#(Billy Gibson's nickname)

[bossboo]

Uhhh. Opened Instagram to THIS

And I really do think this is just Hickey to the Mutineer's when he's feeding them Billy Gibson.

[andrew-rannells-mustache]

I’ve been Completely Normal about hickeygibsontozer lately and instead of writing coherent words about it I made this chart on (my interpretation of) their fucked up dynamic:

More clownery under the cut (specifically pertaining to Gibson and Tozer’s Whole Deal)

Canon Era: Billy mends Tozer’s clothes sometimes. He acts annoyed when Tozer asks him to do it but also acts annoyed when Tozer asks Armitage to do it instead so like ??? They do not interact in any capacity except to plan the mutiny but by god do they share an insane amount of Homoerotically Charged Looks™️.

Post-Rescue AU: They all live together in an incredibly tiny flat in London. They share a bare mattress and Hickey always sleeps in the middle but sometimes Billy will use his long legs to touch Tozer with his cold feet and Tozer can never tell if he’s doing it intentionally or not. When Tozer leaves for work in the mornings Billy will sometimes begrudgingly give him a little kiss on the cheek but more often than not it’s only after full on frenching hickey right in front of him. Tozer doesn’t know Billy’s last name and at this point it’s obviously too late to ask but he’s also not sure if he should call him Billy since it’s a more intimate nickname so he tries to address him by name as little as possible.

Modern AU: They text each other* to discuss Hickey when needed, Billy doesn’t put Tozer into his contacts until like a year and a half after they’ve met.

*Example of text exchange below (Tozer’s green, Gibson’s gray, the “him” in question is, of course, Hickey):

[first-edition]

Attention

Billy Hargrove x Fem! Reader

sum- You’re annoyed with the lack of attention, your boyfriend, billy has given you after an absolutely amazing night. You do everything in you power to provoke him and lord have mercy, does it work, a little too well. 

CW- dom!billy, cussing, name calling, ass slapping, pinv, sex, Smut, mention of drug use, mention of alcohol, oral male recovering, noncon-con, dub-con,  18+ minors dni, nicknames, kinfe kink if you squint.

Thank you so much for this request

THIS IS AN NSFW WRITING MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.

Billy had taken you into his bedroom to show you his new digs. He’d finally moved outta his parents and into his own huge mobile home with Max to keep her safe. The moment Max spent the night with el, billy swept you away from school.

On his new bed was where he fucked you for a straight 4 hours. He fucked you with his fingers, he fucked you with his tongue, he fucked you with his cock. He drew six orgasams from you until you were pleading for mercy, overly sensitive with tears running down your face, and hair messed up. Your body deliciously bruised.

The only thing he wanted to do was show you how good you’ve been to him the past 9 months you’ve been together. But that was 2 weeks ago. You haven’t seen or talked to Billy in 3 days and he’s been distant for the rest. You’ve asked Max about him and she always says he’s busy.

You knew that there were many ways to get your boyfriend's attention. Sending him lewd pics, showing up at his place, or telling him where you’d be for the night and he would always show up and act like he was “just passing through.”

But one way that would absolutely get you in trouble was the way you were going to be at the party. Cheyenne Gibson hosting a senior school party and being best friends with her gave you a front row seat to see the invitation list. Many of the horny jocks of the swim, and football team were going to be there and of course so was billy.

You walk down the stairs of your house wearing a tiny, tight, black dress and matching heels. Your hair is up in a ponytail and you’ve straightened your hair. You’re phone dings looking at seeing a text from billy asking if your going to Cheyenne’s party and if you need a ride.

Rolling your eyes you close your phone and leave your house.

Walking into the party you already see drunk girls dancing up on other girls' boyfriends and people doing lines off bitches ass’s.

“Y/n!!” Chyenne squeals hugging you.

“Hey! Ohh you look so good.” You smile.

“No bitch you look hot as fuck did billy let you leave like that?” She asks

“He doesn't know and I don't care.” You laugh as she does as well and hands you a solo cup absolutely full of spiked punch. Your first drink of the night but certainly not your last.

Since you’d turned your phone off you couldn’t know that Billy had been calling for over 2 hours.

“Y/n! Y/n!” Chyenne catches you on the dance floor.

“Someone special just arrived.” She giggles over the loud music. Looking over at the place she gestures you see Billy walking through the crowd as some other guys greet him.

You smile at her and nod she shimmies off and you walk to the bathroom down the hall and around the corner seeing a line, you don't actually need to go, you just know that other guys hang around waiting to talk to girls who are waiting.

“Hey.” A voice says you turn to see Jake, captain of the football team.

“Hey, how are you?” You ask

“Chill.” He says handing you a blunt you take it and inhale the smoke before handing it back to him blowing out the smoke in perfect O rings. He chuckles at your talent.

“You alone tonight?” He asks you to nod.

“Good you gotta go or you just hanging around?” He asks you shake your head

“Just standing here…wanna dance?” You ask if he looks you up and down and nods, taking your hands leading you back out.

Dancing with your back against his chest your ass rubs against his crotch giving him the most obvious boner his hands are all over your body and face in your neck inhaling your strawberry and cream scent as you let your hair down.

Another guy comes and joins and you gladly dance with him pretty soon you're surrounded by people touching up on you and dancing, smoking and drinking. Through the vibration and lights you see Billy across the room spotting his face immediately drop in anger, his eyes dark as he lights a cigarette watching you.

You smirk and purposely bend forward the guy behind you gripping your hips grinding against your ass, your small dress riding up. You stand again wrapping your arms around the boys watching as billy boils.

You turn away from Billy facing the other guys. But before you know it another set of hands are gripped tightly around your hips.

“Miss me that much hmm?” Billy’s voice hits your ears, you giggle, resting your head against his shoulder.

“Fucking slut.” He growls his hand wrapping around your throat. Making you gasp.

“I've been calling you…you ignoring me?” He ask.

You pull back from him,

“you’re one to talk bill.” You turn away to walk off but he grabs you putting you over his shoulder and walks outta the party. He walks to his car opening the door and puts you in the seat then shuts the door walking around the side getting into his driver's seat.

“You asshole my car is here!” You exclaim.

“Sit the fuck down!” He barks at you and you sit back in the seat crossing your arms. He screeches off at his place.

He gets out of the car and you do as well but he picks you up again over his shoulder.

“I can fucking walk billy!” You whine.

“Shut up!” He slaps your ass making you squeal. He opens the door.

You see max, will, and el all playing a board game sitting on the floor.

“Hey y/n!” She exclaims, always happy to see you. You move your hair out of your face and smile.

“Hey!” You smile

“You alright?” She asks as Billy walks past them, still over his shoulder.

“We’ll see.” You giggle as Billy takes you out of her sight down the hall to his room, shutting the door and putting you on the bed.

“Nice to see you too.” You huff taking your heels off.

“What?! Why are you so fucking desperate today huh?” Billy yells at you as you sit on his bed, your legs crossed, you don't make eye contact with him.

“You’ve been throwing yourself out at everyone except me, your fucking boyfriend, tits out, ass flashing, your cunt is out for the world your not wearing a dress youre wearing a fucking napkin and a shoe string to cover your fucking clit for fucksake.” He says angrily

“You left me alone after! For 2 fucking weeks I haven’t seen you in three da-“ billy grabs your face.

“Take that language with me and see what happens.” He says. You look up at him.

“B-Billy..” you say, your big eyes shining. A growl rumbles in his throat.

“I know what’s wrong hmm..i fucking know princess.” He says pushing his hair back letting go of you before unclasping his belt. You shift in your seat now sitting on your heels, your legs tucked under you.

“This what you want hmm?” He says unbuttoning his pants just enough. The patch of matching colored hair on his groin is exposed as he pulls his pants and boxer front down enough to expose his cock that you've had in you so many times.

“Was it not enough last time hm, not enough that I fucked you for 4 hours, gave you 6 orgasams huh?” He says stroking his already hardened cock from your trickery earlier. You don't say anything and look down.

“No, you fucking slut, look at me.” He grabs you by your chin standing above you.

“Mm.” You whine biting your lip.

“Since your gonna act like a sleeve ill fuck you like one huh?! HUH!” He snaps at you. Your eyes look up at such a beautiful sight you are so close to his dick that your breath makes him twitch.

“Open your mouth.” He says you obey by sticking your tongue out. Slapping his heavy tip on top of it strings of saliva follow before you close your lips around him and take him. He hisses at the movement.

“Put your arms behind your back.” He says you listen, grabbing your wrist.

“Suck.” He orders you once again to obey and do so, sucking him off by bobbing your head.

He groans watching you take him in your mouth.

“I don’t know if i made myself clear before hand about how to get attention, they surely wasn’t fucking it” he says.

“Mmm.” You reply.

He nods and grabs your head pushes his dick down your throat making your moan the vibration causing him to twitch.

He continues to drool on your face, spilling from your mouth. The lewd sounds of sloshing and light gagging he pulls out you lean over inhaling the much needed oxygen wiping your mouth before you can look back up at him he pushes you back against the bed. The click of a switchblade and the shine of a blade close to your skin as he tears the dress from your body and removes your thong. Removing his pants and shirt he pulls his belt from the pants and makes cuffs attaching your wrists to them and hooking it to the post of his bed.

He pushes your legs apart and without hesitation enters you. No foreplay, for prep.

“Ah-!” You scream out he fucks you already over-stimulating you.

“You liked rubbing up on those guys hm?” He asks, gripping your breast in hand.

His mother comes up lightly, slapping your cheek.

“Answer me.” He huffs.

“Y-yes.” You answer he grips your neck shoving himself lathe way in making you clench around him letting out a loud moan.

“Fuckin look me!” He yells that you look up to him over you.

You see his expression on his face anger but mostly hurt. His dark eyes are glazed over. You thought making billy jealousy would be fun but now it just hurts you too see him like this only wanting you to show you something to teach you a lesson.

You lunge forward your lips connecting with his. If he were actually punishing you he’d pull away but no this time he kisses you back with passion. His tongue pushes its ways into your mouth making you moan.

You pull back as he kisses down your neck removing his hand.

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry billy!” You say choking back your tears as he brushes your body with nips and sucks.

He pulls his lips back and reaches up, removing your hands from the cuffs. Your arms immediately wrap around him pushing him off you so you're on top. You sink back into him riding him. Groans leave his throat as his hands grips your waist.

“Fuck-“ he curses and your grind against him.

You just wanted his attention, his love. You wanted him to notice you as if you were back in freshman year seeing him walk around.

Hr thrusts up into you moans and breathes leave your body. His thumb circles your clit making your clench around him, your nails clawing at his chest. The over whelming situation of him fucking your tightens the knot in your stomach.

“B—billy fuck..please” you moan out.

“You gonna cum baby?! Hm” he asks you to nod breathlessly.

He pushes you off him and turns you around your back facing him. You wiggle your ass making him chuckle as he smacks his hand down on your cheek before squeezing and soothing the mark with a kiss.

“Arch baby.” He instructs you to listen , arching slightly; he rubs his tip against your strip before entering you again, the new angle making you tight as ever.

He sucks in a breath gripping your ass.

“Shit- those fucker you were dancing with wish they had your little pussy around thier dicks.” He chuckles as he thrusts into you. Your arms hug the pillow to your face as it muffles your moans.

"Such a good girl," Billy praised as he snapped his hips forward harder. Clawing at your waist, forcing you against him harder and you were more than happy to oblige. Another slap coming down on your ass each making you gasp into the pillow.

Billy grabs your hair pulling you up into him.

“You're mine. You got that. Fucking mine. In every way.” He says roughly thrusting up into you.

“Y-yes s-sir.” You manage out before clamping down around his cock cumming hard. Your eyes rolling back as he reaches down rubbing your clit making you squirm in his grasp.

He lets you go and with a few more sloppy thrusts Billy is cumming deep into you. You feel him twitching growing as he cums.

You pant putting your hand on your stomach feeling the budget of your boyfriends dick still settling in you. It's gone as he pulls out leaving a trail of kisses down your shoulders as he gets up disappearing in the bathroom he’s got in his room for a minute before coming back grabbing a shirt from his drawer he pulls on his boxers and walks back over to you.

He runs the cold damp cloth along your body cleaning you off before chucking it into the clothes hamper.

“Come here baby.” He says pulling you up into his arms as you sit up.

“Let me see.” He says looking at your top oversees the hickies scattered along your body as well as the prominent mark around your neck.

“I'm sorry honey.” He says kissing your neck lightly. You shake your head, not placing your hands on his face, pressing your lips softly against him.

“Don't be.” You smile. He puts the shirt over over body pulling the covers back as you get in under.

“Stay here for the night okay.” He says you nod holding your arms out to him he joins up as you cuddle up next to him.

(Hello to my amazing readers im officially open fro requests, smut, angst, fluff, almost everything your heart could wish for, shoot me a dm or an anonymous message and I’ll be back to you!!!!) 

[theteasetwrites]

The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning

Chapter 100: Happy Ending

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader ❧ Era: Season 11 ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: SMUT—gentle sex, missionary, just very basic stuff really, and I don't think there's really anything else! ❧ Word Count: 7.8k

❧ In This Chapter: A year after the events at the Commonwealth, things are falling into place, and Alexandria is back on its feet. Daryl returns home from diplomatic duties at the Commonwealth, but he has an idea to run past you, and it involves a new journey.

❧ A/N: We made it. This is the last chapter of the series. It's been a wild ride. For the last chapter, I had to throw in a little smut, as a treat (and also @normanplusdaryl would've murdered me if I didn't have them have sex again before the end <3). I also wanted to tie a few loose ends, like the character I introduced in 11A (Billy—who was initially intended to be a love interest for Lydia, but then Elijah and Lydia got together and I wanted to follow that from the canon because they were so cute) and Robin's bunny. I will probably make a separate post talking about what this series means to me and how happy I am that I've completed it and that so many people have enjoyed it. For now, though, I'll just say thank you. <3 Hope this final chapter is adequate.

You felt a tiny tug on your corduroy skirt. It startled you for a moment, but then you remembered Westley’s little habit.

One year old and he was already crawling all over the library, touching everything he could get his little hands on. As you looked up from your cataloging, you met the boy’s impossibly round, silvery blue eyes. “Westley Owen Dixon, what on earth are you doing?”

He smiled up at you, in his hand a glob of dirt. His face, too, was smudged with the stuff. You quickly lifted him in your arms, removing the dirt on his cheek with your sleeve. “Where did you get this, huh?”

The child was fond of dirt. He hated being cooped up, you were quickly realizing. Being outdoors was his favorite pastime, but he was much too young to play outside on his own, like Robin. 

“Billy?” 

“Yeah?” The young man looked up from his book. He knew the routine well now, but you had to make sure to let him know. After all, it was what you always did. A year of library training under your tutelage had worked wonders. You were glad he’d decided to join Alexandria, after he’d helped you and Lydia what seemed like yesterday. 

“I’m going to take him out for some fresh air,” you said, as you usually did. “Watch the desk for me? Make sure no one steals any books?” You eyed Mr. Gibson playfully. The old man had a habit of forgetting to check out the books he borrowed, though he always brought them back. 

“Sure.”

Outside, you were greeted by a gaggle of children running past, including Gracie and Robin. When Robin turned on her heel, running back to you, you laughed in confusion at her sudden approach, but she was reaching her hand out, and you knew what that meant.

“Tag! You’re it!” she giggled, looking up at you and the baby with a wide grin. 

You scoffed, looking back at the other children as they giggled. “I most certainly am not!” you said, leaning down to ever so slightly hit Robin’s shoulder. “You’re it!”

It caught the child off guard, who didn’t think you’d be quick enough to tag her. “Hey!”

As you scurried off, Westley let out a series of burps and giggles in your arms. 

“(Y/N)!” 

You stopped in your tracks to see Aaron, calling out to you from the garden. Nearby, some of the other children were swinging wooden swords, while a horse-drawn carriage wheeled through town, carrying the latest harvest for trade. In the busy Alexandria square, people moved to and fro, some hard at work, others just chatting. It didn’t really matter, though. All the work would get done. 

“Hey, there, boss man,” you said. He scoffed, always rejecting that nickname. He wasn’t the boss, really. No one was. Still, he was a leader of Alexandria, like Gabriel, like Daryl, and, you supposed, like you. In your own little ways, you ran this place, too. 

“Told you to stop calling me that.”

“Since when do I listen to you?”

“That’s a good point…” Aaron’s attention quite quickly turned to his nephew, the baby in your arms. His baby voice was always vastly entertaining. “Well, hello there, wiggles.” On account of Westley’s… bouncy nature, Aaron had bestowed upon him that nickname not too long ago. There was no telling where such a little child could get all that energy from, but he had it in spades. Aaron took the child in his arms, lifting him up and down as he held Wes by his underarms. “Whoa!” he said, watching the child laugh and coo at the movement. 

“Be careful with him!” you said. “Don’t break him.”

You watched in amusement at Aaron’s silly faces, how he stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes for the baby’s enjoyment. “Aw, he likes me.”

“Yes, you’re his favorite uncle.”

“I better be.”

Outside the walls, you heard the faint hum of a motor. Not just any motor, of course. There were very few motors left in the world, besides Daryl’s.

“My dad’s here!” you heard Robin exclaim to the other children. 

The girl ran between you and Aaron, and you watched as she sprinted towards the gate. The motor had stopped a little while after she’d gone out of sight, but you did hear his voice very faintly, speaking to Robin in that soft voice of his. 

As soon as he saw you, he waved with one hand, the other resting upon Robin’s shoulder as they came forward. Beside him was Carol, and behind him was Lydia and Elijah, with Judith and RJ following along. You breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He was home again, and everyone was safe, for now.

He took Wes in his arms, bestowing a kiss upon his head. Soon after, his arm snaked around your waist, pulling you close. Over his shoulder, you watched as Robin greeted Judith, the two girls rocking each other back and forth in their hug. They hadn’t seen each other in a while now. Daryl made monthly trips to the Commonwealth and Hilltop, helping to supervise his trades, but the children rarely came along. One day, you knew Robin would beg to come along, too. And then Wes, and then you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself.

“How are ya?” he asked. As he bounced Wes, you concentrated on fixing his windswept hair. 

His thumb drew absentminded circles over your lower back, just at the junction of your skirt and your tucked-in blouse. You missed your clothes getting wrinkled by his touch, as much as you tried to look as neat as possible. When he was gone, there was an unmistakable absence of his very particular touch. It was sloppy, but tender. Somehow, he simultaneously put no effort into his movements, and all the effort in the world.

When your fingers finished meticulously sorting out his hair, you let out a refreshed sigh, breathing in the crisp April afternoon. You could practically taste the newly harvested strawberries, finally in season after a long winter. A year ago today, this field you stood in now was barren, dry. Now, it was so green, and even better than it had been before. Lush tangles of vines and leafy greens were lovingly planted in rows upon rows of wooden planters. Alexandria had never been so alive, literally and figuratively. 

“I’m fine,” you said happily. As usual, your eyes began to wander his body, examining the new holes in his clothes you would have to patch up. At least he was clean. He must’ve caught a shower at the Commonwealth, where he’d picked up Carol and the kids. She was a leader there now, helping Ezekiel and Mercer run the place. “How was the event?”

The memorial day, the anniversary of the end of the Commonwealth as it once was. No longer a police state run by greedy politicians, it was still the biggest settlement you knew of, but not the best. That was, and always would be, Alexandria, as far as you were concerned. 

“All right,” he said with a shrug. The movement made Wes giggle as he found fascination with the piece of Daryl’s chestnut colored hair that he held between his little fingers. “What’cha doin’, scout?” he asked, bouncing Westley until he giggled some more. “Already one year old…”

You leaned close to get the child’s attention. “Look, Daddy’s back,” you cooed, pinching his rosy little cheeks. They felt like dough in your fingers, so soft and warm. “Can you say ‘hello, Daddy?’” He’d only turned a year old last week, but you were eager to hear him eventually speak his first words. If you could gently coax them out of him, you would. “Say, ‘hi, Dad!’ Or just say, ‘Dada?’”

He only stared blankly at you, blinking his wide eyes as a droplet of drool began to slide down his chin. “Da,” he mumbled.

Close enough. 

When the sun had set and the day’s activities had come to an end, you found refuge in your living room, watching Robin sit cross-legged on the living room floor, holding a white puff of fur in her arms. Daryl sat beside her, holding Wes, who stared in infatuation at the creature. 

“Say ‘Daisy,’” Robin instructed him, holding the rabbit closer. “C’mon, Wes! Say ‘bunny,’ pleeease. This is a bunny. This is Daisy, my bunny.”

The only person who wanted Westley to speak more than you was Robin, who was so eager to have a little brother to talk to. He only blinked, wriggling slightly in Daryl’s arms. He reached out, patting Daisy between her long ears. 

“Gentle,” said Daryl, who guided Westley’s little hand. “Nice and gentle… Look at ‘er little nose, Wes. Ain’t that funny how it wiggles?”

Dog, whose nose was resting upon your thigh as you sat petting him on the couch (so he wouldn’t get jealous, as Daryl said), lifted his head up with alert ears. He still didn’t trust the rabbit entirely, but he was learning, just as Westley was, to be gentle. 

“No, Dog,” you said in a low tone. “You just stay right here.” The dog whined as he looked up at you, his tail wagging so much it made a noise against the couch cushion. “Oh, really?” you replied. “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re not going anywhere near that bunny until―

“Mommy,” interjected Robin, “can’t we let Dog come close to Daisy? He won’t hurt ‘er.”

After all, it had been several months since the rabbit joined the family. There just wasn’t any end to Robin’s pleas after the baby rabbit had been born. Ezekiel wasn’t helping matters, either. He insisted upon Robin taking the only pure white rabbit in the litter. Still, you had terrifying visions of Dog tearing apart the poor defenseless creature right in front of Robin and Wes, scarring them for life. Dog did have a bad habit of bringing home small, fluffy creatures, though they were always mangled and bloody when he left them on your doorstep. Daryl had only cooked two of them, and that was a miracle in itself. He would’ve cooked up all of them if you had let him. 

You looked between Daryl and the dog, whose big brown eyes seemed to glimmer with the light from the fireplace. He whined again. “Oh, all right,” you said. “But don’t let go of her.”

You loosened your grip on the dog, letting him cautiously leap off the couch. His ears perked up, he slowly sniffed towards Robin and the rabbit. 

“Come ‘ere, boy,” instructed Robin. “Come see Daisy.”

Your heart seemed to stop for a moment when the dog got so close that he pressed his nose against the bunny’s, just for a moment. At the same time, Wes reached out his hand to pat Dog. 

“Daw…” the boy cooed. 

Your eyes lit up, so did Daryl’s. “What did you say, sweetie?” you asked.

Daryl gently bounced the boy, as if trying to shake the word out of him. 

“D—dog.”

“Dog?!” you exclaimed, excitedly climbing off the couch to crawl over to Daryl and the baby. “Oh, Daryl, his first word!”

Robin grimaced as she pet Daisy, who was also the object of Dog’s attention as he sniffed her small puff of a tail. “I wanted him to say bunny.”

“Maybe he’ll learn that next, sweet pea. Can you say it again, Wes? What is this?” You pointed demonstratively towards Dog. “This is a…”

Daryl smiled widely, amused by the boy’s confusion. “Hey, buddy. Good job, why don’t ya say somethin’ else…” He pointed towards you, his eyes gazing over you affectionately. “Who’s that, huh? That’s Mama. Say ‘mama.’”

“Blah bluh.” The baby’s nonsensical sounds erupted from his mouth with a small bubble of spit. 

You all broke out into uproarious laughter. “Aw, that’s close enough,” you said, your voice faltering a little. It could’ve been worse. When Robin said her first word, “Dada,” you were overwhelmed with happy tears. This time, you were a little more composed. 

“Look, Mommy!” exclaimed Robin. “Dog likes Daisy, see.”

You averted your attention from the baby to see Dog’s nose gently nudging the rabbit’s body. He seemed to recognize that the creature was a friend, not food. You’d seen the dog’s reactions to rabbits and squirrels and the like before, but he’d never seemed so calm and collected. Perhaps he was smart enough to know that Robin loved her bunny, and that any friend of Robin’s was a friend of Dog’s.

“What a good dog,” you said, patting his back. “Everyone’s reaching a milestone today, huh?”

Not long after that, Aaron came knocking on the front door. He was on his usual Friday evening business—picking up Robin to spend the night. Tonight was special, as Judith and RJ were visiting, too. It was more like a slumber party at Gracie’s house, with Aaron dutifully volunteering to take care of all the children that night. 

The best part for you, of course, was getting to be alone with Daryl. 

The man didn’t let go of Westley until the child was falling asleep in his arms. He’d been gone only three days, but when a child grows so fast, it feels as though just one day is a whole year. As he put the infant to bed upstairs, you tended to the fire, dropping in another log with a flurry of bright orange and red sparks. You quickly used the poker to maneuver the logs. Two hands held tight to your hips as you bent over, squeezing your waist.

“Baby asleep?” you asked.

He turned you around shortly after you stood up to replace the poker. Upon his face was a lopsided smile, the kind that was infectious. Your own grin carved itself into your cheeks, lifting them high until your eyes began to squint. 

When his arms wrapped tight around your back, pulling you close against his chest, he craned his head to find your neck, where his lips latched onto your exposed skin. Eyes closed, you nuzzled into his neck, too, where you caught faint notes of pine and soil, and a hint of cigarette smoke.

“Daryl,” you sighed, your hands finding themselves feverishly clawing at his strong, broad shoulders. “I’m so glad you’re home.”

His mouth zig zagged up your neck, dotting kisses along your jaw, then finally settling happily on your lips, where they seemed to fit so perfectly. “Me too, angel… Wes is sleepin’ like a rock. Dog’s all tuckered out by his crib.”

“Precious,” you spoke against his lips. “I can’t wait for him to learn how to walk. Remember Robin? She was following you all around the house.”

“Knowin’ Wes, he’ll be chasin’ me. Little terror’s already got so much damn energy with the crawling.” With a laugh, you imagined the idea as you lowered yourself to the ground, tugging Daryl down with you. “Perfectly good couch right there, woman.”

“I want to enjoy the fire,” you said, leaning your back against his chest. He knew the position well, spreading his legs as he leaned against the side of the armchair. You shimmied yourself until you were slotted between his legs, while his hands settled upon your stomach to pull you in even tighter. “Mm, perfect.”

He seemed infatuated with your neck tonight. Perhaps it was your new homemade perfume, scented with apple blossom and honey. Indeed, he seemed to be practically devouring you with his lips. 

“You smell good,” he mumbled between kisses. “Good enough to eat.”

With a teasing grimace, you turned your neck to face him. Though his words and the languid movements of his hands as they pawed at your silky nightgown were tempting, you were more determined to hear about his travels for the time being.

“Any news from the Commonwealth?”

“Jus’ the usual. Carol’s got some plan to talk to Aaron ‘bout gettin’ the railroads workin’ again. They already got a lot of people ready to work on it, just gotta make a plan, and Eugene is comin’ up with ideas for fuel… I dunno, he told me all ‘bout it but it went right through my head.”

“How’s Rosie?” Eugene’s daughter was born just a few months ago. You were still hoping to meet her soon. 

“She’s fine. Looks nothin’ like Eugene, maybe that’s a good thing.”

You shook your head at his joke. “Well, not everyone can be as handsome as you, my love. And the books, did you pick up the books?”

Daryl had a new job added to his long list of responsibilities. In fact, you considered him to be his own position at your library: the official interlibrary loan delivery man. 

“I did,” he said with a nod. “Got ‘em in my bag, ready for ya to… do whatever you do with ‘em. And I dropped off the books they asked for. How you gonna keep track of all these books comin’ and goin’? Ain’t it difficult? Don’t want you stressin’ yourself out with this… interlibrary thing.”

If Daryl had it his way, you wouldn’t have to lift a finger or do anything at all, but you wanted to run the library. After all, he built that library for you. It meant the entire world. 

“It’s not stressful, honey. It’s important. Making sure everyone has access to the information they need, or the stories they want to read to keep their minds off things, that’s all important. When Maggie gets the time to start thinking about a library at Hilltop, we’re going to start an interlibrary loan program there, too. Lydia told me she’d like to run that library… It’s going to be wonderful.”

No matter how many times you told him your dreams, your plans, your hopes for the future, he would always look at you like you’d just shown him the biggest, brightest star in the sky. That’s why he built that library, why he did everything he did to keep Alexandria and the other communities together. Though he thought his actions were small, what he did, he did so you could be happy. There wasn’t anything you could want that he wouldn’t give to you. Just to hear that swell in your voice, and to see that flash of radiance in your eyes. 

When you spoke of your dreams, you were the most beautiful thing in the world to him. 

“Jus’ as long as you’re happy. Ya know, I’m real proud of you, sweetheart.”

“Oh? What for?”

“Everything.”

“Everything?”

His forehead leaned against yours, his hand cupping your jaw with the utmost tenderness. “Yeah. You’re doin’ everything you wanted to do, bein’ everything you wanted to be. And ya make this place feel like home. Alexandria ain’t nothin’ without you.”

“Stop,” you laughed. “I’m just a librarian.”

“Nah,” he said. “You’re much more than that to me. I mean, you are a librarian. That ain’t all you are. You’re changin’ the world, in your own ways.”

“Well, I… couldn’t have done anything without you, Daryl. You gave me everything I wanted, and more. You made me feel like I was strong.”

“You are strong,” he corrected. To punctuate his statement, he placed a firm kiss upon your lips. “My strong, beautiful woman.”

A sudden burst of laughter erupted from you as he used his body to pin you to the floor. With your body now underneath him, you wrapped your legs around his waist, keeping him pressed to you. 

“You’re such a charmer,” you said, lips brushing against his ear. His tongue spread warm saliva over the expanse of your neck. Between slow, drawn-out licks, his lips pursed to kiss you, his hand wrapped up in your hair. Your lips desperately searched for his in the dimly lit room, with only the warm glow of the fire to guide you. Raising your hand to palm at his face, you clasped his chin to pull him down until your lips met. 

It was an unspoken chain of events now—words weren’t necessary. Tonight, you’d make love together, with no chance of Robin hearing or walking in on you, and little Wes was just a baby, all snuggled up in his crib upstairs. Dog wouldn’t know what the two of you were doing, he was just a dog. Still, Daryl always shooed the canine away if he happened to try to climb into bed during your more intimate moments. 

But tonight, he didn’t seem to care about privacy from the dog, as he clawed at your nightgown, trying to pull it off on the living room floor. 

“Daryl, we could go to the bedroom if you want. Wes won’t wake up.”

“No, right here. Want you right here.” You didn’t mind. 

As he sat upright, he stripped himself of his black button-up shirt, the buttons on which were already stretching beyond their ability on account of his broad, stocky build. Your nightgown peeled off easily over your head before you tossed it somewhere behind you, into the warm darkness of the increasingly balmy room. 

With a frustrated grunt, he stood to begin undoing his belt. Beneath your now naked body, you felt the high pile of the plush rug underneath you. It wasn’t as soft as your bed, but it was enough. Still, an equally as naked Daryl crossed over to the couch, grabbing one of the throw pillows. 

“Here.” He leaned down to tuck the pillow underneath your head. You bit your lip as you watched him maneuver himself until he was atop you again, breathing deep, heavy breaths. “You comfortable?”

“I love you,” you answered, in a complete haze. “Come here.”

Your lips clasped together again, this time kissing with open mouths and lustful tongues. As his body began to move against yours, you both felt the heat of the nearby fire begin to just barely sting your skin. It was a good sting, though. It reminded you that you were alive, after all this time. You were still alive, together. 

“I love you,” he repeated. The phrase was bookended by more kisses, each more sloppy and impatient than the last as the heat and arousal rose up in him. “I love you... I’d die for you.”

Between your bodies, his erection twitched against you, tucked somewhere between your thighs. It all felt so warm. 

“You don’t have to,” you said, heaving and panting as your body rocked up against his. “I’d much rather you live for me.”

You could feel him smile against your cheek, his hand planted firmly beside you as he lifted his body enough to see yours. His other hand traveled south to feel you, to insert his fingers inside you. 

“Oh…” His knees dug into the carpet as he steadied himself, focusing on pleasuring you. His thumb tickled your most sensitive spot mercilessly, causing you to squirm and writhe underneath him, just the way he liked. “Daryl…”

When you said his name, a fire of some otherworldly kind ignited within him. It was wild and demanding and took complete control over him. He could no longer keep himself away from you, so he buried himself inside, letting out a drawn out sigh as your arms reached up to envelope him. 

“Oh, yes, Daryl… Please.” Your begging only emboldened him. 

He bestowed another kiss, then dragged his lips down over your neck, finally grazing over your aching breast. His warm, sweet breath soothed your nipple, where your teething baby was slowly but surely being weaned from breast milk. 

“They still hurt, angel?” he panted, almost whimpering. You felt so good around him, he could hardly stand it. Your body was made for him, having been filled by him after all these years, but every experience was slightly different, with new pleasures for him to reap from you, and to give you. 

“They’re… a little tender.”

Without sucking, he licked the slightly swollen flesh, tracing gentle circles with his tongue. He eyed you, but your head was thrown back, with only a breathy sigh to signal your approval. The softness of his tongue was so soothing, combined with the steady rhythm of his body as he pumped himself inside you. While one hand kneaded the tender flesh of your other breast, his other hand stroked your clit, matching the slow, loving movements of his hips.

“I’ll make ‘em feel better,” he said, moving his lips to the other breast. 

His open mouth drenched your sensitive nipple in his saliva, then his tongue swirled it around in slow, languid circles. Only Daryl could make love to you with such sweetness and gentleness, but with such great desperation and need. It took all his willpower not to suddenly increase his pace, but he knew that what you needed now was his sweet, slow love. Besides, in this room, in this moment, you had all the time in the world. Everything else outside of the junction of your bodies didn’t matter, for the time being. 

Your back arched, you jolted upwards as a sudden shock of pleasure ran through you. Daryl’s touches were getting you more and more aroused, closer to orgasm. Meanwhile, he buried himself deeper inside of you, twitching with each involuntary movement of your body. The wetness that pooled where your bodies met was dripping down your bottom, surely being absorbed by the carpet. You made a mental note to wash it tomorrow. 

With only yours and his soft pants, grunts, and sighs mingling with the crackling of the fire, the house was quiet, peaceful. The sound of skin on skin became more prominent as Daryl’s speed increased inevitably—your passageway was so slick now, he slid in and out of you with ease. 

Though his head was now buried between your breasts, you reached down to lift him up until his arms stretched out to hold him up, hovering over you. In your throes of passion, your ultimate peak of pleasure incoming, you needed to look at him, to see his face as he watched you fall apart. 

“You’re beautiful,” he huffed. And you were. Your skin was drenched in sweat, probably from the immense heat of your bodies and the nearby fire. Beads of sweat and saliva that speckled your breasts were glimmering with the sparkle from the light. Your arms were flailed above your head, though not for long, as you reached up to pull his hair back, giving you a better look at his face. He was sweating, too, panting with agape lips that were made puffy from your kissing. He always had deep-set eyes, but they looked so dark now, filled with lust and the utmost desire for you to feel the pleasure you so deserved. 

As you squirmed underneath him, you managed to smile at his compliment. No one had ever made you feel as beautiful as him, and he really made you believe it. “I feel beautiful,” you panted. “I’m so close…”

He straightened his back a bit, digging into you from a slightly more extreme angle. It caused you to let out a gasp of surprise at the change in feeling, the new stimulation his tip was creating as it hit into you. “Oh, oh!” 

With such an incredible feeling came the need to cry out, so you covered your own mouth with your hand, trying not to wake the sleeping baby upstairs. Though your hand muffled your moans, the sensation was so strong that your other hand dug into the skin of his shoulder, making him grunt in return.

It wasn’t a bad feeling, though. He’d let you use his body in whatever way you needed to. In fact, he liked it much more than he should’ve. When you were rough with him, even though it was unintentional, it awakened a wildness in him that he often thought he’d grown out of, but it was always within him, you just had a way of bringing it back out.

The newfound confidence he gained made him move faster now, yet still with the gentleness he started out with. He breathed out a huff, then a few words. “You like this?” he panted. “You like what I’m doin’ to ya?”

“You know I do,” you mumbled against your palm. 

“I feel ya about to come,” he said. “Feel ya squeezin’ me.”

Another jolt of pleasure, another tightness throughout your core. His movements didn’t give you a chance to recover—you arched your back and gasped as the string inside you broke. Your legs spread further apart by instinct as your hips writhed and gyrated with every pulse. 

Even in the dim light, he swore he could see your entrance twitching and tightening around him where his body met yours. He certainly could feel it, that enticing pressure that commanded him to stay in you, begging him to let himself go. 

Well, the last time he did that, you ended up with a surprise bundle of joy. 

With your body still squirming and moaning underneath him, he pulled himself out, tugging with his hand as he watched you enjoy the last moments of your bliss.

You opened your legs up even more, reaching your hand down to stroke your slit, just to give him something to look at. It was quite amusing to watch him, too, how his hair hung loose over his face as he hung his head down to watch your movements. He finally reached his peak, his other hand catching his spend.

With that, his energy left him. He allowed himself to fall back down onto you, then roll himself over with you in his arms, until you were snuggled against his side. 

It didn’t last long, though, because you were cold, so you fetched the quilt draped over the edge of the couch, along with another throw pillow for Daryl. He’d insisted he didn’t need one, and that you should have both, of course. You ignored him.

The fire was low now, almost embers, but it was still bright enough to bring light to your faces. You traced the curves of his features for a while, tickling his nose any chance you got. It occupied you as you thought of new worries.

“You’re going to the Hilltop tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, then Commonwealth, then back home. Like I usually do.”

You knew the routine well—the trade route always involved several stops at the three settlements, and the whole circuit took about a week to complete, but one week out of the month without him was still the one thing you wished to change in your life. Granted, you were quite spoiled if the only problem in your life was not getting your husband to yourself twenty-four seven. Maybe you were just clingy, but Daryl always liked that about you, and, anyway, he was clingy, too. Possibly even more than you.

“Hm…” You tightened your arm around his waist, nuzzling your head further against his chest, as if to never let him leave. “Well, say hi to Maggie and Hershel for me. Oh, and Robin has another little letter for him she wants you to deliver. It’s on her desk, I’ll get it in the morning before you leave.” The two children had become pen pals ever since Maggie returned to Hilltop. You found their new friendship to be quite sweet, knowing that Glenn would’ve loved to see all the children getting along. 

“Guess I’m a glorified mailman now, huh?” he said with a huff, which you knew to be his form of laughter. “Well, uh…”

His voice trailed off and his small smirk faded as he began to think. He didn’t look worried or upset, but nervous, almost. It was strange, he’d hardly ever looked nervous around you anymore.

“What is it?” 

“Nothin’, just… There’s somethin’ I been thinkin’ ‘bout for a while. Been meanin’ to ask ya.”

There was a strange quality to his voice, almost like he was… excited? Nervous, and excited. It made you shake your head in slight bewilderment. He seemed so youthful, with the subtle, flickering glow of the nearby embers accentuating the angles of his high cheekbones. 

“Go ahead.” Whatever was making Daryl so excited, it was bound to make you excited, too. 

“Well, I was thinkin’… Maybe tomorrow you could come with me on the rest of the trip.”

That wasn’t all he was thinking, but it was the first step. Luckily, the first step went over well. You immediately beamed at the thought. In fact, you’d wanted to ask, but you feared that Daryl might grow irritated at your desire to be with him when he was doing his “job.” The fact that he asked you was a relief. 

“Oh, that’s a great idea! I’d love to go, honey. I really want to see Maggie, and I’d love to meet Rosie. I’m sure Ezekiel would like to hear about Daisy. Aaron could take care of the kids, and I know Gabriel would help, too.”

“But, uh, that ain’t all I was thinkin’.”

“Oh?”

He cleared his throat. “Ya know… Ya know how, a while back, I said I’d take you on a vacation?”

The thought amused you as it came back to mind. Indeed, it was almost exactly a year ago, down in the sewers underneath Alexandria. It was a dark time, but in the midst of that darkness were moments like that. 

“Yes, I remember. You said something about… riding off into the sunset on your motorcycle,” you laughed. “Well, that’s how I interpreted it, anyway. Why?”

He shrugged, though he knew why he was asking. “Guess I was jus’ wonderin’ if maybe we could do that soon, that’s all. Maybe when we get back from the trade, we can just… be gone for a little while. Few weeks. I dunno.”

As your fingers absentmindedly traced shapes through the wiry hairs sprouting from his chest, you thought of the logistics of such a plan. You knew that Aaron wouldn’t mind taking care of the kids, and Gabriel did owe you a few favors after you’d taken care of Coco. Lydia and Elijah lived in Alexandria, too, and would surely keep an eye out for the children that Lydia came to know as her family. Some of the other neighbors would be fine with helping out, too. They all loved Robin, and many of them had offered to babysit Wes whenever you needed it. Dog was already eating off everyone’s porch, and Robin was now an expert at caring for her rabbit. 

“Where will we go?” you finally asked. 

“Jus’... anywhere.”

And so, the next morning, you were off. 

At the Hilltop, Maggie expressed interest in your “vacation.” She said it would be a good opportunity to find new people, and to find leads for new resources for the communities. Of course, before you’d leave, you’d stop again back at home to say goodbye. 

It wasn’t an easy goodbye, not in the slightest. You held onto Wes for some time that morning, while Daryl went through extra care to go over the “security protocols” with Robin. You weren’t entirely sure what that included, but it had something to do with operating the complicated lock on your front door. 

Outside the gates, Aaron met you to see you off, with Lydia holding baby Westley. Beside his bike, Daryl held Robin’s cheeks in his fingerless-gloved hands, kneeling down to the girl’s height. He squinted his eyes as he examined her face, clenched somewhere between forced strength and the strength she was born with. There seemed to be a glimmer in her eye, where a tear threatened to fall. 

“We won’t be gone long,” he said, brushing the tear from her cheek with his thumb. “Few weeks, month at the most.”

“But it’ll feel a lot longer,” she said weakly. Still, she allowed her lips to curl into a half-smile. “Can you bring me back a new Barbie? A veterinarian one?”

Ever since you began telling her about Hershel, Maggie’s father and her friend’s namesake, she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, taking care of all the animals in Alexandria. It was a dream that you hoped would come true for her. 

“Yeah, I’ll look for it… And I promise we’ll be back ‘fore your birthday.” She beamed at that. She was turning eight in a month. Time was going so fast. 

He took her in for a hug, and with his chin resting upon her shoulder, he quietly said, “Keep an eye on your brother, all right? And take care of Dog. Make sure he don’t eat that bunny.”

She laughed before placing a small kiss on his cheek. “Okay, Daddy. I promise.”

“And be good for your uncle. Listen to him…” He trailed off, knowing he didn’t really have to waste those words on such a well-behaved child. Now, Westley was another story, but alas, he couldn’t quite understand anything Daryl would say to him. “I dunno why I’m tellin’ ya, birdie. You’ll be just fine.”

As he rose to his feet, you came towards them, Wes on your hip as he chewed on his teething ring. His little feet wiggled in his tiny cowboy boots (the ones Daryl brought home because they reminded him of a certain police officer he used to know) as you handed him to his father, who held the restless child up in the air as he made a wide-eyed face to entertain him. “Hey, scout, now you’re the one I’m worried ‘bout.��� 

You felt Robin’s arms wrap around your waist, and her cheek leaning against your upper arm. As you looked down, you freed your arm to squeeze her close. Your hand settled in her hair, brushing back the silky, pale brown waves. “Will you be all right, sweet pea?”

“Yeah, just…” She looked up with glassy eyes and slightly quivering lips. “I’ll be worried, s’all. There’s climbers out there.”

That was the newest threat. A new… adaptation. Some walkers were climbing, even picking up objects. Not many, but enough to warrant new protocols. That was part of what you were interested in exploring. Maybe someone, somewhere, knew something about these new walkers. Or at least, maybe you’d get some leads. It couldn’t hurt to look.

“Mm, well, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but… I’m pretty good out there.” You pulled your ice axe from its loop on your belt, flashing the thin silver blade. “And nothing’s going to stop me and Daddy from coming back home to you and your brother, you know.”

“I know.” You took her in for a full hug, squeezing her so tight she squealed a little. “I’ll miss your hugs.”

“Me too…” You sighed as you pulled away to look at her. She looked so much like Daryl, as she always did, but for the first time, you noticed a quality in her face that resembled… you. It was a brief resemblance that seemed to only show itself in certain angles and lights, but it really showed now. Maybe she was growing up, not anywhere near a young woman yet, but you could see it in her. It was coming, and it brought a tear to your eye. You didn’t want to miss a second of it, but this would be good for you, for Robin, for everyone. 

“I think this might be the longest I’ll have ever been away from you, chipmunk. Your daddy’s been away for months before, but…” 

Robin’s kiss distracted you from your imminent tears. “It’s okay, Mommy. We’ll be okay. Everything will be okay. Maybe when you get back, Wes will know some more words.”

You felt Daryl’s warm presence beside you, and you heard Wes’s babbling. The little boy just looked so happy, smiling wide with the few tiny baby teeth he’d been growing. As you brushed back his wispy brown hairs, Daryl pressed a kiss to his cheek before handing him back to Lydia. 

“You sure you’re okay with taking care of him?” you asked. “You can always ask Gabe and Aaron for help, too. They’ve babysat him before.”

The young woman extended her metal arm for a hug. You sighed against her shoulder, knowing you were going to miss her, too. “We’ll all take care of them both,” she said. “It takes a village, right?”

“Thank you… It means a lot to me.”

Aaron was the last one you had to say goodbye to. It took a lot of willpower to end that hug, but wherever you were going, you had a long way to go. 

“Be careful out there,” he said. “And don’t worry about everything here. Just… just be careful, okay?”

There was no mistaking that look in his eye, and that slight frown on his face that aged him a few years. You much preferred his smile, but you knew he was a lot like you, and that it was hard to smile when there was so much to worry about. “I will. I promise. I’ll be back before you know it.”

He nodded with a strained smile. “I know.” With a sigh, he pulled you in for another hug. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he had a bad feeling. 

“Aaron,” you said, “stop worrying. I told you I’ll be careful. You know, I lived out on the road for a while, unlike some people.”

His smile seemed natural now, more warm and relaxed. “You’re my baby sister,” he said. “I’m always going to worry about you. Dad used to say I had to watch out for you, make sure the other kids didn’t pick on you.” 

And yet they still did, but he tried his best. 

“And you always did watch out for me. Now I can watch out for myself.”

“I know, (Y/N). Still, be careful.”

When you pulled yourself away, Daryl stepped in to hug Aaron. It was a far cry from the first day the two met, you thought. You rather clearly recalled Daryl’s first words to Aaron being, “No one gives a shit.” If you’d been asked to imagine the two men sharing a hug back then, you weren’t sure you could do it. 

“Take care of my sister,” he said, quietly enough so that you couldn’t hear as you strapped your bag to Daryl’s bike. Light packing wasn’t your strong suit, but somehow you managed to fit everything you needed into one knapsack. 

Daryl chewed his bottom lip as he nodded. Aaron had spoken in a stern voice, but underlying that was a clear understanding between brothers, not just friends. “I will.”

As he climbed onto the bike, he turned the key into the ignition, bringing the engine to life. When you settled behind him, grasping at his shoulders to steady yourself, you were alerted to Westley’s cries, no doubt spurred on by the loud engine, though you were a little gutted inside, thinking maybe, just maybe, he knew you were leaving. 

“Bye!” you called out over the roar of the bike. Robin, Lydia, and Aaron matched your wave, and soon Westley’s cries calmed down. Maybe it was the sound of your voice. 

Daryl flashed a smile towards them, then turned his head to speak over his shoulder to you. “Ready?”

With a deep breath, you wrapped your arms tight around his waist, but not before adjusting his poncho slightly. “Ready.”

It was a beautiful April day, with fluffy clouds rolling slowly in the pale blue sky. Beyond the nearby hills, you could just see the sliver of the moon begin to dip below the horizon. Darkness was far away now, and for a moment, you thought back to the beginning of a different journey, one that started in darkness, but ended in the light. 

Well, it didn’t end. Nothing ever really ends. 

With a kick of the stand, the wheels were rolling, and Daryl stepped hard on the gas, jolting you to grip onto him tighter. Your chin dug into his shoulder, just the way he liked. That way, he knew you were really holding on, and that you were there with him. It was what he needed. In his heart, he knew one thing—he’d never be able to leave home again without you. 

The road went on straight for a while, and every chance you got, you looked back to see those three figures getting smaller and smaller, but Robin’s little arm was still waving. You let go of Daryl for a moment to wave back, even though you were sure she couldn’t see you.

I love you all. 

Soon the road bent, turning into a grove of trees that finally separated you from your home, the place you fought for, and the people that made it worth fighting for. 

But then, there was still Daryl, and that was more than enough to remind you of every beautiful thing you had in this world. In fact, it all started with him. It started that day the bolt from his crossbow tunneled through a walker’s skull, the walker that very well would’ve killed you if it weren’t for him. 

If it weren’t for him, you’d have never known love at all. That was what you believed to be true. There was no love like his before him, but whatever love you did have, it wasn’t his. His was what you’d been waiting for all your life, what you were put on Earth to feel. 

Today wasn’t unlike that day you met him, you supposed. It was a time when everything was changing, and as one world was ending, another was beginning. Though this time, you didn’t feel anything was ending, only that today was the start of some great journey. You couldn’t explain it, you just felt it. 

However the world would change next, you found yourself repeating that old mantra: Don’t ever be afraid.

You were so lost in your thoughts for a while that you didn’t even notice the great speed at which you were going. As you pinched his side, signaling for him to slow, you shouted above the sound of the engine, “Slow down!”

He shook his head as he let out a laugh. “Thought you’d never notice.” His foot eased up on the gas pedal, and now you could more clearly watch the trees go by, one by one. 

You weaved through a small group of walkers stumbling on the road, but their mindless groans were easy to ignore. In fact, you didn’t really notice them at all. Nothing could spoil this moment, this beautiful world that you’d come to know and love, despite everything that threatened to take it away from you. 

No, nothing could take this away from you. Nothing could take away this bright light of love that seemed to move at the speed of sound down the old dirt road. It was unstoppable, and wherever the two of you went, you’d take it with you, and never let it go. 

Now, you just had to figure out where you were going, but something told you that the light of love would guide the way. 

~

Thanks for reading! Likes, comments, and reblogs of any kind are always appreciated!

Series Masterlist

[manicpixiedreamjop]

different anon. i like the idea of tozer trying to get a nickname thing started for the several thomases he knows but not for the solid 50% of the team that are williams. perfect clarity as to which william hes referring to at any given time.

Oh sure, it’s Bill (heather), Billy (Gibson), Will (strong) and Liam (pilkington) but for some reason he’s like “no no the Tom/Tommy/Thomas thing is confusing, they’re now tarts, Tommy arms, and TJ.” Blanky doesn’t end up with a nickname out of respect and he’s kind of disappointed tbh he wants to know what Sol would’ve come up with

[berryflavouredkoolaid]

Meredith Gibson - Stranger Things OC

~ General ~

Full Name: Meredith Adeline Gibson

Nicknames: Mer (By friends)

Born: October 3rd, 1968

Residence: Hawkins, Indiana

~ Physical Appearance~

Hair Colour: Brown

Eye Colour: Brown

Skin Tone: Light

Height: 5’7

Misc: a detailed cross necklace, green stains from cheap jewelry, bitten lips, chipped nail polish

~ Schooling/Career ~

Best Class: English

Worst Class: PE

Job(s):

Hawkins Arcade (1983-1984)

Starcourt Cinemas (1985)

Family Video (1985-)

~ Personality & Traits ~

Personality: Described by most as a prickly, rude individual, Meredith exudes an air of irritation. Defensive, cynical and even mean, Meredith is reluctant to let people in past her walls. Despite her closed off nature, Meredith places great trust and care in those she trusts. Her love is hard won but loyal and nearly unbreakable. Meredith is a loner, and prefers to spend most of her time alone. She rarely shows her emotions, and reacts in anger when people catch a glimpse.

Priorities: Her friends safety as well as her own

Strengths: Tough, strong, quick thinker

Weaknesses: Often pushes people away, holds grudges, can be mean

Fatal Flaw: Her distrust of others

Likes: rolling her own cigarettes, cold pizza, milk chocolate, silver jewelry, horror movies, horror novels (especially Steven King), pop rocks

Dislikes: Blood, liars, peanut butter, cola gummies, dogs, cheesy music and movies, beer, store bought cigarettes

Hobbies: Reading, photography, smoking, watching movies, sleeping

~ Family/Backstory ~

Meredith’s family history is fraught with incident. When Meredith’s mother became pregnant, her heavily religious parents kicked her out. Kathleen and Adam, Meredith’s father, were left to fend for themselves. They had to drop out of school and get jobs to afford a trailer in Forest Hills Trailer Park. Following Meredith’s birth, Kathleen struggled with severe depression. Adam, as the sole breadwinner and caretaker for Meredith, struggled under the strain. Until he killed himself when Meredith was 3. Kathleen quickly fell into drugs and alcohol.

When Meredith was 14, her mother died of an overdose. She was sent to live with her grandparents, but their conflicting views and Meredith’s agnostic and independent nature caused them to butt heads almost daily.

She was kicked out after a particularly explosive argument in October 1983 that ended with her grandmother slapping her and telling her to leave and never come back. With nowhere to go, she called Jonathan, who picked her up and convinced his mother to let her stay with them for a couple months.

~ Relationships ~

Family:

Adam Gibson (Father) (D.1971)

Kathleen Gibson (Mother) (D.1982)

Dorothy Booker (Grandmother) (Estranged)

Martin Booker (Grandfather) (Estranged)

Best Friend(s):

Jonathan Byers (Formerly)

Robin Buckley

Friends:

Will Byers

Nancy Wheeler

Dustin Henderson

Max Mayfield

Lover(s):

Jonathan Byers (Formerly)

Steve Harrington

Enemies:

Billy Hargrove

Carol Perkins

Tommy Hagan

~ Misc and Notes ~

Mer has semi-adopted a stray cat who comes by her apartment, she calls him Mister and feeds him. He comes and goes from her apartment.

Growing up, Meredith was often bullied for her cheap, secondhand clothing.

She used one of her first pay checks to buy herself a camera.

She likes cold pizza more than hot pizza and often has a box she eats out of for a couple days at a time.

She graduated high school a year early but condensing her junior and senior years into one.

When Adam died, her mother bought a gun incase of intruders. When Meredith was 12, Kathleen tried to shoot her while on a bender, thinking she was an intruder. Meredith buried the gun in the backyard when her mom passed out.

She found her record player in a dumpster behind her apartment and fixed it up with steve’s help.

{remade her! i just wasn’t very happen with the look of my old one lol and i’m loving this new format haha}

[justanoasisimagines]

Mixed Preference - Their Nickname for you

This preference contains - Jack Gibson, Travis Montgomery, Marcel Gerad, Eddie Diaz, Enzo St John, Alex Keller, The Joker (Heath), Ian Gallagher, Geralt ofRivia, Tyler Lockwood, Lucas (Vanguard), Billy Hargrove, Negan, Simon "Ghost" Riley, Emmett Cullen, Lemon, Rudolfo "Rudy" Farra, Billy Loomis, Dean Miller,

Hey Lovelies, back with a mixed preference. As always my requests are open! My guidelines are pinned at the top of the page! Credit to cafekitsune for the divider and the banner

Jack Gibson; Babe/Baby

"Hey Jack?" "Yeah babe."

Travis Montgomery; Sweetheart/Angel

"Hey Travis?" "Yeah Sweetheart."

Marcel Gerad; Beautiful/Baby

"Hey Marcel?" "Yeah beautiful."

Eddie Diaz; Sweetheart/My Lover

"Hey Eddie?" "Yeah Sweetheart."

Enzo St John; Love/Sweetheart

Hey Enzo?" "Yeah love."

Alex Keller; Beloved/Peach

"Hey Alex," "Yeah Peach."

The Joker; Beautiful/Sweet

"Hey J," "Yeah Beautiful."

Ian Gallagher; Babe/ Sunshine

"Hey Ian," "Yeah Babe."

Geralt of Rivia; Love/Mine

"Hey Geralt," "Yeah Love."

Tyler Lockwood; Princess/Sweetheart

"Hey Tyler," "Hey Princess,"

Lucas Riggs; Treassure/Honey

Hey Lucas," "Yeah Treassure."

Billy Hargrove; Cupcake/Angel

"Hey Billy," "Yeah Cupcake."

Negan; Sweetheart/Baby

"Hey Negan," "Yeah Sweetheart."

Simon "Ghost" Riley; Love/Angel

"Hey Si," "Yeah Love."

Emmett Cullen; Babe/ Sugar;

"Hey Emmett," "Yeah Babe."

Lemon; Darling/Beloved

"Hey Lemon" "Yeah Darlin'."

Rudolofo "Rudy" Parra; Gorgeous/ Mi Carzon

"Hey Rudy," "Yeah Mi Carzon."

Billy Loomis; Doll Face/Sweetness

"Hey Billy," "Yeah Doll Face."

Dean Miller; Babe/Pumpkin

"Hey Dean," "Yeah Babe."

Köing; Schatz/Leibling

"Hey Köing," "Yeah, Schatz."

[piperslovebot]

Full Name: Samantha Lauren Puckett

Nicknames: Sam (by everyone), Mama (by herself, Rex, Gibby, and Carly), Puckett, Princess Puckett That, Lady, Blonde-headed Demon, Sammy, Dude Sam-jerk, Horrible, lazy blonde, Cuteness, My little fibber, Little Samanther, Genius, babe, baby (by Freddie), Sammy (by herself, her mother, Cousin Chaz, and Billy Boots), That gutter girl, That no good Puckett (by Mrs. Benson)

Gender: Female

Birthday: April 17, 1994

Age: 29

Occupation: Host of iCarly (currently), Student at Ridgeway Junior High School (formerly), Employee at Chili My Bowl (formerly), Employee at the Pear Store (formerly)

Education: Ridgeway Junior High School (graduated)

Residence: Seattle (currently), Los Angeles (formerly)

Hair Color: Blonde

Eye Color: Blue

Family: Pam Puckett (mother), Melanie Puckett (twin sister), Unnamed father, Unnamed grandfather, Unnamed great-grandfather, J'Maw-maw (grandmother), Frank (uncle), Buzz (uncle), Morris (uncle), Billy (uncle), Carmine (uncle), Chaz (uncle), Maggie (aunt), Judy (aunt), Greg Patillo (cousin), Garth (cousin), Tanya (cousin), Annie (cousin), Dominic (cousin), Julia Puckett (niece), Frankini Valentine (brother in law)

Friends: Carly Shay (best friend), Freddie Benson (best friend, ex-boyfriend), Gibby Gibson, Cat Valentine (best friend), Brad, Caleb, Harper, Robyn, Shelby Marx, Spencer Shay, T-Bo, Wendy, Cort, Claire, Jade West

Romances: Freddie Benson (ex-boyfriend, still in love with), Frankie Murkin (ex-boyfriend), Jonah (ex-boyfriend), Reuben (one date), Shane (former crush), Eric Mosby (ex-boyfriend), Carter Ford (former crush), Pete (former crush), Gary Wolf (former crush), Zayn Malik (celebrity crush)

Pets: Frothy (3-legged cat), Fluffles (former pet rabbit), Shelly (former baby chick), Huevo (former baby chick), Omelet (former baby chick), Benedict (former baby chick), Yoko (former baby chick), Poachy (former baby chick), Gaga (mother's pet horse)

Enemies: The Petographers, Melanie Puckett (sometimes), Pam Puckett (formerly), Freddie Benson (formerly), Valerie, Jonah, Mrs.Benson, Lervin's bully, Chip Chambers, Dana Bukowski, LeAnn Carter, Nora Dershlit, Steven Carson, Penny Tee Employees, Tasha, Ms. Briggs, Nevel Papperman, Kyoko and Yuki, Wade Collins, Jocelyn, Missy Robinson, Mr. Howard, Ms. Ackerman

First Appearance: iPilot (OG), iStart Over (Revival)

Last Appearance: iGoodbye (OG), TBD

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Lillian Randolph

Lillian Randolph (1914/1915) – September 12, 1980) was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. She worked in entertainment from the 1930s until shortly before her death. She appeared in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.

Randolph is most recognized for appearing in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Magic (1978), and her final onscreen project, The Onion Field (1979). She prominently contributed her voice to the character Mammy Two Shoes in nineteen Tom and Jerry cartoons released between 1940 and 1952.

Born Castello Randolph in Knoxville, Tennessee, she was the younger sister of actress Amanda Randolph. The daughter of a Methodist minister and a teacher, she began her professional career singing on local radio in Cleveland and Detroit.

At Detroit's WXYZ, she was noticed by George W. Trendle, station owner and developer of The Lone Ranger. He got her into radio training courses, which paid off in roles for local radio shows.

Randolph was tutored by a Caucasian actor for three months on "racial dialect" before getting any radio roles. She moved on to Los Angeles in 1936 to work on Al Jolson's radio show, on Big Town, on the Al Pearce show, and to sing at the Club Alabam there.

Lillian and her sister Amanda were continually looking for roles to make ends meet. In 1938, she opened her home to Lena Horne, who was in California for her first movie role in The Duke Is Tops (1938); the film was so tightly budgeted, Horne had no money for a hotel. Randolph opened her home during World War II with weekly dinners and entertainment for service people in the Los Angeles area through American Women's Voluntary Services.

Randolph is best known as the maid Birdie Lee Coggins from The Great Gildersleeve radio comedy and subsequent films, and as Madame Queen on the Amos 'n' Andy radio show and television show from 1937 to 1953.She was cast in the "Gildersleeve" job on the basis of her wonderful laugh. Upon hearing the Gildersleeve program was beginning, Randolph made a dash to NBC. She tore down the halls; when she opened the door for the program, she fell on her face. Randolph was not hurt and she laughed—this got her the job. She also portrayed Birdie in the television version of The Great Gildersleeve.

In 1955, Lillian was asked to perform the Gospel song, "Were You There" on the television version of the Gildersleeve show. The positive response from viewers resulted in a Gospel album by Randolph on Dootone Records.  She found the time for the role of Mrs. Watson on The Baby Snooks Show and Daisy on The Billie Burke Show.

Her best known film roles were those of Annie in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Bessie in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947).

The West Adams district of Los Angeles was once home to lawyers and tycoons, but during the 1930s, many residents were either forced to sell their homes or take in boarders because of the economic times. The bulk of the residents who were earlier members of the entertainment community had already moved to places such as Beverly Hills and Hollywood. In the 1940s, members of the African-American entertainment community discovered the charms of the district and began purchasing homes there, giving the area the nickname "Sugar Hill". Hattie McDaniel was one of the first African-American residents. In an attempt to discourage African-Americans from making their homes in the area, some residents resorted to adding covenants to the contracts when their homes were sold, either restricting African-Americans from purchasing them or prohibiting them from occupying the houses after purchase.  Lillian and her husband, boxer Jack Chase,  were victims of this type of discrimination.  In 1946, the couple purchased a home on West Adams Boulevard with a restrictive covenant that barred them from moving into it. The US Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional in 1948.  After divorcing Chase, Randolph married railroad dining car server Edward Sanders, in August 1951. The couple divorced in December 1953. 

Like her sister, Amanda, Lillian was also one of the actresses to play the part of Beulah on radio. Randolph assumed the role in 1952 when Hattie McDaniel became ill; that same year, she received an "Angel" award from the Caballeros, an African-American businessmen's association, for her work in radio and television for 1951. She played Beulah until 1953, when Amanda took over for her.

In 1954, Randolph had her own daily radio show in Hollywood, where those involved in acting were featured. In the same year, she became the first African American on the board of directors for the Hollywood chapter of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

In William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry cartoons at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio during the 1940s and early 1950s, she was uncredited for voicing the maid character, Mammy Two Shoes. She voiced Jerry Mouse in The Milky Waif (1946, uncensored version), in the scene where Jerry and Nibbles hide in the closet and disguise themselves as a pair of black people. The character's last appearance in the cartoons was in Push-Button Kitty in September 1952. MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Randolph had been under fire from the NAACP, which called the role a stereotype. Activists had been complaining about the maid character since 1949. The character was written out entirely. Many of these had a white actress (June Foray) redubbing the character in American TV broadcasts and in the DVD collections.

This was not the only time Randolph received criticism. In 1946, Ebony published a story critical of her role of Birdie on The Great Gildersleeve radio show.  Randolph and a scriptwriter provided a rebuttal to them in the magazine. Lillian Randolph believed these roles were not harmful to the image or opportunities of African Americans. Her reasoning was that the roles themselves would not be discontinued, but the ethnicity of those in them would change.

In 1956, Randolph and her choir, along with fellow Amos 'n' Andy television show cast members Tim Moore, Alvin Childress, and Spencer Williams set off on a tour of the US as "The TV Stars of Amos 'n' Andy". However, CBS claimed it was an infringement of its rights to the show and its characters. The tour soon came to an end.

Lillian was selected to play Bill Cosby's character's mother in his 1969 television series, The Bill Cosby Show.[8] She later appeared in several featured roles on Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons in the 1970s. She also taught acting, singing and public speaking.

Randolph made a guest appearance on a 1972 episode of the sitcom Sanford and Son, entitled "Here Comes the Bride, There Goes the Bride" as Aunt Hazel, an in-law of the Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) character who humorously gets a cake thrown in her face, after which Fred replies "Hazel, you never looked sweeter!". Her Amos 'n' Andy co-star, Alvin Childress, also had a role in this episode. She played Mabel in Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975) and also appeared in the television miniseries, Roots (1977), Magic (1978) and The Onion Field (1979).

In March 1980, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Lillian's daughter, Barbara, grew up watching her mother perform. At age eight, Barbara had already made her debut in Bright Road (1953) with Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.

Choosing to adopt her mother's maiden name, Barbara Randolph appeared in her mother's nightclub acts (including that with Steve Gibson and the Red Caps) and had a role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). She decided to follow a singing career.

Randolph died of cancer at Arcadia Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, California on September 12, 1980, at the age of 65. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). Her sister, Amanda, is buried beside her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Randolph

[nightmaresart]

𝓟𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮𝓼 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮

That I'd fallen for a lie?

You were never on my side

Fool me once, fool me twice

Are you death or paradise?

Now you'll never see me cry

There's just no time to die

No time to die - Billie Eilish

𝕭𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖈 𝕴𝖓𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

Full Name: Lewis Daniel Gallach

Meaning of Name:

The name Lewis is from English origins and its often said that it means "Warrior" or "Gift from God"

The name Daniel is from Hebrew origins and means "God is my judge"

Nickname: Lewy, Daniel, Ghost

Reason of Nickname:

Lewy: Lewy is the nickname that his mother gave to him when he was a young boy and it stuck with him ever since

Daniel: Daniel is a lesser known nickname for Lewis that his mother only used when she was upset, so he doesn't like it when people call him just Daniel

Ghost: Ghost is the nickname that alot of people at Hogwarts gave the young boy due to his pale complexion and his pale eyes. Its a nickname that is always used in a mocking manner as the people who use it don't know the boy personally

Gender identity: Cis-male

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Queer

Age: 17, depends on what I write

Birthday: 11-11

Zodiac sign: Scorpio ♏

Place of birth: Sint Andrews, Scotland

Blood status: Pure Blood

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖊

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

The wand: Willow, Augurey Tail feather core, 11 ⅓ inches

Willow: Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. While many confident customers insist on trying a willow wand (attracted by their handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) my willow wands have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn. It has always been a proverb in my family that he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow.

Augurey Tail Feather: Augureys, or Irish phoenixes, were once associated with powerful Dark wands, as their cries were thought to signify an upcoming death. However, they were in reality never a strong Dark core, and were more accurately a powerful core for Divinations. Misunderstood students may find themselves bonded to an augurey wand, although these wands are altogether quite rare.

Patronus: Little Owl

Little Owl - So tiny and yet so observant, these introverted creatures are bound to share this trait with any witch or wizard capable of casting them. Although they don’t mind occasionally rubbing feathers with strangers, they largely prefer marching to the beat of their own drum without the immediate oversight of others. If this is your Patronus, it is likely that you do some of your best work alone and are a firm believer that introverts can go toe to toe with some of the more boisterous members of the animal kingdom.

Magical abilities: Necromancy/Reanimation

Necromancy: The power to utilize magic involving the dead, death-force and/or souls.

Reanimation: Power to reanimate corpses and dead beings. 

He can bring creatures and people back, or atleast reanimate their corpses but it takes a toll on his physical health, the older he gets the more powerful and useful this ability of his becomes.

Boggart:

Himself surrounded by dead creatures and people, all clawing at him to bring them back to live

Riddikulus form:

The corpses disapear and it turns into a small ghost dog that jumps around him while barking with a high pitch

Amortentia

What do they smell?

Homemade pies, the comfort of his own room and the cold and open corridors after a storm

What do they smell like?

He smells like old corridors, ink and a crackling campfire with a hint of mint

Mirror of Erised

He sees himself alive and well in the future with his friends still by his side, being able to be himself without getting hurt or having to hide who he is anymore

𝕻𝖍𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖑 𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊

Eye Colour: Pale Grey

Hair Colour: Pitch Black

Hair Style: He doesn't have a specific hair style, its mostly just what he wakes up with and rolls with, if he slept at all that is.

Weight: 68 kg or 149 lbs

Height: 1,85 m or 6 ft

Type of Body/Build: Ectomorph, Skinny

Skin Tone: Pale Ivory

Distinguishing Marks: His unsettling pale skin paired with his unsettling white/pale eyes

Face claim: Finlay Macmillan

𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞

Overall Personality

A reserved and introverted guy who struggles alot with himself. He prefers to stay quiet and just doesn't like to speak when it's not necessary. He seems cold and distant but in reality he is just afraid of what people might think of him. He just doesn't know what to do with both himself and with others.

Briggs myer type: ISTJ

Good traits:

Observant, Gentle, Listener, Creative, Reserved

Bad traits:

Closed off, Wary, Picky, Panicky

𝕬𝖙𝖙𝖎𝖙𝖚𝖉𝖊

Towards people they hate

He doesn't interact with the people he hates at all, he avoids them at all costs and doesn't even spare them a glance when he does walk by them

Towards people they tolerate

Only a simple glance and sometimes even a faint smile with a small wave if they were to wave and smile at the boy first

Towards people they consider friends

He is still a hit wary around his friends and isn't the loudest person you can come across, but he certainly allows them to come close to him and even talks back when they're striking up a conversation with him

𝕽𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖕𝖘

Family:

Father: Unknown

Mother: Eliana Gallach

Friends:

Orla Atkinson, Lilith Devereux @hphmbetty , Danny Gibson @catohphm Gallen Stagg @cursebreakerfarrier , Logan Rosseto @demon-twins-and-co

S/o:

TBD

Rivals: TBD

𝕭𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞

Born to a single mother in Sint Andrews, Scotland, the family was always cast in a bad light due to it not being complete in the old fashioned way. His mother however tried her best to take care of Lewis and worked alot as a result of this, due to this Lewis spend most of his youth alone in the house, reading the old books his mother would bring back and just watching people from his window.

It was pretty difficult for him growing up because his mother told him to stay inside to protect him when she was away, this caused the young boy to gain his pale complexion, barely being outside and in the sun long enough to get a healthy tan.

When he was nine years old he was in the backyard and found a dead mouse, curious about it he picked it up and cradled it in his hands. This managed to bring the mouse back to live which scared the young boy. He screamed and his mother ran outside to see what was going on. From that moment on she made him swear to never pick up a dead animal ever again and he did.

He arrived at Hogwarts at the age of eleven and immediately shut himself out, he wasn't used to soo many people in one place that it made him feel too overwhelmed. This stayed this way until he made his first friend who also happened to be his roommate, Danny Gibson.

This is also when he tries to rediscover his power again and learn more about it without his mother being there to punish him

𝕽𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖒 𝕱𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖘

Lewis has an incredible difficult time understanding other people and thus has an extremely difficult time making new friends or new contacts

Lewis looks extremely pale due to him barely going outside during the day

Once he befriends people he is still awkward but he is trying his best

He is extremely fascinated by the dead and often goes out of his way to talk with the hogwarts ghosts

He finds it easier to talk to those who are dead than to those who are alive

He is quite fearful of his own powers and while also wanting to learn more about them, he knows it hurts his body and affects his health

He has a sketchbook filled with detailed portraits of those he finds intriguing

If you want your mc to be added to his friends, or rival list, please just send me a message and it will be done!

[steebharringt0n]

dream a little dream of me

as if navigating through pits and perils of high school is bad enough, your life gets thrown in a whirlwind when the universe chooses the last person you’d ever thought to be your soulmate - the red power ranger

pairing: jason scott x reader

warning: like a couple of curse words?

a/n: @mattysheelies and I cranked out some of our favorite AUs the other day and we fell in love with this concept. this is my first time writing Jason so I hope I did him justice. comments are super appreciated! also i went WAY overboard with this so sorry to the mobile readers! 

---

You can remember the exact night they began to happen. It was a warm spring night in Angel Grove, your bedroom window was slightly cracked open letting in a cool breeze to combat the growing heat that was starting to take over the small town. You were wearing your favorite pair of green cotton shorts and your oversized Angel Grove High sweatshirt.

You remember texting Trini right as your eyes started to become heavy, a conversation surrounding how gross Mr. Lawson from History class is. The last thing yours eyes saw before they found comfort in the darkness of your eyelids was your clock, large red numbers that flashed 10:32

There are four stages of sleep, you had quickly surpassed the first stage and took a nose dive into the second stage where it would become harder to wake one up. The third stage of sleep is commonly known as deep-sleep, where one would sleep through a thunderstorm, an alarm clock, or other environmental stimuli.

But the fourth stage, the dream stage, is where things started to get interesting.

You lived in a society where one was destined to a soulmate - like a red string tied to someone else, you were meant to be with someone for the rest of your life. It was a comfort knowing that there was someone out there just for you, like a missing puzzle piece. The only way one could know anything about their soulmate was through dreaming - their memories became your dreams and vice versa. 

When you entered the dreaming stage of sleep you found yourself suddenly thrown into what felt like a never-ending action movie.

You couldn’t move, just watch from your soulmates eyes - as if you were behind them. You were kicking, punching, fighting the familiar monsters that appeared on the television news station a couple days ago. Your heart sped up during this time, you twitched in your sleep with every hit your soulmate would receive.

The one thing that struck you however, was his red armor. He briefly glanced down at his hands when you caught a glimpse of it. Then came his nickname.

“Red! Let’s go!”

Through his eyes you saw the pink Power Ranger speaking to him. He was suddenly then surrounded by the rest of the Power Rangers, all of them in a fighting stance, standing firmly by his side as they prepared to battle whatever monsters came next.

You awake with a jolt, gasping for air as your eyes frantically scanned your bedroom. You placed a hand on your chest, trying to calm your beating heart. You whipped your head towards your clock, it blinked 3:23 AM.

You run your fingers through your hair, your mind racing as it tried to gather bits and pieces of the vivid dream you just had. You stayed up the rest of the night, restless and anxious from the memories that ran through your head. In the end, before you succumbed back to sleep, there were two undeniable truths,

One, your soulmate lived in Angel Grove, and two, he was a fucking Power Ranger.

You awoke 3 hours later for school. Your head still reeling from the night before. You felt like a balloon, holding in air that was about to burst - you had to tell someone about this, someone that the person you were meant to be with for the rest of your life was a super-fucking-hero.

You dashed your way to Angel Grove High, weaving in and out of traffic. As you stepped into the halls you spotted Trini by her locker. Trini had always been a good friend to you through your middle school years, and you were thankful that the both of you kept the friendship strong throughout the years. You quickly walked over to her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into a hidden corner. She looks at you perplexed by your alarmed behavior.

You wait for a couple of students to pass by you before you could tell her the news. You turn to face her, grabbing her by the shoulders,

“Trini, it happened”

She shakes her head, her face is twisted in concern, “What?! What happened?!”

A grin spreads on your lips like a cheshire cat, “The dreams, they’ve begun”

She thinks for a moment before she continues to talk. The dreams happen to everyone, just at different stages. For some they begin earlier, for some they may not begin until their late twenties. But you? Right in the thick of junior year. You can see the cogs working in her head, until it's as if a light bulb goes off. Her brown eyes slowly widen, and her mouth gapes open.

“Oh my god! No way!”

You squeal in confirmation, nodding your head furiously at her. But suddenly, you grow quiet. You pull her in closer, as if what you’re about to tell her could potentially end the world. It’s quite possibly your biggest kept secret, one that you’re about to entrust her with. Her face once again transforms back into one of concern as she watches your demeanor change. 

You then lean down towards her ear, whispering the undeniable truth to her,

“Trini, he’s the red power ranger”

Trini has been punched, beat up, kicked down many, many times. But this? This completely blows the wind out of her like no punch before. Her fingers find your bicep, gripping them tightly, trying to hold herself steady as the realization sinks into her.

Jason, her soulmate is Jason.

She knows she has to play it cool, she’s the yellow ranger for christ sake. You completely miss the way her face freezes in shock, and not in a good way. Instead she decides to play along. When you pull back to watch her reaction, she has a soft smile on her face, her eyebrows raised in complete surprise.

“Oh wow! Y/N! That’s so exciting!”

What more can she say? She has to be a supportive friend.

Right as you’re about to continue the celebration with her, Jason appears out of the corner. He stands at a tall 5’7, built sturdy with his signature blonde curl that hangs over his forehead. He has blue eyes that could give the pacific ocean a run for its money and a smile that could melt the coldest hearts. You glance up to meet the tall figure that cast a shadow over you and Trini, and instantly your heart starts to race. 

It wasn’t like you had a crush on Jason Lee Scott for practically your whole life. Jason was untouchable, he was like some mythical god in your eyes. But you both ran in different cliques, different hierarchies. Your relationship with Jason purely consisted of stolen glances - and his name doodled all over your notebook.

However, you soon came to realize a couple months ago that he only hung around 4 people, Trini, Kimberly, Billy and Zach.

This group of people perplexed you, they all ran in different cliques and yet they spent lunch together, spent study hour together, and you’re pretty sure you’ve caught them at movies together as well. The dynamic didn’t make sense to you, but then again, not a lot of things in life tend to make sense.

Jason gives you a smile, one where he bares his teeth to you, “Hey Y/N, Hey Trini, can I talk to you for a sec, I just had a question about the homework in Mr. Gibson’s class”

Homework in Mr. Gibson’s class is code for, we need to go over what we did right, and what we did wrong in our last mission. It was a rule he implemented after Rita’s demise and Jason takes his role as the leader of the Power Rangers very seriously. 

Trini quickly catches wind of what he means, stepping out of the corner and standing by his side. “Yeah sure, I’ll walk with you to the library”

Trini is currently battling with herself in her head. Should she tell Jason that his soulmate is literally inches away from him? Or should she keep this a secret? Either way, the big reveal should ultimately come from Jason - not from her.

Trini turns her attention back to you, not forgetting that you were still standing there. “Y/N, we can talk later in Mr. Lawson’s okay?”

With a soft smile donned on your lips, you nod at her, “Yeah, of course. I’ll catch you there later.” you pause, not forgetting that Jason was still there. Your heart speeds up as you make eye contact with him - you feel like a blushing school-girl (which you actually are) “I’ll see you around Jason”

He smiles warmly at you, “I’ll see you around Y/N”

You watch as the both of them disappear down the hall, a sense of wistfulness enters you - wishing that you could so desperately switch places with Trini. With a low sigh and your eyes cast down, you turn your attention back to finding your way to your locker, not looking forward to starting the school day.

When Trini and Jason arrive in the library, they quickly go to the back study room that’s always reserved under Jason’s name. It’s the only place where they can discuss their plans in private with the rest of the group without anyone interrupting them. Always under the guise of ‘we have a large semester project to work on’ the librarians don’t bat an eye when Kimberly, Billy and Zach arrive not even a minute later.

Trini shuts the door, her anxiety is starting to gnaw at her and her teammates can tell - it’s a ranger thing.

Jason waits for Trini to take a seat around the square table so he can begin his long awaited speech on how they should have cornered those monsters far away from the public, so that for next time innocent people don’t get caught in the mess, but when he catches wind of Trini’s face and how she’s gone from all smiley to something is terribly wrong, he takes a seat instead.

Kimberly’s eyes scan the rest of the group, wondering if they know what’s going on with her. But they all share the same blank stare.

“Okay Trini, what’s wrong, you’re freaking us all out here”

She paces back and forth, her eyes not meeting her teammates. She fumbles with her fingers, it’s a nervous tick that helps her keep calm during disastrous moments. When she doesn’t answer Kimberly, Jason takes charge.

“Trini, seriously what’s wrong? Is everything okay? Do you - “

She stops her pacing and turns to face them, all of them eager yet somewhat anxious to reveal whatever has been eating away at her for the past couple of minutes.

“Y/N’s soulmate is red Power Ranger - it’s you Jason, you’re her soulmate.”

The sentence slips out of her mouth like word vomit. Everyone tends to have the same reaction, Kimberly looks absolutely flabbergasted, Billy’s eyes just widened, Zach lets out an incredulous laugh, and Jason, well Jason just stays quiet, Trini’s not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

“Uhm, okay, wow … that is big news” Kimberly is the first to speak, but the tension in the room still hasn’t left.

Zach reaches over to Jason from across the table and gives him a pat on his back, “Nice man! She’s a cute one” 

But Jason is stunned, frozen - his eyes are glued to the floor.

He knows that this means - he’s seen Spider-Man a million times. It’s the same reason why Peter Parker keeps Mary-Jane in the dark, to protect her, because he knows his enemies will come straight to her. 

Logically he can’t tell her, he refuses to tell her. Once his enemies catch wind of who his soulmate is, Y/N will forever be a target, and if in the future they were to have a family? His family will be targeted and that’s a risk he refuses to take.

Realistically, he knows he has to tell her. The dreams have already started a week ago for him but he’s kept them to himself because he couldn’t quite figure out who the mysterious girl was. He lets out a small chuckle at his previous dreams - they’ve all been memories of him through her. He knows that Y/N has a crush on him, most of his dreams involved her staring at him from afar, doodling his name in her notebook, peeking at him through corners. It’s almost endearing at how much of a love-struck fool she is for him.

In the beginning he couldn’t make sense of who it was, it was just brief memories of a girl staring longingly at him but now that Trini has revealed who is soulmate is, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together and it’s all making sense.

“Jason, are you going to tell her? You can’t tell her, with great power comes great - “ Billy begins to ramble to him. Billy is a known comic book expert and he too knows what great dangers comes with telling loved ones their secret.

“Yes, I know Billy” Jason cuts him off, his tone turns irritable and he hates that he doesn’t have a solution for this.

Billy’s shoulders sink, and Jason takes notice. He turns back to his friend, a thin smile on his lips as he regrets his sharp tone with him. “I’m sorry Billy, I’m just … 

“Scared?” Kimberly offers. Jason nods at her - she knows that the inevitable will happen to her too, to all of them but this is uncharted territory and their number one mission as being Power Rangers is to keep humanity safe - especially their loved ones.

“But you have to tell her man, she’s going to find out sooner or later, why not just rip the band-aid off now?” Zach is always the optimist of the group, so Jason is not surprised when Zach tells him to go for it.

Jason stands up and faces his team, his blue eyes scan each one of them. He’s scared, no terrified of what’s to come next. The last thing he ever wants to do is to put anyone in danger, especially his soulmate. He lets out a deep exhale through his nose and he plasters on a smile for the sake of his team.

“Don’t worry guys, I’ll figure it out”

They can read his false smile from miles away, but he is their leader and they trust him - like they have all this time and Jason never fails his team.

The rest of the day goes by smoothly and it’s finally last period - the only class Jason shares with you.

He likes to get to class early to make sure he’s caught up on all the homework, but this time he’s here early for a different reason; to sit right next to you.

You walk into class and almost stumble on your way to your desk when you realize that Jason Scott is sitting in the seat where Nicole Hardy typically sits. Your body language becomes timid, you slowly walk to your seat, eyes gazed down to the floor. Jason notices it an instant and holds back the chuckle that is bubbling in his throat - your crush on him is so obvious.

You take a seat and stare straight ahead. Usually Nicole would make small talk with you but she’s moved to a seat behind (which she was not too happy about) and now you’re stuck sitting there in silence, not sure what to talk about with the blue-eyed blonde sitting next to you. There’s still a good 5 minutes before class starts so you just open your notebook and pretend to catch up on homework (and pray that Jason doesn’t see his name doodled with hearts all over the next page)

Jason turns his attention to you, he notices how your (Y/H/C) hair frames the delicate shape of your face, and how your teeth find purchase on your bottom lip when you’re deep in concentration. He finds it cute, charming almost. You could feel his eyes burning holes in you, but you pretend not to notice him staring. It isn’t until he speaks to you that you turn to face him,

“Last nights assignment sucked huh?”

You bark out a laugh and you want to mentally kick yourself for borderline sounding like a seal. He watches as you fidget in your seat, pulling back a strand of hair behind your ear. “Yeah! Those poetry terms weren’t too fun”

“Iambic pentameter? Like how am I going to use that in the future?” he jokes.

You laugh, “Tell me about it, I am never going to use blank verse, or enjambment in my life. Those terms kill me”

His laughter joins you and the joyful laughter catches the attention of Mrs. Gerald, an older, wirey, short lady whose thick glasses perch comfortably on her nose. She scowls at the both of you,

“Mr. Scott and Miss. Y/L/N, since you both seem to be having such a grand time together why don’t you two work together for next weeks project”

She stands up and walks over to the both of you, handing you both the assignment. “It’s due next Friday. Keep the laughter down or I’ll ask you both to hand in a thousand word paper on how poetry is essential in the modern world” she snaps at the both of you.

The smiles from both of your faces is instantly wiped away as she walks back to her desk. The assignment is in your hand but your head is elsewhere - you’ve been assigned to partner up with Jason Scott and you feel like screaming with joy. Jason offers you a sympathetic smile and you return it as Mrs. Gerald starts her lesson.

The rest of the period goes by smoothly, Jason can’t help but to stare at you every now and then. He starts to pick up on your little idiosyncrasies, like how your foot taps against the desk, how you would frown when you wouldn’t understand something, or the way you tapped your pencil 3 times against your notebook, stop and think, then continue to write.

As the final bell rings, Jason stands from his desk, pulling his backpack over his shoulder, “Hey we can meet at my house this Saturday to work on this?” he asks, waving the assignment in his hand.

You fumble around with your notebook, trying to play it cool and calmly putting your stuff away, “Yeah, sure”

“Here, let me give you my number”

He rips off a piece of paper from the notebook in his other hand and quickly scribbles down 10 numbers. He hands it over to your shaky hands (your palms are sweating and you hope he doesn’t notice) 

“Text me whenever I'm free all day Saturday”

He hopes he is, he hopes that no weird outer space monsters or creatures disrupts this time with you.

You nod at his statement, and he gives you a final smile and wave and you watch him walk out of the classroom. You let out a large exhale, one that you’d be holding in practically all class. You completely forget about the fact that your destiny is tied to the red ranger and become completely enveloped in the fact that you’re actually going to be hanging out with Jason Scott this weekend.

You curiously wonder if the universe has ever made any mistakes, because there is no way that the red ranger could ever make you feel the way Jason Scott does.

The rest of the week Jason is found sitting right next to you in English class and he’s more than eager to always strike up a conversation when the opportunity arises. The two of you joke about how Mrs. Gerald looks like a chicken if you squint your eyes and angled your head to the right. You exchange notes that hold in hefty discussions about music, movies and the latest happenings around Angel Grove. 

You can hardly believe that Jason is actually interested in talking to you. You’re not sure what weird spell you’ve put on him but you’re actually looking forward to the end of the school day now just to hold your little conversations together.

The conversations don’t stop at school however. With his number now recorded in your phone the two of you start to text non stop - even if it’s about the most trivial things. You find yourself texting Jason instead of Trini at night now

Your red ranger dreams still don’t stop though. They’re all mostly a mesh of the same thing, lots of fighting and lots of chaos but you start to learn a little bit about the red ranger the longer your dreams are.

He’s a selfless leader, one who protects others before him. He makes sure every single person who gets caught in the crossfires is safe. You wish you had half the courage he possesses, you most admire that about your soulmate. You often wonder what he looks like behind the mask. Does he have kind eyes or a cute lopsided smile? Is he a blonde? Brunette? Or even a red-head?

Whatever he looks like, you’re certain that you’re instantly going to fall in love with him the moment your eyes land on him.

Jason finds himself in front of Zordon later in the week. He tells him about his soulmate, and how she’s this cute little thing, bashful and likable - but ponders how in the world can he keep her protected when he’s out fighting intergalactic creatures. He paces back and forth in front of his mentor, his hands shoved in his pocket and his eyes are anxiously attached to his shoes.

“I - I don’t know what to do Zordon, if I tell her then I’m just putting her in danger - she knows her soulmate is the red ranger and if one of our enemies were to find out she’s my soulmate … she’s doomed” he stops his pacing and faces Zordon. He shrugs his shoulders, slapping his hands down his side, feeling completely defeated.

Zordon stays quiet as he observes the young man. It’s been almost a year since their battle with Rita, and Zordon has seen Jason transform from a troubled, insecure boy to a fearless leader who guides his team with confidence. 

“Jason, I don’t know too much about love and how it works here with humans … “ Zordon begins, “But I trust that whatever decision you make, will be the best decision for the both of you. You have guided your team in battle and have always come out successful. I trust you’ll do the same for your heart”

Jason always took Zordon’s words seriously, he had helped mentor him through his toughest times, and was a good person to seek wisdom and advice from. He felt a new found confidence within himself and felt entrusted that whatever decision he would end up making would be the right one.

Jason spent the rest of the evening gathering intel on their new nemesis - Lord Zedd. He had been sending threatening messages to the Rangers for the last couple of weeks, sending in his minions to cause chaos within Angel Grove. He knew that Lord Zedd would strike again soon, him and his team were fully prepared to take on whatever it threw at them next.

He just didn’t expect you to be caught in the middle of it all.

You found yourself walking back home from the movie theater, you and your friend Gina had plans to catch the latest chick-flick that were both dying to see. You didn’t live too far from the shopping center where the movie theater was housed, and since the days were becoming warmer, walking seemed more of a viable option for you. After the movie had finished you and Gina bid your farewells and you started the trek back to your house, cutting through a dark alleyway to save yourself some time.

You had walked through this alleyway millions of time, so you didn’t ever think that you would find yourself being cornered by strange looking creatures that seemingly appeared from the shadows. 

You glanced back behind you, hoping that there would be an escape but more of them just kept appearing, growling menacingly at you.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit” you muttered to yourself as they started to draw in closer. Fear pooled in your stomach as you started to realize how close you were to your demise. They started to circle you in, like a lion hunting it’s gazelle, you closed your eyes and expected some sort of impact, but a loud voice suddenly broke their concentration off of you.

“Hey assholes! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size”

You shoot your eyes open and almost out of thin air the red Power Ranger appeared. He was perched comfortably up on the roof - waiting for the right time to intervene. Coming up from behind appeared the blue, pink, yellow and black ranger, all ready to kick some monster ass.

The monsters soon turned their attention to the rangers, completely ignoring you as you watched, with your eyes wide and full of awe, the rangers take them down. 

Jason watched as his team easily defeated monster after monster. He then turned his attention to you. This was by far the worst case scenario, if Zordon hadn’t sensed Lord Zedds minions, who knows what could have happened to you.

You gazed up at the red ranger as he stood in front of you, his arms came up and he placed them on your shoulders, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asked.

You shook your head, “N-No, I’m fine …”

Jason nodded at you, but before he could turn back to help out his teammates, he felt you grab his arm, “Wait! Red!”

You had to tell him, you had to let him know you were his soulmate. Jason whipped his head back towards you, and he watched as you took a shaky inhale, trying to calm your nerves, “I need to tell you red … that you’re my - “

“Soulmate, I know”

You frown at him, “You know? B-but how?”

His armored hand comes up and rests on your cheek. It feels cold but the gesture sends a warm sensation to your stomach, “I can’t tell you yet … give me time. Do you trust me?”

You nod at him. Jason gives your cheek a soft sweep with his thumb before he returns back to his teammates, finishing up whatever was left of those monsters.

You quickly take the opportunity to rush back home - but not before Jason watched you from afar, making sure that nothing else attacked you that night.

You dreamt of the red ranger again and this time it was his memories of encountering you. You awake with a smile on your face but your heart starts to feel conflicted - you were eager to spend time with Jason, but the more you dreamt about the red ranger, the more you felt like you were starting to fall for him.

Saturday shows up quicker than expected and you find yourself standing in front of Jason’s front door, your knuckle hesitantly knocks on the wood.

Jason runs to the door, opening it up and greets you with a large smile. He gestures for you to come in. You poke your head inside his house, your eyes scanning his foyer before he takes you over to his bedroom - posers decorate most of his bedroom walls, clothing strewn haphazardly around his floor, his bed messily unmade - it was a typical teenage boys bedroom. 

The both of you find yourselves sitting on his bedroom floor, legs crossed, english books wide open and notebook paper lined with messy handwriting. Soft music plays in the background to combat any awkward silence the two of you might encounter, but you’re both purely concentrated on the assignment at hand.

Instinctively your hand reaches over to the pencil that’s laying between you and Jason, but instead of feeling the hard, cold wood of the pencil, you’re met with a soft, warm hand. You glance up, (Y/E/C) meets his blue and you let out an awkward laugh, pulling your hand away from his as if you’ve been caught in the cookie jar.

“M’sorry” you shyly tell him as the color red takes over your cheeks.

“No, no, it’s your pencil, you take it” he tells you, grabbing the pencil and handing it over to you. You offer him a half smile as you take the pencil from him, jotting down notes from your English book. Jason watches you as chew the end of the writing utensil, forehead puckered, lips turned into a frown. You then perform his favorite quirk, you tap the pencil three times against the piece of paper, pause, think, then continue to write.

You glance up and catch wind of Jason’s smirk on his face, amused by your little actions. You freeze up, eyes widened in fear, “Do I have something on my face?” you question him, panic laced in your tone.

He shakes his head, amused by your sense of urgency. “No, no, you just do this thing - “

“Thing?”

“Yeah,” he pauses, licking his lips before he continues, “You uh, do this cute thing where you tap your pencil 3 times, stop and think before you start to write again”

Your eyebrow quirks up at the sound of the word cute, then a smile starts to spread on your lips, “Cute huh?”

It’s Jason’s turn to become flustered, and it makes your heart swell at how bashful the blonde suddenly becomes, trying to backtrack but stumbles over his words, “Not cute! I mean, not that I think you’re not cute because you are cute, but cute in like a quirky kind of cute”

Your smile evolves into a grin, “You think I’m cute?”

Jason is internally kicking himself in the head, but he’s been caught red handed, “Ah, yeah” he lets out a laugh, shaking his head at his choice of words, “I’ve been caught”

Bravery isn’t one of your best qualities, you almost passed out once when you were forced to play a tree during one of your elementary school’s plays. You swear it’s the adrenaline that’s coursing through your blood that prompts you to do what you’re about to do next. You reach over and place your hand over his, squeezing it gently.

With fluttering eyelashes and bashful eyes you gaze up at him, “For what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty cute too” you tell him.

Jason lets out a nervous laugh, he’s surprised at himself because he rarely ever gets nervous around a girl - but you’re his soulmate for christ sake; you both are tied together by destiny, the universe specifically made you for him, and him for you. 

He brushes his nerves away and he surprises you by leaning forward, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. His knuckles brush against the apple of your cheek and your breath hitches, heart starts to pound a little harder, as he scoots closer towards you.

“Is this okay?” his voice comes out like a whisper.

With a swift nod, you consent to his next move. His tongue sweeps towards his bottom lip and the next thing you know, his lips are gently brushing against yours. Jason isn’t too skilled in the kissing department, hell neither are you, but the way your mouths move together is like a perfect choreographed dance. He places his hand on your cheek, moving you closer to him. Tongues are then introduced and Jason quickly takes dominance - he tastes like mints and cinnamon and he savors the faint taste of your vanilla chapstick.

Your eyes slowly start to open when you realize you’ve been kissing Jason Scott for the past 2 minutes. 

Panic suddenly shakes your core and you come back down to reality. You push him away, panting heavily as you avoid his confused gaze.

“I - I’m sorry, was that too much?” he stammers.

You quickly start to gather your things, shoving all of your books and notebooks into your backpack. “I’m sorry Jason, I can’t do this.”

He shakes his head, feeling completely confused, “Can’t do what? Kiss me?”

You swing your backpack over your shoulder and promptly stand up, towering over the frowning boy. Your shoulders slump, feeling defeated. Kissing Jason Scott was once a dream of yours, but your effort is completely fruitless because you know you’re not meant to be with him. Jason Scott isn’t your soulmate, you both are tied to completely different people so kissing him just feels … wrong.

“Jason, you’re not my soulmate. You’re meant to be with someone else” you sadly explain.

Jason’s face turns stoic, he bites his tongue back. He wants so badly to tell you that yes! You’re his soulmate, and yes! He’s the red ranger, but he hasn’t decided how to tell you yet. He’s yet to cross that bridge.

“I’m sorry Jason, I really am, but my dreams have begun and I - I just can’t do that to him” you weakly tell him.

Him, her soulmate.

Jason’s lips turn into a thin line, “No, no, I understand …”

“I’m sorry Jason, I really am” your voices falters in pitch, trying to keep your emotions at bay. But it’s useless when he gives you this look that absolutely breaks your heart. His eyes become wide and you can tell, hell you know, he’s hurt.

You can’t stand to watch him any longer so you swiftly turn your back towards him and make a bee-line to the front door.

Jason is left alone in his bedroom, his music still quietly playing in the background. His thoughts are racing a million miles a minute. He now knows he has to tell you, he needs to tell you because he’s certain that he’s falling in love with you and he can’t hold back his feelings any longer.

You head home with your heart broken, your feelings conflicted and your mind reeling. You spend the rest of your Saturday moping around the house, your body planted on the living room couch and the remote control attached to your hand. You’re casually flipping through channels, but nothing seems to pique your interest. It isn’t until the rerun of The Office you were watching suddenly cuts off to a breaking news alert, a live feed of downtown Angel Grove. Another hoard of monsters have invaded Angel Grove and they’re advising people to stay inside while the Power Rangers take care of them. 

You jump off the couch, moving closer to the screen as if it’ll help bridge the distance between you two. Your eyes are glued to the TV, making sure to try to follow the Red Rangers every move. The dedicated news reporter stays a safe distance away from the tumultuous scene, but it feels as if you’re actually there. It was then your heart suddenly drops to your feet and you let out a horrified gasp. 

You can clearly see a sharp object pierce through the red Rangers armor. You watch as he stumbles around, trying to regain his composure. His hands dart over to his side where his armor becomes stained with blood. The other rangers run over to the wounded man, Blue and Black throw his arms over their shoulders while Yellow and Pink finish off the last hoard.

You feel utterly helpless. You want to scream at the television screen but instead frustrated, angry tears leak from your eyes. Sleeping that night becomes impossible for you, tossing and turning all night long. Your mind is hyper-focused on his well being, but how could you even help him when you don’t know who he is?

Arriving at school the next day feels like a large burden. You’re listless, tired, and hurt. You don’t even interact with your usual friends, and you’re absolutely dreading the final period. The last person you want to see right now is Jason. 

You trudge through the halls when you catch Trini, Billy, Zach and Kimberly huddled together, looks of concerns etched all over their face as they speak in hushed whispers. Trini catches a glimpse of you and perks up, the rest of the group follows - their gaze towards you is oddly sympathetic and you can’t pinpoint why. You give Trini a wave followed by a thin smile, she returns it back to you.

You enter 7th period and frown. Jason is nowhere to be seen, in fact, now that you think about it, you haven’t seen him all day. You feel relieved yet concerned - maybe he’s sick you conclude to yourself. With Jason not sitting beside you, 7th period English feels like much more of a chore, no one to talk to or to distract you from Mrs. Gerald’s monotonous lecture.

The rest of the day passes by without any incident, and you’re more than ready to tumble back into your comforter and pass out, hopefully catch a glimpse of your red ranger. Something in your gut tells you that he’s okay, but you can’t be too sure. You pop a couple of sleeping pills to help speed up the process and by 9 PM you’re completely passed out, drool leaking from the corner of your lips as light snores exit through your mouth.

The dream begins and it feels like you’re having an out of body experience. The first thing you notice is hands - actual human hands. They’re jotting notes down on a piece of paper, his legs crossed on the floor. It all looks vaguely familiar but your mind can’t seem to pinpoint it yet. This is completely different from the rest of the dreams you’ve been having. You can sense that he’s at peace now that he’s not cracking skulls and kicking ass. 

The red Power Ranger is a teenager is the first thought you have.

He then reaches across the floor, aiming to grab a pencil when you see another set of hands.

Those hands look way too familiar now, you recognize that bracelet, and the black hair-tie, they currently rest on your right wrist. You can feel your heart starts to pound in your chest. His head lifts up to view the person who owns those hands and you swear, you swear it was like an electric current sent a shock through your system.

His eyes warmly gaze up towards you.

It’s you, you’re in the red Power Rangers dream.

Jason Scott is your soulmate.

You shoot your eyes open, all of your sleep gone down the drain. Your breathing becomes erratic as your mind tries to quickly piece all of the missing pieces together.

And suddenly everything just makes sense - everything in this world, in life, makes sense. 

The painful realization then hits you like a load of bricks - Jason was the one who got stabbed the other night, it’s why he wasn’t at school. 

You jump out of bed, stumbling to throw on a pair of sneakers as you hop around your bedroom. You toss on your Angel Grove High sweatshirt and open up your bedroom window, hopping from ledge and onto your lawns freshly mowed grass. You pull your hair up in a messy ponytail before running towards your garage and jumping into your little brothers bike - the last thing you want is your wake up your parents by starting up your car.

Your calves burn as you pedal through the town of Angel Grove, cutting through homes and alleyways, all for the boy who’d been keeping this burning secret from you this whole time.

You finally reach the white house that looks over the ocean, dropping your bike on his lawn. You make your way towards his bedroom, the only one with the large window that looks out over the coast. You peer inside the large glass and see the blonde boy laying on his bed, his eyes shut, bruises littering his cheeks where his freckles are specked around.

Your heart clenches at the sight of him looking so broken. Your fingers carefully, and quietly pull back the window, opening it enough for you to sneak in without stumbling over your feet. You land in with a quiet thud and pause for a second. When silence continues to welcome you, you start to move towards Jason’s bed, your eyes scanning him more carefully.

You sit down beside him, feeling the bed shift in weight, but he doesn’t wake up. Your emotions have been a mess lately, your heart has been tugging you in two different places, but now that everything has been pieced together, you can finally breathe. You can finally accept what the universe has been trying to tell you since you’ve started these dreams.

That Jason had been your soulmate this whole time.

With shaky fingers, you reach towards his face. You brush away his curl that dangles from his head. He feels warm compared to your cold hands, but just knowing that he’s okay, that he’s alive gives you a sense of peace. You let out a deep exhale as you softly touch his bruises, making sure not to touch them too hard.

Jason slowly stirs in his sleep, cracking his eye open. He frowns, then jumps away from your touch, startlingly you as you dart your hand away.

“W-what? Y/N? What are you doing here?” he sleepily questions you.

You give him a watery smile as your emotions start creep their way up, “Jason … it’s you, it’s been you this whole time”

Jason is still half asleep, and the words don’t quite register in his head when you tell him this. He has completely forgotten that he has a massive stab wound on his side - The rest of the Power Rangers were able to convince his parents and everyone else that he was caught in a horrific car accident. Zordon has him on bed rest for a week - he knows that’s all it’ll take to fully heal Jason and his deep physical wounds.

Jason slowly, and carefully sits up, wincing as he leans up against his headboard. 

“Jason, don’t move, take it easy” you say.

He shakes his head, “No, no I’m okay, it’s not as bad, I’m healing up”

As he positions himself in a more comfortable position he starts to wake up, and it’s then he fully registers why you’re in his bedroom at 2:18 in the morning. His memories have finally lead you to him. He gives you a half smile, before he continues to talk.

“Caught me huh?”

You let out a half laugh at his lame attempt to joke about the situation, “Why didn’t you tell me Jason? Why didn’t you tell me you were my soulmate?”

There’s a hint of anger in your voice, and he understands, completely understands why you’re angry at him.

He moves his hand and places it over yours, squeezing it gently. “I couldn’t tell you. I needed to keep you safe as long as I could before I figured out how to tell you, but I guess my memories caught up with you”

You sigh heavily, “Jason, nothing is going to happen to me - “

“You don’t know that!” he angrily exclaims, “The other day you were cornered by those creatures!” he pauses before he continues, letting out a shaky exhale, “What if I can’t keep you safe?”

Your eyes desperately try to search for his blue ones, but they’re avoiding your gaze. His face is hard, but his emotions are starting to trickle out with each word he utters. Negativity invade his head space, blocking out any rational thoughts.

“Jason, that’s never going to happen and you know that.” you borderline scold him, your eyes darken with anger, the fact that that idea is instilled in his head makes you frustrated. Jason throws his hands down his side, feeling exasperated.

“Enemies will come looking for you” he begins to counter.

“So? I’ll learn to fight or something”

“What if you’re cornered like that again?”

“I’ll bring pepper spray big deal”

“What if you get kidnapped?!”

You roll your eyes, heaving out a large breath. “Jesus Jason, just stop, stop fighting what the universe has been trying to tell us for the last week.”

He throws his head back, eyes cast up on the ceiling. He knows you’re right, he just hates to admit it.

“Jason, look at me, please” you beg.

His hand is still gently placed on top of yours, so in an effort to show him that you’re in this for the long haul you place your other hand on top of his. He then slowly brings his head back down, his large blue eyes filled with emotion as they bore into yours.

“Jason Lee Scott, I love you and I am willing to fight by your side, do whatever it takes to make your job easier in protecting me, in protecting us, all of us” you gesture outside to the general public because you know that at the end of the day, his priority is to keep everyone safe - not just you.

His hard face softens as the 3 letter word leaves your mouth. His heart swells up three times the size as it beats wildly in his chest.

“You love me?” 

His voice becomes childlike at the question. Almost as if he can’t believe that he can be loved by someone else besides his family.

You let out a dry laugh, tears brimming your eyes as a watery smile takes over your lips. You remove the hand that was on top of his and you bring it to his cheek, gently brushing over the bruises that decorate his face.

“Yeah you big doof, you think I’d be up at 2:30 AM for just anyone?” your tone is much more playful with him and the tension in the room slowly starts to slip away.

He lets out a laugh, leaning into your soft touch. You both share a moment of tenderness as he then leans forward and rests his forehead on yours. The two of you shut your eyes and just completely live in the moment. Forgetting what tomorrow may bring, forgetting what happened in the past, and just living in right now.

“For what it’s worth,” Jason says, a smirk slowly creeping on his lips, “I love you too

A laugh leaves your lips as he mimics the same words you told him 2 days ago. Jason then instinctively leans in closer and presses his lips against yours. He pours all his pent back emotion into the kiss, his hands promptly then cupping your face. Tongues are meshed and lips are smashed in a passionate expression of love.

“I can’t believe it was you, it was you this whole time” you breathly speak as he starts to move his lips down south, peppering small chaste kisses down your neck.

“Surprised?” he pulls away briefly, his lips are all red and swollen.

You shake your head, “Honestly, I’m way more surprised that you were my soulmate - not that you’re a Power Ranger”

Jason cocks his head and you return him a smile before you continue to explain.

“You’re a good guy Jason, you’re not the typical asshole jock at the school. I’ve seen how you’ve defended Billy, how you’ve just become this better person - everything the leader of the Power Rangers should be. I just never thought that the boy I’d been crushing on for all these years would end up being with … well with someone like me”

Jason frowns as your voice turns undeniably sad at the end. He can’t find the right words to convey his thoughts, so instead he just sweeps you into his arms. You let out a joyful squeal as he pulls you towards his side and bringing you down to lay with him. Your head nestles into his chest, the sound of his heartbeat lulling you. You close your eyes and melt into his body, making sure to be mindful of the giant wound on his side. 

His arm wraps around your waist as he presses his face into your hair, taking a deep inhale of the strawberry shampoo that scents your hair. 

“Someone like you? Someone incredibly cute, funny, smart, loving, compassionate, kind, oh and did I mention very, very cute?”

Your giggles echos his bedroom as he starts to place kisses all over your head, “Okay, okay Scott, you can stop buttering me up”

“Just one question,” you ask, lifting your head up and propping yourself on your elbow. He looks at you amusingly, his eyebrow quirked. “How did you know I was your soulmate?”

He can’t reveal the identity of Trini, nor the rest of the rangers. It’s not his decision to make at the end of the day and he fully respects that. His mind then wanders back to his dreams, smirking at you before he speaks,

“Mmm, well your memories didn’t really do a good job of hiding your feelings towards me … subtlety isn’t really your strong suit” he says to you. Your mouth gapes, feigning hurt, and you gently jab his arm. He winces mockingly, rubbing his arm,

“Ooh ouch, you sure you’re not a Power Ranger? You hiding something from me?”

You roll your eyes, “Haha, very funny.”

Silence then nestles between the two of you. Crickets chirp in the background, the wind gently howls. The stillness of the night starts to lull you both back to sleep as you find yourself back laying in his arms. Jason’s eyes are slowly drifting shut when he hears you speak,

“Hey since I’m dating a Power Ranger does this mean I can hitch a ride in your zoid?”

His chest rumbles in laughter. “Ha - in your dreams sweetheart, in your dreams”

It was that same night as you slept in your soulmates’ arms that you decided to never question the universe again.

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Duane Allman who Died: October 29, 1971 in Macon, Georgia

Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician, and founder and leader of the Allman Brothers Band. The Allman Brothers Band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969, and achieved its greatest success in the early 1970s.

Allman is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in the band and in particular for his expressive slide guitar playing and inventive improvisational skills. A sought-after session musician both before and during his tenure with the band, Duane Allman performed with such established stars as King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Herbie Mann, Wilson Pickett, and Boz Scaggs. He also contributed greatly to the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, by Derek and the Dominos.

In 2003, he was ranked number 2 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2011, he was ranked number 9. His guitar tone (achieved with a Gibson Les Paul and two 50-watt bass Marshall amplifiers) was named one of the greatest of all time by Guitar Player. Duane Allman's skills as a guitarist were complemented by personal qualities such as his intensity, drive and ability to draw the best out of others in making music. He is still referred to by his nickname "Skydog"

Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash shortly after the release and initial success of At Fillmore East. On October 29, 1971, while the band was on a break from touring and recording, Allman was riding his Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle at high speed on Hillcrest Avenue, in the western part of Macon. As he approached Bartlett Street, a flatbed boom truck stopped suddenly in the intersection, forcing him to swerve sharply. He struck either the back of the truck or the ball on the crane and was thrown from the motorcycle, which landed on top of him and skidded another 90 feet (27 m) with him pinned underneath it, crushing his internal organs. He was alive when he was taken to a hospital, but despite immediate medical treatment, he died several hours later from massive internal injuries.

Allman's funeral service was held on Monday, November 1, 1971, at Snow's Memorial Chapel in Macon, Georgia. In the chapel, packed with family and friends, many of the musicians who had been part of Allman's life were in attendance to mourn his death. Record producer Jerry Wexler gave the eulogy. Wexler praised Allman's musical achievements; his uncompromising dedication to Southern gospel, country, and blues music; and the place he attained alongside the great black musicians and blues singers from the South. The band, joined by others, played several tunes, concluding with a group rendition of the Southern spiritual, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," a band favorite.

After Allman's funeral and some weeks of mourning, the five surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band carried on, resuming live performances and finishing the recording work interrupted by Allman's death. They named their next album Eat a Peach for Allman's response to an interviewer's question: "How are you helping the revolution?" Allman replied, "I'm hitting a lick for peace, and every time I'm in Georgia I eat a peach for peace. But you can't help the revolution, because there's just evolution. I'm a player. And players don't give a damn for nothing but playing...." Released as a double album in February 1972, it contains a side of live and studio tracks with Allman, two sides of "Mountain Jam", recorded with Allman at the same time as At Fillmore East in March, and a side of tracks by the surviving five members of the band.

Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley died less than 13 months later, also at the age of 24, in a similar motorcycle crash with a city bus, three blocks from the site of Allman's fatal accident. Oakley was buried beside Allman in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.

The variety of Allman's session work and Allman Brothers Band bandleading can be heard to good effect on two posthumous Capricorn releases, An Anthology (1972) and An Anthology Volume II (1974). There are also several archival releases of live Allman Brothers Band performances from what the band calls "Duane's era".

Shortly after Allman's death, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated the song "Free Bird" to Allman's memory. Van Zant would sometimes allude to this in concert; in the band's 1976 performance of "Free Bird" in Knebworth, England, Van Zant said to pianist Billy Powell, "Play it for Duane Allman." The song was written well before Allman died and was not written with him in mind. (Allen Collins wrote the song after his then girlfriend asked him the question "if I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?")

In 1973, four boys who were Hinds Junior College students living in Vicksburg, Miss. carved the very large letters "REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN" into a vertical excavation face beside Interstate Highway 20 between Vicksburg, Mississippi and the school's campus in Raymond, Miss., on the route they travelled together while commuting between their homes and campus. A photograph was published in Rolling Stone magazine and in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll; the carving lasted for over 10 years.

In 1998, the Georgia State Legislature passed a resolution designating a stretch of State Highway 19, U.S. Route 41, within Macon, as Duane Allman Boulevard in his honor. The route, which passes near The Allman Brothers Band Museum (at "The Big House," where the band once lived) and the H&H Restaurant, where the band members often dined, crosses the Raymond Berry Oakley III Bridge.

The Skydog Musical Festival began on Duane Allman's 60th birthday and is celebrated every year in November in Macon's Central City Park. Admission is contribution to the needs of the homeless.

Country singer Travis Tritt, in the song "Put Some Drive in Your Country" on his debut album, sings "Now I still love old country / I ain't tryin' to put it down / But damn I miss Duane Allman / I wish he was still around."

Skydog, a seven-CD box set tracing the virtuosity of Allman on the guitar, was released in 2013 with the help of his daughter, Galadrielle Allman. A March 16 interview with her on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday by Scott Simon runs over eight minutes, includes many details, and is highlighted with clips of his playing, including links to an audio file prepared for the broadcast.

[racingtoaredlight]

Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Birth of the Solid-Body Electric Guitar Industry

Interesting timing on a number of fronts...chiefly being that a book about this very subject is being released shortly.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really dove into all the various design details that Leo Fender engineered in the 1950′s, and my favorite parts have been talking about the designs in a historical context.  Design features like the foam mute on the P-Bass “ashtray” that helped combat issues with primitive amplification.

And while I’ve alluded to things like “there not being third party parts manufacturers at the time,” I never really touched on the industry in general.  Given that some of what I’ve written the past few weeks might be fresh in the memory, it’s a good time to look at the two titans of the guitar world, and how things came to be.

***

The top picture is the two most famous electric guitar models ever made.  On the left, a reissue 1957 Gibson Les Paul “Goldtop.”  On the right, a reissue 1957 Fender Stratocaster.  The bottom picture is the third most famous electric guitar model, an original 1952 Fender Telecaster.

Fun exercise time...I’m going to take every guitar player I mentioned in my Greatest Guitarist Series, and mark if they primarily played one of these three models.  I’m going to strike any classical musicians, (non-fusion) jazz musicians, acoustic-primary guitarists and guitarists who made their impact before the Korean War.

Jimi Hendrix STRAT Eddie Van Halen *MODIFIED STRAT SRV STRAT Andres Segovia John McLaughlin Jimmy Page LES PAUL Eric Clapton STRAT (also played Les Pauls) David Gilmour STRAT (has played all 3) Steve Vai Danny Gatton TELE (has played all 3) Julian Bream Chet Atkins Pat Metheny Duane Allman LES PAUL  Les Paul LES PAUL Ry Cooder STRAT (has played all 3) Yngwie Malmsteen STRAT Keith Richards TELE (has played all 3) Wes Montgomery Tony Iommi BB King Charlie Christian John Petrucci Prince TELE James Hetfield John Jorgenson TELE Chuck Berry (has played Les Pauls and Teles...famous for ES-335) Robert Johnson Steve Howe  (has played Les Pauls and Teles...famous for ES-175) Joe Pass Al DiMeola LES PAUL Django Reinhardt James Burton TELE Brian May Jerry Garcia (has played Strats and Les Pauls) Paco de Lucia Paul Gilbert Eric Johnson STRAT (has played all 3) Brent Mason TELE Shawn Lane  Muddy Waters TELE Buckethead Billy Gibbons LES PAUL (also plays Teles)  Slash LES PAUL Larry Carlton (has played all 3, but his nickname was Mr. 335) Frank Zappa STRAT (has also played Les Pauls) Christopher Parkening Marty Friedman Robben Ford TELE (has played all 3) Jeff Beck STRAT (has played all 3) Buddy Guy STRAT Lowell George STRAT Mark Knopfler STRAT (has played all 3) Ritchie Blackmore STRAT Elmore James LES PAUL John Lee Hooker Joe Satriani Woody Guthrie Hank Marvin STRAT Kirk Hammett Dimebag Darrell Jerry Reed TELE

That is a decent representative list of great guitar players, and those three models...the Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul...account for the easy majority.  And even if a guitarist wasn’t known for one, they likely recorded with one at some point in their careers.

It’s easy to know where to attribute Fender’s success...Leo Fender was an engineering genius.  Gibson, however, had an established reputation long before they ventured into the solid-body world...but they wouldn’t have made that transition if not for Les Paul.

***

The State of Things Today

Before we get into the feud, it’s probably a good idea to get to know where each of these two companies are today.  The companies we’re going to talk about in 1952 bear little resemblance to each in the modern era, having both been passed from numerous ownership groups.

I’ve talked a lot about Leo Fender’s ouster at the hands of CBS...which led to the company’s darkest period which took more than a decade to dig out of.  CBS themselves were ousted by a group of Fender employees in 1985, and the company they started (they couldn’t use the original facilities) now boasts annual revenues well over $500 million.

It’s reflected by the company’s offerings.  Never attempting to be high-end our boutique, Fender’s brilliant branding allowed them to manufacture the same instruments that Leo designed, keeping costs low and making it easy to freshen up long-standing iconic models.

Gibson on the other hand, filed for bankruptcy last year.  Long derided for resting on the laurels of their name, Gibson is another victim of predatory private equity...being used merely as a conduit to acquire more debt.  Bad news intensifies...they’re also responsible for having strict international regulation regarding the types of wood used.  Gibson got in deep doo doo for using illegally farmed woods, and varieties of woods that had been prohibited from foresting due to excessive use (Brazilian rosewood).

Their offerings were staid and stale.  Any new innovations were seen by the guitar market as clumsy and hideous.  And, making things worse, the nature of their guitars’ construction is much more expensive and labor-intensive than Fender’s ever could be.

Fender will live to see the next 50 years.  Gibson likely will not...certainly not under this ownership group.

***

This is Les Paul holding his prototype solid-bodied electric guitar, nicknamed “The Log.”  Yes, it looks ridiculous.  No, another solid-bodied electric guitar did not exist at the time.

Les Paul had a longstanding relationship with Gibson.  Gibson was good to him.  Being a jazz guitarist, the whole Gibson lineup was perfect for Les, and they gave him ample ear to chew with all his (at the time) crazy ideas.  It was a great partnership.

Me being a Fender fanboy and my comments regarding their business should by no means suggest that I’m not a fan of Gibson guitars.  I absolutely love them, especially the Les Paul model.  They feel like the guitar version of driving a Cadillac...smooth, comfortable, refined, classy.

But, like I said above, Gibson was a long established company even in the late 1940′s.  They didn’t make gimmicks.  They made works of art out of the finest woods that produced these beautiful, natural, organic tones.  Even their electric hollow-body models replicated an acoustic tone as close as possible.  Philosophically, it was going to take something major to get Gibson to budge.

"If you don't do something, Fender is going to rule the world."

-Les Paul

***

When Les Paul received Leo Fender’s prototype in 1951, he knew what it meant.

Sure, it was a gift in the sense that Leo Fender wanted him to have that instrument, but it wasn’t just an instrument, it was an overture.  Gibson was a guitar behemoth that dominated an industry that was teetering on the edge of being revolutionized.  Fender was that metaphorical disruptor.  Both were already well aware of each other.

Fender wanted Les Paul on board, plain and simple.  They were hardly even a real company at that point, and getting someone of Les Paul’s status on their roster would be a coup of epic proportions.  From a marketing and branding perspective, Les Paul was a guitarist that could’ve established their brand before they even released a product catalog.

But that wasn’t it.

Les Paul’s reputation for having prototype solid-bodied guitars had created waves.  He was a recording maven, had a giant audience, and whether Gibson wanted him to or not, exposed people to the sounds possible with a solid-bodied guitar.  Leo Fender wasn’t a musician, but he was making the same type of noise within in the industry.

Fender sent out one of his right-hand men who reported back to him on the gift-giving.  That dude thought Les Paul was kind of an egotistical dude and didn’t think much of it.  Les Paul himself actually did like the instrument a lot...a huge amount given what he said to Gibson execs...and as the two guys who were leading the solid-bodied guitar revolution, there was equal parts kinship and rivalry.

*Les Paul with Leo Fender’s gift...a 1951 “Nocaster”...called that because Fender hadn’t come up with the name Telecaster yet, and there was no model under the Fender logo.

I don’t think it needs to be said that Les Paul ended up staying at Gibson.

***

In 1952, Gibson released their first solid-bodied model that had Les Paul’s name on it.  It would define their company.  Also in 1952, Leo Fender released the Telecaster (and Precision Bass), the genesis of the company that would grow into the largest guitar manufacturer in the world.

The sheer amount of music that’s been recorded using Les Pauls and Telecasters (as well as the Strat) is simply mind-boggling.  It’s almost impossible to quantify.

While the electric guitar industry might be well past the point of peaking, they’re still a major part of American culture.  Something that’s come to define us internationally as much as baseball or apple pie.  And it’s these three models from Fender and Gibson that so many people are able to instantly identify, that have recorded so much iconic music, that will live on well into the future like a Stradivarius violin or Steinway piano.

And for a brief period in the early 1950′s, it almost came to be that the two most prominent figures in the modern electric guitar world joined forces.  Almost.  It’s a shame they didn’t...might have been a good thing, given that each was given full creative control without the other’s presence...but the modern musical world was largely impacted by these two guys tinkering around in their basements.

It’s a cool story and easy to let your imagination run wild about what they could have done together.

[meatpope]

every time i write a terror modern au i tell myself "this will be the one where i finally give modern william gibson the nickname will instead of billy, just for a laugh" and every time i find i can't do it

[sinophonicjazz]

Bird Lore:  Why Charlie Parker Matters

            Coltrane himself recalled  the exact day – June 5, 1945 – when he saw Charlie (“Yardbird” or “Bird”) Parker perform for the first time.  In a DownBeat article in 1960 he recalled: “the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.”  Coltrane idolized Parker, and they would play together on occasion in the late 1940s.

            Aside from Louis Armstrong and Coltrane himself, Charlie Parker’s stardom in the jazz firmament is eternal and unchanging.  Parker’s body of work as a unique jazz performer and composer remains widely imitated and studied.  His life was marred by severe drug and alcohol addictions that contributed to his death from lobar pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver at age 35 in the New York flat of the “Jazz Baroness” Pannonica de Koenigswarter on March 12, 1955.  Although the excesses of his lifestyle comprised the archetype of the junkie jazz musician of the 1940s and 1950s, none of those stories can overshadow his unique artistry and the profound influence Parker exerted on jazz and popular music from the 1940s to this day.

            Born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Missouri, Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11.  He honed his craft as an alto saxophonist as a teenage member of the Jay McShann big band in the late 1930s.  During his tenure with McShann’s territorial band, Parker played throughout the southwester USA, as well as Chicago and New York City.  He acquired the nickname Yardbird (later abbreviated to “Bird”) because he supposedly ordered a car full of fellow musicians to stop so he could pick up a dead chicken that the car had struck while driving to a job.

           Parker moved to New York in 1939, and worked with the big bands of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine.  However, Parker was developing musical ideas that did not fit into the orchestrated big band arrangements of the Swing Era.   He soon became famous playing at jam sessions held at after-hours nightclubs such Clark Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s Playhouse.  These New York clubs served as the incubator and experimental theater for the early players of the modern jazz that would later be called “bebop,” including Don Byas, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Christian.  Part of the atmosphere created at jam sessions like the ones found at Minton’s was an air of exclusivity:  the “regular” musicians would often re-harmonize the standard songs in order to exclude those whom they considered outsiders or simply weaker players.

The Epiphany

            This unprecedented harmonic development which took place in bebop is often traced back to a transcendent moment experienced by Charlie Parker while performing “Cherokee” at Monroe’s in early 1942.  As described by Parker in an interview:

“I’d been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used, … and I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes. I couldn’t play it…. I was working over “Cherokee”, and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I’d been hearing. It came alive.”

[A 1947 sample of Parker playing his tune “Ko Ko” based on the chord progressions of the standard song, “Cherokee,” can be heard here:  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDI5MzE5MDAw.html

or here:  http://sinophonicjazz.tumblr.com/post/9534966470/charles-bird-parker-alto-sax-born-august-29 ]

           Parker brought to bebop a new manner of rhythmic and harmonic organization.  Stated simply, where the alto saxophonists of the ‘20s and '30s (such as Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges), played phrases that closely corresponded to the rhythmic nature of the tune, Parker sped up his phrasing considerably, cramming twice as many shorter notes into the same space.  He played the new ideas with such flair and virtuosity that he almost single-handedly transformed the music that followed for the next half century.

            A wartime ban on recording meant that the public would not hear studio records of Parker’s work until 1945, when he recorded with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie band, 78-rpm recordings of tunes such as “Shaw ‘Nuff,” “Salt Peanuts,” and “Hot House.”

[Here’s Parker and Gillespie playing “Hot House”:  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjUwOTM5NjY4.html]

            In the fall of 1945, Parker and Gillespie landed a job at the Three Deuces. Shortly thereafter, Parker’s irresponsibility and disregard for promptness caused Gillespie to quit the group. Parker subsequently hired trumpeter Miles Davis to perform in a quintet which included drummer Max Roach.

Parker and Miles Davis at the Three Deuces.  © Wm. Gottlieb

As Davis enthusiastically recounted in his memoir Miles, “I was nineteen years old and playing with the baddest alto saxophone player in the history of music.”  A month after opening at the Three Deuces, Parker debuted on the Savoy label. Under the name “Charlie Parker’s Reboppers,” Parker, Gillespie, Davis, Russell, and Roach recorded the classics “Ko Ko” and “Now’s the Time.”  As writer Gary Giddins stressed in his book, Celebrating Bird, “Ko Ko’ was the seminal point of departure for jazz in the postwar era.  Its effect paralleled that of [Louis] Armstrong’s ‘West End Blues’ in 1928.”

Bebop Comes to California

            As a member of the Dizzy Gillespie sextet, Parker traveled to Hollywood in December of 1945 to perform at Billy Berg’s, a one-story stucco building on Vine Street. “That little band was very skillfully assembled, recalled Gillespie in the book, To Be or Not to Bop, “Charlie Parker I hired, because he was undeniably a genius, musically, the other side of my heartbeat.”  Billed with the popular acts Slim Gillard and Henry “The Hipster” Gibson, the sextet played to packed houses.  With the exception of a small circle of followers, however, the reaction to the sextet’s modern sound was met with indifference.

            After finishing their stint at Berg’s, Parker and Gillespie recorded several sessions for Hollywood record store owner Ross Russell.  As a result of poor organization and personnel problems, these first sessions for Russell’s newly-formed Dial label yielded little material.   When Gillespie’s band returned to New York, Parker stayed behind in Los Angeles and continued to record for Dial.  Parker then took a job playing in Howard McGhee’s group at the Club Finale.  He also attended several Dial recording sessions which produced a wealth of music including “Yardbird Suite,” “Moose the Mooche,” and “A Night in Tunisia.”  As Ted Gioia noted in West Coast Jazz, these sides “rank among the landmarks of jazz music.  On a level with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens and Ellington’s work from the early 1940s, the Parker Dial sessions stand out as monumental achievements.”

            Despite the fine musicianship Parker displayed on the Dial recordings, his personal life was in shambles.  He was living in poverty and suffering from drug withdrawal.  On July 29, 1946, Parker attended a Dial recording session.  Later that night a fire, presumably caused by careless smoking, destroyed his room at the Civic Hotel.  Earlier that evening, Parker was seen wandering around the hotel lobby wearing only his socks.  He was arrested and held in the psychiatric ward of the East Los Angeles Jail.  Charged with arson, indecent exposure, and resisting arrest, Parker served a six-month term at the Camarillo State Hospital. He was released in January of 1947 and periodically experienced episodes of good health, only to succumb to eating binges and further drug abuse.  Before returning to New York, Parker participated in recording sessions for Dial with pianist Erroll Garner, Howard McGhee and Wardell Gray.

Blues and Latin Recordings

            Between 1947 and 1948 Parker led a quintet which included, at various times, Miles Davis, pianists Duke Jordan and Al Haig, and Max Roach. Also, extended engagements at New York nightclubs such as the Three Deuces and the Royal Roost provided Parker with a relatively stable period of work. In September of 1948, Parker cut the classic Savoy side “Parker’s Mood.” Acclaimed as one of Parker’s finest blues numbers, “Parker’s Mood,” as Thomas Owens noted in Bebop: The Music and Its Players, “contains a number of [Parker’s] standard melodic figures, but the slow tempo gives him more time than usual to reshape and combine them, and to think of new phrases. In the process he creates a beautiful and poignant picture of the poetic meaning of the blues—he ‘tells his story’ as though he was a great blues singer.”  A sample of “Parker’s Mood” (as remastered for the movie “Bird”) can be heard here:  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzE3MDc0NzM2.html

European Debut

            In May of 1949, Parker made his European debut at the Paris International Festival of Jazz. That same year, Parker hired trumpeter Red Rodney. Rodney told Ben Sidran in Talking Jazz, “Charlie Parker was very much like he played.  He was beautiful.  He was so proficient that the instrument was like a toy.” In November of 1949, Parker recorded with a string section conducted by Mitch Miller.  The session yielded the smash hit, “Just Friends.” In 1950 and 1952, he continued to perform and record with string quartets and other small groups.  In March of 1951 and January of 1952, Parker recorded his Latin-inspired album, South of the Border. T his album, released on the Verve label, contained his popular number “My Little Suede Shoes.”

            In 1953, Parker joined Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, bassist Charles Mingus, and pianist Bud Powell for a performance at Toronto’s Massey Hall.   Around this time, Parker’s constant drug use began to take its toll.  Although he was still capable of delivering fine performances, his reputation for showing up in mid-performance or missing entire shows often forced club owners to hire Parker on a per set basis.  After being admitted twice to Bellevue psychiatric hospital in 1954, Parker attempted suicide.  On March 4, 1955, he made his final appearance at Birdland—the club named in his honor.  During the performance, he exchanged harsh words onstage with pianist Bud Powell and left the nightclub.  Five days later, Parker traveled to New York City to visit his close friend and benefactor, Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter.  Parker suffered an ulcer attack while visiting the baroness, but refused to be hospitalized. He died on March 12, 1955, while watching television.

            During his brief life, Charlie Parker inspired a school of jazz, a legion of followers, and helped to define a generation of post-war poets and writers.  A few months after Parker’s death, Beat writer Jack Kerouac hailed him in his book of poems Mexico City Blues, as “the perfect musician … and a great creator of forms.”   As one of America’s greatest artists, Charlie Parker has become the subject of books, film documentaries, and a feature motion picture (“Bird”).  His music remains a source of musical inspiration for musicians in China and around the world.

Selected discography

Charlie Parker, The Verve Years (1952–54), Verve, 1977.

Charlie Parker at Storyville, Blue Note, (recorded 1953) 1988.

Charlie Parker The Legendary Dial Masters Vol. I, Stash, 1989.

Charlie Parker Swedish Schnapps+, The Great Quintet Sessions 1919–1951, Verve, 1991.

Charlie Parker, “Round Midnight and Other Gems,” Tel-Star, 1991.

Bird at St. Nick’s, Original Jazz Classics, (recorded 1950) 1992.

Charlie Parker, Jazz at the Philharmonic 1949, Verve, 1993.

Bird on 52nd Street, Original Jazz Classics, (recorded 1948) 1994.

Charlie Parker Plays Standards, Jazz Masters 28, Verve, 1994.

Charlie Parker, South of the Border, (recorded 1951–1952), 1995.

Charlie Parker, The Complete Dial Recordings, Rhino, 1996.

Bird and Diz, (recorded 1948) Verve, 1997.

Yardbird Suite, The Ultimate Charlie Parker, Rhino, 1997.

Sources

Books

Davis, Miles with Quincy Troupe. Miles, The Autobiography, Simon & Schuster, 1990.

Giddins, Gary. Celebrating Bird, The Triumph of Charlie Parker, Beech Tree Books, 1987.

Gillespie, Dizzy with Al Fraser. To Be, or not …To Bop, Memoirs, Doubleday &Co., 1979.

Gioa, Ted. West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California 1945–1960, Oxford University Press, 1992.

Gitler, Ira. Jazz Masters of the Forties, Collier Books, 1966.

Green, Benny. The Reluctant Art: Five Studies in the Growth of Jazz, Da Capo, expanded edition, 1991.

Hennessey, Mike. Klook: The Story of Kenny Clarke, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990.

Kerouac, Jack. Mexico City Blues (242) Choruses, Grove Press, 1959.

Owens, Thomas. Bebop: The Music and Its Players, Oxford University Press, 1995.

Reisner, Robert, ed. Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker, Da Capo, 1962.

Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz 1930–1945, Oxford University Press, 1989.

Sidran, Ben. Talking Jazz: An Oral History, expanded edition, Da Capo, 1995.

Stokes, Royal W. The Jazz Scene: An Informal History From New Orleans to 1990, Oxford

[timepetalscollective]

David Tennant & Billie Piper Character Adoption Drive

Do you love the Doctor and Rose?

Yes? Well then, we’d love to introduce you to some of David and Billie’s other fantastic characters that we swear to Gallifrey you’ll adore!

🌟 What’re we up to and how does it work? 🌟

Every Tennant Tuesday and Piper Friday in October we’ll be featuring all these lovely characters. Reblog to share the love, leave a comment to adopt the character. Characters can be adopted by as many folks who’d like them, and you can adopt as many as your fan heart can take. 

What can you do with them? It’s all up to you! Any David or Billie ship, any fanwork. Mention and tag us and we’ll share your creation here! It’s also a Teninch Fic free-for-all over here at TPP! (Since some of these characters are queer we’re also taking pairings that involve non David/Billie characters) 

How we’ll find your work: 

Simply mention @timepetalsprompts and/or tag #timepetalsprompts

What is Teninch Fic?

We’re glad you asked! The term comes from a nickname Billie Piper used to call David Tennant. Teninch Fic is any fic (or edit, fan art, etc) featuring a Tennant and Piper character. 

I can’t watch any of those titles though

Many of them are pretty cheap to buy online if you have some way of playing any region DVDs, some as little as a couple dollars. Some are available on streaming services or for download on digital services like iTunes. Alas many are very tricky to find. But drop us a line if you’re looking for something and we’ll see what we can do, and leave a comment in the character posts if you know where to watch something. We promise they’re worth it!

But the Doctor and Rose is my flagship, I’m not interested

WAIT, COME BACK! We love them just as much and wouldn’t get in the way of that! BUT. You’ll find those qualities you love about the Doctor and Rose in their other characters as well! 

Love how badass and independent Rose is? You’d get along swimmingly with Bella, Lily Frankenstein, or Shelley Stevens

Adore how great a dad the Doctor would be? Good news! We’ve got Dave Tiler, Doug McLeod, Alec Hardy, Aiden Hoynes, Donald Peterson, Will Burton, and Alan Hamilton

Loved all the Doctor Who episodes where they went back in time and wore those adorable costumes? We’ve got Fanny Price, Sally Lockhart, Brona Croft, Casanova, Mr Gibson, Ginger Littlejohn, and Jean-François Mercier

Only have a few minutes to watch? No excuses! Grace (upon release of BEAST), Badger, Davina, Mark, Charlie, and the Traffic Warden are all in shorts that are a few minutes long each! Oh my how did those links get there *innocent whistling* 

Looking to explore fics featuring lgbtqia+ characters? More good news! David and Billie have played canonically trans, bi, gay, and queer characters like Davina, Arthur Eddington, Holly, Vicky, Lily Frankenstein, and yes Rose Tyler.

Stay tuned, we’ll be featuring all these lovelies and MORE this month! Give this a little boost to share the word so we can hopefully see some more Teninch Fics :D