#I maybe spent too much money in Portugal

[ultimateaclrecovery]

Delighted with the fact that my new covered butter dish from Portugal means that I had room temperature butter ready to go when I made rolls 😋

[wileys-russo]

the summer tenant (1) II j.hermoso

its missing jenni hours, little mini series incoming the summer tenant (1) II j.hermoso

"sí sí sí i am forever in your debt león. happy?" you laughed, phone wedged between your ear and shoulder as you weighed your carry on, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't breach the limit for your flight.

"i will be happy when you finally come home!" your best friend whined making you roll your eyes. "my ass is on its way maría, and tu culo better pick me up later!" you warned, muting her for a moment as you stepped up to the front desk and gave your details, boarding pass printed and handed over.

"no i am not thanking you, i was getting my boarding pass. my stuff is all accounted for sí? it arrived safely?" you frowned in worry, this entire process having been anything but smooth.

"sí amiga, just like i told you yesterday and every other day you've asked everything is in boxes ready to be unpacked once you move, and there is just a few things and files and boxes still in storage at your old place in the garage." mapi promised as you exhaled, hovering by the security check knowing you'd need to hang up before going through, promising mapi to call her the moment you landed before ending the call.

you'd grown up in zaragoza, a few houses down from the dirty blonde you'd been practically attached to like a siamese twin almost your whole life. as you got older you'd moved to madrid to go to university, and then to barcelona for better career opportunities once you graduated.

though for the last three years you'd been living in portugal, a dream job when it arose far too tempting to pass as much as it hurt you to move away from your life, friends and family all still scattered around spain.

you of course returned home to visit but once you'd fallen in love the visits had been few and far between, your life becoming split in two as you had anchors tying you down in either country, admittedly maybe allowing the one in portugal a little too much influence.

which is why it hurt so much when that anchor was suddenly cut loose, almost drowning you in the aftermath of what you'd describe as your first real heartbreak.

so licking your wounds you found yourself with a choice, to stay and soldier through the tattered remains of your life in portugal or retreat back to spain with your tail between your legs and into the arms of the rest of your support circle.

the choice was one you probably made a little too fast once your best friend sweet talked the right people and popped up on her weekend off with a job offer and a plan, more than ready to drag you back home.

it hadn't been the easiest of processes, you'd given your two weeks in at your job which turned into four and then into six so you could adequately train your replacement and smoothly handover your client list.

right after the breakup mapi had convinced you to let her rent out your old place in barcelona for some extra income while you weren't sure how long you'd still be in portugal, your now ex quite the well respected lawyer meant you'd come off with much less than you deserved in assets after the split.

you were crashing with a coworker and slowly shipping your belongings home to meet you whenever you could finally leave all this mess behind you.

though really your old place was too large for just you and though you were returning home you wanted a fresh start which meant a new place, mapi offering for you to stay with her while you searched for the right one.

between her and her girlfriend they technically had an apartment each in the same building, though they spent majority of their time in ingrids which was set up best, mapi's used more as a storage locker which is why she was more than happy to let you stay there temporarily.

and with all sorts of tourists flocking to the warm beaches of barcelona for the summer it made sense that you wring out a little extra money from your old place before putting it on the market.

so now finally free from all that tied you to portugal bar a few friendships you suspected may eventually die out with the distance, and almost all of your belongings safely back in spain, it was time for you to join them.

"estás bromeando." you snickered in disbelief as you exited the terminal, spotting the sign and balloons right away and praying they weren't for you. but of course knowing your family, no such luck.

"i am suddenly wishing i lied about which flight i took." you called out with a shake of your head, a cheeky grin and a blur of tattoos and tan skin darting in front of you before a body was slamming you nearly to the ground.

"hola amiga." you exhaled happily, squeezing the footballer just as tightly as you gave her girlfriend a wave who was hanging back with a smile. "mejor amiga." mapi corrected, pulling away and sloppily kissing your cheek making you grimace and push her away.

"you drove all the way here to pick me up? i told you i could come see you on the weekend!" you laughed at your parents, knowing it was almost a four hour journey from your childhood home where they still lived to the airport they were stood in now.

"it has been many years we have prayed for this day hija, let us enjoy it." your mami smiled warmly as you hugged them both next, exhaling happily at the rapid spanish which floated around the air.

you greeted ingrid next, having met the girl many times despite no longer living here, often teasing your best friend that should they break up you'd actually take ingrids side since she was so lovely, but really you adored seeing her so loved up and well treated by the norweigan.

"welcome home from prison? maría!" you groaned, the defender hiding behind her girlfriend making both yours and ingrids eyes roll. "it was his idea!" her finger reached around and pointed to your papi who shrugged with a smile that said it all.

~

"and you told her i was coming to grab some things?" you clarified with mapi who hummed in confirmation. the footballer had been doing the majority of the communication with your tenant in your old place considering until now you'd been in another country and she had set the whole thing up anyway.

you'd tried to offer her some money for all of her help which all that earned you was a firm punch to the arm and a warning not to be stupid, reminding you that family always helps family and doesn't expect anything in return.

"sí sí she said she wouldn't be home anyway, and you are only needing to access the garage so you will not be entering the house." mapi assured as you nodded, telling her to text you what she wanted you to grab from the market on your way back before ending the call.

stupidly mislabeling a few boxes had meant you were missing a large amount of clothing, and though both ingrid and mapi assured you were free to wear anything of theirs you already felt like you were asking too much of them staying with them anyway.

besides a lot of your more work appropriate clothes were what was missing and due to start this new role in a few days time and anything but a patient woman you were quite eager to get your ducks in a line.

"oh come on!" you grunted, having twisted the key in the garage door but struggling to pull it open, something that had pained you for years. a waterfall of curse words fell from your lips as your frustration grew and you strained to tug it open, hope fasting fading.

"you know robbers do not usually make so much noise?" you jumped at a voice behind you, dropping the door and spinning around with a startled expression.

"lo siento. i am not a robber, i am-" you tried to explain but the taller girl waved off your words. "the owner, sí? i spoke to mapi this morning." she smiled charmingly, pearly white teeth bared in amusement.

"i am jenni, your tenant." she added on with a grin holding out a heavily tattooed hand as you nodded in understanding and properly introduced yourself. "trouble with the door? there is a trick." she held up a finger and nodding for you to move aside.

you frowned curiously but did as she asked, watching as she twisted the key and popped her shoulder into the door, your eyebrows shooting up nearly as fast as the door was opened. "fácil!" she winked and gestured inside.

"i lived here for nearly five years and-" you mumbled with an annoyed huff. "-and i live here for a few weeks and know all the tricks." jenni laughed, hovering just outside as you squatted down and began to move through boxes.

"something like that." you sent her a smile over your shoulder. "i promise i will get everything out soon, my car is still in portugal and its the last thing to come back and-" you stopped yourself realizing a complete stranger would be the last person to care.

"and i do not need to be wasting more of your time, lo siento." you shook your head, finding the box you needed and tugging it up and out. "no need to apologise. you are from barcelona?" jenni asked curiously as you shook your head.

"zaragoza, but i have been living in portugal for the last few years." you answered with a polite smile. "mm then how did you end up with a house in barcelona?" jenni questioned, lips curled upward and eyes scanning you up and down.

"my mami taught me not to talk to strangers." you teased making her laugh. "so did mine but here i am letting one into my garage." jenni pointed out as you now laughed. "my garage, technically." you shrugged, noticing a large motorcycle in the corner of the garage.

"pulling the landlord card querida? vale vale. well i have paperwork we both signed though that says for another four and a half months it is my garage." jenni reminded with a grin to which you couldn't argue.

"do you ride?" you asked nodding curiously toward the bike. "what happened to not talking to strangers? i cannot ask how you ended up in barcelona but you can ask me about my bike?" jenni gasped mockingly as you rolled your eyes.

"well you just answered my question anyway." you smiled picking up the box of clothes and moving back outside as jenni effortlessly reached up and grabbed the roller door to bring it back down, something you needed a ladder for which was oddly attractive.

jenni herself was quite attractive, the way her bright eyes followed you and rose pink links curved into an alluring smile, not to mention each of her long limbs covered in even more tattoos than mapi as she was wearing only a pair of shorts and a plain white oversized shirt.

you opened your mouth to speak but were cut off by a second stranger who came storming out of the house, flipping the girl in front of you off and practically diving into a car speeding away making you frown as the other girl in front of you rolled her eyes.

"friend of yours?" you asked with a raised eyebrow as jenni shrugged. "something like that. would you like to come in for a drink?" the abruptness of her question catching you off guard as you opened and closed your mouth.

"i don't think-" you started, placing down the box as jenni cut you off. "you know if you have a drink with me, i will not be a stranger anymore. didn't your mami also teach you about manners and hospitality?" jenni challenged making you scoff but smile.

"my plans for the evening just ditched me, i already started dinner. it is rude to make someone eat and drink alone you know!" jenni tutted, stepping forward and picking up the box for you before you could protest.

"vamos, i promise i am a good cook and an even better host."

~

and as you woke up that next morning in a bedroom both familiar and unfamiliar, you knew her words to be true.

you could smell coffee as you rubbed your eyes and sat up, you heard the door open and tugged the covers up to hide your naked chest, jenni strolling in with a steaming mug.

"how did you know?" you smiled, always starting your day with coffee as the taller girl gave you an add look. "how did i know i wanted coffee?" she chuckled taking a sip as your cheeks flushed with embarrassment at your assumption.

"what time is it?" you asked with a stretch, bending down and snaking your shirt from the floor, slipping it over your head. "eleven, you really slept in." jenni hummed, leaning against the doorframe as bright green eyes drunk you in.

"sorry." you chuckled, completely missing the slightly awkward silence in the air as jenni stepped forward. "your box of stuff is by the door, get dressed and you should go." the girl shrugged, turning on heel and heading out of the room as your mouth opened in shock.

none the less you hurried to collect your clothes, pulling them on and following after her.

"you know landlords should not really sleep with tenants." jenni tutted with a smirk, pulling herself up and onto the counter as you forced your eyes not to roam her half naked body, flashes of last night where it was pressed against you flickering through your mind.

you scoffed and crossed your arms, opening your mouth to let her have it but she spoke first. "whats wrong bebé? not the normal coffee and breakfast waiting for you afterwards that you are used to? i am not that type of girl." jenni chuckled sipping from her mug.

"but last night we talked about so many things and-" "had sex? sí, and we both got something out of that no? now you should really go, technically a landlord cannot be here without the tenants permission." jenni smirked as you could only scoff.

not gracing her with another word you turned on heel and headed for the front door, hearing her footsteps pad after you as you made a swift exit. you paused as you heard a sharp whistle, slowly turning around.

"did you just whistle at me like a dog?" you asked in disbelief crossing your arms and making her chuckle where she leaned against the door. "you forgot your box." she nodded downward at her feet as you stiffened, swallowing your pride and making your way back toward her.

you glared at her as she simply smiled charmingly, sipping at her coffee as you picked up the box and turned again, storming down the path.

though a second wind brewing as you reached the end you shook your head, spinning to give her a piece of your mind but it was too late, the front door already clicking closed as you heard the turn of the lock.

"puta."

[lulutaylorsimaginarium]

The Chain

Summary: When the guys get stuck in a situation and hunted down by a drug lord. Frankie makes a call he really doesn’t want to make to the only person that can help them

Words:1,834

Warnings: “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the right age to handle mature themes. We handle our own triggers with kindness and grace

AN: Mind any grammar mistakes even though the story has been checked. The author is dyslexic and it is the wonders of her brain.

PART ONE

PART TWO 

She sat at the bar in an empty, hole in the wall watering hole listening to a song that she danced to in Havana years ago. It put her in a better mood thinking of the man she danced with. The man that had stolen her heart even though she hadn’t wanted to fall in love. The song and the memory of the man lessened the rage in the very same heart. She started to sway to the music with an impossibly sweet drink in her hand. Gabby couldn’t forget the predicament she was in and of course there was the man sitting beside her, sipping his beer

“Why don’t you drink?”

“Allergic reaction”

“Oh yeah?”

“I break out in hand cuffs”

Will didn’t believe her, but he let her get away with the lie. There was no doubt that Gabby was tough, but she wasn’t the normal type of tough. It wasn’t a rage filled tough. It was a stubbornness. It was a ‘watch me’ tough but as she sat beside him dancing to the music while still sitting her seat. She intrigued him.

“What’s with that smile?”

“Memories”

“Oh-uh”

“Knew a guy”

“Cuban?”

“Puerto Rican but we spent a lot of time in Cuba”

“Dancing in the streets?”

“Yeah. In Cuba, in Barcelona, Portugal”

“So he was smooth, huh?”

“You could say that” she laughed “Still is”

“What happened?”

“He’s an aid worker. It’s hard to keep a relationship going when you’re pulling people out of the pits a hell half the time and on the other side of the planet”

“I don’t know how you do it”

“I only did it for a moment in time. I’m too empathic. It took a lot out of me. Especially when we came across kids, you know? I want to adopt ‘em and take them all home. It doesn’t work that way”

“Now you organise?”

“Correct”

“I can see why Pope needs you. Even if he is an ass”

Gabby laughed pulling the tie out of her hair. The colour reminded him of a glass of red wine or maybe that was the green neon sign above her that was making it look that way.

“He is right about one thing”

“What’s that?”

“I do owe Frankie”

“From what I know. Which isn’t a lot. He was doing his job when he found you”

“No but he broke protocol. They deemed the mission too high risk. Especially where I was but he still did it. He could have been fired or lost everything. He didn’t even know me at the time”

“He wouldn’t have it any other way Gabby. He loves ya”

“Ugh” she sighed rubbing her forehead “Why did it have to be Costa Rojas?”

“We didn’t pick the target”

“Santiago did”

“Are you noticing a theme?”

“At least Costa’s base isn’t in Brazil. You’ve got some distance. How did you move the palettes anyway?”

“We had transit vans but the guys driving got shot up and so did the vans”

“So he dropped you off in the slums with that much money”

“No one living there would be dumb enough to steal it. Rojas knows that. They are also smart enough that if they see something they know thats not for them to know. They’re not going to talk”

“You’ve got me there”

“Did you really stab Andrews with a pocket knife?” he laughed asking

“He grabbed my ass repeatedly after I asked him not to do it. Damn straight I did”

“Why didn’t you tell Frankie?”

“I wanted Andrews to stop. I didn’t want him to die. Anyway. That was a long time ago”

“Even Pope would have stopped him” She gave him an epic eye roll which only made Will practically fall over laughing  “What is it with you two?”

“I don’t know. I swear I’ve tried to get along with him. I swear but he does shit like this. He thinks he’s smarter than everybody. God, even his breathing sometimes grates on me. He’s the most self-important jerk I’ve ever met”

“We’re not meaning to turn your life upside down, Gabs”

“But didn’t you guys do this a few years ago. How much money is enough money?”

“We didn’t keep it, babe”

“What are you talking about?”

“We gave the money we did get away with to Tom’s kids. They don’t have to worry about anything anymore”

She looked him wide eyed and silent for maybe the first time since she landed.  Gabby shook her head before a stream of swear words flew out of her mouth.

“I hate this and now I hate you”

“Is that a yes?”

“I just don’t know how I can help you”

Will nodded his head understood where she was coming from. He got why she didn’t want to use anything with the non-profits name on it. They helped people that really needed it.

“We’re up a creek”

“Walking away isn’t an option?” she asked

“Nope”

“God damn it”

They’ll have to hide it and then move it and hide it while moving it. If Rojas found out their end wouldn’t be swift. She didn’t want that on her head. She needed something that the locals and authorises wouldn’t bat an eye at. She needed transportation and she needed it fast. Will watched the clogs in her head move fast, impossibly fast

“Gabs?”

She covered his mouth with her hand

 “Shh, I’m thinking”

She moved her hand and grabbed her phone before walking outside.

He watched her walk back and forth in the sidewalk for a while. Making calls, looking up this on her phone she popped her head back in the door.

“Hey handsome, do you know how to hot wire a car?”

“Yes”

“Let’s go but it’s not going to be a quick trip”

Will didn’t ask any questions. He just did what he was told. With women like Gabby that was the safest way to survive. That was truth in Will’s experience, at least.

 

 

#

 

Gabby and Will had been gone for five hours, the sun was dangerously close to rising and there hadn’t been no word from either of them. They knew that Will wouldn’t leave them, well he wouldn’t leave Benny. Frankie was starting to worry and Santiago was starting to curse her name, in his head at least.

“What if Rojas caught up with them?” Benny voice all their fears

“We would have heard by now” Santiago lied

“I shouldn’t have called her, Pope”

“Well, you did Frank and here we are. Will wouldn’t jump ship”

“Either would she, man”

“We have to come up with another plan”

“They will be here” Benny told them.

Suddenly an old beat up people mover stopped outside the favela. Two squeaky doors shut loudly before the missing two were standing back in their doorway

“Honey, we’re home” she told them slightly seductively

“Where have you been?”

“Cleaning up your mess, Garcia. You bozos wanna come help us unload?” She tossed an empty hessian coffee bean sack at him “We are in Brazil after all”

“What if they cut them open, Gabriela?”

“That’s why we stole full bags of coffee beans Also. Place the real beans on top of the bags full of money. They’ll cut into the bags we want to them to cut into”

“Two more van are showing up at five thirty this afternoon. So we have to move” Will told them.

“Leave ten grand out of the bags for the vans”

“Ten?”

“Yeah Garcia. For five grand we were going to get endless questions. Ten grand brought silence. You okay with that?”

“Guess I have to be”

“That’s what I like. Gratitude”

She rolled her eyes as he walked outside. Frankie stepped in front of her before pulling her into a hug

“Thank you”

“You’re still in trouble but I love you”

They both walked outside holding on to each other for dear life. Everybody quietly unpacked the van of empty bags. The tension that they had all been choking on was leaving them but Santiago just couldn’t help himself

“Where are we going to take this coffee when we are finished here, oh wise one?”

“I haven’t figured that part out yet”

“If only someone knew some else in Puerto Rico” Will answered almost gleefully

“Nope”

“Sebastian” Frankie answered pointing at her

“No. We are not getting Seb involved”

“He would do it, Gab”

“Who’s Sebastian” Pope practically spat

“Her fella” Frankie teased

“He’s not my fella”

“Used to be”

“I don’t know where he is right now. He’s an aid worker for Christ’s sake. He could be anywhere”

“Could you find out though?” Will smiled.

“If any person is more connected than you. Its Seb” Frank pleaded

Gabby rolled her eyes before pulling her phone out of her pocket, playfully growling as she walked outside.

The group started packing the bags with cash as Santiago stood near the window, listening to the conversation. Her voice was softer, you could hear the affection as she spoke. That was until she walked around the corner.

He walked over to Frankie

“Can we trust this guy?”

“Absolutely”

“I don’t like it”

“We are going to need more people to get this home and he would do anything for her. He’s a good guy. You wanted her for her connections, right?”

There was an uncomfortable silence filled the room as they continued loading the cash. Before she was standing in the doorway again.

“Bad news is that he is in Honduras. Good news is that if we can get to Venezuela. He can store it for us until we make other plans”

“How much did you tell him?” Santiago asked, probably sharper than he intended

“I said that we are in trouble, and it was a no questions situations”

No one said anything.

She hadn’t slept, she was at the end of her tether and likely to blow. Instead of sleeping, she packed bags with cash.

#

There were three beat up, different colours vans rolled up at five thirty. Gabby paid an elderly man the money and waited until they were long gone before the guys packed the vans.  She lent up against the green building. She tried to help the guys carry the bags, but the guys weren’t having any of it.

Once everything was carefully packed. Dummy coffee beans placed on top and around, they all felt a tiny bit better. Maybe it was being on the move that made them feel safer. There was still just under five days of driving ahead of them.

Although the thought of seeing Sebastian at the end of all of it made her feel better.

She was pale, she was tired, and she was trying to cover it. 

Everybody piled into the vans before Frankie stood in front of her picking her up at the knees, tossing her over his shoulder

“I wanna drive”

“No way. You haven’t slept in a day. Forget it. You’re a passenger, Princess”

“Ugh” 

He placed her in the car and she was asleep by the time they left the city

[endofapaige]

Everything is Changing

TLDR; I fucked a boy, went on holiday, watched Dear Evan Hansen and got sad about my friends leaving for University.

I never realised how fast life can change. This time last year I was stuck in a rut. Leaving the house was few and far between, I was halfway through my A Level courses and everything had started feeling too real, I was starting to feel too old. I was starting to question everything I knew and trying to distract myself from it all. This time last year I wrote ‘it must be the best summer yet’ but seventeen-year-old me, with her new friends and so much of her life yet to figure out had never really experienced ‘real life’ before. And I suppose a year later, eighteen-year-old me hasn’t really either. Though while maybe, I don’t have it all figured out, I’m moving to a new city, I’m meeting so many new people, and a new chapter of my life begins; it has finally hit me that nothing is the same as it was. Ferris Bueller once told me: ‘life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it’ and ever since I first watched that film in a GCSE Film class in year 10, that has been the quote that resonated with me the most. It’s the one I believe to wholly be true.

Summer this year has felt different, I don’t know if it��s because we’ve all known it’s just 3 short months and everything we know gets obliterated into fragments of what once was. Or maybe it’s just because I’m so vastly different to who I was back then, not only in character but in passion and ability. I never thought for a start this blog would become an important part of my life, that it would become part of who I was to others. ‘The girl with the blog, the blog endofapaige’. It’s been this very blog that sparked the best part of this summer actually, but we’ll come back to that later.

There was a vast juxtaposition to the start of the summer and the head-banging stress that came with my exams. The day I finished, I was packing for a week in Portugal and in that week in Portugal I was wondering what to do with the empty space left in my brain. Schools spend so long warning you of the stress of exam season, but never once do they prepare you for the numbing emptiness when those exams are all over because it really does feel like you’ve lost your purpose in life. It’s tough to stare into the sea and know you’re meant to be relaxing but have your brain convince you you should be revising. Madeira is lovely though, the hotel we stayed in was one of the fanciest I’ve seen. If I were to go complete travel critic on you, I’d tell you that the food was definitely on the nicer side for the buffet style restaurants in holiday hotels. The hotel had four restaurants, a traditional Portuguese, Italian, the Buffet, and the pool bar. We ate at all four, and while yes, the Italian was clearly the worst (probably because we weren’t in Italy), nothing was disgusting. The Portuguese restaurant was actually some of the nicest food I’ve had in a long time, and the traditional Madeiran sandwich ‘bolo de caco’ was to die for. We spent the week alternating between walks into Funchal and sitting by the pool. In Funchal we spent more money than we should have on a cable car ride that wasn’t quite worth it, and I saw some lizards who I named Stan, Steve and Sebastian. None names I purposely pulled from my obsession with Marvel but all that fit as pointed out by my brother. I read two books in total: One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston, another queer romance that made my heart melt just like Red, White and Royal Blue did and To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo. A fantasy book that successfully relit my adoration of YA fantasy when I was in a phase of romance book after romance book.

Looking back on the holiday to Madeira, it doesn’t so much feel like it was part of my summer. It was my first week of freedom, and everyone else’s final week of hell so by the time I got home, it was like I hadn’t missed anything at all, like I had blipped from existence for the week. It was after then that summer began to get quiet again, back into my routine of waking up late, watching something I’d already seen on TV and walking up and down the stairs until something sparked in my brain and I was no longer bored. I saw Georgia a few times to break it up, the two of us sitting in my living room gossiping for hours about things I couldn’t even begin to remember now until we had nothing left to talk about and we put a movie on instead. I know we watched Dear Evan Hansen once, because with the start of July came our trip to London to watch it on the West End, a day I enjoyed so much I wrote an entire post about it in the days following. If you haven’t read that, which I think you should, it was incredible. The show is by far one of my new favourites and the day sparked a goal in me to live the big city life in London once I can afford it and have reason to.

A couple of weeks before held a University Open Day. My parents, brother and I travelling up north to visit the campus that will, though we didn’t know that yet, be my new home for the next three years. With Covid, I never really got to experience the university in a way prospective students usually do. Big talks, all buildings open, something going on everywhere you looked. Instead, we visited in the dead of winter when nobody was around. And even with no students and no atmosphere, I fell in love with it. So, we visited on July 2nd, the first open day for next year’s class of potential freshers, when everything was back to normal, and everyone was bumbling around. I fell in love with it even more. Ask anyone I know and they’ll tell you how I’ve never been more excited for something so utterly terrifying in my life. I’ve made friends already; I’ve researched and read everything I can about the city and the school and what’s tradition and what’s frowned upon. It’s the first time I’ve been so secure in my decision in something, and that in itself is horrifying to me.

Thor: Love and Thunder came out on July 7th, another marvel movie I saw on opening night, another one I had so many opinions on, said I’d share and then never did. Being a fan of the MCU has gotten hard, not because their content has gotten bad, though worse maybe, but because it’s turned solely into a money maker. What was so special about the MCU before the end of the Infinity Saga was that there was suspense. A film released, ties were loose, and we’d have to wait an entire year for the next release to find out what was going on. Now, we get new content almost weekly, so we don’t even have the chance to get excited. That ruins it for me. Thor: Ragnarok has always been one of my favourite MCU films, with the release of Love and Thunder and the return of Taika Waititi directing, I was obviously excited. But it’s hard to be now. The film was good though, great even. Gorr was such an incredible villain and addition to the storyline. They kept the stupidity that did so well in Ragnarok. But it got too much, it was too stupid, too funny, it overrun the genuinely quite heartfelt and traumatic plot points of Thor and Jane. Though not so much that I hated it. The end confused me, I don’t like Thor having an adoptive daughter, I don’t like that Korg’s story seems to be completely wrapped up, I don’t like whoever this Hercules character is and how they made it a big thing. I was clueless. But it was good.

The weekend after that began something I was not prepared for. A simple birthday party, a group of people I didn’t know too well, a mismatch of people in a situation that can never end well. I’m not one for partying and alcohol, you won’t believe that by the end of this, but I don’t drink much, I’ve never been drunk and being around people is hard for me. Yet Em’s 18th birthday party came and went and all of a sudden, I had so many friends, so many plans, and a boy on the scene. I’ll tell you now, developing a crush on a guy a couple of months before you move away is never a good idea. Not even when you’ve kind of liked him since January and he’s kind of likes you back just as much. Mutual infatuation or not, it’s messy and it’s complicated. And for us messy and complicated does not even start to cover it. But messy and complicated is exactly us, and we kind of love it. It was Em’s party that started it all, a fun night of me and Katie stumbling around Em’s house, I a bit tipsy and giggling at everything, Katie practically unable to stand straight. You’ll find even at house parties girls go to the toilet together, though in this case it wasn’t in fear of a potential Katie Bell in the Goblet of Fire moment, but more in fear Katie was going to fall down the stairs and kill herself. You’d never think you’d meet the perfect guy outside the bathroom. Or that your first real encounter would bounce off you trying to get another guy to remember your name and end in a joke about the Olsen twins. But that’s Jack, Jack who remembered my name having met me only once, Jack who bought up this blog to impress me, Jack who had planned to talk to me the entire night, did so for two minutes outside a bathroom and then disappeared while I was stood wondering what the fuck had just happened.

The party was messy, too much happened, but it fuelled the gossip for the next two weeks. The day after I was supposed to go to a music festival, we skipped that one. My social battery had started to fizzle and spark, the friend I was going with didn’t have a great night before. So instead, we sat in bed watching old YouTube videos we used to love.

Another party planned, and that one conversation outside the bathroom turned into an all-nighter and talking every day for a month. He drunkenly asked me out that night, we went out the following Monday. Two basically strangers on a date that neither of them actually knew was a date. It was fun though, he took me to a comic book shop, talked my ear off about characters I’d never heard of. I took him to a bookshop and did the same with the books I’ve wanted to buy but never got round to. He doesn’t read, that’s what he told me, yet we spent an hour in Waterstones. Him stopping and picking things up, flicking through them with a ‘this is so cool’, reading bits out and giving me facts a normal person shouldn’t know. I loved every second of it. We ended the day with a round of mini golf, the same place I went with Elly and Katie just a couple of weeks before which ended in an attempt to ask him out where I got ‘seen’ in response. He won the game, he’d talked himself up the whole day, but I won a free round on the 19th hole. So, who’s really winning Jack?

The 13th of August marked the end of the wait for my mother’s birthday present. Her birthday was back in March but my dad, brother and I all chipped into get tickets to see The Book of Mormon at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Another musical I loved. I truly believe the theatre is one of the things that makes me the happiest. The show was unbelievably funny, I had no idea what to expect going in because unlike Dear Evan Hansen I only knew a couple of the songs from the soundtrack and hadn’t tried to find bootlegs on the internet. It truly surpassed any expectations I did have, and even my brother enjoyed it which is not an emotion I knew he could feel. We didn’t stay long in Liverpool, we’d explored the town two years before, and me and Georgia had done so again the summer before this one. But I thought it was pretty cool I was back there almost exactly a year after I was there trying to take photos for my Media coursework.

Results day week was a fun one, the stress was overwhelming, but I did all I could to distract myself. The Monday was the date, the Wednesday was the best day of my life. Georgia and I ventured down to Watford and spent the day at Warner Brothers Studios, the making of Harry Potter for those of you who might not know. I’d been a couple of times before, I went with my family when I was 10, and with school when I was 13, but they had added and expanded so much since we’d last been, it was still just as magical if not more so the third time round. Most notably, they’d opened Gringotts’s bank with statues of the goblins and a projector of the dragon that the golden trio escape on in the final movie. They’d also opened the Herbology greenhouse and had a ‘Mandrakes and Magical Creatures’ theme where there were plaques everywhere quizzing visitors on their knowledge of the magical creatures in the franchise. I made it an unspoken competition between me and Georgia – I clearly won. We learnt to duel, we took a ride on a flying broom, we danced about in Bellatrix’s vault. I took more photos than was necessary, and I made everyone sit while I showed them all. The best day of the summer so far, no question, if you ignore the bit where we had to stand up, exhausted, on the train most of the way home.

Abigail and I spontaneously went to Aberystwyth earlier in the month, we hadn’t seen each other since she’d started a new job and I was apparently a social butterfly now. It was a Sunday night, and we were both free the next day, so we spontaneously booked the train and decided to spend the day at the beach. It was hot, and the day was lovely but there really isn’t much to see and do in Aberystwyth. We walked the high street, had lunch at the Wetherspoon’s, I pretty much finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. An INCREDIBLE book by the way, I’m currently halfway through Good Girl, Bad Blood. Abi slept over that night; I don’t remember us doing anything of note, but I do remember that she’s become one of my parents’ favourite people.

The day after Harry Potter was Doom’s Day, and the day after that was yet another house party. I spent the day in Birmingham with Emily and Eleni which was lovely. It’s hard pushed to get Len to come anywhere so it was nice to have the trio back again for a few hours. We just wandered aimlessly, in the bookshops, into Lush, Tim Hortons for lunch. All while discussing results and joking like we always used to in English. I went back to Em’s before the party, met up with her boyfriend and one of his friends and Em made us a makeshift Sex on the Beach cocktail that I don’t think anyone else actually liked. Then we were back at Elly’s house, the place the friendship group I’d seen so many times in the last few weeks had first met, back in Elly’s pretty kitchen with Katie and I not fully sober, where I spent the entire night thinking I was going to get kissed. I’d hugged more people than I’d ever hugged in my life that night, I was practically attached to Elly and Katie’s hips and if I wasn’t I had Jack’s arm around my waist. For someone who claims to hate physical touch, I really had a great night.

Another spontaneous plan found Em, her boyfriend Zakk, Jack, and I in a bar in Birmingham for a Marvel quiz. Zakk, Jack, and I have been huge Marvel fans for years, Em knows practically nothing about the franchise, but it was safe to say the three of us went in terribly confident. And by the end of the quiz we were still adamant we’d only lost one point and sure we’d get the bonus points for the best team name. In the end we came 4th, all three of us absolutely gutted. I still think we should’ve gotten the bonus points for ‘The Civil Whores’ was a tenfold better name than ‘MC. Mjolnir’, but I’m convinced the quizmaster had a thing for both Jack and Zakk despite claiming to have a boyfriend and wasn’t impressed when Em and I made it very hard to believe either of them were single. After an almost fight, being kissed, and successfully not throwing up on the bus home while Jack nattered about something I can’t remember, we made it back to Em’s where I stayed for the night. A sleepover one would call it if I’d actually slept at all.

That Monday was the Monday just gone as I write this part of the post. I’m now sat in a little cottage in Anglesey with my brother snoring beside me on our final night of a 4-night getaway. Knowing that it’s getting late, and words aren’t quite wording anymore, and I need to be up early in the morning for a 10am eviction. I’ll get back to you later, maybe soon, maybe just before I move. All I know is I’ve got a month, people are starting to leave, and I need to make the most of the time I’ve got left with all the people I adore.

I’ve decided Wales is not my favourite place, not for any particular reason besides my family holidays have always been in Cornwall or at holiday parks and there’s such a distinct divide between the bustling of children and entertainment and the quaint and peaceful villages like Beaumaris where in truth it’s mostly older people. Don’t get me wrong, Beaumaris was fucking beautiful, there were a plethora of adorable little shops, a bakery we could walk to every morning, a castle and the sea was just around every corner. The biggest problem we faced was the fact their only supermarket was a Spar, and in said Spar there was nothing in terms of substantial meals. So, we lived off crisps and peanuts. It was a good week though, the weather did us well until the very last day. I finished Good Girl, Bad Blood, which I read on a very cute bay window chair I talked about to my friends more than I talked about the actual holiday. I do have to say I think Holly Jackson has become one of my favourite authors, the second in the Good Girl’s series was just as entertaining and gripping as the first and I’m genuinely so excited to start to third, though I haven’t gotten round to that yet. This holiday ended in a situation my family are actually in quite a lot: my mother looking at puppies, my brother and I begging my dad to get a new puppy, and my dad getting more and more pissed off by the second until he shouts at us telling us to shut up. Difference is, he wasn’t pissed off this time. Mum had found a cockapoo puppy at a rescue centre in Wales, he was tiny and apricot and adorable, and his name was Jinx. I fell in love with him. We already have a dog, a black cockapoo named Bella who we got 8 years ago now and we all love her to bits. I tried telling them that because I’m moving away for university soon, they need a new dog to fill the void in their lives I will have left.

It worked. Well, something worked because the following Monday after we returned home, we were on a three-hour road trip to Many Tears Rescue Centre to pick up baby Jinx. He made a beautiful first impression, he trampled in paying no attention to Bella in the slightest (a good thing for us, Bella can get very aggy with other dogs) and just sat in his water bowl. Since bringing him home we have discovered he is in fact a stupid little fucker: his stubby little legs mean he can’t quite get onto and off the sofa, his huge paws just slip and slide all over the laminate flooring, he has run full pelt into the back door and he’s quite a big fan of trying to bite your feet. But he is the most adorable little thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and him and Bella don’t completely hate each other, so a complete win for us.

The Saturday before this marked Jack’s 20th birthday party, a night of lads getting drunk beyond coherency and screaming like a drunk group of lads do. It was a good night, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the shouting men. Though I never expected a 20th birthday party would end up with a group of 15 sat around watching the KSI fight on twitch, us having to swap streams every now and again because copyright would strike and take it down. Also, who’d have thought university drinking games would be so hard to wrap your head around? I sat around watching them play ‘beer goggles’ and ‘the triangle game’ for so long and for most of it I was beyond clueless of what exactly was going on. I grasped it in the end, definitely skills I’m going have to remember for when I go in a month.

Jack was round mine on the Tuesday following, I told him it was only because his birthday present hadn’t arrived in time, and I needed to give it to him. Though, I think we’ve both gotten to the point where we’re just making excuses to see each other as much as possible. It was the first time he’d been to mine, or over my way at all as he lives a twenty-minute drive from mine and everything we’ve done has been over his way. It was a pleasant surprise he said, because my city is very infamously a shithole. It was a good day though, he met the dogs and my family (which I’m sure he was just as terrified about as I was meeting his family at his party) and we watched The Social Network. The dogs were so distracting I genuinely couldn’t tell you what happened in it. However, the girl who plays Anna in The Vampire Diaries was in it.

He was here again on Friday, another day of movies though not nearly so distracting. We watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club, both movies he had never seen and both ones I believe are musts once in your life. He enjoyed them both which made me incredibly happy. One of my biggest joys in life is sharing the things I love with the people I love so I did watch him watch the movies more than I watched the movies themselves. That night we headed to my friend Molly’s house for a farewell party before she moves for uni. Another great night, I drank a bit, watched Jack play beer pong and pool and we played ‘For the Girls’ in which I was nominated most likely to become friends with Kylie Jenner and most suited to become President of the US. Both I completely disagree with. Jack and I walked home, while mine and Molly’s houses are only a half an hour walk apart, the walk back in the middle of the night felt like hours. Jack was also drunk, and it was awfully like I was walking home a five-year-old on the verge of crashing from a sugar high.

The day before Georgia and I tripped into town for some football boots. She met the dogs, we went to Nando’s, and then I sat for an hour in Sports Direct while she handed me boxes of shoes and tried on ten pairs just to end up with the second set she tried on. I decided that day that I’d be a great girlfriend, because I have such a supportive nature that anyone could drag me into anywhere while they shop or game or do something they enjoy, and I will cheer from the side-lines no matter how much interest I have in the situation at all. I like to see others happy, and I will do what I can to support that for them.

It's Sunday as I write this now, and last night I got drunk. Like actually really drunk. I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t quite keep my balance and everything was another level of hilarious drunk. And you could tell too, Katie and I stumbling around a Wetherspoons arm in arm laughing about something. I’m sure nothing was actually that funny. The night started off with a plan to go to a themed pub night and dance to old music and drink a lot. The pub was full of 50-year-old men, and the drinks were expensive, and the music wasn’t even that good. So, we ended up in Wetherspoons, drinking two pitchers each and gossiping about men. It was genuinely the most fun I’ve had in ages; Katie is one of those friends you can talk to about nothing for hours and it’s so mad to think this time last year I didn’t know her at all. That’s exactly what I mean by you never realise how fast life can change, because this girl who I barely even considered a friend 6 months ago, has now become one of my favourite people and it’s been the same with so many people I’ve met this year. Everyone’s moving next week, and it’s hitting how much I’m going to miss them. Life is starting to move really fucking fast, we’ll all be moving on, and I can’t quite decide if it’s a good thing or not that I’ve still got a month to go until I move on too.

I always mark Georgia’s birthday as the end of summer, because it technically is. Now Georgia has entered her 19th year of life, and I’m just 3 months behind her. Summer no longer feels like summer. My brother is back at school, most of my friends have moved into their uni accommodation now, Georgia starts her job on Thursday and Jack starts a full-time training programme tomorrow. So that leaves me, three weeks exactly until I move, left behind with nothing to do and no one to see. I started this post discussing how fast life changes, and reality has just hit again. This ‘making the most of the month I’ve got left’ has turned into ‘fuck I can see my friends 3 more times before I’m off’. It’s hit me now, that everything’s changing, and the excitement is beginning to be overrun by anxiety. I’ve made the most of the last week since getting drunk, Elly, Katie and I went to some 1920s mini golf arcade thing that was incredibly fun and I’m hoping to go with Jack before I leave. I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home in cinema for the fourth time, slept at Jack’s and then went back to his the day after I left to watch movies in the shed he claims is his house. The Queen died, that was something. And with the new week, real life is punching me in the face. I’m thinking the next three weeks will just be prep, settling back into the routine of Netflix and my bedroom, what summer has always been. Jack is staying over Friday night, Brooke is coming up on Saturday and we’re going to see Daniel Howell’s We Are All Doomed.

There’re still things to look forward to. But as Summer shifts to Autumn, the decay of the trees and nature to prepare for new beginnings is such a perfect metaphor for how I feel inside right now.

[thestarkerisobvious]

Sixteen - The Masked Librarian

amazing art work by @starker-sorbet​  A snugglefic for @mrstarksbabyy​

Sixteen

1 The Masked Librarian

After his sixteenth birthday, Peter used his birthday money to buy several notebooks and spent the summer filling them up with the facts he had gleaned from Tony, along with the books he had gotten from the libraries.  For fear they would be found, he wrote a lie in bold marker on the covers:  

                                                Novel Ideas:  

                                              Ideas for a Novel

Putting a timeline together with the information he got from Tony was impossible.  Tony was far more concerned with his duties around the farm than who was actually ordering him around.  

Peter’s constant questions finally made it clear – Tony had never been terribly concerned with whom he was serving, as long as he was fed and had a job to do.  Who was the son, nephew or uncle or son-of-the-uncle of whom ultimately did not concern him.  The title of “Master” wasn’t even passed on directly from father to son in every case, although it was, Peter finally ascertained, only given to a male blood relative of the original Post homesteader.  There were other problems, too, with the things Peter was being told.  Tony had no interest in years or wars or anything in American history that Peter could plot along a timeline.  Peter quickly learned there was no point in asking “which war?”  Tony had never understood which wars were which, just that men sometimes left for them.  To Tony, all the wars were “The War.”  To further complicate things, Peter strongly suspected that New York City was referred to as “New Amsterdam” by the Post family long after it was really called something else.

What he could find in the libraries was sparse.  The best he could find was the same stories they had been told when they bought the house: that two Post brothers had come from Germany and married a woman who was related to the royal family in Portugal.  That the boys were always taught German in honor of the patriarchs and the girls Portuguese, for the same reason.  That a Post had been a famous hero in the Civil War until he died by Direct Encounter With A Cannonball.  No other details.

Until the 1920s.  That’s when things got interesting..  The Post Homestead, at one time, had been a type of artist colony, which was to say, the sprawling Post family were famous for inviting artists to live, sometimes for years, as guests in their multi-generation household.    This had started out as a series of artisans hired to tutor the multiple Post daughters.  Over the decades this had become a tiny thriving community.  Mostly painters and sculptors, according to the books, but there were musicians too.  This had caused a conflict between the Post family and the town – for a period of the time the Post Homestead had been bringing in jazz musicians at great expense, much to the delight of the tiny artistic community.  To the town at large, not so much.  (Those of the African American persuasion were welcomed to come and work in Devil’s Hollow, but not “let the sun set” upon them.  The Post Family apparently did not share those same reservations.)

What happened after that was hard to piece together.  Tony wasn’t around to ask, and even if he was, he might not have known the answer.  But the death of Jedediah Post certainly must have been a turning point. 

Or maybe it just seemed that way to Peter because that was the most newsworthy event he could find.  Jedediah Post was a man of considerable wealth, and left a great deal of it to the towns around him, as well as three different museums in New York City.  But none to Devil’s Hollow.  The amount of art the family had amassed was significant, including paintings, sculptures and something called “art deco” which, as far as Peter could tell, involved a lot of very fancy furniture.  The donations were large and it was easy to track down stories about them.  Some of the museums in New York City he had even been to, although he had never seen the art in question (he was more of a Science Exhibit man himself) but some Aunt May had seen. 

The breadth of the donations was breathtaking, but mostly Peter’s research turned up bitterness and resentment.  Jedediah Post had left nothing to the Devil’s Hollow library, nor the museum (there had been one in those days) nor the school.  Apparently After-You-Die Donations had been a local phenomenon in Devil’s Hollow, particularly from the Post family.  That ended, it appeared, with Jedediah. 

Was there a reason?  Did Jed Post attempt to create an artistic community at the Post Homestead, and resent the town’s undue influence on whom he was allowed to invite?  Or did he simply make more friends outside the boundaries of the town than in?  And was that why the sprawling Post family all relocated elsewhere?  Whatever had happened, sometime in between the 1930’s and the 40’s the last Post son was living there completely and utterly by himself. 

Was he hated by the townspeople because he was a hostile misanthrope, or did he become a hostile misanthrope BECAUSE he was hated by the townspeople?   Whatever had happened, the Post estate had gone from a busy, noisy, bustling place to a house with one resident.  

Evan Post.

Evan Post… and Tony.

When Peter wasn’t pouring over his books he was remembering what it was like to be wrapped up in the arms of the thing that lived under the bed.  Which reminded him of his promise to the thing that lived under his bed.  He took long walks daily, getting sunlight and climbing every available surface that looked climbable, doing all those things that he had been promised would make him “healthy.”  Exercise by itself was boring, but the further he could walk the more wildlife he could observe.  The higher he climbed, the same.  Aunt May started to call him “The Spider” as he came home daily reporting all the wildlife he had observed from dizzying heights.  The exercise did him good, it made him hungrier at night and soon he had grown several inches and put on more weight.  He admired himself in the bathroom mirror, he enjoyed standing on the scale.  He was proud of his new body.  

He couldn’t wait to show Tony.

The long walks into the forest and the many hours sitting in trees gave Peter time to think about what life had been like for his friend in the years between Jedediah and Evan Post.  Which led to even weightier thoughts about what life had been like for Tony in the years between life in the monastery and life with the stylite Simeon the Elder.

Primarily, Peter thought about Tony, and what Tony liked to eat.

In the monastery, it appeared Tony and the others (the ones he called “us”) were fed just like guard dogs.  Or more correctly, like hellhounds.  They were fed on cattle and “infernal vapors” and, on rare occasions, people.  All until he was sent to live with Simeon on a pillar where he learned how to feed entirely on feelings.

Peter went over it in his head many times, the things Tony had said about Simeon and his other monk-lover, the one he had left behind without a single thought.  Simeon he had loved, Peter was sure of it.  “I was his beloved,” Tony had said.  (He had also spoken about touching, about pretending to be shy, about needing to be ‘taught.’  Peter tried not to think about that, but he did.  He thought about it a lot.)  

It was true, Tony might have loved Simeon the same way he loved the fields of cattle being raised to feed him, but he loved the man nonetheless.  Spent 12 years with him on a pillar, when he was supposed to be convincing him to return to the monastery.  Protected his ability to ask questions. Took away his hurt and his desire to hurt himself.   Lived on that, and nothing but that, until the day he was forced to kill the man.  That was something he could not control, Peter was certain, any more than he could control being after “sent into the ground.”

The next thing he knew, he was working in the New World.  Was he fed with farm animals, too, working on the farm as he did?  The only thing Peter could think of was the roaring twenties and the artists that lived and created at the Post Homestead.  The layout of the little artist colony was easy to see from his vantage points in the tops of trees or in his hiding place in the empty barn.    Barns, silos, and animal stalls had been razed and almost a dozen cottage-like guest cottages built by Jedediah in his day, only to be raized to their foundations by Evan decades later.  Had Evan despised growing up in that cacophony, unable to find a quiet place to himself, destroying all vestiges of it in his old age?  Or had he treasured that life, growing up in the safety of his title as son of the lord of the manor, removing the artists village when he finally understood he would never see the likes of it again?  Had he hated people as an old man because he had hated people all his life?  Of had he considered the composers, painters and sculptures the ‘normal’ people, and hated the people of Devil’s Holler’ because they were anything but normal?

Even knowing what Evan Post had done, Peter could still sympathies.  He himself had to go to school with boys his age who complained that the “for’ners, n-words and queers” were taking over the country, while he sat in silence and day-dreamed about the day he could go to college in New York City and be surrounded by “for’ners, n-words and queers” again.

Peter tried to picture it, sitting up in a tree and observing the whole of the Post Homestead.  A little village of people, creating, despairing, hoping, disappointing, arguing, loving, scheming, fearing.  And Tony underneath it, grazing on it all.  Tony spoke of feeding from artists after the work was done, or else the work would never get finished.  Did he know it instinctively?  Or did he learn through trial and error?  How much art was never complete because he fed too soon?  It couldn’t have been much, the finished artworks that DID come from the Post Homestead were legion.  Did the artists even know they were feeding Tony their light?  Was it voluntary?  Mandatory?  Tony remembered a grandmother that called him “a musa,” The Muse.  Did they think Tony was the cause of the art that was produced in this place, or did they realize he was simply growing stronger from it?

And where did the money come from?  The Post Homestead was an actual farm, and then one day it wasn’t.  Were the artists all brought here because Jedediah Post was a very rich man, and knew what he wanted to spend his wealth upon art?  Or did Jedediah invest his money into feeding Tony, which in turn made him a very rich man?

And how difficult was it for Tony, feasting on the light of sculptors, painters and controversial Jazz musicians, to learn how to live on nothing but the hate and fear of Evan Post?  What did that turn him into?  Tony readily admitted that he had driven off everyone who had come to live in the Post Homestead before Peter’s family, driving them away because all he wanted to drink was fear.  Couldn’t stop seeking out fear, causing the fear, even when he realized his own greed was driving away his only source of food.

And he had tried to inspire fear in Peter and his little family of three, Peter remembered.  When his quiet family moved into the vast house they decided, that very first night, that there was a good reason why the Post Homestead was considered haunted.  Their quiet country home was anything but quiet. It wasn’t as noisy as their New York City apartment, of course, but still not quiet.  Not only did floors creak and doors slam in empty rooms, but entire wings groaned and floorboards squeaked in the exact rhythm of footsteps.  The wind howled under the porch like an angry monster.  The first night in their new home not a single member of the family slept a wink.

So, naturally, the little family sat at the breakfast table the next and formulated a plan – a research plan.  That very day they set out for the tiny town library, got library cards, and searched out books on architecture.  When the library proved lacking they drove to the next town and did the same.  Soon Peter had a pile of books to read and May and Ben set out to fix up their Still-Quieter-Than-New-York-City farmhouse.  Peter found the books fascinating, had read them to May as she worked in the kitchen or Ben as he worked on the fences, but when those two ran him off he mostly he found himself reading out loud to himself in his room.

And, just like that, the noises quieted down.

The wolves, too, that had howled with alarming frequency when they first arrived (alarming because they had been assured there were no wolves in the woods anymore) dried up the very weekend Peter had come home with an armload of books about canines.  At the time it seemed to Peter that he had superpowers.  Whatever alarming phenomenon their haunted house produced, Peter could make it go away just by researching it.  He joked about it with Aunt May as he read to her about plumbing at the breakfast table (the obvious reason for the growling sounds coming from the basement.)  She called him “The Masked Librarian.” 

Now, he realized, he had been doing something else entirely.  Tony had lived on a diet of fear.  But Peter was only providing Tony with questions, the joy of gaining new information, followed by more information.  The thing Tony called “light.” 

Sometimes Peter wondered if Tony would be happier in a household with more emotional displays – Peter knew that “light” was not simply the positive emotions.  In addition to fear and hate, Tony fed on anger, sorrow and righteous indignation just as well.  But Peter’s little family had certainly put Tony on a strict diet.  May was stubbornly, sometimes grimly, cheerful whereas Uncle Ben raised his voice so very rarely Peter could remember every single instant.  Peter was by far the most emotional of the trio, reading books about pollution that made him cry, about endangered animals and acid rain that made him so angry he felt like punching the walls.  Tony had requested all of those kinds of books, had requested laughter and tears and anger and questions. 

Had requested everything but fear.

He had described Peter as ‘fearless,’ and in many ways that was true.  Maybe Peter had inherited some stubborn, determined optimism from the same ancestor as Aunt May, or maybe he had learned it hanging onto her apron strings.  In any case when he had first discovered that there was a voice talking to him from under his bed, fearlessness and determination had certainly served him well.

But now that the thing that lived under his bed had a name and a backstory, Peter certainly felt some real fears creeping in.

Especially as the season that Tony had told him to wait for came creeping in, a sixteen-year-old Peter was aware of some budding feelings.  His body, he was told, would be changing.  He thought he was prepared for that.  But he was finding, much to his alarm, that his brain was changing too.  Watching the foxes chase rabbits from his perch high in a tree, or watching the owls devour their prey whole from his hiding place in the barn, Peter poked at those fears gingerly, teasing around the edges.

All his life, it seemed, pretending the fear wasn’t real had served him well.   Now he wasn’t so sure.  Normally, when Peter Parker was alarmed by something, he looked it up at the library.  But he wasn’t sure there were any books on this subject.

So he did the only think he could have done, he reviewed it in his brain.  Reviewed everything he knew about Tony.  Everything he knew about the thing that lived under his bed.

As he went over the story in his mind, he found himself with two things that he decided not to label ‘fears’ after all.  He decided it would be more expedient to label them ‘regrets.’

Alright, three.  Maybe four.

[how-to-portuguese]

hey, hope this ask finds you well! I've been wanting to study EP (European Portuguese) for a while now but I can't find any resources available. I'd appreciate it greatly if you would recommend me any resources that you use (especially self-study methods that use the IPA, grammar books would help too!). thank you so so much and have a great day/night!!!

Hey! I know it can be really difficult to find EP resources, especially when you are starting out. I’ll give you a bit of background about my own journey and talk about the resources I have found along the way. (Edit: This is quite a long post, so the content is after the break.)

I started learning European Portuguese about 4.5 years ago. Like many others, I struggled to find good EP resources online, and so I ended up taking evening classes. I had a really good teacher and a very small class, and so the lessons helped me build a solid foundation. We used the Gramática Ativa 1 (A1/A2/B1) book by Isabel Coimbra and Olga Mata Coimbra and the Gramática Aplicada: Português para Estrangeiros (A1/A2/B1) book and the corresponding Caderno de Exercícios by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho.

I moved about 2 years ago and am no longer able to take the evening classes, so I have only been doing self-study in my free time. I am currently working my way through the Manual de Aprender Português 3 (B2) by João Malaca Casteleiro, Luísa Coelho e Carla Oliveira. I also bought the Gramática Aplicada Português Língua Estrangeira (B2/C1) book by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho and the Português Atual 3 (C1/C2) book by Hermínia Malcata, but I have not started them yet.

You can find all off these books and others by the same authors online at Bertrand.pt and Lidel.pt. Some of the book series come with CDs for you to be able to do listening exercises at home, which will give you some exposure to the pronunciation. I also bought the Harry Potter series in European Portuguese from Bertand last Christmas (there is a difference between the BP and EP versions!), and I think pushing myself through those books is helping me to reach a much higher level. I can really tell a difference from where I was when I started the Philosopher’s Stone to where I am now starting Prisoner of Azkaban.

I never had books on pronunciation since I took classes from a native Portuguese and my partner is Portuguese. However, I did a quick search on the Bertrand website and found Manual de Pronúncia e Prosódia by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho. I can’t say whether they use IPA or not in that book, but it might be worth looking into. I liked the grammar books by those authors, so the pronunciation manual is probably good as well.

I recently reblogged a YouTube video called The Secret to Understanding Portuguese Natives by Practice Portuguese. That video uses IPA to explain EP vowel sounds. It is about 40 minutes long, but it is worth the time. The Practice Portuguese team have a handful of other YouTube videos and podcasts where they have their viewers submit recordings of themselves reading a text and then they review it and provide advice.

There is also a Practice Portuguese website with other material and lessons, but I have not used it yet as it is not free. It seems to have a lot of good content for beginners, but it’s not clear whether they have a lot of paid content for intermediate and advanced learners. (That is really the only thing stopping me from signing up, so if someone knows the answer then let me know!). I think they are working on a mobile app as well.

I tried A LOT of free language-learning apps offering Portuguese. Most of them only offer Brazilian Portuguese or are very bad quality. Portuguese with Carla did a YouTube video with a really good, in-depth review of the Top 10 European Portuguese Learning Apps. Talk the Streets also has a YouTube video about learning European Portuguese with free apps. Both of those YouTube channels, along with Practice Portuguese, are fully dedicated to EP language learning content.

I completed the DuoLingo tree a while ago, but I did the tree without sound (it was just too confusing). I still use it now and again to practice verb conjugations while commuting. It was helpful that my partner is Portuguese and could point out differences in word usage and grammar. You could potentially use DuoLingo with the DeepL translator and/or the Priberam dictionary to help determine whether a word is more common in Brazil or in Portugal. Linguee is also useful for definitions and to see how a word is used in context.

Memrise does have some European Portuguese lessons. Some people really like this app, but it just wasn’t for me. I think the content wasn’t a good fit because I only discovered the app after I had been taking Portuguese lessons for more than a year. I also really disliked their notification system (even more than DuoLingo), and the app design felt a little too childish and a little too gamified.

Anki and Quizlet are both good flashcard apps. I have heard a lot of positive things about both of them. I tried this briefly, but they mostly reminded how much I hate flashcards. I personally don’t enjoy rote memorisation, and I find that I learn better when I encounter new words in context and then try to use them in conversation or in writing. I think that’s why regularly watching/reading the news on sites like RTP and Público and reading the Harry Potter series has been helpful.

I also tried Tandem, which is a language exchange app. I use it now and again for writing practice, but every time I show myself as online I get flooded with dozens of messages which can be a bit overwhelming. It can be difficult to keep track of the active conversations, as your inbox keeps filling up and pushing those conversations further down the list. I think part of the problem is that you have to put your native language, and a lot of people jump at the chance to practice with a native English speaker. I also have yet to find a native EP speaker, although occasionally I have chatted with pople who make corrections to my messages in both Brazilian and European Portuguese.

One of the cheapest options for lessons is finding teachers through iTalki. You can arrange private lessons with a native speaker from Portugal. Some of these are professional teachers (very few in my experience) and others are native speakers (often linguistic students) trying to get teaching experience or just earn some extra money. I tried iTalki lessons for a while, but the people I had lessons with didn’t seem prepared to teach grammar to someone at my level. It was good for conversation practice, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time. It does seem to get really good reviews from beginners.

You can also look into doing classes online through Instituto Camões. They have online self-learning courses, group classes, and individual classes. The self-learning classes are €180 for 12 weeks, and the price increases up to €320 for 12 weeks of individual tutoring. I have been considering this option recently, as I have found it difficult to commit to regular self-study while also working a full-time job (I’m a Tumblr ancient). I think the financial commitment and the regular schedule would really help me, but that is a personal preference.

If you ever decide that you want to do some language classes in Portugal, you might consider the University of Coimbra Portuguese language courses. They do short courses and several degrees in Portuguese language, literature, and linguistics. There are great language courses all over Portugal, but University of Coimbra is a really cool university in a very nice city. The student culture there is really famous even in Portugal. I haven’t studied there myself, but I have spent a lot of time in the city and the university makes me a bit sad that I am no longer a student.

Whew, this ended up being long post! I tried to give a variety of resources at different price points. I hope you find at least some of this helpful! I may reblog if I remember anything else, and maybe some of my followers will have more suggestions...

[perfectirishgifts]

Sunday Conversation: Fleet Foxes On Making ‘Shore,’ Being Backstage With Paul McCartney And Neil Young And More

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/sunday-conversation-fleet-foxes-on-making-shore-being-backstage-with-paul-mccartney-and-neil-young-and-more/

Sunday Conversation: Fleet Foxes On Making ‘Shore,’ Being Backstage With Paul McCartney And Neil Young And More

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND – JULY 28: Robin Noel Pecknold of the Fleet Foxes performs during “If I Had A … [] Song”, closing the 60th annual Newport Folk Festival 2019 at Fort Adams State Park on July 28, 2019 in Newport, Rhode Island. (Photo by Douglas Mason/WireImage)

In September Fleet Foxes released their fourth album, Shore. The collection, a surprise announced just the day before its September 22 release, is a sterling 15-track package of songs that has ended up on numerous best of year-end lists.

I spoke with Fleet Foxes mastermind Robin Pecknold who told me the album was begun pre COVID, then finished in isolation during the pandemic. And in terms of the surprise release, Pecknold admits he was partially inspired by Taylor Swift’s Folklore.

During the course of our very engaging conversation Pecknold took me through the making of the album, what it was like to be in a conversation with Neil Young and Paul McCartney and how his songs have changed over the years.

Steve Baltin: How is it in New York City now?

Robin Pecknold: It’s alright, it’s getting a little colder, which is feeling good. They’re installing permanent outdoor dining in all the restaurants so it feels a bit like a permanent music festival, lot of tents everywhere. But it’s been good all things considered.

Baltin: How long have you lived in New York?

Pecknold: I’ve been here on and off for like six years or so.

Baltin: Where was Shore written?

Pecknold: Some stuff in Portugal, I took a couple weeks and went to Portugal, and then mostly in my apartment in New York.

Baltin: I am always a big believer in how environment affects writing. So does the stuff you wrote in Portugal feel different to you then the stuff written in New York?

Pecknold: I can’t say it was actually entirely written in New York, but I did kind of write some stuff in Portugal. We were working in a studio in France where I ended up writing some stuff. And then worked in a studio in L.A. where I was writing a lot. And, like you were saying, I had the thought maybe at some point to make my own little studio space to work in, but then I also love variety and I think variety is super important to how a record turns out. And I wouldn’’t want to feel obligated to only work in one space I guess, as I spend a bunch of money setting it up for that reason, but maybe someday. I think, for writing chord progressions and stuff that can happen anywhere, and a lot of that I just did in my bedroom. But then writing songs, it’s good to buy a new guitar or go to some place in the woods, or whatever it is, to kind of get out of the routine mind set.

Baltin: For you this is a very global album, what was the time spent that it was written and recorded then? I am assuming it predates COVID then?

Pecknold: It does definitely predate COVID. I started working on this right at the end of the Crack Up tour. September 2018 I started writing songs for this kind of knowing that it can take me a while to write stuff and I wanted to have something out within three years of that album, even though we did a two-year tour. So I had to kind of just keep going after that was done. Um, and so most of the music was done by February of 2020, but I didn’t have any lyrics written and there were a couple gaps in the track listing. It totally pre-dates COVID. I was kind of confused about how to finish it once the pandemic hit, when and how it should come out, or if I should even put the time and money into finishing it at all, but I’m glad that it came together like how it did.

Baltin: So at what point did you make the decision to put it out? Why a surprise release.

Pecknold: It was sometime in June or July, cause the big bottleneck was having lyrics to record and I didn’t have any. And that was just like, “Who knows when these will happen, this could take until the end of fall. This could drag on forever if I can’t get these lyrics done.” But then they just kind of started happening in a way I wasn’t really expecting in June. Once that happened I was like, “Okay great, I have all these lyrics I can record, so I can actually finish this damn album now.” Then in July I had to start thinking about that ‘when it’s going to come out’ and I think a few days before that Taylor Swift album came out and I was like “I just want to put it out a couple weeks after it’s done. If I have to do that on Bandcamp so be it.” And then, that happened and that emboldened me to do that because, she’s obviously much more successful, but someone else publicly releasing music was thinking along those same lines just that this uncertainty will continue for who knows how long. So it was kind of in July that the September release plan came together. And tying it to the equinox felt really good cause it was on a Tuesday. Albums used to come out on Tuesday and I used to love that. And that felt like tying it to something that didn’t have anything to do with politics or with the stresses of 2020, the societal stresses. It’s a gamble, who knows if that was the best idea in the long run but it’s worth it to me to just have it off my mental plate.

Baltin: Was there a turning point where you started to feel like the songs were coming in a direction for you or the lyrics started to manifest themselves?

Pecknold: Yeah, like I said, I went right into making this album right after the last tour and so that was two years of touring. I guess there is some stuff people write about, exhaustion on tour or make albums about that. I didn’t have like a big break up I wanted to write about. I was just kind of making music or thinking about music for like four years straight. So I didn’t feel like I had a lot to write about before the pandemic. But then having this like three-month forced reflection time when there’s this long overdue emphasis on social justice and systemic injustice and class consciousness that was not being paid enough attention to the last few years. And just feeling grateful to have a roof over my head and to not know anyone who’s passed but also feeling an impetus to keep the memory of the dead alive in some way musically and lyrically. I guess all of the lyrical ideas I found for the album were totally just resultant from lock down and the pandemic, and without that I wouldn’t have had anything to really write about.

Baltin: Writing is such a subconscious thing, so we’re there lyrics that when you go back and look at them that really kind of surprised you?

Pecknold: Yeah, I think there is a lyric in the song “Featherweight” that talks about making life harder for yourself, something I would have definitely done in the past, out of success coming too easy, or stuff like that. I would seek out hardship where I found it just to kind of temper the good luck I’ve had. And so, I wasn’t intending to write a song about that, but the lyric kind of came out, “In all this war I’d forgotten how many men might die for what I’d renounce.” That lyric just flowed perfectly with the melody and rhymed perfectly and it was just the first lyric that came out of nowhere and then kind of set the tone for the rest of it.

Baltin: As you get older, I think for everyone, you get more comfortable with yourself. So do you feel like that’s allowed you to get a little more comfortable with the idea of success or the fact that you’ve had the success?

Pecknold: I’m super lucky to be able to make music for a living still. I’m not set for life by any means. I want to continue working and doing exciting things and I intend to keep that energy going. As far as shirking success I can see both sides of that where you would say, “Yeah this is uncomfortable.” I’m super lucky I’m not so well known that I can’t go outside in some fame prison, that seems difficult in some ways. But also those people have all the resources in the world and can mitigate that however they want. I don’t have that experience, I’m pretty anonymous. I’m not like embracing success or chasing it but something feels kind of gross about renouncing it or when it’s a really rare opportunity and a lot of people would kill to be in a position to be able to do that.

Baltin: A lot of people who would kill to be in that position have no idea what it comes with. Is there one artist that you look to as having sort of the role model career, the definitive career of that balance of fame and success and everything?

Pecknold: My answer for this, Charles Ives (laughs). Which is kind of a pretentious answer, but he was an insurance broker and a well respected one, and he won awards in the business and that security allowed him to make this insane innovative classical music, kind of in his spare time, a little bit. I think Charles Ives is my weird answer to that.

Baltin: That’s a great answer. I don’t know who he is. Now I’m curious to go check him out.

Pecknold: He’s experimental and Americana type classical music from a long time ago.

Baltin: My answer is Tom Waits. He can go tour whenever he wants, he’s set from royalties presumably, he’s always got a following. But he can go into the market and no one knows who he is other than you and me and music geeks.

Pecknold: That is the absolute dream. And his success with Anti Records is one of many reasons that we wanted to put out the album with them. He’s actually not that different from Charles Ives in my opinion as someone who is kind of taking American tropes and twisting them and making them their own. 1699

Baltin: Are there songs of yours where you go back and they change for you over time? Are there songs of yours that you have the different appreciation for that have changed over the years?

Pecknold: Yeah definitely. As a lyricist I always start with the melody first. I always want to work as much meaning as I can. I want it to be as coherent as a story or as whatever the lyric is. It’s always the melody first. It can be the kind of thing where one word pops out and then the words that rhyme with that word kind of dictate almost how the lyric flows. So sometimes when I am writing lyrics, I don’t feel that in control because I feel like I have so many restrictions on how it needs to be. And I will look back and be like, “Damn that guy, he was really searching or he was really confused,” in a way that I wasn’t really conscious of in the moment writing it. I think there was song on the Crack-Up album called “Cassius” that was really about walking in protest, but I didn’t know how much I could claim that so it was a little bit imagistic. I felt uncomfortable owning it for some reason, because of who I am. I didn’t want to feel appropriative of the moment. And all of that album, all the lyrics for that were written on November/December 2016 and now were four years up from that. So there is a lot of despair in that album that I have to associate with that winter, that fall.

Baltin: I like the way that you put it, where you’re talking about it, and you’re like, that guy. When you go back and look at stuff, do you feel like it almost is coming from someone else, because it’s subconscious?

Pecknold: Oh, absolutely. There are things that remain, like a work ethic or a set of standards or certain kinds of tastes, but the subconscious stuff that’s happening with lyrics, that was someone else’s work entirely. There is a whole different set of behind the scenes factors going on now verses then. In that Dylan interview where he is like I can’t access that anymore, the guy that wrote those songs, in that 60 Minutes interview. You just hope that whatever you do have access to remains exciting to you I guess. But yeah, I don’t feel like the same person that made those early albums at all.

Baltin: We talked early on about dealing with success and the different feelings that come with that. Are there artists that you’ve gotten to speak to or that you look to that you really admire for the way that they, or the advice that they’ve given you for how to sort of handle that double edge sword?

Pecknold: I guess I have some contemporaries, like the guys in Grizzly Bear or Dirty Projectors, we’ll kind of talk shop about how our “careers” are going or like what we wanna do, or touring, or recording. We’ll of talk shop every once in a while and check in with each other and that’s kind of helpful I think. There was one festival, this was 10 years ago, where I found myself speaking with Neil Young and Paul McCartney. This was the weirdest triangle of people I’ve obviously ever been in. I said literally nothing. I was just shocked at being in that position of standing next to those two guys, and they were talking about something. And then Paul McCartney was like “Oh hey, great album, keep Fleeting.”He just mentioned it in this cheeky kind of Paul McCartney way I think, just this little pun. But I have thought over the years at times of difficulty, I’ve thought, “Keep Fleeting.” In this kind of like way of if, Paul told me to keep fleeting, I must keep fleeting. So that’s as a weirdly minor event, that he probably doesn’t even remember saying it, but you know, those things have deeper resonance than someone intends.

Baltin: Now being older, having more experience in the industry, what would you ask Paul McCartney and Neil Young hanging out with both of them if you felt more comfortable to contribute to the conversation?

Pecknold: I would just ask how they got through certain phases of their career where they were finding some new thing they wanted to do, but they were a couple years off of their biggest albums. How were they keeping excited and what else was on their mind. I guess I would ask those kinds of questions about that as I am kind of moving into that phase a little bit myself, you know, doing this for 10 or 12 years now. I totally agree that you should never lose your fandom and i think it’s almost better just to be guileless enough to be like, “Hey, I’m a big fan, I love your music.” Rather than try to be kind of like, Yeah, we’re peers. Or to ingratiate yourself with someone because you want something from them, that always feels gross to me, and I try to avoid that as much as possible.

More from Arts in Perfectirishgifts

[likeabulletyoucanhurtme]

Germany : do you like bread? Yes. I eat too much of it it's probably not healthy ilikefoodfoodtastesgood

France : ever drunk alcohol? Indeed I have, many kinds on many occasions maybeillgetdrunkagaintofeelalittlelove

England : ever made a mistake you really regret? Yeah I can think of one or two

Scotland : do you prefer summer or winter? Hmm idk used to be winter hands down but I don't like having wet feet in the snow so maybe summer now? Still a goffik tho igotthatsummertimesummertimesadness

Italy : currently in a relationship? Yes

Wales : how old are you? Old enough for my mid-life crisis youveinvitedeveryoneyoucantwakeyoucantwakefromthisnightmare

Finland : longest you’ve ever been in a relationship? 9yrs

Sweden : have you ever been to ikea? Yeah. Their meatballs are overratted but their hot chocolates ok and if people think you're only having tea you can sneak a free refill youllbethirtychoosingcurtainsinikea

Norway : do you prefer wearing trousers or skirts? Trousers

Spain : do you take naps during the day? Depends on how early I get up

Portugal : your sexuality? I'm one of them evil hetro guys, soz

Ireland : favourite tv show? idk, right now I've been catching up on Killjoys throwawayyourtelevisiontakethenooseoffyourambition

Denmark : what were you doing at 20.30 last saturday? Watching TV and tumblring probably

Poland : do you have any pets? Nope

Austria : do you like chocolate? Yes! Galaxy Caramel is love

Switzerland : ever kissed a girl? I have. And I liked it. She wasn't wearing any cherry chapsticks

Romania : morning or evening? Evening obvs

Bulgaria : who was the last person you snapchatted? I don't have one idonthaveinstagramorsnapchatihavealife

Czech Republic : is there a song that never fails to make you cry? Nope

Slovakia : how many languages can you speak? Just one

Slovenia : what colour is your hair at the moment? dark brown/blackish

Monaco : do you have an iPhone? Never have and never will

The Netherlands : when did you last see your mum? Sunday

Greece : do you live with your father? Nope

Croatia : do you wear glasses? Nope

Belgium : favourite colour? Black, or purple

Iceland : if you could chose one thing to be in your future, what would you choose? Financial security ididntloseyourmoneyalthoughyourmoneyjustlostyou

Ukraine : what’s the most money you’ve ever spent on clothes? I spent £40 on one pair of trousers once. They lasted me for like 6 years tho

Malta : have you ever been on a cruise? I'm not THAT old, geez

Hungary : would you date someone 3 years older than you? If they were immature enough to date me then yeah

Cyprus : if you could kill one person without any risk of being caught for it, would it be someone related to you? No it would not iwannaslityourthroatandfuckthewound

Luxembourg : what’s the coldest temperature you’ve ever experienced? idk Scotland in winter imcolderthansnowseasonwhenitstwentybelowfreezing

Serbia : do you use instagram? Not at all

Albania : can you swim well? Only in pools, I can't float/tread water at all

Lithuania : if you could go back in time to a moment in your life, when would you go back to? 18/01/2015

Montenegro : pizza or pasta? Pizza.

Latvia : do you have any scars with an interesting or grisly story? I have a scar in my eyebrow that needed stitches cause I fell over my jacket into my grans cabinet and split my head open thisoneisnteventherebutifeelitmorebecauseyoudontcare

Macedonia : ever eaten snails? Nahh

Belarus : last book you read? Alistair MacLean's biography, which was actually better written than anything he wrote himself tbh.

Bosnia : last time you cried? 26th of August

Moldova : do you have a sister? I do

[all-about-cr7]

MARCA interview after receiving the ‘MARCA Leyenda’ award

- my translation -

Q: You have won almost everything in your career. Do you feel satisfied with everything you already achieved?  “I changed a bit last year because I left Madrid, I needed extra motivation in my career after winning what I won in Madrid. I needed a change in order to be able to express my football because I think I still have a lot to offer: to me, the fans, Juve, and I'm sure it will go on like this. I still feel motivated and I like what I do. Of course, what I like most is winning titles. Last year, thank God we won three: Coppa Italia, Italian league and Nations League with Portugal, so it was a top year.”

Q. I can't imagine how the CR7 Museum is, does it have space for more trophies? “The museum is very good, if there is no space, we’ll work for more. We cannot leave out any, Some trophies are more important than others, but we have room for all of them, Ballon D’Or, Best Player, Golden Shoe, Pichichi, whatever. As I always say to my friends: a trophy is a trophy.”

Q. What does winning the MARCA Leyenda award mean to you? “It is a very important prize that only legends can win and obviously it had to be Cristiano too. After what I have done in my career, especially at Real Madrid, it is a great honour to receive it and I want to thank MARCA for giving me this opportunity and receiving it here in Madrid. I am very happy to return here to Spain and Madrid.”

Q. Sarri said that you have freedom on the pitch, what do you think? “It is a way of expressing oneself, but obviously that will not be the case because there is a team concept and I have a job: to cover spaces, set pieces ... I will do the same things I was doing at Madrid or in my first year with Juve or in the national team. I will defend, close spaces, being an attacker with freedom but with defensive work too because only a team with everyone working together can win important things.”

Q. You said you would play until 40. Do you still think like that? “I am not worried at all in that regard because it will depend a lot on what I feel, on my motivation, because physically it will never be a problem. Up to 40 you have to take care about yourself well and I think it won’t be the most important factor, honestly. It is more the psychological aspect that will make a difference. I hope that nothing happens until 40, but if something happens, that’s just the way it is. Life is like that, everything has a beginning and an end, so Cristiano is not going to last a lifetime, logically, but I still feel strong to keep winning important things.”

Q. Can this be the year of Juventus? “It is always the year of Juventus, of Madrid, of Barça, when only one club can win a competition like the Champions League. I give you the example of Barcelona: how much money have they invested in players in the last five years and didn’t win the Champions League. That’s not how it works. Juve has been reinforced very well and it is a team that will fight to win titles, as always, but this will depend on many factors: the groups, the moment, the injuries, the luck ..  But as I always say: do not obsess with the Champions League. Juve will win it, if not this year, hopefully it will be next year, in two years, considering the way they work, how they are planning. All the ingredients are there to win it.”

Q. Did Buffon talk with you about about winning the Champions League? “He hasn't told me anything about that. We talked because he is someone I’ve admired since we had faced each other many times and he told me he was very happy that we are together now. I told him the same thing because in my opinion he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. Buffon, Casillas, are goalkeepers who will remain in football history. I am very happy to be together with him because he is a five star man.”

Q. Have you missed Madrid this past year? “I was living here for nine years, a part of my story happened in Madrid and I don't talk only about football because everybody knows that, but about relationships in general, my children, Cristianito, I met my girlfriend here. There are many stories that cannot be erased, the past doesn’t just get turned off. That's why I still have a house here, I come here from time to time, looking after the hotel, the hair clinic, the gyms, friends too. It is a city that I love and I will always come here. I don't rule out living here again one day at all.”

Q: With whom do you spend more time at Juve? “The Juve group is top, it was a surprise for me. I thought it was different, that everyone just cares for themselves, but that’s not the case. The truth is that it is a very good group, very united and I get along well with everyone. Logically it is easier with the Portuguese or the Spanish, with whom I speak more, but I get along well with everyone.”

Q. And who do you miss in Madrid, maybe Marcelo? “Marcelo is very happy here in Madrid, Everyone leads his life and I always got along very well with him. I talk a lot with him, with Casemiro, with Pepe, Coentrao, I got along very well with everyone. Marcelo is a very lively boy and I miss him.”

Q. And who do you think would fit into Juve? “Top players always fit into big teams and of course Madrid has an excellent team, they have invested a lot of money, new players and for sure they will have a very good season. I am not going to tell you names although obviously some would fit in, but I am very happy with the Juve team, we reinforced ourselves very well and we have a great staff, with very good people also on the bench. If you ask Hazard in Madrid he will say the same about his team. I will express appreciation for my team because I also believe that it is a very competitive and excellent team.”

Q: How do you see Barça?  “Like every years, I see them very strong. They have been reinforced very well with De Jong, Griezmann, like last year with Coutinho, Dembelé ... It’s always one of the best teams in the world. The same applies for Madrid, with Hazard, Jovic, Mendy ... Juve too ... I am aware of Madrid because I have left a legacy there, I have left friends, it is the club with which I have won the most things and I am 100% sure that they will have a great season.”

Q. There is a lot of talk about Neymar, do you see him in Barcelona? “I don't know, he's a great player and I get along very well with him. We had a video shooting together recently. But there is a lot of talk about him, that he is going to Madrid, Barça, Juve ... This is the job of the press because they want to sell, but I think that he will stay in Paris and if not, may he look where he is happy and where he can express his great football, may he have no injuries, not a lot of trouble and no worries. I worry for him because I like to see the boy playing. Regardless of where he will play, may he take care of himself and have no injuries, that's what I wish for him.”

Q. Tell me your three favourites for the Champions League. “Always the same, regardless of whom they sign: Madrid, Barça, Atlético, Juve, Bayern, Liverpool ... I may have forgotten to mention some, but I really see it as usual. Barça and Madrid, who spent more money than everyone else, City too, are perhaps the favourites, but in football not always the favorites do win.”

Q. Have you played an important role in the signing of De Ligt? “I don t think so. I like it that you ask me that question because after the end of the Nations League match I made a remark out of companionship, as a footballer, because everyone does that. It is normal because he is 19 years old and everything remains on the pitch. I said it (’come to Juve’) jokingly but I would never influence a coach or a manager regarding signings. But the truth is that I am happy that De Ligt is with us.”

Q. Do you see yourself living in Madrid one day? “Sure! As I said before, Madrid is a city that we all love and I don’t rule it out. Now I am focused on Italy and Juve and we are all very happy, but you never know. In this city we have lived very beautiful moments and of course I could come here to live. We'll see. Now let's think about enjoying the moment, the present.”

MARCA title “History at his feet”

[gwoongi]

𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗋𝗋𝗒 𝗉𝗈𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗃𝖾𝖼𝗍 ✰ dad hoseok

𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗋𝗋𝗒 𝗉𝗈𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗃𝖾𝖼𝗍 jung hoseok / reader genre: parent au, fluff, tiny smol angst words: 2384

“Yeah! So, go and tell the mean kids at school that Pokemon is cool and you can like it no matter who you are! Pokemon has no gender!” Well, Yeojin still didn’t like her Pokemon bedroom but she did still like Pokemon, and Hoseok pretended not to look when she rushed towards Jeongguk on Thursday evening and hugged his waist, telling him how awesome he was because he introduced her to the best show on planet earth, the show with no gender!

a/n: a short side fic for The Honey Project!! bringing back everyones favourite daddy of biology!!!! also happee easter !!! (happy easter everyone! who is it? ITS UR UNCLE....) ((this is sort of inspired by real events!! so before u say its weird...it happened ok.....it happened....kids r weirdos....and they complain about everything))

warnings: baby angst, hoseok being the best dad ever, jung yeojin is a brat

Hoseok thought he was a pretty good Dad.

Everything he had learned about parenthood was either from Seokjin, who had spent at least seventy hours in total on Google looking at websites about how to be the best Uncle- although Dad also applied- to a child that anybody could ever be, and also from his own experience with his Dad. Where his own Dad lacked in family talks and midnight cuddles, Hoseok filled in with Yeojin, a growing bundle of fluffy, curly hair that reached her chin and big doe eyes that Jeongguk claimed were genetically from him, even though that was literally impossible.

His own family, and the unreliable websites Seokjin bookmarked on his University computer, failed to mention how mentally tiring it is to raise a child. At first, neither himself or you had come to realise how hard it would be when the baby you birthed started using words, becoming more vocal about their thoughts and feelings and how it was apparently so annoying for either of you to hug them, or kiss them. You’d heard of teenage angst but not raging-three-year-old-angst. That was new, and certainly something that WikiHow had forgotten to mention.

But Hoseok loved his daughter, even when she threw temper tantrums about being fed carrots or when she screamed at four in the morning because her blanket had slipped through the gaps in her crib. It was definitely a parent thing that nobody understood unless they had mini-me’s of their own. There was nothing in the world that could stop Hoseok from loving Yeojin the way he did. He often sat there, in her bedroom on the floor by her crib with her hands wrapped around his fingers or actually inside the crib, slotted in a curled position with her head of hair on his torso; Hoseok liked to admire the bits and pieces that looked like you, the first love of his life; from the way Yeojin had your longer eyelashes and face shape, with a smile that shone the way yours had on your wedding day, or moments after Yeojin’s birth. Sure, she had features of Hoseok’s but none of those were even comparable to the gorgeous way that Hoseok now had a daughter who looked everything like the woman he fell in love with.

Yeojin, like all children and humans, got older- she grew out of teddy coats bought by Yoongi and out of the crib Hoseok remembered everybody assembling, and gradually the colours of her bedroom turned into phases of her interests. Aged three and she wanted Barbie everything, and both Hoseok and yourself were hesitant to drown the walls in sickly pink and off-whites. Because, you were that age once, and pink is a colour you grow bored of very easily. Aged four and it was her newfound obsession with Pokemon, no thanks to Jeongguk and Jimin stealing her every Friday for Uncle-Bonding-Time, and of course, there had been no complaints when purchasing oversized plushies of Pikachu or cute little outfits of random Pokemon.

Yeojin complained though, when she turned five a year later and decided that Pokemon wasn’t for girls, because some kid at school had laughed at her Pokemon lunchbox and told her she was acting like a boy.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with being a boy,” Hoseok had told her, petting her hair in her bedroom and wiping away the sniffles. You came in shortly after with the sacred jar of cookies that Yeojin always tried to reach for in the kitchen, and she reluctantly took a handful. “And, a lot of girls like Pokemon. It’s definitely not just for boys!”

“Yeah! And, what about Misty and Serena, huh? They’re girls,” you offered for input. “I remember watching Pokemon too. Pokemon’s cool.”

Hoseok nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! So, go and tell the mean kids at school that Pokemon is cool and you can like it no matter who you are! Pokemon has no gender!”

Well, Yeojin still didn’t like her Pokemon bedroom but she did still like Pokemon, and Hoseok pretended not to look when she rushed towards Jeongguk on Thursday evening and hugged his waist, telling him how awesome he was because he introduced her to the best show on planet earth, the show with no gender! Perhaps Jeongguk had teared up upon hearing those words, but Hoseok wouldn’t say anything.

“I think I like Harry Potter now,” Yeojin said, five and a half, sitting between Haseul’s legs as her Aunt’s hands threaded through her hair, parting and creating plaits.

“Oh, yeah?” Haseul said, smiling. “Harry Potter’s super cool.”

“Do you like Harry Potter?”

“Yeah. I think he’s a nice guy.”

“Mom likes Harry Potter,” Yeojin continued, playing with a slightly tattered Pikachu toy. “She told me so. And Dad does too, but I don’t think he’s as serious as Mom is. Mom had the robes! They don’t fit me, though.”

Haseul finished her plaits and wrapped her arms around Yeojin. “Well, maybe because Mom and Dad like Harry Potter, if you ask nicely we might be able to go visit Hogwarts this Summer. At Universal.”

Yeojin’s eyes sparkled. “Really?”

Haseul nodded with a grin. “Mhm. I’ll ask Mom for you.”

That’s why Yeojin swore to a secret song of Haseul being her favourite Aunt, because even though Auntie Seunghee took her to see movies and look at animals and let her use her Nintendo Switch when she went to visit, Auntie Seunghee had never offered Harry Potter.

Yeojin picked herself up off Haseul’s bed with a frown, straining to listen out into the house for Haseul’s feet when she heard the front door open, and Moms voice float through. Yeojin contained a giggle when you called up to her with a, “Honey, I’m home!” and she replied with a, “Hi, Mommy!” and nothing more. Yeojin would go downstairs when she heard Mom say she could go to Harry Potter World, because Auntie Haseul had promised it already.

“Why would you tell her that?” Yeojin heard your voice say, over the sound of the kettle boiling. Yeojin paused on the landing, listening with a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Haseul…”

“Look, I just...threw it out there,” Haseul defended, “as a suggestion. If she’s into Harry Potter...and you’ve wanted to go there for like, years….kill two birds with one stone!”

“Yeah, and are you gonna help fund this trip?”

“Of course,” Haseul replied. “Me, and Flat Eighteen! You know they’ll love to come. And, we haven’t been on holiday since first year of Uni! Portugal, super fun, but simply not enough.”

“It’s nice, what you’re trying to do for her and us, but,” you started, before sighing and at that moment, the kettle sprang to a pause, “I just don’t know if we can go there right now.”

Haseul stopped, too. “Is money bad?”

“No, not at all. We’re so financially secure it’s actually scary,” you assured. “There are...other reasons. Preventing us from going, I mean. You know why.”

Yeojin didn’t stop to listen. She had heard enough.

“She’s been sad all day?”

Hoseok came home at four thirty, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it up whilst tossing his bag into the cupboard under the stairs. You stood in the doorway leading out into the kitchen with your arms folded, rubbing up and down with a frown on your lips.

“Yeah, I don’t know why,” you frowned, happily accepting Hoseok’s warm hug as he stepped towards you. You extended your arms out and wrapped them around his neck, squishing your cheek against him as his lips kissed at your hair, and then his head tilted down to kiss the space between your earlobe and jaw. “She seemed happy when I got to Haseul’s. Then, she was all...grumpy.”

“It’s not your fault, before you even say it,” Hoseok muttered, twirling you slightly. He pulled away slightly after a few minutes, smiling the best he could before quickly bringing your lips to his in a kiss. “I love you. I’ll talk to her, okay?”

You nodded, pressing your lips together as Hoseok turned to head towards and up the stairs, in the direction of Yeojin’s bedroom. Her door was closed shut, the colour of the sky-light spreading underneath the door and Hoseok quietly stepped forward and knocked, the noise loud enough yet still quiet. From behind the wood, Yeojin had moved off her bed and he could faintly hear her feet moving across the carpet.

“Yeojin, baby, it’s Dad. Can you let me in for a second?” Hoseok called gently, his hand on the door-handle, ready. “Please?”

Yeojin grumbled something, stubbornly, and pulled open the door, leaving Hoseok’s hand stinging with surprise. His brows raised with the expectancy of an apology but nothing came, only the sight of Yeojin retreating back towards her bed where she lay down and pulled the covers up over her head.

“Go away,” Yeojin groaned.

Hoseok let himself in. “Yeojin, your room is filthy.”

“Don’t shout at me!-”

“I haven’t shouted,” Hoseok replied quickly. God, he didn’t remember being this difficult aged four, especially when the sun was shining outside. Although he didn’t remember much about being four, really. He moved to sit on the bottom of her bed, playfully grabbing at her ankle under the sheets. Yeojin squirmed with a noise of surprise. “Hey, look at me when I’m talking to you!”

“No.”

“I’ll tickle you.”

There was a beat of silence, and Hoseok half wondered whether or not Yeojin would climb out of her protective shield of blankets, but she did, sitting up with crazed curls and looking at her Dad with watery eyes. At once, Hoseok felt his body crushing with anxiety, and without even thinking about it, he opened his arms invitingly for a hug and she crawled towards him, her bottom lip trembling, then her chin on his shoulder and hands stuffed in his jumper.

“What’s the matter, sweetie?”

Yeojin sniffled into Hoseok’s shoulder. “Mom said no to Harry Potter World.”

Hoseok paused, looking at his daughter- “Harry Potter World?”

Yeojin nodded. “Yeah. Haseul said we could go in Summer, but Mom said no.”

“She said that?” Hoseok asked, not really believing it. “Did she say that to you?”

“Well, I heard her say it in the kitchen at Haseul’s house,” Yeojin explained. “Haseul asked and Mom said something about being scared and so that means no. I’m nearly six- I know!”

Hoseok’s eyebrows raised as he stared at Yeojin, trying not to laugh. Of course, as a parent, he knew the reasons why other parents said no. He thinks that if Yeojin had asked him, too, he would have said the same thing. Money was definitely not an issue for Universal studios this summer, but considering Yeojin’s birthday was close coming, alongside the giant fact that they had already planned a Summer vacation to Japan with Uncle Yoongi and Jimin, who was still on the quest for Professor Min’s heart, and the surprise of a sibling, hopefully, if everything went well, Hoseok knew that Universal Studios was possibly a long lost distant dream. Unless Uncle Yoongi and Jimin caved in and said, “Sure!” to an unexpected day trip to Japan’s own Universal.

“Hey, if Mom didn’t say that to you, then you don’t know what she said,” Hoseok frowned, reaching for her to look at him. “Not knowing for sure causes trouble.”

Yeojin scrunched up her face. “Mom hates me having fun.”

“Hey!” Hoseok scolded. He never raised his voice at Yeojin, not ever and not even now, but the hardness of his tone made Yeojin shrink with her head dipped towards her chest with shame. “Your Mom loves you more than anything in the world, and you should know that! Mom wouldn’t do anything to make you upset.”

Between Hoseok’s armpit, Yeojin huffed. “I know…”

“And,” Hoseok continued, hugging her tight, “I’m sure Mom will love to take you to Harry Potter World. Mom loves Harry Potter! It’s a bit too soon to go this year, though.”

Even when Yeojin huffed indignantly, she knew her Dad was right. Hoseok had hugged her tighter and pressed little kisses to her cheeks and temples, telling her how much he loved before before she climbed out of his arms, downstairs and into the kitchen where she clung to your leg, saying nothing. She didn’t really have to say anything, and it was Hoseok’s turn to lean in the doorway at the sight of you crouched with your arms around her, the sun looking golden on your skin and hair, golden dust in her eyes.

Like all kids, Yeojin got over it extremely quickly.

Hoseok discovered that all Yeojin really needed to keep her happy and occupied was a sibling, and then you finally- after months of trying- crawled on top of him with a giant smile that could blind at five fifteen in the morning, the words, “We’re having a baby again,” whispered into his mouth. The temptation to scream and tell Yeojin right away was shoved away until Yeojin came back from Uncle Seokjin and Namjoon’s house a little while later, once everything was certain, with both man on her arm, walking into the kitchen decorated with one sparkly balloon and a little envelope on the counter.

“Is it my birthday already?” Yeojin asked confusedly. She turned to Namjoon, “You said it was next month.”

“It is, honey,” you said, leaning on the counter with Hoseok next to you, his fingers knotted around your own. “This is an early surprise, okay?”

She nodded, taking the envelope from you when you pushed it towards her.

Like deja-vu, Seokjin and Namjoon shared teary laughs and hugs when Yeojin tore open the envelope and saw the writing screaming that she was going to be an older sister. Suddenly, she had forgotten all about the grudge against Harry Potter World and was transfixed on the words and then her Mommy’s belly.

“Really?” she squealed excitedly. “Really?!”

“Yes!” you told her with a smile. “You’re gonna be a big sister!”

“You kept this one quiet,” Seokjin scolded, smacking Hoseok’s shoulder half-heartedly.

Hoseok shrugged sheepishly. “Yeah, well. At least we planned this one.”

“What does that mean?” Yeojin asked.

“Nothing, honey.”

(“Can we call them Harry? Like Harry Potter?” Yeojin asked, her lips against your stomach.

You immediately stared at Hoseok and then back at Yeojin.

“Absolutely not.”)

[endlessflame]

Family Reunion (Connor x MC, Logan x MC)

Summary: Maribel (RoD MC) and her family, including her cousin Vanessa (ILITW MC), get together in Lake Tahoe, California for a family reunion.

Rating: M

Author’s note: This is for @cora-nova‘s Choices August Challenge, bonus prompt Family Reunion.

Tags: @choices-august-challenge @cora-nova @brightpinkpeppercorn @mfackenthal @desiree-0816

Maribel closed the door to her hotel room and began walking towards the elevator. She was looking forward to seeing her mother's side of the family again. It had been too long since they were all together. They were spread out along the West Coast; she and her father were in Los Angeles, her maternal grandparents were in San Diego, Uncle Tony was in San Francisco, and Aunt Sara, Uncle Fernando, and her cousin Vanessa were in Westchester, Oregon. They had chosen Lake Tahoe as the site of their family reunion because it was a central location. As she walked down the hall of her floor, she heard a door open.

"Maribel!"

She turned around, rushed over to Vanessa, and gave her a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"You too!" Vanessa motioned to the young blond man beside her. "This is Connor. Connor, this is my cousin Maribel."

Maribel smiled at him warmly. "It's nice to meet you, Connor. Vanessa's told me a lot about you."

"Oh, has she?  Connor grinned. "It's nice to meet you too."

Vanessa looked to Maribel. "Don't tell Grandma and Grandpa that Connor and I are sharing a room, OK?"

"Of course! They'd probably want to drag you off to confession immediately."

They took the elevator downstairs and headed to the hotel restaurant, where the family was meeting for dinner. Her father, grandparents, Sara, and Fernando were already seated at a large table. They sat down and began talking.

Not long afterward, Connor turned to Maribel. "You weren't kidding about confession, were you?"

"No, why?" Her question was answered as a priest approached the table. "Oh! That's our great-uncle Pedro."

Vanessa looked from Connor to Pedro. "Uncle Pedro, this is my boyfriend Connor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Father," said Connor.

A few minutes later, Tony walked in with another man, younger than him, with blond hair that had been partially dyed green. "Hi, everyone. This is Greg."

Maribel's grandparents looked at each other, and then her grandmother turned to face Greg. "I'm Tony's mother, Silvia, and this is my husband Manuel." She then turned to Tony. "I didn't know you were bringing a friend."

"Greg moved in with me recently," said Tony.

"Oh, you brought your roommate!" Silvia glanced at Pedro, then looked at Tony pointedly.

Tony glared at his mother. Before he could say anything, the waiter arrived. After everyone had ordered, he brought a bottle of wine for the table.

"None for you," Maribel's father said to her.

"Fine, I'll have a Diet Coke." After everything she had been through with Logan, she was no innocent, but apparently a glass of wine with dinner was still too much to ask for, even though everyone else was having some.

Once they all had their drinks, Manuel raised his glass. "To our family. Salud!"

The others raised their glasses as well. "Salud!"

"Nice tattoo, Maribel!" said Tony.

Maribel smiled. "Thanks."

"Don't encourage her," her father said.

Like she couldn't make up her own mind! "I was thinking of getting another one, actually."

"You should come visit me. I'll take you to a great tattoo parlor. Rahim's work is magical." Tony grinned. "And he's easy on the eyes, too."

When their food arrived, Pedro led them in prayer. "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

They began eating, and continued to catch up with each other. Maribel filled in her family on her first year at Langston.

Silvia directed her attention towards Vanessa and Connor. "You two have been together for a while now. Are you engaged yet?"

"Not officially," said Vanessa. "We want to get married eventually, but not yet. I want to go to grad school first. Then my friend Dan and I want to open up a practice together. He's going to be a counselor, and I want to do animal-assisted therapy."

"Vanessa is so good with animals," said Sara. "When we came back from Portugal a few years ago, she had adopted a kitten, tamed a crow, and was petsitting our neighbor's dog. It was like coming home to a zoo!"

"And what about you, Maribel? There must be lots of nice young men at Langston. Have you met anyone special?" Silvia asked.

Maribel reached up and touched the sparkplug that hung around her neck. She never took it off; she always wanted a piece of Logan close to her heart. She still wasn't over him, and she wondered if she ever would be. "No, I'm focusing more on my studies." Maybe she'd better change the subject. Logan was still a sore subject with her father, and she didn't want to risk him coming up. "So, what are we doing tomorrow?"

"It's going to be a nice sunny day," said Fernando. "How about we go to the lake? We could swim, or go boating."

"Good thing Uncle Pedro's here, in case we need an exorcism," said Vanessa.

Silvia's eyes widened. "What?"

"You never know what might be out there," Vanessa pointed out. "And I heard things from my friend Milla. What if the lake is haunted?"

"You have such a vivid imagination," Sara said. "I'm sure it will be fine."

"Anyone want to check out the casino tonight?" asked Greg.

"I do!" replied Tony.

Manuel shook his head. "You're throwing your money away."

"Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty. Proverbs 28:22," said Pedro.

Tony looked to Maribel, Vanessa, and Connor. "You guys want to come?"

Maribel thought about the last time that she had been in a casino. She still had nightmares about being trapped in the vault after seeing Jason stab a member of his task force to death. When the gas grenade had gone off, she thought she was going to die. "No, I had a really bad experience in a casino. I'm afraid it might bring back memories."

"You lost big, huh?" Tony asked.

"I almost lost everything." If Logan hadn't opened the vault and rescued her, she would have lost her life.

Vanessa looked at Maribel sympathetically, then turned back to Tony. "We'll pass too. Connor and I will keep Maribel company."

Later than night, Maribel went to Vanessa and Connor's room, and the three of them spent time talking. Without the older generations, they could speak more freely.

"You're an artist, right?" Maribel asked Connor.

Connor nodded. "I mostly do sculpture."

"Are you any good at drawing?"

"It's not what I usually do, but I can draw, yeah."

Maribel looked at Vanessa. "Did you tell him what I went through last summer?"

"Of course not. That's between us."

Maribel turned to Connor. "You know how I said I wanted to get another tattoo? I was hoping maybe you could design it for me."

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

She took a deep breath. "Last summer I found out that I was pregnant. I know it wouldn't have been easy, but I wanted to keep the baby." Tears welled up in her eyes. "But...I lost it."

"Oh God, I'm so sorry." Connor leaned in and gave her a hug.

"Thanks. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to get a tattoo in memory of my baby. I was thinking of an angel with a ribbon wrapped around its robe, half blue and half pink, since I don't know if the baby was a boy or a girl. That's the miscarriage ribbon. And maybe you could make the angel look like a combination of me and Logan. The father." Maribel reached for her phone and opened up the photo app. She scrolled through her pictures and found one of Logan, then showed it to Connor. "That's him."

"I would be honored." Connor walked over to the desk and found a pad of paper. He sketched the design, then showed it to Maribel and Vanessa. "Here's a rough idea of what it would look like. You'll have to imagine how it would look with the colors."

Maribel was overwhelmed with emotions as she looked at the drawing. "It's so beautiful. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. I hope I did it justice."

"You did." Maribel touched her shoulder. "Think it would look good here? I like the idea of an angel on my shoulder."

"Definitely," Connor told her.

"That's perfect," said Vanessa.

"I bet Logan would love it too," said Maribel.

"Are you in touch with him at all?" Vanessa asked.

"Not as often as I would like. But at least I know how to reach him." Maribel picked up her phone and took a picture of the sketch, then sent a text to Logan. This is the tattoo I want to get in memory of our baby. Do you like it?

A little later, Logan replied. I love it. It's beautiful, and so are you. I miss you.

Maribel smiled as she read the text. "He loves it," she told Connor and Vanessa. "I hope you can meet him someday."

"I hope we can too. I know you miss him." Vanessa hugged Maribel tightly. "Remember, I'm always here for you. We're family."

[vaughn-a]

&&. announcing his royal highness, ( vaughn caden ashcroft ), the ( 32 ) year old ( prince ) of ( england ). he is often confused with ( henry golding ). some say that he is ( conforming & impatient ), but he is actually ( humorous & kind )

b4 any1 asks, yes, he’s a viljo revamp. ps there’s a tl;dr at the end bc this got long and i’m sorry, u can skim it through i don’t mind explaining things

so backstory !

his mother worked for as an assistant for the ambassador of canada --- she was on a fast track to higher places and people always told her that she’d become the ambassador herself at some point. she lived for those words because it was her ultimate goal. ever since she had been little all she had wanted to do was live overseas, do important work and be important. she wanted to matter. one part of the dream was accomplished considering she lived in london and not in some backwoods town in canada.

now, her mother was pretty young. mid to late twenties. she wouldn’t be the ambassador for some time, it’s just not how it goes. while she waited to be old and mature enough to be considered for the job, she decided she had to live a little.  hell, if you didn’t take advantage of living in london, you were wasting your time. so she started socializing, partying, going to clubs --- the more she did that, the more friends she acquired, and eventually new contacts were important people, rich people, political people. quite far from her but exactly what she wanted to be. 

and then, against all odds she runs into the crown prince. he’s charming, he’s funny, and he’s the goddamn crown prince! no one can blame her for falling for him and fast. flash forward a couple of months and he tells her that their thing isn’t really a thing and she should move on. oh, what a bummer but hey life doesn’t wait for anyone. what she didn’t expect was the pregnancy. 

so when vaughn was born her mother was in a bit of a pinch because her career was important and truthfully it did not have room for a baby. vaughn basically grew up around the neighbours --- the older women were more than happy to watch after him while his mother went to work to earn those precious pennies. 

yes, vaughn was an inconvenience but no, it didn’t mean that his mother didn’t love him. her free time was dedicated solely to him, and she made sure she would be home to read him a bedtime story. their flat was small but it was enough for two people. 

he grew up quite independent. he could use their microwave oven when he was five and he could cook himself chicken when he was 10. it wasn’t all bad but he was a bit lonely. being the only kid wasn’t much fun. the school he was put in was a canadian one, which just felt odd to him because he considered himself as a brit --- hell, he even talked like one ! 

in the beginning he had trouble making friends: he was a bit shy. but as years passed and he felt more comfortable in his skin, he got more confident and became the jokester. he lover making people laugh, he still does. people who are funny are popular as well and when he started 6th form he just thrived. 

that was when things started to change for his mother as well --- the long awaited promotion finally came. after working at the office for over a decade, she got to run it. the celebrated for a whole month. 

he sometimes asked about his dad but only got vague answers. they made him not want to know. he didn’t want to be the product of a one-night stand: it just made him feel unwanted despite the warmth and comfort her mother provided. 

but then there were news everywhere about the mysterious heirs. two new royals ! wow ! everyone in england were going mental. it was so impossible to believe. one night, vaughn gets to talking about it with his mom and bam ! she has to come clean, it’s now or never. he’s shocked to the core. it can’t be true, he can’t be of royal blood. it makes no sense. his life isn’t a cinderella story. it took him a year before he decided to see what would happen if he got in contact with his dad. it was a bit after a-levels, he had been working at a grocery store with no prospects because he didn’t know what he wanted to do and he most certainly didn’t want to waste her mom’s hard-earned money on a degree he’d throw in the trash. 

so when he kind of became part of the windsor family, things changed drastically. he hadn’t thought about what kind of a celebrity he’d become after his heritage would be made public. the flashing lights and microphones were weird at first, he felt like he was watching someone else’s life because that guy certainly wasn’t him. 

royal duties gave him a sense of purpose though. people, his father’s people, the smart men and women, asked him to do all sorts of favours for the crown. “ can you make an appearance here ? ” “ what if you participated in a charity run ? ” “ you could go and meet the irish royals. ” he played along because if there’s something to know about vaughn, he always wanted to please people. 

all was well, he was just another gear in a well-oiled machine, he had a place. then one day, his father, and i’ll remind you the guy barely spent time with vaughn, comes up to him and asks for a favour. vaughn should go to portugal, spend some time there, befriend the princess, maybe charm her, make sure portugal remains as a strong ally. 

he really didn’t think much about it. he didn’t believe in his abilities to charm people. he was a doofus at core. but he more or less crashed one of barbie’s parties and barbie, being who she is, came talk to him. 

and by god did he do his best to be the most interesting, the nicest and the most handsome guy at the party. he needed her to remember him, if not for england, solely because she just might have been the prettiest girl he had laid eyes on.

their whirlwind romance began there and before he knew it, they were dating. every now and then he’d get a call and someone would ask him to ask barbie if portugal could do this or that, vote against or for whatever benefited england. he didn’t think it mattered that much. he’d ask, sometimes she’d do him a favour, sometimes not. 

“ he didn’t think ” is the title of vaughn’s biography. 

then one time barbie catches him red handed. a fight erupts. she feels betrayed. he doesn’t understand. they fight and fight and fight, and eventually barbie throws him out of the apartment. it’s a quick ending for a fast-paced romance.

so he goes back to england, her mom’s tenure is about to finish and she tells him, she, at least, is moving back to canada. he decides to screw england, screw the crown, screw the monarchy, and goes with his mom. he makes her proud by finally starting university. 

flash forward 5 years, he has his master’s in history, and he decides to help england once again. 

reunion with barbie was rough... what was even rougher was finding out about having a 7-year-old kid. of course, he was upset at barbie, furious even, because if there was something he would have never willingly done was leave a kid without his father. it just hit too close to home. 

the bitches rekindled their romance and now they have the twins and they are playing house. yes, we r gonna pretend he’s been here on/off for 2 years bc this plot required it lol.

TL;DR: canadian ambassador’s son, grew up in england, found out he was a prince, did his best to please the crown, kinda manipulated barbie, fell in love with barbie, got his heart broken by barbie, moved to canada, got his degree, found out he had a son, rekindled his romance with barbie, got her pregnant again lol

[rorydakota]

Cat back with a new muse and FC. I bring you Lorelai “Rory” Dakota Baudelaire (yes, like the Baudelaire children only I promise her life has less unfortunate events). She’s slightly based off an old muse of mine; but pretty much only two or three things are the same. Otherwise, she’s completely new, which means I’ve not fully developed her yet. I’ve also never played a Dominique Provost-Chalkley FC before; so please be patient with me while I figure out her gifs. Below the cut, you can read a bit about Rory. And like always, don’t hesitate to hit me up for plotting/connections. She could really use them.

[ dominique provost-chalkley, twenty four, cisfemale, she/her ] ━ hey, I just saw [ lorelai “rory” dakota baudelaire ] walking down the streets of crownsville. they’ve lived in town for [ six months ], and you can catch them around town working as a [ travel blogger/activist ]. I hear they’re known to be [ sincere & clever ] and [ naive & reserved ]. if asked, they would say their aesthetic would be [ stacks of old books, elaborate bedtime stories, passport stamps, celebrating deaf culture, fairylights and flower crowns, a warm cup of tea ]. 

History (TW: Chronic Illness, Ableism)

With a name like Baudelaire, one would think the family to be cursed or something; but in actuality, the Baudelaires are a pretty normal upper class family of old French money from Bristol, England. 

Okay, maybe there were a few unfortunate events throughout the years; and most of them seemed to affect the youngest.

Born Lorelai Dakota, Rory is the seventh and final child of Arthur Baudelaire (a cardiothoracic surgeon) and his wife Naomi (a journalist). She was born on September 25th.

At birth, it was discovered that Rory was completely deaf, news that was difficult at first for her parents; but her parents learned that was the lesser of their problems once their daughter was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot.

At only a month old, she underwent her first heart surgery to repair part of defects. Her second heart surgery was performed shortly after her first birthday. This was to fully repair the defects; and while both surgeries were successful, she’d grow up having to be monitored to ensure no complications appeared.

She underwent a third heart surgery at the age of five and a half to fix some lingering issues from the first surgery. It was around the time of this surgery that her parents bought her a stuffed monkey who she named ‘Sunny’. She still sleeps with this monkey every night.

Growing up, her parents were very protective of her, not wanting her to strain herself or her heart too much. She wasn’t allowed to play sports or do anything else too risky. This led young Rory to discover her passion for books and storytelling.

The Baudelaire’s had a library in their home; and that’s where Rory spent most of her childhood days when she wasn’t at school, at a doctor’s appointment, or at a friend’s house.

She preferred the solace of the library. The characters in the books she read never made fun of her speech troubles/lisp or her deaf accent. They just existed and allowed her to live in peace, unlike many of the kids at school who often mocked her (and some of her siblings even mocked her from time to time just to fit in).

Being mocked so much led Rory to leave public school by the age of 11 when her parents enrolled her in a school for the deaf. She thrived there, making friends with many of the other students and become a star in the eyes of her teachers.

One of the things she loved most about books were the many vast worlds she got to explore from the comfort of her home. It made her want to travel the world, visit all the wonderful places she read about.

But travelling outside the British Isles was tough due to her parents’ protective nature. While her family went on a few holidays to countries like France, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany,  it wasn’t until she was in university that she was really given the chance to find adventure.

She was fortunate enough to study abroad in Greece for half a year (which her Percy Jackson loving self fangirled over mythology the whole time). It was later blogging about that trip that led her to her current career path.

After coming back from Greece, she began a blog called ‘Diary of a Deaf Adventurer’ which talked about the struggles of being deaf while travelling abroad and facing multiple language barriers.

 Her blog caught the eye of one of her professors; and he showed it to a friend of his who ultimately ended up wanting to sponsor it. He offered to pay for Rory to travel and blog about her experiences, highlighting the difficulties of traveling with a disability and potential solutions for improving the issues faced. 

After she graduated from university with degrees in linguistics, modern languages/cultures, English, and comparative literature, she began travelling (much against the wishes of her parents who worried it’d be too much for her heart). She’s spent the last few years visiting different countries throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. It wasn’t until a few months ago she found herself stateside for the first time.

Initially, her plan was to travel around the USA for a year while also learning ASL. However, she fell in love with the smalltown of Crownsville, GA and decided she wanted to spent a year in the town while taking a break from the constant travel.

She’s been in town for roughly six months now; and honestly, she can’t picture herself leaving any time soon. It’s started to feel like home away from home. She knows she’s got another six months before she leaves; but she’s hoping something will happen that’ll keep her in town just a bit longer.

Likes: Books; Fairylights; Linguistics; Tea; Honey; Wildflowers; Succulents; Libraries; Scrapbooks; Zero Waste; Greek Mythology 

Dislikes: Ableism; Confrontation; Prejudice; Twilight; Cochlear Implants; Plastic; Pity; Slurs

Miscellaneous

She was named ‘Lorelai’ due to her parents simply loving the name; though her middle name of ‘Dakota’ came from a close friend of her mother’s who had passed just before Rory was born.

She got her first pair of hearing aids at the age of 18 months. They were green BTE aids with a glittery clear ear mold. She never changed the style, always opting for green hearing aids when possible. Currently, her hearing aids are silver with a light green glittery ear mold.

She’s never had an interest in getting cochlear implants. As much as her parents tried to push them on her, she’s always declined. She’s fine with her hearing aids, despite knowing a CI might give her slightly more hearing. She doesn’t really want that. She’d rather embrace her deafness given it’s a big part of who she is.

She is a beegan (vegan that eats honey) and has been since she was around 7 years of age. She tried full on veganism for a year in her teens; but she missed honey in her tea too much. If it wasn’t for honey, she’d be fine being a vegan. She’s against eating animals, doesn’t like eggs; and she’s allergic to dairy.

She can best be described as ‘looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll’. She’s about as intimidating as a teacup poodle. She’s the type of person who will catch and release a spider instead of squashing it.

She’s gone through over ten years of speech therapy; and while she’s gotten to the point most people can understand what she says more often than not, she was never fully able to get rid of her lisp or the slight monotone tone to her voice. 

Whenever she’s lipreading, her responses are always delayed as she has to take a few moments to process what she was able to read and put together what she missed (she tends to only capture about 40% of what she tries to lipread).

She has a deep fear of dogs that stems from being attacked and bitten by a dog when she was six years old. The attack required multiple stitches; and she’s just had an issue being around dogs ever since.

Her not-so-guilty pleasure is watching episodes of the animated Madeline series when she’s sick or upset. It was her favorite show as a child; and it still has the ability to make her smile.

She collects mugs. Given she’s an avid tea drinker, she’s developed quite the collection of mugs over the years. Her favorites are her Doctor Who TARDIS mug, her L-O-V-E in BSL mug, and her CHD warrior heartbeat mug.

She tries to live as zero waste as possible; so she is known for carrying a reusable orange water bottle wherever she goes as well as for having a reusable metal straw in her bag. She’s also notorious for using canvas totes.

So far, she’s managed to travel to the following places: UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Portugal, Turkey, India, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, USA. 

Some of the places she’d still like to cross off her list of places travelled include: Romania, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Morocco, Malta, Israel, Vietnam, Madagascar, and Nigeria (though she’d honestly be excited to travel anywhere). 

Wanted Connections

Older Sibling(s) ━ Rory is the youngest of seven; so it would be nice for one or more of her siblings to end up in Crownsville now that she’s settled into the small town. I picture her having two older sisters and four older brothers. Their names and ages are ultimately utp; though I picture their age range being between 27-39 and I do have name suggestions. The only one whose name isn’t negotiable is Rory’s brother Wolfgang “Wolf”. I have a lot planned for how their relationship was growing up; and I’d love to see him brought to Crownsville the most. OPEN (1/6)

First Friend in Crownsville  ━ This is very straightforward. This connection is for the very first person Rory met in Crownsville and befriended. OPEN (0/1)

Roommate  ━  Rory found herself an apartment shortly after deciding to stay in Crownsville for an extended period of time. She found a roommate initially; but things didn’t quite work out. She needs a new roommate to split the rent with as well as someone to become a close friend. OPEN (0/1)

Ride or Die Bestie  ━ This person has become Rory’s #1 best friend in Crownsville. She feels like she can go to them about anything; and they will always be there for her. They’re the one person she can truly rely on and loves more like family than a friend. TAKEN (1/1)

Future Love Interest ━ Rory is demisexual and has never been in any sort of romantic relationship before. She’s never had the interest. This connection would be for the individual who makes her feel romantic chemistry with someone for the first time. It would be a slow burn relationship. TAKEN (1/1) *I am up for discussing this plot; but I would prefer to see if the chemistry is there before solidifying the connection.*

Doctors  ━ Given Rory’s heart condition, this connection would be for any of the doctors who help treat her while she’s staying in Crownsville. OPEN (0/3)

General Friends; Close Friends; Frienemies; Neighbors, etc.

More to come...

Click here for Rory’s stats page.

[spacedadpicard]

Europe.

.... hoo boi

germany 🇩🇪 : do you like bread? no. i LOVE bread.

france 🇫🇷 : ever drunk alcohol? alas, yes.

england 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 : ever made a mistake you really regret? mmm... yes? but i don’t blame myself for it. i didn’t know any better.

scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 : do you prefer summer or winter? winter. not sure why people enjoy being SWEATY and TOO HOT over being able to comfortably wear jumpers and drink hot chocolate.

italy 🇮🇹 : currently in a relationship? yep!

wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 : how old are you? 21!

finland 🇫🇮 : longest you’ve ever been in a relationship? my currently relationship is also my first ever relationship, and it’s been going on for about five years.

sweden 🇸🇪 : have you ever been to ikea? but of course.

norway 🇳🇴 : do you prefer wearing trousers or skirts? trousers.

spain 🇪🇸 : do you take naps during the day? you bet.

portugal 🇵🇹 : your sexuality? bi/pansexual

estonia 🇪🇪 : do you have a crush? hahaha “““a””” crush, that’s so cute

ireland 🇮🇪 : favourite tv show? STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

denmark 🇩🇰: what were you doing at 20.30 last saturday? i don’t have a single clue

poland 🇵🇱: do you have any pets? we have a fish..? we put out dog down in january, and i miss her so much. 

austria 🇦🇹: do you like chocolate? Y E S

switzerland 🇨🇭: ever kissed a girl? no :(

romania 🇷🇴: morning or evening? mm... evening

bulgaria 🇧🇬: who was the last person you snapchatted? i think my boyfriend

czech republic 🇨🇿: is there a song that never fails to make you cry? ‘it’s quiet uptown’ is.. usually pretty reliable on that front

slovakia 🇸🇰: how many languages can you speak? i’m only fluent in english, but i can sort of speak french, too.

slovenia 🇸🇮: what colour is your hair at the moment? like... light brown-ish?

monaco 🇲🇨: do you have an iPhone? nope.

the netherlands 🇳🇱 : when did you last see your mum? a few hours ago

greece 🇬🇷: do you live with your father? hell no

croatia 🇭🇷: do you wear glasses? nope

belgium 🇧🇪: favourite colour? it varies, but, right now, blue

iceland 🇮🇸 : if you could chose one thing to be in your future, what would you choose? a house that i own

ukraine 🇺🇦 : what’s the most money you’ve ever spent on clothes? like.... £150, maybe. most of that on a coat, aha.

malta 🇲🇹 : have you ever been on a cruise? no

hungary 🇭🇺 : would you date someone 3 years older than you? yes!

cyprus 🇨🇾 : if you could kill one person without any risk of being caught for it, would it be someone related to you? lmao probably

luxembourg 🇱🇺 : what’s the coldest temperature you’ve ever experienced? eeehhhmm probably only about -15 C

serbia 🇷🇸 : do you use instagram? i do! you can follow me here

albania 🇦🇱 : can you swim well? reasonably well!

lithuania 🇱🇹 : if you could go back in time to a moment in your life, when would you go back to? mm. i remember being up in the highlands, reading the wind in the willows in the little cabin we stayed in by lamplight, while it was dark outside. i don’t wanna stay in that moment, but i’d love to revisit it; things felt so simple back then

montenegro 🇲🇪 : pizza or pasta? pasta

latvia 🇱🇻 : do you have any scars with an interesting or grisly story? nahh

macedonia 🇲🇰 : ever eaten snails? nope

belarus 🇧🇾 : last book you read? uhhh i think the last book i read and finished was a game of thrones.

bosnia 🇧🇦 : last time you cried? a couple of nights ago. it was... a particularly emotional episode of star trek: deep space nine

moldova 🇲🇩 : do you have a sister? nope!

[bloodiedskirtts]

Little Love Affair | Prologue: A Have A Dream

Summary: After graduation, Y/N decides to travel the world before settling into a stuffy nine to five job.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader, Steve x Reader, Sam x Reader (yes it’s like that kids)

Word Count: 1k

Warnings: Fluff

A/N: TAG LIST IS OPEN!

Sorry it’s a short one but it’s just a set up to the real dramaaaaaaaaa

Feedback is always appreciated! Thanks for reading. I hope you guys like it! Gif not mine, credit to owner.

Little Love Affair Masterlist

Graduation. It had all been leading up to this. Four years in England, away from the flashing lights of Hollywood. For the first eighteen of Y/N’s life she lived in LA with her singer mother. Her dad had never been around and she learned quickly that she wasn’t much more than a glamorous accessory for her mum to parade around red carpets. By the age of fifteen, she refused to join her mother at events. She didn’t have any social media, not even fake ones!

She was still hounded by paparazzi in America, because everyone wanted a glimpse at the infamously reclusive daughter of one of the biggest singers on the planet. Everyone loved her mum - except for her daughter. When her mother wasn’t parading her at red carpet events, she barely saw her. She knew her mother cared about her, in her own way. But it wasn’t the most pleasant upbringings.

She applied to college in England with her best friend Natasha. They met at their private school when they were five. And they were immediately best friends. They both had neglectful parents, who would rather spend time in the hottest celebrity spot than with their children. Nat dealt with this by becoming a party girl, wild at heart. While y/n just wanted to be away from everything that her mother stood for. She wanted away from the glitz and glamour and the conceit of the Hollywood Hills. So that’s how she and Nat ended up in their dingy apartments in London for four years.

That’s where they met Peggy Carter - the final part to their trio. By the end of the first month of freshers they were best friends. Inseparable. Peggy wasn’t the child of elite LA parents, who were pushing the latest diet down their kids throats or giving tell-all interviews. Y/N liked that, she spent a lot of time with Peggy and her family whenever there were holidays from college. She rarely returned to LA.

And now four years later it was time to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. Well one thing was sure for y/n, she was not going to some stuffy office job. And she wasn’t going to stay in school. She was going to find her freedom somewhere. Far from the paparazzi, far from LA and, most importantly, far from her mother.

The night of their graduation, she was sitting with Peggy and Nat in their cramped apartment. Nat had her cigarette dangling between her lips as they watched the stars from their apartment window. They spent many Friday nights, when they were broke students staring out the window, with a bottle of cheap vodka, hoping that their lives would begin soon. And now they were. Peggy had already gotten an internship with one of the biggest legal firms in London. While Natasha was planning on continuing her studies for another few years. Which if Y/N was being honest, completely shocked her.

‘You’re leaving us,’ Peggy said, her eyes fixed on the milky sky overhead. It wasn’t a question. She already knew. Y/N could only nod at her words. It had been an unspoken thing between the three. They knew that once college was over Y/N was going off on her next adventure. She had always spoken about her dreams of finding something more, something more than money and fame and beauty. Something real. And she thought she could find it when she came to London. She found another friend, but not what she was looking for. So she had booked her plane tickets one night without telling anyone. She had hidden them between the pages of her diary. No one would find them. She knew that. And she knew Peggy hadn’t gone snooping. She just knew that it was Y/N’s time to leave them. Not for good, but for long enough.

‘Where are you going?’ was the next question. It came from Natasha who stubbed out her cigarette. She was sad that her best friend was leaving them so soon. But she knew in her heart of hearts that Y/N was never going to be tamed. She could never stay in one place too long. She knew that. She spent a lot of her summers touring with her mother when she was younger. Hell, she was pulled out of school for almost two years to go on tour with her mother. It didn’t go down well, but she came back well traveled but missing Natasha more than anything.

Her eyes lit up, ‘Everywhere!’

She didn’t have a plan just yet but she knew she wanted to go to Greece - she had read about an island, that held Aphrodite’s fountain and anyone who drank from it found their true love. She didn’t know if she believed that, but she had always been a dreamer. And maybe she would find the love of her life there.

Packing her bags was easy. Saying goodbye to friends wasn’t. They were a crying mess as they hugged outside the airport. Natasha had insisted they saw her off to the airport. She wouldn’t hear anything else. These girls were more of her family than her blood had ever been. And she was so sad to say goodbye to them. But this was the right thing to do, she reasoned. Spending fourteen years in education can only teach you so much. But you need to explore the world to real learn about it. And about yourself. She knew that she would find what she was looking for out there somewhere.

They both promised to visit her when she found her piece of paradise in Greece. She kissed them both before she went through airport security. First stop was Portugal, then Spain, then France. Then onto Greece, her slice of paradise. And then? Then who knew?! She certainly had no idea what lay ahead of her over the next twelve months. But she was going to learn a lot about the world. With a deep breath she boarded the plane.

TAG LIST

@kayleeflower, @savemesteeb, @rainbowkisses31, @valeriae2903, @sophiatomlinson23, @rhiisnotawitch, @mcuimxgine, @randomstoriesofabunny, @marsnothere, @myrabbitholetoneverland, @jessxxoxx @ka-x-in  @lovely-geek  @lizfawn @piensa-bonito @demogorgon-central, @mackenziesmarvelousgalaxy, @a--1--1--3, @anelaokalanii, @jbarnes87, @tomshollandz ​@aletheladyinred @rileyloves5  @funkenniffler​ @writing-for-a-chance​ @justmesadgirl

[ratatouillegf]

Answer them all loser

Germany 🇩🇪 : do you like bread?I am 🍞

France 🇫🇷 : ever drunk alcohol?Yes. I drink too much :/

England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 : ever made a mistake you really regret?

Yikes all the time..i mostly regret everything I’ve ever done

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 : do you prefer summer or winter?Winter, so I can dress up warm and wear lots of layers

Italy 🇮🇹 : currently in a relationship?NOPE

Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 : how old are you?20

Finland 🇫🇮 : longest you’ve ever been in a relationship?Idk I’ve repressed it but it felt like forever

Sweden 🇸🇪 : have you ever been to IKEA?Yes. I always think I like going to IKEA but it eventually turns out into trek and I just want to leave. Never seeing sunlight again

Norway 🇳🇴 : do you prefer wearing trousers or skirts?TROUSERS

Spain 🇪🇸 : do you take naps during the day?NO because I will die and lose all meaning of time

Portugal 🇵🇹 : your sexuality?GAY

Estonia 🇪🇪 : do you have a crush?No

Ireland 🇮🇪 : favourite tv show?ErmMmM I don’t have a single favourite but I have plural? I enjoy Wentworth, Bones, Criminal Minds, Orphan Black, Grey’s Anatomy, Killing Eve, How to Get Away with murder, the Great British Bake off, Deutschland 83… Idk I watch anything to ass the time. Mainly crime shows or documentaries interest me

Denmark 🇩🇰: what were you doing at 20.30 last saturday?Home doing NOTHING

Poland 🇵🇱: do you have any pets?I have 4 cats!🐈

Austria 🇦🇹: do you like chocolate?At the moment yes.

Switzerland 🇨🇭: ever kissed a girl?Lol yeah

Romania 🇷🇴: morning or evening?Evening

Bulgaria 🇧🇬: who was the last person you snapchatted?My friends

Czech Republic 🇨🇿: is there a song that never fails to make you cry?I don’t think so. It depends on my emotional state of distress

Slovakia 🇸🇰: how many languages can you speak?0

Slovenia 🇸🇮: what colour is your hair at the moment?Brown

Monaco 🇲🇨: do you have an iPhone?Alas no.

The Netherlands 🇳🇱 : when did you last see your mum?This evening before going to sleep.

Greece 🇬🇷: do you live with your father?I live with both parents

Croatia 🇭🇷: do you wear glasses?Sometimes… I’m meant to wear them more

Belgium 🇧🇪: favourite colour?I go for aqua colours when picking things but I wear black/white a lot

Iceland 🇮🇸 : if you could chose one thing to be in your future, what would you choose?Many money to be financially well off so I’m not struggling. Or a good job that I enjoy

Ukraine 🇺🇦 : what’s the most money you’ve ever spent on clothes?…… Probably shoes my Dr Martens cost many coins

Malta 🇲🇹 : have you ever been on a cruise?NOpe

Hungary 🇭🇺 : would you date someone 3 years older than you?Been there done that. Everyone who likes me is usually older than me :/

Cyprus 🇨🇾 : if you could kill one person without any risk of being caught for it, would it be someone related to you?Lol probably not no. I’m not going to harbor the trauma of murdering someone… Big fat pass

Luxembourg 🇱🇺 : what’s the coldest temperature you’ve ever experienced?Idk I just know sometimes it be cold as fuck

Serbia 🇷🇸 : do you use instagram?ja

Albania 🇦🇱 : can you swim well?Enough

Lithuania 🇱🇹 : if you could go back in time to a moment in your life, when would you go back to?Maybe when I started highschool to improve from there or younger idk. Mostly to improve everything that I have now

Montenegro 🇲🇪 : pizza or pasta?Pasta

Latvia 🇱🇻 : do you have any scars with an interesting or grisly story?Yes. One that I will tell in brief is the one in my lower leg that I got playing football. It happens because of someone’s football studs on their boot. I didn’t know it happened so I continued to play until the end and then when I went to take my sock off (bc I knew I had taken a hit and it was aching) I realised the actual damage of what happened so I screamed and swore at the Referee. I wish I had gone to a real hospital to get it stitched bc it looks horrible and ppl always comment on it like lol mind ya business.

Macedonia 🇲🇰 : ever eaten snails?NOPe

Belarus 🇧🇾 : last book you read?I don’t have the attention span. Probably Carol but I never finished

Bosnia 🇧🇦 : last time you cried?Sometime at the end of August

Moldova 🇲🇩 : do you have a sister?Nope

R u happy now @anepitaphlikewalkawayrenee