#Danny watches Miller's Crossing

[spockvarietyhour]

Miller's Crossing (1990)

[skbeaumont]

Texas Heat | Joel x Reader

Chapter 2: Same time next week?

Series masterlist Chapter 1 here

Chp. 2 summary: Your first tutoring session with Sarah goes as expected, until Joel gets home and sends your head spinning. Rating: Teen (for now) Tags/Warnings: flirting, sexual tension, age difference (reader is 25, Joel is 37), AU no outbreak Word Count: 2.4k A/N: Blown away by the response to my posts so far, thank you all so much! This story will be updated every Friday unless otherwise specified. Let me know if you want to be added to my taglist for this and others.

Taglist: @mysterialee

The next couple of days pass by in a flurry of jetlag. The Adlers are nice: Easy to get on with, friendly but not in a way that makes you feel like you’re living on top of them. Connie’s cooking is good, if a little repetitive, and Danny is sweet and makes you laugh, telling you stories about his youth living in Austin. Nana doesn’t speak, but she has your mum’s eyes, and you spend the evenings sitting by her in the living room, reading the stack of novels you brought with you, enjoying the easy company and warm sunlight.

You see Joel outside through the window one early morning, casually ask Connie about him as you watch him load toolboxes and ladders into the bed of his truck. One kid, Sarah, a brother who lives with him, most of the time, no wife. This last shouldn’t send a spike of something like excitement down the back of your spine, but it does. You’d just assumed he was married when he’d told you about Sarah – no wedding ring, but working in construction, that made sense.

The knowledge that there isn’t a Mrs Miller makes you re-evaluate the car journey back from the airport, the way he’d let his arm rest along the back of your seat, that teasing, mischievous glint in his eye as he’d said goodbye, promising to take you up on your offer of maths lessons for Sarah. Those thoughts keep you up late that night, pressing your thighs together beneath the thin cotton top sheet in the Adler’s guest room.

Early Sunday evening you bump into Sarah in the driveway when you get back from Walmart, equipped with a new US sim card for your mobile. She’s sweet, even prettier in real life than in the photo you saw, not at all shy like you were when you were her age.

“Dad said you’re good at math,” she says without preamble, appearing from the side of Joel’s truck, looking at you with a sideways expression that’s a mix of consideration and incredulity.

“Pretty good, yeah.” You reply, stomach jolting at the thought of Joel talking about you, even if it’s to say something as benign as how talented you are at maths. “I’d be happy to help you out with homework, or whatever, if you want. I promise I’ll try not to make it too boring.”

Sarah smiles at this, the incredulity in her face morphing into approval, or as close to approval a thirteen year old can manage.

“You coming, Sarah?” Joel says, stepping out of the front door, head down as he examines something on the phone he’s holding. “Oh,” he says, looking up and seeing you, “hey.”

“Hi.”

He’s dressed the same as he was when he picked you up from the airport; dark t-shirt over faded jeans, the knees a little worn, but he’s wearing a baseball cap today, pulling his messy curls back from his forehead. You feel a blush inching up your neck as he so obviously tries to avoid checking you out in the tiny shorts you pulled on that morning.

“How are you settling in?” He asks, moving to stand next to Sarah by the truck.

He crosses his arms against his chest and the movement draws your eyes to his biceps, struggling against the tight sleeves of his tee. There’s a thin slither of a tan line just above where his shirt naturally falls, paler skin peeking out. It makes your head swim.

You clear you throat, refocus your eyes on his face.

“Good, I think. It’s a big change, but it’s nice. Hot, though.”

“Texan summers.” He replies, “Take a bit of getting used to if you ain’t suffered through one before.”

“I’ll say.”

“Sarah’s keen on those lessons, by the way.” He puts a hand on the girl’s shoulder, shakes her about so that she giggles. “Here,” He pulls out his mobile. “You got a US number yet?”

“Just picked up a new sim, actually” You pull your own mobile out, read off your number to him so that he can put it into his phone.

“I’ll text you later on,” He says, “we’re just heading out now.”

You say your goodbyes and leave the sweltering heat of the driveway, listening to Joel’s truck start up and pull off. Inside, Mercy greets you, rests her head on your knee as you collapse onto the sofa, clutching your mobile to your chest.

True to his word, Joel texts later that evening as you’re getting ready for bed.

Glad ur settling in ok. Would Tuesday work for math with Sarah? She gets back from school around 4. Joel.

You type out several draft replies before finally sending one that matches his straight-to-the-point tone.

Thanks. Tuesday works for me. See you then.

His response doesn’t arrive until the next morning, and when it does, your stomach sinks.

Sounds great. Will just be Sarah though, I’m working late Tuesday.

It’s almost embarrassing how disappointed you are by those last four words. In your head, it had been you, Sarah and Joel around their kitchen table, Joel’s toned forearms resting on warped wood, his deep chuckle in your ear as you worked through maths problems with Sarah. This makes you feel guilty, of course, because the whole point of this exercise is helping Sarah with her maths homework, not flirting with her father.

You fall back against the pillows of your bed. Around you, the room is already starting to feel a little like home. All of your toiletries are stacked up on the dressing table, and you’ve put your clothes away into the generous walk-in closet. Your books are scattered about the room, a few on the bedside table, another pile of them next to the full length mirror. The bed sheets are cool when you slip beneath them, bare legs sliding against soft cotton.

You stare at the green-grey light of your Nokia, looking at the last text from Joel, wondering if you should reply or just leave it. Best to play it cool, you decide, but restraint’s never been your strong suit and before you can stop yourself you’re typing out a reply, hitting the send button and grinning into the pillowcase.

That’s a shame. I was looking forward to testing your addition skills.

He doesn’t reply.

*****

Tuesday rolls around, bringing unrelenting sun and a dry heat that keeps you indoors most of the day. You help Connie rearrange her DVDs – an impressive collection – and take Nana out onto the porch in the early afternoon, waiting for Sarah to get home from school.

It’s just before four when she appears at the end of the cul-de-sac, hair bouncing around her shoulders as she makes her way towards you. She’s got her school bag slung over one shoulder, jeans rolled up at the ankles, a pair of scruffy Nikes on her feet. 

“Hi, Nana, Connie,” she calls as she approaches the porch, gaze turning to you, “math whizz,” she finishes, grinning.

“Hi yourself,” you return, pushing yourself out of the deckchair, brushing crumbs off of your bare legs. You say a quick bye to the Adlers and follow Sarah up her own driveway and into the cool, still air of the Miller’s kitchen.

It’s a little disorderly: there are pots scattered on the kitchen sides, and a menagerie of clutter on the table which sits under a window, bright afternoon sunlight streaming in. Sarah dumps her school bag on this, pushes a notepad, two tape measures and a pair of mugs out of the way so that you can sit beside her.

“Okay,” she says, drawing out an exercise book and placing it in front of her, “before we get into this I need you to understand that math is my weakest subject.”

“Right,” You say, watching her serious expression as she pushes the book across the table towards you, “understood.”

“And you need to promise me you won’t judge me based solely on my algebra skills, or lack of them.”

This makes you laugh, a chuckle bubbling up out of your throat. Sarah holds your gaze, her face still serious.

“Sorry,” you say, “I mean to say, I would never judge anyone based on their maths skills.”

Sarah’s face breaks into a grin. “I’m just messing with you.” She says, laughing at the look on your face. “I am pretty bad at algebra, though.”

She’s not. You work through a dozen or so exercises, helping her when she gets stuck, showing her where she’s going wrong, but she’s actually fairly good at the calculations once you’ve explained it to her a couple of times. The afternoon goes by quickly. After two hours or so Sarah stretches in her chair, yawning.  

“You wanna stay for dinner?” She asks, pushing the exercise book away from her. “It’s just leftover chicken casserole, but there’s enough if you want some.”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

You sit by as she reheats the casserole, refusing your offers of help. Instead, you look around the rest of the room, searching out little hints of Joel that are tucked about: A pair of worn leather sandals by the back door, two plaid shirts hanging on the back of the door to the living room, a battered, dog-eared copy of a drill instruction manual, well-read and ringed with coffee stains.

It’s comfortingly domestic, and it makes your chest ache a little, thinking of your mum back home in London, all the friends and familiarity you left behind. Then Sarah’s placing a hot plate of casserole in front of you, joking about the fact that you don’t look very much like a mathematician, by which she means you don’t resemble Albert Einstein.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” You tell her, and she smiles.

“You should. You’re much prettier than he was.”

You help Sarah do the dishes, stacking them neatly on the side to be put away later. After, Sarah asks if you want to stay and watch a movie, and you both spread yourselves out on the sofa in the Miller’s living room, flick on the television and watch Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver mess about in outer space.

Sarah falls asleep before the film ends, even though the sun hasn’t fully set and its barely ten. You’re debating waking her when there’s a rattling from the kitchen and the sound of the front door creaking open. Joel.

You hear him clear his throat, scrape his boots on the door mat and then his deep voice is cutting through the silence of the house. “Sarah? You still up, baby?”

Sarah shifts where she’s asleep next to you but doesn’t stir. You push yourself off the sofa, step into the kitchen. Joel’s pulling off a toolbelt from around his waist, thick fingers unbuckling the clasp in a way that makes your heart rate jump up.

“Hey,” You say, leaning against the doorframe.

He jumps, his eyes shooting up to you before recognition softens his gaze.

“Hi,” He replies, finally working the toolbelt off and letting it drop onto the worktop beside him, “I didn’t expect you to still be here. Everything alright?”

“Oh, yeah, fine. Sarah made me dinner and we watched a movie. Well, she fell asleep.”

Joel chuckles at this, rolling his eyes, “Yeah, she has a habit of doin’ that.”

“Work okay?” You ask, thinking you should probably leave him to a restful evening, not wanting to at all.

“Long,” He says, rubbing at the coarse stubble on the side of his jaw. “How did math go?”

“Good. She’s bright, just needed a little bit of guidance with it.”

“Always been switched on. Dunno where she gets it from.” He steps around the kitchen island, rolling his jacket down off of his shoulders as he goes, narrow hips winding around the island and the fridge toward you.

He pulls a ten dollar note out of his back pocket, hands it to you between two thick, calloused fingers. “For the lesson,” He says.

“You don’t have to, Joel, honestly.”

“S’only fair, darlin’” He proffers the note again and you take it, trying not to think about the way that casual darlin’ has gone straight to your head, blood rushing to your cheeks so that they feel like they’re on fire.

“She in there?” Joel asks then, nodding behind you to the lounge. “Oh, yeah,” You turn, let Joel look past you into the darkness of the living room, where Sarah is spread out on the sofa, breathing deeply, eyes flickering in the dull light from the paused DVD. 

As he leans into the room he steps toward you, the movement bringing him distractingly close, making you notice how much taller he is than you, how much broader. The t-shirt he’s wearing is stretched almost painfully across his shoulders, wear showing in the stressed seams. The patchy stubble at his jaw is longer than it was a few days ago, covering the sharpness of his jaw, the strong lines of his throat.

He looks away from Sarah’s form on the sofa then, his dark eyes flicking over your face, catching you watching him. You feel a blush creeping along your neck and up to your cheeks, and try to look away, but he’s holding your gaze, pupils wide in the dim light. Then his eyes dip down to your lips, follow the slight movement of your tongue as it worries at the edge of your mouth.

You can feel heat rolling off of him in waves and you wonder how it would be to push yourself up onto tip-toes and kiss the corner of his plush lower lip. This close, you can see the thin creases that line his eyes, the beginnings of grey in his dark eyebrows, raised slightly and pinching in the middle as he looks at you.

Your head is tilted up, your breath mingling in the dizzyingly narrow space between you. He clears his throat. You both realise, quite suddenly, how close you’re standing. Before you can say anything he’s moving back, tension breaking as he takes the white-hot heat of his body with him, leaving you flushed and dizzy.

“I should get Sarah to bed.” He says into the silence.

There’s a flush in his tanned face, painting his cheeks a deep red-brown, evidence that you aren’t alone in your distraction, in the surge of arousal that seems to be lighting you up from the inside. He runs a hand through already dishevelled hair.

“Right,” you reply, hoping he can’t hear the quaver in your throat, “I should head home.”

Outside, you rest for a moment against the wall next to the Adler’s front door.

Your heart is still thumping in your chest, each beat a reminder of the look in Joel’s eyes as he towered over you, his breath hot on your face, pupils blown wide because of the darkness, or maybe something else.

Before you get inside, your phone buzzes. The text is from Joel.

Same time next week?

You grin at the screen.

[blackacre13]

Could you do a post-heist engaged loubbie where Debbie tells Lou that she wants to take her name? Maybe they’re discussing the subject or maybe Lou does or says something adorable that makes Debbie spontaneously say it but either way Lou is just so happy and can’t stop saying or writing “Debbie Miller” afterwards… Thank you so much as always!! 💕

“Deborah Ann!”

Debbie wanted to cinch her eyes shut or roll them, but in truth, even Lou chiding her made her feel a bit giddy and warm. Plus, it gave her the chance to choose between batting her eyelashes and asking for forgiveness or choosing to be a bit of a brat and seeing where the evening took them.

“Yeah, baby?” The brunette called back, feigning innocence, shuffling out into the hallway before coming down the steps, rubbing at her eyes sleepily for good measure, knowing that raising her hands to do so would give Lou a glimpse of Debbie’s stolen bralette courtesy of the blonde and a pair of panties peeking out from her silk kimono.

There was a glint of a smirk and lustful eyes before Lou composed herself. The average eye probably wouldn’t have even caught it, but Debbie knew she had her hooked.

“Honey,” Lou spoke, her voice already softer and less commanding. She wasn’t quite melting at the sight of Debbie, but she had definitely softened, and Debbie knew she was chiseling away at the tough exterior by the second just by looking at her.

“You were…yelling?” The brunette smirked, coming to meet her fiancée in the living room. She moved Lou’s crossed arms down to her sides and held her hands softly, leaning in to kiss her.

“Not yelling,” Lou whispered, resting her forehead against Debbie’s with a sigh. “God, I can’t even be mad at you, Debs. How do you do that?”

“It’s a gift.”

“Watch it, Ocean.”

“Make me, Miller,” Debbie grinned, ghosting her fingers along the blonde’s collar bones. “Come on.”

“Debs,” the blonde chuckled, pulling her into a hug as Debbie sighed contentedly.

“Huh,” Debbie spoke suddenly, pulling back as the blonde studied her with concern.

“I promise I’m not mad,” Lou smiled. “I just—your heels by the door made me—“

“You won’t be able to call me Ocean anymore,” Debbie murmured. “I mean you could, but like, it wouldn’t really make sense. And then if I called you Miller, well, that’s also ridiculous because that’s both of us and—“

“Because that’s both of us?” Lou asked, with a confused frown, studying the brunette.

“Yeahhhh,” Debbie laughed, as if it was obvious. “I mean you could do it, but I’d legally be Debbie Miller. And if I said it, it’s like I’m tattling on myself by calling you out.”

“Debbie Miller,” the blonde repeated. “You want to be Debbie Miller?”

“Of course, I do,” Debbie grinned. “Well, Deborah legally. But yeah, Debbie. Debs. Deb. Bee. Honey. Your usuals. But like—Miller. I mean I practically always have been, but it’ll be official after the wedding.”

“Debbie,” the blonde choked, her eyes tearing up. “I didn’t—I mean I just assumed you’d want to keep your name. Or if you wanted us to have the same one, then I’d just—I mean you’re so tied to your name. Danny. The Ocean name. I just figured I’d become an Ocean.”

“But I wanted to be Debbie Miller. I want to be yours, Lou.”

“You’re already mine,” the blonde whispered, squeezing Debbie’s hand. “But Fuck—of course I’d love you to take my name. Well, that sounds queer.”

“We are queer.”

“Shut up. I just mean. You don’t belong to me. You’re as much mine as I am yours. We’re a team. But I’m really the only Miller around so it would be like it really is the two of us becoming a little family.”

“I love that,” Debbie smiled.

“I love you, Debbie Miller.”

[collecting-stories]

Has any one wrote a One Chicago and ER cross over fanfiction story? I would like to read one if there is

Talk about ER look at the stars through out the fifteen series of it !!!!!!

Ewan Mc Gregor, Kat Dennings, Kirsten Dunst, Sally Field, Octavia Spencer, Angela Bassett George Clooney, Linda Cardellini, David Schwimmer, John Stamos, William H Macy, Ming Na Wen, Ving Rhames, Rosemary Clooney, Kristin Davis, Abraham Benrubi, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Piper Laurie, Mary Mara, Lucy Liu, Red Buttons, Scottie Pippen, John Aylward, Alex Kingston, Glenne Headley, Maria Bello, Jorja Fox, Omar Epps, Harry Lennix, Jami Gertz, Lisa Nicole Carson, Clancy Brown, Chad Lowe, Gedde Watanabe, George Eads, Mariska Hargitay, Taraji P Henson, Mickey Rooney, Eva Mendes, Kellie Martin, Julianna Margulies, Mare Winningham, Cress Williams, Keiko Agena, Xander Berkeley, Julie Bowen, Jessica Capshaw, Mike Doyle, Teri Garr, Djimon Hounsou, Marlee Matlin, Eric Christian Olsen, Holland Taylor, Erik Palladino, Alan Alda, Erica Gimpel, Troy Evans, Martha Plimpton, Gabrielle Union, Shia Le Beouf, Anton Yelchin, Mitch Pileggi, Dakota Fanning, Liza Weil, Maura Tierney, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mark Valley, Nancy Kwan, Judy Parfitt, Wentworth Miller, Alan Dale, Chris Sarandon, James Cromwell, Jim Belushi, Eric Stonestreet, Josh Peck, Sherry Stringfeld, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle, Mekhi Phifer, Julie Delpy, Mary McDonnell, Michael Gross, Lisa Vidal, Khandi Alexander, Kal Penn, Christina Hendricks, Kim Raver, Don Cheadle, Leslie Bibb, Tom Everett Scott, Chris Pine, Josh Radnor, Crispin Bonham Carter, Aaron Paul, Eli Wallach, Lake Bell, Josh Hutcherson, Ed Asner, Jerry Trainor, Zac Efron, Bob Newhart, J K Simmons, Jessica Chastain, Rocky Carroll, Leland Orser, Donal Logue, Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, Cynthia Nixon, Josh Gad, John Leguizamo, Corey Stoll, Kristen Johnson, Ernie Hudson, Eamonn Walker, Serena Williams, Stana Katic, James Woods, Stanley Tucci, Amy Aquino, Busy Phillips, Joe Manganiello, Estelle Harris, Garret Dillahut, Lois Smith, Forest Whitaker, Parminder Nagra, Mae Whitman, Peter Fonda, Steve Buscemi, Thandiwe Newton, Rooney Mara, Ariel Winter, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Alexis Bledel & Chadwick Boseman,

I’m not sure but yeah, I have watched all 15 seasons of ER.

[doctenwho]

A Dinner In (H’sCFS Pt. 2)

Hello! You’re welcome to request a sequel to anything, even if you didn’t suggest the first prompt! Glad you’re liking the writing, and apologies this took so long! Thanks for the request!

This’ll make more sense if you read the first fic first, as it’s a continuation of Hardy’s Cure for Sadness, as requested! 

Warning: None.

Word Count: 3,464

Summary: Read prompt above!

(Photo is not mine! Credit goes where credit is due! :D)

It had been a few weeks since that day you’d been blah when Alec had taken you out for a very late dinner in an attempt to cheer you up. You’d ended on good terms, him walking you out and watching you leave before retreating into the hotel for the evening.  

And you weren’t quite sure what the drink on your desk the following morning really meant. Especially when nothing else had followed the late-night outing.

You’d seen him since, of course, as the secretary of the office, but you hadn’t really talked more than before. More than the usual hellos and the customary inquiries about each of your days.  

More often than not, there was a tea, or a coffee on your desk, and you were certain it was Hardy’s doing, if by the way he ducked his eyes away from you whenever he saw you sipping the beverage was anything to go off.

You returned the favor, setting teas on his desktop whenever he was out and about, waiting for him when he returned from the chill of the late morning—you always got one for Ellie as well, and she always gave you a wide grin as she put on a show of sipping it.  

Most of the time Hardy would duck his head when he noticed it, but a few times he’d smiled at you. You weren’t always around when he’d return, even if you tried to be. Sometimes he snuck in while you were swamped with work.  

You weren’t quite sure where the two of you stood.  

He’d said some really sweet things to you, and you’d almost gotten the feeling that they two of you were on an almost date, but you weren’t sure. Hardy was a peculiar lad. You knew he liked you, but you weren’t sure if he like liked you...  

God, you sounded like a middle schooler with a crush thinking things like that.  

But the things he’d said had made your heart flutter in such a warm way—it was hard to forget. The thought of him made you smile, and you couldn’t deny the butterflies in your stomach when you'd come into work to find you fellow secretaries giving you that knowing look before you were could catch on the paper beverage cup with your name scrawled across the side if the cup.

You still hadn’t gotten the chance to really thank him for what he’d done. It would’ve been easy enough to just walk out the door, but he’d gone the extra mile to invite you along. It was nice to know that at least one of your co-workers kept you in mind and noticed when you weren’t quite right.  

You weren’t sure how to thank him for it, if you were honest.  

It had been one of your fellow receptionists who’d proposed inviting him for a meal back at your place. That had been accompanied by a raised eyebrow and a similar knowing glance.

The thought of inviting the man who was technically a boss of yours over to your home had seemed foreign at first, but you’d quickly warmed up to the idea. You liked to cook, and you’d been told by friends and family you were pretty good at cooking.  

Now you just needed to figure out how and when to invite him. Despite the two of you working together, and leaving each other little offerings of beverages, you’d never seen him not completely focused on Danny Latimer’s case.  

And whenever you happened to see him on his way in, or out, you were usually completely busy with phone calls, paperwork and townsfolk being annoyed that they actually had to wait to speak to an officer.  

He’d still shoot you a tiny smile, and sometimes a wave of his hand that was more or less just a flick of his hand, when he happened to catch your eyes across the room. It was the little things like that that made you heart skip a beat.

Hardy was alone in his office when you finally worked up the gall to ask him to your place for dinner. The door was open ajar, and when Ellie had seen you hesitating by the doorway, she’d shot you a grin and gestured you in from her desk.  

You took a breath and pushed the door open, tapping your fingers on the door as a warning as you entered. He didn’t look up from his computer even as the door squeaked. “I told you to run through those cases before coming back, Millhur. You’d can’t possibly have finished already- and if so, go again.”

“Not Ellie,” you bit the inside of your cheek, shuffling where you were standing.

Hardy’s attention shot up from the computer and he stumbled to stand up, “oh, ah, oh, sorry ‘bout that... What can I do for you, (Y/N)?”

He moved around his desk to lean against the other side, arms looking for something to do before he settled for crossing them across his chest. You hid a smile, stepping closer into the room, but still keep your distance.  

“I uh, I never did thank you for... y’know, that night...”

“Oh,” Hardy blew out a breath, head ducking in an understanding nod. His hair fell over his eyes as his head turned downwards, “you don’t have to thank me, really, I’m glad I could help. And... I had a good time to, you were good company after a long day.”

You hoped your cheeks didn’t flush as brightly as they felt like they did at the tenderness in his voice, “I uh, well, I wanted to invite you over for dinner as a- a thank you? You were so kind when no one else even noticed and... I’d like to return the favor?”

“Dinner?” Hardy raised an eyebrow, looking unsure. His arms uncrossed, but instead his palms settled on the desk as he leaned back thoughtfully. He was contemplating it, and you had half a mind to wave him off, and offer an easy out.  

“You don’t have too-”

“No,” Hardy said easily before wincing back like he hadn’t meant to be quite so abrupt, “uhm, I mean, I’d like to come have dinner with you... if you’re sure? I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“I’m sure,” you promise with a surprised smile. It’s small, but happy. Hardy returns a smaller one, body relaxing just slightly where he’s leaning against his desk. “Are you free tonight? Or, uh, when are you free?”

“No, I’m free tonight,” he nods, smiling at how flustered you are. It’s weird, you decided, but not a bad weird. Just... strange. He isn’t much better, just as antsy as you, but you’re hanging onto the hope that inviting him over will result in the same light conversation and easy atmosphere as it had when the two of you had grabbed dinner at the Trader’s Hotel.

It had been a lovely evening, and when the two of you had let yourselves let your guards down, you’d had a good time together. Hopefully tonight would play out the same.

“Perfect,” you give a light laugh, playing with your fingers in front of you, “does six work for you? I uh, I get off at five today.”

“How about six-thirty?” Hardy offers awkwardly, looking apologetic, “Millhur and I’ll be going to check out a lead on the Danny Latimer case, and I don’t expect us to be back before six at the latest. Wouldn’t want to be late...”

“Six-thirty works,” you chirp, flashing him a grin. “That’s perfect...” you rattle off your address for him, before stepping back towards the doorway, “so, uh, see you tonight then?”

“See you tonight,” he nods, finally stepped away from his stiff lean against the desk.  

You slip out the door as Hardy returns to his desk. He gives you a small wave as you pull the door shut behind you. You let out a nervous breath.  

When you turn around, you’re met with a grinning Ellie Miller, “so... how’d it go?”

----

You’d waved Alec and Ellie out when they’d left on the lead that Hardy had mentioned. Ellie gave you a thumbs up, and Alec’s eyes shifted from you to Ellie, where his attention dulled to annoyance. She didn’t seem phased by it, and you didn’t doubt that he wasn’t always so stiff around her.

You wondered what made you so different to literally everyone else in the building that Hardy barely gave the time of day too as you typed out some documents to be sent up to the officers.  

You returned home by five fifteen, in a rush to get started on food. You didn’t know a lot about Hardy, and you certainly didn’t know what he liked. You remember Ellie mentioning something about him barely ever accepting food from her, and that he tended to not accept anything greasy,

You settled on remaking what he’d ordered that night at the Trader’s Hotel. He hadn’t eaten much of it, but he’d ordered it, so he had to have liked it.  

You found a bottle of wine you’d stashed away that had been a gift from someone at some point, but you couldn’t quite remember who’d given it to you. It would be good for tonight though, and compliment the meal. You hoped.

When the meal was cooking, and your place had been tidied up for company, you disappeared upstairs to change into something a bit nicer.  

A knock on your door came at exactly six-thirty. You smile to yourself at Alec being so punctual. It fit his character; you decide.  

You rushed to the door, smoothing your clothes down before pulling the door open and flashing a smile at your guest. For a second, he looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. He brushed himself out of his shock, letting a small smile curl on his lips at the sight of you.

He ducks his eyes away from you as he shifts from foot to foot. There’s a bottle of wine in one of his hands and a small bouquet of tulips in the other. He looks uncertainly between his hands before his eyes raised to your face, “hello.”

“You’ve brought flowers?” You blinked, shaking your head and smiling to yourself at the small act that had your heart beating out of your chest, “they’re beautiful.”

“Yeah, uh,” Alec swallowed nervously, “I wanted to bring chocolates as well, but Millhur told me it was weird. I don’t... y’know,” he gestured the hand holding the wine bottle between the two of you, “much. Should’ve brought more?”

“No,” you told him, “this is sweet, thank you.” He hands you the flowers and you take them into your hands and hold them against your chest, “please come in.”

He follows you through the threshold, toeing his shoes off as he goes. He follows you into the kitchen, setting the wine beside the one you’d found earlier, while you work on finding a vase for the flowers. They’re beautiful and easily make you heart skip a beat.  

“This smells delicious,” Hardy’s voice breaks you from your thoughts. It’s an honest comment, and means a lot coming from Hardy—even if it is just pleasantries.  

“Oh, thank you,” you let out a light laugh, moving to set the flowers on the table as a center piece. “I wasn’t sure what to make, so I went with what you ordered because I know you like it. Ellie mentioned you didn’t much like greasy foods, so... I hope this is okay?”

“Yes, of course,” Hardy nods, standing off to the side of the counter before he pauses, “you asked Millhur about me?”

“Uhm,” you let out a nervous laugh as you rubbed the back of your neck, “yeah... I just wanted to make sure I made something you’d like as well and... she spends the most time with you, so I thought I’d see what she suggested?”

The look on Alec’s face is an emotion you can’t quite place; or maybe it’s a mix of a few. You don’t know him well enough to decipher what emotions are crossing his features. His eyes are following you uncertainly, like he doesn’t really believe you’re real. He’s leaning against the counter with his hands intertwined together in front of him.  

“Should be done now, are you ready to eat?” Alec shakes himself from his stupor as you move towards the meal you prepared. You grab the pot of your dinner off the stove top and direct Alec to grab the salad bowl from the fridge. You grab two wine glasses, as well as the bottle Hardy brought and take those to the table where Hardy is seating himself.

You take the other seat.  

You both serve yourselves the food.

The first few minutes are quiet while you eat, and then Alec offers a soft, “this is really good, (Y/N),” and from there conversations sparks.  

It’s light and easy, like you’d hoped. That same atmosphere from the bar, but in the safety of your home which made it even better. You spend some time getting to know each other, talking softly between bites of food and sips of wine.  

“A daughter?” you ask, taking a bite of food. He’d been talking about a few of his favorite cases from his time working at Sandbrook, and had mentioned his Ex, and daughter.  

Conversations had taken a more intimate turn this time around than when the two of you were at the hotel. Maybe It's because Becca’s not eavesdropping from across the room, but Hardy seems more at ease. It didn’t feel odd to ask, and you were genuinely curious about him and his life.

“Yes,” he nods, lifting his glass to his lips, a smile on his lips at the thought of his child, “Daisy. She, ah, she lives with her mother in Sandbrook still. I... I don’t get to see her often. I don’t have a lot of free time—especially not with the Danny Latimer case active. She’s, ah, she’s fifteen.”

“Daisy sounds lovely.” You smile as you take a sip of your own wine. You’d both steadily made your way through a glass each, and Hardy had topped you both your glasses up. “We're lucky to have people like you and Ellie who are putting so much time and effort into finding the person who did that to him... It can’t be easy to leave her, and I know Ellie misses her boys during the long days and late nights.”

Hardy gave a little nod, attention on his plate. He’d eaten a lot more of his food than he had at the hotel. You’re happy he likes it, from what you’ve heard from Ellie he’s very picky. The wine he’d brought it very good too, and accompanies the meal better than the one you had on hand would’ve.

The two of you continue to chat while you enjoy your meals.  Hardy told you a bit more about some of his favorite cases, and the odd arrests he’d made back before he was a Detective Inspector. You, in turn, told him a bit about yourself, and your friends and family. Your receptionist job wasn’t very exciting, but you had good stories to share from other aspects of your life.  

The two of you finished up dinner, but continued talking over the wine when the food was gone.  

Hardy was actually pretty good company. Maybe it had been the fact that Becca was watching the two of you the last time you’d shared a meal, but here and now, he seemed to be letting himself relax just the slightest.  

“It really was quite good,” he told you with a smile as he set his cutlery on his finished plate. Your heart thrummed pridefully at the fact he’d finished his meal, unlike at the hotel where he’d eaten very little. “Thank you for this, it’s been lovely.”

“It’s no problem,” you told him, turning your head to hide your cheeks heating up. You stood gracefully, grabbing your own plate, before reaching over to grab Alec’s as well. “I’ll just get the dishes.”

He pulled his plate back before you could take it, following your lead and standing as well. “Let me help.”

You opened your mouth to promise it was fine, and that you didn’t need any help. He was a guest after all, and this was a thank you of sorts for being so kind to you—letting him wash the dishes with you didn’t really scream ‘Thank you!’ or express your gratitude for him being so much different than everyone else working at that building.

“I insist,” he watched you with a light smile, “please? You cooked for me, so I should at the very least help you tidy up?”

You couldn’t say no to that.

Hardy was good at washing dishes. You dried between tidying everything up, putting things away as you dried them. Conversation was still light and fun, and it didn’t even really feel like you were doing chores with Alec.  

While he was distracted with the pot you’d cooked the meal in, you couldn’t help but take him all in. Stood at your sink with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His suit jacket had been abandoned on the back of his chair. He was so focused on the dishes he didn’t even notice your attention straying to him, fond smile on your lips.  

You’d never really imagined a domestic Alec Hardy, but now that you were seeing it, you weren’t sure you’d ever be able to forget it. He was just so much different from DI Hardy. Still the same personality, awkwardness and quirks, but he was more relaxed. He smiled more, and didn’t seem quite so uptight—which you assumed just came with the position of DI.  

“(Y/N)?” he called, and you forced your attention back. He was holding out a wet wine glass, with one eyebrow raised curiously. He smiled as you took the glass with a sheepish grin, turning back to the sink and picking up one of the few remaining dishes.  

Together you tided up the kitchen like it hadn’t even been used that day. It was nice to not have to worry about doing it later, or even the following morning before you headed to work.  

“It’s already nine?” Alec’s voice startled you from your thoughts. You turned to look at where he was glancing at the time on your microwave. You really hadn’t thought it was so late.  

“Time really flies,” you mumbled, eyebrows furrowed in surprise.

“Indeed,” Alec gave a light laugh, “I guess I should be on my way then.”

You thought about inviting him to stay later, but then you remember your early morning tomorrow, and you assume Alec will be getting in around the same time as you. You need some sleep if you plan on functioning tomorrow.  

“Did you need a ride home?” you ask as you follow him to the dining room to retrieve his jacket. He shakes his head with a light smile as he slips the coat on.

“You’ve already done enough tonight. Dinner was lovely, and I couldn’t ask you to drive me back to the hotel. I don’t mind the walk, it’s not too far anyways.”

You fight down the rejection in his words, smiling anyways. “Alright.”

You lead Alec to the door, chewing the inside of your cheek as you watch him step out into the chill of the night. You don’t really want him to go. 

You wonder where the two of you stand, even after this dinner. Will things just go back to the way they’d been before like after he took you out to dinner? Did this mean something? You’d hoped this could’ve... maybe led to more, but he doesn’t seem keen on it. “Goodnight, Alec.”

The man turns back to you with a little smile before stepping back through the threshold of the house, cupping the side of you jaw with his hand as he pressed his lips against yours. You’re stunned for a second, but then you’re kissing back, smiling into it.  

He pulls back first, leaving you breathless. His hand lingers for a moment, before he’s letting his touch fall away and he’s slipping his hand into his pocket, “goodnight.”

You watched with lidded eyes in an almost stunned silence as Alec disappears into the night. You watch his retreating back as you lift your fingers to touch against your tingling lips, smiling softly as you replay the kiss in your mind.

When he’s gone from sight, you shut your door, lock it and then lean against it with a happy sigh.  

You don’t have to wonder where you stand with Alec Hardy anymore; he’s made that completely obvious.

<><><><>

Thank you so much for taking the time to read! I hope this was suffice? It was fun to write, so thank you for the prompt!

As always, if it wasn’t what you were looking for, feel free to prompt me again! It might take a bit though :( Anyways! Have a good morning/day/night! <3

[lifeofkaze]

Welcome to Deadwood - HPHL Wild West AU Masterpost

HPHL Wild West AU Masterpost

This is a masterpost for all the lovely AU-versions of the HPHL community for the Wild West AU. The creators will be tagged and linked accordingly.

If you want me to add your own OC to the list, please reply to/reblog THIS POST right here so this list stays a little more organised and I will update it as soon as I can 💛

The small city of Deadwood lies in the middle of nowhere, deep in the wild, wild west, forgotten and forsaken by everyone but its inhabitants and the dust settling on every building. The only reason to go to Deadwood is to forget or be forgotten. Lately, however, a stream of newcomers has rattled the quiet community. Some of the new faces are famous, some infamous, but one thing is for sure - the peaceful days in Deadwood are over.

@lifeofkaze

Selene Fraser: Having run away from her family's home in Scotland, Selene opened a saloon in Deadwood called The Gold Dragon, together with the business partner Reuben Willows. She gets confronted with her past when an unexpected visitor arrives in Deadwood and shakes her to the core.

Tag/Masterlist: Death Comes To Deadwood

@the-al-chemist (shortened character texts copied from @the-al-chemist )

Ophelia Burke: She’s a wanted woman, a femme fatale, frequenting saloons in search of inebriated wealthy men to seduce and rob. She’s doing very well for herself.

Ethel Hexley: Ethel is a farmer’s daughter who dreams of becoming a judge, but is stuck working as a lowly clerk in the Sheriff’s office. Her plucky attitude and skills see her rising to the role of Deputy.

Jim Hexley: Jim Hexley took over his parents’ small cattle ranch, and is struggling to keep it afloat, more out of a sense of duty than of passion.

Tag/Masterlist: Deadwood Project

@catohphm

Danny Gibson: A well-seasoned Marshal of the United States, Danny is sent by his superiors to investigate the increased rate of crime in the forgotten town of Deadwood.

Tag/Masterlist: Find Danny's masterlist here

@cursebreakerfarrier

Galen Stagg: After recovering from a serious injury, former travelling sheriff Galen Stagg found his peace in retirement on his ranch alongside his wife Siobhan and his beloved animals. But when his home appears to be in danger, he can't fight the call of righteousness and saddles his horse one last time.

Arthur 'Teddy' Elison: Teddy lives a busy life as deputy sheriff to the town of Deadwood. He tries to do his best to uphold the law and protect the people of his hometown from crime and law alike - manifesting in nobody else than the sheriff himself, Teddy's own father.

Emerson Page: Emerson is an (in)famous gambler, whose name is spoken in whispers in every saloon in the wild west. Gambler by day, train robber by night, he knows all the tricks to evade the law. Things change when former sheriff Galen Stagg is sent to hunt him down, however.

Akira Crane (text copied from @cursebreakerfarrier ) : His name is well-known across the whole of the North American continent, but his face? Not so much. Stories are whispered about the Phantom Assassin yet nobody knows what’s true and what’s just a fairytale to scare the faint-hearted. Akira could drift into a saloon, sit right beside you, and you wouldn’t look at him twice.

Tag/Masterlist: Find all of the amazing art and content here

@kc-and-oc

Siobhan Llewellyn: Siobhan is in charge of the horses of Deadwood. If anything is the matter with your steed, she is the first address in town. Her serivce isn't cheap but unrivalled and she never loses her head, no matter how extreme the situation or strong the whiskey. That is, until travelling sheriff Galen Stagg makes his appearance in town.

Eliot Gerard: Eliot "The Bone-Saw" Gerard is Deadwood's resident medic. There are certainly more skilled or more adept doctors to be found in the west, but he does all that he can with the little means he has in Deadwood. If there's one thing you can say about him, is that he's passionate - whether it is about healing his fellow residents or his daily trips to The Gold Dragon Saloon.

Oliver Gerard: Where his brother Eliot's favourite is The Gold Dragon, OIiver is to be found in Deadwood's second establishment, the gambling parlour The Harvest Moon. He plays the piano there for a living and romances the dancers for fun - so far, to no avail.

Tag/Masterlist: Find all things Shiv, Eli and Oli here

@hogwartsmysteryho

Nolan Miller: On his mission to become the richest man in Deadwood by far, banker Nolan Miller knows every trick available to get his hands on every property he sets his eyes on. Some are fair, some are not but then again - so is life.

Vinny Raymond: Deadwood's resident sweetheart, Vinny owns a shop that sells every item imaginable under the sun. His specialty, however, are the sweets he either sells or just plainly gives away for free. He is especially popular with Deadwood's children but no one could ever not love Vinny.

Anastasia Jennings: What's the best thing you can do in a world built on the backs of horses when you don't like them? That's right, open a shop solely dedicated to them. Anastasia's workshop is the place to go if you need a new saddle, bridle or riding crop. Her consulting is as impeccable as her leatherworks.

Tag/Masterlist: Find all the information on Nolan, Vinny and Anastasia here

@unfortunate-arrow

William Devlin: A piano player in one of the local establishments, William’s not quite sure what he’s doing in Deadwood. He watches the tension boil as he plays the piano, occasionally sketches, and falls in love with a certain saloon dancer.

Tag/Masterlist: HPHL Wild West AU

@whatwouldvalerydo

Leila Hellebore: Nobody knows what notorious outlaw Leila did to earn the hefty sum rewarded for her head. The only thing that's for sure is that her presence means trouble for whoever crosses her path. But if you earn her loyalty she'd die for you - figuratively and literally.

Talia Crane: Talia is the current sheriff of Tombstone Valley, a town just as small as forgotten as Deadwood. She replaced her father after he met an untimely demise - some say at her hand but no one would ever dare accuse her to her face. Where she is dangerous with a gun, she is deadly with a whip and any outlaw riding into her town should better think twice about crossing her.

Tag/Masterlist: All things Leila, Talia and their stories are here

@thatravenpuffwitch

Adelia Selwyn: Calamity Addy is the daughter of famous outlaw leader Reg Selwyn. When her father gets shot in Deadwood, she bands together with the sheriff's son and deputy to prevent Deadwood falling into the hands of an even greater criminal than her father ever was.

Gwen Archeron: Having made her fortune as a gambler and thief, Gwen is the owner of Deadwood's second establishment, the gambling parlour The Harvest Moon.

Estrid Soelberg: If you're an outlaw and value your head right where it is right now, you better not cross this former Texas ranger on the hunt for bounty.

Tag/Masterlist: Everything Calamity Addy and her friends is here

[itwoodbeprefect]

(different anon, but!) now i’m curious - how would you do an actual crossover between sga and h50?

gosh, crossovers are honestly very far out of my wheelhouse (in that i don't read them and i don't write them because i'm sure they can be very good!! but it's just always felt vaguely awkward to me), but i can definitely throw some thoughts at the wall!

okay, so, i assume that if we're talking crossovers that means we want the characters to meet while keeping both canon universes intact, which is fine, because there's not really anything in either of them that would contradict the other. a very easy out would be to put the stargate program on steve's resume as one of those very top secret missions that he drops into conversations just to watch danny be annoyed when the only answer to all of his questions is "classified". another take could be to - and it keeps coming back to this, for some reason - steal some plot beats from vegas, as in, a live wraith has somehow found its way to earth and has gone undetected, but the detectives on the case, which would now be steve and danny, can feel that something is up. those two starting points could also both work, of course: steve has that background (but has been out of the stargate program since he came to hawaii and probably doesn't know what a wraith is), so he can see there's something off about these bodies they keep finding with causes of death that fascinate and puzzle max and really frustrate danny, and he makes a call to sam, who alerts the right people, which is how eventually some experts get called in, which obviously need to come from atlantis, so that's john and rodney and definitely carson (there's dead bodies to be examined!) and maybe teyla and ronon too, because you need a tracker if you want to find that wraith.

or, alternately, and actually way more interesting on second thought: jeannie still drops out of the scientific community because she gets pregnant, but then she realizes that even though caleb is an incredibly sweet vegetarian english major and will definitely be involved in the raising of their child, she can't marry him because she's a lesbian. so. what i'm saying is. jeannie mckay/mary mcgarret, recently invented rarepair. jeannie marries mary instead, and when jeannie gets kidnapped obviously rodney, john and ronon still show up (plagiarizing miller's crossing this time - see! there's episodes of sga other than vegas!), BUT mary has already made a call to her big brother, like help, my wife is missing, and of course steve and danny have also sprung into action, and inevitably the two investigations end up running into each other. steve's like "we know about atlantis" (either because again, steve was part of the stargate program, or because jeannie told mary, like she did with caleb in canon, and now that jeannie is missing mary shared what she knew with steve and danny) and john's like "... what's an atlantis?" at the same time that rodney blurts "how?" because his SISTER is MISSING and he has no time to pretend he cares about secrecy when that's obviously a moot point anyway. at some point rodney is like, this is my SISTER we're talking about!, trying to make the point that he has more of a personal stake than anyone else, and steve's like, she's a sister to me too!, and they probably have a talk about growing up with bad parents (rodney feels a little better about his once he hears about steve's my-mom-pretended-to-be-dead-so-she-could-raise-my-arch-nemesis-who-then-killed-my-father issues) and about how that can lead to accidentally becoming estranged from your little sister, and about how to fix that. this leaves john and danny in each other’s unlikely company, so danny’s like, “... how’s living in another galaxy?” and john’s like “pretty cool. we have flying ships” and danny’s like “PLEASE don’t tell steve about those. he WILL crash them” and john’s like “noted. hey, i heard you guys have kids?” so danny gets out his phone to show him pictures of grace and charlie and doesn’t correct him on the part where he seems to think they’re steve’s kids too, because why bother. they of course save jeannie and bring her back home safe to mary and madison (and caleb). once everyone heads back home there’s probably a thing where john and rodney talk while on the deadalus and realize that if it can work between steve and danny, then why not between them, and meanwhile on some plane somewhere steve and danny are having the exact same conversation in reverse (because none of them were actually dating yet, but they both thought the others were). this works out well for everyone involved until jeannie and mary’s big tenth wedding anniversary party, at which the truth somehow comes out, but then all of the guys realize that in the grand story of their lives, with all of the strange things that have happened to them all, this really isn’t even that weird. (it is that weird to jeannie and mary, though. it’s the ONLY story they tell ANY of their friends for an entire year. madison grows up and writes a semi-autobiographical book about her family and the strange case of how her uncles ended up together and it’s a new york times bestseller but also gets called “sweet, but a little implausible”.)

[charliehoennam]

bringin’ this b*tch back because I need to write and your girl needs your helppp! I’ve posted this before and done a few, so the lines that are crossed are ones that have been done alread. If you’re interested, send in a character and a number. If you’re not sure who I write for, here’s the list again. If there’s a caracter not on the list and you’d like to send in, ask and i’ll let you know if it’s possible! Reminder:  This list is not limited to strictly these characters, I am willing to write for other characters from the same film/show (including female) under request as well as characters from other fandoms (Vikings, Peaky Blinders, MCU, Triple Frontier, Sons of Anarchy etc). If you want anything specially done, please add the details you’d like included!  ❤

Tom Hardy: Bane, Eames, Reggie/Ronnie Kray, John Fitzgerald, Tommy Conlon, James Delaney, Farrier, and my all time favorite jewish fluff muffin, Alfie Solomons;

Boyd Holbrook: Steve Murphy, Donald Pierce, Amos Jenkins, Quinn McKenna, Danny Maguire, Peter Kristo, William “Cap” Hatfield, Douglas Cleary, Kaden;

Pedro Pascal: Pero Tovar, Javier Peña, Oberyn Martell, Jack “Whiskey” Daniels, Ezra, Max (Bloodsucking Bastards), Francisco “Catfish” Morales;

Charlie Hunnam: Jackson Teller, Arthur Pendragon, Raymond Smith, Percy Fawcett, Henri “Papillon” Charrière, William “Ironhead” Miller;

Jon Bernthal: Frank Castle, Shane Walsh, Griff, Grady Travis, Sam Rossi.

Drop a line if you’re interested! 

1. “If you’re going to kill me, I suggest you do it fast.”

2. “Oh shit, you’re a virgin?”

3. “Why the hell would you be in love with me?”

4. “Having sex and making love are NOT the same.”

5. “Sober, my ass.”

6. “Your problem is you don’t know how to be loved and that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. “

7. “It’s 2:37 in the morning. What the hell are you doing here?”

8. “I am not your enemy.”

9. “Do not make me laugh right now!”

10. “It is so on now.”

11. “I told you to lock the door.”

12. “Don’t make me pull over.”

13. “I just wanted to try out something new.”

14. “It was just a bad dream.”

15. “You said I could do it!”

16. “This is what I imagine Hell is like.”

17. “No matter what, keep your eyes closed.”

18. “There’s so much blood!”

19. “Try me. I dare you.”

20. “You had one job.”

21. “This does not sound like a good idea.”

22. “I can’t believe you got me into this.”

23. “I know you feel like you’re alone, buy you’ll always have me.”

24. “Oh my God. Fire. Fire!”

25. “Can you please shut up and let me take care of you for crying out loud?”

26. “Jesus Christ. Just lemme shave it for you.”

27. “Turn the car around! This is a candy emergency. Do not fuck with me right now.”

28. “You have until the end of this cupcake to explain yourself.”

29. “You are not dying, calm down.”

30. “I am not talking about it.”

31. “Stop laughing! It’s not funny! This is painful so come help me, you dick!”

32. “We can’t just pretend everything is fine. It’s not fine!”

33. “I don’t know what I’m doing,but I think it’s working.”

34. “Don’t go in there. There’s a cockroach with wings.”

35. “How exactly this my fault?”

36. “You’re not even listening to me.”

37. “Don’t lie to me.”

38. “Look, this is new to me alright? But I swear I’m trying here.”

39. “You have 5 minutes.”

40. “You promised you wouldn’t flip out!”

41. “You’ve never slow-danced?”

42. “Say the magic words!”

43. “It looks worse than it really is.”

44. “I’m not making any promises though.”

45. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

46. “Stop looking at me like that!”

47. “I told you so.”

48. “Did I do or say something wrong?”

49. “I’m trying really hard here.”

50. “If you don’t wanna talk, it’s okay. I’m just gonna sit here in case you do. Call it moral support.”

51."Spread them for me, angel."

52. "You gonna behave for me or will I have to teach you a lesson?"

53. "I’ll make you feel good, just relax and enjoy the view."

54. "Fuck me. I ain’t asking you. I’m ordering you."

55. "Thank you for sharing your body with me."

56. "I promise I won’t be gentle.”

57. "My weakness is seeing you on your knees."

58. "Get out of those clothes and on daddy’s lap."

59. "Listen and be good for me, kitten."

60. "Keep those eyes open. Watch and feel me.”

[materialwoman]

❦  　*　  ❝　 𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐘   𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑   +   𝐀   𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 ,   FROM  EARLY  LIFE  TO  MODERN  TIMES .

▌     𝐀  𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄  𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄  𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆    key - points  of  tammy’s  life,  ranging  from  her  family  ties  and  professional  aspirations  to  her  involvement  with  crime.   it’s  a  rather  long  and  rambly  collection  of  thoughts,  so  sadly  i’ll  have  to  keep  most  of  it  under  a  read  more.   this  covers  all  of  the  main  arcs  i  write  on  this  blog  :

[    ♡    ]      arc  i   ,     youth   /   teen   /   young  adult  years

[    ♡    ]      arc  ii   ,     adult   /   pre  -  canon

[    ♡    ]      arc  iii   ,     adult   /   canon

[    ♡    ]      arc  iv   ,     adult   /   post  -  canon

▌    1974     -     birth  ,    

 december  16,  1974.  circa  7am.  tamasin  sinclair,  the  second  daughter  of  the  ferguson-sinclair  family,  is  born.  she’s  a  giggly  baby  girl,  but  often  cries  when  far  from  her  mother,  veronique.  her  favorite  people  to  be  around  are  her  big  sister,  olivia,  and  katherine,  her  grandmother.

▌    1980     -     age   six  ,    

 a  six  years  old  tammy  travels  overseas  for  the  first  time,  having  europe  as  a  destination.  she’s  taken  to  london,  for  a  fun  week  under  the  cares  of  her  favorite  grandmother,  while  her  father  attends  a  law  conference  in  the  city.  for  the  first  time,  she  sees  the  world  beyond  her  mother’s  eyes,  following  katherine  around  events,  fun  sleepover  nights  and  even  her  day-to-day  life  at  the  dance  academy’s  office    -    with  an  outrageous  amount  of  a  new  discovered  common  obsession:  british  vogue.

▌    1983     -     age  nine  ,    

 she’s  nine  years  old  when  her  younger  sister  is  born.  louisa  is  bubbly;  a  funny  little  child  that  amused  tammy  in  every  way.  olivia  and  herself  would  spend  hours  around  the  crib,  even  more  than  their  own  mother,  who  would  often  be  off  working  or  dealing  with  her  own  set  of  concerns.  the  sisters  would  take  care  of  lulu,  as  they  called  her,  whenever  they  could;  she  was  their  new  favorite  little  person.

▌    1990     -     age  sixteen  ,    

tammy  reaches  the  age  of  sixteen,  and  as  a  gift  from  her  other  grandmother,  virginie,  is  invited  to  spend  a  couple  of  weeks  with  her  in  paris.  the  woman,  a  strict  and  straightforward  art  curator,  has  no  doubts  a  young  lady  such  as  tamasin  could  use  a  little  time  with  her  to  learn  new  things  about  modern  womanhood.  the  visit  went  well,  although  tammy  did  spend  more  time  trying  to  convince  virginie  to  take  her  to  one  of  her  fancy  events  or  a  fashion  week  than  listening  to  her  grandma’s  teachings.  virginie  was  not  very  pleased.

 tammy’s  aunt,  uma  sinclair,  has  her  own  idea  of  a  gift  for  the  soon  to  be  young  woman  in  the  family    --    one  the  girl  would  enjoy  much  more,  as  well.  the  blond  ambition  world  tour  reaches  new  jersey,  the  closest  to  tammy’s  home.  she  hears  as  madonna  sings  about  love,  friendship,  fashion,  and  some  much  better  takes  on  modern  womanhood.  she  would  never  be  the  same.

▌    1992     -     age  eighteen  ,    

at  age  eighteen,  tamasin  graduates  from  high  school.  her  biggest  interests  during  the  previous  years  were  fashion,  creative  writing  and  the  influence  of  women  in  culture  and  society.  her  main  graduation  choices  were  psychology  and  journalism,  where  she  hoped  to  discuss  some  of  her  passions  through  the  gift  of  writing.    [  ...  ]   against  all  of  her  efforts,  tammy  has  no  support  from  her  parents  to  follow  any  of  her  careers  of  choice.  she’s  advised  (  although  practically  induced  )  to  follow  the  path  of  those  before  her,  and  very  much  like  her  parents  and  her  older  sister,  ends  up  enrolling  into  pre-law  school.  it  was  the  one  moment  when  tammy  got  the  closest  to  being  the  daughter  veronique  ever  dreamed  of  having.  

▌    1993     -     age  nineteen  ,    

 despite  veronique  and  laurent’s  attempts  to  keep  their  daughter  under  their  watch,  tamasin  decides  to  move  out  of  the  family  house  and  start  over,  this  time  making  things  her  way.  she  moves  into  an  apartment  in  the  big  city,  alongside  with  olivia,  and  no  longer  having  financial  support  from  her  parents,  starts  working  at  a  diner  in  new  york  city.  she  drops  out  of  pre-law  school  after  one  semester.

 as  louisa,  her  little  sister,  reaches  the  age  of  ten,  olivia  and  tamasin  notice  there’s  something  wrong.  the  little  girl  that  once  was  a  wild  spirit  started  to  seem  less  and  less  bright,  and  their  mother  seemed  to  be  the  reason  of  such  change.  they’ve  been  there  before:  they  knew  what  she  does.  tammy  goes  to  their  grandmother,  which  intervenes  and  asks  veronique  to  let  the  sisters  take  care  of  lulu  for  some  time.  she’d  be  constantly  helping  when  needed,  as  well,  while  veronique  took  some  time  to  take  care  of  herself.  although  not  content,  the  mother  agrees.  the  older  sisters  take  lulu  to  their  apartment  in  nyc,  and  keep  raising  a  strong,  bright  little  girl  for  the  next  many  years.  

 1993     -     1997  .     tamasin,  olivia  and  louisa  carry  a  light,  fun  day-to-day  life  in  their  apartment  in  nyc.  the  three  of  them  have  their  own  studies  and  personal  matters,  as  the  eldest  finishes  law  and  looks  forward  to  building  a  family  already,  tammy  studied  and  explored  her  ambition,  while  both  raised  a  much  more  hopeful  little  lulu.

▌    1994     -     age  twenty  ,    

 noticing  tammy’s  resilience  and  quick  wits,  tammy’s  coworker  invites  her  to  take  a  small  part  on  a  con  one  night.  her  sense  of  adventure,  ambition  and  the  undeniable  need  for  extra  cash  in  order  to  get  into  college  again  are  decision  makers:  call  her  the  newest  fence  in  the  business.  well,  figuratively.  she  didn’t  truly  know  what  that  meant:  only  that  she  was  good  at  it.    [  ...  ]   one  day,  working  at  the  diner,  tammy  catches  a  young  woman  trying  to  pickpocket  one  of  the  clients  from  behind  the  counter.  enter  debbie  ocean  -  and  tamasin  doesn’t  stop  her,  much  on  the  contrary.  she’s  proud  to  quietly  announce  she’s  done  things  of  that  sort,  too.  it’s  a  match  made  in  heaven:  if  not  even  deborah  had  the  eye  to  catch  her  as  the  type  to  con,  who  could  ever  suspect?

▌    1995     -     age  twenty - one  ,    

 tammy  is  introduced  to  lou  miller,  an  australian  con  artist  that  soon  became  her  other  partner  in  crime.  together,  the  three  ladies  take  part  on  small  cons,  such  as  movie  theater  tickets,  amusement  parks,  retail  and  similar.  with  them,  tammy  makes  the  extra  money  needed  to  start  studying  again.  this  time,  she  goes  with  journalism.   [  ...  ]   tammy  gets  her  first  ever  tattoo,   a  delicate  little  rose  now  marked  onto  the  side  of  her  ribcage.  she  tells  everyone  it  was  her  choice  because  it  was  cute,  but  secretly  likes  to  think  of  the  strength  of  her  delicacy  represented  in  it.

▌    1996     -     age  twenty - two  ,    

 as  a  birthday  gift,  louisa  and  olivia  give  tammy  a  pet  bunny.  she  calls  him  cherry.  

 tammy  is  introduced  to  danny  ocean  and  his  partner  in  crime,  rusty  ryan.  it’s  when  debbie,  lou  and  herself  get  the  perspective  of  expanding  the  cons  they’ve  been  working  on.  small  casinos  and  events  become  their  new  target.

▌    1997     -     age  twenty - three  ,    

 as  olivia  graduates  law  and  starts  working  at  the  family  office,  along  come  the  news  of  the  newest  baby  in  the  family.  she  gets  married  shortly  after,  moving  out  of  the  sisters’  apartment  and  into  her  own  household.    [  ...  ]   tamasin  graduates  from  college,  finally  having  her  journalism  degree.  

▌    1999     -     age  twenty - five  ,    

as  grandmother  virginie  brings  an  art  exhibit  to  new  york,  a  twenty  five  years  old  tamasin  is  invited  to  attend  the  event.  debbie,  lou  and  tammy  take  advantage  of  her  position  and  steal  a  piece  from  an  adjacent  exposition  during  the  party.  they  go  unnoticed,  making  thousands  of  dollars  each.   [  ...  ]   having  her  degree,  tammy  tries  to  get  a  job  position  at  vogue  magazine,  as  well  as  paper  and  vanity  fair.  she  doesn’t  get  a  call  back  after  her  interviews.  

▌    2000     -     age  twenty - six  ,    

 tammy  gets  a  new  day  job,  at  a  flower  shop.  she  works  there  for  a  few  years,  deeply  resenting  not  being  able  to  work  on  her  dream  field  after  finally  being  able  to,  and  takes  it  out  writing  independent  articles  for  her  portfolio  and  shopping  for  designer  clothes  rather  inconsequently  at  times.

▌    2002     -     age  twenty - eight  ,    

 tamasin  gets  a  job  at  paper  magazine,  writing  a  monthly  column  about  the  representation  of  fashion  in  the  media  and  exploring  its  influence  in  storytelling.  finally,  she’s  able  to  work  with  her  passions  combined.

▌    2003     -     age  twenty - nine  ,    

 at  age  twenty,  louisa  moves  out  of  the  apartment,  having  recently  graduated  from  the  juilliard  dance  intensive  program.

 tammy  continues  to  live  in  the  apartment  in  nyc,  where  herself  and  the  girls  can  meet  up  to  plan  future  heists.  even  at  this  point,  crime  represents  her  main  source  of  income,  as  her  day  job  doesn’t  pay  quite  as  well  as  stolen  goods  and  jewels.  however,  it’s  not  only  for  the  money;  tammy  finds  being  a  fence  allows  her  to  explore  her  ambition  and  sense  of  adventure,  things  long  repressed  after  years  being  controlled  by  her  parents’  will.  surprisingly  enough,  she’s  happier  than  ever.

▌    2005     -     age  thirty - one  ,    

 cherry,  tammy’s  pet  bunny,  passes  away  after  nine  years.     [  ...  ]   after  three  years,  tamasin  leaves  her  job  at  paper  magazine  as  she’s  offered  a  position  at  W  magazine,  where  she’s  handed  a  column  on  the  beauty  section.    [  ...  ]    following  her  acceptance  into  the  royal  ballet  company,  louisa  makes  the  decision  of  moving  to  the  united  kingdom.

▌    2007     -     age  thirty - three  ,    

 tamasin  is  invited  to  the  inauguration  dinner  party  of  olivia’s  very  own  law  office.  at  the  event,  she’s  introduced  to  nicholas  mcallister,  a  colleague  lawyer  to  liv.

 1998     -     2008  .     tammy’s  golden  age  of  crime;  acting  as  a  fence,  constantly  developing  her  skills  as  a  con  artist.  after  years  acting  on  unrelated  events,  casinos  and  parties,  she  develops  a  system  of  hijacking  equipments  trucks  crossing  the  border  from  canada  and  reselling  the  goods  on  the  black  market.  it  lasts  for  years  and  grants  her  certain  status  on  the  underworld  of  crime  as  an  experient,  trustworthy  fence  in  the  business.

▌    2008     -     age  thirty - four  ,    

one  night,  tammy  receives  the  new  that  her  younger  sister,  louisa,  had  been  involved  in  a  car  accident  and  seriously  injured  her  knee,  compromising  her  debut  on  the  royal  company  as  a  lead  and,  in  a  long  term  matter,  her  dancing  career.  tamasin  travels  to  london  immediately,  offering  her  baby  sister  support  and  inevitably  reconnecting  with  her  parents.   [  ...  ]   her  sister’s  injury  was  an  undeniable  step  back  on  tammy’s  life,  and  reconnecting  with  her  mother  due  to  the  intense  family  trauma  was  a  decisive  point  on  the  decisions  she’d  make  from  then  on;  being  heavily  criticized  for  not  yet  having  a  family  in  her  mid  30s,  unlike  her  older  sister,  who  had  perfectly  built  a  family  of  her  own  while  finishing  law  school,  tammy  finds  herself  deeply  torn  between  the  duality  of  her  desires  --  to  stay  in  the  city,  investing  on  her  career  as  a  journalist  and  continue  to  explore  how  happy  crime  made  her,  or  to  finally  settle  down  and  think  of  building  a  family,  bringing  the  life-long  dream  of  motherhood  to  reality.  finally,  she  decides  it  is  time  to  take  a  step  back,  and  chooses  to  retire  from  her  career  as  a  fence.

▌    2009     -     age  thirty - five  ,    

 as  a  consequence  of  laying  low  and  removing  herself  from  the  crime  scene,  tammy  grows  lonelier  every  day.  despite  believing  she  could  remain  friends  with  debbie,  lou,  and  all  of  her  former  con  acquaintances,  tammy  came  to  realize  it’d  be  harder  than  she  thought  to  stay  in  touch  while  keeping  a  distance  from  crime.  she  agrees  to  go  on  a  date  with  olivia’s  fellow  lawyer,  nicholas,  and  a  few  weeks  later,  starts  dating  him.

▌    2010     -     age  thirty - six  ,    

 as  of  august  2010,  during  dinner,  tamasin  and  nicholas  get  engaged.  tammy  grabs  onto  the  planning  of  her  wedding  almost  fiercely,  and  with  the  help  of  olivia,  uma  and  katherine,  builds  a  dream-like  event  to  celebrate  her  union  with  nick.

▌    2011     -     age  thirty - seven  ,    

 save  the  date:  tammy  and  nick’s  wedding  happens  during  spring,  on  a  beautiful  vineyard,  and  she’s  as  happy  as  one  can  be.  the  couple  signs  a  prenup,  and  despite  tammy’s  absolute  devotion  to  her  relationship,  she  does  not  change  her  last  name.  she  tells  nick  there’s  no  way  she’d  ever  stop  being  a  sinclair  woman;  that  was  something  she  hardly  considered  back  then.  the  couple  moves  to  a  house  in  the  suburbs  outside  of  new  york,  where  they  plan  to  build  a  family  together.  she  does  not  get  rid  of  the  sisters’  apartment.

▌    2012     -     age  thirty - eight  ,    

 tammy  and  nick  have  many  attempts,  but  still  find  themselves  unable  to  conceive  a  child.    [  ...  ]   to  better  use  her  time,  tamasin  decides  to  enroll  into  univertity  once  again.  she  goes  for  marketing  courses,  knowing  it  can  be  of  good  use  when  working  on  her  dream  field,  with  critical  and  commercial  writing.

▌    2013     -     age  thirty - nine  ,    

 on  the  first  days  of  the  year  and  after  many  attempts,  tamasin  discovers  she’s  pregnant.  it’s  a  very  calm  pregnancy,  and  tammy  has  no  trouble  working  from  home  for  the  same  w  magazine  column  on  beauty.  during  her  pregnancy  as  well,  tammy  graduates  from  marketing  school,  studying  from  home.  through  a  c-section,  she  gives  birth  to  twins,  and  calls  them  beatrice  and  benjamin.

▌    2015     -     age  fourty  -  one  ,    

 having  the  twins,  tammy  knows  she  wants  more  babies.  nicholas  and  her  decide  there  will  be  no  other  time  to  give  that  a  try,  and  attempt  to  get  pregnant  once  again.  differently  from  the  first  time,  this  pregnancy  happens  easily,  but  definitely  takes  its  toll  on  tamasin’s  health  and  body.  she  decides  to  let  go  of  her  position  at  W  magazine,  dedicating  her  time  to  taking  care  of  the  twins  as  well  as  herself.  during  the  months  following  august’s  birth,  tammy  experiences  postpartum  depression.

▌    2016     -     age  fourty  -  two  ,    

 after  years  distanced  from  crime,  and  having  plenty  of  time  in  her  hands  as  an  unemployed  housewife,  tammy  falls  into  temptation

 and  reconnects  with  a  former  provider.  she  starts  gathering  goods  stolen  directly  from  fabric  on  her  garage,  and  reselling  such  items  to  the  black  market.  if  you  ask  her  about  crime,  she’ll  say  she’s  retired.     [  ...  ]   tammy  gets  her  second  tattoo,  this  time,  even  more  discreet  --   three  little  dots  on  the  back  of  her  neck,  one  for  each  of  her  children.

▌    2018     -     age  fourty  -  four  ,    

 despite  making  it  clear  that  she’s  out  of  the  crime  business,  tammy  gets  a  surprise  visit  from  an  old  friend.  debbie  ocean  makes  a  rather  undeniable  proposal:  to  join  her  and  lou  in  a  millionaire  heist.  she  leaves  for  the  big  city  in  a  matter  of  days,  asking  her  sisters  to  keep  an  extra  eye  on  the  kids  as  she’s  gone.  she  acts  as  a  fence  in  the  met  gala  heist  of  2018  and  goes  unnoticed  as  the  seven  other  members  of  her  crew.  once  the  heist  is  done,  and  after  having  another  taste  of  just  how  exciting  her  life  can  be  when  she  explores  her  greedy  side,  tammy  realizes  she  does  not  want  to  go  back  to  her  life  in  the  suburbs.  it  only  adds  up  to  the  fact  that  she  was  no  longer  happy  in  her  married  life.  as  of  the  end  of  the  year,  tammy  and  nick  file  a  divorce.

▌    2019     -     age  fourty  -  five  ,    

after  working  for  the  met  staff  in  2018,  tammy  interviewed  for  a  position  at  the  vogue  office.  this  time,  she  gets  a  call  back,  and  is  made  a  collaborator  of  vogue  online,  writing  articles  for  the  vogue.com  website  and  supervising  content  creation  for  vogue  america’s  social  media.

at  the  end  of  the  year,  she’s  made  one  of  the  editors  of  vogue  online,  coordinating  the  creation  of  editorials  and  videos  for  vogue’s  youtube  channel.

for  the  first  time,  she  covers  new  york  fashion  week  and  writes  two  articles  analyzing  chanel  and  ellie  saab’s  show.  her  work  is  vastly  recognized  by  the  industry  and  well  received  by  the  public.

▌    2020     -     age  fourty  -  six  ,    

 proving  to  be  a  skilled  writer  and  creative  director,  tammy  takes  a  long  shot  and  asks  for  a  chance  to  act  as  a  collaborator  to  vogue  magazine,  the  print.  such  position  is  ultimately  granted,  and  tamasin  continues  to  coordinate  vogue  online’s  content  as  well  as  occasionally  collaborate  to  print  articles  for  the  magazine.

▌    2021     -     age  fourty  -  seven  ,    

 after  being  granted  her  first  chance  at  completely  handling  her  previous  position  at  the  fashion  print,  tammy  is  named  editor  of  vogue  magazine.  she  mainly  coordinates  and  keeps  contacts  for  photoshoots,  interviews,  articles  and  columns.  she  occasionally  acts  as  a  collaborator  as  well,  and  is  released  from  her  position  at  vogue  online.

 2018     -    future  .     tammy  lives  in  a  house  in  new  york  city  with  her  three  kids,  benjamin,  beatrice  and  august,  and  has  finally  been  hired  at  the  job  of  her  dreams:  vogue  magazine.  she  continues  to  work  on  cons  with  her  crew  heist,  and  her  career  as  a  journalist  only  seems  to  be  growing.  keep  an  eye  on  that  one:  who  knows  when  vogue  might  announce  a  new  editor  in  chief?

[spockvarietyhour]

it's Dupond et Dupont!

[blackacre13]

could you write versions of Lou’s POV when debbie gets jealous of tess? those young loubbie/tess stories you write but it’s lou’s perspective 🥺

I just did Lou’s point of view for Young Loubbie/Tess + Rusty playing poker the other day, so I took a stab at Lou’s POV when Debbie is jealous of how flirty Lou and Tess are when they’re married: Original is here, but you don’t have to have read the original to understand this update!

“Stop doing that,” Tammy sighed, leaning back against the the laundry room door as Lou looked up from where she was bent over the washer, fishing around for something.

“You’ll have to be more specific, love,” Lou laughed, holding up a small, stuffed rabbit with floppy ears that had weaseled its way into the laundry and escaped Dani’s supervision.

“That,” Tammy huffed. “Exactly that. The loves, the flirting, the smirks, the winks.”

“You love it,” Lou winked before letting out a snort as she closed the washer, turning to face her friend, tucking the bunny under crossed arms.

“Dare I ask?” Tammy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“About Bun Bun?” Lou grinned. “The police are on it. Put out an APB. Told Debs to watch her ass with the cops on the case, but you know, you do what you have to do to get a missing bunny back.”

“Lou,” Tammy exhaled, reaching out to touch the blonde’s shoulder. “Come on.”

“It’s really bothering her that much?” Lou asked, her face sinking as reality dawned on her. Tammy shouldn’t have been surprised that Lou was only feigning innocence and knew exactly what Tammy had been up to. Protecting Debbie. Like she always did. Well, when she wasn’t protecting Lou.

“I mean she says it’s not,” Tammy shrugged. “But you know how stubborn she is.”

“Yeah,” Lou breathed, leaning back against the laundry machine , propping her wrists up on the lid as Tammy made a beeline for the tumbling bunny, catching it with expert skill. “You know I tried to give her shit for it.”

“By doing what?” Tammy laughed, twisting the bunny around in her hands.

“By saying she flirts with you just as much,” Lou smirked.

“That’s different,” Tammy sighed, waving her hand.

“That’s what Debs said,” Lou grinned, shaking her head. “Two peas.”

“Debs and I are never on the same page about anything, Lou,” Tammy laughed. “But nice try there, Miller.”

“Ocean,” Lou corrected on instinct as Tammy studied her quietly for a moment.

“Yeah,” Tammy nodded. “Ocean. Just remind Debbie of that, sometimes. You know? That you’re hers.”

“It’s just Tess,” Lou pointed out. “And you know it’s just innocent, sister-in-law, friend shit. It’s not—“

“I know,” Tammy smiled. “I do. I’d never accuse you of anything and I know you never would even think of doing anything. Just—this is a Debbie I’ve never know before. A Debbie who’s a wife and a mother. And a Debbie who had her life thrown upside down and lost everything and couldn’t see an end in sight. And then she lost Danny. I just—the little Debbie things I usually brush off or laugh at—which I even told her she’s being ridiculous and I saw those convincing whispers and kisses, Lou—just, protect her, okay? Keep her close. I don’t think it’s really that stubbornness or that jealousy like the old Deb.”

“You think she’s scared,” Lou realized, tears forming in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Tammy bit her lip. “I think she’s waiting for something bad to happen. Like she doesn’t deserve all the good that’s happened to her. She has you, finally. And Danielle. And this giant family. And this gorgeous home. I just feel like she’s waiting for something to go wrong. And even if it doesn’t, because it won’t. I think she needs to hear that from you.”

The blonde lingered in the hallway upstairs for a moment after she walked Tammy out, trying to swallow the doubts and fears that were creeping up in her own mind. She hadn’t meant to make nothing out of Debbie’s jealousy if it truly was worried. And even though she’d addressed it sincerely, she wanted to make sure that her wife was truly okay. That she felt secure and safe and loved.

She knocked lightly on the door before entering, her heart melting as she saw Dani curled up against Debbie’s lap as the brunette read quietly to her, Danielle letting out a little yawn.

“Hey, baby,” Debbie smiled as Dani looked up at the blonde excitedly, giving her a tiny wave.

“I don’t want to interrupt story time,” Lou whispered, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “But I found this stowaway in the laundry room,” she smiled, passing the bunny to Danielle as she let out an excited yelp, throwing her arms around Lou as she let out a chuckle.

“You saved him!” Dani cried, snatching the bunny the blonde offered her as she excitedly showed it to Debbie.

“I made it my mission,” Lou whispered, stroking the younger girl’s hair back as she looked up at her wife. “I know you sleep better with him by your side,” she spoke to Dani, but Debbie knew the words weren’t for her daughter. “Bun Bun is nice and safe and ready for bed, right? And he loves you. And so do I. And so does Mom.”

Debbie’s hand found Lou’s squeezing it tight as Dani smiled, looking back and forth between them.

“I love you!” Dani sang as her moms shared a laugh, squeezing her tight.

“Alright, squirt,” Lou sighed, tucking the blankets around Danielle as she made to stand. “Can I borrow your mama now that you and Bun Bun are all ready for bed?”

Danielle gave a nod, accepting a kiss on the head from both Debbie and Lou before they flicked off the light, Lou kicking on the nightlight before the door closed behind them.

“You know how Fucking much I love you, right?” Lou asked, pulling Debbie in against her hips outside their bedroom door.

“No,” Debbie giggled. “Remind me.”

“I’ll do you better than that,” Lou smirked, picking Debbie up as she let out a shriek as Lou carried her into their bedroom.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

[doctenwho]

Alec’s Emergency Contact

Welcome back! I loved this prompt! It was so cute and I really got carried away writing! I believe I stuck to the main idea, but there’s a lot of fluff in here too, and Alec having a bit of personality because he’s with someone he loves (like with Daisy).

Hopefully I got his character right, since I’ve not posted anything Broadchurch yet, and sometimes it takes me a couple tries to get a character right. A couple small spoilers for season 1 along the way, but nothing too big, I don’t think. Anyways, I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it! 

Warnings: None, I don’t think.

Word Count: 3,722

Summary: Read the prompt :)

(Gif doesn’t belong to me, credit to creator!)

Alec Hardy did not remember a whole lot before he went down. He and Miller were chasing whomever had Danny Latimer’s cellphone, and then, well, he got a bit overexerted? Ran out of steam? Lost his footing?

Alright fine, he nearly died. He worked his heart too hard, and he collapsed on the job. Not only that, he collapsed in front of Miller. Damn Miller. How was he supposed to hide it from her now? He’d done so well at hiding his heart arrhythmia from everyone in Broadchurch, but now Ellie knows, and if Ellie knows, it won’t be long until everyone knows. Especially if it’s something regarding his wellbeing.

Bloody small towns. 

It wasn’t intentional, that much he knew. He really hadn’t been meaning to work himself to the bone just yet, not when there was still so much to be doing for the case. He’d be no use to the case if he were dead, and then no one would get justice and Danny’s killer would walk free, despite his unforgivable deed.

But he also couldn’t just stop because his heart decided it didn’t want to endure the difficulties of being a Detective Inspector. He had promises to keep, to the families of the victims, to the victims themselves—and to himself.

He’d told himself he’d get justice for Danny and his family if it was the last thing he did, which might just be what it comes down to. He’d told himself the same thing about the Sandbrook case, but he’d be damned if another case took a sour turn like Sandbrook had.  

He would get justice for these children. For the three misfortunate kids (and teenager), and the families to lose them far too soon. He owed them that much.

Hardy had blinked his eyes open, only to shut them just as fast. The light streamed into the room, bright and white, and almost blinding. He was reclined in the bed, covered by a blanket and propped up on a pillow or two.

He was no stranger to hospital rooms, in Sandbrook and in Broadchurch, and with this stupid heart arrhythmia, he was sure this wouldn’t be the last time either.

Even if he did try to stay out of stressful situations, and give his heart breaks, it was only getting worse. He’d need the peacemaker to really aid in his wellbeing. But he couldn’t commit to an operation when he was so close to cracking the Danny Latimer case and getting the boy the justice he deserved.  

The room was quiet, a soft beeping of a heart monitor announcing his heart beats, which had thankfully steadied. It wasn’t erratic, or beating out of his chest as it had been during the chase. Small victories he supposed.  

Hardy turned a bit onto his side to look around the room, studying the monitor and it’s reading, as well as the IV drip in his hand. He huffed a quiet breath at the medical equipment before turning on to his other side and almost dropping back onto his back in hazy surprise at hearing an irritated voice huff a rather annoyed, “well, look who’s back in the land of the living.” which was followed by his eyes landing on a very familiar, annoyed, face.

“(Y/N),” Hardy breathed out, trying to prop himself up on his elbows to get a better look at his boyfriend who should currently be home, hours away from Broadchurch, “what... what are you doing here? Why are you in Broadchurch?”

“Well,” you clicked your tongue, arms crossed across your chest, “as it turns out, when a loved one is literally dying, the hospital tends to contact your emergency contact.”

“I wasn’t dying,” Hardy tried to wave it off, rolling his eyes at his boyfriend. He couldn’t help the tug of guilt in his chest though, which in turn, made his heart skip a noticeable beat on the heart monitor. He glanced slowly at the machine, before looking back to his frustrated boyfriend.  

“No, you really were,” (Y/N) frowned, eyes locked on the machine to just give a warning beep, before you were casting your look back on your hospitalized boyfriend, “they told me you were dying.”

“They... they’re not allowed to tell you that.” Alec huffed, pulling himself up. You stood to adjust his pillows so he could sit up a bit more, and Alec didn’t seem bothered by you doing so.  

He wasn’t the fondest of being cared for, but honestly, you didn’t really care about that right now. Not when he looked so pitiful tucked away in a hospital bed after almost dying while chasing a supposed murderer.  

You’d heard the whole story form his new partner, who’d just stepped out to get the two of you coffee, just before Alec finally woke up.

You really needed the coffee since you’d driven almost all night to sit by Alec’s bedside until he woke up so you could scold him properly. 

Ellie clearly had the same idea, since she’d also been up all night with him, and it almost made you smile. Or, it would’ve if Alec hadn’t been in the Intensive Care Unit at your arrival.  

He’d been moved to a regular room shortly after when his heart steadied out, and you couldn’t be more thankful you could sit with him here. 

It was the worst feeling to have a loved one be so close to dying and not be able to see them—or hold their hand, which you hadn’t put down when you’d finally gotten a hold of. At least until Alec showed signs of waking, then you remembered you were cross with him.  

Ellie had been a lovely woman, charming and pleasant since you’d met her in the waiting room. You really weren’t sure how she had managed to put up with Alec, but then again, everyone always wondered how you could do the same thing. 

You’d heard bits and pieces of Ellie Miller from Alec over the phone, but you knew very little. He didn’t share every detail, but he was always happy to rant and grumble about things that annoyed him about people and work, and even Broadchurch as a whole.  

She was a good partner for him if she could manage to put up with him, and you’d expressed how thankful you were that she’d been there for Alec. You couldn’t even imagine if he’d had an arrhythmia when he was by himself.  

“They’re supposed to tell me everything that puts you in the hospital, Alec. Anytime you’re admitted, I should be the first person to know. Just like you’d like to know if I were admitted into the hospital, wouldn’t you?” Alec looked down to his lap, which was confirmation enough.

You rolled your eyes at the man in the bed, annoyed but fond all the same. You wanted to reach for his hand again, now that he was conscious and would squeeze your hand back like he always did, but you were still angry at him, “in fact, I’m a bit pissed off I wasn’t contacted when you fell in the restroom in your hotel room just after you got here. And even if they didn’t tell me, you should’ve rung me. You can’t keep these things a secret from me, not when it’s your health we’re talking about.”

“Hey, that one wasn’t my fault,” Alec frowned. “I was just as surprised as you were, I’m sure. It wasn’t a secret, I just... I don’t want to worry you.”

“I know,” you sighed, leaning back in the chair tiredly, “we’ll still talk about it later. And it’s my job to be worried about you. I only agreed to you coming here alone because you promised to look after yourself if I wasn’t here with you. I know how you feel about small towns and the gossip associated, but I’m not going to stand back and watch you work yourself into an early grave because you don’t want people talking about us.”

“It’s not that I don’t want them talking about us,” he stressed the word, “it’s that I don’t want you being hassled by newspapers for information about cases—and I certainly don’t want them focusing on us when there’s been a child murdered. Not everyone’ll be accepting of us—especially here with all the local chatter and that bloody Broadchurch Echo newspaper.”

He paused for a beat before lifting his attention and giving you a soft glare, “and I’ve been looking after myself,” Alec muttered, offended by the observation. “And if I haven’t, Millhur has been. She brings me tea, and... chips. I’m fine.”

“Of course,” you sniped, “it sure looks like you’ve been watching over yourself, Love.” You gestured easily along the length of Alec, curled up in a hospital bed. The man returned a look of irritation, but it didn’t bother you. “Honestly, you’d probably be far worse off if Ellie hadn’t been keeping an eye on you, which thankfully she has been watching out for your sorry arse.”

“Ellie,” the man wrinkled his nose, narrowing his eyes at your tense figure, “since when have you been buddy-buddy with Millhur?”

“Since the two of us sat up all night together waiting for a certain hospitalized spoon to come to.”

Once again Alec looked offended. Spoon wasn’t exactly an endearing nickname, but you were still upset with him. He was probably just upset that you finally met the Miller he talked almost fondly about, in his grouchy Alec way whenever the two of you spoke on the phone.  

You took a breath, exhaling slowly before launching yourself into another round of telling him off, which he clearly needed to hear, “I just can’t understand why you’d throw yourself into a situation you knew you were in no shape to be handling. Your heart is weak, Alec. You can’t be stressing, or overexerting yourself. You need to be careful, and chasing after a murder in the dead of night is certainly not careful.”

“I was doing my job,” Alec let his head fall back against the pillows propping him up. “I was doing what I’m getting paid to do. I’m doing what’s morally right for the families of the children who were murdered.”

“I know that,” you promised, “but, you’re not the only detective the world, Alec,” you tried to keep yourself from exclaiming, “you may be one of the best, but you’re not the only one. And you certainly won’t be any help when you’re six feet under because you ignored your own needs, and your body’s pleas for you to stop and take it easy for once!”

Alec’s lips curled up into a scowl, but he looked a bit more guilty that he really looked mad. You hated making him feel guilty for helping others, and being a truly amazing detective by bringing in bad guys, but you’d much rather this look guilty than, be attending his funeral because he ignored every word of advice ever given to him.  

It didn’t matter who said it, whether it be you, a doctor, a specialist, Daisy, or even his ex-wife, once he put his mind to something, there was nothing anyone could say to make him stop and reconsider. But you’d known that since way back when, when the two of you had started dating.

“You seriously almost died, Alec.” You sighed, looking down at the floor, “do you know how awful it is to get a call like that in the early hours of the morning? Someone phoning you to tell you that your boyfriend had been rushed to hospital after collapsing at work?”

“I know,” he whispered, reaching a hand out, barely hanging over the edge of the bed, “I know, Love, and I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to. But I couldn’t let him get away; I can’t do that to Danny. This case will not end the same way it did for Pippa and Lisa. I won’t let it—I can’t let it.”

You’d been following the case via news articles and police statements. You were proud of Alec for what he did for a living, despite fearing that it would eventually be the death of him. He really did so much for the victims and their families, more than anyone could know. He always worked so hard to bring in offenders, especially murderers.  

You also knew the details of the Sandbrook case—you knew everything because he’d told you. You probably knew more than most of the officers at Sandbrook, because you believed him wholeheartedly. He was a good, kindhearted man. Just a bit tough on the outside.  

“You can’t help anyone if you’re dead,” you reminded with a sigh, reaching across the gap between his bed and your chair to finally take his hand into your own. It was brutal, but it was the truth. You just hoped it would sink in for Alec.  

Alec squeezed your hand just like you were silently praying he would. It was comforting, quieting your raging emotions if only for a moment. He was okay, he’d survived and he was here talking to you.  

“I hope I’m not stressing you out,” you whispered as you scooted your chair a bit closer to the bed so you weren’t reaching quite as far. “That would be counterproductive.”    

“Nah,” he shook his head, giving you a small smile and bringing your hand to his mouth so he could press a kiss to the back of your hand which was still held tightly in his, “you’ve just been telling me what I needed to hear from someone other than myself. I know all this, but I can’t just stop. Health aside, there’s a family—three families—who have lost their children.”

“But what if I lose you?” you couldn’t help but ask, “or if Daisy loses her father? And what about Ellie? I’m quite sure she’s grown a bit fond of you as well, though I’m not sure how that happened,” you teased lightly. It was just to ease the tension a bit. The man gave you a small, sad smile, before he was looking up to the ceiling thoughtfully.  

“Alright, alright,” he sighed, “I’ll try to be a bit more careful. For Daisy and you... and, well, I suppose for Millhur too. But I will not stop. We’re so close to catching Danny’s killer. I don’t care what anyone has to say, that bastard will not get away with this.”

“You’ll get the sick bastard who did this,” you told him, because it was what he needed to hear. “You and Ellie. The two of you will catch this guy. I know you will, because that’s what you do.”

You paused for a second before turning towards him and frowning, “but for the love of God, don’t kill yourself trying, y’hear?”

“I hear,” Alec laughed. “I’m alright now,” he assured, pulling your hand halfheartedly towards himself. You huffed a small laugh, standing up so you could sit on the side of the bed against the headboard like he was silently requesting you do. Alec smiled at you, shifting closer so he could tuck his head into your side. “I’ll be alright. I’ll be alright, and I’ll catch the bastard to kill Danny Latimer.”

“I expect nothing less,” you snorted, trailing your fingers through his hair now that he was within reach and apparently seeking affection, “now you need to relax for a while if you expect me to let you return to work as fast as I know you’re going to want me too.”

“I should get back today-”

“Absolutely not. You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” you muttered in fond disbelief, “tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. And you’re going to be sticking around Ellie, or so help me, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Yes, fine,” Alec rolled his eyes, “tomorrow, and I’ll stick close to Millhur. Happy then?”

“Immensely,” you deadpanned before grinning at the man cuddled into your side. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

----

To say Ellie was surprised to find out that her boss had such a pleasant boyfriend was a bit of an understatement. She probably shouldn’t have been so surprised at the knowledge that he wasn’t as lonely and miserable in the dating department as she’d thought, since he’d not said a word about himself since arriving.  

He’d only told her about his daughter when Joe had prompted him into it when Hardy had come around their house for dinner. Hell, he’d not even bothered to tell her he had severe heart arrhythmia.  

That wasn’t something someone should keep from their friend.

He really could’ve died, and she was fully prepared to lay into him for keeping that secret the moment he woke up, when (Y/N) had rushed in the doors demanding to know how he was.

Like the polite person she was, Ellie had introduced herself to the mystery man pleading to see her boss, only to find out the jerk had this secret boyfriend he hadn’t bothered mentioning.  

She knew bare minimum of his ex-wife, so it was a bit of a surprise that he had a boyfriend, not that she minded. He could be into anyone he fancied and nothing could change what she thought of him. He’d always be Hardy, a bit of a prick, but one of the best people she’d ever known.

They’d gotten around to talking, waiting into the late hours of the morning before Hardy was moved from Intensive Care and into a regular room, where the two of them were allowed to sit with him.  

Ellie thought it was adorable how (Y/N) pushed his chair up right close to the bed and held her boss’ hand. It was strange to see Hardy like this, to see him have someone who clearly loved and cared for him, holding his hand and sitting without moving for hours.  

She was happy he had someone. She’d never say it out loud, and never to Hardy, but she knew he was too good to be alone. That it wasn’t right that a man like Hardy would be single, even though he was a bit of an odd guy.

(Y/N) seemed like a lovely guy. Doting and caring. He told her stories that she was sure Hardy would’ve lost his mind if he knew she knew them, but (Y/N) didn’t seem bothered at the fact, and instead only shot fond looks at Hardy as he retold the stories.

He didn’t tell her much about Hardy in general—like his daughter or ex, or even mention his illness or anything along the lines, but he had ample stories and fond memories of the two of them he was happy to share.  

Ellie could barely even imagine her Hardy—the Hardy in the bed to be the man in (Y/N)’s stories. But it was adorable and heartwarming all the same. It made her happy that Hardy had someone like (Y/N).

And it made he even happier that (Y/N) was scolding Hardy like she wanted too as well. Not that she meant to eavesdrop outside the door, but it really doesn’t take more than ten minutes to get coffee from the cafeteria in the hospital.  

They were the cutest thing, and she’d be sure to tease Hardy a bunch about his adorable boyfriend when he was feeling better. And she definitely would because it wasn’t every day that an important person from Hardy’s life makes an appearance.  

When the talking inside the room died down to an occasional mumble, Ellie finally rapped her knuckles twice without managing to spill any coffee as a warning before pushing it open with her elbow, two to-go cups of barely warmer than lukewarm coffee in her hands.  

“’ello, Sir,” she grinned, containing the ‘aw’ sitting on the tip of her tongue as she took in her boss cuddled into his boyfriend, “feeling better?”

“I’m fine,” he waved her off with a scowl that was all too familiar at this point. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the man without a scowl if she were honest. 

He didn’t bother moving away from his boyfriend though, as she feared he would’ve done since he was Hardy, and that alone warmed her heart.

“Well, don’t the two of you look all cozy,” she couldn’t resist teasing. She stepped into the room, handing the second cup of coffee to (Y/N). He took the cup gratefully, grinning widely at the comment before taking a sip of his coffee and leaning back against the pillows.

“Sod off, Millhur,” the man reclined in the bed sighed. He even sounded tired, but she resisted the urge to frown. Frowning wouldn’t help anyone.  

“Of course, Sir.”

“You make her call you sir?” (Y/N) looked down at Hardy with a teasing smile, “why can’t she call you Alec?”

“I don’t like Alec,” Hardy groaned turning his head to bury his face in (Y/N)’s shirt, “never liked Alec, you know that. Don’t like it when you call me Alec either, but can’t very well stop you now can I?”

“I can call you Sir too, if you’d like?”

“Right, I should go then,” Ellie retreated, a bit awkward that (Y/N) was actually teasing her boss. No one she knew (besides herself to a way lesser degree) would ever even think about teasing Alec Hardy. 

Plus, she really didn’t want to see where this teasing ended, not if it could possibly ruin her ever calling Hardy sir again. There were so few names she could actually call him, and she really didn’t want Sir to be ruined for her. “I’ll see you back at work, Sir. In a day or two.”

“A day,” Hardy replied easily. Ellie nodded, not bothering to try and get the man to stay in the hospital any longer. Not when she already knew it was a lost cause, especially if (Y/N) hadn’t been successful, “oh and Millhur?”

Ellie paused, looking back into the room to see he boss’ eyes on her, “if we can keep this between us for now? Not that it’s a secret, just--”

“Of course,” Ellie agreed instantly, “it’s yours to share when you do. I won’t say anything. Even though there’s really nothing to share.”

“Thank you.”

“You... just feel better, alright? We’ve got a killer to catch and I can’t do that without you.”

<><><><>

Thanks so much for the prompt, and for reading! Feel free to send another ask if this wasn’t what you were looking for, but hopefully it is!

Also, let me know if I messed up anywhere with male reader pronouns, I read through a couple times, but they might’ve slipped past me!

[aboyandhisstarship]

The Delta AU  (tinder AU reboot)

Notes:

Thanks to @forestwater87 for not only the name Greenwood but also a suggestion as to what Gwen’s new job should be. 

final order of business this fic poses a very serious (not really) question that i want to know your answers to so discuss 

also this bad boy is un proof read because i got a digital date tonight...also i’m lazy 

That’s right a reboot, so enjoy.

 Afghanistan:

David advanced covering the roofs Night vision googles over his eyes as he said into his radio “Sand Man to Dog Patch we are passing Salmon,” The rest of the team moving in a wedge formation towards the destroyed town.

Millers voice returned “roger  Sand Man.”

David crouched raising a fist in a stop motion as he heard a handful of voices walking in the street he whispered “Cool Breeze?”

Jasper shook his head “no weapons….”

Nurf whispered “uhhh they told us that were only dudes holding AK’s out here.”

David shook his head saying “Sand Man to Dog Patch?”

Miller returned “I heard Sand Man…Intel is saying you are Oscar mike.”

Tabii growled “we are painting a target for a bombing raid.”

David asked “Dog Patch…how sure is intel?”

Miller paused “they are saying 60%.”

David watched Kids enter the street kicking a soccer ball, one of the kids kicked the ball wide and it Hit Nurf square in the chest the kids ran up and then saw the 4 soldiers crouching on the ground.

The kids backed away scared as David lowered his weapon nodding for his team to do the same he pushed the ball back to the kids before saying “Sand Man Dog patch…Intel is wrong…we are aborting.”

David tried to smile at the kids who grabbed the Ball before running away.

The lights on the village lit up but by then the team was already gone.

North Carolina:

David stepped off the plane as Miller met him saying “Sir…you got to get those Intel guys straight.”

Miller sighed “they are not on the ground.”

David countered “maybe they should be…Sir…all I ask is that my team know that they are hostiles on the ground…before we are sent in.”

Miller sighed “I will pass on your request up the chain Sargent major, until then your team is off rotation until another Mission comes up.”

David gestured “yes sir, Jasper!”

Jasper smiled “cars running Davie.”

 The next night:

David was dressed in plaid as Jasper dragged out of the car saying “Davie, we both know you need to get out more…you work too much.”

David pointed out halfheartedly “we work the same amount?”

Jasper countered “but I have Sarah waiting for me…who do you have David?”

David sighed “Look Jasper….”

Jasper crossed his arms before saying “that’s what I thought…come on Davie let’s make you some friends.”

The bar much to David’s annoyance was busy and Jasper was waved over by Sarah Jasper's fiancee, David awkwardly stood around before bidding an escape towards the bar ordering a coke, he sat down drinking his coke scrawling through his phone, Tabii was with her girlfriend and Nurf was visiting his mother. So sadly he was stuck with Jasper and by extension all of Sarah’s doctor friends.

David took another sip as a voice asked “you get dragged here to?”

He turned to his right to see a girl about his age, wearing a sundress. She smiled “my names Gwen.”

David smiled “David.”

Gwen looked him up and down before nodding “outdoors type dragged here by a friend who thinks you need to get out more?”

David chuckled “is it that obvious?”

Gwen was about to answer when Sarah walked over “GWEN! I see you met the other recluse!”

David and Gwen said in unison “recluse!?”

Sarah rolled her eyes “Gwen this is one of Jaspers co-workers David, David Gwen was my roommate back in school.”

Gwen sighed “there goes my entire mystic.”

Sarah countered “David here has an enough for both of you!” before walking away enjoying her beer.

David took a sip of his coke asking “another doctor?”

Gwen mumbled “I’m an editor at a newspaper.”

David asked “what?”

Gwen said it again a little louder “I am an editor at a newspaper.”

David lit up “No kidding that is awesome!”

Gwen blinked “thank you.”

David took another sip saying “sounds like interesting work?”

Gwen nodded “it can be…”

She was interrupted as the TV said “breaking news at this hour, Country pop singer Cindy McGuire, has been kidnapped during her tour of South America…”

The bar tender turned off the TV as David’s phone pinged he glanced up to see Jasper pinged as well, he turned around to see Gwen was phone also went off. David opted not to question it saying “pleasure meeting you, but work calls.”

Gwen sighed “same…but I would like to talk to you again.”

David smiled before he threw some cash on the bar before holding his phone to his ear saying “go for Greenwood.”

Jasper following him out, Sarah appeared next to Gwen groaning “they just got back…but duty calls.”

Gwen glanced up from her own emails “what…oh yea…a real shame.”

Sarah smiled “so what did you think of David?”

Gwen frowned “Listen I have to go work.” Dodging the question

Sarah smiled “oh she is hooked.”

 Fort Bragg:

Nurf sat down groaning “man I had to leave my mom…again.”

Tabii groaned “And I lost date night…yet again.”

Jasper sipped some water saying “if it makes you feel any better David was making moves on a girl.”

The entire squad sat forward as David blushed “Wha…me and Gwen…no way, I mean I barely know her and…”

Tabii interrupted “Damn…he is already smitten.”

Miller burst in saying “sorry to pull you all away, but we have a developing situation, this is Cindy McGuire.”

Nurf smiled “my mom loves her stuff!”

Tabii blinked “wasn’t she in the news recently?”

Miller nodded “she was caught on video, doing a rather…caustic rant…and as such is on a tour of schools she helped build in South America.”

Jasper flinched saying “yea I remember watching the news with Sarah when the news broke, it was not pleasant.”

David reminded “we don’t have to like her, we just need to do the job.”

Miller nodded “speaking of, her publisher had the genius idea of publishing her route in advance…she got herself nabbed by a couple of wannabe El Chapo types.”

Tabii groaned “oh boy…”

David sighed “so untrained goons with Ak’s…what are their demands?”

Miller visibly scoffed “500 million dollars, and weapons…enough weapons to arm an air craft carrier.”

Japer took a sip of water “these guys need to manage their expectations.”

Miller chuckled dryly adding “since these guys have demanded weapons a rescue operation has been green lit, this job is going to be in the public eye…so make it clean.”

Elsewhere:

Gwen entered as her boss said “Gwendolyn about time you got here.”

Gwen sighed “sorry sir.”

Her boss rolled his eyes saying “Cindy McGuire got nabbed from her tour in South America, a friend of a friend in the FBI said the investigation just changed hands…and there is red tape involved! You know what that means! NEWS! So I want to know what is happening Gwen! Get on it!”

Gwen nodded “on it sir,” As she started to dive deep.

 C130:

David sat in his black camo the lights in the plane were dimmed as he napped only for jasper to loudly clear his throat “David.”

David replied without opening his eyes “Yea Jasp?”

Jasper took a sip of water before asking “sooooooo Gwen.”

David turned over and went back to sleep ignoring Jasper as Tabii grinned “I ship it.”

Nurf said “we have not even met her yet.”

Tabii exclaimed “who cares, anyone who can make the boss look like that is good in my books!”

Nurf shook his head as one of the flight engineers said “1 hour to jump get ready!”

 Peru:

David landed with a thump his night vision googles over his face as he said “dog patch we have passed RWBY.”

Miller responded “roger that Sand Man.”

The team started to advance toward the abandoned gas station where McGuire was being held as Tabii asked “RWBY? Isn’t that the name of like an anime or something?”

Nurf pointed out “it’s American so is it technically an anime?”

Everyone looked at him and he shrugged “what, just because I’m a meat head doesn’t mean I don’t dabble.”

Jasper sighed “I’m just mad they gave us cartons for this operation, come on not the coolest option.”

David dead panned “the last one was sea food.”

Jasper groaned “I know but at least it was at least somewhat cooler.”

Nurf sighed “are you going to brush past that this one is cartoons and the first one is RWBY?”

Tabii sighed “I thought you were not sure RWBY was an Anime?”

Nurf groaned “yea but…but cartoon doesn’t feel right.”

Tabii lunched into a counter point as David tuned them out. 

At this point this debate had been going on for about three hours when David signaled stop saying “Cool Breeze Dirt Diver give me an enemy count.”

Nurf and Jasper said “Wilco.”

David said “Dogpatch, we have passed…Danny Phantom over.”

David heard chuckling in Dog patch as he said “say again Sand man?”

David rolled his eyes “Dog Patch we have passed Danny Phantom.”

Miller could not keep  the amusement out of his voice having heard the previous conversation as it recorded over there com’s “roger Sandman you have passed Danny Phantom.”

Nurf smiled “now that’s a cartoon.”

David reminded “everything we say is being recorded for the record.”

Nurf paused before adding “Danny Phantoms dad is my spirit animal.”

David sighed “report on enemy Dirt Diver.”

Jasper responded “I got 4 tangos, all packing AK’s all facing east, having a smoke.”

David asked “any inside?”

Nurf this time said “negative.”

David flicked off his gun safety saying “Dog patch Sand Man…permission to engage.”

Miller answered “sand man your team has the Green Light.”

David responded already moving towards the building saying “roger.”

The goons were enjoying their smoke as David said “On my count…3,2,1.”

With that four gun suppressed shots rang out and the goons fell to the ground with holes in their skulls.

The team stacked up on the door as David nodded and they kicked the door open meeting the screaming face of Cindy McGuire.

David said “clear, Red cap.”

Tabii moved over to the tied down girl saying “Ma’am we are American’s we are here to rescue you.”

Tabii looked her over for wounds as she demanded in a high pitched voice, the type of thing you would expect from a rich snobby girl in a high school movie as she demanded “who are you people.”

David ignored her saying “dog patch we have passed courage the cowardly dog.”

Cindy called to David the clear leader saying “I said who are you! You have no right to treat me this way! I demand to speak to my agent!”

David and Jasper shoot each other a “is she for real?” glance before saying “like Red cap said we are American’s.”

McGuire furled her lips “the fuck kind of name is RED CAP!?”

Nurf pulled out his knife as she said “Woah sorry I asked sheesh!”

Nurf sighed “just relax I’m cutting you free.”

McGuire now free from her chair asked “so if she is Red Cap...” dragging on the word as if had personally run over her dog before finishing “what are the rest of you?”

David sighed “my name is Sand man that is Cool Breeze and Dirt Diver.”

McGuire looked Nurf up and down “oh you are a Dirt Diver that’s for sure.”

Nurf looked suitably offended as David said “ma’am we can’t stay here, sun comes up in 4 hours and we still have 8 kilometers to cross, to get to the chopper.”

McGuire laughed “oh that’s a short drive…wait…are you asking me to walk!? This is an outrage! Your treating me worse than my kidnappers!”

She snapped her fingers “I want to talk to this….what did you call it Dog patch…god another awful name.”

David groaned “ma’am we are in a hostile environment as such I am the highest authority you can speak to, if you wish to launch a formal complaint that is your right but will have to wait until after we are out of an active combat zone.”

McGuire groaned “I’m holding you to that…Sand Man.” She spat out the name.

McGuire started the walk as David said “Dog patch, we are passing Cyber chase.”

 3 hours later:

McGuire sat on a rock whining “ my feet hurt, is that helicopter coming or not! My lawyers will have a field day with this!”

David who was next to the girl groaned “chopper will be here in 20 mikes.”

McGuire demanded “I don’t speak baby killer!”

Tabii snapped “minutes!...the chopper will be here in 20 minutes.”

McGuire groaned “it better be, I can’t believe this happened I was supposed to get away without any consequence’s, because I’m hot popular and rich!”

The team looked at each other  yet again silently asking “is this girl for real?”

 Blackstone air force base:

McGuire was taken off the plane with a trauma blanket around her as she wailed “they were so horrible to me!” to the waiting camera’s

Gwen saw her reporters trying to get an interview with the star who clearly put on more make up before coming out to the camera’s but Gwen was more interested in soldiers in the back ground quietly slipping away chatting among themselves, including a tuft of red hear she could swear she could recognize.

 2 days later:

David plucked down on his apartment couch, the debrief for that last operation was a night mare, as true to her Diva ways, McGuire was suing the US government for her “rough treatment” everyone who had seen the transcript had determined that she in fact did not have a case, but the Army not in a mood for a long trial so they redacted anything classified and planned to release the transcript  to a news station.

David lay back already thinking of the memes that will spawn “should RWBY have been on the cartoon list?”

 News office:

Gwen re read the transcript chuckling at the teams moving in attics and groaning every time the letters HVT appeared on the transcript. She had found a picture of David on Sarah’s phone and had determined it was likely they were the same person. Gwen chuckled “I guess Sarah’s was not kidding when she mentioned mystic.”

[bthenoise]

ICYMI: Here Are 12 Newsworthy Items You May Have Missed Over The Holidays

Hello everybody and happy new year! While getting back into the swing of things here at the office (aka our house), we noticed a handful of exciting things have been announced while we were off the grid safely celebrating the holidays.

So, instead of pumping out article after article for you to comb through and catch up on, we thought we’d compile all the things you may have missed into one, easy-to-read post.

Let us begin:

GOOD CHARLOTTE DEBUT SOMBER NEW SINGLE “LAST DECEMBER”

For the first time since 2018′s sensational LP Generation Rx, Good Charlotte has returned with brand new music. 

Written as a way to cope with the hard times as of late, guitarist Benji Madden says of the gloomy new single “Last December”: 

“2020 being the 20th anniversary of our self-titled debut album really made us feel like we wanted to release something for those fans who’ve gone on this journey with us. The holidays can be a rough time of year - thinking of the ones we’ve lost and longing for moments that have passed us by is definitely a part of the joy and melancholy. For us, this song speaks to both sides of those holiday feelings and we hope it brings some solace to anyone who needs it.”

To check out the new track, see the video below.

AFI DETAIL PLANS FOR BRAND NEW ALBUM 

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Great news AFI fans! Looking to follow up 2018′s five-track EP The Missing Man, Davey Havok and Co. have shared news regarding when you might hear some new music.  

Taking to their socials, the band collectively shared: “With the end of a year that has been, at best, challenging for all, we have news that we hope may bring you some joy. Very soon, new songs shall be yours. Before the year’s end, our 11th album will follow. We could not be more happy with our latest work and hope you will feel the same. Thank you for joining us upon this next journey. We are thrilled to take it and honored to have you at our side.”

Anyone else excited for a new AFI album!?

††† (CROSSES) SURPRISE RELEASE CHILLING NEW COVER 

As if a brand new Deftones album and 20th anniversary version of White Pony wasn’t enough, Chino Moreno concluded his 2020 with a brand new release from his thought-to-be-dormant project ††† (Crosses).

The song, which is a cover of Cause & Effect’s 1990 track “The Beginning Of The End,” is Moreno and guitarist Shaun Lopez’s first offering since their 2014 self-titled record.

To check out the track, see below.  

FOO FIGHTERS DEBUT SECOND NEW SINGLE “NO SON OF MINE”

Continuing their promotional push for their forthcoming tenth studio album Medicine At Midnight, Foo Fighters have released their second new single. 

Titled “No Son Of Mine” (and no, not an Every Time I Die cover), the latest from the hard rock staples leans much more on the louder side than their previous single “Shame Shame.”

To check out the new tune, see below.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE GO “BLUE” FOR NEW EIFEL 65 COVER

It’s not everyday you hear an Italian symphonic death metal band cover an Italian techno group but here we are.

Ending their 2020 on a colorful note, noisemakers Fleshgod Apocalypse released a stirring rendition of the 1998 hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” -- yes, you read that correctly.   

Commenting on the mind-bending cover, frontman Francesco Paoli said, “After the amazing response over our latest single ‘No’ we wanted to release something that could make the end of this shitty 2020 a bit funnier for everyone. That’s why we took a popular dance track from the 90s and made it the heaviest, angriest, bloodiest party song ever.” 

“We’re ready to blast your ears again in 2021,” Paoli noted, “stay tuned!”

To hear the cover, see below.

AS IT IS DRUMMER AND FUTURE FIREMAN PATRICK FOLEY DEPARTS FROM THE BAND

Bummer news As It Is fans: Founding drummer Patrick Foley has decided to step away from the band to take on a new heroic role as a firefighter. 

The band took to their socials to share: “Our brother and friend Foley has decided to step back from As It Is, to pursue a brand new career as a fire fighter. We could not be more proud of him (and are keeping him on speed dial for when we next use pyro in a live show). All love, Patty, Ali, Ronnie x”

See the band’s emotional farewell video below. 

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CANE HILL DEBUT DEVASTATING NEW SINGLE “KILL ME”

2021 is shaping up to be a busy year for Cane Hill. Continuing to churn out head-pounding singles, the New Orleans act recently released their blistering new track “Kill Me.”  

Vocalist Elijah Witt commented on the song saying: "I think if this year [2020] has taught me anything, it's that this dreadful voice of negativity in my head is loudest when my life is quiet. Just like everyone else, my mental health has taken a steep decline this year, and giving life to that horrific voice was the easiest way for me to try and combat it. ‘Kill Me’ is what I feel in the parts of me I can ignore when life is normal.” Witt adds, “‘Kill Me’ adds another chapter to ‘Krewe De La Mort’ that continues to bring Louisiana folklore to life. Building upon the visual intensity we established with ‘P.O.T.H.,’ we worked closely with Dreamseeker Productions in further exploring elements of witchcraft and the occult while staying true to these Cajun tales.”

To check out the new song and striking visual, see below.

ENTER SHIKARI SHARE BIZARRE NEW VIDEO FOR “T.I.N.A”

If you’ve ever wondered what Enter Shikari would look like as walking, talking (and dancing) human hands, you’re in luck. 

The band, in support of their latest LP Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible, have released a truly stunning clip for their track “T.I.N.A.”

To watch the video directed by Matthew Taylor, see below.  

CROWN THE EMPIRE RELEASE INTERACTIVE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “RED PILLS”

Will you take the red pill or the blue pill? This is the question you must ask yourself in Crown The Empire’s new interactive music video directed by Sam Shapiro. 

Set to their track aptly titled “Red Pills” off their 2019 release Sudden Sky, the band’s new clip leaves things in the viewers hands for once.   

Elaborating on the video, the band shared, “We created an interactive experience where you, the viewer, will be taken down a wormhole to decide your own ending. Choose your destiny wisely...”

Check out the video below.

MAYDAY PARADE DEBUT STRIPPED-DOWN VERSION OF “I’M WITH YOU”

Leave it to Mayday Parade to release something sad around the holidays. 

In collaboration with Decatur City Church in Decatur, Georgia, vocalist Derek Sanders and drummer Jake Bundrick have shared a new stripped-down version of their song “I’m With You.”

To check out the gloomy piano-led version, be sure to see below.

DARKO (EMMURE, CHELSEA GRIN) UNVEIL CHAOTIC NEW VIDEO FOR “PALE TONGUE”

While listeners patiently await the debut full-length release from Emmure drummer Josh Miller and Chelsea Grin vocalist Tom Barber, aka Darko, the duo have released a wild new music video.  

Set to their blistering track “Pale Tongue,” the band’s new clip provides insane visuals that will leave you feeling like you hallucinated it.

To check out the video, see below.  

WATCH ASKING ALEXANDRIA’S DANNY WARSNOP STAR IN NEW METALCORE COVER OF “YOU’RE A MEAN ONE, MR. GRINCH”

Who would have known a Dr. Seuss classic would go so well in the stylings of metalcore? 

Showing that the classic Christmas thief himself Mr. Grinch knows a thing or two about mosh pits and breakdowns, YouTuber/musician Jared Dines has teamed up with Asking Alexandria’s Danny Worsnop for a hard-hitting cover of “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”   

To check out the rippin’ rendition and accompanying music video, see below. 

[sterileflcwer]

Syncopate

Word Count: 1,545

Content Warning: N/A

『』

“Two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul.” - Chaim Potok

David Malter’s favorite composer was Sergei Rachmaninoff. After his wife had died, he had bought a record of the Philadelphia Orchestra playing some of Rachmaninoff’s concertos. Over the next few weeks, he had worn out the record with how he played it almost all hours of the day. If he was conscious and at home, he was playing the record without fail. He was sure that if Reuven had been old enough to protest the repetition of the record, he would have with little fail. Yet, the music somehow calmed the shattered David. 

Rachamaninoff was also Reuven’s favorite composer. For his tenth birthday, David had brought home a Rachmaninoff record for his son. Instantly, the young boy absolutely adored it. Of course, it couldn’t replace his treasured toys and games. But, he immediately had a love for it. David, though somewhat naively, had promised to his son that he would one day take his son to see Rachmaninoff. He was just happy to see that this music that had comforted him at a dark time brought such joy to his son. 

Years later, that record that Reuven had adored as a child played in his head once more. The rise and fall of the notes in Vocalise, the gentle vibrato of the singer’s voice, the sudden crescendos and decrescendos. He could hear it in Danny’s voice as he explained some psychological theory that sounded so beautiful falling from his lips. When Danny spoke so excitedly about something new he had read. He heard it simply in watching Danny while he poured over his beloved textbooks, the way his chest rose and fell and the repetitive actions he would make like thumbing sat the corner of the page so tenderly as if it was the skin of a lover. 

Once, they had been standing together at the bathroom sink as they both got ready to go about their separate yet intertwined days. Reuven had been shaving, though somewhat carelessly rushing through the motions while Danny brushed his teeth. Occasionally, their eyes would meet in the mirror. Danny’s eyes were so clear. They looked like the lake that Reuven’s father would take him to as a kid, so still and almost unaffected by what was happening. He had bought their now terribly stained table cloth because the color, while somewhat off, reminded him of Danny's eyes when they first opened in the morning and were cast in that silvery haze of light. Reuven had been staring at Danny’s eyes when he nicked the soft skin on his jaw, the point where his jawbone made an angled line that connected to his ear. That’s when the pain registered and he finally looked away.

Danny let out a breath of a laugh before going to get a bandaid for Reuven, unsuccessfully hiding the smile that was desperately fighting its way onto his lips. If Reuven hadn’t been desperately snatched at the wax paper colored bandaid, he would have thought about how Danny’s lips were the color of a blush he had seen his father throw away once he was finally clearing out some of his mother’s belongings. Or the color of the dress of the only girl he had ever “dated” (his heart was never in it, he never could see anyone else in †he way he saw Danny) had worn on their last date. 

That evening, Reuven had trudged through the door after a long day of classes. His dark hair, which he had recently allowed to grow past his ears, was all in a mess and his glasses seemed to sit crooked on his face. Danny, sitting at his usual perch at the kitchen table, looked up so serenely. Only a couple months ago had Reuven realized how swan-like Danny looked when he raised his head from his books like that. Similarly, Danny had noticed the way that Reuven’s lips formed certain words during his morning prayers and the ways his fingers flexed as he tied his tefillin. Or how he would almost wipe his black and wire framed glasses (a suggestion from Danny when he had followed Reuven to the optometrist) up instead of carefully readjusting them. Once, he had looked up from his book while Reuven was seemingly smashing on the typewriter that had been a twentieth birthday present from the sister of his late mother. He had quietly watched for a few minutes in, simply taking in Reuven’s profile and the way his shoulders slumped. For the first time in possibly years, he had noticed a new permanent thing on Reuven’s body. Danny noticed a dark mole, just at that sharp angle where his jaw started to flow up and form an ear. 

It was the first time in a while where there had been something new and undiscovered about the other person. The last time had been a few months back, where their minds had slipped and neither had gotten groceries (though it was Reuven’s week to do so) and were absolutely starving. So, Reuven had suggested that they go to a food place just down the block that he and his father had frequented when he was a child. Without much of another option, Danny had somewhat hesitantly agreed. Eating out simply had never been a thing in Danny’s home, as Mama was always home to cook and his father had loyal followers that would willingly provide the Saunders with a meal if Mama had exhausted her recipes. Still, Reuven talked highly of the restaurant and Danny was sure that his partner would not mislead him for just a joke. 

When they had arrived at the restaurant, Reuven had ordered first, reciting it off by heart much like Danny would recite a passage of Freud. Out of fear of embarrassment, Danny had simply ordered the same thing as Reuven. When they were walking back to the apartment, Danny noted how Reuven carried the white styrofoam container with a flat palm and lithe fingers spread on the bottom and his other hand rounded about the tin Coca-Cola can on the flat top. Meanwhile, Danny tried to tuck his container under his arm and carry his tin can soda in the hand farthest from Reuven. Just so his hand could possibly brush against Reuven. And when they got to the apartment, Danny was the one to open the door and keep it opened for Reueven with his foot. Reuven seemingly breezed past him, a slight smile on his features. Then, he smoothed the slightly crumpled tablecloth, attempting to make things seem nicer than they really were.

As the two started to eat, Danny carefully watched his boyfriend from across the table, copying his actions. Still, he constantly wiped his fingers on his napkin instead of just letting the oil sit. He hated how the grease felt on his fingers, even if Reuven didn’t seem to mind it too terribly. After a minute or so, Reuven noticed Danny’s movements.

“You realize you’re eating it wrong, right?” Reuven suggested, a rare, teeth showing, smile crossing his lips. 

“How so?” Danny questioned, trying to keep a cool demeanor as though Reuven’s comment hadn’t bothered him. 

“Well, first off, it’s just a burger. It’s not like matzah or babke,” he said, taking a hand off of his burger to gesture at it as though he were presenting it to Danny for the first time. “Think of it like a latke. But a lot less holy.”

Danny screwed up his face a bit, almost upset by Reuven’s teasing critique. Reflexively, he went to mess with an ear curl that was no longer there. With little to say and his features soured, their meal continued in silence.

In a way to almost proven Reuven wrong, Danny quickly scarfed the burger down, his expression still sour. When he went to throw the white styrofoam container in the trash bin, Reuven gently placed his hand on the stormy boy’s arm.

“Can I have your pickles?” he asked, a mischievous smile crossing his face. Almost immediately, Danny’s sour mood melted away and he let out a breath of a laugh as Reuven took the container out of his hands to take out the pickle slices. Then, when Reuven was finished with it, he took it to throw it in the bin.

Danny then stretched out on the loveseat in their adjoining and rather miniscule living room, grabbing one of his books from the coffee table nearby. He was easily buried in his book, something that always brought a grin to Reuven’s face. He quickly finished up his own meal before going to the old phonograph that his father had given them as somewhat of a housewarming present. While he filed through the various records they had collected, mainly ones Reuven had brought with him when they started to rent the small Brooklyn apartment. Danny peeked at Reuven over his book, questioning what he could be doing. Eventually, he plucked out a Gershwin record and put it on.

“Wanna dance?” he asked, holding a hand out to Danny.

“I prefer Glenn Miller,” Danny said almost flippantly without looking up to meet Reuven’s glance.

And that’s how Reuven found out that Danny’s favorite composer was not Rachmaninoff or Mendelsohnn or Irving Berlin, but Glenn Miller.