#I do really like the theory that it’s a Tim + Danny situation though

[catcr4ft]

I don’t know which is funnier, that Gwen has a weird stoner cousin or that she’s trans and had a weird stoner phase that she refuses to ever talk about

[samkiszkasfacialhair]

Choose the Road: Chapter 7

Choose the Road: Chapter 7

Pairing: Sam Kiszka and Female Reader

Summary: A coming of age story about Sam Kiszka’s first love.

Masterlist:

Warnings: Sam gets a little freaky lol

Word Count: 4k

April 2017

Once Sam got signed, a lot of his afternoons and weekends started filling up. The guys’ twice a week after dinner band practices turned into Sam leaving school early most days to record for an EP. Their small shows at Fischer Hall or in biker bars transitioned into shows hours away and festival sets that stretched to 3 day weekends, every weekend. You’d see Sam at school on Thursday before lunch and then wouldn’t see him until Monday when he would roll into school an hour late with dark circles under his eyes, a Tim Horton’s coffee, and a thick folder of papers.

He started getting his missed schoolwork in weekly packets that he’d work on over the weekend while he traveled. It was kind of like unofficial homeschooling. Danny did it too. Any classes they missed, they made up work for, on top of the usual homework that came with each class. 

Life was getting harder for Sam but he did his best to handle it. Communication while he was gone was tough. You never really knew when he had free time to talk and your texts would go unanswered for hours, leaving you in the dark and a bit lonely to be honest.

Unfortunately this upcoming weekend was no different. It was spring break and it was Sam’s birthday weekend, which sounds great in theory but the band was scheduled to go down to Florida to play a festival. They were on the bottom of the card, practically nobodies. They had an afternoon time slot and were essentially an opener for an opener for an opener. But regardless, Sam was excited. At least one of you was. 

You sat criss crossed on Sam’s bed, watching him pack up his backpack of clothes for the week as you sucked on a lollipop.

“When are you coming home?” you asked, as you pulled the lollipop out of your mouth and rested your elbow on your leg. 

Sam stopped digging around in his dresser and looked to the ceiling to think.

“We’re driving home the day after my birthday so… Tuesday? Maybe Wednesday actually,”

He did that thing again. That thing he always did when he was thinking hard. That lip curl and eye squint.

He nodded to himself, returned his attention to his dresser drawer, and continued digging around before looking at you and squinting his eyes like he was suspicious of you.

“Why do you wanna know so bad, huh?” he asked, “Are you cheating on me?” he joked.

“Shut up,” you laughed. You paused for a minute before you continued, “I just want to spend time with you. I never get to see you anymore and, and I just figured, I don’t know, that, that I’d get to be with my boyfriend over spring break and his birthday. That’s all,” you explained. 

You looked down and sighed before looking back up at Sam through your eyelashes, giving him a disappointed pout. 

Sam stood there with his hands in the top drawer of his dresser and dropped his head. His hair covered the sides of face and you could no longer read his expression but you could tell exactly what he was thinking. He was letting you down and he knew it. He knew you were upset and though it wasn’t his fault, he felt like it was.

You weren’t upset with him but more of upset with your situation and the situation you’d been in since he got signed last month. 

“I know,” he whispered with his head still down. You could tell he was upset too.

Slowly, he lifted his head and looked at you. He squinted his eyes at you, but this time, he wasn’t joking about cheating. Instead, he was plotting.

“Unless,” he began with a pause, “You come with me.”

“Come with you? To Florida? You’re leaving tomorrow.”

“Yeah? So? Go home and pack and leave school early with me and Daniel tomorrow! My dad will sign you out and then him and Jake will drive us all down. It’s the Friday before spring break, you’re not gonna miss anything important. Most teachers will probably show movies! You can come to the show, spend my birthday together, come back the next day and then? We’ll be back home for the rest of spring break.”

As he talked he waved his hands around, not realizing he was holding up a folded pair of underwear in his hand.

You laughed at him and bit your lip. You had to admit, he had a good plan.

“Do something with your underwear while I ask my parents,” you giggled.

Sam shoved the underwear into his bag, threw himself onto his bed, and put his head in your lap while you called your mom. He grabbed your lollipop and put it in his mouth. You let him have it and you played with his hair while you talked to her and explained the situation. And to your surprise, but not her surprise- she said yes. She figured this was going to happen eventually and she trusted Sam and his dad to take care of you- and they would.

Your mom spoke to Sam’s parents on the phone for a bit, working out the details and before you knew it, you had a duffel bag packed and a signature that read Kelly Kiszka signing you out of school on Friday afternoon. That and Sam’s birthday present folded nicely at the bottom of your bag.

Friday afternoon, Jake and his dad took shifts driving with the rest of you in the backseat of the van. You, Sam, Danny, Josh, Josh’s partner, and Jita all squished yourselves into the back for a 20 hour drive. The last thing you remembered was putting your head on Sam’s shoulder around midnight and the next thing you knew, you were being woken up by Josh at around 8 am when you reached Florida. 

The weekend was a blast. You attended the festival with a VIP pass. Early in the morning, you watched Sam soundcheck and then spent the rest of the time backstage and in private lounges amongst artists, celebrities and influencers, watching other performers while you waited for Greta Van Fleet’s time slot. 

Being backstage was a weird feeling. Despite being a small act, Sam talked to everybody and he fit right in for the most part. He talked to artists and formed bonds and friendships with them. It was like he was meant to do this.

Sam got pulled for interviews left and right so you spent a majority of the morning with Jita getting starstruck, eating overpriced greasy festival food, and laughing together. You liked spending time with her. She really had become kind of like a big sister to you in a short amount of time.

When it was time for Greta Van Fleet’s performance, you watched from the side of the stage. It was the first time you saw a crowd that big and you couldn’t believe Sam was onstage in front of all those people. Even though a majority of people were there for the headlining act and not Greta Van Fleet, they had the audience's attention and during their set, people of all ages in the crowd seemed to have really enjoyed them.

Once Greta Van Fleet was done,you and Jita parted ways for the night. She went off to spend time with Jake and you spent the remainder of the festival with Sam and Danny, catching sets of bands you’ve never heard of and enjoying the headliners. 

It was weird though. They got stopped by a few people asking for pictures. There were even some people you saw at home shows, now traveling to Florida for them. It was almost as if they were getting… famous. 

Weird.

When the festival was over, you all made your ways back to the motel. After a tiring day, everyone was ready to relax and get some much needed sleep. Besides, tomorrow was Sam’s birthday and there were a few birthday activities planned for him.

You and Sam shared a room with Danny. He gave you and Sam the bed and opted to sleep on the pull out sofa. Danny’s only rule was don’t do anything weird around him or in front of him- which of course you and Sam agreed to.

The three of you laid in the darkness of the motel room, with the only light coming from the flickering of late night cartoons on the TV and a digital clock that read 11:46 PM.

It was hot and humid. Despite being exhausted, there was no way you were falling asleep like this. All the blankets were pushed to the foot of the bed. Sam was in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. The little hairs along his hairline were sticking to the sides of his forehead from his own sweat. You rolled your pajama shirt up over your ribs and spread yourself out with your arms above your head trying desperately to stay cool. 

There was one fan that blew between you and Sam on the bed and Danny on the couch. Every couple seconds you’d get a small breeze, but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy you.

Sam sat up on his elbows and looked over at Danny, who was asleep, and then over at you.

“You wanna do something fun?” Sam whispered.

You peered over at Danny and then back at Sam. “If he wakes up…” you warned.

“That is not what I meant,” Sam said, giving your nose a flick as he got up from the bed and headed to the door. 

You followed after him, out of bed and out the door that opened up to the balcony which looked down on an inground pool that was lit up ever so slightly from the lights outside the room doors. Not a lot, but just enough so that you could see in the darkness of the night.

You followed Sam across the balcony, past his brothers’ and dad’s rooms, and down the staircase to the pool gate. The sign on it read…

POOL HOURS 9 AM TO 9 PM

NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY

POOL IS FOR GUEST USE ONLY

Sam laughed, “Good thing we’re guests,” he said, purposely ignoring the rest of the rules on the sign and pushing the gate open.

“Sam, we’re gonna get in trouble,” you warned.

“We’re only gonna get in trouble if we get caught. Look at every room- lights out. Look at the lobby windows- lights out. No one is around. As long as we're quiet, we’ll be fine. And if we do get caught and get in trouble- I’ll take the fall. I’ll say I made you do it.”

You gave him a warning look. Kind of like the look a mother would give her son. But this was Sam. And he always found ways around his own mother’s warnings so yours were no different. 

Sam sat down on the concrete edge of the pool and put his feet in before sliding in all the way and fully immersing himself underwater with a small splash. When his head broke the surface, he pushed all his hair back and shook his head, letting droplets of water fly out from around him.

You sat down on the edge where Sam previously sat and you put your feet in the water as he swam up to you. He rested his wet chin on your knees and swirled circles of water on your thigh as he spoke.

“It's really nice,” he said, stretching out his words, “Feels good on your skin, doesn’t it?” he asked, “Refreshing?” 

You rolled your eyes playfully and laughed. You lifted your legs just a little so that the top of your feet tapped his stomach underwater. 

“I’m good right here,” you said as you wiped water droplets from his eyebrows before they could drip down into his eyes. 

Sam pouted at you, “It would be really nice if you came in,” he said in a fake sad tone, “After all, it is my birthday tomorrow and it would make me very happy.”

You thought to yourself for a minute. The entire reason you were here was to spend time with Sam. And even though you tried your best not to give in- you couldn’t help it. The way Sam was looking at you was absolutely adorable. And birthday or no birthday, you wanted to make him happy. 

Besides, Sam has never steered you wrong. Every time he went against the rules of something, it always ended up being okay. You trusted him. And so, with your feet, you pushed him back a little bit, took your shirt and pajama shorts off, leaving you in your bra and underwear, and slid down into the water with him. 

You went all the way under just as he did, feeling refreshed as all the sweat washed off you in the cool water. When you broke the surface, with a smile, Sam gave your face a splash and swam away quickly prompting you to follow him.

You swam after him and upon catching up to him, pushed down on his shoulders. He took a deep breath in as he went down and pulled on your legs, taking you underwater with him and using your body as leverage to push himself back up and swim away.

When you caught up to him again, you jumped on him. He was standing on the bottom of the pool and the water was up to his shoulders but the force of your body pushed him over and took him down. He held onto your waist and kicked his legs to bring you both back to the surface and stand on the floor of the pool once more.

You wrapped your legs around him so he couldn't swim away but he had other plans now. Besides, he was taller and even though he didn’t look like it, he was stronger.

“Take a breath!” he warned quickly before he leaned forward and dipped you into the water backwards.

He pulled you up and made sure you were smiling and got a chance to breathe before dunking you back down again.

When he pulled you up again, you pleaded to him.

“Okay, Okay,” you said breathlessly between dunks as you grabbed onto his neck and spit water out of your mouth, “You win, Sam. I give up!” 

Leaning forward to dunk you in again, he teased, “Say I’m the most talented and handsome man to have ever lived.”

“You’re the most talented and handsome man to have ever lived, Sam,” you repeated after him, laughing.

“Hm. Okay that’s good enough for me!” he said happily, removing his hands from behind your back and placing them on your waist as he walked over to the edge of the pool and leaned his back against it.

You stood up on your own now, leaned your body against his, and let one of your knees rest between his legs. You could feel the hem of his wet boxers on your thigh.

“Talented,” you said, giving him a peck.

“Handsome,” you said, giving him another peck.

You paused for just a moment before continuing.

Bringing your mouth right up to his ear you whispered, “Sexy,” as you reached one hand back to the front of his body slid your thumb into the waistband of his boxers, sliding it back and forth just a bit. 

“Sexy, hmm?” he asked in a low voice.

“Mhm,” you replied while you gave his earlobe soft little kisses. He pulled away from you and hitched up one of your legs over his thigh.

He held you up by your butt and you held onto his neck as he kissed you, starting at your mouth and creating a trail of wet kisses that moved past your chin, jaw, and settled on your neck- sucking, licking, biting. The contrast of the warmness of his mouth and the coolness of the water was indescribable. As well as the smoothness of his tongue versus the sharp stubble on his chin scraping against your skin.

All you could do was hum, sigh, and tug on the roots of his wet hair, knowing you had to be quiet. 

“Mmm,” he hummed into your skin right before his mouth broke into a smile and one of his hands snuck up under the clasp of your bra. 

He broke away from your neck and looked you in the eyes with his hand on the clasp, “Can I?” he whispered.

You nodded.

And just as he had gotten the hang of a few weeks ago, he unclipped the clasp and let it fall off your shoulders before pulling it off your arms and throwing it onto the concrete where your dry shorts and shirt were. 

You lowered yourself off of him and into the cool water, crossing your arms over your chest, thankful for the darkness of the night which hid the shade of pink that you could feel warming up on your cheeks. 

Sam quickly shielded your bare chest from being exposed, pressing his chest against yours and grabbing the side of your face by your ear, pulling your head closer to him to kiss you. 

As you kissed him, you reached down and nestled your thumbs into the waistband of his boxers, this time, giving them a little tug which Sam helped you out with.

Leg by leg, he took them off and threw them onto the concrete with a splat, leaving him completely naked in the water.

A cautious smile spread across his face before he leaned in to kiss you again. Kind of like an “I can’t believe we're doing this” kind of smile.

Finally, he slid his entire hand into the waistband of your underwear right on your hip and pushed down on the fabric, urging you to take them off the rest of the way.

And before you knew it, they were the last article of clothing left to join the others on the concrete patio. 

For the first time, you and Sam were both completely naked in front of each other. 

Your heart was racing and you were sure Sam’s was too. Not only were you fully exposed to Sam, but the risk of getting caught was huge. Yet somehow, someway, you didn’t even care. You were having fun and a little late night swim session never hurt anyone. 

Sam’s hands and lips did some wandering, starting on your neck and lowering themselves down to your now bare chest. 

Both of his hands palmed over your chest and his thumbs brushed over your nipples before his hands snuck around your back and held you close to him. 

His chin was low and dipped into the water every now and again as he moved around to continue sprinkling the front of your body with warm, wet, open mouthed kisses, all of which you could feel a smile on his lips during. 

Eventually you pulled his head back up and kissed his mouth again deeply while you let your hands sneak down to his butt, giving it a little squeeze and causing Sam to squirm and let out a tiny shriek which broke the kisses and made you both laugh and shush each other. 

Sam began swimming backwards with you following him into a more shallow part of the water. 

Now in the middle of the pool where Sam previously dunked you, you wrapped your legs around Sam’s waist again but this time, he wasn’t playing rough with you. This time he was being gentle and soft and kissing and caressing everywhere perfectly.

That is until he came to a sudden stop. You weren’t sure why but you immediately figured it out when you turned your head around to see a light turned on in the room his dad was in and the curtains in the window rustling around.

“Don’t. Move.” he whispered. You did as he said.

You could literally feel his heart pounding in his chest as it pressed against yours.

After about a minute not moving, with his eyes fixated on the window, slowly, he slunk through the water, sneaking both of you over to the edge of the pool where your clothes were. 

Cautiously, he reached and grabbed the clothes while you got off him, trying not to make any waves in the pool. While still in the water, both of you put your underwear back on. 

Once you were somewhat dressed, you pushed yourselves up and over the sides of the pool to get out. Sam helped you put your shorts back on and the two of you tiptoed quickly back to the door to your room.

Dripping wet and shivering, you entered the room with sighs of relief and let the carpet below your feet soak up the water that was coming off each of you from your heads to your toes. 

The light of the TV shone on Danny’s sleeping body and you looked at the digital clock just below the TV shining in neon green.

12:41 AM.

You turned around to face Sam who was opening a towel for you to step into. 

With the towel on, you pulled him in close, clasping your hand behind his back.

“Happy birthday, Sammy,” you whispered. 

A smile spread across Sam’s face and his teeth gleamed in the darkness that surrounded the two of you. You could barely see him in the dark, but at that moment, his face lit up like a thousand fireworks on the Fourth of July. 

“You want your present?”

He nodded in response like an excited little kid. 

You sat him down on the bed in nothing but his towel and his wet underwear and dug through your bag until you got to it.

“I didn’t have time to wrap it,” you began, “But,” you said, turning around with it in your hands.

Even in the dark, seeing his gift, he gasped and let out a quiet laugh.

“Haha, yes! This is perfect,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

You handed him a blue and gray raglan shirt with the logo of his favorite hometown ice cream shop- Jaami’s. A while ago, he told you that once every summer, he would sleep over his grandparents house- just him. And every summer they’d let him have ice cream for dinner from there and he looked forward to it every year. You remembered the story and decided it was a good gift for his birthday. Sam liked that- being remembered and thought of. 

“Thank you,” he said softly, staring up at you with loving eyes. 

You leaned down to give him a gentle kiss as a “you’re welcome.”

He threw it on over his wet hair and changed into a dry pair of boxers while you got out of your wet underwear and threw your dry pajamas back on.

Now that the pool cooled you both off to the bone, you laid back down in bed together for the night.

He laid on his back and let you rest your head on his shoulder. You looked up at him and you could tell he felt what he always wanted to feel. 

He felt calm- life slowed down for just a minute for the first time in a long time. 

He felt like people were starting to notice him- like he wasn’t caught in the mix anymore. 

He felt grown up- whether he were sneaking around or not, he was doing more adult things and being much more sure of himself doing them.

But most of all and most importantly, he felt loved- loved by a girl. And that’s all he had been wanting for a long time.

Chapter 8:

Author's Note: This was a fun chapter to write hehe

Taglist: Let me know if you want to be added!

@marijuandasblog @dannythedog @musicislove3389 @starsinmyeyes00 @gretavanfan @fleetingjake @ageofmiranda

[bluejayblueskies]

storge

n. familial love, born out of familiarity or dependence; a natural, unforced, instinctual love

Words: 3.3k

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Relationships: Danny Stoker & Tim Stoker, Sasha James & Tim Stoker (background)

Characters: Tim Stoker, Danny Stoker, Sasha James, Minor OCs

Additional Tags: AU - No Supernatural, AU - Everyone Lives/No One Dies, Internalized Acephobia/Arophobia, Implied/Referenced Arophobia (minor), Aromantic Character, Asexual Character

Summary:

Danny finished the last slice of the pizza they’d ordered, stared at the credits scrolling across Tim’s television screen from the cheesy Valentine’s Day rom-com they’d just finished watching, and said with feigned casualness, “I don’t think that’s for me.”

Tim, who had wanted that last slice of pizza, thank you very much, rolled his eyes and said, “Well, then I’m picking the pizza toppings next time. Maybe then we won’t have a pizza that only tastes like jalapeños.”

“Oh, absolutely not. Last time you put pineapple and pepperoni on it, which is grounds for termination from topping-decisions for life.” Danny paused, and then he took his eyes away from the television, looked at Tim, and said, with distinctly less casualness, “I meant the movie. Um. The romance part, specifically.”

Read on Ao3

Or, read below (additional warnings below the cut):

Additional warnings: - character forcing himself to stay in a romantic situation even after he becomes uncomfortable - character mentioning the possibility of forcing himself to have sex with someone (doesn’t actually occur)

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So here’s the thing: Tim is terrible at giving gifts. It doesn’t matter how long he’s known someone or how many of their favorites he can list off the top of his head—he still always ends up getting them something so incredibly, horribly generic because he just can’t do it. Sasha’s never going to let him live down the time he got her the exact same mug she keeps in the archives because he panicked, okay? And it was the only thing he could think of that wasn’t just candles or soap.

 (“I honestly would have preferred soap,” Sasha said as she covered her mouth with one hand to stifle her laugher, the other still grasping the mug. Tim was significantly less amused.)

 The one silver lining to the whole thing is that it’s never been a problem with Danny. Not because Tim is necessarily any better at getting gifts for him, but because Danny treats each and every gift from Tim like it’s something incredibly special and unique. Once, Tim got him a six-pack of plain black socks—just to test his theory that Danny was just being nice, or maybe just as a joke (or possibly both)—and Danny said, with a million-dollar smile, “You know, I was just thinking the other day how cool it would look to pair a patterned sock with a black one. This is great, Tim!”

 Yeah, Tim’s pretty sure that Danny’s just fucking with him at this point. But honestly, Tim doesn’t really mind. It takes a lot of pressure off him during any of the traditional gift-giving seasons because he knows that whatever he gets Danny, Danny will just smile and thank him like it was what he’d always wanted.

 Maybe that’s why Danny does it, Tim thinks as he stares at the dozens of tabs open on his computer, each for a different online retailer. To relieve the pressure.

 If so, then Tim’s really ruining the whole thing now, isn’t he? Because instead of doing that follow-up Jon requested two days ago, Tim’s been agonizing over whether to get a mug or a shirt or a pin, or maybe something more personal like those sunglasses he’d seen the other day, or—

 Or maybe something from the million other terrible ideas Tim’s had. With a long, drawn-out groan, he pushes back from his desk, stands with a too-loud pop of his back that has Sasha glancing up from her paperwork with a grimace, and makes his way to the breakroom.

 He needs coffee.

 As he waits for the pot to brew—because he’s the only one who drinks coffee in the archives (and yes, Sasha’s intricately named espresso beverages are technically coffee, but he doesn’t deign to count them)—he closes his eyes and tries to convince himself, yet again, that there’s a good reason he’s putting himself through this, and that no, it is not a stupid idea that has a ninety-nine percent chance of backfiring horribly.

 It had gone like this:

 Four months ago, Danny had finished the last slice of the pizza they’d ordered, stared at the credits scrolling across Tim’s television screen from the cheesy Valentine’s Day rom-com they’d just finished watching, and said with feigned casualness, “I don’t think that’s for me.”

 Tim, who had wanted that last slice of pizza, thank you very much, rolled his eyes and said, “Well, then I’m picking the pizza toppings next time. Maybe then we won’t have a pizza that only tastes like jalapeños.”

 “Oh, absolutely not. Last time you put pineapple and pepperoni on it, which is grounds for termination from topping-decisions for life.” Danny paused, and then he took his eyes away from the television, looked at Tim, and said, with distinctly less casualness, “I meant the movie. Um. The romance part, specifically.” Then, with a disarming smile: “I’ve got the comedy more than covered, after all. I told you I got that wedding gig, right? Maybe I can try some of my jokes on you.”

 Danny opened his mouth again, clearly ready to launch into a demonstration of his latest vocational pursuit, but Tim’s brain had finally parsed Danny’s words enough to say, maybe a bit too abruptly, “Hold on, hold on. Let’s go back to the romance bit, yeah?”

 He really, really hoped the statement had come off less accusatory and more encouraging. It must have worked because Danny’s smile faded into an expression that didn’t look afraid, only nervous. Still, Tim felt the need to add, with the edges of his words sanded down into something softer, “Obviously, you don’t have to tell me anything you aren’t comfortable with. But I’m all ears.”

 “Mm, they are pretty big,” Danny quipped. “Only going to get bigger, too.”

 Tim just sat back on the couch, crossed his arms, and waited. The credits on the screen continued to roll, the peppy pop music that accompanied them disrupting what might have, in any other situation, been an awkward silence. It still felt like an awkward something.

 Then, Danny sucked his bottom lip between his teeth, worried it for a few seconds, and said, “Okay, so- you remember telling me about when you figured out you were ace, right?”

 “Right,” Tim said.

 “Right,” Danny echoed. He fiddled with the silver ring on his left thumb absently, like he always did when he was nervous or when he had a million things racing through his head and he was trying to decide which thread to pull that would make them all come together into a neatly-stitched pattern. “Well, I guess all the stuff you said about liking sex but not wanting it with anyone in particular got me thinking about things that I like. And, uh. Things that I don’t.”

 There was another pause. The television screen had gone dark and the silence that stretched over them didn’t feel awkward anymore. Just heavy. Danny gave the ring on his finger another twist and said, “It had never really occurred to me that I could like to do something but not with anyone in particular, you know? Like- okay, so I enjoy flirting. I think all those stupid, cheesy pickup lines are hilarious, and seeing how people react to them is really fun. I mean, sometimes people laugh, sometimes people get annoyed, and sometimes people blush. But I never want anything out of it, you know?”

 Danny stared at the blank screen; the profile of his face showed a smile, but the lines of his forehead and the creases around his eyes were tight. Wordlessly, Tim moved closer so that his shoulder pressed against Danny’s, light enough that it wasn’t oppressive but a grounding presence all the same. From the way that Danny relaxed slightly at the touch, Tim decided that it was a good move.

 “One time, actually, someone offered to buy me a drink. You would have liked him, Tim—he had this really strong jawline, little bit of a five o’clock shadow, bright red hair. So I got the drink, and we talked, and even though he was funny and I had to stop sipping my drink because I kept choking on it when he would tell another joke, I just had this itching underneath my skin, like I just couldn’t get comfortable. But,” Danny said with a tight smile, “I ignored it. I told myself, You flirted with him first, Danny Stoker, and this is what happens when you flirt with people. Sometimes, they flirt back. So I had my drink. And then another, you know, because drinks are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.

 “He didn’t ask me to- to come back to his place or whatever, which was- god, I don’t know what I would have done.” Danny bit his lip, leaned more heavily into Tim’s shoulder. “Probably would have said yes? And I don’t need you to tell me that that would have been stupid. I know.

 “Instead, he gave me his number on one of those fancy business cards—I don’t really remember for what company, I threw it away as soon as I got home—and told me to call him. And I knew, as soon as he said that, that I wasn’t going to. That it- it wasn’t fun anymore, because there was this expectation to deliver.” Danny’s forehead creased, and he shook his head slowly. “No, that’s- that’s not quite right. An expectation to reciprocate, maybe?

 “The thing is, the idea of romance and dating and all of that sounds interesting in theory, and sometimes I can even imagine myself doing it—albeit not with anyone in particular, just like as a thought exercise I guess. I tried, a few times, to put a specific face to whoever I was going on lovely Italian wine tours with or- or hand-feeding grapes to on a bed on some island. Tim, don’t make that face, wine tours and grape feeding are peak romance. Uh, I think.

 “Anyway, anytime I tried to imagine dating someone instead of just dating, I got that same itching feeling under my skin. And I thought, well, I’m just not picking the right people. It’s got to be someone I really like, you know, someone I care about. Clearly, red-haired guy had not been the one.

 “And then… I found someone. Her name was Ash and she was just everything I ever could have wanted. She was funny and brave and did this little thing with her nose when she laughed that made me laugh, and she was a much better rock climber than me but I was better at rappelling because she could never trust herself to lean back unless someone guided her down, and I really, really thought that it could be her, you know? I knew that I loved her, and even though most of my standard lines bounced right off her, a few stuck. If I tried, really tried, I even thought I could picture it: every single corny, cheesy date I’d ever imagined, with her face cut and pasted into the image. It was a bit like a bad Photoshop edit, you know, where the edges clearly didn’t fit? But I ignored it because it fit well enough, and she made me happy.”

 Danny took a long breath and let it out just as slowly. Tim thought of a million things to say, a million reassurances, that he eventually let sink to the back of his mind and dissipate. Instead, he fought back against the instinct to break the silence with a laugh or a word or just a noise and instead leaned further back against the couch. Patience was not his strong suit, but he could do it for Danny.

 Finally, Danny continued, “And then one day, she… she asked me out. I guess I must have looked pretty shocked because she laughed and said that she’d been flirting with me for weeks, just like I’d been with her, and so there was no need to look so surprised. The thing is, I hadn’t even noticed. Every time she’d made some joke and I’d laughed, I’d thought that was just normal. Being friends, you know? Maybe that’s stupid, given that I’d been flirting with her too. Maybe not. I don’t know.

 “I said yes. And spent the next four days regretting it. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. We were planning on going out to dinner that Friday, and the entire night before I got maybe an hour of sleep? I just kept thinking, you know, is she going to want to hold hands? Is she going to want to kiss me? Is she going to want to do more than kiss? What about other things, the wine and the grapes and rings and weddings and kids and—”

 Danny cut off with a sigh, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Yeah, so I called her an hour before I was supposed to meet her at the restaurant and said that something had come up and I couldn’t make it. Which was a lie of course, and I’m pretty sure she could tell because instead of asking what was wrong or what had come up, she just said okay. In a voice that sounded like it very much wasn’t okay. And when she hung up, I realized we hadn’t scheduled a new date. And it filled me with so much relief that I just felt guilty, because I still loved her, you know? And I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong, why I liked to flirt but felt so uncomfortable when it actually worked, why the idea of dating didn’t bother me until it became a reality, why every single ‘crush’ I had just felt so forced even if I cared about the person so much it hurt.

 “And then you told me that you were ace, and you talked about how it felt to be ace, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about Ash. I didn’t think that your situation was the same as mine, but it just—it felt close? So I finally thought to look up how I felt. And I’m still not one-hundred percent sure what label fits or whatever, but just knowing that there’s labels at all, that there are people out there who feel the way that I feel and that I’m not just- just doing it wrong—god, it was just this huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”

 Danny laughed, a bit harshly, born more of a release of nerves than of humor. “Is it a bit weird that I still really like to flirt? Maybe I should give a disclaimer before every pickup line: Hello, I’m Danny Stoker, I’m some flavor of aromantic and asexual, this flirting is purely platonic. Hmm, that’s a bit wordy.”

 Then, a smile cracked Danny’s face in two, tinged with more than a hint of devilish teasing. “Maybe I’ll make a business card.”

 Finally, Tim broke his vow of silence with a snort. He nudged Danny’s side with his elbow and said, “It can be a family venture. Stoker and Stoker, aspec brothers in crime.”

 Danny’s smile softened into something subtler, and he said, with an unusual amount of sincerity in his voice, “Thanks, Tim. I… I mean, I didn’t think you would react badly, but still. Thanks.”

 And Tim’s heart broke just a little, and he pulled Danny to his side and wrapped his arms around him tightly. “Never,” he said firmly. “I’m really glad you told me, Danny. Really, really glad.”

 So yeah. Tim can’t mess this gift up, because Danny had trusted him with this part of himself, and Tim really, really wants to support him in every possible way. Even if that way involves cheesy novelty mugs striped with the colors of the aromantic flag.

 Ugh.

 Tim grabs his distinctly not cheesy plain black mug of coffee and makes his way back to his desk, entirely absorbed in a swirling mess of thoughts filled with blacks and greens and whites and purples. Which is why he doesn’t notice Sasha sitting at his desk until he nearly sits on top of her.

 “Christ,” Tim says, jumping back so quickly he nearly spills his coffee. Sasha barely acknowledges him; she’s too busy typing away at something on his computer, and when Tim looks over her shoulder, he realizes with a sickening horror that she’s closed all but a few tabs on his computer. Tabs that he’d carefully curated. Tabs that he needs.

 (Tabs full of indecision and terrible, terrible ideas. But he needs them all the same.)

 “I hope,” Tim says with a voice that’s only slightly on the saner side of panic, “that there’s a perfectly good reason why you’ve thrown a wrench the size of a small house into my gift planning process? Because otherwise, I am three seconds away from freaking out.”

 Sasha waves a hand at him, still not looking away from the screen. “All your gifts suck, Tim.”

 “Hey!”

 This time, Sasha does look at him, something apologetic in her eyes. “Sorry. But they do.”

 Sullenly, Tim says, “Danny doesn’t think my gifts suck.”

 Sasha sighs and turns back to the computer. “Danny loves you a lot more than he loves your gifts. But that’s not the point.” She types something on the keyboard, navigates through a few windows without even taking the time to look at their contents. “You’ve been scowling at your screen all day, Tim. And I know it’s not because of that Remmier case that Jon assigned because I finished that yesterday.”

 “Oh. Thank you?”

 “Yup. You owe me coffee.” Sasha types a few more things, squints at the screen, then makes a noise of triumph. “There. Get him that and thank me later.”

 Then, Sasha’s out of his chair and back at her own desk, leaving behind only a warmth that Tim can feel as he takes his own seat and finally gets a good look at what’s on the screen.

 Huh.

 Tim orders it. And a few days before Danny’s birthday, he has an idea. Maybe the only good gift-giving idea he’s ever had.

 So the next time he’s at the shop, he picks up some supplies. And for someone who majored in anthropology and doesn’t know the first thing about graphic design, he’s quite happy with the final product.

 And when Danny unwraps the box on his birthday, sat on Tim’s couch with empty boxes of Thai takeout in front of them, the first thing he sees are the cards, set right on the top. It’s a silly little design, a set of two mountains striped with the aromantic and asexual colors, and next to them:

 Stoker & Stoker, Inc.

Aspec brothers in crime

Where the flirting is platonic, NOT erotic!

 Underneath the cards, there’s a new climbing rope, striped with greens and whites and greys and blacks, and a matching set of metallic purple carabiners, something that Tim absolutely never would have thought of but that’s perfect nonetheless. Danny takes a card in one hand, runs the thumb of the other over the edge of the climbing rope, and looks at Tim.

 And Tim thinks he gets it, then. Why people put so much time and effort into giving people thoughtful, meaningful gifts. Because Danny’s expression isn’t fucking with him or relieving the pressure or just being nice or even this was what I’d always wanted. It’s something truer, something softer, something that sits in the pit of Tim’s stomach and burns softly, warming him gently from the inside out

 Yeah, Tim’s never going to be able to go back to generic gifts after this. He’s going to need a much larger coffee budget.

 (This conviction lasts, at least, until later in the evening, when Tim confesses that Sasha helped him with the gift and Danny laughs and says I figured, before saying in a quieter voice that the climbing equipment is great but the cards were Tim. That the black socks and novelty mugs and vanilla candles were generic but that they were Tim as well and that Danny had made it a game to try and guess what Tim was going to get him that year, keeping a bet with Sasha on how long it would take Tim to accidentally give him the same gift twice.

 Hey, Tim says, but his mouth is twisted into a smile. He ruffles Danny’s hair in that way he hates and says that he’ll stick to the basics from now on, then, and they put on some shitty comedy that Danny insists on watching and eat ice cream until their stomachs hurt.

 And if Tim sees Danny glancing at the business card every so often, wearing a smile so soft it’s almost melting, he certainly isn’t going to mention it.)

[stormy-boy]

Do the next gen racers have sons and/or daughters (in the future and stuff)?

Probably. People have kids no matter what their profession, though it is true that some people postpone that kind of stuff in order to focus on their careers or other things (and certain careers are more demanding than others). When/whether or not they decide to start a family depends on the individual and their own plans and desires (as well as their partner’s). As for how kids come about, my personal theory is that they are manufactured (however that may be), so that they resemble their parents, but are not born in the traditional sense. Adoption is also another viable option!

I don’t really have any specific ideas about who exactly their children would be, but I do have some general headcanons:

Since Storm is so career-focused, I can’t imagine him settling down any time soon (he doesn’t seem to have much of a personal life either). But as he gets older, that intense desire to win will likely wear off a bit, and he’ll realize that there’s other aspects of his life, besides racing, that need his attention. I think there’s a chance he’ll decide to not have kids at all, but if he does, it would just be one. 

As for the the type of father Storm’d be, he’d be a little distant, because I get the sense that he wouldn’t really know how to be a parent. He’d be prone to spoiling his kid, but he might also be that kind of competitive, “my kid is better than your kid” kind of parent. I’m not quite sure what the word is for it, but you know those parents that get really worked up at their kids’ Little League or soccer games? That. Storm would also try to push them to become a racer like him, but if they go down another career path, he’d be okay with it. He’d just want them to be the best at whatever it is (competitiveness is kind of his thing). He’d end up putting a lot of pressure on his kid, but he’d come to realize it eventually and ease up. At the end of the day, Storm just loves his kid like any good parent does, and wants the best for them.

Danny would definitely want kids. And a lot of ‘em. Maybe 5. In the hypothetical situation that he ends up with Cruz, she’d want a lot of kids too (but she’d be a little more reasonable about the number). Very much the family man who loves his children.

Ryan’s a fun-loving guy, so he’d be up for having kids as well. Probably around 3 of them. He’d be the fun dad: indulging his kids, bringing them to all of his races, showing them off to others.

Bubba would wait a while before having kids, but he would still be set on having a family some day. When the time comes around, he’d have 2. He’d be a little more on the strict side of parenting.

Chase would be like Storm in the sense that he would want to hold off on that, and spend as much time as possible being independent and drifting from place to place. He’d be hesitant to settle down, because he enjoys his freedom, but he’d do it eventually. He’d also want 2. He’d be kind of anxious about his role as a parent at first, but he’d settle into it fine enough.

Don’t really have any ideas for Tim. I guess he’d go about it the way the average person does and have 2. 

@the-kings-tail-fin has some good material on the Next-Gens’ kids (as you probably already know). I’m particularly fond of her headcanons and fics about Jackson’s daughter :)

[the-master-cylinder]

  I Eat Cannibals (1980) Ted Nicolaou’s forgotten action comedy. This was to be the “the most ferocious story of revenge ever filmed.”

Leatherbabies (1984) Story unknown at this time.

Alter Ego (1985) Directed by Peter Manoogian (Arena), another early Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson effort that was to star Jeffrey Byron (of Empire’s The Dungeonmaster) as a sci-fi hero pitched halfway between Mandroid and Jack Deth. The film never got beyond initial planning due to lack of interest from international buyers. Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator) and Rob Goethals (Swamp Thing) were also attached as producer & writer at a stage prior to Bilson/De Meo coming on board.

Crimelord (1985) Some kind of crime/cop movie .

Decapitron (1986)  Interchangeable technology is a popular theme at Empire. One of the more ambitious films is Decapitron, currently subtitled “The Devastation Creation” and also written by Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson. The Decapitron is a robot with five different heads: a surveillance head, which is an extremely sophisticated information gathering and observation device, an omnitech head, which is an all-purpose utility-super analyzer unit useful for biochemical breakdowns, medical diagnosis and crime detection; a humanoid head, which can simulate the appearance of any human male in his mid-thirties; a war head with advanced firepower, and finally, a doomsday head, the ultimate weapon of last resort.

The film was to be directed by Peter Manoogian, however, following the collapse of Empire Studios in 1989, and no doubt fueled by the cool reception given to Empire’s other ‘big’ picture Robot Jox, the script was finally shelved. Bilson & De Meo then went on to write the screenplay for the Disney’s The Rocketeer in 1991. The character of Decapitron was, however, to re-appear in micro-form as one of the puppets in Jeff Burr’s entry in the Full Moon killer toy franchise Puppet Master 4 and Puppet Master 5.

Paul De Meo acknowledges that “Decapitron” is an outgrowth of Eliminators, which was an intriguing idea. Charles Band wanted to go further with it. While the Mandroid is half man, half machine, the Decapitron is all robot. Unlike the Terminator, he’s the good guy. He has a kid sidekick, and they go into a city which has its own rules there’s been a plague in the city and it is under quarantine. The inhabitants are survivors of a biological disaster.”

Bilson and De Meo believe that a good sense of humor delicately applied can compensate for a less than generous budget. Trancers derives humor from its bizarre situation and future slang. In Eliminators, the Mandroid keeps commenting on how unbelievable and comic-book-like the whole thing is, putting the audience on his side. De Meo is aware that the proper tone for a picture is important. He and Bilson like to add humor but they are making action pictures, not comedies. Also, I may be wrong, but I remember hearing this film would’ve been Charles Band’s most expensive picture ever.

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Why then are you spending $10 million on Decapitron? Charles Band: If one or two pictures out of 25 cost that much and all the rest average $2-3 million, we’re still pretty true to our formula. There are pictures that will cost more only because of what it’ll take to make them. It’s not because we’re putting in a $4 million star or spending a million dollars on a director. Decapitron has huge amounts of special effects, pyrotechnics, pieces of city blocks getting blown up it’s just an expensive movie to make. Sometimes a project comes along that we’re so excited about that we want to do it justice. Many pictures we make are designed to be made on a budget, but we don’t want to short- change the story or the movie itself. You can make, in theory, a brilliant horror film if your location is a house. You don’t need $20 million and a lot of special effects. On From Beyond, for example, we have not only John Buechler, who is our close effects associate involved, but we have three other FX teams, too. There’s a huge amount of special effects half the budget of this expensive picture Is going to effects. But again, if your picture takes place In a house in this case, a very large house it’s limited in many potential costs. But If your picture takes place in the future on some planet, in Los Angeles on city streets, with many effects, it costs money. In the case of Decapitron and one other picture that we’ll be announcing soon, the budgets are up there. But everything else is averaged out at about $3 million.

“I did read the DECAPITRON script. It was pretty good though there was a fundamental flaw in the premise. The central character was supposed to carry 5 or 6 replacement heads capable of different functions. Since, in reality, the heads would be masks worn by an actor, they would have to be larger than normal. The script described him carrying them in something the size of a briefcase when it would really have to be the size of a footlocker. Imagine a character dodging bullets and running through action scenes lugging something that big!” – Kenneth J. Hall (film-maker)

  Barbarian Women (1986) Another sword and sorcery film, probably set in the future or another dimension.

Bloodless (1986) Jungle/Ancient horror maybe. Slasher or vampire. Anyone got anything?

Journeys Through The Darkzone (1986) Written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (Eliminators), I got nothing much on this. The title was used later as a tagline for Trancers 4.

Show No Mercy (1986) Would be action flick directed by Peter Manoogian.

Tomb (1986) Unmade jungle thriller.

Murdercycle (1986) Originally titled BATTLE BIKES, info is unknown on this version, but fans would later see this art and title recycled for a future Full Moon release about soldiers fighting a robotic alien.

Vulcana (1986) Action/fantasy about a warrior woman.

Charles Band & Jack Kirby Unfilmed Projects

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Mindmaster (1986) involves a scientist who is caught in an accident which leaves him debilitated, and must use a thought-controlled robot he invented to stop a crazed fellow scientist.

Doctor Mortalis (1986) is an all-powerful wizard, the leader of a secret sect of sorcerers known as The Dark Order. His faithful sidekick, “Egghead,” is a witty half-human, half computer genius who possesses fantastic special powers.

Legion of Doom This was going to be Charles Band’s superhero team movie. He once stated that films like Mandroid and Invisible: The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight were efforts to slowly build characters for a team movie. So it’s entirely possible Dark Angel and Doctor Mordrid could have been on the team as well in this movie.

Berserker (1986) Unfilmed A big fan of RE-ANIMATOR, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli wrote BERSERKER, about a bodybuilder who abuses steroids and becomes a mutant.

Bloody Bess (1987) Unfilmed Stuart Gordon planned this adventure movie around the time he was making From Beyond, and also first attempting to raise a decent budget for his pet project The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It was to star Jeffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton as a female pirate, out to drink rum, steal gold, and generally show the boys a thing or two about buckling swashes. Rumour has it ex-Empire director Renny Harlin (Prison, Die Hard 2) must have liked the idea, since he lifted it for his 1995 box-office bomb Cutthroat Island, which I have never bothered to watch.

Pand Evil (1987) To be produced and directed by Gorman Bechard (Psychos In Love, Cemetery High).

Fiends (1987) Info not known at this time.

  PULSEPOUNDERS (1988) Incomplete An unfinished Empire Pictures film directed by Charles Band, and starring Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Jeffrey Combs, Barbra Crampton, and Richard Moll.

Here’s what I’ve heard Charles Band had to say about PulsePounders: “PULSEPOUNDERS is completely shot, it just needs post-production,” says Band. “I still hope to get it out of the mess it’s tangled up in and release it. David Gale is terrific in it, and with him gone now, it’s all the more reason to get it out where people can see him one last time.”

Now here’s what Jeffrey Combs had to say: “Pulsepounders is a real curiosity,” Combs says. “It’s a movie – or a segment of a trilogy – that i did back in the 1980’s while over in Italy. As far as I knew, that movie never got finished. Empire Pictures, Charlie Band’s company at that time, tanked. So that film was in pieces and incomplete, and so far as I’d heard just lost in the wars. Now it’s showing up on the internet as something that’s coming out. I did my segment soon after Re-Animator with Barbara Crampton, the late David Gale and David Warner. Other than the dailies I saw at the time, I never heard or saw anything about it again until information about it suddenly turned up on the internet. So who knws about that. Maybe the next time I talk to Charlie Band, I’ll ask him about it.”

“I was in a segment called ‘The Evil Clergyman‘, based on a Lovecraft story, Combs continues. “They did a short Trancers / Jack Deth story “Trancers: City of Lost Angels” which Helen Hunt was in. And they did one more with Richard Moll, based on another Empire Pictures movie [Dungeonmaster] that had been successful. So it would have been three little odd and hastily connected pieces. They’d all been shot, but they were never able to finish them up.

Zombie Hotel (1989) “Spend a night with the Living Dead.” Subspecies director Ted Nicolaou was set to direct.

Apparatus (1989) A Futuristic thriller that was to have been directed by Larry Cohen (It’s Alive) that apparently concerned “Big Brother'” types controlling the masses through apparatus attached to their bodies. Abandoned also when Empire Pictures folded.

Hotel Dick (1989) Another Empire comedy to be produced by Frank Yablans (Buy & Cell, The Caller).

Bimbo Barbeque (1989) A planned sequel to Assault of the Killer Bimbos, a girls on the run sex comedy that inspired THELMA & LOUISE. It’s mentioned in ASSAULT’s end credits.

Entangled (1989) Would’ve been produced by Irwin Yablans (Halloween).

Floater (1989) Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2) signed on to make a $6 million supernatural thriller, one of Band’s occasional attempts at ‘top-drawer’ quality product. Again, the project was abandoned when Empire ceased. Tobe went on to direct Spontaneous Combustion instead.

Subterraneans (1989) Heard this was to be the first of a trilogy about a culture of small evolved apes that live in the NYC Subway Tunnels.

Empire Films Never Made Undated

Arsenal A no doubt action adventure.

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Cassex Virtual reality sex comedy.

The Colony Apparently about yuppie witches.

Dolls 2 Director of the original Stuart Gordon was, at one point, very interested in directing a sequel. The initial storyline would have followed surviving characters Judy and Ralph back to Boston in which Ralph would have indeed married Judy’s mother and they would all become a family. Until, one day Judy would receive a box sent from England which would contain the toy makers, Gabriel and Hilary, as dolls. Gabriel was played by Guy Rolfe (Andre Toulon in Puppet Master 3, 4, 5, 7) by the way. It’s unknown to me why it was never made.

InHuman Info unknown at this time.

  L.A.B.C. Anyone got anything? I suspect this to be a post-apocalyptic film, which were big in the 1980’s.

Parasite II Following the Charles Band/Demi Moore original, the sequel never hit the script stage after Embassy Pictures fell apart. According to the poster below, actor Robert Glaudini was expected to return.

Shadows and Whispers Unknown about this possibly erotic thriller, to be directed by David Schmoeller (Crawlspace).

Space Sluts in the Slammer Possibly part of Charlie’s uncredited erotic Sci-Fi adventures like Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity.

Strange Magic I got nothing other than this poster. “The King of Evil is dead. Long live the Queen.”

-tomboftheunproducedhorrormovie

The History of Empire Films Part Seven – Films Never Made (1980-1989) I Eat Cannibals (1980) Ted Nicolaou's forgotten action comedy. This was to be the "the most ferocious story of revenge ever filmed."