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girl-next-door-writes · 1 month ago

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Seize the Day

Characters: George Weasley x reader

Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, George Weasley struggles to find joy again until a chance encounter with you, a bright and determined customer, changes everything. As friendship blossoms into something deeper, you help him realize that today—and every day—is a good day to try.

Word Count: 1379 words

Prompt: ‘Today is a good day to try.’

A/N: This is one for the amazingly wonderful @caplanbuckybarnes NOT the decades challenge but the Disney Celebration!

It had been three years since the Battle of Hogwarts, but the wounds—seen and unseen—were still healing. The wizarding world was slowly piecing itself back together, just like the broken castle that now stood tall and proud despite its scars. George Weasley had found himself at the heart of the reconstruction efforts, not only helping with the restoration but also running Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley. Business was booming, but it didn’t fill the void. It didn’t make him feel whole again.

The bustling streets of Diagon Alley provided a distraction most days. There was always someone to make laugh, a prank to pull, or a product to test. Yet, in the quiet moments, when the laughter died down and the shop doors closed for the evening, George was left with the silence. The deafening, lonely silence.

It was on a particularly chilly Friday morning when you first walked into the shop, the bell over the door jingling with a cheerful chime that seemed at odds with the heaviness in George's heart. You were searching for a gift—a little something for your younger cousin, who was about to start his first year at Hogwarts. Your bright eyes scanned the shelves, taking in the colorful chaos that was Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

George noticed you the moment you walked in, not just because you were the only customer that early, but because there was something about the way you carried yourself, as though you had purpose in every step you took. Your smile was infectious, spreading warmth through the shop that even the enchanted heating charm couldn't match.

"Morning," George greeted, his voice rough from the chill and lack of use. "Looking for anything in particular, or just browsing for a laugh?"

You turned towards him with a grin. "A bit of both, I think. I’m trying to find something special for my cousin. It’s his first year, and I want him to have a good time. Hogwarts is magical enough, but a little bit of mischief never hurt anyone, right?"

The corners of George's lips twitched into the beginnings of a real smile, the kind he hadn't felt in too long. "I’ve got just the thing," he said, gesturing for you to follow him towards a display filled with Skiving Snackboxes. “These are great for dodging classes...not that I’d recommend that, of course.”

You laughed, a bright sound that seemed to make the shelves of Fanged Frisbees and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder shimmer a little more. “I think I’d have loved these when I was at school,” you said, shaking your head. “Though I doubt McGonagall would’ve been as amused.”

He chuckled, a lightness in his chest that felt unfamiliar but welcome. "Yeah, she had a way of ruining our fun. But what are rules for, if not bending just a little?"

The conversation flowed as you explored the shop, and George found himself asking questions—simple things about where you were from, what you did for a living—and listening to your answers with genuine interest. He couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed talking to someone new. There was a spark in your eyes that made him want to know more about you, and he couldn’t help but wonder what you thought of him.

When you finally chose a Pygmy Puff named Milo, George wrapped it up with extra care, even adding a small charmed ribbon that changed colors with the seasons. "On the house," he said, when you went to hand him the Galleons.

You raised a brow. "Oh no, I couldn’t. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“Think of it as a little first-year gift. For your cousin,” he added quickly, a bit flustered. “It’s just nice to have a chat with someone who doesn’t want to turn me into a Canary Cream.”

"Well, thank you, George. I’ll definitely have to come back if this little guy is a hit." Your gaze lingered on him for a moment, a silent promise in your smile. With a final wave, you walked out of the shop, leaving George standing there with a sense of anticipation that had long been absent from his life.

Days passed, and then weeks. Each time you returned, the conversations between you and George grew longer. You stopped by even when you didn’t need to buy anything, just to chat and joke. The shop became a place of comfort for both of you—a bubble where time seemed to slow down, where the weight of the world felt a little lighter.

But there was something George hadn’t told you, something that gnawed at him whenever he was about to suggest meeting outside the shop. He wasn’t the same George he had been before the war. He wasn’t whole, not really. He had lost Fred, his twin, his other half. The shop—his laughter, his energy—it was all a performance most days, a way of pretending that life wasn’t a constant ache. He feared that if you saw the real him, you’d walk away. And he wasn’t sure he could bear that.

It wasn’t until a particularly rainy afternoon in late autumn, when you showed up drenched to the bone, that the dam finally broke. You burst into the shop, laughing as you shook the rain from your hair. “I swear, it was sunny five minutes ago,” you exclaimed, your eyes bright with amusement.

George handed you a towel, shaking his head. "The weather’s as temperamental as Filch on a bad day. You alright?"

“Perfectly alright,” you said, grinning up at him as you patted your hair dry. “Though I think I might’ve left my good luck behind. Bad timing on my part.”

“Maybe it’s just today’s way of reminding us that… well, that today’s a good day to try,” he said, almost absentmindedly. The words hung in the air, resonating between you two. He had spoken them before even realizing what they meant to him.

“A good day to try what?” you asked softly.

“Anything.” His gaze met yours, and he felt a shift, like the world was tilting and righting itself at the same time. “Anything that scares you. Anything that makes you feel alive again.”

There was a pause, filled only by the soft pitter-patter of rain against the shop’s windows. George could feel his pulse quickening, uncertainty mixing with the courage that had taken root in him, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Well,” you said at last, stepping closer to him. “I think today is a good day to try being brave.”

You reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from his face with slightly damp fingers. George’s breath hitched, his heart pounding. Without another thought, he closed the distance between you, pressing his lips to yours in a kiss that was tentative at first, but deepened with every second. It felt like a release, like the first breath after being underwater for far too long.

When you finally pulled away, your foreheads resting together, George let out a shaky laugh. “Merlin, I’ve been wanting to do that for ages,” he admitted.

You smiled, your hands still resting on his chest. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Fear, I suppose.” His voice was quiet. “I wasn’t sure I knew how to be happy again. Not properly.”

Your gaze was steady, and in it, he saw the same determination that had drawn him to you from the start. “You don’t have to be perfect to be happy, George. You just have to let yourself try.”

The words hit him with the force of a revelation. In that moment, with you standing there, soaked from the rain and looking at him like he was the only person in the world who mattered, George felt a kind of warmth that he hadn’t known in years.

You stayed with him in the shop until closing time that day, and then, when he asked if you’d like to grab dinner, you said yes without hesitation. It was only the first of many days that you spent together, some good, some difficult. But you faced each one side by side, with the promise that, no matter what, you’d keep trying.

After all, today was a good day to try. And tomorrow would be, too.

#George Weasley #George Weasley x reader #caplan's Disney Celebration #gndw fic

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caplanbuckybarnes · 8 months ago

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Caplan's Disney Celebration

Rules:

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Dialogue Prompts

"Take it with you so you'll always have a way to look back ... and remember me."

"Have you ever seen something so wonderful in your entire life?"

“How did you survive being locked up in a castle for all this time?”

“What do you mean, you’re the lost princess?”

"Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten"

“It’s called a cruel irony, like my dependence on you.”

“I warn you child. If I lose my temper, you lose your head. Understand?!”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t turn your back on me.”

“A true loves kiss. If only there was someone out there who loved you.”

"Today is a good day to try"

"Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours"

"If you ain’t scared, you ain’t alive"

"Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day"

"He fell into despair, and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?"

“You really shouldn’t come back here, you know. It’s not safe.”

“I told you to stay away from this wing!”

“He was this close—just staring at me.”

“Do you trust me?”

“(And) You will always be in my heart.”

“I especially love his smile.”

“New and a bit alarming.”

“Now kiss her.”

“How can I prove myself if no one will give me a chance?”

“People around here think I’m crazy, but I don’t care.”

“I’m a damsel. I’m in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.”

“Guys….I want a castle.”

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”

“When I look at you, I can feel it. I look at you, and I’m home.”

“Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.”

“There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”

“It was worth it…if you learned something from it.”

“You deliberately disobeyed me.”

“I’m surrounded by idiots.”

“How could you do that to me?”

Song Lyric prompts

“And I’ve got friends on the other side.” - Dr. Facilier, “Friends on the Other Side”,

“But you’ll be rewarded when at last I am given my dues. And injustice deliciously squared! Be prepared.”

“I admit that in the past I’ve been a nasty. They weren’t kidding when they called me, well, a witch.”

“If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will.”

“I’ve reached the top and had to stop and that’s what botherin’ me.”

“Ain't got time for messing around”

“People down here think I'm crazy”

“I put a spell on you, and now you’re mine.

“Don’t forget it, you’ll regret it.”

“Every hour we spent together Lives within my heart”

“Never thought she'd look my way And she smiled at me and held me”

“I was the master of my fate.”

“I learned the truth too late.”

“I let her steal into my melancholy heart.”

“I'm where I'm meant to be”

“He has never been one of us.”

“Now I know she’ll never leave me.”

“I should thank you...but it’d be more fun to kill you.”

“This crown gives me a feeling of power!”

“It’s not my fault, I’m not to blame”

“He asked for trouble the moment he came”

#CaplansDisneyCelebration

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nrip · 6 years ago

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Doctors and nurses on Instagram: influencers like Doctor Mike are everywhere

Sarah’s Instagram feed is pretty typical for a 21-year-old model-slash-influencer living in Florida. Here she is standing dreamily in front of some ferns. Over here she’s clutching Starbucks’s new Cloud Macchiato. She poses on porches, by murals, in bathrooms, often with lengthy captions that reveal what she’s up to this weekend (wedding planning, working), words of inspiration, and her very relatable love of donuts.

There’s one important difference: In all of them, she’s wearing scrubs.

Which is appropriate, considering “shesinscrubs” is her username. Along with modeling, Sarah, who asked not to reveal her last name, is a registered nurse. Over the course of just four months she has amassed an Instagram following of more than 11,000 people.

Being a nursefluencer, a term that I have admittedly made up but that describes a growing population, is similar to being a regular influencer: You get someone to take pictures (for Sarah, it’s her little brother), you post often (once a day or else the algorithm will bury you, Sarah tells me), and promote products (like almost everyone I spoke to for this piece, Sarah receives free scrubs from the brand Figs).

On the other hand, regular influencers don’t usually have to worry about whether promoting, say, CBD oil violates medical ethics. HIPAA, the law that protects patient privacy and medical records, is also presumably not a high-priority consideration.

But for Sarah, and many young health care professionals like her, a sizeable Instagram following is a salve for a litany of problems experienced by those in the field: burnout, odd hours, and a lack of a creative outlet, to start. So it’s not surprising that within the past few months, tons of accounts like hers have popped up, gaining huge followings — largely made up of fellow medical professionals — by posting an insider’s view of the industry.

It’s also raised questions about the ethics of being a health care influencer. After all, isn’t the only person who should be influencing anyone’s health their own doctor?

Where did medical influencers come from?

Instagram is a place where you are supposed to show off how “well” you’re doing, even if you’re not doing very well at all. Scroll through the feed and you’re likely to see signifiers of social wellness (friends), mental wellness (books and bathtubs), and physical wellness (yoga and photogenic health foods) that might bear negligible resemblance to one’s actual life.

Those who have succeeded at performing that wellness the most palatably for the platform have been rewarded with millions of followers, which in turn can bring brand deals and, with that, money. It’s created a new class of microcelebrities who, intentionally or not, wield enormous influence over how others live their lives, or at least how they present their lives on social media.

“I SEE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME ADVERTISE THINGS LIKE, ‘MY SPECIALTY IS COSMETIC DENTISTRY. THERE IS NO SPECIALTY OF COSMETIC DENTISTRY. IT’S NOT A RECOGNIZED DENTAL SUBSPECIALTY.”

While most of the time when we think of wellness influencers, we might think of acro-yoga couples or, on the extreme end, people like Freelee the Banana Girl, the nude vegan vlogger who lives in a South American jungle and eats exclusively fruit, there are some accounts that are actively harmful: Instagram has contended with a serious anti-vaccine conspiracy theory problem, for instance. Its algorithmic recommendation engine can also conflate many types of “health” content, so that following one anti-vaccination account might push you to follow dozens of others, but could also group them alongside accounts promoting innocuous things like plant-based diets.

Health care influencers who have flooded the site within the past few years say they’re fighting back against that kind of social media misinformation. Many nurses and doctors on Instagram combine the cute, aspirational lifestyle aesthetic of regular fashion and beauty influencers with actual medical tips from a vetted professional.

There are now so many medical professionals on Instagram that at least one hospital has created an entire position to govern it. Austin Chiang, MD, a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, also holds the position of chief medical social media officer, which he guesses might be the first of its kind in the country. “I always felt strongly that we need a stronger clinician presence on social media in order to really battle misinformation out there,” he says.

It’s why last fall, he and a few peers launched the hashtag campaign #VerifyHealthcare, which encouraged health care professionals on social media to list their qualifications, such as their education, specializations, and board certifications. “A lot of us had started noticing health professionals who were saying that they were some sort of practitioner when they actually were not,” he says. “If they’re talking about health and marketing themselves as doctors, then the public could be misled.”

Many of the top Instagram posts related to plastic surgery, for instance, are from doctors not specially trained in plastic surgery despite the fact that they’ve marketed themselves as “cosmetic surgeons.” Naturopaths, chiropractors, and aestheticians are also typically not medical doctors, but some may present themselves on social media as such.

Concerns like these have been top of mind for people like Arthur L. Caplan, the founding director of NYU’s Division of Medical Ethics. “I see people all the time advertise things like, ‘My specialty is cosmetic dentistry.’” he says. “There is no specialty of cosmetic dentistry. It’s not a recognized dental subspecialty.”

On Instagram, health care isn’t just a day job anymore, it’s a personal brand, and an increasingly lucrative one at that: All the health care influencers I spoke to had seen their followings skyrocket in the past year, which some hope will lead to bigger brand deals.

But wait, why do doctors need side hustles?

Dentist Joyce Kahng has more than 13,000 followers on the account she launched just a year ago, @joycethedentist. When she first started, she posted up-close images of teeth (she used her family members’ due to HIPAA concerns) because that’s what she saw other dentists doing. But, she said, laughing, “those weren’t being received well by normal people.”

Instead, the content that performs best on the page now is about her life as a dentist in addition to owning her own practice and being a professor at USC. Being likable and accessible, she says, has also translated into business: Around three-quarters of her new patients have found her via Instagram. “It gives you a competitive edge against the already saturated dental market,” she explains.

Despite health care being a relatively stable and high-paying industry, Kahng sees her growing Instagram following as an investment. “In some future, I do want to start to monetize it because at some point I need to have kids,” she says. “I just haven’t figured out the way in which to do it that doesn’t make me feel like a sellout.”

This is when I ask her the very obvious question: If an extremely successful dentist, business owner, and professor is worried about not being able to afford children, what hope do the rest of us have?

“Dentistry does pay well,” she explains. “The thing is, you have to work in order to be paid. It’s not like a corporate job where you can call in sick. If I don’t come in, every single person that I employ cannot work that day. I just imagine being pregnant and having to miss work for a month, [and] the office cannot run. That concerns me.”

It’s not as if health care professionals haven’t always had side hustles. The internet is filled with tips on how to make extra money as a nurse — RNs can make, on average, from $50,000 to nearly $100,000 depending on the state where they live, but when adjusted for cost of living, that number can be lower. It’s also a job that has a high rate of burnout due to the stressful work environment and difficult working conditions, which means that not everyone can or wants to make it a lifelong career.

Many nurses have recently turned to multilevel marketing as a way to supplement their incomes or as a path out of the field. And though none of the influencers I spoke to were making serious (if any) money on Instagram, most acknowledged the possibility of doing so in the future.

“I don’t think it’s fair to be like, ‘You’re a nurse, you care for other people, therefore you’re not allowed to benefit yourself financially,’” says Katy B (who also asked to keep her last name private), a registered nurse in San Francisco with more than 25,000 followers. “Most of us have a lot of student debt and trying to stay afloat. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it as long as you’re being transparent about what you’re doing.”

Spon con, HIPAA, and medical advice: the ethics of being an Instagram doctor

That transparency, of course, comes hand in hand with the question of sponcon, or sponsored content. For the average influencer, it’s pretty simple: A brand pays them a sum of money to endorse a product, like laxative teas or viral YouTube toys, in a way that leverages their large following.

It’s different, though, when you’re also leveraging your expertise and reputation as a doctor, dentist, or nurse. Scroll through most health care influencers’ Instagram feeds and you’re likely to see at least a few #ads. Some are innocuous: Many influencers have deals with the aforementioned scrubs brand Figs, while others promote products like stethoscope charms shaped like Disney characters that can help keep nervous kids calm during checkups.

Though few peddle the kind of questionable medical treatments shilled by celebrities like Dr. Oz (rapid weight-loss pills with harmful side effects, for instance) some toe the very blurry line about what’s appropriate for a health care professional to post. Mike Varshavski, a cartoonishly handsome New York City physician who goes by the name Doctor Mike on Instagram and has more than 3 million followers, regularly posts sponsored content for everything from Clorox bleach to Quaker Oats and American Express, which could create the perception that these corporations are somehow medically approved by this doctor. (Disclosure: Doctor Mike has participated in a Vox Media panel event.)

Even average Instagram influencers now shill drugs and medical devices paid for by Big Pharma, without necessarily any real knowledge of how they work. When products fall under the health umbrella, the ethical questions are even more complicated. The Federal Trade Commission does have specific guidelines for doctor endorsements. For example, doctors should not misrepresent their specific areas of expertise. But it still raises the question: Should a doctor be paid to promote essential oils? What about NyQuil?

“I’m not sure [doctors] have any place [promoting over-the-counter products] other than to say, ‘I’m a regular user.’ I think it still undermines their professional credibility,” Caplan says. “When you start endorsing, say, aromatherapy, you’re saying you had a great time at a spa and you felt it really helped your anxiety or something. You’re getting into pseudo-medicine stuff. Some of those things can make you feel better, but you don’t want to give them scientific endorsement.”

It’s a debate that’s somewhat reminiscent of decades-long concerns about pharmaceutical companies paying or wooing doctors to prescribe their products. But this, Caplan explains, isn’t the way it works anymore. “You don’t have the old, ‘We’re gonna bring you donuts every week and you keep writing prescriptions for our drug.’”

THERE’S NOTHING IN THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH THAT CLAIMS THOU SHALT NOT HASHTAG #AD

“It’s not that everybody suddenly became ethical,” he said, laughing. Rather, now pharmaceutical companies can market directly to the patient. “There’s the ads that are like, ‘Ask your doctor about this cancer medication.’ If you have to ask your doctor about a cancer medication, you need a new cancer doctor.”

Sponcon, however, is not the main ethical concern for most health care influencers — after all, doctors and nurses endorse products all the time; as long as they comply with FTC advertising disclosure guidelines, there’s nothing in the Hippocratic oath that claims thou shalt not hashtag #ad.

Instead, that concern is HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law that provides privacy and security protections for patients’ medical information. Under HIPAA, all patients have the ability to see how and where their medical records are being used and prevent them from being seen by their employer or insurance company. And unlike shilling over-the-counter drugs, violating HIPAA is a fireable offense. The problem, though, is that HIPAA existed a decade and a half before Instagram did.

“It’s not as simple as not mentioning someone’s name,” Chiang explains. “Instagram is visual, so you see a lot of procedural photos. There are certainly risks in that. There’s even risks in geo-tagging or talking about a case that you’re doing.”

Some doctors and surgeons have achieved enormous followings on social media by posting procedural videos from the gross (Sandra Lee, who goes by the nickname “Dr. Pimple Popper”) to the straight-up gory. In 2015, Dr. Michael Salzhauer, or “Dr. Miami” began posting graphic videos of himself performing butt lifts, breast surgery, and liposuction on Snapchat, which regularly garnered more than a million views.

Dr. Miami reportedly secured permission from his patients to do so. Every influencer I spoke to listed HIPAA as one of their top concerns and said they were diligent about not posting anything that might cross a line.

“You can change the date, gender, or demographic, but someone from [their] work or family could recognize the case no matter how much you change about it,” Sarah says. “I would be scared to even think about posting about any of my patients. Maybe one of them saying, ‘You were a nice nurse.’”

Instagram is offering prospective doctors and nurses a look inside their world, and a way to deal with the stress

Though weighing the ethical questions like HIPAA and sponcon can be thorny, health care influencers also provide a genuine service for those interested in joining the field.

Like Kahng, Katy started her Instagram page after seeing similar accounts, and today, the majority of her followers are fellow health care professionals or aspiring ones. Though she originally went to college with the goal of being a physician, she realized it wasn’t for her. Now she’s on track to receive her master’s in June, when she will become a pediatric primary care nurse practitioner.

“I DON’T THINK IT’S FAIR TO BE LIKE, ‘YOU’RE A NURSE, YOU CARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE, THEREFORE YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BENEFIT YOURSELF FINANCIALLY.’”

“My main goal is to share what my journey looks like, because in health care, especially for folks that aren’t familiar with the professional fields, there’s so many different things that you can do,” she says. “It’s cool when we all share our unique perspective of what it actually looks like on the human side.”

This explains why accounts like hers have been able to grow so quickly in such short amounts of time: There’s a real hunger among prospective medical professionals to get a sense of what the job and the lifestyle really look like.

“We’re so at risk for burnout, because we spend a lot of time taking care of other people, and I think sometimes we forget how to take care of ourselves,” she adds. “We have to brag about the cool things that we do!”

What you don’t see on Katy’s Instagram page — for reasons that are very obvious and very necessary — is her actual job. She’s currently in an emergency pediatric psychiatric care unit, where she works with children up to age 17 who are experiencing immediate psychiatric crises.

It’s difficult to imagine how the stress of such an environment can affect a person, but it does help explain why so many Instagram nurses and doctors fill their feeds with a heavily curated stream of bright and shiny images. For those who work in emergency rooms, it’s impossible to predict what the day will bring. But on Instagram, everything’s perfectly controlled.

Dustin Harris, a resident emergency room physician in Chicago, deals with the stress using humor. He’d done some standup, and started posting the funny things patients would say to Facebook. On his Instagram page, where he has nearly 18,000 followers, he posts jokes, memes, and sometimes even haikus relating to the job.

“My favorite part about it is making people laugh. It keeps me balanced. I’ll be working and I’ll see some disease, and be like, ‘Oh man, I could write a funny rap about this.’ The human body is a funny thing sometimes.”

“TV has portrayed medicine as being very dramatic or sexy,” he adds. “I felt that I could show the more real version of it. Not that those things that happen don’t ever happen, like awesome procedures or people coming back to life, but that’s not every day.”

Making light of the often dark professional realities of health care is how Sarah, the nurse in Florida, built her following in the first place. She’d started the meme account @scrublifenurses last June, which then gave her the skills and platform to launch her own personal page. Memes there range from the silly (a video of a possum carrying her babies captioned with “When you’re the only seasoned nurse on the floor with a bunch of new grads”) to the serious (the phrase “A national effort for safe staffing ratios for nurses” combined with the viral clip of Mo’nique saying “I would like to see it.”).

“A lot of our job is dealing with human emotion, and you can bring that home pretty easily,” Sarah says. “If you just bottle it all up and you already have issues with your own mental health, it can be extremely detrimental and then you lose your love for your passion.”

On both her meme account and her personal page, Sarah often posts about topics like mental health, the importance of nurses’ unions, and other national health care issues. That, of course, in addition to the stylized photos typical of influencers. “I like to post [photos that show] this isn’t what it really is, but at the same time have an aesthetically pleasing feed. It’s kind of like you have control over something, but when you’re at work it’s chaos.”

Nursefluencers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon

The benefits of being a health care professional with a big Instagram following — having a creative outlet, the ability to market oneself, and the sense that you’re combating misinformation on the internet, for instance — mean that the phenomenon isn’t likely going to slow down.

One problem, though, is that medical students aren’t exactly taught how to use Instagram responsibly. Caplan, the medical ethicist, says that at most they’ll get a single lecture on social media, which he attributes to the generation gap. While most current medical students have grown up using social media, their professors didn’t, and may not be prepared to advise them on the peculiarities of the health care internet.

In a piece for Slate in November 2018, medical student Vishal Khetpal wrote about how organizations and companies would approach him and his classmates to appear in white coats while endorsing products or attending events despite the fact that they weren’t actually doctors yet.

“The uncharted ethics of social media are already confusing,” he writes, “and that’s before you add in the influence of outside interests, many of which are ready to take advantage of students’ ability to offer some stamp of medical authority to the general public about a product or idea without asking too many questions.”

“ANYONE WHO THINKS THEY’RE GOING TO STOP THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY PHYSICIANS OR NURSES IS OVER 40.

Confusion over what’s okay to post is a constant struggle. It’s why Chiang has launched the Association for Healthcare Social Media, which is currently in the process of obtaining a 501c3 designation before opening itself up to members.

“I think a lot of physicians are almost scared to get on social media because of the restrictive nature of how things were worded in the past,” he says. “We want people to share their experiences and share their expertise.”

Traditionally, health care professionals were discouraged from revealing anything about their personal lives in the public. But, thanks in part to Instagram, that’s changing.

“[There are] some old fogies who think, ‘Well, doctors shouldn’t be sharing personal information or talking about their lives in places the patients could find it, blah, blah,’” Caplan says. “Anyone who thinks they’re going to stop the use of social media by physicians or nurses is over 40. It’s just not going to stop. We have to adjust.”

Kahng, for her part, says that now, she makes sure to teach her USC students to build up their social media presence. “They invest so much money into their education and at the end of it, who knows?” she says. “They may not like dentistry, and I want them to have a following so that they don’t feel quite as trapped. They have something to lean on.”

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netunleashed-blog · 6 years ago

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How Reese Witherspoon Turned Female Empowerment into a Media Empire

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=5463 How Reese Witherspoon Turned Female Empowerment into a Media Empire - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=5463 When Reese Witherspoon founded the production company Type A Films in 2000, she was still very much seen as an actress first: a rising performer from Pleasantville, Cruel Intentions and Election who, at 24, wasn’t yet known as the eventual A-list star of 2001’s Legally Blonde. While the company produced the first installment and its sequel (Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde) and lighter films like Four Christmases, it wasn’t until Witherspoon merged her production company with Bruna Papandrea's Make Movies to create Pacific Standard in 2012 that there was a noticeable shift in Witherspoon’s career -- which was years beyond her 2006 Oscar win for Walk the Line and iconic rom-coms -- and the types of stories she wanted to tell.“I was really seeing a deficit in the marketplace of strong female roles and women as the lead in films," Witherspoon, 38 at the time, told ET in 2014, emphasizing the personal “responsibility” she felt to tackle that deficit head-on. “I realized if I wasn't going to start creating these opportunities for myself and other women, nobody was going to do it.”With the back-to-back releases of Gone Girl, Wild and Hot Pursuit -- the latter two of which starred the actress -- Reese Witherspoon the power producer emerged. Two years later, Pacific Standard followed the films up with the HBO juggernaut Big Little Lies,starring Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, with both actresses serving as executive producers. In the intervening time, Witherspoon parted ways with Papandrea and founded Hello Sunshine, of which Pacific Standard is now a subsidiary, with a focus on telling female-driven stories across all platforms. Its singular mission: “to change the narrative for women.”“I think about the little girls out there who watch women be the architect for their own stories and write their own stories and produce them and act in them and take the power back,” Witherspoon told ET in 2017. “[I’m] motivated by motivating them.”Following the ratings and awards success of Big Little Lies, which includes eight Emmys wins (helping women dominate the 69th awards), four Golden Globes and the ignition of the Laura Dern-aissance, suddenly “everyone wanted to be in business with me as a producer in the TV space,” the actress told the New York Times in January.In the months following the 2017 Emmy Awards, news broke that the actress would be producing and starring in TV projects for Apple (an untitled series starring Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston) and Hulu (Little Fires Everywhere), and Big Little Lies would be returning to HBO for a second season (with Meryl Streep joining the cast for added star power) under the Hello Sunshine banner. Since then, a number of upcoming film and TV projects for the producer -- a new comedy from 30 Rock producer Colleen McGuinness and Are You Sleeping on Apple, A White Lie starring Zendaya, Legally Blonde 3 -- have been announced.Reese Witherspoon speaking with press at the European premiere of 'A Wrinkle In Time.' Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Disney By 2018, Hello Sunshine -- which, it should be mentioned, features Sarah Harden (CEO), Rachel Spiegelman (head of brand studio), Charlotte Koh (head of digital media & programming) and Lauren Levy Neustadter (head of film & television) in key leadership roles -- had expanded even further by bringing Reese’s Book Club to Audible, launching an original podcast series and partnering with AT&T (owner of Otter Media, an investor in Witherspoon’s company) to create a female filmmakers lab and the Hello Sunshine Video On Demand Channel. The channel will launch with two new shows, including an unscripted interview series hosted by Witherspoon. The latest move not only puts Witherspoon in Oprah Winfrey territory, but has turned Hello Sunshine into a full-fledged female-centric media empire with unyielding potential and cultural buzz.(If any more proof was needed, the fifth season of Younger, which premiered in June, features a subplot involving the show’s central fictional book publisher brokering a deal with Hello Sunshine to not only option the film rights to one of their books, but partner on a “content incubator” because their female-centric companies align. The storyline, while fictional, is astutely on brand.)While Big Little Lies proved to be an unsurmounted success, how each subsequent project will land largely remains to be seen. But for Witherspoon, “it shouldn’t just be about financial success,” she told Marie Claire in February. “We should have as many opportunities to fail as we do succeed. Because artistry is not about succeeding always. It’s about having the courage to try and put out into the world new ideas.”And with seemingly limitless ideas and no signs of slowing down, there’s no shortage of women in Hollywood ready to work with her. Aniston, Kidman, Streep, McGuinness, Are You Sleeping creator Nicole Tramble and star Octavia Spencer and Little Fires Everywhere showrunner Liz Tigelaar and co-star Kerry Washington are all now part of Witherspoon’s growing legion of female partners, with seemingly more to come. “I’m excited to be on the receiving end of her brilliance,” Spencer said.After recently befriending Witherspoon, Girls Trip breakout Tiffany Haddish spoke to ET about the potential of that relationship. “Reese has a production company and I have a production company now, so we might be production-ing,” she teased. “We probably gonna create some magic.”'Big Little Lies' stars Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz attend ELLE's Annual Women In Television Celebration 2017. Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for ELLE With so much magic in the mix, here’s what Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine have in the works and how they’re empowering women across all platforms:TVBig Little Lies Season TwoCurrently filming, the show about the intertwined lives of California-based mothers reunites the main cast -- Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz -- with writer and executive producer David E. Kelley, who expands the story adapted from Liane Moriarty’s best-selling book. “It gives us the opportunity to delve deeper into the lives of these intriguing and intricate Monterey families,” Witherspoon said in a statement. Streep joins the cast as Kidman’s mother-in-law with Andrea Arnold taking over for Jean-Marc Vallée, who directed the first season, as well as HBO’s Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams. “Andrea’s unique storytelling style will be a welcome addition to the filmmaking team,” Witherspoon added.Little Fires EverywhereBased on Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller about two families living in 1990s Shaker Heights, Ohio, Little Fires Everywhere is an upcoming eight-episode Hulu miniseries co-starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, both of whom will executive produce. “At Hello Sunshine, we strive to shine a light on female-driven stories that are rooted in inspiration, emotion and truth -- all of which form the bedrock of Celeste Ng's ingenious work,” Witherspoon said in a statement. “She is just amazing,” Washington told ET of Witherspoon, adding that despite both of their busy schedules -- the Scandal star is set to return to Broadway in November -- ”you find time for the things that matter.”Are You SleepingExecutive produced by and starring Octavia Spencer, the new Apple series created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman is based on the true-crime novel by Kathleen Barber. The ensemble series, which began production in June, also stars Aaron Paul, Ron Cephas Jones, Lizzy Caplan, Elizabeth Perkins, Mekhi Phifer and Tracie Thoms. The premiere will be directed by Anna Foerster. “I’m excited to be on the receiving end of [Witherspoon’s] brilliance of finding this project because it fits me on so many levels,” Spencer told ET.Untitled Morning Show Project The first of Hello Sunshine’s three Apple projects to be announced, the new untitled show based on Brian Stelter’s book about the morning talk show wars marks Jennifer Aniston’s first series-regular return to TV since Friends. The show, which was given a two-season, 20-episode order, will also star Witherspoon and be run by Bates Motel producer Kerry Ehrin. “I’ve lived in a world where I’ve been interviewed for 25 years. That’s really interesting to flip it around and see what the other side looks like and how journalists live their lives,” Witherspoon told ET about her interest in the project.You Think It, I'll Say ItOne of multiple projects Hello Sunshine has brokered with Apple’s new streaming service, the 10-episode comedy series created by McGuinness is inspired by Curtis Sittenfeld's short-story collection. Kristen Wiig was slated to star but has since dropped out due to a scheduling conflict with filming Wonder Woman 1984.Hello Sunshine Video On Demand Channel In partnership with AT&T, Hello Sunshine is launching a VOD channel -- accessible on DirecTV, DirecTV Now and U-Verse -- spotlighting female-driven content, with two new series premiering in July and September. “AT&T was one of our first partners in the quest to bring female-centric storytelling to the forefront and we are especially proud of how these original series push that mission ahead,” Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden said in a statement, with Witherspoon adding: “I am so excited for the world to experience the stories from our partnership with AT&T, which are set to be equal parts entertaining, inspiring, thought-provoking and unabashedly real."Shine On With ReeseDebuting July 17 on Hello Sunshine VOD, Shine On is Witherspoon’s first unscripted series and will celebrate extraordinary women who have cultivated their own paths to success. Week to week, she’ll sit down with the likes of Dolly Parton, Ava DuVernay, Pink, America Ferrera, Kacey Musgraves and more to discuss work, family and hopes for the future.Master the MessDebuting Sept. 4 on Hello Sunshine VOD, Master marks Hello Sunshine’s foray in home and lifestyle content with decluttering gurus Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin tackling the everyday (and overused) rooms of families in need of a transformation. Shearer and Teplin are co-founders of the Nashville-based design and organizing company The Home Edit.Meet My MomThe five-episode, short-form Facebook Watch series features honest and entertaining chats between high-profile celebrities and their moms, including Witherspoon, Westworld’s Leonardo Nam, YouTube star Lilly Singh, Olympian Adam Rippon and model Ashley Graham.DeliveryAs of 2017, TV writers Kristin Newman and Rob Wright are developing a new medical drama about a hospital’s perinatology unit at NBC.FilmLegally Blonde 3Slated for Valentine’s Day 2020, Witherspoon will reprise her role as Elle Woods in the ongoing franchise about an idealistic sorority girl-turned-lawyer, with much of the original creative team expected to return.A White LieBased on Karin Tanabe’s 2016 novel The Gilded Years, the upcoming film starring Zendaya is inspired by the true story of Anita Hemmings, a light-skinned black woman who passed as white and became the first black person to attend the exclusive all-female institution Vassar College. Fargo and The Leftovers producer Monica Beletsky will write the script.Martina Navratilova Documentary For its first feature-length documentary, Hello Sunshine has teamed up with producers Glenn Greenwald and Suzanne Gilbert to tell the story of tennis legend Martina Navratilova.Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine andSomething in the WaterIn 2017, Hello Sunshine optioned the films rights for the Gail Honeyman novel Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, about a lonely heroine who learns to open her heart to other people, and the Catherine Steadman novel Something in the Water, about a successful documentary filmmaker who’s about to get married. The latter was a recent Reese’s Book Club pick and will be adapted by Julia Cox (Parenthood).Books and Podcasts Reese’s Book Club and Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshineon AudibleAhem, Oprah: Reese’s Book Club is touted by Hello Sunshine as “fast-growing in reach and influence,” with female-centric and female-written books selected each month by Witherspoon. The club recently went digital with a partnership with Audible, which will showcase standout audio performances for book club members too busy to read each selection. “When I started Reese’s Book Club, I wanted to highlight stories with women at the center and I’m so excited to deliver on that mission,” Witherspoon said in a statement.Audible Originals by Hello SunshineAdditionally, Audible and Hello Sunshine will partner on the development of original audio productions, with the first project expected to be announced later this year.How It IsHello Sunshine launched its first original podcast series featuring original female voices in April. Hosted by Orange Is the New Black’s Diane Guerrero, the weekly series features women from the world of Hollywood, activism and tech discussing their stories and reclaiming their power.OtherAT&T Hello Sunshine Filmmaker Lab This summer, AT&T and Hello Sunshine are collaborating with Dreaming Tree Foundation’s Fresh Films to cultivate a new generation of female storytellers with an eight-day immersive program for teen girls in Los Angeles, California, during which they will create content for the Hello Sunshine VOD Channel. RELATED CONTENT: Nicole Kidman on the Empowering Moment She Shared With Reese Witherspoon on 'Big Little Lies' Set (Exclusive) Natalie Portman Credits Reese Witherspoon With Teaching Her The 'Ways of Modernity' (Exclusive) Selma Blair Praises 'Powerhouse' Reese Witherspoon for Leading the Time's Up Movement (Exclusive) Source link

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2017 Spring Arts calendar

From 'Peter and the Wolf' to Blink 182.

GREATER LITTLE ROCK

MUSIC

March 9: "Peter and the Wolf." Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Intimate Neighborhood Concerts. St. James United Methodist Church, 7 p.m., $10-$25.

March 9: Leopold and His Fiction, Howling Tongues, American Lions. Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $7.

March 10: Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase Finals. Revolution, 8 p.m., $5-$21.

March 10: Hawtmess, Witchsister, Sabine Valley. Vino's, 8 p.m., $6.

March 10: John Paul Keith. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $7.

March 10: An Evening with That1Guy. Stickyz Rock 'N' Roll Chicken Shack, 10 p.m., $12-$14.

March 10: Greasy Tree. Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m.

March 11: Third Street Block Party: Barrett Baber, Big Red Flag, Little Rock Drum & Pipe Corp. Dugan's Pub, 11 a.m.

March 11: Knox Hamilton, Firekid, Joan. Revolution, 8 p.m., $12-$15.

March 11: Sunny Sweeney. Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $10-$15.

March 11: Tyler Kinchen & The Right Pieces. South on Main, 9 p.m., $10.

March 11: Urban Pioneers, The Whole Famn Damily. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

March 12: Toranavox, Revenge Bodies, Colour Design. Dogtown Sound, 7 p.m.

March 12: Adam Faucett, Fox 45. Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m.

March 13: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers. Stickyz, 8 p.m., $7.

March 14: Martin Sexton, Brothers McCann. Revolution, 8 p.m., $20-$30.

March 16: "Sing Out for the Buffalo." Watershed Alliance benefit. Argenta Community Theater, 7 p.m., $59.

March 16: Peter Janson & Aaron Larget-Caplan. The Joint, 7:30 p.m., $25.

March 16: Jack Broadbent. South on Main, 8 p.m., $10.

March 17: Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

March 17: Wade Bowen. Revolution, 9 p.m., $15-$18.

March 17: Groovement. Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m.

March 18: Weedeater, Beitthemeans, Iron Tongue, Tempus Terra. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $15-$18.

March 18: Ghost Town Blues Band. Cajun's Wharf, 9 p.m., $5.

March 18: Patrick Sweany. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $7.

March 20: Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

March 20: Ringworm, Tombs. Revolution, 7 p.m., $10-$12.

March 22: Pallbearer, Sumokem, Colour Design, Auric. Revolution, 8 p.m., $12-$15.

March 23: Aaron Watson, Ray Johnston Band, Trey Stevens. Revolution, 8 p.m., $20.

March 23: Nothing for Breakfast, The Federalis, Peckerwolf. Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $7.

March 23: The Steel Wheels. South on Main, 8 p.m., $20-$32.

March 23: Jucifer, Hell Camino. Vino's, 8 p.m.

March 24: Skillet, Sick Puppies, Devour the Day. Clear Channel Metroplex, 8 p.m., $25.

March 24: Cedric Burnside Project. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10.

March 25: Jason Boland & the Stragglers. Revolution, 9 p.m., $12-$15.

March 25: Ben Miller Band. Stickyz. 9 p.m., $10-$12.

March 25: Objekt 25. Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m.

March 27: Like Moths to Flames, Becoming Saints, Census, Mortalus. Vino's, 6 p.m., $13.

March 28: Haydn's "Emperor." ASO's River Rhapsody Chamber Music Series. Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $10-$23.

March 29: Dan Baird & Homemade Sin. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $15.

March 30: Nora Jane Struthers, Joe Overton. The Joint, 6:30 p.m., $100.

March 30: Welcome Home, Avoid, I Was Afraid, Hawtmess. Vino's, 7 p.m., $7.

March 31: Blink-182. Verizon Arena, 7 p.m., $30-$70.

March 31: Rodney Block. Cajun's Wharf, 9 p.m., $5.

April 1: Opera on the Rocks. Junior League of Little Rock Ballroom, 6:30 p.m., $75.

April 1: Sad Daddy. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

April 3: Gladys Knight. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $40-$65.

April 5: Jazz in the Park: The Funkanites. History Pavilion, Riverfront Park, 6 p.m., free.

April 5: An Evening with Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Revolution, 9 p.m., $20.

April 6: Sierra Hull. South on Main, 7:30 p.m., $17-$25.

April 8: Local H. Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10.

April 8-9: "Beethoven and Blue Jeans." ASO plays Beethoven, Sibelius, Bruch. Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m. Sat; 3 p.m. Sun., $14-$67.

April 11: "Airs & Dances." ASO's River Rhapsody Chamber Music Series. Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $10-$23.

April 12: Capital Hotel Informance. An educational happy hour concert from the ASO. 5:15 p.m., free.

April 5: Jazz in the Park: Ramona. History Pavilion, Riverfront Park, 6 p.m., free.

April 14: Filth, All Is at an End, A Fate Foretold. Vino's, 8 p.m., $10.

April 15: Stoney LaRue. Revolution, 9 p.m., $16-$20.

April 17: Brian Nahlen, Nick Devlin. Markham Street Grill & Pub, 8:30 p.m., free.

April 18: Jason Eady. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10.

April 19: Jazz in the Park: Tonya Leeks & Co. History Pavilion, Riverfront Park, 6 p.m., free.

April 20: Konarak Reddy. The Joint, 7:30 p.m., $27.

April 20: Terence Blanchard, featuring The E-Collective. South on Main, 8 p.m., $25-$52.

April 20: Hayes Carll, Band of Heathens. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $20.

April 20: Michael Dean Damron, Cory Call. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

April 22: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Verizon Arena, 8 p.m., $52-$102.

April 23: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $40-$130.

April 26: Jazz in the Park: Sounds So Good. History Pavilion, Riverfront Park, 6 p.m., free.

April 26: Boston. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m. $36-$79.

April 26: Delbert McClinton. Pulaski Technical College's Center for Humanities and Arts, 7:30 p.m., $10-$200.

April 28: James McMurtry. Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $16-$20.

May 1: Lany. Revolution, 8 p.m., $15-$18.

May 2: Sinkane. Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $10-$12.

May 3: Alice Cooper. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $44-$77.

May 4: "Appalachian Spring." ASO's Intimate Neighborhood Concerts. Christ Episcopal Church, 7 p.m., $10-$25.

May 4: Postmodern Jukebox. Clear Channel Metroplex, 7:30 p.m., $25-$30.

May 4: The McCrary Sisters. South on Main, 8 p.m., $25-$40.

May 5: Old Dominion. Clear Channel Metroplex, 8 p.m., $25-$129.

May 12: Adam Faucett. The Undercroft, 8 p.m., $10.

May 13-14: "Back to the Future." ASO plays the film score live. Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m. Sat; 3 p.m. Sun., $14-$67.

May 17: "Celtic Woman: Voices of Angels." Robinson Center, 7 p.m., $29-$69.

May 18: Clive Carroll. The Joint, 7 p.m., $27.

May 19, 21: "The Barber of Seville." Opera in the Rock. Pulaski Technical College's CHARTS, 7:30 p.m. Fri.; 3 p.m. Sun., $10-$50.

May 20: The Newtown Blues Band. Markham Street Grill & Pub, 8:30 p.m., free.

May 26: ZZ Top. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $61-$127.

May 27: Paradigm, Keeper Keeper, The Federalis. Dogtown Sound, 7 p.m.

June 5: Brit Floyd. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $43-$68.

June 11: "Stars and Stripes Celebration for Flag Day." Little Rock Wind Symphony. MacArthur Museum of Military History, 7 p.m.

June 15: Justin St. Pierre. The Joint, 7 p.m., $27.

Aug. 3: Tim McGraw & Faith Hill. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $70-$120.

COMEDY

March 8-11: Michael Mack. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

March 15-18: Shaun Jones. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

March 22-25: Rick Gutierrez. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $10-$14.

March 26: Eric Schwartz. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m., $12.

March 29-April 1: Tony Tone. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

April 5-8: Tim Kidd. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

April 12-15: Tracy Smith. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

April 19-22: Zoltan Kaszas. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $8-$12.

April 20: Ron White. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $43-$242.

April 29. Rickey Smiley. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $35-$50.

DANCE

April 14-16: "Riverdance." Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. $23-$72.

April 21-23. Ballet Arkansas: Spring Mixed Repertoire Production. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $35-$40.

FILM

March 11: "Phantom of the Opera." Ron Robinson Theater, 1 p.m., $5.

March 14: "The Real Inglorious Bastards." Documentary. MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

March 18: "Red Dot Cinema: Asian Short Films, Vol. 1." The Studio Theatre, 8 p.m., $5-$7.

March 21: "Bunny Lake Is Missing." Arkansas Times Film Series. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $8.50.

March 21-22: "My Scientology Movie." Ron Robinson Theater, 6 p.m., $5.

March 31: "Dreamland." Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., free.

April 8: "Dead Poets Society." Ron Robinson Theater, 1 p.m., $5.

April 11-12: "The Next Big Thing." Ron Robinson Theater, 6 p.m., $5.

April 11: "The Invisible War." MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

April 14-15, 21-22: Ozark Foothills FilmFest. University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.

April 18: "Sunset Boulevard." Arkansas Times Film Series. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $8.50.

April 18-19: "Hotel Rwanda." Ron Robinson Theater, 6 p.m., $5.

May 9: "Time of Fear." MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

May 15-16: "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Ron Robinson Theater, 6 p.m., free (registration required).

May 17: "The Lego Movie." Ron Robinson Theater, 6 p.m., free (registration required).

June 13: "Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery." MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

July 11: "My Vietnam, Your Iraq." MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

Aug. 8: "Command and Control." MacArthur Museum of Military History, 6:30 p.m., free.

SPECIAL EVENTS

March 23: "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race." Lecture by author Margot Lee Shetterly. Great Hall, Clinton Presidential Center, free.

March 28: "Brain Candy: Live." Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $33-$63.

April 1: Springfest. Riverfront Park, 10 a.m., free.

April 21: David Sedaris. Robinson Center, 8 p.m., $22-$43.

May 4-7: "Disney on Ice." Verizon Arena, 7 p.m. May 4-7; 11 a.m. May 6; 3 p.m. May 6-7. $16-$61.

THEATER

Through March 12: "The Elephant Man." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun., $14-$16.

THROUGH March 12: "Titanic: The Musical." The Weekend Theater, 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun., $16-$20.

THROUGH March 19: "Phantom of the Opera." Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun.; 7 p.m. Sun., $33-$153.

THROUGH March 25: "Naked People with Their Clothes On." The Joint, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $24.

THROUGH March 25: "Driving Miss Daisy." Murry's Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., $15-$37.

March 24: "Moving Forward." A musical from itsjusbobby. Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $10.

March 28-April 29: "Smokey Joe's Cafe." Murry's Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., $15-$37.

March 29-April 16: "Jar the Floor." Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m. Wed.-Thu., Sun.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun., $30-$65.

March 30-April 9: "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat; 2:30 p.m. Sun. $15-$20.

March 31-April 15: "Bad Seed." The Weekend Theater, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun., $12-$16.

March 31-June 17: "Rough Night at the Remo Room." The Joint, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $24.

April 20-30: "The Graduate." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat; 2:30 p.m. Sun. $15-$20.

May 2-27: "Southern Fried Funeral." Murry's Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., $15-$37.

May 5-21: "In the Blood." The Weekend Theater, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun., $12-$16.

May 11-21: "Life Is Short." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun., $14-$16.

May 30-July 8: "Southern Crossroads." Murry's Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., $15-$37.

May 31-June 25: "Godspell." Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m. Wed.-Thu., Sun.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun., $30-$65.

June 8-25: "Spring Awakening." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat; 2:30 p.m. Sun. $20-$25.

June 21-25: "Motown: The Musical." Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m., $25-$75.

July 12-Aug. 26: "The Wizard of Oz." Murry's Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., $15-$37.

July 13-30: "Heathers: The Musical." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun., $16-$18.

Aug. 10-20: "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." The Studio Theatre, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat; 2:30 p.m. Sun. $20-$25.

VISUAL ARTS

Through March 18: "Once Was Lost." Photographs by Richard Leo Johnson. Butler Center Galleries, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

Through April 2: "Ladies and Gentlemen ... the Beatles!" Clinton Presidential Center, . 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 adults, $8 seniors, retired military and college students, $6 youth 6-17, free to active military and children under 6.

Through April 16: "Ansel Adams: Early Works"; "Herman Maril: The Strong Forms of Our Experience"; "Seeing the Essence: William E. Davis"; 47th annual "Mid-Southern Watercolorists Exhibition." Arkansas Arts Center, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun.

Through April: "Reflections: Images and Objects from African American Women, 1891-1987." Esse Purse Museum. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun. $10, $8 for students, seniors and military.

Through May 7: "Modern Mythology: Luke Amran Knox and Grace Mikell Ramsey." Historic Arkansas Museum, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.

Through May 27: "Bruce Jackson: Cummins Prison Farm." Butler Center Galleries.

Through June 24: "The American Dream Deferred." Butler Center Galleries.

Through 2017: "True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley." Old State House Museum. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.

March 27-April 30: "UALR Student Competitive." UA Little Rock. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun.

April 11-July 2: "Acrylic Paintings by Deborah Poe." Arkansas Arts Center.

April 22-May 5: "BFA Senior Art Exhibition." UA Little Rock.

May 16-July 23: "56th Young Artists Exhibition." Arkansas Arts Center.

June 9-Aug. 27: 59th annual "Delta Exhibition." Arkansas Arts Center.

ARKADELPHIA

VISUAL ARTS

Through March: "Nasty Woman." Group show. Henderson State University, Russell Fine Arts Gallery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.

BENTONVILLE

MUSIC

March 30: "Paul Rucker: Stories from the Trees." Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 7:30 p.m., $10.

FILM

June 30: Live Cinema by Brent Green and Sam Green. North lawn, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 8 p.m., $10.

VISUAL ARTS

Through April 24: "Border Cantos: Sight and Sound Explorations from the Mexican-American Border." Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun., closed Tue.

March 3-July 31: "Roy Lichtenstein in Focus." Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

June 3-Aug. 14: "Chihuly: In the Gallery and in the Forest." Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

CONWAY

MUSIC

March 10: Akeem Kemp Band, Jamie Patrick. King's Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5.

March 25: Randall Shreve, Tate Smith. King's Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5.

April 1: Lucious Spiller Band. King's Live Music. 8:30 p.m., $5.

April 14: The Toos. King's Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5.

April 15: Mountain Sprout. King's Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5.

May 19: Adam Faucett. King's Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5.

THEATER

April 4: "Annie." Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m., $27-$40.

April 18: "Sleeping Beauty." Russian National Ballet Theatre. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m., $27-$40.

EL DORADO

VISUAL ARTS

Through March 29: "Brotherhood: Jason Sacran and John P. Lasater IV"; "Tammy Swarek"; "It's Out There," work by Michelle Jones. South Arkansas Arts Center, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.

EUREKA SPRINGS

MUSIC

May 4-6: "Phunkberry." Music festival. 1 Blue Heron Lane. $55-$120.

June 15: Blues Weekend. Venues in town and at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

June 24-July 21: 67th "Opera in the Ozarks: 'Carmen,' 'Susannah,' 'The Marriage of Figaro.' " Inspiration Point.

VISUAL ARTS

May 1-30: 30th annual "May Festival of the Arts." Galleries and other venues across town.

FAYETTEVILLE

MUSIC

March 10: Etienne Charles. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $30-$50.

March 12: Daikaiju. Smoke and Barrel Tavern, 9 p.m., $5.

March 16: St. Lawrence String Quartet. Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, University of Arkansas, 7:30 p.m., $10-$20.

March 17: "Purple Friday: A Tribute to Prince." George's Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $10.

March 18: Edward Simon and Afinidad with Imani Winds. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $10.

March 25: Jucifer, ESC, Barren. Nomad's Music Lounge, 7 p.m.

March 25: Shovels & Rope, Lowland Hum. George's Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $18.

March 25: Cranford Hollow. Smoke and Barrel Tavern, 10 p.m., $5.

March 28: Janoska Ensemble. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10.

March 30: The Victor Wooten Trio. George's Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $25.

March 30: Still on the Hill. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $8.

March 31: Naturally 7. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $20-$50.

April 5: Mnozil Brass. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10-$35.

April 5: Tauk. George's Majestic Lounge. 8:30 p.m., $12.

April 7: Sierra Hull. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $10.

April 9: The Jayhawks, Greg Vanderpool. George's Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $20.

April 13: Niyaz. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10.

April 14: Los Lobos. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $30-$60.

April 14: Sean Fresh & The Nasty Fresh Crew. Smoke and Barrel Tavern, 10 p.m.

April 15: Justin Kauflin Trio. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $30-$50.

April 15: Scorned, Vague Vendetta, Reliance Code, Solidify. Nomad's Music Lounge, 7:30 p.m.

April 15: Doug Dicharry, Youth Pastor, The Toos. Smoke and Barrel Tavern, 10 p.m., $5.

April 20: Marcia Ball. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m.

April 28: Oran Etkin. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. $30-$50.

April 28: Josh Hoyer & The Soul Colossal. Smoke and Barrel Tavern, 10 p.m., $5.

April 29: "Masterworks III: The Romantic." Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $10-$52.

May 23: An Evening with Buddy Guy. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $45-$75.

June 3: "Pops: Music and Animation." Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $10-$52.

June 23: Jane Monheit. Starr Theater, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $30.

COMEDY

April 8: Cliff Cash, Comedians NWA. Nomad's Music Lounge, 8 p.m., $5.

June 9: JT Habersaat. Nomad's Music Lounge, 7 p.m.

Aug. 3: Dave Waite, Comedians NWA. Nomad's Music Lounge, 8 p.m., $5.

THEATER

March 8-12: "Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage." Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., Wed.-Thu.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 1:30 p.m. Thu.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $53-$84.

March 22-April 16: "Intimate Apparel." Nadine Baum Studios, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $10-$40.

April 4: "Taj Express: The Bollywood Musical Revue." Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $35-$65.

April 18-23: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Walton Arts Center. 7 p.m. Tue.-Thu.; 11 a.m. Thu.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $35-$74.

May 10-June 4: 'The Dingdong." Nadine Baum Studios, Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $10-$45.

June 15-24: Arkansas New Play Festival. Nadine Baum Studios, Walton Arts Center, various times.

June 27-July 2: "Motown: The Musical." Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m. Tue.-Thu.; 1:30 p.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat; 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $35-$74.

VISUAL ARTS

Through April 24: "The Fabric of Nature," work by Andrea Packard. Walton Arts Center, noon-2 p.m. daily, one hour before performances in the Arts Center.

FORT SMITH

VISUAL ARTS

Through April 2: "Liv Fjellsol: Art Says." Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun.

Through April 16: "Heartbreak in Peanuts." Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.

April 7-May 28: "Through Darkness to the Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad." Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.

April 21-June 18: "Gloria Garfinkel: Vibrancy of Form." Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.

June 2-Sept. 3: "K. Nelson Harper: Lasting Impressions." Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.

GREENBRIER

March 17-19: Cosmic Flux: A Family-Friendly Music & Arts Festival. Cadron Creek Outfitters, noon, $45-$65.

HOT SPRINGS

MUSIC

March 12: "The Muses: Celtic Spring." Anthony Chapel, Garvan Woodland Gardens, 3 p.m., $35.

March 17-21: Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival. Low Key Arts, Maxine's, various times, $10-$120.

March 26: Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Anthony Chapel, Garvan Woodland Gardens, 3 p.m., $35-$50.

June 3: Tracy Lawrence. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

June 4-17: Hot Springs Music Festival. Downtown Hot Springs National Park, various venues, $5-$150.

June 10: Jeremy Camp. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

June 17: R5. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

July 15: For King & Country. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

July 22: Marshall Tucker Band. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

July 29: Rick Springfield. Timberwood Theater, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, 8 p.m.

VISUAL ARTS

April 28-May 7: Third annual "Arts in the Park." Venues throughout town.

PINE BLUFF

VISUAL ARTS

Through April 22: "Bayou Bartholomew: In Focus," juried photography exhibition. Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat.

Through July 8: "Resilience," printmaking by Emma Amos, Vivian Browne, Camille Billops, Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Samella Lewis and Rosalind Jeffries. Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat.

ROGERS

MUSIC

April 22: Blink-182, The Naked and Famous, Wavves. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., $31-$76.

April 25: Boston. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $37.

May 22: Train, O.A.R., Natasha Bedingfield. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., $30-$90.

June 9: ZZ Top. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $36-$76.

July 12: Third Eye Blind, Silversun Pickups, Ocean Park Standoff. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., $31-$76.

July 18: Steve Miller Band, Peter Frampton. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $41-$76.

July 25: Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Wood Brothers, Hot Tuna. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., $31-$76.

Aug. 5: Lady Antebellum, Kelsea Ballerini, Brett Young. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $38.

Aug. 6: Straight No Chaser, Postmodern Jukebox. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $40-$80.

SPECIAL EVENTS

May 4-20: "Artosphere: Arkansas's Arts & Nature Festival." Walton Arts Center, various times, $10-$15.

May 25: Garrison Keillor. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $35-$75.

SPRINGDALE

VISUAL ARTS

Through March 29: "On the Brink, On the Brim, On the Cusp." Arts Center of the Ozarks. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat.

2017 Spring Arts calendar

#2017 Spring Arts calendar

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girl-next-door-writes · 1 month ago

Text

A Little Parlor Trick

Characters: Crowley x reader

Summary: A first encounter with the King of Hell stirs a curiosity that you aren’t sure you will be able to shake.

Word Count: 1413 words

Prompt: “And I’ve got friends on the other side.”

A/N: This is for the lovely @caplanbuckybarnes Caplan’s Disney Celebration. It’s been a hot minute since I wrote my favourite demon, but he is always worth the wait.

The dull hum of the Impala’s engine faded as Dean turned the key, cutting off the familiar purr that had become background noise during the long drive to New Orleans. The air here felt different—heavier, older, like it was thick with secrets. It clung to your skin, the humidity wrapping around you like a second layer of clothing as you stepped out onto the cracked pavement.

You glanced at the dilapidated house before you. It looked abandoned, but you knew better. A set-up like this was rarely what it seemed, and when dealing with demons, that was the one constant you could rely on.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look. You’d been hunting with the Winchesters for a few months now—long enough to be able to interpret some of their silent language, even if you didn’t quite speak it fluently. This was your first real test, your first hunt involving the King of Hell himself, Crowley. You’d heard of him, of course—every hunter worth their salt had. But hearing about him and meeting him were two different things.

"Stay close," Dean murmured, shooting you a quick glance. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust you; it was just that Crowley was unpredictable. Dangerous. And it was never wise to underestimate a demon—especially this one.

You nodded, falling into step behind them as they approached the door. It creaked open, revealing a dimly lit interior. It felt cooler inside, almost cold, and there was an unmistakable smell of incense and something darker, like old magic.

And then you saw him.

Crowley stood in the center of the room, wearing his trademark suit with a deep red silk pocket square tucked neatly in place. He looked like he belonged more in a posh London penthouse than in this rundown Louisiana shack. His dark eyes glinted as he watched the three of you enter, a smirk already playing on his lips.

“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in,” he drawled, his gaze flickering to you with interest. “And who might you be? New pet, boys?”

You squared your shoulders. “I’m not a pet.”

Crowley’s smirk widened as he let out a low chuckle, the sound rolling out smooth and lazy. “Oh, I like you already. A little fire in the belly. Just what I need.”

Dean cut in sharply, his tone gruff. “Enough games, Crowley. You said we’d find what we need here. We need information.”

“Ah, yes. Straight to business as usual, Dean.” Crowley’s gaze lingered on you, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “But why rush when we can savor the moment?”

You held your ground, not wanting to show weakness in front of the demon. “You’re wasting our time. Are you going to help us or not?”

Crowley raised an eyebrow, amused. “Feisty.” He waved a hand casually, and the room seemed to shift, shadows growing longer, darker. “Alright, kitten. If you want a little parlor trick, I’ll oblige. After all, I do love putting on a show.”

With a snap of his fingers, the lights dimmed even further, and an array of candles flickered to life around the room, casting an eerie glow. You could feel a pulse of magic, something thick and tangible in the air, and it made your skin tingle.

Crowley took a step toward you, his gaze steady and unyielding. “You see, I’ve got friends on the other side,” he said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, “and they’ve got quite the talent for giving people what they want.”

His words sent a shiver down your spine. There was something in the way he spoke, a kind of hypnotic cadence that made you lean in just a little closer, despite yourself. You knew you shouldn’t be intrigued, that you shouldn’t feel that pull—but it was there, undeniable and growing stronger with every syllable that fell from his lips.

“Don’t listen to him,” Sam warned, his voice cutting through the haze that seemed to have settled over your thoughts.

You blinked, shaking off the strange allure that Crowley’s voice had carried. He noticed, of course, the shift in your stance, the way your expression hardened again. But instead of being annoyed, he looked even more entertained.

“Oh, come now,” he said with a dismissive wave at Sam, “I’m just having a little fun. It’s not often I get such... charming company.” He directed his smile back to you, a hint of darkness behind his otherwise friendly facade. “You know, it’s a pity you’re tangled up with these two. You’ve got potential.”

You crossed your arms, keeping your expression skeptical. “And what exactly does ‘potential’ mean coming from the King of Hell?”

Crowley tilted his head, considering you for a moment. “It means you’re not like the others. Hunters—self-righteous, dull. You’re different. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Let me guess,” you retorted. “You’ve got some grand offer that I’d be a fool to refuse?”

“Why, yes,” he replied smoothly, “as a matter of fact, I do.” He extended a hand toward you, palm up. “You’re a hunter. That much is clear. But you don’t know what it’s like to have real power. To command it, shape it, twist it to your will. I could show you.”

Dean stepped forward, placing himself between you and Crowley. “Enough of your crap, Crowley,” he growled. “You’re not turning anyone here into one of your lackeys.”

Crowley’s expression barely faltered, but his eyes grew colder, a sharp glint replacing the warmth. “There’s no need to be so possessive, squirrel.” He looked past him, locking eyes with you again. “The choice is always yours, darling. But you’d be wise to consider all your options.”

For a moment, you felt that pull again, stronger this time. His words stirred something in you, something deep and unspoken. You weren’t tempted by the promise of power exactly, but there was a dark curiosity there, a part of you that wanted to know what he was truly offering, if only to understand why it resonated in the first place.

You took a step forward, brushing past Dean despite his murmured protest. “I’m not interested in becoming a demon’s plaything,” you said, your voice steady and firm. “But if you’re offering information, I’m listening.”

Crowley’s smirk returned, softer this time, almost genuine. “Well, that’s a start.” He snapped his fingers again, and the darkness in the room seemed to recoil, lifting like fog under sunlight. “Very well, then. I’ll give you what you need. But a fair warning—things in this world often come with strings attached.”

“Spare us the theatrics,” Dean snapped, though his voice betrayed a hint of relief. “Just tell us where to find the damned witch and the knife to kill her.”

Crowley’s attention shifted reluctantly back to the elder Winchester. “She’s not far from here. Runs a little apothecary down on Royal Street. You’ll know it when you see it.” He glanced at you one last time, that glimmer of interest still evident in his gaze. “Do be careful, kitten. It would be a shame if I didn’t get to see you again.”

You turned on your heel and headed for the door with Sam and Dean in tow, trying to ignore the way your heart was beating a little faster than it should have been. You’d expected Crowley to be dangerous, charming even, but you hadn’t expected the encounter to linger like this.

As the three of you stepped back outside, Dean shot you a look, his brow furrowing. “You alright?”

You nodded, not quite trusting your voice yet. “Yeah,” you replied after a moment. “I’m fine.”

But as you walked back to the Impala, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you’d left something behind in that room with Crowley—a piece of yourself, a curiosity awakened. And as much as you tried to ignore it, you couldn’t help but wonder if he’d seen something in you that even you didn’t fully understand.

Inside the Impala, you replayed his words in your mind—You’ve got potential. You weren’t sure if it was a compliment or a warning, but it echoed there in the back of your thoughts, lingering like the smoke and shadows you’d left behind.

Crowley had planted a seed of doubt in you—a small, insidious thing. And as the engine rumbled back to life, you couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, he knew exactly what he was doing all along.

#Crowley #Crowley x reader #SPN #Caplan's Disney Celebration #gndw fic

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