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abloomntime · 4 years ago

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A Bloom In Time Ch 1 A Flower Princess Lost

An non-beating heart is a bad thing to most, but not a bad thing if you were already dead and didn't need anything like that of course. Snatcher is a complicated spook that already has everything he wants now and with two little kids constantly playing in his woods and asking him to join, he has more than enough of his mushy love anyways. But when a familiar face and secret pops up, it may prove that the beating of love may still come from beyond the grave.

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Warning: Mentions and briefly explains Snatcher's death.

"Your Highness? Are you alright?"

He snapped out of it and yellow eyes blinked up at the lady who's stolen his heart. The fairytale romantic love of a Queen with beautiful blonde hair and emerald eyes was the first to catch him heart and he fell hard for her, but overtime that vision started to blur into one of fiery red passion and smelt of flowers. He could imagine his Queen in a wedding dress of pure white and covered in lace, but now he couldn't get the idea of how the maiden with red hair would look shyly looking at him in a dress of white, flowers in her hair and a red hue to her face as he held her close, wedding bells sounding as he promised her he would always love her. Forever.....But he should get his head out of the clouds. From the day he was born, his parents and Vanessa's mother had an arranged marriage for the two royals, and he didn't think even though she was Queen now, she'd let him go so soon with how attached she was....and how forcing his parents were about this. So he smiled at the confused face on the beautiful woman with hair of the rose.

"I'm perfectly fine. Vanessa's just been....A b-bit cranky lately. So I wanted to surprise her with some flowers today. M-Maybe that'll help calm her down. "

That got her attention when she rose a brow at him and asked a question that made him flinch. "Is this like the time she banned everyone here from eating bacon?"

He waved her off. "N-No, no. She was only concerned about my health, a-and she's right. Bacon has too much fat. I could loose a few more pounds and eat healthier.''

Her beautiful blue eyes ran over him with a raised brow. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn't and instead smiled and pointed a hand to the flowers around her in her stand. "Well, how can I help you this time, Prince-y? We have a fifty percent discount on mixed wild daisies this week, more sprouted up than expected, but they smell great and multicolored. A colorful rainbow bouquet would brighten up anyone's day!"

He looked at the many flowers she was pointing to and smiled and nodded. "Y-Yeah. Vanessa's loves any flowers I give her! These are perfect! You know what, I'll take some thanks!"

She smiled and went to work on getting the flowers. Cutting them and getting the pretty pink paper to wrap them in so he could present them to his beloved Queen. He couldn't help but smile at the gentle way she handled the flowers ...but remembered. He didn't have any pons to pay her with. He spent the last on them on getting Vanessa an anniversary gift yesterday after she insisted he'd better do something to make her happy and 'prove he still loved her by not forgetting. And he didn't. He got her a beautiful bracelet with beautiful blue saphires studded into it and was getting her flowers on top of that....But- When she turned back to him with a smile, flowers ready to go...It was like it was stupid but-...He immediately held up the bracelet to her without question, smile on his own face. She blinked at the sudden gift held out to her before looking back up to his face in question.

"Take it. I-...I-I got three others at home just like it," he lied with a smile but it felt like the right thing to do at the time, "Besides. I-I don't have any pons on me right now."

He stared at him more. "Oh, no. I couldn't!" She held up her hands. "I couldn't possibly just accept it like that. Here." She held the flowers out to him. "You buy so much anyways. This time it's on the house."

"NO!" He insisted. Gently placing the small bracelet into her hand while staring into her eyes. "I may be a prince but even Im not above getting things for free just because I buy a lot of it. You obviously put so much work into growing such beautiful flowers and I won't let hard work like that go under paid."

They ended up just holding hands unintentionally for a few seconds as they talked and smiled. Neither noticed the beautiful golden sunshine haired woman with beautiful green emerald eyes suddenly stopping and watching from the dark corner of the alleyway. She stared in absolutely horror as she watched her prince, her beloved perfect prince holding hands with a...a...A PEASANT GIRL!! This girl with bland red hair that looked like it was dunked in tacky red paint and gotten red splotches all over her face, dirt smudging her tacky dress and obviously dirty and not fit for anyone other than another low life peasant like herself. AND YET THERE THEY WERE!! Holding hands, smiling, and giggling like they were...A Happy couple..NO! NO!! HE WASN'T ALLOWED TO LOOK AT ANYONE LIKE THAT!! HE WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO LOOK AT HER LIKE THAT!! HER! THE ONE WITH EYES OF EMERALD GREEN AND PERFECT HAIR SHINIER THAN GOLD!! FAIR SKIN AND BELOVED BY HER KINGDOM!! RICH AND COULD GIVE HIM ANYTHING HE ASKED!! THEY WERE THE ONES THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO GET MARRIED WITHIN A YEAR'S TIME!! THEY WERE GOING TO ADOPT ONE OF THE CHILDREN FROM THE VILLAGE TOGTHER!! HE COULDN'T WAIT TO HAVE A CHILD BUT SHE WANTED TO WAIT UNTIL A FEW YEARS INTO THEIR MARRIAGE BEFORE HAVING ONE!! IT WAS GOING TO BE THE PERFECT THING FOR THEIR IMAGE!! ADOPTING A CHILD OF NONE ROYAL BLOOD AND LOOK LIKE ONE OF THOSE FAIRYTALE STORIES!! THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT TOGETHER AND HE'S.....He's holding hands with someone who's not fit to even be in their story beyond a lowly subject!! With tears stinging her eyes she hiccupped and turned to run back into the darkness of the alley, if she would've stayed a little longer she would've seen the florist hand over the bouquet of flowers meant for her to he beloved prince and him paying her with the golden bracelet. The movement out of the corner of his eye made him look towards the swift movement and he easily recognized that fancy green dress running back into the shadow of the alleyway.

He jumped almost dropping the flowers he was just handed. "Vanessa!?" The florist looked to where he was looking but didn't see the woman that dashed into the alleyway as he stared in confusion. "Vanessa?.....Why did she run away so suddenly?"

...The florist shrugged lightly with a smile. "Maybe she was embarrassed she walked in on you getting her flowers?", she suggested.

....He gave a smile. "OH! Of course! She's considerate l-like that." He gave an almost nervous smile and turned back to her before bowing. "T-Thank you for your help once again...Ms. Poppy."

She waved her hand. "Oh, don't mention it! It's always to see just a nice man be so considerate and give the gal he loves so many flowers."

The gal he loved...Heh. He guessed that was true. He still loved Vanessa in some way or another...but lately..he wasn't too sure about things, but he was sure she was right. Vanessa was just in a bad place for a few years. Her mother was sick and dying slowly, she just got crowned Queen a month ago after her mother had an accident, her new duties were overwhelming her, and with him still doing his princely studies about law it musn't be easy for her. But like any betrothed, he was going to try and work through these problems together. But he still couldn't stop smiling after he left the Florist to her work. Cute freckles and blue eyes clouding his vision. He was sure as soon as Vanessa saw these flowers she would perk right up! She always enjoyed it when he brought her gifts like these- OH! How wrong he was. As soon as he got to the manor, Vanessa's vacation spot away from her huge castle, everything suddenly felt....off somehow. Like a tense and thick aura was in the air, so thick one would have to use a battle axe to cute through it, but upon further searching he found her. Vanessa, his beloved Queen with golden hair, weeping in one of the hallways, back faced to him and of course the sight pained him. What could've brought her to this state of being?

"Vanessa?!" She flinched when he shouted her name and came near her. The sound of his footsteps stopping just behind her. "Sweetheart? W-Why are you crying?" Sudden worry came over him. Oh no. Did she think he forgot their anniversary?! That made him hold out the flowers with a giant smile. "Don't cry. I-I got you these! Look. A-Aren't they beautiful?"

".....How could you betray me, Philip?" Her voice growled out. And he took a step back, was it just him or was the room suddenly darker? They needed to open up the blinds more. But the shadows seemed to come from her as she growled again in a voice that was clearly NOT the sugary sweet voice of his beloved maiden. And betrayl?? What was she talking about? "How could you CHEAT ON ME!? AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!! ALL OUR LIVES WE WERE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER!!" Her form slouched over as the shadows continued to consume her and her once beautiful emerald eyes twitched with a red of rage and anger he'd never seen before tears beginning to consume her eyes, or the one eye that was exposed to him at the moment. He froze just staring at her in horror as the same distorted voice asked another question. "How could you give your heart to that PEASANT GIRL!?"

He stared at her in absolute fear as she growled like some wild animal at him, "W-WHAT?! You mean-...N-NO!! Nonono! You have it all wrong!" He held up the flowers with a strained scared smile. "I wasn't cheating on you! I would NEVER cheat on you! I was paying her and got you these! S-She grows the most beautiful flowers in the land, and you deserve no less than the best!"

"LIAR!!" The not-Vanessa shrieked like she was a banshee making him almost drop the flowers. "I SAW YOU HOLDING HANDS!! AND LAUGHING AT HER JOKES!! FUNNY HUH?! WELL I HOPE PLAYING ME FOR A FOOL WAS WORTH IT, PHILIP!! GUARDS!!"

As if being summoned out of thin air, two heavy footsteps of the iron dressed guards came stomping down the hallway and like an idiot he looked back to her with pleading eyes. "Vanessa! I wasn't I swear to you! I was merely paying her for the flowers n-not giggling at her jokes! AAH!!" He yelped in fright when he was suddenly surrounded. two giant armored arms snatched him and wouldn't let go!

She giggled without any humor. "Oh, Philip. You played me the fool for so long perhaps a punishment is in order for you. Take him to the celler and CHAIN HIM!!! I never want to see his face again.....And then seeze the florist. No crime against me shall go unpunished."

WHAT?! POPPY!! "W-WHAT?! VANESSA, PLEASE NO!!" Two arms latched onto him and no matter how much he kicked and struggled he couldn't get out of their grasp. The flowers dropped to the ground as he reached out for her one last time. Her tears forming deadly ice to match her cold heart. "P-PLEASE!! DON'T HURT HER!! SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! VANESSA!! NOOOOO!!!"

He weeped and weeped when he was painfully suspended in the air by his wrists. The coldness taking over him as he hiccuped and mumbled to himself and choked on those tears. He didn't know how long he stayed down there actually. TIme flies when you couldn't see what was happening but he was sure he never stopped crying for all that time as he got weaker, and weaker. Just getting colder and colder as the cold seeped into his very core...he was almost gone. Looking back up towards the ceiling and through his tears he wondered what was going on up there. He couldn't hear anything but he hoped Poppy was alright. He'd never forgive himself if Vanessa did anything rash. He hiccuped. His beloved queen. This was all his fault.

"I-Im sorry. IM SORRY! IM SORRY!! IM SO SORRY!!" He yelled to the empty air knowing full well no one could hear him. But Vanessa was not the one he was apologizing to. The maiden of feiry red hair and ocean blue eyes. "I-Im s-so sorry, Poppy. *hic*"

The cold crept further and his body felt light, somehow his shadow was extending, his life force fading into it as those handsome brown eyes closed to the darkness and numbing-

"I-...love-..."

The shadows and darkness consumed him. The shadow enlarging and morphing and contorted into a being of power and enhanced abilities. A gasp escaped the creature as it looked down at itself. At the same time moonlight shown through the window and what was left of the prince and his willpower faded away into the moonlight, so when the creature looked behind it, the prince was gone from the chained wall. The prince with his heart split into two by his heart splitting between two and found attachment in two very powerful elements of dark and light. Moonshine and shadows. The creature looked down at his new self....feeling his grin widen and a powerful laugh that many would come to fear vibrating around the basement of his new found freedom.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!''

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"GAH!!"

Something wacked his head and he immediately jumped to the air. If he still had lungs he would probably be panting and looking around wildly around the room he was in. No cold walls caging him in. No coldness seeping into him. No Vanessa or chains or....Poppy. Instead a small pale little girl was staring up at him with concern as she watched his confused face darting around the area....He was on her ship. Her strange cute ship of the small seven year old in front of him. He had been laying on the pile of pillows she had and looking around the area as if he was afraid for a moment. Before he sighed in releif and reached up a clawed hand to rub at his head and hair. Staring down at the little girl standing upon the pile of pillows, holding one dangling in her hand, which he guessed must've been the thing that wacked. He sighed again and slowly lowered himself down look at her better.

"Kid. It's already pass your bedtime probably. What are you doing up?"

Her head tilted and those blue eyes blinked at him before a tiny hand reached out and poked his face where a nose should obviously be if he was human and he rose a brow. "Boop!"

"....Did you really just wack me with a pillow for THAT? Kiddo, you should really find better reasons to wake me up." Two clawed hands gently reached down and picked her up from under the arms. She dropped the pillow from her hold and instinctively wrapped her arms around him as he floated her back down to her bed, the covers were already pulled back from her getting up and her friend snored away happily on the floor next to her bed....He made a mental note to get her a bed sometime. Bow couldn't be expected to keep laying like that on the hard floor, he gently placed the young child on the bed and went to pull the covers back over her-

"You were mumbling something funny." She said making him stop and blink at her.

"Oh yeah?" She nodded. Dang nightmares. He barely had any, but he still got the occasional blast from the past. Wasn't being a cursed prince fun? He pulled the blankets up and she snuggled down with her stuffed toys he hand crafted for her. "And uh..What exactly did you hear me say?"

She shrugged again as she was recovered and he started tucking her in. "Your head was in the pillows." He went to roll his eyes when something grabbed onto his hand. And he looked at her wide excited smile spread across her face. "Can you tell me a story?"

"Squirt, I already read you the one you wanted with the space unicorns," he grumbled remembering the ridiculous book the girl begged him to read to her.

"Yeah. But I always sleep better with a story, and if I don't sleep I'll get up and bother you again." She gave him that cat lipped smug face and he groaned lifting a hand to rub his face and look down at the child in the bed. Before sighing and giving in. She was right. He'd done this too many times to not expect a sudden pillow attack from the hyper story deprived child.

"Fine." He turned back to the bookshelf by her bed and looked over the many childish covers. "Which one do you want now? Space Adentures? Starella? Planets and Star Maps?"

"Your story!"

He paused, and snapped his head to her wide eyed. "What?"

She giggled and turned to her side yawning a bit before speaking. "I want you to tell me one of your stories."

..."My stories eh?" She nodded and he hummed. That..wasn't a very good idea. All the books he read were either lawyer/law books (what better way to help make his contracts better) and scary or mysteries books that were uh...N-Not suitable for children her age lets say. Plus he didn't have any on him at the moment so he guessed he could just make one up? How hard could making up a story for a kid be. She'll fall asleep if he just told her a story about a talking flower making friends with a bumble bee. His hand reached up to rub at his head again before looking at her now clutching the C.A.W agent plus he made her after telling him her adventures in the movie studio. ..."Ok, Ok! I'll tell you one I witnessed a long time ago....In a book. But you gotta promise to go to sleep." She hummed 'Mmm-hmm' and smiled patiently at the ghost who groaned and rolled his eyes again. Why was he doing this?...Well he just had a nightmare about his death-again- and talking about it even twisting the details sounded nice. Not that he'd ever admit it to the little girl. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful flower Princess named Poppy, and a-"

"Pop? Why is she named after a soda?", the kid interrupted blinking confused and he scowled.

"Not 'soda pop'. Poppy. Poppy is a kind of flower on this planet, Kid. Now don't be a rude little lady and let me finish the story unless you want to be grounded from them." She shut up and curled back down into the covers to his satisfaction. "Good. Now like I was saying! There was a flower princess POPPY not soda pop, an evil which named....'Veronica', and a stupid, stupid king." She raised her hand like in a classroom. "....*sigh* Yes?"

"Why was he a stupid, stupid king?"

"You'll see. Now" He grabbed her lamp and pulled the shade off, letting more light flood everywhere and she blinked at the sudden brightness, which a snap of his powers shadows slithered up the wall and formed the outlines of three people. Two women with their dresses and one wearing a witch hat, and a man wearing a crown. They moved as he talked and she watched amazed. "You see. WAY, WAY back before your great granny was even born there was these three. Like I said the Flower Princess was very beautiful. Her hair was a rose red and her skin was as soft a-as their petals. She had the most wonderful patience listeningto her friend The Stupid King, and his p-problems...."His face saddened for a moment as the king and princess shadows held hands platonically...."B-But..she didn't know the king was in love with her. You see...He was too cowardly to tell her or anyone else because he was betrothed to the Evil witch Veronica-" ANother raised hand. "...Yes?"

"What does 'betoofed' mean?"

"Betrothed, Kid. Not betoofed. You know contracts right? How you legally have to follow them because you promised to?" She nodded. "Well basically means the Stupid King promised to marry the witch a long time ago."

..She cocked her head. "But he doesn't love her. That's not like Starella and the Milky Way Prince. They fell in love before they got married."

He chuckled. Even a seven year old could clearly see the stupid logic in arranged marriages and she didn't even comprehend them yet. And his situation, but he shrugged before making the king turn around and ....ECK!! Kiss the hand of the witch who looked like she was giggling. "Well, you're wrong. He DID love her. A long, long time ago before she became evil."

"Why didn't he break with her like in the movies?"

He shrugged. "Promises are sometimes h-hard to break for some people. And he still cared about her in some way, the witch was really, really pretty too, and I guess he just couldn't see past her beauty and wanted to try and make things right."

"That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship." She held up a hand in knowing. "Conductor always says*ahem*!!" She tried to do a bad impression of the old bird and he smiled. "Lassie! If ye ever get yerself whatever the aliens call a wife, at thee first sign of trrrrrouble ask 'er if she loves the money ya makes with mah' movies. If she says yas, she's a no good golddigger and leave before she takes ye kids and house and most of ye money too!!"

He laughed a couple times and Bow stirred in her sleeping bag. Not waking up but almost as he stared at the proud Hat child. "Well that's good advice kid. But she wasn't a golddigger-"....His face slowly contorted to a scowl and looked down. "She was in love with a fairytale. She loved the Stupid King for being like a King from a story. She never loved him for who he really was as long as her fairytale wasn't tampered with. She was clingy, selfish, nothing was never good enough unless it was expensive, and she demanded all his attention all the time. ....Until one fateful day-" He waved his three fingered hand at the shadows and it contorted until it showed the witch with slated eye holes and the king and princess holding hands....platonically of course. "The witch saw the King And Flower Princess holding hands...AS JUST FRIENDS." He stressed. "Nothing romantic. Just two friends holding hands for a little bit. And she got really, really jealous. In fact she got so jealous-" The shadows contorted to the king looking sad behind a cage. "-she blamed him for breaking her heart and locked him away forever. And then she-" The shadows again contorted to show the witch still angry and this time over a cauldron. "-cursed the Stupid King's and Princess's kingdoms. All the plants died, all the animals ran away, and everyone...." he couldn't say they froze to death! "..T-They moved on from there. But karma struck her good and-" She raised her hand again. "...What now?"

"What's 'karma'??"

"It means he got revenge. Justice? Whichever one you wanna call it." The shadows formed to show the king opening the door to the cage and running. "The Stupid King managed to escape and get free, but the Witch's spell backfired. She cursed herself too and was trapped forever in her home, the black magic keeping her inside the cave she dug, but it was too late. The Princess was gone and he never saw her again. The shadows formed one more image of the King holding a flower with his head down in shame."

"WHAT?!" Bow stirred again and Snatcher shushed her. "He never saw her again?" She asked more quietly. "But that's not fair! He loved her so much!"

He shrugged sadly and put the lamp shade back on, making the shadows disappear and he sighed, "It's not all bad. He's free and he got to go rule again without worrying without pleasing anyone else. Not all stories have a happy ending kid, even if it's half decent like this." He stared down to the floor with a frown...before reaching over and ruffling her hair which she giggled at. "It's also a very important lesson. Don't let yourself be blinded in bad situations and don't let someone use you like that. Ok?"

"I'm never gonna fall in love! Yuck!!" She stuck her tongue out and he smiled.

"Good, good. You don't need to fall in love when ...well you're stuck as a kid for all eternity with me now don't you?"

"NOPE!! I don't like that mushy stuff anyways!"

He smiled wider. "Good. Good. Now go to sleep. I need all the energy you can get to fix the well tomorrow."

She giggled again but yawned and slowly closed her eyes and snuggled back into the blackets. As he smiled he looked back to the giant windows, as he looked to the darkned and frozen abyss of the planet they were above a frown slowly returned to the ghostly prince's face as he slowly floated over to the window. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and he sighed once again.

"Sorry, Princess. I had to be the stupid king to do that."

"Snatcher...I can't sleep. Can I have a glass of water?" The Kid's voice piped up again and he chuckled.

"Sure, kid."

#Snatcher #a hat in time snatcher #A Hat In Time #a bloom in time #hat kid #vanessa #florist #The Florist #snatcher x florist #flowercrown

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all-the-love-harold · 5 years ago

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Chapter 2 - I’m Having your Baby

Master Post

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: None

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December 21st 2019

Poppy was late. 3 days late. Or maybe it was 4. She couldn’t quite remember, but she knew that she was late. She also knew that she was stressed with Christmas coming up, and that when she got stressed her period tended to stay away for a while, so she wasn’t getting her hopes up. Nonetheless, when she was out getting herself and Harry a coffee she ducked into the pharmacy nearby and bought a few home pregnancy tests, just to be sure. She was in no rush to take them though and if she was honest, she didn’t really have a spare second to think about it once she got home. Between making sure Oli got his lunch and preparing things for his 2nd birthday party which they were crazy enough to be having just three days before Christmas. Oh and did she mention that her and Harry were hosting Christmas lunch this year for his family AND hers.

The pregnancy test crossed her mind again when she was giving Oli his bath that night and Oli picked up his doll that they kept as a bath toy.

“Bubba” he said, dunking it’s head in the water “wash hair bubba”

Poppy couldn’t help but giggle “You’re gonna a great big brother buddy.”

She was glad that he was too young to really understand what that meant, if he was any older she’d be getting a thousand questions about a baby she doesn’t even know that she had yet.

“Pop, I’m going to pick up your family from the airport now” Harry called from downstairs “Need anything while I’m out?”

“No, we’re all good H, good luck” Poppy called back “Love you”

“Love you too” he said and she heard the door shut behind him.

“Alright Ol, let’s hop out now, get you dressed”

“Love you Mum” he smiled up at her as she helped him to stand up and wrapped his tiny toddler towel around him. Her heart melted and she placed a gentle kiss on his head.

“I love you too Oli.”

She helped him to get dressed into his pyjamas, encouraged him to use the toilet (he wasn’t quite ready to be out of nappies yet, but he was getting close) and brushed his hair so that he was all ready for bed. Since dropping his afternoon nap, it had been much easier to get him to sleep at night, which Harry and Poppy were both pleased about.

“Right” Poppy said to Oli once he was all tucked up in bed “Have you got Itchy?”

He nodded holding on tightly to his toy.

“And Pippy?” she asked and he pulled his dummy out of his mouth, showed it to her and put it back

“And a big kiss from mummy” she kissed his forehead and pulled the side of the cot up so that he couldn’t perform some kind of gymnastics and escape from his bed in the middle of the night.

“Sleep tight my big boy”

“Night night Mum” he said as Poppy closed the door to his bedroom.

She went straight to the bathroom and pulled out the pregnancy test, feeling more broody than ever knowing that her first baby turns two tomorrow. She remembered what it had been like taking the test when she thought she was having Oli, she was scared then because she wasn’t sure that she was ready to be a mum and now she was scared because she wasn’t sure she could face not becoming a mum again. Her heart pounded as she waited for the results to show. 3 minutes had never felt so long.

“Poppy, dear - we’re here” she heard the sound of her mother’s voice walking in the front door.

“Shit” she whispered to herself as she left the bathroom, making sure to close the door behind her. She made a mental note to come back to it as soon as she could but she couldn’t leave her family waiting, not after they’d been on a twenty four hour flight.

“Hi Mum, Hi Dad” she said, half running down the stairs to give them a hug “Good flight?”

“Awful” her dad, John, shook his head “Can’t smoke on planes these days, did you know that?” he began pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket

“Can’t smoke in my house either Dad” Poppy said sternly “Follow the stairs all the way up and you’ll find a garden and be quiet, Oli’s just gone to bed”

“It’s freezing out there Pop” he huffed but started climbing the stairs anyway.

“Don’t I get a hello?” Her sister Addison said from next to Harry.

“Of course you do” Poppy side stepped her mum and wrapped her sister in the biggest hug of them all “God you’re getting so adult, can you stop please?”

“I’m as old as you were when you moved here” Addie added “And I still live with mum dad”

“It’s much cheaper that way” Poppy smiled

“Yeah, you spent so much money in that first year didn’t you love” Harry said sarcastically

“Enough outta you” Poppy squeezed his cheek making him giggle.

“Can I get anyone tea or coffee or anything?” Harry asked trying to get them all out of the entryway

“I’d love to see my grandson” Linda said, turning towards the stairs

“I’ve just put him to bed Mum, you’ll see him in the morning, he’ll be up bright and early”

“Right, well in that case, I’d love a glass of wine” she smiled at Harry.

“Of course” Harry nodded tentatively, not entirely sure he had any wine to give her “Addie, wine? Tea?”

Addie shook her head “No thanks Harry”

“Vodka?” he asked

“I’m fine” she giggled, although a shot or two of vodka was temping after being on a plane with her parents for 24 hours.

“I’ll show you both around while Harry does that” Poppy added and started going upstairs. Linda and Addie followed, with their bags still in their hands.

“Leave those” Poppy said “Your rooms are downstairs anyway”

They dropped the bags and followed Poppy. A grimace already evident on Linda’s face

“So this is mine and Harry’s room” she said when they got upstairs pointing to their bedroom door “It’s a mess so we won’t go in there”

“Never have been able to keep your room clean have you Poppy” Linda added, peering in anyway

“It’s so nice to have you here Mum” Poppy said, unable to hold her tongue. “And that room there is Oli’s so let’s be a little quiet”

“Is he a good sleeper” Addie asked. She knew a lot about babies, she worked in a nursery back home, very similar to the one Oli goes to.

“He’s been much better since we stopped the day sleep”

“His teachers must hate that” she laughed

“They don’t seem to mind” Poppy shrugged and continued the tour down the hallway towards the next staircase

“This is where Harry’s mum sleeps when she stays, so we’re keeping that for her and you guys will all be downstairs

“How many bedrooms is this place?” Linda asked, looking up the staircase

“6 or 7” Poppy said “That’s Harry’s office up there and there’s a studio downstairs, but he never uses it”

“I accidentally told him I loved the album like 6 times on the way here” Addie giggled “he probably thinks I’m weirdly into him”

“He wouldn’t think that much of it Addie” Poppy smiled “Shall we go downstairs?”

“Shouldn’t we go up?” Linda asked

“We can” Poppy nodded “There’s not much to see up there though, it’s just a desk and the garden which I’ll show you in the morning”

“Oh alright” Linda sighed and turned around on her heel with a huff in her breath . Poppy was starting to remember exactly why she’s decided to move to the other side of the world at just 18. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, she just found her selfishness intolerable.

“Not giving a tour without me are you Pop?” John bellowed as he walked down the stairs, lips blue from the cold.

“There’s not much to see dear, just a few oversized bedrooms” Linda drew her lips into a sharp line “That haven’t been cleaned. You know with Harry’s salary you could afford a cleaner”

Poppy and Addie shared a knowing look and Addie turned away from her parents and walked down the hallway towards the stairs.

“I’m going to find that vodka Harry mentioned” she called, waving her hand for them to follow. And they did, without saying a word. Poppy had always admired how easily Addie could read people and turn a situation around in seconds without offending anyone and she smiled to herself because that hadn’t changed.

In the Kitchen, Harry had two glasses of red wine sitting on the bench waiting for them and he had his head stuck in the fridge searching for something that seemed to be buried in the depths.

“What are you looking for H?” Poppy said as she made herself comfortable on one of the bar stools.

“All that cheese we bought the other day,” he said, head still in the fridge “and the dip”

“That’s in the butler’s fridge” she said quietly, suddenly realising that somehow she was living a life very different from the she left behind.

“You have a butler?” Addie said, shocked “and he has his own fridge?”

“No” Poppy laughed “there’s a mini kitchen in that little room over there” she pointed to the door that harry was opening “they call it a butler’s pantry, so we call the fridge the butlers fridge”

“Oh Harry you’ll have to get me something else, I don’t drink red wine” Linda said before Addie had the chance to respond to Poppy.

Harry, who was safley hidden away in the butlers pantry rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. If this was how he felt after an hour with Poppy’s family, how was he going to spend a whole two weeks with them. He did, however, take comfort in knowing that Poppy was feeling the same way.

“I want to tip the wine over her head” Poppy whispered walking into the pantry with the glass in her hand. Harry took the glass, put it on the bench next to him and wrapped his arms around Poppy.

“We could probably survive off the food in here for the next two weeks if you want to lock the door?” he whispered back

“Believe me, if I could I would” Poppy said with her head still pressed against his chest. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and pulled away from the hug.

“Guess I’ll go pull some white wine out of my ass then” he said, only half joking.

“There’s some in the bar fridge in your man cave, I think sarah left it here” she called after him as he walked out again.

The rest of the evening passed by slowly, Addie, John and Linda filled Poppy and Harry in on what was going on back in Australia, it was nothing to really write home about, just the usual kinds of things that happen in a tiny coastal town, known for being home to quite a few Great White Sharks, that somehow never made an appearance on the beaches. Poppy was not at all surprised by her Mother’s lack of interest in anything about her life in London, if it wasn’t for Addie, all they would have talked about would be when Poppy was going to move back home again. She always thought that would happen when she had children, she wanted them to have the childhood that she did, but now that she’s here in London with Oli she couldn’t imagine anything else for him, because their life was here, with Harry. Linda thought that was ludicrous though and with every opportunity, she found a reason to tell Poppy that a child shouldn’t grow up in a city, especially a city without a beach. But, just like she had upstairs, Addie managed to turn the conversation around every time without offending anyone, until she mentioned the possibility of moving to London too.

“There’s plenty of spare rooms here Addie” Harry said to her before linda could shut her down “We’d love to have you”

“I might just not leave” she laughed and stood up from the table “I am going to go to bed though”

“I’ll show you to your room” Poppy stood up too and chauffeured her out of the room towards the living room, which lead onto the bedrooms.

“You’re in this one Addie, and Mum and Dad are next door”

“Thanks Pop” she smiled “I’m not joking about moving to London, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now”

Poppy hugged her “Like Harry said, you’re always welcome here, this room can be all yours”

“Was this your room when you first arrived?”

Poppy shook her head “No I was always upstairs, in Oli’s room”

“Right next door to Harry” Addie giggled “makes sense”

“Good night Addie” Poppy said, putting an end to that conversation before it even started.

Poppy didn’t go back into the kitchen, she slipped straight into her bedroom and into bed. Who knew working full time and being a mother would be so exhausting. Her heavy eyes fell closed and she only stirred when Harry came into the room an hour later and wrapped his arms around her.

December 22nd 2019

Poppy rolled over in her bed, exposing her upper arm to the cold morning air and saw that Harry was still fast asleep next to her. She reached for her phone to check the time, wondering why she’d not yet been woken by Oli’s cries to be taken out of the crib.

7:03. He was usually awake by now, but she shrugged it off, because he did go to sleep late last night and rolled back over to face Harry, placing a kiss on the tip of his nose to wake him. He blinked a few times and scrunched up his face as she giggled

“Morning love” he smiled, finally opening his eyes and wrapping his arms around her “Oli not up yet?”

“Nope” she emphasized the end of the word, burying her head in his chest “either that or my mother got up to him”

Harry scoffed “Seems unlikely, your sister, maybe”

“That sounds more possible”

He let a content sigh “This time two years ago, we were sitting in that hospital room, waiting for him to arrive”

Poppy sat up “Harry, today’s his second birthday”

He furrowed his brow at her “Yeah” he said, sounding confused “I was just sayin’ that”

“And we haven’t heard a thing from Danny”

The realisation dawned on him and a huge smile spread across his face “We haven’t heard anything from Danny- shit Pop I can adopt him”

“You can adopt him H” she smiled kissing his puffy morning lips “You’ll have to give the lawyers a call tomorrow, but it should be a pretty simple process, they should still have all the paperwork we filled out before the hearing, we’ll just have to sign it”

“Easy” he kissed her again “He could be mine by Christmas”

“I doubt it, red tape takes time and there’s only three days to go” she heard the faint sounds of Oli stirring next door “I’ll go” she smiled, throwing the blankets off and shivering at the cold December air. She wrapped her big fluffy dressing gown around her and walked out of the room to go and get Oli out of bed, leaving Harry there, smile spread across his face.

“Happy Birthday big boy” she said walking into his room

“Mumma” he smiled at her throwing his dummy out of the cot “Pippy” he tried to reach for the dummy that was now on the floor.

“Pippy’s on the ground bub”she leaned down and picked it up “mummy get it for you”

“Ta” he took it from her and stuck it back in his mouth.

Poppy reached into the cot and unzipped his sleeping bag as she picked him up “Where’s itchy?” she said. Oli had become quite attached to it when they took him on tour with Harry last year and after seeing Mitch playing the guitar at one of the shows he’d started calling it ‘itchy’ unable to say the ‘m’ sound in his name, and he couldn’t go anywhere without it.

“Itchy’s gone mum” he frowned shrugging his shoulders and looked around the room.

“He can’t be gone bub” Poppy giggled searching behind the cot and spotted him on the floor behind it “there he is! He’s hiding from you Oli” she put him down and moved the cot out from the wall, so she could lean down and pick the toy up. “Silly itchy” she said handing it to him.

“itchy silly mummy” he giggled giving the toy a big cuddle

“Shall we go see Daddy?” she ruffled his hair

“Yeah” he said, nodding his head

“Come on then” she walked out of the room and he followed her.

“DADDY!” he burst into their bedroom and climbed into the bed next to harry.

“There’s my big two-year-old!” Harry said, and Oli snuggled into his side “Happy birthday little man” he kissed the top of his head. Poppy stood in the doorway watching their interaction, heart filled with more love than she’d ever thought possible.

Oli handed Harry itchy “Daddy, itchy hiding”

Harry furrowed his brow “Was itchy hiding from you bub?” he chuckled, turning to look at Poppy “what’s mummy doing all the way over there?” he asked, “There’s room for one more in here”

“Why don’t we all go downstairs for some breakfast, Mummy’s hungry”

“Breakfast!” Oli nodded and jumped down from the bed, toddling out of the room and downstairs. She followed him closely behind, making sure he didn’t slip and helped him into his high chair.

“What would you like today birthday boy?”

“Toast” he said enthusiastically, which made Poppy and Harry both giggle

“Daddy can make you pancakes if you want little man?” Harry offered, searching the pantry for all the ingredients

“No, toast” he nodded

“Fine” Harry huffed pulling the jar of strawberry jam from the shelf in front of him “Jam toast it is”

“No Daddy, Mite toast”

Poppy giggled to herself, handing Harry the Jar of vegemite “the kid knows what he wants”

“You’re a bad influence on him,” he said, putting a piece of bread in the toaster, shaking his head at her

“I’ll do this” Poppy said, taking the butter knife off him “you go get the presents”

He placed a kiss on her cheek and walked off, upstairs to get Oli’s birthday presents. Once the toast was ready she spread the vegemite lightly across its surface and cut it into four triangles, placing it onto a Winnie the Pooh plate that Grimmers had given them when he first started eating solids.

“Vegemite toast for the Birthday boy” Poppy smiled, pinching his cheeks as she laid the plate in front of him.

“Thanks Mumma” he smiled.

“Good Morning” Linda yawned, walking into the kitchen in a very light cotton dressing gown “It’s freezing here”

“It’s London” Poppy admitted “I’ve turned the heating on”

“Good” Linda smiled “Now where’s my grandson”

“He’s eating his birthday breakfast” Poppy said excitedly while pointing to the high chair “Oli, say hi to nanna”

She wasn’t quite sure how he would react to linda, he’d really only met her through facetime and part of her was convinced that he thought she was just the lady that existed in the phone. He turned in his high chair and looked at Linda. He was puzzled at first but his expression soon changed and a big toothy smile grew on his face.

“Nanna” he said, taking a bite of his toast.

“Hi Big Boy” Linda smiled back, placing a big sloppy kiss on his cheek “Happy Birthday”

“Do you want anything Mum? Tea, Coffee, Breakfast?”

“I wouldn’t mind a tea and some eggs” she said and sat down next to Oli. “Is that vegemite you’ve got there?” she said to him

“Mite” he smiled and held the toast up to her

“You’re a real little Aussie then, just have to get your mum to bring you home”

Poppy filled a pot with water and put it on the stove so that she could poach some eggs for everyone when they eventually woke up and she heard her phone ringing on the bench behind her. Seeing Harry’s name on the screen, she answered it, confused.

“Did you forget where we hid the presents?” she giggled into the phone as Oli sat in his high chair giggling away at Linda as she pulled faces at him.

“No” he said flatly “Can you come here for a sec, need your help with the big one”

“I think it’s time you started those personal training sessions again then Styles” Poppy said standing up from her chair “I’ll be right up” she hung up the phone and turned to Linda and Oli

“Oli, Mummy’s just going to help daddy for a few minutes, I’ll be right back” she kissed his head and walked upstairs into her bedroom where she found Harry standing in the bathroom doorway holding what like a pregnancy test.

“What’s this love?” he asked, handing it to her

“Shit” she said, not looking at it “I took this last night and left it to do it’s thing when you got home from the airport and I kinda forgot about it with all the chaos”

“It’s positive love”

Poppy turned it over in her hand and saw the same two blue lines that she’d seen almost three years ago when she found out she was having Oli, and a few tears formed in her eyes as she looked up at Harry “It’s positive H”

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her in close to his chest, “We’re having a baby Poppy.”

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helloitsme103 · 4 years ago

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In This House

Part 1?

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” I mumble under my breath. It’s been years since someone has entered his house. Longer since they were pretty like this one was. “Who are you?” He barked from the love seat. He was bleeding pretty badly. The remains of his shirt were pathetic for him but entertaining for me. I swear to god, or whichever one made this man, they were gracious to this guy for sculpting him into a model of a being. “Oh calm down hun. You ain’t gonna die on me. Not today. No sir.” I call from the retro kitchen I call my lab. It was cute for what it was. Black and white tiles for floor and complentary back splash with accents in the form of of yellow painted cabinets and silver appliences that were seemingly updated every few years. Or.. what counts as years in a place like this. From the doorway I hear a very much irritated and painful groan. “Okay-Okay-! Hold on now!” I call as I turn off the sink. I quickly get the bucket of water from the sink- carefully though since we don’t want that baby to spill- and a med kit from my side cabinet. “On my way hunny!” I scurry into the more modern living room. The floors a dark brown and the furniture being a contrasting white. Light, sky blue walls make a more cheerful welcome than that of the hot mess of the man bleeding out on my favorite love seat. “I swear, you need to take a chill pill sometimes y’know that?” I remind him ask I make my way towards him. “W-who?” He asks through his grogginess. “Great. Left you out too long. Hold on.” I pop open my kit and take out a jar of powder I wish I could keep. With a few twists the top of the jar comes off with a satisfying pop. “God this is my favorite part.” I say just loud enough to get his attention. “Wha-” I smirk as I shover this under his nose. Direct hit. He inhales and goes into a coughing fit. Thank god I’ve done this for as long as I have. “Oh calm down hun, it wont kill ya.” I look through my bag, all the while ignoring his curses and comments. “Calm down why don’tcha. Take a seat, have a load off.” I tease while looking up and down at him while I still have a chance. Again, what a looker we have. Blonde hair, nice blood red eyes, wonder who gave him all these slashes. Again, rest in pieces his..? Is this a suite? I reach out for his chest, eyes locking his. “Whatcha doin?” He snarls. “Im going to remove your shirt.Is that alright?” For a moment he glares at me. “Not gonna drug me or some shit?” His shoulders tense a little. “Okay for one, the thing you just smelt was supposed to keep you awake and numb you up. Can have you falling asleep on me right now.” I hear him growl but his muscles loosen up. “As for everything else after this, which I don’t think I’d need to give you, I’ll always ask for your consent first. Got it?” I turn back to my kit and pull out another jar. When I turn back to him, his gaze is else were. “Hello?” He makes a noise resembling “Fine and “Hurrmph.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay then mr. I don’t give a damn.” I place the jar down on the floor. swiftly, I poke on of his wounds. “OW! The HELL!?” I smirk and bat my eyes. “Oh I’m so sorry-! How reckless of me!”

“Is this how you take care of people witch?!” He howls. Oh we’re playing this game huh? I go though my case and pull out a letter opener. “Is this how you talk to people asshole!?” I yell. His eyes go wide and his hands begin to pop from the arms of the chair. That’s a new one.. His hands go for my head. That’s not a new one. “The hell are you-?” I don’t hesitate to tear open his shirt and throw the opener into the wall behind me. I get the jar I had and pop it open. “’Not gonna kill ya here. I don’t think anyone can truly die here. But damn do wounds hurt.” I recount dryly. “And don’t test that theory. I’m living proof of it.” I chuckle. I see him shuffle in the now copper chair as I get the the salve on my fingers. “Stay still. I know it feels weird but calm down.” He flinches when I get close to him but I keep my eyes on my work. Eventually I cover all of his wounds with the salve, him hissing and biting his lip. “Y’know its okay to scream. Most of the most masculine of people i’ve seen have screamed when encountering this.” He only glares at me and bites his lip harder. Shrugging, I let him keep this up. “Okay then. You aren’t really proving anything but fine.” I reach for a towel nearby and dunk it into my bucket. “You are very stubborn.” A glance makes its way towards me. I laugh at his attempt to be scary. “You must hear that a lot.” After a few minutes of staring at his struggling, I wring out the towel. “Now this is gonna sting. No judgement if you pass out or scream. This isn’t a challenge. It’s a fact.” He turns his head away from me and closes his eyes. Can we get an F in chat for what this man is gonna go through?

“Trust me when i say this is gonna hurt me much more than this is gonna hurt you.” I mumble and press the thing on his chest. A scream unlike any other fills the house. Someone call Guko ‘cus this man takes the cake when it comes to screams. I stand my ground though, and make sure to wash out any wounds that I rubbed salve in. Don’t worry about him. The screaming stopped after about a minute of this. When I got done with him it was an hour later. In that time he was cleaned up, bandaged, band-aided, and set to bed in the guest room. “This one is a fire cracker.” I mumble before setting on a new record. When the player eventually starts a song I don’t reccogise starts. Its poppy, happy in tone, determined even and it gets faster. The same could be said with a feeling of hope in my chest. While I continue to sweep, more songs like this come on. All similar but unique in their own right. In a way it’s refereshing to what I’m used to. Eventually I get done and check the time. Even though it dosent matter in the long run, time keeps me sane here. The phone ends up ringing soon after. I exhale once again and answer one of the many phones this house has to offer. This one is old. It is a land line. Attached to the wall and always on. Gray in color, brick like too. There isn’t much to say with it that is of interest. Even its own ring is boring. I pick up “Hello?” I ask once again. “My hero Academy.” A monotone, computer like voice says. I sigh “Hold on for a moment.” I put the phone down and rush to the kitchen. On the counter is a worn, old, yellow, note pad and a black pen. Scribbled on it is a list going down.

Batman: The animated series

Harry Potter: Books

The Princess Bride: Movie

Many other titles litter the page. Many that I have come to known and bitterly love. For better or worse.

When I recover from my own memories I wipe away the tears that threaten to fall. “Cmon now. Let’s get back to work.” I remind myself and make my way back to the hall, this time with my tools. “Yes? Hello I’m back. What did you say again?” I pick up the pen in one hand and hold the phone in my other. “My Hero Academia: anime.” I cock a brow at that. “Onime?” I question. “My Hero Academia: ANIME.” I shake my head at the slower but louder voice. “Yesyesyes, I get it! Calm down.” I roll my eyes and sigh as I write it down. “Can you tell me who you are now?” I try. The line dies on me. What else was I expecting? “Wonderful.” I growled. Thoughtlessly, I slam the phone into its holder. For a moment I question. Random things mostly but I ground myself eventually. I always do somehow. “This is bull crap.” I mumble. My week walk me to the wall. I place my head on it and hide in my hair for a good minute. “Cmon. You can do this. We’ve gotten this far.” One inhale. One exhale. And my feet take me to the living room. The loveseat is gone, but there is always the couch I guess. I jump over the rest and sit on the cushioned seat. As always the remote is by my side. Always the left, never the right. There isn’t a lot of buttons on the remote. No numbers but there is a switch for channels and volume but the channel button dosent work. No information or exiting. There is an on and off though. Along with a pause and play there was fast forward and what have you. I don’t really use those that often though. What I do used however, this the microphone. “Please play My Hero Acedemia?” I say into the head of the mic. from the ceiling, a projector slowly rolls down, covering almost all of the wall. before showing the title of the show. My hero acAdemia. Okay, whatever.” The intro started. “What things are you going to make me feel My Hero?”

#my hero academia #fanfic #story

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ivadeshin · 6 years ago

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Poppy Seeds (final chapter)

(1 and 2 are here. 3 and 3.5 are here. spoilers for 1/24′s episode, s2ep49)

"It's got crunch," Nott reports around a mouthful of cauliflower. Everyone else is using forks to stab or scoot the florets, but Nott just leans forward and grabs another one in her hand. "S'good! C'l'b, you fough' har', you sh' ea'."

Fjord laughs. "Yeah, what she said," he agrees teasingly.

Nott narrows her eyes at the half-orc but says nothing.

"It looks great," Caleb says a little too loudly, moving his chipped dinner plate to the bowl and using his fork to ease two florets over. The first bite is good, easy on what is still a very anxious digestive system, and after a few more chews he decides to try dunking it in the beef stew. Even better. He makes a meaningful face at Nott, encouraging her to try, and everyone at the table checks to make sure Caduceus is still in the kitchen before trying as well.

"It's also good as it is," Yasha adds. Everyone nods dutifully.

"Berm! Swales!" the cook in the corner shouts. Two famers look over from the table. "This is yours, right?" He's holding up a piece of cauliflower.

"Aye," either Berm or Swales agrees.

"I don't know what that cow man did to your broccoli, but it tastes damn fine, huh?"

Either Berm or Swales exchanges a glance with either Swales or Berm, and they seem to mutually decide not to correct him.

"I can smell dessert," Beau says conspiratorially. She's leaning back in her chair with one arm drawn back, peering toward the hall to the kitchen.

"I don't smell anything," Fjord says.

"Your nostrils probably got damaged from all the seawater," Nott suggests helpfully.

Caleb laughs. "Paint us a picture, Beau."

"Cakey something. Muffins? Definitely not chocolate." Beau breathes in deeply.

"S'good." When Yasha leans back in her chair as well trying to get a bit closer and get the scent, Beau's cheeks darken a touch and she goes still. Caleb wonders if something will ever come of that.

"It's nice," Yasha agrees, then lifts her eyebrows. "Okay, now it's... garlic."

"Garlic dessert," Caleb says, unable to hide his suspicion.

"No, no, they must've just opened an oven." Beau looks to her space at the table, and seems to realize there isn't much space for an oncoming dish. She very quickly starts a trend by picking up her stew bowl and drinking down what's left of it so they can begin stacking the empties. "Fuck that's greasy."

"Kind of a nice counterpoint to the Firbolg Food," Nott says. She's dragging her last cauliflower floret around the edges of her bowl, coating it in brown broth before stuffing it into her mouth.

"GREEN BEANS!" Jester shouts, doing her best serving wench impression as she reemerges with the serving platter. The cook seems far more at home with this dish as it's set in front of him, and the merchant and farmer table both nod gratefully as the tiefling comes by and drops off their portions.

"Thank you," Fjord says pointedly, smiling as Jester comes by with their extra-big bowl. Jester tosses her hair out of her face, making an absentminded grunt of acknowledgement before disappearing quickly back into the kitchen. Caleb watches Fjord's expression fall a little - he strikes Caleb as someone who wants a little more response but doesn't know how to reach out further himself. Caleb can't judge. He's in no position to judge anyone.

"This is the garlic," Beau says approvingly, tilting the bowl in one direction so Nott, Yasha, and Caleb can start getting portions onto their plates. Caleb then tilts the bowl the other way for Beau and Fjord. "Fuck this smells good."

Caleb looks down at his plate and realizes he has covered nearly half of it. He wonders if he can finish all this.

"Berm!" The cook shouts across the room. "Swales!"

"Ours," Berm and Swales confirm in unison.

"Delectable!" The cook hits the table with his fist and the merchant table follows suit in agreement. The Nein laugh and do so as well, if a little less in sync.

"Scooch," Jester says, having suddenly reappeared amidst all the noise. She looks a little put out, and Caleb is pleased to see that Fjord actually jumps out of his chair to scoot it to one side and fit another one in beside it.

"You get kicked out too?" Fjord hazards, settling back into his seat and watching until she's sitting too to begin eating again.

"He's finishing the dessert, I don't know why he's being so secretive all of a sudden." She's pouting a little, but it's extremely mollified by the two bowls tipped her way so she can start tucking in.

"You both went in there with secret plans and secret ingredients," Nott points out mildly. "And kicked the actual employee out of there."

"Kick me out anytime," the cook roars heartily from across the room, around a mouthful of beans. Caleb is no longer unsure about whether this man came in to work drunk today or not.

"Well, anyway." Jester spears a smaller floret and then a bean that she bends in half, making a neat little bite on her fork. She admires it a moment before eating. Beau grins as she takes another pull of ale.

"We will need another seat," Caleb says after they've had a few moments of comfortable silence, and gets up from his emptied (!) plate to pull another chair between himself and Yasha. "Is there enough of the-"

"We made sure," Beau confirms, and tilts the remainders of the vegetarian bowls onto a plate Yasha grabs from another table. Once it's arranged and the empties are again stacked, Fjord sits up straight and lets out a long, extremely pleased burp that causes Beau to laugh ale up her nose.

"That was very good," Yasha says with complete earnestness.

"Perhaps a breath weapon," Caleb adds, causing Jester to laugh.

"It's a new attack I'm workin' on." Fjord puts on a faux-mysterious look. "Except, it doesn't work if everyone else has had this much garlic as well..."

"Immunity," Nott supplies. She's smiling.

"There it is again," Beau mutters. She's leaning back in her chair again, eyes narrowed. "Maybe we're getting a waft every time he checks the oven?"

"Maybe," Yasha agrees. "Hmm... oh, yes. I definitely smell it."

There's a growing silence at the table as they all join in, breathing deeply, but it's not easy with the remaining haze of garlic and spices from their plates and their breaths. It takes Caleb several times, and then it's immediate - a faraway kitchen, an oval blue plate with a faded flower design around the rim, a very small hand using a fork to cut carefully against the clean white dish -

"-don't think he can hear us," Beau says with a worried edge to her voice, and Caleb turns to see what the problem is. Beau's expression relaxes. "Oh, there he is."

"What?" He says, looking around the table. Several of them are looking at him.

"You were gone for a few seconds there," Nott says, leaning forward a bit. "Are you feeling alright? If you want to go upstairs and rest, we could bring you -"

"Nein, no, it is fine." Caleb quirks his mouth, trying to sort out the vision in his mind with the faint warm smell of baking. "I think I might have had this."

Jester's lips are pressed very tightly together, holding back - laughter? No, a smile, some secretive smile that she doesn't want Caleb to see. He's about to ask her about it when a tall, familiar silhouette appears in the doorway, carrying a repurposed basting tin with a loaf of something in the middle.

“Mohnkuchen,” Caduceus says, with care in every syllable. Caleb stares at the warm yellow cake, freckled with tiny seeds. The Nein make a variety of reactions: surprise, excitement, as Caduceus pulls a blunt knife from his apron and begins to cut it into small sections, making a point to put them on everyone’s plate one by one.

“Wie hast - how did you-” Caleb stares from the slices to Caduceus, then turns to Jester, who is giggling delightedly as if she just pulled off the best prank in the world.

“It was a group effort,” Caduceus answers with a slow grin. When he lays a slice onto Jester’s plate, he roots around in his apron pocket again, pulling out a slightly crushed but very pretty flower that he presses into the top. Jester’s cheeks turn lavender. “I hope it looks right. Apparently it’s pretty common for recipes to have a lot of variations, even if they are written down somewhere...”

“This is a Zemnian thing?” Nott says around a mouthful.

“He called it a moon cookie,” Fjord reminds her.

“No, moon coo-coo, like, a crazy moon.” Beau holds her forkful up to the lantern. “This is super fluffy, dude.”

“Thank you.” Caduceus beams. When he slices the last two for himself and Caleb, he straightens up and gestures something to the cook, who hops onto his feet with surprising speed and disappears into the back - presumably there are other cakes for the other tables.

Indeed, Caleb takes the opportunity to focus on something other than himself and waits until the cook reappears, holding two ancient basting pans awkwardly and peering into them as soon as they’re successfully set down on his little table. A merchant has actually gotten out of his chair to come and collect their dish, saying something to the cook, who then carries a dish over to the farmers’ table.

“Not ours,” either Berm or Swales says.

“Must be the grey man’s,” either Swales or Berm adds. “Poppy seeds. Looks lovely.”

“Thank you,” Caduceus says again, but even as he lowers himself down into the slightly too-small chair next to Caleb, he’s still examining the human’s face, his plate, waiting for what must be the true confirmation of authenticity. Caleb straightens and picks up his fork, cleaning it on his napkin before cutting into the little slice with the edge, finding himself smiling at how light Caduceus managed to get it.

“It looks beautiful,” Caleb says earnestly. As the tiniest bit of steam escapes from the center of the fresh bake, he scoops it up with his fork and laughs at the smell. Like his mother’s kitchen, on birthdays and holidays. After the harvest. When he was barely tall enough to reach the high cupboards, needing a stepstool to help her get the ingredients lined up.

Caleb takes a bite - it’s exactly right. He holds it in his mouth a moment, reflecting before chewing, eating the entirety of the slice in continued silence as the others chat and compliment around him. Yasha is saying something about the green beans, now. Nott is describing how the cauliflower sopped up the rest of other foods. One of the farmers has come over and given the enormous gray man a hearty thank-you pat on his shoulder, a few crumbs around his mouth.

Caleb stays in his own little bubble until he’s done. He can feel a familiar warmth in his stomach, the smell of the cake having mingled with everything else in the tavern in a strange harmony.

When he puts his fork down, Caduceus leans down a little, getting to his eye level and lowering his voice.

“Was it, how do you say it in your area... lecker?”

Delicious. “Yes.” Caleb was temporarily transported, but now that he’s coming back to himself, he doesn’t feel quite the level of pressured anxiety he normally does. “Thank you. I do not know why you did that for me.”

“Because it might make you happy,” Jester pipes in. She seems to understand the flicker on his expression, because she adds, “Not, like, forever. Just a little nice thing for a little nice moment, you know?”

He doesn’t. “You are both very thoughtful. I do not know what to say.”

“You looked happy while you ate it,” Caduceus says. His expression is warm and gentle, as always. “You don’t have to say anything.”

“Except maybe what we should make next,” Jester adds. “There’s some kind of forest cake in that book we kept... do you decorate it with bark? What is it?”

Caleb actually laughs. “It’s, um. Just a nice chocolate cake.”

Caleb sleeps through the night that night.

Several weeks later, when they’re walking through a shaded valley, Caleb recognizes the little flower that Caduceus had put on Jester’s dish. He picks a few, pockets them, and resolves to figure out how to give them to her and why he wants to.

#critical fic #caleb widogast #caduceus clay #jester lavorre

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talenlee · 2 years ago

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February Wrapup, 2023!

Smooch month draws to a close, and with it, I understand, the ending of Winter in America. That’s got to be rough, having a smoochy romantic-vibes event when you can’t go outside because the icicles are forming on the walruses, or whatever happens in places that are cold. My whole life, I’ve only ever seen Valentines day as a thing that happens when the sun is raging high and the beautiful botanical gardens are second only to Places with Air Conditioning to go do something special with someone you care about.

Where was I? oh yes, a roundup of articles I wrote this month and reasons you, you, you might want to check them out!

Let’s check out first of all, what I wrote this month about games in the Game Pile:

Love Letter, a small card game with a powerful, flexible engine, Love Letter is a game with a lot to recommend it and a lot of variations. I like it a lot and I like how it has permutations and the way it can present flavour.

The Romance Options of Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Edition, I promised myself a long time ago, I’d follow up on an older article with all the newer characters from the enhanced edition. This is a twenty-ish minute video where I talk smack about characters in a twenty year old D&D game, but I also still feel really invested in it.

We Need To Talk, which I think was an interesting game more than I thought it was engaging. Check it out to learn about a game with an interesting language model.

Eyes On The Prize, a two-to-four player TTRPG about fake marriages in courting mayhem. It’s so good, and

And this month’s posting in the Story Pile:

There She Is!!, an early 00s web-animation that people seemed surprised to learn had multiple parts, or more parts than they knew, and then seemed even more surprised to learn was about uhhhh racism. And funnily enough, because it’s about racism, it gets into some Real Shit even as it’s a set of beautiful animations of poppy, fun, sweet Korean music.

Shikimori’s not Just A Cutie, an anime about nothing featuring nobody, that I nonetheless watched twelve episodes of and want to recommend to anyone who wants create even mildly better fanworks.

My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!, an anime I really liked about a beautifully stupid stupid beauty and her collection of hotties. This one takes a dip in quality later on, but I still think that the article is good at conveying the things about it I liked.

Eat, Play Love, because I think it’s a good tradition that Fox and I should watch a Hallmark movie together every year because if we find ourselves starting to go ‘oh this is actually quite good’ we know we need to see a doctor about mood altering medication.

I also wrote about some Dungeons & Dragons stuff this month. I talked about the way you can use Skill Challenges and flashback mechanisms to make what’s normally a very brief, boring check into a big character moment for the whole group when discussing Group Flirts. I examined the Leadership feat, which turned into ‘I just want a boyfriend‘ a lot of the time. While trying to build out Cobrin’Seil so it’s not just four basic spaces and vibes, I wrote up the Nation of Visente — an art deco magepunk modernist society that keeps trying to buy its way out of the consequences of endless expansion (and is that going to work?).

As for my own relationship to smoochy topics, I did some writing about what it’s like to learn to date in a fundamentalist church, and the ways that messes everything up for everyone. I talk about how shipping can be a great way to explain to people the kind of person you are, what you value, and why you value it. There was room to drag other media for how it handled romance, though, with an article on Homestuck’s unnecessarily complicated explanatory terminology and a full article dunking on Keitaro Urashima, the embarrassing successor to Tenchi.

I looked at a couple of different game design ideas, too! First, I examined a concept of taking an idea for a visual novel, then seeing how I’d need to change the game design to accommodate a variety of mechanical needs. Then, later on, I considered how two different games happen to have names that can inform a smoochy game, when I looked at The Mind & The Heart, and how those two concepts might work for a particular kind of game fiction.

This month’s shirt design is fun because of the other things I can do with the basic template. Other shapes, other silhouettes, other fonts, a lot of different ways to use this basic genre, ideally with things I understand better, going forward. If you want this shirt design, you can get it in multicolour, white text, and red text versions.

I wasn’t nearly as pressurised as I was during January but I’d be lying if I said February wasn’t a rough one. While I wasn’t dealing with a lot, people around me were often grappling with serious problems, and that meant that I spent a lot of time doing scaffolding work. I’m not in a position to do everything everyone needs, unfortunately. It’s a rough one, holding on with both hands as best I can to everyone. It’s been a month of some challenging days, and a few problems that just keep on coming back into my life.

I haven’t bought anything? I know that may sound odd, but when it comes to things like new games or toys or anything like that I haven’t bought anything new. I’ve been trying to make sure I eat healthier if I can, which means that I’ve been eating a lot more beans from a tin and veggies given a bit of swift heating.

I at the start of the year wrote down ‘get more early nights.’ That’s a bold proclamation to have in the summer, the time of year when I sleep the worst.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary

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c-bulletaftermidnight · 7 years ago

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Ok I said I wouldn’t ask but your TFA answer was so awesome I’m curious - things you liked/disliked about TLJ?

Oh boy, oh boy

Liked:

_ Uuuh. Kylo becoming Supreme Leader and cementing himself as the true villain I guess since it’s interesting to work on it’s gonna the political & military landscape of the FO??

_ Kylo being shown off again as a good tactician when fucking up the Raddus.

_I’m glad Phasma’s gone.

-Finn & Rey hugging at the end of the movie that’s it.

That’s it.

Dislikes:

_ The worldbuilding has been fucked up just to respond to Rian’s whims when he have barely any explications about the context.

_ Fucking bad designs everywhere.

_Boring cinematography except a few times.

_ The fucking zooms-in and Kylo looking like he’s stuck in a washing machines when he barrels rolls around the TIE Silencer.

_ The FO is suddendly overpowered with money and personnal. The loss of SKB has like no impact on the organization. This episode should have explored to their backstory but Rian simply didn’t care.

_ Everybody in this movie shut off their brains.

_ Hux went from “officer didn’t had not much battle experience” to a total joke. His traumas due to his upbringing are ignored and his sufferings are reduced into supposed moments of comedy .And it’s not like Rian didn’t knows his past, he even gave him a first name. Hell he didn’ even bother explain Hux’s past to Domhnall and he discovered that his character had a first name when an interviewer asked him about it (Domnhall seemed pretty angry about it since he invest himself a lot in reserches and stuff for the characters he plays.) Knowing how Domhnall had to improvise the blaster scene, i’m sure he would have objected even more of Rian’s decisions. His purpose half of the movie is to do Huxposition on the bridge, being totally incompetent and thrown around. It’s gonna be hard for JJ to repair this and have the audience take him seriously as a villain.

_ Poe, well, I never cared much about his character. I even tried to read the comics but I felt barely nothing about him. But I was hoping TLJ would help but instead they managed to makes me hate his character. The Poe/Holdo arc was badly written. There was many ways to make an arc like that make sense but also more emotionnal for these two characters. I hate how one second they makes him this macho man who keeps understimating lady officers but a second after, the female characters are “haha, I like him ;)” Yeah sure.

_Finn’s arc who is reduced as total coward and a joke and where war has to be explained to him (a fucking child-soldier) by a woman that constantly think about hurting him when he mentions Rey, the person he is close to the most and then is forced as a potential love-interest to him for some reasons. The DJ explanations are just bad (of course, the Resistance has to buy weapons. We knows that Rian, thx) The suicide run was also pretty stupid. Also the fact that him and Rey didn’t reuniting on the Supremacy screams so much Rian wanting them to interact as less as possible in the movie. Finn deserves better.

_ Rey’s arc. Can we even talk about an arc? Her character regressed. As if she didn’t dealt with years of abuse and survival on Jakku and as if Kylo never tortured her and hurt her closed ones. Hell she even get tortured twice in the space of two days because of Kylo. The Force-skype stuff feels so forced. Adam & Daisy only have good chemistry when their characters are set against each other. Rey talks about how she is scared of the Force within her but we see her then has no problem to deal with it and master everything in one second (rendering the existence of jedi school pretty useless like you just have to download the Force-powers of a master jedi and that’s it. The Force.exe is installed. ) The small training scene where she cut the rock looks pretty stupid, her sword fighting position is pretty bad during it. Going to the dark side has no consequences on her. She has no agency. Replace the word “Force” by the plot and you’ll see what I mean.

_ Luke. Has someone who has to deal with depression, I think showing Luke as irritated and stuff can makes sense. I kinda relate since my temper changed a lot. I had a lot of patience & kindness but now, everything irritate me (from a member of my family intruding in my space to hearing the ringing of the phone) I’m scared to see my friends, I feel like a walking failure that I will never be satisfied about myself or will satisfy my parents, I just want to be left alone & if this lead me to die that way, then so be it. The problem is how wonky the writing leading-up to this Luke is bad. Everything is about to make us feels sad for Kylo (I don’t). Kylo’s turning against his family upon learning that he is the grandson of one of the most dangerous war criminal would makes senses. Luke blaming himself because he felt he failed to help his nephew after years of work instead of randomly popping his lightsaber would have made more sense. Luke’s grieving all his others students would make more sense. Luke attempting to reason Kylo after the massacre but still failing would make sense. Luke looking for a solution on the island and then failing to find one, thus made him feel unable to see his sister face to face would makes more sense. There’s is barely any emotionnal moments for Luke and the Final holographic showdown feels like they absolutely wanted to avoid Kylo to kill Luke directly (like c’mon, he’s been committing war crimes since the first minutes of TFA)

_ Kylo. TLJ is a bad attempt at Kylo’s pity fest.It’s interesting that his traumas are acknowledged while the other character’s are pretty ignored despite having a tragic’s past that should impact them as well. Everything is about him. Most of his actions are pretty villainous, he’s no grey character like people are trying to force us to believe because he looks sad. This is an humanized villain arc (which he didn’t need after seeing TFA), not a redemption one. At least he is now the main villain too, so there’s tha (But the “Uwu save ben solo” stuff going around spoil my liking of him as a villain. I’m not here to see whether Kylo is gonna turn LS for a third time in ep9. It would be too repetitive at this point) I just hate the “ You are truely Han solo’s son”line because it is obvious he is more like his mother. Only father figures are important to the characters in SW, it seems. Also the goddamn scar being moved on his eyes but it doesn’t impair his vision despite being cut by a freaking lightsaber. Like Rian could have gave us a legit explanation why Kylo was weakened & needed Rey to fight the preoatarians guards: Losing an eye would be an huge handicap tha het is not used to yet so he needed help to take the throne.

_ Leïa is only here to looks sad and for Kylo’s momentarily manpain (and Marry Poppying around space). Like really, you reduce Leïa fucking Organa too that?? The woman ready to move time and space just for the sake of saving freedom? the princess of Alderaan who saw her planet being destroyed but kept up on? the woman who was mainly in charge of the strategizing of Hoth’s evacuation? The woman who was willing to stay on Bespin just for the sake of massacring stormtroopers because Vader gave Han away to Boba Fett & would have stayed if Lando didn’t pulled her off to the Falcon? The woman who had to face the galactic backlash of her being Vader’s daughter but still kept on? A woman full of anger but also sense of duty?

_ Rose, rose, rose… I was excited to meet her so imagine my disappointment upon discovering she was just here to lecture & push around Finn & being forced as another love interest that doesn’t even work. It’s like she forgot that her sister died the same day and that she should still be grieving. We don’t even get to see her use her mechanic’s skills in the whole story. The message about her character makes no sense between her last line in tlj and all the destructions she is willing to provoke (not all the ppl working at Canto bight are rich, has it show in the Canto Bight book) or let happens. KMT doesn’t deserve that.

_ Yoda’s appearing bcos I hate this hypocrite of a gremlin and was expecting for Luke to dunk him in the sea.

_ Chewie, the glorified cab driver.

_ The battles are a huge clusterfuck & the most badly written space battle I have ever seen.

_The way Poe’s piloting skills feels to OP when you compare to other pilots, in particular in recently RO.

_D’qar’s battle is a fucking tactical mess. Everyone has been conviniently dumb down. Same during the slow-mo chase. What’s even the point of bringing the whole fleet of star destroyers if they are just useless.

_ Bad infiltration scene on the Supremacy on the same level as RO’s one. I’m just tired of infiltration scenes in SW. Please stop that shit.

_ The preotarian guard fight is a choregraphic mess that has no stakes for the characters. Everyone is just waiting for their cue and twirling around. It’s like it was shooted in one go. And there is a difference between Luke in ROTJ kicking a blaster out of the hand of a foe looking bad due to technical problems of the time. And a knife suddendly being edited out at the last minute because the mc would have die then

_ Crait. A good example on how not taking in account the worldbuilding that could be used in battle. So you’re gonna tell me that the Resistance decided to hide away in a base with no issue other than big metallic door in the front? Sounds like a good plan.

_ Leïa never taking command of the battle and strategizing and letting Poe deal with all that despite that she is the general that Poe is a demoted member of the Navy who caused a shit-ton of mess among the Resistance like 30 minutes ago

_ Hux is still depicted in a idiotic way & using bad tactics again. If this is supposed to be a movie about the characters learning about their mistakes,well it didn’t do its job.

_ What is even the use of the third cannon of the gorrilla walkers??

_ What was even the point to use these old speeders besides for being destroyed?

_ Rey shooting down 3 TIES in one shot seems to break a lot of SW physics. Her disappearing of the whole fight shows how much Rian didn’t care abt her character beyond having her interact with Kylo.

_ Y’know, I have Battlefront 2 and in the game there is mining tunnels on the battlefield that you can use to hide. In the movie they are not present, the whole Resistance sit dumbly in trench and just wait to be massacred. I was hoping those tunnels would re-appear in the movies & would be used to sink the walkers by bringing them down with bomb used for mining but nope. The image of walkers falling in a sinkhole, provoking a storm of red dust, coloring the outfits,armors and vehicles in red would have been pretty badass to see.

_ The ramming canon trained on like 10 kilometers instead of using the gorrilla walkers designs and adding to them the mini death-stars canons. They can’t use it all the time tho bcos it would need to cool down before shooting again. Aren’t these supposed to be artillery vehicles ffs???

_ The Resistance not even rigging their escape ships with bombs so if the FO penetrated their base, they can at least cripple them by exploding them. So much for a group that is supposed to be specialized in guerrilla warfare.

_ Talking about guerrilla warfare, i was expecting at least a pursuit and firefight in the mines. No use of the worldbuilding during battle scenarios once again.

_ Leïa should have been the one to confront Kylo, not Luke. Showing her willing to fight her own son and dies during it for the freedom of the galaxy would have been a good way to send her off and building her as this strong, resilient, legendary leader willing to fight her own family for the good cause. It would have been a good middle finger to people who slandered her upon learning she was Vader’s daughter.

_ Rey effortlessly levitating these rocks. Showing her struggle would have made the ending scene more rewarding.

_ The news of the Battle of Crait spreading super fast despite that the Resistance official journalist, Suralinda Javos wasn’t even present during it for documenting or something.

_ Broom boy & the way it is implied that he might join the Resistance or something because of his Force-powers. A fucking child.Involved in a war. I thought Finn being a child-soldier was bad thing?

And I’ll stop there for now, because there is so many problems with this movie, i’m never gonna be finished with it.

#tlj criticism #rian there's no point abt subverting expactations if you can't write coherent characters and plot

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unkindnessofone · 7 years ago

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Poppy

This is Skye’s story for the Sentimental Value series. I hope you like it. Dedicating it to @heykarsyn who is always supportive and reads my stuff.

It had been four months, but it felt like years. Calum felt like he had been watching awful movies, drinking in backstage bathrooms, and making up jokes with Skye for much longer than he had been. He remembered thinking it was stupid that management as assigning Ashton his own personal assistant after he one particularly vulgar freak out because he was overwhelmed with balancing his personal life and tour. Now, he never wanted them to reassign Skye. She was as vital to the tour as sound. After four months of getting to know one another, he was caught off guard by the sight of Skye whipping by him with a look in her eyes that suggested she wasn't above murder. He had reached out to wave her down out of her angry trance, but she walked right by with her dark hair falling out of her fishtail braid behind her. Calum watched as she put her phone to her ear and threw open the door of her hotel room, having tricked the lock to keep from jamming. He decided she was just busy or under pressure from work and didn't question it. He had never seen her angry with anyone or in a foul mood before. Calum was sure that it was nothing.

He was caught completely off guard when he was backstage, drinking vodka on the rocks and getting stoked, and she was nowhere to be seen. When he asked Ashton where she was, he shrugged and said that she had stuff to do back at the hotel. Calum only really felt concerned when Skye wasn't there when he emerged from stage a sweaty mess. Usually, she was standing there with towels for all of them and telling them they did amazing even if it hadn't been a very good show. He excused himself from the poured drinks to text her if everything was cool, but he suspected she was lying when she quickly replied with just 'ya'. Calum took it upon himself to go back to the hotel without everyone else. Adrenaline was still pushing its way through his body from the show, but he didn't want to go and party without his partner in crime. He ignored a phone call from his girlfriend as she called right before he stood in front of Skye's hotel room door. He banged on it louder than he meant to, hearing her on the other side talking to someone. "Okay, I'll call you back." She was on the phone, but coming closer to him so he held back from knocking. Calum hooked his thumbs into the pocket of his skin tight black pants and leaned, listening in. Her stress was evident. "Mom, it's fine. Its fine. I'll call you tomorrow." Skye was leaning against the door now, shoulder bare from the black tank top and flannel pajama pants combo she had chosen. If she was going to be having a bad day, she was going to be comfortable. After a full minute and fifteen seconds, Skye swung the door open and exposed her exhausted face to Calum. She had washed off all her makeup as well as the active charcoal mask that she had treated herself to. Calum had been smiling, excited to see her, but it slid off his face like Vaseline when he saw his preoccupied and tired she was. "Hey." He played it cool for a second. "Are you okay?" It was obvious that something weird was going on. "I haven't seen you all day." He exaggerated which wasn't typical for the bass player. "Yeah, it's silly." Always underplaying her own emotions, Skye waved her hand in front of her. "I overreacted." Cheeks filled with air, she decomposed like an untied party balloon. "I probably owe Ashton an apology." "He didn't seem upset." Calum shrugged in response. He knew Ashton well and he would have mentioned if he was anything, but happy. Ashton has always been forthcoming with his feelings. "That's good." Almost robotically, she responded though it was a relief that the person she worked for wasn't pissed off. "Are you going out?" "Yeah, but what's going on?" He was usually the one complaining to her, droning on about what Hannah expected of him or how fed up he was with touring on a bad day. Her chest fell inward as she released a massive sigh. When at work, Skye made a pointed effort not to whine. She felt like she always failed at being professional with Calum. Ashton had even accused her of flirting which had been a particularly embarrassing afternoon drive. She couldn't help it, they just jived instantly. "When I applied for this position, I had one stipulation and it was that I have next weekend off. They said no problem. I even checked with Ashton last week to make sure and he said it was fine." She brushed at her wispy bangs with her fingers like a comb. "Then I'm emailed my itinerary for the next few weeks and I'm still with you guys...working!" She leaned against the door and faked a smile at him. "It's been sorted out now, but it was annoying at the time." She had been ready chew someone out, but instead she remained as calm as she could to sort out the situation. Calum tool his brain through important days coming up. It was only November and Skye wasn't American. She celebrated Thanksgiving and she did that with him in at the Chateau Marmont, eating turkey breast on rye bread. He knew Black Friday was coming up, but that would have stunned him if it was what she was referring to. Where would she put a huge flat screen? She lived out of a suitcase and in conference rooms. "It's not your birthday, right?" He felt stupid asking because he wished he already knew. "No." She shook her head. "That's December 1st." She mentioned when he raised his brows, almost asking her for a little more info. Calum nodded, hoping he could commit that to memory. He decided to wait until they weren't looking right at each other to pull out his phone and input the date in his calender. "Is there something fun going on?" He leaned right against the opposite door frame she was resting on, trying to guess. He didn't like having to work for it and wished she would just tell him. He was genuinely interested. "No. Just a family tradition." She sighed with exasperation. "It's Remembrance Day. Well, Veterans Day." There were certain American terms she had adjusted her Canadian brain to still. "Oh, cool." Calum nodded. They had the same sort of celebration in Australia, but his family didn't make a giant deal out of it. They acknowledged it, but then carried on. "Do you want to come in? Sorry, we are talking in a hallway." She laughed at the way he knocked his foot against hers since they were so close in the small space to one another. Skye backed away from her door and held it open, letting him into her hotel room. She didn't have any lights on and flicked on a lamp once she curled up in the armchair by her closed window. It illuminated her skin under a soft pink glow and highlighted the poppy on her jacket hung over the back of the furniture. Calum realized she had been wearing it any time they were outside and he never noticed. "So, back to Canada? It's going to be chilly." He slid into her bed that had her open laptop on it and her body print behind it on the burgundy comforter. "Victoria is okay. It's not as brutal or dry as other parts of Canada." She hummed, resting both hands on top of her knee and then pressing her chin over them. Honestly, Skye was in need of some home time. Travelling with a band was fun, but even the partying and down time felt like work since there was little to no home base. She was eager to lay in her childhood bed and dunk grilled cheese in her mom's creamy tomato soup. "You'll get by without me for five days?" Calum knew instantly that he would miss her right away, but he was happy that she was getting the chance to go home and see family. She talked about her two sisters a lot. They clearly were her favourite people. He couldn't help, but feel a tad jealous. He would love to go home and just hang out with his family. Sometimes, Calum longed to be a hermit and a homebody. "Somehow." He merely joked instead. When he was hanging out with her, things were relaxed and he found his cheeks tired after from smiling for a long time without a break. His face wasn't used to the joy. "So what do you guys do? Is there, like, a service?" He couldn't imagine them throwing a Remembrance Day rager. That seemed a little disrespectful. "We go to the one in Stanley Park." It was a little bit of a hike for the estrogen strong family, but always worth it. "Then we visit Jasmine's grave as a family. Grandparents and all." She knew her parents sent more frequently and she had visited herself a few times when she felt overwhelmed and desperate, especially during exam time. "Then we go and have brunch at this Mexican place that we like and just spend time together, there's usually lots of stories about her and stuff. It's really nice." It was bittersweet, but Calum could tell by watching her talk about it that she loved it. It would have been really challenging for her to miss it for any reason, but especially because of work. "I'm really sorry..." He felt like an idiot. She talked about her sisters, Jasmine and Cher often and he had seen her lock screen on her phone that was all three of them, but she didn't realize that Jasmine wasn't actually alive. "You said your sister was in the army, but I just assumed..." "It's okay." For Skye, it had been four years. She had some time to find tranquillity with the sadness of losing her older sister. She had been seventeen. Cher had been fourteen and she still felt like Cher missed out on more than she did. "It makes me feel close to her, our little tradition. So I had a mini temper tantrums when it seemed like I couldn't go." Calum treaded carefully. He didn't know what he was allowed to ask and what would be considered rude. It felt like nothing was off the table between them, but they hadn't talked about something as heavy as the death of a sibling. Calum was kind of amazed that she wasn't a a sobbing mess in front of him right now because he imagined going insane if something happened to his big sister. "Can I ask...how she..." Her chest heaved out under her shirt before deflating inward again, a sigh filling the room before she sucked it back in. "We'll never really know." Skye laid her head on one shoulder, absentmindedly playing with the soft flannel over her knee. "They said there was an ambush, she was guarding a civilian area, escorting children to school, and they just weren't prepared..." It would never feel like a good enough reason to have lost Jasmine and even though she didn't know any of the other lives lost personally, it all was felt like a waste. She was very anti-war, but kept it to herself. Calum didn't nod. He couldn't understand what she was saying. He had been through aches and he had experienced death of loved ones, but she had him trumped with this truth. He stayed quiet and still on the bed, staring at the toes of his black shoes and feeling like an idiot. "You know, I thought I was in for the night, but I think I might join you tonight. A distraction is nice after talking about this." Skye tried to move the situation on. People always became so u sure and awkward around her when Jasmine's passing came up. "Are you sure?" "Oh yeah." She stood up and went to her black suitcase in the corner. As comfortable as she was, she didn't think she would be let in anywhere in her pajamas. "I don't want to get trashed, but watching Michael hit on that girl from the music video is always entertaining." She was pretty sure the model's name was Grace and Calum and her liked to always bet whether or not she would go home with him or tell him off. It was his Skye had made an easy two fifty last Friday. "I'll be right back." She had jeans in her hand as she walked by him to the washroom. Calum sat quietly, noticing the background of her laptop was the same as her lock screen on her phone. He stared at the dark haired girls, all laughing in fall colors and posed in front of mountainous background. His chest had sunken in since he talked to Skye. Usually, they made one another laugh and were a smooth break from chaos for each other. He just wished he could do something. He wished he could make things better, but he couldn't.

* * * * * * ** * ** ** **

They hadn't had a chance to decorate at all. The kitchen was mostly unpacked, but the living room still had boxes in either corner. They didn't come out to Vancouver enough for them to properly turn the luxury Westbrook Village condo into a home yet, but they were looking forward to turning it into their number one getaway when they needed a break from the road or wanted a romantic vacation, but still some home balance. Both Skye and Calum really wanted Daphne to have roots in Canada as half her family lived there and it had been where she was born. Calum himself loved the mountain air and remembered taking her out for the first time in her stroller, breathing in the clean wind and feeling a moment of bliss. It was just him, his partner, and his tiny newborn under a dreary British Columbia sky.

While Skye was managing her emotions in the washroom, curling her hair for more volume, Calum focused on getting himself and Daphne ready. He just wanted to give Skye space, let her take time if she needed it. This was his only his second Remembrance Day with her family, having missed last year's due to his own family commitment, but he knew how important it was to his girlfriend. He buttoned the wrists of his white shirt in front of the mirror, watching Daphne in the corner of his room as she played with the black tulle peeking out from under the skirt of her black dress. It was a gift from Simone. She had been visiting one of her counters in New York and saw the little outfit on a mannequin and thought of Daphne. Being the baby of her band family, she was spoiled rotten. She was the last little one.

“Daffy...” Calum warned as he shimmied into his black chinos, pulling them over his tight grey boxer-briefs. He knew putting her in her knitted cardigan already was a mistake. She was trying to pull the poppy that Skye had pinned to it at the beginning of the month off. She was three, but Calum knew she would try to put it in her mouth either staining the red felt or poking herself in the lip. “Don't do that.” She was looking back at him, eyes as round as the large mug of coffee he had already downed that morning, but still her little fingers lingered on a petal.

She raised herself off her butt and rushed over to him, picking up a hardcover, The Lorax, along the way and then plopping back down beside him. He knew he still had to do something with her hair, a thick always fuzzy mess unless tamed viciously by combs and water. He was proud of how gentle he could be though. Daphne always reached up with both hands when anyone besides her parents, even Cagney, tried to pull it into a little ponytail or bun. Calum finished getting himself dressed for the Stanley Park service, spraying himself with a spritz of Mont Blanc cologne and then leaving his peacoat with it's lapel poppy on the unmade bed that he had devoured Skye in the night before.

“Daph, hey.” He interrupted her pretending to read to herself by patting at his knee. Calum perched on the edge of the bed and waited with both his hands out for her to run over to him. She brought her book and sat down beside him.

“Make my hair big like Mommy's?” With an excited grin, almost giggling through her baby teeth, Daphne asked. Calum just hummed and nodded in agreement while taking a thin brown elastic from Skye's nightstand and taking her pink Tangle Teezer as well. It was the brush that Daphne reacted to best.

Daphne popped open her book on a random page and began to tell her Dad the story, just from the little she remembered and not the actual words on the page. Calum carefully brushed through her mass of hair, deciding to pull it all into a thick and high ponytail that started almost at the top of her small head.

“Daddy, what's this?” She poked twice at the poppy on her sweater, throwing her head back to ask and making it very hard for him to work on her hair.

“It's a poppy. We're going to a Remembrance Day ceremony.” Daphne had gone to two before this, but he imagined she would only start to understand now. She was just over a month for her first one and spent the entire time sleeping and stirring in Skye's arms. As far as he knew, she was held by her grandmother the time before and spent the brunch being passed around like a doll, licking crayons, eating some eggs and bacon, and falling asleep in a high chair before dessert.

“What's that?” She inquired while flipping through her book again.

“Well, there's lots of people who serve their countries.” Calum decided to take Ashton's route when he talked to Daphne. He never talked 'down' to her and he didn't use children's terms. He always spoke to her as if she was an adult - trying to engage her mind and encourage her to ask questions about what she didn't understand. He knew some people preferred to baby their children and use terms that were easier, but Calum admired Ashton as a parent and often looked to him for guidance. “They fight and die to protect us. So this is how we honor them.” He knew that they had board books of In Flander's Field and wondered if he would be able to find one before Skye was ready. It had been something he bought for Daphne last year when he missed coming into Canada to be with Skye's family on a day that was very significant to them.

“Okay.” Daphne mumbled back. Calum knew she didn't really understand what he was saying.

“Your aunt Jasmine.” As he hooked the hair elastic around her hair for a last time, Calum started to make it more personal for his little girl. “She's your mom's older sister – she was in the army.”

“Who's that?” Daphne knew that the time she had to sit and behave was over and scooted back on the bed, sticking out her little leotard covered legs. She knew she had a lot of aunts in her life. Aunt Mali, Aunt Cagney, Aunt Simmie, Auntie G, and Auntie Cher, but the woman her Dad mentioned was new to her. Calum slid off the bed and walked over to his girlfriend's night stand again. She had a few Polaroids stacked on it, looking for a certain one to give to her mom at brunch today. He found it in the pile and then climbed onto the bed to show Daphne, sitting right beside her with a folded knee.

“This is your Aunt Jasmine.”

“She has big eyes like me!” Daphne squealed in delight, her finger tracing the girl's cat eye glasses in the photo.

Skye had remarked privately to Calum that she saw a lot of her older sister in their Daphne. She was quiet, happy-go-lucky, and very considerate. They also did share bright brown eyes and thick brows, but Skye knew that was from both her Dad's side and her's. It had crossed both their minds to put Jasmine on their baby name list, but they had named the baby in their second pregnancy and went it hadn't been successful, Skye decided she never wanted to find out the sex or name a child again until they were born. It had been too hard and, somehow, made it hurt even worse than the loss before. She often told herself that her unborn children found their way to Jasmine in some spiritual sense and it gave her an inkling of peace in an otherwise dreary time.

“Yeah. So that's why we come to Vancouver every year today and we go to a ceremony and have brunch with grandma and grandpa.” He explained, looking over the picture himself and seeing so much of Skye. It was strange because Calum liked to keep his emotions deep inside of him, but he really did wish he had had the chance to meet Jasmine Pierre – even just once briefly.

Once Skye was ready, Calum put on his coat, gave his hair a once over, and sat at the door with his girls. He put on his shoes while Skye patiently helped Daphne slide on her little black ankle boots. They sometimes joked that shoes were the hardest thing in Daphne's life currently. Her little fingers struggled to grip them and always slipped when she was trying to stuff her petite feet inside.

Calum stood next to his father-in-law, holding Daphne in his arms, while Skye stood between her little sister and mom. While they were solemn, Calum always enjoyed the services. He felt they were important and he gave them his full attention even when the bag pipe part played. Internally, he was very proud of his three year old for behaving herself. She played with her wet lips and threw her arms around his neck multiple times, but Daphne didn't make so much as a peep during the whole service. She didn't whisper or complain about being bored. She just entertained herself with her mouth, looking at the huge evergreen trees around her, and wiggling in her father's firm grip.

“Is it time for lunch?” In the backseat of Skye's sister's car, sitting next to her mom in her car seat, Daphne asked excitedly. She had had toast and peanut butter for breakfast, but that was almost three hours ago and Daphne was born with a healthy appetite.

“Not yet.” While Cher drove, Calum answered from the pass anger seat – interrupting his conversation with Skye's little sister about what she was going to take now that she was going back to school for a second time. He had grown up as a little brother and thoroughly enjoyed getting to play the role of older sibling to Cher.

“Where do we go now?” Daphne leaned her tummy into her knees, her seat belt keeping her from bending all the way, and held up her palms at her mother who mirrored the expression back to the toddler.

“We're going to Jasmine.” It sounded better somehow than saying a cemetery, so Skye always put it as if she was getting to visit her sister in her new home.

Daphne felt jazzed by the news. She was going to get to meet her other aunt. Her mind was colourful with Disney thoughts and she imagined the aunt she didn't know was just as much of a princess as the ones she had met. She was all, but convinced that Simone was Cinderella and Cher was Princess Jasmine, but she imagined since she had an Aunt Jasmine now that she would actually be the real Princess Jasmine. Daphne stopped thinking about her hungry tummy and instead danced to the radio that played electronic dance music Cher liked so much and prepared herself for meeting this new lady.

Daphne held her grandmother's cold hand as they stomped over wet brown, orange, and yellow leaves. She stared upward at everything that was larger than her – her dad's legs, her Aunt Cher's thigh high boots, her mom's purse, the trees, the wooden benches, and a few grey tombstones. She watched her mom lay a bouquet of multicolored gerberas at the small square stone in the ground. They did this every year, but Skye always cried silently. It was why she didn't bother wearing much eye make up or anything more than a tinted moisturizer on her face. Her father held onto Cher's arm while he put down a dozen red gerberas. Calum tried to remain in the moment, but he always remarked internally that when they visited Jasmine's grave site was the only time Cher didn't ramble or swear.

“Is that Jasmine?” Daphne tugged on her crying grandmother's hand and leaned her head all the way back to ask. She didn't remember ever going there before even though she had been. Her grandma sucked in her chest, tightening it, and nodding down at her only grandchild. Yes, this was her oldest daughter in a way now.

Calum watched Daphne closely, taking his attention away from the woman he loved too much for just a second. Daphne was generally well behaved, but he worried she might make a rude remark or ask questions that would upset Skye's family. He stayed on high alert in a moment so emotional. Her grandma leaned close to pick Daphne up, but Daphne let go of her hand and kept walking through the thick leaves on the ground. She moved right by her grandpa and mom and stood as close to the grave as she could without stepping onto it. She couldn't read the letters, but she sat down on her knees, staining her leotards with dew, and kissed in between the years that represented Jasmine Pierre's life.

“I love you.” She whispered before yanking off her pinned poppy and leaving it with the flowers her mom and grandpa had set down. Daphne walked backwards just three steps and took her grandpa's hand. “Don't cry, Gram-pah! She's a princess.” She told him with a whisper through her giggly grin and then stood still, staring at the grave with them as if it was actually her aunt.

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bobbystompy · 5 years ago

Text

My Top 75 Songs Of 2019

Previously: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

First time going below 100 songs since 2015, and I cannot wait. Giving this extra juice already.

As always, criteria and info:

This is a list of what I personally like, not ones I’m saying are the “best” from the year; more subjective than objective

No artist is featured more than once

If it comes down to choosing between two songs, I try to give more weight to a single or featured track

Each song on the list is linked in the title if you wanna check them out for yourself; there is also a Spotify playlist at the bottom that includes the majority of the songs

This is usually the part where I put up a pump up video, but we are going with something a little different this year.

youtube

(It was stuck my head. Blame Blink-155.)

75) YG - “In The Dark”

The video begins with YG chugging a full tequila bottle -- sure. This song is very bad. It’s like he’s in a competition to make the verse lyrics worse than the chorus lyrics (spoiler alert: the verses “win”); not even satanic imagery can save this.

74) Solange - “Stay Flo”

Here’s a weird take: wouldn’t Solange’s career be way more fun if everyone slept on her? Instead, it’s hype on hype -- plus being Beyoncé’s sister -- which makes it nearly impossible to deliver. This has a fun beat/vibe but is kinda boring... and was still easily my favorite off her album.

73) Art Alexakis - “The Hot Water Test”

My doctors told me that I had a disease / I will slowly fall apart until there’s nothing left that looks like me

This song makes the stakes clear immediately. It was released a few months after I saw Art play in June 2019 on my birthday. At the intimate show, he revealed his multiple sclerosis diagnosis as if we were all his closest friends. Something like this is never easy to deal with -- a similar announcement by the Lucky Boys Confusion singer did not help matters -- but music can help such a painful situation, and it’s clearly Alexakis’ exile here.

72) The Cranberries - “In The End”

A very suitable sendoff for the band following the passing of singer Dolores O’Riordan. The recording story (via NPR):

O'Riordan died suddenly in January 2018 at 46 years old and left behind the vocal tracks to what was intended to be the band's latest album. Now, O'Riordan's bandmates have decided to complete that album, In The End — the last album the band will release — in her memory.

[...]

In June 2017, O'Riordan and Hogan started emailing album ideas and demos back and forth to each other. O'Riordan had been very open about her struggles with mental health and addiction, which would affect the band at times, but they wanted to make a new album. Hogan says that when they were emailing those demos, she was in a good place. They started laying down her demos.

"All of that was kind of behind her," Hogan says. "She's kind of found a way to cope with the mental health thing. That's why she wanted to write so much. That's what she kept saying, 'I have so much to say, I just need the music to put it to.' "

Hogan says O'Riordan's apparent stability is what made her death even more tragic and devastating. (Officials ruled O'Riordan's cause of death to be accidental drowning due to alcohol intoxication.) But after a period of mourning, the remaining band members remembered they still had O'Riordan's demos. As Hogan remembers, they finally had the courage to start listening to them again in late February and, with her family's permission, started recording in April. "We spoke to her family and said, 'Look, how do you feel about us finishing the album?' And they were really supportive," Lawler says. "They were delighted, actually. They gave us their blessing."

Hogan says, in a sense, they were used to O'Riordan not being in the studio when they recorded — "Dolores hated hanging around the studio once we worked on our parts" — but, of course, this time was different.

71) Raleigh Ritchie - “Time In A Tree”

Exercise time. Play the first minute or so of this song without looking at any YouTube visuals.

/waits for you

OK, who are you picturing singing this? Got your image?

Well, whatever it was, you’re wrong -- it’s GREY WORM HIMSELF.

This was the best thing about “Game of Thrones” in 2019, sadly.

70) Culture Abuse - “Goo”

Simple, effective, gets out before you can dislike much.

69) Lil Pump f/ Lil Wayne - “Be Like Me”

Sometimes, a song starts, and you can just tell it’s going to be ignorant. Even before the vocals kick in. This was probably our moment here:

Between that and the beat, it’s like the only thing you can think is “Ohhhh, he’s about to say some horrible things about women.”

Other choice lines:

- “Yes, I’m hella ignorant, I don’t give a fuck” (he even says it in the song)

- “I take drugs like it’s Vitamin C / I’m a millionaire, but I don’t know how to read”

This song almost feels like it existed already.

68) The Get Up Kids - “Satellite”

Finally, our first rock song with some punch. This probably takes the crown from both DMB and P.O.D.

67) Bad Religion - “My Sanity”

BR is historically my favorite band, so it is rather deflating to see them so far back on this list. That said, it is Year 40 (!!!) of their existence, so some can be forgiven. Yet... we’ve never needed them more, you know? It’s this weird mixture of resentment but understanding.

66) Billy Liar - “The Righteous & The Rats”

Gonna see him (them?) open for The Bombpops in March; looks quite promising. Has an old school Brit punk feel.

65) Beach Slang - “AAA”

Beach Slang never lets you forget they love -- no, like, LOVE -- The Replacements. When this cover dropped, I googled “replacements AAA”, and, surprisingly, nothing came up.

Ohhh, what I fool I was. After more digging, I discovered a band called Grandpaboy who performed “AAA”.

“Oh, damn -- he finally went outside the box with this pick.”

No. Grandpaboy is fronted by Paul Westerberg. Singer of, you guessed it, The Replacements.

James Alex wears his heart on his sleeve so hard, he might as well give the heart a little jacket so his heart can wear its own heart on its sleeve.

HE DID THAT TOO?!

You can’t even make jokes about this band; they live in the jokes with their damn earnestness.

64) Gesaffelstein & The Weeknd - “Lost In The Fire”

Even lesser known Weeknd-involved tracks sound like they could lead a soundtrack or close out a festival. Are you familiar with this one at all? It has 87 million views on YouTube. Abel is never not not playing.

63) FIDLAR - “By Myself”

Started from the bottom and I’m still at the bottom

Falling apart never felt so carefree and burdenless.

62) Constant Elevation - “Fuck Runnin”

As hardcore punk as this list is gonna get. All glory to Vinnie Caruana. Though none of his solo tracks from 2019 made it, this has an undeniable energy and confidence. Plus probably the best song title of the year.

61) Maren Morris f/ Brandi Carlile - “Common”

A focused duet that drills into relationship dynamics before throwing a personal theology wrench in the middle of the chorus.

60) Anti-Flag - “Christian Nationalist”

AF going in on the white, religious right. This is like throwing a 50 mph pitch to -- /looks up good baseball players -- Pete Alonso.

59) Cokie The Clown - “Punk Rock Saved My Life”

This is less of a song and more of a confessional essay, and it gets harder and harder to look away with every revealing detail. If NOFX’s Fat Mike needed this character as a vehicle to get all of these autobiographical details off his chest, hopefully it’s a helpful therapy.

58) White Reaper - “Might Be Right”

“Judy French” is such an untoppable song, but “Might Be Right” has a similar dynamic.

57) Denzel Curry - “RICKY”

Denzel Curry as a rap moniker is such a slam dunk.

/looks up actual name

!!!

56) Ariana Grande - “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”

It takes a special kind of hot girl twisted to issue this unflinching request while totally pulling it off.

55) Goody Grace f/ blink-182 - “Scumbag”

Not sure if Goody is a Soundcloud rapper, punk rocker, or some kinda emo hybrid of both.

A few asides:

- Have we ever -- ever -- heard Travis Barker this subdued on drums?

- On the Blink-155 podcast, Goody said he gave Tom from the Plain White T’s a songwriting credit because he unintentionally lifted some melodies from “Hey There Delilah”, but... I really don’t hear it at all; like, it sounds maybe in the same key but not much else?

54) Jonas Brothers - “Sucker”

Despite their popularity in the past, I do not think I could name a single JoBros song. That changed in 2019 with this poppy, light, clappy, Maroon 5-style single.

53) Goo Goo Dolls - “Money, Fame & Fortune”

Someone -- coulda sworn it was Brendan Kelly -- said this was Goo Goo Dolls sounding like Fake Problems, and that is spot on.

52) AJJ - “A Poem”

A poem is song that no one cares about

This short, folky tune led to one of my favorite Twitter exchanges of the year, when I reached out to a music journalist with a question and AJJ came flying off the top rope.

51) DaBaby - “Suge”

This song is fun, but I really don’t get it. Beat is cool, flow is fine... this is the new face of hip-hop? His name is DaBaby! What are we doing here?!

50) Laura Stevenson - “Jesus, Etc.”

Taking a classic and doing it full justice/adding some harmonies.

49) blink-182 - “Not Another Christmas Song”

Blink’s 2019 album “Nine” was very, very bad because it tried too hard and was not good. This song, released later in the year, takes an opposite approach and actually works. We get lyrics that are discontent, even clumsy at times -- the “I miss fucking in the rain” line is so out of place/cringe-y but actually feels real and not workshopped by 10 producers. The trio can hopefully use this better b-side to figure out the best songwriting should flow out of you without having to go through multiple stations on a conveyor belt first.

48) Dave Hause - “Eye Aye I”

This song has a lot I love (catchy chorus, wistful thoughts, hairline analyses) and a lot I don’t (genuine use of the word “old bores”, Van Halen getting respect), but one thing is clear: Dave Hause is in complete control.

47) Beck - “Up All Night”

I’ve casually followed Beck’s entire career and would not have guessed this was him if given 100 chances. As an exercise, I’m going to pull up the 2020 Coachella lineup and randomly point to an artist.

/pulls up lineup and points

I got Daniel Caesar. If you told me this was Daniel Caesar, that would probably make more sense here.

46) Shawn Mendes - “If I Can’t Have You”

Randomly came into Shawn Mendes tickets in 2019, and good gracious, that was something. Other than parents, we were the oldest people there by a lot. Getting to watch thousands of teens and preteens legitimately having the best moment of their lives was downright inspiring. When you’re that young, it’s not even hyperbole. Phones were flagrantly out; I’m talking 20+ minutes of straight video being filmed. I wanted to judge so badly, but if you gave me an iPhone at my first concert when I was 14, who the hell knows how egregious my behavior would’ve been. As fun as the whole experience was, I never wanted to be in a grimy punk club more. Sometimes, leaving your comfort zone makes you appreciate your home base more.

This is a rock solid pop song, but there are way too many you/you rhymes to not penalize it some.

45) Big Thief - “Cattails”

The whitest song you will ever hear that isn’t written by Vampire Weekend.

44) Bayside - “Prayers”

Bayside went super metal with their 2019 release “Interrobang” (such a sick name). So yes, the guitars are a touch harder than you might be used to, but the chorus soars; a great hook transcends genre.

43) Naughty Boy & Mike Posner - “Live Before I Die”

Few had as interesting of a year as Mike Posner. Following a breakup, the death of his father, and the death of Avicii, he decided to walk across the United States of America. He legit became Forrest Gump, right down to the beard and grown out hair.

In the video, you can see how a snakebite hospitalized him and almost derailed the whole trek. After a rehabilitation period where he almost lost his leg, our man finally makes it to the Pacific Ocean. If nothing else, watch for the ending -- it’s exhilarating.

42) Post Malone - “Wow.”

Post is flexing in this one; we’ve got slow motion jamming with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, international flights, a dancing beard guy, and a Fall Out Boy name check which really makes them sound cooler than they are now.

41) Bryce Vine f/ YG - “La La Land”

Sometimes, these summertime Cali songs write themselves. That is until YG comes in and flips over the board before you can finish the game. By the time the Coachella reference is dropped when Bryce comes back in, you realize 1:47 may have actually been a better endpoint for the song than its 2:47 length.

40) David Rokos - “Backseat Drives”

It’s winter in Chicago, again and until forever. If you haven’t been to the Jewel in the South Loop or Marshall Field’s before they changed it, just listen to this so you don’t actually have to.

39) Simple Creatures - “Drug”

Mark Hoppus and the dude from All Time Low give us this synth-pop bop that feels like the duo shooting their shot at a real mainstream pop hits. It didn’t quite get there, but they should feel OK about where it landed.

38) Chris Cresswell - “To The Wind”

My interest in The Flatliners ramped up considerably in 2019, as their near decade old record “Cavalcade” got plenty of spins (peep “Filthy Habits”; just stunningly incredible punk). Though they did not release anything this year, their singer put out “To The Wind”, a longing song about missing someone.

37) Kesha f/ Big Freedia - “Raising Hell”

Kesha, with the help of New Orleans’ Big Freedia, gives us another one. I’ve personally dug Kesha for a while now, but when is it time for us as a society to put her into the all-time conversation for pop artists? She has at least, like, seven HOF certifiable bangers. Plus she kills a guy in this music video.

In conclusion, I think this could translate to a country song very easily.

36) No Lenox - “Marquee”

Illinois/Japan’s No Lenox are back with Reuben Baird on the mixer and legendary masterer Collin Jordan (of The Boiler Room) on the, well, master, and the fullness in sound leads to the assault that is the “I saw your name on the marquee / Your friends were milling around outside” part. They only play it once, but I really could’ve gone for closer to five.

35) Red City Radio - “Love A Liar”

Rapid fire Red City Radio gets this one done in exactly 120 seconds.

34) Barely March - “Lead Single”

This sounds like Joyce Manor turned up to a 17 out of 10 before unexpectedly turning into a hellogoodbye song.

33) New Lenox - “Old Words”

Not a typo from two songs ago -- legitimately a different band. This one was written by your boy. The first 15 seconds were from a demo recorded 1/2/16 before developing the rest in 2019 (after some encouragement). We have Dave Rokos on guitar/bass, Dave Hernandez on hums, and Brian Bedford on some very temporary sleigh bells. Themes: online dating, resolutions, exes, currents, Black Wednesday, hope, and Carly Rae Jepsen stage banter.

32) MakeWar - “Sails”

Honey, I can’t make it on my own

You might get some Gaslight Anthem vibes as the vocals come in, but by the time the song ends, MakeWar leaves their own imprint on this impassioned ballad.

31) Sheryl Crow & Johnny Cash - “Redemption Day”

Was gonna say Johnny’s voice could move mountains before realizing no, Johnny’s voice is the mountains.

30) American Football f/ Hayley Williams - “Uncomfortably Numb”

Sensitivity deprived I can't feel a thing inside I blamed my father in my youth Now as a father, I blame the booze

An unlikely collaboration that makes you forget about its unlikeliness by the two minute mark. The two voices trade spots, mesh, harmonize, and weave throughout this beautiful song.

Asides:

- Blake from “Workaholics” in the video?!

- Choose to interpret this song’s title as a Pink Floyd diss

- “I’ll make new friends in the ambulance” should be a 2005-level emo lyric that we all mock, yet it’s somehow one of the most stunningly appropriate closers of the entire year

- I wish my friend Luke was with us to hear it

29) Stuck Out Here - “Embarrass You”

Stuck Out Here got onto my radar with 2014′s amazingly named “Getting Used To Feeling Like Shit”. Five years later, they’re back -- and not feeling much better. The Toronto quartet’s Bandcamp describes the song like this:

They’re fucking up, but unlike previous releases, they’re finally holding themselves accountable.

You can even kinda hear their Canadian accents in the “I’m sorry I embarrass you...” part.

28) The Weeknd - “Heartless”

The Weeknd will be on these lists as long as he continues to make music even 1/8th as good as this.

27) The Chainsmokers f/ blink-182 - “P.S. I Hope You’re Happy”

A simple song that’s a touch more clever than you first realize. The Chainsmokers guy is giving me some real Owl City vibes. Also, how airtight of an apology is the line “I blame myself for when I was someone else”. It’s like the modern way of saying “When I was a child, I spoke like a child”.

Also also, the “I will find a way somehow...” harmony in the pre-chorus is as pretty as music got in 2019. The Chainsmokers are so sonically pleasing, whether you end up liking the music or not.

26) Vampire Weekend - “Harmony Hall”

ooooooooh, that crisp guitar in the intro

25) Alex Lahey - “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself”

If Carly Rae Jepsen can get a sword, why can’t Alex Lahey get a god damn saxophone? HIT ME.

That solo, combined with the “Mighty Ducks” reference in the chorus, make this song untouchable.

24) Lizzo - “Truth Hurts”

Let’s be clear: this did drop in 2017 but was technically re-released in 2019, so it does qualify for our list despite the criteria threatening timeline. Anyway.

The walking piano part, the iconic intro line (with a lawsuit!), the Minnesota Vikings reference (causing a Green Bay radio edit), and all of the damn positivity. Lizzo was among music’s big winners this year, and her success made you wonder how the hell someone this talented was slept on for those two years.

Let’s end with the purse.

23) An Horse - “Ship Of Fools”

Awkward band name, but a song that makes you pay attention. Kinda like Tegan and Sara, had they stayed more rock. So much urgency in the vocals and lyrics.

22) Charli XCX f/ Lizzo - “Blame It On Your Love”

Trippy vid; Charli continues to give us anthems. Wasn’t super high on the Lizzo cameo, but it somehow made more sense in the context of said video.

21) Sincere Engineer - “Dragged Across The Finish Line”

Sincere Engineer is back -- you can tell from the second those guitar leads get goin’. Drums from 1:19 to 1:36 = /heart eyes emoji. My buddy Cox said his next tattoo very well could be the outro lyric “Too dumb to succeed, too honest to cheat”.

(Bonus fact: they did a beer collaboration/show with Pollyanna Brewing Company in 2019.)

20) Lil Nas X - “Old Town Road”

Was unwilling to listen when this first dropped solely because of how horrible Lil Nas X’s name is (”What if a rapper came out named ‘Lil Jay-Z X’?!”)... what a foolish notion. One billion streams and a Billy Cyrus cameo later, I wouldn’t have been able to miss out on the Song of the Summer (and year) if I tried. More notes:

- Picked this because I had to, but “Panini” is legit good (200+ million streams)

- Went with the original (sorry, Billy), which is a beautiful 1:53 long (brevity, brevity, brevity)

- Did you know: Lil Nas X uses a Nine Inch Nails sample on the beat? This Rolling Stone interview with Trent Reznor is super interesting

Reznor calls “Old Town Road” “undeniably hooky,” but once it exploded, he took a back seat to the phenomenon. “The reason I haven’t stepped in to comment anything about it is, I don’t feel it’s my place to play any kind of social critic to that,” he says. “It was a material that was used in a significant way and it turned into something that became something else, and those guys should be the ones the spotlight is on…. They asked if I wanted to do a cameo in the video, and it was flattering, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I don’t feel like it’s my place to shine a light on me for that. I say that with complete respect.”

Still, Reznor is amazed at how the song became a juggernaut. “Having been listed on the credits of the all-time, Number One whatever-the-fuck-it-is wasn’t something…I didn’t see that one coming,” he says. “But the world is full of weird things that happen like that. It’s flattering. But I don’t feel it’s for me to step in there and pat myself on the back for that.”

19) Gryffin & Carly Rae Jepsen - “OMG”

What doesn’t this little bop have? It’s kinda Chainsmoker-y and tingles like cool breath hitting the back of your neck.

18) Craig Finn - “Blankets”

You travel your whole life just to get out to the place you’re gonna die

I love everything about this song: the artwork, the intro, the climax, the command Craig Finn has from start to finish -- with such a payoff. Now several albums in, the greatest compliment we can give is that his solo stuff now feels more essential than Hold Steady releases*. You can even hear it in this line: “When we got to the Twin Cities / I said ‘Man, I know some songs about this place’”. Another life.

17) Carly Rae Jepsen - “Now That I Found You”

Carly always keeps us in the sky; picking one song was difficult because the album is even more fulfilling as you get to put the pieces together.

16) Billie Eilish - “Bad Guy”

Different genres*, but Billie Eilish lived up to her hype in the exact same way Lana Del Rey did in the earlier part of the decade. Lana said she was the gangster Nancy Sinatra and totally fucking was. Billie feels like something potentially even bigger. Nearly everything about her aura lets you project (or even second guess, if you’re a skeptic). Is she dead-eyed because she’s high or disaffected? Or just Aubrey Plaza? Is it her or her brother that’s pulling the strings? How can someone so young be so good already? In the skinny fashion era of All Achilles Everything, how is she rocking such loose fits?

“I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean that’s why I wear big baggy clothes,” she said. “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath.”

“Nobody can be like ‘Oh, she’s slim-thick, she’s not slim-thick, she’s got a flat ass, she’s got a fat ass,’” she continued. “No one can say any of that because they don’t know.”

It almost seems too easy, but how much sense does that make to you?

Great jokes aside, I have so much anticipation for what’s next, with assured belief in its potential. Pitchfork:

In 10 years, she will still be well under 30. Let’s hope the planet survives that long.

Yes.

(* - though not totally)

15) Ben Gibbard - “Filler”

Before you check Gibbard’s, please listen to the original by Minor Threat. That’s what he had to work with. From there, a total transformation while doing the near impossible -- keeping its beating heart.

14) Martha - “Wrestlemania VIII”

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Third favorite song title of the year/favorite music video of the year. This is energetic, bratty punk at its finest; also surprised to find out it was British, but, based on the upcoming tour dates and YouTube description...

This is a silly & frankly quite rubbish video but when you are a band trapped within surveillance capitalism's endless hunger for content trying to promote a tour sometimes things will be a silly & frankly quite rubbish.

I love them. Seriously didn’t even notice the accents in the singing until I knew to look for them; now, it’s all I can hear. Also, the part in the video where they finally show someone with an instrument, only he stops playing guitar halfway into the solo (/crying emoji).

THEY SAY ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDA

13) Chance The Rapper f/ Ben Gibbard - “Do You Remember”

Chance The Rapper dropped a one hour and 17 minute album in 2019 because he is a monster. I could not name three songs on it, but this one stood out big. It’s Chano doing what he does best: reminiscing and evoking summer in his city. Gibbard on the hook gives it that 2005 nostalgia while also making you say “Damn, it’s been nearly 15 years since 2005?!”

Fav two lines:

1) “Used to have obsession with the ‘27 Club’ / Now I'm turning 27, wanna make it to the 2070 club / Put the 27's down, Lord, give me a clean lung / Took the ring up out the box, I know this ain't no brief love”

2) “That summer left a couple tan lines / I love my city, they let me cut the line on the Dan Ryan”

(If you know, you know.)

Two more asides:

- If you Google “death cab for cutie”, the next autofill from there is “do you remember”. Rough for the legacy.

- “My daughter on the swing like the 2017 Cubs” is a line that confused me, but here’s how Genius explained it:

Chance is talking about a memorable summer and the things that made him happy. This line continues that theme when he raps about his daughter happily on a swing and how that’s similar to the 2017 Cubs. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016; therefore, the 2017 season was one of celebration and relaxation as the pressure of the 108 year drought was over.

12) Lana Del Rey - “The Greatest”

I miss Long Beach, and I miss you...

Listening to this song feels like watching the cement dry on a classic in real time. Lana Del Rey’s galactic “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” dominated lists at the end of 2019, and she -- to borrow her word -- fucking deserved it.

- The Beach Boys line is so god damn perfect

- The guitar solo (soooo sick)

- The breathy singing; the crooning; the notes that go up and then down until you’re surrounded by melody

- The perfection of this album name (minus the very iffy exclamation point) will have me comparing nearly any other all-time album title for probably the rest of our lives

- Tried playing this album during my Monday night pickup basketball run, and it very much failed... but that’s about the only thing it couldn’t do

- I’m told the dude with her on the album cover is Jack Nicholson’s grandson (named Duke Nicholson, because of course)

11) Off With Their Heads - “No Love”

If you do not like punk rock, this will be unlistenable. If you do, what a treat! I love how dissatisfied and put off he sounds, and, while there are a few more lively songs remaining on the list, none in 2019 got fast-tracked to my workout/pump up playlist at this speed.

Factoring in the band’s van accident (occurred after the release of this song), the “There’s nothing I could say that’s ever gonna make it right” outro becomes hauntingly clairvoyant.

10) Drake f/ Rick Ross - “Money In The Grave”

We need to face facts: it was a down year for stadium hip-hop. Nowhere on this list do you see Jay, Em, Kendrick, or Kanye (rest in peace). This was my favorite rap song of the year, and it couldn’t even crack the Top 5. Similar to his beloved Raptors -- who are being celebrated here -- it’s almost as if Drake needed some injuries outside his own locker room to get the crown. But I’m done being bummed, let’s focus on the good:

- Ohhhh, the intro (”I mean where. the fuck. should I. really even start?”)

- The way he says “grave” in the hook like he can barely contain

- The hook itself -- read it out loud: “When I die, put my money in the grave”

- How cool Ross sounds when he breaks in

- The Zion reference

The bad:

- Rarely take this angle, but really wouldn’t mind if it were longer

- Misogyny

9) PUP - “Bloody Mary, Kate And Ashley”

Second favorite song title of the year, 6/8 time signature, satanic references, drugs, hallucinations (maybe), and, yes, the Olsen twins.

8) Better Oblivion Community Center - “Sleepwalkin’”

“It’s impossible to count...”

The intro, as the tempo gets jarringly slower and slower, ironically helps you acclimate quicker. This Phoebe Bridgers/Conor Oberst collab was my No. 1 played track of 2019 (the album coming out in January definitely helped). The song builds to Phoebe’s solo part:

You like beer and chocolate I like setting off those bottle rockets We can never compromise But fighting 'til the death keeps us alive

It’s sung so well, you can almost feel the heat of the spotlight on her through the stereo. The lyrics could be anything.

The chill guitar solo takes us out.

7) AM Taxi - “Saint Jane”

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Adam Krier is such a rockstar, he had me shouting “I’m no hero, at best a zero!” within my fifth listen -- and I was skeptical as hell when I first heard the line. But that’s about where it stopped. You can tell this song is going to rip even before the vocals come in. When they do (”These fears don’t die, you get older and they multiply”), it’s just fucking time to go.

6) Taylor Swift - “Paper Rings”

My favorite pop song of 2019. Tay is firing on all cylinders; every lyric is exactly where it’s supposed to be; boppy and fun and sincere (while still being light-hearted). Still holding out minor hope it will be a single in 2020.

5) Pkew Pkew Pkew - “The Polynesian”

I’ve always said the best songs make you want to live the lyrics, whether they are positive or negative. This one had me researching “polynesian wisconsin” faster than I’m comfortable disclosing. And yes “bed bugs” and “needles” were both in the Top 7 recommended searches after those first two words.

Pkew Pkew Pkew collaborated with Craig Finn on some of their lyrics on 2019′s “Optimal Lifestyles”, and I’d be blown away if he doesn’t have fingerprints on this one -- the storytelling is pristine. Go into this open-minded, and I’d be shocked if you weren’t shouting the “Goatees, tall cans, camo pants, and Packers fans” mantra by the end.

Bonus story: this St. Patrick’s day in Chicago, I asked my friend Sara (Wisconsin native) if she’d ever stayed there, and she held up her elbow and showed me a scar from the hotel’s water slide. Your boy was over the moon.

4) Spanish Love Songs - “Losers”

It gets harder, doesn’t it?

Dylan Slocum has a way of not just writing depressing songs -- many lyricists are good at that -- but specifically depressing songs. This song contemplates death, homelessness, squandering your limited time on the planet, credit card debt, leeching off your parents because you have no other choice, crippling illness, and completely giving up because there genuinely is no other choice. The last lines are, without any hint of winking, “We’re mediocre. We’re losers. Forever.”

It’s wonderful.

Two straight Top 4 finishes for SLS; their 2020 album should be something special.

3) oso oso - “the view”

If Jade Lilitri is making personal progress in “microscopic strides”, you wouldn’t be able to tell by his songwriting. Every tune has a way of warming up your entire body and being. This grabs you, whether it’s the laid back guitar or the mismatched quick drums or the big ass chorus. While it came down to this one or “basking in the glow” (an actual single), the bridge here puts us over the top:

But not as much as the phone ringing Not as much playing my house Not as much as the way her goddamn voice sounds It's like taking in sun And then taking it back I fall into old habits I'm stepping over your cracks again

Her voice? This song.

2) The Menzingers - “Strangers Forever”

This song makes me want to rip up walls, sprint through streets with no destination, shred my lungs screaming off rooftops, bash hands drumming the steering wheel until my sprained fingers beg me to stop. It is such a perfect encapsulation of my favorite band of the decade and possibly of all-time.

Scranton’s sons gave me everything and more from 2010 through 2019, so it’s fitting they end so high here. This is probably the most clownable sentence of them all, but I am so constantly thankful I am alive to experience Greg Barnett’s songwriting. What he creates, I can only compare to the best books or movies or athletes or even personal relationships.

The way the guitar alternates in the headphones to start, the drums that go big and push the song along, the reverb vox that certainly could have less reverb, the “it is what it is”-style lyric of “My miserable memory’s making me more miserable”, the oceanic imagery, the quiet bridge that explodes into a final chorus. Barnett said the overall theme was inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”.

In it, the character Darya Alexandrovna learns of her husbands infidelity and declares: “Even if we remain in the same house, we are strangers — strangers forever!” The idea of becoming a stranger to someone you so intimately know stuck with me, and became the overarching narrative to this song. Dolly’s statement is definitive, but she also realizes the trappings of 19th century patriarchal Russian society. It’s a complex conundrum, and while lyrically I speak in the first person, this song exists in a world outside of my own personal experiences. I wanted to write about the finality of relationships that need to end this way. Strangers Forever.

My only gripe is I wish there were more. But I’m the same person who never wants them to stop.

1) Signals Midwest f/ Sincere Engineer - “Your New Old Apartment”

Only one song could make me fear missing the chance to be with the love of my life the same year I married her. As discussed in “The Polynesian”, the best songs have the consistent ability to put you in someone else’s shoes. You are either reliving something you personally experienced or maybe taking it all in for the first time. And that can be powerful -- especially dealing with anything big picture.

“Your New Old Apartment” launches me into 2009 without ever asking. Age: 23. My life was transient, I had no career, I didn’t even believe in marriage. I left my retail job in the Chicago suburbs for an unpaid newspaper internship in New Jersey. When I saw the people I loved, I always tried to make it count. Still do.

The descriptors and feeling are suffocating, right from the jump:

I only saw you a couple times last year Once at a wedding, once at a funeral I wore the same clothes to both, and I was worried you would notice ‘cause yours were impeccable

That’s me, then. Not knowing how to dress but hoping to get by anyway. I remember talking to my buddy P before buying my “work clothes” and learning you needed to match your shoes with your belt. Boyish adulthood.

The song continues, and the narrator is filled in on 5-year plans. It may be cliche to speak, but every current moment is simultaneously your youngest and oldest. Being in my early 30s now, it is so easy to scoff at anyone’s best laid plans, but I’m also the same cat who thought The Wonder Years’ “Jesus Christ, I’m 26 / All the people I graduated with / All have kids, all have wives, all have people who care if they come home at night” was life-defining, because I was the same age when that dropped, and it always hits the hardest when it’s all around you.

What I love about these lyrics are the careful observation mixed with mature-behind-his-years restraint. For a very long time in my life, I did not think I would get to be with my wife as anything more than a friend. When you are forced to come to terms with those potential realities, you must make concessions and convince yourself they’re OK. So when it’s revealed the narrator’s muse is married, he resigns himself to hopefully seeing the person more and at least being adjacent to the life they are living. It is tragic but still something. It is alternate hope in the hopeless.

I can picture myself listening to this song that wasn’t yet written while leaving a 2009 or 2010 or 2013 wedding and wishing I told her everything. But I wouldn’t have -- not then. I would have poured my heart out into a diary and quoted a line or three from this at the bottom. But that was then, this is now.

In 2019, her new old apartment will be my new old apartment, and that will never be lost on me.

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* * *

Bonus coverage. Since we are at the end of the decade, I rounded up our No. 1 song from each year and have that below:

2010: The Menzingers - “Time Tables” 2011: Jay-Z & Kanye West - “Gotta Have It” 2012: Carly Rae Jepsen - “Call Me Maybe” 2013: Kanye West - “On Sight” 2014: The Menzingers - “Where Your Heartache Exists” 2015: Big Sean f/ Kanye West - “All Your Fault” 2016: The Menzingers - “Lookers” 2017: The Menzingers - “After The Party” 2018: Horror Squad - “I Smoke The Blood” 2019: Signals Midwest f/ Sincere Engineer - “Your New Old Apartment”

* * *

It’s time to stop writing. Thank you so much for reading.

Spotify playlist is here, featuring 70 of the 75.

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bethestaryouareradio · 6 years ago

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Sip into Summer

Digging Deep with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian Sip into Summer by Cynthia Brian

“As the scent to the rose, are those memories to me." Amelia C. Welby

Cooler weather has bidden a sweet goodbye, and warmer days beckon us to linger outdoors. My garden is ablaze with blooms and the aromas of scrumptious scents. My daughter Heather Brittany, also an avid gardener, is visiting and wants to learn more by walking through the landscape with me. However, on this occasion, I am the student and she is the teacher as we stroll through the perfumed botanicals. Heather is a sommelier, a trained and knowledgeable wine professional working in an elite and innovative winery in Temecula.

With a glass of vino in hand and several varietals opened on the patio, she crushes leaves and pinches petals informing me of the subtle flavors we may be experiencing as we sip our way through the backyard. We pick nasturtium, rose, mint, mock orange, cherry, lambs ear, calendula, Nigella, lemongrass, fennel, various citrus, berries, and a sliver of an olive branch. We stick our noses in lilies, lavender, and jasmine, inhaling deeply. We scoop a handful of soil and mulch to draw in the aromas of nature. Rosemary, sage, thyme, chervil, parsley, oregano, and bay…I haven’t ever thought of them as essences of wine. At each stop, she encourages me to stop, breathe in, and imagine. “Touch the lambs ear. Feel the velvety finish of the Queen Elizabeth rose. Take a bite of fennel. Slow down. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you feel? What do you taste?”

I was born and groomed in the vineyards of Napa Valley where I learned farming and gardening skills from my parents and grandparents, yet I’ve never ambled in my private gardens equating my flowers and herbs with the wine I consume. Often I’ve been told that as a writer, I should be crafting the verbiage on wine labels. What has kept me from being creative in that format are some of the normal descriptions that I read on bottles. Leather, tar, asphalt, and tobacco are not ingredients that I choose to imbibe. But here, in my garden, I understand. We luxuriate in the multitude of floral opportunities to discover the subtle notes of the fruit of the vine.

A whiff of a barnyard reminds me of my childhood riding horses, tending sheep, branding cattle, and raising chickens. Pine and redwood needles evoke the memories of Christmas. A shaving of St. Lucia nutmeg makes me nostalgic for Thanksgiving. Narcissus and jasmine are the smells of spring. The sweet stench of aged compost and sensational swathes of fragrant roses and perfumed lavender offer spectacular sights and spice to the summer garden.

On our way back to the house we watch a small sparrow flit from my pine wreath at the back door. Upon careful inspection, we witness three tiny eggs nestled in a nest. We shoot a photo to remember our afternoon lesson. What a fitting finale from our spring into summer sipping expedition!

Pour yourself a glass of Bacchus’s favorite beverage and walk around your garden indulging your senses with scents and memories. Slow down. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you feel? What do you taste? Sip into summer!

Cynthia Brian’s Gardening Guide for June

PRUNE daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, bluebells, freesias, and other bulbs once the leaves have turned crispy yellow. ADD companion plantings of Oriental poppies, allium, delphinium, daylilies, salvia, and peony. PHOTOGRAPH eggs in a bird’s nest, but don’t disturb the nest. The mother bird is alert and watching. CELEBRATE National Pollinator Week June 17-23 by planting three new pollinator plants that will attract bees, butterflies, and birds. Try Nigella (love-in-a-mist), bee balm, and fennel. DIVIDE perennials before the weather is too warm. Alstroemeria, hosta, yarrow, aster, and astilbe. Most perennials need dividing every three to four years to maintain annual blooms. ADD three inches of mulch to your garden. If you have pine or redwood trees, gather the needles to mulch your roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, fuchsias, and other acid-loving plants. The mulch will keep the plants cooler and maintain moisture. CONTAIN all mints in pots with saucers. Spearmint, peppermint, pineapple mint, catnip, and the rest of the mint family can easily become invasive when planted in the ground. DEADHEAD roses at least weekly to encourage continual blooming. BAIT for snails and slugs. PLANT annuals in blocks of odd numbers—three, five, seven, nine, or more to create a more natural and aesthetically pleasing look to the human eye. To achieve this, you can plant the same variety of flowers in each odd grouping, or you can create color blocks with several similar varieties. CUT bouquets of alstroemeria flowers for two weeks of vase life enjoyment. WALK through your garden to savor the scents of a variety of plants. PICK cherries as they ripen before the birds eat them all. DO a second planting of beets, chard, beans, and radishes. LISTEN to the serenading of the bullfrogs as they seduce with their song. REPEL mosquitoes by emptying all vessels containing even a few drops of water. Add Dunks® to ponds or non-circulating water sources. Citronella and lemongrass plants supposedly help placed on the patio. POUR a glass of wine and decipher the flavors that emanate from the garden. COMMEMORATE dad on Father’s Day with a gift from the garden and include a copy of my book, Growing with the Goddess Gardener available at http://www.CynthiaBrian.com/online-store

CELEBRATE the summer solstice on June 21 with a controlled and safe bonfire. Did you know that the word “bonfire” derived from the words “bone fire” because bones were burned to make lime to sweeten the soil? In years past, bone fires, or bonfires were beacons to guide travelers on land and sea.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. Happy Daddy’s Day!

Read more and see photos: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1308/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Sip-into-summer.html

Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are1® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show and order her books at www.StarStyleRadio.com.

Buy a copy of her books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener, Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul, and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for projects, consults, and lectures. [email protected]

www.GoddessGardener.com

0 notes

goddessgardener · 6 years ago

Text

Sip into Summer

Digging Deep with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian Sip into Summer by Cynthia Brian

“As the scent to the rose, are those memories to me." Amelia C. Welby

Cynthia Brian’s Gardening Guide for June

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. Happy Daddy’s Day!

Read more and see photos: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1308/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Sip-into-summer.html

Buy a copy of her books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener, Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul, and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for projects, consults, and lectures. [email protected]

www.GoddessGardener.com

0 notes

abloomntime · 5 years ago

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A Bloom In Time Ch 1 A Flower Princess Lost

Would it be so wrong to say I love you when you obviously didn't love me back the way I loved you? Would it be wrong to say I would I like you more than any other thing when you didn't see me more than a stranger? Would it be so wrong to want to hold you when you would be confused at my touch? Would there be any world where we were aloud to be together, with your hair flowing like rose petals and eyes of the beautiful blue sky. Where no one would stop them and no duties got in their way.....But it wasn't meant to be because no amount of begging or asking would probably change the way you see me right now. The smile I'm giving you as you talk about the flowers like they were your proud children and you were mother nature. You would make the best mother nature. With your fiery passion and gentle kindness. You always listened to me. Didn't pressure me to picking. Always smiled and never EVER treated me as some fairytale prince I wasn't, which is why after all these years of knowing you and loving someone who I know definitely loves me, but for all the wrong reasons, and as much as I love her back...I think I love you more. "Your Highness? Are you alright?" He snapped out of it and yellow eyes blinked up at the lady who's stolen his heart. The fairytale romantic love of a Queen with beautiful blonde hair and emerald eyes was the first to catch him heart and he fell hard for her, but overtime that vision started to blur into one of fiery red passion and smelt of flowers. He could imagine his Queen in a wedding dress of pure white and covered in lace, but now he couldn't get the idea of how the maiden with red hair would look shyly looking at him in a dress of white, flowers in her hair and a red hue to her face as he held her close, wedding bells sounding as he promised her he would always love her. Forever.....But he should get his head out of the clouds. From the day he was born, his parents and Vanessa's mother had an arranged marriage for the two royals, and he didn't think even though she was Queen now, she'd let him go so soon with how attached she was....and how forcing his parents were about this. So he smiled at the confused face on the beautiful woman with hair of the rose. "I'm perfectly fine. Vanessa's just been....A b-bit cranky lately. So I wanted to surprise her with some flowers today. M-Maybe that'll help calm her down. " That got her attention when she rose a brow at him and asked a question that made him flinch. "Is this like the time she banned everyone here from eating bacon?" He waved her off. "N-No, no. She was only concerned about my health, a-and she's right. Bacon has too much fat. I could loose a few more pounds and eat healthier.'' Her beautiful blue eyes ran over him with a raised brow. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn't and instead smiled and pointed a hand to the flowers around her in her stand. "Well, how can I help you this time, Prince-y? We have a fifty percent discount on mixed wild daisies this week, more sprouted up than expected, but they smell great and multicolored. A colorful rainbow bouquet would brighten up anyone's day!" He looked at the many flowers she was pointing to and smiled and nodded. "Y-Yeah. Vanessa's loves any flowers I give her! These are perfect! You know what, I'll take some thanks!" She smiled and went to work on getting the flowers. Cutting them and getting the pretty pink paper to wrap them in so he could present them to his beloved Queen. He couldn't help but smile at the gentle way she handled the flowers ...but remembered. He didn't have any pons to pay her with. He spent the last on them on getting Vanessa an anniversary gift yesterday after she insisted he'd better do something to make her happy and 'prove he still loved her by not forgetting. And he didn't. He got her a beautiful bracelet with beautiful blue saphires studded into it and was getting her flowers on top of that....But- When she turned back to him with a smile, flowers ready to go...It was like it was stupid but-...He immediately held up the bracelet to her without question, smile on his own face. She blinked at the sudden gift held out to her before looking back up to his face in question. "Take it. I-...I-I got three others at home just like it," he lied with a smile but it felt like the right thing to do at the time, "Besides. I-I don't have any pons on me right now." He stared at him more. "Oh, no. I couldn't!" She held up her hands. "I couldn't possibly just accept it like that. Here." She held the flowers out to him. "You buy so much anyways. This time it's on the house." "NO!" He insisted. Gently placing the small bracelet into her hand while staring into her eyes. "I may be a prince but even Im not above getting things for free just because I buy a lot of it. You obviously put so much work into growing such beautiful flowers and I won't let hard work like that go under paid." They ended up just holding hands unintentionally for a few seconds as they talked and smiled. Neither noticed the beautiful golden sunshine haired woman with beautiful green emerald eyes suddenly stopping and watching from the dark corner of the alleyway. She stared in absolutely horror as she watched her prince, her beloved perfect prince holding hands with a...a...A PEASANT GIRL!! This girl with bland red hair that looked like it was dunked in tacky red paint and gotten red splotches all over her face, dirt smudging her tacky dress and obviously dirty and not fit for anyone other than another low life peasant like herself. AND YET THERE THEY WERE!! Holding hands, smiling, and giggling like they were...A Happy couple..NO! NO!! HE WASN'T ALLOWED TO LOOK AT ANYONE LIKE THAT!! HE WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO LOOK AT HER LIKE THAT!! HER! THE ONE WITH EYES OF EMERALD GREEN AND PERFECT HAIR SHINIER THAN GOLD!! FAIR SKIN AND BELOVED BY HER KINGDOM!! RICH AND COULD GIVE HIM ANYTHING HE ASKED!! THEY WERE THE ONES THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO GET MARRIED WITHIN A YEAR'S TIME!! THEY WERE GOING TO ADOPT ONE OF THE CHILDREN FROM THE VILLAGE TOGTHER!! HE COULDN'T WAIT TO HAVE A CHILD BUT SHE WANTED TO WAIT UNTIL A FEW YEARS INTO THEIR MARRIAGE BEFORE HAVING ONE!! IT WAS GOING TO BE THE PERFECT THING FOR THEIR IMAGE!! ADOPTING A CHILD OF NONE ROYAL BLOOD AND LOOK LIKE ONE OF THOSE FAIRYTALE STORIES!! THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT TOGETHER AND HE'S.....He's holding hands with someone who's not fit to even be in their story beyond a lowly subject!! With tears stinging her eyes she hiccupped and turned to run back into the darkness of the alley, if she would've stayed a little longer she would've seen the florist hand over the bouquet of flowers meant for her to he beloved prince and him paying her with the golden bracelet. The movement out of the corner of his eye made him look towards the swift movement and he easily recognized that fancy green dress running back into the shadow of the alleyway. He jumped almost dropping the flowers he was just handed. "Vanessa!?" The florist looked to where he was looking but didn't see the woman that dashed into the alleyway as he stared in confusion. "Vanessa?.....Why did she run away so suddenly?" ...The florist shrugged lightly with a smile. "Maybe she was embarrassed she walked in on you getting her flowers?", she suggested. ....He gave a smile. "OH! Of course! She's considerate l-like that." He gave an almost nervous smile and turned back to her before bowing. "T-Thank you for your help once again...Ms. Poppy." She waved her hand. "Oh, don't mention it! It's always to see just a nice man be so considerate and give the gal he loves so many flowers." The gal he loved...Heh. He guessed that was true. He still loved Vanessa in some way or another...but lately..he wasn't too sure about things, but he was sure she was right. Vanessa was just in a bad place for a few years. Her mother was sick and dying slowly, she just got crowned Queen a month ago after her mother had an accident, her new duties were overwhelming her, and with him still doing his princely studies about law it musn't be easy for her. But like any betrothed, he was going to try and work through these problems together. But he still couldn't stop smiling after he left the Florist to her work. Cute freckles and blue eyes clouding his vision. He was sure as soon as Vanessa saw these flowers she would perk right up! She always enjoyed it when he brought her gifts like these- OH! How wrong he was. As soon as he got to the manor, Vanessa's vacation spot away from her huge castle, everything suddenly felt....off somehow. Like a tense and thick aura was in the air, so thick one would have to use a battle axe to cute through it, but upon further searching he found her. Vanessa, his beloved Queen with golden hair, weeping in one of the hallways, back faced to him and of course the sight pained him. What could've brought her to this state of being? "Vanessa?!" She flinched when he shouted her name and came near her. The sound of his footsteps stopping just behind her. "Sweetheart? W-Why are you crying?" Sudden worry came over him. Oh no. Did she think he forgot their anniversary?! That made him hold out the flowers with a giant smile. "Don't cry. I-I got you these! Look. A-Aren't they beautiful?" ".....How could you betray me, Philip?" Her voice growled out. And he took a step back, was it just him or was the room suddenly darker? They needed to open up the blinds more. But the shadows seemed to come from her as she growled again in a voice that was clearly NOT the sugary sweet voice of his beloved maiden. And betrayl?? What was she talking about? "How could you CHEAT ON ME!? AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!! ALL OUR LIVES WE WERE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER!!" Her form slouched over as the shadows continued to consume her and her once beautiful emerald eyes twitched with a red of rage and anger he'd never seen before tears beginning to consume her eyes, or the one eye that was exposed to him at the moment. He froze just staring at her in horror as the same distorted voice asked another question. "How could you give your heart to that PEASANT GIRL!?" He stared at her in absolute fear as she growled like some wild animal at him, "W-WHAT?! You mean-...N-NO!! Nonono! You have it all wrong!" He held up the flowers with a strained scared smile. "I wasn't cheating on you! I would NEVER cheat on you! I was paying her and got you these! S-She grows the most beautiful flowers in the land, and you deserve no less than the best!" "LIAR!!" The not-Vanessa shrieked like she was a banshee making him almost drop the flowers. "I SAW YOU HOLDING HANDS!! AND LAUGHING AT HER JOKES!! FUNNY HUH?! WELL I HOPE PLAYING ME FOR A FOOL WAS WORTH IT, PHILIP!! GUARDS!!" As if being summoned out of thin air, two heavy footsteps of the iron dressed guards came stomping down the hallway and like an idiot he looked back to her with pleading eyes. "Vanessa! I wasn't I swear to you! I was merely paying her for the flowers n-not giggling at her jokes! AAH!!" He yelped in fright when he was suddenly surrounded. two giant armored arms snatched him and wouldn't let go! She giggled without any humor. "Oh, Philip. You played me the fool for so long perhaps a punishment is in order for you. Take him to the celler and CHAIN HIM!!! I never want to see his face again.....And then seeze the florist. No crime against me shall go unpunished." WHAT?! POPPY!! "W-WHAT?! VANESSA, PLEASE NO!!" Two arms latched onto him and no matter how much he kicked and struggled he couldn't get out of their grasp. The flowers dropped to the ground as he reached out for her one last time. Her tears forming deadly ice to match her cold heart. "P-PLEASE!! DON'T HURT HER!! SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! VANESSA!! NOOOOO!!!" He weeped and weeped when he was painfully suspended in the air by his wrists. The coldness taking over him as he hiccuped and mumbled to himself and choked on those tears. He didn't know how long he stayed down there actually. TIme flies when you couldn't see what was happening but he was sure he never stopped crying for all that time as he got weaker, and weaker. Just getting colder and colder as the cold seeped into his very core...he was almost gone. Looking back up towards the ceiling and through his tears he wondered what was going on up there. He couldn't hear anything but he hoped Poppy was alright. He'd never forgive himself if Vanessa did anything rash. He hiccuped. His beloved queen. This was all his fault. "I-Im sorry. IM SORRY! IM SORRY!! IM SO SORRY!!" He yelled to the empty air knowing full well no one could hear him. But Vanessa was not the one he was apologizing to. The maiden of feiry red hair and ocean blue eyes. "I-Im s-so sorry, Poppy. *hic*" The cold crept further and his body felt light, somehow his shadow was extending, his life force fading into it as those handsome brown eyes closed to the darkness and numbing- "I-...love-..." The shadows and darkness consumed him. The shadow enlarging and morphing and contorted into a being of power and enhanced abilities. A gasp escaped the creature as it looked down at itself. At the same time moonlight shown through the window and what was left of the prince and his willpower faded away into the moonlight, so when the creature looked behind it, the prince was gone from the chained wall. The prince with his heart split into two by his heart splitting between two and found attachment in two very powerful elements of dark and light. Moonshine and shadows. The creature looked down at his new self....feeling his grin widen and a powerful laugh that many would come to fear vibrating around the basement of his new found freedom. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!'' *************************************************************************************************************** "GAH!!" Something wacked his head and he immediately jumped to the air. If he still had lungs he would probably be panting and looking around wildly around the room he was in. No cold walls caging him in. No coldness seeping into him. No Vanessa or chains or....Poppy. Instead a small pale little girl was staring up at him with concern as she watched his confused face darting around the area....He was on her ship. Her strange cute ship of the small seven year old in front of him. He had been laying on the pile of pillows she had and looking around the area as if he was afraid for a moment. Before he sighed in releif and reached up a clawed hand to rub at his head and hair. Staring down at the little girl standing upon the pile of pillows, holding one dangling in her hand, which he guessed must've been the thing that wacked. He sighed again and slowly lowered himself down look at her better. "Kid. It's already pass your bedtime probably. What are you doing up?" Her head tilted and those blue eyes blinked at him before a tiny hand reached out and poked his face where a nose should obviously be if he was human and he rose a brow. "Boop!" "....Did you really just wack me with a pillow for THAT? Kiddo, you should really find better reasons to wake me up." Two clawed hands gently reached down and picked her up from under the arms. She dropped the pillow from her hold and instinctively wrapped her arms around him as he floated her back down to her bed, the covers were already pulled back from her getting up and her friend snored away happily on the floor next to her bed....He made a mental note to get her a bed sometime. Bow couldn't be expected to keep laying like that on the hard floor, he gently placed the young child on the bed and went to pull the covers back over her- "You were mumbling something funny." She said making him stop and blink at her. "Oh yeah?" She nodded. Dang nightmares. He barely had any, but he still got the occasional blast from the past. Wasn't being a cursed prince fun? He pulled the blankets up and she snuggled down with her stuffed toys he hand crafted for her. "And uh..What exactly did you hear me say?" She shrugged again as she was recovered and he started tucking her in. "Your head was in the pillows." He went to roll his eyes when something grabbed onto his hand. And he looked at her wide excited smile spread across her face. "Can you tell me a story?" "Squirt, I already read you the one you wanted with the space unicorns," he grumbled remembering the ridiculous book the girl begged him to read to her. "Yeah. But I always sleep better with a story, and if I don't sleep I'll get up and bother you again." She gave him that cat lipped smug face and he groaned lifting a hand to rub his face and look down at the child in the bed. Before sighing and giving in. She was right. He'd done this too many times to not expect a sudden pillow attack from the hyper story deprived child. "Fine." He turned back to the bookshelf by her bed and looked over the many childish covers. "Which one do you want now? Space Adentures? Starella? Planets and Star Maps?" "Your story!" He paused, and snapped his head to her wide eyed. "What?" She giggled and turned to her side yawning a bit before speaking. "I want you to tell me one of your stories." ..."My stories eh?" She nodded and he hummed. That..wasn't a very good idea. All the books he read were either lawyer/law books (what better way to help make his contracts better) and scary or mysteries books that were uh...N-Not suitable for children her age lets say. Plus he didn't have any on him at the moment so he guessed he could just make one up? How hard could making up a story for a kid be. She'll fall asleep if he just told her a story about a talking flower making friends with a bumble bee. His hand reached up to rub at his head again before looking at her now clutching the C.A.W agent plus he made her after telling him her adventures in the movie studio. ..."Ok, Ok! I'll tell you one I witnessed a long time ago....In a book. But you gotta promise to go to sleep." She hummed 'Mmm-hmm' and smiled patiently at the ghost who groaned and rolled his eyes again. Why was he doing this?...Well he just had a nightmare about his death-again- and talking about it even twisting the details sounded nice. Not that he'd ever admit it to the little girl. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful flower Princess named Poppy, and a-" "Pop? Why is she named after a soda?", the kid interrupted blinking confused and he scowled. "Not 'soda pop'. Poppy. Poppy is a kind of flower on this planet, Kid. Now don't be a rude little lady and let me finish the story unless you want to be grounded from them." She shut up and curled back down into the covers to his satisfaction. "Good. Now like I was saying! There was a flower princess POPPY not soda pop, an evil which named....'Veronica', and a stupid, stupid king." She raised her hand like in a classroom. "....*sigh* Yes?" "Why was he a stupid, stupid king?" "You'll see. Now" He grabbed her lamp and pulled the shade off, letting more light flood everywhere and she blinked at the sudden brightness, which a snap of his powers shadows slithered up the wall and formed the outlines of three people. Two women with their dresses and one wearing a witch hat, and a man wearing a crown. They moved as he talked and she watched amazed. "You see. WAY, WAY back before your great granny was even born there was these three. Like I said the Flower Princess was very beautiful. Her hair was a rose red and her skin was as soft a-as their petals. She had the most wonderful patience listeningto her friend The Stupid King, and his p-problems...."His face saddened for a moment as the king and princess shadows held hands platonically...."B-But..she didn't know the king was in love with her. You see...He was too cowardly to tell her or anyone else because he was betrothed to the Evil witch Veronica-" ANother raised hand. "...Yes?" "What does 'betoofed' mean?" "Betrothed, Kid. Not betoofed. You know contracts right? How you legally have to follow them because you promised to?" She nodded. "Well basically means the Stupid King promised to marry the witch a long time ago." ..She cocked her head. "But he doesn't love her. That's not like Starella and the Milky Way Prince. They fell in love before they got married." He chuckled. Even a seven year old could clearly see the stupid logic in arranged marriages and she didn't even comprehend them yet. And his situation, but he shrugged before making the king turn around and ....ECK!! Kiss the hand of the witch who looked like she was giggling. "Well, you're wrong. He DID love her. A long, long time ago before she became evil." "Why didn't he break with her like in the movies?" He shrugged. "Promises are sometimes h-hard to break for some people. And he still cared about her in some way, the witch was really, really pretty too, and I guess he just couldn't see past her beauty and wanted to try and make things right." "That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship." She held up a hand in knowing. "Conductor always says*ahem*!!" She tried to do a bad impression of the old bird and he smiled. "Lassie! If ye ever get yerself whatever the aliens call a wife, at thee first sign of trrrrrouble ask 'er if she loves the money ya makes with mah' movies. If she says yas, she's a no good golddigger and leave before she takes ye kids and house and most of ye money too!!" He laughed a couple times and Bow stirred in her sleeping bag. Not waking up but almost as he stared at the proud Hat child. "Well that's good advice kid. But she wasn't a golddigger-"....His face slowly contorted to a scowl and looked down. "She was in love with a fairytale. She loved the Stupid King for being like a King from a story. She never loved him for who he really was as long as her fairytale wasn't tampered with. She was clingy, selfish, nothing was never good enough unless it was expensive, and she demanded all his attention all the time. ....Until one fateful day-" He waved his three fingered hand at the shadows and it contorted until it showed the witch with slated eye holes and the king and princess holding hands....platonically of course. "The witch saw the King And Flower Princess holding hands...AS JUST FRIENDS." He stressed. "Nothing romantic. Just two friends holding hands for a little bit. And she got really, really jealous. In fact she got so jealous-" The shadows contorted to the king looking sad behind a cage. "-she blamed him for breaking her heart and locked him away forever. And then she-" The shadows again contorted to show the witch still angry and this time over a cauldron. "-cursed the Stupid King's and Princess's kingdoms. All the plants died, all the animals ran away, and everyone...." he couldn't say they froze to death! "..T-They moved on from there. But karma struck her good and-" She raised her hand again. "...What now?" "What's 'karma'??" "It means he got revenge. Justice? Whichever one you wanna call it." The shadows formed to show the king opening the door to the cage and running. "The Stupid King managed to escape and get free, but the Witch's spell backfired. She cursed herself too and was trapped forever in her home, the black magic keeping her inside the cave she dug, but it was too late. The Princess was gone and he never saw her again. The shadows formed one more image of the King holding a flower with his head down in shame." "WHAT?!" Bow stirred again and Snatcher shushed her. "He never saw her again?" She asked more quietly. "But that's not fair! He loved her so much!" He shrugged sadly and put the lamp shade back on, making the shadows disappear and he sighed, "It's not all bad. He's free and he got to go rule again without worrying without pleasing anyone else. Not all stories have a happy ending kid, even if it's half decent like this." He stared down to the floor with a frown...before reaching over and ruffling her hair which she giggled at. "It's also a very important lesson. Don't let yourself be blinded in bad situations and don't let someone use you like that. Ok?" "I'm never gonna fall in love! Yuck!!" She stuck her tongue out and he smiled. "Good, good. You don't need to fall in love when ...well you're stuck as a kid for all eternity with me now don't you?" "NOPE!! I don't like that mushy stuff anyways!" He smiled wider. "Good. Good. Now go to sleep. I need all the energy you can get to fix the well tomorrow." She giggled again but yawned and slowly closed her eyes and snuggled back into the blackets. As he smiled he looked back to the giant windows, as he looked to the darkned and frozen abyss of the planet they were above a frown slowly returned to the ghostly prince's face as he slowly floated over to the window. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and he sighed once again. "Sorry, Princess. I had to be the stupid king to do that." "Snatcher...I can't sleep. Can I have a glass of water?" The Kid's voice piped up again and he chuckled. "Sure, kid."

#Snatcher #Florist #Hat Kid #Bow Kid #Vanessa

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micebrandy29-blog · 6 years ago

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30 favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products

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This updated list of my favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products highlights some of the store’s must haves. Items include pantry staples, refrigerated sauces and spreads, enticing frozen items, as well as tasty snacks and treats.

(Want to take this list with you to the store for easy shopping? Scroll to the bottom for a printable list!)

Going to Trader Joe’s is like a treasure hunt. You never know what you may fall in love with at your next visit. New and exciting products appear on store shelves in regular rotation.

But being a TJ’s fan is also a lesson in detachment. As soon as you’ve found a product you love, it may be discontinued.

Products are taken off the shelves because they’re seasonal, not selling well, or for quality control reasons. So when you like something, you’ve got to buy it and enjoy it while you can. Some products stick around for years, others for just weeks.

Today I’m sharing an updated list of 30 favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products. I had to remove some items because they’re no longer sold at Trader Joe’s. And I had to add some of my new favorites since the last posting.

Green jackfruit

Obviously, you can buy young green jackfruit other places. It’s available at Asian grocery stores, in addition to natural food stores. But it’s very handy to buy at Trader Joe’s when I’m doing my regular shopping run.

And for people who are confused about which jackfruit to buy for savory dishes, it’s an easy place to point them.

This green jackfruit packed in brine works well for things like vegan BBQ pulled pork. And there are lots of vegan barbecue sauce options at Trader Joe’s that you can use for it.

Here are my favorite ways to use Trader Joe’s jackfruit:

Alvarado Bakery flax seed bread

For years Alvarado Bakery flax seed bread was our regular sandwich bread. We always had it on hand. So I was delighted when it popped up at my local Trader Joe’s recently.

This grainy bread is made with sprouted organic whole wheat berries, filtered water, wheat gluten, sprouted organic whole flax seeds, oat fiber, cultured wheat starch, organic dates, yeast, organic raisins, sea salt, and sunflower lecithin.

Two slices are 100 calories.

Plus, when there’s an orange cat on the label, you know it’s going to be quality.

Use flax seed bread for:

Amba mango sauce

The surprising thing about this mango sauce is that it isn’t sweet. It’s a silky, savory sauce made with fermented green & ripe mangoes, garlic, salt, turmeric, paprika, and spices.

I’ve been using it as a dipping sauce with vegetable pakora, or on top of toasted pita with falafel.

When I’m making a quick stir-fry or curry, I also like to add a squeeze for some underlying warmth.

Dukkah

Dukkah disappeared from Trader Joe’s shelves for a while, but now it’s back.

To use dukkah, fill one small dish with good olive oil. In the next, pour some of the dukkah.

Then dunk warm, crusty bread first into the oil, and then into the dukkah. The dukkah clings to the oil.

When you bite into it, you get the nutty flavors of almonds & sesame seeds. There are undertones of sausage & licorice because of the fennel, anise, and coriander. Finally, there’s kosher salt, which makes it all the more snackable.

Use it as a topping for hummus or toss it with roasted potatoes.

I used to always make my own dukkah. And if you have Vegan Eats World, I highly recommend her dukkah recipe. It’s incredible and definitely better than the TJ’s version.

But for only $2.99 to have it made and ready to go, it will probably be a while until I make my own again.

Everything but the Bagel seasoning

If you’ve ever had an everything bagel, you know what to expect with this seasoning mix. It’s a combination of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sea salt flakes, dried garlic, and dried onion.

I use it several mornings a week on my vegan avocado toast, along with a generous sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes (also on this list.)

You can also add it to non-dairy cream cheese or as a topping on hummus. A lot of people like to add it to their popcorn or an air fryer baked potato.

Garlic chipotle salsa

I usually prefer fresh salsa, but this jarred garlic chipotle salsa has become my newest obsession. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to the salsa doled out at Chevy’s Mexican Restaurants, which is one of my favorites.

This smoky salsa is rich with the flavors of roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, and chipotle peppers. I would classify this as a fairly mild salsa.

One downside is that it’s a little on the watery side.

Nutritional yeast flakes

Buying a big canister of nutritional yeast flakes can get pricey. However, a bag of nutritional yeast at Trader Joe’s is only $2.99.

And unless you’re making massive amounts of vegan mac & cheese, it will probably last you a while. (And if you are making massive amounts of vegan mac & cheese, invite me over, okay?)

What is nutritional yeast? <— Find out here

Use Trader Joe’s nutritional yeast flakes in:

Organic shredded red & green cabbage with orange carrots

Sure, you could easily shred a head of cabbage yourself. But this shredded cabbage mix is a terrific shortcut.

And since cabbage and carrots are relatively dry vegetables, this mix keeps well in the refrigerator for a while without going bad.

Ways to use shredded cabbage mix:

Steamed lentils

Lentils aren’t hard to make from scratch. And they only take about 30 minutes to cook.

But you know what’s even easier & faster? Opening a package of fully cooked brown lentils that are ready to go.

A lot of lentils are packed into a pouch. It contains five ½ cup servings.

These steamed lentils are a refrigerator staple for me.

Use steamed lentils in:

Zhoug sauce

The first ingredient in Zhoug sauce is cilantro. So if you’re one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap, stay far away from this one.

Zhoug is a Middle Eastern sauce that reminds me of what would happen if chimichurri and cilantro chutney got together.

Some call it a “Middle Eastern pesto.” However, it’s a lot spicier than your typical basil pesto fare.

In addition to cilantro, this spicy sauce includes canola oil, jalapeño peppers, chile flakes, garlic, cardamom, sea salt, and cumin seeds.

It is great with vegetable samosas as a dipping sauce. I also like to add dollops of it to stir-fries at the end, instead of chopping a bunch of cilantro. It also has a spicy kick that brings some heat.

And when I’m making my favorite easy hummus recipe, adding a dollop or two of Zhoug sauce adds a spicy zing. It is also tasty alongside falafel.

Thai vegetable gyoza

These veggie-packed envelopes of deliciousness have won over everyone I’ve served them to – from grandparents to grandkids.

There’s rarely a time when I don’t have a bag in the freezer ready to go for a quick snack, or to use as a side dish to a stir fry. Of course, they also have a starring role in vegan potsticker soup.

Filled with cabbage, carrots, chives, white radishes, onions, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce, they have a great taste that isn’t too overpowering.

These days I usually fry them in the air fryer (400 degrees for 10 minutes with a spritz of oil, stopping once to shake.) However, they’re also great fried or steamed in a skillet.

I like to serve them with tamari or Chinese hot mustard for dipping.

Vegetable spring rolls

Unlike uninspiring, cabbage-heavy spring rolls, these are stuffed with kale, edamame, tofu, and mushrooms. The wrapper gets delightfully light & flaky in the air fryer.

A simple noodle stir fry or easy fried rice is instantly more exciting once there’s a vegetable spring roll on the side.

I serve them with Chinese hot mustard for dipping.

(By the way, I also buy the bagged baby spinach & tri-color peppers shown above almost every visit!)

Grilled artichoke halves

I may be a little bit obsessed with these grilled artichoke halves.

I’ve been an artichoke lover for decades, but these grilled ones add a certain something that makes them totally craveable. The artichokes take on a smokiness from the grill and have those beautiful, dark grill marks that I adore.

Put them on a vegan cheeseboard, throw them into pesto, use them as a topping on pizza hummus or artichoke crostini, or slice them into an Israeli couscous salad.

Prefer water-packed artichoke hearts? (I usually have both kinds on hand.) Trader Joe’s has those as well, and they are delicious as an appetizer of fried artichoke hearts.

Organic kosher sandwich pickles

It may seem strange to put sliced pickles on the list, but when Trader Joe’s wasn’t in my area, I’d stock up with 5 or 6 jars when I happened to be near one.

They have a good dill flavor, crunch, and work perfectly for those of us who want our sandwich to include a taste of pickle with every bite.

Plus, they’re organic and only $2.99. That’s a really good deal when organic pickles can sometimes cost $5 or more. (It’s just cucumbers, people!)

Put them in a vegan banh mi sandwich, add them to vegan potato salad along with a splash of pickle juice, and use them as a topping on chili dog pizza.

Trader Joe’s hashbrowns

While I often make hashbrowns from scratch on the weekends, sometimes I want the delicious crispy crunch of hashbrowns without having to clean the food processor afterwards.

These hashbrown patties remind me of a certain non-vegan fast food establishment I used to visit as a kid. They are great with a tofu scramble. Don’t forget the seitan bacon & avocado!

Balela

Balela is a really fresh & simple chickpea salad made with chickpeas, black beans, tomatoes, and parsley.

It’s one of those things that would be easy to make at home. (I’d make mine with cilantro instead of parsley!) But on the other hand, sometimes it’s nice when you’re in a rush not to have to make something from scratch.

It’s tasty on its own as a snack or in a bowl with brown rice, avocado, and romaine.

It also goes well on a vegan cheeseboard along with dolmas, pickles, non-dairy cheese, Castelvetrano olives, and grilled artichoke halves.

Marcona almonds

Trader Joe’s is my go-to stop for nuts. I always have a wide variety in my lazy susan – peanuts, raw & roasted cashews, shelled pistachios, salt & pepper pistachios, gochujang almonds…

Two of my favorites are these Marcona almonds in truffle & rosemary. Marcona almonds are the best, because they aren’t as dry as your typical almond. I love their thin crunch.

These are seasoned and go beautifully on a vegan cheeseboard, with salad, or as a snack.

Plus, since they have a very specific flavor, it’s easy to be satisfied with a few. (That sounds like a back-handed compliment, but it’s true!)

Dolmas

Canned dolmas are another thing I would buy in groups of five whenever I went to a Trader Joe’s location out of town. Obviously they keep well in the cupboard. So there’s no worry about them going bad before I can use them.

I know that canned food often doesn’t inspire confidence, but these stuffed grape leaves are really good! They are tightly packed and firm, not mushy like some underwhelming dolmas you buy in cans.

I serve them on a vegan cheeseboard, with kalamata olive hummus, warmed Castelvetrano olives, or as a snack on their own.

Extra firm tofu & baked tofu

Trader Joe’s is my go-to stop for alllllll of the tofu.

First, my main, all-purpose tofu is extra firm in vacuum packaging. I like that it doesn’t require pressing before using.

It is a little drier than the water-packed kind. However, now I’ve been using vacuum-packed tofu for so long, I really don’t even notice.

Use super firm tofu for:

Trader Joe’s teriyaki flavor baked tofu is a good snack on its own straight out of the fridge. I also like to put it on avocado toast.

It is an easy to transport lunch with a salad or bowl. It also works well in a cooler if you’re heading on a road trip or taking food on a plane.

When I need a quick stir-fry in a flash, I like to cut the baked tofu into cubes and pop it into the air fryer until crisp around the edges.

For another baked tofu option, they also have a sriracha flavor, which I like a lot too.

Organic brown rice

Frozen brown rice is so darned convenient. No more waiting for rice to cook.

And you can use it straight from frozen when making a stir-fry. Just get your vegetables softened. Then add the rice straight from the bag into the skillet.

Ways to use organic brown rice:

Pico de gallo

I could go through a tub of this salsa in a day or two without a problem. It is nice and chunky with fresh tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

I don’t have to tell you what to do with salsa, but I will…

Ways to use pico de gallo:

Organic tomato basil marinara

Funnily enough, I always have spaghetti sauce on hand, but I rarely make pasta with marinara. More often I use it as a spread on bagel pizzas or a dipping sauce with fried ravioli.

It can be hard to find spaghetti sauce that doesn’t include sugar in the ingredients. I’m not a hardcore sugar avoider by any stretch, but it just seems unnecessary in pasta sauce.

So I like that the Trader Joe’s version doesn’t have any of that. The ingredient list is really wholesome.

Plus, it has a V for “vegan” right on the label. That’s super handy when you’re scanning the list of options at the store.

Monteli Organic Pizza Crusts

These frozen, organic pizza crusts have become a staple. They come two to a package, have a neutral flavor, and great texture.

They are all ready to go straight into the oven. No rolling required – just ladle on your favorite pizza sauce and toppings.

Lately, we’ve been making a lot of supreme-style pizzas with Beyond Meat sausage, Herbivorous Butcher pepperoni, bell pepper, and onions. It’s also an awesome base for a vegan taco pizza.

The cooking time on the package suggests 6 to 7 minutes at 420 degrees. I like to cook it for 12 minutes to get a crispier crust.

The ingredients are wheat flour, water, sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil, salt, malted wheat flour, dextrose, semolina, dried wheat sourdough, and yeast.

Under the allergens it says that it “may contain” milk and soy. Because I’m not allergic to dairy, I don’t worry about possible cross contamination.

Ridge cut potato chips

These potato chips are my obsession. (They’re #1 on my list of best vegan junk food.)

I hardly ever buy them, because once the bag is open, I can’t stop thinking about them. I love the balance of salt and pepper, and the crunch from the ridges.

Put them into a vegan packed lunch or alongside your favorite veggie burger for vegan grilling season.

For another crispy snack, their organic corn chip dippers have a wonderfully fresh snap that’s perfect right out of the bag or in vegan walking tacos. If you like Fritos, you’ll love these.

Mini Vegetable Samosas

When I’m making curry lentil soup or Indian fried rice, it’s fun to have a crispy, filled appetizer to serve alongside it. Enter mini vegetable samosas.

These flaky samosas are made with a phyllo-type dough and loaded with peas, carrots, potatoes, lentils, onions, and spices.

I cook them in the air fryer. They get beautifully crisp on the outside. Cook them in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes. Stop once to flip half way through.

I like to serve them with homemade apple chutney, Trader Joe’s mango chutney, or Zhoug sauce.

Frozen fully cooked falafel

Sometimes you just need a hummus bowl with falafel, dolmas, kale salad with lemon tahini dressing, sauerkraut, and brown rice.

I like to make my own homemade hummus. Then I throw some frozen brown rice in the microwave, whip up a kale salad, and make frozen falafel in the air fryer.

The Trader Joe’s falafel is on the dense side, but it gets the job done. They are very filling, and usually two are plenty with a bowl. That means that I can really stretch one bag out for a while.

To see more vegan items available at Trader Joe’s, visit the Trader Joe’s website. They have a rundown of some of their vegan offerings.

Want to take this with you to the store? Click here for a printable list.

Originally posted March 2018. Content, photographs, and printable list updated March 2019.

Source: https://cadryskitchen.com/vegan-trader-joes-products/

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immersedinm · 6 years ago

Text

Just a week ago today….

A good night’s sleep after a day of travel and a night filled with music can completely rejuvenate me. Savannah is such a beautiful welcoming city. The weather was perfect for the entire weekend and each venue was within blocks of each other. After a hardy meal and popping around in local Savannah shops, it was time for the music to begin. I began the evening early at 5pm with Esther Rose at Service Brewing Company. They were a new sponsor to the Festival and provided a wonderful wide open space for sipping and listening.

Friday

Esther Rose

Having Esther Rose begin my Friday festival experience was a nice choice. It helped me ease into the schedule of the many bands on my list to see. For Esther, living in New Orleans influenced her songwriting and some have dubbed it “the happiest saddest music.” She has a way of presenting simple, timeless country songs, with quality. Rose is a songwriter that captures feelings and emotion, peppering them with a good ol’ fiddle. The combo becomes easy listening at it’s best. Favorites of their set were “Jump Down Baby”, “The Money Tree” and I am not sure of the name of the song I captured in my snippet video clip, maybe new music or a cover….but I liked it!

The Holy Knives

The lead singer for The Holy Knives was dripping with charisma and had a voice that made me stop and take notice. Honestly, I didn’t plan to slow up from my next allotted band, but I couldn’t help it. So, I stepped inside the lovely outdoor courtyard of the Congress Street Social Club to listen. The Holy Knives have a debut album out now, which is sultry rock and roll, Year of the Black Dog. Brothers, Kyle and Kody Valentine, have the perfect combination of one providing nice guitar work, and the other deep brooding baritone vocals. Be sure to check out my short video clip.

William Tyler

When I was planning my Stopover schedule, I knew this was going to be a once in a lifetime experience. William Tyler’s guitar work echoes quiet thoughts of genius. He can pluck the strings a multitude of times while you simply blink. It is beyond phenomenal to experience live, because you can see the depth of concentration on his face and the sharp angled knuckles on his fingers created by years of practice. I will forever be in awe.

Performing alone, in a small room right beside a hip, upscale bar, he quieted the room. I almost felt cheated if I heard a whisper, or if someone quietly shuffled from the stiffness of sitting on the barren, glossy cement floor. I sat frozen in wonder unable to move. I wanted to simply listen and soak in the moment.

When Tyler would play guitar for a moment, then bend down to work on the loops, it was a mesmerizing interruption. I listened intently, hoping to somehow separate the live guitar with the recorded loops. It proved to be impossible, due to the layers and layers of guitar work and my inability to see the fast plucking of his right hand.

But as you will see in my very short video, both of his hands are in constant motion. His newest album, Goes West, is one for the ultimate guitar lover or a quiet Sunday morning meant for reading and broadly expanding the mind.

Dead Soft

Dead Soft was another band I accidentally stumbled upon, as I was traveling from venue to venue. I rushed by the outdoor stage, and as I listened, I had to stop. Dead Soft has the power to combine a punk-like rock with a pop sensibility making their music catchy and satisfying, but exposing wonderful, gritty edges. Check out their latest single release, “Porch”.

DJ Set

Here is the lovely view of the moon sliver shining over the Ships of the Sea outdoor venue. Their gardens are beautiful, even in the very early stages of spring. I am a nature and plant lover, so I notice every statuesque tree and every flowering bush.

There was a DJ playing a set in the main outdoor area. It was perfect listening for grabbing a drink and dinner from one of the food trucks parked behind the main stage. I was able to grab a quick bite and actually chat with some new found friends.

I loved that I would see some of the same people from venue to venue. We became quite chummy. I almost wish I wasn’t working at times because I would love to get to know them all a little better.

Case in point is the adorable gal who was wearing the bold mermaid bell bottom pants. I couldn’t help but notice her radiant smile and beaming confidence. I only wish I was able to capture the emerald green color which made them so fun. It was a quick photo, so I missed the opportunity, but had to post the aura of silly happiness! Rock on, Breanna!

I am not sure if any music writers really talk about all of the equipment these bands bring with them when they tour. It is incredible and it hurts my back just to imagine hauling it day in and day out. In my opinion, a band “makes it” when they can afford to hire others to help them with all of their equipment. I always wonder, how do they have the time to explore and develop their music? Blows my mind sometimes.

While I am on the subject of equipment….holy cow! This is just one tiny area of a complicated do-hicky. It is crazy to think these bands can perform without a hitch. There is so much which can go terribly wrong. Power to the stage builders, the power people, light controllers, the roadies, and the sound engineers.

Faye Webster

Faye Webster has a lush, silky sound meant for listening and maybe secretly shedding a tear or two. She has the uncanny ability to put modern day relationship woes into sultry soothing alt-country folk-pop. That is a few genres to describe her music, but it is difficult to actually describe. It is meant for listening, experiencing, and finding emotional connections.

The slide is her thing. Every song seems to have a solo slide performance, or a highlighted choral background. Faye Webster has a new album, Atlanta Millionaire’s Club, out on May 24th. There is no denying her love for Atlanta, with her Atlanta Braves jersey, the tomahawk chop chant as they entered the stage, and her connection to the Atlanta hip hop scene. Makes me Atlanta proud.

With all of the sweet vocals hinting at serious angst lyrically, it was a happy welcome quirky relief to watch her yo-yo on stage. She proudly declared she learned how to ‘walk the dog’. I never actually saw her accomplish it, but enjoyed watching her brother and bandmate’s face as she made multiple attempts.

The yard was packed!

Love this satisfied smile. Faye Webster is a force to be reckoned with and an artist to watch for 2019. She is going to blow things up!

Loved bumping into a friend of a friend at WUOG (Athens, UGA radio station has a strong pulse on the music of today). Will, the newest music director at WUOG, enjoyed Faye Webster’s set enough to allow me a snap of him with the setlist.

Deer Hunter

The Atlanta band, Deer Hunter, has been on my radar for many years. So, I can’t explain why I haven’t seen them live. My bad. My bad bad. Known for their experimental, thought provoking heady, psych rock which has an unusual lean into the catchy mainstream, they dominate the indie airwaves with their tunes.

Having them as a headliner at Savannah Stopover sweetened the deal for attending and covering it. Word on the street is they have been asked to visit Stopover for years, it was an impeccable fit. The timing couldn’t be better, so this year it was meant to be. They recently released their newest album, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared.

Crazily, they make the ultimate musical art out of decay and brokenness. Somehow it works magically, soaking me in, and helping me to lose time and place. Frontman Bradford Cox is the epitome of cool, thoughtful, and arty songwriting talent.

The concert began with trippy sounds and loops manipulated by the band and Cox. We all stood in awe, hushed and listened. Then “Cryptograms”, a retro 80’s jaunty chant, broke out. A 2007 charm which impressed the serious fanatic fans, of which there were many.

They soared the music to today and played their latest, “Death in Midsummer” to an eager young audience. Pleasing listeners across multiple generations, they began their set with a punch and we were all enthralled.

Deer Hunter has an incredible lead singer, but the entire band is truly a collective of talent and ingenuity.

One of my favorite photos of the weekend. I watched him play so solidly, quietly, behind the scenes and a giant speaker. He was almost hidden, but playing and working his craft deftly. Something to behold.

So for my dear friends and supportive family, I post this one for my other half. The guy in the shadows appreciating everything about my dunking him with crazy music, and his loving help and encouragement. He (the guy with the hat) waits in the shadows listening and letting me be strong and I love him for it.

Bradford Cox spoke to the attendees about their long tour schedule. They were coming to the end of a pretty grueling one. He spoke about his puppy at home and missing him terribly. Just one of the many things we take for granted. I understand on the Deerhunter rider (the band’s request of little extras) they requested a puppy to hold and pet. When I heard that, my heart grew three sizes that day…..

Well Wisher

It was a very quick visit to see Well Wisher, but worth the racing around. A punky rock, hip sound that is now….I only have a small clip of their set (“I Know Better”). Just know that her vocals are much stronger in their recorded music. My video is extremely poor quality. Go listen, I highly recommend.

Super Doppler

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What an incredible Virginia band and sound. I loved every minute of their set. They have a solid throwback sound catapulted to today. Poppy and Beatlesque they tend to please a crowd with their tunes. So well, that I witnessed a gal fawning on the lead singer so much she was a serious problem. Not pretty….It took multiple people to eventually escort her away. But in the fray, I witnessed a band trying their best, to be their best in a bad situation. They were awesome. Their music is a must listen.

Sun Seeker

Fairly new on the seen, Sun Seeker has a stage show that brings the listeners. Despite being from Nashville, they aren’t country. They are more pop/rock and produce amazing toe tapping worthy tunes. Totally enjoyed their set. Best song of their set is their newest release, “Good Year”. I am totally hoping it is off an album in the works.

Empath

Wishing I had more to welcome you to the ‘surf wave of noise’ that is Empath. They have a fuzzed out, trippy punk sound which is weirdly catchy, but incredibly edgy. They embody a sound you need to hear.

Pip the Pansy

Pip….I want to say trip. This moment in time made me feel like the world was tripping and not on its axis. Disco/Electronica in genre, she defied any pigeon holing. Purely dance joy and fun, I also witnessed incredible talent.

This gal could handle and sing NYC musicals or even Broadway. More power to her convictions in a struggling world. I only wish more were up late to experience the wildness. She possessed a vocal range which wowed and a performance which made me scratch my head a bit. Did I mention her magic flute?

I can’t help but share another video of Pip The Pansy. Behind her back she carried a flute in an archer’s pouch. When she pulled it out to play it was a curious fun addition to their unusual show.

Pinc Louds

Awwww Lawd, this wild group closed the night and brought the house down. Dancing, singing, jumping, and clapping, I saw it all and relished in a happy closer for the stellar day/evening of music. I knew to rip off any expectations and just experience their talent.

Part skit, mostly music, it was a wild evening moment. Watch and let me know your thoughts.

Dance fans also stealing the show.

On my long trek back to the hotel, I walked by the happiest bird. It was 1 am and that sweet bird was singing it’s heart out. Finale music that made my heart sing.

Listen.

What a day! One more day left to go, and the biggest day of the three…..I am so excited to share my final Stopover experiences. Stay Tuned!

Fab Friday at Savannah Stopover- Review and Photos of Deerhunter and 11 Other Bands You Should Hear #happystopover Just a week ago today.... A good night's sleep after a day of travel and a night filled with music can completely rejuvenate me. 2,225 more words

#HappyStopover #Dead Soft #Deerhunter #Empath #Esther Rose #Faye Webster #Indie Music Festival #indie rock #Pinc Louds #Pip the Pansy #Savannah Stopover #Sun Seeker #Super Doppler #The Holy Knives #Well Wisher #William Tyler

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