath and everyone would be turning on one another. David listened to everything you said, but in the end, his answer was no. He didn't want to believe his little girl was a monster, a whore for that matter.

"I'm sorry, but she's not." Dean told the man. "She's the thing that killed your daughter."

“That’s impossible.” David said, trying to deny the truth.

“But it’s true. And deep down, you know it.” Sam said. The pastor rubbed a hand with his face as he looked down at the piece of wood with a bit of a panicked expression. He knew there was something wrong with his daughter, from the way she was manipulating people and pointing out sinners. Telling his friends that the only way to get rid of them was to commit murder. “Look, we get it—it’s too much. But if you don’t do this, she’s going to kill a lot of people and damn the rest to Hell.”

“It’s just….” David spoke up, but he found himself growing quiet for a moment when Dean grabbed the stake up from the table and letting it linger in his gaze, as if the oldest Winchester wanted him to grab it. But he refused. “Why does it have to be me?”

“You’re a servant of Heaven.” Cas told the man.

“And you’re an angel.” David tried to argue with him.

Cas looked at the man with a straight face, “A poor example of one.”

+ + +

Pastor David had agreed to your plan after he had come to terms that this town was being turned inside out, and the woman that he had called his daughter, was not that. But the idea of murdering someone that looked like Leah was giving him a bit of cold feet. You had to realize David was still human, and with his religious beliefs, it was going to be a heavy burden that he would carry around for the rest of his life. But you had a feeling the good he was about to do would outweigh the evil he would bring down by killing a whore. And if that didn't do the trick, he could always go to confession and pray to a God that wasn't listening anymore. The boys were back in the motel room getting David cleared on the plan as you headed out to the Impala to make sure all of you had everything you might need to take on Leah and her posse of demons.

You slammed the trunk shut after doubling checking once more and looked around the parking lot out of curiosity. It was empty, all except for a lonely angel who start on a bench with a nasty headache after his bender that he was probably regretting right about now. You looked inside the Impala to see the pill bottle you kept after downing a few from your shoulder injury. Grabbing the bottle, you warned the angel as you tossed it to him, and without fail, he got it.

“How many should I take?” He asked as he tried to read the instructions.

“You? I suggest you down the whole bottle. Best medical advice I can give.” You said, shrugging your shoulders when the angel thanked you. You knew he probably didn’t want to talk about it, but you decided to ease the conversation, and letting him know that he wasn’t alone. “I’ve been there. I know a thing or two about deadbeat dads from John. Hell, I'm an expert on parents who screw things up and leave you with the mess. Can’t talk to ‘em. Can’t ask them for help...I know that a little too well."

Silence fell between the both of you for a moment as you crossed your arms over your chest. You observed Cas from the corner of your eye to see that he was thought his own thought, as if he hadn't been doing that enough. When the both of you made eye contact, you gave him a smile, as if letting him know your offer was still on the table. Instead, the angel asked you a question. "How do you and the Winchesters do it?"

“I would say alcohol, but you clearly can’t handle yours.” You tried to crack a joke, but neither one of you made the attempt at cracking a smile. You found yourself pondering on the question. You weren’t handling anything well from your actions over the few weeks between the fighting and reckless behavior. But, like always, you bottled up your emotions and fears, deciding to instead live in the moment before it caught all up to you when you were alone. “On a good day you get to kill a whore.”

+ + +

The promises of paradise would be those who had a soul that was pure, and would be willing to track down the sinners who deserved to die. Most of the town was completely empty and taking cover in the basement level of the church as Leah had her followers roundup whoever thought the angels thought were good enough for their after party. You just needed to get her alone for a chance of survival. Much as the boys protested the idea, you decided to throw yourself as the bait. All it took was some sweet talk before you got her cornered and have David shove the stake in her chest where it belonged. You found her with her followers getting ready with their guns and holy water, getting ready to fight a war that would never come. It took only a little bit of acting for Leah to become convinced that you had wanted to talk to her alone, about the little conversation you had before.

“I’ve been thinking about the conversation we had yesterday.” You started off the conversation as Leah lead you to a small office you lead her into that wasn't too far away from the room with all her followers. She shut the door behind you, giving you a bit of privacy as you let out a deep breath. She gave you a curious expression, wondering what you were doing here. You only needed to get her here, and then the plan would be placed into action. "And I think you're right."

“About choosing a side you’re willing to fight for, Y/N?” Leah wondered. You nodded your head, and with that response, her lips stretched into a smile at what she thought was about to be accomplished with you. “You're going to make Father very proud. You've saved yourself in paradise for doing this.”

“I have just one question. Isn't it a sin to pretend you're a prophet when you're not? Because the father you've been preaching about hasn't been ours, sister. I guess that makes you nothing but a whore. Right?” You presumed. Leah’s face fell from the term that you had called her, not only did she realized you had found out who she was, but you used the term on her that she didn't quite get used to. “And don't worry about little old me. I saved myself a comfy spot in sweet paradise. It doesn't matter which team I'm rooting for. Because you see, there's a new player in town. And I’m gonna make sure things go my way.”

Before Leah could make her grand escape, you tried grabbing her arm to pin her in place when David came into view with the stake. But the whore seemed to have proved herself superior. You could feel yourself being flung across the room and to a corner where you felt a wall cushion your fall. But Cas was here to save the day. He grabbed her and tried to pin her in place to give the pastor a better view. Leah tried her hardest to plead her way out of this. But he knew the truth.

“Daddy!” She pleaded with him. “Don't hurt me!”

“Gedion, now!” Sam ordered.

David went for the move, but Leah had a few tricks up her sleeve. Chanting what sounded to be an echonican spell underneath her breath, Cas groaned in pain at what she done to him and fell to the floor, and just as the boys went in for her, she only needed to wave her arm before the Winchesters and David were thrown to the floor, giving her a chance to make a run for it. You spotted the stake on the ground. Before you could think it over, your instincts came in, you snatched it from the ground and began racing after her, despite the voices calling your name. You were playing for both sides, there had to be a way this would work.

You chased after Leah until she headed back to the basement where she would be safe with all of her followers to help keep her safe. “Help!” She cried out like a damsel she was pretending to be. “She's a demon!”

Well, she wasn't lying about that. You tried to get your way at her, but before you could, you felt Rob tackle you to the ground, making you lose your grip with the stake. If he wanted a fight, you would give him one. You swung your arm up and punched him hard enough to make the man tumble off of you, and before he could make another move when he got up, you quickly kicked him in the head before he got the chance to try and pull a move. You managed to push yourself to your feet and saw Leah was about to give the instructions to burn this place down the ground, with added storage in the closet. Before someone could light the fuse, Sam took Jane down. Which only left Leah, wherever she was.

You quickly looked over your shoulder to see Dean had tried to get the stake, but before he could, was knocked down to the floor. You made one more last attempt, before you could even reach it, you felt a sharp pain hit the back of your head after Leah made sure you were very far away when she threw you across the room without lifting a finger. It didn't mean Dean was going to stop himself from trying one last time, Leah found it amusing.

“Please. Like you're a servant of Heaven.” Leah said in a mocking tone as he bent down to straddle the man. She got up and close in his face to make him feel inferior. “This is why my team’s gonna win. You’re the great vessel? You’re pathetic, self-hating, and faithless. It’s the end of the world. And you’re just gonna sit back and watch it happen.”

Dean didn't listen to what she said. He swung up an arm and punched her when she was least expecting the move, giving him the advantage of grabbing the stake and shoving it into her chest. He gave her a smirk, pushing it even deeper to prove his point. “Don't be so sure, whore.”

The oldest Winchester moved the body off of him and got out of the way before the effects started to take place. You watched as Leah’s body began to shake violently as the stake caught fire. You quickly shielded your face when it suddenly exploded, leaving a gaping hole in her wound. You slowly lowered your arm to see she was dead. A sigh of relief had fell from your mouth to a know this was done, but it only brought confusion from everyone who had witnessed the scene.

“But…I don’t understand.” Jane whispered, her voice broke the silent air that fell between all of you. “How are we supposed to get to paradise now?”

“I’m sorry.” You apologized to her as you slowly got yourself up from the ground, wincing slightly at the pain starting to settle from your head down to your back. “Pretty sure you’re headed in a different direction.”

You looked at Leah's body for a second or two, knowing part of her plan had worked, a few people were going straight down to the pit after committing the crimes they did. There was no freeing themselves from the deadly sin of murder. But that was their own problem. You had a wounded angel and a beat up pastor on your hands. Each brother helped them outside as you busted through the emergency exit you spotted that lead you directly to the parking lot. You lead the small crowd as you quickly opened up the backseat door for the boys. Even with your distance just a few feet ahead of them, Sam saw what happened back there, and he wanted some answers for the thing that his brother could do.

“Dean, how did you do that?” Sam asked as he got David up to the top of the staircase and following behind the older man. Dean, however, pretended to be not sure what he meant by that. “Kill her.”

“Long run of luck held out, I guess.” Dean said, putting the blame for a weak excuse.

“Last I checked, she could only be ganked by a servant of Heaven.” Sam noted.

“Well, what do you want me to tell you?” Dean wondered. “I saw a shot. I went for it.”

You stepped out of the way for the boys to shove Cas and David into the back, giving you little room to squeeze. But it would have to do for now. You were about to get yourself into the side with Cas, but you found yourself stopping, wondering if your biggest fear was about to come true. You stopped the oldest Winchester from getting into the driver's side from the question that you asked him out of the blue.

“Are you gonna do something stupid?” You asked him. Dean looked at you with a confused expression, not sure what you meant by that. “Like Michael stupid.”

“Come on, Y/N.” Dean said. “Give me a break.”

You rolled your eyes and got yourself into the backseat of the car without another word and slammed the door shut behind you. There was no way he could have done it without having just a thought about saying yes. Which meant you had no choice left. You had go through with your plan.

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doctorwer · 7 years

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Quick and Dirty History of Middle-Earth Part 26 Part C

Part 26 Or So Let’s Play “What Were They Up To Before They Were Famous, Part C”

Names

Aragorn II (Revered King)

Thorongil (Eagle of the Star)

Elessar (Elfstone, given to him in reference to Arwen giving him her Elfstone)

Edhelharn (Sindarin equivalent of Elessar)

Estel (Hope)

Strider (Name used in Bree)

The Dúnadan (Name used by Bilbo)

Longshanks (Another Bree name. Reference to the fact that Bree humans had shorter legs than Aragorn with his Dúnadan heritage).

Arakorno (Quenya form of Aragorn)

Born: Third Age 2931

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 88

He has too many names. Also, his birthday is March 1st! Anyway, his father was the Chief of the Dúnadan, the Rangers. As was traditional, Aragorn, the future Chef, grew up as a foster child of Elrond. But when he was only 2, his dad, Arathorn, was shot through the eye by an orc. Yikes. Elrond didn’t want it to get out that Aragorn was heir to Gondor and Arnor, so he changed his name to Estel and didn’t tell Aragorn who he really was. Growing up, he would go ranging with Elrohir and Elladan, so he had a good relationship with his future brother-in-laws! That’s good! When Aragorn turned 21, Elrond told him all about Gondor and the throne and his legacy. Normally, books like this would have us see the part where the freak out because they found out they’re royal, but we are able to skip that and pick up at the point where he was cool with it.

Leaving his mom in Rivendell (Oh, yeah. His mom’s still around), Aragorn started going all over the place. Rohan and Gondor and just everywhere. When he was 49, he met Arwen for the 2nd time in Lothlórien on the hill Cerin Amroth and they got engaged. So he’s been engaged since he was 49... and he’s 88 now... So 20 years later, Aragorn helps Gandalf track Gollum down. He does take a brief stop by Rivendell to visit his mother on her death bed. He was 70 at the time she died. After that, he caught Gollum, took him to Mirkwood, and caught up with Frodo!

Names

Théoden (King)

Horsemaster

Ednew

Born: Third Age 2948

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 70

Théoden was the oldest son of King Thengel of Rohan. He had four sisters. Three have no names, but we learn the name of his favorite, Théodwyn. We only know her because she was also the mother of Éomer and Éowyn. Théoden didn’t speak any Rohirric, since he had been born in Gondor and spent his childhood there. Théoden spoke Common and elvish. Tsk. The elite coming in to rule; he doesn’t even know the language his people speak. After Théodwyn and his brother-in-law died, he adopted Éomer and Éowyn.

Théoden married Elfhild, who got pregnant and had a son, Théodred (they love to name the sons a name that sounds close to the dads. It’s all over the place). Elfhild died giving birth to Théodred. Théoden ruled Rohan for 40 years before Gríma really started to mess Théoden up. Little dick.

Before Gandalf joined the Fellowship, he went to Edoras to warn Théoden about Saruman and to ask for a horse so that he could catch up with the Fellowship. Of course, Théoden was still under Saruman’s control. Théoden told Gandalf to take any horse and GTFO. Gandalf picked Shadowfax, the bestest best horse in all of Rohan. Shadowfax was descended from legendary horses who could run really fast and really far without stopping. Of course, since Théoden told Gandalf he could take any horse, he couldn’t really say anything.

Names

Gríma (Mask, Visor, Helmet)

Wormtongue

Born: Whoooooo knoooowwwsssss

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: Probably old. He sounds old.

Gríma is a bit if a mystery. He was the son of Gálmód and a native of Rohan. Pretty simple after that. He became a spy for Saruman because he was promised he could “marry” Éowyn. He used his lies and literal poison and shit to keep Théoden under Saruman’s spell. Gollum had tricked the Ringwraiths into going to the wrong place to find the Shire, but they passed by Wormtounge. The Witch-king questioned Gríma, who was all scared and told the Nazgûl where they could find The Shire and that Gandalf had been through Rohan recently. With Saruman, Gríma’s fate is changed the most from book to film. But we’ll get to that later.

Names

Frodo Baggins (Wise by Experience)

Frodo of the Nine Fingers

Nine-fingered Frodo (What is with named people based on horrible maimings they suffered?)

Frodo Elf-friend

Ring-bearer

Born: Third Age 2968

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 51 in the book/33-ish in the movie

OK, his age is one of the few things the movies changed that don’t fit well with the rest of cannon. In the books, Gandalf was gone for several years after the party, but Frodo stayed young because of the ring. Not so in the movies, where it looks like Gandalf has been gone a few months. Anyway, Frodo was the only child of Drogo Baggins and Primula Brandybuck. When Frodo was 12, his parents died. They went out boating and some say Drogo’s massive weight sunk the boat, and for some reason they couldn’t swim. Like, why go boating, then? SO, they both drowned. For a long time, Frodo lived with his uncle, Rorimac Brandybuck, Master of Buckland (Remember, that’s one of the three leaders of The Shire). Frodo was a trouble maker. Aw. Adorable. Bilbo adopted Frodo when he was 21. Frodo was 21. Bilbo was 99.

All the hobbits inter-marry to no end, so it’s hard to pin down the exact relationship between Bilbo and Frodo, but it was closer to cousin than uncle. But since Bilbo made Frodo his heir, it probably just seemed proper to call him Uncle Bilbo. Bilbo taught Frodo elvish and a lot of the history of Middle-Earth. The two even had the same birthday. Hobbits came of age at 33. I don’t know why, since they have the same average life spans as humans, 90-100. It seems like they don’t have very long time in the ‘adult’ age bracket. But since their entire lives just seem devoted to eating, drinking, and smoking, I guess they don’t need to be an adult for all that much. It’s not like they can’t drive a car until they come of age or they go away to college when they come of age or something. Anyway, when Frodo turned 33, Bilbo turned 111. Which is the birthday we see in the movie.

Name

Boromir (Steadfast Jewel)

Born: Third Age 2978

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 41

The oldest son of Denethor II and Finduilas. When Boromir was 10, his mother died. After that, his father was a lot more unpleasant. Even though their father clearly liked Boromir better, Boromir and his brother, Faramir, were very close. Boromir looked after his little brother. So cute. He spent most of his time keeping Team Evil from crossing over into Gondor through Osgiliath. Boromir never cared to marry (make of that what you will). He preferred to fight in battles and shit. And he didn’t care about history, expect the tales of the great battles of old. He was a jock. Faramir and Boromir started having freaking dreams, so Denethor ordered Boromir to go to Rivendell for advice. Faramir really wanted to go. Sad thing is, since Faramir passes on the Ring in the book, if Faramir was the one who went, both brothers might have lived. Boromir lost his horse along the way and had to go the rest of the way on foot, which took 110 days. Ouch.

Name

Théodred

Born: Third Age 2978

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 41

The only son of Théoden. His mom, Elfhild, died giving birth to him. Théodred was an officer type deal. Second Marshal of the Riddermark. Gríma tried to get Théoden and Éomer in trouble with the king, but they were just too loyal. They always followed Théoden, even if his orders were total crazy balls. Just before we first meet Éomer, Saruman assassinates Théodred. He had his orcs attack with clear orders to definitely kill the prince. There was a huge battle around the river and Saruman’s army that would latter attack Helm’s Deep were trying to get over the river. All this complicated military stuff happened and the strongest orcs charged Théodred at once, which is yesh. He died pretty soon after, but Team Good pushed the orcs back. If you watched the extended movie, you saw Éomer finding his cousin by a river. The regular movie just had Éomer riding up with some guy and then Théodred lying in bed, dying from poison, with Éowyn taking care of him. And then he’s dead. It’s very confusing without that river scene! Like, wait, he’s poisoned??? Why???? Who is he?????

Name

Samwise Gamgee (Simple Minded)

Born: Third Age 2980

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 39

Ah, Sam. We all know and love Sam. Fun Fact: Tolkien has said that Sam was always intended to be the hero of this piece. Yeah, Frodo carried the Ring. But Sam was the one who saved us all. Mentioned because my sister was all “Blah, Frodo was a horrible hero” and I was all “…No, duh…Kinda the point…” In a letter, Tolkien wrote that Sam was the “chief hero” and he’s the only Ring-bearer to give it up with his own free will, and he ends up saving Frodo over and over again. I almost wonder if it was commentary on typical English ideas at the time? Like, I don’t know what they thought back then in England, but it almost seems like the English expected their heroes to be rich and smart? Like, look at C.S. Lewis’ work? But Sam is even called simple minded, and every character overlooks him and acts like he is less than them. Not in a mean way, but a “I’m from a well-to-do family and you’re a blue collar worker” way. Literally everyone in the Fellowship are nobles in some way except Sam. But, throughout the book, he:

was all sly and did recon re:Frodo to report to Merry

pretended to be asleep so he could listen in on Frodo when he was talking with an elf

was the only one not tricked by Old Man Willow.

he surprises everyone by reciting a poem about Gil-galad from memory

he invents his own song, on the spot

he’s arguably the most level-headed of the hobbits. Nothing much spooks him.

It’s a constant theme that people misjudge him only to be shown up later.

Anyway, Sam is the son of Hamfast “The Gaffer” Gamgee and Bell Goodchild. Sam is the only one of the four hobbits in the Fellowship not even remotely related to them. The rest are all cousins several times over and shit. Like I said. They inter-married out the wazoo. They were all upper class and Sam was lower class. Sam had five brothers and sisters and he lived on Bagshot Row, which was very close to Bag End. Bilbo taught Sam about elves and about the world out there and encouraged Sam’s love of poetry. He also taught Sam to read, which is treated like a big deal, so most of his family probably couldn't. Sam was a gardener, like his father. His father had been the gardener at Bag End, but was retiring and Sam was training to take his place around the time the movie started.

Name

Fredegar “Fatty” Bolger

Born: Third Age 2980

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 39

Cut from the movie completely. He has a younger sister named Estella who one day marries Merry. He was in on the mission Frodo was on. He helped Marry, Sam, and Pippen secret Frodo out of the Shire. He didn’t want to leave the Shire, which is why he didn’t join them. His job was to stay at Frodo’s new house as a decoy for the Ringwraiths. Eventually, the Ringwraiths showed up, Fatty ran for help, and all of Buckland was woken by the Horn-call of Buckland, which chased the Ringwraiths out.

Names

Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck (Great Lord)

Merry the Magnificent

Born: Third Age 2982

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 37

Merry was the only child of Saradoc Brandybuck and Esmeralda Took. He and Pippin were first cousins. Merry knew something was weird about Bilbo since he was 18, a tween (tween = hobbit culture teenagers. They stay tweens from teen years until they come of age at 33). He saw Bilbo going down the road, when the Sackville-Bagginses came up it. The wife of in this couple would be the hobbit lady that Bilbo mentions in the beginning of The Hobbit and is all “Damn bitch stole all my spoons”. Anyway, Merry saw Bilbo disappear, then reappear on the other side of a hedge. He also saw a glint of gold as Bilbo put something in his pocket. So Merry was pretty suspicious. Little snoop also stole a look in Bilbo’s private journal. Merry didn’t tell anyone what he had seen or learned, though.

He had an important role at the beginning of the book, but that’s cut from the movie. It doesn’t make a huge difference, just made Merry clearly the brightest in the bunch. In the book, Sam, Merry, and Pippin knew that something was wrong with Frodo. Sam was indeed eavesdropping under Frodo’s window that night. It was they were worried about him and Merry came up with a plan to have the three of them go with Frodo. Frodo was planning to move from Bag End to Crickhollow, a house much closer to the edge of The Shire. Frodo, Sam, and Pippen went to Crickhollow where Merry met them. Frodo was all “Dear friends, I cannot stay” and the other hobbits were all “Surprise, Motherfucker! We’re going with you!” Merry was the one who got all their necessary gear and bought their ponies. Then the story continued like normal. We can pretend that Merry did have that plan, but Sam getting caught threw everything off and they had to start before they planned to. Which is why Merry and Pippin were stealing from the field instead of waiting…Just go with it…

Name

Faramir

Born: Third Age 2983

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 36

My poor baby Faramir. He was the second son of Denethor II and Finduilas. Faramir’s mother died when he was 5. Part of the issue was because she got weak after giving birth to Faramir and never really recovered. That and the fact that Faramir was pretty much a carbon copy of his mom, personality wise, led to Denethor disliking Faramir. Boromir was like their dad, proud and liked to fight. Faramir was more gentle and loved history and music, like their mother. Faramir also became friends with Gandalf, who Denethor hated and was sure was trying to take away his rule of Gondor. Which led to Denethor disliking Faramir even more. He became the Captain of the Rangers of Ithilien, who capture Frodo and Sam. His weird dream is what leads to Boromir going to Rivendell.

Name

Peregrin “Pippin” Took (People who Wandered)

Born: Third Age 2990

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 29 (omg he’s older than Éomer and Éowyn)

Pippin was the youngest child and only son of Paladin Took II, Thain of the Shire, and Eglantine Banks. Remember that the Thain is the second of three main leaders in The Shire. Pippin and Merry were first cousins. He was also Frodo’s second-cousin, once removed and Bilbo’s first-cousin, twice-removed. Hobbits loved family trees, which is how they can say such detailed relations like this. His older sisters were named Pearl, Pimpernel, and Pervinca. I sense a theme, here. Keep in mind, a hobbit doesn’t come of age until 33, so Pippin was the only minor in the group. That justifies some of his more stupid actions, I guess.

Name

Éomer (Grand War-horse)

Born: Third Age 2991

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 28

Another one of my babies. Éomer was the son of Éomund and Théodwyn, Théoden’s sister. When Éomer was 11, Éomund was killed chasing a bunch of orcs. After that, Théodwyn became sick and died. Théoden adopted Éomer and his sister and they went to live with their uncle at Meduseld, the Golden Hall. Éomer became good friend with his cousin, Théodred, and the two loved each other like brothers. After that, Éomer became the Third Marshal of Rohan. This means he led the group of defenders of east Rohan. So Éomer lived in Aldburg, a town in east Rohan. He was meeting with his uncle in Edoras when Gríma banished him.

Name

Éowyn (Horse-joy)

Born: Third Age 2995

Age at time of Lord of the Rings: 24

This is my girl, Éowyn. Éowyn’s a BAMF. How many of you can say you’ve killed an unspeakable evil at the tender age of 24. Hell, I’m 22 and the most I’ve done is graduate college. Gotta get my shit together in the next two years. Anyway, this would be the daughter of Éomund and Théodwyn, Théoden’s sister. She was only 7 when her parents died. When Théoden started to fall under Saruman’s spell, Éowyn had to take care of him. What she really wanted to do, of course, was prove herself on the field of battle.

Part 27 Or So Now Let’s Play ‘Where Are They Now!?’ (FINAL)

Quick and Dirty History of Middle-Earth Pt. 1

Note: Sources for all artwork can be found on the linked pages.

#lord of the rings #J.R.R. Tolkien #tolkien #eowyn #eomer #Frodo #Pippin #aragorn #merry #sam gamgee #faramir #boromir

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joneswilliam72 · 5 years

Text

The 405 meets SASAMI: "More than diary entries, a lot of the songs are lovers saying the lyrics to the other person."

Sasami Ashworth - SASAMI - is a Los Angeles native, and has become a crucial cog in the city's music scene since her return there after finishing studying classical French Horn in New York city; playing synths in Cherry Glazerr, contributing to albums by Wild Nothing, Curtis Harding and Avi Buffalo, to name a few. It shouldn't have come as a surprise then to discover the further talents of the young artist when speaking to her; writing, directing, editing, arranging - probably more - are all well within her grasp, and she seems to have a preternatural necessity to express herself through various media.

However - and crucially - SASAMI is humble, a word she used several times in our conversation, and a clear trait that she values above most others. She is still rightfully and resonantly confident, but doesn't use that status to exert dominance, but instead to make you feel comfortable and interesting. It's no wonder that during our chat she described herself as "fucking wholesome," and having a preference for being around beta-male energy.

We met on an unnaturally sunny day in London in February, for an enlivening chat shared over a Japanese breakfast (of course we noted the musical connection), all about her debut album SASAMI, which is out today via Domino.

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You've been part of releases for other acts for a long time, but when it came to releasing your own material was it a tough decision to go with your own name, rather than an artist name?

I think SASAMI all caps, stylised that way, is how I want to put out songs. I've put out music under my name for compositions, but I feel like SASAMI is the name of the "song"/"band" outlet of music, and if I compose or something it might be under Sasami Ashworth.

Have you done a lot of composition recently, even amidst all the album stuff?

Recently I did a podcast theme song and closing song, for 99% Invisible; it's a designer/architecture podcast.

You started writing the songs two years ago, what was the process from that point?

I started writing the songs when I was touring with Cherry Glazerr, so every couple of months I would go home to LA in between tours and I would record one song, and then two months later record one song, and then three months later record two songs, so it happened really intermittently. It wasn't that it took a lot of studio time, it was just spread out so much.

Is that how you end up with so many different people playing on each track?

Yeah, exactly, because different people would be in town, and I wanted to experiment with playing with different drummers or whatever.

It's nice to be able to call on all these people. But Joo Joo was the producer, he's your brother?

Yeah, he's my brother. I'm the oldest of four, he's the youngest. He has a band called Froth that are on Wichita. I went to school in New York for classical music for French Horn, and when I left he wasn't even playing music at all, but when I came back he was like "I live in Echo Park and I'm in a band now," and I'm like "what the fuck are you talking about?!" But he's like a genius, he's really really talented.

Do you have a good working relationship?

Yeah, he's my youngest brother, so I could just bribe him with pizza and beer to get him out of the house.

Does either of you boss the other around?

He's pretty humble in the studio. I wrote all the parts, he played them; he's a really good guitar player. I would write something that was kinda hard for me, because I was playing synths full time in Cherry Glazerr, so I wasn't spending a lot of time playing guitar. But when I write I don't really write to the guitar parts, I write the guitar parts to the chords and melodies I hear, so sometimes the chords are kinda hard to play. But because we're recording to tape you can't record a bunch and playlist it and copy and paste it, you have to do a good take all the way through, so I just kind of figured it would be easier to just have my brother play it, because he's just better at guitar than I am, and that would be faster instead of me having to do it 10 times.

And how about the actual production itself? Because the production is impeccable, when I listen to it I hear sounds coming from all over the place.

Yeah there's a lot of panning and stuff. Thomas [Dolan] who engineered the record and I and my brother were all obsessed with the Beatles-y production. Thomas is really obsessed with the 70s production on the drum sound, my brother's really into 90s guitars, and that's kind the sound world that I wanted on the record, so they were the obvious choice to have them work on the record with me.

Was it easy to explain to them what you wanted?

Yeah, they were super humble about doing whatever. They both have kinda beta-male energy; I don't like to work with alpha males, I like very calm energy. Like, they were almost too slow-paced for me, but it's good for me to slow down sometimes.

You've said it's not a concept album, but it could be said that it's a break-up album, as the majority of the songs deal with that.

But they're all about different people, and also half the songs are about platonic relationships that were not doing well. I think that the record's probably about five different people, it's not all about one person.

I feel like there's two parts of song writing; there's the emotional output of writing the song, and then there's the crafting of the arrangement and the production. I feel like the song writing part was very therapeutic for me, because I was singing about whatever I was feeling in the moment, and then the crafting of the song I was doing in the van on my iPad a lot. I just was writing because I needed to; I was feeling all emotional and I just started writing.

You don't feel awkward or vulnerable putting these out?

No, I'm staying at someone's house who half the songs are about at the moment. And we're still friends - it's not romantic at all.

The album starts with 'I Was A Window', which is quite a demure track, did you always know it would be first?

No! When I was making the record, I was recording songs really intermittently for a year, and I didn't even know I was making a record. I was just recording songs, and maybe about 6 songs in I was like "OK this is going to be an album." But that one I recorded later in the scheme of all the songs, but I just like how it starts, the sound of the guitars.

I think it's a good intro, even though it's relatively subdued, it kind of introduces you as the narrator of the record.

Yeah, for sure. I use the words "you" and "I" in the album's lyrics a lot because the songs are kind of like lovers in that way. More than diary entries, a lot of them are lovers saying the lyrics to the other person.

Interesting. And that track features Dustin Payseur [Beach Fossils]; with all the collaborations on the record was it a matter of just who happened to be around the studio?

No, it was planned. Like with Devendra and Soko I had them come in. I think the voice is kind of an instrument, and I had different friends come in to play instruments, so it made sense to have friends come in and sing.

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Devendra's feature on 'Free' is so perfect for that song.

He has such a great low voice, and he's singing down an octave from me. I already have a pretty low voice, and I needed someone that could sing down the octave.

Did you direct him on what you wanted?

Yeah. It's actually interesting because I've known Devendra's music for a super long time, but he was so humble in the studio. He just came in and was like "whatever you want, I'll do it." It was just a very pleasant experience.

And the result is devastating.

Yeah, but that's the thing, like I said there's the emotional part in writing but then there's the craftsmanship part of putting the arrangement together, getting all the tones right, having all the right voices on it - and that's so much less emotional. I do vocal takes super fast, because I sing really in pitch so it doesn't take me a long time, so they probably only take about an hour, but all the other parts take 50 hours, so you spend so much more time doing the non-lyric parts, and you don't really think about the lyrics as much when you're making the song.

When you're writing the guitar parts do you think about making the tone similar to the emotion?

I think it's a mixture of the tone of the guitars and also the voicing of the chord itself. But, when I'm writing the songs I'm generally writing the lyrics as well; I'm not the kind of person who makes the song and then tries to make the lyrics fit in it. I kind of improvise the lyrics on the spot and then usually I end up keeping them, because I feel like when you improvise music and words your mouth develops the words naturally. It's super weird to put lyrics afterwards to me, because it doesn't have the same cadence. Writing a song is like writing a poem, so it's kinda weird to assume that you would pick the pentameter or whatever and then have to put the words to it later.

But a lot of people do it that way.

Yeah a lot of people do it that way, especially with pop writing. And at the end of the day it's whatever it sounds like at the end is the only thing that matters, because that's the only thing that people hear. But for me, because the process of writing was so personal, I wanted it to be a more holistic process. But this record to me is such a guitar record, because I got obsessed with guitar-heavy bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab right before I made it.

Especially coming out of playing synths in Cherry Glazerr.

Yeah, because I was playing synths so much in Cherry Glazerr, I needed to play guitar, I needed to write on guitar.

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Does LA have a big influence on your music?

Definitely being from LA and making the record there and being able to have a lot of different musicians in LA, it gave me access to having friends and awesome studio people on the record. So in a very technical way it was very influential.

But then 'At Hollywood' on the album is not a very great advertisement for LA.

[Laughs] That song is really sarcastic, because at that point in making the album I had been on tour with Cherry Glazerr for two years already, and LA was changing a lot; people were moving, the rent was going up a lot. So maybe I was having a cynical relationship with the city, But also the lyrics are kind of nonsense. If I didn't write a song on tour, then I wrote it at 3am before the studio day, procrastinating from finishing the next song. 'At Hollywood' was one of those songs; I think I was supposed to go in to mix 'Jealousy', but instead of mixing 'Jealousy' I was having pre-postpartum depression of finishing the songs, I was like "actually I wrote this song last night, can I try recording it?" Which we did over and over again until I had like 13 songs and I was like "OK I should stop now."

Any plans for the songs that didn't make the record?

I think they'll be released at some point this year. Maybe on a special edition of the album.

It's interesting that you referred to it as "postpartum depression," do you see the songs like children?

I kinda meant the mixing process; I probably like it more than most musicians. I feel like playing in an orchestra for so long really prepared me for producing and mixing, because when you're in an orchestra, no matter how good you are at your instrument, you're really humbled to the arrangement of the song. The same thing with mixing, you can't be too precious about the parts, it's really about how they fit into the betterment of the whole song. So I really like the mixing process, but it's scary because it's the last thing that you do before the song's done. It's easy to be nervous about finishing a mix because it doesn't matter how good that guitar tone is if it's in the same frequency as the vocal part then they cancel each other out, so the drama of a part can be met by another part overtaking it. So it can be super nerve-wracking and it's hard to know when a song is done.

Let's talk about 'Jealousy', which sounds slightly different to the rest of the tracks. Was it a different process?

'Morning Comes' is the first song I wrote, and 'Jealousy' is the second. I actually plagiarised a poem I had written. Those were the first songs I had ever written, so when I first started those 2 songs, I made up some of the lyrics on the spot but I also stole some words from a poem I had written a little earlier. So the lyrics are kind of more whimsical and poetic and less straightforward than a lot of the other songs, which are literally like "you made me sad."

That's kinda funny too, because 'Jealousy' was a hook that I had written to that melody, kind of expecting to replace it with different lyrics. I tried it with different words but... that happens to me a lot where I'll write something and then I'll try to change the words and I'll always end up keeping the original words because it fits around the rhythms the best.

Are you a jealous person?

No, I'm totally not! I'm really really not a jealous person. That's super triggering to me when people are competitive and jealous. I'm a cancer, which is a very sensitive paternal sign.

So is the song written to disparage jealous people?

A little bit. 'Morning Comes' and 'Jealousy' were both written when I was newly single and about to go on tour forever, and I was just like "jealous people suck, being single and free is the best forever!" When we started doing well people would get jealous about it. You have to work hard to get where you want, but it's also so toxic and useless to be jealous of other people for glowing up, for finding their flow. It was at a time that I was learning that you can't make everyone happy. Also Clem and Taber, who I played in Cherry Glazerr, are super free and confident people, and I think I learned a lot from being in a band with them.

Cool. We have to mention the video for 'Jealousy', which looked like a lot of fun. That was your concept?

The 'Jealousy' and 'Not The Time' videos, I wrote and directed those, and then 'Free' I kinda wrote it and someone else directed it.

The idea of 'Jealousy' video is about the seven deadly sins?

No, not at all, it was not even that literal. It kind of reflected in that a little bit. But I had just made the 'Not The Time' video, which is super wholesome and has a bunch of kids in it, it's very supportive, positive video. So I wanted to make something that was super gruesome to contrast it, and I got really obsessed with the scene in Matilda where this kid Bruce steals some cake from Trunchbull, so she forces him to eat this giant slice of cake in front of the entire school, and when he finishes it she pulls out the rest of the cake and he has to eat the whole entire cake while the whole school is cheering him on. So I was like "I want to make a video where someone eats a bunch of cake," so we made a giant cake, it was insane.

That was the basis, and then I started thinking about different types of societal pressures that people get really toxically obsessed with, like youth and thinness and being straight-laced and not being weird. Even though I didn't want it to be wholesome, it ended up being this wholesome thing where I cast a spell on them and they're free of their obsessive behaviour. I'm just a wholesome person, I can't fucking help myself.

Was it fun to direct?

It was really fun; I had these crazy prosthetics, I had a 7 year old girl with old goblin man prosthetics, she had to sit for like 2 hours to get all her prosthetics on and then an hour to get it all removed. It was crazy but it was fun. And it was all on 60mm film, which was really fun to shoot. It's the same with recording on tape, you have so much less space to work with, so you have to be really thoughtful about how you use the space. We only had 30 minutes of film that we could shoot, so we only shot 10 seconds at a time. Then you don't have to think about it as much, you just capture it and then you have to use exactly what you captured. I kinda like the philosophy behind using it.

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And did you have anything to do with the edit?

Yeah I edited it myself too. 'Jealousy', 'Not the Time' and ‘Free’ I edited.

Did you study editing or film at all?

No. That's the thing, because we did it on film, when it came down to it we only had about 20 minutes of film so it was just cutting it down, I wasn't using effects or anything, so it wasn't anything crazy. But I am particular about where things line up.

Is film something you might pursue in the future?

No, I don't think so. I remember watching this Grimes video and at the end it was like "directed and edited by Grimes" and I was like "if Grimes can do it, I can do it."

I'm curious about the line "Too cold to realize that the heat is something that we grew" from 'Adult Contemporary'.

This song is about Trump, basically. I wrote the song right after Trump was elected. The lyric in the first part is "What a time to be alive and believe in something so untrue," is kinda like about what a crazy time to be alive when people are voting for Trump. I think all the lyrics have open-ended meanings; that could be about a relationship or it could be about global warming - I don't know. Those lyrics were all pretty improvised.

Like the part where you mention Sheridan Riley.

Yeah, she's the drummer on the song! She was literally in the room and I was just like "singing words, Sheridan Riley" - totally improvised. That was another one where I wrote lyrics to replace it, and I was like "no"; nothing sounds as good as the first improvised lyric, personally.

The album ends with 'Turned Out I Was Everyone', which does feel like an epilogue.

That was the last song I recorded, and it was another one where I was supposed to be going into the studio to mix another song, but at 3am I was on my Yamaha keyboard I wrote that song, and then exactly replicated it except with better tones and stuff. I went into the studio and was like "I actually wrote a new song"; it was a joke that I would go in and say that - it happened like 4 times on the record. I wrote that just before the last recording session.

So it was a natural fit for the end of the record.

Yeah, it was kinda when I was coming to a lot of personal understandings about my emotions. The song is essentially about how we all feel lonely, no matter what our relationship status is. It's an empowering realisation. There's so much pressure put on finding your soulmate when it doesn't really matter if you've found that person or not, you have to be really grounded with yourself to truly feel peace.

Have you already started writing for the next album?

Yeah. I have a couple of songs already. We'll probably record this year. I write pretty quickly. It's funny because everyone thinks the songs are pretty well arranged, but for me I feel like it was all so fast, and I want to make them grander. But in a way there's something really special about how intimate and not overly produced they are.

Do you ever think about putting French Horn on them?

There's a little bit of French Horn on 'Pacify', but already one of the songs I've got for the next thing has French Horn on it, so I'll do some more.

What do you do when you're not doing music? Do you escape into anything else?

I'm reading a bell hooks book right now called All About Love. It's really good. Especially having written essentially a heartbreak album, it's kinda nice to be in a place where I feel less sad. I'm trying to write happy songs... we'll see.

Any other books you would recommend to people?

When I first started making the record I was writing a lot of poems and I was really into David Sedaris; I was reading Naked, which is so good - highly recommended. He has a really good way of poetically and comically doing prose, and I feel like that got me into writing poems at the time.

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SASAMI’s debut album SASAMI is out today on Domino Records.

from The 405 https://ift.tt/2EKXoQX

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danishstrongstyle-blog · 6 years

Text

100 questions

1. List 5 things you want to do before the year ends.

Get this Tumblr thing going

Start my diet and work out more

Read some more Pieget

Start cleaning

Get more positive

2. What color are you pants right now?

Grey

3. Favorite motivational quote.

“You’re much stronger than you think you are. Trust me.”

4. When was the last time you drank coffee?

Yesterday. It was glorious.

5. What was the last thing you ate?

Ceasar salad

6. Favorite animal.

Bear, wolverine or wolf. Can’t decide

7. Favorite song.

”Short Change Hero” - The Heavy

8. Last movie you watched?

‘’Split’’

9. Any turn ons?

Curves, eyes, tattoos, selfrespect 10. Any turn offs?

Ignorance 11. List 4 big words off of the top of your head.

Hate

Respect

Whole

Future

12. What are some meaningful movies?

”Boondock Saints” (yep), “Kongekabale”, “Pumping iron” and “The Wrestler”.

13. 2 most important people in your life right now?

My mom and brother.

14. What are 3 things you want to do before the month ends?

Cleaning my apartment

Finding some music for my bus rides

Trimming my beard

15. When was the last time you read a good book?

Thursday.

16. How long do you study for usually, if you study?

Hours and hours.

17. Do you have any nicknames?

Kaas and Quark.

18. Favorite kind of perfume? (fruity, alluring, etc.)

Don’t have any to be honest

19. Do you have any international friends / friends who live out of state?

Would’nt call them friends-friends but yeah; America, UK, Iceland and Rumania.

20. What is something unique that you do every single day?

My morning rutine; make breakfast, pack my back and putting on my shoes; right shoe then left.

21. If there was a movie based on your life, what would it be called?

”Through pain and tragedy, he became king”

22. When was the last time you bought a gift for someone?

Over a month ago; bought food and coffee for a friend in need

23. Are you a shopaholic?

Sure, when I have the money for it

24. What are some songs that always make you feel better?

Anything by Mötley Crüe

25. List 3 activities that you can only enjoy by yourself.

Shaving my head

Making wrestling promos

Gaming for more than 3 hours

26. If you could live in any biome (and survive) which biome would you live in?

Somewhere with snow, ice and forest

27. How do you like being roused in the morning?

By a girlfriend: Kiss on the forehead, quick rub and a ‘’good morning’’

Some one else: *Get up, you lazy fuck’’

28. How was your day? What did you do?

It was good, I guess. Played Destiny 2 and listened to my playlist on YT while I wrote this.

29. What did your last text message say?

I cant say that. I have confidentiality because of my work as a childen’s educator (pædagog)

30. Do you respond to texts quickly?

Yes, it happens.

31. Who was the last person you called?

My former foster parents.

32. List 5 things that are on your wish list.

Long sleeved shirts

Tattoo

Beard oil and products

Wrestlemania tickets

More friends. True friends.

33. If you were famous, what do you think you would be famous for?

A loyal anchor.

34. Winter or summer?

Winter.

35. What is a quality that all people should have?

Common sense.

36. If you could have a large collection of one item, what would that item be?

Long sleeved shirts from prowrestlingtees

37. What have you been thinking about lately?

Getting that first tattoo

38. What is the secret to a happy life?

Follow your dreams no matter what.

39. What are some phrases you say often?

”Fair”, “I don’t give a shit”, “Sure, what time?”.

40. Favorite food?

It changes but right now? Tartlets (Tarteletter in danish)

41. List 3 wishes.

Losing weight

A Driver’s License

Finding love

42. What are some of your greatest fears?

Being forgotten

43. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?

Nothing, Mr. Officer...

44. Most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen (in real life)?

Iceland or Azat of Southern France. Or the Alphes. Scotland perhaps...? Fuck.

45. Spicy food:Like or dislike?

Hell yeah

46. Scary movies:Like or dislike?

Sure. Been a horror fan for years

47. Do you like to travel?

Yes. Even tho it can be a pain in the ass

48. Any regrets?

Nope. They made me who i am; a broken, cheery lad

49. Do you like rain?

Love it. Nothing better.

50. What do you spend most of your money on?

Pre-made salads and energy drinks.

51. Would you rather visit the past or the future?

The past. Being a Whoian I would love to see old London and Venice,

52. Favorite clothing store?

’Din Tøjmand’ or ‘Spejder Sport’ for my work clothes.

53. What is the best advice you can give to those who are feeling down?

Depends on the situation but will tell them the truth, always. Letting them know what great things they have already done.

54. How often do you think about your future? Does it scare you?

Read about nihilism the other that and the fact that it made sense in some crazy way, scared me. But no.. Love embracing the unknown.

55. What angers you the most?

When people use fellings instead of facts.

56. When was the last time you got majorly angry?

When I watched “The Punisher” and thinking about the bad treatment of PTSD victims. That and the corruption of the systems

57. When was the last time you got really sad?

When I lost a future with the most wonderful woman because I’m not a christian

58. Are you good at lying?

Can be..

59. What foreign language would you like to learn?

Spanish and japanse

60. How many languages can you speak and what are they?

English (scottish accent too) and danish

61. How often do you go to parties? If you don’t, what do you do instead?

Not often. Prefer a priavte soummering.

62. What books do you plan to read this year?

”Classical and modern educational theories” and “The Explosive child”. And the Lars Ulrich book as well.

63. Do you have breakfast every morning?

Try to, have to. Oatmeal. 64. Tell us a secret.

The secret in a chili is adding some sweet

65. How many concerts have you been to?

33½. Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne were crazy

66. Last hug?

Last hug untill next time

67. Who knows you better than anyone else?

My former ex. Not friends anymore tho

68. Baths or showers?

Hot, steamy showers..

69. Do you think you’re ambitious?

Depends on the subject

70. What song is stuck in your head?

Read my favorite song.

71. Countries you’ve visited?

Norway x 5, Sweden x 2, Iceland x 2, Romania x 2, France, Britan, Scotland, Ireland, north and south, Greece, Luxenbourg, Czech republic, Turkey, Germany.

72. What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty, common sense and being them selves no matter what

73. What helps you to sleep better?

Sex or tea. Fuck it. Both.

74. What is the most money you have ever held in your hand?

11.000 dkr 75. What makes you nervous?

Performing

76. What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?

‘’Bad biscuits make the baker broke, bro’’ - Jake

77. Is it easier to forgive or forget?

Forgive.

78. First mobile phone?

Can’t remember.

79. Strangest dream?

My old foster parents tried to drive through a tornado, so I jumped out of the car and they sang christan songs going into the eye of the thing. I ran to a old house and met a wrestler, Luke Gallows and we bought a bottle of whisky.

80. Best dream?

Eh... Being the king, baby

81. Who is the smartest person you know?

Depends on the subject but one of my oldest friends from bording school.

82. Who is the prettiest person on tumblr?

How the fuck should I know? I’ve just created this thing

83. Do you miss anyone right now?

No. Listing to rock and drinking coffee. I’m good

84. Who do you love? Why?

What is love? (Sorry..) My mom, brother and best friend.

85. Do you like sharing?

Yep. Strangers or friends, does not matter

86. What was the last picture you took with your phone?

A picture of a model used in Destiny 2 for builds.

87. Is there a reason behind everything that happens?

Sure.

88. Favorite genre of music?

Rock. Metal. Heavy. Trash. Rock n roll, man..

89. If you had one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

Antriot (a sweet idiot)

90. Describe your life in 5 words.

Broken

Awesome

Messy

Honest

Fuck

91. Describe the world in 4 words.

Hate

Love

Liars

World

92. Craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Running in a swimming hall, only wearing a g-string

Falling in love with my best friend.

You pick one

93. First three songs in your favorite playlist?

”Short Change Hero” - The Heavy

”Paranoid” - Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath

”Same Ol’ Situation” - Motley Crue

94. Are you more creative or logical?

Creative.

95. Would you rather lie or hurt someone with the truth?

Hurt someone telling the truth. Soak it up, embrace, move on.

96. What are you most proud of?

When I changed my life, starting at my old boarding school.

No more crime, no more hating, no more darkness.

97. What personality trait do you admire in other people?

Honesty

98. When you imagine yourself as really, really relaxed and happy, what are you doing?

Creating a playlist or preparing a meal

99. How do you usually start a conversation?

‘’What do you think about....’’

100. What is the best news you could hear right now?

“Hey baby, you made it. They’re waiting for you”.

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