#.it's a mix of wanting to challenge brodi

[parabelllvm]

What is he staring at?

The promise of fire and gold, standing among their peers and yet still trying to hide among them. They look... slightly uncomfortable — as if they did not wish to be there... but, knowing Cadaylle's king and queen, the sorcerer was likely sent to keep an eye on Harailt. Otherwise, he's almost certain they wouldn't have attended to begin with.

Zasar can see them shift on their feet and notes the subtle turn of their head to look around. Their lips part, as if they meant to say something to the dark haired man standing closest to them...

... but whatever they meant to say seems to die on their lips when brown locks with blue.

Brodiaea's gaze is as intense as ever and the subtle displeasure that eases into it is almost second nature at this point. They weren't one to sugarcoat things, either—that, he knew too well.

Their brows furrow a little more at him, as if telling him to look away...

...and he responds with a grin, as if to say no.

[harmonyspopculturecorner]

The Artful Dodger

!!SPOILER WARNING!!

I am a simple woman…if Thomas Brodie-Sangster is in something, I will watch it. He has been a favorite of mine for many years, and I can always trust the projects he’s involved in to be great. This show was no exception. Not only does Thomas Sangster play an amazing Jack Dawkins, but add in Maia Mitchell as Lady Belle, and David Thewlis as Fagin, and you’ve got a cast that works seamlessly together to bring these characters and story to life. I’m not the biggest Charles Dickens fan, but being a reader, of course I know the story of Oliver Twist. Then we have this show, which follows a character I know many people loved from the original, Jack Dawkins, 15 years older and trying to leave his life of pickpocketing behind to become a surgeon who challenges the status quo in a colony in Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this show with the perfect mix of period and medical drama that added in elements of romance and the world of crime. Each character was well written and showed loveable aspects of themselves while also not shying away from the fact that they have their flaws. Jack cares about helping people, but he also struggles with his past and the urge to return to crime. Fagin, while seemingly good-hearted, is also very selfish and doesn’t always think of how others might be impacted. Belle is ahead of her time, wanting to be in the world of medicine and make progress, but forgets how privileged her life is being the daughter of a governor. These three are truly the heart of the show, but that’s not to say the other characters also didn’t display the same well-roundedness. Everything was well paced and each storyline built up the characters and the world this show takes place in. Overall, this show was a masterpiece, and I can only hope that it gets the love it deserves so that we may see more of this story unfold.

[noirapocalypto]

Here's something fun I thought of. Since you relate a bit of Embry with Hangman, which wrestler do you associate with your other cyberpunk OCs with? 👀

Oh my god, mi rey, I love this question so much KUJHDSGLJKS okay, sit tight, because I'm gonna likely ramble. I'm gonna go off of AEW wrestlers since that's the show I keep up with weekly djkfghlsd

Salem is my boy that has the most wrestler inspos, because he's my special boy and I look for him in everything. His is more detailed because I feel I gotta explain why I picked each one for him. 😅

Fighting Style: Jon Moxley. Salem likes to fight and he gets brutal when he wants to. He's not a stranger to bleeding, and has a similar bloodlust like Mox that gives him that rush during his fights. He also has that swagger to him, that cocky 'I'm going to enjoy this' aura when he knows he's about to throw down. In my wrestling!AU (literally just a concept and a reason to assign my OC's wrestlers lmao), Salem would likely be a deathmatch wrestler with strong leanings to grappling and 'dirty fighting', such as biting and scratching.

Personality: Eddie Kingston and Hook. So hear me out, because I know that's two polar opposites, kinda. Salem has Eddie's confrontational personality, where if you start shit with him, you best back it up. He will call someone out and he will get up in someone's face. He's not afraid to challenge someone, especially when he feels disrespected or is pissed off enough. He also has Hook's broody, quiet demeanor though, most of the time when he's not getting his buttons pushed. He's always has a resting bitch face where he looks angry or annoyed--but it's part of his allure 🤭

Aesthetics/Presentation: I'll always use House of Black as aesthetic inspo for Salem--particularly Brody King. I like Brody's wrestling attire, especially during his entrance. With the hood and the ski mask and the thick ass chain. I think Salem leans more with that look. But also bringing Hook up again, because Salem's a plain black hoodie guy as well.

Putting the rest under a Read More 🖤

Paolo and Paola, are a mix of various tag teams. These two are a duo that are inseparable and are a package deal, so it makes sense to base them off of a few tag teams (which are my fav). However, the team that I associate them the most are The Young Bucks, because of course.

A pair of siblings that pretty much go out of their way to be obnoxious as possible while remaining loyal to their group (like they are with Kenny and with each other). They're doofy, they're not afraid to look silly and dumb, in fact they lean into it with all the dumb shit they like getting up to. The twins would likely be heels because it's so fun for them to be chaotic gremlins.

And here's a bonus one, an extra for Paolo because I've really latched onto Daniel Garcia, and I see a lot of DG in him. I kinda even associate his voice and the way he speaks with Paolo, I imagine my boy sounding like him.

---

Judah is interesting because he's not exactly a fighter in his canon story, BUT he will when he needs to/has to. He's arrogant and so, so full of himself. He's rich, he's handsome, he's better than you--you know there I'm going with this. 😎Judah is MJF, though and through.

Like MJF (pre-face turn), Judah doesn't fight unless he has to. He prefers to run his mouth most of the time and weasel his way out of situations his shit talking gets him into. He'll hire people if he needs to. He has zero problem throwing people under the bus to get ahead and knows how to twist and manipulate things to benefit him. But when he does actually decide to act, he's actually skilled af. He's just more of a talker. Charisma is more his style.

However, in recent development...Judah has also had a little face turn of his own. In my story, he softens up considerably when my others manage to befriend him. He might still be a scumbag, but he's their scumbag. 🖤

---

I'm going to include Embry anyways, because I love him and his wrestler association. So obvs, I'm going with Hangman Adam Page for my sunshine boy.

Embry is just a really good guy, very likeable and it's not hard to rally behind him. Of course, he still has some of his not-so-wholesome traits (Hangman's entire storyline of feeling inadequate and the more brutal side of him that comes out in certain feuds/matches). Embry contains multitudes, and sometimes they so even if he tries to hide it.

Plus, there's the whole aesthetics with the blond hair and the southern, cowboy vibes. Even more so with the mustache and beard 🥴Which Embry eventually grows out at some point in his story.

---

Renato is the one where I have the most trouble with and don't really have one assigned for him because he's still my most underdeveloped OC. I did like Andrade a lot and often associate him with Renato--looks and aesthetics wise. I wish I had more of an answer for him 😭He's just extremely illusive, but he's slowly coming into his own.

[lananewbury]

Lana found herself giggling as Aiden used some of those acting kills of his to fumble with their oven, eventually turning it on and getting to work. It brought a smile to her face to see how easy it was for him. To get back into the rhythm of the kitchen, as if no time had passed for him what so ever. "If that's something you'd like to do, then why not?" Lana suggested, as Aiden deserved to have something on his calendar of his choosing. If he wanted to make time to cook something for himself, that should have been okay. It's not like the Newbury dynasty was going to topple if he wasn't there for yet another meeting. "Personally, I'm on team letting you cook as often as you want. Like, I know, I can handle myself in kitchen but we both know who's the chef between us." Lana said, pointing over at him through slightly closed eyes.

"Oh, you knew that definitely coming. Don't act shocked." Lana told Aiden. "But don't worry, there's a certain charm to the whole being seventy-four at twenty-four thing you've got going on for you." She let him know, as she herself had fallen for it. And just because Aiden tended to favor older, he was still plenty youthful. He just chose when and where to show off the more foolish sides of his personality. Lana heard the L word leave his lips and it brought up a mix of emotions in her. Hearing it, it caused the butterflies in her stomach to flutter of course. He'd always had that effect on her, that word meaning the world to her when it came from her. But as soon as that occurred, in came, that reminder. But she chose to smile through that, because he was trying. He was. This wasn't her giving him a pass, but rather, her choosing to enjoy this moment. A moment where their home felt like a home again, not a mine field.

She nodded. "Yes, I am saying you're allowed to wear the Crocs. You've more than earned that." Lana giggled. "Now there's your challenge because from what I've garnered, she hates those sandals. They appear to offend every part of her." She laughed, at the thought of Brodie and Colette getting into it over a pair of Crocs. Lana's lips twisted, fighting back a grin as Aiden's playlist switched over to that song from Rosalia and Rauw Alejandro. A song that was a reminder of the before time, she remembered the first time she heard this song. How happy they were just to dance to it. How by the end, he'd fallen on top of her, letting her know this was their song from here on out. She snapped out of her thoughts by her plate being put down in front of her. "Thank you." Lana told him, the smile on her face now visible. "I actually was thinking of wearing that." She let him know, before taking a small bite from what he'd made. "Ugh, this is so good."

He laughed a bit more than he probably should have and caught himself when she joked about the button on the stove. It just felt so nice to be teased by her and he tried not to think too much. Instead pretended to fumble as he turned on the burner before settling himself. "Maybe that's something I can do a lot more of this summer. Cooking. God knows I'm spending way too much on lunch when I actually eat it," he added, his days usually too chaotic to stop for more than little bites. In his earlier days Lana would stop by and they would always have lunch together. They were some of his best memories but that all gone to hell when he got busier and Lana stopped trusting his assistant. Which she had every reason to.

"He really does. I think if he could have conversations in all gifs, he would. That sums him up so perfectly, especially now, hey!" He laughed and shook his head but she was right. He really was an old man a lot of the time. He had to agree with her but he had seen Brodie in such messy times it was still kind of hard for him to believe. What Aiden couldn't admit that he was a little jealous. He had always been the friend who had it slightly more together and now Brodie was lapping him in every way. He knew it shouldn't have been a competition but he couldn't help himself. As he started cooking, he glanced at the freezer and clear adoration came over his features. "God I love you and that brain of yours," he said without thinking and went back to making breakfast. In order to level out the mood, he put some music on.

"Ah so you're saying I can wear crocs? I'll make sure Brodie and I wear our matching ones then. If Colette lets him," he joked, actually getting excited for the day the more they talked about it. He just hoped he didn't fuck it up but having Brodie and Willow there was always good for him and Marnie added to that. Plus, maybe Colette's family would remind him that a real family was loving. He was trying not to put too much into this one moment but that didn't stop him from making a damn good breakfast as he sang along to the rauw alejandro and rosalia playing from the mix on his spotify. He smiled as he set the plate of food in front of Lana, clearly proud of it. "Enjoy, baby," he told her softly before moving to serve himself. "You thinking of wearing that new dress you got last week? I liked the colors."

[cyberth0t]

FICTION DEPICTION CHALLENGE

THE VILLAGE

tagged by @madeofcc

RIVER. When we are married, will you dance with me? I find dancing very agreeable.

[Long silence.]

Why can you not say what is in your head?

RO‘ONUI. Why can you not stop saying what is in yours?

[He pauses, frustrated, then continues, his voice hushed and strained.]

Why must you lead, when I want to lead? If I want to dance, I will ask you to dance. If I want to speak, I will open my mouth and speak. Everyone is forever plaguing me to speak further. Why? What good is it to tell you you are in my every thought from the time I wake? What good can come from my saying that I sometimes cannot think clearly or do my work properly? What gain can rise of my telling you the only time I feel fear as others do is when I think of you in harm?

That is why I am on this porch, River Carlisle. I fear for your safety before all others.

[Another silence.]

And yes, I will dance with you on our wedding night.

This movie got mixed reviews when it came out in the early aughts, mostly for its flimsy premise. However, The Village has gorgeous cinematography, beautiful costumes, and an all-star cast that handles the strange, pseudo old-timey language like pros.

However, it's got a lot of problems (Adrien Brody is fantastic but his neurodivergent character is shown in a very negative lens, and Bryce Dallas Howard's character Ivy should have been performed by a blind actor. Also, almost no characters of color. Ew).

But, it has one of the greatest love confessions of all time (see above), and a many of the speeches are similarly great.

Forever retconning movies I liked as a kid to be more diverse and inclusive.

Idk why this challenge was so hard? I think a lot of people have been tagged, but I don't see a lot of people doing it and now I know why--this took a lot of thinking.

--comparison shots below the cut--

[sierraraeck]

Struck by Lightning

Derek x Fem!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: After breaking up with your boyfriend, you go out for a girls night. Unfortunately, he follows you to the club to try and win you back. To show him just how over him you are, you kiss the first stranger you see walking through the door. Luckily for you, that man is a sculpted god of chocolate thunder.

Category: Spicy fluff

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol. Age gap between adults (maybe like 10ish years) but I never actually mention it lol. Some cussing.

Word Count: 2.2k

A/N: This was inspired by the song “Guys My Age” by Hey Violet. If you wanna give that a quick listen, go for it, if not, that’s chill too. This is also for @fortheloveofcriminalminds 600 follower celebration! The prompt “in the likely event that this all goes pear shaped, just remember I told you so” is in bold!

“I finally did it,” you told your friend over the phone.

“You did!” she squealed. “You dumped Brody? I’m so proud of you!”

You laughed, “Thanks, Jess. God, I was just so tired of his bullshit. He never wanted to do anything but hang around his house with his friends, ya know?”

“Yeah, I do know,” Jess responded very dramatically. “I’m so glad you’re done with him! This calls for celebration!”

“Oh god,” you mumbled, knowing exactly what that entailed. Jess was always a bit excited when it came to celebrating. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“Yes! Girls night!” The high frequency of her voice nearly blew your eardrums out. “There’s this new bar and club downtown that I’ve been dying to check out. I’m going to call the girls!”

Without getting another word in, she hung up, leaving you no choice but to start getting ready for what you were sure would be a wild night.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

Wild would not be the word you’d use to describe the night so far. Irritating would be more accurate.

Not even ten minutes after you’d arrived, Brody and his asshat friends showed up too. Of course, they couldn’t just keep their distance like any normal person who’d just been dumped would, maybe a normal person would even leave to go to a different club, but no. The first thing Brody did was approach you, sliding into the barstool next to you.

You could smell the alcohol and weed on his breath when he said, “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Go away, Brody,” you deadpanned. You’d finally gotten away from your immature, never-wants-to-do-anything boyfriend who never put you first, who now all the sudden that you’re gone, decides to start making an effort. And of course it had to be on the night that you were celebrating the single life again that he just had to show up.

“Don’t be like that, babe,” he said, reaching out to touch you.

You scooted out of reach of him, “Don’t touch me.”

“Come on, baby, we used to have a lot of fun. Let me remind you of that,” he said, leaning in to kiss you.

You put your hand in the way and pushed his face away from yours. “I would literally rather kiss anyone other than you,” you spat.

“You don’t mean that,” Brody tried to schmooze.

“Yes I do.”

“Oh really? Prove it,” he challenged.

“Come on, Y/N, let’s just go. He’s not worth it,” Jess told you, your two other friends at her sides.

But you were too competitive for that. Plus, this was your girls night out, at the club that Jess had been dying to see for ages now, and you weren’t going to let your stupid ex ruin that. So you accepted by saying, “I will. Next person who walks through that door.”

Brody shrugged, a smug smile on his face. “Fine. Let’s see it.”

You eyed the door as Jess leaned in and whispered, “In the likely event that this all goes pear shaped, just remember I told you so.”

You rolled your eyes, still facing the door. Then you saw movement behind the glass, the door swinging open to reveal the person you’d fated yourself to kiss.

And holy shit. You don’t think you’ve ever been so lucky in your life. The honest to god hottest man you’d ever seen walked through the door. He was tall, broad shoulders accompanying his strong build, and when you saw him turn and smile at the rest of what you assumed were his friends walking through the door, you thought you might pass out. He had to have been sculpted by Zeus himself.

You were staring in shock, as if you’d been struck by lightning, almost forgetting you had a small wager on the line. Jess gave you a small nudge, springing your feet into action.

You couldn’t believe you were about to do this. But, you strutted up to the man still partially in the doorway with confidence like you’d never had before, the group of people facing your way tracking your movements. The man himself had barely enough time to turn around and register you walking toward him before you reached up behind his neck and pulled him just slightly down to you. You smashed your lips to his with a bit more force than you intended, and could feel the shock coming from everyone around you.

They weren’t the only ones to be surprised, though. In only a matter of seconds, without pulling back to ask any questions, he started kissing you back. It caught you a little off guard, to be honest, thinking you were just going to kiss him and awkwardly walk away. But he kissed you back. Like really kissed you back. His lips were soft and smooth, and before you could fully register it, your tongues were exploring each other’s mouths, pushing and pulling in a way you’d never felt before. One of his hands rested on your jaw and the other snaked around your back, spurring on your confidence enough to place your other hand on his very firm, and very muscular chest.

You weren’t sure how long the kiss lasted, but you felt like you had to pull back when one of his friends cleared their throat. You looked into his dark, cocoa eyes now that you could really admire his face close up, and he was looking at you with a mix of confusion and wonder.

You bit your lip and turned to quickly glance at the brunette who’d cleared her throat. She was pressing her lips together to suppress a smile, but wasn’t failing dreadfully at it.

You turned your attention back to the man in front of you, still looking at you in awe. Running on pure adrenaline and confidence, you slowly looked him up and down, then let out a satisfied sigh. “Not bad,” you muttered to yourself, barely loud enough for him to hear it. You ran both your hands down his chest and flirtatiously continued, “Not bad at all.”

You easily slid out of his grasp and winked over your shoulder as you strutted away.

You heard the woman who’d cleared her throat say, “I know you’re Derek Morgan, and I know you’re a catch, but has that ever happened to you?”

You peered over your shoulder and saw him staring at you. Derek, you now knew his name to be, shook his head just slightly and mumbled, “Never.”

You quickly turned away, not wanting any of them to see your grin as you practically bounced back to your seat at the bar. Brody was nowhere to be found.

Jess was slack jawed, eyebrows almost lost in her hairline. You teased, “What was that you were saying about things going wrong? Something about telling me so or..?”

Jess pulled herself together and feigned annoyance, “Oh shut up. You know you got hella lucky.”

“Oh,” you nodded, “I know.”

“Seriously, Y/N, what the hell was that?”

You shook your head, feeling as in awe as the man you’d kissed only moments ago had looked. “I have no idea.”

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

You eyed each other for the next hour or so, neither of you being too inconspicuous about. You’d been on the dance floor while him and his group were at a bar table. He finally approached you when you’d taken a break to get another drink.

He walked up to you and leaned against the side of the bar you’d just order from. He hadn’t said anything yet, so, without looking at him, you filled the airspace. “You know it’s considered rude.”

“Excuse me?” he questioned. It was the first time you’d really heard his voice, and it was a deep velvety sound you wanted to remember.

“It’s considered rude to stare,” you started, turning to face him, “Especially if you’re not going to buy the next drink.”

He swiped his tongue across his bottom lip, “Is that so?”

You simply nodded as the bartender brought you your drink. He had already fished out a twenty, holding it up between two of his fingers. He never took his eyes off you as the bartender took the cash and you sipped at the liquid in your glass.

“That’s a little better,” you teased.

You stood there leaning against the bar shamelessly looking each other over for another moment before he spoke up again, “I’m Derek Morgan.”

“I know,” you stated, flashing him a smile. He looked at you expectantly, but you weren’t about to give anything up.

He sighed a little, but gave you a small smile when he asked, “Well, if you won’t tell me your name, would you at least like to dance with me?”

You opened your mouth in fake surprise, “Ooh, so you’re a trade off kinda guy.”

He quickly backtracked, “No, that’s not-”

You laughed, cutting him off. “It’s okay, I like a little trade off. How about I dance with you, and if I’m any good, you put your number in my phone. If I’m not, I’ll tell you my name.”

He smirked, “Deal.”

Derek offered his hand and you gave him a small smirk as you took it, letting him lead you to the dance floor.

You both started rhythmically moving to the deafening beat, sharing glances and mimicking movements. The two of you owned the dance floor, people from all across the bar looking your way, but neither of you bothered to notice. You were way too caught up in each other, slowing moving closer and closer as you danced.

Being around him was electric, and each time your skin touched his it sent shock waves through your body, as if the man himself was made from lightning. You were becoming more and more convinced that he was handcrafted by the gods themselves.

You couldn’t remember how long you’d been on the dance floor, but when Derek dragged you off, it seemed like you could have wasted endless time in your own world out there. He was a great dancer, and you loved that he was more than willing to dance with you. Not enough men were interested in dancing like he seemed to be.

He pulled you off to the side in a low traffic, dark hallway. His whole figure seemed to glow despite the dim lighting, and the only real sound was your labored breathing above the muffled bass.

Derek’s eyes raked from your eyes down to your lips, so it was no surprise when his actions followed his gaze. His lips were on yours, and your back was in contact with the wall in a flash. He kissed you with more passion and vigour than the first time, completely dominating the kiss. You didn’t mind, wrapping your arms around his neck to get as close to him as you possibly could and then some. Your heart was racing as you tried to cling to the feeling, ignoring your lung’s cry for air.

Derek was the one who pulled away, but only to trail kisses down your neck, giving you enough time to catch your breath. “Hey, hey,” you whispered. He looked up at you with curious eyes, “Does this mean I won our little trade off?”

A hearty chuckle escaped his chest making your knees weak and he beamed at you as he answered, “I guess it does.”

You grabbed a wad of his shirt and pulled his lips to yours again, then released it to take his hand. You led him from the hallway and back to the bar where you’d left your phone, handing it to him. After he’d typed in his number, one of his friends from earlier, the same brunette, approached the two of you. Derek gave her a defeated look and she nodded her head. He sighed, an entire conversation you couldn’t follow happening in front of you. She shrugged and walked away.

When Derek’s attention was back on you, he said, “It looks like I have to go. But is there really nothing I can do to convince you to give me your name?”

You shook your head with a cheeky smile, “I guess you’ll just have to wait for a phone call.”

“You know,” he started with a joking tone, “I work for the FBI and could probably get your name if I wanted to.”

You laughed, “Is that where you’re off to?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” he answered with dry humor.

“Interesting.” He gave you a look but you shrugged. “Makes sense, though, I’d pegged you as more of a SWAT guy.” He laughed and you couldn’t help but join him.

“Morgan, let’s go!” a blonde this time yelled to him.

He rolled his eyes, completely ignoring her and said, “I hope I hear from you soon.”

“Hang in there, Agent Derek Morgan,” you teased.

He flashed you that award-winning smile before turning to leave. You watched him all the way out the door, and once he got there, turned back to look at you. He smiled to himself again and left, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

Something about the energy in the room changed when he was gone, like all the electricity had followed him out. You were sure, then, that he wasn’t just created by Zeus, but had to have been Zeus himself. And you couldn’t wait to be struck by the lightning of his presence again.

Taglist

@90spumkin

[babymetaldoll]

Danger Days - Chapter one: “Nobody puts Baby in a corner”

Pairing: OCx Matthew Gray Gubler + My Chemical Romance. I know. Weirdest mix ever.

Summary: MCR has only one more drummer audition before they have to start touring again. None of them knows their last chance is a girl. Matthew Gray Gubler's girlfriend.

Word count: 5,4K

Warnings: Cursing, and funny shit so far.

A/N: Ok... I don't know if you'll ever read this shit, but I am in love with this story. So, I'll start posting it.

Masterlist

Chapter one | Chapter two | Chapter three | Chapter four | Chapter five | Chapter six | Chapter seven | Chapter eight | Chapter nine | Chapter ten | Chapter eleven | Chapter twelve | Chapter thirteen | Chapter fourteen | Chapter fifteen | Chapter sixteen | Chapter seventeen | Chapter eighteen | Chapter nineteen | Chapter twenty | Chapter twenty one | Chapter twenty-two | Chapter twenty-three | Chapter twenty-four |

::: Los Angeles, October 13th, 2010 :::

There are many ways to be locked down: quarantine, jail, or long trips. But being locked down with pretty much strangers has to be the worst. Or weirdest. Or more exciting, depending on how you see it.

Frank Iero walked fast. He was late. In his defense, Iero was always late. He didn’t try to make it on time today because he didn’t want to tour. But they had to. He just wanted to stay fucking home for a while. That’s precisely what he had said to the band when they saw the schedule for the following months. He was tremendously worn out. But he had to. The thing that made it all worse for him was knowing they had to get a new drummer, ‘cos Bob was out of the picture, and they didn’t have a replacement yet. They had tried a few guys out there, but they didn’t seem to get it. It wasn’t just playing the songs. It meant being part of it. Whatever that means.

They only had one more option on their list, and they were all hoping it would work, ‘cos they didn’t really have a lot of time to find someone else.

Ray was sitting on the floor in the practice studio, playing with his guitar, all alone in the place. It was early, and he knew it. Well, he was on time, but he knew everybody was always late for rehearsal.

- “Hello?”- a brown-haired woman walked in with a tall, thin guy and smiled- “I’m Joey. I’m here for the drummer audition.”

It sounded more like a question than a statement. Ray stood up and shook her hand, smiling.

- “Ray Toro, nice to meet you.”- he looked at the guy and shook his hand

- "Matthew Gray Gubler, my pleasure."

- "I’m sorry the rest of the guys aren’t here yet,"- Ray apologized as Joey looked around and sighed. She hated it when people were late.

- "Maybe we can go get a coffee"- Matthew suggested, and the young woman nodded- "I saw a place just around the corner."

- "Do you want one?"- she asked Ray

- "Yeah, sure"- he said, confused by her unexpected gesture.

- "How do you drink it?"

- "Lots of cream, lots of sugar"- Joey smiled and nodded.

- "Ok, Mr. Wolf. We’ll be right back"- Ray chuckled when he noticed she had gotten the Tarantino joke and watched her and who seemed to be her boyfriend walking out the room.

- "Are you sure you wanna do this?"- Joey frowned and looked at Matthew after he just shot the question while they walked out of the coffee shop.

- "What?"

- "Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that you don’t know any of those guys"

- "Yeah, I know, but they are a professional and major band! This could be great for my career"- he nodded and stared at his girlfriend, cupping her face with a hand and looking right into her eyes.

- "I just don’t want you to feel discouraged if you don’t make it"- he whispered.

- "Why wouldn’t I make it? You said I’m an excellent drummer, I’ve worked with many great bands, I’m good at my job!"

- "I know you are the best drummer, Yami"- Matthew quickly answered, trying to rearrange his words- "I’m just trying to say do your best, I know you are gonna be great."

He held her hands as he stood in front of her and looked into her eyes sweetly.

- "I’m just scared those guys are gonna break your heart."

- "Come on! If they don’t like me, it’s their loss."

Joey would say those things, but she was a nervous wreck inside. She wanted the band to love her. She needed the job, her career as a drummer really needed a boost, and since her last band had broken up, she only got small recording sessions and a few backup gigs with some bands. But that was it. Working with My Chemical Romance was just what she needed.

- "So, where’s the drummer?"- Gerard asked and looked around- "I hate when people are late, it’s rude! It shows you don’t care."

- "You just got twenty minutes late"- Mikey quickly said and raised an eyebrow at his brother- "So shut up."

- "Wait, he has a point"- Frank added and looked at Gerard for a second, who was walking around the practice studio playing with his hair- "We can be late, we are the band, he can’t be late, he is auditioning."

Ray was about to correct his friend when Joey and Matthew walked into the room.

- "Hi!"- she said and smiled- "Here’s your coffee"- Joey walked to Ray, and he thanked her immediately.

- "How much is it?"

- "Dude, don’t worry, it’s just coffee,"- meanwhile, Gerard, Frank, and Mikey shook Gubler’s hand.

- "Nice to meet you, Joey"- Frank said and looked at the guy in front of him, thinking he seemed familiar- "Wait, did you play a gig with Mellon Collie last week?"- Matthew frowned and shook his head, while Mikey turned to Joey and asked.

- "Can you get me a coffee too? I take it black with almond milk."

- "Make that two!"- Gerard said, raising his hand, and Joey looked at Ray, not getting what was going on.

- "So, Joey, we checked at your resume, and to be honest, it’s pretty impressive,"- Frank said and grabbed the sheet of paper from upon an amplifier- "You’ve played with some great bands, like the Distillers."

- "Thanks"- Joey said and smiled, but Frank raised an eyebrow at her, not getting why she had answered.

- "She is Joey"- Ray explained- "He is Matthew, her boyfriend."

- "Hi"- Joey waved, and the whole band looked at her astonished- "Yeah, girl drummer, I know…"

- "I’m sorry, I just… Joey didn’t sound like a girly name"- Frank apologized and cut her a short smile.

- "Don’t worry, it is not the first it happens"

Joey lied. It was the first time it happened. It was uncomfortable ‘cos it made her feel the band wasn’t expecting to audition a woman for the position. Maybe they didn’t want her. She thought her resume implied she was a girl, but apparently, it didn’t.

- "So… well, you’ve worked with amazing bands"- Frank repeated- "Why do you wanna work with us?"

- "Well, I admire your work. I think touring with you represents a significant challenge in my career. And mostly because I don’t have a job, and I really need one right now."- the band looked at Joey in silence until Mikey chuckled. At least he got the joke.

- "Tell us more about you,"- Gerard asked as he lit a cigarette and kept walking around the practice studio- "You can sit down if you want."

Joey nodded but didn’t move, she wasn’t feeling comfortable in the room, and a part of her wanted to stay on her feet and close to the door, ready to run away.

- "I’m from Seattle, so grunge was my biggest influence growing up. Ever since I was six, I wanted to be Matt Cameron or Jimmy Chamberlin… or Kim Gordon"- the young woman made a pause and sighed. She wasn’t feeling the love.

- "I studied music at Berklee after my first band experience, mainly because my dad said if I wanted to be in music, I had to have proper education."

- "Tell us about the bands you’ve worked with"- Ray asked.

- "I’ve worked with Dashboard Confessional; we did a small tour last summer. On the road, I’ve been with Julieta Venegas, she is an amazing Mexican musician."

- "You toured with Vampire Weekend"- Matthew added and looked at his girlfriend.

- "Right! When their drummer broke his arm. That was a fun tour"- Joey added and smiled- "Well anyway, in the studio I’ve recorded with Fiona Apple, Brody Dalle, Amanda Palmer, some small jazz bands I met in college, Johnny Lang… I’ve tried to work as many different musical genres as possible."

The band nodded and stayed in silence. Neither of them knew what to say.

- "So… do you wanna hear me play?"

- "Yeah! Sure"- Ray smiled at her, and Joey walked to the other room, at the other side of the glass, and say behind the drum set.

- "What did you prepare?"- Ray asked as Joey put on the headphones and nodded.

- "I have three songs for you to pick: “It’s not a fashion statement,” “Famous last words,” and “House of wolves.”

She looked at the band talking to each other as Matthew stood on a side and smiled sweetly. She knew things weren’t peachy so far, but she tried her best to get the job. She really needed it 'cos she was running out of savings, and she had no other job prospect but a few commercial jingles.

- "Wolves"- Gerard answered, and Joey nodded. Joey took a look at the drum and sighed. She was left-handed, and the drum was someone right-handed. Jo didn’t want to make a fuzz and change it, 'cos she felt the band wasn’t already into her. But at the same time, she wanted to kick ass and show them how good she was.

- "Just give me a second."

Joey stood up and rearranged the drum. Gerard looked at Ray, annoyed but making his best not to show. Mikey was stuck at his phone, barely paying attention to anything around him, and Frank stared at Matthew, trying to remember where he had seen him before.

- "Ready?"- Ray asked as Joey sat down again and tried the drum.

- "Yeah, much better, sorry for wasting your time"- Gerard looked at her, feeling she knew he was annoyed, and tried to change his bitchy face. It was too late for that anyway.

Joey started playing and just focused on the music, making her best. She had rehearsed the songs for weeks and even added a solo. She heard all the live versions she could and was sure she was doing a good job.

- "I don’t know, guys"- Gerard texted the band so Matthew would hear them.

- "I like her"- Ray answered

- "That’s your cock talking"- Frank answered and chuckled- "She ain’t bad, but I don’t know if she works for the band."

- "She sounds cool"- Mikey said out loud- "Maybe we could jam a little with her."

Frank and Gerard turned to him with widened eyes, surprised and embarrassed he had answered his comments aloud, so Matthew could hear.

- "Yeah, I saw the text, but talking is faster"- Gerard had to turn around to hide his face, red of anger against his brother, and make his best not to look at Matthew, who nodded and got the hint.

- "I’ll wait outside."

Frank stared at Mikey, who stood up and looked at Joey playing eyes wide shut, making her best to give a good impression. At least it worked with Mikey and Ray.

- "Thanks for making us look like an asshole"- Frank argued and huffed- "What was wrong with answering the fucking text?"

- "Dude, grow up…"- that’s all Mikey answered and stayed in silence until Joey finished the song.

She raised her eyes from the drumset and stared at the band, pretty scared of their reaction. Mikey and Ray smiled at her, while Gerard and Frank were serious and totally… annoyed? Bored? she couldn’t really figure it out.

- "Do you want me to play anything else?"- the young woman asked, afraid she was gonna get a cold no as an answer. Gerard was about to do it until he saw his brother walking over and grab his bass.

- "Wanna jam a little?"- Joey quickly smiled at Mikey, thinking maybe he liked her job, which was always a nice feeling, especially when trying to get a job.

- "Yeah! Sure!"

They played Destroya and improvised for a while. Ray joined them, and the three of them actually had fun for a good twenty minutes jamming.

- "That was pretty good"- Gerard said as he walked over and put on his dark glasses- "Unfortunately, we have to go."

- "Where?"- Mikey asked, surprised- "We had a clear schedule today."

- "Yeah, well, we totally forgot about an interview, and we are running late, so…"- he made a pause and looked at Joey.

- "Sure, I have to get going too, I have to reach the studio in an hour so…"- she stood up and shook Mikey and Ray’s hand- "Thank you so much for your time, I had a lot of fun with you."

- "Thank you for coming!"- Ray quickly answered- "I’ll walk you to the door."

- "Don’t worry, it’s just there anyway"- Joey smiled and turned to the other two guys- "Sorry for taking so much of your time. I hope you have a good day"- she shook their hands too, and they nodded with a sympathetic smile.

- "You too"- Gerard whispered.

- "And the answer is Criminal Minds"- Joey said and smiled at Frank, who looked dumbstruck- "See ya!"

And the young woman walked out.

- "Fuck! that’s it!"- Frank grumbled, and no one got why- "That’s where I’ve seen that guy."

- "What?"- Gerard asked him

- "Her boyfriend is on that tv show"- but it seemed it didn’t matter to Gerard one tiny bit.

- "Oh… who cares anyway…"- Mikey turned to his brother and punched his arm.

- "Did you have to be so annoying?"

- "I wasn’t annoying!"- Gerard nearly yelled, feeling insulted.

- "Dude! you were rude at her! and she did nothing to you!"- his brother was about to his him a lecture, but it seemed it was going to be useless, Gerard wasn’t even listening.

- "Oh! Come on! I wasn’t!"

- "Yeah, you were,"- Ray added and teamed up with Mikey- "You were a bitch, and she noticed."

- "So what?"

- "What if she felt bad about it? or what if she is pissed with us?"

- "If she is pissed, she is pissed! do you care?"

- "Why are you so mean? she was great!"- Mikey was surprised by his brother's attitude.

- "Yeah, she was good, but are you actually considering having a female drummer?"- Ray and Mikey looked at him in shock.

- "What the fuck is your problem with her being a girl?"

- "I don’t have a problem if she is a girl, a boy, or a cat. I’m just saying she is not the right choice for this band."

Ray and Mikey kept looking at him, confused. He had never been such an ass before

- "Come on, Frank, back me up here!"

- "I agree"- Iero simply said- "She was a good drummer, but… what are we gonna do with a chick on tour?"- Ray couldn’t believe his own ears.

- "Seriously? she was awesome! Perfect timing, great improvisation, and she had the ear to follow every single fucking curveball we threw her."

Gerard knew Ray was right, he heard it too, but he just didn’t want to work with Joey. Why? he didn’t know. He just looked at her and thought she couldn’t be on a bus with them, or on stage with them, or anywhere with them. As simple as that.

- "My vote is no"- he sentenced.

- "She is the best we’ve had"- Mikey argued right away- "And I’m saying yes."

- "Nope, I’m with Gerard"- Frankie claimed- "I just don’t want her in the band."

- "You fucking assholes, I’m saying yes, and it’s a tie!"- Ray felt he was five years old, calling that conversation “a tie” and arguing under those stupid terms with his friends.

- "Great! so that means no!"- of course, Gerard’s childish answer made him feel a little better about himself.

- "Seriously? What the fuck is your problem with her?"

Mikey asked his brother and stood right in front of him, just to push him to answer with the truth.

- "You said you wanted to make a fantastic show. You said you wanted to do something no one could ever expect from us, so we made this album that we love after years in the studio. It’s completely different than anything we’ve made! Do you know what would also be something no one could ever expect? having this amazing female drummer!"

- "But why her?"

- "‘Cos she is the best we’ve seen!"- Ray stepped into the conversation, trying to make some sense from Gerard and Frank.

- "Dude… I don’t know"- Iero whispered- "She was good, but… wouldn’t it be weird to have a girl on the bus with us?"

- "That’s what keeps you from saying yes?!"- Ray was honestly shocked- "Because you won’t be able to fart and walk about in your underwear?"

- "I wasn’t planning to stop any of that…"

- "Then?"

- "I don’t wanna have problems with my wife!"- Frank finally assumed and sighed- "I’ve had enough of that shit already"- the band stared at him in silence. Mikey was the only one who spoke his mind.

- "Wuss."

Matthew walked in silence, holding Joey’s hand until they reached his car. She sighed and sat at the passenger seat, thinking she didn’t want to call her parents and ask for another loan. The last time she had sworn to herself, it was never gonna happen again.

- "If they don’t hire you, it’s their loss"- Gubler finally whispered and looked at his girlfriend with a sweet glance- "You are awesome, and everybody knows it"- Joey sighed and cut him a short smile.

- "Thanks, Akumu."

- "And besides, they were assholes."

- "I know!!"- Joey waved her arms, absolutely upset- "That’s so disappointing 'cos everybody said they were so nice!"

- "Are you gonna call Tucker?"

- "I don’t know"- the young woman whispered and sighed- "He was so excited, and I don’t wanna disappoint him"

- "You did your best, Yami… maybe they didn’t want to work with a female drummer"- Joey thought about it for a moment and nodded.

- "Could be. I did my best anyway. Maybe they were all having a crappy day. Anyway, can you drive me to the studio, please? pretty, pretty, please?"- Matthew laughed and stared at his girlfriend with a warm look in his eyes.

- "Only if you kiss me first"

- "That’s blackmailing"

- "Maybe, but I’m driving, I make the rules"

- "Damn… fine! but just ‘cos I’m late"

Joey giggled and leaned in to kiss Matthew, who caressed her cheek slowly.

- "It’s gonna be ok, I promise"- he whispered, trying to comfort his girlfriend, and she nodded. She knew he was nice to her, but she still felt her life was totally out of focus.

- "Hello?"- Joey picked up her phone as she walked out of the studio after recording for the day. She was working in a small studio recording jingles. It wasn’t much, but at least she wasn’t selling drugs to survive.

- "How was it?"

- "Tucker, hey…"

- "So? When do you start? did they love you? of course, they did!"

- "Yeah… well…"

Joey didn’t want to tell his friend and break his heart. Tucker was so excited Joey was auditioning for My Chem ‘cos he knew the band for years. And though he had offered Joey to introduce her first, she refused, decided to audition under her own terms. Which sucked.

- "What?"

- "I don’t think they liked me"

- "What are you talking about? you are fantastic!"

- "You know it, I know it, but I don’t think they got it…"

- "What did they say?"

- "Nothing really, just… ok, just don’t tell them I said this, ok?"

- "Cross my heart and all that shit, what happened?"- Joey rested her back against the wall and sighed.

- "Gerard had a bitch face the whole time like he hated the guts out of me, and I don’t know why! then Frank wouldn’t even look at me, nothing, he wasn’t there, so I’m guessing neither of them wanted a female drummer, 'cos they all thought I was a guy."

- "Why?"

- "Apparently, Joey is a guy’s name"

- "So you didn’t put your real name in the application? brilliant!"

- "What for? So they can’t spell it? Anyway, can you imagine Mikey thought I was an assistant or whatever and asked me to go get him a coffee when we got there? They thought Matthew was auditioning and ignored me the whole time!"

- "Shit can’t be right! they are not like that"

- "Well, in the end, Ray and Mikey were the nicest. We jammed and had fun for a while, playing a few of their songs. But neither Gerard nor Frank even looked at us. It felt they hated me."

- "Maybe they were having a bad day, but they are very nice people."

- "Maybe… anyway… thank you for your support."

- "What are best friends for?"

- "Getting beer?"

- "Right, when are we getting beer?"- Joey smiled and sighed.

- "Next time I’m in New York or when you come to this shitty city."

- "If you hate Los Angeles so much, why don’t you move?"

- "‘Cos I’ve got my life here, I guess."

- "You know it’s just ‘cos you are dating that nerd

- "I happen to love that nerd!"- Joey laughed and shook her head, thinking Tucker didn’t even know Gubler and he already knew he was a nerd- "Anyway, gotta go, I have a class in an hour."

- "Are you taking a class?"

- "No, dude, I’m teaching in a community center in Santa Monica."

- "Aren’t you lovely! I’m proud of you!"

- "Shut up!"

- "As long as you don’t teach them to drink as we did when we toured together."

- "Hey! I’m no longer 20!"- Joey argued, laughing- "I’m a role model for those kids now!"

- "Yeah, sure! Talk to you later!"

Tucker hung down the phone and walked around his house for a minute. He loved that kid. He met her when she was still in college and toured with Thursday for a few dates with her old band. She was like a little sister to him. And it hurt to think she was wasting her talent in shitty sessions with shitty bands when she could be doing something better with her skills. Something meaningful. And it honestly made him angry to think his friends had been mean to her.

- "Hey, dude!"- Gerard picked up the phone, excited to see Tucker’s name on the screen.

- "Hey! why were you an asshole today?"- Gerard frowned and took out his sunglasses. He was in his backyard smoking, and he was not getting what his friend was talking about

- "Sorry, what?"

- "You were an asshole today with my friend"

- "Dude, I’m gonna need more information"

- "I asked Joey to audition for your band because I thought you would value her talent, and you ignored her?"

- "I didn’t ignore her… wait!"- Gerard wasn’t getting what was going on- "You know her?"

- "Of course! for the last… shit, I don’t know, like five or six years, we toured together, I taught her a lot, she is like my little sister!"

- "Yeah, she is an excellent drummer, but… I don’t feel she is suitable for the band."

- "Why?"

- "‘Cos… she has tits"- Gerard whispered, and Tucker made one long eternal pause.

- "Wow… ok, I see why she said you were an asshole."

- "She did?!"- Gerard felt so insulted he clenched his fist.

- "And she wasn’t wrong. I’m so sorry I asked her to go to your audition. It was a waste of her time."

Tucker hung down the phone and dialed Frank. He knew he had been pretty hard on Gerard, so he made his way to stay calm and not yell, at least not right away.

- "Ho, man!"

- "Hey Frank, listen, my friend, Joey was today auditioning for your drummer position. How was that?"

- "Joey? The girl? Do you know her?"

- "Yeah, I set the audition for her, actually. She is one of my closest friends, so how was it?"

Frank looked around at Ray smoking next to him in a small bar, then took a sip of his beer and decided the best thing to do was clear: lying.

- "She was awesome. Too bad the position is already taken 'cos she was real good"

- "I see, and that’s why you acted like an asshole?"

- "I didn’t!"- Frank knew he was busted

- "Dude, she told me everything. You didn’t even look at her!"

Ray’s phone hummed, and he read the text Gerard had sent them: “The chick is friends with Tucker. She sold us.” Toro chuckled and looked at Frank red in anger, trying to explain to his friend why he had been mean.

- “Too little too late”- Ray typed and sent the text. Mikey read them and chuckled while he ate a bowl of cereal and milk back in his house.

- "They deserve it for being assholes"- he said out loud and sighed.

He looked around at his home and realized he was talking all alone. His wife wasn’t around. His wife was never around anymore. But that was something Mikey didn’t want to think about, not then, not never.

- "Can you believe that bitch?"- Frank turned to Ray as soon as he hung down with Tucker- "She called our friend to snitch on us."

- "Well, you kinda deserved it"- Ray simply answered and sipped his beer- "You and Gerard should apologize to her."

- "No way, can we just let it pass?"- Iero was honestly upset as he lit another cigarette and remained in silence for a moment- "She was excellent, I give you that, but I don’t fucking want a girl in the band right now"

- "To avoid arguing with Jamia?"

- "Yeah! Shit has been hard lately, and I don’t want her to be threatened by anyone anymore"- Ray looked at his friend, nodding.

- "We should all talk about this seriously, we only got a week before the first show, and we have to rehearsal with the new drummer."

- "I know"- their cell phone hummed again, and they all read the exact text.

- "Meeting in my house now"- Gerard sighed as soon as he read his brother’s text. He surely knew what it was all about, and he had no intention to continue that argument, though he had absolutely no choice.

- "I hope Mikey at least asks for pizza"- he stood up and walked inside the house- "Honey, I’m going to Mikey’s"- he announced as he walked into his wife art studio and found her working on a collage on her desk

- "Say hello to your brother from me, hey! can you pick something for dinner?"

- "Sure, I’ll see you later"- he kissed her lips and cut her a short smile

- "Wait, turn around"- she asked, and he slowly moved over- "What happened?"

- "Nothing"- Lynz raised an eyebrow and waited for the honest answer- "We just had a bad audition for a drummer this morning. It turns out she was friends with Tucker Rule, and he called me an asshole for being mean to her."

- "Were you mean to her?"- Gerard made a long pause and stared at his wife’s expression change- "Why did you do that?"

- "I don’t know! I just didn’t like her!"

- "Was she right?"

- "Yeah"

- "Was she nice?"

- "Yes"

- "Was she hot?"

- "No! definitely not!"

- "Then what was the problem?"

- "She is the best we’ve had so far, but I don’t wanna turn everything we’ve been working on into “they are working with a girl” and get the attention away from the music."- Lynz nodded as she listened to her husband’s words.

- "You are making it seem like no one had ever had a female drummer or musician on stage before."

- "No, it’s not that, it’s just that…"- Gerard thought his answer carefully- "We haven’t, and we are so deep into the spot I’m afraid it will impact our show the wrong way"- Lynz made a pause and stared at her husband’s face

- "What did the band say?"

- "Frank is with me, and Ray and Mikey disagree."

- "Why is Frank with you?"

- "‘Cos he thinks having a girl on the bus is weird."

- "I was the girl in a band, and it wasn’t weird at all!"

Gerard knew that would be the subject in the conversation eventually as soon as he started talking about this with his wife.

- "I think you are acting kinda selfish and a little sexist."

- "No, we are just trying to do what’s best for the band."

- "Do whatever you want. I’m just giving you my opinion."

Gee felt Lynz was judging him. And he knew he would never win that fight.

- "I’m gonna talk about it with the band"

- "Ok, see you for dinner"- Gerard kissed his wife again and walked away feeling like a douche.

Had he been an asshole with that girl?

And besides, Gerard had lied to his wife when she asked if the girl was hot, ‘cos he actually thought so. He would never admit it in front of her anyway. And neither in front of anyone else. Never.

Matthew waited for Joey outside the community center, where she taught drums for kids in need as a way to keep them from being in the street and teaching him a new skill. He thought that was amazing and felt pretty proud of his girlfriend for giving the community her time and knowledge. He waved at her as she walked outside and cut her a big smile.

- "Hey! I didn’t know you were picking me up today!"

- "I wanted to surprise you and cheer you up!"- Joey leaned over and kissed Matthew sweetly.

- "Thank you so, so much!"

- "I’m the best boyfriend. I know."

- "What’s the plan?"

- "Wanna ask for Chinese and watch a movie at my place?"- it was a bit disappointing plan ‘cos that was pretty much every day in their routine, but Joey smiled and nodded.

- "As long as I pick the horror movie tonight, sounds perfect."

After a few minutes of driving, Matthew turned to his girlfriend and whispered.

- "I forgot tomorrow we’ll have table reading. We are gonna start shooting this week. I’m sorry I won’t be able to hang out so often."

- "Don’t worry, you have to work, and I need to get a new extra job ‘cos it’s obvious and I didn’t get the MCR shit…"- her cell phone interrupted her as she spoke. An unlisted number was calling- "Hello?"

- "Joey… Svein… björn...dottir?"

- "Yes?"- her last name was mispronounced entirely, but she was pretty used to that.

- "Hi, I’m Ray Toro, from My Chemical Romance."

- "Hey, Ray! How are you?"- Gubler wide opened his eyes as he turned to his girl for a second. She was honestly surprised the band was calling her.

- "Good! listen… I hope I’m not interrupting."

- "Not, it’s cool"- Gerard turned around and walked the other way just ‘cos he didn’t want to see Ray do what he was about to do.

- "Great, the band and I were talking, and we want you to come to the studio tomorrow to do a second tryout… do they even call it “tryouts”? more like an audition, I think."- Ray started rambling as Joey wide opened her eyes in shock.

- "Sorry, what? do you want me there again?"

- "Yeah, so we can jam a little, try a few new things. We are having trouble deciding on one drummer, so we need a bit more info. Besides, we couldn’t finish today so… can you come tomorrow at ten?"

- "Noon"- Frank said, thinking he didn’t feel like waking up early to meet that chick.

- "Sorry, at noon"- Ray corrected, embarrassed.

- "Noon…"- Joey had absolutely nothing to do at noon, but she wanted to make believe she had a life- "I think I can move a few things… to meet you."

- "Awesome! See you tomorrow"- Joey turned to Matthew as soon as she hung down and nearly screamed.

- "They want to see me again!!! I can’t believe it"- the young woman jumped on the seat completely excited- "I thought they hated…"- but suddenly, it hit her.

- "Congrats, Yami!!"- Matthew yelled and grabbed her knee, which was all he could do, considering he was driving.

- "No, it wasn’t me. It was Tucker."

- "Did you call him?"

- "He called. I didn’t want to tell him about the shitshow I was through this morning"- Joey grabbed her phone again and looked for the last number that called.

- "What are you doing?"

- "I’m canceling. I’m not gonna go if they are only doing this ‘cos my friend forced them."

- "What?! no! just go and kick their asses!"- Matthew quickly grabbed the phone from Joey’s and hid it in his pocket, far from her reach- "You are going tomorrow, and you are proving them wrong."

- "I don’t want to! Akumu! Come on! it’s gonna be embarrassing and awkward to see them knowing Tucker called them to get me a second chance!"

- "No! It’s gonna be awesome ‘cos you are gonna kick ass!!"

Joey whined for another while, honestly trying to get out of that awkward situation. But by the time they reached Matthew’s, he had convinced her she had to do it.

[foreverlostinliterature]

6/2 Book Deals

Good morning, everyone! Apologies that it’s been a hot minute since I’ve really come on here to make a deals post, things have been crazy and I’ve been up and down mentally so it’s been challenging to get the motivation to do things, but I’m feeling okay today so I figured I should share some of the many awesome books on sale today!

 How are you all doing? It’s been a while and a lot has been going on, both in personal lives and in the world around us, and I hope you are all able to take some time to sort of mental relax and find a safe space to reflect and comfort yourselves. :)

There were a lot of books on sale, so I did my best to throw in as many as I could, but obviously it’s not even close to all of them, haha. There’s a nice array of genres and mix of adult and YA, and a couple full trilogies/series! And if you’re a YA fan then definitely take a look because there seemed to be a lot of that today! One of my favorite books is The Crimson Petal and the White, so that’s one I always recommend. I also have read and enjoyed The Hungry Tide, the entire Tade Thompson trilogy (starting with Rosewater!), and I loved The Wicker King!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great day--happy reading! And happy Pride! :)

Today’s Deals:

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Stories by Harlan Ellison - https://amzn.to/34DvpAb

Scottish Queens, 1034-1714: The Queens and Consorts Who Shaped a Nation by Rosalind K. Marshall - https://amzn.to/3uLRPK5

The Best American Essays 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - https://amzn.to/3fKsX10

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon -  https://amzn.to/3vJC0VH

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber - https://amzn.to/3pfNIFa

The Best American Noir of the Century edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler - https://amzn.to/3pidrMX

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen - https://amzn.to/3fGafrg

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine - https://amzn.to/3fJ9qhp

The Good Earth Trilogy by Pearl S. Buck - https://amzn.to/3fIQeR3

Jubilee by Margaret Walker - https://amzn.to/34IG7Fo

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - https://amzn.to/2STAr8P

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[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 40, 2046-2047

The final season of our sim dynasty with Western Illinois in College Hoops 2K8 is here.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April 2020 for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 40, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Western Illinois entered Year 39 trying to three-peat as national champions for the first time in program history. We lost two starters early to the NBA coming into the season, but still had enough talent to be ranked No. 10 overall in the preseason polls.

We ran through the regular season schedule, losing only one game to UCLA during the non-conference season and sweeping Summit League opponents once again. We entered the NCAA tournament at 29-1 on the year and earned a No. 4 seed to the big dance.

We beat Brown in round one, knocked off Georgia Tech in the round of 32, beat Indiana in the Sweet 16, and lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. We know enter the final season of my career tied with John Wooden with 10 national championships.

We added three players in our last ever recruiting class: five-star JUCO SF Jerald Obasohan, four-star SG Erwin Walls, and four-star PF Kenny Butler.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 40:

It feels like only yesterday that a fresh-faced, 25-year-old came to the small town of Macomb, Illinois with big dreams. Coach Rick was hired by Western Illinois to do the impossible: win a national championship with arguably the worst team in college basketball. After 39 seasons at the helm, our tiny program has accomplished that and so much more. Now it’s time to hang it up.

Our journey at Western Illinois is finally coming to an end. In literal terms, College Hoops 2K8 forces mandatory retirement upon coaches in dynasty mode after 40 seasons. All good stories need closure either way. As we start our final season, we have some big stakes attached to our swan song.

Western Illinois has won 10 national championships in the Ricky Charisma era. That ties us with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most in history. What started as a mission to win a single national championship has now left us with a different goal: to become the undisputed greatest program in the history of the sport.

While we failed in our bid to three-peat last season — falling to Florida in the Elite Eight — we did bring back all four breakout juniors for this season. We only lost starting center DJ Foster to graduation. Yeah, it’s been a while since we last published Year 39 (thanks for your patience), so let’s go over the roster:

PG Christano Ngounou, junior, 89 overall: Ngounou made major strides after being forced into the starting lineup last season, and now looks like a rock solid contributor going into our final year. An international recruit out of Cameroon, Ngounou is a fast 6’3 guard with lockdown defensive ability and a slightly above average three-point shot. We have bigger names on this squad who will be expected to carry the scoring load, but Ngounou is going to play a huge role because he’s way better than every other point guard on the roster. We need quality minutes from him in the tournament. Former five-star international recruit with B potential.

SG Bernie Doyle, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Doyle is an incredible talent who enters his senior year looking to fully blossom into a superstar. The 6’9 shooting guard uses his immense size on both ends of the floor. He’s elite at getting into the passing lanes and forcing steals (a team-high 1.8 per game as a junior) on the defensive end, and has a sweet three-point stroke offensively. Doyle is such a smooth scorer and dominant defender that it feels like he has the natural talent to develop into an all-great in his senior year. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge. Former No. 36 overall recruit from Detroit with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Floyd Keller, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Keller checks every box for a small forward. He has good size at 6’7. He has a three-point rating in the mid-80s. He’s the best dunker on the team. He’s an elite offensive rebounder for a wing with a rating in the low 90s, which helps equip him to play minutes at the four. After a tough shooting night in our Elite Eight loss last season — he went 1-for-7 from three — we’ll need Keller to be consistently great if we want one more run through the bracket. Former No. 101 overall recruit out of Dallas with C+ potential. Projected second round pick.

PF Oscar Fray, redshirt senior, 88 overall: Fray enters his third year as a starter with a fascinating combination of size and skill that could set him up for a breakout senior year. The 7-foot power forward is a great three-point shooter for his position with a rating just below 80. Defensively, he’s the top-rated shot blocker on the team, and also does a pretty good job on the glass. Former No. 118 overall recruit out of Lynn, MA with C potential. Projected second round pick.

C Brody Munoz, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Munoz finally gets the spotlight as a senior after backing up DJ Foster — a one-time NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player — for his entire career up to this point. We’re expected big things, and not just because he’s tied for the highest rated player on the roster going into the regular season. What Munoz lacks in elite size at 6’11 he can make up for with strength, agility, and rebounding. We expect him to be really good at forcing turnovers, grabbing putbacks, and helping fortify the paint. Former No. 169 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Nashville with B potential. Projected lottery pick.

We have an incredibly deep bench for our final season. Center Logan Polk (85 overall) will be our sixth man, and should be able to form a three-man front court rotation with the two starters in the tournament. After that, we have a lot of options but not a lot of good options.

Here’s the rest of the bench: wing Jaycee Queen (80 overall), wing Jerald Obasohan (79 overall), guard Archie Howell (78 overall), wing/guard James Haranga (74 overall), guard Edwin Walls (74 overall), and power forward Kenny Butler (74 overall).

This is really it. Year 40. The last dance. What a ride it has been. We start the season at No. 4 in the polls.

How did the regular season go?

For our final regular season, we tried to schedule a good mix of local schools and historic big conference rivals with a couple in-season tournaments thrown in for good measure.

Here’s how the regular season went:

Win over Bradley

Win over Nebraska

Win over UTEP

Loss to Southern Illinois

Win over Florida

Loss to Northwestern

Win over New Mexico

Win over DePaul

That sets up a rivalry game against Illinois. We’ve played the Illini in almost every season, and we don’t want to end this dynasty without one more dub. The losses to Southern Illinois and Northwestern were a real bummer, and we need a palate cleanser. Let’s go!

Big win, 102-68. Look at Cristano Ngounou hanging 17 points and six assists on the Illini. Love seeing both starters in the front court — seniors Oscar Fray (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brody Munoz (18 points, 11 rebounds) — each dropping a double-double, too. And how about our new five-star JUCO addition Obasohan chipping in 12 points off the bench? Really promising performance from the boys.

We get a big win over Kansas in our next game. That sets up another marquee game with a program we don’t like very much out of the state of North Carolina: Duke. We’ve battling with Duke on the court and on the recruiting trail for 40 freaking years. Can we end this rivalry with a dub?

Ugh, loss, 88-83. Nice games from Bernie Doyle (19 points, four assists) and Oscar Fray (14 points, 12 rebounds), but it isn’t enough. That’s our third loss of the season. Get bent, Duke.

We end the year with three more non-conference games.

Win over Illinois-Chicago

Win over American

Win over Arizona State

While we may have lost the final battle to Duke, I won the war over Coach K with a significantly better career by any measure (more on that in a minute). Now it’s time to jump into conference play in the Summit League.

Did we go undefeated in conference season?

Yes we did, another perfect 18-0 stretch.

Now we enter the conference tournament. Can we punch one more automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?

Win over UMKC

Win over Southern Utah

Win over UL-Calcutta

We’re going to the NCAA tournament for the last time, but that isn’t even the headliner after winning the Summit League. Im taking home the conference tournament championship, I won game No. 1,171 of my career. That currently puts me ahead of Coach K for the most wins all-time.

We have built a great legacy at Western Illinois. Before we enter the NCAA tournament, let’s take a look at our statistical leaders:

What a year for Munoz. Dude sat on the bench for four seasons before finally getting a starting spot, and all he did was lead our team in scoring at 17.2 points per game. Fray was awesome, too, averaging a hair under 15 points per game while chipping in nearly two blocks and six rebounds per game. It’s good to see Keller and Doyle both hit double-figures in scoring. I’m a bit surprised Cristano couldn’t even put up seven points a night after his big game against Illinois, but the assist and steals numbers are solid. We’re going to need him in March.

The Leathernecks are heading into the NCAA tournament at 32-3 on the year. I can’t wait to see what seed we get.

2047 NCAA tournament

Well, we couldn’t end this dynasty without getting swindled by the Selection Committee one more time. We’re a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. I thought we should have been a top-four seed without question.

We’ll open the tournament with a game against No. 11 seed Syracuse. Sheesh. Before we get to the game, let’s check in on our roster one more time:

I’m loving the way this group progressed through the year. We have two awesome wing scorers with an elite combination of size and shooting in Keller and Doyle. We have plenty of beef up front with Munoz, Fray, and Polk. Ngounou entered the program as a 77 overall and shot up to a 92 in three years without a redshirt. The bench also really improved during the season and should give us plenty of different lineup options in March.

This is going to be a tough run, starting with Syracuse. The Orange have knocked us out of the big dance before, and consistently put together really strong teams.

Our last dance starts now. As always, we’re simulating every game, I’m not controlling the ‘Necks.

Let’s go!

Win, 105-73! What an absolute beatdown. We’ve moving on to the round of 32.

Long-time followers of the series will know that our Leathernecks have always been known as a second half team. It happened in a big way in this game. Syracuse ended the first half strong to cut our lead to nine points, but we quickly turned it into a blowout out of the break.

I thought this was a tremendous all-around team effort. Six players hit double-figures in scoring with no one putting up more than Floyd Keller’s 15 points. Everyone who played recorded an assist. I loved this play from the first half when we set two screens for our five-star JUCO Obasohan that helped get him an easy layup.

Our bench is a big question mark coming into this tournament, mostly because it’s filled with a lot of fresh faces who haven’t played big minutes in clutch spots before. I have to say, the performance of our reserves in our tournament opener was super encouraging. Obasohan in particular looks like a keeper after scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and knocking down a three. We always need wing depth, and he should be able to provide that on this run.

The clear highlight of Obasohan’s night: this sick two-handed dunk in transition for an and-one.

We love to turn defense into offense, and Ngounou and Doyle’s ability to get into the passing lanes really helps us out there.

Speaking of Ngounou in transition: he had a beautiful finish on the break to put the game fully out of reach. That’s what you want out of your point guard.

The win sets up a second round game against Colorado State

The Rams have been a solid program throughout this sim dynasty, regularly making NCAA tournament appearances. We have a decisive edge in talent heading into this game.

We are one win away from going to the Sweet 16 and extended our run in the big dance. One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

Win, 109-79! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

We didn’t need to be a second half team in this one. Our ‘Necks blew the doors off Colorado State from the opening tip-off. I thought we played a great game offensively thanks to our inside-out ball movement.

We had five scorers in double-figures in this one, but it was senior starters Bernie Doyle and Oscar Fray leading the charge. We know Doyle is capable of taking over a game at his best, and he was awesome in this one: 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three. The real story was Fray, though.

Fray was probably the least appealing long-term prospect of our recruiting class when he entered the program alongside Doyle, Keller, and Munoz. That was mostly because of his 74 rating and C potential grade. While he’s always been rated a few points lower than his classmates, Fray’s skill set on the court is so important to us. He’s a massive 7-foot power forward who can protect the rim and shoot threes. What more do you want?

Fray went off in this game: 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals on 9-of-11 shooting. I love watching the big man shoot from deep. This was from NBA range.

Here’s one more catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

Fray might get slept on a little on this team, but he’s absolutely critical to our success if we want to win it all.

I also want to shout-out the bench for another solid performance. I liked what I saw out of Obasohan (11 points) and Howell (10 points). Since we already have two Obasohan clips in this post, why not make it three? Love him hitting this triple in the first half to help us open up the lead.

We’re rollin’.

The win sets up a Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama

We’re now four wins away from ending this dynasty with a national championship. A Sweet 16 game against Bama is going to be an absolute battle.

In our simulated future, the Tide have become a basketball school. This program seems to make the tournament every year, and they’ve given us plenty of trouble in the past.

A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 112-69! We’re onto the Elite Eight!

Say it with me: SECOND. HALF. TEAM. After a tight first half left us with a six-point lead coming into the break, our ‘Necks absolutely torched the nets in the second half to come away with the blowout win. Seriously: we scored 66 points in the final 20 minutes. That was an offensive clinic at its best.

I had a good feeling about the second half when Cristano got this three hit the rim like 50 times before falling. Sometimes you need some good luck on your side.

A couple possessions later, Floyd Keller came down a ripped another three. We finally had a double-digit lead, and we’d never look back.

It was great to see Keller (15 points) get going from deep. He hit all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.

While we don’t have any clips of the front court from this game, they absolutely deserve credit for the win.

Fray turned in another incredible performance, this one somehow even better than his last. He ended the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks on 10-of015 shooting. He didn’t attempt a three (booooo) but he dominated the game on both ends. His front court mate Munoz was almost as good. The senior center finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. We kept going inside — Munoz and Fray combined for 35 (!) field goal attempts — and they were making the Bama defense pay.

Not the best Bernie Buckets game (9 points on 3-of-10 shooting), but I clipped this shot from the first half, so I might as well embed it here.

Elite Eight, here we come.

The win sets up an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Indiana

Our run in the NCAA tournament has been a breeze up to this point, but I fear things about to get a lot more difficult. Our plucky No. 6 seed is about to run into one of college basketball’s blue bloods: the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The Elite Eight has been something of a bugaboo for us. We lost in this round last year. We’ve lost in this round many times before. I don’t want it to happen again.

A Final Four trip is on the line. As always, we’re watching a simulated version of this game; I am not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

Loss, 96-86. Oh my gosh. And just like that, our dream of ending this dynasty with a national title is over.

I am devastated. I really thought this team was good enough to send me out on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Hoosiers’ outside shooters did us in. Indiana’s guard-heavy lineup caught fire from deep (10-of-21 for 47.6 percent), and our perimeter attack couldn’t keep up. We only hit 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) attempts from three.

What happened to our second half team this time? We were only down two going into halftime, but we were outscored by eight over the final 20 minutes. Tough scene.

There were some solid individual performances. Munoz went out strong with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Bernie Doyle dropped 21 points and hit this three-pointer to keep us in it early.

Floyd Keller just didn’t give us enough on the wing. He shot 1-of-8 from three in the loss. He did give us a little juice in transition, at least.

Cristano played all 40 minutes, and had eight points and nine assists. I really wish I got another year with him as a senior next season.

Unfortunately there is no next season. After 40 years at Western Illinois, our sim dynasty is over. Here are some final numbers on the series:

Final record: 1,177-213

10 national championships (tied with John Wooden for the most in men’s college basketball history)

15 Final Four appearances

25 Sweet 16 appearances

Final NCAA tournament record: 113-27

38 Summit League regular season championships

35 Summit League tournament championships

38 seasons with 20+ wins

61 players drafted

The thing I’m most proud of? After we made the NCAA tournament for the first time in Year 3, we didn’t miss it again the rest of this dynasty.

Is Ricky Charisma the greatest men’s college basketball coach ever?

I think so. Here’s how we stack up to other top coaches in NCAA history in important categories.

Total wins

Ricky Charisma: 1,179

Mike Krzyzewski: 1,170

Jim Boeheim: 1,083

Roy Williams: 903

Bob Knight: 899

Dean Smith: 879

Jim Calhoun: 877

Adolph Rupp: 876

Bob Huggins: 828

Eddie Sutton: 806

Tournament wins

Ricky Charisma: 110

Mike Krzyzewski: 94

Roy Williams: 77

Dean Smith: 65

Jim Boeheim: 57

Tom Izzo: 52

Jim Calhoun: 49

John Wooden: 47

Final Four appearances

Ricky Charisma: 15

Mike Krzyzewski: 12

John Wooden: 12

Dean Smith: 11

Roy Williams: 9

Tom Izzo: 8

Rick Pitino: 7

Denny Crum, Adolph Rupp, John Calipari: 6

Consecutive tournament appearances

Western Illinois: 36

Kansas: 31

North Carolina: 27

Arizona: 25

Duke: 24

Michigan State: 23

Gonzaga: 22

Winning percentage

Ricky Charisma: 84.7

Mark Few: 83.44

Sam Burton: 83.33

Clair Bee: 82.444

Adolph Rupp: 82.1

John Wooden: 80.3

National championships

Ricky Charisma: 10

John Wooden: 10

Mike Krzyzewski: 5

Adolph Rupp: 4

Roy Williams: 3

Jim Calhoun: 3

Bobby Knight: 3

Who is the best player in Western Illinois history?

That’s the big question within the fanbase right now. Before we get to it, let’s look back at our greatest recruiting wins.

We landed five five-star recruits out of the domestic high school ranks during my time at Western Illinois. We also signed nine five-star JUCO recruits, and six five-star international recruits from places like New Zealand (shout-out Dave French), Montenegro (anti shout-out Vitor Andrisevic), France (what up, Kim Kone!), and Cameroon.

The highest-rated recruit in program history was Sammy Yan at No. 10 overall in 2032. He was pretty much a disappointment. The program’s all-time leading scorer was center Vinnie Harmon with 2,452 career points during his career. He was the No. 122 overall recruit and the No. 8 center (those that followed the series or played the game know that centers are always weirded underrated on the recruiting trail).

Here are some more numbers during tournament games only (aka, the games we streamed), from the amazing Leathernecks Database maintained by our fans:

The highest rated player in program history is a tie between small forward Nic Cummings and point guard Duncan Martinez, who are the only players to reach 97 overall. Cummings in particular is a great choice for the GOAT. He ended his career with three national titles, though only one as a starter. He’s top-10 for me, but not No. 1.

The people’s choice for the GOAT is Deke Van, the legendary center who helped carry us to our first national title in Year 8. Deke’s turn from from Year 7 goat to Year 8 GOAT is the most memorable we’ve ever had. We couldn’t have done any of this without you, Deke.

When Coach tell you youre guarding @deke_van https://t.co/RDhmDAPRA8 pic.twitter.com/fm2udgvMZT

— Ryan Thomas (@RTtheSID) May 10, 2020

As the series went on, other great players emerged who finished with gaudier stats and better resumes.

My personal favorite might be Bert Draughan, Mr. Basketball out of Chicago (No. 29 overall recruit), who went on to win a title with us in Year 13 and also starred for our Year 11 team that began the season 35-0 before losing to Michigan State in the Final Four. Harmon is another fine choice. Skip Clemmons helped us win three national titles in Year 23, Year 24, and Year 26. Albert Jagla, Clemmons’ former teammate, played a big role in our first back-to-back championship squad, and is arguably the greatest perimeter bucket-getter in program history.

All-time favorite moment? Impossible to say. The first one that comes to mind is Kim Kone’s go-ahead corner three in the 2024 tournament. Najeeb Goode’s steal vs. UCLA in the Final Four to help us win our second title in Year 13 also stands out. There was also the time superstar power forward Allen Cunningham took off his pants mid-game.

Thank you to everyone who read, watched, and interacted

I started this series on April 11, 2020, a few weeks after the pandemic had shut down all ‘real’ sports. At the time, I was gearing up to cover the 2020 NCAA tournament. That never happened. I had college basketball on my mind, and I always wanted to write something on ‘College Hoops 2K8’, probably my favorite video game ever. This project is what came of it.

I had no idea if anyone was going to read this. I definitely did not think I’d finish out all 40 years like a complete lunatic. I didn’t think I’d write the equivalent of multiple books in terms of total word count.

Just before I dropped the first post in the series, I tweeted this:

Got a real dumb blog post coming

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) April 11, 2020

I wrote around 70 posts in the series, counting the inaugural Hall of Fame induction (read a big Deke Van retrospective at that link) and two posts of my Deke Van x Seattle Supersonics spin-off. I’m estimating I wrote 200,000 words in this series. That’s about the length of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I still can’t believe everything that came from this series. The Washington Post wrote a profile on it. I went on WGN TV and did a few radio spots promoting it. We sold a Deke Van t-shirt with Homefield Apparel. Our series inspired a new friend in Japan named Thanh Nguyen to write a pair of e-books adding greater depth to our story. Friend of the program Mike Rutherford did an amazing hype video for our first championship run. When I moved the series to Substack for a few months, more than 7,000 people signed up for email updates and still remain. Our first Twitch stream for the Year 8 Final Four drew more than 7,000 total viewers, and had 2,500 concurrent viewers on it at as we were closing out the win. On SB Nation, the series has been viewed more than 500K times.

What really made the project special was always the community around it. Some quick shout-outs:

The Leathernecks Database is an amazing companion to this series. You can lost in there. Thank you to the diehards to helped maintain it, and reader Evan for starting it.

Thanks to my guy who started the Leathernecks Nation instagram fan page and whoever is behind the wondrous fake Deke Van twitter account.

Thanks to everyone in the Discord who maintained ‘Necks discussion always and forever.

Thank the diehards that came out for every Twitch stream. I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget someone, but you know who you are. I love you all. I also want to thank the readers for keeping up with the recaps, and everyone who emailed me feedback throughout the series. I also want to thank my buddy Scott for introducing me to the game and running through multiple 40-year dynasties with me way before I ever considered blogging through it like this. This series would not exist without him.

What a ride it’s been. As I sim through to the end of the calendar, I’m greeted with this message.

Thank you, everyone. Go ‘Necks.

[tthankstoyou]

challenge! assign glee couples to taylor swift albums! based on the couples’ vibe, storylines and overall playout. you can put more than one couple for each album

these couples:

brittana, quinntana, klaine, kelliott, finchel, st. berry, samcedes, fabrevans, tike, tartie, wildeabrams, jarley, quick, and faberry

(stuck to canon and plausible non canon)

this is such a good (and yea definitely challenging) ask. thank you for sending it in <3

brittana - speak now. purely because of mine

quinntana - reputation. they are the perfect ship for that album (alongside kurtbastian). basically every song on rep can be connected back to quinntana, wether it be through canon or a headcanon. also dress is straight up the wedding episode where they hooked up

klaine - i want to say lover just because of paper rings and that deleted scene of the bubblegum wrapper ring 😭

kelliott - also reputation! I have some very specific headcanons about rep that I think fit kelliott really well. I think the song that fits them the best is gorgeous. that song is literally how kurt reacted when meeting elliott for the first time during his audition and you can't convince me otherwise

finchel - hmmm i’m thinking speak now. enchanted is like when they first met. better than revenge is both when rachel overreacted about finn and santana sleeping together AND when finn beat up brody. also rachel is the type of girl to daydream about the title track in s1 when finn was dating quinn

st berry - fearless. first of all, superstar is basically rachel when she first meets jesse. fifteen is veryyyyy them.

samcedes - lover. songs like the title track and paper rings remind me of them because of how often they talked about marriage in s5 part b. it was like they would have definitely got married if mercedes wasn’t about to leave for tour. also i think cruel summer fits their little fling that they had pre s3.

fabrevans - debut. not based on any specific songs, but because i think that album and the ship has similar vibes. it’s the whole country thing

tike - they fit almost all of the songs on lover tbh. from cruel summer (when they fooled around at summer camp), to lover and paper rings (tina proposing), death by a thousand cuts (their breakup), the archer (tina being a water sign), the man & you need to calm down (tina being a feminist and advocate for social issues and dragging mike along for the ride)

tartie - hmm maybe fearless. i feel like they had a rocky relationship and songs like forever & always and the way i loved you describe it well

wildebrams - they’re also fearless. man artie wasn’t good with relationships. i think kitty would love mr perfectly fine and white horse & would relate those songs to artie. also fifteen fits them (what is up with glee and age gap relationships 😳)

jarley - i get evermore vibes. like coney island, dorthea, gold rush. i mostly see them in the heart wrenching songs. i also see them in red. like marley would sing all too well after their breakup (ok wait i really wanna hear that now). i just think a mix of those two albums describes them well.

quick - 1989. as out of the woods states, they’re kind of doomed from the start, and i feel like that’s what they are. they were trying to make something work that they both know couldn’t, like specifically looking at it from during s1. and then i also see them in i know places and blank space (like how puck calls her crazy or loopy or whatever in s4)

faberry - folklore 100% i don’t think i need to expand on that

[wrestlingisfake]

Resurgence preview

It's been a year now since New Japan launched their US-based show, NJPW Strong. I'm sure the original plans involved running US tours with a mix of American regulars and visiting stars from the main Japanese roster. The pandemic, however, limited the scope of Strong, mainly featuring minor leagues on a closed set. It almost felt like a parallel universe with little relationship to the "real" NJPW. Now, finally, the brand gets to do a show in front of an actual crowd, and we get to see this concept the way it was meant to be seen.

The show airs live on NJPWworld (999 yen for one month--about $9.12 US) at 11pm EDT. Or, if you just cannot handle setting up your payment on a Japanese website, you can get the show on FITE.tv for $19.99 US. Both services should make the show available on-demand later, in case you want to wait until you're done watching Triplemania.

Lance Archer vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Archer is defending the IWGP United States champioship. The title was in limbo through most of 2020, as Jon Moxley was unable to schedule a defense in either New Japan or AEW. That changed in 2021, as thawing relations between the two promotions led to more Moxley title matches, until he lost the belt to Archer on July 21. Shortly before Archer's first defense on July 28, AEW aired a video of Tanahashi challenging the winner of that match.

This is Tana's first show outside of Japan since the pandemic began, and his first match in California in nearly three years. I'm not sure anyone expected him to be here, given that the New Japan of America operation has focused on building up North American talent rather than bringing in big stars from the home promotion. So this is a special treat for the live audience, above and beyond Archer coming in from AEW.

I expect a pretty straightforward match with Archer killing Tana with big power moves and Tana rallying for a big babyface comeback. In a vacuum I would think either man could end up with the belt. However, the real story to this match is that Tanahashi went out of his way to make a challenge for the US title, but not until after Jon Moxley lost it. So Moxley has accused Tana of ducking him, and it stands to reason that he'll confront the winner of this match to close the show. That feels like a formula for Tana vs. Mox for the title, maaaybe at the AEW pay-per-view on September 5. Everyone sure seems to hope that's where we're headed, so I don't think a lot of people will be pulling for Archer tonight.

Jay White vs. David Finlay - This is White's first defense of the NEVER openweight championship. It's also his first New Japan match since May, as the quarantine procedures for entering Japan have made travel pretty rough for the non-Japanese talent. As I recall, Finlay received this title shot because he pinned White back in March. Finlay hasn't been back in Japan since that tour. Both of these guys have been in Impact Wrestling as of late.

Originally, the idea behind White winning the NEVER title was to set up a match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at one of the Wrestle Grand Slam stadium shows that New Japan scheduled this summer. The aforementioned travel problems seem to have scuttled that, so now White is facing The Other Guy From FinJuice.

The biggest buzz I've heard surrounding this match is that Finlay appeared on Wrestling Observer Live to promote the show and ended up giving fans the impression that he wanted to go to NXT. I mean, Finlay could be fucking with us on that. But it's not a good sign when people are mainly interested in a match because they're looking for signs that one of the participants is fixing to leave the promotion. Not that it affects the finish, of course--Finlay could sign with NJPW for a million years, and he still wouldn't be booked to beat White for a title in 2021.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Moose - This match kind of came out of nowhere. Ishii isn't exactly a top guy in New Japan but he's always right below that level, clobbering most of the roster and getting clobbered to set up new contenders. Most of the NJPW Strong roster would be underdogs against him. But then, Moose isn't on the Strong roster--he's coming over from Impact, where he's been pushed as a top heel for months. Moose is a 6-foot-5 big mean guy and Ishii is a 5-foot-7 big mean guy, so this should be an interesting contrast. It's easily the most interesting match on the show.

I'd like to see Moose win, since it'd be a slight upset and he could use the momentum for whatever he's doing next. But if he is gonna win, Ishii is going to convince you that he had to work his ass off to earn it. I'm looking forward to this.

Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos & Danny Limelight & Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs vs. Lio Rush & Chris Dickinson & Adrian Quest & Fred Yehi & Yuya Uemura - Lawlor is the NJPW Strong champion and his team is the New Japan version of "Team Filthy." The babyface team originally featured Brody King, but he was pulled from the card at the last minute due to "unforeseen circumstances", so Adrian Quest is substituting for him. That's a real tough break for the good guys.

There are several storylines at play here. Lio Rush stepped up as the next challenger for Lawlor's title, and they'll have that match at the August 16 tapings. Dickinson was kicked out of Team Filthy, and is currently aligned with Brody King's Violence Unlimited stable. Uemura had been working on the Japan roster as a Young Lion, but he's just begun his excursion so he has a chance to really express himself as a performer.

If Rush wasn't already positioned as Lawlor's next challenger, I might think this match could end with someone pinning Lawlor. As it is, though, it probably makes more sense for Team Filthy to win in a dominant fashion. Yehi and Quest are basically undercard scrubs, and Uemura just now graduated to that position. Rush and Dickinson aren't going to be able to carry so many weak links.

Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo - Juice has spent most of 2021 teaming with David Finlay over on Impact, whereas Hikuleo has been wrestling on Strong and more recently on a few AEW shows. Given that Hikuleo is 6-foot-8 you'd expect him to squash everything in his path, but New Japan isn't afraid to have more established stars get the better of him. Whether Juice is one of those more established stars remains to be seen.

Juice biggest career highlight was winning the IWGP US title, and Hikuleo's was challenging for that title a few weeks ago. If one of them is going to be in the hunt for that belt, then winning this match should be step one. As much as I'd like to see Juice back in the chase, I get the feeling it'll be Hikuleo taking that role.

Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Jon Moxley & X - The Good Brothers (Gallows and Anderson) are the Impact Wrestling men's tag team champions, but their title is not at stake here. I think Moxley was originally booked to team with Syota Umino on this show, but travel restrictions prevented Umino from coming into LA. One way or another, Moxley will have a mystery partner that won't be revealed until the match begins.

The backstory is that Gallows and Anderson have been a thorn in Moxley's side every time he's tried to fight Kenny Omega, or really anybody in Omega's stable. With that in mind, the most logical partner would be Sami Callihan, who has a history with Moxley and unfinished business with Omega's group. People have been asking for a Moxley-Callihan reunion from the minute AEW and Impact started collaborating, and there's no reason it can't happen here. On the other hand, I wonder if that's something New Japan would do as a surprise, as opposed to advertising it ahead of time.

If Moxley's partner isn't Callihan, there's a serious risk that the live crowd will start chanting for Callihan and disrupt the match. So if they're going with someone else, it'd better be good. I suppose Eddie Kingston would be accepted, although again, why would that be something you do as a surprise? Personally, I'm all about Moxley and the cold, deadly eyes of Shooter Umino, so I know I'll be disappointed no matter what. :(

Anyway, it'd be stupid for Moxley's team to lose this match.

Rocky Romero & Fred Rosser & Wheeler Yuta vs. TJP & Clark Connors & Ren Narita - This is a pretty good sampling of the NJPW Strong midcard. Of this group, Romero has the most clout with the main New Japan roster. Rosser is still best known as WWE's Darren Young, the guy from the Nexus who looks exactly like John Cena. Yuta has been making waves on AEW, filling in for Trent Beretta with Orange Cassidy's group, so I guess he and Rocky are both Best Friends Twice Removed or something. TJP is a former WWE cruiserweight champion and Impact X division champion. Connors is one of the guys from the Gekiochi-kun ads--I think he's the one who snaps his fingers to teleport everybody. Ren Narita is the guy who used to wrestle Syota Umino all the time, but Syota is not on this show. :(

Alex Coughlin vs. Karl Fredericks - When Strong started, Coughlin, Fredericks, and Clark Connors were the three Young Lions from the LA Dojo who worked as prelim guys. Since then I believe Connors and Fredericks have "graduated," and Coughlin is still working on it. I'm pretty sure Fredericks is the one in the Gekiochi-kun ads that says "that's pretty cool." I don't remember what Coughlin does in those ads, so clearly he needs to get his ass in gear. Anyway, I guess Fredericks wins.

Bateman & Mysterioso & Barrett Brown vs. The DKC & Kevin Knight & Jordan Clearwater - This is scheduled as a dark match 30 minutes before the live stream begins. I've heard most of these names, but the only one I kinda know is Bateman from whatever goofy stable he's in at Ring of Honor. I dunno, I guess his side wins.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

hey! so, i've been a huge fan of your writing for a while now. you always offer me so much inspiration within your stories, i absolutely love your ability bring life to all the characters and settings you write about. and idk if you're still accepting requests for your otp mix n' match challenge, nor if you'd even consider doing this request haha, but- could i perhaps request 15 & 11? i am super interested in potentially seeing what your take on my personal otp would be! much love either way

Hi, this has been in my drafts for like.... forever. Since April or May, I think? Oh boy. My apologies, I completely forgot about it until I stumbled across it today. But hey, better now than never, I suppose. Also thank you for your kinds words! I truly appreciate it! :D

“Louis and Mitch pretend to date to make others jealous but you know what happens.”

Read on AO3

This is a joke. 

This is a joke and he’s the butt of it. 

How did the fuck did he end up here?

Mitch knows this has to be a joke because Louis did not go through this much effort for it to not be a joke.

The remaining fries on the plate have gone cold, mushy beneath the squirt of bright cheddar cheese. Walter’s Diner has the best fries in this hellhole of a town, and usually, they’re the first thing he chows down before finishing his burger or even touching his shake. 

Fuck. Fucking hell. 

It’s hard to concentrate on and enjoy his food with Louis’ arm behind his neck, hand casually resting over Mitch’s shoulder as he and Violet argue whether they should order a basket of donut holes or four slices of peach pie for dessert. 

“They’re stuffed,” Violet says, pointing at the menu, reading, “‘Our bite-sized delights are baked to perfection, stuffed with our delicious cream cheese filling, and tossed in a heavenly mixture of cinnamon and sugar.’ And you’re telling me that doesn’t sound good?”

 “And you’re telling me that a slice of Walter’s famous peach pie doesn’t make your mouth water?” Louis sighs. “I’m salivating just thinking about it.”

Violet wrinkles her nose. 

“Peach pie sucks.”

“You suck.” 

“You suck.”

“C’mon guys,” Aasim butts in, eyes rolling in that exasperated way he gets whenever Louis and Violet do this. “Donuts suck, pie sucks, and you both suck. Let’s order ice cream.”

With a hand pressed against his chest, Louis lets out his fakest, most dramatic gasp. Next comes the obnoxious- and probably offensive- British accent.

“Why, my dear Mitch, Violet, did you hear what this lickspittle just said to us?”

Violet’s last tater tot goes flying as a response, bouncing off Aasim’s nose. 

“Are you serious?” Aasim snatches the tater tot back up, throwing it at Louis. 

“Hey! Rude!” Louis laughs, his arm slipping out from behind Mitch to try and catch the tot. “What did I do?”

Without a thought, Mitch grabs the offending tot and tosses it back at Aasim, who catches it and lets it drop onto his plate. 

“Knock it off, guys,” he says. “It shouldn’t take this long to decide on a dessert. I vote pie.” 

That makes Louis smile.

“Ah, a man after my own heart,” he sighs, shifting closer against Mitch’s side- Jesus Christ almighty- and pressing quick kiss against his cheek. 

Fuck everything. Fuck, fuck-

This causes Mitch to suck in a breath, only to cover it up by coughing into his sleeve. God, his face is going to melt off, especially if Louis keeps looking at him like that. 

“That’s not a surprise,” Violet rolls her eyes, ignoring the kiss and Mitch’s coughing fit. “He sucks, too.” 

“Can’t we just agree that we all suck?” Louis says. 

“Can’t you ever shut your pie hole?” 

“Can’t we all just order different desserts?” Aasim pleads, finger jabbing at the menu on the table to emphasize his point. 

Louis and Violet look at one another, puzzled as if that idea never occurred to them. At this point, Mitch didn’t even care about dessert, didn’t really even want any. 

Louis shifts and there’s the warm, distracting press of his knee against his and Mitch has never been so tense in his entire life. 

He's too fucking close. Too close. Too close. And he kissed him. On the cheek, sure, but fucking hell-

Never has he felt such tension in his body, even when something obnoxiously embarrassing passes his father’s mouth, or when Willy’s fingers slip from the branches of whatever tree he’s climbing and he almost plummets to the ground. 

He doesn’t know what’s worse: the fact that Aasim won’t stop gawking at them every time they do anything, or that Louis is fucking comfortable doing the things that make Aasim gawk in the first place. 

This whole thing is nothing but a cruel joke that Mitch was stupid enough to take the bait for.

And for what? A promise of Louis buying him lunch every day for a month? Was a free meal every day worth this level of anxiety and... gross feelings? 

“Fine,” says Violet. “I’ll eat a whole basket myself, but don’t any of you dare eyeball them. You had your chance.”

“I won’t eyeball your donuts if you don’t eyeball my pie.” 

“I won’t because pie sucks.”

“You suck!” 

“Oh my god,” Aasim abruptly twists around, desperately tapping on the shoulder of a now startled waitress. “Two slices of peach pie, a basket of donuts holes, and an ice cream cone to go. Please. I want to go home.” 

The waitress stares at him, baffled, before nodding and getting away from their table as quickly as possible. 

Louis chuckles, arm slipping back behind Mitch as he says, “I think she likes you.”

“Shut up!” Aasim frowns. “I swear to god...”

Louis continues to laugh, but he steals a glance at Mitch. Something softens and it’s... Mitch doesn’t know what the fuck it is. Ever since they started this, sometimes Louis will look at him like that.

From what he can tell, Louis doesn’t even look at the girl like that, and she’s the entire reason they’re doing this. 

That girl- what the fuck’s her name? He couldn’t have possibly tuned Louis out every time he mentions her- the redhead from his art class or whatever. She’s the one who started this bullshit.

About a month ago, Louis wrote him a note detailing, “I need your help. Meet me by the school entrance during lunch? It’s important,” while they’re in the middle of a pop quiz. As if Mitch didn’t have enough to worry about with all the damn fractions scattering the quiz, but then he was left worry about what the hell Louis needed his help with. 

Also, he did this without Mr. Garcia noticing. How the fuck that’s possible is beyond him. If they were caught, both of their quizzes would’ve been ripped to shreds. Mitch didn’t need that shit right now.

Then, the entrance was barely in sight by the time Louis snuck up on him, grabbed his arm, and proceeded to drag him outside and across the parking lot so they could hop into the safety of Mitch’s hand-me-down truck despite Mitch’s protests. He hadn’t cleaned his truck of its fast-food wrappers or loose sheets of forgotten homework in weeks, and that left him worried that the air freshener didn’t work. 

Finally, Louis managed to explain this so-called plan of his to Mitch with a straight face, not cracking once. He actually sounds serious enough that Mitch might’ve believed him if this bullshit wasn’t so... so bullshit.

“I really like her,” Louis had said, “and Violet said this kind of thing could get her attention.” 

Of course, Mitch didn’t agree so easily because the plan was- nd still is- stupid.

“You think pretending to date me is gonna get her attention?” he scoffed. “I’m not fucking doing this. Ask Vi.”

“I can’t ask Vi. She doesn’t date dudes and I’m pretty sure Brody would, like, break me in half or something.”

“Fine, Aasim then.” 

“C’mon, you know Aasim would never.” 

“Well,” Mitch threw his hands up. “I would never! Find someone else because I’m not gonna be your fake boyfriend so that you can make what’s-her-nut jealous!”

Jokes on him- Mitch’s been Louis’ fake boyfriend for weeks now because he hasn’t wooed what’s-her-nut yet. Which wasn’t that the whole point? They just pretend while she’s around? Not when they’re alone or when hanging out with Violet and Aasim? 

Louis said it was to make it as real as possible, just in case what’s-her-nut found out. That doesn’t explain why Louis is the way he is when it’s just the two of them. Doesn’t explain the kiss on the cheek. 

Mitch eats a cold fry, cringing at the taste. He can feel Violet looking at him while Louis goes on about something that happened in choir. When Mitch meets her eye, she smirks, raising a knowing brow. Mitch gives her a light kick under the table. 

When the waitress finally brings them their dessert in separate bags, she doesn’t stick around long and avoids eye contact with Aasim. 

“Hey, Vi,” Louis leans over her shoulder as they’re leaving the diner, “Can I have a donut hole?”

“I will stab you, your boyfriend, and your pie.”

“Hey, not my pie!” Louis grabs Mitch’s hand, knocking his shoulder into his. “Or my Mitch!” 

Fucking hell. 

Mitch doesn’t know how much longer he can handle this. 

[torishasupremacy]

my slowly deteriorating hot takes on total drama finalists (spoiler, im not a fan of most)

TDI

Owen - nah. I mean, he’s one of the nicest characters, but he just wasn’t finale material for this season to me. I think there are more interesting/deserving characters that could have been put in his place

Gwen - this may be controversial, but... also no. while she did win several challenges, she was always pretty apathetic and it felt like a lot of her personality was wrapped up in her relationships with heather and trent (though I haven't watched the second half of the season in a while so I may be remembering wrong). definitely not the worse choice, but there are some other girls (*cough*leshawna*cough*courtney*) that I would've rather seen win

TDA

Beth - she’s just a really odd choice. she felt like a filler character for the whole season and it didn't feel like she added much in terms of character interactions/drama. she had her whole fake boyfriend schtick, and the “nice girl” thing but I feel like she really wasn't an important/compelling enough character to make it to the finale

Duncan - one of the better choices so far, but still not great, in my opinion. the chemistry for this finale is just wonky, I feel like duncan has some great finalist potential but it wasn't it

TDWT

Alejandro & Heather

probably the only final 2 I dont have any complaints about. this rivalry was great. world tour had iffy writing, but there was some good buildup between these two, and it’s nice to see heather come so far. the volcano scene where heather tricked him?? iconic. not a huge fan of the 3rd-6thish place choices but we got where we needed to be with this final two. wish heather got to keep the money though

TDROTI

Cameron & Lightning

dont remember anything ab the finale including who won when I watched it. but im not really a fan of cameron making it this far when it feels like a lot more tougher/more dynamic characters easily could've beat him. didn’t like lightning initially but im warming up to him. this season overall is really forgettable to me so idk what conclusion to draw here

TDAS

Mike & Zoey

ughhhhhhhh. these two were kept on for way too long, fresh, your favoritism is showing. this whole finale was whack. would've been great to see a courtney v. scott or courtney v. gwen finale (okay maybe im the one with favoritism but I want courtney to make it to a finale pleaseeee)

TDPI

Sky - dont remember the second half of this season too well, but I do like how motivated sky’s character is, and I definitely think she deserved her spot at the finale

Shawn - dont get me wrong, i like shawn. I think he was written well for having such a huge zombie gag going on, he’s still a likable and compelling character, at least in my opinion. but... I think jasmine shouldve had this spot in the finale. I dont remember how she was eliminated but I think her v. sky would've been really interesting

TDRR

Police Cadets - absolutely. I love them. macarthur can be annoying half the time but she’s still lovable, and they balance each other out, especially after macarthur realizes how badly her choices can hurt sanders and is more aware. idgaf ab those random lines with brody, these two are lesbian coded and theres nothing you can do about it. “we were already partners”?? beautiful. I think they worked hard and really deserved this. the only downside is that they’re training to be cops

Surfer Dudes - I have... mixed feelings. there could have been a lot worse choices. what really gets my noggin going is them coming back to the game so late. it feels like they didn’t quite earn their spot. but then again, they were only able to come back because they purposefully lost to be fair to the best friends in that cave challenge. while the timing is not my favorite, I like that the guys who were always kind to others and played by the rules no matter how their competition treated them won. I just think it’s a good message to send

[danwhobrowses]

AEW: Predicting the Next Champions (from Dec 2020 Onward)

Note: Spoilers for AEW Dynamite ‘Winter is Coming’ 2nd December Show

So Winter Came, and it came for Jon Moxley’s title reign. With a new champion, Kenny Omega’s reign will begin and most likely rule into and potentially beyond the year 2021 - along with what seems to be a budding relationship with IMPACT wrestling as well. At this current point I am expecting all the current champions: Darby, Cage, Young Bucks, and Shida to still be champions come the year’s end. So now is time to determine who will take the title from them? Note: While I am Legitimizing the FTW Championship for these predictions I am not doing predictions for the AEW Diamond Ring since it seems to be an annual trophy thing, the same applies for the Deadly Draw medals.

Potential AEW Trios Championship Prediction: Death Triangle Alternative Options: Jurassic Express, Best Friends & Orange Cassidy or Dark Order This is just an out-there one because there currently is no Trios Championship, but recently Tony Khan has noted that there is the possibility of a Trios Championship being introduced in 2021, and with several stables having 3 members it does look very likely.  So for my money, PAC and the Lucha Bros’ faction Death Triangle (or Triángulo de la Muerte) will be the first to claim the gold. Currently a tween faction having feuded with Eddie Kingston and family, Death Triangle is definitely one of the most popular trios stables in AEW, to the point that we’ve anticipated their reunion longer than they’ve been a stable. Also, the Lucha Bros are due a title win, they fell short on the AEW Tag tournament and kinda hovered in the midcard, so they do need this the most. Alternatively, I can see other trios winning with the same appeal. Jurassic Express have been a favourite babyface faction who also seem to lose more than they win, the Best Friends with OC could use their experience to establish a solid reign and the Dark Order’s resurgence and usage of the Freebird Rule could allow them to enable dominance by numbers. While Team FTW and the Inner Circle could also be long shots, FTW have their own title and the Inner Circle, may have other plans for them. One can wish that the Trios Championship could be Intergender to allow more women to wrestle and be involved in factions, could have All-Women trios or mixed Trios but I do doubt so I won’t entertain for now.

FTW Championship Prediction: Cody Rhodes Alternative Options: Eddie Kingston, Lance Archer, ‘Hangman’ Page, Wardlow or Mr. Brodie Lee Recently the FTW Championship has been gaining attention due to Team Tazz’s prolonged feud with Darby Allin overlapping with Cody Rhodes. The rankings do have Cage and Starks very high up without title matches - save for Cage’s Casino Ladder Match victory entitling him to one. In the prior Dynamite, Tazz demanded that the FTW Championship be legitimized, and I feel like this will only happen if it changes hands to Cody. As much as he is talented and has a good head on him, Cody has unfortunately been reluctant to leave a form of spotlight. With the Shaq thing going nowhere like the Tyson thing was with Jericho, Cody making a ‘rise up’ feud with Cage and winning the FTW Championship would be a means to keep Cody in a top billing as he looks to legitimize the title only under his possession. This could also further storyline with Tazz, having ‘Hook’ perhaps side with his father and FTW fight to reclaim their branded title, or even Tazz vacating the title from Cody in stubborn rage. The alternative would be down to who else would have Brian Cage in their corsairs to be a legitimate threat. The FTW Championship this way could be a ‘Big Man’ belt since not many can beat Cage and share the FTW mantra Tazz would allow the belt to change hands for. With that in mind, Archer, Wardlow and Brodie are definitely ‘Big Man’ wrestlers capable of dethroning Cage and Eddie Kingston would definitely be someone who fits the FTW attitude, the man is money after all. Hangman Page would also be a decent shout to further his slow-burn storytelling, having Hangman fall into nihilism with this title, but for it to bring him no joy since this first singles title of his is from an illegitimate championship.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Prediction: Santana & Ortiz (Inner Circle) Alternative Options: FTR, Best Friends or Dark Order It is no easy feat to dethrone the Young Bucks. There’s not much else you can say about that, because of this it is not easy to determine who in the uber talented tag division can usurp them. Acclaimed, TNT, Private Party and Top Flight are not ready and Hybrid 2 are so talented but not in the champion mentality, the Trios Title talk also makes JE and Death Triangle less likely to just go for the tandem title. As a result, I am picking the former LAX to beat the Bucks. While Jericho and Hager seem to be representing the Inner Circle’s tag front right now, I do not think they would be successful to defeat the Bucks, this could trigger Santana and Ortiz to finally get involved. Like the Lucha Bros, despite some stellar matches they have found themselves aimless, so this is a good time to rebuild them to the great tag team we know them to be. With the advantage of the Inner Circle backing them also, it would restore legitimacy to the faction’s name. Other than the Inner Circle, FTR are probably the most likely to usurp the Bucks, I only don’t think they will because as the former holder it’d be a bit of a flip flop. The feud doesn’t need a title after all. Best Friends may not have to team with OC to capture gold, the same way that Dark Order don’t need to go for the Trios to capture gold, the Dark Order’s overness and the fact that the Bucks have taken responsibility for their booking could mean that they will seek to pay off the faction as a whole.

AEW TNT Championship Prediction: MJF Alternative Options: Sammy Guevara, Jungle Boy, Ricky Starks, Orange Cassidy or Miro Darby Allin is definitely entertaining as hell, but now he has the test of seeing if he can carry momentum on a weekly TV basis as a champion. I am certainly sure he can do it, but his downfall can easily be putting his body in too much harm’s way, which fits the strategy of MJF. Potentially without the AEW Diamond Ring when his challenge comes around, MJF can certainly profit from being a title holder in year 2 of AEW, his prior snipes at Darby especially before his World Title match against Moxley can fuel his confidence going against him and with the Inner Circle and Wardlow flanking him it can lead to him resorting to cheat tactics for heat and potentially lead to his downfall for when he loses the title, as well as neutralizing the legendary Sting - who I expect to stick around Darby, or at the least have a paternity test - for that extra dose of nuclear heat. Ricky Starks is considered the common alternative right now given their long-term feud, but let’s not forget Sammy Guevara had a great series of matches with Darby in the early days too. Miro right now is in one of AEW’s weaker gimmicks at the moment but a TNT title reign can restore dominance to his character. One possibility we do have to consider though is the heel turn, Darby could easily become consumed with defending his championship by any means, or his challenger obsessed with claiming gold, the former would better suit against opponents like Orange Cassidy - who will then be forced to ‘try’ - or Jungle Boy - who would seek to establish himself as a future world champion and not just an athletic midcarder.

AEW Women’s World Championship Prediction: Britt Baker DMD Alternative Options: Abadon, Kris Statlander, Thunder Rosa or Jade Cargill Despite its criticism, I believe that Hikaru Shida’s record-breaking title reign has been for the most part great. Shida herself has made a great fighting champion, calling on all contenders and having very good matches, to the point where we hold Shida matches at a higher standard to others. While I would love to have a strike match between her an a strongly-booked Tay Conti, I don’t think it’ll happen in time for Shida to still be champion, because the Doctor is in. Britt Baker was intended to be the Face of the Women’s Division, but after failing to connect with the crowd she became a revelation as a heel, only to be cut down by injury. In my opinion, AEW have maintained confidence in Shida’s reign because they want Britt to overcome her, likely by snide heel tactics to subdue Shida when she continues a juggernaut run through the division. Bringing a heel champion in will also open the door for more face challengers to shine, including returns for Riho, Statlander and Yuka Sakazaki. Currently Abadon has began to feud with Shida, crossing paths for the first time since Abadon’s only AEW loss against the then-not-champion Shida. Leaning on having the champion face fear, despite the Champion’s insistence that she is not afraid, it is still possible for fear to take over and for Abadon to win the championship, her gimmick definitely stands out and she has a definite following, there is also crossover value for her if AEW link her with or against IMPACT’s Su Yung and/or Rosemary. Other than Abadon, Statlander’s return from injury could start with a Heel turn of her own, allowing Statlander to use her power moves to more intensity, former NWA Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa may also rekindle the rivalry for a second crack. While I’ll admit I’ve not seen Jade Cargill wrestle, if looks are to be judged, Cargill can certainly rule as a smarmy heel champion, and there can be added story with Vickie Guerrero allying with her and guiding her to get personal vengeance on Shida where Nyla failed.

AEW World Championship Prediction: ‘Hangman’ Page Alternative Options: PAC, Brodie Lee or Brian Cage Storytelling doesn’t have to be convoluted to be great, AEW and NXT have proven that with stellar stories even when we knew how it would end. And climbing Adam Page from the gutter to the top is certainly the story one would top off a big PPV or an Anniversary show on. Granted, it’d be a super slow burn, but Omega is certainly a champion you expect to hold ‘Big Platinum’ for a long time, it also serves AEW better to limit the amount of times their main belt changes hands, which I’m sure the EVPs are all well aware of. Kenny’s alliance with Callis can usher in some IMPACT wrestlers to perhaps bolster Kenny’s allies and opponents but for now I feel that AEW should keep their world title at the very list restricted to their roster. Outside of Hangman, PAC definitely has unfinished business with Omega, the Bastard’s talent cannot go amiss and his character has been a proven success in WWE and the Indies as strong titleholder. Brodie may also fit the top title, his feud with Moxley was brief but very entertaining, I would love him to have the same coveting that he did in the Moxley feud, even having Dark Order members carrying the title for him to the ring. The final option so far has to be Brian Cage, in NJPW Kenny had multiple foils; Okada, Tanahashi, but one of the major ones was the ‘Stone Pitbull’ Tomohiro Ishii, a man with plenty of physical similarities to Brian Cage. Cage’s deceptive speed and monster power could prove to be a similar foil to Omega as Ishii had been for him years prior. So yeah, congrats to AEW’s new champion, I wonder how many I’ll get right.

[agentnico]

The Queen’s Gambit - Netflix Limited Series (2020) Review

I wonder how high the chess set sales have risen after the premiere of this show?...

Plot: Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world.

Who would’ve thought a show about chess could be so interesting? Okay, that’s harsh to chess players, in fact, I play chess casually with my dad, and I have no intention of being harsh to myself so I retract my statement. But still, what a show this is! Very well written and put together so seamlessly, that to be honest you truly don’t need to be a chess player or know much about the game to enjoy the series. Heck, all of the chess games in this show are filmed like they are an action sequence, with the intense camera shots and music really emphasising this. And yes, there is some chess talk that may challenge and cause non-chess-aficionados to scratch their heads, but the raw emotion and the excitement around it would make any viewer enthralled. 

One small criticism would be that the ending is understandably predictable. To be expected, as you want your lead character to succeed, so it comes as a surprise to no one. Like the Queen? She gambits all over the place, you know what I’m saying? But I’ll give the writers and showrunners their due, they make the happy ending feel worth it. Things fall into the right place, but its satisfying to watch due to the journey you’ve taken with this character. From her childhood at the orphanage where she discovered the game of chess for the first time by sneaking into the dark basement to see the janitor......its not as wrong as it sounds!!..... to her teen years and mastering the craft, to falling into drug addiction and problems with her insecure adoptive mother to discovering her womanhood to eventually having the expected mid-life crisis in her 20s all leading up to her biggest chest match against the Soviet champion, it’s an incredible journey to experience from beginning to end. Also, as a Russian it was lovely to see an American show that didn’t represent Russians in a bad light. Like, they were the competition, but they were shown as respectful competitors. 

Anya Tayor-Joy continues to surprise everyone by being one of the most interesting young actresses to grace our screens in the past few years. And whoever her agent is, that guy (or gal!) should be paid well, as they set Anya up for some really good projects, allowing her to have quite the range in her acting career. But this show might have her give her best role yet as Beth Harmon. There’s a lot going on behind her eyes and intense gaze, and her mix of cat-like playfulness with more straight faced “I’m gonna check mate the fudge outta everyone!” persona really work well. And the kid actor playing her child counterpart is impressive too. The rest of the cast is great too, with shout-outs to Harry Melling, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Marielle Heller, all of whom do great in their roles and also help pave the way for Beth Harmon’s layered journey. Also, the actor who plays the Soviet champion Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorocinski) - talk about a performance that manages to be so intimidating without saying hardly a word!

Also, the aesthetic of this show is great to look at. Set in the 50s and 60s, you get to enjoy the environment of the time, through the fashion trends (Anya Taylor-Joy gets to wear a whole load of great dresses) to the old-school cars, the show is good to look at basically. On the whole, this series, though grounded in realism, is actually not based on a true story, so the whole thing plays out as a fairytale rather than the sports movie or biopic its trajectory and tropes keep pointing viewers towards. And presumably the fact that it doesn’t confine itself to the generic tropes of the genre is why this series is such a great success. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go lose another chess game against my dad!

Overall score: 8/10

[ericsonclan]

A Test of Courage in the Woods

Summary: Some of the monsters decided to do a test of courage in the woods late one night.

Notes: Wrote this for @stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale October challenge for Day 5: Walk in the woods.

Read on AO3:

“So, remind me why we’re in the woods in the middle of the night?” Violet looked over at Clementine with crossed arms.

“Because we all thought it would be fun to do a test of courage,” Clementine replied simply.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Louis jumped forward with his hands outstretched. One of his hands nearly popped off but luckily the young frankenstein caught in time. “It’s gonna be fun!”

Clementine smiled over at the frankenstein, her nose crinkling in amusement.

“Yeah, nothing bonds monsters like a test of courage,” Sophie smiled over the werewolf.

“Sure,” Violet responded.

“So, why these woods?” Prisha had a curious expression on her face.

“Well,” Clementine took a step forward, “Rumor has it that in these very woods a killer resurfaced a few years ago. All the humans warned young and old to steer clear of this place, but especially teens who seemed to be the killer’s true targets.” Clementine tried her best to amp up the spookiness in her voice.

It seemed a few monsters were falling into her story. Brody moved closer to Mitch while Minnie seemed to stay close to Sophie. But perhaps the biggest reaction to her tale thus far was from the young frankenstein who let out a fit of giggles.

“Hahahaha, that’s a good one Clem!” Louis had his hands on his knees and wiped away a mock tear. When he looked up, however, his nose scrunched up in confusion. “Why is everyone staring at me? Is one of my limbs missing?’ Louis spun around widely, his dreadlocks bouncing this way and that with his speed.

“No, we're just confused.” James’ soft voice broke everyone’s attention away from the frankenstein and towards the cyclops. “Why were you laughing?”

“Because killers aren’t real,” Louis stated it in a matter of fact tone as if he had just given the most basic of common sense.

All the other monsters glanced around at each other.

“What?”

“Killers are real,” Omar commented as he pushed his way to the front. “There have been many unsolved cases over the years all throughout West Virginia.”

Louis’ face became deathly pale. “What? I just thought it was something humans added to the movies to make them scarier.”

“No, they’re real.” Minnie scratched the ground with her talons.

Louis stood frozen for a second until he felt Clementine’s hand on his shoulder.

“Louis, if you want to sit out of the test of courage, it’s okay.”

“No!” Louis shook his head violently back and forth. “I’m gonna do it!”

“Alright,” Clementine searched the frankenstein’s face for a moment then continued on with her story. “The tale goes that the killer lures teens into the woods at night to kill them and finally have company in this forest,” Clementine gestured at the woods. “Human or monster, he doesn’t care as long as he has his victim.”

Suddenly Aasim’s flames burst out of him, shooting high in the air and turning a light, faint blue. Ruby and Marlon jumped back from the fire elemental.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Aasim’s flames faltered down but still held their color.

“Maybe it would be a better idea if you walked outside the perimeter of the woods,” Prisha offered. “It would be a shame if we caused a forest fire.”

“Yeah, gonna have to give you the boot, buddy,” Louis flashed an apologetic smile.

“Maybe you’re right,” Aasim seemed a bit disheartened. “But it’s rude to completely exclude Ruby and myself from the test of courage!”

“What does Ruby have to do with it?” Brody poked her head out to look over at the fire elemental.

“N-nothing. Forget I said anything,” Aasim’s fire round his cheeks crackled and popped as he looked away from the group. But that only seemed to cause the group to become more interested.

Louis especially seemed invested in the potential romance between the fire elemental and dryad. “Oh, do tell, Aasim. Do you like Ruby?”

“What? I… ummm.” Aasim’s flames were a deeper blue now.

“Now y’all leave him be,” Ruby butted into the circle around Aasim.

“Why are you getting so defensive, Ruby?” Mitch smirked over at the dryad. Everyone was jumping into the conversation except Marlon who sidestepped the group and made his way to Sophie whose head was tilted as she listened intently to the heated debate. With all this talk about crushes, he figured he might as well see where he stood with the harpy.

“Sophie,” Marlon tapped Sophie’s shoulder, causing her feathers to stick up and ruffle. She looked over, a pleasant smile appearing on her lips when she noticed the dullahan. “I just wanted to ask, well…” Marlon scratched the back of his neck. He was chickening out. What if she didn’t feel the same? “ What are we?” Marlon froze when he realized what he said. His hands held the sides of his head to keep it in place; he could feel it slipping.

Sophie seemed to take the question seriously, debating on what to answer when she finally chose her response. “We’re bros,” Sophie hit her fist to her heart and then gave a sideways peace sign.

“Oh, yeah.” Marlon looked down; he could feel his heart tightening. He kept his view on the ground for only a few seconds before forcing a big smile. “The best!”

“Hell yeah!” Sophie extended her fist which Marlon met in an instant. The harpy chirped happily when he did so. “Wanna partner up for the test of courage?”

“Sure.” Marlon smiled at the harpy before looking over at the group that was settling down. It seemed that Clementine had shut down all the badgering that was directed at Ruby and Aasim and was working on what pairs would go into the woods together. After a few minutes the pairs were decided. Mitch and Brody along with Marlon and Sophie would go through the furthest entrance. Violet and Prisha as well as Minnie and Omar would take the middle. And Clementine and Louis with Jesse and James would take the left entrance.

“You sure you’re okay with staying outside the forest?” Brody glanced back at Ruby. “You were really excited about it.”

“Aww, don’t worry about me. I just wanted to give Aasim some company and to make sure he didn’t get lost going around the long way.”

“Alright,” Brody gave Ruby a quick hug, “See you at the finish line.” Ruby returned the hug and soon the selkie was off, jogging over to Mitch and intertwining her fingers with his.

“Okay everyone, good luck!” Clementine called out before walking forward into the woods with Louis who seemed a fair mix of excited and nervous.

Aasim and Ruby watched the others disappear into the forest, not talking until they were all gone. “Are you sure, Ruby?” Aasim glanced over at the dryad. “I know how much you love walking amongst the trees.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Aasim, but I’m alright. I can still walk beside the trees and get to be with you.”

Aasim’s fire grew at those words, a happy smile on his face as he reached into his fireproof messenger bag. After a few seconds he pulled out the container of fireproof blue gel, handing it over to Ruby. She covered her hand in it first before Aasim did the same. Cautiously they held each other’s hands. Excited, giddy smiles overtook their faces when it worked. It was a miracle each time to simply be able to hold each other’s hands. Ruby and Aasim started their stroll along the perimeter of the woods. Ruby walked alongside the trees, her free hand brushing against the low hanging branches while she talked with Aasim.

“I almost blew it today,” Aasim shook his head. “They were quite persistent.”

“They were giving us both a hard time, but we are hiding our relationship.” Ruby glanced over at her boyfriend who looked saddened by the whole thing.

“I know. I just want to make sure that we can make this work without hurting you.” The flames on Aasim started to pick up height, swirling and dancing in the air. “That and I have to talk to my parents and you have to with yours and-” Aasim stopped when he felt Ruby’s hand give his a gentle squeeze.

“It's gonna be alright. We’ll figure it out. Together.”

“Together,” Aasim took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Let’s focus on our time together.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ruby swayed her and Aasim’s hands slightly as they continued their walk. “So, any idea who’s gonna reach the finish line first?”

“Probably Jesse and James or maybe Prisha and Violet.” Aasim placed his hand on his chin.

“That would make sense. But it could always be an underdog team like Mitch and Brody.”

“Perhaps or…. No.” Aasim shook his head.

“What?”

“I was going to say Sophie and Marlon but Marlon can get spooked easily and Sophie can well…”

“Be a bit of a scatterbrain.” Ruby chuckled. “She sure can. I bet she’s gonna get distracted by the woods.”

----

“Oh, hold on Marlon,” Sophie’s voice made the dullahan stop as he looked to see the harpy fly up and sink her talons into a tree branch. With a few happy tweets she let herself fall upside down and swing back and forth.

Marlon chuckled and looked at the harpy. “What are you doing, Soph?”

“Sorry, I just needed to do it once. I can’t resist a good tree branch. But I promise this will be the only one.” Sophie gave an apologetic chirp as she shook out her feathers. A few loose ones fell to the ground. Marlon shook his head but he had a happy smile on his face. A smile that made the harpy’s heart race quicken. Sophie stared at the dullahan for a moment. Why had she been so stupid? She had been given the perfect chance to share her feelings. But instead she said they were bros. Marlon seemed happy with it though. So maybe her feelings wouldn’t be reciprocated.

Sophie shook herself out of her thoughts and swung herself upwards. She would just be the best bro ever then. Flying over and landing beside Marlon, she continued through the dark woods with him. They walked in content silence for a few minutes. Both of them didn’t seem too spooked yet. Although they would have to be careful to make sure Marlon’s head didn’t fall on the ground whenever the spooks did get to them. Sophie glanced over at the dullahan then back at the forest. “I got worms.”

“Excuse me?” Marlon looked over in confusion.

“In my pocket,” Sophie dug her hand into her pocket and revealed some pink worms that squirmed in her hands. “Y’know, for a snack. Want some?” She held out her hand with a casual grin.

“Oh, no thanks,” Marlon replied then glanced away.

Sophie looked at the dullahan then back at the worms. Great going, Sophie! That’s not how to be a good bro! Of course he didn’t want worms. He probably thinks eating bugs is weird.

“That’s cool. I’m not hungry either.” Sophie lied, stuffing the worms back into her pockets. Before Marlon could speak otherwise to her statement, the pair was cut off by the loud growling sound of the harpy’s stomach. Marlon and Sophie looked down at her stomach then at each other. Sophie gave a nervous laugh.

“Wow, ummmm….” Sophie’s eyes searched desperately for anything she could use as a topic. “Let’s take the right path!” She pointed her finger towards the right side of the woods.

“You sure?”

“Yep, right is always right! Right?” Sophie flashed a goofy smile.

Marlon gave a good natured laugh. “Okay. Y’know you could always fly above the tree line and find the best route.”

Sophie felt like an idiot for not thinking of that obvious solution. “Nah,” She waved a hand dismissively. “Where’s the excitement in that? Besides, it’s more fun to wander the woods with you,” She playfully nudged the dullahan’s shoulder, “Bro.”

“Right,” Marlon led the way, leaving Sophie alone with her thoughts. The harpy glanced up to the sky and wondered if it was the better call to just fly up and see the finish line.

------

“I think I see it,” Omar glanced up at Minnie. A few loose red feathers fluttered past Omar and down towards the trees below. The harpy and brownie bobbed slightly up and down with the beat of Minnie’s wings.

“You sure?” Minnie tilted her head as she looked down. A small bubble of anxiety was still in the pit of her stomach at putting this idea in action. Sure, she was careful with Omar and made sure her talons weren’t applying any pressure to the brownie, but she also had to make sure she wouldn’t drop him.

“Yes, if we take the left path for most of the way then veer right, we should make it out of the woods.”

“Okay, down we go then,” Minnie gently glided down towards the solid ground. A relieved twitter escaped her lips when Omar had successfully gotten to the ground safely.

“Good work,” The brownie held up his hand. Minnie leaned over ever so slightly and high-fived Omar.

“Yeah, go team!” Minnie cleared her throat. She hadn’t spent too much time alone with Omar, but from their shared Home Ec class he always seemed cool.

“Shall we?” Omar gestured to the left path.

“Yeah, let’s kick the other teams’ asses!” Minnie crowed and led the way. Omar jogged beside her, his feet softly pitter pattering on the dirt. He gave a soft laugh.

“Yeah, that would surprise them.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, we’re clearly the odd ones out in terms of why the others paired up.”

“True. But we’ll win and show that friends can win.”

Yeah,” Omar smiled up at the harpy. “The unlikely duo of a harpy and a brownie.”

Minnie returned the smile then looked back at the path. Both of them walked in silence for a little while before Minnie decided to start up a conversation.

“So….. Omar, why do you like cooking?” Minnie paused at her own question. It felt like such a stupid thing to ask a brownie.

Omar didn’t seem to view the question that way though. Instead of being annoyed or upset by the simple question, he gave it serious thought. “I like it because of the joy it brings.” Omar had such a gentle smile on his face as he spoke. “To see how happy my cooking makes others. It makes me feel happy. Feels like I have a gift worth pursuing that I want to pursue not because it’s something my fellow brownies say I should do, but because I want to.”

Minnie’s eyes widened, surprised by the thoughtful response. “Wow, shit. You’ve really thought it through.”

“I spend a lot of time with my thoughts,” Omar shrugged. “What about you, Minnie? Got any hidden gifts?”

“Well, ‘gift’ is a strong word. But I love singing. I wanna pursue it but I don’t know,” Minnie shook her head. “ It may just look fucking stupid to be known as a giant bird who sings.”

“I don’t think so.”

Minnie’s eyes shot over when she heard Omar’s statement.

“I say if it makes you happy you should pursue it.”

Minnie felt her heart warm at the brownie’s words. “So,” Minnie redirected the conversation. “Think anyone else will use their innate monster abilities to get to the end?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

-----

“Don’t worry, Jesse. I’ve got heightened eyesight,” James reassured his boyfriend who walked beside him. “So I won’t let anything happen to you now that-”

“Now that I’m basically blind,” Jesse sighed, his black snakes curled around the gorgon’s face, hissing softly as they searched the darkened woods. The world was already tinted darker to Jesse thanks to the special sunglasses he had to wear in order not to petrify others. But now that it was late at night, in the woods, with barely any natural light… Well, he might as well be blind.

“You’re not blind because you have me,” James smiled warmly over at his boyfriend and was met with some annoyed hisses from the snakes. “And your snakes.” The snakes moved back and forth, clearly happy with James’ correction. “Just follow my lead and everything will be okay.”

James strolled forward only to stop when he heard a soft thud beside him. Looking over, his eye grew large when he noticed that Jesse had faceplanted onto the ground. It seemed that he had tripped over a rock. A rock that James hadn’t seen.

“Jesse, I’m sorry!” James kneeled down to help up his boyfriend. “I didn’t see that rock.

“I figured,” Jesse had a small frown on his face. “I need my glasses,” Jesse turned his face away, his eyes firmly closed. He didn’t want to risk hurting James.

“Right, of course.” James searched the area, his eye quickly spotting the black sunglasses. Gently picking them up, he handed them back to the gorgon who gave a short thanks before placing them securely back on his face. “Ok, just give me one minute.” James didn’t wait for Jesse to respond and bolted off ahead. Gotta make sure there are no more rocks or sticks on the path. The cyclops made quick work throwing the rocks off the path and soon rejoined his boyfriend’s side. “I’m back.”

“What were you doing?” Jesse quirked an eyebrow. One of his snakes slithered forward and eyed the cyclops.

“Clearing the path. You won’t be tripping again.” James slowly intertwined his fingers with Jesse’s. “You ready for a nice walk?”

“A walk? Sure. How nice it will be depends on if I trip again.”

“You won’t.” James gave Jesse’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

Jesse turned towards James with a smirk. “I was teasing.” The gorgon looked back forward. “It's always nice walking with you.”

James’ eye grew large before softening. A happy smile appeared on his lips as his face grew pink. “Well then, let’s enjoy our walk.” James declared softly before he heard another thunk. Glancing over, he noticed that he had led Jesse straight into a tree.

“Jesse!”

Jesse rubbed his face with a groan, the snakes on his head hissing and spitting angrily. “No other team can be struggling as much as us.”

------

Brody felt her heart racing wildy as her eyes darted around the forest. It was a bit of struggle going through the dark woods. There was nothing inherently wrong with a nighttime walk through the woods. But that story Clem told had set the selkie’s heart racing. She could feel her heartbeat pounding softly in her ears as she pulled her sealskin closer to her.

“Don't worry, Brody!” Mitch smiled over his girlfriend. “I’ll make sure nothing gets to us! If there is some fucking psycho out here, he won’t stand a chance against us!”

Brody looked up at the minotaur with a warm smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” She grabbed her boyfriend’s hand which caused the minotaur’s tail to curl around his leg.

“I’ll punch anything that jumps out at us!” Mitch declared loudly as he walked alongside Brody.

“Just make sure it’s not one of our friends.” Brody gave a teasing smile over to her boyfriend.

Mitch returned the smile then focused on the woods ahead. His hoofs clacked softly against the dirt ground. “So, you ready for your next swim match?” The minotaur looked over to the selkie.

“Yeah, Coach Garcia has helped me out with a technique that will make my swimming even faster.”

“Heh, the competition better watch out. They’re gonna get their asses kicked this Thursday!”

“Damn right!” Brody had a proud smile on her face. She glanced down for a moment, pulling the sealskin closer around her as she stopped walking, causing Mitch to do the same. “Are you going to be able to come to the match?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t fucking miss it for the world!” Mitch’s statement made Brody look up and lock eyes with the minotaur. Getting up on tiptoes, Brody planted a soft kiss on Mitch’s cheek.

“Thanks, Mitch.”

Mitch had an excited smile on his face, his tail curling even further around his leg. “Come on, Brodes. Let’s be the first through the test of courage!”

Brody laughed goodnaturedly as she jogged to catch up to her boyfriend’s long strides. “There isn’t any prize.”

“Sure there is,”

Brody looked over with a curious expression.

“Bragging rights.”

“Alright, then let's get those bragging rights.”

“Hell yeah!”

Mitch and Brody continued, focused entirely on making it through the forest as quickly as they could.

----

Violet couldn’t care less how long it took to make it through the woods. It was nice here. The cool wind, the shining light of the moon. Her girlfriend’s hand in hers. She couldn’t think of a better way to spend an evening.

“It’s lovely tonight,” Prisha’s voice drew the werewolf’s attention. Her tail began to wag back and forth wildly when she saw how beautiful Prisha looked in the moonlight.

“Yeah,” Violet had a warm smile on her face as she looked at Prisha only to look away when she locked eyes with the vampire. “So, what direction should we go?”

Prisha shrugged. “I don’t have a preference. I’m quite enjoying our time in the woods.”

“Yeah, it’s nice here,” Violet’s tail swayed back and forth at a steady pace. Something about the woods always felt so comforting to Violet. Maybe it had something to do with her werewolf instincts. The stars looked super pretty tonight too. Violet’s tail wagged faster. This was the best test of courage she had ever done. It was the only one she had ever done, but the statement still held true.

“I remember when I used to live in the woods.” Prisha smiled around at the forestry. “Those years were so peaceful. Just the calming presence of the woods and me.” Prisha let out a happy sigh. “Those decades were so tranquil.” Prisha slipped her hand out of Violet’s and strolled over to examine a tree. “There was nothing quite like it.”

“Maybe I should leave you and the woods alone,” Violet grumbled, annoyed that Prisha was no longer beside her.

Prisha glanced over her girlfriend. “My, Violet, are you jealous of the woods?” The vampire had a teasing expression on her face.

“Why would I be jealous of some shitty trees,” Violet crossed her arms and looked away. Her words didn’t match up with her body language. Her tail had gone limp against her leg and her ears were sad and droopy. “Let’s just keep moving.” The werewolf sulked away further into the dark forest.

“Vi,” Prisha strolled forward. “You surely can’t think I was comparing these woods to you.”

Violet’s ears remained flat as she walked forward. “Doesn’t matter what I think.”

“It does to me,” Prisha reached out and grabbed Violet’s hand. Violet paused when she felt the cold embrace of the vampire’s hand. “Nothing compares to you.”

Violet looked up at Prisha with wide eyes. Her ears perked up and her tail slowly started wagging. “Except you.” Violet awkwardly rubbed the side of her arm. She shook her head. “No, wait, that sounded better in my head.”

Prisha smiled at her girlfriend and gently captured her lips in a kiss. Violet’s eyes grew large as her tail swayed widely back and forth. She leaned into the kiss for a moment then pulled away. They looked at each other with shy smiles. Violet had grabbed both of Prisha’s hands with a happy smile on her face. She leaned her head back and let out a joyful howl that echoed throughout the woods. An evening in the woods really was the best.

------

The woods were the worst. They were dark and scary and the sounds of creatures whispering from the trees made Louis’ skin crawl. Still, he wanted to prove that he had courage. That’s what the test was all about. He especially wanted to prove it to Clementine. He glanced over at the human who seemed comfortable strolling through the woods.

It was so odd, how Clem made him feel. Whenever he was with her he’d get really nervous and his heart would start pounding wildly. When it first happened he had wondered if it was due to the tea he had on the way to school. But that had only happened when he had caffeine and the tea didn’t have that. After observing the others, Louis figured he had what they had: love sickness. Is that the right term? Louis cocked his head to the side in thought when he noticed Clementine look over at him. The pair glanced at each other then shared a quick smile before looking away. There it was again. His heart was acting wild, he could feel his face heating up too.

“So, think we’ll finish first?” Clementine glanced over at the frankenstein.

“Yeah! We’ll show them what we’re capable of.” Louis had a confident smile on his face.

“Not scared of the woods?” Clementine had a playful smile on her lips.

“Who, me? Nah,” Louis shook his head and flashed the biggest smile he could. “The woods should be scared of me!” He lifted up his arm and flexed it.

Clementine chuckled. “They should be terrified.”

“Exactly,” Louis strode forward, a new wave of confidence coursing through his veins. Clementine joined his side when all of the sudden a howl echoed throughout the woods, causing some of the birds to fly up from their nests and into the sky. “Ahhh!’ Louis yelped and jumped into Clementine’s arms.

Clementine could feel her heart racing but it wasn’t because of the sound. It was the fact that Louis was in her arms. She could feel her face heating up when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that one of Louis’ hands had come off and was flying through the air. Pivoting her legs, she reached out one of her hands and caught the loose limb.

She looked at the frankenstein’s hand wriggling within her own. This wasn’t exactly how she envisioned holding Louis’ hand for the first time. When she first came to Ericson, she wasn’t sure if she’d get along with the monsters. But now here she was in the woods holding the monster she had caught feelings for. Clementine shook herself out of her thoughts. She needed to focus.

“Thanks, Clem!” Louis’s cheery voice made the human turn her head to look towards the frankenstein. That’s when she noticed how close their faces were. Both of their faces took on a shade of blush as they looked away.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Clementine set down Louis who brushed off his clothes when he noticed he was missing one of his appendages. He turned his head wildly, making his dreadlocks bounce here and there.

“Need a hand?” Clementine twisted her hand back and forth, displaying the hand.

“Oh, thanks.” Louis took the hand and reattached it with a small pop. “Gotta had some more stitches next time.” The two smiled at each other for a few seconds too long then both glanced away again.

“So, shall I take the lead?” Clementine gestured to the path in front of them.

“I couldn’t think of a better guide.” Louis soon followed Clem, leaning closer to her whenever there was a sound that spooked him. Clementine noticed the frankenstein’s nerves and decided to lighten the mood with some casual conversation. The pair soon got caught up in their talks, so much so they barely noticed when they made it to the finish line. Only two other pairs were there so far.

“That’s bullshit,” Mitch huffed, his tail flicking back and forth. “Brody and I totally got here first!”

“Oh really?” Jesse had a smug smirk on his face. “Because how I remember it is that you two showed up after us.”

“Guys, come on, there’s no need to fight,” James tried to step between them and waved his hands back and forth.

“Mitch, it’s not a big deal.” Brody added from the sidelines.

“It is to me! I-” Mitch stopped when he noticed Clem and Louis. “Looks like others are showing up.”

The others turned and saw the frankenstein and human giggling with each other, still not noticing the other monsters.

“They’re cute,” James smiled as he watched.

“They’re dumbasses,” Mitch shook his head. “Just gotta go for it.”

“Says the minotaur that got asked out instead of doing the asking.” Jesse smirked.

Mitch was about to speak up but Brody beat him to it. “Hey, you two over here!” She waved at Louis and Clem who waved back and strolled over.

“Hey, guys! Looks like we made it through the test of courage!” Louis smiled proudly.

“Is it just you guys so far?’ Clementine asked before glancing back at the woods.

“Yeah, I’m sure the others aren’t far behind though,” James said with an optimistic expression. The three pairs sat down in the clearing and waited for the others.

Minnie and Omar were the next pair to make it through. Both were smiling and talking about something when Omar noticed the others. The next couple didn’t appear out of the woods but rather on the outer perimeter. Ruby and Aasim quickly let go of each other’s hands when they noticed the others. The dryad and fire elemental soon joined the group and got caught up in discussing the beauty of the woods when they heard an excited crow. No one even had to look to know it was Sophie. The harpy flew up in the air and did some quick circles before landing beside the dullahan again, exclaiming proudly how they weren’t last place. After a few more minutes, Prisha and Violet appeared from the woods. Both seemed perfectly content with taking their time. The werewolf’s tail wagged happily as she strolled forward with the vampire.

“Are we last?” Prisha looked around at the others. “Damn, how unfortunate.” The other monsters shared a look; it was clear based on the vampire’s expression that she didn’t mean it.

“Well, looks like everyone made it through.” Clementine looked around her circle of friends.

“Yep!” Sophie chirped. “We showed that test of courage who was boss!”

“We should do a victory cheer!” Louis’ suggestion had all the monsters unsure as he stuck his hand in the middle of the circle.

“Sounds good to me,” Clementine added her hand into the circle and caught the teasing look in Violet’s eyes. “What?”

“Nothing.” Violet shrugged and added her hand. One by one the other monsters added their hands into the pile.

“Goooooooo, monster pals!” Louis shoot his hand in the air along with others who look confused by the cheer.

“We definitely need a better cheer,” Violet shook her head.

“Well, we could always make a new one one next time.” Clementine offered.

“Oh? Are we gonna do this again?” Sophie bounced excitedly on her talons.

“Only if the rest of you want to.”

The group of monsters started to grow loud, each monster adding in their opinion until it was decided upon. This wouldn’t be the only test of courage these young monsters would face. As Clementine glanced around at her friends, she could tell that they were excited for next time, whenever that might be.